1,015 Words
Completed: 3/4/05 9:13 PM
Posted: 3/4/05 9:25 PM
"Is it finished?"
Hermione smiled softly and looked up at Sirius innocently peering over her shoulder. She followed his gaze back, not minding the silky strands of his hair that fell against her cheek.
"Yes, it's finished," she said, feeling rather proud of her accomplishment.
The small desk of their study had been for the past few months laden with cluttered papers, photo albums, and day old coffee cups. It still looked as distraught as ever, though a space had been cleared in the center around a thickly bound stack parchments.
After weeks of going through painful pictures of the friends that were no longer with her and meeting with those still holding on, hours of frustration and anxiety, over a dozen take-out businesses knowing their floo by heart, and sleepless nights where she'd pull herself from the comforting embrace of her lovers and the warmth of their bed to hunch over the desk, scribbling another few paragraphs in the weak candlelight, Hermione had finally finished her book.
Her recount of the war.
"Am I in there?" Sirius snuffled at her neck like, well, Snuffles, and wrapped an arm across her chest to grip her other shoulder.
Hermione laughed, never ceasing to admire his childlike qualities, and scrunched her lips oddly to the side, managing somehow to kiss his scruffy cheek. "Of course," she said. "An entire chapter, just for you."
Wiggling his fingers, Sirius reached out a hand to untie the bundle, but Hermione slapped it away. "Wait for Remus," she warned.
"Talking about me when I'm not around, eh?"
Both of them turned to look at the arrival of Remus; well, Sirius looked, Hermione tried to see through his long hair. He was wearing rumpled slacks that she recognized as the ones from yesterday and a baggy cardigan, and leaning against the doorjamb. A half-filled teacup dangled from one finger by the hook.
"Of course, darling," Hermione beamed. "You're our favorite topic of conversation."
He pushed off the door frame and walked up to the pair, being pulled aside by Sirius for a quick kiss without the dark-haired wizard ever relinquishing his grip on the witch. Remus then moved onto Hermione's free side and gave her a kiss as well, the taste of Sirius still fresh.
Hermione had never been into touchy-feely sorts of relationships growing up at Hogwarts, though she'd heard on (unfortunately) countless occasions from Parvati and Lavender that the beginning of a relationship was the best. It was the part where all you ever wanted was to kiss one another and you had to be touching them in some way at least ninety percent of the time or you didn't feel complete.
Hermione was into her thirteenth month of her relationship with Remus and Sirius and was still waiting for that part to end.
"Did I hear correctly? You're finished?" Remus smiled his warm smile that gave Hermione that "warm and fuzzy" feeling she'd never admit to having under wandpoint.
"Yes, and I'd still love to read it with you both?" Hermione questioned their earlier promise.
Remus' smile widened. "Of course."
"Is Moony in it too, pet?" Sirius mumbled curiously into her neck.
"Yes, Sirius; there's a chapter for him too." Hermione could have sworn she saw pink in the cheeks of the older man standing beside her.
He coughed and cleared his throat. "Shall we have a look then?"
"I get to pull the string!" Sirius announced, nearly falling on top of Hermione in his excitement. "She said I could!"
Remus chuckled slightly and conceded in letting Sirius tug on the tail of the bow and completely unravel the twine that bound the pages together. Then he reached across the desk and carefully turned the first page.
The Last Wizarding War
By Hermione Jane Granger
Hermione loved Remus' voice, especially when he was in "reading mode" and she was quite sure of Sirius' fondness for it as well. Inching her hand up underneath his braced on the desktop, she laced their fingers together then placed her other over the one Sirius had on her shoulder.
"Go ahead..." She urged. "Turn the page."
Remus did so, and began to read again.
This book is dedicated to the boy that was more than
just a hero to me, but my best friend – Harry James Potter.
But most importantly this is for the two men
who refused to let me become another victim, who fought beside me,
gave me a reason to live, and who I love more than life itself – Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.
She watched him trace the line of their names, anxiously gnawing on her lip. "Hermione – are you sure about this?" He turned his head and regarded her with uncertainty.
"It's been more than a year, Remus – I'm done hiding..."
Sirius bit along the soft flesh of her neck and gave a short growl. "Let's go back to bed...I'm tired," he whined. Sirius knew enough not to make a big deal of what that one sentence meant for all of them.
Hermione smiled and stood up with Sirius, pulling Remus along behind them both as Sirius dragged the entire procession to their bed. "Come on Moony," she smiled around the nickname she used only on those special occasions. "We can read it in the morning."
His significantly longer legs caught up with her, and he placed a soft hand on the back of her neck. "Harry would have been so proud of you," he murmured and kissed her hair as he liked to do.
"I know," she said with a sad smile. She missed Harry dearly but here, tucked in the warm arms of her lovers as Sirius thoughtfully pulled the comforter up around them, the ache of losing him felt a little less. The war was over, and though she still carried the scars of it with her and recorded them forever in her book, Hermione had come out of it alive and in the memory of those that hadn't she planned on living it to the fullest.
With Remus and Sirius by her side...she had a pretty good head start.