Chapter 1
Take A Look Around

Hermione sighed as she unpacked her clothes into the hotel drawers. She would need to find a more permanent housing situation, but since her parents had decided that they enjoyed staying in Australia after getting their memories restored, she didn't have family that she could stay with for a little while. Not now that she wasn't welcome as part of the family with the Weasleys.

Her and Ron had always fought with each other, but there had also been moments of kindness and glimpses into the person she wished he was. Of course, she knew now that those glimpses were probably due to that wretched book he'd read.

Fail-safe ways to charm witches indeed, Hermione thought with some disgust.

Looking back now, she probably should have broken off the relationship upon finding out about the book a year ago. Ron had of course given it to Harry, but when Ginny had broken up with him, Harry had returned the book to Ron saying that he was 'no longer interested' in what it had to say. That argument had been thunderous. But she had… hoped, she supposed. Hoped that his attention to her and her ideas was coming from a genuine interest in what she thought, instead of a role he believed he had to play to keep her happy.

Honestly, she might have been okay with him not sharing any of her interests. She'd been thoroughly infatuated with him in sixth year, and might have started dating him regardless of his respect for her ideas at that time. The thought made her scowl and stuff several of her pants into the drawer with slightly more force than was strictly necessary. She closed the drawer, fell back onto the bed, and sighed again.

No, she shouldn't have let it go on so long. Her and Ron just… weren't right. They fought over big things and small things, because they simply didn't agree on nearly anything. Well, they agreed on finding each other attractive, but that isn't quite enough to sustain a long-term relationship. It had sustained theirs for over two years, but now it left her feeling foolish. She'd told him so, that she felt foolish for staying with him. Hermione winced at that memory. It hadn't been particularly kind, but they'd already been having a go at each other, and she'd lost her temper.

That's one of the things that made her decide this was it, they were done for good. No cooling off for a few days, no ignoring the argument until it was a faded memory. No more being unhappy. She hadn't had a real temper ever, except with Ron. She got indignant, and she got self-righteous she could admit, but just plain angry? That hadn't ever been part of who she was, and she didn't like who she was when it happened. Those are the things that had been running through her mind when she'd told Ron he made her feel foolish, and more than any cutting remark she'd ever made to him that one had seemed to sting.

He'd gone quiet, turned that unique shade of red that only she seemed able to cause, and told her to pack her things. So she had.

Hermione found herself… not really happy that their relationship was over but… relieved? That was probably right. It had just been so much work to maintain the relationship they had, and it had started to really wear her down. It had consumed so much of her time and energy that she'd let many of her friendships fall by the wayside. That was another thing that in retrospect should have set alarms off. Both of them had been focusing on each other to the exclusion of their friends, because looking away from their relationship had risked implosion.

It had been weeks since she'd had a real conversation with someone who wasn't a Weasley. It had been nearly two months since she'd talked to Harry, she realized. Actually now that she thought about it, she hadn't had very many meaningful conversations with Harry at all since a few months after the Battle of Hogwarts. She had talked with him, but every time she had he'd seemed so… ambivalent. Melancholic. He'd always been a guy that kept to himself, but not from her. What had changed? She hadn't noticed anything change.

I don't know when Ron and I will even be on speaking terms with each other, she thought. I definitely can't have both of my oldest friends be distant.

Hermione picked herself off the bed and went to write a letter. Perhaps Harry would meet her for some lunch tomorrow and they could catch up.

Harry slowly opened his eyes and looked at the light on the ceiling.

Hmmm… maybe two in the afternoon?

He stared for several seconds trying to decide whether or not to get out of bed. What exactly did he have to do today? He was pretty sure he'd managed to avoid any commitments for today. Unless it wasn't Thursday perhaps? Harry grabbed his glasses off the night stand and put them on before picking up his wand to check the date. Excellent, so he hadn't lost track of the day again. And Thursday meant he didn't have anything to do.

Harry rolled over and closed his eyes again. If he didn't have anything to do, then why get out of bed? He cursed himself for tempting fate so brazenly when almost immediately after an incessant tapping sounded on his window. He growled as he rolled out from under the covers and shuffled to the window.

"What!" he nearly shouted at the owl when he got the window open. The blasted bird gave his ear a sharp nip as it flew past him and landed on his desk.

I wonder if that owl is from anyone important, or if I could risk giving it a good kick.

Harry took a deep breath as he walked over to his desk. He'd become someone who definitely wasn't a morning person. Harry checked the time again. Or an afternoon person, apparently. But it wasn't an unreasonable hour to be receiving owls, and there was no reason to take out his frustration on the creature.

"Sorry," Harry mumbled as he gently removed the letter. Not many people sent him letters any more, which was actually the way he preferred it, but this was an owl he didn't recognize. Giving the note a few waves of his wand to ensure he wasn't about to be cursed, Harry unfolded it and began to read a tight and neat script that he would recognize anywhere.

Harry,

I was wondering if you'd be willing to join me tomorrow afternoon for some lunch. I was thinking about heading into Muggle London and would certainly appreciate the company and the chance to catch up with you.

Please send your reply back with my new owl. Her name is Curie, and she's quite intelligent, so don't do anything to get on her bad side.

Love,
Hermione

Harry groaned as he looked up at the owl.

"Sorry Curie, you caught me when I was just waking up. I didn't mean to be a jerk."

The owl stared at him for several seconds before looking away and cleaning its feathers. Harry pulled out a quill and jotted down his acceptance of the invitation before attaching it to Curie's leg and sending the owl on its way.

Normally he would decline such a request, politely or impolitely depending on how much he cared about what the person thought, but Hermione and Ron were different. No matter what he would always make time for them. Come to think of it, he hadn't really talked to either of them in at least a few weeks. Or, he thought it had been a few weeks? Things blended together when you aren't really doing anything.

Doing nothing was what Harry had in a way dedicated himself to. He'd spent his entire childhood having to be decisive because his life depended on it, but even then he'd found it tiring. A few times, like during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, his resistance to being decisive had cost him greatly or caused him a great deal of trouble. But now that his unwanted mission in life was over, he just felt so… tired. Spent. Done with it all.

His apathy towards doing anything productive had been what had eventually driven Ginny away. She had put up with him far longer than he had any right to expect, but Ginny had never been one to sit around and do nothing, or one to motivate other people into action. In the end he'd simply watched her go, and then receded into a life of living off his inheritance and resting.

Which, frankly, Harry felt he kind of deserved. If anyone had the right to just be, it was him.

But for his two best friends, the people who had stuck with him through every suicidal turn of his teenage years, he would leave the house and do something. Checking his kitchen cupboard, he reasoned that he needed to pick up some groceries anyway.

Hermione fidgeted as she waited for Harry to walk into the diner. She'd sent him the location as soon as she'd received his reply, but he was already running several minutes late and Hermione worried that something may have come up. Where was he working again? She couldn't remember, and kicked herself mentally for how thoroughly she must have been ignoring all of the people she knew.

The bell on the door sounded and Hermione's eyes locked on Harry as he walked in the door. Within a few moments he was sitting across from her, a confused expression on his face.

"Where's Ron?" Harry finally asked.

"Oh, uh…" Hermione faltered. "You haven't spoken with him?"

"Er, not in a few weeks I think," Harry answered. "Something happen?"

"We broke it off," Hermione said. She saw him give her a dubious look. "Permanently. It's over. I thought for sure he would have contacted you."

"When did that happen?" Harry asked seriously.

"Just… well in the morning yesterday." She paused. "I'm sorry, I thought you'd know. If you'd prefer to leave I understand, I wouldn't—"

"Relax, Hermione," Harry reassured her. "I'm not… going to get in the middle of all that. I stopped getting in the middle of your guys' spats in fifth year." A few seconds of silence passed before Harry's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, er, I'm sorry to hear about it… by the way…"

Hermione looked at him for several seconds in shock. The way he was speaking was almost like he was… it was like someone had explained to him the way a normal person would act and he was following their verbal description.

"That's alright, Harry," she said evenly. "It's for the best anyway. We… well, you know what our relationship was like."

"You mean in school?" Harry asked confused. Hermione stared at him.

"No, our… after we moved in…" Hermione trailed off. Had Harry really been so far from them that he didn't really know what their relationship had been like after Hogwarts? "Never mind, just… we ended up not being right for each other."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, and this time it sounded genuine. "I suppose Ron will want to talk sometime soon as well."

"Yes, well, I didn't actually ask to meet because I wanted to commiserate," Hermione explained. "I asked to have lunch because I realized that I hadn't been a very good friend and had been ignoring you quite a lot while I was with Ron."

"Oh don't worry, Hermione," Harry said with a faint smile. "I don't blame either of you for that. It didn't bother me knowing that you two were off somewhere being happy, I'd be the same way I reckon."

"Yes, but that's the point Harry, we weren't happy." Hermione sniffed. "Besides, that really is no excuse for us being horrible friends."

"Alright, alright," Harry soothed, putting up his hands. "Apology accepted. Merlin knows you won't drop it until I let you know you're right."

Hermione gave him a glare.

"What do you do?" Hermione asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I realized the other day that I don't remember you talking about what you do for a living since we left school." Hermione looked a bit sheepish at this admission, but pressed forward anyway. "Have you applied to be an Auror? Are you already in training?"

Harry let out a large, genuine laugh, and the sound made Hermione acutely aware of just how lacking he had been in humor the last few times they'd talked.

"No, not at all," Harry said. "I've been living off my inheritance."

A few seconds passed while Hermione waited for the rest, but no elaboration seemed to be forthcoming.

"And?" she prompted. "What do you do with your time?"

"I don't know," Harry said, starting to sound a little annoyed. "Mostly I'm just around my house. Every now and then someone invites me to a birthday, or a wedding or something like that."

"That's… That's it?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Harry confirmed with a sigh. "What are you going to get?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

Hermione moved her eyes from his face to her menu, thinking as she stared at the list of dishes she could order. Something had happened to Harry and she hadn't noticed it happening, but she was determined now to figure out what.

Hermione paced her hotel room in frustration. The last two weeks had been incredibly frustrating for her. To begin with, Ron was still being a prat and refusing to talk to her or return her owls, although she had only really attempted to contact him twice. In the end she decided that at least for now that was fine. She didn't particularly feel like talking to him much and had only reached out to try and discuss Harry with her former… flame.

She had managed to rope Harry into several more lunches together, again on the pretext of catching up, but she was quickly starting to realize it hadn't been a pretext. She really had lost track of him completely. The moment she'd realized the extent to which Harry had simply fallen off her radar of importance had sent a piercing cold feeling through her chest. She had bled for this man. She had been tortured for him… She'd nearly led a Ministry official to their deaths for him and she had made her parents forget her existence for him. How could she have so completely abandoned him?

That sharp spike of guilt and shame fed an even greater feeling of anger and disgust. No one around Harry, none of the other people that knew him and had been trying to keep in touch with him, had really done anything to help him. Was it always her job to pick up the pieces when Harry fell apart? Her anger was directed at many people, but none more so than Ginny. If anyone had been in a position to help him with what he was going through, it was her, and if anyone could be said to have had the responsibility it would be his girlfriend.

To Hermione this felt like a repeat of Christmas during fifth year. Harry had the vision of Nagini attacking Arthur and had been worried that he was being possessed by Voldemort. In typical Harry fashion, he'd concluded the best thing to do was lock himself in a room at Grimmauld Place and protect everyone else from the danger he represented. No discussion, no reaching out, no asking for help. His friends and family at the time had tried to help, at least a little, but had been utterly ineffective. They hadn't been willing to do what was necessary for Harry. In the case of Sirius, Hermione thought that was probably because he just wasn't in a state to properly help, what with Azkaban and being locked up in that horrid house. Besides, she felt uneasy about blaming a man who had been so important to Harry before dying. With Ginny though…

Ginny had actually been possessed by Voldemort. She actually could have helped Harry, actually made a difference to him. She was, at least, aware of that fact because she had tried to get Harry to let her in the room. But when Harry had been obstinate as he sometimes was, Ginny had gotten annoyed with him. Not for being difficult, but for ignoring her. She was more concerned about the fact that Harry wouldn't pay her attention than the fact that Harry was hurting.

But when Hermione had received a letter during the break explaining what was going on she had canceled her time with her parents, despite the fact that she only got to see them for a few weeks a year. She'd come immediately to Grimmauld Place, and she had forced Harry to let her in. She hadn't been worried if Harry would be upset with her for being 'bossy' or 'nosy', she had done what was necessary to help him, even if it cost her. And when Hermione had finally pulled Harry out of that room after being there for only minutes, Ginny hadn't pointed out her own possession as a way to help Harry, she'd pointed it out to admonish him for not paying attention to her.

Hermione growled in frustration, took a deep breath, and calmed herself.

Ginny had only been 14 at the time, so of course she was going to be that way at least a little. It didn't necessarily speak to a fundamental part of her character, and Hermione could be honest enough to realize that her current anger and resentment towards Ron might be spilling over a little bit at the moment to the other Weasleys. But it still infuriated her that no one had done anything to help Harry.

At first Hermione had thought from talking with him that Harry was showing the classic signs of depression. That would have made some sense, she supposed, except that he didn't seem emotionally stunted when she talked to him. He seemed more… bored. Additionally, despite all his apparent apathy, Harry hadn't avoided spending time with his godson at all. Harry still made regular appointments with Andromeda to spend time with Teddy, and seemed to genuinely enjoy playing with the toddler. He also hadn't outright refused any of her requests for lunch.

No, he wasn't depressed. As she had talked with him more and more she'd realized that he was just… standing still. It was like he didn't have the will to move forward towards anything, to set goals or make plans. But when other people instigated, at least when they didn't take his first 'no' as an answer… he seemed to go along with it. It was like he just didn't want to make decisions or have a will of his own anymore.

Hermione found this… problematic. She thought she knew what to do had he been depressed, she had her own experiences with that and understood a lot of the current thinking on how to treat depression. But how do you treat a lack of will? It was so intrinsic to going through life, but it didn't seem like the kind of thing she could really do much about just by having lunch with him several times a week. No, to deal with this problem she would—

Hermione's eyes widened and she slowly looked around her room. Yes… that could work. She started moving around the room, packing up her things. It was time to check out of the hotel, it wasn't a long-term solution anyway. Harry's problem was that he didn't want to make decisions, and what he needed was someone to 'crack the whip' so to speak. To motivate him. She had often felt like her controlling and bossy side had been a flaw that kept her from forming friendships, but perhaps this time the flaw could work in her favor. During their last lunch Harry had finally told her where his house was, and she was going to use that information to full effect.

Her plan was simple: show up at Harry's door, move into a spare room, and boss him around to get him doing things until he had the strength of will to kick her out. It might upset him for a bit, it might annoy him for a bit, but just like every time she'd had the chance during their adventures, Hermione was willing to sacrifice to help him, even if that meant sacrificing how much he enjoyed her company.

Hermione paused as the 'mudblood' scar on her left arm caught her eye. This wouldn't even be close to the most difficult thing she'd done to help him.

Harry grumbled as he heard the wards chime. It was — Harry checked his watch — 8 PM, who in the world would be dropping by at this time in the evening? Civilized people would be having a meal. In fact, who would be dropping by at all? He couldn't remember the last person that had come by other than Andromeda, and she would never bring Teddy over this late.

He stumbled his way to the door, building up a foul mood that he could dump on whoever was at the door, but when he turned the knob and opened it all the fight left him and a sense of confusion and concern overtook him instead.

"Hermione?" he asked. "What… are you doing here? Did something happen?" He eyed her luggage conspicuously.

"Open the door, Harry," Hermione said forcefully, ignoring his questions for the moment.

Harry blinked. That… was a tone of voice he hadn't heard her use in a while. Especially with him. Shrugging his shoulders Harry opened the door and stepped aside, watching as she levitated her belongings through the entryway. As soon as she'd set them down gently, she turned around and faced him, a sort of determination in her eyes that reminded him an awful lot of their Horcrux hunt.

"Close the door, Harry."

He nodded as he latched the door.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to live with you for a little while," Hermione told him in a tone of utter finality.

"I beg your pardon?" Harry responded. He couldn't recall this coming up in their lunch conversations.

"Do you not want me here?" she asked him. Harry searched her face for some kind of clue as to what was happening here.

"Well… not really, but I guess you can stay if you need to."

"Oh, I don't need to stay, but you need me to stay," Hermione assured him. "You're just wasting away in this house, no sense of will, no sense of direction, no hunger for life at all. That. Is. Unacceptable." Harry's eyes widened at every word of her explanation. "So I will be staying here and making you do things until you can make yourself do them."

"Hermione…" Harry said with a frown.

"Do you want me to leave?"

Yes. Yes he did, as a matter of fact. What she had just described sounded absolutely exhausting and at complete odds with the 'retire at the age of 17' plans he'd been enacting since his mission had ended.

"Yes," he said, but it came out ineffectual and weak. Merlin, maybe he really had let things go a little bit.

"Alright," Hermione said, a smirk spreading over her face. She took two steps over to him until her face was looking up directly into his. "Make me," she whispered.

Harry was stunned and… Merlin, even a little turned on by the confidence and sureness of her voice. It had been… years since anyone had invested the kind of energy it took to be nosy and bossy into him. Their faces were less than a foot away from each other and he opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to make any words come out.

"That's what I thought," Hermione said satisfied. "I'm staying here until you make me leave. When you have the will to do that, I'll know that you don't need me to 'boss you around' any more, as you used to call it in school."

She turned with a flip of her hair which just barely grazed the front of his face, and his eyes got even wider as he felt his pants tighten ever so slightly.

Fuck… He was so completely screwed.

Author's Note: Hey there's this is my third story, and it's another one that includes BDSM elements. This one is obviously a post-DH fic featuring Harry and Hermione as a couple. In case you're worried, no there won't be Ron/Ginny/Weasley bashing in this fic, Hermione isn't the most unbiased source at this point in the story when it comes to any of them.

This will definitely by an actual romance, but one featuring a Domme Hermione and a sub Harry (in case that wasn't clear from the description and the story so far).

I hope you enjoy!

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