Chapter four

The door clicked open and Hermione slowly sat up. Draco stood in the doorway, waiting for permission.

Hermione gently pulled back the covers and waited. Draco walked slowly towards the bed. His soft thuds upon the carpet were magnified by the ear-piercing silence of the night. He gracefully slipped in beside her and pulled the duvet up over them. Their slow gentle breathing grew in sync as they lay swathed beneath the covers together. Slowly, Hermione reached out and delicately traced her finger down his chest. She outlined the tracks of scars with her fingertips and stopped above his heart. Feeling it shudder within his ribcage, growing in speed and intensity the longer she left her hand there.

Hermione shuffled closer, feeding off the warmth of Draco's body. She could feel his warm breath upon her cheek and laid her forehead to rest against his shoulder. Draco stared at the ceiling and closed his eyes; trying to slow down the rapid beating of his heart. Very gently he trailed his hand down the smooth, milky skin of Hermione's arm, letting it rest upon the curve before her hip.

In one slow, fluid movement, Hermione turned onto her back and Draco leant in over her. He lingered just above, suspended by his inner conflict. Hermione's chest rose and fell rapidly with his proximity. She kept her eyes closed, not daring to look, unsure of how she would react if she were to see his body leaning in over her.

She couldn't block her other senses though; his warm breath tickling her skin, rustling the strands of chestnut hair which floated around her face. Very gently he brought his face to hers and their lips touched. Both were too choked in trepidation to shape the contact into a kiss. Their lips simply brushed against each others; his top lip trailing against her bottom lip, tugging ever so gently upon it. Hermione let out a deep breath as if she had been holding it since he had entered the room. Draco inhaled deeply as if attempting to draw in all that she had held back and buried his head in the crook of her neck.

Gathering strength and courage he proceeded to slowly pull Hermione's shirt up over her soft stomach, her supple breasts; her smooth creamy shoulders. Hermione slowly opened her eyes to catch sight of Draco's swirling depths of grey staring in earnest upon her. She sat up, causing Draco to come into full contact with her bare chest. She watched him visibly tremble at the contact and very slowly edge away. Hermione helped him remove his slacks, before in turn removing her cotton shorts and dropping them lightly to the floor beside the bed.

They sat simply staring for a moment; their yearning to feel connected evident in the clouded, dark whirl of their eyes. After holding back, trembling, for as long as he could, Draco leant in and placed a kiss upon Hermione's shoulder. Hermione lay back upon the bed and melted in to the feeling of a trail of kisses down her arm. She felt his hand softly wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him. Their bodies moulding into one caramel congealed candy of lust and loneliness, fear and misplaced verve, uncertainty and conviction.

Beads of sweat dripped off Draco's chest onto Hermione's breasts, gently rolling off onto the sheets. Their breathing became laboured with every movement. Every thrust felt almost sinister. Erroneous and hazed. Yet at the same time it was as if they'd just found another piece to the puzzle. It all fitted together, this was what was supposed to happen.

Hermione clenched the sheet beneath her in the final moments. She found herself holding her breath as the final waves washed over her. Draco leant his head upon her chest and shakily trailed his hands across her curves. They both lay silent trying to regain composure. Eventually Draco gently receded and lay beside her. Hermione turned to face him and looked into his eyes. They echoed brilliant silver she was yet to see since he arrived.

Draco pulled her in closer and gently trailed his fingers across her back. He felt as if his heart was going to crumble in on itself. The immense weight of his fear and loss and burden drove him here. Yet it was that burden which battled this place so fiercely. Hermione sheltered against his chest and closed her eyes. Her head was spinning with delirium and her heart burned. She felt her virtues slip between her fingers like grains of sand. Yet she could not distinguish whether the feeling was regret or that of utmost content.

Hermione awoke the next morning alone. After a quick shower she treaded softly downstairs to be met by the waft of baked goods. Upon arrival at the breakfast table she was met by the sight of a table set for two. A pile of hotcakes sat upon a plate in the middle and eggs and tomato and bacon and sausages were piled into a platter beside it. Draco was in the kitchen busying himself before the stove when she heard the toaster pop and he swivelled round to come face to face with her.

He gave her a hesitant smile.

"I just have to uh –" He said attempting to reach around her. Hermione moved out of the way and he grabbed the toast, quickly buttered it (by hand I might add), and put it on the table alongside a bowl of fruit and box of cereal.

"Malfoy what are you doing?" Hermione asked amused.

Draco made his way to the table and pulled out a chair.

"I just thought I'd – do something nice. Say thank you for... for, well more or less just for letting me in the front door." He replied lettings his gaze drift around the room in embarrassment. He then gave a hand gesture towards the chair and Hermione took a seat (in utmost surprise) before he sat down opposite her and proceeded to simply stare. Waiting.

"Hermione hesitantly reached for the hotcakes and put one upon her plate. Looking up she noticed Draco was still watching her. Waiting.

Giving him a meek, awkward smile, she cut off a bit and slowly brought it to her mouth; pausing to stare back in thought at Draco. And as she popped it into her mouth Draco gave her a smile and let out a breath of air; and began to place food upon his own plate.

They both sat in silence, both hiding small smiles beneath their mouthful's of food; when a knock sounded at the door.

Hermione and Draco looked up in synchronised shock. Hermione had not had any visitors in the last week, insisting she needed a week to settle in and unpack. Therefore, no-one was aware that she was currently housing Draco Malfoy.

As Hermione thought this she found it shockingly distasteful to say in her head. Housing Draco Malfoy. It simply did not make sense.

Yet it truly did. She knew that. She had felt that.

With a clatter and a muttered "excuse me", she stood from the table and hurried to the door as a second knock sounded. Draco sat frozen at the breakfast table with a mouth half-full of bacon.

A/N: Ok, half my reviews have been saying they love how descriptive I am, where as then I've had some saying that it's lacking in detail and others saying there's too much and it's unneccessary. So please can somebody clear up so I can work on it. I'm not sure if people are happy with the pace of the story at the moment. But you may have noticed it is slowly picking up pace with every chapter. And i did say slowly - these first chapters are so vital with such a delicate pairing to prevent the cliche's. So please review everyone i truly would appreciate some feedback. I wont be posting another chapter tomorrow night as I have prior commitments but I will the night after and it would be great to be able to read some great constructive fantastic reviews to help me when i sit back down as I hate when i have to break my writing patterns it always makes it so much harder to motivate myself to post again. so please please please do the motivating for me :) LB xx