"Tell me you're joking," he snarled. It was ice cold, as was his silver stare. "That's who you're bringing to the Yule Ball, whom you said I wouldn't be concerned. Of all of them! Of all the ones to pick!"
Hidden away in the dark shadows of the Hogwarts grounds down near the Black Lake, a pair stood decidedly within the dense shrubbery. It was secluded enough. What with the sky turned black, pregnant clouds near to burst. Their secrecy led them into parts that no other student, on purpose, would stumble. If only one of them could keep his voice from rising any higher and louder for the entire school to hear.
Draco Malfoy couldn't keep his cool. It was enough, just at his limit, to watch his girlfriend from afar as she swirled around the school with a throng of boys and friends, of which he did not belong, but that was his limit. If he felt a shred of her dignity was being given to another…
He shuddered.
His girlfriend crossed her arms. Her lips, puffy and pink, pulled tightly to a thin line.
"You shouldn't be concerned. He doesn't even go to this school."
"That makes it alright, then? Alright for him to waltz you up and down the halls for everyone and their Professor to see!"
She tucked a bushy curl behind her ear. "Would you prefer it to be someone else then? Dean? Seamus? Justin Fletchly? Ernest Macmillion?"
That stopped Draco in his tracks. His anger over the conversation changed to a sudden jealousy over the list she gave so quickly.
He raised his finger. "So help me, Mione, if one of those oafs is asking you, I won't be in control of my actions."
"Are you ever?" She spat.
There was a silence that came as the clouds finally gave way. Rain drops pattered against the broad leaves of the leaves down to the grass with large splats. Laps of the lake pushed roughly against the shore. A cool wind whistled through the trees. The density of the shrubbery left the pair mostly dry apart from a few spots where droplets dribbled through. One slid down Hermione's back, and she shuddered with a small whimper.
Draco looked down as her. Her beautiful soft skin, a tinged blue.
He lifted his cloak off his shoulders and placed it overtop of her thin shirt. With the clarity of the weather's intention, Draco cursed himself for letting her go out without a jumper. In truth, he'd been too damn excited to spend some time with her that he forgot much else.
Meetings of the pair were always heavily guarded secret. Not a single person knew. They kept themselves so far in line that it wouldn't be believed anyway. It had been near a week since Draco was able to get alone with her and this was not what he'd had in mind. The little trinket he got just for her still sat in his back pocket.
Of course, the news of Viktor Krum was a shock. He was world famous Quidditch player, Best Seeker in the world, his own position, in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. All the girls who usually followed Draco around stalked Viktor everywhere as a gaggle of patsies and beauties all in a row for his picking.
How had he even had time to meet his Hermione?
"At least I have the decency to make sure it isn't someone you'll see every day," she mumbled.
Draco went rigid. That was new.
"Pansy was your idea." His voice was cooler still. "Don't make her any more than she is. My means, to my end."
Hermione pulled away. She felt her heart pounding now. It was so long she'd kept her jealousy inside. That was always better suited for Draco. It was his mission to remind her each time they were together just why they stayed so trapped in their own swirl of emotion, and yet as she saw him around the grounds or out in Hogsmeade, Pansy was there on his arm giggling in his ear. His ear. The very one that she loved to whimper into as they laid together. His ear. Not anyone else's, but his. It was like a stab in the heart.
"No, no. I didn't say Pansy. I said someone. Anyone to help keep us being discovered. To lower any suspicion that might raise. You, Draco, were the one who latched onto Pansy like her knickers were a magnet."
A little fire ignited in the light of his gray eye. It turned from hardened stone to a swirling hurricane. Draco grabbed hold of her shoulders and pushed her back, back, back until something stopped them altogether. She jolted against a tree trunk. His hands pressed firmer against her flesh as he put himself closer toward her, the body he longed to touch, grab in his hands and never let go.
Just the feeling of him pinning her against the tree, her tip toes barely touching the ground, coursed through her veins like flashes of cold fear. It was an insane pleasure as it tingled her toes, and other parts of her too.
Even in the wet rain and the dirt and leaves, Draco was put together as always. His hair was slicked. There were very few smudges against his tailored slacks. He'd let his tie fall from place. Slytherin green.
Draco brought his lips down close, pushing the hair from Hermione's ear. "Is that what you think now?"
He smirked as one of his knees was placed between her thighs. "You think of me and Pansy like this, do you?"
One of his hands dropped from her shoulder and gently teased the cool metal of her zipper. He pressed it into the warm flesh of her belly. She gasped, just as he knew she would.
"Draco, please…"
"You know, Granger, this is an awfully thin shirt." He glanced up overhead. "I don't know if anyone will believe you've been caught in this rain."
Her eyes widened. She kicked against the tree, a little.
"That's not fair."
It was more of a whimper than a statement.
Draco took one of her breasts in his mouth and sucked, and though the taste of cotton wasn't appetizing, the way he felt her writhe and fight with herself under his touch was delectable. His let himself drool, spreading the damp shadow over her nipple. It poked through, exposed by the wet and cold. He blew on it teasingly.
He glanced up at her tortured, pleading face. "Is this who you imagine it when it's her and me? Alone in the fucking trees, with not a soul around to hear her screams."
Hermione's fire melted away as a few stray tears fell down her cheeks. Draco's face fell immediately.
"Mione?" Her head dipped down to her chest. "Hermione?"
She didn't respond. Only sniffled.
Draco carefully lowered her feet back down to the ground, making sure not to snag her on a knob of bark. He watched from above as she kept her face turned away. Goosebumps instantly took hold of him.
"Hermione, look at me," he said.
She shook her head and croaked, "No."
His arms gathered around her. Even as she swatted at them, there was no stopping him from bringing her against his chest as she heaved in sobs. Once they started, she couldn't stop. There was so much this year. The Tri-Wizard Tournament. Harry. The Dark Lord. Her classes. Draco.
If there was one thing she couldn't worry about but couldn't stop worrying about was him.
Fear laced with everything else was enough to cripple to most solid witches. Hermione felt that it was getting the better of her, and she couldn't seek his comfort more than a few times a month. It was a part of herself she felt she was losing.
She sobbed harder at the thought of Draco going away. There was so much in her life that made her proud and deserved of all the places she worked for, but Draco was what kept her confident. She didn't need to be liked by everyone. She didn't need to feel insecure. She didn't need to be ashamed of her accomplishments, nor the work she put into herself. Why? Just a bit off to the side was a man who cherished every bit of her.
But then, there was Pansy. She got the Draco in public for everyone to see. The one he picked for his cover story of being attached to a Pure Blood witch, not a Muggleborn like Hermione. It was all so important for their safety. Mostly for his.
Things would happen if Draco didn't follow the Malfoy allegiance. Bad things.
Hermione knew, realistically, their plan was perfect. It was the only way to ensure his safety, and hers.
She sobbed harder into his school robes, covering her face with the black cloth. His scent lingered there so pointedly, it felt a comfort to her. Instantly she felt it fill her up. The calm of his smell washed through her, and the tears stopped.
Draco pulled her close and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Mione, please darling, look at me."
The backs of her hands dragged across her reddened cheeks and puffy eyes. Draco filled with hurt. She watched his eyes swim with it as she fidgeted with his tie like an embarrassed child.
"I thought – darling, I thought that's what you wanted. It's what we've done before. You liked it then."
A few guilty tears fell down her cheeks and she wiped them away with bitter pride. "No, I did. I do."
Draco looked on in disbelief. "It sure doesn't seem like it."
"Tell me what is the matter with you," he finally managed to put together after many minutes of thoughts swirling his head. "And it better not have anything to do with that Viktor Krum."
Hermione choked on a sob. "No! No, it's got nothing to do with him."
She couldn't shut it off now. It was like she just felt him gone, even as he cradled her as his scent filled inside her lungs like a smoke you couldn't cough out, Draco Malfoy felt a million miles away.
"Then you better tell me what it is about, Hermione Granger. I'm supposed to take care of you, and I can't do that if you keep things from me. Now come on." He shook her gently. "Out with it."
"Draco," she groaned. She just couldn't do this now. Her thoughts weren't gathered, neither was she. The rain poured harder. Soon enough, they'd both be expected back at the castle to go about their days without the other. The Yule Ball was in the heat of the second challenge that approached faster and faster.
Harry needed her more than ever. His life was at stake with each challenge. He barely survived the first. She should have helped him better than she had. Yet the tournament was designed to trick even the best of them.
She felt herself falling in line with the wake that was Harry Potter. Each passing year he demanded more and more of her than she even used for herself. She loved him so dearly and fiercely, but between him and Ronald, she was lucky to be seen as anything beside their ownership. Ronald had flirted with the idea of asking Hermione to the Yule Ball but as he strode around the castle with so many pretty girls in their swishy skirts, the thoughts got jumbled in his mind. She was left by the wayside.
Viktor Krum didn't hesitate. He spent many days in the library, Hermione saw, but he never came close. However he finally approached her the day before to ask her to the Yule Ball as his date. She was shocked, ecstatic. Mostly she felt hopeful for a new friendship with an unlikely man. Of all people she knew what could come from unusual pairings.
Hermione took a deep breath. The sky overhead was turning darker by the minute. Daylight was fading.
"I really should be leaving soon, you know."
Draco dreaded those words. They always came too soon.
"Not until you answer me," he growled.
Her secrecy betrayed even his most stoic of confidences. It felt as though she was keeping something from him, something that he should know. She liked to be that way. Granger was so stubborn and independent that it made his head dizzy with frustration. For once, he wanted to be that for her.
It couldn't be like she wanted, or he wanted, but it was what he could offer.
Hermione gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "They'll start looking for me."
"I don't give a flying broomstick if they come down here with Dementors on leashes, I'm not letting you go until you tell me what just happened."
She squirmed in his grip and he held her tighter. He was much stronger than her, that was always the case. It didn't lessen the fight, just the length.
She straightened her arms against his chest. "It. Was. Nothing."
He fought her attempts and clung to her, even as she wiggled and flailed. Her hair tossed back and forth as she moved side to side. Her legs unwrapped from around his waist.
"If it was nothing." He ducked away from a sharp slap. "then you would tell me!"
She started to claw at his shins with her legs with a thought popped in her head. Draco watched it come and take hold of her.
"Don't you even think about it," he warned.
A sadness came over her face once more. "Then will you let me go?"
The suddenness sparked another stronger urge to hold her close, but he felt his arms go limp and she slid right out.
She stood in his black cloak that dragged along the ground, jeans and an entirely too thin shirt. It was soaked on the one side still. Below she didn't wear a bra. Once it had excited him to see her in such a way, but now the reality dawned on him that she wouldn't just be for his eyes.
Draco watched her gather up her few things.
She turned to leave but stopped. Who knew how long it would be before should could be with him again? Two weeks, three?
Hermione ran to his side and buried her face there. It was a breath or two easier for Draco, too.
If she would have left like that, he would have chased her down and dragged her back to cover her in the deepest kisses he could muster.
"Please toss out that shirt when you get back," he murmured into her ear.
She looked down and rolled her eyes. "Draco…"
His look was not of pleasure but of insistence. A pleading instruction. "Just please."
"I won't wear it around anyone else," she said. "I promise."
"Not even Viktor Krum. I swear, if I hear about you and him in anything less than your school robes, I'll have personally see to it that he doesn't get anywhere close to your undershirt."
She wouldn't ever tell him, but she liked when he talked like that, a bit.
"You'd really do that?" She asked. "For me?"
Draco nudged her, surprised. "Hermione, don't act so surprised. I can be very frightening. Especially when it comes to you. I'd kill any man who'd hurt you and I'd maim any man who tried. I thought you knew that with that bird buck last term."
"Buckbeak," she said. Her eyes suddenly narrowed. "And you didn't have to have it killed!"
"The damn thing bit you, Hermione!"
She huffed. "Not before it broke your arm."
"My arm? You think this was just about my arm?" Draco gripped his nose. "The only reason my father asked it to be killed is because I asked him to. Bloody thing was a menace. It was an animal, at a school. It's lucky I didn't wring it's neck when you showed me the bite."
Hermione ached at the reminder. She knew Buckbeak was alive and well. It wasn't dead as he knew it to be. He'd be personally hunting it if he did. That was the time she struck him. She hadn't even meant to. Draco knew how heartbroken she was when she'd found out why Buckbeak was being put to death, and then Draco was there with Goyle and Crabbe the same time she was. She had to keep up appearances. Even when Draco goaded her on about it, as did the other two, but it stung worse from him. Draco knew how much she hated being the reason for the poor animal's death.
Draco lifted her chin up to face him. His gray stare burned in her brown eyes. They were so sharp and cunning. She saw the soul that danced behind their frame and it wiggled within her heart. It was the very soul that laid claim over every part of her. That was the very essence of herself, owned and protected in body and heart.
"You are mine?" He asked.
She nodded softly. "I am yours."
"There won't be anybody else. Not a single one between us."
Again, she agreed. "Not one, and that applies to you, too."
It was the second time she'd gone off their usual script just to take a stab at him. As if she knew something that he didn't.
"Would you mind clarifying that for me?" His voice was on edge, especially since he felt her pulling away from his side. The time had come for her to leave. She slipped his cloak off her shoulders with ease. "Eh? Is there something you want to say to me?"
Anger boiled inside him as she proceeded in silence, trying to hand it back to him. He kept his arms away. It was supposed to make her talk, but instead, she slung the cloak over his shoulder.
"Hermione?" He called. The intensity was hard to hide now. His anger was already ignited. "Hermione Granger!"
His voice was lost in the rumble of the clouds.
