Today is our last day of freedom before we return to reality, to the war. I really don't want to leave. The last two weeks have been wonderful, walks on the beach, down to the rock pools, swims in the ocean and the little lagoon we found, waking up late - and once or twice early to see the sunrise - star gazing on the beach, making sand castles... The fun has been endless. While I'm excited to see our house and start decorating and what-not, I really don't want to go back to London yet. Maybe we could get a house on the beach...
I look over at Draco. He's sleeping on his stomach, one arm tucked under his head, the other flat out. He's snoring softly like he does when he's only sleeping lightly. It's still very early, the sun is only just up, but I want to make the most of today. The car is coming at four this afternoon.
I kneel and lean over him. I kiss him softly near his ear and he stirs a little. I kiss him again, on his cheek this time, and he mumbles something, starting to wake properly. I kiss him on the corner of his mouth and then on the lips. Then he kisses back.
"I will never get sick of waking up like that," he says quietly. I run my nose down his.
"Good, I hope you don't," I tell him, "now, come on, I want to spend all day relishing the beach."
I jump out of bed and go into the bathroom. I wash my face and change into my swimmers. I brush my hair into a pony tail and walk back out. Draco is stretching and yawning. I walk downstairs and get the tray of breakfast prepared for us by our house elf - yes, for our wedding someone gave us a house elf (Tippy) - and carry it upstairs. We have breakfast in bed, chatting about what we'll do, then Draco changes into his swimming trunks and we go out for a walk on the beach.
As we walk I glance sideways at Draco. We're both so pale, our children will get moon burn. Possibly before they're even born. The sun has made my freckles multiply and darken, but Draco is just as pale as ever.
We walk down to the rock pools, one of my favourite places.
"First to spot a star fish," I say playfully, hopping off and looking through the pools. We've been playing this game every time we've come here. One of us says a creature and we race to see who can find it first. There's been a little bit of cheating - spotting a creature before we say it, then claiming we found it really fast - but generally it's just good fun.
"Found one!" Draco calls. I skip over to where he is and look. He's found one of the huge, blue ones.
"Okay, what next?" I ask.
"Urchin," he says.
We play this game for a little while longer, then go and sit near our favourite pool. It's quite wide and deep and has the most sea life in it. I sit in between Draco's legs, leaning against his chest while we watch an octopus eat a crab. Once it finishes I stand up and stretch.
"Swimming time," I say.
"Sea or lagoon?"
"Lagoon."
The lagoon is on the other side of the rock pools. It's a bit tricky to get there, but it's so worth it.
There's a smallish cliff face that we have to climb up to get there. The lagoon is surrounded on all sides by cliffs. It's very private and beautiful. The water is crystal clear. The cliff isn't too hard to get up, there's plenty of handholds, it's the getting down part that's tricky.
I scale up the cliff and wait for Draco at the top. We walk through the little bit of bush and come out above the lagoon. We put a rope ladder here the second time we came, because otherwise it really is dangerous to get down there, and very difficult to get back out.
I lie on my back, floating in the water. The trees keep most of the lagoon in the shade - another bonus. Draco is sitting in the shallower water, rubbing handfuls on sand on his legs. I wonder how deep the lagoon is in the middle. It's so clear, I bet I could swim down and touch the bottom, then push off from the bottom and get back to the top. I'm floating in about the middle now. It's our last day, I might as well see.
I take a deep breath and dive under the water. I open my eyes as I kick down. I can see the bottom, it doesn't look too far away. I let out some of my breath, the bubbles running past my face. I keep going down, doing my half-breaststroke-half-kicking thing. I let out the rest of my breath, thinking I must be close. I reach out my hand, but I still can't feel the bottom. My lungs are starting to hurt. I need to breathe in. I need to kick off from the bottom so I can get to the top quicker, but I don't know how much further it is. Panicked, I turn around and start swimming towards the stop. My head is pounding, my throat aching. I need air.
I feel arms grab my shoulders and a few seconds later my head breaks the surface. I gulp in air, breathing hard. Draco brushes the hair off my face.
"Are you alright?" he asks anxiously. I nod, panting. He drags me to the shore and sits me between his legs, his arms around my middle.
"You were under for ages," he says, holding me tightly, "you scared me."
"I was trying to reach the bottom," I tell him, my breathing starting to slow, "it's deeper than it looks."
Draco kisses me on the back of the neck.
"Next time, let me know so I can keep an eye on you," he mumbles.
"I will," I promise. I run my fingers against his legs. Other than the hair, they're really smooth.
"Why are your legs so smooth?" I ask.
"The sand," he says, "gets rid of all the dead skin."
I giggle and he gently tugs a bit of my hair.
"It works, doesn't it?" he chuckles. I lean my head back against his shoulder and close my eyes. My stomach rumbles and Draco laughs.
"Hungry?" he asks. I nod.
"Come on, then," he says, "let's head back."
We climb up the rope ladder and I take one last look at the lagoon, before following Draco through the bush. We reach the little cliff and he goes down first.
I hate this bit.
I climb down with a bit of difficulty, but don't die, which is a big plus. Draco holds out his hand and I take it. We walk through the rock pools and back along the beach. The sun dries us off as we walk, so by the time we get back, we're relatively dry. There are sandwiches and cold pumpkin juice waiting for us.
Once we've demolished our lunch, we decide to go and make a sandcastle. We make a mini-Hogwarts in our first week.
We get about half-way into our castle and get bored.
"Race you to the water," I say, taking off. Draco follows and we hit the waves at the same time. The water is lovely and cool. We wade in about chest depth and stop, letting the waves lift and drop us as they move in and out.
"I wish we weren't leaving today," Draco says, "two weeks is far too short."
"Me too," I sigh, "I wish we could live here forever."
We kick back, floating around each other, occasionlly bumping into each other. Draco is staring off at the shore and I'm looking out to sea. I see a wave coming. It's bigger than the others.
"DUCK!" I yell.
"Wha-"
I take a breath and duck under the water. The wave mostly goes over me, so I don't get tossed around. I kick back to the surface and look around for Draco. I can't see him and start to panic.
"DRACO!"
The wave receeds and I see him stumble onto the shore, coughing. I run towards him, fighting the waves that are coming out.
"Are you alright?" I ask, dropping to my knees beside him. He nods, coughing.
"I think it's good we're leaving today," he says, "otherwise one of us will drown."
I laugh, relieved that he's joking. He coughs again and grimaces.
"I think I swallowed half the ocean," he says, "yuck."
I kiss him on the cheek and ruffle his hair.
"We'd better go and get packed and ready to go," I tell him, helping him up. He wraps his arms around me and kisses the top of my head.
"I love you," he says gently.
"Mm, I love you too," I say. I kiss him quickly on the lips and lead him up to the house. We're both covered with sand, so we hose off outside, and dry off before going inside. There's a platter of fruit and a jug of water on the table. I pick up a couple of wedges of apple and walk upstairs. Tippy has already packed most of our things. I'd forgotten she would. On the bed are two sets of black robes. I sigh, looking at them. For the past two weeks all I've been wearing during the day has been my swimmers, sometimes with a t-shirt and skirt or a dress. I don't want to go back to wearing robes.
"Urgh," Draco comes in behind me and looks at the bed, "back to the robes."
"My sentiments exactly," I say, "I'm going to go and wash my hair."
I come out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Draco is dressed in his robes, combing his hair back. I liked it when it was ruffled up. He looks around at me and smile.
"Back to reality," he says, "the car will be here in ten minutes."
I sigh and get into the robes. They're hot and itchy. I braid my hair, wishing we could stay. Draco flicks his wand and our bags rise into the air. He walks out with them and I go across to the window. It looks out at the ocean. I watch the waves coming in, breaking on the shoreline.
"Hey," Draco wraps his arms around my waist and kisses my neck, "the car is here."
I wiggle around so I'm facing Draco and kiss him.
"Let's go then," I sigh. He kisses me on the forehead.
We walk downstairs and get into the car. As we drive away I stare out the back window at the house for as long as I can. Once it's out of view I turn around and settle into the seat with a sigh. Draco puts his arm around my shoulders.
"Just think," he says gently, "we finally get to see our house."
I cuddle up to him and nod. He runs his fingers through my hair, relaxing me immediately. I close my eyes and let myself doze.
"Autumn," Draco nudges me softly, "we're home."
I open my eyes and stretch. We've pulled up outside a huge house, even bigger than it looked in the picture. To my surprise, the windows are lit up. I climb out of the car and realise I forgot to put shoes on. Draco holds them out to me with a wink. I pull them on, wincing at the unfamiliarity of them. The driver has taken our bags inside. We walk up the path together, looking at the gardens. They really are beautiful. When we reach the door Draco stops me.
"What-"
"Tradition," he says, scooping me up into his arms. He steps across the threshold and kisses me lightly, then sets me down. There're footsteps from our right and our mothers come hurrying in, followed by our fathers.
"Welcome home!" Mother cries, pulling me into a hug.
"You're here," I state, shocked.
"We thought we'd welcome you," Mrs Malfoy says, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek, "and we thought we could all have dinner together, you must be starving."
I glance at Draco. Our parents lead us from the foyer into a huge dining room with a table that would seat twenty comfortably. The end six places are set and we all sit down to have stuffed quail and vegetables.
Mr Malfoy catches us up on the Dark Lord's movements, the attack on the Weasley wedding. I try not to show how concerned I am.
"So, now we're patrolling the area where Potter is believed to be hiding," he finished, pouring out wine. I take a long drink of the wine, trying not to cringe. I'm not a fan of red wine.
"So, the Dark Lord no longer has his headquarters at the Manor?" Draco asks.
"No, he sees fit to be... Travelling," Mr Malfoy says. The relief is evident on his face.
After dinner I'm hoping our parents will leave quickly; I'm eager to explore the house.
"You will be alright here, by yourselves, won't you?" Mother asks anxiously.
"Of course," I tell her, "we'll come and visit you soon."
Finally they leave. We take off, running all around the house. It's magnificent. We run upstairs and check out the master bedroom. There's an ensuite with a huge tub. I'm examining the walk-in wardrobe when I hear Draco call me.
"Autumn!"
"What?" I call back.
"I think you need to see this!"
I follow his voice. He's standing in a doorway, staring into the room. I walk up to him and he moves to the side so I can see in.
The room is painted a soft yellow with white trimmings. There's a big armchair in one corner and a padded table in another. Right in the middle of the wall is a crib.
"Oh my gosh," I cover my mouth. I can't help but giggle. Draco is staring at the crib apprehensively.
"They don't expect us to have kids yet, do they?" he asks faintly.
I giggle, walking into the room. There's a set of drawers and on closer inspection I realise the table is a change table. I peep into the set of drawers and find that they're not empty. I pick up a little onsie and hold it out to Draco.
"Apparently, they do," I tell him, "God, I don't think my parents are even done having their children, what do they want grandchildren for?"
"I don't think this is from your parents," he says, walking in and taking the onesie from me, "I think this is from my mother."
"Really? How do you know?"
He riffles through the draw and produces a pair of faded black booties. On the side, barely visable, is the Malfoy crest. Draco drops them back into the drawer and drags me out of the room, closing and locking the door behind us.
"That door stays locked," he says, "for at least the next five years."
"Agreed," I laugh, "come on, husband, let's have a cup of tea and go to bed. We can unpack tomorrow."
The house is beautiful, even the baby's room. I totally agree with Draco, we're not ready for a baby. There's a war on! But it's nice to know that when we are, there's a room for him. Or her, possibly. Now that we're back in London, it's hard not to think about Hermione and the others. I might duck into the twins' shop tomorrow and see them, make sure everything is alright.