Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all the characters except the one I created belong to J. K. Rowling. The places I mention in the story with details are not advertised, they are mentioned in order to make the settings and the story more real. I don't make any profit.

Beta: Teriyaki Princes

A/N: Enjoy!

Warning: You'll see...

Tales In The Mist

Chapter 11

Draco was the first one to wake up. His arm was killing him and he hated the wet feeling of blood but he feared to move in case the beauty pressed against him disappeared.

She was laying there on his chest, unruly curls spread all over her back, the faint sunlight hitting her hips and legs in ways that gave them a golden hue. She looked so peaceful, for once. Pink lips slightly parted, her eyes not fluttering because of dreams, her scarred hand not twitching from nightmares.

He let his head fall back on the pillow as he stared at the roof of their tent. For one thing, he was so damn satisfied. Sex with her wasn't simply sex. It tore him apart and put him back together. It was refreshing, new, unpredictable. It was like he was learning what a woman was all over again.

But it was all an illusion.

Dreams like that never ended well. He had just taken a leap towards his damnation. She would destroy him.

Closing his eyes, he frowned thinking of it. He would be damned if he said he didn't like it, didn't hunger for it, but it would be his undoing.

"Regrets already?" A soft voice wondered and he looked down, only to be met with liquid amber pools staring directly into his soul.

How could he hate himself if she looked at him like that?

"No." He replied running his fingers down her spine, "Just thinking."

"What were you thinking?" She asked and he smiled.

"Well what fun would it be if I told you?" He teased and she laughed.

"Oh, come on, Malfoy." She huffed smiling, and he gasped dramatically.

"I made you scream my name last night and I'm still Malfoy to you?" He asked faking offense before poking her sides, which earned him a sharp squeal.

"Don't do that." She whined, and he raised an eyebrow.

"What? That?" He asked poking her again and she jumped with another squeal.

"Don't!" She squealed and he laughed pinning her down and tickling her sides.

"Say my name." He said with a smirk as he continued tickling her.

Hermione between her laughs and whimpers shook her head, trying to escape his grip.

"No.." She gasped out almost out of breath.

Draco smirked and continued enjoying her squirming.

"No?"

"Please, stop. Draco, please!" She laughed out and he left her, staring at her as she wiped tears of laughter from her eyes and panting.

Leaning down, he captured her lips in a soft kiss, his heart skipping a beat as she kissed him back. Her hands snaked around his neck, one burying in his hair and the other tracing the muscles on his back.

The kiss soon got heated. Lips locked, tongues fought and hands roamed places they hadn't discovered yesterday. A moan escaped her lips as he ran his fingers over her folds and a growl left his throat as she pumped his member.

The second time was just as intense as the first, but there was something different in it. They moved in sync, he could feel her emotions, and she his. They weren't two different bodies. In her eyes he saw her but in a different time. A different setting.

One moment she was as she was, staring at him, panting his name as if she'd lose him if she didn't, as if he was a god, and then she was there teasing him. Making him chase her around a temple.

A Greek temple. Her robes were fluttering around her ankles and he could hear her giggles. He twisted around marble columns only for her to escape him.

'You know we shouldn't be here.' She hummed and the smell of lavender and oranges was strong as they walked deeper in the temple.

"Hermione." He whispered and he was back with her under him.

She almost looked in pain. He would have stopped hadn't her legs had wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to her. Reaching down, he kissed her neck, his name rolling off her tongue like a prayer.

"Draco..."

'Draco come on. You should see it.' She urged him, suddenly appearing next to him. Her robes were a purple-blue and she wore delicate golden arm bands.

'What is it?' He asked as in front of him appeared a pool of shining blue water.

'The Source.' She whispered in his ear and his nerves erupted.

He gasped as his orgasm hit him without him understanding it and he rode it out watching as Granger still convulsed from hers under him.

Bracing himself on his forearms despite the pain, he stared at her, trying to see how he could imagine her in ancient robes.

"Granger?" He choked out, still out of breath, and she opened her eyes to stare at him. But the Granger of his imagination wasn't there.

"Yeah?" She panted and he shook his head, leaning to rest his forehead on hers.

"Nothing. Its nothing." He said as he closed his eyes, breathing in her smell.

All of that morning was spent in bed. Just sharing stories of their past and information they found interesting, only to have an argument break out. Nothing much, just they would stop talking for a couple of minutes before one of them admitted that the others' opinion wasn't entirely wrong.

Draco groaned as Hermione rolled off him and went to find her clothes to get changed.

"Come back here. " he groaned reaching out to her and she smiled but shook her head.

"We've got work to do. We are meeting with your mother today to see if she managed to talked to Harry and we've got to make a plan to catch those men." She explained as she got a fresh pair of clothes from her bag.

He sighed sitting up and reaching to pull his boxers on. "How do you plan to survive the cold water, Granger? I can't revive people from heart attacks." He called out watching her go in the bathroom.

Hermione rolled her eyes turning to face him. "I think I'll manage." She said, walking in and closing the door.

The Malfoy heir sighed and dressed in the clothes he was wearing prior to his new activities with the only woman on earth daring to take a cold bath while on a mountain in Norway.

Walking back to the files they had been working on yesterday, he took the photographs and looked through them. There wasn't anything in the actual photos but he needed to consider some things. The Death Eaters had nothing to do with them suddenly researching the Source. There were photographs before the day they found the book.

Letting his photographs down, his mind took him to the Hermione he had imagined. It completely threw him off balance, to have the woman he was fantasizing about squirming beneath him yet still fantasizing about her.

No. Something was off. He had seen her like that somewhere before, as he recognized the temple.

Shaking his head, he moved to boil some water for their tea and looked for the cookies they had for breakfast.

He could admit, she's bloody smart. Walking up the path to his mother's house, he now noticed the runes she had left on the trees.

"You wrote Narcissus." He mused as Granger turned to look at him.

"I didn't know you knew how to read runes." She said, surprise showing in her face.

"Well, I would, wouldn't I, seeing as we were in the same class." He answered nonchalantly as he looked up at the house in the distance. "Why Narcissus?" He asked, stopping at the Owlery.

"I just wrote the flower's name. Started with 'N' at our camp's borders and ended with the last 'S' here. Its for your mothers name." She explained as she watched him send off an owl.

"Five galleons says that's Potter with her." He smirked at the woman, watching as the door of the house opened and two people came out.

Hermione shook her head. "No. Harry doesn't walk like that. It's like he's strutting." She said and as the two people neared, Draco's smirk broadened.

"Who doesn't strut?" He teased before steeling his expression and offering a nod at Potter.

"Potter." He grunted and the Boy Who Lived grunted in response before his eyes fell on Hermione.

"Thank Merlin you're okay." Potter mumbled pulling her into a hug.

"I missed you, Harry." Hermione murmured to the scarred man who nodded, no one wanting to break the hug.

Potter reluctantly let her go and looked at them.

"Miss Narcissa here told me of the leads you found." He started after clearing his throat and Hermione nodded, giving him the bag with the folders and the photographs.

A tense silence fell upon them as Harry read the documents and checked the photographs.

"That's really weird." He said and Hermione nodded.

"They had been following us for at least a year and from what we gathered, Katharine died because she disagreed over something with the men we told you about. " she explained ,and the Auror nodded.

"I've got a plan." Harry said.

"I so don't like that." Draco replied, shrugging when the other three people turned to look at him.

"I'll take them back to the office with me and I'll organize a fake turn in with Kingsley. You two will come with me to England tomorrow, but we will let the news that I caught you travel back home today." he started and Malfoy shook his head.

"You're planning to have them get caught in the trap that was supposedly set for us." He exclaimed and Harry nodded, turning excitedly to Hermione.

"They will try to attack us when we get to the Ministry." She hummed thinking about it.

"They're not so stupid." She said, and Draco nodded.

"Yes, but two can play the same game. They made the Aurors hunt us and we will turn the tables setting the Aurors against them. Potter, your plan could work but they will see through it if we suddenly appear there and they're surrounded by Aurors. " he explained and Harry looked horrified by Draco's words.

Hermione waved him off.

"Cut it out, Harry. He can compliment people. You two could be friends." She proposed and both men shivered in disgust.

"Hell no."

"Don't make me puke, Granger."

"Draco, language." Narcissa scolded her son softly before looking at the trio.

"Why don't you simply get them back?" she asked and Harry blinked.

"How?" He asked and Narcissa smiled.

"Simple. Say you've found evidence that they are not the ones that did it and that someone confessed that they knew who did it and give one of the names. They will start arguing about who betrayed them. They'll mess up their next step and you will catch them more easily and with more evidence." She offered and all three looked at her in awe.

"Bloody hell." Harry muttered while Draco simply starred at his mother in awe.

"Harry, can you do that?" Hermione asked eagerly and Draco looked at her, feeling a bit hurt. Whatever was going on between them would end and as ridiculous as it sounds, from a man that spent enough years before settling down and getting engaged, having one night stands and fleeting friends with benefits relationships, that he didn't want it to end.

"I'll try. I will floo Kingsley tonight and tell him. How can I find you again?" He asked looking at his watch.

"We will come here at the same time tomorrow." Hermione told him and the man nodded.

Narcissa looked at her son and sighed pulling him into a soft hug. "I'm sorry you have to go through all of this." She apologized and Draco shook his head.

"You are the last person I blame for this, mother. We'll return home tomorrow, hopefully." He reassured her and watched as Potter took his mother back home.

"Come on Draco." Hermione smiled but it did nothing to warm him or cheer him up. For him, Potter was now the weight of the sand in the hourglass of time that pushed a big grain down to the lost sandhill. His time was out and as unexpectedly as he had found a place in her life, he was losing it.

Following her, he kicked pebbles and dried leaves, watching her ahead of him collecting dome mushrooms that he hoped were edible.

Now he had regrets. If he had kept it in his pants then maybe he wouldn't have to be this lost- until he moved on, if he ever moved on.

"Have you seen the Moulin Rouge?" He asked and he watched her turn to him in shock.

"You watch films?" She asked and he shrugged.

"Its a musical but I saw it only because I went to the real Moulin Rouge in France. If you could use one of the songs to describe how you feel now." He said, pausing, "Which would you use?" He finished, liquid silver meeting shining gold.

"Oh. Well probably something happy like the song they sang while trying to convince the Duke to invest in their show." She said, pausing in her steps.

"You?"

"The show must go on." He said holding her stare. An unspoken message passed between them and she gulped uncomfortably.

"You're lying." She choked out and he closed his eyes.

"Yes, you're right, I'm lying." He spat out, opening his eyes again.

"El tango de Roxanne probably suits me more. " he said, watching her reaction.

"What do you mean?" She asked putting down what she was holding on a chair.

"Why does my heart cry? Feelings I can't fight. You're free to leave me but just don't deceive me and please, believe me when I say I love you..." He sang softly, his heart breaking as he didn't dare to look at her eyes, in case she saw how much she broke him.

"I... I don't feel the same." She choked out averting her eyes to the floor.

"I didn't expect you to." He said harshly, and both looked up at the other.

"Why did you sleep with me?" She hissed, glaring.

"Why did you?" He snapped in return.

"I wanted to let loose. " she replied and he choked back his desperation, making his voice as even and cold as he could.

"I needed to get you out of my system." He said and it seemed like everything had gotten much colder than it was before.

Hermione took her cloak and went out, bumping shoulders with him as she passed. Draco folded his arms and just stared at the place she was standing moments before, before allowing the choked sob that was eating away his heart come out in a breathless gasp.

It was over.

He had fooled her and himself for now, that he didn't care, didn't need her, but he knew it would be worse without her. His words would hurt him more than they would her when alone in the empty manor.