Chapter 71

However, it wasn't as easy as he thought it might be. In reality, it was bloody hard. He didn't know if it was because he was a guy, and therefore supposedly incapable of putting his feelings into words, or if it had something to do with being raised by the Dursleys, or something else. He did, though, figure out that by writing it down, it reduced the emotional impact of the act. It was too clinical.

With a sigh of self-disgust and disappointment, he dropped his quill back into his ink pot and slid the parchment away.

"Something wrong?" asked Hermione, always in tune with his emotions.

"I've been trying to put down some ideas as to how we can progress our bonds and do so in a way we all remain comfortable," he grouched. "However, I've figured out it won't work."

"How so?" she asked.

"Because by making it an almost step-by-step guide, it strips the emotional impact of it away. And that's the last thing we want to happen."

"Good," she said.

"Sorry?" he asked, confused.

"Harry, Daphne and I figured that out as soon as you came up with the idea," she said sounding a little amused.

"Must be a girl thing," he muttered.

"No, it's a logical thing," she retorted. When she saw Harry didn't seem to get it, she sighed in her own slight frustration and said, "Look."

She then stood up and started disrobing. As they'd all already doffed their over-robes and she wasn't wearing a jumper, she pulled her tie off and started to untuck her white school blouse out of her grey skirt.

As soon as she had it untucked she came over to Harry, pushed him back in his seat, and plonked herself down on his lap. Out of his sight, she reached behind herself and undid her bra, loosening it under her blouse.

Harry had kept his hands well away, lest he get in trouble. He was a little fearful of doing anything wrong.

"Let's say the next step you list down for us to progress our bond is this," she said, reaching down and grabbing Harry's off hand. Using her other hand, she pulled the bottom of her blouse away from her body and shoved his hand up under both her blouse and bra, firmly placing his hand on her bare breast.

Harry was completely stunned at what she had done and froze, unable to engage his brain enough to figure out what to do.

Holding his hand to her breast, she said, "There. The next step was for you, while we're both awake and alert, to fondle my boobs."

Daphne was sitting across the table from them showing signs of embarrassment, shock, and amusement.

Once Hermione had forced his hand onto her breast, he hadn't moved it. He just held it, right where it was; too afraid to move.

"Now, how much emotion are you feeling?" she asked. "Other than, probably, a little lust; not much, right? I don't think this has done anything to progress our bond."

Finally pulling his hand down and away, Harry looked down at her lap and sighed. He quietly said, "No. I understand."

"Right," she said, reaching around and reconnecting her bra strap, before settling it back into place. "There was some emotion, but it wasn't even the right emotion. That won't happen if you try to plan it out. You have to let it develop naturally... organically. Emotion will drive the physical; which, in turn, will lift the emotional. Trying to map it out will actually work against us."

Moving back to her seat next to Daphne, she said, "Yes, Luna will be a great help for us to ensure the health and wellbeing of our bond. And to see how it develops. I, for one, am ever so grateful she's willing to help us with this. But, we can't force it. Since the evidence now shows that you were right about the bond being one driven by emotion; that means we can't just decide to finalise the bond by ducking into one of the bedrooms and shagging like horny rabbits to get it done."

Straightening himself up and sitting forward, with a smirk, he said, "Damn. And here I was thinking it would make it quicker for me to be able to get into your knickers."

Both Hermione and Daphne looked at him quite shocked for a moment before Hermione burst out laughing. "Liar!" she retorted. "You know very well that wasn't going to happen.

"You said it, yourself, earlier. With Luna acting as a monitor, we don't have to rush things. And, now that we know emotion is most important, we also know we can't rush things. You led both those ideas."

As she was talking, Daphne relaxed back into a comfortable state; recognising the truth of Hermione's words.

"Hey!" Harry protested. "I'll have you keep that to yourself, thank you very much. If word gets out that I slowed things down for us, my membership of the bro' club will be immediately revoked! They may even try to force me to join the girly-boy club, instead."

Hermione giggled and said, "Don't worry, Harry. We'll keep it between us and, possibly, Luna... and Neville... and Lavender... and Rita Skeeter..."

As she slowly continued, Harry began to look more and more horrified. "Ye Gads!" he moaned. "I'll even lose my local fangirl contingent. I'll be ruined!"

That caused both girls to laugh in response.

After they'd finished homework for the evening, Harry headed for bed. He didn't bother to invite the girls as he knew they now knew the invitation was always open.

Stripping off and dumping his worn clothes into the hamper for the house elves to clean, he turned to head for his bathroom for his last of the night ablutions.

Once he was finished he came out and found the two girls waiting for him, already in the room; but, not yet in bed.

"You didn't have to wait for me, you know," he smirked at them. "I think I'm starting to get pretty adept and getting into and out of bed over the foot of it."

While talking, he crossed the short space to the bed and climbed on in.

The girls hadn't moved. They actually both appeared nervous, but Harry didn't notice until he was finally in bed. Hermione was also doing that nibbling of the bottom lip thing, which indicated she was either thinking hard about something, or was worried about something.

"Ladies?" he asked; now concerned. "What ever is the matter?"

Hermione took a deep breath and said, "Nothing."

As he was about to say he could see something was bothering them, Daphne waved her wand and turned out the lights.

With his eyes ill-adjusted to the limited light coming in through the close-curtained window, and not wearing his glasses, he only saw their indistinct shapes come up on 'their' sides of the bed. Mentally shrugging his shoulders, he laid back and waited for them to hop in.

There was a quick rustling of material and both girls climbed in, almost at the same time.

Once they were settled he softly said, "Goodnight, ladies." And closed his eyes.

"Harry?" Hermione softly asked.

"Mmm?" he muttered back.

"Can you cuddle into my back, tonight, while Daphne cuddles into yours?"

"Mmm," he muttered, rolling to his right as he felt the bed move from both sides.

He was about to slide closer to Hermione when he felt her shift back towards him first.

When they bumped up against each other he threw his left arm over her upper tummy area and felt bare skin. And Hermione felt a little tense under his arm and hand. He was distracted slightly by Daphne cuddling up from behind.

Confused a little as to what he was feeling, he moved his hand about. It took him a moment, but he suddenly realised she wasn't wearing her tank top.

He froze before he then quickly shifted his hand down to land on her hip and felt she wasn't wearing her shorts.

Then it also dawned on him that he wasn't feeling the material of Daphne's sleep robe on his back either. He could feel bare skin.

Moving his hand from Hermione's hip and across his own, he moved it to rest on Daphne's hip. Her bare hip.

"Errr... ladies?" he asked. "Is there something going on that you've forgotten to tell me?"

For a few moments there was no response, as the three laid there all a little tense.

Hermione then said, "We know that skin-on-skin contact is important for the bond. Until this morning, Daphne wasn't completely ready to trust you with us doing this. Now she is, so now we've decided to sleep in the all-together. For this night, at least."

"I hope you don't mind, Harry," said Daphne. "But I only just decided I wanted to do this, and I didn't want to do it if Hermione wasn't going to do it as well. We talked about it out in the living room after you left. I think I would have lost my nerve if I asked first or if I had to wait."

Harry sighed and said, "No, I guess I don't mind all that much. Just please don't hex me if I get wandering hands during the night... or, other things... you know?"

"I haven't yet," she replied with a hint of amusement in her voice. "And, I know."

"And, you know I won't," said Hermione.

"So, we've reached... at least for tonight... the skin-on-skin contact part of our relationship," he mused. "I hope you don't mind if I continue to wear a pair of boxers to bed, though. 'He' can't be trusted, yet."

Both girls giggled at that, and the three of them relaxed.

Harry returned his arm to wrap around Hermione's upper tummy while Daphne's left arm came over to do the same with Harry. Happy that he was being trusted this far, he dropped off to sleep. The girls weren't far behind.

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