Hermione stared at the familiar counter before her. It was familiar, but not quite enough… A small stack of tokens on the corner closest to her clued her in.
She was in the Floating Carafe, and it looked so different but not because she was on the other side of the counter.
"Harry?"
Harry walked up to the ordering side, smiling in his normal and friendly way. "I'll have a 'Friends to Lovers' please."
"Right, right." Hermione mumbled, looking at the menu that she had forgotten to read, apparently. Choices covered every inch of the parchment, items like 'Tied and Flogged' and 'Soft and Helpless'.
Neville was right behind him, looking at the instruments she was supposed to use to make them coffee. Though she had no idea how. "I don't know what I want," he sighed. "Can you decide for me?"
"I don't think that's how it works." Hermione protested, clutching the menu and Harry had walked off without paying. Neville looked at her helplessly before getting rudely shoved out of the way.
"I'll take a Furious and Hard. Now." Nott plunked down several sickles, certainly not enough to pay for a drink or for her to put up with his attitude. Malfoy stood behind him, staring up at the handwritten menu, but said nothing.
"You two will have to wait, I haven't even figured out how to make Harry's drink!" Hermione shouted, still searching for how to make the first drink. Harry winked at her from his seat, grinning in a very not-just-a-friend way.
Horrified, she shooed Nott. "You're in the way, move."
He did so immediately, glaring at her the whole time.
The twins stepped in their place, butting in front of Malfoy. Identical girls, though Fred waggled his eyebrows at her. Of course she knew which was which. "We want to share a drink."
Hermione knew the rules. "You can't share the Bottomless option," she scolded.
"But why?" Fred started.
"We'll pay twice the money." George smirked.
Well, that did sound fair… "What drink do you want then?"
Before they could respond, Malfoy stepped in between the two. "I know what I-"
"NO, Malfoy." Hermione pointed a finger at him. After the way he acted...acted when? She couldn't remember. He sulked at her, but definitely did not look discouraged. And suddenly most of them were talking at once, asking where their order was, when would it be ready. She turned and sunk down behind the counter, both hands over her ears.
Blaise filled her vision as he crouched in front of her. He gently drew her unresisting hands down, fake-sympathy on his face. "I can show you how to work back here. You want to learn, don't you?" He spoke over the hubbub behind her.
She nodded, pathetically grateful. "I have no idea what I'm doing. Help me."
Blaise began to smile, thumbs rubbing the inside of her palms. It felt good, better than it should have by all rights…
Hermione sat up in the relative darkness of her room, disoriented from sleep to waking so quickly. The adrenaline from her dream ran hotly through her, and she took a couple of deep breaths before noticing the shadow in the door.
"Draco?" she whispered.
It solidified into a man, the even more rumpled figure of Malfoy becoming clear. He reached up his fingers along his jawline, his silver eyes brighter in the gloom than they had any right to be. "I heard you...in your sleep."
Her cheeks flamed as if she were still a teenager.
He took a slow step forward. "You know, what I said last night…" His voice was still rough with sleep, but hesitant in a way she had never heard from him. His gaze dipped to her bare shoulder and calf that had escaped the blankets. "I'm sober now."
Slowly he reached the end of her bed and when she said nothing he placed both hands on the covers. Crawling forward, he came until he was just above her and their mouths met. Slotted together as natural as breathing, his weight lowered on her tentatively and wonderfully as his tongue traced her lower lip.
She parted her lips and tugged his body closer, only a thin sheet and their respective clothes between thigh. Her thigh settled between his and his fit between hers as their hips came together. He slid in and out of her mouth slow and filthy, making noises that he hadn't the night before while they kissed.
She wanted to tug at their clothes, to really feel his skin, but the way his thigh slid against her was so distracting. She hadn't ever been so aroused from fumbling as innocently as two third years getting carried away ever.
Sucking on his tongue and moaning against his mouth, she rocked her hips against his, partially to get more from him, and also to get him all worked up… His breath was already hitching, easy thrusts stuttering as he broke the kiss to gasp. The thought that he spilled in his trousers like a virgin sent her over the edge, saying his name over and over as muffled pleasure spread from the friction of his thigh.
"Bloody fuck." Hermione opened her eyes, terribly alone in her bed. The unsatisfying half-climax rubbed at her nerves as she brought a hand up to rub her forehead. She felt sticky and hot and wanting all over. Dream fun was never quite like the real thing.
Hoping she didn't make noise in her sleep, she pushed the tangled sheet off her legs and crept to her doorway. The sight of his distinctive pale hair still on lying at the end of the couch made her breath out a sigh of relief.
At least until he gasped and sat up, one hand immediately flying to his blanket covered thigh. Then he laid his head back down sharply with an exasperated sigh.
She chewed on her lip as she silently watched him.
He shoved the blanket off him abruptly, mumbling incoherently under his breath as he searched behind his head for something. Pulling out his wand he ran it over his lap before sighing again, a small and lone sound.
Hermione ducked back into her room before his head could turn and this would reach a whole new level of deeply awkward. It could be just a coincidence. They had been rather hot and heavy last night with no end. It would make sense they were both frustrated, right? Right?
Because if she was sharing dreams now, her paranoia level was thus going to affect every part of her life and she just didn't know if she could handle that right now.
To distract herself she did shower, giving him plenty of time to escape. Or join her.
No. Don't you start.
It had been days though, days since she had done more than kiss and touch. Not a problem normally, she practically lived like a monk before this. But the want was becoming fierce, no matter how well she hid it.
Her mind was dragged back to the twins. They had invited her out to dinner...it was hard to mistake those intentions. Wasn't it? They weren't the type to date around. Merlin, they weren't the type to have one girlfriend that she knew of. It was always, 'I have a fit date' or 'Going over inventory while he went out with such and such' sort of things.
Malfoy was gone by the time she climbed out of the shower and walked out in just her robe. Just because she didn't want to get dressed with her hair wet. Since he was safely gone, she let herself feel disappointed.
Picking up the card that came with the cherry blossoms branches, that bloomed again in her presence, she read it over and over. Both had definitely signed their names. If she was definitely going to have this affliction, she could do worse than satisfy it with...no. What, was she going to use two people she had known since she was eleven?
Weren't you thinking of doing that with Malfoy?
That was different. He wouldn't get hurt. She couldn't just toy around with two people, or one, that she liked and, honestly, admired. Hermione was on the verge of writing out a response declining the invitation when a thought occurred to her.
Would she have been so quick to turn either down had they asked her out before this? It had been over four years since her...time with Fred had helped her understand she didn't have what she needed with Ron. But both?
She thought of the last time she was around them and felt that sweet heat sliding down to warm her limbs languidly. Before she could wrest her mind back to where it needed to be, she sent off an acceptance to them. Both of them. Well, it was just dinner.
The day wasn't nearly so awkward as she had feared. Nobody was throwing dungbombs at Malfoy's door, for example, or whispering about how he made a fool of himself last night. Perhaps it really had humanized him in the eyes of…
A small purple memo fluttered down on her desk, causing her to pause. Purple memos were interoffice messages that were for everyone. Blue ones were personal interoffice ones, and orange were different department ones.
She looked around at the desks she could see and at the other Aurors picking up their purple memo. Turning it over in her fingers, she read.
All Aurors must attend two remedial training sessions. Completion will be signed off by Head Auror Baddock.
If there was ever a time to bang her head on the desk.. She could hear muffled groans around her as others read the note. While it wasn't abnormal to retake a training session, it was always on the third year marker for each Auror. Not to mention most Aurors took the advanced courses.
Remedial training was first year lessons, such as basic physical exercises and how to sweep a perimeter. It was petty, pure and simple. And so, so Malfoy.
Now she heard the mutters and cross glances sent toward his door. She readied to cast a Bubblehead charm when, not if, the dungbombs inevitably would be released in Baddock's office.
The whole day was a wash after that. She half-heartedly filled out paperwork and checked Harry's Map Marker a few times. He was still out of contact and reach. It became more about comfort than practical reason, since all thoughts of tracking down this damn Veela got pushed to the wayside.
She did sign up for two classes, set to begin in three and four weeks respectively. If she didn't hurry and do it, she'd get stuck with 'Wand Safety' and 'Inebriation Techniques'. The latter was not, as everyone joked, how to do it properly, but rather what to do when a wizard is pissed off his arse.
She wrote down Malfoy's name under Inebriation Techniques and watched the ink settle magically into the parchment. She smirked to herself and went back to her desk. He'd probably get out of it, the sneaky bugger, but it'd be satisfying to know he had to deal with it period.
By the time Hermione got home she just sat on her couch and tipped her head back. She would have had two hours to get ready had she not dozed. Knocking was what woke her up and she stumbled to her door with wild hair and still wearing her Auror robes. She could have changed it with a snap of her fingers, even though she was still half-heartedly promising herself she'd stop doing that, and opened the door expecting the twins.
"Blaise!" she exclaimed, reaching out and bodily pulling him inside of her flat and slamming the door.
"Salazar, Granger, I'm not here for that." Blaise brushed off the front of his robes once she released him. He was obviously amused though, his only saving grace to not be immediately expelled out of her flat.
Hermione crossed her arms and gave him an unimpressed look. "First, don't flatter yourself. Second, why are you here then?"
Blaise blinked at her. "What's your problem? Have you got some poor drained wizard in your bed? And by drained, I mean magically and-"
"No," she interrupted quickly, "nobody's here. But I have a date in…" She looked frantically around, she forgot where her clock was. The clock that had been in the same place since she moved in.
"It is a quarter till six, Granger." Blaise examined her as if she was an especially strange creature on display. "And who's your date?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but the Weasley…"
The immediate look of horror on his face was almost funny. "Ugh!"
" 'ssss." She finished the plural, busying herself with straightening a stack of mail on the end table by the door.
"What, like Ginny too? I'll admit, she is wonderfully feisty…"
She stopped fiddling with the mail immediately. "No! No. Fred and George."
"Fred and George?" Blaise rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I think you could do better, but…"
"Better? Excuse me, they are both intelligent, funny, they treat me with respect and-"
Blaise held up his hands, taking a step back as the air took on a decided heat mirage shimmer. "I only meant in a political way, not personal. They're successful but they don't run in high circles."
"I like that about them." Hermione crossed her arms and tapped one foot.
"You wouldn't be able to tell right now." He moved a finger to indicate...every part of her. "I love your natural look, but shouldn't you get rid of the tangles and change into non-work robes?
Hermione turned around and slammed her bedroom door after she stalked in. She grabbed the edges of the table and stared at her reflection. She kept a magical mirror in the bathroom, but preferred to only have the one as a whole.
She chose to painstakingly brush her hair with an actual brush, even though it kept snagging on tiny hidden knots and made it frizz up even more. But she was absolutely not continue to use her magic willy nilly. Could she even call it her magic? Most of it was, obviously, but that bit extra…
Her movements flagged as she set down the brush and undressed. She chose a simple dark blue robe with a pale trim and tugged on shoes on her way out the room.
Honestly, she had thought Blaise would have left by now. Of course he hadn't. He was sitting at her kitchen table enjoying a freshly brewed cup of tea, the presumptuous bugger.
"I'm not taking you on my date."
"So you're bringing them home?"
"That's none of your business, Zabini."
"No, but that's exactly what is going to end up happening."
Hermione scowled. The thing was, she wasn't ashamed of sex if she was sure it was fully consensual. And she was having doubts...if it was a hundred percent consensual, then why hadn't this happened before?
Blaise smiled thinly at her, crossing one ankle over his knee. "You don't want to bring them home. But you will."
She took a seat on the other chair stiffly, looking at the wall fixedly. "Fine. You're right. But I don't want to cancel on them either. I do want to go on the date."
"Well," he resumed that faint smile that reached his eyes in the most pleased ways, "that why taking me along is a good idea."
She snorted. "No offense, but that's a terrible idea. Are we going to have a table for four? Will you be the fourth...wheel… Well, you know what I mean."
"No, of course not. I'll sit somewhere out of the way and merely send reminders that you aren't going home with them. Like a Stinging Hex."
Hermione turned in her chair and gave him a thoroughly disgusted look. "Zabini, that is the worst idea I have ever heard in my life, and I've had misadventures for seven years with two students."
"What do you think of the place, Hermione?" George asked, pushing in her seat for her.
"I think it's fantastic." Hermione quickly folded her hands in her lap. The restaurant was actually quite nice, it was clean and cozy, with touches that wouldn't be out of place in a home.
The best part was the magical creatures.
"I wish I had chosen to work in a different Department sometimes," Hermione murmured as tiny Niffler on a leash went scooting by and took an adorable tumble because it was so young.
"I thought you'd like this," Fred grinned. "They take in injured or abandoned creatures and the ones that are safe can roam around the place." He drew his fingers over the cloth napkin before plucking it and unraveling it.
Hermione found herself watching his movements with a dreamy air...at least until the coolness around her ankles turned icy. She sat up straighter,focusing again. "I'm glad others are taking an interest in assisting animals, of course, it's the attitude toward the intelligent ones that needs altering."
Instead of rolling their eyes or shifting attention away, like she was used to from others, George nodded. "I agree. For a while now we carefully screen our suppliers to make sure their gathering methods are on the up and up. We've been considering expanding into being a supplier for certain items. Hagrid is always good, but I think we should hire people who work just for Wheezes."
Hermione smiled and nodded, tracing a finger along the rim on her water cup. She had heard them talk before about turning down people who are rumoured to hunt or kill beings unnecessarily, and she had always praised them for it. Now she realized what an attractive quality that was.
The iciness spread up her ankles slowly and she squeaked.
"Is everything all right?"
"Oh, yes, I just moved my ankle wrong. Err, where is the loo?"
"Oh, just right down the hall there, see?" Fred pointed to the left of them, trading an amused look with his brother as she excused herself.
Upon reaching the bathroom door, Hermione glared at the empty air around her before holding open the door. She felt the displacement of air as Blaise moved past her, then she followed him in.
She had him visible in a heartbeat and now she could glare while looking into his guileless eyes.
"Is there a problem?"
"Bloody...yes! You said you would only do that if it looks like I'm about to...to lose control."
"Your thoughts keep wandering. Tell me I'm wrong and I'll stop."
Her lips pursed tightly, but it was bloody true and she was so damn embarrassed that she considered never leaving the toilet. "Just don't turn me into an ice at the slightest provocation anymore."
She made sure he left before finishing up in the loo and washing her hands.
Neither commented on the amount of time it had taken as she took a seat again, though to be fair it wasn't long. She was simply jumpy and nervous, as if one might turn around and demand to know why she was in there alone with Zabini of all people.
She didn't know, let alone how to answer.
He's there to keep me from dragging you two to somewhere private, that would go over quite well.
"How's the job going?" George brought the topic back around to her, which was rather flattering.
"As much as I wish I might have chosen differently I know I'm helping people. Not every case is about danger, but enough are. I have the skills to do the job, I do it well, and that's the important part, don't you think?"
"Of course! I mean it's not quite as important as say a joke shop, but not everyone can own one." Fred winked and grinned, pointing out a menu item to George.
"Mm, I know you two own more than just a joke shop. Between the defense items, I've heard rumours on the St. Mungo's front about a new line of yours."
"Oh, DayDream Charms for Healers? Works every time," George started.
"And utterly blocks out the noises of screaming or crying." Fred finished.
Hermione rolled her eyes good-naturedly and found what she wanted to order. The server appeared as the menus went down, the twins were sharing two plates and Hermione ordered Shepherd's pie with a side of Caprese salad.
The discussion was going well, light-hearted and fun, filled with ideas and sharing stories. It's not that she didn't see them at the Burrow often enough, but it was different sharing a table with just them.
Nobody was interjecting or asking additional questions or talking about themselves; she could really learn about them. They were irreverent as always, but she had never found it as much of an annoyance she pretended to in school.
The downside was that by the time dessert came around her skin felt frozen up to her knees. He was being actually quite moderate in when and how.
Fred was holding out a morsel of Pots de crème in a spoon, a scant breath from her lips. She met his gaze as her lips closed around the bite and burst of rich chocolate on her tongue made her moan.
Then immediately regretted it as the ice slowly inched up her thighs..
"Ah!" Hermione stood up, napkin fluttering to the ground.
Two pairs of startled blue eyes followed her, taking stock of her rapidly flushing cheeks.
"I think...that...I, uhm, will be right back." It took everything in her to walk normally to the same hall as earlier, biting her bottom lip hard.
Once she had a bit of privacy she leaned over the sink, breathing long and loud and slow. Ohhh that was cold. So cold. It worked, but sweet...all that was...magical…
The door opened and closed quickly, fingers touching her arm. Though she couldn't see who it was, she knew, and she gripped his wrist tightly. Yanking him sharply against the counter, she could feel his warm body and breathe in the subtle musk of cologne.
Chest to chest and hip to hip, she kept his wrist pinned as her magic pushed. But it slid off like water off a duck's back, and she hissed in frustration.
"Woah there." Blaise appeared again, his hand coming up to curl around her shoulder. He was looking down straight into her eyes, serious as sin without a hint of mocking. "You're going to be fine. Just breathe."
She took a moment to quell the urge to rub against him, a low keen in her throat before pushing away to stand alone. Whatever was inside fought hard against the additional freezing charm, but the charm held even though it had to be lessened in intensity for safety reasons. "Why did it get worse when you arrived?" She finally asked when she could talk, rubbing her own neck in agitation.
"Because I'm safe. You're not so rigidly uptight around me." He held up his hand and tapped the ring once before dropping his arm. "Can you finish the night without combusting?"
Hermione grumbled nonsensically as she adjusted again to the cold and left the bathroom. She did end up declining the rest of dessert, and that was plain terrible. She wasn't one for sweets on the regular, but the crème had been decadent and symbolic of everything she wanted right now that she couldn't have.
Just like they picked her up both men brought her back to her door.
"I had a great time," Hermione confessed as they stopped in front of her door. "Maybe we could do it again sometime?"
Both wore identical smiles as they leaned in to kiss each cheek. It was touching and sweet and when she let herself in she leaned against the closed door happily.
The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if she wasn't frozen up to her neck.
Author's Notes:
I am definitely going to get the hang of powering through small hangups and writer's block, I am determined! Thanks for reviewing everyone, it really helps too. Also, will definitely start responding and let you guys know I appreciate it because you deserve it! :D
HMJ
Personal Notes:
Those who cross-read my fics (wow, you guys are gluttons for punishment ;D) might already know but I'll put it out here. Bad news good news scenario! Bad; my own furry companion is not with us anymore, it's been terrible and hard and is tripping me up.
The good news is my book is finalized and is available if you guys want to check it out.
Bound: Academy of Shifters
Hanna Maria Jones
Summary: Haven is devastated when she doesn't Change by the full moon like the rest of her family. The House of Egemen takes her in with the promise of giving her the future she was meant to have in return for serving for the rest of her life. She accepts her fate until she meets silver-eyed Andrew Joiner, who brings freedom and danger in equal measures.