~o~
The night was lit with stars as Antonin portkeyed them back to the snowy abandoned land where the cabin stood at a distance.
"You could just let me go," Hermione said, not for the first time.
"Sure," Antonin smiled and pointed gentlemanly towards the forest to the south. "Go ahead. V'ut I don't feel like chasing v'you just now. V'you mind spending night outside? I v'will get v'you in the morning." He chuckled. "If the wolves don't first."
"Could be worse ways to spend the night..." she thought outloud then stopped mid-sentence at how it sounded.
Antonin met her eye reassuringly. "Ptitsa, v'you should fear me less than a hungry wolf. Don't be so cynical."
He looked at her in such a way that she wasn't so sure. It made her gulp.
Her thoughts were distracted as they made the last steps towards the cabin. Antonin unlocked it with his wand and a few spells uttered in Russian that she couldn't quite understand. Then the wood door unlocked with a soft click of the metal doorknob.
"Are v'you coming in?" Antonin held the door for her, and raised his eyebrows at her. He indeed seemed serious about leaving her outside if she wanted to run.
Her cheeks flushed with from the cold air as she looked behind her at the bleak dark forest with freezing temperatures and probably wild bears and wolves wandering about at this hour...Meanwhile, Antonin stood at the door, unarmed, heat emanating from the cabin and the flickers of soft light on Antonin's face. His eyes shadowy and unreadable in the night.
"No, I'll come in, thanks." But then she hardened her gaze. "Just this one last time. Then I'm leaving tomorrow."
"Of course." Antonin rolled his eyes as if he were bored by her.
She couldn't help smirking for a moment. She really did get on his nerves. Perhaps she should let up and ease a bit on him.
Yet as soon as Antonin slammed the cabin door shut behind them, he stared at her with brooding eyes that made her feel completely naked.
No, definitely do not ease one inch. Not one millimeter. Or she would be pulled right in.
She could almost taste his yearning for her, pulling her in like a black hole, even when they said nothing.
~o~
The tension in the cabin was unbelievable, so thick, that she considered walking straight back out the door into the cold and spending the whole night with the wolves.
Antonin noticed her tension.
"Sit down, ptitsa, v'you look like I'm going to eat v'you."
Her cheeks burned. "No..I'm just...contemplating..."...jumping off a cliff to get away from you. She cleared her throat. "I mean, thinking of how I'm going to find Harry tomorrow. Once I'm free, of course."
Antonin smiled at her, a wide toothy almost victorious grin as he sat himself down in his famous yak chair. "Of course. I'm a man v'of my word. Relax."
"Right. Let's trust you are." She sat down at the other chair across from him and wondered how she was going to get through the night without either embarrassing herself or doing something she deeply regretted.
Antonin kicked off his boots and she was triggered for a moment thinking of an early incident involving his boots and said chair. How was it possible to feel so many conflicting things about the same man?
"Care for a drink, ptitsa?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him as she thought of the alternatives.
Going straight to bed. No. No. Delay. Stay up the whole night if possible. Stay here. Stay here as long as possible. And stay away from his boots, and his chair, and taking off any clothes. Damn the bastard. She couldn't wait to kill him one day for the humiliation of ever trying to keep her.
"Okay," she said uncertainly, gritting her jaw.
She was mildly dumbfounded when the tall Russian handed her a cup of herbal tea. "No Vodka?"
"V'you can't handle vodka, ptitsa."
"Oh I can't?" she scoffed and laughed as she drank the herbal tea. "And you would you know how? You've never seen me drink."
"I've seen enough of v'you, and I don't think v'you can handle it." Antonin smirked and licked at his lips as he stared at her.
Fuck.
Merlin the arrogance of him. Was he suggesting...?
She drank more tea to calm herself and even managed to look collected and prim as she crossed her legs tightly.
"What is this anyways?" she asked, referring to the flowery green liquid in her cup, to change the topic.
"Tavolga."
"It's quite mellifluous." She said that last word just to annoy him since she knew he would not know that word. "What's the translation?"
"Yak droppings."
She almost spat out her drink and began coughing.
"Relax. It's a Russian flower." He grinned. "Meadowsweet."
"Of course." Yet her eyes darted suspiciously towards him as she finished the last drop.
Antonin rolled his eyes yet a grin remained on his lips as he laughed at how tense she was.
He poured some for himself to drink.
Briefly the tension dissipated amid light banter but it soon returned.
They sat around drinking tea by the fire for as long as possible, with the cuckoo clock on the wall marking the tension.
Hermione couldn't help stealing glances at Antonin, wondering what he might be thinking.
Meanwhile, Antonin seemed more into her than ever. Each comment she made, no matter how mundane, seemed to bring a smile to his face or made him reply with something witty in return.
Perhaps it's just because he's seen me naked, Hermione suspected. Otherwise he wouldn't be treating her this nicely. "He's seen what my body looks like and now he's trying harder than ever to get in my good graces again...so he can get into get into my pants. Not that I'm wearing pants, or underwear." Unfortunately, she was relegated to wearing the long blue dressing shirt, of another of Dolohov's deceased, long expired relatives.
"Are v'you going to bed soon?" Antonin asked abruptly.
Hermione glanced at the watch then at his face. Sparks were practically churning out his eyes, his look was so hot.
But then she thought of how mad he made her when he forced her to get on her knees and polish his shoes like a servant. Or basically threatened her to do much worse if she hadn't complied, perhaps on her knees for that punishment too.
Her cheeks burned and her breathe became unsteady as she recalled how consumed with lust he had been as he had stared at her naked body as if it was the single most interesting thing he had ever laid his eyes on. He'd been completely hypnotized by her body...much in the same way she was hypnotized by his eyes every time she looked at him.
"V'well?" Antonin prompted.
"I don't know. I'm afraid you'll follow me to the bedroom again," she admitted.
"I had no v'where else to sleep. V'would you rather I slept on the floor?" He gestured to the rug as if the suggestion were ridiculous.
"It looks perfectly comfortable to me." She blushed as she remembered the feeling of the rug against her bare skin when Antonin had wrapped her up in it after she'd gotten frostbite from her first escape attempt. "If it's possible, I'd prefer to sleep here by the fire, and you take the bed."
"That won't v'work," Antonin was quick to say.
"I don't see why not? You'll have the bed to yourself and I will stay here."
Antonin made a frustrated sound, like he couldn't bare it anymore. "Can v'you not see how v'you are driving me mad, little ptitsa? It v'wont v'work because I need to be beside you, v'whether here or there!"
She gulped down the lump in her throat.
If she could just get through this night untouched, she would be able to walk away tomorrow unmarried to him. It remained to be seen whether he would let her walk away completely if and when they got to that point tomorrow.
"I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping, if it's beside you," she said. "You scared me last night when you came in drunk."
She remembered then how he had told her how he saved her life in the Ministry of Magic more than three years ago. She hadn't asked him about it yet.
"In fact...You said something strange last night."
"Oh? V'what is that?" Antonin leaned towards her in his yak chair. She met his eyes across the room.
"You told me you saved my life, at the Ministry."
Antonin shrugged his shoulders and looked away from her, his body language seeming to display embarrassment. Was he really embarrassed he'd done something so kind for her? Shouldn't he be proud?
"It's true isn't it? You saved my life."
~o~
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