AN: A HUGE thank you to all of my reviewers! You have all been seriously so kind and thoughtful. It warms my heart for real, to know there are those of you that really enjoy this story. I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am. I hope wherever you are in the world, this chapter has found you well. I hope that you get through all of your pain and hardships. These last couple years were huge bummers and the world is in turmoil as usual, so much love to all of you, I wish you all peace and thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Fluff galore.

We Always Have A Choice
Part Five
-o-

Hermione was walking back from rounds, having had a long discussion with Padma about various things. Mostly they talked about how they were leaving Hogwarts next week, and what they thought were the most challenging assignments of the year. Nothing was spoken about Voldemort, nor the impending darkness encroaching Wizarding Britain, which was fine with Hermione. Plus, the lighthearted back and forth had been a welcome, far more wholesome distraction from mulling over the sinful affair she'd gotten herself into.

Yet now that she was alone again, it had all come rushing in. She did not even think her best mates would believe her, if she told them what she felt for Malfoy, what they had done.

There was still hope. He had seemed very pensive at the end of their encounter, thoughtful.

"There's... there's still time."

He had agreed with her about that... was he actually leaning more towards the right decision? Hermione had wanted him to make the choice on his own. She did not want to have to go against him now, and report Draco after all they had experienced with each other.

It would break her heart to turn him in, but she would have to. She already felt like such a traitor, for not telling Harry and Ron about all she confirmed. If she did not say anything, Draco would be forced to go through with an assassination on their Headmaster. She would have to live with that guilt for the rest of her life.

However, when she really thought about it, she did not believe the Slytherin would be able to follow through with it. Besides that, taking down Dumbledore? Yeah, right. There was no way. Dumbledore would surely make a quick end of the attempt.

But besides that point, it was just not worth taking the risk.

As she neared the Fat Lady's portrait to Gryffindor Tower, a dark figure came toward her from the shadows. At first, she'd thought it was going to be Peeves, but then the cascading soft light from the candles hit that shock of silver hair as he stepped toward her.

"Draco?" He had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he curled his hand around her wrist. "What are you doing?" she hissed, whipping her head around to check for anyone coming. He pulled her behind the large tapestry down the hall which hung inconspicuously, hiding a small sitting nook with enough space to stand and not be seen.

Before she could say anything else, he then entwined his long fingers into her hair, cradling both the back of her head and her neck. Draco's soothing, nutty man scent engulfed her yet again, his lean but hard frame melding against her. It drenched her in the most comforting feeling. "You left something behind," he whispered, a coy timber in his subdued voice.

Her brow quirked, playful at his temperament. "Which is?"

He licked his lips, planting his wet mouth over hers in a ravage. Hermione closed her eyes, positively melting. He had wanted a goodnight kiss? Really? She was touched.

His tongue darted through her lips and Hermione twisted hers around it with fervor. She fisted his sweater by his lower back as Draco tasted and toyed with her lips languidly, lasciviously. It felt as if she were a great candy he couldn't get enough of.

Epic, sensual moments ticked on, it could have been decades for all Hermione knew. She was lost with him, inside a bubble in time. She could stay forever, a special place she would always keep in the depths of her soul.

He broke from her, pressing his forehead to hers and sighing through his nose. One of his hands had clutched underneath her collar, his knuckles tight. The other held her to him by her waist, tangling in her long caramel locks. Draco appeared to be snagged by whatever tumultuous thoughts were whirring in his unforgiving mind. He was definitely going to say something but it would be with great difficulty.

Hermione wanted to gently nudge this along, mostly because it was already past curfew. She might have been a Prefect but he was not, and, though she had been in far more precarious circumstances this week and even just today, she did not want to press their forbidden luck.

"A goodnight kiss surely must not be all you wanted," she smiled slyly and Draco surprised her by pressing his mouth on hers again in a short, but intense bond.

"Don't tempt me," he muttered huskily.

Hermione's expression gained an air of haughtiness, though she was deeply swooned. "That's not what I meant,"

A small smirk tugged at him, rolling his eyes slightly and Hermione rolled hers right back. Of course, nothing could get past her. There were several intense seconds that flew by in which Draco did not answer her, his jaw clenched and eyes shut.

And then –

"I think I want to... talk to Dumbledore."

Hermione could not stop her mouth from falling open, hearing the words but still finding them hard to believe. "Do you really?" she didn't sound skeptical necessarily, but she was, despite the hope that made her feel as if the air were filling her lungs, as if her feet might leave the ground from her elation.

"Heh, don't sound so surprised, Granger," he released her and leaned back almost leisurely against the wall, his churning, cloudy gaze drilling into hers. "You had to have seen it coming." In his mind, Draco had rehearsed many different things to say depending on the various possible reactions he might receive from her.

"I wasn't sure what to expect, honestly," she conveyed, biting her lip and fidgeting her fingers in front of her. Yet she held his stare with just as much valiance, the roar of the lioness within flaring to life. "Are you positively certain? This is... this is what you want?"

"I've... thought it through, yes," Draco told her, swallowing the weight of his lies. "But I'm not doing it unless you accompany me," he finished firmly.

"That's fair," Hermione agreed all too willing to be there by his side and see first-hand, the Slytherin's concession to the light. "I'm perfectly happy to, it's... absolutely wonderful. You're... surprisingly wonderful,"

He took a hit to his gut as her smile sweetly blossomed upon those irresistible lips and the guilt already threatened to drown him. Her warm eyes drew him in, her mouth finding his and Draco pretended that this was real... that this situation could be the reality. He wished so deeply, they could continue on like this, together. This stupid task was the worst thing that'd ever happened to him, and she was the best.

Hermione broke away, a million questions having piled up on her tongue. "But how? What made you see differently? I-I want to better understand,"

Draco's throat bobbed in his anxiousness. He had seen this coming. "I just..." he gripped her smaller hands in his, "After all this, with you... it got harder and harder to deny the things I always knew. I lived my entire life with my eyes half-closed, pushing away and suppressing what threatened my way of thinking – my family's way of thinking..." he trailed off, gritting his teeth for a moment before searching deeply into her enthralled gaze, willing her to understand where he was coming from. "I always knew, Granger, how incredible you are," her breath hitched with a tiny gasp, blushing feverishly at his admission. "Within I always knew you were deserving of your magic, every bit of it. I did not want to look at what was right in front of me and now, it just feels like all of a sudden, I can see, I can see everything,"

And he truly could. None of this was even really a lie, he had known as soon as he voiced it out loud, but that still didn't make what he was doing any less cruel. "Just like that?" Hermione asked, dazed and aroused in her shock.

"Yeah, just like that."

Hermione snaked her arms around his middle and nestled herself against him. Her soft curls tickled his chin as he rested his cheek into them. It was immeasurable, the amount of enjoyment this embrace brought them. "Thank you,"

"Don't," Draco gulped down more and more guilt. He was going to capsize if he did not get out of there soon. "Don't thank me. Really, I... should be thanking you,"

Hermione's eyes flashed with a vague hint of suspicion, but her hope for him won out for she could not stop the cheeky grin on her face. Giving others the benefit of the doubt was more her style. "Will you?"

"Will I what?"

She shrugged casually, her tone flirtatious, "Will you 'thank me' then?"

Draco immediately gripped her hips, roughly forcing her lower half into his sturdiness. "I'll 'thank you' over and over again, all night, if you like,"

Hermione held onto the front of his shirt as he handled her with that rugged manliness that was so unlike the Draco she used to know. It had made her weak in her limbs ever since he first laid his hands on her, his predatory touch sparking that buzzing, scorching ache in her core, possibly forevermore.

His open mouth slanted above, capturing hers in an all-consuming bond. Their bodies, though vastly different, somehow fit perfectly, snugly together. Draco could kiss her until he grew too old, and became too frail to do so. He wanted her to be the last thing he held as he died, he –

He was in love with her.

But he could not actually have her, the witch he was never supposed to feel this way about. The guilt was now too much for him, countless minutes snogging contentedly there in that hidden alcove. Draco did not deserve this but he had no ability to control himself. He should have thrown himself off the Astronomy Tower when he first thought of it. He still could.

Draco watched with heavily hooded eyes, as Hermione backed into the wall, raising her skirt to expose her thick thighs teasingly. He loosened his tie instinctively, licking his lips when she then slid her hands beneath the skirt and tore down those same white panties until they lay encircled around one ankle.

All thoughts of ending his life had flown out from his being. Draco found himself cradling Hermione's cheek, sweeping feathery light kisses along her jaw, her throat while he undid the button and zipper of his slacks. They fell low enough to release his now painfully straining manhood, what this minx did to him. Sex twice in a night? He was the luckiest prat.

He helped secure the front of her skirt up so he could see the top of her pretty cunt, and with the fingers of his other hand, felt just how soaked she was. Again. For him. Hermione Granger was practically dripping down her thighs and his cock lurched, his entire body trembling with animalistic demand.

She was groaning encouragingly, frustratingly as she spread wider for him, her thigh coming up to rest over Draco's hip. His long rod met her ever slickening entrance with ease and he pushed in, fully submerging within her tight silky juiciness. He whimpered brokenly in her ear, scrunching a fist in her hair. "Yes, yes, Draco," Hermione whispered between tiny gasps and begging moans of desperation.

Draco pulled out bit by bit before driving himself inside her again. He did so slowly, thrice more, four times until he was fucking her at a burgeoning pace. For once he was speechless, flabbergasted by the revelation of how deeply he felt for her. All he could do was huff and puff with every thrust, making love with the only girl he had ever allowed under his skin.

He hadn't meant to fall for her. It felt as if he had no control over that part of himself, like his trajectory had already been panning in this direction, slowly towards Granger since he had met her in first year. Like a feeling he couldn't place every time he looked at her, whenever she stood near. Though obviously, he had mostly ignored that feeling until now.

The life he was born into, the family and friends, the choices he'd made and the darkness burning through his very veins, had all been attempting to keep him from this one special thing... but his inner compass would only point to her – his true North.

The pads of his fingers found her sensitive bud above where his cock slid in and out of her. Hermione keened with gratitude, the onslaught of the heavenly friction causing her head to loll from side to side, her toes curling.

"Yes, that's it," he purred adoringly. "Come for me beautiful," he massaged her in steadfast, pulsing presses and it only took a couple of glorious moments for Hermione to break apart at the seams. Her unbidden moaning escalated loudly and Draco cupped his hand over her lips to muffle it, relishing in the sinfully good feeling of her clenching wetness overtaking his superbly slickened cock.

He had only just realized they had never even bothered to cast any spells to conceal this illicit tryst, but not caring one bit as his starry gaze saw the inside of his skull, biting down on his lip too hard as his orgasm surged out from him and deep within his precious witch.

Draco's mouth hovered over hers tenuously, their breaths mingling until he sealed them together. As if it weren't so before, now, now it was going to be that much more difficult to follow through with his plans, even to go on with his life.

When their limbs finally ached from overuse and their brains felt sufficiently fuzzy, they withdrew from each other. They cleaned themselves up, straightening out their appearances, and Draco once again shielded her womb from his searching seed.

After an awkward second or two, he smirked handsomely, "Well, well," he fixed the front of his semi-sweaty locks away from his face. "That was unexpected,"

"This whole thing's been unexpected really," Hermione replied and Draco snickered. She wrung her hands briefly in front of her, beginning to get worried someone might've noticed her absence by now. "Right, well, I don't mean to rush away again but we should both definitely get back to where we belong. I'll see you tomorrow then,"

She made to leave but he stopped her, "Just... do me one more favor, yeah? If you don't mind, could you just wait for me to be ready?" he asked, referring to their meeting with the Headmaster. "I-I'm going to need some time to think an-and prepare a little before I do this. I could be ready tomorrow evening but... I don't know. It might end up being Saturday."

Hermione, against her own wishes, felt again a twinge of suspicion. Was this her natural distrust for Draco, and anyone like him? He was a sodding Death Eater. Was he actually going to be able to do this? Her thoughts ran away from her, and she shook her head, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. He seemed sincere throughout these shared times together. Hermione wanted to believe Draco so badly. Was it just her mind playing tricks on her?

"Of course," she said finally, and Draco let out a shaky breath he did not know he'd been holding. "We will... play it by ear, I suppose. Why don't you just let me know when you're ready, okay?"

Draco nodded solemnly, his eyes not leaving hers though he could not linger there much longer. His leviathan-like guilt had returned full force. "Right."

He was the twisted beast, tainting the only angel who had spared him kindness, who cared if he had a second chance on life. He could never compare to, nor deserve to be with this most generous soul he had bonded with so purely, innately. Draco reached out, gently pulling on her arms until she was wrapping them around his torso. He lost a hand in her curls, pressing his lips to her forehead and tightening his hold on her.

His nose found her ear, "Thank you," he whispered, and Hermione knew there were a hundred 'thank you's' layered under just the one. She giggled lightly but they said no other words, only sharing one more, sweet kiss before Hermione vanished out from his arms.

By the time Draco arrived back inside the Slytherin Common Room, his palms were bloody from clenching his fists too hard. He was really uncertain whether he was going to be able to do what he had to. The only way he would be able to betray Granger now would be by shutting off his emotions and attempt to become numb to the pain, numb of his feelings for her.

However, he could not bring himself to do that yet. He needed to bide his time for as long as necessary. He knew if the opportunity did not present itself within the next forty-eight hours, Draco would have to arrange something himself. His clock was ticking on and his plans had to take place this weekend. If he did not succeed by then, there was no doubt his life was over.

-o-

AN: This would have been longer but I just know the next few scenes are going to take me a bit to get through so please bear with me during this really busy time for me. I want to once again give huge thanks to all of you that have supported me by following and reviewing my story/stories. I hope you are having a lovely week and much love and peace to you all. Cheers :0)