Ten

At seven am sharp, a loud noise woke Hermione, making her groan into the pillow when it wouldn't stop.

"Hermione, how the hell do you turn this bloody thing off?"

Her eyes snapped open at Draco's voice and only then she realized that the noise was her alarm.

Draco was sitting up, fiddling with her mobile unsuccessfully, his eyes barely open. Hermione took it from him and deactivated the alarm. He threw himself back down with a sigh of relief.

Hermione noticed that she had a text from Harry and cursed herself internally for forgetting to write to him. Especially when she just got him to start using a mobile.

She typed a quick response promising to call him later and rested her head back on Draco's pillows, which were so comfortable; she was pressed to suspect they were enchanted.

"Don't get too comfortable, my own alarm is going off in five minutes," he croaked, pointing at the clock hanging on the opposite wall.

"Why do you set it for seven o' five? That's so obnoxious." Hermione rubbed her eyes for a solid minute, during which Draco didn't answer.

She opened her eyes slowly, trying to make the brightness less intense, a blurry, topless Draco coming into focus. He was on his side, looking at her with a sly smile.

"I would tell you how your perfectionism is so obnoxious, but since you look so ridiculously good waking up half naked on my bed, I'm going it let it slide," Draco remarked smoothly.

She blushed unexpectedly, clinging to the sheets covering her. She had put her underwear and top back on, but not the bra or rest of her clothes. At some point she had considered going back to her place, but Draco's arms were so tightly wrapped around her that she was forced to lie to herself and pretend it was just convenient because they had work tomorrow at the same time.

"Can I take a shower here?" she asked, suddenly shy despite the fact that she did things with Draco that she had never done on a first date.

Not that she'd had many first dates.

"Of course, there are extra towels in the drawer under the sink." He was eying her hungrily and she was almost certain he would have joined her in the shower if she wasn't acting so embarrassed by his advances.

"Alright, thanks." Hermione didn't want Draco to watch her so uncovered in broad daylight, but she sure as hell wasn't going to act too self-conscious in front of him, so she gathered all her courage and threw the covers away, walking with pretend confidence to the bathroom without looking back. She heard his alarm going off after closing the bathroom door.

She came out a while later smelling exactly like Draco did every day and she wondered if anyone would be able to notice.

He was waiting for her, already dressed and freshly showered as well.

Hermione frowned. "How many bathrooms are in this place?"

"Only two," he answered simply, knowing she must have been expecting a larger number.

"Oh." She took a moment to look around the room, as she had been too distracted to appreciate it before. It was fairly minimalistic and modern, an almost opposite of the heavily decorated antique style she had witnessed at the manor. She wondered how many other things in Draco's life were the contrary of his old life.

"Ready?" he asked, gently wiping away a droplet of water on her cheek.

She smiled. "Sure."

.

After a long and complicated day of dealing with ridiculous Ministry antics (two Muggleborn kids abandoned by their religious parents and the ministry didn't know whether to take them in or not because they were not eleven yet and Draco couldn't believe he of all people had to fight for these kid's lives just because they weren't ready for freaking Hogwarts yet.) Draco really needed to unwind.

That's why he was so glad when someone knocked at his door.

"It's open," he called and then smiled devilishly when Hermione walked in.

"We really need to stop using work memos for this. Someone will discover it eventually." She seriously needed to work on better greetings.

"What do you suggest? An owl?"

She rolled her eyes. "How about a mobile? You should get one, as head of Muggle Relations..."

Draco mimicked her eye roll. "I do have one, Hermione. I know how to do my work."

"Well give me your number then," she looked at him expectantly as she took out her own mobile.

"Umm, it's... I don't usually give it out let me just find it," he stumbled awkwardly and tried really hard not to blush as he fished out the device from the bottom of his drawer and tried turning it on, unsuccessfully

Hermione was looking at him through narrowed eyes.

"You don't know how to use it, do you?"

He bit the inside of his cheek and crossed his arms over his chest. No use in lying to her.

"Look," he started, suddenly defensive. "There are some things I can get behind. Planes, X-Ray machines, recycling. But this? This thing makes no sense! It's too smart of its own good, I don't trust it one bit."

Hermione started laughing, irritating him even further. "Sorry, sorry," she apologized, shaking her head and trying to stop. "But really, there's nothing to trust or not trust, it's pretty basic once you get the hang of it. I'll teach you."

His scowl was deadly. "Or maybe I'll get Harry to teach you, since you look like you want to bite my head off."

Right then, there was a knock at his door and Hermione frowned when Draco called out. "Come in."

Harry entered and Hermione instantly beamed. "Harry!"

He looked from her to Draco and back again, smiling softly and closing the door behind him. "Hi. I didn't know you'd be here," Harry told her and Draco watched as Harry's body visibly relaxed as he walked further into his office, immersing himself in the magical energy of the room. He loved this office more than his own house.

"I didn't know you'd be here either, I was just about to call you to see if you wanted to come to my place after," Hermione answered, and then they both turned to look at him.

Draco smiled, trying to forget about Hermione's mocking of his abilities with Muggle technology, and focus on the matter at hands. "I told you both to come here."

They looked confused for a second, but then they exchanged an amused look, probably surprised that Draco was just doing something nice and wanted to spend time with them.

"Why are you still standing? There's plenty of room, just sit wherever you want." Draco motioned to the big sofa encircling the room and stepped around his desk to join them.

He sat next to Harry, who was now between him and Hermione.

"I just thought since we've already been through half of the dating process, and everybody's been with everybody separately, we should discuss how things are going. You know, just checking in."

The look on their faces made something tighten in his chest and his stomach dropped when he realized it was happiness. They looked so bloody happy and all he had done was invite them to his office to check in on them. Hermione's lovely full lips were stretched into an honest smile that made him have flashbacks of last night, and Harry's green eyes were unusually bright and striking from behind those ridiculous glasses of him.

If Draco was completely honest with himself, he just wanted to see Harry and Hermione and interact with both of them at the same time. He was tired of the individual dates, and he had only been on two.

If he was even more honest, he wanted to smack himself on the head for thinking that the two goofy grins in front of him were the best part of his day.

"So?" he snapped, in an attempt to retain his composure. "Do you have anything to say?"

Harry cleared his throat. "Well, why don't you tell me about your date first?" he looked at both of them.

"You haven't told him?" Draco asked Hermione, surprised.

She shook her head. "Like I said, I was going to meet him after work and tell him in person."

The atmosphere seemed suddenly heavy, the three of them looking at each other with uncertainty and it was Harry who finally broke the silence.

"Did you, um...do it?"

Draco stared at Hermione's unstoppable blush with delight, and his smile must have been wicked because when Harry saw it, his pupils dilated. Harry looked surprised and curious, his lips slightly parted and his gaze questioning. One of the things he enjoyed the most about these two Gryffindors was the way everything affected them so much. They got angry and explosive but then soft and sensitive within the same minute, roused by words, melted by touches, and all he wanted to do was experience that intensity with both at the same time.

"Not really," Hermione replied. Draco could see how hard it'd be for her to talk to Harry about what they had done, so it was all the more reason to push her.

He scooted just a bit closer to Harry. "Tell him," Draco encouraged her and she swallowed, a nervous smile now playing on her lips.

"We just touched. Like, touched each other. And then we stayed over at Draco's and came here in the morning."

Harry had been serious up until now, when his lips turned up in a small smile. "Okay."

"I was hoping for a bit more detail than that," Draco almost groaned in frustration at how shy they could be when they were together. He hadn't really seen them on their date, but when he was alone with Harry and then alone with Hermione, they didn't seem this self-conscious.

It was probably because they had been friends for so long. More than ten years, really. It was like if he suddenly tried to hook up with Blaise, or Pansy. He shuddered just thinking about it.

At this rate, Draco realized it could take months until they all finally got to have sex together. That is, if he didn't do anything about it.

"But since we're on the subject," he started. "Maybe it's better if we stop telling and start showing."

He did what his gut was telling him to do ever since they walked in his office, too desperate to keep waiting for perfect moments and trial dates.

Draco pulled Harry towards him, both hands cupping his face as he kissed his parted lips. When he heard the soft gasp coming from Hermione, it only made him kiss Harry harder, slipping his tongue in his mouth and relishing in the way the other boy started to kiss back, ignited by his advances. He could feel the heat radiating from him, his cheeks hot, his neck flushed, his hands coming to grip Draco's shoulders like a vice, and this is exactly what he wanted to feel from him, what he wanted Hermione to see, what made him want to throw all caution to the wind and continue with this crazy proposition from her.

He softly slowed down the kiss until their tongues were just moving languidly against each other, tasting warm desperation in Harry, who seemed to want to return to the fast paced devouring of their mouths. Draco wanted nothing more than to comply him, so much that he was getting ridiculously hard just by feeling Harry try to restrain himself, but he had other plans in mind and he needed to continue. He bit Harry's tongue just enough to earn a whimper from him and then he broke the kiss, pecking him once on the lips before moving Harry's head away from him, making him face Hermione.

When Draco looked at Hermione, his breath hitched in his throat. She was literally on the edge of her seat, completely immersed in watching them, her hands curled tightly around the strap of the purse she hadn't removed for some unfathomable reason. Her mouth wasn't hanging open like he expected, instead it was shut tight, her jaw tense, and her eyes wide. It was hard to tell if she was nervous, aroused, or just fascinated. But when she saw that Draco turned Harry her way, Draco watched her release the breath she had been holding and immediately lean into him, purse dropping to the floor.

Harry was the one who seemed surprised, though, as if he hadn't had time to process one kiss when suddenly he was in the middle of another. Draco wanted to laugh, he wanted at least to smirk, but all he could manage was try not to blink as Harry slowly caught on, his hands coming up to Hermione's waist as her own caressed his neck and hair. Their kiss was neither slow nor fast, it was symmetrical and equally paced, like they had connected without trying, and each knew what the other would do before they did it and reacted accordingly.

It was perfect.

He wondered if it was going to be that perfect every time. If the perfection would stick even in a mess of limbs and sweat and desire. Even in the midst of awkward movements and position shifting. Even with him in the middle.

When he was with Hermione last night, he knew she hadn't decided what she wanted to do with him. She was carried away, overcome with sensations, and Draco knew that feeling well. But he had been too busy thinking to really be there like she was. He wanted to have sex with her, hell, he would have done it right then in his pub when she first told him she was attracted to him. But he wasn't sure she really wanted to do it without Harry. So he didn't try.

It was okay, though. Maybe it was better if they waited to be all together. Maybe it wouldn't be perfect, but there wouldn't be anyone left behind.

Their kiss had picked up speed, and so did Draco's heart, beating wildly against his chest. They were two of the most beautiful people he had ever seen, and together they seemed to be more than the sum of their parts; it was like a whole new experience in beauty.

He worried for a second about not giving them enough time before his legs started moving on their own, standing up and going to sit on Hermione's other side now. She felt him and immediately placed a hand on his thigh, his stomach dropping unexpectedly. He almost didn't want to break them apart.

Almost.

Draco's hand caught Hermione's chin and when she moved away from Harry, the boy opened his eyes. Draco stared at him for a moment, licked his bottom lip and tried to send him a look that said; 'Now is your turn to watch'.

He turned Hermione's head sideways and covered her mouth with his. As soon as she parted her lips, he couldn't help the low grunt forming deep in his throat. Because now he could feel Harry on her, his scent and his taste mixed delightfully with hers, and he had no idea it would be this evident and exhilarating. Hermione gripped his thigh harder and moved her body more towards him. He wondered if she could taste Harry on his tongue too, he wondered if she found it was thrilling as he did, and he wondered if Harry was still touching her.

Curiously, he lowered the hand on her chin down her neck, making her shiver, and then lower until he met Harry's hand still on her waist. He was drawing circles there, but stopped to grab Draco's hand and place it over the curve right above Hermione's hip, and then covered the hand with his own. Draco had a hard time focusing on anything, his mind was just a swirl of different thoughts that he couldn't make sense of, but the one thing that stood out was that he had no idea how he was going to get through actual sex with them without internally combusting first.

His past sexual experiences, although entertaining and generally very pleasant, were too numbed out by the fact that he didn't know any of the people. They had been one, or two night stands at the very best, and he didn't know anything about them other than names and ages. When he started flirting with Hermione and Harry, he never imagined it could lead anywhere; it was just his way of showing confidence and honestly, getting them flustered for his own amusement.

But now he was touching them and kissing them and he couldn't believe his own goddamn luck that Hermione had come to him with such a golden opportunity, one that hadn't even made an appearance in his wildest fantasies, one that he snatched right away without even thinking about it.

Memories of the night before with Hermione flooded his brain and he was so hard it was difficult to think straight. He heard someone taking a sharp intake of breath and it took him too long to realize it had to be Harry, since he and Hermione had their mouths glued together. He opened his eyes slightly to find Harry staring hungrily at him, but it was with mortification that he realized that Harry wasn't looking at his face.

Draco felt his face flushed with embarrassment because Harry was staring at the ridiculous tent in his trousers, like he was some kind of hormonal sixteen year old, so he closed his eyes again.

He wanted to keep this going, he was too intoxicated with the feeling of having them both so closed and willing. Without mulling it over too much, he took a hold of Harry's hands and slowly dragged them up Hermione's sides and then pulled them forward, swiftly covering her breasts with Harry's hands, his own right on top.

Hermione broke the kiss with a gasp and they both opened their eyes. He almost let out a gasp of his own when he was confronted with two striking, big, black orbs. He could barely see the line of usual brown surrounding her pupils, her eyes so dark and deep, he felt like they might swallow him whole if he wasn't careful.

"I..." she shifted uncomfortably and both boys immediately removed their hands. When Hermione stood up Draco felt his stomach sink, hard.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have," he started but closed his mouth at the shaking of her head.

"It's okay, it's okay. It wasn't that, I'm just... I need to go."

Both he and Harry stared up at her in disbelief, but he was the one who spoke. "Hermione you can tells us what's wrong."

"Nothing, there's nothing wrong. I just have to go. I have work to do. For tomorrow," she explained in a rush, still looking so aroused it was hard to believe the words coming out of her mouth.

Draco frowned. "It's barely seven."

Hermione picked up her purse. "I'm sorry," she stared down at both of them. "We'll talk soon, yes?"

Draco realized Harry hadn't said a thing, and when he turned to look at him, it shocked him how sad he seemed. He thought Harry would at least be curious or concerned for her, but he wasn't even looking at Hermione, but down at his shoes.

She gave them one last apologetic look before walking out.

Harry was still silent and Draco had no idea what to say. Hermione was clearly not telling them the truth, and he must have known too. They remained like that in silence for a while and Draco couldn't help but let his eyes trail all over Harry's form, thinking how he didn't look anything like the boy he loved to hate at school. His jaw line was strong and defined, his hair was longer, his body filled out admirably, there was even the shadow of stubble coloring the lower half of his face.

Draco saw his scar then, and he found it strange how he never remembered it anymore when he thought of Harry. Even though it was his trademark, nowadays Draco usually never even noticed it. But it reminded him that this was Harry Potter, the boy who lived, England's most famous wizard, the man who defeated Voldemort.

And here he was, looking like a lost puppy because Hermione was too stubborn to be straight with them. It made him feel a strange sadness for him.

He must really love her.

Draco placed his hand on Harry's knee, trying to be comforting for once, only to have him stand up abruptly too.

"I'm gonna go, Malfoy."

Fuck no.

Draco got to his feet in a second, his hands turned into fists and his jaw firmly set.

"My name is Draco," he hissed dangerously.

Harry was rooted in the spot, his green eyes now wide in shock as he took in Draco's angered expression. They stared at each other for a moment and Draco couldn't believe he had to spell this out for him.

It was one thing for Hermione to leave in the middle of a snogging session, but he'll be dammed if he was going to let Harry start calling him 'Malfoy' like the past few weeks hadn't happened at all.

Harry looked down and very deliberately, his lips started turning up into a sad smile.

"You're right, I'm sorry."

Draco's shoulders slumped as he relaxed somewhat. "Alright. Our second date is next, you know. You better plan something spectacular like I did. I won't settle for a crappy tent and a memory like Hermione."

Harry chuckled even though Draco's tone was completely serious.

"What's so funny? I'm not joking." Draco resisted the urge to scowl.

Harry closed the distance between them and leaned in until his lips were right next to Draco's ear. Draco shivered involuntarily.

"I promise I will blow your mind, Draco."

Before Harry got a chance to step away, Draco took a hold of his wrist to pull him closer and then embraced him in a hug.

It took Harry no time to react and he wrapped his arms around him too. Draco closed his eyes for a moment, basking in the feeling of comfort he would never admit he needed. Harry even caressed the hair on the back of Draco's head and he wanted nothing more but to lean into it and drop his head on the other man's shoulder.

Draco tried really hard not to think about why they stayed like that for so long, or if there was even an explanation other than the fact that they were dating and this was supposed to be normal.

It almost scared him how normal it felt.

He remembered that Harry had wanted to go so he started to loosen his grip on him. As they broke apart, Harry slid one of his hands from the back of Draco's head to his cheek and held it there for a moment while he gave Draco a warm smile. It had been a while since Draco felt so protected, so cared for, and he had to hold his own arms firmly to his sides to keep himself from embracing Harry again. He also bit his tongue, afraid he might blurt out something ridiculous and embarrassing like thank you.

Harry dropped his hand and stepped back. "I'll come get you for the date as soon as I finish planning it."

Draco could only nod.

Harry headed for the door. "Not that I don't know what I'm going to do, but there's a few things I need to prepare."

Draco nodded again as he watched him reach for the doorknob, only to turn around again.

"But it won't be too long. A couple of days at the most."

"Just bloody go already," Draco snapped, without any malice. He didn't miss Harry's last smile before he left, closing the door behind him.

Draco collapsed on the sofa and cursed the very air that still smelled like them. He closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose and replaying the events that occurred in the last hour.

At the end, he couldn't decide if he needed a cold shower, or a hot one.

Author's notes: Sorry this took so long, but life is hectic. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thanks to divergentofhogwarts for the beta work! Thanks all for reading and reviewing ;)