Draco was magic.

Powerful.

Precious.

Pure.

Not only in the ways he was raised to believe.

It was in the way her heart would race when his lips barely grazed hers. How he challenged her mind but could corral her thoughts when they started to get away from her. Magic in how his kiss made her feel satiated even as she'd forget to breathe. Magic, how it only took six months for him to do away with centuries of pureblood bigotry and prejudice, with only the girl he hated to show him any different.

The moment his lips brushed hers, she felt her magic hum throughout her body. Answering him. Welcoming him. Hermione's fingertips buzzed as she raked them anywhere she could reach, and the tiny flecks gravitated towards him beneath her skin like confetti.

She was wrapped up in him, stretched on her toes as high as they would take her before Draco lifted her the rest of the way with ease. She brushed a hand along the side of his face to his lips, the same way she did when he kissed her for the first time. Back then, he pulled away from her. The realization of who they were and what they were doing came blatantly between them.

Now he looked at her like he was the only person in the world who saw her. Like she was the only one there to see.

Hermione hardly paid any mind to their surroundings as he walked her through the door into their bedroom. Her eyes closed shut, she unfastened the buttons of his death eater robes, leaving them piled carelessly on the floor.

Draco sat on the bed, keeping Hermione close so that she straddled his lap. Every time he tried to break their kiss to explore down the sensitive skin of her neck, she could only last a few moments before needing to pull his lips back to hers.

They were all gasps, and hands, fighting against the layers of fabric that still laid between them. Hermione started unbuttoning his shirt as his arms surrounded her, one curling into her hair at the nape of her neck. She had just gotten the last button undone when Draco lifted her slightly and rolled them to lay her on the bed. Feeling his weight on her for the first time in weeks, a desperate moan escaped her and she tried to cling to him as he pulled away.

Draco sat back on his knees, caressing her thighs through her denims from where he sat between them. Tightening his grip occasionally as if she was going to disappear at any moment. His shirt was now completely open and exposed the alabaster skin of his chest. She reached out her hand to trace the subtle scars, before pulling it back to undo the buttons on her own shirt.

"Stop," Draco rasped while he encased both of her hands in one if his, keeping them still after only the top button. "Let me."

Draco released her hands dragging his own across the lengths of her arms and lightly over her chest as he went to work the rest of her buttons. He was agonizingly slow at each one, like if he grabbed it too hard it would turn to dust between his fingers.

When the final button was released, he gently trailed the back of his fingers up, slowly parting the material to reveal her. Hermione watched as his eyes darkened, his bottom lip pink and shiny from when she had it between her teeth just moments before. She shuddered as he ghosted his fingers to outline the cotton fabric of her bra.

Suddenly, she was lifted onto his lap and his lips crashed onto hers and her shirt was thrown away. She could feel his need growing and pressed her center tighter against him. Draco groaned in her mouth as she continued to roll her hips while his arms went around her to unclasp her bra.

The scrap of fabric stayed held in his grasp as he urged her to lie back down, her breast bouncing when her back finally hit the mattress. It felt so foreign, boarding on obscene and Hermione instinctively moved to cross her arms to cover herself. Draco caught them before she could, and the flames in his eyes had her skin catching fire. He raised a brow and shook his head, and Hermione let her arms fall, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she panted.

"Don't hide from me," he told her, staring in her eyes before moving them to watch his fingers run over the parts of her he was seeing for the first time. "Not anymore."

The pain in his voice went straight to her heart. She didn't get to focus on it for too long before he ran his thumb over her nipple.

"Never again." The breath from his whisper made her gasp right before he took the peak into his mouth.

A noise somewhere between a moan and a whimper escaped her and then her hands were in his hair and traveling along his shoulders. Trying to hold him, tighter, closer.

"Never again." She promised back, nearly delirious.

The alignment of their bodies had Hermione's hips meeting with his lower stomach rather than the part of him she was desperate for. She nearly growled, both in frustration and how Draco's tongue swirled his tongue and desire shot down to her most neglected area.

It crossed her mind then, that she was able to touch him in a way not awarded to anyone else. Hermione's fingers could barely reach the waist of his trousers and used what little leverage she had to coerce his belt out of the buckle.

"Hermione," He breathed against her, and it sounded so close to a plea. One she was ready to grant him.

His lips traced a line across her skin and along her collarbone to her neck before he was claiming her mouth once again. Her hands worked to rid of his trousers, and she whined as he ripped his mouth away from her a second time.

He sat back, not taking her with him this time and made quick work of unbuttoning her jeans. Hermione lifted her hips so he could pull off her denims and knickers, throwing them into the abyss of what was anything except for the two of them.

He caressed her now bare legs, pulling one onto his shoulder and kissing the inside of her knee like it was something holy.

One of his hands made its way to the apex of her thighs, and Hermione's back arched in response. Draco was back on her the next moment, drinking the moans from her mouth like he was as starved as she was, his fingers working expertly between her legs.

Hermione pushed his trousers down while Draco adjusted to make the material move more easily. She had barely gotten her hands below the band of his pants before he grabbed her wrist with his free hand, lacing their fingers together above her head.

"Let me touch you," she whined around his mouth as he continued to draw maddening circles around her bundle of nerves. "It'll be good," she attempted to convince him with the minimal functioning brain cells she had remaining. Zabini's crude tips come to the forefront of her mind. "I'll be so good."

"Merlin, fuck-" Malfoy groaned as he then moved to put her other nipple into his mouth. Hermione's cries were cut short as Draco pushed a long finger inside of her. She bucked enthusiastically into his hand, and he rewarded her by sliding in another.

"Let me-"

"I'm too close," He cut her off, but his hips started moving with the movements of his fingers. "I want you and I- fuck. Hermione, I missed you. I need- I-"

"I missed you. Please I want to touch you-" Hermione said back and Draco finally pulled her hand down to hold against throbbing arousal. Once he unlinked his fingers to run them over her stomach, her breast and neck, Hermione pushed his pants down to free him and immediately took him in her grip.

Draco cursed under his breath, Hermione was barely aware as she felt herself get closer and closer to the edge. All that mattered was the places that he touched her. One hand pushed his index and middle finger into her while rubbed agonizing circle between her legs and the other hand kneaded her breast. His mouth greedily lapped at any area of exposed skin. When he took her pink peak between his teeth, she couldn't hold back any more and stroked him in time with the pulses of pleasure that washed over her.

Her moans seemed to ignite something in him, and he started thrusting into her grip. As he groaned in her neck as she felt warmth spill against her stomach and hand.

Draco released his breath, accompanied by a groan that made Hermione feel another pulled behind her navel. As they lay there panting, Hermione felt the pressure relieve at the nape of her neck as Draco released his hand, which had at some point tangled itself in her hair. Hermione took the opportunity to reach up to cradle his head where he still exhaled into her neck.

He kissed her collar bone gently before sitting back up. From his spot on his knees, he looked down at them. His shirt was still hanging open and his fading erection was now resting on her, only inches from where she was desperately aching for him moments before.

His cum was glistening on her hand and where it lay splayed across her lower stomach. The image seemed dirty and she suddenly remembered she was completely naked. The urge to start covering herself went away with a quick tilt of Draco's head, and she decided to rest her hands on either side of her head where he had directed her so many times before.

The way he looked at her, it was a mixture of disbelief and desire. It was so intimate. Without the heat and desperation there was nothing to distract her from seeing it.

"Say something," she breathed out with a shaky voice. No longer able to bear not knowing what he was thinking.

He attempted to bite back a boyish grin and shook his head with his bottom lip still beneath his teeth.

"Malfoy!" She insisted and he bent back down to kiss her softly against her lips.

"You are so beautiful, Hermione." He finally whispered against her lips. "I'll never deserve you." He pulled away to meet her eyes, all honestly and stormy gray.

"Wait here," he whispered before righting his trousers and going into the bathroom to fetch a wet flannel. The small towel was warm as Draco used it to clean her before lying on his side next to her.

"I'm sorry about that." He said, looking at her while he drew circles on her lower stomach where he just cleaned.

"It's fine." She replied while running her own hand along his forearm. "As long as it didn't bother you?"

Draco chuckled quietly before placing a chaste kiss on Hermione's shoulder and nuzzling his head to rest against it. When he looked up to see she was still waiting for his answer, he raised a brow at her, the corner of his mouth slightly turning up.

"I'm rather okay with it."

Hermione let out a sigh and let herself sink further back into the head, feeling Draco slightly shake his head against her arm.

"What?" She complained and Draco chuckled in the back of his throat again, causing Hermione to join in.

"Nothing, my darling. You are just so sweet. I can hardly stand it." He kissed the tip of her nose and she wrinkled it in response, still not understanding what was so funny. "Dare I say, pure even."

"Alright, enough of that," she laughed as she felt herself starting to blush. She tried to sit up, but Draco shifted to put more of his body weight on her and she was pinned in place.

"Where are you going?" He said playfully.

"I'm getting dressed."

"Why?"

That question was just met with a glare of her own. Malfoy clicked his tongue before reaching beneath the pillows on the other side of the bed and pulling out the Slytherin sweater she had all but claimed as her own during her time there.

"What's that doing there?" She asked as she sat up. Draco tilted his head towards her arms, and she bit back a smile before lifting them in the air above her head. He hesitated a moment before pulling the sweater onto her.

As soon as her eyes were free of the hole, he met her gaze. "Why do you think?"

"Reliving your glory days?" She quipped, falling back into the pillows, and lifting her hips to pull the sweater past them.

"Exactly."

Hermione hummed, closing her eyes and running her hands through Draco's hair where his head rested on her chest. He occasionally angled his head to place kisses on her collarbone and neck. She was so afraid of the fallout of the impending conversation but was no longer about to put it off any further.

"We should probably talk." Whispered Hermione, not ready to burst their bubble but carrying on anyway.

Draco answered with a noncommittal grunt.

"I don't even know where to begin." She admitted, and he shifted his head to look up at her.

"We can start with where you went." He offered.

Hermione explained about her time camping in the woods. There weren't many specifics she could tell him as she had moved around a lot. She gave even less details about her time foraging. Both knew how her last harvest ended and neither were keen on reliving it at that moment.

Draco told her Blaise had been cross with him since he was certain he had done something to her. He told her he could feel her presence the day Greyback scented her with his wolf companion and sent him off on a mission away from the manor the moment the meeting was adjourned. Most of this they spoke, without looking at one another, but holding each other tighter and twirling soft hair and tangling fingers.

"I can't believe you stayed all night out there, how did you even find a place to sleep?" He whispered.

"I had my tent from when I was searching for horcrux with Harry and Ron. It was another thing I had in my bag," she replied. "I hadn't opened it since our last night camping. It was so eerie, everything right where we left it. Frozen in time."

"Lots of curious things in the little bag of yours," he remarked. "Is that where those came from." He said sitting up and flicking his chin towards her denims on the floor. She nodded in confirmation, and he grinned. "I like them. What do you mean searching for horcrux?"

It was another thing Hermione forgot no one else was privy to. She thought for a moment, trying to choose her words carefully before remembering she had decided to proceed with complete honesty. Ignoring the alarm in her that she was never meant to speak of it.

"Do you know what they are?"

"Of course," he said casually, as if it didn't take the trio months to find any information about them.

"Voldemort made several of them. Eight, to be exact. We destroyed them all so that when Harry went up against him, it would be the end him once and for all." Hermione swallowed, trying to keep the ball forming in her throat from making its way up. "We know that's not how it ended."

"Potter may have been a tosser, but he was brave," he said soothingly, rubbing her arm.

"Well… I suppose that sort of leads into my plan," Hermione said before she lost her nerve. Draco stilled for a moment, pulling her hand up to his mouth to kiss.

"Does your plan involve us drinking what's in those vials?" His voice sounded hoarse. Hermione furrowed her brows in confusion before realizing he had been looking at the two vials of draught of living death she had set on the mantle.

"No!" She shot up, and he adjusted his position to sit next to her.

"It's okay," He soothed her, grabbing her face in his hands. "I understand. I don't ever want to live without-"

"Draco stop! Don't ever say that again." She kissed him again before speaking against his lips. "Christ. How could you think such a thing…?"

"It's a muggle thing, is it not?"

"What?!"

"It's in your muggle books."

"Malfoy, what on earth are you-"

"Accio!" A large leatherbound book came flying into Draco's outstretched hand and he proceeded to hand it to Hermione.

"You're having a go at me," She deduced. There was no way that The Complete Work of William Shakespearewas was in the Malfoy library, or that Draco would choose to read it.

He pulled out a piece of parchment he kept in the cover with his notes. "It's in there I swear it. Look, here. I noted the page numbers and everything."

"I know all about Romeo and Juliet, Draco. I just can't imagine how this book even got into your possession." She exclaimed incredulously.

Draco looked back down, shrugging slightly. "It had your name in it."

Hermione submitted to the urge to kiss him. How could she have even known this young man as anything but wonderful she couldn't fathom.

"Also, that is NOT a muggle thing," she couldn't help herself saying. Draco just hummed before pushing his tongue past her lips. "And I'm not a muggle."

"You're muggle-adjacent." He snarked. If she did have something to counter back, it quickly disappeared as he kissed down her neck. "So, what is your plan?"

"I'm going to kill Voldemort."

"Naturally." He moved to give attention to her other side.

"I'll use the cloak to slip him the potion, and then all that's left will be for the Order to ensure he has not created another horcrux and he will be gone for good." Hermione rushed the words, hoping that the weight of them would get lost as their bodies were coming together again to do something more important.

Draco pulled back to look her in the eyes, all playfulness and humor gone. "I thought we just agreed we wouldn't purposely kill ourselves?"

"It's not the same thing. Sacrificing my life for-"

"The fuck you are!" Exclaimed Draco, huffing a laugh. "If anyone is dying on their sword, it ought to be me. I sit next to him anyhow; I don't even need your precious cloak."

Hermione's jaw started to tremble. "Draco you are not dying for-"

"And neither are you!"

They stared off at each other. Hermione could feel his breath brush her face as he huffed through his nose.

"Brilliant." He snapped. "Now that that's settled, would you like to share with me your actual plan, or are we just going to come up with a new one together?"

Hermione crossed her arms and shook her head, determined to hold her ground. The act, unfortunately, caused a curl to fall in front of her eyes, and she fought internally to herself on whether acknowledging it would be admitting weakness. Draco however, reveled in the opportunity, and grabbed the strand to twirl in his finger as he waited for her to respond. When he noticed her breath catch, he leaned into her weakness even more.

"Well, Hermione darling? Was that really the only thing in that little bag of tricks of yours?" He purred. She continued with her silent treatment, and he tutted at her. "The Dark Lord has various enchanted objects protecting him from such things. I am afraid the only way to kill him would be in a proper duel."

"I could beat him."

"I don't doubt it for a second, love." He agreed, reaching forward to kiss her and she was helpless to resist.

He cradled her face with both hands and kissed her soundly before getting off the bed. "I need to speak to Nott. I'll only be a moment."

"I can go with you?" She suggested, sitting up eagerly.

Draco smiled at her, a real smile. "Would you hold it against me if I admitted I want you to stay right where you are?"

There was nowhere else she would rather be.

Hermione felt lighter than she had in weeks. There was no use trying to convince herself again that being together was wrong or a lie. The circumstance may be far less than ideal, but finding joy with someone else in the darkest time in your life wasn't something she was willing to throw away again. There is a vast difference between surviving the war and living through it.

After several minutes, Hermione pulled on her denims before heading back into the study. The potion was gone, the first course of their meal in its place, and Draco's affinity for tradition made her feel even more comfortable slipping back into the normal they had created. The hallway door opened, and she turned from where she was admiring the flowers to see that Draco's face fell into a pout when he saw she had left the bedroom.

"Damnit. Took me ages to find what room they went it," he said closing the door behind him.

"Down the hall, last room on the right," said Hermione, leaning against the table. His face confirmed she was right, and she saw the moment it donned on him how she knew.

"Snoop," he teased her.

"I've only seen them walk in from the hall," she said, defending herself. "Honestly though, the amount of times they said they were coming to visit me and walked right past our door is offensive."

He laughed, but Hermione could tell that he was more on edge than he was when he left the room.

"Never matter, I have something for you." He gestured for her to sit on the couch as he made his way over.

"I don't need any more gifts, Draco," She insisted and took a seat, folding her legs on the couch so she could face him.

"It's not really a gift."

"I've heard that before."

"Always with the cheek," he mused, pinching her leg. "Close your eyes, I didn't get a chance to package it properly.

"What is the proper packaging for a 'not really gift?" queried Hermione.

"Eyes closed, Granger." He ordered and she rolled them before following his instructions. A second later, she felt his lips press featherlight against her own.

"Oh."

"That's not it, I just could resist." Her eyes flew open a second before he covered them with his hand.

"No peeking!" He yelled. He slowly pulled his hand away, ensuring that her eyes were closed again.

He grabbed her hand, turning it palm up, before placing some long and narrow in it. Hermione's heart skipped a beat, and even when she opened her eyes and looked down, she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

A wand.

Her wand.

"I went through all the wands we had confiscated, but I didn't think any of them would fit you. Nott had a few at his place and I found this one a few days ago, and it just… I thought it would do. Nott had to see if he could swipe it without his father knowing, he barely got it today."

Hermione just stared.

Draco cleared his throat before continuing. "Perfect timing, really. As you just got back. Not that I was expecting you to come back at all but… if you did." He took a deep breath, clearly struggling with his words and rubbing his thumb on her knee. "I was selfish before, and it almost ruined me. I wanted to prove that I could keep you safe.

I know this doesn't make us even as long as you are trapped here. And I'm rubbish at knowing where the line is. But when I royally fuck up again in the future, hopefully you can just hex me instead of running away."

Draco paused his rambling for a moment before more words started spilling out. "I'll be honest, I was expecting the wand would fit you better. It reacted quite strongly to me."

"It did fit," Hermione said, finally breaking her silence. "In Ollivander's when it chose me."

Draco raised a brow at her, and she smiled "This is my wand."

Almost to prove to herself it wasn't a dream, Hermione pointed to the wand where the crumpled paper bird she first folded still sat on the fireplace. She didn't even say the incantation before the parchment transformed into a bird and started flying about the room.

Hermione felt her magical pool, rushing eagerly into place to await her commands. It felt so much more overwhelming, so instinctual. The months of training without a wand made her even more powerful now that it had been returned to her. She hardly had to think of the incantation before the patronus light escaped her wand, and the otter weaved itself between her and Draco and her fingers tingled. The ones surrounding the wand, and the ones clasped gently in Draco's. The only difference was that the fingers tangled with Draco's were glowing.