Harry and the Six Virgins

Chapter XIII

"Well, Harry, here we are again."

"It looks the same," Harry said, looking around the basement of the bungalow.

Casey gave Harry a twisted smile. "Since you left here all of thirty minutes ago, it should."

"Where's Hermione?"

"Ah," Casey said, "now there is a tale. She's a feisty one, that's for sure. She actually managed to anger me, which is NOT a good thing. I thought of various ways of punishing her, but in the end, I decided on just a little humiliation. I decided not to severely punish her partially because what she said was mostly true, partially from pity, and partially because I have come to like and respect you, Harry."

Harry had been on the verge of losing his temper, but managed to hold it in. "Why pity?" he managed to ask.

"Very wise not to attack me, Harry," Casey told him. "The Harry who started off would have been yelling at me by now, at the least. Now, nearly the last words Hermione said was that I could fling her naked body at your feet, and you would still respect her even if I made that body promiscuous. Well, I haven't done that, of course, but that opened a previously-hidden part of her mind to me. I leave it to you to discover what she has experienced; she both aches to tell you and is terrified you will find out. I will leave in a moment and you may go to your friend. I shall be back on the morning of March first. In two mornings, a booklist shall appear for Hermione to peruse. The pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator are full."

Harry nodded.

"I suggest you take Hermione a robe and slippers, or at least your cloak. Her naked body arrived in the woodshed nearly ten minutes ago. She seems to be in some emotional distress. Her wand and effects will appear with the book list." Casey disappeared.

Harry stared in shock for a few seconds, made a movement towards the stairs, and then stopped. They had allowed the fire in the woodstove to die down before leaving and had cleaned out the fireplace. If Hermione was out in the woodshed, where it was well below freezing, he had to have things well-prepared. Harry took a few seconds to rake the ashes to reveal the coals and the set some more wood in the stove.

Harry quickly ran up the cellar steps, noting the absence of any clothes other than his own. He grabbed his cloak but went on into the bathroom. His wand tapped the proper locales, and the bath started to fill with hot water. Harry knew it had an automatic stop, so he merely tapped the heating pipe to pull the hot air into the room. He then rushed out to the woodshed.

The cold air hit Harry. Harry then remembered it wasn't just chilly, but that it was about minus 10 C. He burst into the woodshed in a panic. Hermione, who had been laying on the freezing floor, crying, sat up and screamed in terror.

"Hermione!" Harry called. "It's me!" He quickly covered Hermione with his cloak and scooped her into his arms.

"Harry!" Hermione wailed. She grabbed a hold of Harry. "I was so afraid he'd sent me somewhere . . . horrible."

"No, we're safe in a mountain valley in North America."

"We're not in ancient Rome either?"

"No, now let me get you inside. You're shivering like mad."

As Harry took Hermione out the door, a hard sleet had started to fall. Harry carried Hermione into the house, and then ran out, despite Hermione's protests, to load up on firewood and coal. He knew it would become very icy very quickly, and didn't want to have to get wood or coal that afternoon or evening. In between trips, Harry stopped to reassure Hermione, who was crying again, huddled on the kitchen floor.

Hermione rarely cried, and whenever she did, it unnerved Harry almost as much as it used to Ron. After six trips, Harry guided Hermione to the bath room. "Please don't leave me again," Hermione asked. She sat on the steps going up to the tub, rocking back and forth and shivering under the cloak as Harry checked the water and checked to see if warm air was flowing into the room.

Harry quickly stripped, tapped the pipe to continue the hot air, and then pulled Hermione, whose skin was still very chilled, up to him. He carefully guided her into the hot water, which made her gasp. Harry settled back into the deepest portion of the large tub, and wrapped himself around Hermione's body. The tub was inclined there so Harry could lean back, and, with the water up to their chins, Hermione slowly started to warm up.

After more than five minutes, Hermione shivered again, but turned to Harry and kissed him passionately, deeply, thankfully.

Harry returned the kiss. Then Hermione shivered again, and it wasn't from passion.

Harry broke the kiss and stood up. "Stay here; I'll be right back."

Hermione watched Harry step out of the water and dry off with a look of fear on her face. He tapped some of the areas around faucets. Hermione felt some of the water drain out from behind her, while even hotter water came in from in front. Harry threw on his robe, and went out the door.

He was back some fifteen or twenty minutes later, with a robe and socks over one arm and a spoon and bottle in the other. "Casey must really be angry with you," Harry said. "I had a whole wardrobe before, but this is the only other indoor robe I have now, and you don't have anything. I only have six pairs of socks!" Harry took off his robe, and Hermione blushed as she realized where her eyes had again strayed.

"I built up the fire in the woodstove in the cellar -- you'll be nice and toasty there. I also started a fire in the fireplace in the parlor." Harry walked down into the pool, which to Hermione's discomposure put Harry's privates almost at eye level until Harry knelt down. "I'm glad he didn't remove this."

Hermione saw it was a bottle of pepper-up. She wrinkled her nose.

"It's not THAT bad, and you don't want to spend the next week sick, or worse, rely on my potion-making to make you feel better."

"That's true," Hermione agreed.

"You'll have to sit up."

Hermione grimaced and sat up straight, lifting her breasts above the water. Harry's eyes went large, but he said nothing, merely feeding Hermione the spoonful of medicine. Her face went red and steam came out of her ears, meaning it was working.

Harry sat the bottle against the wall, gathered Hermione back into a warm embrace. "Did you mean that kiss?"

"Yes; yes I did, Harry." Hermione's right hand grasped Harry gently, while her left pulled Harry's shoulder until he was close enough for another passionate kiss.

"What do we tell Ron?" Harry asked a few moments later.

After a few moments of thought, Hermione confirmed her decision, steeled herself, and asked. "What do you know about Ron and myself? As a couple, I mean."

"I know you've been dancing around each other since the Yule Ball," Harry answered. "I know Ron is still jealous about you and Viktor. I've never seen you hold hands or kiss, but I've always thought you might be in private, possibly as early as last summer, when you were spending time together at Grimmauld Place."

"Ron is very possessive, and even domineering," Hermione said slowly, her eyes averted. "The night after the Yule Ball, he and I both found ourselves back in the Common Room, alone. We argued very long and very brutally." Hermione tightened her hug around Harry. "In the end, Ron cast a silencing spell, pulled up my robe, pulled down my knickers, and spanked my arse so hard I could hardly sit down the next two days. Then . . . then he raped my mouth and throat. And not only didn't I report him, I came back for more the next night, and the night after that. He did it at least once every week the rest of the entire spring term. At Grimmauld Place, he started tying me up and sodomizing me. He's never deliberately helped me to an orgasm. He just loves to dominate me, and to hurt me. And I liked it, in general -- well, I went along with it, anyway -- but he's been getting too rough. But I can't go through life being just a sex toy for Ron Weasley, or anyone else for that matter! I would love to have that element in my sex life, but it would be better not to have a sex life than to just have that kind of abuse."

Harry was understandably angry. "I'll kill him . . . no, I won't, I'll bind him, shove a stick up his arse, and horsewhip him!"

"Harry, no!" Hermione pleaded. "I allowed this to happen. Help me break away from Ron, but don't hurt him."

"Why, Hermione? Why did you allow it? Why do you like it?"

"In part, because I did love him," Hermione said simply. "In part, because it's fun not to have to be in control all the time. In part because the light pain and being helpless turns me on; I don't know why. It may not be normal, but that seems to be the way I'm built. On the other hand, I've never had much physical affection before Ron; maybe that's part of it. Not that my parents are in any way abusive or neglectful, but neither are they very . . . physically affectionate." Hermione shrugged. "Or maybe that's just excuses, and I'm just built to enjoy it this way. It doesn't matter. Love me both ways, Harry. Help me understand myself."

"Do you . . . stimulate yourself while Ron is pleasuring himself?" Harry demanded.

Hermione shook her head. "No, he won't let me."

Harry took her chin in his thumb and forefinger. "I'll let you. Shall I show you how I've learned a woman can be pleased?"

Hermione thought about what she wanted. "Stand up first, and lean against the wall. When we're done, help me orgasm."

"Alright," Harry said. "What did you have in mind?"

Hermione knelt in front of Harry and placed his hands on the back of her head.

Over an hour later, Hermione sat on a sofa cushion near the woodstove in the cellar, wearing Harry's socks and robe. She was leaning back against Harry's legs, while Harry brushed her hair with the brush from his kit.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

"Does the fact that I liked it both ways make me . . . odd?" Hermione asked.

"I wasn't too rough?"

"No, that would have been Ron at his most gentle," Hermione said. "It felt . . . right."

"I wasn't . . . too large?"

"You're larger than Ron, but that just made it better. And what you did after . . . that was really wonderful."

"I never realized how . . . well, what kind of relation you and Ron had gotten yourselves into," Harry said.

"I think Cassiwallan saw it," Hermione said. "He made me see the difference between submission and abuse by threatening me with the latter. I wanted to be submissive with Ron, and we let it devolve into use and abuse, in part because it started off that way. I could have stopped it -- I SHOULD have stopped it -- and I didn't, Harry. It's partly my fault."

"Do you watch much Muggle television during the summers, Hermione?"

"No, not really, why?"

"Aunt Petunia always has it on, although it doesn't seem she actually listens to it. And I know, what's on the telly isn't the most accurate sort of information. But from what I gather, many abuse victims think they're at fault. So just remember, it may be partly your fault, but it's mostly Ron's. And we shouldn't let ourselves fall into the same trap."

"What do you suggest?"

"Tomorrow is technically Thursday, the First of January, 1948. Pick any two days of the week other than Thursday and Fridays, and, on those two days, if you want to, we can play those kind of games. We'll have to decide on some rules, and maybe pick a safe word for you. That's a word. . . ."

"I KNOW what it means, Harry. I just surprised you know."

"Well, people do tend to give Dudley a lot of books, and they just get dumped into his 'spare' room, which is where I sleep. Someone gave him a complete set of Anne Rice books, including some that she wrote under other names. . . ."

"Exit to Eden and the Sleeping Beauty books? Oh, I LOVE them!"

"Maybe you should have been dating Malfoy instead of Ron," Harry teased. "He's probably a natural."

"No, I think he'd carry the torture even further than Ron did. The worst Ron did was melted wax after the battle at the Ministry -- I was too injured for much more than that until just before we left, that's when the spankings restarted -- although he was really starting to bruise and burn too much. I think that would be were Malfoy would start. I don't want to be mutilated, Harry. And I don't like the humiliation Ron was handing out. It had stopped being a game to him, and he was enjoying things too much. When we get back, if we're together at all, I'll have to loan you my copies of The Story of O and The Image. You can see the main characters there going over the line and not finding their way back. I might like reading about extreme relationships, but I wouldn't want to undergo them."

Harry, remembering what Casey had said, steered clear of the topic of future relationships. "Uncle Vernon actually has them, along with lots of other dirty books, squirreled away in what he likes to call his 'workbench' in the cellar. He can't keep magazines there, because Dudley started pinching them over my first Christmas at Hogwarts, but Dudley doesn't bother the books."

Hermione realized she had partially strayed into the wrong territory. "Harry, can you help me stay free of Ron, without hurting him?"

"If you're serious. I wouldn't want to be part of some game to get him to punish you more."

Hermione turned around and knelt in front of Harry. "I promise you, I'm not. I hope I can stay Ron's friend, and that you and he will stay friends, too, but I can't go back to having a relationship with him. It would get too rough."

"In that case, I promise you I'll help." Harry stood. "Let's bank the fires and get some sleep. Tomorrow is the start of a new life for Hermione Granger."

Hermione took his hand. "Thank you, Harry. You will always be my best friend, no matter what."

Ron Weasley was busy de-gnoming the back garden at the Burrow. He was all alone and he was bored. Ginny was off with Harry on some adventure, and Hermione was apparently gone as well. There was little he could do about Ginny, but Ron was thinking about all the pleasant ways he could tease and torture Hermione for going away with Harry while leaving him behind. She had been injured too severely at the Department of Mysteries to discipline properly at the end of term, although the hot wax had been fun.

"I'm sure it was fun . . . for you," a menacing voice stated from behind Ron's back.

Ron swung around, realizing as he did so that he didn't have his wand.

"A wand would do you no good, Ron Weasley. My name is Cassiwallan. Does that mean anything to you?"

"No; should it?"

"If History of Magic were properly taught at Hogwarts, yes. Let me tell you what Harry and his friends are going through. And what I, and Harry, and learned from Miss Granger."

Ron went very pale.

"Then, I shall be telling your parents and Dumbledore. And then," Cassiwallan added, looking more menacing than anyone should ever look, "we'll start discussing what to do to you before Harry gets his hands on you."

"I'm not afraid of Harry!" Ron managed to protest.

"Considering Harry's powers, that is NOT wise. His first inclination was to magically bind you, shove a stick up your arse, and horsewhip you. But not to worry; you won't get off that easily."