A/N: AAAAH! I really hate the first half of this chapter! I kept trying to rewrite it and it would just get worse and time was flying by and I figured I better just post the damn thing! It's so redundant. And I can't tell if it's because the stories needs the recap or if I do to get back in the groove. I'm pretty sure the story needed it; I'm hoping I'm right anyway or I will have made you read boring summations for no real reason. I did try to make Hermione book 1ish again just to give her back some character credit. (No matter how good the set up is they will ALWAYS seem a bit ooc after doing it!).
I really should've written and FINISHED this story before I ever posted it, to make sure I really could write a mystery. Because I'm struggling to find ways for it to all come together with no lose ends in an interesting way. Now I'm doubting if all the unanswered questions are even worth wondering about, because I just didn't make them interesting enough.
Grrr I'm frustrated. Hopefully this chapter will be likeable by the end. Smut usually saves everything. However, I am extremely open for suggestions on this one, I may even do a little rewriting if I get enough guidance. So please, let me know what you really think.
Also, I'm scared it will be anti-climatic. I've already done the whole long drawn knock down drag out war in AM and I really don't think I can think of another one. And no offense to all the wonderful and delightfully imaginative fanfic authors out there, but this late in the game it's almost stupid to try and write Voldemort's defeat in explicit detail, because it will be nothing compared to how J.K. will finally do it. I think I just feel super rushed to finish before this story won't make sense anymore due to whatever happens in the 6th book when it comes out (JUST A LITTLE OVER A MONTH!). Besides, despite the 1st chapter (with implications I have long since given up on justifying), I've stopped trying to do the end of the war and have been more interested in Draco and Hermione's relationship dynamic.
I'm sounding super insecure and I apologize. Another thing that has made me hypersensitive is that I wrote a kick ass crucial scene. I even called up a friend and read it to her and she said she got really emotional. This girl is usually like an ice cube! I was very pleased with myself. And then I closed out without saving. AHHH! The re-write SUCKS in comparison. I just can't make it how I had it before and I'm very disappointed.
Anyways, I'm trying real hard. (Maybe that's why it sucks… I never really tried before, I was just carefree, letting my fingers and imagination go wild…) I'm digressing. I just want to ask you to review. They never fail to pump me up and inspire, whether they are nice or not. I'd really appreciate your feedback.
Enjoy. (I hope…)
… … …
Hermione hastily closed the door to her room, leaned against it and heaved a large bitter sigh. She stroked her siring hot cheek gently and looked sullenly into her dim dwelling.
'Think!' she ordered herself. 'Marriage, the Ministry,' she thought now frantically pacing about the room, 'the same people popping up over and over again!'
She could barely keep it straight. Her heart was racing; she felt like a failure, why didn't she know what was going on? She had been there for practically ten weeks!
She needed to calm down; she'd never get anything done in such a state. She stopped in her place and forced herself to breath in, relaxing the tenseness in her shoulders. She sat restlessly down at the room's vanity table in a huff, as if succumbing to her helplessness. She missed seeing Crookshanks there, napping at the foot of the bed. She hoped he was alright, and that, stubborn as he was, he would make his way back to her room soon, as hard as it might be for such a small thing in such a large place.
Peeping out from between the dust ruffle of the bed and the bedroom floor was a corner of the Daily Prophet, where Hermione had been hoarding her stolen copies all this time.
She was very, very aggravated that it was coming to this but in the end she decided it was best. She would have to look over everything again, read every Daily Prophet she'd ever taken, retrace the events surrounding her current circumstance. She sat on the floor near her bed, preparing herself to become an expert on the order and detail of everything that had happened.
Almost immediately Hermione regretted this decision simply because it was so torturous for her to read it. All of the articles pertaining to her, most being written by Rita Skeeter, were dreadfully trite, boring, sorry excuses for news and full of such flat out lies that it made Hermione fiercely angry at the thought of them! But she read on. And on and on and on. She worked backwards through her stolen stack of newspapers and skimmed every page, so sure there must be something she had earlier missed.
She was near the bottom of her pile and feeling hopeless once again. She was ready to quit after re-reading the article about her and Draco's first "date" at Casa De Amor and nearly threw the paper across the room in disgust. Instead she hastily yanked the paper entirely open, so that it's inside articles could be read.
And then it hit her once again as hard and as sickening as it did the first time she laid eyes on it.
"Azkaban prisoner Karkaroff makes parole".
Hermione shivered in horror, recalling seeing the monster again, out of prison and at her own wedding. Against her will her memory flashed with the image of him murdering someone in cold blood right before her eyes as she screamed for help in vain.
The picture in her mind was just a mere flash of the entire horrible ordeal that had haunted her in her dreams ever since.
She shook the image out violently. She looked back down at the paper. Like one unable to turn away from a scene of a horrible accident, Hermione, forcing herself, began to read the article. Her knuckles were white from gripping the edges and her entire body was as stiff as stone. She couldn't handle the lies he told, about how it was self-defense… how he couldn't control himself… that he didn't know what he was doing... He knew exactly what he was doing! He was taking an innocent man's life…
She was reading along steadily despite having read it months before…"Three months prior to his conviction of magical manslaughter…"… she was still very angry but quite unsuspecting …"Brusto spent one evening in jail after being suspected of espionage involving a Ministry of Magic employee"... when she stumbled upon one name that quite instantly struck her with much oddness, "Clyde Baggins, a Counter for the ministry, was suspected of passing confidential information to Brusto Karkaroff and was thereby fired, despite proof, while Brusto was released without further charges or investigation.
Suddenly in a whirlwind of what her eyes were reading passed into her mind, she was tickled with strain, trying to recall the seemingly unimportant and therefore nearly completely forgotten… she had heard that name before… a few times even, but once, at least once, quite recently…
Her dream!
Sturgis Podmore! He had mentioned him in her dream that last night on the yacht! He had mentioned his sister's husband… her name was Marietta Baggins, her husband: Clyde! Clyde Baggins! …How very strange indeed.
Hermione's face was scrunched up in confusion. It didn't make sense, thinking up a name in a dream and randomly finding it to be a real person days later was far too big of a coincidence.
She began to wonder if she had heard the name before, that it had slipped into the deep caverns of her mind when she read the article the first time, only to reappear most randomly months later in a dream.
But that didn't sit well with her.
'Everything in that dream was a real memory in some way or another…' she thought, straining to check that everything that had happened in her dream that last night on the yacht was based on what happened in reality, 'Going to Brusto's party the night I was captured, the first time I recall seeing Nicholas Greenly…' she began to list, retracing things in her mind as if trying to convince herself, 'It was all there; My dress, the black hair! How I almost got caught sneaking into Kararoff's mansion, I can distinctly remember Harry saying "That was close"... That all really happened.
"And even before then… that other night in the dream, before everything suddenly changed and I was at the party… Christmas night, the night Harry and I first had…. Well, it was all there. All of it was real. I couldn't have possibly made up the name of "Clyde Baggins" on my own. Sturgis must have really mentioned him to me at some point, he was quite fond of his sister after all… was what he said about marriage legitimate? Has he and I ever conversed about stuff like that at Grimmauld Place or something?'
While it was happening the dream of course felt extremely strange, but that was nothing compared to how she felt about it now. It really had her quite shaken like never before.
'Is there more to it?' she wondered intensely. "Oh I'm so confused!" she cried out loud.
"When I'm confused, I write everything down."
The words came out of no where, but she knew immediately who had said them.
Nicholas Greenly, in the same dream! He had been talking nonsense, and randomly gave her that advice before hastily taking off.
While it didn't seem wise at the time, Hermione suddenly took it with much less hesitation.
She felt as if the answers to the mystery were right in front of her. She had all the events, she had all the names, and all she needed now was to put it all in the right places!
She scrambled to her vanity table and hastily opened one of the cupboards, letting some parchment and quills she had helped herself to from one of the spare offices come spilling out. Next she swiped everything off of the surface of the table, making a clean clear space. She grabbed the lantern from off of her end table and placed it neatly on the vanity table while spreading out her parchment and inking her quills then setting them neatly on the side.
Finally she set her stereo to some Coldplay, opened her door a crack and called down for some butterbeer to an elf dusting a painting. Lastly, she took a hefty seat at the table, pulled her chair in tightly and cracked all her knuckles while taking a deep breath in.
She had recreated one of her famous Hogwart's study environments.
And no wonder people thought her a bit of a nerd.
But she couldn't mind that now, why it may be anal-retentive she knew she did her best work in organized settings and what she really needed right now was a successful intense thought session! Greenly knew what he was talking about after all.
While she was still a bit hesitant, not having a clear purpose or goal in mind, she began to write anyway. She didn't even know what for, or what she was even writing, but Greenly kept pecking away at her… maybe if she had it all in front of her she'd be able to see it all clearly.
'…It must have been late fall when the Order got wind of Lucius working with the Russian Magical Mafia…' she thought, writing it down. 'Then Ron infiltrated Kararoff's mansion as a chimney sweep and stole a copy of the party list, I remember the all-nighters I went through making sure he could pull that off… We all worked together trying to figure out what they might be up to; I remember it being especially stressful around Christmas, tons more all-nighters there…. Then Harry and I snuck me into the party… I was supposed to gain access to closed off quarters through Ivan by any means necessary…otherwise known as seduction,' she thought glumly, 'then petrify him and get the "secret and highly sensitive documents" from the room just next to his while Harry was to act as my guard and back up,' she recalled, remembering Dumbledore's exact words from a debriefing.
'Well that all worked bloody brilliantly,' she muttered, sadly writing down that she was captured that night.
Then she was there for nine whole months. What happened during those nine months she couldn't be entirely sure. But for as far as she could tell… well, nothing happened. It was like Voldemort and his followers all laid low for awhile, like they were suddenly out of offensive moves.
Were they some how stopped even though Hermione never successfully collected those papers Dumbledore so desperately wanted?
That all kind of made sense… her prison guards did have a pretty low moral when she first arrived there. However, it didn't last very long.
Maybe at first they seemed a bit worried or hopeless, but Hermione knew for a fact that by the way they would gloat around her and tease her from the other side of her prison bars after a few months had passed that they had been slowly gathering a plan. They'd taunt her and tell her it was "only a matter of time" in between calling her names or throwing her food at her.
The memory of the prison was just too horrible. She quickly jumped to the next event, when Lucius most randomly showed up to take her away.
Around the exact same time all their usual suspects, Voldemort and the death eaters, the Russian Magical Mafia and suspicious people within the Ministry, began being especially active again. She looked down at her list noticing it was practically a year exactly that they all came together again, that they all seemed to be planning and working together. What were they all up to? And how did one whole year have any significance?
And then a rock quickly formed in Hermione's stomach. It was fast approaching one year since she had last seen Harry. Since the night he betrayed her…
She had not thought about him since her wedding day. The day Ron finally told her the truth.
And she had Draco to thank for that really. It was he who distracted her. It was he who kept her busy and her mind only focused on the feel of his hands and the slide of his tongue…
She tried to shake the thought of him out of her head. She couldn't go to Draco now! Not when he was practically hiding from her. Not since things would have to be different again now that they were back at the house…. would they? Yes of course they would. She was being silly.
What happened between Draco and Hermione on their "honeymoon" was a complete fluke. No one would ever know… it would be like it never even happened.
'Ugh,' she thought, amazed that Draco could manage to distract her without even being in the damn room. She didn't want to be distracted now! It was time to work! And yet… she didn't want to think about Harry either. She'd have to confront that demon some other time. And it was sure to be hell. Who wants to acknowledge the fact that they never ever want to see their best friend again?
Oh bloody perfect, she had thought about Harry again anyway!
But it was no use… she could now see all too well in her memory's eye Brusto's ballroom and the crowd of shady and cynical wizard socialites around her.
"I'll occlument to you again later," rang his words in her ear as she inconspicuously observed the party… The last words he had spoken to her.
The all too familiar feeling of dread choked up Hermione's chest again. The feeling that her heart could barely pump it was being clenched so tight. The utterly horrible feeling of betrayal.
'Oh 'Mione,' she told herself while clutching the painful tightness within her, as if her heart could break anymore… 'I told you not to think about it."
Once again, for the millionth time, she wondered why the Order never came for her.
Why Harry abandoned her in the first place.
It was driving her mad. It felt beyond terrible, knowing she was so easily discarded by the ones she believed to be closer than family. After all she had done for them! After all she was still doing for them! She couldn't imagine anything harder than tolerating the scum of the earth such as the likes of Lucius Malfoy terrorizing her family, throwing her at the manipulations of Rita Skeeter and her public impacting lies, subjecting her to the presence of the man who haunts her dreams at her own forced wedding and even getting smacked across the face whenever someone pleased!
No, no! This wasn't what she was supposed to be concentrating on! It was thoughts like that that got her absolutely no where!
But it was too late. She was already loosing the battle. First her lip quivered. And she tried to force her eyes to stay open as surely blinking would make a tear drop. But she could not get the burning image of Harry out of her mind.
He was smiling friendlily at her and laughing softly. The smile he used to give her that made her instantly feel loved. But how could that be? People who love you would never do that to you.
She couldn't shake the smile out of her mind. And in the end, she didn't even need to blink, for the tears had formed enough on their own to fall.
Before she could even feel the hot trickle slide down her face to her chin she lost it. Her shoulders shook violently and she sobbed. Tear after tear rolled down her cheeks as her whole body burned hot and tense. She'd gasp desperately for air, unable to breathe normally, unable to sooth her sobs. She felt her head grow heavy from lack of oxygen, but she could not calm down. She cried and cried. Moaning in helpless pain. Her whole body was a rigid sobbing wreck. She got up from her seat and walked over to her bed only to collapse down onto it, hoping her pillow would stifle her wails. She cried and cried and felt she had no say in whenever she would stop. She was exhausting herself to the point of complete emptiness…
… … …
A group of tall looming men entered into the now destroyed room, each in dark cloaks, faces looking menacing. Their broad shoulders blocked off the exit completely. Hermione froze. Fear overcame her.
"Bellatrix said we'd probably find you here," said the infamous Brusto Karkaroff himself.
She had limited options, she knew there wasn't much she could do to get herself out of this. "Touch me and you'll regret it!" she said as strong as she could, pointing her wand right in his face.
Brusto merely smirked at the small girl before him. The top of her dress was half ripped off and she was missing a high heel. Blood tickled down her nose and there was a cut by her eye that was darkening and beginning to bruise, but her worst wounds were the tiny sliver cuts all along her arms from rolling around the ground in broken shards of glass. The hand holding up the wand so determinately could not hide its uncontrollable shake.
Then came the laugh. His putrid maniacal laugh. "I think you'll be the only one with regrets tonight," he finally said.
And then for the first time Brusto appeared to notice the still body on the floor.
"Ivan?..." he asked. "Ivan!" he repeated again. He rushed over to him and rolled him over, "IVAN!"
Brusto was shaking him now, but Ivan made no response.
Immediately a companion mobster was by his side, he had enough sense to check Ivan's pulse.
"He's still alive," he whispered from under his dark hood.
Brusto slowly rose up from where his son lay. "You have no idea how lucky you are. I thought he was died. I would have killed you right here… Hell, I think I just might anyway…"
Horror raced through Hermione's body. She could barely believe the words even though Brusto was already raising his wand. She wanted to move out of the way, duck, scream a counter curse, anything! But she couldn't move or speak; she just looked him desperately in the face, her bottom lip quivering. His back up Death Eaters and Mobsters were all moving in closer behind them now, backing her in the room with no escape.
Brusto's lips were forming the words and Hermione scrunched her eyes up tight-
She felt the rush of wind and the spatter of more glass shards swoosh at her back as the gut-wrenching sound of a breaking window filled her ears.
"Lower your wands!" shouted Sturgis.
Hermione looked over at the man who had just burst through the window on a broomstick and grabbed an unsuspecting Death Eater by the shoulder, taking him hostage with a wand right at his throat. She was utterly confused. Sturgis wasn't even involved in the plans for this mission, just what was he doing there?
"What the hell is this?" asked Brusto, distracted from giving the unforgivable curse to Hermione to be slightly entertained by the intruder who thought he could save her.
Hermione looked at Sturgis with desperate confusion, "What are we going to do to get out of here?" she mouthed quickly.
Sturgis peered over at her with the corner of his eyes, "Hope back up comes, and quickly." He whispered, using his struggling captive to block his mouth from his lips being read.
"You better just back down you silly old fool," shouted someone from behind Brusto.
"Never!" shouted Sturgis, "You better lower your wands. I mean it! I'll crucio him like there is no tomorrow!"
Brusto's eyes narrowed. He then turned his wand from Hermione to the cloaked man Sturgis was using as leverage. "CRUCIO!" he yelled, zapping his own follower to unconsciousness.
The unknown Death Eater went limp in Sturgis's arms and Sturgis had no choice but to drop him.
Hermione was too appalled by the fact that Brusto had actually turned the crucio curse on his own man as a means to show he wasn't one to be trifled with, that Sturgis was able to push her stomach down to the ground with ease, as she was most unexpected of it.
Within a blink, jinxes and curses were going off over her head. She peered over her shoulder. Sturgis narrowly managed to dive behind a skewed sofa for cover.
She tried to push herself up with her palms, hoping to make it to the sofa like Sturgis had, only to hear him shriek "Impedimenta!" at her.
Her arm gave out from beneath her, making her collapse back onto her stomach.
"Stay down," he ordered in between pivoting in and out from behind the couch, sending jinxes then quickly withdrawing to dodge them.
She tried to look up as much as she could, she saw enough to know the middle of the room was a battle ground of flying jets of light. She looked eye level across the floor again. Her wand was yards away. She had to get to it, she began to army crawl.
She prayed most of the attention was on Sturgis, who was putting up a much bigger fuss, and she was quite lucky to even make it to her wand as she army crawled across the room, but as soon as she wrapped her outstretched hand around it she heard a crucio called out in her direction.
She rolled as quickly as she could. She felt the singe of the carpet as it narrowly missed her shoulder. From lying on her back she tried the best she could to aim and fire at the Mobster intent on stopping her, but her heart raced with adrenaline as she feared his would reach her first.
"AAAAAH!" screamed an unknown Death Eater just in front of Brusto's mobster who had noticed Hermione. He had taken a jinx in the eye and was doubling backwards in shock and pain, knocking right into Hermione's assailant.
The Mobster's curse again narrowly missed her at the shoulder and before she could even thank her lucky stars for the freak window of escape she rolled over and crawled behind a half smashed liquor cabinet.
The blinded Death Eater had fallen at the other's feet. After kicking him away and regaining his balance he quickly returned his focus and aim to where Hermione had laid on the floor only to find her gone. He hadn't the chance to fully survey the room for her when she petrified him from behind her cover.
Three of them now down, and the rest, especially Brusto, were growing particularly furious that the two of them had managed to evade dismantlement for so long.
With intense hate they heavily shot jinxes at Sturgis. Hermione saw one slinking back along the wall, hoping to get him from behind the sofa, where he was unguarded
Hermione had no choice but to jump out from behind the liquor cabinet and jinx him. The Death Eater was lifted up and knocked against the wall. He collapsed into a crumpled heap, bringing a painting crashing down with him so loudly it could not be missed. Brusto quickly turned to see Hermione out in the open.
He lifted his arm at her. His teeth sunk into his bottom lip as he formed the "Av..." -Sturgis leapt up out of no where- "eda kedarva" he uttered.
"Protego!" Podmore tired to say.
The unforgivable curse in its streak of green form merely split Sturgis shield curse into two strips. There was no counter curse. It just slowed it down as it hit him in the chest as he moved himself in between it and Hermione.
Hermione couldn't recall screaming, but the Death Eater's, as would most people, remember it as the shrillest, most horrified scream that had ever entered their ears.
She managed to sloppily catch Sturgis as he gave way at the knees, and she lowered herself to the ground as to not let his sinking weight make her drop him.
She watched something she'd spend the rest of her days wishing she didn't, that she never had to. She watched his eyes grow dark and lifeless, his skin draining of color. She would always remember the feel of his skin as he looked at her with desperation and took her hand, tickling her palm with his fingers that grew weaker by the second. Then he clutched her hand with his and gave her an awkward, aimless shake.
"In noctum tuas commendo spiritum meum" he whispered breathlessly.
The last mindless gestures and words of a dying man. And then she felt it, his warmth leave. His life leave. Right in her arms.
And that horrible chuckling laugh. She looked up to the sound of the noise approaching her. She opened her mouth to scream as Brusto's raised fist came down onto the top of her head-
She was bound! She struggled and fought, there were ropes and arms closing in on her! Someone was yelling at her. She screamed and kicked and flailed her arms around!
"HERMIONE!" yelled Draco, "Shhhh, shhhh, its ok," he said.
He was sitting on the edge of her bed. His hands were holding her down by the shoulders, but gently. The ropes? She had managed to make a tangled mess of her sheets. She was dewy with hot sticky sweat. Her throat burned, she had been screaming.
Draco watched her big brown eyes so ready to cry. Wide and intense and glistening with water. But they didn't cry. She was holding something back. She was looking at him with fear and confusion.
"I came to drop something off…" he said hastily, trying to explain his intrusion "And then you started screaming in your sleep…"
But Hermione didn't look distraught because after practically a whole day of not seeing her, not addressing the awkwardness of their situation now that they were back at the house, he was unexplainably in her room in the middle of the night.
No, she hardly cared about that. All she cared about was that she saw it again. The whole thing. Even though she didn't want to. Finally, her nightmares relieved all that had happened, and Sturgis's murder looked and felt just like it did the first time. Something she never ever wanted to see or feel again. It was like hell on earth. Even Draco at his worst couldn't bother her right then…. in fact, she was grateful he was there.
She suddenly snaked her arms through his and hugged his neck, drawing him in close for a heavy hard kiss.
Draco was stiff at first but it didn't take long for the warmth of her lips to relax him. Hermione sighed when he slide his whole tongue into her mouth massaging hers firmly while wrapping his arms around her neck in return. Soon his body weight was sinking into her and she was completely distracted by him.
His pleasurable sucks on her neck that could not be ignored and the untying of the drawstrings on her pajama pants chased away any lingering after feeling of dread and horror. With his undeniable presence hovering above her, concentrating on pulling his thin tight white muscle tank off from over his head left no space for thoughts of the dream.
Then there was just the hot skin and contoured muscles of his chest and stomach, his hair falling loosely around his face as he looked down at her possessively, framing his piercing silver eyes that bore into her. Soon he would be in her, distracting her, replacing pain with pleasure. Soon he would be in her and there would be no room for anything else.
… … …
Draco was trying hard to keep a serious face. "Give it," he said through gritted teeth, tugging.
"No way," said Hermione with a giggle, she knew he wasn't serious, "You have enough!"
"Bloody hell I do, you always hog them!" he said.
"Do not!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yes you do," insisted Draco, "You're a bugger blanket hog! And-," he chided, "You snore!"
Hermione scoffed, "I do not snore!"
But Draco was already laughing. Hermione scolded playfully at him.
"I mean it," he said, trying to pull his serious face again, "Give me some covers or else!"
"Or else what?" Hermione demanded with a laugh.
Draco eyed her sourly.
Suddenly Hermione's body lifted up into the air and she was laughing uproariously, flailing her arms about. Draco had begun tickling the sides of her stomach and she released her clutch on the sheets to try to grab or shoo his hands away.
With her grasp undone Draco quickly pulled the blankets over to himself leaving her in just panties, exposed to the cool air!
"AH!" she cried, "its freezing! Let me have some back!"
Draco shook his head smiling smugly. "Don't worry, the fire is getting bigger," he said. Which was true, Hermione's contours and curves were being accented by the soft orange light that was filling the dim room, and her brown hair had streaks of blonde pop out in the flickering shadows. Her eyes seemed to glow as she shot a pleading desperate look at him.
"Draco!" she screeched.
"Lose the knickers," he said.
Hermione glared at him, "All this because I put my panties back on?"
Draco just smiled cheekily.
Hermione glared at him. By the time she had peeled them off and handed them to him they were both smiling. He allowed her into the sheets and then proceeded to roll both of them up like a bed burrito.
"Mmmm, warm now," he said, content now that Hermione's bare skin was next to his.
Hermione merely smiled at him. He couldn't resist her perfect smile. He began smooching her face with kisses and she giggled, curling her legs around him.
"Mmmm," he said again, "Another go in a few minutes?" he asked.
Hermione looked at him with shock, "Four times?" she asked.
"What?" said Draco defensively, "I'm young you know… virile and whatever have you…"
Hermione laughed, "But still…"
"Well I can't help it…" he began, "You're just so… Ahh! I don't know."
Hermione giggled again.
Draco was flustered just by the thought of trying to explain it, "The way you…" he said, unable to finish any thought, "And how you know when to… and when I…" he stopped short, "Bloody hell you know just what to do! It's like you're a bloody expert."
Hermione blushed and scoffed, "hardly!" she blurted.
Draco looked over at her. She watched as curiosity crept over his face.
It had never occurred to him before… And suddenly he was quite concerned. He looked thoughtful yet held back… "When you and I…" he started, trying to word something carefully, "That wasn't your… I mean you've had…"
Hermione blushed even harder at first but then just laughed, "Um no," she began to say.
Draco sighed with relief.
"Not really, no."
Draco's relief was replaced with mild confusion. "Not really?" Draco repeated.
"Yeah," said Hermione.
"What the hell does that mean? Not really?" he said.
"It means not really."
Draco was quiet for a moment. "You do know what I'm asking right? I mean the way I see it it's a yes or a no, 'Not really' is kind of new to me and I'm having a hard time picturing how that would work…"
Hermione huffed, "Well it's complicated," was all she said.
"Well do tell," said Draco, most interested to know.
Hermione looked hesitant, but she could tell Draco was waiting.
"Well... if you must know, during my first time… I was, I was uh, interrupted."
Draco laughed like she knew he would.
"I'm sorry," he immediately said, trying hard to stop, "I wasn't trying to be a dick, it's just a funny thing to happen is all. Who caught you?"
Hermione mumbled something.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Dumbledore," she repeated in annoyance.
Draco's eyes widened. She could tell he was holding in a big laugh, really trying hard.
Hermione scowled. But then suddenly she was laughing too.
"Dumbledore didn't see anything!" Hermione felt the need to clarify, "I mean we had been alone in the room and just as him and me, you know… started…you know, really …"
"Right after he slid it in?" said Draco, saving her the trouble.
"Um... yes," Hermione confessed, "Dumbledore knocked on the door. We managed to cover it up nicely by the time he was in the room. So no, I wasn't your cherry, thank you very much," she chortled.
"Who was it?" Draco asked.
Hermione cast her eyes away from Draco, suddenly uncomfortable. She sat up and was suddenly very interested in staring at the fire.
"Who?" Draco repeated again, a bit unexplainably hostile.
"Harry," she said.
Draco was quiet for a long time. Hermione was surprisingly interested in seeing the expression on his face, but couldn't find it in herself to look over at him.
"How many times did he fuck you?" he asked, no tone present.
"Just that one time…" she answered
She felt him sit up too.
"How many times have I fucked you?" he asked firmly, she felt his breath on her neck.
They were in dangerous territory. These were things she thought they had an unspoken agreement to never discuss, to never acknowledge. But then again she never thought in a million years she would ever shag him. And as if that wasn't insane enough, that they would continue their ridiculous tryst in his own household.
Finally she looked over at him, "I've lost count…" she whispered.
Draco smiled meanly. "I win," he said. And then he pulled her back to a lying position and climbed on top of her.
… … …
Hermione's eye lids fluttered. "No…" she murmured softly to the knocks on her door. She was having a sweet, blissful, dreamless sleep.
The knocks seemed to continue.
"Not now Bubsy," Hermione said as loud as she could despite it being muffled by her pillow.
However the knock persisted. Now that she was more fully awake she perceived the sense of urgency and persistence in the knock. It had now awoken Draco too, who had raised his head off from the pillow next to hers.
"Hermione!" said Sarah through the door, "It's not Bubsy… It's important, I'm coming in."
Draco hastily rolled himself off the side of the bed to hide right when Sarah opened the door and stepped through. Hermione was wrapping a sheet around her naked body and stepped out of bed to greet Sarah, who looked most frazzled.
"I'm sorry, but it's time to get up. Lucius insists we get ready quickly and go with him to the Political Convention."
"What?" said Hermione, "That starts this afternoon! And it's all the way in London, why is he just telling us now?"
"I'm not sure," said Sarah, "But he is in one of his moods, please, just get ready. I've got to go tell Draco and then get ready myself."
"You're going too?" asked Hermione, first wondering why Lucius would want her around in the first place, but now Sarah as well?
"Yes," said Sarah, "My Dad is going, he leaves just after it's over, and if I want to spend time with him then I have to go to."
Hermione was just thinking how nice of Lucius it was to allow that, and she was wondering what Landon had done to make Lucius act so friendly towards him when Sarah's eyes widened in surprise.
Draco had revealed himself as being in the room. Hermione wondered if Sarah even noticed that he had originally been trying to hide that fact from her and was relieved to see he found his boxers on the floor beside the bed and had at least put them on.
She felt her cheeks grow hot and she looked down at the floor. She was getting her first taste of what it felt like, having someone else know about their dirty little secret. As embarrassed or ashamed, she wasn't sure what she felt exactly, whatever it was it didn't feel too pleasant, as she was in front of Sarah, she could only imagine what it would be like in front of someone who would fully understand their roles in life and the entire consequences of their actions.
Draco however, appeared as confident and intimidating as usual as he acted very nonchalant about being in her room at 5 o'clock in the morning with just his underwear on.
"He's really decided to go then?" Draco asked her.
Sarah, getting over the sight and all its many implications, finally found her voice, "yes, and he wants to go as soon as possible."
Hermione watched Draco as his expression turned serious. He nodded curtly and appeared to be thinking.
"This is going to be hell," thought Hermione, "Reporters galore will be there…" She dreaded the idea of having to make a public appearance as Draco's wife in the middle of that media circus.
"Perhaps it won't be so bad," said Sarah, "I mean all the candidates for next years election will be announcing themselves today…maybe all the attention will be focused on them. I know Fudge will be doing a lot of promoting to say the least, he has to formally ask to be a re-candidate and all his toughest critics will be there."
"Hopefully…" said Hermione.
"We better go get ready," said Draco sternly.
The two left and Hermione closed her door. She was on her way to the shower when she saw an anonymous brown grocery bag sitting on her nightstand. The same bag she now realized as the one in her honeymoon suite that had been so plain she had hardly noticed it at all.
Draco had mentioned he was dropping something off last night… She went over to it and looked inside. There were quite a few glass vials filled with a yellowy green liquid. She pulled one out. It was cold, really cold, even though there was nothing to keep it that way. She uncorked it and foamy fizz almost spilled over the top.
"No way," she said out loud to herself.
She sniffed it.
And then took a sip.
While Hermione had spent the day lost and alone, Draco must have spent all day in his study playing with potion ingredients he got in the Caribbean… he had made her perfect replicas of ice cold Mountain Dew.