Hello Everyone, here's my little Draco/Hermione fanfiction inspired by Beauty and the Beast. I hope you guys like it. I will try to update in a weekly manner. Forgive my many grammar mistakes, I suck at grammar but I did try my best.
Note. I do not own Harry Potter or Beauty and the Beast, even though I wish I did :)
Taming the Beast
Chapter One
The Rose
Hermione stared at the ominous manor in front of her. It looked every bit as cold and empty as its owner. There was no sign of life and she wondered who could live in such an uninviting place.
A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered what had happened here more than 10 years ago. It had taken a long time for her to finally get over her memories. The war had not been an easy ordeal for any one.
She took a deep breath as her fingers touched the cold metal of the gate in front of her. She still had no idea how she ever agreed to this.
The memories of two days go flashed in her mind.
"Kingsly, you can't be serious?" Hermione exclaimed bewildered by the minister's unusual orders.
He sighed, knowing she wouldn't like his orders at all.
"Hermione, there's only one month until the Hogwarts reunion. Professor McGonagall herself asked for this favor." He explained hoping the brunette in front of would stop fussing.
"But why me? I'm the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement! I'm way to busy." She argued. She had no idea why SHE of all people had been chosen.
"Precisely! You work way too much. Consider this your mini vacation. Besides Harry and Ron are on a mission at the moment. You're the only one I can send."
"But-"
"No buts Hermione, my order is final." He said and Hermione bit her lip.
She had no way of getting out of this one. She just had to do it quickly and return back to her normal life.
"Fine, but I'm only giving him the invitation. It's his choice if he will attend or not." Hermione said as she grabbed the ornate letter on his desk.
Kingsly couldn't help but smile as the furious witch walked out of his office, slamming the door behind her.
"O.K. Hermione, you can do this. He can't scare you. You've been through worse." She said as she pushed the gate open. The gate creaked loudly as it opened, the sound echoing through the estate.
She cursed at the stupid spell the idiot had put on his estate.
"Really, no magic was allowed to enter. What a stupid spell." She though as she walked through the driveway that led to the entrance of the manor.
If he hadn't put that spell up, there would have been no need for her to come.
She stopped when she came upon the gigantic double doors.
"Of course, they had to have snake handles." She said sarcastically. She could never understand people's fascination with snakes.
She took another deep breath and extended her hand to knock on the black doors, but before she did the doors opened by themselves.
She quizzically stood there a moment, waiting for someone to come and greet her. But after five minutes and no one came, she took a step inside the cryptic manor.
"Hello? Malfoy?" She shouted as she walked through the long hallway.
The hallway was littered with paintings of old Malfoys. No one dare to speak and Hermione was relieved. The last thing she wanted to do was to get into an argument with a painting about her blood.
"Malfoy?" She shouted again, this time more loudly.
The whole place was giving Hermione a really creepy feeling. She didn't like being in here. She felt the eyes of the painting carefully follow her every step.
She came to a stop when she reached the drawing room, quite possibly the place she hated more than anywhere else. Flashes of her torture ran through her mind.
Shaking the images away, she focused on the room.
A picture of Malfoy's parents hung over the unlit fireplace.
"Why Hermione, dear, what a pleasant surprise" Mrs. Malfoy from the painting spoke.
Hermione looked incredulously at the blond women in the painting.
"Did Mrs. Malfoy just call me dear?" Hermione asked herself.
"Lucius this is great she can-"
"Hush Narcissa, we can't speak about that." The blond man said as he surveyed the witch before him.
Hermione could almost swear she saw a glitter of hope cross his eyes.
"Umm…do you know where Mal- I mean Draco is?" Hermione said catching herself before she called Draco, Malfoy.
She felt weird talking to them, even if they were just paintings. It was even stranger that they weren't insulting her or trying to kick her out.
Narcissa smiled at her, yet again surprising Hermione.
It made her wonder if she had walked into the Twilight zone.
"He's in the west wing, up the stairs the last door to your left." She told Hermione. Her tone was friendly and she didn't know what the hell to think. Lucius just stood there staring intently at her not saying another word.
"Ok," Hermione exclaimed as she walked toward the staircase, not daring to look back at the painting.
The spell on that painting was definitely malfunctioning. The Malfoys weren't that nice, especially not to someone who wasn't a pureblood wizard.
"Do you think she'll-"
"I hope so." Hermione heard the Malfoys whisper to each other before she ascended.
When Hermione finally reached the last door to the left, she knocked softly.
No response.
She knocked again, harder this time and the door creaked open by the strength of her knocks.
Hermione peeked inside.
Instead of Malfoy she found a rose.
Hermione walked inside as she examined the floating rose in the center of the room surrounded by fallen petals. The room Hermione noted was a complete mess. It looked like someone had gone berserk and trashed the place.
As Hermione walked closer to the rose, she couldn't help but think how beautiful it was. It was a soft shade of pink and appeared to be glowing. Unconsciously, she reached out to touch the delicate flower.
"STOP!" Hermione heard someone scream before her fingers touched the rose's delicate petals.
As soon as she felt the soft silk of the petals a wave of energy erupted from the flower sending her back and right into someone's chest.
The seconds seemed to take an eternity to go by. Hermione found herself unable to take a breath. She could feel the heat radiating from his body and she was afraid to move a muscle.
Of course she knew who had screamed. She recognized his voice as soon as she heard it.
Suddenly, she was abruptly turned to face Malfoy's furious face.
Hermione was briefly stunned as she took in his appearance. He looked disheveled and sickly pale. He had dark circles under his eye that looked like he hadn't slept in ages.
"You have no idea what you've done you stupid girl! What the hell are you doing here?" Draco yelled as he looked at the witch in his arms.
He had no idea why she was here. All he wanted was to be alone and in peace.
Hermione felt her anger begin to boil.
"Here! My mission is done!" She said as she broke away from his hold and shoved the ornate invitation into his hands.
"I'm leaving!" She exclaimed and took off as fast as she could. The faster she was away from this retched place and it's owner the better.
"Wait!" She heard him call to her but she ignored him.
First he screamed at her and now he wanted her to wait. The hell she was. She would have apparated on the spot if not for the stupid spell that surrounded the manor.
She felt relief wash over her as the iron gates outside came into view. Just a little more and she'd be back at her apartment.
"Avada Kedrava!" Hermione heard Draco scream behind her.
Stunned Hermione turned around just in time to see a huge black wolf, who was about to attack her, be hit with the killing curse.
Draco ran up to her and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Run!" He yelled and Hermione didn't hesitate.
As she ran, she saw a pack of wolves appear and run after them.
She had no idea what was going on or where the wolves came from. She was positive she hadn't seen the wolves when she had arrived.
Why were they here and why were they attacking her?
Hermione also noted they were fast.
One of them sprang at her, rows of shiny teeth ready to sink themselves into her flesh.
Hermione took out her wand and aimed at the wolf , but she wasn't fast enough.
She could feel the wolf's breath on her neck and she closed her eyes ready for the searing pain to hit her. But it never came.
She opened her eyes and saw that the wolf had sunk its teeth into Draco's arm.
Draco screamed in pain as he tried to pull away.
"Stupify!" Hermione yelled at the wolf.
Immediately the wolf was knocked unconscious and Draco was released from the animal's bite.
Draco ignored the pain in his arm and threw Hermione into the manor as the doors opened themselves.
"Avada Kedrava!" He shouted at another wolf that had gotten dangerously close. He ran into the manor and quickly closed the doors.
With the imminent danger taken care of he slid down to the floor exhausted. He was breathing heavy and he was in pain. His arm felt like it was on fire.
"Ahh that hurts!" Draco screamed at Hermione as she placed the wet cloth on his bite wound.
"If you'd hold still, it wouldn't hurts as much!" she screamed back, he really wasn't in the position to be screaming at her.
"If you wouldn't have run, none of this would have happened." Draco said trying to pull his arm away from the crazy witch in front of him.
Hermione couldn't believe he was trying to turn the whole situation into her fault. He was such a typical man.
"If you hadn't screamed at me I wouldn't have run." She replied, she wasn't about to let him win. She was right and she wasn't going to back down.
"Well you shouldn't have been snooping in someone else's house." He argued back, his pride wouldn't let him stand down.
"Well maybe you need to control your temper." She shouted and she was sure she had won.
Draco looked at Hermione speechless; he tried to find a smart comeback but couldn't. The crazy witch had won this round.
Grudgingly, he relaxed his arm and Hermione was almost tempted to smile in triumph but refrained from doing so. He did save her after all.
Hermione placed the wet cloth against his wound again. Draco felt the sting but didn't move his arm away.
Hermione bit her lip as she glanced at the gloomy blond in front of her. She had to thank him. He did get himself injured protecting her; it was the right thing for her to do.
"By the way, thank you for saving me." Hermione said softly. She never thought she would be saying those words to Draco Malfoy of all people.
Draco looked at Hermione. He hadn't expected for her to thank him. Hearing her say that to him felt strange. Draco and Hermione weren't exactly in the friendliest of terms.
Before today they had never spoken to each other, not since the war.
"Your welcome." Was his short reply. He didn't know what else to say. He hadn't spoken with another human in a long time. Feeling the warmth of her skin against him was strangely nice, not that he'd ever admit it.
Who would have thought that he, Draco Malfoy, a pure-blood wizard, would ever need Hermione Granger, a mudblood?
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