Author's Note:

Sorry guys, but the break between sections doesn't seem to want to show up, no matter how many times I go back and add them. I know it's confusing to read the chapter without them, but that's just the way it is on this site. If you want to read the version with the breaks in, I suggest you go to Checkmated . com.

Chapter 55

"You'll pay for this, Weasley," Draco hissed at Ron, who had just used a sticking charm to secure the blond Slytherin's feet to the floor right outside McGonagall's office so he wouldn't be tempted to try and make a run for it now that Hemione had gone back upstairs to fetch their Transfigurations professor. "Mark my words. You and that filthy little mudblood whore are dead."

"Shut your bloody mouth!" Ron shouted angrily, tightening his grip on his wand, which was still pointed directly at Malfoy's chest. "Or I'll shut it for you," he threatened. "Damn it," he mumbled under his breath, feeling a powerful surge of anxiety wash over him almost as soon as the threat left his mouth.

Hermione had obviously felt his anger and she was worried about what might happen while she was gone.

"Hit a nerve, did I?" Malfoy jeered. "I suggest you get used to it, because you're going to be hearing a lot more of it now that you're having it off with filth like that. No self-respecting pureblood will have anything to do with you. Not now that you've shoved your prick up that tainted mudblood cunt."

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ron bellowed, taking one step forward, then catching himself when Hermione's anxiety levels increase and her apprehension threatened to drown out his rage.

How the hell was he suppose to deal with two conflicting desires at the same time. He couldn't very well give into his anger and knock that smirk off Malfoy's pointy face if he was afraid to do it. Although, truth be told, it wasn't so much the hitting Malfoy part that he, or more precisely Hermione, was worried about, it was what came after that. She was worried about what the consequences would be for him if he gave into temptation. He was lucky he hadn't been expelled after the beating he'd given Draco on the Hogwarts Express. But if he staged a repeat performance, there was no telling what would happen. At the very least he'd lose his Prefect badge.

"Fuck!" Ron cursed loudly, forcing himself to take three steps backwards, instead of giving into to his own urge to sweep forward and wring Malfoy's neck.

I know, he sighed in his head, knowing exactly what Hermione would say to him if she were standing there. He's not worth it, he scolded himself for her. He's just trying to provoke me. If I fall for it, he wins. I know. I know. But I'll be damned if I'm going to stand here and let him talk that way about you.

he sighed in his head, knowing exactly what Hermione would say to him if she were standing there. he scolded himself for her.

"To hell with it," the aggravated redhead said, flicking his wrist and muttering an incantation under his breath. "Let's see you open your foul mouth now," Ron said, leaning back against the wall and bringing one knee up in a casual pose, smirking at Draco, whose lips had just been glued together.

"What?" Hermione asked Ron, who was studying her intently as they left McGonagall's office thirty minutes later.

"That was... I can't believe you just did that," the tall redhead exclaimed, both shocked and impressed at the same time. "Lying to Snape is one thing," he said, as the two of them made their way back up to Gryffindor Tower, "but you... you just told a bald faced lie to McGonagall. And you didn't even have to take any time to think it up," he continued, clearly in awe. "When she asked how you knew where Malfoy was, despite the fact that he was wearing an invisibility cloak, you came up with an answered just like that," Ron said, snapping his fingers for effect, "and it sounded completely plausible."

"What did you expect me to do?" Hermione asked, transmitting her embarrassment to Ron and causing his ears to flush right along with her cheeks. "I couldn't very well tell her that I spotted him on the Marauder's Map," she added. "Especially with Malfoy standing there. He'd go straight to his father. Can you imagine what they'd do to get their hands on a map that shows where Harry is at any given moment? I had to lie. There was no other choice."

"Obviously," Ron agreed. The fact that she couldn't mention the map was a given. Harry would kill them both if they got his map confiscated. He just didn't expect her to come up with a convincing cover story so effortlessly. "But you were so bloody calm about it," he continued. "I mean, you weren't nervous, or worried, or anything. Not even a little bit. You were perfectly calm the whole time. If I didn't know any better... it was almost like you believed it yourself."

"Of course I didn't," Hermione said, brushing it aside.

"But how do you do it?"

"I'm not going to teach you how to lie," she snapped.

"I know how to lie," Ron retorted. "I just don't know how to fool people into believing me."

"That's because you wear your heart on your sleeve," Hermione explained. "Everything you think and feel is right out there for everyone to see. When you get caught doing something you shouldn't be doing, it's written all over your face. It doesn't matter what you say, because you've already given yourself away. That's what a Legilimens does," she stated. "He use your emotional reactions to read you. When people lie, they usually call forward the memory of what they know to be true. A Legilimens waits for you to do that and then extracts the memories from you. That's how he knows that you're lying. Because in that split second that you think about what really happened, he's able to draw the memory out and see it for himself. But you only think about it that way because you know that you're lying. If it was the truth, the memory wouldn't conflict with the answer you gave to his question and there would be no emotional reaction. That's why Harry is supposed to clear his mind at night and why he needs to learn to control his emotions. His emotions are what trigger the memories and give him away."

"Huh?" Ron asked, the blank expression on his face giving way to genuine confusion as he tried to sort out what she'd just told him.

"Maybe you should just read that book on Occlumency that I gave Harry," Hermione answered, when she not only saw, but felt how confused he was.

"But you weren't using Occlumency," Ron said, his brow knitting together. "Because you don't know how and McGonagall isn't a Legilimens."

"It's the same principal though," Hermione tried to explain. "That story I told her about how we checked the Room of Requirement at the beginning of our rounds and about how I left a spell behind to alert us if anyone showed up after we'd moved on, it was completely plausible. And when I was telling her that story, I wasn't thinking about what really happened. I was thinking about the story I was telling her as if it were in fact true, because it very well could have been true. Does that make sense?"

"No," Ron moaned. "How can you think about something that you know is a lie as if it were the truth?"

"The point is, I didn't call forth the memory of what really. I pushed it aside and blocked it, and the emotional reaction that goes with it, out like you're supposed to when... Oh, never mind," she sighed, realizing that he still wasn't really getting it. "Read Harry's book and then what I just said will make a lot more sense."

"You are still going to come up to my room later, right?" Ron asked, once they entered the deserted common room together and Hermione made a beeline for the stairwell leading to the girls' dorm.

"It's late," she replied, having no choice but to stop on the second step, because Ron had grabbed her from behind.

"So?" he whispered in her ear, before turning her around so she was facing him and tightening his grip on her waist. "I took a nap, remember?"

"But I didn't," Hermione said, almost as if she were hoping to discourage him. She was unable to keep the pretense up however, and broke into a smile mere seconds after the words left her mouth. "All right," she confessed, shaking her head, disappointed with herself because she wasn't able to pull it off and make a quick escape as she had planned. "Yes, I'm still going to come up to your room."

"Then why were you pretending that you didn't want to?" Ron asked. "When you know that I can feel that you do. You've only been thinking about it for the past ten minutes," he said, letting her know that he'd felt both her anticipation and her excitement.

"I think you have me confused with yourself," Hermione chuckled. "You're the one that started it. In fact, I've spent the past ten minutes trying to block out your...urges," she finished, after hunting for a tactful way to put it.

"You haven't done a very good job of it then," he said with a lopsided smile.

"Yes, I know," she sighed. "Thank you so much for pointing out the obvious."

"But why are you trying to fight it?" he asked, genuinely curious. "You want to. I know that you want to. You know that you want to. So why fight it?"

"Because now is not the time or the place?" Hermione replied.

"Hello?" Ron said, pulling one hand off her waist and sweeping it across the wide-open space before them. "Empty common room. Looks like a pretty good place to me."

"It won't be empty for long," she insisted. "Your sister is bound to be waiting for me upstairs. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't camped out in the hallway just outside my door. And I'd wager Harry is waiting for you as well. Now is not the time."

"But..." Ron moaned, despite the fact that he knew she was probably right. Harry had enough sense not to come downstairs looking for them, but Ginny wouldn't be put off so easily. "But," he said again, glancing over at the empty couch longingly. "Just for a little while?" he asked, hopefully.

"No," Hermione stated firmly.

"Just for ten minutes?"

"It won't end there and you know it."

"But... you can just go up there and ... not without at least giving me a good night kiss?"

"Nice try," Hermione chuckled, "but I'm not falling for it."

She knew perfectly well what would happen if she gave in. One kiss would lead to another and then another, each more heated than the next. And if they weren't careful, they were liable to get caught up in another one of those feedback loops and feed off each other's desires until they forgot where they were and shagged each other senseless right there on that sofa. She knew it and Ron knew too, which is why he was pushing. She had to get out of there before her resolve cracked and she gave in, because she really did want to give in.

"I'm not falling for those puppy dog eyes either," she informed him, "or that cute little pout, so you might as well save yourself the trouble."

"Aw, you're no fun," Ron groaned, sounding both resigned and thoroughly disappointed. And yet disappointment wasn't the emotion she was picking up from him, because he hadn't really given up yet.

He was still hopeful and Hermione could feel it. But there was more to it than just that. There was also anticipation and an eagerness that didn't quite make any sense, because it wasn't sexual. But then she replayed his words over in her mind and realized exactly what it was he had done.

You're no fun.

He wasn't complaining. His wasn't feeling let down. When being forthright about what he wanted didn't work, he hadn't given up. He'd simply switched gears and now he was trying to use stealth tactics on her. Ron wasn't the best chess player in Hogwarts without a reason. He knew how to read his opponents and he was perfectly willing to use their weaknesses against them if need be. He knew full well how Hermione would respond to a challenge. He was daring her to prove him wrong.

DAMN HIM! Hermione thought, unwittingly transmitting her irritation to Ron, letting him know that the gig was up before she even opened her mouth to reply.

"Uh oh," Ron said with a slight grimace.

"Uh oh is right," Hermione growled.

"Are you going to punish me now?" Ron asked.

"Oh my god!" she cried, when she felt his arousal increase when he made that statement. "I can't believe..." she started, then stopped herself before she got any further into her rant. "Yeah, I'm going to punish you," she said instead, pushing his hands away and turning her back to him. "I'm going to leave you down here to deal with that on your own," she added, as she tromped up the stairs and out of sight.

For a moment all Ron could do was stand there in stunned disbelief and stare up the empty stairwell. She'd left. Hermione had actually walked away from him, despite the fact that she wanted to stay. Surely she wasn't serious about him taking care of himself. And yet, the longer he stood there, the more certain he became that she was. He could feel her regret flood into him just as he realized that she wasn't simply teasing him. She'd really gone to her room. She wasn't going to come back down anytime soon. That's when his own disappointment set in.

Hermione apparently felt it, wherever she was, because the regret she was feeling increased significantly.

At least you know she's not really angry, he told himself, as he slowly trudged over to his own stairwell. Because if she were, you'd be sleeping alone tonight. Which you're not, he though happily. But you are going to have to wait, he added, sighing loudly as he climbed the stairs, because waiting wasn't something he was good at.

, he told himself, as he slowly trudged over to his own stairwell. he though happily. he added, sighing loudly as he climbed the stairs, because waiting wasn't something he was good at.

"You're back earlier than I would have expected," Parvati said, as soon as the door opened and Hermione entered their shared dorm room. "Ginny Weasley was looking for you. It must be pretty important," she added, as her roommate swept past her without so much as a glance.

"Yeah, she's only been by four times in the past hour," Lavender piped in, as she continued to comb her long blond hair.

"But we told her that you probably wouldn't be back for a while seeing as how you do such a thorough job of searching the castle when you're on rounds."

"Not to mention the occasional strip search," Lavender whispered to Parvati just loud enough that she could be sure Hermione would hear her.

"Excuse me?" Hermione cried, taking the bait and spinning around to confront her roommates. "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"You know perfectly well what it means," Lavender shot back. "You and your boyfriend, off on your own for hours at a time, 'searching' in all those empty classroom."

For a moment, Hermione considered denying the fact that she'd ever sink so low as to snog Ron in an empty classroom, let alone that she'd already done it once while they were supposed to be on rounds, but then another thought occurred to her and she ran with it.

"I'm not the one that got caught in the Room of Requirement tonight," she replied flippantly, before disregarding her roommates and allowing them to digested that juicy piece of gossip.

That out to keep them out of my business for a while, she thought, hiding her smile by turning her back on them as she began removing her clothes.

"Oooh really!" Parvati all but squealed from her bed, coming up on her knees in her excitement. "Who was it?"

"Who was who?" Hermione asked, purposely playing coy so they'd think that she accidentally let that information slip and didn't want to talk about it.

"What couple did you catch in the Room of Requirement?" Lavender asked eagerly, her brush having long since been dropped on the bed, where it lay forgotten.

"I never said it was a couple," Hermione replied evasively, as she slipped into her pajamas.

"Why would anyone want to go to the Room of Requirement by themselves?" Parvati asked Lavender, who shrugged her shoulders. "That doesn't make sense."

"Unless they were meeting someone from another house there," Lavender said, her whole face lighting up when Hermione froze beside her bed. "I'm right aren't I?" she asked gleefully, taking Hermione's lack of a denial as confirmation.

"Well," Hermione finally said, as she draped her dressing gown over the chair next to her desk, so she could retrieve it later without making any noise. "That's pretty close to the story he fed Professor McGonagall. Only..."

"Only what?" Parvati asked impatiently. "Oh come on Hermione. You have to tell us now. I'll never be able to get to sleep unless I know. Who was it?"

"I probably shouldn't be telling you two this, but seeing as how the detention Ron gave him is being enforced, I suppose it's only a matter of time before you find out who it was on your own so..."

"Ron Weasley gave someone detention?" Lavender asked in shock.

"Not just someone," Hermione divulged with a smile. "Draco Malfoy."

"NO!" Parvati cried, before dissolving onto a fit of giggles. "Malfoy?"

"Seriously?" Lavender giggled. "Oh my god. You two caught Malfoy? Who was he meeting? Did he tell you?"

"Not me personally," Hermione replied, "but he had no choice but to answer Professor McGonagall's questions. And if you believe the story he told her, than that twitchy little ferret was stood up tonight."

"By who?" Lavender asked, her face alight with excitement.

"Well," Hermione said, biting her lip as if she were contemplating whether or not she ought to tell them. "I don't know if I should say since technically she didn't break any rules."

Although why she should go out of her way to protect the likes of Pansy Parkinson was beyond Hermione. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she knew Pansy hadn't done anything wrong. She knew for a fact that Draco wasn't going to meet her in the Room of Requirement as he claimed. For one thing he'd gone to the Library and the Prefect's bathroom first. Besides, if those two wanted to hook up after hours, they'd do it a dungeons somewhere, or one of the classrooms on the first or second floor, they wouldn't hike all the way up to the seventh floor of the castle. There was only one reason Malfoy had claimed that he was supposed to meet Pansy in the Room of Requirement and that she'd never shown up. He knew that he could get her to back up his story if he needed to.

"But you do know who it was," Parvati asked, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

"Yes," Hermione sighed, "I suppose the two of you will pester me the rest of the night if I don't tell you, so I may as well get it over with now so I can get to sleep. It was Pansy Parkinson."

"Figures," Lavender said, sounding more than a little let down. "She's only been chasing after him for years. She must have spotted you and Ron before she got there."

"Yeah," Parvati agreed almost instantly. "She saw you and rather than risk getting in trouble herself, she left Draco hanging all on his own."

"Typical Slytherin."

"Unless," Parvati continued. "Unless maybe you two didn't show up until she'd already left. You know how boys are," she said to her best friend. "Sometimes it takes them a while to recover from a heated snog. Maybe he needed some time to, well you know, and Pansy went back on her own. "

"You think?" Lavender asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

"But if she'd already been there, why would Malfoy have lied about it?" Parvati asked, finding fault with her own theory.

"Well, maybe he was trying to protect her," Lavender offered, so engrossed in the romantic spin she was putting on the story that she missed Hermione snort as she climbed into her own bed.

"Yeah, right," Parvati scoffed. "This is Draco Malfoy we're talking about. He'd hang his own mother out to dry if he thought it would save him."

"I suppose that's true," Lavender said regretfully. "He is a bit smarmy, isn't he? It's a shame," she sighed, "because he's rather nice to look at. So I guess that means he really was stood up," she sniggered. "By Pansy Parkinson no less. Merlin, talk about humiliating."

"Oh, I can't wait to tell Padma tomorrow. Unless you don't want me to," Parvati added half-heartedly when she heard Hermione gasp loudly from her bed on the other side of the room.

"What?" Hermione said, her entire face flooding with color as she realized exactly what she was feeling and why. DAMN HIM! she swore loudly in her mind, both mortified by the knowledge that Ron was taking care of himself as she'd suggested, and aroused by it at the same time.

"You don't mind if I tell Padma do you?"

"Padma?" Hermione asked, as if she no idea who Parvati was referring to. "Oh... yeah. Yeah, whatever," she said, grasping the curtains surrounding her bed and yanking them closed.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Parvati asked, a little taken about by her roommate's odd behavior.

"Fine," Hermione called from behind the curtains. She was going to kill Ron for doing this to her while there were other people present to witness her reaction. "Just fine," she lied. "I... um... I just remembered that I haven't started on our Transfiguration essay yet, that's all."

"That's not even due until next week," Lavender said, rolling her eyes at Parvati, who was shaking her head sadly.

"Exactly," Hermione said, struggling to keep her voice even as Ron got more involved in what he was doing and she started picking up on his pleasure as well as his desire. "Goodnight," she squeaked, ending the conversation abruptly so she could focus her full attention on the sensations Ron was transmitting through their link as he sped towards his release.

It was well after one o'clock in the morning when Hermione finally parted the thick red curtains surrounding Ron's four poster bed, removed her dressing gown, and slipped under his blankets. She'd assumed that he was asleep, not just because of his even breathing, but because she couldn't sense any emotions coming from him. That being the case, she was rather startled when he rolled over on his side to face her almost as soon as she'd settled down beside him, threw one arm around her side, and kissed her sweetly.

"I thought you were asleep," she whispered, when the brief kiss ended

"Mmmm," Ron mumbled, kissing her again before replying, "Almost. Then again, maybe I am and this is a dreaming," he said, sliding his hand down her back until it was resting on her arse. "In which case, you probably shouldn't wake me up, because it's a really nice dream," he added with a yawn. "I was afraid you weren't going to come," he admitted after a few moments of silence.

"Well that explains it then."

"Explains what?" Ron asked in a groggy voice.

"You do realize that I wasn't alone when you started abusing yourself," Hermione said, pulling away from him, grabbing her discarded dressing gown, and dragging it towards herself.

"Huh?" Ron asked, opening his eyes just in time to see her pull her wand out of her robe and use it to shield his bed so none of his roommates would hear them. "What are you on about?" he asked, as Hermione sunk down and snuggled up against him again.

"You're little voyage of self-exploration," she teased, no longer needing to see Ron's ears turn red to know when it all clicked into place and he realized exactly what she was talking about.

"What!" he said, his embarrassment now surging through them both. "You... Seriously?" he asked. "You could tell that I was..."

"Afraid so," she declared, hiding her face so he wouldn't see her smile and think that she was laughing at him.

OH! MY! GOD! Ron finished in his mind, as he slowly realized exactly what that meant. He'd never be able to touch himself again without her knowing exactly what he was doing. And worse, she found that amusing. What the hell have I gotten myself into?

"I considered doing it back," Hermione said casually, snatching Ron's pillow when he sat bolt upright and stared down at her in disbelief.

"WHAT!"

"After you were finished. Just to see if you could feel me as well," she stated rather clinically. "But then I decided against it. If what I experienced is any indication, the sensations are much stronger when we're together than when we're apart. It wasn't nearly as ... satisfying," for me anyway, she thought, "and it seemed rather cruel to get you all worked up and then leave you wanting," she continued, "so I decided to wait."

"Wait! You mean you're... you're going to do it now?" Ron asked, his blue eyes going wide with shock.

"Well, no," Hermione admitted, finally succumbing to a bout of embarrassment that was all her own. "Unless... You don't really want me to, do you?" she asked tentatively.

"Would you?" Ron asked a bit too quickly, unintentionally broadcasting his enthusiasm to her. "Er... but you don't have to," he added, the moment he felt her react with mortification.

"But you want me to?" she asked, averting her eyes as she spoke.

"Well yeah," Ron admitted, seeing no reason to deny it since he knew full well that she could sense what he was feeling. "I mean... it's...er... hot, but I understand if you don't really want to," he stammered. "I mean, I don't exactly fancy the idea of you sitting here watching while I do something like that either. It's bad enough knowing that you know that I...er... that I did it," he said in a near whisper, the bright red coloring in his ears spreading to his face as well. "So it's...er... it's all right."

"What exactly are we talking about?" Hermione asked uncomfortably. "Do you want me to just lie here and think about you while I... um... while you watch, or are you going to ...um... help."

"Help?" Ron asked, extremely aroused, despite the fact that he was a little confused. "Help how?"

"Well, you know?" Hermione said, her entire face a brilliant shade of crimson now. "Why fantasize about kissing you when we can really do it."

"So you fantasize about snogging me, do you?" Ron asked, a huge grin plaster across his face as his deep blue eyes took on a voracious gleam.

"Sometimes," she admitted with a chuckle of discomfort.

"What else do you fantasize about?" Ron asked, without really thinking about the danger that was lurking behind his question.

"Probably the same things you fantasize about," Hermione replied evasively.

Somehow I doubt that, he thought, but he wisely kept the comment to himself, knowing that if he said it out loud, she'd likely turn the tables on him and ask about what he fantasized about. The last thing he wanted was her to know what a pervert he was. Unfortunately, Hermione was already one step ahead of him.

"What did you think about?" she asked, shifting the attention to him in order to get it off herself. "Tonight, while you were..." She couldn't bring herself to say wanking however, because she knew that it would embarrass him even more, so she left the question unfinished.

"Um...," Ron said, biting his lower lip and fidgeting uncomfortably as he tried to figure out exactly what to say. "Er... you know. Just ... um... about what we did earlier and...er..."

"Yes?" Hermione pushed, her curiosity getting the better of her when he stopped speaking.

"Um... what I wanted to do when...er...when you got here. Stuff like that."

"Oh," Hermione whispered. "And... um... do you still want to?" she asked after a moment of silence in which neither of them seemed willing to look at the other. Although why she asked, she wasn't entirely sure, because she knew full well that he did. The desire Ron was feeling had already coursed into her body and added to her own, intensifying the tingles and the aching sensation radiating from deep within her.

"Still want to what?" he asked, his voice squeaking slightly, the arousal he'd been feeling all but doubling when he realized she was asking if he wanted to re-enact his fantasy.

"You know, do it?" Hermione asked timidly. "What you were thinking about doing earlier. Do you still want to do that?"

"Don't you...I mean, aren't you even going to ask what it is first?" Ron asked, debating with himself about whether he ought to tell her that his fantasy had ended with her on top.

For a brief second the image of her straddling his thighs, her naked body slick with sweat, moaning as she rode him, clouded his mind. He saw himself lying under her, his hands on her hips. He saw himself rocking with her as he watched her breasts sway and bounce each time their bodies slammed into one another. He saw himself sit up and bury his face between those beautiful breasts so he could taste the sweat that was trickling down between them. Did he want to do that? Hell yes!

"I think I'd rather be surprised," Hermione said, throwing caution to the wind, as she gave into her urges, reached up, and pulled Ron down on top of her.

Author's Note:

Sadly I must inform you all that I have been summoned to appear for jury duty at the end of the month. I have no way of knowing whether or not I'll actually be selected, but for some reason I'm always selected, which means I probably won't have all that much time to write in the near future. Chances are this will be the last chapter I'm able to get up for a while, as I now have to get a full months worth of work done in the span of a few weeks, just in case. Sorry to leave you all just hanging, but I'm afraid it can't be helped. I'll be sure to keep you all apprised of the situation. With a little luck, I won't get picked this time.