Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a figment of my imagination
Chapter sixteen: Confusion by Temptation"You did what?" Tess exclaimed.
"Shh!" Hermione hissed.
She quickly cast a nervous look around to see if anyone had heard them.
"But..." Tess stammered. "I don't see...Did you really?"
"Yes." Hermione said quietly. "But I didn't mean to! I thought I'd follow your advice to be more spontaneous, you know. To surprise him...catch him off guard...Get him interested solely in me."
"And you thought kissing his brother would help you out?"
Hermione leaned her head in her hands with a worried frown. "I didn't mean to kiss Fred. It was George I was after."
"No, really?" Tess said sarcastically.
She leaned forward across the table and planted her elbows between their lunch plates.
"Listen, surprising him at work is a nice idea...but not for what you have in mind. It'll increase his affection for you, but it's stands no chance against Vivian's hips of fury. We've both seen her sway her way into sweet deals by batting her eyelashes and pouting her lips. Men find almost everything about her sexy, nothing can be done about that. She's what all of them want subconciously."
Hermione sighed. "But I'm not like that woman-"
"-Cow."
"Cow." Hermione agreed. "If a sway of hips is all that can catch his eye then I don't stand a chance against her."
She folded her napkin and tossed it onto her now empty plate. Tess leaned back in her chair pensively.
"So you didn't want to go all the way yet. That doesn't mean there isn't a grey area in between. It's not an all-or-nothing thing. Tease him, be playful. Like Vivian! I'm sure it'll do the trick."
Hermione's face contracted into another frown. Strange and very disturbing images floated before her eyes for a second or two. She shuddered quickly and concentrated her mind on what she had been eating for lunch.
Tess watched her. Then she casually reached out for her tea and took a sip.
"So how did it feel?" she asked in an equally casual tone.
Hermione's head snapped up. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything yet!"
"No...I meant the kiss."
"...Oh..." A blush crept to Hermione's cheeks. "You meant that. I...don't know, I didn't really pay attention. Just like any other kiss would feel like."
"No..." Tess said slowly. "What did it do to you. How did it make you feel?"
"Not any different than any other kiss." Hermione said defensively.
Tess laughed haughtily. "So a kiss from Freddie makes you tingle and feel warm inside like any other kiss from George?"
"Look! I didn't pay much attention to it! I thought I was kissing George, otherwise I wouldn't have- Can't we talk about something else? Please."
She pushed her plate away and looked out the window. Tess looked out the window too.
"You know...the weather's looking better. With a little bit of luck we'll have a bit of spring soon. How about we go shopping for some summerclothes one of these days."
Hermione allowed herself to smile again. "Sounds good. But I'll have to get back to you on that. I've got a meeting with my mentor today. She thinks I don't spend enough time studying and too much time on my internship. She thinks I'm not going to get through my midterms at the end of the year."
"Nice." Tess remarked. "Now there's a mentor for you. Always knows what to say to cheer you up."
Hermione grinned. "Well, gotta run. That woman doesn't want to be kept waiting."
She stood up and gathered her things into her bag.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
She left the cafeteria and cast a look into the hall to her left. She could see a redhead enter Vivian's office just as she was about to leave through the door. She stopped for a moment and watched both of them smile and kiss each other's cheeks.
A strange feeling in the pit of her stomach grumbled, but she ignored it. She watched as he went inside and saw how Vivian Kramer performed what Tess liked to call the 'Kramer Leviosa.' A completely other kind of swish-and-flick than what you learned in school; it was Vivian Kramer's trademark to swish her hips sideways followed by a flicking her hair over her shoulder coyly.
"Hips of fury, yeah right." she muttered as she walked on, pushing back a loud string of coughs.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Well, well! Never expected to see you again so soon."
"There are a lot of things that need to be discussed. A lot has to be taken care of."
She grinned and curled her lips.
"Really..." she said slowly.
He smirked and shook his head. "I meant about the shop, Viv."
"But George," she pouted, "we've had so little time to talk. I was shattered after you left Hogwarts and you never wrote to me. You at least owe me an explanation or an apology."
He sat down and looked at her amused. "I never would have expected you to be so put down about that. You never seemed to care about anything back at school."
She sat down on the surface of her desk and dangled her long legs playfully as she straightened her skirt.
"I cared about you." she said slowly. "But teachers never seemed important, no."
George said nothing and eyed her face.
"But still...I guess I wasn't surprised when I never heard from you again. You never had much time for me anyway. You were always busy with your pranks or Quidditch. Are you still too busy for your girlfriends? Doesn't Gra-, Hermione mind?"
George stood up, walked towards her and leaned his hands on either side of her on the desk.
"Well..." he said softly. "I've never heard any complaints."
She grinned and sat up a little straighter. "How are the two of you doing. Have you...plucked her yet?"
"Viv...That's not very decent to ask."
She sat up even straighter, bringing her face just another little bit closer to his. "But have you? I don't think you have, personally. You seem a little tense...too tense for someone who...Must be frustrating, I suppose."
She smiled playfully and pouted her lips again. The way she was holding her shoulders, her blouse was no longer clinging to her chest as it had done before, and he suddenly had a very clear view of what lay beneath the fabric.
She winked innocently.
He lifted one hand from the table and brought it up to the side of her face. She expected to feel his fingers on her skin and closed her eyes, waiting patiently. But his hand travelled down to the neck of her blouse.
She opened her eyes again and for a moment she thought he was going to rip it open. But instead he buttoned it up all the way to the top.
"You want to look a bit more decent as a lawyer, Viv." he said coyly. "Don't go giving clients the wrong idea."
Vivian, slightly put off, settled for another flirtatious smile. "Whatever do you mean? Anyway, I'm sure Hermione won't ever give you the wrong idea. I can tell she's a prude. And so young. How you manage to hold out with her is a mystery to me."
George pulled away from Vivian forcefully.
"It's not really your business, though." he said, reaching for his jacket. "I guess I'll just take those papers you promised us and take them back to the shop."
"You're leaving already?" she said disappointed.
"Must dash. Can't leave Fred alone for too long."
She handed him a brown envelope in which she had put the papers Zonko's lawyers had sent over.
"I think it's better...if you handle most of this problem with Fred from now on...He's better at it than I am. He's more organised than me."
Vivian licked her lips disappointedly. "Oh."
He nodded and walked towards the door.
"Wait! At least one last hug? You can't deny me a hug."
He seemed to ponder it for a moment, but walked back over to her to wrap his arms around her. She lifted her head a bit and brushed his cheek with her lips. Before he had registered what was happening, she kissed his ear softly, tantalisingly.
He stepped back hastily and disappeared through the door. Vivian watched him hurry out the office with a big smirk on her face. He might have darted for the exit to try and hide it, but she had immediately noticed something nudging her inner thigh.
"Well well, George..." she muttered amused. "Was that your wand in your pocket? Or were you just very happy to see me..."
She giggled and closed her office door. Men were just too easy to manipulate sometimes.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
George opened the door to Hermione's appartement. He felt confused and very warm. Vivian had thrown almost everything she had at him...He knew that very well. And he knew she had done this on purpose too.
He threw off his jacket and his magenta robes and loosened the top button of his shirt before he had even noticed Crookshanks circling around his feet.
"Busy day?" Hermione's voice sounded from the bedroom.
He went inside and saw her putting clean sheets on the bed. She smiled at him. He smiled back and suddenly had the urge to kiss her and maybe do a whole lot more. He lunged forward and pulled her into a pationate kiss. Completely caught by surprise, she closed her arms around him and let that wonderful warm feeling wash over her.
He managed to get her down on the bed, somehow, and brushed her neck with his lips. She felt him start to unbutton her blouse, and she ignored the hesitant feeling inside her when his hand softly started to caress her now exposed skin.
He looked at her, taking in the confused look on her face and then leaned his head down to nip her skin here and there. She clasped her arms around him, not wanting him to pull away. Her mind told her it wasn't one of the smartest things to do, but listening to her mind was rather difficult when her body seemed to have taken control of itself.
Her fingers started to wrestle with his shirt and after a few seconds of tangled up limbs, it was cast aside. He looked in her eyes to find a hunger in them that matched his own. He couldn't help grinding his hips down against hers, only once, and then he pressed his face to her cheek, causing his lips to brush her ear.
"I want you." he whispered.
Her eyes opened wide. Suddenly her mind seemed to work on overtime.
"George..." she said hoarsley.
He tried to silence her by kissing her again so pationately that her head started to spin all over again and all she could do was kiss him back with equal force and enthousiasm. His hands now pulled her already opened blouse off her shoulders and turned her around so he could unclasp her bra.
Suddenly she gasped and sat up straight, causing him to lose his balance. He hung his head and breathed deeply.
"We shouldn't, should we." he said when he had regained a more calm breathing rythm.
She said nothing and looked at the wall so she wouldn't have to look into his eyes. Without saying anything he slowly slid off the bed and headed into the bathroom for what Hermione knew would be a very, very cold shower.
Once the door had closed behind him, she fell back on the bed and looked at the ceiling.
"...Why did I...Why didn't I just..." she said to herself confusedly.
She sat up again quickly, her mind suddenly set on what she needed and wanted to do. She would rush into the bathroom and try to persuade him to come back out... She would just go with it, because she knew she wanted it just as badly as he did.
She crossed the room as quick as she could and reached for the doorknob. Just as she was about to open the door, she felt a sneeze creeping up on her. She let the doorknob go as she was caught in an unstoppable string of sneezes and sank to her knees before she would fall. She was shaking so badly that she couldn't stand on her legs anymore.
Before she could repress it, she began to cough too. She was coughing so hard that it started to hurt her throat, but she couldn't stop it. A tear started to burn in the corner of her eye as she kept trying to control the sneezes and the coughs.
It was making her dizzy and the pain in her throat only got worse. She could hear the bathroom door open and George seemed to be kneeling beside her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and said her name.
She turned her head, but the pain was too much. Suddenly everything before her eyes went white as she fell backwards onto the floor before her body finally came to a rest.