Riddle and His Lady

Chapter Twelve: Forgive and Forget

Previously:

"What do you mean?" she said, her head turning so she could look at him better. Her cheeks were now fully ablaze – she felt embarrassed but she couldn't deny it was an entertaining conversation.

"You know what I mean, Hermione," he said huskily, leaning closer to her. Suddenly she felt very warm around her neck; she could almost feel his breath tickling her skin and she felt goosebumps prickling her.

"No," she squeaked, and then cleared her throat, "I'm afraid I don't." She knew exactly what he meant, but part of her wanted to entirely avoid the subject, and the rest of her wanted to pursue it. She wanted to know if he would say what he meant.

"I'm talking about the heat of the moment, letting go of built up frustrations- Passion!" he explained unabashed. He clearly quite enjoyed talking about it, which was something Hermione hadn't been used to.

She sighed, "No," she finally said, "I mean – I'm not a virgin, but I've never experienced it like that."

They were silent for a moment, both of them contemplating what she had just said. She felt like now was the right moment to sweep him into a passionate kiss, or something from a typical heated romance novel. But after last night, the last thing she wanted to concentrate on was her sex life.

Their eyes met again, and the air suddenly felt thick around them. He knew he could very easily make her forget all about Orion; he knew he could make any girl forget about anything with just a graze of his fingertips or the touch of his tongue, but she looked too fragile. One wrong move and he could tell she would just leave and then he'd have to spend weeks and weeks trying to get her back to this point with him.

So instead he just quickly said, "You're missing out," with a sniff and returned to his book, leaving his guest shifting very uncomfortably in her seat and contemplating whether it was a good idea or not to stay after such an awkward conversation

"How was your night then, love?" Rosmerta inquired once Hermione stepped through the door of the pub. After her…stimulating conversation with Tom, she decided she had over stayed her welcome and promptly left, bidding him a stiff farewell. All she wanted to do now was return to her bed and forget about the whole horrid business.

"It was fun," she replied, tight lipped and wanting nothing more than to avoid all conversation.

"Is that all?" Rosmerta cried, "Dear girl - how was Orion? Is it all final now?" she asked eagerly.

"I don't believe I know what you mean," she said quietly, her brows knitting together in confusion.

"Well, are you together?"

Hermione's mouthed formed a small O shape, mainly is shock and shook her head. "No," she said softly, "In fact, I'm not sure that will happen at all. If you'll excuse me," and she quickly took off her to bedroom, leaving the landlady and her daughter bursting with nosiness behind her.

Hermione all but slammed the door behind her once she reached the comfort of her room and leant with her back to the door with her breaths deep and cheeks blazing. She stayed there for a few minutes, sitting against the door with her arms wrapped around her knees and she allowed the events of the last two days to consume her. It was now that she realised the full extent of what she was actually doing. She didn't want to be here in the first place, and now she found herself curled up in the Three Broomsticks in 1947, fawning over the current heir to the Black fortune and having conversations with Lord Voldemort about her sex life. She had tried to make the most of the situation that she had found herself in but her motivation was slowly waning and the more time it took, the less she could find it in herself to even try and resolve her position. And now what was she doing? Working in a pub! She was a barmaid; the great Hermione Granger was working behind a bar, serving drinks to rowdy wizards who'd flirt with her and try and cop a feel when they had the chance.

She rubbed at her eyes harshly and picked herself up from the ground when the timid sound of Rosie's voice piped up from the other side of the door, "Hermione; I have your dinner here if you're hungry."

She opened the door immediately and smiled down at the girl in front of her, "Thank you, Rosie," she said sincerely, taking the tray of food from her.

"Would you like some company?" she asked innocently.

"No," she replied, "I'd quite like to be on my own right now. But I'll come down at opening time," she agreed, and shut the door once Rosie had turned her back.

She carried the tray into the room and placed it down on her bed, tucking into gravy soaked mash potato. She only remembered then how hungry she had actually been. Once she finished eating, a thought popped into her head and she realised that the bag she had taken with her to Grimmauld Place wasn't in her room. In fact, she had completely forgotten she'd even taken it there and left it in the room she had slept in that night. She checked the time – she had two hours until the pub reopened for the night. With a sigh, she ran her fingers through her hair and quickly decided to go to Grimmauld Place. Just a quick trip, she thought, no longer than ten minutes then I'm leaving.

Five minutes later, after quickly changing her clothes, she found herself at the door of 12 Grimmauld Place. She knocked loudly, and a few moments later the door was wrenched open by an irritated looking Orion Black. His features softened the moment he realised who was at the door and he breathed softly, "H-Hermione,"

"May I come in?" she asked, holding her head up, refusing to make her visit any more bother than it had to be.

For a moment he seemed to be in a daze, just staring at her without saying anything but then he snapped out of it and pushed himself against the door, holding it open for her. "Yes, yes, of course, come in,"

She took a tentative step into the house, feeling very uncomfortable and they both walked into the larger part of the hallway. She turned to look at him, and suddenly noticed how dishevelled he looked. His hair was all over the place – well, more so than usual – his shirt was only partially buttoned up and he looked like he was ready to be sick.

"You don't look well," she commented, giving him a once over.

He nodded with a grim smile, "I don't feel well."

They stood in silence again, until Hermione said stiffly, "I left my bag here and came back to collect it."

For a moment she thought Orion was going to suddenly collapse on her. After hearing her words he looked as if he was about to crumble into a heap on the floor. Was he expecting me to come round and kiss his feet? She thought sarcastically.

He nodded slowly, "Yeah," he replied, "I've got it upstairs. I was going to pop round the Three Broomsticks and give it back to you…"

The silence between them was all consuming and Hermione was beginning to wish she'd just sent someone else round to collect her bag. Her eyes surveyed the dark room they were stood in, attempting to focus on anywhere but on him – although his eyes never left her.

"So…where is my bag?" she asked, swaying on the balls of her feet.

"I left it in my room – shall we go up?"

They both made their way up the staircase to the second floor and entered Orion's bedroom. The bag was sat on the end of his large bed and she watched him leaning over to retrieve it. He turned round a moment later and handed it to her reluctantly.

"Hermione," he said hesitantly, "Why did you leave this morning without saying goodbye?"

"I wasn't feeling well," she replied, "and besides, Tom told me my night hadn't turned out the way it was expected and took me home early," she lied. All she wanted was to take her bag and leave – not get cornered by a hung over looking Orion Black.

He didn't say anything and so she continued, "Anyway, I should get back to the pub."

"Why are you going so early? It doesn't open for over an hour." He complained.

"Rosmerta wants me back," she said, avoiding his gaze. She had never been very good at lying.

"Why won't you look at me, Hermione?" he asked sombrely, knowing exactly why she wouldn't look directly at him but wanting her to say it anyway.

"Look, Orion," she began, moving to perch herself on the bed and inviting him to join her, "I can't remember much of last night, but in the morning I was told that I had walked in on you and Parkinson."

She realised then after saying the words that she was being really ridiculous. There had been no promises exchanged between her and Orion, only harmless flirting and the like. In fact, it had been only last night that she was getting angry with Lucretia pouring herself all over Tom! Her head was in such a muddle and having to actually speak her confessions to another person was forcing her to reflect on how she had reacted to everything, and make her question how she was really feeling. If she didn't have feelings for Orion then why would she have got upset over him and another girl? And if she didn't like Tom then why would she feel jealous over Lucretia?

She felt Orion inch a bit closer to her on the bed and could tell that he was itching to reach his hand out to touch hers.

"Hermione," he began softly, "It wasn't what you thought-"

"Well it hardly matters," she interrupted, "it has nothing to do with me, really. You're well within your right to sleep with whoever you want to." Although her brain was telling her differently.

"But I didn't sleep with her," he argued firmly, now taking her hand in his softly, "In fact I didn't even willingly kiss her. Gen was very, very drunk last night and wanted to speak to me; her family expect her to marry some pureblood boy. It's all been arranged for her but he's a brute and she despises him. She came to me because she didn't know who to go to and I tried to comfort her, but she got the wrong idea. Then you came in the room and I immediately tried to explain to you but Tom stopped me and told me to talk to you when you'd sobered up in the morning."

He sighed, and she stayed silent, taking all the information in so he continued, "When I woke up in the morning I went to find you, but Abraxas told me Tom had taken you on a day out to…cheer you up," he said the last bit with a sneer, making it clear that what Tom had done today was certainly not fine by him.

Hermione remained silent, unsure of whether she should trust everything he said; because by believing him, in a way she was accusing Tom of lying to her. She hoped that it was all just one big misunderstanding. Accepting her silence as a welcome to carry on, Orion gripped her hand tighter and stared intensely into her eyes.

"Hermione, I feel like I've been waiting to get this all out in the open so long and I can't stop myself now. You've intrigued me since the day I met you; we just seem to click, don't you agree? I guess what I'm trying to say is that in this short time I've known you, my feelings have grown and grown." A pregnant pause followed and he quickly glanced down at their entwined hands with a small smile, his dark hair had fallen slightly in his eyes and she felt compelled to brush it from his face but held back. Once again his deep blue eyes joined hers and he spoke again, "I like you, Hermione. I like you a lot and I'm not expecting a declaration of love in return," he paused and they both laughed quietly, "but I wanted you to know."

The silence indicated that he had finished and Hermione wasn't sure what to say. She had never had anyone directly say that they had feelings for her. With Krum it had mainly been a friendship until he forced a kiss on her while she was reading, and with Ron they had kissed once in the chamber of secrets and then without any words being spoken, they were a couple. It felt nice to have someone actually say it to her.

"You've given me a lot to think about," she finally said, gently and giving him a small smile. Her eyes darted from his, and down to their hands.

"Let me prove to you that what I say is true," he persisted, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. When she nodded in agreement he took that hand and placed it gently on his chest. Hermione could feel how firm it was – firm with muscle – and she had always had a weakness for nice muscles on a man. He then reached for his wand, and she almost took her hand off of him but he held it to him, and cast a volume spell on his chest.

A deep, fast thud filled her ears and with each thud she felt a pressure on the hand that was pressed to his chest. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was trying to show her how she affected him, and affected his heart rate. It was beating like hummingbirds wings and Hermione felt quite overwhelmed that she had that sort of effect on anyone.

Her eyes glanced up to his and Orion could tell, as much as she tried to hold it back, a small smile was playing on her lips and her cheeks had suddenly turned a flattering shade of pink. He had embarrassed her, but in a good way.

Only when her eyes met his once more did she realise that at some point in their conversation, they had both moved very close to each other on the bed and their skin to skin contact - albeit only his hand holding hers which gently touched his chest – was altering her breathing pattern and she could feel her pulse quickening. Too soon he removed his hand from hers, but moved it up to her face to tenderly stroke her cheek with the back of his fingers, causing a sharp intake of breath from the witch at the sudden intimate gesture.

"Am I making you nervous?" Orion asked huskily, his face growing ever closer to hers.

Even her own thump of a heartbeat flustering in her ears drowned out the sound of Orion's now, but she denied it all the same.

He smiled gently at her quite obvious white lie and muttered, "I say I am," before inclining slowly forward to capture her lips with his warm, soft ones and cradling her face in his strong hands as he did so.

Aaaand another one! I see I may have lost a lot of my old readers which is such a shame :( But for those who reviewed the last chapter, thank you thank you thank you! Please review again! PLEASE! I love getting reviews!
Not sure when I'll next update because I'm going on holiday in a week's time but I'll try my best to get another in before I go (no promises)

Mwah!