What I\'ve Always Known

Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the plot.


Excellent Timing Girls


Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her hard wooden desk, willing Transfiguration to hurry. It was the period before lunch and she was ravenous. The mornings studying had taken it out of her, and all day she had felt there was something she had forgotten. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the feeling was so intense that it was enough to make her scream. And that’s exactly what she did when exactly what she had forgotten came to light, precisely ten seconds later.

“Ms. Granger, Whatever is the matter!? “Professor McGonagall asked, straightening her glasses that had slide down her nose
when she jumped along with the entire class, startled by Hermione’s shriek. Hermione lowered her hand from her mouth that had stifled her scream.

“Professor, may I please be excused?” She choked out, trying to control her flaming cheeks.

“Are you sure you are alright Ms. Granger?” Said Professor McGonagall.

“Quite.” Hermione squeaked, before seizing her bag and practically sprinting from the class. Scolding herself mentally, she flew down corridors, up cases of stairs, until she arrived, red faced and wheezing, outside the Infirmary.

Straightening her robes, Hermione pushed open the door, to find only Madam Pomfrey occupying the large white room. She was bent over a hospital bed, waving her wand over several places, no doubt removing unpleasant stains. Hermione cleared her throat slightly to make her presence known, as Madam Pomfrey seemed to be singing slightly under her breath. Madam Pomfrey started and turned around.

“Oh Ms Granger, dear child, you are impossibly red in the face. Are you alright?”

Hermione imagined she looked pretty strained in her position. Who wouldn’t be?

“Madam Pomfrey, I was just wondering…well I seem to have gotten myself into a rather awkward situation. I’m not quite sure how to ask you-“

“An embarrassing question? You can’t possibly think I haven’t heard them all before, Ms Granger.” Madam Pomfrey smiled at Hermione as Hermione settled herself on a hospital bed.

“Madam, I need to know what you have in the way of contraceptive potions.” Hermione stared at her kneecaps as her cheeks burned a brilliant shade of red for what felt like the billionth time that hour. Madam Pomfrey hardly batted an eyelash.

“Prior or following?” She asked.

“Following…” Hermione’s voice was barely louder than a whisper. She flinched as Madam Pomfrey clucked her tongue disapprovingly and swept towards the potion cabinet.

“Seeing this more and more in Hogwarts, careless hormonal teenagers-“Hermione’s eyes nearly dropped out of her head”-everywhere I turn I have students asking for pregnancy potions.” She dug through the cabinet vigorously until she recovered the desired potion. She returned with a small sigh.

“Although, I am happy your generation has the smarts to practice safe sex.” She handed a small green bottle to Hermione.

Hermione cradled the cool glass in her palm and stared down at the violent blue label. Scrawled in Madam Pomfreys hand was the letters ‘EFCP”, which Hermione guessed stood for ‘Emergency Following Contraceptive Potion’.

“Now,” Madam Pomfrey didn’t even glance around as the door opened and another patient entered. Undeterred, Madam Pomfrey didn’t hesitate or lower her voice. “Take this tonight at dinner, and just in case a baby was conceived, this will eliminate the pregnancy. I’m guessing this took place last night?”

“Yes,” Hermione answered as quietly as possible, finding it impossible not to mind the extra presence in the room.

“Very well, you may-“

*CRASH*

Hermione and Madam Pomfrey both jumped as what sounded like about a ton of glass and metal hit the floor and exploded behind them. Hermione twisted around just in time to see robes whipping around the open infirmary door. Faded, tattered robes she recognized well. Robes she knew to belong to Ronald Weasley.

Seconds stretched on for days, as the full impact of the situation hit Hermione in the heart, and she found it hurt to breathe, to think, to simply be.

“Well, what on earth was that about?” Madam Pomfrey broke the weighty silence left in Ron’s wake. The bell to sound the end of the morning’s classes rang through the castle suddenly.

“Excuse me Madam Pomfrey; I must get to the library. Thank you for the potion.” Hermione yelled over her shoulder on her way out the door.

Hermione clutched her bag to her side as she shouldered her way through the crowds in the corridors. Somehow, time sped up, and Hermione was in the library, at the very table her and Draco had made love at yesterday. Sighing, she thunked her head down on the table and suppressed a groan.

How could she have been so stupid? She had been so caught up in the moment that she had completely forgotten to cast a contraceptive charm. She had remembered to slip her panties into Draco’s bag however, she thought with an evil grin. The red lacy pair she knew he would love. But, would she really need to take the potion? I mean, it was only their fourth or fifth time. Maybe nothing happened.

‘Better safe than sorry’ Hermione thought dully. Banging her head on the table a few times for discipline, she then straightened
and took her History of Magic homework, wanting to check the answers before handing it in after lunch.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


The afternoon classes passed by like a foggy daydream. Hermione kept her head down in her classes, feeling sure everyone knew what she had done; what potion was hidden in her bag. Which of course was ridiculous, since no one but Ron had seen her, and Harry said that Ron had not said a word since returning from ‘the bathroom’ in Transfiguration.

Finally dinner arrived, and Hermione practically threw herself down at the table, in between Neville and George Weasley. Trying to appear as normal as possible, Hermione dug through her bag for the potion, knowing she was going to be questioned.

“What’s that Hermione?” Asked Neville as if on cue as Hermione emerged from under the table.

“I’ve been feeling a bit peaky lately; this is just a fever prevention potion.” She answered, promptly and nonchalantly. Both Neville and George nodded and went back to her dinners as she pulled the stopper out of the small bottle. Taking a deep breath, she knocked back the entire contents of the bottle, feeling it slide down her throat, burning and stinging as it went. She dropped the empty bottle back into her bag as she coughed and spluttered into her other hand.

“Here,” George handed her a goblet of pumpkin juice and she glanced at him appreciatively. She took her hand away from her mouth long enough to get a couple gulps down her throat and coughed a few times more.

Wiping her streaming eyes, she set the goblet back down and rubbed her throat.

“Painful isn’t it?” George asked. “I’ve had to take Fever Prevention Draught before. Nasty stuff that is.”

Hermione blinked only once in confusion before remembering her fib.

“Yes, but I would rather take it and not become sick.” She replied. Hermione reached out and dished herself some casserole before turning to talk to Harry, who was sitting across the table, next to an oddly distant Ron.

Near the end of their meal, Hermione started to experience a tingling in her lower belly, and she grimaced. ‘So I should have taken it after all …’she thought with some guilt, and some relief.

The evening saw her back in the library, only this time for a different purpose. Heads and prefects were allowed in any section of the library, and Hermione couldn’t help but take advantage of that. Bashfully, she scanned the titles of her aisle of choice, and signed out her selections at the front desk. Thankfully Madam Pince trusted her enough to sign out her own books, otherwise Hermione didn’t think she would have had to courage to take out the books she wanted to. Just as she stowed the last book in her bag, footsteps approached her from behind and she knew it was Draco even before he spoke.

“My god was a perky arse you have. Oh Hermione, I didn’t realize it was you.” Draco said, completely unconvincingly. Hermione looked up into his wide, innocent eyes and couldn’t help but snort with laughter.

“Mr. Malfoy, you’re looking rather foxy this evening. What can I...”Hermione inched closer and ran a finger down the middle of his chest. “…do for you?”

“Whatever you like, love.” Purred Draco.

“Well, it will have to wait…until after the prefect meeting tonight.” Hermione said. Draco’s jaw dropped. Hermione smirked slightly and turned away, swaying her hips as she went through the door. Draco jerked out of his stupor and caught up.

“You have got to be bloody kidding. You’re actually going?” He demanded. Hermione only nodded, although she hadn’t intended to. She felt kind of guilty, as she had not been scheduling either herself or Draco for patrol shifts of the corridors this year. Not after
their first shift together.

“Well I’m not letting you go.” Draco said, with the same air as if he was commenting on the weather.

“You’re not?” Hermione asked, a little taken aback.

“No, not after you slipped your knickers into my bag. Probably the best Potions class ever that one. Of course I spent half of it in the bathroom, imagining you were there with me.”

Hermione blushed, “Well I intend to go, so you best think of some clever plan if you really want to stop me going.”

“Fine.”

Draco simply continued to walk beside her as they made their way through the corridors. Hermione found herself wishing Draco actually would stop her.

They reached the door where the meeting was to be held. Hermione raised a fist to knock, her heart sinking further with a strange disappointment every passing second, when Draco suddenly seized her wrist.

“Your tower.” He whispered, before spinning her around and leading her off down a concealed passage. Sooner than was to be expected, they emerged two floors below her tower. Draco made her wait while he placed his back against a blank wall and closed his eyes.

“Hermione…” He breathed, and to Hermione’s utter surprise, the wall slide open two feet to expose another tunnel. Hermione figured this was the entrance to the tunnel up to her dorm. Hermione smiled at him and walked through the tunnel ahead.

“Hermione?”

“Yeah?”

“What was that potion you took at dinner?”

“Do you miss anything?”

“No.”

Hermione rolled her eyes, “I just um…I’m…” Hermione didn’t know what to say. If she told him the truth, he would never stop beating himself up about it. If she lied, she could just forget it and move on. She chose the latter. “I just wasn’t feeling well, thought I might be getting a fever.”

“Did you know that you are a horrible liar?” Draco asked simply in the dark behind her. “What was it really for?”

Hermione bit her lip and dealt her final card.

“Female problems.”

That shut him up.

As soon as Hermione passed the threshold of the other end of the tunnel (‘Must open at the same time’ Hermione observed), Draco gripped her about the waist, and carried her over to her bed. Tossing her playfully onto the mattress, he lowered himself down on top of her, and took her mouth with his. Hermione sighed and raised her head slightly, their tongues wrestling hotly with each other. Their breathing had just started to become ragged, when other voices joined their own moans.

“I haven’t seen Hermione in a long while.” Parvarti Patil’s voice came to them, and she sounded veryclose.

“Neither have I. I miss her. Have you asked Harry where she is?” Lavender’s voice joined Parvarti’s as the doorknob twisted. In the blink of an eye, Draco was up and out the tunnel, turning to wink at her briefly before closing the door. Hermione rolled over and pretended to be asleep, as there was no book in sight she could hide her flushed cheeks and kiss swollen lips behind.

“Not yet, I-ooooh Lavender look!” Parvarti’s voice dropped to a whisper as she evidently caught sight of Hermione’s ‘sleeping’ form.

“Aw, our Hermione’s so tired.” Lavender whispered affectionately as she circled around the bed. She bent down slightly and Hermione watched her through slitted eyes, trying not to grin and give herself away. “Hey…her face is flushed….might be having a good dream!” Lavender winked over at Parvarti.

Hermione nearly lost it. She had to use the arm lying under her to pinch herself so she wouldn’t laugh.

“Well let’s clear out. Best not wake her.” Parvarti whispered and Lavender went back around the bed to her.

Hermione waited two minutes after she heard the door close before sitting up. Grinning unrestrainedly, she opened her beside
table drawer, and took out a quill, ink and parchment.

‘I’ll have a talk with them about their timing. I can’t wait to see you. ’ Hermione wrote, before tapping the parchment once with her wand. It took the shape of a paper crane and glowed a sensual red. Cupping the paper bird in her hands, she took it to the open window and blew it into flight out of her hands, watching it flutter its way down to the closest window to Draco’s room.

Sighing happily, Hermione tilted her face upwards toward the full moon and remembered Draco’s lips on hers.