A/N: I am so sorry it has been forever since I updated. I had a back injury and then I started my masters program and have been swamped. Thank you to everyone hanging in there!
Chapter 15: Should We or Shouldn't We
Hermione's wand sounded an alarm, signaling it was time to get up for another day of boring, useless classes and dodging adoring looks from firsties. Groaning and flicking her hand to silence the truly obnoxious sound, Hermione attempted to roll out of bed, coming up against a very solid and very warm obstruction.
"Draco, wake up," Hermione mumbled, rubbing the center of his chest haphazardly. "C'mon, it's time for breakfast."
Draco groaned loudly in protest, pulling the pillow from under his head and covering his face with it. Hermione giggled before grabbing the pillow, playfully smacking him in the chest with it, and throwing it to the foot of the bed. Draco groaned even more loudly, if at all possible, and threw both arms over his eyes, thoroughly refusing to give in to the call of day and wake up. Shaking her head, Hermione sat up, stretching and yawning, unconcerned with the sheet slipping to pool at her hips and exposing her bare chest to the open air.
Gathering her hair and twisting it atop her head, Hermione looked about for her wand to stick through the impossible mass, eyes landing on Draco's sitting on the bedside table. Deciding a sticking charm would work just as well, Hermione leaned over Draco and reached for his wand, squeaking in an undignified manner when strong arms suddenly wrapped around her and pulled her atop a very much awake Malfoy.
"G'morning," he rumbled against her neck, his stubble scratching…irritatingly, if she were being honest, and his morning erection poking into her belly.
"Breakfast, Draco," she responded, pushing against his chest and attempting to sit up.
"M'not hungry," he said as he rolled his hips.
"I am. And in need of a shower. And we have classes," Hermione reasoned. Or tried to reason. Draco wasn't being very reasonable. Must be because all of his blood was redirected from his brain to his dick.
"Let me," Draco begged. Except it didn't sound so much like begging as it did cajoling. Perhaps even demanding if it weren't for the sleepy way he said it.
"Draco, we have classes," Hermione repeated, though she couldn't explain why. It wasn't like class had anything to offer her, outside of her transfiguration/charms project. She could very happily stay in bed all day.
His hands dropped to her bum, squeezing once before drifting down to wrap tight around her thighs and spreading them to cradle his hips. Holding her tightly to his body, he started to grind against her rapidly slickening center, moaning as her arousal coated his cock.
"Let me," he panted as his hips sped up, the head of his engorged member bumping her clit.
Hermione couldn't stop the whimper that fell from her lips or the way she started to grind back down against him, enjoying the feel of his rigid length as it dragged through her folds. Draco pulled her harder against him, her lower lips spreading and wrapping around his cock, and increased the speed of his hips again. They were naked and had already had sex in various positions but this frottage was somehow just as good, maybe because it was Draco bucking against her like a randy schoolboy. Whatever it was, it was working, especially when he started to add in a rotation every few thrusts.
Hermione gave in completely, moaning "yes, yes, yes" against Draco's chest when her head became too heavy to hold up anymore. Draco wasted no time, releasing her so he could slip his hand between them and position himself just right so that the next time he ground up against her he entered her scalding hot, tight as a glove pussy. They both groaned as her walls clamped down around him and then Draco got down to the serious business of pleasing Hermione.
He wrapped one arm around her lower back, keeping her body immobile so that all she could do was lie atop him and take him, take what he was giving to her. His other hand grabbed her by the hair and forced her head to the side so he could latch his mouth onto her neck, sucking and biting and marking her. Each hard thrust sent the tips of her breasts scraping against his chest. Hermione could do little besides moan and writhe as much as she could in his vice-like grip, her pleasure building quickly, like a freight train, unstoppable and all-powerful.
"Come, Hermione," Draco grunted. "Come on my cock. I want to feel it; I want to feel you."
All Hermione could do was gasp for air, her lungs desperate for oxygen, unable to expand fully crushed so tightly to her lover's chest. Draco sped up impossibly faster, yanking her head back and forcing her eyes to meet his. His face was contorted, almost as if he was in pain, teeth gritted and eyes narrowed.
"Damn it, Hermione, come!" he growled. "I need it…need you…please…please…come for me."
Hermione was so close, teetering on the edge, wanting to give him what he so desperately wanted, needed, needing it herself. She was grunting with each thrust, incapable of speech, incapable of doing anything but feeling the ridges of his cock as he dragged against her walls, the bump of his sensitive head against her equally sensitive spots, the tugging of her clit against the coarse curls at the base of his prick and the taut muscles beneath.
"Fucking come, luv," Draco moaned, once again at her throat. "You feel so good around my cock, kitten. Hot and tight and so damned wet. We fit perfectly together, move perfectly together. Now, please, for the love of Merlin, let me feel you fall apart. Let me. Let me. Let me."
Hermione fell, screaming since it was the only way to release her pent up pleasure held immobile as she was. The pleasure at her core was so intense, the spasms hard and following so close together that Hermione couldn't tell when one ended and the next began. Draco rode her through it, his pace still relentless as he chased his own peak, toppling over with a loud groan about half a dozen thrusts later.
The aftermath was wet, to say the least. His saliva was cooling on her neck, sweat was making her feel sticky, and his seed was slipping down both of their lower bodies as he softened and slipped free of her. Hermione sat up as soon as she regained her breath and grimaced at the thick liquid pooling beneath her.
"Shower, food, class," she stated simply.
Gray eyes still a little unfocused met hers. "How many times do you think we'll have to shag before you loosen up? Why can't we take advantage of McGonagall's meddling for one more day?"
"Because there is no way she didn't know the second we made up and released the enchantment," Hermione answered in her swottiest tone.
"Is it weird that your absolute swottiness makes me want to bend you over my knee and spank you?" Draco mused, smacking lightly at her bum to get his point across.
"Depends," Hermione answered after a moment of thought, only somewhat still distracted by the wetness still surrounding her person.
Draco grinned when she didn't immediately shoot down the idea. Without conscious thought his hands starting caressing and squeezing her plump arsecheeks. "On what?" he asked.
"On if it's weird that your absolute prattiness makes me want to bend you over my knee and spank you. Or that your perfect cheekbones make me want to smack you, frequently, just to see if it hurts you or me more. Or that I sometimes daydream about punching you in that pretty mouth of yours."
Draco smacked her smartly on her left cheek, leaving a definite sting behind, and chuckled at her squeak. "Hush, you."
"Can I take a shower now?" Hermione asked, tone telling Draco that it didn't matter what his answer was, she was going to take a shower.
"I have fond memories of you in that shower," Draco responded wistfully. "A shower is an excellent idea!"
"Great! And then we can grab some breakfast and…" Hermione trailed off suggestively as she ran her hands up and down Draco's chest.
"And?" Draco prompted, fingers once again exploring the planes of her bottom.
"And…"Hermione leaned forward, bring her lips close to his and licking the bottom one. "Go to class," she finished, swinging her leg over his and pulling from his grasp.
She practically skipped out of his room, walking naked to the en suite and starting the shower to warm up before trouncing back out on her way to grab her bath kit. By the time she had her things gathered and was back in the steamy room, Draco had finally rolled out of bed and was using a straight razor to shave. She was honestly surprised he didn't use a charm or potion but kept that to herself.
She was halfway through her first round of conditioner when he joined her in the small enclosure. They bathed in mostly comfortable silence, trading off access to the hot spray. She had just finished her final round of conditioner when he spoke.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Why are you so eager to go to class?" Draco asked in a hopefully convincingly casual tone. "That ready to be rid of me, are you?"
"Why are you so eager to keep me here?" Hermione countered just as casually. "That reluctant to be seen with me, are you?"
Draco was a bit startled, to say the least. He hadn't considered she would want to be seen with him. She would allow it, since it made sense to do so for "the good of the wizarding world" but to want to? Though, maybe she meant to imply that she wouldn't mind being seen as friends or civil acquaintances. Or even just two dorm mates who happened to need to go to breakfast at the same time and appeared to walk there in relatively close proximity. Yeah, maybe that one.
Draco opened his mouth to tell her that the whole point of their temporary incarceration was so that they would consent to be seen together but his mouth apparently had other ideas.
"Maybe I'm just worried you'll run back to Longbottom like you did the first time we shagged."
What. An. Idiot. Excellent, Draco. An arse, as usual.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. That wasn't what was supposed to come out of my mouth," Draco rushed to explain, dropping the loofah he had been using in lieu of grabbing Hermione's still soap-slicked arm before she could either hit him or huff away.
"What did you mean to say, then?" she asked, voice devoid of emotion and eyes focused somewhere over his left shoulder.
"Just that the whole point of the cat's meddling was to be seen together and I already said I want us to be friends…more than friends," Draco answered, running his hand soothing down her arm. "I sat with your friends, didn't I? Had breakfast with Looney Lovegood and sat at the Gryffindor table at lunch, which, by the way, was so much fun, let me tell you. Obviously I don't have an issue with being seen with you so the reticence is all on your end here."
Draco felt he had made his point well. Until Hermione snapped her eyes back to his and got that look on her face. The look that clearly said he was a moron and she was going to prove it. She pulled her arm from his grasp so she could cross her arms over her chest, attempting to look superior but really only pushing her breasts up enticingly. Draco tried not to look. Much.
"You sat with your pureblood cousin at breakfast and then sat with another pureblood at lunch who besides being ridiculously good looking, killed the snake from hell and helped saved the wizarding world, becoming more popular than Cormac McLaggen could have ever dreamed to be. I hardly think that proves you aren't reticent about being seen with me, the mudblood that your family tried to kill more than once and whom you tormented for years."
Draco hadn't thought that way about it at all, actually, but he couldn't exactly argue with her logic. Well, he could, and he was definitely going to, but he understood where she was coming from.
"You're an idiot," he said, clarifying quickly when the witch suddenly looked murderous. "Let's look at the facts, shall we? I befriended a mad-as-a-hatter member of Dumbledore's army and known blood traitor whose own house can't stand and Neville fucking Longbottom, quite publicly, for the sole purpose of getting back in your good graces," Draco enumerated, counting off one finger. "The Slytherins hate me. The 'Puffs fear me. The Gryffindors avoid interacting with me at all unless they feel like insulting me. The teachers ignore me completely." More fingers joined the first.
"My family is despised by both sides, tolerated only because I am stupidly rich, and to be honest I couldn't give less of a shit what my father thinks anyway. There are exactly three people who seem to give the slightest fuck about me and they are all firmly on the side of the light. Being seen with you can do nothing but benefit me, not that I even think of it that way. Furthermore, I shared my darkest secret with you last night, told you in no uncertain terms that I feel a special connection to you, and all of that adds up to one thing," Draco finished, throwing his hands in the air, "you're an idiot."
Draco watched as Hermione's face fell and her shoulders slumped, arms dropping more to cross over her stomach, defensive instead of offensive in their position. Her eyes slipped away again, this time to an apparently extremely interesting tile by his right foot.
"I'm not any good at this, you know," she said, voice shaky and low.
Draco didn't know if he wanted to have another heart-wrenching conversation while standing in the too steamy, too small shower and he knew that was where this was going. He had shared and now she was going to share. He wanted to be there for her, he did. He just really didn't want them to pass out from the heat, bang their heads against the tub, and end up in the hospital wing explaining to Madame Pomfrey how they both ended up injured in the shower when they only have the one. Awkward wasn't quite the word.
"What, showering? Well, yeah, you hog the spray but other than that, not the worst shower partner I've had," he said, trying to lighten the mood." Blaise always stole my body wash and Theo is very handsy for someone who swears he isn't gay."
Her eyes jumped to his, wide as saucers, before narrowing in confusion. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, a bit like a fish really but he certainly wasn't going to tell her that. Finally, she just shook her head before ducking back into the spray to finish rinsing off. Draco figured he wasn't going to ever get into the hot water, ever, so stepped out and made use of charms, like any good wizard would, to remove the suds and dry off, not to mention expel some of the steam from the room that really was starting to make his head spin.
He was just wrapping a towel around his waist when the shower cut off and Hermione stepped out, smelling amazing and with water droplets glistening all over her delicious little body. It was quite the sight and Draco was hard put to look away. She needed a sympathetic ear and possibly a shoulder to cry on right now, not roving eyes and wandering hands.
He waited for her to dry off before taking her hand and walking her back to his room, very aware that this was a similar and yet very different situation from their first time together. Tucked back together in bed, Draco cradled her head to his chest and waited.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"I am a swot," Hermione started. "I am logical and pragmatic and intuitive. I answer questions before they're asked, perceive every possible problem or obstacle and act accordingly. I take facts and previous experiences and I make judgments that are, most often, correct. I know most people can't stand me, the know-it-all, insufferable, too smart and not too pretty. I'm not very nice, or what people perceive to be nice.
"It makes relationships hard. I have few friends and of course the one man…boy who I take an interest in is one of those friends. Harry is a brother but Ron wasn't close enough for that. Maybe it was just easier to be with someone who had six years to get used to me and knew all this about me and still showed an interest. Obviously he must like that about me, right?"
Hermione let the steady rhythm of Draco's heartbeat soothe her, relaxing further into him and pressing her ear closer to the lub-dub. Draco just wrapped his arm more firmly around her.
"Of course, we fought all the time before we started sleeping together and then we did that instead. A lot. He was my first. It was good. But when outside of bed all you do is argue, what's to keep you together when you no longer have a bed to fall into? I guess he didn't like that part about me enough if that was all that was going to be left. Maybe I was just convenient, since I was the only girl around who wasn't a relative. I don't know. And I don't know because I'm no good at this stuff. This relationship stuff.
"You didn't want to leave the room and I took our past and your recent actions and I came up with the most logical explanation, that you didn't want to be seen with me like that. I'm sorry."
"This is your show, kitten," Draco's voice rumbled from his chest. "You're the one with something to lose. If you want to be seen together only in group settings with your mates, or seen studying or working together as friends, or anything else up to and including fucking on the head table, I'm down. Whatever you want, whenever you want it, until you don't want it anymore."
Hermione nodded, burrowing closer to his chest.
"But you have to talk to me. No more 'perceiving' shit. I've spent my whole life having to hide everything behind subtle hints, innuendos, and closed doors. I won't do it with you and I don't want you to keep things to yourself with me. If you're angry, yell at me, throw things. If you're scared come to me. If you're sad, use my shoulder. But please, don't shut me out or run to…someone else."
Hermione nodded again. "That sounds reasonable. I'll ask the same of you, of course. No Slytherin tactics, if you please. Don't manipulate me. Just talk to me. Tell me what you want."
"Agreed. Right now, what I really want…" Draco trailed off.
Hermione popped her head up and looked at him, expecting some deep revelation. What she got instead was a toothy grin, a peck on the lips and a smack on the bum.
"Wha-?"
"Breakfast, witch," Draco finished, pushing her aside and hopping out of the bed. "I'm starving. Someone was so demanding this morning that I didn't get to eat. And now I'm going to be late to my first class. Trouble maker, you are. Insatiable, too."
Draco laughed and ducked as Hermione threw a pillow at his head. She couldn't really be mad at him though so she just followed along, preparing for the day and heading down to the kitchen where they knew they could filch something to eat before going their separate ways.
"Lunch together?" Draco asked, munching on an apple while the elves dished up a plate of fruit and pastries he could take with him.
"How public are we making this today?" Hermione countered, spreading cream cheese on a bagel. "We can eat in the kitchen, keep it to ourselves. We can eat in the Great Hall with Luna and Neville. We can eat out at the lake, just us."
"Kitten, remember I said I'd be willing to fuck right there on the head table," Draco reminded her. "However you want to do this is fine by me. It is whatever you are comfortable with. I'm not going to be upset if you want to keep us between us for now. We can be subtle and sit next to each other or be as blatant as all hell and I can carry you into the Great Hall with your legs wrapped around my waist. You lead and I'll follow."
Hermione thought about it. She was a lioness. She wasn't afraid of what people might say. It was also a very new thing they had and she didn't want to put all that stress on it when they were just getting started. And dealing with the entire school, the entire wizarding world once some enterprising student leaked it to the outside world, would definitely stress it. That and she really wanted to be able to tell Ginny and Harry before anyone else so she could get them on her side. So as much as she wanted to parade around the school with his arm around her, she was going to hold off.
"Friends for now. I want to speak to Harry and Ginny and don't want them blindsided by us. We can sit together at lunch. Or eat just the two of us out by the lake. Harry is coming to our first Hogsmeade weekend in two weeks. I'll talk to him then. If that's alright." Hermione took a bit of her bagel, trying to play it casual.
"Of course it's alright. I'll even join you two, if you want," Draco offered. "Lunch at the Gryffindor table, then. I'll see you then," he confirmed, dropping a kiss on her lips and dashing out of the kitchen, his plate bobbing along beside him.
"See you then," she responded to the empty air where her…boyfriend?...had just been standing. She absentmindedly munched on her bagel on the way to class, lost in thought about how she was going to tell Harry that she was sleeping with his once enemy.
