Fantasy House

Hermione stared at the five men in horror. Choose? She had to choose? She did the only thing she could think of to do at that moment. She ran.

She knew it was the coward's way, but she had to get out of that room. She ran straight to the bedroom and slammed the door. There was no lock, but it didn't matter. She just hoped the men had some sort of decorum.

She threw herself on the bed and hid her face in a pillow. She screamed before breaking down into sobs.

Remus had followed her up to the room, but stopped once she slammed the door on his face. He was genuinely worried about her. He knocked softly on the door. "Hermione?" he called.

"Go away!" came her snap from the other side. "I just want to be alone."

The werewolf nodded to nothing in particular and went back into the living room with the other men. Sirius looked at him in concern. "Is she...?"

"She wants to be left alone," Lupin replied. He sighed, "I think we should grant her that."

"For how long?" asked Snape.

Lupin shrugged. "As long as it takes, I suppose," he answered. "It can't be easy on her."

"This isn't easy on any of us," Lucius said with a scowl. "Draco, put your towel back on!"

The young Slytherin let his towel drop to the floor as he draped his body over the recliner. "Why? We won't be allowed to wear them for long anyway. And I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to have something I can dry off with later. Don't you realize what happens to hair when it drip dries? My hair is too silky to turn like Granger's."

Lucius groaned. "It's not like we have any way of drying our hair properly anyway," he told his son. "And I haven't seen you nude this many times since you were a babe. I'd really prefer it if..."

"I'd really prefer getting Granger out that room, but we can't always get what we want, can we, Father?" Draco retorted.

The older Malfoy glowered. "You forget that I am your father. You will show me proper respect," he snarled.

Snape looked at the youngest Malfoy curiously. "And if, by chance, you were to get Miss Granger out of that room, what do you suppose will happen?" he asked. "Do you honestly believe she would fall right into your lap and shag you?"

"I'm her age!" Draco pointed out. "Which is a lot more than anyone can say about anyone else in this room."

"Hermione will get to choose her first, Draco," Remus said. "That is the least we could do for her."

"And she'll choose me," the young Slytherin said with confidence. "All four of you are old enough to be her father. Hell," he pointed at Lucius, "he is my father!"

"Age has never been a factor in Hermione's love interests," Sirius told Draco. "She dated that Bulgarian in her fourth year. Not to mention, she had a thing for that Lockhart fellow."

"Lockhart isn't the only teacher she ever had a crush on," Remus stated.

Sirius chuckled, "Oh, yes. I forgot the time when she was swooning over you. I do believe she would've gone for you had it not been for Tonks."

The werewolf shook his head. "I was actually talking about Snape."

All four men looked at Remus as if he had grown a second head. Then, Sirius bellowed in laughter. "Snivellus?! Come off it, Remus! The girl's got more brains than that. No one in their right mind..."

"I would remind you, insolent pup, I am in the room," Snape snarled.

Sirius snorted. "As if I'm afraid of you," he snapped.

Remus shook his head. "This is getting us nowhere," he stated. "Look, I know you two do not like each other. You haven't since school. But, please, try to keep the dislike to a minimum. No one here enjoys this situation any more than you do."

(II) (II)

Hermione did not know how long she was lying on the bed, crying. She must have fallen asleep at some point, because she was using her towel as a cover rather than clothing.

She sat up and wiped her tear stained face. Looking around, she saw that the bedroom was just that: a bedroom. There wasn't much else to it, unless you counted the window. She stood up and walked to the window and pulled the string for the shades.

There were no curtains. No. Curtains could be pulled down and used as clothing. But, the shades did look rather nice and were made of real wood.

The sky was getting dark, which meant that dinner time would be soon. A small smile curled around her mouth. Dinner sounded nice, but she'd be damned if she cooked. Just because she was female did not mean she had to be the only domestic one in the group.

Still, there was the thought, who would she be with first? Hermione did not hold any delusions. There was no way these men would let her go a virgin for long. So, she needed to choose and choose quickly.

It really wasn't a difficult choice... No, she took that thought back. It was a difficult choice. There were five men. Three Slytherins, four purebloods, one divorced, one widowed, one her age, one older than any of them, three the same age, and so on.

She knew at least two that she had absolutely no interest in. But, then that wasn't exactly true either. How many times had she fantasized over one of the Malfoys? Sure she hadn't really during her years at Hogwarts. Well, not much at least.

She could easily admit to herself that the first time she had seen Mr. Malfoy, she was quite impressed. She couldn't deny that he was handsome. She understood why so many women admired and wanted to be with the recently freed man.

And Draco? When she first saw Draco, she admired his looks, like every other warm-blooded female in the school. However, his mouth and attitude towards others had been a major turn off for her. Much like his father's attitude had been.

Had they changed? Did they still believe the same things they believed before?

No, she did not want to be with one of the Malfoys quite yet. Nor had she any intention of giving either pureblood her virginity. So, who did that leave her with?

Two ex-Professors and Harry's godfather. Well, at least they were all the same age. But, Remus just lost Tonks. Hermione knew he was still mourning that loss. She silently thanked God Andromeda was taking care of Teddy for the time being.

Both Sirius and Severus were supposed to be dead. By all rights, they should have been. But, between Harry and herself, both men had managed to survive their fatalities. Harry by grabbing Sirius at the last possible moment before he fell through the Veil. Hermione, well, she was the one who found Severus' lifebeat after Harry thought the man had died.

Severus spent over a year in St. Mungo's. Sirius only spent three months. It was enough to make anyone fraught with nerves and fear. For a while, Hermione thought Snape was going to die just to spite her.

She hated that the men all fought over who'd sleep with her first. By rights, she knew the choice was over Remus and Severus. Though they had both been her teachers, her reasoning was sound.

For Remus, well, he was the only one who did not give a "reason why" he should take her virginity. For Severus, well, she did save his life.

She gave a great sigh. This really was the hardest decision she had ever made. While she figured the men wouldn't mind waiting until the next day, Hermione wanted to get this part over with.

She didn't know how long Zabini planned to keep them there. And, for whatever perverse reason, the black Italian wanted sex. Hermione shuddered.

She glanced down at her towel and gently unraveled it. She let it fall carelessly to the floor. If they were going to do this, she wanted to do it fully.

(III) (III)

Hermione slowly and quietly opened the bedroom door. She tiptoed down the hall until she could see Lucius' back to her. She remained in the shadows and she caught her breath. She could do this. She wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing.

She could hear the talk among the men. Thankfully, their attentions had turned to one another and they were no longer discussing who would shag Hermione first.

"Did Mum know about you and Snape?" she could hear Draco asking.

She saw Lucius place his fists on his hips. "Not that it matters, but yes, she did know," he answered his son. "It had been ongoing for years. Long before you were born and long after."

Hermione crept closer to the entrance, but stayed against the wall. She could see a bit of Snape's arm and some of his towel. She knew it was him by the dark hair. Sirius did not have that much hair on his arm.

Taking one last, deep breath, Hermione steeled herself and walked confidently into the room. "I'm ready," she told them. "I've made my decision."

The five men all glanced at her. Surprisingly, none of them were startled at her entrance. Draco just smirked. Remus gave her a solemn look, as though he was prepared for anything she said.

"First," she stated, walking calmly between Lucius and Severus. She prayed no one could hear her heart pounding as she grabbed their towels and pulled them off. "I want everyone's towels."

Lucius' first reaction to being suddenly nude was to make a grab for his towel, though Hermione had managed to dance easily out of his grasp. She went to Remus and held out her hand to him. As he was sitting, she couldn't yank it off as easily as she did the two Slytherins. "I'm serious," she told him.

"No, I'm Sirius," Sirius stated as he handed her his towel. "You're Hermione, and that is Remus."

She rolled her eyes at him, then turned her attention back to Remus. The werewolf just stared at her with a mixture of shock and slight embarrassment. "Hermione, you don't have to do this," he told her.

She shook her head. "Yes, I do," she argued. "We all do. Whether we like it or not. Now, give me your towel or I will have Sirius lift you up and restrain you while I take it."

With a sigh, Remus stood up from his spot on the floor and handed her his towel. She took it and turned to Draco. She wasn't surprised to see him standing there, towel in hand.

"I like this approach, Granger," the young Slytherin said, waggling his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes and threw the towels into a corner. Turning to face the men, she blushed a bit at seeing all of them nude. She bit down her embarrassment, knowing they would be living like this for a while. She had to get used to it.

"Remus is right," she told them all. "We need to set some ground rules before we go any further. I, personally, like his rule about no name-calling or using terms of authority. Being that we have two people here with the same last name, it might be a good idea that we all call each other by first name. It makes sense and no one will get confused if someone suddenly calls for 'Malfoy.'"

"Perhaps," Draco agreed. "Unless there was an... intimate reason to be calling out 'Malfoy,' in which case, I do not necessarily see a problem."

Hermione glared at him. "Second rule!" she continued, ignoring his innuendo. "I may be the only woman in this house, but I am not a housekeeper, cook, servant, or anything of the like. I have never had any children, so I am no one's mother. Everyone needs to pick up after themselves and none of you better expect me to cook every day. I'll cook sometimes, but not all the time. We are all adults and each person here is capable of taking care of his or her self."

"I do not cook," Lucius said. "And neither does Draco."

"Can you brew a potion?" Hermione asked, looking at him, trying hard not to look at his... package.

He looked at her curiously. "What does that have to do with anything?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "If you can brew a potion and follow the directions to brew a correct potion, then you can cook. It's not that different," she replied.

"Third rule," she said, turning to look directly in Draco's eyes. "Seeing as I am the only virgin here, and female, I think we should take our time here. Zabini is obviously not in a huge rush to release us, so there is no need to hurry into one huge orgy... Eventually... " she turned her gaze from Draco to look at each man in turn, "I plan on sleeping with all of you. I have to. As per Zabini. However, I would ask to go one at a time, rather than all at once. I've heard and read different stories about a girl's first time and I'm not entirely sure how I'll react to it."

Her eyes landed on Lucius' cool gray gaze and she quickly looked to Severus. She didn't quite like his gaze much more. So, she decided not to look at any of the men, and instead turned to look out the window.

"There is only one bed. We all have to sleep in it," she told them, though they already knew this. "I know for a fact that neither Sirius nor Remus snore. I've walked in on them in the library at Grimmauld Place more than once to know. How are..."

"None of us snore as well, Miss Granger," Lucius interrupted as she turned to look at him.

She nodded. "Thank you. So, what do you think? Of my rules, that is?"

Remus smiled and immediately nodded his assent. The others, however, looked a bit apprehensive. "Hermione, I don't know if I'll be able to hold my tongue at all times," Sirius told her, truthfully. "I can try, but I cannot make any promises that your first rule will always be honored."

"And I won't call my father by his first name," Draco immediate said. "Sorry, Granger, but that's not a title that I'm willing to part with."

"Nor I," agreed Lucius.

Hermione shook her head. "Nor would I ask you to," she assured them quickly. "Some titles are more important than others, I know. But, for example, using titles such as Mister or Miss. Or even titles like Professor. Those are the titles I wish to rid of. There's no need for formalities when the six of us are living together in the nude."

She looked at Sirius. "The least you can do is try. Try really hard not to use derogatory names," she pleaded with him. She looked at the others. "It's something we could all work at. I know even I slip up when I'm angry. We have to live together for however long. It won't do if we are all calling each other names and berating one another."

The men didn't seem to have a problem with the other rules, so the room fell silent for a few moments. Then, Lucius finally spoke. "I don't mean to make it sound prudent, Mis... Hermione, but have you chosen a first yet? Or shall we be waiting for the morrow?"

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I have," she said, as she opened her eyes. "And I've chosen... Remus."