The next few days were surprisingly less awkward than Harry expected. He and Hermione had both been somewhat shy and nervous when they had made their plan to have sex, but it seemed like that talk liberated the last barrier between them. They were the best of friends, and now there were absolutely no secrets between them. They were fully comfortable with one another; Hermione even cracked a joke about what Harry had planned one night when they were studying together in the Library.
And Harry had certainly been planning.
"Is Harry Potter sure this is what Hermione Granger wants?" Winky asked Harry, as formal as ever. After Dobby's death, Winky seemed to take his place in Harry's life as she came to his aid whenever he needed it, much to the chagrin of Kreacher who had taken a better liking to Harry after he destroyed the locket. She had stopped her excessive drinking, only having an occasional butterbeer on special occassions, and was now a much happier house-elf at Hogwarts.
"Yes," Harry nodded as he surveyed the room, "I'm sure."
"Okay," Winky smiled. "I'll keep this place secret. No one will mess up your plans."
Harry stepped back out of the room and watched as Winky snapped her fingers. A shimmering blue aura surrounded the wooden door as it gently closed itself before the sound of a lock closing echoed down the empty corridor.
"Thanks, Winky," Harry said. "I really appreciate all of your help in getting this set up."
"No thanks needed," Winky replied, holding up her hand to stop Harry from going any further. "Dobby always said you is the best wizard he knew. And you helped Winky a lot, even though you didn't have to. Winky is happy to help with anything you need."
"I'll be sure to let you know if anything else comes up," Harry said.
With a sharp nod, Winky brought her hand up again and snapped her fingers. She blinked out of sight, apparating elsewhere in Hogwarts.
Giving one last look back at the closed wooden door, Harry turned on his heel and started down the corridor towards the Grand Staircase. He had given Hermione heads up notice that tonight was the night; he just hoped that she was ready and wasn't feeling nervous or pressured. She seemed enthusiastic, but Harry knew first hand just how easily one could freeze up when the time came to perform.
Harry quickly joined the hoard of students descending upon the Great Hall for supper. It was still early, but seats were filling up quickly. Harry scanned for Hermione at the Gryffindor table, but she wasn't there yet. So, he simply sat down near the end of the table, hoping to catch her as soon as she arrived.
It wasn't long after Harry had filled his plate with roasted potatoes and sausage onto his plate that someone sat down across from him. Harry looked up eagerly, a smile on his face, expecting it to be Hermione, but instead saw Neville shooting him a puzzled look.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Neville frowned in confusion.
Harry wiped the stupid grin off of his face and shook his head. "Nothing, sorry, don't worry about it."
Neville stared at Harry oddly for another moment. "Uh huh, anyway, I wanted to ask you how liked the room. Do you think you're going to come around again?"
"I'm definitely going to come back," Harry answered quickly, only to blush as Neville laughed in reply.
"Good to hear that you had a good time," Neville chuckled. "Truth be told, you were a big hit yourself. Hannah told me that the girls were all talking about this new guy with the big dick. Seems like word got around fast."
Merlin, they all knew? "I thought it was supposed to be anonymous," Harry groaned.
"Oh, it is," Neville quickly corrected, holding up his hands. "No one knows it was you, not even Hannah. They actually think it was one of the new seventh-year students since a few of them have only recently started coming to our special service nights."
Harry let out a sigh of relief. He still didn't know what would happen if the press found out about this. He wanted to use this as a way to get relief while quite a few Death Eaters were still on the loose since anyone he associated with would undoubtedly be targeted, but if the general public found out about this, Harry was sure that it'd be like his fifth year all over again when he was being attacked every week. The wizarding world was terribly conservative in many ways; few people would be understanding about what everyone got up to in the Room of Requirement.
"Good, that's good. Well, as long as things stay anonymous, I'll definitely be coming back," Harry reiterated.
"You do realize that all of the guys will see you there, right?" Neville asked, pointing out the obvious flaw in the plan.
Harry nodded. This had been a concern of his, and one of Hermione's as well in their subsequent discussions on the topic. However, they had come up with a way around this. "People could blackmail us over partaking in this," Harry began. "Not just me and Hermione, but everyone. Imagine if the press found out about all of this; it could cause a lot of problems for all of us."
"No one's going to rat us out," Neville tried to wave Harry off.
"We didn't really expect anyone to sell out the DA either," Harry countered. "But we still had a contract just in case. I know that this started as a thing between all of you who stayed behind at Hogwarts, but seeing as you're opening it up to more students than just the original core group, don't you think its important to make sure that the existence of this group and what goes on between its members stays secret?"
Neville shifted uncomfortably. "It's not like we haven't discussed putting up some protections before . . ."
"And?" Harry pushed. "Did people not want them?"
Neville sighed. "Some people thought it showed a lack of trust, and, honestly, during the war, trust was the only thing that kept us together. There were so many fights over what we should do and how we should rebel against Snape and the Carrows, but we all knew that we could trust each other. It was an us vs. them situation."
"But the war is over now," Harry said.
Neville nodded. "The war is over." He let out another low sigh. "I'll bring it up with Hannah and Susan. It's the three of us who kinda run things, so I'll need to ask them about it first."
Harry took that as a sign of progress. Honestly, he really wanted this to work out. He just needed some degree of protection for him and Hermione. "Thanks, Neville. I really appreciate it."
"Don't mention it," Neville replied. "If anyone deserves to let off a little steam, it's you."
"Well, if things work out, I'll be there," Harry told him. "And I think Hermione might be interested as well."
"Really?" Neville's eyes widened slightly. "To be honest, even after I learned that you two weren't together, I never expected her to take us up on the offer."
"I don't really want to speak to her reasons for wanting to do it," Harry told Neville, unwilling to reveal any of Hermione's thoughts or personal feelings without her consent, "but I think she'll want to come to the next night."
"Wicked," Neville grinned. "I'll let Hannah know and she can meet up with Hermione later to discuss details and intro her into the whole thing."
Their discussion slowed from there as they made idle chit-chat as they ate their suppers. Harry kept glancing towards the entrance, waiting for Hermione to make an appearance, but it seemed like she'd be missing supper tonight.
As it so often did when they had a break together, Harry and Neville spent some time catching each other up on what they missed during their year apart. Naturally, Harry couldn't tell him everything—even Ron and Hermione were sworn to secrecy over the Horcruxes so that as little information about them could spread as was possible—but Harry did try to fill in the big gaps that were missing. In return, Neville would talk about the various events that took place at Hogwarts.
However, unlike any time previously, Harry was much more interested in the names of the people Neville brought up. He'd mention the ways that Hannah and Susan unified the Hufflepuff House, and Harry would wonder if one of them had been the one behind the wall a few nights ago in the Room of Requirement. Then he'd bring up others like Megan Jones, Lisa Turpin, and even Lavender Brown, and Harry would wonder about them too. His mind ran wild imagining exactly who it was that had pleasured him so thoroughly.
A shiver ran up Harry's spin in delight. Maybe this was one of the reasons they kept things secret, Harry thought to himself. It made it all so much more exciting than he had expected it to be.
Eventually though, the meal came to an end, and Harry got to his feet, ready to go on a search to try to track down Hermione so that all of his plans didn't go to waste. But, just as he was about to step away from the table, he saw a familiar head of brown hair step around the corner.
Hermione looked just as lovely as ever: her light skin glowing beneath the candlelight, her brown hair tamed into a more manageable mane flowing over both of her shoulders, and her stunning brown eyes searching for him. When her eyes landed on him, her face lit up with a bright smile. She hurriedly rushed over towards the table.
"Hermione!" Neville exclaimed happily as she came close. "We were just talking about you."
"You were?" Hermione raised an eyebrow, shooting Harry a teasing look. "And what was it that you were saying?"
"We were talking about you and Harry potentially joining all of us in the Room sometimes for some stress relief," Neville explained, chuckling at his explanation of what went on in the room.
"Oh, right." Hermione's face lit up red with a dark blush. "Well, we're thinking about it."
"Yeah, Harry told me about the idea for the contract for everyone," Neville replied. "I'll talk to Hannah and Susan about it tonight and, if they agree, we'll start writing it up."
"I'd like to look at it too," Hermione said quickly. "If you don't mind that is."
"Of course I don't," Neville waved her off. "Blimey Hermione, you're the smartest witch I know; it wouldn't make much sense for you to not look it over."
Hermione smiled at Neville. "Great."
"Are you hungry?" Harry asked her, gesturing down to the bowl of bread in front of him.
Hermione looked down at it with a slight grimace. "No, not really. A little nervous actually."
Harry nodded his head; he was feeling the same, but at least he still had his appetite. "Do you want to go off now then?" He asked her.
Hermione bit her lip. "Yes, we should, shouldn't we?"
Neville looked curiously between the pair of them. "What's going on with the two of you?"
"Nothing," Harry answered quickly. He and Hermione had agreed to keep this all a secret. He stepped away from the table and walked right up to Hermione who gave him an awkward smile. "We'll see you later, Neville."
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! I will be steadily reuploading all of my content from AO3 until both sites have the same content on it. If you are interested in reading more or supporting me, check out at p atreon .com(slash) ashox
