Where did you go last night?
The scent of honeysuckle hung thick in the early morning air, threatening to drown her in an unbearable sweetness. What Hermione usually loved now only smothered her in this heat wave taking over London. Even in their enchanted flat, a townhome with a coveted garden in its backyard, there was no escaping the dregs of summer. The temperature refused to abate in the evenings, and no amount of bedsheets or clothing tossed to the floor prevented sweaty sleep.
Perhaps she should revisit her initial idea of natural cooling. How was the temperature in the flat supposed to drop when opening windows at night did nothing in a city that refused to go below 26℃ even after sunset? Draco’s insistence that cooling charms wouldn’t impact the environment the way that air conditioners did seemed more convincing by the minute.
The creak of the backdoor caught her attention, and she turned to meet the mercurial eyes of her lover.
“You’re here,” she breathed, rewarding him with a kiss to the brow as he bent down. “Where did you go last night? I got your owl, but you never said.”
“Mmm, let me show you.” Taking her hand, he proceeded to place a coat around her shoulders.
“Wha–”
The tug to her navel was her only warning–the next moment, they popped into existence on the edge of a cliff where she was immediately buffeted in the face by a gust of cool air, the saltiness of it lingering in the nostrils. Before them expanded an ocean of water so blue, she’d think it a mirage if not for the taste on her tongue.
“Where are we?”
“Our home away from home when the heat is too much,” he answered, stepping close and nuzzling into her. She immediately turned to wrap her arms around him.
“I’m sorry I’ve been such a nightmare; London has no right getting to such appalling temperatures.” She tightened her hold, sighing in delight at the body heat she hadn’t truly enjoyed for the past several days.
He huffed a laugh and agreed. The soft puff of his breath tickled the hairs around her ear as he murmured his invitation.
“Follow me.”
Hermione allowed him to tuck her hand into his arm and lead her down the path away from the white cliffs and seagull songs. Perhaps she did appreciate summer, as inferior as it was to every other time of the year…or perhaps she simply appreciated every moment spent with Draco with whom every day brought something new and lovely and theirs.