Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Harry Potter or any of these characters.
Summary: Draco and Hermione go for a drive.
A/N: Thanks to chanteur dombre for the beta read!
The skies had opened up by the time Draco and Hermione made it to her car. Neither spoke as she pulled out onto the road. They were both out of breath from running to avoid the brunt of the downpour.
Draco studied her closely as she focused on the road. Her hair was in complete shambles at this point – most of it falling down her shoulders and wet wisps clinging to her face. She shivered slightly from the cold – or something else.
"Are you just going to stare at me?" she asked, breaking the silence.
"I can't help it," he replied honestly.
His confession caused her to accelerate too quickly, nearly rear-ending another vehicle before she slammed on the brakes. She threw her arm out in front of him, an instinctive and somewhat motherly gesture as they lurched to a halt.
"Bloody hell, Granger, I'd like to at least have a good snog before you kill us both!"
She looked at him with a wide-eyed expression – shock, fear and desire all jockeying to be at the front of her emotional queue. Her arm was still lying protectively across him. She abruptly went to pull it back, but he grabbed her at the elbow and started to lean toward her...
BEEP!
They both sprang back.
"Fuck! I'm going to have a bloody heart attack," groaned Draco.
Hermione was crimson with embarrassment as she started to drive again. The operator of the vehicle behind her screamed a colourful assortment of obscenities and continued to beep his horn.
Draco, unfamiliar with road rage, pulled out his wand and made to turn around in his seat.
"No!" She put her arm in front of him again. "That was my fault. We'll just find someplace where I can pull over." She removed her arm and brought her attention back to the road.
Meanwhile, back at the Parkinson estate…
BEEP!
Ron jumped up spastically in the air as the deafening blare of the car horn shattered the eavesdropping silence of the Parkinson's study.
"What in bloody fucking hell was that?" he exclaimed, the look of horror on his face not unlike the kind inspired by his eight-legged friends.
Pansy, Ginny and Mitchell didn't look much better. Harry – who had experience with loud car horns (and loudness in general, thanks to the Dursley's) – had recovered more quickly from the noise and was in fits of laughter. The five of them sat around a small glowing orb that emitted the sounds coming from Hermione's car.
"I can't believe Hermione can drive Muggle transport and still be afraid of flying a broom. She's mental," said Ron.
Pansy nodded in agreement. "Forget Granger, I can't believe Draco is subjecting himself to this. He must really fancy her."
"Took them both long enough to figure it out," said Mitchell.
"Will you people shut it," said an annoyed Ginny. "Hermione said something about pulling over."
They all got quiet and listened in again, but the next few minutes they heard nothing but the sounds of driving and low breathing.
"They're awfully quiet, you think they're shagging?" wondered Ron.
"Ha! Not unless they can do it silently while driving," said Harry. "Hold up, it sounds like she turned off the engine."
"Wha..." started Ron, but the other four cut him off with a quick "Shhh!"
Hermione had driven into a car park that was nearly empty. The rain was coming down steadily outside.
Draco looked around, his expression a mixture of wariness and curiosity. "Where are we?"
"It's a Muggle shopping centre. Sort of like Diagon Alley for Muggles, except they drive here," she explained.
She had parked in a far corner of the lot, but there were still Muggles around, coming and going. "It isn't very private."
"Right." She took out her wand and performed disillusionment, Muggle-repelling and silencing charms. She shifted in her seat to face Draco. "Now we have privacy."
"That's what you think," said Mitchell with a devilish grin, back at the ranch.
Draco swallowed nervously. "So, I, um, heard you broke up with Triblehorn."
She looked down at the gears between them, unable to look him in the eye. "Yes, well, I did. Sort of..."
Draco didn't hide the worry (or anger, he would kill Bulstrode if he was wrong) from his voice. "What do you mean, 'sort of'? You either broke up or you didn't."
She lifted her hands to her face and then said very quickly, "I didn't have to break up with him because we were never a couple."
"What! You were just shagging him?"
"No!" she screamed. "Of course not."
He looked at her incredulously. "Are you taking the piss? What in Merlin's name is going on?"
Hermione looked up at him sheepishly. "I sort of just let you think Alex and I were together."
"You lied to me?"
"I'm really sorry." She reached out hesitantly and put her hand on his. "I know it was completely insane. Not to mention immature."
"And effective," said Ginny.
Draco looked down at her small hand. He reached down and cradled it between his larger hands. He was caressing it, very slowly. He lifted his eyes to hers. "Why?"
She was so entranced by his touch that it took Hermione a moment to realize he'd asked another question. "I'm sorry?"
"Why did you lie?" He was still holding her hand, moving his fingers up her wrist and forearm.
Hermione abandoned any thought of creating a cover story. She felt stripped by the look in his grey eyes. "Because of the way you looked at me when you thought I was with Alex. Like you regretted it." She added shyly, "Like you're looking at me now."
"I see." He didn't break the eye contact, but pulled her closer to him, moving her fingers so they were a breath's distance from his lips. Her gaze didn't waver. "You're shaking," he said, and then very gently kissed her fingertips.
"So are you." Rather clumsily – but in an endearing way – she pulled her hand away, leaned forward and placed her lips tentatively against his.
The kiss was short, sweet and heartbreakingly innocent. Hermione pulled back slightly and Draco muttered a soft, "Mmmm." Then he urgently moved his right hand into her messy, wet curls, pulling her mouth back to his. He tried to circle her slim waist with his left arm, but as he leaned forward he lost his balance, smashing his elbow into the steering wheel – and the horn.
BEEP!
The sound (and the pain that shot through his arm) ended their brief horny-teenager snog. "Fuck!" he yelled out.
"Bugger!" exclaimed Ron. He was sprawled out on the floor, having fallen out of his chair after the second loud beep.
Pansy had developed a bad case of the hiccups from laughing so hard. "Oh Merlin…hic…they are so bloody…hic…sad." She was also on the floor in a rather unladylike position.
Ginny shook her head in disbelief, "I thought Malfoy was more of a smoothie than this."
"Slytherin sex god my arse," snorted Mitchell.
That made Pansy collapse in a fresh round of giggles. When she'd (sort of) contained herself again she spoke (or tried to). "Yeah he only had that reputation…hic…from fucking…'Huffhuffpuff', ahhh," and proceeded to clutch herself on the floor in a display of humorous abandonment.
"Shhhhh!" said Ginny, who seemed to be the only one of the group worthy of spy duty. "I think they're snogging again!"
Hermione didn't know if she should feel frustrated or humiliated. She looked at Draco, red in the face, angry and achingly attractive with his smooth blond hair and bedroom (and not just because they were a bit bloodshot) eyes. Something about his expression, the way he was both flustered and alluring was so…funny. She couldn't contain a nervous, somewhat breathless giggle.
He shot her a scathing look. "Let me just say for the record that you will never, ever get me in this bloody Muggle contraption again."
The delicate thread which held together her composure snapped with his words and indignant expression and she lost it.
"What's so bloody amusing?" He blazed, but the anger was evaporating from his voice.
She couldn't speak because she was laughing so hard and tears were streaming down her face.
"Fine. I'll teach you to mock me, wench!" He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her out of the driver's seat and onto his lap.
"Ahhh!" she yelped, but was promptly shut up as he pulled her lips down to his and renewed his manic exploration. Her mouth opened to his with a gasp and the kiss deepened. She was on her knees now, straddling his lap on the car seat, her dress riding up her thighs and her hands against his delectable chest. She was completely out of sorts between the laughter and the lust and had to pull back from him. "Draco..."
"You said my name." He smiled, leaning in to plant a whisper of a kiss in the hollow of her neck, "I must be dreaming."
"Perhaps this is a dream," she said playfully. "Where's your whip?"
Draco lifted his head up from the cradle of her neck. He looked abashed. "He's a dead man."
She leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. "Don't be mad at Mitchell. We probably wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for him."
He laughed, "You mean cramped up in your bloody uncomfortable Muggle torture chamber, snogging like a couple of Hogwarts students in a broom cupboard?"
"The broom cupboards at Hogwarts are far more comfortable."
He gave her a stunned look. "Miss Granger! Are you telling me that you, the swotty know-it-all, are actually familiar with the Hogwarts broom cupboards? Please tell me you were working on spells or brewing some potion to keep Potter out of trouble."
"Yeah right, and I'm Harry-fucking-Potter," snickered Ron.
Hermione looked around suspiciously, "Did you just hear something?"
"Oh bugger!"
"Shite, what's wrong with that thing!"
"Quiet!"
Draco and Hermione were looking at each other as cold awareness settled on them. "They wouldn't," she said.
"Those blimey fuckers," he said.
"We are so dead."
"Hold still," she pulled out her wand and cast a revealing charm. A buzzing noise erupted in the car and then Hermione noticed something was glowing on the back of Draco's shirt, near his shoulder. She gingerly grabbed what looked like a speck of dust and handed it to him.
His eyes were on fire with rage as he spoke into the device, "Listen up you nosy pieces of excrement, you better find a good rock to hide under because me and my girlfriend are coming after you." And with that he crushed the bug.
Hermione looked at him in giddy shock. "Did you mean that?"
"Yes, I'm seriously going to hex their sorry arses so hard they'll wish they were born Muggles."
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
He leaned in and rubbed his pointy (but oh-so-elegant) nose against hers. "You mean the part about you being my girlfriend?"
"Well, yes," she said anxiously.
"If you're willing to give an arsehole like me a chance," he moved back so that he could look in her eyes again.
Hermione crumbled at the unexpected look of vulnerability in his eyes. She wanted to tell him that she wished for nothing more than to be his, to just melt right there in the moment. But she was at a loss for words.
"Granger…Hermione," he paused. "Merlin, that sounds weird."
She smiled, urging him on with her eyes.
"Listen I know you'll find this difficult to believe, but I'm not perfect," he started. "Don't laugh!"
"I'm sorry, go on," she said, trying to keep a straight face.
"I've known you most of my life and for a good part of that I didn't like you. Hell, I didn't think you deserved to breathe the same air as me." He sighed deeply, remembering the pain of the past. "And now, honestly, everything is so different. It all got turned upside down and I don't know at this point if I deserve you."
"Malfoy, that's…"
He put a finger to her lips. "No, let me finish." He moved his hand down, gently running his fingers along her jawline. "The thing is, even though the world has shown my father to be wrong over and over again, it's still a lot for me to overcome. I still have a lot of anger. Not toward you," he clarified. "But toward the entire bloody world. None of this – the amazingly brilliant or the worst of the worst – is what I ever expected it to be. And what really scares me is that you'll be with me and make me incredibly happy…but then one day you'll wake up and realize that I'm still the same obnoxious prat from school. Because that's who I really am."
"I know," she said. "And I'm still the bushy-haired know-it-all."
He moved his hand to play with one of her curls. "That's true."
"I think maybe we were just too foolish or proud or something to recognize that this would be right," she said. "I mean, who else can put me in my place but a slimy little git."
"I am not slimy!"
She laughed. "And only an annoying know-it-all like myself can deal with someone as blatantly obnoxious as you."
"Ah, whisper sweet nothings to me, darling," he drawled, then moved his lips against hers, just barely grazing them.
Hermione smiled slyly against him. "By the way, it's not 'me and my girlfriend', it's 'my girlfriend and I'."
"Mercy," he said, sliding his tongue along her bottom lip. "Who knew grammar could be so stimulating."
She collapsed against him, aggressively transforming the embrace from light experimental touches to seductive exploration, his body hard yet pliant against hers. She moved her hands down his sides, bracing herself as his tongue flicked erotically with hers. After a few more moments of oral sparring (of a much more provocative nature then they were used to), she pushed back again, much to his displeasure.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, everything is perfect," she said. "Well, except my leg is asleep, I have to go meet my mum soon and we have to plot bloody revenge against our closest friends."
The End
A/N: While this is the "official" end of this story, I have written 12 chapters of "Viva Revenge" which picks up the revenge plot. It is a bit out there and includes a bit of a triangle...though it will be Draco/Hermione in the end. Anyway, thanks for reading this. Please review and provide feedback. Thanks!