After a full day of eating and catching up and observing the work Remus and Sirius had done in the gardens, and decorating under the watchful eye of Eleanor, the guests of Cordarri Castle began to trickle off to bed one by one. Molly and Arthur turned in first, then Ron, then the twins, Ginny tried to stay as late as possible, but eventually she left with drooping eyes, then finally Draco left the kitchen, giving Eleanor a kiss on the forehead before leaving the room and retreating to bed. This left Sirius, Remus, Harry, and Eleanor seated in the parlor. All exchanged excited, happy smiles at the prospect of them being together again; their little, happy, mismatched family.
"Draco seems...different." Sirius noted softly.
"He'd definitely be burned off of your mother's wall - you'd be proud." Eleanor responded happily to which everyone chuckled.
"He actually apologized today." Harry informed the two older men.
"For what?" Remus inquired.
"For...everything I guess. Everything he's done and said since our first year."
"Well, I hope change follows these apologies," Remus began diplomatically, "otherwise it's just empty words."
"That's the thing, I think he changed before he apologized. He turned in his best friend to Dumbledore, and even before that he tried to stop Umbridge from discovering Dumbledore's Army, and gives us any information he has about Death Eaters." Harry tried to explain, causing a wide smile to break on Eleanor's face.
"You like him," She observed, "after all this time, you finally like him."
"I respect him." Harry corrected with a chuckle, "and I only respect him because he is different from how he was before, not because I'm seeing what you saw all along. He was still a bad guy when you were fighting tirelessly for him."
Eleanor rolled her eyes and smiled at Harry. "Well obviously not all bad."
"No, I'll give you that, not all bad."
"I'm happy to hear that things are smoothing themselves out," Sirius nodded affectionately at the two teenagers, "we'll need as many people on our team as possible."
"Sirius," Remus warned in a low voice, "it's their first night." Harry looked as though he wanted more information as to what Sirius was alluding to but Eleanor quickly stepped in to change the subject to something more cheery than the war looming over their heads.
"Speaking of teammates, I was under the impression I'd be seeing more of Tonks throughout the duration of this break." Eleanor noticed. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say to ease tensions in the room as both Sirius and Remus got extremely stiff and stared at the floor. "What? Did you all have a falling out or something?"
"Something like that." Sirius muttered, glowering at Remus from across the room. "Moony denies himself anything that makes him happy, and Tonks has now fallen into that category."
"Ah, so you told Eleanor of your matchmaking scheme." Remus realized, raising his brows at Sirius.
"And Harry." Sirius responded, Remus rolled his eyes in an over exaggerated fashion.
"I don't deny myself anything that makes me happy considering I'm here with all of you, and you make me happy."
"Are you going to tell her your reasoning or are-"
"Sirius," Remus snapped sharply, "enough." His face turned slightly red due to embarrassment and frustration.
"You don't need to justify it, Remus." Eleanor said softly, "I just want you to be happy."
Remus relaxed his shoulders as he looked at his daughter and smiled gently. He saw so much of her mother in her, it was almost like he was transferred back to all of the time he spent with Nora in the year they were together. He couldn't get his daughter's hopes up at the thought of being reunited with her birth mother when he wasn't sure he would survive the war to come.
"I'm very happy." He assured.
Once everyone retreated to their beds, Eleanor tiptoed into Draco's room. There was a small part of her that was worried about the embarrassment that would ensue if she was found there, she was fairly certain she wouldn't be. All she wanted to do was sleep beside Draco in an actual bed, not on a sack of soil.
"Hi," Eleanor whispered softly as she crawled under the covers into his arms. After spending the summer living in this room, Draco had customized it a bit. There were Slytherin wall hangings, drawers and dressers filled with his things, and his bedding from home that he'd brought with him as he jumped around from home to home over the summer. Eleanor was happy he felt comfortable enough to breathe and relax in Cordarri Castle.
"Hi," Draco mumbled sleepily in response. He didn't open his eyes but he pulled her close to him and nuzzled his face into her neck.
"I'm going to sleep here if that's okay." Eleanor informed, relaxing into his embrace.
"More than okay." Draco smiled groggily. Eleanor wrapped her arms and legs around his body and quickly drifted into a comfortable, and happy night of sleep.
Draco woke before her in the morning and was pleasantly surprised to see Eleanor next to him. He'd fallen back asleep so quickly after she'd joined him that he'd barely registered her presence there for the remainder of the night. Judging from the light barely streaming through his window, he figured it was still very early in the morning, still a little before sunrise. In the night, Eleanor had detached herself from him and slept on her back with her hands thrown carelessly above her head. Draco smiled as he sat up in bed and admired her sleeping form.
He stayed that way for a few minutes before Eleanor began to stir, as if sensing the eyes that were on her. She blinked a few times and stretched before smiling up at him.
"Good morning," She smiled happily and rolled over onto her side. "Sleep well?"
"I always do when I'm next to you," Draco replied charmingly, "or honestly, I could have just slept so well because the night before I slept on a sack of dirt."
Eleanor chuckled at that and rubbed sleep from her eyes. "It's early," she noted, glancing out the window by Draco's bed, "do you think anyone's awake?"
"I haven't heard anyone walking around." Draco answered, then caught Eleanor's eyes playfully.
Before either of them could say a word, Draco had pinned Eleanor to the bed and began kissing up and down her neck, sometimes venturing to the collar of his t-shirt that she dorned, but never quite far enough.
Eleanor wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her, her legs snaking around his waist to draw their hips together. They silently agreed to ignore the smells of morning breath while their lips pressed together in hungry, open-mouthed kisses.
They wanted each other desperately.
Draco's hands moved beneath her shirt and his warm hands explored her exposed skin only moments before his mouth began to follow suit. Eleanor's breath was coming out in rasps of anticipation while Draco took his time dragging his lips across her body. She began wiggling out of her sleep shorts beneath him and he chuckled low at her impatience, but didn't put off what she wanted much longer. The quiet morning hours would wane, and they would be surrounded by people for the remainder of the day, they didn't want to put off their satisfaction any longer.
They moved together in rhythm, slow and purposeful. They were completely lost in each other as their breath grew heavier and louder the more their speed increased. The heavy breathing mixed with the euphoria of being together in their own bed caused them to block out the world.
Even the soft knock that was quickly followed by the door swinging open.
"Hey Mal - oh shit!" Harry's voice started soft then ended in a bit of a shout. His voice stalled after catching sight of the actions of Eleanor and Draco. Eleanor covered her face in her arms and rolled away from the door and out from under Draco. Draco collapsed from his hands to his elbows and rested his forehead on his forearm in frustration, embarrassment, and a slight attempt to shield Eleanor behind him.
It took Harry a few seconds too long to start closing the door, and in that time Draco gathered that not only was Harry in the hallway, but Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George were as well. All bundled in winter clothes with their brooms in hand.
"I didn't see anything." Harry swore, while covering his face. It was true, it would be surprising if any of them saw any part of their naked bodies considering they were still under the covers for the most part, and Draco was doing a good job of shielding the now completely red Eleanor, but their actions had been clear enough.
"What do you want?" Draco asked.
"Does it matter?" Eleanor squeaked from behind him, "Get out!"
"What's going on here?" Sirius' voice came walking down the hallway.
"No," Eleanor groaned as she slithered further down the covers, fully submerging herself in Draco's bed and willing herself completely invisible. Harry closed the door at Sirius' arrival, but the conversation could still be heard perfectly clear inside the bedroom and the damage had already been done.
"Why are you all outside Draco's room?" Sirius asked. Eleanor held her breath, she prayed her friends could lie and spare her further humiliation.
"We were gonna ask him to play Quidditch with us." Fred supplied after too long of a pause. Draco and Eleanor didn't breathe as they strained to hear the muffled voices. Sirius wasn't fooled for a second.
"Is Eleanor in there?" He asked. Despite the fact that they all answered 'no', not a single one of them sounded convincing. There was a single rap on the door, "I'll see you two at breakfast." Sirius called, and the whole lot of them shuffled away.
Draco and Eleanor were completely frozen in their positions, afraid to move or speak. Eleanor kept her face covered in mortification. All of her friends had just seen her pinned to the bed while being fucked silly by her boyfriend. And one of the two adults in her life knew about it and was certain to tell her father. And she still had to host an army of people for the next two weeks. Her heart hammered loudly in her chest due to the great embarrassment she was feeling. It was one thing to know you're best friend and childhood enemy were having sex, it was entirely another to witness it. Eleanor felt completely sure that her relationship with her friends was now damaged beyond repair.
"Hey, they wanted to play Quidditch with me, that was nice of them." Draco finally broke the silence quietly.
"Shut up, Draco." Eleanor groaned, rolling over to smack him on the arm while still hiding her face in one hand. "Why don't you lock your fucking door?"
"You're the one who came in here last night," Draco pointed out, "you should have locked it."
"I hope you know we are never having sex again." Eleanor growled out, still hidden beneath her hands.
"Okay, I'm sure you'll hold out really well on that front." He shot back sarcastically and kissed her hair before finally rising out of the bed. He tossed the clothes she had been wearing at her and began dressing himself.
"You're eager to join them?" Her voice raised in a high pitch as she sat up in the bed and finally uncovered her face.
"The longer we are in here, the more suspicious we are." Draco responded.
"Suspicious?" She repeated, incredulous. "There is nothing to be suspicious of. They literally saw you on top of me, pounding away."
"You make it sound so unromantic." Draco sighed playfully.
"I don't see why you aren't paralyzed in fear right now. You give them one apology and suddenly you think they'll eat out of the palm of your hand." Eleanor sniffed, causing Draco to chuckle at her bitterness.
"It's only awkward if you let it be, love." Draco gave her a small smile. He couldn't let on that his heart was hammering out of control and that he was terrified that the good favor he'd fought for would now be down the drain. He had to be strong and help Eleanor overcome the mortification she was feeling. "I'll go get you some actual clothes from your room, go wash your face." Draco suggested. "Then we'll go down and start a random conversation and not address it, then it will just go away."
Eleanor followed his suggestion and washed her face with cool water, hoping to calm the redness that lingered. She couldn't believe they just waltzed on into the room, she couldn't believe she didn't lock it the night before, she couldn't believe she thought a quick morning session with Draco in a house full of all the people she would never want to walk in on her having sex would be a good idea. But Draco had a good plan, just avoid it like the plague and hopefully it would all blow over.
Draco brought a pair of leggings and one of his old emerald sweaters that she'd adopted into the bathroom for her to change into.
"I feel like wearing one of your sweaters would not be a good look at this moment." Eleanor said.
"This is mine?" Draco asked, looking at the shirt in confusion. "Oh, I guess it is. They won't be able to tell." He assured her.
Once she was changed, Eleanor stood at the door for several minutes, staring at the handle.
"I'm not doing it." She finally decided. "I'm going to stay up here forever. I'll come down in my casket."
"You're being overdramatic," Draco said calmly, "they want to forget about it just as much as you do."
Draco all but had to force her down the stairs but they eventually descended into the kitchen. Eleanor kept her chin high in pride, but kept her eyes on the ground to avoid any sort of connection.
"Wearing his sweater? Real ballsy move, Eleanor." Fred announced loudly as she entered the room.
"Legendary." George agreed.
"You don't need to announce you had sex by wearing his clothes, Eleanor, we literally all saw it." Ron added with a guffaw.
"Shut up, Weasley," Draco threatened in a fashion eerily similar to their previous years of schooling, "I know I'm not the only one to have seen your legendary pair of ghostly pale ass cheeks pressed against a tower window, so I'd be careful who you decide to poke fun at."
The room went silent for a moment, everyone unsure of how Draco's comment, his new skin in the game of affectionate teasing among the group, would be received. Then everyone erupted in laughter, including Ron.
"So spinning it around on Ron works?" Draco murmured quietly to a very grateful Eleanor while everyone was lost in laughter.
"Only some of the time, but yeah that was a smart move." Eleanor chuckled a little and squeezed his hand in gratitude.
Then Sirius, Remus, Molly, and Arthur entered the kitchen. "What's so funny in here?" Remus asked lightly, looking as though he had absolutely no idea of the goings on of the morning.
"I'm sure we wouldn't understand the antics of the young anymore, Moony." Sirius answered with a bit of a smile, then gave Eleanor a knowing glance. With any luck, Remus wouldn't have to know.
Though the general topic of conversation among the young population at Cordarri Castle had shifted from Eleanor and Draco's early morning to delight to Ginny's recent ex-boyfriend, Dean, and Ron's unfortunately current girlfriend Lavender, the position in which the young couple had been caught was still the first thing Hermione was informed of upon her arrival to Christmas Dinner several days later.
"You two are being safe, aren't you?" Hermione inquired of Eleanor when the jokes ceased and the audience of her embarrassment left.
Eleanor rolled her eyes at Hermione's motherly worry and nodded. "Extremely. I don't want any blonde babies running around the castle any time soon."
"I just feel like we're so young," Hermione fretted, mostly to herself, with furrowed brows and pursed lips.
"You can say that you don't like it, 'Mione." Eleanor said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"I'm not a prude, and I really do recognize how much Draco has grown," Hermione heaved a breath, Eleanor could feel her 'but' hanging in the air, "I just feel like it is so risky when there are so many weird, ominous plans involving your child and Voldemort that we don't fully understand. I just worry."
"I know you do, I worry too."
"Cleary not that much." Hermione returned sarcastically with a good natured smile. "I just don't want to have to watch you go through something painful again."
Eleanor gave her friend a long hug while getting a creeping, anxious feeling that something was coming for her happiness.
Hi all! Sorry for the bit of delay on posting. I'll be honest, I've been feeling a bit uninspired as of late. I'm currently going back and rereading a lot of this story, trying to find the voice and love I had embedded in this work at the beginning and it's taking me a little bit to get back rolling like I was. Please let me know if you're still enjoying it, or if there is something not really working anymore, or something that is missing. I want to do the story I started justice, and I might need my reader's help making sure that happens.
