"Ginny, it's not -" Hermione tried to intervene as the short ginger female backed George up into a corner, her eyes menacing, cutting, and her short stature seemingly irrelevant. He imagined Fred was laughing because of the hilarity of the contrast between them, Ginny backing him up by stalking closer to him.

Ginny Weasley was short, small, and deceptively innocent looking with freckles to match the rest of her siblings. In reality, though, George knew. He knew just how far her wrath stretched. He knew because he had been one of a handful to show her how to make sure no one got away with any funny business where she was concerned.

Unfortunately for him, her attentions were now directed at him. Narrowed and focused and concentrated on him.

"What have you done?" Ginny asked calmly, ignoring Hermione's pleas to stop and listen to her, for just a moment.

George's back was hard against the tapestry behind him and Ginny was leaning in close, her fingers splayed on her hips tightly as she angled her face at him expectantly.

Glancing over the crown of her head easily, George saw Hermione wringing her hands tightly and shuffling her feet, having given up on trying to pry Ginny from the task of interrogating her brother. Fred, meanwhile, had shut the bedroom door behind the group and was rolling his spine back down onto one of the beds, extending his arms up to cradle the back of his head and stretching his legs out leisurely. A chuckle was easy on his twin's lips and George fought the urge to roll his eyes.

"Are you two together now? Is that was this is? Because if you ask me, it looked like a lot more than just -" Ginny continued, shaking her mane of hair in his direction.

"It is," George voiced finally, with a great sigh. Ginny retracted a few inches and regarded him shrewdly.

"So you're... what? Dating?" Ginny asked haphazardly, a curious tilt to her brow that George was fortunate to see so close up.

Silence filled the room again and no one moved.

"What?" she stepped back and cast a glance between him and Hermione, stopping to observe her brown-haired friend fix her eyes to George's in silent communication. "What is it?"

Hermione was nervous; her skin was pale and she was biting her bottom lip with a sharpness that indicated it was not idle boredom with which she was fidgeting. Her eyes were wide - scared even, a little bit - a little bit scared, and George fought the urge to reach out to her, to lift his arm the precise amount he knew she would need to snake under and wedge herself in at his side.

She was waiting for him to make some sort of decision.

Did they tell Ginny and finally have an ally, hopefully, who would help if any situations arose over the remainder of the hols and for when they returned to Hogwarts? An ally who was not Lee?

"It's... It's complicated, Gin," George finally exhaled, dragging the words out with his hot breath and his hands pulling the sides of his face down in consternation.

"Well, you'd better get talking then, because mum'll wonder soon why we've all disappeared without eating dessert," Ginny commanded as she stepped back even farther and settled on the edge of the bed nearest her.

Fred snorted and George threw him a serious look, which he ignored and proceeded to play with the tassels on the edge of a nearby blanket.

"Well, it's..." George tried to find the words, Hermione and him both remaining standing as Fred and Ginny looked on quietly.

"Look, you aren't pregnant, right, so - wait, you aren't, are you, because mum'll lose her bloody -" Ginny took off like a fizzing whizzbang and Hermione started. What was it with people jumping to the notion of -

"No! No, no, no, I'm not - god, we haven't - I mean - " Hermione stumbled over her words, and George watched as a ferocious flush swept over every inch of visible skin at the implication that they'd -

Slick heat enveloping his fingers, crooking them just so, listening to Hermione babble incoherently as he swirled his thumb, the scent of her permeating his senses, the violent shake of her limbs when he had finally driven her over the edge - what would it feel like to get his -

"Oh," Ginny blinked up at them. "Well, it's just that you came back to the room last night all relaxed, like abnormal levels of not giving a rat's arse about anything, you know, literally, and so I thought maybe - because when I'm like that -"

"Merlin, Ginny, we don't want to hear about that," Fred interrupted with a sigh. "Look, it was an accident. George cast a spell that didn't do what it was supposed to do and we don't really know what went wrong but now they - well, they have to be near each other or... bad things start happening to them."

Ginny stared at Fred for a moment, the crease between her brows getting deeper and deeper until she looked back up at George and then over to Hermione.

"What does he mean, you cast a spell?" she asked, quiet.

"He - I - Well, you remember at the beginning of the year, when I was particularly... adamant about them not testing their own products on students - well, I still don't want that but the point is -" Hermione stumbled through her words and George felt the tension in the room build.

"The point is I made a terrible decision," George interrupted hastily, "and cast a spell on Hermione to cap her anger so that she would stop nagging us about it every day - except it didn't do what it was supposed to do." George grimaced and Ginny jumped up, temper flaring.

"How could you think that was a good idea?" she demanded, and Hermione stepped up between them.

"I know," George lamented, giving Ginny his most sincere regretful face but her eyes remained hard.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Ginny, but it can't be helped. We've already - we've already done loads of research and nothing... There's no counter-spell or - or - potion or - anything. We just have to wait for it to wear off," Hermione spilled. "Another few months maybe..."

"Months?" Ginny's jaw dropped. "How long has this -" she waved her hand around, not unlike the rest of her siblings did on occasion "- been going on?"

"Since September," George offered, feeling his shoulders slump and his head drop.

The guilt he had dealt with in the days and weeks following Hermione finding out what he had done were retrieved quickly, fresh and raw and settled into old wounds easily, fluidly.

"I can't believe..." Ginny was looking back and forth between them incredulously.

"Well," Hermione shrugged, George seeing the moment she relaxed in her shoulders, the moment Hermione was satisfied that Ginny would not lunge at her older brother in a vicious show of solidarity.

"Does anyone else know?" Ginny whispered as she sunk back into the bed and raised a hand, fingertips brushing against her forehead.

"Well, Sirius," Hermione started with a nervous laugh.

"Sirius caught us in the pantry," George chuckled, his insides beginning to warm again.

"Caught you in the... Wait, what do you mean by 'or else bad things start happening to them'?" Ginny snapped her gaze to Fred, who had supplied that particular information in the first place and George sighed.

"We..." he started. "We have to touch?" he shrugged.

Hermione looked over at him, her lips quivering with suppressed laughter. She quickly schooled her features but her eyes betrayed just how humorous she found something in his explanation.

George watched as the information took root in Ginny's brain and she started giggling. And then the giggle morphed through a chuckle, to a laugh, to an outright fit.

"I'm sorry," she gasped between hysterics. "I'm sorry, it's not funny, it's just so bloody typical - couldn't be a minor mix up, no, you had to go and - Oh, Hermione, I'm so sorry - my prat brothers - I just can't stop -"

Ginny took a few minutes to calm down, but when she did, she had more questions.

"If that's the case, why haven't you just said you're dating and have done with it? Wouldn't that be easier once you realized what was happening?"

"Well -" Hermione started.

"Erm -" George added.

"That about sums it up," Fred quipped. "I'm sure I suggested this at some point but neither of them was willing to -"

"Oi!" George raised a finger.

"Oi yourself," Fred shook his head.

"What is wrong with you two?" Ginny asked, only half-jokingly.

"With me?" Hermione gasped, taken aback.

"Yes, you!" Ginny laughed. "Godric, you need to find a way to cope better! You've both been looking like you're on your deathbed or plagued with insomnia, and snapping at people for no reason, completely mental the pair of you - dating and decking Ravenclaws -"

George growled under his breath and Hermione looked up in alarm, a minute shiver running down her spine. He could see it from where he was standing, and the beast in his chest unfurled.

Mine, he wanted to utter. Mine.

"Are they always so feral?" Ginny whispered to Fred who snorted indelicately. George couldn't seem to give a damn, rooted to the spot and holding Hermione's gaze just like he had been compelled to do at the kitchen table.

"You get used to it," his twin hissed back. "But this intensity is new."

"Maybe we should..." Ginny began to suggest.

Hermione's eyes were dark and wide, the freckles along her nose and cheeks stark against the paleness of her skin.

"Get some dessert? Yeah," Fred completed the sentence Ginny had started and both stood, shuffling quickly to the door without looking back. The door closed with a snap.

There was a beat of silence.

And then they were lunging at each other, colliding.

"Now look what you've done -" Hermione snapped as he yanked her toward himself, her curves pressing into his edges immediately. George kept tugging, tugging, gathering her close, her hair tickling his jaw, her scent flooding his nose and filling his lungs. It both lit a fire and drowned his other senses completely.

"Me? What about you - you're not innocent in all this. You were looking at me at the table as if you wanted to swallow me whole, for Merlin's sake -" George grunted as Hermione rolled her back and pressed closer to him, as close as she could get, closer, always closer -

"Maybe I did," she declared dangerously, and the tone of her voice caused goose bumps to erupt over the skin of his neck and down his spine. Whatever blood hadn't started making its way quickly south took that as a bright flashing neon sign to rush to battle stations and George groaned, feeling the effects immediately.

"Don't say things you don't mean, Granger," he growled, anchoring his hand at the base of her skull and twining his fingers in her hair. Using it as leverage, he held her still and placed a bruising kiss to her lips. "It's not nice to tease."

Hermione bit out an answer, but it was caught in their hasty kiss. It was caught between their struggling bodies, it was swirling around the parts they were trying to shove closer without impaling each other with sharp bones and sharper teeth.

"What was that?" George pulled back, waiting for her to repeat herself, the inkling that whatever she had to say would...

"I said 'why are you so sure I didn't mean it?'," she snapped back at him, eyes flashing. George still had his fingers in the hair at the nape of her neck, soft and curly.

Did she...

She must know what she was implying.

She was the smartest person he knew, aside from maybe Professor Dumbledore and Remus Lupin.

Hermione remained still, gazing up at him warily as if she was ready to bolt at any second but also deeply uncomfortable with being in that state. George forced his grip on her to loosen so that she could pull away, or leave or...

"Are you mad, don't let go," she hissed and seized him, fisting his sweater and pulling him down to her. Hermione was all tongue, dipping and swirling and George's knees shook with a groan.

This girl - Hermione - was possibly suggesting that she would maybe like to use that mouth on his -

"We don't have long - how are we going to -" Hermione was muttering between kisses, stumbling and nudging him back until his calves hit the mattress of one of the beds. "You can just stop me if you don't want me to, then, since you haven't said anything I can't tell if that's good or bad, honestly -"

One of her hands was tugging at the button of his trousers - his tight trousers - and the other was ghosting up under his shirt, fingertips brushing over the sensitive skin and making his muscles jump under her touch.

"It's good," George rasped out, the words catching in his throat on their way out and making him swallow audibly. Hermione was making quick work of things and what felt like just a second later, she was gazing up at him, their noses inches apart, and reaching into his underwear to free him from constraint. Her breathing was shallow, her chest only moving minutely against him and George let out a warbly noise of appreciation when her hand encircled him. Pink bloomed happily on her cheeks as a shiver ran down his spine and he closed his eyes momentarily to savour the vision.

Not being able to refrain himself as she shifted to better touch him, George pushed his fingers up under her shirt to splay over the skin of her hips and lower back, tightening his grip when she did something particularly nice. Her skin was searing, her hold on him singeing at the edges, curling and warping him until he was obeying every silent instruction.

"Shhhhh," Hermione whispered conspiratorially and George was dazed. What? He wasn't making any noise -

But then she was sinking lower and holding his shirt out of the way with one hand and moment he say her lips part for him he had to look away. He had to look up at the ceiling and pray he didn't come apart the second he felt her mouth, because that would be so rude, wouldn't it, and a bit disappointing really -

"Holy shit," his body shook violently and George forced himself not to push the rest of the way into the wet heat enveloping him, not to touch the head of his cock to the back of her throat, not to do anything that she might find offensive, because if she stopped doing whatever the fuck she was doing with her mouth in outrage, he would have to - to avada himself because - there was no way he could live in a world that didn't include Hermione Granger on her knees before him anymore - she'd gone and ruined him, that's what she'd done, good job -

His hands had been hovering, unsure of where to land, unsure of where was acceptable to touch, knowing that going anywhere near her head would be like tempting fate, challenging his self-control more than it was already being challenged, tempting his desire to push deeper, always closer -

George raised his arms instead and covered his eyes with one, hoping that shutting out light would somehow dull the sounds of Hermione pulling him into her waiting mouth eagerly, and help keep him from embarrassing himself too early on. It didn't - George was actually convinced it made the sounds more insistent, trickling over his skin and curling into the shell of his ear tantalizingly, beckoningly.

"Holy fucking - Merlin's - saggy left - bloody hell, Hermione," he babbled out, and he started when Hermione pulled him from between her lips and didn't take him in again in the next thrum of his heartbeat.

"I said 'shhhhhh'," she hissed up at him as he looked down. "Did you want to get caught?"

Hermione sounded like Hermione, like normal everyday Hermione. Hermione who scolded people who stepped out of line, Hermione who nagged about homework and lectured about study topics, Hermione who went on tirades about house elf rights, Hermione who answered any question posed with ease and efficiently and precise correctness.

But -

She did not look like that Hermione, not sitting back on her heels, not with the ferocious blush and immensely pleased expression, not with her wide eyes turned up at him - his knees shook a little - and her lips gleaming wetly in the light from the old, antique wall sconces.

"No - sorry - carry on, didn't mean to disturb you," George laughed breathlessly and swallowed a groan back when she resumed whatever delicious treatment she deemed necessary. As Hermione closed her mouth around him again, George's limbs grew more shaky and before long he was gasping out vague warnings about falling on her before she could -

Hermione nudged his hips back and he took that as a sign to sit on the bed behind him. She all but wiggled her way in between his legs, pushing his knees apart to make room for herself insistently before sliding her elbows out over his hips and descending on him once more.

Stars were bursting into life and out of existence in his belly, the sudden expansion and contraction, the pressing stifling, niggling feeling that something, something, was building, something possibly more than just the obvious, something important, something... inevitable and irresistible and -

He might as well stop resisting then, right, because it was going to happen anyway, regardless of -

George looked down and watched as Hermione pulled away from him again, exposing his flesh centimetre by centimetre -

Hermione could feel her hair falling out of its loose bun, could feel herself growing more messy, could feel her underwear soaking up the moisture that had rushed southward -

George was shaking and the noises he was making at the back of his throat, smothered and stifled, were making her skin prick and her hair stand on end, brushing painful back and forth as she moved. He sagged back on the mattress, barely holding himself up on his elbows.

He sounded like he was -

Worshipping something, like a chant of some sort -

And he tasted...

Not unpleasant.

And he felt -

Amazing.

Hot and hard and large and so very masculine under her darting tongue, smooth and slick with saliva -

Every once in a while, she would sneak a glance at George's face, slack and pained-looking at the same time - it was a wondrous combination - and wonder, as she swirled her tongue around the head of his erection, how they had managed to get to that point. And how she was not having any reservations about it. And how it was turning her on so much.

Her desire to reach between her own legs and relieve some pressure was maddening but they didn't have time - they couldn't afford to be caught - at least one of them would get some relief -

"Her - my - knee -"

His heavy breathing had stopped and she looked up the length of his body while sucking on his head gently - was he holding his breath? Oh god, had she caught him on her teeth? He looked like he was in pain - oh no, wait that face meant he was about to -

All of George's muscles tensed in a wave that seemed to run from his core to his extremities in slow motion, the strangled moan from his mouth huffing out with suddenly deep breaths as Hermione committed herself to taking him as deeply as she comfortably could. His thighs shook under her bent arms and he gasped, ragged and catching, until his heartbeat started to a relieved patter.

Not entirely sure how to deal with the aftermath of her rather insistent venture, Hermione swallowed and, with a glance up at George's unmoving body, wiped the bottom half of her face with the back of her hand. That was... something else entirely.

Hermione's body as thrumming tightly, almost loud enough to actually hear and George lifted his head a fraction of a second later.

"Are you - are you alright? I didn't, uhhh, hurt you?" George's voice came off small after all the heavy heaving of breaths and gritty groans of a minute ago.

"Hurt me?" she questioned, confused, brow furrowing.

"I don't know, did I push to hard or... I don't know. I just want to know that you're not, erm, upset because I..." his hand twitched in what was clearly meant to be a gesture that illustrated his point and her eyes widened.

"Oh - uhh, no, I'm fine, you didn't do anything... I don't, well," Hermione felt her cheeks burn as she made to stand slowly, trying not to touch George as she did so.

"I can't move yet," George dropped his head back down listlessly. "But as soon as I can..."

As soon as he could move, he'd... what?

Hermione's skin tightened in anticipation, and the sensation caused her to become increasingly more aware of the clothing she had on that she wanted desperately to rip off.

"You can what?" she whispered, and George's head raised off the mattress once more to look at her curiously.

"Oh, don't tell me you don't want the same thing," he laughed quietly, flexing his limbs and beginning to move and shuffle around more. When he was satisfied with his stretching, he sat up and then pushed himself wobbly to his feet.

"Well, I..." Hermione looked up at him, and the feeling of being dwarfed rushed back into the spaces it had been forced from briefly by womanly pride. Arousal flared sharply and she could see in George's gaze that he already knew he had been right, that he had won.

"You don't mean to say you're embarrassed, Granger?" he gave her a cheeky smirk and her bottom lip tucked itself between her lips automatically. "Because if that's what this is," he nodded to her, still in close proximity to him, with a raised brow, "than maybe I just need to remind you who started this, and where my cock was about five minutes ago."

"George -" she stuttered, her muscles clenching in pleasure at his word usage.

"Not that I didn't like it, of course," he grinned down at her. "But seriously, are you going to get all embarrassed now? Because I know I enjoyed that - Merlin's fucking arsehole, I enjoyed that, thank you - do you really want to play the game where you see how long you can hold out again?"

He made a good point.

The last time they had been cut short, in the pantry, she'd had to wait a whole day before going to see him again. It had been painful and partly out of her indesire to face the rest of the house when she was sure Sirius would have blabbed their secret out the moment he saw another living person, but that had not been the case.

Still, the memories of the past months, of not being able to sleep, of being cold, of craving any sort of contact to ease her concentration issues, any of the side effects they seemed to experience when they had not touched in too long - floated back to the surface of her mind and she sighed, closing her eyes.

"Come here," George startled her and her eyes popped open again.

He'd righted himself and cinched his pants back on his hips in her brief bout of distraction and took one large steps toward her. a few more inches remained and his waited for her too make up her mind and close the gap between them.

When she did, he wasted no time in cupping her jaw and lowering his lips to hers.

If his goal had been to ply her with his lips to help her forget any nervousness or uncomfortableness she might have been feeling, he succeeded. The moment his tongue swiped along her lower lip she remembered the fierce way they had sprung at each other the moment the door had closed behind Ginny and Fred on their way out. She remembered the way their touch at the dinner table less than an hour ago had felt like coming into orbit around one another, how everything else had seemed insignificant and fallen out of focus, like dandelion fluff floating away on a breeze, idle.

His fingers were back on her skin under her shirt and she didn't even feel the usual fleeting urge to protest when he slid his hands up her torso and pulled it over her head. The throb that she was so familiar with, the one that responded to his proximity and his body heat and his gaze, pulsed achingly. Like he could feel her body's internal reaction - its keen for him - he maneuvered her around smoothly and placed her down where he had been sitting a moment before.

"Sorry for the bluntness," he laughed quietly, "but like you said, we don't have time to waste."

Time!

Someone was going to come looking for them, surely! They would walk in and see -

"George, we don't have time -" she started, her brain clicking back into position, still precariously distracted with the war between logical thought and physical imperative.

"Right, so stop distracting me," he voiced firmly, twisting the button on her jeans loose and pulling at the zipper.

"Oh," she gasped, derailed again, and her hips followed his motions and lifted for him to pull her pants and knickers free with a few jerky tugs. Hermione leaned back on the bed and tipped her head to look at the ceiling.

George just breathed out a chuckle and before she had much time to think about much else, he was kneeling where she had just been on the floor and gently nudging her knees apart to make room for himself.

Jittery nerves made her stomach jump and, as she allowed her legs to fall to either side of him, he didn't say anything. A hesitancy, a feeling of dread, started to building and bubble in the pit of her stomach - which she had somehow lost along the way, where had it gone? -and Hermione started to panic.

His silence must mean -

She looked weird or -

God forbid, she smelled - tasted - weird -

Oh, god -

She was never going to get over this mortification, she was never going to live it down, she'd never be able to look George in the eye again -

"Holy fuck."

George's curse startled her and she jumped, making to snap her knees closed and pull away from him. As she moved, George's hands slithered under her bottom and cupped her flesh tightly before pulling her back towards him and she squealed at the unexpected move.

"Don't even think about leaving," he growled and she shivered, still. His tone froze her racing mind obediently and she let go of the breath she hadn't been aware of holding, gusting out in a hot, humid burst. "Not before I - Merlin, Hermione, do you even know how wet you are?" He pulled her right to the edge of the mattress by her thighs, curling his arms under her knees and wrapping all the way around her limbs. The flesh of her bottom was peeking over the edge of the bed and if he had not been there, clasping her and insisting she remain open for him, she would have tumbled off the mattress.

Hermione focused her energy on not squirming under the gaze she knew he had fixed on her normally quite covered parts, up close and personal, and tried not to jump when his fingers pressed into the dip where her hip met her thigh. George's breath was hot in the tender skin between her legs and when he inhaled, long and slow, she raised a hand to cover her eyes, her knees shaking.

"I don't know what you're so nervous about, love, because you smell fucking delicious," he whispered reverently and she gasped out a nervous giggle. His lips pressed into the skin of her inner thigh and she gasped, the giggle cut short.

George's lips ghosted, barely dragging over her, the tip of his nose indicating his intent. He was hovering, so close, and her legs were still shaking a little in his grasp and on his shoulders. He pulled them farther apart, still barely breathing on her, and splayed his fingers low on her belly.

Hermione's heart was hammering in her chest, a drum beat, a count down until someone would inevitably walk in and catch them - again - but this time in a much worse situation -

"You know, it's okay, we don't have time -" Hermione felt the words bubble up before she could stop them. They contradicted every urge, every craving, every shout and scream of her body, and even as she said them she was kicking herself.

What if he thought that was really what she wanted? What if he let go of her and handed her her knickers and never brought it up again? Gods, what would she even do if he never -

"Don't rush me," he laughed and her brain spiralled out of control, dizzy and off-kilter, like vertigo but she was lying down and he was holding her steady - she was still spinning like a top, colours blending and smearing and whirling - because he was going to actually do it, she felt him leaning in and -

Her world toppled -

He probed softly with his tongue, gentle and slow -

Hermione's body bowed of the bed and she couldn't breath, she couldn't breathe -

His palms were hot on her pelvis and he was unrelenting, holding her down to keep the spasms under enough control so that he could continue -

She keened, she could hear herself keening, could hear herself sounding like she was on the verge of crying -

He was getting closer, teasing, sweeping up and down, lapping her up, devouring her and soon he would find - soon he would find - soon he would -

Oh, he was quick -

George's tongue nudged the bundle of nerves at her apex, rigid and calling out to be touched and her hips stuttered in their steady rhythm of rocking against him -

He was pulling her legs as open as they would go and spreading - spreading her open -

Spreading -

Breaking -

He was breaking her down, chipping away at her flimsy and feeble facade - she could feel pieces of her falling away into nothingness, into abyss, into oblivion -

Nothing mattered.

Nothing else mattered.

Just the even stroke of his tongue over and around her clit -

Just the groan he reverberated against her -

Just the feel of him finally -

Finally -

Finally -

Making her scream.

It was fantastically lucky George had cast a silencing charm when he thought Ginny was going to yell and holler at him until her voice went hoarse because -

To say he had been expecting that reaction from Hermione would be false.

He thought she'd get the frozen shocked look that she'd when she'd come around his fingers, with her body seizing tightly and remaining all but locked up until she had come back to the land of the living a minute later.

But no.

With her fingers twisted in the blanket underneath her, head and body tightly drawn, back bowed of the bed, she'd just fallen to pieces under his mouth, quivering and vocalizing under his tongue, shaking and trembling her release.

He remained in place, refusing to jostle her as she blinked and drew shallow shocked breaths into her lungs. Her leg muscles were still fluttering when she raised her head off the bed a fraction of and inch and locked gazes with him.

There was a beat of 'what the bloody hell is this anyway' before -

Before her face split into the biggest, most dazzlingly relieved smile he had ever seen, and he quirked his lips back at her.

A/N:

1) Sorry for the long wait. But here we are.

2) Thank you to everyone who had read and reviewed and sent encouraging words and helped motivate me over my break to get something written.

3) I am very active on Tumblr (I post drabbles for other pairs and also snippets and sneak peeks of chapters I'm in the process of writing which means come follow me and drop me a line.

justcourbeau dot tumblr dot com

You can ask me questions and chat about the story, or anything really. I've already gotten to know quite a few lovely readers and you guys are so sweet.

Thanks for sticking around!

Now what's going to happen for George and Hermione?