A/N:

M RATED WARNING: Lemon ahead.

Keep your innocence if you're too young, and go read something else.

Trust me, it's much better when it happens to you, anyway. :)

I'm more nervous than a dog at a flea market, so please be kind, my lovelies. I don't write mushy stuff in my professional writing. So I feel a bit... exposed here. It's on the page, it's been nit picked and it's as ready as it's going to be. One more chapter with some fluff, then back to the plot. Deal?

As always, I'd love to hear from you in a review, my lovelies. Reviews to chapter 26 will still help raise funds for donating dog food to my local animal shelter. I'll donate a dollar in food for each review. I'm going to leave that open until the 15th of February, because I would really love for us to make a big donation. So reviews on 26= dog food love, and reviews on 27= spare me from chewing off my fingernails. I'm your biggest fan, my lovelies.

-Elvee

Snatch

Chapter Twenty Seven

"I'm a heroine addict. I need to have sex with women who have saved someone's life."

-Mitch Hedberg

Draco had pulled Hermione into his lap. The truth serum had worn off as they sat there entwined in each other. Her head was resting on his shoulder and he held one of her hands in his, stroking his thumb over her knuckles. She wasn't sure exactly when he'd pulled up a chair and how she wound up in his lap was still a blur, but sitting so close felt right somehow. Safe. Here she didn't have to be the brightest witch of her age. She didn't have to be strong. For the first time in a long time, she could just be plain Hermione and it felt good.

He called her back out of her reverie by tucking a curl behind her ear and speaking softly, "Princess, I want you to promise me something."

"Hmm?" She was fiddling with the buttons on the placket of his shirt.

"No more running off." She turned in his arms to look up and protest, but he wasn't finished. He tightened his arms around her. "By the gods, do you have any idea how worried I was when I came inside and you'd disappeared?" He exhaled loudly, crushing her to him and planting a kiss on the crown of her head.

"Draco, I..." He put a finger over her lips.

He gave a rueful laugh. "Potter said you'd do something stupid, and he was right."

She stiffened in his arms and snapped, "I did not do anything stupid," she said indignantly. "I did what had to be done!"

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. "I was out of my mind! I come back in the house to find you gone, Dobby looking guilty as sin and refusing to talk. If Potter hadn't stopped me I would have hexed him!"

"Draco!"She gasped.

"Gods, Hermione! You were gone! What did you think I was going to do? Sit around and do nothing?"

When she only bit her lip in answer, he frowned in understanding, "You did, didn't you? You thought I would just let you face my father alone?"

"I needed my bag. I didn't know what was going on with you," she admitted sheepishly.

He hooked a finger under her chin, and tilted her head to look at him. His gray eyes had gone stormy. "Princess, any plan you come up with to take on my father had better include me, because like it or not, I'm going."

She shrugged off his arms and hopped out of his lap, indignant. "I worked too bloody hard to get you here! I will not have you running all over Europe after Lucius. Stay here. Keep your head down. Take care of your mother. Pick up a goddamn hobby for all I care! But stay out of sight! I'll come back..."

"A hobby!" He spat. "Sure, I'll take up needlepoint while my fianceé is off Merlin knows where, doing Merlin knows what! I'll just trim the verge while my psychopath father is hunting you day and night! Just sketch the countryside while the Dark Lord wants to grind your bones to make his bread, shall I? Are you out of your mind?"

Hermione let her eyes slide closed. Gods, she didn't want to fight. Couldn't he see she couldn't think straight when he was in danger? Her wits were the one weapon she had that until now, until him, she could always count on. Listening to him being tortured while she was helpless to stop it wasn't something she could stomach ever again.

When she finally opened her eyes, she looked up at him plaintively and whispered one word: "Please."

He wore a pained expression as he said quietly, "Gods, Hermione, I'll give you whatever you ask for, so don't." He ran a hand roughly through his hair and pointed at the hall. "Don't ask me to sit here and look at that door every minute of every day waiting for a woman that might never walk through it again. Don't do that to me."

Hermione turned her face to the window, bathing in the orange light of the setting sun. Draco came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, saying nothing. They stood there for a long time, both looking out the window, blind to everything but their own thoughts.

She finally broke the silence with a whisper, "We have to get to Lucius first. We can't afford to let someone kill him." Draco nodded, his chin on her shoulder. "I heard a rumor about a snake. I have to check that out. Then I have to be there when Harry and You-Know-Who face off. I promised him."

"Then we will," he said, tightening his arms around her.

Her breath hitched in her chest and she fought to swallow a sob. "I can't lose you," she whispered raggedly. "Not now."

He turned her slowly in his arms to face him and said firmly, "You won't."

"You don't know that!" A tear slid from one eye as she willed her bottom lip to stop trembling. He started to slide a hand down her cheek and she winced in anticipation of the pain.

"Gods! I totally forgot!" He eyed the shredded fabric over her shoulder. "Let's get you cleaned up."

She took a shaky breath, then shook her head. "It' looks worse than it is. I'll get it."

"Let me take care of you." He said gently. And there in his arms, she found she couldn't deny him. He gathered the potions he'd need from her bag and led her upstairs.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she let him dab at her face with a flannel soaked in antiseptic. His hands were gentle and steady. The antiseptic itself burned like fire and she balled her fists, trying not to flinch. He watched her expression and winced sympathetically as he worked. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she lied.

He brought his lips to her cheek and murmured a healing spell. The burning immediately stopped and a blessed coolness spread across her skin. She sighed in relief. "Better?" He asked, his lips still brushing her skin.

"Yes," she whispered. He brushed his lips over her cheek, down to her jaw line. He ran his hands over her good shoulder, down between her shoulder blades to press her closer.

He slid his other hand down the column of her throat over her collar bone to rest on the buttons of her dress. "May I?" he whispered in her ear, sending a shiver straight to her belly.

"Yes," she whispered again, the smell of him surrounded her like a drug. His touch, light but insistent, was sending a thrill through her. Her skin had goose pimples. Her nipples hardened in anticipation.

He slid the first button through the buttonhole, parted the cloth and trailed his lips down her neck, stopping to nibble at her collar bone. He popped the second button open, and spread the fabric wider, following his fingers with open mouthed kisses. She moaned and he tightened his pressure on her back. Her head dropped back of its own volition and he followed the exposed skin to the next button.

He must have undone the rest of the buttons without her noticing. The next thing she knew, he kissed her deeply on the mouth as he pressed the flannel to her wounded shoulder. She hissed through her nose, but swept her tongue through his mouth to tangle it in his. His free hand cupped her breast through her bra. As his thumb traced back and forth over her aching nipple, she moaned again.

He trailed open mouthed kisses down her neck to her shoulder, and healed it with a breathy murmur against her skin. She groaned in relief, then in protest as his lips vanished from her shoulder. A moment later she felt his mouth on her breast through the fabric of her bra.

Fingers trembling, she reached up to unbutton his shirt, but whatever his mouth was doing was delicious and she couldn't concentrate beyond knowing she wanted to feel his bare skin under her fingers. After a few fumbling tries interrupted by groans, she fumbled for her wand and vanished the damnable shirt.

He chuckled, the vibration through her nipple sending a thrill straight to her core. He pressed her back onto the bed and pushing a knee between her thighs, kissing her mouth hungrily. She ran her hands down his back, remembering each time she'd seen him and longed to touch him. He was as perfect as she'd imagined. Hard muscle underneath smooth glowing skin. She arched off the bed, pressing her core into his thigh, aching for relief.

Draco broke their kiss and panted, "Gods, Hermione! You are so beautiful!"

Hermione had never felt anything like this all encompassing need. She'd always thought sex was sex. How wrong she was. Sex was need and want and craving and yearning. It was a throbbing iron ball in her core begging to supernova. It was being on fire and not caring if you were consumed by it. All of these feelings and more she couldn't even put a name to were heightened by the fact she knew they might never get another chance.

"Don't stop!" She pulled him in for another searing kiss and ground against him.

He pulled away and searched her eyes, "Are you..." She ran her fingernails lightly down his back. "Sure?' His last word came out as a moan.

"Please," she whimpered against his lips. After he cast a brief contraceptive charm over her, he threw his wand clattering to the floor. In one smooth move, her bra was off and flying across his bedroom. As he laved her newly freed breasts with attention, she fisted a hand in his hair, moaning, "Please, Draco. Be my first."

He froze, dumbstruck. His panted breaths played across the wet skin on her breasts as his eyes met hers. "Your first?"She felt the shift in his body as he stiffened. Embarrassed, she looked away, nodding.

He ran a gentle hand down the side of her face and made her look at him. "Don't. Don't be ashamed." He kissed her fiercely. "You've given me so much, Hermione." He kissed her again, this time filled with tenderness and the emotions he just couldn't convey any other way. "But this is the most beautiful gift anyone has ever given me."

He kissed her again, softly, gently. His hands danced over her skin, leaving her breathless and quivering. His touch had changed with her admission; it coveted, it worshipped, it cherished. It was like pure emotion pouring through each of his fingertips. The heat and sweetness of it overwhelmed her senses.

When she felt his fingers brush over her core, she writhed, calling out his name, begging him. She had only to ask. "Cum for me, Princess," he urged. With a few more tender ministrations from his talented hands, she arched into his fingers and the ball of iron in her core flew apart.

He covered her cries with a searing kiss as he felt her clench around his fingers. "That's my girl," he whispered into their kiss as he gently pulled his fingers out of her. She gave him a lazy smile, once the stars stopped popping in her vision. "This will sting a bit, but we're going to go slow, okay?" She bit her lip and nodded. "Don't be afraid. You're in control. You say stop, we stop, okay?" She nodded again, but the nerves were writhing in her stomach. He must have noticed, because he bent down and thoroughly kissed her as he insinuated his way between her thighs.

He kissed his way down her throat to her breasts and she was writhing with need as she felt him pressed against her entrance. On instinct she bucked up to meet him and felt his hips jerk back. "Not too much. Not yet. Easy," he soothed her, even as he struggled for control. "Gods," he whispered, shivering and covered in a sheen of sweat.

"Please," she begged and that was all it took. He captured her lips with his and pressed into her with a gentle but firm thrust. There was a slight feeling of something tearing, then a burning sensation. It wasn't unbearable, but it was uncomfortable. There was another sensation, too; a fullness, a completion that she'd never experienced before.

He studied her face, "Are you okay, Princess?" She bit her lip, but nodded. "Merlin! You feel so..." His hips jerked. She winced. "Sorry. You just... you feel so amazing," he panted through gritted teeth. She took a deep, calming breath and realized the burning sensation was fading. She grabbed on to his hips and pressed him deeper into her. He groaned.

This time when he withdrew and thrust into her, she met him greedily each time. He moved one of his hands from cradling her hip to brushing across her most sensitive spot. "Gods! I don't know how long I can..." He ground out as his hips picked up the pace. That ball of need was back and twice as insistent. As his thumb made one final brush over her skin, she flew apart, her walls pulsing around him, the fullness inside her magnifying the strength of her orgasm exponentially. He cried out her name over her hoarse groans as he fell over the edge right behind her.

Awestruck, when he got his voice back, he panted into her neck, "That was...incredible."When their breathing slowed, he gathered her into his arms and rolled them onto their sides, her back to his chest. Kissing the top of her head, he said tenderly, "Thank you."

She gave a satisfied murmur and snuggled closer into his arms. Whatever this was, whatever label they had to put on it, she didn't care. She'd made the right decision giving him the gift of her innocence. He'd been so gentle and caring, so very attuned to her body and needs. No matter what they'd both said under the truth serum, there was an hour this afternoon when there had been love in this room.

Suddenly his arms went tight around her. "Promise me you'll let me help, no matter what," he said fiercely. She rolled over in his arms to study his face. His features were as fierce as his voice, his eyes were the color of thunderclouds. He pulled her tight against his chest. She was stunned into passivity by his display of emotion."Promise me you won't walk out on us," he begged in a whisper. Hearing that, she clung to him as desperately as he clung to her.

When he finally loosened their embrace, she placed a light kiss on his lips and smirked, "Then try and keep up, Ferret."

"Ferret? I'll show you ferret!" He growled playfully, then flipped her over onto her back and attacked her neck with his mouth. She squealed, writhing beneath him.

An hour later, she burrowed under the covers, feeling his arm draped over her waist. Her blond ferret was snoring softly behind her. She gave a lazy smile into the pillow before drifting off to sleep.