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Chapter Text

With a strange sense of pride, I tore my knickers out from under my skirt and down my legs, transfigured the scrap of red cotton into a large rectangle, and tied it to the top end of my walking stick. I stabbed the bottom end into the sand at the edge of the beach, and I looked over the ocean that abutted what I could only hope would be my temporary home. I smiled triumphantly, because I’d just accomplished something amazing.

Unfortunately, the feeling didn’t last long.

In the distance, across the ocean in the southern sky, black clouds threatened rain. They'd been there all day, but had been growing larger the past couple hours. They lit up with branching lightning, something they hadn't done yet, and I knew we were going to be in for a long night. We had perhaps an hour, maybe two, before the three of us would be fighting an extra element. And by us I meant me, Theodore Nott, and Draco Malfoy, though I had no clue where those two useless arseholes were.

Earlier in the day, the three of us had been traversing the terrain of an unrecognizable island we’d been banished to. The heat had been stifling, even in the early morning, and it felt as though the sweat under my tits didn’t dry until I’d made my makeshift flag. Perhaps rain wouldn’t be such a terrible change. It would be bad, however, if the men were still on the mountain when the clouds finally opened, because, if they weren't bunkered down before it hit, it would make hiking the rocky landscape exceedingly dangerous.

It was even more worrying, considering I’d learned that very day that neither man knew how to do anything the Muggle way. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that they had their poor house elves wipe their arses. And both were absolute rubbish at wandless magic, which had me thinking not-so-nice things about them. Like how laughable it was that they had ever found themselves superior to me. In any way. All day I’d tended to their needs and whines, simply because it was the right thing to do since I was able to perform quite a large number of spells without the need for my wand. Sure, I was a little advanced for my age, but that hadn’t allowed much room in my heart for sympathy. Still, I’d cared for their basic needs like water and food, and did my best to heal the little scratches Theo had gotten on his face from a particularly hateful bush we’d hiked through.

Their helplessness had been horrifying. And they hadn’t so much as offered a single thank you in return. I soon found it didn’t matter to me if I secretly wished we’d get separated somehow so that I wouldn’t have to be the sole reason for their survival. Every time I thought about this I'd pushed it away, and reminded myself that I would appreciate the same help if the tables were turned. So I’d taken all of their shite in stride, with as much grace as a savage such as myself could muster.

That is, until Malfoy had to go and open his stupid mouth.

He’d said, with that infuriating smirk of his, “Do all Muggleborns like to play in the mud, or is it just you?”

Yeah. It was a little too close to something else he used to say to me, right?

I may have overreacted, but his comment, added to the fact that I’d just slipped and fell painfully on my arse on a rocky riverbank, and that I’d listened to them whine like newborn babes about everything all day, had made me snap. I’d screamed every foul thing I could think about them, which had been quite a lot, and then stormed off, leaving them staring after me with looks of surprise and fear, and what looked to be hurt.

At that moment I had ceased to care if Id hurt their feelings. I hadn't even cared if they lived or died. But now, with a mountain of dark clouds large enough to cut off half of the beautiful sunset to the west coming straight at us, I became worried about them again. Just enough to want to search for them.

I groaned loudly and drooped my once-determined shoulders, because I felt as if I’d just dropped Harry and Ron off at Auror training as grown, kind-of-capable men, then went back to school for “8th” year so that I could adopt two new useless pricks to follow me about. Which was awfully disappointing.

The war was won. The Battle had seen to it all of us faced more tragic loss than we’d needed to be exposed to. Hogwarts was repaired and classes were back in session, Kings was Minister for Magic, more than three-fourths of the known Death Eaters were dead or incarcerated, and the world was at peace. Everything was better now.

So why was I still dealing with raising other women’s dusty-ass sons? There were obviously some mental patterns I needed to work on, otherwise I wouldn’t still be attracting boys.

The clouds lit up once more, brighter and more glorious than the last, and I groaned, “Shite.”

I made sure my flag was secure, even though I knew it wasn’t likely it would make it through the storm, and turned back to my hut. I took the three steps up to the leaf-flap I used as a door, absently inspecting it because it probably wouldn’t make it through a storm either, and made sure to put a stasis charm on the fire so that it wouldn't go out, and my house wouldn’t burn down while I was gone. Then I grabbed a spare walking stick I’d left in the burn pile, and headed back out my door in search of the Slytherins, as well as any edible fruits and berries I could find along the way for dinner.

The island was large. It had a good-sized mountain, rolling hills, tall, thick trees of varying species forming a rainforest. It teamed with life, and was absolutely breathtaking. But I knew there was very little chance of me finding the men before the rain started up. That still hadn’t kept me from sending sparks into the sky above the canopy of trees, and calling their names as loudly as I could. After thirty minutes, I’d sent flares flying some twenty times, yelled until my throat began to complain, and had filled part of my shirt with a coconut and some berries. The juices were staining the white of my already dirty shirt. I didn’t dare do this with my skirt, though, considering my unders now served as a signal for any passing seafarers.

It had been a long day, and even though I knew I’d be worried about the mens’ safety all night, I cut my search after forty minutes and turned to go back to my new home. The wind was already picking up, a telling sign that the storm was definitely close now. I had things I had to do to my house before it closed in. I wanted to gather more of the giant leaves I’d used for my roof to make a bed of some kind. I was curious as to what Transfiguration spells I could use to make a comfortable mattress and comforter, but I figured I had time with the storm likely forcing me to stay holed up in my shack until it was over. There was no homework I could work on, no books for me to read. I was a night owl as it was, so I knew I’d be spending all evening perfecting my hut and figuring out how to open my coconut without ruining it.

The wind blew past my ears, blowing my increasingly knotted hair back over my shoulders, and I swear I heard words on the breeze. I froze, my mouth stilling mid-chew as I let my ears adjust, identifying the many sounds around me as they came, and I waited. The wind blew again. Fifteen seconds, twenty seconds, and nothing else. I lifted my hand once more, palm up, and I sent more red sparks into the sky, then I kept walking.

“And if you don’t love me now, you will never love me again. I can still hear you sayin’ you would never break the chain,” I sang.

It was my mum's favorite song.

I sighed into the breeze as I thought of her. We’d just reunited before Christmas. I’m sure my parents were going to be worried sick once they found out I was missing. We’d all thought the danger was over, but I figured it was naive of me to think that I’d be out of danger now that Voldemort was gone. Life as a Muggle was dangerous enough. Life as a witch who couldn’t seem to shake life-threatening situations was bound to be an adventure no matter which way you cut it.

Finally breaking through the treeline to the strip of beach I'd decided to build my hut, I witnessed my knicker-flag whip about, and the stick tip over precariously in the sand. I sighed as I walked over to throw my secondary walking stick in through the flap of the door to free up a hand, only to jump a meter into the air as I heard someone scream. I tore into the shack, throwing the leaf-flap back roughly to find the Slytherins sitting on the floor near the fire. They looked up at me with some shock as I entered, and Draco rubbed the side of his face where he'd been hit by my walking stick.

Serves him right.

“Oh. Good,” I said. “You're not dead.”

I moved from the door to the table to my left, which wasn't really a table, but a meter-long log I'd spelled to have two flat edges: one side for the floor and one as a table top/bench. I set my food there before turning to head back out to the beach, feeling relieved I no longer had to worry about having to face McGonagall and admit that I'd left them to die during an emergency situation. Part of me felt like she wouldn't mind, but the larger part of me knew better than to risk it.

With my eyes to the sky, I walked toward the water’s edge, setting my hand below the bottom tie of my flag just as I felt the first drop of rain hit my cheek. With a quick tug, I pulled my flag out of the sand and walked back to the hut.

Once inside, I did my best to not pay them any particular attention, getting to work on the coconut because it had been some time since I’d consumed water. There was a spring up the mountain some ways that I’d already made a plan to visit in the morning, for there were a few coconut trees that were closer to my camp that would sustain me for weeks if I was careful.

I hoped we wouldn’t be here that long.

After five or so minutes of silence I managed to open the coconut without making it explode. I took a good drink out of it before standing to pass it to the men. Theo took it, for Draco’s gray eyes were glued to the fire, and the raven-haired man eventually asked, “Did you find this place?”

I shook my head, saying, “No. I built it.”

“Today?” Draco asked, looking up at me finally. “This afternoon?!”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling suddenly sheepish at how impressed he looked. “It took a lot of Sticking Charms. And Slicing Hexes.”

I looked about the yurt-like structure, with its hole above the centered fire pit and a single window that faced the east, its leaf-curtain dancing more and more dramatically as the wind grew stronger. I took the five steps necessary to set my hand on the corners of the window and cast more sticking spells to keep the wind and rain from blowing all the warm air out of the room.

Turning back to them, I noted Draco was drinking from the coconut now, and I said, “I’m going to work on a bed next. Or, beds, rather. Since you two made it to Casa de ‘Mione.”

“Thanks…” Theo began quietly. My eyebrows lifted, for this was the first form of gratitude I’d received from either of them all day. “For the flares.”

I nodded. “Once I realized it was going to rain, I figured I should find you guys.” I settled on the other side of the fire from them, grabbing a large leaf and running through my mental list of spells to consider for my next project.

As if on cue, thunder clapped, and it was deep and low, and was definitely far off considering how long it lasted. We still had some time before we were in the thick of it.

“Either of you feel up to gathering more food before we're stuck in here for God knows how long?” I asked them. “That meager pile over there won't do anything for either of you.”

They both turned to look at my pile of berries, then to each other. I turned my eyes back down to my leaf, deciding they could make up their own minds about it. They knew how I felt about their unwillingness to help me. I'd mentioned it earlier in my screamed rant by the river.

This was a test. Yes.

And they passed.

Together, the two stood and walked out the leaf-door without a word. And thank God, too, because the second I heard their footsteps fade I stood and ran for my flag, reversing the magic and pulling my knickers back up my legs. Luckily, the two men had been too busy avoiding my judgmental gaze to have looked up my skirt.

Chapter Text

While the two men were gone, which ended up being about twenty minutes, I managed to turn a stack of four large leaves into a futon roll. It was still green, and had a strange texture, like that of a leaf. But it was soft? Oh, well. I tried not to look the gift horse in the mouth, and I went out into the darkness and pelting rain, running down the beach to the tree I promised earlier I would replenish with a potion once we were saved.

First, I squatted behind it, going pee since I knew I'd be locked in the hut for a while, then I got to work plucking a few more leaves. At one point I was forced to cast a Slicing Hex to reach some that were higher up, and I laid them all in a pile before grabbing the stems in one hand and began running them back to the hut.

The Slytherins were waiting for me when I returned, heads sticking out the door to watch me close the distance. They helped me get the leaves in, and Theo stood against the leaf-door as the wind tried to rip it down. I dropped my entire stack, save for one, and turned it into something like a blanket. For a faerie.

“Finite,” I said to the leaf-door, and it hit the floor and was blown into Theo's legs. He gathered it up as I quickly closed the doorway with the blanket, casting multiple spells to stick it to the jam, blocking out most of the wind and rain.

I stepped back, clapped the dust and sand from my hands, and said, “There. That should keep us warm and dry. Now. What did you two find?”

They motioned to my table/bench and my eyes grew semi-wide before I caught myself. They'd managed to grab quite a few food items, as well as different herbs. I now knew their scores in potions were definitely earned. I'd kind of known as much beforehand, but this let me know they could pay attention, for all of the herbs had magical properties.

So they weren't useless. They just lacked direction.

I could work with that.

I stepped closer to inspect the pile, and decided that we would make it through to tomorrow afternoon before we would have to brave the world outside and find more. Though I hoped, prayed, wished, that I'd fall asleep on my mat and be woken up in the middle of the night by a group of Aurors and Professor McGonagall. Being saved sounded like a dream after the day I'd had.

“You- found quite a bit of different stuff. Is that mint?” I smelled it. It was, indeed, mint. “Such a hardy little plant. Ok.” I turned on them, finding them sitting by the fire again, and said, “You two portion this into three, and I'm going to make a couple more beds. Unless you two want to share one?”

I'd said this last bit as a joke, only for the men to shrug.

“Yeah. Sure. We don't mind cuddling,” Theo said casually, as if he were being serious…

No. He was being serious. They looked unbothered at the idea, and at first I had no words, just opening and closing my mouth like some dumb fish, before finally closing it and nodding.

Their dynamic was none of my business. Unless they decided to do more than cuddle on the bed next to mine.

My face flushed despite itself, and I kept my eyes on my pile of leaves, kneeling with my profile to the men so that they would hopefully miss my blush in the low fire-light.

Eventually, I managed to make a larger mat for the Slytherins, and I pulled it along the floor to the back wall, and positioned it not too near my own. The space in the room only allowed for so much. I nodded my pleasure at how inviting the beds looked before sitting on my mat and beginning to fashion some blankets. I made five of them, two for sheets and three for blankets because I wasn't sure if my mind was making more out of Theo's easy answer. They could literally just be friends who were comfortable with each other.

It was just strange, because Harry and Ron would never share a bed. Not at least without a little fighting. These two Slytherins were very blase about the whole thing.

Anyway, I made us some blankets, because even though it was only probably seven in the evening, we were in for the night. I wasn't ready to sleep, but I wasn't sure what else I was going to do. It wasn't as if I'd ever had a pleasant conversation with either of them before. We'd been back at school for six months, taking the same classes, and even though we weren't awful to each other anymore, and we managed to work together whenever we were assigned to, I didnt know shite about them. And part of me kind of wanted to keep it that way.

Just because I didn't want them to die doesn't mean I wanted to hear their life stories.

But everything was awkward in here. None of us had mentioned our earlier “row”, but it was still an elephant-sized issue we were skirting around. I wasn't going to apologize for what I said, because it'd been true to the best of my vast knowledge. And even though I would have accepted a verbal apology from them, I would take actions over words any day. Their willingness to help find food was a step in the right direction. Now if they could just keep taking those steps, we'd be sitting pretty. Perhaps put those potion skills to work and start brewing some healing droughts. Something, anything, to pass the time while we awaited rescue.

I spent some time trapped in my head, thinking about our situation and what needed to be done for our survival, when it was Draco who eventually asked the real question:

“Do you have any ideas as to who made that cauldron a Portkey?”

I had been thinking about this, and the answers to many other related questions, all damn day. But I'd known there was no point in speculating. We had no evidence, and all suspects were anywhere but this island. At least that we knew of. We'd found no other signs of life aside from animals here. No man-made trails, no structures. No signs of fire pits or camp sites. For all we knew, we were alone on an island, in the middle of an ocean we knew not the name of. The thought was terrifying, yes, but I'd been through worse. This was almost like a camping holiday, rather than the petrifying survival camping I'd survived last year.

I eased at this thought, because it was true. There was no Voldemort. No Snatchers to listen out for in the night. We wouldn't even need a look-out. We could all get some rest tonight knowing my wards would keep us safe from any of the animals that tried to get near.

I was safe. We were fine. Things really weren't that bad. Though the only thing that could have made this better was if I'd been sent here alone. Just a little vacay, me and myself and this beautiful island.

Instead, I was stuck with Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who only cooperated with Alice when it benefited them. Kind of.

Theo didn't answer Draco’s quiet question, which had hardly reached me over the crackling of the fire. I ended up shrugging, saying, “I don't have sufficient evidence to even begin guessing. This was either a fluke, or it was staged intentionally. Those are the two options. But I have to admit that it's strange that our wands got left behind despite them being on our persons before we left. That's the only reason I'm leaving this open to being a nefarious scheme.”

“That was my thought, too,” Draco said, leaning back on his palms. “We got lucky with you tagging along.” I raised a brow at this. “If it had been three Pureblood witches or wizards here, instead of us with you, we wouldn't’ve made it through today.”

I felt shocked at such an open and easily given compliment. My face clearly read so, too, because they both stared at me sheepishly as I gawked at them. I was back to being a fish again, unable to think of an acceptable combination of words. Did I thank him for his candor? Did I tell him, “Well, duh, arsehat.”, and then ignore him the rest of the night? I couldn't do anything but nod at him in acknowledgment, then turn my eyes to my blanket, fiddling with a soft, green corner.

It went silent again for a while, which I was fine with. I wasn't sure how to look at either of them right now. Were they buggering each other on the DL? Was that little speech Draco’s version of an apology? Had I perhaps been a little mean when I'd called him a “Whingey, inbred, ferret-faced, shit-for-brains dumbfuck who would have done more with his life as a panty stain”?

Perhaps…

In the end, I remained quiet and contemplative while the two Slytherins struck up a conversation. I made three small pillows, which ended up being stiff? And the men mentioned how odd it was that our cauldron portkey had disintegrated when we'd arrived, and how neither had ever heard of a portkey doing so before. Then it went to how they were sure Blaise was lost without them. That, or he was using this opportunity to snag a few witches in their house while these two were stuck here.

With me.

A total bitch.

Not their words…

Oh, well. As they'd been so kind as to admit, if they'd been stuck here with anyone but this “bitch”, they'd be seagull chow, and I decided it didn't matter much. Besides, being humbled was part of being an entitled arsehole. I'd been humbled a few times. It happens to the best of us. Draco Malfoy and Theo Nott could do with some more humbling. The L they took in the war hadn't been enough, apparently.

I decided to lie down. It had been a very long day. I'd done more today, physically, than I'd done since I was on the run. I was exhausted, which I became more and more aware of as I relaxed into my bed.

My last thoughts were how calming the two mens’ voices were when they weren't whining and bitching. The tones were deep and melodic, and I fell asleep to the sound of Theo telling a story and Draco trying to laugh quietly.

When I woke, it was with a hand on my shoulder. It startled me, and I sat up, reaching for my wand, which was nowhere, and I looked up into two sets of pale eyes; one green, and one gray.

“Hey. Hey. It's just us,” Theo said softly, yet urgently. “You're safe. You're having a nightmare. And-” His hand went to my forehead, which was slick with sweat. “And I think you may have a fever.”

Draco’s hand reached out, and he set the back of his hand to my neck, just below my ear, then moved it up to my temple, swearing.

“Shit,” the blonde said. “She's definitely got a fever.”

“Fuck…” Theo swore, throwing his covers off his feet and standing.

My vision wasn’t completely clear, but as they stood, the two men did so to dress. They wore only their boxer-briefs. They pulled on their slacks and shirts, and then grabbed their shoes, speaking to one another in low voices that I couldn’t decipher.

Delirious, I lay back onto my mat, and I asked in an oddly weak voice, “Wh-where are you going?” The wind outside still howled, and the rain was beating against the hut that I was grateful was still standing. But it may have made it hard for them to hear me warn, “Don't go out there. You could get widowmakered.”

I was referring, of course, to the branches that always fell in storms like this. Plus, there were a hundred other horrible accidents that could befall them out there. It was unsafe. They shouldn't be going. But they did. They pulled their blankets over their heads and they practically ran out the door, leaving me alone and confused.

Why would they leave?

What the hell?

I didn't have the strength to ask, let alone chase after them. I closed my eyes, and was asleep again within seconds.

Chapter Text

I had the looniest fever dream ever.

I was on the starship Enterprise, NCC-1701. My Trekkie dad used to watch the series’, and as a girl who’d wanted to connect with her father, I would join him. It was one of my fondest pastimes with him, before the world tried to implode. Now my daddy issues were seeping into my subconscious while I tried to deal with the emotions of my first day on the island.

In the dream I had on a skimpy Uhura costume, my matching red underwear sitting on the armrest of my swivel chair. I was telling Captain Kirk that the Borg Queen was hailing us. Except Kirk wasn't Shatner. He was Draco. And Spock wasn't Nimoy, but instead Theo, who looked weird with blue eyeshadow on. His ears were also disappointingly un-pointy.

I awoke when Captain Malfoy told me to accept the hail and Borg Queen McGonagall appeared on the screen before us, telling us we'd better get our arses back to the Cube or we'd be expelled.

I screamed myself awake, naturally, because expulsion was about the most terrifying thing I could imagine would happen to me anymore. Small miracles, yeah? But being expelled for something that wasn't even my fault!? When I'd done plenty of things intentionally to deserve it in the past? Talk about a buzzkill. I shot straight up in bed in fear.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa there, Granger,” Theo said, setting his hand on my shoulder to lay me back on my pillow once more. “You've got a high fever. I'm going to need you to drink some coconut water, but you need to sit up slowly. You've been really dizzy.”

I blinked at him. “I have?”

He nodded. “Yeah. You woke up an hour ago and almost did a header into the fire pit.”

I grimaced. “Bloody hell. Really?” I didn't remember that.

“Yes,” Draco said. “Talking something about how “we need to head back to school, because Mcgonagall is going to expel us”.” His voice came from behind Theo. I titled my head, which did more of a falling to the side than a tilt, and noticed that both Slytherins were drenched from rain. Their hair of two opposite colors was slicked down to their heads, and rivulets of water ran down Theo’s neck. There was an increasingly growing puddle on the floor below him.

How long had they been out in the storm? Why did it feel like I’d just woken from my Borg dream just now instead of an hour ago? And if they'd been here an hour ago, why were they still wet? I had questions, but my mouth wasn't really working.

“Here. Want me to help you?” Theo asked, presenting a coconut that wasn't the one I'd opened earlier. I eyed it, because I wanted to know how he'd opened it, but I was still too weak to speak. And, since that was the case, Theo sighed lightly, concern stitching his dark brows before setting his hand behind my neck and bracing his elbow on his knee to lift my head. He set the coconut to my lips best he could, and even though it spilled over and ran down my chin and neck, I was grateful for it. I knew my body would need it to get well, and I laughed, mostly mentally due to muscle weakness, at how the tables had turned so quickly.

The universe, always here to humble me.

“I think we did it right, T,” Draco said to the man above me as he helped set my head back down. Theo looked over his shoulder, and set the coconut down near my head to go to the blonde by the fire.

“Let me see,” Theo said. I watched him go to one knee behind his mate, looking over his shoulder as the other man… stirred something in a large bowl?

Where the hell had they gotten that? I couldn't tell what it was made of from my vantage point, but it was obvious that the men had fashioned it themselves. It was primitive at best, but they seemed to be brewing a potion in it. And if Theo's smile was anything to go on, they had brewed it successfully.

“Good deal, mate. Well done,” Theo praised Draco, who smiled in return.

I watched them, despite my fatigue, because it was so strange to see them be so kind, even to each other.

These days, the Slytherins in higher years were very reclusive. They spoke mostly only to each other, unless they had to do so with others in class. They didn't pick on anyone, or use slurs, or start fights in the halls. They kept their eyes down, and went about their business. So, before tonight, I hadn't seen much of this positive support between the men. Their smiles were foreign, genuine things, with joy and teeth, and Theo sported a single dimple in his left cheek.

The raven-haired man patted Draco on the shoulder, then asked, “How long does she have to wait to take it?”

“It has to be completely cool. Room temperature or lower,” Draco answered. Theo nodded, then looked to me through the fire. He was checking if I was asleep, so I raised my fingers as high as I could to signal I was still with them, the motion much more dramatic than the paralysis I'd been experiencing moments ago had allowed.

“D brewed you something for your fever,” Theo told me, and I cannot express the gratitude I felt. I had become a pile of shit that had been flattened by the Knight Bus. “It'll be ready in an hour or so.”

“You should try and sleep until then,” Draco suggested. I nodded weakly and took his advice.

Sleep came quickly, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, there were hands all over me, and I could feel my skin grow cold as the blanket fell to my hips as one of the wizards sat me up, my head on his sternum. It grew ever cooler as a cool bit of cloth, which I hadn't even been aware of, fell from my forehead to my lap. The man at my back propped me against him as best he could, using a light touch to hold my head in place as the other wizard set one hand to my chin to help my mouth open. Then they poured the potion down my throat.

I almost gagged at the strong taste, but held it down, and within seconds I could feel myself grow stronger, and my temperature dropped significantly. I sighed in relief and let myself lay back into the arms of whoever the hell was behind me.

I finally opened my eyes as I felt the sweat on my forehead begin to cool, and I was met with the green eyes of Theo, who still had his hand on my chin.

“There she is,” Theo said to Draco, who was obviously the one holding me up in my sitting position. He tightened his hold some, his hands under my arms, and pulled me up even farther to where my head rested back on his shoulder. Somehow he smelled clean, like rain, and sweaty. “You're going to need to finish this, alright, Granger? And it's very important that you take all of it.”

“K,” I said. He smiled at my simple answer, then grew serious as he signaled for me to open my mouth on my own this time. I did so, and I finished the strong, thick substance in one go.

Again, it took but a few seconds for me to feel better, and that was when I saw the little stone cup I was drinking the potion from.

I blinked up at Theo, asking, “Where'd you get that cup? And the- the bowl?” I pointed at the fire.

“She tries dying on us,” Draco’s voice rumbled through his chest and into my back, “and when she regains consciousness all she can do is ask questions.” He sounded amused.

“That tracks, honestly,” Theo said. “I think she’s on the up and up.”

I sat forward as I felt the invisible weights in my limbs and body leave me as the fever aches did. I felt so much better it was unreal. I turned a bit, looking back at Draco, who'd put his hands on the floor as I'd risen, and then to Theo, who still knelt at our sides.

I hadn't thought about it much when the symptoms were on me, but I suddenly realized how bad of a spot I could have been in had I been trapped on this island with anyone but Draco Malfoy.

Those tables man. They loved to flip on a motherfucker. Especially once said motherfucker thought they had it all figured out. It made the lesson more salient, or something.

“I- You- Was it- I-” I was struggling with my words. There were many things I wanted to ask, yes, but I decided I'd start with, “Thank you. For healing me.”

They both nodded, and Theo maintained his small, pleasant smirk. Then they both said, “Anytime, Granger.”

A strange feeling struck me, though I couldn't tell you what it was. All I knew was that it would be best if they got off of my bed now.

“Is- can I get that coconut from earlier?” I asked them, and Draco nodded before he dislodged his long legs from around me and stood to go back to the table.

“May I?” Theo asked me, holding his hand out, the back of it to me, signaling he wanted to check my temperature again.

“Sure,” I said quietly.

I don't know what was happening, but the thought of him touching me made me nervous. I would have thought I'd be disgusted at being aware of either- any- Slytherin touching me.

What the hell? Had there been something in the potion that- No. They wouldn’t do that. If they’d wanted to hurt me, they would have done so while I was unconscious, instead of staying up all night to help me.

When Theo’s hand touched my chilled skin, I inhaled deeply, which was a mistake. He also smelled nice. Like fresh rainwater and masculine musk. And I liked his thick, black eyebrows. They made him look a little rugged, despite looking aristocratic otherwise. They really complimented his face.

Whoa. What?

Suddenly I asked him, “Are you sure I didn't fall into the fire head first?”

Those brows drew close together once more, and he shook his head, saying, “No. Why?”

“No reason,” I said, and made sure I kept my eyes on anything but their eyes while they continued to care for me. Draco brought me the coconut, and Theo offered me some food, which I declined. I needed a moment before I could put anything else in my stomach.

They waited for me to drink from the coconut before Draco said, “You overdid it today.”

I nodded, then cast a spell to check the time. A glowing analog clock appeared before us, showing that it was five in the morning, wherever we were, and I said in return, “It seems you both did the same.” Neither man made any sign that they cared about the time. “I hope you brewed plenty of that potion.”

“There’s quite a bit left. But nowhere to store it,” Draco said. I nodded my understanding, and even though I doubt he was asking, I conjured ten vials with cork stoppers individually, moving from my bed to set them on the floor beside the fire, and I observed the make-shift cauldron they had made.

“How did you make this?” I asked. It was crude, sure, but it was doing the job. We could wash it, and I could Conjure some traps to catch a bird or some fish, and I could make stew with the herbs they’d found. My stomach growled at the thought.

“You-” Theo began, then sighed. He said, “You kind of inspired us to try our wandless magic out.”

I tilted my head at them, intrigued. “Is that right?” I asked.

They nodded, and Draco added, “It didn’t go well. Actually, it was quite dangerous. I can cast a Confringo pretty well now, though. Blew part of an igneous cliff face off onto the sand about a kilometer down the beach.”

“Yeah. He almost doomed us all because we’d been standing under some of the shit as it fell. But we got a large enough piece for that cauldron, and discovered that I can cast a Carving Hex with some kind of accuracy,” Theo said, looking proud of himself.

I raised my brow, allowing a smile to reach from my lips to my eyes as I glanced at his cauldron. I wasn’t trying to judge his definition of “accuracy”, but he noticed it anyway. He shrugged at me, hands up and all, and I had to admit that I preferred Theodore Nott like this. More casual and kind. Whatever rest he’d gotten had done wonders for his mood. At least, that’s what I accredited to his cheerier air.

Draco, however, was scowling into the flames. I didn’t like that I spent ten or more seconds appraising his face here. The fire’s shadows danced on the sharp angles of his cheekbones and jaw, and his brows, which were equally dark as Theo’s, sat above eyes that looked like the storm that raged outside. He looked elvish in this light, with pale hair that reached his shoulders, tucked behind ears that were disappointingly un-pointy, but so, so pale, like all of his skin. He’d protected his face from the sun all day with his jacket, which even then I’d thought the wisest action. He intensely watched the fire dance in the grate. He licked his light pink lips slowly, and I looked away, only for my eyes to betray me by landing on Theo.

I chanced a few seconds on the raven-haired Slytherin’s face as well. His features were less sharp, and his skin was olive, and he had a little more muscle-mass than the other man, though he was shorter by a few inches. His cheeks were fuller than Draco’s, and I’m sure I could blame his dimple on this feature. He still had a strong jaw, much like the blonde’s, but he held himself differently. He was far less serious. His impish smile, however small, was back. It was an expression I hadn’t seen on his face in a long, long time, but it lacked all prior malice.

The other Slytherin’s contrary expression, all solemnity and self-loathing, seemed particularly deep for someone I considered shallow. There was mercury rising within his irises, darkening them as he kept himself from looking up at me. Even as the night wore on, and we fell into light conversation, he kept his eyes from ever making contact with mine. He responded to my questions about the bowl, and told me the story of how they’d hiked into the storm to find the ingredients for the potion as I used magic to fill the vials with it.

Not even so much as a glance.

But what did I expect, really? I hadn’t proven to be the most talkative or friendly over the past six months since school started up again. And yesterday had seen them witnessing one of the worst sides of me.

By the time we all crawled back to our respective beds at seven in the morning, after we’d consumed the majority of the food and talked a little about the foraging possibilities of the island, light had already begun cutting in through the few holes in the curtain and the doorway. It was dull, and this, the fact that it looked like the gray of dawn until noon, was the reason we slept until two.

I spelled my hair clean, then I used a Detangling Charm before braiding it, then I snuggled back into my bed. But before I fell asleep, my mind decided to be a prick and showed me the look on the men’s faces as I’d verbally, ruthlessly, taken them out at the knees. Draco had looked especially wounded. To be fair, the insults I’d thrown at him had been worse than those I’d thrown at Theo. I’d justified my actions by reminding myself of how many times the blonde had called me “Mudblood”.

But now that things were still, the room quiet save for the sound of light breathing, my mind had time to drift, and I felt the first smidgeon of guilt edge its way into my soul.

Chapter Text

I woke in the early afternoon after getting the best sleep I’d had in a month. Even with my terrible fever, the previous night had been the most restful in ages, and I indulged in a full-body stretch before I even opened my eyes.

Embracing my inner feline, I rolled onto my stomach and did a few stretches before I let my hands and feet reach for opposite walls. The entire time I gave groans and moans, and eventually I yawned before opening my eyes to my surroundings.

Ah, yes. The snakes I gave refuge from the storm the night before were still in my house, and they were staring at me from their bed. Theo was laying closest to me, on his back, his green eyes strange with those cursed brows drawn together. Draco, who lay on the other side of
Theo, on his stomach, had gone up on his elbows to peer over his mate at me with a similar expression. His gray eyes were wider than Theo’s, and I would be a complete idiot to deny noticing the way their eyes wandered down my body before making their way back up to my eyes.

The three of us turned varying shades of pink before I reached for my blanket to cover my arse, which had been exposed during my stretch. My skirt had already been halfway up from my sleeping in it before I even rolled over, so the two perverts who’d been watching me got quite the show as it had been fully exposed while switching in and out Balasana.

I covered my shoulder with my blanket and rolled over to face the west wall. I pretended to go back to sleep for half an hour, refusing to move for quite some time as I tried to swallow down the embarrassment my waking moments had caused me. As if I had been the one with morning wood… Like Theo had had. I had gotten a good glimpse at the muscles of Draco’s back, shoulders, and biceps. He was surprisingly cut. And since the other man was lying supine, I’d gotten a nice view of his six pack. His blanket had been slung low on his hips, showing me the outline of what he was packing under those boxer-briefs I remember seeing the night before.

With a deep, sobering breath I stood and, without looking at the two men who were still in their bed, walked to the door. I'd re-Charmed it before sleep, and presently unstuck a large section of blanket so that I could look out onto the wet, gray beach. I was conflicted. I had to pee again, but I’d just woken up, and getting drenched by rain, warm or not, first thing after gaining consciousness didn’t sound fun. Even Conjuring an umbrella wouldn’t keep the wind from flying in sideways and blasting my bare undercarriage with water and sand.

Submitting my arsehole to morning microdermabrasion? No thanks.

But I really had to go, so I turned and grabbed my blanket, wrapping it around myself, and I finally looked at them as I said, “I’ll be back.”

I practically ran through the blanket-door to get away from what I saw. I hated having eyes, and the feeling doubled as I ran out into the storm and got my pupils pelted by raindrops. Honestly, the last one didn’t cause me as much discomfort as the first.

They’d been actually cuddling. Each other. Draco had gone back to sleep, tucking his head under Theo’s chin, resting a hand on the dark-haired wizard’s chest. The darker Slytherin was still awake, laying on his back with one hand behind his head, and the other tucked under the other man and up to hold his shoulder. His green eyes had been staring at the ceiling until I spoke, only for him to turn his gaze at me and nod lazily, casually, as if having his arm around Draco’s shoulder while he slept curled up like some lost puppy was something people saw every day.

It looked comforting, and I found myself feeling a little jealous. Not jealous like that per se, but more in the way that it would be nice to have someone I could cuddle while I faced possible death on a deserted island.

Before, when we were on the run, I'd had Ron, and there for a while, Harry and I would cuddle each other when times got to be too much to face. It had been done platonically between Harry and I. As two beings clinging to the only thing that seemed stable so as to keep ourselves from going mad. It looked to me that the men in the beach hut had been doing the same thing. It hadn’t looked intimate in a sexual way.

I had been the pervert who had sexualized them.

I deserved to have my eyeballs mercilessly attacked by the rain, and the fresh new skin on my bum, as I’d been unable to find a well-protected spot to squat before the urge to piss my knickers became too strong. I barely made it, and was still mostly relieved despite the sting on my cheeks.

Once that was done, I looked back in the direction of the hut, and I sighed deeply while wrapping my blanket over my head, because I didn’t feel any real urge to return at that moment. But I knew it was only smart to tell your cohorts where you were going while dealing with survival situations such as these.

With this in mind, I walked back to the hut and didn’t quite stick my head in to say, “I’m going to find some food,” before I turned back around and walked off into the forest.

There. Mission accomplished.

I cast a warding spell above my head to keep any falling debris from attempting to assassinate me, though the ground was littered with what had already fallen through the night. The danger was mostly over. As I wandered, I was pleasantly surprised at how little rain actually made it through the canopy once you made it far enough in. It trickled from the leaves some, but a lot of it ran down the limbs and trunks, or fell off of large leaves in long, avoidable, streams. I tried drinking from one, only to choke when it tried going down my airway while tipping my head back.

Still, real water tasted heavenly. The choking had been worth it.

I carried on with my hike for at least a mile, noting the different places I would stop on my way back to pick the different fruits I found. Not as many berries, but plenty of mangoes, and little guavas. The papayas would require I use a Slicing Hex to cut the entire head of the tree off. I wasn’t an accurate enough shot without my wand to just get a few without completely annihilating the rest. And once it started falling, I would have to catch it with a Leviosa before it hit the ground.

I decided I’d wait to do that at a different time. If we were still here when the storm ended, I’d be back for one.

Eventually, I felt as though I’d cleared my head enough for its depravity to take its own hike. I’m not sure how long I’d been gone, but apparently long enough for the Slytherins to grow worried. At some point, when I’d gotten rather close to the beach, I heard one of them yell my name.

Then the other yelled it.

I sighed, and squished my lips in an ugly way to keep myself from smiling at how my baby birds had flown the nest to find me. They were probably afraid I’d suddenly caught another fever and died in a bush.

“I’m over here,” I yelled.

I didn’t hear them yell for me again, and instead saw them break through the forest ahead a minute later.

The three of us closed the gap, and I elevated the men, noting that their rain-covered faces were tinged pink, and their breathing was heavy as though they’d been running. There was mud and sand all over their shoes and their trousers. Theo looked to have slipped, because his left side was caked in mud. Their hair was soaked and sticking to their faces and necks again.

“Out for a London jog?” I asked.

They had left their blankets back at the house, and were running around in the forest in their white shirts. The one thing I could say about this weather was that it was still a little warm, but it was going to cause me major problems if that meant that these two were going to walk around with their clothes stuck to every muscle on their chests, the thin material showing the color and contour of the plains of their abs.

I warned my eyes that they had better stay on their faces ONLY, or else I’d pluck them the fuck out.

“You a’right?” Draco asked through some shallow panting, and my mind flashed with the image of him holding onto Theo in his sleep.

“Yeah,” I said. Wow. They had actually been worried about me. Their cursed eyebrows were knitted, and they scanned me for any signs of injuries or illness. “Right as all this rain. Hungry?”

I offered them some fruit, which they took, and I was happy because produce had the tendency to get heavy fast. Then I pushed between them to continue on my path. I wanted to get into the hut and cast a drying spell. I’d been wet for hours, and not in the fun way. And if I had to keep judging their wet t-shirt contest I was going to lose my mind. Officially.

Our walk back to the hut was quiet, seeing as I kept turning to pass them different foods. I fought another smile as I was forced to think how the two resembled ducklings.

Man. I really needed to stop looking at them as helpless. They’d saved my life. I know my fever had been high, and that it had alarmed them enough to turn into instant Healers. Well, Theo had, anyway. His bedside manner had been phenomenal. And the ingredients Draco had used to brew the draught had been done with his impressive knowledge. The island didn’t have the usual ingredients one would use for something like that, but because the blonde knew the properties of other plants, he said it had been easy to substitute what he needed for what he had.

I bit my lip, and took a deep breath as we broke through the treeline, then I said, “I… I’m sorry about what I said to you both yesterday. At the river.”

We walked up the steps and into the hut before Draco said, “It’s alright. Really. We deserved to be yelled at.”

“You did?” I asked him, taking the blanket from my shoulders and casting drying spells on each of us, as well as a few Scorgifies on our muddy clothing, as we stood near the door. I felt I had to ask him this, because the more I thought about it, the more I had to admit to myself that some of the insults had been unnecessarily mean.

I’d meant the inbred part, though. Some of those “Sacred Twenty-Eight” family trees were close. I’m surprised Theo and Draco hadn't been born conjoined cousins. They needed some new DNA in that root system before it rotted. Obviously, I didn’t count the Weasley’s in this.

“I do,” Draco said, defending his depreciating notions. “And Theo agrees.”

“I do,” Theo said. “He definitely deserved it. But did I?”

I turned pink at this, and I took a deep breath before saying, “I’m sorry I yelled and said so many mean things to you, Nott.”

He gave his pleasant smirk, and shrugged. I could tell he really didn’t care. Not like Draco had.

I then looked at the blonde, and said, “Either way, whether you agree or not, I didn’t need to say any of those things to you. It’s not like you actually said-” I stopped, because I kind of didn’t want to admit that the reason I’d really lost it was because I felt as though he’d called me Mudblood again after I’d spent all morning helping him.

He caught on to my train of thought, however, and his face became grave, and perhaps even angry, as he said, “I… will never call you- Theo made me aware of how fucked up it was for me to say that to you. I would never, ever call you that again. I refuse to even say it, alright? And we may have avoided all of that drama yesterday if I had said this to you before now, but I’m sorry I ever called you that fucking name. And I’m sorry if you thought that’s what I was implying at the river. I was trying to break the tension after you fell, and I chose the wrong way to do it. I’m so sorry, Hermione.”

I blinked up at him, for there were many reasons to be as surprised as I felt. Multiple apologies, self-awareness, and he even threw my first name in there at the end to sweeten the deal.

I raised a brow at him, then crossed my arms, admitting, “Thank you. It… really means a lot to me that you said that. And I was being genuine when I said I feel badly about most of the things I said.”

“Most?” They asked me, both adopting small, amused smiles.

I adopted one of my own, saying, “Most.”

“I can live with that,” Draco said with a nod.

“Same here,” Theo added.

I nodded, then looked to my feet, because this moment began to feel a little too intimate for my taste. They loomed over me in the dim lighting of the room, and I noticed that we really were rather close. The room wasn’t large, but they were both much taller than me, so I could simply blame this situation on dimensions, but there was something else about the way they looked at me that saw to it that I took a few steps away from them and toward the table to set down the fruit I had left, just so that I could be out from under their scrutinizing gazes.

Chapter Text

The rain began to let up just as the last bit of sunlight seeping through the clouds began to fade to darkness, and we got ourselves ready for our second night on the island.

The three of us had spent the rest of our afternoon gathering more fruit for the night, since I decided that the rainy weather wouldn’t be good for hunting or fishing anyway. I’d attempted to conjure tea service, only to be supplied with a single teabag. The randomness of my wandless magic was off putting at times, but it forced me to get creative. I Scourgified the cauldron and set it out on the stoop to collect rainwater so that I could boil it for whatever teabags the Force decided to give me when I went to Conjure more.

As I worked, I told them of the plan I had for an outhouse, mentioning that if we were going to be stuck here for a long period of time, I was going to need “somewhere to loo without being afraid of a creepy crawling up my crack”.

Theo had choked on his fruit when I’d said this, and Draco had tried to stifle a smile as he nodded, saying, “We should definitely start working on that, then.”

“And I’m going to fashion a bath and shower, but I’m going to make it a full room that I’ll connect to the hut,” I said.

Draco tilted his head at me, asking, “Don’t you think we’ll be rescued before we’d need something that… definite?”

“Is it any less definite than our new dorm?” I asked, motioning to the glory that was our handmade yurt. I didn’t want to touch that rescuing part of his question. This was night two. Things weren’t looking good on that front, and I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. At least, not right now.

“Touche,” was the blonde’s answer.

“We could use the larger pieces of that cliff that fell to make the tub,” Theo said, and took another bite of his food since he’d recovered from his coughing fit. “It would hold heat nicely.”

I grinned. “Now that’s a brilliant idea! Then I can see this Hex accuracy you claim is so impressive.”

Theo frowned at me lightly, and I smiled as I saw Draco smile at my jab while also trying to chew.

“Are you always this- sassy?” Theo asked.

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “To everyone.”

“And they just take it, too,” Draco said, shaking his head in disappointment, though I could still see his eyes smiling.

We were picking on each other, but it wasn’t in a way that would see anyone’s feelings getting hurt. I liked it. It was helping pick up my spirits. And I had to admit that, even though it was these two prats I was stuck with, it could have been much worse. They were growing on me, which I guess was lucky for them.

“Because they know what’s good for them,” I joked.

I stood again to check the progress of the water in the cauldron, sticking my head out the door to estimate the contents and start calculating how long it would take for it to be sufficiently full for us to indulge in something that would most definitely comfort us; give us a sense of home in this foreign land.

When I turned around, I found both of their eyes were on my backside. I pretended not to notice, though, saying, “Great news. We’re going to be waiting at least an hour before we get to have tea.”

It was honestly for the best if I didn’t think about their wandering eyes ever, ever, ever, ever again.

“Yay,” Draco said, in gravitas, as Theo sing-songed sarcastically, “Woohoo.”

“Could be worse,” I said, taking my spot on my pillow. I’d pulled it over to the fire to use it as a cushion. The bamboo digging into my arse was finally starting to get to me. “I could have failed at Conjuring anything at all.”

They both shrugged or nodded at this, but seemed reluctant to accept it none-the-less. They were both so spoiled.

“It won’t kill you to wait one more hour,” I said.

“It might,” Theo said with a sigh.

Draco smirked at him, and I asked the blonde, “Is he always this dramatic?”

“Always.”

Theo scoffed. “Pot, meet kettle.”

Draco scoffed dramatically before claiming, “I am not dramatic.”

The darker Slytherin and I shared a glance that made it harder and harder for us to hold back our laughter, until we couldn't control it any longer and laughed until tears pricked our eyes.

Draco glared at us and rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything else to us for a little while. So much for not hurting anyone’s feelings. I was just happy that it hadn’t been completely my fault as to why Draco was glaring at the fire again.

Theo and I sobered and left the blonde to his sulking as we started talking about the boulders on the beach and the style of tub we could create. It led me to say, “We need to do that tomorrow at first light. Rain or no. I need a proper bath. Not a rain shower.”

I felt a little cleaner than I had earlier when I’d woken, but I definitely needed a bath. One where I could attempt to Conjure a bar of soap. I had a feeling I may not get a bottle of shampoo or conditioner if I tried, even though I would give it a go anyway.

“Oh! Dray!” Theo said suddenly, excitement evident in every muscle. “We should take her to that swimming spot we saw yesterday.”

Draco’s eyes lit up as mine did at the prospect, and he said, “We should. But we still have to figure out a way down there.” He turned to me to say, “We couldn’t find a way down from where we were, and jumping wasn't really an option. We had a plan to go around until we saw it was going to rain. But the water looked primo.”

“It was much cleaner than The Graves on any given day,” Theo said.

My jaw hung open slightly, because I was having a terrible time imagining either of them swimming, let alone in natural bodies of water. Let alone a body of water named The Graves.

“You two go swimming? In, like, lakes and rivers and such?” I asked them.

I know I said I hadn’t really wanted to get to know them, but this part of the conversation caused me to feel like I needed to know more. It was humanizing them, something I would usually be on alert about so that I could avoid it. It’s easier to hate something, fight against something, if you don't see it as a living thing with feelings. But… things were changing, as anything would in a situation such as ours.

“Yeah. Of course,” Draco said with a shrug, as if this answer was obvious.

“We were kids once, you know,” Theo said. “We just had to be sure we didn’t tell our parents what we were getting up to.”

“Why? Was it unbecoming of a young gentleman?” I asked facetiously.

They nodded, and Theo said, “Bingo.”

“Sounds lame,” I commented, leaning back on my palms.

“There were-” Draco paused, then finished, “- many lame moments in our upbringing, I admit. But the summers where a group of us would meet up behind Pansy’s house when her parents were gone, and we’d play in the pond in the back corner of her property, were some of the best times. The pond is next to the Parkinson family graveyard, so we just shortened it to “The Graves”. Besides, we couldn’t walk around saying we were going to swim in the pond, so we had to call it something else.”

I scoffed, saying, “And here I thought neither of you would ever let yourself “play in the mud”.”

Both men pulled strange faces, Theo looking at the very least shocked, and Draco lifted a hand so that he could rub at his temple with his three longest fingers, staring at me with a disturbed frown.

I blinked at them, and asked, “What?”

“Nothing,” they both said suspiciously fast.

“That was not nothing,” I said, brows furrowing. “You both look guilty of something. Why?”

“Granger,” Draco said seriously, and with the hint of a warning. “It’s nothing.”

My face went into full-glare mode, and both of them avoided making eye contact with me for as long as possible before I said, “What the hell is up? Just tell me.”

The Slytherins looked at one another, and Draco shook his head warningly at Theo, who turned his green eyes on me to say, “What you just- said, well… It has another meaning in- our culture. Like… an entendre. That might be double.”

I blinked at them as my mind went to work on what he said. Unfortunately for me, I’m quite bright, and it was due to that that my face turned bright red a second later. It had to of. I didn’t have a mirror, but my entire neck and face were suddenly hot as Satan’s bollocks. My eyes were also as wide as they could get, and I covered my mouth with a hand in horror.

The looks on the mens’ faces showed that my reaction was at least a little comical to them. Theo was quick to cover whatever inappropriate reaction he had to my discomfort behind his hands while Draco defended with a barely contained smile, “I know I said it to you yesterday, but it doesn’t really mean the same thing when it's said to- um…” His smile faded, and he started to look increasingly panicked. “Uh. Um… Uuuuuuhhhh-”

These two were about to find themselves at the bottom of The Graves.

“What he means is that it can be interpreted in an entirely different way when you say it to us,” Theo interjected, but he did so with what I realized was a look of pain. I think he was practicing for when I finally gave into my animal instincts and tore their throats out with my teeth for even telling me such a double-entendre existed.

And that double-standard! Yeesh!

I know I asked for it, but that didn’t keep me from being sickened. Nor did it keep me from exclaiming, “What!? I- How would I... Oh, my God!” I took a deep breath and said, “I think I hate you both again.”

They both looked apologetic as Theo said with a shrug, “Justifiable.”

I was floored. I visibly cringed. But my stupid face wouldn’t change back to its original color. I was still beat red, because the very thought of them thinking about me offering that they “play in the mud” had my brain doing things I would later request a lobotomy for.

Chapter Text

I hadn’t stuck around to make tea the night before, so the cauldron was overflowing when I woke before the other two the next morning.

I was exhausted, because, despite going to bed almost immediately after our very awkward conversation, I had hardly slept a wink. I mean, I’d been conscious for about six hours at that point. I was not tired enough to close my eyes right away. So, instead of catching some much deserved rest, I spent hours staring wide-eyed at the wall in shock.

There was also an underlying current of excitement thrumming through my body, and the last part of my time awake was spent wishing I could figure out a way to end my own life without making it look like I’d done so because I had gone and let my traumatized mind imagine a few unsavory scenarios that included all three of us and pile of discarded clothes.

I hated myself.

I hated them, and I hated myself for even entertaining such a thought, no matter how impossible. They’d just inferred that having sex with me would be considered “slumming it” for their kind. Now, I’m pretty batty. I’m known for being so. But letting myself become anymore attracted to them after that comment would be mad.

Right?

Right.

In the end, I’d stayed still in my bed, and remained awkwardly silent as I listened to them undress and get into their own bed. My heart hammered too quickly for my liking as I waited to hear anything else from them. But there was nothing. They must have decided that they’d said enough for one night, because they quietly went to sleep and left me to suffer in peace.

I awoke to the only sound of water being that of the waves crashing on the beach, and bright beams of light coming in through the cracks in the window and door. I was also filled with gratitude, for my dreams had been snake free. I remember something about a giant bowl of soup, and at the thought of potential uses for our crude cauldron, I pulled my unwilling body out of bed and to the door. I blinked back the blinding light that reflected off the sand, and I dumped enough water out of the cauldron to make it easier to carry, for I was a Muggleborn who vowed to never fully stop doing things the Muggle way, and I set the bowl of cold water near the fire.

As I stoked the low embers of the fire, Draco stirred and sat up. I cursed his pale white skin, for it, and his platinum hair, glowed due to a sliver of sunlight that cut through the air and landed perfectly where he sat. He looked like a goddamned angel, all lit up, and beautifully tousled from sleep. The man rubbed his eyes after they failed to focus on me, and while he did so, Theo rolled and sat up as well, and I had to become one with my breath to ensure it didn't stop. The raven-haired wizard sat mostly shrouded in shadow, but the light that did reach him cast shadows on him, causing him to look more like a devil.

It was funny to me that I would switch their color-schemes, if I was basing them off whether or not their personalities were angelic or devilish. I mean, Theo wasn’t a saint, but he wasn't the misery that is Draco Malfoy. Or… was.

I must have gone mad. Officially. Because they were breathtaking, sitting next to each other, blankets in their laps, chests and arms and abs on full display as they brought themselves back to the land of the conscious.

“Morning, Granger,” Draco said. Theo yawned, and I finally tore my eyes away from him before I got sucked into the way his body moved as he put both hands behind his head to help him stretch his perfect chest muscles.

Holy fuck. I'd actually done it! I'd gone insane! And to think, it only took a couple days of me being forced to interact personally with two unimaginably vexing Slytherins.

Perplexing?

Per-vexing?

Nah. That wasn't it.

Long story short, I was at the very least confused, and I don't get confused too often. Though, when I did, it was usually a man's fault. Their behavior and thought patterns were always intriguing to me, no matter how infuriating. I always wanted to figure out why they did the idiotic things they did, but I could never come up with any solid answers. Only speculation, which no one is buying.

“Morning,” I finally said, Accioing a few pieces of wood from the pile wordlessly.

Accio had always been easy for me. It was the first wandless, wordless spell that I'd perfected, which I heard was common from other wandless magic users. The majority of them had gray hair, which meant that they had years of knowledge under their belts, and they said they thought Accio was easiest because one already had to put so much power into imagining what they wanted, that words eventually became unnecessary. Thinking was sufficient. Their age also meant that they had the ability to cast hundreds of spells without their wands. I hadn't gotten anywhere near as far as that, but I had had some success with many other simpler spells.

My goal was to get to the level Dumbledore had reached when he'd passed. The old man could Disapparate and Apparate in and out of Hogwarts at will, which everyone still said was impossible. He used no words, and he did these things while his wand remained in his pocket. I was going to be that strong, and I was going to do it before I turned forty. Mark my words.

I would show them all that this Muggleborn was in fact the standard, instead of just an exception.

“Sleep well?” Theo asked me, and I nodded.

I wasn't sure how to treat them now that things had gotten so awkward the night previous that I hadn't even known what to say to them. I usually had choice words for everyone. Always. But I'd been struck dumb, and had gone to bed without another word, and I was still struggling to make a decision: act like nothing happened, or continue making things weird?

“Nah. Not really. But I'll be fine. I'll take a nap later if I need to,” I said. I'd landed somewhere in between my two options, which was fine by me. I always preferred to be honest, no matter what my track record said. But I didn't want to be so honest as to ask them if they wanted to pass some of our abundant time by shagging.

I really needed to go home.

“I don't know about that,” Draco said. “The swimming hole is quite a ways off. But you could nap there. You could fashion yourself a hammock or something.”

I made a face, because I found this to be a splendid idea.

But then I had the heart-stopping realization that it was likely these two would strip down to their boxer-briefs to swim, and that would leave me with plenty of things for my eyes to cross themselves over. Another afternoon staring at their wet chests. Fantastic. Someone just Avada me now, please.

“Yeah,” I said, setting the bowl onto the fresh flames. They licked up the side of the black surface, and I let myself get distracted by the image, instead of looking at the men to say, “Sounds great.”

“Did we settle on doing the bathtub after a swim?” Theo asked.

“We did,” I said. All who were present knew that “we” meant me.

“Cool,” he said, then made to rise for the day.

Neither made any more attempts at smalltalk with me after that, the two leaving all nonessential conversations to themselves. Within the hour of their waking, we'd had some delicious Earl Grey with our breakfast, and had packed up our blankets and some food before setting out for the swimming hole.

It took the better part of the morning, but we finally reached it sometime close to noon.

Together, the three of us looked over the cliff, and down onto another canopy of trees. But not even a quarter mile from the side of the cliff was a large, beautiful blue swimming hole with a waterfall.

I gasped, covering my mouth as if I was disturbing this sacred place with my noise. I turned to them and said, “It's bloody gorgeous!”

They smiled at me, and Draco said, “Sure is.”

“I can't wait to get down there,” Theo said, his smile breaking into a grin. Then he asked me, “Do you have any ideas in that big, wrinkly brain of yours that could get us down from here?”

I frowned at him for his choice of words, and shook my head. “Nothing foolproof. And, since you're both knobs, I'm not going to risk it.”

Theo frowned back at me, saying, “You realize I was complimenting you by saying your brain is big and wrinkly, yeah?”

“No,” I deadpanned.

Of course I knew this. I just liked riling them a little. They made it so fun.

“We're going to have to walk down the ridge and see if there's a safer place to descend,” I said.

We stood on a tall cliff that made the majority of the island visible. We could see out to the far west, to the beach where our hut was, and we could see out to the east to the ocean, though the trees were thick enough we couldn't see the landscape that reached down to the beach that way. To the north, up the ridge, was the large volcano, and to the south was a treacherous stretch of rocky coast. I began to lead our expedition, finding easy footing as we hiked along the ridge and down toward sea level. We kept our eyes out for a safe way down as we went.

As we traveled, the wind blew past me, pushing my now-free hair back over my shoulders, and I swear I heard words on the breeze again. I couldn't make them out, and I couldn't tell if the voice was male or female, but still I froze mid-step, holding my hands out to signal to the two behind me to stop walking,

Theo asked, “What is it?”

I shushed him, holding both of my pointers up, and they followed my instructions. I let my ears register the different noises around us, turning my head slowly back and forth to see if I could pick it up again…

Nothing.

I became concerned, because what if I actually was finally cracking? This was the second time I'd heard the voice in the wind.

I started walking again, and Draco asked, “Did you hear something?”

I didn't even consider telling them the whole truth, instead saying, “I thought I did, but it was nothing. Just keep your eyes and ears open.”

I didn't need all three of us thinking I was losing it. Not when so much depended on me for all of us to survive this.

Chapter Text

After finding a safe path to descend not half a mile down the ridge, we’d made it to the forest floor to discover we'd repelled into what ended up being a spider-infested forest. It was the first time I had to Stupify multiple large spiders. I had officially reached the level of Ron and Harry, though I’m happy to say that Orb-Weavers were nothing compared to Acromantula.

This was also the first time I’d been happy Ron wasn’t here with me. He’d gotten over his arachnophobia a little over time, but he would have screamed like a bitch if he’d had to swipe one of these eight-legged bad boys off his shoulder like Theo had. But he could never, because Theo had done so casually, as if he hadn’t wanted to harm it. As if the hand-sized monster hadn’t just fallen from the canopy and onto his person. Even I would have shrieked my head off and killed it if that had happened to me, and I was doing my best not to harm them as it was.

Draco had come this close to screaming for all of us on a number of occasions.

After this surprise attack on Theo, I raised my hand in surrender to cast a ward over us, and the three of us finished our trek huddled close together under my magic.

I couldn’t have been happier to break through into the clearing that held the oasis I’d wished I knew existed before building my hut on the beach. I would have built it here in a heartbeat, even with the creepy neighbors. The water of the pool was clear and beautiful. There was a sandy beach big enough to throw a rager on. One half of the water was covered in shadow from some far-hanging trees. The other half was well-lit, and held most of the beach. There were bushes full of flowers, multiple fruit trees, and there had to be thirty different species of birds and animals meandering about the place. And to top it all off, there was a nine meter waterfall, sending out relaxing, soothing melodies of bubbling water that ran off to the east as a lazy river.

It was the single-most aesthetically pleasing place I’d ever been.

We’d spent a little time scouting it out, being sure that there was nothing too dangerous living close by, and once it cleared our standards, I conjured three bars of honey soap, and headed off down the river.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes,” I called back to them, and I found a place down stream to place a ward. After checking to be sure the coast was clear, I stripped down and took a bath in cold-ass water. But it felt amazing after our hike, and it was nice to be properly clean.

I made it back to the clearing twenty minutes later. On the way up, I watched as bubbles ran down the brook, and I slowed my steps to give the other two time for privacy. When the bubbles stopped flowing by, I began to walk at my normal pace until I was back in the clearing. I found the men here, wearing nothing but their trousers, their chests and hair were still damp despite the heating and beating sun. They were talking to each other in hushed tones with serious expressions, which ceased as I walked out of the forest and drew near them.

I don't care if they were talking about me as long as I didn't have to hear it. I wasn't interested in their opinion of me, positive or otherwise.

“Ready for a swim?” Theo asked as I neared them, his lips tugging into that playful smirk I was becoming increasingly used to.

“You know I am,” I said.

I started walking down the beach, inspecting the water and all of the best places to get in. I considered finding a way to the top of the waterfall and jumping in, but I'd always been a little scared of heights. It was my least Gryffindor-like trait, and I didn’t want to let the two Quidditch players behind me know how I had a fear neither of them did. They were bound to pick on me for it, and I’d have to fight them out of embarrassment.

My eyes eventually locked onto the trees on the far side of the pool from the river, and I resolved to make a swing to tie to one of the thick, low-hanging branches. The trees themselves stuck partially out of the side of a meter-tall ledge where roots protruded, dropping down to drink from the pool itself. It was the perfect place to put it. I turned and looked into the forest, and when I spotted a downed tree, I braved the spiders to run in, grab a large log after removing it with a Slicing Hex, and back out to the ledge to begin fashioning a seat out of the log. Then I Conjured a long length of hemp rope, secured the seat at the angle I wanted before casting a Sticking Charm.

With no practice beforehand, I was able to use the swing like a grappling hook to throw it over the branch. It took some finnagaling, but I used Ventuses to move the rope along the branch until it was a good distance from the bank, then I sent two Sticking Charms to keep it secure.

The two men were closing in, so I took this time to strip down to my red knickers and yellow bra. No, I had not been going for Gryffindor colors. I woke up late the morning we’d been taken. I'd gotten dressed and grabbed whatever looked comfortable for the day, and then ran to Advanced Potions, where all of this shite began. Using my hair as a shield, I turned around and hoped to the heavens as I attempted to change the color of my bra. It worked, and so I was now wearing a red bra and knickers, which was a bad idea in my opinion, given the light of the situation.

With a quick, stabilizing breath, I waved my hand again, and my undergarments became Navy blue.

After that, I decided to take a few steps back, swing in hand, then took off running. I jumped off the edge of the bank, and used my unimpressive upper body strength to pull my legs up to sit on the seat. Once I realized I was safe, I started yelling my excitement.

“I'm so happy this works!” I screamed up at the trees as I leaned back, a grin splitting my face. I couldn’t remember a time I’d felt so free and safe at the same time. I laughed as I said to no one in particular, “I feel like Mariah Carey in that one music video!”

I was swinging back and forth over the surface of the water, probably looking more like a little girl who’d been cut loose at a waterpark, considering I looked nothing like Miss Carey.

Draco turned to Theo and asked, “Who the fuck is Mariah Carey?”

The dark-haired man shrugged at his mate

“Do you want to have a go?” I asked them, turning my head as the swing twisted in the air, doing my best to keep my eyes on them.

They stood on the meter high ledge. They were watching with smirks of amusement as I went back and forth in front of them.

Theo said, “What? And miss the only time in our lives that we’ve ever seen you look like a teenager instead of an angry old bat?”

I glared, because I’d always known that I was born to be an old lady, and he was mocking that.

“Oop. The angry bat is back,” Theo said with a cheeky grin at my expression.

Draco chuckled and said, “Are you trying to vex her? Do you want her to fly into your hair?” I laughed, and then tried to change my trajectory so that I could reach out for Theo’s black mop. They grinned and backed away from me, then Draco pointed to the swing, saying, “Let me take a crack at it.”

I nodded and began to swing until I built up some good momentum, then I held my nose with my fingers and flung myself backwards off the swing, landing head-first into the water below. It was warm enough that it didn’t shock me, which was good enough for me. We were in the shade, so I’m sure that wasn’t helping. I surfaced to watch Draco catch the swing, and, due to his impressive height, he was able to grab onto the rope much easier and mount it without so much as a hitch.

I glared at how easy he made it look, but that was short-lived. I smiled at the huge grin that took his face as he started to swing. Theo was smiling at him, too. They looked happy, and I am one-thousand percent certain I had never seen them look so innocently joyful. It was… endearing.

Great. I was just catching softer and softer feelings for them, huh?

I needed off of this island! Any time now, Minerva!

With this thought, I swam away from them, letting them enjoy the swing while I made it to shore on the opposite side of the pool from them. I pulled myself up onto the beach and lay face-first in the warm sand, sighing contentedly as I decided that I’d gone far enough. I folded my arms up, setting my face on my hands, and I began to soak in some much needed vitamin D.

This was the first time I’d felt fully at ease since we’d arrived here. It was like a holiday that I’d gotten for free as long as I agreed to go with my enemies. Well, maybe not enemies. But two blokes that, up until yesterday, I’d rather punch in the face than spend one hour alone with. It was funny what situations could have you forgetting a vast heap of childhood trauma, and instead having you nearly fall asleep around two men you’d never dreamed would have been trustworthy enough to have done so before.

But I really almost did. I was woken to shadows suddenly falling over me, ending the assault of damaging rays on my back and startling me to look up at the men blocking out the sun. I really fucking wished they hadn’t done it. Stood over me that is. They had lost their trousers at some point, and wore nothing but matching black or gray pants that clung to every! curve and bulge of their packages.

“Oh, for the-!” I closed my eyes and sat up, holding my hand out in the general area of their genitals to block the view. A bra and knickers may look like a bikini, but boxer briefs were not trunks. With my eyes remaining sealed shut, I said, “Could you not do that ever again? Merlin above!”

“Oh. Sorry,” Draco said with what sounded like a smile in his voice, and I didn’t dare look at them to confirm it, for my face was probably now as red as my back was bound to be.

I stood and walked toward the shade of the cliff that the waterfall fell from. My back was uncomfortably hot. When I reached a boulder large enough to sit on, I turned to sit and watched them where they still stood by the water. They might as well have been naked. Even from meters away, my mind could do nothing but see them as nude. Their choice in pants was the Devil’s work, I was sure of it. The thighs on both of them were unfairly defined. There was no way it was all from Quidditch, right?

“We came to check on you. You’d been laying in that position for a while,” Theo called.

“Thanks for the concern,” I called back.

When had I become the baby bird..?

Oh, yeah. When I almost died from that fever.

They started walking toward me, and I stiffened, because please, God, make them stop. I did not need them hanging out around me at the moment. I was reacting- physically- to them, and that was unacceptable. That was something that didn’t need to be fed by any means. And I’m sure they weren’t doing it on purpose, but they were feeding something inside me that I hadn’t realized had so many teeth. Its sharp claws drug down the inside of my uterus, and I had to white-knuckle the boulder to keep myself from shuddering from the godforsaken ache in my core as they closed the distance and sat on separate boulders on either side of me.

I kept my eyes ahead, on the water, telling myself to focus on the beautiful blue color. How the sun danced off the surface as gorgeous birds flew past. It’s serene here, yeah? It’s fine. You’re safe. Just breathe evenly… That’s right. And this nightmare will end.

“We should build a house here, too,” Theo said as he settled.

“Oh, for sure!” Draco agreed. “Maybe you could show us how it's done and we could help you this time, hm, Granger?” He pushed me lightly on the shoulder, and I flinched away from him. His brows drew, and he said, “Sorry.”

“No. You’re fine,” I assured him.

It really was fine. It wasn’t as if he knew the sight of him was making my insides burn. If it wasn’t for my self-sabotaging hormones, I’d have found the tap to the shoulder friendly, almost brotherly. Harry sometimes pushed my shoulder when I was being cheeky. It had felt like that, but my body was being a prick.

I cleared my throat, and said, “I wouldn’t be opposed to doing either of those things. Having a backup base further inland would be beneficial for good weather days like this. Especially since it would be here, with the fresh water and food. And both of you are more than welcome to join “Hermione’s School for the Magically Challenged” at any time, as long as you know you’re going to hate it.”

I looked at them each in turn, faces only, and watched them nod.

Theo asked, “So you’ve taught before?”

I scoffed. “Of course. How do you think Harry and Ron became Aurors without graduating first?”

“It’s not simply because they’re Harry and Ron?” the raven-haired man asked.

I shook my head, and smiled lightly as I said, “Well. I’m sure that had something to do with it. But those two knew at least half of the wandless magic I knew before I came back to school. They’ve written and said that they’ve been practicing, so I’m hoping they’ve advanced.”

“Well if Weasley can do it, I can do it,” Draco said, shrugging.

I rolled my eyes at him, but would never admit that he was probably right. Ron was a capable wizard once he set his mind to something, and Draco was very much the same. I had to admit that I was interested to see how the Slytherins fared at lessons.

Chapter Text

We decided to build a new hut instead of heading back to the beach for the night.

After convincing them that they’d want to put their clothes back on for work, I showed the Slytherins my process. Of how I judged what bamboo to use, and how long I wanted it cut, and then I demonstrated how to cast the Slicing Hex wandlessly, sure to express the need for constant caution. I wouldn’t teach Seamus this wandless spell if it cured world hunger.

Neither man had any success with it at first, and I ended up cutting all of the bamboo for the floor myself. We moved it to the beach, and began to lay it out, planning the dimensions of the floor, and deciding we'd make this one even larger than my first. With that being the case, I had them try the Slicing Hex again so we could add more bamboo to the floor. Draco failed once more, but Theo managed to knick a single piece of bamboo just a tad. He'd celebrated like he'd cut down the entire forest.

This was also endearing. And, somehow, so was Draco’s glaring thereafter.

I said to him, “Hexes may not be your strong suit, Malfoy. We may have to start with Charms. I'll have you try the Sticking Charm when it comes time to put everything together, alright?”

The blonde nodded, and he and I turned to watch as Theo successfully cut a single piece of bamboo down, then do a victory dance.

It turned out that I had been right. Draco’s wandless Hex magic wasn't a thing yet, but he managed to make the Sticking Charm work almost perfectly by the time we finished putting in the platform supports, which had taken two full trees and many well-executed Slicing Hexes to create. I’d been exhausted after and had to take a dip to cool off.

I Conjured more ropes, and we tied everything together before using the charm to stick the ropes to the wood. I didn't want to leave the entire structure to magical chance. Even Hogwarts had mortar in its infrastructure.

We got the floor laid down, and as the men folk enjoyed a break on the wall-less platform, I walked around the outer edges and leveled them, slicing them to be flush. I was interested to see how much different it would be to build a house with corners. The yurt had been easy enough to do on my own. It had been almost like weaving a giant basket that I’d plastered with mud.

“You’re going to burn, Dray,” Theo said to his mate as he laid back on the floor.

Draco remained sitting, looking down at his friend with a shrug, and he said, “I’ll just use one of these.” He pulled a vial of the healing draught he’d brewed. I’d watched him pack some for our trip without me even having to ask him.

“If you insist on looking like a miserable, blonde Weasley, be my guest,” was Theo’s answer.

I rolled my eyes, and frowned at him, even though he couldn’t see me from where I stood.

“Thanks so much for the concern, mother,” Draco said, annoyed.

“I'm just looking out for you.”

“You don’t need to.”

“Bollocks.”

“Bollocks?! If anything, I have to look out for you.”

“Lies.”

“Whatever, dude. Remember that time with the vampire bloke?”

“That was a fluke.”

“Or the salt vampire chick?”

“Honest mistake.”

“Cannibal Veela.”

“No one could have been ready for that.”

I blinked at them. I had so many questions.

“Fair. That’s fair. Still. We’re two and O.”

“O? Two and O!? What about Greece, hm, Dray? You almost got snatched up by a group of randy muses!”

“I already told you that you could have left me to die there. I would have been fine.”

Theo chuckled.

“So… you both have a long history of being magnets for unfortunate shite as well, huh?” I asked. Theo rolled over to look at me, and Draco smirked. “And here I thought that it was my terrible luck that brought us here.”

They looked at each other, pulling faces, for Draco to turn back to me and say, “What? This has “Hermione Granger’s Bullshit” written all over it.”

I scoffed, my mouth hanging open indignantly, and I said, “How dare you! It could very well be your “bullshit”.”

“Do you want to make a bet?” Theo said, sitting up.

I lowered my lids at them, because they were giving me looks of pure mischief. I suddenly wished I hadn’t commented when Draco asked, “What? Scared of a little wager?”

I openly glared at them.

“Never took you for a chicken,” Theo said in my silence.

Draco glanced at him, seeming surprised that Theo would call me this. I can honestly say that I, too, was taken aback at his brazen claim. So much so that I didn’t even scold him for it. I was floored by their courage, to be honest. They probably made each other brave, feeding off one another to vex and harass me.

“I figured you’d be teaming to prove that you had nothing to do with this,” Draco added.

Their smirks were something else. Just pure chaos.

I lifted a brow, saying, “There’s no way to prove that until we’re saved.” They shrugged at my attempt at a dismissal. When they looked like they weren’t going to give up, I sighed and asked, “What would the terms be, then?”

The two dodgy punks turned away from me and huddled close. They started whispering to one another, and I kept working. I wasn’t ready to listen in on whatever ideas they had until they had something they felt was solid. I had work to do, and didn’t need to be distracted by their silly nonsense any longer than I already was.

By the time I finished trimming the southern edge of the floor, they were still talking, so I turned and walked back toward the woods to start looking for another one of those trees with the huge leaves. I had the thought of making one of the walls out of them entirely. Probably the one that faced the water so we could lift them for air and to enjoy the beautiful view.

As I walked, I started thinking about what I would bet if the two on the platform thought of something worthwhile. I kind of doubted they would. They’d probably force me to do their homework, or something else equally inane. But what could I possibly want from either of them? The only thing they had that I didn't have was a ton of money. They’d probably offer that, and I wouldn’t take it. Sure, I wasn't rich, but I didn't need blood money from a Malfoy or a Nott. I’d rather shite in my own shoes.

“Oh, yeah! Always Be My Baby!” I suddenly remembered the Mariah Carey video I’d been thinking of earlier. I sang, “You'll always be a part of me. I'm part of you indefinitely. Boy don't you know you can't escape me, oh darlin' 'cause you'll always be my baby.”

I kept singing as I went. I even did a little jiggy, which turned into a full on victory dance as I spotted a big-leaf tree. It was so whimsical, and brought me joy. I went to it, and after inspecting it for big spiders, and relocating the ones I found, I grabbed some leaves and drug them back to camp.

On my way back to camp, I met the Slytherins as they came to find me, and Theo said, “We’ve thought of the perfect terms.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. This ought to be good. “Oh, really? Pray tell, what have you two come up with, then?”

“If you win,” Theo began, “we will put a thousand galleons each toward whatever charity you choose. You may choose more than one, or we can donate it all to your favorite cause.”

I considered this, because they must have considered the fact that I’d shove every galleon they tried to slip me down their throats. But giving it to a charity of my choice..? I could get behind that.

“And if we win,” Draco started when I didn’t immediately tell them to get stuffed, “you have to sit at Slytherin table with us for lunch every day for a month.”

My eyes went a little wide. I hadn’t expected this as their terms, I will admit. I thought it was going to be something a little more… scandalous? Not like that, but I thought that they’d choose something along the lines of using my status to get them out of trouble with McGonagall. Or get Draco in good with Kingsley so that he could be released from probation in June when his review was up. Having lunch with them would cause a scandal, yes, but it was a harmless request all in all. Sure, they were still using my influence, because they would probably be treated better if I was friendly with them publicly, but that was the point of a bet, right? They had to get something out of it.

I pretended to think long and hard about what they said, even though I was in instant agreement on those being acceptable parameters. Finally I nodded, and they grinned like Cheshire cats.

“Don’t look so pleased!” I chided. “You look like you’ve already won.”

“I’m sorry, but your track record implies that this is most definitely your fault,” Draco said with his irritating smirk.

I scowled.

“It’s alright,” Theo continued, earning him my death glare next. “We know you would never choose to be anywhere but chin-deep in books. We already forgive you, Granger.”

“But if you could leave us out of your shite next time, we’d appreciate it,” Draco finished.

Those fucking smirks. I took a deep breath, because their expressions weren’t cute at the moment. I wanted to slap them across their annoying faces.

But instead of choosing violence, I chose my own chaos, saying, “How am I to know that this wasn’t some convoluted ruse put on by you two arseholes to get me alone?”

Their expressions were priceless. They were shocked. Mortified at my implication. It was hilarious. Their faces were red hot, and neither could keep their widened eyes on me very long before looking at anything but me. Then they both started spouting nonsense at the same time.

"I- Wh- What?! I would- never-”

“You can’t be serious! He- I would never dream-”

“- consider me completely fucking mental if I-”

“- and it’s not like that, you know? We just- grabbed a cauldron-”

“-since you don’t know us, I guess I-”

“- not be here. I’d rather be in my own bloody bed!”

“Alright! Alright! I believe you didn’t do anything intentionally,” I said loudly, because both of their tones had started to rise as they continued to speak over each other. That accusation had sent them spiraling instantly. The embarrassment that showed all over their features was something I’d never forget.

It was very telling.

They might not have asked for this, but they weren’t complaining anymore either. In fact, they both had been very attentive all day, which was so different from our rocky start. There had to be a reason why they gave me so many looks that lingered, and why they teased me while smiling those devilish smirks.

I looked to my feet at the revelation I had been trying to push away since the night before, during our “pillow talk”, before I’d become too embarrassed to face them. I slid between the two, avoiding their gazes and I headed back to Camp 2, and I had to bite back the swelling feeling in my chest at the possibility that these two dummies might actually fancy me.

It was so mind-blowing, I chuckled in disbelief.

Chapter Text

So. Here we were, our third night on the island, sitting in our new shack, and the three of us were trying to define the limits of my wandless Conjuring out of boredom. I had quite the pile of stuff stacking up.

So far, we had five candles of different colors and shapes, an owl-feather quill, an ink well, and parchment. I tried Conjuring myself new clothes, and got a pair of granny-panties. Theo had laughed heartily as he’d told me to try on the large knickers. I'd lobbed them at his head. We had a pile of nails and no hammer, which was the same result I'd gotten a few days ago when I tried to stick-build my house that had to be altered into a bamboo yurt when I couldn't Conjure a hammer for anything.

Then I’d Accio’d our makeshift cauldron, and had waited for quite a while for the giant bowl to come flying at my face from the darkness. We were currently boiling water in our centered, lowered fire pit for the Earl Grey tea bags I’d purposefully called for. I also managed three tea cups. They were all different, one being the size of my head, which Theo had called dibs on. I also got some sugar cubes, which was a nice surprise. I put them on a good-sized leaf that acted as a plate as we waited for the water.

I was happy when Hogwarts: A History appeared when I tried to Conjure a book. Any book. Three days without my studies have been all well and good because I’d been busy trying to survive. But now that we were relaxing in the warm night air, the men idly watched the scenery and nightlife while I read our only book out loud, I was happy to have the book I'd read a hundred times. Apparently, neither of them had finished the text. When I got grumbles of disappointment, I told them it was part of attending Hermione’s School for the Magically Challenged, and they frowned their displeasure as they reluctantly listened to the first two chapters.

I set a flower I'd picked earlier between the pages as a bookmark, and set the text down, saying, “I’m going to go loo, then I’m getting back on the swing.”

“Oh, hell yeah. Night swim!” Draco said in relief.

“Thanks, Professor Granger, for finally putting us out of our misery,” Theo said, laying on his back dramatically, playing dead.

I rolled my eyes. “I thought you two were secretly swots. How have you gone this long without reading Hogwarts: A History?”

Draco shrugged as Theo said, “Because we already know all of that stuff.”

The blonde added softly, seeming to tread lightly, “We knew all about Hogwarts before we even started reading.”

I felt a little silly, because of course they did. They were born and raised around this knowledge. It was commonplace for them.

“Oh,” I said. Then, to change the awkwardness that lingered in the three-walled room, or perhaps even in me alone, I said, “OK. Well. Loo and night swim, then.”

I stood and left, happy to be out of the hut, for I now felt foolish. And, for about the hundredth time since attending Hogwarts, I wondered how far ahead I'd be if I’d been given the opportunities the Purebloods spurned. My companions were the worst of them all, as they were trust-fund babies. They never had to wonder about the other side, because their side, the only one they’d ever known, was covetted by all those around them. Why ever would they need to become strong if everything was provided for them whether they were capable or not? There was no necessity in them pushing themselves beyond the limits like I had to- or, at least felt I had to- to succeed.

The thought irritated me, as usual. But I wasn't really mad at them. Not so much these days. I was more angry at society and the world in general, and how unfair it was most of the time. Not that I expected life to be fair… It was just nice to think about it being so from time to time. Sometimes, I told myself that the Universe didn't need another all-powerful being, so it had decided I was to be born to Muggle parents instead of Magical ones. It helped me sleep at night.

I found a place off to the side of the cliffs to pee, and then walked to the pond, mesmerized by the half-moon’s reflection on the smooth, glassy surface. It was almost regrettable that I was about to fuck it up.

I tested the water with my toes, sending ripples out in a half circle, finding it to be nearly as warm as it had been when the sun was up. I'd put my shirt and skirt back on when the sun had begun to go down, the cool air on the sunburn on my back chilling me. I'd taken a bit of one of the healing draughts Draco had brought since, and was now feeling much better. Well enough for me to take my clothes off again. I was once again in my bra and knickers, and I ran into the water until the resistance at my thighs forced me to go down onto my stomach. I began to swim toward the darkness at the center of the pond, toward the rope swing. The water cooled many degrees as I swam over the extra-dark spot, realizing how strange it was that I wasn't afraid of what was under there, but I still hadn't found the guts to jump off the cliff yet.

I was glad, again, that the men hadn't harassed me to join them when they'd gone earlier. My stomach dropped the first time the two had taken a running jump from the cliff. It was like watching Draco and Harry nose dive for the snitch. Their screams, though happy, didn't help either. It made my nerves react, for I had been transported back to the night of Battle.

I may have accumulated some PTSD I needed to talk to someone about. When we got home, of course. Like, with a professional.

The men had only asked me once if I'd wanted to try jumping, only for me to tell them there was a reason why I never joined the Quidditch team. Well, it was my fear of heights and the fact that brooms hated me because of my timidity. The magic imbued in the wood could feel that I never actually wanted to fly them. It always made them act all skiwampus, and then I’d become even more nervous.

I made it to the opposite bank, walking up the sand and onto the little path we'd made earlier along the grass to the overhang. With a deep breath and a little concentration, I cast a Ventus at the swing, sending the seat flying out towards the waterfall, and I caught it on its way to shore. I looked to my right as I heard the water splash. The Slytherins were taking the long way around, walking the curve of the beach in the bright moonlight, kicking the water about with each step. They were talking loudly about something I couldn’t hear over their splashing, and I looked away when Draco laughed.

He full-on laughed, throwing his head back and all. He looked really good like that… Happy.

And Theo wore what was probably the most dashing smile on the planet, with that damn dimple of his…

I pulled back for a running jump, and found getting onto the swing was much easier this time. I enjoyed the rushing cold air as I let the swing take me back and forth, and very soon I found myself trapped in my thoughts again. Gods, it was dangerous in here. I about gave myself a heart attack thinking about what it would be like to touch either one of them, as I’d been avoiding thinking about doing half the day, and the fact that I knew neither of them would tell me to stop if I tried.

All evening, all afternoon, I’d been catching looks from them both. It was starting to wear me down. How on Earth was I going to deal with the emotions and urges coursing through me when we were stranded on an island with not a single soul to tell us to behave otherwise? We could let go, and get crazy, and that could all exist within the realm of the island…

But that’s fucking crazy talk. I didn’t need to think about those two in that-

“Hey,” Draco’s voice sounded from behind me, on the bank, pulling me out of my thoughts with a jolt. I hadn’t even realized they’d made it. I’d been thinking of them, yes, but I was also trying to avoid looking at them while I fantasized about us sticking the two mats together in the hut and just making one big bed that none of us had to leave for a while.

With no warning whatsoever, the blonde reached out, wrapped his arm around my middle, and grabbed the rope at my front, successfully pausing my swing. My back was to his bare chest, and I felt the air in my lungs evacuate at the feeling of having another body so close to mine. Not since my fever had he allowed his touch to linger, and so the feeling of warm, strong arms around me made me freeze in shock. My previous thought-train also helped nil.

And when Theo reached out to help Draco hold me, his own hand locked onto the rope above the blonde’s, resting just below my breasts, I stopped breathing all together. My eyes grew wide as the two held me still with their bodies.

There was a rush of blood so loud in my ears I barely heard the little squeak of surprise I gave at the feeling of being held by them, and my breath was caught in my throat despite my mouth hanging open. I looked between them, their faces close to my own, and even in the low light of the moon coming down from the trees I could see the obvious heat and mischief in their eyes.

Wait. Mischief?

In as little time as it had taken for them to surround me, Draco had his free arm around my middle, pulling me off the swing and into his chest.

“What the fuck?” I asked, and then did so again when Theo dipped low to take hold of my ankles. Then the world did a little tip as Draco let my upper body slide down his so that he could catch my wrists, and then they started swinging me between them. I gasped, then screamed, “You pricks!”, as they chucked me into the water.

Instead of surfacing right away so that I could yell about how I thought their mothers were hoes, despite having quite a bit more respect for Mrs. Malfoy these days, I stayed submerged. My damn face had gone and gotten red again. My brain had blanked out when they’d put their bodies to mine, and therefore I hadn’t had any clue as to what their motives had initially been. But I hadn’t expected them to toss me overboard as easily as a bag of litter, and I was now embarrassed by my body's reaction to feeling both sets of their hands on me. I had become instantly hot. All over.

It was humiliating.

So I tried to drown myself for a little while as I let the blush leave my skin in the cool darkness of the water. I attempted to kill the image of both of them hovering over me, their faces so close their breath was on my neck and chest. I hoped the memory of the shudder I’d given at their heat pressed into my cool skin would die down here, and I could leave its corpse, never to see the light of day again.

That didn’t happen, of course, but I am happy to announce that my blush was gone by the time I broke the surface. I glared at them where they still stood on the bank. Theo smiled, and Draco smirked, and I splashed at them as I said, “That was unnecessary.”

Draco chuckled, and said, “We thought it was hilarious.”

“Wanna go again?” Theo asked cheekily.

I gave them a two-finger salute. There was no way I’d want them to touch me after that, because I wasn’t sure I could keep my hands to myself if they got that close again.

Chapter Text

With my little black teacup in hand, I relaxed with my book while the Slytherins went to use the bathroom and gather more leaves so that I could make beds for the new hut.

I decided, after Accioing the cauldron, it would take about the same amount of time to wait for both of them to fly across the island from the beach, and I'd have to catch those, too. I'd told the men that I would have gone with them to help keep them from falling spiders, only for them to wrap their blankets over their heads and walk off with a candle for each of them, saying they’d be safe and back in no time.

I was happy for the moment alone to think, even though I was aware of how dangerous that was right now. After our night swim, I became so much more aware of both of them. Too aware. It was like my body knew where theirs were at all times, so having them gone was nice. I also felt apprehension at them returning. I wasn't comfortable with how my feelings were changing, becoming more worrisome every minute I spent in their presence. And, since we were forced to be around one another, there had been a lot of minutes like that.

Now that we were going to settle in for the night, and my troublesome mind had already focused on how unnecessary it was for separate sleeping arrangements a few too many times, I found that I wasn’t too keen to the idea of sleeping in the hut with them anymore. If it wasn’t already dark, I would have started hiking to the coastal camp so that I could spend some time alone. Without two slices of temptation walking around shirtless all day to keep me from thinking like an intelligent, rational, wise, and responsible human being.

Grabbing the bookmark-flower sitting beside me on the floor, I put it between the pages and closed the book. I set it on the floor beside me and sighed. I was too distracted to read, now, too. I'd read the same paragraph three times before calling it quits. That was enough times for me to know that trying any longer was a useless endeavor. They were consuming my every thought. It was so damn annoying.

I leaned my head back against the edge of the wall. I was sitting on what one may call the porch, and I'd decided to leave the ends of which free of stairs so that I could hang around with my feet dangling off the edge. I let my feet swing as I stared at the water and its reflection of the beautiful moon, my thoughts on the two absent Slytherins.

Honest to God, I had no clue what to do with them. What to do with me when I was around them. I didn’t know when I’d reached the point of no return, but I was already there. I was attracted to Draco Malfoy and Theordore Nott, and it had rendered me incapable of intelligent thought.

“-the bloody ring! It was! I swear!” came Theo’s distant voice. There was laughter in it.

“I don’t buy that shite for a fuckin’ second, T,” Draco answered. He too seemed to be laughing.

“Well that’s good, mate, because I wasn’t fucking selling it. It’s a fact.”

“Your ring ripped her dress? Bollocks!”

“It did! Do you think I’d do that on purpose?”

“I know a witch or two I’d rip a dress off of on purpose.”

Great… Just great… Like I needed that mental image.

“Don’t even get me started… Especially with that one witch in particular.”

Draco didn’t say anything to this, the two men going quiet as they walked around the hut from the other side. They held a blanket between them, and it was full to overflowing with different foods and herbs. They took the stairs together and then set the blanket down near the fire.

Then Theo said, “We left the leaves a little ways back. I’m gonna go get them.”

Draco and I nodded, and the raven-haired wizard took off back in the direction they’d come. I returned my eye to the water, because I became suddenly aware that this was the first time the blonde and I had ever been alone together. I wasn't sure if I should strike up a conversation with him or not. What should I talk about? The weather? No. That’s dumb.

I decided to get back to my reading, because I suspected it looked better than me staring off into space all red and dead-eyed. The blonde didn't say anything to me, either, but I caught him looking at me on two separate occasions.

When Theo got back, dragging a thick stack of leaves, I scolded myself the entire time I made our two separate mats. I was behaving like a knob, I knew it. But I couldn’t help it. The only thing I could control was my eyes. I kept them to myself, for the most part, the entire evening, even while we’d sat by the fire and chatted about nonsense. And when I gave a large yawn, I took the opportunity to break away from them, saying I was going to get ready for bed.

Somehow, even with my mind and body alight, I managed to fall asleep, and I had yet another strange dream…

This time, I was in a dark, cold cave. In my hand was a single candle, and it lit my path well enough for me to see a meter ahead. I didn’t know where I was going exactly, but I knew it was important. I knew my unease at being alone in the cave was insignificant. What mattered most was that I kept going, pushing through the fear and the dark.

Soon, I saw a small light up ahead. I picked up my pace, eventually breaking into a sprint. I was running so slowly, but I was making headway. The light was growing larger and larger, and I knew that if I reached it, we would be saved. We’d make it home. Theo and Draco weren’t with me, but I knew our way home, off of this island, lay at the end of the tunnel.

But I never found out what was there. I entered the well-lit cavern at the end, and woke with a loud gasp. I sat up, eyes snapping open in hopes of seeing what the dream had meant to show me, but I was met with darkness and the low glow of coals in the grate. I wiped at the cold sweat on my brow as I took in a deep breath.

“Hey,” came Draco’s voice from my right. I turned to him, though I couldn’t make either of them out in the darkness. “Are you ok?”

I nodded, then said urgently, “I had a dream. And- I- I think that… there was a cave.” I didn’t continue, because I realized how crazy this was going to sound. What was I going to say? ‘I think the dream I just had was trying to show me a way home.’ I know we lived in the world of magic, and almost anything was possible, but what I was going to say sounded ludicrously close to Divination, which I was still suspicious of. Trelawney may have been right that one time, but there was no conclusive evidence that the old girl wasn’t just sensitive, which is something you're born with, and therefore not something you can teach.

“Was that seriously the whole story?” Theo asked groggily.

I rolled my eyes and threw my covers back. I went to look out of the open wall, at the water, unable to shake the feeling that there was an answer to our dilemma right here on the island. If I could just find it. But where would I even begin to look? Was there an actual cave, or had it been a metaphor for something?

My eyes looked to the east, at the forest that blocked out all clues as to what lay beyond, and I decided that I would be taking a hike to the other side of the island when the sun was up.

“There’s something out there,” I finally said, my mind unable to think of anything but the unshakable feeling, the pull, within me. “I’m not sure where it is, or what it is, but there’s something on this island that I’m sure will take us home.” Then I began to divulge more. “I heard a voice, the day we arrived, right before the storm came. And then I heard it again this morning, while we were hiking on the ridge. And the dream I just had… I think they're connected. I need to go find it. I know I could find it if I-”

I was cut off when, out of the blue, and much to my horror and surprise, Draco’s arm snaked around my middle to lift my feet up off the floor. I stiffened, wide-eyed, only to force down a shriek as I found myself on my back on their larger mat, and in the same position I had been in before the blonde had torn me off the swing: stuck between two men who each had an arm around me.

“Gods, you talk so much,” Theo said from my right.

“Shut your mouth, Granger, and go back to sleep,” Draco added gruffly from my left.

Somehow, I stiffened even more as the lighter Slytherin snuggled closer to me and set his chin on my head, and the darker one set his lips crazy close to my temple and sighed contentedly. Their grips on my hip and side flexed occasionally as they relaxed back into sleep. I have no clue how. There was no way I could fall right back to sleep. My eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling, but I could definitely say I was not thinking about my haunting dream anymore. Now, all I could think about was my heart racing, and my insides knotting at the feeling of them gripping parts of me that made my skin feel like it was on fire.

It took quite a few minutes to pull myself together enough to try and slip out of their grasps. I went as slowly as I could, attempting to slide out of the bed by way of the end, behaving as if I was trying to limbo beneath their arms.

This didn’t work, of course. All it did was get me held tighter by them both, and Theo got even closer, his lips and nose now touching my temple as his light breathing fluttered in my ear and down my neck. And though it took a lot of self-control, like holding my own hands to keep them to myself, and a ton of giving up, I was asleep thirty minutes later.

I have to admit that it did feel good to finally get a hug, to be held and feel safe, even if I was red in the face the whole time.

Chapter Text

It was hot as Hades’s hair in the hut when I woke up. I was sweating bullets. I was sure it had something to do with the two warm, hard blankets I was wrapped in that breathed and had heartbeats.

…

My eyes opened, slowly, to confirm that the final memory I had before falling asleep was accurate.

Yep. I had been pulled into bed by the snakes, and they had constricted me between them with their strong arms. My face was in Theo’s chest, and Draco’s chest was at my back, his face in my hair and his mouth on my shoulder.

And both had morning wood.

Instantly, a thrum of desperate need ran through my body. I took a shaky breath to keep myself together as my body trembled, and then I sat up, tearing both of them from their slumber as I tried to dislodge my limbs from theirs. I ended up rubbing different parts of myself against… well, parts of themselves, which only made me more erratic.

“Oi!” Theo said, reaching out to grab my wrist as I flailed.

“Merlin! Don’t you ever relax?!” Draco asked me as he tried to pull his legs out from between mine and the blanket.

“I don’t know how to do that,” I said. “Sorry. It’s the one thing I consistently fail at.” I pulled myself free enough to mostly stand and step off the mat.

Sweet. Fuckin’. Freedom.

I was going to have to go take another try at “living” at the bottom of the pool, because I was now going to have to forget that both of them had big dicks. And how it had felt to have both of them pressing into my bum and stomach, hard and relentless as they’d ground themselves into me in their sleep.

I had the stark realization that that had been what woke me up.

I shuddered, and not, let me repeat, not in disgust.

Out of habit I began to stoke the fire, Accioing wood from the burn pile and building the flames up before I grabbed the heavy cauldron and started walking to the falls. I refused to look at them right now. They were undeniably sexy upon waking, and I didn’t need a reminder that I was slowly but surely losing the battle against my hormones.

I was running at less than full brain capacity, and it was all because they’d decided to stop acting like complete cunts and be nice to me. For three days. That’s all it took. Three bloody days of them behaving like real human beings, and I was smitten. I vibrated at the thought of being with them like that, and it was so much worse now that I’d felt what it was like for them to hold me. The kisses they’d given me in their sleep were torture to my senses. I still felt Draco’s lips on my shoulder, and Theo’s on my temple.

What a fucking problem…

It was a fucking problem. I didn’t need to be spending so much time focusing on them, when I could be using my “big, wrinkly brain” to find a way off of this island.

I froze in my steps, because it was as if my brain was mocking my heart by reminding me, suddenly, that I may have already figured out a way out of here, but I’d been so distracted by the Slytherins that I had completely forgotten about my dream. I was to hike to the eastern shore so I could find whatever it was that had been calling to me, but my mind had been muddled by the prospect of dick, and that was a fucking problem!

I sighed, deeply disappointed in myself, and I filled the cauldron with water before slowly returning to the hut. Draco had gone back to sleep again, but Theo was sitting up in bed, leaning up against the wall, reading Hogwarts: A History. I rolled my eyes, because he looked so goddamn sexy, sitting shirtless in bed and reading in the light of the morning sun.

What an arshole…

I was so, so, so screwed, and I knew then that I had to make a decision.

“Sleep well?” The raven-haired man asked me as I took the steps up to the bamboo platform. He had that smirk of his directed right at me over the top of the book.

I set the cauldron in the pit, near the flames, and went to our new table to Conjure tea bags as I answered, “Yes.”

This wasn’t a lie. Until the “massage” I’d received from them this morning, I’d slept like the dead. There had been no dreams or restlessness. I felt rested, even if a bit frayed at the edges now.

“You?” I asked, curious despite myself.

“I did,” was his easy answer. “Oh. And guess what?” The bastard… I turned back to look at him at this, which was just so unfair. Draco looked like an angel when he was sleeping, and Theo looked like a devil when he said, with a smirk and one brow raised, “I didn't stand up to grab this book.”

I grinned at him, which he returned, and I held out my hand, my magic snatching the book from him and pulling it into my palm.

With my brow raised at him in a challenge, Theo smirked, held his hand out and said, “Accio book.”

The tome flew from my hand and back to his.

“Impressive work, Mr. Nott,” I said with a pleasant nod in his direction. He smiled his pleasure at my praise, and I intentionally ruined it by adding, “But if you want to truly impress me, you'll learn to do it wordlessly.”

He didn't seem discouraged at this. If anything, he looked more determined as he nodded, that smirk of his and that dimple hitting me right in the ovaries.

Again, the urge to wedge myself between the two on their mat was too strong.

I turned away as quickly as I could without looking like I was doing so in an attempt to keep my clothes on, and I Scourgifed our cups and divvied out tea bags in each before I heard Draco give a loud yawn. I glanced back, watching the blonde wipe the sleep from his eyes. He sat up, only for me to turn away from him when he smiled at me lightly, innocently. He was genuinely happy to see me upon waking.

Shit…

“Morning, lad,” Theo said to his mate.

Draco answered him with a big yawn, “Morning, you twat.”

“I take it you didn’t sleep well, then?” Theo asked with a chuckle.

“Nah. I slept great. Had a good dream and all. You simply ruined it with your face.”

“My face didn’t ruin anything. You’re just shite at waking up.”

Draco snorted his amusement.

“I was thinking,” I interjected as I got myself under control, “that we could spend today brewing some potions? Maybe we could stock up on some important ones?”

“I think we should make wine, personally. But potions work, too,” Theo said. He stood and sauntered over to stand close to my shoulder as he reached around me to grab his massive blue tea cup with the three tea bags necessary for him to fill it, as he’d asked me to do for him yesterday.

I looked up and over my shoulder at him, and frowned as he gave me his playful smirk. Were they ever going to grow tired of vexing me?

“May I just say that I grow increasingly impressed by your teaching abilities?” the raven-haired man asked me as he counted the tea bags in his cup.

I ignored the painful hammering of my heart against my ribcage as I said, “I think you could say it more often, honestly.”

His smirk turned into a smile as he nodded, saying, “I'll be sure to do that, Professor.”

I swear to Merlin his eyes dropped to my lips for a second.

But I didn't have much time to think about this before I felt Draco at my back, reaching around my other side to grab his coral-colored cup. I turned to look up at him as my body stiffened, and he gave me a small smirk of his own while his eyes scanned my face.

Then, just like that, they both backed away and went to sit by the fire and watched the water boil. I took a shaky breath, and I let my eyes glance out the open wall and toward the east, a plan forming in my mind.

Chapter Text

“I see a bad moon rising,” I sang as I started my descent into the valley that would take me to the eastern beach. And, as luck would have it, there was a storm brewing. I could only see the tops of the dark clouds through the trees. Still, I didn't turn around. I continued, “I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lighting...”

I felt guilty. I really did. Which was just as confusing as anything else since I probably would have boldly lied to both of their faces about the color of the sky a week ago.

I had left them behind. I'd told them to go find ingredients, packed my shite, and I left.

But I had to be able to concentrate right now. When those two were around me anymore, all I could think about was inappropriate things that wouldn’t save us from this island. What was more important than anything was us getting home safe and sound, and I felt, in my gut, that I was heading in the right direction.

The Slytherins would be well into brewing the potion by the time they realized I’d gone. If they were going to follow me, it would have to be through the spider forest without a ward, and it was very likely that, if they managed that, they’d probably go in the wrong direction. They'll undoubtedly try the beach hut first. By the time they got there, I’d already be on the beach on the opposite side of the island.

I pushed away the guilt, and the fear I could no longer deny at the thought of them recklessly walking about the island in search of me. I really hoped that that infamous “Slytherin self-preservation” struck them, and they decided to stay put while they trusted I could handle myself. I'd packed three of the seven remaining healing draughts, which was about as safe as I could get, and my book. I could find food, or make a shelter. I could do enough spells to keep me alive. They knew that now.

Still, I hoped they stayed at Camp 2.

The way down to the eastern beach was a treacherous bitch. I almost twisted my ankle, got my hair badly snagged by a very rude flower bush, and slid down an embankment, scratching and bruising up my arse. I got a shoe stuck in the mud and had to do a one-legged hop to the other side of the river before I could Accio it, only for the mud to splatter in my face as I caught it. A bird flew into my hair, I watched a spider eat a snake, and I had to sidle past a pack of monkeys who'd eyed me like I was trespassing. I was, of course. I knew that much. But it hadn't kept me from sending a bit of fire out of my palm when one of the larger males looked to be ready to pounce. My display of power had stopped them from attacking, but I could tell they still wanted to.

To save time, I repelled down a cliff-face that I didn’t want to know the height of. I had tears hanging from my chin by the time I made it down, and my legs trembled so badly I didn’t even care to gather the rope. I just slowly “walked” away to lean against a tree and gain control of myself again. I'd had to lie down eventually, just to stabilize my entire form, for sitting didn't quite cut it.

Then, at one point, after I’d managed to start walking again, I could swear I heard what I could only guess was an explosion. I couldn’t tell where it had come from. It echoed all around me, and I felt my worry for the Slytherins double. I told myself, to keep myself moving forward, that the sound could have been the crashing of a large boulder falling off the cliff after I’d loosened it on my descent.

That didn’t settle me any, if I’m honest. I abhorred heights. But I pretended it was more comforting than something happening to either of the men.

Even through all of this, I refused to turn back. I refused to look at all of these hurdles as anything but. I would not give in to thinking the Universe was trying to tell me to turn back; return to the safety of the oasis; forget about rescue and the world beyond, and live here forever.

All that I could decipher from my trudge was that I must be going the right way, otherwise this would have been easy. The only things worth having are earned through hard work, and I was going to earn it, dammit. I was going to get us home if it was the last thing I did.

By the time I began to feel the temperature drop due to the storm ahead, the sun was starting to set. I had about an hour before hiking would be dangerous and I'd have to find somewhere to bunker down for the night. Still, I kept going, determined to get as far as possible before I was forced to stop. And it was twenty minutes later that I heard the sound of crashing waves not far ahead.

I took off at a run, excitement coursing through me as I jumped roots and avoided gnarled branches, and when I finally saw the eastern beach, a hand went to my mouth as I gasped. The sand was red, and in the setting sunlight it looked almost like blood. It was eerily beautiful.

Dropping the pack I'd fashioned from my blanket to the rocky beach at my feet, I took in a deep breath and walked to the water's edge to look out over the ocean as lightning lit up the sky. This storm looked so much worse. So, so much worse, and this was the first time I felt real regret leaving the men behind. There was no way I could make it back to them now. They were going to have to make due without me for at least a day, if not two or even three.

My stomach dropped at the thought, and I worried my lip with my teeth, then sang, “I hear hurricanes a-blowin'. I know the end is coming soon. I fear rivers overflowing... I hear the voice of rage and ruin.”

A strong wind whipped past me, blowing through my shirt, blowing my skirt up to my stomach, and tore my hair around my face. As it died, I heard a voice. I froze, my back rigid as I tuned in to the sounds around me.

Then I heard it again, only this time, it said, “Granger!”

I turned on the spot, my eyes wide and mouth open as I watched the Slytherins stalk out of the forest some ways down the beach. I was in such a state of disbelief that I didn't move, or even speak as they came to stand before me. Words were stuck further in my throat as I saw how angry they were. They were more cross than I'd ever seen either of them. Their eyes burned.

“Oh, shite,” I mumbled as they reached me.

“What the fuck, Hermione!? Are you actually mental?!” Theo yelled at me over the wind. His green eyes looked particularly dark at the moment, abandoning their jade hue for a more emerald one that sparkled dangerously.

“You left us behind! Again! You arsehole!” Draco's voice shook with rage, and I noted that his eyes were like mercury once more.

Man. They were livid. It may have had mostly something to do with me, but I’m sure the rips in their uniforms and the dirt that covered the entire lower half of their trousers also had something to do with it. They’d survived a rough hike.

“What were you thinking? You could have died out there! Draco had to Confringo some monkeys so they wouldn't eat us!” Ah. So that was what that explosion was. “And that cliff! I thought you said you were afraid of heights!”

“What did we do, hm?” Draco didn’t have to yell his anger. He chose to get his face close to mine as he growled, “Did we do something to anger you again? So much so that we deserved to be left behind while you- you- do whatever the fuck it is you think you’re doing!?”

“It doesn't matter if we did, Dray,” Theo cut the blonde off, then pointed at me as he said, “You don't get to leave us behind anymore! Alright? We're all in this together! You don't get to decide when that ends, because it doesn't end until we're home.”

“What the fuck, huh?” Draco continued. “Do you still hate us, or something? How could you leave without saying anything?! That's fucked up, Granger!”

“Well? What have you got to say for yourself?” Theo asked as I remained silent. “Go on, then.”

I could only stare up at them. They were both extremely close to me, because I'd been frozen to the spot as they'd advanced. I still couldn't move, nor could I talk. Their expressions and proximity had done something to me. And the fact that I had been happy to see them hadn't helped either. They could be angry all they wanted. I was just glad that they were here.

Gods, I could be unreasonable at times.

“Oh, what?” Draco asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Learn how to finally shut your trap? Today of all days?”

“How- how did you find me?” was what I finally managed, which was definitely the wrong answer.

Theo threw his hands up at the sky and gave a growl of frustration, and Draco glowered at me, saying, “You aren't half as slick as you think you are. You'd been looking in this direction all bloody morning.”

I cringed, because he wasn’t wrong.

“We realized you weren't coming back when we noticed the book was gone,” Theo added.

A crack of thunder sounded, one so loud it seemed to shake the whole beach. I jumped, turning to watch as a streak of lightning fell from the sky and struck the open ocean. It was a terrifyingly powerful thing to witness.

“Ah, fuck. Not again,” Draco said. Then he took me by the hand and started dragging me along the sand. I looked at him, confused, then back over my shoulder to see Theo head back to grab my pack.

Without letting me go, Draco pulled me toward the cliff face that lay far to the north of us along the beach. Soon, Theo fell in step beside us, and even though he didn't hold my other hand, he stayed close to my side as we went. There had been a time or two I thought to pull my hand from Draco's, but his grip was rather tight. I supposed I'd brought it upon myself by leaving them. Now he was holding onto me as if to tether me to them; to keep me near and to keep me from running off like a delinquent child.

I suppose I kind of am a delinquent child. I'd definitely been known to be capable of delinquency in the not-so-distant past.

It was after five or so minutes of walking that we made it to the red and black cliff, where we found an overhang that blocked some of the wind from the east. It was up the beach a ways from the water, not too close to the tree line. As long as there wasn't a hurricane, we'd be fine here for the night, but I already knew we'd have to find shelter farther inland in the morning.

Without me even needing to ask them, the men started gathering materials to build a protective wall to the south. With some bamboo, plenty of my favorite leaves, and lots of rope and magic, we made a makeshift shelter. We stocked it with food, firewood and extra materials for me to make a large mat that acted as a floor covering for the red sand beneath us. I finished it off with a large curtain to act as the fourth wall, sticking it to the bamboo on one side and the cliff face on the other.

As the darkness settled around us, we three kicked off our shoes and sat on the mat in our little alcove. Once I'd started a good-sized fire, I settled with a sigh, finally looking at the men who reclined against a stack of pillows I’d Transfigured. One of them had come out actually feeling like a pillow this time, which had lifted my spirits some.

“Alright, witch,” Draco said with glare as he got extra comfortable, looking like some irate, entitled king as he scrutinized me. “You owe us an explanation.”

“And it better be fucking good,” Theo said with a frown, scooting to sit closer to his friend so that their royal highnesses could glare at me together.

I was in so much trouble.

Thunder sounded once more, and as it ended, the first pattering of raindrops could be heard on our southern wall.

“Well…” I began. “You see. What happened was-”

Chapter Text

“- I heard a voice on the wind our first day here, while I was walking around looking for you lot and sending up flares. I thought it had been you two calling for me, so I didn't think anything of it. Then, when we were hiking to the swim spot, when I stopped walking on the ridge and told you both to shut it?” They nodded, remembering the interaction. “I heard it then, too. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, or where it was coming from, let alone what the words were.

“Then last night, I had that dream-”

“The one that woke you up?” Theo asked. “And, in turn, woke us up?

“The one that made me bring you to our bed so we could swaddle you back to sleep?” Draco asked.

“You’re like an infant that keeps startling itself awake,” Theo added unnecessarily.

“Yes. That one,” I said with a frown, even though my face was hot from their mentioning something we hadn’t spoken about yet, as well as, unwittingly, poking fun at the shite sleep I’d been getting since the war. More symptoms of the PTSD that I needed to divulge to a professional and not my childhood enemies.

They went silent once more, watching me expectantly, so I continued.

“The dream started with me in this cave. It had a tunnel system that went deep into the mountain,” I jabbed my thumb in the direction of the volcano, “and even though I’ve never been there before, I knew where I was going. I eventually saw this light at the end, like a pinprick, and I started doing that slow, underwater running you do in dreams. You know.”

Theo nodded, and Draco said, “I don’t fucking move at all sometimes.”

“Ugh... I hate that,” Theo lamented.

I nodded, because same, then went on, “I eventually made it to the end of the tunnel, and that was when I woke up. But the whole time I was walking and running, I knew that whatever was at the end of the tunnel would take us home. I’m not sure if it was a metaphor or not, but I really felt like the tunnel was here, on the island. Like, a real place.”

“And since we hadn’t been over this way yet you came to look for it.” Draco finished for me.

I nodded, saying, “Bingo, boyo.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you left without saying anything to us,” Theo said, his lids lowered at me.

I looked away from them both and back into the fire. I didn’t want to admit what I was about to, but I knew if I was going to then I couldn’t do it with my eyes on them. I wasn’t sure their reaction would be completely positive. I hoped it would be.

So, with a deep breath, I said, “I left you behind because you’ve both been- very distracting. I forgot I’d even had that dream when I woke up this morning because all I could think about was what it had felt like to wake up between you. I didn’t even care to think about finding a way off the island because I was too busy thinking about you two touching me.

“I felt like if I didn't leave you behind at camp, then I’d be busy thinking about- well… whether or not you both fancied me, instead of important stuff like safely repelling down that cliff, or setting wards for the Weavers. Or figuring out a way to get home. So I’m sorry for not being honest with you and telling you what I was doing. I was feeling too embarrassed earlier to tell y-”

My confession was cut off by both men grabbing me and pulling me toward them. They had me on my back in a second, the two of them virtually on top of me as they each rested on an elbow, their free hands on my stomach and hip.

I stopped breathing immediately.

“Ok. I have to admit that that was almost a good enough reason,” Theo said to me with a smirk.

The two hovered over me, and I felt myself become instantly hot around the collar at the way they were looking down at me. Like they were trying to figure out where to start ripping me into shreds.

“She thinks we’re distracting,” Draco said to Theo, who rolled his green eyes along their full track.

“She doesn’t have to watch herself walk around in her knickers,” Theo said to his mate, for him to then turn to me and say, “You have made it impossible to think of anything but you this entire time.”

“It’s maddening,” Draco added before he leaned over to set his open mouth to my neck, and I finally exhaled a whined breath.

My body erupted with goosebumps, from my legs to my neck where his tongue was laving my skin. I gave a moan, only for Theo to absorb the sound with his mouth, swallowing the higher note at the end that I’d given at the pure shock of feeling both of their mouths on me. My hands grasped at whatever I could find, shirts, shoulders; one hand found purchase at the back of Theo’s neck, holding him to me and deepening our kiss while Draco left a trail of love bites down my neck to my chest.

My body was fire. I was melting. I was the Wicked Witch, and they were water. I knew that I was going to enjoy their touch, but holy God. Feeling them hold me between them while their mouths moved on me was so, so, so much better than I could have imagined. Already, I knew that I was in for the sex of my life.

One of the blonde’s hands went up my shirt, holding onto the curve of my waist as he sucked on my skin. Theo’s free hand went up near Draco’s, and it took a few seconds for me to realize he was unbuttoning my shirt. He pulled back to look at me questioningly as I stiffened at the revelation, causing Draco pause as well.

Both of their eyes were on me, asking me if this was ok. I was trembling in both uncertainty and excitement, but the excitement was stronger.

I broke free from them, sitting up and turning to be on my knees, my back to the fire. I moved my hands up to my shirt and undid the buttons myself, and then let it drop from my right arm to the mat. This must have answered their question, because they both went to their knees, and Draco reached out to grab my face and pull me in for his own kiss, his soft lips destroying the majority of my remaining apprehension. I didn’t even care that Theo had unzipped my skirt so that it could fall about my knees, his hands exploring my body as Draco lost his hands in my hair.

A week ago, no one, not even God or Merlin themselves, could have descended from on high and convinced me that I’d be holed up in a makeshift tent, willingly, happily, trapped between these two. I would have found it beyond laughable. I would have probably checked myself into Thickey's for having an acid flashback while never having actually partaken in the substance in my life.

But here I was, with Draco’s tongue in my mouth and Theo’s hand tucked up under the right cup of my bra. He pinched my nipple lightly, and my body reacted, pushing into his hold while leaning back into his chest, moaning as I broke my kiss with the blonde. Then the man behind me took his hand from my bra and let it skim down my stomach to the top hem of my already wet knickers.

Honestly. I wasn’t trying to think about it. It wasn't as if I wanted to remember our conversation from days ago right after deciding I’d like nothing more than to shag them. But I grabbed Theo’s hand, saying, “Stop.” Both men froze, still as statues as they looked at me, and even though I almost didn’t find the courage to ask, I managed, “So- you don’t… feel like you’re slumming it “in the mud”?”

“Oh my, gods!” Theo said with a bark of laughter. “Shut up!”

“I don’t really want to draw attention to this fact right now, but you’re the one slumming. Just- stop talking,” Draco told me before kissing me. He broke away to add, “Stop thinking, too. We can see you doing it. It’s distracting.”

I glared as he kissed me again. I wasn't angry enough at his jab to break away and hit him. Instead, I bit his lip, making him gasp. He pulled away on his own, and I smirked at him before turning to kiss Theo again. Draco took this as an opportunity. He smacked me on my arse in retaliation, and I squeaked into Theo’s mouth in surprise, the raven-haired man smiling at the sound.

“Nice,” Theo said with a smile for the blonde. “She earned that one.”

“I think she earned more than one. Don’t you agree?” Draco asked his friend.

Theo’s arms wrapped around my middle, pulling me to his chest, holding me as Draco smacked me on my arse a second time. It was in the same spot as before, so I gasped, and I jumped as the sting settled into my flesh.

“Is that sufficient?” Draco asked Theo, who looked down at me with that dimple.

I glared up at him, but I didn’t say anything, because despite being irritated at them for punishing me like the delinquent I know I am, my body was ecstatically humming at their attention.

The wizard before me smirked down at me darkly, and shook his head, saying, “Nah. She’s still got that glower on her face. She needs another.”

Draco was happy to do so, his hand making contact with my other arse cheek, much harder than last time, and I gasped in surprise and tried to tug against Theo’s hold to get away from the pain. The blonde’s hands began to rub soothing circles on my angry skin until I calmed, only for me to wriggle in anticipation as Draco’s fingers slid beneath the hem of my knickers to pull them down to lie on my skirt. As the lighter Slytherin did this, the darker one ran his hands up my back to unhook my bra, and I let him pull it down my arms and discard it onto my shirt.

Then I was on my back, the men pulling my skirt and knickers off and leaving me in my standard-issue black socks. The cool air that entered through the minimal holes in our structure wasn't the only reason I shivered. The Slytherins looked down at me with lust so profound I had a visceral reaction to it. Even though I tried to block their view of certain parts of me due to self-consciousness, I couldn't wait for them to touch me more.

Despite looking at me like they were going to eat me alive, neither made a move at first. Eventually, Theo turned to Draco and said, “I know what I want to do to her. What about you?”

“I mean…” Draco paused, looking down at my body before turning to Theo and asking, “are we of the same mind, because-?”

“I think so, yeah,” Theo said, nodding and shrugging.

“It’s gonna be a little awkward. As far as logistics go.”

“Logistics can suck my bollocks.”

“Then we are of the same mind,” Draco confirmed.

I was watching their exchange with curiosity, which was sated as they both took one of my knees to spread my legs as far apart as possible so that they could go to their stomachs between my thighs, setting their lips on either side of my labia.

The Earth tried to fall out from beneath me at the contact, and I gripped the mat below me to keep myself from floating away as I felt two tongues lapping at my wetness; two mouths that didn’t care if they touched as they licked, sucked and bit at me. My eyes were screwed shut, every one of my limbs shook, and I don’t know which one of the men decided to pay extra attention to my clit, but I rewarded him with a high gasp as my back arched off the ground.

I could feel my nails tearing into the fabric beneath me as the mouth on my clit sucked while the other man’s tongue tried to bury itself in my pussy. They had their hands on my thighs and hips, digging their fingers into my flesh to keep me from moving too dramatically. I was trying to shove myself into their faces, my legs wrapped over one of each of their shoulders, my feet bracing against their ribs.

They felt amazing. I felt amazing. I'd never had someone go down on me before, and now there were two people doing so at the same time. I became aware of how ruined I probably was for any other cunnilingus experience that didn't include these two when I felt one of them slip a finger into my pleading opening. He pressed on the spot within me that I'd rarely had touched before, and I think my body exploded into individual atoms. I became pure, never-ending energy that sang its exultation at a frequency that hardly registered in my simple human brain.

Someone, a woman- maybe it was me, I don't know- was being torn apart by lips and tongues and fingers, and was crying out her release with swears and screams and pleas to multiple gods to save her from what was surely death by orgasm.

One of the men, the one who's mouth wasn't on my clit, whose fingers were in my tightened, squeezing cunt, was cooing to me sweetly as I started to come back down to Earth. When my body slumped, the other mouth let go to leave long, soft kisses all over me. The other set of lips joined in, kissing my shaking inner thighs and trembling quim.

Eventually, they pulled away from me. I let my hands relax and my eyes drift open, and with some embarrassment I peered at the men who'd moved to their knees.

Now, I know I just had an out-of-this-body experience, but I couldn't deny that the image of them both between my legs with wet faces and raging hard-ons was too good not to see more of. I wanted to watch them come apart like I just had. I wanted to be the one to do it to them. I wanted to know what it felt like for them to come apart inside of me.

I went to one elbow so I could point between them and say, “You both need to be naked. Right now.”

“Yes. As you wish,” Draco said at the same time Theo said, “Of course. Right away. How silly of us.”

The two immediately stood to start stripping, and it was the best thing I'd ever witnessed. They were both so unbelievably hot, and they were rock hard as they kicked off their trousers to drop their pants with no further questions asked. Their cocks jutted straight out, long and proud, and I bit my lip as I moaned in anticipation.

I knew they would do whatever I told them to at this point, and as tempted as I was to take advantage of that, I was that much more curious about what they had planned for me. Their decision to perform impromptu, tandem head had been an inspired piece of art, and I wanted to see more.

“I'm going to let you two decide what happens next,” I told them. “I have very few rules and restrictions. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is no use of the back door. At least, not this time.”

The idea of both of them being inside of me at the same time sounded heavenly, but I wasn't experienced enough for that. That didn't mean I would be against gaining that experience in the future. I am known for enjoying the thrill of learning.

The Slytherins stared at each other in silence for quite a few seconds before playing a childish lightning round of rock-paper-scissors, which saw me palming my face, and Draco the winner.

“Bastard,” Theo swore, but conceded.

Yes. I'm aware it's strange that I was about to let Draco bloody Malfoy shag me. Of all people. But I felt like we'd crossed over a threshold to where none of that mattered. And I felt this way the entire time he climbed up the mat on his knees and pulled me to him, flipping us to where I was straddling him, his cock jutting up between my thighs. I set my hands to his chest to stabilize myself, and looked at him with a deep level of need as I lifted my hips to help him as he set the tip of his cock at my entrance.

Theo's hands were in my hair all of a sudden, pulling it back from one of my shoulders to set his lips to my skin as I began to sink onto the man beneath me. I didn't make it far before my body resisted, but I refused to listen. I started to work myself on him as the blonde squeezed my hips. Theo's arms wrapped around me to pinch and pull at my nipples, keeping me stable by letting me lean against him as I shivered, the man making my pussy quiver and grow wetter, causing me to slide onto Draco fully.

We both gave tortured groans at the feeling of him being in me to the hilt, and Theo whispered in my ear, “You're so fucking sexy, Hermione. I bet your pussy feels perfect.”

“Gods, it’s so good, man. So tight,” Draco answered, eyes locked where we were joined. He groaned as he used his hold on me to ground me down onto him somehow further.

My eyes almost crossed at the feeling of him pushing up into me to the point of pain, but it didn’t keep me from moving my hips to find the spot that made me throw my head back onto Theo’s shoulder and give a moan that would have embarrassed me if I wasn't currently dying from pleasure.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” Theo said, his lips on the lobe of my ear. He kissed my neck just below as he continued to massage and tease my left breast, and let his right hand move down between my legs where he started dragging lazy circles over my clit. I keened as a jolt of pleasure wracked my body, and I whined a pleading moan. I was definitely going to come again if they kept going, and I did what I could to convey my need by holding onto them tighter; gripping one of Draco's biceps and being sure Theo kept up his ministrations by holding onto the wrist of the hand that was going to tip me over the edge.

“Holy fuck… You guys! Don't stop! Please!” I cried. The pressure was building in me again, and I wanted so badly to know what it would feel to come like this.

“God, ‘Mione. You're close, aren't you?” Draco asked through pants. He looked so wrecked. Sexually annihilated. His hair stuck to his forehead, his usually white skin was flush pink all over. He stared up at me through half lids, and moaned every time I rolled my hips forward just so. His grip on my hips was desperate as he helped me move.

I could only nod at his question, and I doubled my efforts, his cock pushing into that spot within me over and over and over again. And when Theo said, “Fuck yeah, she is. Come on him, gorgeous”, I followed his instructions to the letter, and I came long and hard as Theo coaxed me through it with his fingers and dirty praises. Draco fucked up into me with brutal thrusts until his hands moved up to dig his fingers into my ribs as he gasped and moaned his release, hips stuttering and head thrown back. I could feel the pulsing of him within me, and it elongated my pleasure. I wasn't aware that he could feel any bigger until that happened.

As Draco let his hold on me slip, Theo decided that he couldn't give me time to recover. I found myself on my back once more, beside the heavily breathing blonde, and the darker wizard knelt between my thighs. Dazedly, I watched Theo take himself in hand and push himself into me. My orgasm hadn't completely stopped, and the tight clenching of my inner-walls made it initially difficult for him to enter me. But once he did, I gasped loudly at the feeling of him already dragging against the swollen spot within me that Draco had already relentlessly beaten with the head of his cock. Theo set one hand on the mat above my left shoulder, and used the other hand to spread one of my legs open so that he could get as deep as possible.

I was a mewling, sweating, trembling, moaning, pleading, coming mess. I was only absently aware of Draco's mouth on my neck and chest until he took my nipple in his mouth and sucked, and I added sobbing to my growing list of verbs as I lost a hand in his hair to hold him to me. I held onto the dark-haired wizard’s bicep as he did his best to fuck me across the mat. Holding on for dear life was the only thing I knew how to do at this point. The world was discombobulated, disintegrating, tilted on its axis; made no sense whatsoever. I continued to come through Theo's relentless assault on my body, and I had my mind blown further when he set both of his hands under my knees to spread me wider than I'd been when both of their heads had been between my thighs, this new angle making me come again, and even harder than before. I tried so hard to hold onto consciousness during all of this, for I'd tried to pass out at this point.

I have to admit that I was happy when Theo finally came, emptying his seed into me, practically growling his release, because that meant I finally got to recover from what was, without a doubt, the best fuck of my life.

“So,” Draco began as we tried to breathe ourselves into recovery. “Still wondering about whether or not we fancy you?”

I laughed and shook my head, and Theo rolled over to kiss me through heavy panting, saying, “Good,” before slumping onto his back once more.

“I still haven’t decided if I fancy you two, though,” I said jokingly, and all that earned me was four hands on my body and a lot of extra kisses.

Chapter Text

The sun stayed hidden behind dark clouds on our fifth morning on the island. That, coupled with the warmth of three naked bodies under a couple of leaf-blankets, made it to where we slept until almost eleven the next morning. I’m not sure what time we eventually got to sleep, but it had been the wee hours of the morning, at least. We’d stayed up talking after we shagged, until Draco did the fool thing of grabbing one of my breasts. It had lit a new fire in my core, and I instigated round two immediately.

Neither man complained, especially when I’d suggested we try breaking my one rule. Due to the mens’ willingness to be patient, which was probably easier since they'd already gotten off once, having Draco in my arse and Theo in my pussy had been surprisingly successful, and we went until the three of us passed out.

I was the first one to wake yet again, to the sound of howling wind and pouring rain, and water trickling down the face of the cliff to be absorbed by the dark red sand not too far away from our bed.

The men slept on as I shifted up to my elbows. Man, these two really liked their beauty sleep. As I looked between their peaceful, angelic faces, I had to admit that it was working for them. I reached up and tucked a loose, surprisingly soft lock of blonde hair out of Draco’s face, sure not to wake him, and I smiled. Then the smile turned to a tight-lipped grin as I dropped my face into my pillow to hide the intense blush that hit me as memories started flooding in.

The number of orgasms I’d had was insane. There'd been at least five. One of which had been while they’d both been inside of me, and I didn’t care if I got Dementia or Alzheimers’ one day, I would never forget the way I’d felt in that moment. Draco’s teeth had been in the back of my neck, and Theo’s hand had been wrapped low on the front of my throat, the dark-haired wizard sucking the skin on my jaw so hard I just knew he left a mark. But I didn’t care, because they’d finished with me, both making desperate noises. Draco sobbed, and Theo whined, and it was hands down the best sexual moment of my life, listening to them shatter as their cocks pulsed and emptied in me; the three of us clinging to each other like anchors to sea-floors, using each other as we braved the choppy, unrelenting waters.

I closed my eyes and sighed contentedly with a smile as I decided it didn't matter if what we'd done would be considered taboo to others. I felt more at ease than I think I ever had, even with the scary circumstances, evidenced by my relaxing between them again and going back to sleep.

A pair of lips on my back startled me awake. They'd been set softly to my skin, between my shoulder blades, caressing me into consciousness. Lifting my head and looking about, I saw that both men were now bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, still laying on either side of me under the blankets.

“Looks like someone finally slept through the night,” Theo said lightly, a smile on his face.

I returned it, and burst his bubble by saying, “I woke up a bit ago. I just decided to go back to sleep.”

“Damn,” Theo said with a disappointed snap of his fingers.

“You didn't have a nightmare, right?” Draco asked, lowering his lips back to my spine.

I sighed in contentment, then did so again as the dark-haired man set his hand on my lower back and started drawing light circles on my skin. “No,” I said with a shake of my head. “No nightmares…” They must have really done a number on my vagina, because my mind decided it was a good time for me to finally admit, “I've been having them since Harry, Ron and I went on the run. Ever since that first night I had to set a ward to keep the Snatchers from finding us.” The men were now still, listening, but neither pulled away. “I don't get them every night like I used to. Now it's just a few times a week. Sometimes less, but that usually means I have even more the following week to make up for missing some. They're not as violent as they used to be, which is nice…”

There was a long silence, wherein Draco lay down on his back and Theo on his side, the darker man twirling a curl of my hair on his finger.

Eventually, Draco said, “Mine are always violent. But they don't come very often either anymore.” I looked at him, and nodded. I could understand this. I'm sure Draco Malfoy would have some really shitty nightmares.

“I’ve never had a nightmare,” Theo said, and I lifted my face to frown at him.

The blonde glared at his mate, saying, “I've said this to him before, but I know that that has to be a sign for sociopathy.”

I snorted.

Theo shrugged, saying, “I hardly even remember my dreams.”

“Well aren't you lucky?” I asked.

“Kind of. I think it would be cool to know what a scary dream’s like.”

“Fuckin’ scary,” Draco supplied with a shake of his head.

“I could be Blaise,” Theo said to his friend, who looked thoroughly terrified at the idea.

“Could you imagine having to stick his arse to the hut so that he wouldn't sleepwalk off into the ocean?” Draco asked the other Slytherin.

“Huh,” the raven-haired man said with a faraway look in his eyes. “So that's what a nightmare feels like.”

“Zabini sleep walks?” I asked.

“Only when he's really stressed out,” Draco said. “So pretty much all of last year, and the first month of this school year. As well as the first month of whichever marriage his mother is currently in. We have to be careful about leaving doors unlocked during times like those.”

I gave a worried frown.

“I tied him face down to his bed once when he figured out the lock, and he woke up thinking we'd had our way with his arse,” Theo said with a small, evil cackle.

I was feeling suddenly sad for the Slytherin I considered more mature, and therefore more put together, than the two I was currently with. It was strange to think that someone so straight-backed and serious was so traumatized he walked around the castle at night in his skivvies if his mates didn't tie him to something before bed.

“Well… Now I'm worried about him,” I admitted. “Who's watching him while you two are away?”

I felt like I was asking my gay-couple-friends where they boarded their dog for their trip to Ibiza.

“Goyle has gotten pretty good at it since the start of the year,” Draco said, then added mutely, “Since, you know… Crabbe is gone and all.”

That silence was back, and it was deafeningly loud this time. I felt myself tense up as the sounds of Crabbe's screams rang in my ears, and I looked to the blonde who's eyes were now on the ceiling.

“I'm… sorry that that happened to him,'' I said. “It was bloody awful.”

“It wasn't your fault,” Draco said. “That wanker did it to himself by being too stupid to think twice about casting a deadly curse in an enclosed space. Almost killed us all.”

“I will always love the guy, but he was so damn dense,” Theo said. “Even said so at his funeral. His mum didn't look too pleased, but I know she agreed with me. I could see it in her eyes.”

After a few beats of silence, where I stared at Theo wide-eyed, Draco said, “I saw it, too.”

The men burst out into laughter, and I fought a smile because I felt as though I'd managed to avoid earning a seat in hell thus far, and I wasn't looking to change that today.

As a side note, I refuse to believe that my putting Skeeter in a jar and occasionally shaking her to remind her who's boss got me a ticket to hell. If anything, I'd be going to heaven for so willingly doing God's work.

“You two are awful,” I said as their laughter died.

“You're judging, but he would have loved that,” Draco said.

“He's chuckling in hell, I'm sure,” Theo agreed.

“Whatever you say,” I said with a shrug.

I lay back down, my arms pulled up so I could rest my face on my hands, and soon the two were back to giving me light, lazy caresses that turned into passionate kisses, that eventually became morning sex.

When we finally made it out of bed, I needed a pain draught to walk out of our hut, where we started breaking everything down. Draco had shown just how evil he could be by grinning like a madman while passing me the potion I requested.

Both men agreed we should look for the cave, and were more than happy to help me search, the three of us making a plan as we did our best to make our campsite seem like no one had been there; to leave it as we found it.

“Hermione.”

I screamed and jumped into the air, throwing the stones in my hand that we'd used as a fire pit, and I whipped around to face the forest where the disembodied female voice had come from.

“What?!” The Slytherins chorused. They were closer to the water than I was, and I could tell they hadn't heard the voice.

I looked between the men and the trees a few times before saying, “I- I heard it again. The voice.” Their eyes were wide as they looked between each other and me.

“You did?” Theo asked.

“Just now?” Draco asked.

“It was a woman's voice, but I didn't recognize it.” I pointed to the forest and said, “It came from in there.”

The three of us stared into the darkness of the trees, and Theo said, “I know I said I'd help you, love, but that is some scary shite you just said just now.”

Draco looked like he agreed with Theo, and I had to remind myself that they weren't Gryffindors. They didn't just charge headlong into battle. I'd learned this about them already, last May.

I felt disappointed, but I understood, opening my mouth to say, “I- I know. You don't have to-”

“Oh. No,” the darker wizard interjected, stepping closer to reach out and take my hand. “We're still going. I just thought I'd throw out the disclaimer right now that I am terrified.”

“Same here,” Draco said. “But let's do this. Let's get off this island.” He walked to me and planted a kiss on my temple, and he was the first to walk into the trees. Theo tightened his hold in my hand and pulled me after the blonde.

Into the forest we went, and in it we stayed. We walked along the base of the ridge that created the cliff we’d camped against as best we could, keeping our eyes peeled for caves while avoiding the critters and creatures that watched us as we went. I was surprised by how many more animals there were on this side of the island, and I am ashamed to admit that I had once again threatened a pack of monkeys with my Incendio skills.

We stopped for lunch near a river that had a papaya grove. I sent a well-aimed Slicing Hex at the head of a tree that had less fruit than the rest, and I caught it magically before it hit the ground. The three of us ate what we could, picked a few for the road, and I Leviosad the rest up high in a tree in hopes that the monkeys would find it before it could go bad.

The day passed like this, with the three of us soaking wet despite the umbrellas I'd Conjured. We were covered in mud, and we ended up only finding the occasional alcove. There had been no actual caves.

When it started to seem like the grayness was going to start fading to black, signaling the start of our sixth night on the island, I grew a little discouraged. I said, “Let's make camp before it gets too dark.”

Draco, who was still leading our expedition, stopped and turned to look at me, pushing the wet hair from my face as his silver eyes assessed what was undoubtedly the expression of an exhausted, down-trodden witch.

He looked up to Theo and nodded, saying, “Let’s find a spot close by, yeah?”

“Alright,” Theo agreed from behind me, his hand reaching up to touch my shoulder and squeeze it lightly, as a comforting gesture that I accepted. Gods, they could be sweet when they wanted to. As if to prove my point, Theo added, “I'll go look for something to make a tent out of. You two find a good place to stop and get her sitting down.”

Draco nodded at this and took my hand to pull me through the trees while the other man turned to head back for materials. It only took us a minute or so to find a spot that both the blonde and I deemed adequate. There was a small boulder in the clearing we found, which Draco led me to and sat me on. I let him, and I nodded at him when he’d told me that he was going to go look for materials with Theo, but that they’d be right back.

He’d given me a small smile and a nod before turning back to go find our classmate, leaving me to think about how different my relationship was with the two, which eventually led me to wonder what we would do if we got off the island. It was a far bigger problem to never make it off than it was to return. But I still had to wonder how this beeping newfound thing we had going would be affected by reality. A big, huge part of me didn’t want this to end, because the other part of me felt that, when it did, we’d have to go back to being the way we used to be: distant and cold.

Sure. It didn’t have to be like that, but what were we going to do? Start… dating? Like, all three of us? And we were going to, what? Tell everything to suck our collective arseholes when they gave us shite? Because people were totally going to give us shite about this. Now, I have to admit, I don’t really give a fuck about other people. Not like I used to. Not that I did that much to begin with…

But Slytherins cared very, very much about their reputations… Would their reputations be further tarnished by their admitting to fancying me, and if they were, wouldn’t that mean that they would never dream of letting this go beyond-

“Hey.”

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Draco speaking to me softly. Both Slytherins had returned, standing to my right empty-handed, but with smiles on their faces.

“What?” I asked them, confused.

“I found a cave,” Theo said casually, with a shrug.

I was on my feet in an instant, my anxiety from my previous train of thought doubling as my excitement grew insanely fast because this could be it. We could be going home.

“Where?!” I asked, and the dark-haired man took me by the hand to pull me through the forest. Back the way we came, and then to the left to cross a rather wide river that had veered in close to the cliff from the west.

We grew close to the cliffside that reached up beyond the tops of the trees. The low natural light made it difficult for me to see the entryway into the mountain. This, added to the fact that the entrance looked like part of the rock wall until you came at it from the right angle. You could only enter the cave by way of sidling between two rock walls, but once you made it past that it opened up into a good-sized space that was only a little wet and was completely blocked from the wind.

But that was it. Just a room. No intricate tunnel systems, or long, dark, ominous paths to take to get further under the mountain. Still. I took it as a positive step in the right direction and smiled at Theo, saying, “Thank you. Now I don’t feel as crazy.”

Both men smiled back at me, and Draco said, “You’re always going to be crazy”, while Theo said, “You’re welcome.”

Chapter Text

“That hex is really frightening. I didn’t realize how easily one could weaponize it,” Draco said. “And with a bone-chilling accuracy on your part, by the way.” The blonde nudged my shoulder with his own, an impressed smirk in his lips, before he stood to join Theo in the bed, leaving me by the fire with my “catch”.

I had used a Slicing Hex to decapitate what I think is a Pacu while it had swam past me in the river by the cave. It had been dark out, even then, when I’d caught sight of it swimming by the riverbank. I’d cast the hex while the men stood behind me just to err on the side of caution, and the blow had been a bloody impressive Fatality, the corpse bobbing up to the surface of the water before it started floating down the river.

I’d Acciod both halves into my hands, passing Draco the heavier half, and the three of us retreated back into the warmth and safety of the cave to figure out a good way to cook the poor animal. Theo had suggested sushi, and Draco wanted his battered, and I ended up giving them both looks while I shoved a stick through its esophagus and out the other end, and then let it prop between two sticks to spit-roast.

The men looked a little disappointed, but only just. They were spoiled-spoiled, and I had to smile and shake my head at them.

It was now warm enough inside that, as long as one didn't set their bare feet on the floor, one could lounge about with no shoes or socks. I sat on a small leaf-mat I used as a chair by the fire, stoking the coals and adjusting the spit before finally deciding it was well-placed.

“Get over here,” Draco said when I sat back. He must have been waiting for me to stop fiddling.

I looked at them, and the lighter wizard held out a hand, signaling for me to join them on the bed, which was very close to looking like the real thing. Since we hadn't needed to build a shelter, I'd used my energy to build a proper fire, near the entrance, and a bed on a raised platform to keep us separated from the endless cold of the cave's stone floor. I'd transfigured ten pillows, five of which felt just like real pillows. I set them all on the soft, green King-sized bed.

I made it this size for multiple reasons, one being that despite enjoying cuddling between them, I'm sure we'd all appreciate a little more space, and I'd like to wake up not covered in sweat in the morning. The second reason was that the men were long, and neither were small due to muscle mass. They'd be able to stretch out now, and sleep like little Pureblood protagonists of The “Princes” and the Pea; comfortable, spoiled, happy.

Which I was more than willing to give to them. They’d earned it. The past few days had been exhausting, and the sleep we were bound to have on the giant mattress tonight was sure to be the best we'd had all week. Even better than the exhausted post-sex sleep we'd had last night.

I donned a grin at the blonde, for I didn't need to be told twice. I stood from the mat and quickly tip-toed to the bed, climbing up onto the comforter toward the two Slytherins who smiled happily as I settled between them.

We got comfortable in each other's arms, and Draco expressed his need for a cuppa.

Theo was quick to raise his hand and say, “Accio cauldron.”

Draco, who had had a few successful Accios today, gave Theo a lift of his brow before turning to me and saying, “I think you should try it, ‘Mione.” Then he turned to Theo and said with a snooty lift of his brow, “Your hubris knows no bounds.”

The blonde was still bent out of shape about the fact that his mate had been more proficient at the Accio than he'd been. Just like the Slicing Hex, which he still couldn't perform. But Theo couldn't cast a Confringo or use a Sticking Charm. And Draco hadn't even seen the need to try a Carving Hex.

They were both ridiculous.

“My hubris? This! From Draco Lucius Malfoy?! Are you for real?”

“Oh, shut up. What have I told you about using my full name? And you just tried to Accio something that's probably miles away!”

I lay still and quiet between them, because it was important they continued to learn to communicate without my interfering. I was technically the “new guy” here, after all. They had squabbled like siblings on multiple occasions already, and seemed to get to the end of it well enough on their own.

“Gods, you're a wanker,” Theo said with a glare for his old friend. “It's going to work. Just you wait.”

Ten minutes later, I Acciod the cauldron, and it showed up not long after, which left the two to fight about whether or not Theo’s initial Accio worked and the cauldron had already been close by when I called it, or if we'd hiked close enough to the oasis that it hadn't taken as long to get here when I'd tried.

In the end, I Scourgified the cauldron and set it out in the rain, under a stream of water that fell steadily from a leaf above. I reentered the cave and went to the fire to flip the fish on its spit.

Theo asked, “Do you ever wonder why you can cast an Incendio and not an Aguamenti?”

I shrugged. “Not too much. I think it's because I'm fiery, but still too rigid… Perhaps not fluid enough for water or something.”

“Rigid is a word I will never be able to use to describe you ever again,” Draco said with a cheeky smirk and a quirked brow.

I fought a blush, and sent a glare his way. It didn't deter his pleased expression.

“And what about the reason why I can cast a Sticking Charm and Theo can't, and vice-versa with the Slicing Hex?” Draco asked.

I shrugged, saying, “I'm not sure there's an answer to these questions, really. It just works or it doesn't. That's what Shackelbolt says… McGonagall says it has to do with our souls. Kind of like Patronuses. Theo is just Curse aligned. Naturally. By birth. And you, Draco, are aligned for Charms.”

“And you are..?” Theo began to speculate as he scanned me.

“Aligned,” Draco answered easily.

I smiled, and repeated, “Aligned.”

“Some people have all the luck,” Theo said with a sigh.

I scoffed, “Said the rich kid.”

Theo sat up and started counting on his fingers, “You’re smart. Have had the best grade average in our year until last year when you weren't here, and now you’re at it again this year. You’re best friends with someone who can’t die, and who will probably be Minister for Magic if you don’t beat him to it.”

“You helped him kill He Who Must Not Be Named,” Draco added, pointing at one of Theo’s fingers so that he’d raise it.

“You've broken a hundred laws and haven't seen a single legal consequence. In fact, people usually thank you for it.”

“The strongest wizard to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts called you the “Brightest Witch of our Age”,” Draco said, and I could see remorse in his eyes as he did so. “And because of that, not a single person questions your opinion.”

“You dated an international Quidditch star,” Theo said, which I cringed at, because I didn't really consider that luck. “And we’re pretty sure he learned how to read just so that he could be with you.” I glared on poor Viktor’s behalf at Theo’s jab, which only got worse when the raven-haired man impersonated the Bulgarian, saying rather slowly in a deep voice, “Vizh… Spot… byagam.”

I picked up a pebble and hurled it at him, only for him to dodge it.

“I heard you got to ride a guard dragon you stole from Gringotts?” Draco’s eyes sparkled as he sat forward, because he'd been laughing with Theo. But he also looked excited, as if he’d been waiting to ask me about this for months.

“We liberated a slave from Gringotts,” I corrected.

He was still pleased with the answer, smiling and nodding his head as he leaned back into the pillows again, saying, “So bloody cool.”

I flushed again. I was ready for this conversation to end already. I’d never asked for any of these things. Not really. They happened to me because of the actions of others, and I got caught up in the crossfire. Except for the grades thing. That was all me, myself, and intelligent, intrepid I. ”I’d like to thank myself…”

“You can do wandless magic,” Theo went on, even in my awkward, silent frowning. “Already. Before you’re twenty-five, which is what we heard is the usual age someone starts to develop the skill. When our brains are fully developed.”

“Know that I’ve grown fond of you,” I began genuinely, “so take no offense when I say that the both of you need to stop listening so avidly to the adults in your lives. It’s stunted you.”

“Here we are. Complimenting you,” Draco began, “and you insult us! Now I’m not going to tell you you also have awesome hair.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes.

“You conveniently ignored the part where I said that from a place of caring. Also, if you had been there yesterday to watch a Kingfisher get stuck in my hair,” I said with a cringe, “you wouldn’t consider me so lucky.”

My hair had calmed some as I aged up and learned how to better care for it. It still got stuck in things, and things got stuck in it, all of the time. As you've seen.

“Bet that was hilarious,” Theo said with a grin, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

Draco said, “We still think it looks cool.”

“Get back over here so we can get stuck in it next,” Theo ordered me, and I obeyed with a frown that did nothing to hide my smile.

Once again, I was being held between them, and the darker wizard’s hands were in my hair, using the hold to kiss me, while the lighter wizard started kissing my neck, his hand wrapping around to work on my buttons. I smiled, because I very much enjoyed knowing that they wanted me as badly as I wanted them. And every time they got me off, it chipped away at my shyness, which only made me want them more. I was growing increasingly used to the feeling of them, and at the insight, the earlier train of thought that I’d been on rolled into my mind…

Was I growing used to something that was going to end once we found our way home?

Did I want it to end when we got home?

… Wouldn’t a normal person expect it to?

Should I..?

I pushed the confusion away, and instead decided to focus on the men.

I started unbuttoning Draco’s shirt, but when all of our arms got twisted enough, we eventually gave up and undressed ourselves. Now there was a huge pile of clothes on the cave floor and the blonde climbed off the bed to stand beside them, using his hands on my hips to pull me to the edge of the bed. He flipped me from my back to my knees. As I righted myself, moving up to my hands, I saw that Theo had moved across the bed and was kneeling before me with his prick already mostly hard.

He grabbed the hair at the top of my head, and himself by the base, and commanded, “Suck my cock, gorgeous. With that sassy fucking mouth of yours.”

I was happy to do so, and became especially ecstatic when the man behind me attached his mouth to my increasingly wet opening. He was too fucking good at it. I was moaning around Theo in no time, which spurred him on, the darker wizard beginning to use my mouth to his liking by holding me still by my hair and pumping himself in and out of my lips. He bit his own bottom lip as he watched himself disappear into my throat, and I shuddered as he did at the feeling of being so deep.

“Fuck. Your mouth is so good,” he groaned as he pulled out and I made sure to suck as hard as possible, while Draco pulled my clit into his mouth.

My eyes rolled back into my head, and there was a full five or fifteen- maybe more- seconds where my body was suspended by the mens’ strength alone. Draco's tongue was lost inside me, his hands one both globes of my arse; Theo had both hands in my hair, roughly, tightly holding my locks to keep me accessible. My body trembled, vibrated, shook, and it was made worse when Draco stood, painted the tip of his prick at my entrance, and pushed himself in.

I was gone. I can't even tell you exactly what happened after that for some time. Being caught between the two always saw my brains become mush. But I know that being used by them like this was Nirvana, and soon I was crying out my release while Theo doubled his efforts on my wide open throat. I was on a high I didn't know was possible. When Theo came in mouth with a long string of swears, I drank from him without a second thought, while Draco kept hitting the spot that had done me in.

When Theo’s orgasm ended, he fell over onto the pillows to catch his breath. Draco didn't let me catch mine, though. He replaced Theo's hand with one of his own in my hair, and he pushed me down onto the left side of my face. At the sheer force of his hips, I was forced down onto my stomach, this new position making me cry out with every thrust. I didnt even know that sex could feel even better until he began to brutally fuck down toward the mattress, as if he was trying to obliterate my g-spot by pushing completely through it. I couldn't grab onto anything that felt stable enough. I clutched the blankets urgently, because I swear to God there was no way this could feel this good, continue to feel this good, without me dying from it.

Theo moved down the bed to lay somewhat beside me, his face near mine to whisper things and kiss me. I'm not sure what he was saying to me. Probably words of encouragement, because that's just the kind of guy he was. But I couldn't hear him because a second, stronger orgasm was pushing the blood through my ears, and the noises I was making were much louder than his cooing.

But just because I couldn't hear, doesn't mean I couldn't see. I was still surprised, though, when I watched Draco's hand reach out for Theo’s hair, holding onto us both as he bent over my back to set his mouth to the other man's. They moaned loudly as Draco pulsed deep within me, and the sight of them snogging each other was surprisingly sexy, their tongues wrestling before Theo gave in and let Draco devour his mouth. I moaned with them as the blonde's hips stilled. He released us and fell in the space between us, only to grab both me and Theo to pull us into his chest.

We settled in without resistance, and once I caught my breath enough, I said, “I fucking knew it.”

My eyes were closed, but that didn't keep me from pointing at them.

“Knew what?” The lighter wizard asked. I could hear the smile in his voice even still.

“You both seemed very open to the idea of sharing a mat,” I said.

Draco shrugged under my head, and Theo said, “It's not like we're dating or anything. We usually just cuddle. Sometimes Blaise joins us.”

I gasped, scandalized, opening my eyes as I sat up to ask, “Am I a placeholder for Zabini?”

“A really fucking beautiful one,” Draco said, eyes still closed as he smirked.

I gasped again. “Are you being ser-”

My question was cut off by Theo propping himself on an elbow and saying, “You are not a placeholder. Never.” I backed down at this, because I could tell he was being honest. “Blaise doesn't like blokes.”

“Not even a little bit,” Draco added.

“He'd shite himself if we ever tried anything aside from sleeping,” Theo continued. “He's cool with us fucking around as long as he's not in the dorms when it happens.”

“So… You two fuck around often, then?”

I had to ask now that the subject was open for discussion.

They both shrugged, for Draco to answer, “Not really. It's only been a few times.”

“And it's been a while since we have, anyway,” Theo admitted.

“Why?” I asked, genuinely curious, because I’d had a hard time keeping my hands to myself when I was around them. The two had had a lot of opportunities to give in to whatever attraction they had to each other.

Another shrug from both, and Draco saying, “Haven't had the time this year… It isn’t like last year, where we had a lot more freedom to do whatever we wanted, when we wanted, where we wanted.”

I may have gotten a little red at the implications the blonde was making.

“Now we have actual homework again,” Theo said with a long sigh. “A ton of it.”

I nodded, because I could admit that we really had been given a lot of homework this year. But all of us 8th-years were trying to get caught up before graduation, so it only made sense some students would feel a little overwhelmed.

Not me, though. I was thriving. Mostly. I could do with some more sleep.

I laid onto the bed on my back, head in the crook of Draco’s elbow, and for some time the three of us relaxed and caught our breath. At some point, Draco broke away from us and sat up.

“Where you going?” Theo asked with his eyes still closed, reaching out to grab me in Draco's absence as the blonde scooted to the edge of the bed and stood.

“Fuckin’ thirsty as fuck, bruv. Oh. Whoa!” Draco exclaimed. I opened my eyes at the alarm in his voice, the wizard wobbling some as he added, “Freebie… Ha! Stood up too fa- Ah, fuck!”

Draco had gone to lean a hand on the wall to steady himself, on the opposite side of the cave, only for him to fall through it instead.

Chapter Text

”Students. Students... Ladies. Your attention, please.”

Slughorn was doing his best to gently get the attention of Pavarti, Lavender, and Susan, as well as a few 7th-year girls, who wouldn't stop talking. They all chatted excitedly about the upcoming Hogsmeade trip, and the dresses they were planning on buying for the “Spring Formal” McGonagall had announced a few days prior.

I was not going to join in on their conversation, because I had no intention of attending this dance. Not this time. The last time I’d gone to a dance, it had been a shitshow. I’d already planned to use the fact that everyone was going to be busy to sneak into the Forbidden Section for some light reading. I might even bring some snacks and a blanket and stay the night.

The thought alone was enough to fill my heart with enough joy to let lie the fact that I’d walked in the door two seconds before the bell signaled the start of class.

When the room finally went silent, Slughorn announced, “Today we are going to be brewing Hexis, a potion known to connect the neural pathways in the brains of those who’ve fallen victim to one too many Cruciatuses.”

I frowned, because Slughorn grinned brightly as he said this. He always had the worst reactions at the worst times. So chipper. Such an arsehole.

Then I retracted the thought when I reminded myself that the wizard could be living with undiagnosed Autism, instead of just delusions.

“Now, before you go grabbing your own cauldrons, I will warn you that if you brew this potion even remotely incorrectly, it will melt whatever it's in. So, I suggest using one of the cauldrons the school has provided.”

He motioned to the shelf with the black pewter cauldrons that no one ever cleaned properly. I looked at my own cauldron at my feet and I decided that I loved the thing. I’d bought it with my parents during that first trip to Diagon Alley. It was too dear to my heart for me to let it melt. And though I was aware that I rarely botched a potion, I didn’t want to leave it to chance. So I stood with my classmates, and made my way through the throng to grab a cauldron near the end of a row at the same exact time that Draco Malfoy did. I looked at him, surprised, and he looked down at me with an equally surprised frown.

Theo Nott, who was standing next to Draco, looked between us in amusement, before he gave a little shrug and reached for the cauldron himself, saying, “Well, if neither of you can deci-”

What felt like a black tornado made of howling wind and terror picked me up off my feet, spun me around in an abyss, and then dropped the three of us unceremoniously onto a knoll beside a huge volcano.

“I’m going to throw this out there, because I know we’re all thinking it,” Theo started as we watched Draco pull himself out of the “wall” and dust himself off. “But wow, ‘Mione! You had a prophetic dream! Are you going to tell Trelawney?”

“Stuff yourself, Nott,” I said, frowning deeply at the thought, because there was no way I’d give the old woman the satisfaction. “And you better not tell her either, if you know what's good for you.”

“Trust me. I do,” he said with a cheeky grin, bending down to kiss my forehead.

He made the zipper-across-the-lips motion, and I nodded to our pact before climbing off the bed to check Draco for injuries. He was a little scuffed, but he said he was just happy he hadn't landed on his dick.

With a sense of anticipation and uneasiness, I walked to the false wall and stuck my head through to the tunnel on the other side. It wasn’t exactly like the one in my dream, for this one’s walls were covered in tiny blue specks of fluorescent light. I walked all of the way into the tunnel to look closer, amazed at the beautiful color, but they weren’t bright enough to light our way without help. It was very disorienting, because there were veins of blue, and then blank spots that could have been entryways to other tunnels, or even just patches of thick, lightless wall.

The three of us dressed, then I fashioned a torch out of a piece of firewood and a bit of our tousled blanket I'd sliced away, wrapping it around the end securely before setting it alight with magic. With a lot of unease and determination, the three stepped in through the false wall and into the tunnel. We were disappointed to find out that the blue lights all but disappeared when I introduced them to the torchlight, but the torch was the obvious choice between the two. Especially as the cold started to grow colder.

Draco had had the brilliant idea of grabbing our fish on a stick, wrapping it in a large leaf so the meat didn't fall off onto the floor. As we traveled slowly through the cold air of the tunnel, I was glad to eat the warm food. Even though a huge part of me knew that this was the end of our journey, I didn't want to leave it to chance, so eating was a good idea either way. I didn't know how long it would take for us to get to the place that called me.

“Hermione,” came a disembodied voice.

This time it was masculine instead of feminine, and it was neither of the Slytherin's voices. And this time, both men heard it as well. It caused all three of us to jump and cling to each other as we looked about in the dark for the source, only to find nothing.

“That- this- this isn’t the same voice,” I said, clinging to the arms of the Slytherins to keep myself together. “But the one by the beach was kind of like that.”

Then again, as if it knew it was performing, the same voice said, “Hermione.”

“OK. This is becoming just plain bloody scary again,” Draco said as he held my shirt like a lad would his mother's skirts, which I didn’t blame him for for a second.

“You've been hearing shite like this the whole time?!” Theo hissed from my other shoulder.

“Kind of,” I said. “But it's way louder now. We must be getting close.”

“Fantastic,” Draco grumbled.

“You weren't half this scared with one of those huge spiders on your shoulder,” I said to the dimpled wizard.

“At least I can see the spider if I'd wanted to kill it,” Theo reasoned with me. “I don't know this bloke, and I can't bloody see him.”

I remained understanding, because it wasn't as if I wasn't also scared. There was a fifty-fifty chance that we’d die down here, from either getting lost and never reaching the end, or reaching the end to find we'd been mind-fucked by a mother Weaver, and we were now walking into her den without a bro-pack of heavily-armed Marines or a Power Loader.

Still, Draco and Theo stayed with me as I led them through the twists and turns, not stopping to guess which way to go, because I didn't need to. It was as if there was an invisible thread pulling me along. I knew in my soul that I was going in the right direction.

The voice stopped pestering us after a couple more calls, but none of us could tell you how long we walked for. Soon we were using the torch to warm our hands, our breath coming out in clouds in the firelight. The men were doing their best to keep themselves from showing their fear and discouragement, but their determined walk had slowed, and they started shivering not long after I did.

Despite it all, I was still going strong. I let them hold my hand when they needed to, just like they let me put my weight on them during a point in which I almost badly twisted my ankle again, but was too stubborn to stop moving, even with the dull throbbing.

I had enough resolve to get us all there, as long as they stayed with me.

And stay they did.

Eventually, we turned a corner, and at the end was the tiniest bit of warm, orange light.

“There it is,” I said with a relieved sigh before I took off at a slow run, my ankle still not finished complaining.

I couldn't help it, though. It was just like in my dream. There was no amount of cold or fatigue that could discourage me now. We probably could have done with a nap after our shag, but I'm so glad we didn't, because there it was. The end of the road. And the cold soon became no problem, as well. The closer we got to the light, the warmer the tunnel became.

When the three of us entered the large chamber at the end together, it was to find a room lit by a lava flow that ran from the far wall to the left, all the way through the long room to the right. At the edge of the river, some meters from where we stood, on a boulder that had a surface flat enough to support it, was a standard black pewter cauldron.

“Is that-?” Theo pointed, but couldn't finish his sentence out of surprise.

“I think it is!” Draco breathed, and he took the first steps in the direction of the cauldron.

Theo and I followed close behind him, and as we closed in, the raven-haired man asked, “There's no way that's the same cauldron, is it?”

We all inspected it without touching it. There was no way of knowing, however. There were at least thirty spare cauldrons in the potions room, and since I rarely ever looked in their direction, I was definitely not the one to ask. The Slytherins had their own platinum cauldrons, the rich bitches, which was why they'd gone to grab a spare as I had, so they had no clue, either.

I shrugged, saying, “I'm not sure…”

“Do we… grab it?” Draco asked, his hand reaching out but not quite making contact.

“I think that's what we need to do, yeah,” I said. It was as educated a guess as any.

Draco grabbed it first, and Theo quickly followed suit. When nothing happened, their eyes moved from the cauldron to me expectantly.

I looked between them, growing unsure and shuffling my feet before finally saying, “If this is it… then… I guess all I can say is it's been-” I sighed, “-nice getting to know you both better.”

I felt awkward. I felt that there were a ton of things we were about to leave unsaid. I feared we were going to grab onto the cauldron, go home, and never speak of this again. And I didn't want that to happen. I didn’t know what I wanted in lieu of cold-shoulders, but I didn’t want to pretend that we weren’t at the very least friends after this.

But there was no time to talk about it now that home stretch was in literal reach. Their willingness to grab the cauldron showed that they weren't worried about… us right now.

My defeatist attitude was defeated itself when both men dropped their hands from the cauldron, small smiles on their faces, and moved close to me to lean down and give me a kiss each in turn, and then a final hug.

“The feeling is mutual, Granger,” Draco said, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.

Theo nodded, squeezing my upper arm, saying, “So very mutual. Thanks for not giving up on us.”

“And for teaching us we can do wandless magic,” Draco added.

“And for not killing us.”

“And the absolutely mind-blowing shags.”

I rolled my eyes at them before smiling and nodding, deciding I’d ask questions later if I needed to, then the Slytherins stepped back to put their hands back on the edge of the cauldron. With a steadying breath, I reached out and set my hand between theirs.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Not until Draco asked, “Was this not what we-”

He was cut off when everything went black and the tornado took us again.

Chapter Text

“I can't believe you had a collective consciousness dream with those two pricks. That’s awful bloody luck,” Ginny said to me in a low whisper, trying to keep her words from reaching the ears of the Slytherins in the room.

Draco, Theo and I had all woken up at the same time from a six-day coma. We'd done so in the hospital wing, sending Madam Pomphrey straight into the air in fright as we'd gasped ourselves awake and sat straight up. Apparently, during potions class all those days ago, Theo had grabbed the cauldron after Draco and I, and before he could finish his sentence the three of us had dropped like sacks of potatoes right there onto the floor of the classroom.

For days Madam Pomphrey had been trying to wake us. We’d remained in stable condition while we were out, we just wouldn’t come out of it no matter what the talented old Healer tried. She’d even had a friend of hers come in from St. Mungo’s, who’d told her that he was confident we’d come out of it on our own after the cauldron we’d touched had been deemed free of all Dark Magic.

Which meant that, when you got down to it, all three of us were simultaneously the winners and losers of our bet. It had been all of our “bullshit” in the end. Since no one had tampered with the cauldron, no one was sure why it had done what it'd done, nor why it had chosen the three of us. It had been chopped up to circumstance, or happenstance, or it was fate, or whatever and what have you.

Eventually, Pomphrey started letting our friends come visit us in hopes that the sounds of their voices would do the trick and bring us back, but that hadn’t done anything. But I swear up and down that it had been McGonagall’s voice I'd heard by the red beach once I’d woken and given the memory some thought. She’d come every day during the week to say things that she thought might shock me out of it, including- yes, you guessed it- “You better wake up this instant, Granger, or I’ll be signing the expulsion papers I've drafted.”

“It- was definitely an experience,” I said to my friend, who looked at me with sympathy.

I didn't know what else to tell her, because I was sure that “It actually ended up being really cool. And the three of us engaged in multiple consensual dream threeways” wouldn’t make the witch who sat beside me in my hospital bed any less worried. She’d already been nosey and snooped through my chart, sure to read the Healers’ notes on the state of my mind, which had been checked and checked until they finally cleared it.

I was “all there” it would seem.

“Well… I’m just so happy you’ve woken up,” the redhead said, patting the back of my hand comfortingly. “Harry and Ron will be here first thing tomorrow, alright? Don’t forget.”

Ginny had told me that Ron flipped an actual table when he’d heard the news. Said he was convinced, even still, that it was Malfoy and Notts nefarious plan all along.

I looked to the men who lay on beds across the room, surrounded by housemates who’d all brought gifts and good tidings.

It had been terribly hard not to run to them the second we’d woken up. They’d shared a hug when we’d all realized we were back, however surprised we were that we were now in the infirmary. Madam Pomphrey’s presence had kept me from ripping my blankets off and running to them, because I wanted a victory hug as well. But I’d kept it together. All day I kept it together. I rarely looked at them, even as we’d been questioned by McGonagall.

Without agreeing on it beforehand, the Slytherins let me tell the story. They remained quiet while I told our Headmistress and Healer of what had occurred in our shared mindscape. I told them everything. Everything, of course, aside from the sex. It hadn’t actually happened, so I hadn’t actually needed to mention it. All this was done while Madam Pomphrey ran extensive tests, only for all of us to be cleared on all accounts.

We would, however, be staying two nights in the infirmary under close surveillance, just to be sure.

We’d awoken at ten in the morning in our hospital beds, which had felt strange after leaving the cave when we'd been up all day hiking and shagging. I would guess that it had probably been around two in the morning on the island when we found the cauldron. At three o'clock in the afternoon in the infirmary, Pomphrey opened the wing to a flock of Slytherins who ran for Theo and Draco’s bedsides, and a mix of students from different houses who ran for mine.

The whole bloody time we visited, I had to keep my eyes from drifting over to them, and I could tell that they were fighting a similar battle. Quite a number of times I caught one or the other looking at me, and it was always with sly smiles, and usually while I recounted the dream we’d had to my friends. Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Hannah, Susan, Parvati, Sally-Anne, and Luna all sat on either my bed or the ones on either side, while we all talked loudly, which still wasn’t distracting enough for me to not keep tabs on what was happening across the room.

There were currently nine Slytherins lounging about, and, as I would have expected, all had brought extravagant gifts for their mates. The women had gone a little overboard, bringing cards and chocolates and flowers and balloons, whereas Zabini and Goyle had brought sweets from Zonkos’ and gifts from WWW. The ones in that last category had been spied by Pomphrey and confiscated until the two were to be discharged.

After about two hours of letting visitors disturb her peaceful domain, the Healer kicked our visitors out. Then she asked me, privately, if I felt comfortable being left alone with the men who lie across from me. After telling her sincerely that I would be fine, she turned to leave, saying our dinner would be delivered to us shortly, then locked the infirmary doors behind her as she followed our friends down to the Great Hall.

Now, I can say that I did enjoy the time I’d had without my wand. It hadn’t even mattered that it had all been inside our minds. I felt like I had made some serious headway on that front, real or not. But having the familiar piece of wood in my palm was really bloody nice, for it took me about fifteen seconds to have the end tables moved off to the side, and the curtains around Theo and Draco’s beds altered into one long, pulled back curtain. Then I moved three hospital beds, two of which had Slytherins in them, together and Transfigured them into one.

Draco and Theo looked a little scared as things shifted about them, only for their expressions to change into ones of happy surprise when I abandoned my own bed and took a running jump at them. The blonde had seen it coming, for he rolled to the far end of the bed before I could land on him, leaving me to successfully claim the middle as my spot.

I knew I’d only be able to leave the room like this for about half an hour, maybe a little more, before we’d have to put it all back and act like we weren't involved in any way.

“So… we were in a different dimension, right?” Theo asked me as I shimmied under the blankets. “Because check it out.” He held his hand out and said, “Accio box of chocolates.” The larger of the three boxes of chocolates on Theo’s bedside table flew into his hand. “See? I still have my new powers.”

“You’ve always had those powers, T, you just never needed to use them before,” I said, reaching over and grabbing the box of chocolates from him before he could open it himself.

I knew there was something with caramel inside of it in the box. There had to be, or I’d lose it. A whole week living off of fruit- or whatever the hell Poppy had shoved down my gullet while I’d been in a coma- had made it where, all day, any food item that got even remotely close to me was mine. I’d snatched the peanut brittle Molly had sent me right out of Ginny’s mouth without remorse, and I’d do it again.

I had tons of my own sweets from my own well-wishers… But Daphne had given Theo the chocolates I currently held, so I was going to be sure to eat them all.

I did share with Draco, though.

“So… What do we do now?” Draco asked around a piece of chocolate.

I shrugged, then said, “I suppose we make lunch reservations for three at Slytherin table, and you two write checks out to S.P.E.W. so that I can finally get it up and running properly.” Then I added, as a disclaimer, “I hope you know I’m coming to free your slaves next.”

“Naturally. Wouldn’t expect anything less,” Theo agreed, and Draco hummed with a nod of understanding. “But I think he’s referring to more of, like… us.”

He motioned between us all, then tried to go for a piece of chocolate, only for me to pull away from him with a frown, saying, “Eat the ones from Mrs. Malfoy.”

The brave, kind woman had sent us all something this afternoon, once the news of us waking up had been made known to her. She planned to visit the next day, which made me feel a little nervous for so many obvious reasons, one being that I'm sure the astute woman was bound to figure out something was afoot. Ginny had already given me plenty of strange, one-brow-lifted expressions whenever she'd caught me looking at the men.

Narcissa had sent the Slytherins all edible gifts, whereas I had gotten a first edition copy of Cauldrons and the Ores We Use to Craft Them. Draco said that it had come from his mother's personal library. The note that came tucked in the front cover had said she’d thought I’d like to study the different materials that were used to make cauldrons, and maybe one day crack the code as to why the cauldron had affected us and no one else.

It had been such a kind gesture that I’d gotten a little choked up. She knew me well enough to know I'd prefer this gift to anything else, which was so opposite to the way I suspect she would have treated this situation a year ago.

Theo pouted, asking, “Why?”

I glared at him, only to glare twice as hard at the blonde when he said from my other side, “She doesn't want you to eat them because another girl gave them to you.”

How dare he read me like an open book.

The pout that had graced Theo’s lips disappeared into a smile, only for him to then Accio the chocolates from Narcissa, eating them without another word.

“I’m- gonna go out on a limb here and say that this-” Draco began tentatively, pausing to point to how the three of us were laid up in a bed together, “- and your reaction to Daph’s chocolates… is kind of my answer?”

I gave him a lift of my brow, pretending that my heart wasn't trying to beat up my throat at the fact that I was about to admit that I fancied them enough not to end what we'd started. So I said so, but in a roundabout way:

“I’ll be confiscating the chocolates Pansy and Astoria gave you, too.”

Draco laughed in disbelief at my words, brows high on his forehead as he asked, “And what about the flowers I got from Millicent?”

“Well, if it’s all the same to you, when I’m done with the chocolates I plan to eat those as well,” I said matter-of-factly.

Theo choked on his food again. He really needed to get that checked out… And Draco shook his head, though he couldn't shake his smile as he said, “You really are going to be nutty forever, aren’t you?”

“If we’re lucky, yes,” I answered. “Besides… I already know you like it.”

I finally found a caramel-filled chocolate and I snatched it up triumphantly, then ate it in its entirety, not looking at the Slytherins while they mulled over what they were getting themselves into if they let me eat everything a girl had given them as a gift today.

“Luckily for you, you are, as per usual, right on the money,” Draco said before wrapping an arm around me, then he reclined further into his pillows. I shifted so he could hold me, and was happy when Theo shifted to where he was facing me, laying close and putting his face in my hair.

This felt no different than it had on the island. Draco’s hands were still both calloused and soft, and his hair still felt like angel wings. Theo smelled the exact same, and his lips touched my temple in a way that mirrored the way he had the first night we'd cuddled each other to sleep. Not even remotely different in the slightest.

“Alright,” Theo said. “What are we going to do about that stupid Spring ball, or whatever? Do we both take you, or..?”

“I’m skipping out on that,” I said before either of them could get any bright ideas.

“Why?” Draco asked, surprised.

“What for?” Theo added.

“I already decided I'm going to break into the Restricted Section while everyone is busy and spend the night in there,” I said, then gave them semi-suggestive looks as I finished, “I was considering Transfiguring a bed and spending the whole night reading...” I trailed off meaningfully, lifting my brows at them suggestively.

They grinned.

I mean, that had been my original plan. Obviously, things change. But even if they did tag along, I’d still be reading. They would just have to keep their hands on their own books for a while, because I had just learned that I hadn’t read a real book in a week! You should have seen me after I’d woken up from being Petrified. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and occasionally Neville, had taken to bringing me food since I wouldn’t leave the library for the first few days upon waking and realizing I’d missed months of studies.

The men looked at one another and shrugged before snuggling closer to me, and Theo said, “I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed we won't be seeing you in another dress.”

“Why? Plan on letting your ring rip it off of me?” I joked.

Draco chortled as the darker wizard asked, “Heard that, yeah?”

“Neither of you are half as slick as you think you are,” I retorted.

Draco chortled again.

“Still… It's a shame I won't even have the opportunity,” Theo said with a smirk that he pressed to my brow.

“Maybe some other time,” I offered. He chuckled.

“Either way, I say you can be as mad for as long as you want, my dear,” Draco said. “Because breaking into the RS is both an insane and splendid idea. Count us in. If you’ll have us, of course.”

“You had better be there,” I said, jutting out my chin with as much attitude as I could muster. “And you’d better be prepared to continue your studies in Hermione’s School for the Magically Challenged when you arrive.”

I quickly fell victim to a barrage of kisses to my face, which saw me more than just hot in my face. I ignored it, though, because it was nice to have them near me, all three of us safe and sound. When they released me from their “torture”, there was a moment's comfortable silence where Draco played with a strand of my hair and Theo rested his head on top of mine.

Then the darker wizard asked, “So are we going to rectify the fact that we've never actually shagged, or are we-”

Theo couldn't finish his question because both me and Draco moved to lean over and silence the other Slytherin with our mouths.

Chapter Text

While wearing a pair of gloves, and using a set of sturdy tongs, Professor Slugorn grabbed the cauldron that the Aurors had left on his desk and set it on a high shelf above the fireplace.

The officials had claimed the thing hadn’t been tampered with in the slightest, but Horace knew better than to risk it. In all his years, he could say one thing for sure: There was madness around every corner, and bizarre things happened all of the time. Watching three of his best pupils hit the floor as if they’d suddenly killed over had been about as much as the old man’s heart could take.

The Battle had shattered what was left of his nerves.

He supposed that everything had worked out in the end, but he wasn’t going to leave it all to chance. So he cast multiple wards over the cauldron before nodding his satisfaction at a job well done, and then put the tongs and gloves back where they belonged, and doused the lights as he locked the door and left.

As the candlelight died, and the steps of the Potions Master faded into the distance, above the fireplace tiny specks of blue glowed within the ore of the cauldron.