"No!" Hermione said.

"No, I'm not leaving her. There is no fucking way that is happening."

"He can't go back there. They will kill him."

"Please listen, Draco you must go. If you don't Voldemort will suspect something. He will figure out you are a turncoat."

"Why is it so important to go? So what if he figures it out. He will find out eventually." Draco argued. He started pacing the length of the hospital infirmary, every so often making eye contact with Granger and stopping in his tracks, and then continuing to pace.

"The longer you are there the better. It is more important than ever to get past his shields. And you can do that." Dumbledore explained.

"So you are willing to send a boy to his death just so you can play spy?" Hermione asked, furious and Dumbledore's proposal.

"That is not what I am saying."

Draco walked up to Dumbledore. Hermione craned her neck to hear what they were talking about but couldn't hear. She frowned at Draco when he returned, biting her lip, afraid but knowing what was going to happen.

"I'll do it." Draco said quietly.

"What, no!" Hermione cried, searching Draco's face to find an explanation to what she considered as a completely irrational decision.

"Hermione, trust me." he whispered.

"Thank-you Professor." Draco nodded curtly to Dumbledore and pulled Hermione out of the infirmary. They headed up to the astronomy tower, both quiet in thought and not wanting to talk with other people potentially eavesdropping.

"So what the fuck was that all about? Didn't take much for you to change your mind." Hermione snarled at him once they were safely out of earshot from anyone else.

"Hermionne, please. I don't want to leave you. But Dumbledore's right. I have to go."

"No you don't."

"Hermione."

"No you listen. I'm not loosing you. what if... what if you don't come ba-" Hermione cried, her voice breaking and tears trickleing down her cheek.

Draco walked towards and held her in a tight hug. He rested his chin on her head and bent down to kiss the top of it.

"I'll be back, because now... Because now I've got something to live for. It took me 17 years to find it. But I managed. Eventually."

"Draco, don't. Stop trying to placate me. It's not going to work. I'm not letting you go."

"Hermione you have to." Draco said pulling her away and looking at her eyes.

Hermione stared back into his icy orbs. She saw determination, love but also fear. She knew he was trying to convince himself to go as much as he was trying to convince himself.

xxxx

"If you don't go, she will be in grave danger." Dumbledore said.

They were the only words he needed to hear to know he had to go. He had to leave to keep her safe. It would be painful in the meantime, having to be without her for months on end, not hearing her voice, not seeing her smile, but he had to go. He shivered at the thought of how him and his snake crawled throughout his house and the coldness and isolation for months on end. He couldn't even owl her. This was for the best however, he needed to keep her safe. If that meant him leaving he would do it. He would rather he left to keep her well than keep her and them both end up dead like those fucking muggles in that book.

"You keep her safe. Nothing happens to her. You keep her alive and healthy. She returns in the condition I leave her in." Draco threatened.

He knew what was about to happen. They were on the brink of a war and he couldn't let anything happen to Hermione. He returned to her and said those three words.

"I'll do it."

xxxx

"We still have months before the summer holiday Hermione. Can't we just enjoy them together." Draco asked.

"I suppose so." she sighed, snuggling into his chest.

Hermione watched the sun setting from the room in the astronomy tower. Draco picked up her hand and stroked her slender fingers. He massaged her palms and kissed them softly, flicking his tongue in a sensational way over the top.

"Draco." she moaned.

He growled at his name and started to kiss her wrists. He moved his kisses to her neck sucking on her sweet spot. He bit her gently down her neck and planted hot wet kisses on her collar bone and jaw. He sat up and pulled her up onto his lap. She pulled his head back to hers and collided her lips to his. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and wrapped her legs around his waist. He sighed into her mouth as she bucked her hips, the friction driving him wild. She pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. She grazed her nails all over his musular back and sholders. Draco's kisses lowered from her collar bone to the tip of her cleavge. She bent her head back in pleasure and held his head there. She couldn't resist the little separation they had and pushed him away in order to take her top off. She threw it to the ground. Draco rubbed his hands all over her naked waist and back, sending tingles into her body. The pressure of his large hands on her small frame made her throw her head back, her hair flooding like a stream of honey down her back. Draco flipped Hermione over so he was on top of her lying on the bed. He placed a chaste kiss on her mouth.

"Open your eyes." he whispered into her ear.

Hermione's eyes fluttered open. Draco was looking back at her. His intense expression was watching her face so critically to see what she found pleasurable. He cupped her face in his hand and tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear. He planted a kiss I her jugular and ran his tongue over the soft skin. Hermione whimpered, he smiled into her skin and bit her with force. His teeth drew blood from Hermione's neck but she didn't find it painful. She leant her neck away from his mouth allowing access. Hermione gasped as his hands roamed over her legs. He gripped her thigh tightly with his hand and drew her closer to him. Hermione's breath hitched as he moved his mouth away from her neck and he stood up and backed away from her until he was standing against the opposite wall.

"Hermione." he panted.

She watched his chest muscles grinding against eachotother as he panted. she confusedly looked back up at him, noticing the strain on his trousers.

"We can't. Not tonight."

Hermione nodded, still shivering with lust.

"If you don't want to." Hermione said quietly.

Draco walked over to her in a heartbeat and pulled her onto his lap. He cupped her face with his icy hands.

"Of course I want you. I want you more than anything else in the world. I want you so muc-" he said trailing off breathily.

Hermione felt his body stiffen underneath her, as he took several deep breaths before continuing.

"I can't let my instinct take over when I am around you Hermione. Your too precious for that." Draco explained watching her expression furiously, determined to know what she was thinking.

"I'm not a porcelain doll you know" Hermione frowned.

" Hermione...ple-"

"Okay, fine." she interrupted.

She nodded and traced her fingers over his cheeks. He brought his hand over the ring that hung on her chest on the necklace. He bent his head down and kissed it. Hermione sighed and took a fistful of his hair in her hand and pulled his head up and plunged into a kiss. Draco moaned into the back of is throat before pulling away slightly.

"And also a porcelain doll would never get me as hard as you would." Draco said smirking.

"Draco!" Hermione cried, throwing a pillow at his smug expression.

"Now now Granger, I'm going to have to punish you for that." Draco taunted.

"Bite me Draco." she teased.

"I believe I already did." he grinned.

Hermione sat up and pushed him over so she was lying on top of him. She straddled him and grazed her nails all over his chest. She traced the outline of his abs and the crevases of his skin. She leant forward and licked his Adam's apple, gently sucking on the skin. Draco closed his eyes scrunching his face slightly and gripped the bed sheets tightly. Hermione grinned an pulled away.

"And to think you were meant to be punishing me." she said running her fingertips over the waistband of his trousers.

"Hermione." Draco warned, getting up from the bed. Hermione laughed at him, winking when he turned around to see her.

"Good thing there is a shower in this en suite. Otheriwse I'd be walking around school with a raging hard-on." he scoffed, walking towards the bathroom.

"I wouldn't mind." Hermione shouted from their bed, directed at the bathroom.

She laughed at Draco's following grunt in the bathroom and dug around in his closet to put on her favourite quidditch shirt of his. She shimmyed her leggings down her waist, unhooked her bra and pulled the green and silver shirt over her body. The shirt had the words MALFOY written all over her breasts. She started flicking through a textbook lying nearby, when Draco walked in the room. He had a towel wrapped low around his hips and his skin glistened with condensation from the shower. His hair was wet and fat drops of water dropped from it and trickled down the crevasse of his back and underneath the towel.

"Like what you see?" Draco winked.

"Not really." Hermione said, impressed how blasé she sounded.

She jumped when she felt Draco's wet face against her hot cheek.

"Are you sure that textbook is more interesting than me?" he whispered tauntingly in her ear.

"You're a close second." Hermione leered.

Draco rolled his eyes and pinched her bum.

"Draco!" she squirmed.

"You deserved that."

"What did I do?"

"For looking simply irresistible in my jumper. I'm gonna have to take another cold shower." he teased.

"Well at least you will be extra clean."

"Sorry, I know you like It when I'm disgustingly filthy." he muttered into her ear, biting her earlobe.

Hermione shivered with the thoughts of Draco in a white shirt that clung to his muscles with mud all over it and taking it off slowly and ringing it out causing all his muscles to tense up and-

"Such a pervert Granger." he laughed.

"What!" she said, panicking that she had said her thoughts out loud.

"It's not hard to guess what you were thinking. You will have to tell me about it some time." he smirked.

Hermione returned that with a second pillow to his head. She gasped as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to his lap. She kissed him briefly and blushed, realising there was only a towel separating him to her.

"Umm definitely another hot shower for me. he whispered into his skin. "maybe this time-"

"Don't even think about asking me to join you in it." Hermione laughed predicting what he was going to say.

Draco lifted his arms up in surrender and laughed.

"Kinky Granger! I was actually going to say maybe this time I'll use my rubber duck. But I'm beginning to like your idea better." he grinned.

Hermione sent another pillow flying his way, knowing fully well he was going to ask her to join in. Not that she would have said no mind. But that was not what was being discussed. Draco laughed at her, before pulling on his boxers. She turned away modestly blushing slightly. Draco grinned at the redness of her cheeks and picked her up and threw her over the shoulder walking towards the bed.

"Hey!" she shrieked, but she didn't protest enjoying the swaying of his body as he carried her. He carefully propped her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her face towards his. He placed a single kiss on her forehead, as she dug into his chest, following with them both falling into a peaceful sleep soon after.