Update: We should be done at around Chapter 50. Maybe 52+ an epilogue.
Draco watched her yawn as she exited the bedroom dressed in her newly laundered robes with a distinct lack of darkness under her eyes. He had been catching up on the outrageous speculations as to where he had been for the past week. Answers ranged from a potions convention in Nice to kidnapped by hags. He chuckled as he folded up the paper eyeing the later afternoon sun peeking in from the windows.
"Welcome to the world of the living." He quipped standing as he did so.
"Hardly seems worth it to me." She muttered, taking the cup of tea that floated over to her with a nod. "Thanks."
"Wasn't me." He sighed eyeing the teapot distastefully. The chubby piece of china quivered before vanishing out of sight. Hermione proceeded to gracelessly down half the cup in one gulp. "I don't like this master of the house thing."
"Well shouldn't you be used to it by now?" She questioned wandering around the room eyeing the various shelves and knickknacks. "I mean I know this isn't the main manor but you've lived here since you were a child."
"I didn't control it then," He forced himself to calm. There had been more than enough emotion for the week and he didn't need to look like a pansy after she just relied so heavily on him. I was… sort of nice to be needed. He didn't really want to jeopardize the careful peace by making her think he couldn't handle it. "I assumed I only picked it up once Father died. This is my first time being back since then, other than on the grounds."
"Theo had mentioned…" She trailed off watching him closely.
"Theo needs to keep his mouth shut. It's over with." He snapped. Draco stepped forward curtly snatching the thick cloak that appeared on the hook by the door. "If you're done lazing about I have a plan."
"A plan?" Her eyes shifted to the door minutely, worry flashing across them. "Should anyone see-"
"The Sphinx's Maze is warded away from everything else. No one will leave that area and if they do I will know it." He had made sure of it when he first thought to move the cats here. The last thing he needed was some farm hand wandering too close to a cursed statue in the back garden and disappearing. His mouth quirked into an amused smirk. "You didn't plan to just stay inside here for the next week did you?"
"Well we are in hiding." She scoffed but joined him all the same. A fetching emerald green cloak appeared on the rack as she grabbed for it. She hesitated with a grimace, just long enough for it to shift to a deep maroon before snatching it up. He wasn't sure where the house had even found such an ugly piece. Maybe it was a curtain at some point.
"You need some sun. You are getting pasty." He commented admiring the shape of her waist as she swept the cloak around her shoulders.
"You're one to talk." She responded. He swung open the door stepping out into the mercifully warm air. May had welcomed them warmly, the weak sun breaking away in the winter rain and snow. Of course the spring rains would start soon but, just for today, it was bright with only the slightest hint of chill in the air.
"I am porcelain. You are pale." He finished flatly as he held open the door. The guest house was settled a good distance away from the manor. It was reserved for company that required respect and privacy but who were also unwanted in the family quarters. Draco had a vague memory of his father calling it a mistress cottage when he was young but his mother quickly corrected that idea. Now it was just the guest cottage. With it's overgrown iris garden out front it looked wholly improper and unmanicured, he loved it. The white porch was outfitted with a hanging swing and some wicker fans for keeping away the worst of the summer heat. The path began in the front garden, passed through the front gate and stretched around a wide blue lake before heading up to the main house.
He held out his arm mostly out of habit. Something about returning to the ancestral home snapped him back to centuries old formalities. If he wasn't careful he would start to feel guilty for not having an escort. She took it nonetheless.
They bickered lightly as they meandered down towards the lake. He pulled to a gentle stop underneath a picturesque willow tree that hung impossibly close to the water. Taking in the late hour he called Filly for a dinner picnic, something the elf was only happy to oblige. After a quick dinner of fine food and wine that had certainly not graced most picnic baskets he leaned against the tree to rest. A quiet silence filled the air as they sat, drifting in and out of sleep with only the sounds of nature and the pages of her book in the background. After a while the pages stopped and he frowned.
"It's pretty here." She hummed almost lightly to the air. The setting sun warmed them, the promise of summer just barely there.
"Well, if there is one thing wealthy people love universally, it's beauty." He responded, barely cracking open an eye. She had discarded her robes and he had nicked them to use as a pillow. Her scent surrounded him, seeming to mix with the fading heat in an intoxicating head rush.
"So..." She chewed on her bottom lip staring out over the lake, just as the sun slipped below the tree line. Her eyes flicked cautiously to him then down to where she wrung her hands. It was a quiet, subdued motion to be expected of a proper young witch. It wasn't her and he hated it. He had used up more than enough sentimentality today and had little room left for it.
"If you are going to sit there and overthink everything, be my guest." He responded before she could continue. She turned to face him startled, as if she had forgotten he was a rude git. "However you will keep your monologue inside that massive head of yours or you will ruin my plan."
"I thought we already did the plan." She gestured around them skeptically, snapping back to a lively and challenging creature. He grinned in satisfaction.
"You have low expectations of me Granger and I find that offensive." He huffed eyeing the sky as the last vestige of warmth faded away. "You are insufferably mopey and I didn't want to spend what is left of my holiday walking around the house avoiding you."
"Mopey!?" Hermione's eyes flared in anger, his words stoking the fire he had grown to appreciate. Suddenly, she stiffened, pausing as she examined him. She blinked cautiously as if he were some strange creature she had never seen before. As if realizing something, her lips flicked up into an absolutely menacing smile and she all but purred. "Draco, is this you trying to cheer me up?"
"No." He responded, closing his eyes as he waited, mentally counting down the minutes. "That would be sentimental and pathetic."
"It would be sweet." She corrected, her voice heavy with warmth as he felt the last trickle of sunlight disappear from his skin. He shifted uncomfortably, unsure of how to handle it or the resulting surge of pleasure the words brought him. He wasn't quite confident where all of this was heading, if anywhere at all. He knew on some level he had to start being nicer to her, a man was not mean to his... girlfriend seemed too blaise… Friend? Partner? Spouse? Well that was a different sort of head rush he could think about another time.
Draco was saved from dissolving into a fit of panic by her gentle gasp. He pushed himself off the tree trunk and threw his arms over his knees as he watched her. Her eyes lit up in childish wonder as the gentle greenish yellow lights beginning to dot the bushes and grass around them. Her eyes widened to beautiful crystals of amber as they drifted along the shore picking out the land by its glow. Her lips had broken into a bright smile, stealing all spotlight from any of the fauna around them. He barely felt the contented sigh leave his chest. Sentimental and pathetic indeed.
"Glow worms!" Hermione exclaimed in delight. The reaction was satisfying down to his core and he felt his muscles relax as if he had spent the last week in a sauna. "I haven't seen them since I left my parents house. Isn't it quiet early for them?"
Draco chuckled to himself as the moon began to creep up, its reflection on the lake a brilliant white orb. Of course she would know the seasonality of glowworms, probably their mating cycle and diet as well. "You are such a swot."
"And as such, I am waiting for an explanation." She finished not even bothering to look at him. Thousands of blinking lights barely reflected in her eyes and something he hadn't realized had been so isolated uncurled inside of him. He wanted to reach out for her, to be close. And for the first time he saw no reason why he shouldn't.
"Of course you are." He pulled on her sleeve, her arm coming out from underneath her causing her to fall perfectly onto his chest. He was even able to resit the involuntary exhale as her pressure settled on his ribcage in one smooth motion. To him it was a calculated repressive move, to her it certainly looked elegant and effortless. Thus he couldn't help the smirk on his face as she landed light on him with a quiet 'oh'. "You are correct, as if that's shocking. The area is charmed to feel more like July than May at nightfall, certainly you have to have noticed the lack of a spring chill?"
"I had just assumed spending so much time around your icy heart had made me immune to it." She hummed even as she settled against him hesitantly lifting her knee to press her thigh over his. He forced down any wayward thoughts, drawing his attention back to the opening show.
"Hmm, clever. You are by far the rudest witch I have ever had the pleasure of meeting." He quipped chuckling at the huff from his chest. He ran his hand over the crown of her head and down the length of her hair. He regrettably thought back to his time as a child teasing her for the wild tresses. How hopeless he would have been to have never touched them at all. Maybe she was right, maybe he had focused so deeply on them as a weapon because he actually had wanted them but didn't know how to say it. The predictability of it disgusted him.
Almost instantly she pulled away drawing her hair to one side and starting the familiar but complicated motions of a braid while murmuring apologies.
"Don't." He rested his hand lightly on her forearm as it struggled with a stray ringlet. "Leave it down."
"I thought you hated these." She remarked with an eyebrow raise, the challenge clear in her eyes. "You've called them a nest, a tinderbox, woodland brush-"
"And they are all those things. And wild, and messy and uncontrollable. Just like you; don't go changing things now that I have finally have you how I like." She eyed his skeptically but let her work unravel. The wave of curls settled back against him, tickling his nose with their textured softness. He smiled at the small victory. "Leave it down Granger, it's time for the main act."
"They tried to eat your hand this morning." She huffed as she regained her side lying position, her hand trailing up to his chest and her leg raising over his to intertwine at the ankle.
"I should have known better than to run my hand through them. You don't try to pet a lion after all." He exhaled lightly as she smacked his chest, more for dramatic effect than need. She smiled softly staring back out over the lake just in time.
It happened slowly, at the kind of speed you don't notice at all and then all at once. Suddenly the glowing lights had taken to the air and drifted over the water, reflecting back in the crystalline surface. They faded into where the trees broke the sky and flirted with the stars until it was impossible to tell what was earthbound and what was not. The moon, lights, and stars were the only incandescence for miles in a sea of ink.
"Glow worms don't fly." She breathed watching the scene in perfect rapture. That same gentle smile plastered across her face, caused directly by him.
"No, they don't." He thought about resisting the urge to do it but threw caution to the wind as he bent down to kiss the top of her head, breathing in the waves of cinnamon. He exhaled a light sigh forcing his eyes upward to watch the spectacle. "These are called fireflies. One of my ancestors imported them a few decades back and charmed this perfect habitat for them. We're having a bit of a population problem as you can see."
She chuckled and the sound warmed him. He pulled her tightly, against him looping his arm around her waist. While he didn't necessarily have any right to do so, there was also no one telling him not to.
"It's stunning Draco. Really." She tilted to look up at him, her eyes reflecting the lights and stars and moon until he was so lost in them he wasn't really sure where she began and ended. He tried to think of anything witty or clever to say. He would even settle for snippy but nothing dramatic came to mind. Instead he traced her jawline, his eyes trailing his motions with careful consideration. There was likely no going back at this point, and yet a small voice still cautioned him away. It sounded strangely like his father, a fact that made it impossibly easy to ignore. He lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers, cautious enough to not insist anything but definite enough to let her know where he stood on the matter.
He shuddered as her fingers gripped at his shirt, balling it up in her small hand. Had she always been so small, she must have been and he had just never noticed. He should have expected it but he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a tiny pink tongue trailed across his lips in one smooth swipe, begging permission. His hand slipped behind her neck pulling her against him and trapping himself in her curls anyway as his own tongue met to meet hers in a tangle of quiet passion. When she pulled away, he scowled at the loss, inciting a small giggle from her throat. He had totally forgotten the spectacle around him as she kissed her way down his jaw, pausing at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. Her teeth bit into his skin in an unexpected shock of pain addled pleasure causing him to hiss before settling into a groan as she licked her way down his collar bone.
A mournful cry filled the air with heart breaking clarity and he pulled away swiftly, not bothering to hide his irritation. The fireflies had all retreated, only the last few stragglers floating back to the shore.
"Draco?" He looked down at the witch in front of him, his annoyance at being interrupted only grew as he took in her swollen lips and the high color dancing across her cheeks. His ire was momentarily silenced as he processed her deep breaths and dazed smile. Her eyes were glazed and half lidded, turning his thoughts towards the dangerous waters of what could be… in time of course. He had wholly forgotten the interruption and was about to descend upon her again when she continued. "What's wrong?"
With an annoyed groan he threw himself back against the tree,allowing the rough bark to wear into his back and help him focus. He slowly untangled his hands and set about removing himself from the woman next to him. It was only due to the fearful flash in her eyes he remembered to answer her. "That was the manor's augurey."
"Augurey?" Her eyes sparked as she drifted through her memories, flickering to find the relevant one. She scowled as she appeared to latch on to whatever she needed. "You don't actually believe that nonsense do you?"
"I do. It's not an opinion, it is a well known fact." He chided. He considered tossing her the robes he had been using for a pillow but decided against them packing those away as well.
"An animal cannot foretell death, Draco." She finished in an exasperated tone as she was fairly gracelessly rolled off the blanket when it packed itself into the basket. Before he could respond the moon disappeared from the lake, a thick bank of clouds rolling quickly over it. A crack of thunder boomed ominously nearby just as the first pellets fell.
"Not that one. The ra-'' He was spared any future explanation as the torrent of spring crashed down on them. Even under the relatively sheltered area of the tree Draco felt his hair plaster to his skull in seconds. Hermione scrambled to get up and pulled them along towards the house, apparently forgetting that he could apparate them. It was pointless to run but he did anyway, reveling in the peals of laughter from the girl in front of him as they stumbled down the path in a distinctly undignified and very non-Malfoy-like manner. Safely under the coverage of the porch he blew into the house, catching his breath while Hermione wheezed next to him, collapsed on her knees.
"You sure can plan a memorable date, Malfoy." She giggled, dripping rainwater on a carpet from the Ming Dynasty. He rolled his eyes at her, smiling as he did so. Even soaking wet her eyes burned with life, her laughter infectious. He couldn't help the small chuckle to escape him as well.
"Well," He cleared his throat pulling up to his full height in imitation of proper posture. "I live to impress. Elegance comes naturally to me."
"I'm sure it does." She smiled lightly unfolding from the floor. Suddenly he became aware of how very closely her clothes had melted into her skin, clearly sculpting to every inch of her body. He swallowed helplessly as his eyes latched onto a rain drop trailing its way down her chest.
He caught her eye and was immediately ashamed. The implication of what he was doing hung heavily in the air. Suddenly he wished he had spent more time around women properly. He wasn't quite sure what to do that wouldn't result in her smacking him. She stared at him a moment longer before nodding definitely and spinning on her heel. His body all but cried out in protest as she walked away, flushing in disappointment.
She made it to the kitchen before glancing at him over her shoulder, an evil smile twisting across her face. It inspired a far more dangerous emotion than fear. With absolutely no style or grace she peeled off her shirt and let it fall with a wet slap to the floor. Her damp hair fell loosely on her back, swaying slightly from the motion. A flash of something distinctly red and temptingly lacy disappeared beneath the curls. His pulse skyrocketed and he couldn't do anything but stare as she met his eyes over her shoulders, the invitation seemingly clear.
"Well? Are you coming or not?" She disappeared into the dark of the hallway leaving him shocked into a stillness so perfect that someone could encase him in paper mache with no issue. Clearly he was misunderstanding things. The Hermione Granger he grew up with was brazen and loud mouthed but utterly proper. Obsessed with rules and morals. There was no way she would-
Another quiet flop was enough to get him moving forward, his hands already tearing at the buttons of his shirt. After all he wasn't the same at twenty-four as he was at fourteen. Why would she be either.
World Building with Om
Importation complication:
There are no fire flies in Britain. As such after seeing them on a visit to the America's in 1604 one of the Malfoy Ancestors imported a small population for his wife and children. Without any natural predators they began to explode in population leading to a over sized colony by the lake.
An Auguary's cry:
Auguarys are in cannon birds known as the Irish Phoenix. For hundreds of years wizards thought their cries were an omen of death and avoided them. In all actuality their cries just indicate a coming rain.