Part Six: Equilibrium

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

A/N – This story is non-HBP or DH compliant and can therefore be considered AU. For the purpose of this story, Bill is neither engaged to Fleur nor is he part werewolf. He might have been dating the blonde for a short time, but she won't be getting a mention.

I would like to say a huge thanks to WriterMerrin for all of her help as my beta.

--

The New Year had passed in the blink of an eye, and though Hermione had attended the Ministry of Magic's annual celebration with Bill, they'd had barely enough time to spend together except for on weekends. Bill had been swamped under a mountain of work at Gringotts and spent a lot of time during the week travelling around Europe to the other branches of the bank, speaking to the other department heads and trying to gauge how close the branches were connected to one another.

Hermione had by far surpassed the expectations of the goblins with her find at the dig. The scrolls, texts and transcripts were worth a lot of money, and that she had managed to secure them had gained her an unbelievable amount of clout. She was filling in as Bill's acting department head while he was away, which simply made the rest of her coworkers even more jealous than they had been when she had returned from China so successful. She had known for a long time that everyone had been rooting for her failure and successive fall from grace.

Always one to disappoint the resentful, she did even better than she had expected, falling into her stride as their boss gracefully.

While she had not spent a lot of time with Bill, their relationship was blossoming at a perfect pace, with neither one feeling crowded nor neglected, although their forays into physical intimacy were moving at a maddening pace. He had not touched her any more intimately than rubbing his hand over her breast with their clothes on while kissing. Hermione had felt on more than one occasion his hard desire for her against her thigh, and more than anything, wished he would do more and take what he wanted.

The weekend before, she had planned to try and coax him to spend the night with her, but things had not gone as planned, and Bill had been called away to go to the Switzerland branch on emergency. This weekend, they had dinner plans on Saturday and were to have dinner at the Burrow on Sunday as they usually did. That reminded her immediately of how beside herself with joy Molly had been on hearing of their relationship. She'd had barely a moment of peace since.

As work came to an end for the day, Hermione packed up her things from Bill's office that she was temporarily using as her own and waited until the last of the other staff had left before locking up for the night. She Apparated from Diagon Alley, straight to the park near the Potters' house and walked up the hill and down their front path. The snow had already melted enough that they barely had to shovel it anymore, for which Hermione was extremely grateful. It was her least favourite part about winter. Knocking on the door, she was soon greeted by Ginny.

'You're looking well,' Hermione told her friend, looking pointedly at the slight swell of her stomach.

Ginny rubbed her tummy and the barely-there bump that was her unborn baby. 'He's only a little shrimp, but I already love him,' Ginny said, letting her friend inside. 'You know you could stop Apparating to that park and just go straight into our backyard. You're practically my family, and I'm sick of letting you in the house as if you're a guest.'

Hermione shrugged. 'My parents brought me up to always knock,' she said simply. 'Where is Harry?'

The younger woman sighed. 'Kingsley asked him to go to Romania for him on an errand just this afternoon, so he's not around. So it'll be just you, me and Luna tonight.'

'Oh, is Luna here?'

Ginny nodded as Hermione took off her coat and scarf and hung them in the cupboard. 'She's in the kitchen at the moment. Harry asked if she could come and stay with me for a couple of days while he's away. Draco was reluctant to part with her, but apparently he had to go with Harry as well in the end,' she answered with a chuckle. 'He worries far too much about me, and it's just gotten worse with this little man on the way.' She indicated her stomach.

'I understand where he's coming from though, Gin,' Hermione said as they entered the kitchen. 'He's been through a lot and lost too many people he's cared about, so the last thing he would need is for something bad to happen to you and your baby.'

'Hermione!' Luna exclaimed, rushing across the room to hug her tightly.

Laughing, Hermione returned the embrace. 'It's good to see you too, Luna,' she said as they parted.

'It's been too long since the last time I saw you.'

'Then I guess we'll have to find some time to catch up again sooner,' Hermione replied.

'It's not your fault that you've been so busy, love,' Ginny said, ushering the other two women into chairs at the kitchen table. 'You've had a lot of work to do, and with Bill being out of the country and you having to run that department with all of those other rotten employees, you've got enough to put up with.'

Hermione laughed. 'You're right, they are rather rotten,' she agreed.

'How is Bill, by the way?' Ginny asked. 'I don't doubt that he's been Floo-calling you every night to check in on you.'

'He's fine. He'll be getting back in the afternoon on Friday, and hopefully after that he won't have to travel quite so much and can go back to being the one in charge of the department,' she answered.

'Do the others still try and taunt you about him being your boss and your significant other?' Luna inquired.

'Oh, there will always be people trying to get a rise out of me over Bill, but I've really stopped caring about what they think,' Hermione said, waving it off as though it were nothing. 'People just hate it when someone appears to be happy with their lot in life.'

Ginny smiled. 'So, who's hungry?'

--

Friday approached entirely too slowly for Hermione's liking.

She worked tirelessly all morning on her book of observations to keep her mind focused rather than drifting towards Bill. At midday, she took a break to go and visit with Harry and Draco at the Ministry after they had arrived back from Romania. She had lunch with them for an hour, but her mind was somewhere else.

'Hermione, you look as though you have something on your mind,' Draco commented with a sly grin.

Harry, still a little slower on the uptake as he had been as long as she had known him, had no idea what Draco meant when he had noticed her lack of focus. 'She looks the same as she always does when she's thinking,' he said.

Hermione chuckled softly at Harry's natural reaction to defend her. 'It's alright, Harry, really,' she said. 'I am a little distracted today.'

'Does it have anything to do with the fact that Mr. Weasley will be returning from his trip?' the blond asked, trying to look innocent, which was disturbingly easy for him, considering who he was.

'Playing coy doesn't suit you, Draco,' she told him.

'Oh, is that what you're thinking about?' Harry said with a chuckle. 'You two must be doing really well then if you're concentrating on him rather than your salad.'

Hermione reached over and gave both men a flick between the eyes. 'Mind your own business,' she scolded lightly.

Giving up on eating her food, she managed to distract her two friends by asking them about their trip to Romania. Harry regaled her with the main details while Draco made snide little comments about the pointlessness of the whole thing. She laughed unlike she had in a long while, listening to the two men, who were once bitter nemeses in their teenage years, talk and joke and bounce comments back and forth between one another. Now the two were both Aurors and partnered one another most regularly on missions.

After the lunch hour was up, she bid her friends goodbye and weaved her way back through the busy crowds gathered in Diagon Alley that day and back to Gringotts. She was just entering the main office when she realized that the place was unusually quiet before realizing that nobody else was there. All of the desks had been packed up for the weekend, and the door to Bill's office, her temporary one, was open. Her heart leaped into her throat in excitement as she quickly made her way through the desks.

She walked through the door, expecting Bill to be at his desk, but the chair was empty. Before she had a moment more to wonder, she was grabbed around the middle, and the door was kicked closed behind her before the man in question pressed her against the wood and immediately kissed her. Knowing that it was inappropriate, but secretly thrilled, Hermione kissed him back with equaled passion, letting her frustrations from the week pour into their increasingly heated embrace.

'I missed you,' he breathed, kissing a trail down her neck and sucking gently on her pulse just above the edge of her robes.

'Oh!' she exclaimed as one of his hands left her waist and began to unfasten the clasp at the top of the robes. 'I missed you too.'

Flushed and breathing heavily, Bill pushed her robes from her shoulders, allowing them to pool on the ground behind her. He kissed her again, pressing his tongue into her mouth and fighting with hers for dominance. Without waiting to ask for permission, he tugged her blouse out of her skirt and pushed it up to allow his hand to slip beneath the fabric. Hermione couldn't stop the soft moan from emitting when his hand slid up the soft skin of her stomach and further to her breast.

His hand pushed the cup of her bra up and greedily began fondling her bare breast, playing with one aching nipple.

'Please,' she moaned, too aroused to think of what she meant by it.

'Please what, Hermione?' he murmured, flicking a thumb over her hardened nipple slowly, pinching it between his fingers gently.

'Please more,' she breathed.

'With pleasure,' he said, removing his hand and using both hands to unbutton her blouse.

Once those were undone, he released the clasp of her bra between her breasts, freeing them to his view, both nipples standing proudly and flushed a dark pink in her aroused state. He reverently cupped both breasts, weighing them in his palms, and began to rub and knead them gently. She moaned again, and he quickly bent her over his arm slightly and moved his head down to lap at a nipple with the tip of his tongue. Her shriek echoed through his office, and he smiled before sucking it into his mouth, switching between both breasts to lavish them with attention.

'You have such beautiful breasts, Hermione,' he murmured, kissing the cleft between them before lifting her up by her bum and walking them over to his desk. 'They are such a perfect size and so sensitive too.'

Depositing her to sit on his desk, he sat down in his chair in front of her and reached out to stroke from her neck, down between her breasts, and to the top edge of her skirt. He placed his hands on her knees, urging her to open her legs for him and bunching her skirt towards her hips as she did as requested without question. She was so aroused by this point that she was ready to do anything to ease the ache between her thighs.

'You're very wet,' he commented when he saw her midnight blue, lacy knickers.

'You're taking an awful long time to get to the point,' she said huskily, her eyes glazed over with lust.

'And what do you think that might be?' he asked, tracing a finger along the seam of her thigh where it met a lace edge.

'Dammit, Bill,' she exclaimed as his fingers almost touched her where she most wanted them to be. 'Stop teasing me...'

Pulling her forward so that her bottom was near the edge of the desk, he leaned forwards to exhale a warm breath over her wet knickers, making her squirm. She was going to burst from the anticipation. She closed her eyes, waiting for him to do more, and she as she was about to open them again, his lips touched her underpants and placed a gentle kiss over the spot where her clit was beneath them. Her moan was loud, and without wasting any more time, he yanked her knickers down and deposited them in a drawer in his desk before leaning back to admire what he had exposed.

Her curls were neatly trimmed into a triangle of hair just above her clit. Her labia were glistening and dark pink in colour from her arousal, and her core pulsed at the hungry look in his eyes. She shrieked when his tongue touched her clit gently before he sucked it between his lips and allowed his tongue and teeth to gently dance over it. She wanted to beg him to stop and keep going at the same time. He wet two of his fingers with the moisture seeping from her and slid them into her channel, finding her tight and warm. It wasn't too much longer before she was writhing uncontrollably under his mouth and she peaked, moaning as she pulsed around his fingers.

He removed them and lapped at her as she came down from her high before wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and looking up into her hooded eyes. 'Satisfied?' he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her sexily.

Hermione reached out and ran her hands through his long hair that had come unbound at some point during the last few minutes. 'Almost,' she replied with a smirk.

She slid off the desk and onto his lap, straddling him and rubbing her groin against his hard length that was still trapped beneath his clothing. He groaned loudly, his eyes closing as he enjoyed the friction of her moving on his lap. Hermione leaned in and kissed him, tasting her essence on his tongue. She had never much enjoyed kissing a man after he had pleasured her with his mouth, but in Bill's mouth, she found that she did not mind so much. She let her hand trail down to his shirt and unbuttoned it, pulling it out of his trousers and pushing it apart to gaze at his toned chest, lightly dusted with just the right amount of chest hair.

She shifted back on his lap slightly, and his hands cupped her bottom, squeezing the cheeks playfully. She grinned and let her hands slide over his pectorals, down his hard stomach, to the button of his fly. Releasing it, she continued with unzipping his pants and slid her hands within to encounter his hard length encased by his briefs that were stretched tight over his erection. Shifting up so that she could tug his pants down a little, she pulled his underwear along with them, releasing his aching cock from the restraints.

Immediately, she wrapped her hand around his girth and stroked upwards, causing him to moan loudly. 'Oh gods, Hermione,' he muttered, his eyes closing and head rolling back just a little.

Pleased by his response, she slid out of the chair and onto the ground before him, leaning in and sucking the tip of his cock into her mouth. With some more practice, she was sure that she would be able to complete her task better, but contented herself with sucking on his length and teasing the slit at the tip with her tongue while fondling his balls with one hand as her other gripped the base. After a few minutes, Bill pushed her off him and pulled her to stand up, encouraging her to sit back on the desk.

'I want you,' he told her, his voice a little hoarse with desire.

She smiled coyly and opened her legs, her core already wet with want again and her fingers over her clit and between her labia to tease him. 'But sir, your desk is hardly the place for that!' she exclaimed.

'Then, I shall take us to a more appropriate location,' he growled, summoning all of their discarded clothing to him and locking the office for the night.

Wrapping his arms around her, he Apparated the two of them straight to his bedroom. He spelled all of their clothes from their persons and placed Hermione on her back in the middle of his large bed. Joining her, he kneeled between her legs, immediately pressing his hardness to her warm wetness and teased her clit with the tip. Hermione frowned and reached out to pull him into her, and he obliged, sliding his length into her tight canal with one stroke.

'You're so warm, love,' he ground out through his clenched teeth as he stilled inside her for a moment.

'I've been waiting too long for this,' she said softly, gazing up at him fondly. 'Please, keep going, Bill.'

He withdrew slightly and pressed back into her before establishing a regular rhythm, thrusting both hard and fast into her warm, welcoming heat. It wasn't long before she was moaning and writhing beneath him, her climax approaching fast. When her muscles clenched around him, he lost all semblance of control and picked up his pace yet again, coming with a shout and a jerk. He allowed his length to be milked by her still quivering and clenching vaginal muscles before slumping down and rolling to the side of her as they disjoined.

Kissing her forehead, Bill pulled the covers over them, and they both succumbed to slumber.

--

A month later, Hermione was sitting at her desk in her new office, completing the last of her notes for her book.

Everything was all coming together rather quickly, and she was very excited about it. The goblins had decided, as she had displayed the signs that she was perfectly capable of running her own department, that they would give her an office and team of her own and promote her to the Head of Archaeological and Runic Studies, a new division created especially for her. No longer working under Bill made all of her worries fade, and their relationship was better than ever before.

It also helped that they were regularly spending the night in either one of their beds, and Hermione had found that she rather liked the feeling of falling asleep in his arms. In fact, on the few nights that she hadn't slept with him when he had gone away for the day, she had some trouble getting to sleep. And although there had yet to be any open declarations of love between them, she didn't mind so much. She already could tell by the way that he treated her that she meant more to him than any other.

Her translations of the Chinese texts were steady, and she split her time between that and the work on her book. That afternoon, she was preparing to leave a little early and let her employees have some time off early. She and Bill had planned a little weekend escape over the last few weeks, and that afternoon they had to leave to secure their booking at the villa they would be staying at just on the coast of Italy.

At four o'clock exactly, she collected her things together and tidied her office before sticking her head into the other office and telling everyone to get packed up for the day. By the time she was ready to leave, the only one left in the office was Adam Gardner, her young friend from the China expedition. He had been recruited by Gringotts after he had completed his apprenticeship and assigned to her team.

'Hurry along, Adam,' she told him as she locked and warded her office. 'I've got somewhere to be in ten minutes, and I won't have you dawdling.'

'Sorry, Hermione,' he said apologetically as he shoved a book into his backpack. 'Got a hot date, I take it?'

Hermione laughed softly. 'Something like that,' she answered.

Adam smiled and waved as he left the office, and she finished locking up for the day before walking into the hall. No sooner than she had stepped onto Diagon Alley, that she felt a pair of familiar arms wrap around her.

'Hello, beautiful,' Bill murmured into her ear. 'Are you ready to leave?'

Hermione spun in his arms and kissed him in greeting. 'Very,' she answered. 'The question is, are you ready?'

He chuckled at her cheeky response and pulled her to him tightly. 'Always ready for you, my love,' he answered huskily.

Hermione smirked when she felt his hard length pressing against her thigh. The man was insatiable. The two of them walked to the Apparation point together and left for the southern coast of Italy. On arrival, they checked in at their villa and immediately fell into bed with one another, their moans reverberating off of the walls.

In the aftermath they curled into one another and slept.

--

On Sunday afternoon when their weekend away was drawing to a close, Bill and Hermione packed up their belongings and went for one last walk along the beach.

Bill had already told her that they would have to go back for another holiday again soon. Holding hands, they walked from the villa and back up to the hill where the Apparation point was located. They Apparated together and were soon standing inside the front hall of Hermione's house. After giving her a kiss goodbye and telling her he would see her the next day at lunch, Bill left for the evening, most likely to join his parents and brothers for dinner at the Burrow. Hermione had decided not to go that week and had every intention of spending the night at home alone.

However, the moment she went upstairs and into her study to check on her mail, she saw that a letter from Ginny was resting on the top of the pile. She cracked the seal and flicked it open, reading through it quickly. Harry and she wouldn't be at the Burrow and had invited her to have dinner with them. She had no doubt that the redhead simply wanted to know all about her weekend away with her brother. Smiling, she quickly jotted down an affirmative reply and sent it off with Delia. After depositing her bag in her bedroom, she went to take a quick shower and dressed in jeans and a sweater. Checking around the house with a spell to ensure that it was still locked and warded securely, Hermione went downstairs to the front entry by the door.

She Apparated into the Potters' back yard.

--

The end.