RP: Dance With Me

[pb_hermione]

Characters: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy
Date: 17 April 2000
Location: Les Quatre Cordes in Kent, Draco's Flat
Warnings/Status: Love Making [Mature] / Private
Summary: Hermione and Draco spend an evening dancing.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[pb_draco]

Draco stroked the back of her neck and smiled as their dance slowed. "You're welcome. And I am a foolish, foolish man for not having done this sooner. If we ever talk about going out to dance again and I put it off for even a week, I want you to hex me soundly. I like dancing with you."

When the music stopped, he raised Hermione's hand to his mouth and laid a flutter of a kiss across the backs of her knuckles. "W.H. is a smart fellow. I'd be more than happy to take a walk." He nodded off the dance floor, glancing for just a heartbeat at a middle-aged witch who was smiling at them with a twinkle in her eyes. He returned the smile and squeezed Hermione's fingers. "Shall we?"

[pb_hermione]

Hermione laughed and lightly brushed her lips across his neck just above his collar. It was nothing too bold for public, just a light show of affection. "You are such a wonderful dancer. It's nice to have an occasion to wear pretty dresses, handsome robes, and hold each other close. There's a little danger involved though," she smiled at him before elaborating. "I always end up feeling very possessive when we dance," she told him quietly. She felt it before at the Christmas party and again at the Yule Gala but hadn't realized why she felt the way she did. When it happened again tonight, Hermione had enough experience to recognize the feeling for what it was. Dancing with him and holding each close in public was definitely a way of staking her claim on him. It probably wasn't wise to feel that way, but Hermione doubted she could help it even if she wished

[pb_draco]

"You can thank my mum for that," he told her, trying not to roll his eyes at himself. "She insisted. I whinged. Then I found out girls really like a bloke who can dance and that was the end of that." He raised his brows at her hint of danger, then grinned when she explained. "You're not the only one," he murmured. The formal, semi-distant holds he'd learned for polite and proper dancing were rarely in evidence when he danced with Hermione. His instructors would have smacked him with their batons if they'd seen the way he held her. He didn't care

[pb_hermione]

"It certainly paid off. At least as far as I'm concerned. Our pointy faced sons will be required to learn as well. Even if they won't be thrilled to practice with their sisters," she said, imagining the whinging to come.

"You loon," she said fondly as she held her hands up to grasp her cloak as he settled it around her shoulders. "Thank you," Hermione said as she fastened the clasp and removed the tendril of hair that had escaped the messy pile of curls she'd pinned up on top of her head from her collar. "I am not at all opposed to having you keep me warm, Mr. Malfoy." She took his arm after he'd swept on his own cloak.

The little magical section of Maidstone, Kent was quaint and perfect. "It's peaceful here," she said as they walked along River Medway.

[pb_draco]

Draco laughed, able to picture that too easily. "At least they'll have sisters to practice with and won't have to be stuck with Miss Murrish. Ninety-seven years old, never danced a day in her life, and determined to learn so she could dance at her grand-daughter's wedding. Hell on earth for a bloke with big feet." He gave a dramatic shiver. "She smelled like moths."

He tucked Hermione's arm against his side and strolled with her, only paying enough attention to his surroundings to keep them walking without falling into the river. It was far more entertaining to pay attention to Hermione. "It is," he said, glancing up at the stars. "Much better than London. I don't like being surrounded by buildings all the time. Crowds and such."

[pb_hermione]

"Heavens. Here I was picturing you having a private tutor all to yourself, not ending partnered with an old moth lady. I learned by standing on Daddy's feet as a little girl, then by dancing with him as I got older. He and Mum used to like to put music and dance at home sometimes." Her parents had liked to do things like that.

"Much better than London." Hermione stopped walking once they were away from the buildings. "For example, London is far too crowded for this." She slipped her arms around his neck and drew his head down for a soft kiss, very similar to the very first one they had shared months ago.

[pb_draco]

"Had to learn how to dance with plenty of women. Keep those society matrons and misses happy." Draco nudged her shoulder and winked. "Want me to teach our little girls to dance like that?" He'd teach them anything. Everything except what his father had taught him.

Draco was more than a little startled when Hermione pulled him into a kiss, but went willingly. It wasn't at all usual for her to be that affectionate in public, and Draco wasn't certain whether to blame the slight tremble in his hands on the chill in the air or on Hermione. He kissed her gently, and only lifted his head just enough to speak. "What was that for, love?"

[pb_hermione]

"They'll remember it forever if you do. I know I'll never forget my father picking me up and putting my feet on his. I think it would be a lovely memory for them to have, don't you?" Hermione thought he'd be a doting father.

"Because I wanted to. You were so nice about letting me have my way about dressing up a little and dancing tonight. It's a beautiful night and I was thinking of the first time we kissed and I ... I just wanted to." Hermione brushed her fingers along his cheekbone. "I want to again."

[pb_draco]

"Definitely. And I'll provide as many happy memories as I can." Draco nodded to himself, his voice going serious. "I'll raise them well. Better than anyone."

He tipped his head into the brush of her hand and closed his eyes. "Any time," he said quietly. He meant the dancing, the date, but most of all, the kiss. Draco pulled his cloak open and wrapped it around Hermione, holding the edges closed at the small of her back. "I was so nervous that night, you know. Kept feeling, the couple of weeks before, every time I saw you, like maybe you were thinking along those lines, but I kept telling myself I was stupid. That you weren't interested. That I shouldn't be." He kissed the corner of her mouth and leaned his head against hers. "So glad I decided to be an idiot."

[pb_hermione]

Hermione smiled. "I know you will. You love them already. You had best raise them well or you'll have to answer to me," she told him cheerfully, but honestly.

"I was nervous too. I had already sorted out that I was attracted to you but I thought you'd never be interested in anything romantic with a Muggle-born. In a way I'm glad that Harry's been so busy with training, otherwise you and I might never have had enough time to really get to know each other well enough to fall in love." Hermione missed having time with Harry but she understood that he liked to spend what time he had on his own interests instead of keeping her company. Harry deserved time for himself. "I was tied in knots by the time we finally kissed. I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't dreamed the whole thing the next morning when I woke up. It had all been so much like a fairy tale."

[pb_draco]

"They'll be very happy children, and you'll be a very good mother, and I'll muddle along. As long as I have you." Draco bent to nuzzle along her neck, moving to that spot just by her ear that he knew she liked. "Don't tell me that. I don't want to have to be thankful to Potter for anything. Bad enough I have to appreciate that he killed my Lord."

He touched the tip of his tongue to her skin and let the points of his teeth just barely graze her. "I thought I was going insane," he murmured. "Was convinced the Black madness had caught up to me. I was supposed to marry Pansy or someone just like her, some proper little mouse. Get my heir on her, and forget about anything else. Do my duty to the line and leave it at that. Then I had to go and fall for the wrong woman." Draco traced a line up her jaw and whispered before pulling her into a kiss. "Fell in love with a fairy tale princess. Couldn't be happier."

[pb_hermione]

He nuzzled her neck and she tilted her head to give him better access. "Let the school rivalry die. Harry is a good person. Neither of you are little boys anymore." Easier said than done, but Draco had learned to get on with her. There wasn't any reason she could see that he couldn't learn to get on with Harry, or Harry with him, if they got to know each other better. Hermione knew it was asking a lot but she'd never expected to find Draco could be as warm and wonderful as he was either.

"Oh!" Hermione loved when he lightly used his teeth on her. "You need someone who can keep you in line," she said as he moved up her neck to whisper in her ear. Draco kissed her and Hermione melted against him. Draco Malfoy not only made her knees weak, he made her fly. "Do you think it will always feel like this? Mum said lots of things have changed over time with Daddy but his kisses are just the same. I'd like to think kissing you will always be this magical." It was part of the fairy tale

[pb_draco]

He was a tiny bit glad that he was in a position where she couldn't see his face. He knew his eyes had hardened and he took an extra few seconds to calm his expression. "It's nothing to do with school rivalries, Granger. I've been civil to him for you." Gryffindor versus Slytherin didn't matter as much to him anymore. An attack that had nearly killed him, that mattered

[pb_hermione]

Hermione chuckled. "Why is it that everyone seems to think I'm such a stickler for being good?" Honestly, it amused her sometimes. Occasionally, it even annoyed her. Hermione did like rules for keeping order but only those that were fair and made sense. Idiotic laws like only Apparating to and from certain places didn't deserve any more attention than Educational Decree #-what-sodding-ever. She knew perfectly well she had her own rather stilted moral compass, but she'd seen enough to know that being good wasn't always best and being bad wasn't necessarily the same as being evil. Hermione also knew she was rather good at keeping people in line. "At least you've stopped putting shocks on your cloak when you hang it up in public now that I've taught you that handy Repelling Charm." He mentioned his parents and she nodded. "If I hadn't seen them after the Battle of Hogwarts, I might doubt you but I saw them and it was very plain how important they are to each other and you are to them. Heavens, they're not going to expect the two of us to

[pb_draco]

"Because you're the one who keeps us all in line, love." Draco kissed her forehead, laying a line across it from temple to temple. "If it weren't for you, there'd be chaos and madness. You and your tiny little iron fists." Under the cloak, Draco took her hand and stroked his thumb over her knuckles. "Don't mind if you rule my roost a little. I like letting you have your way. Even if it does mean I can't amuse myself with shocks on my cloak." He chuckled and kissed her temple again before straightening up and tucking a loose tendril behind her ear. "That's them. We don't have to be so formal in public. Wouldn't want to be, either. Letting people know how I feel about you? I'm not going to hide that. Not going to be trying to swallow your face in public, because I frankly find that disgusting, but I won't hide

[pb_hermione]

Hermione laugh shocked a small animal and sent it scurrying across the path too fast for her to identify what it had been. "Thank heavens for that. I don't mind a light kiss here and there, but I'm definitely not comfortable with huge public displays." Ron and Lavender had made her incredibly uncomfortable. It wasn't just because she still fancied Ron at the time, or because she couldn't see how someone who wanted something like that could ever be happy with someone like her, but because she felt that sort of thing belonged in private