Day Fourteen

A loud thud followed by a string of frustrated cursing woke Hermione up in the middle of the night. Worried that there might be an intruder in the flat, she jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand. She was only steps out of the bedroom when she realized the noise was coming from the spare bedroom. The cursing continued, putting all worries to rest that it was anyone other than her husband.

Water poured down from the ceiling just above Rabastan's bed. He was drenched. A bad leak in the roof was the source of all of the problems. Hermione was mortified that something like that happened to him, especially after he made it obvious how much he despised the rain. Why couldn't the leak have appeared over her head instead?

"I didn't mean to wake you up. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. This is… Oh, Rabastan, it's just…"

She didn't know what to say. The wizard was fuming even if he tried to act like he wasn't angry. Together they cast some spells that would fix the leak temporarily. At the very least the flat wouldn't flood.

"I can owl someone in the morning to come fix the roof."

"That won't be necessary. I can do it myself."

Once he calmed down, Rabastan was embarrassed. He offered Hermione a sheepish grin. After drying off his pajamas and his pillow with his wand, he picked up the pillow.

"I'll just go sleep on the sofa. I won't be able to sleep all night worrying the roof will leak again."

"No, that's ridiculous. You'll hurt your back on that sofa. My bed is large enough for both of us."

When he didn't make a single move towards the other bedroom, Hermione grabbed his hand to pull him. The entire walk to her room she could feel her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. Was she making a mistake? They settled into the bed each aware of how close the other one was. She cast a spell on the ceiling above them to prevent any water from landing on them in case there was a leak in there too.

"You weren't lying when you said your bed was better."

She laughed. It was true. The mattress he'd been sleeping on had been a poor decision she quickly fixed with the newer mattress.

"It's going to be hard getting me to go back to that other bed."

"Then stay."

Though they weren't even close enough that their arms or legs were touching, it was suddenly tense. Hermione knew she was asking for trouble inviting him to stay before their thirty day agreement was up. It was already hard enough for them to keep their hands to themselves when they weren't in the same bed. When he didn't say anything, she decided to tease him.

"Do you think you can control yourself for the next two weeks?"

Rabastan snorted.

"I don't know. It's going to be difficult."

"Just pretend we've become an old married couple bored with touching each other."

"Don't think I'll ever be bored. Just a warning. When I'm one hundred, I'm still not going to be able to keep my hands off of you."

The thought of him as a grabby old man made her laugh again.

"You say that now."

"Fine. I will behave myself until the time is up, but I have a favor I must ask of you."

"Okay."

She didn't think there was anything too terrible that he could ask of her.

"Until the month is over, can you only wear your frumpiest and ugliest pajamas to bed? Because that nightie you're wearing right now? I want to rip it off of you with my teeth."

As her cheeks burned in the darkness, part of her was tempted to tell him to go ahead and do it, damn their agreement. They'd made it nearly two weeks. That was far better than either one of them seemed to think they would do that first night.

"This one is my favorite."

"Mine too. I'd use a reparo when we were done."

He had a knack for making her laugh and she was glad he was there. She liked having him in her bed. It was impossible to remember the last time she had pillow talk. Knowing that pillow talk often led to something else, she cleared her throat and rolled over onto her side so her back faced him.

"Go to sleep. The sooner you sleep, the sooner the end of the month will get here."

Rabastan chuckled.

"Best argument I've ever heard for early bedtime."

Both of them settled in to rest. The flat was quiet again. Before they fell asleep, Rabastan grew serious again.

"I'm sorry if I scared you when I jumped out of bed like that."

"It's okay. I'm sure it was unpleasant to be woken up with cold water falling on your face."

"I thought at first I was back in Azkaban. Sometimes during storms the waves would get so high water would come through the open windows of our cells and hit us in our faces. It… it brought back bad memories."

"I'm sorry."

Still lying on her side, she reached behind her for his hand. It wasn't hard to encourage him to move until he was lying behind her with his arms wrapped protectively around her body. They could both use comfort that night. It didn't take either of them long to fall asleep.

When Hermione woke up a few hours later, Rabastan was still behind her. She had to laugh when she saw his hand laying possessively over her breast. It wasn't surprising that his hand would wander while they slept. He woke up to the sound of her soft laughter. Though it took him a moment to realize why she was laughing, he pulled his hand back with a sheepish chuckle of his own.

"I'd apologize for that but I promised you I would never lie to you."

Hermione turned over to face him. He leaned over to give her an almost chaste good morning kiss. The urge to tease him for the kiss was too strong to resist.

"Is that all I get this morning?"

"Yes, because I don't trust myself to kiss you in bed."

"Fine, you can make it up to me later."

Once she got out of bed a pained groan came out of the wizard she left. In the light of the morning she realized how right he was about her thin nightgown leaving very little to the imagination. Trying to get his mind off of what his wife was wearing, she teased him again.

"Are you going to lay in bed all day?"

"I'm going to stay right here under these blankets until I have more control over my own body than a bloody third year."

Taking pity on him, she chose to get ready in the bathroom as quickly as possible. Because he had been so kind of make her breakfast and dinner so many times already, she decided it was time that she returned the favor. She was just finishing up the simple meal when he got out of the shower. He took the plate she was holding out of her hand to set it down on the table and then kiss her breath away. They were both a little dazed when they had to break apart for air.

"Much better."

After a quick breakfast, they each went their separate ways: she went to the shop and he climbed on top of the building to fix the leak. Hermione appreciated him for taking care of it instead of owling a professional. The repairs took money she didn't have. Selfishly, she hoped he was the kind who actually knew what he was doing and not just pretending to impress her. He seemed to know enough to keep the books from falling. It seemed entirely possible that he knew about fixing old buildings too.

Most of the day was gone when he finally arrived down in the shop to declare the roof patched. She was mostly thankful he hadn't taken a tumble off of the steep roof. In hindsight, she really should've at least kept an eye on him while he worked especially since there hadn't been any customers inside. There was a lot to learn about being married. Maybe by the time she was dead she would've learned it all.

"It will last for a little while, but I think it likely that the entire roof will need to be replaced soon."

Hermione couldn't keep from groaning at that news. A brand new roof sounded very expensive. Why did no one tell her how much it cost to be a property owner? Or how many headaches it caused? Sensing she was on the verge of having a panic about what she couldn't control, Rabastan put his arm around her and kissed her cheek.

"We'll figure it out."

Both of them grew more nervous as the day ended and the night loomed ahead. There hadn't been much time to overthink him sleeping in bed with her the night before nor the invitation she gave him to stay. When she was getting ready for bed she did as he asked and picked out her ugliest pajamas. Only one step inside the bedroom and Rabastan couldn't keep his laughter under control.

"Something funny?"

"I just find it amusing that even though those are truly hideous and far too big for you, I still want to remove them with my teeth. Maybe even more so."

She rolled her eyes with a chuckle. There was nothing at all the least bit sexy about her pajamas. The poor man just hadn't been with a woman in far too long. They'd only been in bed for a few seconds when she heard him huff.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

Remembering she hadn't kissed him good night yet, she rolled over and pressed her lips against his. Immediately she understood why he had been so reluctant to give her a proper kiss that morning. Unfortunate morning breath aside, he'd been nervous that as soon as they shared a deep kiss in the very place they'd both been fantasizing about consummating their marriage, they would be unable to stop once they got started. Quickly, the kiss became very heated. Rabastan was the one to finally stop by pulling back and clearing his throat.

"I'm sorry. We shouldn't have gotten carried away like that."

Hermione smirked.

"I would apologize too but like you, I promise to never lie to you."

His frustrated groan made her laugh. Somehow they were able to fall asleep soon after he snuggled up behind her again.