Learning to Trust

Chapter Two


“Where did you take off to, Hermione?” Fred asked her as she walked into the Burrow.


“I’m shocked that you could tell up from down given the amount of that punch you made and drank last night.” He simply winked at her. “Who’s gotten here yet?”


“Ron and Harry are upstairs still sleeping off their drunk,” he told her. “George is at the shop, but should be here soon. Ginny is upstairs as well. She too partook in our excellent punch with a hard punch. As for the rest, I don’t know.”


“Hermione! Where have you been?” Molly demanded.


“I spent some time with two friends of mine,” she answered. “Can I help out with any of the food or other preparation?”


“No, dear, I have everything in hand. But if you could get Ronald and Harry out of bed to de-gnome the garden?”


“Of course, Molly,” she said, going up the stairs.


She knocked on Ron’s door and waited. When no one answered the door, she pulled out her wand and got through the wards set as well as the silencing charm. Once the silencing charm was down, she heard the sounds of sex.


“I’m coming in!” she yelled, and heard scrambling in the room. She stepped in seeing both Harry and Ron, yanking on the same blanket as they tried to cover themselves. “Sorry about this, but I figured it was better than having your mother coming up here and discovering you mid-fuck.”


“My mum?” Ron blanched. “Merlin! Thanks, Hermione!”


“No problem,” she said, seeing the hurt in Harry’s eyes at Ron’s reaction. “Now for my news.” She flicked her wand at the door, shutting, locking and warding it. “I fucked Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy.”


They looked at her in stunned silence.


“Gods, Hermione, when I told you to take them both on, I was joking!” Harry exclaimed.


She rolled her eyes. “Contrary to popular belief, I do actually have sexual needs that have nothing to do with suggestions made by you or anyone else.” Hermione stood up. “You best get dressed and go downstairs. Molly wants the garden de-gnomed.” She leaned over, kissing Harry’s head. “And remember what I told you about Ron when I broke up with him.”


“What would that be?” Ron asked, sounding upset.


“That you’re an insensitive mummy’s boy with the emotion range of a teaspoon,” she replied, seeing Harry’s smirk.


“That I do remember,” the dark haired boy answered.


“Don’t let him get to you, luv,” she told him. “See you both downstairs.”


She had just exited the room when Ginny all but pounced on her. “What were you doing in there? Did you spend the night with them? He won’t ever love you the way he loves me, you know?”


“Whom are you trying to convince, me or you?” she asked, making the redheaded girl all the angrier.


“You are nothing but a whore!” Ginny exclaimed.


“Ginny, that isn’t a name I would throw around if I were you,” Hermione told her. “Given as much as I know about you that would be bad.”


Ginny pulled out her wand, about to hit her with a bat boogie spell when Bill Weasley grabbed her arm, yanking her wand away from her.


“Don’t you dare,” he growled at his baby sister. “You have a problem with Harry not her.


“But she spent the night with them!” Ginny exclaimed.


“Like bloody hell she did!” Bill told her. “I was the one that had to get them home as they were so pissed. She wasn’t even at the victory ball at that point.”


Ginny looked over to her. “I would have told you if you had just asked me. Your mum asked me to wake them to see to getting rid of the gnomes in the garden.”


Just then Harry came out of the room, slipping an arm around Hermione’s shoulders and pulled her back. He kissed her head. “Do you know if Mrs. Weasley made something to eat for breakfast?”


“No, I don’t know if she did. I just got here right before coming up to wake you,” she told him, hearing Ginny growling at the display of brotherly affection.


Hermione looked at her with a weary glare and walked away. She could hear Harry snapping at her that it was over between them and Hermione had nothing to do with it. It was when she got to the living room two hands covered her eyes, making her laugh.


“Guess who?” he asked quietly.


“Hmm, could it be his holiness George Weasley?” He released her eyes and she spun around. “Your holiness!”


Laughing he caught her up in a bear hug. “What’s that fight upstairs all about?”


“It’s Ginny being a jealous cow,” she muttered. “Are you sure you won’t take me away from it all?”


Smiling he kissed her forehead, saying, “If I thought you meant it, you know I would.”


Hermione ended up going outside, sitting on the bench that she usually sat on while watching them playing quidditch. She could smell the food cooking away in the kitchen and hear Ginny fighting yet again but this time with Charlie. Several minutes later she heard Charlie stomping out of the house. He went over and sat next to her, still looking like he was ready for more of a fight.


“I wish Harry would come out and tell Ginny that he’s into wizards,” he muttered. “She needs to move on!”


“So do you,” Hermione said, patting his shoulder. “He has.”


He cursed to himself. “I know.”


He rested his head on her shoulder, as she rubbed his back. “You are a great man, Charlie. You are going to meet a gentleman that is going to love you so much.”


He let out a hiccupped sob. “Really?”


She lifted his head, making him look her in the eyes. “As much as you don’t want to hear this and I don’t want to say this, it is probably for the best that it didn’t work out between you and Harry. He’s indecisive and needy.” After a moment, he ended up nodding. “I love him, but he is jumping anyone, man or woman, within reach and sleeping with them. He’s making me look like a vanilla virgin, for Merlin sake!”


This got a snort of laughter from him, as he went about wiping his face off. He took out his handkerchief and wiped up the tears. “I broke it off with him, thinking that he would see how special we were together, if he would only stop sleeping with everyone to stop that pain he has.”


“I know,” she whispered. “But he isn’t, just like he wouldn’t for Ginny or now for Ron.”


“He certainly likes gingers,” he said, making her smile. “So what’s the flavor of the month, Miss Granger?”


“Well, I, uh, I slept with Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy,” she told him.


“Oh Merlin, you didn’t!” he exclaimed. “You did?”


She nodded. “Yes, I did. I ended up sleeping the night with Lucius. It was…lovely.”


He blinked at her. “You slept with him? As in the act of slumber?”


Rolling her eyes she answered, “Yes, I meant the act of sleeping as apposed to fucking. What’s so weird about that?”


“Just that you haven’t slept with a man other than Harry and that’s because you two think of each other as siblings,” he said casually. “The fact that you don’t trust people has you up and out of the bed before either of you can finish climaxing.”


Hermione stood up. “You know what happened when I slept with Lee Jordon?” Charlie shook his head no. “I had a few drinks and we enjoyed being at the bar together. We laughed, play darts, and I thought it was the start of something special.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I slept with him after three months together. You know what I woke up to the next day? A camera flash and the next thing I know I was all over the Daily Prophet with the headlines telling one and all that I was sleeping with war heroes.” She looked over to Charlie. “He had been taking pictures of us having sex, me sleeping, and sold them to that-that rag!”


“Oh Hermione, I didn’t know,” Charlie whispered. “I was in Romania when this happened. All I heard about was how you hexed Lee three ways from Sunday and how the George no longer consider him his friend, but I didn’t know the details.”


“If it were the only time something like this happened, I could have perhaps have overlooked this kind of behavior as a single asshole entering and exiting my life.” She sat down again. “It just got to be easier not to trust anyone. That way no one could take advantage of me. But it also makes it very difficult to find someone to love and love me in return. I’m sick of it.”


“But Snape and Malfoy?” he asked, sounding doubtful.


She shrugged. “It may not be for forever.” Hermione laughed. “It may not even last the month. But I can say this much—when I fell asleep with them, neither one of them took pictures and sold them to the Daily Prophet.”


***

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