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.

Chapter 38

-o-O-o-

The sun hit Regulus squarely in the chest one morning. It was warm and it felt rather nice, but what felt even nicer was the small and even warmer naked body that was pressed tightly against his chest. Yes, Hermione definitely felt nice.

It felt like he would never get tired of waking up next to her. Every morning since the beginning of their extended honeymoon, he would wake up before her, whisper sweet words to her to wake her up; they would make love, have breakfast in bed, and then plan what they were going to do for the rest of the day.

Lily's camera had proven to be quite useful. They had taken quite a bit of pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, up the Champs Elysées… and having a lot of fun.

Dumbledore had allowed them to go on extended vacation, so now, they were in the middle of summer, though they weren't quite sure when. However, the exact date was going to come back to Hermione very soon.

Regulus stroked her shoulder gently, with just the tip of his fingers, and she squirmed lightly under his touch. Her squirming woke up a very special part of Regulus' anatomy, and he sighed contentedly. He wrapped an arm around her waist and bent forward to kiss her shoulder, pressing his length into her back.

Hermione, still only half awake, moaned a little at her husband's ministrations, and squirmed some more. He pulled her closer, just so that he could half whisper, half pant in her ear: "Hermione." He started to rub himself against her in a desperate attempt to get some friction, and the while holding her close with that arm that was wrapped tightly around her, like a coiled snake.

Now that she had regained enough consciousness to grasp the situation, Hermione rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows, allowing her husband to roam his hands on her body as a preparation.

Then they heard a tap.

Hermione looked to her left, and saw an owl waiting impatiently on the windowsill, a piece of parchment attached to one of its hind legs. "Regulus…" she tried, but he wasn't listening.

"Fuck it." he growled, trying to prop her up so that he could enter her properly. His hard length rubbing against her was very distracting, but not enough to make her forget about that owl.

"Regulus!" she tried again but this time, louder.

With a loud groan, he pulled away from her and stood up, pulling a robe on, to open the window. The owl fluttered in, in a sea of flying feathers, and plopped down in front of Hermione, poking a leg out. Smiling, the young woman pulled the letter off and opened it. Then she froze.

"What?" Regulus asked, slightly bitterly.

"Oh my God." she said, covering her mouth with her hand.

"What is it?" he asked again, this time with a little worry.

She didn't answer and just stood up as quickly as possible, throwing random clothes on and kicking some at Regulus.

"Hermione, what happened?" he asked.

"It's Lily," she answered, flinging him a shirt that had been lying around. "She's having her baby."

-o-O-o-

James was pacing.

Remus was counting his paces.

Both were stressed. James had been woken up in the dead of the night (which means six o'clock to him) by Lily screaming that she needed a doctor. After having called Remus over and fainting a few times, they had managed to get her to St Mungo's, where she had been locked up for the last six hours. So, of course, both were stressed.

Suddenly, Hermione, in disguise, barged into the corridor, soon followed by Regulus, also in disguise. "Where is she?" she demanded of the boys.

James, already pretty pissed because he had not eaten since the last night, barked out at her: "You shut up!"

Hermione glared at him. "What do mean 'shut up!'? You shut up! I asked you where she was!" she hissed.

"You have to choose, either I shut up or I tell you where she is!" he shouted.

"Then tell me where the fuck she is, you dumbass!" she shouted back.

"No, idiot! Don't you understand the meaning of 'shut up'?" he answered.

"Hey!" Regulus yelled. "That's my wife you're talking to here!"

"Oh yeah?" James asked, his glasses slipping slightly from his nose. "Well my wife is stuck in some hospital room giving birth to my son, at the moment..."

"I don't care!" Regulus answered.

"You would if it was her screaming in pain for the last six hours!" James retorted. "Although maybe you won't, you cold hearted monster!"

"That's my husband you're screaming at, here!" Hermione defended Regulus.

Remus stood up. "If husbands and wives would all shut up, maybe we celibates could hear ourselves think in here!" he shouted.

Then the doors opened and Sirius stepped in, looking awfully dishevelled as he asked: "Did I miss something?"

He was about to get yelled at by the four other people in the corridor when a Mediwitch opened the door to the room in front of them and called happily out: "It's a boy!"

Then an awkward silence fell.

-o-O-o-

"Who's that? Who's that? That's your uncle Sirius!" Sirius cooed at the tiny baby in his hands.

He was cute, everybody had to admit that. He had a small tuft of jet black hair, midnight blue eyes and tiny hand constantly gripped into fists, as if he wanted to fight. He was now enjoying the attention he was getting for the first few hours of his life. He watched in amazement as Sirius disappeared behind his hands and reappeared all over sudden, just like magic.

"Peek-a-boo!" Sirius said, and Harry stared in awe.

Lily smiled. "Sirius, you've been playing with him for the past two hours." she scolded him gently, her eyes looking exhausted. "Let somebody else have a go."

He pouted at her. "But I'm his godfather..." he whimpered.

She rolled her eyes. "Let Stella have a try. I'm sure she'd like that." She cast a knowing glance at Hermione, who blushed.

Reluctantly, he passed the little baby over to the silver-haired beauty. She cradled him into her arms, and he stared up at this new face in wonder. She gave a short laugh. "What?" James asked, slightly panicky.

"Nothing, it's just..." she smiled. "He has a look of perpetual shock on his face. It's funny." She looked up at the baby's father. "He looks a lot like you, James." she admitted.

He looked confused. "Am I perpetually shocked?" he asked, and she smiled.

"Almost," she admitted. "But he has your hair." Then, just to tease him, she added: "But he's silent. Like Lily."

The concerned witch gave a small tinkling laugh. "He's perfect." she said.

Regulus bent down and whispered in Hermione's ear: "You're perfect."

She gave a small smile and turned around to peck him slowly on the lips. Sirius frowned. "Anyway," he said loudly, clapping his hands together. Hermione jumped a little, but Harry didn't budge. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry."

James frowned at his best friend. "If you want to go, go alone. Peter is about to arrive."

Hermione froze. "You know what, Sirius?" she said, turning to look at him, forcing a smile on her face. "I guess I'll come with you."

He looked surprised, but happy enough. "Okay," he agreed jovially.

She smiled back at him, handed Harry back to his father and both headed outside. Once in the corridor, Sirius shoved his hands deep down his pocket and grinned wildly, as Hermione rolled her eyes. He couldn't stop being hopeful, could he?

They took the elevator to the highest floor, where there was a Muggle contraption that enabled them to order sandwiches simply by putting money inside and pressing a couple of buttons.

Sirius took a triple cheese, and Hermione a vegetarian, ordering one with ham and tomatoes for Regulus. They sat down to eat their sandwiches, and once they had finished, Hermione had run out of inconspicuous things to do. Fortunately, Sirius was in a talkative mood.

"-and then James gave me a high five and we started running!" he finished.

"Wow." she said, smiling. "You and James were the real troublemakers when you were kids."

"We still are." he winked. "I mean, James does get Lily's knickers in a bunch on a daily basis."

She laughed. "I guess." she amended.

"How about you?" he asked. "Peter told me you were Swedish. Apparently James lived in Sweden for a bit and that's you and Lily became friends."

Hermione cursed James in her head. "Sure." she said. "I lived near Stockholm. I liked it but… The weather wasn't too good." She winced theatrically.

He laughed. "This is why you came to Britain, then?"

"Yep." she answered, not sure what else to say. "That's where I met Hershel." she added.

"Oh." Sirius frowned. "He's British, then?"

"Exactly."

"You guys are fiancées, right?"

"Married, now." she corrected him.

"Oh." he said again, his frown deepening. "Aren't you concerned by the age difference?"

Hermione laughed inside her head. If only he knew that she was the oldest one in this relationship! "It doesn't bother me." she amended.

"But Stella," he whispered, leaning over the table to stare straight into her eyes. "You could do so much better."

She smiled. "That's the thing, Sirius." she whispered too. "I don't want better. I want him."

He arched an eyebrow. "You sure?" he asked.

Her smile widened. "Definitely."

He leaned back and smirked. "Oh, well," he gave in. "At least I gave it a try."

She shrugged. "Sorry."

"How about kids?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" she asked, not quite getting where he was heading.

"I don't know." he admitted. "Will you have kids with him? I mean, I certainly could offer more than he could. For example, good looks!" He gestured towards himself, and she laughed.

"You know what your problem is, Sirius?" she asked, ignoring his question. "You're unaware of the situations that you get yourself into, and you act before you think." Seeing his shocked look, she continued. "Thoughtless but kind, caring but blind… You're not for me." She stood up. "I'm sorry." she told him, and walked out.

She headed back to Lily's room, but, as she opened the door, she was surprised to see that Regulus wasn't there. When she asked, Lily answered: "He said he was going back to unpack."

Hermione had just kissed Harry's head, said goodbye and left the hospital.

-o-O-o-

When Hermione arrived at her and Regulus' quarters at Hogwarts, she called out: "Honey?"

Apparently, he had been thoughtful, for all their bags were back. However, the place did smell like it had been closed up too long, which is exactly what she had been expecting.

"Regulus, baby?" she called out again, and there was still no answer. She started to explore their apartment, and only when she opened the bathroom door did she find him.

He was bent over the sink, breathing heavily, almost panting. He had taken his disguise off and was shirtless, and was gripping the edges of the white porcelain bowl with all his strength. Red drops were falling inside it and, upon a closer look, Hermione noticed that it was his nose that was bleeding.

"Regulus?" she whispered, horrified.

He turned to face her slowly, his face waxy pale and his eyes dead, a thin sheen of sweat covering his forehead. "He called." he explained, his voice hoarse.

She didn't need clarification to understand who he was talking about. She gasped, her hand covering her mouth. Of course he would. He would call on all his Death Eaters as soon as Harry was born, that was sure. "Oh, Regulus!" she said, and flung herself into his arms.

Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms loosely around her and pressed his face into her hair. She felt the warm drops of blood seeping into her hairline, but she didn't care. He started trembling, and she realised that he was afraid.

"I'm sorry." she said, trying to cheer him up.

He froze. "You shouldn't be." he told her.

She was surprised by the coldness in his voice. He pulled away from her arms and turned around so that he didn't have to face her.

"You shouldn't be sorry for a monster like me." he continued.

She shook her head. "That's not who you are." she whispered.

"Yes it is!" he burst out. He spun around so fast he was almost blurry to her, and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Don't you get it Hermione? I'm a monster!"

"No you're not!" she shouted back. She grabbed his left arm, ignoring when he winced, and held it up for him to see. "This," she said, pointing at his Mark. "This is nothing!"

"Yes it is!" he argued. "It's a huge mistake!"

"Everybody makes mistakes!" she shouted. "Just look at all the ones I made!"

"Yeah," he agreed. "Like falling in love with me."

She froze. "Just because it wasn't meant to be at first doesn't mean it was a mistake." she whispered.

He turned around and started trembling. It was a couple of minutes before he let the first sob be heard, though. She walked over to him and hugged his back. "Save me." he whispered. "I need you."

"And I won't ever leave you." she whispered back. She stretched her arm to touch his Mark softly, and walked around him so that he could look at her in the eye.

"It's funny." he said suddenly.

She stared at him, slightly puzzled. "What is?" she asked.

"How I need your love the most when I least deserve it." he answered.

She laid her hand gently on his cheek. "You don't need to deserve my love, Regulus." she told him. "I'm yours."

He put his hand above hers and leaned into her warm palm. "Forever." he agreed. They both smiled.

-o-O-o-

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