There was little point in denying herself any longer. Why did she even bother in the first place? It's not like anyone would know.

Her fingers slid slowly into her knickers, moving easily through her damp lower lips. A soft gasp left her when she reached her clit. Startled by her own noise, her eyes jerked open and she glanced around the room.

Of course no one was here. No one was watching. She was alone in her quarters. They would have been her Head Girl quarters if school were in session. Provided everything went well this summer, Hogwarts would reopen and these would be her Head Girl quarters in the fall. The fire burned low in the hearth, the crackling no more than a background noise in her mind. Books were stacked haphazardly near her favorite reading chair. It was identical to the one in his quarters. Her cat was lounging in between the green velvet pillow and the…her cat! Her startled eyes met brilliant amber ones, narrowed and watching her intently.

As if burned, her hand flew out of her knickers and she pulled the pillow over her head in shame. Gods, how could she have forgotten about Crookshanks! She tried to reason with herself that the cat couldn't know what she had been doing, let alone who had instigated such depraved actions on her part. At that thought, her eyes drifted shut and her mind wandered again.

Black eyes, lit with passionate fire, met hers across an indistinct room. Slowly, fluidly, they moved closer, drawing her into their depths. Long-fingered hands gently touched her breast before sliding down her ribcage. He barely touched her, but the trails he left on her skin blazed with an intensity that could only be described using words from one of those trashy romance novels that her mother used to read.

She had only stumbled across them accidentally, really, she had never gone back. There was no possible way that she had read every single one that she found, cover to cover, let alone more than once. Tell that to the blazing trails of fire that those imaginary fingers left across her ribcage.

Following her phantom's lead, her own fingers quickly found her folds once again. It wouldn't take long, she would swear on the Sorting Hat that her clit had been throbbing and swollen since she'd seen him at breakfast. She hadn't been able to bring herself to go back to the Great Hall for lunch or dinner. With a soft cry, muffled by the pillow still covering her face, she shuddered her release. In a matter of minutes, she had departed the conscious world for fitful, unfulfilled dreams.

- The Next Morning -

"You look terrible, Mione!"

Ron's comment pounded inside her head as she sat down to breakfast. She had a tornado of a headache tearing at her skull and she was far from capable of dealing with his rampant incivility. "Sod off, Ronald," she muttered, squinting at the spread and feeling her stomach turn at the greasy breakfast fare scattered across the table.

"You deserved that one, mate," mumbled Harry as he watched Hermione's face turn an eerie shade of white.

She ignored them both. Feeling the telltale signs of a world class vomit swirling in her stomach, she quickly jumped from the table and fled from the Great Hall. Vision blurring, she sped to the nearest window and chucked the sloppy contents of her nearly empty stomach over the ledge.

"I was under the impression that you were here helping clean up the school, not defiling the rosebushes."

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and prayed to whatever gods that were listening that he would just let her be. But of course no one heard her silent pleas.

The voice became deeper and somehow more sinister at her lack of response, "Miss Granger, I am speaking to you. Do not presume to ignore me simply because you are not feeling your usual, irritating self."

She opened her mouth to snipe back, but all that came out was a hacking wheeze and more viscous bile from the dregs of her stomach.

Suddenly she felt her hair being pulled away from her face and a solid warmth pressing against her backside.

"Miss Granger, are you quite alright?" the voice said. Much closer this time, and suddenly taking on a soft, gentle quality. Her favorite tone. The tone reserved for only her. "Miss…Hermione, please, what's the matter?"

Shakily, she stood herself up and leaned fully against his body. There was no way she was going to be able to hold herself up.

His arms quickly slid around her back and behind her legs and she felt herself being lifted. That was the last conscious thought she had for several hour