Hey there! So yea... sorry, this week's updates got kind of messed up. I work with little kids and got pretty sick this weekend. Hope this chapter makes up for it!
Huge thanks to everyone to Followed, Favorited and Reviewed this past week or so. Death by Insanity, moonlightkiss1515, Raven that flies at night, Jeb59, Guest, pianomouse, subversive beauty, Savita, GhostWriter1864, miskachick, Calimocho, Jily1102, and xXMizz Alec VolturiXx; thanks so much for spending a few extra minutes to give me some kind words and suggestions.
Hermione ran her fingers over the picture of Harry, Ron, Ginny and herself before tucking the photograph back into its hiding place in her personal room of McGonagall's private chambers. She had moved back into the room a few days ago, after all the graduates had left with their families to return home.
She assumed that she would be more somber about the fact her Hogwarts schooling was finished, but Hermione was actually quite excited. She was going to be researching and possibly teaching soon. The witch saw it as beginning a whole new chapter, or even an entirely new book, in her life.
Professor McGonagall was also very happy about getting her 'niece' back from the tower. They had a few quiet days of relaxing together and enjoying the quiet that fell over the nearly empty school.
"I will be going on holiday in a few days; I have a small cabin up in the Ben Lawers Mountains. The isolation there is wonderful for recuperation after a busy school year. Would you like to join me?" The Transfiguration professor asked as Hermione came into the sitting room to join her for tea.
"That sounds lovely, but wouldn't my being there hinder your isolation?"
The women shared matching smirks, "Well you are not the one I need to recuperate from… despite your ever developing relationship with a certain dubious Marauder."
Hermione almost snorted tea out of her nose, "Oh Merlin, you make him sound so awful, Aunt Minerva."
McGonagall smiled tightly and shook her head, "Just the protectiveness seeping through I'm afraid. No way to help it at times."
"Sirius really isn't someone you need to worry about. He's loyal, trustworthy and extremely protective as well," Hermione chuckled as she sipped her tea.
"These qualities I am very aware of; he is a good man. I just wonder if he's the right one for you, my dear."
Hermione smiled at the motherly turn that the professor had taken in the conversation. She stretched her arm out over the table and took the older witch's hand in her own, "He loves me; and I love him. And if it's the other issue you're afraid of… I'm a bit terrified of the idea as well. But we've already discussed the fact that I have to return eventually, and… he still wants to stay with me. He keeps insisted that he'll wait for me, even though I've told him I don't expect such things."
McGonagall's tight lips pulled down into a frown, "If he has really stated this, I fear my concern and protectiveness might have to shift to Mr. Black's side."
Both witches held each others gaze and tried to smile at the slight humor of the comment.
McGonagall packed up a few belongings and left for her isolated cabin for several weeks. During that time Hermione decided to take Sirius up on his offer and move a few things in with him at his newly inherited house.
It was a huge step forward for them, and Hermione was trying not to allow the idea to set her on edge. She loved Sirius; there was no question of that. But were they really ready for something like this?
Hermione decided to pack up most of her summer clothes and a few of her more leisurely books and stowed them away in her ever extending bag. There really wasn't much to pack; since Hogwarts required uniforms, Hermione had not really added very much to her wardrobe since she arrived in this time. She shook her head lightly and decided to ask Lily if she wanted to have a girls day sometime this summer to go clothes shopping… maybe she could whisk Lily away for an afternoon after the initial excitement of the engagement had finally died down.
With a load crack, Hermione appeared to the address that Sirius had provided for her and quickly appeared in front of a magnificent house.
It was a fairly large home; it could probably fit the Weasley's quite comfortably. But it had a homey charm about it and it looked like it was designed with the phrase 'elegant cottage' in mind. The only thing that ruined the country cottage illusion was the garden that was completely in shambles; every plant seemed to be dead or dying. Hermione frowned slightly. She made a note to look up some gardening spells as soon as possible.
Hermione was barely able to rap her knuckle on the door once before the worn red entrance was thrown open and she found herself being swept up in Sirius's strong arms.
"Merlin, I missed you, Hermione," his voice came out a little muffled as he clung to his witch and buried his face in her volumes of blonde hair.
"Sirius, it's barely been a week," Hermione pulled back so that she could see his face, but kept her arms looped around the wizard's neck. "Have you been staying out of trouble?"
A wide grin spread across the man's face, "Of course! What kind of trouble could I get into without the others around… or you." He leaned down and captured Hermione's lips so quickly that she was shocked still for a few seconds before answering his kiss with matched enthusiasm.
The dark haired wizard broke the kiss with a regretful moan and leaned his forehead against Hermione's. "I think… we might need to stop there for now…" Sirius flashed her a sly smile and took her hand to lead her into the house.
"Why?" the witch looked confused and a little hurt as she attempted to stabilize her breathing.
Sirius's warm chuckles filled the open foyer of the house, "Because I might not be able to stop myself from taking things past your level of comfort, Love. Apparently being a week without you affected me more than I care to realize."
Hermione halted suddenly in her tracks as she let his words sink in. A deep crimson covered her cheeks as she felt the warmth flood her face. Sirius had been so patient with her; and she had appreciated the slow pace he was allowing her to set for the physical side of their relationship. But that didn't mean that the idea hadn't crossed her mind… it had frequented her daydreams on numerous occasions in fact.
Her issues now had been her reluctance to remove clothing… or more specifically, remove her shirt and expose her scars. The lightning scars may have fallen to the back of her mind for the majority of the school year; but the Hogwarts uniforms covered everything very well, so she hadn't had to spend time scrutinizing her cover ups. And the holidays had been cold enough that layered clothing didn't look out of place when she feared that something would show through. But now… it seemed like the summer was going to be a challenge. Between the warmer temperatures and Sirius in general, Hermione decided that she needed to come to terms with the angry, dark brown lines that crossed over her entire torso.
Sirius showed her around the very dark and stately house. All the furniture looked antique and there was a thin layer of dust on almost every surface. The heavy, extremely detailed, rugs covered beautifully stained wooden floors. Every inch of the house was dressed in dense fabrics with rich green and gold accents on practically everything. It was far too extravagant for Hermione's taste, but it did at least feel more welcoming then Gimmauld Place.
There were two sitting rooms, a kitchen, an office and a formal dining room downstairs; and four bedrooms as well as the master suite upstairs. Sirius talked animatedly about the changes he wanted to make to the house; they mostly involved cleaning, reupholstering most of the green furniture pieces, adding some more relaxed accents and…
"I want to convert the office into a library… I mean, what would I do with a bloody office anyway? If I really have need of one, I can place a small desk in there. But I want every wall to be covered in books for you." Sirius pulled Hermione into the current office and motioned for her to examine the space; he wanted her to imagine the shelves and the tomes that could soon line the walls.
Hermione walked along the wall of the office and marveled at the size of the room; if it was covered in bookshelves, she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to leave the house.
Maybe that was Sirius's plan…
It took two solid weeks of dusting charms, scrubbing spells, and paint glamours to bring the house up to date and make the place livable again. Hermione laughed and shook her head, when Sirius had admitted that he had only thoroughly cleaned one of the sofas in casual sitting room when he first arrived so that he had a place to sleep. He had been researching protection spells and visiting Remus and Peter while he waited for Hermione to arrive and paid little attention to the rest of the house.
They glamoured all the walls a light beige so that no matter what furniture ended up in which room, everything would go together; and it also made the rooms feel bigger and brighter with the new lighter coloring. Any bookcase that was found was levitated down to the office, transfigured to all match and embedded into the long walls of the room.
Remus and Peter stopped by occasionally to help to just offer company; but as much as she loved the two other Marauders, Hermione grew a little protective of her time alone with Sirius. Their interaction the past year had become easy and natural, but over the last two weeks their actions became more loving and much more suggestive. They had taken to sleeping in the master suit together and had been intimate on several instances; though Hermione was still hesitant to remove all her clothes and take that final step. Sirius had been delicate with the situation and had been able to stop before the witch became too uncomfortable, but he did have to resort to cold showers sporadically.
While outside trying to decide how to salvage the garden, a torrential down pour sneaked up on them and drenched Sirius and Hermione from head to toe. They had only been ten feet from the front door, but the rain was so thick, it looked like they had taken a swim with all their clothes still on.
They sprinted inside and almost collapsed from the laughter that was shaking their bodies. But Hermione's laughter was soon the only one echoing off the walls of the house.
Sirius's chuckles had ceased abruptly and were replaced with a tortured expression as he looked over Hermione's chest and abdomen. When the witch noticed this, she immediately crossed her arms over her body, "Where on earth did I drop my wand..." and tried to shuffle away. Hermione cursed herself for choosing one of Sirius's white t-shirts to wear that day. It had been warm earlier but the thin shirt now clung to her skin and bra; it was basically translucent from all the rain.
He looked directly into Hormone's eyes and silently asked for permission as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. She reluctantly nodded her head. Sirius gently took her arms and unfolded them so that he could again see the outline of the dark scars that draped over the entire front of her upper body.
The pained expression was gone, now replaced with anger and confusion as Sirius tore his eyes away from the extensive marks, "This is all from the curse?"
"Yes."
"Do you know who did this to you?" Sirius now focused his attention on Hermione's eyes; he didn't want her to feel like he was taking advantage of the situation.
Hermione shook her head. "No. I've been trying to reason with myself about it; tell myself it's a badge of honor, that it's proof of what I've survived… but…," the witch shrugged her shoulders, "I suppose I'm a bit vane. They make me feel hideous and deformed. They're terrifying to look at; forces me to remember the pain of it all."
"I'm so sorry," Sirius placed a kiss on Hermione's lips and deepened it slightly so that she might forget about the agony she experienced. "You could never be hideous though."
A snort escaped Hermione's mouth before she could help herself, "You're a bit biased though, aren't you?"
Sirius smirked but then quickly replaced the look with a false hurt expression, "My perception is perfectly fine, thank you. In fact…" the wizard ducked down and threw the soaking brunette witch over his shoulder, "I think we're going upstairs until you believe every nice word I've ever said about you."
The Marauder carried his girlfriend up the stairs as she chuckled and cursed him to put her back down.
That day, Hermione had nothing else to hide from her wizard. All of their soaked through clothes were gradually discarded, and Sirius made sure to kiss every inch of the lightning scars. The blonde witch giggled and squirmed as the wizard lovingly convinced her just how beautiful she was in his eyes.
The next few days seemed to pass in a blur of happy home bliss and snogging sessions that seemed to always lead them into more intimate, but now very welcomed, outcomes that involved hastily muttered contraceptive spells.
And the more Sirius examined the scars, the more he admired them; the intricacy of them all, the way they almost appeared to form a lace pattern at some points, and even the way the scars wrapped around Hermione's body made them more attractive. Sirius now made a habit of slipping his hand under the hem of Hermione's shirt and brushing his finger tips over the scars that lay right over her hip. This always seemed to bring a smile to the witch's face. And Hermione's perception of her scars were slowing shifting with how much Sirius tried to show her their beauty.
But happy bliss in the middle of war time is always short lived.
Regulus apperated before the door of the house very late a few nights later; he was rambling incoherently and smelled strongly of firewhiskey. He banged on the door of his uncle's old home and called out to his brother with slurred words. The younger Black closed his eyes tightly as he tried to wish away the images that he had just witnessed.
"Regulus?" Hermione's voice called through the door.
"Her… McGon… Mia… Bloody hell, I have no idea what to call you… please let me in? I need to speak with Sirius; I need my brother."
The door opened and Regulus fell forward into his brother's arms. Sirius wasn't prepared to carry the weight and was almost knocked over himself. With Hermione's help, Regulus was pulled into the sitting room and propped up on one of the wingback chairs.
Hermione disappeared for a few seconds and returned with a small vial of pepperup potion and forced Regulus to tip the potion back.
The effects were almost immediate; and Regulus's eyes quickly dilated back to normal size. But instead of looking relieved, the younger Black looked angry.
"Why… why did you give me that?! I wanted to be drunk; I need to forget about tonight or at least drown in the regret of it temporarily!" Regulus abruptly stood up and began marching around the house trying to remember where his uncle used to keep his liquor.
Sirius trailed after his brother and tried to direct the boys attention away from the search for alcohol, "Reg, what are you doing? I don't think I even saw you drink after the Slytherins won the house cup last year."
Regulus mumbled something while his head was partially inside a lower cabinet in the kitchen.
"What did he say?" Hermione whispered to Sirius as he shrugged in response.
"I said, I watched someone tortured! They held some shame of a 'trial' for a muggleborn that graduated last year. He was trying to gather information on the Dark Lord or something; attempting to expose who was falling in with the Death Eaters… And he was caught snooping around. So they captured him and tried the bloke for trespassing, interfering with magical conservation, and then of all things, stealing magic." Regulus's irate shouting died down gradually as he spoke. His emotions were running rampant all over his face; very un-Slytherin like. He slumped against the kitchen cabinet, forgetting about his search. His voice was very small as he continued, "They used the Crusiatus Curse on him… I… it took everything I had to not move, not to show any emotion. I can still hear his screams..."
Hermione rushed forward and sat down beside Regulus and quickly enveloped him with her arms. He stiffened initially at her touch, but he crumbled almost immediately and returned the embrace with every fiber of his being. The witch met Sirius's hard stare as they tried to wrap their heads around the events of Regulus's night.
"You don't have to keep doing this Reg. We can still hide you," Sirius wanted so desperately to protect his little brother, though he already knew what the answer would be.
"NO… no, I just…," He pulled away from Hermione and glanced between the only two people who seemed to care for him and his well being, "…I just needed a place to get away from everything, just for a short time. I still want to; no, I need to do this." Regulus offered the smallest of smiles to Hermione as she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Sirius showed Regulus to one of the guest rooms while Hermione found her stash of dreamless sleep drought. They knew that the younger Black brother was going to need it tonight.
Oh geez, this summer is going to be a tough one for Reg. Hope you all enjoyed that though. The other Marauders will be brought in more when they finally join the Order, don't worry. And please keep in mind that you may not being seeing a lot of Hermione messing with Peter's future because, as mentioned a few chapters ago, she isn't sure he could handle the possibility of being a traitor with his insecurity issues. She doesn't want to be the reason he does turn to the Dark Lord.
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Ps. Check out the other stories by me: 'Begin Again,' 'The Bookworm and The Prankster' and 'Penelope Jackson: The Lightning Thief.'