A/N: Firstly I'm sorry this has taken a little longer than anticipated to post but frankly real life can have a really inconvenient habit of interfering with fantasy life sometimes and apparently, or so I'm told, real life is more important. Don't even get me started on how much I haven't had time to read. I am just managing to keep up with The Princess and The Pariah by TheMourningMadam though, and if you aren't already reading this you really should! However, here is chapter 3. I really love this one and I'm super excited about it!
Chapter 3:
Hermione pulled the front door shut behind her, having returned inside for her keys. She was nervous now. It seemed scarier that Draco was being civil to her than it would have if they'd been screaming at each other. She knew contempt between them, she was an expert in it, anything less and she was completely out of her comfort zone.
She reached Draco's side at the end of her little driveway and they started walking together back towards the village in silence.
"It's beautiful here, isn't it," Hermione broke the silence, unable to stand it for too long. She was right though, the village in front of them and the rolling Dorset hills to their left were indeed beautiful .
"Yes." It appeared small talk wasn't going to break the ice then. Hermione sighed at his short response. "I'm sorry," he blurted, "I don't like you being here, I don't know how to deal with it."
"But…then why did you ask me…"she trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence, equally unsure of what was going on.
"I don't like it because it's shaken up the comfortable life I'd built here," he motioned for her to turn right as they walked, down one of the roads she'd been down that morning when looking for his house. "Then all of a sudden, you turn up out of nowhere and the life I'd left behind feels like it's all around me again. It's nothing personal to you." He slowed for a second, eyes trained on the ground, "That's why I asked you to come out with me. Because it's not your fault, I don't blame you. I realised it must have been a pretty nasty shock for you too, to find me here."
Hermione was quiet a moment before responding, "I'm sorry too. I didn't like you sussing me out so quickly earlier and I can't expect you to understand the reasons I needed to get away. I shouldn't have stormed off like that," They walked through a small gate on their left at the end of the road, taking them to a pathway along the edge of a field of sheep. "I was shocked too, I came here to get away and I hadn't even been here twenty-four hours before I saw you, and then to find your mother as well when I was coming to talk to you. It was all a bit much."
Draco nodded slowly and they continued in silence a little longer but this time it didn't feel quite so uncomfortable. They reached the top of the field, going through a much larger gate this time and across a chalk path before entering another gate, another field.
"Why don't you hate me?" Hermione faltered for a second at the unexpected directness of his question. He looked away uneasily and continued before she could answer, "Well, you don't seem to anyway but maybe I'm wrong." Hermione's heart contracted slightly when she realised how nervous and unsure of himself he was.
"I don't hate you," she started. "I can't hate you. The very little I've seen of you since I arrived here is enough to show me that I don't even know you." She paused, wondering if she should say what she was really thinking. Sod it, she was a Gryffindor, wasn't she. "The truth is, I'm not that surprised to find out that I don't know you. I mean, I am but…" she was wringing her hands by this point, not sure how to say what she was trying to and wishing she'd kept her mouth shut.
"Let's sit for a minute, shall we?" Draco gestured in front of him and she looked forward to notice for the first time that the landscape had changed. The fields had begun to slope into hills and from where they sat at the crest of them the sea was laid out at the bottom of the hills, an endless expanse ahead of them.
She nodded and sat, bringing her knees up to her chest. Draco did the same and this was the first time she'd noticed what he was wearing, dark blue jeans with a black t-shirt. Plain and simple, but somehow, on Draco, it still looked smart and refined.
"What were you trying to say?" he prompted.
"Ok…obviously finding you living in a little muggle village, working as a vet was in one way a huge surprise. I mean…"she shrugged apologetically and he nodded his understanding. "When we were at school, I always felt, no matter what a git you were, no matter what you did as time went on…I could never shake the feeling that something was off, like a piece of the puzzle missing. I could never put my finger on it and didn't even really acknowledge it, but I suppose I'm just saying that I'm not really surprised that you're not who I thought. It makes sense that you're not. Now I get what felt off. Does that make any sense?"
Draco stared at her in amazement before simply nodding and turning to look out towards the sea. She chewed her bottom lip while trying to work out what he was thinking but he didn't look angry so she figured it couldn't be too bad.
Suddenly he jumped up to his feet. "Come on," he held out a hand to help her up. She stared at it for a second before taking it, feeling as though she'd been electrocuted when she did. He let her hand go once she was up and began walking again. There was some greenery around them now but before long it cleared leaving nothing but a huge steep hill in front of them, leading down to what must have been the cliff edge at the bottom. It was the kind of hill that made Hermione want to start running down it, fear of not being able to stop being the only thing that held her back.
"You want to run, don't you?" She hadn't realised Draco was watching her.
"How did you know?"
"Because I'm pretty sure that was the look on my face when I first got to here and I definitely wanted to run," he told her with a gentle laugh. "Don't worry, you can stop, if all else fails there's a fence at the bottom but it levels out before that."
She looked apprehensively between Draco and the fence that she couldn't even see at the bottom and before she knew it he'd grabbed her hand and started running. She screeched with shock and laughter, having no choice but to run with him. They picked up speed fast and it was difficult for their feet to keep up with the rate at which gravity was propelling them down the hill. They laughed the entire way and as they neared the bottom and the ground began to level out, Draco slowed and when Hermione could not, he pulled her back. She span into him, their hands still joined, unexpectedly coming face to face with one another. They stepped back quickly, their laughter halted in its tracks for a second, before Hermione pulled herself back together. "That was definitely not the first time you've done that!"
He threw his head back and laughed with her, "Nope, but it was the first time I've done it with someone else. Usually I just do it when there isn't another soul in sight." He nodded towards the little gate in the fence a few yards behind them, "Come on." Draco lead the way through the gate and down the steps forged out of the chalk cliffs. There was a bit of a climb at the bottom to get to the ledge where the pool lay, and Hermione let Draco help guide her feet into the right footholds. "You'll get used to doing it in no time," he told her and, as he'd taken barely seconds to get down, she could see just how regularly he was here.
"You come here a lot, don't you," it was a statement, not a question.
"Won't you?" She immediately understood what he was saying. Who on earth wouldn't come to such a place often if they could. She turned to face out towards the sea, nodding slowly. After a moment she pulled out her wand, transfigured her jeans into shorts and moved to the water's edge.
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Draco was unable to look away as her jeans turned to shorts and the back of her tanned and perfectly toned legs were exposed to his view. She was undeniably beautiful even when she was fully covered but as he looked upon the bare skin on the back of her thighs he became quite certain that what he'd seen was only a glimmer of her full beauty. As she sat down and her legs disappeared from view Draco mentally shook himself. He'd always been aware that she was beautiful, growing more and more into her looks with age. By this point she was truly breath-taking. He moved to follow her lead, transfiguring his own jeans and taking a seat beside her.
"I want to know who you are." Her words sent a thrill of fear through him. Partly because he'd never known anyone who cared who he was before, and partly because he'd never wanted anyone to know who he really was. Until now.
"I want you to know too. But I don't know how." He felt his eyes drop to the ground between them as he finished speaking. Even that confession was more open and honest than he was used to being. Without warning Hermione reached out and laid her hand over his. Draco felt his stomach jolt as he experienced the same feeling of being electrocuted that he had earlier when he'd taken her hand to help her up. It was intensified now by the knowledge that this time it was a gesture made entirely by choice rather than to serve a purpose. Slowly he raised his eyes to meet Hermione's.
"I know. I know you don't. But that's ok. I can help you," Hermione bit her lip nervously, "If you want me to," she finished.
"I don't understand though. I mean, I know what you said earlier but," he paused, trying to find the right words, "how are you even able to consider looking past the things I've done?"
"I can't explain it. I…just…it's just a feeling." Draco's heart melted a little as he watched her stumble to find her words. "Like an instinct that I can't ignore. An instinct that increasingly seems to be backed up with logic, with every moment since I found you here." Very slowly he turned his hand over in hers so that they were now holding hands.
"I want to know you too," Draco told her.
"I'd like that," she smiled tentatively down at their joined hands.
Draco's heart leapt and he felt consumed by more hope than he'd felt in as long as he could remember. He felt light in a way that he didn't recognise, but it felt amazing, if a little scary. He decided to embrace it before the fear got the better of him. "You can swim, right, Granger?" he asked with a mischievous smirk that was beyond his control.
"Erm…yeah?!" Hermione looked a little taken aback and considerably more so when Draco reached forward, wrapped an arm tight around her waist and pulled them both, fully dressed, into the water. She screamed with surprise and then joined in with Draco's gleeful laughter.
"What in the…hell?!" Hermione managed through her laughter. Her hair was soaking, as was every inch of her and her face sparkled with sheer delight.
Draco knew in that moment that he would stop the world from spinning if that's what it took to make her his. This beautiful, incredible gift that had been given to him when she stumbled into his sanctuary, he was going to grasp it with both hands. He hadn't been given many gifts in his life and, whilst part of him screamed that he didn't deserve this one, the new, hopeful part of him battered those feelings down in favour of the idea that just maybe he could find the happiness he'd always wanted. The kind of life he could have had if he'd been born into any other life. Just maybe he could make it right. Maybe here, in his sanctuary, he could make it work. Maybe it could become their sanctuary, together.
"What, I did check you could swim first?!"
"Fine, have it your way!" The next thing he knew, she had swum under the water, grabbing one his legs and pulling it up behind him and causing him to land face forward in the water. As he righted himself he turned to face Hermione and found her face alight with triumph.
"Oh now you've asked for it," he warned before launching towards her.
The next thirty minutes were spent playing together in the water, splashing, dunking, and generally acting like overgrown children. Draco laughed more than he ever had and he had the feeling it was the most that Hermione had laughed in a long time as well.
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Hermione had laughed more in the last half an hour than she had in longer than she could remember and she wondered if Draco had ever laughed as much. She held herself up on the side of the pool, breathless from their play fights in the water and the endless laughing. It had occurred to her that she probably looked frightful, with her hair stuck to her face and her make-up, she was fairly certain, smeared all over her face. In that moment though, she didn't care. She felt so free and excited that, right then, she didn't care about anything.
"Granger, you're a mess. You really should take better care of yourself, you know." Draco raised his eyebrows at her in mock disgust and Hermione rolled her eyes in return. She was deliriously happy to see this side of Draco. She'd known it was in there but never dreamed for a second that she'd get to see it, let alone so soon. She knew, there was still a lot of ground to cover, still many stories to be told and pains to be shared, but she felt safe in the knowledge that all that would come to pass and, for now, she was happy to just enjoy this moment. She'd earned it, in fact, they both had.
"Well I'm dreadfully sorry, how on earth can you stand to look at me?!"
"It's a trial, but I suppose I can manage for a little longer," Draco heaved a dramatic sigh. "I really do expect you to clean up before I take you to dinner tonight, though. I have a reputation to uphold, you know."
"That's awfully presumptuous of you Draco Malfoy, but then I shouldn't expect much more from a man of your mighty arrogance." Hermione could easily give as good as she got.
"Ok, how about this," Draco's voice turned quiet and it gave Hermione goose bumps from head to toe. "Hermione, would you allow me to take you to dinner tonight?" Between the caressing whisper of his voice and his use of her first name, she was rendered entirely speechless and could do little more than grin shyly and nod.