Chapter Text
Hermione’s first six years at Beauxbaton’s Academy were a breeze. She managed to get top marks in all her classes while still having a social life. Many people came to associate Hermione as the girl who was seen giggling among her roommates Katie, Angelica, Alicia, and Ginny. The group was famous for their scholarly pursuits as well as their undying loyalty as friends. Hermione was known for her curly, brown hair that sparked when she got angry, as well as for her overflowing love for protecting mistreated creatures. She was frequently sought out by many of her peers in order to help them with homework. During exam season, it would annoy Hermione to be distracted by questions, but she genuinely enjoyed helping her peers- she just wished they picked better times to bother her.
However, Hermione’s seventh year was not going anything like she had planned. Katie, Angelica, and Alicia had all graduated the year before, so her support system was next to nothing.
Ginny was still her friend, but they had never been as close as the rest of the group. Ginny had her own set of friends that she occasionally would hang out with, and when Ginny noticed the gaping hole the other three left, she started to spend more time with her other friends than Hermione.
In Ginny’s defense, she often invited Hermione to hang out with them, but they were not quite the people Hermione wanted to spend a great deal of time with. They were catty and self-important; they were nothing like the group Hermione had fallen in love with. She stayed away most of the time, but she was glad that Ginny hadn’t changed since being around them. So far.
It just wasn’t the same without the rest of the friend group though, and Hermione felt their absence in her bones.
Previously, the best thing about her experience at Beauxbaton’s was her friends secretly becoming animagi. Hermione made a joke one night about how neat it would be to have an animal form, but it was Alicia who encouraged them to all take it seriously. It took them months to finally be able to make the transition, and it was the best decision Hermione had ever made.
She became a fox; Alicia a miniature pig; Angelica a honey badger; Katie a cat; Ginny a horse. They frequently changed into their forms starting her fifth year to escape the stress of their exams. Exploration of the mountains around them became their favorite thing to do.
There were several spots they frequently traveled to on their weekends, and their ‘spot’ ended up becoming a waterfall where the water fell into a small pool at the bottom of the falls and turned into a small river. During the warmer months, the animagi could be found splashing around in the small pool. During the cooler months, they frequently huddled together for warmth just to watch the water cascade.
The rest of the group was unaware, but Hermione also went on solo adventures when she felt she couldn’t sleep. Her friends could be compared to ‘sleeping like the dead’ because while Hermione stayed up until all hours of the night, her friends were snoring in their beds.
It was at the end of her fifth year that she met a shaggy black dog in the woods just beyond the chateau. Their first meeting didn’t go well, what with Hermione swiping at him when the dog growled at her. However, it became obvious that the dog lived around their academy when she found him several nights after that.
They formed a tentative friendship at first. The dog would ignore the small fox that came near him. However, as time went by, they slowly started roaming the woods together. In all honesty, it was Hermione who pushed him to accept her; she followed him around until he just accepted her presence.
It was in her sixth year that she finally got the dog to like her enough to wait for her before he went on his run. He expected her most nights, she was sure. It became a regular meeting for them. She assumed he lived somewhere around the chateau.
Their outings started out as running through the forest as fast as they could, and as irritating as it was, he was so much faster than her. When they first started running, he would often leave her in his wake, to the point several nights he was so far gone she wasn’t able to catch up. Those nights, her ears drooped and she slowly made her way back home, knowing he had left her behind
He wasn’t necessarily her ‘friend’. He was an animal for Merlin’s sake, but it made her sad that he left her. Of course, he was just a dog, so she was sure he didn’t feel the need to keep up with a random fox.
After five nights of him leaving and her sadly tucking her tail and returning home, she didn’t meet him again. She roamed the other side of the castle where she knew he wouldn’t be. It was freeing though, to do what she wanted to do without anyone or anything else to making up the adventures. Many nights she chased small creatures through the woods, letting her fox take over.
It was two weeks later before the dog found her again.
She had been leisurely exploring an area around the local river. As embarrassing as it was, she had been collecting flowers to create a wildflower bouquet to bring home. She carefully pulled them out of the ground with her teeth and placed them in a pile. Quite unaware of any predators in the area, she had let her guard down. Suddenly, a heavy weight had dropped on her back. She had run as fast as her little legs could carry her. The last thing she wanted was to die because she was picking wildflowers.
She had gotten so close to the chateau when the weight dropped on her again- this time pinning her down. The human in her started to cry and the sounds that came out of her fox form were miserable. She and her fox were crying; she wasn’t sure if foxes could cry, but that night she found out hers could.
Immediately the weight lifted and she heard a whine behind her. She moved quickly from under the predator and scurried away. There was no chance in hell she was going to wait around for whatever attacked her to change its mind. However, when she heard another whine and pitiful bark behind her she slowed down enough to look behind her to see it was the dog.
She growled at him and slowly walked away knowing she was no longer in danger. It would be just like this dog to come out of nowhere and attack her after being an asshole.
The dog quickly ran back up to her and trotted along side her with his tongue hanging out- like he was fucking happy! What an asshole, Hermione thought to herself. First, he left her alone in the woods, then attacked her, and now he wanted to cheerfully walk beside her? Screw this dog.
When she was close to the castle, the dog gently grabbed her ear with his teeth to which she fought him off. She knew she was being sassy, but she couldn’t help it. She already had friends; she didn’t need a random dog to keep her company. But he kept trying and eventually after many attempts to play with her, she gave in. They played until she started to see the sun starting to rise. When the dog noticed, he licked her cheek and ran away.
From that night forward, she met him almost every night. He stopped leaving her during runs, but she made an effort to help him release the energy he seemed to hold by wrestling with him. He became her companion and as much as it pained her to say, she became friends with a dog.
Seventh year was also made more difficult, considering the fact that she was an apprentice to the hottest man she had ever seen. Her transfiguration professor was the wet dream of most of the females in their school, and Hermione could count herself as one of them.
He was different from the other professors. Many of their professors demanded respect and expected all the students to abide by strict guidelines. Professor Sirius Black was the complete opposite; he gained respect because he did not have guidelines. In his class, he expected the students would achieve and so they did; he didn’t demand respect because he earned it. He wore his shaggy black hair down most days with his robes over denims and button up shirt- completely different from any of the other professors. It amazed her most of the time that he was able to get away with such an ensemble, but his exam scores spoke for themselves. Students thrived under his tutelage.
Transfiguration was Hermione’s favorite subject, and it was the field she wanted to pursue her mastery in. When she was accepted as his apprentice at the end of her sixth year, she cried. Sirius Black was one of the most highly regarded transfiguration masters in the wizarding world.
Like most girls her age, she had frequently blushed when he spoke to her individually. However, going into her seventh year, she promised herself she would be nothing but professional. So far, two weeks in, she thought she had done a pretty good job. She refused to blush when he smiled at her or when he complimented her.
They had created an easy rapport between them, and if she was being honest, a friendship. He treated her like a normal person and not just a student, for which she appreciated now that all her friends were gone.
However, she did feel guilty the nights she would get in bed and touch herself thinking about the way their eyes seemed to linger on each other during office hours when she helped him grade papers. She would imagine that his touch was somewhere else other than her hand or shoulder. She would imagine him on top of her.
Frustrated because she could never get off with just thoughts, she would take to the woods to meet the dog she now considered one of her closest friends.
Sirius Black liked to consider himself a good man. He really did. Every day he made sure that he opened doors for ladies and complimented his fellow professors on their achievements. Every now and again, he even added points to a student's paper when he knew they were struggling. He was a good man.
However, his new obsession with a curly haired witch was what made him second guess himself.
She had always been his best student, and he had loved to hear her thoughts while she debated with him in class. Her spirit for education was unmatched.
It was when he, foolishly, made her his apprentice in her seventh year that he felt like he made the biggest mistake of his life.
Sirius had to frequently take time to release steam from his days in the class. This wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do with his life, but he got enough enjoyment out of it to make a career. It was the part of him that was Padfoot, the loose, free-spirit, that needed to release energy, so he took to the woods.
Two years ago he had met a little fox that he honestly didn’t care for at first, but before he knew it, the little thing had buried herself into his heart. Now, he enjoyed his nightly meetings with her. She was a little skittish and a bit temperamental; there was a point of time she avoided him for not joining her collecting wildflowers. It was almost humorous how similar this little fox was to a human.
His nights with her made the bad days better.
Sirius Black’s interest in Hermione Granger had reached a peak after a month of the little witch joining him every afternoon in his classroom. She had admitted to him that she was lonely since her friends moved away, and his classroom was where she felt most comfortable.
From that day on, he expected her. They grew closer, and soon the relationship he had with his apprentice became one more of friendship.
It was a dangerous line for him to blur, but he couldn’t help the connection they seemed to have. He brought her out of her stress, while she made him a little more focused. They had worked up a good balance between the two of them, but what surprised him the most is how easily he could talk to her about anything. She was bright enough to understand difficult topics, but she was easy-going enough to joke around with when they were both mentally spent from grading papers well into the afternoon.
She still debated with him during class, but it moved from something that amused him to something that aroused him. His secret shame was sometimes he had to hide behind the podium in case his cock became hard just seeing her flushed cheeks from her aggravation.
He was glad for the nights that he could run around with his little fox, Ember, because running was the only way he could get out his pent up frustration. After months of spending nights with her, he had finally given her the name of Ember because she reminded him of the last few sparks in a fire as it was burning out, just like she was the last of the light in the night.
She was always there by him during the nights, and even though they didn’t talk, she had a way of calming him down and helped him to forget, for a short time, that he was a fucking creep for starting to fall for a student.
His friendship with a fox confused his friends when he had told them about her during a weekend break. They joked with him that it was the only female friend he was able to make and it was only because she was an animal. His reputation from his days at Hogwarts had followed him, even to France. Granted, he did have a few dalliances when he first got here, but over the years, it seemed the infamous Sirius Black was not going to escape the reputation he earned.
He certainly wouldn’t escape it if anyone found out he had feelings for his student.
“Kitten, what’s wrong?” He asked her one day when he found her crying in a corridor. It seemed like she had been sitting in the same position for awhile, so gently, he led her to get up off the bench so they could walk around the grounds.
As they walked, she went on to speak on how lonely she was, and she thought it would get better the more time she spent without her friends. Her tears made his heart twist in his chest, and he pulled her into a hug. It took him a minute to realize that he needed to let her go; she was a student, and it might have been perceived as inappropriate if anybody caught how closely he had held her.
To get her mind off of her loneliness but to also empathize, he told her about his childhood and how he had come to Beauxbatons after graduating Hogwarts and getting his mastery in transfiguration.
The house he had grown up in was abusive, so when he was eight, his family member, Dorea Potter (nee Black), adopted him. Immediately upon becoming a ward of the Potters, he and his older brother, James, formed a tight relationship. Sirius was immediately taken with James’ friends, and they became his too. They had supported him all the way through Hogwarts and pushed him to get his mastery in transfiguration. When he was sent a letter requesting his abilities at Beauxbaton’s, it was his friends who pushed him to go. At first he had been hesitant because he hadn’t been away from his family or friends at all for 12 years but decided to take the leap. He had been extremely lonely the first year he had taught at the school, but soon found that he enjoyed having a place to become himself, away from his friends.
He told her that she had the same opportunity. He mentioned that he knew it was hard now, but it would get better soon. Her small smile told him it was the right thing to say.
He stopped them in front of the forest and wondered if he’d see Ember. Maybe she could help Hermione feel better; the fox was, when not being sassy with him, extremely sweet. The little thing collected wildflowers for fun, for Merlin’s sake.
“Looking at the forest always calms me down,” Hermione said with a far off look on her face. For the first time that afternoon, he saw a soft smile grace her face.
His first love was the forest, where he could be free, and the fact that she seemed to have the same respect for nature made him fall a little bit more for the witch.
He wanted to grab her hand and pull her in. Wanted to show her his favorite spots that he visited every night. Wanted her to meet Ember. Wanted to share the other life he lived. Wanted so much to take her to the waterfall and kiss her with only the sound of rushing water around them.
“I love the forest, especially this one. There are so many beautiful, hidden places,” he said after telling himself to calm down mentally from his spiral into fantasy.
“There are,” she smiled as she replied.
“Do you explore it very often?” He asked in confusion.
Her shoulders tensed, and she didn’t respond for a few seconds. “‘Explore’ wouldn’t be the word I would use, but I go into the forest every now and again.”
She probably took walks with her friends throughout the years. It was a known fact that the students got extremely bored on castle grounds, so he wouldn’t be surprised if she was one of the ones that went out with her friends. There weren’t predators in the woods surrounding the chateau, so it was safe for the students to take walks.
Sensing that she didn’t want to talk about the forest anymore, most likely because it reminded her of her friends, he asked her if she’d like to walk back to the castle.
The conversation turned to their favorite muggle bands (how? Sirius had no idea. That was just how their conversations happened), and Hermione was incredibly vocal about how much better Queen was than any other band. While Sirius agreed, he said that The Rolling Stones were much better. They agreed to disagree and the conversation turned towards their favorite novels.
When they reached the castle, Sirius asked, “Do you need more time? Don’t worry about coming tonight to grade papers. Take the night off.”
She shook her head, “No, I’m fine; I can still come. Thank you for getting my mind off everything though. It was just a hard day.”
Sirius was proud that he was able to support her, and he hoped that he could figure out a way to help ease the hurt she was feeling. Knowing the loneliness he felt being tucked away in the Pyrenees mountains when he first arrived, he hoped something could help her. Secretly, he hoped it would be him.