Chapter Text
It was morning, and having been thoroughly and gloriously tortured by Malfoy’s tongue, hands and cock for the past twelve hours, as well as a lot of torturing him right back, with several equally glorious hours of that spent sleeping or in the ephemeral space between, half conscious and tangled together like tree roots, Hermione was very much ready for a large quantity of tea, followed by breakfast, hopefully followed by yet more exquisite torture.
As she watched the kettle boil, she considered how different her life looked compared to yesterday morning when she’d done the exact same thing, dressed in the exact same dressing gown and using the exact same mug. It was blue with a pretty design of otters swirling and dancing in the water, it was a fair bit bigger than a standard mug, and it was her favourite. Malfoy was getting the one with the red and yellow Gryffindor stripes, for no other reason than she was looking forward to the exaggerated eye-roll it would elicit. She had just finished pouring the water over the teabags when she heard the soft roar of the floo in the other room, followed by a familiar voice.
“Er… knock knock? Hermione? Are you here? ”
Hermione froze.
What time was it? Oh god had she slept (fucked) right through her lunch with Neville? No, no, thank god, it wasn’t even ten yet. Then what on earth-?
“Neville?” she said tentatively, creeping out into the living room and pulling her dressing gown tighter and her hair around her neck to obscure any incriminating marks Malfoy had left.
She’d never been happier that her dressing gown went all the way down to her ankles. It wasn’t as if she was ashamed, and of course Harry and Ginny already knew, but she really wasn’t in the mood for this conversation. Not Neville, not now. Dear god, please oh please let Malfoy stay shut in her room…
“Oh good, you’re here!” Neville hadn’t moved more than a foot away from the floo, and he was wringing his hands, “I’m so sorry for barging in like this,”
“Did- did I get the wrong time for lunch? I thought it was at one-?”
“No, no you didn’t get the wrong time,” he said with a barely repressed smile, moving from one foot to the other restlessly.
“Is everything ok? You seem-”
“I’m just excited,” he said in a rush, stepping towards her and grinning, “Hermione, they found it!”
“They-?”
“The silphium! They only went and bloody found an intact silphium plant! Another one, I mean.”
“What?!” she exclaimed, at the same time as there was a loud thump from the vicinity of her bedroom. She prayed Neville hadn’t heard it. Stay in there Malfoy, she thought, trying to project her thoughts through the wall, pretty pretty please?
“Some muggles in Turkey found one!” said Neville, practically vibrating with excitement now, “A professor or something was researching and he found one! Intact! No curses or ancient ruins around or anything, just a load of goats! Apparently they love the stuff, which in itself makes it even more incredible that it’s survived. I really want to get Ministry funding to do a proper expedition in the summer, and I was hoping- I’m sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. ”
“No it’s fine, that’s- god, that’s actually amazing!” she gasped, unable to help herself from glancing over to her bedroom door, which was blessedly still shut.
“Isn’t it! I couldn’t believe it when I heard, but…” Neville trailed off, seeming to only just be taking in his surroundings, and Hermione felt her cheeks heat.
They hadn’t left a trail of clothing behind them or anything, but they had eaten dinner together last night, and she hadn’t cleared away the plates yet. Not exactly a smoking gun, but she could feel the blush taking over her face, and Neville always had been a lot more observant than people gave him credit for.
“I… shouldn’t have barged in,” he said slowly, taking a step back towards the floo.
“Neville, it’s not-”
But he just smiled knowingly (though how much he actually knew was a matter of great debate in Hermione’s mind) and backed further into the floo.
“We’ll talk later, yeah?” he said, grinning. “One o’clock?”
“I- yes. One o’clock.” She mumbled, face burning.
“Ok, this is amazing news though, Hermione,”
“I suppose- oh the silphium. God, of course it is… fuck.” If possible, her cheeks reddened even further, and Neville smiled even wider.
“We’ll talk later.”
“About the expedition.” She said, narrowing her eyes.
“Sure,” he said, shrugging, “That too.”
And with that, he grabbed a handful of floo powder and disappeared, grinning the whole time.
In a daze Hermione wandered back to the kitchen to finish making their (now extremely over-brewed) tea, and miraculously made it back to the bedroom without tripping over something and breaking her neck. Malfoy was sitting up in bed, alert, and looking not unlike a dog that had heard the dulcet tones of a treat jar opening.
“Tea.” She mumbled vaguely, setting both mugs down on her bedside table. “Sorry if it’s too strong.”
“I couldn’t care less.”
“You heard all that then?”
“Every word.”
“What was the thump?”
“Sat up too quickly and banged my head on that stupid shelf.” He muttered, jerking his thumb towards the offending furniture. “Not important.”
“So…”
“You’re going to go, right? To Turkey?”
“I’m certainly interested in proposing it to the Ministry, this is a big deal.” She said carefully, “But it might end up being more of an academic concern, since they might not want to step on the local government’s toes, in which case-”
“You’ll need funding? I’ll fund it in a heartbeat, Granger. The lot, if you need it.”
“You- seriously?”
“Would I get to go with you?”
“I mean- if you funded the whole damn thing, yeah, sure… but mostly I think it would just be a giant conflict of interest. I’m not ok with you being my boss.” She said, unable to suppress a shudder at the thought. “Even before this,” she added, looking pointedly at him, naked in her bed.
“What if it was a donation?”
“I don’t know, maybe… although-”
“Although?”
“Actually, if it’s mostly privately funded, the Ministry might like me there as a government liaison between the project and the local government, in which case-”
“In which case you’d be working for them and not me,”
“Yes, but that would mean it would still be a conflict of interest if we kept on-”
“Liaising?” he said with a filthy smirk.
“Yes, that.” She sighed, not quite managing to stop herself smiling.
“But you think it’s possible, don’t you?” he pressed, a subtle eagerness threading into his voice.
“I- well, I suppose you’re more knowledgeable about the silphium than most, and you’re one of the only people in the country to have seen one in person in living memory, so I think there’s plenty of argument for you going on the expedition in your own right whether I wanted you to or not.”
“High praise,” he said drily.
“As for the funding, it’s early days obviously, but I doubt we’ll get no funding from elsewhere, so as long as you weren’t the only financial backer-”
“So it’s possible?”
Hermione smiled.
“Yeah, yeah I think it’s poss-”
Malfoy cut her off with a bruising kiss that seemed to be more an expression of his resolve than anything else, and Hermione found herself unexpectedly turned on at his sudden single-mindedness.
“Let’s go change the world, Granger,” he said, jaw set in determination and eyes alight with excitement.
The future stretched out before her, flickering and dancing with possibility, and Hermione smiled wider, linking her fingers with his.
“Yes,” she said, “Let’s.”