Chapter 56 - Belonging
**CONTENT WARNING: Rated-MA smut ahead! Please skip this chapter if you are uncomfortable with content. Note that participants are over 18 and everything is consensual.**
Dinner was delicious, but Hermione found that she didn't have much of an appetite. Her stomach was already full of flutters, in anticipation of what would happen after dinner. If Draco felt the same nervousness however, he didn't let it show, and instead carried on through the dinner as though nothing out of the ordinary were about to happen.
In fact, for all Hermione knew, maybe now it wouldn't, not after that message from his mother's patronus. Were Draco's thoughts even now on what she'd asked for?
Or were they also...
Once they'd finished dinner, Draco led Hermione out onto the terrace, to look out over the lake. Hermione gasped in wonder to see what appeared to be a surface of stars before her, as the still waters of the lake perfectly mirrored the starlit sky. Back at home and in London, the stars were never this clear, thanks to all the light pollution, but everything around Draco's lakehouse was so untouched, so private, that she was able to see nature in all its glory.
Perhaps, at Hogwarts, Hermione might have seen the same such sights—if she'd had the time to notice. But now, with Draco beside her, everything seemed much more vivid, much more real.
Turning to him, Hermione slid her hand into his and drew his attention. "You are trying to woo me," she teased. "First dinner, complete with expensive wine, and now a starlit view? All that's missing is flowers and chocolate, and it's every woman's dream come true."
Draco smirked, rolling his eyes. "I wouldn't be that cliché, Hermione. Besides which, the dessert was chocolate fudge—or didn't you notice?"
Hermione winced, as he had indeed noticed her lack of appetite. "I couldn't seem to find anywhere to put it, but rest assured that tomorrow I'll try it. You culinary skills won't go to waste, I assure you."
Draco sniffed, bringing Hermione closer into his embrace. "Whatever, Granger. I never thought you were much for sweets, anyway."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Draco didn't say anything for so long that Hermione thought he wouldn't answer, but then he admitted, "Every time you've come here, and at Shell Cottage, I noticed that you never partook of anything too sweet. You sampled a few things to be polite, but you never finished what was on your plate." Suddenly, he frowned. "Actually, more than once I caught Weasley filching your leftovers. I never realized he was such a glutton."
Hermione almost felt like calling Draco out on his comment regarding Ron, but she didn't want the redhead to be at all present in their evening. Thinking of Ron, she couldn't help but remember how she had once, long ago thought she'd loved him, and how, even now, she sensed that every time he looked at her it was with a forlorn hope that...
Draco seemed to have guessed the direction of her thoughts, for he then kissed her and abruptly brought her back to the present. "Sorry I brought up him," he muttered, tilting Hermione's chin up so that she looked at him—only at him. "It's just that the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't stand it: how much time you spent together before, how the bloke's in love with you even now, and how you once—"
"Once, Draco," Hermione said. "Once, long ago. But the war's changed all that, just as I've changed and just as you've changed. I realized then, for the first time, that I couldn't depend on Ron, and..." She hesitated, admitting this to herself for the first time. "I don't think that I'll ever truly be able to forget that. Oh, I've forgiven him, of course, but things can never be as they once were between us—and especially not romantically, not now that I...with you..." She blushed, looking away.
"Yeah, well, I'm better-looking, anyway," Draco said, shocking Hermione so much at the narcissistic comment that she gaped back at him.
"You—"
"Am handsome, I know," Draco chuckled, brushing Hermione's cheek with the back of his hand. "And that's one of the many reasons you fell for me, isn't it?"
Hermione sniffed, not really denying what he said, but not willing to admit how much she did find him attractive—especially now, as he wore that particularly devilish smirk on his lips. "You think too much of yourself, Malfoy," she said. "What about how you fell for me?"
Draco shrugged, looking characteristically nonchalant. "I suppose there are parts of you that are attractive. From what I can see, anyway." He moved his hand to brush through her hair. "Here, for instance..." Then he moved down to her mouth. "Here, of course, and..." And then his fingers traced over her throat, gradually descending at a pace that Hermione found maddening, especially as his touch left heat behind with every movement. "Everything else, I'd imagine." He stepped back for a moment, letting go of her altogether. "But then, my imagination's not the best."
Hermione's mouth had suddenly gone dry as she realized where he was going with this, what he was more than suggesting. "I...I thought you said earlier that you had quite a vivid imagination," she breathed.
Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Did I?"
"I...I think?" Though, right at the moment Hermione had a hard time thinking. The only thought that did keep surfacing over and over again was that she didn't want Draco to feel so distant—even though he was standing right in front of her, though of course they weren't touching...
Just as Hermione did reach out for him though, Draco stepped back and opened the door so they could go back inside. "The lighting's better in here," he murmured, though Hermione wasn't sure that she heard him right. If anything, she felt as though she was under the effects of a spell, or maybe it was the wine from dinner. In any case, she felt drawn to him in a strange way, as though she were prey and he the predator.
Why was it then that nothing was screaming at her to get out of there, but quite the opposite instead?
Once inside, Draco reached for her hand and led her upstairs, as casually as though giving her a tour of the lakehouse for the first time. If not for how rapidly Hermione felt his heart beating through their intertwined hands, she might have thought that Draco was completely unaffected by where things were going. If only she knew...
Upstairs, Draco turned down a hallway that Hermione hadn't explored before, heading for what could only be his room. It was much as Hermione expected, a mixture of whites, silvers, blacks, and especially greens, everything to suggest that it belonged to a dangerous and powerful Slytherin. But while Hermione felt herself captive under Draco's power, she didn't feel any danger coming from him—none that she wished to avoid, anyway.
Draco closed the door behind them, shutting her in. Hermione finally turned to look at him, and what she saw took her breath away.
She'd heard before of men looking hungry with lust, and felt the gazes of interested teenage boys more than once on her body. But with Draco, it wasn't just hunger or lust: it was ravenousness, a need that went deeper than anything Hermione had ever seen before. She felt shivers all across her skin as Draco approached her, and yet she felt hotter than ever, rooted to the spot and yet aching to move.
"Hermione..." Draco breathed, and the way he said her name came out as almost a hiss. Hermione wished he would just reach out and touch her already, but then she noticed that his hands were clenching and unclenching, and it was then that she realized that Draco was trying very hard to control himself.
Whatever he wanted to do, whatever had passed through his mind when he'd planned and envisioned this...it was almost as though he was afraid to bring it to reality.
He needed her...he desired her that much...
Merlin, if she hadn't been turned on before, Hermione certainly was now, and was convinced that she wouldn't need any preparation to be ready for him now—just his look was enough to make her wet.
And she was wet, Hermione realized, a pooling heat between her legs and an aching throb that grew more urgent by the minute. She had never reacted this way, never knew it was possible to feel this way, but all of a sudden it seemed imperative that she find out where this was going, where it could go. Only Draco wasn't making the first move, wasn't reaching out to touch her. Hermione yearned for it, and yet something told her that if she said anything, it would break the strange, tangled spell that seemed to have come over her and Draco, something that had weaved between them and bound them together ever since they'd first declared that they had feelings for each other.
It was all coming to fruition now, but whatever they did, they couldn't rush it, couldn't treat it as something less than it was.
And it was nothing less than all-consuming. They both wanted this too much to say or do anything that might ruin it.
Hermione realized that she would have to get the ball rolling—Draco might not be able to do anything otherwise, for fear that he'd hurt her. For, underneath the consuming lust of his gaze, the ever-present wanting that she saw when he looked at her, Hermione also deciphered fear, and she knew where it stemmed from. Before he could have his way with her the way he obviously wanted to, Draco Malfoy had to be convinced that it was alright to do so.
But Hermione was far too shy to reach out and touch Draco directly, and wasn't sure that it was the right move anyway. Apart from his hands, Draco was entirely stiff and still, a lump forming in his throat that he couldn't seem to swallow back. He'd only spoken her name once, but so much more lay unspoken beneath the surface. Hermione, however, found the words that she wanted to say, and as she whispered them, they did more than a simple touch ever could:
"I love you, Draco. Please, let's..."
But she didn't finish that thought, and instead stepped back. Draco looked ready to protest, but then Hermione reached for the cord that kept the robe wrapped around her. Draco stared in wide-eyed fascination as Hermione shrugged it off, the thick fabric pooling at her feet and leaving her in just her bra and panties before him.
Draco's gaze intensified as he looked at her, his eyes wandering over every inch of exposed skin. Hermione was glad that there was only low candlelight around the room, but that revealed enough. Draco stepped forward, less of the hesitation present than before.
"L-let me do it the first time," Hermione whispered, biting her bottom lip. "I-I want you to see me before we decide..."
Draco's eyes rose to meet her own. "There's nothing to decide, Hermione," he said, his voice firm yet just as breathless. "I've been waiting and wanting this for so long that..." He glanced down at his own rigid form, his hands stilling. "I feel like a cobra now, about to strike. It's not something I've ever felt before, and it's...petrifying..."
Hermione frowned, furrowing her brow. "I thought cobras only strike when they're afraid."
"Exactly," Draco confirmed. "I am afraid—afraid that if I don't reach out and take you, that you'll disappear, but that if I do take you, the same thing will happen. Like it all just...isn't real."
Hermione was silent. And then, in one quick movement before she could rethink it, she reached around behind her and unclasped her bra. It slipped off her easily, leaving her bare from the waist up, her body open to Draco's inspection.
Or, complete devouring, it should be said, as Draco feasted on every lewd inch of her.
"Bloody Merlin," he hissed.
So quickly that she didn't have time to even draw a breath, he reached out for her at last and crushed her body to his. Hermione opened her mouth to protest, wanting to undress him or maybe take off her panties at least—preferably both—but Draco cut her off with a deep, consuming kiss. He growled deep in his throat as he invaded her mouth with his tongue, thrusting wildly and drawing a deep moan from Hermione as she felt herself ravished with just a kiss.
Merlin, he's...! Oh, fuck, what did I just do?
But it was too late to go back now, too late to stop what she'd unleashed in Draco by revealing herself to him. He kissed her like a drowning man desperate for air, and left her entirely bereft of anything—breath, thought, reservations.
Wrapping her arms around him, Hermione brought him closer still, not realizing until she heard Draco's moan in return that she was rubbing against him, bringing friction and much-needed release from the tension in her breasts and nipples, hard as pebbles and needing to be touched.
Breaking away at last, Draco gazed down at Hermione, completely lost to whatever had overtaken him. He had no further reservations either, and it had taken so little to bring him to this.
Or...no, it had taken both of them entirely too long and too much to come to this—there was definitely no going back.
"I'm never going to let you go," Draco breathed. "You belong to me, Hermione—now and always."
"Yes," Hermione gasped, as he suddenly dove down and suckled at her neck, his hand suddenly at her breast and fondling her delicately. She wanted to tell him that he belonged to her as well, but then Draco's mouth followed his hand and she was incapable of saying anything at all.
"Ah! I—oh! Mm...Draco...aaah..."
Nothing had ever felt so good as his mouth around her nipple, where he alternated between rough bites and low, languid licks. When he sucked first one hungry bud and then the next, Hermione clenched her thighs, the ache between her legs stronger than ever before. She pushed Draco away slightly, reaching between her legs with her hand, needing to relieve the pressure in any way.
But Draco caught her by the wrist before her fingers reached their destination, and Hermione whimpered in wanton need. If she didn't touch herself soon, she would...
"I said you are mine, Hermione," Draco growled. "All of you, and that means only I can touch you there."
"Then please...please hurry..." Hermione begged, too frustrated to register how wanton and needy she sounded. She just wanted him to touch her now.
Chuckling, Draco finally obliged, brushing her hand aside and reaching with his fingers for her slit. He cursed under his breath as he felt how wet she was, stroking her back and forth and bringing only teasing little touches to her nub. Hermione moved her hips unconsciously, trying to get him to touch where she so desperately needed, but Draco always held back, breathing heavier with his frustrated move that Hermione made.
"Please...undress, Draco," she breathed, unable to take it any longer. Leaning forward, she kissed his exposed throat, reaching out with her tongue to drive him as wild as he was driving her. Draco's breath hitched, and he stilled once more as Hermione, feeling bolder because of her passion, reached out with both hands to undress him. She deftly took off his tie and undid his buttons, all the while placing light, teaching kisses along his throat and then his chest.
"Hermione..." Draco warned her, trembling uncontrollably as she steadily kissed lower.
Hermione flicked his nipple with her tongue, earning a barely-suppressed moan in response. "You are mine too, Draco," she said huskily, shrugging off his shirt and leaving him exposed before her. "Do I get to do as I please as well?"
She gasped in surprise as she felt Draco's hands on her, clasping her bottom and bringing her forward to rub against him. Hermione moaned aloud at the pleasure of feeling him skin-to-skin for the first time, and reached down frantically to undo his belt. Draco helped her along, hooking his fingers on top of her panties, which were already soaked through. In another moment, they were both fully undressed, their bodies meshing and rubbing together without hesitation. Both moaned as they continued to kiss, suckling and drinking of each other's essence.
It felt unreal to Draco as he pushed Hermione back against the bed—his bed—and then pulled back a moment to look his fill. Here she was, this perfect, beautiful witch, all his for the taking. Her eyes were so filled with passion, with desire, with love for him, that it almost undid him then and there. Leaning forward, he kissed Hermione once more before focusing his attentions on other parts of her body, pausing numerous times to simply kiss and feel and know that she was with him.
Hermione was not as patient as Draco though, and squirmed in earnest to get him to touch her where she needed him to. Her fingers twitched, needing to touch and relieve herself, but Draco had made it clear that he was in control, and she wanted to see what he would do. He worked his tongue, teeth, and mouth maddeningly around her nipples, creating a stronger throb between her legs every time he bit just a bit too roughly.
"Please, please...please Draco!" she begged, stopping him from continuing downwards towards her stomach.
Draco looked up, amusement and lust equal parts in his stare. "I'm only getting started," he informed her, licking his lips. "I've already planned what I'm going to do next."
His devilish look caught her off guard, even more so when he dove down in the next moment, his tongue on her clit, lapping up her juices and both relieving yet intensifying the throb between her legs with every slight movement.
Hermione screamed in pleasure, clenching her thighs instinctively but then forced to keep them open as Draco suddenly used a binding spell on her, keeping her legs eagle-spread across the bed. Opening her eyes and looking down, Hermione saw that he had accio'd his wand nonverbally. The fact that he had been able to do so even in the midst of bringing her such pleasure only made her wetter.
"D-Draco, w-what—"
"You weren't obeying, so you left me no choice, Granger," Draco said, giving her a dark look that made her tingle in all the right ways. "I think I'll enjoy making his harder on you."
Hermione gasped in shock and then made an incoherent sound part pleasure and part desperation as he continued his ministrations, nearly coming then and there when his tongue finally entered her channel. Draco groaned deep in his throat, appreciative of how wet she was, before returning to her clit and then slowly, so slowly she thought she might die waiting, slid a finger into her.
It was the first time for Hermione...the first time for anything...but it wasn't nearly enough.
"I want you, Draco—now!" Hermione shrieked as suddenly, without at all wanting to just yet, she felt herself at the apex of pleasure and came, clenching repeatedly around Draco's finger as he continued tonguing her slit.
No, no, no! Hermione thought, close to tears with pleasure. She'd wanted her first time to be while Draco was inside her!
Draco himself felt no such regrets though, far too satisfied at having seen Hermione so pleasured and fulfilled. By him. He was even a little turned on by the fact that she was almost crying in pleasure. That was something that he wanted to see—over and over and over again. Right now, his lust knew no bounds, and he was almost tempted to torture her more times by making her come, before he himself was fulfilled.
But Hermione was crying now, looking at him with such desperation that it was almost heartbreaking.
Releasing her from her bonds, Draco slid his body up until he could kiss the dampness away from her eyes.
"Was it that good?" he chuckled.
"Oh, Draco, yes," Hermione moaned, bringing her hands up to entwine them in his hair. "B-but I wanted you inside when I—"
"Sssh," Draco whispered, kissing her softly. "I'll make you come again. We have all night, and then next time you do, I'll be inside you." He paused. "If you're sure."
Hermione came to herself enough to glare at him and then, in as bold a move as any she'd ever tried, she reached down and grasped his cock in her hand.
Draco made a strangled sound at the suddenness of the action, but couldn't move away as she slowly began to stroke him, her fingers playing over his shaft in all manner of ways that made him grind his teeth as he tried to keep control.
"Feel that?" Hermione whispered, unrelenting. "That's what you just did to me, Draco. Do you want to come before you're inside me?"
"No," Draco ground out.
Hermione grinned wickedly, nipping at his bottom lip and then sucking it into her mouth, increasing Draco's pleasure and straining it until he growled low with wanting.
"We belong together, Draco," Hermione whispered, pulling back a minute. "Never forget that. At all times and even when we come, we belong together."
Draco nodded. "Fine, only...stop, Hermione. Stop, or I won't be able to la—ah!"
Tempted though she was to make him come almost against his will as he had done to her, already she felt a returned throb between her legs and knew that she needed him to take her even more. Stopping, she gently kissed him and then spread her legs open beneath him, bringing their sexes together for the first time. They each hitched a breath at the contact.
"Now, Draco," Hermione breathed, moving invitingly against him. "Take me."
Unable to refuse, much as his Slytherin nature would otherwise have been contrary, Draco settled himself between her legs, teasing her just once more by testing with a finger that she was ready and wet enough for him.
"Draco," Hermione hissed warningly, both of them knowing that it was an unnecessary effort. Both of them were more than ready.
"I love you," Draco whispered, kissing her right above her heart. And then finally, finally, he surged into her.
There was a brief moment in which they both gasped, Draco from surprise and Hermione from pain as he broke through her resistance, and then, at last, only fullness and completeness as two became one with each other.
For Draco, the feeling was more exquisite than anything he had ever experienced. It was indescribable and his only instinct was to keep moving, pumping into her over and over again, but he forced himself to wait, knowing that he first time must be painful for her. After a few agonizing moments though, he felt Hermione touch his arm and looked up to see her smiling. She nodded at him silently to continue.
Drawing back slowly, Draco obliged her, unable to fully find pleasure as he witnessed the slight winces she made with every movement. Gradually though, her expressions evened out until, moving for the first time as he truly wanted to, Draco pounded into her and watched as her face registered pleasure and shock.
"Oh, Merlin, please do that again!" Hermione begged clutching at his shoulders as he did just that. Over and over again, eventually giving way to complete abandon that had them both moaning and sounding more like animals in heat rather than humans, Draco surged into her and showed her how much he loved her. She received all he had to give and gave in turn as well.
As they both reached the climax of their pleasure with one more powerful surge, Draco buried himself in her to the hilt and silenced both their cries of passion with one last, lingering kiss.
Calming down from what was undoubted the best thing they had ever experienced was a pleasure in and of itself.
Slowly, Draco withdrew from Hermione, moving only far enough to drape his bedsheets around them as he drew Hermione closer. Hermione herself felt exhausted, but would have liked having Draco inside her for a little longer.
There's no need to be sorry that it's over though, she thought, snuggling closer to Draco as he wrapped his arms around her and his breathing evened out, his face cushioned in her curls. After all, we have all night—and all our lives to do this.
And though she and Draco had never spoken of plans that far into the future, somehow it felt right.
It was absolutely right for them to be together—always.
A/N: *finishes running a marathon* Whew!
Okay, that was by and far the hardest chapter that I've had to write so far, hence why it took so long to complete!
For a while I really toyed with the fact of not writing any smut in this fanfiction at all, but then I considered that, this being Rated M and all, some readers might have gone into this story expecting smut from the get-go.
So, I figured, if I was going to do smut, I wanted it to be detailed, something that would justify...well, it taking 56 chapters for us to get to this point.
I truly hope it was worth it and apologize that it took so long getting here and practically the whole summer to get this chapter out.
Here's hoping that for any future smut chapters, it'll be a smoother writing process.
Hope everyone enjoys and please do leave a review to let me know what you think! Also, please do follow/favourite if you haven't already!
For those that skipped over the rated M content in this chapter, in the next chapter we'll be back to plot-related stuff, I promise.
