Chapter 16

After Harry's Patronus, Draco was even more on edge. This was ancient magic and ancient magic was much, much harder to take down. Even worse, Hermione seemed to be at the center of it. When Ginny and Harry returned from Egypt, he was devastated by the news of the prophecy. He wondered if that was the reason he was to seek her help in the first place. Was this all some preordained thing that he had absolutely no control over? No, that couldn't be it. Harry had a prophecy and he came out fine. A little mentally shook, but fine nonetheless he figured.

Like most prophecies, however, it did not predict an outcome, just the journey. Trying to gather his wits, he made his way to Hermione in the library. He had set up a proper date for them and he didn't want anything to ruin giving her what she deserved.

When he got to the extensive library, he found her in the Egyptian section, nose in a rather large and dusty book. He cleared his throat to let her know he was there.

"Draco, what's wrong?" she asked, taking in his nervous features.

Suddenly, vile seemed to rise in his throat. That had never happened before. He was normally so cool and collected when it came to women. He figured that was mostly due to the fact that they always threw themselves at him because of his money. He didn't have to do much work to get what he wanted. But Hermione was different. She was smart and clever. She wouldn't be easily persuaded by money.

"I uh, wanted to know if you would do me the honor of having lunch with me?" God, he sounded like an idiot, he thought.

Hermione stared at him as if waiting for him to say "gotcha!" but it never came. Was she ready for something like this? She had been too easy and trusting with Blaise, could she do that again with Draco?

Before she knew it, she was nodding her head and following him out into the garden. Under the Gazebo, there were magical plants and lights all over the place. Somehow the chill of the winter air had not entered the area and she settled into a comfortable looking chair next to a table of food.

"This is really pretty Draco," she said smelling the plants around her. "How did you do this? Do you have magic?"

He shook his head, "I had some help. I thought it would be nice to get a little romance."

He smirked at her and his silver eyes glistened in the sunlight. It made her heart melt for a moment. She took a glass of champagne and they cheered.

"To peace and love?" He asked.

"To peace and love," she agreed.

She had a delicious meal with a strawberry pie for dessert. Hermione was careful not to drink too heavily this time around. She thought it would have been awkward because Draco couldn't eat, but it wasn't so bad. She could tell he was struggling a bit but held it back for her sake. This was his idea after all.

"So any news on your issue?" he asked. "Do we know why you can touch a ghost for lack of a better word?"

"I think so. That ritual is a prep for a transfer of consciousness. Whatever was done has linked me to that thing in the nexus. It's almost the same as you being a spirit but able to roam our world because your body is still alive. If mine were to die, I would be the same as the other death eaters. Stuck in the nexus. Luckily the Obscurus needs a vessel so I can't imagine any harm is gonna come to me before the 13th moon."

She said this with humor and Draco had to give her props for her bravery. She didn't seem at all outwardly stressed or scared. In fact, she looked more determined than ever before. Is that what the war had done to her? Had she suffered and seen so much that there was no more shock factor when it came to life and death.

He thought about that for a moment and felt his heart saddened for the woman in front of him. He had been partially responsible for her terrors. Now all he wanted to do was fix it and let her know how sorry he truly was.

"Hermione," he started. "I really am sorry for everything. I was a stupid kid and I know that's no excuse. But, if you let me. I promise to make it up to you."

Hermione blushed and watched the determined look on his face for any hints of a lie, but there was none.

"Thank you for saying that Draco."

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. He smiled and stood up offering his hand out to her again. With a snap of his fingers, a beautiful harp started to play. Hermione felt like they were in their own little world, dancing under the gazebo. She never realized exactly how handsome Draco was, but standing there in his arms, she felt like she could stay like that forever.

His smell was intoxicating, and his steely gray eyes were fierce. It was hard to look away. She felt naked under his gaze. Despite their past, in that moment and perhaps even before, they had become closer than they could imagine. Their very lives depended on each other and trust was necessary to go forward. They both opened their eyes and their hearts to the horrors of the world and found comfort right then and there.

She bowed her head onto his chest and let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. His body stiffened for a moment then relaxed. This felt right.

An hour later, they cleaned up and headed back to the castle. Narcissa was in the drawing room and smiled when saw them.

"Hermione dear, how was it?" she said knowingly.

Assuming Narcissa must have helped her son plan the date, she replied with a large smile. "It was amazing. I feel so refreshed. Thank you."

"No need to thank me. I do have something for you. For all your troubles, I wanted to give you a token of my appreciation."

"Mrs. Malfoy there's really no need for that," Hermione started but was interrupted.

"Nonsense. I was out shopping around for the holidays and saw this in a window display. It has your name written all over it."

She handed Hermione a small black velvet box. Hermione opened it, praying to Merlin it wouldn't be some extravagant, expensive gift. To her surprise, it was a simple locket. When she opened it, she found a small black stone inside. It looked familiar somehow but she couldn't place it. For some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was meant to have it.

"Thank you, it's beautiful," she said as Draco took the liberty of helping her put it on. It seemed to glow warmly on her chest but she didn't think anything of it. She was already feeling overwhelmed by her feelings for Draco.

Later that evening, Hermione decided to take a visit to her shop. It had been closed the last couple of weeks because of what was going on and she needed to make sure things were okay. Ginny had stopped by before, but Hermione knew she would feel better if she went herself. Draco was totally against her leaving the manor but he knew it was a lost cause.

"Fine, but I'm coming," he had said.

Hermione chuckled and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "Fine with me. You've never seen my shop have you?"

Draco shook his head. "Not the inside. But I've seen it when I was tailing you a while back."

"Tailing me?" Hermione said. "Sounds creepy."

"I needed to find the right time to talk to you," he said, defending himself.

"Oh right, and my shower was the best case scenario," Hermione smirked.

He gave her a sly look and walked with her out the door. She was going to apparate outside the gates but he would already be at the shop waiting for her.

When she got inside the shop, she quickly made sure all her spells were intact and nothing had been broken. Draco was outside waiting for her to let him in.

"Nice wards," he said, impressed.

"Yeah, I kinda got really good at them when we were out looking for Horcruxes."

Draco looked around the shelves while Hermione went to the back room to check her office. He noticed all the romance novels and smirked. He didn't take her for someone to read smut. There was definitely more to her that he was dying to see. When Hermione came back to the front he noticed a frown on her face and a tattered yellow book in her hand.

"What's that?" he asked.

"You know I'm not sure. I found it right before you came to me actually. It was sitting on one of the carts. I had never seen it before but totally forgot about it."

Memories of that day started to flood back to her as she remembered that racy moment when she could feel invisible hands all over here and someone calling her name. She decided not to share that particular memory.

"That's quite a coincidence don't you think? We should get back to the manor soon. It's getting dark," he said sternly.

Hermione agreed and she set a couple more wards before apparating back, yellow book in hand.

That night, Draco had returned to the nexus. Harry and Ginny were a couple of doors down the hall, they decided to stay there the night in light of the prophecy. Harry was convinced it was her in on the tablet and was adamant about her staying close by. She dared not tell him she went out to her shop. He would flip.

Drawing another bath, she looked at her naked body in the mirror. There was still a bruise on her leg from when that spirit had touched her in her shop. She hadn't thought about that either until now and she realized that she was slipping. She was normally so alert and aware of everything but now she seemed to be falling more and more into chaos.

After her bath, she settled into bed with the yellow book in hand. Flipping through the pages she jotted down some notes of particular symbols she wanted to look up. Her eyes were starting to get heavy and it was getting harder to focus. Suddenly, she felt a chill enter the room.

"Hermione," said the voice from the shop again.

Hermione's body froze up but her eyes moved around trying to find the source of the voice. It was as if she were lucid dreaming. Just then, what felt like hands started to caress her legs and she let out an uncontrollable moan. For some reason, she didn't feel scared. Closing her eyes, she drifted off into a dream world. Still feeling the hands on her she opened her eyes again to find a pair of steely eyes on top of her.

"Hermione," Draco said.

"Draco?"

He nodded and bent down to kiss the nape of her neck. Her hands tensed but then found their way to his back. It was strong and muscular. She realized that he was in nothing but his underwear and she was in her nightgown.

Fire ignited in her as his kisses trailed down to her breasts, then her navel, then her inner thighs. She arched her back longingly. He was extremely good at this. He grabbed her ass and pulled her up to his face giving her a smooth lick outside her panties. Her mind went into overdrive.

"Draco, please" was all she could say.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered. "I want to take every inch of you for myself."

Before things could go further, a loud bang made Hermione jump in her sheets. Suddenly, Draco was gone and her eyes were actually open. She looked around the room, realizing she must have been dreaming.

She looked down at her legs and found another small black bruise on her buttock. "What in Merlin's name?!"

She started to panic and ran to the bathroom, checking her body for more bruises. There was another on the side of her neck. Another loud bang caused her to dress quickly and make her way down to the manor. The sun had yet to fully rise so it was still pretty dark. It sounded like someone was pounding on the front door.

She was just about to enter the foyer when a loud, strong blast made her fly into the nearby wall. Dust filled the room and she could hear the frantic sounds of Harry and Ginny racing down the stairs before she passed out.