Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger
Word Count: 607
Tag: for #dhrfavorites jan 2016 favorite locations/settings
"There's less green than I expected."
"Mother liked matching the place with our clothing, so most of it had to go before my fifth birthday."
"And it's much lighter than I thought. Especially in your room." Her chin escaped his fingers to gesture towards the window and the dying afternoon sunset.
"The elves know how much you like reading, so they put the drapes up for now. Father's going to cut them loose and demand them to be drawn."
"Vampires. With the hair and all that pale skin." She bit her lip in mirth and tease as she leered down at the heir.
He retaliated by flashing his canine teeth. "I did mark out your sensitive spot very early in the prelude of our—"
"I will stop you right there. You don't know who's listen—" She tucked the corner of the duvet into his smirking mouth, "—forget I said that and stop laughing!" In doing so, he was more than rewarded to keep his mouth shut and admire his wife in all her glory, in the midst of pearl-grey sheets and wild hair, a flush on her cheeks and the chips on her grey nail-polish.
She rolled her eyes and pulled him free, and he continued as if he was not interrupted, "— relationship and have proven not a fumbling virgin in bed and who still remembers to cast Silencing charms."
"Who Apparated us to the Manor anyway?"
"You suggested it and I, the honourable husband that I am proving to be, took the command of wanting to see my childhood plush toys and agreed to have sex with my new wife in my old bedroom instead of the perfectly lavish chambers booked by my parents whom is currently somewhere in this house."
She mimed through a punch at his face with her left fist curled, "Crude."
"Married." he released her hand with a nip on her finger, "And for that reason, deliriously happy in a place where would normally leave a bad taste in my mouth."
It was an instant sober from the champagne, from the delicious ache in her body and the comfort in the weight of her ring finger. "It eventually had to be easier, so why not start early?" She angled her arm so the inside of it could be smothered into the bed.
He stared at the side of her up-turned face and then shut his eyes tightly with realisation. "They are not your demons to kill, Granger: they're mine."
"They are mine just as they are yours," she muttered. "Is it a problem by remembering the place you grew up in with something better for now?"
Stubborn, stubborn, too stubborn. "Better? It's our wedding night, Mrs. Malfoy."
"It's already better, is it not? I like your room and you slept without nightmares, right?" she turned on her side so she could see him better, "It's— I'm fine. And you are, too. As long as it is one step at a time."
He swallowed, along with a violent urge to tell her how much he loved her, and drove the afternoon back into a brighter scene, "I still remember to pack up the books you want in our new place."
She cracked a smile and drew a lock of hair over his forehead, "We are not taking the emerald drapes with us, though."
He slipped a hand to the small of her back and her body rode with the tide, wiggling closer to him. "Besides, I rather like green on you more."
"Well," she traced along his left side, "We both know how I feel about you in black."
A/N: honest to god when i'm writing and editing this i'm listening to grim grinning ghosts, the theme in the haunted mansion ride from disney. that's speaks a lot for the inspiration behind malfoy manor? lol jk