Eight years later.
Hermione was spending her Saturday afternoon going over the paperwork from the children's charity, when she was interrupted by a knock on the door. When she opened the door she found a wizarding courier, who delivered her a box that needed signing for. Taking the box back in the front room, Hermione put it to one side as she finished up with the paperwork. Once everything was sorted with the charity, she turned her attention to the box.
As Hermione expected, the box was from her publisher and it contained half a dozen copies of her latest novel. In the past six years, Hermione had written several books, all of which had become bestsellers. Pulling out a copy of the book, Hermione nodded approvingly at the glossy red cover, with a picture of a woman sitting with her back to the camera, her hands handcuffed behind her chair.
Hermione's book differed in plot lines, but they all had three things in common. Firstly, they all contained strong female characters. There was nothing Hermione hated more than reading about insipid female characters who had no backbone. Secondly, her male characters were always handsome and had no problems with dealing with a successful women. Hermione had dated a few men who'd had problems with the fact she knew her own mind, and she had no intention of writing about men who didn't appreciate a strong woman when they found one. And lastly, Hermione's books always contained a steamy romance with red hot sex scenes.
Hermione knew a lot of people had been surprised by the sort of books she wrote, but her first novel set the tone and now her fans expected to find a racy romance in her books. Besides, Hermione always made sure the sex wasn't the main part of the story. Her books all had a solid plot, and the steamy bits just enhanced the story. It wasn't like she was writing full on erotica, her stories always had a strong central plot and well developed characters.
As she unpacked the books and stacked them on the coffee table, Hermione couldn't help but shake her head at the idea she was a professional author. As much as she'd loved books her entire life, and had an eclectic reading taste, she'd never once imagined herself as the sort of person to write her own novels. But now here she was, with several best sellers to her name and dozens more ideas just waiting to be turned into stories. Truth be told, Hermione had fallen into writing by accident. It had never been her intention to write a novel, one throw away remark had led to the career she so loved.
After her big blow up with Harry and Ron, Hermione had left The Burrow and had thrown herself into working with the children's charity. She'd used the money she'd received from the Ministry for her part in defeating Voldemort to rent herself a small flat, and she'd lived on the small wage she received from the charity. For a year, Hermione had worked tirelessly alongside Narcissa to set up a charity that could offer practical help for the children who had been affected by the war.
Once the charity was fully established, and didn't need as much attention, Hermione started thinking about getting a proper job. Instead of going to work at the Ministry, which was something she could have done easily enough, Hermione decided to try and find a job in the literary industry. Narcissa had put her in touch with an old friend who ran a publishing agency, and Hermione soon found herself working for the best publishers in wizarding Britain.
Within a few months Hermione had proved herself invaluable, and by the time she'd worked there for nine months the boss had come to value her insight and knowledge about literature. One day one of the proof readers the publishers hired was taken ill, and Hermione's boss asked her to read through the latest manuscript from one of their authors. Hermione had done just that, and found almost the entire thing riddled with errors. When she'd handed the manuscript back to her boss, along with pages worth of notes, she'd joked that she could write a better book that what she'd just read. Her boss had immediately challenged her to do just that, and never one to turn down a challenge, Hermione had accepted and gotten to work that same day.
Four months later, her first novel was complete and two months after that it was published and became an instant hit. From that moment, Hermione never looked back and she focused her energy on writing. She no longer worked for the publishers, instead they published her books. However, she was still heavily involved in the children's charity and since it began eight year ago, it had blossomed into the biggest children's charity in wizarding Britain.
Getting her first novel published seemed like just yesterday, and Hermione could hardly believe it was nearly six years ago. Looking at the copy of her newest book, she found it hard to believe she had come so far. These days she wasn't just a new author, she was an established star and people flocked to buy her books from across the country. Her latest book was even going to be accompanied by a book signing at Flourish and Blotts on the day of its release.
Hermione was so busy looking at the books her publisher had sent that she failed to hear her husband enter the room. It was only when a hand plucked one of the books from the table that Hermione noticed her husband had entered the room.
"What do you think?" She asked, turning around and looking up at her husband, who had perched himself on the edge of the sofa looking over her newest book.
"Kinky cover," Her husband, Draco Malfoy, replied with a smirk. "I don't remember there being any bondage in the book."
"There's not," Hermione replied. As he always did, Draco had read the book when she was writing it and of course he'd been more than happy to help her out when it came to the saucy bits. "It represents the main story where she's arrested for a crime she didn't commit."
Hermione's latest novel ventured into mystery territory, her first time in that genre. The story was about a successful female lawyer who finds herself arrested and on trial for a murder she didn't commit. The only person who believes in her innocence was the handsome Auror investigating the case, who'd arrested her in the first place. The pair worked together to find out who had framed her as their personal relationship took a sexual turn.
"How did it end again?" Draco asked. When Hermione had been writing the end of the book he'd been involved in a major takeover at work, so he wasn't sure he'd actually read the end of the story.
"They found who was framing her and got justice," Hermione answered as she got up off the floor and moved to sit beside Draco. "They then settled down to a happy life together, full of hot, mind blowing sex."
"Now that's my idea of a happy ending," Draco said, giving Hermione a lecherous grin. Placing her book back down on the table, he pulled his wife of nearly a year onto his lap. "How about we go and celebrate our own happy ending in the same way?"
"As tempting as that sounds, I've got to finish the outline of my new story and send it to my agent," Hermione replied as she settled herself on Draco's knee.
"And what's your new book going to be about?" Draco asked.
"It's about a newly qualified teacher who moves across the country to teach at a very prestigious school. Before the start of term, she meets a guy and they have a passionate fling. However, when she gets to school she finds he's a student in his last year."
"Let's guess, they then end up having an affair," Draco summarised with a grin.
"Eventually," Hermione answered with a nod. "She's going to fight her attraction to him for a long time."
"You mean like you did with me?" Draco questioned, smirking at his wife.
"I did not fight the attraction, you were the one who practically ignored me for a year," Hermione protested.
"Please, you fought the attraction," Draco scoffed. "Then when you couldn't hack it any longer, you came up with a ploy to seduce me."
"It was not a ploy," Hermione argued. "I was just telling you about my struggle with my plot and not being able to find the best way to get the characters together."
"I sorted that for you, didn't I?" Draco smirked. "Even though I stick by my statement that it was all a ploy to seduce me."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh, knowing that Draco was right and there had been a part of her that had been trying to move their relationship along. "Okay, maybe part of it was seduction, but I was genuinely struggling with that part of the book."
"If you say so, darling," Draco said with a chuckle as he gave Hermione a brief kiss. "Now since you're supposed to be outlining your new book, I'll leave you to it. Although, when you need help with the saucy bits, let me know, I'd be more than happy to help. I even still have my old uniform upstairs if that's any help."
"I'm sure you're dying to play the young boy having an illicit affair with his teacher," Hermione laughed as she got off her husband's lap.
"Anything to help you out," Draco replied, getting to his feet. "I'll be in my study if you need me."
Draco gave Hermione another kiss, and swiping one of her books from the coffee table, he headed off to his study. Hermione stacked the other books up at the far end of the table, before summoning her notes on her new book. Settling down to sort her notes with a smile on her face, she couldn't help but think back to the time Draco had mentioned, when their relationship had tipped over from friendship to romance.
At the time Hermione had just finished writing her first book, in record time since she was determined to show she was capable of delivering a well written, engaging story. However, she'd been completely unhappy with the part of the book where the two main characters finally gave in to their feelings for one another. Hermione wasn't an innocent virgin by no means, but she hadn't really experienced the sort of frantic, heated sex she'd wanted to describe. She'd actually rewritten the chapter several times, but she just couldn't seem to get across the passion she felt the characters should have.
Also by this time, Hermione and Draco had become solid friends thanks to Hermione's friendship with Narcissa. Hermione had taken Narcissa under her wing when they'd been working on setting up the charity, and Hermione soon became a regular at the manor. Lucius had been distinctly unimpressed with her presence initially, but Hermione earnt his respect by not running away and standing up to him when he said something she thought was wrong. These days, the pair got along spectacularly and he was very proud of his daughter-in-law.
Like Lucius, Draco hadn't been too impressed by Hermione being around the manor, although it was because he felt guilty over how he'd treated her in school. For a long time, Draco was polite to Hermione for his mother's sake, but he refused to allow her to get close to him. However, Narcissa hadn't been at all impressed with her son's attitude, and she'd often create situations where the pair had to spend time together. Slowly, Narcissa's plan worked and Draco opened up and let Hermione get to know him.
From the second they began to be friendly towards one another, there was a spark of attraction. Hermione suspected it had always been there, and their animosity towards each other in school had just hidden it. Even though they were both aware of the spark, neither of them did anything in fear of running what had become a beautiful friendship. It wasn't until Hermione was having trouble with her book that things changed.
Until she was talking to Draco about her book one evening, she hadn't realised she was essentially writing about them, albeit with her characters having different jobs and having a different past. Basically the two characters in her book were friends, with a sizzling sexual tension, just like her and Draco. The part in her book she was struggling with was the first time the pair gave into their attraction, and she'd suspected that it was because she'd never had any experience of the type of passion filled, giving into your feelings sort of sex she wanted to write.
When she'd told Draco this, he'd jokingly offered to help. Hermione had refused his offer, knowing he wasn't serious, and they'd carried on with their evening, although Hermione's book did get mentioned an awful lot. As the evening had worn on and they'd had a bit more to drink, the pair had ended up bickering over something. Hermione couldn't even remember what they'd been arguing about, but it was fairly common for them to bicker over something or other. In the midst of their sniping, Draco had done something he'd never done before and kissed Hermione.
That one kiss was the spur they needed to finally admit their attraction and do something about it. The rest of the evening, where they gave into their feelings, provided Hermione with all the answers she needed for her book. The next day she wrote a sizzling sex scene, based on what had happened with her and Draco, and her book was ready to go. As for her and Draco, they continued their romance and Draco helped her a great deal with the naughty bits in her books.
Looking back, Hermione could see she'd invited Draco round and told him about her problems in order to further their relationship. The fact it gave her book a racy sex scene was something of a bonus. However, she would always be grateful to the book she'd been writing as it had led to her getting romantically involved with Draco, and here they were almost six years later, happily married and very much in love.
Hastily finishing up her notes on her new story, Hermione put them to one side to send to her agent before getting up and going in search of her husband. Thinking about the past had stirred up all sorts of memories, and she decided there was better ways to spend her Saturday afternoon than doing paperwork. She could be spending time with her sexy husband, getting new ideas for future books, and that was exactly what Hermione planned on doing with the rest of her day.