The warm Scottish rain was a welcome change from the silent beauty of the Swiss mountains. They headed up the path towards the school gates in silence, one that has been their companion over the past two days more of then than not. Hermione had accepted Pansy's apology for pushing her and they both tried to move on the best they could to just be with each other. But it was made difficult with the harpy's desire for her mate bubbling under the surface, and the programme of presentations, networking and official dinners to find any time at all to spend some time together without tension.
After the first morning when Pansy found herself in the harpy's arms, it became a silent agreement that if that were to repeat, they will simply ignore it and get on with their day to not provoke further attempts to complete their bond. And indeed every time she opened her eyes, she was securely cradled in Hermione's arms, her warmth seeping through the thin material of Pansy's nightie and warming her from head to toe under the thin duvet. Going from never allowing herself to sleep with someone to waking up in another's arms several days in a row was discombobulating in the most intriguing of ways. She wondered whether she would miss the feel and sight of the scarred arm wrapped around her front possessively, palm splayed over her breastbone to feel the steady beat of her heart. Her mind flashed to the harpy's delicious touch bringing her to sound completion that first morning and her body responded immediately. Morgana, she knew it was madness but a part of her already dreaded waking up alone tomorrow morning…
"Ladies," Neville beamed at them from his place by the gate, welcoming them both with a kiss to the cheek before they headed up to the castle.
"How was the conference?" he asked leisurely despite being aware of some development between them over the past few days. He was saddened that Hermione's messages in their group chat with Kyra were a bit short but he could understand now, after seeing the tension between the two women as they walked beside each other silently.
"Pretty good, and I think it was positive to see that when it comes to technology. We're easily doing the most innovation as well as most thorough integration of magical and muggle methods," Pansy answered for them, flicking her wand to refresh their impervious charms as the rain intensified. "I don't think anyone was creating the cosmetics in the way we were, would you say?" she asked.
Hermione nodded, hands in the pockets of her washed out jeans as they made their way up the stone steps. "I think that's fair to say. There were a few that I would not class as innovative at all actually," she pointed out, growling at the thought of Claude Gilmel and his beauty concept. If a woman was not bleached, shaved, smooth and made up, she couldn't be 'a ten'. Or so he told some of the men who were part of their industry. They were admittedly in the minority, many of their colleagues were women trying to improve their own lives and the lives of others their own sex, but she was surprised that even in this industry, there were men who subscribed to misogyny and macho posturing of the worst kind. The man was an utter sleaze, his presentation lacked lustre, only saved by the talented young chemist and herbologist he was working with, Nathaniel Greyston. That was where the true talent lay, though why he was working for someone like Gilmel was a mystery to her. They exchanged numbers and she was looking forward to doing some digging on the young man to understand whether he could be utilised for their work instead.
"Some excellent up-and-coming talent though, especially in the potions and herbology sphere," Pansy added, as if reading her thoughts.
"Excellent! We've been a rather small collective for many years since the war," Neville pointed out. "Anyone I would know?" he asked.
"I don't remember most of the names, but there were a couple talents I would consider," Pansy mused as they headed up to see Kyra. "Enough about us though, how have you both been?" she asked.
"We're well. Kyra is not happy about being bed-bound this early in the pregnancy but Byron has been excellent company. I think he knows she's pregnant, keeps nuzzling her belly and resting his head in her lap protectively," he chuckled, clearly amused by the dog's antics.
"He's a very clever boy, what can I say," Hermione grinned and chuckled at the sound of his scratching on the door. The moment Neville opened it, he was racing towards her and doing laps around her with happy yips and whines. "Hello my handsome boy," she knelt down and hugged him, letting him lick her chin as she rubbed his neck and patted his side. "Yes, good boy. Now sit," she instructed and he did so obediently as she straightened up and rubbed his ears. "Come," she patted her leg and they headed into the teacher's quarters.
Seeing Pansy was already speaking with Kyra, she held back and accepted a cup of lemon myrtle tea from Neville, recognising the smell immediately. "New shipment from Australia?" she asked, breathing it in contentedly.
"Arrived yesterday. A friend of mine sent across a selection box from his latest harvest," he smiled, pleased that her nose recognised the scent. "I actually have something for you," his gaze flicked up to confirm Pansy was still busy with Kyra before reaching into the drawer of his writing table nearby and extricating a fragile-looking book covered in a protective velvet book slip. "I got this from the Longbottom library in one of our family vaults. It's from the fourteenth century so a bit fragile but it mentions one of my ancestors encountering a harpy, and subsequently falling love with her. The ending is not a happy one, but I thought you have a right to know what befell your creature ancestors," he forewarned.
Her hand shook slightly as she took it from him, carefully opening the cover to the first folio, diligent not to crack the spine of the fragile binding. "Thank you, Nev. Truly, this means the world," she carefully stowed it in her bag and hugged him.
"You're welcome," he patted her back and smiled warmly. "If you fancy returning the favour, I have several new beds to plant and our experimental cross-breeds to check this weekend?" he offered.
"I would be honoured," she smiled, delighted to be invited into his green kingdom. "I'll be here early, at five? That should give us enough time before dawn to check for harvest," she offered.
"Good idea. We can start on the soil beds and have brunch once done," he agreed and they finalised their plans before Pansy joined them in the sitting room.
"It was good to see you both, I'll just floo home if that's alright with you? I have emails to deal with," Pansy sighed tiredly, feeling a headache coming on.
"Of course, we'll see you soon," he offered and motioned for her to ahead for the floo.
"Thanks, speak soon," she offered and just before she disappeared in the emerald flames her eyes connected with the harpy's bottomless gaze, sending a lick of heat and longing through her at the knowledge that they were to be parted.
Hermione felt her absence keenly after the several days spent together and after a quick catch up with Kyra promised to come by in a couple of days as promised. For now, her plan was to get home, take a long hot bath and sleep for a day.
Thankful for the silence across most of the building and especially the lab, Hermione shrugged off her jumper and stored it in her locker before heading into the lab while pulling on her lab coat. They were making some progress, the magical soil and Neville's green fingers ensured they had a bed full of various crossbreeds of plants and fruits to grow and test out. One of the most responsive and fastest growing was their rosehip and apricot hybrid which yielded an orange, tight skinned fruit in but a month since their initial planting of the combined sample.
The aim was to maximise the rich vitamin C present in rosehip and vitamin A from apricot. The product they designed could end up being a target moisturiser or a plant-based chemical exfoliant. Or if they couldn't work out the muggle formula, they could focus on the magical potion form in the first place. The possibilities were endless with this experimental research, but first and foremost they needed to understand the chemical make up of this new fruit to make any decision, so that would be her task today.
It took most of the day to understand the fruit, running it through a chemical composition analysis, taking slices for the microscope and doing pH testing as well. By the time she was ready to leave, a folder with pages of notes and queries to go over with Kyra were secured in her handbag. The lift dinged to announce its arrival on her floor and the door opened to reveal an unexpected passenger.
They looked at each other for a long moment, the door beginning to close again but Pansy reached out and held it open for her in silent invitation. Should she? Hermione wasn't sure whether it was a good idea but she stepped in nonetheless. It has been nearly a week since they parted ways in Neville's quarters and since they sleep properly in that time, not that either would admit to it if asked. Just standing this close to her mate made the harpy within Hermione's chest claw to get out and take control, to force her human to act.
She didn't need to in the end.
Despite Pansy's uncanny ability to pretend disconnect with others, the harpy was not the only one to feel the pull on the fledgling soulmate bond between them. And she detested lying to herself when her body and soul continued to pull her in the harpy's direction despite her cautious heart. Standing so close and not being able to feel the other woman close became too much and her hand reached out of its own volition to grasp Hermione's, the skin-on-skin contact electrifying as their magical cores pulsed in unison in recognition of each other.
She wasn't sure who moved first, not that it mattered anyway. All that mattered was that Hermione's body was pressed between her own and the wall of the lift, arching to meet her curves and hips, thighs twining to press deliciously against aroused flesh. Their lips met hungrily, seeking to take and to give in a dance of searching for dominance that only fuelled their need.
They were brought out of the moment harshly with the ding of the lift and pulled apart hastily as the door opened. Thankfully it was a Sunday so the ground floor was empty save for the receptionist who was just leaving as well, the harsh rain outside clearing the streets of London like nothing else. They looked at each other, chests heaving slightly as their heartbeats tried to slow down their racing.
"Come to mine," Pansy broke the silence with her bold proposal.
"We shouldn't, I don't know how the harpy will react after a week apart-"
"Precisely," Pansy interrupted, "we clearly need to spend time together or this," she pointed between the two of them and their clear flush of desire, "will keep pushing us together before we've had a chance to..I don't know, actually get to know each other," she argued.
Hermione noticed the door of the lift was starting to close again and her arm shot out to hold it open for them to get out and not hold it up. They turned to each other once they stood before the metal doors and held each other's gaze in a silent battle of will. It wasn't that Pansy was incorrect, Hermione could feel the harpy trying to claw its way closer every second they stood so close, but this was dangerous. She had yet to share with the brunette what she read inside the book from Neville. Which also brought to focus another matter - Byron.
"I can't come to yours," she finally said and lifted her hand to silence the Slytherin when she tried to speak, no doubt a sharp retort on her tongue. "I agree, we should talk and spend some time together to appease the… her," she said vaguely just in case as they were still in public, "but I have something at my place that I want to share with you, and I also need to get Byron back from my neighbour and feed him. So we should go to my place," she suggested instead.
Pansy couldn't argue with her reasoning and turned back to the lift, the door opening as it was still there.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked curiously.
"My office, we can floo to yours and it will give you a chance to lower your wards to admit me in instead of apparating near your house and getting soaked," she pointed out.
"Good point," Hermione agreed and soon they had the floo connection open to Hermione's living room and she called Pansy to step through now that the wards were adjusted to accept her. She looked around the open plan living and dining room layout with the kitchen separated by a bar seating with stools, noticing doors leading to a two more rooms and what appeared to be a bathroom. The walls were a gentle sage green, furniture eclectic but some antique, all made of dark wood. She was surprised by the warmth of the room, the walls covered with photos and ornaments from travels and the she could smell the verbena and nettle drying over the large fireplace. It was everything her sleek, catalogue home was not.
"I like your home," she complimented and looked for a place to make herself comfortable.
"Thank you." Hermione took her light-weight coat and motioned at the shoe rack. "The floor is heated, you might want to take of your heels," she offered and kicked off her own boots as well. "I'll put the kettle on and just pop next door to pick up Byron. You don't mind, do you?" she asked.
"Not at all," She promised and took a seat in one of the comfortable armchairs and sorted through her emails for the next fifteen minutes, only interrupted briefly by Byron coming to say hello by nuzzling her knee and getting an ear scratch on his way to the kitchen for dinner. She was surprised when a nice cup of green tea was set next to her elbow. "How did you know?" she asked.
"I can smell it on your sometimes," Hermione admitted candidly and settled on the sofa nearby, folding her feet underneath herself. She was tired after the long day in the lab but her acute awareness of her mate so close by was stirring her alertness.
"Thanks," Pansy acknowledged, still getting used to the woman's senses. "Why were you at the office anyway?" she asked after a moment.
"I was doing some analysis on our first hybrid today. I will be taking the notes to Kyra tomorrow morning, we have a brainstorming session scheduled in before I start working on the first formulas. What were you doing in on a Sunday?" she asked.
Pansy sipped her tea. "I've been feeling restless and wasn't sure why so I thought some yoga would help. When it didn't, I just decided to get a head-start on work as I'm on annual leave from Thursday," she admitted candidly.
"You keep in good shape," Hermione complimented, unable to not notice the woman's trim and toned body. "What else do you do other than yoga?" she asked.
"Some running, I like to hike and ski in the winter. And I'm a member of a fencing club. Yourself?"
"Mostly running and hiking, Neville sometimes takes me with him to the forest to gather ingredients and take a good walk to clear my head. I also have a favourite pilates studio," she mused.
"I bet flying is a good work out as well," Pansy offered, her tone casual as if she were talking about an every day activity a human would undertake though they both clearly knew it was not the case.
Hermione however appreciated the sentiment and effort. "I suppose so, I'm always ravenous after a good fly. It has been helpful to let the harpy flex her muscles as well, so to speak," she admitted.
Pansy nodded and sipped her tea before deciding to bite the bullet. "You had something to show me?" she asked wanting to find out the bad news before she got too comfortable.
Hermione nodded and instead of summoning the book, she walked over to a dining room table that could easily seat eight but was mostly covered by paperwork and books, and picked up an ancient looking volume. "You'll have to be a bit careful with the pages but it should hold fine. The correct page is bookmarked with the tissue paper. You should begin there," she offered guidance. "Would you like some dinner?" she offered, seeing it was already six.
"Sure, anything Thai, Japanese or Korean is good, or I could go for some pasta," she offered broadly, watching the brunette pick up her iPad to order off Deliveroo. She carefully opened the pages and discovered it was a journal, not a book at all. The handwriting was cursive and English tough to read in places but she muttered a soft translation spell and the words shifted minutely into modern day English.
17th Day of August of the Year of the Lord 1379
She comes to me in the morn, beautiful as the sun and so full both of light and vengeance, it is difficult to tell at times whether she is with me fully. The wings painted on her skin during the day transform into feathers in the night as she envelops us both while we drink from each other's cup of pleasure. We have been meeting thus for many a week but her true nature may have been discovered, and we are now on the run as far as we can get. Heading North may be our blessing, though any who spy her painted wings suspect her nature soon.
24th Day of August of the Year of the Lord 1379
We reached our new destination but the local folk are suspicious of newcomers to the village. We continue on our journey, her light flickers and grows colder as her fury builds for those who would do us wrong. I fear yet she may be turned from me for all times. It is the nature of the beast that once released from the skin of the woman, there is no returning to previous form for the harpy. I hope the child she carries will grow to be strong before coming into its winged heritage. I need to keep her safe, we travel further if we must.
8th Day of September of the Year of the Lord 1379
We were discovered as we made our way across the Scottish boarder. It was all in vain, she is now lost to me. Once cornered by soldiers, her fury encased her form, hands changing to claws and skin to feathers as she fought them all off and left us the only two standing in the field. Her eyes spoke to me, and she pressed her beaked face to mine in a final farewell before flying off to find a hiding place to house her forever transformed form. I fear I may never recover from this loss.
A.N (1843) Willelmus Longbottom died of a broken heart in September 1379. His final resting place was recently discovered when new graves were being dug up, along with this book. - A.L.
The rest of the pages were bare of further contents, preserved as they were as an account of the life of one Willelmus Longbottom. She shuddered, suddenly feeling chilled with the knowledge.
They were both startled out of her reading by a buzzing from the intercom at the door and Pansy watched the brunette head down the stairs to the ground floor to pick up their food order from the driver. It gave her a much needed moment to compose herself in the face of the new information. She carefully carried the book over to the table and out of the way of the incoming food, feeling a clarity and a sudden inexplicable fear as well. Did this mean Hermione inherited the harpy's ability to fully shift as well? Was there a chance of her ever being lost to the harpy? Could she live with the risk of it hanging over their heads?
"Alright?" Hermione asked cautiously as she set the paper bag stacked with sharing cartons of noodles and veg on the table.
For the first in time in quite some time, Pansy found herself completely speechless.