Ancient Magic.
*Scribble scribble scribble. Looks up from keyboard.* I don't even own the thoughts in my head. You can't sue me!
A few monthes after the war.
Hermione never intended to walk off the face of the earth. Quite the opposite in fact, she wished nothing more than to find herself. After being tortured, humiliated, almost killed, and then praised for killing, Hermione found herself in need of a little soul searching.
She never told her friends she had submitted several applications to attend muggle universities after she graduated Hogwarts. What started out as a small suggestion at the dinner table one night turned into a year-long process of research, essays, tests, interviews, and finally, 15 acceptance letters to every Ivy League school in both England and America she had applied to. To say her parents were proud of her would be the understatement of the century. Up until she had received her letter from Hogwarts, being accepted into the finest schools education could offer had been her wildest, if not only wet dream. She never expected she would have friends growing up, Harry, Ron and Ginny being the first. So when each letter came in the mail she felt an undeniable sense of dread build within her body.
It only took a few hours to pack up everything in her head girl's room. 15 letters hung open in a neat grid, thumb tacked to Hermione's letter board by her desk. Princeton, Yale, Colombia, Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, Stanford, Duke, Manchester, Northwestern, Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, John's Hopkins, and Brown. Most had some sort of scholarship offer as well as financial aid, an incredible education in any muggle subject she could imagine and a chance to blend into the crowd. A chance to escape the lime light that came along with being one of "The Golden Trio".
Picking up her wand the brunette walked a few paces towards the other side of the room.
"Here goes nothing…" she spoke softly. Closing her eyes tightly she spun around and threw the thin piece of wood at the board, hearing a softy thud then a loud clank as it fell to the floor.
"This is it. The moment of truth." Hermione said to herself. She slowly opened her eyes and upon seeing the small hole in the bottom right corners letter, ran up to grab it. She pulled the letter off the board and read it to herself aloud.
"Dear Hermione Granger. It is my pleasure to grant you admission into Brown University based on the incredible essay you composed, the highest NEWTs we have ever seen, and the 100% you received on your Basic Muggle Education Exam. We have provided you with a plane ticket, and a new alias, if you so choose to attend our University. Hoping to hear from you soon, Erin Roberts; Dean of Magical Student Integration at Brown University."
Hermione flipped the front page over to uncover her knew name, class schedule, and living quarters.
"Emma Watson… 21 credits plus magic classes every other weekend… and it looks like I'll be staying in… Buxton House? Well, I guess I am international so that does make sense. God I hope I don't pick up an American accent. That would be absolutely dreadful…"
Four years later.
Life was all about experiences. Well, that's what Ginny had always been taught at least. When her brother died, that was quite the experience. When she graduated Hogwarts top of her class, with the house quidditch cup, that was a much better experience. When the holy head harpies signed her to the team, it was an experience of a life time. But none held so much significance as when her best friend left her and her family behind without even saying goodbye. That one experience taught her not to trust people, since even the closest of friends left you in the end.
"Hey, Ginny! Hold up a sec, mate!"
"Whacha want, Charlie?" the redhead asked over her shoulder.
"Finish up tying your God damn trainers and lets go grab a beer. We can talk a bit; get to know each other better. How's that sound, cutie?"
"It sounds like you need to Google the phrase "no means no". I'm not sleeping with you again, so please do me a favor and find another flavor for this week."
Ginny turned around and was instantly greeted by a smirking brunette. She was aware of how attracted to her Ginny was, between her killer body and radiant smile, Ginny knew she was lucky to peak such a beautiful girls interest. But after one night of sloppy, alcohol induced sex, Ginny knew she had to cut the cord.
"After tasting you, I can't think of any other bitch I want to tap-"
"Can you please stop embarrassing yourself? Our little rendezvous the other night was nothing more than me scratching an itch, one you couldn't even satisfy. So back off, or I'll talk to Cap and she'll bench your arse 'cause I can't work with you. Comprende?"
Was it a bit harsh? Most likely, but Ginny dealt with overzealous females all the time and could tell that she'd have to shake this one pretty damn hard.
"No I don't Ginny. I don't understand how you can fuck me one night and completely ignore me the next. You're stuck with me whether you like it or not, because I have my eye all over your fine fucking arse and I'm not giving up what's rightfully mine."
"Yeah you just remember that next time you see me shoving my tongue down some other girl's throat and there is nothing you can do about it 'cause I. Don't. Like. You." Ginny grabbed her bags and pushed her way passed the seething brunette.
"God I wish I was straight sometimes…" the redhead muttered just loud enough for the brunette to hear. Before Charlie had any time to retort, the flames of the floo network had already engulfed the fiery tempered woman.
"I bet you won't later…" Charlie spoke to herself with sneer. She may not have been on the team for longer than a week, but the redhead's reputation was well known amongst the entire International Quidditch League. The girl was a player, and Charlie was determined not to get played.
Same moment in time, different time zone.
"Emma! Where did you put my red scarf?"
A curly haired brunette popped her head out from the bathroom.
"Are you serious? It's like 70 degrees out there!"
"Listen Emma, I know how you Brits seem to love your practicality so I'm just gonna come out and say it. I've got a hicky, that my boyfriend didn't give me, and I REALLY don't want him to see it and start asking questions. Okay?"
"I must say I'm incredibly disappointed in you, Jaye… why don't you just tell him you think you're gay instead of messing around with girls behind his back?" the brunette asked, tooth brush in her cheek.
"Because not all of us are as sure of our sexually preferences as you are, oh brilliant one. I don't want to break up with Chuck, and then realize I have wanted dick this whole time and it was nothing more than a faze influenced by my lesbian roommate."
The brunette shook her head and spit into the sink, running the water to clean her mouth out.
"I always knew you had a crush on me!" she shouted from the bathroom.
"I just can't help it, that sexy accent has me wrapped around your finger." Jaye replied with a smirk.
The brunette came out of the bathroom with a smile on her face.
"Literally… or figuratively…?" she joked with the blonde.
Jaye pretended to think about the question for a second, tapping her chin as she contemplated the ceiling fan.
"Well let's see… when was the last time you got laid? That should answer your question." She said with a wink.
"You're just hating on me because you know you aren't my type." Emma stuck her tongue out at the blonde and did a little dance.
"Oh I know all too well. You prefer the redheads… with long… slender bodies and muscular arms… don't you, home-girl?"
"WOW. Please, I am begging you to never call me that again. And yes. I do."
The blonde chuckled to herself.
"Don't I know it? I remember sophomore year, you'd bring a new one in every other night. I swear I think I've heard the moans and groans of every redhead on campus. What happened to that by the way? Did you really go through them all? Were none of them worthy of a repeat performance?"
"Why do I always feel so shallow when we talk about my sex life? Or rather, lack of one, recently…"
"There is gonna be a party later after that quidditch match. You're coming with me because apparently I need a babysitter when I'm around hot girls." The blonde half joked, pointing to her neck.
"Yeah, yeah. We'll see. I'm not going to the match though, but I'll come to the party if you absolutely need me to hold your leash."
Jaye shrugged and pressed on.
"So about that scarf… I have class in like 5 minutes and need to run clear across campus."
Emma reached under the couch they shared in their small living room and handed her roommate a red knitted scarf.
"I hope he doesn't want any neck action!" the brunette called to the blonde as she left their dorm.
"God that girl is looking for trouble…" Emma said to herself. She grabbed her wand off the counter, tucking it into the right side of her right boot. Giving herself a once over in the mirror she pulled her pants down at the bottoms, then up at the waist.
"Looking good, Granger." She spoke to the mirror.
That afternoon, in the US.
Ginny flew around the pitch a few times in an attempt to get her blood moving. She loved playing in America, the fans were fucking nuts for quidditch and the girls would throw themselves at her constantly. Something she might need after the game to shake her latest obsessed conquest.
"Hey, ginger! Were all partying at some sorority house after the match 'cause word around here is the girls are fucking wild! You in?"
"Hey, don't call me ginger. And when am I not in, Rachel?" the redhead looked at her with a lopsided grin.
"Dude, we are so getting laid to night!" Rachel sang as she accelerated passed Ginny.
"This is defiantly going to be a long night…"
After party.
"Hey Emma!" Jaye had to yell at the top of her lungs to be heard over the pounding techno music.
"Yes, Jaye?"
"I'm going to go say hi to that really tall redhead over there! I think she's new! You wanna come check it out with me?" she continued to yell.
"I'm gonna hold back some, haven't really had much to drink and I bet I've already been there before. Go for it girl, just don't let her suck on your neck!" the brunette answered.
"Okay… suit yourself, girl!"
Emma watched as the blonde made her way over to the redhead, currently nursing a red plastic cup.
"Hey! I don't think I've ever seen you before. Are you new here?" Jaye yelled to the slightly tipsy redhead.
"Um… no? I'm traveling here on a sports team, and we just got done with a match." The redhead said, clearly not interested in the blonde.
"You mean quidditch, right?"
The redhead was caught off guard by this.
"Um… are you a witch?" she said carefully.
"No, I'm not. But my roommate is! And she happens to be English too! Maybe you know her?"
Ginny chuckled to herself when the blonde leaned forward, clearly unafraid to throw in a little cleavage.
"You do know there are like, thousands of witches in England right? Not all of us know each other."
"You want to dance?" the blonde asked, reaching out to take the witches drink from her. Ginny pulled the drink back and laughed under her breath. This one clearly hadn't been picking up girls that long.
"Listen, mate." Ginny yelled. "I have a very specific type, and your green eyes and blonde hair, although make you absolutely stunning, don't really do it for me. But that brunette over there with the pony-tail who keeps staring at us, I bet she'd be all into you, but listen. You are gonna have to be very forceful. She likes a girl who lays down the law and gets what she wants. She won't sleep with you unless she feels you won't give up until she does."
The blonde nodded her head understandingly.
"Thanks!" she yelled over her shoulder, making her way over to Charlie.
"Fucking piranhas these girls are…" she said to herself making her way to the dance floor. Finding a particularly beautiful brunette dancing by herself she came up behind her and rested her hand on the smaller girl's hip.
A few songs later Ginny had abandoned her drink, grabbing the brunettes hips firmly with both hands as they pushed their sweating bodies together with the beat.
"Damn Emma! Look at you getting some!"
The brunette shot her obnoxious roommate a look that clearly stated 'not now.'
It was too late though. As Jaye was about to turn around and leave them be, her newest hook-up, Charlie, arrived.
"Damn girl, you really move on quick now, don't you?" Charlie sneered.
"Well, since we all seem to know each other I mind as well let you know that you are currently grinding with the girl I mentioned earlier." Ginny looked at her like she was crazy.
"My roommate… the witch from England…? Where you even listening to a word I said?" Jaye asked the redhead, clearly a bit put-off.
"Oh! Yeah, I remember now!"
'Wait, that voice sounds so bloody familiar. No. It can't be. I've just had a bit too much to drink is all.' Emma thought to herself.
"Hey, Emma! We're gonna get out of here! I trust you'll be able to escort your lady friend back to our place without me." Jaye said with a wink.
"That better not be where you're heading!" Emma yelled back to the receding form.
'Fuck… she sounds familiar. Maybe it's just 'cause she's obviously from England.' Ginny thought. After all, she had never met an Emma before…
Ginny moved her hands from the brunette's hips to her flat stomach. 'And I've defiantly never been with someone who felt this good…' Ginny thought.
'Wow, maybe I haven't fucked this one; I don't remember my body fitting so well into anyone I've ever been with…' Hermione mused. She intertwined her right hand with her dance partners and reached behind her head with her left, running her fingers through the girl's fiery locks and pulling her face into the back of her neck.
Ginny took this as a hint and gently began nipping her way across the sun kissed skin. The brunette tasted sweet, which only made Ginny want more and more of her. Hermione felt a hicky in the making and turned herself into the woman paying so much attention to her neck. Eyes closed, heart thumping wildly in her chest to the base of the music, the brunette took to plunge and kissed the redhead hard on the mouth. As their lips met they both felt an electric charge run through them, leaving them both breathless.
'What the fuck was that!' Ginny thought to herself. She placed her forehead on the smaller girls shoulder in an effort to catch her breath. Something just happened to her, to them that she had no other word to describe, but magical.
"Did you feel that?" the brunette whispered into Ginny's ear. Ginny could only nod her head, unable to form words.
"Well, do you know what that was? 'Cause if it was what I think it might be, then we very might as well be fucked."
Ginny heard the words being said to her, she knew the implications, and for once in her life she didn't care. Her body needed Emma.
"If I don't fuck you, I think I will regret it for the rest of my life." Ginny said, just loud enough for Emma to hear.
"I know exactly what you mean, but if I fuck you, and you fuck me, we might be… well joined magically for the rest of our lives! And I don't even know your name!"
"My name is Ginny."
The redhead took a deep breath and looked up into the most terrified face she had ever seen.
"Herm… Hermione?"
"Ha… hi Gin…"
"No…" Ginny could already feel the tears stinging her eyes. She shook her head and pushed away from the brunette. "No, your name is Emma… you are not Hermione, you are Emma!"
Ginny seemed to be working herself into quite the frenzy and had knocked over a few couples, drinks, and chairs in her effort to get as far from the witch as possible.
"You! Are Emma! Not the girl who left me all alone 4 years ago! She was killed by death eaters, or run over by a bus, or has drowned at the bottom of the ocean, or is in some prison camp being tortured because there is no way in HELL my Hermione, MY Hermione would willingly leave me without saying goodbye or explaining why she couldn't be there for me! No!" Ginny was screaming across the room at the dumb-founded brunette.
'This wasn't supposed to happen…' Hermione thought. In all her life, she never thought she'd run into Ginny like this. She had worked so hard at keeping herself away from the girl.
"Gin, please… settle down. Here, take my hand." The brunette said cautiously, holding out her hand.
Ginny stared at her like she was a ghost.
"Gin… please… take my hand." Ginny shook her head 'no'. She told herself 'no'. In the midst of all these no's her hand still managed not to listen and took hers instead. Once their fingers touched, that same feeling, like lighting had struck their bodies, pulled them together. How Ginny went from terrified of the smaller girl to kissing her fiercely was beyond them both or anyone else in the room for that matter. But neither could pull away.
"Take-", kiss, "me home-" kiss, "now!"
Hermione grabbed her wand from her boot and apperated them right into her and Jaye's apartment.
"I fucking hate you, just so you know." Ginny growled, roughly pulling Hermione's shirt over her head.
"If you fucking hate me, then why the fuck are you kissing me?" Hermione growled back, quickly unbuckling Ginny's belt and popping the button off of her trousers.
"Because… I haven't seen you in 4 fucking years, you lying bitch!"
Ginny managed to get Hermione's bra off and started working on her pants.
"If I'm such a bitch then why do you want to fuck me so bad?" Hermione panted, pulling away from the redheads lips just long enough to get it out.
"You know I don't remember you being so vulgar." Ginny said sarcastically, anger still evident in her voice. The athlete picked up the brunette, who chased the forward movement by wrapping her thighs around the taller girl's waist.
"Bedroom, to the left, now." Hermione commanded as she worked her mouth over Ginny's neck, none too careful about leaving marks.
Ginny found the bed and threw Hermione on it, none too gently.
"You left me, Hermione." Ginny said angrily and she pulled off the brunettes skin tight jeans.
"I lost my best friend at the worst time of my life and it's entirely your fault!"
"I had to leave! You don't understand!"
"Fuck you, Hermione! FUCK YOU!"
The brunette reached up and grabbed the athlete by the back of the neck, pulling her down till they were once more lip locked in a passionate embrace.
"Please, Ginny. Please fuck me… I need you to fuck me…" Hermione begged and moaned into Ginny's mouth.
"If I fuck you, Emma, we will most likely be magically bonded for the rest of our lives."
By this time Ginny had already stripped herself of her jeans, panties and bra as well as the brunette's skimpy undergarments.
"Stop pretending like we aren't already and fuck me!" Hermione hissed into the redhead's ear.
"I can't Hermione…" but her words and actions seemed to once more be at a conflict, and once more her actions had won.
Hermione heard the 'no', but she felt the yes.
"Yes…" the brunette hissed into Ginny's mouth as she felt 2 fingers plunge into her.
"Out of all the ways I've imagined finding you again; this has never been the way it went down." Ginny panted into Hermione's ear, thrusting inside her as hard as she could.
"Oh… yeah?" the brunette managed to just make out between pants and moans of pleasure and desire.
"Yeah," Ginny grunted. "It was always more like this…"
All of a sudden the thrusting became secondary, the passion thrown into over load. Ginny kissed Hermione in a way she never thought she'd ever get to. The kiss was filled with all the nights she found comfort in some random brunette with dark brown eyes. It held the longing she felt every morning she woke up, not knowing where Hermione might be. It was filled with the terrifying fact that her best friend could have been dead and she would never have gotten the chance to show her exactly how much she needed her in her life. It held 4 years of pain, 4 years of love, 4 years of loneliness and it took Hermione's breath away even more so then the electric pulse that kept hitting them every time they would reconnect after a long period of time.
"Ginny, I can't-", moan, "tell you how- oh god… holy fucking Christ! How… sorry I am for-", kiss, "leaving-"
"Shut up, and make love to me." Ginny said pleadingly. She pushed her rock hard body flush against the softer one beneath her and began to pick up the pace. Just as Ginny could feel herself breaking a sweat she felt Hermione tighten around her fingers and her whole body began to shake uncontrollably.
"That's right, come for me baby…" Ginny whispered into the brunettes ear. Just as she reached the end of her climax, a beam of light shot out from her heart and hit Ginny square in the chest.
"I'm not letting you leave me, ever again. Please Hermione, please…"
Hermione understood the redhead's pleas and entered her with her own hand, still completely aware they now had two bands of light connecting their chests.
"Fuck Hermione… I can't... Fucking… believe this…" Ginny panted.
Hermione flipped the athlete onto her back in order to get more leverage and began to pump into her at a steady pace.
"Ginny, if I make you come… there's no turning back…" Hermione cautioned. Ginny kissed her lips softly and looked into her eyes, their bodies still rocking back and forth.
"I've been in love with you since before I can remember… ahhh, fuck… I'd rather be joined to you for the rest of my life, then go another day without you knowing tha-at!"
"Ginny, please… before I change my mind, please come for me. I don't want to make the same mistake twice!" Hermione pleaded, looking into the most intense green eyes she had ever seen.
"I lo-ove you baby!" Ginny called out in euphoria. Once she regained control of her body and her breathing she collapsed into the bed.
"So I guess those magical beams of light are…?"
"The physical representation of when soul mates find each other. Well, at least that's what I read back at Hogwarts. It's really ancient magic and apparently only 2 percent of the entire world ever experiences it so…"
"What do we do now?" Ginny asked.
"You're supposed to ask me for coffee."
"Seriously? I meant how do we get rid of these light beam… thingers?"
"Oh! Those. Yeah, well the book said they don't go away till the couple in question gets… well… married." Hermione said, slightly wincing how very wrong the next few minutes could go.
"Okay, well. I can't marry you. I don't really trust you not to leave again and I do love you with all my heart, but you have yet to reciprocate those feelings so I'm feeling a bit foolish at the moment." Ginny said with a frown, pulling the pillow under her head to her body and hugging it like a lost child.
"Now that we are bonded, it doesn't matter where I go or who I pretend to be, your wand will always be able to find my wand. And once we get married you wand will always be able to find my heart and vice versa."
"Wait, stop! I just said I'm not going to marry you, Hermione. I can't be with someone I don't trust! I can't be with someone who doesn't love me the way I love them!"
"This is a conversation for another day, okay? Come here…" Hermione said softly, pulling the other girl in a close as humanly possible.
'Holy fuck it's been quite the day.' Hermione thought as she felt Ginny's breathing even out.
"I left for many reasons, Gin. But you were never one of them. I… love you too." She whispered into the redhead's hair and kissed her forehead softly.
"And I'm so very sorry."