Lost Image | dramione

31 | the birthday party

Author's Note: Can someone make me a kick ass cover for this story? Please dm me if interested. I'll dedicate one chapter for ya.

Draco was full of conflictions. He didn't tell her about the missing people- he couldn't tell her. Not tonight. He would save a conversation he knew would invoke tears for another day.

He hadn't meant to tell her about the Marriage Law, either. Somehow it had just slipped out, as he had sat and wondered what she would do. Would she leave him, afterall? She said she loved him, but what was that compared to her freedom?

And in the end, her answer had been yes, she was going to leave him.

This didn't come as quite the blow he had thought it would, though, since she quickly made it clear that that didn't mean she wouldn't still be with him. It wouldn't change anything... Draco wondered if that was true. It certainly put him in a difficult position. If she chose to divorce him, then there would be no excuse he could come up with to continue to see her. They would have to sneak around, or risk his parents finding out. He did not want them to find out... not for a long time, anyways. There would be hell to pay.

But then, if he begged her to stay he was pretty sure she would. When the Marriage Law was repealed, his parents would expect them to agree to a divorce. It would look, to his parents, as if she were the one trapping him. Draco wouldn't be at the receiving end of their wrath: Hermione would be.

For a divorce among witches and wizards, generally both parties had to agree. The witch was entitled to a hell of an alimony settlement, too, which his mother would happily pay, and Hermione would blatantly refuse.

Draco could always be the one who refused the divorce. But then, that was the same as being her captor all over again, wasn't it?

He didn't mean for this to happen- he couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when he started to think of her as such an important person in his life, but she was. When did she stop being a burden and start becoming cherished? The night he saved her? Later?

He didn't ask for such a huge complication in his life, though he knew she couldn't help what she was any more than he could stop being a Malfoy. But the fact was that her blood-status would cause a lot of problems after the Marriage Law was dissolved. He thought about what she had said to try and placate him...'I want to choose you for myself, next time.'

Next time? Didn't she realize how impossible it was for there to be a next time? His father would certainly disown him if he proposed to her properly, brought her home, and declared he would be marrying her of his own free will. His mother... his mother would give him an earful, and cry and plead and make him feel like shit....

What was he supposed to do!?

Her small hand moved deftly over the buttons of his shirt, brushing the cool fabric against his skin, her soft eyes seeming to drink him in as she worked. When the last button was undone, she ran her hands up his chest, moving to slip around his sides under his open shirt. She pressed her mouth softly to his skin, kissing him gently along his collarbone.

He sighed softly, letting his shirt fall from his shoulders. She was so soft, so warm- he couldn't seem to concentrate on the very real problems in his head when she was there with him, holding him, leading him to the bed with that small smile on her face.

Her smile made him feel like everything would work out somehow. How could he be so worried when this fantastic woman believed in him?

She sat down on the bed and he leaned over her, pressing her down as he found her lips, his hands pulling up the floaty white muggle shirt she was wearing. Her skin was like silk, and his hands began sliding up her waist without him even realizing it. He wanted to touch her everywhere, to feel her soft skin pressed to his as much as possible. Only she could make his troubles float away. Only her warmth and deep eyes could calm and comfort him.