“Please?”

“Hermione, it’s the middle of the night!”

“But Romeo and Juliet is so romantic Sirius!”

“SIRIUS!”

“Fine, fine, I’ll meet you on the terrace”

“Sirius!” “You’re not supposed to tell me that! It’s foreshadowing!”

-- Sirius Orion Black and Hermione Jean Granger--

1. Even though she is a Gryffindor, she doesn’t have enough courage to address Professor Lupin by his first name, (even if he has told her numerous times to do so); Yet Sirius has always been, Sirius for her.

2. Sometimes when they are spraying the doxies hiding behind the curtains, or prying open the many abandoned trunks in Grimmauld Place, their hands bump into each other.

And Sirius gives her that smile that makes her cheeks burn and her insides feel warm and snug, (even if a thunderstorm is raging outside.)

3. Molly compliments him on the black robes he is wearing for the Order meeting, saying they bring out the grays in his eyes. Sirius pretends to look offended, saying that his eyes aren’t that dull and boring.

Hermione cannot help herself and interrupts, turning towards him:

“Your eyes aren’t really that dull of a gray, Sirius, I mean I always considered them to be rather smoky with a hint of pale green, you know? And when you smile slightly with the corners of your lips, they have that special gleam, and they get so-”

She realizes that she’s said too much and blushes, and it hits Sirius that he has fallen in love with her.

4. She finds him in the sitting room of Grimmauld Place, dancing with his arms around an imaginary partner, singing along with one of Celestina Warbeck’s songs.

And she realizes that she is in love with this man.

5. It had happened the night before she left the Order Headquarters. As usual, he had been yelling at Kreacher for stealing back yet another Black family “treasure” after he had disposed of it, and Hermione was shouting at him for treating the house elf as if it had no feelings comparable to that of human beings.

She had paused for breath, her cheeks scarlet with indignation, when he sauntered towards her and kissed her with such passion that he lifted her off her feet.

6. He’s never really liked the library at Grimmauld Place, but when she is away, he often retreats there as his secret sanctuary.

Sometimes, if he inhales deeply, he can catch a waft of the ink that often smears her lips when she has been up too long to finish an Ancient Runes essay.

7. Marlene had made him laugh, Lily had made him smile, Dorcas had made him blush…

…And Hermione made him forget.

8. On Harry’s seventeenth birthday party, she sheepishly reveals to him that she has never tasted firewhiskey. He clutches her hand and takes her into the kitchen and takes out an old bottle from under the sink. He takes a large swig from the bottle and presses his open mouth against hers gleefully, and she gulps down the liquid as if it’s the air she breaths.

9. She knew it was silly, but she still wept on their wedding night as she saw the lines and furrows on his sleeping face which had once been overwhelmingly beautiful.

In the morning, he finds the pillowcase beneath her cheek wet.

He doesn’t ask any questions.

10. And though she’s at least six months pregnant, Sirius still flies up to their terrace on his motorbike, in the middle of the night, and carries her away in his arms, while wondering why this was the night she had the craving to reenact romantic scenes from Romeo and Juliet.