AN and chapter warnings: I promise I didn't take that pause on purpose and I am sorry! Also this chapter contains sex. Just so you know, but all of you who are still reading know and probably expect it by now. Thank you for everyone who has reviewed and followed this story.
Chapter 8
Two days until Hermione left for school, Bill broke down. He hadn't meant for it, but they were walking out in the orchard and he just started to feel a sadness in the pit of his stomach. When she kissed him, he cried. Just silent, tears on his face, and no way to stop it. Hermione took him in her arms and soothed him, but he was crying into her shoulder.
"I thought I was okay with you leaving." He spoke a bit bitterly.
"Well, I'm hardly okay with going." Hermione responded, and he heard the tears in her voice before he pulled back to see. She was crying as well, wearing a frown.
He smoothed his hands through her hair, tucking it back so he could hold her damp cheeks. They were both just a mess.
"We'll have Christmas together, if you come here. And letters. I'll write you so many letters, Mia." Bill promised, pressing his mouth against her forehead. He held her there for a second before drawing away. "And your birthday. I'll most definitely write, and send you something for your birthday. I'll still be in Poland – maybe I'll find something just perfect for you there."
She held his arms, nodding in the hold between his hands. "And I'll write you for yours. November 29th; I remember. If I can owl a gift, I will, but otherwise I'll give it to you over Christmas break."
"You don't have to get me anything." Bill denied.
"Well, neither do you, but if I get a gift, so are you." She countered.
There wasn't any way to respond to that but the kiss her. It was heated in an instant, their sadness forgotten. Bill pleaded for entry to her mouth with a slight bite, and Hermione accepted. He lavished her with tongue, with care, holding her gently despite the passion of their kiss.
They could have stopped there, just snogging themselves happy and delusional for a short time. Probably would have, as well, because Bill was still so careful of hurting Hermione. But then as they kissed, her fingers were pulling on the tie of his pyjama bottoms, undoing them. It wasn't her initiating anything, but her giving permission for him to, because she stopped after pulling the bow loose, but arched into him, hands at her sides willing to let him get carried away.
So he did. They were far from the Burrow and under the cover of trees either way, so he stepped out of their embrace to take the blanket from around them and lie it down on the grass. It would be cold, but his body was already feverish from their kiss, and he'd keep Hermione warm. Before she could shiver, he pulled her into his arms and lowered them down onto the blanket.
Bill couldn't control himself around Hermione. He felt too many things, wanted too many things. Most could wait a few years, but he made up for it here. In this moment, everything he selfishly wanted was avenged as he gave her what she had asked for.
He explored her with his tongue, needing his hands over his skin. Hermione's moaned were muffled as she bit her lip and tried not to make too much sound in the open air of the night. A pert nipple, hard from the cold, was pulled between his lips as he pushed her shirt up. She arched up into his mouth to take care of taking off the shirt herself, leaving it hanging from one hand as her arms fell down to her sides.
He swirled his tongue around the peak and rutted his hips into hers. He felt his hardening cock between her legs, harnessed in his bottoms, rubbing against her clothes core. His mouth worked over her chest until those little pink buds seemed swollen and marks were sure to be left for days to come. Then Bill pressed himself between her legs, letting her feel everything that she did to him, before taking her mewing mouth with his.
They kissed with need, and Hermione pleading his name every time he allowed her to breath. He felt her grind against his cock eagerly as he licked over her fiery tongue, delving deeper each time. When her little ministrations became too much for him to just ignore and hold back, Bill swept his hands under her to lift her bottom. He sat back on his heels, practically pulling her into his lab as she lied down, his hands guiding her legs to rest hooked over his shoulders.
This way it was easier to see her, to undress her. But before he removed her bottoms, his fingers slipped into the side of her shorts, seeking out the heat of her sex. They ran over her knickers, beginning to become wet and soak through. He drummed his fingertips over her sensitive clit and slit.
"Dammit, Bill!" Hermione swore for the very first time that he ever knew off.
Not another word was needed. While he wanted to work her up, the complete ghoulishness of her swearing was more appealing than it should have been. Bill removed his hand to removed her shorts and knickers in one go, sweeping them up her legs and off from around her feet.
Holding the small off her back up with both hands so her bottom half was still lifted, he propped up onto his knees, ramming his still covered cock against her bare entrance. Hermione let out a yelp that lowered into a moan as he rubbed against her. He let her down to remove his pants before lying himself between her open thighs. His body covered hers to keep her warm like he promised himself.
"Ready?" He asked, no longer asking if she was sure. Hermione would tell him to stop if she needed, or retract the offer if she ever wanted to, but she was egging him on.
At her nod, he used a hand to guide himself to her cavern, and swept in all in one go. There wasn't a breath of discomfort and anything in her expression but flustered want.
As he took her he knew it would be the last time until at least December, maybe until next year altogether. Bill took his time, and despite his needy and vengeful taunting and idea of foreplay, the sex itself was loving. His pace inside her was as slow as their first time, and he coddled her with feathering kisses over her closed eyes and panting mouth. He had the woman he loved wrapped up in his arms and just hated to have to see her go in what was likely less than thirty hours.
He made sure she came with obtrusive touches in places that he learned she liked. Like the underneath of her thighs, this spot behind her ear that he kiss, the occasional cup of her breast. Not once did his hands go down to her clit to make her pleased like before, wanting to find every other way to make Hermione happy. And she did eventually release, with a cry his muffled with his own mouth.
Taking her through it, drawing out her orgasm that had her clenching around him, Bill managed not to come himself. He wanted this to last, just a bit longer. So he whispered words of love.
"I'll miss you," came out on accident. "It'll be alright, darling," came after.
Then she leaned up, her forehead against his, lips brushing Bill's, but it wasn't a kiss. She just panted with him, the two sharing air and hot breaths seeping out against their skin. "Come for me, sweetheart." She told him with what little air seemed to be in her lungs.
He murmured a bit of magic for safety and let go. Bill came while buried deep inside of her, choking on his own groans.
He had barely pulled out and settled his weight off to the side before the tears hit him again. Hermione just pulled him close like she was protecting him, being his rock, and she pulled the spread out blanket around them. They lied there for what was probably hours, half asleep and whispering consoling words to each other.
This tenderness was what Bill needed more than the sex. An understanding of how shallow his life would feel with her gone, but the promise that he was also exaggerating. They fought off the cold just wrapped in one blankets, whispering like long time lovers or saying nothing at all.
When the sky turned less black and more blue, they knew they had to get inside before anyone woke up. They dressed quickly, and then practically ran back to the Burrow. Bill made sure not to put the blanket back on the couch, not after how they used it, so it would go hidden into his room until he could wash it himself.
At Hermione's door, he didn't kiss her again, save for a quickly peck to her head as they hugged. Then he went back to his room to pretend to sleep for the two hours before breakfast. He wanted to mourn, knowing that tonight, their last night, he couldn't actually see her. Hermione had to ready herself for school the next day, and the likeliness of Bill being able to kiss her again before she left was an absolute zero.
But at least when he went down a mess, Hermione took extra-long to braid his hair.
It finally happened. The day that Bill and Hermione were silently dreading. The return to Hogwarts.
They didn't get to see each other or even manage a private goodbye, there was such a whirlwind. Hermione felt like she had slacked that summer and panicked over last minute packing and books the entire day before. The closest they got to a farewell between just to two of them was the other night, making love in the open air and just crying in each other's arms.
That was a whole other distraction in and of itself.
Like he said he would, though, for Ginny and Ron and secretly Hermione, Bill came to see them off. He worked a couple hours and then met them at the Burrow just to leave again for Kings Cross. He was close, though. Hermione could feel hi half a step behind, just to her side, commenting on how everything in the station seemed to have changed since he was last off to Hogwarts.
At Platform 9¾ he made a big show of hugging everyone. First Ginny, really tight and hard, and Ron who look a bit ill content with the contact like any teenage boy would when cuddle by a sibling. He even hugged Harry tight, which really came off as odd.
But it was all an excuse, an obvious ploy to Hermione and Ginny, so that it wouldn't look odd when he opened his arms saying, "You too, Hermione."
She dipped into his grasp for that hug, hugging him back lightly. But his arms were so far around her that his hand could almost reach her front again. Then, she felt a shift in the pocket of her jumper just before he pulled away. She didn't dare look then, but there was something inside and it hung a bit with weight.
They all said goodbye and boarded the train. Harry and Ron found a compartment, while Ginny made the excuse of wanting to find other friends first while pulling Hermione with her. They entered their own compartment, completely alone, and Ginny locked the door as Hermione sank down.
"How are you?" Ginny asked.
While the older witch assumed that she would be asked about Bill putting something in her pocket, it seemed Ginny hadn't noticed. She was just concerned. "Heartsick." Hermione offered, handing slipping in to find what he'd done. "He gave me something when we hugged."
Ginny was right at her side, eager to know what it was. Hermione pulled out a note and an object that she knew just by feel without opening her hand. She hid it while reading the note, knowing the sister would be looking over her shoulder.
'My Mia,
I didn't get a proper goodbye to say just how pained I feel, but I think you know. I'll write you until you're drowning and letters and can't stand me anymore. I love you more than anything.
x Your Bill.'
As Ginny took the note to read over again, Hermione looked down at the object in her hand. "I never thought Bill would be the romantic sort!" The sister claimed.
"It gets more romantic." Hermione smiled a bit smugly.
Then they were both staring. In her hand was that precious fang earring that was never absent. How they didn't notice Bill wearing it that day was shocking. Ginny even gasped.
"He hasn't taken that off in six years! Mum will be ecstatic that it's gone!"
The funniest part of it all was that Hermione could never wear it. Not because people like Ron or Harry would know. She could care less what they thought of her with Bill's earring, and if anything they did seem like friends that summer. The problem was that Hermione was a bookworm of a girl with frizzy hair and never wore any jewellery, let alone something as brutish and masculine as a fang.
She laughed, to start. And then she started to cry. Ginny rubbed her back, and she pulled herself together quickly. With a quick wipe of her cheeks, hiding everything away, they went back to the boys for the rest of the train ride.
About two hours in the boys ran off to change and hang out with other boys. They'd done this before and would probably be gone an hour or so. The moment they left, Ginny was a fountain of wonder.
"You think you can make it until Christmas?"
Hermione shrugged. "I think so. We'll write, we both have birthdays so there an obligated contact, and then I'll be back at the Burrow. But it is three months. And a half. Oh, Merlin, I didn't think about how long it was until now! He's not going to see me and he'll find someone else."
"'Mione." Ginny tried to stop her panic.
"He will! I'm nothing. I'm a sixteen year old student and he's Bill! He's smart and sweet and funny, a bit sassy but it works for him!" She ranted. "Girls like him. I know they do. And he works with Fleur."
The girl made an understanding sound. "So you are worried about Fleur."
"She was enraptured by him when she barged into his office! And she came in so casually. Of course I'm worried about Fleur!" Hermione paled. "I can't be better than a quarter veela. He'll see her every single day and she'll compliment him and smile until he falls for her."
"Bill would never fall for Fleur. He looks at you like you are Aphrodite." Ginny snarked. "It's disgusting, really, how he gives you that puppy smile and sweetly giggles… There's nobody else around in his mind when you're talking to him. It's so obvious I don't know how the entire family doesn't know you two are shagging."
"We are not shagging!" Hermione defended, and quite loudly. It just so happened Pavarti and Lavender were walking back with sweets, and they looked in, giggled at what they heard, and went off. Now there would likely be rumours of her shagging someone, and school hadn't even started yet. "Honestly, Ginny! It's not like that."
"So you haven't had sex with my brother?" She questioned. Hermione was giving a blush worthy of a ginger Weasley, neck to the tips of her ears. "It's alright if you are. I go back and forth between finding it weird to wonderful about five times a day. Right now I'm thinking wonderful, so if you are you can tell me."
She was fidgeting and so deeply uncomfortable, which may as well have painted a picture, but Hermione didn't want Ginny thinking they'd just jumped right into bed. So she admitted it. "We've only done it twice, and only very, very recently."
"Okay, now it's a bit weird." Ginny teased with a smile.
Grabbing Ron's discarded quidditch magazine, Hermione slapped Ginny's leg with it and ignored all further questions. Thoroughly and blatantly, she turned her shoulder away from the girl, tucked into a book, and just tried not to cry again, or think about Fleur Delacour.
