Author's note

WARNING!

A reminder that whilst my stories tend to be plot heavy this fic is M rated- if you don't like that sort of thing you can skip this chapter as there is a summary of what you missed at the start of the next chapter.

Chapter 19-Trust me

Draco Malfoy did not make idle promises, as he had sat there nursing Hermione in his arms Draco had begun to make plans. It really wouldn't take much at all as long as Hermione was prepared to let him use any means. Draco knew Weasley was an addict he would not stay out of debt for long and a man in debt was a desperate man, easy to manipulate, easily bought.

When she woke Draco could barely breathe from the relief of it. He wanted to cover her in kisses, worship at her feet but he wasn't sure his attentions would be welcome. She had run away, she was prepared to die rather than stay with him and Draco wasn't sure what that meant but still, he reasoned, no matter what he owed her her children. He had exposed her to the derision of Wizarding society for his own selfish desire and she had lost her children as a consequence. He would get them back.

Draco sat silently, he no longer knew what to say, she was still laying in his arms and he wondered if it might be the last time he ever got to hold her. They sat like that for hours he refused to let her go.

"Draco," Hermione finally broke the silence, "what are you thinking?"

He wasn't sure he could bring himself to reply but he had promised himself, when the war was over, that he would never be a coward again so he forced the words into his mouth though those words terrified him:

"Why did you do it? Why did you promise and then leave me as if you would rather forfeit your life than stay with me?"

Hermione looked at him in horror, "you don't really think..." she began but he interrupted

"I don't know what to think anymore," he told her, "I think this is all my fault, I never deserved you, I should never have forced Weasley's hand."

She was looking at him now in utter disbelief but there was a softness to her gaze that made him hope that perhaps all was not lost.

"None of this is your fault, no one made Ron agree to your terms, no one made Skeeter publish that trash she wrote and if anyone is to blame it's me. I was stupid enough to make an unbreakable vow then stupid enough to forget I had done it. Don't blame yourself Draco." She told him ardently

"But..." he never got the rest of his words out before she silenced him with an index finger placed gently on his lips.

"I know you don't believe it but you are allowed some happiness Draco and I am here with you because that is where I want to be. We may have to face a shit storm of criticism for being together, we may even have to dedicate a whole wing of the manor to house the howlers we are going to receive but we both know we have borne worse and remember Draco I am Hermione Granger. I am stubborn and determined and I will have all that I want in the end."

Draco realised he had totally misjudged her and he wanted to weep for joy at this beautiful, determined woman before him. His lips curved up into a wane smile and he kissed her index finger, then the tip of the next finger which he slowly drew into his mouth. The look of lust that flooded her eyes took his breath away.

"I thought I'd lost you," he murmured as his lips drew away from her hand, his right hand reaching up to caress her cheek before he threaded his fingers through the hair at her nape, "I thought you were going to leave me..." he sighed against her throat. "I would have died without you."

Hermione felt the slivers of tears well above her lashes. How could this beautiful man be so broken? How could he believe that he deserved no happiness? She determined then that she would keep the vow she had made. She was stronger than to run away from what life dealt her. She would never leave him, even though she knew he believed he deserved it. She would forge a world where they would be happy together.

"Draco," she whispered, "I love you, I will never leave you, even if I have to haunt you, I will stay with you,"

Draco could contain his emotion no longer, it had been a long time since he had cried but he found himself unable to contain his tears. Wracked with sobs, he tried to hide his shame at his weakness but Hermione would not let him. She lifted his chin and began to kiss away his tears. Her lips gently brushed his left eyelid, then his right, she trailed her lips along his cheekbones, then across his jawline. They were gentle feather light caresses. She wanted to show him her love, she wanted to show him his worth. She pressed her delicate lips to the corner of his mouth and his lips trembled as he fought to stifle a keening cry.

" I promise," she began, punctuating the words with kisses, " I will never leave your side," she continued, her mouth now gliding across his collarbones as her fingers tentatively unbuttoned his shirt. Hermione knew she would never trier of looking at his naked skin, never trier of the fact that though his pale skin ought to have made him look insipid, ill, instead he was glorious, all sculpted alabaster and she would never trier of running her fingertips across the warm expanse of his chest, tracing the line of his pectoral muscles, the defined ridges of his abdominals or following that track of fine golden hair that drew her eyes to the glory that lay just out of sight.

Draco shuddered as her searching touch reached his naval. There was nothing he desired, nor he thought ever would desire, more than Hermione's touch. He still marvelled that she touched him so willingly after all that he had done. Though Draco had taught himself to think more of others and over the last few hours he had forced himself to be selfless, to think only of her needs, he was now consumed by the white hot raging desire she had ignited in him. Firmly, but not forcefully, he drove her back on to the bed with every intention of hammering her into the mattress if she would let him. He held himself up on his elbows panting as he looked down on her. She was glorious, her hair fanned out across his pillows, her pupils blown wide with what he knew could only be arousal. Draco thanked all the gods he could name that he had been given another chance to make love to her and he plunged into her lips.

Hermione was breathless with anticipation even before Draco leaned down to kiss her. It was not a gentle kiss, it was bruising, demanding as if he wanted to make his way into her soul. She wanted him closer, she wanted to flatten her breasts agains his naked chest feel the friction on her nipples as he pulled her in impossibly close. She could barely breath but she didn't care, if she died from kissing him she wouldn't regret it. Hermione could feel her core tightening and his kisses were no longer enough, she needed him to give her more, she wanted all of him. She wrapped her legs around his hips aligning her pelvis with the hardened bulge of his very erect length. She wanted to touch him feel the velvet softness of his impossibly rigid manhood.

"Let me touch you," she begged, she was all but drooling with the thought of wrapping her hands around his upright member, stroking him, cupping his balls forcing him to succumb to her ministrations. She wanted to watch the ecstasy play across his face as he came.

Slipping her hand between them she extracted him from the confines of his pants, he was flushed but his manhood stood out shades darker than the rest of him, engorged with his pureblood and standing to attention against his groin. Hermione moaned at the slight of him in his masculine splendour.

"Merlin you're gorgeous," she told him as her fingers pursued the pulsing vain that ran along the underside of his cock. Almost languidly her index finger circled his head, spreading the pearly bead of fluid that had leaked from his tip. Suddenly she ached to taste him, she crawled down his body until her tongue could reach his head.

Draco shuddered at the contact of her tongue,

"Hermione," he warned, " I won't last if you, oh Merlin..." he was lost to words as with a wicked smirk that said 'I know,' she swallowed his head. Draco was lost to all coherent thought as his hands tangled in her hair holding her steady. He was engulfed by the sensation of her warm, wet lips around him. He had warned he wouldn't last it seemed mere moments before he felt his balls tighten,

"Hermione," he warned trying to pull away so he didn't come in her mouth, he didn't know if she would want that but she dug her hands into his hips, her eyes locked with his begging 'come for me'. Draco needed no other command he let go with a force that felt like a freight train collision.

"Goddess," he told her as he recovered his breath, before pulling her up so he could feast on her swollen lips. Tasting the bitter tang of his seed on her tongue. She smiled at him beatifically:

"I think it might be a long night," it was almost a threat but Draco knew he could look forward to her gentle coercion.

By the end of the night Hermione had lost count of how many times they had brought each other to ecstasy. They both lay there naked and tangled in his sheets, content but exhausted. It must have been 4am when Hermione rolled onto her side and asked the most pertinent question of the day;

"Now what?"

Now what indeed, Draco considered silently.

Author's note

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