Boathouse
On Draco's birthday, Hermione pulls a wrapped present out of her bag and hands it over. "I'm not very good at gift giving," she says remorsefully.
"You don't think so?"
She shakes her head. "I always try to come up with something clever, but it never works out in the end. Every single present I've ever given Harry or Ron has been sweets or something to do with Quidditch. But I was sure your mum would send you sweets, and you probably already have everything there is to do with Quidditch, at least that I can afford, so… So this is the best I could come up with. Go ahead and open it."
Draco unwraps the small package and, thanks to its size and weight, isn't too surprised to discover it's a book.
One by Maya Angelou.
"But this is clever," he says. "Tell me again, what was that quote of hers I liked so much?"
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
"Is that from this book?"
"No, this is her latest, came out only a few years ago. It's a collection of essays."
"Well, I think it's a great gift. Thank you." Draco kisses Hermione on her forehead.
She groans. "You hate it," she says.
"Not at all! I think it's really thoughtful."
"But it's a book. Of course I'd give you a book!"
"Hermione, stop. I love it. I'm worried about finding an opportunity to read it, because it's not like I can do that with Crabbe and Goyle in the dorm. And I don't think I should take it to the Manor over summer either. So if you're sensing any strangeness from me, maybe it's because of that. But it's a great gift. Honestly."
Draco sets the book on the floor and pulls Hermione into a dance, something they haven't done as much lately, too busy studying and snogging instead. And it seems to work for a bit. She's all cheered up. Until she's not. She frowns, and Draco's tries to think of what else he can say to comfort her.
"There's a second gift," she says, speaking up before he's able to. "I was going back and forth on whether or not to tell you, but..."
"But?"
She makes a face like she's annoyed with herself, like she's still going back and forth about it and, at present, she wishes she hadn't said anything.
"Too late. You've got to tell me now," says Draco.
Hermione spins herself under their arms. With greater assurance, she asks, "Have Occlumency lessons improved lately?"
Oh! That's an interesting question. Very interesting, indeed, all things considered.
Draco wets his lips. "Why are you asking? Wearing something scandalous under all this?" He tugs at her robes. "Going to give me a show if I can assure you Snape won't ever find out about it?"
"I'm not wearing anything scandalous," she says pointedly.
"But you are thinking of giving me a show?"
"No," says Hermione, unamused. "Answer my question. How are lessons going?"
"The most serious moments between us are the easiest to hide," Draco tells her truthfully. "Blocking Snape, or shoving him out of my mind once he's there, that requires a feeling of defiance. And it's easy to conjure that feeling about moments that would be private, even if our relationship wasn't a secret."
"But the little things are harder to hide?" Hermione asks. "The moments that shouldn't be a big deal, those are the moments Snape's able to see?"
"The moments that wouldn't be a big deal," says Draco, "if it weren't for the Dark Lord's return."
Does she catch his full meaning? He doesn't care at all, not one tiny iota, what his parents or anyone else would think of them being together. It's truly - truly, truly, truly - only for safety that their relationship has to remain a secret.
"Alright, then," says Hermione. She reaches into her pocket and retrieves a folded up piece of parchment. She starts to hand it to Draco, but yanks it back when he puts his hand out. "You absolutely cannot read this while we're together. Take it back to your dorm and find some time when Crabbe and Goyle aren't around. It's not as long as Maya Angelou's book, so I'm sure you'll be able to manage that."
Draco grins. "You wrote me a love letter?"
"No, not exactly."
"No? Is it a poem? Are you into poetry?"
"It's… It's something to help hold you over until next term. Since we're waiting."
"Waiting for -" It clicks and Draco's whole body surges with heat. He's never been so turned on by the sheer idea of something. "Tell me more about it," he says.
"It's, um…" Hermione looks away. Typical. She always struggles to face him straight on when emotions are heightened. "It's a description of what our first time might be like," she says." You know, 'I'll do this to you and then you'll do that to me.' That sort of thing."
She wiggles the parchment like, "Here, you can have this now." Draco snatches it and shoves it in his pocket. He kisses her deeply.
"Happy birthday," she says when they pause for air. She sounds gloomy, and Draco chuckles at her obvious and prolonged embarrassment.
"Thank you. I'm looking forward to reading both of my gifts," he says.
They resume dancing and after a while, Hermione says, "Our first time will be my first time. That's true for you too, isn't it? I've been assuming, but I'd like to know for sure."
"All I've ever done is kissing," Draco assures her. "Before you, there was a brief summer fling with a girl named Ingrid. A second cousin of Crabbe's who visited from Germany. Better looking than him, but not half as good looking as you."
Hermione smiles appreciatively. "That's really it? No one else?"
"You find that hard to believe?"
"You have a talent for it. Kissing. Seems like maybe you've had a lot of practice."
Draco scoffs. "Ingrid didn't seem particularly impressed. Maybe it's you who makes our kissing so enjoyable."
She doesn't say anything.
"Hermione."
"Draco."
"I told you mine, now you tell me yours."
"Viktor and a boy who used to live in my parents' neighborhood," she says dispassionately. "Ben. Also a summer fling."
"Just kissing?"
She looks like she doesn't want to answer that, which gives the answer away, at least partially.
"A bit more than that with Krum," she says. "Only a tiny bit more."
"Please explain."
"Draco, no. Please don't get upset. I like you so much more than I ever liked him. And the only reason he got any further - and I swear, it barely counts - is because I was too nervous to set boundaries as I should have. But I'm much more comfortable with you, which means setting boundaries hasn't been an issue. And that means so much to me. It really, really does."
Hermione's going to refuse him? She's not going to tell him all that she and Krum did together? For a second, Draco's offended. But then her words sink in deeper, and he realizes what's actually bothering him.
"I hear you, Granger. I do. But knowing is better than not knowing, trust me. Because not knowing means I'll imagine something far worse than what it was. It's like I told you on the train, I sometimes fixate on the worst possible scenario."
Hermione bites her lip. "Yeah, alright. I'll tell you," she says. "You remember the night of our first kiss?"
Draco nods.
"Well, Viktor put his hands under my skirt like that once too, but I didn't stop him as quickly as I stopped you. Maybe ten seconds later, so it hardly counts in my opinion, but technically… further."
"I see."
"I'm sorry."
"No, don't be sorry. It's not -" Why does Hermione apologizing bother Draco so much? "We weren't together then," he clips, "so I'm not upset that it happened. Well, I am upset if you felt pressured. But what I'm struggling
with most -"
What is that exactly? Draco's unable to make sense of it. His frustration melts as he looks at Hermione's perfect face.
"Remind me," he says. "What was your reason for waiting until next term? Something about a bed?"
She gives a weak smile. "I don't want our first time to be in this cold and grimy boathouse."
The location is what she cares about? Really? Draco's briefly frustrated again, half tempted to ask Hermione where she and Krum were he put his fingers inside her, but he refrains. He tells himself they probably didn't have as many snogging sessions, and those sessions probably weren't as amazing either. And he bets Hermione never - ever - considered having her first time be with Krum. And she certainly wouldn't have gifted him a description of what that first time could be like.
It's like she said, she wasn't comfortable enough with him for anything like that.
"My birthday present?" he asks.
"What about it?"
"You said I can't read it until later?"
"That's correct.
"Give me a little hint, then" Draco begs.
"Let me start by explaining how I even had a clue what to write," says Hermione. "You know how I room with Lavender and Parvati?"
"Sure."
"Well, they're very curious about everything to do with sex. And they've got no shame when it comes to asking older girls about it. So Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell have spent a lot of time in our room answering questions. Katie, especially, isn't afraid to kiss and tell. And between Oliver Wood last year and Lee Jordan this year, she's got plenty to say."
Draco smirks. "And you've been listening and giving some thought to what you and I should try together? And you wrote it all down for me? A thorough description?"
"Well, don't get too excited," says Hermione. "It's not a bunch of super sexy, creative, experimental ideas. Like I said, it's what our first time could be like. A fairly realistic description, I think."
"You sneak into my room wearing an invisibility cloak?"
"That's how it starts."
"And then what?"
"And then a lot of foreplay, and you're on top, and my legs shake, and we both finish, and that's all I'm going to say about it right now."
"Your legs shake?"
"Oh my god." Hermione covers her hands over her face.
"Come here," says Draco. He moves her hands away, leans in, and -
"You say that too," she says softly.
"Come here?"
Hermione nods. "Haven't you noticed? You say it a lot. Even before we were together, you said it sometimes. It was the first thing that gave me butterflies, actually. That day in the potions storeroom, you were trying to get me to stop crying, so tucked your hands under my legs, pulled me closer, and you said, 'Come here.'"
"And you liked that?" Draco asks.
"Very much."
For the first time, he doesn't simply think those three little words, he actually considers saying them out loud. I love you. I do. I love you.
What would Hermione think - how would she respond - if Draco actually said that to her? Not knowing is keeps him from doing it. Sometime soon, though. Sometimes very soon, he'll find the courage to tell her how far his feelings have come.
"I read it," Draco announces the next time they're together. "A bunch of times."
"And?" Hermione asks nervously.
"And, honestly, I loved it. The first ten times. But then I started to worry. What if I let you down? What if I'm not that good at it?"
"Oh, Draco! No, don't be worried about that. I promise I don't have unrealistic expectations, or even super specific expectations. What I wrote? Those were just ideas, something fun for you to have. But it doesn't have to be in that order, or that position, or… What I'm trying to say is that it can be completely different, and it'll still be perfect. Because it'll be us."
Damn. That does a lot to help Draco's confidence. It really does. Still, he's unsure how to respond, so he busies himself with levitating the boat out of the water and moving the pillows and blankets over. Silently, they climb in get into their familiar position.
"And it's okay if I don't finish the first time," Hermione continues. "Or even the first several times. I've heard that's pretty common. Because boys - Well, I've also heard that early on, boys tend to finish quickly. So if either of those things happen, please don't let it bother you. But also… I mean, I wrote it the way I did for a reason. With lots of foreplay and um…"
There it is, her nervousness returning.
"Lots of foreplay and then what?" Draco teases.
"And then you, um… you climax pretty quickly," she says quietly, "once you're…"
Draco moves so that he's got his knees on either side of her hips and his face close to hers. "Once I'm what?" he asks.
Hermione lifts up to kiss him, but he pulls away. "Say it, Granger. Once I'm what?"
"Once you're inside of me," she whispers.
The kiss that follows. Holy fuck.
Usually, the first kiss of the night builds. Starts delicate and sweet before evolving into rough and needy. This time it's the opposite. When this kiss starts, he's got a tight grip on her hair and she sucks his bottom lip like it's a sugar quill. But after a few minutes, he's tenderly kissing her neck and she's lightly fiddling with the buttons on his shirt.
No, not fiddling, Draco realizes. Moving slowly but with purpose. Unfastening the buttons. Undressing him.
Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.
Though adrenaline surges through his whole body, Draco keeps kissing her tenderly, not wanting to spook her with any sort of change. And then his shirt is wide open, and she's starting to explore with urgency, and she's moaning his name.
"Draco -"
"Hermione?"
Is it possible that she's changed her mind about waiting until next term. Or, at least, that she's less sure of the timeline than she used to be? Maybe she's trying to figure it out at this very moment...
"There's something I want to try," she says between kisses. "But don't get don't get too carried away with ideas, okay?"
"Okay."
Hermione pushes Draco back enough that she's able to sit up, and then she lifts her shirt over her head and discards it over the side of the boat. When she lays back down, he stays upright, taking in the sight of her underneath him. He knows she still has her skirt on, but everything he can see is bare except for her bra.
"That's the same shade of blue you wore for the Yule Ball," he says.
"Blue? No, periwinkle."
Draco snorts. "That's a color? That sounds like something we'd learn about in Herbology."
"Yes, well it is also the name of a flower," says Hermione. "So -" Her eyes land on Draco's chest and she seems to forget they were speaking.
"Hermione?"
"Same thing we've been doing, alright? Nothing more than that," she says. "But this way I can feel more of your skin right on mine."
"Should I -" Draco starts to shrug off his unbuttoned shirt but pauses to seek her confirmation.
Hermione nods, and his shirt joins hers over the side of the boat.
It's back to tender kisses and light touching after that, the brief detour into urgency forgotten, or at least put on pause.
"Let's switch," she says after a while, and then she's straddling him, and he's cupping her arse under her skirt, and she's grabbing his neck…
With her thumb, Hermione guides Draco's chin to one side, clearing a path to his earlobe. She takes it in her teeth and sucks on it like she did with his bottom lip earlier. He squeezes her arse tighter.
"Put your hands in my knickers," she says right into his ear.
He does so immediately, and then he's touching that spot just below her back dimples, that spot right where her cheeks meet and begin. And then he's gliding down, down, down -
But his arms stretch only so far. And even if that wasn't the problem, she's on top. Meaning where their bodies meet, his path is blocked.
"Let's switch back," he says before he's really thought about it. He has an image in his head, something he desperately wants to do to her, but does she want that too? Is it worth asking her, worth risking her feeling pressured?
Hermione nods and starts to maneuver. And then, because there's only so much space in the boat, there's this moment when she's on bottom again, but on her stomach - This moment right before she's flip over -
"Stay right there," says Draco. "Right like that."
A small change of plans has occurred to him, but hopefully one that will make a big impact. Hopefully what he has in mind now is something Hermione won't be able to refuse. Because at the end of what she wrote for his birthday, she said that after they both finished, she'd suggest being on top next time. 'And the time after that, we can try with me on my hands and knees…' That's exactly how she put it, ellipses and everything.
And that's how Draco knows Hermione wants it from behind.
She looks over her shoulder. "Exchanging backrubs now?" she asks, her innocence sincere.
Draco shakes his head. "Let's start with you on your stomach like that," he says, "and then in a little bit, I'll have you on your hands and knees."
Hermione rolls onto her side to better look at him. "Draco, no. I'm not ready for that," she says.
"Just my hand, love. But from behind. Please."
Her lips twitch, a smile she's feeling too shy to allow. "Say please again," she says.
"Please."
"And call me love again."
"Please, love."
She moves onto her stomach, gathering her hair over one shoulder in the process. She turns her head to the side so Draco can see her profile, see her perfect mouth as she tells him, "Take your time, okay?"
"Don't worry, that's the plan."
Instead of putting a knee on either side of her like usual, Draco puts a knee one either side of just one of her outstretched legs. He leans over her nearly naked back, and he gently kisses and bites her until she's got goosebumps all over and she can't hold her head up anymore.
"Oh my god…" she moans, her words muffled by a hand she's holding close to her face.
Draco keeps kissing her, more on the left side now, putting his weight on that arm so his other is free. Now he skims her thighs with his fingertips… Toying with the edge of her knickers… Moves his hand lower, closer to the ground, closer to where it will feel best for her...
Hermione lifts her arse a fraction, giving him more room to play. He goes under her knickers, but not yet inside of her. She lifts her arse another fraction.
"On your knees now, love."
Hermione does as she's told. She obeys Draco's command.
Sweet fucking Salazar, she's gorgeous.
"You look good, Hermione. Really good."
She rocks back on her knees and Draco keeps his fingers pressed hard against her.
"Draco?"
"Hmm?"
"Stop teasing me."
He smirks, and then he starts with one finger. It slides in easily because she's plenty wet by now, but even so, his one finger might as well be his entire fist. She's incredibly tight. Spot on, there, with what she wrote for him. When it comes time for the real thing, he'll have to enter her slowly, small thrusts. Bit by bit by bit.
Draco pumps with more pressure, but not exactly fast. That part's still to come.
Meanwhile, Hermione can't decide how she wants her upper half. She moves from up on her hands to down on her forearms. Then back up again. Then back down again. But her motions are far from self-conscious. Draco can tell because every time she moves, she makes soft noises. Her eyes are closed, and her lips are parted, and she's definitely enjoying this. Way, way too much to be self-conscious.
It's one of the times she's down on her forearms that Draco adds a second finger, and his cock jolts when he sees her reaction, sees Hermione biting her knuckles, panting on them.
More pressure. More speed. And before long, she's rocking back and forth, helping him get deeper. And then it's less like he's fingering her and more like she's fucking his hand.
With the other, Draco reaches forward and grabs her breast. He pinches her nippel. And now she's breathing harder than ever before.
"Draco," she whimpers.
She thrusts back at the same time he drives forward, and the sound she makes - She almost sounds like she's been injured.
And then it's not just her legs but her entire body - it shakes. After another few moments, she drops her head to the pillow underneath her, mostly done but still reeling in the aftermath. And then she collapses completely.
Draco wipes his fingers on one of the blankets and collapses too, partly next to her, partly on top of her.
She twists her head and grins at him. "You're a genius," she says.
"From behind was a good idea, huh?"
Hermione wiggles out from under Draco so she can answer him with a kiss. And his thoughts are so loud this time, he's surprised she doesn't hear them.
I love you, I love you, I love you.
"You're stunning, Hermione Granger," he says instead. "You're so fucking stunning I don't know what to do with myself sometimes."
