Heirloom
It was the thrill of the touch, the height of pleasure, if the world were to end, if she were to die a painful death, none of it would matter. She wished time would move in its slowest motion, everything was a blur, but everything had more color. Every time he inhaled or exhaled on her skin, the world would shiver, and she would shudder, knowing she had no control over anything but the pleasure he gave her and the pleasure she felt melting into her bones.
She felt her hand touch his surprisingly lean chest. His pale skin tinged a healthy hue in the candle lights. His eyes blazed near hers her like heated silver; sweat began to form on his forehead despite the cool temperature of the cave. She felt her heart thrash like a drum, she felt nervous, clumsy but he kissed her fingers one by one and slowly caressed her face, never stopping the rhythm that made Hermione vulnerable.
He skillfully unhooked her brassiere. Her jeans were off now. The matching dark blue cotton lingerie against her creamy skin nearly proved too much, he was afraid he would go mad just seeing it. He fought for control, afraid he would ruin the memory of her first act of love with his immediate ways. He wanted to posses every inch of her. Nothing would ever be enough. He wanted time to freeze with her.
He needed her, he realized. And he shrugged the thought away. He thought of too many things at a time like this, he told himself to concentrate. Her eyes smoldered like copper now. She was responding beneath him with ardent pleasure, she who was so new- made him feel like he was an amateur. His hands roamed all over her and Hermione sucked in a gasp. He was going to take her to new heights and she would want him like she never wanted anyone before.
"I need you," he whispered almost inaudibly. He was touching her where she never thought she would be touched in years. Not until matrimony. Or not until she found the one. But he made it seem like he was the one. She couldn't speak, instead she held onto him tighter as he slowly entered that luscious, velvety warmth no other woman had given him yet. She gave another gasp and his hold around her tightened. Their pulse became one and they each shared the same heaven in the same precious instant.
They didn't know what time it was, but they didn't care. She lay close to him as did he. They listened to each other's quiet breathing, not saying anything, each secretly unable to believe something beyond incredible had occurred.
Hermione tried to collect herself, but she seemed overwhelmed. She had given herself completely and it would never be easy to let something as significant as this have a fleeting moment in her head…she had never felt this tranquil in a long time…
Draco tried to collect himself, but even the certified expert seemed overwhelmed. He had never felt this way for anyone, giving himself to a woman without holding back. A voice buzzed inside his brain, that things would never be the same- he had further complicated things…but he had never felt this calm in a long time.
"Did I- hurt you in any way?" Draco asked with hesitation.
"No," Hermione replied quietly. "Not at all."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure. I'm fine Dray," she paused abruptly, the name sounded alien but comfortable at the same time on her lips.
Draco smiled. He didn't like that nickname much, his mother and Pansy used it on him, but hearing Hermione say it…he smiled again. "It sounds nice, you saying my name."
"Not everyone gets to call you on a first name basis, " she said. "We always called you ferret boy or something along those lines."
Draco frowned, recalling that rather stand out, mortifying moment in his lower years. "Ah, I happened to hate that particular event. Let's stick to the prior name you mentioned."
She sat up and fastened her brassiere properly. Draco smiled. Hermione blushed, catching his gaze.
"What are you smiling at?" Hermione began.
"Do you want to hear my compliment?" he said mildly. She noticed he was wearing the pendant she gave him for Christmas and decided to say nothing about it. She did feel her cheeks smolder even more.
"As I was about to say, you look smashing in your lingerie."
"I don't know what to say back," she said, hoping her reddened cheeks would lighten soon. His gaze suddenly proved too much.
"You don't have to, I was just saying. I'm glad to be the first of many firsts in your adolescent life."
Somehow, it didn't sound bad, Draco saying that. She was glad as well, in the strangest way. To be 'deflowered' by Draco Malfoy seemed like a conquest but there wasn't an ounce of malice to what he said.
"You're not part of a subjugation of how many women I can bed," he said, as if reading her mind. He sat up also, facing her directly.
Hermione looked down for a second. "Either way, I'll remember this forever."
Draco looked at her again. "Even more so for me…" his voice trailed off. He cleared his throat. "I'm serious, Hermione."
"I know," she replied simply. She proceeded to reach for her turtleneck sweater and put it on.
Draco followed suit and placed his clothes back on, except for his thick coat. "What will you be doing after this?"
"Like I have anything better to do than be with you."
Draco laughed right out loud after hearing her remark. "I bloody swear you're getting to be funnier the more I get to know you."
"Well you're nearly peaches and cream," she said drily. She looked at him and broke into a smile. "Was I really that boring?"
"On a non-personal level? Hell, yes. Hermione the bookworm, Hermione the insufferable know-it-all, Hermione the teacher's pet- not including two of the faculty, Hermione the saint-"
"What we did awhile ago kind of ripped off my halo-"
Draco snorted and laughed again. "Well, you bloody sure aren't boring now! But seriously, you really were the stick-up-your-arse studious type. We thought you'd die with books surrounding you."
"We?" Hermione's upper lip curled a bit.
"By 'we', I meant Zabini and I," he said. He didn't mention Pansy at all, despite the fact that she had thought of it first back in their fifth year. Pansy had casually mentioned it while Hermione was holding up a book while cautiously extracting pollen from some rare plant in Herbology class. He remembered how the sunlight nicely framed her in a subdued sort of way, but of course he brushed the notion away after a few seconds. But that memory of her lingered in his mind once in awhile. It was actually one of his favorites. He had not told her this yet, doubting he would; as a form of self-preservation. He had revealed so much, after all.
"Ah, your mate," Hermione said, recalling how Blaise Zabini once tried to make a pass on her on the way to Potions. She had nearly been running late and so was Blaise. With a naughty smile, he told her they could skip classes for the morning and go somewhere quiet to smooth the tension between Slytherin and Gryffindor. He touched her waist with one hand, and she controlled the urge to cast a hex. Hermione had her wand ready and quietly muttered, 'Obliviate'. She felt a bit bad for abusing her prefect status back then, but she felt he deserved it. Blaise turned up forty minutes late, apologizing to the strict and bearded new Potions professor, mentioning he forgot he had Potions for the morning.
"No one is my mate," Draco sighed. "At least not by my choice or liking. We all have our parts to play. His family is influential; I have to mix with the 'right sort', in the words of my mother. If I had a choice, I'd go for no one's company-" he eyed her and added, "well, you're a different story."
She smirked. "Ah, of course. I'm a different story, something that should be kept secret."
"Just like how I am to you," he reasoned amiably. "No one in their present state of mind would ever accept us together. A Gryffindor and Slytherin together hasn't happened yet, ever."
"It has once," Hermione blushed, realizing her input was embarrassing. "I read it," she said defensively. "It happened around 200 years ago."
"Do tell," Draco said, stretching and lying down on the thick moss once more.
She sighed. "It was like a fairytale. Only it wasn't such a happy one. They were both students, the female was in Slytherin, male of course; in Gryffindor. There wasn't much information from what I read, but I kind of filled in the parts. It said that they were a secret couple, only coming out into the open once they graduated from Hogwarts. Her family raised hell; he was half-blood, despite the fact that his family was distantly related to Godric Gryffindor himself. The text said that the girl's family killed off the guy's muggle-born mother, placing the blame on the Slytherin girl. In the end, the guy died and the she went on to marry someone else of pure blood."
"He died?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "How the bloody hell did that happen?"
She shrugged. "It just said he died. "
Draco sighed. "If he died still loving her, that's loyalty for you."
Hermione shrugged again. "It still is a pretty sad story. You're actually left to your imagination on what happened."
Draco frowned. "I'm bad with making stories up in my head. "
"Let's not bother with that, then," she said. "But I kind of feel like we're repeating a bit of history."
Draco frowned a bit, unable to imagine the horror of either one of them dying without being together for the longest of times. In his guarded thoughts, he actually dreaded the story. It was bloody unfair, he felt cheated for the both of them, and here they were, slowly repeating the same thing that happened in the story. A secret love affair…
"Oh, for Merlin's sake," he snorted, clearly bothered. "It's almost certainly made up. Where did you read that? Some Knut romance novel by a spinster witch?"
Hermione laughed. "Library. 'Notable Hogwarts Students from 1700 to 1860'."
"It's still most probably made up," he said, not believing a word he said. "They didn't even bother to place names."
"Someone was pleasant enough to burn their names off of the book," Hermione said.
Draco huffed. "How utterly convenient."
He slowly stood up and fastened the buckles on his dragon hide boots properly. They were a gift from his grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, before he had died all moldy colored and blistered from head to foot of Dragon Pox. Again, the boots were another reminder of his pure bloodedness.
Hermione smiled and put on her thick boots. She stood up and looked at the ceiling again. The candles were halfway melted, but they still shone like little crystal lights.
"I guess we'll have to head for Hogwarts now," Draco said dispassionately.
Without warning, Hermione kissed him on the lips. His eyes widened as he kissed her back and she pulled away.
"Left me breathless; mind you," Draco said. He smiled and ruffled her hair playfully, as he stood a full seven inches above her.
She grinned. "I knew it would."
"Don't push it."
"I won't."
"Wait, I change my mind," he laughed.
Draco slid into the Slytherin Common room with an unguarded and calm look on his face. Theodore Nott was lazily sitting on one of the plush olive green couches, practicing a charm that resembled the weak form of a freezing charm. There was a glass of wine in front of him, a spilled portion of it half frozen in midair, while the remaining wine inside the glass sloshed about just like water on a fine summer day. The wine in midair landed with a breaking sound on the black table as Draco went in.
"Bloody-!" Nott began. "Oh, it's you, Draco."
Draco said nothing. He seemed annoyed that he wasn't alone, especially when company meant the dodgy looking Theodore Nott. His mousy blonde hair was a mess all over compared to Draco's polished and relaxed looking one.
"Oy!" Nott said, trying to catch his attention.
"What?" Draco said, not turning to face Nott. He was heading up the stairs already.
"A letter came for you."
Draco spun around. "Letter?"
Nott motioned for the table near the fireplace found in the far right corner of the Slytherin Common Room. There, an envelope had his name written elegantly was placed right dab in the center of the tube. Draco strode for the table and quickly snatched up the letter. He tore the envelope's seal (his family seal, actually) open without care.
Draco,
In the urgency of matters concerning family business, I suggest you come home for a short while without delay. One or two days shall settle said concerns. I have sent a letter to Headmistress McGonagall, explaining the need that you come home. Floo Network should do for travel.
Awaiting for your return,
Mother
Draco frowned, with the first sentence. Family Business…he felt a strange feeling in his stomach, that of fear and suspicion. The last time he felt this way over a letter was during his sixth year, when his father had forced him to let Deatheaters in the castle by way of Portkey. He hadn't gotten away totally scot-free of course. An inquisition was made, his family connections came through for him- at the expense of Dumbledore's untimely death through Snape and the early end to the school year. He knew everyone feared him or hated him because of that, of course it wasn't spoken aloud, though. It was his deep horror that he kill Dumbledore with his own hand and words. Fortunately, Snape came through for him, as he promised to Narcissa, his mother.
He gulped and quickly went up to his dormitory room and shut the door. He sat at the edge of the bed, his mind running with a million thoughts. Did his mother find out about Hermione? Did she know he now had a change of heart? Like he had thawed all of a sudden? What about this father? He was away for safety, hiding, as the Aurors called it. His father was somewhere deep in the heart of Albania for all he knew. He had no word from his father in more than six months. It was a rather sordid affair, the failure to capture Hogwarts. The Wizarding community turned it into frenzy, demanding that the Malfoy family be incarcerated in Azkaban. His other older comrades had fled, hidden in the most secretive localities, biding their time for the Dark Master's call again. No connections came from his Aunt Bellatrix; who doted on him like she was his own mother. She had taught him more than her fair share of her talent in the Dark Arts when he was younger. The countless days they spent, pouring over books in their library, the countless hours spent to learn a few curses using her wand when under aged wizards were traced, he remembered she had taught him well, from Occulumency to Legilimency and even nonverbal spells…
He had both hands clasped close to his mouth, his feet planted firmly on the ground. What was happening? He wished he could predict the future…There was a week left before classes in Hogwarts would resume, the only time he could have with Hermione. But he felt duty calling out for him like a temptress, his duty as a son, to the one person who wanted to save him from a lifetime in Azkaban- his mother.
He would leave tonight, then, he decided. He only had to tell Hermione his mother had called sick. He nodded. It was a simple way to explain things.
She was walking down the corridor on the way to the Great Hall for dinner when someone approached her, the footsteps echoing. The torches flickered in the wintry breeze.
"Dray?"
He looked up, determined to push through. "Hermione- "
"Do you want to have dinner together? I meant in non-speaking terms," she joked.
He shook his head. "Listen, I have to leave for a while."
Her tone changed to that of concern. "Leave?"
"Mother isn't feeling well; I suppose I shall have to go home. Just for a few days," he was eyeing her carefully now, "Two days at most." He saw her eyes flash sympathy. Damn Hermione for being so kind! "Don't worry. It's probably just some winter flu."
She nodded, she had a mother after all and even she would rush home in a heartbeat if her mum was terribly sick. "I- well take care. Do you still have Floo powder?"
"How'd you know?" he smiled. "Yes, I still have enough."
"Well, it's the best way out of here," she reasoned.
He hugged her tight all of a sudden. "I'll see you in two days, alright?" He kissed her forehead, definite that he was going to miss her more than he could imagine now.
Hermione enjoyed the brief moment, without an inkling of how big a deal it all really was.
A/N: I'm actually pleased that I've not been so late with this new chapter. As per Christmas holiday cheer, give me some loving with your reviews. lol. but seriously, thank you for sticking with me as i write this story. ^^ here's to more inspiration to write!