It was raw. Hermione Granger was a clever woman, but in her (rare, it must be said) naivety she had never considered the emotional repercussion of sex. The bi-product, if you will. Heaving flesh, heavy muscles, sticky skin; that, she anticipated. But what she felt in the moment, the overwhelming arrival of bliss was such a quantity she had not expected.
Every inch of her body was prisoner to his touch. His soft gaze passing over her body, she puckered. He was all over her and she was all over him. Both naked and aware, he lay his full length along her. His fingers trailed down her body, a trail of goose bumps causing her to let out a moan – the only response to offer little relief to the tension building inside of her. When her eyes closed, she felt the darkness had many hands and many mouths – touching every part of her nakedness.
"Shit, sorry—"He muttered. He'd knocked her bad leg in the idyllic journey down.
"It's fine." She gasped. The interlude was brief. "Keep going." Looking down at the top of his hair as he worked his tongue and fingers inside her, she arched and flung her head back. "Oh."
He looked at her, smirking and sucking on his index finger. "Come here." Flipping her on top of him, she was in charge. He looked at her horrified facial expression and laughed. "You okay?"
"I'm good." She sighed. Bending over, she kissed his chest and looked at him with puppy dog eyes, and then down.
He smirked again, "need some help?"
"No, I do not." She took a breath and slipped him inside her. Her eyes rolling back, she bent again to press her lips to his. The moan he let out against her mouth was muffled, but she caught it and smiled. She moved with slow steadiness, her curls bouncing atop her shoulders. Bringing her hands up to her hair and stretching her arms, a kind of warmth spread throughout her and she held it there. Building and building, she was on fire.
The two of them lived for seconds in that soaring, agonising, beautiful perfection. They were lost alone, they were lost together, lost in a room full of gasping wonder. Burning and numb all at the same time, Hermione fell to his side. Silenced, she was suddenly very aware of her senses. She grinned, letting her spaced and hazy gaze fall upon the boy next to her. He was smiling too, an unconscious hand drifting up and down her arm.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"OI! MALFOY!"
They woke, tangled, tied to each other and the silk bedsheets.
"MALFOY! We know you haven't left your room, Malfoy! Open the door! We would bloody Alohomora it if it wasn't for the possibility of you being naked." It was Ron. "He fancies himself so much, Harry, of course he does." He muttered to a bashful Harry.
Hermione whipped her head to look at Draco, her eyes full of fear. "Ron can't see me; he'll be so hurt!" She hissed, ignoring his rolling eyes. "I'll hide in the bathroom. Don't be long."
Pushing her into the ensuite, he held the door for a moment, "last night was beyond…"
She grinned at him and nodded, continuing to push the door to a close. "I know." Pausing, she let go of his hand. "Go on."
Pulling on some pants, he was buckling up his belt when he finally let them in. Ron took one look, "I knew it, Harry. He does bloody well sleep in the nude!"
Malfoy rolled his eyes, not giving them the satisfaction of a look as he put his cloak on. "Shut up, Weasley. What do you want? It's early and I was preoccupied."
Harry took over. "I took ten of the rats to inspect overnight. The results have been remarkable. Each and every tumour has vanished…" It was the first time Draco had looked at them. "The funny thing is, I stupidly dropped a little Goosegrass into their cages in the evening, just to see them into the night." He paused. Malfoy was looking at him in impatient anticipation. "I think that's what did it. The cancer was there 15 hours ago – now it isn't."
Draco inadvertently looked at the door to the bathroom. "You think we need to add Goosegrass to the antidote?"
"It's worth a go. If the rest of the rats' tumours stay, then it's clearly a vital ingredient."
Malfoy wasn't sure whether he should give away that Granger knew about their plans. "Should we… go for it?"
Ron whipped around from inspecting Draco's dressing table's contents. "You mean, give Hermione the potion? Are you bloody serious? We have no idea what the possible side effects might be!"
"Relax Weasley—"
"Look, Malfoy, we know-" he paused for a second and rolled his eyes, "we know you bloody well want this to happen but who knows what might sprout out of these rats this evening? It might be a temporary cure and why give her that hope?"
Draco knew Ron was right but, out of pure stubbornness, didn't want to let him know that. "I want her to be better, Weasley. She doesn't have much time."
Harry stepped in before Ron could. "Look, we'll review the rats in a few days. Hermione can hold out until then, she's a fighter." He smiled sadly, taking Ron's arm and pulling him out of the room. "See you, Draco." Draco waited until all he glimpsed was Weasley's fiery-hair disappearing down the dorm steps
She rushed out.
Grabbing him by the belt, she pulled him close and backed up towards the bed. "Now, where were we before we were rudely interrupted?"
He forced the two of them to come to a halt, suddenly perplexed. "Did you not just hear that conversation?"
She ignored him, her fingers fumbling at his trouser zip.
"Granger, listen to me." He lightly pushed against her shoulders at an attempt to stop her. "Hermione…"
She finally looked up at him, "can we talk about this later? I'm not in the mood."
"Yeah, right, you're in the mood for this." He gestured below and huffed forcefully, the release of air ruffling his fringe which was falling in front of his eyes. She was nuzzling his neck, leaving a trail of frantic kisses in her wake. "Hermione, stop." He pushed her back with urgency. "What are you doing?"
"What? Now that we've done it, you're finished with me now?" She quickly wiped at her eyes, turning away sheepishly.
Draco was horrified. "What aren't you telling me? Contrary to my belief, those two ninnies are actually good for something. It was good news."
The silence that followed caused his stomach to drop. Hermione moved forward, taking his hands into hers and perching on the side of the bed. Something was wrong.
"I said how grateful I was for the three of you doing this. I don't know what I did to deserve it." He rolled his eyes. "But I'm dying, Malfoy."
"I know, but we're doing something about it."
"No, Draco, I'm dying." She gulped. She couldn't even look at him. "It's going to happen in the next few days."
He shook his head. "I don't understand, what are you talking about?"
"I've only got a few days left. The cancer's finally caught up with me, it's spread to several organs and my meds are only masking the weakness I know is racking my whole body. I had a consultation with the doctor a few days ago and he's given me something to take the edge off and make it less painful. It's a slow process, but I should go home to die." She felt his nails dig into her hands. "I wanted us to have a special night last night."
She felt a tear fall to their clasped hands. Trying to wrap her arms around him, he was silent and unmoving. The event had been imminent for some while now, but nothing had prepared her for this reaction.
"Shall I come back in a bit?"
With no response, she left.
The Gryffindor Common Room was the kind of place where you could be completely alone with your thoughts, but surrounded by people. It gave you the illusion that you were fine.
It was late in the evening and she still hadn't seen Draco, she had expected him to turn up at some point. She was staring at the flickering fire when Harry appeared in her line of vision. Hermione jumped.
"Harry, you scared me."
He chuckled. "Apologies. How's it going? Why aren't you up the tower?"
"He's in a mood. Where are the others?"
"Ron's still trying to prove he's the master of chess." He nodded towards Ron in the corner, sitting opposite Dean with a stern look on his face. "It's quite funny to watch, actually. Ginny's upstairs, I think."
She nodded, biting her lip. "Harry, there's something I need to tell you."
"That's funny, because there's something I need to tell you. I'll have probably been banned by Ron but I don't care."
"Shall we walk?"
Each time she pulled, the invisible ropes were getting tighter around her wrists. She was begging for mercy, begging to break through. These ropes were a metaphorical expression of the way she felt when she was alone with her thoughts. And they were becoming increasingly tighter as the days went by and the disease got worse. When she was with her friends, they loosened; she had time to breathe. When it came to her alone time, they tensed around her and she felt constricted by them. Soon, she knew she'd have to give in to them.
Right now, they were taut.
"I'll go first." They strolled into the courtyard, sitting on the benches below the clock tower. Harry grinned. "Me, Ron and Malfoy have been working on a cure for you. We think we may have finished it."
She continued to chew at her lip, not sure what to say. Her life seemed like a whole series of let-downs recently. The shackles tightened. "I know, Harry. Draco told me."
"Oh." He frowned, but started to smile again. "It's pretty cool, right? We have a few more tests to do, but it should be ready in a couple of days!"
Tighter. "Harry, I'm so grateful for everything you've done. I can't even begin to express that. But it's my time now. I'm ready to go soon."
His grin faded. "What are you talking about?"
"I've only got a few days left. I don't want to spend it drinking haphazard concoctions that won't have any effect on me or the cancer. I just want to go in peace."
"Hermione, you don't have anything to lose! Just take it, please!"
"Exactly, I literally don't have anything to lose. I might as well just go."
"Don't talk like that, Hermione, please. Do it for me. Do it for Draco, for Merlin's sake. We can have it ready by tomorrow!"
"I don't want to go fighting, Harry, I'm tired."
"No, I will not let you go without one more fight. I won't!"
She sighed. "Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm not in the mood for a lecture and I'm exhausted." Her leg was beginning to throb and the veiled ropes were stiffening around her whole body.
"I'll walk you back. We're talking about this, first thing."
"Okay."
They started to walk, passing by the multiple classrooms she felt nostalgic for. Suddenly, the thought of the steps that she was to ascend to the common room overwhelmed her. She stopped and looked at Harry, who was in his own world. Her breathing became shallow. "Harry…" Her vision blurry, she clutched at his arm. His black hair became a fuzzy moving blob as he quickly moved towards her, catching her back. The next thing she felt was the cold, hard floor beneath her. He was looking down on her, but all she saw was a floating pair of glasses. The hallucination bounced around her and she felt free.
The ropes loosened ever so quickly.
She was free.
AN: Okay, I don't even want to talk about how late this is. It's not even late, it's beyond late. In fact I was so scared to look at when I updated this last that I didn't even check. Anyway, I wrote this because I really want to finish it because I somehow feel incomplete if the fic isn't finished. There are only a couple of chapters left to go, but please leave me some feedback because it does encourage me to write faster and thus finish the bloody story and also makes me damn happy!
Hope you enjoyed.
Tune in soon (ish) for the next!