To Be With You

A/N: JKR owns all. Thank you all so much for the reviews and follows! I appreciate them and they help to feed the Muse. Enjoy!

Chapter 11

Hermione Apparated back to Grimmauld Place, a smile on her face. After talking to Perkins, the two of them had decided she would take up an independent project on time turners. She had used one before, in her third year, but that was only in small doses. She was curious to see as to what would happen if someone were to travel father into the past… maybe ten, twenty, or even fifty years to the past. Was it even possible? There would be no way to ever find out seeing as aMinerva would never allow her to use the secret time turner, but she could do research and develop a hypothesis.

Walking into the kitchen, a high pitch giggle captured her attention. She smiled, wondering what the two of them were doing.

Hermione moved into the living room, where a shriek escaped her lips. "Sirius! Put my child down!"

Sirius quickly snatched Eridanus off the little broom he had been swarming around on.

"Are you insane?" she asked, tearing Eridanus from his arms. She began to look him over, checking for any bumps or bruises.

"Relax, Hermione, Eri was perfectly fine," Sirius said, standing up from the floor.

"Fine? He was not fine! He could have fallen!"

Sirius chuckled. "Calm down."

She shook her head, having worked herself up into a frenzy. "Sirius, that's not safe. He's only one."

"Listen, I bought Harry one when he was little too. The brooms are perfectly safe. I attached him with a sticking charm and there was a cushioning charm on the floor too. And I was right there; I wouldn't have let him fall."

Hermione's heart continued to race as she peppered Eridanus' face with little kisses.

"Sweetheart, you know I wouldn't have put Eridanus into danger, don't you?" he pressed.

Hermione was quiet, ignoring Sirius and focusing on her baby.

"Honestly? You don't trust me, Hermione?" he asked, disbelief and hurt in his voice.

Hermione sighed, placing Eridanus onto the floor. "I do trust you, Sirius, but you're so…" she trailed off, not sure what he was.

"Irresponsible?"

"No! That's not what I was going to say," she countered.

"But it's what you were thinking," Sirius retorted hotly.

"No, you just have such a fun personality, Sirius, I was worried that you'd forget that Eri is still a baby," she said gently. Taking a deep breath, she looked into his grey eyes. "I'm sorry."

He pulled her into his arms. "I'm just hurt that you think I would endanger our baby this way. Hermione, Eridanus is my whole life. I wouldn't put him in danger."

"I know," she whispered against his chest. "It's just hard for me. I've been doing this alone for so long and I don't really trust anyone else with him. He's my world." She sighed, pressing a kiss to his collarbone. "But I have you now, and I know you'll keep him safe. I just have to remind myself that. It's just when I walked in, I panicked. I should have known better, though."

"You'll trust me more in time." Leaning down, he gently kissed her. "Now, how did things go at the Ministry?"

Hermione pulled back, smiling. "Perkins was happy to allow me to start a new project. I'm going to write a hypothesis on time turners and time traveling. There's no way to prove my hypothesis legally, but I thought it'd be interesting to publish something."

"Harry mentioned you had destroyed the time turners at the Ministry Battle?"

Pain flashed across her eyes as he mentioned the day she had lost him, but she nodded. "I don't remember who destroyed them exactly, but yes, there's none in existence. Except for the secret one, but we won't mention that ever again. It's too big of a secret."

"Well, I'm happy for you."

She smiled up at him, kissing him. Sirius tightened his grip around her, deepening their kiss.

"Mummy," Eridanus tugged on her clothes.

The two of them broke apart, each of them panting. "Wow," she whispering, looking up at him.

Sirius crookedly smiled at her. "What?"

"Will it always be like? So... so… breathtaking?"

He laughed, the rich sound sending chills down her spine. "I like to think so," he answered, giving her one last kiss.

Bending down, Sirius scooped Eridanus up into his arms. "So, little buddy, ready to see Grandma and Grandpa?"

Eridanus scrunched up his face, causing Sirius to laugh once more.

"Come on, let's get you washed up and fed before we go." Hermione took Eridanus from Sirius, carrying him up the stairs.

"I'll Floo Minerva and tell her we're declining her offer," Sirius said, moving towards the fireplace.

"Okay," she replied.

Sirius climbed the stairs, his conversation with Minerva playing over in his mind. She hadn't seemed too surprised when he told her they were declining. He had to guess that Dumbledore's portrait had put his two cents into their situation and made a hypothetical guess.

He had told Harry that he would accept the Auror job. He was nervous about getting back in the field, but was slightly excited as well. It would definitely bring back memories of his time with James and Sirius knew that would be a painful experience for him. But he had Harry now and it was the time to make new memories.

Walking into the room, he saw Hermione feeding Eridanus with a bottle. "Not breastfeeding?" he asked, coming over.

She shook her head, frowning. "I should have stopped months ago, but I just couldn't let my baby go. But after seeing him have such fun on the broom, I realized that he is growing up and I should be weaning him. He's taken to the bottle just fine."

Sirius nodded. He didn't know much about babies and their habits, so he decided to leave it to Hermione to decide.

"I'm nervous about seeing your parents," he admitted.

Hermione grinned. "There's no need to be, Sirius. They know that I loved you very much and that you loved me. They'll be happy to see you and even happier that we've decided to get married."

"Do you know when you want to get married?" he asked, taking Eridanus from her arms so he could burp him.

She shrugged. "Soon, I guess. I mean, I really don't see any reason for us to wait. Do you?"

"Nope, the sooner the better in my opinion," Sirius said, grinning.

"We haven't really talked about what we want in the relationship or marriage," Hermione whispered, her face flushed.

He thought the blush on her cheeks looked adorable, but pushed that thought from her mind. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well…um, do you want more kids?" she asked, peering up at him, her brown eyes wide.

Sirius found his throat suddenly dry. He hadn't thought of that before, but the image of Hermione swollen with his child popped into his mind. He'd love to experience that with her. Slowly, he nodded.

"Okay, good, me too," she whispered.

Sirius smiled, and then froze. "Is there a particular reason you're asking?"

"Well, Sirius, we've been having a lot of sex recently and haven't been using any protection. I was breastfeeding so that may prevent it, but I could already been pregnant and not even know it."

His eyes lit up.

"Sirius, don't go getting idea. I was just saying."

"Well, let's just see what happens." He gave her a kiss. "Honestly, the idea of kids is great, and they would be space apart pretty well."

Hermione laughed. "Why don't we just focus on getting married first?"

"Yes. Then we'll be a proper family," he said, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.