1"Behind Closed Doors" By Kross
A/n: I don't own Harry Potter…I simply enjoy using the characters conjured up J.K. Rowling for my own sweet pleasure.
Pairing: Hermione/Ron and Hermione/Mystery man
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As Hermione and Ron made love, her mind was only on her mystery lover. Each touch of Ron's hands was compared to his touch. While Ron was giving a special time in his life to Hermione, Hermione imagined that it wasn't Ron who was touching her. He was enjoying making love for the first time to a girl he thought he was in love with. She was pretending to make love to the other man.
Hermione snuck out of her bed, sliding out from the sheets and stepping quietly onto the hardwood floor. Her clothes were strewn across the room; no full outfit was to be found. She didn't bother trying to collect them; she merely wrapped herself up in her plush, ivory bath robe.
Despite the dull thud each footstep made, Hermione was able to slip quietly from the room without Ron awakening. She slowly pressed the door closed behind her, silence was nearly impossible, she found. She exhaled long and deep as the door was fully shut and she was alone. Out from her pocket came a ring, silver and adorned with a snake. To be precise, the ring was simply a snake, one coiled and wrapped around itself.
Hermione thought back to how she had found it. Ron was enjoying her and the sheets had been tossed askew. She shifted below him, to even out his weight on top of her, and found herself lying on the ring; the ring dug itself into her back and stayed there. Hermione paid it little mind, moving to find a more comfortable position from time to time. She didn't want Ron to see it.
As Ron fell asleep, deep snores drifting from his open mouth, Hermione plucked the ring out of the tangled bed-sheet mess. The shine from the ring was what caught Hermione's attention first. It glimmered with great care and attention; someone had loved it deeply. The snake wrapped around itself, meeting tail to head, with eyes that shone with emeralds buried into their sockets. Emerald and silver, she thought. Green and grey.
As she slipped out of the common room and into the main part of the castle, Hermione began to breathe more easily. This ring was a fabulous new development. It narrowed her list of suspects down to anyone who was or affiliated with a Slytherin. Hermione needed to think. She had potions the next day, a class that Gryffindors had the pleasure of sharing with the Slytherins.
She padded the hallways, pacing back and forth. The workings of her mind were in full spin and she was unable to sleep now. Hermione couldn't sleep. She couldn't go back to her bed, Ron was sleeping there.
"A shower would do me good," she spoke aloud, to herself while nearing the prefects' bathroom.
With password whispered and door opened, Hermione settled into the vast rooms. In the changing rooms that were first on the path to the baths, Hermione quickly disposed of the bathrobe. She loosened the tie around her waist, and it simply fell away. Her bare skin instantly chilled, tiny goose bumps flourished on her each inch of her milky flesh. She sat on the tiled edge of the bath while it filled. The sound of the rushing water was soothing to her and the smell of the variety of bath scents tickled her nose. She pulled the tortoise comb out from her hair. Her hair draped around her waist, long and wavy. She finger combed her hair as the water level rose, and with one last tuck of her locks behind her ear, Hermione sunk into the swimming pool sized bath.
The purple bubbles flooded around Hermione as she bathed, soaking away all her frustrations and fears. Her aching breasts were comforted by the heat of the water. Her skin felt like skin again, not dusty parchment. Hermione knew that this made her feel alive once more. What Hermione didn't know was she was not alone in the bathroom.
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He'd seen enough of her to paint a thousand portraits. His eyes wandered on her back as she had sat on the edge, grazing over the white flesh like a looming predator. He desired to take every inch of her in, to hold her and love her, to know her in her entirety.
He should have found it sexy as she washed away her worries and woes. He should have wanted to join her, to make love to her in the warm bath water. He should have wanted many things. He only wanted to watch her, to enjoy seeing her candidly, unscripted and unprepared. He wanted her to be as vulnerable as he was. He was really vulnerable on the inside. Naked and confused. He supposed that was the reason that he had hunted down girls in each year he was at Hogwarts and was their secret lover. He was never in danger of rejection. He was never in danger of falling in love.
He tried to pull himself away as he heard her dislodge the drain plug. He tried to leave as she stood up from the water, dripping and in her full splendid glory. She had a hold on him that was hard for him to escape. He slipped into the shadows as she wrapped herself up in a towel, sinking back so far as not to be seen. His lips were apart, and he could only swallow his thoughts as she neared. He wanted to reach out and touch her.
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"Damn it…" she mumbled, turning around and walking back to the tub. She picked her tortoise comb off of the tub's edge and curled her fingers around it. He moved, pressing against the wall. Before she turned back, he was gone. The only thing he had left her was the soft swishing of a swinging door.
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How was that? We're getting closer to finding out who he is. I hope you can see who I've eliminated from the runnings….Please review if you liked it. Please review and tell me so if you didn't.
Meg/Kross