For the Potions Master's Amusement
Chapter 82: Tributes and Tales
Taffy Lestrange brandished her wand and moved an elaborate, gilt edged mirror into place behind the dressing tables that sat side by side in the Roissy House nursery. Marcus and Daisy were sleeping in their cots, and the room was flooded with the bright afternoon light. Hermione sat at a dressing table, her hair a clean, if bushy, mass about her face. In a lovely basket on the surface before her were dozens of perfect, fragrant white rosebuds. Behind her, forming a semi-circle of loving support, were Kell, Vi, and t.
'And we'll all have our hair up, with the roses nestled in?' Hermione asked, her eyes meeting t's in the newly placed mirror.
'Yes, as a sign of solidarity,' t said. 'The white will be pretty in your dark hair.'
She picked up a brush from the tabletop and began to brush through Hermione's hair. As ever, Hermione closed her eyes, feeling relaxed and pampered when someone else brushed her hair. Then she heard a sound, and she turned her head to see Elinore's chair just inside the room.
'May I join you, Hermione?' the older witch asked diffidently.
Hermione felt surprise, but she hoped it didn't show on her face. Elinore had been distant ever since Hermione had returned to Roissy House—not rude, but certainly noncommittal—yet here she was. Perhaps another sort of girl would have sent the older woman away, but Hermione did not hesitate.
'Of course,' she said, hoping Elinore would not feel it was necessary to give a long explanation of her earlier behaviour. They both knew why Elinore had been doubtful of Hermione's actions and motivations—it was a rift that only time could repair.
Elinore allowed her chair to float into their midst, until she was directly to Hermione's left, seated before the second dressing table. Her intentions were clear, but Vi moved in place behind her, taking up the place t occupied behind Hermione.
'Shall I put your hair up?' Vi asked, and at Elinore's nod, Vi began.
Kell moved between the two pairs, and taking the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion from the dressing table, she passed it to t. 'How do you feel?' she asked, anxious eyes on Hermione's face.
'Nervous,' Hermione admitted with a rueful grin. 'I'm going to be so embarrassed … and then, I don't know what's going to happen!'
Taffy worked a glop of Sleekeazy's between her hands and began to spread it through Hermione's hair. 'You may feel self-conscious for a little while, but the self-consciousness will wear off,' she said confidently. 'You certainly have nothing to be embarrassed about. I wish I still had the body of a nineteen-year-old!'
The other submissives murmured their agreement with this statement.
'And as for what will happen afterward,' t continued, her fingers still busy in Hermione's mane, 'that's the easiest part of all. What will happen is just exactly what you ask for!'
Hermione watched t's hands, chewing on her lip. 'What if … what if what I want—who I want—isn't there?'
Kell knelt, and Hermione glanced down into her wide blue eyes. 'I saw him last night,' Kell said bracingly, taking Hermione's hands. 'He never took his eyes off you. You were dancing and laughing with the other Doms, so you didn't see him, but he watched you like a hawk.'
Oh, I hope it's true! Hermione thought, but she only pressed Kell's hands in thanks. She was afraid to voice her thoughts—afraid that speaking it aloud would prevent her from receiving her heart's desire.
Taffy took up a wide-toothed comb and began to stroke it carefully through Hermione's hair, distributing the hair potion evenly. To her left, Vi had already begun to wind Elinore's silver hair about her head, securing it with pins. There was a discreet knock at the door, and Popkin, the house-elf assigned to the nursery, scurried to open it. Pitty entered, her scrawny arms full of different sorts of flowers.
'Are all those going in my hair?' Hermione asked, watching in the mirror as Pitty advanced.
'No,' t said, a vicarious self-satisfaction in her tone. 'These are presents for you!'
Hermione turned curiously, as t and Vi deserted their seated friends to investigate Pitty's finds.
'These is coming all at once, from Paul Thomas Flowers,' Pitty said excitedly.
'But,' Hermione objected, 'that's a Muggle florist! I've walked by the shop!'
Vi plucked a posy of coral-pink peonies from Pitty's arms. 'Oh, they've a wizarding section, as well,' she said dreamily, slipping a wide vellum card from amongst the blooms and passing it to Hermione. 'Their head house-elf delivers directly to Pitty.'
'Vi should know,' Kell said roguishly. 'Master Claudius sends her flowers all the time.'
Vi looked up from the peonies. 'I love the way these smell,' she said. 'Who sent them, Hermione?'
Hermione looked at the card. 'This is one of Master David's visiting cards,' she said. 'He's written, "Blooms for the lovely on the night of her debut—here's hoping that you call on me—Best, David."' She blushed with pleasure and reached out for the flowers, which Vi placed in her arms. 'These are the first flowers I've ever received,' she said, marvelling.
'Well don't water them!' t cried, leaning over to dab tears from her eyelashes. 'Salt water is the worst for fresh flowers!'
Next, Vi took up a spray of purplish-blue delphinium. Taffy relieved Hermione of the peonies so she could receive the new bouquet.
'Is there a card?' Kell asked, clearly revelling in her involvement.
'Here it is,' Hermione murmured, discovering a blue card affixed to one of the blooms. 'It's from Alain Devereux. It says, "With best wishes on your special night".' Her nose wrinkled. 'I think he just picked that one from the rack in the shop.'
'Oh, I like those colours,' t said, directing their attention to the bouquet of lavender roses, interspersed with something bluish and prickly-looking.
'Those must be from Rufus,' Elinore said thoughtfully. 'Who else would put Scottish thistle in a bouquet?'
Hermione opened the wax-sealed parchment t had found amongst the thistles. She perused what had been written in cramped, inelegant handwriting, and then she read aloud for her companions, '"Tonight we shall see you in all your glory, and glorious it shall be. I shall be waiting, Hermione, and I hope you will task me with your pleasure. Always, Rufus."'
'Yes, that sounds just like him,' Elinore said. 'He's a very good man, and we have enjoyed having him to stay. Do you like him, Hermione?'
Hermione passed the rose and thistle bouquet to Kell and eyed the last offering, hoping against hope it would be from …
'I'm sorry?' she said, looking around at Elinore. 'Do I like Master Rufus? Yes, he's very solid, isn't he?'
'And filthy rich,' Kell muttered, making t giggle.
Vi stepped forward and knelt beside Hermione, laying the last posy in her lap. Kell looked at the round bouquet of dark mauve flowers. 'Maybe these are from Master Severus,' she said.
'A garland of calla lilies?' Elinore said incredulously. 'No, he would never choose such an offering!'
'Why not?' Kell asked curiously, but no one answered her.
Hermione took up the card from the bouquet, knowing it was callous to feel disappointed in the face of such abundance, and she read the flowing script she recognised so well from their exchanges in her journal.
'"Blooms both beautiful and delicate for you, petit, on the occasion of your debut. I am now and always, regardless of your final choice, at your service. It will be my honour and my pleasure for you to call upon me in any capacity, tonight and forever. With love, Master Claudius and Violet.'"
This time, it was Vi who dabbed the tears from her cheeks. 'This is the bouquet he sent to me upon my debut,' Vi said fondly, 'and it's the same bouquet I carried at our wedding.'
Hermione swallowed and touched the edge of a blossom with one finger. 'You've been too, too good to me,' she whispered through a throat clogged with emotion.
Vi gave her a quick hug and kissed her cheek. 'We love you,' she said before releasing Hermione and straightening up again.
Hermione held the wedding bouquet of lilies in her lap, studying them thoughtfully, as t began to braid her hair, and Elinore moved her chair from before the mirror so Vi could seat herself there. The voices of the other women were a soft, comforting counterpoint to Hermione's thoughts. Master Claudius was a good man, principled, conscientious, responsible, and caring. He was also handsome, charismatic, and Dominant, which trumped all of his other characteristics in Hermione's eyes. He was much older than she—older, she believed, than Severus and Rafe—but he understood her completely. How many women could say that about the man who wanted to possess them?
Still, for all his many good qualities, there was one Claudius lacked: He did not stand her world on end by the mere fact of his existence. The sound of his voice didn't make her heart race. The touch of his hand didn't deprive her of the ability to breathe properly. He lacked the aura of Dark danger which enveloped Severus Snape like a second skin, and for good or ill, Hermione craved that peril with an addict's need. But on a deeper level, below the mere physical thrill she received from his touch, there lay the spiritual bond upon which they had touched many times in their dealings together. Surely that sort of thing wasn't common, was it? Her professor had certainly been dumbfounded by it.
'Have you told Hermione about your debut night, t?' Vi asked from her chair, behind which Kell worked, twining Vi's long blond hair about her head.
'I never have,' t replied, beginning to roll and pin Hermione's unnaturally smooth hair.
'Well, tell!' Hermione urged, happily drawn from her own thoughts.
'I met Rafe at a non-D/s party and fell for him instantly,' t said. 'After bit of investigation—well, I really just badgered Horace Slughorn until he confessed all he knew about Rafe's interests—I attended a party for the D/s-curious, held at the home of Master Aulus. Rafe and Severus were there—oh my God, my least favourite professor from school was at a D/s party!—and I could tell by Rafe's reaction that he was shocked to see me there, the girl who had chatted him up at Professor Slughorn's cocktail party. He brushed me off when I went up to speak with him.' She chuckled and paused in her work to meet Hermione's eyes in the mirror. 'He embarrassed me, he was so dismissive. My face was burning, and Severus even gave me a rather pitying glance!'
Hermione laughed with t, imagining the scene in her mind. 'Of course,' t went on, 'I was no older than you are now when that happened, and I didn't have the sense to believe that "no" meant "no"! So I asked Master Aulus and Jane to mentor me, and I began training with them.'
Hermione remembered Master Aulus, a member of the Board of Trustees for Roissy House, from her first party weekend. At that time, his submissive, Jane, who was married to another man, had been eight months pregnant. Hermione had been shocked at the time, to find a woman married to another man and pregnant with his child with someone else at a Dungeon party. She understood it a bit better now, but it was still hard for her to imagine lovely Taffy Lestrange in training with Master Aulus.
'I enjoyed my training, but no one I met electrified me like Rafe did,' t said, returning to her occupation with Hermione's hair. 'I saw him at Roissy House party weekends, and I knew he was noticing me, but he always stayed away from me. You see, there were no Lestranges at Hogwarts with me, and I was there between the two wars—I had no idea about Rafe's brothers being in prison, or anything about the family's affiliation with You-Know-Who. All I knew was that I wanted him, and I knew he wanted me, but he just wouldn't cooperate with me!'
Hermione murmured her understanding, feeling her heart ache for t. It was, in some ways, good to know she was not the only submissive who had to work extra hard to gain and keep the attention of the man she wanted.
'Then one night, near the end of my training, Rafe asked permission from Master Aulus to play with me, and I was so excited, I thought I would die of it! He tied me to the cross and flogged me, one of those long, drawn out floggings where the anticipation builds and builds …'
'Oh, yum,' Kell breathed, and the other submissives chuckled in agreement.
'When he took me down, I was dying for him, but he refused to touch me with his hands. It was as if he was trying to give in to me and protect me from myself—from him—all at the same time. He took me into the shadows and ordered me to finish it myself, and he stood over me while I spread out on a sofa and did it, staring him in the eyes the whole time. I could see how hard he was—I knew he wanted me—but nothing I could do or say would convince him to just fuck me and put us both out of our misery!'
Hermione found herself strangely aroused by hearing this story and imagining t and her Master locked in the battle of wills which had eventually led to their union, and later, their marriage.
'After I came, he leaned over me, until his nose was almost touching mine, and he told me he knew I could come again—and that if I did, he would let me suck his cock.' Taffy took a deep breath and let it out again rather comically, breaking the tension of her auditors. 'Well, as you can imagine, I did what he wanted, and then he let me do what he had promised—and when it was done, when I was kneeling on the floor between his knees with his come all over my face and some even in my hair—he dragged me up by the elbows and said, "For the love of all that's holy, girl, stay away from me."'
'But you didn't, did you?' Kell asked, completely rapt in the story.
Taffy laughed. 'Well, he stayed away, which was virtually the same thing,' she said. 'My debut night came, and Rafe was nowhere to be seen. I found out later than he and Severus participated in a duelling tournament in Belgium that weekend. So I asked four of the Dominants who had shown interest in me to play with me that night. I asked one to whip me, one to wax me, one to finger me, and one to fuck me.'
Hermione couldn't repress the little gasp she uttered, and t bent over until they were cheek to cheek, looking at one another in the mirror.
'I know you can't imagine that, love,' t said quietly. 'But I had played with many Doms during my training, and though I wanted Rafe, I wasn't going to go without my fun because of his behaviour.' She straightened again and began weaving the plaits she had made of Hermione's hair into the elaborate coiffure she was creating. 'One of the Dominants I played with that night—the one whom I went to bed with—was Bill Jaffords.'
Taffy's hands stilled, and Hermione was aware of the watchful attention of the other witches.
'He was a … very poor Dominant,' t said pensively.
'He was criminally negligent, as determined by the Roissy House Board of Directors,' Elinore said staunchly. 'That ought never to have happened to you, Taffy.'
'What did he do?' Hermione asked, half afraid to hear the answer.
'He suspended me by the arms,' t answered. 'I had had my hands bound, and I thought he knew what he was doing—but he didn't. He left me that way for too long, and one of my shoulders was dislocated.'
'Oh, no,' Hermione said, horrified.
'She had brachial nerve damage, as well,' Elinore said, her expression leaving no question of her opinion of the Dominant in question. 'We had Taffy here, caring for her the next day, when Rafe arrived. He had heard about the incident from Master Aulus, and he was … incensed.'
'Crazed, really,' t said lightly. 'He took me home with him, against the objections of just about everyone, and he tended me with his own hands while Severus looked for Bill. Bill knew he had ruined himself for the D/s community, but Rafe wasn't content with that. He wanted to make it public.'
'He wanted to make sure a dangerous Dominant couldn't find a place in another D/s community in the UK,' Vi said. 'He was right to pursue it.'
'So, Severus found Bill and brought him back, and Rafe duelled with him.' Taffy swallowed. 'If Severus hadn't been there, I'm not sure …'
'Severus was there,' Elinore said soothingly. 'He stopped the duel when Jaffords was disarmed, and he and Rafe brought the brute before the Board. He was blackballed with every D/s community in the country, and the last I heard, he had emigrated.'
Taffy nodded once, with finality. 'So, in the end, I got what I wanted—Rafe. But he has always held himself responsible for what happened on my debut night, even though it's completely irrational of him.'
Hermione stood abruptly and turned into t's arms, embracing her wordlessly. Taffy hugged her back, rocking her gently.
'It's all right, really,' she said. 'It was a long time ago, and it all worked out for us, just as it will for you.' She gently man-handled Hermione back into her chair. 'Now, be still!' she ordered with mock ferocity. 'This is an intricate process!'
Hermione laughed and settled down. 'All right, I'll sit,' she said. 'But I could really use a happier story—will you tell me yours, Vi?'
Vi stood, her up-do now complete, and gestured for Kell to take the seat she had vacated. Taffy rotated Hermione's chair, so that they now faced Vi and Kell; Hermione could no longer see her reflection in the mirror, but she did preferred to watch Vi's mobile face as she told her tale.
'I took my training here, at Roissy House, so I was very familiar with all the Dominants who frequent our parties,' Vi began, brushing through Kell's shining cap of dark hair.
'Was Master Claudius your training Master?' Hermione asked, wondering why she had never thought to ask before.
'Oh no,' Vi said, turning to smile at Elinore. 'I trained with Hadrian and Elinore.'
Hermione blinked. Vi had trained with Hadrian and Elinore? Slept in their bed with them, as Kell had done with Claudius and Vi? She couldn't imagine it! Hadrian was old enough to be her father, at the very least …
'At the time of my debut,' Vi continued, 'I didn't have one particular Dominant in mind to whom I wished to offer my submission. I knew many Dominants I admired, and Hadrian had been generous permitting me to play with Dominants who requested me, but I hadn't developed a preference, yet.'
Hermione watched Vi's hands in Kell's hair, which was too short to put up. So Vi made tiny parts long Kell's hairline and alternated a row of twisted strands with a row of tiny plaits, each row ending near the crown of Kell's head. What would it have been like to take your sexual pleasure from many different men, without having a decided preference for any of them?
'And don't think from listening to Violet that no Dominants had a preference for her,' Elinore said fondly. 'She was sought after, but terribly particular.'
Vi smiled without taking her eyes from her busy fingers. 'If it had been permitted, I would have remained with Hadrian and Elinore indefinitely,' she said, 'but Hadrian believed it would be better for me to seek my own Master. There were interviews arranged for the weekend following my debut, but of the three Dominants who wished to be considered, only one of them was present for my presentation. So, I made a list of the Dominants I most trusted and admired, and when the time of my public display was finished, I asked them for what I wanted.'
Hermione said, 'And what was that, Vi? What did you ask for?'
Vi glanced over at Hermione. 'I wanted them to use me simultaneously,' she said simply. 'I asked one who was waiting by the dais when my display was over, and I asked three Roissy House Dominants, all of whom agreed, as a favour to me.'
'Who were they?' Hermione asked, and she was conscious of t's hands going still in her hair.
'The first was Christopher Bradford, a Master from the D/s community in Exeter, and later, I actually spent three months living with him in his home. But we came to a mutual agreement not to pursue the relationship, and I came back to stay with Hadrian and Elinore for a bit after that.' Vi looked down again at Kell's hair. 'The other three Dominants you know,' she said. 'Hadrian was one, Master was the second, and …' Vi looked into Hermione's eyes. 'And the last of the group was Master Severus.'
Hermione felt as if she had been hit in the stomach by a football. Her lips parted, but she didn't speak—she didn't know what to say. She knew Severus had been active in the D/s community for years before she came along and was well aware that he had been with many different submissives—he had to have been! He certainly hadn't been chaste; such a notion was ridiculous. But she had never asked for a list of women with whom he'd played, and she knew that he would not have provided her with it, anyway. Still, she had been perfectly happy not knowing who his sexual partners had been before her, hadn't she? And did she want to think of him being intimate with Vi? Was she ever going to be able to remove that image from her mind?
'He didn't ask for me, Hermione,' Vi said, as if it were important to her for this distinction to be made. 'He agreed to my request, as a courtesy to Hadrian.'
Hermione nodded once but still did not speak. He agreed to have sex with Vi as a courtesy to Hadrian? A likely story! Vi was beautiful—taller and more slender than Hermione had ever been, with a stunning figure—Severus Snape would have been a fool to turn down the chance to have sex with her!
Taffy resumed the gentle tugging and twisting at her scalp, and Hermione realised that all of them were expecting an outburst of some sort from her. Well, they would be disappointed, then, because she was deepening her breathing, focussing on her centre, and letting go of the burning jealousy she felt. She wouldn't let them see how disconcerted she was!
'I wanted to be totally filled—completely used—and my debut Dominants gave me what I requested,' Vi reported tranquilly. 'To prepare me, they strapped me to the St Andrew's Cross, and Master Severus applied the clamps to my nipples and to my clitoris.'
Kell winced outwardly, and Hermione's eyes narrowed. A clamp on her clitoris? Ouch!
'Then Christopher flogged my back while Master Severus stood on the other side of the cross, where only I could hear him, and he … talked to me.'
Hermione swallowed, imagining Vi's position, the heavy thudding of the leather flogger, and the filthy, taunting voice of Severus Snape. In spite of herself, she was aroused by the idea of it.
'When I was properly prepared,' Vi continued, sounding for all the world as if she were describing a garden party rather than a sexual encounter with four men under the eyes of the entire London D/s community, 'the clamps were removed, and I experienced an orgasm, which was … exquisite.' She briefly closed her eyes before continuing. 'Then Master lifted me in his arms, and I was moved back to the dais. A platform had been added, and Christopher stripped naked and lay down upon it. I was placed astride his cock, and Master began to lubricate my bum for anal penetration. I was forbidden to orgasm until everyone was situated, but it was very difficult when I was being fucked from below and massaged from behind with so many eyes watching …'
Hermione tried to imagine what it would feel like to be stimulated by two different men at once with an audience and felt the heat between her legs increase.
'When I was prepared, Master entered me very slowly, and I could feel the two cocks in me with just the thin wall between them, sliding together—and I came unglued.'
Hermione grinned to hear Vi used such imprecise terminology. Dear Merlin, anyone would come unglued under that kind of stimulation!
'That's when Master Severus grasped my hair and pushed his cock into my mouth, just as I had asked him to do.'
Kell actually made a tiny moaning sound in her throat. 'Oh man, Vi, I wish I had talked to you before my debut,' she said longingly. 'Of course, it happened before I knew you, but still …'
Vi laughed lightly. 'I was filled with three cocks, and at that point, Hadrian bent to whisper in my ear that I could start coming at any time, but that I would be used until the Dominants were all quite finished with me.' A visible shudder ran through her, and Hermione felt it as well as saw it. 'I lost count of my orgasms,' Vi said. 'I was conscious of the time when Hadrian took Master Severus' place, and Master Severus put his lips to my ear and … talked to me, until it was all over. Christopher and Master had the most difficult jobs, because they had to not come for as long as possible, but I think they have a spell they use for that when they want to last a long time. At any rate, when they had all come inside me, Hadrian magicked me upstairs into the bath, and he washed me with his own hands and put me to bed, telling me what a good girl I had been.' She smiled around at the other four women. 'It was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to me, up until the night my Master accepted my offer of submission.'
Oddly enough, Hermione found that her feelings of jealousy had faded away as Vi had told her story. It had obviously been just as Vi described it—a Dominant whom she trusted had agreed to participate in her debut night, which was to be all about her. Severus had undoubtedly enjoyed the verbal humiliation and fucking Vi's mouth while all those people watched—he was, after all, a sadist and an exhibitionist—Hermione certainly couldn't be angry with him or with Vi for having taken pleasure from one another before she had ever known them.
'Finally!' Taffy stepped back and rotated Hermione's chair again, until she faced the mirror. 'You're beautiful, Hermione!'
Hermione gazed at the intricate arrangement of braids and swirls of sleek hair, adorned with rosebuds. 'It's lovely, t—thank you.'
Taffy placed the basket of rosebuds in her hands. 'Now, put the flowers in our hair, to mark us as your attendants for tonight, and we'll be all finished!'
Hermione completed the ritual by placing the rosebuds that denoted these women as her sisters and attendants on this special night. Then she gathered them about her behind Elinore's chair and they gazed at their reflection in the mirror.
'It's perfect,' Vi said softly.
The witches were tidying up the dressing tables when there was another knock at the door, and Popkin hurried to open it.
'Now what?' Hermione said humorously. 'I already have enough flowers to open my own shop.'
'Oh, I think you'll want this,' t said, and the peculiar inflection in her voice made Hermione turn to the door with an odd fillip in her heartbeat.
Pitty crossed the floor bearing an item so strange-looking that Hermione could not at first place it.
'What is that?' Kell asked, sounding mystified.
'It's a flower,' t said. 'It's called a Bird of Paradise.'
Hermione approached the exotic, single bloom in a heavy, cut-glass vase nearly as tall as Pitty. The stalk was as thick as a man's finger, and the bloom consisted of three upright orange petals and three vivid blue petals, joined together in a shape reminiscent of a bird in flight.
Vi walked past the gathered women to Hermione, who had lifted the solid vase into her hands and was gazing in breathless wonder at the vibrant flower. Closing her hands about Hermione's shoulders, Vi squeezed gently, a gesture of both encouragement and acceptance.
'Is there a card?' Kell asked, and t uttered a soft, happy laugh.
'Oh, I don't think she needs a card,' Elinore said, smiling.
A/N: There will be, in good course, an entry at community dot livejournal dot com front slash ftpma underscore dishing with links to pictures pertinent to this chapter. Chapter 83 is entitled The Debut.
