On the Differences Between Soulmates and Lifemates
disclaimer: Harry Potter and all characters therein belong to J.K. Rowling and are borrowed by the author. Any other, original characters belong to the author. Don't take them they'll run away and come back home to me.
Chapter 10: Another Late Night with Malfoy
The three hour detention flew by with Hermione and Draco working together. Hermione had organized the licenses into alphabetical order, then by year, and finally Draco read names off of the class rosters so they could be collated. Half an hour before the detention was supposed to end, Hermione started putting things away, while Draco rearranged the desks and tables they had been using.
After everything was fixed up, Hermione and Draco shared a look. Hermione looked at the job they had done before she spoke.
"I think that we should still try to help Snape figure out who rummaged through the licenses. We can still be discreet, but I suggest that we just listen to what people have to say. We won't make any of our own inquiries. But we can use our ears," Hermione suggested, but Draco was advancing on her, smirking.
"I don't want to hear you talking about another man when you're with me. And we will not do anything until after we've spoken with Snape himself. Now, you need to go tell Ron that you're spending the evening with me. I will go make our arrangements. Go take care of that, and put something nice on," Draco kissed Hermione's cheek as he gave her a pat on the bottom towards the door.
Hermione smiled at Draco as she left the room. Draco followed and locked the door behind himself. Hermione scampered off ahead of Draco to the prefects' dorms as Draco watched with a smile.
He jumped when a hand touched his shoulder, and Draco turned to face the owner of said hand.
"Professor!" Draco whispered, startled by Snape's arrival.
"Don't worry, Draco. I'm not here to check on you or your progress. My meeting ended sooner than I had expected and as such, I came back early. I actually thought that you two would have left or killed each other by now. But in fact, you do seem rather content," Snape smiled slightly, and barely caught himself when he tried to ruffle Draco's longish platinum hair.
"Hermione wants to help in your investigation. I told her we would have to talk to you first. She wants to just listen to people, but I know her, and she won't be happy without making inquiries, and she's about as discreet as a hippogriff with a sore beak," Draco laughed at the image he had created with his words.
"The three of us will talk tomorrow. Have you made much headway with the licenses?"
"Yes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an engagement."
And with that, Draco left his favorite professor speechless in front of his own classroom. Snape smiled and opened his classroom door so he could evaluate his situation.
Hermione raced up the stairs to Ron's rooms. She knocked once, and Ron appeared in the doorway, clad in his pajama bottoms and nothing else. Hermione smiled, but didn't enter the room.
"What's going on, Hermione? Why won't you come in?" Ron asked, crossing his arms over his rather broad chest. Hermione noted that he had scars from all the battles fought alongside her and Harry the past five and a half years. She smiled as she spoke.
"I spent the afternoon with you, and someone has requested my company for the evening. I'll see you tomorrow," Hermione said as she turned to head for her own rooms.
Ron grabbed Hermione's arm before she could leave. "Who asked for your company? I thought we were getting back together."
"I said that you could try to win me back. You are the one who turned this into a competition, but now I'm naming the players. If a boy wants to ask me out, he can, and I'll decide if I want to spend time with him. So tonight, I am spending the evening with Draco."
"Malfoy? What's wrong with you, Hermione? Stop this farce. You and I belong together. Malfoy sees you as a diversion."
"I'll decide that. Now, if you want a chance with me, to prove that we belong together, you'll let me go, and you'll let me make my own decisions."
Ron leaned down and kissed Hermione hard. "Fine. Check."
Hermione left without looking back. "Checkmate."
Ron slammed his door shut, muttering to himself.
"Never should've taught the girl wizard's chess."
Hermione took her time picking out her outfit and showering, figuring that Draco needed time to plan whatever it was he was planning. She lathered her hair thickly, and she luxuriated in the feeling of cleanliness as she rinsed herself off. Even though the license task was not an outdoor task or even very dusty, paperwork had it's own peculiar feeling of un-cleanliness that Hermione was happy to be rid of.
Hermione shrugged into a sky-blue robe so she could dry her hair without messing up her outfit for the evening. She applied heavy gold and brown eye-shadow and some coffee-colored lip-gloss. She brushed her hair out of her face, smoothing it back with more straightening tonic. She managed to smooth her hair into smooth waves, but she knew that by the end of the evening, it would kink into crazy corkscrews, an interesting after-effect of the straightening tonic.
Hermione walked into her bedroom and picked up the outfit she had picked out. She slipped thigh-high patterned fishnet stockings, securing them in a garter belt she had gotten in London on a trip with Ginny. She had always been too embarrassed to wear them for Ron, but she decided that it was now or never for them. Next came matching black panties and a black skirt that came to just above her knees. A black bra went under a midnight-blue three-quarter sleeve cashmere sweater. She figured the color of the sweater would drive Draco mad.
The coup-de-grace was a pair of knee-high boots, with a three and a half-inch heel. With the boots, Hermione was barely an inch shorter than Draco. The boots, more than anything else, gave Hermione the confidence boost to hold her head high as she made her way to Draco's rooms. She took the route through the common room, not caring who saw her. A few girls were talking in the common room, but they didn't pay Hermione any attention. She slipped into the boys' hall and took a deep breath as she made her way the short distance to Draco's door. Standing before the heavy walnut door, Hermione gave her sweater and skirt each a tug into place before she knocked.
Draco opened the door and Hermione's breath caught. He stood before her in splendid silver and black magnificence. His hair was held back from his face in a half braid, and Hermione realized just how long it really was; it his hair had been unbound, it would sweep just below his shoulders. Hermione had preferred Ron's hair just to touch his shoulders, thinking that hair any longer would look womanish on a boy. As she surveyed Draco, Hermione realized how wrong she had been, and that it made him more a man than any short haircut ever could. She smiled nervously as Draco scraped a bow and gave her entrance to his rooms.
Hermione gaped at the scene that awaited her in Draco's sitting room. The furnace was lit, but nothing else had been done to the room. She began to become suspicious when Draco slipped his arm around her waist and dropped a kiss on her cheek.
"You smell wonderful, Hermione. I like the boots. They are very you, even though the fishnet-boot combination is a very-un-Hermione combination," Draco said as he held her. He placed his nose near her ear and tickled her with his hot breath. Hermione shivered as he teased a most sensitive part of her anatomy.
"Well, perhaps the old Hermione wouldn't wear them together, but then again, the old Hermione would be with Ron right now, wouldn't she?" Hermione sighed as Draco led her to the fireplace and reached up for a bag of floo powder.
"Yes, and the old Hermione never would have broken an anti-apparation charm just so she could practice, either," Draco smirked. Merlin, how Hermione had grown to adore that smirk over the long years. It was a wonder to her that the smirk could be so warm when it was directed at her now.
"I think I lo really like being with now, Draco. You've changed as much as I have over these years," Hermione turned her face from his gaze as she blushed. She'd almost said she loved him, and that would be sure to scare him off. Besides, she didn't even know if she loved him yet. "So, what are we doing tonight, loverboy?"
"I'm taking you somewhere very special and nice. It is called the Heir's Cottage. My mother had it commissioned for me when I turned fifteen, in hopes I would live there when I first married. I had been engaged at the time, but my mother hated the damn girl," Draco said, turning to stoke the flames. He had been sure Hermione was going to tell him that she loved him what had stopped her? He might even love her, too, but he didn't want to say the words first, in case she didn't care for him, after all.
"Oh, and I'll be one in a long line of girls who've been robbed of their virtue there?" Hermione said, smiling. She walked towards Draco and the fire.
Draco glared at her. "I've never taken anyone there. It is a place for affection, love, making love. Not for some passing fancy," Draco said, inwardly smiling. well, now she knows I care, and I didn't even need those three little buggers of words. Hopefully Draco thought to himself.
Hermione's heart softened, and for the first time in her life, she felt the unexpected rush not just in her stomach, but in her heart. Her breathing quickened and her chest felt tight, but she also felt safe. She leaned into Draco and gave him the lightest, most chaste kiss she could manage. "Thank you. It means a lot to me," Hermione breathed, trying to ease the beautiful ache in her chest.
Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione, threw the floo powder into the flames, and jumped them in after it, shouting, "Heir's Cottage!"
Shortly, Hermione and Draco were standing in the main room of the small house called Heir's Cottage. A table was laid with a black cloth and golden dishes, with silver goblets and glass vases of yellow and red roses. Hermione had to laugh.
"Draco, this is beautiful, but everything clashes!" Hermione giggled, and Draco mock-glared at her.
"I see that as a muggle-born you are just too unsophisticated to absorb and understand the subtle symbolism I have arranged for your delight. Alas, I thought I had found the girl of my dreams, but I fear I shall succumb to Pansy Parkinson now that the error of mine ways has been show'n me," Draco said theatrically, hand over heart in mock-heartbreak.
Hermione was laughing hard by the time Draco gathered her into his arms again. "I'm sorry this poor muggle-born can't understand a damn thing," she laughed, breathless, "so could you please explain everything, my lord?" she batted her eyelashes at Draco as she said the last, pretending to be an ill-educated peasant in the presence of her master.
"Like you'd ever submit," Draco said sarcastically.
"Well, maybe you should ask and find out," Hermione teased, and Draco was instantly hard.
"Perhaps later," Draco said in a strained voice. Hermione found her effect on him to be quite pleasing. "Not like you'd ever need educating, 'Mione. You're the brightest girl I've ever met."
Hermione arched a rather inquisitive eyebrow and Draco corrected himself.
"You're the most intelligent person I've ever met. Save myself, of course," Draco smirked, and Hermione had to laugh. "Now, as for the subtle symbolism of the table laying, mine dearest heart," Draco said, slipping back into archaic speech, "Yellow roses, for they're your favorite, and red for how I feel for you. Golden dishes for your sun-kissed skin, and glasses vases fro your purity."
Hermione was touched, but she was still curious as she hugged Draco close, "I'm no purer than you, Draco. But why a black tablecloth and silver goblets?"
"Those are me. Blackness of myself, and silver for how clean you make me feel," Draco said seriously, taking Hermione's face in his hands, turning her head so she looked directly into his eyes.
Impulsively, Hermione kissed Draco softly, savoring the feel of his lips on hers, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Draco backed up so he was leaning against a wall, and Hermione wrapped a leg around his, slowly climbing up his body. Draco groaned and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue into her mouth. Hermione shuddered at the intrusion and slid back down until she was on her feet on the floor. Her face was flushed, and Draco gave her a special smile, one she'd never seen him give anyone else.
"I don't think we'll be getting back to school tonight."
After that kiss, Hermione found it damn near impossible to concentrate on anything, let alone food. Because, she was sharing a meal with Draco, and every time he brought his fork or spoon up to his mouth, Hermione found her gaze inexplicably drawn to that wonderful orifice. Finally, Draco was laughing too hard to keep eating.
"Hermione, I made sure we had all your favorites, and I went to the trouble of having them delivered, the muggle way, but you seem more interested in eating me than the meal I provided," Draco said, putting his fork down. He pulled his chair out and stood, towering over Hermione.
"Eek?" Hermione said, trying to sound afraid of the almost six-foot blonde. His hair swung forward as he leaned down and plucked Hermione straight out her chair. He lifted her easily, and soon he was taking her to a room he hadn't shown her earlier. "Oh, is this the bathroom?" Hermione asked sweetly.
"Oh, you are a cheeky one, aren't you, hmm?" Draco said as he kicked a door open. Hermione looked at the magnificent bedroom before her, down in splendid silvers, greens, and blues. It was a very masculine room, with heavy oak and walnut furnishings. Torches illuminated the room slightly, giving it a romantic feel, and a fire blazed in the hearth, facing the foot of the bed. "I've never brought anyone else here, I promise you that. And now you get to help me break it all in. Make love with me, darling?"
Hermione nodded shyly, snuggling her head into Draco's chest. With Ron, she had been confident, impish, even, but Draco made her feel small and shy, like she'd break if he loved her too much or too hard. She let him carry her to the king-sized bed, and he laid her down softly, kissing her forehead, nose, cheeks, helping her open herself to him. Draco removed his shirt first, letting Hermione orient herself as she liked.
She liked to watch him. That was clear, but so were the scars on his chest and back. Hermione reached a hand up and gently traced the worst of the scars, wondering how they had happened. She looked to Draco, who shook his head. She'd find out later, she was sure of it.
Draco reached for Hermione, kissing her, slipping her sweater over her head. He trailed kisses down her face and neck to her décolletage, stopping there to lick and suckle before he removed her bra. She shivered as the cold air hit, and she puckered for him. He laid her back and continued to kiss and lick down her stomach, reaching her skirt.
Draco looked up, into Hermione's eyes, a silent question. Hermione just smiled and closed her eyes, lifting her bum so Draco could slip the skirt and her wisps of panties from her rounded bottom. He growled as he noticed her lingerie.
"These are definitely staying," Hermione heard Draco mutter. She laughed.
Draco continued down her body, finally removing her boots. He let his hair fall as it may, and Hermione giggled at the sensation of his hair over her body, and Draco growled again.
Sitting up, Hermione cared not that she was clad only in her stockings and garter belt. She reached for the buckle on Draco's belt and undid it swiftly. She removed it and the offending pants and boxers, and Draco removed his socks and shoes, and for a moment, they just drank in the sight of one another naked. Or nearly naked, in Hermione's case.
Draco traced a finger down Hermione's face, and she felt her belly tighten in response. She shivered, and Draco chuckled low in his throat.
"Ticklish? Why, I never," he said in a low voice, rubbing his face over her stomach. Dipping his head ever lower, slowly until she couldn't stand it. She dragged his face father until he tasted her, and she screamed for the joy of it. He teased her until her needed her too much to carry on. He pulled his face from her and dragged his body up hers until his face was in her face, and their breath mingled.
"What are you waiting for?" Hermione breathed, pushing at Draco, pulling him, not knowing what she was doing.
"Waiting for the contraception charm to take affect," Draco said, straining to keep himself from her.
Hermione pulled him to her. "Don't worry, I use muggle methods. Everything is just fine the way it is. Now, where were we?"
Draco reared back and surged forward, pushing all the way into her the first try. She was tight, and he was big, but everything was perfect, and Hermione felt moisture in her eyes as he continue to take her, whispering her name as if it were a prayer. It wasn't long before things were coming to an end, and Hermione was biting her lip to try to keep from saying that she loved him. She starting whispering Draco's name, the whispers building until she was screaming along with him.
As Draco felt himself expand as he neared release, he felt her tighten and squirm around him. Sensing she was near the end, too, he held on until it was too much. With one last lunge, he roared her name, collapsing on her as she passed out form the exertion. He looked into her face, still inside her body, and decided it was safe to speak the words he feared.
"I think I'm in love with you, my Hermione."