Enveloped by the delicate scent of lilac and the warmth of her mate, Hermione's head was spinning. The light press of Pansy's lips was as soft as the petal of her flowery scent and it was instantaneously too much and not enough at the same time. With a mind of their own, her hands squeezed Pansy's hips and tugged until their bodies were pressed flush together, a gasp of surprise leaving the brunette's already rosy lips. Hermione didn't hesitate a moment as she leaned in to kiss her again, this time her lips claimed Pansy's with gentle force, pressing past her parted lips to deepen the kiss.
Pansy had never been a believer in love at first sight but she certainly believed in chemistry and attraction, and there was something about this woman that made her very magic heat with anticipation. At the first brush of Hermione's tongue, she had the most visceral reaction, fine hairs along her body rising in gooseflesh as she was pulled ever closer into her embrace and the hardened peaks of their nipples caressed each other sensually through the scant fabric between them. Her hands came up to hold onto a tense shoulder and up to grip the curls still secured with the vine wood wand, holding on tight and relishing the fire building in her veins and core. It has been too long since she had a lover, and Hermione tasted and felt better than anyone she had ever been with before.
Mate…
The harpy within her positively crooned as Hermione pressed Pansy back towards the bed, their lips growing hungrier in their exploration and hands grasping at any and every part of each other they could reach to pull closer, rub harder, feel more.
Fuck, she needed more. Pansy felt like a teenager, all those years ago blossoming into womanhood in the shade of a greenhouse, tasting the softness of a woman's lips for the first time. Her touch was positively greedy as her hands travelled the swell of the harpy's strong curves. A surprised noise left the back of her throat as she was pushed down on the bed, her nightie rising around her hips as Hermione knelt on the bed between her thighs and pressed just right with the top of her thigh. Her clit pulsed in answering heat, the delicious friction already pushing any logical thought from her head.
Hermione's hands had a mind of their own. She wanted to slow down, make sure they knew what they were doing but she couldn't help herself and dive in for another taste of those plush lips. She wanted, nay, she needed to feel the women beneath her. Slipping beneath the silk of the nightie, it was almost as if she hadn't left the material at all, the skin beneath the thin scrap of fabric just as soft and warm to her touch, bellying the heat already singing through her mate's veins. Their hips ground together for a few long moments, their bodies fitting well as they both just allowed themselves to feel the other's softness. Hermione felt the lace edge of the small knickers keeping her from reaching her destination and pushed past them, over a small patch of trimmed coarse curls until she was greeted by the eagerly raised little bundle of nerves and silken heat.
Pansy knew she was soaking even before her eyes flicked open and she watched the heat in the dark depths of Hermione's eyes. Both woman and creature gazed back at her with intensity that was only rivalled by the gentle but practiced touch that circled her clit and flicked down to slide through her slick slit. She thought the fingers hesitated just at the opening but then slid back up and circled her clit in an almost leisurely way that was set to drive her crazy without offering any reprieve.
"I don't….I can't come…like this…" she warned.
Hermione nipped her bottom lip teasingly, gaze hooded as if taking the words as a challenge. "Complaining?" she asked teasingly, flicking over the hoodless sensitive bud lightly, making Pansy's back arch sharply, a shudder traveling up her spine to her shoulders, body tensing before flexing back to try and reach her lips.
"No…just…fair warning…" she thrust her fingers into Hermione's thick hair, wand clattering to the ground as their bodies were enveloped by a curtain of wild curls.
Hermione flicked her clit more firmly, almost as a reprimand for freeing the beast from its confines, perhaps in more ways that one, as she allowed herself to slide lower and pressed one of her fingers into the tight, pulsing heat, slick inner walls instantly gripping her and pulling her deeper.
She gasped at the strength of Pansy's muscles, groaning in delight as their foreheads pressed close. "You're so tight…" she panted.
Pansy nodded. "Need you - another…" she managed before connecting their lips again in a heated kiss.
Hermione didn't hesitate and pulled back, only to carefully slide back home with two of her fingers this time, curling them and caressing the font wall until she pressed into the spongy patch of tissue that she's been searching for.
She felt the expletive more than heard it, as Pansy panted against her lips at the stimulation, her hips grinding down against the heel of Hermione's palm pressed against her clit for more stimulation. She was climbing too high too fast and couldn't care less. It has been a couple of weeks at least since she touched herself and this was incomparable, her body hungry for the stimulation.
Hermione could feel the muscles squeezing her tighter with each flex of her fingers, working her wrist with a slight twist to get that just that little bit further inside. The harpy within her crooned happily when her mate's body began tensing, watching as Pansy's breath came out in a silent cry, shuddering through the orgasm wrung from her body so deliciously.
She didn't get to enjoy the sensation for long though, as Hermione gently separated their bodies and scooted back to lean against the bottom bed pillar, putting some space between them.
"What is it?" Pansy asked, wondering whether something was wrong.
Hermione shook her head, motioning for her to just give her a moment. "The harpy, she wants us to mate…for me to have you and for you to take me, create equilibrium. But I feel like something is…pulling.." she rubbed her clean hand against her breastbone, feeling unsettled by the pull to continue their pleasure.
"Is it because I'm your mate? It may be encouraging us-"
"To seal the bond," Hermione's dark gaze dawned with understanding and she stood back up to put more distance between them. "I'll have to put some space between us when we sleep. I don't know what the harpy is capable of. And I don't want you to get trapped in a bond that you only found out about this morning," she rationalised, waving her hand to quickly clean them both up before twisting her mane up into a bun atop her head, wanting to give Pansy some time to process.
Gods, this was one hell of a morning. First she scares her to death, then she tells her about her creature side and about being mates, and now her harpy was practically throwing herself at Pansy to seal the bond. She was surprise she hasn't been hexed yet, quite frankly.
Pansy righted her nightie and sat up, pushing an unruly strand of black hair behind her ear impatiently. "Look, let's just take it one thing at a time. You're a harpy and I'm your mate. I would like to find out more about this before we seal any bond but at this point would you say it's pretty inevitable?" she reasoned.
Hermione paused, leaning against the wall by the bathroom. "I guess, that depends on whether you acknowledge the bond and want to accept being my mate. Whatever that means. I've been trying to find more information about harpies but I fell like I'm flying blind here," she sighed and rubbed her face, noting the quirk of Pansy's lips at the unintentional flying pun.
"So we don't know what would happen if I accepted or denied the bond. You could waste away like a veela with the rejection, or we could become soul-bound and live with the knowledge that if one of us dies, the other follows shortly," she pointed out.
Hermione nodded solemnly. "Both of those options are a possibility. I was hardly able to find much mention about harpies as creatures. I can't tell you anything about my biology or magic more than the fact that I am not a full harpy but clearly have some traits. I haven't even seen the word 'mate' associated with harpies, there is so little known," she tried to explain just how dire the lack of information was.
Pansy listened carefully and nodded. "Well do we know how much the muggle and magical sources on the creature agree or diverge? I mean there's the whole Greco-Roman mythology around harpies. I think they are depicted as evil and dark first by Aeschylus. Was it the Eumenides?" she mused. "His harpies were described as ugly creatures with wings, and later writers would carry these characteristics so far as to represent them as disgusting, cruel and terrifying monsters that were always ravenously hungry."
"You studied Ancient Greek literature?" Hermione asked curiously.
Pansy shrugged. "Beauxbatons provides a rounded education. Philosophy and literature were a good escape for me," she said honestly but vaguely enough, knowing she wouldn't have to explain the impact of war.
Hermione nodded. "The muggle and wizard texts don't diverge much. There are constant references to them being dark, belonging to the Underworld, snatchers who carry evildoers to Erinnyes or the Furies, female goddesses of vengeance and retribution. On the magical side, they are categorised as extinct and still hold the highest beast classification because they are supposed to be powerful dark creatures. So they are supposed to be dark, evil and foul, and yet they according to legends they snatch evil men and carry them for just retribution to the Goddesses of vengeance. So were they misunderstood and described as loathsome by fearful men in a patriarchal society? Were they in reality helping deliver punishment for despicable characters, men who beat their wives and children for instance? Or is that our modern reading of the texts and they were they just dark, foul creatures who tortured and killed man and wizard?" she posed, pacing by the bathroom door as she did when she was trying to focus.
Pansy nodded. "But that's the thing, you see. In earlier works by Homer, they are classified as wind spirits or personified storms, and very much a personification of the air elemental magic in magical text comparably. Hesiod described them as lovely fair-locked and winger maidens, the daughters of Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra, who surpassed winds and birds in the speed of flight. Grecian pottery depicted the harpies as beautiful women with wings." she pointed out.
"There was nothing beautiful or fair about the creature that did this to me," Hermione pointed to her scarred face, the words coming out with more bitterness than she would have liked to admit perhaps.
Pansy got to her feet and walked towards her, reaching up to caress the scar, seeing the effort it took for Hermione to not pull away from the touch. She spread her fingers over the three claw marks and followed the trail of them down to her neck. "Could have just as easily been nails. We don't know whether they once were beautiful women with the ability to change. What if they were a form of a shapeshifter like werewolves? What if they used to be beautiful creatures but got cursed and it spread down the blood line? That would explain how their procreation or existence was finite," she argued. "We know nothing about these creatures and you are only half a one so we won't know to what extent you feel as they do anyway until we find out in praxis."
"A mudblood half-breed, I'm a fucking catch," Hermione smirked self-deprecatingly, Pansy's proximity and the phrasing she used making her emotions spike suddenly.
Pansy's features tightened but her dark gaze flashed with fury to match the harpy before her. "I appreciate neither your tone, nor your use of those words," she said quietly but clearly, before making up her mind. Time to push a little and find out what the bond dynamic could be. "Are you angry, Granger?" she asked, her gaze turning challenging.
Hermione felt a deep hiss rise in her throat, one that sounded beyond human. In a flash she had the brunette pressed against the wall, their bodies a scant few inches apart. "Don't push me," she warned, trying to keep a hold of herself.
This was new. She could feel her emotions spiralling, the taunting from her mate making her usual composure crumble into dust. Fuck, was this it? Would her mate have this much power over her?
Pansy's head leaned forward just a little until their lips were nearly touching. "Or what?" she challenged, keeping their gaze connected without blinking.
Hermione's usually beautiful whiskey eyes darkened into bottomless pits of darkness as the harpy within her unfurled into his full size, wings springing out from her back and closing them in. There was a moment when Pansy thought she pushed too hard, too fast. This was it, she was going to get attacked by Hermione's creature side, the fury in the harpy's gaze making her pulse quicken with fear.
Hermione leaned in and breathed her scent in deeply. "I can smell your fear, mate…" she positively growled, the words honey over gravel, wings flexing as her hand rose and took a hold of Pansy's chin, giving her no choice but to look at the magnificent sight before her. Because despite her fear, the creature before her was magnificent.
"Will you hurt me?" she managed to whisper despite the firm hold on her.
The dark gaze met hers again, their bodies pressing closer. "Never," the harpy responded with absolute certainty beyond any doubt, before she took a step back. The darkness began receding from Hermione's eyes until she was left standing in the middle of the room, wings still out and panting slightly from the exertion of the sharp emotions and her creature side clawing its way out of her moments ago. "Is that what you wanted to know? If I would hurt you?" she asked, her gaze narrowing and despite the rising anger within her, she managed to tamper it down. "Are you happy now? Was your little experiment worth it?" she asked so softly it was barely audible but the tone belied her fury at being pushed and manipulated into such a base response.
Pansy levelled her with her dark gaze, feeling her heart rate starting to slowly calm down after the tense moments in the harpy's arms. "The method may have been chosen poorly but I did get an answer," she pointed out.
Hermione grabbed her bathrobe. "I'm going to shower," she headed for the bathroom and shut the door firmly.
Pansy walked over to the breakfast spread, the sight of food no longer appealing as she poured herself another keep of tea, listening to the shower turn on. Well, that went well. From peaceful breakfast and morning orgasms to twenty questions with the harpy. And now she'd gone and done it again. Just fucking peachy. She rubbed her face tiredly, trying to process the morning's events.
She woke up in the arms (and wings) of Hermione Granger and she had enjoyed it. Fact.
She wasn't bothered by the fact that she had a creature side. Fact.
She also now knew that not only was their connection and compatibility in the bedroom, but that spark between them seemed to be only growing. It excited her. There was something both incredibly smart and unpredictably wild about Hermione Granger and she found herself thinking that perhaps she wouldn't ever get bored in her company.
There was the catch though - they were mates. And while pushing the harpy to clearly state she would never hurt her was useful, she didn't know if she could commit as yet to a forever. Because that is what it would be. Once they crossed that bridge and bonded as mates, there would be no going back.
Having lived for two decades by herself, with the occasional relationship but always on her terms and in her own ways was difficult to juxtapose with the possibility of being always tied to another witch. And considering her heritage and Hermione's magical power, it would be at least another 110 years or so, if not more. Could she commit to that right now and for always? That is if she will be forgiven for pushing both woman and her creature side with her earlier remarks.
It wasn't that she wanted to manipulate, but a part of her needed to know beyond doubt that she would not get hurt or controlled as a mate, and it was the only way she could think of doing it at that moment. And the very clear 'Never' she received was all she needed to know that just like werewolves, the mate was to be cherished and protected. What about her power though? Her power over Hermione's creature side as her mate? Was that what Hermione was currently questioning in the shower? Would she trust Pansy to become her mate, keep her secret and protect her as her mate should? Would Pansy trust herself if their place was reversed?
There was still so much they needed to find out about each other, but she felt like a clock was ticking in the background, quiet but insidious, with consequences they weren't aware of. Was there a time limit on bonding now that they were aware they were mates? And could they find more answers to the far too many questions that were an unknown to them both?
Feeling like her usual inner equilibrium was nowhere to be found, she resolved herself to getting through this blasted conference before they made any decisions. The uncertainty of the unknown was however impossible to shake off…