Chapter 6 – The Next Morning

At the kitchen table the next morning Nessy was pleading with her biggest eyes for Draco to give her a piece of the ham spread over his toast.

"Oh, here you go, silly girl." Draco chuckled and nipped a piece of ham off his toast and gave it to Nessy who started munching on it satisfactorily.

At that moment Hermione made her way down the stairs.

"Are you talking to your cat or me?" she asked.

"Well, my cat, obviously. It's going to take a lot more than you spending one night in my guest bedroom for me to call you 'silly girl'. Nessy has slept in my bed for four years and her and I just got to that stage." Draco said, absentmindedly flipping through a newspaper.

"Isn't that sweet? Four years in your bed and then I'll be referred to as silly girl?" Hermione said as she sat down at the kitchen table and gave Nessy a kiss on her forehead.

"Well, in the meantime there's coffee in the kettle. Make yourself feel at home and help yourself." Draco gestured towards the kettle on the cooker.

"How come you named her Nessy anyhow?" Hermione asked and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"I miss my mum." Draco answered honestly.

Hermione looked up from her cup as if she'd seen him clearly for the first time.

"Really?" she asked.

"Really, really. I'm not all callous thug. I miss my mum too. I'd miss my dad too probably if he wasn't such a twat." he shrugged.

"When did you last speak to them?" She sat down on the other side of the table.

Draco closed the newspaper and put it away.

"Something like six years ago. Heard they're in Portugal now. It's common knowledge they left the country before their trail. I haven't spoken to them since." he said and took a sip of his coffee.

"Fuck them." she said.

Draco nearly chocked on his coffee.

"I beg your pardon?" he coughed.

"I said fuck 'em. Leaving the country was selfish. Not keeping in touch with their son for six years was cuntish. I understand not wanting to bring heat upon you by corresponding with you the ordinary way. But there are other ways to keep in touch if they really wanted to." she said.

"Yeah, how?" he asked.

"The muggle way? You and I've been corresponding for five and a half years and the Ministry's got no clue." Hermione said as if it was obvious.

"Really? How do you know?" Draco asked.

"Do you take me for a fool? I checked of course!" she gave him a peculiar smile.

Draco arched an eyebrow at her in response.

"'Course I did. Reason number one; I was curious to find out if our correspondence was registered- turns out it was not. Reason number two; you're so sweet for subscribing to Herbology Weekly." she smiled.

"Well I've got to do something in order not to lose my mind whilst living amongst the commoners." Draco said.

"Sure you do. But now for something completely different. Today is Saturday. What do you want to do with me before I'm back on duty?" she smiled.

"Oh, if you only knew." he smirked.

^V^

"This wasn't was I pictured at all." Hermione frowned as she an hour later dressed in dungarees, a lumber jacket and a ridiculously oversized cap discreetly levitated logs as Draco pretended to carry them to his woodshed.

"But you're making my life so much easier. You really are my saving grace, Granger." Draco said as he stepped into the woodshed.

Hermione followed him into the shed and flicked her wand to make the log land neatly on the pile.

"Just out of curiosity, what did you picture?" he asked as they made their way back to the rest of the logs.

"Something more pleasant than this." Hermione muttered and levitated two more logs; one that Draco carried and one that she carried herself.

"Well, you know you could just levitate all the logs into the woodshed and make all the branches disappear and then adjust Tom's memory. That would mean we'd have more time for the sauna." Draco smirked.

"I'm not going to comment on the illegal things you just suggested and skip straight to the part where I ask; you have a sauna?" Hermione asked and nearly dropped her log as she tripped over a root. Draco caught her arm and pulled her back on her feet. She gave him an appreciative smile.

"'Course I do. Life in the middle-of-absolutely-fucking-nowhere wouldn't be much fun without it, now would it?" Draco said, sincere.

"Bring a lot of women in there, do you?" Hermione inquired.

"Women like Mrs Butterwort you mean? Are you mental? She'd probably just fall asleep and burn her face on the heater." Draco scoffed.

"So just the local younger women then?" Hermione pressed on.

"If you're asking me if I'm seeing anyone the answer is no." Draco said and dumped the log in the pile.

"You're not? Am I supposed to believe that you've lived here for five and a half bloody years without dating a woman?" Hermione frowned and dumped her own log on top of Draco's.

"I said I'm not seeing anyone. That means currently." he snapped.

"Is there really a difference when you're the new man in town?" she snapped back.

"What do you want me to say, Granger? Want me to tell you how many of the women in a fifteen-mile radius I've shagged? Is that it? WHY does that matter?" he shouted.

Hermione sighed.

"You know what? Never mind. It's fine." she said and made to turn and leave the shed.

"Hang on!" Draco snapped and grabbed a hold of her arm. "What the bloody hell do you mean 'it's fine'? What's fine, exactly? 'Cause last time I checked I didn't answer to you, Granger. Especially not when it comes to who I do or do not shag."

"Let go of me!" Hermione hissed.

"Well?" he pressed on, staring at her ominously.

Hermione drew her wand and pointed it at Draco.

"My dear Granger, did you just get a tad carried away or are you pointing that wand at me with harmful intentions?" Draco asked and eyed her warily.

"I swear to Merlin, I'll use this on you." Hermione hissed and kept the wand pointed at him.

"You wouldn't." Draco leered at her.

They found themselves in a sort of stand off, Hermione's wand still pointing at him and Draco still with a firm grip of her arm. That was until an unsuspecting voice was heard just outside of the shed.

"There you are, though I saw you." Tom said cheerfully as he entered the now very crowded shed. "And you brought another stick, Hermione. Good!" Tom continued and snatched the wand out of Hermione's hand and threw it on the pile of sticks in the shed.

"No!" Hermione breathed quietly.

"Tom, this is really not a good time." Draco said through gritted teeth.

"Don't worry. I'll be on my way soon." Tom said and dumped his own arm full of sticks on Hermione's wand, which made it disappear even further.

"So, Hermione, how long are you staying at Draco's?" Tom grinned.

Hermione gave Draco a sour look before she turned to Tom.

"Well, indefinitely, I'd say. Since I just lost my car keys." she said with a strained smile.

Draco put his forehead into his hand, as he understood what Hermione meant.

Tom, who obviously took this to be excellent news for Draco turned to his mate and gave Draco the biggest grin on Earth.

"Shan't keep you from it then. I'll be on my way now." Tom winked.

Draco rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry about him. I'll help you look for it." Draco said, as soon as he deemed Tom out of earshot, and started moving sticks from the pile.

"Don't bother. It's no use. It's already dark outside. I'll just look for it tomorrow." Hermione sighed and threw her hands up in the air.

Draco couldn't help but feel a little victorious. They left the woodshed and slowly walked towards the house in silence.

"Does that mean you'll be sleeping with me tonight as well?" Draco said after a while and raised an eyebrow at Hermione.

"Sod off!" she sneered and threw a snowball at him.

"Well, if I didn't know any better I'd say you've actually taken a fancy to me." he said as he ducked the snowball.

Hermione answered by hurling another snowball at him.

"You're clearly in a bad mood, woman. Lucky for you I've got just the solution." he smirked.

"Yeah?" Hermione sneered.

"Yeah! Rum, the best kind; Dominican." he grinned.