Chapter 7:
Move Along

It had been three long weeks. Three long weeks of accidental touches, awkward silences, and even more awkward conversations. She was sick of it.

After Draco had pulled away, he had been blushing and embarrassed. She didn't understand. A man who could kiss like that had no right to be ashamed of kissing a girl breathless. She hadn't known what to say to rectify the situation so she hadn't said anything at all. And now she was regretting it. She hadn't gotten much work done, hadn't even laid eyes on Voldemort, and she had no idea how long this bonding would last.

Long story short, they needed to get moving. First, they had to talk about the kiss that had gotten way out of control. That would help them communicate and make it easier for her to get work done. She didn't often get distracted, but hot damn, Draco was distracting. It was like he was trying to make her lose her focus. When he was reading, he would bite his perfect bottom lip and then suck on it, making her want to take over for him. When he walked by, he would graze her somewhere, anywhere and she'd promptly lose her train of thought and heat up like lava.

At one, very embarrassing, point, she had actually manifested flames. He had asked her what was wrong with true alarm in his eyes and she had just wanly told him she wanted to make sure her abilities weren't getting weaker the longer she spent top side. He seemed to buy no matter how meekly she had made the excuse.

"Enough is enough," she finally uttered, standing up from her laptop. She had been compiling the evidence so that it was all in order for the Ministry. There were some things that weren't quite falling together in the files, but they were rather filled despite it.

"What's enough?" Draco asked, his eyes still glued to the folder in front of him.

"This. Us. We need to talk about it. We haven't made any real progress in weeks and I think it's because we're both preoccupied."

He lifted his eyes to meet hers. They were twin pools of silver staring back at her. They made her mouth dry. So she licked her lips and cleared her throat, determined to try again.

"I enjoyed kissing you and it shouldn't have made us this way. We're both adults. It may have started as a concealment from the enemies, but it sure as hell didn't finish that way. And now... Now we have to be adults so we can move this investigation forward!" she finished bravely. There. It was out. The ball was in his court.


Draco swallowed. Of all the things he was expecting her to say, that was not it. Not that he was complaining; he had been going crazy himself. It seemed like she was doing her absolute best to distract him, from brushing his hair out of his eyes absently, so constantly licking and biting her bottom lip. And God, he could have just burned up on the spot the last time she'd sucked on the end of her muggle pen.

He'd spent the last three weeks discreetly readjusting himself and trying not to stare at her. Apparently he wasn't doing that good of a job, since she had noticed that they were both effected. He cleared his throat and tried to drum up a response to what she'd just laid out form him. And nothing came out. Fuck! He couldn't spit anything out. His mouth wasn't working and neither was his brain.

So he didn't say anything to her. Instead, he crossed the room and he kissed her as if he would never get the chance again. A small part of him whispered that that may be true, but he shut it down. He heard her sigh and drop her ever present pen from her fingers. He reached his right hand around her and pulled her body into his while his left hand wound it's way into her mass of curls. He licked her top lip and begged for entrance. She granted it without hesitation and he took total advantage. He ravaged her lips, stroking his tongue along hers before pulling her tighter against him.

She sighed into his mouth and he couldn't help the little grin that tugged at his lips while they were pressed against hers. He tightened his hold on her resumed his assault on her mouth with his tongue. She tasted so good. He didn't think he would ever get enough. It was another thought he pushed down. He wasn't going to ruin this perfect moment thinking about the fact that she would someday be unbound from him.

He didn't want that day to come. So he was going to kiss her every chance he got. He was going to take care of her for as long as he was able. He was going to hold her every time she let him. He was going to lo-

She pulled away abruptly and he licked his lips. Her lips were swollen and glistening with evidence of their passionate lip lock. He felt a swoosh of something in his belly.

"I," she started. She took a deep breath and resumed her sentence. "I'm not sure I understand."

"That was my way of telling you that you're right; we've been acting ridiculous. We both enjoyed it so why stop after one?"

He watched the idea play across her face before she got herself under control and the mask she wore took over. She was thinking. He was used to her thinking face. It was a scrunch of concentration, a bitten bottom lip (oh how he'd love to that for her...), and a perfect little furrow between her eyebrows. He'd seen the look quite a few times over the last few weeks that they'd been working together.

"I suppose you're right," she finally said, giving into his idea.

He knew his face lit up like Christmas, but he couldn't help it. He'd wanted to talk about the kiss long before this and maybe, maybe, have a chance to do it again, but he didn't think that it would actually happen. And here she was agreeing that they should do it more often.

"Besides," she said, "this will help move the investigation along. I've been nothing but distracted by you for three weeks. Now that we're on the same page, hopefully it'll be easier to work."

He sort of agreed. He planned on distracting her in a whole new way, but she didn't need to know that just yet. He would let her think they were settled in, but the second he saw his chance, he was grabbing it with both hands. He couldn't wait to start distracting her.

But in the mean time, it was time to get back to work. So he tugged her to him and gave her one last soft kiss before setting her free to continue her files on both Voldemort and his father.


Hermione was much happier. The kiss had been a surprise, but a pleasant one. She could successfully move on now. She wasn't naive; she knew they were going to spend a lot more time snogging now. But that didn't mean she couldn't work in between the snogs.

So that's what she did; She organized all her files into order. She didn't think she needed much more. She was more than ready for the action part of the plan. While they still hadn't nailed down the details, they did have a rough plan.

The next meeting of the Brotherhood was scheduled for Friday. It was Monday. That gave them a few days to make sure the plan wouldn't fail. The idea was that Draco would bring her as his summoned demon. She would wear a leash to show that he was in charge of her. But she would glamour herself just a touch. She didn't want them to recognize her, but she didn't want them to sense the glamour, either. That might throw the whole game.

Draco didn't know exactly where or what time the meeting was to be held yet, so they couldn't scope it out for the optimal assassination attempt. While it wouldn't hinder their mission, per se, it wouldn't give them the total upper hand that they had wanted. They would have the element of surprise, however, since no one knew Draco had summoned Hermione Granger, war heroine. No one but them.

They hadn't ventured out much since their scare the first time. The few times they had, though, had been quite helpful. Voldemort was almost ready to go public with his second rise to power. They couldn't let that happen. Hermione knew how hard it was to do what you had to do when the general public was in a state of panic. No one would talk to you. No one would help you. They all thought you were a Death Eater or at least a sympathizer.

So with a sigh, Hermione shelved the folder on Lucius and began making sure all of her notes on Voldemort were in order for when she had to explain what she had found and what she had done to the Ministry. It looked neat and tidy, but she ran through it one more time. She was nothing if not thorough.

After everything was in order and filed appropriately, she turned to watch Draco as he messaged several of the Death Eaters to see if they knew where the meeting was, yet. He managed to come off as the eager to please new recruit, so there was nothing wrong with letting him do it, she had consented. No one suspected that he was really looking for a chance to off their leader and then his own father.

The jig would be up, as they say, once Voldemort was down. He would not be trusted by his father, she didn't think. She was going to try and make it look like he had nothing to do with her plans, but she didn't know if the Brotherhood would buy it. If they didn't she would protect him with her second life. He meant something to her and she wouldn't let him come to harm.

She didn't worry about herself. She was already dead. What more could they do to her? Not a whole hell of a lot, she thought. Not when I have Satan's blessing to do as I please up here.

And that's what she had decided she had. Lucifer's approval. She figured this was why she was still here. He had told her that she would get her revenge. And she was going to get it. Nothing was standing in the way this time.

She was pulled away from her thoughts when Draco sighed and dropped his phone on the desk. She lifted her eyes to his and he gave her a ghost of a smile.

"Anything?" she asked, standing up.

"No. Everyone else is still in the dark, as well. I will ask my father tomorrow, but I have little hope. Even if he knew, he wouldn't break the Dark Lord's confidence by sharing with me."

She nodded and moved behind his chair, letting her hands fall onto his tense shoulders. She knew she had been driving him to achieve more and more and it showed. She let her hands massage his shoulders the way Ron used to do for her when she got too tense. She knew from personal experience what a difference it could make. So she worked on the knots in his shoulder and neck with soft hands.

He let out a groan and she laughed quietly. "Feel good?"

"Yes," he practically purred. "You know what would be even better?"

She flushed, thinking she knew where he was going with his line of questioning. "I could probably hazard a guess."

"And what fun would that be?" He swiveled around in his chair and reached for her, pulling her down into his lap with a soft, "oomph!" from her.

"I want to kiss you," he whispered in her ear.

"So do it," she encouraged in her own whisper.

So he did