The Vie loomed today in a way it hadn't before. Hermione anticipated that she would hold some kind of reluctance to return here in her mind based on her previous visit. She also didn't know if Zabini was still in the penthouse and didn't want to see him right away.
She would rather hear of him and not from him, he was altogether too much for her sometimes and he often came paired with someone she preferred to avoid.
When she entered the lobby, instead of awkwardly waiting around, she turned to the sitting area and cosied up beside a fireplace. She dressed comfortably again, but in a much nicer white jumper than the cotton t-shirt she had worn to visit Ginny. Her black jeans hugged her hips in a way that made her feel attractive. Her hair was pinned away from her face but cascaded down her back and she wore her favourite silver hoop earrings.
Finding Viktor's room was something she didn't want to corner herself into and give the Prophet something to talk about. Dinner at the Vie's restaurant was innocent enough. Viktor had something he wanted to tell her, his response to her accepting his invitation had indicated as much.
Finding a wife was what Hermione assumed it would be. That he was intending to marry into the British social scene and invest here. Hermione smiled because she knew Viktor loved English women, and she absentmindedly touched her lips as the fire warmed her skin and crackled happily.
When she pressed her hand to her purse, about to find a book to read, she felt someone come up behind her and pause. She craned around and looked up and met Viktor's warm eyes and slight smile, a little goatee and moustache on his face. His hair was a little longer, and a strand fell lazily across his forehead.
His shoulders were wide and no longer rounded. He stood tall and his expression was pleasant instead of his stormy, glumness she remembered of him.
"Hermy-ny." He said. Hermione felt warmth spread outward and a distant flutter in her stomach. He was her first crush, love, kiss. The emotions attached to that flooded her brain and a stupid smile cracked across her face. She rose clumsily and her purse fell with the heavy thud of something much heavier than its size indicated.
"Viktor!" She said happily. She bent to pick up her purse then stumbled around the couch to his side and threw her arms around his shoulders. She had to stand on her toes and his arms wrapped her around her waist, closing in around her and warming her in a way the fire could never. Viktor, it seemed, had also given into muggle style clothing. He wore a crisp burgundy shirt, no tie, and black dress pants with shiny dragon hide boots. He smelled of the spray of the ocean, salty and like rain.
"How long has it been?" Viktor said. "And I still cannot say your name right." Hermione laughed and blinked away the happy tears that had gathered in their corners. It had been a long time since she had seen him and she was so grateful for the end of the war and that her friends had survived.
"Don't worry about it! I think it's adorable, one of your best traits." Hermione teased. Viktor blushed, his neck turned splotchy and his whiskers twitched slightly.
"Shall ve go to dinner?" Viktor said, his hand lightly on her waist as he turned to gesture to the dining area. Hermione looked up at him and allowed herself to be shepherded. It was nice to be touched. She had forgotten what it felt like. Ginny of course would play, they had their tickle fights or cuddle sessions in their girls' nights. It was how they showed their affection, and after all they had been through, they weren't going to let life pass them by without demonstrating their love for the people who matter.
But this was different. Viktor's touch felt like fire at her side, all the things they never did together balled into the pressure points of his fingers as they hovered, then pressed, then pulled her along gently.
Sex was not something Hermione thought she missed. She was okay without intimacy. Sleeping with Ron was never really passionate, not in the way she had read in all her romance novels. It wasn't magical, which to Hermione was hilarious because they lived with magic. It wasn't pure ecstasy or euphoria.
It was pleasurable, and her orgasms usually unwound her mind and stopped her thinking, and thinking like she did when they were permanently stressed post-war, dealing with loss and devastation.
Alone time was also not really her thing, so the last time she unwound her mind, so to speak, was years ago.
Viktor's contact was winding that untouched part of her she had long forgotten to a peak that was becoming hard to ignore.
And she had never slept with him. She didn't know what kind of lover he would make. He was so attentive to her and her needs, even as a teenage boyfriend in a way that Ron never was and she chewed her lip as she imagined him kissing her throat and asking her what she needed.
"Hermy-nin?" Viktor said, snapping Hermione out of her reverie. She was sitting and staring intently at the lilies that sat in the middle of the table.
"Sorry, what were you saying?" she said. She shook her head and smiled. Viktor returned her smile and he leaned back into his chair.
"You still bite your lip venever you go far into that big brain of yours." Viktor said. Hermione blushed.
"I'm sorry, I promise you'll have my full attention from now on." Hermione said. "You asked me to come here to tell me something! And I'm spacing out on you, I'm sorry."
"Don't vorry about it." Viktor said. His hand reached for the back of his neck and Hermione's eyes wandered to his bulging bicep. She swallowed.
"Shall we order?" Hermione asked. She looked down at her menu hoping it hid her blush and also working to keep her eyes from devouring him. She felt like a lioness had all of a sudden gotten a whiff of prey and she was about to go on a hunt.
Just eat, talk, and leave, Hermione, she told herself.
"Touch your vand to the menu item and it vill appear on your plate." Viktor said.
"Oh! That's neat." Hermione said. She wondered how many house elves were really under employment here. She looked around the dining room and there were easily fifty tables, half of which seated up to four people.
There was a huge chandelier, twice the size of the penthouse dining hall's biggest one, hovering without support and throwing crystal shimmering lights about the room. Similar to Hogwarts' hovering candles, little lanterns of light dotted the air above them, casting warm light to every corner of the room. Fireplaces lined the walls and crackled dreamily, and people sat talking to each other but their words sounded muffled.
Privacy charms, Hermione noted. She returned her attention to her menu and was immediately drawn to a delicate looking fish dish. She saw the price next to it and her eyes widened.
"Order votever you vont." Viktor said. "Please, it's my treat. I haven't seen you in so many years, this is to make up for it."
Hermione looked up and realised he hadn't stopped looking at her. He was watching her the way he did in the library so many years ago, before he had the courage to speak to her. He loved watching her read.
"I-" Viktor quirked an eyebrow and Hermione swallowed the rest of her sentence. "Okay, yes. Your treat."
Viktor smiled and now looked down at his menu and promptly touched something with the tip of his wand. His menu then floated away to somewhere Hermione couldn't see. She touched the fish and watched as her menu followed behind Viktor's. Wine filled into their glasses silently, white for Hermione and red for Viktor.
"It comes paired with vine, according to vot you selected." Viktor explained as Hermione watched in fascination. Magical hotels became infinitely more interesting for Hermione.
Hermione felt her throat go dry as she trained her eyes away from Viktor. He was admittedly more handsome. He had done something, and it wasn't just his shoulders. Maybe it was the facial hair.
"You've changed." Hermione said, the words slipping out before she could decipher what was different about him. "I mean- you've changed in a good way!" she hastened to say. Viktor smiled, his teeth showing white behind his pink lips.
"Thank you, so have you." he said with a small inclination of his head.
Hermione realised he had grown out of his awkward teenage body and into an athlete's physique. It must have corrected his posture. She never thought anything was wrong with the way he looked before, but somehow, he just seemed so mature, grown, like he had changed with the world and didn't refuse to adapt, like someone she knew.
She drank clumsily from a glass of water that had also filled alongside the wine. She wiped her chin with her sleeve.
"You're still the same Hermy-ninny, though." Viktor said warmly. Hermione smiled.
"What is it you wanted to tell me?" Hermione asked.
"Ve can leave it for after dinner." Viktor said. Hermione nodded. Then a flash of light lit the room so brightly, Hermione looked up in irritation because she knew the Prophet lurked for stories. She found shiny red hair shaking as the woman threw her head back and laughed silently in the safety of privacy charms. Then Zabini's hand reached across the table for his date's and Hermione realised in a panic that it was Ginny, and Zabini.
Without thinking, she rose to her feet and ran for the lobby. She hoped they didn't see her. She pressed her back to the stone wall and Viktor came striding out after her, his duck footedness hardly noticeable because his stature was so looming.
"Vot happened?" Viktor asked, genuine bewilderment on his face.
"Sorry! My friend, she's here on a date and I don't want them to see me here." Hermione said. She hadn't quite figured out if she didn't want them to see her with Viktor, if she didn't want to interrupt them, or if she was avoiding their usually accompanying third wheel.
"My room has a dining room, vould you like to eat vith me there?" Viktor said. He was standing close to her, protective, waiting to see how he could help her. Hermione nodded. So much for not going to his room. But she knew the Prophet's journalists were already occupied with their front page story.
Viktor took her hand and pulled her along to the lift, careful not to yank her and to stride at a pace her shorter legs could keep up with. When they got into the lift, she stood away from him scared that she had made a poor decision.
There was a magnetism between them and she hoped it wasn't one sided. But at the same time, she didn't know what she hoped to gain from this. Just one night of pleasure? A relationship? She didn't want a husband.
Viktor held the lift door open for her and she stepped into the corridor. They didn't go as high as the penthouse, but judging by the numbers on the doors, they were near the top of the building.
They walked in silence around one corner and then another, and he stopped at his door and it clicked open. Hermione followed him in and surveyed the room.
It was a similar room to the penthouse. There was a small bar, and the walls were lined with books. The wall on the far end was floor to ceiling windows that invited you to gaze unendingly over the edge, but in the middle of the room, instead of lounge chairs, there was a small, two person dining table.
"How do we get the food up here?" Hermione asked. "Do they know?"
"I told them before I left." Viktor said. He pulled one chair back, inviting Hermione to sit. She stepped over to him and looked up. She put her hand to the back of his and met his eyes. He was inches away from her face, his breath brushed against her face, tickling her skin. He smelled like salty open sea water and the outdoors.
"Hermy-" Viktor said. Hermione put her hand to his chest and felt his heartbeat race against her palm. His chest was rising and falling quickly and it matched her own. She didn't look away from his eyes, a silent craving reaching out to him. She wanted to feel him. Be with him.
He tilted his head down to hers and through the wiry whiskers on his face, she felt the softness of his lips and she pressed herself to him. He opened his mouth and nipped at her lips and she felt heat rise from her neck to her face, and down to her abdomen.
Viktor's hand that had gripped the chair firmly now came up to Hermione's jaw and tilted her chin up to his, deepening their kiss. She heard noises escape her throat she didn't know she could make and the need to be touched more superseded her want to blush in embarrassment. Viktor pushed her to the small bar where two stools stood in the way.
He kicked them clumsily away and lifted Hermione to the countertop. With deft hands that were used to gripping a broom and catching the delicate snitch, he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off. He kissed her, rocking into her as she grasped at his back, at anything she could to hold him closer.
With a swift, soft movement, Viktor pushed her underwear aside and slipped a finger into her. She was unreasonably moist, longing to be touched and for intimacy. Viktor's fingers were wide, and he curled his finger up into her and rubbed deftly at the bundle of nerves. She pulled away from his kiss to moan at the ceiling, her back arching at the pleasure.
Another finger curled into her, sliding through her and she ground forward onto them. Viktor kissed her jaw and into her neck, nuzzling his way into her breasts through her jumper. His hand wandered across her bare stomach, under the jumper and up to her breasts where he held one and gently squeezed.
With a shuddering moan, Hermione came on his fingers and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she quivered through the waves of pleasure. She felt limp, exhausted, satisfied.
And she wanted more.
She grasped the bottom of her sweater and pulled it over her head and unclasped her bra. Viktor withdrew his fingers and looked at them before he sucked the taste of her off of them.
The lioness was on the hunt, Hermione was going to get what she wanted. What she didn't know she wanted until it was standing here in front of her.
She worked quickly at Viktor's trouser button and his pants fell to his ankles. With shaking fingers, she unbuttoned his shirt and exposed his muscular build. She was right, his athleticism had fixed for the most part, his posture. His abdominal muscles rippled and she slid her palms along his waist before pulling him to her.
Open mouths met, with sloppy wet kisses as they kissed each other, wanting more. Hermione tasted herself on his lips and bit at his soft flesh, grinding forward onto him. He was hard against the inside of her thighs and she felt impatience bubble forward as the barrier of his boxer briefs were in the way.
She gripped him through the cloth and he thrust into her hand, she could feel the moisture on her palm and quickly, he yanked his boxer briefs off and he pressed against her.
Hermione was already buzzing from oversensitivity and she guided him into her. Viktor sunk into her without hesitation and then held still as she adjusted around him and he moaned against her skin.
Her fingers laced through his hair as she encouraged him, and he began a slow rhythm that reached beyond where his fingers had. Matching his motions, she rotated her hips and he came in a shudder. He continued thrusting into her, slowly because of his own sensitivity and overcoming the urge to stop because of it. Hermione could feel her own orgasm building and didn't want him to stop. As he throbbed into her and she felt the warmness fill her, she came with a moan and clawed at his back and gripped his hair.
Viktor's back shone in the light that poured through the window, his muscles rippled and he shook as his knees weakened.
Hermione needed to remember the post-coital contraception pill. The last thing she wanted from this moment of lust was a pregnancy.
"Hermy-ninny." Viktor said, his mouth still to her skin, her breasts heaving under his cheek. "You have to leave."
The wind was knocked from her lungs and the warmth from her pleasure promptly drained away and she was cold and naked in a room with a stranger.
"What?" Hermione asked. She felt confusion wash through her as the sudden emptiness of his withdrawal and there was a cold trickle between her legs.
"I'm engaged." Viktor said. He hung his head in shame as he turned to dress himself, his back to her now. Hermione felt tears sting her eyes but they didn't fall. She could still see him.
Trembling, she slid off the countertop and collected her clothing. She used scourgify silently to clean herself, but needed a two hour soak in the bathroom for how dirty she felt. Fiance?
"I vonted you at the vedding." Viktor said. He was buttoning his shirt now, looking out of the window.
"Why?" Hermione asked. She was utterly confused. What did I just do?
"It's someone you know." Viktor said. "Nevermind that. She's vos joining us and it vos a surprise." Viktor said. He turned to look at her now, his face serious and any look of guilt Hermione felt was nowhere on his face.
"She was coming here? " Hermione asked, horror coming in bile in her throat. She swallowed. " Now?"
"You need to leave. She can't know. I'll tell her you got sick." Viktor said. Hermione fumbled with her bra clasp and couldn't get it on, and then stuffed the bra into her purse, angry. She yanked her jumper on over her head and glared at Viktor.
"You should have stopped me." Hermione said. "I'd have never, never , done that if I had known you were engaged, Viktor."
"I know." Viktor said. "It's an arranged pairing. I don't know her all that vell, but she said she knows you. It vos a surprise, Hermy-ninny."
"Who?" Hermione asked. Viktor moved as if to touch her, to guide her yet again through another door like a gentleman. Hermione flinched away. "Who is it? And how could you get roped into all of this marriage shit that's happening in Britain?"
"Go through there, there's a door to the corridor, Hermy-ninny." Viktor said. He pointed to a door. It looked odd, like the door between her and Ginny's in the penthouse. An adjoining room.
"Fuck you, Viktor." Hermione said. Only when the door was shut did her tears slide hot down her cheeks. She looked around at the bedroom and dry heaved into the air. She was glad she didn't have dinner, but how she wished it was just that.
What she would give for just dinner.
She inhaled, steadying her breathing and then opened the door to the corridor. As she closed it behind her and looked up, her eyes met cold, grey, narrowed eyes at the end of the corridor.
Her chest constricted tightly as she realised it was Malfoy. His hand was on a door handle and he was about to step into a room. The corners of his mouth turned downward, his eyebrows met in the middle, and when Hermione blinked, he was gone with the sound of his lock's loud click.