Out of Sight

A/N: A little bit of voyeurism along with a touch of smut. This is a similar, but not quite exactly in the Circle Universe so it's a one-shot. As usual I own nothing really. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this ficlet.


Out of sight, out of mind.
NC-17...not for kiddies

August 27, 1997

Harry yawned as he slipped into the underground kitchen at Grimmauld Place and paced over to the kitchen counter, drawing a mug of the strong coffee that had become a staple since the Burrow went up in flames almost two months ago at the start of July.

As the Vicar, one that the Delacours had brought with them from France, pronounced Bill and Fleur man and wife...a wave of coldness had descended on the happy gathering, freezing the waiting punch bowls solid and making several of the witches and wizards gathered for the wedding collapse.

A deadly rainbow of spellfire had followed the Dementor host in, sending guests to the next great adventure in twos and threes, as at least a hundred Death Eaters had swept from the forest. The Dark Lord, ever reluctant to risk his own precious hide, had even ventured out to attack, regaling in the screams as casual flicks of his wand sent Aurors and other wedding guests to the afterlife in contemptuous flashes of green.

His cackled howls of laughter had carried across to Harry, as he stood back to back with Hermione, feeling the crash of her magic as if it were his own as she kept Dementors and Death Eaters off his back. He concentrated on driving away a pack of forty Dementors from a group of young witches and wizards that had been dragged along with their parents to the wedding.

The rush of magic that had filled his bones as he watched Tom kill his way over to him, had somehow not surprised him. Nor had the sight of his best friend, and, secretly for almost a week at that time, girlfriend, standing at his side, her temporarily straightened hair fluttering in the winds of the Inferno now blazing at their back, and rustling the emerald green silk of her dress, causing the split skirt to give him brief flashes of long, muscled legs.

Somehow, the pair of them managed to fight off the Dark Lord for over fifteen endless minutes, along with killing another ten Death Eaters between them, while the rest of the guests organized and managed to evacuate the rest of the wedding. A silver wolf had appeared at Harry's side on that fifteenth minute, vanishing as Harry heard a message in his head, grabbed Hermione about the waist and vanished, with a single raised finger in salute to Voldemort.

Harry shook off the image and looked across the kitchen as Molly bustled with a skillet of eggs, before sliding the mass onto a large platter. She waved him to a seat and he sighed, getting rather tired of her constant implication that he needed to be taken care of.

He did-but not by her.

Harry nodded thanks as he served himself from the platter and added a half-dozen strips of bacon along with a muffin from a plate of them. He started to eat as Ron and Ginny entered, squabbling about something or other. They had been so, almost constantly since Ginny had caught Ron and Luna snogging heavily in the Game Room of the old mansion about a week after the abandonment of the Burrow.

Of course the fact that Luna was lying across the pool table, comfortably under Ron, with her short skirt pushed up high enough to expose her bright blue knickers, and her shirt unbuttoned to her pierced navel, with no bra under it, might have had something to do with it. Especially as that sight had caused the death knell of any chance of Ron and Hermione's relationship developing past the friends stage. A relationship that Ginny had been oddly encouraging of, for one not even potentially involved in it.

Ginny sat herself next to Harry, and he hid a quiet sigh, as she leaned over him, giving him a rather nice look down her loose top as she served herself from the platters on the table.

"Harry, dear," Molly said brightly, "I really wish you would stop this foolishness, I am sure that Remus or Tonks or someone from the Order would be glad to get your supplies in Diagon Alley..."

Ron's gaze was down on his plate, as he shoveled food into his mouth, but Harry could feel them rolling up in his head.

As could Molly, "You do not roll your eyes at me, Ronald Weasley," she snapped and Ginny giggled. "It is bad enough that you are carrying on with that Lovegood girl as you are, rather shameless if you ask me...."

Not sure who did, Harry thought as he bit into a strip of bacon.

Molly went on, "She is not even of age, Ronald; you would think that you would know better, you are a Gryffindor prefect, your brothers never would have..."

Her diatribe tapered off abruptly as the other object of her ire skipped into the kitchen, dressed in a rainbow-colored, tie-died sundress that ended two or three inches below her bum, and promptly sat down next to Ron, scooting her chair over until her thigh pressed against Ron's.

"Hello, Mrs. Weasley," Luna said brightly as she wrapped one arm around Ron, and tucked her head against his shoulder.

"Hello, Luna, dear," she replied, smiling hugely. Ron's shoulder tightened unnoticed under Luna's arm, as Molly continued, "I am surprised to see you still here; I thought that you would be going back to your house now that Minerva and Alastor have improved the wards."

"Oh, I am helping Hermione with some research," Luna replied with a bright smile, as she took a strip of bacon from Ron's plate. She munched on it, swallowed and used the remainder as a pointer, waving it around wildly, "She really is brilliant, I am so glad that she and I have become close-"

"Still," Molly interrupted, "Ginny is perfectly capable with helping Hermione with her schoolwork...there is no reason for you to have to stay here-"

"Other than the fact she is my guest and may come and go as she pleases," Harry said softly, his face lifting up from his plate and one eyebrow crooking. "As are you, Molly."

"Daddy thinks its brilliant that Harry said I could stay here," Luna put in, giving Harry a huge smile as she cuddled closer to Ron, "he thinks it good that I experience...a lot of things." She looked up at Ron, beaming, and Molly scowled, and took a deep breath.

"That may be," Molly said briskly, "but you will not be...experiencing any further...things, while you are here in this house. There will be no more funny business while I am here."

"Goodbye then," Harry replied calmly, sipping from his coffee before slowly looking over the rim of his mug at her as she slowly reddened. "This is my house, Molly. It is not yours. You, your family and the Order itself are here at my sufferance. No," he said softly, cutting her off before she could even say a word.

"Fine then," Molly growled, as she glared at Ron, "Ron, however is my son still, and he will not carry on as he has been, unspeakable things, really. He should be ashamed, and I will not have him doing so in my presence."

Ron slowly raised an eyebrow, and Harry repressed a snort as a fleeting memory of himself, Hermione, Ron and Luna, laughing across a library table, with several half-empty liquor bottles resting next to a large, mostly-eaten pizza, covering it. Hermione had spent at least an hour, not helped along by the half-dozen shots of tequila and firewhisky that she had had over the night's regalement, painfully teaching Ron the trick.

Of course the fact that Luna had rewarded Ron with progressively a bit more skin as he had made progress had only sped up the process.

"That may be, mother," Ron said softly as he stood, leaving a half-filled plate of food behind, "However, I am seventeen, and I no longer live under your roof." He smiled and took Luna's hand, and she giggled as she spun into him, almost dancing, as she draped herself against him, and tucking her head under his. "Would you like to go out for breakfast, love?" Ron asked quietly, and she nodded into his chest.

Luna turned around, her grey eyes seeming to glow softly as she spooned back against Ron, and reached up and back to wrap her arm around his neck. "Can we have chocolate chip pancakes?" she asked, her eyes bright and happy, seemingly not noticing the unreduced glares still emulating from Molly and her daughter towards the pair.

"Sure," Ron replied, and with a swirl of magic, the pair vanished with a quiet crack, as the air filled in the suddenly empty space in their midst.

"Morning," a soft soprano asked from the doorway to the kitchen, as Hermione stepped though, even as the sound from Ron's Apparition was still fading. Her bare feet made no sound as she slipped through the door, still clad in a pair of flannel sleep pants riding low on her hips, with Gryffindor written down one leg, and a loose camisole that stopped an inch or two from the waistband of her pants.

Hermione walked past Molly and served herself a mug of coffee, glanced at Harry and brought the carafe back over with her to top his off. She sat across from him, and leaned over the table to serve herself. A brief, unnoticed smirk danced across her lips as she caught the direction of Harry's instinctive glance, before she sat back down in her chair, slumping slightly.

"Did you sleep well, Hermione dear?" Molly asked with a smile, "I know that it must be such a bother having to sleep on the same floor as Ron and Harry...I am sure that you could move in with Ginny if you would like to get away from those boys...for some girl talk."

Harry looked up to meet Hermione's eyes, the briefest flicker of something dark and dangerous crossed them, before she shrugged and looked over to Molly. "I rather like it there, actually," she retorted, calmly, "it seems like the safest place in the house, really..."

"Oh, Hermione," Ginny snorted, "the whole house is entirely safe. After all it's under all sorts of charms," she added as she leaned closer to Harry, almost draping herself over his side.

"So was my house, Ginevra," Hermione replied flatly, her eyes hardening as she looked across at the miniscule redhead, "it was supposedly safe...but now it seems to be a large hole in the ground, and my parents-now that they are out of St. Mungo's after Harry saved them from a dozen Death Eaters, because all of the Order had decided to go protect the 'more important targets'." Hermione snorted and slumped further into her chair, "Now they are in Australia, and rather expect that I will not see them again until Voldemort is dead. I won't be there even for Anna's birth..."

"You could always take a Portkey, Hermione," Molly said with a wave at the wall, as if she were pointing towards the far off land where Roger and a pregnant Jane were working under assumed identities, safe at least for now from Voldemort's hordes. "I'm sure that we could get by until Hogwarts opens without you."

Hermione shared a closed look with Harry across the table, before she looked back to Molly, "Perhaps...but my place is here." She slouched a touch more and Harry almost jumped as something stroked his inner thigh, warm through the thin flannel of his sleep pants, moving up and down, until small toes and the ball of a matching foot caressed his lap. She glanced to Ginny, as Harry focused rather intently on his plate, "I think I will keep my room next to Harry." And the hidden connecting door to his room that's between them.

The edge of a quickly hidden smile from Harry answered her silent words, and she rewarded him with her toes.

Molly looked to Harry as his breath hitched, "Are you alright there, Harry, dear?"

He just nodded.

Ginny started to reach up and touch Harry's forehead, only to have to suddenly sit back as her chair seemed to come alive under her, almost slipping out from under her bum. Hermione shrugged at her when she looked up in confusion.

"Ginny, stop leaning in the chairs, you could fall," Molly sighed. "Hermione, why don't we leave Harry and Ginny here to finish breakfast while we start to work on that Parlor, I am sure that it needs a through cleaning."

"I am sure that Dobby and Winky would much rather you let them do their jobs, which they are paid well for, and that they love," Harry interjected. They have a hippogriff if I let her touch the house...again, it's hard enough to keep them from tossing her bodily out of the kitchen, he added to one other, silently.

She shrugged slightly and barely stopped a giggle from escaping as Harry shuddered slightly as she started to rub faster with her toes. I promised Winky that she could if Molly screwed with her baking pans again, sorry, Love.

Harry sighed silently, And Ron loves her cookies, so...I'd hate for Winky to refuse to bake...He'd bitch and moan for months. Harry lost his train of thought, as Hermione slowly licked crumbs from her lips.

She gasped in turn a moment later as Harry let one hand drop to his lap, and started to languidly caress the arch of her foot. Hermione looked up as Molly coughed, realizing suddenly that Molly had been saying something. "Yeah, Molly?" she asked distractedly.

Molly glared at her, "Still, I think that Harry and Ginny would like to talk, don't you, they haven't really had a chance to since the wedding. Why don't we leave them to it, shall we?"

Harry stood from his seat abruptly, nearly causing Ginny to fall to the floor again, and Hermione's foot to fall with a quiet sound to the wood below the table. He walked around the table to crouch down next to Hermione. "I'd rather you didn't," he said as he wrapped one arm around Hermione's waist, pausing a beat to idly stroke the bare skin at her hip, "You already woke us up entirely too early."

Ginny slowly turned red as Molly looked between them, "What do you mean wake you up..."

"As in, Molly," Hermione said slowly, distinctly, as if speaking to someone a decade her junior, "I was perfectly comfortable nestled up against my boyfriend, where I had, as I do every night, spent the night sleeping in his arms as a result of post-coital lassitude, when you had to knock."

Harry glanced over to Ginny to watch her sputtering, and glaring at Hermione as if her mere look could vaporize the brunette, "Which means, Ginny, I am not, nor will I ever get back with you, so stop it. I am not interested. And I am not going to share, even though, yes, I do quite well know that my position would allow me to."

Harry stood and pulled Hermione to her feet; laughing quietly as she pirouetted gracefully back into his arms until she stood spooned back against him. His arms wrapped low around her belly, and one hand started to play idly with the muscles of her stomach. "I do rather think that I would like to rejoin you in my...our room, Mione." She looked up and back at him, a huge smile lighting her face, before she turned enough to cup his cheek in one hand, and pull his lips to hers.

A soft sigh as she pulled away a few seconds later, "I will be waiting, M'Lord." She pulled away regretfully and danced past Molly and Ginny, moving more like a cat to a saucer of cream, than a teenage witch.

"Harry Potter...you are not to..."

"Molly, shut up," Harry growled, spinning on the pair of Weasley women, "My mother died sixteen years ago, you are not her. So do not try to be so. You have treated your children as if they were made of spun glass, and when they showed the slightest deviation from your...plan, tried to imply that their were feckless laybouts. Their lives, their successes and mistakes are their own in the end, not yours, so let them live their lives. Do you wonder why you haven't seen Bill or Charlie since the wedding? Percy is an idiot, if not an outright moron, so let's ignore him for now. The twins are successful, basically, because they have ignored everything you said, and if the two of them are with Angelina, Alicia and Katie...so what, it's their business."

"Harry, I am just worried about you and Ron...I do not think that that Lovegood girl is the best for Ron, she...is just so....flighty, do you really think that she could properly raise children...I mean she forgets to dress properly sometimes, and she just stares at the wall others...and then the things she talks about."

"And Hermione?" Harry asked very slowly, his voice loosing all intonation as he looked between Ginny and Molly.

"Well, Harry dear," Molly smiled slightly, seemingly with no regard to the utterly expressionless mien that had fallen over his face. "Don't you think that she is rather," she glanced over at Ginny as she started to pull her hair forward over her shoulder and stroke the blood-red fall idly, "I mean wouldn't you rather have someone more suited to your position? There are appearances to consider."

Harry nodded very slowly, and looked over at Ginny, "And I suppose that you have a better solution?" Molly started to nod, as Harry shook his head, smiling darkly as emerald eyes lit from the outside in, seemingly casting the rest of his face into shadow. "Let me tell you my solution, Molly...Ginny." He cocked his head slightly feeling Hermione listening in raptly, "I am going to kill Voldemort," rolling his eyes as they both shuddered, "You are pitiful," he snapped before continuing. "I am going to hunt down every Death Eater and sycophant that consorts with them and put them under Azkaban or in the ground, and then I will work on how many sprogs Hermione will let me put in her. That is it. I don't give a damn about any fame, money, or power that might come from this, and in fact, I might just take Hermione and join her parents in Australia, they already say they are going to stay. At least it gets us away from here."

Molly started to reply, "And Ron and Luna's plans are more or less the same. She is his entire world, Molly, do not try to come between her and him, you won't like the result, I don't think he is as...forgiving as the rest of your children. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go upstairs and crawl into bed with the one person who has never worried about my bank account or fame except in how it would affect me, personally. And if I hear that you have so much as annoyed Luna or Hermione, either of you, in any way, so help me Merlin, you will be out on the streets."

Harry vanished and reappeared three floors up in a brightly lit room, flooded with sunlight from the open double glass doors. He sighed as he looked down on the huge platform bed that Dobby had created when he had finally been free to take over the care of the house from the now-dead Kreacher, to find Hermione half curled on top of the rumpled sheets, and clad in only what she had been born with. "I'm sorry, Mione," he said and she just smiled at him and stretched, enjoying the look on his face as he watched her move.

Come here, she whispered and patted the bed in front of her. She waited as he settled down on it, on his side facing her, and curled her body around his, pulling his head down into her chest, and positioning him until his cheek rested on the slope of her breasts. I'm not. Ginny is spoiled and her mother is her enabler. And I am tired of giving up my dreams so she can be happy...I claimed you when I was twelve and she was still ten.

I'm glad that I had a choice in the matter, Harry quipped and Hermione laughed out loud before she started to weave her fingers idly though his hair.

No you didn't...there was a time when I might have entertained the old ways and let her be a consort...but she blew that, what with her little stunt last year. She took advantage of me being scared and you...

Being stupid.

I was going to say male and randy, but we'll use yours.

Thank you, o' future mother of my children.

You know, I feel really touched that I get to experience just how much of a smartass that you really are, you just don't share that side of you with anyone else, Hermione replied bending around him further until she could press her lips to the crown of his hair.

I wasn't kidding about that, you know.

I know, and I'm looking forward to when we can afford it, and we'll start at two and work from there.

What if we have twins first? Harry smiled into her chest as she sighed theatrically.

Well see how good the potions are, then, won't we? She made a contented sound from somewhere deep in her chest, almost a pure purr as his arms wrapped around her. Can we just go back to sleep, Harry? she muttered as she reached down to pull off his t-shirt. She pulled back and pushed his sleep pants off his hips, using her toes to push them the rest of the way.

Harry nodded and she waited as he crawled up to the head of the bed and settled down, waiting as she crawled on top of him and settling her head under his chin and letting the warm summer sun spilling in along with the late summer breeze soothe her mind. He stroked his fingers along her spine. You are beautiful, he commented and she smiled, already half-asleep.


A dozen and a half hours later, a soft creak sounded from the floorboards along the third floor hallway. The soft steps walked past the first room, stopping as a quiet sound came from behind the door, before they continued on, heavier than before. They passed the second door without pausing before stopping before a third door, the last one in the hall, dead-ending the corridor.

Quiet rustling carried along the hall, as a head of long, red hair appeared floating in the air. Ginny had nicked the cloak from Ron earlier, while he and Luna had still been gone, not knowing why at the time. She had tossed it on after throwing on shorts and a camisole, before she headed upstairs, sneaking past her parents' bedroom on the second floor.

A hand appeared in the air, emerging from an invisible sleeve, and started to knock only to freeze as a loud, shuddering moan escaped from the room before her. Brown eyes widened, as another loud gasp reached her ears, the soprano breathless. She looked at the door, her hand shaking as she reached out to touch the door lightly.

Just as her hand touched the door, it clicked open and swung inward on silent hinges. A loud mew carried from the dimness within, and Ginny looked around, and started to reach forward to close the door again when her hand stopped halfway and changed course, flipping up the top of the cloak and she vanished. The door swung closed silently a few seconds later and latched with a soft click.

She took a step in the room, buried under the cloak and stopped as she stepped around a small corner and caught sight of the bed lying illuminated in the moonlight, from the open door to the balcony beyond. The breeze silently ruffled the cloak, though neither of the occupants of the bed, exposed by the moonlight noticed.

Hermione gasped, her head flopping from side to side helplessly on the pillow as her body arched off the sheets before she reached down with one hand to tangle her fingers in the raven locks between her legs. "Oh...G...God....Harryyyyy."

Ginny whimpered softly as Hermione came undone, fully arching off the bed as she screamed out Harry's name before flopping back to the sheets, panting heavily. Ginny's lower lip quivered as if it were the ones under Harry's as he slowly kissed his way back up Hermione's body, pausing to play with the ring in her navel and both of her nipples on the way up.

Hermione relaced her fingers through his hair as their tongues clashed, and just for a moment, Ginny swore that Hermione's eyes were lit from within with a green fire. She watched as Hermione reached down between them, panting still, her skin glistening as if sprayed with dew in the bluish moonlight.

Ginny's own breathing seemed to start to ebb and flow with Hermione's as Hermione seemed to find a second, or possibly third wind, and slowly sat up, wiggling until she was straddling Harry's lap.

Harry's lips slowly brushed hers, before ghosting along her cheek, to pause behind her left ear. She moaned, her eyes fluttering shut now, shuttered what was unmistakably a faint green glow in Hermione's eyes, matching the one Ginny had seen in Harry's eyes earlier.

Ginny started to breathe faster as she watched Harry's lips stop on Hermione's pulse, and white teeth flashed as they nipped the skin. Slowly, Ginny's fingers started to move, rubbing her stomach through the thin cotton of her camisole, moving in low, hard circles at the very bottom of her abs as Harry took one of Hermione's nipples into his mouth. Ginny groaned, unnoticed, by the others in the room as her other hand slipped up under her top to slowly play with already diamond-hard nipples.

Her other hand slowly slipped down, sliding across slick, depilated skin as she watched Hermione bite his ear in response to something and slide from his lap to balance on hands and knees and present herself to Harry.

Hermione looked back over one shoulder and tossed her head, flinging her mass of curls out of her eyes. She grinned as Harry stalked across the large bed on all fours, growling faintly under his breath and half laid across her back, before kissing her with an almost feral intensity.

Ginny bit her lower lip, as Harry took himself in hand, and slowly slid home, eliciting a long, drawn-out sound of contentment from Hermione. They stayed joined, not visibly moving for a long moment as Ginny pushed on her shorts, pushing them down to her knees. Her fingers started to move with a life of their own, slipping along her lower lips, even as her other hand had managed to push her top nearly to her neck as she pinched and pulled at her nipples.

Harry stated to move, his lips and teeth nipping at the base of Hermione's neck at the bumps there.

Moaning quietly, she dropped down on her elbows as Harry rocked into her, pushing back to meet his every move in a practiced dance that came to them as naturally as breathing. She adjusted her arms, resting her body on one forearm as she reached down and back to slowly rub where they were joined.

A quiet squeak came from the bed as Harry started to move faster, rolling his hips as Hermione rocked back to meet his every move.

Ginny gasped, falling back onto her bum, as she started to stroke herself harder. She bit her lip, trying not to cry out as she slid one finger into her, and started to move her hips to her hand. Her thumb brushed her clit, rolling the nubbin under the digit. She moaned, the sound lost in the louder voices from the bed and reached blindly for her wand where it fallen when she had pushed her shorts down. A muttered spell, that she had learned from Luna fourth year, and her wand started to hum and danced in her hand. Her eyes crossed as she flipped the wand around and replaced her fingers with it.

Hermione whimpered as Harry pulled on her hips, changing the angle of his moves. A roiling flame stared to burn in her belly as she felt herself start to crest, and the world started to waver in her vision. "Oh....God....H....Harrryyyy," she screamed and bucked, as she felt the flames crash along her nerves sending the world spiraling away in a rush of color and sound, like a Portkey gone wild.

Harry panted as she convulsed around him, fighting to stay in control as she came undone. He held her against him until she had stopped quivering under him, before gently pulling out and rolling her on her back.

Hermione looked up at him, slowly blinking softly glowing eyes as her vision gradually returned. She grinned stupidly as Harry slipped back between her legs, and lowered his body to hers. Her lips fell open at the touch of his tongue, and she sucked it in greedily, gasping into his mouth as he slid back into her. She managed to find enough strength to lift her legs enough to cross her ankles behind his back.

Ginny stated to flick her wand in and out, rolling it slightly to each side as she watched as Harry started to rock his hips once more into Hermione. She arched back, the top of her head nearly touching the floor as she felt her own stomach start to flutter, and burn.

Hermione groaned, and bucked back up into Harry, as she cradled his head to her shoulder. She moaned as her body rapidly raced to catch up to Harry, whom she could feel tightening under her fingers, his magic intertwining with hers until it was one whole, instead of the slightly separated norm.

She pulled his head to hers and kissed him, forcing her tongue into his mouth, even as he moved twice more and spasmed; spurting warmth into her. A wave of fire raced around his nerves, washing over her a heartbeat later, and sending her crashing over the edge after him. Her vision failed once more as she felt herself mingling with Harry, the bare skein of personality that separated them normally vanishing once more.

Chestnut locks filled her vision a moment later as she came back to herself to feel Harry's ever-welcome warmth and weight lying languidly on her, and she found the strength to lightly run her short nails up and down his spine.

He, in turn, brushed her wet bangs out of her eyes and leaned up, to kiss her nose. She let out a soft giggle as he settled back down on her, resting his face between her breasts. Harry kissed the jagged scar he found there, a long slash with a single jag, oddly similar to one currently hidden by his hair.

Hermione lifted her head and kissed the top of his head, before letting her head flop back to the bed. "Ginny," she said to the air, "I hope you enjoyed the show, now get out." Hermione paused as she felt Harry, even in his post-coital bliss, grin against her damp skin, "You can drop the cloak."

The sound of rustling cloth and the clatter of a wand on the floor answered her, before a patch of floor shimmered and resolved into a pile of silvery fabric and Ginny, lying back on the floor, still flushed as bright as her hair with her wand in one numb hand. It continued to shiver until Hermione flicked a finger in the air. "Wha---"

"I taught Luna that spell, Ginevra," Hermione answered the unspoken question tiredly, "I asked if you enjoyed the show."

"I..." Ginny sputtered and fought her way to her feet, shaking slightly as the after effects of her own orgasm still controlling her body.

"Did you get, lost?" Harry added, his voice slightly muffled by Hermione's chest, "I'm sure Ron and Luna might still be going at it...Or Remus and Tonks might have gotten back by now, he howls sometimes..."

Hermione snorted and rapped his back with one open hand, "That's not nice, Harry...but true," she added after a moment's reflection. "Now Ginny, Harry and I are tired, so the show is over. Or is there something that you needed to ask?"

Ginny took a breath and stepped closer, "Are you sure about the other, Harry, I'd be willing...if you want, I'd even..." she looked at Hermione and swallowed slightly, "I could, learn..."

"You can learn all you want, Ginny, but it won't be with us," Hermione replied, with a small yawn.

Ginny huffed faintly, "Why are you answering for Harry?" she snapped taking another step towards the bed, only to be tossed back three feet and onto her bum as she hit an invisible wall that glowed white for an instant and then disappeared from view.

The field did not affect Crookshanks whatsoever as he scampered past Ginny to leap up onto the bed and settled next to his mistress. He glared at Ginny before closing his eyes and starting to purr as Harry reached over blindly to pet him.

"She's my...w...girlfriend, Ginny," Harry said tiredly, "not that it's any concern of yours."

"B...but, Harry, w...why?" Ginny clambered back to her feet, and started back towards them, stopping as the ward flared once more. "What does she have...I mean, she's so...I mean, she's not..."

"Yeah, she's not," Harry agreed, "And that's a rather good thing, now get." A flare of power flung Ginny out the door, it closed and locked behind her and she sat down with a huff.

Hermione sighed and slowly rolled off Harry. She sat up, "I need to deal with this Harry," she said quietly pushing him back to the sheets as he started to rise, "Go to sleep, Love, you need it."

"Not any more than you," he objected, even as he yawned.

She shrugged, not arguing either way, as she stood from the bed and paced over to a wooden gliding rocker next to the window, that Dobby had recovered from the ruins of Godric's Hollow and restored. She grabbed a black silk robe from the back, slipped it on, and paced back over to him. "I'll be back, Harry," she whispered as she bent over and kissed him for a good minute, before straightening and belting closed her robe. She watched as Harry's eyes flicked to the ensign over her left breast, and then down to her legs, which the shimmering garment still did mostly reveal. Hermione traced one finger over the embroidery, of a lion and phoenix on either side of a silver sword, Yeah, I doubt she'll appreciate subtlety, but at least I will.

The crest of the restored House of Potter seemed to glitter as she spun and walked out the door, closing it behind her and stopping to glare down at Ginny. She crossed her arms over her chest and took a long, deep breath, "Come on, we are going to have a little talk."

Ginny started to snarl, but seemed to think better of it as she stood and followed Hermione, as she walked past the door to her ostensible room, and down to the next one. She rapped twice on the door, sharply and waited a moment. "Luna, come out here."

"What do we need her for?" Ginny nearly spat.

Hermione ignored her and Ginny just glared as they waited. Two minutes passed before Luna stuck her head out the door, her eyes half-hooded and hidden behind her hair. She looked between the other two teens, "Hold on."

Luna left the door without closing it and Ginny sidled over to let out a soft "eep," as she caught sight of Ron's bare arse, as he lay snoring quietly on his stomach. Luna came into view and kissed the back of his head before she pulled a three or four-sizes-too-large Gryffindor Quidditch jersey with Weasley written across the back over her slim frame. She pulled her hair free as she padded to the door on bare feet.

Hermione closed the door behind Luna, as Luna flounced past them and headed towards the stairs without a word. Hermione motioned Ginny into movement, and followed, knowing where Luna was most likely headed already. They slipped down the stairs; passing the closed doors of another few rooms, until Luna lead them through a pair of large, heavy oak doors.

The trailing pair stepped through the library doors, which shut behind them and closed with a quiet, squelching sound. Hermione walked over and dropped on the couch next to Luna, who yawned and folded her hands under her head as she dropped it to the brunette's shoulder.

Ginny scowled as Luna closed her eyes and seemed to drift back off to sleep, "Why did we get her," Ginny repeated, "if she is just going to go back to sleep?" She sneered, "Or am I supposed to leave you two alone after we're done..."

"I am here to keep Hermione from killing or injuring you greatly," Luna replied without opening her eyes, "it would make a terrible mess over all these nice books, and I just started an old tome on Wyverns and their mating habits."

Ginny goggled at Luna's words as Hermione patted her head.

Hermione took a breath, and slowly looked around the vast library. Though he had never admitted it to either of the girls, Harry had redone specifically for Hermione and Luna. Harry had had Dobby work on it in secret during that dark, confusing last year, even when he was fighting with Hermione as often as he was talking to her, even though he had never wanted to return to the old house.

Dark, carved oak shelves rose two stories into the air on three walls, with a pair of rolling ladders providing access to the literally thousands of books on every conceivable magical and Muggle subject. A long, matching library table held the center of the room, while a grouping of soft leather couches, where the girls had settled, were positioned near a huge corner fireplace. A two-story, floor-to-ceiling window formed the fourth wall, with the heavy drapes pulled back to reveal the nighttime London skyline.

"It's over, Ginny," Hermione said quietly. An eyebrow crooked as Ginny sprung to her feet, her hand darted towards her wand and it came up to point at Hermione. The tip lit and Hermione shook her head, "I didn't think suicide was an Weasley trait, Ginevra."

"He should have been mine," Ginny snapped, fingering her wand as a yellowish-red glow lit the end. She glanced over to Luna, "She's not supposed to be with Ron, you are..."

Luna opened one eye and a feeling of immense cold settled over Ginny's soul and her wand clattered to the floor. Luna closed her eye again and shivered, cuddling against Hermione, "Don't make me do that again, Ginny, it's not...pleasant."

"Wha..."

Hermione hugged Luna to her shoulder, and let her hand stroke the other girl's side, "She's a Seer, Ginny, she can project too, and you were never enough of an Occlumens to block her merest expression of power."

Ginny slowly bent to pick her wand up though she did not bring it back up to point at either of them, "Having her fight your battles now, just like you let Harry..."

"Ginny," Hermione said patiently, "if you were not one of my best friends', sister, and someone I used to think of as...a sister, myself," she paused as Luna sat up and crossed her legs, "I would have broken your arm in two places, your wand, and probably shattered a few organs...if I didn't decide to get creative. You stupid girl, I am the bondmate of the most powerful light wizard since Merlin, and I, myself am somewhere near Dumbledore's power rating when he was my age, just what do you think you are doing?" Hermione asked contemptuously.

Ginny fingered her wand at her side, before she slowly slid it into the waistband of her shorts behind her back. "But, why, Hermione, you could have had Ron, he wanted you...and I'm sure that...someone would have wanted you, Luna."

"Ronald does;" Luna said with a happy smile as she closed her eyes and giggled slightly, leaning back into the couch cushions. "Again and again-"

Hermione just nodded, as Ginny turned slightly green. She waited as Ginny crossed her arms and sat back in the couch, becoming lost in the cushions, "Ginny...he broke up with you, it's over-"

"Says you-"

"Says anyone with a grasp of the interactions of Crengles and Wildershins," Luna retorted as she was starting fixedly at the spine of Evaporation Potions for You and the Nymph in You. "It was quite obvious, even when you borrowed him. I was quite concerned that we might have to investigate Harry for an infestation of Coital Poppers, but I think that Hermione handled that for us."

Hermione nodded as Ginny rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I did, Luna," she replied without missing a beat, "Says him, Ginny. I've put up with a lot from you, for Harry's sake. He's has enough conflict to deal with out there; he doesn't need any here. But I won't take this tripe any more. He said it was over, to both you and your mother. There is not a possibility of it ever happening, save in some random, fever-addled delusion."

Ginny stood rapidly from her seat, "I am going to get him back, you-"

She grew silent as Luna made her wand vanish back to wherever she had hidden it in the first place. "There really is no need to raise your voice, I could hear you perfectly well." Luna yawned, "It's much quieter now," Ginny glared at her, and Luna just beamed in return, "Since Hermione is reluctant to deal with you, I suppose I will have to," Luna sighed, "I am somewhat annoyed, as I could be sleeping with Ronald. He is rather comfortable after all...almost like he was made for me."

Ginny flicked her wand at her face, "This isn't over." She spun on her heel and nearly ran from the room.

Luna shrugged slightly and stood, stretching her arms above her head and causing the hem of Ron's jersey to creep to just the edge of her bum. She bent back down and kissed Hermione's cheek, "She's going to do something stupid."

"I know, sis," Hermione replied very quietly and Luna shrugged and vanished between breaths with the softest of pops. Hermione took a breath and followed her, at least to the same floor, reappearing next to Harry's bed.

He had fallen back to sleep while she was gone, as she had hoped, and she took a moment to admire him. His face was relaxed for once, free of the stress and worries that lined it almost constantly these days. Just for an instant, flashes of a much younger and carefree Harry, one that she had only seen in unguarded glimpses since that dark fourth year, flitted across her mind.

Hermione stood silently at the side of the bed for a minute or perhaps ten, watching, before she pulled the tie to her robe, and shrugged her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor in a flutter of fabric. She crawled into the bed, slowly interweaving her body with his until she had pressed every possible bit of herself to him. Night, Harry, sleep while you can, my love.



There you go, now back to reality.
















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