A.N. I want to again thank those of you who are reading this story. I really enjoyed writing especially that last chapter. I added in something about Hermione's miscarriage. I am not sure if what I described actually happens but I claim creative license ;-). Here is Chapter 4. I don't own anything, wish I did though. Feel free to review.

Chapter 4

"Draco, you have that look again." With a blush Hermione grabbed her water and swallowed a tiny bit. All they did was kiss, a lot, in Draco's office. Hermione just couldn't get the feeling like they had done more out of her head.

"Probably wishful thinking." She said to herself. They had decided to take things slowly. As Draco was quick to point out, they were enemies in school. He still didn't want to know anything about Ron or Harry.

"Did you just say something?" Draco brought Hermione out of her head long enough to realize that she must have been talking aloud to herself again.

"Sorry, I uh was hoping the menu would have something on it but apparently it doesn't." She didn't want to tell him quite yet how she was feeling towards him. She still hadn't explained why she and Ron weren't together. Hell, Draco doesn't even know she gave up magic. She gives Draco an appraising view. He was currently ensconced in the menu and didn't notice her watching him. Just like when he was in school, he has an air of entitlement, but unlike then this is one of earned respect, not just mandatory respect. His white blonde hair is cut the same as in school and he has stayed slender but there were muscles when she felt his arms and chest. His shirts and pants fit him perfectly and added to an overall sense of sexiness. His eyes had a way of piercing through her. She could always tell when he was looking at her, even at Hogwarts.

"Ok, we've been out three times and I think it's time we get down to the what have you been doing since Hogwarts stuff out of the way." He fixed his grey eyes onto her brown ones. Hermione fully intended to leave out the miscarriage and the engagement, but looking into his eyes it was coming out of her mouth before she blinked.

"I had a miscarriage about two years ago. Ron and I were….getting really serious. When I found out I was pregnant we decided that we wanted to get married. Four months into the pregnancy we went for an ultrasound and that's when we found out the baby didn't have a heartbeat. I miscarried that night. I didn't even make it to the scheduled abortion or even the hospital. Did you know that when you a have a miscarriage that you can have cramps that feel like labor pain? I didn't know that but that's what I experienced, without the happy ending of a crying child being put into your arms. Ron got over it but I can't. Every time I close my eyes I either see my dead baby or I see one of my fallen friends laying on the stone hallway at Hogwarts. I erased my parents' memories so they don't know about my past, as far as they know I went away to a private school and onto college. I keep getting Ginny, Harry and Ron telling me it will get easier. I have nightmares almost every night. It's been eight years since the war and two since the miscarriage and I can't move on I am stuck." Feeling as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders Hermione ventured a glance at Draco. She was shocked to see that he had tears in his eyes and he was staring at her.

Without another word Draco sat in a chair next to her and pulled her into a tight hug. The tears that she had always been able to hold in now couldn't be. She didn't want to cry but the feeling of safeness and trusting made that impossible. Her sobs quietly shook her body as he sat there rubbing her hair and back. What she couldn't see was that as he was holding her Draco was silently crying as well. His heart broke over the fact that he couldn't have been there to help her when it seemed that everyone else just expected her to rebound. After a few shuddering breathes Hermione pulled away and reached for her napkin to wipe her eyes. Looking at Draco she could see something that made her heart skip a beat. She saw love. And she knew that she felt the same way towards him. Draco got up and kissed her forehead and sat down across from her. The waitress materialized out of nowhere and took their orders. If she had seen anything she was nice enough not to let them know about it.

"So, please take the attention off of me and let's put it on you. Tell me about what you've been up to."

"I still live in the house that was my parents; they are in Azkaban, if you didn't know." Hermione nodded, that had been told to her by Harry.

"I haven't really kept up with anyone from school; they either have disappeared or are in Azkaban. I am a magical detector. I basically look over paperwork and watch people to see if they might possibly be under a spell. I really haven't been doing much in my time since Hogwarts. I've been trying to stay under the radar. There are still people out there that either wants me dead because of my mark; or they want to try and start another uprising. I don't really do any magic these days, since I work with muggles and it would be too much work to try and explain or to erase their memories over and over."

After their lunch was over they decided to walk the park, it was a beautiful fall day and the leaves were a blaze with yellows and reds and some greens still mixed in. Draco casually, or he hoped it came across like that, slipped his hand into Hermione's. If you asked anyone who saw them together that day they would all agree that they could see two people who were completely in love with each other. What they didn't know, or notice, was someone following them. A certain red headed boy who was still not completely over his once fiancé; Ron still hoped that Hermione would come to her senses and come back to him. He followed them to a secluded alley way.

"Hermione, what the bloody hell are you doing with Malfoy? He is an ass and you shouldn't even be talking to him. He tried at every turn to kill Harry." Before Hermione could respond Draco grabbed them both and disapparated and apparated at his house. It had been almost two years since Hermione had done that so her stomach protested to the squeezing pulling twisting sensations.

"Let me set the record straight Ron-" The next feeling Draco had was Ron punching him across the face.

"Don't you DARE speak to me you piece of trash. You picked your side when you got that damn dark mark. Hermione is too good for you and you aren't going to take her from me. She's my fiancé PERIOD." Ron had a stinging feeling hit his cheek and looked up to see Hermione glaring at him. She proceeded to crouch down to the floored Draco and check on him.

"Oh come off it Hermione, you can't honestly tell me that you are choosing him over me. He has done nothing but cause us trouble."

"No Ron, just stop it. I am not your fiancé; I haven't been for quite a while. The miscarriage was just the final nail in the coffin. I don't know how more specific I need to get but I. DON'T. LOVE. YOU. We were nothing but a shoulder to lean on with each other. You were there, and that is all."

"I won't give up on you Hermione, we belong together." With that Ron disapparated, Draco had gotten off the floor and moved to his couch and Hermione could see the bruise starting to form on his jaw.

"I am so sorry Draco; I can't believe Ron did that." Hermione gently touched the bruise making Draco flinch a little. Noticing the ice bucket sitting on the drink cabinet Hermione brought it over to him and took a piece of ice in her hand. She gently applied it to the bruise. He couldn't feel it, and it wasn't the ice causing the lack of feeling. The look of tenderness in her eyes took the pain away. Hermione had straddled Draco to better apply the ice to his jaw. Draco leaned up and kissed her.

"I-I love you, Hermione. I have for a long time." He saw a flicker of surprise and something else in her eyes, excitement upon further looking.

"I love you too Draco." Without another word Draco picked up Hermione bridal style and took her to his bedroom. The ice had long since melted in her hand. Like their first kiss four weeks ago, this kiss was tentative and shy. It seemed as if neither one wanted to rush something and hurt the other one. Draco seemed to be trying to memorize everything he could. How her skin prickles when he kisses her neck. The feel of her lips on his ear, whispering, teasing and kissing. The contours of her body the feel of how easily they align with each other. It didn't take long before he was aching for her. Through heavily hooded eyes she looked into his eyes. Hermione saw the desire and unabashed want in them.

"I have wanted this, dreamed about it, since our fifth year. You were out sitting under a tree and the sun was setting and hitting you so beautifully. You took my breath away." Hermione rolled Draco onto his back and sat up to take her shirt off leaving a purple lace bra with pink flowers on. If Hermione thought Draco's touch was electric before on her actual skin it made her go weak. She could feel the ache building between her legs. She felt his desire on her inner thigh and that made the ache start pulsing. Slowly she began to unbutton his shirt kissing the newly exposed skin on the way down. Her breath on his chest and stomach sent goose bumps through him.

"Hermione, I want to offer you an out if you want. I know that we agreed to take things slowly, and I am giving you a chance to slow things down." Any doubt that Draco had was quickly squashed by a hard teasing kiss from Hermione.

"I want you Draco. I am not the same little book nerd that you knew in school. I have since found my voice." Draco bit back a laugh at that, when has she ever been lacking a voice. He could understand that being surrounded by Harry and Ron hers tended to be the one that was in the background. Brushing the hair out of her eyes Draco followed the line of her cheek and jaw down to her shoulder. It seemed like an instant and they were both completely naked.

Draco's touching took on an edge of authority. He deftly rolled Hermione onto her back and sat between her legs. He took in her gorgeous naked form for a second before he started kissing her legs working towards her peak. When his tongue found the spot her hips bucked and she cried out. Draco teased her licking a little then stopping to look at her. He loved the look of want that played across her face. Hermione sat up, as best as she could, and kissed him.

"Quit teasing me Draco. I want you." That was all he needed to hear. With a kiss that seized Hermione's mouth he plunged himself into her. She gasped with the suddenness and his size. It didn't take long until she was on the brink. Draco made sure that whenever she got close to a release he would purposefully slow down keeping it at bay. Each time he did that she would practically cry out. He could feel her getting slick and that sent him to the brink as well. When he felt the telltale squeeze he could no longer hold his orgasm in.

"Draco, oh god." That was all she could get out before she went off the cliff. As he watched her face as pleasure washed over it, Draco's heart melted. That look on her face is what makes him reach his peak. He couldn't even speak her name, not for lack of trying though. They laid in each other's arms slowly falling into a post sex sleep.

It was the first time in eight years that Hermione didn't have a nightmare. She slept so soundly that she didn't wake up until the sun was streaming into the bedroom. Draco had woken up a few minutes earlier and it took a second for him to remember what happened and when he saw Hermione curled up in his arms he felt complete. She just looked so beautiful.