Work Text:
With a last sniffle, Hermione wiped her eyes dry, hoping they did not look as bloodshot as they felt. Having to suffer through an awful date was one thing, but to hear the mockery float about the Ministry's halls the next day was quite another. Hermione had tried giving dating another chance, but this was the one thing she was evidently terrible at. However, she had not counted on Theo being so indelicate as to blab about it. By now, the whole Ministry knew… Squaring her shoulders, Hermione exited the loo to walk back to her office with her head held high, ignoring the eyes she could feel on her back and her name whispered in her wake. She was not looking forward to the next issue of The Prophet.
Once inside her office, Hermione closed her door and banged her forehead against the back of it, wishing the weekend was not so far away.
Her reprieve was brief as a sharp knock sounded right near her forehead. Affecting annoyance, Hermione yanked the door open the next instant, startling Percy. The redhead pushed his glasses back up his nose, glanced around, then pushed past her into her office without an invitation, which was so unlike the wizard that Hermione wondered for a moment if it was really him.
"What's the standard thickness required for cauldron bottoms?" she asked, eyes narrowed as she reached for her wand.
"Well, it depends on its diameter, if course, and whether the cauldron is made of pewter or… wait...are you having me on? It's been years since that bloody report," Percy replied, looking crossed.
"Just checking," Hermione said airily, certain now he was who he looked like. "What brings you here? I don't recall our departments working on a project together?"
Percy looked her right in the eye, and took a step closer, looking more intimidating than he ever had before.
"I heard rumours."
Hermione's heart sank. Of course he had. He worked here, but soon, the whole wizarding world would know too. Hermione looked away, doing her damndest not to blush.
"It's nothing new," she mumbled.
"Yes, and that's the problem," Percy snapped.
Hermione glanced back at him in shock. She had expected pity, or at the very least sympathy from Percy since they had always been on friendly terms.
"What?" Hermione said, too shocked to be angry.
"You heard me. You're giving us a bad rep," Percy clarified, or he must think he was, because Hermione had no clue what he was talking about.
"Us? Bad rep?"
Percy sighed.
"Us smart people. The brainiacs. Parchment pushers. Quill munchers. Bookworms. We, more than anyone, should know how to do something as simple as kissing, if only because we've researched the subject thoroughly beforehand."
And that was the last straw. Hermione's shoulders slumped as she tried her best to melt into the floor, her battle against her blush losing as utter humiliation overwhelmed her.
"But I did," Hermione admitted.
However, there was a gap between her theoretical knowledge of kissing and what little she had practiced which she could not bridge. "I'm just… bad at it."
Percy crossed his arms, his blue eyes pinning her in place as he considered her.
"Describe it. I'll try to see where you went wrong," he finally said.
If anyone but Percy had uttered those words, Hermione would have thought them a cruel joke to mock her, but since she could not be any more humiliated, Hermione agreed with some modicum of relief.
"It was…" Hermione recalled the memory of Theo stuffing his tongue in her mouth with disgust, remembering something Harry had said long ago. "Wet."
Percy raised an eyebrow.
"And gross."
"Well, you could do better than Nott. Did you initiate it?"
Hermione shook her head. To be honest, by the end of the date, she didn't really want to kiss Theo. He had been charming, funny and kind, but… Hermione had not been able to let her guard down, to trust him enough to be that intimate. Turns out she had been right not to.
"That's part of the problem, then," Percy said as he nodded thoughtfully. "You should have cursed him."
"Percy!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, I guess there would still be rumours today, but of another nature," he replied with a smirk.
"They would still be calling me a frigid bi-"
"Don't," Percy cut her off. "I have the feeling the problem doesn't lie entirely with you, but with the wizards you have been associating with. I would bet my promotion they were rough with you," he added as he touched her shoulder gently, while Hermione nodded glumly at his words. "That they rushed for your lips, open mouthed and slobbering, like first years at the Hogwarts feast."
Hermione grimaced at the very accurate picture he painted while Percy chuckled softly.
"I'll say it again, Hermione, but you deserve better."
Percy sounded as serious as ever, his hold on her lingering and his eyes softening. He felt comforting and safe, not anything like Theo had been.
"Someone like you?" she asked, half-joking.
"And why not like me? You deserve someone who won't push you, or make you uncomfortable, who will give you space to do things in your own time… And I'll have you know I'm patient, and a perfectly good kisser."
Percy's matter-of-fact way of selling himself as boyfriend material brought a smile to her face, and the idea was intriguing. Percy was her intellectual match, and if she had never seen him as anything other than a colleague and her friend's older brother before, she could see the appeal and charisma in him now as he tried to both comfort and mentor her about her kissing skills.
"You'll teach me?" Hermione asked.
"I have a feeling I won't need to," Percy replied, opening his arms in invitation.