A/N: I wasn't going to post another chapter so soon, but decided you all deserved a nice Hermione chapter after the Harry and Ron one. Although this is a bit short, because I hurried up and just cranked it out fast for you! :D review and let me know what you think!
…
When Hermione woke up, her first thought was how good she felt. Her body and mind were both relaxed, perfectly at peace. On top of that, she was warm and cozy. Smiling to herself, she snuggled deeper into the covers and noticed that she was cuddling into someone's side. That was when she remembered exactly how and where she had fallen asleep the night before.
Her eyes snapped open and she found herself staring at the sleeping form of Draco Malfoy. Sunlight was streaming in through the blinds on the windows, casting a soft glow on both of them. Draco was lying on his back, with one arm under Hermione, around her waist, holding her gently. His hair was mused, sticking up and odd angles and his mouth was slightly open as he breathed deeply.
Hermione had the urge to curse; she couldn't remember the last time she had ever slept so bloody well. She wanted to tell Draco that his idiotic plan hadn't worked, but the opposite was true. She had never slept better. Was it possible that Draco Malfoy made her feel safe? It was an absurd thought, but it must be true.
Reaching her hand up to her face, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned. According to the clock on the wall, they had slept until almost noon. Apparently a week of nearly-sleepless nights had taken its toll on both of them. Just then, Draco stirred, moaning in a deep morning voice that made Hermione shiver despite how warm she was.
"Oh," he said as his eyes opened slightly, "Morning, Kitten. No nightmares, I see," his usual smirk appeared on his face and she frowned at him.
"No, I didn't have any nightmares last night. But then I woke up and realized who was next to me I thought I was in the middle of one…"
He chuckled, and her eyes widened. Had he just laughed at a joke she had made at his expense? "Looks to me like we'll have to make this a routine," he said with a yawn.
"Um, first of all, please remove your arm from around my waist," as they moved, her tank top had ridden up and his arm was on her bare back. "Second of all, I would really rather not make this a pattern, Malfoy. I'm sure that now I've broken my string of nightmares, they won't come back."
He was still smirking and it was starting to annoy her, "I'm not willing to take that chance. Unlike you, I actually have to apply myself every day. I have things that I need to be well rested for. I won't have you waking me up like a banshee every morning." She glared at him and he realized that he had absentmindedly been rubbing small circles on the exposed skin of her side.
Frowning, he pulled his arm back before she ripped it off. "Merlin, this isn't fair," Hermione sat up and hugged her knees into her chest, "How is it fair that you can traipse off to school every day and go to Healer training and I'm stuck here cleaning and cooking? I can do so much more than that," her voice shook, "Why do you stuck up purebloods think that I'm so worthless?"
Being half asleep, and taken off guard by her sudden emotions, Draco did the only thing he could think of. He hugged her and said kindly, "I don't think you're worthless, Kitten. I know that you're more than capable of making something of yourself, of doing something with your life that's worthwhile, but it's not going to happen, and I'm sorry for that."
To his surprise, she hugged him back. His immediate response was disgust, but after a moment he noticed how small she felt in his arms; how good her hair smelled (like vanilla and strawberries); how perfect her embrace was. Shaking his head slightly, he pulled back and they smiled timidly at each other. "Thanks, Draco," she said thickly.
"No problem. Now how about breakfast?" he gave her a hopeful grin and she laughed before rolling out of the bed. He watched openly as she stretched, raising her arms above her head, revealing the smallest bit of skin to him, and he was fighting the urge to tell her to get back in the bed before she left the room.
He supposed a cold shower was in order for that morning. When he got out of the shower, he felt energized. This was excellent. He hadn't slept so well since…well, ever. He ruffled a fuzzy towel over his hair, and it came as quite a shock when his own thoughts sunk in. The best night of sleep he had ever had was when Hermione fucking Granger was in his arms. What the hell was wrong with him?
The previous day, she had had to beg him to leave the flat, but now it was him who wanted an escape. He wrenched open drawers, pulled out clothes at random, and slammed them shut. A few minutes later, he was seated at the kitchen table with Hermione eating sausage and biscuits. He noticed with a small sense of pride that she, too, seemed to have more energy than normal and she looked great.
"Kitten," he began and her head snapped up from her plate of food, "We're going to Diagon Alley today. I want to pick up some more potions ingredients. Do you need to pick up anything?" He had debated on having her stay at the flat when he left, but found that he didn't want her to be unhappy, and leaving her behind was a sure way to upset her.
"I don't need anything, no," she replied with a frown.
"Well, here," he tossed a bag of coins to her, "buy whatever you'd like. My only request is that you avoid me while we're there."
Since it had been a request and not a command, she merely nodded with worry. Was he upset with her for something? Surely she couldn't have done anything to upset him. And yet he had a hard time looking at her, and he was eating his breakfast in a way that was almost violent. As soon as they finished eating and she was ready, they left.
Diagon Alley was just as busy as normal, even though it was a random Sunday in mid-July. Hermione went immediately to Flourish and Blotts while Draco sped off in the opposite direction. That was when she thought that perhaps he wasn't avoiding her because he was mad. Maybe he was avoiding her because he had some shady business to do?
In any event, she pushed it from her mind and decided that she would respect his wishes because she could and didn't have to. If it had been a demand for her to stay away from him, she would have been pissed. But since he had asked her, she didn't have much of a problem with it. "Is there anything I can help you with, Miss?" asked the clerk politely.
"Oh, no, thank you, I'm just browsing," said Hermione with a smile. The clerk nodded and Hermione continued looking at the selection of books. Without wanting to appear too suspicious, she picked up only one book on the Dark Arts, one on Occlumency, and two about potions that had caught her interest. After purchasing the books, she walked the short distance to a wizard gift shop and went in.
The place was a quaint little boutique-like place that she found to be soothing. There were candles, stuffed animals, jewelry, and all sorts of other trinkets. Much time was wasted on her picking out just the right thing, but when she finally decided, she purchased the item and continued on her way. Ice cream was an essential thing for her to get while she was there, so she went next to the new parlor and got herself a chocolate ice cream.
"You know, I would let you cover me in chocolate and lick it off," said a deep voice in her ear. Hermione nearly dropped her ice cream as she pulled away and spun around. Blaise Zabini was smirking at her as he reached forward to take a hold of her wrist, "Easy there, Kitten."
Randi was standing just being him, and her eyes were sad. When Hermione looked at her, she mouthed the words, 'I'm sorry.' "Excuse me, Master Zabini," she said with a hint of a sneer, "but I was just doing some shopping for my master and need to be on my way home quickly."
"Oh, well then I'll escort you. Perhaps we could stop by my flat on the way."
"I appreciate the offer," she said, "but no thank you. I really do need to be home. My master told me not to dawdle."
"Trust me, darling, what we would be doing could hardly be considered dawdling."
"Still, I'm afraid I have to decline your offer."
"You don't seem to understand, love, but nobody declines my offers."
"Well, I've always been one to break the norm," she said briskly and attempted to walk away, but he gripped her wrist even tighter. She flinched from the amount of pressure he was exerting on her wrist, and when he saw the flinch, his eyes glinted in excitement.
"Release me, Zabini. Now."
"Zabini? Didn't you forget the Master part?"
"You are not my master. I will do nothing with you. Now let me go before I cause a scene," she threatened in a low voice. She didn't want to draw attention to herself, but she would gladly do so if he didn't let go of her soon. For a moment, Blaise debated on disapparating with her, but decided against it because he didn't feel safe leaving his slave behind. Not to mention, a part of him felt like he would enjoy this wild mudblood bringing attention to the fact that he was forcing her to his will.
"Go ahead, Kitten. Scream all you want, I like them loud."
She stepped hard on his foot, and in an immediate reaction, he reared back and brought his hand flashing up toward her face, but before it made contact, another, stronger hand grabbed his arm. "Kitten is my mudblood, Blaise," Draco's voice was an icy warning.
"I was just having a bit of fun with her, and the little bint talked back to me. Do you let her talk to us that way, Draco? Do you let your mudblood talk to us in that tone? I hope that when you get her home, you punish her properly."
"What I do with my property is none of your concern. As a matter of fact, I'm more apt to punish you for your actions than her for hers. She is mine and if you ever make any advances toward her again, I will press charges. It's just as illegal to mess with a Marked Mudblood as it is to steal a physical possession. Is that clear, Blaise?"
"Absolutely," Blaise's fiery glare matched Draco's icy gaze and the two battled silently while Randi and Hermione watched with bated breath. Eventually, with one last haughty sneer, Blaise said, "Come, Randi, we're going home."
"Yes, Master," Randi immediately leapt to him and followed close behind him with her head bowed toward the ground.
"Did he hurt you?" Draco asked in a detached sort of way.
"N-no, I'm fine," Hermione said shakily as she rubbed her sore wrist. "What did you mean by a Marked Mudblood?"
"Your bonds," he said, reaching for her hand. When his hand reached toward hers, she involuntarily jerked back in a natural response after what had just taken place with Zabini. "I'm not going to hurt you," he was speaking in a concerned tone that Hermione had never heard him use before, and she trusted him instantly. Of course he wouldn't hurt her, this was Draco.
"My bonds?" she let him take hold of her wrist, which he did with deliberate tenderness. He felt it lightly, and after deciding that nothing was broken, he waved his wand over it and she didn't feel any more pain from it.
"They're considered Marks of ownership. It shows to everyone else that you belong to someone and are therefore, not available. You are off the market, so-to-speak," he inspected his own handy work, and released her hand.
"Thank you," she said.
He jerked his head in acknowledgement of her words and without warning, wrapped a hand around her upper arm and disapparated them back to his flat. When they arrived, Draco disappeared into his room, closing the door behind him. She dimly noted that he didn't have any purchases with him.
When Draco closed the door of his bedroom, he immediately jumped onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He had wanted to get out of the house to clear his head, but it had only resulted in getting more confused. The one thing he was sure of was that he had grown to sincerely care about Hermione. When he had seen Blaise about to strike her, something inside of him snapped and he had never wanted to kill someone more than he did in that moment.
Even if he didn't believe in any of this pureblood mania, even if he truly believed that muggleborns deserved to be treated just like everyone else, he hadn't lied when he told Zabini that Hermione was his. An entirely irrational part of him felt possessive of her in a way that was not controlling or power hungry, but caring and protective.
Draco stayed in his room, dealing with these new emotions for the rest of the day. When he finally emerged, he could smell dinner cooking. Following his nose into the kitchen, he saw that Hermione was in her pajamas already, curled up in a kitchen chair and frowning as she read the latest copy of The Daily Prophet.
"Ah, you shouldn't be reading that, Granger," he said quickly. He knew what that paper contained, and it was never good news.
"It says here that a new law was passed," she tried to sound nonchalant, but failed, "apparently it is now illegal for muggleborns to marry a witch or wizard."
"Be thankful it's nothing worse," Draco said wisely as he snatched the paper away from her. He took it swiftly into the sitting room, and Hermione followed curiously. He flung it into the flickering flames of the fireplace and said, "That's what I think of the new laws they're coming up with."
Hermione watched as tongues of the flames licked out at the paper, charring it into unrecognizable ash before returning to the kitchen and finishing dinner. Draco Malfoy, it seemed to her, had finally grown a backbone.
…..
When they went to bed last night, it was even more awkward than the night before. Draco scooted away from her instead of pulling her close. He was wearing a shirt to bed this time, which was odd. "Goodnight, Kitten." He said after flicking his wand to extinguish the lights.
"Draco?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you again, for everything. I know this isn't easy for you, but I'm trying to make the best out of this situation as possible."
He sighed. There was a very pregnant pause before she felt him shift closer to her and his arms snaked around her, pulling her close to him, and her heart jumped into her throat for a moment. She felt his strong toned chest pressed against her back and heard a soft whisper of, "You're doing a fine job, Granger, and you're welcome."
Draco woke up the next morning at seven o'clock. His exam was in one hour. Despite how much he would have loved to have Hermione's breakfast, he wanted to let her sleep. She was taking up much more than half of his bed, lying on her stomach, sprawled out looking like an absurd starfish, wrapped up in the tan sheets of his bed.
After a quiet chuckle, he disentangled himself from his bedding and showered. When he went into the kitchen, he found that there was a note waiting for him on the table. It read, "Draco, after all you've done for me, I wanted to do something for you. Although I did use your money for it, so in a roundabout way you bought it for yourself. Just the same, it's from me. – Kitten"
Along with the note was a thick chain that held a charm. The charm was a miniature potions bottle that held fake liquid gold. There was a tiny tag on the neck of the bottle that read, "Good Luck!" Smiling, Draco pulled the chain over his head, tucked the charm under his shirt and left to take his exam.
