A Holiday for Memories

I don't own them, J.K. Rowling does, and Sirius Black is too amusing a character to be dead. So I'm pretending he isn't. That is all. NC-17 for sexual activity, het and slash. Go away if that's not your thing.


Remus surfaced from his work and realized the beeping on the other side of the study meant it was time to go fix lunch. He always set an alarm, otherwise he'd work right through. His stomach growled in agreement with the clock, having found that he wasn't somewhere in a cheiromantic text and might actually listen to it. He made sandwiches and grabbed some crisps and some pickles out of the icebox, and two beers, and took them out to the garden, the last place he'd seen their houseguest. It took him a moment to maneuver tray and door, and then he looked up and only the realization that it would be damn difficult to explain why he'd dropped it kept it in his hands.

When had Hermione....grown up?

Oh, intellectually, he knew it. And certainly he'd sniggered with Harry earlier that week about her blushing when she came downstairs late, with that I've‑spent‑all‑night‑shagging look about her. But...somehow knowing that she was reading maths and knowing she and Ron were sleeping together (when they weren't rowing like cat and dog) hadn't prepared him for what she looked like in a bikini, hair loose about her face, book fallen slack from her hand when she fell asleep in the warm summer sun.

His eye traveled appreciatively over the high, full curve of her breasts, the curve of her waist, her hips, her belly, and the long, lean lines of leg, gleaming faintly with sun potion in the light. As he'd explained to Harry once when he asked for romantic advice, it wasn't that Sirius and he didn't like girls...they did. It was just that they liked each other more. Somehow, when Harry had wanted to invite his friends to come and stay while he was on leave, he hadn't expected this. No one had been happy when the owl came calling Ron and Harry both back to duty, but they'd prevailed on Hermione to stay and finish out her holiday. She'd needed one...her doctoral studies in Mathematics and Arithmancy jointly had left her drawn and pale.

He gave a long sigh and set the tray down on the garden table, then crossed over to her blanket and shook her shoulder. She woke with a sleepy murmur and a soft smile. "That looks divine, thank you, Remus," she said, shaking her head and yawning.

"It's no trouble," he said. "I needed to get out of the house for a little while...what are you reading?"

"It's just a mystery novel," she said, dismissively. "I'd almost forgot how to read for pleasure."

He nodded, taking a bite of his ham sandwich. "It's always the same with any degree," he said. "How's that progressing, anyway?"

She made a face. "I'm not talking about that now. In a week I'll have to live it all day and all night again. This is my holiday, and I'm not spoiling it with talk of my thesis."

"Pax," he said, laughing, as she opened her beer. "All right, then, do you want to talk about what I'm working on?"

"Sure," she said. "It's not my thesis!"


After they finished eating, Remus decided that a lazy afternoon spent weeding would be a nice change. It was too pretty to stay indoors, and the garden needed it. Hermione rolled to her front and asked politely if he'd put the lotion on her back.

She had soft skin, he noticed, as he stroked the potion on and in, down the long muscles of her back. Impossibly soft...he was used to touching a man. And each curve of her body held its own small universe of subsidiary curves. His hands wanted to falter as they stroked over the curve of her hip, moved down past the fabric, and started on her right thigh. Curves meeting curves, and the smell of skin and sun potion and a hint of the sweetest curve of all.

He stroked the lotion down over the soles of her upturned feet, and stood, absently wiping his hands on the faded jeans he wore. She turned her head, and their eyes met a long moment before she said, "Thanks," and he said something inane about weeding.

You got laid last night, you'll get laid tonight, settle down! he told his body, and turned his attention firmly to deadheading the roses. Besides, she was seeing Ron. No one who'd been in the house that last week doubted that at all.


They soon fell into a routine. Hermione read in the sun, or, if it was raining, on the couch in the front room, anything that wasn't to do with maths. When she saw Remus doing something, she'd join him if there was room for two on the job. She had good quick hands, but he kept startling when he'd bump against the firm curve of her hip in the hall. She startled too, at his hands on hers to show her exactly how to manage that cleaning spell, or the twist to pulling bindweed that didn't leave root fragments in the ground. He felt her eyes on him, on his shoulders and his chest, on his hands, warm as the sun and as disturbing as a waxing moon.


* * *



Sirius heard an angry female voice when he came into the kitchen, but a quick glance around revealed Remus calmly chopping vegetables for dinner. Hermione was holding an argument with someone via the Floo network in the parlour, he saw when he glanced in there. He decided that he had things to do in the kitchen.

"What's it about?" he asked Remus.

Remus sighed. "What's it ever about?"

"Oh," said Sirius. "You need some help with that?"

"No... but I don't mind if you want to talk to me. How were classes?" Remus asked, deftly sweeping the vegetables into a pan.

As they talked, Sirius let part of his mind follow the conversation in the parlour. On again, off again. They would do fine if they'd both be a little more forgiving of the other's faults, he thought. But perhaps it was that they seemed to enjoy fighting. He'd seen relationships like that, where the fighting was foreplay. Didn't do a thing for him, though.

He heard her storm upstairs, and went in to make sure the connection was closed, and looked in on her. She had her book open, but had she been a cat her tail would still be lashing angrily. Best to let her simmer down on her own, he thought, and went down to help Remus get dinner on.


* * *
later that night
"You think she's cute, don't you, Moony?" said Sirius. He was grinning into the darkness. There was a breeze from the window, and it brought the scent of a night‑blooming coleus indoors, lush and heavy. It mingled well with the scents left from their earlier play.

"Mm, yes," Remus admitted. He shrugged, knowing Sirius could feel the motion.

Sirius smiled, but there was a tension in his arm where it lay draped over Remus. Something wrong, then.

"Problems, Paddy?"

"I hadn't realized that they ate those memories," Sirius said quietly, "until now."

Remus stroked his hair for comfort. Sirius had been quite the ladies' man in school, and Remus remembered kisses that tasted like the sea in his dorm bed after one of Sirius's dates. To lose it.... A dull wave of anger swept up at the past, and his shoving it away was automatic. He'd lost so much...

"You can always make new ones," he said softly. "Perhaps they're not gone, just filed somewhere else. Like how it felt to win at poker," he said, reminding him of the night before, when Sirius had bluffed with a pair of nines and his inimitable charm and won, mainly because Hermione had folded with a straight. There was a soft laugh from the man beside him.

"Perhaps....you don't mind?"

"Sirius, I was the one dating the Ravenclaw girl...Lydia, was it? yes.... I'm unlikely to mind. " His tone was soft but chiding. "We're us."

"Yes," Sirius said, and kissed him and Remus realized that maybe he really wasn't that sleepy yet, either.


In the midst of their play, more relaxed since they'd already both been satisfied, Sirius whispered, "Shh...listen...."

Remus hauled his attention back from what he'd been doing, and listened. There was a chirp of cricket, the drip of the tap in the bathroom...and a very female but muffled moan from the other side of the bedroom wall.

Their eyes met, and they grinned. If they were wrong.... But if they were right.... And Sirius slid from the bed, stopping just long enough to pull on the pajama pants he'd discarded, and padded softly out into the hall. He was well aware of the problem with the lock on the guest room door...namely, that it didn't, and tended to drift open about two inches. It had. She hadn't noticed.

She was lying curled on her side, hands between her thighs, and eyes shut while she touched herself. The nightgown she wore had drifted upward, exposing tanned, lean thighs, and he could see the line of her tan against her hip, a graceful curve down over what, near as he could tell, was one of the best female arses he'd seen in a long time. She moved her head against the sensation she felt, and moaned slightly. It was nearly silent, the habit of someone who has lived with others, but Sirius could smell...her. He closed his eyes. No. They hadn't taken all the memories. They returned, and Sirius stood there, caught between a sob and a smile, until Remus touched his shoulder, similarly dressed in the pyjama bottoms he had discarded earlier.

"All right?" he said.

"Yeah, remembering...."

Remus smiled in the moonlight. "I told you it'd be all right," he said softly.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "We can ask..."


Hermione heard the soft voices in the hall, and yanked her nightdress down, a wave of embarrassment swamping her arousal. She normally saved that particular relaxation for her own rooms...but she hadn't really been able to sleep after hearing her hosts through the wall, and the heat from her argument earlier that day hadn't entirely gone away over the course of the evening.

Remus....well, she'd liked him ever since he'd taught her classes when she was a teenager. She liked him more now, as an adult recognizing a like mind. And for all he was painfully scarred, the body beneath the scars was broad-shouldered and narrow hipped, with muscles that rippled most attractively when he was working shirtless in the garden. And Sirius....whoo. Blue eyes and dark hair and a figure that was still spare and lean...well, she didn't blame the girls in all his classes for developing crushes. The thought of the two of them together, complete with the noises through the wall...well...it was pretty damn hot, that was all.

And the thought of him....them...knowing you've been...? Her mind prompted, and when it considered it, skittered shyly away from that. Because there'd been quiet evidences that they didn't consider her just their godson's friend.... in the way Remus held his hands when teaching her all the little household spells anyone should know, in the way Sirius's eyes had challenged her when they played poker.

She sat up in bed, and heard the dead silence from the hall the instant her sheets rustled. There was a long moment, and then it was Remus who put his head inside. Ooh. Shirtless Remus. Yum, said her hormones. They very much liked the way the loose pants he wore rode low on his hips, loose enough that it wouldn't take much....

"I just...." Whatever excuse he'd concocted for looking in on her fell away when their eyes met. He dropped his eyes and blushed. The colour came up in her cheeks, and she gathered her courage.

"Do you come to me, or do I come to you?" she said, quietly.

"If you want, you come to us," said Sirius, who put a hand on Remus's shoulder and moved him far enough inside so that Sirius could stand in the doorway behind him. His eyes were dark in the moonlight, his hair loose on his shoulders. "We..."

"We'd like to make you happy, Hermione," said Remus. "Your decision, your speed..."

There was a pause, and before the rational side of Hermione had quite stopped gibbering about the very notion, she had stood up and picked up her wand. She murmured a contraceptive charm, then laid it down on the nightstand, walked over to Remus where he stood, and raised her hand to touch his face. His beard was quite soft...surprising, she thought. He closed his eyes, enjoying the touch, and Sirius smiled.

"I take it," he said, "that this is you coming to us."

"Yes," she said, and kissed Remus, gently, enjoying the feeling of his body up against hers. He was just a little taller, the way she liked a man, and they fit together quite nicely, a slow burn starting in her belly from the kiss.

Sirius exhaled long, and she felt Remus smile under her mouth. She raised her head to see fascination and awe in Sirius's eyes.

"That's so fucking sexy," he whispered.

Remus wrapped an arm around her waist, and deftly maneuvered them all out of her doorway. "Let's take this back in here," he whispered, and moved back toward the master bedroom.

It was a big bed, quite large enough for the three of them, and the moonlight gilded them in silver as they all paused. First step.

Sirius looked at her, and then very deliberately bent his head to her, kissing her. He kissed like fire, and Remus shifted behind her and began breathing soft kisses down her neck.

"If it's too much, too fast, say something, Hermione," Remus whispered in her ear, and Sirius pulled back, letting her speak.

"I...I've never done anything like this before," she said, looking up at him.

"Neither has Sirius," came Remus's voice on a breath in her ear. "But I have...so relax. This is all about you, right now."

She smiled. "I trust you both," she said, and stepped out of their arms again, one step closer to the bed. Her hands went to the buttons down the front of her summer nightdress, and they watched as she undid them. Both men's eyes had gone dark and focused, and Sirius put his arm around Remus as he watched.

"God, Remus, she's beautiful," he whispered. "I..." She slid the nightgown back off her shoulders, and sat down on the bed, sliding herself to the center. Her eyes locked with Sirius's, and Remus smiled, and pushed him gently towards her, until Sirius lay beside her and she rolled to her left to kiss him.

Beautiful, lovely, her curves against his angles...Remus had always loved to watch his lovers making love, see it from the outside, hoard it in his memory against the cold times. He slid to the bed behind Hermione, moved her braid out of the way, and kissed her neck, feeling her shiver, caught between him and Sirius.

Sirius's hands mapped her body, learning curves and softnesses, and he looked at her with wonder between kisses that sent them both boneless. God, she was lovely with her mouth swollen from his kisses, hair coming unbraided, and flushed...He drank her mouth again, feeling her moan, and then Remus rose up from behind her shoulder like the moon over the hills and smiled at him. And the wolf was in his smile.

A shift and a movement, and she was on her back. Sirius growled faintly at the interruption and kept kissing her, remembering what a woman's breasts felt like in his hands, watching her arch into his touch. And suddenly she shivered and cried out, grabbing on to him, whimpering. He extended a hand down her body, then his gaze, to find Remus lying comfortably between her legs, and exploring her with his mouth. Remus looked up, his eyes crinkled in a smile, and he bent back to his work. Hermione cried out wordlessly and reached for him, and he let her cling to him, exploring her jawline and neck, and breathing inspired, mindless words into her skin.

"He's so good, isn't he, beautiful Moony, god, you're fabulous, gorgeous, beautiful woman, oh, that's it, that's right, let go, let him do that...." He had forgotten how magical it was to watch a woman come.

When at length Remus rose and kissed him, he could taste her, salt and musk and saffron on his lips. She watched them through sleepy eyes, smiling.

"That's beautiful," she said, and Remus turned and smiled at her.

"Back among the living, are you?" he said with a little laugh, settling himself beside her to kiss her. She didn't flinch away from his mouth, and Sirius smiled, feeling his own arousal throbbing where he lay behind her. He was remembering, now, so much, and he smiled at Remus, while his hand drifted down and cupped her sweet arse, and his mouth tasted her neck and shoulders, faint wisps of silk‑soft hair touching him.. She pushed back against him, and he gasped suddenly. He really had come once tonight, he thought, grabbing desperately for control. He felt like a teenager. He didn't remember the sensation...quite. Remus caught his gaze, and turned to her. Oh, Sirius recognized this Remus, the one that came out and firmly and calmly took control and wouldn't release it until Sirius was a whimpering lump on the bed. He shivered in anticipation.

"Do you want him, Hermione?" Remus whispered to her, letting her recover from kisses that Sirius knew were like heroin...dizzying, addictive, a slow warm wave of pleasure.

She moaned, and turned her head back to kiss Sirius. Remus smiled, and turned her head back around.

"No, Hermione, you have to use words. Do you want him, my dear?" She breathed a moment more, closing her eyes as if she couldn't talk and see at the same time. "Yes. Yes, God, please, Sirius...."

The angle was a little different. But his body remembered, even if his mind didn't, and his mind shut down about the time she wrapped around his cock like a hot velvet glove, and she gave that throaty moan, with the little rising whine at the end that was straight out of memory, and it jarred him.

He moved against her, and she moved against him, and he bowed his head against her spine and wept. Oh, God, it was too much. Too, too much, and too many memories...

She disentangled herself, his soft, strangled weeping penetrating the haze of pleasure, and saw Remus quickly slide out of bed and around, pulling Sirius into his arms from behind, whispering into his ear. She rolled to face him, concerned, as Remus whispered soothing words into his lover's ear. "Ssh, shh, it's all right, see, it's not all gone, see, you know, and it's all right, I'm here, shh, Paddy, my Padfoot, love, shh...."

He was quieting, calming, and he opened his eyes and smiled at her reassuringly. "Sorry about that," he said, and she smiled.

"Past can grab you when you're not expecting it," she said, and kissed him briefly for reassurance. "I don't mind. Ron's...had his moments."

"I should have asked....."

"He doesn't own me," Hermione said. "And I don't own him. Until he pulls his head out of his arse, I want no part of him."

She moved, and felt Sirius against her. Part of him wasn't having flashbacks. She reached a hand down to fondle him, and he gasped, looking at her with surprise, and a laugh that she joined when she met his eyes with her own. "So...shall we continue where we left off, then?"

"Sounds good to me," he said with a grin, and it took only a shimmy of his hips and hers to put everything right back in line and...ooooh. She sank into his mouth as he slid into her body, and his hands began smooth little touches all over her. Hermione just closed her eyes and let the feel of his cock slide right up her spine. Slow little movements of hands and hips made it draw out, like honey, and suddenly he jerked, and said, in a thick voice, "Damn it, Moony, enough with the preliminaries, get on with it, if you're going to!"

Remus laughed. "Are you sure you can handle it?" he said, teasingly, and slid down behind Sirius, who slid partway out of her and paused, making her whine and wriggle towards him.

"I...Ohhh," he said, burying his face in her shoulder and breathing, just breathing. He wasn't moving, but she could feel Remus's hips working where her leg lay over Sirius's thigh. If anything, he grew an inch inside her as Remus fucked him, slow and steady. They were soon moving together, in an easy rhythm, and Sirius was clearly in heaven, caught between the two of them. He was kissing her with focused desperation, hands all over her body that even in this extremity of pleasure remembered how to touch a woman.

Long and slow and sweet and really, it would be nice about now if one of them would stop this slow tease and....Sirius lifted his mouth from her shoulder and said, in a hoarse growl, "Moony, damn it, fuck me now, please...."

Remus only chuckled, and Hermione had just enough brain left to appreciate the sheer devilment in that chuckle before he picked up the pace. She angled her pelvis just so, and let them take her to heaven. Sirius sank teeth into her shoulder when he came in long shuddering bursts, and she felt the all‑over shudder of pleasure from him as Remus came a few seconds later.

They disentangled, and Remus, after a moment, picked his wand up from his nightstand and murmured a cleansing charm over all of them, before the stickiness of sweat and other things became objectionable. "That was...." he began, warm eyes filled with amazement, and Sirius interrupted lazily.

"I believe the term is bloody brilliant, Moony," he said, eyes closed, and snuggling Hermione closer to him. She was enjoying the fact that he cuddled afterwards, unlike other lovers she had. In fact, she seemed to fit just under his chin, quite perfectly. There were still little ripples of rose‑gold pleasure rippling out from her skin. Snuggling, eyes closed, was about her speed at the moment. Very nice.

Sirius continued. "However, if you decide to dissect the experience right this minute, we'll throw you out of bed. So quit it."

Remus laughed, and stroked Hermione's arm where it lay over Sirius's hip. She wiggled a bit, raised her head, and gave him a brilliant smile.

"Tomorrow's soon enough, surely," she said, a yawn creeping out despite her best efforts.

"You're fine?"

She giggled, and felt Sirius smile against her. "Never better."

"Shut up, Remus," he said again, rolled over, gave his partner a lingering kiss, and watched with sleepy eyes as Remus leaned over him to kiss Hermione.

"Y'know, Remus," he said, as everyone settled down to sleep, "tomorrow we've got to put you in the middle."

Remus's soft laugh, like sunlight, washed over Hermione, and part of her mind thought about being in the middle. About the possibilities of two men...ohh.... And then it gave up, called for the check, and left in a huff while the rest giggled quietly to itself as she slid into sleep. The rest of her holiday would definitely keep her too busy to think about her thesis, that was for sure.




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