Chapter 19

Hermione was trying really hard not to be embarrassed the next day. What they had done was a perfectly natural process. Something they had done before, in fact. He just didn't have to look so smug about it.

Its not like he'd achieved anything. This was strictly business. She wished he'd stop looking at her like he had categorically won an argument. Because she was only doing this because she wanted a baby.

Although saying that he was a lot more like himself than he had been when she first got here, when there was nothing but seriousness. Which was a lot more annoying to her because sleeping with the serious and very distant Draco was easier than sleeping with the one who goaded her to the point of tears on numerous occasions at school.

"Perhaps you two should go away somewhere for a while." Narcissa said while sipping her morning coffee.

Hermione struggled to suppress her expression of horror.

"I don't think that will be necessary." Draco said to her complete relief. "I think best to leave well enough alone."

Narcissa beamed a little smile which made Hermione cringe.

Let's just inform your parents that we are doing the nasty, she thought to herself. She took a second to think how ridiculous this moment was. Her sitting there, pretty much telling Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy that she was getting on adequately at milking their prodigal pureblood son of his precious pureblood seed. At what point did she move from grown ups being horrified to think she was having sex to a cheering squad.

Her parents hadn't gotten to that stage by the time of their accident. And Molly had stopped discussing it once it became apparent that Hermione was having difficulty. Once that was apparent, they had all the time in the world and there was absolutely no rush. That was Molly's way of trying to be supportive. Hermione never found lying comforting.

But secretly it also angered her that the Malfoys were pushing their son on Astoria who had been so awful. As far as they knew, she still was Astoria and they were pushing her on Draco for the sake of an heir. No consideration to the fact that the relationship between their son and his wife was far from ideal in terms of raising a child.

She hated how the well being of the family came before the well being of the family's individuals. He might have grown up with this, but she certainly hadn't. How ironic that out of the two of them, she was the one promoting selfishness.

Draco came to her room that night. Hermione still went pretty red, but she wasn't stuck like a deer in headlights. She knew he was coming. She chose a nicer set of PJs tonight. She wouldn't go as far as to get into the lingerie drawer, that would just send the wrong message.

The tight little knot of nervousness in her stomach flipped as he started to undress. She wiggled down in the sheets and tried not to look. Not that he would notice because he was facing away from her. And she just couldn't help it as he rolled the shirt off his shoulders revealing the pale toned back.

She was studying him so intently, she hadn't noticed that he'd turned around.

"You'll get a closer look in a second." He said.

Hermione felt embarrassment burn again as she looked away trying to find somewhere else to place her gaze.

"Perhaps I will allow you to explore a bit." He said with a teasing voice. "Would you like that, Granger?"

"That won't be necessary." She said. "This is strictly business."

"If you say so." He said and moved to the bed. "Although the unabated lust in your eyes say different."

"There is no unabated lust in my eyes." She said feeling a bit cornered. She pulled the sheets a little tighter around herself. There had been no lust in her eyes, maybe a slight curiosity. "There is no lust. This is necessary. To achieve our goals, which happen to be the same on this one instance. Can we just get on with it."

"Remove the sheet."

"What? No."

"I'm not a machine." He said. "A bit of visual stimulation helps. I don't necessarily rise on command."

"You did have any problems last night." Hermione said, feeling he was taking advantage of the situation.

"Well that was last night and this is tonight." He said and he lifted the sheet away. "Its not like I haven't seen it before."

"You're enjoying this way too much."

"This might come as a surprise to you Granger, but you are supposed to enjoy it."

Hermione huffed.

"You can lay back and think of the greater good if you like." He said and was now kneeling across her legs. He stroked the skin of her thighs slightly and Hermione pressed her knees together out of reflex and nervousness. "You know, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would say you were incapable of enjoying it, but we both know better, don't we."

Hermione knew he was referring to that night in the foyer when she had seduced him.

"That was... That was just tension."

"Tension, is that right?" He said. "A bit of tension is good. In fact, I would go as far as to say that you are very tense this moment." His fingers travelled up to her belly and her stomach muscles clenched under his touch.

"Just hurry please." She said.

"And eager."

"I just... Stop teasing me, this is hard enough."

"You're the one who insisted we do this every night."

"So we'll get pregnant, so we don't have to do this forever."

"Well that's a new one, lets fuck a lot in order to fuck less."

"Don't be so crude. It makes perfect logical sense."

His hand was now covering her breast and he pressed gently on the mound. Hermione felt exposed and wanted to cover herself with the blanket. Trying to ignore the heat.

"Won't you allow yourself even a little pleasure?"

"Won't you allow yourself a bit of independence?" She said.

"What is that supposed to mean."

"You do everything your parents tell you. Cower to the supposed good of the family." She said. "You married a person who was entirely unsuitable to being a grown up let alone a wife, then perform on command when they decide its time for you to procreate."

He stopped what he was doing and watched her for a second. He grabbed her hips roughly and pulled her down to him. Somehow in all this, his pants had come down and he entered her roughly.

"Maybe you underestimate the situation, Granger." He said. "Maybe I'm doing this for the sole reason of pissing you off. Because believe me, I don't fuck anyone I don't want to."

He moved in and out of her quickly. He kept up the brisk pace until his breathing became ragged. He slammed into her until he came, then collapsed.

"Seriously Granger, you could make a sex starved hermit lose interest in sex. Do you have to be arseholes and elbows about everything?"

"I am not arseholes and elbows about things."

"Are you seriously that unaware that you can't tell that you are unable to go with the flow on anything?" He said. "I will never understand how Potter and the Weasel managed to hang out with you for so long without strangling you."

He climbed out of bed and did up his pants. Hermione pulled the sheet over herself. Maybe, she conceded, her timing had not been stellar to point out his kowtowing to his family.

"My wife might have been too big an idiot to realise she was a complete bitch, what's your excuse?" He said before leaving.

Hermione closed her eyes. She knew that everything she had said was correct, but it might have been a little tactless.

He didn't come to her room the next night. Hermione had spent quite a bit of time that day thinking about the ending of the previous night. She hadn't said anything wrong, technically. It was all true and she was not one to hide from the truth. If he didn't like it, he could just deal with it. Perhaps, she admitted, it was not a coitus related conversation. Not one to endeavour as one is trying to get pregnant.

The fact that he didn't come that evening was worrying. She didn't want to go back to a once a month visit. It could take years to get pregnant. That was not a future she wanted to contemplate.

She went down periodically during the day to see if he was in his study, but he wasn't there until late in the afternoon.

"What do you want?" He said as he saw her at the door.

"Are you coming to my room tonight?"

He put the papers he was reading down. "I'm not sure I can bare it."

"I wasn't insulting you." She said, deciding it was just better to jump into it.

"Yes you were."

"Ok, fine, I was." She said. "I just don't like how someone's wellbeing is secondary. I don't accept it. Especially not from family, and I won't tolerate it for my child."

"Being a Malfoy comes with responsibilities." Draco said. "We have traditions that go back longer than living memory, sometimes recorded memory."

"Well, I don't put the stock in tradition that you do. If its not working for you, it needs to change."

"That is such a muggle attitude."

"Well, the muggles don't have it all wrong." Hermione said. "Sometimes you just have to evolve. Let go of traditions that no longer reflect the current situation. Some would go as far to call it a survival skill."

"Our traditions have kept us strong."

"Really, is there strength in a miserable marriage?"

Draco didn't argue, it was clear that he couldn't come up with a reasonable argument why his marriage was a great positive on a personal level.

"The bloodlines..."

"I don't care about bloodlines." Hermione interrupted in a heated way. "I won't sell out my children's happiness for some stupid notion of bloodlines."

"Its more than bloodlines, an alliance with the Greengrasses strengthened our hold on some industry relationships."

"That's even worse, selling out your children's wellbeing for money."

Draco didn't argue, so the silence prevailed.

"That is the situation you find yourself in."

"That can't be reasonable to you." Hermione said.

"It is the world I have lived in since I was born." Draco said. "I always knew what was expected of me, I've known I would marry one of the Greengrasses since I was a small child."

"You can't deny how unhappy you were with her."

Draco didn't answer again.

"You would have made a better choice." Hermione said. "Obviously you wouldn't have chosen someone like me." This made him smile a bit.

"But you would have chosen some Slytherin girl, one that suited you." Hermione continued. "With all that ingraining of family values, you could have been trusted to make decisions that benefited everyone."

"I loath to admit it, but you are probably right." He said. "Then again, if I really had a choice, I'm not entirely sure I would trust myself not to make the wrong decision."

Now Hermione was confused.

"I don't understand." She said. "That is illogical."

He was staring at his desk, playing with a letter opener. Hermione decided that there must just be some pureblood thought processes that were plain illogical. Would forever be beyond her.

"All I am saying is that this child should have the right to choose a mate that suits them. There is a way of balancing tradition and the needs of the present. With adequate guidance. There is something to be said for values if a family can trust its members to uphold them."

"But that way, you have to concede to logical arguments." He said. "Which doesn't quite work when someone can argue any point logically.

Hermione suspected that there was a complement in there, but she not going to get distracted from her goal.

"No arranged marriages." She said, letting the whole discussion come to its head.

"Fine." He conceded. "You would have argued with Voldemort until he was blue."

"Yes, I would have argued him into submission."

"If it were possible to annoy someone to death, I am sure you would have perfected the art by now."