For both Harry and Hermione, the overwhelming emotion associated with Ron's departure was betrayal. Weren't they supposed to be friends, no matter how bleak the outlook for the future might be? The first days without Ron, Harry and Hermione barely spoke to each other. Occasionally there were a few tears from Hermione and a burst of outrage from Harry, but they avoided each other's gaze as not to have to bring up Ron. It was almost as if he had become another 'he who shall not be named'. They went to the motions, eat, sleep, sulk, repeat.
After several stays at spots that had proven too close to Muggles for comfort, Harry and Hermione camped deep in a wooded, hilly area. Pine trees, snow, a clear blue sky. It would have been beautiful if it wasn't for the biting cold and the locket slowly sapping away their physical and mental energy. One night Harry was lying in his bed and trying to get some sleep, when he heard Hermione quietly sobbing and found it too hard to bear. Without saying anything, he went over to her bed, sat beside it and held her hand. Slowly Hermione's sobbing subsided and she whispered: "Thank you Harry". Harry only smiled. While his breath was still making little puffs of vapor in the air, Harry got up, ruffled Hermione's thick curls and lightly kissed her on her forehead. Before he had a chance to get into his own bed again, Hermione called his name: "Harry?" "Yes, Hermione?" "Would you mind lying here with me?" Harry didn't waste time on asking stupid questions. She was his best friend and she was cold, unhappy and alone. He slipped between the sheets and held her, and tried to rub some warmth into her hands. She nestled her flannel clad self against him and murmured "hmmm nice", before quickly falling fast asleep.
The next morning Harry found himself spooning Hermione and was slowly coming to the realization that waking up like this was indeed pretty nice, until Hermione wiggled her buttocks against his morning erection and spoke the immortal words: "Hmm, Harry, is that a wand in your pyamas, or are you just happy to see me?" "Hermione!" Harry uttered in shock. He quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and ran out of the tent, into the cold. Hermione silently thought a swearword, and swung her legs out of bed too. She quickly got dressed, walked over to the entrance of the tent, swung the tent flap open and found Harry furiously chopping firewood. She shouted at him: "Come back in you idiot, I was only making a joke!" Harry grunted something incomprehensible and swung again at an unlucky piece of firewood. "Ahh, come on, it's not like I I'm not aware of morning wood!" Hermione shouted. Harry threw the split log onto the pile and looked Hermione squarely in the eye: "Did I just hear you say morning wood?" "I am not sure if I should die with laughter now, or hide in embarrassment" "And for that matter, why aren't YOU embarrassed?!" Hermione sighed, although she was not exactly sure why she genuinely did not feel embarrassed at all. "Harry, we are refugees who fear for our lives every single day, we don't have a clue how to stop our enemy and our best friend has just abandoned us. Why should I possibly care that you have to pee in the morning?" "Point taken", said Harry, slightly relaxing. "Just be happy that girls don't experience this kind of thing". "Girls have other body issues Harry", said Hermione "Be glad you don't have to experience those". After this remark, Harry wisely decided to shut up.
Later in the day Harry and Hermione decided to stretch their legs a little and take a walk to a nearby hilltop. The sky was a dazzlingly bright blue, and the sun actually managed to warm them a little when the clambered up the shallow slope. With Hermione slightly ahead of him, Harry had the opportunity to contemplate her svelte figure, and the way her buttocks moved when climbing up the hill. Of course he had noted that Hermione had matured, but after all, they all had. Nevertheless, his mind flashed back to the embarrassing events of that morning and he felt a confusing pang of both guilt and, he slowly turned the word over in his head, lust. He always had been dimly aware that Hermione was besides bookish, bossy and smart, also quite attractive... but lusting after her? "Harry Potter, you have become awfully quiet!" Hermione's voice suddenly cut through his daydreaming: "Penny for your thoughts?" Harry couldn't help himself and blushed fiercely. Hermione looked at him with a serious expression from under her woolen bobble hat, hands on her hips: "You were looking at my bum, weren't you?" "Sod this", Harry thought, and answered, truthfully: "Well, it IS quite a cute bum you know!" Now it was Hermione's turn to blush, somewhat to Harry's delight. "Ahh, so you DO still get embarrassed!" he said gleefully. Hermione made a "hmprf" sound and said: "And it took you all this time to figure that out, that my bum is cute?" "Of course not Hermione", Harry said, "But you are you know, a friend, almost like a sis...comrade in arms" "You were going to say sister weren't you?", Hermione responded with more disdain than Harry thought fair under the circumstances, so he said slightly annoyed: "Yes, but I wouldn't look at my sister's bum like that!" "You know, I am not quite sure I like your new found obsession with my bum!", Hermione sniffed, but after having seeing Harry's hurt expression, she quickly realized they were moving headlong into a needless argument. "Sorry", she said. "I guess there is no law against guys looking at my bum." Harry looked at her, a lot more shyly now: "I think it is the locket's influence" "not the appreciation part," he added hastily, "but the part that we almost started fighting over it." Hermione, who was wearing the locket, smiled, took a step forward and hugged him tightly. "You definitely are learning how to express yourself better Potter!" Potter. Like she was Severus bloody Snape. But he was relieved that the tension between them had at least temporarily gone. Together they hiked further up the hill and when they finally reached the top they saw not only a small lake that would have been a lovely place to hang out in summer, but also a wooden shack close to the forest's edge on the other side of the hill. Harry's heart plummeted when he realized that they were not as far from civilization as they had anticipated, but soon realized that there were zero signs of human occupation anywhere. He looked at Hermione and asked her: "Should we check it out?" "Probably." Harry carefully scanned the surrounding area, but he shouldn't have bothered. The shack was obviously boarded up for the winter and the front door was locked by a sturdy looking padlock. Hermione casually grabbed her wand, and one Alohomora later they were inside. "Lumos" Harry said and the tip of his wand cast a light that reflected of the inside of the shack. Two primitive looking wooden bunks, a table and some chairs, but also several large boxes that after a brief inspection were shown to contain fishing tackle, outdoor gear and even a pair of hunting rifles. Hermione in the meantime found a huge stash of canned goods, including several boxes full of military style instant meals. The best find though was a gas powered heater, including several large gas cylinders. "Finally a bit of damn luck", Harry said. And indeed it was. He and Hermione quickly decided to move Perkins' tent into the clearing behind the shack, to save them the effort of hauling supplies over the hill. Nevertheless, it was starting to get dark again when Hermione finally had cast all her usual spells to avoid detection and they were both pretty knackered from a long, intense day.
That evening, they managed to get some heat out of the tent's small stove, and together with heat from the gas powered heater, they were warm and snug for the first time in weeks. They warmed up some of the meals, and despite the fact that it wasn't exactly haute cuisine; the "Boeuf Stroganoff" filled their bellies and gave them back some much needed energy. Afterwards they managed to brew some tea as well, and even added a shot of the bottle of whiskey they had found on one of the shelves in the shack. Despite the awkwardness earlier that day, Harry and Hermione managed to slip into their pyamas and snuggled together on one of the couches. Hermione took off Slytherin's locket and wordlessly handed the artifact over to Harry. He hung it around his neck and immediately felt a dark shadow falling over this really rather nice evening, so Harry took it off again and decidedly put it on the stand next to the couch. "Not tonight", he said. Fiddling with the radio he found a gentle tune, and before Hermione could say anything, he took her hand and started to dance wordlessly with her through the tent. This brought a smile to her lips and Harry smiled with joy as well… until they tripped over the edge of a carpet and fell headlong onto the couch. Hermione giggled when she saw Harry's disheveled expression and give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "What was that for?"" Harry asked. "Just for making me feel a little bit better." Harry smiled and said: "I know something else that will make you feel better". He went to a corner of the tent and dragged out, with considerable difficulty, a very large wooden tub. "Watch this," he said. He pointed his wand and said: "Aguamenti!" and immediately water started spouting from his wand. Hermione understood immediately what he was trying to do and helped him with a "Aguamenti!" of her own. When the tub was three quarters full, Harry took careful aim again and cast a Flagration spell on the water, immediately heating it up so that it steamed. "You have a lot of nerve, Harry Potter, to use that spell inside a tent!" Hermione said, slightly shocked. "It worked, didn't it?" Harry grinned. Before Hermione could start to argue he proceeded with hanging up a curtain so Hermione had a bit of privacy to perform her ablutions. When Hermione was bathing, and Harry was managing some tea, Harry realized there had been no banter between them on not peeping, or about respecting privacy. He just assumed she would not be comfortable getting naked in front of him, like he himself would have been. Putting up a curtain was just the right thing to do. But his thoughts were interrupted by a bubbling sound and a half-swearing, half-coughing Hermione, followed by a cascade of bubbles flowing into the tent. His misgivings about him seeing Hermione naked temporarily forgotten, he rushed towards the curtain, threw it aside and was confronted with a vaguely Hermione sized cloud of bubbles, which was uttering words normally not associated with generally well behaved bookish girls. "Damn spell went wrong!" "What is a hot bath without bubbles anyway!" the Hermione cloud protested. Harry couldn't help himself and got into a fit of hysterical laughter, which he couldn't stop even after Hermione's annoyed glance became visible through the foam. "I wanted to ask if you were decent, he giggled, "but I really shouldn't have bothered!" "Fuck you, Harry Potter; I'm the one with bubbles in every orifice!" "Everyone? Your farts will smell so nice then!" Harry sniggered. "Oh, come on, you start to sound like Fred & George! Better hand me a towel". Harry threw her one and made sure he got out of her sight, but not without idly wondering what was under the generous cloud of foam surrounding her.
Apparently Hermione managed to get the bath under control and seemed to be content to relax for a while, until Harry could hear her getting out and getting dressed. She soon appeared in a fluffy white bathrobe, with a towel around her hair. "You were right Harry," she said, "that was really, really nice". She walked over to the couch where was pretending to make sense of some magical text, leaned over and gave him a short peck on the cheek. "Thanks". While she was doing that, Harry couldn't help noticing that the bathrobe she was wearing fell open a bit at the top, allowing him to catch a glimpse of two perfect small white globes. "No bra! Boobs!" some neglected part of his consciousness yelled at him, and he had to swallow quite hard to get that thought out of his head. Hermione did not seem to notice though. In the end they ended up on the couch together, with books, tea and a blanket. As so often happens, they got comfortably, but a bit awkwardly, close to each other again. "You miss him too, don't you?" said Hermione. Harry turned this question over in his head and eventually said: "You know what, I do, but I certainly don't miss the tension, and the feeling I have to walk on tiptoe as not to offend or annoy anyone." Hermione said nothing, because there was nothing she could add to that. She felt better and safer than she felt in a long time, and the war seemed almost surreal now. Growing up in a magical school, with magical creatures and adrenaline filled adventures? Being hunted down as fugitives in a war? And here she was, snuggling on a couch, with her best male friend, feeling rosy from a nice hot bath, sipping tea. It just did not make any sense. She laid her head on Harry shoulder and was content in just letting things be for a while.
Harry, without realizing it, had similar feelings to Hermione. He felt safe and warm, and the harsh reality of the war, and Ron leaving, felt really far away. He shifted position and put his arms around Hermione, unwittingly touching her boobs through the fabric of her bathrobe. "Sorry," he murmured. Then a silence of maybe a second, which in both their memories would become at least a century, before Hermione responded: "You can touch them if you want." Harry again did not waste time on silly questions like: "Really?" or: "What do you mean?" but gently laid his hands on Hermione's flannel clad chest. "They are nice," he said, "firm". "Doesn't Ginny have bigger ones?" Hermione asked. She silently cursed herself for bringing up Ginny, but simply had to ask the question. "I think so, a bit," Harry said, and felt equally uncomfortable, because it was the same as admitting that he actually did feel Ginny's boobs during their make-out sessions at Hogwarts. "But boob size is not important, I feel much closer to you than I ever felt to Ginny" "I feel much closer to you than I ever felt to Ron," Hermione whispered. There, it had been said. Harry continued to rub Hermione gently through the fabric of her robe and was aware that he got pretty excited, especially when he felt Hermione's nipples harden. Without saying anything she grasped his wrists, put his hands aside and opened her robe. Harry swallowed, because she was quite evidently naked underneath it, and he could not only see her boobs, but a little triangle of pubic hair as well. He almost, but not quite, forgot to touch Hermione's breasts again. He licked his fingers and started caressing her nipples. "Careful…" Hermione whispered and Harry of course took this advice to heart. He gently rubbed her breasts and belly until he moved himself alongside Hermione, so he could look at her directly. He looked at her pale body and flushed face and she looked back at him. He gently kissed her with one hand on a perky breast and she kissed back, exploring his lips and tongue. Harry leaned back and sighed deeply: "Phew, this is really hot". "Really, really hot" Hermione agreed and looked down, which might or might not have been on purpose. Harry looked at her and asked: "Is it ok to touch you there?" Hermione had to swallow before she finally managed to say: "Yes…" Harry started by gently moving a finger over Hermione's outer lips, slightly parting them, so he could feel her wetness, and ending with the lightest touch of her clit. Hermione drew in breath through her teeth and moved her hips so that Harry had better access. He started to gently rub her, moistening his fingertips with the slick fluid coming out of her. "Please don't say that I'm wet, please don't say it" Hermione thought, without realizing how boys really appreciate that. And indeed, almost on cue Harry whispered: "You are really wet." Hermione put her hands in front of her face out of embarrassment, but realized quickly that there really was no point. Despite this, she said, slightly sharper than she intended: "Yes Harry, that is what happens to girls when they get excited!" "I know" he said "but nevertheless, how girls work remains a bit of a mystery to us boys, it is always nice to see that everything works as advertised" and, at a slightly quicker pitch: "You are beautiful and sexy and its unbelievably hot to feel how wet you are down there." To add more emphasis to this statement he put the tips of his index and middle finger between her lips again and rubbed her clit with gentle, but firm strokes, while alternately sucking on her nipples and kissing her. Hermione closed her eyes and after a few short minutes she had a fierce, but quiet orgasm. With the contractions slowly ebbing away, she opened her eyes and saw Harry smiling at her, with a softness so far unknown to her. "Ohhh, I didn't realize I needed to get off so badly" she sighed. She sat up and gave Harry a wet thank you kiss. "I didn't realize you could come so quickly" Harry said in turn. "Well, if someone knows what he is doing, that definitely helps! Women having trouble orgasming usually think they have to get one by having intercourse" Hermione said. "And, you by virtue of your book reading, knows this is not true" Harry grinned. "Well yes, but also because I masturbated since I was twelve" Hermione said matter of factly, provoking stunned silence from Harry. "Oh come on Harry, I always thought that teenage boys wanked themselves silly!" "Yes sure, but in case you didn't notice, it is not a thing girls discuss very much" Harry said defensively. "Maybe not when boys are around, and maybe not in as many words, but I don't know a single girl that doesn't do it" Hermione said smugly. "That's so hot" Harry thought, absentmindedly rubbing his rock hard self through his pyamas. Hermione obviously noticed this and said: "Well, if you consider washing yourself, we might see what we can do about your little problem." Harry wordlessly stood up and disappeared behind the curtain. A few quick splashes later he returned, wearing only his boxers, with a very obvious bulge in them, which Hermione looked at with interest. He walked towards the couch, but before he could sit down, Hermione sat up and touched the bulge in his boxers. "I've never seen one up close before" she said. She proceeded with pulling down Harry's boxers, exposing his manhood to the world, or at least to Hermione. She grabbed his penis with one hand, getting a feel for how long and hard he was. Slowly she pulled back his foreskin upon which Harry showed her to moisten things with saliva, to reduce friction. "Do boys always do that?" Hermione asked. "Honestly, I don't know, but things work better when they are, errr, lubricated" Harry answered awkwardly. "Like this you mean?" Hermione said, and put her lips around Harry's exposed glans. Harry's eyes widened in shock and excitement, especially when Hermione used her tongue to thoroughly wet him. She tested her work a few times by moving his foreskin fore and aft and seemed to be pleased with the result. "Ok, what happens now?" she said looking up at Harry's still dazed expression. "Shall I wank you, or do you want to do it yourself?" Because Harry still seemed too awestruck to even talk, she gently pulled him on the couch. While he was sitting there, she stood up, and moved herself onto his lap, facing him. Harry's penis felt very hot against her belly and she pushed herself against him. They kissed and Harry was amazed how nice her smooth skin felt against him and how flushed and excited she was. He could not help noticing, but scarcely believe how wet she again had become. He looked into Hermione's beautiful brown eyes and said: "We are going to do it, aren't we?" "Yes…" she whispered and raised herself a little to position Harry's penis correctly. She slowly lowered herself unto him, preparing for pain, but there really wasn't any. He easily slid all the way into her, until she was resting on his lap again. "I am inside of you" Harry said, awe in his voice. They kissed again and held on tight when they awkwardly made love. Awkward or not, the sensation of Hermione so close and fitting so tight, hot and wet around him quickly became too much for Harry. Pushing his head against her shoulder he groaned and came deep inside her. When his eyes found Hermione again, he was startled to see her cry. "Hermione! Did I hurt you?" he said, startled. "No, no, it's all so wonderful, so intense" she sniffed. "Look at me, I act like a soppy girl!" Harry said nothing but just held her tight. He slowly kissed, her shoulders and the tops of her breasts and finally said: "I never figured fucking would made you so emotional, no, not just you, but me as well, or probably anyone who does it. Why don't they tell you about that in sex-ed class?" Although she though he had a good point there, Hermione suddenly realized that if she wanted to get up, Harry's semen would in all probability leak out of her. But what was a girl to do? She slowly got up, and indeed, the evidence of their lovemaking seeped out of her audibly. "Oh fuck, this is SO GROSS! Sorry Harry!" Hermione said while quickly running to the tub to clean herself a bit, then running back to Harry with a towel to clean him up. In a flash he grabbed her wrists, surprising her how quick and how strong he was. "Take it easy Hermione, I am pretty sure this is a normal thing" he said. "That as may be, but it is a GROSS normal thing!" she said. Harry shrugged: "It's only my sperm, I don't see what the problem is. Had it on me hundreds of times" Hermione, despite herself, had to laugh and said: "Wanker." "Why milady, I love you too" Harry tried to say with a posh accent. "I love you too" Hermione whispered.
*BANG!* A loud crack ripped through the tent and made Hermione shriek with surprise and fear. Harry and Hermione managed to grasp their wands, but when no death eaters came running into the tent, they managed to consider what actually happened. It soon became clear that Slytherin's locket had caused the loud sound. It had split clean in two and was blackened as if it had been in a house fire. Harry picked up the pieces and as surprised how light they felt. It did not look like an expensive artifact at all anymore, but rather like a cheap trinket for a carnival, and a broken one at that. "You don't think our, our lovemaking has caused this, do you?" Harry said. Hermione shook her head: "I, I really don't know Harry…" "Did you get any, you know, flashes from… him?" "No, nothing…" Harry said "But this Horcrux definitely is destroyed." He picked up the pieces: "Look at this; it looks like something you would win at a country fair."