章 61: Morning ( Problem)
Something was wrong. Sirius came awake instantly, Hermione pressed snugly against him, his hand wrapped around one full breast. She was fine, still deeply asleep and that made him relax slightly. That wasn't what was wrong. He shifted slightly and turned his head. Inches from his face was the face of James Potter who was so furious that Sirius wasn't sure that there was an actual name for the current color of his face.
"Prongs?"
"Tell me," James ground out between his teeth, "that you didn't touch my sister."
"I can't exactly do that because I'm touching her right now," Sirius said dryly, as he tried to unobtrusively move his hand from Hermione's breast. James turned several different shades that Sirius had never seen before, and his nostrils flared.
"Wrong answer," James growled. He grabbed Sirius and hauled him out of the bed. Sirius ducked reflexively and avoided James' first swing.
"Look James, it's not what you think," Sirius tried to explain. James was beyond rational thought. His only goal was to kill Sirius, preferably several times over.
"You don't have my naked sister in your bed?" James scoffed. "Because funnily enough, her nightgown is lying on the floor over there, and I believe those are her knickers. At least I hope they are because if they're not, I'm going to kill you."
"Well, yes, she's obviously in my bed, and of course those are her clothes," Sirius snapped in irritation. "Who the hell else would be in here?"
"Wrong answer," James growled again, and this time, his fist connected with flesh. Sirius automatically punched back, and his fist solidly connected with James jaw.
"Stop!" Hermione had woken up, and was sitting in the middle of Sirius' bed with the sheet wrapped around her. James glared at her.
"I don't think so," he growled at her.
"Jamie, nothing happened," she said firmly. He just looked at her, and she blushed. "I asked him, he said no."
"How stupid do you think I am?" James demanded. He waved his hand at his best friend. "This is Sirius-sodding-Black we're talking about! Do you expect me to believe that you offered yourself to him and he said no?"
"I do have some self-control," Sirius said stiffly, his spine straight and his grey eyes dark with anger. James snorted.
"Right, look I've lived with you for seven years now, Sirius. You've had a parade of women through the broom closets of Hogwarts," James snapped. "I don't think you've ever said no to anyone."
"That was before," Sirius muttered stiffly.
"So you've become a gentleman overnight?" James asked sarcastically. Hermione glared at him. She transfigured the sheet into a chiton and crawled out of Sirius' bed to go stand toe-to-toe with her brother.
"Sirius has always been a gentleman," she hissed up at him. "He is polite, cordial and courteous with every woman that comes into his sphere of influence. He is one of the most honorable and chivalrous men I have ever met."
"Hermione," James began tightly, but his sister wasn't done yet. She waved her hand irritably, and silenced him. He stood gaping at her, clutching his throat.
"If you're going to bring up his sex life, we need to get something clear right now. What happened in the past needs to stay in the past. It isn't relevant to us here and now, and we don't need to dwell on it. If you want to be crude James, I can be, too. I would imagine that he made sure that every woman he was with finished—most likely multiple times, and that makes him a gentleman in the bedroom, too. We did not have sex last night. I don't care if you believe it or not because it's the truth. You will not touch him because he is mine. As soon as we graduate, Alphard is going to formally offer for me, and we are going to have the betrothal ceremony this summer. I am going to be Mrs. Sirius Black, and I plan on providing heirs for his House. I am sure that even you, James Potter, can determine how that might be accomplished,"
Hermione was growling in his face, her hazel eyes flashing in anger. She whirled on her heel and marched out of Sirius' room, another wave of her hand slamming the door behind her. Sirius got dressed stiffly and silently, not looking at James. He waved his wand at James, and muttered something under his breath.
"Mother wanted me to remind you to pack," James said stiffly. "We go back to Hogwarts today, and we're leaving soon."
Sirius nodded with a courteous formality and moved to begin packing. He didn't look at, or talk to James at all. James sighed heavily and turned toward his friend and blood-brother.
"Padfoot," James said softly. "I'm sorry."
Sirius ignored him.
"Sirius," James tried again. Sirius turned to look at him, and his eyes were coldly furious.
"Have I ever done anything to make you think that I was a man without honor?" Sirius asked sharply, and James swallowed miserably. For all of Sirius' desire to distance himself from his upbringing, there were certain things that wriggled and stuck with the tenacity of a permanent sticking charm. Fortunately, the ideals that all purebloods held in common were things that humanity as a whole found admirable: honor, duty, loyalty.
"No, of course not," James admitted. Sirius' jaw tightened and his nostrils flared.
"I told you that it wasn't what you were thinking. You even insinuated that I had had more than just Hermione in my bed last night. You do remember the marks your sister put on me, right? No one can touch me like that, except her. Even if I didn't have the runes, I would never disrespect her like that. What kind of man do you think I am, James?" Sirius' voice was glacially cold, and he held his body rigidly stiff. James' own jaw tightened. He shook his head slightly.
"I know what kind of man you are, Sirius, and I'm sorry. You are honorable, you're everything she said you are," James said quietly. "Hermione is…My Own. Even though we're the same age, she was mine to protect and guard. She was mine and no one else's. She always has been, but now suddenly she isn't. She's yours."
"Prongs," Sirius said with a tired sigh. "I am not taking her away or anything like that. She's your sister. She'll always be your sister. Even when her last name is Black."
"I suppose so," James muttered, rubbing his face. "This is just really difficult."
"You've made it worse you know," Sirius pointed out. "She's going to leave bite marks all over me, hoping you'll say something just so she can hex you."
"Of course she is," James said darkly, glaring at Sirius again. Then he snorted in amusement.
"What?" Sirius asked curiously. James grinned and pointed a finger at him.
"I told you her husband was in for it, and you're him. I feel sorry for you, Padfoot, I really do," James said with satisfaction. Sirius smiled smugly.
"I don't," he said cockily.
HP/HG/HP
"Explain to me, just one more time, why my brother has a black eye," Regulus drawled, one eyebrow quirked in amusement.
"I don't want to talk about it," Hermione said evasively. Regulus snorted.
"You're a terrible liar, Hermione, and my brother has never walked into a door in his life. He's far too aware of his surrounding for anything like that to ever happen," Regulus said firmly. Hermione flushed, and he went in for the kill. "And then there's your brother, who's sporting a fairly livid bruise on his jaw. Did he walk into a door, as well?"
"Regulus," Hermione's voice took on a warning note that he knew fairly well. He grinned wickedly at her and tossed his hair in a manner so similar to Sirius that it gave her pause for just a moment.
"So they fought about you," Regulus continued as though she hadn't spoken. "Interesting. What about, one wonders? Was my brother rude to you? Did he hurt you?"
"Regulus, we have far more pressing matters to discuss," Severus snapped in irritation. Then he turned to Hermione. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"
NO!" She screeched. "For Merlin's sake, let's talk about the unaffiliated families and the unworthies!"
"Temper, temper," Regulus murmured. He turned slightly toward Snape.
"Mmm. Phillip Greengrass seems open to something similar to our current operation. He likes the idea of working behind the scenes, anonymously," Severus said thoughtfully.
"The Zabini family is ambivalent," Regulus said firmly. "They're really committed to neutrality. I think we should cross them off the list."
"You did nothing that tipped your hand, did you Regulus?" Hermione asked, pinning him with a look. Severus touched her arm lightly, with just his fingertips.
"He was most careful," Severus drawled, turning his dark eyes to look at Regulus. "He sat in the commons area and just listened for days. It wasn't until he overheard several different conversations that he approached either of them."
"Excellent," Hermione said with a satisfied smile. She frowned slightly. "Something troubles me though. Lucius mentioned that Wilkes and Flint were unhappy. Did he mean Gaius?"
Regulus and Severus both snarled at that, and glared at her.
"No," they both said tightly.
"Lucius fantasizes about different ways to kill Gaius Flint on a regular basis," Severus offered dryly as he had been forced to listen to most of them. "He meant his cousin Julian."
"Lucius' cousin or Gaius' cousin," Hermione asked after a moment, a small furrow between her brows.
"Both, actually," Regulus said with a quirked brow. "Weren't you forced to read that stupid pureblood lineage book, what was it again…oh yes, Nature's Nobility: A wizarding genealogy?"
"It was part of our curriculum, of course," Hermione said stiffly, "but I skimmed through a great deal of it."
"Really?" Regulus said in surprise. "I read it cover to cover, and so did Sirius. I believe his reasoning was that he didn't want to accidentally shag someone he was a little too closely related to, er, sorry."
"What happened in the past is the past," Hermione said, a little tightly, "as soon as everyone understands that, we'll be fine."
"I find myself in the abhorrent position of liking James Potter," Severus muttered, his features twisted in displeasure. "Someone make it stop."
"At the moment you are in an elite minority," Hermione said coldly. Both of the Slytherins smirked at one another in amusement.
"Now, Lucius wants to bring in Julian Flint…and Wilkes? Who is this Wilkes?" Regulus asked Severus.
"Albemarle Wilkes," Severus said shortly. "I concur with his assessment."
"Why Severus, don't overwhelm me with information," Hermione said tartly. Her gaze narrowed sharply on her blood-brother's face. "What aren't you telling me?"
"I won't go into details," Severus said firmly, his jaw tightening. "Let me say only that Albemarle has every possible reason to passionately hate the Dark Lord, and all that he stands for."
"Really, Hermione, it is best that you do not know the details of this. You see enough through your visions to guess, I'm sure," Regulus said softly. Hermione stiffened and her face grew pale.
We most likely don't want to know, dear. You have to sleep with Sirius to stop the nightmares half the time anymore.
I haven't slept in his bed since we came back to Hogwarts.
Don't take that stiff tone with me. You also have had nightmares most nights, which Lily would swear to, just so you know.
Very well, we most likely don't want to know.
"I will trust you in this matter, Severus," Hermione said slowly, averting her eyes from both men.
"Domina," Regulus said softly. Hermione turned and frowned at them.
"You used to all call me your lioness," she said after a moment. "I preferred that I think."
"That would be inappropriate," Regulus said with a wry smile.
"Of course it would," Hermione said in sudden realization, her cheeks flushing. "I apologize, I wasn't thinking."
Okay, pretend we're not all purebloods, and explain this to me.
Domina is Latin. It means lady, and it implies a position of authority.
Yes, thank you. I may be muggleborn, but I'm not stupid.
It's a title of respect. 'My lioness', which they were using before implies intimacy and familiarity. In pureblood culture, I'm basically married and any man using those types of endearments with me would be considered incredibly forward. Well, except for Sirius, of course.
Not even Regulus, who's going to be your brother-in-law?
Not really, no. Wizards tend to be exceedingly possessive. I don't know if it's the magic, or something else. It seems to be part of our genetic make-up.
Just one of the many upsides to being part of nature's nobility.
You are one of nature's nobility, you prat.
But I'm muggleborn.
You're a witch. As Lucius is fond of saying, it takes magical blood to create a magical child. You're lineage is just a little foggier than most people's.
What if he's wrong?
Heaven forfend. Thank Merlin you can't say things like that in front of him. He'd most likely have an apoplectic fit.
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