Chapter 11: Unforeseen Encounter in the Cambodian Jungles

Unforeseen Encounter in the Cambodian Jungles

Say I managed to stop my eager steps in your direction,

How do I halt the wandering gaze that strays to your face?

And if I did conquer my wandering gaze,

How do I control this unruly heart that undyingly seeks you?

15 30 Dense Cambodian Jungle

She had never seen Draco dressed in jeans before! That was certainly not the first thought that came to Hermione's mind when fifteen minutes ago, she had stumbled on the tall, handsome, and dark deity with the wild blond hair. Well, not stumbled on, but she had heard, from afar, the sound of a deep, sexy male voice. Curious about hearing someone shouting instructions in English after having trudged for hours and hours in vain across the jungle, Hermione had quickly hidden herself behind a huge tree. As she spied from behind the tree to see to whom belonged the sexy male voice, to her utter astonishment, she saw Draco Malfoy!

Hermione had once attended a Muggle concert during the Christmas holidays when she was fifteen. She had been dragged there by her Muggle neighbour, Ella, who was the same age as she was. Ella had been obsessed by the lead singer of a famous boy band. Standing there amidst thousands of screaming fans, Hermione had watched with amazement as her Muggle friend nearly died with all the excitement of seeing her favourite idol in front of her, performing his stage antics. Whilst the music was good and she actually had fun at the concert, Hermione had been unable to understand how it felt to 'love' and idolise someone that much. Nevertheless, on seeing Draco Malfoy in front of her after so many years, she thought her heart was beating as frantically as that of an obsessed fan.

But why? There was no reason for her heart to behave as if she had finally found a long lost mate! The twisting and poking she had been feeling in there had as if been suddenly magnified tenfold. It was only due to shock, she tried to convince herself; shock from seeing him after six years. Draco Malfoy was her bitterest enemy; they hated each other. Maybe the eerie dreams she had been having had mollified her feelings towards him? Those reflections could wait, though.

The Komodo Eiferatu was coming nearer and nearer. Hermione could not budge from where she was; the huge Strangler Fig tree blocked her way. The wand she was holding was shaking so much with dread that it would have been comical in another less serious situation. She had read about Komodo Eiferatus in Cambodia's Magical Creatures by Agrippa Thompson. The Komodo Eiferatu was a giant version of the Komodo dragon known to Muggles. Komodo Eiferatus were reputed to be amongst the most vicious creatures in Cambodia; their breaths were venomous, and they were known to corner Muggles and wizards alike for dinner. This one was relentlessly advancing towards her. Its massive size did not seem to slow its hungry gait. It was about two metres in length, and its tail was almost as long as its body. Blood tinged saliva dropped from its jaws; its forked tongue was dark brown in colour and hissed at the air menacingly.

Be damned, Ladon Hydras! Hermione thought. Her journey to Cambodia via the International Land Express had lasted three hours. Wizards could no longer freely Apparate to other countries. The International Wizarding Convention on Apparition that had taken place five years ago had decided that a system of International Magical Pass should be devised in order to control who crossed country borders. Dark wizards and mischief mongers had been making it a habit to Apparate in other countries to escape Aurors and punishment. It had taken Hermione another two days and a half to find where Ladon Hydras was believed to be. A surprisingly large number of people fiercely refused to give her any information even though they seemed not unfamiliar with Ladon's whereabouts. She had just had to follow her own instincts and seize on the unwary hints dropped by people of whom she inquired information.

Threading a way, unaccompanied, through the jungles of Cambodia was no easy feat. She had had to put a leech-repelling charm on her clothes; the jungle was filled with those blood sucking creatures! She thought she had fared fairly well until her instincts first led her to make a wrong decision about a short cut, causing her to fall into a muddy swamp. Never mind her whole body and clothes being covered in mud, nor her boots being temporarily stuck in the swamp; her fall must have disturbed the Komodo Eiferatu which had been dozing on the banks of the swamp, shielded from view by the dense undergrowth! She had quickly run away, but it now seemed as if the creature had followed her scent!

"Stay calm, stay calm," Hermione told herself breathlessly. "You've faced so many things before; there is no need to panic! So what if the book said only an angel dropped from the skies can save you from the Komodo Eiferatu? And the Conjunctivitis Curse will not work on it! No spells can work on it because of its very hard, scaly exterior! Merlin! You are a clever witch, Hermione Granger; you can find a way out of this situation. No, absolutely no need to panic at all—-"

"WHO the hell is the screaming Banshee making such a noise? It's disturb-"

Hermione's scream died in her throat. She stared at the gorgeous man in front of her, mouth opened in disbelief, and eyes blinking wildly to ascertain whether she was not dreaming. Yes, she had seen Draco Malfoy from a distance a while ago, but that did nothing to lessen the jolt which travelled along the entire length of her body! Her heart was thumping so hard inside her chest, and her legs could no longer hold her. She unconsciously slid down to the forest floor, leaves crackling under her.

The pale handsome boy she knew had metamorphosed into a breathtaking specimen of a male. He was wearing black jeans and a sleeveless beige shirt. His clothes moulded perfectly to his slender, washboard body; they must cry tears of blood when he shed them off at the end of the day... She could not stop herself from hungrily devouring him with her eyes - the shaggy dark blond hair that reached his bronzed shoulders, the strikingly handsome feline features of his face; he oozed danger, power, and wicked virility. Those amazing silver grey eyes with its queer splashes of blue seemed to gaze upon her with such scorching intensity.

As her gaze travelled down to his sinful lips, she swallowed. She was seeing Draco Malfoy, her enemy, after six years! It was understandable that just by looking at him, she was feeling all kinds of indefinable emotions! It was perfectly understandable that she had stopped hearing the birds' lively chirping in the trees; that she did not notice the Komodo Eiferatu, which was busy sniffing her mud-caked boots.

He was the first to break the still, silently simmering silence.

"Is that you, Granger?" Draco asked, lips curving slightly.

The half-formed smile on his face was stunning, until Hermione realised it was there at her expense. How cruelly ironic that she should come across him, after six years, whilst covered in mud! He who had called her 'Mudblood' on countless occasions before! Her eyes were smarting with humiliation and awful self-consciousness. She could feel mud sliding down on either side of her face; at least she would be spared the embarrassment of him seeing her reddened cheeks! Just then, Hermione felt an odd quiver in the tree behind her. She had no time to turn and see the reason why. Draco was already retrieving his wand and pointing it straight at her.

"Sshhh...Don't say a word, Granger," he said softly as he took some steps forward. The smile on his face became darkly sinister. "And don't move, unless you want to be ripped to pieces."

Unlike her usual quick self, Hermione was unable to stir and her mind was not working at all. Her wand lay pinned to the ground, under the sweaty palm of her hand. What was he going to do? Put a curse on her? The Draco of six years ago would surely not have hesitated to do so, given his known hatred for Muggle-borns, and she would have been able to defend herself.

This one was too swift even for her. She raised her hands to shield her face from the forthcoming hex.

"Somnus," Draco whispered. A warm yellow beam shot from the end of his wand and hit the tree right next to her ears.

It hadn't hit her? It missed? She felt the tree shudder before it completely stilled. It quickly registered through Hermione's mind that the Somnus spell was meant to induce sleep.

"Thought I was going to put a curse on you, Granger?" Draco smirked as Hermione looked up. "Who knows, I might still, for your being so foolish."

"What—what do you mean? Why did you-"

"Look behind you, Granger. Contrary to first appearances, this is not merely a Strangler Fig." The maddening half-smile on his devilishly attractive face was still there!

Hermione turned, her face soon contorting in sheer horror at what she saw. She hastily scrambled away from the tree, hand tightening on her wand, and still not trusting her feet to support her.

"Th—that's a Drosera Septopas!" How come she had not noticed until now? She could never admit she had been too busy staring at him all this time!

"Yes, in other words, it is one of the seven famed man-eating trees of the Wizarding World. You are lucky the tree's eating habits are nocturnal. You nearly managed to wake it up with the tantrum you were throwing, Granger." Hermione dared not imagine what would have happened if Draco had not cast the sleeping spell back on it. The shock of having nearly been the dinner of a tree was waning fast, and the shock that Draco had been the one to come to her aid was settling in. It then struck her that, covered in mud as she was, she should have been completely unrecognisable!

"How did you know it was me?" Hermione asked, genuinely puzzled. She glanced down at her clothes again; yes, she was indeed entirely covered in mud from head to toe! "I was-ohhh the—the Komodo Eiferatu!" Hermione stuttered, on the brink of screaming once more as she noticed the creature, which had until then stayed as still as a statue, starting to approach her again.

"Calm down, Granger, that's my pet, Earl of Angkor. Don't worry, he is a vegetarian, and he is just six months old, a baby really," an amused Draco explained as, to Hermione's wonder, he extended a hand to her. "Earl, go back, you are scaring the human here," Draco shooed Earl away. Hermione watched, befuddled, as Earl looked at her with extremely innocent eyes, as if she had somehow deeply hurt the poor creature, and it gloomily made its way back to the swamp.

What had just happened? Draco Malfoy had heard her silly screams in the dense Cambodian jungles, saved her from a man-eating tree and his pet, which was named Earl of Angkor. She had then managed to offend Earl, and Draco Malfoy was now extending a hand to her in spite of the filthy state she was in! She must be getting delusional. Hermione touched the side of her head - there was really no sign of injury there!

"But-but the book by the famous Agrippa said the Komodo Eiferatu is a very dangerous-"

"Few things written in books are ever correct, Granger. It is what you experience as an individual that counts. Anyway, you can't go believing a book written by someone who has never been through the jungles of Cambodia in the first place," Draco answered quietly.

Hermione's eyes would not budge from his handsome face. From all her memories, this was the first answer Draco Malfoy had deigned to give which did not contain allusions to his own superior knowledge or status.

"Granger, my arm is aching here," Draco exclaimed a few minutes later after Hermione showed no sign of her seeing the helping hand he extended.

"Oh, it's—it's okay; I can get up. Besides I'm covered in mud," Hermione said in a nervous laugh. She tried to scramble to a standing position on her own, but the ground proved too slippery. Two hands that felt like bands of steel at once enclosed her waist, bringing her to her feet. Her eyes collided with Draco's, and she couldn't help but shiver as another jolt of electricity shot down her back.

"What are you doing here, Granger?" he asked, the bands of steel still not releasing her from their strong hold. "Aren't you afraid of coming across a big bad wolf?"

Hermione couldn't unlock her eyes from his imprisoning gaze. Such a hypnotic big bad wolf, she thought in a daze. She blinked and tried to find her traitorous vocal cords back.

Draco Malfoy had never rendered her speechless before; she had always had a cutting comeback to meet each of his jibes. Could it simply be because he was actually being polite to her? Something that had never happened before! She tried not to think too much of the fact that he was still holding her, and that strange sensations were running up and down her body.

"I assure you I can defend myself against any bad wolf. I'm on a very important mission on the behest of the Ministry of Magic; I have to find Ladon Hydras. What are you doing here? And how come you are being so—so civil to me?" Draco abruptly released Hermione, making her feel oddly bereft.

"Would you rather I be rude to you?" Draco asked, with another slight twitch of his lips.

"No—I just-"

"You better go back from where you came, Granger. Ladon Hydras might not want to meet you," Draco said somewhat cryptically.

"And why is that?" Hermione asked, a tad bit on the defensive. "Why is it that no one here wants to tell me where he is?"

Draco glanced pointedly down at her body before answering with a self-satisfied grin. "That must be because Aphrodite apparently left her magic cestus at home." Seeing Hermione's puzzled frown as she fidgeted self-consciously, he added, "Considering the lovely state you are in, Granger, I doubt you'll be able to bewitch anyone into answering you."

"Well, I wasn't like this when I first set out; I fell into a swamp a short while ago," Hermione swiftly answered, frowning even deeper and failing despite herself to keep an unbecoming pout off her face.

"The people here are very loyal, Granger. They will not knowingly disclose the location of someone they respect to strangers," Draco revealed, an amused light dancing at the back of his eyes. "It's a surprise you've actually managed to get till here."

"Does that mean Mr. Hydras is near?" Hermione questioned eagerly.

"Tell me, what is it you want to talk to him about?" Draco enquired. "Is it about the Seven Wonders of the Wizarding World? If so, don't bother. About twenty other people from Ministries around the world have already asked for an audience with him; their polite requests have been all been declined." Draco paused. "Why should Ladon Hydras make an exception for you?"

"I'll put my case to him when I meet him. Can you tell me where I might find him?"

"Not before you tell why you want to see him," Draco insisted.

"Hmm, as the existence of the Seven Wonders has already been made public, I suppose I can tell you. The Ministry believes that Mr. Hydras is in Cambodia, looking for the Lovers' Heart. I am to propose my help to him in such a quest and bring the Lovers' Heart back to England. I also need to convince Mr. Hydras to attend the Wizard World Conference which will take place in four days time."

Hermione could not repress the shiver that ran down her back as Draco kept gazing at her. Damn it, she must really look horrible. "I have told you why I am here, now would you please tell me where I can find Mr. Hydras?"

"Nothing is free in this world, Granger. If I do tell you where he is, I would want something in exchange," Draco drawled. That wicked grin of his was fogging her mind.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked warily.

"Relax, Granger. It's not like I'm gonna ask for your soul. Right now, you only need to agree to whatever I'll later demand of you."

"Fine," Hermione asserted, without hesitating.

"I'm surprised. No conditions attached to that agreement? Bit risky, don't you think?" Draco enquired, visibly pleased.

Had she made a mistake? "Whatever it is you'll ask of me, I'll never let that be the cause of harm to anyone," Hermione declared fiercely.

"Go back, Granger. Ladon will never agree to take a woman with him on such dangerous quest," Draco stated, eyes darkening as he became more serious.

"Why wouldn't he? A woman is perfectly capable—wait a minute, how do you know Mr. Hydras would not agree to take a woman with him? You sound as if you know him personally!"

"Yes, I do know him. In fact I am-"

"Are you his assistant?" Hermione interrupted Draco, feeling a rush of excitement at being so near to meeting the famous Ladon.

Draco smiled down at her in amusement. Hermione's heart did a somersault. Why was it that just by talking to him, it felt as if she was waking up from a long sleep? God, there actually were goose bumps on her skin!

"You can say I work for him," he delivered mysteriously. "Now will you excuse me, Granger, I have to get back to work." Hermione looked on, perplexed, as Draco summoned a gleaming Black Lightning 2010 - the newest, fastest and, not to mention, most expensive broom currently available.

Draco got on the broom with effortless grace. "Wait!" Hermione cried. "You have yet to tell me where I can find Mr. Hydras." She impulsively grasped the tail of the Black Lightning 2010, dirtying it with her muddy fingers.

"Oh, no! I'm truly, truly sorry. I'll clean it." Hermione glanced back at Draco apologetically as she drew out a handkerchief, which was likewise muddy, from the pocket of her trousers.

"You make such a sorry figure, Granger," Draco remarked superciliously. "Get on!"

"What? Are you asking me to get on your broom?" Hermione asked in wide-eyed surprise. She even forgot to retort about her not needing him to feel sorry for her.

"Listen here, Granger, I have work to complete before I can take you to The Passion Serpent's temporary quarters. Are you willing to wait till then? If yes, get on the broom," Draco ordered.

"Get—get on this broom?" Hermione asked reluctantly, surveying, with suspicion and distrust, the black beast of a broom with the silver lightning engraved on it.

"It's now or never, Granger," Draco breathed out impatiently.

Hermione climbed behind him, thinking about the impossibility of her staying upright on the broom. She had barely swung her leg on the other side of it when Draco took off, not unsurprisingly, at lightning speed. She would have fallen off if he did not enclose one staying arm around her waist as he peered straight ahead, steering the broom up above the trees. She thought she heard him give a light chuckle, but dismissed it as the wind messing with her mind.

She and Draco Malfoy flying on one broom, she clinging to him as if her life depended on it, he not minding her soiling both his clothes and the magnificent broom with mud – were all these happening for real? There was magic in the air; everything seemed so vibrantly colourful and full of life to Hermione. The wind whipped at her hair, her heart beat wildly, and her eyes stung with an emotion she could not place, but which made her feel as if she was on cloud nine. She could not understand the elation she was currently feeling; it was as if a burden had been lifted off her, now that the former Slytherin prince had reappeared. She hardly remembered having had such a wide smile on her face! She clung just a bit tighter to Draco, and was she losing her mind or had he too tighten his hold of her?

Right in front, Hermione could see a vast Quidditch pitch and some serious practice going on in there. The fifteen players on the field at once stopped to play and watched as Draco touched down merely a few seconds later. Clearly, some of them were substitute players, for a Quidditch team was made up of only seven players.

Hermione gratefully got off the broom, and felt her cheeks flush hotly as the well-built, mostly male, players looked at her curiously. There seemed to be only two girls on the team. She was thankful that no one was laughing, even though the girls were giving her murderous stares! She soon realised no one dared to snicker because she happened to be with Draco. They all seemed to look upon him with deep respect and even admiration!

"Get on with your training, lads; still half an hour to go!" Draco urged the players. "Sovann, a word, please," Draco said as he got back on his broom and led the teenager who was holding a Snitch in his hand aside to talk. Draco Malfoy had indeed changed from the arrogant bully he once was it seemed; he never once treated Hermione with contempt or hatred. He had, shockingly, let her sit on his broom, not minding the vile state of her clothes. What's more, he seemed to command deference from players older than him.

Hermione felt somewhat awkward as she stood on her own. Tearing her eyes away from the handsome blond deity, Hermione tried to focus on the training. She could not believe she had missed recognising the Cambodian Quidditch team, the current holder of the Quidditch World Cup, sooner! Draco came back to her side on the touchline as Sovann flew away on his broom.

"You are the mysterious coach of the fabulous Cambodian team!" Hermione exclaimed in astonishment.

"Why, it's surprising you recognised the team; I thought you were not interested in Quidditch at all," Draco observed, his attention on the players. "Chantrea, my beauty, you are not focusing on the game," Draco playfully admonished the beautiful Beater who sported two long plaits.

"Sorry, coach," Chantrea muttered and battered the Bludger away with more zeal that ever.

"We have a friendly coming up, focus guys, focus!" Draco urged his players.

"Even though I'm not that fond of Quidditch, I would still never miss watching the World Cup!" Hermione said, feeling inexplicably bothered by the fact that Draco Malfoy had addressed one of his players as 'my beauty'. "And the Cambodian players displayed such fascinating tactics and-"

"I bet you would be unable to name to me even one of the tactics used by the Cambodian team at the last World Cup," Draco delivered harshly. His voice had suddenly hardened, and he was still not looking at her. Hermione's heartbeats picked up. Could it be that because of the six years lapse, Draco Malfoy had forgotten he was used to treating her badly, but that, at the present moment, he was remembering their enmity at Hogwarts all too well?

"How can you say I won't know the-"

"You were otherwise preoccupied at the Quidditch World Cup, Granger," Draco said coldly, finally looking her straight into the eyes. His gaze chilled her.

"What do you mean I was otherwise preoccupied? Try me; I can identify any of the tactics used by your team!" Hermione hastened to aver.

"Let's see," Draco said. "Guys and girls, I want you to demonstrate any ten attacking and defensive tactics and moves we used at the World Cup. Miss Granger here will try to identify them."

At once, seven players took a particular position in the air and the substitutes came on the sideline, next to where Hermione and Draco stood. The seven players positioned themselves in a spiral formation in mid-air and started turning round and round at an impressive speed. Soon it was no longer clear who was the Beater or the Chaser; the Bludgers themselves seemed confuse and did not know who to attack.

Draco looked at Hermione questioningly. "It's the Tornado Attacking Formation!" Hermione asserted confidently, chin held high.

"That was way too easy," Draco discounted. "Another one, guys."

"The Triple Six loop," Hermione exclaimed after another remarkable demonstration.

"The Dragon Attacking Formation!"

"The Aurora Formation!"

"The Eagle Pass!"

"The Juggling Pass!"

"The Crab's Pincer!"

"The Snaffjack Roll!"

"The Beezlebeater Defence!"

"The Rolling Dice Defence!"

Hermione's smile stretched from one ear to the other at the end of the ten demonstrations, overjoyed to have correctly identified all of them.

"That's it, guys, we are finished for today! As I've told you before, I'll be away for some time; Chantrea will be the captain and coach whilst I'm gone. See you all soon," Draco dismissed his team, who then regained the changing quarters.

"I'm impressed, Granger! You can multitask it seems!" Draco said to Hermione dryly, not without some degree of contempt.

"What does my having identified those moves correctly have to do with multitasking? And now that we are on it, what do you mean I was otherwise preoccupied at the World Cup?" Hermione asked crossly.

"Only that I'm surprised you could still have focused on the game whilst snogging Weasel king. Well, you might of course have read about those moves in the Daily Prophet or something," Draco said, not looking at Hermione. He busied himself placing some struggling Bludgers in a big box.

Hermione felt blood rushing to her face. "Please don't call Ron that! And I was not snogging him at the World Cup! He just loved the moves displayed by the team! He kissed my cheek; the zooming screens showed-"

"Granger, I have no interest whatsoever in learning about what Weasel King did or did not do to you," Draco said coldly.

"You were the one who chided me about multitasking, and you weren't even at the World Cup!" Hermione remarked.

"I was at the World Cup; you must have heard of Polyjuice Potion? You and Weasel King kissing made my stomach turn," Draco stated arrogantly.

"You should have closed your eyes," Hermione delivered, annoyed and embarrassed.

"I wished I was blind," Draco replied cuttingly. "Anyway, what you do with Weasel is none of my business," Draco said in a detached manner. Hermione felt as if he had conjured an invisible barrier between them which, inexplicably, bothered her.

"I've asked Sovann to take a message to Ladon. Should Ladon agree to hear you out, I'll take you to him. It is more likely he'll refuse, though." Draco turned to Hermione and noted with amusement, "The Scourgify spell won't work on this type of mud, Granger."

A dark flush soon covered Hermione's cheeks at having been so caught. She had been surreptitiously trying to clean herself of the drying mud, but it was a futile attempt.

"I—I know—well, even if his reply is a negative, I will still go in search of the Lovers' Heart!" Hermione defiantly maintained.

"Has that famed intelligence of yours turned to stupid recklessness, Granger? You don't have an original map; a real Papyro Ithicus. You cannot possibly hope to find a Wonder without one," Draco surmised, a mysterious shadow falling across his face.

Another shiver ran down Hermione's spine. "And besides, it is a very dangerous enterprise. Return to your cosy office at the Ministry," Draco said dismissively. He knelt down to arrange the fluttering Snitch inside the box.

Hermione resisted the urge to thump her foot down and make him listen to her. Instead, she knelt down next to him and slapped her hand on the box. "I don't need you to tell me it's a dangerous undertaking; I've figured this out for myself. I've been assigned a task, and I will do my best to complete it," Hermione declared, fire flashing in her eyes as Draco turned to face her.

She soon realised it was a mistake to have knelt down next to him. She was sure he could hear her heart hammering madly. Why was this Draco having such an effect on her? Hermione found she could not look into his eyes for too long. Strangely enough, keeping sustained eye contact with him felt disturbingly intimate, and she feared her eyes showed too much of the conflicting emotions inside of her. She therefore turned her attention to the intriguing G-clef pendant around his neck. It looked oddly familiar, and Hermione tried to reminisce where she first saw it.

"How come you love that corrupted Ministry so much, Granger? It is really for the Ministry's sake that you are so bent on going in search of that Wonder, or is it that this task is a means through which you want to prove yourself?" Draco asked shrewdly.

"Prove myself? Why should I want to prove myself? I've already done that six years ago, Malfoy, unlike- unlike some of us who had no choice but to cowardly disappear," Hermione snapped huffily. To her even grander shock, Draco threw his beautiful blond head back and started laughing as if she had just shared the funniest joke ever.

"What's—what's there to laugh?" she asked, a bit in a daze. Damn. That guy could put the sun to shame.

"Six years ago, Granger," Malfoy began as he stood up, he was suddenly grave and his eyes had acquired an intense gleam that made her shiver unconsciously, "you were quite the Joan of Arc, helping to lead the army to victory. But in the end, as time passes, people starts asking whether you deserve such recognition. They start wondering whether the role you played in Voldemort's downfall might not have been unduly inflated." Malfoy paused. He reached down and got hold of Hermione's arms. She was unaware of him helping her up, lost as she was in that yawning, azure tinged silver sea.

"They begin wondering," Malfoy came closer to her, and whispered next to her ear, "whether you are not simply a sorceress who deserves to be burnt at stake..." Hermione couldn't suppress the shudder that coursed through her. Her heart was beating in her throat. Was he trying to scare her?

Malfoy abruptly let go of her arms and walked pass her. Hermione slumped to the ground, feeling her wits starting to scatter about. Why was she breathing so heavily? The wind was starting to pick up. It whooshed through the tall trees. Dark clouds loured overhead, and it looked as if it was going to rain. Rain? Hermione thought hazily. The image of a scorching fire under a thundering downpour briefly flashed across her mind. It was accompanied by the fuzzier snippets of some kind of passionate conversation.

You are shivering, Granger… I don't want to be your friend… Mudblood… We will go back when I decide to… I think I'm falling for you… It might turn to suicidal obsession… Close your eyes…

Hermione brought her hands to her ears in an attempt to stop that disquieting, unbidden flow of words reverberating through her head. Where had these come from? Why was she currently feeling as if she had just travelled through a storm? She quickly scrambled to her feet, hoping nobody saw her. Her legs truly needed some strengthening potion, considering the number of times they abandoned her today!

Hermione thanked the heavens Draco's back was turned to her as he stood a few metres away, talking with the boy who had returned from an errand. She tried to pretend she was identifying the types of magical plants in the forest and not snatching glimpses of Draco. The handsome man and the boy were done talking a short while later.

Draco walked back to where Hermione stood. "It's your lucky day, Granger. Ladon has agreed to help you. No need to go to the Passion Serpent's quarters first. We are heading directly to the Gypsy Marchiză's Inn."

That infuriatingly attractive half-smile was back on the face of the former Slytherin Prince, and it felt as if the earth beneath the feet of the former Gryffindor Princess was gradually being snatched away.

Chapter End Notes:

Hmm...What will happen at the Gypsy Marchiză's Inn?