            He studied her face, eyes sweeping over her cheeks, her lips, her neck. "I’m afraid of hurting you. Breaking this...this trust you seem to have in me. One I didn’t earn. Merlin, Hermione, you were just on the edge of my life before I died. Now you’re at the center. And now this," he said, gesturing between them, "this bond. It will hurt you, in the end. I don’t see a way around it." Sirius rose. Even with his back to her, she could see the tension carved into his shoulders.