Vox Corporis: Rebirth

Vox Corporis

Chapter 72: Always and Forever



Original story by -> MissAnnThropic

http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/6586/1

Email: miss_annthropic@yahoo.com





Pursuant to the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 and the Digital Millennium Copywrite Act of 1998, this work is copywrited 2007 with all rights expressly reserved by its author unless explicitly granted. No portion may be reproduced in any fashion without the express written and notarized permission of the author.



Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. All characters are creations of Joanne K Rowling, © 2007, to whom I am deeply indebted.



Standard Disclaimer: This story contains sexually graphic and explicit material and as such, it is not suitable for minors. If you are a minor, please leave now, as it is illegal for you to be here. If it is illegal for you to read or view sexually explicit material in the community you view such material, please leave now. This story and characters are purely fictional and any resemblance to events or persons (living or dead) is purely coincidental. If you are offended by sexually explicit stories, please read no further. If you are offended by stories featuring group sex, bisexual situations, incest, or any other situation, please check the story code before reading the text. These stories are just that, stories, and do not promote or condone the activities described herein



NOTE: The original story was created so beautifully and so powerfully by MissAnnThropic. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to her for her kindness in letting me ‘play in her sandbox’.



NOTE 2: I have re-posted the third chapter (“At the Grangers”) because there were several typographic errors and at least one of them changed the meaning of a sentence that I thought was important. Thank you for your patience.



NOTE 3: THIS CHAPTER IS RATED NC-17. TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY. IT IS MEANT FOR ADULTS ONLY.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------





A/N – from the last chapter:



“That’s a great idea, Harry”



“Thanks, dad.”



“Speaking of apparating, Hermione and I have to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow, in order to get to Gringott’s’ and so that we can stop by and see Fred and George.”



“Sound good. Miranda and I have to go to work. We’ve got a full day ahead of us tomorrow. I have five procedures, including two extractions, 2 fillings, and a root canal. Miranda has a bunch of clients to take care of as well and it could be a longish day. Should we do dinner together tomorrow or Saturday.”



Harry immediately piped up “Saturday, I think.”



Jake looked at him at saw that there was something there that Harry didn’t want to discuss. He wasn’t going to push the powerful young wizard on the point, though. He wasn’t that stupid. “Saturday it is, then” he said with a grin.



Harry had a definite plan in mind and it most assuredly did not involve being around Jake and Miranda tomorrow.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hmmmmm.



Hermione’s head lay on Harry’s chest as the two of them snuggled in Hermiones’ bed. The Sun was up already, though it was still early, and the sky was a gorgeous, clear blue, with not a cloud to be seen from the second-floor window.



I love you, Hermione. Today’s the day.



Today was, in fact, the day. Two years ago Hermione had said to him, “Promise me we’ll be sitting here on this bench together same time next year?”



Harry remembered that he had said, “If I’m still breathing, I’ll be with you,”



He was still breathing….and so was she – right next to him. Gloriously, wonderfully naked, and curled up on his body, as if it was the most natural, best place to be. He could feel her breasts rubbing against his chest and he could feel his manhood grow in response. It used to be mortifying for Harry, but he and Hermione had become very comfortable with each other’s reactions and so he was no longer embarrassed by it at all. The jaguar stirred within him, pacing and wanting to rut. It had been ‘let out’ just the day before, but somehow, the part of him that was the jaguar knew that today was special and it longed to be with its mate again.



Hermione stirred the moment that Harry ‘touched the jaguar’ within him. She always knew. She knew because of how much more powerful he became when he did so and how erotic it always was for her to feel. Her nipples were hard and she was most definitely turned on by being so close to Harry when the jaguar was close by. Her hand drifted over his body and she felt her forearm brush the tip of his erection.



Many months of growing familiarity with and confidence about their intimate interactions helped her hand move south to grasp his erection in her petite hand. It took no more than a moments’ contact for his hips to surge upwards – to encourage the contact between her soft hand and his prodigious organ.



It had been a couple of days since they had had the time to please each other physically and her needs were as great as his. Her sex had grown very wet the moment that she had wrapped her hand around his erection. The thickness of it amazed her and the length thrilled her as she thought about what it would do to her on their wedding night. Harry’s left arm was trapped beneath her, so she wiggled her body until his hand was between her legs.



Harry knew what she was doing and grinned at her. “Do each other?”



Hermione whimpered with need “Yes, please. I need it, Harry. I need this inside me.” She gently squeezed his erection as she said it. The rhythmic pressure of her hand as she stroked his organ caught him off guard and a powerful wave of pleasure washed through him.



“Oh God, Hermione, I know. I want it too. I want to have you under me and be able to look into your eyes and know that we’re finally together.”



She looked him in the eye as her hand became more insistent. Her palm was growing wet with every stroke. Hermione shuttered for a moment as his fingers found her nubbin and rubbed it. Hermione was as turned on as she had ever been and as she nibbled his ear, she whispered “Harry? please? please put your fingers in me! If we can’t make love.…please?”



Harry turned his face to hers, so that their lips were inches apart. They were both panting with pleasure and both of them knew that they were close to the release that each needed so much. Harry slid two fingers into Hermione and she spread her legs more to welcome them into her core.



“ ‘Mione? I’m going to cum….”



“Me……too…..please don’t stop!”



The two lovers, bound by their shared magic and by love that had grown over six years, didn’t see the golden cloud that enveloped them. The sunlight was too bright streaming through the window obscured it. When the release that they needed so badly finally crashed over and through them, their mouths met and each tasted the love and desire that the other felt.



I love you, my husband, happy birthday. Hermione thought just before she fell back to sleep in his arms.

***********************************

By the time that Hermione crawled out of bed, her parents had left for work. That bothered Harry not at all. Harry remembered that on many mornings, two summers before, Hermione had always been up first to see her parents off in the morning and had let Harry sleep in, sometimes until almost noon.



They had lunch together every day. Harry would cook or Harry and Kimmy would cook and Hermione would clean up. After lunch had settled, they would swim or lift weights or go for a run. It had been great for them and the two of them very quickly became hotties – at least in each others’ eyes. After their exercise time, they laid out in the back yard, waiting and contemplating nature and trying to get to the point when they would be able to token something. Kimmy often would patrol the yard and generally be ‘around’. Harry thought to himself that if he had known then what he knew now, he would have tried to find a way to drive Kimmy off, so that he could have more private time with Hermione.



Harry was glad that Kimmy was no longer watching over them, but very sad that the little elf had been killed. She had been a fierce protectress for them, when they had most desperately needed one. Now there was no longer a need for a bodyguard - not that anyone would have a chance against the two of them together. Harry didn’t know it, and he would have fiercely and vociferously objected if he had a chance, but certain Ministry hit-wizards were telling their confidential informants and other low-life’s that if the dark wizards who were being hunted – the third tier of Tom’s ranks –didn’t turn themselves in, Harry Potter would be sent after them. To the Ministry’s delight, that had been enough to ‘encourage’ a dozen or more to turn themselves in. Of course, Harry wasn’t being credited by the Ministry with their capture. He never had been and probably never would be, but it didn’t matter to him.



Tom was gone. Most all of his followers were gone too. Those who had taken the dark mark were all gone. Harry’s magic at the end of the battle had seen to that. There was only one out there, somewhere. Draco. Harry knew that eventually, he’d have to do something about Draco, but now was not the time.



Harry didn’t have the same passion to kill Draco that he had had for Dolohov or Bellatrix Lestrange, but there was enough there from their shared past that Draco was not going to survive their next meeting. One last one and then never again. Once I’m done, I’m really done and then Hermione and I can live in peace, go to university, and then raise children.



Harry finally woke up and was sitting on the edge of their bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking out the window at the field behind Hermione’s house when she came up the stairs from the kitchen to see him. She was wearing a short, white cotton jumper and lacy, high-cut, white cotton knickers that emphasized her long, beautiful legs, narrow hips, and perfectly trim, beautiful bottom.

As she came up next to their bed, he almost absent-mindedly reached out a hand to stroke the inside of her leg and caress her body. The soft cotton of her knickers and the way that they emphasized her curves made him almost instant erect again. Harry had always been a ‘leg’ or ‘bottom’ man, though until recently had not given it nearly as much thought as some of the others in his dorm. Seamus had always been the one to make the most graphic comments about the girls in the school and it had cause a problem, just once, in their fifth year, once he and Hermione had gotten together ‘officially’.



It was late mid-December and the two of them, Harry and Hermione, had just returned from some private time in the Room of Requirement, in which they had conjured a hot tub. Both of them were tired and frustrated and needed some private time together – for snogging and more importantly, for talking about what was happening to them and in the school in general.



They were walking hand in hand down the hall, Harry in his swim suit, a t-shirt, and a towel while Hermione was in a very form-fitting black one-piece bathing suit that was cut very high on her hip.



Just as the two of them reached the Fat Lady and were giving the password, Seamus called out from about twenty feet away, “Hey Granger! Oy! Nice arse.”



Both because of his naturally excellent reflexes and enormous magical power, Harry whipped around so fast that Seamus could not follow his movements. All he knew was that in the next instant, Harry was extending his arm, as if to grasp Seamus. Seamus was out of arms’ reach, but yet felt an enormous, crushing pressure around his throat as he was lifted off the ground.



Harry was looking at him with such hatred and radiating such power that Seamus’ courage and bodily control failed him. He wet himself.



In the most menacing voice Hermione had ever heard, Harry said, “Seamus, you have one chance to apologize.”



Seamus nodded and he felt himself lowered to the ground and the pressure on his throat diminish to the point where he could speak. “Miss Granger. I apologize for my complete lack of personal control or dignity. I should never have demeaned you by commenting on your personal physical qualities nor should I have ever assumed that it was my right to address you with anything less than the highest respect. Please accept my apology.”



Harry’s eyes were still blazing, but he was noticeably calmer than he had been a moment ago.



Hermione was furious at Harry, but she understood why he had done what he had done. “You’re forgiven. I didn’t mean to have Harry hurt you and I’m sorry if he did. We just recently got together and he’s pretty protective.”



Seamus was still on his knees “It’s all right, Hermione. I might have done the same if I had Harry’s power. I will never make that mistake again.”



Harry said nothing, but nodded to Seamus and then took Hermione’s hand. The two passed through the portal and into the Gryffindor common room.



Once the story got around, Hermione was off limits to all the boys in Gryffindor, save Ron. No one dared say anything to her that could be mis-construed for fear that he, too, would be dangling above the ground, praying that Harry was feeling merciful in that moment. Seamus never said anything to McGonagall, who was the head of Gryffindor House or to the Headmaster about the incident. He was just too scared. Harry had never been known to harbor a grudge for long, really, but no one wanted to test that theory.



“Harry?”



“Huh?”



“You are spacing out on me. I said that feels really good.”



“Oh?! I’m sorry, ‘Mione. I was thinking about the time that Seamus said that you have a nice ass and I did the ‘Darth Vader’ thing on him. That was the first time that I had ever used my powers to scare someone.”



“Just scare him? Harry, he was hanging off the ground by his neck and you were choking him. If you hadn’t let him down, you would have killed him.”



Harry suddenly felt a little defensive. “I’d never have killed him, Hermione. I just wanted to scare him. I would have let him down immediately if I thought that he was really being hurt.”



“Well, it sure didn’t look like it. When I felt your power wash over me, I thought something really bad was going to happen, like it did to Malfoy.”



“Well, you don’t have to worry about that now. There’s no one for us to worry about – at least not here and not now. It’s just us and I’ve got something special planned for the day.”



“Oh?!” Hermione came up onto her toes for a moment, as Harry’s fingers slipped between her legs and then under the gusset of her knickers, to play gently with her magic button.



“Harry, if you’re going to do that, at least let me lie down. I don’t want to try to experience earlier this morning standing up. I’d fall over…”



He pulled her to him, so that he could kiss her belly and the front of her knickers. As he did so, he guided her onto the bed, so that she ended up lying on the side closer to the wall.



Looking into her eyes, Harry smiled “Did I ever tell you how much I love you and how much I want you?”



She smiled back at him and reached down to intertwine her fingers with his. “Only about a million times, but that doesn’t mean I ever tire of it. I love you, too, Harry.”



*****************************

Their second rising of the day was just after noon. Harry found himself pinned under the delicious weight of his soon-to-be wife. “Hi.”



He looked up at her as she lowered her mouth to his. Another one hundred and fifty years of this? Yes. And it still won’t be enough.



He kissed her back with all the love he could put into it. When they finally broke apart, Hermione was breathless, but her eyes were sparkling. “Mom and dad called while you were sleeping and they said that they’ll not be back tonight. They’re going to stay over in London and then take the train out tomorrow. They’ll drive back from where they’ve parked the car in Dover. We’re alone until then.”



That thought spawned all sorts of thoughts and there was not a single one of them that wasn’t dirty or that didn’t involve Hermione naked.



She seemed to know what he was thinking “behave, you.”



He grinned at her. “You still up for a surprise?”



“Oh…yes!. You going to tell me now or do I have to wait?”



“You’re going to have to wait, sweetheart. Soon, though, I promise.”



She put on her best fake pout and looked at him.



“Want to take a shower with me?” He looked hopeful.



“No. I’ve already taken mine. I took it this morning, after I got up the first time.



He knew how to pout, too, and he did. “Well, fine then. Be that way……” Her eyes went wide with what Harry surely thought must be hurt, and then she saw the corners of his mouth turn up in a grin and she smiled too. “Oh, stop, you….tease.”



“Am not!”



“Are too!”



“Well, maybe just a little…” he grinned.



“Prat!”



Harry stood from where he was sitting bent over, wiggling his naked arse at her. “Oh, Harry!”



Then, realizing that she had just both called his name and at the same time, described his backside, Hermione burst out laughing.



Sensing that he probably had understood what she was laughing about, but being not 100% sure, he chose retreat as the better option and fled to the upstairs shower.



*****************************

Once he had gotten dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt, and combed his hair back until it was no longer such a tangled mess, but had a jaunty, rather wind-swept look to it, Harry went and found, in his travel bag, the one small, velvet grey box that he had brought with him. This he slipped into his pocket. On his left arm he wore a wand holster, has he always had since before Tom’s defeat, and upon he cast a notice-me-not charm.



He bounced downstairs to the living room and found Hermione sitting in the love seat that they had occupied so obnoxiously the afternoon of the day that they had arrived at Jake & Miranda’s home.



“Ready to go?” Harry asked her as she looked up at him.



“Where are we headed?”



“Well, first, I thought we’d take a walk down to the school, and go and find our bench and our tree. After that, well…we’ll just play it out. I have a few ideas, though.”



“How come you’re wearing my wand?”



“Well, I thought it a good idea for at least one of us to be armed. You never know. Draco is still out there, somewhere.” Her face darkened for a moment with the mention of Draco’s name. She didn’t want to think about the last of the Malfoy line, if she could help it.



“Why don’t I carry it?”



Harry grinned at her. “Ya, right. Where exactly are you going to conceal it under that outfit?”



She grinned at Harry’s suggestive statement. Quietly, promised herself that she wouldn’t mention Draco anymore during the day. She knew that he just wanted to keep her safe, and even thought he had become almost as good as Dumbledore with wandless magic, having a wand handy was certainly a good precaution.



“Let me get my shoes and we can go.”



Harry smiled at her. Of all the things to be grateful for, Harry was grateful that Hermione seemed to own fewer than seven pairs of shoes and she never seemed to need to buy more. Ginny, on the other hand, was positively crackers about shoes and never seemed to have enough pairs. Harry had the distinct impression that Ginny wanted to have a specific pair of shoes for each item in her wardrobe. To Harry’s way of thinking, that was nuts.



His train of thought was interrupted by Hermione’s grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the front door in a “if we’re going to go, let’s go” movements.



She was wearing a very short, pale yellow, cotton mini skirt that he didn’t even know she owned and the white jumper from earlier. It was very feminine, he thought, and very pretty combination and he was looking forward to sitting across from her so he could look up her skirt while they talked. She had long since accepted his perv’ing on her and even encouraged it. She did so because while he was lusting after her, she was taking in his lean, beautiful build, his completely captivating deep-blue eyes, and his radiant smile – all of which thoroughly turned her on.



Once out the door, they automatically interlaced their hands. It was something they had done for so long that to do anything else would have seemed terribly unnatural.



It was less than ten minutes to walk from the Grangers’ house to the school park. It didn’t take any time at all to find the bench under the beech tree, where they had made promises to each other last year.



The beech tree had grown somewhat since the last time they had been there, but the bench had not fared as well. It was cracked and creaking. Harry repaired it with an inconspicuous wave of his hand and then a notice-me-not charm, so that the muggles wouldn’t realize that the bench had been miraculously repaired.



The day was warm but just breezy enough to be really pleasant. Harry thought that he might have appreciated a bit more wind, given that Hermione’s skirt was so light. Even though he knew exactly what she was wearing under it, he still liked to see his girl one step closer to naked and a little extra bit of wind would have helped. However, it was not to be and they got to the park without so much as one chance to see up her skirt. Later, he thought.



The closer they got to the park, the more nervous he became. This is crazy. I’ve already asked her to marry me and she’s already said yes. Why, then, am I so flummoxed over this? Harry knew why. He was nervous because suddenly, everyone was going to see the ring and know that the two of them were together. Not that anyone had any doubts about that. It had been proclaimed loudly and with great enthusiasm in the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler; though the latter paper had been a great deal more sensitive and thoughtful in its commentary and coverage of their relationship. Harry was also nervous because he didn’t know how Hermione would react to being given Lily’s ring. He hoped that she would appreciate the symbolism of it and the love with which it was given.



Once they had sat down, arm in arm, on the bench, Hermione looked at him. “Harry? Why did you bring us here.?”



He looked at her and then smiled. He got up and then knelt to face her. “Hermione? Two years ago you said to me “Promise me we’ll be sitting here on this bench together same time next year?” and I promised that so long as I was still breathing, that we would be here. Well, we missed that target, but we’re here now.” His expression was hopeful. “Today’s my birthday and there is only one gift that I want in the whole world. There is only one thing that matters to me….”



He reached into his right pant pocket and brought out the box which he had gotten from his vault at Gringotts’. Harry turned it in his hand so that it opened facing her.



“Hermione? Would you wear this ring and be my wife? I can’t live without you. I love you more than anything in the world. You’ve been my constant reason to live, my reason to fight, and my reason to win. You make me a better man than I could have ever been without you. You’re my best friend in this world and the greatest joy I’ve ever known.”



She started crying as she looked at the ring and as she looked into his eyes. His eyes were bright with tears as she held up her left hand. Harry took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger.



“Yes?” he said very quietly, his voice desperate.



“Oh Harry! YES!!”



Hermione launched herself off the bench and into his arms as he rose and he fell back with her onto the grass. His hands wrapped around her back and held her to him as they kissed each other. It was not their first kiss, but it was one that they would never forget, either.



It was his seventeenth birthday and Harry thought that he had just received the best birthday present that he would ever be given. The woman he loved had just said ‘yes’.



*****************************

They kissed for a very long time. By the time they stood up and disentangled for a moment, the sun had fallen in the sky and shadows were starting to creep out everywhere. The little town of Nonington-on-Kent was quiet. The tourists who had come to see the Majesty Oak in Fredville Park had mostly gone home and since it was the end of July, there were no children at the primary school. It was a wonderful town and Harry loved it. It was no wonder that the Grangers had decided to settle here.



“Hermione? Do you want to show me where you went to school tomorrow? I’d love to get to know some of the places that you grew up in.”



“Of course, my husband! I would love to show my school. I bet my name is still carved into one of the trees outside.”



He feigned shock and surprise “You? Defaced a tree? How could you?”



“oh, pish-posh, Harry. I’d never do such a thing. There was a young boy named Jeffrey who fancied me and he thought that I’d appreciate it. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it hurt me to see him do it, so I kissed him for it. He was the first boy I ever kissed.”



Harry and Hermione were walking hand in hand down the walk, back towards home. “How old were you?” he asked.



“I was a precocious nine, I think. Jeffrey was six months younger, but he tried to show me that he was every bit as grown up as I was. He used to make up an extra lunch whenever he could and bring it to school for me, so that we could share. He was very endearing like that.”



She paused and then went thoughtful for a moment. “You know, Harry, he was a lot like you. Jeffrey came from a broken home - he lived with his dad - and he just wanted to be loved for who he was, too. I think that is why he and I were together for two and a half years. We didn’t break up until….until I came to Hogwarts.”



Harry was flabbergasted. He had never heard any of this from Hermione before. It was as if whole new bits of her were emerging. “I thought you had said that you didn’t really have any friends when you were growing up…..”



She nodded. “I know. That’s what I told everyone. Even my parents. My relationship with Jeffrey was a secret. My teachers knew, but I made them promise not to tell anyone else.” Hermione giggled. “I think that maybe, somehow, I used magic accidentally, to make their promises binding. They couldn’t talk about Jeffrey and me even if they had wanted to.”



“I can’t believe how good I feel, Hermione, to hear you talking about it.” He took her hands in his. “It’s more important than anything for me to be able to know things like this about you. It feels like there’s finally someone who I can know everything about and who will….”



He trailed off, not really wanting to talk about his own past with the Dursleys. He was still really afraid of how she’d react if she knew everything that had happened to him. He was also a little afraid that she might just go back to little Winging and finish the job that Tom’s followers had started. He didn’t want to see Hermione kill anyone else for his sake, though he was quite sure that she would if she felt she had to.



She saw the look in his eyes and was pretty sure that she knew what he was thinking about.



“Thinking about what they did to you, Harry?” she said, very quietly. That far-away look was a dead give-away for her.



“Yea, I was. I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about it, Hermione.”



“I know, love. Today’s your seventeenth birthday. I can’t believe that I didn’t wish you a happy birthday first thing this morning!”



Harry finally broke out into a grin. “I think we were distracted, love.”



“Let’s go home, k?”



“Hermione? Just hold me. We’re going express.”



Not wasting a minute, she threw herself into a typical Hermione-hug and Harry disapparated them directly to her (their) bedroom.

*****************************



There was a almost silent ‘pop’ as the two of them appeared in her bedroom.



Once they got their bearings, Harry turned to her. “Hermione? Can we sit and talk for a moment. There’s something I need to tell you.”



She caught his look and sat down on the bed, about where Harry was sitting when she had come in to see him in the morning. “What is it, Harry?”



“Hermione? It’s just that…..the ring you’re wearing came from my family. It was my mothers’. I gave it to you, because of the note that was found with it. All the note said was ‘for the one you love most’. I talked to Lupin while we were both still recovering in the hospital and he seems to think, as does Dumbledore, that the note was written by my mother, before she died.”



Hermione looked at Harry, her mouth agape. “How could that be, Harry?”



“Lupin seems to think, though we’ve not been able to prove it, that there is a prophesy that was made by Luna’s mother that involved the ring and your receiving of it.”



“Harry? What’s the problem? Even if there is a prophesy about my getting it, I have it now and I love it.”



Harry looked both gobsmacked and relieved. “ ‘Mione? Thank god…I was worried that if you knew that it was from my mother, you’d not like and want something different. It being my birthday and all....” His voiced dropped. “I….I just wanted you to be happy.”



There were very few times when Hermione had really broken down and cried as hard as she did in that moment. The tears fell down her cheeks and the sobs that had she had so often hidden from her fellow students at school came without restriction. She didn’t try to hide the shame and hurt that she felt inside.



In her smallest voice, Hermione said, “I’m so ashamed.”



Harry was taken aback. “For what, love? What could you possibly have done to feel that way?”



His fiancée snuggled herself close to his chest and let him surround her with his arms. “I…I didn’t get you a birthday present or even a card. Oh, Harry, I’m awful. You love me so much and I didn’t even do anything. I forgot.”



Her tears fell for a long time and it was all that Harry could do to just hold her and wipe away her tears.



When finally Hermione stopped crying, Harry looked at her and cupped her face in his hands. “Hermione, I love you. Today you gave ME the greatest gift that I will ever receive. You said yes and with that, you’ve made me happier than I could ever have believed. Nothing else matters to me in this world but being with you. Please…don’t cry anymore. We’re together now and we’re going to be married. I’m hoping that you’d say yes to one more thing. I’d like to be married on New Year’s Eve at school, by the Headmaster. Your parents can be there and so can the Weasleys.”



“Harry?....Am I awful to want to give myself to you before then? I don’t know if I can wait that long to have you make love to me and make me your own.”



Harry groaned. Just the thought of making love to Hermione gave him a painfully hard erection and he had to adjust it in his slacks before it really started to hurt. She saw it and giggled.



“Can I help with that?” she asked, hopefully.



“ ‘Mione? You don’t have to…it’ll go away.”



She reached towards his zipper and started to tug it down. “But I want to, Harry. I want it in me in as many ways as I can get it.”



Harry placed a hand on hers to stop her. “Hermione. I don’t want you to do something out of guilt or shame. Sex is not about ‘payback’ or any of those things. I can wait for your touch – at least until both of us are in the right spirit together.”



His words stopped her. For a moment, she was completely at a loss to know what to do. “I want you. Don’t think for a moment that I don’t. I want to strip you and do obscene things to and with you all night long. But – my birthday is not the day to do that.”



She pouted. There was no other way to describe the face that she made and Harry could not help but laugh.



“Oh, love. You don’t know what you do to me. I could never say no to you for long. Come here.”



He pulled her into his arms and their lips met, each hungry for the contact and the reassurance. When they finally broke apart, Harry looked at her “Hermione, would you go to dinner with me tonight? I didn’t want to tell you before, but I have reservations for us at The Capital Restaurant for us. The maitre’d is from Hogwarts – four years ahead of us. I told Dumbledore I needed some help with the plans for tonight and he came through.”

Her smile had finally returned, though her eyes were still red from crying. Harry reached out one hand to wipe away the last tear from her cheek.



“Of course, Harry. How could I not? With my parents away, we can do anything we want.”



A flash of inspiration washed over Harry’s face and he grinned at her. “You know how you were about to….” He left the question hanging. She knew exactly what he meant. “Want to be catty instead? There’s no house-elf around to stop us.”



Hermione didn’t answer. She just grinned and in an instant, she was the lioness. Only, she was the lioness with her head down and her tail very much UP.



“I’ll take that as a yes” Harry chuckled, as he finally let the jaguar out and roared his desire for his wife-to-be.

_____________________________________________________________

Next….Dinner out…