(A/N)

Heyo!

Did any of you manage to find out what secret message I left in the last chapter?
I will drop a hint, 'Flowers have a language of their own.'

Anyway, this story is almost drawing to an end. A few chapters more. I had never planned to go beyond 20k words, but they just flowed somehow!

Hope you like this chapter and warning for some hot snogging in this chapter!
Not for innocent eyes!

You can skip it if you want. No major plot twist in there. ;)

Love,
Mili

Hermione's hands shook as she held the green round box in her hands. It had a band of platinum on it where the lid met the box. A single large oval diamond, set in gold, dominated the band right in the centre. Right below the diamond, the Malfoy crest was embossed in silver, below which were the words that Hermione had read out earlier when they had first come across the box.

'Nos tempus est huius'

The last time she had whispered those words, the next thing they knew was that flash of light had surprised them and then they found themselves stuck in this era. "Draco, what if by whispering the words on this box, I set off some spell to get us stuck in this era?"

"It could be a possibility." Draco looked at the box and the words with a gaze so intense it felt as if he was trying to find the answers simply by staring too hard.

"Do you think we could try doing it again?"

Hermione's words were falling on deaf ears. Draco seemed to be lost in a world of his own.

"Let's head back." He simply said. Hermione wanted to tell him that they could read the spell and try it again, but Draco was already at the door waiting for her.

"It's best we get back to the Estate before we try anything. We have no idea if we will land up going further back in time!"

That idea totally scared Hermione witless. She had shrunk the box and put it in her pocket. They reached the library without any incident luckily. They two captives of theirs seemed to be dozing. They had probably given up trying to struggle.
Hermione took out her wand and quickly cast a Silencing charm just in case they tried to create any ruckus once they woke up.

Draco had just turned to take off his shirt, when the butler, Gerrard pounced towards Hermione.
The sudden noise caught Draco's attention and he whipped around to see Gerrard holding Hermione against him and poking her neck with her own wand.

"Answer my questions and I shall let you go." The man growled from behind Hermione.
Draco jumped towards the still sleeping girl, but the older man was smart. He nearly stabbed Hermione with the wand which made her yelp out in pain. "Don't even think about it. She means nothing to me except for another maid who works with me at the Manor, but I know this is your wife, or at least means a lot to you and I won't hesitate in harming her."

The young Malfoy did not doubt Hermione's ability to save herself from the man, but he could not risk it still. So he put down his wand and moved his hands up in surrender. "Okay, fine."

"Why are you here?"

"We are healers, but we are poor. We don't earn enough to live a life as lavish as we would like. My wife, Hermione, is with child and we did not wish to bring up our child in such penurious conditions, so we thought if we could nick something off the Malfoys and Fawleys, they would barely notice, but we would lead a comfortable life there on." Draco wove a story and improvised as he went.

Hermione knew he was up to something. He was stalling, bidding time. He was probably trying to distract the butler with this story. She did feel his grip on her relax a little after Draco declared that she was pregnant.

"We really are sorry. But, this had to be done for our child's sake. I did not want to fail my child as a Father even before it came into the world. Please don't hand us over. Please! We promise to never steal or be anywhere near the Malfoy Manor ever again!"

"Yes, we promise! We just wanted to give the comforts to our child that we ourselves could never have. Just a roof over our heads and food in our belly. But, we promise never to show our faces ever again. Just don't tell anyone. Please!" Hermione hoped she sounded half as convincing as Draco had.

"What did you steal?" the butler asked in an unimpressed tone.

"Nothing. We could find nothing except paintings and artefacts that we would not know where to sell without getting caught. All doors were locked and we had originally hoped to simply steal some jewellery or expensive clothes."

Gerrard suddenly started to breathe heavily, as if he was trying to relax. Just as he closed his eyes for more than a second, Draco picked his wand and shot a stunner at him. His arms dropped and Hermione quickly retrieved her wand from him and moved away.

He dropped to the floor with a look of shock plastered.

"He is a thief. He has stolen from my family for years. That's why instead of turning us in, he wanted to know what all we managed to steal. I realised this yesterday when I was trying to plant the idea of serving us today."

Draco and Hermione dragged the girl and the two quickly put on their original clothes again. They removed the transfiguration spells that they had done to the two of them so that they resemble Draco and Hermione. The girl was now stirring, Draco quickly moved in front of her and cast a False Memory Charm.

"What did you do?" Hermione asked looking scared and confused. It reminded her of how she had done the same to her parent for their safety before the War. It reminded her of how after the War, she was almost unable to undo it and what damage it had cost.
"Don't worry Hermione. It's just a small memory modification. Nothing else. I just made her see Gerrard steal this." He said taking out a pocket watch set in gold, from within his robes.

"Where did that come from?"

"I picked it up from Silvius's room. It belongs to me in the future, you know?"

Draco cast a similar memory charm on the stunned butler who was now made to believe that he was caught stealing the watch and had to chase down the girl to prevent her from telling anyone.

Clio was now coming back to her senses and Hermione knew what she had to do. She rushed to the girl's side and with genuine concern, asked, "Are you alright, dear?"

"What happened? Why am I here?"

"That bastard hit you with a stunner when he chased you down. But, he forgot we are in the library. We saw the commotion from the other end and Hermione hit him with a stunner of her own. We must tell the Malfoys of your bravery and loyalty!"

The young girl blushed at the words and Hermione felt her heart fill up with a dark emotion that was starting to feel a lot like envy. Draco looked at Hermione and raised his eyebrow as if questioning her about her sudden change of mood.

Instead, Hermione summoned and elf to go call the head Butler who had received them on the first day. As the old man appeared in the library, they let Clio dictate the incident. "You must ask the Lord and Lady Malfoy to reward her loyalty!" Hermione added a little too sweetly, Draco chuckled beside her, which earned him a glare from her.

"Oh, but I would. I surely would!" The old man said in a fatherly fashion while looking at the young girl proudly. "My apologies that you had to face all this, Lord and Lady Zabini. My sincere apologies." "Ah. It's alright. We are glad we could help get rid of a snide human such as Gerrard here."

"My Lord and Lady Malfoy would have been pleasantly surprised to meet you, unfortunately, they are not in England right now."

"No no that's fine." With that, the duo took his leave after some more polite conversation.

Back at the Estate, the two sat in the matching armchairs that were there in their bedchambers. They sat staring at the box kept on the table before them. "Do you think you want to try it now?"

"I think not. It would be rather absurd if we landed up in the Fawley Estate back in the present times. Plus who knows if it would work anywhere except in the cottage?"

Hermione pondered over it and finally concluded, "And honestly, I don't want to break Lady Fawley's heart. She is throwing the ball in our honour and we must go. We could say our goodbyes after that and leave."

"Without making anyone suspicious?"

"Without making anyone suspicious." Hermione concurred.

The next morrow came and Draco knew today was the day of the ball and the day when he would get to know if his potions had been working on the old matron or not.

He woke up to find Hermione gone in the morning. He slipped out of bed and started to get ready to go check up on their patient for probably one last time. He had grown fond of the strict matriarch over time. And it was absolutely wonderful how she would often scold Hermione and take Draco's side when Hermione was acting stubborn. He smiled to himself as he made his way down the halls.

Hermione was with Polly, trying to figure out a way make her hair look manageable for the ball for that night. Lady Fawley, both the older one and the Lady of the Estate had strictly ordered her to only concentrate on the ball today. Hermione had tried to argue, but they refused to listen to her and simply ended the discussion by stating that she needed to spend more time on herself and definitely more on Draco.

It was rather weird and uncomfortable for Draco to admit that he was an unease simply because he had not seen Hermione much except for during meals that day. He was now getting ready for the ball, and Polly had forced him out of the room because Hermione had ordered it. He had seen her with the largest possible front teeth and an untamed bush in place of hair back at Hogwarts. He was sure it couldn't get any worse that she was trying to shy away from him now. He was in a rather grumpy mood. He was used to having his own way, but that almost never happened with Hermione Jean Granger.

The young Gryffindor was nervous. Tonight was the night when they would try the spell once the ball ended. She didn't know here she would spend the next day. It was really scary. She had roughly translated the phrase on the box, but it barely sounded like a spell and more like a campaign motto to her, 'Our time is this'. But it made absolutely no sense to her.

Hermione looked at Polly giving her hair the final touches through the reflection in the silver backed mirror in their room. She ran her hands over the creases on her dress to smoothen them. "You really want to surprise him, don't you m'lady?" "Yes." Hermione simply accepted, both to Polly and to herself.

The least she could do was show her acceptance towards him.

It was almost time for them to leave for the ball and Draco was standing outside his own room and waiting. He was annoyed would have been an understatement. He was almost about to walk off on his own when suddenly out popped Polly's head and she said, "M'lord, m'lady is ready and waiting for you." with a mischievous smile on her face, she ran away.

Draco hesitated for a second and then remembered that it was high time he was let back into his own damn room and burst open the door. What he found inside was not Hermione Granger, but a ravishing vision in green. She stood next to the bed, half trying to look pleased with herself and yet as nervous as a coy bride. "I know I have been nasty to you on occasion so this is me trying to make amends and trying to apologise. The least I could do was show off your Slytherin and secret Malfoy pride by wearing this dress today." She smiled.

Draco had shut the door and covered the distance between them in a matter of seconds. It was not the fact that Hermione looked beautiful. He knew she did. That she did every day in her own way without even trying. But today? Today she was breathtaking, the kind where when she would walk into any room, men would look at her and wish she was theirs and women would look on in envy. But that wasn't what had Malfoy crazed up. Malfoy saw all that, he was but human. But what he also saw was a Malfoy, a true Malfoy bride in her today. He did not know where all these feelings were bubbling up from but they were there in his heart which was about to burst at the seams with the sudden knowledge of his feelings for her.

Before Hermione could react, Draco had pinned her against a bed post and his lips crashed onto hers. He wrapped his hands around her small frame and held her close while she slipped her arms around his neck to pull him in even closer. There lips moved in sync and Draco could feel himself losing any amount of sanity. All he wanted to do was rip off the very dress that had him feeling so crazed and take her to bed right now. The ball be damned.

Like two waves crashing in a torrential sea, their lips moved against each other. Draco held her at the waist and raised her a little so that he could kiss down her exposed throat. He licked and nipped his way down while she was pulling at his hair in a passion driven frenzy. He moved back up and bit her ear lobe. As a moan escaped her tender lips, he whispered, "You are forgiven." And kissed her fervently once again. He felt a nipple through her dress and as she parted her lips to gasp, he plunged his tongue into her hot cavern. Their lips kept crashing onto each other's and his tongue kept making love to her mouth.

She almost whimpered as he moved away and put her down. "If I stay here any longer, I will be making sure that none of us leaves the bed for a long time Hermione so it's best we leave before I take charge." Draco said looking her in the eye. She was speechless so she simply nodded.

She could feel that her knees were still weak and that she was very very wet. All with one kiss! She wasn't even ashamed or embarrassed about the kiss anymore. She had probably secretly hoped it would happen eventually tonight, but she could have never imagined in her wildest dreams that Draco would react in such a manner once he saw her in the gown. She had to fix her hair once again after Draco had pinned her to the bed post.

Right before they left the room, Draco took her by the hand to the mirror. "Could you do me a favour today, Hermione?" She nodded slowly as he took out a familiar piece of jewellery from behind him. "Wear this?" he asked kissing the side of her neck. She sharply took in a breath at the sensation and let him place the Malfoy heirloom on her neck. They had checked and it had held no trace of magic, so they had assumed Silvius must have simply gifted it to Adelia as it was to be given to one's bride or fiancée.

"Why?" she managed to croak with a clouded minded filled with thoughts of Draco. "Because you are my wife tonight, Hermione. And I want you to have the best of everything tonight and always. You deserve this and much more, trust me. But this is the least I can do right now." He answered as he pressed his lips to her neck once more after closing the clasp of the emerald and diamond choker.

With that, he offered her his arm as they finally left for the ball. Both a pile of nerves with the task of trying the spell tonight. They both knew what it meant to return to the present. They knew their little domestic bubble would then burst. Neither wanted to say it out aloud nor admit to it. And even though they wished with all their heart to return to their lives in the present, being with each other was a part of this life they were now starting to wish that they could take with them back to the future.