Day Twenty-Two

Friday morning was painful. Hermione had far too much to drink the night before when they had a late dinner at the White Wyvern. She was indeed surprised to discover Rabastan had been right about the roast dinner. Another one for breakfast would've helped her with her terrible hangover.

It had been a lovely night. She enjoyed every single moment of it. Never before daring to step foot into one of the pubs that catered to a darker clientele in Knockturn Alley, she never would've thought she would have so much fun. Of course she drank far too much than she should've. It was easy to do when they were celebrating a wonderful day. Rabastan proved once again to be a perfect gentleman in her inebriated state. She could vaguely remember a number of increasingly less subtle attempts at seduction that he gently rebuffed.

The sound of the shop bell downstairs ringing startled her out of her thoughts. She had no idea she overslept that long. Rolling over to her side to try to get up on her feet, she saw the vial of hangover potion left on the nightstand next to the bed. A note from her husband encouraged her to take her time getting up. Apparently, he believed he had it all under control downstairs. Though she had no reason not to trust that was true, she got nervous when she heard the bell again.

After swallowing every drop of the potion and taking a quick shower, she felt a little more like herself. It had been a long time since she could last remember drinking so much. Being out of practice and only a few months away from her thirtieth birthday meant it was a little harder to recover from the binges she used to bounce back easily from just a few years earlier. Breakfast was waiting for her on the table under warming charms. It certainly looked tempting, but she didn't want to leave Rabastan downstairs by himself for too long. When she reached the door to the stairs, she had to roll her eyes when she saw the note posted on it in his familiar handwriting.

Don't you dare come downstairs until you've eaten every bite on your plate. Hangover potions don't work as well on an empty stomach. You don't want to horrify your customers by throwing up on the Herbology books, do you? -R

Even as she rolled her eyes, she smiled. It felt wonderful to be cared for. Hermione ate the delicious breakfast as quickly as she could without making herself sick. She had to admit that it really did make the potion work better. Gradually all of the symptoms of her hangover began to lessen and disappear.

The shop was busier than she had seen it in months. How was Rabastan handling it all alone? She relaxed when she caught sight of Amelia standing behind the counter ringing up purchases. Across the shop she saw her husband talking and laughing with a couple of smiling witches in the magical cooking section. Almost as if he could sense her presence just by her entering the room, he looked up and met her eye with a big smile. Making his excuses to the customers he'd been helping, he crossed the shop to pull Hermione into the office for her good morning kiss.

It was always a lovely experience to kiss her husband. She almost wished it was another one of those dismal days of no customers just so they didn't have to cut it short.

"We shouldn't leave Amelia alone out there. It's too busy just for her to handle."

Rabastan smiled and pressed his lips against hers for another second.

"Don't worry, my darling. I knew it would be busy this morning so I sent a couple of owls early this morning. Amelia was happy to come in."

He pushed open the office door just enough that she could see his older brother Rodolphus carrying a large stack of books for an elderly witch.

"Roddy is worried about being bored and driving Andy nuts by being home too much. He doesn't know where he could find a job, so I asked him if he wanted to help out on busy days. He jumped at the chance. He was waiting outside before the shop opened this morning."

"That was very kind of him."

"He likes you. And family helps each other. At least they should."

Wanting to show her appreciation for him in some way, she wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him tightly. He didn't hesitate to return the embrace. Lasting only a few seconds in reality, it was the perfect encouragement she needed to face the rest of the day. No matter what happened she had him by her side. Life was a little bit easier that way.

Having a shop full of customers actually buying books made the day fly by. Hermione thought that some of the visitors were only there because they were morbidly curious about the Death Eaters inside, but she didn't care as long as they were polite and bought something. If anyone dared to be the least bit rude to her husband or her brother-in-law, she would be glad to throw them out the front door herself. Magic was a great equalizer. She knew spells that could toss a grown man on his arse.

When she said goodbye to Rodolphus and Amelia at the end of the day, she was exhausted. Handing all of the receipts to Rabastan, she asked him to add them up at the desk in the office while she closed up. The shop would need to be cleaned again and already she could tell that several sections needed to reorganized. They were all good problems to have. It meant people were actually inside the shop. She smiled as she locked the front door and began turning off all of the lights.

Inside the office she found Rabastan seated at the desk with his glasses on looking absolutely adorable. So intensely was he taking his task, he didn't even notice when she stopped in the doorway to stare. She was glad. It was rare that she got a chance to observe him so freely.

"You were wonderful today. Thank you."

Rabastan looked up from the receipts to smile. He reached up to take his glasses off, still vain enough to want to hide from his much younger wife that his eyes weren't as strong as they used to be.

"No, leave them on."

A little confused why she would make that request, he did as she told him. Hermione walked over towards the desk to stand behind the chair. It was easy to spin him away from the desk so he was facing her. His hazel eyes widened the moment she got on her knees in front of him. He forgot how to breathe.

"I couldn't have made it today without you."

Slowly she slid her hands from his knees to his thighs. There would be no interruptions that night. All of the doors to the outside were locked and she wouldn't dare open one even if they pounded and screamed for entrance. She reached for the zipper on his trousers to carefully slide it down.

"And you were the perfect gentleman last night when you could've easily not been."

He hissed when her hand reached inside his trousers to pull his already hard cock out. Just the anticipation of what was going to happen next made him ready for her. She had to smile when she finally got her first look. Smile and squirm a little when she imagined what it would feel like to feel him inside of her.

"You deserve a reward."

Grasping him in one hand, she ran her tongue on the underside of his shaft, hitting several sensitive spots on his skin to make him groan. Once she was certain that her tongue tasted every centimeter, she wrapped her lips around the head. Taking just the very tip in her mouth, she swirled her tongue around, smiling when he had to close his eyes for a moment to moan. At a glacial pace that was intended to torture him with pleasure just a little bit, she took him all the way in her mouth. Though it had been a long time since she last had reason to repeat the same actions on a man, she hadn't forgotten how to relax her throat to take him completely. Proving to him that she knew what she was doing, she moved her mouth back up his shaft, licking the underside again as she went.

She felt empowered on her knees with her husband's cock in her mouth. The moans she could pull out of the man with just a flick of her tongue were intoxicating. Every second she loved it. Content to just sit there and watch her mouth take him in and out, Rabastan seemed to enjoy what she was doing just as much as she enjoyed doing it. Each time she looked up and met his eyes, she could feel him getting more excited.

It soon became too much for him to handle. She could feel him tense up, readying himself for the explosion that was on its way. Her response was just to take him deeper and deeper for longer stretches of time. When she knew he was on the verge of reaching his climax, she kept him in her mouth.

"Oh, fuck."

She would've laughed at the simple curse that came out of his mouth if he wasn't coming down the back of her throat. Feeling like he should remove himself from her mouth, he tried, but she wouldn't let him. Not until she knew he was finished. Watching her swallow forced another deep groan of satisfaction out of her husband's mouth. Carefully she slid her mouth back up until his satiated cock came out with a loud, wet pop. When she was done, Rabastan smiled down at her.

"What did I do to get so lucky?"

It was a question she didn't know how to answer. The intense way he looked at her was not like any other man had ever done before in her life. Somehow it managed to both excite her and terrify her all at the same time. Needing a few minutes to clear her head, she stood up and offered to go get them dinner. Seeing as how Rabastan appeared to be temporarily paralyzed, he was in no position to argue.