Hello my darlings!
I have a new short Two-Shots for you if you're interested -which i hope you will be so go, go! GO read it!
Title: The Forbidden Forest _ part 1
Prompt: Hermione and Draco lost in a forest and it's raining
Characters: Draco & Hermione
Word Count: 2408
Rating: M
Warnings: Steamy scenes and mini lemons
Promt dedicated to: emachookie from my Drabbles Drabbles fic
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It was no news to any respectable wizard in London that the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts was restricted after a certain hour.
So when, at such an indecent hour of the night two people suddenly appeared within the shadows of the tall trees, it was only fair that their facial expression reflected total and complete fear within seconds.
"Tell me we're not where I think..." Draco Malfoy hissed, looking around him disapprovingly.
Unconsciously, the brunette that had accompanied him to that ungodly place stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around herself as the grazing cold seeped deep down into her bones.
"You annoying bookworm!" He growled, "you just had to touch that bleeding artifact didn't you... This is all your fault!"
"My fault?!" She yelped, looking alarmingly at her surroundings "you were the one that just had to be all curious and adventurous and drag me away from the comfort of our quarters for a patrol round!"
"Oh please, like you had anything better to do Granger?"
"We'll I would much rather be in my bed than Merlin knows where in the Forbidden bloody Fore...!"
"Stop yelling..." He interrupted, turning slightly to his left.
"Don't tell me what to do Malfoy! You are not..."
Interrupting her once again, he placated her mouth with his hand, making a slow sweep of the immediate part of the forest his eyes could manage to see.
"Stop. Yelling" he pressed in a whisper to her ear. "I think I hear something..."
Making sure she understood what his words implied, he removed his hand from her mouth and turned around slowly, trying to make out the origin of the low growl he was hearing.
"You don't have your wand, do you" he murmured, although he already knew the answer to his question.
But still, when she shook her bushy head, he couldn't help the feeling of hopelessness as he realized they had very few chances of getting out of the forest alive.
"You don't have yours either?" Hermione screeched, her eyes growing the size of her fists.
"I left it in the common room. We were only supposed to be a few minutes and I expected you to have yours" he grunted accusingly.
"I had mine but I dropped it when the portkey activated!"
"Lower your voice Granger..." Draco repeated, stopping his search to stare at an inconspicuous point ahead of them.
As Hermione looked in the same direction, she wondered if she was supposed to be seeing something.
"If there's a creature lurking in the dark, shouldn't we be running in the opposite direction instead of waiting for it to attack..." She whispered, starting to feel the fear creep up her spine.
"No... We should wait and make sure that thing is indeed the only one for now that wants to eat us for diner if we want to get out of here alive..."
She nodded, deciding it best not to argue with him if she wanted to stay alive.
Suddenly, a howl disturbed the peace of the forest just as a creature stepped out of the shadows and into their line of sight.
"It's a wolf..." He said, taking a step backwards and grabbing her by the elbow to force her to do the same. "Don't make any sudden moves..."
"On the bright side, wolves around the forbidden forest tend to travel alone so we should only be dealing with that one for now" she informed him in a shaky voice.
He nodded as they moved slowly, watching in fear as the wolf paced about in their direction.
"Change of plans..." He whispered, "This thing is starved and is set on devouring us so when I'm done talking, we need to run as fast as we can. And whatever you do, don't stop and don't let go of my hand got it?" he finished as he slowly slipped his hand down her arm.
She nodded, tightening her hand around his cold fingers.
He looked at her for a millisecond to confirm.
"Let's go!"
Not needing to be told twice, Hermione took off next to Draco, soon hearing the heavy footsteps of the wolf fast on their tail.
Although Draco's strides were far longer than her own, she doubled her pace, intent on getting away.
However, it wasn't long before her lungs started burning and she was completely out of breath.
"Don't slow down Granger!" Draco yelled, pulling tight on her hand.
As they jumped over trunks, ducked low branches and got their faces scrapped by vines, the wolf got undeniably closer.
Until the beast lunged itself forwards, bringing them both down with him.
Fast on his feet, Draco rolled over and got up, picking up a rock which he threw at the furry thing that was just too close to Hermione.
"Get up Granger!" Draco yelled as he quickly climbed on a tree branch hanging low enough.
Doing as she was told, Hermione clumsily got to her feet, reaching out for Draco's hand as he pulled her up without much trouble.
"Common, we need to keep moving up!" he shouted, reaching for the next branch up higher.
Repeating the same process, he pulled her up again.
As the wolf stubbornly hit the trunk of their tree, Hermione slipped, a yelp escaping her dry lips.
Thankfully, before she could fall, Draco had his arm snaked around her waist.
"Damn it you're clumsy!" he growled, stabilizing her before he moved to the next branch.
Once they were high enough, he carefully sat down, his legs on either side of the branch.
Pulling her frozen figure down as well, he sat her down against the trunk in front of him, unperturbed by the wolf's attempt to bring them down to him.
"Don't worry Granger… I've got you…" he grinned, trying to soothe the panic off her face.
He waited until she nodded, seeming to regain herself.
"Look… We're going to have to sit closer to the trunk. I don't want the branch to break so slide a little bit forward and I'll move behind you… ok?"
"Alright…" she murmured after a moment.
Getting up and moving quickly behind her, he sat down again, this time with his back to the tree trunk.
As if it was a completely normal thing, he pulled her by the waist and brought her closer to him so that they were mere inches from each other.
"What… what are you doing Malfoy?" she accused as she froze.
"I told you, we need to sit as close as we can"
"But…"
"Trust me Granger" he sighed, annoyed, "I'm not any more happy with us having to be so close to each other than you are but we don't have a choice now do we…"
When she didn't say anything and only straightened her back, he smirked.
"That's what I thought…"
"Oh shut up Malfoy! This is all your fault after all!" she mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Why you're welcomed for saving your life twice… no wait 3 times now is it?" he said, his smirk gaining in surface.
"You wouldn't have had to save my life had you not coaxed me into leaving our common room!"
"A simple thank you would have sufficed my dearest Granger…"
She huffed, deciding she was far too tired to entertain a fight with Draco Malfoy… particularly on a tree in the middle of the Forbidden Forest that is.
They sat in silence for a while, feeling the slight movements of the tree every time the wolf ran into it.
"Do you think anyone will notice we're missing…" she asked at some point.
"I'm trying to sleep Granger" he mumbled.
"Well then wake up!" she admonished, hitting his leg.
"Ow! What was that for!" he wailed.
She turned her head around to face him, only she did so a bit too fast, losing her balance and tilting slightly to the side.
As if he was expecting it, Draco wound his arm around her once again.
"Really Granger… if you fall I won't risk coming to get you this time" he smirked, pulling her close, in turn forcing her to lean into him.
"You are infuriating!" she snarled, trying to escape.
"Now now Granger, you shouldn't insult your dutiful saviour and you should stop fidgeting" he said, locking his arms around her. "Relax now would you… I won't bite"
"Says the King of the Snakes!" she mocked.
"Well then pick your fate… The snake or the wolf… What will it be my Granger?"
Gritting her teeth, Hermione said nothing, giving into her fatigue and leaning her head back against his shoulder.
"You know…" he said after just a few minutes, "I always knew you had a lot of hair but I never thought it was this much!"
She huffed, resolved to ignore him.
"It smells good though… Like citrus and vanilla I think…"
Still, she ignored him, although she couldn't help the smile on her face as he was spot on as to the scent of her shampoo.
"Oh common Granger!" he pouted, "You disturbed my sleep, it's only fair you indulge into the conversation now that I am wide awake!"
"Well you never did answer my question!"
He sighed.
"What was it you asked?" He queried, softly moving the hair in his face to the side.
Although she shivered when his fingers brushed past her neck, Hermione faked a cough before answering:
"I asked if you thought anybody will realize that we're missing..."
"Of course they'll notice that I'm missing" he purred arrogantly earning another slap to his thigh. "But it'll take them a few hours to figure out what happened to us and another few hours to find us here if we are still alive that is... All in all, we're looking at 24 hours minimum" he added seriously.
She shivered.
"On the bright side... We should be safe up here until they find us..."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that" he muttered.
"Why not? Unless we get attacked by flesh-eating birds, we should be just fine…" she said with a frown.
"Incorrect... Do you smell this wet musty scent in the air?"
"Yes, what about it? I've smelled it ever since we got here"
"Well that smell is called petrichor. Sometimes, after a long dry season, it precedes the rain. It comes from a special type of oil in the plants that is mixed with bacteria in the soil called geosmin. Most of the time, you can only smell petrichor during the rain, when it is mostly released, but some other few, like I said, you can smell it just before"
She stayed silent for a while, amazed at his rather extensive knowledge.
She had always known that he was smart – he wasn't her main competition just because he was pretty after all – but she was indeed astounded.
"And how exactly is it you know all of this?"
"My father has rather… unusual teaching methods…" he shrugged. "When I was 10, I failed to recite my lesson about forests so Father just packed a small bag and apparated me in the middle of the small forest behind the manor and told me to learn what I should've learned and find my way back to the house afterwards"
When she looked at him incredulously, he elaborated:
"At first, I thought he was joking. It was just past noon and there wasn't much to fear about the forest at that hour so I just sat down and read more about the subject, waiting for him to come back and get me. But when the sun started to set and he hadn't shown, I started panicking and before long, I was making use of everything I learned to survive and find my way back to my house. It took me about 29 hours" he chuckled. "My mother was furious with my father and when I finally showed up, she told him that if he ever did anything of the sort again she would see to it that he never walks again…"
"You're father is just awful!" she said.
"He is… but I did learn my lesson. Of course this forest is probably a hundred times bigger and unnerving than the one at the manor but in essence, all the terms and survival skills are the same… Actually, that day I had my first encounter with a centaur" he smiled, remembering the odd creature.
"And you were 10 years old?" Hermione asked disbelievingly.
"Yes… the summer just before I came here"
"But wait!" she said suddenly, pushing against him to turn around, "if it is going to rain shouldn't we be getting down and looking for cover?!"
"We should" he said with a roll of his eyes, "But you do remember the wolf right? The big fat hairy one that still wants our bones for breakfast?"
She slapped his leg again, much harder this time.
"Ow! Really Granger, you're going to have to stop doing that!" he snarled.
"Yeah well, stop with the smart comments!" she sassed. "What should we do then…" she added, looking down at the black fury ball laying not far from their tree, waiting.
"We'll just have to wait until it starts to rain. Wolves hate the rain so that one will leave as soon as the first drops hit."
She looked at him, sighing.
"This is all your fault!"
"Blame the poor gorgeous slytherin why won't you" he said with a roll of his eyes.
They sat in silence for a while longer, Hermione contemplating the turn her night had taken, unperturbed by Draco's finger twisting around her a few strands of her hair.
"I take it back…" she heard him say.
Frowning her brows at him, she looked on.
"I actually quite like your hair… It's not at all as dry and stringy as I had always thought."
Taken aback, she shook her head.
"Really Malfoy, we're stuck in the middle of the forbidden forest and all you can think about is my hair!"
"I don't have anything else to do now do I?" he purred, pulling on one of her curls to watch it bounce back once released.
She ignored him, looking as the sky got undeniably darker and as the small portion of the moon which had been somewhat illuminating the forest disappeared behind the collection of clouds that were gathering up above them.
She felt him stiffen behind her.
"Here comes the rain"
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So?
How do we feel about this one? I'll try to have the second part up by tomorrow night or sunday the latest! I hope you enjoyed it and pretty please leave me a review?
Kisses,
MrsMalfoyy