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A/N: Thanks ever so much for the love and reviews. I'm blown away by how much you've all been enjoying this story. I do hope you like this chapter. Much love! xx-Kitten

Stripped Bare

By Kittenshift17

Chapter 25

This time when she left his arms and his bed, Draco awoke to the cold left in her absence and he reached for her instinctively, snagging her hand as she tried to slip from between the silk sheets adorning his bed. She glanced back at him, bleary eyed, and Draco could tell at a glance how tired she was. He knew the feeling. He might've been lamenting her absence and cursing her existence since she'd left days ago without a word, but he'd spent most of the night showing her all the reasons she belonged wherever he was, under him and screaming his name. He was beyond tired and his whole body ached with their combined exertions.

She made a grumbling sound when he tugged forcefully on her arm toppling her back towards the bed. She caught herself before she could completely fall, one of her hands splaying over his bare chest which was littered with scratches, bites and bruises from what she'd done to him.

"I have to pee," she informed him, her voice husky with sleep.

"You better not just walk out again without a word, Granger," he replied, annoyed with himself over the relief that statement brought him when it ought to have grossed him out.

"I told you I'm staying all weekend," she reminded him, sounding grumpy, "And if you'd add me to the wards, I'd be able to come and go when I need to."

With that said she snatched her hand from his grip, straightened, and strolled across his bedroom bare-arse naked as though she belonged there. If she felt self-conscious knowing his eyes were feasting on the sight she made, she didn't let on. Draco wondered about that as he lay there, scratching his chest idly while she closed the door to his bathroom and proceeded to run the shower. He heard the flush of the loo a few minutes later and then the sound of her under the spray of the shower. It was clear she was either putting on a front of being comfortable in his presence or she just didn't give a shit what he thought of her. Draco liked to think it was a little bit of both. If he was honest he didn't give a toss at all about her thoughts, her feelings or her opinions regarding him as long as she kept letting him fuck her. He was also getting used to her after so many hours spent in her presence fucking her until he couldn't move anymore.

She was a moody little thing. She could go from laughing and playing with him one minute - as she'd done in the pool - to furious with him and provoking him into hurting her just a bit in her next breath. He didn't know what to make of it. During their shared time at school Draco had never considered her to be overly moody. He'd spent enough time eavesdropping and spying on her and her doltish friends to know her better than she might think, and she'd never seemed so moody with them. Sure, they said things to put her nose out of joint, but with him it was almost like she would begin to relax into his presence, as she'd done when she was snogging him in the pool after playing with him yesterday in a way that belied their hatred, before she'd suddenly seemed to realise what she was doing and had acted to bring them back to oft-treaded ground by biting him so viciously and driving him to manhandle her into submission.

Draco was beginning to suspect, in fact, that she was doing her damnedest to ensure they stayed right in the realm of mutual hatred and that any misstep outside of it was quickly corrected. And that wasn't going to fly. Not if he was going to marry the little bitch.

Which he would do.

He didn't function unless he was fucking her on a daily basis and he refused to let her even think about him being her dirty little secret while she considered the notions of her future. Not that he expected she would be doing that with the intention of children for a few years at least. If there was one thing he'd learned about his mudblood - and she was his mudblood - it was that she was a determined to achieve everything in life. Which he suspected meant she would pursue a complete education and a career before she would even think about children or marriage. He wondered what she'd been pondering about such notions. Did she still pine after Weaselbee and the fact that she couldn't marry the bastard? Did she lament the notion of someday wanting children and not being able to even get off whilst creating them? Had she been thinking about the possibility that Draco might be the only one capable of knocking her up thanks to this bond between them?

Because it was certainly a possibility.

After all, what sort of curse meant that they were bound so that if one of them died, the other would pine and waste away until driven to suicide but wouldn't mean they could only conceive children with one another? Sure, it was ensured on his part that he couldn't, given that he couldn't ejaculate without Granger, but did that mean she couldn't conceive without him? He didn't imagine that the curse was preventing her from ovulating or whatever the hell it was women did that made them bleed five days out of the month without dying unless they had a bun in the oven. Scrubbing his hand over his face in annoyance with his own wayward thoughts, Draco dragged himself from his bed, intent this time on fucking the little witch in his shower before eating his breakfast off of her. As he'd wanted to do the other day before she fled his presence.

Strolling into the washroom without a care, Draco paused at the sight of the small beaded bag she'd carried during the war where it lay upon the bench. He narrowed his eyes on it. He'd suspected for some time since she'd first been captured with the bloody thing that it must have some kind of extension charm on it. It was all he'd seen her carry in a while and he expected she must've charmed it to fit whatever she needed inside it. Something he further expected when he noticed a collection of girly products adorning his bathroom vanity. He frowned at the sight of them, noticing that there were only a few things - most notably a new purple toothbrush which stood in the holder next to his.

For a long moment he frowned at the idea of her toothbrush being in the holder next to his own before he realised with a smirk that she was trying to be sneaky and subtly move some of the things in that she would need as his overnight guest - hence the newness of the toothbrush and the other products on the sink. They weren't just things she'd brought with her from home in preparation for staying a few nights. All of them were new - the bottles full, some even still sealed - suggesting she'd brought duplicates of things she simply couldn't function without and was sneakily moving them into his bathroom so she would have access to them whenever she came round to shag him.

Sneaky little witch probably thought he might not notice immediately. There were only a few, after all. A bottle of skin cream, a toothbrush, a roll of dental floss, a bottle of mouthwash and a tube of lip balm. He expected - based on the scent of jasmine filling the room - that she must also have brought her own soap, shampoo and conditioner with her and snuck those into the shower as well. The notion of her shit cluttering up his space bugged Draco for a long moment before he realised not only the practicality of such things, but also the fact that it was a step toward the direction he needed her to go anyway. If he intended to convince the little bitch to marry him, he'd have to get used to having her and all her crap cluttering up his space and his life. The notion annoyed him. Then again, if he woke up feeling as sore and sated as he did now every day for the rest of his life after fucking her into exhaustion every night, Draco might just be able to live with it.

Taking up his own toothbrush, Draco squeezed some paste on the brush and brought it to his mouth to rid himself of the morning breath he was suffering. As he scrubbed at his pearly-whites with one hand, the other explored the minimal amount of belongings she'd brought into his space for a moment. He didn't want them cluttering up the sink. That would only annoy him. Digging into one of the drawers of the vanity, Draco moved the few items inside it - namely his shaving kit and after-shave - into the next drawer down and he put his wandless magical ability to use to perform a cleaning charm to completely cleanse the drawer before he began piling her things inside it. The toothbrush could stay on the sink next to his, but the rest had a drawer and she was damned well going to use it.

When he was done with his dental hygiene Draco strolled back into his bedroom. He intended to fuck the little witch silly again this morning, but he'd give her a few more minutes to wake up and bathe completely. When he'd peaked around the edge of the shower she'd been in the process of trying to deep condition her wild mane of hair - which had gotten a little out of control after their dip in the pool last night and after he'd repeatedly dragged his hands through it, tangling it around his fingers, fisting the curly locks and ravaging her. He'd seen her working the conditioner through the ends - clearly having actually brought something useful to use on her hair and improve the nest it had been during the war. She'd been attempting to drag a comb through it to evenly distribute the product in the thick curls and he knew it would take her ages.

While she worked on it, Draco went to the bedside table on the side she'd been sleeping and opened the drawers. He didn't have much in there - mostly some of his old stuff from his younger days at Hogwarts and a disturbing number or chocolate frog cards that he'd collected as a child. Bundling everything from the drawer that he no longer needed in there, Draco found one of the many boxes his Mother had been nagging him to put to use and placed everything he wanted to keep but needed out of the way inside it. When he was finished there were three drawers beside the bed that she could fill with whatever she wanted that she might need while she was in the Manor. He smirked to himself as he went about ensuring there would be room for even more of her crap in his space. He didn't really need all the space in his bedroom and if it meant she was likely to be around more often, he'd be able to fuck her more often. And Draco was thinking he could live with that.

Once the drawers were emptied and cleared, Draco called for Tiggy.

"Master?" the elf asked eagerly, looking excited about serving him.

"Morning Tiggy," Draco greeted the elf, not at all concerned by the creature seeing him nude. Tiggy had been his elf since boyhood - the elf had seen him naked more times than he could count, "Could you prepare a breakfast buffet for me and Granger and bring it in here in about half an hour - I've got no clue what she likes in the mornings, so a bit of everything."

"Of course Master," Tiggy smiled widely at him, "Is you needing Tiggy to do anything else, Master?"

"Not right now. I've just emptied these drawers so Granger can use them for her things whenever she's here, so there's a box of things over there in the corner that can go to the attic later - but I want to clean out some of my other crap and sort through what I want to keep but no longer need around, so don't take it yet."

"Tiggy understands, Master," the elf nodded, "Master?"

Draco raised his eyebrows at the elf, realising he meant to question him.

"Will Miss be staying often, Master?" Tiggy asked, "Is Tiggy to prepare things for her as he does for the master?"

Draco nodded his head slowly as he pondered the elf's request.

"I'm going to marry the little snit, Tiggy," Draco admitted to the elf, "Though I've yet to convince her of the idea's merit. Treat her as though she is already your mistress. Unless she asks to be shown to the places in the Manor that you know no one is allowed to go. And don't let her near the Gallery. My ancestors will eat her alive."

"Yes Master," Tiggy smiled, "She is being good for Master, Tiggy thinks. Master doesn't eat when the Miss is not here."

"It's a magic-meld side-effect, Tiggy. I'm stuck with the little bitch, despite how we both dislike one another," Draco told the elf, smirking a little at his perceptiveness. Draco had missed how the elf liked to chat with him, as he had done all of Draco's life. During the war Tiggy and the other elves had all been too afraid for their lives to risk staying in the room when they weren't expressly needed or commanded.

Tiggy smiled toothily at him in response to Draco's words.

"Tiggy brings the breakfast, Master," the elf told him before disapparating to the kitchen.

Draco was still smirking when he glanced around the room for a long moment before deciding he'd given Granger enough time to deal with her personal hygiene. Strolling back into the bathroom he found her rinsing the last of the conditioner out of her hair. Stealthily he stepped into the shower behind her.

She flinched minutely when he smoothed his hands over her bare hips and around to rest on her taut stomach, but made no protest to his touch. Draco nipped the top of her shoulder as he pressed himself against her back, moulding her back into his chest. She must be tired, Draco decided, because rather than pulling away from him Granger slid her hands along his forearms before tangling her fingers with his. She didn't say anything and Draco didn't either. There was simply no need.

He could feel the familiar heat that came from touching her begin to flame through him but for the moment he was content to stand there under the hot water as it poured over his aching body while he held her. She felt good in his arms. He didn't think either of them could deny that. The feel of her pressed to him felt right. Like she belonged there. Draco supposed that was because she did. He still wasn't fond of her, but he was getting used to her and to the idea that she was pretty much it for him.

There couldn't be anyone else. Well, there could. But there wouldn't be. Draco wasn't that big on drama. And trying to have anything with any other witch who wasn't Granger would spell drama. No way was he going to sign up for fights between her and another woman. He knew who would win. It wouldn't at all be a fair fight when Granger's magic was unlocked.

Pressing a line of kisses across the top of her shoulder and up the side of her neck, Draco enjoyed the way she tipped her head back until it rested against his other shoulder, exposing more of her neck to his caresses. She didn't object to the affection. She simply sighed and Draco noticed that she'd closed her eyes as though content. Or just tired.

He had kept her up most of the night. In all honesty Draco was tired too. Sighing against her skin Draco stopped kissing her and simply held her to him for several long minutes.

"Are you alright?" she whispered eventually when he didn't move again. When he simply held her.

Draco was surprised by the slightest hint of concern flavouring her tone. She actually genuinely seemed worried for him.

"Yeah," he nodded against her, his chin hooked over her shoulder as the warm water poured over both of them, "When are you going to get your parents?"

"Tuesday," she told him quietly, "Harry's coming with me. I'm not sure about Ron yet."

"You share everything with Potter, don't you?" Draco asked her carefully, a flicker of jealousy rippling through him.

"Yes, I do," she answered quietly, "He's always on my side. Whatever I need. And I'm always on his."

"How did Weasley feel about you and Potter being so bloody close?" Draco asked her, narrowing his eyes as he glared at the floor.

"He was worried and jealous of our relationship some of the time. When we were carrying the locket horcrux, it drove him mad. He was convinced Harry and I were secretly in love and that whenever he wasn't looking we were wildly shagging," Granger told him honestly.

"Were you?"

"Shagging Harry every spare minute?" Hermione asked, "Don't be ridiculous. The only person I ever cheated on Ron with was you."

"So you've never shagged Potter? He told me you had," Draco needled, fishing for information about a topic that had been bugging him.

"He did not," she rolled her eyes, "He told me what he said to you and it most certainly was not that he'd shagged me."

"But he has," Draco retorted knowingly, "No one can be as close as you two are without having shagged."

He was expecting her to deny it. To vehemently repudiate his accusation. Her silence, on the other hand, was not at all what he'd anticipated.

"You have?" he asked, stepping back from her and spinning her in his hold so he could glare down at her, "How does it count as not cheating on Weasley if you shagged his best friend?"

"Are you jealous, Malfoy?" she asked him, watching him with an unreadable expression, "Is that what this is about? You don't actually care about the notion of me cheating on Ron. I know you don't. If you had cared about that, you'd not have shagged me in the library after the Final Battle."

"Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to, Granger?" Draco demanded in return, "I don't give a shit about Weasley or about the notion of you sleeping around on him. I do care about the idea of you and Potter fucking. Isn't he dating Ginny?"

"I'm not shagging Harry, you idiot!" she rolled her eyes at him.

"No, but you have," Draco replied, reading her face, "You have before. I can see it in your eyes."

"Why would you think that I've shagged my best friend?" she asked evasively and Draco knew then that it was true. She'd fucked the specky git. His fists clenched as he stepped back from her slightly, releasing his hold on her upper arms to keep from gripping them tight enough to break them.

"Because you haven't denied it. You fucked him."

She stared at him for a long time without saying a word.

"No one else knows, do they? You and Potter fucked and neither of you had the decency to inform Weaselbee or his sister. And yet you claim not to have cheated."

"First of all, Harry and Ginny were broken up," Granger narrowed her eyes at him, "To protect her during the war Harry broke up with Ginny. Secondly, Ron and I weren't dating because he walked out on us when he couldn't handle being on the run and hunting down horcruxes anymore."

"So you did fuck Potter. What, he waits for his best friend to be out of the way and moves in on you?" Draco growled in annoyance.

"It wasn't like that," she protest, slapping his chest angrily, "We didn't plan for it to happen and it only happened the one time. At Christmas. We'd been to Godric's Hollow looking for answers and stopped at the grave where Harry's parents were buried. We were lured by who we believed to be Bathilda Bagshot back to her home, but it was Nagini in some disguise as the old woman. Harry's wand got destroyed. He missed his parents. We were at a dead end. We were both lonely and missing people."

"A pity fuck then?" Draco sneered and he narrowed his eyes dangerously on the witch when she slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

"Do not presume you understand what Harry and I went through," she warned him, her tone low and furious, "You have no idea how low we were. How alone and how hopeless we felt."

Draco glared at her, his cheek stinging painfully from her slap as she glared at him in return. It was clear to him that she made no apologies for having shagged Potter. That she didn't regret it.

"Until you understand what it's like to be completely heartbroken; orphaned; and without hope in the middle of a war zone on the tail end of a crushing and terrifying defeat, you have no right to judge what Harry and I did. We had no one else. We had nothing else but each other," she told him sternly, still glaring at him.

Draco realised suddenly that he'd crossed a line. That he truly didn't understand what had driven them to shag. What he did suddenly understand however, was that they weren't in love nor were they in danger of ever repeating what they'd done. Draco didn't believe he would ever have to be furious and trying to kill Potter for shagging Granger again. Granger had no intention of repeating the experience and Potter was madly in love with the Weasley girl.

Whatever had driven them to shag was clearly painful, hopeless and utterly despairing. Draco could see that much from the amount of raw emotion on Granger's face and in her eyes.

"You needed to reaffirm your own humanity," he nodded quietly, "Both of you."

She seemed to deflate in surprise at his words. At his perception. She stared at him in confusion for a moment as though she didn't believe he could possibly understand.

"No one else knows, do they?" Draco asked her then, searching her face, "Just you and Potter."

She nodded slowly.

"You have no intention of telling anyone or repeating the experience?" he asked next.

This time she shook her head, still looking baffled by his sudden change of mood and his understanding.

Draco nodded his head, "Then I'll keep my mouth shut about it and won't ask you about it again."

"You…" she trailed off, not seeming sure of what she actually wanted to say to him.

Draco eyed her for a long moment in return, waiting for her to get it. Waiting for her to realise that he now held more of her secrets than anyone other than perhaps Potter. Waiting for her to realise she was stuck with him and that she better get used to it. When she just kept staring at him, Draco sighed before he reached out and cupped her cheeks carefully in his hands as he stepped towards her.

She made a soft sound that Draco didn't understand and she didn't seem to realise she'd made before he leaned into her and slowly kissed her soft lips.