Chapter 28

This wedding was going on forever. Hermione felt bad feeling that way, but she did. Ginny and Harry were settling down and just enjoying themselves. It was nowhere near the end and it would be clearly noted if she left.

"Come on, let's dance." Draco said and stood up. He held his hand out. "It's a wedding, practically required."

She took it reluctantly and he led her onto the dance floor, which was full of people dancing. He pulled her close and they started dancing. As much as she hated it, it just felt like normalcy.

"I suppose it was a good wedding as far as a small unaffiliated weddings go." Draco said.

"Unaffiliated."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Well, this is not the kind of wedding that Pansy would expect, shall we say."

"Oh." She said and returned her focus to the dancing. While she would normally be curious as to what Pansy would expect, just for cultural study, tonight she couldn't bring herself to care.

She closed her eyes. It just felt nice to be there, dancing. He had taken his jacket off, so it was just his white shirt she had her hands on and he was warm underneath, the warmth was radiating out to her.

He pulled her even closer so they were flush with her head in the crook of his neck. He smelled so incredibly good. She placed her hand on his chest. A bit of space might not be a bad thing, but it didn't go as planned because he leant down and kissed her. A slow kiss that seemed to include a gravity flip.

Ok, the old ladies was probably going to see that, she thought in an effort to not feel the full impact of it, because she could so easily get completely lost in that. Actually the thought of the people seeing it was fleeting as his lips slowly moved against hers.

Damn him for being a good kisser.

"Don't." She said turning her mouth towards his neck. She so badly wanted to run her lips along the skin of his neck, instead she just let her lips burn.

"You know I'm not going to stop." He said. "I am going to haunt your every step. You will eventually relent."

Hermione sighed. "Is there any chance that sounded less psychotic in your head?"

She could feel him smiling. She was too close to see it, and she just didn't want to open her eyes.

"Why?" She asked after a while. "Why are you doing this? You've already had me, why aren't you moving on?"

He didn't answer. "We're not suited." She continued. "Your lifestyle and mine do not gel in any conceivable way, so what do you want?"

"I want you to take me home." He said. "I want you to cook me breakfast."

"You want me to cook you breakfast?" She repeated disbelievingly.

"And drag me around some forsaken gallery, or something equally painful."

"God, why? As much I like torturing you. Why would you possibly volunteer for that?" She said but didn't give him time to answer. "I am not here for you to be a tourist in the mundane."

She tried to pull away but he held her firm.

"What did you want from Blaise?" He asked. "Out of all people, why did you end up with him?"

"I've had enough of this thing between you and Blaise, I'm not a ball for you two to play with." She snapped.

"This isn't about Blaise, its about you." He said. "Why Blaise, why not Weaselby?"

"He was there, he was interested." She said, not really understanding why they were having this conversation. She also knew it wasn't a full or true answer, but she didn't want to analyse it. "What does it matter? You are here because I forced you to, otherwise you'd be in Prague or Paris, or whatever place you lot deem is glamorous enough, with some ridiculously beautiful girl, sitting around looking elegant."

"I've had all the beautiful girls." He said. She couldn't help smiling at the arrogance of the statement.

"I'm sure there's one or two you've overlooked." She said pointedly. "Or are your standards just dropping, you have to trawl the last resort, the purview of the Gryffindors? Painted yourself into a corner have you, have no where left to go? Well, you've been here, done this. I'm sure one of the Patel twins is single at the moment, why don't you move on there. Then what am I saying, you've probably already been there, am I the last witch around you haven't been with? Well, maybe you should consider a younger model, they're coming out with a new batch every year."

"Ouch." He said. "You're all teeth and claws sometimes, you know that?"

"You've known me for like fifteen years and you've only just figured this out?"

She tried to pull away again but he wouldn't let her.

"Let go of me." She said.

"No." He said. "Not until we finish this. And yes, I don't deny that I've been around, its no secret. What can I say, the girls just won't let me be. And I have avoided girls like you like the fucking plague. And you are the leader of all girls like you. Girls like you are infuriating, you fight absolutely everything, you refuse to compromise on the smallest things. Your demanding, pigheaded, and supremely annoying, for the record. You're stubborn as a mule. In other words, a complete ball breaker."

"So why are you here?" She demanded.

"Because I've painted myself into a corner as you so aptly put it." He said. "I have nowhere else to go. And I can't go back."

"Phfft." She said.

"I'm in love with you." He said with exasperation.

"You have no idea what love is." She stated.

"No? It sucks, it hurts, it sticks to you like fucking molasses." He said. "I am completely paralysed. I can't breath. Nothing I do alleviates it. I can't go back, there is no acceptable alternative. I am fighting for my life here."

"How could someone like me fit into your life? And being with me is not the kind of life you want." She said.

"Apparently, I do."

"We're not well suited." She said trying to get away from the feeling like things were closing in on her.

"Maybe that's the point, Granger." He said. "Maybe we're perfect because we're not. We scratch and claw, and fuck each other's brains out. Because lets face it, you came looking for me."

"Oh, your arrogance is just astounding."

"And maybe you don't have any more choice in being here than I do." He said. "You invited me to this wedding, you could have taken anyone. You don't have any more choice than I do."

"That is so not true." She said.

"At least I'm honest with myself." He said.

She went to argue, but Draco stepped back and bent over. Before she knew what was happening he was lifting her up over his shoulder.

"Malfoy!" She yelled, but nobody seemed to do anything, they were just laughing.

He carried her out of the tent and put her down outside the tent.

"Now let's talk about the choices you have." He said and pulled her close. Pulled her into a kiss. A firm kiss that made her insides flip, but she refused to open her mouth. Not that it mattered, her insides were singing. He was flush up against her and her body was fully igniting. Damn it.

So far they weren't doing much talking. He broke the kiss and proceeded down the column of her neck, which was doing nothing to settle her.

"While its nice to think you can walk away from this, I don't think you can walk away any more than I can. And at this point you need to be honest." He said into her ear. His hands were running down her back, sending shivers down her.

"I am always honest."

"Then be honest now, tell me you don't want me right now."

"That's completely irrelevant." She said through her hitched breath. "Just attraction, it means nothing. And it will pass." She finished in a whisper as he seemed to find that spot just below her ear that make her eyes completely lose focus.

"Which it doesn't seem to have done so far." He said. "And I am willing to bet my left arm that it won't, for a very long time, if ever."

"Oh please, you're not exactly know for keeping your focus when it comes to females."

"Except you, for which there was been an underlying focus for, uh, twelve years or so." He said. "And I can't go back now." He said and returned to her mouth. The slightest of touches, sending shockwaves through her, threatening the strength in her knees. Her insides felt like a blast furnace and completely fluid, her balance seemed to shift violently and unsettled her completely.

Her last vestiges of resistance were hanging in because she knew that the next step as a step to the next level, and there would be no turning back. A step that would skip the ones she was familiar with, into new territory. She knew this a few days ago at the Parkinson's house.

And she had not gone looking for him, that was absolutely ridiculous.

It just felt so good. His body was hard and demanding, how could she not respond to that? The truth was that she had never wanted anyone more. If she was completely honest, she would have to admit that although there are some unsavoury things about his personality, not to mention his friends and family, the core of her resistance was fear. She had never been this afraid before, not of him, but of what this would mean. She had never felt fear with Ron, or Blaise, or any of the other guys she'd dated. If things fell apart, it hurt for a day or two, but then it would be over. The cut would never be that deep.

This had risk, real, deep, inherent risk. It goaded her that he faced it and she was baulking at it. She was not a coward. And she wanted him so badly right now, she wasn't sure she could back down.

Before she knew it, she touched his lip with her tongue. It brought a shift in him, he rushed into her mouth, grasping her towards him, pushing her into the tent wall, which provided no resistance. They ended up kissing deeply with him holding her up.

He broke the kiss, and looked around. He walked them towards the door to the Burrow kitchen. Luckily there was no one in there, otherwise they would have gotten a show.

Somehow her hands had gotten under his shirt. His warm skin was just glorious. Every muscle in his body was taunt and she couldn't keep her hands off him. He pulled back from where they were on the stairs and pulled his shirt off, before returning to her, where her arms and legs wrapped around him.

"A little bit too public perhaps." He said and lifted her up again. Somehow they made it upstairs, and it made her laugh because she wasn't helping at all. Frankly, she was beyond caring if someone walked in on them. Then they were in some room, a room with a single bed. Perfect. She wasn't sure who's room it was now that the Burrow was rebuild to reflect Arthur and Molly's childless lifestage. It didn't matter.

They were on the bed and her dress had worked its way up her, she was desperately pushing it over her head to get rid of it and was rewarded with skin on skin. It made her sigh. She needed him so badly, needed him inside her. She tried to push him back so she could get his belt undone. He gave her just enough room to work the buckle. He groaned as she pulled the zip down, it was restraining him.

A bit more wrestling as he stripped her of her last garments, then just glorious sensations as he worked his way inside her, filling her. Her body had been waiting, waiting for this for quite a while, and it felt like a deep satisfaction beyond just scratching an itch. He moved slowly and she couldn't breath, she needed more. Needed him to move faster.

Two slow strokes and she was just about undone. Then he stopped moving. He stopped kissing her and leant back slightly to look down into her eyes. She tried to get him moving, but he refused to budge. Her body was frustrated beyond reason.

She tried to budge him but he was just still.

"Just you and me, yeah?" He asked.

"You want to talk about this now?" She said with complete incredulity. Her body was completely on fire, so much it hurt. "Can't we just…"

"You'll avoid answering otherwise."

"Some people would call this duress." She said. She couldn't focus. He was in her, she could feel the tightness, the fullness, she desperately needed friction, but he wouldn't relent until she gave him her full attention.

"Just you and me." He repeated. There was no guile in his eyes, no sarcasm or pride. Just him with all those things stripped away. She nodded. He still held her eyes when he slowly ground into her and she gasped. He did it again, and her body was completely molten.

No more talking, she decided and reached up and kissed him. He let her at first, then sank into the kiss as his control melted. There was urgency now. She needed it all, needed completion. He picked up speed and her core started pulsing with his strokes. She wasn't sure when she started coming, it was a slow burning which increased with each stroke. It exploded as he arched back grinding into her as far as he could go.

She held him as the aftershocks of it assaulted him. He'd collapsed down on her, with his arms around her. Something animalistic in her loved that she had him trapped. The weight of both of them pinned him there, to her, in her. They stayed there for a long time, just the two of them in the dark, with their skin lit by the moonlight streaming through the small window.

"Nap if you need to Granger, its going to be a long night." He said and she knew he was grinning as he lay his head down on her chest. Not that he gave her a chance to because his finger tips were playing havoc on her skin.