Chapter 3
19th September 2000
Hermione smiled happily and hugged her parents for goodbye. She had spent a wonderful morning and midday with her parents at an art museum and a fancy lunch. She loved to spend time with them and once again she thanked her luck that they were in her life.
Scott and Amelie Granger had adopted Hermione on her 11th birthday, 19.9.1990. They had known about Hermione’s incredibly rough early childhood and were prepared that building a real child-parent relationship would not be easy. It had been a lot more difficult than they would ever have thought. When they met the girl for the first time, she had tried to hold her tears, avoided any physical contact and barely let a word out of her mouth. She had hugged herself and curled up to her chair. When they had brought poor girl to their home, a girl wasn’t able to hold her tears. The couple started to work hard to make Hermione feel home and more importantly, feel loved. Something she had never been before. When time passed, Hermione finally started to answer to Grangers. And have a short conversations. Let them brush her shoulders or ruffle her hair gently. She started to trust them. She started conversations with them. She spent time with them. She let them even hug her. And smiled. She accidentally laughed. She spontaneously hugged them. And finally, Hermione called Grangers her parents. The process had taken a long time, but finally, Hermione had home. She had a family. And she was loved. On Hermione’s 12th birthday, her last name was Granger, not Smith.
Hermione waved once more at her parents for goodbye before hopping on her bicycle and heading back to her flat. She had two hours before heading to Katie and Ron’s apartment, where she would meet her friends. If she was fast, she could finish her essay for Monday’s class. Hermione studied special education at university. She loved her studies, and it wouldn’t feel bad to spend an hour of her birthday to study. She was sure if her friend Ginny heard about this, she wouldn’t be happy though. Ginny always told Hermione she should give herself study-free days. Hermione giggled in her thoughts while approaching home.
She was excited for the evening, of course. She would meet Ginny, Luna, Hannah and Katie. Unfortunately, Harry, Rolf, Neville and Ron weren’t able to attend on her birthday celebrations today because they had a football tournament with University football team out of the city, but it was okay. They had all celebrated together an evening before at dinner. In a way Hermione was happy that she got to spend the evening together with just the girls. Ginny and Harry and Katie and Ron were couples and at the bar they would just end up being tangled together like always. They were no fun then. Luna and their newest friend Rolf had been pining after each other but they were too shy to do anything about it yet. Neville had a major crush on Hannah who had recently broke up with her boyfriend, so that would be a bit awkward too. Hermione knew Hannah was interested in Neville but didn’t want to rush into a new relationship.
***
Hermione squirmed insecurely in front of the mirror. She wore a dark blue knee-length dress which hugged her body from all the right places. The blue colour was perfect against Hermione’s bronze skin. And skin was something the dress gave out quite generously. Hermione blushed for the though of walking to the bar wearing that. She examined herself from the mirror, and turned carefully, wishing she weren’t wearing those killer heels.
“Hermione! You look AMAZING! Oh my my my, those women at the bar will be all over you” Hannah yelled and winked to Hermione mischievously.
“Hannah! Must you do that, I’m embarrassed already!”
“Oh c’mon Hermione, you know you look good and it was my intention. That outfit is perfect. No need to be embarrassed” exclaimed Ginny, the devil who gave Hermione the outfit in the first place. Ginny wanted Hermione to gain some self-confidence which was something she had lost about six months ago when she found out her girlfriend (she-who-must-not-be-named) was cheating on her. “Your so gonna get laid tonight” she smirked self-satisfied.
Hermione sighted. Honestly, she wouldn’t mind if she found some company today. She missed intimacy. She straightened her back and smiled to her friends. “Yeah, let’s hope so. It’s time to live again.”
“Yasss, that’s it! Bravo! Hun, could you open that champagne? It’s time to raise some glasses and have a drink!” Ginny cheered. Hannah grabbed the bottle and poured their drinks.
“I don’t know if you noticed, Gin, but we already had couple of drinks” laughed Katie while finishing Luna’s hairdo.
“That was during the first part of the party. The second part starts now! Cheers! To Hermione!”
Katie, Hannah, Luna and Hermione grabbed their drinks and toasted. They were ready for the night. Ginny looked amazing with her stylish, dark green jumpsuit, Hannah sparkled in her golden knee-length dress, Luna was gorgeous with her red dress and Katie was beautiful and intimidating on her black party dress. Katie had made their hairdos and Luna mastered their light makeup. Hermione had enjoyed their day so far and she was excited for more. She felt so lucky to have friends like this. She captured them all in a hug and felt like she would be happy to just stay there with them.
Katie kissed Hermione’s cheek and asked “So, ready to go?”
Hermione felt her newfound confidence to rise, smiled and nodded. “Let’s go.”
***
They arrived to the club. Luna and Ginny went ahead into the club to get them all some drinks while Hermione, Hannah and Katie stayed behind at the entrance to catch up their uni friends, Padma and Cho. While they were chatting, Hermione’s eyes began to rake the crowd outside the club. She noticed a lound and lively friend group walk towards the entrance. They seemed to be older than Hermione and her friends, but just excited as they were. They all looked amazing. Hermione found herself checking out women of the group. She gasped. Some of them looked very familiar… She tried to catch a better sight of their faces but failed before they disappeared into the club. She felt a dash of odd but warm feeling in her chest while watching after a wild, black, curly hair. She had to see more. She began to head after the group when someone placed his hand on her shoulder “Granger!”.
Hermione jumped and turned to see who greeted her. Oh no. “Cormac?” The guy was Cormac McLaggen, a guy she had known back in her teenage years. They had shared an awkward moment when Hermione had tried to explore her sexuality.
Cormac grinned happily and brushed his hand down Hermione’s shoulder. “Yes, it’s me! I’m happy you remember me. It makes this much easier. You look dashing, darling. Just like always of course. I saw you coming here, and my immediate thought was to buy you a drink. What do you think, darling? Give me a chance?”
Hermione gaped at him. Was this man serious? They hadn’t seen each other (thank god) in five years. They didn’t know each other. At. All.
“Thank you, Cormac, but I’m here with my friends and they are actually getting our drinks right now. I’ll pass. Have a lovely evening.”
“Oh c’mon darling…”
“No thank you, Cormac. I’m sorry, but I’m not interested.”
Cormac opened his mouth with a little offended look on his face, but Hermione turned around and called to her friends “Katie, Hun, shouldn’t we get going? Gin and Luna are probably waiting us already! Let’s go! It was wonderful to see you, Cho, Padma.” She grabbed Katie and Hannah’s hands and headed inside.
***
The night at the club felt good. Hermione danced with her friends, she danced with strangers, she drank too many drinks and felt like she was flying. First time for a long time she enjoyed attention she gained from people. She felt many eyes on her. She felt confident, sexy and wanted. She felt dizzy and lightheaded. She cried to her friends how lucky she felt and kissed them all full on their mouths. They kissed back of course. They laughed to marveling bystanders. They kept dancing. Hermione made sure she would not collapse to Cormac but otherwise she didn’t care the people around her.
Even though Hermione felt careless, there was something in the club that lured her attention. The friend group she had seen outside the club. They were lounging in a booth at back of the bar and seemed to have time of their life. They were chatting, laughing, drinking. They flirted with passing people, occasionally visited on the dancefloor and returned to their loft. Even with the alcohol in her system, Hermione was sure the faces of the group were familiar. Four women, five men. When Hermione tried to pry, her eyes catched the most beautiful face. Her jawline was sharp and cheekbones high. Woman was pale, she had painted her lips sinfully red, and her eyes were dark as cosmos. Wait. A minute. She knew those eyes. She had dreamed about those eyes. Embarrassingly often. Bellatrix Black. Oh my. Hermione felt like she would faint.
So the others were… Yes. Se knew all of them except two. Now she realized two of the other three women were Narcissa and Andromeda Black. Beautiful as their older sister. Then there was Ted Tonks, Lucius Malfoy and Lestrange brothers. They were her childhood heroes (and one crush). Hermione blushed hard and raked her eyes rather shamelessly on Bellatrix’s body. Bellatrix wore black leather trousers and a black top. Hermione’s mouth watered a little. She felt strong urge to go meet them but stopped herself. She felt stupid. Why would they want to talk to her? They didn’t know each other. And she was nothing but a student. On the other hand, she had always felt need to know what happened to her… them… after she had left the little town she had lived at Wilkins’. What kind of was her… their… lives? She wanted to know. She knew something of course. She had seen Bellatrix’s works. She knew about her reputation as a gifted artist. But she wanted to know more. She had always wanted to know her. Gee. Them. Hermione blushed even harder.
Little did she knew that while she was pining and deep in her thoughts, one of the group members had noticed her staring. Andromeda Black smirked and leaned to whisper something to her sisters. While Hermione returned to her friends, three pairs of eyes followed her.
***
“Bella, someone is checking you out, and she’s hot, look” Andromeda whispered to her sister, eyebrows wiggling. Bella smirked happily and turned to look where her sister’s eyes pointed. She saw a young woman walking towards the dancefloor. Woman’s hip and bum swayed deliciously while walking.
“Did she really? That’s interesting, maybe I should go and check her too” said Bellatrix huskily to Andy.
“Oh, are you really going to abandon us already, Bella? The night is still young. If she was checking you out, she probably is already under your spell. Stay with us for now, sis. Go to her later” whispered Cissy firmly.
Bellatrix agreed, Cissy was right after all. This night was meant to be spend with friends. So she did. She couldn’t help it, tho, that her eyes followed the young woman through the night, observing her. She seemed cute. Bellatrix was sure the woman was forced to the club by her friends but loosened herself up and now having a blast. And a very much drunk. When the time flied, Bellatrix decided to approach the other woman. She seemed quite popular, many men flirted and danced with her, but she seemed to reject them. Bella was sure she was into women. And some women approached the dancing the woman too. No wonder, she was a cutie. She needed to act, because she wanted to be the one to take the woman home with her. She felt oddly possessive, more than usually. She rose from her seat.
***
Hermione kept eyeing Bellatrix. Somehow, she managed to stay completely unaware that her crush was eyeing her too. How could someone be so tempting? She wanted to approach her so badly, but she was a coward. Would one more shot give her more confidence? Probably not. She waved her frinds, left the dancefloor and went to the bar counter anyway. How pathetic one could be? Why did she pine after Black? She wasn’t looking for anything serious tonight anyway. The club was full beautiful women and some of them had shown her some interest. But no. She pined. When did she stopped to enjoy the night? Fuck. Wait. Where did Bellatrix go? She wasn’t at her booth anymore. Her eyes met laughing eyes of other two Black sisters. Suddenly her view was filled with figure of a woman. Holycrapholycrapholycrap! Bellatrix! She felt she was starting to hyperventilate.
***
Bellatrix smirked happily to the obvious panic the other woman was feeling. She didn’t quite catch her face and eyes due the changing lighting of the club, but face expressions were quite clear. Bellatrix slowly dragged her eyes over the shorter woman who was wearing beautiful and quite teasing blue dress. The shade of blue was perfect against flawless bronze skin. She had quite a slender body, very nice butt and cutest breasts that looked like they would fit in Bella’s hands perfectly. Bella licked her lips shamelessly and smirked. She was just about to meet woman’s eyes when some man grabbed woman’s arm and said: “Here you are darling”. Woman turned slightly. Oh, taken woman. Really? Where did this man came from, out of nowhere? What a pity. Bella was just getting excited because of the beautiful body in front of her. She had already pictured the whole lot of a things she wanted to do to her. Well, maybe another time? She smirked, turned without meeting woman’s eyes and went back to her companions.
***
Hermione sighted disappointedly and annoyed. She threw one last glance to the goddess who walked hips swaying (Fuck, that bum looks delicious!) to her companions before turning fully towards Cormac.
“What is it, Cormac? I thought I made myself clear earlier?” Hermione asked. She tried to sound firm and rejecting, but a large amount of alcohol in her system failed her a bit.
“C’mon darling, I don’t think you are serious. We both know you are horny for me. I’m so glad we ended up to same city again, so we can explore our relationship together.” Cormac smiled almost arrogantly and pressed Hermione against a bar counter. He wiped an escaped curl on Hermione’s forehead behind her ear and grabbed her waist with his big arms.
Hermione felt trapped. Cormac was so tall that he was crouched over Hermione, and he pressed against her forcefully.
“I- I don’t want this Cormac. Let go of me. What happened between us before – it was a big mistake. And it was long ago. We were stupid teens. I’ve told you Cormac, I like women. I just didn’t accept that fact when I was younger. But now I know it’s part of me and I wouldn’t change that. So, stop this, please.” Hermione squirmed uncomfortable. She remembered how she had tried to deny her interest on girls and let Cormac led her to gloomy corner at house party they were at. Cormac had devoured her lips and groped her body very enthusiastically while she had stood on her grounds nearly shocked. It had felt awful, and she had stopped it. It had been difficult because Cormac didn’t want to accept refusal. After that, Cormac was very determined to have his way with her, but she never let him or any guy for that matter.
“Hey, how can you be sure if you’ve never really tried? I can make you feel so good. I can fix your weird desires. I promise after you’ve had a night with me you no longer think of girls” Cormac said slimily and tried to kiss her. Hermione felt that she would throw up.
Hermione bit his lip (“Ouch!” exclaimed Cormac) and escaped the situation, pushing distraught man away from her and pushing herself through the crown. She felt her hart racing and ears throbbing. She had to get away from him. Hermione clumsily pushed through the crowd on the dance floor and sighted in relief, when she bumped to her friends. Hannah and Luna were completely wasted, Katie and Ginny weren’t in much better shape. Hermione decided to brush Cormac from her mind and talked about his actions to her friends later.
***
Bellatrix followed the incident from her booth with her sisters. She realized that maybe she had read the situation too quickly and mistaken. She almost went back to help the younger woman but noticed she didn’t need help after all. She also thought about going back to her and have her way with her, but assumed the woman wasn’t on the mood after the idiot man. Bellatrix pouted and was internally raging to the man. She couldn’t help herself though, her eyes followed the woman rest of the evening. Who was that girl?