"And she's still there. She hasn't owled or something, has she?"
Harry shook his head. "
"I don't suppose Snape has an owl flying around if he only just...got his magic back."
"Did she i-post then?" he asked.
"I what?"
"I-post...the thing with the computer?"
"Oh, email? I don't...do you have an email address?" Harry smirked and gave Teddy, who was by now bouncing on his knee impatiently, a bit of his own bacon butty.
"No, what's that?" asked Ron, grinning at Ted who had changed his appearance to that of Ron and was, silly enough, demanding another bit of food. "I think he's taking after me," he muttered happily.
"She can't send an email if neither of us has an address, I think. I don't really know. Dudley never had the internet at home, I think. Or I didn't know. Doesn't matter. I'm sure she'll be home soon. Not like her to miss that many classes, is it?"
"Nah, but..." he handed the baby more breakfast.
"Stop feeding him that," admonished Harry. "He should eat healthy things and should eat slowly. You're really not setting a good example."
"Sorry," Ron mumbled. "But he looks like me."
"He looks like Snape from time to time," Harry rolled his eyes.
I mean do you think that they're...?"
"You don't suppose she stays there because they...you know?"
"They what...oh, that? Erm," Harry blushed. "I don't know. But...I mean the snogging was weird enough. I don't want to imagine them...that's just eurgh."
"Exactly, eurgh. But it would...I mean she does stay there. Even though she never let me..."
"Ron, stop there. I really don't need my breakfast coming up again. And that's just...even though..."
"Even though what? You think they're doing it?"
Harry shrugged. "I didn't mean that. I meant Snape at the funeral. He looked...no, he sort of leaned on Hermione. She didn't let go off his hand once. Or the other way round, no idea which. But he sort of looked like he...depended on her."
"You didn't say," Ron replied, slightly annoyedly.
"I know because I t...well" target="_blank">thought...well, you are a bit protective of Hermione."
"So are you, mate," he threw a crumb of toast at his best friend and tried to glare.
"Yeah I know but it was Hermione doing the protecting there. With Snape I mean. I don't...well, I honestly don't think that they're doing anything which Hermione doesn't want."
"And if Hermione wants it?"
Harry shrugged again. "I'm used to babies now and since Teddy does look like Snape sometimes, I suppose we could manage."
Ron's eyes widened and continued to do so until Harry burst out in a gale of laughter, shocking both his godson and his best friend.
"Seriously, if she wants to do it, she knows how to protect herself."
.
She loved kissing him. He tasted nice, even that morning and he held her very gently but closely and he just knew what kind of pressure to put on his fingers on her back or her face or in her hair. She felt protected and cherished and most of all...sort of...well. Hot. Yes, hot. Parts of her body did things on their own accord and even her fingers stayed perilously close to the hem of his t-shirt, sometimes even sneaked underneath it and she wanted...wanted...yes, she wanted, for heaven's sake. All of him. Feeling him.
Hermione had responded eagerly to her kisses and she could feel his fingers twitch and she could feel...him.
She wanted to talk to him, wanted to say something but any words were cut off by her own laboured breathing or the kisses he gave her. Brilliant kisses, wonderful kisses, amazing kisses. They made her feel...alive. Hadn't felt so alive in...ever. Not ever and she couldn't think clearly but her hands knew what to do and her fingers knew what to do and in a second or maybe less or maybe more, she had pushed his t-shirt up and over his head and there she was — admiring his chest with her eyes and fingers and worshipping it and...it was too much, or not enough, she wasn't sure which.
She wasn't sure of anything anymore but the feelings of his hand on her thigh suddenly, inching her old-fashioned nightgown up and up and up.
.
"I miss her," said Aideen, softly, a lone, silent tear trickling down her cheek as she lay in Draco's arms, the television running mutely.
"I miss her too," he replied unhappily. "She would have never allowed us to be like this, here."
"She would have understood," Aideen said and it almost sounded as if she were choking on her own words or on her grief or on anything else.
"That she would have. But she would have sat somewhere to watch that we didn't do anything stupid," he chuckled mirthlessly.
"We won't, Draco. No matter if she's here or not, we won't."
"Of course not," he said solemnly. "I made a promise to her. Well, more or less."
"What?"
"I had to make a promise, Aideen," he laughed a little, "She threatened me with, erm, shears, should I ever get too close to you."
"She would," Aideen sighed and another tear ran down her cheek, gathering in her tiny dimple for a moment. "I miss her."
"I miss her too. She just...she taught me."
"She taught you?" asked Aideen, pushing herself up on her elbow, arching an eyebrow the same way Mrs Callaghan had always done.
"She did," nodded Draco earnestly. "I...before I came here...well, just ask Severus or Hermione how I was. What I acted like."
"The Death-Eater-thing?"
"How do you know?" he sat up quickly, almost shoving Aideen off the couch.
"Severus, Gran, the abduction. I thought you knew I knew. I mean..."
"I do. Sort of but not all of..."
"I love you, Draco," she said, pulling him beside her again and cupping his face in her hands. "The way you are. Well, the way you are now but then again, I'd probably kick you out on your sorry arse if you ever try to kill anyone else again. I hope you know that."
He nodded mutely and found his face pressed against Aideen's chest, happily sniffing in her scent and enjoying her understanding, her proximity and the thought that he wouldn't have to worry about getting his sorry arse kicked away from Aideen. He wouldn't ever try to kill anyone. Or let anyone tell him that he should kill someone either. He wanted...
"I want to be a good man for you," he whispered against her breastbone. "And a good husband in time."
"You will," she whispered back, carding her fingers in his hair. "I'm sure you will."
.
She didn't ever think she would be comfortable lying naked on someone else's couch. Completely naked. Not a stitch on her. Nothing. Bare. Naked. Naked. Her legs entangled with Severus's and her arm thrown over his chest, fingertips drawing needless but happy patterns on his bare skin. She had never thought that she could be in a living room, on a couch, naked, with someone else who was naked as well. But here she was, their clothing on the floor next to the couch. And she was damn comfortable.
He couldn't possibly be, with her lying almost completely on him. He had enlarged the couch, yes, but now, after this, she needed to be closer. As close as possible. It was most certainly a few steps up from whatever it had been Ian had done. More than a few steps possibly. More than plenty of steps and it had, somehow, magicked a happy, tired, exhausted smile on her face and he seemed awfully relaxed as well. Hell, he was even smiling down at her from time to time and his fingers were drawing just the same happy, nonsensical patters on her back that she drew on his chest and he had put his cheek against her temple and his breathing was — even and deep and...content. His bloody breathing seemed to be content. Or maybe it was just her sex-muddled brain speaking. Or not speaking. She wasn't sure which but she was...happy. Here. Naked on a couch. In a living room. Where, if Severus wouldn't have had any curtains, anyone could have seen them. And Draco and Aideen just a few yards away...oh. She only hoped that they hadn't heard her. She had always been quite eloquent and had mostly (well...) known how to regulate her volume. But this...well. The volume had been...exorbitant and of her eloquence had gone right out of the window when his tongue had...she blushed even thinking about it.
The chest she lay on and touched went up and down rapidly and she looked curiously up at him to see him — chuckle.
"What's so funny?" she asked softly.
"Your blush and the way your thoughts are visible even when I don't see your face," he answered, smiling and pulling her up further to kiss her briefly.
"They're not visible," she huffed, pulling away a bit.
"Oh yes, they are," he smirked almost Snape-like.
"No, they're not."
"I know anyway," he countered.
"What do you know?"
"What you were thinking about?"
"Well, of course you'd know the general direction of my thoughts, given how we...well, the way we are right now."
He smirked and pulled her back to him. He said nothing, absolutely nothing and she could still feel a sort of self-satisfied smirk oozing off him.
So, he had heard her and he probably realised that it had all been his fault that the poor woman on the other side of the road (whoever lived there — or if someone lived there at all) or Draco and Aideen had heard her. She chuckled herself. It didn't matter. She was comfortable on this couch, even if she was naked and was on it with a very naked man.
.
Well. Well. Well.
She had, well, been not really quiet and the rest of her body had...well." target="_blank">had...well. This was probably one thing where he could agree with himself that he had not failed. He had made Hermione Granger scream and like any man, warm-blooded or not, it filled him with a sort of pride. No. Not a sort of pride but ridiculous, happy, joyful pride. He couldn't help himself. He had to smirk and he could tell when she remembered certain, well, aspects of their morning on the couch. Was fun to watch her blush and he had magicked that on her as well.
Well.
She looked up at him almost adoringly and he had to kiss her again, taste her lips and run his fingers along her bare sides, tickling her ribs and she, immediately, flinched and tickled him back and...
Oh she laughed and it was almost like music to his ears but it was then too soppy to say so aloud or to even think so aloud. But he had definitely discovered her weak spot. Ticklish. Massively ticklish. She laughed and she tried to tickle him but he seemed to have better self control but she writhed against him and it was just...
too good to be true really.
A beautiful young woman in his arms on his couch, in his living room, in the daylight. Letting herself be touched by him and...no" target="_blank">and...no, he should not be thinking along those lines. She was there on her own accord and she had kissed back eagerly and was kissing back eagerly and she had done all the other things just as eagerly as he had. She had screamed the entire house down, for heaven's sake and no other woman had ever done so. No other woman (and there were only few) had ever looked at him like this and had most certainly never reacted to his touch like this. Had never smiled at him like this. And she was...she knew exactly who he was.
Oh dear, he was beginning to repeat himself and he was idiotic and it was ridiculous. This entire thing was ridiculous. He was almost behaving like a love-sick puppy. Or fool. No matter which but he was only a man after all and she was wriggling on top of him and writhing against him and her skin was soft and her fingers and lips insistent.
.
Narcissa,
he wrote with almost trembling fingers,
I have to apologise. My behaviour after the fall of our former master was disgraceful and not worthy of any Pureblood. I was admittedly a bit confused by the entire shift in our world and I took it badly. There is nothing I can say or do to make you believe me but I have long realised what should be the most important factor in my life and I've failed in showing you that you are, as my wife, should be this, most important matter.
He sighed. This would never do. Narcissa wouldn't believe that sort of idiocy. Maybe — he could try with blackmail. Maybe, he thought, that would work after he hadn't even heard from his son for over four weeks, or had it been longer? It didn't matter. Leopards obviously didn't change their spots and Draco wouldn't get a single Galleon if he married that Muggle. Those were all alike. Gwendolyn had been sneakier than any Slytherin and...no, he needed his wife back, even if she wasn't his wife anymore.
Narcissa wouldn't hesitate to take him back. She had always been the one who had been more in love with him. Or had possibly even loved him.
Well, he would have to humiliate himself but only with Narcissa, he could bring the name of Malfoy back to former glory. And maybe she was able to produce another healthy child. Or maybe she had found corners of the earth on her travels where they could find a pureblood child to adopt...
Narcissa,
I was weak and wrong and you had every right to leave me but please come to your sense and come back. The family needs you.
Lucius
Well, if that didn't do the trick, he wasn't sure what would. He had admitted to basically everything — she couldn't expect more of him.
.
"We should tell the family," Aideen said suddenly, still looking slightly shell-shocked at the noises that had come from next door. Clearly, those had not respected her gran's wishes. Oh but Aideen would. And Draco would. She would make sure of that. And if she had to marry sooner rather than later.
If she had known...she would have made sure that Gran was still there for the wedding. She needed her gran. More than her mother. More than anyone — well, apart from Draco. But she needed her and she wasn't there anymore and...she" target="_blank">and...she needed — Draco. And she wanted to get married. Soon.
Especially after she heard what kind of noise Hermione over there had just made. Sex should be either really, really dreadful or more than wonderful.
"Your family saw the ring, Aideen," said Draco, puzzled. "And you told your parents and I talked to your father."
"Yes, yes, I know," she said distractedly. "I meant your family."
"My family? No."
"No?"
"Yes, Draco. We're getting married. And I don't want to wait forever, and no matter what you say, your family should know. Let them decide whether they support us or..."
"They won't," he spat. "You know what my family is like. A part of my family tried to kill you!"
"Still," she said steadily. "One day, you will miss all the opportunities you didn't have. And you are going to regret not telling them and to shut them out completely. I swear, if you don't contact them, I will or I will tell Severus to tell them."
