The next two weeks were as busy as the ones that had come before, but also ripe with potential, and full of opportunities to explore it.
Classes and animagus research carried their own sort of potential—potential to learn, to excel, to achieve. But the potential that had Hermione most excited was tied to Malfoy and Theo, and the book Harry had gifted her. Exploring that happened both theoretically and practically.
Theory came first, because Hermione wanted to understand what a triad was and what the wizarding world thought of them. She read the whole book front to back in one sleepless night, and then reread the most interesting chapters again the next. It didn't feel like enough, so after that, she sought out more books to try to find more diverse sources to help her form her understanding.
There weren't many. She started by looking for texts by or about any of the wizards and witches named in the history section of her book. She asked Madame Pince to order in a few technical manuals that had been published by one triad, because they had been responsible for developing a variety of important potions using the complementary skill sets of a Healer, Herbologist, and Potions Master. Those books at least she could pass off as relevant to her Potions lessons.
There was only one magical book that she ordered out of her own pocket, using the income from the Amortentia that Professor Slughorn had sold on her behalf. It was an advanced text on bonding magic that had a section about bonds between more than two parties. It also had sections on marriage bonds and blood bonds that she hoped would help her to understand more about the ancient traditions around ancestral wards and inheritance law that applied to old families like the Malfoys and Notts.
That book also ended up detailing some of the most notorious family lines, which taught Hermione some things she hadn't known before about Draco and Theo.
Draco was not only the Malfoy heir via his father, of course, but technically also the Blacks and the Rosiers through his mother. Narcissa Malfoy had been a Black before marriage, and her sisters Bellatrix and Andromeda didn't have any living heirs that the magic would recognize. Andromeda had been legally and magically disowned for marrying a muggleborn, so even though Tonks and Remus' son Teddy Lupin was a male blood descendent of Andromeda Black, the ancestral magic wouldn't count him as family.
As for the Rosiers... Well, that was because Malfoy's maternal grandmother was a Rosier, and the rest of the Rosiers had died in the war. Hermione knew that, because she had looked into Felix Rosier after the war, and learned that he had no surviving relatives.
She'd looked into him because he was one of the Death Eaters she had killed during the Battle of Hogwarts. His mask had slipped off as he fell and she'd watched his expression go still as he'd died. This was one of the reasons he featured in some of the nightmares she still had sometimes. She'd only learned his name because she'd recognized him in one of the articles that had been published after the war, talking about the fallen on both sides.
Which meant that Hermione was part of the reason that having heirs was so important to Malfoy. As far as she understood it based on what they'd told her, and what she'd since read, the magical inheritance of three of the oldest families rested on Malfoy's shoulders.
It was a lot to take in, especially as she couldn't help but compare it to how little connection she felt to her own roots. He had thousands of years of ancestors and traditions to inform him of the forces influencing who he was and why. All she had were her memories of her parents, which sharply declined in quantity and closeness after she turned eleven.
The information she learned about Theo was easier to digest, at least. She learned that his grandfather, Cantankerus Nott, is believed to have been the very biased individual who anonymously published the Pureblood Directory in the thirties. He was the one who coined the term Sacred 28, though that list was widely contested as invalid and inaccurate.
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.
But it was only two books, and Hermione hated feeling like she was at a knowledge disadvantage. At least, she was pretty sure Theo calling Malfoy Sir was an indication of kink.
So, she'd ventured into the middle of muggle London on Saturday morning in order to find a shop called Gay's the Word. She'd had to ask around a little before she'd even been pointed in that direction. It had been a touch embarrassing, but necessary because she doubted a more mainstream bookshop would have anything close to what she was looking for.
She walked out with two books. The Ethical Slut, about empowered promiscuity and honest non-monogamy, and Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism. The latter covered terminology, the elements of this sort of play, and relationship negotiations. Both titles were, admittedly, rather intimidating to her, but she was determined.
Nothing could stand between Hermione Granger and her pursuit of knowledge. And at least, the clerk had been kind and helpful, clearly used to people seeking information on very personal subjects.
She had a lot of personal projects on the go already. Specifically, the seven NEWT clases she planned to achieve Os in and her quest to become an animagus. Less concretely, the ongoing attention she was spending on the war trauma she was still processing, and her ultimate goal of coming to understand herself and what she wanted better. And recently completed, a review of the House Elf Relocation Department after she had rather impulsively owled to request their current mandate and ongoing strategic plan. That one had been on a whim, but it was an important issue to her, and she had wanted to make sure it was being done right, even if she didn't work for the Ministry. Yet.
But of all of these things, it was her relationship with Malfoy and Theo that inspired the most frequent and vivid thoughts to come to mind. So much so that they were borderline intrusive, especially the more she read her new books. Though she was already resolved to explore things with the new men in her life, she was inspired by some combination of her imagination and her research to set some more concrete aims within that particular goal.
She started with two specific aims, one for each of them.
Get spanked by Draco Malfoy.
Get tied up by Theodore Nott.
She was embarrassed over just how desperately curious she was to discover what both of those things felt like. She imagined they would be very different experiences, or at least, they appealed to her in very different ways.
Being spanked seemed like the sort of physical consequence that might help her let go of the small things that so often went around and around in her head.
Being restrained while knowing she was ultimately safe seemed like it could give her agency over something that otherwise would make her feel helpless.
She just didn't know how exactly either would relate to pleasure, and wondering about that was what made her heart race the most. No matter how much she read and prepared, she wasn't quite sure how it would go in reality, or what it would feel like, or... what they might think of her for wanting such things.
The unknown of it was what made it hard to figure out how to proceed. She didn't imagine it would come up organically, or at least, she didn't have the social skills to work it into conversation naturally. So really, she just needed to gather her courage and ask them directly.
The next Friday, an opportunity presented itself. In Potions lab, Hermione was so distracted watching Malfoy's hands work that she accidentally skipped a step and almost blew up their cauldron. Malfoy caught it in time, but they both had to stay late in order to fix her mistake because it had meant taking the potion's temperature down to redo the previous step. At least they hadn't had to start from scratch, but it did mean Malfoy wouldn't have time for lunch before his afternoon class.
Once the last student filed out, she looked up at him, biting her lip for a moment, worrying at it as she gathered her courage, and then started by acknowledging, "That was my mistake."
"It was. And it was entirely avoidable. You just weren't paying attention," Malfoy replied coolly, portioning out their potion to be graded while she cleaned up their workstation.
"You're right. It was... irresponsible. It could affect our grades," she went on.
He angled a look her way and said, "I suppose it could. We'll still be top of the class, if that's what you're fretting about."
"Not exactly. I just... I hate making mistakes," she said quietly.
The annoyed self-deprecation in her tone was sincere. She wasn't playing it up just because she had a plan, or because she wanted to give him a reason. She'd never been much of an actress. Artifice had always tripped her up.
Honesty was better, even if it could be hard.
Draco stoppered their vial, and then vanished the rest of their potion before he asked, "Are you expecting me to placate you?"
"No, placation isn't... helpful to me," Hermione answered. "I find it irritating, in fact."
It was a strange sensation the way her heart was racing with nervous hope even as her stomach churned with embarrassed frustration over the error she shouldn't have made. She had never thought of herself as the sort of girl who got this distracted by... boys.
When he shifted his gaze and his full attention to her, and she could tell by his expression that she had caught his interest, she almost lost her nerve.
"What would be helpful to you, Granger?" he asked in a low, curious voice.
The way she flushed at that gave her away, she thought, because she saw the interest spark in his eyes even before she answered. Even if he had already guessed what she was getting at, she still needed to voice it.
"Consequences."
She met his gaze as she said it, wide-eyed but determined. The smile that spread over his features was swift and heated, and promptly made Hermione feel warmer all over. Especially when he grabbed her by the tie and pulled her in close.
"You fucked up our potion so badly that even though we're the best in the class, we had to stay later than any other pair to finish. If I hadn't caught your error in time, we would have had to start over or take a fail. Now there's no time for me to have lunch before Alchemy," Draco murmured in a low voice. "Not unforgivable transgressions, but certainly deserving of some consequences in retribution for my... inconvenience. What day is it today? The sixteenth? Sixteen should do. Do you agree?"
Sixteen. She swallowed hard and said, "Yes, that sounds acceptable."
"Ask me for it," he practically purred, winding her tie around his knuckles.
Hermione blanched for a moment. How was she supposed to ask for that? She squirmed a little, shifting to press her knees together as she tried to find the words.
"I would like you to provide consequences to address the mistake I made," she whispered.
"Too vague. And not a question. Be more specific, Granger."
She licked her lips, and her eyes flicked down. She knew what he wanted to hear, and difficult though it was to say aloud, she believed that if she couldn't talk about it, she shouldn't be doing it.
So, she met his eyes again and, in the stubborn tone she always used when she was trying to get something she wanted, asked, "Will you spank me sixteen times, Malfoy?"
"Fuck yes," he growled, resting his forehead against hers. "But there's no time now. I want you to go wait in my room for me. I will come to you once my afternoon class is done. I will be alone. And I will give you your consequences. Then..."
He paused and nuzzled against her temple. Hermione was practically holding her breath for him to finish. He didn't, and she got impatient.
"Then what?" she breathed.
"That's one more for impatience. Then you'll show Theo. And then we'll all go to dinner together, and you will have to try not to squirm," Malfoy instructed, lips moving against her ear. "Is that acceptable?"
His words tore through her and settled right in the core of her in a way she hadn't expected. She felt it more deeply than she had been prepared for. It wasn't just a thrilling experience she wanted to have, but something that suddenly seemed bigger than that. Something she hadn't quite realised she'd been craving this way.
"Yes, that's acceptable," Hermione agreed.
"Good," he said with a nod, then let go of her tie, picked up his bag, and then walked out.
Hermione gave a shaky exhale, finished tidying up, and then headed back to the dorms for what she expected would be the longest afternoon of her life.
Except when she got there and tried to go to his room as he'd asked, she found that his wards were active.
Of course they were. He always set them when he left. But he'd told her to wait in his room for him, and Theo was in class too so he couldn't let her in. Which meant she needed to break in, because she intended to be waiting for him when he got back from class.
It took her close to two hours, and required some very challenging and creative workarounds, to break his wards. She suspected that had he really been trying to keep her out, she wouldn't even have been able to, or she would have hurt herself trying.
She barely made it inside before he got there, and even then, it was only because Friday electives were double blocks. They were taken with the seventh years as part of the standard schedule, not the briefer advanced lectures that made up the core courses for the eighth years.
It was good that it took her that long to get into his room. If she'd been in his room the whole time just waiting, she might have been so nervous (and eager) that she'd have paced a hole in his floor.
As it was, she spent the fifteen minutes before he returned from Alchemy perusing his bookshelf. She had enough time to choose nearly a dozen books she wanted to read, but not enough to narrow it down to one to ask to borrow. It was for the best. She had enough on her reading list just now.
When she heard his voice outside the door, Hermione suddenly felt like she didn't know where she should be waiting, exactly. On his bed seemed far too presumptuous. At his desk without anything to do there seemed staged. Standing there and staring at the door seemed... desperate.
So she turned back to the bookshelf and listened to him tell Theo they'd come find him after.
After.
Hermione shivered when she heard the door open, and when she turned to face him, his eyes were already dark and intently fixed on her.
"You managed the wards, I see," he said, then closed the door, reset all the wards, and added a strong silencing spell for good measure.
She blushed and nodded, "Of course I did. The one that made the little hummingbirds fly out of the keyhole gave me trouble for a while, though. That was a beautiful bit of charmwork."
"Thank you. But flattery won't make me go easy on you," Malfoy drawled.
When he set his bag down, it was like his whole demeanour changed. It almost seemed like he got taller, even. Broader.
"Then take the compliment without going easy on me. I wasn't sucking up," she replied bluntly.
"Bossy. Eighteen now," he said, his eyes flashing. "Go stand by the bed."
So they were starting, just like that? Hermione took a deep breath, only a little shaky with her nerves, and then did what he said. Was she supposed to agree out loud? Was she supposed to resist so he could make her? What was he thinking about her wanting him to do this?
"Do you have any questions, Granger?"
She snorted. "Of course I do. I always have questions."
"Mm. Yes, that was problematic phrasing for you. I only want to know if there's anything you need to discuss before we start," Malfoy explained as he stepped up close and reached out for her. He turned her around to face the bed and added, "Like if there's anything you don't want. Or anything you do. Rules or requests, now is the time to voice them."
How could she possibly come up with rules or requests when the steady press of his hand at her back was bending her over the edge of his bed? Her mind was already reeling, and even if it wasn't, she wasn't sure what she might have said.
"I trust you," she said instead as her elbows came to rest on his mattress.
He made a soft sound of approval, then lifted her skirt and folded it up over her waist, exposing her knickers. She knew they were plain this time. White cotton. As plain as they came. It didn't seem to deter Malfoy, because the next moment, he was touching her thighs.
Hermione startled at that point of contact, betraying her nerves, but she calmed as he pressed his fingertips up her skin until he followed the edge of her kickers along her cheeks.
"Tell me why we're here," he instructed.
She blinked. "What?"
"Consequences only work when they're for a purpose. Why are we here, Granger?"
She thought for a moment, but it didn't take long to remember. Feeling embarrassment at her own imperfections was never much of a reach. It was always right there.
"I was distracted in Potions and I skipped a step," she started. "My mistake meant we had to stay late, and you—"
"No. It's not about me," he interrupted.
Hermione swallowed hard. "I made you miss lunch. I jeopardised our grades. It was carelessness, because the step was easy. I just... didn't do it right."
While she answered, he reached up to the waistband of her underwear and pulled them slowly down, leaving them bunched around her upper thighs. He didn't speak, and though his action made her breath catch, she felt like he was expecting her to say more.
As he bared her core to him, she closed her eyes and pressed on to say, "I'm not supposed to make careless mistakes, and everyone saw."
"That's enough," he said quietly. "This is actually a consequence for holding yourself to unreasonable standards, and overthinking your errors. But once we're done, your slip in Potions will be absolved. Are you ready to begin?"
She sucked in a breath at his correction, not quite sure how to feel about it, but that didn't stop her from answering. "Yes."
Despite her agreement, the first stinging connection of his palm to her bottom made her gasp sharply.
That hurt! Wasn't this supposed to feel good? Perhaps she had miscalculated. But she didn't consider stopping him. She had agreed, and once he finished, her earlier mistake would be paid for. That mattered to her.
"I want you to keep track. Count."
"One," she breathed, a little shaky.
The second blow came just as fast, and just as firm, landing on her other cheek. She squeaked and when he paused, she counted that one out too.
"Two."
The next few came more quickly, and she had to call out three, four, five, and six all at once with increasing urgency. Afterwards, he smoothed his hands over her rapidly warming skin. She wondered if her skin was pink yet. Was that why he was rubbing her?
Or was that just because it felt good to be touched gently after being touched so firmly?
He repeated the pattern for the next four swats, and by the time she called out ten, she was clenching her fists in his blankets and squirming up onto her toes. She felt the heat gathering between her legs, which she hadn't expected and didn't quite understand. She wondered if he noticed.
"More than halfway," he paused to murmur.
"Are we? I hardly noticed," she breathed. It was bravado, because she didn't know what to do with feeling quite so... shaken. Even if it was a good sort of shaken.
He snorted and then said, "Then I guess we better call it halfway, and bump the total up to twenty, hm?"
"Fine," Hermione said, and wondered vaguely if on some level, that was what she'd been trying to do.
When he started again, it was an uneven number of swats this time. Only three, leaving her at thirteen, waiting for that fourteenth. Instead, she felt his fingers between her legs.
"Oh!" she startled, then burrowed her face in the blankets.
She was aroused. She could feel it in the way he stroked her fingers through her folds, and how easily they slid.
"So wet," he confirmed gruffly. "If you take the rest of your spankings as well as the first thirteen, I'll reward you for it after, because I like that you like it. But then they're going to be harder. You're not supposed to like it too much. Do you want that?"
"Yes," she gasped without hesitation.
She could handle harder, if it was because she'd agreed to it.
Her thighs shook with each blow as she counted fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, and she whimpered as he stroked the abused skin again afterwards. His fingers dipped lightly over her entrance every time his gentle, stroking touches dipped down low enough.
She was quivering and trying to figure out where her line was between the pain of his palms on her skin and the pleasure of his fingertips. She didn't know if her reaction was normal, but even if it wasn't, it was impossible to ignore.
"Last four," he murmured before he pulled his teasing fingers out of her and raised his hand again.
She braced herself for it, and she needed to. By the time she called out twenty, voice loud and strained with emotion, she was shaking, her knuckles were white as she clenched, and her skin was burning.
He wasted no time sinking two fingers deep into the molten heat of her while his other hand petted the skin he had just turned red, rubbing the pain away soothingly. Once the shaking of her thighs settled into more rhythmic movements that were timed with the press of his fingers, he stopped rubbing her glowing bottom and reached with that hand between her legs.
It wasn't long before she was pressed up onto her tip toes again, and rocking back into his hands wantonly. She pulsed around his fingers and muffled a scream into his comforter as she climaxed. Her nerves were too frayed from the overwhelming variety of sensations to hold onto her control, and she was grateful for his strong hands gripping her hips to keep her in place when her knees buckled. Even if the brush of his trouser fabric against her bum made the skin sing, and her whole body shivered with it.
For a few long moments, all she could do was cling to the comforter and pant as she tried to catch her breath. She couldn't really even get her feet under her, but he didn't rush her. He just swept his thumbs back and forth over her skin where he held her hips, and then she felt him move.
She wasn't quite sure how he was moving until she felt him pressing soft, closed-mouth kisses to the backs of her thighs. She startled and squirmed, gasping, "Draco, don't—"
"I know. But you have no idea how badly I want to taste you right now," he groaned, nuzzling into the crease of her thigh.
That wasn't what she was going to say. She knew he wouldn't taste her, but she was uncomfortable with him even being that close. No one ever had been, and she felt vulnerable with the most sensitive part of her bared to him. Even her thighs felt slick, messy with her own enthusiasm, and it was... a lot to have Malfoy right there. She could feel his breath.
She almost spoke up again, almost tried to squirm away, but then he gently began to pull her underwear back up and into place. When he got to his feet again, he straightened her skirt so that she was covered there too. She exhaled a sigh of relief.
"You did well," he said softly. "How do you feel?"
"Shaky. In a good way, I think," Hermione answered honestly, pushing herself up onto her feet. When she turned around, she couldn't quite look him in the eye, but she still murmured, "Thank you."
It seemed appropriate to thank him. Not just for the orgasm, but because he'd said she'd done well, and because she did feel... better. She didn't have to carry that mistake, not when there was already the burning ache of retribution for it.
Hermione liked rules, even though she often broke them. She liked that they had agreed on a number, and any increases had been for acceptable enough reasons. Impatience, bossiness, impertinent bravado. She liked that he had carried out those consequences, and any deviations from them had been agreed upon too. He had told her what to expect, and he had followed through.
It had been clear, and exciting, and... purposeful. Like he had said, it was for a purpose. She had her reasons; to let go of her mistake, and to make it up to him for the parts that had affected him. He'd had his own; to reprimand her for holding herself to unreasonable standards and overthinking her errors. She remembered those words quite clearly.
And perhaps they'd had some shared reasons, too. Because they wanted to. Because it felt... good.
It felt even better when he reached for her, pulling her in flush against his body. She didn't feel so self-conscious about the slickness on her thighs when she could feel the length of his erection pressing against her pelvis through their clothes.
"You're welcome," Malfoy replied in a whisper, close enough that she could smell the mandrake leaf on his breath. "But you're not done yet. Theo is waiting in his room for you to go show him. He's very excited."
Hermione's breath caught in her throat at that reminder, at the thought that he knew exactly what they were doing, even if he couldn't see or hear them from his room.
"Then should we go?"
"Not we. You."
That surprised her, and it showed on her face as she asked, "You don't want to come?"
"I need to take care of something, and he'll enjoy the attention," Malfoy answered.
She flashed him a bold smirk of her own, despite her pink cheeks, as she asked curiously, "Are you going to wank?"
He snorted and pulled her hips tighter against his before answering, "Yes. And as I do, I'm going to picture you as you just were, bent over my bed, your red arse in the air, fucking you with my fingers until you screamed."
"Oh," she gulped, not sure what else to say to that. That sort of boldness came much more easily to him, of course, and to hear him say it in such blunt, lewd terms...
Before she could respond further, he was nudging her towards the door and adding, "You can tell Theo all of that, if he asks. Now go on."
She nodded, but first, she stretched up onto her tip toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. She didn't thank him again, but she did intend the kiss to be intimate. As intimate as she could offer right now, when they couldn't risk anyone else's saliva getting into their mouths.
Lingering for a moment, her lips dragged down over his jaw as she dropped back onto the balls of her feet. When she turned, she felt him dismiss the wards, and she slipped out into the hall without looking back.
Thankfully, there was no one in the hall. She moved quickly towards Theo's room, and when she tried the door, it was open. She let herself in and pulled the door immediately shut behind her.
"Well hello, Hermione," Theo greeted her, the knowing smile audible in his tone even before she looked up and saw it.
He looked positively devilish, leaning back comfortably in his armchair.
"Hi Theo," she said, smiling back at him and taking his hand when he reached for her. He pulled her in until she was standing between his parted knees.
He looped his arms around her thighs, his hands coming to rest at the back of her knees, and looked up at her as he asked, "Where's Draco?"
Her blush deepened, and she let out a little laugh. She couldn't quite bring herself to speak as explicitly as Malfoy had.
"Well. He's wanking to thoughts of me. He told me to tell you," she paraphrased, and Theo snickered. "And he told me to... show you."
"I knew that last bit," Theo answered, breathlessly eager. "Do you want to show me?"
Hermione bit her lip for a moment, and then nodded as she realised that she did indeed want to. It wasn't as though she could share what she'd just done with anyone else. Or even if she could, she wouldn't.
Just Theo.
She turned around and reached for the hem of her skirt. Her heart was pounding, and she lifted it slowly. He didn't hurry her along. She imagined he was watching every inch she bared raptly, and when the fabric grazed her bum as she pulled it up over the curve of it, she shivered. Holding that fabric gathered at her hips, she also held her breath as she waited for his reaction.
She didn't have to wait long.
"Gorgeous," Theo breathed softly. "Can I touch?"
"Y-yes," Hermione stammered.
His fingers slid over her skin and he gently palmed those rosy red cheeks. He pressed her knickers towards her center, leaving them on as he bared her by pushing the fabric into the cleft of her arse.
When he trailed his fingers back down to her thighs to appreciate the view, she sucked in a sharp breath as she felt the pads of his fingers catch on her still sticky skin.
"Oh my. You liked it, didn't you?"
"Yes," she said again.
"Mm, I like it too. The bliss of pain that you've chosen for yourself, at a level of intensity you can handle, given to you by someone you trust. It's a dizzying sort of pleasure. It has a way of... redefining things," Theo murmured. "Oh, how many poems I have written about him."
Him. Draco, obviously.
To hear Theo talk about it like that made Hermione feel less self-conscious for liking it. She had known, academically, that other people liked it. She had read that. But she hadn't been sure she'd like it, never mind that much, and she was glad to know she wasn't the only one.
"Did he send you here alone so that I could get you off while he's getting himself off?" Theo asked, stroking up and down her inner thighs.
She swallowed hard and shook her head. "No. He already... I was supposed to tell you what he's wanking about."
Theo's hand stilled. "Oh?"
She took a shaky breath and then said, "He's picturing... Well, me. Bent over the edge of his bed after he spanked me. He touched me then. He made me come. He made me... scream. It wasn't really a scream. More of a... a cry. But that's what he said. That he fingered me until I screamed."
Theo hummed an approving sound and started moving his hands again. Not to press his fingers into her the way Malfoy had, but to pull her down to sit on his lap. She hissed softly at the friction of her full weight landing on his lap.
"Is that what he said?" he murmured, holding her hips tight against his.
She huffed at that question, squirming against him as she corrected herself, "Bent over his bed. My red arse in the air. F-fucking me with his fingers until I screamed."
"I bet you looked delicious. I bet so did he," he murmured. "Next time, try to put yourself in front of a mirror so you can watch him. He's exquisite always, but especially like that. Intense. Powerful. It never fails to make me want to fall to my knees for him."
Hermione tilted her head back onto his shoulder, gasping as one of Theo's hands slipped up under the front of her skirt. She realised the door wasn't locked, because it hadn't been for her. Malfoy could catch them like this at any moment.
Technically, anyone could. Not that anyone other than Malfoy was likely to let themselves into Theo's room.
Still. It was a risk.
That didn't stop her from parting her knees for him as Theo sought to press his hand down the front of her knickers.
"Still so worked up. You're insatiable," he murmured as he touched her, but on his lips, it sounded like praise, not judgement.
Malfoy opened the door just as she was about to tip over the edge. He quickly shut it behind him, just in time to watch her shatter again in Theo's lap.
And then he made her stay there with her legs parted as he reached for Theo between her thighs.
They should have been early for dinner, considering it wasn't much after three when Malfoy got back from class, but all told, they ended up being late.