Draco sprinted after Hermione down to the shore. The day was nearing its end and the two of them were making the most of the light they had left. Hermione was thankful for the Australian weather and the long days. Being able to spend all day by Draco's side was such a pleasure. She had never felt so close to someone before.

The sand soared into the air as the two tumbled towards the ocean, their laughter filling the cove and echoing all around them. This was absolutely exhilarating. Hermione felt her heart pounding against her ribs and the wind brushing against her face, blowing her hair behind her. Her skin was burning and she was so close to the sea now that she could taste the salt on her tongue.

She turned her head to see how far Draco was behind her and slowed, seeing that he had vanished. Her feet came to a halt as she turned to search the cove. Where had he gone? Her ankles were submerged in the sea and the waves crashed against her legs, just hitting her calves. Her breaths were fast and shallow, heart still erratic against her ribcage. Alarm filled her whole being.

Hermione was sure he was just behind her. She had heard him.

A pair of arms wrapped around her and she was lifted her up over someone's shoulder. She squealed and wriggled in her kidnapper's arms, struggling for breath. She reached her arms down to hit the person but stopped when she saw pale skin adorned by long, thick scars. Hermione sighed and relaxed, giggling, knowing who it was before he spoke.

"Stop moving, wench!" Draco said, reaching up and hitting her behind. She yelped before reaching down again and hitting his behind too. She heard him growl and then he murmured, "Oh now you've asked for it."

Then Hermione was falling and she couldn't register what was happening until it was too late. The water crashed around her as she sunk down into the sea. She sputtered and kicked her legs to push herself up to the surface and broke through, taking in deep gasping breaths. She was gasping for air, glaring over at Draco who was bent over in hysterical laughter. She narrowed her eyes at him and pretended she hadn't recovered from the dunking. Hermione wasn't a great actress, but the more she coughed and spluttered the more worried Draco became. He glided over to her and rubbed his hand on her back patting it, trying to get the water out of her lungs.

Hermione took her opportunity and pounced. She leaped up and pushed his head under water. Draco struggled against her hand and reached out in the water, his arms found her waist and encircled it. She stilled at his proximity and stopped laughing. Her grip on his head loosened and he rose from the sea ever so slightly before stopping above the fabric of her bikini bottoms, brushing his lips over her lower stomach. The muscles there clenched and once again it was Hermione struggling to escape. Draco was completely unaffected by Hermione's fidgeting and glanced up at her, watching as she chewed her bottom lip. He felt her fingers clench around his shoulders as she feebly attempted to fight him off. He chuckled against her skin and placed one lingering kiss next to her belly button before rising.

Was he going to kiss her again? The tips of Hermione's ears warmed with nervousness, embarrassment and excitement. She had been drunk the last time they kissed. What if it had been sloppy? She thought about the way their mouths had moulded together, their tongues tentatively exploring the other's. Had he enjoyed it? Did he even want to do it again? She stole at glance up at his face and saw he was staring down at her, his head cocked to the side curiously.

"What are you thinking about?" He whispered. Her cheeks went red and he chuckled, watching the blush spread down her neck and to her chest, "Oh I think I can guess."

He pulled her against him and leaned in slowly, judging her reaction. Her eyes flickered for a moment as she pondered her options. She felt one of his arms come up from her waist to hold her head, fingers brushing against a spot on her neck that caused a shiver to surge throughout her body.

"Draco…" She murmured, ready to explain she was confused by how she felt but he swooped in quickly and caught her lips with his.

Her shoulders relaxed, her head tilted up to meet his, her fingers inched up his torso scratching the skin behind his light blonde chest hair and her mouth sighed into his. The kiss was soft, slow and seductive; their heads moving this way and that to properly feel every inch of the other's lips. He caught her bottom lip in his mouth and bit down, his body heat surging when he heard her moan quietly. Draco knew it was impossible to feel sound, but he felt that. It resonated within him and sent a slow thump of desire through his veins. He could feel her moans and sighs as they fell from her lips to caress his cheeks and trail down his chest. He could feel the glow of her aura folding itself into his.

Hermione felt this warmth too, spreading over her body and then into it. She could feel his power flowing through her blood, in every breath she took, in every bone and muscle as they moved and flexed against him. She felt the warmth enclose around all these things and she felt protected.

If magic existed, she thought, then this would be it in its purest form. No, scratch that. Magic did exist and it had come to her in the shape of Draco Malfoy.

His hands fell from her neck to find hers and he entwined their fingers together. The kiss ended and they studied each other briefly knowing something had changed between them now. No matter what happened the two of them knew they would never forget this moment. They had created their own magic. In a world that Draco had once hated, he felt whole. In a place filled with people he had once thought were filthy, he saw such beauty.

Draco never thought of magic as a feeling before. He thought of it as the literal thing it was in his world. That it existed. That it gave power. That it was something muggle's didn't have. That day, however, Draco discovered a type of magic entirely unique and so much rarer.

So Draco did the first thing he could think of when faced with such a thing. He took Hermione home, gave her a chaste kiss goodnight and then mentally and emotionally ran in the opposite direction.

Hermione had an extremely lazy Sunday. She held her diary in her hand and a pen in the other considering what more she needed to add to her list of 'Strange things Draco has said/done.' She knew there was something about him that he was keeping hidden and, Hermione being Hermione, needed to figure it out. So far it looked like this:

Saying the phrase, 'Merlin.' Honestly, who does that?

The whole does he have a big ego or tragic story due to his name thing. Hah. He probably has both.

Saying his father makes 'potions.'

Calling me Granger. Lisa could have told him… I suppose. Okay maybe that isn't a valid point.

Calling me a Gryffindor. What on Earth is a Gryffindor?

Calling my laptop a machine.

He stares at the radio strangely too sometimes.

The way he suddenly disappeared at the beach when he was chasing me and then reappeared. That's just not possible.

He'd been in an arranged marriage! Talk about medieval.

The scars? The tattoo. The joining a gang at sixteen.

Him all but abandoning me after our second kiss.

It wasn't a lot to go on nor did it really tell her much. Maybe he just came from one of those really upper class families. That would explain the marriage that never happened and the name and the ego. But then, he'd had a rough upbringing. No one was covered in that many injuries if they had a normal childhood. Something just wasn't sitting right. Why would a man, who came from an affluent background, seem to carry so much suffering with him?

She shut the book with a snap and placed it on her dresser. She'd still not known him very long. Maybe Draco was just a careful person. It made sense for her to not know everything about him yet. It excited her. There was still so much more to learn. To find out. She couldn't wait to explore him more and find out his favourite foods, favourite colours, favourite animals, favourite childhood memory...

Hermione wondered if she'd see him again soon. Maybe he'd need a day or two to clear his head. He had seemed distressed over the kiss. She frowned. Maybe he regretted it? She felt a pawing against her leg that distracted her thoughts from drifting further and pushed herself up on her elbows. Boo blinked at her once and then squeaked.

"Alright alright, breakfast time," Hermione muttered, reaching out to scratch the space in between Boo's ears. Boo purred in contentment and Hermione smiled. Surely this little kitten living with her gave her enough proof of Draco's feelings – even if he was somewhat confused by them.

"Woah woah woah slow down Draco!" Blaise yelled through the phone, "Stop. Deep breaths. Merlin, what's happened?"

Draco rubbed his face with his hand and groaned, unaware that Blaise had him on speakerphone. Theo rolled his eyes and went to say something but Blaise held his finger up, glaring.

"I kissed her. Twice. I've told her about me, about my life, not the details obviously. She doesn't know I'm a wizard or anything about magic yet. How can I tell her now? How can I even bring her back now? Surely I need to distance myself. For fuck's sake Blaise this was such a stupid idea. This is Granger. She's too trusting. I can tell she likes me-,"

"And why's that a big deal Draco? So what if she likes you."

The line went silent for a moment. Theo came to sit by Blaise, intrigued by whatever Draco might say. Blaise picked up a pen and paper and wrote a note on it quickly, sliding it over to Theo. 'You owe me ten galleons. Told you they'd kiss didn't I?'

Theo snatched the paper from the desk, the pen off Blaise and scribbled his own message back, 'And I told you that Draco would freak out about it because deep down he knows it's creepy to get with a girl who used to hate his guts, and then became indifferent to him. We're even, asshole.'

Blaise received the message and pouted, bringing his hand to his heart and clutching it dramatically, "Oh Theo you wound me!" He muttered.

"It's a big deal," Draco interrupted, "Because… Hang on a minute did you just say Theo? For fucks sake am I on speaker? You've got to stop doing this Blaise!"

"Oh shut up," Blaise groaned, "Stop whining. We're your best friends and we'll be unbiased because we both have completely different ideas on the situation."

"I suppose," Draco sighed, "So I kissed her. She was looking up at me with these big, beautiful eyes that were just screaming for me to take her home and I just felt so… I can't even explain it. Merlin, she's amazing. But, oh I just feel like a creep. I'm going to tell her everything."

"Hold up Draco, what?! No don't tell her anything!" Blaise yelled.

Theo shook his head at his friend, "Why are you encouraging this? It's Hermione Granger! Yes the war is over now and people are building bridges, but there's too much bad blood between her and him. Draco you're right, you should tell her the truth. What you should do, actually, is your job. Get her to come to the UK and get her memories back. If she somehow wants anything to do with you after you've betrayed her trust like this, then give it a go. The girl you're seeing, dating, whatever, that's not Hermione."

"It is," Draco muttered, his voice finding it hard to break through, "She's still the same. She just doesn't remember her past."

"Is she the same? Really? The way she's acting with you now is not the same as the way she used to when she knew you. She's acting the way she would if she were with Harry and Ron. If she did suddenly remember, do you think she'd be happily kissing you? I thought you were intelligent Draco."

The line went silent for a long time. The two boys thought that Draco had hung up on them but as they waited they could hear his strained breaths and the soft yet frustrated, 'fuck' he muttered. Theo felt bad for his friend but he couldn't not air his views on the matter. This whole situation was messed up. Trust Draco to finally find some goodness in his life in an impossible situation.

"I don't know what to do," Draco sighed, "It's not like I'm in love with her or anything but I've really gotten to know her these past weeks. She's everything I admire in a woman. I know that if I had been brought up differently that this could have happened naturally. We get on so well. I know it's wrong to have… feelings for her, but I do. I don't want to bring her back to the UK-,"

"So what then? You're going to stay there with her." The line went silent again and Theo's eyes widened, "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me."

"Look Theo it's easy for you. You have Daphne. You both love each other. Blaise is happy playing the field. You both have a person… or people in your case Blaise, that complete you. It's early stages right now, but that's how I feel about Granger. Whole. I know she feels similarly amd I know that the Granger we went to school with is still there. I know that she can remember. She looks at me sometimes and I can see it. I can see that she's trying to work out why she feels like she's met me before. I think it's a risk I need to take. I had hoped you'd both understand."

"We do Draco," Blaise finally spoke, giving Theo a warning glance, "If you want to pursue this then do. This could be it for you Draco."

They heard his dejected sigh over the other side of the phone as he mulled over Theo's words. "I suppose we'll see. I have to go."

The line went dead and Blaise hit Theo with the closest thing to him, a pillow. Theo simply glared at him and stormed off, knowing that this would only end badly.

Hermione arrived at work the next morning ten minutes late, Boo trailing in lazily behind her. She apologised to Lisa and insisted that she could stay ten minutes later to make up the time but Lisa simply laughed and waved her off. The two filled each other on their weekends though Hermione gave Lisa a very vague version of what had conspired between her and Draco on the beach. She wanted to keep it to herself for a while. Lisa gave her a pointed look but didn't press anymore, enjoying seeing Hermione so happy.

"Oh, something arrived for you anyway." Lisa said, smirking, "It's in the staff room."

Hermione sprinted to the room, leaving Boo staring after her. Her cat let out a tiny meow towards the direction Hermione had vanished in and then turned, climbing on top of her tower to eye up a small owl perched outside. Lisa noticed it too. Huh, she thought, an owl during the day?

In the staff room Hermione was completely baffled. In front of her stood a tall orchid, already in bloom and pure white. She reached her hand out to touch the soft petals of the plant and a shy smile appeared on her face. No one had ever bought her flowers before. Her eyes trailed down the stem and past the pot it was in, landing on a small envelope. Her fingers sliced through it quickly and clutched the card. Her lips stretched apart into a wide grin as she took in the words. Such lovely words.

Hermione,

This weekend was magical. I would like the opportunity to take you out properly. I would call you a wicked witch but I'm not quite sure that you're wicked at all.

I'll pick you up tomorrow at eight.

Draco.

P.S. Don't worry if you forget to water the flowers. I can assure you that the petals will not falter. Until tomorrow.