Memory 4: 2 years after the war, Hermione and Theo's first date
Pureblood courtship left little to be desired when it came to gifts. Hermione was showered with small tokens of Theo's affection. Expensive quills, decadent chocolate, jewelry, and more flowers than Hermione knew what to do with filled Pansy and her temporary flat. Hermione wasn't used to the effort and thought Theo displayed and it left butterflies in her chest. The flowers she now realized were conveying meaning, the gardenia was for purity and sweetness, and said "you are lovely" from the giver.
Next she received, Amaryllis, "worth beyond beauty" followed by Ranunculus, "radiant charm" and sunflowers, "adoration and dedication." When she received orange lilies, "passion," she was ready to go on a date with the man but he had yet to ask her.
He just kept dropping off tokens for her every few days, kissing her hand and then leaving. It was starting to grate on her nerves to be honest. The pace was old fashioned and didn't speak to her feminist ideals. Hermione was just about to ask him out herself when the first letter came. Now he wooed her with words, poems that reminded him of her:
Luminous mind, bright devil
Luminous mind, bright devil
of absolute clusterings, of upright noon-:
here we are at last, alone, without loneliness,
far from the savage city's delirium.
Just as a pure line describes the dove's curve,
as the fire honors and nourishes peace,
so you and I made this heavenly outcome.
The mind and love live naked in this house.
Furious dreams, rivers of bitter certainty,
decisions harder than the dreams of a hammer
flowed into the lovers' double cup,
until those twins were lifted into balance
on the scale: the mind and love, like two wings.
-So this transparency was built.
by Pablo Neruda
Your laughter
Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.
Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.
My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.
My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.
Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.
Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.
by Pablo Neruda
Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, Gladly Beyond
somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which I cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though I have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, I and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(I do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
By E. E. Cummings
And finally:
Lust
If only he could touch her,
Her name like an old wish
In the stopped weather of salt
On a snail. He longs to be
Words, juicy as passionfruit
On her tongue. He'd do anything,
Would dance three days & nights
To make the most terrible gods
Rise out of ashes of the yew,
To step from the naked
Fray, to be as tender
As meat imagined off
The bluegill's pearlish
Bones. He longs to be
An orange, to feel fingernails
Run a seam through him
By Yusef Komunyakaa
So she sent him back two poems:
To a dark Moses
you are the one
I am lit for.
Come with your rod
that twists
and is a serpent.
I am the bush.
I am burning
I am not consumed.
by Lucille Clifton
What I See
Lie there, in sweat and dream, I do, and "there"
Is here, my bed, on which I dream
You, lying there, on yours, locked, pouring love,
While I tormented here see in my reins
you, perfectly at climax. And the lion strikes.
I want you with whatever obsessions come—
I wanted your obsession to be mine
But if it is that unknown half-suggested strange
Other figure locked in your climax, then
I here, I want you and the other, want your obsession,
want
Whatever is locked into you now while I sweat and
dream.
By Muriel Rukeyser
The next day Theo stopped by with a bouquet of sweet pea flowers, "delicate pleasure, and bliss" to ask Hermione out on their first official date.
When Theo left Hermione to get ready for their date Pansy came in with very sexy lingerie on a hanger.
"I'm not wearing that!" Hermione screeched! "It's our first date!"
"What exactly have you two been doing for a month? This foreplay is killing me, I want to smack you both."
"You know him better than I do! Is this how he always is with women? If so I'm shocked he is single. It's certainly working on me. I can barely breathe when I think about him." Hermione sighed.
"No, well, the pureblood courtship rituals are usually gifts and jewelry but also contracts and luncheons with the ladies of the manor. Purebloods don't just date. If they want to fuck that's another story but if they genuinely like you, you go through the parents. The only other girl he ever genuinely liked was Astoria. I don't think he ever tried to get in her pants through poetry though. That must just be for nerdy bookworms. Although I have to hand it to you both, the poetry is hot."
"Well I'm not having sex with him on the first date, I don't even know him."
"Ahh yes, but he's been romancing you for weeks, I give it a few hours before you jump his bones."
"I will admit the poetry has turned sexual, but I still want to get to know him before becoming intimate with him."
"Fine, drive yourselves crazy a little longer, I on the other hand have a date myself. Don't wait up," she winked.
Hermione finished getting ready, taking time to smooth the frizz of her hair and line her eyes in smoke. Next she put on a delicate cream dress with just a hint of cleavage. She slipped on flats just as Theo arrived.
"Hermione, you look lovely." He said with a kiss at her knuckles. She blushed and took his arm.
He took her to a private area next to the water, where he had a table with candles waiting. He packed them a picnic dinner from one of the best restaurants in the area and they sipped from a bottle of very expensive champagne.
"Theo, thank you again for the poetry, no one has ever taken the time to do anything like that for me before." She thought about Ron and silently chuckled to herself at the thought.
"You're welcome, you deserve pleasure in every aspect of our courtship."
"What about when we argue?" She challenged, there certainly wasn't anything enticing about that .
"Is there not immense passion within arguments? Is there not release and pleasure once the fire cools from the heat of the moment? Is there not a deepening of feelings in your soul once you understand each other better? Is the make up sex not frantic and filled with desire?" Theo gazed intensely into her eyes, "Don't ever be afraid to argue with me Hermione."
Noted. Thought Hermine gulping down more champagne. She was suddenly grateful for the breeze on her skin.
"I find you captivating," Hermione admitted, leaning into him closer.
"That's because we're soul mates," he said nonchalantly taking a drink of his champagne before placing the glass on the table and reaching for her face.
Her heart started beating rapidly in her chest. She didn't know if it was fear or desire at his words but she closed her eyes and begged him. She ached for him to fan the flames on her skin.
And he did.
—
Memory 5: 2 years after the war, The 5th date
Theo and Hermione saw each other every night that week. She couldn't get enough of his passion and intellect. The conversation left her as stimulated as his mouth did. The way Theo kissed her was as if he needed her to breathe and think and exist. He kissed her like she was a beacon of light in his darkness. He kissed her like a man on his deathbed and she was his life support. He kissed to her soul and ignited a desperate yearning in her heart. He was it for her. She knew as she kissed him. He was it. And she wanted him tonight.
"Theo I can't take it anymore!" She broke away from his kiss. "Make love to me."
He searched her eyes and rubbed his thumb across her cheek. Whatever he was searching for he must have found because he undid one button of her top and said, "I'm going to worship your body."
Her knees shook as he guided her back to the couch. Kissing her neck, and sucking on her pulse.
"How experienced are you?" He asked as he ran his hands down her back.
"Um, well, I'm not a virgin if that's what you mean. I've slept with two guys."
"I see," he said pulling back.
"How often do you touch yourself?" He asked as he kissed down her arm and sucked on the tips of her fingers.
"What? I mean, every once in a while. It's not something I need to do often. Are you always this frank before a shag?" She asked.
"A women needs all of her senses heightened and caressed during sex: sight, sound, smell, touch, and... taste. For me to worship your body properly, I need to know what your body craves, what makes your toes curl, and your breath catch in your lungs." He used his wand to dim the lights, and blue fire filled into jars around the room. He acciod a jar filled with a potion.
"First I'm going to massage you. This is a cooling/warming potion. When I apply it it will feel warm but if I blow on it or lick it, the potion cools down where it's touched. I want you to be as vocal as possible when I touch you, and when I taste you."
Merlin, he was setting the bar high she thought. She nervously giggled and tried to calm herself.
Then he used his wand to turn on some light background music. Instrumental and one of his own compositions she thought. It was lovely.
He stepped towards her and began to finish taking off her top. With every button he kissed another part of her body. Then his tongue followed the buttons on her skin. Her chest, her collarbone, the dip of her breast. She moaned.
"Theo that feels amazing." He nibbled at her neck.
"How gentle should I be?" He blew cold air against her neck where his tongue had been. The chill of the air awakened her wanting.
"I like a mixture of pressure, gentle at first, and then um, rougher, as things get going. I haven't had too much experience with much roughness but what I've experienced, I've liked. Um, perhaps, my past experiences were more vanilla than I desired, but I'm not sure exactly how I'd react to more. Or what you like, if it's too much or not." She was nervous and rambling.
"Hermione, would you feel more comfortable with a safeword?"
"A safeword?"
"Yes, a word that lets me know to back off if things are getting too rough." He bit her shoulder with a quick nip.
She gasped. "Oh my, um, yes a safeword is a good idea. How about sugarquill?" She nervously suggested.
He laughed, "sugarquill." Then he pulled off the rest of her shirt. He opened the potion and spread some against her chest above her bra. The warmth as he massaged made her moan.
Then he licked the path of the bra cooling her as if an ice cube passed along her skin. She gasped when she smelled the lotion. She smelled books, gardenias, white fruit, and the sea.
"Theo does this lotion have Amortentia in it?"
He paused his ministrations to look in her eyes. "I created it. I pulled out the olfactory component of Amortentia. It won't cause you to feel in love but you'll smell what you would if you smelled Amortentia." Then he sucked directly on one nipple through her bra.
"Merlin Theo!" She panted, "I need you, I want you so badly. Please!" She begged at him.
"Hermione." He scowled, "you will let me worship your body fully before we make love."
Well when he put it that way. She thrust her breast back up towards his mouth and she was rewarded with a bite on her nipple. Dear lord, Merlin, all powers that be, please! She thought.
He finally unclasped her bra and threw it aside, admiring her with his unrelenting eyes. She nervously tried to cover herself.
"Don't you dare cover your beauty." He grabbed her hands with one of his and pulled them above her head, exposing her.
"I will write songs about your breasts" he bit his lip and then leaned down to taste them without any fabric in the way.
It was agony the way he sampled her. His tongue was velvet, his hands were strong, his fingers plucked her like his guitar and stroked her like his piano.
Her pants were off now, and the potion on her thighs felt like bliss. He gripped her hips and used his teeth to pull down her panties. The sight was erotic in itself but combined with his strong grip made her immediately wet.
"Theo, Theo, Theo." She sang his name out to him while she waited for him to touch her.
"Put your hands on my shoulders and squeeze me when I'm touching you correctly."
She dropped her hands to his shoulders and waited. First he blew on her clit. Then he tapped it with his finger which earned him a gentle squeeze on his shoulders. So he tapped harder, she moaned as she gripped him. Then he licked her. Slowly devouring her while she watched.
Harder licking, harder sucking, harder squeezing from her. One finger inside her circling and thrusting, then two, then three, spreading her wide and moving in different directions against her g-spot.
That sucking, those fingers, that moan, his other hand groping her breast roughly, that precipice of a cliff she was desperately trying to fling her body off of! Her nails denting his shoulders now, his nibble against her clit, his tongue drinking her like champagne, bubbling and fizzing, the effervescent whooshing against her femininity, bursting, bursting, bursting, against his warm tongue. Her orgasm crashing into his mouth. Wave upon wave.
She pulled him up to kiss him reaching down to pull off his shirt. Scratching down his back in a way that made him draw blood on her lip before soothing it with his tongue, his fingers in her hair. Pulling a bit but not too roughly. Then his pants were off and she felt his toned chest, and abs, and he was delicious. He was firm against her hand and she stroked him. He wrapped his hand around hers and showed her how tight, and how fast he liked it.
His kisses never stopped as he lined himself up against her.
"Is this okay?" He asked before she grabbed his ass and pulled him into her with one thrust. She wrapped her legs around him and her arms around his neck. He thrust into her against the couch before lifting her up and moving her against the wall in the living room. Merlin he was strong.
He pounded into her rougher than before but she met every one of his thrusts begging him to go harder. His fingers bruised her hips as he rolled his body deeper inside her. His teeth nipped her neck, while she bit into his. He sucked on her nipples while she moaned repeatedly.
He licked the sweat off between her breasts. She came apart sobbing in ecstasy, moaning his name, pulling his head up to kiss her again. He came into her at last and held her in his arms. He didn't release her at first, he just breathed deeply into her skin, whispering "Hermione, my Hermione, my Hermione" over and over for what seemed like hours.