The first snowfall last weekend had left a dusting of white on the ground that quickly melted into muddy slush in just a few hours. The second snow however, returned with a fury later that week. It begun in the night and poured from the sky until midafternoon, blanketing the castle in a sound crushing layer. And thus, when the Defense Against the Dark Arts NEWT class let out, almost all of Dumbledore's army was released into a white courtyard.
Hermione saw the moment the first snowball flew, Dean Thomas sinking Hannah Abbot in the back. The effect on the group was instant, fighting stances were engaged and backs turned to partners as shields went up. Silence fell over the courtyard for a moment, people waiting for the next attack.
"Er…Sorry." Dean awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. Slowly wands lowered and people relaxed as they pieced together the scene.
Neville was the one who broke the silence, laughing as he charmed a snowball to nail Harry in the head. Harry spun around, eyes blazing and face broken into a wide smile as he knocked a snowdrift off the roof to land on the boy. Suddenly there was white everywhere as spells flew through the air like Christmas lights.
The Patil twins teamed up, pummeling Ron and his sister with an endless barrage as Ginny attempted to shield. Ron fired back with heavy handed but devastating attacks. Hermione only barely saw a flash of black hair before a wave of snow crashed over them.
Hermione had been hit three times, landing returns shots on Seamus and Dean as well on that was packed a bit too tightly on McLaggen's gut, before she took cover just inside the covered corridor. Chunks of snow hit the wall as others joined her, establishing a truce while they sniped their classmates. A wild laugh was torn from her throat as Ginny rolled in next to her, chunks of pink snow clinging to her robes.
"I forgot how aggressive Lavender has gotten," she muttered before diving back out, spells flying from her wand like a sparkler.
Hermione turned back, locating Lavender— who had somehow climbed on the roof— with a pile of charmed pink snow next to her firing out bubblegum colored missiles indiscriminately, her scarred face pulled into a wild smile. Everyone was smiling actually, even those clearly losing their fights were piled under snow, laughing as they struggled beneath it. It was wonderful. Normal. Healing.
Hermione was just about to dive out and rejoin them when something grabbed the hood of her robe and pulled her back. Squeaking, as she was pulled behind a suit of armor in the shape of a hippogriff. She threw the silencing charm at her assailant, a stunning spell on her lips before he crashed into them, hungry and demanding. Her toes curled as he slipped an arm around her waist pulling her tight to his body. She should have known better really. There weren't many other people who made a habit of surprising her.
She jumped as she heard Lavender swear, followed by a featherfall charm. Suddenly, she was aware of just how poorly hidden they were with a literal army on just the other side of some thin sheets of metal.
Malfoy pulled back, eyes dark and inviting, and opened his mouth to speak. Hermione smirked when no words came out, loving the way his eyes narrowed. He gestured to his throat and she couldn't help the giggle that escaped her as she cast the counter.
"You lot are chaos incarnate." He returned to her neck to lave at the spot below her ear before muttering something under his breath. She felt the cooling wave of his magic roll over her.
For the first time in days she was aware of the way her knickers rubbed against her clit, providing delicious friction and pressure. She braced against his shoulders to keep from falling, the return of sensation almost enough to send her over the edge on its own. She sealed her mouth shut, eyes locked on the small space between the talons in front of her. If anyone looked down they would see the way their legs were tangled together...
"Malfoy." She shuddered when he purred against her ear. "We can't."
She silenced a moan when he pushed back her hair and bit at the juncture between her neck and shoulder, her body singing as the long ignored ache roared inside of her. His hands clamped down around her wrist punishingly.
"They'll hear," she whimpered.
"Then you better be quiet then."
He turned her around and pressed her back against him, the hard muscles of his chest, warm against her shoulders. His hand trailed down her side, tickling at her ribs as he flicked her robe to hang open. His teeth attacked her neck violently, leaving a searing trail of red possessiveness. He growled as his fingers traced just under the waistband of her pants.
"Where is your skirt Granger?" A quick nip to the spot just behind her ear distracted her from the sound of a projectile bouncing off of the metal. She bit her tongue as his fingers grazed along the edge of her knickers, her body urging him on.
"It's cold." Her voice was small and breathy, it barely sounded like her at all.
She leaned back to capture his mouth as he slid a finger below her waistband, swiping through her soaked folds. He swallowed her moans as he worked, a smile pressing against her lips until he pulled back to speak.
"Wear stockings," he quipped lowly, pinching at her clit and sending her knees shaking.
She considered throwing a silencing spell on herself as he pinched and pulled, her blood rushing through her body in a wave of wildfire. Her muscles quivered desperately looking for something to clamp down on. She barely noticed the sounds around them dying down until he paused, a high pitched whine pulled from her throat. He clamped his free hand around her mouth, pulling her head back against him.
"Did you hear that?" Neville's voice drifted around the statue, familiar footsteps hitting the pavement as the sounds of laughter and conversation began to fade away.
She stiffened as her friends headed towards them. With the way he held her, her robe open and Malfoy's hand shoved down her pants there would be absolutely no mistaking what they were doing. Hermione felt his mouth pull into a cruel smile as he began to press insistent strokes against her entrance. She moaned softly into his hand before her brain caught up. Her struggle did nothing to stop him, his fingers probing softly as his thumb tapped against her clit.
"I didn't hear anything," Ginny commented, her voice breathless and light. "Has anyone seen Hermione?"
Hermione's body shivered as she fought off the orgasm. Her muscles clenched and she tried to shy away from him but his arm held her firmly in place.
"Saw her hit Cormac with a nasty chunk of ice," Ron offered. "Great shot, really. Wouldn't make a bad beater if she wasn't so afraid of a broom."
"Yeah she was around here last I checked," Ginny said.
"Probably headed back to her room to get changed," Harry added. Her heart pounded violently against Malfoy's ministrations as her friends closed in on the alcove. "She is probably as soaked as we are."
"Oh yes you are," Malfoy whispered into her ear.
The two fingers pressed slowly against her. She was so close, if he kept going... He grinned as he held her up, her muscles refusing to listen as they all tightened painfully, that ache in her stomach screaming against her. She heard the whisper of a silencing charm just as she saw the first set of shoes walking past. Her body snapped as he drove his fingers in, clenching around him as she silently screamed into his hand. Her vision flickered until she gave up and forced her eyes close, spasming against his digits as she came. His arm looped around her neck holding her in place as his hand pumped her through the pent up frustration from the past few days.
By the time he lowered them to the frozen stone floor her body was twitching wildly. Her friends had gone and the courtyard fell silent. She had fallen against his chest, his arm wrapped around her holding her up as she desperately tried to get her body to move. Malfoy had turned her at some point to straddle him.
"I can't help but wonder if you want to be caught, Granger," he crooned into her ear, removing the spell and smirking as she keened loudly. "You ruined all my plans. Did you know that?"
He pulled at her hair, growling as her chest pushed against him, his rough robe dragging against her shirt.
"I had every intention of letting you suffer for a few more days. I had some very interesting spells I was planning on trying at dinner," he said.
Her hands finally moved to grasp at his shirt, tangling in the fabric with shaking fingers. More, she needed more. There had been too little for too long.
"But then I see you throwing snowballs and laughing like a child. Casting spells that could kill a man as harmless charms, with that mess of hair brushing against this flushed face." He brushed a thumb against her cheek pulling her up to meet him. His eyes a shock of electricity in the frozen gray alcove. There was an almost kind smile on his face that sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach. "And the only thing I can fucking think about is the way that voice screamed my name while I drove you into the wood of that desk."
His thumb pressed harshly onto her cheek, pain blooming behind her vision in a sea of poppies and gray. The filthy words just spurred her on. "And how this face looked covered in my cum, begging for more."
He dropped his lips to hers, brushing his tongue against them, making her eyes roll back in her head, her body snaking around his. When he pulled back he knew she was hopeless in his arms, curled up against him like an adoring pet. She felt the familiar tingle of the contraceptive charm over her stomach.
"I won't love you Granger. I won't fuck you sweetly, with light kisses and warm caresses." He pulled back, his voice low and hard. His fingers picked the top button of her blouse apart, her shirt opening toward him as she bit her lip to keep from begging him for the worst possible things he could think of.
"It's not in my nature. But if you still want this," He forced her hips down, grinding her against the hardened length until she moaned openly. "If you want me as I am." His eyes stared into her, a mesmerizing ocean of molten iron. "I will worship your body with my teeth and nails, wringing every bit of you out until there is nothing left and you are begging for mercy. I will make you so agonizingly mine that when you leave you will spend the rest of your life missing half of your soul."
Her body quivered with his promises, trying to pull away even as he held her fast. She knew better than that, better than this. She knew she would live to regret it, offering herself up like a lamb to slaughter. Maybe she had picked up a martyr complex from Harry after all. But as she looked into his eyes, words dripping around him like honey, she also knew who she was. Hermione Granger, whip smart and at the top of her game. She could move mountains, solve the impossible, and change the world if she could just stay here, awake and aware. A bit of pain was a small price to pay, regardless of the tax collector.
"I don't care," she responded, pulling their lips together into a cloying sweet kiss, twisting her arms behind his neck. Honest and kind, like he never was... like he hated.
It lasted only a moment, his hands jerking at her hips to grind her into him before he pulled them up, her legs locked around his hips. His mouth bit at her lip hard enough to draw blood in retaliation. She whined as the heavy metallic taste colored the kiss with darkness and lust. Not sweet. Not loving. But that didn't matter; it wasn't the point.
He stepped out into the corridor with her still wrapped around him, one hand supporting her bottom and the other drawing his wand. Before she could protest the publicness of it she felt an insanely strong compulsion to go check on Harry. She was sure he was injured. She needed to run to Gryffindor tower right the minute to check on him.
"Harry's-"
She screamed when he bit at the skin of her breast, teeth leaving angry red imprints. He threw up a silencing spell over the whole corridor, just as the powerful compulsion charm faded from her mind. A dull pain registered as he slammed them against the wood.
"You will never-" He hissed, licking at the flesh with the tip of this tongue, sending an aching rush of warmth between her legs as they locked tighter around him. "Let any other name-" He ground his length into her, unbuckling his pants with that beautiful clicking sound. "Cross those slutty little lips-" He paused to kiss her punishingly leaving her breathless and gasping. "While you are with me." His hand hooked at the back of her trousers and knickers, yanking them down and around her arse. He lined up against her, that fucking awful pressure that she craved so very close. "Clear?"
"Crystal," she growled
The word morphed into a moan as he drove into her. She hadn't appreciated how big he was the last time, the position was too limiting. This time, god this time she felt every sweet inch as he stretched her to the point of breaking. He fucked her against the door violently, giving her no room to adjust as she threw her head back and cried. Her head banged against the the wood as flashes of white shot across her vision when he slammed into that spot deep within her without pausing enough to let her breathe.
He bit at her other breast, the silk between her skin and his mouth providing no defense. His lips moved up her collar bone, his hands digging into the soft flesh of her bottom as he spread her apart to take all of him. It was brutal, degrading and unapologetically feral. Thinking briefly of his permanent bored look and completely controlled manner, she couldn't help but think that in spite of the circumstances, she was only one who had ever really seen Draco Malfoy.
As if reading her thoughts and enraged by them he picked up the pace, erratically spearing into her until her mind turned to jello. She felt that slow, creeping build up, her body fluttering useless around him as her muscles contracted. Her arms tightened around his neck pulling her flush against him, as her body burst and soared far away. She barely even felt it when his teeth broke the skin on her neck and he finished inside of her, holding them up only by the crushing pressure of his body against hers.
The first thing she became aware of was the rough wood digging into her back, his hands still twitching against her flesh as he panted against her skin. His hair was mussed from where her fingers had tangled in it. Late afternoon sun slowly seeped through the courtyard, stretching through the archways to fall on his back, tickling against fingertips. Her shoulder ached, a slow bead of blood dripping down to pool at her collarbone where his canine had nicked the skin too harshly. She gasped as he pulled away, his tongue prodding just above it softly as he whispered a healing spell.
"There. We're even," he murmured, almost too softly for her to hear. She glanced at the spot high on his cheekbone where her slicing hex still hadn't healed right. They weren't even. She hadn't even bothered to heal him.
The bleeding on her shoulder had stopped but the star shaped mark was still red and angry as he pulled away from her, lowering her body until her feet touched the ground.
Hermione sagged against the doorway, her burning muscles slid to the ground slowly, dragging her clothing partially back on in the process. He stepped back staring at her for a moment before shaking his head. That bored expression returned.
"Anything else?" He rolled his wand in his fingertips. The movement was entrancing. She felt a pang of guilt as she realized it was a new wand.
"No."
"Fine." He nodded curtly turning to leave when she had enough awareness to ask,
"When… when will I see you again?"
He slowed, a contented smile spreading across his lips and wearing away the years of the war. For once he actually just looked like a satisfied teenager, love drunk on a girl. It was a dangerous image.
"I'll let you know," he hummed, rolling his shoulders before they slouched, empty of all tension. "Oh, by the way."
He bent at the waist, his fingertips curling under her chin as he tilted her face up. The sunlight shadowed him, glinting off his hair while framing his face. "Leave the bruises."
She blinked. Not quite understanding until he traced the angry red welts on her neck. She cringed away forcing herself to stand.
"Absolutely not." Suddenly feeling more herself, she adjusted her uniform and robes trying to smooth out the wrinkles as best as she could. "The boys would go on a warpath, demanding answers I can't give them."
"Too bad. I like seeing my marks on you." Before she could react he molded his body against her. She moaned as his fingers found her wrist and his mouth sucked at already darkening skin.
"I suppose you may glamour them," he said regretfully. "But you will not vanish them. I enjoy watching you flinch whenever you turn your head."
She considered vanishing them just on the principle of it, but the way his voice purred around her made her want to do anything and everything for him. Figuring she would have left them anyway she swallowed, nodding her head.
"Good girl," he whispered in her ear, satisfying something unknown in her chest. He left just as quickly, the silencing charm he had put on the hallway ended with an audible crack. She was just getting her breathing under control as she heard the first footsteps of students heading down to dinner.
00000000
To her chagrin and pride she was getting better at glamours. It took a fair bit of effort to push a spell meant to cover up pimples to the point where it could cover the deep eggplant bruises that danced along her swollen skin. She was constantly reapplying them for fear they would slip off without her noticing. On the plus side, she was having great fun driving Malfoy insane.
She first noticed it after she stumbled down to dinner, trying to cover her limp with a confident stride. Her usual spot between Ron and Harry had been filled by a chattering Lavender Brown who seemed to be sniffing at Ron with a keen interest while he ate. She stood as Hermione arrived but Hermione waved her off. The idea of trying to squeeze between both boys without knocking against something sore seemed downright impossible.
"Here, Hermione," Neville offered, making room between him and Ginny.
She settled onto her seat carefully hoping that the soreness on her arse was temporary and would be gone by class the next day. Otherwise she would need to find an excuse to stand for Athrimancy. Without warning, Neville threw his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him as if to conspire.
"Hermione here was-" She bit her tongue and stiffened, he hovered his arm lightly, glancing at her shoulders as if he wasn't exactly sure what he had done. "Sorry about that Hermione. I forgot I saw Lavender pelt you with that big one earlier. You doing alright?"
Hermione didn't recall getting hit by the blonde but judging from Lavender's resulting blush she had at least tried. Hermione instantly reassured her as Ron broke into a play by play of the battle for anyone who missed it.
Hermione looked over to the Slytherin table where Malfoy was rolling his eyes at something Pansy Parkinson had said. For a moment she thought he had missed it.
But the second his eyes landed on hers they flashed dangerously and her muscles pulsed anxiously under the table. It only lasted a moment before he turned back to his housemates, leaving her excited and the tiniest bit fearful.
She shook off the feeling and focused on her friends, leaning slightly into the familiar wizard as he dropped his hand to cup around her bicep instead. Malfoy could go to hell, he didn't own her. Or at least it was easy for her to tell herself that when he was safely thirty feet away.