All You Want

6) In A Sea Of Lovers

The suppressant potion was midnight blue and tasted like ash. It went down like ash too. Hermione choked on it  and found herself coughing up clouds of smoke as though she were a small dragon. She felt as though she were asphyxiating.

When she finally swallowed it fully, she spent several minutes pounding her chest and wiping away the tears that had accumulated in her eyes during her coughing fit.

She felt a faint tingling sensation on her neck and wrists and a fuzzy sort of buzzing in the back of her mind that gradually faded away after a minute.

"Well," she said wearily. "I can't say it's my favorite potion."

Minerva looked sympathetic.

"Should I call up Mr Longbottom, or would you like a few more minutes?"

"He can come up," Hermione said with a quick nod. She was rather anxious to see how the suppressant would work.

Neville shuffled in awkwardly behind McGonagall a minute later. He looked profoundly penitent, like a kicked puppy...except for being extremely muscular and generally attractive.

"Hermione, I am so sorry," Neville said the moment he met her eyes. "I feel so badly—I don't  know how to make it up to you."

Neville was all the way across the office from Hermione as he stood apologizing to her. His voice still filled the air and still seemed to vibrate through her but it didn't evoke a physical reaction the way it had before.

He rubbed his face and looked so distraught Hermione was afraid he was about to have a breakdown. She felt terrible for him. He'd probably been miserable all week while she'd been preoccupied shagging Malfoy's brains out.

"It's alright, Neville," Hermione said, giving him a small smile. "I don't think anyone could have been prepared for what happened."

"It's not alright. You said no and I didn't even listen," he said, his shoulders slumping dejectedly. "I—I've told Headmistress McGonagall that I should be stripped by my Head Boy position and I wrote to my Gran and told her I intend to withdraw from Hogwarts."

Hermione gasped. "Certainly not! You can't withdraw. Your behavior was hardly unusual for an Alpha around an Omega going into heat. There's a dozen other Alphas at Hogwarts, the same thing would probably have happened with any of them. I know you. We were both quite blindsided by what happened. I don't hold you responsible at all."

Neville looked unappeased and Hermione added, "Just promise never to lick me again."

"I swear, if I ever touch you without permission I will withdraw from school and turn myself in at the DMLE," he said firmly, his jaw set.

Hermione cringed inwardly and thought about her own handling—er...treatment of Malfoy.

"The whole issue of consent is really rather murky when it comes to Alphas and Omegas," she muttered to herself and turned rather pink. "Hopefully now that I'm not newly presented we won't have any more issues."

Neville took the comment as directed toward him and started to look more distraught. Hermione changed the subject.

"To he honest, part of the reason that Headmistress McGonagall asked you to come to her office is because we want to see how the suppressant potion I'm on now will work around Alphas," Hermione said, shuffling her feet and eying him nervously. "Would—would you mind getting a bit closer, so we can see how it goes for both of us?"

Neville swallowed and his eyes widened.

"Rest assured, Mr Longbottom, I will not let anything happen to Miss Granger," McGonagall said when Neville started inching backwards. "We need a controlled environment to determine how vulnerable she is, and you know her better than any other Alpha."