Hi everyone!
This comes after Luxury and desire, which met with great success. It truly delights me to the highest degree and allows me to thank you very warmly for the reviews! The holidays are over for Hermione, but the return to London is going to be as hot as the source's water!
(I am still not a native English speaker so I appology for all the mistakes and anything wrong I write.)
Champagne and red satin
Part 1
The landscape flashed past the thick glass of the train as images of the previous days flashed behind Hermione's eyelids. Thinking about it again, she felt her heartbeat quicken and a wave of hot shivers run down her spine. She sighed and a round mist appeared against the glass.
The train passed through a town, abruptly reminding her that the holidays were behind her and that she was about to return to London and the Ministry. She hadn't seen Draco before leaving and had only sent him a brief message explaining her return to the capital. Message that had not received a response.
Maybe it was the better way. She had absolutely no idea how she should act around him. When they left the spring, they parted embarrassed, mumbling a few goodbyes. She had also thought that it was probably the first time she had seen Draco Malfoy express this kind of thing.
And there was everything that rumbled inside her whenever she thought about what they had done in the pool. A hodgepodge of emotions, a bag of knots of feelings and desires, sometimes feverish, sometimes contradictory.
The train attendant's voice rose in the car, getting Hermione out of her thoughts. King Cross Station loomed on the horizon. She was coming home. The young woman made her way through the incessantly movement of entering and leaving travellers. After a few minutes of walking, she found an empty alley where she could Apparate directly into her living room. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as she put her suitcases down by the couch. She felt like she had spent a week out of time, out of reality in this snowy village. But there was no feeling like coming home.
In London, there was not a snowflake on the pavements, only a sad grey sky that would not disappear until the beginning of spring. The streets shimmered, however, all dressed in decorations announcing a merry Christmas.
With a flick of her wand, the witch sent her things in her cupboard as she went to the door to pick up the mail accumulated over the past few days. There was nothing fundamentally urgent and after a cup of tea, Hermione put on her robes to head to the Ministry. She crossed the Atrium, richly decorated with Christmas trees, gold and silver garlands, and entered an elevator.
"Hermione! How are you?" Exclaimed Harry with joy as she walked in the open space of the Aurors.
"Great! And you?"
She kissed his cheek with a large smile.
"I'm always fine," laughed Harry with a wink. "But, aren't you suppose to come back to work later?"
"I am. I only wanted to see what was going on around here."
Harry rolled his eyes, smiling, and led her into his office so they could speak quietly.
"The holidays went well?"
Hermione did her best to conceal the colour that slightly tinged her cheeks and nodded with a smile.
"All is well for you?" She went on without expanding on the subject.
"For now, yes. But it can't last forever. We'll have to deal with malicious wizards deciding to play bad tricks on Muggles someday."
Harry then told her about the latest reports the Auror's Office had received during her absence and Hermione immersed herself completely in work, clearing her mind. She stayed with her best friend for a while before continuing her walk through the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She collected several reports which served to bring her up-to-date.
There was really only one thing she could focus on: her job. Nothing else mattered any more. Hermione spent nearly an hour in her office reading parchments before deciding to go home. She changed again and Apparated to the Potters where her best friend had invited her to spend the evening.
Ginny received her with a wide smile and hugged her warmly.
"I didn't expect to see you so soon!" She exclaimed, inviting her into the living room.
The redhead sat down on the edge of the sofa to take off her quidditch boots, the last traces of her afternoon of practice.
"Harry should be here soon."
As night had just fallen abruptly as on a winter's evening, the two young women stayed by the fireplace chatting cheerfully. Harry did arrive quickly, grumbling a little.
"I love my job, really," he added. "But sometimes I feel like a prankster spirit is waiting in the corner to pop files on my desk and hold me back at the Ministry."
"Come and have a drink," Hermione said amused, seeing his contrite expression.
"Holidays ended well for you?" Ginny continued, serving the three of them.
"Well…" Hermione hesitated a moment. "Yes, it was fine."
"Fine? What deprived you of great holidays?"
"Nothing," Hermione objected, the embarrassment colouring her face as she once again remembered the events of the source.
The look her two best friends had confronted her with her vague dodge. They weren't fooled and she knew it.
"It was weird, that's all," she admitted. "Draco Malfoy was there, you remember?"
Harry and Ginny nodded, frowning and wandering why she was mentioning him. If only they knew, their friend thought, blushing.
"We saw each other several times after you left and I can't help but thinking about it," Hermione explained. "He has changed. A lot."
She couldn't even think to tell them the truth. She couldn't tell them they had sex in this hot spring, how much she had liked it and wondered each day since if they would do it again.
"And did you finally know if he had seen you swimming that day before we arrived?" Harry asked.
"No, I didn't. And I don't really care now."
She knew, of course, but she realised that she actually didn't care any longer. After what happened between them, it was the least of her problems.
Thinking back to the source gave her shivers and a dull desire echoed through her body. Harry and Ginny didn't see her trouble and they sat down to eat, changing the subject to focus on Ginny's latest matches and new Ministry cases.
"I don't know if I'll find some time to come back before that, but I guess I'll see you at the Minister's cocktail" Hermione suggested to Ginny.
The redhead nodded, without hiding the lack of enthusiasm that this evening aroused in her.
"If you really don't want to come, I can ask Ron to come with me," Harry slipped with a smile on the corner of his mouth.
"Of course not," Ginny objected, rolling her eyes.
When she got home, Hermione let herself gaze at the night, broken by the street lights. She was back, the holidays were definitely over. It was time to forget those few surreal and improbable days. A large cup of hot tea in her hands, she let her eyes wander outside until the street lights switched off and she saw only her own reflection in the window.
A week passed during which the whole city was enveloped by a wave of great cold. The streets had been deserted in favour of cafes and tea rooms where the heat was salutary. Hermione had bundled up in a thick coat to brave the sub-zero temperatures and strolled down Diagon Alley, looking up. Christmas decorations twinkled under the white sky and all the shop windows were glowing. The breeze was icy, but it carried with it warm scents of cinnamon and honey.
It was a beautiful day, whatever the more chilly people said and after some shopping, the Hermione returned to her office for the last afternoon of the week. The whole Ministry was plunged into a kind of winter languor on the eve of the holidays, which the cocktail planned for this Friday evening was shaking up. The Atrium was beginning to take the form of a reception area and a keen eye could occasionally see carts delivering petits fours and boxes of champagne.
Hermione watched this preparation from the floor of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with a mixture of excitement and spite. She loved those moments when employees could let go for an evening and when most hierarchical barriers fell. But it was still a ministerial and stuffy drink where entrepreneurs, bankers and politicians were invited. An evening where appearances were in order.
She finished the file she had spent the week working on and went home to get ready. She had never really paid much attention to wearing particularly refined clothes for this kind of event which was beginning to be part of her daily life at the Ministry. It didn't take long for her to find a dress that seemed appropriate; neither too sophisticated nor too casual. A few minutes later, she joined Harry and Ginny on their way to the Ministry.
.
The Atrium was already crowded. It had only been a few minutes since he had arrived and Draco already felt the boredom dawning on his mind. He had never found interest in these cocktails which had no other purpose than to bring together Ministry employees and personalities from the business world in a semblance of cooperation and transparency. Draco was unaccountable to the Ministry and didn't have much affinity with other London businessmen.
Each year, he passed by in a breeze to greet the minister and the most influential guests before slipping away and ending the evening with his friends. But this time, he was going to wait a little longer. It was mostly out of curiosity; for the desire to know and to see. He watched the room and the appearance of a very specific face that he hadn't seen for about two weeks.
The blond got caught in a group of men who, champagne in hand, were talking about the upcoming elections. And after an indefinite time, Draco's gaze was caught by a reflection in the crowd, a singular blazing glow. He definitely stopped listening to what Joel Ferguson was ranting about the minister and let his attention wander to the other side of the reception hall.
She had just arrived, in a red satin dress with long sleeves and an open collar over her bare shoulders, a simple hairstyle and low heels. She had remained true to herself and Draco thought, for a second, that she was resplendent. He then wondered how everything that had happened during his stay in that thermal town had fundamentally changed his opinion. Would he have thought the same of this woman if he had not found himself in this forest near this spring and if he had not joined her in the water a few days later? Would he have found her beautiful at that moment, irresistible, if none of this had happened?
Probably not. He would have continued to think she was insignificant and would not have paid attention to her existence as he had done for years without seeing her. But that evening, in the Atrium of the ministry of Magic, he only saw her, weaving through the thick crowd, alongside the Potter-Weasley couple.
The warmth of the space overlapped with his hazy memories of the source and Draco's mind began to wander from where he was, gradually imagining scenes that were perfectly inappropriate for the place and the occasion. He had come for that, to see her again and maybe even talk to her. Maybe also for more than that. He let himself gaze at her body, her finely dressed arms, her face wearing a smile that was sometimes circumstantial, sometimes sincere, and the polite nods she gave to the people around her. He imagined her completely naked and felt the desire rumbling in him.
Hermione took a sip from her flute of champagne and turned her head to the rest of the room. In a fraction of a second, her eyes were magnetized to Draco's, who was observing her. She looked surprised to see him, destabilized for a moment by the intensity of the wizard's expression. He would have paid a lot to know what she would have done if she had known what was on his mind right now.
Hermione greeted a colleague who had just called out for her and when she turned her attention back to the other end of the Atrium, Draco was gone. She tried to distract her mind by chatting with the wizards around her, but she couldn't help but watch the room out of the corner of her eye, looking for him. After a while, she pulled herself out of the crowd and moved towards the fountain in search of some space. A presence next to her made her heart thump against her ribs and she turned her head slowly, almost cautiously.
"What are you doing here?" She blurted, looking at Draco.
"Good evening, Granger. I expected a little more civility after what happened between us…"
"Hush!" Hermione exclaimed, cutting him off with a lively whisper.
Draco sneered slightly at his expression of outrage and embarrassment.
"You didn't think we'd ever talk about what happened again."
"I don't think anything," Hermione said annoyed. "I didn't think we were going to meet again. And possibly we would end up forgetting all that."
Silence fell, leaving them staring at each other. Draco detailed her now that he was close to her and he couldn't do anything else but finally accept what his mind and body were whispering to him. He might have hated her for a while, but now it was something else that stirred inside him with just as much intensity.
"I don't really want to forget," he declared calmly, giving her a burning look.
Hermione felt a wave of shivers cover her arms and her face flushed, making her cheeks heat up.
"That doesn't make sense," Hermione whispered.
"You can try to convince yourself of this, but I persist in the idea that we will have to talk about it once and for all.
"I'm not sure that tonight is the perfect time for that," she tried to close the conversation.
"Perhaps you'd rather we exchanged by letter?" Draco offered snidely.
Hermione rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
"I don't know how you can take it so lightly."
"Excuse me, but I'm the one who doesn't understand why you're making knots in your brain," Draco replied, grabbing two flutes of champagne from a tray that had come floating near them.
"Because it's you and me!" Hermione exclaimed. "It should never have happened and it's… weird."
Draco let out a sigh and shoved a flute into her hands.
"You're right, Granger. It's weird and it seems absurd. But it happened so stop fussing over it and just tell me if you want to do it again."
Hermione choked on her champagne, causing the sparkling wine to get into her nose. Cloudy-eyed, she reluctantly accepted the satin handkerchief Draco handed her and when she dried her tears, she found his amused and blazing expression.
"Are you being serious?"
"Absolutely."
Draco came a little closer, put his hand against her cheek and wiped a pearl of water from the corner of her eye with his thumb.
"Unless you tell me that you want to forget what happened and that we don't talk to each other after tonight," he whispered in Hermione's ear.
She quivered, the closeness of his body reminding her the fever of their exchanges. She shook her head and slid a hand against the blond's chest, completely forgetting where they were.
"I don't want to forget,"she admitted. "I can't."
Draco gave her a satisfied smile and took a step back.
"I'm looking forward to seeing you soon," he whispered before mingling with the crowd.
Hermione watched him go away and took a deep breath. Her heartbeat was crazy and she was feeling her fingers shaking imperceptibly. She had two weeks to stop thinking about him; to clear her mind and try, no matter what, to erase her memories from her winter break. And after just a few minutes near Draco, she felt intoxicated and burning with desire.
She regained consciousness that she was still at the Ministry, but when she turned to walk in the opposite direction the former Slytherin had taken, she faced the shocked and stunned expressions of Harry and Ginny.
It was impossible that they hadn't seen anything and Hermione had absolutely no idea of what she was going to tell them. The truth? It seemed so unbelievable. But it happened any way.
The young woman made her way through the crowd towards her best friends, but when the director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement came to speak to them, she took the opportunity to change direction and give herself a break, drowning her embarrassment in a little more champagne.
She spent the rest of the evening avoiding the couple when they weren't busy with others and watching Draco out of the corner of her eye as he stared at her. Every time she met his grey pupils, she felt her stomach twist in a warm sensation. The way he had to look at her, with this deep desire, this wild flame, sent shivers in her whole body. The champagne on top made her feel light and consumed her lucidity.
When she finally decided to go home, Hermione realized that her two best friends had already left the reception . She hesitated to go to their house directly to give them an explanation, but it was late and she had drink too much to be able to express herself in proper words. She found herself in the street, among other wizards who came out of the Ministry like her. Immersed in the multicolored Christmas night, she took a few minutes to cool her cheeks in the icy December air.
She closed her eyes and shivered as the cold wind caressed her neck. It began to snow, fine flakes dancing in the lights, and Hermione stood there for a moment, gazing up at the sky.
The snow suddenly brought her back to a mountain village surrounded by hot springs, in the steaming water where the backwash had no other cause than her naked body wildly united with that of a classmate.
The young woman snorted and began to walk away when her glance got caught by a group of guests who were also leaving the reception. Her eyes fell on a slender figure shaking hands with an older man. And as if he had sensed her watching him from the opposite sidewalk, Draco turned to her. His expression immediately took on that glow he'd had all evening and he walked over to her.
The closer he came, walking under the white snow with nonchalance and longing, the more she felt her heart racing and pounding in her chest. He stopped a few centimetres from her face and their two breaths mingled in a cloud of opaque steam.
Neither of them spoke for several seconds and suddenly Draco grabbed Hermione's arm and Apparated them away. The young woman felt the hit, her head dizzy from the trip and hazy from the champagne. She glanced around the room they were now in, it was a living room where the dark was disturbed only by the flickering of a green tinsel. It was Draco Malfoy's living room who still had his hand tight around her arm.
A wave of heat ravaged Hermione's body, electrifying her skin. She didn't have the time to think any longer about the strangeness of being at his place because she ended up glued against the Draco's body who swooped down on her in a fiery kiss. In an instant, all the questions that had been running through her mind during all the evening and since she had returned to London evaporated.
Nothing else mattered. It made no sense that she based a relationship on something other than hate with Malfoy? She couldn't care less now because of all the satisfactions this kiss brought to her. It was like she only waited for that since she came back from holidays. And so much more.
She slipped her arms around Draco's neck and mixed her fingers in his hair. He ran his hands under her buttocks and pressed her against his pelvis, tickling her neck with his lips. Hermione wrapped her legs around his waist as he picked her up, bumping against the firm erection that was sticking out of his pants. The wizard closed his eyes for a moment, holding back a rough groan, and hurried off towards the bedroom as they dove back into a feverish kiss.
With one foot, Draco pushed open the door and ushered them into the darkened room. He approached the bed and dropped Hermione onto the mattress, who gasped in surprise before laughing. He couldn't see her, but a strange feeling came over him when he heard this melodious sound. A sweet satisfaction, a vague feeling of joy at being at the origin of this spontaneous laugh, although a little foggy from too much champagne. He pictured her lying there, her rosy cheeks, her sparkling eyes, her hair undone and he felt happy to share this moment with her.
"Draco?"
Hermione whispered his name in a sensual and deep sight that rouse him from his thoughts. He swooped down on her and caught her mouse as she was waving under him. Draco pulled up her dress on her belly and discovered a ribbon holding the witch's wand again her thigh. He untied the knot smoothly and sent everything in the dark. Hermione tackled his pants that she slid with her feet down his legs.
They were both acting hastily as the excitement made them shudder. A jumble of memories of the events at the source rumbled within them; the desire to reach the orgasm, the apotheosis as quickly as possible.
Draco shifted on the bed and completely got rid of his pants and boxers before doing the same for Hermione's panties. When he repositioned himself on top of her, feeling her thighs spread against his legs, he wondered if he was going to be able to hold out even a minute longer. Unaware of his thoughts, the brunette wrapped a hand around his erection and began to move bask and forth intensely. Draco gritted his teeth and used all his concentration not to crack.
Since he had tensed and wasn't moving any more, Hermione realized what was going on inside his mind and smiled mischievously. She accelerated her strokes around his hot member, delighted in the thought of him briefly closing his eyes and clenching his jaw in pleasure. With her other hand, she came to play with her own crotch. When he felt her doing, Draco grabbed her arm so that she removed her hand and replaced it with his. He felt the moisture cover his skin as soon as he put his fingers on Hermione's clitoris. She whispered something he didn't understand and he entered one, then two fingers inside her without waiting, drawing a moan of pleasure from the woman.
She tensed as he moved his fingers while squeezing her sensitive spot and she concentrated on accelerating her own movements even more to avoid sinking into ecstasy. And suddenly, Draco pulled his hand away, grabbed both of her legs and penetrated her with a jerk. They moaned at once in release and Draco began to move back and forth quickly.
Hermione slipped her hands under his shirt and gripped his back, closing her eyes as she was rocked by an electric shock each time he thrust ever harder into her. She wrapped her legs around the Draco's waist to deepen their exchange, forced to bite the inside of her cheek to hold back a cry.
As Draco went faster and more intense, both of their sweat-covered bodies got overwhelmed with climax. He stroke her with a final liberating jerk and Hermione gave in to an orgasmic moan. Her partner let himself fall on the bed and silence invaded the room, only disturbed by their two erratic breathings.
All the alcohol seemed to have completely evaporated from Hermione's blood and she suddenly felt embarrassed. She realized it wasn't just a lustful vacation stray any more. They had just had sex together out of sheer envy, wild and hasty, and she wanted to make a habit of it.
It was dark in the room, but she pulled her dress down on her legs. A hand came to rest on hers, squeezing it briefly and she wasn't sure why, but she got the feeling he was trying to reassure her in some way. Then Draco came closer and put a brief, but soft kiss on her bare shoulder before getting up from the bed.
"Mind your eyes," he warned.
Hermione covered her face with one hand, sensing the light of the chamber coming on. After a few seconds of accommodation, she sat up on the bed and opened her eyes. Her heart pounded in her chest as she saw Draco standing in front of his closet. He had his back to her, at his feet was the shirt he had been wearing a moment earlier. He was naked and Hermione couldn't help starting to detail his body.
His muscles were emerging discreetly under his pale skin. He wasn't moving and she thought he looked like a statue, a white marble David. He finally turned around and fixed his eyes into hers, a small smile on the corner of his lips. Even if the blush rose to her cheeks, Hermione continued to let her eyes run all over his body.
Draco watched her doing so and let out an amused chuckle. He had such confidence in him, such assurance when he was completely naked in front of her. A month earlier, this scene would have been pure delirium, but at this moment, when they were exchanging a kind of risky complicity, it no longer seemed so incongruous to them.
Hermione yawned, a wave of fatigue suddenly overwhelming her. It was almost two o'clock in the morning and the witch thought that the night had passed at breakneck speed. She thought back to the evening at the Ministry and inevitably, the stunned faces of Harry and Ginny forced themselves into her mind.
"I think I'd better go home," she said, getting up.
She started to search for her wand that had rolled under the ebony table matching the bed beside.
"Granger," Draco called.
She turned and forced herself to look only at his face. He came closer and put a hand in the hollow of her back to stick her to him. Heat ravaged her body when he kissed her with passion. She gripped the back of his neck, wishing that kiss would never end. They parted after long feverish moments, gasping for breath and Hermione wondered if she really wanted to go home.
"I guess it's not the last time we see each other," Draco whispered with a smile. "You can use the Floo Network from my living room."
The witch smiled back and nodded to confirm his words. She left the bedroom not without taking a last look at his naked body.
When she got to her apartment, Hermione let a contented and happy sigh escape her mouth. It was only when she slipped into her bathroom to take a shower that she realized she had left her panties at Draco's.