Friday, July 27, 2012

Knowing that she wanted Draco and Astoria and actually doing something about it were two totally different things.

The more she thought about it, the more doubt crept into her mind.

What if Draco was wrong about Astoria's desires?

What if she'd changed her mind about wanting to experiment with another witch?

What if it was all one big ruse designed to utterly humiliate her?

Draco did not seem to be the same evil git who'd taunted her in school, but she couldn't seem to let go of a tiny, niggling fear in her mind.

She'd not been a sexually adventurous person before this. She'd not been confident in herself and her body. She could not imagine actually propositioning the both of them.

What if they laughed at her? What if Astoria was horrified? What if Astoria fired her and sent her away in disgrace? What if they ruined her reputation?

No, she would not approach them. They would both have to approach her. She felt like she was betraying the standards of Gryffindor bravery with such doubts and fears, but she couldn't help herself. Years of failed attempts at relationships and years of being alone had heightened her insecurities and her self-doubt, and the idea of just marching up to Draco and Astoria and throwing herself at them was both laughable and terrifying.

She'd seen little of Astoria lately outside of the occasional meal or tea time. Her new friend was in full party-planning mode, and her enthusiasm was infectious. Lavish invitations with an elaborate gilded Chinese dragon on them were ordered and sent out by a horde of owls. Decorations arrived in crates, and elves scurried about the manor and grounds, following Astoria as she moved about with her endless lists and catalogs.

Hermione found it amusing just how much red and gold was part of the party's decor scheme. Draco wandered into the solarium one morning before breakfast as she and Astoria were sorting through a crate of lanterns that had just been delivered for the party, and he grumbled about the "overtly crass Gryffindor-ish-ness" of Astoria's theme. Astoria promptly smacked him with a bamboo and paper fan and told him to hush.

"Red symbolises good fortune, joy, happiness, and good luck in China, and it's part of Chinese new year!" she chided good-naturedly at him. "Don't be such a grump!"

Hermione stood by awkwardly as Astoria leaned in to kiss her husband on the cheek. She blushed watching the younger witch press her body against Draco's and whisper something into his ear. It must have been something fairly lascivious, as Draco's hand slid over her arse and a smirk stretched across his face.

He looked up then and met Hermione's eye across the room and winked at her as he grabbed Astoria's shapely bottom and gave it a good squeeze. Astoria yelped in response and playfully swatted his chest with a well-manicured hand.

"What, um, what was that all about?" Hermione asked after Draco left the room.

Astoria returned to the stack of lanterns they were checking to make sure they all worked properly.

"Oh, that," she said, dismissively, waving her hand in the general direction of the door. "He's so sour sometimes. I swear, it must be some sort of paternal curse inherited from Lucius or something. I just had to remind him that this is all for his benefit, and that in exchange for behaving and NOT complaining about the party - including the expense, the decor, or anything else - he was getting plenty of incentive."

Hermione arched an eyebrow. "What kind of incentive?"

Astoria giggled. "The kinky kind."

"Oh." Hermione swallowed hard, uncomfortable and yet titillated by the turn in conversation.

"Draco likes to be in control," Astoria said matter-of-factly. "Maybe it's all that awfulness he went through in the war, maybe it's all that - excuse my language - bullshite that he's had to deal with from Lucius because that's one domineering, controlling bastard if I've ever seen one. Or maybe that's just who he is, and he'd be this way no matter what, but he likes control."

Then she grinned at Hermione in a conspiratorial sort of manner. "And as you have probably noticed, I'm not exactly the type of witch who is the quiet, submissive type. So I get creative in how I handle him. I've found that despite his controlling nature, he's actually quite accommodating when he thinks he's winning something or that something was all his idea. What you just saw? That was my errant husband agreeing to put on his happy face and make nice about this party until after the event is over."

"And you accomplished this how?" Hermione asked, impressed and a little bit envious at the easy relationship between Draco and Astoria.

She giggled again. "I might have agreed to a bit of light bondage and domination play."

Hermione's face flushed red. "Oh."

"To be honest, it's not really my thing. I mean, don't get me wrong - it's not bad. I mean, anything sexual with Draco is good. I just don't necessarily want to play the submissive pet to his dom, you know? But I've found that occasionally volunteering to submit and play makes him most accommodating in just about every other area."

"That's um, that's very Slytherin of you," Hermione managed to stammer, as her mind was suddenly flooded with mental pictures of Draco dominating his wife, of a nude Astoria tied to a four-poster bed, of spankings and floggings and all sorts of dirty, debauched things that she'd only ever read about but never experienced firsthand.

"Well, you know how it goes - wizards can easily be led around by their 'wands,'" Astoria laughed.

Hermione smiled back, a false smile, and she felt like a fraud, for her own experience was so clearly dwarfed by what Astoria and Draco had shared and experienced together. It seemed absurd to think that they would actually want her.

"You know what the best part of this is?" Astoria asked as she finished examining the last of the lanterns.

Hermione shook her head in the negative.

"It hasn't hit him yet that I got the better deal here: I get his good behavior and help with this party, AND I get orgasms out of it!"

~oOo~

Astoria's words proved prophetic, for Draco was indeed in a good mood that day, for all that he did not want this party, and Scorpius seemed to reflect his parents' happy demeanor. Hermione, for her part, remained thoroughly distracted by the mental image of the couple engaging in dominance and submission, or 'play' as Astoria called it.

She was sorely tempted to peruse that shelf of erotic literature in the back corner of Malfoy Manor's library, but knowing that Draco could somehow tell which books she'd held in her hot little hands was a huge deterrent. She certainly didn't want him to know that she was reading about BDSM. Instead she tried her best to focus on tutoring Scorpius and on her own research, diligently suppressing all notions of how sexy Draco-sodding-Malfoy surely looked ordering his wife around.

That afternoon, Astoria ventured into the potions lab to dismiss her son.

"Draco said he spoke to you about a dress for the reception?" she said pointedly, frowning at Hermione.

"Yes, he said you would help me pick out something." Hermione self-consciously smoothed her dark blue robes, knowing that her clothing and hair were a mess from a day spent hovering over a cauldron.

"Well, let's go then!"

"Now? I must look a fright."

Astoria shrugged. "I don't care. I want to get out of here now. Daphne said she might floo this afternoon and come over for tea. I need to be gone before then!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow, remembering how Draco had described Daphne Greengrass at Hogwarts. "You're avoiding your sister?"

"You would too if she was your sister. Come on!"

Despite her rumpled appearance and her general distaste for shopping, Hermione giggled as she let Astoria drag her away from her cauldrons and her research.

They started in Diagon Alley, and Hermione soon discovered she was correct that Astoria viewed this as akin to dressing a muggle Barbie doll. She had very specific ideas about how Hermione should look for this grand event.

Hermione was rather mystified by the entire process. She was unsure what pureblood witches traditionally wore to such an occasion and fully expected Astoria to dress her in frilly formal dress robes. To her surprise, Astoria gravitated toward more modern, less traditional cocktail dresses and evening gowns. Many that she pushed Hermione to try on would not have been out of place somewhere like Harrods.

She wanted to curse Draco for the sinful images he'd put into her mind, for the prurient thoughts she'd had about Astoria, because shopping with her was awkward in the extreme. Astoria, apparently blissfully unaware of Hermione's wicked thoughts, would enter the fitting room, happily chattering away as she zipped and unzipped evening gowns and dress robes for her friend. Every touch of Astoria's hand on her bare back or shoulder sent shivers down Hermione's spine.

As they moved from boutique to boutique, Astoria tried on a selection of dresses and robes as well, and Hermione cursed her limited sexual experience. Was Astoria flirting when she reached into that black evening gown to adjust her own cleavage in front of Hermione? Was she intending to be seductive when she fiddled with the daringly high slit of a silver gown as she debated aloud whether or not it was too daring?

Hermione's traitorous mind kept going back to the librum de memoria et phantasia and the scandalous moving images of her and Astoria pleasuring each other in a fitting room. She had never, ever engaged in any sort of sexual activity in a public place, so she did not dare come onto her new friend as they shopped, but the memory of those images left her shifting in uncomfortably damp knickers.

By late evening, Hermione was exhausted and hungry, and they still did not have a dress for the party. Astoria seemed to gravitate toward gowns and dress robes for Hermione that were more on the risqué side than Hermione was comfortable wearing, or they were elegant enough that she felt like a child playing dress up in someone else's clothing. Astoria's determined enthusiasm never waivered though.

They finally ended up in a small boutique with what looked like a selection of wares from around the world. Hermione's eyes were drawn to the dress first. She pointed it out to the other witch, and Astoria's eyes lit up when she saw it.

"Oh Merlin, yes! You have to try it on!" she gushed, pushing the dress at Hermione.

Hermione laughed as she took it from her and made her way to the fitting room. "Okay, okay. What about you though? I swear, we've tried on every dress in Diagon Alley."

Astoria shrugged nonchalantly as she glanced around the store. "I suppose I could go to Paris to shop. Honestly though, I think I'm going to wear that purple dress."

Hermione stepped into the dressing room and closed the curtain before shimmying out of her robes as she listened to her friend. "What purple dress?" she called through the privacy curtain.

"You know which one. THE purple dress. The one I bought earlier this summer when we went shopping."

Hermione paused, the dress around her thighs as she pulled it on. "You mean… that utterly scandalous dress? The one without a back?"

Astoria laughed merrily. "It has a back!"

Hermione snorted. "Not really."

"Well, okay. Not much of one. But it covers my bum."

Hermione laughed at that point. "I would certainly hope so! I know you want to attract positive attention to Draco and his business interests, but I'm not sure flashing your bum would be the best way to go about that."

She had been expecting a verbal response and instead was startled when Astoria poked her head through the fitting room curtains. "Are you dressed yet?"

Hermione let out a small shriek in response, as she was standing in her bra and knickers, the tight cocktail dress pulled up around her thighs but far from being all the way on.

"I'm sorry!" Astoria exclaimed, laughing as she withdrew and closed the curtains behind her. "I thought you already had it on! You've been so quick changing clothes each time!"

Hermione tugged the gown up over her bum, feeling oddly brave now that Astoria had truly seen her in nothing but her skivvies. "It's alright. You've seen just about all of it today anyway."

She paused for a moment and was reminded of Draco's admonition for her to be the brave Gryffindor he knew she was.

"You, um, you can come in. It's fine," she called out nervously to Astoria.

Her friend slipped back into the fitting room, closing the curtain behind her.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine. You just startled me. That's all."

Hermione couldn't quite bring herself to make eye contact with Astoria in the mirror, but she had to silently acknowledge that the other witch's presence in the fitting room turned her on as she slid her arms into the sleeves and pulled the dress the rest of the way on.

"Can you do the zip for me?"

Astoria approached her from behind, and Hermione had to hold back a shudder as the younger witch brushed her long curls out of the way and moved light fingertips down her spine as she sought out the zipper. She closed her eyes and tried to forget about the moving fantasy images of herself and Astoria, but it was so real, so very real when she could smell Astoria's perfume and feel the warmth of her body behind her.

"Oh wow!" Astoria's soft exclamation was decidedly close to her ear.

Hermione opened her eyes and looked in the mirror. Astoria was behind her still, and she moved her hands up Hermione's back and over her shoulders as she spoke.

"You'd think this dress was bespoke - I've never seen anything fit you this perfectly! It's gorgeous! What do you think?"

Hermione drew in a breath and tried to focus on the dress and not the incredibly beautiful witch behind her. She studied herself in the mirror. It was not like anything she normally wore or had ever worn before. She felt laid bare, exposed, even though the dress itself was arguably more modest than what Astoria planned to wear.

"I… I look…"

"You look dead sexy is what you look. You have to get this dress!" Astoria pleaded, playfully tugging one frizzy curl. "Trust me - we've been all over Diagon Alley and haven't found anything approaching this dress in terms of perfection. This is it. This is THE dress!"

Hermione bit her lip. She still felt a bit as if she was playing dress up in someone else's wardrobe, but Astoria was right: she did look good in this dress. Perhaps if she could somehow tame her hair and add the proper accessories, she could pull off "desirable and confident" half as well as Astoria did.

Be brave, Hermione, she told herself.

She turned to face Astoria. "Let's get the dress."

Astoria's face lit up, and she squealed with excitement, bouncing on her heels before throwing her arms around Hermione in an unexpected hug. "You won't regret it! You are going to turn heads at this party!"

Hermione hugged her back, drawing pleasure from the feel of Astoria's body pressed against her own.

Was this it? Was this the right moment? Do I kiss her cheek? Her lips? How do I do this?

Astoria pulled back slightly and grinned at her, and for a long moment, Hermione's world stood still, both of them seemingly suspended, waiting for a sign, for something, for anything.

And then, in the silence of the fitting room, Hermione both felt and heard her stomach rumble, protesting the evening meal they'd skipped to continue hunting for a dress.

And there it is. I am officially the least sexy witch alive. Wait. No, Dolores Umbridge probably has me beat. But not by much. This is easily the most embarrassing thing to happen to me since that whole beaver-tooth spell back in school, she thought as Astoria stepped out of their embrace with another giggle.

"I suppose that's my fault, since I did make you skip dinner," she said amiably as she spun Hermione back around to face the mirror. "Here, let me unzip you so you can change. We'll pay for this and then let's grab something to eat before we go home."

Hermione swallowed thickly and nodded, not trusting her voice. The moment had passed, and both of them had failed to act. A moment later, she felt the zipper tugged down on her dress, and then Astoria left the fitting room.

~oOo~

Yes, I know: I'm a tease. I make no apologies. Thank you for sticking with me on this story. I have not abandoned it, and I will finish it, but I'm juggling a lot right now in my non-fandom life, so updates are unfortunately sporadic.

Elle