Work Text:
Harry looked up when the door of the loo opened, and raised his eyebrows. Hermione emerged wearing nothing but a fluffy, light blue towel around her body and a second one around her hair. A few lingering drops of water clung to her pale shoulders, catching the light in odd sparkles as she crossed over to where the bunk beds were set up at the rear of the tent.
"Erm, Hermione?"
"Yes? The bathroom's free."
He swallowed, trying not to stare. She was close enough now for him to count every lingering droplet should he be so inclined. "Why didn't you get dressed in there?"
"What?"
"You always dress in the loo after your showers."
She shrugged, which caused most of the droplets to sparkle in turn. "Well it doesn't matter as much now, does it?"
"Why not?"
She rummaged through her bag, pulling out a pair of simple, pink underwear. "Well, now that it's just... you know..." Her face fell as she stared at the garment she'd just withdrawn, her thoughts going elsewhere. "Now that it's just the two of us here..."
Harry also stared at the garment as anger joined the confusion and other emotions bubbling in his chest. His fingers idly toyed with the locket that hung around his neck.
Hermione forced herself out of her reverie, unfolding the underwear and lifting first one foot and then the other to step into it, before pulling it up under her towel. The very tops of her thighs were briefly visible. "It was different when he was here, with his libido. I didn't want to give him any opportunities to get distracted."
"And you think that I haven't got a libido?" To emphasize his point, Harry let her catch him staring at the spot where she'd briefly shown the hint of forbidden skin.
"Of course you do, but you aren't attracted to me. You can take out any tension later while thinking of whomever you like, and I don't have to worry about you leering at me." She pulled out a balled-up pair of socks and chucked them at his head. "At least when you aren't trying to prove a point."
He grimaced, grabbing the socks from where they'd landed on his lap and throwing them back at her, although he didn't quite manage to pull his eyes off of her.
She pulled out a bra that was as plain and pink as the underwear. Turning away from him, she unwrapped the towel and lay it on the foot of her bunk, exposing her back to him in nothing but the panties.
"Cripes, Hermione! Now who's trying to prove a point?"
"Oh relax. You saw plenty more of Ginny than this."
"No I didn't."
She turned halfway towards him, covering her chest with her arm. "You didn't? But she... I mean, she and Dean did—"
"I know she did it with Dean, and she certainly wanted to do it with me, but..." He shrugged. "I guess I could never completely get the fact that she was Ron's little sister out of my head. And the fact that she used to stare at me in that starstruck way when she was little. It just never felt completely right, regardless of how I..." He trailed off and cleared his throat. "Anyway, the point is that you're currently in danger of having the first pair of tits I ever see in person." He glanced pointedly at the very pale and soft-looking skin that was visible on either side of her arm.
"Oh." She quickly turned away from him again and put on the bra, and the sound of the straps lightly slapping against her shoulders lingered in his ears.
"Have you ever shagged?" he asked curiously.
She snorted. "And who exactly would I have shagged?"
"I dunno, Krum?"
"Viktor?" She turned towards him again. "I was fifteen when he was here!"
"So? Ginny was fifteen when she did it. And she said that you snogged him."
"We snogged, yes, but that's a far cry from... And besides, things with Viktor never... I just wanted him to teach me things, really. Like snogging, for instance. It was all very academic."
"Academic?"
"Yes. It's a skill that needs developing like any other, and I wanted to learn." She put on a pair of jeans, and he watched as she buttoned them, hiding away his last glimpse of her underwear. "I like learning things."
"I'm certainly aware of that."
"But no, I haven't gotten anywhere close to shagging anyone, certainly no closer than you have." She pulled off the towel that was around her hair and shook out her damp mane, before putting on a navy-blue t-shirt and the socks that they had thrown at each other. "Would you like some tea?"
"Sure." She went over to their little kitchen area, and he started to get up to follow her, but quickly realized that standing was not currently an option for him unless he was willing to risk exposing himself in a far more embarrassing manner than she had just done. His cock was rigid within his pants.
He stared at his treacherous crotch, knowing that the reactive effect had nothing to do with the conversation about Ginny and everything to do with the performance that his best friend had just put on.
He had known that Hermione was pretty, of course. Even overlooking the night of the Yule Ball, the one night he'd seen her put a lot of effort into her looks, her subtle beauty had become increasingly evident over the years, especially in the past year when they spent a lot of time together without Ron around. But he'd never attempted to imagine the body that she might have beneath her robes; that had always been firmly on the other side of a line he knew he wasn't allowed to cross. The current state of his cock was evidence that that had been a very good subconscious decision, as he was now certain that he would have done something that risked jeopardizing their all-important friendship had he known about the body she was hiding away.
Now, though...
"I like learning things." The least surprising of her words tonight were the ones that lingered in his ears. He liked learning things too, of course, and he would love to learn about...
Somewhere within him, a switch flipped. He wanted her. No one else, not Cho and certainly not Ginny, had ever had this much of an effect on him. He wanted her. And she liked learning things.
They were alone in a country ruled by darkness, with death doing its best to hunt them down. Surely there were other things she wanted to learn about before the next time they faced destruction. There were certainly things that he wanted to experience.
He clutched at the locket, twisting the chain between his fingers, and began plotting.
* * *
Hermione took the first watch that night, her fingers fiddling with the locket as her thoughts fixated on the earlier conversation.
She hadn't been completely honest with Harry. Well, she hadn't lied to him, but she hadn't told him all of the details. The truth was that she had never actually been attracted to Viktor... nor to anyone else. Her brain simply didn't work that way, didn't provide her with the adolescent lust that filled the minds of all of her peers. She was broken, but was determined not to let it get in her way in the long run. Instead, she used it to her advantage, staying focused on her schoolwork and on helping Harry instead of obsessing over potential dates and hookups like everyone else was.
She did, of course, have academic curiosity about such things, which was what led her to accept Viktor as a mentor in the basics of romance in the first place, admittedly taking advantage of his attraction to her. And she enjoyed the snogging—her lips were as sensitive to pleasurable touches as anyone else's were—but she never felt inspired to do more of it with him or with anyone else.
And if anything, she had developed a bit of an aversion to the concept of snogging ever since her narrow escape from smelly, boastful Cormac McLaggen under the mistletoe at Slughorn's Christmas Party.
But today... She was having an exceedingly difficult time wrapping her head around that short conversation.
Getting Harry's attention fixed on her like that had been entertaining in an odd sort of way. She hadn't thought about it when she decided not to dress in the loo, it had simply occurred to her that she no longer had to dress in the humid bathroom to avoid Ron trying to catch glimpses of her skin. But Harry... It was one thing to know intellectually that all other adolescents could experience lust towards members of their favored sex irrespective of any romantic attraction, but quite another to so overtly be reminded of that fact by the intent gaze of her best friend. And it had entertained her, to the point where she quite unnecessarily dropped her towel and let him stare at her bare back and her arse in her plain knickers before putting on her bra.
She never would have let that happen with Ron, nor with anyone else, but she trusted Harry completely and was comfortable enough with him to entertain herself by tormenting him a little bit.
She hadn't known, of course, that he'd never actually seen that much of a girl in person before. The part of the conversation pertaining to Ginny had quite surprised her. Ginny had wanted him for a long, long time, and Hermione naturally assumed that her long-awaited relationship with him would be even more intense than her relationship with Dean was, and Harry, like any other teenage boy, would be all for it. Hermione certainly hadn't expected that Harry would have that aversion to shagging Ginny, not when he clearly enjoyed snogging her.
But the fact that he'd never seen a girl so bare before added to Hermione's entertainment, in a perhaps slightly cruel sort of way.
She found herself wondering about other opportunities to benevolently torment him, to entertain herself with misplaced lust from a boy she trusted not to act on that lust if she didn't want him to.
But... did she not want him to? She did, of course, have academic curiosity about activities that went beyond snogging, like she did about anything else. And Harry was the only person in the world whom she trusted to help her satisfy that curiosity at her own pace and without any unwanted fallout. And considering the perpetual danger from which they were hiding, perhaps it would be best to satisfy that curiosity sooner rather than later, while they still could...
She sighed, realizing that her increasingly ridiculous train of thought was likely a sign that she needed sleep. Glancing at her watch, she confirmed that half the night had passed by, and she should go and wake Harry to take over.
Rising, she entered the tent and shucked her coat, then crossed over to the bunks, recalling the sight of him sitting there and staring at her as she dressed. Now, he was lying down, sound asleep, and had apparently kicked off his blanket sometime during the night.
And then she froze, staring at a particular part of him. He was lying on his back, clothed in thin pajamas, and the front of his pajama pants was rigidly tented over his crotch, supported by what could only be a very erect penis.
Her eyes stayed fixed where they were, and every other part of her body stayed equally still. Within, however, her mind raced to consider the implications. He was aroused in his sleep, which was not an uncommon thing. He was likely having an erotic dream, but she found herself deeply curious about the identity of his imaginary companion in said dream. Before the earlier conversation, she would have simply assumed that it was Ginny, but now...
Her breath caught at the possibility that she herself could be Harry's companion in his dream. Had his attention to her body earlier spawned a nocturnal fantasy about her? And, if so, what might they be doing together in the dream that was causing his cock to display such a pronounced reaction?
Her hand reached forwards of its own accord until she caught the movement and stopped it, but her curiosity seared through her belly. She'd never paid this much attention to a penis before. She had felt Viktor's press against her when they snogged, a foreign pressure against her hip that was dulled by the layers of robes and clothing in between, but she hadn't given it anything more than the passing thought of, "Oh, that's also there." Now, however, her hand struggled against her control, itching to explore what was so remarkably bracing the tented fabric of Harry's pants.
She pulled it back, however, pinning it at her side and forcing her gaze away from her best friend. He deserved better than this, regardless of her academic wonderings. Stepping back away from his bed, she cleared her throat and then approached briskly, kicking the nearest leg of the bunk. "Harry, wake up."
He jerked awake. "Hermione?"
She deliberately looked around, pretending not to have noticed the state of his body. "It's your turn to take the watch," she said, adopting the bossy tone that was frequently required with the boys.
"Oh, er, right." He rubbed his face. "I'll, er... be up in a minute."
Restraining her smirk at the knowledge that he was already "up" in a way, she turned away from him and approached her own bed. Toeing off her shoes, she unfastened her jeans and bent over to take them off. She heard him swear softly and roll away from her, fixing his gaze on the canvas wall, which brought the smirk onto her face.
Minutes later, her teeth brushed and flossed, she emerged from the loo to find that he had arisen and gone outside. She stared for a long moment at his empty bed, recalling the sight of him lying there with his pants tented. Again, the curiosity burned hot within her, and as she lay down in her own bunk, that heat didn't fade.
* * *
She looked up when the door of the loo opened, and raised her eyebrows. From the sly look he gave her before his shower, she expected that he was plotting to do this as revenge for yesterday, but she was now of the opinion that the expectation didn't adequately prepare her for the sight of him emerging in nothing but a towel wrapped around his lower half. He was wiry, his muscles pronounced on his thin frame despite not being overly large, and the sly look remaining on his face and the confidence with which he approached her in his near-nude state told her that he was expecting to get a reaction from her the same way that he had exaggerated his own reaction to her yesterday.
Well, she wasn't going to exaggerate anything. The sight of his tented pants last night had lingered behind her eyes and kept that heat simmering within her all morning, and it was less of a novelty and more of a nuisance. Her curiosity was now entirely directed at him, but she wasn't going to rise to his obvious attempt at baiting her.
She kept her face as blank as possible as her eyes studied him. "You've gotten thin. We should try to get more groceries when we can."
His face fell, and she restrained her smirk, pretending to return her attention to her book and being careful not to look while he got dressed.
Later, however, she slipped up.
She had her wand in hand, idly fiddling with it while she read on the couch. She found that fiddling with something innocuously while reading was a good way of keeping her mind from wandering away towards a third and less innocuous topic, such as her best friend. However, as her wand dangled between her fingers for a moment, her attention got stuck on the butt of the handle.
She had lived in a dormitory with other teenage girls for years, and had heard all of the terrible "wand" jokes by now. She had never been interested in the associated comparisons, and certainly not in any related experimentation after a particularly stupid "investigation" by Lavender left her having a very awkward conversation with Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing. Now, however, she found herself unconsciously wrapping her fingers around the handle of her wand as she envisioned the tent in Harry's pants last night. The heat of curiosity flowed anew through her belly, and she briefly lost herself in the depths of her own imagination.
"Hermione?" She snapped back to awareness to find her best friend in front of her, his sly smirk back with a vengeance. "Did you just moan my name while holding your wand?"
She stared at him, eyes wide and fingers tight around the item in question. Had she really done that? She had briefly been pulled completely out of reality, her wonderings getting the better of her. But could she possibly have... done what he said?
His smirk widened, and he stepped closer, leaning down until his mouth was close to her ear. "You're welcome to moan my name while holding my wand, if you'd like to."
She briefly froze, but the ice was quickly melted away by the heat that flooded her. This was just her academic curiosity overwhelming her, she reminded herself, and there was no reason to be thrown by his sudden flirtatiousness when she was also open to the possibilities that had just filled her imagination.
Keeping that reminder firmly in mind, she shifted her tone to match his. "Which wand would you like me to hold?"
She restrained her grin as his breath stuttered, but he recovered just as quickly as she did. Drawing closer still, he placed a soft and very warm kiss on her cheek. "That's entirely up to you."
With that, he straightened and turned away from her, going over to their bunks. She watched him go, her thoughts racing and her body burning hotter than ever. And then she got up and followed him.
* * *
He watched her sleep, his heart beating a soft rhythm of yearning as he admired her. Last night had been amazing, a night full of exploration and discovery and pleasure.
He hadn't expected his ploy to work so quickly. Heck, he hadn't even managed to shape it into a coherent plan, more like a couple of opportunistic ideas. He had deliberately kicked off his blanket before falling asleep two nights ago, knowing that he would dream about her and that she would glimpse the inevitable effect on his body. Emerging from the loo in just his towel yesterday had been a no-brainer, simply copying what she had done the day before, and he certainly hadn't planned for her to moan his name that way while daydreaming while holding her wand like that, and was thrilled by her reaction to his response.
This side of her was a stunning revelation, so different from the girl he thought he knew so well after six years of friendship. She was studious and meticulous in their exploration last night, to be sure, but also with a wild side that took over in spectacular fashion when she was in the throes of lust and pleasure.
He just hoped she wanted more, because he certainly did.
She stirred and stretched, the blanket falling aside to bare her chest to his gaze. Unable to resist, he leant over and began pressing a series of kisses to her wonderfully soft, pale skin.
"Mm," she hummed, her fingers quickly weaving into his hair to hold him to her breast.
Just as he was about to reach her nipple, however, she changed her mind, tugging lightly on his hair to pull him back. She blinked her eyes open and gave him a sleepy smile. "Good morning."
"Good morning." He suddenly felt a bit shy. "How are you feeling?"
She took a moment to assess the state of her body. "Sore and sticky, but in a good way. You?"
He couldn't help the wide smile that blossomed on his face. "I feel amazing."
She matched his smile. "I'll take that as a compliment. I'm a quick study, after all."
Her comment gave him pause, as he recalled what she said two days ago about her time with Krum. "It was all very academic."
"I'm more than happy to be your study subject," he replied cautiously, curious how she would reply to that.
Her smile faded very slightly.
"And if you have any interest in further studies..." he pressed on.
"I definitely do." She raised her hand up to his cheek, her fingers lightly grazing his skin.
He decided to throw caution to the wind. "Was this just academic for you?"
She opened her mouth and then closed it again, lowering her hand and blinking at the question. He appreciated that she wasn't giving him an immediate, mollifying response for the sake of his feelings.
"Mostly," she finally admitted. "I mean, I would only ever have done this with you, since you're the only person who I trust completely. And you're very dear to me, you know that. But yes, for me, this was about satisfying my curiosity, just like how for you, it was about satisfying your urges."
He carefully kept his internal reactions to her words off his face. Yes, he had certainly been feeling urges towards her, but the key for him was that she was now the only person he felt at all inclined to be with in such a way. He couldn't imagine being with anyone else like this, and that told him that this meant much more than just satisfying urges and curiosities.
Oblivious to his carefully-veiled thoughts, she looked down his body. "And I have plenty more curiosities to satisfy, if you'll consent to be my study subject for a while longer."
It was obvious that her feelings about this didn't match his, but he decided that was for the best. After all, he wasn't likely to be alive for much longer, and then she would be able to go off and be happy with someone else instead of mourning him.
So, putting any such thoughts aside, he leant down and kissed her. "With pleasure."