Draco and Hermione spent the rest of the evening getting to know each other the old fashioned way. She quizzed him on what muggle literature he'd actually read - a woefully small amount consisting only of the items she'd lent him or had in her room already. He asked her about how she managed to score top marks in fifth year transfiguration when he was sure he'd had her took turns sharing stories back and forth, being mindful to not let the room or its contents direct the conversation any longer.
When they parted ways it was with a smile and a tentative hug, and a wish to meet up again the following week to see how things go.
Later that night, after the evening at Hemlock as well behind him, Draco noticed that the door to the ritual room was closed up. A faint glow showed the outline of where the door should be, but the handle had disappeared and there was no physical difference between the wall and the door. He thought that was maybe for the best for now, and would deal with the aftermath of this strange new development later.
He walked into the breakfast room the following morning with a renewed spring in his step. His father was absent this morning, but his mother was sitting as her usual seat, delicately noshing on a bowl of yoghurt and berries. While Draco wanted to keep his new-again relationship with Granger - Hermione, he corrected himself - a secret from his parents, he knew there was no way he could avoid keeping his jubilant mood hidden from them during meal times, and would not be able to explain the door situation to them if they happened to take a walk through his quarters, which they were wont to do sometimes, particularly after the completion of the ritual.
"Morning, Mother," he greeted, reaching for a cup of tea this morning rather than coffee. With his more settled nerves he felt he could appreciate the warming comfort of a morning tea rather than the adrenaline kick the coffee normally imparted.
"Good morning," Narcissa greeted cautiously. It seemed his mood as of late required testing before engaging in conversation. Once she deduced that his smile was due to good spirits rather than a melancholy craze, she engaged a little more directly. "Did you have a good evening at Hemlock with Theo and Blaise?"
"Among others," he agreed, unable to suppress the smirk/smile hybrid that jumped to his lips and choosing to hide it behind his teacup instead.
"Indeed. And may I surmise that things have been improving with your partner?"
Even though Draco already convinced himself that he was not going to try to keep the rekindled relationship a secret from his parents, he was almost embarrassed about how little time it took for his mother to come right out and question it.
Life continued thus for the next two weeks. Draco spent his time looking forward to Hemlock, when he and Hermione would sit and chat while excluding almost everyone else at the table. They would be the first to arrive and the last to leave, ordering a refill on their beverages if they happened to remember and had an opportunity between the back and forth of conversation.
In between Thursday evening visits, Draco spent his time continuing to look through any of the books his father had on hand related to the ritual, and providing any resources to Hermione upon request. While the room aspects of the ritual made her a little squeamish (her words), she was fascinated by the interaction of the potions and magic and how it all connected to the ancient family line.
Since he previously lacked the incentive to delve so deeply into any of these tomes, Hermione's knowledge was quickly becoming level with or even surpassing his own. She now knew the location of the ancient ley lines and other buried magical infrastructure better than he did, which he assumed his parents would be none too pleased about should they find out. Draco's owl was working overtime delivering books back and forth; each trip carrying several shrunken and lightened volumes, as well as a swiftly written note signed off with a single letter, D or H.
On the next Thursday, Hermione spent the first hour of their chat talking about the most recent book Draco had sent and how it discussed some of the lesser known properties of some of the potion ingredients used for crafting some of the ritual potions. There was something about facilitating the connectedness between the heart and the mind or something to that effect; to be honest he was having trouble parsing her words when his eyes were trained on her perfect lips forming around them.
Seeming to sense that perhaps his interest in this subject was waning for the night, Hermione changed the topic to something more appealing.
"Would you say this is our third date?"
The question seemingly came out of nowhere. He supposed it might be, depending on when one started considering these chats 'dates'. "I suppose it could be," he answered.
She smiled shyly at him. "Have I ever told you what muggles sometimes say about the third date?"
It had taken all of three seconds and two stumbles for the two of them to find each other on the other side of the floo in Draco's bedroom. Their lips connected, and Draco's internal warm light exploded inside his chest.
He pushed her back up against the far wall, his hands immediately rushing to her thighs to lift her up and support her against the wall. He drank in the muffled moans that fell from her mouth into his own and dug his fingers into her hips.
"I feel it," she huffed, breath frantic against his lips. "In my chest. That glowing spark. Is it back for-"
"Hermione," Draco growled, pulling away from her just long enough. His hot eyes bore into hers. "Let's save it for later, yeah?" He pushed his lips against her neck and gave a heated kiss.
She moaned, in pleasure or agreement he wasn't sure, but either way the words died on her lips and her hands pushed firmly against his hair to keep him in place.
If questioned about how Draco managed to get Hermione from the floo parlour to his attached bed chamber, he wasn't sure he'd be able to recall. His entire body was consumed by a wave of burning lust, the last several weeks' worth of tension and longing and not being able to fucking come feeding the fire and making him feel like he was about to combust.
His memory started to receive some improved clarity only when his hips nestled between hers with just the thin material of her underwear between them, his clothes somehow already lost to the floor.
He found his mouth attached to her neck again, hands pawing roughly at her breasts and pushing the material of her bra aside. Her moans shot straight through his body, getting even more heated as they reverberated in his chest and continued straight to his groyne. He couldn't help the mimicking moan and harsh thrust of his hips that followed.
"Gods, Draco-" her hips ground against his as she moved her hot mouth over his neck in return. He felt her wet tongue creep out and caress a sensitive spot on the side of his neck before biting firmly and sucking.
A primal growl echoed through the room. He pulled back and crashed his lips against hers while he tugged her underwear completely off, quickly followed by his own.
He took a moment to appreciate her naked form before falling back to her. Hermione's coiled hair was even more chaotic than ever, splayed out around her head that was resting on his pillow. Her eyes were darkened and looking at him - at his cock - with barely restrained lust.
Her full breasts sat plumply on her heaving chest, nipples already hardened and peaking up from the soft mounds. He licked his lips as he admired them, and Hermione's whimper in response nearly broke his concentration. Overcoming the impulse to give in and just roll into her, Draco continued his appraisal of her body.
He admired the way her sides dipped in at her waist and out again to accommodate her hips. He relished the flatness of her stomach when she breathed in, and the slight plumpness when she breathed out. He was suddenly accosted by images of a far more rounded belly with taught skin, and he gasped in surprise and pleasure when his cock gave a very excitable twitch and pulse at the thought.
Her legs were pressed together at the knees and Draco tentatively traced his pointer finger down the line the connection of her legs made. Her legs almost instantly fell apart and she signed. Draco was able to see the darkened red of her lower lips glistening and waiting to be touched.
If the sight of her perked nipples almost had him abandoning his plan of visually appreciating her before diving in, her glistening wet centre was too much for him to overcome.
He used both his hands to push her legs further apart, settling them into the bed on either side and flattening her hips, causing her lips to spread even further apart and letting her rosy clit poke out from between them.
"Fuck Hermione, I need to taste you."
While it wasn't exactly phrased as a question, Draco still restrained himself for the three seconds it took for her to nod and moan "please…". As soon as the permission left her lips, Draco's own dove towards her centre and latched onto her clit.
Hermione was incredibly responsive almost immediately. Her hips thrust up to push more firmly against his face and she used her hands to pull her lips apart, providing him better access. The feeling of her fingertips on either side of his face while she pulled herself apart for him was a soft contrast to the pointed licking of his tongue.
"I don't understand," she managed to breathe out. "I normally don't… I - I normally need more build up to feel… fuck, Draco, your fingers, now." He swirled his fingers in her wetness to lubricate them and then immediately and firmly pressed them into her, curling them right away to start hitting the spot that caused her to fall apart last time.
She keened immediately, and her hands left from holding her lips apart to crushing his face up against her.
It was maybe thirty seconds, he wasn't quite sure. The only marker of time his brain was registering was how far apart or close Hermione's pants and grunts sounded. There was almost a note of surprise in each of her sounds just before they dissolved into pure carnal pleasure.
"I can't - I can't - it's too soon, I can't-" was Hermione's mangled chorus of words in between moans and pants that crept higher and higher in pitch, starting to become so close together tha one bled immediately into the next. "Oh my god, I'm going to - don't stop, don't stop, don't stop - Draco!"
Draco could feel the exact moment she tipped over the edge and fell into her orgasm, not just by the clenching around his fingers so tightly that it was hard to move them, or by the fluttering of her clit under his tongue, but by the intense burst of light from within his chest that made him groan and lips his hips up from the bed lest the slight scratch of the sheets against his weeping cock send him over the edge with her. He clenched his thighs and breathed harshly against Hermione's folds, careful to keep his stomach sucked in to prevent any jostling.
When her breathing evened and Draco felt like he could move without spontaneously coming apart, he crawled up her body and tested his weight against her. He nuzzled her neck, a hybrid of helping her come down gently from her orgasm while also hopefully keeping her body revved up for more.
Her face was flushed red and her chest was glistening with a thin layer of sweat. He licked tentatively at her neck, relishing in the salty taste of her skin and the feel of her body starting to squirm against him.
"Hermione…" he breathed against her lips. It again wasn't a question, not really, but he still paused to make sure she had an opportunity to back out or say no, even if he thought it might actually kill him if they stopped here.
She nodded, and in true Gryffindor fashion bluntly said "I'm ready, Draco. I want you."
That was more than enough for him, and he was worried that if he spent too much time internalising her words and the voice she used to say them he might bring a premature end to their evening.
He lined himself up at her entrance. Memories of fantasies rolled through his brain, but he knew they would be no comparison for the real thing. His heart was thudding in his chest, that glowing light exactly in tune. He rested his weight on his shoulders on either side of her and slowly curled his hips forward.
It felt like ecstasy as soon as he entered her. She was the perfect blend of softness, pressure and warmth. He had thoughts of teasing her, of entering her so slowly that she would bed him to move faster, but those thoughts flew out of his mind as soon as he thrust in. His hips surged forwards almost without permission until he was pushed as deep as he could inside her.
All of her sounds shot through him. Any reaction, however slight, was immediately recognized in his brain and processed to determine how much pleasure she was experiencing. He pulled out ever so slightly just so he could experience the feeling of pushing all the way back into her again.
Their mouths connected, almost bruising each other with crushing fervour followed by soft caresses. His hands were everywhere, running over her breasts and pushing on her shoulders and grabbing her hips to hold her down while he pressed into her again and again.
He wasn't going to last. He knew that coming into this, but now that he was here and hearing her, feeling her, watching her -
"Come with me, Hermione," he half instructed, half pleaded.
"I can't," she huffed, repeating what she'd said every time before he'd made her come. His thumb crept between their bodies and found her swollen clit, rubbing gently with each thrust. He felt her tighten around him as her pants quickened.
"I'm so close." The words fell from Draco's lips, but he could tell by looking into Hermione's eyes that it was the same for her. His thumb kept up a steady rhythm on her clit. "You're so tight, so fucking perfect-"
Her walls clamped down around him like a vice, and her voice sounded just as tight. "Fuck, fuck, please, please, I need, please-"
He could feel himself harden and tighten, feel the pressure mounting in his groin as his cock prepared to release. His thrusts were frantic now, increasing in pace to match Hermione's desperate pleas.
He leaned down and covered one of her nipples with his mouth, flicking his tongue over it with the hope of bringing her over the edge with him. As soon as he felt that tell-tale fluttering of her walls that told him he'd pushed her over, he finally let himself go, growling her name as he ruptured inside of her.
The light in his chest exploded at the same time, leaving his torso and spreading warmth throughout his entire body. It felt like it was seeping out of his skin and brushing up against Hermione's, mixing and swirling before pulling back in and warming him once more.
His brain felt like it was leaking from his ears. He barely had the wherewithal to roll to the slide to prevent himself from suffocating his new paramour before closing his eyes and falling unconscious.