Chapter 24: Column Inches

Blaise Zabini blinked and stared at the ceiling. Idiot. He raged at himself internally. An arm draped across his chest, the milky complexion a stark contrast to his own dark skin. Idiot, Idiot, Idiot. He continued his inner soliloquy as his gaze trailed up to her face. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth was pulled into a cattish grin. Stupid fucking man child with no self-control.

"You can keep scowling, Bean. It doesn't change what happened." She purred as her hand trailed down his stomach.

"It was an accident." He gritted out, grabbing her wrist and stalling her wandering limb.

"Oh, did you just accidentally fall dick first into my vagina, repeatedly," she shimmied her body up, so her mouth was placed right on the shell of his ear ", over and over…."

"The 'over and over' was redundant, Pansy. Call yourself a writer" His voice was low as he pinned her arm to the mattress above her head.

"I'm sorry, Bean." She stared up at him coolly. Her poker face was impeccable. "I've missed you, is all." She nodded stoically.

"Send a fruit basket next time." Blaise pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes.

Pansy Parkinson, ever the master of her body and domain, shucked herself of the blanket that covered her nakedness and crawled across the mattress to kneel in front of the man she'd once thought her end game. "I'm going to assume Draco has you under some banal pinky oath." she sat back on her heels and watched as he tried not to stare at her tits.

"That would be a reasonable assumption." Blaise nodded and reached a finger to graze her thigh, unable to stop himself.

"so we'll do it like back in school?" She grinned at him. Draco was the king of oaths. He rarely told anyone anything of import without first forcing them to swear a vow of secrecy, and his little snake friends had been forced to find a way around it.

"Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out Draco and Granger were sleeping together?" She tilted her head to one side. Let the doublespeak and meaningful looks begin.

"I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be rather serious if that were to happen." He shot her one of those aforementioned, meaningful looks. Pansy gasped, and her eyes widened. A million possible headlines flew through her brain. She swallowed.

"I wonder what Narcissa would make of something so outlandish and hypothetical." She danced around the terms of his oath carefully.

"I don't know, but Malfoy wouldn't enter into anything important without telling his mother." Blaise raised his eyebrows and held his breath as he watched her fingers interlace with his. She'd missed him.

"she knows…" Pansy breathed, then shot Blaise a look. "Don't speak," she thought, squeezing his fingers as she pieced something together. "I thought maybe the pictures in the prophet had been a ploy, you know? A little bit of spit and shine for his reputation, but then Chase mentioned in the bullpen that it had been Malfoy who gave him the lead… and I mean, he wasn't exactly subtle in his infatuation with her at school, was he?" Pansy looked closely at Blaise, who was trying very hard not to react, confirmation enough. "Narcissa knows and hasn't put a stop to it… and the look he was giving her in that photo… that was real?" she gasped again. "Draco Malfoy, the Death-eater, millionaire who was pegged to be the right-hand man of Voldemort in adulthood is in love with Hermione Granger the muggle-born, golden trio, brains who everyone thinks will be Minister one day." Pansy leaned up and pushed her face into Blaise's. "You don't have to say anything. I can see it in your eyes! He's going for it, isn't he?"

"I think… that's certainly a possibility." Blaise tried to answer as carefully as a suddenly erect man could.

"fucking hell." She pressed a kiss to Blaise's full lips as she climbed into his lap, letting him envelop her in his strong sandalwood embrace. "I hope he lets me do their first joint interview." Pansy groaned as she rocked her hips against him, the familiar pressure of arousal sparking at the feel of him pressed against her entrance.

"Is that all you care about, column inches?" He groaned as she swivelled her hips, dragging herself against his throbbing head.

"No, Bean, I care about these inches too." she reached between them, wrapping her finger around his shaft and lowering herself just a little further down him.

"come home…" he moaned against her lips, and she sighed.

"Why do you always have to ruin everything?" She pulled herself off him with a huff and stormed from the bed angrily.

"Why can't you just let me love you?" he roared, reaching for his kimono and wrapping it around himself.

"I don't mind you loving me, Blaise. I just mind that to do so, you think we need to be bound by some contract." she hissed as she pulled her skirt on, deciding her knickers could stay in whatever corner they'd retreated to.

"It's a wedding, Pansy. It's not a dark mark!" Blaise stood from the bed and marched towards her.

"It is an antiquated piece of indenture, which robs me of my full autonomy. Never again." she pulled her blouse on and struggled to fasten the buttons. Her hands shook so.

Pansy Parkinson hadn't cried since Voldemort's death. Tears of relief had been mistaken for tears of devotion by her deluded parents, who praised her. She never wanted to cry again. She felt the burn in the back of her nose and let out a frustrated roar. "Fuck you," she screamed before grabbing her wand and storming from his life once again.

Idiot.

Hermione lay on her stomach and stared at his sleeping form. How, in the space of fewer than five days, had they gone from people who had sporadic and inappropriate sex to people who needed to be near each other at all times? Her stomach clenched as he mouthed something and smiled, his words and intent lost to a dream. What they were doing was fast and ill-considered and ridiculous on paper, well, anywhere other than Hermione's writing paper. It was foolhardy, precisely the kind of behaviour Hermione Granger would scoff at, yet… He made her feel so incredibly wanted in a world where she sometimes wasn't.

"Why are you awake?" He croaked, one eye blinking open in the darkened room.

"I can't sleep." She breathed, feeling his arms enfold her lazily.

"let me tell you a story." He mumbled as he hauled her into his chest. He reasoned that if his inane chatter was enough to cut through the noise in her brain so she could climax, the principal should work for sleep too. The sound of her thinking was so deafening it had woken him up.

"do you think we're moving too fast?" She clamoured before she could contain herself.

"I think when two individuals realise they fit well together," He rolled her over and spooned into her back, hooking his knees behind hers. She giggled breathily "they make up for the lost time. Maybe we're just moving fast because we know we're going in the right direction."

"How are you so cool about this? Do you have no insecurities?" Hermione felt like Draco got her and her particular brand of anxiety. Even before their office tryst, that changed everything; he'd always seemed acutely aware of her mood. Always able to sense the difference between an averagely stressed Hermione and a Hermione in an existential spiral. She hated how very damaged she was. She felt him laugh into her hair. His hand slid down her stomach.

"I am riddled with insecurities, my darling." He muttered as he inclined and nipped her shoulder. "I've spent nearly every moment since our first encounter , in a persistent panic that you will realise I'm not worthy of your time, let alone your affections," his hand sank between her legs. She arched into his touch. "I fear that I'll say the wrong thing and spoil something I've grown to cherish." he swirled his finger against her. "If we're moving fast, it's because I'm trying to experience as much of this as I can before you realise you deserve so much more."

"I don't know what I deserve, but you're what I need." Hermione gasped unthinkingly as she rocked her hips back, feeling him press at her entrance.

"My mother wants to meet with you." He blurted out, for no good reason other than her admission that she needed him, knocked him senseless.

Hermione yelped, "You are not going to slide into me from behind as you mention your mother, sir." and scooted away from him with a laugh.

Draco felt mortification creep over his face. He dropped his head and groaned, "I'm so sorry, Granger. I just really wanted you to know that she knows, and it just sprung from me in the heat of passion, Darling." He shimmied across the sheets, his countenance the picture of appeasement.

"Of course, your mother knows!" Hermione jacked with laughter as he seized her hip and drew her towards him.

"How do you know my mother knows?" He quirked an eyebrow. They'd now been talking about his mother far more than two naked and aroused people aught to.

"It was clear that you were going to spill your guts to her after you couldn't keep your mouth shut in that hypothetical shift in circumstances you presented." she smiled and traced his lips with her fingers as he loomed over her.

"well, that aside, she approves." He leaned into her and pressed a kiss to her chin.

"Would it make you want me less if I told you I didn't care what she thought?" Hermione gripped the plumpest part of her lip between her teeth and chewed. She wanted him to know that his parents' approval was something she gave less than two figs for.

"It would make me want you even more, Darling, which seems impossible at this point." He lowered his body to hers, slotting his much meatier thigh between hers.

"are… are you seeing other people?" She asked quickly. He'd already killed the mood by bringing up the woman whose vagina he'd emerged from, while trying to enter hers. She might as well strike while the iron is awkward.

He laughed outright and uproariously at her question, and she felt a blush paint her cheeks as embarrassment caressed her. "No, Granger. Just… you." He pressed reassuring kisses to her nose, her reddening cheeks and her chewed lips.

"Neither am I." She nodded, trying to drag him with her on a journey of definitions. Hermione loved her label maker, both the physical one she stored next to her bed and the one in her mind.

"So we're simply 'seeing' each other." he nodded with a smirk, "and nobody else. Ever." He narrowed his eyes and captured her lips.

"What do I tell my parents you are?" She thrust him back a little, "when I see mum next week, and she asks me where I spent my weekend, and I say with Draco, and she says Who's he? What do I say? He's my….?"

"Are you asking me to be your boyfriend, Granger?" He was smiling, his eyes tacked on hers as he loomed over her.

"Yeah, kind of." Hermione grinned puckishly as she wriggled beneath him. "If we're going to move fast, might as well do it right." she shrugged.

"I accept this auspicious position." he declared solemnly, dragging another laugh from her lips. "Do you feel better now that you can file me under a proper title?" He chortled lightly as he ground his thigh into her.

"much," he could see all her teeth as she beamed up at him, "I think I might actually be able to sleep now." she yawned and wrapped her arms around him, drawing him to her sleepily. Unfortunate, given how very hard Draco was.

"Hermione…" He asked tentatively, her eyes closing and a soft snore erupting from her perfect nose.

She cracked an eye open and grinned teasingly "kidding."

"you're an evil woman." He felt relief as she drew her legs further apart, luring him in.

"You think I'm evil? Ginny sometimes does her Minerva impersonation when Harry's inside her." Hermione laughed. All the metaphorical weight lifted over the past days left her feather-light.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" He asked as he shifted his hips to rest directly between hers, his weight pushing down on her and his braced forearms.

"I'm not really. I'm just interesting to look at." She commented as though it was the most obvious statement in the world. Like she'd told him, trees are made of wood.

Draco tutted as he lined himself up with her, still very much enamoured by the tiny gasp she made whenever he touched her sensitive lips. "I used to think it was false modesty," He slid into her and let out a moan of satisfaction. She was home to him. "But now I realise you are labouring under a terrible misconception." He pulled his hips back then snapped into her again, delighting in how the air left her body at the impact.

"What's that?" She choked. Her fingers spidered over his back muscles, memorising every ridge and valley.

"You don't know how hot you are." He smirked as he reared further back, his thrusts becoming hungrier.

He was practically lifting her off the bed single-handedly. Their movements were more forceful than previous trysts. Hermione had never particularly thought she'd enjoy rough lovemaking , but this small sample of what could happen swayed her opinion. "I'm not hot, categorically. I'm fine with that. I'm attractive, pretty even, never hot ," She breathed as she propped herself on elbows, entirely distracted by how his thumb was now pressing between her legs.

"One day, I'll take you back to Hogwarts and show you the toilet wall dedicated to your hotness." he almost laughed but found the noise lost in his throat at the way she was lifting off the bed onto him.

"How romantic." she gasped as he pulled her leg over his shoulder and drove into her with a renewed passion.

"I'm going to remind you how beautiful you are, every day Granger, do you hear me?" his fingers found her chin, holding her face in place as he brought her to climax. Her whole body seemed to rise off the bed as she clenched around him with a wracked sob.

"Fuckety-Fuck" He slumped on top of her, the bed beneath them soaked with sweat and bodily fluids. "We are so good at that." He mumbled against her lips as she trembled and pulsed in a blissful aftershock.

"You're hot too." She said shakily, pushing the damp hair off his forehead fondly.

"I know." he managed a half-smirk as he pulled out of her, settling at her side and wrapping her in his embrace. "We're a ridiculously sizzling couple." she chuckled sleepily, her boyfriend's arms hauling her into sleep.

"I need to pee." She groaned with annoyance.

"Want me to carry you?" He muttered into her hair.

She laughed as she made her way to his bathroom to pee and clean her dishevelled self. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror, naked, with wild hair, blushing thighs, and paused. She was smiling, a smile she'd never seen on her own face. It was disconcerting to see oneself in a mirror and not instantly recognise the image. Hermione touched her own cheek and felt her heart leap. "Told you," he muttered from the edge of the bed, where he watched her with a smile. "You're beautiful, Darling. No escaping it."

A/N: Thank you so much for your comments! I love waking up to see someone has binged this fic and left a trail of comments on the way! Well spotted to those of you who got the David Bowie reference Smeaton made in Kingsley's office. I'm not going to lie, I will be writing more Pansy, I don't think she shone in this chapter and I LOVE WRITING PANSY. She's got such potential for sass. Anyway. I hope you enjoy and have a good week