A/N: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening my lovelies! I hope you are all having a lovely Sunday. I have to do my taxes so that is nice. Reminder to all USA peoples, Tuesday is the deadline. Good luck!
TW: Small mention of historical miscarriage suffered a historical (to the story) character.
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Her hands shook as Hermione settled her on the sofa and sat on the coffee table in front of her. She had tied her hair back and for that moment as her arms moved and her muscles bunched, she looked every bit the powerful woman Minerva knew she was. She took a deep breath and almost regretted it immediately as Hermione's scent invaded her psyche.
"We don't have to do this," Hermione whispered, but Minerva was so sick of fighting.
She reached for her and Hermione slid forward, into Minerva's space.
"You are so beautiful," Hermione whispered and though she didn't particularly feel it, the look in Hermione's eyes was hard to ignore.
"I do not really know what I am doing."
"Me neither," Hermione smiled. "We'll make it up, together?"
Minerva nodded and Hermione cupped her cheeks and kissed her. Minerva moaned as her skin tingled where Hermione's hands had been before. Her heart was beating so fast she could not catch her breath, but Hermione's lips worshipped hers, and Hermione's hands mapped her body, leaving scorching trails of heat in the spaces between her clothing that she'd found. Minerva fell right into it. Her hands gripped Hermione's shoulders like a lifeline but her lungs refused to cooperate and she could barely catch her breath.
"Breathe," Hermione whispered. Minerva couldn't even do as she asked. "Stay with me, love."
She nodded and tried but only managed to draw half a breath before her body shuddered. Hermione pulled her into her lap with her back against Hermione's chest. Her strong arms wrapped around her tightly and she pressed on Minerva's chest.
"Breathe against my hand."
She did and it helped so much that after a short while, with Hermione's thumb tracing maddening patterns under her shirt that Minerva McGonagall cried once more. Hermione rocked her slowly and kissed her hair and held her but did not interfere. When it got to the point where Minerva could not ever draw breath without a sob, Hermione stepped in.
"Easy," she smiled as laid them down and wiped away the tears. "Min? It's alright."
"I'm so sorry," Minerva muttered. It was so overwhelming. The fear, the anticipation and the regret that she had treated Hermione so badly. After such gentle, kind and beautiful seduction, it just made her feel worse. "I'm so sorry, Hermione."
"I am not," Hermione argued. "You had to come to this on your own and if that is still not now, then I will not be upset. I have already told you, we have our whole lives." She hesitated and it saddened Minerva that she felt she had to. "If that's what you want. Nothing has to be done now."
"I'm done fighting this," Minerva said, her breathing finally calming a little. "No," she stopped Hermione from speaking. "I am not giving in, that is not what I mean. I just mean that -" Her hands were shaking and as soon as Hermione's covered them, she breathed deeply as if for the first time in weeks. "That helped," she whispered, not wanting to derail what she was saying but needed to acknowledge it. "Do you feel it?"
"With you?" Hermione whispered. "Yes. With others?" She shrugged. "Sometimes. It depends on who it is."
Minerva looked up at her and cupped her face.
"I think I might be starting to feel something?"
"That would make sense after the interaction with our friend in the cave," Hermione nodded. "And after. Which is why, if you're not ready, we can wait?"
"Tell me, properly. Everything," Minerva blinked. "From the beginning," she clarified. "I feel less," she frowned and gave up. "I don't know."
Hermione kissed her and she closed her eyes with a sigh and tucked herself closer. Hermione obliged and slid her hand beneath her shoulders and rolled them so Minerva was resting on her shoulder.
"Based on what happened in the cave and what Albus has said before and how I feel," Hermione began. "We can be pretty certain that we are mates." Minerva winced but didn't comment. "If it helps?" Hermione smiled. "A similar thing would be a soulmate. You understand the concept of a soulmate?" Minerva nodded. "Where one soul ends, another begins and the like. It is like that, only -"
Minerva leaned up and watched her choose her words, but found that for the first time since this all started, she didn't want that. She wanted it, laid bare for them both to see and understand. She cupped Hermione's cheek and turned her to face her.
"Tell me, truthfully. I have not been in the right mind to hear it before. And while I adore you for trying to make this easy for me, I have come to understand that this just won't be that easy. And perhaps," she said softly. "It is not meant to be. Often, I have found things that are worth something are not always easy."
"There is obviously not much information on it that we can find. Whatever manuscripts or documents my -" She paused. "Our far-off ancestors wrote down, they are lost or unavailable. The woman from our vision was with someone who looked like me, I couldn't tell you if they were a man or woman but perhaps they were both, or neither. It didn't matter but they felt like us. Their interactions matched and they spoke to me in their heads. But as much as that is true, I feel it, somehow, in my heart or my mind." She paused and chuckled as she touched her head and then her chest. "Trust," she mumbled. Minerva understood and pressed her hand onto Hermione's chest as well. "We will be -" Hermione frowned and Minerva, this time, let her think. "Connected, I guess? Together?" Minerva nodded but saw Hermione wasn't finished. "Connected feels like the right word. But I don't know what that means in a practical sense, does that," she huffed. "You know what I mean?"
"I do," she smiled. "I think I understand. I have obviously had time to think and one incident that stuck in mind was when you and Harry had found your way to that small Professor's garden on the South Wall." Hermione looked at her expectantly so Minerva clarified. "At no point would anyone know you were there. Students do not know of that place; it is unavailable to them. Even if we were to invite them, they cannot enter it and I know that because Albus once asked me and I could not pass over the threshold until I was accepted into the faculty. But I knew you were there. I knew it."
Hermione nodded and they fell into their thoughts for a while before Hermione shifted.
"This is something that, as you said long ago, could alter the trajectory of your life and if you don't -"
Minerva kissed her if only to stop her from repeating those words back to her that she had so fearfully uttered. She didn't want to hear her fears anymore. She did not want to feel them anymore. Now that she had been through what they had been through, she could make this decision. She wanted to forget that everything prior had even happened.
"I said those words in the throes of fear, Hermione," she said softly. "I was terrified. I -" her hands had started shaking again and she really didn't want to speak of it at that moment but she knew she must. "Just as you have been brutally honest with me, I must also be with you."
"Before you say whatever it is," she said kindly. "Can we move just a little? I think I would like to hold you better."
"I'd like that," Minerva almost sobbed. "I really would. I don't -"
Hermione shifted and leaned up against the arm of the sofa. She opened her arms and Minerva settled between her thighs with her head resting on Hermione's chest.
"That's better," Hermione muttered. Her lips were warm on Minerva's forehead. Her hands followed her spine down to the small of her back and their legs tangled together without thought. "This okay?"
"Yes," Minerva muttered, nuzzling under Hermione's chin. "Better."
They lay quietly for a long time, just enjoying the sensations that came with being together. Minerva was sure she dozed off at one point, but Hermione's nails scratching delicately on her scalp kept her conscious enough to know that she was stalling.
"You know some of this, but my mother and father had a loveless marriage," she whispered. "At least, after I was born, they did. From what little I have garnered since their deaths, by all accounts they were a loving and committed couple initially. You know that my father was a muggle and a local parish deacon. Well, my mother was a member of the Ross family - one of the oldest lines in the Magical world. She married him against their wishes and was cast out." Hermione hummed but did not interrupt. "Because of the laws at that time, she also put away her wand for him." She felt Hermione's arms tighten and Minerva revelled in the difference between the beginning of this journey and now; where once, it felt claustrophobic, now it was nothing but comforting. "I was born a few years after they were married and almost immediately started exhibiting magic."
"Wow, that's pretty special, right?"
"Apparently so," Minerva muttered. "My mother had to come clean about a lot of things very quickly. My father, a God-fearing man, was naturally horrified."
"I bet," Hermione frowned. "Although they must have been okay though? I mean, they had three kids, right?"
"At least," Minerva nodded. "Again, I know very little of them as adults as they died when I was 19. But there were some rumours about the village that made it sound as though she lost at least one. I don't recall anything outwardly obvious but I do not doubt that the women of the village would not have known."
"Gosh," Hermione sighed. "That's sad."
"Indeed," Minerva muttered. It wasn't easy speaking about her past by any stretch of emotion, but it was easier when she had her ear pressed against Hermione's strong heartbeat. "But I do not know how that contributed to their relationship - I understand that in some people it makes their bond stronger and in others, it fractures it. Their relationship beyond what the village saw never really recovered after Magic was revealed so I cannot say how that affected them beyond that. And even now, I cannot imagine what it was like behind closed doors; away from us, I mean. They sniped at each other so often; some days it was as if they hated the sight of each other. My father was better at separating himself from it when he spoke to us but he was also naturally fearful, especially when we started here." Minerva sighed. "My mother resented me from the moment I was born. I was the one that ruined her marriage; the thing she had given up her whole family for. And," she chuckled sadly. "I was just as stubborn and strong-willed as she was. I have been a teacher long enough to know that even beyond the troubles she and I had, we would have bumped heads for being so similar, but," she sighed. "It was a disaster of epic proportions. She adored the boys and she detested me. And I loved her for it anyway and bent over backwards to do whatever it was that she wanted and fell short at every turn."
"I'm so sorry," Hermione soothed. "But I am glad you could tell me that, thank you. It helps me understand you a little better," Hermione soothed. "It helps me understand the fear better. I know you told me a little when Will was here but that helps make even more sense of that too. And it's okay that you didn't tell me. It wasn't time then, it was none of my business." She paused and Minerva heard her sigh softly. "You were unsure of whether you could trust me."
"But I should have. I -" She growled quietly at the heaviness of her heart. "As I said earlier, the one that looks like me?" Hermione nodded. "She reminded me that throughout all that loneliness I only ever wanted one thing - someone to love me unconditionally. Someone to hold me when I needed it, to soothe my sadness." She looked up at Hermione. "Like you have done at every turn, no matter my behaviour towards you." Hermione smiled but didn't speak. Her hand was hot on the small of Minerva's back and she almost wanted to arch into it. "You have questions?"
"Surely, by now, you know that I will always have questions," Hermione chuckled. "But I feel like the answers I seek will be forthcoming in time."
"I need to tell you about my, um, husband. And my -"
"If you want," Hermione shrugged, her voice rumbled in her chest and settled in Minerva's. "While they are a part of you, which means I will cherish their memories, I do not need to excise them from you. You should talk about them, whenever you wish to but not for anything I need. But like I mentioned with whatever the dragon showed you?" Minerva froze but Hermione's soft hands soothed the sudden tension. "It's alright if you just don't want to talk about it. I don't need to know, Min. I'd be more than happy to talk about it if you wanted or needed to, but I don't need a ledger and I will never keep one."
"You don't -"
"Feel threatened by them?" Hermione chuckled, making Minerva feel small somehow. She remembered those words about Hermione's soul being so much older and suddenly saw the truth in it as she continued. "No, Min. You have lived more days than I have and I acknowledge that wholeheartedly. I'm not sure I could love you if you hadn't."
Minerva blinked and looked at her carefully.
"You love me because I am old?"
Hermione laughed suddenly and it made Minerva smile without thought. She loved making Hermione smile and laugh and recalled that it was something she enjoyed doing, even before this.
"I love you because you are the most beautiful, exasperating, glorious, complicated, magnificent human I've ever had the pleasure of knowing," Hermione clarified. It sobered Minerva's thoughts at how serious she was. "You have fascinated me for the majority of the time I have known you and it stands to reason that someone I admire and adore and am utterly bewitched by should be my chosen one."
Minerva blushed and leaned up a little on Hermione's chest, fiddling with the button on her shirt.
"I am so far out of my comfort zone, Hermione. I don't know what I am supposed to do. I have," she blushed deeply and refused to meet Hermione's face. "Obviously, I have," she cleared her throat. "Partners. I, well, I have never been with a woman and my -"
"I've never either," Hermione said gently.
Minerva blinked as she heard the hidden meaning behind that.
That hadn't occurred to her and she was suddenly panicked with the thought that she was the one that was going to be -
"Stop panicking," Hermione chuckled. "I'm not worried."
"But," she sat up. "I mean, you, I -"
"Do I seem concerned?"
"No, but -"
"When I tell you that I trust you, Min, what do you think that means?"
Minerva realised she'd let her fears take over again and she groaned, dropping her head gently onto Hermione's sternum.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Hermione chuckled. "I may be putting on a good show, but I'm not feeling particularly confident right now. You have experience. How am I going to -"
Minerva shifted before Hermione could continue and kissed her. Hermione squeaked but rallied quickly and slid her hand from the base of Minerva's spine, all the way to her hair.
"Oh you're so beautiful," Hermione said, sounding almost pained.
"Darling?" Minerva asked softly as she came to a decision.
"Yes, love?" Minerva blushed as she heard her own words turned back on her.
"Can we table those discussions for another day? Will you take me to bed?"
Hermione let out a shaky breath and looked up at her. There was a fire in her eyes that Minerva wanted to get lost in.
"I would love to," she husked.
Minerva sat up, blushing as she found herself straddling Hermione's thigh. Hermione's hands made her pause as they looked at each other before Hermione let go and Minerva got up a little quicker. Hermione followed, lithely and Minerva took a second just to watch her move.
"You look at me more," Hermione said carefully. "These days. Did you know?"
"I confess I have been paying attention for a lot longer than I am comfortable with." She blushed. "And I confess I enjoyed holding you this morning while I explored the definition of you." Hermione's eyebrows went up as Minerva traced Hermione's forearm and then her side. "I first noticed it when you asked me to join you outside - when you set up that delightful afternoon outside on the North corner so we could talk." Hermione's eyebrows went up. "You have changed, you see. I'm sure you have noticed." Minerva shrugged. "Your body has more definition and you move so freely. You have a confidence about your every move, that is," she nearly didn't say it, but the intrigue in Hermione's eyes made her. "Alluring."
"Me?" Hermione blinked, looking down at herself.
Minerva made a noise in the back of her throat, even though she tried not to.
"I do not, ordinarily, care to notice the trimmings," Minerva said carefully, walking her fingers up Hermione's sternum and tracing the edges of her scars. Hermione tipped her head back just a fraction and Minerva accommodated it by sliding her fingers under her collar. "I much prefer the mind of a person." She pushed back some of the riotous curls that overhung Hermione's eyes and smiled at the flash of gold when she did so. "The personality. The soul." Her lips twitched as she tried not to smile as she met Hermione's eyes once more. "But you have all of that in spades and, you are extraordinarily beautiful and I cannot ignore that fact. I believe I will, forever, wonder why you would have chosen dowdy old me."
Hermione's hand was suddenly on the back of her neck and Minerva dropped her head back against it as she squeezed. For all the fight she had put up before, now it felt for all the world like she would gladly stay in that moment forever. As Hermione let go, she smiled to ease the sudden trepidation in the younger woman's eyes.
She would give herself up for Hermione to hold.
"I don't have the confidence to match these words but -" The younger woman's teeth scraped down Minerva's neck and she shuddered. "Let me show you how beautiful I find you."
She wasn't quite sure how it happened, except in a blur, but they were in almost the next moment, laying beside each other in her bed. For the first time in a very long time, the curtains were drawn around her four poster, putting them in near darkness.
"Do you -" Hermione's voice hesitated and Minerva was reminded of the fact that Hermione had never done this before.
"Come here," she said gently. "I have some sight in the dark but not as much as you."
"I can help with that," Hermione said, sounding a bit more confident.
A little blue flame appeared in her hand and Minerva laughed as she saw it.
"Superhero, indeed." Hermione laughed, apparently charmed that Minerva had remembered that snippet of conversation from so long ago. In truth, now she could admit it to herself, Minerva remembered everything Hermione had ever said to her. "Join me?"
Hermione set the flame down on the bedhead, smiling when it hovered happily above it. Minerva felt her stomach clench as Hermione scooted closer.
"May I?"
"Yes," Minerva breathed.
She thought Hermione would kiss her but instead, she pushed Minerva gently on her back and lay beside her with her head propped up on her elbow. She traced Minerva's face, rubbing her thumb along her eyebrows and tracing her long nose. Minerva nearly pulled away but Hermione laughed and leaned in and kissed her cheek. Then her chin. Then her forehead. Minerva sighed as she felt a little of the tension leave her.
She felt Hermione's fingers tangle in her own and gasped as Hermione pressed their joined hands above Minerva's head, against the mattress. She whispered a moan as she was forced to concentrate on Hermione's other hand. It started at her thigh, her palm flat and resting, warm even through her pyjamas. She hadn't bothered to take them off all day - a first for her. Then, Hermione's hand started to move up her thigh and Minerva drew in a sharp breath. Her heart thumped as Hermione's hand slid beneath Minerva's shirt and onto her stomach. The skin ripped beneath but before she could say anything, Hermione's lips descended on hers.
There was so much sensation. Hermione's palm was soft and smooth and hot as she rubbed it in circles around Minerva's belly button and Minerva moaned into Hermione's mouth as she traced her thumb over the lower ribs.
They sat up in tandem and removed each other's outer clothes. Hermione shook as her hands worked the buttons on Minerva's shirt and Mineva tried not to let hers show as they did the same. Hermione made a noise as she finally got them undone and knocked Minerva's hands away to kneel up in front of her. Minerva frowned and looked down at herself as Hermione stared.
"I'm not -"
"Hush," Hermione said. "You are so beautiful." She traced Minerva's bra strap. "But that is not what made me pause."
She shifted and sat cross-legged in front of Minerva and reached out her hand. Minerva blinked when it started at her arm and traced the multitude of scars that littered her body.
"Oh," she sighed. "Yes, well."
"Where -"
"War is hell," Minerva chuckled. "Some are from Quidditch," she pulled Hermione's hand from where it was tracing one across her ribs and pushing it onto her hair where there was a short but deep divot in her skull. Hermione had noticed it before - a moment's pause when she was scratching her nails over Minerva's scalp but she had not asked and Minerva had not offered. "Bludger to the head. Ruined my career. I've never forgiven Slytherin for that." She took the other and placed it on her shoulder, pushing it a little over the back to where there was a small puckered scar. "That was a knife."
"A knife!"
Hermione scrambled further and pulled Minerva into her body so she could see. Minerva smiled against Hermione's chest and rubbed her cheek against the soft scars. She couldn't help but start pressing kisses along the skin. Where Minerva's body was littered with smaller scars, Hermione's torso was incredible and the rest of her was mostly untouched. The scars from her burning were magnificently beautiful - like an explosion of colour on a blank piece of paper. Minerva traced her tongue along the edge closest to her and it made Hermione shudder. Minerva felt the younger woman pause in her assessment and her nails dug into Minerva's skin a little. It brought her a little clarity.
"You like that?"
There was a noise of admission but no words as Minerva did her best to recall what she liked best and started with that. Hermione was forthright enough, these days, that if she didn't like something Minerva knew she would say. She pushed herself back against the bedhead and pulled Hermione with her. She sat back as Hermione knelt up and when she met Minerva's eyes, straddled her lap.
"That's better," Minerva smiled. "Come here."
"I'm not heavy?"
"You're perfect," Minerva muttered.
"I'm -"
"Hush," Minerva soothed. She was amazed her voice was as steady as it was because her insides were shaking. "Let me see."
She kissed and licked her way over the skin, enjoying the little red marks she left on the unscarred parts, where others would never see them but where she would know. She suddenly felt possessive, somehow. She wanted Hermione to belong to her, to be a part of her. She bit down on Hermione's neck where it joined her shoulder.
Hermione's body jerked and Minerva held her tightly to disguise the fact that hers had done the same. She recalled the momentary bliss of Hermione's hand on her neck and scratched the backs of her nails, softly up into her hair, squeezing gently.
"No!" Hermione blinked, suddenly pulling away.
Minerva froze at the tone and Hermione sat breathing for a little while before shaking it off.
"Okay, so." She swallowed again and Minerva saw that her hands were shaking. "Let's not do that again."
"I'm sorry," Minerva whispered. Her whole world was suddenly wrong. She couldn't quite grab one thing to hold onto and could feel her head spinning. "I -"
"That was -"
"I didn't -"
"We need to just -"
"Wait," Minerva said with a little force in her voice. "Wait just a moment. I won't," her heart broke a little. "I won't touch you but don't go." She bit her lip and tried not to betray her feelings. "Please don't go."
Hermione blinked and looked down at her. She took in the riotous hair and a missing shirt that was somewhere but Hermione had never looked as beautiful. Minerva couldn't stop the tear that ran down her face.
"I'm not angry," Hermione whispered. "Oh, Min, I'm not. I -" She took a shuddering breath. "I'm frightened."
Minerva blinked, not expecting that and sat up a little. Her mind cleared enough at the confession that she tried to put her shirt back together but it was stuck and twisted. In a fit of frustration, she simply banished it to her closest and left herself in her underwear. She pulled her knees up to her chest and took Hermione's hands and squeezed them as much for herself as Hermione.
"I'm sorry," she said genuinely.
"Please don't apologise," Hermione whispered. "Please don't. That wasn't," she breathed out slowly. "I couldn't; I couldn't fight it."
Minerva nodded.
"You already know that when you do that to me, it stops whatever I am doing. Thoughts, feelings, and sometimes even my breath. There is only that connection between me and you. Remember the first times you did it? Before we understood?" She watched as Hermione thought back and chuckled sadly when her eyebrows went up. "I didn't know how to cope with all of that, no wonder I could not do much else."
"I'm so sorry that I took that away from you," Hermione whispered. Two big tears rolled down her cheeks and Minerva caught them before they dripped from her chin.
"It's alright," Minerva whispered. "Like you keep insisting," she chuckled. "We have moved past that. I have appreciated every moment you have done that since." She tried a little levity. "Apparently we have off switches."
She'd meant it as a joke but Hermione was too lost in her head to acknowledge it.
"I have to protect you. I can't feel that. I cannot let go."
Minerva understood what she meant. She had felt so exposed when Hermione had done it to her the first few times and she said so.
"As you've done it more than once since this began, I suppose I am," she winced. "Not expecting it, exactly, but I am accustomed to the feeling. I understand," she clarified as Hermione's wild eyes turned to her. "It is an expectation of," she hesitated as the perfect word once again reared its head. "Trust." She shrugged. "I am giving you my entire being for a moment with the expectation that nothing will happen while you have me in your power."
"Oh Min, no," Hermione shook her head. "I would die before -"
"I know," she soothed. "But perhaps." She frowned as it dawned on her. "Perhaps I should work on improving your level of trust in me."
It hurt just a little that Hermione didn't trust her to keep her safe, but she knew it was deserved. She could think of no instance where she'd allowed Hermione to trust in her since this began. She was, once again, ashamed of herself until Hermione's hand cupped her chin. Minerva sighed against her lips when she was kissed, softly.
"It isn't that at all," Hermione whispered. "I trust you with my life. With our family's lives. But there are enemies in this castle," Hermione whispered. "I can feel them. I can feel the hatred. We aren't safe here and I need to -"
"I won't do it again."
"I want you to," Hermione almost wined. Minerva paused. "But not here, not right now."
"Would you allow me to make a request?"
"Yes," Hermione blinked. "Anything."
"Lay with me, just stay, take your comfort with me, like this. I think -" Minerva could almost taste the sadness in the air. "I think we need to do that first."
"You're disappointed."
Minerva could not even laugh at her glowing cheeks when Hermione realised how they were sitting.
"I think perhaps we need to get used to this new thing before we test its limits."
"That makes sense," Hermione said. She sounded small for the first time in quite a while and Minerva sighed and reached up.
"Does it? To you?"
"Yes," Hermione whispered. "But that doesn't mean I am not disappointed."
"As am I."
"Really?"
"More than I can possibly elucidate," she huffed. She remembered that Hermione could likely already tell and because she wanted to clarify why, she did. "Because parts of me I thought long dead have come roaring back to life." Hermione laughed and Minerva mentally patted herself on the back for breaking the tension.
Hermione snorted and shifted. She sat on her backside between Minerva's thighs and wrapped her legs around her middle.
"That looks decidedly nothing like us calming down," Minerva squeaked.
"I can get closer to you this way," Hermione muttered as if it was the most logical thing in the world. As she wrapped herself around Minerva, the older woman couldn't help but agree. She wrapped her arms around Hermione's middle and settled them so they were pressed as close as they could be.
"You think we can stay here forever?" Hermione whispered.
"I think our little family would miss us," Minerva soothed. "But we can certainly stay here for as long as possible tonight. I should send you back but I am not going to."
"That will do, I suppose."
"Think on this," Minerva muttered, looking at her. "I am a wealthy woman in my own right and if this place does not soothe you quite yet, I would like to find somewhere that does."
"It should," Hermione muttered, twisting a flyaway piece of Minerva's hair between her fingers. "It is ours after all." Minerva took note of the distinction between the castle being Hermione's birthright and now the notion that it was theirs "But there are people here that we cannot trust. I have a claim on this castle, in part. I acknowledge that it is a school but it calls to me. I feel the need to be here, with all of us around me but -"
"But we live in dangerous times."
"Yes," Hermione whispered. "So I feel like we should have somewhere else to go, should we need it? But this," she muttered as she traced a long scar down Minerva's forearm that she'd never noticed before. "This is home.
"Then we will find somewhere." Minerva shook her off and rubbed at the skin. "Sorry, some of them have nerve pain." Hermione kissed her shoulder in apology. "There are always times we will feel the need to get away. Perhaps somewhere atop a mountain," Minerva grinned. "Or a cave on the side of one."
Hermione laughed but didn't reply. Minerva felt her take a big breath and let it out slowly over her, the blanket of warmth settled on her but this time it felt different. This time, it felt almost cat-like, rubbing along her skin and curling around her limbs. They shifted so they were laying in each other's arms.
"You want something to sleep in?" Hermione asked, tracing her bra strap.
"Can you Transfigure it into a shirt?" Minerva muttered. "I am too tired, but I cannot sleep in this."
"Want me to try?"
"Mhmm."
Minerva felt Hermione's magic on her skin and curled her toes as it tingled pleasantly.
"Better?"
"Hmm," Minerva whispered. "Do you feel that?" she asked, already falling asleep.
"Mhmm," Hermione whispered. "Love you."
She tried to reply but she slipped into the warmth, still wrapped up by the woman that she could now admit was her love too.