Work seemed to drag on over the next few days. Malfoy would come to her office for lunch and they would discuss ideas about the research she was doing, all the while, Hermione eyed him up and down, desperate for a repeat of their first encounter.
They had gone out to dinner Wednesday and Thursday nights but she couldn't seem to get him back to her place. They were an official couple, having had the awkward discussion that started with 'what are we'. She was certain that once the wizarding world found out that there would be shock and outrage, but she couldn't seem to care. She walked the muggle streets hand in hand with him and stopped every so often in the middle of the street simply just to kiss him, something she enjoyed doing quite a great deal.
By Friday, she was itching for some relief. He had visited her office, they had gone to dinner, they had spoken about so many things, but they were yet to have a repeat of their first time.
She had come up with some ideas, a plan to disapparate to her flat, to divest them both of their clothes and enjoy their lunch break in a different way, however, when he got to her office, bearing chicken salad, she closed and locked the door behind him and kissed him hard, while undoing his pants and letting them slide down his legs to the floor.
"Hello to you too" he said with a smile.
"No talking" she whispered as she led him to armchair that stood in the corner.
She sat him down and climbed on top of him, settling her knees either side of his legs, hiking her skirt up. She quickly freed him from his pants and had his length in her hand feeling the silky smooth hardness of him as she glided her hand up and down.
He grabbed her by the backside and pulled her knickers to the side, easing a finger inside of her.
"You've been thinking about this all day" he said.
"Uh huh" she said, as he teased her with his long digit.
"I can tell, you're dripping" he said.
"It's been on my mind since Monday" she said.
"Well, we'd better do something about that" he said, withdrawing his finger and lifting her so she could impale herself on his length.
She felt like a goddess as he watched her pleasure herself on him, grind herself against him. His hands slid under her shirt and freed her from her bra before pinching a nipple, sending a jolt of electricity to her clit. His other hand found its way between them and pressed against her sensitive bundle, causing her to moan in ecstasy. It wouldn't be long. She had been thinking about this all week, dreaming about it, dying for it. He was like a drug to her and she needed him.
Within minutes, she felt her walls tighten around him, she felt the explosions behind her closed eyelids as she succumbed to the feelings inside of her. She felt him jerk up into her, heard him moan out his own release and she came to a still, letting him slowly guide her motions with his hands on her hips. She leant her forehead against the top of his head and stayed in that position until she got her breath back. He lazily toyed with the skin at her hips, but after a few moments, his hands found their way up under her shirt, to cup her breasts.
She didn't know what to make of it. The sex was over, she was satiated, he was certainly done, but as she stayed in that position, she felt him harden inside of her again as he massaged her breasts and thumbed her nipples. She pulled herself closer to him, allowed herself to feel him inside of her, pressed her body against his as his hands travelled to cup her backside.
He guided her motions as he pulled her tight against him, grinding her into him, hissing through his teeth when she moaned a little.
Thy continued throughout their lunch break, eventually moving to the daybed in her office so he could put her on her back. She loved the feeling of being on top, but there was something to be said for being completely at someone's mercy.
When he eventually left her office, she went back to her work, unable to think of anything other than how completely happy Draco Malfoy had made her.
She met Harry and Ron for drinks that afternoon, as usual, and sat talking about their week, as usual. The new shop at Hogsmead was starting to take shape and Harry had begun training a new team of aurors.
She was barely listening, instead wondering when she would see Malfoy again. She was lost in thought when she felt a hand snake around her middle and lips on her temple.
"Drinks?" Malfoy asked the three of them. Harry didn't seem too concerned but Ron stared at her with wide eyes as he nodded to Malfoy.
Malfoy walked off to the bar and Hermione turned her stupid happy grin to the boys.
"What did we miss?" Ron asked.
"I assumed Harry knew and I figured he'd have told you", she said, watching Malfoy step aside for an elderly man at the bar. He was so polite, so considerate. So incredibly sexy.
"Told me? Told me what?" Ron asked.
"Well, you helped set us up, it shouldn't be a surprise to you Ronald" she said.
"You two are official then?" he asked.
"Mmm hmm" she said as she finished her drink.
"Didn't take as long as we thought" Harry said with a grin.
"What can I say? He wooed me" she said, watching him walk back to their table looking as happy as she felt.
OOooOOooOOoo
The next few months passed in a blur of sex, lust and passion.
On their three-month anniversary, they went to a stupidly expensive restaurant and drank insanely expensive wine and Hermione almost died of a heart attack when Malfoy stood from his seat, approached her side of the table and got down on one knee.
It was then that he confessed his love for her, he told her he could not, and would not live without her and that she absolutely must agree to marry him, which she did.
She knew she loved him, she felt it after the first week. He was everything to her and to him, the day began and ended with her.
Despite the speed at which they had gotten close, Hermione agreed to move out of her small flat and move in with him to a new townhouse that they chose together. They bought all new furniture, panted the walls crazy shades of Gryffindor maroon and Slytherin Green. Somehow, they worked. Somehow, she had found her soul mate in Draco Malfoy.
They married on their 6 month anniversary in a small ceremony surrounded by close friends. Neither of them had family left, with Hermione's parents still in Australia with no memory of her and Draco's father in prison and his mother having moved abroad.
Draco surprised her with a honeymoon to Australia, where they spent some time in the town where her parents lived, watching them, following them around, seeing what they did with their days. She was happy to see that they were happy, living a peaceful life in a safe place, away from the stress and drama of magic. Being a witch was part of who Hermione was, she couldn't give it up if she tried, but her parents, they didn't have to live like that. One foot in the door of the world of magic and the rest of them living in the muggle world.
She loved the seaside town they had chosen, the easy going lifestyle She could easily see herself growing up there, going to muggle university and being part of the scene, but when she looked to Malfoy, she knew he was where she was supposed to be. No matter where he was, that's where she would be.
In the lead up to their one year anniversary, Hermione had been feeling a little off. She thought it may have been something she had eaten, but when the feeling didn't go away, she realised she may have been pregnant.
Indeed, she cast the spell on herself and discovered that she was pregnant, and she couldn't be happier. She was completely head over heels in love with her husband and adding a child to their already perfect lives would just make things that much sweeter.
She kept it hidden until they went out to celebrate their wedding anniversary. She had been to a muggle doctor and had a muggle scan, thinking it quite funny that with all that fuss she could easily cast spells herself to ensure the health of their baby. Halfway through their meal, she reached into her handbag and pulled out a grainy black and white photo of, what looked like a blob.
"What is it?" he asked her, turning the photo upside down and sideways.
"It's a baby" she said with a smile.
"A baby?" he asked.
"Our… baby" she responded.
His reaction came in waves. At first he sat there shocked, like he had been told someone had died, then he smiled, then tears sprang from his eyes as he stood, picked her up out of her char and spun her around in front of the whole restaurant.
"We're going to have a baby?" he asked.
"In about 6 months from now" she said.
"You have no idea how happy this makes me" he said as he spun her around and kissed her. Everyone in the restaurant was looking at them, smiling at them, clapping for them.
Hermione's life was just perfect. Everything was great.
The months flew by so fast and soon, Hermione was approaching her due date. She took leave from her job and started setting up the nursery. She curled up beside Draco every night and they often spoke of how incredible their lives were, how crazy it was that from everything that had happened, they had managed to find each other, to find this. To get to this.
A few days before her due date, Hermione woke early with pains that came and went. She knew enough to know it wasn't serious, so she went back to sleep. When she woke a little later, she got up to go to the toilet and felt her waters break, fluid leaking out of her rapidly.
She sent a patronus to Draco at work, who floo'd home to her immediately and ushered her to St Mungos, where she delivered their baby. A daughter named Cassiopeia Jean Granger Malfoy was born that day and instantly stole the hearts of anyone who met her.
She was an easy baby, never fussy, slept through the night from about 6 weeks onwards and smiled and giggled often. Harry and Ron adored her and even Pansy Parkinson came around and developed a fondness for the grey eyed, blond-haired bundle.
When Cassie was 4 months old, Draco kissed his wife and went to work, as he did every other day. He checked on their sleeping daughter, smiling to himself as she grunted in her sleep.
Hermione closed her eyes and let herself fall back to sleep, knowing that Cassie would wake and cry for her when she was ready.
When she woke, the sun was far too high in the sky and her breasts were full with lack of nursing. There was no sound in the house, which she thought was odd. Cassie slept through, but when she was awake, she certainly let Hermione know. They had a routing, Draco would go to work, Hermione would drift off and Cassie would wake shortly afterwards. They'd sit up in bed while Hermione nursed her and then they would get ready for the day.
This day, however, something was off. It was late. Far later than she had ever slept in before and Hermione was worried. She threw on her dressing gown and headed quickly into Cassie's room to see if perhaps someone had come and occupied her while Hermione slept. She looked into the crib and saw her daughter laying there, looking peaceful. She stood and watched her for a few moments before she realised that something wasn't right.
The cute grunts and sounds she made when she slept were not existent. The rise and fall of her chest was gone. The colour of her lips had changed to grey.
Hermione pulled back the blankets and picked up her daughter, listening for sounds of breathing. There were none. Her daughter was cold, her body lifeless.
The next hour flew by in a blur of paramedics, doctors, hospitals and Draco's blank expression.
Eventually, when the doctors stopped working on their baby, the head doctor came and told them the bad news. Cassiopeia had died in her sleep. A condition that effected more than 200 babies per year in the UK alone.
The doctor gave Hermione some information to look through while they were lead into the room where her daughter's cold body lay. She ran her fingers through her hair, she pressed her fingertips to her cold lips. She picked her up and cradled her to her chest, begging, desperate, pleading to have the day start over again. To stay awake when Draco left for work. To wake little Cassie so that she didn't just stop breathing in her sleep.
In the days that followed, Draco retreated not his shell. Try as Hermione might, she couldn't get him to talk. Not to her, not to anyone.
They held a small funeral and had their daughter cremated, keeping her ashes in a small urn atop the mantle.
Hermione's perfect life was shattered. Once everything was done and people stopped calling by, she started to think. And overthink. She wondered if Draco blamed her, if his silence and distance was because it was her fault.
The further she retreated into these fears, the worse they became.
Of course it was her fault. What kind of mother sleeps the day away while their child, their baby, the most important person in the world slips away?
When Draco spoke to her, it was torturous. She felt the guilt, she felt the pain. She felt the way that he looked at her, she felt it inside of her bones, in her very soul. The guilt, the blame. The fear. Worst of all, when she looked at Draco, all she could see was her baby. Her baby's eyes. His eyes.
She knew that he hated her. If he didn't, he ought to.
She only cried now. Cried for her baby. She shut Cassie's bedroom door and vowed never to open it again. Never to look in, to imagine that her daughter was still here, playing quietly in her cot, waiting for her mum to come and nurse her.
With grief in her heart and pain in her soul, Hermione packed a bag in the dead of night and wrote a letter to Draco.
She said everything in the letter that she hadn't been able to say out loud – her guilt, her sorrow, her gut-wrenching pain and loneliness.
She left it by his bedside and kissed him with tears flowing down her cheeks as she turned on the spot and left him with a soft pop.
She apparated around Europe for a few weeks, eventually settling in Australia.
She remembered the places they had gone on their honeymoon, the things they had seen and done. It was perfect. She cold be close to the only family she had, even if they didn't know she existed. She spent some time following them around before deciding to enrol in university. She avoided everything related to babies and eventually found herself waking without wanting to end it all, with the help of alcohol.
She drank to excess to numb the pain and she accepted an invitation from some of her cohort to a club in order to find some meaning in all of this.
She danced, she drank, and she eventually found herself on her own. It was a horrible feeling. She hated herself, she hated her life. She wanted to end it, to leave this world and be with her daughter, but she couldn't. She wouldn't. She had to go on, if not for herself then for Cassie.
She went out again the following weekend, desperate to forget, to have fun, to be young and wild and free.
When a young good looking Australian guy approached her, she initially hesitated, knowing that she was a married woman. She smiled politely and continued dancing, assuming he'd leave if she didn't openly indicate her interest.
When his hands found her waist, she immediately felt sick. She loved Draco, that much was true, but he hated her. He wouldn't care that another man had his hands on her, in fact, he would welcome it. To see her degrade herself with a one-night stand, allow a man to use her body that way.
"Repentance" she said to herself.
"What?" the man asked, but she shrugged as she leant in and kissed him.
I'm sorry, that chapter hurt me to write. I've never lost a child but I have experienced significant grief in my life and it hurts. My goodness it hurts. My 12yo son had a medical event last week and it shook me to my core. I thought I would lose him and I have never been more terrified (he's ok, thankfully). No parent should have to mourn a child. To anyone who has, my thoughts and my heart go out to you. Truly.