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"You can't be serious!" Hermione blurted.
"Why not?" Padma replied far too casually, leaning back into Anthony's hold. She was perched on her boyfriend's lap, her hands clutching a vial of bright, lilac-colored liquid that seemed to glow ominously in the dim light of the common room.
Beside her, her twin giggled merrily from where she was seated on Neville's lap, his hands looped around her waist.
"There's no harm in it, is there?" Padma pressed. "Now that we've all paired off, this will simply make for a very fun night for everyone... unless, of course, someone is secretly disloyal."
Hermione leant sideways against Harry, whose arm was around her shoulders. It was true, all sixteen of the "eighth-years" who had returned to Hogwarts to have a proper final year of school after the war had paired off, becoming eight couples. In theory, all that the lust potion Padma had procured would do was amplify their already-existing desire for their respective partners.
"It could make for a fun test of fidelity," said Anthony, his hand absently resuming massaging Padma's back as soon as she leant forwards again.
"Very fun," Parvati chirped, placing her hands over Neville's at her waist.
"As if you need it," Padma commented wryly to her sister. Nev and Parv were the newest of the couples and were still very much in that phase where they couldn't keep their hands off each other.
"I'm all for it," said Lisa from the adjacent couch, "just so long as it doesn't make me desire a cock." Daphne giggled into her shoulder.
"It won't." Padma returned her attention to Hermione. "There's no harm in it," she repeated, "but you don't have to participate if you don't want to."
"Or if you're not sure that Harry is faithful," Anthony added.
"Of course I am," said Harry, although he knew that Anthony was joking.
* * *
"We don't have to take part," he said once they were alone in their room. "We could just stay in here all night and do homework."
Hermione sighed, looking around. The room was divided in two. They had taken the Gryffindor-scarlet curtains from around their beds and created a makeshift wall across the middle of the dormitory, giving them each a larger private space. The room was bigger than the tent they had shared for so long last year, and it was nice to have a bit more privacy here than she did when they were on the run, but she liked sharing a room with him and being able to talk to him whenever she pleased.
The dormitory swapping had happened steadily over the course of the term as the couples paired off. All of the "eighth-years" had been moved into a single common room at the start of the year instead of crowding into their respective houses, and Hermione appreciated seeing her Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff friends more often and not having to worry about younger students interrupting her studies. Eight dormitories branched off from the large, multicolored common room, and after the Ravenclaws immediately rearranged themselves so that Anthony and Padma, who had already been dating for years, could share a room, it just kept happening over and over again each time a new couple emerged. Now, each of the rooms was occupied by a couple, and Hermione and Mandy made sure that everyone perfected the Imperturbable Charm so that whatever sounds were made inside the dormitories couldn't be heard in the common room outside.
Hermione couldn't blame them, of course. After living in darkness and fear here through all of last year and losing friends in the battle that ended it, everyone was embracing their newly restored freedom and conscious about how fleeting life could be, and making the most of it.
And she liked living with Harry, even though they weren't actually dating. It was a ruse that they decided on together before the start of the year in order to avoid unwanted attention from suitors. Harry was more famous than ever and Hermione was now rather famous herself for her own role in the war, and neither of them wanted to be asked out again and again by people who saw them as the ultimate trophies of their respective sexes. It was Hermione's idea that they pretend to date each other instead, and Harry readily agreed, and some very public affection on the Hogwarts Express ensured that the gossip spread from one end of the train to the other and everyone believed that they were together by the time they all reached the castle.
And pretending to date Harry was rather wonderful. He held her hand between classes and gave her warm, pleasant forehead kisses and placed his arm around her shoulders when they sat and talked with their friends in the common room. And their own conversations were as easy as ever, their friendship just as effortless, with no awkwardness inserted as a result of the act they were performing in public.
She did, of course, have to suppress the occasional stray dream that turned their ruse into "reality," but she'd had him as a best friend for seven years now and was very well versed at suppressing stray dreams.
"I don't just want to stay in here all night," she told him, recognizing the irony of her being the one who didn't want to stay in and study. "I'm... curious about how things will go."
"Want to catch all the gossip?" he quipped.
"No, just..." She shrugged defensively, knowing that her nosiness was indeed a part of why she wanted to be there when her friends took the lust potion. "I'm also curious about how the potion would affect me," she admitted.
He sobered. "You are?"
"Yes. I mean, we're not actually together, and I'm not particularly interested in anyone at the moment. So, what will the potion do to me, do you think?"
He shrugged. "You don't think it's risky? I mean, some of the blokes here are... I'm sure you find them handsome."
"No more handsome than you are."
His face reddened slightly, and it was rather adorable.
"But I guess that's why you shouldn't take it," she added. "Most of the other witches here are far more desirable than I am, and there's no telling whom you might—"
"That isn't true," he said at once. "I highly doubt that potion would make me look at anyone other than you."
She didn't believe him, but she felt highly tempted to put his claim to the test, despite the risk to their charade. "We're both going to take this potion tonight, aren't we?"
* * *
Sixteen vials of the lilac liquid were spread out across the enlarged coffee table, and the eighth-years gathered around. Padma and Parvati sat on the center couch, their boyfriends on either side of them, presiding over the process.
"So, we're all doing this?" asked Terry, who was sitting on the floor and using Justin's legs as a backrest.
"We'll forgo it," said Blaise, his arm around Tracey. "We'll keep an eye on you all and make sure that no one starts stripping before you've gone off to your rooms."
Daphne arched a brow. "Do you not trust yourself with the potion, Blaise?" She was still the only person who could joke with her fellow Slytherins without risking any traces of lingering interhouse awkwardness, but Hermione was hopeful that that would change over the course of the year.
Blaise shot her a haughty look. "I'm perfectly trustworthy where Tracey is concerned, but we decided together that it would be best if we looked out for you silly lot once you take these potions."
"We did," Tracey affirmed. "We don't want you all feeling awkward in the morning because of what you might see each other doing tonight, as amusing as that would be for us."
"That's probably for the best," Hermione agreed, nodding at the Slytherins. She and Harry could probably offer to fulfill that role, since the potion wouldn't have them throwing themselves at each other like it might do with the real couples, but, then again, she and Harry didn't know yet how exactly the potion would affect them.
"Thanks, Granger," said Blaise. "So, you all can get on with it, then."
Everyone exchanged glances, and it was Parvati who reached forward and took the first vial, with Neville following her lead. Everyone else did the same.
"Bottoms up," said Michael, clinking his vial with Mandy's before they both drank.
Hermione took a deep breath, staring at the faintly-glowing lilac potion in the vial she was now holding. She glanced at Harry, who glanced back at her, and the compassion in his emerald eyes encouraged her. She downed the potion, and he did the same.
Unlike other potions, the effect wasn't instantaneous. Rather, it built up slowly, becoming more evident in all of them as they sat around and chatted. Neville and Parvati became even more handsy than usual. Terry and Justin's banter grew more overtly playful. Mandy started idly toying with Michael's forearm, glancing at it more and more regularly, while Susan began tugging lightly on Ernie's fingers.
Hermione didn't catch any change in herself until she felt Harry's hand start idly stroking her side, and she realized that she was leaning so far into him that she was practically lying on top of him on the couch, not that he seemed to mind it at all. Their eyes met and he smiled at her, and she felt her face grow hot.
Oh.
It was when Parvati moved to plant herself on Neville's lap, her hips squarely over his, that everything started to escalate more rapidly. Blaise and Tracey intervened as the newest couple began snogging, sending them off to their room, but several of the other couples were quick to do the same. The numbers in the common room quickly dwindled.
"Do you want to go to our room?" Harry whispered, his warm breath washing over Hermione's neck. The words ignited a burning flame within her that melted away all the walls she'd placed around her suppressed dreams.
"Yes," she breathed, quickly climbing off of him. Her legs were a bit shaky beneath her, her body putting far too much of its focus into anticipating what was to come, but she helped him up and put his arm around her shoulders as they both walked rather rapidly to the privacy of their room.
When the door was shut and his lips were on hers, reality changed. Everything that they had pretended in public over the course of the term became as real to them as it was to everyone else. They had only been pretending to pretend, and now the façade was dropping and what was behind it was still very much the friendship they both relied so heavily on, but also so much more than that.
He was slow to take off her clothes, staring at every inch of her skin as he revealed it. She had never had his patience, and tore off his attire until he was left in nothing but his black boxers with a very evident bulge in the front. The sight of it was what brought on her first hesitation, as she was very much in uncharted territory, but the potion spurred her onwards when he tugged her toward his bed.
* * *
She awoke feeling very warm, not in the same pleasant way as last night, but not in an unpleasant way, either. There was a heavy weight beside her on the bed, which she immediately recognized as the body of her best friend... his entirely naked body, as evidenced by the fact that her hand was currently wrapped around his bare and rigid cock.
Keeping said hand where it was, she rolled over to face him, feeling the skin of her lower belly pull a bit where his cum splattered across it last night while she stroked him, while his fingers were inside her. They didn't go all the way, both knowing despite the influence of the potion that they wanted their first time to be special, to be purely them, without any outside influence amplifying their lust.
Not that anything was really needed to amplify their desire for each other once they let themselves recognize it.
"I've been dreaming about this," he told her while his fingers were pleasuring her.
"Me too," she admitted, the walls she'd built around said dreams long since having disintegrated into nothing.
Their charade hadn't been a charade at all, and they were only fooling themselves by believing it was just an act. It was weird to think that they were the last two people in Wizarding Britain to know that they were actually a couple, but, well, there was very little about their lives that wasn't weird.
Blinking her eyes open, she gazed at him in the morning light. God, he was handsome, and her desire for him was still just as intense despite the potion long since having worn off.
She felt ridiculous for even wondering how the potion would affect her and Harry last night, for convincing herself that it would affect them differently from how it affected all of the other couples. That had been entirely a result of her denial.
But she wasn't in denial anymore, and she had lost time to make up for. Leaning in, she softly kissed his lips, and smiled when a little hum emerged from his throat in response.
"H'mione?"
"You'd better hope so."
He blinked his eyes open, and smiled when they focused enough to make out her face in front of his.
"Good morning."
"Good morning," he replied, his smile becoming a bit goofy. "Last night wasn't a dream."
"No, it wasn't, although you may have continued it in your dreams if you've still got this." She lightly squeezed the part of him that was still very hard in her hand.
"That happens every morning."
"That's good to know." She kissed him again, and he kissed her back. Releasing his cock, she pressed herself against him, and the appendage fit itself between her thighs, just below where she really wanted it.
"I want to wake up with you like this every morning," she told him.
"That sounds wonderful."
She hummed her agreement into their next kiss.
Soon, she was rolling onto her back, partly from her own effort and partly from his. He moved above her, and she opened her legs for him. His fingers trailed down her belly, but paused when they reached the stains that he left on her skin last night when he erupted. "I'm sorry about this."
"Don't be." She caught his hand with hers and moved it further down, moaning softly as his fingers glided along the hot and needy flesh between her legs.
She gasped when they entered her. It still felt so foreign, given how much larger his fingers were than her own.
But she wanted something even larger. "No," she told him, pulling his hand back away from where she'd brought it. He went tense, thinking he'd done something wrong, and she kissed him to banish the thought. "I want you."
"You do?"
"Obviously."
"I mean, right now?"
"Yes." Reaching down, she again wrapped her hand around his cock, feeling its rigidness and size and forcing down her trepidation. "I want you."
He kissed her softly, but his eyes were still concerned. "This isn't the potion?"
"No, it's entirely me." She tugged gently on him, and he moved with her until he was pressed flush between her legs. She lightly ground herself along him, gasping at the intensity as her body burned even hotter.
But with his body now pressing fully against hers, she became aware of another sensation: the fullness of her bladder. She paused, desperately not wanting to ruin the moment but also not knowing how much the feeling of needing the loo would ruin the feeling of him being inside her for the first time. And, given that the act of making love would inevitably jostle that whole area quite a bit, she was very keen not to have an accident in the middle of it.
"Wait," she told him, and he went tense all over again, so she kissed him again. "I'm sorry, I need..." She gestured in the direction of the loo, not that he could see which way her hand was going.
"What?"
"I need..." She gestured again, equally fruitlessly, and huffed. "I need the loo."
"Oh." He quickly moved off of her, but her body barely cooled at all, the fire now stoked as much by embarrassment as by desire. "I'm sorry," she repeated, getting out of bed and running to the bathroom.
Inside, she sat down heavily on the toilet, feeling utterly mortified. She was supposed to be having her first time right now, right this very second, but instead, her body was yielding to its more basic needs.
She sat there for a long while as her humiliation built up. She always did this, found a way to ruin perfect moments with friends and now with her first lover. She had ruined every moment that could have led to a friendship back in primary school, and got off to that same start at Hogwarts before a troll, of all things, intervened and saved her in its attempt to kill her. And now, with her best friend, her first real boyfriend, her first lover, she had ruined their moment, and it would forever be an awkward thing hanging over their heads and coming between them.
A soft knock on the door startled her out of her self-flagellation. "Hermione?"
"Just a minute!" She couldn't hog the bathroom all morning, of course. He needed a turn. Quickly finishing up, she emerged to find him standing outside, still naked but no longer aroused.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes," she replied quickly, "go ahead." Turning away from him, she disappeared behind the curtain that blocked off her side of the room, and heard the bathroom door shut again.
With a groan, she threw herself down face-first onto her bed, which went untouched last night and smelt much fresher than his did. There, she tried to make the world fade away, as that felt much easier than making her embarrassment disappear.
All of a sudden, she felt a pair of hands on her arse. "I really like your arse," said her best friend.
"What?" But her voice was completely muffled by her quilt.
"I never got to say that before. I'm allowed to now, aren't I?"
She lifted her head and stared at him over her shoulder. He was bent slightly so that each of his hands could cup one of her arse cheeks, and looking at her with a particularly cheeky expression.
"You didn't ruin anything, Hermione."
God, he knew her far too well. "I didn't?"
"No." Leaning down further, he placed a kiss on her back. "Last I checked, we're both human beings, magic or no magic."
"But..."
"And I've decided that we're going to be one of those very cheesy couples that has an extremely romantic first time, when we're both ready. I don't want to rush this."
She felt the urge to protest, but reconsidered. "I don't either," she admitted, "but we already have quite a lot of time to make up for."
"Maybe, but we also have quite a lot of time in front of us still." He kissed her lips. "That was the whole point of surviving, after all."
She kissed him back. "I've wanted this for a really long time," she admitted to both him and herself.
"So have I."
* * *
"There you two are." Parvati shot them a very cheeky grin as they sat down across from her and Neville in the Great Hall. "Did you have fun last night?"
Hermione smiled at her boyfriend, who smiled softly back at her. "We did, yes."
"Good." Parv leaned closer and lowered her voice. "It was about time the ruse became real, wasn't it?"
Hermione gaped at her. "You knew?"
Parvati gestured to the Gryffindor table between them. "We've been sitting here together for over seven years. We know the two of you pretty well by now."
Hermione and Harry exchanged stunned looks.
"That was the whole point of the lust potion, after all," Parv continued, "to get you two to realize that you were only lying to yourselves, not to the rest of us. We've all been seeing what was between you two for years now."
The couple turned their stunned expressions back towards her. But then Harry started chuckling under his breath, and Hermione did the same.
"Thanks for that," she muttered, beaming at her longtime roommate. Past her, at the Ravenclaw table, she caught Padma's eye and received a wink.
"Anytime."