Serpent in the Lion's Den

23. Dinner With a View

After their bath, Hermione curled up on the queen size bed and fell asleep, the weeks of disturbed, paranoid sleepless nights catching up with her. Whilst she slept Draco pulled the large armchair to sit in front of the charmed window, reading and glancing over to his witch to make sure she was okay. Since they'd been sleeping together, he'd often wake to find her twitching in her sleep and muttering "obliviate" whilst her hands shook. But she never remembered when she woke up the next morning, she only remembered not being able to sleep through the whole night. When it got to six pm Draco finally decided to wake her. He approached the bed and gently shook her awake,

"Granger wake up or you won't be able to sleep tonight" He whispered as Hermione stirred, stretching as she rolled over to face him.

"I reckon I would've slept through to tomorrow, and the next day, and the next" she laughed as she let Draco pull her gently from the bed. Before she could take a step away from the bed there was a loud knock at the door. Hermione's eyes grew wide and she patted her clothes trying to find her wand but Draco just chuckled to himself and went over to the door.

"Don't open it Draco!"

"Granger relax, would you?" Draco laughed as he opened the door and pulled in the biggest dinner-cart Hermione had ever seen, "I thought you might want dinner in the room seeing as... well seeing as we can't exactly go out for dinner."

He pulled it through the room, shutting the door with his foot and setting the cart up next to the armchair. It was overflowing with food; on the top shelf there were two glasses filled with a prawn cocktail starter, a platter of different Italian meats, cheeses and homemade bread, two large bowls of chips, one with cheese and the other plain. The bottom shelf had a tray of brownies and cookies, a bowl of melon balls, a plate of chocolate covered strawberries and a large bottle of champagne, a bottle of orange juice and a few glass bottles of 'Sprite' which Draco had no idea what it was.

"Draco! Did you do all this" Hermione brought her hands up to her face in astonishment, looking at all the food and her stomach grumbled loudly.

"I thought, seeing as we will be on the road and in a new tent soon enough, you deserved one night of luxury." Draco smiled as he sat down on the armchair, pulling the witch onto his lap. Strictly speaking, the chair would've been big enough for both of them and if not, there was another chair in the corner. However, both wizards seemed to forget this as Hermione curled up on her wizard's lap and he wrapped his arm around her to stop her sliding off whilst with his free hand he gestured to the cart.

"and what would madam like first?"

"That meat and cheese platter does look good" Hermione giggled.

XXX

Once the majority of the top tray of the cart had been either eaten by the Wizards or charmed by Hermione to keep it fresh to save it for the next week they moved onto desert. The plate of chocolate covered strawberries sat on Hermione's lap whilst the wizards ate, watching the world outside the window go by.

"Isn't it beautiful? I don't think I've ever seen something so beautiful before. You really do take the muggle phrase 'dinner with a view' to a new level" Hermione laughed, staring in awe at the coloured lights that lit up the park outside their window.

"I know I've never seen anything so beautiful before" Draco agreed. But he wasn't looking out of the window. He was looking at the witch sat on his lap, the light from the table lamp in the hotel room causing her freckles to dance along her cheeks and flecks of gold to be brought out in her eyes. Her smile lit up the room more than any light and was the first thing that had made Draco truly smile in months, if not years.