Chapter 4: Vulnerability

Hermione couldn't pretend that she still wasn't a little creeped out by Malfoy Manor, even all these years later. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was nighttime that made the imposing mansion still spooky.

Not that Scorpius and his father, Draco, hadn't done a lot to try and liven up the place after the war. Harry had apparently been here since that hellish night in 1998, and according to her brother-in-law, the fateful drawing room where she was tortured had been completely repainted, reupholstered. New tapestries even hung on the walls; you wouldn't have recognized the room in comparison to how it had been over a quarter century ago. Hermione supposed that was small comfort, and that Draco had truly been trying to atone for the past just as much as she had spent much of her career and marriage trying to forget it.

Scorpius was pleasantly surprised but delighted to see the mother of his ex-fiancé on his doorstep, and invited her in for drinks and a chat. The boy seemed to be making a concerted effort to keep the place lit; candles and their amber light were everywhere. Perhaps Scorpius was just as disquieted by how the Manor could get spooky at night, especially seeing as how he now lived here alone.

"How's your father?" Hermione asked, following Scorpius into an upstairs bedroom, which featured a stone balcony, and a nice view of the gardens below. The young man was busying himself over by a small drinks table, pouring two hearty glasses of Butterbeer and holding one out to her. Smiling softly, Hermione accepted the drink, even as she halfheartedly told herself she probably shouldn't.

"He's enjoying bringing in new business over in the States. He wrote me saying he'll probably stay longer." Scorpius sounded a little sad as he spoke. "I think he was relieved to not have to book a Muggle flight when Rose and I called off the wedding. Still…. I miss him, even more ever since Mum died."

Hermione nodded sympathetically, recalling attending Astoria's funeral several years before. "I remember," she murmured.

"I guess he's trying to maintain distance between himself and…. all the demons back here," Scorpius gestured around the room. "I could see why he wanted a change of scene, and in the beginning, I was supportive, but…. I wish he was here so he could tell me what to do." He took a long pull from his glass, and Hermione's heart twinged when she noticed the sheen of tears in his eyes. Scorpius wiped at his face. "It's been awfully lonely, ever since Rose broke it off."

"Why don't you try talking to her?" Hermione seized on the opening.

"She won't want to," Scorpius sounded so sure.

"How do you know if you won't try?" Hermione pressed gently. "And maybe you won't have to talk, at first. Rose mentioned to me how she could use some help with this potions project she's working on." OK, that last part was a lie, but despite what others might think, Hermione wasn't above bending the truth where it suited her purposes.

She was heartened when she saw Scorpius cock a wary eyebrow. She took an innocent, if perhaps over-indulgent, sip from her glass of butterbeer. "What kind of project?"

"She's looking to create a potion that would permanently reverse the effects of lycanthropy. A…. supercharged Wolfsbane potion, if you will."

"For Teddy?" Scorpius guessed. At her nod, he tssssked. "Poor bloke. Always been a bloody good mate. I take it the batch Rose cooked up hasn't helped."

Hermione shook her head. "Not even close. He's starting to panic, and frankly, Harry is too."

Scorpius nodded slowly, contemplatively. "She might try and throw me out, but I'll try and help her. Really, I will."

Hermione beamed, daring to hope that perhaps other problems aside from her best friend's godson's affliction might be solved with Scorpius's intercession. "Thank you, Scorpius." Turning her head, she spied a piece of artwork on the wall. "Did you paint this? It's awfully good…."

Hermione stayed for the next several hours, talking with Scorpius…. and also providing a shoulder to cry on as the conversation quickly turned to him blubbering over all the mistakes he made with Rose, how lonely he was without her. Much of this was expressed incoherently, and it was a challenge to take in, as by this point, Hermione had imbibed well past her limit and was very, very drunk. Slurring a little, she held out her glass for more. Scorpius just shook his head.

"Gonna have to cut you off, I'm afraid. All out."

Hermione grumbled. "You're right," she said, turning away from him as she began looking for her shoes. "I should probably get back home before …"

Her words trailed off as two firm hands grabbed and then started caressing her hips. She leaned in to the touch, feeling hot breath on her neck as someone began to suck on it. It was then that she remembered who the only other person in the room was. She pulled away and turned.

"Scorpius, love, what are you -"

Scorpius silenced her with a kiss, but she spun her head away.

"Don't!" she spat, wiping at her mouth.

"All right," said Scorpius. "Not there." He brushed her hair aside and brought his lips down to her neck again. "But how about here?"

Hermione instinctually tilted her head back as Scorpius began kissing up her neck until he reached her ear. He moved behind her, his hands back on her hips as he nibbled on the area of skin just below her earlobe.

"Do you like it when I touch you, Hermione?"

"N-no," she said, trying hard to convince her mind something that her body was currently disputing.

"I think you're lying," said Scorpius, moving his hands down to her legs and edging them back up so they were underneath the cloth of her gold dress. "That's why you're still here. In my bedroom. Because you want to fuck me."

Hermione moaned, her body betraying her as he ran his tongue back down her neck. "I … I don't," she insisted. "You're only doing this because you've been drinking, Scorpius."

"No. I've wanted to fuck you from the moment I saw you on my doorstep. Since then, I've been unable to think of much else."

There was no proper way to respond to a confession like that, so Hermione said nothing, feeling the heat radiate inside of her as he moved even farther up her thighs. And then one hand shifted, trailing up her back until it reached the zipper on her dress.

"B-but … I'm a Muggle-Born."

"If that still bothered me do you think I would be propositioning you right now?"

Fair point.

"My daughter!" she blurted out as he started to use the hand underneath her dress to play with her knickers. "My daughter will never forgive us if we -"

"No one has to know what goes on in this room tonight, Hermione. Only you and me," he said in a deep, drawling whisper. "Just this once."

Hermione bit her lip, running out of arguments as his hand rubbed the highest point of her thigh, his teeth gently sucking on the spot where her neck met her shoulder.

And then, slowly, her zipper came undone.

Scorpius finally released her thigh and used both of his hands to push Hermione's straps off of her shoulders. Her dress fell to a heap on the floor. Hermione was suddenly thankful that all of her practical knickers were in the laundry, leaving her in a lacy black set. It was a complete accident that her panty's even matched her bra.

Scorpius stepped back and walked around so he was facing her. He studied her from head to foot, taking a slightly longer moment on the area of her body he fully intended to invade soon.

Hermione did her best to suck back her insecurities as he spent a great deal of time inspecting her. She put her hands on her hips. "Disappointed?" she asked.

"Not at all," said Scorpius, taking a step towards her. "Just as I suspected." He wrapped his arms around her hips and used her arse to pull her close. "All woman."

Scorpius went in for her lips again but Hermione turned her head. "I said don't."

"Whatever you want," said Scorpius, kissing across her cheek until he reached her neck.

Hermione brought up her hands and began unbuttoning his shirt. Once that was done, he helped her yank it off of him and discard it on the floor. Then her mouth found its way to his neck while he was undoing his trousers, letting them fall to a heap beside her dress. Hermione put a hand on his chest and pushed him back, stroking her chin as she scrutinized him in the same way he had just done to her.

"Disappointed?" he asked with a smirk.

"Not terribly, no," she said honestly. Actually, Draco's body was quite lovely. Still chiseled and firm with only a few blond hairs tainting what might as well have been porcelain. And he wore boxers. The older they got, the more Ron seemed to favor plain white briefs, and there was nothing sexy about briefs.

Stepping forward again, Scorpius put one hand behind Hermione's back and unhooked her bra. The moment it was gone, he attached his mouth to her breasts, sucking hard on the perky, pink nipples.

Between her moans, Hermione looked over at the door, paranoid.

"What if someone comes in?" she asked.

"They won't. It's the middle of the night," said Scorpius, switching from one breast to the other. "I put Locking and Silencing Charms on the room anyway."

"That was a bit presumptuous, don't you think?"

Scorpius smirked against her breast. "I told you already that I've wanted to fuck you, and I'm not one to miss an opportunity when it comes running through my door." He might be drunk off his arse, and clearly not thinking rationally, but Merlin, if he didn't sound like his father in that moment! Hermione thought he may not wear the attitude well, but it still turned her on far more than it should.

Moving back up to her neck, Scorpius picked Hermione up by the arse and carried her over to the bed. He tossed her into the center of it and climbed on after. His lips found her collarbone while he began to grind his hardness in to her.

Hermione's head felt light as one of his hands trailed downwards, slipping in to her knickers and rubbing roughly against her clit.

"So wet already," he said, stroking one of his digits into her folds. "I hope you don't mind if we skip the foreplay and go straight into the fucking." He dragged down his boxers. "As I've said before, it's been six bloody months." Followed shortly by her knickers.

Hermione cried out as his thumb pressed a little rougher than she was used to. But she liked it. "Oh, just get it over with already."

Scorpius froze and so did Hermione. She bit her lip. Merlin, did that ever come out wrong. He pulled back and looked down at her, his eyes no longer filled with the lust from just moments ago, but instead with genuine concern.

"Hermione, if you don't want to do this -"

"No!" Hermione grabbed Scorpius's shoulders and flipped them so that she was straddling his lap. She had come too far to back out now. All guilt, and all thoughts of her daughter had flown from her in a drunken haze. She needed this. Her body needed this. "I do," she said confidently, grabbing his already hard cock and giving it a few strokes before practically shoving it inside of her.

Both of them gasped on impact. She had not meant to be so rough about it. After all, it had been over a year, and she had been so busy distracting herself from her failing marriage with work that there had not been much time to take care of this growing itch, even on her own.

After giving herself a moment to adjust, Hermione put her hands on Scorpius's chest and started bouncing fervently on his cock. There would be no taking it slow with him. That was not what she needed. What she needed was to feel wanted, to have someone take control of her body like she was something to be desired. And Scorpius seemed to understand that because he only let her get a few bounces in before he was roughly grabbing her thighs and flipping her onto her back.

"I'm the one who wants to fuck you. Remember, Hermione?"

Scorpius seized her left leg and tossed it over his shoulder, grabbing onto the headboard just behind her and using it to brace himself while he began to mercilessly thrust into her. Hermione brought one of her hands between them, using it to touch herself while the other crept around to Scorpius's arse, her nails digging deeply into it to urge him on. She lowered her leg, brought her mouth up and began sucking on any piece of skin of his she could find.

Scorpius groaned a little louder than he intended when she found the soft spot on his neck. Hermione smiled and focused on there for a moment, but the more she sucked the harder he thrust, and soon Scorpius was going so fast that she could not control herself. Her head fell backwards onto the bed and her body convulsed as she felt the familiar heat building up inside of her, just about ready to burst.

Hermione removed her hand from her clit, knowing she needed no help to finish this. Right now, all she wanted to focus on was the heat. The beautiful, desperate, scorching heat. Both of her hands flung to his back, squeezing his sweat soaked body against hers, her nails clawing cat-like marks into his perfect skin as she felt herself getting that much closer.

"Scorpius, I … I'm going to - Oh, fuck!"

And, suddenly, all coherent thought left her completely as the heat burst and spread through her body like a tidal wave. Her back arched, her toes curled, and her nails dug so deeply into him that she was positive she drew blood.

Staring down at the beautiful 'O' shape Hermione's mouth made as she came undone, Scorpius could not contain himself any longer. With three more brutal thrusts, he was coming inside of her, continuing to fuck her through both of their orgasms until there was nothing left.

Hermione fell back, her mind fuddled and her body spent as she felt Scorpius soften inside of her. He collapsed, breathing heavily into the crook of her neck for a moment before slowly rolling off of her.

"Fuck …" he muttered after taking a long moment to catch his breath. "I haven't had a shag like that in …" He paused and gulped. "… a long fucking time."

Hermione said nothing, not wanting to admit out loud that she had actually never had a shag like that. Ron was the only man she had ever been with and sex with him had always been slow and romantic. Back before it became routine, at least. She could actually count the times she and Ron had been driven by raw passion on one hand, and it had still never been quite like what she had just experienced.

And that was when it hit her.

Ron was the only man she had ever been with … And, now, he was not. She had just slept with Scorpius Malfoy. Well, she certainly never saw this day coming.

Suddenly wanting very much to get out of that bed, Hermione sat up. Unfortunately, it was a little too quickly and the alcohol still running through her system made her head spin wildly. She paused for a moment and held it, giving Scorpius enough time to grab her wrist and hold her in place.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"Home," she said. "I….. I -"

"It will look suspicious if you go back now."

"It will look suspicious if I don't," she countered. "So what do you propose we do then?" she asked, anticipating the answer more than she felt was appropriate.

Scorpius grabbed her shoulders and moved her so she was once again lying on the bed. He climbed on top of her and brought his lips to her neck, slowly trailing kisses downward until he reached her collarbone.

"Well, we have just this once, right? So we might as well enjoy it as much as we can."

He licked down to the area between her breasts, gently moving over and sucking on the right one, eliciting soft moans from her delicious looking lips. He moved to the left one, giving it a bit of attention before continuing down to her stomach.

"But I'm afraid I'm not ready to go again just yet."

He stopped at her bellybutton, breathing his hot breath against her skin and giving her goose pimples as he continued to lower his head.

"But, if you would like, I will gladly make up for the lack of foreplay earlier until I am ready to fuck you again."

Scorpius did not wait for an answer before he was opening his mouth and hungrily feasting on her womanhood. Hermione threw her arms back and fisted the pillow her head was on. She needed something, anything to stop herself from losing control. Because while it may have been a good year since she had had sex, it had been a good five years since anything like this had been done to her. And, Merlin, did it feel good.

The minute Hermione woke up the next morning, she knew she had to get out of there.

Glancing to Scorpius – a man nearly eighteen years her junior – slumbering naked in the bed beside her, all the events and the raw sex from the previous night came roaring back and Hermione's insides were lacerated by guilt as she thought of Rose. She didn't know if she could ever face telling her daughter the truth, and secretly hoped she would never have to. But for right now, she would have to flee the scene of the transgression and ditch the evidence.

Leaping out of bed, she hurriedly redressed in her clothes and performed a perfuming charm on herself to get off the smell of sex. Just as she finished and was about to tiptoe out of the bedroom before fleeing the mansion, she felt and heard Scorpius stir.

"Hermione? ….. Where are you….?"

"Home," she stated, firmly. She had been here too long already. "It was a….. nice night, Scorpius, but this has to be a one-time thing. Do you hear me?"

"But…"

Hermione turned sharply at the door. "Scorpius," she growled warningly. "Go back to my daughter." And with that, she headed downstairs, exited the mansion and Disapparated at the gates.