“Aren’t you cold?” Hermione asked.  Harry looked up at her but said nothing.  “Harry?”

He sighed in resignation and patted the ground next to him.  She cast a warming charm on the ground before sitting.

“Do you think we should – ” she began.

Harry cut her words off with a terse, “No.”

Turning to look at him, she was surprised at how tense he’d become since she sat down.  When she approached, she’d noted that he seemed hyper-aware of his surroundings, but not tense.

“Is something wrong, Harry?” she asked softly.

He refused to meet her eyes, staring over the bleak landscape of their secluded campsite instead.

The silence stretched between them, tension ratcheting upward with each minute that passed.  Harry broke first, huffing much like Hermione usually did, and turning to her with a soft growl.

“I took watch tonight to get away from you for a while,” he hissed, but not in anger.  The tension between them was reflected in his voice, tightening it until he spoke from behind clenched teeth.

Hermione recoiled.  “Away from me?” she gasped.  They hadn’t had a fight and it was Ron’s turn to wear the locket, so she had no idea why he’d need to be away from her.

Harry shoved a hand through his hair.  “Just some time to sort myself out.”

Confusion and hurt underlay her words when she asked, “Why didn’t you just say you wanted time to yourself?”  She would have given that to him if he’d asked.  She would have given that to him and more, hoping to ease the burden he carried by being as helpful as possible.

“Because it’s not time to myself I want,” he growled, turning away from her once again.

“What are you talking about, Harry?” she demanded, shifting to kneel beside him.  When he didn’t answer, she gripped his chin and turned his head so she could meet his eyes.  Stifling a gasp at the blaze of heat she saw there, she pled, “Talk to me, Harry.”

He tried half-heartedly to tug his chin from her grasp, but she held tight.

“Fine,” he spat.  In a blur of movement, he stood, lifting her as he did and pulling her into his arms.  “I needed to be away from you before I did this,” he growled.  He tangled a hand in her hair to hold her head still as he bent to ravage her mouth.

A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold weather ran down her spine.  The moment she relaxed slightly, he gathered her closer so their bodies were pressed together shoulder to thigh. She could feel his erection throbbing against her.  Her breasts were painfully pressed flat to his chest.  She moaned.

With a nearly-feral growl, he pulled his head back.  “Now do you understand?”  She nodded hesitantly.  “Are you going to leave me alone and crawl back into the tent to sleep next to Ron?”  He paused, but she gave no reply, merely held his gaze.  “Or will you let me shove you against that tree and fuck you senseless?”

She blinked.  She’d never heard that language from Harry directed at her, though she’d overheard it in conversations between the boys.  Though she was no virgin – she’d deliberately taken a Muggle boy to bed shortly after returning from Hogwarts several months ago in order to rid herself of that pesky condition before their Horcrux hunt – she’d not considered sleeping with Harry before now, only with Ron.

“One night,” she finally replied.

He said nothing in response.  Instead, he turned her so her back was against the tree he’d been leaning against earlier.  He made her senses spin with another hungry kiss, his hand still tangled in her hair.  She moaned into his mouth, hungry for him now that she’d made her decision.

Her clothing protected her from the bark of the tree but also hindered feeling.  She wanted to feel his skin next to hers, his hands on her bare breasts, his chest against hers.  With a frustrated growl, she tried to undo Harry’s jeans, only to whine when he grabbed her hands and held them to her sides.

“I’ll do that,” he said in a low tone.

Meeting his eyes, she gasped at the heat there.  He wanted her.  He wanted her despite the fact their best friend was sleeping yards away.

More quickly than she’d have thought he could, he undid his belt and the buttons of his jeans.  The clink of the metal buckle as it fell to the side sent a shiver down her spine.  Her hands still trembling, she tried to undo her own clothing but couldn’t seem to manage it.

“You don’t need to undress,” he bit off, stilling her hands once again.  Holding her gaze, he unfastened her jeans.  Her increased breathing fogged his glasses until she grasped her wand and cast an anti-fog charm on the lenses.

He slid his hands into her knickers in response.

A keening moan escaped her but was quickly stifled by his sudden kiss.  She dropped her wand to clutch at his shoulders.  Using one hand, he slid her knickers and jeans down to her ankles.  With a bit of wiggling, she freed one foot, allowing her to raise her legs around his waist.

He pushed her legs down, stifling protest with another kiss.  A few tugs had his jeans loosened even more.  After further shuffling of clothing, she felt the wet head of his cock against her thigh.  Moaning softly, she replaced her legs around his waist, aided by his hands on her thighs.

Knees firmly on his hips, ankles locked at the small of his back, she whispered, “Please, Harry.”

He tested her readiness with a single finger, groaning when he discovered how wet she already was.  Sliding that finger upward, he stroked her clit until she arched toward, not quite in climax but close.  He bent his head to feast on the cord of her exposed neck, grasping himself to guide his cock into her.  His entry made her hiss in discomfort.

“You okay?” he asked, stilling halfway inside her.

She pulled him toward her with her legs, the movement burying him deep.  “Yes,” she hissed, smiling.

“Good,” he replied, bringing his mouth against hers once more.  His hands found their way to her ass, allowing him to take some of her weight off his legs and keep her from scraping skin on the tree.

Eventually, kissing became too difficult as their breathing became erratic.  Hermione turned her head to place kisses along his jaw back to his ear, nibbling on the skin below it until he trembled.  Harry, in response, sucked hard on the skin at the point of her collarbone, exposed by shifting clothing.

Her trembling was near-constant now as Harry kept her just this side of climax.  She tried to reach down and bring herself off, but he grabbed her hand and forced it back to his shoulder.  Taking a half-step forward pinned her more completely against the tree and relieved her weight enough that he could shove one hand under her jumper and bra.  His caress wasn’t gentle but she was beyond needing gentle.

She tipped her head back, panting.  She wanted to beg for him to end her torment – yet at the same time didn’t want it to end at all.

Harry bent forward to slide his tongue over the skin of her throat.

“Harry.”  Her voice was low and strained.  She tightened her inner muscles around his cock at the same time, making him still his thrusts.  “Don’t stop,” she whispered.

He groaned and dropped his head to her shoulder.  “Come, Hermione.”  He thrust into her hard despite the tight grip she had on him.

Trembling even more, she groaned deeply and came.  He turned his head to capture her mouth, stifling her continuing moans.  His climax followed almost immediately.  He’d hoped to last longer, but was undone by her.

Breaking their tempestuous kiss, Hermione turned her head, panting.  Harry eased out of her, hissing at the loss of contact.  Her legs shook slightly as she pulled her legs from his waist, using the tree for support.

Harry lightly pressed a kiss to her cheek near her ear.  “That certainly warmed me up.”

She laughed.  “Yes, I should think so.”

Pulling back, he quickly tucked himself into his pants and jeans.  With a heavy sigh, he met her eyes.  “What do we tell Ron?”

“Nothing.”  He raised his eyebrows, causing her to flush slightly despite her rapidly cooling afterglow.  “He wouldn’t understand.”

“I’m not sure I do,” Harry said ruefully.

She softly laid a hand on his cheek.  “Comfort and warmth and friendship.”

He said nothing as she straightened her clothing.  She gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading back to the tent.  He stood in the late fall chill knowing that what was between them was more than just “comfort and warmth and friendship” even if she didn’t see it yet.