Lost Control- Dramione Fanfiction

42. Written in the Past

Draco's eyes were still firmly planted on the doorway his Mother just walked through, his heart beating heavily in his chest. He felt Hermione squeeze his hand gently, but it felt like a world away; his thoughts buzzed around his mind like angry bees. Every word his Mother had said replayed in his head and made his heart soar. Finally, finally, everything in his life seemed to be falling in to place. There was just one thing left to do.

"Draco." Hermione's soft voice slowly brought him back to reality and he looked back over to her and smiled. Her warm, honey eyes were wide with worry as she searched his face for a hint at what he was feeling. She was rubbing the back of his hand again and the feeling of her touch brought him completely back to the present.

Holding up her hand to his lips, he stared straight into her eyes and planted a kiss on the back of her hand. "My love." He murmured, his lips still pressed to her hand, "Let's go somewhere a little more private."

He watched a flush of red wash over her cheeks and nose and smiled at the beautiful sight in front of him. Without giving her a moment to reply, he stood up, pulling her with him, and snaked his arms around her waist while holding her close to his chest. For a moment, he stood there with Hermione, smiling widely to himself as he felt every inch of her body against his. He could feel her soft breaths against his chest and the way her fingers grabbed on to the muscles in his back.

Planting one last kiss on the top of her head he slowly unwound his arms from her but held on tightly to her hand. "Come with me Mione." He spoke softly before pulling her towards the back garden.

Draco had spent countless hours of his childhood in this garden. A place that felt like his own. He would come here as a child and read book after book, write essay after essay, desperate to catch up to, and beat, the brightest witch in their year. He had stood in this garden and stared into nothing for hours after being branded with the Dark Mark. In the very place he was taking Hermione he had sat and sobbed for hours and hours after watching his aunt torture her, disgusted with himself for not being able to help her.

Finally, he pulled Hermione through a secret back door and in to the garden he had not visited in years. But the house elves had done a tremendous job. Despite no visitors since his final year at Hogwarts, everything was exactly how he remembered it; not a rose bush overgrown or a tree branch untrimmed. Breathing in the crisp, night air, he pulled Hermione past the blossoming cherry tree and down a cobble stone path, perfectly lined with bushes whose flowers seemed to shimmer in the light of the moon overhead.

Draco held tightly on to Hermione's hand as he silently pulled her further down the path. But, finally, he reached what he was looking for. Stopping in front of the ancient, gnarled tree that towered above them, he looked over to Hermione. She was staring up at him with a beaming smile, her eyes alight with emotion.

Draco had never, truly, been an emotional man but, in this perfect moment, staring in the eyes of the woman he loved, he could have burst into a puddle of tears. Before his emotions could get the better of him, he spoke "I never thought I'd show anyone this, especially you." He looked down at the ground, his nerves now starting to get the better of him. Would she think it was idiotic? Would she laugh at him? He shook those thoughts away and pointing to a spot on the tree, just below the lowest branch, "Have a look. Please, Mione."

****

Hermione looked at Draco, the confusion she felt mirrored on her face. He had dragged her out, into the uncomfortably cold night and was now pointing at a spot on an old tree so low she'd have to crawl through the garden bed to get to.

But she could see how nervous Draco was and how important this must be for him. She looked up at him as he continued to stare at the ground and her heart swelled with joy. "You're the only man I'd crawl through a dirty garden bed in the middle of the night for Draco Malfoy." She giggled, hitting his arm playfully and bending down into the garden bed.

He didn't reply but she could feel his eyes on the back of her head as she crawled through the freshly mulched garden bed towards the tree trunk. She pushed a large, low hanging branch out of the way and settled herself next to the trunk, confused as ever at what she was supposed to see.

With the branches in the way she couldn't see Draco's face, but she could imagine he was laughing at her for being gullible enough to crawl through the mud. Hermione frowned in Draco's direction and called out "What am I looking at Draco? I can't see anything."

But instead of laughing at her, Draco coughed nervously. Hermione watched as he bent down and looked at her; even in low light she could see the deep red flushing his cheeks. He pointed to the trunk again, a spot directly level with her eyes. "Use your wand."

Hermione chuckled. "Oh, right." She laughed and winked at Draco. His nervous expression didn't leave his face, but she saw the slightest hit of a smile dance across his lips. Turning back to the trunk she muttered "Lumos" and held her wand light up to the tree's trunk.

DM + HG

1994