The Morning After
A/N: I am really glad to see that there are people who actually liked the first chapter of this fic. Actually, their faith in it has made me like it a little bit. In response to one reviewer – I totally agree. An engagement ring sexier than J. Lo's and an even finer husband would not bother me at all. If you ask me, Hermione is a rather ungrateful girl. I set her up really nice don't you think? ;-)
* * * * * * * * * *
Hermione sat at the table sipping a virgin fruit cocktail (no more alcohol for her for a long time!) as she, Draco, three associates of her husband's, and another wife, waited for their food. While he carried on conversation with the other Minister's from the Ministry for Magic, she tuned out and instead, wallowed in self-pity. Here she was, a girl with a future, a girl who had previously gone on a vacation as single, sexy, and free, (and she was totally cool with that!) and now she was suddenly unaware of what she was doing tomorrow or next week because she woke up one distressing morning with a husband who refused to let her give him back his ring. It really was quite stressful for her.
The pictures from her marriage to Draco had brought this sudden feeling of desolation upon her. That had to be it. The sight of her with a glass of champagne in one hand and an obviously drunk Draco kissing one of her laughing cheeks was just too mortifying. And the tape! Oh the tape! She had never giggled and burped so much in her life. It was the most undignified thing she had ever done. Then the part where she kissed him . . . She had tried to fast forward it, but her prat of a husband had wanted to view that bit especially. She had melted into his arms according to that tape. She had apparently enjoyed every moment of it. If she didn't know better, she would think that she had found it rather . . . blissful? Eww . . . his tongue had been in her mouth . . . for quite a long time.
To think that she had always dreamed of the church wedding, the long white dress, and her mother crying in the front pew was shot to pieces because she couldn't hold a little liquor. She was no longer beautiful, intelligent Hermione, top Hogwarts graduate, professor of the new Analysis of Magical Theory course at her old school (this made her quite content) – now she was all of that and Malfoy's new wife. Merlin, her life sucked all of a sudden. What grave sin had she committed to deserve this?
"- I said to my wife just this afternoon," Draco was saying. "Right Hermione?"
"Right. Yes," she replied wearily.
"So what do you do Mrs. Malfoy?" Mrs. Sylvia LeBeaux, wife of the Minister of Wizarding Finances, asked with a pleasant smile.
Hermione had to smile, her work was her life. Nothing satisfied her more. "I'm a Professor at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she replied with a smile. "I teach a new course called Analysis of Magical Theory."
"That sounds fascinating," Sylvia replied with a nod of her head. "I wonder why they never taught it when we were in school."
Hermione liked this lady already and was immediately engaged in conversation with her.
* * * * * * * * * *
Draco watched Hermione chat with Minister LeBeax's wife and smiled proudly. She certainly was a great catch, however accidental, if you pretended that her parents weren't Muggles. Her adorable smile was infectious and the other men at the table kept grinning at her like idiots. Her eyes were so chocolately brown you could get lost in their depths.
Her beauty came with a price though. If unmarried Ministers Fossey and Kwom didn't stop staring at her in that lustful fashion, Draco was going to throw them both across the room. If anyone was going to ogle her chest and think about her naked and get away with it, it was him damn it!
The band started up again just then and the ladies at the table looked longingly out onto the dance floor.
"Let's dance Hermione," Draco said, before he realized what he was doing. Already he was standing with a hand extended. He tried not to let her shocked face put him off, he was the idiot after all for standing up in the first place. He would see this through. "Come on," he insisted. "I know you want to!"
Hermione looked out at the other couples already on the floor and then back at her husband. It looked so romantic . . . perhaps when she closed her eyes, she could pretend that someone else was holding her closely. "Okay," she gave in finally.
Along with Mrs. LeBeaux and her husband, the Malfoy couple stepped onto the floor. Draco was pleasantly surprised to discover that Hermione fit perfectly into his arms. Her hair smelled like fresh fruit and there was another fragrance that he could not name that was more tantalizing than anything he had ever had the pleasure of sniffing appreciatively. "Hermione?" he asked as they swayed to the music.
"Yes?" she responded.
"What scent are you wearing?" he queried.
Hermione looked slightly confused. "I'm not wearing one," she answered, a delicate eyebrow raised.
Ahhh . . . so it was expressly Hermione. He could certainly get used to this. Yes he could.
* * * * * * * * * *
This was not good. This was not good at all. One could actually go so far as to say that this had to be the most heinous thing that had ever happened.
Hermione was snuggled as closely to Draco as she could be (with clothes on) and she was enjoying it! Merlin, how disgusting! She was actually, and very secretly, hoping that he would slide that hand on her waist a little bit lower. Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and tried to recall all of the things that she found hideous about the man with which she was dancing. He had bruised her. Right. That was enough for now.
"Malfoy, we need to set some boundaries in this, dare I call it, "relationship," of ours," she announced as the music changed to a more seductive beat.
"Such as?" he replied, leading her into a graceful spin, his light blonde brow imitating the rise hers had taken earlier.
"Firstly, we are going to continue to lead separate lives. Secondly, I will keep the ring if you absolutely insist upon it." There, with a twist of her hips, she had shared her plan of action.
"That's it?" he asked calmly, stroking her back with a finger in the fashion the dance called for.
"Yes," she replied with a smug grin, running a hand down his chest. "It's perfect."
"Perfectly ridiculous," he commented, dipping her suddenly over his knee and drawing the attention of other dancers.
Hermione could only look up at him in dismay. Merlin! Did he have to be so childish!?
"You're going to live with me at Malfoy Manor," he informed her, slowly bringing her back upright. "I shan't have it getting around that my bride is staying in some shoddy professor's apartment at Hogwarts."
Hermione's eyes widened as her body slowly and oh-so-deliciously rubbed against his as he returned her to a standing position. She was hardly even listening anymore. Her hormones were in high gear. She made a mental note to check her calendar. Aunt Flo must be on the way.
"For the purpose of keeping the humiliation to a minimum, we'll be pleasant and affectionate to one another in public, otherwise, staying together would be a waste of time and effort," Draco went on, spinning his wife out. "We're starting today. I've already had the concierge ring the hotel that you were at previous. Your belongings will be upstairs when we leave the dining room."
Hermione forgot the previous pleasure she'd experienced from their close embrace. Her eyes were now narrowed with indignation as she spun back in. Her back was to her husband and she took his hand as the dance dictated, but glared at him over her shoulder. "How dare you!?" she hissed, glad that other couples had gotten bored of them and were no longer paying them any mind. "You never asked my permission before taking matters into your own hands! I refuse to be bullied by you Malfoy! It didn't work in school and it won't work now either!"
The two twisted their hips together, towards the ground and back up again in a highly sexy manner. Anybody watching would never have guessed that the two were arguing.
"Cut the hysterics Granger," Draco said in a dismissive tone. "You have far more to gain from this marriage than me. You are guaranteed the utmost respect as my wife whether we stay married or not. You now have the power to attend any party, step in front of any line, or have any position a working wizard could want. Wallow in it. It's a good life."
How intriguing. The benefits had been easily ignored while Hermione focused on the cons of her situation.
"I, on the other hand," Draco went on, "must simply continue this charade until I can respectably call a lawyer to make this marriage obsolete."
Hermione's face reddened with anger just as the song ended, causing her to head straight back to the table.
"Merlin!" Kwom commented when they were seated again. "I haven't seen a performance like that in a while!"
"Can I have a dance next Mrs. Malfoy?" Minister Fossey asked with a gleam in his eye.
Hermione blushed. "I don't know. I'm a little tired and I can't even dance!"
"Not by the looks of it," Mrs. LeBeaux said, rejoining the table with her husband just then. "It looked more like your bodies truly knew each other out there. I suppose that's not surprising considering that you're man and wife. You must dance together all the time."
"Oh yes," Draco said smoothly, lifting his glass of champagne. "Hermione and I dance together ever night. Our bodies fit together perfectly."
Hermione blushed to the roots of her hair. Perhaps nobody else had heard the double meaning in his words, but she had. She didn't like the idea that he flustered her so easily. She responded to his comment with a glare that nobody but him seemed to notice. Honestly! Did he have to look so bloody smug!?
"How long have you been married?" Sylvia inquired.
"Not very long," Hermione replied vaguely, sipping her cocktail and shooting Draco a warning glance.
Draco paid her no notice. "We were married very recently actually. We're on our honeymoon."
Hermione groaned inwardly as the others at the table congratulated them. Could this possibly be more humiliating?
"Shame on you Mr. Malfoy!" Sylvia laughed, waving a finger in mock annoyance. "You never told anybody that you were getting married!"
Draco took the opportunity to take Hermione's hand. Looking deep into her eyes he said, "Nobody knew – we eloped."
Yes, apparently it could get worse. Hermione was developing a twitch.
"How romantic!" Mrs. LeBeaux gushed. She punched her husband in the arm. "Philip, isn't that just lovely!?"
Hermione didn't even hear Mr. LeBeaux's response. She was too busy wishing death on her husband to care.
"Well," Draco said, standing. "I think Hermione and I should retire to our room. I'm tired and my wife looks unwell." Still holding Hermione's hand, he rose from the table and then handed his wife her little beaded evening bag.
They said their goodbyes and made their exit. All the way down the main hall towards the elevator, Hermione stewed. She might even have killed him in the elevator with her bare hands (or one Unforgivable Curse) if it hadn't been for the elderly couple that had also been inside, grinning at them in a sort of "aren't they the cutest thing?" sort of way. Merlin – she was still holding the ferret's hand!
"That was fun wasn't it?" Draco asked her as he undid his tie with one hand and grabbed the newspaper when they arrived back at the hotel room.
Hermione could only stand there and stare at him, her face a shade of plum, her eyes full of rage. "Fun? Fun!?" she exploded, beginning to attack him with her bag. She hit him over and over again in an attempt to release her stress.
Draco took her abuse and simply waited for her to get tired. "Are you quite finished?" he asked when she took a step back from him, breathing heavily.
Hermione just glared daggers at him, then threw her bag on the floor and walked away. "I'm going to take a shower," she told him angrily.
Draco laughed to himself. Her response to his teasing made it entirely too satisfying that he simply couldn't resist the temptation to bug her.
* * * * * * * * * *
Hermione stepped out of the shower, feeling a little calmer. She was going to attempt another mature conversation with Draco regarding their situation. Perhaps re-approach him with her plan from earlier in a different way. She simply could not stay married to him. It was unthinkable. One of them would be dead, if not by the end of the week, the end of the month.
Hermione wrapped herself in a towel and reached for her toothbrush. With a small smile she remembered that she wouldn't have to use the complimentary one again, her things were in the next room. She unlocked the bathroom door.
* * * * * * * * * *
Hermione had just come out of the bathroom, a small part of Draco's mind registered. He was too busy reading the Wizarding Stocks in the paper that he barely glanced up. But that barely was worth it! Draco's head snapped up again so that he could fully appreciate the sight before him.
Hermione was wrapped in a thick towel and her hair was pinned up in an adorably messy fashion. She was a small girl, but her legs . . . Merlin . . . more than half of her body had to be legs. Draco crossed his own as his imagination wandered up her leg and straight up that towel. Little droplets of water were clinging to her and some were dripping off in a very inviting "take me now" kind of way. As she bent over a suitcase, Draco took the time to upraise the fullness of her chest when her towel dipped a bit and he smothered a groaned. Why weren't they in that king sized bed shagging like nature intended again? They hated each other. Right. It was at this time the he realized that Hermione was staring at him with a scandalized expression.
"What are you looking at?" she demanded, her clothes and toiletries pressed closely to her.
"Absolutely nothing," Draco replied, feigning innocence and returning to his paper.
Hermione huffed and headed back to the bathroom. Draco eyed her bum as she walked away. This was going to be a long night.
* * * * * * * * * *
It was a good thing Hermione had bothered to pack night clothes at all she thought as she slipped into her red lace teddy. When she was at home, she hardly bothered with them at all, but if she did, they were always feminine frivolous articles. Every girl has a guilty pleasure. She couldn't sleep in the same bed with Malfoy dressed like this! Hermione could hardly even call her current state dressed! He could hardly even control his eyes when she was covered up in a towel (she had totally seen then glaze over!). This little number left a lot less to the imagination. No . . . she was not wearing this to bed if she had to share with Malfoy. She threw open the bathroom door.
"Whoa!" Draco, who had been about to enter for his shower (as though he really, truly had forgotten that she was inside changing), caught her as she came flying out the door. "Look what I caught," he added with a smile, scanning her hardly-there night wear.
"Wipe that smile off of your face Malfoy!" she snapped, angry that she was enjoying being in his arms so much, irritating that he was checking her out again. "I'm changing."
Pushing him off of her, she headed straight for the closet and began to rummage around.
"Hey!" Draco called. "Those are my clothes!"
"I'm your wife," Hermione muttered from inside of the closet. "What's yours is mine."
She emerged wearing one of his shirts and Draco's jaw dropped. He no longer wanted to rip the shirt off of her because she didn't have his permission to parade around in his clothes – now he wanted to rip it off of her because she looked too damn good in it. Those gorgeous legs of hers were back to visit, that shirt just wasn't covering enough of her. If she was smart, she wouldn't dare bend over – Merlin only knew what Draco would do then. Draco admired the sprinkling of freckles that the Creator had very kindly given her and idly wondered if she had them everywhere. Wasn't he supposed to be in the shower? He better make it a cold one.
Hermione, obviously believing that he had something to complain about (actually, he was currently thinking that life to this point hadn't been half as good and was entertaining methods in which to increase his elation), rolled up the cuffs and did up a few more buttons. "Don't bother to complain about your lovely shirt Malfoy," she said, "you'll get it back. Goodnight."
Hermione pushed passed him and headed towards the bed. Climbing in, she shut off the lamp and lay down. "See you in the morning," she muttered, closing her eyes.
If Hermione only knew what Draco dreamt about that night.
* * * * * * * * * *
A/N: Well that's the end of chapter two! I was happy to see that people reviewed saying that they liked it and I should continue. There were even readers of my other story asking me not to neglect it. (In regards to that, I actually have a plan again, it's just that I'm not into it right now – don't worry, I'll get back on track soon enough!)
This time, I think I have a few ideas about what I want to put in this story, but I am really only doing it for fun until I get bored again.
I was wondering if anyone has read any really good Draco/Hermione stories lately and would they please suggest some to me. I am waiting for the author's of my favourites to update and am having difficulty reading anything else past the first chapter (if I don't stop before then!) Draco/Ginny stories can be cute too – I'm reading that one based on that Nick Cage movie. It's very good. So I'll say I like them cute, funny, romantic, fluffy, Hermione/Draco (but I'm open to other ships if the story is good), and I like them better if the characters are married (for some reason – lol).
I hope everyone continues to read and review!
Ohhh . . Vicky . . . is this story "kawaii" too? LoL!!
~CaramelSweetness66