Figured You Out

Disclaimer: The characters held within are not mine but belong to warner brothers and jk rowling. I\'m only playing with them for a few minutes and will give them back virtually unharmed. There is also no profit being made off of this, so please don\'t sue.

*~*

Ginny watched her friend as she stared unseeingly into her mug of coffee. She’d offered to meet her upon her request, and she had yet to start talking. She could tell there was something on her mind, and she had a very good idea as to who was on her mind, but if Hermione didn’t start the conversation soon, she was going to go crazy.

“Hermione.”

“Yeah.”

“You wanted to talk . . . and you’re not talking.”

Hermione sighed and looked at her friend, “I moved in with Draco.”

“You did?” Asked the ginger-headed witch, a bit taken aback. “When?”

“About two months ago.”

Ginny still stared at her in shock, “And?”

Hermione sat back in her seat and sighed, “It’s not at all like I thought it would be. It’s like every time I turn around, he’s there. I wake up. He’s there. I go to sleep. He’s there. I take a shower. He’s there.”

“And that’s a problem?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know. I just feel like . . . I’ve lost a lot of my personal space.”

“Have you talked to him about it?”

She shook her head, “No. How do you start a conversation where you’re telling someone to go away?”

Ginny smirked, “Don’t say it like that, for one. Just be honest with him.”

She sighed, “I just don’t know what to do. How do you cope with it?”

“I grew up in a house with eight other people. I’m used to not having personal space,” she said with a smile. “I’m sure if you told him what was bothering you he’d probably agree.”

She shook her head, “I don’t think so. When he is around me, he’s usually doing something nice for me . . . the other day, I was reading in the library and he walked in with flowers. The whole time I’ve been with him, he’s never given me flowers.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We just . . . we were never that way, you know? We were never the couple who would give each other such frivolous things. That sort of gesture always seemed empty to us.”

“Maybe he just wanted to surprise you.”

“I just . . . I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t have moved in with him. I mean, almost everyone disapproves of our being together. Harry, Ron, Draco’s mother . . . ”

“What about your parents?”

Hermione stared at Ginny blankly, “What about my parents?”

“Do they like him?”

“They’ve never met him.”

“Why not?”

“Because I keep those two parts of my life separate.”

“Why?”

“I just do.”

Ginny nodded, “Hmm.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

“No, really, what’s that ‘hmm’ all about?”

Ginny sighed, “You can’t yell at me.”

Hermione pursed her lips, “Fine.”

“Maybe he’s more committed to your relationship than you are.”

“What?”

“You’ve met his mother. And since you moved in with him, I’m guessing he asked you?” Hermione nodded, “It’s all right if he is. But it just seems like . . . for every step he takes forward, you’re fighting him for it, on some level.”

Hermione shook her head, “You’re . . . so far off.”

“Do you love him?”

Hermione looked up at her, “What?”

“Are you in love with him?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’ve been with him for almost a year and half, how can you not know?”

“I just don’t, okay? It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is. So, the question really is, why are you afraid of being in love with him?”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

Hermione was silent for a long moment before she looked up at him, “I suppose it has to do with . . . what if it’s all a joke?”

“What?”

“Our relationship. He’s waiting for the moment when he knows I love him, that I’m insanely in love with him, and he breaks my heart by telling me that it was all a joke.”

Ginny touched her hand, “Hermione.”

She sighed, “That’s a horrible thing to think, isn’t it? I mean, he’s really been nothing but good to me. And here I am, thinking the worst.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the past. No matter how much a person has changed, you still tend to think of them the way you always have.”

“I don’t want to think of him that way.”

“It’s a defense mechanism.”

“I don’t like it.”

Ginny stared at her unhappy friend, and sighed, “Do you love him?”

Hermione rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“If you don’t love him, you need to stop this now. Because I’m willing to place galleons on the fact that he’s in love with you. He obviously wants to be with you enough to have you around all the time. So, you owe it to him, since you say he’s been good to you, to figure out how you feel and go from there. If you love him, great. If not, you need to tell him.”

Hermione shook her head, on the edge of tears, “I don’t want to hurt him.”

Ginny sighed, hating to see her friend so upset, “Look, just because you want personal space doesn’t mean you don’t love him.”

“But I don’t trust him either.”

“Talk to him about it.”

She shook her head, “I couldn’t. I’ll just deal with this on my own.”

Ginny sighed, “That never works.”

“I’m just trying to spare him from getting hurt.”

“He might get hurt anyway.” Ginny frowned, “Why are you so mistrusting? I’m not trying to pry, but you’ve never been this way with anyone in a relationship. You’re so afraid of moving forward but in the others you were the one wanting to move forward.”

She sighed, “I suppose I should tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“When I was with Viktor...I was really committed, as you well know. I mean, I thought that I could marry him. And I really thought he was crazy about me too. But after he injured himself and couldn’t play Quidditch anymore, he started to get nasty.” She sighed, “He told me the night we had our last fight that he didn’t love me. He didn’t think he ever had. He just found me fascinating and liked the fact that I was friends with Harry. It gave him free publicity.”

Ginny shook her head angrily, “That shit!”

She nodded, “So as you can see, it’s only natural to be a little mistrusting.”

“But you can’t use that as an excuse against Malfoy. He’s gone through every fight to be with you. He’s fought your friends, his mother, and a world that he grew up in telling him that you weren’t worthy of him.”

“I know that.”

Ginny sighed, “So, what are you going to do?”

“Nothing right now.”

“So you’re just going to continue to be miserable...”

“I’m not miserable. Most of the time I’m happy. He really does make me happy. Even when we’re fighting, there’s this familiarity about it that makes me content...”

“But you don’t know that you’re in love with him.”

“It just felt different with everyone else...”

“Maybe that’s the problem. Don’t compare your relationship with Draco to your relationship with the others. That’s not fair to him. Malfoy is a different breed, you know that as well as anyone, so he deserves to be looked at in that way. He obviously cares about you, as I said earlier, I’ll bet he’s in love with you. So I think you owe it to him to figure out if you feel the same about him.”

She shook her head, “How am I going to figure that out?”

“Give him a test if you’re really interested in knowing.”

Hermione sighed, “What kind of test?”

“Something you know he wouldn’t want to do, just see if he’ll do it and enjoy it.”

“I could make him have dinner with Harry and Ron.”

“Don’t punish Harry and Ron,” she said with a smile.

They were both silent for a few minutes as Hermione rolled Ginny’s advice around in her head. She would feel badly for making him do something he didn’t want to do, but she had to know if she was in love with him. It was driving her crazy to be so uncertain about her feelings.

“I know!” Ginny said with a large smile.

Hermione took a sip of her coffee, “Okay, what?”

“A weekend with your parents in the Muggle world.”

Hermione was silent, “No. Absolutely not.”

“Why? They are your family. And if you’re living with him and you’ve been with him for almost two years, you should at least do your parents the courtesy of allowing them to meet Malfoy. Besides, that would be the ultimate test as to whether he’s really in love with you. You’ve met his mother. He has to meet the parents now. And if he agrees and enjoys himself despite past prejudices, then he’s in love with you. Even if he has a miserable time, he cared enough about you to go. And seeing him with your parents might be all you needed to see.”

Hermione sighed, “You really think so?”

“Yes. You can’t just let this eat you up inside. You need to do something, one way or the other.”

She nodded, “You’re right.”

“I know. It’s a gift.”

Hermione chuckled, “Yeah.” She took another sip of her coffee, “Let’s change the subject. How are things with you and Harry.”

She spent the rest of their time together listening to Ginny talk about Harry’s latest feat in bed, where he rolled her off the bed and into the floor. She honestly had no desire to think of her friend in any sort of sexual way, but Ginny was hardly one to sugar coat things. Growing up in a house full of boys could do that to a person, Hermione surmised.

When she made it back to Malfoy Manor, she found it empty, for a change. She’d gone into every room they were used to occupying and found no one. It was a bit odd for him not to be around. She actually had the space that she needed. She made her way into the library and opened the book that she’d been reading recently and mulled over the things that Ginny had said.

Draco was in love with her? She didn’t see that. Overly fond of her, maybe, but she couldn’t imagine him being in love with her. But if he was, it was only right to tell him now that she didn’t feel the same, if that was the case. She closed her book and walked over to the owl in the corner. Draco had a strange sort of obsession with the owl. He refused to keep it in any sort of holding cell, so it was free to just roam around the house as it pleased. The house elves, that he refused to let her get rid of for fear of them all dropping dead of an elf heart attack, did well to keep the manor clean from anything the owl could do.

She scribbled a quick letter to her parents and sent the owl on it’s way, but not before it tried to take one of her fingers off. The owl, for certain, didn’t like her. She sat back on the sofa again and went back to her book. She only hoped that she hadn’t made a grave mistake.

*~*

Draco made his way into the house and discarded his heavy cloak. A house elf popped up and took it from him, and informed him that Hermione was in the drawing room.

When he entered he found a sleeping Hermione on the sofa and smiled. It was the pecking at the window that distracted him from going to her. He opened the window and his owl, Aries, nearly took his head off. He wondered how long he’d been out there. He took the parchment from it’s leg before the owl hooted off out of the room. Draco unrolled the parchment and stared at it confused.

Hermione,

We were so happy to hear from you. We would love to have dinner with you and your new beau tonight. Your mother is all a tither now. We’ll see you around eight.

Love,
Dad

Draco looked over at the sleeping witch on the sofa before rereading the letter. Hermione had asked her parents if they could have dinner with them, and didn’t tell him about doing so. He stayed calm, however. He’d been wanting to meet the people that raised Hermione. Aside from the few people at school, and Hermione, he’d had very little exposure to the Muggle World. He wanted to know if everything his father had told him was a lie. He’s wager that it was.

He sat beside her on the sofa and shook her softly. “Hermione,” he whispered. Her eyes fluttered open slowly and he smiled down at her, “Tired?”

She nodded and stretched, “A bit.”

“So.”

“So?” she asked as she sat up.

“Dinner with your parents tonight?”

She looked at him oddly, “What?”

He held up the parchment and smiled, “They seem very excited.”

“You read my mail,” she asked angrily.

He looked taken aback, “I...I didn’t know it was yours. Aries wanted in, I saw it and since it wasn’t addressed to anyone...”

“After you saw the word Hermione you should have stopped reading.”

He furrowed his brow at her and stood, “Okay,” he said before he handed it to her. “When you’re done having a fit about nothing, I’ll be in the bedroom.”

“A fit about nothing,” she said before he could leave the room. “You invaded my privacy.”

He rolled his eyes as he turned around, “Are you serious?! I didn’t mean to read it! But if you want to be mad about that, go ahead.”

He left the room and she followed him, “How would you like it if I read your mail?”

“I honestly couldn’t care. I, unlike you apparently, don’t have any secrets from you.”

Her mouth was set in a straight line, “This was a mistake, I’m canceling,” she said as she went back into the library.

He sighed and caught her by the wrist, “Don’t cancel.”

“What?”

“Don’t cancel. I want to me your parents.”

Hermione seemed shocked at first, but recovered well, “You do?”

“Of course. You’ve met my mother, why shouldn’t I meet your parents?”

“Really?”

He nodded, “Yeah. Why are you so surprised?”

She shook her head, “I just...I don’t know.”

“So, don’t cancel. Be mad at me, but don’t cancel.” He sighed, “I’m sorry I read your mail. I didn’t realize that was going to be a problem or I wouldn’t have done it. But now I know and it won’t happen again,” he said before he turned and made his way out of the library.

She felt rotten. She really had overreacted, and she had to hand it to Draco for not losing his cool. His temper was something she rarely saw, but she knew that it was usually the little things that could get it riled up. She frowned, she had been unfair to him, and she didn’t like it. She followed behind him ten minutes later to find him in the bath. She sat at the edge of area that resembled a pool more than a bath tub. He moved over to her and she ran a hand over his wet hair, “I’m sorry.”

“For?”

“For the mail thing. It’s just...”

“You feel a bit suffocated.”

She looked down at him oddly, “How did you know that?”

He shrugged, “I kind of had a feeling. If you want me to leave you alone, tell me to bugger off. I’m not the kind of guy that takes subtle hints very well. I like direct communication.”

“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me recently?”

He nodded, “I knew something was bothering you, I just didn’t know what. I figured that it might have been me, so I stayed away.”

She sighed, “Well, I’m sorry again.”

He stood to his full height and rubbed his face, “Don’t be sorry, alright? You didn’t do anything wrong. One of the things I promised you when you moved in here was your personal space, and I was backing out on the promise. So, it’s really me who should apologize.”

“Why are you being so agreeable?”

He smiled, “Because I’m in a good Mood.”

“Why?”

He shrugged, “I just am. Do you want me to be surly and nasty? I can do that.”

She shook her head, “No, no I like you fine like this,” she answered with a smile.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her feet into the water. He rested his head against her belly as she stroked his wet hair. “So, how was lunch with Ginny?”

“It was actually coffee, but fine. How was...whatever it was you were doing?”

He smiled, “I was negotiating Oliver Wood’s contract with my team.”

“Wait, you now have Oliver Wood as Keeper?”

“I do. Potter was pretty thrilled about it as well. He’s the one that told me that his contract was up in the first place. So, I talked to him, offered him the amount he wanted, told him he had to answer to Potter as captain, and he was as good as signed. I just had to go in and sign the final papers.”

She smiled, “You have a very savvy business sense.”

“It’s the Malfoy in me.”

She chuckled, “Oh, is that it?”

“Yes,” he said as he pulled her a bit more to the edge of the pool and her pants were now being soaked in the water.

“Draco,” she whined, “My pants are getting wet.”

“Oh are they? I couldn’t tell you how much I don’t care,” he said as he finally pulled her completely into the water with him. She shrieked as she was soaked to the bone, “Now your pants match the rest of you.”

She wrapped her legs around him as her arms went around his neck, “You had that planned all along, didn’t you?”

“Not until you sat down.”

She smiled, “Prat.”

“Yes, what’s your point,” he asked as he removed her shirt, revealing the cream color bra, that did very little to hide her breasts from him as he latched onto one dark nipple with his mouth. She tightened her legs around his waist, “What time are we meeting my parents?”

“Eight,” was the muffled reply around her breast.

“We have plenty of time.”

He backed her up against the wall of the tub and pulled the straps of her bra off her arms. He kept the garment on, however as he removed the cup from her breast and went back to teasing her. She started to remove the piece of fabric, but he stopped her, “Leave it.”

She looked at the top of his head oddly as he began teasing her with his teeth, “Why?”

“Because...I like fucking you while you still have your under garments on.”

She gasped as he switched to the other nipple, “Why?”

“I don’t know,” he said before his tongue swirled around the tip. “I guess because it makes you look...” he said between nibbles, “desired. It...It reminds me that I wanted you so badly that I didn’t have time to remove it.”

She felt him release the button on her jeans. He found that removing wet denim was much harder than it looked, but he succeeded. Her panties were the same color as her bra, but he hardly even considered this before he had her pressed against the wall again and moved her panties to the side before he entered her quickly. Once inside her, however, he took his time, barely moving as he moved in for a hard demanding kiss. She dug her nails into his back, trying to force him into some sort of movement. It was driving her insane. He knew exactly what to do to drive her insane with wanting him and he never failed to follow through.

He broke the kiss and began moving inside her, slowly at first as he attacked the pulse in her neck. It was times like these when she was sure she loved him, or could love him. He knew exactly what buttons to push, where to touch to make her moan, how she liked it, where she liked it. He could read her so well sometimes that it scared her a bit. Most women would spend the rest of their lives looking for a lover that was as in tune with their needs as Draco was with hers. He pulled out of her, causing a great deal of confusion for her at first, but as he turned her around to face the wall and felt him behind her, she moaned. Her breasts rubbed against the side of the pool every time he thrust, causing her to shiver in response.

His hands left her hips, unwilling to stay still for very long and fondled her breasts, her sigh like music to his ears. He enjoyed nothing more than to spend hours inside Hermione, worshiping her body, showing her through actions how much he cared about her. He was willing to put his need aside to give her the pleasure that she deserved. He was moving at a quicker pace, thrusting into her with smooth strokes as she clenched her inner muscles around his length. He was doing his best to hold off on his own orgasm as one hand slid down her torso and between the downy hairs between her thighs. She moaned his name as she came, shaking in his arms, her entire body feeling as every nerve ending was tingling with pleasure. Draco came only seconds after she did, his lips finding her shoulder as he bit down softly.

She leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath when she felt her bra being unclasped. The soaked garment flew past her onto the floor of the bathroom. He removed himself from inside her and removed her panties and tossed them beside the bra. She turned in his arms, her lips finding his. She didn’t know how long they stood there kissing. He was as good at that as he was at everything else. His lips were soft and his tongue was probing. It seemed to her that he couldn’t get enough of her. She enjoyed the fact that she had a lover who so wanted her. She couldn’t deny that she did feel something strong for him, something she couldn’t describe. But was it love?

She pulled away from him, her arms still wrapped around his waist as he opened his eyes slowly, finding her watching him. “What?”

She shook her head, “Nothing. We should probably get out of here. I’m starting to turn into a prune.”

He smiled, “We can’t have that.”

She smirked, “No, we can’t.”

“You first,” he said gesturing to the stairs.

“Why do I go first?”

“Ladies first...and I like the view,” he said with a wicked grin.

She chuckled, “You really are terrible.”

“I know, but it’s all part of my charm.”

*~*

A/N: Dinner with the Grangers is next :)