A/N: Last chapter was the most reviewed! Thanks everyone Now for some much-awaited lemony action... hope it doesn't disappoint! There will be smatterings of smut throughout the story from here on out as the magic does like to have its wicked way with them… frequently.

Some of you maybe have been wondering how exactly things went on the night of their first encounter... well now you'll know!

I hope the story isn't pacing too slowly… I've JUST about finished the whole thing and my lovely, patient beta Lun27 is about halfway through editing the chapters. It's looking to be 30 maybe 31 chapters all up.

Thanks for all the new follows! We're at 134 for five chapters so I'm pretty happy. Glad everyone is enjoying my Theo characterisation, he will be fairly prominent throughout.

Chapter 6

What was this room?

Is that a bed?

Not even an hour earlier she had left her own birthday party to spend time by herself in her sanctuary. The library was calm and quiet and that was what she had needed.

It had felt wrong to be celebrating so soon after the war had ended. Everything was still too raw like a burn that was sore and hot if you touched it. So, she left with the pathetic excuse of needing to finish her essay for Arithmancy which wasn't due for weeks.

She had been running through the seventh-floor corridor, her arms full of books and parchment, until she rounded a corner and smacked face first into a tall, firm body. He smelled a little like sweat, though not unpleasantly so. Her precious study materials exploded into a plume in front of her and ended up scattered across the floor.

"Watch it, Granger," came the displeasing voice of Draco Malfoy.

Of all people.

She looked up at him for a fraction of a second. He was wearing a striped Quidditch jersey in his house colours and his hair was slightly damp and tousled from the rain starting to descend outside.

"Get away from me, Malfoy," Hermione ordered him from the ground while trying frantically to collect her things.

His sneer was audible. "Now, why would I do that when I can see how much my presence irks you?"

She was a bit quicker to violence these days. A state of constant fear and being tortured did that to a person. She wasn't quite the prim and proper rule follower she used to be, and Malfoy reminded her all too much of things she was trying to forget.

When he didn't heed her request, she drew her wand and shoved him roughly against the wall behind him. She wasn't fool enough to think she could physically overpower him, but he was not expecting this explosive reaction from her. Hermione tried her best to swallow the growl bubbling up from her throat.

To his credit, he didn't screw up his face in a pitiful display of fear like he once would have, or physically recoil from her touch. Clearly the all too recent events had left their mark on him as well. Instead, he only looked mildly shocked and then, once the initial surprise wore off, he afforded her a well-practiced, lazy smirk.

With her wand pointed at his throat she spat at him, "You disgust me. You're a cowardly, pathetic excuse for a man and I will not tolerate being near you."

He chuckled at her condescendingly. "That's a bit rich, considering you've just put me very near you."

Hermione responded by digging the tip of her wand into the underside of his chin, it bothered her immensely that he still didn't look overly concerned. "Don't think for a second that I won't curse you until you're writhing in agony on the floor."

She saw the fire light in Malfoy's eyes. "Go for it," and then it dimmed slightly. He continued softer, "I've had worse."

They were both a little ragged in their breathing, electrified with mutual loathing. Hermione still hadn't loosened her grip or lowered her wand. She hated that he could have very easily extricated himself from her and was choosing not to. She could feel his warm breath on her cheeks, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of backing down.

At that moment, as they stood there in a tableau of barely controlled fury, a tingling, crackling warmth exploded in her chest. She saw Draco's haughty smirk crumple. He was experiencing it too. Hermione's lips parted a little and she sucked in a quick breath of air, scared that her heart would burst right through her ribcage. As the worst of the pain passed their features relaxed into tight bewilderment. Something invisible root itself deeply within them. Locking in place.

Hermione lowered her wand shakily but didn't remove her hand gripping his shirt. The sound of her quick shallow breaths and blood thrumming in her ears invaded her consciousness.

Draco was working very hard to look everywhere but her lips. His eyes would try and focus on a point just beyond her curly brown head, but then his gaze would wrench agonizingly back to her.

Hermione felt flush and became acutely aware of the tingling emanating from her knuckles. They were ever so slightly brushing the skin of his warm chest. The way his jaw muscles twitched as he continued to maul her with his eyes conjured a rush of stickiness between her legs.

A pulsing ache began to intensify low in her belly, and she parted her lips ever so slightly in an involuntary, silent gasp of wanton desire. This was the moment that pushed Draco over the edge.

With a guttural growl he swooped his head down to crash his mouth onto hers. This was no chaste, first kiss. There was an undercurrent of desperate need as he kissed her long and deep, pushing his tongue into her mouth and she greedily accepted him. Hermione reached up to grasp his neck so that she could press her mouth even more firmly to his and Draco slipped an arm around her waist to pull her flush against him.

He ground his pelvis into hers, never breaking his hard assault on her mouth. Their teeth would scrape, and their tongues would war, neither of them caring who the victor was. Hermione couldn't hold back the little whimper that escaped her lips as she felt a hard length press into her hip.

She couldn't remember if it was her or him that fumbled for the door handle behind them.

This is how they found themselves in the room with the bed.

He walked her backwards, still gripping her tightly around her back, not allowing her to disconnect from touching him for even a second. Draco's mouth was now moving to attend to her neck, he sucked and nipped at her jugular and brought his hands down to her backside.

Draco groaned into her neck when he grabbed a handful of what was beneath her skirt, only covered by her thin cotton knickers.

"What the hell is happening?" Hermione breathed desperately, winding a hand into his damp, blonde hair at the nape of his neck, using the other to unknot her tie and undo the buttons of her shirt.

Malfoy made a strangled choking sound when she palmed the hardness in his shorts.

"I don't know," his voice wavered as he lifted his mouth briefly from her neck, "but you really need to remove your hand." She detected fear in his tone for the first time. Draco was as terrified as her that they were headed towards something they could never take back.

He lifted his head, pushed Hermione's shirt off her shoulders and stared at her, pink-faced and wide-eyed when he saw her breasts rising and falling in her bra with her rapid breaths.

"I…I can't stop," she exhaled, her own voice uneven with panic. Draco had hastily removed his shirt and she found her hands rising to run all over the lean muscles and scars of his stomach, chest and shoulders. His skin burned pleasurably beneath her fingers. They stood there for a few brief seconds, held at arm's length and searching the other's gaze for some way to make it all stop.

Hermione will never forget the way he looked at her in that instant. Like a man starved of the only thing he's ever wanted. His gaze darkened and something shifted behind his eyes.

"Me neither," he admitted, voice hoarse. That was the moment they gave in. They both realised what needed to happen for it to stop. With each second that realisation sewed its way into her mind. She accepted it was the only way. They had no way of knowing if that was actually true; it was just what they needed to tell themselves.

The urgent need to have him inside her lessened ever so slightly, as if the magic controlling them knew it had broken their will. Hermione suspected that if she renewed her resistance it would come back with a vengeance.

She didn't want to fight anymore. She had fought enough for a lifetime and been through enough torture and loss and fear than anyone should have to. She deserved to feel good – and good she felt - even just for a little while. She deserved to forget for a little while.

Hermione kept her gaze fixated on him as she undid the zipper of her skirt and let it pool in a pile at her feed. Draco's eyes swept over her body, and his fingers twitched by his side with barely repressed control to touch every bit of newly exposed flesh. Hermione closed the gap between them and gripped the elastic of his Quidditch shorts, pulling them down and revealing the black tented boxers beneath. She straightened up and stood back half a pace to do her own visual exploration.

Draco Malfoy really was quite a sight. He was pale, lean and just the right amount of muscular. The faint scars across his torso didn't detract from his beauty. Her brain had never before allowed her to even objectively appreciate how attractive he was. His blond hair was delightfully mussed, and it pleased her to no end that he was thoroughly ruffled.

Hermione reached behind her back to unclasp her bra and she let it slip off her shoulders and fall to the floor in front of her.

Draco raised a hand to cup her breast, she inhaled sharply as the feel of his touch on her sent a pleasurable jolt straight between her legs. He swiped his thumb over her nipple, and she could barely stand the conduction of electricity that sprung forth, travelling straight to her core.

Then he had Hermione by the hips, walking her backwards until her legs hit the bed and she fell onto the satiny sheets, her curls fanning around her head. The bedsheets felt delightfully cool against her scorching skin.

"Is this the Room of Requirement?" she wondered breathlessly.

Malfoy had climbed on top of her and had a finger hooked into the waistband of her underwear.

She didn't much care if he answered because then he closed his mouth over her nipple and moved his warm tongue in slow, deliberate circles. She gasped, arching her back away from the bed.

"I imagine so. Apparently, this was the room we required," he replied, pressing soft, quick kisses between her breasts, down her stomach and to the spot just above where he was dragging down her underwear.

She was totally exposed to him. A fleeting thought briefly reminded her that she should feel self-conscious, but the notion exited her mind like a breeze. She wanted it too much.

He looked up at her from his vantage point, kneeling in front of her on the bed and staring down at her with hooded eyes.

Draco grasped her knees in both hands. "Trust me," he implored her with his eyes. His gaze was uncharacteristically soft and reassuring. He used light pressure to encourage her legs to fall apart.

"Never." But she obliged, letting him guide her open.

He looked down at her, spread out in front of him and bit his bottom lip.

The throbbing was damn near unbearable, so she grabbed one of his hands and placed it between her legs. He didn't need any further prompting. Draco traced a finger down her wet folds and once parted, he gently slipped two fingers inside her. She heard him let out a little gasp.

"Fuck, you're soaking." His voice was thick with arousal.

Hermione mewled in satisfaction; she was one step closer to what she craved so badly.

"More," she moaned, looking down at him and bringing her fingers up to massage her breast.

Draco's jaw clenched as his eyes roved over her heedless display and he pumped the two digits inside her with renewed vigour, fanning the fire building in the pit of her stomach. Hermione opened her eyes to see him studying her reactions as he moved his fingers in and out of her.

"I think I've figured out why you've been such a high-strung swot all these years. You just needed someone to —"

"Don't talk," she interrupted sharply.

His gratified chuckle rumbled deep in his chest. "I guess I'll just put my mouth to better use then."

Malfoy's head disappeared between her legs. She was unprepared for what would happen when he put his mouth on the bundle of nerves that he had neglected until now. Hermione shuddered from the sharp lurch of pleasure and the fire he was stimulating almost had her burnt to a crisp.

"Oh, Fuck!" she heard herself cry.

He was now pumping his fingers in a steady rhythm and swiping her nub flat against his tongue.

"D-Draco, I'm…." she trailed off, thoughts getting muddled by her climbing arousal.

"Let it happen," he whispered from between her legs.

With a final strangled whimper, she was convulsing and bucking against his mouth. Hermione twisted the bedsheets in her hands as she moaned wildly. One hand shot out to hold his head exactly where it was while she rode out the waves of her orgasm.

As she came back to herself, Malfoy climbed up the bed to settle on top of her. He pushed damp curls away from her face, searching her eyes with his. Searching for what, she wasn't quite sure yet. Hermione had never seen his face so open and yielding, long gone were the carefully constructed guards.

At some point he had taken off his boxers, his throbbing member was resting on top of her stomach.

Hermione reached down to grasp Draco firmly, and she hoped her inexperience wasn't betrayed in her touch. She wanted to be good at this. He rewarded her with a deep, tortuous moan that reverberated into her chest.

Malfoy's eyes snapped open and he reached down between them to gently remove her hand from his manhood, replacing it with his own.

"Much more of that Granger and this encounter of ours will come to a swift conclusion."

Then he was nudging at her entrance with the same searching gaze studying her face.

Oh. He's looking for permission.

She brought a hand up to his shoulder and let it run over his bicep and down to his forearm. She felt the skin slightly raised there and knew what she would find. The thought of his dark mark, sitting stark against his skin didn't clench her heart like she imagined it would. She traced it with a feather-light touch, never looking away from his face. She saw the slight shift in his expression as she traced his arm, but neither pulled away.

Hermione nodded at him slowly. "Be..." How did she tell him without ruining the moment? "Be gentle, please."

In the moments before they crossed the final threshold, she considered the sheer ridiculousness of her request. There were many things you could ask of Draco Malfoy but asking him to be gentle seemed out of the realm of possibility.

Hermione was grateful to be proved wrong when he pressed into her ever so slightly and her muscles stretched for him. Hermione gripped his upper arm and her lips parted at the sensation of him entering her. She felt his biceps twitch and she thought it must be hard for him to restrain himself from sinking into her completely.

She raised her head to capture his lips with heated, open-mouthed kisses and drifted her hand from his taut back to his muscular behind. Hermione felt bold as she pushed him in a little more and he groaned as more of her burning core enveloped him.

They stayed like that for a short while as she adjusted to having him inside her. Draco hovered above her, resting on his forearms and she traced her fingers over his brow and across his cheeks. Hermione raised her hips to let him know she was ready for more. He nodded and intertwined his fingers with hers beside her head. With a final push, he released a heated exhale, and he was fully nestled within her. Hermione hissed as a sharp pang pierced her lower belly.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

The pain was nothing compared to the completeness she felt at finally having all of him.

"I'm fine, can we just… stay like this for a little while?" she replied, unsure how to speak like this to a man she had hated for so much of her life and was now intimately connected with.

He nodded and surprised her by kissing her lightly on the nose.

With each passing second, she felt the discomfort dissipate and it was replaced by the sensation of being comfortably filled.

Hermione raised her hips beneath him, and she was surprised to feel the now familiar stirrings of arousal in her lower regions. She couldn't…again… could she? Draco's breath hitched at the sudden movement.

He took her actions as a signal that he could give her more and he pulled himself out carefully before entering her again.

"Oh, yes," she gasped, eyes closed and writhing beneath him.

"I'm going to go faster now," he murmured. Hermione opened her eyes and saw in his face how much he wanted to.

"Please, I'm ready," she replied breathlessly, spurring him on.

Draco moved in and out of her, pinning one of her wrists above her head and sucking one of her nipples. When he removed his mouth, the cold air stung the wet spot, triggering a whole new pleasurable sensation.

Malfoy was pumping in and out of her, slamming his hips into hers. Their hip bones clashed, neither caring that they would probably have bruises come tomorrow. The smack of their sweat-soaked bodies separating and then coming back together filled the room. Every few thrusts he would change the angle of his hips or manipulate Hermione under him to elicit new and exciting sounds from her.

He must have been close to release because he reached down to where they were joined and teased her bundle of nerves with a finger, while changing the angle of his hips yet again so that he hit a hidden bullseye curled up inside her.

"O-Oh!" Hermione screamed, keening up towards his fingers and clambering to push him inside as far as she could with her heels pushing on his lower back.

"I need to see you fall apart with me inside you," he whispered hotly into her ear.

It only took him seconds to have her falling over the cliff all over again. Hermione's internal muscles shuddered and gripped around him tightly. That was the final friction he could stand before a choked groan reached her ears and Draco quivered with his own release.

For a few moments all that could be heard was their laboured breathing. His head fell face-first into the pillow next to hers, his body still on top of her.

What would happen if they looked at each other now that it was done? He lifted himself off and flopped onto the mattress beside her, exhaling deeply.

Threads of the magic that bound them loosened, but it wasn't unthreaded completely. It seemed content to afford them a reprieve as their actions temporarily satisfied it.

Hermione felt her eyelids grow heavy, still in a haze of dulled ecstasy. She vaguely remembered silky sheets being pulled over her. Thoughts of what had just occurred were kept at bay for a time longer because she was tired and wanted to rest. Hermione was never allowed to just rest.

One last intrusive thought wormed its way in before she finally let sleep claim her.

Happy birthday to me.