So, I considered the whole 'fade to black' thing, for about ten seconds, and then realized you might all hate me if I did it. So, here we are, a wee bit of intimacy for our Protagonists. I hope you enjoy the continuation of the tease; but do remember; discretion is the better part of valor.

Enjoy

Merick

Chapter Twenty-Four

I remember it all, maybe in too much detail, so forgive me if I seem to linger on the memories, but it was just something I'd never experienced before, and it made me feel beyond amazing, it made me feel important to someone, just for me.

He led me into the center of the room, where he turned away to light only a few candles with his wand. When he turned back to me the soft light lit him from behind and made his white blond hair glow, like a halo. He was so incongruous for just a second, the ice blue eyes surrounded by the fire; but it was glorious. He said nothing, but reached out for me, running his fingertips up my arms and across my shoulders. When he reached my neck he cupped it, and the back of my skull, gently and pulled me towards him in a slow, exaggerated motion, cocking his head just slightly as he did it, to finally touch my lips with his. I could have broken his grasp if I had wanted to it was so delicate, but I didn't, I had been craving the kiss, from even before I had joined him in Snape's quarters, and it was so easy to melt into his touch.

From the kiss, his hands flowed down to my waist, I bowed my head as he moved, not to watch him, but to let the feelings in me build. I felt his fingers on my bare skin, as he slipped them under the knit edge of my jumper, running them to lay flat against my abdomen before he coaxed the sweater up my chest and I raised my arms to help him pull it off of me. He tossed it to the bed. I only knew that was where it had landed because I found it there later, I couldn't take my eyes off of his face. The subtleties of the emotions he was feeling, or that I imagined he was feeling, were playing over his features, and the dreaminess therein was intoxicating.

I brought my own arms up, to drape them around his waist as he brought his mouth in again to kiss me. Feeling his lips that second time, I pulled his body closer to me, till our hips just touched. When I felt him there I know my whole body trembled, and I saw the wistful smile cross his face as he closed his eyes for an instant.

Hands circled around my waist then and he spun he slowly and pushed me back towards the bed; which I note had been made up with clean linens once again. I sat, still watching his eyes, necessitating an upwards tilt to my neck and a natural relaxation of my jaw, which parted my lips for him, and bending over me, he slipped his tongue into my mouth.

The gentle pressure pushed me back onto the bed and Draco continued to hover over me, swinging his legs to straddle me somewhat, and he bent his head to my skin again, kissing my cheek, and tracing downwards with his tongue along my jaw, and down my neck to the hollow above my collar bone. Then he rocked backwards so that he could begin to trace the slight lines of musculature across my chest and abdomen with his fingertips. I shivered with every caress, and every emphasized point of pressure.

"I don't want to do anything that will make you uncomfortable Harry." He breathed the words, more than spoke them. "If you tell me to stop I will."

I could not imagine, at that point, asking him to stop, but the words he spoke made my whole body feel warm, and I nodded, to show him that I had understood.

"I won't hurt you." An odd statement, but said in that desperately sexy, low tone it simply rolled into the whole experience for me. And he began again to trace over my chest, as if he was painting a picture, and his fingers were the paintbrushes. When he swept them over my nipples I immediately started, and seeing my obvious reaction, he began to rub them a little more intently, which caused me to moan just softly, and close my eyes again. I could feel my own arousal building, and the growing tension in my core was so difficult to ignore, especially when Draco rested back on me, grinding against me carefully. I moaned again, unable to stop myself, and became immediately self-conscious.

"Draco?" He looked into my eyes again. "I don't know what to do. But I want to touch you, would you let me?"

"God yes." He rolled over onto his back, and made to start undoing the buttons on his shirt. I brushed his hands away and began the job myself, loving the feeling of undressing him. I laid the shirt open around him, and moved to straddle him as he had done me. He slithered out of the sleeves and lay before me; he was so beautiful against the dark coverlet, like a star in the heavens.

"I don't know what I'm doing Draco." I offered the apology a second time before even touching him.

"I trust you." And he closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the pillow. He looked absolutely angelic, and I had to still my racing heart before I dared touch him, for fear of doing something wrong in my haste.

I leaned over him, and as he had done, I kissed him, sliding my tongue into his mouth, tasting him, and pulling at him gently. He wrapped his arms around my back loosely, letting them just rest against my hips as I let my mouth roam over him. I traced the same pathways he had, across his jaw line, down his throat where I nipped and licked and kissed his skin as I felt him move against me, proceeding to his chest.

His skin was smooth and soft and smelt vaguely of wood smoke and the night air. The scent was at once comforting, and yet arousing because it reminded me of the castle grounds, and the glorious fall nights of the summer where everything seemed peaceful and positive. But it was on his skin, and made me think of the wildness that could lie beneath. Knowing the great pleasure it had brought me, I kissed his nipples, each in turn, feeling him gasp as I let my tongue circle them till they stood for me and I could suckle them and pull at them carefully. He arched his back to me, and I felt him push his hips against mine as I sat atop him. I knew that my own arousal had to be obvious to him, but to feel his, pushing against me only fueled the desire I had for him then, and the need to give him pleasure.

I had to rock back, just to have a moment to understand what my own emotions and feelings were doing to my body, he sat up to join me and kissed me hard on the mouth. Without even thinking, I wrapped my arms around his back tightly, and before I could even think I felt the corded ropes of the scars across it, and I know my body stiffened at the touch, because it surprised me, lost as I was in the pleasure of touching him. He knew it immediately, and pulled back from me. I instantly felt revulsion at what I had done.

"Draco, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking, I didn't hurt you did I?"

His eyes were downcast, and I could feel the trembling across his shoulders. Again, in my own defense, I had not let him completely leave the circle of my arms, holding fast to my own wrists. He shook his head.

"Look at me?" He couldn't, and I felt the heave of a sob in his chest as I pressed him to mine. "Draco I don't care about them, I just forgot, I'm sorry."

"I wish I could forget." His voice sounded so defeated, laced with the hesitation of tears.

"The pain will dull, I promise it will." I wasn't sure how much strength I had conveyed behind my words, because I wasn't entirely convinced of it myself; but I wanted to be. I ran my hands over his back again, without hesitation, to prove to him that I was being truthful. The look in his eyes when he could finally bring his face to mine nearly killed me, to think that I had caused that hurt to resurface. I kissed his forehead and then both his eyes as he crumpled into me.

"He has no power over either of us any longer. You and I, we will survive this. Together." Another shudder from him and then a drawn out breath and he straightened himself again.

"Together?"

"I promise you that Draco."

In absolute desperation he kissed me again, forcing his lips against mine; taking breath, and energy from me, diving into my mouth with his tongue, and meeting my own, dancing with him in the crush. Our legs, tangled together as they were from when he had sat to meet me, joined the dance. We were both breathless when we parted. But came together again quickly, and he tangled his fingers into my hair, keeping me close to him. Another breath and I had to speak. My body was aching for him, my mind not far behind, and I had to try to understand.

"Draco." The tone of my voice forced him to listen, even though it was breathless and soft. It got even softer as the candles guttered in the room around us, and the space seemed to close in around us. "Do you want to make love with me?" It was so hard to say the words out loud, and I know I stammered them in the attempt.

"Is that a question or an invitation?" His voice matched my own, serious, but barely above a whisper.

I tried to answer, with a stuttering jumble of 'I's' and 'Umm's' which just made him laugh softly at me, his eyes brightening. He pushed three fingers to my lips to quiet me and answered.

"Yes."

The wave that washed over my entire body was a mixture of excitement and trepidation, but no doubt. I let my fingers wander down towards the waistband of his trousers, completely unsure, trying to be guided by something ethereal. But he stopped me.

"No, not now, not like this, on borrowed time."

My eyes questioned him, I knew it was very late, but that was all I was sure of right then.

"I want it to be perfect Harry. No doubt, no fear, no regrets. I want to take our time the first time." They could have been my own words, from beneath the willow, said to another. "I don't want you to ever hate me."

"We should get back to our dorms, we have classes in the morning. And we have a lifetime ahead of us, to make it perfect."

I don't want to say it was relief that crowded into my chest, but there was a measure of it. And there was something else, I didn't have a word for the warmth, the feeling of connection or the compassion I felt, mingled with the desperate passion. But I would come up with the word soon enough.

I took his hand to stand, and retrieved my sweater, and then my invisibility cloak. Draping it around ourselves we left Snape's quarters for the final time. In only another week it was to become someone else's, and we had occasion to return there, but that is another part of the story, for later.

Outside the descending entrance to the Slytherin dorms we paused, still hidden under the cloak together, and Draco backed me up against the stone wall, to press the length of his body against me and steal one more kiss.

"I'm going to need a cold shower before I'll be able to sleep." I told him, and he grinned at me mischievously.

"There are other ways you know, to help with that." And he slid his hand down between our bodies, brushing none too gently against the front of my pants. I gasped as he kneaded his hand against the solid mass of my arousal. "Just think of me, because I'm going to be thinking of you."

It was a combination of both for me that night, a shower, to muffle the cries I couldn't contain, and the fantasy of his body that gave me my relief. I crawled into my bed for a few hours of sleep. Some of his words haunted me before I drifted off, about hurt and trust, things I didn't quite understand yet. But I would, perhaps not soon enough though, to keep him from further pain.