Alternative Medicine
Ch 2: Shared Constitutions
By canoncansodoff
Author Notes:
Disclaimer: Not my characters, no money being made, etc., etc.
Having been held in stasis for four days, and unconscious for another two, Harry was rather hungry. Healer Patil was sympathetic, but cautious, and refused to allow him to eat until he answered a long list of questions that would help her determine his Ayurvedic body constitution. It didn’t take too many questions about the consistency of his feces, or whether his dirty socks smelled, for him to rethink allowing the other witches to stay by his side. Thankfully, the Patil twins knew enough about Ayurveda to keep the giggling in check, and Hermione was too intent on helping Harry supply the correct answers to notice anything off within the questions.
The questioning and physical examination completed, Healer Patil looked up from her notes and smiled.
“So, my nieces, what is your opinion on the patient’s constitution?”
The twins looked at each other, and Parvati non-verbally deferred to her Ravenclaw sister.
“Vatta-dominant, Auntie.”
“Based on…”
“Based primarily on his undersized condition.”
Padma waited for her sister to make a predictable comment about whether Harry was undersized where it mattered, then continued.
“Hermione’s observation that the patient historically has tended towards cold hands and cold feet is also telling. As are the apparent bouts of constipation.”
While Harry frowned at the frank assessment, the Healer allowed a small smile to form on her face and nodded. She then turned towards Hermione.
“Perhaps I should consider your constitution as well, Miss Granger…so long as you are to stay here for some period of time?”
“No need, Auntie,” Parvati offered. “Hermione is definitely pitta dominant, just like us.”
The elderly witch raised an eyebrow, and then nodded.
“There is enough in common, then, for you four to share meals. I’ll make arrangements with the kitchen, and have dinner brought to the room.”
The sound of Harry’s groaning stomach protested this further delay. He apologized, but the Healer shrugged it off, and pointed her wand towards the window.
“Accio bananas.”
A few moments later, a large bunch of tree-ripened bananas sailed through the opened window and into her hand.
“These are for the patient only,” the Healer cautioned the younger witches. “Eating them will only aggravate your pitta dominant constitutions.”
“Yes, Auntie,” the twins dutifully replied, as the Healer handed the bananas to Hermione and left the room.
“So what do you think, sister?” Parvati asked. “Will Harry aggravate or pacify our body constitutions?”
“What?” asked Harry.
Hermione chuckled as she pulled a single banana off from the bunch and partially peeled it.
“I thought that Ayurvedic diets were vegetarian?”
Parvati smiled. “Oh, I wasn’t thinking of eating Harry…more like swallowing.”
“What?” Harry demanded once more, turning beet-red.
Padma adopted a rather studious pose as she stroked her chin and relished Harry’s embarrassment out of the corner of her eye.
“Well…as semen supposedly has a salty taste, and salt is to be avoided for pitta-dominants, we really should avoid swallowing during fellatio.”
Sensing that Harry was too gob-smacked to contribute to the conversation, Hermione decided to play along.
“But Padma, isn’t it true than the taste of semen can be affected by your boyfriend’s diet?”
“I’m afraid that I lack the direct experience to offer an opinion on that proposition…Parvati?”
“What…do you think that I would?” the Gryffindor witch chided. “Of course, Lavender was always quick to support that belief.”
Hermione nodded, giving the twin sisters a knowing grin. “Yes, it was something to see. Years of me chiding Ron to eat a more balanced diet had no effect, but just as soon as Lavender dangled going down on his carrot as incentive, Won-Won was loading up on fresh fruits three meals a day.”
As Padma and Parvati laughed at the comment, Hermione turned towards Harry and held the peeled banana close to his lips.
“And speaking of fresh fruit…” she said with a seductive, husky voice.
Harry’s eyebrows couldn’t travel any higher up into his hairline, and his cheeks couldn’t get any more flushed. Too flustered to offer up a witty retort, and too hungry to ask about Hermione’s intentions with respect to flavoring his ejaculate, it was all he could do to nod, lean forward, and bite down on the offered fruit.
oo00OO00oo
The charged sexual atmosphere lingered over dinner, making it hard for Harry to keep from occasionally choking on his food and drink.
Some of unresolved sexual tension seemed unintentional and unavoidable, at least to Harry. The meal had arrived on four individual trays that were devoid of silverware, and set with a banana leaf instead of a dinner plate. Upon this green leaf was a large mound of white rice, surrounded by a variety of brightly colored side-dishes. Padma and Parvati identified some of these pasty mounds as sambar, rasam, and kaalan. To Harry they all looked liked differently-colored vegetable stews.
Having won a quick game of rock-parchment-wand, Padma hopped up onto the bed and showed Harry how the meal was to be eaten. She grabbed part of the mound of potato curry on his leaf, glopped it onto the rice, and mixed the two together with her fingers. Once the rice was thoroughly coated yellow, Padma lifted some of it to Harry’s mouth and instructed him to “open up.”
Harry decided that there was a decided difference between being spoon-fed meals in the Hogwarts infirmary, and being finger-fed meals in South India. It was a very pleasant difference, especially when Padma encouraged him to lick and suck her fingers clean.
Of course, Padma’s attire didn’t help keep his libido in check. Both her sister and she were dressed in the Keralan version of the Indian sari. Simply described, it was a long white skirt, with a matching white shawl that loosely draped over a midriff-baring cropped blouse called a choli. This tight-fitting garment had a low scoop neck that exposed a fair bit of cleavage.
Harry hadn’t noticed anything too out of the ordinary when the girls had entered the room dressed this way. It was relatively modest attire…so long as they stood up straight, the shawl that was draped over their left shoulders covered what the choli exposed. Even the left half of their midriffs was covered when they held their arm to their side. But when they bent over, or sat bedside, the white wrap did little to conceal their toned stomachs, ample cleavage, or the fact that they were both wearing cholis in the traditional South Indian manner…without brassieres.
The ogling opportunities were tempered somewhat by the dinner conversation…Hermione and he were interested in learning more about Ayurveda, and how it differed from “traditional” Muggle and magical medicinal care back in Great Britain. Hermione also wanted to know why Parvati considered her to be “pitta dominant.” The ensuing description of the “typical” traits of a pitta dominant body constitution forced Hermione to agree with the assessment, for reasons both good and bad. She had reached puberty and gotten her first period relatively early…even before she started Hogwarts. Hermione also was smart, competitive, and (she was forced to admit) occasionally bossy and critical of her friends. She did challenge Parvati’s assertions, however, that her soiled socks were any smellier than her dorm mate's were.
Discussing the differences in body constitution led to a description of the third type – kapha dominant. As soon as Padma described kapha-dominant people as “lazy arses who love to eat a lot, who fancy sweets, and who sit around all day and do nothing,” Harry and Hermione burst out in laughter, turned to each other, and loudly pronounced, “Ron!”
A brief word-association game followed, as names were thrown out and off-the-cuff body compositions were assigned. This light-hearted discussion turned serious, though, when Harry began to ask how other students and staff had fared during the final confrontation at Hogwarts. He was relieved to learn that the “light-side” casualties had been relatively light (so to speak), but got very quiet when Hermione started to name names. Attempts to assuage Harry’s guilt, and to have him focus on who was to really blame for the deaths, and how many lives he had saved were failing miserably when Healer Patil checked in on the four Hogwarts students.
“Was the meal not agreeable with you, Mr. Potter?”
“Erm, no it was delicious, actually. Tasted great, even after your nieces told me exactly what I was eating.”
“Then why the long face?” the Healer asked.
“He’s blaming himself for Voldemort’s attacks, and for all of the casualities,” Hermione stated.
The elderly witch frowned. “That is rather silly, I think…and counterproductive to the healing process. There will be no more of that talk tonight.”
“Erm, yes, Healer Patil,” Harry said glumly, his eyes still cast downward.
“Come now, girls,” the Healer stated. “Clear these dishes… it is time for Mr. Potter’s therapeutic massage.”
Padma and Parvati’s eyes lit up at this pronouncement, and they eagerly helped clear up after their meal and to prepare Harry for his therapy. They were a little less eager once their Aunt informed them that she would oversee their efforts, at least for the first few sessions. Hermione, for her part, just tried to be as supportive and proactive as she could for her best friend, and asked what the treatment program would involve.
Healer Patil informed Harry and Hermione that therapeutic massage was an essential part of Ayurveda, especially in cases of neuro-muscular damage. There were going to use a specially prepared salve that zeroed in on repairing muscle damage and restored neural connections. Any hopes that Harry might have had that the massage would be sensual were dashed when the Healer noted that they were going to use an especially strong salve, at least at the start…strong enough that those applying it to Harry’s skin would need to wear long dragonskin gloves and thick leather aprons. He didn’t even get to glimpse the girls changing into their protective attire…the Healer shoo’ed them out and into the next room during the swap out.
Harry’s fear that any salve that required this level of protection would sting like hell were for naught…he felt nothing as the young witches kneaded the ointment into his gaunt, flaccid limbs. The Healer said this was to be expected, and that it would likely take a week of thrice daily applications before a positive effect would present itself.
Just what Harry had to look forward to was revealed when the masseuses reached the limit of curse-damaged skin, and his upper thighs and shoulders began to burn like a Crucio attack. Healer Patil was quick to have a second salve applied in these areas, and marked the limits of spell-damaged skin with lines drawn onto the skin with henna.
It was dark by the time this initial treatment was complete, though not all that late in the evening…Hermione told Harry that he could expect twelve hours of daylight even in the middle of winter, given their low latitude. Healer Patil suggested that Harry try to get some rest, and, noting that the treatment had been rather stressful, suggested that he have a relaxing soak.
“But Auntie,” Padma noted. “Without use of his arms and legs, how will Harry sit up in the tub?”
The Healer said, “I will attend to my patient, and ensure that he keeps his head above water.”
“Oh, that’s okay, Auntie, we can take care of that for you,” Parvati said with a grin, as she peeled off her leather gloves. I’m all hot and sweaty, and could use a wash-up myself.”
“Absolutely not,” the Healer stated firmly.
“But...”
“But nothing…I am your surrogate parent, so long as you are away from your parents.”
“But we’re of legal age, Auntie!”
“And Hermione?”
“Even older than we are,” Parvati claimed.
“Hey, I’m only eighteen…you make me sound like I’m middle-aged, or something,” Hermione chided.
“And see…it looks like the patient agrees with the suggestion,” Parvati noted brightly.
Harry, who had been desperately trying to avoid getting entangled in the conversation, balked.
“But, I haven’t said a word!”
“Non-verbals, Mr. Potter,” quipped Padma. Following her line of sight towards his crotch, Harry was forced to admit that she had a point. He felt rather helpless not being able to gather more of his thin blanket around his mid-section to hide his erection.
“There will be no sharing of baths, or beds for that matter, between my nieces and my patient,” the elder witch stated firmly. “Your support of his treatment will be professional, rather than promiscuous. At least not unless or until your father can discuss dowries with Mr. Potter.”
“Dowries?” Harry squawked.
“Plural?” added Hermione.
The Healer shook her head, sighed, and spoke quite firmly to the Patil twins in her native language. Padma and Parvati both whined, said that it wasn’t fair, and stormed out of the room (after giving Harry a good-night kiss, and informing Hermione that they were insanely jealous).
“Miss Granger, I have no authority over you…if you wish to help Mr. Potter bathe, the tub is just down the hall, or he could remain here in bed, and you could give him a sponge bath. I also could attend to his needs in either case.”
Hermione chewed on her lower lip, and looked towards Harry. He, in turn, looked at Hermione, then glanced back at the Healer.
“I don’t think that either Hermione or myself wish to cause strife or scandal under your roof, Healer Patil…perhaps a Scourgify spell would suffice?”
The Matron pursed her lips, took a closer look at the couple, and shook her head. “Your skin is too dry, and water must be integrated into your treatment program. And as for any scandal…such a thing is of no consequence for those whose karmas and are already so closely linked.”
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Harry said.
Healer Patil smiled. “But I think your companion did, Mr. Potter.”
Harry turned to find Hermione’s face flushed, and eyes moist.
“Hermione?”
The young witch ignored the question and instead quietly asked one of her own.
“Healer Patil, is that a medical diagnosis?”
The older witch chuckled. “Child, one doesn’t need to be trained in the healing arts to see something that is so obvious.”
“Erm, and if it’s not so obvious to me?” asked Harry.
Hermione smiled, and lightly touched Harry’s shoulder.
“No worries, Harry…most boys are clueless about these sorts of things.”
“Hmmprh!”
Plans for responding to Harry’s grunt with a kiss were put on hold as a thought came to Hermione’s mind. She turned and asked, “Healer Patil, if our karmas really are linked, why did you tease your nieces with talk of dowries?”
The old woman smiled warmly. “As each portion of a chain is connected to more than one link, so too may the heart chakra connect along multiple pathways.”
Hermione’s eyes widened. “And you see such possibilities within his heart, Healer Patil?”
The witch nodded. “Not just his, but within yours and theirs, child.”
As Hermione tried to absorb these words, the Healer looked over Hermione’s shoulder and smiled.
“Perhaps a soak was not prerequisite to restful sleep, after all.”
Hermione turned towards the bed in response to this comment, and sighed when she discovered that their patient had drifted off to sleep.
“Oh, Harry,” she said wistfully.
Healer Patil smiled, and pulled the younger witch into a hug.
“It seems that your dharma is elsewhere tonight …go to Padma and Parvati, and I will attend to my patient.”
“But…thank you, Healer Patil.”
The older witch laughed. “Please, child, call me Auntie, for it will be true soon enough.”
Hermione nodded, kissed Harry on the forehead, and left the room.
oo00OO00oo
It was a short walk up two flights of stairs to the room that Hermione was sharing with Padma and Parvati in the residence above the clinic. Healer Patil and her husband had insisted that she was their guest just as much as Harry was their patient. Hermione's classmates had then insisted that she bunk with them, in the expansive guest bedroom that covered most of the building’s top level.
If you squinted a bit, the room was similar to their dormitory in Gryffindor Tower. There were three large four-poster beds in the room, but mosquito netting hung from the canopy, rather than thick curtains. Large rectangular windows were found on three walls, but they looked out onto a sub-tropical beach and grove of fruit trees, rather than Black Lake and the heather and heath. And the room had an en-suite lavatory, but the magical loo was Asian-style, and forced one to squat, rather than sit.
The saris that Padma and Parvati had been wearing were draped on the chest that sat in front of the bed that the sisters were sharing as they sat in their cholis and slips behind the mosquito netting.
“Hermione?” asked Padma, as the brown-haired witch walked into the room. The black-haired witch poked her head out from the netting and added, “Already done rubbing Harry clean?”
“More like rubbing him off, I wager,” snarked Parvati, as she pulled the netting fully aside.
“Neither,” Hermione lamented. “Our patient fell asleep before I could lay a hand on him.”
“And you let that stop you?”
“Now, Parvati…where’d be the fun in that?” Padma asked. She then patted the mattress next to her and added, “Come sit with us?”
Hermione considered the offer, but shook her head. “Maybe later. I’m going to take a shower and try to cool off.”
“Yeah, you were getting all hot and sticky down there, weren’t you?” asked Parvati.
Rolling the double (maybe triple) entendre around in her head, Hermione asked, “What…was I was leaking through my shorts?”
“No, I just extrapolated from your nipple hardness,” Parvati giggled. “So…need a hand with the wash-up?”
“Wouldn’t want to worry about your fingers getting sticky.”
“No worries, I’d just lick them clean.”
“Parvati!” gasped her sister.
Hermione laughed at Padma’s scandalized response all the way to the shower. She thought about their banter some more, after she stripped off her clothes and ducked under the spray of warm water. It was eerily similar to the rise that they could always get out of Lavender Brown as a defensive measure back in Sixth Year. Lesbian-laced innuendo had been the only thing that shut Lavender up whenever she started to blabber about how well hung “Won-Won” was, or how good he was with his tongue.
Funny thing was…by the end of that school year, both Hermione and Parvati were getting a little too good at the smutty witch-on-witch banter, and were enjoying it perhaps a little too much. The playful talk had progressed to playful touches, and “pretend” kisses that were designed to shock, awe, and shut up Lavender Brown. They had never talked about what they were doing, or progressed beyond what they did “on stage” and in Lavender’s presence, but the thought of doing more with Parvati had always stuck in the back of Hermione’s mind.
And not just with Parvati, but with her sexy, brainy, twin as well.
Of course, anything that was kept in the back of Hermione’s mind was well hidden, so long as thoughts about Harry and defeating Voldemort were very much in the forefront. But now that Voldemort was gone, and Harry alive, and awake, and with prospects for full recovery…
Erotic dreams of her walking naked in the surf with Harry had recently become more crowded, with Padma and Parvati taking turns holding Hermione’s other hand. Or sucking on Hermione’s other breast, and more.
Hermione Granger had a reputation for overthinking situations. But the fact was, while she did spend a lot of time analyzing things, once she attained a logical conclusion she was quick to act on it. What had been said downstairs about sharing Harry and sharing hearts pushed Hermione to a logical conclusion. And it was now time to act on it.
The brown-haired witch pulled fingers that had been idly caressing her lower lips away from her body and turned off the shower spray. She reached for the towel, and used it to quickly dry off. But rather than wrap that towel around her body, as she had over the past few days, Hermione wrapped it around her hair, mustered all of the Gryffindor courage she possessed, and walked naked back into the bedroom.
No comments were made as she made her way over to her bedside…at least none that she could hear above the tune she was quietly humming to hide her nervousness. But she could almost feel the eyes on her body as she sat on the edge of the bed and began to comb out her hair.
It was rather exciting, and it took a certain amount of effort not to drag the hairbrush from her wet curls down across her breasts towards her other curls, which were getting wetter by the moment.
Furtive glances using peripheral vision suggested that Padma and Parvati were now each in their beds, and staring at her unabashedly. But they weren’t saying anything, or doing anything.
Playing it by ear, Hermione turned, and nonchalantly asked, “You know it’s almost too hot to sleep in a nightie tonight. Would either of you be too terribly bothered if I didn’t wear one?”
She thought she heard an “Eep!” from Parvati’s bed in response to her question.
“Erm…I don’t mind…whatever makes you feel comfortable,” called out Padma.
“Yeah, it’s just us girls, right?” added her sister.
Hermione chuckled. “If only it were otherwise, and Harry was with us, eh?”
Padma nodded, as Hermione pulled back the mosquito netting, pulled down the linens, and slipped into bed.
“I think we’re all in agreement on that point.”
“Not much room for a fourth bed, though.”
“I’d share mine with him,” Parvati quipped.
“Who wouldn’t?” Hermione replied.
There was a lull in the conversation, as if each of the three were contemplating next steps. Hermione reached for her wand, pointed towards the room’s torches, and extinguished them. As her eyes adjusted to a moonlit illumination, she joked, "As long as I have my wand in hand, anybody need a silencing charm?”
Parvati snorted. “Would it matter? It’s not like you couldn’t see somebody wanking through the netting.”
Hermione nodded, and plunged forward. “Well, then…do you want me to put one on my own netting?”
“Planning on an extra-loud rub, Hermione?”
“Maybe.”
There was another pregnant pause.
Finally, from Padma’s bed, came, “Don’t bother on my account, Hermione.”
A moment later, Parvati added, “Me, either…but maybe one on the room, so that we don’t bother anyone else?”
“Fair enough,” Hermione squeaked, failing to contain the excitement in her voice. She pointed towards all four walls and the floor, and cast the strongest silencing spell that she knew. Reflexively, she hid her wand underneath her pillow, within reach in case of emergency. But rather than place her head on top of that pillow, she remained sitting, and leaned back against the headboard.
The sheet had dropped down to her lap, exposing her breasts to the night (and, presumably to the Patil Twins’ view). Hermione smiled as she compared her position to the one that Harry had been in earlier that evening. She imagined where she would have placed that sponge (and her hands), had he stayed awake. And then she placed her hands on those same places on her body, and began to rub. And caress. And probe.
A wimper from the other side of the room caught Hermione’s attention. Through the dim light, she could see that it was Padma, who was watching her with one hand tweaking a brown-nippled breast, and the other buried between her thighs.
Hermione moaned softly, and smiled. Padma returned the smile, then they both glanced to the third bed, where Parvati was just as busy.
By unspoken agreement, the lights remained dimmed, and they stayed in their respective beds. But those silencing spells were tested, as they each loudly got off at being watched, and at watching others.
The musky scent of sweet release filled the room, overpowering the fragrance of sandalwood and sea. It lingered far past the time that they each drifted off towards satiated slumber. And the dreams that followed were all just as crowded and erotic as those experienced by a certain raven-haired wizard, sleeping two floors below.