Sirius shot out of the Floo at the Den, home of the Lupins, and paused, disoriented by the all-consuming darkness that greeted him.
He spent enough time at the residence to know that it was far too early for all the lights to be out. It was only 9:47; Dora and Remus never had the lights out this early. Never.
After all, they were semi-nocturnal.
Something wasn't right.
Sirius knew the layout well enough, so he slowly made his way forward, wand drawn, ears attentive to the slightest noise. He didn't want to light his wand yet, as he could think of no logical reason for the darkness blanketing the home seeing as Remus had mentioned he'd be home that evening with Tonks and their son. Sirius was certain of that much from that afternoon.
"Remus?!" he whispered urgently, silently stalking around the house in a state of acute distress. His inner animal was agitated, hackles raised, tail low.
He knew - as well as anyone in the wizarding world, if not better - that there were still errant Death Eaters lurking about, all these years later. Every once in awhile someone would spot one of them; they'd have a run-in with the law, or they'd attempt to exact revenge on a wizard or family they felt had particularly wronged them during the war. Things were still tense. You could see it in flashes: in someone's eyes as you passed them in a dark alley shop; in the way parents clung to the hands of their children while they ran errands; in how so many self-defense classes had sprung up - teaching both magical and muggle means of personal protection. Sure, things were better, but that was easy to say, after all the things that sick bastard had done. Some families, like the Malfoys, had gone so far as to cast a Fidelius on their home - with permission of the Ministry, of course. Nowadays, people took precautions before they were necessary. Sales in Sneakoscopes and Secrecy Sensors had gone through the roof during the war, and surprisingly had kept their popularity up. Remus had placed the most advanced wards available over his home, short of a full Fidelius, citing his extra sensory need to protect his mate and child. Which is what had Sirius so worried; no one, other than a select list of people, should have been able to enter the house.
He slunk through the living room and started making his way up the stairs, making sure to skip over the creaky step second from the top.
"Moony? Dora? Teddy?" Sirius called softly, not wanting to alert anyone other than those he intended to hear. He crept over to Teddy's door and opened it slowly, peering into the darkness within. Sirius cast a silent Lumos and cupped a hand around his wand tip to help dim the glow. He scanned the room, looking for anything out of place; as usual, it looked like a hurricane had swept through, reeking toy destruction as it went. Eventually the beam of his wand hit the bed, and he could make out a small, strawberry blond head on the pillow. He tiptoed over to the bedside and gently placed his hand on Teddy's back, checking to make sure he could feel the rise and fall of breath. He let out a quiet half sob of relief when he realized he could indeed feel the small lungs working like billows beneath his fingers.
Suddenly there was the sound of a bedroom door opening and closing, and footsteps rushing down the hall towards the nursery.
Sirius turned around, placing himself firmly in between a prone Teddy and the open doorway. Suddenly, a figure appeared, bathed in wand light. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the glow, he could make out a mussed, glowering Tonks, standing firmly in the doorway in what looked to be a hastily tied robe.
"Sirius, what's the meaning of this? You can't come charging into our home in the middle of the night, creeping into my boy's room and setting off our monitoring wards!" She hissed at him, motioning for him to follow her out of the room.
Sirius grinned sheepishly at her, ducking his head slightly at the admonishment, and closed the door quietly behind him.
"Dora, I need to talk with Remus. Is he in the bedroom?"
He didn't even wait for her response before he attempted to go 'round her to search for his friend in the master bedroom.
Tonks resolutely stood her ground in the middle of the hall, blocking his way forward with a hand on his chest to stop his progress.
"Just what do you think you're doing, Sirius?" she asked. "You can't just come barging into our house unannounced; I just got Ted to sleep!" She growled, hair flashing scarlet in anger even as her cheeks burned. Sirius didn't have the energy to wonder why, though.
"I'm sorry, Dora, but this is an emergency."
"No! I won't allow this. You need to think a bit more before you just come charging into my home like a-a herd of wild Hippogryphs!" Sirius cocked an indignant brow at her, and she amended, "Even if it was a very quiet one, at that," causing him to chuckle.
Just then the nursery door creaked open and a sleepy looking Teddy stumbled out.
"Wotcher, Uncle Paddy!" He exclaimed, running forward to throw himself into the back of Sirius' knees, bowing the man forward. Tonks glowered at the display and let out an irritated huff when Sirius grabbed him up and threw the squealing toddler in the air.
"Is that Ted? What's he doing out of bed?" A disheveled Remus queried, finally meandering out of his room, clad only in a pair of sweats. His question sparked a glare from his wife, who sighed and plucked the boy away from his uncle, tucking him into her arms snugly.
"Fine, you two go talk about whatever's so bl- so important, and I'll get him back to sleep. But you both owe me. Know that. Especially you, Remus John Lupin," she added with a significant look.
With her threat hanging in the air, Tonks turned on her heel and retired to the nursery with a squirmy, and very put out, Teddy.
"Sorry 'bout that, mate. Didn't mean to interrupt...whatever it was I so obviously interrupted," he waved his hands around wildly, fingers waving as he did, "but I had to talk to you."
Remus sighed heavily, rubbing a hand over his eyes and down his face to his chin.
"I don't even have the capacity to beat around the bush: Does this have anything to do with Hermione?" he asked, his voice fighting exhaustion, and laced with a hint of annoyance.
"How'd you know?" Sirius asked, then ducked, chuckling, when Remus made to backhand him for his snark.
"You come barging into my house while I'm trying to enjoy some time alone with my wife," Sirius couldn't help but give a wolfish grin and waggle of his brows at that, "Speaking of, it had better be something important, because I swear -"
"We shagged," Sirius blurted out, looking disgustingly pleased with himself.
"Well, fuck me," Remus breathed out, causing Sirius to laugh uproariously.
"Rather not, all the same, mate."
OxOxOxOxO
Hermione awoke with a groan when light hit her face, choosing to keep her eyes closed for a moment and just feel.
She felt glorious. Sore, but glorious nonetheless.
Oh, god, she hadn't been this thoroughly shagged since…since… She stopped and thought about it for a second; had she ever been this thoroughly shagged?
Fuck.
This was bad.
She had only wanted to shag him and get him out of her system, a desperate attempt after lusting after him since she was fifteen. That was going to be impossible if he outshone every other partner she'd ever had. Ever. And holy fuck, had he.
How was she supposed to go back to other blokes when she knew that this was possible?
Fucking hell…
She rolled onto her side to get away from the damn sunlight and couldn't help the low moan that slipped from her lips at the motion. Holy God, she was exquisitely raw, all her nerves on hyperdrive, her whole body overworked, yet loose, her muscles lax like overstretched elastic. She didn't know if she could sit up, let alone walk to the shower - and forget getting ready for work, which was thankfully only a half day - so she gave up on the whole endeavor and just lay there, replaying the night before in her mind's eye.
OxOxOxOxO
They didn't even make it to the bedroom the first time (that was the third time), nor the couch (the second time), choosing instead to make use of her narrow hall and the delicate - but surprisingly sturdy - accent table she had situated halfway down its length. If it hadn't been for her expertly done sticking charms, she was certain her photos and paintings would have bounced off the walls and gone careening to the floor. She was also pretty sure she was going to have to fix the paint just behind the little table, which had likely been scraped off the wall during their frantic coupling, if not the plaster and drywall, as well. It would be simple enough to take care of, once she got out of bed and looked up the spells; she wasn't the best at home improvement magic, which Ron still loved to rub in her face, but she was good enough for this job.
Ugh, enough thinking about Ron, she mentally admonished, shuddering as she tried to get back into the memory.
"You're so wet for me, kitten," he'd hummed when he'd finally worked her sweats down her legs, his fingers tracing along the inner seam of her knickers. His words had an effect akin to some sort of self-fulfilling prophesy; she only got wetter.
At that point, he made short order of her knickers, ripping them when they refused to comply with his fumbling fingers - which was quite sad, as she'd rather liked that particular pair. However, at the time, she was much more interested in his sudden case of nerves.
"Sirius Black, are you nervous?" She panted out, a tinkling laugh bubbling up her throat as a Cheshire Cat grin overtook her face.
"Shut it, you," he growled out, catching her bottom lip between his teeth in a light nip, "Any man in his right mind would be nervous around you. You're fierce, confident, and," he paused to glance down at her body with a lust-filled eye, "stunningly beautiful, yet you're humble, and modest about your looks." He shook his head, a smirk quirking up one side of his luscious lips as she blushed at his compliments.
"Sirius, I-"
"No. No more talking. Unless you're screaming my name, I don't want you talking anymore; it means your brain is still able to function, which means I'm not doing my job properly. So unless you were going to tell me you wanted me to leave…?"
Hermione quickly shook her head in the negative.
"Then relax, and let me show you just how much I've wanted you."
And relax she had.
Judging by how sore both her throat and the rest of her body was today, she'd say he'd wanted her pretty badly, and done his job quite well.
Bugger.
Author's Note:
I'm *so* sorry I've been absent for so long! Life kinda kicked my arse, I entered a writing competition which took up a bunch more time than I expected (I'll "FFN link" at the bottom), and took on a crapload of related beta work, so this got put on hold for a bit, despite the fact that I had 70% of this chapter already written when my Muse abandoned me.
Imagine my shock when I see exactly how many faves/follows/reviews I've accumulated! Wow! 27/87/64 respectively! So much love to you all! Especially you, McGonagal'sCat! :D
I've also gained betas! Huge betalove shout out to: Ariel Riddle, MissandMarauder, and CaptainHoodie! You guys have been amazing!
Link to the competition I'm in:
wwwDOTfanfictionDOTnet/s/12226895/1/Scandals-One-Shot-Competition (replace the DOTs with .)
Rules for the competition: I can't tell you which story is mine, so don't ask. You're supposed to read them all (they're all OS), then go vote here (again, replace DOT with .):
docsDOTgoogleDOTcom/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQJ2G0VtnuhqKglxuiTu7agq_rKko8dS6Xg-KFli-UuzbEZQ/viewform?c=0&w=1
I'm also going to be editing the past chapters and replacing the horizontal line breaks with OxOxOxOxO because FFN has been jacking up shit again. Scene breaks, PMs, reviews... -.-
Later, y'all! All my love!
-C