A/N: More Quidditch coming up. Hope you enjoy the game.
Songs to listen to:
Elle King - Ex's & Oh's
5 Seconds of Summer - Youngblood
John Newman - Love Me Again
Jessie Murph - About You
Sam Feldt & Cate Downey - Enough to Drink
Chapter 14:
November 2005:
Draco woke up at five to a steaming cup of coffee on his bedside table compliments of the house-elves at the school. It had been placed under a stasis charm to remain warm. A thoughtful touch.
He inhaled the welcome scent, rubbed his face and got out of bed for a quick trip to the loo. Still groggy, he decided to jump into the shower to wake up, brushed his teeth and got dressed in the Championship sportswear Turpin had procured for the whole team, professors included.
He took his coffee to the windowsill, pushed open the mullioned window and lit a cigarette.
It was disheartening to find that Granger had still not responded to his flowers and apology note. He understood her anger and reticence, but he'd hoped for...something...at least. Just an acknowledgement of his apology, even if she didn't accept. But maybe he was too impatient. She possibly needed more time to cool off, and when she did, he hoped she'd forgive him.
"Morning," Theo greeted and joined him for a smoke. "The coffee is shit. I don't know if it's an American thing or if it's just a boarding school thing, but fuck..."
"There's nothing wrong with the coffee, mate."
"Agree to disagree." Theo shrugged. "How are you feeling about today's match?"
Draco took a long drag of his cigarette, blew a long stream of smoke out of the window and then said, "Nervous, I guess. But I'm confident in our team's abilities. They're well prepared. I just don't want us to lose our first match. It would really boost the team's confidence if we could beat Durmstrang today. See if they're as good as they claim to be." He swallowed a mouthful of coffee and grimaced. Theo was right. The coffee was shit. "I'm more worried about Castelobruxo, though. They wiped the floor with Ilvermorny yesterday."
Theo hummed in agreement. "I felt embarrassed for Ilvermorny. They were all over the place, while the Brazilian team played like a well-oiled machine. They're so fucking good it's scary."
"Castelobruxo's seeker is fantastic. And so is that chaser of theirs, Alonso. As for the other teams, I guess we'll find out soon. It might be a good idea to work out tailor-made tactics to use against each school."
"Don't forget we also have a great seeker," Theo pointed out. "And look at Wellsley's practice session yesterday. She's focused, very fast and has a bloody fantastic arm with a quaffle. She's hungry for that Championship cup. Imagine what it would do for her future if her resumé included a Quidditch Championship victory at her age."
Draco grinned, "Wellsley is rather good, isn't she? I wouldn't want to play against her. She's got a wicked temper when provoked. And a mean elbow when she thinks no one is watching. Durmstrang's not going to know what hit them."
xxx
Draco was sweaty and out of breath when he and the team returned to their dorms after their early morning run. His face was numb from the cold and his eyes stung, but it felt really good to burn off some excess tension. Nothing beat the quiet of an early morning run with the cool air against his cheeks and the muscles in his thighs and calves burning as he pushed himself harder and faster with every mile.
As competitive as Turpin was, Draco was even more so. And with every morning run so far, he'd been determined to outrun her just for the hell of it. She was rather fast, but not fast enough to beat him, and he loved how losing pissed her off.
Turpin had taken to looking at him with bedroom eyes ever since they'd arrived at Ilvermorny as if being away from Hogwarts—away from prying eyes—meant he'd drag her to bed whenever the opportunity arose. Mercifully, she hadn't propositioned him. Hadn't brought it up when they found themselves alone for a few minutes during the day. And while he'd promised Pansy he would refrain from jumping into bed with anyone, he was still tempted, even if Turpin was the clingy type. Their last hook-up in his office was already a bad idea, but fucking her a third time would be as good as a marriage proposal in Turpin's eyes.
Malik and Bailey were in some kind of unspoken contest too, each trying to outrun the other while she elbowed Bailey out of her way or tried to trip him whenever she could.
Draco couldn't tell if it was her way of flirting or if she truly couldn't stand Bailey. And while Draco found it petty in a way only teenagers could be, he thought it looked as though Bailey was enjoying the attention, no matter how combative Malik was toward him.
The head boy and head girl's interactions brought his situation with Granger to the forefront of his mind. Things with her were still very strained as he should have anticipated after the other night. They would more than likely never make their way back to each other and his actions and words hadn't helped the situation. They had so much baggage between them. He had a lot of issues he'd need to let go of if they were going to attempt dating.
Some days he felt like he wanted to try again with her; felt brave enough to take a chance. He wondered if they could make their relationship work if they took it slow. But he'd been through a lot with her in the past and all of the pain had left its mark. And he wasn't about to walk into heartbreak a second time.
Attraction to Granger wasn't the problem. Their sexual chemistry had always been undeniable, and that hadn't changed after the divorce. But look at what he'd done to her on the night of the masquerade ball when he'd been angry, hurt and frustrated.
He didn't want to fuck her up as she'd done to him. He didn't want to use her for sex and cheapen the love they'd shared. But he would be lying if he said he didn't imagine falling into bed with her just to relieve some of their tension. Get what he needed from her body, from her touches and her smell. Just enough to keep him going without forcing him back into a relationship with her where he would inevitably get hurt.
For some reason, things just never worked out for them. It had been that way from the beginning.
So, instead of taking the easy way out and fucking Turpin, Camille or any of the witches that's been giving him flirting looks while he was here, he opted for a drawn-out wank in the shower this morning, his mind travelling to a petite body with perfect tits, rosy lips and honey eyes.
Draco steadied himself with one hand against the shower wall, while he gripped his cock in a fist with the other, stroking himself slowly to draw out his pleasure.
His cock throbbed when he imagined Granger's warm mouth sucking on him, his entire length disappearing between her pink lips. Her wet cunt stretched so, so tightly to accommodate his size, fluttering and contracting around him when she came for him.
And Merlin, he'd always loved the look of her, flushed and panting. The way she used to cling to him when she cried his name during climax. No other woman had ever made him feel the way she had every time she'd crested a peak because of him, eyes struggling to keep open and focused as he'd always demanded from her.
When he couldn't hold back anymore, he let out a low moan and came against the tiles, dizzy with relief. If he could keep this up every day, he was certain he'd be less likely to make stupid decisions.
There was still no reply from Granger after he'd gotten dressed and headed for the common room to meet up with his team, but he didn't have time to worry about it right now. They were headed down to breakfast and then it was time to warm up out on the pitch before the match started. He had to focus. There was no time for drama when they had a game to win.
Breakfast was a tense affair, Turpin bitching at the players for their unenthusiastic response to the food on their plates. None of them had an appetite, too nervous for their first match, and the vegetable plates she'd arranged for their pre-game breakfast would have been unappealing on any given day, much less today.
He remembered exactly how he'd felt before every match when he'd played for Slytherin, and if he hadn't exerted himself as much as he had this morning, he wouldn't have wanted to eat breakfast either. As it happened, he was starving right now.
"Just give it a rest, will you?" Theo snapped at Turpin, his eyes narrowing. "I get that they need the energy or whatever you're on about, but you're just making them more anxious. Sit down, enjoy your breakfast and leave them be."
She opened her mouth, no doubt to deliver a scathing remark, but Draco intervened, lifting a hand to stop her. "He's right, Lisa. Besides, I've played many games on an empty stomach and I survived. They will, too. So, eat your carrots and drink your juice. Take a load off."
"Come on, guys," Goldstein prompted with an optimistic smile, attempting to cut the tension like the sensitive soul he was. "We're here to have fun, remember? All that matters is that you give it your best out there today. Win or lose, just enjoy the opportunity to play in the Championships."
"Spoken like a true Hufflepuff," Theo cheered and thrust his glass of pumpkin juice into the air.
Draco tried not to laugh. He really did, but it was true. Between the four of them, Goldstein was the only one not competitive in nature; his Hufflepuff colours were really showing today.
xxx
When Draco and Goldstein walked onto the pitch alongside their team, Goldstein veered off to the side where he would be waiting for any of their players in case of an injury.
The Hogwarts team were all dressed in black Quidditch gear, and the professors were in their training apparel, the opposing team clad in red.
Headmaster Fontaine was waiting in the middle of the pitch with an independent Australian referee named Rory Matthews and introduced Draco to Durmstrang's Quidditch coach, Johan Sjoberg.
It was a tense affair, with players glaring at each other from around the referee, cracking knuckles and throwing rude hand gestures.
Draco had to give Wellsley an admonishing look for elbowing one of the chasers in the stomach after he'd provoked her. The last thing their team needed was for her to get herself kicked off the field before the game even started.
After a knut toss, it was decided that Durmstrang would take the quaffle first. Not ideal, but Hogwarts would bounce back. Take possession and keep the quaffle out of the Durmstrang players' hands.
The whistle blew to signal the start of the game, and Draco walked off the pitch towards Goldstein to watch the match.
Within the first ten minutes, it was clear that Durmstrang liked to play dirty.
The referee had already called two fouls. The first was when Durmstrang's seeker, Petrova, seized Malik's broom tail to slow her down when she spotted the snitch within the first three minutes.
The second foul had been when the Durmstrang keeper elbowed Wellsley in the face, affording her a black eye. And even though Wellsley's response had afforded Hogwarts a foul, too, Draco had cheered the loudest when she'd broken Hartvigsen's nose with a solid fist to the face, blood spurting everywhere.
"Good job, Brooke," Draco told her when she touched down on the grass to get some bruise paste for her eye and a drop of dittany for the split skin on her knuckles. "Don't let those guys intimidate you. Show no remorse, okay?"
Wellsley grinned and nodded, her black eye still prominent and shiny from the paste. "Don't worry, Professor Malfoy." She shot a nasty look at the chaser across from them, who had a trail of blood running over his chin while the mediwizard tried to stop the bleeding. "I grew up with four older brothers. I know how to defend myself."
"Yes, so I see." He huffed a laugh and waved her off to get on with the game.
After an hour of play, Hogwarts was leading fifty points to ten against Durmstrang.
Fouls were still being called, but apparently, the referee's threats had paid off, because it seemed the opposing team was making an active effort at restraint.
"Yeah, Holder!" Theo cheered and clapped his hands when their chaser intercepted the quaffle mid-throw between Eriksson and Hartvigsen, and then raced towards the hoop to score.
Theo and Turpin had come down after forty minutes, claiming that they were too nervous to stay up in the stands, and it was nice to have his best friend beside him, cheering and groaning in solidarity.
Draco and the others were watching with rapt attention as Hogwarts flew circles around Durmstrang. Their beaters, Reed and Davis, were very accurate with their aims and the players from Durmstrang found it particularly difficult to get to the hoops with the bludgers either knocking them off their brooms, hitting them in the face, or missing them by mere inches. When they did manage to escape unscathed, Kim was there with swift moves, not allowing a goal through the hoops.
"That's cobbing, ref!" Turpin cried loudly when Petrova hit Malik squarely in the jaw with an elbow when he passed her, completely unwarranted. Neither seeker had spotted the snitch again in the last two hours and had no need for physical contact.
Just over three hours into the match and Ivanova had managed to score two goals for Durmstrang while Kim had to dodge a few well-aimed bludgers from Olsson and Nikitin. But Hogwarts was still in the lead, having scored a whopping sixteen goals already.
Andersen, the Durmstrang keeper was shit at defending his team's goal hoops, reminding Draco of Ronald Weasley whenever his nerves had gotten the better of him, struggling to block the quaffles headed his way.
"Any word from Granger yet?" Theo asked a while later as Goldstein and Turpin healed Reed's sprained wrist.
With a close eye on Reed, Draco shook his head. "Maybe she's not ready to forgive me yet."
"Give her some time, mate. She's got all the reason in the world to be angry with you right now. But knowing her the way I do, she'll forgive you eventually."
"We'll see," Draco shrugged, unconvinced. He and Reed nodded at each other when the beater gave his wrist a testing swivel before taking to the air again.
The game resumed with the quaffle in Eriksson's hands, zooming with breakneck speed straight towards Kim in what was supposed to be an intimidation tactic, determined to score.
Kim barely flinched when he dodged Olsson's bludger that went zooming past his ear, but that left the one hoop exposed, and Draco and his colleagues groaned when the quaffle went soaring through.
Red and black-robed players zoomed up and down across the pitch for another hour, bringing the score up to two hundred and ten to sixty in favour of Hogwarts, when a gasp from the crowd had Draco's eyes snapping to Malik who was taking a sharp dive for the ground at the far end of the pitch. She'd spotted the snitch.
Petrova was hot on her tail, arm stretching out to grab the tail end of her broom, yanking hard enough to send Malik into a tailspin.
"Hey! That's blagging!" Draco yelled, enraged. "Open your eyes, ref!"
But Malik recovered quickly, following at a horrifying speed behind Petrova, chasing after the golden ball that was invisible to Draco from where he was standing.
"Can't believe we forgot our fucking omnioculars up in the dorms," he complained to Theo. "I can't see a bloody thing."
Malik leaned forwards to increase speed, almost flat against her broom, overtaking Petrova as she zeroed in on what he assumed was the snitch.
He sucked in a breath and narrowed his eyes to see better, the roar of the crowds fading into the background as he watched. All he could hear was the rapid, deafening thump-thump of his heart while the next few seconds passed in slow motion.
He watched Malik loop through the air, flying upside down and narrowly dodging a bludger from Nikitin while she stretched her hand out toward the golden snitch. Her hand grasped at the air in front of her, and Draco stopped breathing…
Thump-thump…
Thump-thump…
Sound slowly trickled back, he became aware of the roar of the crowds around him, and then he sucked in a lungful of air, relief overwhelming him as Malik thrust her arm into the air with a victorious cry, snitch fluttering in her fist.
She'd done it!
Malik had caught the snitch.
His team had won their first game.
Draco's face split into a massive grin and he cried out in celebration along with Theo, Goldstein and Turpin as they watched the team close in on Malik with celebratory claps to the back, all eyes glued to the fluttering snitch in her hand.
The final score appeared on the massive charmed scoreboard announcing Hogwarts as the winner of the match. They'd beaten Durmstrang three hundred and sixty to sixty. A brilliant total for their first match.
He was so fucking proud of his team right now.
All the hard work and sacrifices had paid off. They'd decimated Durmstrang in their first match of the Championships. But even so, they had to keep focused now. Train hard and stick to Turpin's strict diet so they could keep on winning.
xxx
At just past nine that evening, all the players were already out for the count while Draco, Theo, Goldstein and Turpin relaxed in the common room. All four of them looked up when they heard a soft tap tap against the window.
It was an owl with a letter attached to its leg…
From his usual spot on the windowsill, Draco let the owl hop inside and untied the envelope from what appeared to be a Hogwarts owl.
His heart stopped for a moment, then resumed by kicking into overdrive when he saw the familiar handwriting scrawled on the front. It was addressed to him in a loopy, feminine cursive he'd recognize anywhere.
A response from Granger...
Finally!
"Wait here," Draco told the owl, jumped off the windowsill, and walked to his room to retrieve the bag of owl treats from his trunk.
He read the short note on his way back, grinning from ear to ear.
It simply said:
I'll think about it.
Thank you for the flowers.
HJG
It wasn't much of a reply, but it would do for now. At least she'd responded with as much politeness as could be expected at this point; no scathing remarks or a flat-out refusal to accept his apology.
"Don't go yet," Draco halted the owl before it could make its long way back to Scotland. He offered the bird some treats to nibble on and said, "I need you to take my reply with you."
He grabbed a quill and parchment from a small desk near the large bookcase in the common room, dipped the tip of the quill into the ink pot, and wrote out a quick response.
That's all I ask, Granger.
Hogwarts won three hundred and sixty to sixty against Durmstrang today.
Wish you could have seen it.
x
DLM
He tucked the missive into an envelope and sealed it with blue wax and an Ilvermorny seal stamp.
Lisa eyed him curiously as he walked back to the window.
"Take this back to Hermione for me, please," he requested in a low murmur to keep anyone—especially Lisa—from overhearing. He tied the letter to the bird's outstretched leg, stroked its head and watched the bird spread its wings and fly off into the night.
"The way you're grinning tells me you finally got a response," Theo said as he joined Draco at the window. "Did she forgive you, then?"
"Not quite..." but Draco kept grinning.
"Then why are you smiling like an idiot?"
Draco handed over the small piece of parchment, watching Theo read it twice before flipping it over with a frown, looking for more.
"Well," he said, a smile of his own tugging at the corners of his mouth, "It's not a very long reply, is it?"
"No..." Draco said, still watching Theo for a reaction.
"But she didn't tell you to fuck off either..."
"Exactly," Draco nodded, lifting his bottle of apple cider to his lips. "It's a start."
But Draco was already formulating a plan to soften Granger up so she'd forgive him. He just hoped it would work.
Turpin crawled into his bed well past midnight, waking him as she straddled his hips, looking for some relief.
**FLASHBACK**
June 1999:
Draco hadn't told Hermione this, but he'd bought an engagement ring that day in Portland with his friends when they went house hunting.
It was feminine, delicate and very pretty, just like Hermione.
It also happened to be on credit; a first for him.
He'd had enough money to put down a deposit on the ring, but it wasn't nearly enough to cover the whole amount.
Hermione deserved a proper ring, and there was no way he was going to slack on this. Or let his friends pay for it. They'd offered twice, and he'd declined both times. This was important to him. He wanted to be the one who bought her the engagement ring.
After a brief interrogation from his friends, curious to know when Draco planned to propose, how he wanted to propose and where they'd moved on to discuss Pansy's marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather.
"It's fine, honestly," Pansy rolled her eyes in answer to their question about the sex. "I don't know why you lot keep asking. Why you're so interested in the details? But if you must know, I take one of those lust-inducing potions and a Weasley's patented Daydream charm, and before you know it, we're done. He doesn't have much stamina lately, poor thing. So, once he sees my tits and gets inside me, it's usually over in a minute or two."
"I bet when he comes it's just dust." Blaise shot Pansy a licentious wink. "You probably don't even have to use a contraceptive potion."
"Actually," Theo said. "Don't dismiss the man's potency so quickly. My father happened to be conceived when my grandfather was sixty-eight. So..." he trailed off.
Draco coughed a laugh but refrained from saying anything. These were the kinds of sacrifices they had to make to get what they wanted in the end.
"Ginny just loves it when I call her my mistress," Blaise added offhandedly, oversharing as usual. "She says it gets her all hot and bothered. And the sex is even better than before, which is saying something. I think it's all the sneaking around that does it for us."
"Yes," Pansy drawled, giving Blaise a look. "You're both just a tad perverted in the bedroom, aren't you? A match made in heaven."
"I, for one, pity their kids one day," Theo added. "Blaise and Ginny will leave them scarred for life with all their antics."
"We can be discreet, you know," Blaise countered, offended.
"No, you can't," Draco, Theo and Pansy disagreed as one.
"I've walked in on you two going at it one too many times. And that's without counting the times I forgot to knock," Draco added, scrunching his nose in disgust. "You need to learn how to lock your doors."
"We get side-tracked a lot. And we tend to forget where we are sometimes," Blaise shrugged as if being walked in on while naked and buried inside his girlfriend was of no consequence.
"I'm going to start hexing you if I walk in on you and Weasley mid-shag one more time," Pansy threatened. "I think a nice Furnunculus curse to the arse or balls should do the trick quite well. Get you to behave with more propriety."
"How's Astoria doing with all of this?" Draco asked, desperate to change the topic to something a little more appropriate. Discussing Blaise's sex life on an empty stomach didn't go down well. "She must hate the idea of you with another man."
"No. She's fine with it, actually. It's not like I married a twenty-five-year-old wizard with a body of a god. Astoria knows I only want her. And I always bring the point across very thoroughly whenever I get the chance." Pansy cocked a suggestive brow and smirked at Draco.
"Which is practically every second day," Theo pointed out. "Pansy comes over so often she might as well move in with Astoria and me."
"Do you think we should decorate the place ourselves?" Draco asked when they did a last walkthrough of the house. He was trying to picture how the house would look with all the required furniture and accessories. "Surprise Hermione? Or do you think she and I should do it together?"
They were waiting for the realtor so they could sign the contract. Officially make this house Granger's and his. He was pretty sure she'd like it, but there was a cool-down period if she didn't. And he was planning to bring her by as a surprise tomorrow.
They only had a couple of days left before they'd be moving in.
"Together, definitely," Theo insisted as he inspected the fireplace. "It's going to be her house too. The place where you'll build a life together. It's only considerate to let her have a part in it. Put her own touch on the interior."
"What if she decides to decorate the place in reds and golds?" Draco wondered casually. He walked over to the large windows in the living room, marvelling at the view of the lake in front of their house.
There was a jetty with a small boat tied to the side, rocking gently as the breeze carried over the expanse of water.
He could already picture them placing two chairs on the jetty; lazing about in the sun; going out on the boat with a picnic basket and taking dips in the water to cool down.
Gods…this was exactly what they needed. Peace and quiet with no nearby neighbours.
Pansy chuckled. "Would that be a dealbreaker?"
"Honestly," Draco huffed a laugh. "There are very few things Hermione could do that I'd consider as dealbreakers. And decorating in Gryffindor colours isn't one of them."
"Not even her snoring?" Theo teased.
"She doesn't snore," he pointed out. He'd spent enough nights next to her over the last month to know this. She did talk in her sleep, though. Had nightmares sometimes, but according to her, the intensity and frequency of her nightmares had mellowed significantly lately. "But even if she did, that wouldn't come close to being a dealbreaker."
"Gods," Pansy scrunched her nose. "You are so in love it's giving me a toothache."
xxx
Draco got back to the castle late that evening, and even though he didn't want to wake Hermione, he had an overwhelming need to just be with her.
Before he'd left Portland, Theo, Pansy and Blaise had helped him with a romantic setup for tomorrow when he'd show Hermione their house. A Portkey has been arranged with MACUSA for tomorrow evening at six. The time difference proved to be a challenge that they'd had to work around because the day after tomorrow was their graduation, and they needed to be back in time to get a decent night's sleep.
His nerves were shot for tomorrow, but the moment he slipped into her bed and pulled her against his chest, he knew that, no matter what her answer to his proposal would be, it would still be the beginning of a beautiful life with her.
If she said no—and it was a strong possibility—he'd wait until she was ready to get married. They were young, and proposing to her was a big step. Some might even say it was hasty, but he knew what he wanted; what he envisioned when he thought about his future. And while he'd never imagined he'd get married because he wanted to, never mind proposing to Hermione Granger of all people, somehow it just felt right.
She was it for him.
He was devastatingly in love with her. And after loving her, having her love him back, nothing short of everything with her would be enough. No other future and no other woman would make him happy.
If someone had asked him what his five-year plan looked like before the war, it would have consisted of things like agreeing to marry one of the women his mother had in mind for him. One that was moderately tolerable, if nothing else. Pretty enough that he'd at least look forward to producing an heir. But that would have been a bonus.
Then, he and his wife would have moved into the Manor, he'd have taken over his father's business, and managed the estate himself.
He'd have made sure to be involved in his child's life as much as possible, no matter the traditions of his parents and their parents before them. He'd have wanted a relationship with his child. He'd always imagined he'd have forged a bond with his child, unlike the cool detachment he and his parents shared.
And when the time came or the need arose, he'd have found himself a mistress to whom he was attracted.
At the beginning of this year, his answer would have been a bit different. All he'd longed for was getting away from his life and responsibilities. Get his potions Mastery. Start an Apothecary of his own.
But now, it was as if that bleak future had suddenly been coloured by hope, love and possibilities. He wanted a fresh beginning with Hermione by his side. Make their new house a home. Build a life in Portland. Open his apothecary after a few years of saving money, perhaps even applying for a business loan. He wanted to marry Hermione and enjoy being together out in the open. Go on romantic dates, sleep in, and have sex whenever and wherever they wanted.
He wanted children with her eventually. Not just one child. A whole bunch. He wanted to watch her belly grow. Wanted to steep in his love for her.
And beyond those five years, he wanted to watch their children grow up. Be present in their lives. Show their children how parents were supposed to love them. And he wanted to grow old with Hermione. He wanted to make their life the best one she could have chosen. Give her everything she deserved and more.
And in a couple of days, they would start building that life together, whether she agreed to marry him tomorrow, in two months or even two years from now.
xxx
Draco snuck out of Hermione's bed the next morning, too nervous to sleep. The idea of everything that awaited them today; his looming proposal, had his stomach knotted and he felt jittery. Almost as if he'd had too much coffee.
He decided to let Hermione sleep and went to Theo's quarters in hopes that his best friend would be able to put him at ease.
"I thought you'd want to sleep in with your soon-to-be fiancée," Theo said by way of greeting when he opened his door and stepped aside to let Draco enter.
Draco dropped down onto the couch and expelled a heavy sigh. "That's exactly why I couldn't sleep in," he said and pulled a cigarette from his trousers. "I'm way too fucking nervous to sleep. And I can't tell you how irritating it is to have to work around the time difference. Now I have to wait until six. This might just be the longest day ever."
"Well…" Theo sat down beside him and lit a cigarette of his own. "I get that this is a big deal for you, but instead of working yourself up, use the day to spend some time with Granger. Sneak some breakfast up to her room to surprise her. Have sex. Pack up your things so you two can leave as soon as the graduation is over tomorrow. Help her pack up her things. And before you know it, you'll be getting down on one knee."
"As easy as that, huh?" Draco asked and pulled his fingers through his hair. He took a long drag of his cigarette and added, "I might be too nervous for sex right now, though."
"Nobody's too nervous for sex."
"Have you ever proposed? Because let me tell you, it's nerve-wracking. We'll revisit this conversation the day you have to ask Potter to marry you."
Theo shrugged casually. "Fair enough, though right now, I'm not sure we'll ever reach that point."
"Potter's still struggling to commit?"
"Yep." Theo pursed his lips. "It's as if he thinks I'll drop dead the moment he tells me he loves me. I mean, I get that he's lost a lot of people he loved, but that's not how things work. And even if something happens to me, isn't it better to have gone all in than to waste time running from his feelings?"
"I hear what you're saying," Draco acknowledged, "But I also get that he doesn't have the capacity to deal with more death. I get that denying his feelings would spare him a lot of heartbreak."
When Theo opened his mouth to protest, Draco stopped him. "But we all know Potter is an idiot. He already loves you even if he won't say it. The way he looks at you speaks louder than his words do."
"Fucking Gryffindors, eh?" Theo shook his head and barked a laugh. "It's kind of ironic that you warned me about them being the ones who expected hearts and flowers, but then I end up with a broken Gryffindor. One who wants anything but hearts and flowers. And you," Theo tipped his head to the side to scrutinize Draco, "The wizard who fucked almost any witch who was interested and broke out in hives at the mention of commitment, ends up as the one who falls hopelessly in love and gives up everything to be with a Gryffindor."
"If a year ago you'd told me I'd be willingly proposing to Hermione Granger of all people, I'd have called you crazy."
xxx
"What's wrong? You're in a very strange mood today." Hermione frowned at him over her shoulder as she folded her clothes and packed them into her trunk.
He was done with his packing; had done so after they'd had breakfast together in her room as Theo had suggested. But when Hermione had undressed him and tried to get him in the mood for sex, he'd been embarrassingly unable to get hard.
Ha!
Never in his life had this happened to him before. But he was crawling out of his skin. Nervous enough that his leg jiggled uncontrollably whenever he sat still for longer than five minutes.
Time was standing still and it was fucking torture.
But he could see that his mood was starting to make Hermione anxious. Obviously, she could tell that something was going on even though she had no idea what he'd planned for today.
"It's okay if you're getting cold feet, Draco," she said while she continued packing. She didn't look at him, but he could hear the uncertainty in her voice. "I know we've talked about it and I know we both said this was what we wanted to do. But moving in together; moving to a different country, is a big step. If you don't want to go through with it, just tell me. I promise I won't be mad. I just need you to be happy."
"Babe…" he sighed and got up from the edge of the bed. He rounded the bed, took the denims out of her hands and tossed it aside. He coaxed her to turn around and cupped her cheeks. "Don't you spend another minute thinking that I've changed my mind. I'm sorry I'm in such a terrible mood. Moving into a new house, and starting my internship…it's stressful. But it's what I want more than anything."
He hated that he couldn't tell her the truth about the reason for his nervousness. He'd told her this morning that he was taking her on a date this evening, but hadn't provided any details. All he needed to do was pull himself together long enough so that he didn't spook her. Just a couple of hours before their portkey activated.
And Merlin, he didn't want to fast forward to the moment the proposal was over with—whether she said yes or no—but he'd finally be able to relax and enjoy the rest of his day with the knowledge that, by this time tomorrow, they'd be moving into their home.
"And I'm nervous about our date tonight," he admitted.
"We've had lots of dates, Draco. What's there to be nervous about?"
"I'm just worried that you might not like the one I've planned."
"Believe me, love," she softened and her eyes crinkled at the corners. "I'd enjoy any date you take me on. Even if it involved a broom."
"Careful now, baby," he warned and pressed a kiss to her lips. "I might just hold you to that."
A/N: Next chapter - the new house and the proposal...
Let me know what you thought of the chapter.