Eye For An Eye: Part I: Ron and Hermione
Disclaimer: Characters from the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling. All original characters belong to ladykyo and the separatesisters.
NOTE: This story will jump around from pov to pov, so I'll let you know whose pov is being used at the start of each new section/ where the povs change.
ladykyo
Chapter 8: Don't Run Away
Ron's pov
"I don't pray, Hermione. I just don't pray."
As the words slipped out of my mouth, I knew that Hermione would want an explanation. An explanation I wasn't ready to give her. She opened her mouth to say something, and seemed to think the better of it and closed her mouth without saying a thing. I smiled wanly and looked down at the food on my plate. Now or never, and I dug in.
"Do you like it, Ron?" Hermione asked, eyeing my quickly emptying plate. I hadn't actually eaten food in a very long time, and my stomach would soon be revolting on me, but I wouldn't let her know it right now. I'd have to take care to get my body used to food again. Blood and barely dead game obviously were not all I needed. Hermione was stilling looking at me, and a certain part of my body chose to tell me exactly what he needed. I shifted in my seat, leaned closer to her, and replied as silkily as I could muster.
"The food or the company, love?" my voice came out huskier than it should have, and I suddenly felt the urge to blush as if I'd never had any experience with women.
"Take your pick," she replied saucily, and then I did blush. Hermione blushed and broke the odd spell. We went back to our meal, with Hermione talking about the things she'd gleaned from my not so recently acquired library.
"Oh, really? I'd never noticed," I said mildly, for what seemed like the twentieth time, when Hermione put her fork down and looked right in my eyes.
"Ron, what do you do? This place is lovely, and the kitchen is well-stocked, but how do you keep all this up?" Hermione picked up both her plate and mine and walked them to the sink; the kitchen was well-stocked and up-to-date, but I could see where her suspicion was coming from.
"There is money in this estate, from the crops grown on the rather expansive lands. The estate is much larger than most people realize. In fact, it covers most of the county. On top of that, I do offer protection, for a pittance, really, to the people who live on the grounds and elsewhere in the county," I gave one of the easier explanations. What was I going to tell her, I'd gathered wealth over one hundred plus lifetimes, from pillaging the villages of the children on Morrígan? I don't think so; not quite yet. I followed Hermione to the sink and turned the water on so it could get warm.
"All the money needed to support you and this mansion comes from such mundane pursuits? How disappointing. I thought you'd tell me that you were an international spy, or some time-traveling warrior here to save the Earth or destroy it!" she laughed, a silvery little laugh that made my breath catch. I leaned forward, but before I could kiss her, she kissed me. It was a light kiss, but she still pressed her tongue against my lips, pushing past them to wrestle my tongue. When she seemed to tire, I pulled back gently, still kissing and nibbling. She sighed and leaned against me. I pulled my mouth fully from hers and she sagged against me, unconscious.
I lifted her featherweight body and left the kitchen, sighing as I fought my own body. My beastly self wanted to wake Hermione roughly, with my length pressed upon her, but I knew that she deserved better. She deserved love, and that was what she'd get.
But if I don't have her soon, I may explode.
Hermione's pov
I awoke late that morning, to the sound of rain pounding outside the window of the high tower room I found myself in. The bed was a monstrous four poster with dark forest green linens. I was still in my clothes from the day before, but a small chest of drawers held an array of clothing in my size.
I threw back the coverlet and sheet and peeled myself off of the bed. I grabbed a soft green sweater out of one drawer and a soft gray wool skirt out of another. I stood and turned to the door of the room's bathroom when I realized that I needed underthings. I trotted back to the chest of drawers, berating myself for thinking that there would be the undergarments that I needed, like magic.
I reached into the topmost drawer and
No shit. Lacy garments galore. Bras and panties and hnh. Plenty of things not meant to be worn but for the pleasure of someone else. I picked up a shimmery blue thing that matched Ron's eyes perfectly. I laughed as I imagined his reaction if I wore it down to breakfast.
I sighed as I pulled on some of the least provocative panties and a cream-colored bra. He can dream on, if you know what I mean. Speaking of dreaming, I had the most interesting one last night heh, no need to go there, then. Much better to think about what to wear for the day. I went to the window to see if the weather had changed, gotten any better and no. Still dreary and wet and without any way for me to get back to civilization, so to speak. That said, I pulled out a beige cashmere sweater and a pair of sturdy looking jeans. I slipped thick beige wool socks on my feet and searched out some slippers. I found a pair of buttery soft moccasins and slid them on my feet before I ventured down to the kitchen that was the scene of yesterday's escapades.
I headed down to the kitchen to get some food, keeping an eye out for Ron. I didn't see him as I made my way downstairs, and by the time I got to the kitchen, I was curious enough to go looking for him. He wasn't in the kitchen, so I went to the study where he found me yesterday. He wasn't in the study, so I checked other rooms, and there was no sign of him anywhere. I went back towards the kitchen, sure he would show up at some point, when I saw a door I hadn't noticed before. The door didn't fit into my memory of the outside of the castle, even though it seemed to be on an exterior wall. I knocked on the door, and when I didn't hear anything thing, I tried the knob. It moved slightly, a rusty type of movement, but something stopped it before I could actually open the door. I pushed against the door and it didn't budge, so I leaned my full weight against it to no avail. I wiggled the knob again, and I felt the locking mechanism. It was an old-fashioned pin-and-bolt.
"Gotcha," I whispered, recalling pictures I had studied of the same type of lock. I mentally calculated the age of the castle and compared it to what the books said:
Typically, castles of the pre-Edwardian era used somewhat simple if involved locking mechanisms, consisting of similar pins and barrels arranged in one of four arrays: ascending, descending, step-graduated, or toothed.
I pushed my mind against the pins, trying first the ascending order, starting from the first set and trying the next one in a counter-clockwise order. That didn't work, so I tried a descending, or clockwise order. No luck there, and I was starting to sweat. If Ron found me trying to break into what turned out to be, say, an extra pantry, my face would be red. I suppose I should have stopped when that thought reached my mind, but something inside me stirred, and spurred me on. My chest began to get that familiar heavy feeling, and I decided to go for it. I guessed on the toothed pin and barrel array, and my luck held out! The door creaked open to reveal a short, ancient ladder.
I climbed down the ladder, which turned out to have been made of stone, into a small entryway that led to a stairway that would lead me back under the castle.
"All in or all out, 'Mione, girl," I said to myself. I pushed myself to follow the hall to its end, where I was greeted by another locked door, a much newer one. I looked at the door and wished I'd eaten when I had the chance. If I went back, I'd never get this far again. I took a deep breath and braced myself for another complicated lock when I put my hand on the knob and it open with barely a touch.
I pushed the door slightly and poked my head into the chamber it revealed.
And gasped.
Ron's pov
I had barely gone to rest when I felt Hermione rouse. She should have slept all day, considering the amount of energy I accidentally took from her during our last kiss. I didn't allow myself to go to the level of unconsciousness I was accustomed to, once I realized why I felt so revitalized. I wanted to know if she woke up and needed me, or if the llyr chose to attack.
I don't usually sleep like the undead, appearing dead to mortals, but I am usually so deeply asleep that it would take a force of nature to wake me. Perhaps this change in my sleep had to do with Hermione and my soul coming to me, I'll have to ask Scáthach. Whatever the explanation, I heard Hermione moving around in the castle. I felt her looking for me, and I felt the growing worry as she looked with no avail. I waited for her to find my hidden door. Not so much hidden as encouraged to appear unworthy of notice to people, to ell the truth. One of my cleverest safeguards, actually, and somewhat of a test for Hermione. I began to truly wake when I felt her use her talents on the lock, a pitifully simple task to measure her stamina. I heard her footsteps down the ladder and along the hall to me, I heard her mutterances to herself as she rationalized her breaking and entering. By the time she got to the real door of my inner sanctum, I wanted her so badly it hurt, and I wanted to tell her everything. So I opened the door for her.
And she gasped at the sight.
Hermione's pov
I couldn't help myself when I saw Ron and his room in all their glory. His chamber was decorated in rich reds and oranges and browns, yet he had added vibrant blue in places, lending an air of lived-in character to the otherwise well-matched room. The bed was an even bigger version of the four-poster I woke up in that morning. Where my bed was draped in rich greens, his was enrobed in chocolate brown and deep auburn, swirling around his naked body in a scrumptious wrapper.
His naked body. Scrumptious.
"Eeep!" I said, backing up, trying to get out of the room, but the door had closed behind me, so my exit was blocked. My eyes were glued to the bed and Ron's naked, sleeping form. Which was starting to turn towards me.
Ron had been on his back, wrapped in his silky, shiny sheets, but he was starting to stir and roll over to face me. His skin was creamy, with a soft sheen of sweat, probably from the tossing and turning that had led him to become so entangled in said sheets. His muscles, lean and long, were cording and bunching as they, too, woke up. I noticed his face last, probably because his piercing blue eyes were closed. His lips were slightly parted, and I saw the barely imperfect edge of one of his top teeth when his eyes snapped open. The full force of those beautiful, piercing blue eyes was focused on me.
"Breaking and entering, are we, Hermione Granger? What would the Ministry of Magic say about that, especially with you being one of their top researchers, hmm?" Ron drawled, pulling himself into a sitting position. The sheets couldn't keep up, so I got a full view of his morning glory.
"You invited me to stay in your castle, Ronald Weasley. You never mentioned where I shouldn't go," I said hotly. I hoped he'd think that he'd forgotten to lock that top door.
"D'you think I'd forget to lock that top door, or that I would doubt my own habits regarding my security?" he said, looking at my red face.
"Well, now what. You should have changed that lock. It was painfully easy to figure out."
"And it was the pain from the ease that made you take more than fifteen minutes to get the damn thing figured out?"
"If you knew I was trying to get through that door, why didn't you come up and open it, or barricade it against me."
"Because I wanted to see if you could do it, if you had the ability, or if you'd give up, and if you'd lose interest. We've lots to talks about."
"You've lots to say, I bet. And that's all you wanted?"
"I want you."
AN: I know 'mutterances' isn't a word, at least in the dictionary. But anyone who's ever done something like this, or spoken under his or her breath about something knows that word exists, even if only in the guilty's mind. My gift to you. Teehee.
love, ladykyo