Lovers Embrace
Her heart hammered in her chest, heaving up and down, up and down, over and over; her palms were starting to sweat. She hadn't felt this nervous in a long time, it could either go the way she wanted it, or it could all end. And she dreaded to think what the end would bring. When she heard the bang of the common room door she knew he was finally back. Taking one last deep breath she casually stepped out of their shared bathroom in to the hallway before making her way towards the common room itself.
When she got to the top of the stairs she could see his figure hunched over looking in to the flickering flames of the fire, a glass tumbler in his right hand, as he brought the glass to his lips, she softly spoke.
"Draco?" her voice was soft, cautious, as she began descending the stairs, unconsciously rubbing her stomach as she got closer to the bottom.
As he turned around, his first instinct to answer her was cut off as he actually looked at her, her hair haphazardly thrown up into a bun, and a blue summer dress floated about her knees as she walked closer to him, he look unabashedly down her figure and as he reached her bare feet he continued in a backwards motion taking all of her in, engraving her form to memory.
Once she was in reaching distance, he pulled her to him, setting his glass down on top of the fire crushing his lips to hers as a matter of urgency, and when they broke for air, she finally spoke.
"Draco, what's wrong?"
"I need you" was his only reply as he reinitiated their kiss again, his hands ghosting up her sides rubbing the underside of her breasts with his thumbs.
She pushed lightly against his chest; half of her didn't want to leave the comfort his body brought to her, the other half needing to. He came up for more air, and she spoke again. "Talk to me Draco"
He grunted as he lifted her off the ground and began walking towards the stairs, causing her to have to wrap her legs around him, or get dragged along the floor. As he walked up each step, he peppered her face, neck and chest with more kisses, and once in his room he laid her down on the green comforter before beginning to unbutton his shirt, and unclipping his belt. Before climbing up Hermione's body who had skirted back on his advances. He made light work of her panties, as he hooked his long pianist like fingers around the edges and gave a slight tug, his other hand proceeded to lift her dress out of his view, but was stopped when Hermione's hand pushed it back down, keeping it in place.
When she stopped him, he paused, looking up into her face to see her eyes as wide as saucers, her head shaking side to side and water forming in the corner of her eyes giving her eyes a dramatic glassy effect. "Talk to me"
Breathing heavily through his nose he rolled away from Hermione, standing back up and walking out into the chill of the night through his French doors leading to the balcony. When Hermione had gathered her Gryffindor courage she walked out after him.
"You'll catch a chill" she spoke softly resting her hand on his bare back, the action causing goose bumps to appear all over the expanse of pale skin subjected to the nights air.
When he didn't speak she spoke again, "Draco, what happened back there?" he flinched slightly. "I can tell you're frustrated" he turned away from looking over the balcony, briefly looking at the shorter Witch before walking back inside towards his room door, picking up his shirt as he went, as well as his broom stick propped against the door frame. "You can't walk away from this Draco, if we're in this together, you have to tell me things!" he muttered something under his breath, before closing the door.
She knew better than to go after him when he was like this. So decided to wait until he had let off some steam, and do what he always did in times like this- come back to her.
Hermione was awoken by the sound of thunder clapping in the sky, jerking her awake. The balcony door was still open, allowing a cold breeze to come into the room but Draco was nowhere in sight. Sighing she lifted herself off the bed, closing the French doors before heading out into the common room hoping to see him sat down there, when he wasn't she got a cardigan from her room, put on some sandals and headed out of their shared accommodation, towards his House Common room in the dungeon.
The deeper and deeper in the castle's old corridors the Gryffindor got the colder she became, before she suddenly stopped outside of her destination, giving the password to the guardian of the door, she walked into the newly opened room, carefully stepping down the steps into the Snake pit.
Throughout the large Slytherin common room sat couples, and groups of friends all in some form of disarray, the younger students were nowhere in sight, probably having been banished for an early night, leaving more room for the older students lounging here there and everywhere. As Hermione distended the stairs silence seemed to follow her, walking across the expanse of the common room towards the far corner where she hoped the Wizard she was looking for was.
Unfortunately the blonde was nowhere in sight- his second in command, and best friend however was, currently the Italian was leaning into a brunette's ear whispering something, causing her to giggle and turn away towards another Slytherin Theo. She paused as she turned towards him at seeing who was stood in front of the group, elbowing the Italian as she stared.
"What Daph?" the accented Italian replied before he eyed Hermione. "Granger, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Have you seen Draco?" she asked slowly her gaze flittering between the ones sat near Blaise.
"I've not seen him since this afternoon."
Hermione nodded expecting as much, "If you see him, before I see him could you tell him..." she rubbed at the back of her neck, "That I'm looking for him? Or that if he wishes to talk I'm here for him." She was about to turn away before turning back and unhooking the necklace she had on, "If he doesn't want to speak to me about it tell him I'm sorry." She passed the necklace across to the dark skinned Slytherin.
When she turned away she came face to face with Pansy, at seeing who was in front of her, the raven haired girl turned to the girl stood next to her, who Hermione knew as Astoria and shooed her away, before speaking to Hermione herself. "What brings you here?"
Pansy walked past Hermione and proceeded to sit on Blaise's lap on the couch.
"I came to see if Draco was here, he's not so I'm off"
"If he's not here, or in your common room, he'll be flying around the Quidditch field" Pansy summarised.
Hermione nodded, "I thought as much. He took his broomstick when he left earlier" with that Hermione turned and began her walk through the Slytherin's to the door.
Pansy watched as she retreated, giving Daphne a reproachful look, to which the brunette looked away to the girl Pansy had dismissed earlier. While Blaise leant to whisper into Pansy's ear, causing her to swivel round to look at him, before he pressed the necklace into her palm, something seemed to click in her mind, causing her to jump off the Italian's knee and rush off in the direction of the curly haired brunette.
Pansy caught up to Hermione nearer the end of the dungeon's winding corridors, "So Granger, are you going to tell him?"
Hermione stopped walking waiting for the Raven haired girl to get level with her- choosing not to look at her. "What do you mean?"
"About your surprise?"
When Hermione finally turned to the Slytherin, Pansy merely pointed towards her abdomen, causing Hermione's eyes to widen as she reached down and rubbed her stomach. "He has a right to know"
"When he speaks to me about whatever is going on, instead of keeping me out of the loop, the sooner I tell him about this" Hermione absentmindedly rubbed her stomach in circles, "So until that time I'll keep it to myself" Hermione turned to walk away before seemingly having another idea. "I'm going to ask you Pansy, to not say anything to him, this is our problem. Please don't interfere."
Hermione waited for Pansy to nod her head, she knew the Slytherin's cunning nature, as well as her need to gossip, and knew better than to give her any leeway on something as big as this. Pansy simply nodded, and when Hermione went to walk up the stairs towards her room, Pansy furrowed her eyebrows.
"You're not going to see him?"
Hermione shook her head, "I'm sure if he wants to speak to me, he'll come and fine me." And with that the Head Girl walked up the stairs out of sight of the other girl.
-Quidditch Field-
High above Hogwarts Quidditch field, level with the top stands, Draco Malfoy perched on his broom scanning the distance, around and below him for any sign of the snitch zipping around the stadium, when he suddenly noticed a figure holding a lantern getting closer and closer, believing it to be Hermione he continued to look for the snitch until she got into the stadium.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the fleck of gold skim past him, and took off after it. After a long flight of quick direction shifts the snitch lay unmoving in the blonde's hand and he began his flight towards the seat the figure had taken.
As he got closer he realised it wasn't indeed his girlfriend as he first thought but his ex-girlfriend and one of his best friends. "Pans" he acknowledged once he got close enough.
"You're a prick sometimes" she greeted.
"It's nice to see you to" Draco drawled, running his hand through his hair causing his old combed back hairstyle to be reproduced because of the rain water accumulated on his head. "What have I done this time?" he resigned.
"Granger..." she paused as she pulled something out of her coat pocket, she shook her hand in his direction for him to open his hand, and when he did she placed the necklace in it. "She handed this to Blaise" Draco glanced down at his palm. "And you need to tell her what's going on or you're going to lose her."
Draco gave a dry chuckle, "I'm going to lose her either way, what difference does it make, you know I can't get out of this Pans."
Pansy threw her hands in the air, "Then tell her that, you can't just pretend everything peachy between the pair of you and then drop a bombshell of 'Oh by the way I'm getting married to someone else tomorrow' She has a right to know Draco, at least sit her down, talk to her, let her know what's come up. Explain it all to her, she's a smart witch, she might take it hard, she might hit you curse you, do whatever or she might just accept it, but you won't know until you tell her. Don't be a coward Draco."
His nostrils flared, "Why are you doing this, Pans?" he questioned.
"I know how much she means to you Drake, you love her don't you?" when he didn't speak she continued, "I may not be her biggest fan, but I am yours Drake, if she makes you happy, I can set aside my prejudices- I just want you to be happy." She began walking away from him leaving him to his thoughts.
"What if I can't be happy?"
"That's your choice to make Draco, either your happy, or you're not, it's up to you." Pansy finally stopped and turned towards him, "I'm sure somewhere in that brain of yours you can think of some way to keep your family happy, and to keep more importantly yourself happy."
With that Pansy walked out of his sight.
Draco cautiously entered the Head dorm expecting to see Hermione sat on the large settee waiting for him. But her absence had him furrowing his eyebrows, taking the stairs two at a time he looked in his room first before going to hers. At his knock he got no reply and so proceeded to open the door, only to be met with a fierce cold breeze and an empty bed. Glancing towards the French doors he realised they were open hence the cold breeze blowing through. Walking over to close them he was surprised to see Hermione's form leaning on the balcony the wind blowing the loose strands of her hair every which way. As rain poured down the rest of her body.
Hermione was looking out over the Black Lake her mind void of any thoughts, the falling rain covering any traces of the fact she was letting her tears run unhindered down her face. Suddenly she felt something ice cold touch her chest and run down before it settled she above her breasts, followed by a warmth spreading across her back as a warm breath ghosted over her ear. She immediately stepped away from the new comer her back going rigid- even though her heart pleaded to remain where she was. She slowly ran a hand over the newly replaced necklace around her neck feeling the familiar dragon and griffin pendants.
"Hermione come inside" she ignored his plea. "You're going to get a cold" still she ignored her blonde counterpart. There was a long pause, in which Hermione could hear him shuffle his feet slightly- "I'm sorry" he finally said.
Taking a deep breath spinning around to face him, she snapped "For what?"
He recoiled slightly due to the look on her face, "Can we go inside and talk?"
"No" she rested her hands on her hips, "I want an answer Draco, I want you to explain everything"
He nodded his head, water droplets shaking off of his hair as he moved his head up and down, "I promise I'll tell you everything, please can we go inside?"
Finally Hermione relented and began walking inside her room. Draco followed and when she made no move to leave her room for the common room he settled himself on the foot of her bed.
"This isn't exactly easy for me to say..." he trailed slightly, "I..." he furrowed his eye brows, "Something has come up, it's out of my hands" he rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes looking to the floor.
"It's alright Draco; whatever it is I'm here for you" Hermione sat next to him on the bed having been patiently waiting hands on hips moments before.
He looked up at her statement, shifting his body to face her as she perched herself on the foot of the bed much like him. He carefully moved his hands up to her face, his thumbs tracing the line of her jaw, the arch of her brow, down her nose, before his right thumb ran across her lips slowly. Before he slowly leant his head into hers and pressed his lips slowly to hers, in a chaste kiss.
"Draco your scaring me now" she said softly when he pulled away.
He smiled sadly weaving his right hand through her curly mane.
She reached up to pull his hand away from her hair entwining their fingers as she brought it down to her lap, "Really Draco"
"You know I love you, right?" he queried, refusing to make eye contact.
"Of course" she was starting to get worried now, and could feel the beginning of a tremor coursing through her body, "Draco I don't understand" she leant down trying to make eye contact with the blonde but he simply moved his head to the side before standing.
"Father has betrothed me to someone else" he stated not turning to gauge her reaction, though he heard her sharp intake of breath, "We're to get married this summer" he heard another sharp intake but Hermione never spoke and so he continued, "There is no way out of it."
When he heard no reply or even an acknowledgement of his words he turned to Hermione. Who was staring off into space one hand absentmindedly fingering the necklace she wore. He gently knelt down in front of her taking her hands into his grasp, "You know if I could get out this I would. But I don't see a way" he stopped as he saw a tear leave her eye trailing down her cheek. Using a calloused thumb he removed the water droplet before continuing, "I'm not going to demean you, and ask you to be my mistress, because I don't want that for you, you're above that."
"Wh... Who is she?" Hermione swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.
"Astoria Greengrass" he replied sadly. "She doesn't want this as much as I don't, but our parents won't listen, not even my Mother." He wasn't sure he should tell her the next part or not but decided to lay everything on the table for her, "They want an heir, once an heir is secured we can see who we want, we can get divorced."
Hermione suddenly felt as if she'd been kicked, though she should have known reproduction of a pure-blood heir was the desired outcome.
"You don't know how long that would take though" she said softly.
He nodded his head looking into her eyes, his usual steel grey eyes having melted into pools of mercury.
"So this is it?" she questioned.
"I really don't want it to be but it seems as if it must." He shifted as if to stand before saying something else, "This is the last day of term, we could spend one more night together? Just us, no sex?" he put forward, hoping she'd take up the offer not wanting to be alone with his thoughts.
When Hermione nodded her assent he stood pulling her up by her hand and moving around the side of her bed. She knew she should have said goodbye, but this was the last chance she'd get to be with him ever again so her heart out-ruled her head for once.
Draco by this time was already sat comfortably on top of the covers, and she pulled them back to get into bed, "You not going to join me?" she asked, "One last time?"
At the look in her eye, he slide to one side pulled the duvet up took off his shoes, and slowly climbed in the bed beside the Head Girl.
The lovers fell asleep in each other's embrace, for the final time. Content to die that way.
A/N: A little bunny that has been hoping round in my brain for a very long time, and I finally decided to write it up.
Hope you enjoyed it and please leave me a review/comments; the good, the bad and the evil are all welcome.
Oh and I may or may not make this into a bigger fic but not until my other one Enough has finally been completed.
Once again I ask that you leave a review :)
Scorpio219 -x-