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Chapter 56: Hermione Doing Bad Things
Lockhart carried Hermione to bed, casually covered her with a blanket, and prepared to leave. But Hermione grabbed him. "Professor, what happened to the promised nightlife? Missing a step doesn't count!"
Seeing Hermione's flushed face and dazed expression, Lockhart couldn't tell if she was drunk or pretending, but it didn't matter—this wasn't a melodramatic soap opera. Lockhart casually pulled his arm away from her grip.
"Stop fooling around."
Then, he quietly left.
Lockhart knew perfectly well that Hermione liked him; after all, she was his biggest fan. But admiration was not the same as love, and Lockhart had no intention of getting involved with this girl. He already had Pandora.
Lying in bed, clearing his mind of all distractions, he quickly drifted off to sleep...
Hermione was obviously faking being drunk.
She had started reading Lockhart's adventure stories when she was nine years old and was deeply drawn to these fictional tales, believing Lockhart to be the bravest man in the world.
When she first saw Lockhart in person at Flourish and Blotts and found him to be younger than she had imagined, she liked him even more.
What girl wouldn't like a young, handsome, and brave adventurer? Then, she was pleasantly surprised to find that Lockhart had become her professor.
This man was not only a daring author, but he was also a great teacher! Hermione was absolutely smitten with him. She desperately wanted to get close to him, even offering to do Lockhart's chores to successfully befriend him.
Of course, Hermione preferred Lockhart's classes, where she could not only learn something but also openly gaze at his face.
This adoration blossomed into love and infatuation when Lockhart bravely protected her from the Basilisk and the controlled Ginny Weasley. When Lockhart was struck by the Killing Curse, she felt as if the sky were falling—thankfully, Lockhart returned to her side unharmed.
The young Hermione, experiencing her first stirrings of love, didn't know how to express her feelings. However, she believed that she was Lockhart's best and most enthusiastic student.
After helping Lockhart reply to fan mail every week, she was definitely Lockhart's most familiar and closest student, and she believed that if Lockhart were to fall in love with a girl, it would undoubtedly be her.
But Pandora's sudden appearance shattered her illusions.
She realized that her imagined love, which had grown over time, was no match for the advances of a beautiful girl. She regretted not expressing her love for Lockhart sooner, allowing someone else to get there first.
Now, she wanted to do something to make up for her hesitation—she wanted to actively attract Lockhart's attention.
However, Lockhart clearly only saw her as a drunken, rambling little girl.
Hermione tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep, until dawn broke.
Hermione quietly took off her dress, leaving herself in only her tank top and underwear, and crept into Lockhart's room.
Then, she tiptoed onto the bed, turning to look at Lockhart—she had finally gotten into the bed of her beloved!
Such a wondrous man, yet he was completely unguarded even when asleep.
Hermione glanced at Lockhart and smiled warmly, a strand of brown hair falling down to obscure her eyes. She leaned down and kissed Lockhart, then lay down beside him, inhaling his scent.
After a while, seeing that Lockhart didn't react, Hermione couldn't resist sitting up and kissing him on the lips again. Noticing her hair had fallen onto Lockhart's face, she quickly tucked it behind her ear.
Then, seemingly unsatisfied, she stuck out her little tongue and licked Lockhart's lips, savoring the taste and imagining Lockhart and herself... together. Lockhart was still fast asleep, so Hermione, taking advantage of the situation, gently slipped the tip of her tongue between Lockhart's lips to see if she could get it in.
Unfortunately, Lockhart's mouth was tightly closed.
A sudden surge of jealousy rose within her.
Why could Pandora kiss Lockhart so openly in public, while she could only secretly kiss his lips here, afraid of being discovered?
She could have occasionally sat intimately with Lockhart in the office and chatted about everything under the sun.
And when she earned House points for answering questions in class, she comforted herself by thinking she was Professor Lockhart's favorite student—but now all of that had been ruthlessly taken away by that Slytherin, Pandora! It was not fair! She angrily bit Lockhart's lip.
Lockhart slept soundly, and in his dream, he suddenly felt an itch on his face, as if a willow branch was brushing against him, but more gently. After a while, something soft brushed against his face again.
Now something warm and soft was gently wriggling between his lips, then pinching them together.
He stirred, opened his eyes, and saw Hermione jump off his bed; it was already daylight.
"Hi~ Good morning, Hermione. How did you sleep last night?" Lockhart greeted her sleepily, suddenly feeling something wet and cool on his lips. He licked his lips but couldn't taste what it was.
"Hermione, what did you put on my lips?" Lockhart asked, still half-asleep.
"It's nothing, Professor, it's water. I wanted to wake you up with cold water," Hermione replied nervously.
"Wiping water on someone's mouth to wake them up? Who taught you that?" Lockhart wondered where such a custom came from. "Oh, Hermione, hurry up and get dressed; we have to go soon."
"Right away, Professor." Hermione immediately slipped back to her room.
Lockhart watched Hermione run out with a flushed face.
After sitting on the bed for a while, his mind cleared, and he realized: Where did this water come from? It must be Hermione's saliva.
Of course, he couldn't be angry. He'd be overjoyed if a young and beautiful girl secretly kissed him.
But the problem was, this was Hermione, and more importantly, he had a girlfriend.
Hermione probably didn't just want to idolize him anymore; her recent behavior was basically an attempt to emulate Pandora.
Accept her? Hermione was a good girl and very beautiful, but Lockhart obviously couldn't have his cake and eat it too.
Although he really wanted to, seeing these people at school all the time meant there was no way he could maintain two relationships simultaneously.
Wait a minute, shouldn't Hermione like Ron Weasley?
Could it be that Lockhart's antics over the past two years, despite the overall plot remaining largely unchanged, had resulted in this unexpected gain? Would Ron come after him?
That wasn't a problem; after all, he was Ron's professor.
What should he do? It was such a sweet dilemma. He didn't want to think about it anymore; he would deal with it when school started.
P.S.: These two chapters are quite ambiguous. I originally wanted to delete them, but the author has written similar "bad things" before, so I couldn't help but post them. Similar plots will not appear later, so please understand my little bit of willfulness.