Kiss Me at Midnight, Love Me Forevermore
Arendora
Summary:
It has been a long year for Hermione, tonight is a night for decisions but will the right one be made?
Notes:
In response to a prompt by Anonymous in theChampagneandCountdownscollection.
Prompt:
The annual Ministry of Magic New Years Masquerade Ball and what happens when tempers flair
Work Text:
How Many Ways
How many ways can love manifest?
How can a person tell when their heart is lost forever?
When do you know that you will never be the same again?
Words, just words that flow so freely.
'I love you'; it seems so used.
When do you know that it is true?
When you don't have to say them but you already know, in your heart and in your soul.
When time can pass without a sound, without a word, without an ear and still you know that love is near.
When sunsets fade and storms rage on, my love for you will still go on.
By : Arendora
They saw her standing by the floating fairy lights. In her white sleeveless dress that hugged her body like a glove, a slit on the right side that went to her hip, and matching white high-heels she looked like an angel. Her once unruly hair was tamed into a sophisticated high chignon. Her skin glowed like gold and her smile stopped all three in their tracks.
Draco stood mesmerized by the vision before him. She had come.
She was surrounded by her friends, all of which he could easily say were his friends now as well. She turned and looked right at him, and her smile increased.
She patted Harry Potter on the shoulder and began to walk toward him. By gods, was she sexy! All he wanted in that moment was to run his hands up and down the curves of her body.
"Draco." It was his name, but coming from her mouth it sounded sinful.
"Hermione."
She smiled brighter still and reached around his waist to hug him.
"I did not think you would come," he whispered.
"Of course I was going to come. I told you I would, Draco, or did you forget our promise last year of only kissing each other at midnight?"
"Forget? Hermione, it has literally been the only thing I have thought of for an entire year."
Draco could feel the smile on her lips and she squeezed him tighter. Why did he always have to let her go?
"I have good news for you." She looked back up at Draco and beamed. " I am moving back home. Kingsley asked me to head the office here in London."
"Are you serious?!"
"Quite." She giggled.
"Do I have to wait until midnight, or can I kiss you to celebrate? Please." He was begging and really he did not care if anyone saw, this was his witch.
Her smile was radiant. Draco wanted more, all of her, and now he would stop at nothing to have her by his side forever.
"Just one and only one, because I missed you so much."
He did not wait for further acceptance, his mouth descended on hers like a man deprived of oxygen and finally surfacing from drowning.
Harry Potter beamed at the happy couple across the room, his own witch tucked safely in his arms next to him.
"I am glad she is coming home, we have all missed her terribly," Luna said dreamily, her head laid on Harry's shoulder.
Harry nodded in agreement and the rest of the group murmured the same sentiment.
"Ron, would you miss me like that if I had to travel that much for work?"
Ron looked at his wife, always insecure, even if she knew he adored the ground she walked on.
"Pans, I would battle hell to get back to you and you know it."
Pansy smiled and kissed Ron on the cheek. "This is why I love you, you always know when to make me smile."
"Is Ginny planning to be here this year? I know she was busy earlier this week with Quidditch practice in Ireland," Luna asked.
"Mum said she may be here, but she wasn't certain she could get away until next week, especially since she took an entire week off for Christmas."
"Yeah, how did that go? I am sorry we couldn't drop by on Christmas, the baby was giving Luna fits." Harry placed his hand on top of Luna's swollen stomach and his eyes drifted shut when he felt the baby move.
"Pretty good, actually," Ron said, watching Harry caress Luna's stomach. "Everyone was there. Percy and Audrey dropped by for a little while, and George and his herd of kids came. It was a madhouse.
"Severus."
"Lucius."
"Minister." They both greeted back.
"I think it is safe to say you may call me Kingsley. We fought a war together, sirs. If that doesn't familiarize you, I don't know what will." His laughter roared and echoed off the cavernous walls.
"I see your future daughter-in-law has found her way back home again," Kingsley observed. He had been watching both men stare at the beautiful young woman since she'd arrived.
"She is not my daughter-in-law," Lucius sneered in response. It simply was not fair that she greeted the brat before them, even if he was Lucius' brat.
Kingsley shook his head in laughter. He knew he was setting up a very unpleasant meeting later, but he simply could not help himself. All three men were drowning so deep into Hermione Granger, it was no wonder she took a year to be away from it all.
"Well, I must get back to my guests. Have a pleasant evening, gentlemen."
Severus simply gazed at the couple kissing on the ballroom floor. He had no reason to believe Hermione would ever choose him over the man beside him, and even less over Draco. He wanted her to kiss him like that. But it would never happen and he already knew it.
"I wonder what Kingsley has done now," Lucius muttered, taking another sip of his Firewhiskey.
"With that cunning bastard in charge, there is no telling," Severus finally answered. "I need to get some air."
"Draco!" Hermione broke away from him and swatted him on the shoulder. "I said one kiss, not one twenty-minute kiss! Besides, I know you only did that to irritate Lucius and Severus."
Draco growled. Why did she always have to bring them up?
"So what if I did? I want them to know I am claiming you."
"Claiming me? Oh, Draco, you have no idea do you," she muttered. "I need to get some air. I will be back in a moment."
Draco watched as Hermione turned on her heel and walked to the balcony.
"Severus?"
Severus turned and saw the object of his affection walk out onto the balcony and stand beside him.
"Miss Granger."
Hermione frowned.
"Where did that come from? You have not called me that since I was a student."
Severus turned his head away from the beautiful vision before him and stared out at the London skyline. He felt her hand come up to rest on his sleeve and he stiffened.
"Severus, please look at me."
"I can not, Hermione. You know I will kiss you if I do."
"Maybe I want you to kiss me," she whispered.
"Why? You have two men in there right now salivating over everything you say and practically shagging you with their eyes, and you want me to kiss you? How droll."
"Severus Snape!" Hermione raged. "The three of you irritate me to no end! Why can't any of you accept the fact that I love all three of you? Why must everything be a competition between you?"
Severus turned his head to stare at the beautiful witch. Did she just say she loved him? No. Did she?
"Say that again." He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. Her cheeks were red and her lips slightly swollen from Draco's kiss.
Hermione stared up at Severus. His eyes were glassy, but his face was remarkably serious.
"I said, I love all three of you."
"Do you really love me, Hermione?"
"Yes, Severus, I do."
He lifted her chin and kissed her. It wasn't demanding like Draco's had been, but it left her breathless. She wrapped her arms around his trim waist and kissed him back.
"I am willing to try what you asked of us, Hermione, but only for your sake."
Hermione beamed up at him and laid her head against his chest. His heart was beating rapidly and he was breathing hard.
"Thank you, Severus."
He engulfed her with his arms and pulled her tighter to him.
Lucius walked out onto the balcony and saw the scene before him. He wanted her to kiss him!
"My, my, Miss Granger, you are making the rounds tonight it seems."
Severus froze.
Hermione turned her head and smiled at the blond aristocrat standing with his hip cocked and gripping his cane so hard his knuckles had turned white.
"Honestly, you three drive me spare," she muttered. "Are you just going to stand there and brood, or are you going to come out here and talk to me?"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to break up the happy reunion. I think I shall go have another drink."
Lucius turned with a flair that had Severus chuckling and began to walk back inside, when he felt her hand on his arm.
"Lucius Malfoy, you had better turn around and speak to me, or I will hex your hair red!"
"There is obviously nothing left to say, Miss Granger."
"Like hell there isn't! I took this job away from the three of you to have time to let you all cool down and think about what I said. You have had a year, Lucius, a year! If this is the reception I get from you then it is quite obvious you did not think about what I said at all!"
"Think about it! That is all I have bloody well thought about for an entire year, Hermione!"
"Yet, this is how you choose to tell me no? That is fantastic. Lucius, you of all people would have been the one I would have thought would have agreed. I suppose I was mistaken. Excuse me." Hermione tried to walk passed him but his arm shot out to block her path.
"I did not say no, Hermione," he whispered in her ear. The deep baritone of his voice sent shivers down her spine.
"You did not say yes, either."
"Perhaps, for one night, I wish to be selfish and keep you for myself."
Hermione blushed scarlet. The implication was too much not to imagine all the wickedly delicious things Lucius would do to her.
"I think you could be selfish for a night, Lucius." She chuckled.
"Then do you require an answer if you already know what I will say?"
"Only if you breathe it into my ear, Lucius."
Lucius grabbed her waist and turned her to face him. The intensity in his eyes made her blush harder. He lowered his face towards her ear.
"Yes."
Then he kissed her. It was the perfect combination of Draco's demanding kisses and Severus's sweet kisses that left her breathless. He backed her to the wall and pinned her arms above her head.
"If we had all the time in the world, Hermione, you would be leaving here and staying in my bed all night."
"Does that include me, or are you cashing in your one night alone, Lucius?" Severus chuckled.
"Why did I not realize, you two would already have her pinned down?" Draco said, walking out onto the balcony and lighting a cigarette.
Hermione laughed at the odd situation, her three lovers all in one area. This should be interesting, indeed.
"Well, gentlemen, since we are all here now, I suppose this conversation needs to happen. Draco, you have yet to tell me yes or no. Lucius and Severus have both said yes," Hermione said, looking straight at Draco who was turned looking out over the balcony with his arms propped up on the railing. Smoke was pouring out of the cigarette and he was shaking.
"Why do you ask this of me, Hermione?"
Hermione was crestfallen, this conversation was not going to go well.
"Because I love you, Draco, but I love Lucius and Severus as well."
"Love? You call this love! This isn't love, Hermione, this is you not being able to choose!" Draco hurled the half smoked cigarette from the balcony and turned to walk back inside the ballroom.
"I don't want to choose because I do love all of you, and I would rather live alone than not have any of you in my life." Tears cascaded down her face.
Severus and Lucius turned to sneer at Draco who had stopped in the doorway.
"I am sorry, but I won't share you, Hermione. I just can't."
Hermione fled the balcony. She ran out of the ballroom to the Floo and made her way back to her room at the Leaky Cauldron.
"Draco, you are the biggest dunderheaded fool to ever walk this planet!" Severus roared. He grabbed Draco by the collar and flung him back towards the balcony railing.
"We agreed to this!" Lucius said angrily, as both men crowded the space in front of Draco.
"We lost her for a year because of this shite and now you did it again! What the bloody hell is wrong with you!" Severus roared again.
"I want to be a selfish prick. I want her to be mine and mine alone!" Draco said defiantly.
"But she isn't yours alone, Draco, or have you not been listening! She is married to all of us. It may have started out because of that stupid law, but we are all three in love with her the same way she loves all of us! Now that the law is being repealed, she doesn't have to stay and she won't!" Lucius was so angry he was shaking.
"The only thing she has ever asked of us, and you can not give it to her. How selfish of you, Draco," Severus said, punching Draco on the arm as hard as he could.
"Ow! That hurt, you barbarian!"
"We lived quite well together under one roof for two years, Draco, or do you not remember what it was like to wake up to her smiling face? She did not ask to fall in love with any of us, she did not ask to be tied to three former Death Eaters, but she did it, anyway. All she wants is for all of us to stay together. Why is that so hard for you to accept? She brought life back into all three of us. We were all broken beyond repair. We all suffered. And now you want to take away the one thing she wants most?" Lucius spat.
"I don't want to give her up," Severus whispered.
"None of us do, Severus," Draco muttered.
"Then why in blazing hells did you just make her cry!" Severus said angrily.
"I am afraid, ok! I am afraid she will forget about me when this law is repealed, that she will stay with you two and leave me."
"By the gods, how have I raised such an ignorant son?" Lucius ran his fingers through his platinum blond hair and turned away from Draco. The urge to punch him in his nose was growing stronger by the minute.
"She plainly said she wanted all of us, Draco, or were you too busy wallowing in self-pity and doubt to listen to what she said?" Severus sneered down at his godson.
"I know what she said," Draco muttered. "It still does not change the way I feel."
"Then perhaps her leaving for good will change your mind." Lucius turned back around and leaned in, nose-to-nose with Draco. "She has until midnight to make her decision to stay here at the London office or leave again for America. Now it is your turn to make sure she stays, otherwise I will make your life hell in more ways than one, son."
"Wait, she said she already accepted it!" Draco was beginning to panic.
"She did, but if she tells Kingsley no before midnight, then the deal is off."
Draco's mind began to race. He wanted her here, he wanted her to stay. The last year had been horrible without her at the Manor. All three of them had fallen back into the same funk they were in before she upended their lives. No! This would absolutely not do at all.
"Promise me we do this together, promise me!" Draco shouted.
"Isn't that what we have been saying for the last ten minutes?" Severus's patience had come to an end.
"We have to find her! We have to bring her home!"
Harry Potter heard most of the conversation on the balcony. He had not known the reason Hermione left last year, but now he did. She had actually fallen in love with all three of her husbands. What's more, they had fallen for her as well.
"How much do you love her?" Harry asked, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.
All three men turned to look at him and he raised an eyebrow.
"I ask because I am the only one who knows where she is. But I will not tell you if all you are going to do is fight and make her cry again."
All three men by the balcony looked defeated, and worse, heartbroken.
"All of us are hopelessly and madly in love with her, Potter," Severus stated, looking into those bright green eyes he had so often sneered at.
"Let me go talk to her. All three of you, stay here!"
Harry made his way to the fireplaces and Floo'ed directly into Hermione's room. She was sitting on the bed, still in her gown, tears pouring down her face.
"Hermione, why didn't you just tell me you had fallen in love with them?" Harry asked, crouching down in front of her and grabbing her hands.
Hermione laughed bitterly.
"Would you have believed me?"
"Of course I would! You have never lied to me why would I think you would start now?"
Harry wiped the tears from her face and wrapped his arms around her. She was his sister, his best friend, the only person who ever stuck by him through the worst times in his life, and still she felt she couldn't burden him.
"You always assume I will be angry with you for sharing your feelings, but I promise you all I have ever wanted was for you to be happy. If those three make you happy, then I am happy."
"Draco said no, Harry." She sobbed again.
"Yes, I heard all of it. You do know he is only scared of being left behind. He used to do the same damn thing in school."
"Why would he think I would leave him behind?" Hermione looked up at Harry, her eyes still swimming with tears. "I love all of them so much it hurts, Harry. I could never leave any of them behind. They still have no idea I have been here the whole time, because I simply couldn't be so far away."
"I know love, I know. Perhaps it would be better if you just told them that."
"How can I, Harry, how can I tell them what a sap I am?"
The Floo sprang to life once more, and out stepped Luna.
"Hermione," Luna said, sitting down beside her friend on the bed. "If you are going to make this change, you need to do so at home. Not at the Ministry and definitely not in here."
"Which home, Luna?"
"Why, Malfoy Manor, of course."
"I can not get in to that house without Lucius or Draco bringing me."
"Yes, you can. Put on your rings. They are the key to the house. Did no one ever tell you that?"
Hermione brought her left ring finger up and looked at it. She grabbed her wand beside her and the Disillusionment spell vanished, showing three very different rings on her finger. She twisted them around her finger, a sad smile barely brightening her face.
"I vowed never to take them off, and I never will."
"Then knock some sense into them, Hermione." Luna chuckled.
Hermione looked at her friend. She was so glad Harry had been paired with her and not Ginny. She had been even more glad when she was not paired with Ron.
Hermione hugged her friends, her anchors, the only ones who had kept her sane the past year. What would she do without them?
"You go home, I will make sure they arrive shortly."
Hermione smiled and rose from the bed. She walked towards the fireplace.
She turned back to her friends and her smiled widened.
"Thank you." And she was gone.
"Do you really think they can work all of this out, Luna?"
Luna smiled her dreamy, sweet smile and simply nodded.
"You just go make sure they go home, I will see to everyone else. Oh! Make sure they take a bottle of champagne, you never know when they will need it."
Harry shook his head and laughed. He knew Luna was exceptionally perceptive, but he often wondered if she was a Seer as well. If Luna said it would be ok, then Harry had every reason to believe it would be extraordinary.
Hermione landed in Lucius' study. It had not changed much in the last year. She looked around and blushed as all of the memories of her and Lucius flooded her mind. She ran her hand across the lip of the mahogany desk, the first place she and Lucius had made love. She perched herself atop the imposing piece of furniture and waited with her arms crossed. This was going to be an interesting night, indeed.
Harry Floo'ed back to the Ministry and made his way back to the balcony where he had left Draco, Lucius and Severus earlier. All three were still standing there, leaning against the railing with their arms crossed. Harry shook his head and leaned against the door.
"She has agreed to speak to you, but only at Malfoy Manor. Also, bring a bottle of champagne. Luna advised me to mention that to you. On another note, if you three arseholes make my sister cry again, I will kill all three of you and burn the bodies. Do I make myself clear?"
All three sneered at Harry. Harry cocked his head to the side.
"What the bloody hell are you waiting for, an invitation?!" Harry sneered back. "Go!"
"Thank you, Potter," Severus said, bowing slightly before leaving the balcony.
Lucius also bowed and exited the balcony.
Harry threw his arm up to prevent Draco from leaving.
"Draco, I found her pouring tears because of you. I have not hated you for a very long time now, but if you ever hurt her like that again, it won't be just me you have to deal with. She went into this marriage giving 110%, like she does with everything else she does. She put up with everything you three dished out and still kept a smile on her face. Just so you know, I would have never chosen any of you for Hermione, but I will concede that in this instance I was wrong."
Draco nodded and Harry let him pass.
Severus and Lucius were already at the Floo by the time Draco arrived. They each grabbed one of his arms and together they went to Malfoy Manor.
Hermione was still perched atop the desk when they came through the Floo. The side slit to her dress was open, revealing her long legs crossed, and she was leaning back on her hands staring at the fireplace.
All three stopped dead in their tracks to stare at her.
"Welcome home," she simply stated as she continued to stare them down.
She slid down the desk and stood. Crossing her arms, she walked toward them. She circled them, eyeing all three up and down before coming to stand directly in front of Draco.
Draco swallowed hard and looked back at her. "I love you too, Hermione."
"I know," she said simply.
"I do realize you love them as well, as much as you love all of us. I—I promise to do better ok?"
Hermione flung her arms around Draco and began to cry again.
"Then why are you trying to break us up?" She sobbed. "We were happy, Draco, all of us! Why can't we just be happy again?"
Draco sighed and wrapped his arms around her.
"We will be, love, I promise."
Off in the distance, the sound of fireworks could be heard and Hermione jerked her head up to look at the grandfather clock on the wall by the fireplace. Five minutes to midnight.
"Can we go outside to watch the fireworks?"
"Of course we can, love," Lucius said, putting his hand on her bare shoulder.
Hermione kicked off her shoes and raced to the front door of the Manor, all three men trailing behind her. Loud booms and bright flashes of color could be seen, and she squealed with delight.
Lucius came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the top of her head.
Severus stood on her left side. She grabbed his hand and he kissed her cheek.
Draco grabbed her right hand and kissed her passionately on the mouth as the clock struck midnight. Together, they watched as a new year full of hope and promises began right there at home.
The End or is it?
The main story will be written in 2018, because come on we have to know what happened right? ;)