Between the Malfoy Brothers - Dramione

Chapter 25

When Hermione Granger curled up on a cushion on the floor of the vanished room and fell asleep with Draco Malfoy's arm around her waist and his face in her hair, she had complete confidence that he would not fall asleep himself. He did as well. He meant to enjoy being near her, letting her rest until just before curfew, when he'd nuzzle her awake and send her to her dorm. But as he lay against her in the dark, the sound of her steady breath, the slow rhythm of its rise and fall against his chest, was like a spell, sending sleep like an enchantment out of her and into him.

It was her who woke up first, checking her watch by the light of her wand, clucking her tongue once she saw that curfew was long past.

"Malfoy," she muttered. There was no point in getting angry about it. And perhaps it would yield something nice for her after all.

Draco was sleeping obliviously next to her. Unconscious like this, maybe he'd mistaken her for Ronald, and that was why he'd turned his back to her.

This was not to be borne.

In the small space between Draco's back and the castle's stone wall, Hermione rolled off her back and onto her side. She pillowed her head with her own bent arm and pressed her cheek into the hollow between his shoulder blades. His breathing grew momentarily louder at her touch, but he slept on.

His body was much larger and longer than hers. She knew it from standing next to him but the effect was different as she lay beside him. With slow care, she dropped her arm over his, reaching up and across his back and shoulder, her wrist coming to rest at his elbow. The experiment seemed to demand that she make the same measurement with her leg. She wasn't sure where her shoes had gone, but she didn't fret over it as she extended her sock-foot over his hip and down the length of his leg as far as she could reach. Sure enough, her ankle came to rest at his knee.

Their proportions were mismatched, but perfectly so. She grinned into his back, nestling closer. Her hand on his arm trailed up over his elbow, onto his bicep, over the dome of his shoulder and back down, tracing the contours and definition of the lean muscle beneath his cotton shirt.

In his sixteenth year, he was well beyond boyish gawkiness, taking on a more mature bulk. The realization made her foot itch to track up and down his leg, feeling the contours there too. But her rational mind spoke back to her impulses, telling her this was too much of a liberty to take with a sleeping person, even one she'd been snogging for months.

In a strange mix of satisfaction at having explored him a bit, and a complete lack of satisfaction at not exploring more, she sighed into his spine, resigning herself to dealing with the bad situation they were in, out past curfew with her separated from her dormitory by the alarm Umbridge had set on the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

She would wake him gently, withdrawing her hand from his arm and stroking the well-groomed hairline at the nape of his neck. He shivered at the touch but settled back into sleep again.

"Constant vigilance," she mouthed against the back of his neck.

He twitched, moaning softly.

She propped herself on her elbow, bending to blow lightly against the curve of his ear.

He swiped at his ear with the back of his hand before letting it fall back, limp against his cheek.

Finally, she called him out of sleep in a sweet voice, chastising him, but with the trace of a laugh. "Malfoy, you didn't stay awake."

His steady breathing crashed into a gasp. "Granger?" he said, looking over his shoulder into the dark.

"Yes, I'm still here."