Fic: Purification (valentine08 #4)
Title: Purification
Author: interpretthis
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Hermione
Rating: PG-13
WC: 781
Notes: For day four of the 7 Kisses Challenge @ dramionedrabble. Prompt: underwater kiss.
Hermione floated back against the wildly enthusiastic pillowed bubbles, letting the warm water flush suds into her hair and soak into her skin. She drew a deep breath, smiling for no particular reason. The steam was rife with a sharp, refreshing citrus scent. She loved magic.
She was very much enjoying floating languidly and thinking of nothing whatever when she heard a tiny click through her reverie. Then the creak of a door. A drawling, gleeful voice that could belong to only one person. The peaceful place she’d created for herself all but shattered as she launched herself from a floating position to a standing one and ducked into the bubbles to her chin.
“What in the seven circles of hell do you think you’re doing Malfoy? How did you get in?” She narrowed her eyes till they were thin enough to slice through human flesh. Which, of course, was her intention. She could feel her heart pounding beneath her breast.
Malfoy smirked, not the least bit daunted.
“Magical password, remember Granger? The staff still hasn’t perfected the whole automatic locking thing, so you bathe at your own risk.” He leaned against the marble wall, smooth as the stone he touched.
“I hate magic,” Hermione hissed.
“Now now Granger, you know you don’t mean that -”
“Get. Out.”
“Excuse me?” He took a step closer. The bastard was clearly enjoying himself.
“Out. Now. This is completely uncalled for. I’m,” she flushed to the roots of her hair, “not dressed.”
The gleam in Draco’s eyes grew a tad brighter. He leaned over the edge of the bath, making as though he was trying to sneak a peak, but Hermione knew the bubbles blocked her from view. At least she hoped so.
“I’m sorry Granger, is that a problem? From what I’ve heard, all of Gryffindor Tower’s seen you in the nude. No harm in branching out to…Slytherin, is there?”
Hermione made an enraged noise somewhere between a growl and a disbelieving snort.
“In your dreams.”
Draco kneeled down, fixing her with an unsettlingly intense gaze.
“Yes.” His eyes bored into hers. “I suppose so.”
Hermione inhaled a bubble and proceeded to cough like a maniac.
Draco just laughed. Threw back his head and belted out a tinny, frighteningly gorgeous laugh that sent shivers to Hermione’s toes.
Hermione didn’t know what made her do it. In the hours that followed, throughout which she reviewed the event a hundred times over, she pinned it down to pure, devious impulse.
As Draco laughed, she took a watery step forward, grabbed his hands off his knees, and pulled him into the bubbly depths of the Prefect’s Bath. He came up spluttering, his hair in his eyes, his robes plastered to his skin. There was a pause through which Draco breathed heavily and Hermione watched wide-eyed. One second. Two. Three. She gave the faintest of giggles and plunged below the surface.
Somewhere in the mess of bubbles and warm water, thin, warm fingers found her face. She didn’t open her eyes, not once, but felt him against her. Felt his lips on her chin as he missed, then on her lips as he hit home. It took all of her willpower not to breathe in. Her knee brushed the thick fabric of his slacks. She laughed, letting bubbles burst between them, floating to the surface in the verve of suds and rushing water. She scrunched her toes and pushed off from the bottom, gulping citrus-scented steam as she reached the surface. Draco was seconds behind her, his lungs heaving.
He gave her a small, disturbingly un-Dracoish smile, followed by a randy, highly Dracoish wink and swam to the edge, pulling himself out. His robes dripped buckets onto the tiles. He pulled his wand out, drying them with a stream of air from its tip. Hermione watched him as he worked, unconsciously pulling at her bottom lip the whole while.
“I’d like to finish my bath if you don’t mind.”
He whirled around, looking vaguely offended, to see her grinning back at him. He cocked an eyebrow.
“You enjoy yourself Granger. I know you’ll find a way to have fun without me…especially since I got you started off.” He smirked in a fashion that would be illegal someday if Hermione had anything to do with it.
“I’d say in your dreams Malfoy, but I already know I will be,” she deadpanned from the bath.
He bid good-bye with a flash of his middle finger, stepping out and closing the door behind him with a snap.
Hermione held her breath, propelled herself underwater, and broke into a series of uncharacteristic giggles she was extremely glad no one could hear.