AN: I know it's taken forever, it's awful and I know as a reader it drives me mad waiting ages for the chapter and if I could spend all day writing I would because I love it, but unfortunately work have decided that I can't get away with not doing work anymore and that leaves me struggling to keep awake in the evenings so hopefully you guys will be patient with me, and I'm really hoping the contents of this chapter will make up for my absence.
Dedicating this chapter to the-PiXiE-kid as she gave me the idea for a very important part of it and she thoroughly deserves the credit because I'm 1000% sure I wouldn't have thought of it.
Thanks to Astarte_Lydianna for looking this over. Go over to her profile for some highly recommended stories.
Disclaimer: All recognized characters and situations belong to J. K. Rowling. I own nothing and no infringement is intended, I have no affiliation with the Harry Potter universe.
Two months had past and most of the hype over Draco and Hermione's relationship had calmed down, at least for the younger students. Unfortunately her friends were a different matter. Ginny was giving Hermione the cold shoulder whether she was with Draco or not, in fact it did seem that Neville was still the only one that was showing her any kind of support and Hermione was willingly taking it however reluctantly it was given.
A little relief came in the form of Seamus, Dean and Parvati, who were talking to her as long as Draco wasn't around, however she still had not heard from Harry or Ron and didn't know whether to feel hurt or angry or both, after all Draco was her choice and as her best friends they should support that choice no matter what their own feelings.
Draco on the other hand was fairing rather well. Apart from having Pansy try every trick she could think of to split them up, he didn't really have any issues from his friends. Blaise knew that Draco really liked Hermione, to actually show her off the way he did proved it, so said nothing and was polite to Hermione if she was with Draco.
Theodore Nott and Millicent Bulstrode didn't pay much attention, just trying to get on with the school year without too much trouble. He hadn't heard from Goyle, but considering his oldest friend could barely write he hadn't expected to.
The one person he had been a little disappointed about was his mother. She had written to him after the Daily Prophet article insisting that he make a statement contradicting what Rita Skeeter had written and had not responded well when Draco informed her that he would do no such thing as he was rather happily dating Hermione.
She had made it clear that he was not welcome home unless the relationship ended. He made it clear that she could shove the manor if that was how she felt. It was the first time in his life he felt any peace or happiness and he wasn't giving it up because his mother had still not learned her lesson.
Hermione had taken that news rather badly, saying she understood if he wanted to end things, she didn't expect him to give up his home and his family for her, but Draco had insisted that his mother would have to respect his decision or accept the consequences.
As the weather turned snowy and the corridors of Hogwarts castle grew more draftee Hermione and Draco began to spend more and more time holed up in Hermione's room in the head quarters, much to Neville's displeasure.
He was willing to support Hermione, but he did not need his childhood tormentor constantly in his living quarters. He told Hermione as much and found himself alone in the common room a lot as Hermione and Draco would go straight up to the her room to give him his space.
Draco was laid back against Hermione's pillows checking through a homework assignment for the last time while Hermione sat at her desk finishing off one of her own. They certainly spent time fooling around but nothing had gone further than what had happened on their first date.
"Hermione, the Christmas Holidays will be upon us in a couple of weeks, do you know what you are doing?" Draco asked after reading through the last paragraph of his work.
"Well, normally I would have gone home and then to the Burrow, but obviously neither option is really available now, I guess I'll just stay at school. What about you, I mean your mother isn't too happy, are you going home?" Hermione asked.
"No, I was just going to stay here, but now that you're staying too I'm much happier about it" Draco sent a cheeky smirk her way before getting off the bed and picking her up out of the chair and sitting her on his lap, placing a kiss to her lips.
"Is Longbottom going home?" he asked, silently praying she would say yes.
"I haven't asked him" Hermione replied, seeing the cogs working in Draco's head.
"It would be a very nice Christmas indeed if he was, I would certainly like some alone time with you" Draco said straight into her ear whilst kissing the lobe.
"Draco, we are alone," Hermione protested.
"Oh no my darling, I mean completely alone, with no worrying about anyone else at all" Draco whispered, causing a shiver to run down her spine.
The idea certainly made Hermione happy, almost to the point of tingly, which gave her a thought. "What if I could come up with a way for us to be alone over the two weeks?" Hermione asked him.
"I'm listening" Draco responded.
"Well as far as I know, my family home is still standing and still in my parents name. I put quite a few wards on it so it should've been safe over the last year, we could go there for the holidays"
"That sounds like a wonderful idea, and I can confirm that the death eaters never found your home, believe me they looked" Draco told her. Hermione was happy to hear that her childhood home was still standing, but it still unnerved her when she thought about the fact that her boyfriend was in fact a death eater and not so long ago living at death eater headquarters. She didn't like the reminder at all.
"Well good, I will add our names to the list of students going home tomorrow" Hermione told Draco, giving him a quick peck on the lips and climbing out of his lap and quickly going into her little bathroom.
Draco's shoulders dropped a little, she always got like this when he mentioned anything to do with his knowledge of the death eaters, in fact just the reminder of them made her distant and quiet, but he had hoped the news of her home would make her a little happy.
"Hermione, I'm sorry" Draco said through the door after knocking and getting no response. The door slowly creaked open and Hermione emerged, she had taken a few breaths and told herself to stop, she fought in the war so that the prejudice would stop, and at least with Draco it had so she had to stop running away, now!
"You don't need to apologise, it's just still a little fresh" Hermione told him quietly, taking his hand and leading him to the bed.
They lay down and relaxed, Hermione curling into Draco's side. She fell asleep not long after and Draco had a hard time tearing himself away to go back down to the dungeons, he would have loved just to stay the whole night holding her close, but in two weeks he could do exactly that and hopefully more.
….
Two weeks of handing in assignments and patrolling and Hermione was more than ready for some time off, and extremely excited to be going home, after more than a year away.
Of course all her work was done weeks before but she had to triple check everything before she was satisfied and Draco constantly trying to take her attention away, mainly with his beautiful lips and delectable tongue, didn't help.
It was the night before they were due to go home and Hermione had finally managed to get Draco to go down to the dungeons and pack and was laying on a couch in the common room for just five minutes before she went to pack her trunk.
Neville sat next to her and pulled her feet into his lap, softly rubbing them. "What are your plans for the holidays 'Mione?"
"I don't really have any plans, I assume my house will need some form of cleaning after over a year of abandonment and then I suppose we can do our holiday assignments and maybe teach Draco how a television works as he has no idea what it is" Hermione replied.
"Draco? You mean to say he is staying with you?" Neville asked in a shocked tone, stopping his ministrations on Hermione's feet.
"Yes of course, didn't I tell you? Sorry I thought I had" Hermione responded.
"Oh for Merlin's sake Hermione, in school where you are protected is one thing, but alone for two weeks with Draco 'I kiss death eater butt' Malfoy is just plain insanity, what the hell are you thinking?" Neville all but shrieked at her, practically throwing her feet from his lap as he jumped up from the couch.
"How dare you?" Hermione shrieked straight back. "What has gotten into you Neville? You've been so supportive"
"Well I thought you would see sense, that this was just some sort of rebellion after being so straight-laced all these years. I thought you would see…..never mind" Neville turned his back and his shoulders visibly sagged.
Hermione felt the rage blow out of her in watching that simple movement; she crossed the floor and put a hand on Neville's shoulder "see what Neville?"
He shook his head and shrugged her hand off, crossing the room towards the staircase that led to their bedrooms; he stopped at the bottom step but did not turn around "I thought you would see that I'm in love with you"
….
The next morning Neville did his utmost to avoid Hermione as much as possible; he was up, dressed and down in the Great Hall before Hermione had even stirred and after breakfast was busy helping to get all the other students to the train without incident.
He barely grunted when Hermione caught up with him and mumbled Merry Christmas before turning his back. He sorely wished he had just kept his mouth shut, but he just couldn't bear the thought of Hermione spending two weeks alone with Malfoy.
Hermione sat in one of the Hogwarts Express' smaller compartments waiting for Draco to finish whatever he was doing with his Slytherin friends. She was still speechless over Neville's confession, she hadn't really known what to say to him this morning even when she managed to get his attention, and she didn't know whether or not she was relieved when he turned his back or not.
She had always thought he liked Luna, the signs pointed that way for years, now she felt like she would lose another friend and she was devastated, what a wonderful start to Christmas.
She was staring out of the window and didn't even know Draco had entered the compartment until she felt him wrap his arms around her and kiss her cheek, "what has my beautiful witch in such deep thought?" he asked.
"Oh, it's nothing, nothing at all" Hermione answered quickly, wiping the tears for another loss quickly.
"It is quite clearly not nothing, tell me" Draco all but demanded when he saw her tear tracks, whoever had upset her would be made to suffer.
"Oh it really is silly, it's just a misunderstanding, and I am being overly emotional" Hermione soothed, she really didn't want to tell Draco the actual reason because she knew the only way he would take the news was with a large jolt of jealousy, which would not bode well for Neville.
"Hermione please, tell me what's upset you" Draco was beginning to worry he had done something wrong.
Hermione sighed deeply, she knew the look in his eye, he was worried and he wasn't going to give up until she told him something, and if she lied it would come out in the end looking much worse.
"It's just a small thing with Neville, and I would be really upset if I couldn't fix it because he has been the only one who hasn't given me hell over our relationship and showed himself to be a very good friend, I just don't want to lose that"
"What was the misunderstanding?" Draco asked, barely keeping control on his temper, Longbottom was in serious trouble, no one was allowed to make his girl cry.
"He um….. he was a little upset about our change in plans for Christmas, you see he err…." Hermione really didn't want to tell Draco what Neville had said.
"Hermione, if he has done something to you I will make him suffer, so please just tell me" Draco coaxed, his frayed temper was ready to snap.
"Well he seems to think that he is in love…with me"
Draco instantly got up from his position on the bench and pulled his wand; "If that idiot is on the train, I will kill him" Draco vowed and stepped out of the compartment before Hermione could even catch a breath.
She got up and ran down the small walkway after him, she caught up and grabbed his wand arm "Draco, he's staying at Hogwarts, he's not here. Come on lets go back, please" Hermione begged and pulled him back towards their compartment.
Draco conceded defeat and followed, fuming the entire way. Longbottom was bloody lucky he wasn't on the train.
"That stupid, little, idiot, what makes him think that a girl like you would go for his clumsy arse? I have a right mind to kick said arse," Draco ranted, pacing around the carriage.
"Draco please stop, I'm sure he is wrong, it's probably just the after affects of the war, we've lost so much, fought for so long, he'll forget it soon enough" Hermione reasoned, but Draco barely heard her, all he could think of was ways to murder Longbottom and each way became more violent and painful.
"Draco! Are you listening to me? What does it matter to you if he does feel that way, it doesn't mean he will get what he wants" Hermione asked.
"Of course not, it's not like you would leave me for him" Draco of old was back and stuck up his own backside and Hermione was having none of it.
"Draco Malfoy you will stop this right now! Neville Longbottom is a brave, decent and loving young man and any woman would be lucky to have him. So do not give yourself airs and graces that you are better than him or you will be sleeping out in our old shed for the entire Christmas holiday" Hermione shouted, poking him in the chest to emphasise her point.
"Now, we are going to end this conversation here and enjoy the rest of the train journey back, or so help me you will regret it" Hermione sat on the bench and crossed her arms, and she would not budge on the subject no matter what Draco tried next.
Draco shut up and sat in on the opposite bench, staring a hole in the wall above Hermione's head, Longbottom would not be getting away with coveting his girlfriend, Hermione did not need to know what he was planning.
A few hours later they made it to King's Cross, neither had spoken the entire journey and Hermione was beginning to think that if something didn't change then this holiday would be up there with some of her worst and considering what she had been doing the previous Christmas that was pretty bad.
When they got off the train and Draco had levitated their trunks on to a trolley they made their way towards the barrier that would take them out onto the main station. Hermione casually walked through the barrier and Draco followed with the trolley.
When they got outside they wheeled the trolley around the corner and into an alleyway before shrinking their trunks to pocket size and Hermione apparated them to a small alley on the end of her street "I would have taken us into the back garden but the wards would not have allowed you in" she explained.
She took Draco's hand, trying to get him to loosen his grip on his anger over Neville and led him halfway down the long street and stopped outside her house. Draco looked confused and turned to Hermione. "This is a dilapidated old hovel, how can the other muggles be happy to even have this in their street?" Draco exclaimed.
As opposed to be offended which Draco had expected as soon as he heard the words fall out of his own mouth, Hermione giggled. "Well it took a bit of work but I reversed the spell that is used on Hogwarts and other magical buildings to keep muggles away, mine keeps wizards away. The muggles on my road see my house" Hermione explained.
Draco's jaw dropped in awe of the clever witch in front of him "I know many people must have said this to you before, but you are a genius" Draco exclaimed. "But err…. can I see your house?"
Hermione laughed outright and using her coat to conceal her wand, cast a spell to remove the ward just for Draco, she still wanted to keep the house concealed, there were still people out there that would wish her harm.
What Draco saw next was much nicer than the dirty hovel. It was nothing like the Manor but there weren't many buildings magical or muggle in his eyes that were like the manor, but the building in front of him was very nice, and he could see Hermione living there.
It was two storeys however the attic seemed to have been converted to another room. The front dark brick with brown windowsills and the front door was the same colour but had a stained glass window.
Hermione led Draco to the front door and pulled out an old looking key from her pocket. They entered into a small but long hallway, a staircase to their right and two doors to their left.
Hermione took hers and Draco's coats and hung them on the hooks by the door before taking him for a tour of the house. The first door turned out to be the living room, it was decorated in creams and had various appliances that Draco could not make out, such as a square thing with buttons, which Hermione informed him was a stereo, the muggle way to play music.
The next door was the kitchen, it was ample in size and painted in a pale peach, the cupboards were pine and the appliances were all white. Hermione pointed out the electric kettle and did her best to explain the properties of a microwave, but Draco decided that he would much rather never know and have a house elf, thank you very much.
Draco followed Hermione upstairs to see three more doors. The one directly to his right was the bathroom; much to his delight the suite was green with a silver bath, toilet and sink. He decided that this was something he could have fun with and informed her that had her parents been wizards they most certainly would have been in Slytherin considering their excellent taste in colour.
Hermione huffed and pulled him from the bathroom and on to the next room, her parents' bedroom. It was painted in pastels and boasted a large wardrobe, king-size bed and another contraption that he didn't understand, he had seen something similar downstairs and upon pointing it out Hermione informed him it was the television she had been talking about.
Lastly Hermione showed him the room he was most interested in. She opened the door to reveal her room, painted in Lavender, carpeted in soft lilac and boasting…'oh no, a single bed' Draco thought.
Hermione saw where his attention was directed and giggled again, "twenty minutes in a muggle house and you forget who we are" she said, pulling her wand and casting 'engorgio' at the bed, causing it to expand to a double.
Draco crossed his arms and huffed.
"Come on one more room and then we have things to do" Hermione said pulling him out of the room.
"Where can there be another room?" Draco asked, looking around for some sort of secret door. Hermione was thoroughly enjoying Draco's discoveries in the muggle world, and laughed outright at the look on his face when she reached up and pulled stairs down from the ceiling so that they could enter the study that had been converted from the loft.
It was decorated in an antique style, a large mahogany desk, covered in manila files and paperwork, Draco looked a little green at seeing a scan of someone's mouth. "What exactly does a dentist do?" he asked.
"Dentist's care for people's teeth, muggles don't have potions to fix broken teeth and gums, dentists take care of it for their patients" Hermione explained. Draco couldn't imagine having someone poking around in his mouth with metal instruments and certainly preferred spells and potions.
"Well you've seen everything. Let me set the house to work cleaning itself, then we can go to the shops and get some food, luckily my father's emergency money is still here so we don't have to apparate to a wizarding market, we can go to the muggle shop in the high street" Hermione said, leading Draco back down to the second floor landing and pushing the door shut.
"I've never been food shopping, our house elves take care of it" Draco admitted when Hermione enquired about the unsettled look on his face.
"Well I could go without you if you want" Hermione sighed.
"On no, you're not leaving me here so that I end up breaking the fellytision" Draco said, grabbing his coat from the hook and helping Hermione on with her own coat.
Hermione stifled her laugh and took his hand, "Come on then, let's take you on your first shopping trip"
They made the short walk to the high street quickly as the weather was getting colder and the sun would be going down very soon.
Hermione grabbed a trolley and began to choose items that she could cook without too much hassle and kept stopping to explain the fluorescent lighting, the machine the butcher used to cut the ham she had chosen, and couldn't stop herself laughing when they got near the tills and he jumped doing a 180 degree spin at the bleeping noise coming out of the machines as each product was scanned.
Once home Hermione put the shopping away and looked around her. The cleaning spells she had set before they left had done the trick, getting rid of all the dust, dirt and cobwebs that had built up over the past year, but Hermione couldn't help feeling that it just wasn't right, being there without her parents.
She set to work making dinner the muggle way as Draco sat at the kitchen table watching in fascination. They ate their Spaghetti Bolognese and talked about everything and nothing and then Hermione taught Draco how to clean up without magic, again he internally sighed in relief that he was a wizard and didn't have to do any of this stuff.
They spent the rest of the evening in front of the television, which ended in debating the point of people standing in front of a camera and "acting", as Draco had put it in quote marks every time he said it.
Eventually it was time for bed and Hermione's nerves came into play. She had contemplated this for the whole two weeks since they decided they would go home for Christmas, now she had to follow through on the things she had been thinking about.
Draco went ahead, using the bathroom and putting on his silk pyjamas and climbing into the enlarged bed while Hermione closed up the house for the night.
Hermione went into the bathroom, washed her face, brushed her teeth then took a deep breath looking in the mirror, 'come on Hermione, you've faced much scarier situations than this' she thought to herself.
She stripped off her jeans and sweater and threw them in the hamper, smiling when she saw that Draco had thrown his own in, he certainly felt at home, no more worrying that her house wouldn't be up to his standards.
She took her wand and transfigured the simple bra and panty set into something much sexier then exited the bathroom and crossed the hall to her bedroom door.
Draco looked up and felt his jaw drop as the bedroom door opened. Hermione stepped in wearing a blood red see-through thong and bra and her face almost matched the colour as her cheeks blushed.
She steadied herself with a deep breath and walked over to the bed, climbing on top of Draco and settling herself with her thighs either side of his legs. Before he was able to say anything she engulfed his mouth in a hot, wet kiss and began to unbutton his pyjama shirt.
When she finally broke the kiss allowing them to breathe Draco finally spoke, "Hermione are you sure about this? You don't have to"
Hermione silenced him with another kiss, which she then trailed across his jaw and down his neck. "I'll take that as a yes" he growled, flipping them over and covering Hermione with his body and licking a trail from her ear down to her breast, sucking in a nipple through the fabric of the bra, making her gasp and arch her body into him.
He tried hard to go slow but he had wanted Hermione from the minute he pulled her from under the bricks and watching her writhe under him made it very hard to hold back. As sexy as the bra and panties were they had to go. Draco grabbed his wand, vanished their clothes and cast a contraception charm before his mind completely deserted him.
He kissed her again and trailed his tongue back down her body, over her breasts, her abdomen and to the junction between her legs. He bent his head and took a careful lick of her clit and entrance. She tasted so sweet, she was soaking wet, making Draco sure that she really wanted this.
He spent a little time on pleasuring her with his mouth, something she had not allowed him to do before and seemed to be enjoying very much if the way she gripped the sheets was any indication.
Draco eventually concentrated his efforts on her engorged clit, only occasionally slipping down to probe her entrance. Her legs began to tremble and Draco decided now was the time, while she was enjoying it, because he knew with his size he was going to hurt her.
He quickly pulled himself up to look in her eye and used his hand to line himself up with her entrance. He kissed her as he plunged in, trying his best not to prolong the pain for her.
She cried out into his mouth and began to pant, Draco holding still so that she could adjust, painfully waiting for some kind of sign that she was okay to continue.
Hermione took a moment to let the initial pain pass then experimentally moved her hips. Draco kissed her again and slowly pulled half out and pushed back in, she winced but did not ask him to stop.
He continued at the slow pace, using everything he had in him to hold back when all he really wanted was to piston into her, she was so tight and wet and he was struggling.
Hermione began to feel a tingling sensation in her lower regions, the pain had dissipated into a dull ache and she was beginning to enjoy the feeling of him moving in and out of her body.
She began trying to thrust her hips in time with his movements coaxing him to go faster and harder. Draco began to feel his balls tightening, he slowed down so that he didn't explode right then and moved his hand down in between them, finding her clit and rubbing it.
Hermione let out a moan that made Draco want to explode. He lifted himself onto his knees so that he could give her clit more attention, using his thumb to rub it in time with his thrusts, his other hand pebbling her nipple.
Hermione began to feel her body tighten, she knew she was about to orgasm, and she meant hard. Her back arched and she called out Draco's name, gripping the sheets beneath her, the orgasm prolonging as she felt his seed spill into her.
Draco collapsed onto Hermione and after catching his breath kissed her. This was something he planned on doing every single day.
AN: So again sorry for the long wait but I hope it was worth it, you guys know the way to tell me what you think, so push the button.
