Chapter 3: Let Those Apples Fall
The night of the Yule Ball finally arrived. Alone in the girls' dormitory, Hermione checked over her pink dress in the mirror. She was the last to get ready, and had waited until Lavender and the other girls had left; thankfully, they had started primping hours before and finished unfashionably early. Raising her wand, she muttered a simple charm and drew her hair up into a bun, making the strands sleek and shiny. She wanted to look as perfect as she could for Neville - after the effort he took in even asking her, it was the least she could do.
She was one of the last to arrive. Descending down the grand staircase, she was shocked to find how almost everyone in the vicinity stopped and stared at her. Even so, Hermione allowed herself to bask in the glory of it, showing her friends and teachers the new Hermione Granger.
And her esteem swelled all the more as she met Neville at the bottom, handsome in a tuxedo and gazing at her as though she was the reason stars shone.
"Hi," she smiled gently.
"You look beautiful," Neville breathed, and the simplicity of the compliment - no thrills or fuss - impressed Hermione. She waved excitedly, actually blushing, to Harry and Ron, both gaping at her and even more so at whom she was with. At least she was happy her best friends were there - as he was wont to do, Harry had scrambled at the last minute and nabbed dates for both himself and Ron: the Patil twins. Hermione had to say, Harry's ingenuity and resourcefulness never ceased to amaze her, especially when he was under pressure.
The students were let into the Great Hall, and the four champions and their partners took to the floor for the first dance. Only then did Hermione see Viktor for the first time, on the arm of a Hogwarts student whom she didn't recognize. His second choice. She felt bad for him, but a promise was a promise.
Harry led everyone off, and soon Hermione was waltzing around in Neville's arms. Her heart swelled at how happy he looked, even if he periodically looked down at his feet to make sure he didn't step on her toes. The pair danced through the first dance, then another and another... losing track of time as they got lost in conversation. Hermione was having a really good time, and she told Neville so.
"I knew that the Gillyweed had to be you; you saved Harry's hide with that one..." she praised him sincerely. Spinning about in Neville's arms, her eyes caught the gaze of Viktor Krum - a smoldering one, aimed right at the back of Neville's head. Neville noticed her distress, and tried to follow her gaze.
"Why is he...?" Hermione gently cupped Neville's cheek in her palm and forced his eyes back to her, but too late. Neville had seen. "Hermione, why is Viktor Krum looking at us like that?"
"I think he's more concentrated on you." She had to tell him the truth now - she had never intended to reveal to anyone about Krum's offer, and especially not her date. But... "He's jealous because he asked me to the Yule Ball after you did. I turned him down."
Neville swayed sharply as their waltzing came to an abrupt halt, even as the crowd continued around them. "You did what?" His eyes were wide.
"I had already promised you! And I truly loved how you asked me!" Hermione expressed, hoping he would not become angry at her - a reaction she would not have expected from him. Was he actually upset that she had turned down Krum?
"Come with me," Neville suddenly ordered, and taking Hermione's hand, he led her out of the crowd, out of the Great Hall. All the while, Hermione could hear him mutter to himself, "This doesn't make any sense..."
The pair finally entered a broom cupboard under a staircase, closing the door behind them. Neville turned on the overhead light, and turned to face Hermione.
"Let me see if I've got this right: you mean to tell me that a Triwizard champion - an international Quidditch star to boot - asked you to the Yule Ball? And you turned him down?"
Hermione huffed out a breath. "Yes," she said bravely, not ashamed of her answer, no matter what Neville thought of it. "A promise is a promise, Neville. And I truly wanted to go with you."
Neville's face broke into a huge grin. Overwhelmed, the Gryffindor courage all at once roaring through him, he suddenly cupped Hermione's face in his hands, tilted her chin up and deeply kissed her right on the mouth.
Hermione gasped in shock, and stumbled a step back, Neville following her. Just as quickly as the kiss had begun, it ended. Hermione had to open her eyes, not even remembering that they had fluttered closed or why.
Neville suddenly looked stricken, realizing what he had done. And from the way Hermione Granger now gawked at him, speechless for once in her life, he thought that she was angry enough to hex him. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... I should have asked first..."
Filled with some Gryffindor courage of her own, Hermione aggressively seized Neville by his lapel. Her face softened only slightly, but her lips were still fierce as she rammed them against Neville's, kissing him back.
It was her very first kiss. Hermione had imagined it before, what it would be like and with whom it would be. Her most common conclusion had been that either Ron or Harry might do be the one to do it, even if it was a chaste peck between dear friends and didn't mean anything in the near future. She had never, in her wildest dreams, considered that she would lip-lock with Neville Longbottom - the klutz, the sentimental favorite - in a deserted broom cupboard.
Her skin tingled as she felt Neville's one hand fall to her hip, and then inch around. Taking his hand, she guided him encouragingly so that it slid fully around her waist. His other palm - strong and large but with gentle fingers (she had never noticed that before) fell into her hair, as he actually yanked her closer and deepened the kiss with a low groan. Hermione splayed her arm across Neville's back in perfect harmony. Her eyes drooped shut in pleasure. "Hmmmm..."
She could feel Neville's fingers in her hair, deftly and with increasing confidence undoing the pins, so that her hair cascaded down to her shoulders in waves.
All too soon, the kiss was ending. Hermione could feel Neville pulling away, and it frightened her. This would not do at all. So, in a very un-Hermione-like fashion, she tugged Neville back into her embrace, backing them both up against the cupboard wall. She assertively raised her leg to his waist, hooking her thigh around his middle. Her wand flew into her hand where it had been hidden within the folds of her dress; pointing it at the door, she uttered several advanced incantations, sealing them inside where she was confident even the teachers couldn't get to them, likely on patrol for students doing exactly what Hermione and Neville were doing: snogging. And, before she thought to consider the implications, she uttered one more spell around herself - one for contraception.
"Did I ask you to stop kissing me?" Hermione hissed, her breath hot against Neville's face. Startled, Neville silently shook his head No. "Well then, bloody snog me!" And Hermione molded her lips to his and the kiss resumed.
Despite it being certainly the first kiss for them both, Neville and Hermione grew increasingly skilled. Hermione opened her mouth wide to Neville, prying his lips apart with her own and coaxing his tongue into her mouth to play with hers. Neville soon began to plant kisses down Hermione's face and neck, towards her collarbone. Hermione's eyes grew wide, rolling into the back of her head in amazement, her jaw slack. This was a bold, passionate Neville... and she found that she adored it. That it aroused her like crazy, if the dampness in her panties was any indication - the fluids that were quickly moving to stain the inside of her dress and flow down her thighs. Her thighs which she now spread of her own accord, nestling Neville between them.
Neville's hands were dancing along the shoulder frills of her pink dress, trying to work them free. "Diffindo!" Hermione gasped.
Her beautiful dress ripped apart in Neville's hands, the bodice tumbling down past her chest. Hermione let the apples that were her recently-developed breasts fall, and she cradled Neville closer as he gallingly kissed each one, even taking one perky, pink nipple into his mouth.
That did it. Hermione leapt into Neville's arms, folding her legs about his waist, kissing his lips so hard, she was almost trying to get her mouth down his throat. Stumbling about in the small broom cupboard, Neville finally collapsed onto a stack of boxes and Hermione brazenly moved to straddle him. Confidently, she shrugged Neville's jacket off his shoulders.
"This comes off." Her fingers deftly moved on to the buttons of his white shirt, making quick work of them, and she cast that aside, too. Bare-chested before her, Hermione could not help but admire Neville's muscles. He was rapidly losing his baby fat, certainly, and for the first time, Hermione admitted to herself how bloody handsome he was. She kicked herself as to why she had never noticed him in this way before.
All at once, the kissing stopped. "Hermione..." Neville breathed slowly, even though she could see his eyes were black with lust and love. "Don't do this if you feel any pity for me."
Hermione frowned. "It's not pity," and fingernails raked down the length of his chest to emphasize her point. "I want you, Neville." And she meant it.
Neville beamed. Reverently, the couple undressed each other. Hermione let the pink material of her dress pool at her feet, and she stepped out of it to sit astride a naked Neville once more. Slowly, tenderly, kissing him deeply if for no other reason than to help her through the pain (she had read plenty of books on sexual intercourse, and knew that the first time would hurt for a woman), she sank herself onto Neville's engorged manhood. Right down to the hilt.
"I love you," Hermione whispered into his mouth, her voice strangely hoarse, and Neville trembled in her arms. She noticed tears slip onto his cheeks and she lovingly kissed them away as Neville admitted:
"I love you, too, Hermione. I have for a long time."
Hermione began to roll her hips against Neville's, prod him to move about inside her. She bounced up and down on his member, her breasts jiggling with each increase in tempo, her hums and sighs and purrs of contentment soon turning into sexy moans:
"Hmmmmm... Uhmmmmmm... Uhhhhh! OHHHHHHHH! Oh my goodness... Merlin... yes, Neville, yes! Touch me, just like that... There! Right there..."
Neville grew more adept and assured at making love to Hermione, thrusting up into her faster and faster. Hermione's legs wobbled, as she felt a deep warmth building and building inside her, unable to be contained for much longer. For the first time in her life, she was not sure exactly what was supposed to happen. Well, she had an idea, but she did not know what it would feel like. Neville's face buried itself into the valley between her breasts, Hermione's hands cradling his skull to keep him there; throwing her head back, she let out a cry -
"NEVILLE!" She came, orgasmed all over him. With one last, muffled grunt from between her breasts, Hermione now felt a tingling trickle within her core, as Neville also ejaculated.
Wizard and witch sank to the floor, cuddling up in each other's arms, still naked as babies. Kissing his chest tenderly, an exhausted Hermione fell asleep.
The teachers never found them. When Hermione woke at what she judged to be hours later, she still found herself in the broom cupboard, a naked Neville beside her. She smiled as she watched him too stir from sleep. The Ball had to be long since over; she wondered if Ron and Harry were worried about her, but in the next instant, dismissed that concern.
Before the pair redressed and left their sanctuary, and not until they had had sex in another round, Neville asked:
"Hermione?"
"Yes?"
"Would you be my girlfriend?"
Smiling soothingly, Hermione captured his lips in a gentle kiss: "I'd love to. Yes."
