On All Hallows Eve......

Title: A Midnight Waltz at the Crescent Moon Inn

Author: Lexy Malfoy

Pairing: Draco/Hermione

Rated: R-ish

Disclaimer: Only thing that is mine is that plot.



A/N: So yeah. It called to me. So I thought...why not?





Hope you guys like it!!!







Hermione smiled and closed her eyes as she allowed the sounds of the waves crashing against the cool October shore fill her senses. This was exactly what she needed, she had told herself. It had been eight years after the war of Hogwarts and the first time in said eight years that she had stepped foot back into England.





When the war was over the first thing that Hermione had done was go back to Australia and search for her parents. It had taken her three weeks to discover the final whereabouts of her parents and when she did she had discovered that they were killed only five days after the final battle of Hogwarts by a reckless drunk driver. They had died upon impact.





Saddened, despaired, and depressed Hermione had headed back home to England. The first person she thought of was Ron and so she went straight towards the burrow, only to find him in bed with Lavender Brown.





Ron cringed behind the orange Chudley Canon sheets, expecting her to give him a nasty piece of her mind, only to be shocked, confused, and slightly disappointed when she had just turned around, stepped out of the Burrow, and out of England all together.





But that was eight years ago and Hermione knew...it was time to come back home.







She looked up at the building in front of her and smiled as she held onto her luggage and stepped foot into the quaint yet well kept Inn.





A woman with ginger red hair sat behind the counter of the Inn’s lobby and smiled. “Good evening. My name is Bonnie and welcome to the Crescent Moon Inn. Do you have a reservation with us?”





Hermione smiled and nodded. She signed the check in sheet and took the key that led her to room number 15B. She headed up the wooden spiral steps that led to her room but then suddenly stopped when she felt a sense of foreboding in the narrow staircase; feeling an eerie chill crawl up her spine. Hermione then shook her head and chuckled amusingly. “You’ve written one too many horror stories, Hermione.”





It wasn’t until after six months that she left England that Harry had finally found her. She had moved all the way across the Atlantic and had found a new home in New England, USA. She was a writer and ever since she has written fifteen short stories that were all of a bit of horror and suspense and was on New York’s best seller list.





Hermione kept in contact with Harry ever since and it wasn’t until he had actually appeared two months ago at her New England home and begged her to come back home and be there for him at his wedding with Ginny. “Please, Hermione. You’re my best friend. I need you there. WE need you there.”





Hermione sighed and nodded. “Alright, Harry. I’ll go. But I need some alone time to finish my last book.”





And that’s exactly what she was doing there in the Crescent Moon Inn...finishing up the end of her latest suspenseful and spine tingling thriller.





Hermione sighed as she turned the key to her room and stepped inside. It was nothing grand really. Creme colored walls and a dark blue carpeting. A single bed in the far back, an old comfy couch right next to it, a dresser for her clothes, and a work table for her to do her writing.





Hermione decided that she’d take a nice long bath before she’d get to work. She walked into the connecting bathroom and filled the tub with warm water. She then filled it with bubbles and soon enough she slipped inside of the heavenly warm water. Hermione closed her eyes and sighed as she tilted her head back and enjoyed the moment.





She didn’t even notice that she had fallen asleep.





Nor did she notice when the old grandfather clock that was down in the Inn’s lobby chime midnight.





...all Hallow’s Eve.





~*~





Hermione hummed to herself as she stepped back into the room. She had a towel wrapped herself and was drying her hair with a smaller one.





“Well well well...this sure isn\'t something you see everyday.”





“AAAAH!!!” Hermione jumped. She then noticed the one and only Draco Malfoy lounging back against the headboard of her bed, arms tucked behind his neck and feet crossed at the ankles. “M-Malfoy? What the bloody hell are you doing here?”





Draco raised a sardonic brow. “What am I doing here? This just happens to be my room.”





Hermione gaped at him. “Are you serious? You mean that idiot girl double booked us? Oh this is unbelievable.”





Draco shrugged.





Hermione groaned at and threw her hands up. “Great! Just great! I come here for a bit of peace and quiet and I end up stuck in a room here with YOU!” Hermione frowned at the look of hurt in his eyes. “Sorry.”





Draco shrugged noncommittally as Hermione dressed, in the privacy of the bathroom of course.





She had then stepped back out and decided that a bit of writing was in order. Ignoring the curious stare of the blond ferret that had yet to move from her bed she had sat at the work table and, ignoring the cold shiver that ran down her spine, opened her laptop.





About an hour into her writing Draco had stood and sat himself in the chair that was next to her. “Have you ever wondered what death is like, Granger?”





Hermione shrugged. “Yeah. I suppose.” She kept on typing.





“Do you think that when you do you’ll go straight to heaven? Or...maybe just hang around like the ghosts in Hogwarts do?”





This time she stopped her typing and frowned. “I think that...I might end up going to heaven.”





Draco cocked his head. “How do you figure?”





“Well...” She thought back. “...Nearly Headless Nick once told Harry and I that all ghosts are ghosts because of some unfinished business. Something that has been haunting one’s soul when they were alive but...never saw it through.”





Draco bit his bottom lip and nodded slowly. “And you don’t think you have any unfinished business of your own?”





Hermione smiled and shook her head. “No...not really. I mean...I’m successful. And smart. I have friends. And I don’t plan on ever getting married.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’d like to have a child in the near future but...I have no regrets in life.”





Draco’s smile twitched sadly. “Lucky you.”





~*~





“Goodnight, Malfoy.” Hermione smiled from up in the bed. Draco had decided to give her the bed and sleep on couch.





“Goodnight, Granger.” He whispered. Draco waited a few minutes and once he heard the sound of Hermione’s breaths deepen he decided to make his move. The blond Malfoy slipped off of the couch, out of his clothes, and under the covers of Hermione’s warm bed. He spooned her from behind and allowed himself to feel the warmth of her body...even if it was just for a while. “Granger...” He whispered.





“Wha? Malfoy? What are you---”





“Shhhhh...” He interrupted her sleepy protestations. “Trust me, Granger. I’m not going to hurt you.” Draco thrilled at the shiver he had then given her and proceeded to slide the spaghetti straps of her blue knee length night gown down her arms, past her body, and off of her completely.





Hermione whimpered and, as if in a trance, allowed her once childhood nemesis, to do with her as he wished. “So cold. Your hands...”





Draco frowned. “Sorry. There\'s not much that I can do about that.” He leaned in and kissed his way down her neck and back. Draco then flipped her on her back and kissed his way down her body. “So beautiful. So bloody beautiful.” He shook his head. “So many times...I wanted to tell you. Beg you...for...”





“Beg me for what?” She panted as he tenderly kissed her inner thigh.





Draco looked up at her from between her thighs. “For forgiveness.”





Hermione bit her lip as her eyes watered at the intensity of emotions that had shown through his gray eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive, Draco. We were kids.”





Draco shook his head. “I was so rotten to you, Granger. A git of the highest kind. I...I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. Please...please say that you forgive me, Granger. Please...Hermione.”





Hermione gasped at the sound of her name coming from his lips and nodded. “You’re forgiven, Draco. I forgive you...for everything.”





Draco sighed a teary sigh before crawling up her body and positioning himself at her entrance. “Thank you, Hermione Thank you.”





Hermione cupped his cheek with one hand and clasped his left hand with the other. She kissed his cheek tenderly and smiled. “You’re welcome, Draco.”





Draco smiled as he leaned in and gave her the most romantic and mind blowing kiss she\'d ever been given...and slid his way home; making love to her over and over again...all throughout the night.





~*~





“Draco?”





Morning came and Hermione found herself to be alone. She glanced around for the familiar man but he was no where to be found. Hermione sighed as she allowed herself to fall back onto the bed. “Maybe it was all a dream.” She shook her head. “Imagine Malfoy and I actually getting along and making love to each other.” She grinned. “Oh but what a dream it was. I wonder if---” She froze as she noticed two things.





One: Her nightgown was off of her and folded on the couch that was next to her bed.





And two: On top of said nightgown laid Draco’s Slytherin house ring.





Hermione sprung from the bed and picked up the ring in her hands. ‘So it wasn’t a dream. It was real. It really did happen.’ Hermione grinned and made a mental note to owl Draco as soon as she was back in London.





~*~





“Good morning, Bonnie!” Hermione smiled as she signed the keys back to the red headed girl behind the counter.





“Good morning Miss Granger. I take it you had a good night’s sleep?”





Hermione grinned. “Oh yes. In fact...I’m not even going to complain about you double booking my room.” She winked playfully only to frown at Bonnie’s confused frown.





“Double booking? I did no such thing Miss. The rooms here at the Inn have only one key each. Believe me when I say that no room would ever be double booked.”





Hermione frowned. “But...he was there.”





“He?”





Hermione nodded. “Yes. An old school friend of mine. Maybe you sent him in thinking he was there with me?”





Bonnie shook her head. “No miss. That would never happen. I would have called you first if that was the case.”





“Are you sure? I mean...it’s quite alright if you did. These things DO happen you know. Maybe his name and description might ring a bell.”





Bonnie nodded slowly. “Maybe.”





Hermione smiled. “His name is Draco Malfoy. He had on a navy blue turtle neck, coal gray trousers, and Hey! Are you alright?” She asked the pale and trembling woman.





Bonnie nodded gapingly. “Did you say D-d-d-draco M-m-m-Malfoy?”





Hermione frowned yet nodded. “Yes. He’s an old school mate of mine. Blond hair and gray eyes.” She smiled as she raised her hand, showing the Slytherin ring on his finger. “I guess he was in too much of a hurry to go home but he left his ring behind for me.”





By then Bonnie had down right looked as if she’d seen a ghost. “Th-th-that ring. Where did you get that r-r-ring?”





Hermione frowned. “Draco left it for me. Are you sure you’re alright?”





Bonnie closed her eyes and nodded. She then took in a few deep breaths before she looked up and smiled. “I’m quite alright. Just feeling a bit under the weather I guess.”





Hermione frowned yet nodded. “Get some rest then. You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.” She said before stepping foot out of the Crescent Moon Inn.





What she didn’t hear was Bonnie mumbling to herself as she straightened out a few papers. “You have no idea.”





~*~





Harry smiled as Hermione played a few rounds of exploding snaps with Teddy on living room coffee table. When they were done the eight year old excused himself to play in the backyard. Harry turned to Hermione and smiled. “So how have you been, Hermione?”





Hermione smiled. “I’ve been good. Everything’s going well. In fact OH! I just remembered. Mind if I use your owl Harry? I need to send someone a letter.” When Harry had asked her who his friend just smiled and told him about rooming with Draco at the Inn. She showed him the ring but then frowned when he significantly paled and gaped at her. “Harry? What’s wrong? You’re acting like that barmy Bonnie girl.”





“Let me see the ring, Hermione.”





“What?”





“Let me see the ring, Hermione!” He asked more desperately.





Hermione’s frown deepened but she nodded all the same and took off the ring before handing it over to her friend. She then was even more worried when he read the inside engraving that read Draco Lucius Malfoy and muttered a nervous ‘Bloody fucking Hell’





“Harry, could you please tell me why you’re acting this way? You’re really beginning to scare me.”





Harry shook his head. “Hermione...that couldn’t have happened. There is no way that Malfoy was there with you last night.”





“Oh? And why not?”





“Because...” He took her hands in his. “...Malfoy has been dead for the past five years.”





She pulled her hands out of his, taking the ring back in her hands, and gaped at him in disbelief. “What?”





Harry explained. “Five years ago he left Malfoy Manor. They say that he was tired of doing things for his father and wanted to be his own man. He had an really bad fight with Lucius, I mean wands were crossed and all, before packing his things and leaving the manor for good.” He shook his head. “Days later the muggle authorities found his avada’d body lying on top of one of the beds in a room of the Crescent Moon Inn.”





Hermione shook with fright. “And...do you know which room it was?”





Harry nodded slowly. “Room 15B.”





Hermione’s breath shuddered as her legs gave out and she fell onto the couch.





“When they brought him back they had a small burial for him.” He glanced at the ring in her hands. “He was buried with that ring on his finger.”





“No...” She whispered. “It can’t be. Draco can’t be...dead. I-I saw him. I felt him. He was there...with me. I--” She then gasped as the memories began to make sense...







“Have you ever wondered what death is like, Granger?”





Hermione shrugged. “Yeah. I suppose.” She kept on typing.



~



“Do you think that when you do you’ll go straight to heaven? Or…maybe just hang around like the ghosts in Hogwarts do?”





This time she stopped her typing and frowned. “I think that...I might end up going to heaven.”



~



Draco bit his bottom lip and nodded slowly. “And you don’t think you have any unfinished business of your own?”





Hermione smiled and shook her head. “No...not really. I mean...I’m successful. And smart. I have friends. And I don’t plan on ever getting married.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’d like to have a child in the near future but...I have no regrets in life.”





Draco’s smile twitched sadly. “Lucky you.”



~



Hermione whimpered and, as if in a trance, allowed her once childhood nemesis, to do with her as he wished. “So cold. Your hands...”



Draco frowned. “Sorry...not much I can do about that.”



~



Draco shook his head. “I was so rotten to you, Granger. A git of the highest kind. I…I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. Please…please say that you forgive me, Granger. Please...Hermione.”





Hermione gasped at the sound of her name coming from his lips and nodded. “You’re forgiven, Draco. I forgive you...for everything.”





Draco sighed a teary sigh before crawling up her body and positioning himself at her entrance. “Thank you, Hermione. Thank you.”



~



Hermione was frozen. He WAS there...with her. Just not alive. He was...a ghost. ‘Oh sweet Merlin! I made love to a ghost!’





Hermione ran to the nearest loo and barely made it before she threw up in Harry’s toilet. She laid there for a while, Harry’s worried knocking echoing throughout the clean and neat bathroom, before she stood and began to wash her face.





Just as she had finished toweling her face dry she glance up into the mirror and gasped in surprise. “Draco...” It was as if he was standing right behind her. But as soon as she turned around he was gone. She turned back to the mirror and there he was...grinning that grin that made her weak at the knees. “Draco...please tell me it’s really you. Please tell me that I’m not going mental.”





Draco chuckled. “No, love. You’re not going mental. I just had to see you one more time before I go.”





“Go? Go where?”





Draco looked up with his eyes and smiled. “I’m going to heaven, love. Thanks to you.”





“Me?”





He nodded. “I couldn’t tell you then but my unfinished business...was you.”





“Me? I was your unfinished business?” She cocked her head confusingly and then gasped in understanding. “My forgiveness. You needed my forgiveness to move on.”





This time he laughed and nodded. “Yes, love. I did. But that’s not only it.” At her confused frown Draco smiled sadly. “I always wanted a family. A warm and loving family to continue the Malfoy name.”





Hermione frowned. “But then...how are you going to heaven if that’s part of it?”





Through the mirror Draco wrapped his arms around her and placed his hands on her belly. Hermione had sworn she felt felt him for real. “You’ve already made sure of that.”





She gasped. “You mean I’m...”





He nodded. “Right now...at this very moment...you are carrying my son.” He scrunched his nose. “Just promise me you won\'t name him anything gay like Hugo or worse...Scorpius.”





Hermione laughed and nodded tearfully. “I promise. I’ll name him Draco...after his father.”





Draco smiled a tearful smile and nodded. “Alright then. Best be going then.”





Hermione frowned. “You\'re leaving me? After I finally found you you\'re actually leaving me?” She sniffed.





Draco nodded sadly. “I\'m sorry, love. But that\'s the way it has to be.”





Hermione sniffed and nodded, at this point the tears fell down her face. “No regrets?”





He smiled. “Just one.”





“Oh?”





Draco then smirked that familiar smirk that she hadn’t seen in eight years. Except this time, she had to admit...it was quite becoming on him. “Not being able to make love to you when I was alive.”





Hermione grinned and nodded. “Maybe in the next life?”





Draco barked amusingly and nodded. “Maybe in the next life.” He smiled. “See you later, Granger.”





She sniffed. “See you later, Malfoy.” And as soon as she blinked...he was gone. Hermione glanced down at her belly and choked back a strangled sob. “Draco...”





~*~





Nine months later Hermione gave birth to a beautiful baby boy with curly blond hair and liquid silver eyes. Lying in her hospital bed she glanced down at her son and smiled tearfully. “No regrets.”





She then heard a familiar and comforting voice whisper in her ear. “None whatsoever.”







The end





~*~*~*~*~



A/N: Well, that\'s it. Hope you guys liked. I know it\'s probably a bit creepy but hey...it IS a Halloween challenge after all. ;) Happy Halloween everybody!!!