Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related concepts are owned by someone who isn't me. I will never seek or accept money for the circulation of this work. Especially this work.

Holly Polter

[[ Chapter: Devotion ]]

Harry followed Holly in a daze as she led them back to the Leaky Cauldron.

His heart had been pounding so loud, he couldn't be sure the girl hadn't been talking to him the entire way up to her rented room. When she closed the door and turned to face him, he watched the dance of her moving lips but only heard a muffled 'hup puh puh ruh dff'.

Then she stopped doing anything but staring at him.

"What?"

"I said, 'Are you sure you're ready to do this,' but I'm thinking your decision-making capabilities have been shut down."

He nodded in a bashful way, but remembered not to say he was sorry. Instead he proudly enunciated, "Meh yuhuh."

"I need you to cast some spells before we start, so just calm down, will you? We won't be doing anything but talking for a few minutes..." her left eyebrow rose in concern, "or possibly hours."

"Oh." Though he felt a slight disappointment, he found that the roaring in his ears was fading.

"Have a seat, take off your shoes. Do you know the Imperturbable charm?"

"No."

She sat at the desk chair and unzipped her riding boots to pull them off. "It seals a room from eavesdropping. Better than the Muffling charm and a very polite thing to do for the sake of our neighbors. I'll teach you."

It wasn't much different than the Impervius charm that kept his goggles water-repelling in stormy Quidditch matches. Harry felt he had perfected it after sealing the door, both windows and the chimney- it wasn't like they'd need a fire with as hot as it had been.

That wasn't the only spell Holly taught him, either. There were cleansing spells, anti-pregnancy spells, a spell to check for pregnancy ('a very good thing to know before having sex with the girl, Harry'), a spell for inducing a quick moment of lust and several different ways to use spells that he already knew but hadn't considered how useful they might be in a bedroom encounter.

It was thirsty work, particularly in their sealed room. Holly opened a bottle of wine for them to share. It had been delivered in addition to a carafe of chilled pumpkin juice brought up with the stew being served to Cauldron guests for supper. Harry hadn't really noticed the time spent until the sun set, prompting Holly to light a few candles.

She also lit an odd coil of incense. The spicy-sweet smoke rose in a lazy curl from the ashen tip, adding a new flavour to Harry's breathing. He sat down rather heavily onto a pillow, letting the fumes mix with the wine stirring his senses, both serving to relax his tight shoulders.

Holly plopped a second pillow directly in front of him and sat down Indian style on it, much as when he'd first seen her in his room. The memory made him smile.

"I think you're ready for kissing," said Holly.

Harry's calm haze cleared slightly when his pulse quickened. He saw her lean towards him, and he leaned forward as well, puckering his lips a bit and letting his eyes droop closed, as he'd seen on telly shows.

He kept leaning forward until he was off-balance, snapping his arms forward to brace himself from tipping face-first into the floor. When he sat back and opened his eyes, Holly was smirking at him.

"You missed the landing zone there, space cadet."

"What?"

"A lot of intimacy is about making a gentle landing. Much like the moon missions, it takes practice and skill to execute it with grace, and I assure you that none of the astronauts take their eyes off the target until they have to. Alternately, you can use your hands to guide you in, like so." She cupped his face in both hands and leaned forward but made sure not to pull Harry towards her by the jaw. If anything she was holding him back from trying to close the distance as well which was-

And they were kissing. Her lips were soft, dry and warm, and they slid across his own with an even pressure, closing and opening just a little. He tried to mimic the motion and noticed immediately that it was harder than it looked... or felt. He was startled by the hot wet tongue that he felt dart into his mouth, right before Holly tilted her head back to break the kiss. She leaned away far enough that Harry could focus his eyes on her whole face again.

"Still, it takes practice to come in only so fast and make a gentle contact. You don't want to just plow into the surface- you'll end up breaking something. Notice how I cocked my head so we didn't bump noses?"

"No... but yeah."

Harry's heart was beating hard again. He wanted to pay attention but his whole body tingled still from that kiss. He became aware of Holly's fingers still touching his cheeks and his skin grew hot there, in fact he was becoming keenly aware of every place his body touched hers, even where her bare knee had slid from beneath her skirt to nudge against his shin.

The green of her eyes seemed to swirl and she let out the barest gasp, a sound so fragile he felt the skin beneath his hair prickle in trying to remember it.

"I'd forgotten what that felt like," she said.

"What what felt like?"

"The First Time- confusion, surprise, delight, anxiety... you feel like your body is actually a team of racehorses dashing about, out of sync, and if you let go they're gonna split you apart."

Harry gulped and nodded.

She stared into his eyes- when did she take off her glasses? - and said, "Harry, you're doing fine. I'm not going to hurt you, and you should know that I can take a lot of punishment- more than you can dish out. Take a breath." When he did, she said, "Remember this rule to fall back on, if nothing else: don't do anything to the other person that you wouldn't enjoy having them do to you. Check to make sure that they're liking what you're doing and adjust accordingly."

He thought about it, and nodded when he realised how much sense it made.

"Shall we continue? More topics to cover, you know."

"O-okay. Do you- should I take my clothes off?"

Holly smiled and said, "No. I'll take care of that, this time."

She stroked him through his first orgasm. Then she taught him how to disrobe her. Soon after, they made love on the floor. Holly managed the process by straddling him, but it was a joint effort, leading to ecstasy for them both.

Holly slumped over him then, her breasts pressed against his chest and her head turned to rest against his shoulder, her arms laying to either side of his head. They lay there for a while.

Holly was the first to move, lifting her body upward to separate their joining. She then clambered to standing, her loosened skirt slipping down off her hips once she had narrowed her stance.

Harry gaped when he saw that there was blood along the inside of her thighs. Already, Holly was turning to him and saying, "Don't freak out."

Harry sputtered in protest but she raised a hand to silence him. She said, "Okay, remember when I said comedy and sex go hand in hand? Well this time the joke was on me."

"What? Why?"

"New body, no scars... and I'm a virgin again. Or I was, for a few hours anyway."

"I'm... I'm so sorry-"

"Harry, you were a virgin up until a few minutes ago- do you feel better or worse now that your virginity is gone?"

"Better! A hundred times better, but-"

"No- that's it. That's all. If you're a virgin, losing it seems like it would be an epic event; a soul-shattering compromise of self and fall from grace, or maybe the heralding of your entry to adultitude with an aura of completeness surrounding your head. After it's gone? 'Wow-that-was-great-when-can-I-do-that-again!', right?"

"Um, yeah. By the way, wow, that was great. When can we do it again?"

Holly smiled. "Wash up, stud. Then we'll see if you've learned anything."

They spent the next few minutes on opposite sides of the privacy screen, each with two towels, one wet and one dry. When Harry was cleaned up, he cleared his throat to verify it was safe to come out. Holly replied, "I'm ready when you are."

She had changed into another outfit, such as it was. Holly had a silk dressing gown tied around her waist. Its shimmering off-white fabric was painted in broad strokes of red, black and pink across the back, depicting some sort of Asian flowering plant.

"Where did you get that?"

"You bought it for me today. Thank you, Harry."

"How much did we spend altogether?"

"Plenty, but barely a splash in your assets, if I'm guessing right. You bought yourself a kimono as well, and as much as I love watching you wander around naked, you should try it on."

Harry followed where Holly was pointing, finding another wrapped package. He unfolded it and pulled out a silk housecoat just like Holly's except the colors were inverted- a black background, with white, green and purple for the image of austere foliage. He put in on and felt almost more naked than he had when standing freshly scrubbed. The silk caressed his skin, rousing his senses.

He looked over to Holly, who was giving him a 'come here' gesture. When he stepped close, she stood up on tip toes and gave him a soft, lingering kiss. She then stepped back from him, stopping only when her arse bumped into the desk provided with the room. She hopped up onto it, her legs dangling over the edge and the kimono slipping loose from its belt.

"Last formal lesson of the day, Harry. I'd like to introduce you to the details of the female sex parts, but we won't be bothering with the full biology lesson at this time."

"Really? Why not?"

"Because I'm really wanting you to touch me right now." She pulled one leg up until she could hook her heel onto the edge of the desk. Harry stepped closer. Her other leg made a similar motion, though as it rose to anchor at the wooden top, Holly's kimono was spread aside, and her privates were spread out before Harry like a opened flower.

Holly explained all the parts of woman's most personal anatomy, and then they explored hers, together, which once more led to making love.

Afterwards, Harry fell onto her bed, covered in sweat. Holly propped herself over him by her straight-braced arms, staring down with an unreadable look.

"Want me to budge over?" he offered.

"No. I'm too damned sticky and hot to cuddle with you. Just wanted you to know..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm not done with you. Not by a longshot, lover. Rest up, though. We've had a long day."

In the back of his head, Harry woke up a little, realising that Holly had transformed his world in the space of a day. Fatigue kept him from pursuing the thought any further, and he fell into a deep, undisturbed sleep.

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