Chapter 13
Hermione rolled over expecting Draco to be there but all her hands felt were cold blankets. Her eyes opened and searched through the half lit room for him but he was gone. She laid back against the pillows feeling lonely for a moment and hurt. Why couldn't he have woken her up before he left? She pulled a pillow against her chest and hugged it close.
She sat there for a while listening to the silence and just looking around at random until she saw his note. It was sticking out like a sore thumb on his side table with his flourish all over it. She picked up the green edged stationary and opened it slowly.
Hermione,
I'm not coming back immediately like I planned. If you feel guilty because you feel something for me I'll give you room to evaluate it. If there's anything I know you love to do its make sure that something is one hundred percent real before deciding it's a fact. The one thing I want you to know for sure is that I love you, I don't need to prove it to myself anymore, but you do so here's your chance to think about it.
Love, Draco.
P.S. If anyone comes to the door, don't answer it! No one else needs to be near you while I'm away and I'll know if anyone is trying to harm you.
She read the last part and rolled her eyes, he knew she couldn't answer the door. 'Wait, Voldemort got in and Draco said it was impenetrable. Oh no what if someone else gets in as well?' she thought. Then she calmed down because Draco said he would know; he would save her. She almost wanted to hit herself; she didn't need to be rescued. But the thought was comforting anyway and she snuggled back into the bed feeling the emptiness in the room without Draco.
The next day dragged by in agonizing minutes as she tried to find something to distract her from missing Draco. It was irrational missing him when he was the one that brought her here against her will, but thinking of his kiss and how he could play her body like a guitar wound her up tight till she couldn't stand it. She screamed in frustration into the back of the couch, last thing she needed was someone telling Draco that they passed by and heard her screaming for no reason.
She did anything to keep from screaming after a few days, even practicing her origami on Draco's note. She went through all of her books, most of his drawers, and did as much physical exercise as she could without exhausting herself silly. Staring at the ceiling just made her slightly miserable and trying to sleep seemed impossible after a while when she realized that she always woke up with her nose in Draco's pillow and when his smell faded away she couldn't. She took to wearing his baggy Slytherin t-shirt that smelled so strongly of him that she doubted it would fade soon.
And that was how he found her after ten days of unfruitful searching and miserable thoughts centered around her; in bed with his shirt barely brushing the bottom of her delicious panties. She was lying on her stomach with her hands nearly tearing a pillow apart with her strong grip. Her mouth was slightly parted and he didn't hesitate to crawl into bed and kiss her, waking her up slowly with his coaxing tongue and by the time she was conscious, straddling his lap and nearly devouring him. He broke off and licked his lips as he looked at her.
"If I knew that that would be my greeting I might have stayed away longer to see what I got," he said cuddling with her willingly when she wrapped her arms around him and settled back down for sleep.
"Just shut up and sleep," she yawned before falling asleep peacefully. Draco had to vanish his clothes since she utterly refused to let go of him in her sleep. Falling asleep at record speed he wrapped his arms around her as well before his eyes drifted shut.
Hermione woke up alone in bed again and wanted to hit herself for dreaming. When she heard the bathroom door open and shut after a minute however she shot up and looked at a dripping wet Draco.
"Morning Hermione," he greeted as he walked to the closet with his towel almost falling off his hips. She watched one trail of water disappear down between his abs into the towel. She swallowed hard.
"Morning," she said weakly.
"May I ask why you commandeered my t-shirt? I thought you would have hated my house," he said glancing to find her staring hard. The blush she had made him wonder what was running through that pretty head of hers right then.
"No reason, it's just comfortable," she said stretching her legs out in front of her and leaning back on her arms. She looked perfectly comfortable and had found something to think of to stop blushing at the sight and thought of his naked body.
"Umhm," he smirked. "Well, once I'm dressed I'm gone again."
"What?" she said trying to bite back the panicked sound in her voice, but he noticed anyway.
"I'm still looking for Potter, and until he's caught I'll have to be gone," he said pulling his shirt on and tucking it in neatly.
"How long are you leaving this time?" she asked.
"Just till tonight, we're trying to cast tracking spells but Potter is notoriously slippery. I'm sure you helped him with that and he learned it well," he said pulling on his boots quickly. She pulled her knees up to her chest and bit back her sigh. He stood up and walked over to lean towards her.
"Bored Kitten?" he asked.
"Extremely," she said hoping he would stay a little longer.
"Well, I'm happy to inform you that the Daily Prophet is going to be delivered with breakfast for you. Bye Kitten, I'll you later. Don't wait up," he smiled before disappearing. She huffed angrily before pouting at herself, was it that hard to admit she missed the ferret? When the paper came she read every article on the front page but as usual the Daily Prophet was being hushed up into the more violent crimes being committed though laws regarding muggleborns and some half-breeds were being written about. It had been decided that any muggleborn that had successfully parented a new wizard or witch was from then regarded as acceptable but still monitored and harassed openly. She wanted to set it on fire but held her temper back to turn to the less important articles.
Flourish and Blotts was having a sale (she really wished she could go), Lady Malkins was having a baby (small comfort considering when she got knocked up), and Professor Snape was opening an apothecary in Diagon Alley (another place for him to torture people). Nothing really caught her interest until she saw someone had set a new high score on the O.W.L's (Not as high as hers, but close) that hadn't been matched since the early seventies. The last person to score as high had been an Angela Gerad. She froze, 'What the hell?'
"Draco!" she shouted. He came apparating in a second prepared for a battle. He looked around confused until he saw her expression. She was confused and it did not make her happy.
"What happened?" he asked worriedly.
"I don't know," she said looking back at the paper.
"Hermione, I can get my ass seriously kicked for not doing my mission. Please give me a good reason for leaving in the middle of a meeting with my aunt," he said weary and worried. His aunt would hand his ass over and say it was for his own good if he didn't get back soon.
"I think my aunt is mentioned in this paper," she said and it was his turn to freeze. 'Crap, crap, crap! He is not going to like this." He thought as he took the paper from her, sure enough in black and white was her mothers' name. He looked at her and she was biting at her nails furiously. Her parents might have skipped out on that little detail or this was a completely different Angela Gerad. She tapped a finger against her lip in thought, she could check, it would be easy, but she would need to leave and that was the last thing that Draco would want.
"What do you want me to do Hermione? I can't let you leave without me and Potter probably isn't having tea with your parents," he said crossing his arms to try and ignore the burn on his left forearm, he was pissed already.
"Go Draco, I think this can wait. I think my sanity will last that long," she said resting her head against the back of the leather couch.
"Curiosity killed the cat," he said quietly.
"Satisfaction brought it back and I need to know about this," she shortly.
"Yeah, but this isn't the type of satisfaction I wanted to give you Kitten. If I'm alive after this I promise to help you somehow in the future," he said disappearing quickly. She pulled her knees into her chest and fell sideways onto the couch. This was absolutely driving her crazy.
Draco pov
'These never get better,' he thought as he stood up from being tortured the fourth time in row. Voldemort had merely waited long enough for him to explain why he disappeared from his aunt's presence before he lit into him. Draco really wanted to go back and have Hermione take care of him, maybe cuddle for a while as his body recovered.
"How stupid are you not to check what information you give that girl? Has six years of acquaintance taught you nothing!" he shouted at Draco, barely holding back from killing the idiot.
"I didn't believe that she could possibly find anything pertinent to her ancestry, all I ask is if you kill me that you don't put her in anyone else's hands," Draco said. He nearly fainted when Voldemort smiled, not a good thing with that face.
"I believe it might be time for me to reevaluate how to deal with you Draco, your not afraid to take pain for her but losing her is more important," he said watching Draco's usually pale skin turn ghost like, perfect.
"Don't take her from me, please," Draco panicking.
"Then don't give her clues to work with, if she finds out I won't kill you, no, I'll marry her off to the first man I find suitable for her," he said. Draco felt both anger and panic, anger that anyone else would touch her and he'd definitely kill them on the spot and panic because it would be his fault if she did get married off to someone else.
"Yes sir, may I speak to her before I leave again?" he asked.
"Go, but make it quick," he snapped, Draco was gone before he was done speaking. Voldemort burned the paper quickly after he left; he had to speak to the editor personally now.
Draco was surprised to see Hermione slumped over on the couch looking miserable. She usually didn't display outward signs of misery; then again he was sure she kept it in till she believed she was alone. This probably explained why she shot up and put on an irritated expression.
"So you didn't die," she said quietly.
"No, but I still have to leave. Can you try and think of something else?" he asked.
"I'm going through death eaters and trying to classify them by the legal definition of insanity, not many are really insane I'd say," she said biting her lip a little.
"Good luck with determining that, it might take a while," he said before disappearing again. He appeared somewhere on a deserted moor in Scotland and sighed. Potter just had to be rescued during his week off.
Harry's pov
He and Ron were sitting in the woods eating the last of their supplies while trying to plan Hermione's rescue. Ron was all for going in and grabbing her but Harry didn't think it was a good idea since Voldemort would certainly have found out how they got in and prepared for it again. Ron was arguing that if he went alone and got close enough that he could just grab her and get out. Harry didn't want to risk it because if Ron got captured he would have a more difficult time moving around and Voldemort would be able to tell where he was quickly through Ron's mind.
"Well we have to do something, we can't just leave her there with them," Ron said looking miserable. Harry didn't look much better but he was trying to think.
"Wait, can you tell where Malfoy is?" he asked.
"I could want to be there and find him, yeah, but what's that got to do with this. I don't feel like seeing the Dark Lords number one lackey," Ron said viciously. He had no doubt that Malfoy would be hurting Hermione every chance he got, Voldemort's daughter or not.
"We can knock him out and steal his identity for a while to get in and get out. They shouldn't question him popping in and out to check on her should they?" Harry reasoned.
"Won't they have anti-Polyjuice spells hanging around, and Hermione didn't teach us anything that would help us with taking his identity through enough to fool other spells," Ron said looking at Harry.
"Then we have to try your way, but we need to plan this. We can't screw this up," Harry said firmly.
"We'll get her Harry," Ron assured him.
Hermione pov
She forced herself to think of something else so went about counting to one million. By the time she reached 673,309 Draco was back for the day. He looked exhausted as he pulled his shirt off and kicked off his boots, he almost didn't get his jeans off before he hit the mattress and groaned.
"Please give me a massage," he said aiming puppy dog eyes at her when he had enough strength.
"Alright, roll over," she said and he eagerly rolled into the center of the bed and put his arms under his head to wait for the feel her warm body over his working magic on his back. When he didn't feel her for a minute he looked up to find her gone.
"Where'd you go?" he called.
"I'm getting something just wait," she called back from the bathroom. He grumbled but laid back down and waited quietly for her. He felt the shift in the mattress when she climbed on and felt when she straddled his back. She poured some lavender oil between her palms and warmed it up quickly before working his lower back. His moan made her smile.
"I think you might enjoy this more then sex Malfoy," she said working up slowly.
"Hell no, but this is still good. If I could bottle what those fingers do I'd be rich," he moaned. "Move to the left please."
"I wonder what I would be doing right now if you hadn't kidnapped me," she said wandering off in thought. "Probably cooking, or knitting."
"You must have had a lot of down time," he commented.
"No, but when I did that was how I worked out stress," she said. "I've got about twenty three scarves lying around just waiting to be donated."
"Any of them green?" he asked.
"Why? Do you want one?" she asked.
"If it would keep you occupied, sure," he said feeling sleepy as her hands moved north. He was torn between flipping them over and trying to seduce her and just flipping her over and falling asleep against her chest. He picked the latter when she reached his neck and she squeaked in surprise.
"Let's go to sleep, Kitten. I'm exhausted," he said waving his wand to turn down all the lights before tucking it away securely. No reason to act stupid around her.
"I've got no choice?" she asked.
"Well, I could tie you up to the headboard and ravish you with my tongue again but that would keep me awake longer," he said hearing her heart speed up slightly at his suggestion.
"Fine, just tell your subconscious to keep its hands to itself tonight," she said knowing that if the lights were on he would see her blushing furiously. He fell asleep quickly and she could feel when his hands loosened around her and she fell asleep after wrapping hers around him.
In the morning he woke her with a quick but passionate kiss saying he wouldn't be back till after dinner.
"Potter is the official bane of my existence," he said before disappearing and she fell back asleep.
She woke up later and listened to her Ipod for a while, knowing from previous tries that all the magic floating around was interfering too much for her to tune into the radio with it to listen to the news. It sucked as well because she cast a spell for it to be able to pick up wizard radio, somehow it must be blocked and she couldn't unblock it without her wand. She started berating herself for not practicing her wandless magic more, now all she could do if she concentrated was levitate things above her in the air. Felt like being in first year again.
She got her bag from Draco's desk and started going through it. He had taken all her weapons, plus her potions supplies, spell books, and her diary. 'Wait,' she thought shifting through it one more time, 'What's he doing with my diary?'
"He is going to get an earful when he comes back, that little-," she said stopping when she heard the distinctive pop that announced someone coming in. She looked over the seat and saw Ron and Harry running toward her. "What are you doing here? They'll catch you," she standing up and looking around, expecting someone to come popping in at any second. On cue both Voldemort and Draco showed up.
"Stupefy," Harry shouted pointing at Voldemort. He blocked it and sent an Obliviate at Potter to make sure he forgot everything; he really didn't care if he forgot his name at this point. What none of them saw till it was too late was Hermione running in front of Harry to block anything that hit him. It hit her square in the chest and she slumped down to the floor like a puppet being cut from its strings.
Draco saw it a second too late but his rage had him knocking both Ron and Harry out with Stupefy's while they were looking at Hermione in shock. Draco fell next to her Hermione and pulled her against his chest trying to fight back tears. He rocked her against his chest oblivious to the amounts of people entering his room and seeing him in this vulnerable state. The only way any of them knew that he hadn't totally disappeared was growling when someone came within five feet of them to try and move her away from him.
"Draco, she needs to be looked at. I have no idea how much she's forgotten now," Voldemort said looking down at the sight of the broken boy in front of him, clutching her so tightly.
"I'll take care of her, if I need help I'll get it," Draco said mindlessly continuing to rock. "If she doesn't remember me, I don't know what I'll do."
"This was actually very fortunate for you Draco," Voldemort said. Draco looked up sharply.
"How? She might not remember me at all, what she learned, who she was," he said looking down at her beautiful face. Her eyes closed and cheeks flushed from the adrenaline that had been rushing through her made her look as if she was just sleeping instead of a forced coma.
"You can explain who her real parents are without her overreacting, she'll trust you completely and depend on you more to help her understand. You could even make Potter the enemy instead of her best friend. You can essentially become the single most important person in her life without all the hassle," Voldemort said, it sounded so tempting to Draco that as he looked down at her again it was like being able to erase everything that happened and start all over with her. Perfect as it sounded he couldn't help feel that there was something wrong with that plan.
"What if she remembers later, she'll despise me," Draco said finally realizing that his room had other people in it, though they were quickly leaving when he noticed them.
"Do you think my magic is that faulty? I meant permanent damage on the recipient, if she remembers anything it'll be a miracle," Voldemort said looking down at Hermione for a second. 'Maybe her mother didn't ruin everything then.'
"I could tell her anything and she'd believe me," Draco said sounding awed. "And she won't catch me lying later."
"Exactly, of course if you tell her that your getting married you'll need something to prove it. You do plan on marrying my daughter, don't you?" Voldemort said making the threat as subtle as possible.
"I wouldn't dream of letting anyone else have her," Draco said standing up slowly, making sure that Hermione was always close against her chest.
"Well, I'll leave you to watch her and take care of our other problems," Voldemort said smiling viciously, this time Potter wasn't going to get away unscarred.
Draco laid Hermione down in his bed before nearly hurling the last people in his room out. He pulled his armchair close to her side and sat to wait for her to wake up. Wondering if his little lioness would be timid or terrifying.]
AN: Okay, couple things. First to people who want to say something negative, please go away, I've already deleted stories because people were negative and I really don't want to do that here and I am trying to stick to my policy about haters (ignore them). Second, I have midterms soon so I may not update again till December.