A/N The last bit of this chapter is somewhat lemony, just so you know.

Enjoy and REVIEW!


When Hermione finally re-emerged from the loo she found Draco sound asleep. Had she been really that long? She looked at the antic alarm clock that was on the night stand. She sighed. She had been away from their bed for nearly an hour.

As careful as possible she slipped under the covers. He muttered in his sleep. A smile spread across her face as she observed him. His hair was tussled, his features relaxed. Gorgeous was the only appropriate word she could find. She tried to resist the urge to run her fingers over his pale skin. She didn't want to wake him. It said a lot about his trust in her that he just kept on sleeping while she had re-joined him. She could imagine him being awake the moment somebody so much as looked at his bed in the past. Luckily, that was in the past.

She let her thoughts wander as her eyes were roaming his face. What would have happened, if he hadn't plucked up the courage to follow her at the Graduation Party? She would have probably left for the Burrow not long afterwards. She would have slept in Ginny's room, not Ron's. There would have been a talk between her and her boyfriend the next morning about her just vanishing without telling anybody where she was going. Ron had still a somewhat overprotective streak when it came to her. Old habits really did die hard.

She lay back and closed her eyes. She could hear him gently breath. It was astonishing how re-assuring the sound was. Draco Malfoy was sleeping right next to her. Not even in her wildest dreams would she ever have thought this being possible. He had been anything she didn't want in a guy, had been. Now he was all she wanted. How ironic that her worst nightmare had turned in this most beautiful of dreams. There were still moments when she was catching herself doubting him, but they became less with every day.

Her hand softly touched his arm. His skin was warm. A shudder ran through her. She had felt his warm skin all over her body as he had covered hers with his own. It had been heaven on earth. She could let herself go when he was with her. She didn't need to think about anything any longer. Loving him and knowing that he loved her was enough. He loved her! The thought suddenly got stuck in her mind.

She didn't get the chance to dwell on it, as she felt him move and found his arms reaching for her, pulling her close to his body. The shivers were back with a vengeance. Her hands lay on his bare chest and breath was rustling her hair. Hermione raised her eyes to find that he was looking at her. His eyes half closed and sleepy. Did he know how utterly seductive he was, looking at her like that?

"Hi." His voice was rough edged with sleepiness.

"Hi." She touched her forehead to his.

"You feel okay?" There was a slight pause at the end of his question, as if he had been intending to say something more but then didn't.

"Yes." His fingers drew small circles on her body. "Sorry for earlier. I couldn't help..."

"Shh." He kissed the skin between her brows. "I'm not complaining." There was this strange pause again.

"Draco?"

"Hm?"

She didn't know how to asked him, if there was something he wanted to say, but for some reason didn't. She let it go for the moment. A short while later Draco felt her relax as she slipped away into the land of dreams. Hermione was such a wonderful witch, he thought with a sigh, and she was his witch.


"Harry, Ron, good that you could come straight away."

Kingsley had called the two friends to his office the moment they had come in this morning. They were now sitting in the chairs in front of his desk, slightly worried.

"I'm not going to beat about the bush here. We have another serious issue that is possibly connected to Hermione and young Malfoy."

Harry sighed. Ron scowled. He wasn't quiet sure yet, if it had been the right thing for Hermione to get together with him. Some part of him resented the fact, that he had taken her away from him. He couldn't understand what had swayed her to be with the ferret. She was pregnant with some guys child, a guy that didn't stick around long enough to find out about her condition and she just fell for an ex-Death Eater. Something so didn't add up. He had known for a while that there was something I wasn't told, but so far he hadn't been sure, he wanted to find out either. He had enough problems on his own. His own girlfriend was acting weird. Seriously weird. He had been thinking about talking to Harry about it, but hadn't been finding the right moment as yet. Maybe after this meeting.

"... we therefore need to find her."

Ron blinked. Crap! Kingsley had been talking while he had been lost in his thoughts. He cleared his throat.

"Sorry, I was distracted for a moment."

His friend and the Minister looked at him. He blushed.

"I was saying, that Mrs. Malfoy has been cursed by a very powerful spell. A lot more powerful than the average hex or curse. The healers have still to find out the exact details of its mechanics, but they are positive that it wasn't anything that could be just found by accident. Somebody manufactured that curse."

The implications were tangible for all of them. If this curse became public knowledge in the wrong circles the Auror Office would have to have a recruitment drive of previously unseen proportions.

"Is there any indication as to who cursed her? And why?"

"She can only say, that it was a woman. Though, she reckons it to be a young woman. As for the reasons, she can't think of any that would not be related to the War and what has happened then."

"A Death Eater out for revenge?" Ron wondered.

"Lucius is in Azkaban. If he had got off with a light sentence, I could understand it, but he will spend the rest of his days there. He hasn't betrayed Voldemort. For what I heart, Voldemort has punished and humiliated him publicly. I can't see that being the motive behind it." Kingsley answered.

Harry was silent, lost in his own thoughts. Who gained from Malfoy's mother being out off the house permanently? It would mean that he was on his own. On his own? He might have been, but he didn't want to be. He had wanted to be with his best friend. He had been in love with her then already according what he understood. Pining for a girl seemed so utterly not Malfoy, but Harry knew from experience what it meant to love a girl that was dangled before him day in, day out with him being unable to make a move.

"When was Mrs. Malfoy cursed?" Harry asked.

Kingsley looked a bit surprised by this question.

"It was the beginning of July."

"So, not long after we graduated."

Ron and the Minister stared at him. What was he on about?

"What do you mean, Harry? You think school has anything to do with this?"

Harry looked at his friend. Then he nodded slowly.

"I don't think that the actual target was Mrs. Malfoy. I think, somebody wanted to get close to Malfoy. His mother was in the way, so she had to be gotten rid off."

Kingsley stood up from his chair and went over to the window. Young Malfoy the actual target? Who would have an interest in him?

"Harry," he turned to face the young wizard, "if we assume for a moment that you are right, why would anybody want to get close to Draco? What reason would anybody have that would justify putting his mother in a magical coma?"

"I don't know, but I do know, that we need to tell him."

Kingsley and Ron agreed. If somebody had it in for Malfoy bad enough to resort to these kind of action he, and therefore Hermione, were in danger.

"Does either of you know, where he is?"

Ron shook his head. Harry hesitated. He knew, that they had gone to find her parents. He knew, where her parents were. Therefore he knew where he would expect them to be. He wasn't sure thought, if he should tell anybody. He had found out using official channels for unofficial, in other words private, reasons. If anybody found out about what he had down, he would be reprimanded, or, if he was really unlucky, loose his place in the Auror Office. He didn't want to risk that. He would send an owl to Hermione the moment he came home tonight.

"So, if I sum up the overall situation we have Rita Skeeter on the loose, we have somebody using the Imperius Curse on Parvati Patil and somebody is trying to get to Draco Malfoy for as yet unknown reasons. I have enough to deal with as it is. I could really do without all this problems on top of everything else."

He drummed his fingers on his desk.

Ron looked at him open-mouthed. What did he mean, somebody was using the Imperius Curse on Parvati? Was that the reason, why she was acting so weird lately?

"Minister?"

"Yes, Ron?"

"Somebody is using the Imperius Curse on my girlfriend?"

Harry and Kingsley looked at him. Hadn't anybody told him?

"Yes. Somebody has been doing it on and off as we have discovered. We have put a tracking spell on her in order to see, what happens. We want to see, who is actually using her. There is the suspicion it might be Rita Skeeter."

The youngest Weasley looked shocked. She was used as bait? What if the person using her found out and obliviated her? Or even killed her? Before he could voice his thoughts he could hear Harry already answering his concerns.

"She is safe as long as the one using her doesn't suspect anything. With Parvati not knowing that she is being tracked she can't give anything away. Ron, everything is going to be okay."

"I hope so." Despite everything he had started to care for her.


Draco woke up the next morning with the feeling of something missing. Before he even opened his eyes he already knew for a fact that something was wrong, something was missing. He turned over, his arm outstretched. He should have found Hermione next to himself. The space next to him was empty. Empty! As in her not being by his side. He sat up sharply.

"HERMIONE!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

There was a small -pop- and Turo was standing next to the bed.

"Master not worry. Mistress sitting on the patio."

He stared at the house elf before him. His breath came ragged. He hadn't realised in what kind of a state he had got within the short moments after realising she wasn't there beside him.

"Master feeling okay?"

"Draco?" Her voice could be heard from the stairs.

Turo vanished with a slight bow. Hermione appeared at the top of the stairs. Her face showing a worry expression. She sat next to him on the bed. Wordlessly he pulled her into a tight embrace. His eyes closed, he rested his head next to hers. Her presence soothing away all the fear from his heart. He hadn't lost her after all. He sighed heavily.

"What happened, Draco?" She whispered into his hair.

He pulled back a bit to be able to see her face. She saw the worry and pain in his eyes.

"You were gone when I woke up."

She looked at him, waiting for him to continue. He lowered his eyes for a moment before gazing into the warm brown that seemed to engulf his soul.

"I have been waking up without you for so many days after our first night. Every morning I had the hope of finding you by my side, finding you in my bed. Just as I had hoped I would after our first night."

She gently caressed his cheek. He had been hoping to wake up with her?

"I'm sorry. I didn't realise..."

His brushed his lips lightly over her mouth.

"You are here now. That is all that matters." Yet again she had the distinct impression there was something he wanted to say, but for some reason didn't.

"Draco?"

She looked had him with a caring look that spoke of her feelings for him.

"What do you want to say? What do you want to tell me?"

He looked at her. Surprise written all over his face. How did she know?

"I.. I want to..."

"Yes?"

She would have tried anything to make it easier for him to confide in her, but she didn't know how to. So she just held him close and waited.

'Tell her, you coward!'

'How can I do that? She'll think, it's sappy.'

'She'll love it.'

"I just can't...'

'DO IT!'

He sighed. Loosing an argument with oneself was not good. He knew, that he could tell her anything and everything. She would never laugh at him. She would not think him crazy or woolly brained or... He was procrastinating and he knew it. Why was it so hard for him to just say, what he wanted to say? What he had longed to call her for so long?

"Hermione?"

"Yes, Draco?"

"Has Weasley ever called you anything but Hermione?"

"What do you mean? Anything except for know-it-all, nightmare or scary? No, I don't think so. Why?"

He shook his head. He'll just have to do it the next time it was appropriate. He hadn't reckoned with her curiosity though. He had sparked her interest and now she didn't just let it go.

"You want to tell me something, Draco, don't you?"

She gently turned his face so that he had to look at her.

"You know that I love you, don't you, Hermione?"

She smiled.

"Of course I do."

He buried his face into her hair.

"I've never called any girl anything but their actual names. So, I am not really used to..."

"To calling me dear or darling or anything like that? Don't worry." She pulled back and kissed his check. "I don't expect you to."

"But I want to!" There was a hint of defiance in his voice. Her smile lit up her face.

"Then let it just come naturally. When you least expect it, you'll find it'll just happen."

"Right." She grinned. He sounded like a little boy that hadn't got his promised surprise.

"Draco, dear, I'll leave you for a moment."

He was a bit hesitant to let her go, but was by now aware of it might not being a good idea to keep her away from the loo, if she was going to be sick again. She was.

When she came back, her face pale and her steps a bit unsteady, he gathered her into his arms and held her for a long while.

"You know, that we have some unfinished business, don't you?"

She looked at him. Her expression clearly telling him that she for once didn't know what he was talking about. He smirked at her.

"What?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"Have you forgotten?" He started to pull her against his body.

"I had intended to do a bit of this..." Warm lips were slowly following her jaw back to her ear.

"And a bit of that..." He feathered kisses down her neck.

"And most of all..." She felt him nipple and suck the sensitive skin on her collarbone. That would leave a mark, she was sure.

"Then again there is also the possibility of..." Soft fingertips invaded her pajama top and started to explore. The top was slowly pushed upwards, she complied and found herself topless a moment later. She shuddered. Seeing the grin on his face she decided to get a bit of action herself.

"Maybe I might indulged in a bit of this..."

His eyes widened in surprise as her hand found its way into his boxers. She didn't hesitate and Draco moaned as she got a hold of him. She might not have been as skilled as some of the girls that had done this before, but the knowledge that it was her stroking him was enough to overload his brain and reduce him to a shivering wreck.

'Merlin!'

He got hold of her hand and looked at her. He could see the desire he felt mirrored in her eyes. He couldn't have said, how he managed to get her pajama bottoms or his boxers off so quickly, but moments later he was propped on his arm, hoovering over her. His fingers crawled over her side in a millipede fashion while he kissed her wantonly. Her fingers entangled in his hair she pulled him closer in order to feel his skin against her own, his wonderfully soft, warm, pale skin. His fingers had reached her thigh and were now ever so slowly inching closer to their destination. She sighed happily into his mouth. Feeling him stroking tantalisingly slow over her folds before even slower to part them made her buck against him. He tried to keep his cool, but it started to become rather difficult. He wanted her, needed her. She gasped as he felt him enter.