After Draco's accidental confession, things got awkward pretty fast. He immediately let go of Hermione and moved away, his icy demeanour quickly replacing the teasing and flirtatious attitude he had been displaying seconds before.

Hermione tried not to let his behavioural change dishearten her, after all, she had heard what he'd said with perfect clarity, maybe he just needed a moment to arrange how he felt within his own mind.

"I'm going to go and take a shower…" she muttered quietly, slipping as gracefully as she could off the bed in just her dressing gown.

Draco did nothing but hum disinterestedly in acknowledgement as he moved to sit at his desk and pulled out his half-finished potions essay and stupidly elaborate peacock feather quill and ink, clearly trying to pretend he'd never spoken in the first place.

Hermione contemplated all the new information she had received in the last half an hour, whilst she was in the shower. She didn't know if it made her naive to admit that she believed every word that came out of Draco's mouth, his explanation on his feelings and the situation with Pansy. Draco wouldn't cheat on her—she knew now that she'd been foolish and rash to think such a thing, but at the time she had been hurting and saw the first suggestion of an explanation and believed it without really thinking realistically.

But did he really love her? And if he did, did she love him back?

The answer to that question came all too easily—of course she did.

Somehow in the last few months, the blond Slytherin had crawled into her heart and had well and truly taken up residence there for the immanent future. He was both everything she knew she wanted in a partner and also things she thought she would never want.

He was a literal asshole sometimes, he was grumpy, stubborn, opinionated, sarcastic and a downright mystery. But he was also caring, supportive, patient, intelligent and incredibly handsome. The reality was, he was just as scarred and damaged as she was, and that was okay.

The pair of them were somehow a perfect fit—something nobody had ever seen coming.

She didn't know how to explain it, but she was sure that he was it for her, her person. So, all she had to do now was tell him…which was far easier said than done.

Graced with all the inner Gryffindor courage she could muster up, already blushing at the thought of what she was about to do, Hermione stepped out of the shower, dried her hair with her wand, –not caring that it would go frizzy—quickly towel dried her body and then marched back out into Draco's bedroom completely naked as the day he had seen her in the common room on their first night back in September, slamming the bathroom door behind her almost for dramatic affect to get his attention.

"Was that really necessa—" Draco had started sulkily, only half turning to shoot her a displeased look before he realised what he was actually looking at.

"Yes," she answered immediately, sounding a hell of a lot more confident than she actually was. "Yes, it was necessary. Shall we call it a divine intervention? Because I can see we are going to have a problem progressing from this moment onwards unless one of us made a nonsensically bold move, and let's face it, Gryffindor's are far more prone to drastic measures than Slytherin's."

"Gryffindor's are prone to stupidity…" Draco managed to murmur, desperately trying to tear his eyes from her exposed form and failing miserably.

"So, you think this is stupid?" she asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly, trying not to let him see how much she was shaking nervously under his harsh unwavering gaze. When Draco didn't seem able to form a reply, Hermione carried on speaking. "Well, in that case, I suppose I should leave, after all, Blaise is still in my room, I doubt he'd turn me away after the things he was hinting at this morning."

"Don't even think about leaving this room, Granger," he demanded suddenly in a voice much louder than he probably realised he was using. "If I find Zabini put so much as a finger on you, I swear I'll curse him so hard that his capability to get it up for any Witch will have disappeared permanently, never mind around my Witch."

"Your Witch?" she repeated, crossing her arms over her chest, only succeeding in pressing her ample breasts closer together and she swore she almost heard Draco groan quietly under his breath at the sight.

"Yes," he growled, stalking possessively towards her, "my Witch. My Girlfriend. My Lioness." As Draco reached her, he didn't even hesitate before backing her up into the wall behind her so she couldn't escape. "You are mine, Hermione, and I swear if another Wizard dares to put his hands on you I'll make sure he loses them both."

"You know I don't want any other Wizard to touch me," she said quietly, desperate just to be in his embrace properly now he was so close. "Only you, Draco. If I am yours, then you are mine too."

"You are all I'll ever want or need," he promised her in an equally quiet tone, brushing a kiss against her forehead before leaning down to kiss her lips but Hermione quickly spoke before he reached his destination, completely throwing him off guard.

"I love you."

"No, you don't."

"Excuse me, but I think I'll make my own decision about that, thank you."

"Hermione—"

"Look, whatever you're about to say doesn't make any difference," she insisted, lifting her hands so they were cradling his troubled face, simultaneously silencing him. "I was a mess when I thought you'd been insincere about your feelings, it hurt so much. I don't want to be without you. I don't care about the past; the future is the only thing that matters."

Draco had her trapped again between his arms and the wall within seconds, only this time she had no room left to move even her hands, his breathing laboured and eyes wild. "I've loved you since before I even knew what to call my infatuation, I never dreamed you'd consider me worthy enough to return the sentiment."

Hermione managed to push her hips towards his and press their lower halves together, causing Draco to hiss quietly at the unexpected contact.

"You love me?"

"Yes, I just said—"

"Then prove it, Malfoy."

At Hermione's taunt, Draco could barely contain himself before he'd grabbed her legs and wrapped them around his waist, causing her naked body to press against him in the most delicious ways. In return Hermione squealed in shock, throwing her arms around his neck to hold on and pushed her breasts against his chest as he leant down to give her a bruising kiss.

"You're going to be the death of me, woman," Draco growled, moving his hands to her ass and giving it a firm squeeze before carrying her over to the bed. "You were supposed to let me worship you during out first time, let me slowly undress you and kiss each inch of newly exposed skin on your perfect body…"

His words were like silk, his hands ghosting over her in such delicate touches causing her to shiver involuntarily, something that didn't pass Draco's attention.

"Are you cold, darling?" he asked, knowing damned well that that wasn't the reason behind it. "Do you need me to warm you up?"

"I need you to stop messing around and touch me," she retorted before she'd had time to process what she was saying.

Draco chuckled, amused at the extreme level of frustration in her voice. She had been begging him for this for weeks and somehow he'd managed to refrain from letting things get too hot and heavy. But now that she was here, naked in his arms after a mutual confession of love, how could he deny her anything she wanted?

Within a matter of seconds, Draco had divulged himself of his own clothing and was on top of Hermione, heavily assaulting the delicate skin around her neck and making sure to thoroughly mark her so there would be no doubt about what had transpired. She moaned wantonly under his lips and – embarrassingly – found herself almost whimpering in need as he tortured her, subconsciously grinding herself up against his body as he sucked on a particularly sensitive spot.

Draco groaned in her ear in appreciation as she rubbed herself on his painfully hard cock, trying to get some sort of relief, but as good as it felt, he wasn't ready to let himself be pleasured until he'd had his fill of making the Gryffindor squirm and scream until she lost her voice.

Without another word, Draco rolled off Hermione so he was next to her, grabbed one of her legs and trapped it between both of his, opening her pussy up to him and immediately thrust two fingers deep inside her. Her answering squeal was enough to somehow make his cock harden even more.

Clinging desperately to anything within reach, Hermione was almost at the point of sobbing at the extreme amount of pleasure coursing through her veins. Draco was not gentle with her, but she didn't want him to be and every stroke of his fingers already led her dangerously close to her first proper orgasm given to her by anyone other than herself.

She thrashed around, panting hard, muttering a string of curses under her breath, hips moving back against Draco's fingers as she tried to keep up with his incredibly unforgiving pace. She was so close and Draco could feel it. He quickly withdrew his fingers and rubbed his whole hand almost viciously against her clit so fast that it was a blur and Hermione literally exploded everywhere, a scream loud enough to be heard from the Great Hall tearing itself from her lips as she squirted so hard she almost lost consciousness.

Draco moaned in lust-filled amazement as he lifted his soaking hand up to his mouth so he could make sure to clean up all of Hermione's cum from his fingers. He had never in his wildest dreams imagined she'd be so responsive to his touch.

"Fucking hell, Hermione…" he murmured, pulling her sated body against him so he could hold her as she caught her breath. He nuzzled his nose into her hair and she let out a contented sigh.

"That was nice," she smiled wearily, pressing a kiss to Draco's chest, sighing contentedly.

"'Nice'?! That's it? Just 'nice'?!" he spluttered incredulously. "Granger, I swear—"

"Fine. Amazing. How's your fragile male ego feeling now?" she laughed, moving so she could look up at him and wink mischievously.

"Would you like a demonstration as to how my ego is feeling?" he growled, throwing himself on top of her before she could respond and then swiftly pinned down her wrists.

Hermione barely had chance to process what was going on, until she felt Draco's cock line up against where she was still incredibly ready for him.

"Please…" she whimpered, fighting against her restraints, desperate to reach for him.

"What do you want, kitten?" he asked teasingly, the smug smirk in his voice completely unmissable.

"I need you, Draco, please…so help me, if you stall any longer I'll—oh my god!"

Without wasting another second, he was buried deep inside her to the hilt in one swift movement and then he was moving in a bruising merciless pace and Hermione knew it wouldn't be long before she reached her second orgasm.

Draco released her wrists and immediately Hermione was clinging onto him for dear life, dragging her nails down his muscular back so hard it was a wonder that she wasn't hurting him.

"Merlin, Granger…" Draco moaned loudly, managing to suddenly flip them both over so that Hermione was on top, completely changing the angle.

Relieved that she'd been given the chance to take the lead, she began bouncing up and down on his cock, chasing down the orgasm that was seconds away from overwhelming her system. Sensing that she was unbearably close, Draco moved his thumb to her swollen clit and after a few brushes against it, Hermione was shrieking and coming so hard black spots appeared in her vision.

He held onto her to stop her falling and after only a few more thrusts, he wasn't far behind her, leaving them both to ride out their orgasms together.

After a few moments of trying to steady herself, Hermione was able to climb off of Draco and move so she was lying next to him on the bed—both of them still breathing very heavily and trying to recover.

"Well, that was—"

"Granger, if you say 'nice' I may be forced to do something you won't be particularly fond of," Draco interrupted her before she had chance to finish her sentence.

"For your information, Mr Malfoy, I wasn't about to say anything of the sort!" she laughed. "I really did bruise your ego before!"

"Don't laugh at me, Hermione," he growled, throwing an arm around her and pulling her right up against him and holding her tight. "Myself and the rest of the school heard how much you truly enjoyed that, so I know I have no reason to worry."

"I was not that loud…" she grumbled under her breath, causing Draco to snort with laughter.

But as it turned out, she had been that loud and that had therefore created some rather unsavoury repercussions…

After the duo eventually emerged from Draco's bedroom so Hermione could go and fetch her books so they could cram in some last-minute studying before the holidays — still practically naked save for Draco's underwear and the Slytherin Quidditch jersey Hermione had found in his room to throw on – they had been in for a shock when they realised that Blaise was still exactly where they'd last seen him.

Suffice it to say that he had been less than pleased when Hermione managed to rectify his position, whining that he'd been there for hours. Draco tried to defend himself by saying the spell should have worn off by now, but clearly due to his furious emotional – and highly irrational—outburst, the jinx had somehow gained a lot more strength than usual.

Draco had taken his grumbling friend into the common room, giving Hermione the chance to get dressed before re-joining them a few minutes later, her face a bright red colour that would rival a Weasley at the realisation that suddenly hit her that Blaise had almost definitely been able to hear what was going on in the room down the hall. When she tentatively brought it up, Blaise had the decency to act as if he wasn't at all affected by that particular part of the whole experience, but in reality, he was fooling no one.

It turned out that the walls separating the bedrooms and the bathroom were incredibly thin and after some gentle prodding, Blaise joyfully admitted to hearing each and every moan of pleasure that left Hermione's lips with complete clarity. When he realised that Draco looked far too smug and pleased with himself and his ability to impress, the other Slytherin made sure to share with the room just how hard and aroused he had gotten listening in on their little rendezvous and how the sounds Hermione had made were well and truly imprinted to his mind for 'later use'. This sobered up Draco's cockiness, triggering his possessive nature and suffice it to say that it didn't take long before Draco was trying to cast Blaise out on his ass, much to Hermione dismay.

"Draco Malfoy, don't you be so rude! You already owe Blaise one hell of an apology!"

"He's a bloody pervert!"

"To my defence, I didn't really have another option. I couldn't exactly block my ears or leave…"

After a few more minutes of arguing, Blaise decided to leave anyway, saying he was hungry and in need of a good meal after his day of 'torture'. After a few minutes, Hermione and Draco decided to follow him down to the Great Hall for a feast of their own, seeing as they had built up quite a significant appetite due to their afternoon's activities.

When the pair arrived in the Great Hall, both were shocked at the sight of Blaise and Theo sitting at the Gryffindor table alongside Harry and Ron and they all seemed to be having a very civil and relaxed conversation. It wasn't that their friends had outright refused to co-exist, but this was different. They were happily associating without either Draco or Hermione there to supervise.

It was only as they got within earshot of the group that they realised what the current topic of conversation was. They decided to hang back and listen for a bit before making their presence known.

"…I'm telling you, they were really getting at it! Weasley, clearly you weren't using your tools to the full potential in the bedroom, because she was screaming!" Blaise was saying with a smirk, shooting a wink at Theo who snorted in retaliation and rolled his eyes.

"Probably screaming in pain..." Ron mumbled grumpily, stabbing his roast potato aggressively and then mashing it all around his plate.

"Oh no, I'm telling you, I've pleasured many a woman in my day," Blaise started boastfully, "and the noises Hermione was making…Salazar, they were almost enough to make me feel like a blushing virgin."

"Since when do you call her 'Hermione'?" Harry asked quickly, clearly desperate to change the subject. Hermione was like a sister to him and he did not need to hear explicitly about her sexual exploits.

"Since I saw her sleeping in her underwear and she didn't hex me for it," he laughed, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice afterwards to calm himself down. "I think that suggests that we may have moved onto a first name basis."

"She may not have hexed you for it, but that doesn't mean I won't," Harry warned, waving his fork in Blaise's direction in a vaguely threatening manner.

"Oh, Potter, please, I am a hot-blooded man, and she is a very attractive woman. I cannot be blamed for my actions or reactions!" he protested with a grin, starting to pick at his own dinner before it went cold.

"I never thought I'd say this, but it's probably a blessing in disguise that out of all the Slytherin's Hermione could have picked, she chose Malfoy…at least he doesn't run around the castle shouting about his sex life," Harry sighed, causing Blaise and Theo to start laughing uncontrollably.

"Potter, he's been waiting for this day for years. In fact, we've all been waiting for this bloody day for years, in the hope that it would finally put an end to the constant moping," Theo said wearily, immediately spiking both Ron and Harry's interests.

"What do you mean 'moping'?" Ron asked in confusion, looking at Harry for help, but he shrugged, just as lost as he was.

"There's no way you're telling us you didn't notice all this time that Draco's been arse over tit in love with her since she walloped him in the face in third year?" Theo sighed in frustration. "I've lost so many hours of my life listening to that blonde twat going on and on about it."

"But he's bullied her for years!" Harry protested, adamant that the two Slytherin's were having them on and this was all just an elaborate prank.

"I literally just had the same conversation with Hermione," Blaise laughed. "Merlin, Gryffindor's can be so unobservant!"

"He may have hated her heritage until he pulled his father's opinion stick out of his asshole, but he's always thought she was drop dead gorgeous," Theo replied with a shrug, moving his attention back to his dinner.

"We were all bloody relieved that he was moving to the Head's Dormitories this year though," Blaise admitted after swallowing a large mouthful of mashed potato. "As I'm sure you boys are aware, the curtains in the shared dorms don't hide much in terms of volume, if you know what I mean?"

"Um…no?" Ron answered after a seconds thought, not getting where the Slytherin was going with this statement.

"Clearly the Gryffindor's have mastered the art of subtle wanking then," Theo replied nonchalantly, causing Harry to almost spray Blaise in pumpkin juice as he had somehow managed to take a sip at the worst possible moment. "Draco never managed it. I think we all started to have bloody sex dreams about Granger, we heard her name that many times whilst he was—"

"Ugh god, please stop. She's practically my sister!" Harry complained loudly, a pained look on his face. "And I really really don't want to have the thought of Malfoy…you know, in my head…"

"Oh, come on!" Blaise smirked teasingly, "I refuse to believe the three of you didn't overhear any self-pleasuring from each other whilst you were off on your little camping adventure!"

"'Little camping adventure'?!" Harry spluttered incredulously. "We were on the run looking for pieces of Voldemort's soul, not on a bloody holiday! We nearly died several times!"

"No need to get your wand in a knot, Potter," Blaise brushed off, finishing off his dinner and carefully placing down his knife and fork before returning his gaze back to the chosen one. "You and Hermione were on your own for a part of that experience, weren't you? When Weasley bailed on you?"

"Fuck off Zabini, you have no idea what it was like!" Ron snapped, his ears going bright red in the embarrassment of his desertion being brought up at the dinner table as if it was a normal topic to discuss over a meal.

"No offence intended, Weasley, I assure you," Blaise replied calmly, having a sip of his drink casually. "I'm just curious about a few things. Mainly, what happened when the trio became a duo—even if it was only for a few weeks."

"I'm not sure what you're asking, Zabini," Harry answered cautiously, having a vague idea where this was going and also not really wanting to discuss it there in the middle of the Great Hall.

"What I want to know is, did anything ever happen between you and Hermione? You were all alone in the middle of nowhere with nobody else for comfort—surely something must have spiralled out of that?" he pried, even going so far as to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.

"No. it didn't," Harry said without even the slightest hesitation. "She's my best friend and we were both hurting because of Ron leaving. Yet again, Zabini, we were in a tent with no running water or proper food—it wasn't exactly a romantic retreat."

"Don't forget the whole part about wearing a part of Voldemort's soul too…that tends to put a dampener on most situations," Hermione said suddenly before moving to sit down next to Harry, letting Draco slide in next to her.

"We weren't expecting to see you two around for another few hours," Blaise teased, pouring Hermione a glass of juice and passing it to her across the table which she accepted readily with a smile.

"Well as brilliant as sexual escapades are, it would be irresponsible to let my revision schedule suffer regardless," she responded with a shrug, causing Theo and Blaise to snort with laughter.

"Looks like you'll have to work on your performance, Draco. Clearly the lady's life wasn't altered drastically by your lacklustre efforts," Theo sniggered.

"Imbeciles…" Draco grumbled under his breath, aggressively serving himself some food, refusing to talk to either of his so-called friends.

"Look, Hermione…" Harry began awkwardly, reaching for her hand nervously, but calming significantly when she immediately squeezed his hand back. "I'm sorry about the other night…I overreacted."

"It's fine, Harry. You were just trying to look out for me and everything got a bit out of hand," she replied quietly, not wanting anybody to intrude on their conversation. "I would have done the same for you."

"I know, but that doesn't make up for the fact that I was a twat and I upset you," he said miserably.

"Harry, you've always been a twat in your own way," she teased lightly, giving his shoulder a playful shove. "If Draco gets away without having my Dad make life hard for him, he can manage you when you get into protective brother mode."

"Well unfortunately for him, he has me, plus the entire Weasley family to endure watching his every move…maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt for now," he grinned, imagining the grilling the Malfoy Heir would receive if he ever messed up substantially.

Hermione merely laughed and leant across to give him an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too," Harry replied, giving her hand one more squeeze before letting go and passing her a serving spoon. "Now get some hot food inside you for Godric's sake! You've not had a proper meal since Thursday and I imagine you've built up a bit of an appetite today."

"Ew Harry, please…don't you start!" she grimaced, nevertheless doing as she'd been told and serving up herself a hearty portion. "And just so you know, Ronald still owes me a hell of an apology. Would you mind reminding him?"

Harry immediately sent a swift kick to Ron's shin under the table, causing the redhead to curse loudly and glare at Harry.

"What the bloody hell was that for?!"

"Didn't you have something you needed to say to Hermione?"

"Oh yeah…look, Mione…the thing is…" he started clumsily, scratching behind his ear, "I sometimes on occasion have the tendency to say things I don't mean in the heat of the moment when I'm maybe, you know…um, angry, and I probably shouldn't have…have, er…well, said some of the stuff that I said and—"

"For the love of Merlin, Hermione, please just forgive him so I can eat my dinner in peace without his snivelling!" Draco exclaimed, interrupting Ron's pathetic attempt at an apology, causing the ginger man to scowl at him furiously.

"Fuck off, Malfoy! At least I'm trying to apologise! I bet you never even tried to say sor—"

"I'll have you know, Weasley, that I apologised several times this afternoon to my girlfriend. Apologised several times in a way that I know you never were able to do successfully, no matter how hard you tried," he replied snidely, a smug smirk taking over his face as he brushed aside a strategically positioned section of Hermione's hair to reveal all of the dark possessive love-bites that she had been trying to hide from their company (he wasn't about to remind her about concealment charms). He very deliberately placed a sexually driven kiss to one of the bigger marks that sat just below her ear causing her to shiver involuntarily before composing herself and swatting him away so she could try and cover them again before anybody else saw.

"Stop it, Draco," Hermione warned, shooting him a look that told him not to mess with her before turning back to Ron, who was the same shade of red as jumper he was wearing. "That was a positively awful apology, Ronald, but I forgive you. After all, it is nearly Christmas and as luck would have it, I'm in a particularly forgiving mood today, for some unknown reason." The following wink that she sent Draco didn't go unnoticed by any of them and everybody laughed at the affronted expression on Ron's face as well as the Cheshire-cat grin that spread across Draco's.

"Oh yes, now that is a complete mystery. I think we'll have to run a few tests to determine the cause," he replied unashamedly, sliding his hand up her thigh under the table.

"I'd like to offer up my own services to be tried and tested," Blaise interjected suddenly, looking far too enthusiastic at the thought.

"Not bloody likely, Zabini!" Draco growled possessively before Hermione had chance to reprimand him herself, his nails digging into her leg causing her to jump a little in surprise.

"Was worth a shot," Blaise replied with an overdramatic sigh. "I'll just have to rely on my memory from earlier to help me achieve a happy ending all on my lonesome then. It's a good job I have a very active imagination."

"Well your active imagination is actively going to get you in deep shit if you carry on."

"Come on, Malfoy, don't be selfish! We've all had to listen in on you prattling on about how perfect she is for years! We've been in this torment together, right Theo?"

"I'm not getting involved in this conversation…"

"Zabini, you know I don't share."

"Spoilt brat…"

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Hermione merely laughed and shook her head at the interaction between the Slytherin's. Typical boys.

After listening in on them bicker for a few more moments she made her excuses and went off to the library to do some last-minute revision before the holiday and her stay at Malfoy Manor. Well, that was what she told the boys anyway.

In reality, she was going to need every ounce of her Gryffindor courage to face Mrs Malfoy and she was very much hoping the library had a section of books that she could study to help her prepare to properly meet her boyfriend's pureblood aristocratic Mother.

Since their mutual confessions of love earlier, it was now even more important to Hermione that she impress Narcissa Malfoy. She was here to stay in Draco's life and if she was to truly be accepted into the family, she knew she had to prove herself worthy and that was something she knew would not be an easy task. But she was more than willing to rise to the challenge.