Warning: There be lemons ahead! *wink*

Song Inspiration: Alive - Sia

Everytime We Touch (Yanou's Candlelight Mix) - Cascada

Chapter 26

Hermione gained her strength back a little bit at a time over each passing day. It started by moving from the bed to the armchair that had been brought into her room and placed by the window, so that she could look out at the ocean. Only a day or two later, she was walking down the hallway to the kitchen, Draco walking by her side and ready to catch her if she stumbled, so that she could join everyone at breakfast. They spent the majority of that day between mealtimes in the little sitting area just off the kitchen.

She was so happy to feel her body growing stronger every day and was finally starting to feel like she was getting back to normal.

The only times that she spent apart from Draco were when she and Harry and Ron closeted themselves in her room to talk…and plan.

"She kept asking me what else we had stolen from her vault," Hermione told the boys thoughtfully, recounting the frantic questioning that Bellatrix had subjected her to on that day. "Kept asking how I had gotten into her vault…"

She saw the way Harry and Ron looked at one another and knew that the three of them were all on the same page. There was definitely something being kept in the Lestrange vault, something that the thought of them taking had unhinged the already unstable witch. They had decided, after much conversation together, that they would speak with Griphook. Hopefully the goblin would be willing to help them in exchange for them saving his life.

Finally, the day arrived. All of their plans had been solidified and, regardless of the danger that the plan presented, they all knew they had no choice but to try to break into Gringotts and the Lestrange vault to find what it was that Bellatrix was hiding inside.

"I just think," Hermione said firmly, "that the only way we can hope to get into Gringotts is if I go disguised as Bellatrix. After all, they're never just going to let us waltz right into one of the oldest vaults in the place. You heard what Griphook said about the different enchantments that protect the Lestrange vault, and…"

Hermione broke off mid-sentence at the choked sound of disbelief and anger that came from the doorway behind her. She turned slowly to see Draco standing there. She had no idea how he had come in without any of the three of them hearing him, and she didn't know how much he had heard – though judging from the reddish flush on his cheeks and his tightly clenched jaw, it had been enough to figure out what they were planning.

"You have got to be…FUCKING…kidding me?!"

She winced slightly as his enraged shout filled the room, bouncing around in her already aching head and making her ears ring slightly.

"Now, Draco," she began, but he cut her off with a vicious swipe of his hand through the air.

"No, Granger! I can't believe that you would even consider something this foolish and irresponsible. Weasley and Potter? Sure, I can believe that they would be dense enough to think that there was any chance at all of this succeeding, but you? You're smarter than this," he spat angrily.

Hermione bristled at his words.

"You listen to me, Draco Malfoy!" she exclaimed angrily, rising to her feet to face him and planting her hands obstinately on her hips. "I do not need your permission to do what needs to be done. There is more at stake here than just my life."

"That's just it! It is your life at stake! You've barely even recovered from the last time, and now you want to rush out and put yourself in danger again. And you two," he added, turning to face Harry and Ron with a look of stone-faced anger on his face, "are just not going to rest until you get her killed, are you?"

"Malfoy, I promise you that I won't let anything happen to her," Harry said, but the look on Draco's face said he was far from being placated by his words.

"Draco," Hermione added, voice calm and soothing now as she tried to reassure him as well, "believe it or not, we actually do think things out. I will be just as safe with Harry and Ron as I am here in this cottage."

"And what exactly," he asked, turning back to her with eyes that roiled with emotions she couldn't readily identify, "am I supposed to do if you die, Granger? You are my heart, my very soul, and I can't survive in a world without you."

Hermione's heart clenched at his words and, with tears welling up in her brown eyes, walked over to him. She cupped his cheeks gently in her hands and tugged until his eyes met hers, locking the two of them in a world where only they existed. She leaned forward to place a gentle kiss to his lips and used her thumbs to smooth the frown lines from between his eyes.

"I promise that I will be careful, that me and Harry and Ron will all look out for one another and do our utmost to keep each other safe. But I have to do this. This could be our chance to end it all, how can we not take it? You know that we can't really be together in a world where You-Know-Who still lives, and I want to be with you, Draco: more than anything."

"Okay," he said, defeated by her words. "On one condition?"

"Anything," she said before really considering her words.

"I'm going with you."

Hermione felt her heart drop. There was no way that Draco Malfoy, who had supposedly been kidnapped by Harry Potter himself, could walk into Diagon Alley with them.

"Abso-fucking-lutely not!" Ron exclaimed before she could reply. "There's no way that a Death Eater is coming with us!"

"What Ron meant to say," Harry said with a glare at the redhead, "is that our plans won't accommodate an extra person."

Draco spent the next 20 minutes convincing them of the merits of bringing him with them. After all, he knew the pureblood vaults better than any of them, he knew from his own family vaults what kind of enchantments the Lestrange's might have added inside their own, unbeknownst to the Gringotts goblins, and he knew what to do should they run into any other Death Eaters while there.

"Plus," he added, once he saw that Harry and Ron were ready to capitulate, "I'm not letting Hermione put herself in danger without me there to help her watch her back."

"Alright," Harry said, nodding. Ron looked less than pleased but agreed as well. Hermione, though, had a pained expression on her face at the thought of him being in danger alongside the three of them.

"I don't like it," she said finally, arms crossed defensively over her body.

"Me either, Granger," he muttered.

That night, Hermione sat upright, legs crossed, in their bed. The four of them had spent the rest of the day revising all of their plans to include Draco, and the boys had finally left to go try to get a good night's sleep before they left in the morning to invade the most secure place in Wizarding England. Draco had left, too, telling her that he had wanted to go take a quick shower.

Hermione was left alone in the room, and her mind was swirling with thoughts of what might happen tomorrow. She hated the thought of Draco coming with them and putting himself in danger, as well. There was a tiny part of her, though, that was begrudgingly content at the realization that she wouldn't have to say goodbye to him again. After months on end of missing him, she wasn't sure she could have gone back to not seeing him, and being able to hold him close, so soon.

The door creaked open, and she looked up to see Draco walking in. He was wearing a plain white tee shirt and red and gold Gryffindor House sleep pants that Bill had loaned him on his first day at Shell Cottage. She had teased him mercilessly about how good he looked in Gryffindor red, which he did, but she thought she would always prefer him in his normal green and silver: no one else wore the Slytherin colors quite as well as he did.

He walked over to her, still toweling his damp hair as he came. He tossed the wet towel on the floor beside the bed and crawled in next to her, hauling her into his arms.

"I don't like this, Draco," she said again, worry coloring her words and making her sound unsure, hesitant.

Draco leaned over and placed a kiss to her lips.

"I know you don't. But I won't lose you again, Hermione. If that means that I must join Potter's merry little troupe of do-gooders, then so be it."

She smiled faintly at the words but said nothing, snuggling into his side more securely and burying her face in his neck. He smelled of soap and toothpaste but, underneath that, his own scent lingered, and she reveled in it.

"I don't know if I've told you this lately," she said, her voice muffled from where her mouth was buried against his throat, "but I love you, Draco Malfoy."

She didn't wait for his response, merely let her body lead her where she had been aching to go for so many months now. Pressing kisses to the strong column of his throat, she rose on her knees to look down at him.

His eyes were dark with desire, and when he tugged on her flimsy sleep shirt that had been given to her by Fleur, she allowed him to pull it over her head. Body bared to his gaze, she sat above him unembarrassed as his eyes roved her with a look so hungry, she could feel it almost like a physical touch. He reached up to reverently caress her breasts, and she moaned as he worshipped the sensitive flesh.

Only once he had her writhing above him did he move, flipping her onto her back and rising over her, stripping off his own tee as he did so. Hermione ran her fingers over the strong muscles of his abdomen, lingering on the scar that Harry had given him just a year ago.

Draco leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips that was so achingly tender, it nearly brought tears to her eyes, and she could feel his heart thumping heavily under her palms.

"You're mine, Granger," he said, voice husky with desire, "and I'm not letting you go ever again."

He swooped down again, and this time his kiss was firm and desperate. He hadn't pushed for anything more than gentle kisses and touches since they had been reunited, afraid to hurt her while she was still recovering, but she could taste all of his pent up passion in the fiery kiss that they shared now. Teeth and tongues and lips dueled for supremacy, giving and taking, and she reveled in the feeling of his body above hers.

Draco didn't bother to break their kiss as he reached between their bodies to push his pants down his legs before kicking them off. Her panties came next, and then his hand was buried in the place that had burned for him most.

She broke their kiss with a gasp at the feeling, digging her fingernails into his shoulders where she gripped him tightly. He brought her to the edge of passion quicker than she ever could have thought possible, and then she was flying.

She shuddered as she came back to herself and smiled up at him, her hands now petting gently over the crescent-shaped marks she had left behind on his pale skin. He didn't smile back, focused as he was on bringing their bodies together.

When he finally joined them together, their twin groans filled the small, quiet room, and Hermione found the sound deeply erotic. His quiet grunts sounded in her ears and her own moans joined his as they moved together in a primal rhythm. His movements became more and more erratic, and she could feel his body tensing over hers.

Knowing that he wouldn't last much longer, Draco snaked one hand in between their thrusting bodies to rub her little bundle of nerves. Her own movements began to falter in their rhythm, and then:

"You're mine, Hermione. Mine"

"Yours… And you are mine," she breathed reverently, and then they were flying together.

Hope you all enjoyed this one!

sbz