A/N: I'm not even sure what I think about this chapter. Struggling to continue this story.
Minister Riddle Will See You Now
Chapter 15: Solutions
Hermione's second day of work was productive. By the time she had arrived, the entire potion's branch of Saint Mungo's had been informed of her formula and were already preparing the lab to begin working on her inoculation. By Gael's estimate, they should have the inoculation prepared in two weeks at worst, a week at best.
Most of the interns were too busy to make friends with Hermione but they all waved to her when introduced as they gathered supplies for the potioneers and scrambled to keep the lab clean and stir the potions they were in charge of.
A base for the potion was simmering when she left her second day at work. Tom had prepared a nice candle lit dinner in his dining room.
"How was your day, dear?" Hermione smirked at him cheekily as she took a bite of the roast that was placed in front of her, feeling hungry after skipping lunch to restart the base potion when nightshade proved too strong for it.
"Marvelous" Tom smiled back at her. "I anticipate a much needed inoculation for Dragon Pox soon which is wonderful news for the wizarding population but that means that I have to create room in the budget to afford funds for free vaccines for the population. My financial advisor was put off at having to stop his current work and begin pulling funds out of nowhere."
She blushed and looked down at the table.
"Hermione?"
"Hmm?" she looked up at him after a moment when he didn't speak, knowing he was waiting for her to make eye contact.
"I'm proud of you. You are clearly the brightest witch of your age and a wonderful contribution to society. I am...quite happy to have you as mine."
His dark eyes glittered at her with passion as he spoke and Hermione felt a rush of desire course through her.
"I-thank you, Tom."
"Of course," he continued as he cut a bite of meat. "My public relations manager and personal advisor was annoyed with the state of my personal matters and he has instructed me to solve the issues before we come out as a couple."
"Do you have a solution?" Hermione bit her lip as she set her cutlery down.
"Severus has an idea to try but I don't like it and I am positive that you will not either. Lucius is working with us now to come up with a more favorable solution as well so it's possible that we might find a different way," Tom told her evasively before accepting his bite of meat.
A feeling of dread settled in her stomach. She no longer felt hungry.
"And, what was the solution that we might not be using?"
"We won't need to use it so don't worry on it," Tom suggested. "Instead, I'd like to hear about your formula. It was tempting to tell Severus that his protegee developed a cure for Dragon Pox during her interview but I thought you might like to rub that in his face."
It was clear that Tom didn't want to tell her the solution which meant it was awful. Would she have to murder someone's firstborne? What could be so horrendous that Tom didn't even want to mention it?
"The solution, Tom?"
His lips pressed tightly together and he shot her a look that made her see how he could be the Minister at such a young age.
He sighed and set his fork down. "I'm not going to tell you unless we discover no other solutions. Give me a week?"
A week? She might pass out at work and no one there knew her situation. She voiced this concern and Tom nodded.
"You are correct. What if I ask to let Severus sit in on the process? I can explain it away as he's a potion master and your previous professor. I'll have him sign a confidentiality clause and sit in to observe."
Shrugging, Hermione pushed her food around a bit more in hopes that Tom would think she's making an attempt to eat more.
He frowned at her and shook his head but he didn't stop her from leaving the table when he was done.
O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O
True to his work, Severus was in the lab when she arrived the next day. The interns were jumpy and nervous and a few times Hermione was certain they were going to spill or drop ingredients as they delivered them.
Gael was present more on her third day as he oversaw the procedures. Hermione brewed her first failure that day and she was frustrated. It was clear that at least one of her theorized ingredients wasn't potent enough once brewed and she spent the last hour of her work day researching and writing down options to try the next workday. A smirk on Severus' face told her that he already knew where she'd gone wrong but he'd not uttered a word all day to anyone. His presence alone was all that was needed to wreak havoc on the research department's nerves.
For the third night in a row, Tom did not attempt to touch her and while she hadn't had an episode since she'd black out after dinner with Narcissa, she was starting to feel antsy again. She fidgeted and scratched as she flooed home from work and took a cool shower to help it.
Tom had informed her that morning that he was scheduled to have dinner with the French Minister of Magic and her family so she was staying in her flat with Ginny and Luna that night.
Pizza was ordered and delivered while she was getting dressed so Hermione pulled on a comfortable pair of flannel pajama bottoms and one of the t-shirts that promoted her father's dentistry.
She was in the middle of her second slice when Ginny's hands yanked her wrist away and pulled it to her to examine.
"Are you having a reaction to something in the lab, Hermione?" Luna asked, seeing the red marks on her arms that were raw from the scratching.
Hermione scratched at her neck and shook her head. "I've got a healer working on it but it's not an allergic reaction, I promise. Luna, have you got a dress for the gala?"
Ginny released her arm and went back to eating but her eyes watched Hermione suspiciously while Luna described the dress she had picked. It was yellow and covered in feathers. Even Hermione blanched.
"You know," Ginny finally turned to look at Luna, "I heard that Lady Greengrass was wearing yellow. Do you want to look and see if my midnight blue dress robes will fit you? I had this idea that we could put some silver moon accents along with trim."
Their eccentric friend was happy to go along with that plan, thankfully. Hermione threw Ginny a grateful look as she used the palm of her hand to discreetly rub the itch on her thigh through her pajama bottoms.
"Okay, that's it, Granger. You need help," her redheaded friend threw her half-eaten slice of pizza back in the box and dusted her hands off.
"I'm fine," Hermione insisted.
She hadn't done any magic at work that day because she was afraid of the 1 out of 4 times that she blacked out. There was no pattern to how her body would respond to using magic and she didn't want Severus to have to cart her out of her lab without being able to give anyone an explanation. Weakness was the last thing she needed while developing a vaccine.
The downshot of that plan was that she now had too much magic and she was afraid of what would happen when she let some of it out. Tom was in the middle of a business dinner and she didn't want to bother him. THe last time she had this issue, he'd had to strip her down in front of the floo and fuck her. That wasn't an option now.
"You're not," Ginny insisted. "Either tell me what to do to make it better or tell me who to get. What was your healer's name?"
Panic was starting to take over her thinking and she scratched more strongly at her chest where too much heat was flushing her skin.
"I don't know," Hermione gasped. "Tom's busy. Severus?"
"How do we get in contact with him?" Luna asked, holding a cold pack to Hermione's flushed face.
Shaking her head because she didn't know his floo address or if he was in present company to accept a patronus, Hermione asked for her satchel which Ginny summoned from her room.
Withdrawing her seafoam parchment, Hermione took a quill and scrawled a message to Tom asking how to floo to Severus.
There was no reply within two minutes so Hermione shoved it back in her bag knowing he probably didn't bring it with him to dinner.
"Malfoys?" Hermione moaned a little as she was starting to sweat and struggled against the hands that were holding her down from scratching at the tingling that was bursting under her hot skin.
One of her hands was freed as Luna left to go make the floo call. She was fighting Ginny to scratch at her flushed face when Lucius Malfoy's face entered her vision.
"How long has she been like this?" his smooth voice asked.
"At least an hour," Ginny answered as he pulled her hand away from her face.
Her neck was itchy but also so raw from her nails. She wanted to scratch some more to relieve the feeling but knew that it was going to hurt to do so. The feeling was very odd.
"Did she come home like this?" Lucius asked, his cool hands now wrapping around the hand of Hermione's that Ginny wasn't able to hold down.
"She said 'hello' and made small talk and went straight to the shower," Ginny told Lucius as Hermione turned her head to wipe her sweaty forehead on her shoulder.
"Then she hadn't started behaving like a potion addict at that point?"
Luna spoke up from behind Lucius' shoulder. "No, she seemed a little preoccupied with getting to the shower."
"I see," Lucius said. "I'm going to take her to the Manor and call her healer. Thank you girls for taking care of her. Please do not speak to anyone about her symptoms. Until we get a handle on her condition, there's no need to worry anyone."
Standing up, Lucius tugged Hermione to stand and when she struggled against him to scratch some more, he threw her over a shoulder.
It was a testament to how much Hermione wanted to make the itching stop that she didn't protest.
"That's my friend," Ginny stood up angrily. "We asked you to come because we thought you could help us call her healer here."
The sneer on his face could be detected in his tone even though Hermione could not see his face to confirm it.
"And I was given instructions by my friend, Tom, the Minister, to give aid to Miss Granger if she ever asked for it and I shall do so: in my own home."
Gasping as she scratched at her face, Hermione told her friends, "It's okay. I'll be okay. It's easier for my healer to meet me there, I promise."
Knowing Ginny was going to delay Hermione getting help with her protests, Luna interjected, "Will you let us know when you're okay?"
"Yes," Hermione furiously nodded her head, shamelessly trying to free the hand that was trapped under her body over Lucius Malfoy's shoulder.
They were moving as Lucius carried her to the grate. Luna and Ginny followed making demands that she let them know what was going on soon to which Hermione shouted out an "of course!" as the green flames took her to the Manor.
After arriving, Hermione half thought that Lucius would drop her on the floor but he continued to walk in long strides through the Manor to a destination she had no guess for.
The sound of a wooden door being kicked open caused her to look around and notice that Lucius had brought her to the room she'd been in the night of the dinner when she'd last been here.
She was eased off his shoulder and onto the bed she had woken up in.
"Now that you're away from ignorant girls, I need you to use your wand and focus the slightest amount of magic into a 'lumos.' I want this to be so dim that you can't use it to read with. Do you understand?"
She inhaled and nodded, resisting the urge to scratch her chest. She could feel bead of sweat dripping down her temples.
Wand in hand, Hermione focused her best and did a nonverbal 'lumos'.
The tip of her wand glowed bright.
"Stop," Lucius commanded.
She didn't want to end the spell. It felt good to release some magic. Stopping the spell felt too much forcing yourself to stop mid-stream when urinating.
Her wand was plucked from her hand and the spell stopped. Her magic buzzed but it wasn't as bad as it was.
As she raised her hand to scratch, the door opened and Narcissa rushed in.
"How long has she been like this?" she addressed her husband as she appraised Hermione's state.
"An hour at least but probably more," Lucius told her.
"Tom won't be free to respond for another hour or two," Narcissa said worriedly as she sank down on the mattress next to Hermione.
The Mafloys shared a look as one of them held her hands at her sides while the other summoned cloth from the bathroom and wetted it with a silent augementi.
The cool cloth on her face and neck helped but Hermione still desperately wanted to scratch.
"Miss Granger, I'm going to put you in enchanted sleep until Tom or the healer can arrive," Lucius told her.
"O-okay," she agreed, tears joining the sweat on her face as she struggled not to rip her skin open in an attempt to let magic out in fear of setting something on fire or worse.
O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O
When she woke, Tom was leaning over her as was Severus, Lucius, and Narcissa. She still felt hot, sweaty and panicky at how much magic seemed to be coursing through her, desperate for an attempt to escape.
"Tom!" Hermione moaned in pain as she endured the persistent itching.
"I need you to be as calm as possible, pet. Understand?"
Nodding, Hermione did her best to stop struggling to free her hands.
"I have a solution but I don't think you're going to like it any more than the rest of us," Tom told her seriously.
"Okay," Hermione gasped. "Make it stop!"
"Thank you, Lucius. Narcissa," Tom dismissed them as Severus put a hand on her leg where she was trying to subtly rub it against the mattress in an attempt to scratch.
After the door closed, Severus cast a few spells that Hermione only assumed were privacy spells since they were all nonverbals.
"What is it that is so terrible?" Hermione pleaded.
She watched Severus and Tom study each other before they turned to her.
"Your magic is tangled in mine." Tom reminded her. "It happened that first night and we don't believe that abstinence is enough to untangle it."
Her mind whirred as she considered his words. The power exchange of magic that normally occurred between a couple during sex was so powerful that first time that their magic had tangled in Hermione. It was causing her to have too much and confusing her body on how much and which magic to use. Untangling it would be the solution and the obvious answer would seem to be that abstinence could fix it.
She considered how she felt if she used too much magic and knew there was a chance that her body was now a little used to housing someone else's magic and that depleting it too fast was bad for her.
What was he trying to say?
"So, we just keep at it and manage the symptoms?"
Another look exchanged between the two wizards.
"No," Tom said slowly. "Our research indicated that we could use another's magic as a crutch."
She blinked. Another's magic?
"How do I borrow magic to replace yours with? I've never heard of such a ritual," she snapped in desperation to wriggle her back against the mattress to scratch.
"The traditional way," Tom gritted his teeth.
She froze as she looked from Tom to Severus. Surely he wasn't suggesting what she thought he was.
"What?!" she shrieked.
"We can keep researching but we both think this might be the quickest and easiest solution," Tom told her.
Beside them Severus was silent.
"So you just hand me over to someone else like a whore?"
Tom's face hardened. "No."
She twisted her head to stare at her old professor. He was watching her warily.
"And you're fine with being used like a stud?"
He sneered at her in that familiar way that he used to when she said something in class that she didn't like.
"To be a stud would indicate that I'm trying to knock you up and I assure you that is not the case."
She whipped her head to stare at Tom. Her boyfriend. Her lover.
"And you are in favor of handing me to your friend?"
She watched him swallow as he looked at her.
"No, I am not in favor of sharing you with anyone. I am also not in favor of you being in a constant state of having too much magic or depleting your magic."
"But...Healer Wyler seemed to think that cutting back and allowing me time to adjust would work over time!" she was beginning to panic at the thought of what was being suggested.
"We've looked into the issue in more depth since then and the problem hasn't gotten any better," Tom's eyes focused on her as he spoke, making her realize that he was serious in this suggestion.
"How will having sex with someone else fix the problem?"
Severus pinched his nose but this time Hermione thought it was out of feeling uncomfortable rather than from annoyance.
"Your body will purge my magic to make room for his. The power exchange will be lesser between you and you will not receive as much from Severus as you do from me. This will untangle our magic and allow you time for your body to slowly get used to the feeling of a normal power exchange. We are certain that this will be better than for you and I to engage as a short term solution."
Tom's hair was slightly messed up, she noted as she took in his appearance. He was dressed in his finest and had clearly been pulled from a fancy dinner.
Hermione managed to rub her shoulder against her jaw to scratch as she considered the ramifications of what Tom had just thrown on the table.
"Explain exactly what you are asking me to do sexually," she demanded.
Looking away, Tom told the headboard behind her, "You'll need to engage in penetrative sex with another person to the completion of both of you."
The part of her that still felt virginal and pure gasped internally. The part of her that had been ravished multiple times daily by Tom since her graduation mourned the thought that Tom would no longer be her only notch on the bed post if she agreed.
"What if I say no? What then?"
Gritting his teeth, Tom ground out, "Then we'll do what we've been doing and hope to research a different option soon."
"Why him?" Hermione asked.
It was odd to her that if she needed to have sex with someone who was not Tom that Tom would get to be the one to choose.
"Because he is the only person who knows what is happening that is available and willing to assist," Tom informed her stonily. "Lucius is married and unwilling. Wyler is old and married. Narcissa is female and married and unwilling. Any other suggestions?"
"I've never thought of anyone else in this capacity, you know I've not! Why would I have a suggestion?"
Angrily, Tom spat, "Then it's lucky that the only person in this world that I would share a witch with is already in the know."
Later, when her brain wasn't delirious with the need to scratch or blast a spell to relieve her magic, Hermione would consider if they had shared witches before and just how close their friendship really was.
"You're starting to run a fever, Hermione," Tom told her tenderly, the anger gone from his face. "I regret that I didn't give you much time to consider but you need to decide now before you get worse."
Sex with another person that was not Tom was not appealing. On the other hand, she was in a health or no health sort of situation. If one simple interaction with someone else could fix things for her and Tom, it would be stupid to keep searching for a different solution that may not exist. On the other hand, the easy fix would have to be with a man who was her professor.
"Talk to me," Tom implored, his dark hair falling in front of his eyes.
There was a movement on the mattress next to her as Severus stood and paced to the other side of the room.
"I just- I see the solution is probably the best but I really have no interest in...engaging with anyone else."
Nodding, Tom pushed back her sweaty hair. "Okay, what are your concerns if you agreed?"
She fidgeted and Tom cast a cooling spell over her so she could focus.
"I'm worried that it will ruin what we have."
"This will not make me resent you in any way," Tom insisted. "I've had sex with someone other than you, remember? Those interactions were for far less noble reasons, too."
"I'm nervous about being with someone else," she stared at the ceiling as she admitted it.
"You are a beautiful, brilliant, and sexy witch. Severus is lucky to be afforded the opportunity that he already longed for before I snatched you. What else?"
Surprised, Hermione looked at Tom again. "Um, what if it doesn't work after all?"
Shrugging, Tom casually said, "then he received a treat and we don't owe him a Christmas gift this year."
She didn't laugh.
"What will others think of me?"
A hand wiped a tear off her face.
"Hermione, no one who knows about this situation will think any less of you. No one has as much moral fiber as you do. Severus and I both have a wicked sexual history and Lucius and Narcissa had a baby much sooner than most people. None of us have grounds to point fingers at you for having sex with Severus to untangle my magic from inside you."
She chewed her lip. Even if Severus was willing, he'd been her professor. It was weird.
"What else?" Tom turned her head to look at him.
"How exactly would the...sharing...work?"
Tom sighed. "That's up to you. Whatever you need to make the act more comfortable."
She snorted. This was the last conversation she ever anticipated having with Tom.
"I don't even know what to say or think or feel."
"I understand that," Tom whispered to her, pressing a kiss on her sweaty brow. "Would it be easier if I make suggestions and you agree or disagree?"
That idea had merit but first she needed to know one thing.
"Tom, if you were to make this decision without me, what would you say?"
He exhaled. "I think there's a very good chance that this will be the solution we need and if not, the cost was minimal. Your health is far too important to gamble with."
"Okay."
Tom tightened his hold on her wrists as she tried to scratch again.
"We need to decide quickly on the details so this can be done tonight before you injure yourself. Do you want me in the room or out?"
Her brain stopped in shock at the suggestion.
"So when you say 'share' me, you me-"
"I cannot participate in the sex," Tom interupted. "I can be here to help you feel more comfortable and I can touch your skin with my hands but nothing beyond that. For the actual exchange, I can't be touching you at all so that your magic isn't confused."
Would she want Tom to watch her have sex with another man? That idea had never ever crossed her mind.
"Can you just… can you both just determine how it's going to work and I'll go along with it?"
He studied her to determine her genuinity. "You're overwhelmed with decisions for things you have no knowledge of?"
Nodding, Hermione felt relief at not having to decide.
"Okay, we need you to cast magic first to rid your body of some of mine. Severus," Tom called over to the other side of the room. "We're ready."
As her old professor approached where she laid on the bed with Tom sitting next to her, she swallowed nervously.
She wasn't sure what she felt as she watched Tom clean the sweat off her body and place her wand in her hand.
"Ready?"