Disclaimer:

The latter half of this chapter is very mature. I've added a line break before it gets too intense, so if that's not your cup of tea, you'll know where to stop.

Hopefully you all enjoy some juicy lemons! Tried to make it into a killer lemonade! ;)

The Golden Girl and…the Slytherin Prince?

By Rita Skeeter

Miss Granger, a witch with a propensity for famous wizards, has grabbed onto her newest target. This author was informed by multiple reputable sources that the Golden Girl was spotted in Diagon Alley yesterday on the arm of none other than the head of one of the most affluent and ancient Pureblood houses of Great Britain, Draco Malfoy. Mister Malfoy, who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry alongside Miss Granger, was a known associate of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named before being cleared of all charges in the aftermath.

Ladies and gentlemen, this author cannot help but wonder if young Mister Malfoy is just the latest in a long line of influential and powerful men that Miss Granger has managed to sink her nails into. This author cannot help but feel concern for Mister Malfoy…or more specifically, for his purse and his reputation.

It must also be considered that perhaps Miss Granger is the one in danger. It would not be the first time that a former associate of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had sought to redeem himself in the public eye by attaching himself to a known warrior of the Light, and this author cannot be certain that Mister Malfoy has not decided to use Miss Granger's well-known status as a war hero and member of the Golden Trio to redeem his reputation throughout the Wizarding world.

This author has reached out to Miss Granger and Mister Malfoy but neither have commented on their relationship. Rest assured, dear reader, that this author will keep you all posted of any developments in this story, and that…

Hermione had thrown the paper across the room and into the fireplace on the far side of her sitting room, smirking in pleasure as the parchment caught fire and Rita's high-pitched shrieks filled the room around her.

"I should have smashed that jar with her in it," she had said to herself irritably.

"What a bloodthirsty witch you are," a deep voice had said behind her, amusement clear to hear in the words.

Hermione had yelped and spun around to see Draco standing just outside of her Floo clutching a large bouquet of red and pink asters. A huge grin had bloomed across her face, and she had thrown herself into his arms for a kiss that drove all thoughts of Rita bloody Skeeter from her mind.

"Asters," she said a few moments later, once they had both broken away from the kiss and were breathing heavily. "Why asters?"

He looked nervous for a moment but had responded anyway.

"They're your birth month flower," he had said simply. "Red for devotion and passion, and pink for kindness and…" he took a deep breath as though fortifying himself for a difficult task before continuing, "love."

Hermione felt the rhythm of her heart stutter at his words. Love?

"That's… I mean… you can't really…"

Draco flicked his wand to conjure a vase and slipped the bouquet of flowers into the glass before reaching for the cuff of his left sleeve. His eyes did not break contact with hers for even a moment as he rolled the sleeve of his black button-down shirt up his arm over and over. Finally, when his forearm was bared to her, he looked down, and she followed his lead.

"You asked me once what this meant, and I couldn't answer you then. Would you still like to know?"

At her nod, he continued.

"The white rose symbolizes new beginnings while the crimson rose, among other things, symbolizes mourning. While I deeply regret the things that I did in my youth, and I know that there is nothing I can do to take those things back no matter how much I might wish otherwise, I wanted to remind myself that every day is a new day. If I try to do the right thing from here on out, I hope to earn myself, if not forgiveness, at least redemption of a sort."

While he spoke, he took hold of her left hand in his right and, pulling it toward his body, he used her fingers to trace each centimeter of ink as he spoke about it. He dragged her finger down the intertwined stems of the two roses as they trailed down his toned forearm before pausing at the head of the skull, where the lotus flower blossomed.

"A fully opened lotus flower represents enlightenment," his hand pulled hers lower down until she was caressing the posy of red asters, "and the red aster is a sign of devotion and passion. It is also the flower of those born in the month of September."

His hand fell from hers, but she continued to trace her fingers over the magical tattoo as it swayed gently in the breeze that only it could feel. She felt his fingers touch the underside of her jaw and with a gentle pressure he encouraged her head to lift. Her eyes met his, and the emotions she saw churning in those arctic depths nearly took her breath away.

"While this tattoo was meant to symbolize many things for me, the one thing that it symbolizes more than anything else…is you."

At her gasp, he moved closer to her, taking his left arm away from her hand to slide it around her waist.

"Words cannot express how much I regret our past, but I resolved years ago to make sure that I did not repeat those mistakes again in the future."

His eyes searched hers for…something. Finally, he gave a small nod of his head.

"I love you, Hermione. I think a part of me might have always loved you. I think that's why I was so nasty to you when we were younger: because something deep inside me knew that you were everything I had every wanted, but your blood status meant that I could not pursue you. So, I persecuted you, instead. But I knew for sure that I loved you on the day of our graduation from Hogwarts. Do you remember?"

Of course, she remembered...

Hermione had been roaming the stacks of books in the library at Hogwarts. While she would miss just about every single thing at Hogwarts, she was certain that she would miss this the most. Seven years spent cocooned in the warmth of this room, surrounded by the comfort of knowledge at her fingertips and the smell of old parchment and leather. She slowly made her way to the study room where she, Draco, and Theo had spent more afternoons and evenings than she could count.

As she stared into the empty room, she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Draco standing there. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and he looked over her shoulder to peer into the room, as well.

'Are you thinking about how much you are going to miss my brain, Granger?' he had asked her in a teasing voice with that patent Malfoy smirk lifting the corners of his lips.

'Oh, more than anything, Malfoy,' she had quipped back with a chuckle before allowing herself to grow more serious. 'More than anything…'

Draco had looked at her then, really looked at her.

'You're going to change the world, Granger. It was a pleasure to get to watch that magnificent mind of yours at work.'

She looked into his eyes, not breaking eye contact.

'Believe me when I say, the pleasure was all mine.'

He had turned to walk away from her then, but she had stopped him by grabbing hold of his right hand with her own. It was the first time they had every really touched, and she felt the tingle that spread across her skin where she touched him. He had looked down at where her hand clasped his own firmly before lifting his eyes back to hers.

'You are more than what those ignorant tossers at the Prophet say you are, Draco,' she said, using his given name for the first time in their tumultous shared history. 'You saved my life, and Harry's and Ron's. There is good in you, Draco Malfoy. I've seen it firsthand. Now it's everyone else's turn to discover that, as well.'

"I really hadn't known what I wanted to do with myself until that moment. Your words – your faith in me – convinced me to do better…to be better. I fell head over heels with you at that moment, and while I didn't think it would ever actually happen, I've been waiting for a chance to show you just how much you mean to me for more than four years now."

Hermione's eyes filled with tears.

"I know I should probably say something along the lines of 'It's too early' or 'This is happening too fast', but I don't want to. I think I've wanted you for longer than I knew, and certainly longer than I've been willing to admit to myself.

"What I'm trying – and failing – to say, is that I love you too, Draco."

Draco's lips crashed to hers with a groan, and Hermione let loose a groan of her own when his fingers speared into her curly hair. His grip on her was firm but not painful, intense but not overwhelming, and she allowed herself to be swept up in the feelings he evoked in her.

She idly noticed that they were moving backward through her apartment but didn't truly pay attention to the fact until her arse hit her table. Feeling Draco's hands tighten around her waist, her feet suddenly left the floor, and she yelped as she became weightless. When Draco deposited her on the tabletop, though, she realized what a good vantage point that gave her over him. She looped her arms over his shoulders and tugged him into her until his lower body was cradled securely between her thighs.

They stayed there for a long while, simply enjoying the feeling of one another and the heat that passed from one body to the other and then back again.

Finally, Draco pulled away from her, panting heavily. His hands dropped from the back of her head to grip the tops of her thighs in a near-bruising grip.

"I…I'm so sorry, Hermione," he panted, not meeting her eyes. "I won't rush us into anything, I just…I for as long as I've dreamed of it, I never really thought I'd hear those words coming from you. I lost it for a moment, but I can…I can control it."

Hermione pulled her own hands away from the nape of his neck and dragged this around his body, tracing over his shoulders and down across his pectoral muscles before coming to rest on the top button of his shirt.

"I'm not sorry, Draco," she said, slipping the first button from its hole. "I want you," the second button was pulled loose, "to make love to me," the third button came lose before his hands stopped her progress.

"No, Granger. I won't rush you."

"Draco," she said firmly, "look at me."

She waited until his eyes finally met hers.

"I want you. I'm ready for this. I don't care that people will say it's too fast. I don't care that people will say that I am using you for your money, or that you are using me for to repair your reputation. I want you. Please." She planted a kiss to the right corner of his mouth. "Please." A kiss to the left corner. "Please."

Her mouth crashed down and covered his fully, and he groaned before pulling away.

"You never have to beg me for anything, Hermione. Just tell me that you're sure."

She nodded.

He growled, a low, guttural sound, before sliding his hands between her bum and the table and hoisting her into his arms. Her legs wound tightly around his trim waist, and she held on tightly, peppering his face and neck with kisses, as he carried her to her room.

She giggled when he dropped her onto the bed, and she bounced on the plush surface. That giggle was cut short, however, when his warm, strong body came down on top of hers. His right hand grasped her left thigh, and he lifted it to rest against his hip. Then his lips claimed hers once more as he began to grind his lower body into hers.

Both were still fully clothed, and the feeling of the fabric dragging against her sensitive skin heightened her arousal even further. She allowed him to continue for just a moment more.

When she couldn't stand the wait any longer, she murmured softly against his lips and both were finally, blessedly, nude. She groaned as his next movement caused his hard cock to brush against her sensitive folds.

He moaned and came to a halt for a heartbeat…two…and then he was moving again. He moved in the wrong direction, though, and Hermione wailed in frustration when he pulled away from her, unable to handle him leaving her unfulfilled at this point.

She needn't have worried.

His hot mouth covered the part of her that ached the most for him, and pleasure rolled over her like a wave. When his tongue thrust inside of her, her eyes rolled back in her skull and the wave became a tsunami. Then he nipped – ever so gently – at her clit, and the tsunami morphed into a wave of Fiendfyre that rushed through her bloodstream, burning away all thoughts apart from how Draco was making her feel at that moment. She lost track of how long he spent worshipping her body, alternating between nipping at her wet folds, to spearing her with his hot tongue, to sucking her sensitive clit into his mouth. When he flatted his tongue and dragged the muscle across the small bundle of nerves, she shattered.

As she lay shaking on the bed beneath him, he rose over her. She could see his lips and chin glistening with the juices of her body and while she was certain that the sight should have made her uncomfortable, it didn't. Instead, she felt her body tightening once again. Driven by a desire that undoubtedly would have mortified her had her brain not been swamped by a lust-fueled haze, she rose up to take his lips with her own. He tasted of himself, of apples and the too-sweet coffee that he preferred to drink in the mornings, but beneath it was a musky taste – her.

He pulled back to stare into her eyes.

"You're certain, Hermione? Because once I make you mine, I won't ever be able to let you go."

"I've never been more certain of anything in my life. Make love to me, Draco."

He groaned at her words before reaching down between their bodies to grab ahold of his erect member. He was big – bigger than any of the men she had been with before – but she wasn't worried. She knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they would fit together perfectly. He slid the head of his cock through her wet folds once…twice…then slowly began to press forward.

As his girth began to stretch her tight body, Hermione groaned in pleasure. She slid her feet up the bed until they were right underneath her bum, spreading herself open for him, and she watched through heavy-lidded eyes as he clenched his teeth and a muscle in his jaw jumped and twitched. Sweat beaded on his forehead with the effort to go slow.

Finally, unable to withstand his slow pace for another moment, Hermione grasped ahold of his tight buttocks and tugged, pulling him fully inside of her until their pelvic bones slammed together.

She looked into his lust-clouded eyes as she held him firmly, deeply, inside of her body.

"I love you, Draco Malfoy, and one day I'll want it gentle and sweet. Right now, though, I need more than slow and steady. I need you to fuck me. I need you to make me yours until I don't know where I end and you begin."

Her filthy words caused his iron control to shatter, and then he was pounding into her body with enough force that it was just this side of painful. She could feel his balls slapping against her arse cheeks with every thrust, and his moans mingled in the air with her keening wails as he drove her closer and closer to the edge. Balancing his body weight on his left arm, his right hand snaked between their body to roughly stroke her clit while his mouth dropped down to suck one nipple into his mouth. The multiple points of stimulation drove her right over the edge, and she shattered with a satisfied sob.

She heard him grunt as her inner walls tightened like a vise around his cock and then the felt warmth flood her body as he joined her in completion. He shuddered over her for several moments as his body released. Then, fully spent, he collapsed onto her, turning their bodies so that they still remained joined but he was more on her side and not fully atop her body.

Hermione wasn't sure how long they lay there. She felt her body chill as the sweat that had covered her naked body cooled in the room and with a soft murmur a large quilt settled over their bodies. She lay there, sated and content, in Draco's arms. His fingers trailed idly up and down her spine while she carded her own fingers through his platinum locks.

"Yeah," he said some time later, when they had both regained their ability to speak, "I'm never going to let you go now, Granger. You're stuck with me."

"I'll happily be stuck with you, Draco Malfoy," she said around a huge yawn, exhausted by their passionate interlude. She nuzzled her face into his bare chest and, before she could say another word, she was out.

Getting near the end now. I'm thinking one or two more chapters and an epilogue, but we're nearly there!

Thank you so much to all of you that have favorited and followed this story! And for those of you who have left comments, I LIVE for them! I love hearing your opinions about the chapters, stories, and characters!

sbz