a/n: Holy God. I've been gone a long time. But! I come bearing gifts. The long awaited lemon of this story... And a bonus! This fic is almost over. Probably only another chapter and an epilogue after this. Most of the next chapter is written so I will endeavor not to take so long between updates. Also! I went through and edited this story; there were a lot of problems and errors. So I'm going to be re-posting the previous chapters shortly. Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter 9:
Desperation

They definitely did not stick the landing. They both fell on the floor of her office, tangled in a pile of limbs and heavy breathing. God. It wasn't as smooth as they'd planned, but it wasn't a total disaster, either. After all, it had been a success. They were both alive. Er. Sort of. They were no worse for wear and The Dark Lord was probably interviewing with Lucifer right now. Which meant... She had no idea how long he would keep her up here.

Hermione had barely caught her breath from their landing before Draco was kissing her. Kissing her like it would be the last time. It was like he had read her mind. She could taste the desperation in it so she returned it, hoping he would feel her own desperation. She didn't want to leave him. Not any time soon. Not ever.

She ignored the voice in her head that said this was a bad idea. There was no way something that felt this good, this right, could be bad. Instead, she wound her fingers into his hair as he rolled them so that she was underneath him. She let out a soft sigh as he fingered the hem of her shirt, brushing against her skin. She left one hand buried in his hair and let her other one trail down his abdomen until she found the hem of his own t-shirt. She let her hands dance there for a moment, willing him to make the next move.

When he didn't, she decided to do it for him. She deepened the kiss, sliding her tongue against his and reaching down to pull her shirt off, her hands abandoning their previous positions to do so. He broke the kiss and choked out a breath, his hands clenching on her hips.

"Hermione. God-"

"Shhh," she hushed him. "Just feel."

He took her words to heart, apparently, and removed his own shirt before dropping his hands to her bra covered breasts. She arched her back as he squeezed them lightly before she decided that she wanted to feel them on her skin. She reached behind her and undid the clasp with deft fingers. She tugged it off before he even knew what she was up to. His eyes grew wide before they quickly shuttered to a slit.

She licked her lips and guided his hands to her exposed breasts, urging him to play with her nipples. He did as she wordlessly asked and went a step further, pressing his tongue around each nipple in turn. She let out a mewl when he bit one lightly. God. How was it he knew what she liked when they'd never been together before? How could it possibly feel this good?

She didn't know. But she knew that she was impatient. She skated her hands in between them and began to work on her jeans. She didn't think they'd make it all the way off in this round. Not with her boots laced up to her calves around the denim. So she did her best to shimmy them down her hips until they were pushed down around her boots. That task finished, she reached up to Draco. She grasped the hand that wasn't playing with her breast and trailed his hand down her body until he was pressing his fingers against her knickers.

"Dr-Draco," she moaned. His fingers were positively sinful.

She tried to hold still while his fingers pushed into her with a steady rhythm, but when his thumb circled her clit, she knew she was done. She rocked her hips against his hand, eager for her completion. She was beyond her plans for his clothes. Right now, his fingers were working her just right and she couldn't focus on anything except her impending completion.

She came on a cry of his name, her back arching right off the floor. He softened the movements of his hands before pulling them out and licking them clean. Fuck, but she'd never seen anything that made her so hot before. She growled at the sight and yanked at his pants.

He laughed and pushed her hands away, forcing her to watch as he slowly, painstakingly, freed his cock. Her mouth watered as she watched it pop free from his boxers. She had never wanted to go down on someone the way she wanted to engulf his entire erection in her mouth. That would have to wait, though. Because he definitely had different plans. Ones that involved fucking her into the rug, she'd say.

But first, he was taking it upon himself to remove her heavily laced boots and the rest of her jeans and then knickers. It took him several minutes and she was losing her patience.

Just as soon as she thought she couldn't take it a second more, he lined his hips up with hers. And after just a moment of teasing her with his cock, rolling it around in her wetness, he buried himself all the way into her wet heat. They both groaned at the feeling.

"Fuck, Hermione," he said. "You're so tight."

She let out a breathy laugh and clamped her internal muscles around him, causing him to hiss. She did it again and he growled down at her. She laughed again, but it didn't last long because he began to set a punishing rhythm. It took her breath away. She'd never had a partner fit her so well. With every thrust, he was hitting her g-spot, causing her to writhe underneath him.

Before she knew it, she was coming and coming hard. She called his name and he groaned.

"Hermione," he grunted. "Oh my God."

Fuck if that didn't spiral her right into a second orgasm, doing his bidding without her permission. She felt him finish in her and her name fell off his lips. It was the sweetest thing she'd ever heard.

The last thing she was able to think of was... she could love this man.

The following days were a whirlwind. Draco had been helping Hermione put together the file on his father, but his mind was elsewhere. He wasn't worried about locking his father up. He knew that Lucius had cracked a long time ago. His poor mother was just holding on to the memories of the man he used to be. And Draco... Draco didn't have that many good memories of his father to begin with, so he didn't really have anything to cling to.

If he was being honest with himself, locking Lucius up would probably be the best thing for his mother. Maybe with her husband finally gone, she'd be able to move on with her life. And finally spread her wings and live. He remembered how much fun he and his mother used to have. He hoped she could find that person again.

Of course, in order for any of that to happen, they had to locate him. After Voldemort's demise, he had all but disappeared. Which was to be expected, he supposed. As Voldemort's second in command, he had a huge target on his back. Not only were they looking for them, a section of the Ministry had also dedicated Aurors to the job, just as Hermione had predicted when they were first concocting their plan. He knew she had been spending long hours communicating with them via floo (namely because these conversations had to take place while he was in the vicinity). But it was a slow process. Despite being a Ministry of Magic, they were having a hard time understanding that Hermione was dead and, therefore, their laws did not apply to her.

It was barely dawn the morning after she'd rid the world of the greatest menace it had known since Grindalwald and the Ministry was beating down the door. But this time, they didn't bear awards or Orders of Merlin. No, they came with her arrest warrant. It seemed that the Death Eaters had more influence in the Ministry than either of them had thought.

A smirk tugged on his lips as he remembered that particular battle.

"I am not the bad guy in this scenario! If anything, I have saved your fucking asses!"

She was nothing if not a warrior for her cause. It had taken two days for someone who was not corrupt in the Ministry to see her accomplishment for what it was. Kingsley Shacklebolt, head of the Auror department, had finally caught the break he'd been looking for. He knew that there were Death Eaters working among him, but he couldn't prove it. The Minister had had his head up his ass for far longer than he'd been in office and refused to face the truth. It was easier to let them run amok than to try and eliminate them. So when Kingsley finally, finally had a chance to speak with Hermione, it had proved to be the smoking gun he'd been looking for.

So they were now working together to tie up all the loose ends that Voldemort's death had left. Which brought Draco full circle: his father. He was being relied on heavily if only because he was related to the man. However, his father hadn't been his father in years so Draco had no idea what kind of holdings the man could have now. He knew very little of the other properties that the Malfoys owned.

And even if he did, he was distracted. His mind simply wasn't on these loose ends. It was circling around Hermione and how much time they had left together. They hadn't had a chance to talk about what had happened. There had been too many other things going on to have that particular conversation. In fact, they hadn't talked much at all in the last few days. The Ministry was keeping her busy and he was trying to pull his act together in order to help. But it was a lost cause; he couldn't keep his focus for more than a few hours at a time. Hermione was simply more important to him.

So instead of doing research on their known properties and trying to coax locations out of his desolate mother, he was throwing his efforts into keeping Hermione. He would do whatever it took.

Hermione wasn't faring much better. She had dealt with the Ministry before; she knew how to handle them, even as corrupt as they'd become. They could try and lock her up, to be sure, but they would only get so far before the bond between her and Draco protested and forced her back to his side. She wasn't worried about that. Kingsley was on her side and he had major sway in the Ministry. She knew that for a fact. So she wasn't overly concerned with them.

She was mildly concerned about Lucius Malfoy. The man was a loose cannon that needed to be dealt with. But she just couldn't force her mind to concentrate on finding him. So instead, she had handed off copies of all the information she had on him to Kingsley. He had more resources to try and find him anyway. Sure, she had Draco, but she was fairly sure that he knew even less than she did. She didn't think they'd had a good relationship for a long time.

No, her mind had been on them. Her and Draco. The bond. Lucifer. Time. She had gone round and round in her brain, never finding answers to her questions. She had tried one small contact circle to reach the other side, but had had no luck. Lucifer wasn't taking her calls, it seemed. Which kind of sucked because she wanted to know what was going on. She thought for sure after she'd taken care of Voldemort that she'd be yanked back where she came from. But she was still here.

She shook her head and looked into the fire. She knew that Lucifer had his own motives for everything he did. The devil didn't do anything if it didn't benefit him in some way. Maybe if she could figure out what he was gaining by letting her stay, she could figure out how much time she had. But the only perk (for him) that she could think of was the fact that he was gaining evil incarnate. It had been a long time since he'd had such a powerful figure in his keeping.

She sighed and shut her laptop; the muggle internet wasn't going to be able to help her this time and the wizarding net was in it's infancy. She supposed there was one thing she could do. She could talk to Draco. Lay all the cards on the table. Explain that she didn't know how much time they had and see what he was thinking. And they still hadn't talked about the mind blowing sex they'd had.

But part of her was afraid to have that conversation. What if he simply didn't want to deal with her baggage? What if he was just enjoying her time here while he could? What if he didn't feel the same? God, she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Over her short adventure in the mortal world, she'd grown incredibly fond of him. But what if he hadn't? Grown fond of her, that is. What if he was just riding this ride as long as it went, expecting the end to come sooner rather than later? She just didn't know. That's why this particular conversation was so important to have.

"Ugh." Her brain was her greatest enemy at this point. She wished she could just turn it off. Instead of dwelling on it, she stood up. Draco was in the other room.

It was time to get some things squared away.

a/n: Drop a review if you're so inclined!