Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or other references to the original work of J.K Rowling. I only own my own mistakes
-o-o-o-
Draco spent the Sunday pacing around his London flat. He couldn't do anything to stop the owl from delivering the letter. He cursed himself for not having sent it to Hermione's home address, at least then he would be able to go over there and convince her not to open it.
He debated whether he still should. Show up at her doorstep and ask her to not open the howler she was bound to receive the next day. But as the scenario played out in his head, he knew such an excursion would be unsuccessful. Him trying to stop her from opening it beforehand would probably leave her curiosity increasing by the hour until Monday morning.
While shoving his fork onto a piece of potato, he tried to piece together what he'd written in the howler to no avail. Instead, he finished his dinner, finding it bland and boring, before refocusing on work for a good couple of hours. When thoughts of Astoria's visit started to overwhelm him again, he decided to go for a run. He kept picturing what their child would've look like, if he or she would love flying on toy broomsticks like he had and what features of himself his child might inherit, would the baby have his grey eyes, blonde or brown hair? The 'what if's' seemed endless and it made his heart ache in ways he'd never experienced before.
When he got out of bed the next morning, with only a half hour worth of sleep, he pulled on a white oxford shirt, spritzed on his favourite perfume, the one he was sure Hermione enjoyed, and tucked his shirt into his dark blue trousers. He reached for his jacket, his wand and apparated with a loud crack.
-o-o-o-
As soon as he arrived at the Ministry of Magic he knew time was of the essence. He explained to the assistant he had an appointment with Blaise Zabini, and therefore needed entrance to the offices, the part that visitors without business could not enter.
The assistant, a grey old lady who seemed to take her job with great seriousness, eyed Draco suspiciously. Maybe she saw the distress he was under and thought he was up to something. "What is the visit about?" she croaked, her eyes narrowing to thin slits.
Draco gained entrance under pretence he was meeting with Blaise Zabini regarding business with D.M Unity. He was in no way sorry for lying. He never was when the lie was necessary.
With hurried steps he soon found himself in front of a dark wooden door, decorated with a name sign in gold letters. His dark haired friend worked under Theo, in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Without knocking Draco entered the office. The space was impersonal, clean. It smelled of parchment, ink and Blaise's heavy oak moss cologne.
"Draco?" Blaise looked surprised at the sight of his friend. He hadn't seen him in person for several months.
"Blaise," Draco acknowledged, his voice hard.
"What are you doing here?" The dark haired man was still seated behind his desk with a quill in hand, dressed to perfection as usual, he was even wearing a tie.
"I need to intercept a letter I sent to Hermione Granger, can you point me in the direction of her office?"
Blaise's eyes narrowed. "Sure, but first you need to tell me what the hell is going on? You can't just storm into my office and tell me you're writing letters to Granger." He eyed him with suspicion.
"For the love of Slazar, I do not have time for this!" Draco quipped but began to explain with as little detail as possible how he and Granger had been a thing and he may or may not have sent her an inappropriate howler while pissed on firewhiskey.
Blaise was grinning widely when Draco explained, and at the mentioning of a howler he burst out with laughter so intense it had him hunched over.
"For Merlin's sake, pull yourself together." He punched his fist on the desk, obviously not amused by how funny his friend found his hardship.
"Mate, it's just, hilarious." He was still laughing.
"It realty is not," Draco snapped. Blaise gathered himself reluctantly.
"You have to understand the information is hard to grasp, I mean Theodore asking Granger out is one thing, he never did believe in those prejudices like his father. You on the other hand" he pointed his finger at Draco as if it was not clear to whom he was referring, shaking his head. "Sorry, just very hard to picture it I suppose." For each word Blaise said Draco found himself fuming.
He took another step towards the desk. Towering over his seated friend "I abandoned those prejudices a while ago, something you already know," Draco said as calmly as he could.
"Yeah, yeah I know," Blaise said waving his hand dismissively not wanting it to turn into a discussion. He placed his quill into its stand. "Does this have anything to do with the letter I sent you? I wouldn't have written it like that had I known Granger was your girl." To Draco it sounded like mock defence.
"She's not technically my girl. Get off it man, and point me in the direction of her office." Draco was no longer asking, he was demanding.
He couldn't imagine the howler being anything but completely mortifying and Blaise was making things harder than they needed be.
"Alright, alright." Blaise stood and sauntered towards the office door.
Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Oh no you're staying here," he said, pushing past Blaise and leaving the office.
"Uh, no, this is better than any edition of Witches weekly," Blaise countered matching Draco's fast steps.
"For crying out loud Blaise, you need to stop with the gossip shit," Draco complained. He was almost sure his friend had a subscription to that awful word vomit of a magazine, and it was unsettling.
-o-o-o-
A loud sigh escaped Hermione as her assistant entered her office on Monday morning with yet another howler. She was sipping her morning tea and the red envelope taunted her where it now laid untouched on her desk. She was tired of the Sacred Twenty Eight sending them, she'd already received a handful, all of which was an attempt to pressure her to stop working on her current reform. She contemplated throwing it away, but decided against it.
A knock echoed.
"Come in," she answered, flicking her wand to unlock her office door as she stood from her desk, reaching for the red envelope.
Theodore Nott's head peeked in. "You have a minute?" he asked. He was probably there to plan for their date. She'd accepted early this morning by letter, so she wouldn't bow out of it later in the day.
Hermione nodded and gestured for him to enter. "Just brace yourself, I've already started to open this howler so I might as well see what it's about." She sighed, already tired of this day even though it had barely even begun.
As she ripped the last part of the seal open, Draco's tall frame burst into her office, hot on his heal was Blaise Zabini. Draco's eyes were glued to the red envelope in her hands. Hermione had no time to react to their intrusion.
"Don't!" Draco called out in a rush, but it was too late.
Hermione was floored when she heard who the voice of this particular howler belonged to, she felt herself glued to he floor where she stood, unable to move as Draco's voice filled her office. Her jaw dropped.
"Hermione Granger.
I received some disturbing news this evening!
Theodore Nott, REALLY? You're going on a date with fucking Theo? I can't believe you. Did our date mean that little for you to agree to date him? I expected more from you Granger. And, let me tell you something else. That Leo actor guy you talk about. He FUCKING deserved a place on that raft, you hear me? THERE WAS PLACE LEFT ON THAT RAFT FOR JACK. I'd rather be on that raft with you and have it swallowed by the sea than not be on it at all. Why won't you do that Granger? Why won't you drown with me? I don't mind being swallowed by the sea if it's with you!"
His words made no sense, at the same time as they did. Her heart was beating fast and she was clinging to the desk behind her like her life depended on it. In front of her were three grown men, all eyes on her as the howler self destroyed. Theodore looked shocked and was running his hand nervously through his hair. Hermione wondered briefly if he'd told Draco about their date before she'd even accepted it. She wouldn't put it past him, he was a former Slytherin after all.
Blaise looked amused, because when did he not, he was a judgmental arse most of the time as far as she knew. Her eyes moved to Draco, whose grey eyes gave nothing away. Hermione found it to be immensely frustrating. His arms were crossed over his chest, looking as unapproachable as he had that day in the DADA classroom.
They all shifted their eyes to the paper shreds dancing in the air, falling to the ground like snowflakes. The silence was deafening.
Draco said nothing to defend himself, there was no excuse for the words that'd cried from the red envelope, the letter was in exceedingly poor taste, but it could have been worse. Thankfully even in his drunken haste he had the decency to refrain from any rude commentary on their activities. To his chagrin he had managed to ask Granger to drown with him, he recoiled when the words were yelled from the letter.
All he could do now was wait for the outburst that was bound to come. He crossed his arms in self-defence and mentally fought back the urge to just leave by the mere mortification of the situation. He felt the muscles in his arms tense, wanting to grab onto Blaise and Theo, especially Theo, and drag them out of Hermione's office. Why the hell was Theo there anyway? He shot him a cold glare.
When the shock subsided, Hermione was the one to break the silence, matching the tone of the letter by yelling directly at Draco.
"A howler? You sent me a HOWLER?" Her were eyes wide as they zeroed in on his stormy grey. She noticed Theo flinch at her voice, Blaise grinned and Draco clenched his jaw.
Blaise excused himself and grabbed Theodore with him, closing the door behind them as they left.
Draco and Hermione held eye contact for several long moments, lava meeting ice.
"I told you not to open it," Draco said and placed his hands into the pockets of his trousers in an attempt to look more casual.
Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Where was the apology?
"You're mental! Sending me a fucking howler, who the hell do you think you are? " She didn't usually curse this much, but the situation demanded it.
When Draco said nothing she continued her rant, her blood was boiling. "Where do you get off wanting anything from me when you're involved with someone else?" Hermione was screaming, feeling like she had all the right to do so. There was about a meter between them. His tall frame made her feel small, she gripped her wand in defence.
Draco looked taken aback by her words, frowning as if he wasn't sure what she meant. "Astoria Greengrass ring a bell?" she enlightened him.
"I'm not with Astoria? Who told you that?" he scoffed.
"Nobody had to tell me, it's all over every magazine!" she scolded. Not really sure if that was true or not. She had only seen the one.
Draco closed his eyes, as if what she said annoyed him greatly. She watched his Adam's apple move as he swallowed.
Draco suddenly remembered the camera mob outside of his building that horrid Friday. "Granger," he said, his voice a low rumble. "You know better than to believe in whatever those lowlife journalists write. I'm not with Astoria."
His grey eyes looked dangerous, and he took two strides towards her. She felt trapped and heavily confused. He was not with Astoria?
Draco was too close now, she could smell his perfume and it made her mind foggy. She avoided his penetrating gaze, thinking it might help.
"How low you must think of me then. To take me for a cheater." He said with heavy emphasis on the last word, clearly offended.
Hermione furrowed her brows. "But you never said you weren't with her, as far as I know her name didn't even roll off your tongue once" she answered and slightly lowered her wand. Draco quickly took another step towards her, now she really was trapped against the desk.
"It was heavily implied," Draco snapped, feeling frustrated at the entirety of the situation. Maybe he hadn't exactly made it known. Mostly because she hadn't asked and he saw no reason to open up about his tangled past with Astoria, even less now given the bomb she'd dropped on him just days ago.
"So. Tell me, got any fun plans this weekend with Theo do you?" He cocked his head to the side and the smirk on his lips was pure mockery.
Of course he'd deflect from himself, Hermione thought. He had no right to be so, possessive, like a jealous boyfriend, and yet the way he looked at her made her think of other times he used to mock her, and how she'd wanted to see his possessive side directed at her. She shook her head, an attempt to also shake the whirlwind of thoughts that began to turn angry fire into burning desire.
"How do you even know about that? I only accepted this morning." She said, hating that he was so close, towering over her. She had to look up at him when she spoke and it made her furious again. She wanted to knock that smirk off his face. "What you just decided to come back to London and deliver a fucking howler because you heard I accepted a date?"
Draco saw as Hermione's eyes went from dark, to darker. If eyes could kill he'd be a corpse on the floor at this point. His eyes darted to her hand gripping her wand so tight her knuckles were turning white. She looked infuriated; her eyes were like burning lava. It didn't matter if she'd accepted this morning or last weekend. Theo had probably just been overly confident about her answer.
"I received a letter from Blaise this weekend about it," Draco drawled and Hermione could smell the spearmint on his breath. "It's irrelevant when you accepted. It's the fact that you did," Draco said and he almost looked hurt.
Hermione felt a need to defend herself. "Yes. But only because I thought you'd lied to me about you and Astoria you stupid-"
Merlin if she mentions that name again he might do something he'd regret. Like kiss her to shut her up. Astoria was the last person he wanted to be thinking about.
Being the former Slytherin he was, he couldn't let a good argument go to waste. "Technically it wouldn't have been a lie. You said yourself I never mentioned her," he interrupted and Hermione had half a mind to hex him. She raised her wand slightly but refrained, just barely.
"Don't fucking interrupt me," she said with menace.
"If you're speaking nonsense expect me to interrupt."
Hermione mumbled a series of profanities, but her wand was now completely lowered. He was too close, if she reached out her hand she'd be able to place it on his chest, run her fingers down the length of his arms.
She bit her lip and Draco wanted nothing more in that moment than to bite it for her.
"You mean the kind of nonsense you spit from the damn howler?" she retorted after what felt like ages of just staring at each other. "Fucking talking about drowning and shit," she mumbled having already memorized what he'd written.
Hermione thought about the words of the howler. It was so dramatic, precisely like his usual behaviour at Hogwarts in a way. The end of it however, Hermione found to be quite poetic, and she pictured Draco watching Titanic, she shook her head at the absurdity. Strangest of all was that the damn thing touched her like a love letter. Especially now that she knew he was not with Astoria.
Draco, a dragon. She had described him correctly in that quiz.
The tension in the air between them shifted. Draco sighed, feeling like he hadn't been breathing properly since he stepped into the Ministry. He ran a hand through his hair and Hermione felt a sudden need to touch it.
"Not my finest moment," Draco admitted and Hermione rolled her eyes. It made him ache for her eyes to roll to the back of her head for entirely different reasons. Hermione noticed his gaze drop to her lips and back to her eyes. Out of nowhere she felt her cunt throbbing. The entire argument had made her body heat up in more ways than one it seemed.
The anger in his eyes seemed to subside, and replaced with curiosity. "Is us arguing turning you on?" he asked, and Hermione hated that her eyes always gave her away. All. The. Damn. Time.
Without warning Draco pounced on her, placing his hands on her hips, digging his fingers in hard and crashed his lips onto hers. It was a rushed kiss, the kind were teeth smashed into teeth and tongues slamming into tongues without direction. Desire coursed through her body and he never felt close enough.
She was still angry with him, for all the things left unsaid, for his impulsiveness and recklessness, but still, she needed him, wanted to feel his skin against hers, his lips all over her body. She placed her hands on his sides, under the jacket, feeling the expensive material of his white shirt against her fingers. She pushed herself closer to him, creasing his well-ironed shirt.
Draco felt her breasts pressing against his stomach, and he let a low groan escape from back of his throat. His hands tangled in her curls, and her hands caressed the back of his neck.
They stopped for air, breathing heavily, looking at each other in consensus. Draco started with removing his jacket and unbuttoning his white oxford. Hermione removed her blazer, stepped out of her heels and pulled her blouse over her head. She locked the door using non-verbal magic and checked to see that her permanent muffilato was still intact.
She straddled him with her legs on the two-seat office sofa. He tasted of spearmint and his tongue massaged hers with vehemence. Her hands was in his hair and his was caressing her arse and pulling up her skirt. She was grinding against him, feeling his cock going hard inside of his blue pants. Draco placed his hand between them, pressing his palm against her core, making her purr into his ear. The sound shot straight to his crotch.
Hermione fumbled open the button on his pants, pulled down the zipper and released him from the restricting fabric. She aligned him at her entrance while he pulled her knickers to the side.
"Fuck," he growled into her ear as his cock pressed inside of her wet heat. She slowly buried him to the hilt inside of her, giving herself time to adjust to his large size. When he was fully inside of her she started to move her hips in circular motions. Draco bit down on the space between her neck and collarbone, marking her to him. His warm breath on her neck sent shivers through her body.
"Move, " he instructed and Hermione started to bounce in a steady rhythm, as he guided her with his hands on her hip. Draco bit down on her nipples through the fabric of her bra, making her moan against his throat. She kissed his Adam's apple and Draco found it arousing. He'd never been kissed there before.
She was so tight, wet and warm, he struggled to focus as to not reach ecstasy prematurely. In his defence, it had been more than five weeks since the last time he had sex.
Hermione broke their kiss and purred yes, over and over again as his fingers started to massage her other entrance. Draco pressed his index finger inside of her, filling both of her holes. "Yeah, you like that?" he asked. Instead of replying her lips found his, biting down on his bottom lip before tasting his mouth.
Draco thought she tasted divine and used his free hand to rub her clit, making her moan into his mouth. He could feel her walls starting to clamp down on his cock. "That's it love, come on," he encouraged as she rode them both into ecstasy. She was convulsing around him, milking every last drop from him, calling his name several times over.
Hermione buried her face between his neck and shoulder when their bodies stilled. "I'd drown with you," she said without thinking, affected by the afterglow.
There was no point in denying it anymore. Not after this. His letter had basically blamed her for not telling him she wanted to be with him, and she had been too afraid to admit it, thinking he was the one who didn't want to be with her. For a bright witch, she wasn't all that bright when it came to affairs of the heart it seemed. The thought made her feel inadequate and inadequacy simply had no place in her world, so she said it. She admitted it, and hoped she'd interpreted his letter correctly. For a brief moment she thought maybe she hadn't, because Draco didn't reply. She could feel his heart beating hard against her chest.
Draco felt all of is pent up aggression evaporate, like boiling water turning to steam. There was a moment of silence, when he just looked at her head resting against him.
"You mean that?" he asked under his breath, pulling her hair so he could look into her eyes, searching for hesitation.
"I do," she said and the pureness in her words made him want to fuck her all over again.
"Then we shall let the sea swallow us," Draco concluded before crushing his lips onto hers, not even caring it was the strangest sentence to ever leave his lips.
-o-o-o-
"You're mental you know?" Hermione remarked.
"I know," he said, thinking she meant it in two ways. He didn't look the slightest regretful after having taken her again, this time with her body pressed onto the sofa.
"I can't tell you how many times I watched my window to see if you'd owl me. Nothing, and then you send me a howler?" she said, still out of breath from their tiring activities.
"Sorry. But I figured you were busy, you never said to keep in contact."
"Neither did you!" Hermione blamed, teasingly hitting on his shoulder. "Did you rent the Titanic?"
"Honestly, I don't recall how exactly, but I did watch it, yes," he said, frowning. He did have to find a way to mend those memory gaps.
-o-o-o-
They made plans to meet up that evening for a late dinner. Hermione felt guilty for spending her office hours letting him do things to her body instead of working. She did her best to focus on work for the rest of the day.
Theodore found her at lunch to tell her had he known about her and Draco he wouldn't have asked her out, he referenced to the guy code, and Hermione was relieved she didn't have to be the one to cancel their plans. The cafeteria was nearly empty, she had opted for a late lunch in order to get some work underway, a backlash for having spent her morning doing more work on Draco's cock than her reform.
Seeing as Hermione was the only one in the room he actually sort of knew, Theodore decided to join her for lunch. He unwrapped his tuna sandwich and clearly noted the look of judgment as Hermione glared at it.
"Don't mock. Cooking is more of Draco's thing than it is mine," he said winking at her. Hermione blushed faintly; hoping Theodore hadn't noticed how long Draco had stayed in her office that morning.
"Draco cooks?" she asked, finding it hard to picture Draco doing anything in the kitchen except for getting served.
Theodore held up a hand as to explain he needed to finish chewing before answering. "I thought you two knew each other now? With the dating and all?" Theo said in bewilderment.
"I don't know him like that," Hermione let slip without thinking. Theodore's eyes widened.
"And how do you know him then?" Hermione's cheeks flushed pink and she gulped down her pumpkin juice to gather herself.
"Ask your friend."
Theodore raised his eyebrows and grinned. If she didn't know him like that, Theodore saw it as his mission to let her know what she was getting herself into. Only partially wanting to get back at Draco for the angry glares this morning and the way he'd hinted Theo was a lesser man than him in that howler of his.
Hermione found quite herself fond of Theodore's company; he was surprisingly easy to make small talk with. He resorted to tell some embarrassing stories about Draco, such as how he once skipped class because of a pimple that he was unable to successfully glamour, and how he'd hexed anyone who dared to comment on him being punched in the face by her in third year, the stories had Hermione laughing uncontrollably.
"He does have a stick up is arse sometimes doesn't he?" Hermione concluded, still laughing.
Theodore huffed. "He sure does. It was really quite the challenge to share a room with him and Blaise, the two of them were such judgmental pricks back then. When Draco was in one of his moods, I mean, you had to watch out," he said in all seriousness, "if you so much as looked at him the wrong way or Merlin forbid borrowed his shampoo without asking he'd go crazy. So be careful about that one," Theo teasingly warned while grinning largely.
"Thanks for the advice," she said, smiling genuinely, silently deciding she might need to test the theory.
"Jokes aside, he's a great guy when it comes to it," he said to not make his friend look too bad. He sipped his water and returned to his food.
Hermione nodded. "I think so too."
-o-o-o-
Please review if you like this chapter, even just the shortest one gives me life!
