Hermione lay beneath Draco, their eyes locked. His forearms flexed either side of her head and his hips rocked gently between her thighs.
He smiled as he gazed down at her, an expression of something akin to wonder on his face.
His grey eyes were hazy with arousal, bloodshot from a mixture of exhaustion and all the champagne he had consumed throughout the day.
A few strands of hair had fallen over his forehead and Hermione brought a hand up to stroke them back before looping her arms around his neck. She arched her back, squeezing around him as he moved inside her.
'F-fuck Hermione, you feel incredible.’ He muttered against her mouth, his lips softly brushing hers.
Hermione pulled him into a kiss, her tongue sliding against his. She swallowed as she felt the emotion of the day threaten to overwhelm her again.
‘I can't believe we actually did it, she said, pulling away to look at him, her throat tight with unshed tears.
'I can't believe I get to be your wife.'
At her words Draco's eyes flashed and his jaw clenched tight.
She knew what those words did to him.
'Say it again,’ he murmured, his voice low.
Hermione giggled.
‘Wife,’ she said.
‘I'm Draco Malfoy's wife.’
She watched as his eyes darkened further and then she couldn't help but moan softly as she felt the effect of her words.
Draco throbbed inside her, his hips fucking upwards as he ground into her harder, his rhythm increasing, his breath hitching.
'My wife, he groaned. 'Mine. Fucking finally.’
Hermione let her eyes roll back in her head as her husband thrust inside her and she felt herself on the verge of her first orgasm of their married life.
She lay pinned underneath him, her hair tumbling wild over the white silk pillow. She was naked save for her blue lace garter - the only part of her bridal outfit he'd let her keep on.
'Draco,' she moaned, feeling his rhythm falter as his pace increased and his breathing became ragged.
'Please, don’t stop.’
She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer as she felt her orgasm begin to crest.
Draco's breath caught again - a strange, almost choking sound.
Hermione opened her eyes to look at him.
The smile had fallen from his lips.
Instead of passion-pinked cheeks his face was suddenly alarmingly pale.
He looked back at her and Hermione felt a sudden pulse of fear at the panic she saw in his expression.
'Draco?'
His eyes were glassy as he tried to focus on her, his eyebrows knitting together, his body now totally still.
'Draco? What's wrong?'
He looked confused.
‘I- I don't know. My head, it-' his eyes suddenly squeezed shut and his face contorted.
'Oh fuck, Hermione, it hurts- it-' Draco only just managed to push himself back off her before the blood started.
He knelt on his haunches between her legs and he brought a hand to his face as the crimson liquid suddenly began to gush from his nose and out through his lips.
'DRACO!' Hermione screamed as his eyes flickered to hers, wide with panic.
Blood ribboned out between his fingers as he clapped them to his mouth, streaming out over his rings and onto his naked chest.
Hermione shrieked as she felt the warm wet fluid begin to drip onto her thighs and she scrambled out from underneath him.
'Draco, what do I do?'
But Draco didn't answer her, he couldn't.
Hermione watched in horror as his eyes rolled back and her husband collapsed into a twitching heap onto their bed.
It was two am before the Potions Master arrived at the manor.
He spoke to Narcissa in hushed tones in the parlour before following her down to Draco and Hermione's suite where Hermione kept vigil over her husband’s prone form, huddled under the sheets.
Hermione's face was chalk white, Draco's blood now dried and flaking on her neck, face and hands.
Narcissa loomed at the doorway as he entered the bedroom, her own worry etched into her face.
She had come as soon as Hermione had screamed for her, running through the manor still wearing her Mother of the Groom dress and shoes.
Hermione sat clutching Draco's hand as the Potions Master administered various draughts and elixirs, but nothing he tried had any effect.
Draco was still in agony.
His head pulsed with pain and blood continued to gush from his nose and mouth at regular intervals.
Eventually, the Potions Master turned to Hermione.
‘I'm afraid there's nothing more I can offer him.’ Severus Snape said, his face grave.
'Save for Blood Replenisher, l'm out of ideas. I'm sorry Hermione but you are going to need to come to terms with the idea that it seems Draco has been cursed.’
Hermione couldn't take it.
She sobbed as she bent over her new husband - cursed on their wedding day.
Snape turned to Narcissa, 'you need to call the Aurors, he said. ‘And a curse breaker.'
He looked down at Draco's crimson stained sheets.
'Before it's too late.’
The Aurors arrived at the manor the morning after Draco began showing symptoms.
Neville Longbottom and Theodore Nott entered the parlour sombrely, Theo kissing Narcissa on both cheeks as she rose to greet them.
Narcissa led Theo and Neville down to Draco's room, filling them in on the events of the night before.
Hermione had refused to leave her husband's side, clutching his fingers tightly as the Aurors quietly pulled up their chairs next to her at his bedside and Hermione finally let herself crumble.
Neville wrapped strong arms around her as Theo knelt on the floor, leaning forward to whisper comforting words into his best friend's ear.
Draco murmured quietly in response, nodding as he listened to Theo's angry, tearful promises of justice.
Both Neville and Theo had been guests at the wedding.
It had been a small, joyous event held at a vineyard.
They had served champagne and canapés to start before being officially married in an intimate, emotional service.
To end the day the newly married couple sat down with their closest friends and family for a three course meal cooked by Michelin starred chefs.
Hermione and Draco had sat quietly together during the Best Men's speeches, smiling as Blaise spoke of Draco's years long obsession with Hermione, beginning with one fateful slap in third year.
The room had erupted as Theo recounted the story of how they met again five years after finishing school, when Draco had fallen off his broom and ended up in the care of Healer Granger, confessing his undying love for her while under the effects of an anaesthetic potion.
Draco had smiled shyly as Hermione cupped his face in her hands and kissed him.
The room had been filled with their love.
Draco's condition worsened dramatically over the next few days.
Hermione refused to leave his side, terrified that if she did, he would have another huge seizure and bleed out.
She didn't eat or sleep, paralysed by her fear, half mad with rage and anguish.
Draco lay, weak and listless in their bed, sometimes barely strong enough to lift his head from the pillow to swallow down the potion Hermione gave him twice a day.
Hermione would slip her hand behind his head and guide the vial to his lips, cringing as he choked and spluttered the liquid down before his eyes closed and he slept again.
Draco was dying.
Hermione was a healer- she knew.
No one could lose that much blood continuously and survive.
She gazed down at Draco's beautiful face, noting the way his already pale skin looked almost translucent, his full pink lips bloodless- sometimes, when he was asleep, he looked like he was already dead.
Snape had his team working on overdrive, making as much Blood Replenisher as they could, but it wasn't the same.
The potion couldn't provide Draco with what he needed and he was weakening terrifyingly fast.
Hermione clung to him, telling him over and over again how much she loved him as she looked into his glassy grey eyes, always fixed on her face.
Theo and Neville came back and forth to the manor to fill Hermione in on the investigation.
They were distraught to think that one of their small circle of close friends had cast the curse, but their diligent police work was getting them nowhere.
Everyone was devastated.
'We will find who did this, Neville said, as he and Theo left after another visit.
'I promise you, Hermione we wont rest until we do.'
Hermione placed a hand on Neville's arm.
I know you're doing your best. She said, and she did know how hard they were trying- but it wasn't enough.
Why hadn't they found the person who had done this?
Draco needed them- his time was running out.
It was Narcissa who eventually discovered who was killing Draco.
She appeared in their bedroom late on Saturday afternoon, a week after the wedding, her face pale, her eyes filled with sorrow.
Hermione looked up from where she lay next to Draco on the bed, stroking his face as he slept, finally peaceful after a particularly bad seizure.
Narcissa held a book out to Hermione with trembling fingers, and Hermione rose from the bed, Draco moaning weakly in response.
He liked to have her close.
Hermione saw immediately that the book was old- one from The Malfoy's personal library.
She the tome from Narcissa and looked down at the page, reading the devastating words written there.
She had to read three times before the meaning of the script sank in, and even then she couldn't quite believe what she had read.
I'm so sorry, Hermione,’ Narcissa whispered, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Draco stirred at the sound of Hermione's answering sob, almost although he had heard her heart breaking.
'Hermione?'
His voice was quiet, and it was too much for Hermione to see him so fragile, her strong, powerful, capable husband reduced to the pale, tortured man shivering under the sheet on the bed.
She looked into his beautiful silver eyes and she felt the last shreds of her strength leave her, her mind choosing to break rather than accept what she now knew to be true.
'Hermione,’ Draco croaked again. 'What’s happened?
Do you know who is doing this?'
Hermione knelt at his side, the tears spilling down her face.
'Yes,' she said. 'I do.’
Draco looked at her and the hope in his eyes crushed her heart.
'It’s me.’ She said quietly.
'Draco, I did this to you.’
Hermione was killing Draco.
Or rather, loving her was killing him.
Narcissa had found the curse recorded in a book in the Malfoy library, one so old and forgotten that dust covered the spine, collecting along the pages and falling from Hermione's trembling hands as she carried it over to the bed.
Draco pushed himself up on shaking forearms, his face alarmingly pale. There was blood drying on his lips from an earlier episode and his movements were sluggish and laboured.
Narcissa looked at her son and couldn't help the small noise of despair that escaped her lips.
She pressed a hand to her mouth, and turned to sit heavily in the wingback chair in the corner of the room.
Hermione clambered up to sit next to Draco, passing him the book gently, gradually increasing the weight until the book rested on his thighs.
Draco looked down at the pages, the dark circles under his eyes making his irises look even lighter.
A frown creased his brow as he read.
'No.’
He looked over at Narcissa and he was desperate, his voice cracking as he reached for Hermione's hand, his grip fierce despite his weakness.
'Mum?'
Narcissa stared back at her son, her horror written all over her face.
‘This can't be right?'
His tone was pleading, his face paling further still as he grasped the meaning of the words on the page.
There was a blood curse - cast on the Malfoy family over two centuries ago.
One of Draco's ancestors had wanted to marry an Halfblood and her father had been so outraged by this that he had cursed his own daughter.
The curse meant that she was poisoned by her partner, his blood becoming toxic to her, his proximity stealing her life from within.
The curse was also hereditary - cast to afflict any Malfoy that chose to make the same unacceptable choice.
The blood ritual performed during Wizarding weddings wherein the couples blood was mixed to perform the marriage binding spell was so commonplace that none of them had even considered it.
It was performed during the ceremony- a small slice on the palm, just enough to draw blood. The couples hands were then pressed together, the incantation repeated by each person in turn.
The ritual bonded the couple's blood, making a new family bloodline which attached each person to their partner- an invisible bond.
Once married and the bond in place, couples were able to use each other's wands, pass through their wards and identify and harness the other's magic if needed.
In modern times, some young couples chose not to compete the bond, claiming it to be an archaic tradition and believing that it removed each person's freedom - it was slowly being branded as an out of date convention.
Draco and Hermione had disagreed.
They wanted to be bonded in every way they could.
But it was that small act - the one that they chose out of love that had cursed them.
The curse stated that any Malfoy who married a person without Pureblood status would find themselves poisoned by their partner's blood, doomed to die a slow painful death as punishment for sullying the great Malfoy name.
It had been so long since any Malfoy had wanted to make such a choice that the curse had been forgotten about.
It had faded from memory, along with the memory of Nova Malfoy, who had died aged just twenty one, in the arms of her husband.
And now another young Malfoy was dying.
Draco Lucius Malfoy was being poisoned to death at the age of twenty six, the first Malfoy to marry a Muggleborn in two hundred years.
The discovery of the curse had initially given way to a flurry of hope and action.
They knew what it was at least.
Narcissa got to work immediately, levitating books from the library down to Hermione so that she could research from Draco's bedside and remaining in the library herself, poring over the dusty pages for an answer.
Narcissa hired the best Cursebreakers she could find, bringing them to the manor day after day, her eyes bright with hope each time, but always fading fast when the Cursebreaker came up empty handed in the search for a counter spell.
Even Lucius Malfoy, sitting in his cell at Azbkaban was consulted. He had no idea the curse even existed.
The curse that was killing Draco was unprecedented- no one knew how to stop it.
No matter what they did, Draco grew weaker, his blood loss increased, and death crept ever closer for him.
Eventually, Hermione decided it was time for his friends to come and visit him.
She didn't tell them that it was so they had a chance to say goodbye, but they all knew that was what it was, including Draco.
There was a steady procession of visitors to the manor.
Their friends were pale and silent as they followed Narcissa down to Draco's room, all gasping as they saw how frail he had become and trying to hide it with watery smiles and false platitudes.
As they each had their turn at his bedside Hermione sat by, always within touching distance as she listened to them cry, heard them tell him how much they loved him, how he deserved better, heard them lie as they told him there was still hope.
Draco would smile weakly and hug them back as they clutched at him, their eyes squeezed shut, their voices tight and strained.
But he was tired.
Hermione knew he was fading.
On Friday night, as she saw a tearful Harry and Ginny to the door, she turned and saw Draco struggling to push himself up in bed.
He'd had a particularly large bleed that afternoon and Hermione had given him a double dose of Blood Replenisher along with Pepperup and some pain relief.
He looked over to her and patted the bed next to him.
Hermione went immediately.
She sat next to her husband and looked into his eyes, her stomach clenching at how hazy they were. She would never come to terms with seeing him so weak, such a contrast to the powerful, capable man he had always been.
'Can I do anything for you?' She asked quietly, bringing her hand up to his face.
'Yes, he replied and she was horrified to see tears in the corner of his eyes, the first time he had cried despite her own continuous tears.
Will you kiss me Hermione?'
He looked so fragile, so desperate that Hermione could barely stand it, but, despite it all he was still the most beautiful man she had ever seen.
Hermione wanted nothing more than to kiss him.
She stretched up, tipping her head back as he bent and pressed his lips to hers softly - a gentle, heartbreaking kiss.
Hermione heard him exhale, felt his hands come up to cup her face and she did the same, threading her fingers carefully through the soft hair at the back of his neck.
She opened her mouth to Draco's gently enquiring tongue and felt her tears mingle with his as they kissed.
After a few moments he drew in a trembling breath, pulling away.
'Are you okay?' She asked, a stab of worry in her gut.
He looked wrecked, the sadness in his eyes almost too much for her to take.
‘I- I'm okay,’ he replied. ‘But, will you do one last thing for me?'
Hermione wanted to scream at his use of the word 'last', but she forced herself to stay calm, he didn't need to see her crumble when he was faced with his own death, he needed her to be strong.
'Anything, she breathed.
'Can I- can we-?' He stopped, she looked at him, trying to comprehend what he was saying.
'One last time, he said. I don't want your memory of our last time to be what happened, I want you to remember me the way it's always been.
Hermione's eyes widened as she grasped his meaning.
'Oh Draco.' She said. ‘You’re not strong enough for that'
'Please, Hermione.’ His voice cracked on the words.
‘I’ll lie very still. I just want to feel you one last time, before I really am too sick. It's all I want.’
Hermione looked into his eyes and she knew she'd never deny Draco anything, especially not now.
She nodded as she swallowed down her tears and watched him lower himself gently back onto the bed, a look of reverent anticipation on his face.
She was gentle as she straddled him, not putting her weight down, continually asking him if he was ok.
He nodded and when she was sure he was, she learned forwards, their lips meeting again.
Despite it all, the feel of Draco touching her had the same effect on Hermione that it always had.
Their kisses were soft yet urgent, their tongues meeting in their familiar dance, Draco's hands running lightly over Hermione's body as she felt heat bloom low in her belly and Draco hardened beneath her.
His eyes never left her face, even as they darkened and his jaw slackened, he watched her. She tried not to see the pain still swirling in the silver of his irises.
Hermione rocked slowly onto him, hearing the pace of his breathing increase.
She reached up and lifted her dress over her head, Draco's jaw tightening as he watched her, his expression a mix of pleasure and pain.
He moaned softly as she used two hands to pull his pyjama pants down over his straining erection.
He bucked his hips slightly to help her before settling back on the bed, his eyes never leaving her face, like he wanted to commit her to memory forever.
They both sighed with pleasure as Hermione took him in her fist and slid her hand up and down once before she lifted up and gently lowered herself down onto him, seating him to the hilt.
Draco's face pinched momentarily and she stopped.
'Is this okay?' She asked and he nodded.
'P- please don't stop.'
Hermione didn't stop.
She squeezed tightly around him, feeling the perfect friction of him filling her up. She wanted to scream at how good he felt, even now.
Tears streamed down her face as she felt herself clenching and tightening around his cock, the sensation almost too much.
She wanted to do it forever, she didn't want this to be the last time.
Draco held her gently by her hips, desperately fighting to keep his eyes open even as she felt him thicken inside her and his fingers twitched, his stomach muscles tightening.
‘I don't want this to end,’ he bit out.
‘I never want this to end, I want to be with you forever.'
Hermione sobbed as she felt herself beginning to climb.
She didn't want to come. She didn’t want it to be over.
She couldn't bear it.
But, her orgasm came regardless and as she throbbed around him she saw how hard Draco fought to hold back.
He felt too good inside her, and way too soon, she heard him swear and tears tracked down his own cheeks as Draco came hard, his release coating her insides as she rode him through it.
Afterwards, Hermione lay on Draco's chest as they both breathed hard, still squeezing him tightly inside hers unwilling to let him go.
She gently rolled them so that they were on their side, feeling Draco gradually soften inside her as he stroked her hair and whispered in her ear.
‘I love you, l've always loved you. I'll love you forever.'
Hermione nodded as she listened, her own words back almost a prayer in her head.
Please don't leave me Draco, please stay. I need you.
Hermione awoke the next morning with a start. Her eyes flying open to look at Draco, checking he was okay.
His own eyes were open, he was staring at her and he looked alert, more so than he had in a long time.
Hermione was cautious, giving him his potions and staying by his side as always.
But he had a good day.
Over the next week Draco continued to have more good days.
Hermione noticed that he was bleeding less often, his headaches slightly less debilitating.
To everyone's utter shock and joy, Draco continued to improve, his strength gradually returning.
He began to laugh and smile, he was awake for longer periods of time.
Hermione was terrified, a cautious optimism slowly edging its way into her psyche whilst the realist in her told her it was impossible - the curse was unbreakable.
However, gradually, as Draco got better, Hermione noticed she was feeling sicker.
She had started vomiting in the mornings ,not wanting to eat - her body aching in new and strange places.
One morning, as she bent over vomiting violently into the toilet in their en suite she heard a sound that she thought would make her heart burst, Draco's voice- louder and stronger than it had been since the wedding, coming from the hallway, rather than the bedroom he had been stuck in for so long.
'Yes I understand that Mother, but where the fuck is my wife?'
Hermione ran from the bathroom to see Draco at the door, out of bed and standing unaided.
There was colour in his cheeks and his eyes were clear.
'What's wrong?' He asked, seeing her own pale, sweaty face.
'Hermione, are you sick?'
Hermione couldn't help but smile. He looked terrified, the panic writ on his face.
'No Draco, she said. 'I'm not sick.’
She felt her emotions begin to overwhelm her.
She crossed the room towards him, reaching for his hand and placing it gently on her belly.
It took a moment for Draco to realise what she was telling him.
His silver eyes widened as he looked down at his hands spread over Hermione's abdomen then back up to her face.
'Oh Circe,’ he muttered, his eyes immediately filling with tears.
'Hermione, are you-?'
She nodded, her throat thick with tears.
‘I think… I think this is the reason you're getting better, she said hesitantly, barely daring to believe it even as she said it.
'My blood is no longer my own. The curse broke when your blood began growing in me.’
Draco almost stumbled, the realisation hitting him like a tonne of bricks.
He was silent for a moment, his brain fighting to catch up.
‘You think it's broken? The curse?' He asked and the hope in his eyes healed her heart.
'Yes, Draco.' she replied.
'I think it is.'
She finally allowed herself to cry as Draco reached for her, a new strength in him even now.
He took hold of her in his arms and pulled her to him, his chest heaving with his sobs as she collapsed against him.
Hermione let him wrap his arms around her and she prayed to every god there had ever been that she was right, that their baby had broken the curse.
Draco pulled away a moment later, looking down at Hermione's belly again.
'I don't believe it, he said.
‘I did this to you.'
'Yes Draco, Hermione smiled, hope in her heart for the first time in so long.
'You did. Our little Cursebreaker.'