Hermione and the Watch (Patreon)

An: Random free chapter because the actually story chapter got delayed at the beta.  

 

Harry Potter yawned as he woke up feeling like he’d overslept. He pulled the curtains back and checked the old fashioned clock on the wall. “Six twenty seven…” he trailed off as he realized that none of the hands of the clock were moving. ‘Shit, I’m late.’ He jumped out of bed, ready to get changed and rush off to bed when he glanced at the window and realized that it was still dark out which meant that he wasn’t running late. “Weird.” He walked over to check on Ron and found him still asleep. ‘Screw it, I’m awake.’ He grabbed his towel and a change of clothes and headed for the shower. 

Harry was a touch surprised that no one was up and about on the first real day of school when he got back to the dorm from his shower but it was a touch early. He frowned slightly as he looked out of the window. ‘It can’t be that early.’ He walked over and checked on Ron. “Hey, Ron wake up…” he trailed off as he realized several important things, Ron wasn’t snoring, he hadn’t moved since the last time he’d checked on him and he didn’t appear to be breathing now that he was paying attention. He reached out and shook Ron’s arm. “Wake up!”

After several seconds of shaking didn’t wake Ron he checked his pulse on his neck, ‘No pulse but he’s still warm.’ He rushed over to check on Neville, he was more than a bit disturbed to find his other friend much the same, no apparent wounds, just dead or in suspended animation, he was guessing suspended animation with the twins around. He turned and jogged for the common room, hoping that he was just having a nightmare or that someone was playing a prank with Draught of the Living Death.

Charging into the common room and finding Hermione leaning over a table reading a book in just her knickers reading a book wasn’t what Harry wasn’t what he was expecting to see at six in the morning, or at least not the knickers part. “What?!”

Hermione spun and stared at Harry in shock, revealing that she wasn’t wearing a bra. “Harry!”

Harry’s gaze jumped to Hermione’s breasts. “You’re naked…” he trailed off realizing that he was most likely dreaming, it made far more sense than anything else right now though he felt decently awake.

“How are you awake?” Hermione demanded then blushed and covered her breasts as she realized where Harry was looking. “Harry, eyes up here.” 

“Why they’re lovely and this is just a dream, would you really ruin one of the only good dreams I’ve had in forever?” Harry asked with puppy dog eyes.

"Harry... " she said slowly as he ran his gaze over her, caressing her every curve. She almost didn’t want to spoil the moment but she didn’t want to do something crazy like try to fly by jumping out the window, "you aren't dreaming."

“What do you mean? Of course I’m dreaming, Hermione Granger in her knickers, in the common room, usually it’s the library but I’m not going to complain.”

“Usually?” she asked almost against her will, all the while cursing her damn curiosity. It was almost taking advantage of him to ask him questions when he was in this state.

“Since near the end of the second year, beginning of summer,” he replied easily. “Had to sneak around and look some stuff up in the public library to figure that out. The Dursleys didn’t let me take Health class, said it would give me ideas. Man, did I end up washing a lot of sheets that summer!”

“Harry, you aren’t dreaming there is a perfectly good explanation for all of this,” she said her cheeks feeling like they were on fire and wishing she’d worn a bit thicker and more absorbent knickers at the moment.

“Sure I’m not,” Harry said rolling his eyes. “Hermione, this is me, good things don’t happen to me much less amazing things like this.”

“No, seriously, you are awake,” she said. “If you were having a lucid dream-”

“Lucid dream?” he interrupted. “What’s that?”

“It’s when you are aware you are dreaming so you can take control over it. Go ahead, will something to happen,” she challenged.

Harry held out his hand and concentrated while Hermione waited with a bit of a smug look on her face… until she felt a draft. Harry held up her knickers. “See, dreaming.”

“Eep!” Hermione quickly sat down in a chair and scooted it forward to hide her nether regions.

Harry gestured and the table rose half a foot. 

“Will you stop that!”

“It’s my dream,” he complained, “can’t we go back to playing naughty schoolboy and strict librarian?”

Hermione paused her mouth open and a far off look in her eye before she shook her head and focused once more. “OK, Harry try and fly, that’s the standard lucid dreaming technique.”

He shrugged. “Fine, but if I fly we go back to my dream, OK?”

“Fine,” she said not at all sure whether she actually wanted him to succeed or not.

Harry spread his arms and concentrated, but nothing happened. He frowned. “Give me a moment, won’t take but a tic.” He concentrated until his hair turned blue and the table fell back down with a loud clatter. “OK, we may be experiencing some technical difficulties in the flying department… can I use a broom?” he begged giving her puppy dog eyes.

“No,” Hermione said, deciding not to mention she was almost sure he’d lifted off for a split second, but that was probably wishful thinking on her erm his part.

“OK,” Harry said nervously. “So, not a dream? And there is an explanation that doesn’t end with me singing in a higher register? And one that explains little things like Neville and Ron looking like they were dosed with drought of living death and major ones like you being completely naked?” 

“The naked is your fault, I had my knickers on before you decided to summon them to your hand… and don’t ask me how you did that wandlessly or lifted the table… Let’s go back a step and ignore all that for the moment. Ron and Neville aren’t drugged, merely frozen in time.”

“That’s a relief… wait, frozen in time?” he asked in disbelief.

“My watch freezes time or speeds things up so that I have more time to do research.”

Harry sighed in relief then blinked. “Wait a minute, that doesn’t explain why you’re in the common room naked.” Harry’s gaze dropped to the red silk panties in his right hand, they weren’t something he’d have expected his friend to be wearing, let alone in the middle of the common room. He quickly stuck them behind his back.

“I wasn’t naked, I was wearing my knickers,” Hermione complained as she reached for her t-shirt which gave Harry another peek at her nipples as her other hand was covering her nether regions.

“That doesn’t explain why you were in your knickers or how you froze everyone.” He tried to casually tuck them in his back pocket.

“My watch, I picked it up at an antique store in London over the summer,” Hermione said as she turned her back to Harry and put her arms into the shirt.

Harry’s gaze dropped her to cute behind then back up as he watched her pull her shirt on, knowing that he should look away but not being able to. ‘I really should have asked her to the ball to start with last year… or Hogsmeade the year before.’

Hermione turned back around so that she was facing Harry, hoping he didn’t notice that her nipples were hard at the idea of him seeing her naked. “Take a look.” She gestured toward the book she’d been reading, trying to take his attention off her while she snuck a peek at his crotch. Her lips curled into an unconscious smile as she realized he had most certainly enjoyed seeing her in the altogether. ‘Apparently he does know I’m a girl, and has for quite some time...’

Harry turned to look at the book with blank pages. “What about it?”

“You know how some books are cursed, right?” she asked encouraging him to think about it and not her current and obvious arousal.

“Yes, the librarian has ranted about that a couple times and Sirius mentioned it when he was talking about the Black Family Library, why?” he asked burning a great deal of willpower to keep his eyes from drifting down her mostly naked form, his eyes actually beginning to water from the effort.

“Some protections are merely annoying. This particular book has invisible ink that only shows up if you’re more than half naked in a public place.”

Harry blinked as he connected the dots. “So you’re telling me you froze everyone in time so you could read a book? That does sound like you,” he admitted. “First the time turner and now this.”

“I’m not sure if it freezes time or speeds it up. Either way, it shouldn’t work, nothing I’ve ever read about implies that temporal manipulation on this scale is possible, it breaks several laws of magic,” she said excitedly, happy to be able to share her discovery with him and practically bouncing in place which she quickly stopped as his head twitched in time with her movements.

Harry cut in trying to distract himself from her smooth shapely legs… He shook his head and focussed on the matter at hand. “That doesn’t explain why I’m not frozen.”

“There is an engraving on the back of the watch… it says Potter.” She winced at the slightly annoyed look on his face. “I’d wondered if there was a connection when I figured out it was enchanted, but there are a lot of Potters in the world,” she offered lamely, knowing it was a poor excuse. She wasn’t going to mention that she’d originally bought it for him because of the engraving as an apology for listening to the idiot Headmaster about not sending letters, he was already annoyed enough. Maybe if she stretched she could distract him? No, that would be something Lavender would do. 

“I guess that’s true,” Harry admitted, as he considered it. He didn’t know enough about the magical world to argue that a muggleborn named Potter hadn’t existed. 

“Besides, how was I supposed to know you were immune or even connected to it? You didn’t say anything when I tested it to sneak a peek at the library in Number 12 without anyone noticing,” she said reasonably, giving in and shrugging to distract him a little.

“When did you do that?” Harry asked curious while he tried to keep focus on what they were talking about, which was how often she’d been using a potentially dangerous magical device without anyone there for backup.

“Just a couple hours in the morning a few times while you were there,” she replied defensively. “I didn’t want Dumbledore or Mrs. Weasley to notice and take it away. Returning the Time Turner was bad enough.”

He thought about the last couple of days at Number Twelve, he’d certainly slept better than usual, which could just as easily be explained by having a couple extra hours of sleep. “Ignoring the insanity of using an untested magical item rather than telling a teacher or something...” He coughed, “Broom!” 

She winced, seeing the clear parallels and having no logical defense and still feeling a little too guilty about that escapade to jiggle at him once more as a distraction. “Point,” she admitted.

“Were you planning on telling us about it?” he asked seriously. 

“Eventually?” Hermione half asked half stated, not really wanting to admit that she hadn’t been planning on telling Ron about the watch as she didn’t need him using it to eat all the food in the castle or play pranks on the Slytherins.

Harry glanced down at the gleaming silver watch sitting on the table. “How long can you keep things frozen?”

“Twenty four hours, I tested it during the summer,” Hermione explained.

“I didn’t notice.. How did I miss that? Maybe I wasn’t close enough for it to register me as a  Potter? How long does it take to recharge?” he asked his curiosity aroused.

“I’m not sure it has to recharge, it just turns off after twenty four hours. I can push the button again right after if I want and it seems to work fine. I’m fairly sure it’s a safety feature,” she theorized.

“I can see that, you wouldn’t want things to be frozen forever if the person holding it died or dropped it somewhere they couldn’t reach it.” Harry frowned slightly as he thought about Hermione’s upcoming birthday. “So your birthday is basically the 18th now?” he teased as he walked over to look at the book on the table… and maybe glance down at her legs.

“Probably not, everything sort of resets physically once time restarts,” she explained.

“How do you know that?” Harry asked, curious what type of tests she’d already tried.

Hermione shrugged. “I clipped my fingernails.”

“What?” Harry asked, missing the connection.

Hermione rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t going to cut my hand with a knife or something stupid to test things. When I unpaused time, my nails were back to their previous length.” 

Harry sighed. “There goes my idea for pausing time then killing Voldemort.”

“Probably not the best idea considering all of the magical defenses he’s supposed to have, though freezing time and stealing his wand might be useful,” she suggested.

“Supposed to have?” Harry didn’t remember any magical defenses from their duel.

“Stories…” she trailed off as she realized the wizarding world as a whole were a bunch of idiots and might very well be wrong about that as well as many, many other things. “We should probably ask Sirius about that type of stuff or better yet, research it.”

“You never actually said what was in the book,” Harry said, half hoping that she’d turn to look at the book so he could check out her behind without her noticing.

“It’s a collection of spells, it’s supposed to have a spell to duplicate books and one that can reveal hidden things, but you need to learn the spells in order,” she explained.

“That explains why you were willing to strip to read it,” he replied with a nod; knowing that he liked to fly, Ron Weasley liked to eat, and Hermione Granger would cut a bitch who tried to get between her and her latest book… as Ron had discovered one day at breakfast while reaching past her for the sausages. She’d claimed that she had just been trying to butter toast… but there wasn’t any toast on her plate, not that Ron dared mention that fact or anyone else for that matter. 

“It’s not like I expected anyone to be able to see me,” Hermione pointed out with a touch of amusement, well aware of Harry’s sidelong glances.

Harry kept silent, using this opportunity to examine her legs.

Hermione glanced down at Harry’s crotch, secretly thrilled that she could get such a reaction from him. “Besides, it’s not like I care that you saw me in my knickers.”

“What?” Harry asked, his eyebrows going up as hope suddenly sprang forth in his breast about certain dreams that he was trying not think about at the moment. 

“Don’t tell Ron but I’ve been to more than a couple nude beaches on family vacations,” she explained, noticing how his face fell for a moment, as if he had been hoping for a different response. She almost felt like she’d kicked his puppy, before she noticed the far off look in his eyes as a happy grin slowly took possession of his face.

Harry felt like there should be steam coming out his ears as he pictured Hermione lying naked on a beach towel, on a beach of course, the fact that he’d never actually been to the beach vaguely hampered his attempts, still he’d seen beaches on television so his suddenly overactive imagination had plenty to work with. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you haven’t mentioned every trip considering how Ron gets.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Yeah, anything that reminds him that his family is poor tends to boil his blood. Besides, it was my fault for getting so obsessed with reading the book and trusting the watch to work on everyone.”

“No harm done. I remember him screaming at me over the fake gold, I don’t need him screaming at me over being connected to a powerful magical artifact,” Harry said with a snort. Ron may have had his back in life and death situations, but the times inbetween could be a bit trying. 

“Yeah, I can’t see that going over well. Did he ever actually pay you back?” she asked, doubt in her tone.

Harry shrugged. “Of course not, that would have required actual work and a plan on his part.”

“You’re still a bit bitter from last year aren’t you?” she asked quietly. 

“I can forgive you for the broom, admittedly it was a bit suspicious, and not sending me letters, though I really think you should have just told Dumbledore to shove off or written completely boring letters about homework or something to me. I seriously doubt Death Eaters care about my grades.”

“Yeah, I should have,” Hermione admitted as she turned to look at the book. She smiled as she noted the formally barely visible words were now almost clear as day. “And suddenly it’s very visible. Not sure what I’m doing differently.”

“Where did you try it before?” Harry asked, curious where Hermione was walking around half naked, and definitely not trying to picture the scene in his head as she strolled around in just her knickers, nibbling on a quill as she read. That lucky quill… 

“My house and my bedroom in Number 12,” Hermione admitted.

“Not exactly public locations,” Harry pointed out.

Hermione blushed as she remembered ‘sneaking’ out of her house with the book and walking around her neighborhood naked while everything was frozen to see if it unlocked the book’s invisible text. It hadn’t. “I tried walking outside with it,” she admitted, “but it was barely readable and gave me a bit of a headache trying. Before you surprised me just now was the first time I could read any of it clearly at all.”

“Probably because it was the first time you could get caught doing anything naughty in a public place,” Harry teased.

Hermione shook her finger. “No telling Ron about this,” she ordered, suddenly feeling exposed as she thought about Ron knowing she had been naked, anywhere!

Harry rubbed his chin, a faint grin on his face. “I don’t know, didn’t we promise not to keep anymore secrets?” he chided gently, obviously playing around. 

Hermione shook her head, with a teasing grin. “No, Ron and I promised not to keep secrets from you, I never said anything about not keeping secrets from Ron. It’s not like he’s able to keep secrets anyway.”

“Point,” Harry admitted knowing Ron would find a way to whine about everyone else getting all the luck and why he couldn’t be connected to some ancient magical artifact. “Fine, I’m not going to tell Ron,” he agreed, happy to keep it a secret just between the two of them.

“Good. Speaking of things that we’re not going to tell Ron about, I still need to read this, are you going to be weird?”

“Define weird?” Harry trying not to drool or do anything that might make Hermione decide not to spend more time around him in just her shirt.

“Excessive staring or saying something Ron-like,” she explained.

“I think I can restrain myself,” Harry replied thinking about Ron making a fool of himself over the Veela and deciding that he wasn’t going to do that if at all possible, even though he really did want to see Hermione’s breasts again.

“In that case, you can help me take notes,” she suggested.

“Alright,” he agreed, taking off his jumper and kicking off his shoes. “The notes don’t reset?”

“No, just living things,” Hermione replied absently as she started taking notes on the first spell in the book, while her eyes kept darting to the side.

“That could be useful. Where should I stop?” Harry asked, down to his undershirt, socks, and obviously tenting boxers. 

She wrestled with her own libido for a moment, before managing to beat it into submission with her need for new spells… at the moment. “Just boxers should be fine,” she suggested, thinking just socks would have been better and more fair, since he’d gotten to see her with her kit off. 

Harry stripped down to his boxers. “I’ll try to concentrate, but it’s sort of hard, you’re stunning…” he trailed off unsure if he should have said that but unwilling to try to take it back.

Hermione grinned as she continued taking notes, pausing to pull a Lavender and do a full stretch, knowing that Harry’s brain wasn’t going to be functioning for a few minutes anyways.