Chapter 10

A/N: Hello readers! I have a nasty headache, so I'll keep this short. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and thanks to irianaceleste for betaing!

~Frosty

"State your business," the largest of the centaurs ordered. His coat and hair were chestnut, and his skin was only a shade lighter, the perfect colour to move through the forest undetected. He was the one with his arrow trained steadily between Draco's eyebrows.

Hermione was unnerved by so many arrows ready to shoot and kill her, but she was more concerned about her partner. Knowing Malfoy's charm – while abundant when he wanted it to be – was conspicuously absent at the moment, Hermione took it upon herself to be the voice of their little group.

"We're here from the Ministry with a warning," she addressed the centaur who had spoken, trying to ignore the way every centaur surrounding them had bristled at the mention of the Ministry. "We believe that there's someone out hunting centaurs and are trying to put a stop to it."

The arrow lowered slightly as the creature considered Hermione. He didn't look particularly thrilled to see her – his expression was actually closer to what she'd expect from someone who had just stepped in something both sticky and smelly – but he didn't appear murderous.

"This is a serious claim," the same centaur stated. "But your interference is unnecessary. The stars have forewarned us of this hunter."

Having dealt with centaurs before, Hermione wasn't surprised that they had known she was coming. She didn't put much stock in Divination herself, but she could respect the fact that centaurs seemed to have a knack for knowing things that they shouldn't.

"Do the stars also say that you manage to defeat this hunter on your own?"

For the briefest moment, the centaur faltered, and Hermione knew that she had him. "We are not to interfere in what is to come."

"You always say that when you know you should," Draco snapped. He grunted when Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.

"I'm sorry for my partner's rudeness; he's not fit for polite company."

The lead centaur acted as if Hermione hadn't apologised. He seemed to have taken Draco's words to heart. "Our leader needs to hear about this," he decided. "You will venture no further into centaur territory." It wasn't a request. Two of the centaurs raised their bows to once again train arrows on the humans to prevent them from following as the rest whipped around and dashed off to disappear into the forest.

"You will stay here until they return," one of the remaining two centaurs ordered. Neither Hermione nor Draco failed to notice that their hands never ventured far from their bows. The centaurs were ready to shoot them at the first sudden movement or deep breath.

Concerned, Hermione looked at the elongating shadows of the trees. It was steadily getting darker and she had a feeling that the other centaurs weren't going to be back until morning. She had a tent that had been shrunken down stashed in her pocket.

Standard issue Ministry tents consisted of one separate area with two cots and a central area with a kitchenette, two chairs, and a small table. Draco, being a Malfoy, had taken one look at the tent and gone out to buy himself something "more fitting of a Malfoy". This, of course, meant that he'd gotten the best on the market, complete with two bedrooms, a full kitchen with dining table, as well as a decent sized sitting room. In this case, Hermione was actually glad that Malfoy was such a snob, since she got a king sized bed instead of a creaky cot.

Upon his purchase of the tent, Hermione had added several of her own spells. The tent was essentially a canvas fortress of protection and shielding spells. Once the canvas flaps were secured, it was very nearly impossible for anything else to enter.

"It's going to be dark soon, would it be all right if we retire to our tent for the night – or at least until your leader arrives?"

The centaurs shared a look over Hermione's head, but they shrugged. "As long as you don't venture any further into centaur territory and are here when our leader arrives, there is no problem with that."

She nodded her thanks. It had been a long day and she was grateful for the chance to rest. Slowly, just in case the centaurs misconstrued a sudden movement as an attack, Hermione pulled the tent from her pocket, set it on the ground and used her wand to bring it back to normal size. Draco covered her back as she went inside and then shut the flap securely behind him so that the protective spells were activated.

"That was fun," Earl announced. Hermione couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or if he had genuinely enjoyed having narrowly missed being turned into a pincushion for centaur arrows. She was willing to bet that it was the latter. Earl had a strange sense of amusement.

"That was entirely your fault," Malfoy snapped, making Hermione glad that the tent was soundproofed enough that the centaurs wouldn't be able to hear them yelling at each other no matter how loud they got. She had a feeling that they were going to need that soundproofing. "If you two hadn't been bloody harassing me about something of no importance, then the centaurs wouldn't have even known that we were in the forest to ambush us."

Wait, we? Hermione was perfectly willing to stand aside while Earl was blamed since the lizard was so annoying, but she refused to allow some of that blame to be shifted onto her shoulders. She bristled in irritation, the need for a good fight roiling in her stomach. Yes, the soundproofing spells were going to be put to the test in the very near future.

"I wasn't harassing you! I was trying to help," she yelled. The desire to storm up to him and poke him in the chest was strong, but she refrained. "They ambushed us because you're so touchy that people have to watch every single thing they say just so that you won't take offense and make a scene. This time your anger problem nearly got us killed."

For a brief moment, Malfoy's face was a mask of shock, but then he recovered with a fierce glare. "I wasn't aware that you had such a problem with my personality. Though you're not really one to point fingers about personality flaws, you've singlehandedly managed to alienate nearly everyone in the department with your annoying lectures and obsessive forms."

"I only ever fill out the required forms! You're just angry about it because you know that you would have lost your job long ago if I hadn't been doing your paperwork for you." Hermione would never admit it, but his comment had hit a nerve. She'd always been a little sensitive that her studious habits and occasionally bossy personality seemed to mean that she annoyed most people and had trouble making close friends. Malfoy knew this and was exploiting it.

"And you would have lost your life if it hadn't been for my intervention just the other day."

She opened her mouth to say something that she would no doubt come to regret, but she found that no words would pass her lips no matter what she tried to say.

"That's enough!" Earl said, a weird echoing quality to his voice making it resonate through the whole tent. "You're both saying hurtful things that you don't mean, now go to your rooms and sleep before you cause irreparable damage to your relationship."

There was some kind of compulsion in his words, forcing Hermione to retreat to her room even though she wanted to stay and have it out with Malfoy. She'd saved his life too! Probably on just as many occasions as he'd done so for her. Partner or not, he didn't get to say such hurtful things to her just because she'd mentioned the thing that most people tiptoed around: his anger problems.

Malfoy looked equally reluctant to leave their verbal duel, but just as Hermione was unable to resist the pull of Earl's words, Malfoy couldn't find the strength of will to resist either. Stiff limbed and dragging their feet slightly, they marched off to their respective rooms.

Once Hermione was in her room, the compulsion released her. When she tried to exit however, she found that the tent flap separating her from the rest of the living area would not budge. Not only had a tiny talking lizard sent her to her room, but she was trapped there until that same crazy lizard decided that she should be able to leave. Hermione knew it had been foolish to trust the reptile to keep his word.

Hours later, the sun was long gone, even the last lingering traces of twilight having disappeared below the horizon. Between the trees of the forest, the darkness was complete and impenetrable. Only the sound of deep breathing emanated from both bedrooms. After so long left with nothing to entertain him, Earl was very bored - so bored in fact that he was desperate for entertainment. It was lucky that he had two perfectly good sources of entertainment within reach, and so susceptible to suggestion when they were slumbering.

He slithered into Draco's room first, the protective wards on the tent flap not slowing him in the least. Just as Earl had suspected, the blond was sleeping soundly. Earl tilted his head to the side and observed him for a moment. So peaceful, but something was missing. Earl knew exactly what it was.

For a creature so small, the bed was dauntingly large, but Earl had been a lizard for a while and he was skilled with his tiny claws. He darted up a dangling sheet and came to rest of the softness of the pillow, just beside the sleeping figure's ear.

Obediently, Draco rose from the bed, still deeply asleep, and left his room. Earl guided him from his shoulder while Draco navigated through the tent with his eyes closed.

They reached Hermione's room without incident, and Earl climbed down Draco to pass effortlessly through the spells protecting her room and then open it for the waiting figure outside it.

Draco climbed into her bed and shifted slightly to get comfortable.

"Something's missing," Earl murmured. He regarded the scene with a critical eye, trying to discern what exactly it was that didn't look right.

When he realized what it was, he wanted to laugh at himself for not noticing sooner. Tilting his head to the side and focusing, Earl waved a foot towards the pair on the bed and both of their clothes disappeared.

"Much better." Earl was practically vibrating with satisfaction. In the time spent avoiding his wife, he hadn't done near enough matchmaking and he'd missed it.

Suddenly chilled without clothes, Hermione and Draco both wormed their way deeper under the covers, searching for warmth. Accidentally, Draco's hand landed on his partner's warm back, and he pulled her close, settling once again into his deep sleep. Happy little sighs from both humans followed Earl out of the room.

Not much later, there was a sight shuffling sound and then an ear-piercing screech.

"Yep," the lizard said smugly, popping the p, "I've still got it."

Hermione woke up from what had been a pleasant dream. When she tried to roll over, she found that something was restraining her. Further investigation revealed that it was an arm – a horribly familiar arm.

"Malfoy, what the hell?" she screeched.

The blond startled awake, saw the furious Hermione, and scrabbled backwards until he fell right out of bed, at which point Hermione discovered that he was naked. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers and her cheeks rapidly reddened as she looked at him. Of their own accord, her eyes travelled down... down – and then snapped back up to meet his gaze when she realized what she was doing.

Luckily – or not so much, depending on the viewpoint – Malfoy hadn't noticed her little moment of weakness and blatant ogling because he was busy doing some of his own. Hermione followed his sightline to find that her sheet had slipped when she sat up, revealing her completely bare breasts. Judging by the stormy lust in Malfoy's eyes, he approved.

Hermione made an indignant squawk and pulled the sheets back up to preserve what little modesty that she still retained.

"You have three seconds to explain to me what the hell you were doing naked in my bed before I remove certain necessary parts," she said, aiming the wand she had just found on her nightstand at her partner. Conveniently, said parts weren't covered, so she had a clear shot if his explanation wasn't satisfactory.

"How the fuck should I know what happened?" he demanded, not seeming all that concerned that he was naked. Hermione chucked a pillow at him so he could cover himself. She wasn't sure if she could focus on a conversation when she was trying so hard to avoid looking anywhere she shouldn't.

Her eyes narrowed. "You're telling me that you have no idea how the both of us somehow lost our clothes and ended up in the same bed?"

"What are you implying, Granger? How am I supposed to know that this isn't all your doing as some desperate attempt to shag me?"

His tirade would have continued, but she held up a hand to stop him. "Wait a second. Who do we know who has a strange ability to do magic that he shouldn't and a penchant for being incredibly annoying?"

As soon as she saw the dawning realization in Malfoy's eyes, she yelled for the interfering lizard.

"Yes?" Earl asked with entirely too much innocence as he scurried into the room. His dash paused when he caught sight of their compromising positions, but Hermione could tell that it was contrived surprise he expressed. He recovered from the fake surprise remarkably quickly. If a lizard could smirk, Earl was doing it. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Just the little scene that you orchestrated," Draco snarled. "Now return our clothes before we have to get nasty."

Hermione nodded along with her wand trained on the lizard. They may be on the outs, but she still trusted Malfoy with her life and was willing to go along with whatever he had planned for the lizard who had completely violated their privacy.

With what Hermione assumed was a lizard pout, Earl returned their clothes. His ease with magic worried her; there was something bigger than the obvious going on with the lizard and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. "You two are no fun. I provide you with the perfect opportunity for romance and you only violate each other with your eyes for a while." He glanced slyly at Draco. "Well, this one got a little bit of groping in, but you were both asleep, so I didn't count it."

Heat flooded Hermione's cheeks with renewed vengeance and even Malfoy's usually pale face was showing hints of pink along his cheekbones. She grabbed her pillow and threw it at her partner for the sleep groping thing, but she wasn't going to hold a grudge; he'd been asleep.

"That's not the point," Hermione said, knowing that no one would believe her if she tried to deny the allegation of visually groping Draco. "You stripped us naked and stuck us in bed together, that's so wrong!"

"It depends on your interpretation of the situation. It could have been very right if you'd given it a chance." There was no question about what the lizard was implying and Hermione didn't appreciate the images that popped into her head. She could only pray that the images were her own making and not something that Earl had somehow planted – the idea that Earl could plant such subtle suggestions in her mind that she wasn't even sure if they were her own was so disturbing that she'd take naughty fantasies of her partner any day over that.

"That's enough," Draco snapped. "It's one thing to screw around with us on our own time, but we're working here and lives could depend on our task."

Surprisingly, Earl actually looked slightly chastised, hanging his head. "You're right, it was inappropriate of me." His demeanour completely changed and his head whipped back up, eyes sparking with mischief. "But as soon as you're finished with this whole saving magical creatures thing, anything goes."

Hermione was wary of that bargain, but she knew it was probably the best she was going to get. She would just have to accept it for the time being and then deal with the consequences once she didn't have so many other things occupying her mind.

"Humans, our leader is here to speak with you," a centaur called, its booming voice carrying through the fabric of the tent. Hermione had thought it a bad idea to muffle the sound from outside of the tent since they wouldn't be able to hear danger coming for them. So the silencing spells only worked one way, blocking any sound that would have come out of the tent, but none of the sound that filtered in.

Used to rolling out of bed and rushing off to emergencies in the middle of the night, both Hermione and Draco were able to stand, brush themselves off and head for the door, completely professional. The only evidence about what had just happened was the slight pinkness that remained in both their cheeks.

The niggling feeling that something had changed kept prodding Hermione, but she pushed it aside in favour of her work. Nothing had to change between her and her partner just because a little lizard got it into its head that they would be good together. Nothing would change. They'd figure out how to be rid of Earl and then everything could go back to normal.

Hermione spun to Draco just before she opened the door flap. "The whole mess happened because you're too prideful and stubborn to let me do this," she whipped up her wand and healed his black eye before he had the chance to raise his own wand in defense. "Next time just shut up and let me heal you."

Earl chuckled. "They don't even realize how perfect they are for each other – yet." His last word left an ominous aura hanging in his wake.