I'll try to upload this once every week. That way you guys wouldn't have to wait for too long.
Kudos to the best beta in the world, Sera Neko-Chan.
And justnin case you guys didnt check the title of this chapter, this is where the story begins. From third year.
o.o.o
Draco was particularly pleased with himself. That ruddy arrogant bird was going under the axe, because he wanted it so. Nobody hurts Draco Lucius Malfoy and gets away with it. This school was getting more and more pathetic as every year passed.
He would have to talk to his father about the quality of teachers the school had been recruiting of late. Look at the pathetic, good for nothing gamekeeper turned Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Why give a practical lesson about Hippogriffs if the oaf can't control them? Serves him right.
Draco was busy sniggering about the known fate of that overgrown chicken when he felt rather than heard the presence of the Gryffindor saints- St Scarhead, St Too-poor-to-get-a-decent-meal-a-day and St… What was that smell? Hot chocolate with spices and that—that smell! For the love of Merlin, he couldn't place the flowery smell. As of late, Draco's sense of smell was getting rather powerful. Must be his family magic strengthening as he was growing up.
Their usual badmouthing and sneering got kickstarted as soon as the Gryffindorks came into hearing range. Draco felt himself mocking them absentmindedly. It had become a memory muscle thing for him; he didn't need to give his attention to what he sprouted. It came automatically. But he didn't expect that wand at his throat by Hermione. He was now focused completely on the bushy brunette — a broom would be jealous of those coarse curls.
She was close enough for him to get an onslaught of her natural scent. He then recognised it- English rose, which grew in abundance in his mother's special garden. For a moment, he felt like he was lounging in his favourite settee in the garden with a cup of spiced hot chocolate in his hand surrounded by magically blooming English rose, watching the snow drift down from the sky almost lazily- twirling and spinning without a care in the world.
He was completely out of his depth here. He could feel something move under his skin- stretching and extending. His skin felt too tight; he felt like something oily with tar like consistency spread over him. He grimaced and felt his mouth become dry. His vision got fuzzy when Gregory…or was it Crabbe said something and he just nodded and gave a shark like smile to keep his face. He couldn't be seen getting sick, especially in front of the Golden Trio. So he did what he did the best - he taunted her.
"You! You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!" Hermione shouted and she punched him with all the strength she could muster in her petite body.
As soon as her fist touched his face, he felt as if his blood was on fire. His body was burning and he felt blood drip out of his broken nose.
'Damn! That rumour about Mudblood germs must be true! This jumped up mudblood punched me and I'm ill- instantly!' Draco thought as his lackeys pulled him away from the scene. Draco didn't know where he was being led; all he knew that he couldn't take any step by his own. He could feel his throat constrict.
He gasped out, "Snape!"
"What?" Crabbe asked putting his ear next to Draco's mouth.
"Uncle Severus. Get him. Now!" Draco gasped out before clutching his throat with his hand. He was dry heaving so hard that it looked to Gregory like Draco was trying to throw up his innards. Crabbe was already off to get Professor Snape.
Gregory tried to pull Draco up, but Draco gave him a push that made Greg smash against the nearby wall. He hit his head and Greg slid down the wall unconscious. Draco gave a loud retching and threw up black sticky substance.
Draco kept projectile retching. He was disgusted with himself but he couldn't do anything about the stream shooting from his mouth. When the retching stopped, he tiredly wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeves. He tried to pull out his wand from his robe's pocket however his shaking hands made it impossible.
He coughed and sensed his throat getting choked up again. He couldn't take it anymore. He was already seeing the world through frosted glass. He gave in into his weakness. As he closed his eyes, he could just make out a black blurry silhouette.
'Thank Merlin for small mercies, at least my body shall reach my parents,' was Draco's last thought before he passed out for good.
o.o.o
"…think that he would…inheritance…soon—"
"Must have…mate…"
"But who?"
"We'll…ask…"
Draco was coming too and this was all he could hear of the conversation between his parents before fully waking up.
"Mom," he groaned, knowing his mother will come to him immediately, despite the work she has yet to finish.
"Here, my boy. I am here," Narcissa crooned cradling Draco's head in her arms.
From somewhere on the bed, Draco heard his father scoff at the sickening display of affection. But Draco didn't care about decorum. He almost died from throwing up his innards, caused by those Mudblood germs of that Mudblood. He deserved some pampering from his mum.
Wait…didn't he throw up…ichor? Draco's eyes widened at that revelation! How was this possible? He wasn't supposed to reach maturity until he was at least fourteen.
"My boy, were you recently in touch with a girl?" Narcissa asked him softly as she ran her fingers through Draco's scalp caressing him.
"She hit me! Then I started throwing up. Gregory and Vincent! They didn't see me throw up ichor did they?" Draco asked his mother.
"No. They merely thought you overindulged in…dark…chocolate," Snape spat the words out. Lucius gave a shiver at that.
"So, the girl…" Narcissa trailed off, looking at Draco hopefully.
"Granger," Draco said defeatedly.
Lucius' face turned into a snarl and didn't hold back the growl. Narcissa merely shot him a glare and turned to coo at her boy.
"It's not a problem. For now. She's a brilliant witch as far as I've heard," Narcissa said hopefully.
"A Mudblood!" Lucius snarled.
"And you are a fucking sex demon!" Narcissa snarled in response.
Lucius merely blinked at her in surprise. Draco was torn. He had never heard his sweet mother curse. Ever.
"Narcissa!" Lucius whispered in hurt.
"My world was shattered when I learnt why you chose me as your bride. I knew I could never find love match. But to be chosen by a demon , an incubus wizard , was beyond my wildest imagination. But I was lucky that you loved me! In fact, I support the choice the…the…demon takes in the matter of mates. We are a perfect match, Lucius. I don't want my son to face your wrath just because his demon chose the perfect person for him. You need to learn to accept the Granger girl. Keep this in mind that that girl is our future daughter in law!" Narcissa ended her rant with a huff.
"I remembered I left a potion unsupervised. Excuse me," Severus excused himself and took his leave.
"Traitor," Lucius whispered irately.
Narcissa tapped her feet lightly on the stone floor.
"Yes, dear," Lucius answered grudgingly.
Draco couldn't take it. That…that humanoid book is going to be his…mate! Never. He'll kill himself before he lets Granger boss him around like his mother just did with his father.
Draco made up his mind. He wasn't going to accept that bookworm as his mate.
A couple days after the Incident That Shall Not Be Talked About Draco found his mate laughing at something the Four-eyed Menace said. Sitting there in the middle of two boys, Hermione seemed to be having a merry time at breakfast.
'Who in the world is so cheery at breakfast? It is eight o'clock in the morning, for Merlin's sake,' Draco thought as he angrily chewed his marmalade lathered toast.
'There! There she goes, laughing her head off over something the Weasel said this time. Oh! And a blush accompanying that laugher! Intolerable!'
"Who pissed in your cuppa?" Blaise asked, taking in Draco's stormy expression.
"It is more of a who isn't paying this lad any attention," Theo added snidely.
"Heard what Granger did to you. Sad, sad. Very sad. Why wasn't I there to see it?" Blaise mock lamented.
"Because you don't happen to be a part of Draco's bodyguard entourage," Theo replied.
"Shut the fuck up. I don't need your smartass mouth running off first thing in the morning," Draco said hotly.
"Sorry, master. Oh, wait! You are not my master. So, you shut the fuck up," Blaise mouthed off.
Draco smartly didn't add anything more. Already the smugness oozing off from Blaise had placated him. Theo didn't feel smug. He felt normal. Like a plain toast.
Come to think of it, Draco could now slowly feel everyone in the Great Hall. He closed his eyes and just felt- there were mostly tired, not fully awake feelings of his fellow schoolmates with a dash of cheer from the early risers. What caught his attention was the feeling of happiness and content that was like a beacon in the darkness for Draco. Draco cautiously turned his body to the epicentre of the feeling and opened his eyes.
And his heart fell into his stomach out of disappointment.
'Why did it have to be Granger? Why was she his mate?'
Draco grumpily chewed his breakfast. He really wasn't looking forward to the Potions class the first thing in the morning. Hold that thought… maybe riling her up could give him the boost he needed. After all, there's nothing in the world more captivating than watching Hermione Granger get angry. Such passion, such fierceness that seemed to light a fire in her eyes and those pursed lips… Oh, he's going to enjoy teasing her today.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Draco drawled when he spotted Hermione and her gang of merry fools waiting outside the Potions classroom.
"My zero interest towards whatever you're going to say," Hermione snapped.
Draco didn't get a chance to retort as the door to the classroom swung open and Hermione walked in quickly without a backward glance.
Blaise came up behind Draco followed by Theo. He patted Draco on the back and said, "Happens, mate. Not all days are the same. Better luck next time."
Theo merely snickered.
"Not funny," Draco growled lowly.
Theo and Blaise merely snickered in response and went inside the lab to take their places.
Pansy always kept a place for him so Draco didn't hurry.
The next time Draco felt an overwhelming emotion from Granger, it consisted of waves and waves of exhaustion. That girl was tired to the bone. It was weekend and almost everyone let out a sense of cheer and excitement. But the stale taste of exhaustion coming from Granger marred it all. Draco scowled. Yes, the Dementors that were roaming around the school already dulled the cheer, but this was too much.
What had this girl gotten herself into to be so exhausted? What crimes had he committed to get mate who's emotions just moved in the grey sections of tiredness and worry, blue of sorrow (must be for that overgrown chicken) and sometimes in the red section of rage and rare pink of happiness?
Yes, lately he's been 'seeing' these emotions. The emotions belonged to the different spectrum of colours- the bright were always the positive ones and the more duller colours were the negative ones. That spectrum of colours manifested as hues of the aura.
Why, once he felt blinded by the yellow aura that Blaise painfully emitted when he woke Draco up one morning. Pansy's irritating hot pink colour made him grit his teeth in irritation. Her lust for him- this early on- was nothing but annoying. For Merlin's sake, he hadn't even started giving off the pheromones to induce such a lust.
Draco was again hit by a crippling wave of sadness that made him feel as if somebody had scooped out all the happiness out of him. Oh wait, somebody was wringing the last drops of good feelings out of him. For a moment- sitting in the Great Hall- Draco looked around to see if there was a Dementor amidst them. He looked around to find his offender and there! There was his—Fuck it!—Granger who was sitting at the Gryffindor table picking at her breakfast.
Yes, he had observed that a few days before, those two fools had been acting coldly towards her, but now they seemed to have reconciled. Then what was she mourning? Because the crushing sadness coming off her seemed to say otherwise. As far as he had heard the ginger fool had accused her cat of having eaten his rat. But later said rat was found unharmed. And there was the fact of Granger reporting about Potter's Firebolt to McGonagall. Those two fools were so undeserving of her.
"Then make her see the person she deserves. Make her see that she deserves a person , who treats her like a queen. A person that is you."
Draco looked around abruptly to see who spoken. But he found no one leaning towards him. Was it an Imperious attempt? Draco's eyes narrowed at the thought. He pulled up his Occlumency shields as much as he could so that the least he could do was feel the attack.
"That was just a suggestion. No need to be alarmed. After all, you can pursue her whenever you want. She's ours in the end."
'Ours? Oh, his demon has finally started talking to him,' Draco realised. Father had told him his demon would wake up as soon as his body was ready to house another presence. Looks like the demon had finally found his body good enough for habituating.
"Meh, it's okay for now. But you need to get a little taller and firmer. You are way too skinny. Woman aren't going to fall over a stick with a dick, would they? Just because the stick emits pheromones?"
'Shut the fuck up. I'm only thirteen.'
Sigh. "Looks like I 'll have to do everything."
'What do you mean?' Draco asked frantically, but only silence met his question.
Draco dreaded what was about to come.
The day started pretty mundane, but Draco knew this was just the calm before the storm. As the sun started to fall, he felt as if his skin was too tight for him. He was in the common room working on his homework when he felt as if his heart was about to burst.
"Ride it out. It's going to improve you."
Draco couldn't breathe; his throat felt like someone was choking him. He was gasping for air but he couldn't take it in. He flung out his arms and fell off the seat he was occupying, scattering all his supplies on the floor.
"Mate? Draco?"
Draco was wheezing. It looked like he was having a seizure.
"Pansy, call Professor Snape. NOW!" Draco heard Theo shout.
Blaise, in the meantime, cushioned the floor so that Draco didn't hurt himself too much. That's the last thing Draco registered before he lost consciousness.
Draco opened his eyes a little.
"Three turns should do it."
Soft murmuring followed and then the door was shut. 'Was that the voice of the Headmaster?'
Some more murmuring later, Draco heard the voice he expected to be present there. "Sorry, Ron. But the thing is that you can't walk."
He could hear a soft tinkering and then abruptly he didn't feel her there anymore. 'What the hell happened? Oh, darn. His head hurt. It was like a troll has bashing his brain. Draco grimaced and with a groan decided to go back to sleep. Sleeps fixes everything.
o.o.o
Okay, so a lot happened. Sirius Black escaped. Harry bloody Potter got a Firebolt. Hermione reconciled with those treacherous fools. And she managed to save the Hippogriff too. Oh, and Lupin resigned. The one DADA professor who was better off than all the others. Though not more than Snape.
All he did was get a sudden growth spurt and ended up looking gangly. He would have to exercise to gain some muscle to compensate for his long bones. His hair was marvellous though. So thick and smooth and soft.
What was curious was the lingering smell of wet dog and wet chicken that came off from all the three of the Golden Trio.
'Note to self. Watch Hermione carefully the next term.'
o.o.o
Review if you please.
