From Dreams to Reality

Chapter 15

Draco kissed her, softly and slowly at first, before the passion between them built up. Hermione let out a soft moan of pleasure and ran her hands through his hair before they came to a stop around his neck, pulling him even closer. Draco's arms rested around her waist and slowly guided her down onto his rather messy bed, her head coming to a rest on the fluffy pillows. He situated himself on top of her, vaguely hoping she didn't find him too heavy.

Hermione released another muffled moan as his hands traced over the bare flesh of her flat stomach as he pulled her top up and over her head, revealing her lacy white bra. He broke the kiss to look down at her, his grey eyes shining in the dim light there was.

"Draco?" Hermione whispered as some breath filled her lungs. She stared up at him, watching a mixture of various emotions flash in them. Passion, desire, want, hesitation and something that made her heart beat even faster within her chest: love.

Draco didn't reply, he looked around the dark room, at the few beds, their hangings closed and their occupants snoring. He looked back down at Hermione, who moved ever so slightly beneath him, clearly slightly uncomfortable due to his evident hardness.

"I - I'll be back in a second," he whispered back. Hermione nodded and he gracefully climbed off her and headed into the bathroom, where he closed the door and leaned his hands against the basin, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

His breathing was still ragged and his chest was swelling with a sensation he had never felt in all his life until now. He let out a small groan as he looked down at his aching groin area and just wished he could calm his feelings, calm his desire, and hopefully coax this unwanted erection down. Hermione, being one to take so much pride in herself would most likely become scared of it ... and scared of him.

He ran a slightly shaky hand through his hair. What should he do? Go back out there and continue kissing her and hope it doesn't go too far and scare her? Or just end it here with nothing else to happen?

He moaned as the image of Hermione lying on his bed wearing only a bra on her top-half swam back into view and he felt a strong jolt of energy in the region of his groin. His body was not going to allow him to let it end here. He needed Hermione like he was a tree that needed her, the water that would let him survive.

Coming to a decision, he exited the bathroom to find Hermione sitting up slightly on his bed, the sight of her swelling breasts heaving within her bra causing his heart to once again start beating rapidly within his chest. How much he wanted to remove that small piece of fabric... He stared down at her cautiously as he undid the buttons on his shirt, which was sticking to him slightly in places due to sweat. Hermione watched with uncertain content as he discarded the white cotton to the floor and he slowly, sexily approached her and lay down on the bed beside her.

She let her eyes roam over his bare chest and downwards, coming to a stop at the sight of his tented pants. She looked up quickly into Draco's eyes, not having much of a clue what to do or say. Before she could say anything, however, he placed a single finger on her lips.

"Shhh..." he said for the third time that night. He lent in and placed a soft kiss on her lips, which she responded to automatically. He slowly and very hesitantly got back on top of her, staring into her eyes as though wanting an answer to his question of whether what he was doing was right. She moaned softly, though, and closed her eyes, moving slightly to get comfortable. "Do you like that?" he whispered, before he could stop himself.

Hermione's eyes opened slowly and she looked up at him with a small smile on her face. He was quite surprised when she nodded. He smiled and slowly ran a hand up one of her legs, inwardly thanking both her and the skirt for allowing him access to the firm, smooth skin on her thigh. She let out a moan and gave a sudden movement beneath him, thrusting her hips slightly with his.

Draco gasped and looked at her slightly in shock, but after the hoarse moan of pleasure she had caused for both of them. Becoming slightly worried, he placed both his hands on her hips so they couldn't move and bent in low to whisper in her ear. "Don't make me want to take you, Hermione," he said, unable to keep the huskiness from his voice. "I know you don't want me to ... not yet."

He felt her nod and looked down into her eyes, directly above his, reading all the emotions that were crossing them at that moment, one of which caused his heart to jolt and his stomach to do an odd flip. The sight of it in her eyes made him realise for the first time in all his life, that he felt the same way. The idea scared him slightly, but also caused his whole body feel stronger than it ever had, especially in his chest. He loved her!

Slowly, he lent down and kissed her. Her eyes were closed when he drew back and he smiled. "Hermione?" he said, trying to get her attention again and succeeding. She opened her eyes and he felt a sudden lump in his throat, nervousness overwhelming him - something that didn't happen very often. "Hermione," he said again, taking a deep breath, "I think I - I ... Hermione, I l-" He stopped suddenly when he felt a large and cold hand grasp his bare shoulder and Hermione let out a cry. He didn't have to turn his head to see whom the hand belonged to, but he still did, his eyes making contact to the ones he had inherited.

He allowed Hermione to hurriedly scramble from underneath him and grab her top from the floor nearby, watching Lucius Malfoy stare down at his only son with nothing but hatred and malice out of the corner of her frightened eyes in the meantime.

"Well, well, well," Lucius drawled, his icy grey eyes narrowed, looking from Draco to Hermione, who, in her rush, had put her top on inside-out, and back again. "I thought I warned you, Draco, that if your little ... interaction with this worthless piece of filth continued, I would have to kill you ... both." His pale, pointed face was fixed with a sneer and he had his wand raised, pointing steadily at Draco's back.

Draco suddenly turned over and got up off the bed, not taking an eye off his evil father. He backed towards Hermione and held her hand behind his back, obviously wishing to protect her. "Hermione is not a worthless piece of filth!" he hissed coldly at his father. "She's the very opposite of it. You, on the other hand are smaller than any piece of filth I have ever seen!"

Hermione had to admit that was very brave of Draco. Lucius's eyes narrowed even more and the grip on his wand, now pointing directly at Draco's bare chest, tightened.

"You will regret ever saying that to me, Draco!" he snarled. He raised his wand and Draco backed up ever so slightly, taking a trembling Hermione with him. "AVADA KE-"

But before he could even finishing saying the fatal words of the Killing Curse, a great flash of red light enlightened the dark room. Lucius let out a great cry of both pain and surprise and was suddenly lying on the stone floor of the dormitory, evidently unconscious.

Draco and Hermione stared down at the limp form of him for a moment, before turning their heads and looking in the direction that the spell had come from. Professor Dumbledore stood in the doorway with his wand raised and a look of great dislike and anger in his blue eyes. Behind him stood a highly nervous-looking Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic.

The two men entered the room more fully, Dumbledore's wand still pointing steadily at Lucius. His eyes had a fiery anger burning within them and he looked ready to kill. Cornelius Fudge was looking rather thunderstruck as he stared at Draco and Hermione, standing there hand in hand as they continued to cast glances at Lucius's unconscious form.

"I shall go and send word to the Ministry, Dumbledore," Fudge said, his voice strangely shaky. "Someone will be sent to take Malfoy to Azkaban."

"Azkaban?" Draco repeated in disbelief. "He's not going to stay there long! Last time he was in there, the Dark Lord had him out in no time! You are aware that he is still serving him, aren't you, Minister?"

"Well, well, yes," Fudge replied, still in the same shaky voice. "He will only be in there until the time of his trial and then we'll ... we'll organise a different pu- punishment."

"Excuse me, Minister, sir," Hermione said quietly. "Do you honestly think Draco's father - Lucius Malfoy - even deserves the chance of going to trial and try to prove himself innocent? You know yourself that he's a Death Eater, that he serves Voldemort. You may not be aware of this, but I awoke one morning over the summer holidays to find Draco staggering out of the forest I live near, terribly injured and bruised. He could have died! I had seen what - what Mr. Malfoy had done to him through a Clairvoyant Dream. I know he used the Cruciatus Curse on him. I saw everything!

"Not long after that I had another Clairvoyant Dream and I saw him kill Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother," Hermione continued, a small amount of tears building in her eyes. Draco watched her in silence and appreciation as she continued. "And might I also inform you, though Professor Dumbledore may have already, that a few weeks ago, Lucius here, attempted to murder his son in the grounds of this castle, out by the lake. If I hadn't seen it all through another Dream, I wouldn't have been there to save Draco. Draco would be dead right now!" The tears building in her eyes let go and she buried her face in Draco's shoulder.

Draco wrapped an arm around her and stared at Fudge, who was sounding wordlessly as he took in all of what Hermione had said. "A couple of nights after he tried to kill me that time, he came to me and said that if Hermione and I didn't stop 'interacting', he'd kill us. Both."

"I," Dumbledore said, "highly agree with Mr. Malfoy and Miss Granger, Cornelius. I believe that Lucius Malfoy doesn't deserve a trial. He is a clever man and will most likely have some sort of trick up his sleeve. I might also remind you that many members of the Wizengamot are friends with him and might see that he is innocent, despite the fact they all know he's a Death Eater." He paused and looked at Draco and Hermione. "I also believe that no criminal or murderer such as Lucius Malfoy is given enough punishment out of Azkaban Prison anymore now the Dementors have left to serve Voldemort. I have been telling you that for months. I believe you and your Ministry members should work hard to find an alternative as soon as possible. Having merely armed wizards and magical creatures guarding the fortress is unsafe for anyone and anything in both the Wizarding and Non-Magic community."

Hermione gazed anxiously from Fudge to Dumbledore, biting her lower lip. Fudge looked as though he was in the middle of some inward and confused rivalry. He continuously opened and shut his mouth as though he wished to tell Dumbledore otherwise.

"I'm sure - I'm sure we'll come up with some sort of alternative punishment, Dumbledore," he said eventually, looking very nervously down at Lucius Malfoy, still lying unconscious on the stone floor. "I shall go and send for some - some members of the Ministry to come and get him, then..." He walked out of the dormitory quickly, a lime green bowler hat under his arm.

Dumbledore turned back to Draco and Hermione, a slightly amused smile on his face and his eyes twinkling within their blue depths. "I would like to see you both in my office tomorrow morning after breakfast," he said. He turned his gaze to Hermione. "I would like to hear about your dream then, as well if you don't mind, Miss Granger."

Hermione opened her mouth in shock. "How do you know I had another dream?" she asked squeakily.

Dumbledore just smiled and didn't answer her question. "So you both know, the password into these Slytherin quarters is being changed." He looked at Hermione, his amused gaze burning into her anxious one. "You are not supposed to be in another houses' quarters, as you should know, being Head Girl, Hermione," he said. Hermione bit her lower lip and gave a very weak and false smile. "I will, however, due to the current - er - circumstances, allow you to enter as long as you are very careful. I doubt any other Slytherin would appreciate having a Gryffindor like yourself in their common room or dormitories." His eyes were dancing in amusement as her face had turned a deep scarlet. He turned to Draco. "Make sure you give her the new password, Draco."

He walked out of the room with Draco and Hermione staring at him in shock.

"Did the Headmaster just give you permission to enter my dormitory in the dead of night so we can ... fool around?" Draco asked weakly with a small smirk.

Hermione gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I don't think his words meant we could 'fool around', Draco," she said in a slightly disapproving tone, walking around and giving him a kiss on the lips. "He meant I could come here on the occasion of me having more dreams."

She let go of his hand and slowly headed out of the dormitory, a smile on her face.

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