A/N: Good lord. It's been more than a year since the last chapter. I've resolved to write more this year, no matter how little of it I can do in whatever time I can squeeze in.
Considering that this story first started nearly six years ago, it will be interesting to see how much Sirius and Hermione as we knew them have grown up and moved forward. Many thanks to everyone who has stayed on to find out what happens next. Trust me, I'm there with you too.
Let's go!
Two days before the party.
"Perhaps Miss would like another color?"
Two well-trimmed ears quivered at Hermione's waist as she inspected herself in front of the mirror. An elf was watching her in the lacy pink confection she had thrust at a protesting Hermione. "Pink and lace? Just one, not both please!" she had begged.
"Nothing wrong with trying!" the elf, named Babs, squeaked back at her. This was two dresses ago.
"I don't mind the lace Babs, but maybe something less...rosy?" Hermione asked, careful not to hint at her aversion to such a frivolous shade. Navy blues, deep violets and the most delicate of yellows made up the bulk of her wardrobe.
"Miss needs to trust me, pink is definitely her color," Babs said, ears now quirked back, not unlike a peeved cat. Before Hermione could form a response, the elf hopped out of the room and into the back. Presumably, to grab yet another dress. It was a quiet Thursday afternoon on Diagon Alley after all, and Hermione had been the only customer in the store in the last hour and a half.
It had been a week since her trip to the hospital and the too-intimate kiss that Sirius had pressed into her skin. Their eyes had locked for the briefest of moments, and she swore that she could feel her lips begin to form words she could never take back. But just as mist is fleeting before you can truly see it, she felt herself bolt past him and shut the door. Her heart was strumming in her chest, and it was a truly long time before she let herself sleep.
They had been so damned cordial ever since. No longer did Sirius tell her to "pass the motherfucking milk" at breakfast, nor was Kreacher's chicken casserole the "hippogriff's tits". They spoke like a married couple from the 18th century, with the intimacy to match. Neither of them wanted to examine this new thing between them; just acknowledging it was there was hard enough.
The dress shop had proven an effective distraction. With almost military precision, Sirius had made sure there was barely anything left to do this close to the party. He had taken care of food, invitations and decorations. He'd even enough time to source a chocolate fountain. A great big one, he said with a smug grin. Hermione could only hope that a burlesque dancer would not pop out of the middle.
As for the grand chandelier, Hermione had done the best she could and magicked a big curtain over the fixture. It would come off in two days to reveal the whole thing, hopefully accompanied by a few oohs and aahs.
Some of Sirius' drama was starting to rub off on her, she found herself thinking. Now that there was nothing much left to do, Hermione knew that she needed to find a similarly dazzling outfit if she was going to help host this thing.
"Miss will like this one!" Babs squeaked. Hermione glanced at the filmy lather of silk and lace in the elf's arms, ready to politely refuse. The turndown was on her lips, but the way the light caught at the old rose fabric stopped it from leaving.
Smartly, deftly, Babs laced Hermione into the dress. "Yes. This is it," Babs nodded, ears wagging up and down. There was a pleased tilt to her chin, one that Hermione didn't see with the other dresses.
It was still pink, but nothing that a child would pick for themselves. It was a grown-up, ballroom dancing and cocktails pink. The French lace collar extended down to the back, where it opened up to a wide V that ended right above her hips. It was simply breathtaking.
"Aah, Miss is quiet. She likes it too," Babs grinned. "Babs, this is so beautiful. I've never worn anything like this before," Hermione said, turning around to look at her reflection in the mirror. The light caught all the right spots, making her complexion look healthy and glowing. The close cut of the dress made sure that she wouldn't blend into one of the flower arrangements she knew Sirius had ordered for the evening.
"I don't know what else to say. I love it!" she said, giving herself a final twirl around the dressing room.
A bronzed smoky eye and a nude lip would top this all off, Hermione mused as the dress disappeared into a paper shopping bag. Babs handed her the parcel with a big smile. "Miss will be the center of attention, I promise," she said. That kind of positive confidence was enchanting, and Hermione couldn't help but grin back. "I'll do my very best Babs, thank you for being so patient."
Meanwhile, in yet another room of the sprawling 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius was holding court with Blaise Zabini and his gaggle of assistants. The impeccably-dressed planner was dictating instructions to nobody in particular, but the scratch of quills was thick in the air.
"Check that we have enough napkins on hand to wipe down several small toddlers. God knows how clumsy tuna tartare can be. And while you're at it, make sure we also have alka seltzer. I'll bet you anything Ronald Weasley will be the first to spill something," he said.
"Do we have enough crystal in the house?" Sirius absentmindedly asked, ticking items off his own list.
Blaise raised a discreetly-tweezed brow. "You could host a dinner party for a small country and still have enough to serve champagne for half the country next door," he huffed.
"All right, just asking. I feel like there's something missing, but I can't put my finger on it…," Sirius said, flipping pages back and forth over his clipboard.
"Everyone out," Blaise ordered his staff. In an instant, not unlike a well-oiled machine, each assistant folded their clipboards under their arms and filed out of the room. Sirius glanced up to catch the last one leaving, turning on their heels and shutting the door behind them.
He looked questioningly at Blaise, who was rubbing the bridge of his nose right between his eyes. He let out a dramatic sigh, and then swept around to face Sirius.
"I feel I must be perfectly blunt with you Mr Black. It's been grating on my nerves ever since we decided on the menu several weeks ago," Blaise started.
"Then I think you need to let it off your chest," Sirius shrugged, trying to seem indifferent. To be honest, he was starting to feel dread pool in his stomach. For all the extravagant excess of Blaise's personality, Sirius knew that he noticed far more than he let on. They had seen each other nearly every day in the last week tying up loose ends for the party. Sirius was absolutely positive that Blaise could sense the effort he was putting in was only to keep himself busy.
Anything to keep his mind off that evening of the almost-kiss, as he had come to call it. It had taken up residence among every waking thought he had, and it was starting to interfere with day to day tasks. He found himself using words like please and thank you around her, and even he knew how fucking weird that was. What he really wanted, was to kick down Hermione's bedroom door and have his way with her until please and thank you were all she was able to say.
Distraction needed to take as many forms as it could, and in a stroke of rashness, he'd ordered a comically huge chocolate fountain for the evening.
Blaise had had a conniption then. A real, honest-to-goodness fit that would have made Mrs Black proud.
The planner paced back and forth, letting the scolding come. "This company exists because I am able to execute a vision that not even my clients realized they had. I am especially proud of the fact that I can accommodate requests, however tacky, and merge them with something that leaves jaws on the actual floor."
A quick breath. "Now I was not happy about that chocolate fountain. But it's been done. No use crying over spilled butterbeer. What I cannot accept, cannot abide is that there is a giant, covered piece of something in the middle of the ballroom and you refuse to show me what it is. I do not like surprises Mr Black, not unless I am the one giving them. " he finished with a huff.
Sirius didn't move for half a moment, waiting for more. When nothing else came, he slowly got up and did his best to tower over a glowering Blaise, only just succeeding. "Nobody has ever spoken to me like that, and I'm sure I do not care for it," he said in a quiet voice. The gloves were on, and the haughty aristocrat was out. "And I'm sure that the deposit I put down did not cover this kind of disrespect,"
Blaise was not so much intimidated as he was veritably turned on. This was exactly the kind of man that appealed to him, and he suddenly had one in front of him. God, he was turning into his mother, he thought.
He opened his mouth to respond when the older man cut him off. "There is a crystal chandelier underneath that curtain, that is all you need to know," Sirius said, in the lowest of voices.
Suddenly, a moment of clarity. "Is that what Granger was putting together?" in a surprised voice that caught even himself off-guard. The image of that bushy-haired swot kneeling on the floor surrounded by bits of crystal and metal wove up from his memory. "If it's anything like how she dresses I'm not surprised you've decided to cover it up."
In hindsight, Sirius thought that his reaction to that flippant remark was what gave it away. "That's Miss Granger to you, as long as you are in this house. And yes, that is what she was putting together, rather splendidly as well. I believe that is all you need to know, and all that you need to do what I overpaid you and your company to do," he snapped, tossing his stack of notes onto his desk.
Silence yawned between them both. "Well I'll be damned. You're interested in her aren't you? Blaise said, tilting his head to the side.
"You really have no filter, do you?" Sirius bit out, more to keep himself in check than to chide. Blaise perched himself onto the side of an armchair, legs crossed. "I'm afraid not. I didn't get to where I am playing coy," he said. "So do tell. Do you think she knows?"
It was infuriating, but it was either kick the man out or go insane keeping his thoughts to himself. "I don't think she'd have me even if she knew. She's far too smart for that," he sighed, turning towards the sideboard for a bowl of chocolate covered raisins, a treat he had to hide from Hermione. "Raisin?" he asked.
Blaise waved an indifferent hand. "No thank you, I think someone needs to be sober for this delightful exchange."
"As nauseating as this is for me to say, Miss Granger certainly does not deserve someone who thinks chocolate fountains are at the height of sophistication. But she isn't as astute as you believe she is,"
"Well she's already done the right thing, leaving me alone in this house with you all afternoon," Sirius shot back
"Believe me, there are an indefinite number of things I would rather be doing instead of defending Miss Know It All," Blaise said, allowing a heated gaze to rake over Sirius' form. Whether Sirius noticed or not, he didn't show it. "I might have pissed her off a week ago. She hasn't spoken to me since. There was a moment...but it never got further than that. And now I actually don't know what to do. What a mess," he muttered.
"Did you somehow manage to insult her prodigious intelligence?" Blaise asked, without much time to think at all.
Sirius tried to form a defense, but Blaise just kept going. "I should have known. That is the one thing she holds dearer above anything else, and you managed to knock it out of her hands. She must be absolutely splenetic at you,"
"To be fair, she's been that way since school. I had the misfortune of having the same Ancient Runes class as her, and she has never quite recovered from me correcting a translation in front of everybody else."
Sirius wisely kept his mouth shut, knowing that anything else he said can and would be used against him. "What do you suggest I do then? We can't exactly host this thing if we're not at least civil with each other," he asked.
"I should charge you extra for this, but I am feeling benevolent today," Blaise started, leaning back further into the chair. "Normally I would suggest picking out a big and shiny piece of jewelry but I'm afraid it would cause more damage the bigger it is. She's got a decent throwing arm, if Ronald Weasley is to be believed."
"Groveling doesn't impress women like her. It would everyone else, but she would want her pound of flesh from you. Or pound of grey matter, however you want to look at it," Blaise continued, starting to relish the look of rapt attention Sirius had on his face. The man was smitten, and it was absolutely devastating to know that it wasn't with him. Still, he was not without his decencies and he was going to milk every moment he could out of this.
"I suggest appealing to the part of her that she doesn't seem to listen to very often," he said, leaning forward and raising an eyebrow to drive the point home.
Sirius didn't reply, not knowing whether this was advice or a come on. At this point, he couldn't safely guess which it was, and neither was he going to proceed without being absolutely sure.
"So modest. Mr Black, even I know that you are not without your talents in certain rooms of the house. Use those to win her over, let's see if that doesn't warm her up to you slightly. Then you can think about actually apologizing to her,".
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have better things to do than to help out a rival for your affections. That ghastly ballroom is not going to decorate itself," Blaise said, uncoiling himself from out of the chair and collecting his things.
"Blaise, look…" Sirius began when he was cut off. "If or when you find yourself rather alone underneath that chandelier in two nights, you'll be sure to send an owl snappish yes?" Blaise purred, brushing another heated look over Sirius before showing himself out the door.
Sirius was left speechless, first wondering how so much coquetry had been packaged into a single man. He certainly was not wrong and he should have known to think of it himself first.
So it is, he mused, popping another raisin into his mouth. The great Sirius Black was going to have one more item to check off his list, and it promised to be far more exciting than anything involving crystal or fountains of any sort.
A/N: Guess who stopped by for a quick chat! Blaise, the snarky and sexy drama queen we love is back! I'm going to do my very best to keep this updated, because I also want to see where these two end up.
Love and hugs, M xx
