A/N- Hello my dears! I am so glad that all of you like my characterization of Draco. Thank you so much for your opinions.

Thanks a lot to jessirose85, my wonderful beta.

Disclaimer- All these chapters and I still don't own Harry Potter. Sigh…

Yes, Hermione drifted away into a deep, dreamless sleep but Draco lay awake late into the night, holding her thin naked form to his own shirtless chest. It was sweet torture and painless agony.

Towards dawn, Hermione stirred and turned over, snuggling her bum into his crotch. With a groan, he buried his face in her neck and with his lips parted slightly, he dragged them sideways, very slowly, barely touching, over the curve of her shoulder and back. He repeated the blissful motion, experiencing the silkiness there, over and over again until his lips tingled. Then his mouth opened more, then closed just a little, still with only his lips, moving in an imitation of a kiss. His mind was delightfully silent. She was forbidden fruit. Illegal. Unthinkable to the degree that she never even existed in the world of possibilities. And this taboo drove him further. Slowly, tentatively, he nudged just the tip of his tongue out to taste her. He groaned internally. She was warm and silky and her taste was wholly her own.

He scraped his teeth lightly over her shoulder. God, he wanted to bite her. To sink down into her flesh. No. This had to stop. Fuck!

She moaned, then, a long, throaty, and drawn out sound that brought him back to reality. He stopped abruptly, his mouth open on her, teeth just barely sunk into her skin. Fuck! Fuck!

He groaned and rested his forehead against the small shoulder he had just attacked. He let out a heavy sigh. She hadn't moved and was still breathing deeply. Draco lay there for many long minutes, his forehead on her shoulder and willing his erection down.

Draco woke up to the taste of soft, sweet lips and shy nips on his own. Keeping his eyes shut, he kissed back, tugging and pulling playfully at Hermione's mouth, his tongue darting into its delicious wetness. His heart clenched a he thought longingly about waking up every morning just like this.

Outside of this little lover's nest and in the world of harsh reality, the sun had not yet risen. The sky still held a hint of the night's darkness. It was like an omen because even the beauty of the colorful breaking of dawn could not hide the fact that soon, darkness would become permanent and happiness, a long lost dream in man's life.

The pink and orange glow against the curtains soon turned to the brilliant glare of daylight, drenching the lovers in the bed with its golden rays. Lover's who still who had no knowledge about each other's feelings but who kept looking for every excuse to be together rather than expose their true emotions. And as the sun rose, so did embarrassment. What had seemed tender and romantic in the shelter of the night's shadows now did not make any sense.

What could have possessed her to throw herself all over Draco like that last night, thought Hermione as she left a sleeping Draco in bed and went to shower. As cool water cascaded down her face, she closed her eyes recalling the night events. A cold chill, that had nothing to do with the water now sloshing down her back, ran up her spine. She could vaguely remember the way he had feasted on her neck when he thought she was asleep. Hermione smiled. Her neck seemed to be a particularly favorite spot of his. And suddenly, it was her favorite too. Wasn't that strange, she thought as she slid her hand up her collar bone to her neck imagining him touching her like that. Images of him cuddling her naked body against his hard, muscled chest filled her mind. His gestures had been as tender as they had been arousing. But she had held herself back because she was still unsure about her reactions to anything physical and she could not bear to see the hurt in his eyes when she pulled back from him in a moment of fright.

A strange lump settled in her throat as she realized that Draco was obviously trying to replace the nightmarish memories of her imprisonment for which he held himself responsible, with new beautiful and achingly sweet ones. Who would have thought that Draco Malfoy would one day do something like this for her.

But Hermione knew that whatever he was doing for her was because of his own guilt and probably also because he pitied her. Hermione hated it but surely this had to be the case. And this was why she just could not afford to even think that everything he did for her was because she meant something to him. She could not let her feelings go to that dangerous territory. She could never open her heart to that sort of heartache again.

Feeding Ameera her morning bottle, Hermione went to the kitchen to tend to her own food and Draco's food.

He was already sipping coffee in a relaxed manner when she entered.

"Morning." He said pleasantly. Hermione's heart warmed at the sight of his eyes that were clear and completely unguarded for the first time.

"Uh, yes good morning." She said awkwardly, quickly turning away from him to rummage the cabinets for breakfast.

From the comers of her eyes, she saw Draco smirking as he watched her nervously making sandwiches.

"Hermione," he said after a pause with a hint of laughter in his voice. "We haven't even had sex yet and already you have the morning- after jitters?"

The knife in her hand slipped and she blushed violently. She was sure he could see the red flush rising up her neck. For some reason, this made her temper flare up suddenly.

"We are low on food supplies." She gritted out harshly.

He only laughed and walked up to her, taking her hand in his. Hermione looked down and the sight of their entwined fingers and the warmth that seemed to flow from his hand to heat up her own body was suddenly very frightening to her. Jerking her hand free, she ran to her own bedroom and closed the door, breathing heavily and trying to stop unexplainable tears. All the time she tried to block out Draco's hurt expression as she had left him.

***

Days passed by. There was no more attack on the Manor. Severus Snape was feeding Voldemort new stories of Hermione and Draco's whereabouts each week. They were apparently hiding out in some eastern country, Snape told Voldemort. Voldemort had made the mistake of entrusting this important task of finding Hermione Granger to his most devoted follower. Snape in turn assured Voldemort that he had come across them a few times but they had slipped away. But time was definitely running out and Draco and Hermione knew this because it was only a matter of time before Voldemort started punishing Snape for his failures and after that the game would be over.

And so, tension was high in the dark, abandoned Manor. Draco had gone back to his old brooding, sulky manner. He had made no more advances towards Hermione, having leaned his lesson on the morning after spending the night with Hermione. He did not even try to figure out the reason behind her strange behavior. Who knew how the brain of the smartest witch of the generation worked. But it really was getting tiring that they couldn't open up to each other even a little without things getting awkward immediately afterwards.

He kept himself occupied with books or Ameera. And so did Hermione. But she made sure that their times did not clash. For example, when she occupied the library, Draco kept Ameera with him and vice versa.

The next excitement was Harry Potter and Ron Weasly's appearance at the burrow on Easter. Draco and Hermione both of course were invited to dinner with the Weasly's and other Order members. The anticipation of this event seemed to loosen Hermione up a bit. For one thing, she started talking freely to Draco once again. For hours, they discussed Voldemort's strategies, horcruxes and death eaters and the Ministry.

And then the long awaited day arrived.

***

A/N- Thank you for reading. Please do review!

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