Need [ dramione ]

Chapter 33

22 February 1999 - 8 Days Before the Full Moon

Everything with Hermione is suddenly like new.

Nothing in the past has ever been like this. There's no anger, no loathing. There's also no side stepping awkwardly, no random gestures. He knows her secrets, just as she knows his. They know each other's deepest fears and deepest desires. They know what makes the other tick, know what their motivation is.

Which leaves them to learn everything else. The stuff that is inconsequential. The things that don't really matter, but somehow build up to everything else.

To others, this is the foundation, but for Draco, learning things about Hermione in a way that isn't filled with games and isn't filled with stress...

He knows what she tastes like on his tongue. Now he gets to know why.

Every day is different. One day, they sit in the library together and work on an essay while chatting about theories. Another, they take a walk out into the forest, but rather than talking about the upcoming Full Moon, they discuss his childhood growing up in a Manor with a large estate. Over breakfast, she shares with him stories of her parents, and her childhood before Hogwarts.

Each day, he learns something new about her. Each day is a new experience. Each day is...

Each day is filled with a love that is starting to bloom. While he still burns for her, aches for her, desperately wants to be inside of her again... this is different. It feels more mature. Deeper. Before, they had been two people desperate for love, desperate for the other to feel the same way for them. Now... now that he knows she cares, now that she knows he loves her...

He wants to kiss her, but he can wait. She's worth the wait.

He doesn't know how long it's going to take until they reach that point again. Arguably, before, they hadn't been ready to take that step forward, but after months of pent up energy, it had made sense at the time. He doesn't regret it now - he could never regret being between her thighs - but...

He likes this. Likes how gentle this is. How natural it is.

The next time he's inside of her, he's going to be head over heels in love with her, and she's going to gasp his name, going to tell him she needs him, how she can't live without him. From there, they'll start living for the future, and not just the promise of it.

Things are going so well, in fact... well, it's not sex, but she had invited him to meet her in the astronomy tower when he had mentioned her potion. She had even gone so far as to invite him to spend the evening up there with her...

They're not going to have sex. There's no way in bloody hell they're having sex. Not on the off chance that they sleep through her taking her dosage again... But, if he's lucky, she might let him hold her. And if he's very lucky, he might even get to kiss her again.

Honestly, things are going good. Great, even.

He has a plan to stay out of Azkaban. He has a plan for his future. He has a soulmate he absolutely adores. He has friends again, tentatively, in Blaise and Theo. He has a future. He has a reason to be happy. He has-

The first hit comes out of nowhere. Not only is he not expecting it, he's utterly unprepared. One hit becomes another and another and then-

He has his wand in hand and throws up a shield, but then someone comes from behind, physically yanking it out of his grasp. He gasps and whirls around to see a figure in a dark cloak, a black mask over their face. It's an illusion, some sort of transfiguration, but it doesn't matter. He's a smart boy. He can figure out what this is.