Chapter 15: Seduced

"…. And I think that covers just about everything on the agenda," Hermione stated confidently, satisfied as she closed her booklet and began gathering her things.

Viktor Krum smiled and rose from his seat, straightening the lapels on his overcoat.

"Thank you, Viktor!" Hermione praised him gratefully, profusely as she puttered around her desk after their meeting, clearing and organizing files back into their proper place before she left for the night. She didn't have to chance a glance at a clock to know that it was very late. Teddy was going to kill her – or at least, he wasn't going to express his anger by kissing her again. Bloody hell, Ron might kill her. Not as though she had seen her husband; it had been days since she had last. "And I'm sorry I had to make you wait until such a ghastly hour. Frankly, I'm overbooked."

"There is…. how do you say?... blame to share. I am sure ve did not help matters by chatting avay so much about old times," Viktor pointed out.

Hermione paused in her organizing, a potent pink rising to her cheeks. "We didn't indeed." She continued to gather papers. "And… thank you, for listening, Viktor. It… it helps."

She hadn't been planning on telling the Bulgarian ambassador about her impending divorce, but during the impromptu catch-up phase that opened their meeting, it had just come out. To his credit, Viktor had looked genuinely sorry to hear it.

"I must say, I am very disappointed in Ronald. Very disappointed."

Hermione had shaken her head. "It wasn't anything he did." She had winced. That could have come out better – she might as well have said, 'It's not him; it's me.' She had at least refrained from rehashing the whole sorry mess regarding Molly, Ginny and the love potion – if anything, that explanation might make Viktor think all the worse of Ron, perhaps even assuming that her husband had had something to do with the doxxing.

Hermione began gathering her purse. "When will you be returning home from the embassy?" She lifted her head… and nearly stood up right into him, finding that he had circled her desk and drawn quite close. Hermione's eyes flickered to the man's truly expansive chest, and she found herself blushing prettily again, in spite of herself.

"A veek more here, and then…." Viktor shook his head. "Forgive me, Hermi-o-ninny, but you are as lovely as ever!"

Hermione ducked her head to hide a shy smile. "Viktor…."

"It is true." A large paw of a hand hesitatingly came up to caress her face. Against her better judgment, Hermione leaned into the touch with a sigh.

"I…. I…."

"Hermy-own, I…. I vant to see you again. Someplace outside of vork."

Hearing his request, Hermione shied away slightly, remembering herself. "Viktor….. I'm married!"

"Not for much longer. You said so yourself."

He wasn't wrong, and Hermione felt the logical, practical part of her brain rapidly turning to mush as she gazed into Viktor's eyes and he stepped closer, both of them trapped behind her desk. She had to concede this much: the man hadn't aged a day, he was still damn bloody gorgeous and did he always have to sound so sexy whenever he said anything at all, even something so casual as wanting to take her on…. on a date?

"It… It wouldn't be appropriate!" Hermione spluttered, trying to find a good reason to dissuade this and, to her astonishment, rapidly coming up with none. "We're… we're working together…"

"It vould be outside of vork."

Hermione swallowed. True. It vould – would be, she told herself, trying to shake her head to clear it. Sweet Merlin, this man was so sexy! Viktor was almost pressed against her, but there was a gentlemanly question in his eyes, wondering if this was all right.

Against her better judgment, before she could talk herself out of it, Hermione tilted her head back in silent permission.

The gasp she made when Viktor's lips crashed down onto hers stole the breath from her lungs. She was amazed, even somewhat appalled, with herself at how she melted into the kiss and returned it almost instantly. This snog was absolutely not like the one that Teddy had unwisely planted on her the other evening. Reaching her arms up to loop them sinuously about the handsome Bulgarian's neck, Hermione groaned in pleasure, piteously.

"Mmmmmmhmmmmmmmm…"

Viktor's large hands stole about her slim waist, his touch burning her hips. When his fingers wafted just an inch lower, caressing the curve of her bum, Hermione sucked in a breath and pressed her hips up eagerly into his.

That was all the encouragement Viktor needed, and when his palm now gripped her thigh, Hermione responded in perfect harmony by hiking her leg up to curve it about his torso, hooking it there at the back of the knee.

The Bulgarian Ambassador bent the Minister for Magic over her desk, and the pair embraced, the kiss deepening. Hermione's head was spinning. She felt dizzy. Merlin, the man even still snogged the same! She remembered their kiss – her very first – when she was 14, and he had been…. gracious, 17! She hadn't been quite ready for it, though she had enjoyed it. In much the same way, she hadn't been ready for a relationship in general, and especially not with an older man. Part of the reason she had broken it off with Viktor back then had been because she had wanted to spare Ron's feelings, or at least not crush them any more than she already had.

Viktor moved on top of her, his hands now skimming along Hermione's waist, her breasts, and she squirmed with pleasure beneath him. Bravely, she took his palm and purposefully guided it up, to cup the swell of her breast, and his fingers twanged along her clothed nipple, bringing it to painful tenderness.

Hermione arched her back, lifting her knees to grip Viktor on either side, and she spread her legs for him – the better for him to settle between them.

He pushed her business skirt up over her hips as far as it would go. She trembled as she worked to throw down his trousers so he could free his cock.

Viktor mounted her, and mated with her.

The desk rattled beneath them with every thrust, and Hermione writhed happily under her paramour, gaping with delighted shock at his every upstroke. She hadn't had sex this good in forever, and she felt her quavering calves scrambling for purchase along the varnished wood as, arching her back, she lifted her hips so she could match Viktor thrust for thrust. She moaned in ecstasy.

"Huhhh….. Uhhhhh…. Ermm….. Hmmmmm…. Mmmmm…. Vik-Viktor…." Her handsome Bulgarian grunted into the soft curve of her neck and sped up his strokes.

Between their grunts and happy cries, neither one of them heard her office door opening.

"Mummy, Dad's been cheating on you; he said…. No….. NOOOOOOOO….. What are you doing?!" Rose's voice was rising into an inflected pitch, even as the timbre morphed into something akin to an angry growl. "GET OFF OF MY MOTHER!"

There was a BANG!, followed by a flash of light. Viktor howled and was thrown off of Hermione completely, rolling off the desk and cracking his head on the armest of her desk chair on the way down. Half-naked, Hermione turned her head to where her 18-year-old daughter was standing in the doorway, wand out, stunned beyond belief and looking close to tears, even as her face contorted with rage.

"R-Rosie…" Hermione cried breathlessly. "What….. what are you doing here? Something about Dad?" She hadn't quite heard it.

But Rose was no longer focused on her suspicions about Ron and Lavender just then. "What – the hell – are you doing?!" Glancing past her mother, she started to stalk across the room and probably would have rounded the desk to go after Viktor if the sound of shouting, approaching from down the hall, made her pause.

"What? Rosie, is that you?! What's going on?!" And Harry appeared in the doorway, looking winded.

"Ask. Him!" Rose clipped, pointing a vibrating finger at where Viktor Krum, his trousers still hilariously down to his ankles, was just rising to his feet from behind the desk.

Harry took in the scene in seconds and with a furious roar, coming from a place deep within him that he couldn't quite name, lunged over the desk, vaulting pretty much over Hermione and tackled Viktor. Both former Triwizard champions tumbled to the floor, wrestling and Viktor finally scrambled away…. well, more like penguin-shuffled away with his trousers still down by his ankles, Harry pursuing him.

"Harry! Viktor! Stop it!" Hermione finally clambered off her desk, yanking down her business skirts and looking thoroughly mortified. "Stop it this minute!" She gasped, drawing both hands to her mouth, when Harry not only didn't listen – he proceeded to brandish his wand. Viktor pulled his out too.

"You want a rematch from down in the maze, Viktor?" Harry snarled, his green eyes wild and desperate. "Well, you got one! Come on! You're man enough to rape my sister, you can certainly be man enough for a wizard's duel."

As much as she probably would have liked nothing more than to see her favorite uncle hex this smooth operator into oblivion, Rose nonetheless moved between them. "Uncle Harry, no! He's not worth it!"

Everyone froze. Viktor finally got around to pulling up, zipping up, his pants. Hermione was shaking from horrified embarrassment. Though she had to feel touched that Harry would so fiercely try and defend her honor, even under misconstrued conclusions.

Viktor nodded to Hermione. "Um…. good talk."

"Yeah," she breathed, finding it hard to look at him. She was ashamed on behalf of them both.

Viktor strode from the room and slammed the door behind him. Harry, Hermione and Rose all looked at each other.

"Rosie…."

"Save it!" Rose threw up her hands. "You know what? – you and Dad both…." She let out a frustrated growl and turned to her uncle.

"Can I use your Floo?"

"Down the hall, my office," Harry told her.

"Thanks."

When she left, Hermione and Harry stared at each other. The Minister for Magic bit her lip.

"Harry, I…."

"Not now." And he prowled out of her office, leaving Hermione shell-shocked and alone.

Hermione was biting her lip again the next morning, as she lifted her fist to strike the knocker on the Potters' front door in Godric's Hollow. Ever since the blow-up in her office, she had been obsessed with apologizing to Harry. For some reason, she felt incredibly guilty – even more than the guilt she felt where Rose's involvement was concerned – about what he had seen.

Hermione exhaled a breath of relief, a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding, when Harry answered the door. Taking her in, his expression hardening into something stony, Hermione cringed. It was almost as if she had been unfaithful towards him, somehow, mad as that sounded! The way Harry was studying her now, almost like he was disappointed in her, she wouldn't blame him if he slammed the door in her face.

A bristling of anger all at once simmered through her as she reasoned that if Harry was angry with her, then he was a hypocrite at best, and gender-insensitive at worst. He had his own mistress, after all, and he was still married!

"Come on in," Harry grunted.

Hermione shuffled inside, turning to face him as soon as Harry closed the door.

"Harry, I'm sorry."

He harrumphed.

"I'm sorry that you saw that, and especially that Rosie did."

"Why didn't you hex him, Hermione? Why didn't you stop him?!"

"I….. I didn't want him to stop."

"You didn't want him to stop raping you….?" Harry looked queasy.

"Viktor didn't rape me!" Hermione blasted out.

Silence. The air seemed to get sucked out of the room. Hermione trembled. "He…. he didn't touch me or kiss me anywhere I didn't want. I…. I lost my head." She decided to withhold explaining how Teddy Lupin had kissed her the other night and how it had elicited from her a very different response – it wasn't relevant, and from the way Harry had attacked Viktor, she would almost be afraid for Teddy's safety, even from his own godfather.

A beat as Harry absorbed this. Finally:

"Does Ron know?"

"No," Hermione breathed.

"Do you love him? Viktor?"

Hermione blushed. "I like him. Very much. And I…." she shook her head. "After I divorce Ron, I haven't exactly fancied growing old alone. I've been hoping that later, once this is all done and dusted, I could meet someone. Find someone again." She smiled at him softly. "You've obviously been thinking about it too, searching for someone to…. to meet your needs." Oddly, she flushed. "Besides, I wouldn't want for you to be alone either, once you split with Ginny and the trial is finished…."

"Yeah. Yeah," Harry nodded, and the man looked sheepish, as if it was dawning on him just how hypocritical he was. He sighed. "Well…. setting aside how poorly things were handled last night, and how you were…. interrupted." His cheeks turned pink too. "Don't let that hold you back. Not on my account. If you…. want to explore something with Viktor, I… I think it's great."

Hermione lifted an eyebrow skeptically. "Really?"

"Yeah. As long as he treats you well. I've only ever expected, wanted the best for you, in the same way I would only demand the best person for Lily Bear and even Rosie!"

Hermione smiled softly, amused, before drifting into Harry and warmly kissing his cheek. "You're too good to me, little brother."

Harry felt a bizarre flood of warmth, tinged with a bristling at hearing her call him 'little brother.' It was an old joke between them, one that had started once they had both married into the same family. But it had never…. bothered him. Before.

"Yeah, yeah, get on!" he muttered.

Grinning, Hermione pranced for the door, her hips swaying with the jaunty spring in her step. "Love you!"

Harry stared after her long after the door had closed behind her.

"…. Love you too," he mumbled.

Hermione arrived at work later than she normally did, her brown eyes focused, like a heat-seeking missile, on a singular mission.

When she finally encountered Viktor in the atrium, she grabbed his hand and tugged him down a hallway.

"Hermione…?" For once, the man got her name right.

"Not here," she clipped, making for her office.

At least until she pulled up short and remembered that Teddy was probably in there. And the chances of bumping into her husband…

"This way!"

Dragging Viktor into the darkened shadows of one corner, behind the lifts, Hermione cast a Disillusionment charm on them both before flinging her arms around the handsome Bulgarian's neck and kissing him soundly, hungrily, on the mouth.

Viktor groaned and immediately pulled the beautiful witch close, returning her kiss. Hermione felt her chestnut curls slipping out of her bun, the strands becoming mussy as she and Viktor embraced and deepened the kiss. They really got involved. In fact, this was more than just snogging, this was making out.

Viktor and Hermione finally jerked apart, gasping for breath, their arms still wound about each other, and the blood thundered in Hermione's ears.

"Have dinner with me tonight!" she breathed, aroused. At Viktor cocking his head like a curious puppy, she blushed prettily. "I…. I want to see if this works."

Viktor's eyes lit up and he tightened his grip around Hermione's waist, gathering her in his arms. She smiled up at him shyly, thrillingly. "If that's what you want…"

"I do," she cut across him, before sultrily, sinuously, looping her arms about his neck. Hermione beamed. "Now…. deep breath: and…."

Viktor grinned into her lips, and once more, the Minister for Magic and the Bulgarian ambassador embraced and kissed.

A/N: Hahaha, Friends reference! Angry Ross becomes Angry Rose! Also, y'all, can I just say: I am WOWED by the response to this! Pressure is on now!