Chapter 20

Draco came to her room that night. She guessed their talk had allowed them to reach a mutual understanding. She had her core concerns addressed and she had pretty much acknowledged that it might not be the appropriate time to voice her observations about his family dynamics.

Hermione watched him undress. Watched him take his shirt off, having a sip from his drink before undoing the belt buckle of his pants. Watched them sink down from his narrow waist. He really was beautiful.

She had always been disgusted by his beauty in school, the way girls tried so hard to get his attention. She had managed to talk herself into feeling that he was hideous, but the truth was that he had always been stunning.

He still had his boxers on when he walked towards the bed. Hermione wasn't nervous, she wasn't dreading it.

"I'll be as quick as I can." He said and crawled in next to her. Divesting himself completely in the process.

Everything went very smoothly, he slid between her thighs and slid inside her. There was none of the uncomfortableness of the previous times. Hermione felt him fill her, felt her body stretch to accommodate him, heard his moan as he sunk into her.

She didn't block out the intrusion, instead watched him as he raised up on his hands and pumped his hips into her. She watches as the muscles in his shoulders, chest and abdomen strained with the effort. Felt as the full feeling grew with each thrust. Her body was starting to anticipate each time his hips hit home fully inside her.

He was getting close, his face was taking on a pained expression and little groans were escaping his lips. He lay down on her completely and would his arms around her to get better hold of her as he reached his shuttering finish.

Hermione couldn't help but to arch her body a bit for more sensation as he firmly ground to her as he reached his climax insider her. She could feel him coming inside her. Experiencing him coming inside her made her body flare to life. She wanted more, savouring each sensation as he recovered. But he was pulling out and she wanted more.

Her body vibrated with need as he got out of bed and started to dress. She ground her knees together, wanting to ask him to come back.

"There's a do at the Ministry tomorrow night. Black tie." He said.

"Oh." Hermione said. Happy for the distraction. Her lusting after him broke the strictly business terms of this arrangement. "I guess I will have to wear something shiny then."

"It starts at five because they intent to serve dinner. I would eat before hand, the Ministry is notoriously stingy."

"Ok." Hermione said trying to calm herself.

"Until tomorrow." He said with a little mock salute.

Hermione sunk back into her pillows with a groan. She refused to let herself be one of those dim-witted females that threw themselves at him. If only she could convince her body of that.

Hermione couldn't concentrate the next day. She tried to spend some time in the library, but she was preoccupied with what happened last night. Instead she paced and ended up walking around the house. She was getting to know the house quite well, she had been in most room, other than the private rooms of the family. She probably could not image anything worse than walking in on Lucius Malfoy getting dressed.

But she found herself in front of a door she had never opened. It was Draco's bedroom. His inner sanctum. She turned to leave, but her curiosity got the better of her. She slowly opened to door and peaked inside. It was a room full of dark wood and green. A large room, similar in size to her own. Definitely masculine. There were no feminine touches. Not a trace of Astoria. It was understated luxury.

She saw the bed where he slept, wondered what he looked like when he slept. When she was younger, she'd wondered if he did such human things. The bed was made, the room was orderly, nothing out of place.

She could see some of his old quidditch gear on a bookshelf. A photo of the Slytherin class. A scattering of stuff around the place.

It felt wrong being there, but she was too fascinated to leave. She walked into the bathroom, a green marble room with silver trimmings. It had surprisingly few things in it. He certainly wasn't one for clutter. She picked up an unlabelled bottle and recognised his cologne when she opened the stopper. It was an echo of him, but not the whole. Not the full.

She couldn't quite identify what was missing, but it was flat. She looked around the room to see if she could find anything that would fill in the missing. There was little there to go on, she returned to the bedroom and had a look in the closet. She saw one of this outer robes, something that wouldn't be cleaned immediately.

She was right, it smelled like him, the full rich scent that the cologne only formed part of. It filled her lungs and her mind for a second.

I'm insane, she determined and put it back. She returned it so there would be no indication she was there, then quietly snuck out of the room.

Hermione dressed in one of the dresses that Draco had gotten for her the other day. It actually looked better than she thought at the time. It was more demure than the others, much more so than Astoria's dresses. A dusky pink that looked grown up but still feminine. It hinted at her curves, because there were a hint of curves now. Many of Astoria's dresses wouldn't fit anymore as they were tailored to Astoria's stick figure frame.

Hermione did the slightest of make-up, she was beyond allowing the elves to help her dress.

Draco was waiting downstairs at five. He watched her come down the stairs. He had dress robes on, perfectly fitted dress robes. And they looked good.

"Your Grangerness is just irrepressible." He said.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You look like you, I can't really see Astoria anymore. Its her face, her body, but you look like you somehow. Its amazing how the same body can be carried so differently."

Hermione took the observation as just an observation. Although she wondered if she was doing something that was disappointing.

He held out his elbow and she took it.

The Ministry function was in full swing. It was a huge function to celebrate the retirement of one of the Ministry stalwarts. A well respected man who had been Minister around twenty years ago.

The dinner was on the light side, mostly finger food. Hermione was glad Draco had told her to eat beforehand. Draco was doing his thing, working the room. Hermione was trying to pay attention, but she kept on getting distracted by him. She felt the warmth of his body at her side. His dress robes were doing their part of accentuate the sleek lines of his hips and torso, reminding her of the persistent and embarrassing unsatisfaction she was left with last night.

She left him for a while as she saw Harry across the room. She wandered over towards where Harry was. He was sitting with Ginny and Ron, as well as Neville and Luna. Hermione felt her heart twist at the sight.

She stood some ways away and watched them. She couldn't really approach them. It would be strange that Astoria Malfoy would approach them, particularly after the events just after this whole thing happened.

Harry seemed to notice that he was being watched and looked up. Hermione couldn't help but breaking into a large smile as he saw her. He excused himself and walked towards her, they retreated behind one of the pillars so they wouldn't raise as many eyebrows.

"How've you been?" Harry asked.

"Good." She said. "Its so good to see you. I've missed you."

"They treating you ok?"

"Fine." She said. "How's everything with you?"

"Ginny is pregnant again." He beamed.

"Congratulations Harry." Hermione said and gave him a hug.

"I haven't been able to find anything useful that can help with your situation." Harry said.

"Me neither." Hermione said. "But its not the end of the world. I'm fine. I actually have time to do some of the research I've never had the time to do before. The Malfoy library is a bit of a gem."

"Luckily you ended up somewhere with an extensive library."

"Could you imagine if I ended up as Mrs. Goyle. I would have killed myself."

"What are you doing huddling with my wife, Potter?" Draco said from behind them.

"Just checking on her wellbeing." Harry said and tensed slightly.

"She is fine, aren't you darling?" He said smiling and put his arm around her possessively. "If anything you should check on me because she is riding me mercilessly every night."

"You're an evil little prick." Hermione said, embarrassed.

"But I'm not a liar, am I?" He said with a cross between his smirk and smile. He gave her a squeeze and stepped away. "We should be leaving some. Don't be long."

"You're sleeping with him?" Harry said.

"We kind of have this agreement." She said. "We both want a baby and that is the only way to do it. Circumstances are such that we can only turn to each other for such a thing. So..."

"You're sleeping with Malfoy!"

"You know how badly I've wanted a baby. And now I can. I know things aren't perfect, but I've had to adjust."

"But Malfoy."

"It strictly business, Harry." She voiced the term she had used as a mantra lately. "I have to go." She said. She didn't really, but she knew this could boil down to a rather unpleasant argument and she was not going to give up her baby because Harry objected to who she had to do it with. Nothing was going to stop her.

"You didn't have to do that." She said sharply when she found Draco.

"True, but I really, really wanted to." Draco said as he led her to the apparition point.

"It was unnecessary." She said.

"Well he would have figured it out when your belly starts to swell. Or were you flatly going to deny it until the end."

Hermione harrumphed.

"And besides, did you see his expression. I have been waiting for years to see that expression on the Golden Boy."

"That is so immature." Hermione said as he apparated them away.

"The same could be said for hiding the fact that we are sleeping together." He said. "Speaking of, I think its time to move onto the belly swelling part."

Hermione wanted to sulk, but refused to give Harry he influence to make her embarrassed about it. But the thought of her belly swelling send shivers down her spine, shivers that settled in her core. She refused to look at him as he nodded, instead kept her eyes on the buckle of his belt. Although that didn't make things much better, because she started to blush.

"For Merlin's sake, don't blush. How do you expect me to keep this stringently companionable if you start blushing. I'm not made of steel, you know. I am having a hard enough time controlling my instincts without you acting like a virgin. Now lets go."

Hermione followed him upstairs to her bedroom. He undressed in his usual fashion and Hermione unzipped her dress. She was struggling as her fingers seemed uncooperative, but she managed.

Her hands trembled as she slipped between the sheets. She was nervous, but it was a very different kind of nervous than before. Much more anticipatory nervous. The heat of his body was lovely when he joined her. He seemed to flow in between her thighs and into her. The sensation of him invading her body was inescapable, it flowed like electricity through her. And each thrust sent a fresh wave.

He stayed chest to chest tonight and Hermione existed under the weight of him. His groans vibrated through her like the strings on a harp. She had to bite her knuckle to stop herself from joining him. She was actively trying to suppress the growing sensation, which seemed to add a little to a full cup each time he bottomed out in her.

He became more jerky and prolonged as his release was claiming him. He ground into her and the release Hermione had been trying to suppress claimed her he succumbed. She arched into him to bring him deeper, trying desperately to control her breath, almost passing out from lack of oxygen. She hoped he'd been too caught up in his own to notice that he dragged her with him.

He pulled out and raised himself over her, staring down at her like something impossible had just happened. He sat down on the edge of the bed facing away from her. Hermione had no idea what he was thinking, she got the distinct impression that he'd noticed. She pulled the sheets closer to her.

"Did you just.." He started but stopped. "I have to go." He pulled on his pants and grabbed his robes in one hand. He looked at her for a second. He didn't look angry, he looked stunned.

Hermione was dying of embarrassment as he turned towards the door and left. She sank back into the bed and lifted her arm over her eyes in an attempt to block out the world.