Drabbles from dyno_drabbles and dramione_ldws
Gifts have been given at luvlikerocketz, and look what kalina_blue made for me. (points to Filchy icon) Is that not hilarious?. Forget Halloween. I'll be using this all year long.
Anywho, Parry month at dyno_drabbles has come to a close, and the new ldws challenge for previous winners has begun. Round 5 at dramione_ldws is ongoing. Coming up with a fresh, new reason for them to be in Place X is proving to be a real challenge. Fun, though. :)
Title: Motivations
Pairing: Harry/Pansy
Word Count and Rating: 199, PG-13
Summary: What's Pansy's motivation? Harry wants to know.
Warning: adultery
Notes: For the prompt "I gotta know the girl behind the mask."
Harry laced his fingers behind his head and stared up at the cracks in the ceiling. "Leaving already?"
"I have a previous engagement."
He turned on his side and watched Pansy button her blouse with nimble fingers. A dark lock of hair fell over her face, obscuring one eye. "Montague?" Harry asked.
"Of course." She turned her back, sat on the edge of the bed, and began pulling up her stockings. "I think he'll propose soon."
Harry traced her bra through her shirt. "What would he say if he saw you now?"
"Probably just what your girlfriend would say if she could see you." Pansy found a run and pulled her stockings back off, stuffing them into her purse. "That's another pair of stockings you owe me, Potter." She shook out her skirt and stepped into it. "Why all the questions?"
He shrugged. "Curiosity. I don't know why you keep coming back here."
She Summoned her shoes and picked up her purse. "Why are you here when you could be with your loving Weasel?"
He contemplated the ceiling again. "Because I want you."
"Well." She paused in the doorway, face in shadow, eyes glittering. "I want to be wanted."
Title: Up From the Ashes
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Word Count and Rating: 499, PG
Summary: Tokyo might be Draco's kind of town after all.
Notes: Prompt: Tokyo, Japan and UT #6, prompt #09 Baggage at mission_insane
Draco leaned toward Hermione while tugging at the collar of his Muggle-style suit and tie. "Tell me what we're here to see again?" His warm breath ghosted over her ear, and a pleasant tingle danced down her spine.
"Noh," she whispered.
He pulled back, surprised, mouth open. "Well, pardon me for asking!" In a huff, he crossed his arms and slouched in his chair.
Hermione laughed quietly, conscious of the quiet and predominantly Japanese crowd surrounding them. "Not 'no,' Draco." She tugged his arm until she could hold his hand. "Noh, also called Nōgaku, is traditional Japanese dance theater." She stroked the back of his hand with her thumb and went back to deciphering her program.
"You could have just said that to begin with. You know all of this is strange to me."
Hermione looked up at her husband, but he kept his eyes glued to the darkened stage.
"It certainly wasn't my intent to make you feel foolish," she said after a moment. Setting her program down, she inched closer. "Aren't you enjoying Japan, Draco?"
He said nothing, but looked down at their joined hands instead.
"I'm sorry." Hermione was dismayed. "I wanted this trip to be special, both because it's our anniversary and because it's our first holiday without the children. I wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere we've never been."
"It's definitely different." He gave her a small smile then and pressed a discreet kiss to her forehead. "I'm the one who's sorry. I should have prepared better for the trip, done some research or something."
"Besides just watching Godzilla and Kill Bill, you mean?" Happy to see him smile again, she laid her head on his shoulder. "You liked the Tokyo National Museum, didn't you? And Tokyo Tower?"
He nodded against her hair.
"What did you think of the cherry blossoms?" she asked.
"Those were beautiful." He sounded more enthusiastic now. "If we'd been alone, I would have laid you down on a blanket of flowers, and-"
Hermione hushed him, smiling blandly at a matron who turned in her seat to stare at them.
"I want to take a box full home for our bedroom," Draco whispered.
"Good luck with that," she whispered back.
He grinned and Hermione made a mental note to search his bags for miniaturized boxes.
"At least you're not dragging me through one ancient, musty building after another," Draco offered unexpectedly. "That's one thing about Tokyo: everything seems pretty new."
"There are very few old buildings in Tokyo," she whispered. "It's mostly new construction since World War II."
"That was the Muggle war during Grindelwald's war?"
She nodded, looking around to make sure no one was staring at them.
"And Japan was on the losing side, right?" Draco sounded thoughtful. "But they rebuilt and now they're strong."
She nodded again. "Tokyo is one of the world's economic powerhouses."
"Hmm." Draco turned back to the stage as the theater lights dimmed. "Maybe this is my kind of town after all."
Title: Shelter Me With Kisses
Pairing: Harry/Pansy
Word Count and Rating: 300, PG
Summary: It's not easy being married to someone as self-reliant as Harry.
Warning: 2nd person POV
Notes: Prompt: Shelter Me With Kisses
You're not exactly Mr. Demonstrative, you know.
Yes, I understand why. I've heard all about your bastard uncle, your cow of an aunt, and the cousin who liked to bat you around like a Bludger. I get it, I really do. Together, they made you the most self-contained man I know.
All right, so seven years of Voldemort almost killing you every May didn't help. Whatever.
My point is, it's not easy being married to the most self-contained man I know. In fact, it's damn hard. I think any woman, married to a man like you, would spend a lot of time wondering how often her husband thinks of her when they're apart, or staring at the clock when he's an hour late, afraid he's never coming home. Maybe she'd lie awake at night, knowing that he loves her, but afraid he doesn't need her. I've done those things, anyway.
I'm not trying to make you feel guilty here. I'm thanking you.
You know why: It's for those things you do, the things that go against your reserve, but that you do anyway because you know I need them. Thank you.
When you kiss me in front of the Weasleys, it lets them know I'm with you.
The way you meet me for lunch and kiss me in front of all those prying eyes tells everyone to piss off and mind their own business.
Even that absentminded kiss on the cheek before you run off to play Quidditch with Ron and Ginny reminds Hermione and Neville to be nice to me.
Okay, it reminds me to be nice to them, too. Whatever.
I feel more secure whenever you kiss me, that's all I'm saying. I love you so much.
Don't get cocky, Harry. As husbands go, you're still barely adequate.
Title: Only Time Will Tell
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Word Count and Rating: 499, G
Summary: Running away with Draco is a good idea, right? Hermione has her doubts.
Notes: Prompt: Perth, Australia & Hermione's POV. Also UT #5, prompt #08 Winter at MI and prompt #016 Regal at 100quills
I'm on my knees in the garden, turning compost into the dry earth of my parents' Australian home while sweat dribbles down my back, when it occurs to me that I don't know if I'm doing the right thing.
I've run away to Perth, Australia with Draco Malfoy. I've left my friends and family, my job, my flat, even my cat, to shack up with a man who hated me five years ago and who regards my Muggle relatives with a mixture of condescension and contempt. It's insanity.
I don't usually second-guess myself, but I am now. I wonder if Harry and Ron will ever speak to me again.
Draco and I came here, to one of the most remote cities on earth, after begging the house key off my mother at Christmas. Just for a short holiday, I lied, with an icy rain beating against the windows and Draco's cold hand in mine. I remember the fake smile on his face as he looked at the Muggle appliances in my childhood home. I realize that great bigot took the tea Mum made him but didn't drink it, and I feel a headache building behind my eyes.
I reach up and massage my forehead with my dirty glove. I've lost my mind.
The front door creaks, and the object of my thoughts steps out on the porch.
He's unremarkable. Handsome, yes, but not extraordinarily so, with his too-pointy face and fondness for products that slick his hair back. In his jeans and a t-shirt from His Majesty's Theatre with His Majesty's Shirt screen-printed on the front, there's nothing about him that should make my heart pound, but it does.
He sits on the front steps, stretching his legs out and warming his toes on the hot pavers that make up the front walk. He sets down a plate of toast, proof he has mastered the toaster.
"I don't care what the jar says." He points at the toast. "That stuff is not Marmite."
I look down at the dark spread on perfectly toasted bread and need to clear my throat. "It's from New Zealand. If you want British Marmite,"-It would be crazy to suggest moving back to England for Marmite, just crazy-"We could find you some."
"Or I could just adapt." He takes a bite. "It's different, not bad."
"Everything's different now." My voice sounds shaky, even to me.
"We'll get used to it." He licks the ball of his thumb and wipes dirt off my forehead before pulling me up to sit beside him on the steps. With one toast-filled hand, he waves at our neighbor who calls from his drive, "This must be better than January in England, right?"
"It sure is," Draco calls back with conviction, and right at that moment, with his arm over my shoulders and a sea breeze from the southwest bringing relief from the heat, I almost agree.
I snatch the toast from his hand and take a big bite.
Title: Pursuit of Happiness
Pairing: Neville/Luna
Word Count and Rating: 500, PG
Summary: When Luna's ready to leave, all Neville can do is watch her go.
Notes: Prompt: unrequited love. Also #12 "No escape from being alone" at 15pairings.
"I'm almost ready to go, Neville."
He stopped raking and looked up. A crisp, autumn wind pinked Luna's cheeks and pulled wisps of blonde hair from her braid. Her eyes were bright and so was her smile. Neville could see her luggage in a pile on the front steps behind her, and he sighed. She was always so happy to leave.
He folded both hands over the top of the rake and rested his chin against them. "All packed, then?"
"I think so, but I may floo you if I've forgotten anything." She shuffled closer until she was within touching distance, kicking up red and gold leaves like a child. She was slim and so pretty in her pink jumper and gurdyroot-patterned scarf that Neville bit off another sigh. There was no point.
"Um, you're off to Peru this time, right?" he asked.
"That's right. In search of the Three-tailed Confunding Jungle Fox." Luna's smile widened. "It will be summertime there soon. I'll think of you when I'm sunbathing." She wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
And I'll think of you all the time, he thought silently, but all he did was pat her shoulder. "I guess Scamander is waiting for you?"
Luna nodded against his chest, and his rough, wool coat pulled more hair from her braid. "He arrived a few days ago and has our camp set up." Her head tipped back until she could beam up at him. "Four months of field research, here I come."
Neville smiled his best smile, as if the thought of Rolf Scamander waiting for Luna didn't make him want to put his fist through the nearest tree trunk. "Sounds like fun."
She laughed, just an echo of the dreamy girl she used to be. "You don't mean that, but thanks."
He swallowed, hard, and brushed a long, silky strand of hair from the corner of her mouth. "I mean it." If he was with Luna, Neville thought he would enjoy months of camping perfectly well.
Luna wiggled the rake meaningfully within his grasp. Neville raked the leaves without magic, just as he cut the grass and turned the soil for his plantings each year. Other wizards might rely on charms to get the jobs done, but Neville always said working with his hands brought him closer to the ground. Only Luna seemed to consider this logical. It helped make her an excellent roommate and was one reason why Neville fell in love with her.
"We shouldn't go against our natures, Neville." She was serious. "It's your nature to belong to your patch of earth just as it's my nature to leave and explore the unknown. You know every little bud and sprout that will bloom in your garden in the spring, and each one matters to you. That's something I love best about you."
He doesn't fool himself into thinking her love is anything but platonic, and sure enough, her next words are "You're my very dearest friend, Neville."
Title: All Our Tomorrows
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Word Count and Rating: 350, PG-13
Summary: Moscow will always top their "Most Romantic Places" lists.
Notes: Prompt: Moscow, Russia. Also, UT #5, prompt #09 Return at MI and prompt #003 Tomorrow at 100quills.
Hermione tipped her head back and peered up at Ostankino Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in Europe. The tower was brightly lit against the night sky, and she could see snow swirling around the top.
Hermione shivered, but it was a pleasant feeling. It wouldn't have been a true Russian holiday unless it snowed.
"Cold?" Draco's breath was hot against her ear and gave Hermione another, even more pleasurable, shiver. He said a surreptitious warming charm, his wand hidden in his sleeve, and Hermione was at once as comfortable as she would been in front of a roaring fire.
"Not anymore." She reached with one mittened hand to brush the snowflakes from his blond hair before they could melt.
He caught her hand and kissed the thin strip of skin exposed between her mitten and her coat sleeve. "Good."
"I'll miss this city." He kept hold of her left hand, so with her right, she smoothed his scarf and played idly with the black buttons on his coat. "After this week, I think Moscow will always be at the top of my personal 'Most Romantic Places' list."
"Mine, too." His thumb rubbed circles in her palm. He leered, but the look in his eyes was loving. "St. Basil's Cathedral has completely replaced that supply cupboard where I first got your top off."
Hermione snorted. "I completely agree." She placed her hand solemnly over her heart. "And I'd rather be at the Bolshoi Theatre than in the grocery where you first told me you love me."
Draco laughed, and Hermione saw the people around them glance over and smile at the sound.
"I guess our romantic getaway was long overdue, huh?" he asked.
She nodded. "I can't believe we have to go home tomorrow. Good-bye, romance; hello, sneaking out of the Manor before dawn so your mum won't know."
He tugged her mitten off, tucking it into his pocket.
"Draco?"
"Let's make a deal." He slipped a solitaire over her ring finger and Hermione gasped. "Marry me, and I'll do my best to make all our tomorrows as romantic as today."
Anywho, Parry month at dyno_drabbles has come to a close, and the new ldws challenge for previous winners has begun. Round 5 at dramione_ldws is ongoing. Coming up with a fresh, new reason for them to be in Place X is proving to be a real challenge. Fun, though. :)
Title: Motivations
Pairing: Harry/Pansy
Word Count and Rating: 199, PG-13
Summary: What's Pansy's motivation? Harry wants to know.
Warning: adultery
Notes: For the prompt "I gotta know the girl behind the mask."
Harry laced his fingers behind his head and stared up at the cracks in the ceiling. "Leaving already?"
"I have a previous engagement."
He turned on his side and watched Pansy button her blouse with nimble fingers. A dark lock of hair fell over her face, obscuring one eye. "Montague?" Harry asked.
"Of course." She turned her back, sat on the edge of the bed, and began pulling up her stockings. "I think he'll propose soon."
Harry traced her bra through her shirt. "What would he say if he saw you now?"
"Probably just what your girlfriend would say if she could see you." Pansy found a run and pulled her stockings back off, stuffing them into her purse. "That's another pair of stockings you owe me, Potter." She shook out her skirt and stepped into it. "Why all the questions?"
He shrugged. "Curiosity. I don't know why you keep coming back here."
She Summoned her shoes and picked up her purse. "Why are you here when you could be with your loving Weasel?"
He contemplated the ceiling again. "Because I want you."
"Well." She paused in the doorway, face in shadow, eyes glittering. "I want to be wanted."
Title: Up From the Ashes
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Word Count and Rating: 499, PG
Summary: Tokyo might be Draco's kind of town after all.
Notes: Prompt: Tokyo, Japan and UT #6, prompt #09 Baggage at mission_insane
Draco leaned toward Hermione while tugging at the collar of his Muggle-style suit and tie. "Tell me what we're here to see again?" His warm breath ghosted over her ear, and a pleasant tingle danced down her spine.
"Noh," she whispered.
He pulled back, surprised, mouth open. "Well, pardon me for asking!" In a huff, he crossed his arms and slouched in his chair.
Hermione laughed quietly, conscious of the quiet and predominantly Japanese crowd surrounding them. "Not 'no,' Draco." She tugged his arm until she could hold his hand. "Noh, also called Nōgaku, is traditional Japanese dance theater." She stroked the back of his hand with her thumb and went back to deciphering her program.
"You could have just said that to begin with. You know all of this is strange to me."
Hermione looked up at her husband, but he kept his eyes glued to the darkened stage.
"It certainly wasn't my intent to make you feel foolish," she said after a moment. Setting her program down, she inched closer. "Aren't you enjoying Japan, Draco?"
He said nothing, but looked down at their joined hands instead.
"I'm sorry." Hermione was dismayed. "I wanted this trip to be special, both because it's our anniversary and because it's our first holiday without the children. I wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere we've never been."
"It's definitely different." He gave her a small smile then and pressed a discreet kiss to her forehead. "I'm the one who's sorry. I should have prepared better for the trip, done some research or something."
"Besides just watching Godzilla and Kill Bill, you mean?" Happy to see him smile again, she laid her head on his shoulder. "You liked the Tokyo National Museum, didn't you? And Tokyo Tower?"
He nodded against her hair.
"What did you think of the cherry blossoms?" she asked.
"Those were beautiful." He sounded more enthusiastic now. "If we'd been alone, I would have laid you down on a blanket of flowers, and-"
Hermione hushed him, smiling blandly at a matron who turned in her seat to stare at them.
"I want to take a box full home for our bedroom," Draco whispered.
"Good luck with that," she whispered back.
He grinned and Hermione made a mental note to search his bags for miniaturized boxes.
"At least you're not dragging me through one ancient, musty building after another," Draco offered unexpectedly. "That's one thing about Tokyo: everything seems pretty new."
"There are very few old buildings in Tokyo," she whispered. "It's mostly new construction since World War II."
"That was the Muggle war during Grindelwald's war?"
She nodded, looking around to make sure no one was staring at them.
"And Japan was on the losing side, right?" Draco sounded thoughtful. "But they rebuilt and now they're strong."
She nodded again. "Tokyo is one of the world's economic powerhouses."
"Hmm." Draco turned back to the stage as the theater lights dimmed. "Maybe this is my kind of town after all."
Title: Shelter Me With Kisses
Pairing: Harry/Pansy
Word Count and Rating: 300, PG
Summary: It's not easy being married to someone as self-reliant as Harry.
Warning: 2nd person POV
Notes: Prompt: Shelter Me With Kisses
You're not exactly Mr. Demonstrative, you know.
Yes, I understand why. I've heard all about your bastard uncle, your cow of an aunt, and the cousin who liked to bat you around like a Bludger. I get it, I really do. Together, they made you the most self-contained man I know.
All right, so seven years of Voldemort almost killing you every May didn't help. Whatever.
My point is, it's not easy being married to the most self-contained man I know. In fact, it's damn hard. I think any woman, married to a man like you, would spend a lot of time wondering how often her husband thinks of her when they're apart, or staring at the clock when he's an hour late, afraid he's never coming home. Maybe she'd lie awake at night, knowing that he loves her, but afraid he doesn't need her. I've done those things, anyway.
I'm not trying to make you feel guilty here. I'm thanking you.
You know why: It's for those things you do, the things that go against your reserve, but that you do anyway because you know I need them. Thank you.
When you kiss me in front of the Weasleys, it lets them know I'm with you.
The way you meet me for lunch and kiss me in front of all those prying eyes tells everyone to piss off and mind their own business.
Even that absentminded kiss on the cheek before you run off to play Quidditch with Ron and Ginny reminds Hermione and Neville to be nice to me.
Okay, it reminds me to be nice to them, too. Whatever.
I feel more secure whenever you kiss me, that's all I'm saying. I love you so much.
Don't get cocky, Harry. As husbands go, you're still barely adequate.
Title: Only Time Will Tell
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Word Count and Rating: 499, G
Summary: Running away with Draco is a good idea, right? Hermione has her doubts.
Notes: Prompt: Perth, Australia & Hermione's POV. Also UT #5, prompt #08 Winter at MI and prompt #016 Regal at 100quills
I'm on my knees in the garden, turning compost into the dry earth of my parents' Australian home while sweat dribbles down my back, when it occurs to me that I don't know if I'm doing the right thing.
I've run away to Perth, Australia with Draco Malfoy. I've left my friends and family, my job, my flat, even my cat, to shack up with a man who hated me five years ago and who regards my Muggle relatives with a mixture of condescension and contempt. It's insanity.
I don't usually second-guess myself, but I am now. I wonder if Harry and Ron will ever speak to me again.
Draco and I came here, to one of the most remote cities on earth, after begging the house key off my mother at Christmas. Just for a short holiday, I lied, with an icy rain beating against the windows and Draco's cold hand in mine. I remember the fake smile on his face as he looked at the Muggle appliances in my childhood home. I realize that great bigot took the tea Mum made him but didn't drink it, and I feel a headache building behind my eyes.
I reach up and massage my forehead with my dirty glove. I've lost my mind.
The front door creaks, and the object of my thoughts steps out on the porch.
He's unremarkable. Handsome, yes, but not extraordinarily so, with his too-pointy face and fondness for products that slick his hair back. In his jeans and a t-shirt from His Majesty's Theatre with His Majesty's Shirt screen-printed on the front, there's nothing about him that should make my heart pound, but it does.
He sits on the front steps, stretching his legs out and warming his toes on the hot pavers that make up the front walk. He sets down a plate of toast, proof he has mastered the toaster.
"I don't care what the jar says." He points at the toast. "That stuff is not Marmite."
I look down at the dark spread on perfectly toasted bread and need to clear my throat. "It's from New Zealand. If you want British Marmite,"-It would be crazy to suggest moving back to England for Marmite, just crazy-"We could find you some."
"Or I could just adapt." He takes a bite. "It's different, not bad."
"Everything's different now." My voice sounds shaky, even to me.
"We'll get used to it." He licks the ball of his thumb and wipes dirt off my forehead before pulling me up to sit beside him on the steps. With one toast-filled hand, he waves at our neighbor who calls from his drive, "This must be better than January in England, right?"
"It sure is," Draco calls back with conviction, and right at that moment, with his arm over my shoulders and a sea breeze from the southwest bringing relief from the heat, I almost agree.
I snatch the toast from his hand and take a big bite.
Title: Pursuit of Happiness
Pairing: Neville/Luna
Word Count and Rating: 500, PG
Summary: When Luna's ready to leave, all Neville can do is watch her go.
Notes: Prompt: unrequited love. Also #12 "No escape from being alone" at 15pairings.
"I'm almost ready to go, Neville."
He stopped raking and looked up. A crisp, autumn wind pinked Luna's cheeks and pulled wisps of blonde hair from her braid. Her eyes were bright and so was her smile. Neville could see her luggage in a pile on the front steps behind her, and he sighed. She was always so happy to leave.
He folded both hands over the top of the rake and rested his chin against them. "All packed, then?"
"I think so, but I may floo you if I've forgotten anything." She shuffled closer until she was within touching distance, kicking up red and gold leaves like a child. She was slim and so pretty in her pink jumper and gurdyroot-patterned scarf that Neville bit off another sigh. There was no point.
"Um, you're off to Peru this time, right?" he asked.
"That's right. In search of the Three-tailed Confunding Jungle Fox." Luna's smile widened. "It will be summertime there soon. I'll think of you when I'm sunbathing." She wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
And I'll think of you all the time, he thought silently, but all he did was pat her shoulder. "I guess Scamander is waiting for you?"
Luna nodded against his chest, and his rough, wool coat pulled more hair from her braid. "He arrived a few days ago and has our camp set up." Her head tipped back until she could beam up at him. "Four months of field research, here I come."
Neville smiled his best smile, as if the thought of Rolf Scamander waiting for Luna didn't make him want to put his fist through the nearest tree trunk. "Sounds like fun."
She laughed, just an echo of the dreamy girl she used to be. "You don't mean that, but thanks."
He swallowed, hard, and brushed a long, silky strand of hair from the corner of her mouth. "I mean it." If he was with Luna, Neville thought he would enjoy months of camping perfectly well.
Luna wiggled the rake meaningfully within his grasp. Neville raked the leaves without magic, just as he cut the grass and turned the soil for his plantings each year. Other wizards might rely on charms to get the jobs done, but Neville always said working with his hands brought him closer to the ground. Only Luna seemed to consider this logical. It helped make her an excellent roommate and was one reason why Neville fell in love with her.
"We shouldn't go against our natures, Neville." She was serious. "It's your nature to belong to your patch of earth just as it's my nature to leave and explore the unknown. You know every little bud and sprout that will bloom in your garden in the spring, and each one matters to you. That's something I love best about you."
He doesn't fool himself into thinking her love is anything but platonic, and sure enough, her next words are "You're my very dearest friend, Neville."
Title: All Our Tomorrows
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Word Count and Rating: 350, PG-13
Summary: Moscow will always top their "Most Romantic Places" lists.
Notes: Prompt: Moscow, Russia. Also, UT #5, prompt #09 Return at MI and prompt #003 Tomorrow at 100quills.
Hermione tipped her head back and peered up at Ostankino Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in Europe. The tower was brightly lit against the night sky, and she could see snow swirling around the top.
Hermione shivered, but it was a pleasant feeling. It wouldn't have been a true Russian holiday unless it snowed.
"Cold?" Draco's breath was hot against her ear and gave Hermione another, even more pleasurable, shiver. He said a surreptitious warming charm, his wand hidden in his sleeve, and Hermione was at once as comfortable as she would been in front of a roaring fire.
"Not anymore." She reached with one mittened hand to brush the snowflakes from his blond hair before they could melt.
He caught her hand and kissed the thin strip of skin exposed between her mitten and her coat sleeve. "Good."
"I'll miss this city." He kept hold of her left hand, so with her right, she smoothed his scarf and played idly with the black buttons on his coat. "After this week, I think Moscow will always be at the top of my personal 'Most Romantic Places' list."
"Mine, too." His thumb rubbed circles in her palm. He leered, but the look in his eyes was loving. "St. Basil's Cathedral has completely replaced that supply cupboard where I first got your top off."
Hermione snorted. "I completely agree." She placed her hand solemnly over her heart. "And I'd rather be at the Bolshoi Theatre than in the grocery where you first told me you love me."
Draco laughed, and Hermione saw the people around them glance over and smile at the sound.
"I guess our romantic getaway was long overdue, huh?" he asked.
She nodded. "I can't believe we have to go home tomorrow. Good-bye, romance; hello, sneaking out of the Manor before dawn so your mum won't know."
He tugged her mitten off, tucking it into his pocket.
"Draco?"
"Let's make a deal." He slipped a solitaire over her ring finger and Hermione gasped. "Marry me, and I'll do my best to make all our tomorrows as romantic as today."