Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.
I'm very, very, very sorry this is so late... Hopefully it's a good enough chapter to get you to forgive me. :/ Enjoy!
Chapter 8
-o-O-o-
Most of the holidays were a bore for Hermione. She spent her days getting up, having breakfast, going to work, having lunch, back to work and back to Hogwarts for dinner and bed time. She barely had the time, or the want, really, to read. Weeks passed in that fashion, so that only the occasional Peeves joke or drunkard at the Three Broomsticks gave her day any spiciness to it.
Thankfully, it was almost the last week of the vacation which, apart from meaning that she would soon get back to classes and work, also meant that she was going to have a little more excitement to her days again. Besides, she would be seeing James again, and he was great fun. Remus would be there too, in case she needed intellectually stimulating conversation. Peter would probably be staying over too, and so would…
She gulped.
And so would Sirius.
It would be sort of strange to have him there, and probably very awkward too. After all, she still didn't know what she would say to him if he brought up the subject of the almost-kiss. Maybe now, half an hour before departure, was a good time to practise.
"Well," she started, staring at her reflection in the mirror of the girls' dormitory.
She felt so foolish, talking to an inanimate object, but she couldn't just go there unprepared. She cleared her throat and tried talking again.
"Sirius," she tried. "No, no, that's not going to work…" she convinced herself, shaking her head before looking back at her reflection. "About… the incident," she said uneasily, but decided to not interrupt her speech anymore, no matter how ridiculous she sounded. "I think it was a mistake. We got carried away and, thank God you stopped us because otherwise we'd have done something we would both have regretted later. I guess…"
She gulped down and looked at herself. She looked the same as always, bushy hair, tiny figure and dull brown eyes that had seen too much. What was there to be attracted to? Sirius was handsome, with his soft, styled raven hair and silver eyes. His large hands just seemed to be made to caress and touch skin, his broad shoulders were meant to be gripped tightly, his chest to be stroked with a velvety passion…
She shook her head. That minute of being carried away had taken all of her reason away from her. "I guess I'm not made for you and you're not made for me, which is why we're better as friends." she concluded.
She stared at herself for a while, until her clock chimed. Sighing, she grabbed her bag, for she hadn't packed her trunk for just a week's worth of staying over, and exited the dormitory. She clambered down the steps to the Common Room and placed herself in front of the fireplace. There, Professor Dumbledore had placed a pot of Floo Powder, from which she took a pinch. She threw the Floo Powder into the fire, which turned a bright emerald green, and stepped inside.
The flames licked at her tantalisingly, teasingly, but never painfully. She grabbed her bag tighter and said: "Potter Mansion, Godric's Hollow."
She felt a familiar feeling of being sucked into the fire place. The travel was rather short, although that was just another matter of perspective. Soon enough, she found her feet hitting the ground. A cloud of ash rose up and tickled her nostrils, and she sneezed.
"'Mione!" she heard, as she stepped out and dropped her bag on the floor. She looked up and caught a flash of grey fabric before she felt herself enveloped into a hug.
She smiled and looked up, only to find the brilliant amber eyes of Remus Lupin sparkling at her. "Hey Remus!" she greeted, before pushing him away gently. "Where are the others?" she asked him as she noticed, looking around the room, that she was alone with the werewolf.
Remus made a funny face, as if he smelled something bad. "Broomsticks." he spat haughtily as an explanation.
Hermione smiled. "Boys will be boys." she told him, shrugging.
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"And Remus will be Remus," she added, tapping his shoulder gently, as if she was reassuring him.
He rolled his eyes at her and gestured towards a staircase. "Right this way, my lady." he told her. He picked her bag up and they walked up the staircase. Hermione felt rather intimidated because it was huge, made of marble and unnaturally clean.
She cleared her throat. "And why are you not joining them?" she enquired.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, smiling. "Me and broomsticks… A love story gone wrong, I'm afraid." He turned to face her. "You've not seen me on a broomstick, have you?"
She shook her head as they continued climbing the stairs. "That explains all." he said evasively.
"Remus!" she scolded him. "Now I want to see you riding one! You're a bad boy, exciting my curiosity like that!"
He smirked. "So you really want to see me on a broomstick?" he asked as they took a turn into a dark corridor, it walls covered in tapestries.
She thought about it for a while. "Actually, maybe not. You'd probably fall on me and kill me. On purpose."
He looked at her, feigning shock. "Miss Granger, your attitude is most certainly not entertaining!" he said as they stopped in front of a door. She laughed and she smiled, pushing the door open. "Here's your bedroom." he announced.
The room was large, at least compared to any other bedroom she'd seen before. The walls were a plain but warm beige, the ceiling red and the wall in front of the door was almost completely covered with French doors, from which she could see a large field-like garden, neatly surrounded by a forest. On the left side of the room stood a large king-sized bed, with cream sheets to match the walls and ruby red pillows. On the wall on her right was a very tall wardrobe, red like the ceiling and the pillows, in which she could probably store all her clothes and more. There were two red sofas to her right, one on the same wall as the wardrobe and one on the perpendicular one. The overall was gorgeous, of course, modern and stylish.
"The door on your right," Remus said, pointing to a red door Hermione hadn't noticed before, standing proudly on the wall on her left. "Leads to your private bathroom."
She just nodded, slightly overwhelmed.
She heard him place her bags on the floor and he placed a hand on her shoulder. "How about we go find everybody else, huh?" he asked, and she nodded again.
"This place," Hermione said as they walked back down the palace-like stairs. "Is huge. It's like a castle, really."
Remus laughed a little. "Wait until you visit the grounds; then you'll wonder how big it is."
-o-O-o-
Once she and Remus were on the emerald green lawn, Hermione could fully appreciate the extent of the grounds. The property of the Potters was itself, much alike a small country. As she gaped around in awe, she heard someone squeal: "Whoo-hoo!"
Remus smiled. "Here comes James!" he announced.
And, sure enough, there was a 'whoosh!' of wind and the black-haired boy landed gracefully in front of his werewolf friend. His hair was even more tousled than before, if that was even possible, his Quidditch robe was ruffled and he sported the most mischievous grin Hermione had ever seen.
"Hermione!" he greeted her, enveloping her in a hug.
She smiled at his obvious happiness of her presence. "James!" she returned, hugging him back.
Once the two of them had broken apart, Remus asked: "Where's Sirius?"
But James didn't have the time to answer, for Sirius had already appeared at his side, his hair just as messy as James' and his robes in need of a good ironing. "Remus!" he yelled, deciding that noisy encounter were better than silent ones.
Feeling slightly awkward in this situation, Hermione cleared her throat. "Nice flying James." she remarked.
He smiled at her. "Thank you." Then, as if he couldn't help himself, he added: "I know. I am the best Chaser on the team, after all."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you are." she said reassuringly.
James sneered at her. "I actually am." he declared. "In fact, I'll challenge you to a race any day!"
Hermione froze. "No, James, it's okay, I believe you!" she tried, but he noticed that he had hit her weak spot.
"What?" he asked tauntingly. "Are you afraid of flying?"
She perked her nose up. "Absolutely not!" she defied him. "I'll take you up on your challenge if that's what it takes to prove it to you!"
"Excellent!" James smiled. Just then, Peter arrived, huffing and puffing at the effort he had just given to get this far.
"Remus! Hermione!" he greeted them when he was close enough to notice that the both of them were there.
"Hey, Peter!" James apostrophised him when he was close enough. "Would you mind letting Hermione borrow your broom for a race? She seems to think that she can defy me."
"Erm…" Peter went, unsure of what his answer should be. Then, he mentally shrugged and handed his broom to the proud girl.
James slid his leg over his broomstick and Hermione did the same. "We'll go five times around the Manor." he told her. "First to set foot on the ground after those five turns wins the race. Deal?" he asked her, just to be sure.
"Deal." she said, her face hard with pride.
He smiled, but his smile had a hint of cruelty in it. "Alright. Take-off in three… Two… One… Go!" He kicked the floor and soared up in the sky.
Following him, Hermione kicked the ground too and, fuelled by her thirst to prove herself, went up higher and higher in the sky. It wasn't exhilarating in any way, but her face burned at the idea of proving someone wrong.
Still, higher and higher she went.
On the ground, Sirius frowned. What did she think she was doing? She needed to go around the house, not as high as she could get.
But Hermione didn't appear to be listening. Higher and higher she got, until the inevitable happened: she realised what she was doing. A strong gust of wind hit her and her broom and she lost her concentration. She looked down.
Part of her felt like this was a dream. How had she got that far up? Because she was definitely up. After all, why else would the Potters' house look so, oh so small, from where she was? And why would she see a tiny dot zooming around the house at the speed of a rocket? For a while, she didn't panic. She was still digesting the information.
Then she froze.
She stiffened and started clinging to her broomstick like she would to dear life. Which she probably was. All could have gone well, if not for the wind. Another gust hit and she swerved dangerously to the side. Still, she didn't scream. She was much too scared for that.
Back on the ground, the boys had noticed her sudden freeze and were now watching her with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. What did she think she was doing? Then, as they noticed her swerving with the wind, their eyes widened with fright. "Hermione!" Remus yelled at her. "Get down!"
But his cries were swallowed by the wind that blew harder still, as Hermione clutched her broom, petrified. Another strong gust hit, and her leg swung off the broom up to her ankle, so that she was barely on the stick anymore. But still, she was frozen.
James rounded a corner of the house and touched down next to the boys. "Done!" he said happily. Then he noticed the terrified look of his companions. He followed their line of watch and noticed Hermione, still fully on her broom. "Oh, shit!" he said.
Then the four boys witnessed her half fall. James and Remus cupped their hands around their mouths. "Hermione!" they yelled. "Hermione!" There was nothing else they could say.
But still, the cruel air drowned their pleas and thrashed Hermione around. The latter finally noticed the precarious situation that she was in and desperately tried to scramble back onto the seat of her broom.
Exasperated and not knowing what to do, James looked around and declared: "I'm fetching my parents!"
Up in the air, Hermione wanted to cry. She didn't, simply because she was too scared to move. It was over. And that made her even sadder. Another gust hit and, this time, legs and feet let go and she reached towards the earth.
Sirius yelled.
She couldn't even see herself fall. Her face was to the sky, and her eyes were wide open despite her hair whipping at them forcefully. She didn't feel anything. No more fear, not even relief. No. Nothing.
Time didn't slow down. It didn't accelerate either. No flashbacks came to her either. She was just watching the broom get up higher and higher… Or was it her getting lower and lower? She sighed. She didn't know, and, right now, she didn't care. No. She just closed her eyes and waited for the impact.
When the impact came, it was strange. First of all, the Earth felt strangely… warm. Also, she could still feel the wind blowing in every direction, although, this time, it felt more like a friend, or a domesticated animal. Lastly, it didn't hurt that much. It just sent a sharp jolt of pain on her back. She couldn't breathe anymore, and that made her eyelids snap open.
She took a breath and sighed in relief that her lungs weren't burning anymore. She could see, from the corner of her eyeball, an angel. It looked concentrated. She looked up and noticed that the angel had a good looking square jaw, a long and pointy nose, long raven hair and dark silver grey eyes. In fact, the angel looked awfully like…
"Sirius?" she asked, surprised.
He didn't look at her. "You idiot!" he yelled, obviously very, very, very angry.
She looked at the front and almost had a heart attack. She was still on a broom, which was zooming at full speed for the forest surrounding the Potter Manor. "What do you think you're doing?!" she shrieked at him.
"Saving your life!" he yelled back, a bead of sweat starting to form on his forehead, quickly washed off by the sheer power of the wind.
She had a hysterical laugh. "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it!" she declared. "Or try 'suicide mission'!"
"Will you just shut up?" he demanded as the steadily grew nearer to the green cover of the trees.
"Not that way!" she screamed. Sirius tried to veer left sharply, but that just sent his broom on a spiralling motion. Still, none of them shrieked in fear, both high on adrenaline.
Finally, they impacted with the first trees. Sirius desperately tried to pull them up, but all he succeeded in doing was hit branches from all sides. Then, the ground claimed them and they crashed hard. Sirius reached for Hermione as the force of the crash made them bounce back up.
He held on to her as tight as he could as they hit the ground a couple more times before rolling over plants and roots. Then they finally stilled.
They didn't move for a while, still in awe at their survival. Then, when he had recovered, Sirius untangled himself from Hermione's body and crawled away. Checking whether or not he sported broken limbs, he noticed, smiling, that all he had were a couple of scratches, and none of them were deep.
Suddenly, anger took over him. Glaring at Hermione's unmoving form, he yelled: "You fucking retard! You almost got us killed! What were you thinking, taking up James' bet? Why did you even consider taking up James' bet? I mean, afraid of heights like you are, you shouldn't even be near a broomstick, let alone be allowed to ride one! You couldn't just say no?! You had to take it up, thanks to your stupid pride! I almost got a heart-attack! Did you even think about the consequences? What it would do to people? James? Remus? Me?"
Suddenly, this one-sided conversation turned into a full-blown confession.
"I mean, what the hell?" he continued yelling, unaware that he was saying much more than intended at first. "You don't even leave me the time to figure out what it is that I feel for you! No! You have to go and try a suicide attempt! And, there I go, rushing my thinking, and deciding to save you! Not to mention that I've got weird times where I'm not myself, and it feels like someone placed the Imperius Curse on me! Now I know! Are you happy now?!" he yelled, but she still didn't move.
Sirius was close to tears. He fell to his knees in front of her back. "Now I know." he repeated, but it was in a calm and serene voice. "And now… I think you know too." His head fell and he started sobbing, evacuating the stress. "If things were going downhill before, they're now in freefall." he said.
But, then, the fact that she wasn't answering hit him like a jealous girlfriend's hand. Hard and in the face.
"Hermione?" he asked, filling up with dread. He placed his hands on her arm and shook her gently. "Hermione!" he said more forcefully, but there was still no reaction. He turned her over so that he could look at her face. And what he saw wasn't what he had wanted to see.
Her cheeks were dusty, streaked with the paths her tears were taking. For, yes, she was crying. But her eyes were closed and unmoving, like her body was, and unconscious.
-o-O-o-
Please review! Thanks to my faithful readers, those who have added this story (or me) to their Follow/Favourite lists, and to my reviewers: TheSpringLover, Hermione-Fan, AuntieL, Love-Mione-Fanfics (who is also the best beta I could ever hope for) and a lovely Guest who sent a lovely review! ;) I love you all! A very Merry Christmas to you, and a Happy New Year, since I have no clue when the next update will be... :D