Ron wasn't sure that tonight would be a good night, but he needed to believe everything was going to be okay. Hermione's boss had asked her—more like told her because she had no other option—to go to a party the Muggle Prime Minister was throwing.
"It is all in the benefit of Wizard-Muggle relationships," he'd said.
"You're a Muggleborn, so it will be easier for you," he'd added.
No one would know that her or her date were wizards, so everything would be be okay, he'd continued. And finally finished with, "You'll be there in representation of your new co-workers at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
Hermione had at first said no, but knew that she had no other option but to go and put her best face forward.
Now Ron had to go there as well and act like a Muggle. Figures.
Worse of all, a problem with their schedules had meant they would meet there instead of arriving together. He'd have to arrive alone... to a Muggle party. No matter how much she'd explained what he'd have to do and how he'd have to do it, he was still nervous. She needed him to be at his best behaviour, and he couldn't disappoint her. It just wasn't a possibility.
I'm a trained Auror. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.
He kept thinking those words as he hopped into the car she'd sent for him. He had to breath deeply to not think about the strange sounds the machine did—his dad's Ford Anglia hadn't sounded like that at all—or how strange the many little buttons looked. He tried to focus on the passing city instead, knowing he was better off not touching a thing.
It took him a few moments to realise they'd arrived at the building where the gala was being held. After getting out of the car, he turned to see the architecture of the place. It was big and imposing and with the light shining against its surface, it looked like the walls were shining.
Right, he thought with a soundless sigh. The time has come.
He went up the stairs to the big doors; it was where he was supposed to wait for her. He checked to make sure his suit was in a proper state; he wasn't used to this kind of clothes. Of course, she'd chosen his clothes and taught him the right way to wear them, an occasion that had turned into playful lovemaking almost as soon as he had put the clothes on.
He didn't feel the pleased smirk that appeared on his face as he remembered the way she'd acted. First she had laid the pieces of the suit on the bed, instructing him on how he was supposed to wear each piece. After that, she had told him to change into them while she went and made some tea, which he did. What he didn't expect was that when she'd come back she'd have this look on her face like she was ready to jump him on the spot. Which she did.
The smirk turned into a little knowing smile. She hadn't said a word; she'd only walked to him, grabbed his head, and kissed him senseless. Then she'd proceeded to take every garment off—not that he was complaining or stopping her in any way—before throwing him onto the bed.
He loved it when she lost control. Especially when...
...Okay, it was a bad idea to think of those things being outside and surrounded by people. Now that he remembered the effect these clothes had on Hermione, then maybe he could expect a repetition of what had happened the other night? He knew he could find a way to arouse her right from the first moment they were together.
If only she had arrived and were standing next to him. It wouldn't only mean that he'd get to enjoy her proximity and start his project of turning her on, but it'd also guarantee that everything would be just fine. What would he do if someone chatted him up and made difficult questions he wouldn't be able to answer?
He didn't notice the worried expression he wore at the though, nor the way it slowly changed to an awed expression as he caught sight of Hermione.
She looked positively radiant. Everything from the way she walked as she came to him to the way her dress fit to the little shiny garments she wore on her wrist, neck, and ears, and the way she'd done her hair... she was gorgeous.
The arousal he'd managed to control as he remembered that night not too long ago reappeared with vengeance. It only served to reaffirm his decision of starting to work on convincing her to do something wicked by the time the gala ended.
"I'm sorry I'm late, couldn't make it sooner. Everything okay?" she asked as she advanced the last few steps to reach him. Even her furrowed brow was beautiful.
"Yeah." He kissed her cheek in a slow, husky, teasing manner. He then whispered in her ear, "You look incredible, Hermione."
She opened her eyes wide, seemingly shocked. He knew he didn't often talk to her that way, but the night promised to be special. "Thanks. You look good, too… but I think you remember I like you in this suit," she teased back.
"That I do." He laughed. "Ready to go in?"
They entered the gala and looked for the wizard from the Ministry of Magic to whom they had to let know they'd arrived. It made Hermione feel like one of those spies she'd see on the TV when she was a kid. Then they mingled, just like her boss had told her.
Seeing how Ron acted like she needed him to—smiling and answering evasively when needed and being perfectly charming the rest of the time—made her feel comfortable to the point she could just enjoy their time there. She was ready to call the night a success by the time the dancing began.
"Oh, Ron, this is going great!" she said as they slowly swayed to the music. "Did you see how the representative told us that the Muggle Prime Minister was pleased? That it was comforting to see that both worlds weren't absolutely incompatible? That'll show my boss!"
"I thought your first project was to work on a law to banish the distinction between blood status in the future?"
"Yes, it is. But my boss wasn't really interested in giving it priority because he said that it didn't really change a thing. Stupid man. He said that since the war ended, making the distinction was some kind of taboo, so it was like people already felt it was a law... no reason to rush to write it down, right?" She made a negative motion with her head along a huffing noise.
"Well, I don't see how the Muggle Prime Minister saying he was glad both worlds weren't incompatible makes it any better."
"Oh, it's obvious," she said. She didn't realise the way he rolled his eyes, probably not finding it in the least obvious. "Wizards would be extinct if they hadn't married Muggles; the worlds do mix. One thing is to let the whole wide world know the existence of magic, which won't happen, and another to deny that there are half-bloods and Muggleborns. If the Prime Minister is happy that we're not a threat, it'll be easier to make both worlds live together. If we live together in harmony, then there'll be more chances that both worlds will mix through marriage..."
Ron's expressive face showed the exact moment her logic made sense to him. "So it's important that magical law won't offer an opportunity to make a distinction," he concluded with a smile. "No matter how long I've known you for, the brilliant witch you are, you still amaze me," he said as he kissed her forehead.
A few moments passed as she looked up at him, her eyes full of tenderness and wonder.
"Thanks for doing this for me, Ron, for taking it seriously."
"Oh, don't worry," he said with a self-deprecating shrug. "I knew it was important to you. Now, if you want to reward me, though, I have a pretty nice idea of what my prize could be."
"Prize?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you know? To reward me." He lowered his head to the crook of her neck, breathing her scent in. "Merlin, you smell wonderful!"
She shivered, but tried to hide it. She had no problem with rewarding him at home, but they still had to stay in the party for a while longer. The prospect of being all hot and bothered at the ball wasn't exactly calming. "I don't see why any rewarding would be needed."
"Don't you? 'Cause I do. We're having a wonderful night; despite all the things that could have gone wrong, here we are, dancing... and everything's going perfectly. My prize would be a perfect cherry on top of it all," he finished while wiggling his eyebrows mischievously.
She laughed. "I do find it appealing, but I can hold myself until we're home later, when there'll be no problems at all to get you off these clothes."
It was his time to laugh. "Yeah, maybe it wouldn't be appropriate to just forget we're dancing with a big group of people surrounding us. But I'm sure we can fix that."
She looked into his eyes, trying to decipher his plans. "You know we can't use any magic here. We can't just Apparate someplace else. People would notice, I imagine."
"Oh, no, I'm not planning on that. I'll just convince you to go someplace secluded."
"You plan on seducing me here?" she asked, surprised and a bit scared. She also found it strangely and unexpectedly... stirring, but there was no way she'd let him know that.
No point in provoking him to try, not when she was in no conditions to do it.
"I wouldn't say that, exactly. All I know is I want you... where that leads us is another matter completely." His hand lowered close to her bum. Really close.
She first responded by trying to warn him off with her eyes, to which he responded with a teasing smile. Then she said, "You know there's no way I'm going to play that game, right?"
This time, his only answer was a laugh. She was in no way comforted by it.
"You know," she continued, "you were never this confident before."
"That was a low blow," he said, losing a bit of his smile now that she'd distracted him. His hands travelled up her back again, spreading wide against the fabric of her dress.
She loved the feeling of it. It made her feel safely contained.
"I mean," she said as she laid her head on the crook of his shoulder and closed her eyes, "it's a long way from the insecure boy at Hogwarts."
"Yeah," he said a few seconds later. "I've changed in that respect. Not that I'm Mr. Confident now, but I've learned to trust myself more. Maybe it has to do with my Auror training; I'm less nervous now, but when I am, I can manage it better. Also, there are certain things I know so well that I can work my way around them... fancy a walk?"
The suddenness of his question made her suspicious. But she did fancy a walk. "Okay," she replied at last. She'd try not to think of how it would be a lot more difficult to stop his advances if they were out there in the darkness.
No, she wouldn't think about it.
They walked out to the gardens behind the building hand in hand—a habit they hadn't broken since their earlier years together— avoiding the other dancers and guests.
Two hours had passed since the party had begun; the moon had advanced on the sky, but the night was still quite the same. The gardens were well tended, with several trees and flowerbeds decorating it and casting shadows on the stone paths that crossed it. It all had the effect of making the gardens look bigger than they surely were. It was so wonderful, she thought, whoever had designed it had made an excellent job.
"But there's another thing that has made me trust myself more, Hermione."
It took her several moments to reconnect with the conversation they had been having inside. He obviously had still been considering the subject.
"Is there?" she asked.
"Yes. I think it all started the first time we made love," he responded.
She turned to look up at him, surprised again. "What?"
"That night was especial in so many ways, Hermione," he continued like she hadn't asked. "I really needed to feel alive, and being with you was exactly the connection I craved. It wasn't perfect and yet it was, you know?"
"Yes," she replied. She had rapidly begun to feel enthralled by his words. She couldn't quite see how their lovemaking had improved his confidence. Not quite see, she thought with a small smile.
He, on the other part, seemed to be lost in thought. "I know I fumbled quite a lot those first few encounters, but with time it all got better, yes?" He finally spared her a sidelong glance and smiled. He quickly went serious again, his sight lost in some unknown point ahead. "We'd known each other for so long, and yet I learned so much about you from our being together..."
And then he kept quiet, lost is his thoughts. When several minutes had passed, she decided to say something as well. "I also learned a lot about you."
"I know, and that's the point. I got to know myself better as I saw my own responses to you. I'm amazed to think I was lucky enough to meet you when I was eleven. We didn't love each other since that first day on the train, but Merlin how I love you now."
He stopped to hug her with one arm around her waist and his free hand on her face. She looked up to his eyes, not noticing that the love and wonder she saw in his were mirrored in hers.
"I truly think that being with you, be it as friends or as a couple later on, it shaped me, Hermione. Being close to you makes me the man that I am."
She raised her own hands to his face. "I wouldn't be the same without you, either," she said before pulling him to her for a slow, deep kiss.
Suddenly, only a few moments into their kiss, he hugged her tight and raised her off her feet. He then took her under the shadow of a tree.
"What are you doing?!" she asked, unable to stop a giggle—a giggle!—from escaping.
"I can't help it, I want you so much right now."
She barely felt the hardness of the trunk against her back before his lips on hers assaulted her senses. His body pressed her into the tree, one hand on her ribcage and another on her hip.
"Right after the moment when I first glanced at you tonight," he said as he kissed her neck, the line of her jaw, her lips, "right since then, I've wanted you."
Her eyes were closed, her breathing rapidly quickening. Her hands were fisted on his hair, trying to hold to something as her body reacted instinctively to his.
The protest she knew she had to make died in a soft hissing sound when he nibbled at her earlobe.
"Oh," he groaned, "How I love it when you do that. I love it when you react to me," he said while his hands slowly explored up along her sides, until he finally set them so his thumbs caressed the underside of her breasts.
Her hands fell to his shoulders, gripping the fabric there. She had to tell him to stop, that they had to go back to the building. But she couldn't.
His hands cupped her breasts, his thumbs now teasing her nipples through her dress. She shuddered, her eyes closing again.
"Yes, like that," he smiled cockily, a sight she didn't see. He then set to whisper in her ear while rubbing himself on her. "I can't stop myself when you're like this. I know soon you won't be able to stop making sounds, and if I do my job right, you'll give up and you'll let me make love to you without caring where we are. We're the same in that respect. There are times we just can't help giving up."
"I give up," she said.
She breathed deeply, thanking the fact she was determined enough to know her destination with enough deliberation. And so she Apparated them directly to their bedroom.
"Hermione!" he exclaimed scared.
Another thing to be really thankful of was that he was still pressing into her, making them lose their balance and fall directly into bed.
It was almost too much. She groaned.
"Hermione!" he repeated, but in a much different tone.
Their kissing continued almost immediately. His hand quickly found their way up her dress, hiking it around her hips. Their bodies rubbed together, now free to prepare for their lovemaking. She helped him out of his jacket and tie, making a quick job of unfastening the buttons of his shirt. She roamed her hands on his chest and below the fabric on his back, exploring all she could reach.
Finally their mouths separated with a wet sound, her lips beating along the rhythm of her heart. He got up a little so he could place his hands on the wrinkled dress on her hips. Fastening his thumbs under the fabric, he slowly lifted it over her upper body and over her head, throwing it away carelessly. Then he run the tip of his fingers down the inner side of her raised arms, awakening every nerve end on his way, over the tip of her naked breasts, down her stomach to the waistband of her knickers.
He hooked his forefingers on it and stopped. She opened her eyes to see how he seemed to be taking the time to just look at her. She knew what he had to be seeing: the way her skin looked against the moonlight coming from the window, her arms raised over her head, and her tousled hair spread across the bed. A soft, contented smile formed on her red, swollen lips.
She knew that was the kind of sight that turned him on even more. He had let her know several times.
"Blimey, Hermione," he said, just as she had expected, with a hoarse, lust filled voice. "You're just so bloody gorgeous."
She only smiled at that, filled with pleasure. Long gone were her insecurities in that department. All because of him.
As soon as he'd taken her knickers off, she got rid of his shirt to then take him by the shoulders and pushed him so he lay on his back. She placed open-mouth kisses on his jaw, down his neck and torso before reaching for his trousers. Those were quickly done with, along with his underwear.
Both now completely naked, she straddled him and went down for another kiss. She started moving her hips over his, rubbing her clit on the length of his shaft, causing their arousal to grow even more.
Not that she thought they needed any more arousal, what with the sounds they were both making as a proof of how close they already were to climaxing.
"Hermione, you're driving me crazy, here," he groaned as he grabbed her hips forcefully.
"I know," she replied.
"Don't play with me, I don't know how long I'll be able to take it."
"I think you can take it for as long as I want you to," she said wanting to prolong the feeling of anticipation.
All of a sudden, though, her world spun and she seemed to be close to exploding with sensations. He'd managed to be on top of her again and enter her all in almost a single motion.
"I don't," he sighed.
She could live with that.
He began moving almost immediately, but in a much slower rhythm than she would have expected. She wanted more. She tried to convey this by surrounding him with her legs and moving her hips in fast circular motions.
He had to like that, if she judged by the sounds he was making. Still, there was no difference to his cadence.
"Faster," she whispered in his ear. He didn't change the pace; instead, he just rotated his hips, making her need him even more. "Faster," she repeated, unable to stop the words from sounding like a whimper.
"Not fun being teased, huh?"
Finally, surely having to surrender to his own needs, his thrusts gained the speed that allowed for her body to rapidly approach its peak.
"Oh, Ron!" The words escaped, surprised with her muscles contracting and relaxing before she'd expected it. Her world dissolved for a few moments around her, drowning her in pleasure.
Soon afterwards, she realised through her fogged brain that he had followed her, letting out a guttural sound and then resting his weight on her.
A few moments passed as they recovered, their breathing coming slowly back to normal. At last, he laid three quarters over her, his face hidden in the crook of her neck.
"I can't believe you just Apparated us back home. It was a bit dangerous, don't you think?"
"Not really. I knew exactly where I wanted to be."
"Still," he said. "Let's not risk that again. It wouldn't have been such an amazing night if one of us had ended up splinched."
"Who would have guessed you'd be the voice of reason in this, after all the convincing you did?"
He laughed softly. "Well, someone has to keep a level head. Even if I was trying to seduce you."
"You know how to seduce me, alright."
A little time later, he said, "Let's snuggle in bed."
After they had, and when it seemed they'd just fall asleep, he added, "And I got you out of that party, as well! What are you going to tell your boss?"
"I'll send an owl in the morning, telling him I had to attend to something urgently. I did consider this an emergency," she replied sleepily.
He snorted. "Good. I love it that we have similar priorities in life. Good night, love."
She put her head on his chest, bits of their earlier conversation now running through her mind. She was lucky, too, for finding him so young and for having him still close to her. It had been their being together that had shaped them, in many days and nights like this one. They'd grown confident by loving each other, a gift she would never stop appreciating.
"Most definitely a good night, Ron," she sighed, almost asleep now. "One of many, love. One of many."
I want to thank Pili for her help with this story. I know you been busy, and yet you beta'ed it. Thanks for being such a great beta!
Also, a special thank you goes for Yali (aka Jaliboa aka Rozali), because when I needed someone to help me put this story together, she immediately responded. In my eyes, that makes her an almost co-author! I less than three you, girl.