A Bellamort Tale

Part 34

He did. Starting slowly and very softly, he soon deepened the kiss, the young witch willingly kissing him back, their lips moving with the other's as if they had been doing that for all their life, as if they were made for each other.

Draco tried to hold back as much as he could when he felt the witch's tongue gently lick along his upper lip, before she nibbled at the lower one. He pulled away, staring at her. She looked even more gorgeous now, her cheeks reddened, her eyes sparkling her chest heaving with every breath she drew to get some air into her lungs.

"Hermione, please don't start anything you can't finish. I'm trying really hard to keep myself restrained, but if you do those things like just now, you're getting me into a very agitated mood and then all I want to do is make you mine. Forever mine!" The very worked up wizard pleaded.

Her only response was.

"Tell me what you thought I wanted to hear from someone who wasn't you. Because I really want you to and I am sure I very much want to hear it from just you!"

"I can't. And I shouldn't. I..."

"Draco, please."

"Hermione, I... Oh for fuck's sake I'll just do it. I'm madly in love with you. Have been since that darn ball. Couldn't get you out of my head since. When I had to watch you being tortured yesterday, I thought I was dying. I wanted to beg Bella to stop but I was petrified. I..."
He stopped, tears in his eyes, when she just cupped his face in both her hands and muttered against his lips.

"Shush, it's over now. I'm fine and you're fine and we're both here just now. And I have to admit, though only becoming aware of it today, it's more than just feeling attracted to you. I... I'm not sure if I feel the same as you, but it's certainly more than just attraction. More like the beginning of something very special. You risked your life for me today, more than once. You brought me here without hesitation, not to hand me over but to protect me. I 'do' owe you my life. But that's not what makes me think you're very special and also will be a very good and righteous man soon. And a good and caring husband for Astoria, who just as her sister is very sweet and kind once you get to know her." She swallowed heavily as she thought about him, marrying the other witch and could feel tears burning in her eyes. "But, as we're talking about the future because the girl is barely fifteen right now, let's forget everything except this. Us, in this moment and in this bed, You offered me help with something earlier and I'd like to accept your offer now."

Draco needed a moment to capture everything she had just said. There was one thing though, he couldn't get the meaning of and so he questioned.

"If I said, I'd help you with anything, then I'll be at your service. Just tell me, what it was please. I'm a little stuck at the moment."

"Oh by all deceased wizards who were certainly all such oblivious guys as you are. Are you really that thick or are you trying to make me feel flustered on purpose? Really? You don't know?" Hermione laughed hysterically then sighed and hid her face in the crook of his neck. "Remember when I said I just can't see myself as a grown up woman? Your offer to help me with that!"

The young man took a sharp breath, the imagination itself let him become hard. Nonetheless he grabbed her upper arms and made her look at him.

"Hermione, it's really sweet what you're trying to do. But I wouldn't think it's what you truly want. Maybe one day, if things change a lot, you'll feel something for me and then I'd gladly agree. Right now I would just take advantage of your vulnerability and your fear." The boy whispered softly and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

The woman scoffed angrily.

"Stop it! I just told you that I started to feel more for you than just being attracted. I hate to show my feelings, to expose myself so completely to anyone. I've been hurt by the guy I had feelings for more than once, if because of him being just a klutz who didn't even notice what he was doing or because he just doesn't care about anything but his own happiness, I don't know. And I don't care. He didn't even realise that he wanted to be with me until he saw me with Victor. And Lavender? Fuck, he didn't even like her. And he still kept making out with her all of the time, especially when he knew that I was around. Do you know what made him give in to the slut's wanton approaches? It was Ginny telling him that he wasn't being a concerned brother for telling her not to date Dean, but that he was jealous because he was the only one who had never kissed any woman who wasn't his mother or their auntie Muriel. She told him that Harry had kissed Cho and that I had kissed Krum, only he hadn't made it that far and therefore was letting it out on her. It was then that he and Lavender started their... well whatever it was. Now tell me, Draco, does that give me the right to be a bit reluctant with not only admitting to my feelings but also allowing myself to feel them?"

She looked directly into his grey eyes, her own darkening dangerously with anger and something else. Malfoy was barely breathing as he stared back, trying to figure out what she was really feeling and if she just tried to find comfort in him. Her face looked as stubborn and determined as ever and he just had to be sure.

"Hermione, please. I am sure you're hurt and you're scared. I am here and I will try to protect you and to make you feel safe. Please don't ask me again, because I would give in to your plea and we would most likely both regret it. You, once you realise it was a mistake and I, as soon as it's over because I know you just did it for the wrong reasons." He tried to sound convincing.
The young woman had enough of his rambling and made a last attempt to assure him that her intentions were what she told him they were.

"You kissed me and I kissed you back. I have never before been kissed like that. I never felt the urge to deepen a kiss with anyone else I kissed. Not Krum, certainly not McLaggen when he trapped me under the mistletoe, and not even Ron, when we tried to kiss goodbye before the summer break. But the moment our lips touched, Draco, I knew that was what I had missed with the others. And I want to be with you not because I think I have to, but because I want to show you that you are the one I was waiting for. And I also want you to make me yours. For real. Something I can only give to one man and I want this man to be you!"

His expression had changed the moment she told him how she felt about their kiss. It was the very same he had felt. He had slept with those two girls only but he had made out with a couple more and he had never felt anything similar to what kissing Hermione was like. Just that they were in a war between pure- and half-blooded wizards and witches who wanted to cast all muggleborns out and said muggleborns and all the magic society who supported them. And he was on one side while she was on the other.

"Draco? Say something please!"

"If I give in, if we do this, I need a promise from you. I want you to be mine, to stay with me until this is all over. Don't go back to Weasley, don't go back to help Potter. If we take this step, I will never again let you leave my side!"

Hermione couldn't help but start to smile.