Disclaimer: I don't own J.K. Rowling's universe, I just like to play in it on occasion.
Author's Note: Okay, I know it's taken us a while to update, but this chapter ended up being in hiatus for a while because I had some real-life stuff come up, and then I moved across town. Hopefully, it won't take as long to update in the future, but no guarantees. My partner in crime and I would like very much to thank those who've reviewed this story, and those who are reading without comment (although I admit to being a shameless attention whore and love getting reviews in my inbox). Love it, hate it, let us know! We love input. Anyway, on with the story.
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"It was rather amusing to see the look on the caster's face when I didn't laugh." Draco brushes her lips with his again and then pulls back, letting go of her and reaching for her hand. "Come on. Before I throw you over my shoulder and haul you back to bed."
Hermione takes his hand when he reaches for hers and gives it a squeeze even as she laughs at his comment. "Caveman tendencies coming out? We'd definitely better visit the lab first then," she teases.
"Caveman tendencies, yes." Draco leans over and kisses her cheek before leading the way out to the hallway and then up the stairs. "I don't want this to just be about sex, though." Especially since she's one of the few people he can actually carry on a conversation with.
Hermione can't even remember the last time she felt this playful, though the children at the library know Miss Granger has a sense of humor. She gives his hand a squeeze again and smiles up at him, "And that's probably why I'm this relaxed with you. I don't even really care that Ron is going to think I've gone completely mental," she admits, not even minding that it wasn't what she was intending to say. It's the truth and for once at least it isn't a particularly embarrassing one. Of course she doesn't honestly care much what Ron thinks about her relationships these days. He was a jealous prat when she was dating him and while he is still a friend Harry has always been a better one to her.
Halfway up the stairs, Draco turns and presses her up against the wall with a low growl, his hips pinning hers to the wall as he leans in to kiss her thoroughly, almost possessively. "Weasel can sod off," he rumbles, his lips moving against hers.
Hermione smiles against his mouth before kissing him again only after commenting, "Mmm, well, wouldn't be the first time I've had to tell him off for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. As I said, I don't much care about his opinion of the matter."
"Good." Draco slowly pulls back, his eyes a shade darker than their usual bright silver, and reaches for her hand again. "Lab's one more flight up."
Hermione lets her hand drop from where it came up to rest against his chest and places it in Draco's again. "Off we go then," she says, and if her voice is still a little breathless so what? "Harry won't be a problem I think. Maybe a little dubious at first, but so long as I'm happy he doesn't tend to make a fuss." Ginny may have already broken the news, but perhaps not. Hermione can't remember if she asked the other girl not to say anything or not given it just slipped out. Damn Japanese veritaserum.
"Potter can be talked into being sensible," Draco agrees, leading the way up the stairs. He's never really understood the wisdom behind having the potions lab in the Hogwarts dungeons; from an architectural standpoint, if something is liable to go boom he'd just as soon have it be at the /top/ of the house rather than the bottom. "Here. Have a look."
Hermione leans against him as she studies his wards with the same interest she gives any intellectual puzzle. She wrinkles her nose a little in concentration and a slow smile crosses her face, "Is that Tibetan? Or... Thai?" she asks giving a little nod to part of the ward. She hasn't had as much chance to study the oriental methods of warding though she's made some study of it, clearly not as much as Draco. It doesn't bother her, it's interesting to see new things with warding. Unknown wards can be cracked, they just take longer and one must be far more careful with them.
"Little of both, actually," Draco replies, his arm sliding around her waist. "The ward itself is Tibetan, but it's intertwined with that curse, see? And that other one is Thai." His wards are both ridiculously complex and full of nasty traps for the unwary.
"Very impressive," Hermione compliments as she finally looks away from the wards to smile up at him, "if rather nasty... though mine aren't all terribly nice at home either." At least not after the first layer which merely goes for stupefying idiots that try to meddle with them. The first layer is a warning. There's a beauty in that if the first layer is broken or set off the other layers all automatically go "hot".
Draco reaches out with his other hand and sets it on the door, and the wards disarm, the door unlocking and sliding open magically. "So. This is my lab." Which is clean and well-stocked, with two separate potion stations so that he can have up to four potions going at the same time.
"Nice size," Hermione says as she looks in. It's bigger than her lab, but then she does live in a flat after all. She doesn't often need to work on more than two potions at a time anyhow. "If we wouldn't have killed each other we'd probably have made an unbeatable team in potions class you know," she comments noting that his lab is as well organized as hers and perhaps a bit better stocked.
"Yes, well. Things were different, then." Draco watches her surveying his lab, then nods toward the bookshelves installed in one wall. "Most of my potions books are there, as well as Snape's."
Hermione's eyes are drawn to the shelves automatically, "You're appropriately cautious with the margin notes I hope?" She figures he probably is unlike, she recalls, a certain dark haired friend of hers. She's still rather annoyed that he nearly got better marks than she did in potions that year just from having Snape's book... however having Snape's book didn't save him when it came to exam time now did it?
Draco rolls his eyes, following her gaze. "Snape was brilliant, but I don't trust any alterations I haven't researched myself." He pauses for a moment before adding, "Unlike Potter, I actually know a thing or three about potions, and I rarely follow a formula unless I'm familiar with all of the ingredients and how they'll react."
Hermione leans up to brush a soft kiss against his lips, "Good. Though I think he rather learned his lesson about that in the end." That leaves her with a little frown as she recalls that the way he learned his lesson was in a hallway bit of nastiness with the man beside her that ended up injuring him rather badly. Harry was an idiot for using a spell he didn't know the purpose of even if he did feel awful over it when he saw the results.
"Yes, he did." Draco isn't really much for the heart-to-heart thing, but there was that one night shortly after everything was over with and they were all in Auror training that Harry and Ron got completely trashed, and Draco heard the whole story of the potions book from Harry's point of view. "The potion I made this morning is in that book there, third from the left on the fourth shelf, if you want to get it while I gather supplies?"
Hermione leans up and brushes a kiss on his lips and nods, "I can do that," she says, finally stepping into the lab and moving towards the bookshelf to retrieve the book in question - and to look at the other books of course, it would be fighting her nature not to at least have a peek at the titles. "Oh, you do have some fascinating books over here Draco. I recognize some of these from the required readings list for Potion Mastery. I suppose old sources of Snape's. He was actually quite young for a Potions Master, really." She flips through the book requested as she makes her way over to one of the workbenches in search of the potion formula.
"Page 136," Draco says, without looking, gathering ingredients from the shelves. "The notes in the margin are mine, suggestions from Pansy." Since he can't exactly test it himself, not being female and thus not prone to the particular problems the potion is designed to treat.
No, he's just prone to causing said problems, though having been rather enthusiastically participating herself Hermione can't entirely blame him. Finding the appropriate page she begins reading over the directions, trying not to frown at the mention of Pansy. She gives herself a little scolding - he's already said they didn't have anything romantic between them so she shouldn't be reacting like this. That's as unreasonable as Ronald can be. She shakes her head and chuckles, lifting her hand to push a curl back behind her ear and determinedly forces the jealous prat issues from her head. Just because Ron cheated on her doesn't mean Draco is like that... that's actually how she knew Ron and Luna would actually work, he's never pulled that crap on /her/ and has been actually sweet and slow-paced with their relationship. She looks up and smiles apologetically at Draco, 'Sorry, woolgathering.' is what she meant to say but instead out comes, "Sorry, I got caught up in being a bit of a jealous idiot and revisiting embarrassing past relationship moments..." she pauses feeling the heat in her cheeks and grumbles even as she just lets the words finish, "and the likelihood that in the event of meeting Pansy again I'll end up thanking her about the potion probably embarrassing myself in the process. I still can't believe I spilled to Ginny already. Brunch is going to be...interesting...tomorrow."
Draco arches a brow at her apology, although by the time she's finished he's quite obviously repressing the urge to laugh. He sets the potions ingredients down and pulls her into his arms, grey eyes searching her brown ones, one hand threading into her hair. "You needn't be jealous of Pansy. She's not half the woman you are, Hermione."
The blush deepens, though her tone is a bit dry as she says, "I didn't say it made sense... and it wasn't what I meant to say anyhow, but I rather expect you know that already." She's already come to the conclusion that she's going to have to arrange a leave of absence from the library for the duration - what comes out of her mouth randomly is too unpredictable to be working with the public. Luckily she can afford to take the time off as long as it isn't for too terribly long.
His thumb brushes across her forehead, smiling at her. "Perhaps not, but it was the truth. Pansy's going to come up in conversation, I'm afraid. We've known each other too long for her not to, longer than you've known Potter and Weasley, even." Draco's lips brush across her cheek, his voice lowering to a murmur. "Whatever this is, between us, I'm yours, for the duration."
Hermione's arms tighten around him in a tight hug for a long moment, "Friends do... and I know that... it isn't even about you exactly I suppose. More old ghosts of insecurities I suppose, regrettably logic doesn't always interfere with them quickly enough sometimes. But I don't believe you're the sort who is ever with someone unless you want to be," she replies. Most people see the logical, sensible, extremely intelligent girl and fail to notice the sensitivity and depth of feeling.
"You've been taken for granted for too long," Draco rumbles, his lips moving against her ear. "I will never make that mistake." He kisses her cheek, then lets her go slowly. "Come on, we'd best get started on that potion so we can have it finished before you need to make use of it again." Smirk.
Hermione's breath catches at his words, but the little smile she gives him turns into a saucy grin even as she sets to work prepping some of the ingredients for the potion with the precision and attention to detail and accuracy that one might expect of her. "Liaisons in the potions lab, Draco? That'd cost you points and a safety lecture from your esteemed mentor I should think."
Draco? glances sidelong at her with a wicked grin and drawls, "Well, there /is/ that whole other table we won't even be using." He had too much respect for Snape to defile the potions classroom at Hogwarts in such a fashion, but there's something rather appealing to the idea when it's his own personal lab... and Hermione Granger.
Hermione tries to give him one of those stern looks that never fail to put the boys in line when they need it (Ginny finds it hilarious though she can do the same thing) but doesn't quite manage it ending up smirking in amusement. "You are a very bad man sometimes, you know that? I hardly think the potion would be getting the required attention."
"Read the formula again, Granger," Draco says, affecting the same haughty air from their days at Hogwarts. "There's a full twenty minutes that the potion has to go completely unattended."
Hermione finishes carefully chopping the last of the ingredients into the sliver-thin strands required for perfect incorporation and says with a certain shrewd amusement, "Twenty minutes passes very quickly with you I've no doubt we would still be pleasantly distracted even with a timer. Though I suppose this potion isn't quite so delicate as some I've worked with."
Meanwhile, Draco has started the potion with the initial basic ingredients, and he smirks at her. "You might be surprised at just how efficiently I can use twenty minutes. But it's not all that delicate, it's true."
Hermione just chuckles though his work on the potion spares him a smack on the arm. "I'm sure you're a wonder of efficiency," she assures him as she offers him the ingredients she's chopped as they are called for.
His movements don't change, remaining quick and efficient, but a low rumble builds in his chest as he stirs in the offered ingredients. "That sounds rather like a challenge, Granger. One I feel rather obligated to accept."
"It actually wasn't," Hermione replies with a low laugh that turns into a slow grin, "but I do know how men are with a challenge, I suppose you won't be deterred and I shall just have to indulge it." The last comes out half-purred, her tone answering to that sexy rumble of his.
Draco stirs in the next ingredient, which needs to simmer for a few minutes before adding another one. Then he reaches for her, catching her hip with one hand to pull her closer, the other sliding into her hair so that he can lean in and kiss her, that rumble turning into a low growl.
The growl sends a shiver through her as Hermione melts into him, snuggling closer as she twines her arms around his neck. The feel of his body against hers, his mouth against hers, the slightest touch - all send electrical currents singing through her blood making every pulse point, every nerve come alive with anticipation.
The hand at her hip slides upwards, under her sweater, fingers trailing along the skin, and his other hand threads through her hair, holding her close as he deepens the kiss. After a moment, he breaks the kiss to trail his mouth down to her neck, planting an open-mouthed kiss at the pulse point in her throat.
Her voice turns soft and breathy even as her eyelids fall heavily to splay long dark lashes against the curve of her cheek, head falling back, "Draco..." Her arms tighten around his neck, needing to hold onto him. Neither of her past boyfriends would be likely to describe Hermione as wild or uninhibited and yet he makes her feel positively wanton.
"Hermione." Draco's lips move against her neck, his breath washing over her skin, as his fingers make slow patterns just below her chest. "We have," he rumbles, his voice a purr, "exactly thirty seconds before I have to add that next ingredient." Trust Draco to make Potions sound sexy.
Hermione's lashes lift slightly, "Mmmm, yes," she agrees (though truth be told if it were her that was to be keeping track of the timing the potion would probably overheat before she noticed. He's THAT distracting).
"Just two more to add, and then we'll have twenty minutes," Draco purrs, his hand sliding upwards to palm her breast before withdrawing, teeth nipping at the side of her neck. "I expect we'll need every second of that time," he adds, silvery eyes flashing as he pulls back to look at her.
Pink tinges her complexion to a rosy glow, her face framed by the wild, unruly brown tresses that only grow less tamed each time his fingers wrap around them. Her eyes sparkle as she murmurs breathily, "Enjoy every second too."
"Count on it." Draco reaches past her to get the next ingredient, stirring it into the cauldron and then adding the last one shortly thereafter. Then he turns down the flame under the cauldron and steps back, hauling her into his arms again and kissing her soundly.
She curves into him, arms tightening back around him even while a soft little mmm of pleasure is promptly swallowed by his kiss. Her lips part for him immediately, allowing their tongues to duel. The potions lab might be cool but Hermione is anything but cold. If anything she is now too warm in that sweater.
Draco is about to assist with the sweater, his hands sliding up under it, pushing it upwards. He breaks the kiss, nips at her chin, then draws the sweater up the rest of the way over her head. "Buttons are better," he rumbles, before going right back to kissing her, backing her toward the other table, which is currently clear of all potion-making supplies.
"I didn't exactly have time to change before I came after you," Hermione points out breathily, sliding her arms out of the sleeves as he helps her remove the sweater. No, if she'd been expecting to see him again she certainly would have changed but when someone is lying hurt in an alley taking the time to change would be ridiculous. She gives him a smoldering smile as the back of her thighs feels the edge of the table behind her.
"Could've borrowed mine," Draco counters, pausing momentarily as the image flashes in his head of her wearing one of his shirts and nothing else. He smiles down at her, silver eyes darkening almost to pewter. He nuzzles at the side of her neck, nips at the curve of her shoulder, his hands roving down over her breasts, fingers toying with her nipples before sliding lower, passing over her stomach and heading unerringly for the button of her jeans, making good on his promise not to waste a second of their twenty minutes.
Hermione has a sudden flash of satisfaction at the thought of wearing something of his, a shirt that still smells faintly of the clean, warm, expensive scent of him. "I'll keep that in mind next time," she purrs, running her hands up and down his back.
"Do that." Draco's fingers nimbly undo the button and then the zipper of her jeans, shoving them downward before coming back up to cup her backside and lift her up onto the table. His head lowers, lips roving across her collarbone and planting kisses there before dropping further to lavish attention to her breasts, one after the other.
Hermione's lips quirk in a lazy smile despite herself with the rather breathy observation made even as her fingers continue to caress his skin as she's settled on the table, "You smell delicious. I rather wonder how much the scent of amortentia changes between brewings. That was an interesting potion wasn't it?" Ah, randomness. Truthful randomness that would probably embarrass the hell out of her under most circumstances - It is a measure of how oddly trusting she is of Draco that (aside from the reaction to him she isn't even coloring at the unwilling speculations the airborne veritaserum is causing at this point much). Much like being giddily and carelessly drunk, she's accepted in a way that she'd never have managed a few years ago that she cannot change this. What cannot be changed must be endured... or taken one step further. She's decided to if not exactly /enjoy/ the unaccustomed uninhibitedness to flow with it while with him, a decision that is remarkably freeing.
"Granger," Draco drawls, one hand running up her thigh to tease her legs apart as his head lifts, lips curling in that familiar smirk, "you are /such/ a bookworm." He doesn't tell her to shut up, though, instead using a far simpler means of silencing her, leaning in to capture her lips with his as his fingers probe and tease, with every intention of driving all thoughts, random or otherwise, straight out of her head.
His words provoke a low chuckle, but no protest though it would have only been cut off. Shutting off Hermione's thoughts, random or otherwise, is never easy, but perhaps unsurprisingly far less so for him. Indeed her last hazy thought unvoiced in the passion of their kiss is a detached purry little voice that comments that it is as well that lab tables don't catch fire easily because she's sure she's melting... faster than one of Neville's cauldrons in Potions class.
With his other hand, Draco loosens the pajama bottoms to let them drop to the floor, pushing her back further on the table and climbing onto it with her. There's a little clock ticking away in his brain, counting down the remainder of those twenty minutes, and he moans into her mouth as he guides himself inside of her, his hand withdrawing to catch her hip, his other arm bracing against the table.
She lays back, pulling at him to bring him with her, moaning in pleasure as he does join her on the table and still more as he joins with her. It is a study of contrasts - the heat of their bodies, the coolness of the table, the surface hard beneath her her, him hard against her softness. She revels in it, her hips reaching up to meet him in welcome. Though her nose and the back of her mind are aware of the potion brewing her other senses have taken dominance and are focused only on him.
In spite of Draco's reputation in school and Pansy's recent claim that he's the Slytherin Sex God, he never /did/ defile the potions classroom by having sex in it, with Pansy or anyone else. He has no reservations about this, though, even though his mentor and former professor is surely turning in his grave; Snape is the farthest thing from Draco's mind as he moves with her, almost torturously slow at first to draw it out, make it last, and gradually, little by little, increasing the pace.
Hermione is, perhaps, marginally patient with the initial slow pace though her body is responding with a desperate craving for him. Experience has taught her that good things come to those who wait (of course it has also taught her that sometimes you have to go and grab those good things for yourself, but waiting can be quite, QUITE enjoyable with Draco). Her lips slip over his cheek and she draws his earlobe between them even as her legs wrap around his back. Every little sigh and moan that has her breaking off or pausing speaks of how much she's enjoying what they are doing with each other.
As the timer in his head winds down, Draco's pace picks up, spurred on even more by the way her body responds to his, the seconds ticking away as he draws them both closer to that edge. He's used the time very efficiently, as promised, but with just minutes left to go he wants to feel her shudder beneath him, around him, wants to hear her cry out, and his mouth finds her earlobe, teeth nipping before he pants, "Come for me, Hermione. Come with me."
His words have eyelids that were too heavy to remain open moments sooner lifting - the desire burning in her eyes as she smiles slowly and gives a deliberate swivel to her hips with his next thrust relaxing into the fireworks show the two of them are intimately involved in. "To...gether....yes..." The words come out almost a gasp, he can without a doubt feel the way her body is starting to vibrate like a finely strung instrument at both his voice and touch.
Together, yes, his mind agrees, a thought that goes unvoiced because the 'fireworks' blast it completely out of his head, along with the capacity for speech altogether, feeling her tremble beneath him as his own body quivers in response. Timing is everything, but Draco has /excellent/ timing, so that they fall over that edge together, as the seconds tick past on his mental timer.
Hermione holds onto him, her anchor through the storm of pleasure coursing through her. Her arms don't loosen any, even when she comes to rest again flat on the lab table. It doesn't matter that they are both sweaty, while one arm remains to hold him close the other drifts slowly up and brushes his hair back from his face and she just smiles at him. It is completely relaxed and completely unguarded.
Draco smiles back at her, a rare, genuine smile, leaning in to kiss her gently. Then he flashes her a wicked grin, one hand coming up to pluck a stray curl from where it's stuck to the sweat on her forehead. "Told you I could make very efficient use of twenty minutes," he drawls, looking justifiably smug.
"I didn't really doubt that," Hermione can't help but point out, her smile a wee bit indulgent when he starts looking smug (though well he might from how she's positively glowing and not all from the sweat). She leans up lazily to kiss the corner of his mouth, "Rather different sort of 'down time' when it comes to brewing... though I don't think I'd try it with a trickier potion mind you."
That draws a laugh from him, and Draco winds his arms around her and just hugs her, briefly, before reluctantly pulling away from her so he can add the last ingredient and stir the potion before turning the heat off. "I've never actually tried that method of 'down time' before. You're a bad influence on me, Hermione."
"Likewise I'm sure, but then I'm rather used to bad influences," Hermione replies looking particularly amused. "Certainly I haven't tried your method of 'down time' while brewing before."
Her tone suggests she would have it no other way.
"It's got to cool for an hour before it can safely be portioned out," Draco says, finishing with the potion and padding back over to her, a wicked gleam in his eyes to go along with his smirk. "Care to see the library? We can break in the bookshelves in a whole new fashion."
"Taking inspiration from romance novels now?" Hermione teases, "Didn't the bookshelves end up falling over in that scene?" She straightens where she's still sitting on the other lab table, feet swinging a little. There's a twinkle in her eye as she adds, "Been harboring librarian fantasies have you?"
Catching hold of her waist, Draco pulls her to her feet and hard against him, one hand trailing down her back. "Fantasies about one specific children's librarian, in particular, the last couple of days. My bookshelves are a little more sturdily built than the ones in that book, but I'm willing to put them to the test."
Her hand coming up to cup his cheek, Hermione leans up to press her lips against his a moment. Her eyes sparkle as she replies teasingly, "Definitely a bad influence. These experiments of yours are going to make it quite difficult to go anywhere and not think of you I expect." It doesn't sound as though the prospect displeases her though it is, perhaps, one more reason that it is just as well that she takes a leave of absence from the library. Goodness knows what the children might overhear if one of her colleagues asked her what she was thinking.
"I rather like the sound of that," Draco rumbles, his lips moving against hers and then across her cheek. His hand moves to caress her hip, and then he slowly pulls back. "Shall we relocate to the library? Or perhaps I should just carry you off to bed, instead."
And while Hermione does want to see his library it is rather clear that neither of them really have books on their mind... unless it would be in the form of scenes from that torrid novel of Pansy's. "Well...." she draws the word out, "if we don't go to the library now we really must later..." Somewhere floating around her head beneath the very large distraction of the man standing right in front of her is the problem-solving mechanism of hers and it is still working busily away at how to help him find the kidnappers and some of Hermione's best work has been done in libraries for that.
"You're welcome to spend time looking through it later." Draco's hands move, sweeping her off her feet and into his arms, then starting for the door. "Right now, I want you to be as focused on me as I am on you." One more thing the Slytherin ambition is good for: focus.
Locking her arms around his neck and resting her head against his shoulder, Hermione smiles softly, "You tend to disrupt my focus on anything else." It is admitted with a little chuckle. She's far more focused than most of her friends (though perhaps focus isn't the most common of Gryffindor traits and her friends, after all, are mostly Gryffindors aside from Luna).
"It's quite the pleasurable task, disrupting your focus." Draco carries her out of the lab and then down the stairs, nudging his bedroom door open wider with his foot so he can bring her through it. "I like finding new and different things to throw your focus completely off track." As evidenced by the way he sets her on the bed and crawls in with her, leaning to nip at the side of her neck.
"Focused and creative," Hermione says, though her breath catches at the feel of his teeth grazing her neck and her voice turns to that little half purr when she continues, "I like that in a man..." What's not to like? She's never thought of herself as being particularly creative, but adventurous does perhaps fit and that is perhaps equally good.
Draco promptly sets about ensuring that she likes it a whole lot more... with gusto. Eventually, they will see about portioning the potion into vials (which she now has reason to use), and visiting the library, and possibly defiling other vertical and horizontal surfaces of his home, but for now he'll settle for making very good use of the bed.
