Trials of Affliction and Light Sleeping

 

Chapter 16 (epilogue)

 

Hermione was standing in the bathroom, getting ready for bed.  It was the first May after her graduation,
which meant that it was once again the Veela’s mating
season.  This wouldn’t be much of an
issue if Hermione weren’t still currently dating a Veela.  She rinsed her mouth after brushing her
teeth, getting rid of the foul taste of Polyjuice
potion, and put the empty cup back next to the sink.  Hermione briefly ran her hand through the
short black hair that momentarily graced her scalp and exited the
bathroom.  Taking Polyjuice
Potion had become a nightly ritual since last week, when Draco’s sleep
deprivation had kicked in again.  In
April, Harry had especially gotten himself a haircut so he could give the
cut-off pieces to Hermione to make Polyjuice.  She still wasn’t allowed to do any peeking
while in his body since Harry had made her promise not to.

As had Luna.

As had Draco. 

Hermione really didn’t know what the big deal was, since it wasn‘t as if
she hadn’t seen Harry naked before.  She
still couldn’t help but blush vigorously at remembering that little incident in
the Gryffindor locker room. 

Burned on her retina, that was.

When Harry had first found out about her and Draco, Hermione had known
that he was going to be upset about it all... for a whole number of reasons,
the one more disturbing than the other. 
But Harry actually got over the initial shock rather quickly, mostly due
to Luna’s influence.  Luna had let her
know that she had a bit of a stake in Hermione and Draco sticking
together.  She didn’t find the thought of
Draco showing up on her boyfriend’s doorstep to snag him away all that
alluring, so she somewhat preferred having Hermione’s support when May arrived
again. 

         It
turned out Luna wasn’t all that bad.  She
was a bit weird, but very clever.  One
day when they were exchanging cooling spells, Luna had casually announced that
she knew a Freezing Spell so forceful that it could turn a train engine into an
ice cube.  An ice cube that was so cold
it would take the hottest Heating charm over an hour to make the engine
operational again.       

         When it had sunken in on what that
little piece of information meant, Hermione had instantly put “Send thank-you
card to Luna” on her ‘to do’-list.

         Surprisingly, Ron had been more upset
than Harry was.  Ginny had let Hermione
know that Ron had had a crush on her for a while now, so she could quite
understand his reaction.  He had been
angry with Hermione for months, until one day he had shown up on her doorstep
telling her that he wasn’t happy with her decision but that he was going to try
to deal with it. 

         Apparently Ginny had knocked some sense
into him.

         Literally, judging by the humungous
black eye he had been sporting at the time of his conversion.

         Someone who had been equally angry
about their relationship was Draco’s mother. 
She also possessed Veela-blood, and Veela’s were quite known for their vicious tempers.  The thought of her son being in a serious
relationship with a Muggleborn was just plain
unacceptable.  But later on, her anger
had dimmed down for some reason and had evolved into grudging acceptance.  Hermione had the suspicion that Draco had
casually informed his mother about his Veela-status,
along with who his mate really was.

         Narcissa was
now probably comforting herself with the fact that Hermione was a girl... and not
Harry Potter.

In the wife of a Death Eater’s eyes, anyone is better suited to
date your son than Harry Potter is.  Even a Muggleborn.

Not that Hermione would say it aloud, but she was rather relieved to
know that Draco’s father was still in prison. 
Narcissa was the kind of Pureblood who
preferred all Muggles and Muggleborns
to kindly lay down and die, while Lucius wouldn’t
‘kindly prefer’ and wouldn’t hesitate to take matters into his own hands.  Therefore, his incarceration (and therefore
his obliviousness to whom his son was romantically involved with) was somewhat
of a relief to Hermione. 

So now, she had taken her residence in her boyfriend’s apartment since
the beginning of May to help him through his troubles again.  Draco had repeatedly asked her to permanently
move in with him, but she had cordially refused; wanting to learn to stand on
her own two feet before she did that.  

Most people would probably find it
a bit strange that Hermione didn’t find it insulting that for one month a year
her boyfriend found the thought of sleeping with her repulsive.  And above that; instead
wanted to shag her best friend, who was male.  Hermione knew it was just Draco’s hormones
acting up, so why would she think anything of it?  What was frustrating on the other hand, was
to see Draco walking around in constant arousal and watching him touching
himself all day long.

Before breakfast.

After breakfast.

During breakfast.

Draco was making Hermione almost as
frisky as he himself was.

A vibrator really is a
girl’s best friend. 

Hermione moved into the bedroom and found Draco already waiting for her,
his body casually sprawled over the bed. 
His hair was still curly, since he didn’t bother to use the Sleakeasy’s hair potion when he didn’t plan on leaving the
apartment.  And ever since Hermione had
expressed her liking for it, he even left it curly more often.

“Say anything about me looking hot and I’m sleeping on the couch”
Hermione warned sarcastically.

“I wouldn’t dare” Draco answered, but still couldn’t help looking at her
with hungry eyes.  It was a bit odd, but
she could deal with it as long as he kept looking at her in the same lusty way
when it wasn’t May and she was in her own body.

“Can’t you just mate with me?” 
Draco asked as Hermione laid herself beside him on the bed.  “You’re in Potter’s body, you have his
equipment.  It could work.”

“No, it wouldn’t” Hermione said dismissingly.  “At most, it would give a momentary
satisfaction.  The sexual release would
probably ware off at the same time as the Polyjuice
does.”

“So?  It would save me from this
for about half an hour” Draco said, gesturing at his prominent erection.  “And can you honestly say that you’re not at
least a bit curious about what it’s like to have sex like a man?”

A moment of silence passed between the two of them. 

“You actually just considered shagging me, didn’t you?” Draco said with
merriment. 

“No, I didn’t” Hermione denied sheepishly.  She couldn’t help but let her mind drift to
what it would be like, but she never actually would consider doing it.  It would just be weird, being in Harry’s body and all. 

“Yes, you did!”  Draco
retorted. 

“Draco, don’t touch me like that!”  Hermione yelped as Draco affectionately
caressed her side.  She already had a rough
time since he couldn’t sleep with her for over a month, she really didn’t need
to be reminded of that.  Especially
not when she was in Harry’s body, of which
both the original as the Polyjuice-version possessed
a history of getting spontaneous reactions to Draco’s touch (something she had
vowed never to tell Harry about).

“Why?”  Draco asked, pinching her
sides.  “Getting exited?”

“Watch it, or I’m mating with you!” 
Hermione warned.

“As if you would” Draco huffed playfully.

In response, Hermione forcefully flipped Draco over to his side and
spooned herself behind him while trying to come up with a bunch of un-sexy
thoughts. 

“Yes, I do believe that that’s the correct position to start out with”
Draco said jokingly.

“Shut up and go to sleep!”  Hermione
groaned.  She knew Draco was just
teasing, since she was aware of what his thoughts were on being bottomised.  She also
knew how much he enjoyed seeing her blush with embarrassment.

She felt his body relaxing against her and noticed his breathing
becoming heavier, indicating that he was drifting off into sleep.

Hermione smirked when thinking that tomorrow she would be having
the last laugh.  Living with a spoiled
pest like Draco had made her quite used to enforcing payback.  She made a mental note to take a picture of
Draco’s face when tomorrow he’d discover the new item she was going to put on
their shopping list. 

Lubricant. 

 

******THE END******