CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN VINDICATED

AN: This chapter contains sexual content, and I suppose what some people may see as cheating. You have been warned.

I know that this song is WAY over used for Draco but it's so perfect for this chapter that I had to include it...

So clear
Like the diamond in your ring
Cut to mirror your intentions
Over sized and overwhelmed
The shine of which has caught my eye
And rendered me so isolated, so motivated
I am certain now that

I am Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

Dashboard confessional-Vindicated

Hermione felt hours had past as she stroked Draco's hair as he lay in her lap. Nothing had ever felt so right, even though her mind kept telling her it was wrong. At this moment, nothing else mattered besides the silky feeling of his hair, the quiet sounds of his breathing and the dampness growing on her knees from his tears. She placed her fingers against his lips and felt the spark up her spine as he began to kiss them.

"Draco..." Hermione began but Draco sat up and silenced her with his fingers.

"Please," Draco began in a whispered plea, "don't say 'no'. This is right. I feel it. I think you feel it too." He pulled her hand up and began kissing them again until he came to her wedding band. Slowly he placed his lips over it and, dragging it up with his teeth, pulled it off into his mouth and spit it roughly onto the floor. "He's already broken his promise, don't think you're wrong by breaking yours."

Hermione narrowed her eyes in thought, wondering if he couldn't read minds as for the first time her mind had wandered up the stairs to where her husband lay. She made no effort to retreive the band she had worn for six years now and actually breathed easier as if Draco's action had actually freed her from her marital bonds.

Hermione sat forward to the edge of the bed and, taking in her first breath of freedom, was overwhelmed by the woodsy scent of the man she had for so long desired to touch. His scent and the feel of his lips on her fingers overwhelmed her sense of judgment as she leaned forward to drink of his lips. He tasted just as she remembered him and her mind began to beg to remember more about his body. She began to stroke his abdomen shortly before playing with the bottom of his shirt. Draco raised his hands to play with her hair as he continued to kiss her and to Hermione's pleasure, had accidental brushed the side of her breast. She shivered at his brief contact and knew that this is what she wanted.

She reached up and began removing the buttons on her shirt and was pleasantly surprised to find another set of hands had already begun.

"Are you OK with this?" Draco asked as he continued to slide her shirt off of her arms. His only reply was a deep kiss only momentarily interrupted as his shirt joined hers on the floor.

All clothes shed, Hermione lay back on the bed, pulling him towards her. He held himself inches above her just so he could take in her beauty.

"Draco...?" Hermione said, confused at his hesitance.

"I just want this moment to last forever." Draco said as he leaned forward and lightly kissed her forehead. Hermione began to cry at the realization that this may be the last few hours she would see those blue eyes. "Don't cry." He said as he wiped her tears away, leaving his own to fall. "I want to know you're happy."

Hermione smiled as she moved her hands over his back until she reached his hips where she began pushing him slowly closer to her. "Never been happier." she said as the tears began to form again. She gave a short laugh when she felt the tip of his head rest against her.

"What's so funny?" Draco said as he tried to pull back. She pushed against him to keep him next to her.

"No, it's not funny. I just feel so good right now. I've been waiting for this for so long." She winced slightly as he pushed past her outer lips.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he pulled back again.

"It's just been awhile." She smiled as she continued to put pressure on his hips. She needed to be closer to him, to feel him inside her, to have him fill her. She bit her lip as the pressure of him moved up her, filling her stomach. It had been so long since he had been there, and yet he fit so perfectly, as if she had been made to hold him. He laid his head on her shoulder as he began to rock and she felt his body shake as the emotions she knew she shared overwhelmed him.

^__^

Hermione lay content on Draco's chest and listened to his breathing slow. Night was beginning to fall and if not for the next days events, she would be joining him in dreams. She found herself memorizing all of the sights and scents of the room as she fingered his bare chest lovingly. He moaned pleasantly in his sleep and she knew he wasn't far gone. As she looked around she noticed a familiar scarf hanging out of a box bearing the colors of her former home. As she closed her eyes her thoughts strayed to school. Almost as soon as she had closed them, her eyes snapped open and she sat upright, pulling the sheets around her naked form.

"I've got it." She said, nearly bounding on the bed. Draco sat up and began to kiss the nape of her neck as he tried to move the sheet off of her.

"What's that, love?" he said, only partially listening.

"I know how I'm going to save you." She turned and kissed him as she stood up, taking the blankets with her and leaving him exposed on the bed. "Get your knickers on, it's cold in here." She said before ducking the pillow that was playfully flung at her. "Follow me upstairs. I'm not gonna let you get away again."

^__^

Hermione, wearing the bed linens as a manufactured robe, led the way upstairs to the room she had shared with her spouse. She cracked the door slightly to make sure he still lay where they last had left him. She motioned for Draco to follow her into the room where she instantly began searching the floor through the remnants of her books. She only stopped briefly when she heard the sound of paper ignite behind her.

"Ginny will have a conniption if she finds you smoking in her house." Hermione said without even a backwards glance. She did look, however, when the smell of nicotine became overpowered by burning flesh. Draco had knelt besides Ron's unconscious body and put his cigarette out on Ron's forehead. She rolled her eyes as she removed the burn from his skin.

"So what, exactly, is going to change the Ministry's mind?" Draco asked as he picked up his hardly used smoke and replaced it in the pack.

"Not their minds..." Hermione said as her search came to an end with three pages she now held tightly to her chest. "His." She nodded towards Ron.

"Are you serious?"

"Uh hum. I remembered why we were here and what we had once done to keep another couple together, and I think I know what I did wrong last time."

Hermione crossed the room and kissed Draco before she knelt down next to Ron. Draco got up and went to the corner, relighting his cigarette at the stress of the deed to be done.

Hermione placed one hand on Ron's head and the other still clasping her pages on his chest. "I've missed you, Ron, but I can't do this anymore." She softly kissed his forehead. "I'll make sure you're taken care of."

As Draco watched, Hermione began to glow with a bright silver aura that circled her head and ran down her fingers into Ron's head.

"OK. I think I've done it." Hermione said as she crossed to the corner where Draco had sat on the floor. "God I hope I did it right." Draco noticed that she had started crying.

"So he ends up like Potter? You're not afraid of losing him, are you?"

"Not him..." Hermione said as she began to glow again. "If they question you, you won't be able to lie." Draco began to protest but she grabbed his head and the moment was lost. "Please don't forget me." Hermione said as she planted a new memory in Draco's mind.

For a few moments, the night seemed to reverse itself as Draco watched himself make love to Hermione before returning her upstairs where Ron's unconscious body regenerated to keep her hostage in the corner once again. Draco left her with him behind the closed door only momentarily before entering again to find her under his merciless control.

"Ron, leave her alone!" Draco shouted, this time drawing an attack on himself. As he struggled t keep all of Ron's attacks at bay, he saw the tip of Ron's wand glow a sickening green. "Avada..." Ron began.

Draco knew his only chance at survival and therefore the survival of Hermione was to stop Ron from finishing his curse.

"Crucio." Draco shouted knocking Ron back into his convulsions.

Draco shook his head as the past and present collided and he found himself lying in his dark room with Hermione laying naked against his chest. He scanned his mind for an answer to his missing pants but could find none. Hermione rolled over when she realized he was awake and placed a comforting hand on his cheek.

"I bet you don't remember this evening, but it's better that way. There will be plenty of time for us to remember the rest without all the worry. I'll have to 'forget' it soon as well but I just wanted to tell you, I love you." She kissed his very confused face. "and it was incredible." She began to passionately kiss him and even though he didn't know where this had come from or where it would end, he knew it was right.

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Chapter 28 Teaser

"What...is the meaning...of this?" Ginny flung the portrait down on the floor as she tried to catch her breath. Staring back at Harry from the floor was an unfinished mirror image of himself. "I've never seen a painting like this. Why isn't it finished? Why isn't it moving? Why is it...you?" Ginny wiped her soaking wet hair out of her eyes.

"I don't know." Harry said as he grabbed her hands. "But I think I know who does." He began to lead her down the stairs.