Little Secrets

Chapter 11

He was kissing her. She'd been in the middle of insulting him and he'd just leaned down and kissed her. Who did that? She wasn't even prepared for how to respond and found herself staring awkwardly at his face for the first couple of seconds as he gently kissed her. When he started to pull away, however, Hermione finally snapped out of her trance and found herself reaching up to pull his lips back down to hers. She could feel him smile in response, but she was too content to pull away and tease him for it. No, she would stay like this for the next century: kissing Draco Malfoy on the floor of his bedroom.

Clearly, she hadn't intended for this to be the outcome when she'd raced into his room to tell him out the breakthrough she'd just made. Seeing him fast asleep hadn't even registered until she realised he was looking particularly groggy and definitely not paying attention to her as she spoke. Even then she hadn't felt very bad about waking him up. She'd been too excited to tell someone to feel bad or wait and now she was honestly trying to remember what she'd been saying before Draco had attacked her with his lips. She doubted it could be more important than threading her fingers through Draco's hair and the feeling of his body covering hers entirely. Nothing could be more exciting or important than what she was currently doing.

When they did finally pull away, it was because Hermione badly needed to breathe. They were both panting and Hermione was pretty sure her face was red, but she didn't care. Draco was still lying on top of her and his face was buried in her neck as he tried to catch his breath. Every time he breathed, his warm breath fanned over her neck and it was all Hermione could do not to shiver.

"I'm not going to crucio you, Hermione," he murmured, pressing a tickling kiss to her neck.

Hermione smiled; that's what they'd been talking about earlier. It was a stupid thing to argue about, she supposed, but she still wanted to make sure the spell worked.

"Okay," she agreed, moving her hands from his hair to wrap around his shoulders. He was still propped on his elbows, holding himself up so he wasn't crushing her, but she wished he wasn't. Even when disrupting her research, he was warm and safe and she really just wanted to hug him for hours on end.

"However," he said, pulling away to look at her, "I am interested in hearing about whatever you were talking about earlier."

Hermione snorted before she started to laugh. Draco watched her, an amused smile on his face as she shook with laughter from below him. As sweetly and mockingly as she could, she cupped his face and opened her mouth to say something before dissolving into more laughter.

"Draco," she said between laughs, "If you weren't listening before, what makes you think you'll listen now?"

"I'll try really hard," he promised, kissing a spot on her cheek right under her eye. She was still laughing softly at the thought, but what was one more time explaining?

"Fine," she agreed, pushing him off of her so she could sit up. Neither of them would be able to focus on what she was saying if Draco stayed hovering over her and pressing kisses to her face.

She started from the beginning, telling Draco about how her and Ginny had decided they needed a way to keep the younger students safe with the Carrows at Hogwarts. She told him of the first spell she'd discovered and saved it as a back-up plan; how the books his mother had sent had offered at least three more options.

Only one of the three had sounded exactly what she wanted which had immediately struck her as convenient, so she'd read further on it to figure out all the side effects it could have. Aside from leaving real marks where injured, it seemed flawless. The person charmed with it wouldn't feel the pain or terror of anything that happened to them and if there were any physical injuries, the spell would work as a makeshift healer. It couldn't keep them from losing blood or passing out from the stress of the injury, but it would prevent them from feeling the pain or terror and could protect them until they received actual medical attention.