A/N: I actually have had a lot of people mention that Draco crying back in chapter 18 was OOC, and I think I might go back and change that a bit. Personally, I think Draco is a bit of a cry baby, so I was going more for a stress-cry. Anyways, I agree that it's strange, so when I have some time I'mma go adjust that.

Chapter 36: The After-Party

Draco was drunk. Hermione was absolutely positive that he was really and truly, one-hundred percent, wrecked. And more to the point, he was the friendliest, loudest drunk she had ever happened to know.

"So then, we figure, it's sitting in the liqueur cabinet, and it's such a lovely red color, so we grab the whole damn bottle…"

Pansy groaned. "I was sick the whole next day. Why are you telling this story? Didn't you promise not to tell this story?"

"Oh, come on. It was hilarious, in retrospect. My mother looked like she was about to throw us both out the third story window."

"It was just grenadine. It proved how stupid we were at twelve, not bad." Pansy was curled up in her lawn chair- Pietro had dragged it down from the deck to the bonfire for her. Everyone else was sitting on towels on the sand. "This story must be much more entertaining when you're plastered," she added, eyeing every one of them with a look of loathing/jealousy. Needless to say, she was the only one that hadn't had a single drink.

Even Hermione had probably had more than her fair share. It just felt like the thing to do if you're going to have a bonfire. That, and roast hot dogs… but of course the villa had no hot dogs. They settled for grilling some fish instead for dinner… which all came frozen. Seriously- they were on the sea. Hermione decided that they were definitely going to try and catch their own damn fish tomorrow. After the island.

"Oh! I have a fun drunk story, too! At my brother's wedding, I drank a wee bit more champagne than I should have, and agreed to dance with Lee Jordan. The boy was the worst dancer I've ever met- kept stepping on my toes. But I suppose this story has a happy ending, since the wedding was interrupted suddenly by a pack of Death Eaters!" Ginny said quickly. Hermione was under the impression that unlike most of them, Ginny was not actually that liquored-up. Her sarcasm was definitely on-point.

"That's not a fun drunk story," Hermione informed her.

"Yeah," Harry said, frowning. "That night was awful. I had to play interference to stop Krum from having a go at you."

"Really?" Hermione asked, laughing a little louder than she meant to. "That's the reason that night was awful?"

Harry grinned. "Well, in retrospect… which seems to be the word of the night, right… it was the last day in months that we got to eat decent food, worry about petty jealousy, and beat the hell out of some jerks."

Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Where did you guys go, anyways? I think I've heard something about camping…?" Draco asked curiously, his voice still a little too loud to sound as serious as Hermione was sure he meant to be.

"Oh, if you want the full story you'll have to wait for Harry to write his memoirs…" Ginny said with a squeal as Harry poked her in the ribs. She had the Daily Prophet sitting next to her- it had taken all day for the owl to deliver it. Hermione wasn't even aware owls would deliver the paper this far. She patted it, and Hermione was certain there was at least one Harry-centered article inside. There always was.

"I'm not writing anything! If any press comes near my house, the place is rigged to turn their clothes inside out and push them all the way back to the Ministry."

Hermione laughed at that- it was such a Harry response. He never wanted fame, not really. He had been crazy-famous for seventeen years now, and his opinions on the subject hadn't changed in the slightest.

"Yeah, we camped for most of that year," Hermione finally said, pulling her legs up and hugging her beer. "We also all had a cursed locket we were watching…" Harry really was drunk. He didn't reprimand her for mentioning the Horcrux at all. "…it made us all pretty grumpy. At each other's throats most of the time. I think people like to pretend we did a lot of heroics that winter, but really we were mostly sitting around."

Harry stared at the fire, the smile slowly starting to slide from his face. "There wasn't much to do, except for the trouble at Godric's Hollow after Ron left…"

Hermione shook her head. "Ron. Now there's a story! Any of you hear that I almost killed him when he finally came back?"

"Good," Ginny said, smirking as she brought her bottle back to her mouth. "I mean, glad you didn't, but my brother has a tendency to not think before he does stupid things. I like to think he learned from the experience."

"Hermione's not exaggerating, either," Harry said, the mirth coming back to his face, red from all the alcohol he had consumed. "I had to cast protego to save him! If she had had her wand at the time, I think we could have scooped up what was left of him and buried it in a sardine can…"

"Now you're exaggerating! I only would have broken a few bones, I like to think…"

"You lot are very talkative when you drink," Pansy spoke up, taking a casual swig from her water. "I bet I could make a mint selling that much info to the Prophet." At a simultaneous glare from Harry and Hermione, she added, "But I won't. God. Don't look at me like that- it's not my fault you're all so damn uptight. I was kidding."

It was hard to tell with Pansy, it really was.

…

"Well, it's late…"

"It's only ten, Draco," Pansy muttered.

"Okay, then let me rephrase: Well, I'm sick of all of you for the night, and I have a huge bed and a hot wife I'd rather be spending time with right now." He grabbed Hermione's hand, ignoring the silent shocked look she was giving him. He knew he was embarrassing her, but he also knew how easily she got embarrassed. If he never embarrassed her, she would probably find him completely boring. "So, you can all just keep the party going out here. I'm going to start my own party now. The kind without clothes. Is anyone still confused?"

Ginny laughed, which was predictable. Draco appreciated her sense of humor more when it wasn't at his expense.

The only one other than Hermione looking at all shocked by his statement was Harry, and Draco was completely fine with freaking the boy out as much as he could this weekend.

Hermione trudge behind him, flashing a look back at her friends over her shoulder. Draco couldn't see what kind of look it was, but he imagined she was apologizing for being dragged off behind her drunk and horny husband. That was fine by Draco, because he knew the minute they were no longer in view of her friends he could kiss her and touch her and she would make it clear how much she liked it. She was definitely not the kiss and tell type, but in bed she made her appreciation known.

"Draco," Hermione started, pulling her hand out of his grip the moment they were inside the villa. Instead, she put a steadying arm around his waist as he stumbled. "You need to drink some water, and go to bed, or you're going to pay for it tomorrow and ruin the day."

Was he that drunk? "I only had…" he counted on his fingers. When he was sitting down, he had felt perfectly fine. But now, trying to walk around and make a grand exit, he felt that walking straight was out of the question. "…six? Six beers?"

"Well, it wasn't butterbeer, then," she acknowledged, walking to the kitchen and grabbing two glasses of water for them both. "I had my fair share too, but I can still walk."

"Are you calling me a lightweight?"

She shook her head. "It's actually rather amazing that you can still sound so lucid when you're tripping over your own two feet."

"I'm damn eloquent in any situation, lady."

Draco was grateful there was a railing on the staircase. He was able to make it upstairs without hanging all over Hermione like an invalid. He flopped down on the bed, groaning as he closed his eyes and the room began to spin behind them. Damn. Maybe it was seven beers?

He felt a weight fall next to him on the bed, and opened his eyes to see Hermione, sitting and looking down at him with a strange little smile.

"What?" he asked.

She leaned over, kissing him lightly, her hand running through his hair once. "Nothing. I was just thinking about how much I like you, even the side of you that's wildly inappropriate."

"I'll show you wildly inappropriate," he grumbled. He attempted to put an arm around her waist and pull her onto him, but to do so required sitting up slightly, which brought on some "room spinny-ness" all over again. He groaned. "Oh, that's not going to work."

"You should probably sleep…"

"Oh, hell no! You already flooded the island trip with your friends. Next time we go on a trip, we go alone!"

Hermione tilted her head, her eyes meeting his and holding his gaze. "Next time? Where will we go next time- the winter cabin?"

Draco groaned again, putting his arm over his eyes. "Pansy's gigantic mouth."

"So you're not going to deny that there is a winter cabin, that you brought girls there, or that Pansy knows this for a reason?"

"You are the queen of bad timing for conversations like this."

She laughed, and he pulled his arm away to look up at her in surprise. She didn't seem upset, actually- was she teasing him, now? He sighed, relaxing again. "We can Reducto the winter cabin for all I care. I told you before, remember? If there's anywhere you want to go, I'll take you."

"I remember," she said, her eyes shining. There was barely any light in the room save for a small table lamp she had turned on, and the light behind her hair formed a kind of halo. "You told me that when you still didn't even like me. Because it was the right thing to do."

"Yes. I'm absolutely the most charitable, kind-hearted, sexy man you've ever met. Now, do I get a reward for all this goodness I just seem to be bursting with?"

"Are you sure you're up to it?"

"Are you questioning my ability to perform? Because let me tell you, Granger," he leaned to the side, crawling his way back to the edge of the bed and using a banister to help him sit back up. He wavered a little, a small self-assured smile coming to his face. "if there's one thing I can always do-"

He fell off the bed.

Eight beers. Maybe it was eight.

…

Draco recovered pretty quickly, pulling himself back in bed and doing his best not to look embarrassed. His "I meant to do that" serious face was hilarious, but Hermione knew better than to laugh. She coughed into her hand instead, shaking her head.

He still seemed to pick up on her mirth, glaring at her as he hung onto the bedpost for dear life. Hermione, feeling a sudden wave of playfulness, pushed against his chest with both hands, sending him back onto the bed with a small cry of surprise.

"Why are you kicking me when I'm down?" Draco asked, his eyes first looking up at her with sharp annoyance, only to slowly drift into hopeful excitement as she threw a leg over him, sitting on his stomach."Oh… well then… I'll just stay down, and you just keep… doing whatever your doing."

Hermione decided it was time he stopped his drunken babble, kissing him forcefully. Usually, it was him who initiated things like this- she was still not completely confident in her abilities, but seeing him look so helpless just made her want to jump him.

"Going to take advantage of me while I'm drunk?" Draco asked, grinning as Hermione came up for air. "Because I'm completely okay with that."

"Maybe I am," Hermione said, trying to fake confidence in her voice. She really was rubbish at that lovely, blood-pumping, naughty bed-talk Draco seemed so into. But she figured she could go ahead and give it a try, since he was likely to not even remember it in the morning."Maybe I'm going to see how loud you can be, and whether your friend can hear it through the walls," she tried, mimicking his words when she had first suggested the trip.

It wasn't quite what she was going for, but Draco seemed to like the implications. His hips bucked up, his hands pushing on her thighs so she was seated lower on him. She could feel his hard length pressed against her snugly, and she let instincts take over as she ground down against him, the friction delicious even through their clothes.

She was wearing her bikini still, but as the night had cooled she had slipped on some shorts and a lightweight, oversized crocheted top. The latter was easy to slip off, and Draco took no time reaching up and grabbing for the strings of her top. She slapped away his hands hurriedly, that urge to present sexy confidence once more flaring up.

"Nope. You just lie still- I'm going to take care of everything tonight." Draco's eyes widened at her words, so she considered it a small victory. Maybe she wasn't so bad at this part, afterall.

Suddenly, he grinned. "You're still blushing."

She shut off the light, clicking the electric switch with a wave of her wand before she threw the carved piece of wood to the floor. Gently. "There. Now you can't tell. I'm determined to be the cool one tonight, Draco, so just stop talking and let me do this."

"You're the boss."

"You're damn right."

She ran her hands over his bare chest- he apparently didn't get cold as easily as her, and the only thing separating her from his warm body was his swim trunks, which she very quickly and easily removed.

It was a strangely empowering thing, to be the only one with clothes on.

"Hey, bossy lady on top of me- I'm feeling a bit of a chill, here."

"I can think of some ways to warm you up…" Now she sounded cheesy, and she was fairly certain it sounded like a line from a porno more than anything else. Why couldn't she be sincerely sexy?

Draco, however, didn't appear to agree with her internal sentiment, and he grabbed her arms roughly, pulling her down to meet his lips. His tongue slipped easily between her teeth, exploring as hurriedly and hungrily as if it were the first time. He bucked against her and she squeaked as she bounced, surprised by how much he could move her from his position.

She moved her lips down to his neck. As she ran her hands down his sides he sighed, resting his own hands on her thighs. She knew his body well- the dip at his collar bone that she licked, the bone at his hip that seemed to draw her hand straight to him…

"Ah… shit, Hermione…" he said, his voice a little shaky as she wrapped a hand around him, moving up and down softly, teasingly, even as her own body hovered inches above him. She kissed down his chest, using her free hand to draw lazy circles on his skin. He hummed a little when she passed over his nipple, so she returned to it, rubbing with her fingers and finally licking at the little nub experimentally. He pushed again her hand, his cock twitching. She didn't know guys liked that too… was it all guys, or just some? Draco seemed to like everything she did, and everything she touched.

"Bite," he commanded.

He was so demanding, even when he could barely sit up.

She bit down lightly, grazing the tender flesh with her teeth just slightly, causing him to shudder. She turned her administrations to the other side, but after a moment Draco let out a sound of impatience. "Are you trying to torture me?"

She realized she had paused the administrations with her hand, so involved she was with her new found discovery on top. She grinned. "Yes, maybe I am."

Draco frowned, then in an impressively quick movement given his inebriated state her reached up and pulled the string on the back of her bikini. She was topless in an instant.

She gave him her best chastising look, but rather than remind him that she was supposed to be the one taking care of everything tonight, she just sat up, crossing her hands under her breasts in a gesture that both looked intimidating, and perked up her assets for a nice view. Draco's breath was coming a little fast, his grip on her thighs tightening.

She stood up over him, removing the last of her clothing before settling back down on his lap. She moved, positioning herself over his large and ready erection, his hands on her hips to guide her down. She waited until he looked ready to complain again, his gray eyes demanding and finally pleading as they met hers, before she let herself drop down to meet him. In this position, he filled her up almost too much, and she cried out as that wonderful spot deep inside was pressed. She could angle her body so easily this way, making every action count.

She had gotten better at learning exactly what Draco liked, and just as importantly what she liked. She liked when she could shift forward just slightly before driving down, the pressure expanding sweetly like a pot just about to boil over. He liked when she was vocal about what she liked, so she made sure to let him know with each little hop just how close she was to the ecstasy of release. She moaned, watching as Draco focused on the slick point where their bodies met, his stormy eyes sharp and intense as his breathing started to grow ragged.

Hermione continued her steady pace, her hands on Draco's chest to give her leverage, until she could feel the simmer turn to a boil, and the boil into a volcano of raw, shivering pleasure. She rode out her orgasm, crying out and unintentionally scraping at his chest as she closed her hands into fists.

"You're not finished," Draco said very clearly, making her open her leaden, satisfied eyes.

"Of course not," she said, happy that in the dark he couldn't see very clearly how she blushed. Did he think she would just say, 'I'm done, good night!' and crawl under the covers? She smirked at the thought- that would be truly evil.

"No, not me… I mean you're not done. Not yet. I want to see that one more time before I finish…"

Why did his words feel like a challenge? "Oh…?"

"Come on, Hermione… let me hear you scream one more time tonight…" Obviously being drunk hadn't affected him in one particular area… although, hadn't he claimed as much before falling over earlier? He really did put a lot of pride on his sexual prowess.

He sat up while simultaneously putting his arms around her middle to help keep him up. He managed to reach her breasts, his tongue lapping and his teeth grazing lightly. She gasped, sinking lower so they were seated with their bodies still connected, his length buried within her and pressing at her core. She still had her legs around his sides, and she brought them around to the back of him, pressing their bodies tighter together as his lips worked up her neck, his hands moving to cup her butt.

His kisses were a little sloppy, but as he pumped into her while holding her, his motions were deliberate and powerful. She helped by bouncing against him- it was odd, having both of them sit up like this. She wasn't aware of just how many ways there were to have sex, before… It almost felt like she were discovering these new things herself, each experimental twist and angle of her body a complicated science.

She liked it. She liked the kind of things she discovered with Draco.

And she liked this new one, too. True, it was harder to get the same kind of quick, deep movements, but she could look at Draco, and kiss Draco, and run her hands through his hair…

"Hey, are you with me?" he asked suddenly, and she realized he was grunting, lifting her butt up a couple inches to add to the force of his hips jutting up to meet her. He looked like he was straining to keep himself in check, the frantic pulsing of their bodies quickening.

"I… I think so…"

"Don't just think so… fuck… ah, why do you have to be so tight and slick and small and curvy all at the same time? Dammit woman… ah…"

She kissed him for as long as she could, but their movements naturally made it difficult to hold his lips. A hiss of air slipped past his teeth as she broke away, and his hands moved quickly to her hips, forcing her still on top of him and pressing her down as tight as he could in an almost bruising grip. His face pinched up, his eyes closed as he first was silent, and then sighed loudly and satisfyingly, lying back onto the bed with a "plop."

In the immediate calm after the storm, Hermione pulled herself off of Draco, lying down with her body pressed to his.

"Next time," he said, his eyes still closed. "Tomorrow night no drinking…"

She laughed lightly, pressing her lips wetly to his shoulder. "Trust me- no complaints here. Your brain is sloshed, but your lower brain seems to know what it's doing."

Draco laughed, his voice a little dry and heavy. He was definitely falling asleep, so Hermione didn't expect there would be much more pillow talk tonight. "I'm a bad influence on you…"