CHAPTER 11

Their trip to Paris passed and their days began to turn back to how it was. But after the trip they began to spend all of their free time together; sitting down after a long day to watch a movie on the telly, going out for groceries together, taking long walks, or simply talking about their families and life after Hogwarts.

And with each passing day Hermione began to question the growing feelings within her.

"How do you know you've fallen in love?" She asked herself one afternoon at the bookshop.

"When you can't help but think about that person. When you worry constantly about them. When you feel a shortness of breath just by looking at them. When you know he's in the same room with you without seeing him walk in. When you feel as though you can walk on water or fly."

Startled she turned to stare at Jay.

"Really? " She asked.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. A girl in class told me. She got it from a book, shouldn't you know?"

Hermione gave him a hesitant smile and then thought about it.

Did she think of Draco constantly and worry over him?

The answer was yes, she did, she could not help but think and worry about him.

Did she feel short of breath when she saw him?

That was also true, whenever she watched him she felt butterflies in her stomach and her breathing seemed to slow.

Did she know he was in the same room without seeing him enter?

Yes, whenever he walked into a room she would know instantly that he was nearby.

And did she feel as if she could walk on water or fly?

She was not too confident she would have the power to walk on water or fly, so the last may not have been true, but she did answer yes to four of the five questions, so was she in love?

"Yes." She answered her silent question, a little dazed and startled by it.

She was in love with her husband, whom she could not love. Slowly she lowered herself onto the stool behind the cash register. How was she going to handle something she barely knew about? Her childhood love was so different from all of the emotions flowing through her now, at that moment that she could hardly compare the two. The overwhelming feelings that filled her now seemed as if they would never stop, and she felt as if she were drowning in it. In such a short time she had fallen in love, hard, and fast without warning, without any effort for a former enemy.

What was she going to do about it? And how did Malfoy view her?

When Malfoy arrived home that evening she avoided him like the plague. Awkwardly giving excuses as she stumbled over her words. Her behavior began to changed around him; avoiding, not speaking, nervous smiles, and laughs.

He was still Draco Malfoy, but he was also the person she loved, and though that new feeling she became awed with him and her feelings for him. And if Malfoy noticed any change in her behavior he did not say so.

"Tinkerbelle?"

"W-what?"

Malfoy spoke to her one morning over coffee. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes. Why?"

"You've been—distant lately."

"O-oh. I—I'm just—"

The phone rang unexpectedly, giving her the opportunity to avoid his question.

"I'll get that." She said and rushed for it.

"Hello?"

Draco watched the different expressions on her face as she talked on the phone, slowly he began to smile. This was the Hermione he knew, where had she gone to for the last couple of days and why?

When she came back her face was set in a frown.

"What is it?"

She looked over at him, as if she had forgotten he was there at all.

"Oh."

"Who was it?"

"My cousin. W-why?"

"You seemed bothered."

"It—it's nothing."

He raised an eyebrow up at her, but she refused to say anything more and he did not push her. After a few minutes of silent thought, Hermione looked up from the cup in her hands.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked, nervous as a sheep.

Draco nodded, taking a sip of his coffee.

"How do you tell your significant other you're ready to have sex?"

He choked on his coffee, spitting it out and onto the table and Hermione, covering them with the dark liquid. "What?"

Shocked at his reaction, Hermione stared at him and then at the spilt coffee. Quickly Draco stood up and went in search of towels.

He came back with two, the first he handed to her, the second he use to wipe the table. Embarassed, Hermione wiped the coffee from her shirt, avoiding any contact with Draco.

"Hermione, are you going to tell what's going on?" He asked, stopping her from up to leave by reaching out to take her wrists.

Hermione sighed, and setting the towel down looked up at him, "My cousin is doing a paper." She paused and then continued, a frown appearing on her forehead. "It's a paper on the signs a person gives when they're ready to—sleep with their partner."

He stared at her, as if she had just said she was going to jump off a bridge.

"N-never mind." She said and got up to push pass him, wishing she could disappear.

It was late in the afternoon a couple days later when Draco arrived unexpectedly at the bookshop.

"Hi."

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

"I got something to show you. You're closing up soon, aren't you?"

Hermione nodded. It was just her in the shop today, with Jay still in school, so she closed up the shop as Draco waited outside for her.

"Where are we going this time?" She asked, remembering his last visit to her there.

"Not too far." He said giving her a secret smile.

Hermione followed him to his car, wondering what was happening.

"Are your eyes closed?"

"Yes Malfoy. They're closed."

She heard his soft chuckle as he led her through a rough path.

"If I fall into a ditch or anything, I'm going to kill you."

"I'll let you know if you fall into a ditch." He said, with a hint of his smile in his words.

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost. Okay. Wait, don't open your eyes yet."

She let her eyes remain closed, the curiosity in her growing with each passing second. She heard him approach her, walking around her so that he stood behind her. One of his hands came to cover her eyes, the other taking her arm, leading her a couple more steps.

"Can you hear it?" He whispered into her ear.

Hermione listened quietly to the moves of the waves back and forth, back and forth.

"Water." She said with a growing smile.

Slowly he moved his hand away from her eyes, and as she looked out into the distant sea, she gasped in joy.

"It's beautiful." She turned around and beamed up at Malfoy, "Thank you, for bringing me here."

He grinned down at her, "It seemed you needed this, and you did mention wanting to come to see the sea before the summer was over."

She nodded, "I guess I did." And then, turned back to the deep blue ocean.

Looking over her shoulders with a mischievous smile she lifted and eyebrow up at him.

"Race you to the water!" She shouted, and shot towards the sandy shore where land met sea.

Draco burst out laughing and a split second later was already running before her.

He watched as she sat in the sand, her small feet buried into the cool earth, as she decorated the sand castle they had built with sea shells she had found. Silently he watched as she worked, letting the wind blow through her tussled hair and sun tanned skin. Nothing worried her at the moment, the weight of reality seemed to be lifted off of her shoulders. He felt his breath catch as she looked up and over at him, going him a radiant smile and a wave.

"Why are you just standing there?"

He chuckled and slowly made his way to her side. "Going to give me a job again?"

"No. What do think?"

"Beautiful."

Standing up to brush the sand away from her hands she grinned at him. "I guess we should be heading home."

Draco nodded, looking over at the setting sun.

"Draco?"

He turned back to face her, "What is it?"

"When—when this is all over, I hope we can still be—friends."

He stared at her, his face closing up right before he looked away from her, "Yes. I hope we can still be friends."

Hermione tried not to look hurt, forcing a smile she turned to make her way back up the shore to where the car was parked.

All those days she had thought foolishly that she was in love, and that maybe he felt something for her too, but this was the reality of it. They needed each other only for as long as what they had agreed to, and then they may never see one another again.

Why did no one ever tell her that love was like this; falling so hard and fast that the next thing you knew your soul was already taken and there was no turning back.

It had been so easy to lie to everyone around her, but it was so hard to lie to herself because now she did not know what was fact and what was fiction anymore.

So she smiled and laughed and spoke as she had always done so, and tried to surpass her feelings for him, because it was all she could do not to spoil their time left together.

Hermione sat alone in the living room with Lacy. Draco was out of town and Lacy had decided to come pay a visit.

"You know that Draco's birthday is coming up, right?"

Hermione nodded her head, and then shook it. "I knew it was coming up, but I'm not sure when it is. Draco doesn't like mentioning things."

Lacy laughed, "It's okay. Drake doesn't tell anyone his birthday. He doesn't celebrate it unless the family brings cake and chips over to his office."

"I remember last year. He was on one of his ships and thought he had gotten away from celebrating, but Dad flew us out to the middle of the ocean just so we could deliver him a cake. It was actually really fun, I think that was the first time I ever say Drake blush with embarrassment. "

Hermione stared at Lacy and then burst out in giggles. "They're all alike, your brothers?"

"Oh, not really. Sure they have that annoying air of authority but they're all really different."

Lacy explained. "Draco is the oldest, and takes everything almost always very seriously. He works all the time, and sometimes never takes any time off unless it's time off for his family. But Drake's very gentle and loving too. He loves kids and animals, and he loves to laugh and play jokes."

"Declan is the rake of the family you could say. He knows when to relax and when to take things seriously. He loves flirting, and had vowed he will never marry. He owns a small chain of hotels, and goes around with a new girl every week, but he's always low key on his real relationships."

"Then there's Keith. You could say he's the trouble maker of the family. He's the first to get into a fight, and the last one to step down. He speaks his mind and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about him. He didn't finish college, but I don't think he needed too, since he's almost a genius. He helps Drake and Declan with the shipping and the hotels, so his hands are pretty full. Plus he's got his own thing that he does, mechanical engineering and all that. Oh, and he hates making social calls, so he's rarely at any big parties or events."

"And then there's John. He's the youngest of the boys at twenty-two. He's the one that's going to inherit our real mum's family title." Lacy stopped, took a look around the empty living room and leaned in closer to Hermione.

"Don't tell a soul about this, but I'm sure you'll find out sooner or later. Our real Mum is the heir to the Italian Mafia. Her father was the previous leader until he died, leaving everything to mum. But Mum married Dad, so she couldn't be the leader, but it was decided that one of her sons would take over. Initially Declan was suppose to be the heir, but things didn't work out. So after Keith and John were born, John was decided for the role of the heir."

"John's very private and almost never comes to anything unless Dad asks him to ever since our real Mum passed away. He's also very quiet and some would say even emotionless. But he's very loyal and he takes family and the mafia as top priority. Like Drake he's very serious, and you almost never see him smile. He's been living in Italy since he entered high school and only comes home once in a while."

Hermione nodded, "You're brothers are very different."

Lacy laughed, "Yeah. But I think that's what makes us all get along so well."

Just remembering and still curious, Hermione asked Lacy about the 'incident' with Draco.

"Oh. That. It's nothing really. It's jus that we never expected to see Drake caught in one of those incidents."

Hermione raised an eyebrow up at Lacy, making her giggle. "You're using Drake's eyebrow on me?"

Hermione looked taken aback and then laughed, "I guess it rubbed off on me."

Lacy nodded, and then continued her expression changing from amusement to concern. "Drake was seen going out with this model turned actress. Their relationship had been really private, even we didn't really know about it until it was leaked into the papers. They were supposedly engaged, but, Drake doesn't like talking about it and is always joking about it with the family, but I think that relationship really hurt him and changed him in a way. We're not supposed to talk about it to anyone outside of the family."

Hermione nodded, feeling a tad of hurt and concern for Draco.

"Don't worry about it. It was a while ago." Lacy said as she reached out to take Hermione's hand "Drake's birthday is coming up in two weeks. What are you planning to get him?"

Hermione shrugged, "I'm not sure I know what to get Draco."

Lacy smiled, "You'll think of something."

Hermione nodded, she would think of something.

AN: One more chapter for tonight!

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