Hermione was dragged from sleep yet again.
There was a banging downstairs. It had the distinctly ungraceful cadence of an inebriated person attempting to do something for themselves in a dark room.
Draco must have come to visit after being at the club.
Hermione eased her way down to the lower floor, the candles slept during these hours and she made sure they stayed that way, but her eyes had adjusted to the gloom and she could see a shape moving around the kitchen, shushing themselves.
She scuffed her feet along the floor so he would hear her. He whirled around.
"Granger! So lovely to see you! Oh no, I was meant to be quiet and not wake you." His arms were splayed wide and his face tinged pink from alcohol in a way that made Hermione laugh a little.
She walked over to him with a patient smile. A streetlight was coming through the window and hitting one half of his face, illuminating him and his cheeky lie in fluorescent orange as he looked through a potion rack adhered to the door of a kitchen cupboard. He was having trouble staying still, shuffling a little on his feet as his balance tried to fail him.
"Oh dear, Draco," she whispered, sneaking beneath one of his arms to steady him. He squeezed her shoulder. "Did Blaise make you do shots again?"
He pouted, nodding. His head making the movement dramatic and comical with how grand it was.
Hermione picked up a Pepper-Up and uncorked it, taking one of his hands and placing the vial in it before gently coaxing him to tilt back and swallow.
He hummed in appreciation.
This was not the first time Draco had come to see her when he was drunk. Sometimes he came by when he had woken to nightmares as well. His inebriated self she was never entirely sure of. It only happened once a month or so and his reactions had varied from falling asleep on her halfway up the stairs to insisting on teaching her to foxtrot.
Draco hiccupped after drinking the potion and the jerking movement caused him to drop the vial.
"Whoopsie," he giggled, making Hermione laugh in turn. He was very cute when drunk. Something he also hated. Hermione waved a repairing charm and set the glass in the sink.
The Pepper-Up usually took about ten minutes or so to fully work. Hermione thought they ought to start the no doubt perilous journey up the stairs to bed.
His forehead was now resting on her hair, nose nuzzling in the curls.
"Mm, you smell like my bath. Didn't I do good?" He let go of the cupboard and wrapped his arms around her. His body was warm against hers and Hermione thought it might be one of those nights.
"Yes, you did very good. Thank you. For the bath and the wine. And the duvet, too."
He chuckled and began sing-songing into her hair, "My wife likes me."
He was swaying them slightly and Hermione thought that couldn't be good for his stomach right now, so she gripped his waist to steady him.
"And how did you like the whisky?"
"You sent me hearts AND whisky. But look what the whisky did to me!" He spread his arms wide again and stumbled backward into the open cupboard door. "Ow."
Hermione stifled more laughter behind a cupped palm. "Oh, you're so adorable when you're intoxicated." She pulled him cautiously forward and he fell on her again. She carefully shut the cupboard door while attempting to hold him up as well.
He grumbled into her shoulder.
"Come on, let's get you to bed. But we have to be quiet."
"OK, shhh. Got it." He started tiptoeing as she walked them nearer the stairs but failed miserably at being quiet. He fell into every obstacle near him, even when Hermione tried to steer him away. A chair, wine rack and mantlepiece all got bumped into and were rewarded with a soft 'Sorry!' and a reverent touch while Hermione tried to manage his much larger frame.
By the time she had wrangled him to the staircase, he was steadier on his feet which made traversing the steps much easier. She had one arm around his waist, the other splayed against his front to best help him. She inhaled deeply. He still smelled like his usual blackened agarwood and musked tuberose but he also had the acidic bitterness of the Floo powder toasting him like the char on a marshmallow fresh from the fire.
His Pepper-Ups provided oral hygiene, so his breath frosted with mint. An innovation from his potion company that kept the consumer fresh through until the next day. When she'd initially suggested it, he'd pushed back with talk of cost to materials and slower production times. As soon as she outlined the various benefits and marketing potential to keep the romance alive through the dawning of a new day, he'd upped the price by a couple Sickles and rolled the product out. It was now a cult favourite as the herbal freshness also provided a small tingle when used in particular ways.
Needless to say, young looking-for-love witches and wizards made sure to have a few of these ready to go. The easy to carry tubes made them perfect if you weren't sure where you'd end up after a night out.
They reached the second-floor landing and Draco appeared to have sobered up a bit more. His movements were far more deliberate now and he slipped from her arms to relax on a wall. His eyes were the slate-grey of a stormy ocean tonight. She recognised the frothing of his cresting waves and the pilot-light warmth Theo had sparked flickered a little. Draco saw it and crooked his finger to her. His elegant extremity tipping towards him twice before settling at his side.
With a bemused set to her lips and a teasing lift to her brows she closed the distance between them. Her silent consent charging the air with fizzing molecules. Their marriage may only be a slip of paper and soul-divining love may forever elude them, but they fit together well in places. And in this particular place, they fit together very well.
Through several pragmatic conversations they had designated a list of what was acceptable to initiate. It was a beneficial arrangement and helped soothe any urges that might make them stray. They only utilised this area of their relationship every ten days or so, sometimes it was her and others, like tonight, it was him.
But before anything was going to happen, he would talk to her first. Because Theo was right, he was a romantic sort.
"Do you know why I'm here, Granger?"
"I'm sure there are a few reasons, but there is a specific one springing to mind," she teased her lashes, dusking downwards. She let her eyes rest briefly where Draco's excitement lay before slowly casting back up with a small glide of her tongue over a bottom lip. The air between them hummed with the vibrating rumble of a pūrerehua.
He laughed low in his throat, his chest was rising and falling with more depth as their desires brushed against each other with static charge. The pulling bead of tension was taut between them but he wasn't ready to tug on it just yet.
"That is the least of my reasons," he reached out with a singular digit, tracing along her collarbone with delicate strokes. Slowly he pressed his other fingers upon her, playing chords along her skin. "No, I have to see you so I can leave."
His voice was low, a susurrus hush like white-licked waves that lapped at an algae'd pier. She closed her eyes and felt their music swell as he trickled his fingers like crochets and minims down her arm. He reached her hand and turned her into him, back against his chest.
"And why do you have to leave?" her quiet intonation blending with the tinkling of his hands on her, building a diapason that made her bite her lip and him bury his face against her neck. His lips joined the refrain, whispering against her as he slipped under her satin.
"Because I like being reminded how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."
He tilted her head backward and upwards to join their lips, their harmony singing through them.
She pulled back a touch, looking at him as his eyes broke and foamed upon her. Sliding down her frame like he wanted to drag her into his tide.
She turned to face him and gently pushed him into the wall, leaning flush against his form and moved herself slowly up and down, pressing right up on her tiptoes before slowly sinking to be flat on the ground like the touch of a piano pedal, their strings vibrating together. His eyes fluttered closed as his head tipped back with a light thump in a minor key.
"Did you-" she began on an ascent, her words were slow, quiet, enunciated. His hands trilling upwards to drop the straps of her camisole onto her shoulders. His length sliding between them.
She descended, undoing two buttons of his shirt on her way down. He sighed, enjoying the sonata they were creating.
"Just quote-" she drew upwards again, taking another button and rocking into him slightly. His hands running down her back, twinkling along the bare skin there. Breath catching, her eyes gathered the surf he rushed out, letting it collect in her like a rock pool as she moved down again.
More buttons fell away from their nesting, her fingers just barely grazing the skin she exposed as she sank down again.
She looked right at him, her heartbeat and desire pulsing together, and she rolled into him again. He twitched against her, a new and welcome note in the tune of their seduction. The last buttons fell away and her fingertips brushed upwards as he rippled beneath her touch.
Her previous words hung in the air between them, lingering and smoky with anticipation.
Did you…
Just quote…
"Winne-the-Pooh?"
She was right at the top of her incline now and she licked the centre of his bottom lip slowly, savouring the mint still there. He grinned at her, dragging that same lip through his beautiful incisors.
"What can I say, Granger? Maybe I want to turn into a teddy bear for you."
She only had time to give a small giggle before he surged on her, lips crashing, hands rushing and stroking her. A bubbling fizz being left in his wake like the sea on a sandy shore.
He moaned and picked her up, hands sneaking under the sleep shorts to cup her bare skin and securing her between himself and the wall.
They kissed, a symphony of tongues pushing and pulling then sliding slick and lazy. Hermione tangled her hands in his hair, and he groaned loud.
She slid a hand between them, her palm on his lips. She saw intrigue make a point break curl in his eyes, roaring through him.
"We should move to our room, you have a guest." She felt him smile behind her hand. He liked it when she was being tricky.
"It seems your friend Mr. Nott is back from wherever he was." Draco's eyebrows rose. And he crushed himself even closer pushing their centres together. Asking if she still wanted what he was offering or if they had to play a game. She pressed her shoulders into the wall, slowly arching her hips away to undulate on him. His eyes twisting into an erotic waterspout and he licked the crease where her middle finger met her palm. She sharply inhaled at the sensation.
He growled at her, telling her to hurry.
"Can you believe he thinks we make quite the odd pairing?"
Draco rolled his head to extricate his mouth and slipped her hand down to cup his jaw.
"Sod, Theo. He can listen for all I care."
He buried his face in her neck, sucking her skin and grinding into her. Her body was singing, chanting verse and wanting a chorus.
She drew his head back and kissed him, hands on either side of his face. "Draco. Let me take care of you."
The last six words were their hallowed code. They didn't say 'I love you', not for pretend and not when they were being real. Or in between like now. But they did take care of each other. It was a sign of their affection, and they knew that was the extent of it. A way to differentiate between loving someone and being in love without the confusion. Because they weren't in love. And that was OK. Those words meant a lot to both of them, she didn't use them lightly.
She felt him relax and he smiled against her.
"As you like, witch."
He carried her the short feet to her bedroom and elbowed the door shut, sealing it with a quick Silencing charm before he let them fall on the bed. Layers were peeled away, and they were naked, sitting upright and languidly kissing, knowing they had time and wanting to savour it.
They knew each other well enough to know when to progress and as Draco snuck his hand around the back of her neck and rubbed a pressure point there, she mewled softly and pushed him back.
She'd said the words and so she wound her way down, hands and lips appreciating his jaw, neck, collar, chest, abdominals, pelvic bone, inner thigh before finally bringing him in her mouth. The wet heat making him lift his hips a little and he grasped her hand, entwining their fingers.
Draco had been pleasantly surprised that she liked giving, in some cases preferred it and this was one of those times. She worked over him slowly, tongue running over his tip then slipping down his length. Her other hand that wasn't holding his, gripped the base with two fingers, her thumb curling behind.
She lightly pulled the skin taut with her hand and lavished attention upon him. Her tongue circling over his head and sucking around him in a way that had him balling his fist in the sheet and breathing hard. She gave special treatment to the nerve on the underside of him, letting saliva pool in her mouth like a silky warm bath and he groaned an obscenity, squeezing her hand where he held it.
When they fucked, she would take him deep in her throat, but this - taking care of him - meant doing everything the way he liked best. She focused on the sensitivity of his head and worked her hands around his base. Hearing his appreciation made warmth spindle low and her core pulsed. She moaned a little around him and he panted.
He was starting to twitch and shake, and she cast her gaze up to him, knowing he liked watching her as she enjoyed him. His eyes were black as the deepest of sea trenches as she bobbed her head, tongue curling over his favourite spot and cheeks sucking with the medium-heavy pressure that always undid him.
He breathed heavily out of his nose and gently pulled her where their hands met. He wanted something else tonight even as he whimpered a little when she left him bare without the security of her tongue swaddling him. She kissed his skin, drifting slowly upwards again, keeping her eyes on his. Relishing every little jerk he made until their lips met again, the vibrating note of his pinnacle low in the room as it edged slightly away.
As they lay flush with each other, Draco turned her and cuddled her from behind, sliding between her thighs to pulse and twitch near her entrance. He smoothed her hair between the crook of his neck and his shoulder on the bed. He drew his knees up behind hers as his hands floated around her, one reaching to stroke delicately at her nipple, the other reaching down to rest at her core. He chuckled and kissed her neck as her breathing changed cadence to something more filled with need and he grinned into her skin when his fingers were doused with her arousal.
Kissing behind her ear, he brought himself into her, rocking them together. She leant her head back and ground down on him making them both moan. Her hand snaking around the back of his head, running her hands through his hair as he liked, the growl emanating from him at the action jolting her pleasure and she gasped.
He began moving faster and she responded in kind. An aria zinging golden notes through her.
Her high-pitched vocalised sighs cascaded lyrically around the room, joining the rumbling bass of his growls and moans. Panting breaths creating a symbiotic rhythm with their movements. She ran her hand down his thigh, squeezing just above his knee as their bodies harmonised, hitting that special pitch, building to shatter her.
Then he nibbled on her earlobe and she spasmed against him with a cry. Pushing him deep as she bucked backwards, and she clenched around him. Her pleasure a swansong, the most exquisite tinnitus. A few more coupled movements and he shuddered, his arms pulling her close against chest and centre.
They spent moments relishing their high, breathing the same air. Skin lighting against skin as the final chords faded.
"Are you still taking care of me?" Draco's words pressed into her collarbone and neck with kisses.
"Of course," she replied, turning her head to caress his mouth with hers. She waved a cleaning charm, but he didn't unseat himself, settling further into his pillow and snuggling with her.
He wanted the safety and tenderness of falling asleep inside her tonight, so she sunk herself into the bed and relished the lapping calm of trust he gave her. She matched her breaths to his before they were finally drifting off, feeling a last kiss at the nape of her neck as her dreams took her.