Chapter 26

Hermione woke up early from a dream that involved her and Draco running from someone or something. In a cold sweat, she sat up in bed. Hermione never thought much about visions or divination; she felt it was just rubbish. But something about her dream troubled her. She decided to take a shower to wash away her anxiety.

She loved a good bath. The soothing heat of the water, calming scents of bath oils and soaps. She could imagine spending all day in the bath, if she had the free time to do so. However water was a bit scarce in the desert, even with magic. The shower provided to her in her traveling equipment converted solar energy into a usable form that removed dirt and other substances to cleanse the skin. Even with sunrise still a few minutes away, there was enough energy stored from previous collection that she could moderately shower.

She set aside a set of clothes for the day and took off her pajamas. The solar shower was silent and soon she became lost in thought about what the day held for her and Draco. Her eyes closed as she let the solar shower do its work. She could feel the first real rays of sunlight on her face as sunrise came.

The next morning Draco was up at sunrise. His eyes opened, facing the canvas wall of the tent. He cared not to look over towards Granger's cot to see if she was still asleep. His stomach grumbled and the need to use the relief facilities became eminent. He gathered a change of clothes and exited from the tent as quietly as possible in need to use of the restroom and solar shower.

He knew it wasn't entirely logical to shower in the morning, as the humidity and would only have him sweating soon after. There was just something about feeling clean first in the morning that was refreshing to him.

He wore silver gray colored, comfortable, long sleeved, button up, collared, loose fit thermal pajamas, featuring an innovative temperature charm that allowed the material to increase or decrease evaporation depending on the wearers' body temperature and the external environment climate. The sunlight was beaming already at the early hour, but he didn't mind. He did not get to appreciate sunlight as much as he desired. Often he was inside the Alchemy Centre attending to other necessities. For a moment he just inhaled the scent of the warm air and basked in the morning sunlight, before departing toward the solar shower.

He was silent as he approached the shower and removed his shirt and pants, wearing only black boxer shorts and his shoes. His torso was no longer Quidditch player toned, but he still retained an attractive physic. He planned to remove them both once he was in the shower. One could never be to careful about the creatures scurrying upon the sandy ground or buzzing through the air. Only when he was about a foot away from the shower did he see the pile of clothes, folded neatly outside the shower curtain on a raised platform.

"Morning Granger." He said, making his presence known, as he set his collection of clothing on the available space upon the platform next to hers.

Hermione's eyes snapped open at the sound of Draco's voice. She wasn't expecting him to be awake so early, though she wasn't quite paying attention to the time. She let out a bit of a surprised shriek and covered herself instinctively, "Eep! Good morning. I didn't hear you get up."

She quickly finished and peeked out from behind the curtain. "Um, mind handing me my clothes since you're handsy-handy! I didn't sleep very well last night." She rambled from embarrassment. It was a bit of a rough night for her, but nothing she wasn't used to. Her mind reeling at all the possibilities of the following day.

She had glanced over at her tent mate on occasion and couldn't help but admire the calm, almost sweet look on Draco's face as he slept. It was the closest she had ever seen to a peaceful expression upon his face.

"Rough night you say? It must have been absolutely dreadful cohabitating in the same tent as me. Rough night indeed." Draco replied, his tone mocking her. He could see a bit of her shoulder as she pulled back the curtain a bit to address him. Her neck and face clean from the usual debris that came with tromping around in the desert and underground. Her hair a bit unruly and wavy as the humidity did no favors for it.

"There are a lot of words to describe me, Granger. Handsy, is not one that would be applicable toward a woman who is . . . unavailable shall we say?" He asked as he tediously ran his fingers over her pile of clothing, ever so slowly, before giving them to her.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco's self depreciate comment, "Oh yes. I was quite distressed to share a tent with such a nasty man who saved my life from choking to death." She said sarcastically. Of course it wouldn't have happened in the first place had she not been talking to him. But she wasn't holding him accountable by any means on that behalf.

Unavailable. Technically she was still with Ron, but any outside observer wouldn't believe it when told they were. For some reason, it kind of hurt to hear it from Draco. It's not like she was asking him for any sort of favor, however if the opportunity arose . . . She quickly shook the thought from her head. "It was merely a Freudian slip. And thank you." She said, reaching a bar arm out to retrieve her clothes so she could change in the shower.

Draco couldn't help but catch a glimpse of her from his peripheral vision. Her arm was nicely tanned from obvious sunlight exposure over the years. Between traveling and underground cavern seeking, it was a balanced blend of tan that complimented her brown sun kissed highlighted hair and chocolate eyes. He suddenly felt very . . . exposed. Despite the fact that he still had shoes and undergarment shorts on. It was strange to have so much skin showing outside in real sunlight and with a woman present.

Once she grabbed her clothes, he slipped on his pants while she dressed, just because. It was hard to explain why, something in his aristocratic proper upbringing he supposed.

Hermione quickly dressed, but was blushing quite hard. She had just seen Draco in his underwear. Sure he wasn't too bad looking, but still. His underpants! Had he seen her? No, she was covered by the curtain. Anyway, she finished and excited the stall. That's when she noticed he had put his trousers back on. She was about to ask him about it when the sound of grunts and footfalls of a camel were approaching. "Ah, there's Omar! Hurry up, breakfast will be ready soon!" she stated and hurried to meet her delivery boy. She waived at the camel mounted boy and he waived back until he was only a few yards away.

"Good morning Miss Hermione! How are you today?" Young Omar called out as he hopped off his desert steed and walked it the rest of the way to the tent.

"I am well, thank you. How are you?" Hermione replied with a kind smile.

"Good! I brought extra Ful Medames, just for you and your guest, if he's extra burdening." The cheeky boy winked. Hermione giggled, "Oh, he's been such a burden, helping me as much as he has been." She replied to the lad with a playing wink. "So, do you have another joke for me today?" She asked in a hopeful tone of voice.

"Of course!" He cleared his throat, "What do you call a three humped camel?"

. . .

By the time Draco had finished his shower, Omar had left and Hermione brought breakfast and water in and set it all on the table. The sounds of Omar and Hermione's conversation probably overheard by Draco. "Breakfast is ready, Mister Malfoy!" She called out to him.

Draco briefly watched her hurry to greet the delivery boy. Then he proceeded to shower and get dressed. By the time she called out to him using the posh title Mister Malfoy as a term of endearment, he missed hearing her simply say Malfoy. Or even her addressing him as Draco. He found he was growing fonder of her addressing him by his first name. He joined her in the tent, by then the boy was gone, but that hadn't stopped Draco from hearing their conversation. "Pregnant, really? You think that is funny, do you? Glad to know his food delivery is of better quality than his punch lines." He noted in somber tone as he took a seat at the table to eat.

The joke did bring up one topic he decided to venture on. "So, if I may ask, though you don't have to answer since it's none of my business. I am curious; do you think you'll ever want children? I mean that was one of your rationalizations you gave when you were listing facts of how your current relationship is complicated. You want a career over offspring indefinitely? Or career now and offspring later?"

Hermione couldn't help but chortle at Draco's dissatisfaction with Omar's joke. "As a matter of fact, I thought it was very funny." Children. She hadn't thought about that subject for a short while. Ron had asked Hermione about children at one point. He didn't expect her reaction.

"Honestly . . . I'm a bit scared to have a child." She said to Draco, staring into her breakfast, "I mean, the romantic in me would love to have one or two, making them breakfast, playing with them, sending them to Hogwarts . . . But another part of me worries, what if they get into trouble? Not like getting detention for jinxing their professor. Like the trouble we got into. I'd be devastated if anything were to happen to my child, especially if I couldn't do anything to stop it. . . I know, it's rather un-like me to say this, maybe I'm wrong and everything would be alright once it happened…" She trailed off, playing with a bean on her plate.

She began absent mindedly rubbing the place on her arm where the word 'mudblood' had been etched into her skin.

Scared. Hermione Granger was scared of the possibility of something like Voldemort happening again. How that man alone influenced her and her friends into many life and death situations. It was not an unreasonable fear. There were whispers in the wizard community. What if he comes back? What if his followers band together and try to take over?

Draco had these own fears himself in some way. He knew Voldemort had a child with his Aunt. If that girl ever discovered her true lineage…the idea made his blood run cold. He could not image a child of Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort being anything except a worse version of her parents. Including the fact she was being raised by previous Death Eater member, Euphemia Rowle. Only because Rowle was paid a substantial amount of money.

He reached over and placed his hand over hers. Over the hand that had been tracing her scar. "It's not wrong to be scared. I'm scared too. I don't want to raise my son with the ideologies that I was raised by. I'm afraid of what kind of father I would be. I don't suppose someone like Voldemort could rise up again, but it's always a possibility. I never really have thought about it as an option life event. I'm used to see having a son as necessary to carry on the family name." He said and clarified on the gender assumption. "The Malfoy bloodline has given birth to only male heirs for over ten generations. I'm starting to think maybe it's an ancient spell of my ancestors doing."

Hermione was startled when Draco touched her hand, but smiled. He was being awfully sweet to her, validating her fears. "Thank you, Draco. That is kind of you to say. And it makes sense for a pure-blood family to do such a thing as strange as it seems." She thought for a moment and giggled, "I suppose this must be how any potential parents must feel." She said and she finished her food and stood up to put away her dishes. She then turned to Draco with a smile, "Shall we continue where we left off yesterday?" She asked him.

Draco withdrew his hand and finished eating. It was disheartening to know that Weasley was technically with her and appeared that he either didn't appreciate her the way he should. Or perhaps Granger just did not appreciate Weasley any longer. Not that there was much, if anything at all, to appreciate in the first place. But then again he had thought that same thing about Granger years ago and now . . . there was a lot to appreciate.

Draco nodded his head in agreement and grabbed his pack. After that the two comrades headed back down into the depths of the ancient ruins of Dev Hoenheim the Alchemist who rigged his curses with elements of Alchemy to ensure its protection. While the idea of a sentient artificial life form was intriguing and daunting, Draco figured if they didn't do it someone else would. Might as well be him and Granger. After all this affected the Alchemy community. Curse-Breaker Granger was on the verge of discovering something bit. Draco was actively helping. He deserved some credit, his own office was certainly reasonable.

They stopped at the third room they made it to the day before. Removing potions from his pack he held the box and looked to Granger seeking instructions. "Well, Miss Curse-Breaker, what do we do now? I'm up for suggestions on what to do to create a simply sentient being with magic and Alchemy."