Personal Projects

Chapter 20: Theoretically & Practically

Still. It spoke to the beliefs Theo had likely been raised around, that he had since risen above.

She'd learned plenty from her research, but there were still four more books she wanted that went onto her list to purchase for herself once money wasn't quite so tight. She could hardly justify further expanding her personal library at the moment, especially considering she hardly had any more space left on the bookshelf in her dorm room, and nowhere to go yet after school.

Regardless, after immersing herself in research for a few days, her more practical explorations of that feeling of potential began to take up her attention. That they couldn't use their mouths without tainting the mandrake leaves they were keeping there with anyone else's saliva—or other bodily fluids—made things even more interesting to her.

Hermione had always liked a challenge.

On the first Friday, she and Draco posed for Theo again so that he could finish the sketch he had started the week before. They started the same way as they had last time, with him thoroughly rubbing salve into her skin, but he pulled off her clothes until she ended up entirely naked, stretched out on his bed on her belly. He bowed over her back, nuzzling into her hair as he lifted her hips to slide one arm beneath her, pressing his fingers between her legs. He was still dressed as he did it, but she could feel how hard he was as he ground his hips against her arse while he got her off.

Over the weeked, they drove her so crazy in the library that by Sunday afternoon, she was at her wits end. She boldly reached beneath the table to touch Theo until he couldn't distract her anymore. His incessant teasing and talking was impossible to work through, but of course, it wasn't as though she was much more productive or less distracted while she was feeling him up under the table. It was fun to watch him try to keep it together, and even more fun to watch Draco drag him into the first empty classroom and take him there even though the dorms weren't far.

Tuesday night, Theo used a thermos of hot chocolate and blatant manipulation to get her to go to the quidditch pitch with him and watch Malfoy fly. She brought a book, but she found herself watching the practice over the pages, or laughing along to Theo's commentary and conversation.

They tempted her into the locker rooms afterwards, and Draco loudly lamented that the mandrake leaves they had tucked under their tongues meant that he couldn't fulfil his long-held fantasy of a victory blowjob from her in the shower.

"Wait, wait, hold on," Hermione had said through her blush. "How long have you been fantasising about me?"

He had distracted her from that question by dragging her into the shower fully clothed and pinning her against the wall. Theo had come to help her and Draco both out of their sopping clothes. They had to spell everything dry to sneak back up to the castle, of course, but she had enjoyed letting herself get carried away with them enough that she didn't even mind the inconvenience.

Though she had seen them having sex with each other a few times, neither of them tried to take things further with her. She wasn't quite sure why, but she didn't ask because she wasn't entirely sure she was ready for that anyway. Especially when they couldn't kiss. Even though she thought losing one's virginity was mostly a social construct, she had always imagined it to be more... romantic than experimental. She couldn't picture it without kissing.

That didn't mean she didn't want to experiment in other ways. She found herself inspired by two other new books she had purchased. They were muggle ones, and she'd tracked them down to buy them because she didn't think she could get that sort of reading material from a library.

After all, she was looking for information on polyamory and kink. She felt woefully uninformed, and she had a bit of muggle money in an account her parents had set up for her as a child. There wasn't much left, because she'd sent her parents to Australia with as much money as she could so they'd be able to start new lives. She hadn't really expected to need any herself, since she hadn't thought she would live through the war. But she had, and money was an unfortunate logistical necessity. The problem was, she hadn't yet managed to bring herself to sell the house she'd grown up in, or the car that had driven her to spelling bees and ballet recitals.