Burning Bright (4/4)
Title: Burning Bright (4/4)
Author: Caitlinlaurie
Rating: M, for Language and Smut
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Hermione/Sirius
Summary: If ever one kiss changed everything, such is true for Hermione and Sirius. From his return, to their love, lives together, and beyond.
Warnings/Notes: I wanted to write a story about what happens if Hermione and Sirius don't get support when their relationship comes out, for lack of a better term. Atruwriter's wonderful oneshot "Accept and Adjust" was the inspiration for this. It was meant to be an expanded oneshot, but somehow morphed into a beast at well over 24,000 words. I wanted to write the reactions, and yet the before and after became more prominent. Anyway, hope you all enjoy.
Disclaimer: All characters and their canon histories are the property of J.K. Rowling.
A/N: This is Fluff, Angst, and Smut…the trifecta! Also, this is canon through DH, but is EWE.
A/N 2: For all of you who have been concerned, now that this is posted I will be returning to The Gift of the Knowing. I have had several oneshots running though my head these past two months, not all of which have been posted yet, and it has delayed that story. Don't worry, I am heading back to it straightaway!
***
Part Ten - Of Life After & Sixteen Years Later
"Oh, Mum," my daughter Cora said, turning her face away from me, "stop it, or you'll weep all over me."
I tried to be brave, blinking back the tears that were threatening to erupt from my eyes. "I can't help it," I said. "You are my first daughter off to Hogwarts and your Mum is a little emotional, all right?"
Cora sighed, sounding to all as if she was the most beleaguered child on Earth. "Fine, on with it then."
I laughed, leaning down and smoothing the collar my daughter's periwinkle blue day robes. "Have you got everything?"
"Hermione, love, her answer won't change from the last three times you asked."
Turning, I grinned at my husband who had sidled up beside me to wrap his free arm around my waist. The years hadn't changed Sirius in many ways. The only nod to the passage of time was the threading of grey through the hair at his temples, but when I had pointed it out, he just laughed and said that it helped his colleagues feel as though they weren't dealing with a green boy. After seventeen years on the Wizengamot, my husband was regarded as the man to have support your legislation. With the Black Family backing, it was sure to pass. I knew the talk was that Sirius would be the next Minister when Kingsley retired, but my husband had never said anything to that effect. I think he liked being somewhat behind the scenes. I was aware that the thought of having the weight of the country on him frightened him a bit, but I knew it would be an easy job for him considering how well he balanced the weight of our family.
I smoothed one hand down the front of my husband's velvet robe, enjoying the feel of it against my palm. "Toujours Pur" might no longer be the Black family motto as we now went by "Toujours Fidèle," but my husband dressed the part of a Pureblood. Well, in public anyway. At home and on the weekends, Sirius could often be found in linen trousers and cotton shirts making Eggs Benedict in the kitchen as the house-elves tried to shoo him out.
"Why don't you go find a compartment," Sirius said to Cora, "and have your brothers help you put your trunk on the train?"
I smiled encouragingly at my daughter, watching her flag down her twin brothers and walk over to an open door with her trunk floating behind her. Once she was out of my eye-line, I sighed.
"What's wrong, Madam Ambassador?" my husband asked teasingly, kissing the side of my neck.
"She just has grown up so fast. I am not ready to lose her to Hogwarts just yet."
"Don't worry, Mum," my son Regulus said, pulling on my hand. "You still have me and Alastor and Amelia."
Looking down at my son, I smoothed back his unruly black curls and gazed into the eyes that were so much like his father's. "I only have you two more years, love. Then you will leave me too."
Regulus giggled. "Well, you'll have Al and Ami then."
"Oh, they'll grow up too," I said dramatically. "All my children leave me."
"I'll never leave you, Mummy," Alastor piped up from next to Sirius as he held his father's hand. "Who cares about smelly ol' Hogwarts anyway?"
I laughed at the expression on my five-year-old son's face. "That's the spirit," I said.
"All set, Mum!"
Sirius and I turned to see Cora returning with her sixteen-year-old twin brothers, James and Remus, coming behind her. James was holding onto my youngest Amelia, and quickly transferred her into my arms when he reached us. Amelia, only three, was sleeping like an angel and easily settled her head against my shoulder.
"There we go, back to Mum," James said as he passed her to me. "She's tired."
"Well, no wonder having Portkeyed in from France yesterday and with the chaos at Grimmauld last night and this morning," Remus said, his voice sounding concerned. I smiled at my second oldest son, who was deeply sensitive and clung to his family very closely. Although, one should not mistake his sensitivity for lacking the Marauder spirit. He had that in spades.
"What did you want to hold her for anyway, James?" I asked my eldest. He was usually too much in motion to hold onto his younger siblings, unless it was for a rowdy piggyback ride.
"Oh, Ami's great," James said, grinning a wicked smirk that I had seen on his father's face many times. "She helps us chat up birds…I mean…" James stopped speaking with a swift elbow to his side from his twin.
My mouth dropped open in shock, and I would have started scolding them, but Sirius started laughing his lovely bark-like laughter, and I found I could not hold on to my anger. Shaking my head at my eldest two, I said, "Yes, well, when you two manage to find your way away from chasing girls this term, be sure to watch out for Cora, yes?"
"Sure, Mum," James said nonchalantly. "We'll help the little Slytherin get adjusted."
Cora stuck out her tongue at her brother, ignoring the way he was laughing in glee. Ever since two months earlier when I had been describing the houses to Cora, she had decided she wanted to be in Slytherin. She wouldn't hear anything against it and said that she wanted to be "just as cunning as Aunt Andromeda, and change the notion of blood supremacy in the house from the inside."
Of all my children, I was sure that Cora would be Minister for Magic one day. She was just that brilliant.
"Yeah, no worries Mum," Remus said, ruffling Cora's hair. "I'll watch le petite cherie."
"This is so stupid," Regulus said, kicking his foot out from under his robe and scuffing his toe on the ground. "Why do you have to be eleven to go anyway?"
"Cheer up, Reggie," Sirius said, grinning at our younger son. "This just means that we won't have to share the Quidditch pitch with your older brothers. By this time in two years, you should be able to fly circles around these gits and make the House team as a first year."
"Oi!" James and Remus protested together.
Reggie grinned back at his father. As much as he adored the twins, and he spent most of the summer following them around, it was his father who could make him smile with just a few words. And Sirius, for his part, learned from the mistake he once made with the younger brother of the same name who had regarded him with such devotion. This Regulus was never in doubt of my husband's love.
"Yeah, Reg," Cora said. "And I'll write you about our lessons so you can be way ahead of the other first years when you start."
"I'm hungry!" Alastor announced, causing all of us to turn our heads and laugh.
"We'll go get something to eat soon, love," I murmured to him.
The whistle blew, giving a ten minute warning. "All right boys, Cora, give us hugs and get on the train."
The twins hugged me first, kissing me on the cheek and being careful not to jostle their sleeping sister. "Be good," I warned. "If I get any more letters from Headmistress McGonagall and Professor Longbottom…"
"You'll bring us straight home and we will regret what we've done," James and Remus chanted together with cheeky grins.
"We know, Mum," Remus said with a laugh.
I sighed. No one truly understood what it was like to be married to Marauder and raise two more. Well, three if Alastor turned out the way I suspected he would. At least Regulus was more like me. All the twins needed was for Teddy to drop by and chaos would ensue. Part of me was thankful Teddy was gone from Hogwarts now. Especially because I knew he hadn't given the Map to the twins.
Looking over at my husband, I smiled as I watched him hug and kiss our daughter. He was whispering in her ear, soothing away the worried look on her face. I knew Cora would be fine. If she had my brain, she had my husband's spirit. Nothing kept her down for long.
Cora hugged and kissed Alastor goodbye before coming over and doing the same to Reggie.
Cora then turned and hugged me, and I leaned over and kissed her forehead, combing back her black curls with my fingers. "Write me after you're sorted, darling."
"I will, Mum," Cora said, her lip trembling as she gave Amelia's leg a pat.
"Aw, cheer up ol' mum," James said, wrapping an arm around Cora's shoulders. "It's not too late to ask the hat for Gryffindor."
"Oh, stuff it, James," Cora said with a laugh, her previous concerns forgotten.
As I watched my children, happiness filling my heart along with nostalgia, I suddenly had the feeling of being watched. Turning my head, I looked for the source of the feeling and stopped when I saw a pair of shocked green eyes watching me from across the platform. "Sirius…" I whispered.
"What is it, love?" Sirius asked. He then looked in the same direction as me and his entire body stilled.
It was Harry, holding the hand of a little black haired boy with large brown eyes who looked to be about Cora's age. He seemed to be shocked to see us, and his eyes quickly roamed over the six children in our arms and standing by us, all of whom were near carbon copies of Sirius, all having his hair and skin tone, with only the girls resembling me in features and the twins having my eyes.
"Who is that, Mum?" Regulus asked, following his father's eyes.
"That's Harry, love. The one we told you about." My words had a startling effect on all of my kids, for they immediately looked over at the man who had once been my best friend. James especially seemed interested in the man whose father he had been named for.
Looking beyond Harry, I saw Ginny with another smaller boy who looked like Harry's clone, and a little girl who looked like Ginny, herself. Molly and Arthur were standing there as well, along with George and his wife Angelina and their two children. Next to George, though, were Ron and his wife Lavender. Lavender was holding the hand of a child much too young for Hogwarts, so I assumed that they were simply here to see Harry's oldest off.
It was odd to see the Weasleys after all this time. They hadn't changed much in looks, Molly still looked frazzled and harried, and Arthur had lost even more hair. George and Ron had matured and aged, but they simply looked like younger versions of their father. Ginny had widened, but much of that had been staved off by playing for the Harpies for all that time. (I felt a brief, if petty, satisfaction that I still retained my eighteen-year-old figure and unlined face, despite having been pregnant five times and having given birth to six children.) But Harry…he looked so handsome, having matured into the man I always knew he would be.
I knew that Sirius had seen Arthur, Ron, and Harry when he was at the Ministry, but he was curiously closed-lipped about it. I was quite sure that he never spoke to Ron and Harry at all, especially since Aurors and members of the Wizengamot would have little purpose for speaking. I myself hadn't seen them since we left England. Though we no longer lived in Lyon-we now lived in the Ambassador's Residence at the Embassy in Paris -we simply didn't come to England often. My path had simply never crossed with theirs.
The Weasleys looked displeased to see us, excepting George and Arthur, with Molly and Lavender actively glaring daggers in our direction. But Harry seemed to have a curious, yet awkward, look on his face and, clutching the hand of his son, he came towards us with his second son trailing after him. It probably only took him twenty seconds to reach us, but I felt as though my heart had stuttered and stopped a million times in between.
"Sirius? Hermione?" Harry looked genuinely surprised at the sight of our family, curiosity and shock warring on his face. "What are you doing here?"
Sirius seemed to be at a loss for words, so I simply said, "We are here to see our daughter off." I nodded in Cora's direction, and said, "Cora will be a first year, and our sons James and Remus will be starting their sixth."
James and Remus nodded hello at Harry, but seemed hesitant to approach him. Alastor had no such compunction. Tugging on Harry's robe, he chirped, "Hello!"
Harry looked down and grinned at my son. "Hello, what's your name?"
"I'm Alastor," my son said, still holding tight to Sirius's hand. "And that's my brother Regulus and my sister Amelia. I'm five."
Harry laughed at my youngest son's words. "Well, it's nice to meet you Alastor. This is my son James," he said, indicating the boy whose hand he was holding. I saw my own son James start slightly at that pronouncement. Harry continued, "And my youngest son Albus." The other little boy held shyly to the back of Harry's robes.
"So, er-" Harry stuttered awkwardly. "When did you two get married?"
I frowned at him. "Seventeen years ago. I sent you a letter all about it; it was also in the papers."
Harry embarrassed. "Yeah, I never really read your letters. It was too queer, you know?"
Sirius spoke then for the first time, looking at his godson with regret and sadness on his face. "Maybe for you, Harry."
Harry's face pinked a bit, but he said nothing.
I suddenly understood, quite simply, that no matter what happened, we couldn't go back to the way things were before Ron and Harry cast us out. And, for the first time in seventeen years, I was okay with that. We had all changed, all moved on into our separate lives. Harry no more had a place in our life than we did in his.
"So, er, what do you do Hermione? Are you at home with your kids?"
I shook my head. "No, Harry. I am the British Ambassador to France for the Ministry of Magic."
Harry's eyebrows shot up. "Wow, really? That's great, Hermione." He then turned to Sirius. "And you work on the Wizengamot, right? I've seen you in the Ministry a bit."
"Yes," Sirius said with a nod. "As well as tending to the Black Estates and businesses."
"I see," Harry said, smiling easily.
The whistle on the train blew again, and I turned to my children. After last minute hugs and kisses, James, Remus, and Cora ran for the train, hopping on and grinning madly from the doorway. Sirius slid an arm around me, and joined me in waving to our children.
I then noticed that Harry had gone back to his family, and was ushering his oldest onto the train. For a moment, I saw a different scene. Of Harry, standing with my family as our children went off to Hogwarts together, and Sirius throwing an arm over Harry's shoulders. But I blinked the image away, knowing it wasn't real.
"Do you ever regret…"
"No," Sirius said firmly, knowing exactly what I was going to say. "I don't regret one moment that has led to our life together."
Feeling the weight of my daughter in my arms, Regulus's solid presence in front of me, with Alastor clutching his father's hand, all the while Cora, James, and Remus laughing and waving goodbye, I smiled. Turning to the man I loved more than life itself, I whispered, "Neither do I."
His answering smile was the only thing I ever needed to see to know that I had made the right choice.
After the train departed, Sirius and I stood there for awhile, waving a friendly, yet distant, goodbye to Harry and his family when they left.
Sometimes, in the dark of night, I fear that all of this was a dream. I fear that I will wake and it will be the day of the final battle and Sirius never returned. I can't even imagine what my life would be like if that was the case. I like to think that I would have gone on, lived and survived, but I know no such thing. Simply put, Sirius is my other half. I can't endure a life without him, and I gave up the most important relationships of my life for our love. And yet, that is a price I would be willing to pay all over again in order to be with him.
Ours is a fairytale romance, yet it is in the everyday living in which our happiness lies.
"Come along, Mrs. Black," Sirius said lovingly, drawing me from my musings. "Let's go home."
With a smile to my husband, I held tight to my children as we left the station.
Once, I laughingly said to Sirius that I wished there was a star called Hermione, so that when we die I might join him in the sky. Sirius merely smiled at me and said that the Dog Star does not shine on its own. It is a part of something greater. Just as it belongs to Canis Major, he would always belong to me. So though people who turned their faces up towards the heavens might not see me, to his mind, I was always there, shinning right along beside him.
Eternally together, burning bright.
Fin.
Author's Notes: The new Black Family Motto "Toujours Fidèle", means Always Faithful. I thought that fitting for Sirius, who was always faithful to his friends and wife, and fitting for Hermione because she has always stayed true to the people she loves, even when they aren't always true to her.
Sirius and Hermione's children are named for people who perished in the First and Second Wizarding Wars. James, Remus, and Regulus are self-explanatory. Alastor is for Mad-Eye Moody, who Sirius seemed to respect a great deal, Amelia is for Amelia Bones who I think Hermione probably admired, and Cora is for Colin Creevey and Nymphadora Lupin.
Also, the reason the kids went to Hogwarts and not Beauxbatons is because their parents are British citizens, and both work for the British Magical Government. While Beauxbatons is closer to Paris-where the Blacks now live-Hogwarts would be an important experience for the kids in the minds of Sirius and Hermione, I think.