I own nothing Harry Potter!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this chapter! There are only 4 more chapters after this.
Hermione POV
"Yes, Draco, right there," I moan as my husband expertly moves his hard, thick shaft into me, hitting that perfectly delicious spot with every stroke. I can feel the tension in that has been building in the pit of my stomach pulse, ready to release. "I'm so close, Draco," I moan helplessly as I move my hips against his. Even though I'm exhausted, I will never be to exhausted to make love to my perfect husband.
"That's it, baby, come for me," Draco's hot breath washing over my ear is all it takes for me to explode, falling over that edge and losing myself in sensation. With a guttural groan, Draco follows behind me, collapsing on top of me and placing loving kisses on my bare chest.
Snapping out of memories from last night, I try to focus my attention on rundown Ron is giving the team at the front of the big conference room in the Aurors' office. Last night with Draco had been just what I'd needed. I'd been feeling overwhelmed with everything lately and then this giant case broke, piling the stress on top of all of the other stress I'd already been carrying. The only thing keeping me grounded and sane was Draco and my kids, oh, and the amazing sex didn't hurt any either.
I manage to make it through the briefing without daydreaming about sex with my husband too much and find myself pouring over papers at my desk. Something about this case is bugging me, like there is something I am missing, some puzzle piece that I can't quite grasp. It's driving me crazy.
"How are you doing? You seem kind of scrambled today," Harry's voice coming from my office door pulls my attention away from the problem I am trying to solve. His green eyes are concerned behind his glasses.
"I'm fine," I sigh, brushing a stray lock of hair out of my face as I look up at him. "Just a lot going on and there's something about this case that is right there, but I just can't grasp it. It's driving me insane," I sigh again. I've been doing a lot of sighing lately.
"Did you get a chance to relax last night?" Harry asks, he'd been here for the all nighter too and knew I was dragging by the time I made it home.
"Yes, I did," a smile escapes me as I think about Draco making love to me. My body heats at the memories as I wish for those times in our early marriage where we would take off mid-day to spend the day screwing each other senseless.
"Good to know Malfoy's taking care of you," Harry teases, knowingly. "Do you want to reconvene in an hour to try and parse out those new leads?" he asks, getting back to business.
"Sure, I'll meet you in your office," I agree, glancing down at my desk. "Hopefully I'll have had a breakthrough by then."
"Great, see you then," Harry nods and leaves Hermione alone with her annoying puzzle again.
Hermione is once again lost in the case, nothing but the case on her mind, when a filmy silver Patronus of a falcon appears. It draws Hermione's attention and her heart jumps into her chest, knowing something is wrong if Draco is sending her a Patronus in the middle of the day.
The falcon opens its mouth and Draco's familiar voice pours out, "Mum just owled and El is sick. I'm taking off now to get the kids. I have it handled, but wanted you to know. I love you, Hermione."
"Shit," Hermione curses, her head falling to her hands. Her baby was sick and she was stuck here at work, working on this big case. Should she take off and go home to take care of El? She wanted to, but she also felt a responsibility to this case and Draco said he had things under control. What the hell was she supposed to do? Maybe it would be easier to just be a stay at home mum like most of the mum's she knew, but then would she be happy? She loved her job, but she loved her family too. Did she have to pick?
Hermione sighs again, finally snapping out of her internal dilemma. What the hell was she supposed to do? "Hermione, are you coming?" Harry's voice draws her attention to her office door again and she realizes that the hour has passed and she's been wrapped up in her internal meltdown the whole time.
"Yeah, sorry," Hermione mutters, trying to shake herself back to reality as she stands, looking around her desk for the papers she will need.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Harry asks, catching on to Hermione's flustered state. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Hermione shakes her head, trying to get hold of herself. "I just heard from Draco and El's sick," she admits to her friend.
"Do you need to go?" Harry asks, dropping the boss persona and jumping into lifelong friend mode.
"No, Draco says he's got it handled," Hermione says. "Besides, we've got to focus on this case."
"Family always comes first, Hermione," Harry says. "If you need to go, go."
Hermione's heart swells at Harry's generosity, but she can't accept. Part of her needs to be here, working on this case. Draco has it handled, she will make sure she's home early and can take over the evening shift of El watch. "No, lets meet. I will just leave by five today to relieve Draco," Hermione says, finally making up her mind.
"Sounds good. If you ever need to talk, Mione, I'm here," Harry says, green eyes searching hers.
"I know," Hermione smiles, gathering herself and heading towards the door. "Thank you, Harry," she says as she follows Harry out of her office and down the hall to dive back into the case.
Hermione hops into the Floo system at the Ministry right after five o'clock and is standing in her living room seconds later. She'd doubled down to get her portion of the work finished on the case so she could be out of the office and to her family as early as possible. It felt good to be home and could feel her stress slowly fading away as she walked farther into the house, in search of Draco. She needed to know how her daughter was doing, she'd been worried about her all day.
"Hey," Hermione says, keeping her voice low, as she finds Draco in the kitchen with Lucas sitting on the floor by his feet.
"Mummy!" Lucas cries when he sees her, bouncing up and barreling at her for a hug.
"Hey, sweetie," Hermione smiles as she catches her little boy and picks him up. This was what happiness felt like, this wiggling three-year-old in her arms.
"Hey, babe, I'm glad you're home early tonight," Draco smiles as he moves over to give Hermione a quick kiss and take Lucas from her arms.
"How's El?" Hermione asks the most pressing question on her mind. She needs to check on her little girl.
"She's doing okay. She hasn't gotten sick since I gave her a potion for her stomach right after we got home. She's sleeping on the couch in the family room right now," Draco explains.
"I'm going to go check on her," I say as I give Draco and Luke each a kiss of their own. "And then I'll come back and then I'll figure out what we're going to have for dinner," I say, realizing that just because my daughter is sick, I still have other home responsibilities.
"We've got dinner covered, don't we, Luke?" Draco asks the little boys in his arms.
"Yep," Lucas answers, nodding his white-blonde head. "We got this, Mummy," he adds with a bright smile.
"Thank you," I say, looking at Draco, full of gratitude. I still don't know how I got so lucky to have Draco as a husband. He was so carrying and loving and willing to help wherever I needed it.
He nods and says, "Go check on our little girl, she needs her Mummy right now," he places a hand on my back and guides me to the family room. Grateful to Draco for everything, I follow his orders and walk into the family room, finding Ellie laying on the couch, her favorite stuffed bunny wrapped in her arms.
"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" I ask as I crouch down in front of her and run a hand over her clammy forehead. It breaks my heart seeing my little girl not feeling well.
"Icky," comes El's small voice as she looks at me, her usually bright, cheerful brown eyes, sad and tired looking. I wish I could make her feel better and take away her pain.
"I know, sweetie," I say brushing her brown curls back from her face. "It'll get better soon," I try to reassure her, knowing that in her five-year-old mind, she can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. "Do you need anything?" I ask.
"I want to cuddle," her tiny, tired voice says as she starts to slowly sit up, making room for me on the couch.
"Of course," I smile, my heart soaring at the fact that I can help my little girl feel better. I scoop her up into my arms and sit down on the couch, positioning her so that she's cuddled in my lap, bunny in her small arms. Ellie cuddles her head against my chest and relaxes into me. Oh, the feeling of having your child cuddled up in your lap, knowing they need you and trust you unconditionally. There are few things better than that.
"It'll be okay, sweetie," I whisper, running my hand over her hair soothingly as her breathing starts to even out. As Ellie falls asleep in my lap, I revel in this feeling, soaking in the motherly emotions running through me. This is exactly what I need right now, my daughter wrapped in my arms and nowhere else to be.
As I hold Ellie, I let my mind wonder back to the case, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together once again until my eyes slide closed and I'm as fast asleep as the little girl on my lap.
"Love," Draco's soft, sweet voice draws me from sleep. It takes me a minute to get my bearings, I'm still sitting in the family room with a sleeping Ellie on my lap. Hmm, I must have fallen asleep, I hadn't realized I was that tired.
"I must have fallen asleep," I state the obvious, my voice groggy as I try to fully wake up.
"You needed the rest," Draco murmurs, running a comforting hand down my arm. "Dinner's ready," he says, voice quiet. "Do you think we should wake her or let her sleep?" Draco asks nodding toward Ellie's sleeping form.
"She should probably try to eat something," I say, glancing down at her sweet sleeping face, hating the thought of waking her up. "Let's see if she can eat a little and then I'll give her a bath and get her ready for bed. It can be an early night," I come up with a plan of action, finally awake and feeling in control again.
"Sounds good," Draco nods.
"Will you lay with me?" Ellie's small voice asks as I tuck her into bed. We had managed to get her to eat a little bit of the chicken noodle soup Draco had made for dinner and then I'd given her a quick bath before bringing her to her room to sleep her illness off.
"Of course, sweetheart," I nod, moving to lay down in the kid sized bed beside her, holding her close to my chest.
"I love you, Mummy," Ellie says, her voice tired and I can tell she's fighting sleep.
"I love you too, Ellie. I hope you feel better in the morning," I place a kiss on her forehead and she cuddles in closer to me falling asleep as I hold her.
I relax next to Ellie, planning to stay for a few more minutes to make sure she's asleep and then leave, but that's where Draco finds me an hour later. "Love," Draco's quiet voice pulls me from sleep for the second time that night as he runs a loving hand over my back.
"Hmm," I mumble as I try to snap to attention, taking in Ellie's dark room around us.
"I'm putting Luke to bed and he wants you to tuck him in," Draco's leans down to whisper in my ear, so her doesn't wake Ellie.
"Of course," I murmur, wiping sleep from my eyes and I sit up, still in a fog. Why the hell was I so tired? Yes, I'd pulled an all nighter the other night, but I shouldn't be falling asleep at the drop of a hat. Whatever, I'd worry about that later.
Slowly standing, I follow Draco through the dark room and out to the hallway. Walking through the doorway directly across from El's, I find my blonde little boy sitting on his bed, dressed in pjs and ready to be tucked in. "Hi, sweetie," I smile at my son, making my way over to him as Draco stands in the doorway, watching.
"Mummy, you get to tuck me in!" he says excitedly as he bounces on his knees in his bed.
"Yes, I do," I smile leaning down to give him a kiss on the forehead as he lays back onto his pillow. "Did Daddy already read you a book?" I asks as I pull the covers up to his chin, just the way he likes it.
"Yep, it was about owls," he smiles up at me, cuddling into the blankets.
"Good, I'm sure you loved that one," I smile, leaning down to place one more kiss on his forehead before standing up and saying, "Sleep tight, little man. I love you."
"I love you, too, Mummy," Lucas smiles and I head out of his room, pausing next to Draco to stare at our little boy, my heart swelling again with gratitude for my family.
We move down the hallway, away from the kids rooms before Draco asks, "Were you ready to go to bed too?" It's barely eight thirty, but I'm absolutely exhausted and my husband can tell.
"Yeah, I think so. I can't seem to keep my eyes open tonight," I sigh, leaning against Draco's chest and closing my eyes as he pulls me into a hug.
"You've had a long couple of days," Draco points out, placing a kiss against my hair. "Give me a few minutes to clean everything up downstairs and I will join you," he promises, hugging me tighter.
"Okay," I nod, pulling out of his embrace and heading to our room to get ready for bed. It had been a long couple of days, but that still didn't explain why I was so tired. Maybe I was coming down with whatever El had, that would explain my sudden exhaustion. Not having the brain capacity to think about it anymore, I climb into bed and cuddle up to my pillow. I'm fast asleep before Draco makes it upstairs.
Thank you for reading, I would love to know what you think!
