#nauticalparamour

Chapter Fifteen

"Okay, so what the hell happened back there?" Draco asked, his grey eyes trained on her face.

Hermione took a deep breath. "There is no easy way to say this, so I will just tell you. I'm a witch," she said, bracing herself for a freakout.

He blinked once, twice. But then, he started to laugh. "Come on," he scoffed. "Really?"

"Yes, really. I am a witch. I have magic," she explained. "That's why I am so good at my job. I can transfigure your apples to be granny smith or fold your socks with a wiggle of my nose. I can conjure a pair of football socks or give you a warming charm when you offer me your jacket." She felt her cheeks go red at all that she was admitting to him about what she'd been up to.

"Prove it," he said, jutting his chin in the air, skeptical as ever.

"Okay..." Hermione said, looking around the room. Draco's clothing was strewn around his suitcase on the floor after nearly two weeks of living out of it, messy as ever. A wiggle of her nose had his laundry gathered and folded, before sliding carefully away into the suitcase.

His eyes widened in shock and he leaned away from her. "What the fuck," he whispered, aghast.

Sour Candy by @nauticalparamour

Hermione thought that she'd left the seedy underworld aside when she was taken from her parents, Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. After over a decade of living with police officer Sirius, she is thrust back into the world of Tom Riddle's criminal enterprise. Pursued by an old friend, how long can she live between the two worlds?

Rated: M; Chapters: 26; Words: 79426

Who initiated the relationship? Who kissed who first?  When did they realize they were in love?

Tom most definitely initiated the relationship. At first, he sought out to use her bright mind to aid him in his ambitious plans by befriending her, but he slowly began to realize that she could never be a friend or a follower. Hermione Granger with her swotty attitude and conviction is so much more than that. 

HOWEVER, Tom likes to plan things out. He’s meticulous and has plans for almost everything. So, he tried to plan out their first kiss and make it romantic because he heard that’s what witches like. Hermione, who has been waiting forever for Tom to make the first move, decided that she had had enough and kissed him squarely on the lips after rounds during their sixth year. 

Kudos to you! Honestly, I don’t think I could ever do that �� I don’t know why, but it makes me intensely nervous, even though writing fanfic is a big part of my life. It seems weird not to share it with people who care about me, but I just can’t seem to open up. Maybe someday!

“Hermione? What…” Neville said, looking around, “what are you doing?”

“Ssshhhh! Hiding.” She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And, to a degree he supposed she had a point. What else would you be doing, crouched behind a barrel sitting in the ally between the Three Broomsticks and the post office?

He shifted the large sack in his arms, using it as a means to surreptitiously look about. There didn’t seem to be anything out of place. In fact, the little village was pretty quiet. Beginning to worry, he looked back at Hermione. Sure, they had all had to deal with a lot after the war, but it had been a few years. Hermione always seemed to be doing fine. If not still wound a little tight. How he’d love to change that…

Walking closer, Neville dropped the sack he was carrying onto the barrel. Standing next to it, he offered more coverage for the witch. Whether something sinister was going on or it was in her mind, he was going to help.

Acting as if he was inspecting an invisible rip in the bag, he could see Hermione out of the corner of his eye. It almost looked like she was smirking. “Why are you hiding?”

Hermione let out a large sigh, and stood up, looking at Neville with a slightly disappointed look on her face. Maybe it was more amused…

“I was hiding from you.”

“Me?! Why?”

For the first time he could ever remember, Hermione Granger did not immediately answer a question put to her. She cleared her throat, opened her mouth, shifted her weight.

“Well, you see, I was talking to Hannah the other day and I know you two haven’t really been together for a while but she said that sometimes, well, I just thought that maybe, after talking to her and the way things have been going lately, I wondered if-”

“Stop.”

Neville’s eyes were pinned to hers as she abruptly stopped talking a mile a minute and flashed her bright brown eyes at him. He could see the blood pulsing in her neck, her heart was beating so fast. Her hands were trying to tie themselves together and she was biting her bottom lip. He was worried she’d bite right through it before he got to kiss her.

Slowly reaching out his thumb, he brushed it against her bottom lip to pull it from her teeth. As soon as he pulled away, her tongue swiped across where he had touched her. He probably tasted of earth.

“Come on then,” he said, picking up his sack again and hefting it onto his shoulder. “We’ve got a bit to talk about, but yes.”

Thank me for doing this… *psh* Thank you for the prompt!

Hello Lovely! 

I miss you too! I miss fandom! Sorry I have been so rubbish lately, I’m not sure if you saw my post a month or so ago but I got pregnant at the beginning of the year and am now weighed down (somewhat literally) with house decoration, hospital appointments and coordinating life with a huge bump out in front of me. 

What part of the US are you moving to? East coast? Midwest? West coast?