Life and Times
Rating: R
Ship: HHr (main emphasis)
The (unlovely) procedure: all rights go to JKR for plot and characters, Scholastic, Warner, and whoever else has their hands in HP.
Author Note: You can get a lot done while you're sick at home! I've been sick all weekend, and still sick. If anything about the chapter seems iffy, blame it on my medication! Haha. Also, I have to do a shout-out to KateJ, an author on here, a friend of mine during the "HMS Pumpkin Pie" days of old, and the web-mistress of harryloveshermione.com. Her fic on Portkey, Taste, was the first fic I ever read six years ago. I wanted to pay homage to her fic, and to KateJ, and made my "bath tub" scene with HHr reflect her "Egg Nog" chapter with love. Thanks KateJ for the good times!
Disclaimer: There may or may not be "descriptive scenes of passion," depending upon your point of view. I don't get super smutty (at least here, I don't think), but be forewarned if you don't enjoy reading that. I never really understood the difference between R and NC17 ratings, anyway. I've seen some pretty graphic scenes in R-rated films.
***
Chapter Ten ~ Heart
We spent the entire next day together in bed. We made love…too many times to count. We exhausted ourselves, sleeping mostly, and getting out of bed only if we needed something essential like food or the lavatory. Then, if we weren't together eating for instance, our soul reunited with the other perfectly matched soul beneath the sheets. We laughed a little, wondering through our intimacy if we should hurry to Diagon Alley and purchase the Kama Sutra at the bookstore. Looking back, we didn't need it after all.
Hermione found the liking of my past Quidditch garb, especially my faded crimson and gold jerseys. She didn't so much as put any underwear on, the weather-beaten jersey long enough to cover mid-thigh. Whenever I saw her leave the bed, or amidst a shagging session, I loved seeing my name, "Potter," written in gold along her back. How tiny her figure was, I'd sometimes wrap my hand around the excess fabric and knot it up beside her tummy. She said it smelled of me, "manly". I figured it should as to how many times I had to wear it throughout the years I played school Quidditch. The jersey was absolutely clean, but from all the hours I spent involved in the sport, I wouldn't have second-guessed my sweat collecting in its miniscule, cotton atoms.
I watched her sleep within our sporadic intervals. The sun was setting through the window panels, giving the room lines of orange and purple mixed as one singular colour across the floor and bed. The snowy sheets clung to my hips, leaving my upper body bare, connecting a line along under her arm. The sheet collected behind her, falling away into a silhouette of her form. I had my arm propping my head by my elbow, my body facing her. I didn't have my glasses on, close enough to see without them. I ran my hand along the contours her body made, going from her knee to her thigh. I crossed her hips, waist, and arm with my ever-so-light touch. I felt the bundled sheet under her arm and along her breast, moving up to her neck. I traced a line underneath her jaw, around the frame of her face, and flicked strands of after-sex hair away from blocking her gorgeous features.
I watched her breathe in and out slowly. If there were angels on earth, this was one of them. I leaned into Hermione and peck-kissed her mouth, bringing moisture to her slightly dry lips; then, her smooth cheek, the tip of her nose, and her brow. I pressed my lips lightly onto her forehead and lingered a kiss. She smelled of me, and I smelled of her vanilla. I looked at her face, her body, the underlining language that spoke to me as she tilted towards me and saw briefly Hermione in her youth. All the way she traveled with me, and all through those travels she stayed right there with me. I saw her with that annoyed look she used to give me when I went overboard on something, and how her eyebrows and nose scrunched up. I saw her bushy brown hair and jumper, the Hogwarts-uniform white shirt and black skirt; her hands clutching her school books, running the halls to get to class. I saw her protect me with all her possible means, by intelligence or wand, and in the final years with her very own life.
Now, we shared each other as man and woman. My woman. My brilliant, gorgeous, beautiful, caring, completely ravishing woman. She gave up something to me with trust and her love, and as long as my heart thumped, I'd give back to her a hundred fold. Hermione is my soul mate, and no language or words can express just how deeply I am in love with her. Right here beside me, sleeping with a little content grin.
I must have fallen asleep. I awoke to a sunrise, and to the intoxicating aroma and breath of my lover. I blinked, my pupils reevaluating from the light in the room. I felt her present, her own eyes upon me. I glanced to my left, having flipped onto my back during my sleep. She nuzzled against my face and smelled of me. She placed her hands, her fingers along my neck and under my jaw. She caressed my brow and gently snapped at my ear.
I went to move, to shift up and felt the hand on my throat push me back down by my chest. My body lightly bounced, the mattress springs squeaking. I heard her snarl, and then purr. She giggled and kissed my cheek, and then my mouth. She rubbed my pectoral muscles, teased my nipple with her nail, and when I went to feel of her hand she slipped away from me to cradle my head. She bit my bottom lip and let it go, it retracting back firm. My hands glided to her face when she allowed me, holding her taut and meshed nose-to-nose.
Her fingers crawled across my midsection, over my abdomen and down in the sheets. I gasped, her cool hand wrapping around my circumference. My hips indicatively responded to her grasp, rocking into her. Stronger, I willed her back at least to her side as much as she resisted, being the dominant one. I yanked up her shirt while slipping my hand underneath the jersey and cupped her breast. With each pump of her hand, I moaned into her heated mouth. I found myself trying to mount her, pushing into the centre of her body but finding her hand in the way.
A thin veil of sweat enveloped my skin, moistening her as I'd grind into her core. Hermione breathed heavily, her wild hair sticking to me. I came off her mouth to lick at her neck and playfully bite. Her nails dug into my back, and with everything she could, she pushed me back flat on the bed. She threw what sheets were attached to us away from my naked and her semi-nude bodies. She let go of my manhood as much as it yearned for her not to. In one hasty motion, she was on me, straddled. I watched myself go in, and felt her heat. I nearly came right then, having to grip the bed and order my body to hold off.
I pushed off the mattress so her bent knees were beside my hips. My lips locked back onto hers. An animalistic growl came out of her tiny figure, and fell from her lips into a moan. Her sticky hair jostled and flew from side-to-side. She gripped me, her arms tight on my neck. I drove into her hard and felt her let go. I grabbed her body as she shook on me. I watched her arch back. Her face made an expression of pure ecstasy. Her mouth shaped into an "O" for an instant, and then curled into a smile. Her eyes were shut tight in the beginning, but then fluttered as she came.
I loved how I could do that to her. I loved how my body could have her express such a desired emotion. There was something about observing her orgasm that gratified me more than having one myself. Give her everything.
I must have been ready even before I woke up. It didn't take me long after Hermione to feel the rush within me. Wave after wave, as if all of me pulsed right to my groin to relieve the pressure. I let go. I felt Hermione slow down on me, but I couldn't see her. I blacked out, my eyes closing and groaned through gritted teeth. With every wave, I thrust, until I emptied. I panted, my chest heaving against Hermione's. She still had her arms around me, and throughout my release, my face had found the crook of her neck. I bit her shoulder and pushed into her.
I began settling down, my body allowing me. When I glanced back at her, I saw Hermione giving me that sexy, smug smirk. She loved watching me go as much as I did with her. Some of her wet hair dropped in front of her right eye. She flicked her head backward to try and remove the strands only to find them fall right back. Her hunger sedated, she kissed my lips and purred, nudging her nose alongside mine. I held her at her hips and gently slid my hands onto her lower back.
We relaxed like this for a while. This position had to be "our" position. I absolutely loved seeing her this way, front-to-front. I wanted to see her eyes, her mouth, her breasts, and how her navel rolled against mine. I wanted to see her toss her hair around from side-to-side and watch the mixture of our sweat perspire down our chests and stomachs.
She grinned at me, and gradually laid her head on my shoulder. With her forehead on my neck, I heard her sigh and run the bridge of her nose against my Adam's apple. I shivered, massaging her back, feeling that string of pearls along the centre. She smelled of me, and caressed my throat.
"…I'm going to go take a shower," she breathed, shifting to stare at me.
"Okay," I whispered in reply. I lowered my hands to her hips and waited to help her lift from me. She didn't move whatsoever, keeping her eyes on me. My brain must have fried as I didn't understand her little bob of the head motion towards the master lavatory. She did it again, smirking, when I realized what she meant.
I held her body on mine as I scooted my bum across the bed and to the edge. My feet hit the floor and I eased her with me, Hermione's legs locking in place around my waist. She laughed when she did a bounce on me, making her moan and kiss me. I don't remember making it into the lavatory until I felt the squelching water run down my back. She had turned it on while my lips and hands traversed the curves and lines of her body.
***
The feel of the cotton fabric of my Gryffindor lounge pants was nothing compared to the feel of Hermione's slippery skin. That's for sure. I left her in the shower after wanting to get a fire going downstairs for when she came out. One of the annoying parts of Number Twelve was the lack of air conditioning because of the obvious. Any weather pattern that came in stayed in. With it snowing outside, the temperature in Number Twelve could be paralleled to the weather felt in Antarctica. That is, until I got a roaring fire going; then, Number Twelve heated up just fine throughout the hidden apartment.
I went from the den to the kitchen. I flipped the burner on medium and took out a skillet pan. I retrieved a few eggs and milk from the fridge, and grabbed a few pieces of bread from its box on the way. I lightly buttered the skillet and concocted a combination of egg batter, mixed with a little floor, and basted the slices of whole wheat before laying two down on the skillet. The heat immediately took over, the crackling pop of the hot metal frying the batter along the bread.
Amongst flipping two more pieces onto the skillet with a fork, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I turned towards the noise and around from the stairwell wall came down the most beautiful creature ever to be born. I could tell from the split-second I saw Hermione that she'd gotten another one of my beaten-up jerseys and put it on. She really loved to wear them. In her arms a pile of clothes to her chin. I saw our funeral clothes and the bedding sheets along with our everyday attire. A sock fell on the floor and she quickly bent to retrieve it and backed into the laundry room.
I heard the door to the washer open and close. The water began to run and the unscrewing of a top echoed from the ajar door. I returned my focus to the fried bread to flip the two new slices over and shake them with black pepper. My ears perked up to the padding of feet and my eyes peered to the entry of the kitchen. Hermione stretched as she pranced into the smell of breakfast cooking. Her hands above her head, I saw little pink-and-black trimmed boyshorts secured to her privates. I smirked, and she saw me peeking. I turned back to the bread on the stove and heard her fly to me, her feet not touching the ground in her hasty step.
She smacked into my backside and wrapped her arms around my front. She put her chin on my shoulder and sniffed the clean scent upon the scruff of my neck. I heard her purr, and she kissed the portion of me she had sniffed. I switch the spatula from my right hand to my left and reached up to scratch the side of her head, my fingers in her softened, dry hair.
"Happy New Year's Eve, my love," she said, staring beyond my shoulder. She smelled the air before her. "That smells so, so good. I'm so hungry…"
I smiled, my eyes on the toast, "Happy New Year's Eve, baby. And, as you should be…," I laughed a little. "After all the energy you spent last night and this morning."
"Keeping my ticker in check?" Hermione snickered and kissed my shoulder.
"Gotta keep that ticker a-working," I took up her hand and pulled it around to my lips. I kissed the top of her hand. "Gotta feed my woman when she gets hungry."
"Is that a double entendre?" she giggled, rubbing the muscles along my naked abdomen.
"You're a little horny devil now, aren't you?" I chuckled. I felt her fingers slip into my crimson and gold lounge pants. I smirked when I felt her feel of my derriere.
"Hehe…," she slipped her fingers back out and let the elastic of the sweat pants snap. She pulled on the elastic again and let it go, popping at my skin.
I reached around and swatted her ass. She yelped and giggled. "I was thinking French toast this morning, is that all right with my baby?"
"Sounds wonderful," Hermione exclaimed. She left me to wander over to a cupboard to grab syrup and a bag of powdered sugar. I moved to my right, cutting the burner off in the process, to get a few plates. She took them from me and set the table. I reached into the fridge and raised the orange and apple juice cartons. She took those from me too while I placed the French toast on a platter.
I cut some sausage off its links and fried that as well, plating them and taking them to the too-large table for just us. The table was meant for more, like the entire Order of the Phoenix. We sat on one end, in the corner of the table. Our privacy corner where we could get at each other fast, and of course, to play footsie as Hermione loved to do.
She grabbed me around my waist again. She latched on and held there, moving with me step-by-step as I went to get a plate of this and that and set it on the table. I laughed when I'd try and break from her, only to have her tighten around me and dig into my skin with her fingers. She snickered, and I put my fingers under her chin, her face above my shoulder. I held her there and twisted my body around to kiss her lips.
I stopped midway to the table when I asked, her arms about my form, releasing the kiss, "When I go to sit down, will I be sitting in your lap?"
"Mm…," Hermione glanced at the ceiling in thought. If there was a way to make a light bulb appear above her head, this would have been the perfect time. She smirked, having thought of an action. She maneuvered around me so she was in front with her backside to me. She gripped my arms and put them about her waist. She swerved her head to look at me, tucking hair behind her ear, "This way is better."
She bumped her tush against my front and giggled. I smirked at her bounce. I pulled her with me to the table. I took up a piece of the French toast, dabbed a corner of the wheat bread into the maple syrup and coated it with white, powered sugar. She glanced between my actions, eyeing me in wonderment until I shoved the toast in her mouth and swatted her ass. Her eyes went wide, and she took off towards her chair, laughing along the way with her mouth full.
Hermione grabbed at her chest a moment, stopping in her tracks for a second.
"Are you okay?" I stopped, worried.
"Yeah…heart just fluttered," she mumbled. "That's all."
"It's been doing that a lot recently…I must be really good?" I laughed a little.
I went to sit down, watching her rip the corner of the French toast and chew. Before I could slide my chair in, her lithe body got in-between and plopped right down on my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and in doing so, shoved the rest of the French toast in my mouth. I squinted, taking the toast out from my mouth and placing it on my plate. A rumble happened in my throat. My lips pulled back and I snarled. Hermione went to run, hop off my lap. I grabbed her little body anywhere I could and threw her over my shoulder. I paddled her firm rear and felt her jostle and fidget, giggling and laughing.
I scooted the chair I sat in backward, it scraping across the floor, and started off toward the den. I threw her on the sofa, ricocheting on the springy cushions. I jumped on her and wrestled her to the furniture. My hands were already at the jersey, tugging the worn sleepwear to her chest. We left the breakfast to get cold; but, no bother. That's why they invented microwaves and ovens.
***
"Can I have everyone who is Flooing to New York City this evening's attention," a female conductor,
wearing strawberry-coloured robes and white-with-black trimmed gloves motioned us along with her hands. The crowd that
merged from an even larger crowd tried to separate. Hermione held on tightly to my hand. She was in front of me where I
could see her, and in front of her were Ginny and Neville. Ginny brought up the idea of leaving for New York City for
the millennium bash over a half a year ago. We had to purchase tickets far in advance. If not, well, the thousands of
people around us, bumping into us, touching us, proved why we took initiative. The conductor held her wand to her
throat to make loud her voice to the bumbling, rambunctious mass. "The period of Floo is arriving on time. Please
get into a single file line over here in front of fireplace ten. I repeat: the period of Floo is arriving on time.
Please get into-"
"Oy! Why'd you hit me!"
"Because you just elbowed my boob, jerk!" Ginny yelled at a guy pushing through the line in canary robes. "How'd it feel if I put my knee into your groin?"
"You'd think there's something going on tonight!" Hermione screamed to Ginny. Screaming was the only way to communicate even if we were only a foot away.
I wrapped my arm around Hermione. People were pushing us forward and pushing us back. She grabbed onto the back of Neville's shirt and hung on. Like Muggle airports, this is the worst time to travel: on a holiday. The cheaper tickets were near or on the holiday for Floo with each day before the holiday, whichever it was, increasing in price. I opted to pay for all of us to go a week before New Year's Eve, but Ginny and Neville weren't hearing anything of it. Purchasing early tickets would cost them an arm and a leg, and having me purchase the bundle was out of the question. We'd make it…I hoped.
Someone touched my rear and I glanced behind me. No one recognized me in what I wore. Sunglasses over my eyes, a black leather jacket, some dark blue jeans, and Hermione had put paste in my hair to keep the scar from showing. On top of the chaos that was the Ministry Massive Floo Depot, we didn't need to have the chaos worsen by me being here. Mind you, I did get some awfully curious looks as it wasn't sunny outside, but rainy with a grey overcast. Hermione and I laughed at the thought of brewing up a Polyjuice potion…but, with the entertainment we've had with that little number in the past, we decided not to tonight. Just play everything by ear and wish for the best.
I held onto a small suitcase containing hers clothes and mine. Neville did the same for Ginny. After we'd gotten to New York City, we had a hotel room booked for the night. Ginny made arrangements with the Marriott close to Times Square. Someone pushed me again from behind, the whole line surging forward. Ginny swore whilst Neville and I turned to see the massive line sway like a long, swirling caterpillar. I turned to see Hermione holding her chest, her hand brushing mine in the process. A shoulder hit mine on my right, and then into Hermione. I pushed on the woman who hit us, and got close to Hermione's ear.
"Are you sure you're all right?" I held where her hand held over her heart. "We can go home and watch the same ball drop on television. Or, maybe the Big Ben festivities?"
"No!" shouted Ginny. How she heard me over the racket, she must have sonar hearing. "Think about what we'd miss! All eyes are on this very moment! And, if the world ends-"
"Ginny, enough of that talk," Neville shushed her. Ginny stuck her tongue out at him. "The world's not ending tonight. It's hogwash and scatter-brained thinking."
"I'm fine," Hermione smiled at me. Something in me thought to not believe her. No one continues to grab their chest every other bloody day; and, she's been doing this off-and-on for weeks and hasn't gone to the doctor. "It's just indigestion from breakfast, or heart burn. Probably the orange juice."
An overly-eccentric, antique clock swinging over our heads struck the crowd quiet. The clock chimed one, two…all the way to twelve, ringing to us the noon hour. Whistles started blowing, sirens screamed over the crowd. Graying smoke emitted from the lime-green and black brick, body-sized opening in front of us. Several of the conductors, both male and female in those strawberry robes and white gloves, ran to the front to proceed our line forward as unsteady as it was moving. We had to act quickly in the flashing moments of the whistles and sirens. Muggles would definitely notice a parade of bodies coming out of nowhere. A conductor on the other side of whatever destination we were headed to would start our portal and issue a green light for Floo clearance.
Other wizards and witches, some in robes and some like us in "Muggle clothes," all watched as our line trudged onward. The line of people on our right had the destination "Paris, France," and the one to my left had "Chicago, Illinois" funneling across words being written out of thin air in neon red. Each line had a separate, but similar, clock over their heads with their own whistles and sirens. Another Floo destination opened up while the New York City line pushed as I heard the blaring noise from afar.
The conductors more or less yanked us through at a speedy rate. They gripped Ginny's jacket, one conductor on each of her shoulders to hold her patiently to let the person in front of her submerge all the way through the magical portal. Then, they thrust her inside, Ginny's body rapidly disappearing. They did the same to Neville, then Hermione, and then when it came to me, they halted. One of them, the one on the left, peered at me curiously. I thought I set the security alarm off, or that they knew who I was under my masked appearance. I grinned at them sheepishly, and the conductor shrugged, throwing me on through. My body felt as it were being ripped apart slowly, but squeezed at the same time.
I always forget to hold my breath. I came out the other side coughing, having sucked in clouds of Floo debris. A conductor from the United States side of the world pushed on me to get through. This was protocol to get more people on through before others noticed. I felt someone's hand hold onto mine, a smooth, warm, soft one. My eyes watered from the smoke. I looked up, my eyes probably blood-shot. Hermione was brushing off some of the soot on my leather jacket. The hole on the other side of the world ended up putting us in the throng of New York City's main subway level. We were coming out of a "subway car," magically enchanted of course to make it seem that we were just other passenger's coming off the subway line like everyone else-though, a little dirtier in my case.
Our first priority was to get into the hotel. We filed on upward, on one of the stairs leading to New York. The sun was just rising over here, breaking along the horizon when we stepped out into the streets of Times Square. Large, flashing billboards hit our eyes with the neon colours of the rainbow. People walked around us with food in their hands from carts, making their way to work before the nightly festivities. The rich odor of gasoline from the abundant line of taxis hit me all at once, making me cough again. Hermione patted my back as we all stood in shock, in awe, at the enormity of it all; the skyscrapers huge, thousands upon thousands of feet above our heads. We easily pointed out the Empire State building, the World Trade Centers, and the fluorescent ball sitting and waiting above the One Times Square building.
The air was chilly, and if it weren't for being born and brought up in and around London, I would have had a difficult time adjusting to the cold. We were all glad we brought our coats, though, in case the weather dropped more. Ginny exchanged our Euros for dollar bills via the Ministry Transportation division like I did when we purchased our Floo tickets. So, when we flagged down one of New York's famous yellow taxis, we hadn't to worry about the guy in the cab giving us grief for being tourists.
The Marriott hotel wasn't too far away from where the Floo left us. When we got out of the taxi, a doorman helped us with what limited baggage we had in the trunk and went to the counter inside. The woman behind the counter happily gave us our suite keys and we went on up. The elevator wasn't encased, being glass and open on one side. We all got a great view of the sun rising, and the Statue of Liberty far out in the water beyond Manhattan. I turned to Hermione, my hands full with our bags, and kissed her. She cradled my face in her hands and lightly licked at my tongue. Ginny made a gagging noise after she and Neville had their passionate kiss. I rolled my eyes and she just laughed.
I didn't have much time with Hermione when we finally made it into our adjoined rooms. The entire suite had an Art Deco feel with metal finishes like chrome with rigid, straight lines and marble countertops. The flooring was mostly white, plush carpeting with marble leading into a kitchen area-if we needed it. The wall in the living area facing out was one, giant window towards the sunrise. We all stood in a line and gazed down at the traffic and people beneath us, the sidewalks lined with planted trees manufactured into circular shapes.
The walls were mainly white with faintly black lines which mimicked the black leather furniture, such as the sofa and chairs, and the black-and-white beds. The rooms felt clean, too clean, and Ginny made a note to disturb a piece in every room starting with her and Neville's by jumping on the bed and giggling. Hermione stood and watched her from afar, laughing. Neville put clothes away, and Hermione came to me when she saw I was doing the same. Ginny rushed in and grabbed Hermione from me.
"We'll be back soon!" Ginny yanked on my Hermione towards the door. She held up her cell phone. "You all have my number?"
I pulled the cell phone from my leather jacket pocket. "Yeah, I have it stored," I saw Hermione shrug and then snicker when Ginny whispered something in her ear. "Where are you all going without us? The city's sort of dangerous at times."
Ginny let out a sigh and patted her jean-clad leg, "I'm packing heat, and no one will bother us, Harry darling."
I noticed her stroke her hidden wand, the contour bulging from her skinny jeans. My eyes flicked to Hermione who came toward me. She put her lips to mine and ran her fingers down my cheek. When she released, she looked into my eyes and said, "Gin wants to go shopping. We thought you guys wouldn't want to be pulled around by us trying on clothes, or whatever else. You can come, though, if you want…"
Hermione glanced at my mouth, and then back into my eyes with a smirk, "We could even go to Victoria Secret, and I could try on some things for y-"
"NO!" Ginny stomped over to us and pried Hermione from my form. She embraced Hermione, waving back at me.
I took up a leather pillow from the sofa and threw it at Ginny, "Eavesdropper."
"You better call us if anything happens, woman," Neville pointed at her from the other side of the room. He was coming out of their bedroom. "And, you better stay safe. Be sure to be aware, you hear me?"
"Same to you," I smiled at Hermione. I felt safer knowing Hermione also had her wand on hand, like a Muggle-version of pepper spray.
Hermione grinned at me from amongst Ginny's extremely-protective arms, "Always."
I heard her tell Ginny, "I want to check out that bookstore, too…," when I called out to them leaving the suite, "Hey!"
"What now?" Ginny eyed me, perturbed, with a hand on her hip.
"We're meeting for lunch at 11."
"1!" exclaimed Ginny, pushing Hermione onward.
Hermione blew me a kiss and waved. I caught it and waved back.
"Noon," proclaimed Neville firmly. "And not a penny less."
"Fine, whatever." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Call us at noon to get lunch."
"Before noon!" I yelled at them shutting the door to the suite. "Lunch is at noon!"
"Whatever!" Ginny shouted through the door. I heard Hermione laugh, and then I heard Ginny squeal out, "'Mione! Let's go!"
I slipped my hands into my jean pockets and peered over at Neville. He shrugged and said casually, the morning sun pouring in from the window-wall, "Hit a museum or monument?"
"I've always wanted to see the Metropolitan."
"Cool."
***
We ate at a corner bistro: a small, intimate, family-run shop with soup and sandwiches. We sat underneath the shade of a parasol built into the table outside and people-watched. With such a wide array of people, the "Melting Pot of America," we sure did get an eyeful. Everyone from homeless, to businessmen and women, to a guy playing a guitar in his briefs traveled the streets. I hadn't seen so many people in a rush to get somewhere every minute since the times in and around the Ministry, and even then this was far beyond it. Everyone seemed fast, quick responses with little to spare.
Hermione smiled at me from under aviator sunglasses. I had my Ray Bans on and kissed her gently while we waited on a taxi to get us to our next destination from the hotel. We went back to the room to lay down the fourteen kajillion bags that were bought between three measly hours. Crazy. Ginny tried to get Hermione to buy a Louis Vuitton purse like she bought, but Hermione exclaimed it wasn't of her taste. Plus, Hermione didn't really carry around a purse unless we were going long distance. Then, the bag she brought usually stayed somewhere else other than her arm.
Hermione whispered to me, as the taxi drove up to our curb, "I bought some things from Frederick's of Hollywood you might enjoy later."
I grinned and embraced her around the middle before getting into the back of the taxi.
"Do you know where the World Trade Center's are?" Ginny asked, pushing herself up from the backseat and in-between the two front seats. She handed money to the taxi driver who nodded.
"You bet your sweet ass," the driver said, turning his cap around. He grinned at the large tip Ginny gave him.
When Ginny sat back down, she purposely sat on Hermione's lap.
"Oh my! How clumsy!"
We all laughed. Ginny went in to play-snog Hermione, and the driver of the taxi chuckled while looking in the rearview mirror, "And for that show, I'll go more than fast."
Hermione wrapped her arms around Ginny and snuggled into her as the taxi swerved in and out of traffic. I actually had to keep hold of the door to stop from sliding around in the seat. We weren't too far away to begin with, and ended up in front of the world's tallest buildings lickety-split. When the driver slammed on his brakes out in front, I went forward in my seatbelt and had to stop my momentum by putting my hand on the passenger seat.
The cabbie waved us off as he sped away for his next race. I took Hermione in hand and led her, behind Ginny and Neville, between the two Centers. We just sort of stared up into space at how high the buildings went. The windows looked like one blue sea of glass up each side of the square. The sun glinted off at odd angles, and you'd have to move or be blinded from directly looking into it. People would walk by us and look up every once in a while. Suits and people with mobile phones chatted away around us.
Ginny took off with Neville into one of the buildings, and I ran with Hermione right along with them. We made a scene we probably shouldn't have, laughing along the way like kids into an elevator with even more businessmen and women carrying briefcases. We pressed for the very top floor and waited. The elevator mostly cleared, leaving tourists like us for the summit. The wind ripped at us when the doors opened like a sneeze, the powerful burst of atmosphere expanding our lungs. Ginny ran right to the ledge, or as far as we could go with a barricade in the way. Hermione and I were a bit more careful, feeling the cement under our feet wobble.
Ginny yelled out, "I'm the queen of the world!"
I couldn't believe the sight before us. The world became scale models of the real thing. We were right down there, on the streets, and now those buildings we had thought were so far high in the air now became dwarfed. I couldn't see anything relatively human, just the manmade buildings and roads when the structures opened up. I saw the waters around Manhattan Island with Liberty still out there on her own island gazing out towards the horizon.
I slid my hand down Hermione's back and into the jean pocket beside along her rear farthest from me. She tilted into me, twisting her body to meet mine, her feminine peacoat pushing into my side. She put her hand on my leather-clad chest, hidden beneath the jacket, and I caressed her lips. My body tingled at her light kiss, and at the nuzzle and purr she made afterwards. She wrapped her arm around me and I hugged her to me tight. We stood there, together, peering off into the stretch of New York skyline.
***
Hermione lay in the garden tub within our private bathroom. I was in the kitchen pouring some complementary wine we received for purchasing the suite. In one glass, I poured the red wine two-thirds of the way up and did the same for the other. I pushed the cork back down into the neck of the bottle and set it back in the fridge. I think I heard Ginny and Neville fooling around behind closed doors, but I really didn't want to think about it. So, I made white noise up by humming to myself a tune, a lullaby, Claire de Lune, and trotted skillfully with both glasses in hand.
I shut our door behind me with an elbow and my foot. I waltzed passed our humongous king-sized bed, the presidential-ornate dresser and drawers, to the closed door that entered into the lush lavatory. I smelled her even from here, the ripe vanilla leaking out from the space under the door along with some steam. I gently knock on the white, wooden door with my knuckle, making sure not to spill any of the wine on the white carpeting. I could hear a radio on playing classical music in the era of Beethoven.
"It's open…," spoke my angel, soothed and calm.
I somehow managed to grip both necks of the glasses within my finger tips and pried open the door. The steam hit me, making my shirt fasten to my body from the evaporating water and heat. I felt the humidity along my skin and could taste it in my mouth. I shut the door back behind me with the bottom of my shoe and traipsed on over to Hermione in the tub.
She had her head in a concaved section of the rim. Her body, completely covered with water and a layer of suds, remained still. I thought she might be asleep halfway to her until she blinked her eyes open and smiled, closing them again. I grinned at her and placed a glass on the edge. White and black candles were lit, and the scent of lavender and rose mixed in with Hermione's natural vanilla. Every breath of mine immediately aroused me. I'd have to remember this aroma for our own bathroom.
I kneeled down on the floor and took the glass I placed on the edge. I reached over, and when feeling my presence, Hermione blinked open her eyes once more. She smiled at me lazily and retrieved the wine from me. She lifted just enough so the tops of her breasts were exposed, the rest of her body under the water and the soapy suds. She let her head back, her hair one single, wet strand of curtain. She tilted her cup to her mouth and drank from the lip. She made a pleasurable, soft moan and slipped back into the water.
I'd sipped my wine as I watched her, the classical montage filling the room. I skimmed the top of the water with my hand and immediately felt the sweltering, hotness. I couldn't believe how hot she had it. I guessed, with a grin, the "H" on the faucet dial meant "Hell".
I plunged my hand into the aqua, breaking away bubbles. She didn't so much as move when I felt of her slippery leg. I traced the outside contour, and when I got to her knee, moved inward. She went to take another sip and leaned her head towards me, her eyes still closed. I heard her take a breath and let it out slowly when I encroached onto her thigh, my finger tips pressed into her softness.
With my chest against the edge of the garden tub, I felt of her. There, at my fingers, was her tiny tuft of hair. I pushed into it and saw her arch into me, and then felt her rocking gently, so gently that the part of her body above the water I could see never really fidgeted. Her head remained still, but a smile creased her lips. I didn't enter all the way in her, just gradually feeling.
I stroked what I knew was her sweet spot, getting her attention in a gasp. Her smirk grew, and I could see her pearly whites between her lips. She bit her bottom lip and set aside her half-drank wine. Before I could respond, she slipped into the tub and all, water pushing over the side and getting me wet. I lifted my hand and laughed, a cascading waterfall of soap spilling to the floor. Thankfully, we did have wands and the ever-so-useful spongify charm.
The quickness of her plunge paralleled the quickness she came up. Her body splashed out of the water as she swirled to her knees. The water came to her hips, more of it running down the sides, my socks sopping what they could. She raked soap from her eyes to see me with a smirk. The lights of the lavatory shone off her shiny, wet skin. My sight went from her face, to her body. I couldn't help it, a reflex of the male organs. I watched a strip of suds slide between the curves of her breasts and down alongside her flat tummy where it gathered, like the rest, around her hips.
I couldn't stand it. My body needed her, and I was glad she replied just the same. She grabbed my neck and pulled me to her. My glass of wine fell somewhere, but I didn't care. I climbed in the tub with her, and nearly slipped and fell. Her eyes went wide with worry; though, they changed and she giggled when she knew I was okay. She could get my shirt off me, but my jeans were a whole other story. I tried to yank the damn things off, the water having the opposite thought and affect. Unbuttoning and unzipping them was all I could manage, and she didn't care either. She wrapped her legs around me, her arms holding me to her, and I pushed into her.
I don't know if we ever came up for air. All I remember from beginning to end was her tongue lashing around at mine eagerly as if I were some, newly discovered candy lollipop. I would thrust into her, smacking her lightly into the tub, and more water would splash over. I felt her thighs clench around my torso, and heard her whisper my name. I felt her shake and her head tilt away from my mouth and onto my shoulder. She dug her nails into wherever she could and bit down on me to suppress the urge to moan loudly.
I felt the onset of my release and pushed my face into her cheek. I clenched my teeth and drove into her hard until I groaned, an ecstasy of pure pleasure leaving my body. I fell into Hermione, catching myself on the edge of the tub with my hands at times. I caressed her chest, her throat, and then her mouth. I flipped over in the tub and put my back to her when we finished. I laid my head back against her shoulder and slipped down on her. She caught me around me chest and massaged me, running her hands along whatever she could feel.
I leaned my forehead into her, and she tilted her head upon mine. I fell asleep in her arms with a delightfully satisfied smile.
***
Eleven-thirty PM.
A copious ocean of people from all corners of the world sang along with the bands and performers set up along Times Square. A blanket of cold, the temperature dropping significantly when the sun died on the horizon, had us all bundled up together. You'd think with all the warm bodies there wouldn't be a problem getting warm, but the chill leaked in. We were given these "2000" neon green glasses with advertisements on them. The two zeros in the middle cut out for our eyes.
Lights on the ball above the One Times Square building pulsated and flipped, acting like a kaleidoscope of colours and movement. Flat screen televisions, which once were advertisements themselves, were now broadcasting various New Years Eve celebrations from around the world for the millennium. I had my arms around Hermione as we watched Big Ben strike midnight on one of the screens below a flashing Coke-Cola sign. Beside the screen, a template of an advert flittered in the wind for The Lion King on Broadway. The media ran rampant around us with cameras in people's faces. Reporters asked them questions I couldn't understand, and didn't really want to, with Hermione's lips on mine as midnight here in New York grew closer.
The crowd of millions cheered when the digital clock below the ball struck fifteen minutes and counting. I looked to my left to see Ginny, with Neville wrapped around her, jumping with the people at the clock. Her smiling face underneath the over-sized "2000" glasses. Neville gave her a kiss in the moment.
I reached over and smacked Neville on the shoulder, "Hey, shouldn't you guys wait until midnight for the likes of that?" I had my arms secure around Hermione's chest tight with her arms holding mine against her sanguine-coloured peacoat. She'd run her fingers along the black leather of my jacket.
Neville glanced up into the clear sky and chuckled, pushing me back, "Says you guys!"
"Maybe you all should invest in an oxygen machine one of these days?" Ginny laughed, leaning into Hermione. "Isn't this amazing!!!"
Hermione screamed over another uproar from the crowd, the clock going into ten minutes and counting, "This is unbelievable!!!"
I felt a tapping on my shoulder and turned around to get a face-full of camera. I had to back away from the man carrying it, turning Hermione as she wanted to see too. Talk about surprise, not to mention invasion of privacy.
"Hey guys!" the reporter in a trench coat said. "We're from MTV and just wanted to ask you a few questions before you all ring in the millennium with us here in the Big Apple!"
I bent toward the reporter and asked, my voice becoming a bit mute from the screams of the crowd, "Is this Live?"
"Yeah!" shouted the reporter in my ear. "Just a few questions, that's all!"
"Okay!" I sort of made a wave towards the camera and Hermione waved with a smile. Of course, Ginny bounded beside us and waved ecstatically with Neville behind her.
"So, where are you guys from?!" the reporter is going to lose his voice by the end of the night.
"London!!!" Ginny yelled into the camera. She came off a bit drunk, but hadn't a drink within her.
"London? Wow! Is the Big Apple treating you well while you're visiting here?!"
I nodded and heard Hermione say to the MTV reporter, "New York is incredible! I love it!"
"Can we ask you guys one more question before letting you all countdown to year 2000?!"
"Sure!" I had the biggest smile on my face. The people around us began waving into the camera when they realized it was pointing in our direction.
"How are you going to ring in the New Year with your girl? Can we see a kiss?!"
Hermione smirked her little smug smirk. She slid her hand along my neck and held me there, the slight chill of her finger tips charging the warmth of my neck and causing the hair on my neck to stand on end. I twisted around her body, squeezing her tight against me, my head lowering above her right shoulder. I found her lips and kissed her hard. The crowd behind us cheered.
"And there you have it folks!" stated the reporter happily into the camera. "That's quite a kiss to get you into the New Year! Back to you Carson!"
The reporter shook my hand when Hermione freed me of her lips. The cameraman took the machine from his shoulders and shook my hand, too. "Thanks," he said. "And you kids have a good ringing into the New Year!"
"You too!" Hermione and I said in unison.
"Harry! Hermione!!" We caught back up in the moment after the MTV personnel left, our lips finding each other once more. Someone was pulling at my leather jacket, and I gazed the direction to see Ginny clamoring towards the ball behind us. Hermione and I turned together to see the clock hit one minute and counting.
We heard announcements from all over, around us, in tandem with each other say in so many words over intercoms, "All right, folks! Let's start this new millennium off right! Countdown with us!"
The people around us chanted, "Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…"
I squeezed Hermione when I felt her pull at me. She fidgeted, and my heart raced. Being right there with my true love, my forever, in the moment where everyone in our lifetime will remember this night was magical. Beyond words, exciting, exhilarating and a little scary at the same time. I glanced down at Hermione who looked at me. She bit her bottom lips, and then smirked. "Are you ready?" I asked, smiling as we all listened to the counting around us.
"Thirteen, twelve, eleven…"
"TEN!! NINE!!! EIGHT!!!!" screamed Ginny. She was leaping feet into the air, shaking Neville in her jumping. Her arms waved wildly in the air. Air horns and the like started up from the people surrounding.
"Five! Four! Three!" Hermione and I counted in tune with each other. As if in slow motion, Hermione flipped around in front of me. I let my arms loose, her arms sliding around my neck. She tightened her grip, standing straight with the clock between us. I glided my hand to cradle her head and I heard the masses shout-"TWO!!! ONE!!!"
Hermione, her soft hair in my fingers, her lips tasting my own, kissed me tenderly. Confetti rained upon us from above. I pressed her into me with intensity, our mouths together. I moved the hand I held her head with down to her shoulders. I ran my hand along her backside as I felt her hands tug at my jacket, trying their best to grip at my skin beneath.
The music of Frank Sinatra's New York, New York sang out throughout the city.
I felt her wobble, and I smiled. I'm a pretty good kisser. She slipped from me suddenly, and my smile faded instantly. I tried to hold her, collapsing backwards. I didn't have the support I thought, watching her in my arms drop to the road below us.
"HERMIONE!!!!" I screamed out. The crowd was so loud, my shout drowned in their superior voices. I fell to my knees, holding Hermione from the cold cement. People around us backed away, noticing her having passed out. I turned around and everything became a blur. I saw Ginny's eyes slowly focus on us from her kiss with Neville, and then her hands push Neville away. She ran to my side as I called for her. "GINNY!!!"
The people in our vicinity gasped as if they were all one body with one mouth. I looked on at Hermione, my life, her eyes closed in my arms and limp. I couldn't tell if she was breathing, and I started crying, tears streaming down my cheeks. I heard Ginny call out for help amongst the pandemonium of the cacophonous twilight. Her voice couldn't compete with the ear-piercing noise and tumultuous vocals of Sinatra.
***
They'd already shoved the IV in her arm before people in white coats swarmed her body on the stretcher. I ran with them through the hospital as fast as they were going. My mind buzzed, and I felt deathly alone. My emotions were gone but the negatives, flashes of Hermione when I could see her being prepped on the way towards more double-doors and more double-doors. People who were in the hallway, more white coats and visitors, I assumed, stepped towards the walls when the stretcher and the doctors on Hermione blared on by in posthaste.
To say I was sad would be an understatement. To say I was upset was an understatement. To say my life turned to ash before my very eyes was an understatement. Ginny and Neville had to take a cab. I was the only one allowed in the ambulance as Hermione was rushed to Bellevue. I heard the doctors about her body, but I couldn't make out their quick and precise conversations. All I could see was Hermione, her eyes closed, her mouth without her smile, stoic and ghostly pale.
The white of the hospital blinded me. The strung fluorescent lights on the ceiling had me to blink, squint, after each turn in the hallway towards the ER. That's the only part of the nurse's barrage of questioning I understood when we got through the front doors that we were heading to the ER. She kept on me asking questions, too, and all I could really say, or all I could say, was "I don't know."
"Has she ever passed out like this before?"
"I don't know."
"Does she have a history of heart problems?"
"I don't know."
"Does her family have a history of heart attacks?"
"I don't know!"
A white coat stopped me before I could go any further. Hermione was wheeled into more double-doors and out of my sight. I fought to continue with her, but the white coat had me quite firm.
"You're not allowed any further than this, sir!"
"Hermione!!!" My throat burned along with my scream. I tried to pry his hands off me. "I need to be with her! Get off me!!"
"Security!" shouted the white coat. I felt more hands subdue me and the mumblings as my vision began to black out.
I felt myself falling. I heard my name and turned my head in the direction of the calling. I saw Ginny, with Neville behind her, running at me down the hallway. I heard Ginny scream at the people holding me, and I tried to catch myself with my hand on the wall, but collapsed. My knees hit the hard ground. I felt a twinge in my core, acid erupting from my throat, and I vomited. I was overcome with the blackness I fought so hard against. My head smacked into the wall, and my face landed in my own lukewarm sickness.
{Inspirations for the Chapter: Duran Duran throughout the love scenes and Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles. I looped Strawberry Fields Forever over the majority of the fic, especially during the scenes around New York and during Hermione's collapse. The song became thematic}
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