Disclaimer: as you all know, I am not J.K. Rowling and thus own nothing. I make no money with this story.

Chapter 21: The cave

Her blood is rushing. She can feel it pounding in her head as she is running for her life, literally. She is running with Draco from Aurors through the woods. She is jumping over fallen tree trunks and ducking under loose hanging branches. She cuts herself a few times but she doesn't notice it. Adrenaline is pumping though her veins. They don't see the Aurors behind them at this point but they know they must be close. Hermione is slowing down. Not because she wants to but because her muscles are cramping up. Draco, who was running in front of her, turned around and hissed. "Keep going. We can't stop, they'll find us!" He grabs her by the hand and pulls her forward until she is back at her original pace.

"I can't... take this... much longer." She pants.

"I have an idea." He tells her while running. "But it's risky."

"What?" she asks.

Suddenly Draco jumps up a low hanging branch of a tree and pulls himself up as if it is nothing. Hermione gapes at him. She can't help but admire his strength.

"I can't do that!" she hisses at the bottom of the tree looking up at him. He holds out his hand for her and pulls her up.

"We have to go higher." He tells her. They are now both standing on the lowest branch which luckily, is strong enough to hold them both.

They climb as high as they can. He has to help her a couple of times.

"Are we high enough?" She asks him, afraid that if they go much further, the branches will become too thin to hold them.

He pulls her to him and covers her mouth with his hand. He is sitting with his back against the trunk of the tree, one leg on each side of the branch he is sitting on, and holding her close to him with her back against his chest. She wants to protest but then she hears it. The cracking of fallen branches on the ground. Someone is, or a few people maybe, are walking right below them.

Hermione holds her breath and they both stay as still as they can. Hermione closes her eyes to keep herself calm. She is too scared to look down. Every other sense is on high alert. She hears footsteps below her and the ruffling of bushes and cracking of branches the people below them step on. Her mouth is dry and her heart is pounding. She feels Draco's breath on her neck and his heartbeat thumping fast against her back. She realizes he must be stock full of adrenaline as well. And finally, she smells a mixture of her own perfume and both of their sweaty bodies.

After a while Hermione needs to get some air but she is still afraid the people below her might hear her. As slowly and quietly as she can muster she lets out the breath she was holding and takes a new deep breath. She hears nothing different and decides she can keep breathing as long as she is careful. Draco's hand is no longer covering her mouth and both arms are around her stomach protectively. Her arms are gripping tightly around his thighs to keep steady on the branch.

"Do you see them?" they here a voice below them. Hermione doesn't recognize it.

"No, maybe they disapparated." Another voice answers. Hermione's eyes become wide as she realizes who it is.

As quetly as she can she whispers "that's mister Weasley! We should turn ourselves in. He will help us."

"I don't think so." Another voice below them says. "I didn't hear the sound of anyone disapparating. We were not that far behind we should have heard it."

"Are you insane?" Draco asks her in a hushed voice. "You may trust Arthur Weasley but those other two are Gawain Robards and John Dawlish if I'm not mistaken. You will not even get the chance to speak to Arthur Weasley when those two see us."

Hermione wants to argue but Draco clamps his hand over her mouth again as he hears a crack right below them. Hermione has to fight back the urge to elbow him in the stomach for she doesn't know how he will react and the people below might hear them. She doesn't like it that he keeps his hand over her mouth though.

The two of them stay in the tree long after they can't hear anything anymore. Neither of them says anything but after a while their bodies relax and Hermione slumps into his embrace. She doesn't know how long it has been but the sun is starting to set.

She clears her throat slightly. "I think it is safe for us to go now."

"Where can we go?" He asks her.

"I don't know. Let's see if we can find shelter somewhere close."

"Isn't it easier to apparate somewhere?"

"No." She tells him. "They have already searched here. They won't come back tonight so it would be best to stay here. Besides, every place we know, they know about too."

He nods but apparates them to the ground with a soft pop.

"Thanks" She smiles at him. "I wasn't sure how we were going to get out of that tree without falling."

He snickers.

Suddenly, she feels a drop of water right on the tip of her nose. She looks up, and another drop falls on her forehead. She smiles a toothy smile.

"Why are you happy it's starting to rain? We'll get soaked." Draco complains.

"It will cover our tracks. Come on, let's go."

They walk for what feels like an hour. By now it is completely dark outside and the two of them are drenched and cold. Luckily, they find a cave they feel they could hide out in for the night.

They enter the cave and Hermione conjures up a magical fire. When she turns around Draco is standing awfully close to her, but he doesn't say anything.

Hermione stares into Draco's silvery grey eyes. Those eyes have scared her before but now, they are anything but scary. Those eyes portray his true feelings at the moment. Happiness, dare she say lust, and even a little fear. Perhaps fear of getting caught, or fear of what is about to happen between them, she doesn't know.

Hermione clears her throat awkwardly and turns away from him. They sit down on the ground near the fire with their legs crossed opposite each other with the fire in the middle.
The magical fire is warming them up a bit. A drop of water runs from Hermione's forehead and falls into her eye making her blink several times. They are both soaking wet from the rain outside but haven't taken the time to dry themselves off yet. They are staring into each other eyes, sitting close but not touching. They both want to but are afraid.

"So..." Draco begins.

"So..." Hermione repeats. She smiles and looks at the floor briefly before looking back up at him through her eyelashes.

Draco smiles at her. "Here we are."

"Yes. Here we are indeed."

"Are you going to repeat everything I say?" Draco snickers. He doesn't sound annoyed because he isn't.

Hermione smiles too and moves her head up to look at him again normally.

"We should get out of these clothes." Draco suggests but doesn't move.

"That would be the practical thing to do" Hermione nods but remains where she is.

Slowly Draco gets up and holds his hand out in front of her. She looks at his hand for a moment and then takes it, standing up. They are standing very close but they don't move. Hermione can feel Draco's breath on her forehead. She stares straight ahead and thereby onto his chest. His shirt is soaked and she can see his skin through it where the fabric sticks to his bare chest. She places her hand on his chest over his heart. Draco holds his breath. Neither says anything as they remain in this position for several heartbeats. Heartbeats that she counts. His heart is racing. Is he nervous? Or simply cold? She wonders. She looks up at him and smiles. He exhales finally and smiles back.

Hermione doesn't know what to feel. Everything is so confusing. What is she doing? How did she end up in a cave with Draco Malfoy? How did she suddenly end up as a criminal? What will happen when the aurors find them? They can't hide forever. And an even more pressing issue, what is happening between them?

Does she really have feelings for him? She never took the time to truly assess her feelings. Everything happened so fast. She looks into his eyes. Neither speaks. She has to admit to herself that he is handsome. She would have to be blind not to notice. He had many opportunities to show her how muscular he was while she was a ghost. It's weird how all of these things happened months ago but she only remembered them a few hours ago. When is she supposed to process these things?

He is staring right back at her. Does he feel the same? She wonders. Does he have feelings for her? Could he truly have changed so much? Oh no, does he expect something will happen between them? They are in a cave, fire burning, this could easily be the plot of some romantic comedy. Well, a romantic drama maybe. What if he doesn't feel the same? What if he kills her and leaves her there. He is free, she helped him escape, and nobody would be the wiser.

Hermione is really starting to panic now. She is so confused by everything she is feeling, everything she now remembers but hasn't had the time to process yet, she doesn't quite know which scenario would be worse. No, getting killed would definitely be worse, she decides. Although, if he does expect something, if he does expect her to have sex with him, that would definitely be bad. That cannot happen. That is way too soon. She needs time to gather her thoughts. Panic is really kicking in now.

"Practical?" He repeats with a playful smirk.

That breaks Hermione's frantic thoughts and brings her back to the present. Hermione looks at him again. She looks at his face, calm and waiting for her to do something. His hair lies flat on his head and a few wet locks of hair are pressed against his forehead. How come he still looks handsome? Hermione lowers her gaze to his chest, where her hand is still pressed against his heart. She looks at the muscles she can see through the wet fabric. Hermione pushes aside every thought she had before. She doesn't know what will happen in the future. Maybe she will be sent to Azkaban for what she did today. In this moment, she is with a very handsome guy whom she may or may not have feelings for. And she may or may not get to be with him another day. And very un-Hermione like, she appreciates the uncertainty of the future. And she'll be damned if she will let this moment go to waste. There is no time to think about what she does or doesn't feel. There is no time to think about the consequences of her actions. There is only time to act, to live right now and enjoy the company.

Without breaking eye-contact Hermione moves her hands towards the top button of his shirt. Slowly she starts unbuttoning every single one of the buttons. They stare at each other intently. Draco doesn't move, his arms hanging limp next to his body, afraid that any movement might break the spell. After she has unbuttoned every button of his shirt she moves her hands under the shirt and places her hands on his bare chest. Slowly she removes the shirt from his shoulders, which falls to the floor behind him. Neither picks up the piece of wet fabric lying in a heap on the floor. Neither of them speaks. They only stare. Hermione takes the hem of her own shirt and starts to pull it over her head. They are standing so close that Draco has to lean back slightly not to get hit in the face by her elbow. Yet, he refuses to take a step back. Hermione smiles up at him. They are both standing with their arms hanging besides their bodies now. Draco wearing his pants and shoes, and Hermione wearing her pants, shoes, and bra. Draco kicks off his shoes without breaking eye-contact and Hermione copies him.

Draco places his right hand on her left shoulder and traces his fingers over her bare skin along her arm making Hermione's skin flutter. When he reaches her hand the both raise it and place their hands flat against one another at the palms. They entangle their fingers and both stare at the entwined hands. Hermione's right hand moves to touch his chest again as she feels his still racing heartbeat once more. Then with her right hand she unbuttons her jeans and Draco unbuttons his with his left hand. They remove their pants and stare into each other's eyes again. The jeans, t-shirt, and soon the socks are all thrown together on a pile on the floor. The sensible thing would be to hang them out to dry, but neither thinks about it or cares about it at the moment.

They are now standing in front of each other in nothing but their underwear but neither has looked at the other's body yet, except for their hands. Draco is the first to break the eye-contact. Letting his eyes roam across her face, towards her shoulders, down to her lovely breasts held up by a lacey white bra, over her flat stomach to her hips, all the way down her long legs. She is slim but not too skinny, Draco decides. She has curves. Nicely shaped breasts, nice hips, and he bets she has a nice bum too based on the way the brown dress she wore the entire time she haunted him as a ghost hung around her bottom. Hermione studies Draco's face as his eyes roam her body. She smiles when she sees him smile and the lust increases in his eyes. He wants her and the thought turned her on a little.

She is a virgin and has never had a boy look at her with so much want. She had been out with Viktor Krum who had clearly been smitten with her at the time, but nothing could compete with the primal lust Draco is showing as he watches her. Draco looks back into her eyes and smiles. He knows she was watching him check her out but he isn't embarrassed. Hermione blushes.

It is her turn to look at him now. She has of course seen a lot of it before, but not in the light of a campfire with his body still wet from the rain. The light dances on his skin making the muscles stand out more than usual, as a shadow is cast over all the edges. She looks down at his black boxers and realizes the full extent of his desire for her. She is taken aback a bit. She is definitely aroused too but she is also a little scared of where this is going. She quickly looks away and Draco smirks. He places his hands on her shoulders and kisses her forehead. Hermione feels like hugging him and decides to just do it. She wraps her arms around his torso and places her cheek against his chest. He puts his arms around her and leans his cheek on the top of her head. They both enjoy the comfort of the hug.

They stand like that for quite long. At some point, Hermione's arms start to wander and move over his back. First she feels his shoulders, tracing the muscles with her fingers. Then she moves down his back and slider her hands under his boxers to cup his bum boldly. They hadn't even kissed yet. Draco snickers but doesn't remove her hands. He sees it as a sign he can also start to feel her up. He lets one hand cup the back of her head and comb through the wild curls. The other hand starts to slide down her back towards the strap of her bra. He wants to unhook it. Hermione doesn't doubt that he can with one hand. She had heard the stories about him at Hogwarts.

"Don't" she whispers as she removes her hands from his ass and places them on his chest again distancing herself from him. She isn't ready.

Draco looks at her confused.

"Not yet." She whispers and looks at him. He nods, bends down and extracts his wand from his jeans pocket. He conjures them a mattress, pillows, and warm fluffy blanket.

Hermione takes a step back when she sees what he has produced. "What are you doing?" she asks worriedly.

Draco snickers and takes a step forward closing the distance between them again. She tries to keep him away with her arms stretched out in from of her but they don't stop him. He has one hand behind her head and the other arm closed around her shoulders. He kisses her forehead again and Hermione closes her eyes. "Don't worry little one." He says. "It's for sleeping." Hermione nods, and follows him when he takes her hand and leads her to the mattress on the floor. They snuggle under the fluffy blanket together. Hermione, as the little spoon, seems to fit perfectly with her back against Draco, the big spoon. One of his arms is under the pillow under Hermione's neck and the other circles around her protectively pulling her closer to him. Hermione can feel his erection against her bottom but is confident he meant it when he said the mattress was for sleeping only. Of course, if she wanted it, he would not hesitate to take things further she was sure, but she trusts him completely. Why, she doesn't know. With a deep sigh Hermione closes her eyes enjoying the warmth and comfort of the blanket and the boy behind her. Soon after, she falls asleep. Draco lies awake a little longer, smelling her hair, thinking about how lucky he is, for now anyway. He feels so happy he almost forgets he is an escaped prisoner and wanted man. Any second their little hiding place could be discovered and this, whatever this was, could be over. He pulls her even closer against him and slowly falls asleep as well. And they both sleep better than they had for weeks.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm curious what you think, reviews are appreciated.