With you in my Arms

29. "I had intended to do a bit of this..."

A/N This chapter is for     Slytherin Royalty.        You'll find your questions answered in this chapter. Enjoy!

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When Hermione finally re-emerged from the loo she found Draco sound asleep. Had she been really that long? She looked at the antic alarm clock that was on the night stand. She sighed. She had been away from their bed for nearly an hour.

As careful as possible she slipped under the covers. He muttered in his sleep. A smile spread across her face as she observed him. His hair was tussled, his features relaxed. Gorgeous was the only appropriate word she could find. She tried to resist the urge to run her fingers over his pale skin. She didn't want to wake him. It said a lot about his trust in her that he just kept on sleeping while she had re-joined him. She could imagine him being awake the moment somebody so much as looked at his bed in the past. Luckily, that was in the past.

She let her thoughts wander as her eyes were roaming his face. What would have happened, if he hadn't plucked up the courage to follow her at the Graduation Party? She would have probably left for the Burrow not long afterwards. She would have slept in Ginny's room, not Ron's. There would have been a talk between her and her boyfriend the next morning about her just vanishing without telling anybody where she was going. Ron had still a somewhat overprotective streak when it came to her. Old habits really did die hard.

She lay back and closed her eyes. She could hear him gently breath. It was astonishing how re-assuring the sound was. Draco Malfoy was sleeping right next to her. Not even in her wildest dreams would she ever have thought this being possible. He had been anything she didn't want in a guy, had been. Now he was all she wanted. How ironic that her worst nightmare had turned in this most beautiful of dreams. There were still moments when she was catching herself doubting him, but they became less with every day.

Her hand softly touched his arm. His skin was warm. A shudder ran through her. She had felt his warm skin all over her body as he had covered hers with his own. It had been heaven on earth. She could let herself go when he was with her. She didn't need to think about anything any longer. Loving him and knowing that he loved her was enough. He loved her! The thought suddenly got stuck in her mind.

She didn't get the chance to dwell on it, as she felt him move and found his arms reaching for her, pulling her close to his body. The shivers were back with a vengeance. Her hands lay on his bare chest and his breath was rustling her hair. Hermione raised her eyes to find that he was looking at her. His eyes half closed and sleepy. Did he know how utterly seductive he was, looking at her like that?

"Hi." His voice was rough edged with sleepiness.

"Hi." She touched her forehead to his.

"You feel okay?" There was a slight pause at the end of his question, as if he had been intending to say something more but then didn't.

"Yes." His fingers drew small circles on her body. "Sorry for earlier. I couldn't help..."

"Shh." He kissed the skin between her brows. "I'm not complaining." There was this strange pause again.

"Draco?"

"Hm?"

She didn't know how to asked him, if there was something he wanted to say, but for some reason didn't. She let it go for the moment. A short while later Draco felt her relax as she slipped away into the land of dreams. Hermione was such a wonderful witch he thought with a sigh and she was his witch.

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"Harry, Ron, good that you could come straight away."

Kingsley had called the two friends to his office the moment they had come in this morning. They were now sitting in the chairs in front of his desk, slightly worried.

"I'm not going to beat about the bush here. We have another serious issue that is possibly connected to Hermione and young Malfoy."

Harry sighed. Ron scowled. He wasn't quiet sure yet, if it had been the right thing for Hermione to get together with him. Some part of him resented the fact, that he had taken her away from him. He couldn't understand what had swayed her to be with the ferret. She was pregnant with some guys child, a guy that didn't stick around long enough to find out about her condition and she just fell for an ex-Death Eater. Something so didn't add up. He had known for a while that there was something I wasn't told, but so far he hadn't been sure, he wanted to find out either. He had enough problems on his own. His own girlfriend was acting weird. Seriously weird. He had been thinking about talking to Harry about it, but hadn't been finding the right moment as yet. Maybe after this meeting.

"... we therefore need to find her."

Ron blinked. Crap! Kingsley had been talking while he had been lost in his thoughts. He cleared his throat.

"Sorry, I was distracted for a moment."

His friend and the Minister looked at him. He blushed.

"I was saying, that Mrs. Malfoy has been cursed by a very powerful spell. A lot more powerful than the average hex or curse. The healers have still to find out the exact details of its mechanics, but they are positive that it wasn't anything that could be just found by accident. Somebody manufactured that curse."

The implications were tangible for all of them. If this curse became public knowledge in the wrong circles the Auror Office would have to have a recruitment drive of previously unseen proportions.

"Is there any indication as to who cursed her? And why?"

"She can only say, that it was a woman. Though, she reckons it to be a young woman. As for the reasons, she can't think of any that would not be related to the War and what has happened then."

"A Death Eater out for revenge?" Ron wondered.

"Lucius is in Azkaban. If he had got off with a light sentence, I could understand it, but he will spend the rest of his days there. He hasn't betrayed Voldemort. For what I heart, Voldemort has punished and humiliated him publicly. I can't see that being the motive behind it." Kingsley answered.

Harry was silent, lost in his own thoughts. Who gained from Malfoy's mother being out off the house permanently? It would mean that he was on his own. On his own? He might have been, but he didn't want to be. He had wanted to be with his best friend. He had been in love with her then already according what he understood. Pining for a girl seemed so utterly not Malfoy, but Harry knew from experience what it meant to love a girl that was dangled before him day in, day out with him being unable to make a move.

"When was Mrs. Malfoy cursed?" Harry asked.

Kingsley looked a bit surprised by this question.

"It was the beginning of July."

"So, not long after we graduated."

Ron and the Minister stared at him. What was he on about?

"What do you mean, Harry? You think school has anything to do with this?"

Harry looked at his friend. Then he nodded slowly.

"I don't think that the actual target was Mrs. Malfoy. I think, somebody wanted to get close to Malfoy. His mother was in the way, so she had to be gotten rid off."

Kingsley stood up from his chair and went over to the window. Young Malfoy the actual target? Who would have an interest in him?

"Harry," he turned to face the young wizard, "if we assume for a moment that you are right, why would anybody want to get close to Draco? What reason would anybody have that would justify putting his mother in a magical coma?"

"I don't know, but I do know, that we need to tell him."