A/N: Just a little disclaimer pertaining to the characters - yes they are from JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, and I am not in any way pretending to own them. I also do not own the lyrics from Elton John's 'Rocketman' which appear in italics within the text of the story. 'Rocketman' is the basis of my inspiration - I kept on coming across stories where the author had inserted lyrics from songs that they thought fitted the mood of the scenes they were writing, so I decided I wanted to take this one step further, and actually intertwine the lyrics into the story. And here we are.
I appreciate reviews just as much as anybody else, but if you are going to criticise, please do so constructively. Flaming is not cool.
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Prologue
A Malfoy and a Muggleborn?
10 years after the death of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and the Wizarding World is still fighting him. Today it was officially announced that the Minister for Magic, along with two prestigious Ministry Officials, will be attending international peace talks next week in Paris. The talks will review the laws that protect Muggles, including the International Code of Wizard Secrecy. Good luck to them, we say here at the Daily Prophet, as they're going to need it. What on Earth was the Minister thinking when we decided to take a Malfoy and a Muggleborn with him?
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Rocketman
"What did you tell Mrs. Malfoy?"
"The truth," Hermione seemed to read something more into this, and turned to look at his face, disbelieving, with the beginnings of a smile. His blank expression neutralised her excitement like a candle snuffed out in the wind.
"As in; you have muggle negotiations to attend to in France for a week. Nothing more, nothing less," She supplied, with a tone of bitterness. The battle against Voldemort had changed her, and she knew it. 10 years ago she would have despised the woman she had become. Maybe she still did. Her face twisted momentarily in disgust at her unlawful situation before she turned away to survey their room. There were a number of ridiculous items strewn randomly around: quidditch robes; a broom polishing set; a Remembrall; 3 Quick-Quotes Quills. A flicker of irritation crossed Draco Malfoy's features.
"I never lied to you, Granger. You always knew what you were getting into with a married man. If you can't handle that, then end this. It's bloody fine- "
"No," she interrupted, holding her hands up in surrender, "no, I'm sorry. I get tired sometimes… I know it's not your fault. Sorry." She glanced up at him apologetically, and he gave the tiniest smile as she caught his gaze. To steer away from the uncomfortable topic of their unofficial affair, Hermione began to waffle-
"So, um, why on Earth did you bring all of those things with you?" She gestured in the general direction of the clutter, "You don't seriously think we're going to have time for quidditch, do you?" Draco smirked.
"You don't seriously think I would stoop to such a menial task as packing, do you Granger? It was Pansy. She packed my bags last night, pre-flight,"
"Lazy git," Hermione muttered in retaliation. Draco attempted a smirk, but it slipped from his face as he was startled by a loud buzzing sound. Hermione crossed the room to answer the hotel telephone.
"Hello?"
"Miss Granger, I was instructed to call you as a reminder at eight o'clock," stated the deadpan receptionist from downstairs.
"Oh yes, of course, thankyou. Bye,"
"Goodbye," Hermione replaced the receiver with a grin on her face.
"Percy's panicking," she told Draco.
"Ah," he nodded, with a look of understanding, "zero hour, 9am." He mimicked. Hermione giggled, despite her disapproval of him taking their task so lightly.
"We should get ready."
"Yes. But I can think of something much more interesting…" Draco closed the space between them quickly, in his smooth, brisk pace. Caressing the side of her cheek, he leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss.
"Draco!" Hermione pushed him away gently, mockingly, "We can't be late for this!" Completely disregarding her words, Draco pulled her back to him, slightly roughly this time. As his warm, slow lips met Hermione's she twined her arms around his neck to deepen the kiss. She nibbled on his bottom lip and he parted his lips in response, allowing her tongue to slide into his mouth, massaging his own.
Every time felt like the first.
Hermione allowed herself a smirk as she pulled away.
"We'll have more time for this later," she said, as she picked up her hairbrush from the dressing table, and continued getting ready for the opening meeting.
"Ah, yes… and I'm gonna be high as a kite by then!" Draco proclaimed dramatically, swinging open the doors of the wardrobe in order to choose an appropriate suit.
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It was a small affair, the resulting press conference. Most of the 'big cheeses' within Europe were represented by a couple of reporters: the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece and Norway. Other countries were more sporadic – the Bulgarian, for example, was selling his story to both his national newspaper as well as Albania's, one of his neighbouring countries, most mainstream broadsheet. He looked a little like Krum, Hermione noted. These observations were pretty much all that was keeping her from leaving the conference. Muggleborns may be legally equal to Purebloods, but that didn't mean that the ingrained prejudices of hundreds of years of Wizarding society had just been erased. As a result of such, Draco was fielding most of the questions. That and the fact that he was undeniably much better at interacting with strangers than she was. Her thoughts meandered-
"It must be such a wonderful thing, Mr. Malfoy, being able to go places that you know no other person has ever visited. I can't imagine you wanting to return, with all the discoveries to make out there!" The bleached blonde smiled up at him sickeningly, tapping a pen against her rouged lips. Draco laughed obligingly.
"Oh, not so, Miss Allensby, not so at all. When Miss Granger here and I went travelling, I missed everything here more than I had ever imagined. Sometimes I miss the Earth so much that I miss my wife!" Allensby laughed loudly, almost as if she were determined to drown out anybody else's amusement, so that Draco would continue his attention upon her.
"But in all seriousness, Miss Granger and myself found that it's lonely out in space, especially on such a timeless flight. We thought to ourselves – this is only a test flight; it can't be likely that anything particularly terrible will happen. But you're up there, in a confined space, away from all your friends and family and the comforts of modern day living, for such a long period of time. It's incredibly lonely. Of course we also didn't count on the Muggles!" Laughter interspersed his speech, "They not only seem to be lacking in their 'technology', but also in a lot of common sense! But obviously, that is the reason for myself and Miss Granger continuing our research in this area, as you all know, so I shan't bore you on the details.
"On which note I feel that we should bring this enjoyable event to a close. Thankyou all for coming and showing such interest in our passion – we both really appreciate it."
Hermione managed to smile without rolling her eyes.
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Hermione curled the fingers of her left hand into the duvet on top of her, and pulled it right up to her nose, almost as if using it like a security blanket, as she lay in a foetal position on her bed. She was having trouble sleeping tonight, she mused. Probably as a result of all the excitement from the conferences. She still couldn't believe that wizards and witches on a global scale wanted to help prevent Muggles from burning themselves out with their hair-brained 'voyages' into space. She felt a flicker of happiness at the thought, and smiled to herself. Maybe people were getting over their prejudices after all.
Her thoughts, as always, turned to Draco. He had made a big deal out of the loneliness of space earlier, but he always told her that he treasured their time away, and personally she loved it. It gave her a chance to forget all of her mistakes – to pretend that things had never happened - if only for a short amount of time. She loved to forget the troubles that the war had caused her, and she loved to spend time with Draco. She loved being whisked away to remote destinations, where he would romance her, take her to dinner, and spend all morning in bed. It was almost another life for her. It happily would be her life, if it weren't for the fact that Draco always had some business or family matter to attend to after just a couple of days. That thought bothered her, but she batted it away. She didn't want to think of Pansy today.
'Think of your other life,' she told herself, 'your life with him, where everything is perfect. Except, just when I get used to it, he leaves, and I come crashing down to Earth. But I think it's gonna be a long, long time 'til touch down brings me round again to find that he's left again, this time. Hopefully.' She sighed, and Draco stirred next to her.
"Trouble sleeping?" he mumbled, as he rolled over to curl up around her back. His left arm wound its way around her waist, and rested on top of her hand, stroking it with slow, methodical movements.
"Mmm, I was just thinking about what you were saying earlier. About missing Pansy. That was true, wasn't it?" A mumbled response of,
"Dunno," was all she got to qualm her fears. Oh how that one word undid her. She couldn't stop now that she had started.
"I know you need to keep up appearances that everything is fine with her, but sometimes I wonder… I wonder if this means to you what it means to me," she blurted, twisting her fingers further into the duvet, "I wonder if maybe you are that man that everyone back home believes you to be. Happily married with the 2.4-"
"Granger, I am not the man they think I am at home. You know that. Now go back to sleep."
"-I mean, what do you need me for? I don't add anything to your life; I haven't given you children-" she talked through him, almost to herself, not wanting to listen to his words, his inevitable rejection.
"OH, nonono, I'm a rocket man through and through, Granger. Your rocket man. I always will be. Without you I'd… I'd be a rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone. Yeah?"
"-Sometimes I feel like I need you just to breathe, to live; I love you so much…"
A pause.
"Look, just stop worrying. Everything will be fine in the morning. Go to sleep."
'I love you…'
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