Disclaimer: I DON"T OWN ANYTHING!!!!!
A/N: OMG chapter 10!!! I can't believe it – and I'm not very far along either…wow! Okay people, I'm so sorry about the big delay in this chapter, but I had end of semester assessment, & then exams & then I was banned from the computer, but I'm on holidays now, so hopefully it'll all start coming together soon. Okay…I have got my basic outline sorted out (only in my head though) so I know where we're going now. And…yeah…this might be changed to an R fic later if I decide to write a scene I'm thinking of writing. To people under 13…sorry…but u really shouldn't read it if it happens because you're supposed to be young and innocent and I'm sure your mummies and daddies wouldn't like it…so…be good everyone…
Chapter 10
The next morning Hermione awoke to, not a grey rainy day, but a beautifully sunny day, with no clouds to be seen through the window. She did, however, wake once again to find a gorgeous young man, with silvery blond hair in her room. Sitting on her bed, with his fingers playing with her hair, gently pulling at him to wake her up. Thank God I put pyjamas on last night. " 's too early Malfoy, go away." She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in her pillow.
"Nope, wake up sunshine, it's a beautiful day." Draco rolled her back over so that she was looking up at him.
"Grrr." She smiled up at him sleepily. "I thought I told you not to come in here again without asking me."
"Couldn't help myself darling, you're just so irresistible." Draco hammed it up, messily placing kisses all over her hand, causing Hermione to laugh. She picked up her pillow from behind her head and hit Draco with it.
"Oooh…so it's a fight you want is it? Did a faery come along in the night and cure you of your ticklishness?"
Hermione looked at Draco mutinously and sat up, scrambling so that she was leaning against the window and facing Draco. "That's not fair."
"ALL is fair in love, war and tickling my dearest."
"Seriously now Draco, get off my bed." Reluctantly he complied with her demand. "What are you doing here."
"Your mother sent me."
"My mother sent you up to my room? Uh-huh. Pull the other one." Hermione looked up at Draco disbelievingly.
"She did, I swear! We're going up the mountain today – that's why everyone's so early. Your mum wants to spend the whole day up there and so she sent me up to wake you while she packed food and the car and everything."
Hermione finally noticed that instead of normal clothes, Draco had a pair of black ski pants and a black turtleneck sweater. He looked hot. Then she realised what he'd said. They were going up the mountain! Hermione jumped out of be quickly, causing Draco to take quite a couple of steps backwards. She started to dash around the room collecting clothes. It was when she was pulling her underwear out of a drawer and heard Draco's low whistle of approval at the hot pink items that she remembered his presence. Blushing furiously, she stuffed the bra and panties back in the drawer and ushered him out of the room.
Forty-five minutes later she emerged from the corridor leading to her room and made her way into the front hall. Though she had on only a pair of ski pants, a spencer and a long sleeved shirt, she carried a jumper, a ski jacket over her arm, as well as a bag over her shoulder that contained a beanie, gloves and numerous other odds and ends that teenage girls always carry on themselves. Years of going up the mountain had made her familiar with the clothing she would need, even if it were warm down the bottom. As she passed through the "window hall", she looked out to the scenery she loved so much. Going to France or some other exotic location for her holidays was fine occasionally, but there was no place she loved better than this house and the surrounding region.
Descending the main staircase and entering the front hall, she bumped into Malfoy, who was carrying a picnic basket towards the front door. "What's this, Malfoy? Actually carrying something heavier than your wand? Are you sure you can manage it? You don't want any help do you?"
Draco placed the basket down beside the front door, and turned, starting towards Hermione at a leisurely, unhurried pace.
"I'll have you know, Granger, that I can lift something that you'll never be able to lift." He paused about half a metre away from her, and took her coat, sweater and bag from her, placing them carefully on the floor at the bottom of the staircase.
"Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure you can Malfoy."
"Oh I think I can. And you know what? I could carry it around this room many times over, and you couldn't even carry it once." Draco took a step closer to Hermione.
"And what is this mystery object that you can lift and I can't? Hey! What are you doing!?!?!?!" Hermione shrieked as Draco stepped right up to her and put one hand behind her knees and the other at the small of her back, picking her up effortlessly, despite the fact that her arms and legs were flailing everywhere.
"I believe this is called proving a point, dear Hermione. Now, how many times do you want me to carry you around the room?"
"None you dolt! Put me down this instant!" Hermione was still struggling and trying to break loose from Draco's arms.
"Stop struggling, or I'll drop you." Draco's voice sounded strained, and Hermione hoped it was because he was finding her too heavy. So she kept struggling. "Okay, you asked for it."
Draco hoisted Hermione over his shoulder in a fireman's hold, smacking her lightly on her backside once she was settled over his shoulder. This elicited a yelp of objection from Hermione, and a fresh bout of kicking and hitting.
"Let me down you great brute!"
"Not until you apologise, at least. Not used to lifting anything heavier than my wand, my foot. You forget that I play Quidditch, and that we train every day in the gym."
Despite hanging upside down, Hermione managed to reply. "I never understood why they put that stupid gymnasium in anyway, all it did was encourage the entire female population to spend half their days in there perving on the Quidditch players while pretending to be exercising on those stupid bikes or step machines."
Draco grinned, wondering whether Hermione was aware that the perving that occurred was entirely mutual, but that it only occurred outside the gym, for there were separate areas for the boys and the girls to train in. The change rooms were also single sex (surprise, surprise!) and there was a spell on each change room that was based on the spell used on the Tri-Wizard cup, and anyone that tried to enter the wrong change room would grow a very long beard - be they male or female. But Draco doubted that Hermione had ever set foot in the gym.
"Come on missy, are you going to say sorry or am I going to have to lug you around like this all day?"
"Not sorry. You're a mean, spoiled, arrogant monster and I hate you. Now LET ME DOWN!" Hermione bellowed.
"Gee, 'Mione, why don't you say what you really think next time? But never mind. I happen to know that you don't hate me, AND that I can get you to apologise to me."
"Never."
Slowly Draco pulled Hermione back down so that he was holding her in front of him, tight up against him. "Oh yes, I can." Leaving one arm around her waist, he used the other hand to pull her head towards his, slowly and gently, leaving her enough time to resist. More than enough time.
Draco groaned softly as Hermione bit down gently on his lower lip, then soothed the hurt with her tongue, cleverly gaining access to his mouth while he had it open. Touching the tip of his tongue to hers, Draco reveled in the shivers that he felt rise on Hermione's back. Not fighting him any more, Hermione's arms rose around his neck and ensured that he was not breaking off the kiss anytime soon.
Draco tasted of minty toothpaste, with just a hint of chocolate from breakfast. Chocolate with breakfast? Normally Hermione would have had ten kinds of reprimands for Draco about having chocolate that early in the morning, but with Draco's lips on hers…
Hermione lifted her head a fraction to take a deep breath, and then giggled as Draco drew her mouth back down to his urgently, recapturing it passionately. The two of them stood in their own world, exchanging another long kiss, interspersed with gentle nips and soothing suckles.
Slowly and without either of them realising it Hermione had been lowered to the ground. Now though, Hermione realised it as she felt one of Draco's hands stroking up and down her side from her hip to just below her breast. His other hand was cupping the back of her neck, massaging it in a fashion that was eliciting shudders from Hermione.
"Draco? Hermione? Where are you? Are you ready to go?" The call came from outside the house, not next to the building, but somewhere close by. Immediately they leapt out of each other's arms, 'til they stood at least a metre apart. Hermione blushed as she met Draco's eyes, not so much embarrassed by nearly getting caught, but by the fact that Draco had managed to prove that she didn't hate him so easily. And he was about to ask her to confirm it, she was sure.
"Draco! Hermione! Come on!"
Hermione quickly picked up her sweater jacket and back while Draco moved to the door and picked up the picnic basket. Hermione blushed once again as Draco held the door open for her in a gallant gesture reminiscent of decades gone by. As she walked across the hall and out the door, Hermione waited for Draco to ask her for her apology. But he didn't.
As she waited on the doorstep for him, walked down the bath beside him, and climbed into the car, as she settled herself beside him in the back seat, she waited for him to ask. But he didn't. Not once.
Maybe all he wanted was to prove the point to me. Maybe he doesn't want to humiliate me at the same time.
~*~
The trip up the mountain passed quickly, with frequent exclamations from Mrs. Malfoy over the scenery and exuberant singing by Hermione, who had managed to sneak her own CDs into the car and had hidden her mother's under the driver's seat.
The day also passed quickly. Hermione and her mother took the Malfoys on a walking track that circled the top of the mountain, and had been cleared of snow earlier that day. Though they had gotten separated along the track -the two mothers walked at a considerably slower pace than Draco and Hermione did- they met up again at the end, and wandered back to the car to have lunch.
After lunch the two mothers opted to walk the gently sloping, meandering road to the summit of the mountain while Draco and Hermione decided to make use of a nearby patch of snow to build a snowman.
Their mothers soon disappeared around the corner of the curving road, and Hermione and Draco set to work on the snowman, discussing their plans for the school next year, and Hermione's fears about the upcoming NEWTs.
"I'm just worried, that's all. I mean, what with the responsibility of being Head Girl and all that, having to organise student events, is there going to be enough time to study? The OWLs were bad enough, and we were only prefects then, we didn't have all the responsibility organising the student body."
"Hermione," Draco placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her slightly," It'll all be okay. You're brilliant, you'll do just fine." Here he grinned. "Maybe not as well as me -ow! That hurt!- but anyway, why worry about it now? There's no point until school starts at least."
As they were putting the finishing touches onto the snowman, their mothers returned. Before getting back into the car, Mrs. Granger poured them all a hot drink and gave them a piece of cake, in case they were too tired to eat anything when they returned home.
Climbing back into the car, Draco was surprised when Hermione dragged him over to sit in the middle seat, rather than the side seat he had sat in on the journey up the mountain. Hermione wouldn't say why, and so Draco had to wonder inside his head. A quarter of and hour later Draco found out why he was sitting next to Hermione. On the descent of the mountain, instead of an upbeat CD, the music Hermione had requested was purely instrumental, and was making him sleepy. Apparently it had made Hermione sleepy too, because her eyes were closed, her head leaning back against the headrest.
A couple of seconds after he first registered that Hermione was asleep thiugh, Draco began to doubt whether she was actually asleep yet. This was because she leant towards him (is she leaning towards me? No…couldn't be.), and rested her head on his shoulder (yes! She is! Oh, she's so nice and warm.), nuzzling into his neck to find a comfortable niche (I wonder…If I just slowwwly slip my arm behind her), and then falling still.
Half an hour later Hermione's mother looked into her rearview mirror, and then nudged her friend. Through the mirror she could see Draco and Hermione curled up together, both fast asleep. "We were sooooooo right," she whispered to her friend with a grin.
~*~
Draco woke as they were pulling into the garage, and smiled down at Hermione. His arm was still around her, as it had been when he'd fallen asleep. But unlike when he'd fallen asleep, Hermione's arms were now around him, one behind his back and the other around the front of his waist. Her head was still nuzzled into his neck, and a small smile played about her lips as a breathy sigh escaped them. Ooooh, she must be having a goooood dream.
His mother turned around in her seat and smiled at him. "Have a good sleep?"
"Yep"
"I'm glad. Now, would you mind carrying Hermione up to her room? She looks so peaceful, I don't want to wake her. Then come downstairs and we'll give you some supper before you go to bed."
"Okay Mother, if you think."
Slowly Draco unbuckled his seatbelt and Hermione's, gathering her gently into his arms as best as he could without waking her. As he climbed out of the car he readjusted Hermione's weight so that he could carry her easily, and smiled again to himself as she nuzzled against him once more, placing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his neck.
Soon, he made it to the top of Hermione's stairs, and entered her room. He was breathing a little hard (hey, he climbed three sets of stairs carrying Hermione, after all), but that was nothing compared to when he realised that he couldn't put her in bed fully dressed. Making every effort to control himself, he set Hermione on her feet, holding her close to him so that she wouldn't fall over.
He pulled the covers back on the bed, and lay Hermione down on her bed, lifting her legs so that they lay on the bed, but her feet did not. He gently pulled off her boots and her socks and placed them on the floor beside the bed.
Then, taking a deep breath, he lifted her hips high enough so that he could remove her ski pants. Gently pulling them down her legs, Draco admired her smooth, creamy skin, and cursed the fact that she was fast asleep, and was not participating willingly. Once they were off, he pulled the covers up over her legs to her waist, removing any temptation he felt.
Pulling her into a sitting position, Draco carefully pulled her top over her head, to reveal a utilitarian white singlet. It was what was under the singlet that spen up his breathing and his heart beat. Cupping Hermione's breasts was the scrap of hot pink that he'd seen her pull out of her drawer this morning.
"Okay, deep breaths. Cover her up, and get out of here as soon as possible and you'll be fine," Draco murmered to himself. But before he covered her, he couldn't resist dipping his fingers inside her singlet and caressing the smooth skin just along the cupline of her bra. "Perfect."
Lying her back down against her pillows, Draco forced himself to pull the covers over her. He bent over and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Then he turned and walked to the door.
"Draco."
As he reached the door, Draco turned back to look at the bed at the sound of his name. Hermione's eyes were still closed though, and so he turned back to the door and stepped through it, closing it behind him. But he didn't close it quickly enough behind him, because he still managed to hear Hermione calling out to him again.
"I don't hate you at all. And I'm sorry."
A/N: Well! That only took forever to write! Lalalala! Lotsa fluffy stuff! Please review! I know this chapter took ages and that I should have written quicker, but I promise that I'll write the next one quicker, if you'll all just review for me!