The Sweetest Downfall

Time of Goodbyes

The world outside the window was dark: a deep, velvet, navy-blue color took up the sky and stretched across the country. The stars twinkled like little Christmas lights and the moon sat peacefully in the center of it all, throwing down its soft, hazy light for those who walked the streets at night. Everything was gentle outside, only the caring melody of the wind blowing through the trees made noise. Outside, it was all a smooth current of time.

From inside the window, the midnight wind parted white curtains in order for the moonlight to tickle the figures lying side by side in the room. While the living night outside was calm, the hearts beating within were loud, hectic, and coming down from heaven.

'You weren't kidding when you said you needed a bit of fun,' Draco managed to say through the tiredness of his bones and the oxygen returning to his lungs.

Hermione laughed silently, her throat too raw to let the sound boom out and take over the walls of her bedroom. After all, the walls were still echoing her screams of delight and the repetitive prayer of Draco Malfoy's name that she'd given them as every cell in her body burnt up like the sun when he filled her with delicious pleasure.

'It's your fault, really,' she murmured, bringing up the previously disregarded silver sheets to cover her naked body, 'you were the one that left for two weeks.'

Malfoy faced her when he turned his neck in an angle. The moonlight made his tousled and slightly damp hair paler than it actually was. 'Forgive me for attending my great uncle's funeral, Granger. Next time, I'll make sure to warn them about your necessity of me before they decide to die.'

She rolled her eyes and said, 'fuck you.'

Usually, when she told him exactly that, he'd give her a wolfish grin that could give anyone the idea that she, in fact, had shagged him too many times to count over the course of the past two years. This time, she didn't get his arrogance. Instead, his stormy gaze narrowed at her, hiding all emotion.

'You could find someone more practical than me, Granger. Someone who will adore you every second of their life if you so wished it. You never have to wait for me.'

The exquisite high that his body had given hers faded faster than it ever had. Her heart stopped pumping blood laced with passion; fear had replaced the pleasure that had previously been feathering over every centimeter of her body. She took a moment to swallow the knot in her throat that hid her secrets, that was always waiting to come out so that her lips could tell Draco that she'd fallen irrevocably in love with him.

'Then I'd have to deal with their emotional attachment,' she didn't know where she found the will to speak, the skill to sound like she felt nothing, 'and I'm not currently open for serious dating. I haven't the time, remember? Murderers to catch and all.'

'You forget that you are Hermione Granger.'

'What of it?'

He pulled himself onto a sitting position, pressing his bare back against the cold, black headboard of her bed. 'Love always finds you. You can't escape it, can you? You might not have time for a relationship, but that doesn't mean it ever stops knocking on your door. How many blokes are currently trying to win your heart?'

'Oliver Wood doesn't count as 'many blokes',' she responded stoically. 'So, don't you worry about me or my love life. I'm fine. I'll settle down when I settle down. Besides, if you want to stop our...arrangement, you could just say so. You don't have to remind me how petty I've become in romance.'

She kicked off her bedsheets and swung her legs over the edge of the mattress, quickly getting off the bed like it was suddenly a block of ice. She bent and picked up the first item of clothing she found and tossed it on.