Violet
The Goblin King refused to hand me my dreams!
I wished my baby sister away (not so babyish sister lol...she's like sixteen yrs) and instead of giving me my dreams of owning Harry Potter and Labyrinth characters he made me run the Labyrinth. He. Made. Me. Run! Lol jk...I own nothing :p
Hermione awoke with a soft moan and a pounding headache. She buried her face into her overly soft pillow to block the dying rays of the setting sun and cursed the light that offended her sensitive eyes. She reached out to her bedside table for a phial of hangover potion and cursed when she felt nothing but air.
"Now that is unbecoming of a lady." Hermione bit back a gasp of surprise and was up in an instant with her wand pointed in a handsome stranger's face.
"How did you get into my flat?" She hissed. "Give me a reason not to hex you into next year!" The stranger lifted a neatly groomed blond eyebrow at her threat and smirked as he began circling her slowly.
"So you are a witch," he stated, giving her wand a pointed look. "That saves me from altering your memories. I would take a look around if I were you," the stranger drawled. "You seem to be mistaken in this bedchamber being your flat." Hermione hesitated to take her eyes off the stranger but finally chanced a glance to the left of him and saw a balcony overlooking the most beautiful sunset.
"I'm sorry," Hermione blushed as she lowered her wand and held her aching head. "I obviously had five shots too many of firewhiskey. How did I end up here?" She asked. "I have never had a headache this bad after drinking so much," she mumbled.
"That headache would be from you hitting your head," the stranger answered. "I brought you to my home because I do not know where you live or who this Colin was that you were asking for." Hermione frowned at the lush ivory carpet, trying to remember why she would be asking for Colin in the first place.
"I don't remember," she admitted in a very soft voice with a light blush staining her cheeks. "I don't even remember how much I drank."
"What is the last thing you do remember?" The stranger helpfully asked. Hermione's brows furrowed as she sifted through her most recent memories.
"I remember walking into Colin's pub and my fifth shot of firewhiskey, but not my sixth," she blushed. "I can't believe I drank that much," she mumbled to herself. The stranger smirked.
"Lightweight?" He chuckled. Hermione turned more red.
"There is nothing wrong with that," she snapped, then took a deep breath. "Sorry," Hermione breathed out. "And thank you for, um, bringing me to your home?" He lifted an eyebrow but smiled. "It is lovely by the way," she said as she gathered her shoes and searched for her clothes when she finally noted that she was wearing a silky peach coloured robe.
"What are you doing?" The stranger asked as he watched the witch search for something around his bedchamber.
"I am looking for my clothes," Hermione answered. The stranger's laughed echoed out into the wide corridors.
"You are wearing them," he said between laughs. She held back a blush when she noticed she was still wearing her work robes under the peach robe.
"Was that really necessary?" Hermione hissed as she rubbed her throbbing head. "I need a hangover potion," she muttered to herself and glared at the, still laughing, stranger. She decided he was very handsome, even if his attire was a little out of date. Men stopped wearing poet shirts and tight pants a long time ago, his hairstyle did not even match his attire. "Pardon me for being rude," Hermione spoke after his laughs turned to chuckles. "I'm Hermione Granger." She held out her hand for him to shake. He smiled down at her.
"Yes. Now I know," he smirked. "Jareth," he said, taking her hand and laying a soft kiss on her fingertips. Hermione withheld her gasp at the intimate contact.
"I really should be going home now," she breathed. "My friends are most likely worried." Jareth lifted an eyebrow.
"Stay and have some dinner and wine," he offered. "I hardly get out these days and your company at my dinner table would be most welcome." Hermione bit her lip as she thought about his offer.
"Just dinner," she answered, allowing Jareth to lead her out of the bedroom...or chamber, she noted. "Your home somewhat reminds me of Hogwarts," she noted aloud.
"Salazar and Godric did envy the interior a bit," he said dismissively. "Especially the Escher Room. They got the ideas for moving staircases at Hogwarts from my room. Though the exterior of my home is nothing like Hogwarts." Hermione missed the smirk that was planted on his face when he held out her chair for her.
"That sounds interesting," she commented. "Is that written in one of your ancestor's journals?" She asked, her eyes begging for more knowledge on a subject that was not spoken of in her favourite book, Hogwarts: a History.
"It is written in a journal somewhere," he answered evasively with a wave of his hand, dinner appeared on the table not a second after. Jareth gave her an expectant look as he cut the main dish into smaller pieces. "Are you not hungry?" He asked, frowning. Hermione held back a blush.
"My parents taught me that it is proper to wait until the person sitting at the head of the table or the host takes their first bite to begin my meal," she answered. Jareth smirked and ate his first bite of food.
"And here I was thinking that you were afraid I would poison your food." Hermione stiffened, her fork stopping just before her mouth. He laughed. "Your food is not poisoned," he smiled. "I would not want the wizarding world out for my head."
"It is not that I do not trust you," Hermione began. "It is just that..." she drifted off, withholding the tears that threatened to spill over. "Someone very close to me was planning my death," she whispered and choked on the last word. "You are actually the first person I have admitted this to." She downed a glass of red wine after that admission while her host sat quietly in the tense silence and began sipping on his wine after their glasses refilled themselves.
"Who was this person?" He asked after a few minutes when he was sure the wine would help relax his guest. "If I may ask," he added. "Please have some more wine," he gently pushed her wine glass to her lips and watched as she sipped.
"My fiancé," she whispered, he almost missed her words. "Ex-fiancé," she corrected herself and downed her second glass of wine and half of a third. "As of this afternoon," she added, already more than tipsy from the alcohol she consumed, and her still empty stomach did not help. "Do you have anyone special?" Hermione asked, slurring her words a little. Jareth threw back his own wine.
"She is happily married," he admitted. Hermione reached out and patted his hand. "I don't understand," he continued. "I did what she asked, I became what she wanted me to be," he said in frustration. "Yet she still left." Hermione shook her head.
"You would not have been happy if she chose to stay with you," she answered what seemed to be an internal query that constantly ran through his head. "You cannot be someone you are not just to get someone to stay with you...I realise that now," Hermione said softly.
"Ron was trying to be more academic to have proper conversations with me, and I tried to be interested in Quidditch for him, I really tried. It just didn't work out...we were not being ourselves and we were growing apart," she said quietly, and then looked up at her host. "You would have been happy for a little while but in time you would have realised that it was a mistake to not be you from the beginning and may have come to regret that choice and maybe start to dislike or even hate her."
"You are very wise for your years," Jareth observed. Hermione gave him a wry smile.
"I learned from experience," she said dryly. He lifted his glass to her in a silent toast and downed the contents, followed by Hermione.
"What was that for?" She slurred. Jareth chuckled at the drunk witch.
"To experience," he toasted again and gently pulled Hermione's glass away from her lips to stop her from consuming yet another full glass of wine.
"You are the perfect gentleman," she commented with a smile.
"Sarah never thought so," he murmured. "I was the perfect villain for her," he sighed.
"Are you really a villain?" Hermione asked.
"You could say that I am a little bit of everything," he smirked to himself.
"Are we not all a little bit of everything?" Hermione asked rhetorically to which he silently agreed. "I once tried to use the Cruciatus curse," she confessed. He chuckled.
"You are too pure," he observed. "The most that curse would affect your target would be a small zap." Hermione laughed.
"You, my dear sir, are entirely correct," she chuckled. *¹"Dear crazy Bella only suffered a small zap," she sighed and thought about the same happening to her best friend Harry in their fifth year when he tried to curse the very same person.
"If you do not mind me asking," Jareth began and waited for Hermione's silent signal for him to continue. "How did you find out your ex-fiancé was planning your demise?" Hermione gave him a wry laugh.
"I caught him in bed with his other pregnant fiancée. She had the nerve to ask him in front of me why he was taking his time in poisoning my pumpkin juice in the mornings," she rolled her eyes.
"His other fiancée?" Jareth's eyebrows rose in surprise and a little amusement.
"Oh yes," Hermione continued. "Of course I did not find all this out till I left work early this afternoon. They were even planning their wedding," she said conversationally and downed another full glass of wine along with her host. "You are very handsome," the inebriated witch slurred. Jareth smirked. "I wonder if you kiss as good as Ron." Hermione turned bright red after she realised she said that aloud.
"You meant to say that in your head?" Jareth laughed at the embarrassed witch who gave him a nod. He leaned over and looked directly into her honey brown eyes. "I can promise you I kiss better than some cheating fiancé with no morals," he whispered as his lips hovered over and brushed hers. Hermione's breath caught in her throat.
"You have beautiful eyes," she whispered, feeling him smile against her own lips. He kissed her chastely.
"I would say your eyes are beautiful," he said softly, "but your hair takes that title, and your lips are very comely indeed." He gently pressed his own lips to hers again, and then added more pressure, massaging her lips with his own. Hermione gasped at the intimacy with which he was kissing her and felt his tongue slide past her teeth and mingle with her own. "I wonder if the rest of you is as tasty as your lips," he whispered. Hermione blushed.
"I wouldn't know," she said softly. "I would offer you but you never asked me out on a date." He smirked.
"What would happen if I asked you on a date?" He asked.
"I made a foolish promise with my ex-mother-in-law to-be that I would sleep with the first person to ask me out," Hermione blushed again.
"Well I did ask you to dinner," Jareth smirked. 'I may be a gentleman but I am a man first,' he thought. Hermione missed the gleam in his eyes in her inebriated state.
"Lead the way," Hermione rose from her seat and stumbled. Jareth's strong arms found their way around her waist, helping her to balance herself.
"Gladly," he whispered in her ear, laying a soft kiss on her neck, right behind her ear. Hermione shivered.
O.o.O.o
A woman with long blonde hair smiled at the couple sleeping away in bed as the sun's light touched the tops of the castle and lit up in sky in blues and oranges as the sun began it ascent into the sky, its rays chasing away the darkness of the night sky. She tossed a crystal next to the bed and sat in the chair she conjured as the bed's occupants continued to dally in Morpheus's world.
"Good morning Ambry," Jareth yawned, and then glared at the woman as he suddenly scrambled to pull the blankets and sheets over himself and his bedmate.
"Good afternoon dear brother," the woman smiled. "I daresay you had an excellent evening," she chuckled.
"What are you doing here?" Jareth continued glaring at his sister. She laughed, causing him to become suspicious. "What have you Seen?" He asked, meaning to sneer but it came out as curiosity.
"I am here to escort Miss Granger home," she continued smiling. "You have a wished away," her smile faltered.
"I have not received a-" he froze at the sound of tinkling fairy bells and rolled his eyes, grumbling.
"Write her a note," Ambry ordered. "I will leave it with her before leaving." Jareth nodded and twirled his finger for his sister to turn. She rolled her eyes and closed them so he could hop out of bed and get dressed.
"Here," he flicked the top of her head with a sealed envelope. She smiled as he faded away to collect the wished away child.
Ambry moved next to the last occupant of the bed, standing over her. She conjured a crystal, cracked it over the young woman, and smiled. "Now you won't wake up with a nasty hangover or soreness," she whispered. "I will be seeing you soon Hermione," she wiped a happy tear away as she too faded to the aboveground, deliberately setting off a ward to alert Hermione's adopted family members and friends, and then placed Jareth's letter on her bedside table with a violet sitting atop the envelope.
O.o.O.o
"Where has she been?!" Someone demanded.
"As if anyone of us know! Ask her when she wakes!" Someone else answered.
"Should we call a healer?" A concerned voice asked.
"Quiet!" Another voice hissed. "She is resting! If she were injured Draco would have already healed her, as he is a healer." Hermione could practically see the glare from the owner of that voice as she left the comforts of sleep.
"Hello," Hermione finally spoke up. "Might I ask what you all are doing in my bedroom? I know you all love me, I love you all too, but isn't this a bit too much?" She chuckled, and then yawned.
"Where were you Hermione?" Harry finally asked. Hermione frowned.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"He means where have you been?!" Ginny demanded.
"I was at Colin's pub," Hermione frowned, and then remembered waking up in another bedroom other then her own. "Then someone helped me to their home because I hit my head," she added.
"Check her head," Lucius pushed Draco towards Hermione. He rolled his eyes but complied with his father's demand and frowned at the results of his diagnostic spell.
"You had a slight concussion," he said. "It's healed now and there is no lasting damage," he smirked. "Too bad you didn't loose some of those brain cells." Hermione and Narcissa pinched him.
"Enough Draco," Lucius pulled him away from Hermione's bedside. "Do you feel any pain? Are you sore anywhere? Do you feel alright?" He asked checking her forehead with the back of his hand.
"And I am supposed to be the mother," Narcissa murmured. Everyone snickered at the glaring Malfoy patriarch.
"I feel just fine," Hermione answered Lucius with a slight squeeze to his hand to reassure him and smiled for Narcissa. "But really...why are you all here in my bedroom? It is not like I have been sick and missed work for a few days," she lightly joked, then faltered when everyone shifted uncomfortably.
"Well you might not have been sick but you have missed work," Narcissa finally answered. Hermione frowned.
"It's Saturday," she said. "I am not scheduled to go in till Tuesday." Narcissa and Ginny paled and sucked in small breaths and the men could not decide whether to look angry or worried. "Sit," Hermione gently pulled Narcissa onto her bed and motioned for Harry to sit Ginny down. "What is going on with everyone?" She asked.
"Mi," Lucius spoke gently. "You have been missing for four days." Hermione frowned.
"I was only gone overnight," she insisted. "I woke up and had dinner with Jareth and woke up here."
"Jareth?!" Everyone spoke up simultaneously, except Lucius. Hermione nodded.
"He took me to his home after I hit my head," she said again. "I woke up and he invited me to have dinner with him..." she drifted off and her brows furrowed as she tried to remember the rest of the evening at his dinner table.
"What else?" Lucius asked. Hermione blushed.
"I had too much wine," she admitted.
"How much did you have?" Harry asked. He usually would have laughed at Hermione choosing to lose her head in some alcohol, but this was not a time to laugh or tease her.
"More than three glasses," she quietly answered. Draco, Harry, and Lucius grumbled.
"You know you're not to have more than two of wine," Draco frowned. Hermione glared at him.
"Well excuse me for being upset!" She snapped. "I had caught my fiancé in bed with another woman just three hours earlier! Now if you all would excuse me I would like to shower and change."
"Just one more thing," Harry spoke up and shrunk back at her glare.
"Well?!" She demanded after he hesitated.
"How did you get home?" He asked. "We apparated here straight away when the wards alerted us that you were home but you were already sleeping. You could not have gone to sleep that fast, it's impossible," he spoke quickly. Hermione frowned yet again.
"I don't know," she answered.
*¹ I don't remember if it was Harry or Hermione who tried to use the Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix in their fifth year at the Department of Mysteries...I think it was Harry after Bellatrix sent Sirius through the Veil...please pretend that Hermione tried to curse her any other time after their fifth year (^.^')
I apologise for the late update...I have been away with my family for our yearly camping trip (^.^) so I had not been able to access the internet while outdoors in the woods...Has anyone ever been Snipe Hunting? (That one never gets old lol...went Snipe Hunting with my cousin's church group one summer. A girl actually caught a field mouse in her pillowcase and pretended it was a Snipe...that was a fun night…)