Disclaimer: Alright, same old drill, I own nothing but the plot because the beloved Harry Potter belongs to the brilliant J.K. Rowling.
Rating: This fic is rated T for content and language.
Summary: Third installment of the "Serpent Fang" series. Hermione is in auror training, and had joined the Order of the Phoenix, the only problem is, she can't tell Draco about her secret work for the Order. Draco, while trying to decide his place in the world, becomes jealous and suspicious with her lack of communication, so he decides to spy. But what he discovers is much worse than he ever imagined.
A/N: Well everyone, here is the much anticipated third installment of the 'Serpent Fang' series. Thank you to everyone who has supported the first two fics, and thank you ahead of time to everyone who reads and supports this fic. To anyone who finds this fic without reading the first two, I recommend you read them just so you know all the back story to what goes on here. Other than that, I hope everyone enjoys this fic!
And now, I present to you, "Serpent Fangs and Lion Strength"
Chapter 1: Visiting the Manor
School had been out for one month, and Hermione had been at home packing up all her things and spending time with her parents before she moved in with Harry and Ron. She was moving the last week of August, but she was preparing now because it was a week before she moved in with Harry and Ron, and she was going to visit Draco at the Manor.
She could barely contain her excitement about visiting Draco the entire time she was packing her stuff. She would become uncharacteristically jumpy and giggly, and she had taken to wearing the dragon pendant almost all the time again. Her mother would always smile knowingly at her daughter when she heard her giggle, or saw her get that faraway look in her eye. Mrs. Granger could see that her precious daughter was very much in love, and while she had never met Draco, she was sure that she would like him just by how Hermione looked when she thought of him.
Mr. Granger on the other hand, did not appreciate the looks his daughter got when she thought of her boyfriend. Like many fathers, he was exceedingly overprotective of his little girl, and he did not want to think about what this boy could have done to bring about such a noticeable change in his perfect daughter. Mr. Granger clearly remembered the letters Hermione would send home when she was younger telling them how awful this boy was. And now that she was feeling so different towards him, Mr. Granger highly suspected that this Malfoy boy must have put some sort of evil hex on Hermione in order to get her to think she was in love.
Now all three Grangers were all in the car, on their way to the muggle entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Hermione had originally wanted to apparate to the Manor, however it was a tad more difficult to apparate to places when you weren't sure where they were, or what they looked like, and while she was sure she could have done it, she didn't want to risk getting lost when she should be with Draco.
When they finally arrived, Hermione and her parents got out of the car to say good bye. Hermione shifted her bag on her shoulder. She had packed a duffle bag full of clothes and various things she needed while at Draco's, but most of her stuff remained at home where she would come to pick it up before she moved. "Bye mum, dad," Hermione said with a smile as she hugged both of her parents good-bye.
"Bye sweetie," responded her dad, attempting to hide the concern in his face. He had already informed Hermione that he did not want her to go to this boy's house, after all, who knows what he was planning on doing to her once she got there. But a major fight ensued after he put his foot down, and with both his daughter and his wife gaining up on him, he had to give in. It was very hard to take, to hear his daughter, whom he loved more than life itself shout at him and confirm the fact that she was not a little girl anymore, she was a grown woman with the right to do whatever she pleased.
"Have fun," added her mum.
"I will, and I'll be back to pick up my things in a week, then you'll be able to meet Draco," Hermione's face visibly lit up when she mentioned her boyfriend's name.
"I can't wait," smiled her mum.
Her dad on the other hand just gave her a stern look. "Don't you let this boy force you into anything you do not want to do and you know you can always come home at anytime."
Hermione bit back the frustration she felt at her fathers words, "Dad, I'll be fine; Draco's never done anything that would cause me not to completely trust him."
Ok, so that was a bit of a lie, but the only times he'd been untrustworthy was when he was trying to protect her, and when he'd been under the imperius curse, so those times didn't count. When he was himself and she was not in danger, he'd always been completely trustworthy. "I'll see you in a week!" She waved to her parents as she disappeared into the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron.
- - - - - - - - - -
Draco had been rather busy since school had ended as well. Once he and Hermione had decided when she would be coming, Draco, along with the house elves, had been working tirelessly to rid the Manor of all of Lucius' Dark Art materials. He thought long and hard about burning them, but then decided against it because he did not know how some of the stuff would react to being on fire, and he really did not want to find out. So instead, he got in contact with the Ministry, and had some officials come to the Manor and haul the stuff off to wherever they pleased.
He felt much freer and more relaxed once he knew the stuff was gone. Although he had left the Dark Art books in the library alone. He told himself that was because even the Hogwarts library carried such books in the restricted section, but the real reason was probably because of what he imagined Hermione's reaction would be if she knew he had been destroying books.
Ever since the Manor had been emptied, Draco had had the house elves tirelessly working to clean the mansion in preparation for Hermione's arrival. Now that it was finally the day they were to meet, he found himself rather jittery, which did not suit him one bit. He arose long before he needed to; he showered, dressed, and ate, then found that he had well over an hour before he was scheduled to meet Hermione at the Leaky Caldron. To occupy the remainder of his time without going absolutely mad, he briefly inspected every room in the Manor (which was no small task).
After that, there were still twenty minutes to go before he would see Hermione, and the seconds were dragging on horribly slow. Since he did not know what their plans would be, he figured it would be wise to collect some gold from Gringotts before he met Hermione, just in case they needed it. He pocketed the key to the Malfoy vault, apparated to Diagon Alley, and stepped inside the imposing white building which was Gringotts, the wizard bank.
- - - - - - - - - -
Once in the Leaky Caldron, Hermione scanned the room for Draco. She was a few minutes early, so she was not surprised when at first she could not see him. But then, as she was searching for an empty table to sit at, she heard the door on the magical side open, and when she looked over, there was Draco. He seemed to spot her immediately because he was walking towards her before she even saw him.
Hermione beamed, and had to seriously contain herself from not jumping up and down and making herself look like an idiot. She raced towards him, dropped her bag, and threw her arms around him. He too was smiling at her, and he lifted her effortlessly off the ground when she wrapped her arms around his neck. While still holding her up, he leaned in for a sweet kiss, which she gladly returned. He then placed her back down on the ground, but continued holding her; both seemed too busy lost in each others eyes to say anything. It wasn't until a rather ill-tempered witch behind them cleared her throat in a manner strikingly similar to Umbridge that they let go and moved out of the way.
Hermione smiled up at Draco, with her cheeks slightly pink, "it feels like ages since I've seen you," she said finally.
"I know, I've felt the same way," agreed Draco, as he wrapped his arm around her waist.
"So what are we going to do today?"
"I was thinking we could drop you stuff off at the Manor, then go from there," suggested Draco.
Hermione lifted her bag, which she had somehow managed to forget about when she spotted Draco, "alright."
"Here I'll take that," offered Draco, he took the bag with the hand that was not holding Hermione, and carried it easily. He then moved his other hand from Hermione's waist to her hand, and led her out to the Diagon Alley. "Now just clearly think Malfoy Manor and you should be able to apparate there just fine, and as long as you're holding my hand you can't get lost."
"Ok," Hermione gripped Draco's hand tighter and took a deep breath.
"On the count of three. One . . . two . . . .three!"
With a loud pop, the two vanished from the Alley and then apparated in the grand entrance of the Malfoy Manor, usually guess would have been forced to apparate outside the Malfoy grounds, however since she was with Draco, Hermione had no trouble. Hermione stepped forward and dropped Draco's hand with a look of awe on her face. She had of course always known that Draco grew up in a huge mansion surrounded by wealth, but as she now realized, she never fully grasped just how extravagant his family's fortune was.
The entrance looked almost like a miniature version of the entrance to Hogwarts, only rather than the floor being made of stone, the flood of the Manor was made of dark, shiny wood and covered in some places by luxurious carpets. There was a large candle chandelier bedecked in all sorts of jewels hanging from the ceiling. There were two rooms on either side, and then there was a hallway leading to more rooms in front. On either side of the entrance to the hallway were dark gray marble staircases, both leading to the second floor of the Manor. Hermione's eyes followed them up and saw that there were plenty more rooms, and undoubtedly more floors above them.
Draco watched her apprehensively. Even though he had cleared the Manor of all Dark Art items, there were still remnants that a family of Dark witches and wizards owned this house. Unsurprisingly, there were snakes, and dragons pictured and carved everywhere, and most of the décor was rather dark in color.
But Hermione was not at all surprised about those things, she had grown quite familiar with them what with staying at Grimmauld Place so much in her fifth year, not that Draco had any knowledge of that of course. Indeed the Manor looked very similar to the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, only bigger, spotlessly clean, and more expensive.
Draco walked up next to Hermione, "what do you think?"
"It's . . . wow," Hermione said, unable to find the correct words to express how amazing his house seemed.
Draco sighed in relief at her reaction, "why don't we go drop off your bag, and then I can give you a quick tour if you'd like."
Hermione nodded, although she thought that even a quick tour of this mansion would take nearly a day.
"I wasn't sure where you would like to stay. I mean I hoped you would want to join me in my room, but there are several guest bedrooms if you would feel more comfortable there." Draco watched Hermione out of the corner of his eye as he led her up one of the marble staircases.
Hermione smiled, and looked around at the second floor, which was just as imposing as the entrance had been. She laced her finger between his, "Actually I think I would feel much more comfortable staying with you." She held his hand tighter as he led her through a dark hallway.
"Excellent," Draco released Hermione's hand and held her around her waist instead.
Draco's room, Hermione found out, was on the third floor. It was apparently located at the back the house because it had a balcony, which overlooked an extensive area of grounds that seemed to go on as far as the eye could see. Hermione automatically made her way to the balcony and stepped out into the warm afternoon.
Draco meanwhile dropped her bag at the foot of his bed and watched her from inside as she walked out onto the balcony. Her hair blew slightly in the wind, and he couldn't help but smile as he watched her. After a moment she turned back inside, and blushed when she saw Draco watching her. "So, how about that tour?"
"Of course, right this way," Draco held out his arm and gestured toward the door.
Hermione took his arm, and followed along side him as he led her back out the way they came. Draco restricted the tour to the main rooms; otherwise it would take hours. They visited the living room, the family room, the ballroom, the dining room and the rooms he enjoyed being in. He did not show her any part of the third floor other than his room, because it was all bedrooms anyway. He also avoided Lucius' private study. Draco had cleared all of the Dark Art items from it; however he got a strange feeling whenever he entered the room, as if it was full to the brim with Dark Magic that simply could not be removed. Plus, that room held the portraits of all the deceased Malfoy males, and Draco did not want to subject Hermione to the rants of a room full of prejudiced paintings. Draco saved one room in particular for last, so they had to backtrack a bit at the end of the tour. Hermione was a tad confused but sure enough when Draco opened the doors, he received just the reaction he'd expected. Hermione's eyes lit up like stars as soon as she saw the shelves of books in the library.
"Wow!" she made to rush forward and grab one, but Draco adroitly grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him.
"Do you really want to spend our first day together outside of school reading?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
She looked back up at him with a sweet smile, "I suppose not."
"Besides, I think it's about time for dinner. Would you rather eat in, or go out?"
"Err, I don't know, whatever you decide."
"Alright, well why don't we stay in tonight and have the house elves fix us something, then tomorrow I'll take you out for a romantic dinner."
Hermione opened her mouth to go off about the mistreatment of house elves, but then decided she'd rather not get into an argument at the moment, so she let it slide.
"Mimi!" Draco called.
Almost instantly a house elf rushed to his side, and bowed deeply. "Yes Master Draco?"
"Mimi, Hermione and I would like dinner Is there anything you'd prefer to have?" he asked Hermione.
"Oh, no," Hermione said quickly, her instinct to talk about freeing house-elves was becoming harder to resist, "I'll take whatever."
"Alright, Mimi, see what looks best, and make us that."
"Yes Master Draco," Mimi bowed again, and scurried off, presumably to the kitchen.
Draco then directed a concerned gaze to Hermione, "you alright? You seem tense all of a sudden."
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just, well, I just don't like the way wizards treat house elves," she finished lamely.
"I don't beat them or anything," assured Draco.
"That may be, but I'm sure you don't pay them either."
"House-elves don't get paid," Draco scoffed as if this was obvious.
Hermione frowned and opened her mouth, "let's just forget it, I've gotten into too many arguments with people over house-elves already, and I don't want to start with you."
Draco nodded, "well, why don't we go outside so I can show you the grounds, Mimi with let us know when dinner's ready."
Draco led Hermione outside and together they walked around to the back. Hermione ooed and ahhed wondrously at the magnificent gardens surrounding the Manor. Draco led her to the back where there was a large open area that Hermione recognized as the view from Draco's balcony. Together they stood looking out at the sun, which was now setting over the mountains in the distance. "It's all so beautiful," commented Hermione.
Draco kissed her head, and she wrapped her arms around him. Draco adjusted their positions so that they were facing each other. He held her chin upwards and kissed her with such longing that she could hardly stand it. She kissed him back while hugging him tighter and moving her hands up his back to his shoulders. It seemed as if every time they kissed they formed a new bond of renewed passion and desire that was stronger than ever. The sun was sinking down towards the horizon, but neither of them noticed, they were too lost in each other to notice or care about anything else.
It wasn't until a persistent tugging at the robes around Draco's knees interrupted them that either of them were aware of where they were or how long they'd been there. Draco, who had been deeply enjoying reacquainting himself with the details of Hermione's mouth with his tongue, impatiently broke the kiss and glared at the culprit who had dared to interrupt him.
Mimi yelped and ran a few steps back. While bowing, she spoke, "I is sorry Master Draco, but your dinner is ready sir." The house elf squeaked and set her frightful eyes upon her master. Her face was pink and she was shaking vigorously.
Draco's first inclination was to punish the elf for interrupting, but Hermione, sensing his anger, brought her hand to his cheek and placed a light kiss on his other cheek. Draco, reminded of Hermione's feelings towards the treatment of house elves, took a calming breath, "thank you Mimi," he said in a voice of forced calmness, "just put it on the table in the dining room and we'll be right in."
"Yes Master!" Mimi bowed once more and scurried off to complete her task.
Draco turned his attention back to Hermione who was smiling at him as though stifling a laugh, "Now was that so hard?"
"Yes, yes it was actually," he said in a somewhat lighthearted tone which failed to disguise the fact that he was serious.
Hermione gasped, "you're impossible," she said with a light slap to his shoulder.
"I know, I like it that way," he pulled her into another kiss, "and you do too."
Following dinner, they retired early to Draco's room. It looked much colder in the dark of night, and Hermione could not imagine anyone feeling comfortable here alone. Draco seemed to sense her wariness "is something wrong?"
Hermione paused a moment, "no, nothing wrong, it's just it looks so different in the dark, scary almost."
"There's nothing in my room to be afraid of." Draco quirked an eyebrow, there was a smirk playing at the corners of his lips, "unless you're afraid of me."
Hermione looked at him straight in the eye, "never." She followed Draco to his bed and slipped beneath the perfectly soft and warm covers, the sheets felt smooth beneath her skin, and she felt as though she'd never been more comfortable in her life.
- - - - - - - - - -
The next day Hermione awoke to the sensation of Draco's hand stroking the exposed skin between her pajama top and her pants. She shifted and her breathing changed, informing him that she was awake. Draco then took the opportunity to nuzzle his face against her hair, and kiss her head lightly.
Hermione turned around to face him with a smile on her face, she made sure to leave the proximity between them dangerously close. Draco kept his hand on her side, and held her even firmer once she had turned around. He closed the distance between them with a kiss, after which he spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, "Morning."
"Morning," she answered with a return kiss. "So what do you have planned for us to do today?"
"Actually I was planning on taking you to a game of quidditch, and then to Diagon Alley, and perhaps after that to Snape's house for tea." Draco said in a completely serious voice.
Hermione had actually believed him until he said the thing about going to Snape's house. She laughed, and pushed him playfully, "you silly git, come one tell me the truth, what are we doing today?"
Draco laughed for a moment before speaking once again. "Actually, there's a wizarding theater production I thought we could go see. I've already seen it a few times, but it's a play of that fantasy story you like so much, you know the one about Ronan? Anyway, I thought you'd might like to see it performed live instead of just reading in a book."
"Really?" Hermione sat up and cried with excitement, "Draco that sounds marvelous!"
Draco pushed himself as well and smiled at her. "Excellent, so then I guess we can spend the day in the city, go out to dinner, then to the performance."
"That sounds great!" Hermione hopped off the bed.
"Where are you going?"
"To take a shower silly!"
Draco rolled his eyes and watched as she entered the bathroom and then leaned back on the bed as he heard her turn the water on. He didn't really think about anything while she showered, he just allowed himself to revel in the happiness of being alone with her without a care in the world. It was the most wondrous feeling in the world.
- - - - - - - - - -
The beginning of the week went along perfectly, however by the middle of the week; Draco seemed to be getting rather anxious about something. Hermione however, being so preoccupied with thoughts about auror training, didn't notice until dinner Friday night, two nights before she was to leave. Draco had taken her to a fancy restaurant for dinner, and they were munching on appetizers while waiting for the main course.
The couple had been sitting in silence for the entire evening so far, and Hermione was feeling uncomfortable, "Draco, are you alright?"
"Hmm?" Draco looked up from his dish, as if he was surprise to be addressed, "oh yeah I'm fine, just thinking about what it's gone be like after Sunday."
"Oh, I know!" cried Hermione. "I can't believe that it's already nearly time to start training, I mean I'm so nervous. And I'm excited too, but still." At this time their food came, and Hermione paused to cut a bit of her steak. After a few bites, she began talking again.
"And then moving in with Harry and Ron; that should be interesting, I'm sure it will be fun though. And . . . ." as she was about to continue, she looked up and saw Draco mashing his potatoes into his plate with his fork, with a very unhappy expression on his face. Hermione frowned, "And I'm not helping you feel any better, am I?"
Draco merely grunted, and dropped his fork onto his plate, suddenly he was not the least bit hungry.
Hermione bit her lip and placed his utensils on her own plate. She then reached across the table and placed her hand upon Draco's, "Draco, tell me what's wrong."
Draco didn't speak, nor did he look at her.
Hermione laced her fingers into his, and gave him a pleading look, "Draco, please tell me what's wrong? The best I can do is guess unless you tell me. Please."
At first Draco made no movement, however after a moment, he tightened his grip on her hand, and finally turned his eyes upon her. His expression was sad, and he looked rather helpless in a sense, but still he did not speak.
Hermione mirrored his sad expression, she was yeaning to help him, but she did not know what to say or do. She was rather surprised when after a moment he half smiled and let out a hollow laugh.
"I envy you," he said.
Hermione sent him a quizzical look, and finally let go of his hand. "What do you mean?"
"I envy you; you've just got everything figured out. You know what you want to do; you've already proven that you're going to be wonderful at it, you just, you're so lucky. Me on the other hand, once you're gone I'll just be lost."
Hermione sat staring with her mouth open for a few moments; she honestly didn't know what to say to that. She had never considered herself a particularly lucky person, although when she compared her life to Draco's she could see where he was coming from. Sure he had money, but beyond that he didn't have much. No friends to speak of other than her, no plan for his life, and perhaps worse than that, no sense of where he wanted to go. "Draco you know you could always come Auror training, they're always desperate for more, and you more than qualify for the training."
Draco let out another empty laugh and shook his head, "no, maybe one day, but right now, that's just not the life for me." Draco paused to take a bite of his dinner. "Besides, I can't imagine the two guard dogs you're going to be living with would take too kindly to me joining in on the fun."
Hermione hung her head, there was much more than a hint of jealousy in Draco's tone, and she didn't like it. "Draco, please don't bring them into this."
But it was too late, now the floodgates were opened and Draco wasn't ready to stop. "Speaking of your two friends where are you all living anyway? You can't have had much time to look for a place, and I pity you if you allowed Potter and Weasley to find a place without you seeing it first."
Hermione was momentarily stunned, she hadn't thought of that. Naturally, since Harry had inherited Grimmauld Place from Sirius, they were going to live there. However, since the house was also the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, and she was not the secret keeper, she couldn't tell him where it was even if she wanted to. Hermione shrugged and attempted to laugh to hide her unease, "I gave them very specific instructions for what I'd need in a place to live," she lied, "I'm sure the place they found will be more than satisfactory."
Draco huffed, "I wouldn't bet on it."
Hermione, who felt bad for lying did not want to get into an argument right now, so she opted for a change in subject. "But why are you so moody all of a sudden? I thought you were going to do some traveling, see the world, I would definitely be looking forward to that if I were you."
"I suppose," answered Draco with a shrug.
"Come on," Hermione smiled, and reached for his hand again. This time he held hers back as soon as their fingers touched, "be happy, you're going to see so many amazing things, and I'm gonna be stuck here studying like an overachieving bookworm."
Draco couldn't help but laugh genuinely, "Hermione," he whispered as if he were telling her a very important secret, "you are an overachieving bookworm."
"Me? Nah," she answered with a wave of her hand. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand tighter, "but seriously, everything's going to be great. If anything, I'm the one who should be moody."
"What are you talking about? You love studying and working all the time."
"Yeah, but I'm stuck hanging around Harry and Ron all day long, you on the other hand," she paused awkwardly, "well I'm sure you'll meet plenty of interesting people around the world." Suddenly, she was straight faced, and did not seem eager to continue the conversation.
Draco gave her a questioning until he figured out what she was thinking about. He attempted to make eye contact, but she was looking determinedly away, so instead, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. She finally looked back at him, with a look of near sadness in her eyes.
"You know you don't have to worry about me being unfaithful," he whispered huskily, "because I don't have to look anywhere but right in front of me to know that I already have the most amazing, the smartest, and the most beautiful woman in the world."
Hermione blushed and tried not to smile, though it was clear she wanted to, "you can't possibly know that," she said modestly.
Draco kissed her hand again, "yes, I can."
Dinner didn't last too much longer after that, both Hermione and Draco seemed to feel a need to affirm their passion and love for one another, which they did as soon as they arrived back in Draco's room.
The next morning, Draco kept shooting glances at Hermione, who would blush and feel the urge to giggle every time. Unfortunately, the happy and flirtatious atmosphere was disrupted by a white snowy owl, who flew straight into the room and landed on the breakfast table. Hermione gasped, and threw a wary glance at Draco. He was glaring furiously at the beautiful owl, "Potter," he growled under his breath.
Hermione hastily removed the letter Hedwig was carrying, and attempted to shoo her away. Hedwig ruffled her wings and clicked her beak at Hermione, clearly expecting to deliver a response. Draco however, did not care if the bird had been instructed to wait or not, there was no way he was going to allow Potter's bird to stay in his house, and if the ruddy owl didn't leave, he was going to make it.
Hedwig seemed ready for a snack, so she bent down to nibble on some of Hermione's breakfast, but in a flash, Draco grabbed the plate and roared at the owl. "Get the fuck out!"
Hedwig did not need telling twice, with a startled squawk, she spread her wings, and flew out the way she came in. Hermione chose not to say anything, since she knew it would be a waste of time anyway. Instead, she removed Harry's letter and read what he had written:
Hey Hermione,
Earlier today, Ron's dad had your flat connected to the floo network so we could try to convince you to move in today instead of Sunday, but your mum said you were gone til Sunday morning. We asked her where you went, and if you remembered that Sunday was move in day, and she assured us that you did. But since neither I nor Ron remembered you saying anything about going anywhere before you moved in, I thought I'd send a little reminder to you. Hope you're having fun wherever you are and we can't wait to see you Sunday!
Harry
Hermione folded the note and hid it in her pocket as quickly as possible, but it was too late, the damage had been done. Draco was already sitting back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest looking livid.
"Draco?" ventured Hermione in a quiet voice.
But Draco did not respond, instead he stormed out of the kitchen. Hermione hurried after him, mostly because she wanted to talk with him and prevent him from being mad, but also partly because it would be all too easy for her to get lost in the Manor, and she did not like the thought of that at all. Being in the Manor with Draco was one thing, feeling lost and alone in it was quite another, and it frightened her a bit. Hermione had to jog in order to catch Draco, whose brisk pace was causing his cloak to billow out behind him in a manner which would have given Snape a run for his money.
Draco led them into a dark family room, one of the rooms which he had avoided on the tour, it was so dark that even the torches on the wall couldn't seem to bring light or warmth into this room. Hermione did not enjoy being in this room at all, however in the mood Draco was in now, she was hardly surprised he had gone here.
She braced herself to face Draco's towering temper before speaking. When she finally did, it was in a tone of forced calmness, "Draco please, I don't want to spend our last day together with you mad."
"Well then, in that case why don't you pack up now and run home to Potty and the Weasel?" Draco spat.
Hermione scoffed, in a few long strides, she crossed the room and was standing in front of Draco. Before he could react, she slapped him across the face, leaving a stinging sensation, along with a defined red mark on one side of his face. "Draco Malfoy that his enough!" she shouted. "I am sick and tired of your fucking attitude and I'm not going to sit here and take it anymore." Draco stared back at her, his expression was a bit angry, but mostly blank as he was still shocked from the slap.
Hermione continued, "Do you honestly think that you're the only one suffering here? Do you think I'm looking forward to waking up everyday without you there? Do you think I enjoy the idea of you traveling the world to god knows where doing god knows what while I'm left here waiting for you to come back?" She more she spoke, the more she broke down, all the concerns she had been hiding during the week were flooding out, and she couldn't stop it.
"I'm not looking forward to it, I don't want you to leave, and I don't want to have to wait and wonder when I'll see you next. But I need to start my training, and you need to do what you have to do, and we both have to deal with it.
Draco listened to everything Hermione said, the anger in his face fading into concern the more she spoke. He honestly hadn't been thinking that the situation might be just as difficult for her to deal with as it was for him, and he finally began to realize that his attitude the past couple days couldn't have been helping matters much. He was staring at a random spot passed Hermione when a thought popped into his head, "stay here with me," he said in nearly a whisper.
"What?" asked Hermione who was sure she had misheard him.
"Stay here with me, you can apparate to the Ministry in the mornings, and then we can still be together!"
Hermione was looking stunned, and she did not want to be the one to kill the hope in Draco's eyes, but she knew that she could not live with him. She bit her lip and frowned. She shook her head as she answered, "no, Draco I'm sorry I can't, not now."
"Why not? It' be the perfect answer to our problems, then we'll both be happy!" he smiled as if it were truly that easy.
Hermione grasped his hands tight, and she could see the hope flickering in his eyes already, "Draco I'm sorry I wish I could, but there are dozens of reasons why we can't."
"Why?" he asked, the hurt already spreading into his features.
"For one, there's what my parents, particularly my father would say. He didn't even want me coming here for a week, then there's Harry and Ron, they'd have a cow if I moved in with you. And even more importantly, there's my training, I doubt I'll be able to focus at all if I were living with you."
"That's not true!" Draco interrupted, I would never distract you!"
Hermione laughed, "oh no? Interesting Mr. Malfoy, I seem to recall that studying together in close quarters it how we arrived in this situation to begin with, correct?"
Draco considered this, and as the memories of their early relationship returned to his thoughts, a mischievous smirk found its way onto his lips, "I suppose you're right."
"So you see, I can't stay here, and besides, I think it will do you good to get out and travel a bit anyway."
Draco rolled his eyes, "I suppose."
Hermione smiled and kissed the same cheek she had slapped earlier, "You better now?"
"I suppose I'll live."
Hermione rolled her eyes this time.
"Are you mocking me Miss Granger?" Draco questioned playfully.
"If I am, what are you going to do about it?"
Draco kissed her lips, "I'm sure I'll be able to think of something."
Hermione moved real close to Draco so that their mouths were nearly touching, "I'm waiting."
The heat of her breath was almost unbearably enticing to Draco, who licked his lips before closing the distance between them and kissing her fully.
With the exception of their morning fight, the rest of the day was spent in a good mood. But even that was not enough to allow Hermione to relax that night. She was lying in Draco's arms, his well toned chest pressed up against her back. His deep breathing was relaxing, but not quite enough to put her to sleep. She held his arms tightly to her, the warmth of his body comforted her and made her feel safe, secure and beyond that, loved. She did not want to go to sleep or wake up without that feeling day after day. She truly wished she could just stay with him instead of moving in with Harry and Ron, however if she was planning on joining the Order, which she was, she could not move in with Draco, it would involve keeping far too many secrets from him. She lifted one of his hands to her lips and kissed it as she lay plagued with thoughts. She closed her eyes in an effort to find sleep, and an unbidden tear rolled down her cheek and onto the pillow, which absorbed it into a tiny damp puddle. "I love you," she whispered into the night before finally drifting into sleep.
Well there you have it, I hope everyone enjoyed chapter one! And for those of you who are curious, the later chapters include much more plot/action, but I had to start will a little fluff. ;o) Anyway, please review, thanks!
