Nice to Meet You
"Perfringo Tuberosum." Hermione aimed her wand at the pot full of boiled, peeled potatoes with milk and butter. They began to mash themselves, and she smiled a little as she turned her attention to the glass dish full of meat, vegetables, and gravy. Once the potatoes had mashed themselves, she spooned them over the top and smoothed them out, adding a bit more gravy and licking her finger.
"Mmm," she said happily. "It's good."
"If I don't eat right this minute, I'm going to starve," Draco complained, and Hermione gave him a serious look.
"You ought to have been eating and sleeping, Draco."
"I don't mean to sound pathetic," he said as Hermione reluctantly dished out cottage pie onto china plates, "but I genuinely couldn't. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep; I could barely think. It was all I could do to Scour my teeth and deodorise myself before going to work in the morning."
"Because of me?" She turned and handed him a plate of food and a tall glass of water. Draco shrugged.
"It wasn't your fault."
They sat at the little nook in his kitchen by the window, and Hermione was shocked by the lack of grace with which Draco ate. He'd always been so refined, so carefully tutored in manners and decorum. He'd seemed like a right snob at Hogwarts. But he tucked so fiercely now into Hermione's cottage pie that her mouth fell open in surprise. She sipped her own water and took a few bites as Draco made almost sexual noises of delight.
"I was so hungry, and I had no idea," he said, gulping water down and finishing off the rest of his plate in three enormous bites. Hermione was only half done, so she asked,
"More?"
"N-No. Thanks." Draco tipped his head back and admitted, "Mmph. That was good. Thank you."
Hermione just smiled a little and took another bite or two before Vanishing the remains of their food, Scouring the plates and pots, and Banishing everything back to the cupboards.
"I need to take a shower," Draco informed her. "A real, hot, long shower."
"Can I join you?" Hermione hadn't meant to sound like a vixen, but the way Draco looked at her made her feel very self-conscious, and she immediately stammered, "I mean… I'm sorry if I…"
"Yes, please do join me," Draco murmured. He rose from his chair and took Hermione's hand, leading her quickly out of the kitchen and toward the staircase. She followed him up, her bare feet pattering on the steps. In the bathroom, they took turns cleaning their teeth with brushes and Peppermint Scouring Powder. Hermione watched Draco shamelessly strip his clothes, and she slowly started to remove her caped cardigan, the vest underneath, her bra and skirt and knickers… but she left her necklace on.
"Will you take your hair down?" Draco asked, and Hermione touched her fingers carefully to the braided bun at the back of her head.
"I'm not going to wash it," she said meekly. "Dries out if I wash it every day."
"Oh." Draco pretended like that made sense, and his eyes flicked down to the cock that was growing visibly harder by the second. Hermione followed him into the shower, standing away from the stream as it heated up. She let him wrap his arms around her and pull her under the water, keeping her hair away. She let him scrub her down with exfoliating soap that smelled of roses and something darker - black pepper? She let him touch her everywhere, and it felt good. It felt very good to have Draco Malfoy's hands rubbing circles around her breasts and sliding over her ribcage. She washed him when it was her turn, and her fingers noted the little dusting of blond hair all over him. He was far from hairy, but it was there, and she noticed. His arms, lean and narrow but curved with muscle, had blond hair on them. So did his hips and his pelvic area, which was a place her hands didn't want to leave. She caressed him there, dragging her hand up and down his length as Draco hurried to wash and condition the icy blond hair on his head. He shoved it all backward and snatched Hermione's face in his hands then, and he whispered,
"I want to fuck you."
"Draco!" Hermione's cheeks went hot, but he shook his head.
"I have been terrified for the last few weeks that I would die alone, that I would die with you hating me, without ever having touched you again. I need to… to fuck you."
"All right." Hermione reached around him and turned off the water, and as they stood shivering in the echoing tiled shower, she mumbled, "Go on and fuck me, then."
He growled a little as he yanked her wrist and dragged her from the shower. Hermione was surprised by the force in his movements as he brought her to his neatly made bed and shoved her roughly down onto her stomach. She was dragged to the edge, her thighs wrenched apart as Draco's fingers began to play with her.
"Oh…" She went wet almost immediately, the water from the shower drying cold on her skin and making everything prickle with sensitivity. Draco's other hand coursed over her back, and as his fingers twisted into her, he whispered,
"I couldn't sleep or eat, Hermione, because all I could think of was the way I had never been able to make myself hate you, and how very easily I found myself tumbling into love with you. Do you understand?"
"I think so." Hermione buried her face into his blankets, crying out wordlessly as his fingers twisted and pumped. His thumb flicked at her nub, and his other hand squeezed her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Draco," she heard herself say, turning her head a little. "I couldn't make the memories go away well enough to remind myself of who you are now."
"And who am I now?" His voice was rough, gravelly and hollow, and Hermione glanced up to try and find his eyes. She had to wrench her eyes shut as a subtle climax took her over, and she heard Draco grunt as he felt her walls clenching around his fingers. He let his hand slide from her, and he leaned down to ask again, "Who am I now?"
"You're a brave wizard, intelligent enough to think for yourself in a world that had been set up to make you believe you were better than everyone else. Strong enough to listen to the dead every day. Bold enough to take on your father. Principled enough to live in loneliness because you know that associating with your old crowd for the sake of company would be wrong. You're a wizard who's made me fall madly in love with you in spite of our pasts. You're Draco Malfoy, and I'm Hermione Granger, and we are alone together, you and I. Agh!"
She cried out and grasped at the blankets then, for Draco had shoved himself into her soaked entrance. He started pounding her at once, his hands gripping her waist as his lips touched between her shoulder blades and then below her ear.
"Hermione… Hermione…" He chanted her name like a plea, like a prayer. One of his hands left her waist and covered her fist on the blanket, and his lips pressed hard against her cheek. She felt herself shoved roughly against the bed as he buried himself to the hilt and moaned softly. She could feel his come trickling back out a moment after his hips stilled, and he shuddered behind her.
She stayed still as Draco reached with a shaking hand for his wand and stood up.
"Scourgify… Tergeo… Tergeo… Scourgify…"
His voice shook like mad as he cleaned them both up. Hermione glanced at the clock on the wall. Two minutes past nine.
"We're late to bed," she informed Draco, crawling up onto the blankets and tucking herself naked beneath them. Draco seemed surprised by her apparent desire to sleep nude, but Hermione just patted the place beside her and waited for him to come. When he did, she held out her hand, and he stared at it. Finally he shook it, a gesture not commonly used in the wizarding world.
"Hello. Nice to meet you. I'm Hermione Granger," she said, and she saw realisation come over his face. The past was dead. The past was gone. All that mattered was here and now, the people they were right in this minute, the values they held in the present. She was giving him a fresh start, and she was asking for the same. So he shook her hand again and gave her a little smile, and he said,
"Pleased to meet you, Miss Granger. I'm Draco Malfoy."
Author's Note: Sorry for the short update, but I had two very separate writing blocks today. Haha. Hope everyone has a great New Year celebration planned. Thanks for reading - fifty points to your House if you leave a review. ;)