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• Chapter 1: An Alluring Difference Chapter 2: Different Hermione Plans Chapter 3: Panda pants Chapter 4: Present Opportunities Chapter 5: Sur La Cote Weasley Chapter 6: Hermione Hearts Harry Chapter 7: Innocents Abroad? Chapter 8: To the Barricades!
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The shrieks and raucous laughter generated during the next morning’s therapeutic spell-casting would have awoken most of The Burrow, were it not for Fleur’s strong silencing charms. The amount of flesh bared during that same period of time would have aroused most of The Burrow, were it not for locked doors and drawn curtains (there being a 2:1 wizard/witch ratio outside of Percy’s old bedroom).

Fleur had been singularly unimpressed with the list of First Year spells offered under the Hogwarts curriculum.  When Hermione had asked her to replace Crookshanks as a live target, she had expected to be subjected to jinxes that tickled her or forced her to dance…the kind of spells that she’d learned during her first year at Beauxbatons.  But anything that would be fun to hurl towards an opponent was at least a Second Year spell for Hogwarts, and absent from Hermione’s approved spell list.  There were, of course, spells on that list that did require a live target to judge effectiveness…the tripping jinx, for example, or Petrificus Totatus.  And Hermione insisted that she do all of those spells, at least once.  But Fleur was feeling rather playful that morning, and wanted to fire back.
   
Hermione was in a very agreeable mood, but was concerned about how her injury would respond to getting clipped by something like a Expelliarmus spell.  So she improvised, and came up with a rather risque type of practice that involved the color-changing spell.

It was a simple game with simple rules and a simple spell…change the color of a piece of clothing worn by your opponent, and they have to remove it.  In practice, however, it proved challenging (particularly once the two witches stripped off their nightgowns and dueled in their knickers).

“It’s not….fair!” Hermione giggled, as she dodged yet another spell that was flying towards her crotch.

“Pingo!”

Fleur ducked to her left and let Hermione’s spell sail by.

“What eez not fair?” she asked.

“Your target is smaller than mine!”  

“Would you like to borrow one of my thongs?” Fleur teased.

“No…got my own if…just want to….Pingo!....Damn it!….Want to hit the one that you’re wearing!”

“Never!” Fleur shouted, as she hurled three successive color-changing charms.  Hermione sidestepped the first, then squatted down to avoid the second, only to be clipped on the bum by the third.  

“J’ai gagne!” Fleur shouted with glee, as she watched Hermione’s knickers change color.  She raised her arms into the air and exclaimed, “I see pink!”

Hermione sighed as she reached back and rubbed the slightly stinging point of impact through her (now) pink panties.

“So if you see pink already there’s no need for me to take them off?” she asked.

Fleur smiled as she placed her hands on her hips, lifted her chin and shook her head.

“Tout le chemin!”

“Alright, alright,” Hermione whined, as she hooked thumbs into her waistband and pulled down her knickers.  After stepping out of them she did a slow pirouette and asked, “There…happy?”

“Very,” Fleur teased as she “holstered” her wand by slipping it through the waistband of her thong.  Then she stepped forward, closing the gap between her roommate and her, and reached out with her finger.

“Eet ees a leetle less discolored today, no?” she asked, lightly touching the top end of Hermione’s scar. The Muggleborn witch caught a slight breath in her throat as Fleur’s finger began to trace down the length of her wound.

“Erm, yeah, I guess,” she replied.  “Still think it’s too ugly to show Harry, though.”

“I disagree,” Fleur said, her finger stopping right where the scar met Hermione’s cleavage.  The part-Veela dragged her fingertip off-course and playfully poked each of her roommate’s nipples.  “Zis scar would not even be noticed eef these were also on display…or eef zey were tan like mine.”

Hermione snorted as she batted Fleur’s fingers away from her chest.

“Maybe if it was Ron that was perving on them,” she said.  “But Harry?  He would look straight past my baps and focus only on the scar.  And then he’d feel guilty for thinking that it was his fault that I was injured.”

“I think zat eet would be a problem only eef you act as eef you are ashamed of ‘ow you look,” Fleur countered.  “And you ‘ave no reason to zink zat…you are such a beautiful girl, no?”

Hermione shrugged.

Fleur tried to brighten their mood with a playful suggestion.

“And so, ‘Ermione…would you like to keep playing zee game for favors?”

“Play for favors? Why Fleur…that’s a rather naughty suggestion!”

The part-Veela shrugged.  “Only eef you ‘ave zee naughty mind,” she said slyly.  “Eet would be a big favor eef you kept Ronald from making zee drool on me, no?”

“I suppose,” Hermione replied. She then looked down the length of her naked body and asked, “But what would you be aiming to change color if we kept playing?”

Fleur giggled as she pulled her wand out from her waistband and traced a horizontal line just above her roommate’s mound.

“Zee spell can change the color of hair just as easily as clothing, no?” she teased. “Une jardin rose…comme Tonks?”

Hermione looked down towards her crotch and batted away Fleur’s wand.  “Would hardly be fair, though would it?  I haven’t been able to cast a depilatory charm since the Ministry attack.  My pubes are almost as big a target as my knickers.”

Fleur giggled.

“Eet ees not a First-Year spell at your school, zen?”

Hermione rolled her eyes.  “Not on any of the spell lists, actually.”

“But you are also Muggleborn, no?” Fleur asked.  “You do not have a razor?”

The bushy-haired witch shook her head.  “Didn’t bring one with me…can you imagine explaining what it’s used for if Mr. Weasley spotted it in my toiletry bag?  And besides…magic doesn’t leave stubble.”

“Zat ees true,” Fleur replied.  “You know zat I would be ‘appy to cast ze spell for you...maybe you would like ze shape of a lightning bolt?”

“Fleur!” Hermione chided, as she reflexively covered herself with her hands.  

The French witch was about to chide her roommate over her modesty, when the escape of a low-pitched growl from Hermione’s lips caught her attention.

“Ees something wrong, ‘Ermione?”

“Erm…no,” the Muggleborn stammered as she turned away from her roommate.  “Just that…oooh!...think I’ll have to take a break….I’d have…oh, geez….have problems concentrating on much of anything right now.”

“Why eez zat?” Fleur asked, as she watched Hermione squirm.

The Muggleborn witch looked towards the locked bedroom door and giggled.  “Because Harry is awake and Crookshanks is broadcasting again.”

Fleur’s eyes widened.  “So he eez…what…flipping through zee catalog pages?”

Hermione closed her eyes, and nodded as she bent her clutched knees.

“One-handed, I imagine!” she moaned.  “Crookshanks is really going to have to find someplace else to sleep tonight if he keeps transmitting like this.”

Fleur laughed in delight and clapped her hands together.  “Magnifique!  And so…would you like to have some alone time een zee shower, or alone time ‘ere while I shower?”

“I’d rather have some alone time with Harry right now!”

“You are sharing a moment with ‘im right now, no?”

Hermione snorted.

“Yeah, yeah…very funny,” she said, as she hobbled over to her bed and grabbed her bathrobe.  “Think that I will take the first shower, if you don’t mind.”

The part-Veela shrugged as she took down the silencing charms.  

“Of course I don’t mind…would you like to use zee door opening charm?” she asked.  “Eet eez a First-Year spell, no?”

Hermione shook her head as she loosely tied her bathrobe closed.

“Couldn’t hold my wand steady right now if I tried,” she gasped.

“I guess ‘Arry eez not ‘olding ‘is wand steady either?”

“Anything but,” Hermione replied.  “Might need you to cast a contraceptive charm on me at this rate.”

“Perhaps I should,” Fleur teased. “Zey are good for forty-eight ‘ours, no?”

“Fleur!”

“Oui?”

“Oh…would you just unlock the door, please?”

“Bien sur!”

Hermione chewed on her lower lip as her new roommate cast an Alohamora spell.  Once the locking charm was removed she took hold of the door handle…then spun around and leaned back against the bedroom door.

“So Fleur…would you really be willing to…to cast that charm on me?”

The French witch smiled knowingly.

“You are going to go all zee way with ‘Arry?”

“No, silly…the other one,” Hermione whispered, as she pulled open the front of her robes.

Fleur giggled as she walked up to her roommate, dropped down to her knees, and aimed.

“Zee lightning bolt, zen?”

“No!” Hermione hissed.

“Une chat chauvre…like mine?”

Hermione shook her head.

“Not that far,” she declared as she put her hands together so that her thumbs and forefingers formed a small triangle.  She then reached down and outlined her desired area of effect.

“This much?”

Fleur nodded. “You know zat zis spell tickles a leetle bit, yes?”

“I doubt that I’ll feel it, given the way that I’m being tickled right now,” said Hermione.

“And zis ees a complaint?” Fleur teased.

Hermione snorted, and shook her head while Fleur cast a grooming charm that every Beauxbatons students was taught in their First Year.

oo00OO00oo

Molly had a strong suspicion that something funny was going on behind her back that morning, but couldn’t put her finger on exactly who was doing what.  Her initial focus was on Bill and Fleur, since the part-Veela was working at Gringott’s that day.  But there wasn’t anything she could really do about what took place beyond the Burrow’s wards, so the best she could do was warn the couple about not engaging in any “funny business at the bank” as they took turns stepping through the floo.

Once the Weasley matriarch was down to just having Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione under her purview she acted on her lingering suspicions by segregating the sexes.  This limited the ability for Hermione and Harry to discuss what had happened the night before to passing glances and a silent exchange of deep blushes. The two girls were kept inside to do the washing and cleaning, while the boys were kicked out into the backyard.  

Ron wanted to play Quidditch, but his mum was still enforcing Harry’s flying ban, so the two teens were forced into figuring out a semi-satisfactory work-around.  Ron unfastened three of the goal hoops from their posts and brought them down to ground level.  He then flew back and forth on his broomstick only a few feet off the ground while Harry stood twenty feet away and threw Quaffles towards those hoops.  The raven-haired wizard couldn’t get near the same velocity on the ball that he might have had he been flying towards the hoops, but it was better than nothing.  And, given Ron’s skill level and propensity for getting suckered into feints, it was good enough.

After lunch, Molly sat the four teenagers down at the kitchen table and forced them to revise and work on their summer assignments.  Ginny spent far more time playing with her Pygmy Puffs than studying, until her Mum threatened to hurl them into the floo towards Fred and George’s shop.  Ron, who had the most work to do of them all, spent the afternoon sketching out Quidditch plays in the margins of his parchment.  Harry spent the afternoon rewriting the essays that he’d completed on Privet Drive, incorporating the edits that Hermione had suggested after her review.  And Hermione, having long finished and revised her homework, immersed herself within a book that Bill had given her that chronicled (in exhaustive detail) the history of the Ministry of Magic.

It wasn’t until towards tea time that Molly remembered her promise and dragged one of the Twins back to the Burrow to change Harry’s bedroom decor into something decidedly less erotic.  She held Ginny and Hermione back in the kitchen to help make dinner, and held Ron back after catching him skiving off his homework.  She did allow Harry to supervise George’s work, though…so that there’d be no further need to redecorate the room.  The-Boy-Who-Lived took this opportunity to lay out in some detail how the Twins might support certain Holiday objectives (at least those involving Molly and potions).  George was quick to agree, and almost as quick to figure out just how he could help.

The red-haired wizard stopped in the kitchen before leaving the Burrow, and, as he munched on a plate of his mum’s biscuits, lamented the fact that there wasn’t enough time in the day for Fred and himself to monitor cauldrons within their shop.  He then detailed just how much money could be made that summer if there only were a way to subcontract out the work to trustworthy individuals.  

Ron made the link between this situation and Ginny’s Pygmy Puffs and begged his mum to allow him to have a job over hols just like his sister.  He pointed out the fact that brewing didn’t involve any “silly wand waving” that would violate laws against under-aged spell casting, and even went so far as to state that he wanted to take NEWT-level potions, now that Snape was no longer teaching that class.  Ginny then reminded her mum that her O.W.L. year was coming up, and expressed her desire to get an “O” in potions, just like her mother (and some of her older brothers).

As Molly hemmed and hawed, George tried to seal the deal by noting that somebody would need to be supervising all of this work, and that it would only be fair if the person doing that monitoring was adequately compensated.  But it wasn’t until he mentioned that his brother and he were working on the development of a potion that provided resistance to the Siren’s Song and other types of magical allure that she provided her blessing.  

oo00OO00oo

Hermione couldn’t wait to be sent off to bed by Molly that night.

“Oh, Fleur, everything went brilliantly today!” she gushed, once her roommate magically silenced and secured their room.

The part-Veela smiled.  “So, you and ‘Arry were able to send off zee mail-orders?”

Hermione shook her head.  “Not even close,” she replied.  “Didn’t even get the chance to swap back catalogs.”

“So you have another night to review your own choices for him behind your bed curtains?” Fleur teased.

“As a matter of fact…”

“I zink zat ‘Arry would certainly consider that opportunity brilliant, n’est pas?”

“I suppose so.”

“You do not know, though?”

Hermione snorted and shook her head.  “I don’t right now…Crookshanks has been out all day tomcatting.”

“I see…so, what was eet zat made today brilliant, zen?”

“George came through for us,” Hermione explained.  “He convinced Molly to let us practice our potion making over hols, and brew the neutralizing agents to her love potions right under her nose!”

The Muggleborn witch proceeded to give a detailed accounting of the day as they changed into their nightgowns and took turns brushing out each other’s hair, focusing mostly on how Molly was tricked.  Fleur was quick to understand why brewing a neutralizing agent for the Siren’s Song was what closed the deal for Molly, since such a potion might negate the allure that Molly was convinced the part-Veela had used to ensnare her son.  The ill-feelings generated by this response, however, were dwarfed by her over-all amusement with the situation…Harry and Hermione had gotten one over on her future mother-in-law without either of them saying a word.  And then there were her own schemes to discuss.

“And so, while you were solving one problem, I was solving anozer,” she declared.

“Which one?” Hermione asked.

“Zee one zat will allow you to get zee mail-order knickers past Molly’s noze,” Fleur replied, as she spread her Gringott’s work robes out on top of her bed.  A spoken word and the touch of her wand tip to one of the buttons caused the leather-capped fastener to magically expand into a leather-capped, button-shaped box.

“What’s this?” asked Hermione, as her roommate pried open the box top.

“A way to smuggle your orders,” Fleur declared.  “You can have zem sent in care of Bill or me at Gringott’s.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Hermione.  

“And inside zee box ees a way for you to lessen zee visual impact of your scar,” Fleur added.

Intrigued, Hermione reached out and pushed aside the tissue paper that lined the package’s interior.  Her curiosity was heightened when she then pulled out a black puffed-sleeve wool dress.

“Erm, thanks, Fleur,” she said, as she traced a finger along the dress’s sailor-style collar. Hermione glanced down at the matching stockings and bloomers that were still in the round box and said, “Now I won’t have to borrow one of Ginny’s.”

Fleur giggled and shook her head.  “Eet ees much more like my swim costume zen Ginny’s, ‘Ermione.”

“Really?” the Muggleborn asked. “But your swim costume looks just the same as hers?”

“Eet may look ze same,” said Fleur.  “But zee fabric ees very different.”

“How?”

“Eet ees French-woven,” the part-Veela explained.  “Eet magically allows zee sun to warm and tan zee skin underneath…did you not notice zis morning zat I ‘ave no tan lines?”

Hermione snorted. “Yes, but…I just assumed that you spent some time on a Muggle clothing-optional beach back home.”

Fleur shook her head.  “Eet would have been nice to have been een France this summer, but zere has been no opportunity.”

“Huh,” said Hermione, as she held the wool dress up against the light.   “This looks and feels just like regular black wool fabric.”

“Looks and feels close enough to solid black wool fabric to pass Molly’s inspections,” Fleur said with a smile.

Hermione giggled.  “Oh, Merlin…were you wearing this kind of suit when we went to the pond with Ron and Ginny?  If he only knew…does the costume provide any sunscreen protection?”

Fleur nodded.  “Zee same level of protection as zee sunscreen potion.”

“That’s good…I’d worry about missing certain critical spots,” Hermione laughed, as she slipped off her nightgown and pulled the conservatively cut knee-length dress over her head.

“Thank you, Fleur,” she said, checking her reflection in the mirror.  “I was afraid that I might not get any sun this summer.”

Fleur smiled.  “I said zat your curse scar would not be so noticeable against tanned skin…how else would you be able to do zat ‘ere at zee Burrow?”

Hermione giggled. “So does Bill like your all-around tan?”

“Just as much as I like ‘is,” Fleur quipped.

“What? So his swim costume is made out of the same fabric?”

“Of course!” Fleur giggled, removing the bloomers and stockings from the box.  After shrinking it back down to size, she touched a different button and expanded a second hidden compartment.  Once it finished growing she opened its cap and pulled out a male Edwardian-area one-piece swim costume.

“Pour votre amant, ma chere soeur,” said Fleur.

“For my lover?” Hermione asked, as she dragged her fingers against the male outfit.  “Sorry, didn’t get much chance to advance on that front today, given Molly’s hovering.”

“Zis will ‘elp you with zee next step, I zink,” Fleur replied.

Hermione shrugged.  “Next step beyond the catalogs?” she asked. “How would these swim costumes help?  Molly seems determined not to let us have any time alone, and it’s not like Harry has sun-ray vision, right?”

Fleur giggled as she bent down and pulled two pairs of dark Muggle-style sunglasses out of the second secret box.  

Hermione caught her breath.  “No way!” she hissed.

Fleur smiled knowingly as she held one of the pairs of sunglasses to her lips and said something in French.  She then handed the sunglasses to Hermione.  As the Muggleborn witch put them on, Fleur snaked her hand into one of the leg holes of the male swim costume.  Once her fingers were hidden underneath the fabric of the suit’s crotch, she waved to her roommate.

“Merde!” Hermione whispered, watching Fleur’s fingers wiggle clearly as if there was nothing in between.  This French expletive was repeated a little more forcefully once the Muggleborn witch shifted her gaze to the swim costume that she herself was wearing.

Or not wearing, as far as it appeared through her magical sunglasses.

“Oh my…so…you and Bill each wear these swim costumes and these sunglasses to the beach?”

Fleur shrugged. “Eet ees just as you said…as eef William and I were sur la Cote d’Azur.”

Hermione was incredulous.  “And you think that Harry and I are ready to see each other the same way?”

The French witch nodded as she placed the male swim costume back down on the bed and activated and put on the other pair of magical sunglasses.

“You ‘ave already seen each other like zis in zee catalogs, no?”

“Almost like this,” Hermione protested. “We weren’t completely starkers.”

“As eef eet mattered, given how transparent some of zee fabrics were?” Fleur chuckled.  “Do you doubt zat ‘Arry knows just how ‘airy you were down zere zis morning?”

“No, but…it’s still not the same,” Hermione protested, as she pulled on the seemingly invisible wool fabric that was covering her chest, and lifted up the sunglasses to confirm the magical effect.  “We were looking at pictures of each other, and it was our images that were wearing those outfits, not us.  This wouldn’t be the next step…it would be the next giant-sized leap!”

Fleur shrugged.  “Perhaps.”

“Do these X-ray glasses see through all swim costumes, or just these special ones?” Hermione asked.

“Just zees ones,” Fleur replied.  “Would you wish to see through someone else’s swim costume?  Ronald’s perhaps?”


“Oh, hell no,” Hermione hissed.  “So are the sunglasses keyed to seeing through only certain swim costumes, or any costume that’s made with this special weave?”

“Zey work on any of zem,” Fleur replied.

“So…Harry would be able to see through your swim costume?”

The French witch nodded.  “Just as I would see through ‘is, and you would be able to see through Bill’s and Bill would see through yours…as eef we all were sur la plage, n’est pas?”

“I don’t know…”

“Are you worried about your ‘Arry?” Fleur asked. “You are forgetting how many times he polished ‘is wand last night as he flipped zee pages?”

Hermione snorted.  “No, but why do you think that he would pay any attention to my body if you were lying starkers next to me?”

“Because ‘e ‘as feelings for you, and not for me,” Fleur replied.  “Eet ees as simple as zat.”

“But you’re so beautiful,” Hermione whined.  “And you’ve got perfect breasts, and a gorgeous bum…”

Fleur giggled as she took hold of Hermione’s shoulders and spun her around to face the full-length mirror.

“You are also a beautiful young woman, ‘Ermione,” Fleur purred, her lips only a few inches away from the Muggleborn’s ear. Hermione caught her breath when her roommate snaked her arms around and pulled her back into a hug; while she could feel Fleur’s hands resting against the outside of her swim costume, it looked in the mirror (and through their sunglasses) as if the French witch’s fingers were groping naked flesh.

“I’m just not sure that I’m ready to go this far,” Hermione whispered, as she looked down the length of the mirror.  Her gaze stopped at the sight of her knickers.

“Fleur?”

“Yes?”

“What about the rest of the costume?  Are the bloomers and stockings made from the same fabric?”

Fleur smiled as she released her hug, walked over to her bed, and retrieved the bloomers.

“See for yourself?” she asked.

Hermione worried her lower lip with her teeth as she took the offered garment, opened up the waistband, then bent down so that she could slip them on.

Fleur reached out and grabbed her roommate’s arm.  “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Seeing for myself?”

“Do you wear knickers underneath your swim costumes?”

“Well, no, of course, not, but…”

“Right now eet ees just us girls, no?” Fleur asked.

“Yeah, right now…”

“Just try it…for me?”

Hermione looked over her shoulder towards the door.

“You did cast that locking charm, right?”

“Of course.”

The Muggleborn sighed, and let the bloomers drop to the floor.  Then she reached up under the wool swim dress and pulled down her white lace knickers.  She stood, checked the mirror, and confirmed the full-Monty effect of the dress and sunglasses.   Then she bent down, pulled the bloomers up underneath her dress, and rechecked the view.

She looked just as bare-arsed (and bare-fannied) as before.

“I can’t let Harry see me like this…let him see all of me!” she declared.

“Even eef you would be seeing him zee same way?” Fleur asked.

Hemione shook her head.  

“Too much, too fast,” she decided.

Fleur nodded.  “Well, zen…eet ees a good thing zat zese glasses are not strong enough to counter Molly’s magic, no?”

“What do you mean?”

The French witch released Hermione from her hug, took a couple of steps backwards, and cast a spell that hit the Muggleborn witch right in the back.

Hermione jumped in surprise and spun around to face Fleur.  But then, recognizing the charm that had been cast, she glanced back over her shoulder towards the free-standing mirror. She smiled at the sight of some well-focused magic.

“Now this…this might be just fast enough,” she said, turning around to confirm the spell’s full effect.

oo00OO00oo

Harry groaned with disappointment when, early the next morning, his familiar woke him with a gentle nip to the ear.

“Back already, Hedwig?” he whined, rubbing sleep from his eyes.  “Damn, and I was going take one last look through that catalog before breakfast.”

Hedwig gave her master an unblinking stare.

Harry rolled his eyes.  “Yeah, yeah, I know…it’s far too late for me to start worrying about being modest around you.”

“Bark?”

“Because I don’t want Hermione to know that I’m perving on her pictures again!” Harry whispered.

“Bark, bark.”

“Of course I trust you, girl,” Harry replied.  “But if I was able to pick up on Hermione’s emotions when Crookshanks was here, it makes sense that she might be able to pick up on mine through you, right?”

“Bark!”

“I know that she knows what I was doing…and she has to know that I know what she was doing with that rubber chicken, but still…”

“Bark!”

“I would if I could…but Molly or Ginny won’t leave us alone for a minute!”

Hedwig stared at Harry, then shook her head and flew over to her perch.  She then ended the conversation with a few clucking noises before ducking her head underneath a wing.

Harry rolled his eyes.  “I appreciate the offer, girl, but even if you can’t see me, you still can pick up on my feelings…at least from that distance…”

The messy-haired teen mulled over that last observation, then pulled the covers off of his legs and slipped out of bed.  He smiled when his feet sank into the wall-to-wall chocolate brown carpeting, and he took a moment to look around the room.  George’s interior decorating had been surprisingly tasteful under Harry’s watchful eye.  The garish pinks and reds had been replaced with warm, earthy colors, and all of the tacky chintz and silk swapped out with brown leather and linen.  It was easily the nicest, most welcoming bedroom that Harry had ever slept in…and it was all his for the summer. Unless, of course, Molly did another bedroom reassignment.

The thought of him having control of who slept where, and whom he might want to share his bedroom room with, brought him back to the fantasies and plans that he’d woken with.  He stepped lightly over to his bedroom door, opened it, and stuck his head out into the hallway.

“Good, the shower is free,” he muttered to himself.  Pulling his head back into the bedroom, he grabbed his lavatory kit, then glanced over towards a well-guarded hiding place. He decided that it was not worth the risk of taking the lingerie catalog with him into the bathroom.  He then thought a few moments about his extensive review of that catalog the night previous, and decided that he really didn’t need it anymore.  

The clear image in his mind of “Dryad Hermione,” dressed only in green-tinted gauze and a few small oak leaves, would provide more than enough inspiration that morning…and do so just outside of his familiar’s emotional reception area.

oo00OO00oo

Hermione completed her morning spell regimen just a few minutes after Harry finished showering.  It was a good workout…the Muggleborn had displayed enough foresight to wear one of her thongs, giving Fleur a target that was just as small as her own during the color-changing rematch.  It was Hermione’s turn to have the winning shot, and she gloated mercilessly as the French witch stripped bare.  Fleur had wanted to keep playing, going so far as to proactively grow a platinum-blonde target using a hair-lengthening charm.  But Hermione had other things in mind (or, more specifically, other bits in mind).  So she dashed off down the hallway, and quickly finished her shower (as well as herself).

The first thing that Hermione spotted when she walked downstairs and entered the kitchen was Harry, feeding Hedwig a rasher of bacon.  She blushed when they made eye contact…while Harry was dressed in his usual summer-weight robes, her mind instantly transfigured those robes into the barely-there Roman toga that he wore on page 38 of the catalog.  At the same time, Harry was busy mentally replacing her modest robes with the lei and grass skirt that her image wore on page 16 of the other catalog.

Hedwig rebroadcast the waves of intense emotions that she picked up from the two teens just as quickly as they came in...Initially lustful, but morphing quickly into mutual embarrassment as Harry and Hermione realized what they were unintentionally sharing with each other (and also realized that they were sharing them while Ron was sitting at the kitchen table) The majestic owl twisted her head around so that she could face each of the teenagers and bark out her amusement at their antics.  Then she launched herself from Harry’s shoulder and flew out an opened window.

“Where’s she going, Mate?” asked Ron.

“Probably out for a hunt,” said Harry, as he glanced down and readjusted the front of his robes.

“Doesn’t she search for food at night?”

“Different kinds of hunts,” the Muggleborn witch replied, as she took a seat across from Ron and struggled to control her blush.

Harry snickered, and shook his head.  “Think her search might be a little more energetic today, Hermione?”

His best friend nodded, avoiding eye contact as she focused on filling her plate. “Have you seen Crookshanks this morning, Harry?”

The-Boy-Who-Lived shook his head and smiled.

“He was out all night.  Going to give him a stern lecture after he does his walk of shame?”

Hermione snorted, and shook her head.  “Can’t blame him for being any less energetic than Hedwig, right?”

Ron shook his head in between large infusions of porridge.

“I wonder why Pig never has that kind of energy,” he wondered.

“Yeah, especially since he’s your familiar,” Hermione quipped, risking a glance up at Harry so that they could share knowing smiles.

Ginny emerged from the stairwell with a smile on her face and a Pygmy Puff on each shoulder.

“Good morning, everyone,” she said brightly, sitting down next to Hermione.

“Speaking of energetic pets,” said Harry, “Did those two make a love connection last night?”

Ginny shrugged her fluffy-mounted shoulders. “I’m not sure,” she replied.  “They spent the night hugging each other…if they weren’t different colors you couldn’t have known where one stopped and the other started.”

Harry chuckled.  “Sounds like they were connected alright…so do the cigars get passed out two weeks from now?”

The youngest Weasley wrinkled her nose and shook her head.  “I think that they were just cuddling.”

“How could you tell?” Hermione asked.

“Because every time I checked there was pink fur on top of purple,” Ginny explained.  

“So?” asked Ron.

His sister rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Ronald,”

“Hey, that’s my line,” Hermione quipped.

“Do I really have to explain the birds and bees to my older brother?” Ginny asked.  “Everyone knows that if they were making babies, then the boy would have been lying on top of the girl.”

Harry and Hermione both snorted in amusement.  Molly chose that moment to come in the back door, cradling a dozen eggs in her apron.

“Ginevra Weasley, I shouldn’t have to be the one collecting eggs for breakfast.”

“Yes, Mum.”

“If you can’t keep on top of your chores, then…”

“Yes, Mum…sorry, Mum.”

Molly would have continued to harangue her daughter, had her oldest son not chosen to enter the kitchen at that very moment with a box under one arm and his fiancee under the other.

“Morning, everyone,” Bill announced.

“It is a good morning, isn’t it?” asked Hermione, as she caught her roommate’s eyes and smiled.

Molly didn’t agree.

“Shove down, Ronald…Bill needs to eat breakfast now or he’ll be late for work.”

“Alright.”

“Thanks, little brother,” Bill said, as he let go of Fleur’s hand and stepped around the table.  Before taking a seat he held the box out towards Harry and said, “Oh, before I forget…this is for you.”

“Erm…thanks,” Harry said with a bit of surprise.

“It was going to be a birthday present from the both of us,” the curse-breaker explained. “But Fleur thought it might come in handy beforehand.”

With nearly everyone watching Harry open the box, nobody saw Bill give Hermione a rakish wink.  Except Hermione, of course.

“Hey, look…it’s a swim costume,” Harry said, as he pulled the wool one-piece suit out of the box.

Ginny’s eyes danced with delight as she asked, “Model it for us, Harry?”

The-Boy-Who-Lived chuckled as he pushed back from the table and stood up.

“What do you think?” he asked, holding up the suit that completely covered him from neck to knees.

“Ooh la la…tres sexy, ‘Arry,” Fleur teased.

Molly was already making her way towards Harry before this comment was made.

“Let’s have a look, then,” she demanded, reaching out to measure the thickness of the fabric in between her fingers.

“We didn’t think that you’d have a Wizard-style swim costume,” Bill explained.  “What with the one you wore for the Tri-Wizard Tournament still hanging inside the Hogwarts trophy case.”

“Hey Fleur, is that the same reason why you don’t wear that silver swim costume?” asked Ron, while Molly held Harry’s new suit up to the window.

Molly huffed loudly, then declared, “She doesn’t wear that costume, Ronald, because it’s scandalous and completely inappropriate…at least as long as she is staying at the Burrow.”

Harry snorted. “Well, thanks Bill…and Fleur…you were right about me not having one of these suits packed.”

“You are very welcome, ‘Arry,  I think zat you will look quite handsome in that costume,” Fleur replied, as she casually placed her hand on Hermione’s shoulder and gave it a playful squeeze.  “Don’t you agree, ‘Ermione?”

“Erm…yeah…I can’t wait to see you wearing it,” Hermione said, waggling her eyebrows.

“So are we going to the beach, then?” Harry asked.

Ginny snorted. “Don’t have to go anywhere…we’ve been swimming in our pond .”

Harry arched an eyebrow.  “Your pond?” he asked. “You mean that little green puddle just out past the apple trees?”

Ron nodded.  “With Fleur’s help it cleans up brilliantly, Mate…you’ll see.”

“Erm..okay, then.”

Ginny loudly asked, “So can we go swimming, Mum?”

Molly looked out the window and rolled her eyes.

The answer was a definite no…at least as long as it was raining.  And even if it had been a sunny morning, there were potion ingredients to prep and cauldrons to stir.  Once Bill and Arthur left for work, the five teenagers were put to work under Molly’s watchful eye.  They sliced, and diced, and made julienne-style newt’s eyes the entire day.  Ginny kept asking her mum if they could swim, but the rain didn’t let up, providing Molly with an easy excuse to keep the five teenagers inside the house and under her eye.

Hermione couldn’t decide whether she was more disappointed or relieved that they didn’t have an opportunity to sunbathe that day.  It might have been easier if she could get a few minutes alone with Harry to talk about things, but Molly’s hovering and Ginny and Ron’s near constant presence made that impossible.  

Harry’s invisibility cloak wasn’t even an option for them…someone had told Molly about it (presumably Dumbledore), and she had demanded that Harry give the garment up for the Order’s use along the ward line.  The raven-haired wizard was very reluctant to lend out the heirloom, and absolutely refused to let certain Order members get their hands on it (specifically, Snape and Dung).  At the same time, he knew it worked far better than the cloaks that the Order members were using, and he felt some responsibility for there being constant guards along the ward line.  So he reluctantly handed it over to Arthur and Molly, on the condition that he have final say on who got to wear it, and when.  The Weasley Matriarch didn’t like having terms dictated to her, but her husband was quick to acknowledge (and accept) Harry’s concerns.  It helped that the terms were easily met…there was always more than one guard on the ward line, and Snape and Fletcher never worked together.  

Molly’s hovering did give Harry and Hermione one more night to review their mail-order selections, although they were beginning to worry about their respective hiding places.   Bill and Fleur solved that particular problem on the following morning, when they surreptitiously volunteered for courier duty.  Both were working at Gringott’s that day, so Fleur used the hidden buttons on her work robes to smuggle one catalog out of Hermione’s bedroom, while Bill slipped into Harry’s bedroom and (after a fifteen minute discussion) did the same.  Once at Gringott’s the two exchanged packages, and delivered them back to the two teens for their review and approval.  They could then be sent out either by Hedwig or (if that was considered too risky), smuggled out in the same manner and sent from Diagon Alley.

While there wasn’t a cloud in the sky that morning, the teenagers didn’t bother to ask Molly if they could go swimming; Fleur was at Gringott’s all day, and it was only her magic bag that could make the outing viable.  So they spent another morning in the kitchen working on potions, then enjoyed another gender-segregated afternoon…boys outside, girls inside.  Hermione would have been much more upset had she not been anticipating a smuggled delivery that night.

She practically ripped the button from Fleur’s robes once they had “retired” for the evening.  The French witch was understanding, and quickly liberated the package.  

Hermione said, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good,” (not caring or noticing that Fleur was standing by her side) and ripped the wrapping paper off of the catalog.

“Where did I go?” Hermione asked, once she got a good look at the cover.  She turned it towards Fleur and showed her the image of a faceless manikin dressed in a harem outfit.

“’Arry must have cleared all of the images,” Fleur reasoned.  “Een case someone else intercepted zee package?”

“Oh…I guess that makes sense,” Hermione replied.  “So how can I see how I’d look in the outfits that he picked out for me?”

Fleur rolled her eyes as she took the catalog from Hermione.

“By posing for anozer picture, silly!” the French witch teased.  

A folded letter fell out when she opened the catalog’s cover page and aimed the magical camera towards her roommate.  Hermione caught the paper in mid-air and unfolded it.  It was blank…at least until she repeated the Marauder’s Oath.  

“You were right about him clearing the image,” Hermione told Fleur, as she read the first sentence.  Then she swore.

“What eez wrong?”

“Listen to this,” Hermione replied. “He said, ‘I really needed to ask Bill for his advice on what to pick, and I couldn’t even imagine how embarrassed and angry you would be if I showed pictures of you dressed that way to another man’.”

“Your boyfriend is so thoughtful,” Fleur teased.

“He’s not my boyfriend, though,” said Hermione.  “And probably won’t be now…what will I do if he finds out that I showed you a couple of his pictures?”

Fleur shrugged.  “Eef he asks, you can zay zhat I snuck zee peeks over your shoulders.  And tell him zat you saw zee same pictures of Bill.”

Hermione sighed.  “But this is about Harry trusting me…you showing me the catalog pics of Bill dressed in a thong has nothing to do with it.”

Fleur smiled.  “So you will apologize to ‘Arry, and I will apologize to Bill, zen we will both say we are naughty girls who deserve zee spankings?”

A loud snort escaped from Hermione’s lips as she shifted her gaze back towards the letter.

“Aww…that’s so sweet!” she said, a few moments later.

“What?”

“He said that he didn’t know if he should make selections based on our current relationship, or where that relationship might be if Molly and Ginny weren’t meddling so much.  So he decided to mark the catalog with two different colors of ink.  Black check marks next to outfits for his best friend in the world, and red check marks next to outfits that he’d like to see a future lover wearing.”

“He ees zinking zat those might be different women?” Fleur asked.

Hermione shook her head. “He’s just being careful, I think…here, he goes on to apologize for the fact that he couldn’t think of anyone other than me being his future lover so long as I was modeling the outfits.”

“Zat ees fantastique, no?” Fleur gushed, pulling Hermione into a hug.

Her Muggleborn roommate smiled, and nodded in agreement as she finished reading the letter.

“Oh, Harry!” Hermione whispered, holding the letter against her chest.  She then said, “Mischief Managed,” and turned the page blank again.

“What did ‘e say after zat?” Fleur asked impatiently.

Hermione smiled, and shook her head.  “I can’t tell you everything…can I?”

Fleur waggled her eyebrows.  “Of course you can!”

“We’ll I’m not…at least not for now.”

“Fair enough,” Fleur decided. Then she held the inside page of the catalog in front of her roommate and asked, “Tout le chemin?”

Hermione giggled, and nodded in agreement as she slipped off her clothes. A wide grin formed on the French witch’s face as she activated the catalog camera.

“So are you now zinking of ‘Arry as your lover?” she asked.

“What makes you think that?”

Fleur smiled as she handed the catalog back to her nude roommate.

“Because you ‘ave zee witches teets, and I ‘ave zee Veela nose?” she quipped.

Hermione looked down and shook her head in frustration.  

“I’m also going to have closed bed curtains if you don’t behave,” she said, taking the few seconds time necessary to cover the visible signs of her excitement with her nightgown.  Not that the thin fabric did any good as she began to flip through the pages.

“’Arry has excellent taste…for both ‘is best friend and ‘is bed friend,” Fleur declared, as they both studied the pictures.  On facing pages, checks were placed where Hermione was wearing a classic white silk slip on one side, and where she sported a semi-transparent red silk teddy on the other.  

“Ooh, la, la!” Fleur squealed, as she caught sight of some of Harry’s more daring selections.

Hermione couldn’t help but to agree…and to smile…and to squeeze her knees together as she reviewed the same pictures.  She was still too proper to exclaim, “Ooh, la fucking la!” out loud (even with just Fleur present) but that phrase was certainly dancing inside her head.

oo00OO00oo

Harry had assured Hermione within his letter that Bill had assured him that there were more than enough galleons in his vault to purchase three of every outfit in the lingerie catalog.  He also asked that she not worry about the aggregate cost.  He even asked her to pick out a few outfits on her own, so as to surprise him, promising that he intended to do the same.  Hermione still worried a little about the cost, until Fleur independently confirmed his wealth, and pointed out that purchasing outfits for her could be the same as a birthday present for him…so long as Hermione gave him a live model review of what he had lusted over in the catalog.

It wasn’t a hard sell.

Bill left for work the next morning with a knowing grin on his face and two separate mail order forms hidden within his buttons.  It was a partly cloudy day, and Fleur had neither work nor guard duty on her schedule.  Ginny could hardly wait for breakfast to end before asking,

“Can we go swimming now, Mum?”

The Weasley matriarch looked at the teenagers sitting at the kitchen table, then looked down at the family clock that she was cradling in the crook of her right arm.  While nothing had changed since the last time that she’d looked (some forty-five seconds previous), it gave her a bit of time for her to consider a response.

“The potions won’t brew themselves, you know,” she declared.  “Maybe after lunch.”

Fortunately, the weather held.

“Can we go swimming now, Mum?”

“I don’t know,” Molly replied.  “The pond is rather close to the property line…”

“No closer than it was a couple of days ago when you let us go,” noted Ginny.

“But Harry wasn’t here a couple of days ago, either.”

“Even more reason to go today,” Ginny said stridently.  

Hermione had to stifle a laugh when she spotted the obvious non-verbals that the red-haired teen was trying to send her mother.

“And we’d have a guard there too, Mum,” Ron noted.

“You can’t expect the Order to spend all of their time patrolling next to the pond, Ronald.”

“They wouldn’t have to…Fleur is in the Order, and she will be with us!”

“Be with you where, Ronald?” the part-Veela asked, as she walked into the kitchen.

“Now that the sun is out, Ginny wants to show Harry the pond,” he explained.

“I know what she really wants to show Harry,” Hermione muttered under her breath.

“And you wish me to accompany you?” Fleur asked with a smile. “As a guard, or in my swim costume?”

Ron blushed.  “You could guard in your swim costume, couldn’t you?  And bring your beach bag?”

Molly let out a deep sigh.

“Ronald, you can’t expect houseguests to jump at your command,” she chided.

“Yeah, that would be honing in on her job,” Hermione whispered to Harry.

“Hush,” he replied.

Fleur’s smiled.  “Eet eez no problem, Molly,” she declared.  “I would be happy to refashion La Cote Weasley.”

The matriarch frowned.

“I expect that you’ll go no further than the pond, and will follow the swimming rules and will not wear any scandalous attire,” she stated firmly.  “Any of you!”

“Bien sur, Molly,” the blonde-haired witch replied brightly.  She grabbed Hermione by the hand and dragged her up the stairs so that they could change.  The other three teenagers were quick to follow.

oo00OO00oo

“Hold it right there, young lady!” Molly ordered, just a few minutes later.

Ginny reluctantly stopped short of the backdoor that she was trying to slip out of unnoticed.

“Oh, Mum…” she whined.

“Don’t you ‘Oh, Mum,’ me, Missy,” the Weasley matron bellowed, as she drew her wand from an apron pocket. “You know the rules.”

Ginny sighed as she turned to face her mother and began to unbutton her lightweight robes.  The young teen waited until Molly had made her way over towards the door before she ripped them open.

“There….happy?” Ginny demanded.

“Harry might be,” Ron muttered, as he emerged from the stairwell.

“Don’t be crude, Ronald,” Hermione said, as she followed him into the kitchen.  Harry and Fleur were right behind, with Harry carrying Fleur’s large, brightly-colored beach bag on his shoulder.

Molly was focused solely on her daughter, and scowled as she looked up and down the front of Ginny’s Edwardian-era swim costume.  The black, puffed-sleeve wool dress stretched down to the girl’s knees.  Those knees (and the rest of her legs) were covered by a pair of thick wool stockings that were accessorized by lace-up bathing slippers.  Mrs. Weasley reached out and lifted the hem of the wool dress just high enough to confirm that her daughter was wearing proper bloomers underneath.

“Can I go now, Mother?” Ginny whined.

Molly shook her head as she stepped back far enough to provide clearance for the wand movements required for her intended magic.

“Praetego!”

Once the spell was cast, Molly reached out and tugged at the neckline of her daughter’s costume.  She smiled when she found the right amount of resistance within the fabric.

“Now you can go,” the Weasley Matron declared.  “Have your hat, then?”

Ginny rolled her eyes as she pulled a ribbon-trimmed black wool shower cap half-way out of her robe pocket.

“Yes, Mum,” she sighed.

Molly smiled, and wished her daughter a fun afternoon as she moved down the line to inspect Ron’s swim costume.  It looked nearly identical to Harry’s, save for the color (navy blue versus black).  When Ron’s mum cast the same spell on him that she’d cast on his sister, Harry leaned towards Hermione and whispered into her ear.

“Is she casting shield charms on everyone, then?” he asked.

Hermione let out a quiet snort.  She shook her head, smiled, and turned so that she could whisper her reply into Harry’s ear.

“The spell is Praetego, silly….not Protego.  Although I guess the intent is almost the same.”

“What’s the…”

Hermione stopped Harry’s follow-up question with a curt shake of her head and the mouthed promise of, “Later.”  He nodded, and quietly waited for his turn to be inspected, bespelled, and sent out the door.

An explanation came sooner than Harry expected, and from a different source.  Ron was waiting just outside the back door of the house, and held his best mate back from the girls as they all began walking out towards the pond.

“So…feel a little tingly in the danglies?” Ron snarked.

“What?”

“The spell that Mum cast on us.”

Harry winced. “Sorry Mate, but do you really want to talk about a spell cast by your mother that made your bits tingly?”

“Erm, right…never mind.”

“I certainly plan to.”

Ron snorted.  “Still, though…it’s not all bad.”

“What’s not all bad?”

“The spell.”

“This sticking charm that is keeping me from stripping off my suit?”

“No…I mean, yes, it does do that,” Ron admitted.

“Is it something that Fleur can cancel once we get to the pond?”

The red-haired teen shook his head.  “Sorry, Mate…it can only be cancelled by the spell caster.”

“Why did she…does she expect us to strip down starkers and go skinny-dipping, or something?”

“No, no…nothing like that,” Ron replied. “More like she wants to make sure that we don’t change into Muggle swim costumes…or adjust the ones that we’re wearing.”

“So what if we have to go?”

“Go where?” asked Ron.

“To the loo, you berk!” Harry replied, a bit more forcefully than he had intended.

The girls thought the question was rather funny, judging by the giggling that Harry heard coming from their position up the path.  Ron thought that the question was more silly than funny.

“You like to squat in the bushes or something?” he asked.

“Of course not.”

“Then what’s the problem?” asked Ron.  “Not like Mum is going anywhere if you need run back to the house to pinch off a few logs.”

Harry rolled his eyes, knowing that the pleased look on his friend’s face had more to do with the fact that he’d gotten away with making a coarse comment than anything else.

“But what if I just have to pee?” Harry whispered.  “Do I have to run back to the house for that, too?”

“Course not,” Ron scoffed. “We’re going to the pond, remember?”

“And…?”

“And the water is chest deep near the center?”

Harry stopped short and stared at his best male friend.  Ron took a few more steps before he realized, and looked back over his shoulder.

“What?” he asked defensively.  

The-Boy-Who-Lived shook his head.  “So I shouldn’t expect a sign nailed to a tree by the water’s edge that says ‘Don’t pee in our pond’?”

“Erm…..no?”

Harry shook his head.  “And do the girls know about this?”

Ron shrugged.  “What they don’t know, won’t hurt them, right?  And who’s to say that they aren’t doing the same thing?”

“I think I might just stay out of the water this afternoon,” Harry said.

“You are such a prissy git,” Ron scoffed.  “It’s not like I rub off in the pond…although I guess they’d never know, would they?”

“What do you mean?”

“That spell Mum cast,” Ron explained.  “It’s more than just a sticking charm…keeps your bits from being noticed as well.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the point, though?” Harry asked.  “We’re already covered head to knee or head to toe with thick wool swim costumes that won’t come off.”

“The point is the points,” Ron quipped, laughing at his own joke.  “The swim costume fabric is thick, but not thick enough to hide the perky nipples that the girls get when the water is cold, or keep us from seeing when the backs of their bloomers get stuck up their bum cracks.”

“So it’s a concealing spell too?”

“That’s right,” Ron replied.  “Can’t see nipple bumps…or arse cracks…or any other kinds of cracks…rather disappointing, actually…were it not for the fact that it also hides stiffies.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely,” Ron declared.  “A bloke can lie there by the pond with his tent pitched right in front of a girls’s face, and she won’t even notice.”

“Sounds like you speak from experience.”

“Not as far as they know,” Ron said with a laugh.

“As if they would notice your pup tent without the spell?” Harry snarked.

Ron rolled his eyes.  “Ha, ha…very funny, mate…do I have to worry about you noticing the size of my tent, then?”

“Apparently not, so long as your mum’s spell is working.”

Ron chuckled.  “I should have kept my mouth shut, and let you get all worried about hiding your tiny tent.”

“Is it really a problem?” Harry asked.  “I mean, between the swim costumes and that spell, what’s left to perv on?”

“Are you kidding me?” Ron hissed.  “Lying there next to them on the sand…knowing that there’s nothing underneath their costumes but bare skin…and standing next to them in the water, hoping that the next wave crashes down and throws them on top of you…”

“Waves?” asked Harry.

“Yeah…waves,” Ron gushed. “I’ve got dibs standing behind Fleur, okay?”

“Erm…okay,” Harry replied skeptically.

Harry’s belief that Molly’s spell casting had muddled Ron’s mind just as much it muddled any kind of naughty views was strengthened when the two teen-aged wizards reached the edge of the orchard and walked out into a small grassy meadow.  Fleur, Hermione and Ginny were already at the far end, standing at the edge of what only the most charitable person (or most myopic) might call a “pond.”  The oversized puddle was barely twenty feet in diameter, and was completely covered with a thick layer of pistachio-green algae.

“Hurry up, Harry,” Hermione called out.  “We need that bag!”

The-Boy-Who-Lived snorted as he looked down at the canvas tote that he’d offered to carry for Fleur.

“Yeah, come on, Mate!” Ron urged, as he ran towards the other teens.

“Okay, then,” said Harry, as he trotted behind his friend.

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Hermione chided, once the two boys reached the pond’s edge.

“It smells almost as bad as it looks,” Harry noted, handing the beach bag over to Fleur.

“Not for too much longer,” she promised, as she set the bag on the ground and spread the handles out wide.  The first thing she pulled out of the bag was a Muggle bath toy.  

“Oh…can I do it this time?” Ron asked.

Fleur smiled as she tossed the yellow rubber ducky towards the red-haired wizard.  He caught it, then turned and gave the toy a toss of his own, straight into the middle of the goopy-green slime.  Ron then shocked Harry by clearing his throat and breaking out into song.

“Rubber ducky, you’re the one…you make bath time lots of fun...”

The musical incantation activated both the floating toy and its imbued magic.  The yellow duck began to quack and swim around the pond, leaving a wide path of clear, pure water in its wake.

“It’ll only take a minute or two for him to completely clean up the water,” Hermione informed Harry.

“Who thought that charm up?” he asked.

Hermione shrugged.  “Some Yank Muggleborn, I imagine.”  

While Harry was getting this explanation, Fleur pulled a full-sized beach umbrella out of the bag, Mary Poppins-style.

“Mind your feet, Harry,” Ginny called out, as she helped the French witch push the pointed edge of the pole into the ground.  They took a few steps backwards, seeing if the umbrella would stand up on its own.  Once this was confirmed, they took a few more steps backwards so that Fleur could shout out a French activation phrase from a safe distance.  

The umbrella responded to the magical command by slowly opening up.  As the edges of the umbrella pulled away from its wood pole and spread out, pure white beach sand began pouring out.  By the time the umbrella was fully opened, the shower of silica was so thick that you couldn’t see through it.  The sand piled up until it was two-foot thick, than began to spread out laterally.  It kept spreading until a beach had formed that was a hundred yards long and fifty feet wide.

“Impressive,” Harry declared.

“Not done yet, Mate,” said Ron, as Fleur pulled two rune-covered wooded stakes out of the bag.  The stakes were connected to each other by a thick length of blue twine.  Ginny grabbed one stake, while Ron grabbed the other.  They ran side-by-side to the edge of the almost-cleared water, and then separated…Ron running parallel to the beach to the left, as Ginny ran parallel to the beach to the right.  They kept going until the twine was all played out, then stretched the rope taut so that it crossed over the small watering hole.  

Once they planted the stakes into the ground, Fleur walked up to the nearest section of string, placed her wand tip on it, and muttered an incantation.  The string began to glow, then dropped down towards the ground (or water), where it appeared to dissolve away.  But then the surface of the pond began forming ripples where the string had disappeared.  These ripples grew in size until they became small waves, and the waves began to ebb and flow towards the beach.  As the waves grew higher they appeared to grow wider…pushing laterally out over the edges of the pond.   The waves kept spreading until they formed a shoreline down the entire length of beach.

“Can we get big ones this time?” Ron yelled.

Fleur smiled and nodded her head.  She raised her hands out and shouted something in French.  The waves responded by growing in amplitude, until there were almost head-high white.

Harry and Hermione were so engrossed in the magic that neither realized that Ron and Ginny had left them unsupervised…at least not until the brother and sister had run back to their sides.

“Damn!” Hermione muttered.

“Language,” Harry teased.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ron.

“Erm…nothing,” Hermione quickly replied.  “I was just so impressed by what’s been created.”

“Unbelievable!” Harry exclaimed, ignoring the two Weasleys.

Fleur smiled as she picked up her beach bag and dragged it back away from the surf zone.

“Zee waves are an illusion out beyond zee edges of zee pond,” she told Harry.  “Zee magic will try to keep you within zee real water, but…you should watch where you wish to dive, just zee same.”

Harry nodded in understanding as turned back to face the waves.  A slight breeze had come up (or at least seemed to have come up), and brought with it the smell of the sea.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Harry whispered.

“Yeah, it’s brilliant magic, isn’t it?” said Ron, as he shrugged off his robes and dug his toes down into the wet sand.

“No, I mean…I’ve never seen this before,” Harry said, as he waved his arm out in front of him.

“Never seen a beach?” asked Ginny.

“Never,” Harry whispered.

“But…we live on an island,” the red-haired witch declared.

Harry nodded.  “I also live with my Aunt and Uncle.”

Hermione didn’t need any more of an explanation.  

“Can I help you make up for lost time?” she asked, as she unfastened her robes.
Harry turned towards Hermione, and gave her a wide smile.

“I’d like that,” he replied, before stripping down to his own modest swim costume.  

Hermione grabbed him by the hand, then squealed when he threw her up over his shoulder, and carried her into the water.

They splashed each other, and dunked each other, and “accidentally” allowed the waves to carry them into (and occasionally on top of) each other for the next forty-five minutes.  Ginny was rather blatant in her attempts to brush up against Harry, but he was having too much fun to realize why.  Hermione knew what was going on, of course, but she really didn’t want to cause a scene that would ruin the moment for Harry.  Ron was just as obvious in his attempts to splash and crash Fleur, and the part-Veela was getting frustrated.  So the two witches told the other three that they were going to take a break, and walked back towards dry land.  Harry offered to go with them, but Hermione insisted that he stay in the water and have fun with Ron and Ginny.

Ginny thought it was an excellent idea, since it gave her the unfettered opportunity to play with Harry.  Ron also thought it was an excellent idea, since it gave him the unfettered opportunity to wade into deeper waters and play with himself.

Fleur had left her beach bag partially-full in the rush to get wet.  She was quick to rectify the situation, and pulled two beach chairs, a small table, and a picnic hamper out of the magically enlarged bag.  Hermione opened the beach chairs while Fleur opened the hamper and pulled out a bottle of wine and two wine glasses.

“Glass…on a beach?” Hermione asked, while Fleur pulled the cork.

The French witch thumped one of the wine glasses against the side of the bottle.

“Unbreakable charms,” she replied.

“Nice.”

“Almost as nice as zee moment, no?” Fleur asked, as she poured a glass for Hermione.

The Muggleborn chuckled. “So nice that I forgot all about the sunglasses!”

Fleur nodded as she filled her own glass, then set the bottle back inside the wicker basket.

“So we should save zem for anozer day, zen?” she asked.

Hermione let out a girlish giggle as she looked back towards the other three teenagers.

“Now…why would we want to do that?” she asked.  “Proper sun protection is just as important for your eyes as your skin, right?”

“Of course,” Fleur laughed, as she sat down on one of the chairs.  She took a long sip from her glass, then reached into the outside pocket of her beach bag and retrieved two pairs of dark sunglasses.

“Zere ees still one more pair zere for ‘Arry,” she noted, while Hermione plopped down into the other chair. The younger witch looked at what Fleur had in hand and snorted.

“Can’t wear sunglasses when you crashing about in the surf, right?”

“Zat ees true.”

“So once he gets out…”

“Of course.”

“And it probably won’t be too much longer, right?”

“No need to wait for him…our eyes need zee protection now.”

“Erm…right,” agreed Hermione, while she reached out and took one of the pairs.

Fleur smiled as she opened the other pair up and made to place them on her nose.  She hesitated when she noticed that Hermione wasn’t doing the same.

“What?” she asked.

Hermione looked at the sunglasses, then looked down towards the water’s edge.

“Still doesn’t seem fair while he isn’t wearing them as well…or when he doesn’t even know what he is showing us…”

Fleur nodded.  “But eet would be awkward to explain why we were waiting eef Ginny and Ron accompany Harry, no?”

Hermione sighed.  “You do have normal pairs to offer them, right?”

Fleur nodded.

“And if you think about it,” Hermione reasoned. “I did give him first chance to look at me posing near-naked in the lingerie catalog…well before I got the chance to look at him doing the same.”

“Zat ees an excellent rationalization!”  Fleur declared.

“Good enough, at least,” her roommate replied.

“So zen…we do eet togezer, on zee count of three?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “And give those two even more of a reason to wonder what’s up?” she asked.  “Just do it, okay? While I take a look inside the picnic hamper?”

“But he eez your boyfriend, no?”

“Fleur…I’m still a little nervous…please?”

“Very well,” the part-Veela replied.  Fleur leaned back into her chair, glanced towards the other three teens, and casually put on her sunglasses.

And then she fell silent.

“Fleur?”

“Yes, ‘Ermione?”

“So?”

“So….I didn’t know zat Molly didn’t care about ze boys’s bums.”

“What?” Hermione hissed, as she whipped her gaze away from the inside of the basket.
Harry had his back turned to them as he battled Ginny in a splashing contest.

“Molly doesn’t care about boys’ bums.” Fleur repeated.

“I’d be worried if she did,” Hermione replied, turning back towards the other witch.

“No what I meant waz…since magic ees mostly intent, eet ees obvious zat she doesn’t zink zat we would care about ze boys’s bums.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Just put on zee damn sunglasses, ‘Ermione.”

“Yes, Mistress Fleur!” the Muggleborn quipped.  

Hermione then took a deep breath, and complied with the order.  She did so while facing Fleur, so the first thing that she spotted were the black spots that hovered over the French witch’s breasts...black circles just slightly larger than the diameter of her nipples.  An inch-wide black vertical stripe rested in between the baps, providing protective cover for her cleavage.  Fleur’s chest was otherwise bared to Hermione’s enhanced view point.  The Muggleborn let her gaze travel down the bronzed belly, until it fell upon a small black square that sat at the top of crossed bronzed legs.  

Hermione could only assume that the black polygon would be more rectangular, had Fleur’s legs been spread.

“You are more interested een my body zen your lover’s?” Fleur teased.

Hermione shook her head, and replied, “Still building up my nerve.”

To prove that point, her gaze then shifted not toward’s Harry’s body, but her own.  She had the same black polygons hovering the same otherwise bared bits.  The only apparent difference was that her chest-mounted circles were slightly larger in diameter (corresponding with slightly larger underlying bits).  There also would have been small tuffs of brown bushy hair poking out from each side of her modesty strip, had she not asked Fleur to reapply a more expansive depilatory charm the night previous.

“Will you just look up at ‘Arry before he turns around?” Fleur whined.

Hermione sighed, then raised her gaze towards the shoreline.

“Oh, sweet sticky buns!” she whispered.

“See what I mean?” Fleur asked.

Hermione nodded as she admired an unfettered view of Harry’s backside.

“We still have strips over our behinds, right?” she asked.

“Yes.”

The Muggleborn witch whistled.  “Why Molly wouldn’t think we’d appreciate that kind of view….”

“I am not complaining…are you?” Fleur asked.

“You really didn’t know that the charm wouldn’t cover his bum?”

“I have never seen zee spell cast on Bill,” the French witch replied.  “He ‘as not been able to join us ‘ere…at least not yet.”

“You think he’s going to come out after work?” Hermione asked, reflexively (but slowly) moving her arm over her chest.

“Eet would be good four ze four of us to ‘ave ze equal footing, no?”

“Erm…yeah.  Might need to let Harry in on the secret by…whoa!”

Harry had interrupted the sentence by turning around and waving at the two witches.  A big smile formed on his face, and he called out, “How’s it going up there?”

“Erm…just fine, Harry,” Hermione called back.  “You’re fine, right?”

“Zere is no doubt!” Fleur whispered.

“Shush!”

Harry nodded, then turned when a large splash clipped the back of his head.

“I’ll join you in a little bit, okay?” he asked, ducking underneath a second splash of water.

“C’mon, Harry…fight back!” Ginny whined.

“Take your time!” Fleur called out.

Harry nodded his head, and flashed another wide smile as he bent down to avoid Ginny’s next attack.

“Oh, Fleur…it’s like he knows that he’s putting on a show for us!” Hermione whispered, as Harry reached back and pulled the fabric of his invisible swim costume away from his skin.

“Eet ees hard to remember zat we are still wearing ze swim costumes, since eet appears ozherwise,” Fleur stated.

“I wouldn’t mind getting more used to remembering,” Hermione replied.

Fleur laughed.  “And so… zee costume does not need magical help to hide ‘Arry’s ‘air.”

“At least not above the bulge line,” Hermione agreed, as she lifted her sunglasses up and down to compare the different views now.

“Ze bulge line?” Fleur asked.  “Oh, ‘Ermione…zat is terrible.”

“I suppose,” the Muggleborn agreed.  

“Although eet ees very thick,” said Fleur.

Hermione leaned forward in her beach chair and stared at Harry’s crotch.

“You mean his pubes are thick, right?” she asked.

“Zose too,” Fleur teased.

“Are your sunglasses charmed the same way as mine?” Hermione asked.  “Because I can’t see anything south of the border.”

“Zey are zee same,” Fleur replied.  “I was talking about what you showed me zee other day.”

“In the catalog?”

“No, silly…in ‘is shorts…when you pulled off zee bed linens een his bedroom?  Don’t you remember zee dragon-sized tent?”

Hermione giggled. “Erm, right…guess I did show him off a bit, didn’t I?”

“More zan just a bit,” Fleur said.  She sipped some more wine as she watched Harry, Ron and Ginny cavort in the surf, then added, “I must have Bill teach your boyfriend zee grooming charms.”

“What?” Hermione asked. “Why?”

“Because zey obviously do not teach zem to zee boys at ‘Ogwarts, no?”

“Erm…yeah…girls learn that particular spell from the older girls in the dormitory.  But why would boys want to shave down there?”

“For zee same reasons as zee girls, n’est pas?”

“So that they don’t have bikini lines?”

“No, silly…so zat their lovers don’t have zee curly hairs tickling their noses!”

Hermione snorted, thinking the racy comment worthy of a large swallow from her wine glass.

“You are so naughty, Fleur!” she finally replied.

“Eet ees a problem?” Fleur asked brightly.

“Not for Bill, I bet,” Hermione quipped.

Fleur chuckled she leaned down towards the opened bottle of wine.  Hermione’s eyes drifted towards her roommate, and she gasped in surprise.

“What ees eet?” Fleur asked.

Hermione shook her head.  “The way that you just lifted your leg,” she replied.  “You gave me a clear view of your front and back…at least it would have been clear, without the spell coverings.”

“And so?”

“So there is a gap in the magic!” Hermione hissed.  “You’ve got one spot covering your fanny, and a strip that hides the naughtier bits of bum…but they don’t overlap! I can see bare skin in between!”

Fleur shrugged.  “Zere is really nothing een between zee two cracks to excite zee boys, ees zere?” she asked.  “At least nothing zat would show through zee swim costume?”

“I guess not,” Hermione replied.  “It just…surprised me, I guess.”

Fleur smiled as she filled Hermione’s wine glass.

“Do not worry, ‘Ermione…I made sure zat you are smooth down zere, too.”

The Muggleborn witch thought about Fleur’s answer, then reflexively crossed her legs.

“Oh, Merlin…I can’t believe that I am going to let Harry check your spell work,” she groaned.

“Eet will only be eef you give ‘im zee sunglasses, no?”

“Yes, I know…but it wouldn’t be fair not to now that we’ve been ogling him for the past fifteen minutes.”

Fleur nodded and raised her glass.  “Liberte, egalite, et fraternite, n’est pas?”

Hermione nodded, and emptied half of her glass.

“Hey, Hermione!  Why don’t you jump back in?” Harry called out.

“Let me finish my glass, okay?”

“Okay,” the grinning wizard called back.

Fleur shook her head as she watched Ginny let a medium-sized wave accidentally on-purpose throw her up against Harry, forcing him to wrap her in his arms just to keep his balance.

“Maybe you should drink quickly?” she asked. “Before zee waves carry Ginny’s spread legs into your boyfriend’s face?”

Hermione, who’d watched the same scene play out, shook her head and smiled.

“No worries,” she replied.  “He’s been staring up towards us almost as blatantly as we’ve been staring at him.”

“Zat ees true,” Fleur agreed.  “Even without seeing zee bare skin in between your front and back!”  She giggled, then leaned towards her roommate and added, “I zink zat zee sunglasses will work better on him zan my allure!”

“Stop it!” Hermione protested, pushing Fleur away.  Her eyes drifted towards the French witch’s chest, and she noted how the magical block that covered her cleavage lengthened as Fleur squeezed her breasts together with the sides of her arms.  The Muggleborn witch leaned back into her chair, looked down the length of her body, and tried to recreate the effect with her own cleavage.

“You do not need to do zat, you know,” said Fleur.

Hermione dropped her arms and glanced over at Fleur.

“Just relax, and act as eef you don’t know zat you are showing your body to ‘Arry,” the French witch offered.  “You look far more sexy zat way.”

The bushy-haired witch snorted.  “Why Fleur, I didn’t know that you noticed.”

“Please, ‘Ermione…eet ees talking just between us girls, no?”

“Of course,” Hermione replied, as she stood up, set her wine glass on the table, and lowered the back of her chair until it sat horizontally.  

“Tired of zee views already?” Fleur quipped, as her roommate laid belly-down on the canvas chair, facing away from the shoreline.

Hermione turned her face towards Fleur and shook her head.

“Working on my all-around tan,” she replied.  “Can’t forget my bum, can I?”

“I am sure zat ‘Arry won’t,” Fleur teased.

The conversation between the two witches lapsed for a couple of minutes, as if they each needed a breather from all of their sexually-charged banter.  Not that they weren’t each thinking sexually-charged thoughts, mind you…Fleur leaned back and spread her legs slightly apart, letting the sun soak through her costume and warm her bits as she ran her fingers up and down the stem of her wine glass and imagined that it was Bill she was caressing.  Meanwhile, Hermione spread her own legs apart, fractional inches at a time, and imagined that Harry was wearing the special sunglasses, and looking straight up her dress and through her bloomers from the shoreline.  What would he be able to see now?  Or now, after she spread her legs a quarter-inch wider?  

It was as just as arousing and exciting as it was scandalously worrisome.  Would Harry like what he could see through those sunglasses as much as she did while she looked at him?

Hermione recalled each of the times that she felt Harry’s broadcast emotions as he perved on her pictures in the lingerie catalog.  She recalled them…and recounted them.  And then she relaxed.

“Fleur?”

“Yes, ‘Ermione?”

“How are we going to explain to Harry how the swim costumes and sunglasses work with Ron and Ginny around?”

“Eet would ‘elp if he spoke French, no?”

“Yes, it would,” Hermione agreed.  “But short of fluency?”

Fleur nodded as she glanced back towards the other three teen-agers.  She shook her head and said, “Well, I thought zat I might release both types of allure, to send both of zem off to the bushes for a good rub.  But zee look as eef zey are close to doing zat on zere own!”

“What?” Hermione hissed, as she flipped over onto her back.  Ginny was doing her best to line herself in between Harry and the next big wave, while Ron was standing in chest-deep water, looking up towards Fleur with submerged hands and a goofy grin on his face.  

“Well that’s enough of that,” she declared.

“You wish to pack up and head back, zen?” asked Fleur.

Hermione shook her head.  “No, I want you to push them over the edge and send them off into the bushes…I’d like some alone time with Harry.”

Fleur smiled as she set her wine glass next to Hermione’s and stood.  

“Are you going to stay within zee area of effect as well?” she asked.  “I know zat ‘Arry would enjoy zee show.”

Hermione snorted. “Let’s limit it to what we’ve already planned on showing him today.”

Fleur smiled as she nodded towards the back edge of the beach and the nearest row of apple trees.

“Zat should be far enough, I zink,” she stated.  “And eef eet ees not, zen…you are close to hiding behind zee tree, no?”

“Oh, get on with it!” Hermione hissed, as she walked towards the back of the beach.  When she got to the edge she reached out and touched one of the tree trunks, as if she needed to confirm where the magic ended and reality began.  Then she stepped off of the sand and stepped behind the trunk.  She leaned her back against it, facing away from the beach, and took a few minutes to rehearse her prepared explanation for Harry.  Once she felt mentally prepared (or as prepared as she could be at that moment) she peeked around the tree trunk to see what kind of mischief Fleur was making.

She was confused by what she saw.  

Ginny, at least, was following the plan…she was in the water, riding on top of huge floating inflatable dolphin that Fleur must have pulled from her bag.  She was likely riding it in more ways than one, given how hard she was rocking against the toy’s dorsal fin.  Ron was out of the water, lying face down in the sand just above the water line.  He wasn’t rocking against anything…seemed more asleep than aroused.  Fleur was standing in waist-deep water, facing away from the shoreline….

And Harry was standing next to the beach chairs, staring straight towards the apple tree that Hermione was hiding behind.   

Staring at the tree through a dark pair of sunglasses.

Hermione didn’t know what to do…Fleur seemed unconcerned while Harry seemed bemused, with a good-sized smile on his face.  She was certain that Harry was wearing the charmed pair of sunglasses…so why wasn’t he appreciating the view that Fleur was offering behind him?  

Because, Hermione decided, he was waiting to appreciate a different view.  Of a different witch.  
“Gryffindors forward,” she thought to herself, as she stepped out from behind the tree and stepped onto the white sand beach.  

She was too nervous to say anything as she slowly walked towards Harry. He didn’t need to say anything as he began to walk towards her...the widening smile, and the licking of lips told Hermione that he liked what he was seeing.

There had been many different times and many different fantasized scenes constructed by Hermione in which Harry and she realized their love for each other and rushed into each other’s arms.  This was just like that, except for the fact that they appeared mostly naked to each other.

When they were within ten feet, Hermione stopped short, looked him straight in the eye, and said, “Hi, Harry...like the view?”

He nodded, as he took a step closer to her. “Just as much as you and Fleur have, I imagine,” he replied, using a saucy tone of voice.

“She explained things, then?”

Harry shook his head. “No, she said that you had a speech all ready.”

“Erm, yeah…I did,” Hermione replied.  “Except that it doesn’t seem necessary now.”

He shrugged, and took another step towards her.

Hermione snorted, and shook her head. “You already knew…didn’t you?”

Harry smiled.  “I have a very loyal future liegeman to keep me abreast of these matters…so to speak.”

“Ha, ha…very funny,” Hermione replied, fidgeting a bit as he took another step closer. “So… you’re okay with…things?”

“No, actually…I’m not,” Harry replied.

“Why is that?”

Harry took another step closer, then reached up and pulled off his sunglasses.

“Because these are too distracting.”

“Really?” Hermione asked.  “I would have thought that they would focus your attention, more than distract.”

“Not when I want to do something other than admire the view.”

“Oh…so what do you want to do, then?”

Harry snorted as he tossed his sunglasses back over his shoulder.  Then he reached out, pulled Hermione’s sunglasses away from her face, and tossed them aside as well.

And then he leaned forward.  Hermione’s eyes grew wide, and then they closed.

And then they kissed.

He only held his lips against hers for a moment before he pulled back.  Hermione’s lips tried to follow as she leaned towards him.  She opened her eyes and asked, “Why did you stop?”

Harry smiled.  “Wanted to make sure you were okay with it.”

“Huh…so did you figure that out, then?”

The raven-haired wizard chuckled as he reached up and scratched the back of his neck.  

“I think so,” he said, flashing a rakish grin.

Hermione took a step forward, pulled his hand away from the back of his neck, then grabbed his neck so that he couldn’t squirm away from the kiss that she planted on his lips.

They snogged for a few moments, before breaking the connection for some air.

“Been wanting to do that for a while,” he confessed.

“So have I,” Hermione whispered, as she caressed the side of Harry’s face.

“It’s been so hard,” he hissed.

Hermione looked down and giggled.

“Can’t really tell with Molly’s spell, can I?”

Harry laughed.  

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah…I think I do.”

They kissed a little while longer, before Harry stepped backwards.

“We better stop,” he said.

“Why?” Hermione asked, looking past his shoulder. “Ron still looks like he’s sleeping, and Ginny’s still grinding against Fleur’s toy.”

That description piqued Harry’s curiosity enough to warrant a glance over his shoulder.

“Hey!” Hermione protested.

“Sorry…the way you said it…”

“You’re forgiven…I guess.”

“Good,” said Harry.  “But we still should stop…unless you’re ready to let everyone know that we’re…”

“That we’re what, Harry?”

“Erm…more than just best friends?”

“Would that make us boyfriend and girlfriend, then?” Hermione asked.

Harry chewed on his lip.  “If that’s what you want.”

“You mean you have to ask?”

“Well…”

“Think that I’d let just anybody see a picture of me in that harem girl outfit?”

Harry laughed. “Erm, right.  So…just to make it official…”

Hermione leaned forward and planted a tender kiss on his lips.

“I would love to be your girlfriend, Harry.”

“Brilliant!” he exclaimed. “But should we…”

“No, probably best that we keep this a secret…at least from anyone other than Bill and Fleur.”

Harry nodded.  

“It’s hard enough to find time together as it is now,” he said. He turned back towards the shoreline, and sighed.

“That’s the signal, then,” he said.  

“What’s the signal?”

“Fleur is facing this way,” Harry explained.  “There was somebody else caught in the allure when she zapped Ginny…someone who was just on the other side of the pond watching us…Fleur smelled her.”

“Smelled her?”

Harry shrugged as they started walking back towards the chairs.  

“Guess she was in the area of effect as well.”

“Who was it?”

Harry snorted.  “Don’t know for certain, but for the sake of my sanity I am going to assume that it was not Molly.”

“Good idea.”

“Right, so…Fleur was playing lookout, until whomever it is out there managed to…”

“Finish off?”

“Yeah.”

“So she’s likely rubbed off and is back on her watch…but Ginny is still working?”

Harry stopped, looked down at the beach sand and retrieved their sunglasses.

“Just lie to me if Ginny’s looking towards me while she’s…”

“Masturbating?” Hermione teased.  

“Well, if you want to get all clinical…”

Hermione laughed. “No worries, Harry…her eyes are still closed.” She looked closer to shore and asked, “So what happened to Ron?”

Harry rolled his eyes.  “He popped in his suit two seconds after Fleur zapped him.  Then he got all weak and wobbly, so she suggested that he take a nap.”

“Face down in the sand?”

“She didn’t get that specific…she was thinking he’d use one of the chairs, but he obviously didn’t make it that far.”

“Ah…makes sense,” she replied.  “So you didn’t get caught in that area of effect as well, then?”

Harry shrugged.  “Almost wish I had…it’s painfully hard right now.”

Hermione giggled. “Would you be scandalized if I said that I was in the same boat?”

Her newly-proclaimed boyfriend smiled and shook his head.  “Actually, I thought that might have been the reason why you were hiding behind that tree.”

“Harry!”

“What?”

“Never mind…let me assure you that I was not rubbing off behind the tree.”

“Oh…but you still kind of feel the need to?”

“As if you have to ask,” she replied.  Hermione looked out towards the crashing waves and noted, “That water would be deep enough for you, you know.”

“For you, too,” Harry replied.  “Unless you wanted to wait your turn to ride that toy?”

Hermione laughed.

“Let’s head back, before I have an accident.”

Harry arched an eyebrow.

“Not that kind of accident, you perv,” she said.  “I have to use the loo.”

“Ah,” said Harry.  “Ron seemed to think that the pond was suitable for that kind of thing.”

“Well he would...so is that why Fleur has the little yellow ducky swimming in tight circles around her?”

“I imagine so.”  

“Hello, ‘Ermione…and ‘Arry,” Fleur called out.  She plucked the rubber duck out of the water, waded onto shore, and asked, “Eet ees time to go?”

Harry nodded.  “Hermione has to relieve herself.”

“Stop it, Harry!”

“What?” he protested.  “Didn’t you just tell me that?”

“Yes, but that could have been taken another way.”

“Ah, I see,” Harry replied.  “But didn’t you also just admit that the alternative interpretation was equally valid?”

“Harry!”

Fleur laughed as began packing her beach bag.

“Eet ees useless to deny zat to one wiz zee Veela’s nose, ‘Ermione,” she noted.

“Doesn’t mean that either of you have to announce it to the world,” Hermione pouted.

Harry and Fleur each had several snarky responses to this comment on the tips of their tongues.  But they decided not to voice those witty comebacks, since it might have led to a lengthy discussion that could have delayed their departure.  And they each were eager to have Molly’s spell undone, since Hermione wasn’t the only one who had developed compelling needs for relief.

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• Chapter 1: An Alluring Difference Chapter 2: Different Hermione Plans Chapter 3: Panda pants Chapter 4: Present Opportunities Chapter 5: Sur La Cote Weasley Chapter 6: Hermione Hearts Harry Chapter 7: Innocents Abroad? Chapter 8: To the Barricades!
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