Unrequited

Sorry about the very very long wait. At least there\'s smut in it! :D
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I felt horrid. Draco made it seem like I used him. Which, in retrospect, I guess I did. I should feel horrid. I\'m a horrid person. Then again, he used me, too. What a mess. And just when we\'d made our truce. That had the effect of making me angry all over again. I mean, we may be married but Harry and Ron...they were my flesh and blood. Draco\'s not my flesh and blood. All we share are gold bands and bathtowels.

At that thought, my stomach kinked up. A reminder that I\'m not supposed to be laying on it. I flipped over, remembering that Draco was indeed my flesh and blood at this point in time. Irrevocably bound. Damn.

I got up and cracked the window. The moon was a distant sliver in the dark night. I could see my breath in the air. It smelled like fall - crisp and cool. What I wouldn\'t give for a piece of chocolate right now. I squelched that craving. If I kept up like that I\'d be as round as Professor Sprout. Not that I could do anything about that at present. Thanks to that potion Snape gave me, I was just edging three months.

My lower abdomen had a definite little pooch now. It was hard. Rock hard. I frowned at the prospect of becoming a beached whale. And I was dreading the incipient wrinkly \"mummy tummy\" I would be left with afterwards. No more low-rise jeans for me. Damn shame. I liked those jeans a lot.

I couldn\'t sleep and I was now cold so I closed the window and pulled out \'Hogwarts: A History.\' Even though I found the ever evolving history of Hogwarts fascinating, it nevertheless had the soporific effect I was looking for. I was sitting at the table, nodding off when I heard about fifty different unlocking charms.

I\'m sure I didn\'t have the most lovely look on my face when Draco came in. In fact, I\'m sure I looked like a slapped arse. Not attractive at all.

\" \'Ere now, what do you want?\" I asked, feeling surly.

\"I wanted to talk, Hermione.\"

Damn him and his talks. He\'s more chatty than...well, than anyone! And moody. And broody. And I wasn\'t happy to have even this uncomfortable snooze interrupted by his bad feelings. So I ignored him and got up from the table. I flipped the covers back on the bed and crawled in.

\"I want to sleep. But as it appears that\'s not going to happen, you might as well come in.\"

He did, and took a seat on my bed. I frowned.

\"Well...I wanted to...apologize.\"

That was a stunner. And he had my full and undivided attention. I sat up under the blankets and looked at him.

\"I know I was just picking with Potter today on the pitch. I wanted to rough him up for Saturday.\" His words were a little choked. I know it must cost him every ounce of his pride to admit it.

\"Draco...it\'s alright. I know why you did it. I just wanted to have the opportunity to squelch it with Harry before you did. That\'s mostly what I pissed off about.\" I paused, about to swallow a gutful of pride myself. \"You were right about us being revenge that went too far. I just didn\'t want to admit it to myself and it hurt to hear it. Sometimes the truth does hurt. I\'m sorry for using you.\"

\"I\'m sorry, too. Admittedly, I did get a kick out of sleeping with you right under Weasley\'s and Potter\'s noses. But it wasn\'t just revenge Hermione. You know that I\'ve been...well, obsessed with you for awhile now. Damn it, I can\'t believe I just said that.\" He got up and began pacing at the foot of the bed. I found it rather cute.

\"When you hooked up with Weasley it made my life hell. I hated to see you with him. Hated it. Hated you.\" He looked at me with an odd expression in his face. \"And then I didn\'t hate you anymore. Then you dumped me. And I hated you again for that. After that, it all gets a little fuzzy.\" He grinned at me cheekily.

\"Same here. My feelings are definitely fuzzy when I think about you. Not the warm fuzzy, but you know what I mean.\"

\"Yeah.\" He ran his hand through his hair. \"So...what are we to do about it?\"

\"Indulge them?\" I said without thinking.

\"You mean that?\"

\"I do.\" And I really did. It was much better not fighting with him. I was tired of fighting. I couldn\'t go a whole year fighting with him.

\"So...do you mind if I climb in there with you?\" He had that impish look I\'d come to know and love.

I flipped back the covers. \"Not at all.\"

He shrugged off his robe, revealing his green satin pyjamas. I loved that color on him. He looked like a woodland creature, not that I would EVER say that. Draco climbed in next to me and we snuggled down into the crisply soft sateen sheets. He held out his arms to me and I rolled into them like I\'d occupied them for an age. There, in the quietness of the room we slept. I think it was the best sleep I had ever had.
************

When I awoke the next morning, I was aware of Hermione\'s snores, first of all. Second of all, I was aware of how good she felt in my arms, even though they were asleep and tingling. I eased her off, watching her turn over onto her other side. Even in sleep she was careful not to lay on her stomach. I shook my arms to restore the feeling to them.

Getting up, I dreaded having to deal with the inanity of classes. I would much rather have laid in bed with her all day. Unfortunately, that was not to be. I dragged myself off to our en-suite. Our Dresden bathroom gleamed at me like the brightest winter day. I brushed my teeth, shaved, all that sort of thing. I\'d just stepped into the shower when I saw the door open and close through the frosted glass.

All I could make out of her was a cloud of hair and a long white shroud. Flipping unattractive nightwear. I frowned, thinking about how much I hated flannel when the shower door opened and she stepped in.

\"Morning.\"

\"Hermione, it\'s eight in the morning.\"

\"Like you care.\" She grinned at me wickedly. \"Apparently someone has other ideas.\"

She closed her hand around my cock, which had betrayed me into being aroused.

\"Oh, God.\" I heard myself say as I leaned against the wall. The twin sensations of the hot water pounding on me and her hand were overriding all my good sense.

\"No, not God. Hermione.\"

\"You cocky little bitch.\" I grasped her wet hair and pulled her in for a kiss.

Her mouth was all minty and moist. She let her lips gravitate from my mouth to my neck. She found that spot right beneath my ear that I found so appealing. I thought I might melt right into the marble tiles of the shower.

Her hands roamed everywhere. Every place her hands went, her mouth was sure to follow. I think my eyes rolled up in my head.
*************

I awoke that morning to find Draco gone. I was disappointed until I heard the shower running. All sorts of little naughty thoughts began pouring through my head. The downside of being smart is that one\'s mind is constantly running over elevated and not so elevated things. It\'s the result of having a busy brain. And I did *so* enjoy our short honeymoon.

I got up from the bed and crossed into the en suite. I saw him silhouetted in the bubbled and frosted glass. I hurriedly brushed my teeth, stripped off my gown and stepped into the shower. The surprised look on his face was enough for me. God. I love his body. It\'s lean and a bit lanky, just as I like them. Draco\'s a shade too pale but it was nothing a little sun couldn\'t cure. I wanted him then and there.

Lord. I loved the taste of him. The feel of velvet on iron. He was salty and sweet all at once. Must be all that purloined Christmas candy that does it. I was profoundly thankful for that. His hands tangled in my hair hard enough to hurt and I pulled away.

That white, white face of his was flushed high and his eyes were closed. I grinned. I knew I was good, but this was proof that I was very very good. One *can* learn proper technique from a book. So there, Ron.

\"Why in Merlin\'s name did you stop?\" He looked at me through the steam.

\"I wasn\'t relishing the impending taste of eggwhites and seawater in my mouth this morning, Draco.\"

\"What?\" Those grey eyes went wide with disbelief that I\'d said something so bawdy.

\"Don\'t worry about it.\" I was trying hard not to laugh at his uncomfortable situation. Unfortunately, or perhaps extremely fortunately, he saw my veiled amusement.

\"Oh, you think this is funny?\" His eyes narrowed on my face. \"Turn about is fair play, Madam Malfoy.\"

With those words he spun me about so that I was pressed against the tiles. By the time I figured out what he was about, Draco had his lips permanently attached to my right nipple. And damn, did it feel brilliant. They\'d gotten more sensitive since I\'d become pregnant.

I usually like to be bitten a little hard, but right now that would send me screaming into the ceiling and not in the good way. Draco understood this intuitively (damn him) and confined himself to delicate little licks and nibbles. Oh, bliss.......

I was barely conscious of him making his way down but when he arrived at his destination, I melted into a puddle. Tiny flickers and tickles tripped all along my flesh. I felt his thumbs peeling me wider, like splitting a ripe peach. There was a finger, then two tunnelling into me and I clenched in pleasure around them. His fingers and mouth worked in tandem and I grew tighter and tighter, like an overwound watchspring.

He knew, oh yes, he knew and just as deftly removed the offending digits and replaced them with his cock. And oh, did it feel heavenly. The slip/slide of the tiles on my back, the slip/slide of his wet thighs on mine, the slip/slide of him within me all combined and coalesced into a really, really good orgasm. Brilliant, actually. Was he done? Not by a long shot. I\'d be sore the rest of the day.

Draco kept thrusting and at that angle, with my legs wrapped tightly around him, he kept hitting that spot. It was like a fairy godmother repeatedly tapping me with sherry sparkles. My husband managed to wring that noise of defeat from me again. However, I was gratified to hear it from his own lips.

*************

I was fidgety in class today. Yeah, normally I was distracted. I had a habit of making little origami creatures and setting them to mischief. Today\'s masterpiece was a frog that I\'d enchanted to go croaking and hopping around the room. Still, my leg kept bouncing up and down with nervous energy. I couldn\'t wait to get Hermione alone again.

Still, I would have to wait. Blaise, that little queef, booked the pitch for the team today. I had to practice. We wouldn\'t win this Saturday\'s match on skill alone. Hermione was proving to be a vast distraction. It irritated me that I\'d let her get under my skin so much. That seemed to be where I was caught: between annoyance and affection.

The final bell rang and I left the room. Going out to the pitch, I stopped by the Slytherin locker room and changed clothes. I looked in the mirror. You certainly are a handsome devil in your kit, Mister Malfoy. Shaking my head at my poufy behaviour, I left, getting the Quidditch gear from Madam Hooch\'s office.

Severus was refereeing the sparring match today. I wished my Head of House was the official referee again. Slytherin wouldn\'t have to suck up losing to bloody fucking Gryffindor all the damned time. Stupid, buggering Harry Potter. I fucking hate him. Loathe him, actually. At this rate I\'d be finding the half-blooded bastard and punching him in that four-eyed face of his. Hermione wouldn\'t like that. I made myself count to ten and then got on my broom. A few circuits of hard riding around the pitch improved my mood. By the time I was clear headed enough to notice, I saw that my teammates had made it out there. Splendid.

There was Godfather, floating a few yards away, smirking that insufferable smirk of his. \"Rough day, Draco?\"

\"A bit, Professor.\" I flew down to confer with the rest of the team. I saw Hermione sitting in the stands watching me. Usually she only came out to watch stupid Potter and stupid Weasel. She looked up from the book she was reading and gave me a small smile and a wave. That went farther to improving my mood than flying had. I waved back, anticipating a very pleasant evening.

We ran through various plays and strategems. Snape called us on any obvious bits of cheating and some not so obvious. Then again, it was always hard to call a foul in Quidditch. Through it all, Hermione sat in the bleachers, not paying attention. Even so, her presence calmed me. I was clearer than I\'d been most of the day.

I hated fighting with her. The feeling of sleeping next to her, hearing her soft snores. Even when we were shagging like demons made me glow, well, rosy inside. That\'s right, I fucking said it. Rosy. I was enveloped in that dewy haze when pain exploded on my right side.

The next thing I knew, my head was throbbing and I was flying through the air without a broom. That was all I remembered.
************

I was sitting there in the stands. I wasn\'t paying attention to Draco or anyone else for that matter. The Slytherin girls who came out to watch the team run plays ignored me and I ignored them. I was just getting engrossed in the book I was reading when I heard the shout. My heart leapt up in my throat when I saw Draco tumble from his broom. He plummeted straight to the grass.

I don\'t know how I got there but I was out of those stands and down on the grass beside him. Draco was completely out and there was a huge bruise on the side of his face. I, Hermione Granger, did something I have *never* done, EVER.

I promptly wigged out.

\"Oh, God! Draco!\" I could hear myself screaming and trying to shake him awake. Mesdames Pomfrey and Hooch were there, pulling me away and Severus was there trying to calm me. I saw Draco\'s limp body hovering in mid-air on its way to the infirmary. Severus kept me from running after him. Madam Pomfrey manoeuvered him into a bed and pulled her wand out to examine him.

After a few minutes she pronounced, \"Well, he\'s got a broken arm, a few cracked ribs and a concussion, but nothing fatal. I don\'t like to mess with head injuries so I\'m going to just bind the bones until I can give him something to mend them. Has anyone told Narcissa?\"

\"No.\" Severus\' severe tone indicated that he didn\'t think that she should be told either. Poppy only raised her eyebrow at him and walked away. It didn\'t take much imagination to figure out that she was going to owl Draco\'s mum.

We were all sitting around, looking morose when a great thump came through the fireplace. Out stepped Draco\'s mother, looking madder than when we got married. She looked at me as if I were a particularly nasty hex.

\"What did you do to him now?\"

\"She did nothing, Narcissa. Draco was daydreaming during Quidditch practice and got hit with a bludger and fell off his broom.\" Severus stood up for me. Thank you, Godfather-in-law.

\"Probably deep in thought about *her*.\" She managed to make it sound filthy.

\"I wasn\'t doing anything. I came out to watch Draco and the next thing I knew he was falling to the ground.\" I sat down in the chair that was by his bed. All of a sudden I was exhausted.

\"You nasty little child. This is all your fault. If you hadn\'t trapped my son, he wouldn\'t be lying here right now.\" Narcissa was dripping with venom. I hadn\'t the fortitude to spar with her.

\"Yes. Well, if you\'re done...\"

\"Are you dismissing me?!\" she screeched.

\"Stay or go. Whichever you prefer.\"

\"You officious, little -\"

\"Narcissa!\" The Headmaster\'s voice boomed from the open doorway. \"I think that\'s quite enough. Poppy has apprised me of his condition and I think that Draco should be right as rain in a couple of days. I think his wife is quite capable of looking after him. As long as she looks after herself.\"

Dumbledore looked at me with a soft gaze. \"Of course, sir.\"

\"Well, then. Shall we?\"

\"I shall return to check on him tomorrow,\" my mother-in-law announced haughtily. She took herself back to the fireplace and flooed back to the manor.

\"As will I.\" Severus flapped from the room in the company of the Headmaster and Madam Hooch.

Poppy peeked her head out of the office and, assured that all was quiet, went back inside.

Draco looked so much smaller all wrapped up in blankets. He hadn\'t had so much as an eyelash flutter since he fell from his broom. I picked up his hand. It was soft, buttery soft. I shook my head. He\'d never had to do any physical labour ever. Then again, why should he have done? He\'s a wizard. With a flick of a wand any chore requiring anything akin to sweat would be taken care of.

Instead of annoying me, the fact filled me with a sort of affection. If Draco had to lead the middle class life he would not be the man he is today. I saw the bruise on the side of his face and cringed and tightened my fingers around his. I must have squeezed too hard because he woke up.

\"What in the bloody hell happened?\"

\"Stray bludger, your head.\"

\"Shit. No wonder it feels like I\'m underwater.\"

\"Concussion. Madam Pomfrey didn\'t want to give you anything until you\'d woken up on your own.\"

\"Ah. Go get her then, woman. My head is being stepped on by an elephant.\"

\"Si, mon capitan.\" I saluted him and went to knock on Mme. Pomfrey\'s office door. She came bustling out.

\"Good. You\'re awake. Drink this.\" She handed him a cup of something. Draco sniffed it, made a face and downed it in one go.

\"God. Why does everything that\'s good for you taste so horrible?\"

\"Feeling better?\" The mediwitch asked, not unsympathetically.

\"Yes. No more fuzziness.\"

\"Splendid. Now I can set about healing the rest of you.\" Poppy stood up and with a few quick flashes of her wand mended all of Draco\'s injuries. Well...most. \"The bruises to your face will have to heal on their own time. Thank goodness nothing was broken there.\" As if remembering Draco\'s performance after being attacked by Buckbeak, she felt compelled to add, \"You\'re perfectly alright and you can go. No sense lying about moaning.\"

And with that, she took herself out of the room. Leaving Draco and I alone. Damnit.

\"Now that I\'m sufficiently recovered, the time has come to ask you something Hermione.\"

Uh-oh. That breezy tone of voice always preceeded something extremely unpleasant. \"What?\" I asked a little nervously.

\"Was it my imagination or as I was in my semi-unconscious state, did you go completely nutters out there on the pitch?\" He grinned impishly, already knowing the answer.

\"Oh come on. You already know, so why grill me about it?\"

\"I want you to say it.\" The grin widened.

\"Yes, I was...concerned about you.\" I jumped up in an attempt to hide my agita. \"What else was I supposed to do, Draco? One minute you\'re on your broom, perfectly fine, the next you\'re hurtling to the ground head first. You\'re lucky you didn\'t break your neck.\"

\"Yes, I know.\" He replied gravely.

To escape that level gaze I began pacing the room. I could feel his eyes following me. \"So what is it you want me to say?\"

\"I don\'t know, Hermione. Say what you feel.\" The very insouciance of that statement set off warning bells. Draco was only casual when he had a lot invested in the situation. I thought about my answer carefully.

\"You want me to say that I care?\" I deliberately sounded a bit exasperated.

\"Do you?\" Oh no. He\'d turned earnest. Time to lay my cards on the table.

\"I do. How could I help it? There\'s something oddly lovable about you, Draco Malfoy. I\'ve yet to put my finger on it.\" I turned around with a little smirk on my face.

\"That\'s good. There\'s something vaguely endearing about you, as well, Hermione.\" The small grin he gave me tugged at my heart. That\'s it, Hermione old girl, you\'ve gone soft. Must be the hormones.

Nevertheless, I sat down and held his hand.