She watched out of the corner of her eye as he tucked an arm underneath his head so he could look over at her. A timid smile crossed her lips but she didn't say anything. She was enjoying the feeling of his eyes roaming over her body, lingering once again at the exposed skin of her shoulder and collarbone.

"So what would you like to talk about?" He asked, his gray eyes taking on the silver hues that she had only seen accompany his amusement at a joke.

She wondered what he was thinking as she turned her head so she could return his look. Lounging across the black blankets he had somehow figured out how to make the action look graceful. She sighed before answering honestly. "Pansy..."

"Why would you want to talk about her?" He inquired, his eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"I guess... I was just wondering how you could go from wanting to be with girls like her to me." She asked, knowing that the answer had the potential to change everything. She wasn't sure how she would react if he said he wanted a change from the same old thing or something equally insulting.

"That is a hard one to answer Kitten. Let me preface the easiest rationalization by saying- It has always been you that I have wanted. Well... pretty much always. I can remember sitting there a couple weeks after you struck me in third year and I could not get how your eyes lit up out of my mind. It kept replaying over and over. And instead of feeling the disgust I was supposed to feel... I kept imagining being able to see it again. I found myself doing anything I could to get that look from you, because no one reacts like that if they don't care on some subconscious level. I couldn't have you, for so many reasons, but I could have that... The illusion that you cared."

Her eyebrows came together as she realized what he was telling her. Another surreal moment in a long line when it came to them. Conformation on an unrequited crush. At least until recently…

"As for Pansy or any other girl I might have hooked up with... They were the exact opposite of you and that was the point. I didn't need a replacement. I needed girls who could keep me from imagining you in their place. They needed to be overtly sexual and dominate so that I could get lost in the experience. Which is too bad really..." He said a soft smirk playing on his lips. "I like being in control..."

She barely got out a breathy, "Oh", as the instant spike of need at his words overwhelmed her.

"Not what you expected, pet?" He questioned as his teasing smirk widened. It was clear that he knew exactly what he was doing to her.

She shrugged, doing her best to appear unruffled. "I didn't know what to expect. You are always surprising me Draco."

His smirk lifted to a full blown smile that caused crease lines around his eyes. "Good."

Hermione smiled back at his gratified response. Go figure that he would want to surprise her, like it was a wonderful thing that he wasn't fulfilling her predictions. Of course, in his case, he was probably right...

She still couldn't get who he was out of her head. Always on edge she was expecting the switch to flip and not come back down after a few moments of heated discussion. They had been lucky so far that neither had said something that would cause all the carefully laid bricks to fall. And yet, the thought kept wiggling in the back of her mind that a major blow up with inexcusable insults thrown at each other was how this was all going to end one day.

His eyes darted down and focused on her hands as she absentmindedly wiped the perspiration that had collected on her palms onto the rough fabric of her jeans. He literally missed nothing... If he was as perceptive as he had proven himself to be and it was true that he had been watching her for years, he would know that her wandering thoughts had veered somewhere dark causing her to start to get worked up again. She could feel the invisible metal bands wrapping around her chest, making it hard to breathe.

"Hey. Where did you go, Granger?" He asked, an underlying hint of concern tainting the poised exterior he tried so hard to sustain most of the time. When she didn't answer he reached over and grabbed her wrist, giving it a gentle tug. "Come here.

She stared at his lips, unable to maintain eye contact while her anxiety skyrocketed even further. The realization that if they didn't end up having some massive blow up, he would eventually tire of this type of unexpected feedback and run away screaming had her fighting with tears. Worst of all, she would only have herself to blame. A shaky breath entered her lungs as she tried to gain enough control to respond in an appropriate manner.

He gave another pacifistic jerk on her arm, giving her the choice. "Please. Just come here. No funny business. I promise."

The muscles in her shoulders and neck tighten even further but she let him pull her into the crook of his arm. With her body pressed up against his side, she could feel her breasts rubbing against his ribs as she struggled to get oxygen back to her brain. She cushioned her head against his chest so she could hide the added embarrassment that came along with allowing him to see her like this... Twice!

He started rubbing small circles on her shoulder. Giving her brain some other input than the absolute fear that had chilled her veins. She didn't know how to be this vulnerable with someone else. She didn't know how to give herself so completely to someone who might not even be there tomorrow. She didn't know... She didn't know…

"Shhhhh... It's okay. You will be okay. Concentrate on my voice, alright? Concentrate on right now, on this moment with me, okay? We are going to take slow deep breaths." He said leisurely before starting to breathe. He let his lungs expand underneath her, giving her something to pace her own against. She drew in the breath with him as he continued to rub the soft fabric of her sweater against her skin.

"Good." He said on their shared exhale. "Now we are going to do it again."

Slowly she felt her heartbeat start to return to normal, no longer struggling to fight the oxygen deprivation her own mind had created. By the time they hit forty-five breaths she was feeling better. Still shaky and a little light-headed but she could breathe and think coherently again.

She whispered quietly. "Thank you."

"For?" His fingers had worked from the small circles to running along the tender skin from the crook of her neck down to her shoulder and back again... Something that had felt comforting just seconds before suddenly ignited that deep burn in her stomach. The abrupt shift in hormones left her even more dizzy than when she was dealing with the attack. It was as if her body was out of sync with her mind, unable to figure out exactly what it wanted to do.

"For... Being so understanding, I guess."

"I told you. I have been there, shit gets hard sometimes." He whispered back, his fingers still running that slow path on her skin, making it very hard for her to focus. "How about we try thinking of some happier things... What is your favorite memory?"

"Of all time? Or right this moment with my head in a fog because of what your fingers are doing to me?" She asked, unsure of what he wanted from her. She was probably reading too far into the question but her brain wasn't exactly working on making those kinds of distinctions.

Draco laughed at that. The heaves from the action jostling her against him. and she smiled into his sweater. It was kind of funny... When he was done he sighed and said. "Both. Without a doubt both."

"Of all time would have to be McGonagall showing up with my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Everything that didn't make sense, suddenly did. I really had turned all of the flowers in my Mum's garden purple at the age of four because 'I was having a purple day'. It was me that had burst all of the balloons at my cousin's birthday party because that creepy frickin' clown would not leave me alone... Professor McGonagall opened the door to a world straight from one of my fairy tales and for the very first time I felt like I belonged somewhere." She brought her arm around his waist, pulling herself even tighter against him.

"And the one from the brain fog?" He nudged, trying to keep her talking.

She blushed scarlet, thankful that he couldn't see the traitorous act carried out for what felt like the hundredth time that night. "Well... Ummm... The... The first night that we kissed, actually..."

The sound of him swallowing hard reached her ears before he let out a breathless. "Oh."

Hermione felt a rush of giddiness at being able to cause the boy to come up short. No wonder why he was continuously doing the same to her... It was almost as good as the feeling of power she had when he would relax into their kisses. Not quite, but pretty dang close. She did not want the feeling to end so she made the rash decision to carry out her fantasy from earlier.

Without warning she hitched her leg up so her knee was across his hip. She vaguely registered that he had choked on a breath at her sudden movement before she slid herself over him until she was straddling his hips. Her eyes found his just as his jaw fell open. There it was, the lighting bolt of power that sent sparks across her skin and down into her pelvis. The feeling caused her back to arch slightly, pushing their hips even closer together.

He groaned and moved his arm from behind his head so his hands could find their way to her knees that were placed on either side of his hips. Agonizingly slowly they inched their way up until they were at mid-thigh, an action that kept her distracted and it was a surprise when he shifted underneath her. The movement caused the growing bulge in his pants to press against her aching sex.

She stared down at him over the curves of her breasts, straining against the knitted blue stitches in her sweater, as she tried to catch her breath for a whole different reason than before. Leaning forward she placed one of her hands on either side of his head. Her curls fell around them like a curtain, brushing the blanket underneath him and blocking out anything but them.

Their lips were only inches apart as she continued to gaze down at him. The surprise and hunger made an interesting mix on his face as they fought for dominance inside his head. If she wasn't so preoccupied she might have even laughed…

Bending even further forward she brought her lips to the side of his neck. The perfect mixture of bergamot, peppermint and cedar flooded her senses, overtaking the normal lavender from her shampoo. She kissed her way up to his earlobe and took the sensitive shell between her teeth. Ever so gently she ran her teeth along the delicate skin. A trick she had learned from him, and she was rewarded with the same response she had given... A shuddered breath escaping from his chest.

His fingers slid up another few inches on her legs before digging into the fleshy skin covered in denim as his thumbs caressed her inner thighs. And she knew at that moment that she was going to do this. She didn't just want to have sex. She wanted him. The one who could set her on fire with a few simple touches. Hell, she did not just want him... She needed him!

Somehow she was the princess he had wanted from afar for far too long and he was the dragon fighting his instincts to lash out and destroy everything, including her... He was sacrificing himself to try and save his mother's life... Draco Malfoy was a hero. There was no doubt about it.

She was his princess. He was her dragon. Together they would find a way to figure it all out. She refused for it to be too late to try, at the very least. Right then and there they were committing themselves to seeing their story through, no matter the outcome…

She sighed at the thought, causing her hot breath to warm the tender skin of his ear. He groaned again and pulled her forward by the leverage his grip had on her. The tug caused a wondrous friction she hadn't even known she had been craving, she smiled against his neck as she worked her way towards his lips for a kiss.

This was really going to happen…

-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-

For a long time afterward she laid with him under the soft covers, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist in a protective gesture. The way that he held her had her hip pressed against his manhood, she wouldn't be able to move without waking him. It was a good thing she had no plans of going anywhere, anytime soon. She was basking in the glow of the perfection of the night.

He had made her feel cherished. Not just lusted after... Honestly and truly cherished. Her needs had been paramount, each and every step of the way. He had even kissed her scar... Multiple times. A reassurance to her that it didn't mar her beauty in his eyes. And now, somehow she was lucky enough to be falling asleep in the arms of her hero instead of having to resort to going over the divine memories.

Something told her she wouldn't be having any nightmares tonight. And even if she did... He would be there to help her get through them…

-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-\?/-

So... What did you think?!

I spent most of my time fleshing out the parts of this chapter you guys won't be seeing over here. Almost 4,000(!) more words are over on AO3*. So yeah... Feel free to head on over there if you are old enough and like the naughty stuff!

Anyways... Hope you liked it! I really do!

As Always…

Much love,

SlytherclawLuv

*I am super easy to find, just search for my Pen Name or "Anyone But Me". You will not be missing anything other than some good ole smut (where Draco shows some glimpses of his more dominant side) and a tiny bit of dialogue if you don't. The only thing that you might be interested in is an in-depth description of Hermione's scar, but I do plan on touching on it again in later chapters of the story. So please don't feel obligated to go for the sake of keeping up with any storylines or anything like that.