Chapter Eleven: The Seventh Commandment

A/N: So, here's the new and improved chapter eleven…. For better or worse. I plan to post it with chapter twelve.

Draco scrubbed his hands over his eyes and muttered to himself. "No. No….. No. No. This can't be happening. I put this behind me…. Not again!"

He heard the water turn off behind him and rushed toward his bed, hiding under the linens, feigning sleep in case she decided to come in and ask him what in the bloody hell he thought he was doing walking in on her like that.

It had begun innocently enough. Three days before, after a long afternoon of chasing children all over the manor, Tonks had gone home when the last of the little nippers had been shooed off to dreamland. Draco took Tom and was walking the hallway outside his chamber to help sooth the fussy infant until sleep overtook him. He was casually discussing the day's events with the portraits of his grandfathers when Abraxas decided to get something off his chest that had been weighing on him for a while.

"Are you a homosexual?"

Draco sputtered…."What?"

"I said are you a …"

"I heard you, but I don't understand what prompted the question?"

The other grandfathers began to mutter and talk amongst themselves. Abraxas' own father, Alexander, protested rather loudly that they should all calm down lest they alert the Headmistress to what was obviously an ongoing debate among them.

Lucius spoke this time "He is not gay. He isn't anything, I told you. He's taken a vow of celibacy"

Old Hiero said "Yes, yes, boy we know. But there's celibate and there's celibate, you know?"

Draco interrupted here. "What is all this ridiculous speculation about my sexual proclivities?"

Hiero answered. "Malfoys are, by nature and despite appearances, passionate creatures. Also, we are self-serving but logical creatures. As far as we can tell, your behaviour serves neither of those ends. What is the purpose of breaking our bond with the Dark Order if you intend to be the last of our line anyway? (Upon saying this, he sneered at Tom, causing Draco to hold the infant a fraction of an inch closer) Why not just go into hiding and wait to pass away quietly, thus breaking the bond? That way, you ensure yourself, at least a nice long life, instead of rushing headlong into some foolhardy venture which shall surely result in you death and the aforementioned end of our line. Second. You live with the most alarmingly attractive young woman I have ever seen grace these halls with the possible exception of my dear Isabella and yet, you obviously haven't done anything about it"

Draco scrunched up his nose and laughed. "You all think I'm a…. I'm gay because I'm not attracted to Granger?" He asked, incredulously.

"I assure you. If one of us were given the chance, we wouldn't be singing lullabies to motherless waifs and behaving like schoolboys at chapel."

Draco laughed again. "Barmy. You're all barmy. I'll have you know, as part of my training with the Jesuits, I learned to tune out my desires, to re-channel sexual energy into…. Wait, how exactly do you know I haven't done anything about it?"

A devilish smirk graced Lucius' face. "We can hear her"

Draco scrunched up his own face in confusion. "Come again?"

"We can hear her…. When she….ah….relieves the … uh scratching the ….. itch"

"You mean Granger is sneaking a man …."

He was interrupted "No. There is no man. Just her….and those long, luscious legs…"here, Hiero paused and let out a visible shudder. "I tried for years to get the elves to put a small picture of me in her chambers, but alas…."

"Enough! Enough!" Draco said. "Ridiculous. I'm going to bed. Goodnight"

"Just as well" Hiero said "From the sound of things, you probably couldn't handle her anyway". The others laughed. Draco rolled his eyes and wished for a nest of canvas- eating moths to infect the manor.

Sighing, he entered his chamber and went through his side of the suite to take Tom to Granger. The last thing he needed was for the randy horde to see him entering her room. He knocked softly on the door. She beckoned him with a breathy "enter".

He was prepared to just let the rantings of the horny old codgers go, but that was before he walked into her room. She was wearing naught but a white tee shirt (rather small, he thought) and an even smaller pair of cotton knickers. She was half-lying on the bed as though she'd sat upon it and then lay back, with her feet still on the floor beneath. A serene smile graced her features, her eyes were closed.

Draco averted his eyes and struggled for enough breath to speak. "I'll just put Tom…uh…down"

She simply sighed in response.

"You alright?"

Another sigh.

He struggled to think of something intelligible to say, but really wanted to beat a hasty retreat back to his own room. Then, as he reached the door, some demon from Hell possessed his mouth and said "Hermione Granger, acting like Lavender Brown on amortensis. Who'd have thought it even possible?"

This seemed to shake her out of her stupor. She sat up and shook her head but made no effort to further cover her body. "No, no. Definitely not"

"Then why all the…."

She looked at him and sighed again "I guess it's just…. You may not have picked up on this, but…. Conrad likes me… fancies me"

He laughed and pretended to gasp "No, really?"

"Yes" she insisted. "I…uh... he's not really my type, but…it's just nice you know? He tells me how beautiful he thinks I am…. And I don't know…. It's just nice to hear. In all the years I was married to Ron, he never once told me he thought I was pretty. I know it's silly and girly…but…"

"Say no more" Draco said "A husband should make it his first priority to let his wife know she's appreciated."

She smiled "Yes. Exactly"

"Well…. Goodnight"

"Goodnight" she sighed one last time.

Looking back on it, Draco realized he should have just returned to his room, turned in for the night and forgotten the whole thing but he just couldn't let it go. He tossed and turned in his bed, wondering what in the wide world was wrong with Ronald Weasley. Maybe he'd been the subject of his twin brothers' early experiments for their joke shop products….Perhaps brain damage caused by malnutrition during his early years before arriving at Hogwarts. He certainly acted like he was trying to make up for years of going without food, the way he swallowed every meal whole. Had the stupid oaf really never told his wife he thought she was attractive? Or was that typical Granger-borne hyperbole? Probably not. Wasn't that somewhere on page one of the Husband's Handbook? Tell thy wife she is pretty. He thought back to his parents' relationship before "the return"… before his father's imprisonment… Lucius was an ambitious, single-minded man but even he took time from his scheming attempts to gain power to show Narcissa affection and assure her of his continued adoration. He drifted off into an uneasy sleep in which he dreamed of Conrad Warrington offering to trade Weasley a ham sandwich for his wife.

The next day, when he was supposed to be minding the four year olds, who were choosing pumpkins in the garden for Halloween, it occurred to him that Granger was probably considering giving herself to Warrington because she thought no one else appreciated her. All the while his grandfathers were lusting after her like wolves on the hunt. He thought he'd just go and tell her that there were other options, that others found her to be not just attractive, but intelligent and ….. That was his fatal mistake, really. He'd mentally prepared a little speech, listing all of the qualities she possessed which would make her a good mate… he decided to wait until the evening to tell her.

That afternoon, he had an appointment with Nymphadora to have tea with his mother. He'd ceased to let anyone see her unless he was present. Even though Tonks claimed to be on his side now, he stuck to the family rule about outsiders: Trust No One.

He came home late that night to be pleasantly surprised to find Tom asleep downstairs in the arms of Claire, who was looking considerably healthier than she had in many days. She smiled up at him and put her finger to her lips. He nodded once and decided to take the opportunity to tell Granger about his list and try to persuade her to stop seeing Warrington outside of a professional capacity……and then he'd walked right into the bathroom without knocking and found her there….scratching the itch.

His feet were rooted to the spot and his mouth fell open; he found it impossible to tear his eyes from the sight of Hermione Granger running her small lovely hands (number 3 on his list of her attractive qualities) all over her wet, naked body (which he'd left off of the list as he'd had no idea just how attractive she was). She took no notice of him and moved her hands lower….

She made a small, keening sound and Draco simultaneously felt its effect on his own body. Whimpering, he held onto the doorframe for support. She made another small sound and he knew he had to get out of there before he did something very foolish. He retreated back into his room, pushing the door shut behind him and immediately began to try and get his breathing under control in order to suppress the rampant thoughts flooding his mind. He dropped to his knees, preparing to pray away the visions in his head, but ten years of celibacy had left a lot of pent up frustration. Once the floodgates were open, there was no going back. He fell to the floor and begged God to kill him and get it over with.

Perhaps half an hour later, he drug himself to his bed and as he tossed and turned, agonizing over visions of Granger pleasuring herself, a random thing his grandfather said floated up out of the ether. "I tried for years to get the elves to put a small picture of me in her chambers, but alas…"

He sat straight up, an epiphany working his way to the surface.