A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thank you to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. In some house keeping news... I had originally had this expanded to around 58 chapters, but as I started putting more structure to the final third act of this story, I realized I would need more time to fully tie everything together. I'm going to tentatively say... 70 chapters, but not sure how it will actually shake out when I get into the actual writing.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-eight and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-nine soon!
Hermione had to sit on her hands the whole ride back to Hogwarts to keep herself from reaching out and grabbing Rabastan's hand. If it was just Regulus in the compartment with them on the Hogwarts Express, she wouldn't have let him go from the moment she sat down, but they had Angus and Ansel riding with them and she didn't want to cause a major shock before Rabastan was able to tell them in his own way that evening.
She wasn't sure what it was about kissing him that made her want to be touching him at all times, but it seemed like Rabastan knew exactly how she felt, guessing by the sly, flirty looks he kept shooting her while the four boys brainstormed strategies for the Quidditch matches that were coming up this semester. He would catch her looking at him, before shooting her a crooked smile.
Mercifully, the rest of her classmates seemed to be ignoring whatever it was that was going on between her and Rabastan. Or maybe they weren't, because Angus and Ansel pulled Regulus into a carriage to take back up to the castle, loudly proclaiming that there simply wasn't any room to be found for the two of them. They'd have to take the next carriage together. Alone.
Rabastan smirked at her when they got into their own carriage, free of anyone else. "They are trying to help me out," he told her. "Giving me some alone time with you. Angus thinks that you are too nervous when Regulus is around."
Hermione snorted. "Well, I don't really fancy snogging in front of my brother, so I suppose they are at least a little right," she said, before crossing her arms over her chest. "So, do you guys just sit around and talk about how you need to make a move on me or something?"
"It's... been mentioned before," he explained sheepishly. "I might have told Angus that I was into you once or twice, after a bit too much firewhiskey."
"Once or twice?" Hermione asked, giving him a mischievous grin, turning to face him completely.
"Okay, maybe a half a dozen times," he admitted, completely distracted by her proximity to him. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. I think about you basically all the time and —"
"Just shut up and kiss me, Rabastan," she said, her voice bossy, but wearing a silly grin to learn that she affected him so much. "It's been five days since you kissed me last and who knows when we will be alone again and —"
It was Rabastan's turn to cut her off. His arms slipped around her waist, pulling her until she was flush against him. Assuredly, his other hand slipped into her wild hair, angling her head just how he wanted her, so that he could slant his lips against hers.
Hermione gasped, feeling her desire for him bubble up into something nearly uncontrollable and she wondered how long it had been simmering there under the surface. Each time he'd kissed her had been unique, but this one might have been her favorite yet. As he grew more certain of her desire, he grew only more possessive and demanding. It made her insides feel like jelly and was enough to have her squeezing her legs together, trying to find something more.
Rabastan's lips slipped against hers, deepening the kiss, only to pull back. He pressed kisses down the curve of her jaw to the pale column of her neck, sucking against her fluttering pulse point. It wasn't enough to leave a mark, but just enough of an exquisite sting to have her gasping out his name. There was something so decadent about being with Rabastan — it almost felt too good to be true — but now that she had indulged in him she knew that she wasn't likely to give it up.
Feeling the carriage slowing down, Hermione groaned, knowing that their time was up. Not wanting it to end a moment earlier than it had to, she cupped his jaw, pulling his lips back to meet hers. Feeling especially playful, she caught his lower lip between her teeth in a gentle nip. She could feel his answered groan vibrate in her body and she shuddered in delight.
The carriage pulled to a stop and Rabastan reluctantly pulled back. "Hermione," he whispered, looking at her longingly.
"Soon," she promised, wondering how long she'd be able to keep her hands off of him this time.
Rabastan offered her a hand in getting down from the carriage and she was a bit embarrassed at how wobbly her legs were. The Slytherin boys were waiting for them and Hermione felt herself blushing, worrying if they could tell what they had been up to on the short ride up to the castle. Regulus cleared his throat and it seemed as if everyone decided to ignore it, if only for his sake.
Once they made it inside the castle, they went directly to the Great Hall for dinner. Hermione found her friends and went to sit with them. She could feel the weight of Rabastan's gaze on her all throughout the meal, but she didn't give in and look back, knowing that it would make her blush fiercely if she did and Elvira would notice and then there would be questions — questions she would answer, just not in the Great Hall.
With dinner out of the way, the Slytherin seventh year girls rushed back to their dormitory, eager for a night in together to gossip and Nella had a new nail polish that she wanted to try out — a vampy, red color that she'd hidden from her mother — and promised to paint all their toenails as well. Hermione was happy to be swept along in the giddiness.
In their dormitory, the girls all changed into their pajamas for the evening, before starting on their own routines. Hermione helped Elvira set her hair in some curlers as she was desperate to make her straight blonde hair look a bit more va-va-voom and bedroom for the first day back to classes.
"You are so lucky, Hermione, to have such gorgeous hair," Elvira said, without a hint of sarcasm at all. It was the first time that another witch had complimented her on her normally wild, bushy hair, and she wasn't entirely sure how to take it.
"You wouldn't be saying that if you saw it before Mother got a hold of me," she answered with a coy smile. "It's Priscilla's hair that we should all envy. How is it that she has such perfect ringlets every day?"
Priscilla sighed from her bed dramatically. "It's perhaps the one good thing that my father has given me," she said, scrunching her hair up with her hand. "I've got to live with his gap tooth and gangly stature. I swear, he promised that I'd grow into my height, but I never will."
"You aren't gangly, you are statuesque," Nella countered, updating the messaging to make the other girl feel better about her perceived flaws. "At least you aren't short like me. I think even the fourth years are taller than me now!"
"Oh, but you are just the sweetest little waif, Nella! I could just put you into my pocket!" Priscilla said, before erupting in a heap of giggles. It was infectious and soon all of the girls were laughing together at the thought.
"Now I've done it," Nella said, cursing when she saw the state of Mallory's toenails. "I've missed your toenails." Pulling out her wand, she siphoned the still wet varnish off, before setting out to give it another go.
Before long, Mallory was done and Hermione was determined to be Nella's next victim. Mallory sat next to Hermione on the floor and pulled out the latest copy of Witch Weekly, paging through it with a sigh. Hermione was struck by how nice all of this was and wondered why she hadn't been able to have this sort of relationship with Lavender and Parvati, before remembering that she spent almost all of her time with Harry and Ron.
Without realizing it, she had begun toying with the Lestrange ring that still hung around her neck on its silver chain, finding comfort in tracing the L engraved in the silver, running her thumb over it again and again. Suddenly, Mallory let out a gasp from her spot next to her.
"Hermione Black," Mallory said, drawing the attention of the room to them. "What are you wearing?"
Hermione's cheeks colored a pretty pink and she thought about playing it down, but she was also ready to let the girls know that she was dating Rabastan. But, she wasn't entirely sure how to share the news. Did she just... spit it out? "It's um... Rabastan's ring," she squeaked out. "He gave it to me because... we are dating."
The collective squeal from all of her friends was certain to be heard all the way in Gryffindor tower. Elvira flopped back onto her bed dramatically. "Oh Merlin, finally," she said. "If I had to watch the two of you repressing your sexual tension for one more meal I thought I was going to combust."
"What — it wasn't that bad," Hermione insisted, crossing her arms over her chest, thinking that Elvira was just being over the top.
"Anyone with eyes could see how into him you are," Priscilla said, looking pleased as punch.
"And how into you he is," Mallory added. "When you went to Hogsmeade with Ansel, I swear I thought that he was hoping to make Ansel drop dead if he glared at him long enough, just so that he could swoop in and go in his place!"
Hermione's flush darkened. Maybe they did have a point. After all, Rabastan had told her just how long he'd been having feelings for her and they were not far off. And, she could perhaps admit to herself, in the privacy of her own thoughts, that Rabastan had made her heart beat faster well before the summer break.
"You are so lucky, Hermione. He must be so serious about you if he already gave you a family ring!" Nella said, picking up on the significance immediately.
She briefly thought about coming clean about the whole betrothal, but second guessed herself. Even though she knew that Rabastan's interest pre-dated the betrothal, she still didn't want it clouding things up. "Yes, well, I think our feelings for one another are rather... intense," she said after a beat.
Elvira perked right up at that. "Intense? Why you naughty little witch," she said, smirking. "Just what have the two of you been up to this Yule break? Is he a good snogger? He looks like he would be."
Mallory pressed a hand to her chest. "He does. He's got those pretty lips and prettier eyes. Oh, Hermione, how can you stand to do anything but snog him when he looks at you all love struck like he does?" she asked.
"Hey, that's my boyfriend you are talking about!" Hermione answered with a laugh. Even if it wouldn't change her opinion of him one iota, it was kind of nice to know just how desirable Rabastan really was to others. And he was all hers.
"You lot can ask me anything you want to know about Angus," Elvira said, indulgently. "Let's just say that he's as talented with his tongue as he is with his fingers."
"Elvira!" the others all shouted, shocked at how open she was being.
"What?" she asked, looking like the picture of innocence, until she could no longer keep the smirk off of her face.
Priscilla flopped back against her bed then and gave a great big sigh. "Now all of you have boyfriends and it's just going to be me that's all alone at Hogsmeade," she said, sounding dejected.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Nella said with a secretive smile. "I might have heard a rumor that Philip Lee plans to ask you to Hogsmeade for Valentine's Day this year."
And just like that, all the attention was off of Hermione and her newly revealed relationship with Rabastan, instead focused on what Priscilla thought of the very good looking Hufflepuff who was going to ask her out instead. She felt herself relax, drying her toenails with a quick spell, wondering why she'd fretted so much over telling everyone in the first place.