Title: Incentive
Author: TalesOfSnape
Disclaimer: All writing is on a non-profit basis, purely for entertainment purposes. Use of any non-original material within any stories in no way implies ownership, be it from Harry Potter or any other book, film, television, musical or other source.
Pairing: Hermione/George
Rating: Any age, I guess
Summary: Hermione helps George with his first time. no, not that one. Read it and see.
Warnings (if applicable): Nope, still no smut.
Genre: More fluff
Author's Notes: Still pretty new to the playground, so comments are very much appreciated.
Thanks to my beta, t_geyer, for her unending patience, perseverance and support and especially for indulging me in my brief change of fandom.
And yet more thanks to spike's_lady for her help making everything as canon compliant as it's possible to be when canon seems to vary so much from edition to edition, book to book within the series and even within the same volume.

"I guess this is where I pretend that I'm a gentleman and I didn't lure you up here just to have my evil way with you." George gave her a rueful grin as he traded their previous close embrace for an intertwining of fingers, leading her toward the previously unexamined bookcases. "What's on the homework schedule for tonight?"

Hermione shrugged, trying to appear casual, though her eyes scanned the titles before her like a starving man might look at a menu, surprised to find that one of the bookshelves held a number of Muggle novels as well as study texts. "Nothing that I can't do another time. I've done everything that needs to be handed in before the end of term. I've got a couple of essays due when we get back after Easter and I'll start my revision properly next week. Didn't you say that you wanted some help with your Patronus?"

"We-ell..." The redhead drew his wand from a pocket, and cast Hermione a sideways glance. "I didn't quite get it before we were so rudely interrupted..."

Hermione chose to let it slide for now but there was something decidedly shifty about George's reaction. "Why don't I try it and you can watch, and then try yourself?" Her eyes scanned the room before she settled on a spot with her back to the balcony where there was a few feet of clear space before there was the table. She pointed as if imagining a target a foot or so above the table's surface and then closed her eyes to better recreate the look on George's face a few minutes earlier. With the slightest movement of her wand and in a voice that was more breathy than her customary precise intonation she invoked her guardian spirit. The silver otter seemed to flow from the tip of her wand, and swam through the room twisting this way and that as if for sheer joy. Slowly Hermione cracked open first one eye and then the other, afraid that if she stopped concentrating all her attention on the happy memory then the spectral animal would fade away.

George, it seemed, had been watching over her shoulder and now he stepped forward, his free hand coming to rest on her hip and his wand arm stretching parallel with her own. "Expecto patronum," said a voice close by her ear, every syllable intoned to perfection, and a smallish four-legged creature with a luxuriant tail seemed to emerge from the tip of George's wand as if at a run, making for the table. It dived behind the scant cover of a jar that held some quills and then stuck it's head back out, panting, its mouth open slightly, and watched the pair of them.

Hermione half-turned, letting her otter fade away into mist. "I thought you said you needed help?"

George's hand slid from her hip around her waist, pulling her back against him, and his cheek brushed against hers. The little creature watching them from the table seemed to grow brighter, its features becoming more distinct. "I do," George argued. "Just more with the incentive than the incantation. Fortunately for me, having you around helps a lot with the happy thoughts."

Hermione blushed slightly as she fixed her attention back on the Patronus. She realised that it wasn't a dog as she'd first thought, though there were similarities. "Very good, Reynard, but there's no guarantee if you get attacked by Dementors that I'm going to be there for you to use as a security blanket."

"Maybe not in person but I think we can make sure I've got plenty of memories to choose from."

Hermione turned in his arms, tilting her head back for another kiss. "I think we can manage that," she whispered before she pulled his head down to hers and the fox on the table shimmered into formless vapour and then disappeared completely. After all, a major achievement like your first corporeal Patronus deserved a reward.