Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable
CH 3 Facing the Music
As Hermione sat in the stable alone after her encounter with Malfoy, the full gravity of the situation set in on her. She finished dressing herself, smoothed out her hair, and headed grudgingly towards the castle to visit Madame Pomfrey.
"Oh, this is going to be so embarrassing!" she thought as she mentally rehearsed what she would say upon arrival.
Ten minutes later, Hermione found herself paused outside the giant wooden doors of the Hospital Wing. She took a deep breath and entered.
"Good morning Miss Granger. What can I do for you?" Madame Pomfrey asked with cheery a smile.
"Good morning. I need to ask you for something, but first I want to make sure that whatever I tell you will be in strict confidence." Hermione replied.
"Of course dear" Pomfrey responded.
"You mean, you won't tell anyone? Even my parents or the headmaster?" Hermione clarified.
"No. I can keep this visit private as long as your life isn't in danger or you haven't been hurt by someone." Pomfrey promised with a genuine look of concern.
"Okay, well it's nothing like that, it's just that, I think I need a…I mean, I know I need an emergencycontraceptivepotion." Hermione stammered while consciously averting Pomfrey's gaze. She was so embarrassed that she couldn't bring herself to look the older woman in the eyes. After all, they'd known each other since Hermione was eleven and she was sure that the mediwitch still saw her as that same innocent child.
I still was that innocent child until an hour ago. Hermione thought grimly.
Madame Pomfrey remained silent for a few moments before placing her hand on Hermione's shoulder and saying, "I understand."
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Hermione emerged from the hospital wing fifteen minutes later feeling somewhat better. She was still rather embarrassed from having to admit what she had done, but at least she no longer had to worry about becoming pregnant with that snobby bastard's devil-spawn. She headed for Gryffindor tower with the intent of curling up in her bed and forgetting about today's atrocious events.
As she walked she found herself involuntarily reliving her visit to the hospital wing.
I can't believe she actually suggested that I talk to a counselor about avoiding risky behavior. She thought as she rounded a corner. Honestly! It's not like I go around shagging random men all day!
Soon, she passed a group of Slytherins who were all giving her dirty looks and sneering. This wasn't too unusual but something just seemed off about all of the attention. Oh, that's right…the whole school knows! I had almost forgotten. She thought sardonically as she immediately looked down to hide her embarrassment and rushed the rest of the way up to her rooms.
"Chastity!" Hermione called with a grimace as she neared the portrait of the Fat Lady. The irony of the password was not lost on her
"You know, Slytherins are not good company. You should be careful." The Fat Lady declared. "Don't expect to be sneaking a Slytherin by this painting!" she continued as Hermione stood shocked.
"Where did you hear about that?" Hermione asked frustrated. "There aren't any paintings in the Great Hall." She added.
"Oh, I didn't hear it from a painting, my dear. Everyone whose walked past me has been talking about it all day!" the Fat Lady informed her.
That's great! This day just keeps getting better. Hermione thought to herself. "Can I enter?" she barked, a little harsher than intended.
The portrait didn't reply, but gave her a disgusted look as it swung open.
Upon entering the Gryffindor common room, Hermione noticed an instant silence fell over a large group of fourth through seventh years who were gathered around the fireplace. They all turned and stared. It was quite apparent that they had just been gossiping about her and had only stopped because of her presence.
"Hermione!" shouted Ron as he and Harry shot up from a couch and rushed over to her. "Are you alright?" he questioned. "We looked all over for you after you left breakfast with Malfoy, but we couldn't find you." he added.
"You are okay aren't you?" Harry started.
"What happened?" Ron interrupted. "What did that bastard do to you?"
"I don't know exactly…Do you mind if we talk about this somewhere a little more private?" Hermione whispered as she eyed the curious Gryffindors who were not even pretending to hide their obvious eavesdropping.
"Yeah, let's go to our room." Harry agreed.
Hermione was surprised that her two friends were not furious with her. She had expected Ron to be fuming right about now.
Once they entered the boys' dormitory Ron asked, "You don't actually like Malfoy right?"
"Of course not!" gasped Hermione as she settled herself at the end of one of the beds. "I'm not sure what came over me, but I think it must have been a…"
"LUST POTION" both Ron and Harry interrupted.
"That's what I was going to say!" Hermione proclaimed while looking surprised that the boys had figured it out.
"I am going to kill that motherfucker for making a fool out of you in front of everyone!" Ron announced.
"Believe it or not, I don't think it was him who did it" said Hermione thoughtfully.
"Why do you say that?" Harry asked. "It does seem like something Malfoy would do. He is always trying to humiliate us."
"Well, I don't think it was him because he seemed pretty angry afterwards…once he realized what he had done…" Hermione stated as calmly as she could. She couldn't help the blush that spread across her entire face at the memory.
"What exactly had he done, Hermione?" Ron asked gently with a pained look on his face. It wasn't in Ron's nature to be this understanding when it came to Hermione, but he and Harry had decided earlier to be as calm and open as possible when Hermione returned to let her explain herself before they lost control.
Hermione hadn't answered. She had turned her back to the boys and covered her face. She was holding back tears and trying her best to calm herself. She didn't want to tell two guys that she had just lost her virginity to Draco Malfoy, especially since she didn't usually talk to them about these kinds of things. She had mentioned kissing a boy from her home town to them before, but that was it. This was going to be really hard.
She felt strong arms circle her shoulders and she looked up to see Harry giving her a comforting look. "You can tell us, Hermione. It's okay." He said as he began to softly rub her back.
"I had sex with him!" She announced suddenly and then began sobbing on Harry's shoulder. She could no longer hold back the tears that she had wanted to shed all morning. She was crying from anger, embarrassment, fear, and resentment all at once.
"You what?" Ron blurted out.
Harry quickly shot him a look that said "shut up!" and continued to rub her back as he moved some of her hair out of her face. He whispered comforting words to Hermione, telling her that everything would be okay and that it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened (although he couldn't think of anything worse than that!). Over her shoulder he made eye contact with Ron who was fuming. His face had turned a bright shade of red and he was gesturing with his hands as he paced the room.
Suddenly a knock sounded on the door. Hermione jumped and immediately started to wipe the tears off of her cheeks.
"Go away!" Ron shouted at the door.
"No, it's me! I want to talk to Hermione!" came the voice of Ginny Weasley.
Secretly, Harry was glad that Ginny had come. He was not used to consoling crying women and felt like Ginny could probably do a better job. He stood up to answer the door but Ginny had already opened it and come inside.
"Well, we'll leave you two alone to talk." Harry said as he grabbed Ron's sleeve and pulled him out through the door.
"Uh, yeah if you need us, we'll be downstairs" Ron grumbled over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.
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"…and then I went out to the Black Lake to see if I could find any of those gross water snails that Hagrid is always talking about because I wanted to find him a female one to go with his male one, and the giant squid was acting crazy and it tried to grab my wrist and-"
"Ginny! Does this story have a point?" Hermione interrupted with a giggle.
"Well of course it does!" she replied "The point is, I ended up falling into the lake and I was only wearing my school uniform, so my shirt was completely see-through when I got out. The worst part is that a bunch of third years, from Gryffindor no less, saw me and started checking me out. It was so embarrassing!"
Hermione burst out laughing at this, her tears now completely dried. Ginny always knew how to make her feel better and today was no different.
"So do you want to talk about it yet?" Ginny asked tentatively.
"Yeah, I guess now's as good a time as any" Hermione replied. She knew this was coming eventually, especially since Ginny had come into the room and immediately started ranting about her unusually eventful Saturday; all the while avoiding what was on both of their minds.
"So, what happened today?" Ginny asked.
"Well after that oh-so-embarrassing spectacle Malfoy and I put on in the Great Hall at breakfast, he carried me all the way down the grounds to some invisible shed or something, and we…had sex." Hermione said, rushing the last two words and suddenly finding the hem of her shirt very interesting.
"Oh my!" gasped Ginny. "Are you serious?" she sputtered as she struggled for words. It was obvious that she had not expected to get this answer. Ginny had seen the two kissing at breakfast and she had heard the rumors flying around campus after the two had left together, but she never thought Hermione would actually sleep with Malfoy.
"Are you okay? I mean, he didn't force you did he?" Ginny asked, still trying to adjust to the news.
"No, no! It wasn't like that. I mean we both sort of wanted it, I guess, at the time." Hermione said as she looked up to meet Ginny's eyes. Noticing that Ginny looked even more shocked, she added, "I think that we were both under a lust potion because neither of us had any control".
"I just can't believe this! Are you okay?" she asked again and after receiving a nod and a shrug from Hermione she blurted, "So, how was it?"
Hermione didn't know what to say. Her initial reaction was to say that it was horrible but then she started remembering how she had felt at the time. The lust potion had made her so aroused and impatient that it had felt so good to finally get some release. She recalled how being in Malfoy's arms had felt so right and how she couldn't get enough of his smell, his taste, his skin…Woah, stop right there Granger she thought to herself.
"Well, it was okay, I suppose" she said finally. "It was of course stupid and I completely wish that it had never happened, but at the time, under the influence of the potion, I suppose it was good."
"Good?" Ginny asked skeptically. She had learned about lust potions from Fred and George and she knew that they were supposed to make the sex unbelievable.
"Okay, it was incredible." Hermione blurted out and then immediately blushed a deep red and buried her head in the blankets of the bed they were sitting on.
"Oh, Ginny! I can't believe this happened to me!" Hermione said with her head still buried and her voice muffled.
"I am going to kill Malfoy!" Ginny stated abruptly; her mood shifting from intrigued to angry. "He can't just do that to you! He took away your choice. What a bastard. That is practically rape! I mean, you never would have done that under regular circumstances! Ugh! He can't get a girl to sleep with him, so he drugs one?" Ginny ranted.
"Ginny, stop! You are not going to kill anyone." Hermione protested. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that Malfoy wasn't responsible"
"How do you know that?"
"Because right after we…erm…finished and we could think straight again, we both realized what had happened and he got really mad. He starting freaking out and cursing and then he ran away." Hermione stated. "I don't know who did this to us or why, but I know that Malfoy had no clue it was going to happen."
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A/N Hi everyone. I have planned this fic out to be pretty long and I promise to update often (as long as people are interested in reading it) so let me know if I should continue. Thanks for reading my story!