AN: Ok, here it goes:
To all the readers who didn't think (and write in their reviews) that Harry was asking help with something raging and pulsing beneath his pants… I sincerely apologise for the previous AN … But really! The ones who did… and you know who you are: you should feel ashamed of yourselves… (yeah right… :-D)
But then again: feel free to have your minds reside in the gutter once again… because I think we've all earned it now… especially Hermione and Harry in this story ;-p
***
Chapter 24
Harry slowly retreated from the kiss.
He could barely wrap his mind around the fact that this had just occurred… She didn't just want to stay for Lily… She didn't only yearn to be with her daughter… She wanted to be with their daughter… She wanted to be with him… He didn't deserve the emotion that bonded them… But she was his, even though he couldn't be hers outside of the magic of firelight.
Dazedly, he looked upon her face. Slowly her eyes opened. Shame, honour… reality had stopped being an issue… Engulfed in the essence of the magic of the firelight, the kiss had been too painfully intense to be considered scandalous. It wasn't a mere meeting of lips… It was a meeting of two people's desperate love…
What he was feeling felt so hurtfully complete… He felt like crying and laughing all at once. He felt like nothing and everything, like on the brink of insanity, and yet he'd lose his mind if he ever had to let her go…
Looking into her eyes, he knew he wasn't searching anymore… only finding…
*
Hermione couldn't take the pain of having their gazes lock… Bringing her head up, she desperately tried to sooth her heart by feeling his lips against hers.
He didn't push her away, instead answered her frantic behaviour equally.
The meeting of lips rapidly progressed into a desperate pace. His hands were clutching the back of her head firmly, his fingers tangled in her hair, but Hermione could only hold onto his shoulders, afraid of breaking that much anticipated contact. At the same time she was weary of pulling him closer, even as she forgot everything else, she remembered the open door of the room.
This was wrong, but nothing had ever felt so painfully right… And yet, they needed to stop…
At the moment she was trying to collect the few clear thoughts she still possessed to push him away from her, even though every fibre of her being protested about that mere suggestion, he took a step closer to her, bringing one of his arms around her middle to clutch her against him fully, effectively chasing away any intentions of common sense to prevail.
*
The feeling of completeness was slipping, they weren't close enough… they weren't nearly close enough… they had to be closer…
As frantic as the feeling coursed through him, Harry could never fully forget the threat of exposure… One of the House Elves could be due at any moment, Ginny might come upon them, Lily might wake up…
It was especially the thought of Lily that brought sense back to Harry. Taking the courage he'd seen crumble in her a few moments before, when she had tried to break the embrace, he gently pushed her away, while trying to quell the overwhelming longing to do the opposite…
Looking into those brown eyes… he felt all her pain, but even so, the acceptance… more then acceptance… of him. Despite feeling himself undeserving of such a look, his desire for her was too great, and hers, so expressively shown, was equally answered… and he couldn't help but continue down the path in the firelight…
*
Hermione fought valiantly against her mind drowning, when she gazed into those green eyes.
When he distanced himself though, he even took a step back, Hermione had to hold on to every ounce of her pride not to fall against him and plead for him to never let her go…
That thought was sobering, since Hermione didn't ever want to become such a dependant creature of weakness, even if this meant lying to herself. Straightening herself she took a deep breath, and levelled her gaze again at him…
Slowly, almost scared of frightening her away, he held out his hand, a proposition…
In the magic of firelight, there was only one possible outcome to this silent question. Taking his hand, she felt herself transported into her own bedroom.
Momentarily stunned - joined apparation was supposed to be theoretically so difficult to the point of being a practical impossibility - all Hermione could do was look at him in stunned silence…
He gave her little time to compose herself. After securing the room, he brought her close again, and chased away all questions about his magical skills by a kiss.
*
Harry let go of everything once the locking and silencing spells were in place. Hungry for her, he tried to see how far she'd let him go, and how fast she would be comfortable in progressing.
To his delight, and almost causing him to believe he was experiencing a delirium, she made no protests when he pinned her to the wall next to the hearth. Fittingly, the room was only illuminated by the dance of flames in the fireplace, and Harry gave himself fully to the influence of its magic.
Desperate to feel her soft skin - everywhere - the next couple of moments were a jumble of unimportant memories of fumbling with the complicated dressrobes, and very important memories of warmth, kisses, impatient passion…
*
Hermione had never felt so detached from her mind before… It was scaring, but at the same time so exhilarating she could only breath through gasps, and with each gulp of air, she was blissfully reminded by his sent, whose body was making hers sing…
The moment the last shreds of underclothes were torn from her body, time slowed down again.
Feeling his nude form pressed up against her, while standing, was a new experience… It felt foreign and familiar and different and anticipated for so long… twining her fingers through his black locks, she wished he'd move them to the bed, before her unsteady knees would make her collapse and she'd embarrass herself.
As if reading her mind, he took her to her four-poster without breaking the contact between their lips…
While he helped her carefully on the bed, it was impossible to avoid his intense stare, that was making her heart burn for him.
*
Harry looked down at the beauty of the woman underneath him… The mother of his child… The woman who held the rights of his unfree heart…
Hesitating but a second, he was surprised about the movement she made. Opening herself to him freely, she hooked her left leg over his thigh, urging him to do what they both needed.
Unable to think of anything else, he complied, and with a simple movement, never forgotten, he was inside her… he was home…
*
Hermione fought the compulsion of rolling her eyes in ecstasy and closing them, when she felt him fill the physical void inside her. Their unsteady gazes were fighting to remain locked, but after just moments, the emotions were too overwhelming, and they found heaven in each others arms…
Spent momentarily by the unravelling of their long suppressed need, she felt safe in his warm embrace. Far from disappointed about the quick conclusion, Hermione knew this wasn't over yet… They had all night until the sun would cast away the shadows of the firelight, chasing away their happy sin…
***
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