Chapter 27

Masters

The Great Hall was filled with the morning laughter that came just before class. Sleepy eyes fully awakened by the steam of tea and porridge. The light of the sun through colored glass threw a beautiful party within the room, a blinding start to the mind. Smiles found their way to faces. Late morning was a joyous time. The room buzzed with excitement.

Hermione listened to Ginny as she talked. Her lips formed into a smile. She was aware that Harry was near, brooding in his typical way that had her fingers clenched against the porcelain cup in hand. It was nice that the redheaded witch filled the silence with her gossip of the previous day. She even made a comment about a private conversation she overheard between her brother and Lavender.

Rather than wince as she did, Hermione's face lightened. It was nice that Ronald had someone be kind to him. He deserved it.

Harry and she had not made this his easiest year. He was torn, same as she was, between the people he loved. Even now, he sat between his two friends in noted silence amongst them.

It was lucky that the other louder Gryffindors overshined their division with their antics. Boisterous laughter and the like.

Seamus and Dean were nearly to tears over something over a boy would find funny. Evident by the laughing of the Weasley twins and their younger brother. Harry even chuckled.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Will they ever grow up?"

"I suppose. If you've got twenty years to wait it out," Ginny remarked with a smirk. When it was met with the subtle, disapproving shake of Hermione's head, it let the wind out of her sails. "Come now. You don't find it the least bit cute? They like to play and joke. Stupid, yeah. But none the less adorable."

"Childish, immature, uncivilized." Hermione recited the words that better suited their humor. "Why are there so few who truly act their age?"

"Ah, age is just a number. It isn't a sign of anything."

The beans hanging from Dean's nose certainly proved that. Her eyes filled with frustration. "Cleary it isn't the measure to use on Gryffindor wizards."

"But it is on Slytherin wizards of the blonde variety, is it?"

Chills went down the back of her arms. Hermione went cold beneath her jumper. "I don't want to talk about him."

Ginny pushed out her bottom lip. "You won't even tell me what happened? Me? Your best friend?"

"No. Really. I'm just not…"

The words were lost to her mouth when she noticed the late arrival of a Slytherin so disheveled he was hardly recognizable. Her eyes traced his journey alongside the outer wall of the Great Hall up to his seat just straight across the room from her own.

Greasy locks, barely styled and contained. Robes haphazardly thrown on. The purple bags a clear inch beneath his eyes.

"Godric," Ginny gasped when she noticed him.

"He's a wraith," Hermione exhaled softly. It was more like a whimper. She could not help but feel the shock of his appearance.

Her friend grabbed her shoulder. "What happened? Tell me. Spit it out right now. What's going on?"

"Gin, please. No. I can't."

"Did you break up?" She whispered loudly into her ear.

Hermione shook away. "Um, no. We weren't dating to have broken up."

"But Mione." Her friend glanced around the table to ensure no other paid attention to them. "You're in love with him."

"I don't need you to remind me what I am."

"You don't have to get angry." Ginny gently stroked the ends of her curls. "I'm just trying to understand."

She took a long inhale. "I don't even know if I understand right now. I'm trying to riddle it out along with everything else so, please. When I find out, I'll tell you. There are no answers to give right now."

"Alright." Her friend nodded.

The hall was too much to handle. She needed some fresh air.

"Gin, I've got to go," she explained as she rose from the table. It took everything inside to not glance over at the table of snakes.

Not his eyes. Don't find his eyes. She could not sneak out his gaze like some lovesick girl no matter how much it pained her to see him so withdrawn.

"Oh. Okay."

Hermione gathered up her belongings: a satchel filled with the days needs, a gray Hogwarts issued jumper, and a tattered book Hogwarts: A History. She turned to it in times of great stress. Something about its word took her back to that thrill when she was eleven and came to the school for the first time. It was like a memory. The information about the great school, like a childhood fantasy of perfection and comfort.

She cradled the book against her chest as she walked. Her legs moved swift.

On the threshold in way of the mighty doors, a hand brushed across her shoulder, lightly grazing her flesh intent to clamp on but not sinking in. The hands were too gentle to be the ones she most expected it to be.

"Ron," she breathed. "What is it?"

"Are you alright?"

The noise of the room behind them filled their ears. A background fire, cackling and popping, a constant chatter. They moved closer, an instinct to hear one another.

She tucked her hair behind her ears. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," he said.

"I am."

"He doesn't look fine either."

A growl mounted at the back of her throat. "Harry will be fine."

It was short bark. When it escaped her lips, it sounded like Draco was there. A Malfoy-equse response. Brilliant. Now she'd picked up his mannerisms. What else could go wrong?

The red head glanced over his shoulder. His blue eyes swung across the flow of faces until it came back to hers. "I wasn't talking about Harry."

"I'd rather not talk abou-."

"Mione. You don't have to lie to me. Harry told me what happened." His voice was lower, closer to her ear. "Why didn't you say anything? Thought you was upset with me."

"Oh, no. Ronald. I'm not angry at you." Her arms reached out and hugged him. "I just – I don't know. They have not treated me right. Neither of them has. And it isn't fair. They deserve a bit of silence. A lot of silence if they don't apologize. I mean, what haven't I done for them? They could show a bit of the same curtesy."

The words lifted a weight off her chest. More so, Ron's hold on her as he hugged away her worries eased the tension in her heart. Her lips smiled against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"It isn't your fault."

"I know." His shoulders shrugged as they pulled away from their embrace. "I still mean it."

Her thanks did not convey the level of gratitude she had for his friendship.

Once again Hermione spirits were lifted. She traveled through the castle with an unburdened heart. Well, as much as it could be in the climate. The world was still in shambles. There was hardly a breath that was not under the pressure of the changing tides.

During her free period after she lost her trail of Crabbe and Goyle, her feet climbed high into the castle down past the Room of Requirement to an unused corridor. Her footsteps left prints through the dust fallen atop the stone flooring.

Perfect.

There was another set through the grime. They led down to the dead end.

"He took the bait," the voice said through the dim.

Hermione was half surprised the plan had worked. It was not formulated with the upmost confidence when she wrote the letters. She placed trust in someone that she wasn't sure would comply.

"He thinks you're leaving," Daphne added. "Judging by the way he appeared at breakfast, it's safe to say he's distraught by the news."

"Thank you for helping." Hermione fiddled her fingers against the hem of her shirt. "I wasn't certain you'd agree to it after what I said about you."

The blonde witch stepped closer. She held her arm awkwardly against her. "It makes us even, doesn't it?"

Hermione nodded. "It does."

"Now can we be friends again?"

Revenge against Draco made up for the lapse in her judgement, which Hermione was no longer certain was selfish but rather a sensitive matter concerning her family. It was not easy for the Slytherins. It was either align or be killed.

Lucius Malfoy was a killer, tried and true. Narcissa was bound to be just as lethal judging by the way she raised her son. She knew her way around a plot or two. Daphne was easy prey for them to devour. Whole.

"One condition. You tell me the plots that Draco shares with you."

She couldn't risk another embarrassment like the Astoria incident.

"After this, I doubt he will trust me with another one of his plots."

"Fair enough," she replied. Her hands reached into the billowy folds of her robes. A pale envelope emerged. "Here it is. It says to meet me after Potions. Give it to him. Let him come find me."

Daphne took it. "So soon? You don't want to wait it out?"

She was dying to have him back. "No. Too long will make him more furious than relieved. It has to be now." She swallowed the hardening lump at the back of her throat. "Trust me. He'll have suffered enough. You saw what he looked like. It's killing him. Crabbe and Goyle actually ran to try to keep up with me. He's got to be going mad if they're moving that quick."

Her pale brows jumped high. "Ran, as in fast walking?"

"Sprinting," Hermione clarified with a knowing tone.

The witch tucked the note within her pocket. "I better get this to him right away."

And just like they planned, the witches went into Potions together and worked as partners. Snape struggled to reign in the distaste for Hermione while she worked with a Slytherin. If he were to insult her, it'd be insulting his own house.

It was not easy considering he had a lesson with Harry planned that day. Instead of it being at night like it should have been, it was arranged during the day, thanks to Draco's detention for fighting at the Three Broomsticks. His moods were foul with the impending lesson with Harry. Rarely were they well received by either party.

The time with Draco as a companion left her body sensitive to his presence. He practically vibrated at the back of the class. She felt the power built up through the air, weaving toward her, the creeping of his eyes, dissecting her every move from behind.

It was not fear that throbbed throughout her.

She allowed herself a glance through the fallen strands of her concentration over to the blonde ambition across the room. The dreamy grey were moons. He worked his wand over the ingredients without looking away from her eyes.

To drive the illusion home to his heart, her eyes swam with tears as she looked away.

"Did it look convincing?" She whispered to Daphne.

"A wand would kill him easier, you know."

"I don't want to kill him," she answered. "Just maim him a little."

The rest of the period was filled with static electricity. None of them could explain it, but they all felt the clinging in the air. Eyes darted around. It fell quiet. Question filled their faces, spotted curiosity and confusion.

It was obvious only to Hermione that Draco was the one who changed the mood. His energy radiated to their magical cores. The overwhelming tension within his soul spread to theirs, a tangible loss of his control.

They gushed from the door the moment Professor Snape hissed his dismissal. No one wanted part of the brewing trouble they felt.

Draco was the first one through. He was out of sight by the time Hermione emerged into the corridor.

"Good luck, love." Daphne forced a smile.

Good luck indeed.

The day was especially cold. Winter seeped through the thick stone walls and froze the air they breathed. Hazy white clouds emerged from their lips with each exhale.

A couple seventh year wizards played with their breath, changing them into white smokey animations. One changed his breath to a chirping bird. The other then made a cat. The cat's paw reached over and swatted at the little bird. It chirped and hopped away, but the cat was quicker. It leapt up to grab it and suffocated it with its claws.

They were in fits of giggles by the time she walked past. Their entertainment baffled her.

The time it took to march down to the other end of the castle gave the much-needed preparation Hermione needed to stow away her vulnerability. Draco held power over her. She wanted it back, but part of her liked the absence of it. The fight was a thrill. The victory, a larger peak than what any other challenge felt like.

Ten thousand floods released when they were together, a growing mounting pressure, the grand opening of pouring waters, crashing, violently, into one another.

That power was intoxicating. It was that taste that coated Draco's tongue.

Her flesh prickled at the reminder she'd be close to him once more. It missed the way he touched her.

Of course, her sensibilities chastised her inner workings like an impetuous child. So easily swayed by the attentions of a wizard. She was a disgrace to her house, her name, her culture. To love an entitled purist? What was she thinking? He treated her like a commodity, never listened, went against her wishes to exercise the extent of his possessiveness.

If she wanted to be a trophy, then she should accept her fate as nothing but an item on his shelf to be used to his desire and placed there in a timeless bottle, awaiting the next play date.

She lied to herself that it was not an attractive, seductive idea. Being used for his desires. Her body his own playground to peruse and satisfy, teasing and taunting her, making the edge of his tension so large that when the time came that her relief was to be felt, it would be the tsunami that ripped through her body. The peak of climax, an Everest.

Shameful, her mind chided.

Hermione Granger was an independent, educated, liberated woman who happened to be a witch. She was impressive all on her own. No wizard made her more important than she was already, alone.

What did it matter if Draco Malfoy – the most popular boy in school – shagged her like she was the only thing he saw? His attentions were nothing but with his cock! It probably roused at a Sunday chicken the same as it roused for her. He was not special.

Liar, her heart muttered.

She was the same tangled mess when she arrived at the classroom. It was an unused room that was used as an introductory space for first years. Half the year, it sat in its own filth waiting for the next part of the year to deem it useful again.

Her footsteps echoed in the empty expanse. The bitter taste of grit coated her tongue as she inhaled deeply. She winced. It was not the dusty taste of the ancient books like in the library, but the taste of dirt. Plain, disgusting dirt. Her tongue darted all around to lose the taste before it made her retch.

A single sconce ignited as she neared. Drawn curtains allowed beams of brilliant white, winter sunlight to cast through into the depths of the room.

The room laid in quiet wait. Peaceful. Serene.

However, that lull was splinted by the deafening creak of old hinges and the bang of a wooden door back to its frame.

She gasped and turned around. Her satchel clattered to the floor. "Who's there?"

It was an involuntary response rather than a true question. There was only one she knew with such a flair for the theatrics.

Silence the only answer to her voice.

Then the latch clicked closed.

A steady click of steps sounded around her. The long growing shuffle of feet against the stone floor as they walked closer. It was only until they breached the dark cover of shadow that she realized just who had locked her inside.

"Not who you were expecting, pet?"

Her features summoned up an expression of stoic indifference to his presence. The quivering of her guts said different.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"To fetch what is mine."

His tone was rigid out his throat. He moved nothing at all to speak. The cold broken face of his beauty stayed the statue it was, lips parted ever so slight.

"That's not what I am anymore." Tension ran thick through her throat. It was not easy to swallow that disappointment down. "Nothing of mine is yours."

She wanted a reaction. That was the point of the charade. She wanted proof that he cared enough to do what he had to keep her.

A Slytherin was a restrained person. She expected perhaps some nasty words – as was par the course with him – then a possible grab on the shoulder to keep her from running away. That was it.

Draco's face changed the moment her words left her lips. He raised his hidden wand and casted a spell. She was thrown back against the wall, pinned against the cold stone. Her arms and legs refused to move. They were paralyzed with some invisible binding that left her frozen to his will.

She blinked hard in disbelief. He cursed her.

He appeared before her as the solemn king of black. His eyebrows pulled up in the middle, clear distress throughout his mouth, the bobbing of his Adam's apple within his neck. The fallen greasy strands of his hair hanged across half his face without care.

"You'd leave without telling me? Saying goodbye?" He blew the frustrations out his nose with his next breath. "Australia? Australia?"

It was as if he heard himself for the first time. He shook out his thoughts and tried again. "You cannot leave. I won't allow it."

"I don't care."

"Yes," he hissed. "You do."

Her jaw clenched tight. "Let me go, Draco."

"No!"

The strength of his voice ripped through the dense quiet. It awoken the anger that she'd forgotten about.

"I'll leave England and never come back." She spoke through a wall of her teeth. "That's what you want, isn't it? All the mudbloods gone from these shores. Never to return. I'll do it."

His face twisted. His wand tucked back into his pocket. It ripped through the fabric with a sharp tear that neither acknowledged with anything but a flicker of their eye.

Hermione tensed against the spell. Her hands flexed. The sharp grey of his eyes darted to their strain. He sniffed in distaste and looked away.

"It doesn't matter. I can have you if I want to. My father will find and catch you. You'll have to come back. You won't have a choice. I'll make you."

Venom came back to her tongue. Thoughts fired through her mind in rapid fire.

"You might kidnap me and bring me back, but you won't have me." It was wrong to revel in the anguish he felt yet she didn't let that affect her. He deserved it. "Hermione won't exist any longer. I'll be a blank slate. You'll be nothing to be me. I won't even remember who you are."

His fists hit the wall on either side of her head as he let out a frustration scream. "What do you want from me, Hermione? What do you want? You want me to beg?"

"Yes."

"That's what you want, yeah? You want to see me beg for you."

Her face tensed taut with anger. "On your knees."

There was a clear-cut despair throughout Draco's precious restraint. Once he realized there was no release from her request, the air left his lungs. His height shrank. The twist of his lips as he looked away from her, debating with himself, each side twisting and contorting his flesh to their will as he battled.

His back turned to her. Head hanged loose at his neck.

"And you'll stay," he murmured. "You won't leave if I do."

"I'll leave if you don't," she spat.

His head bobbed. She watched his hands run through his messy locks with a noted calm.

The spell released. Her feet dropped to the floor with a sharp pressure. The edges of her robe brushed the ground and swept up a line of dust in the process. She grimaced, pulled the fabric off her shoulders and tossed it over a nearby chair.

For once, it was she who held power over Draco Malfoy. She wanted to enjoy it before he found a way to claim it back.

Her thighs pressed together. The skirt folded in half between her thighs as she leaned against the wall.

The courage to continue was dwindling. She did not like breaking him down. It burned her chest just to watch the heartbreak in his eye each time he looked at her.

For Godric sakes, hurry up and get it over with! She wanted a kiss before the day was out.

Come on, Draco. Just say it already.

But she kept her patience bottled within. She allowed the silence to marinate. His actions justified a hardened response.

It was minutes of eerie, tense silence filled with expectation until Draco turned around. He pulled off his black Slytherin robes until only a green striped tie and a white shirt were left. His eyes stayed fixed on hers as he removed his silver cufflinks. Each clinked into a small tray at a nearby desk. Then he rolled up each sleeve.

The pale flesh of his forearm exposed sent a chill down her spine. Cool beads of sweat descended over the rise and falls of her spinal cord, dripping down beneath her jumper until it reached the waistband of her skirt.

He ran his pale tongue across his lips. "Do you want me to crawl too?" It was a dull sting to his usual sharpened whip of a tongue.

"No," she answered, softer than the harsh voice from before. "Just on your knees."

Draco sank to the floor in a graceful slide. His arms were at his sides. Wand fell from his fingers and rolled away from him. He made no effort to reach it.

He crumbled to bits of stained glass at her feet. The tiny beautiful bits of his ego, his arrogance, his total indifference, his control shattered at the drop away from his face, which now assumed a face full of remorse and sadness. Defeat was in his eyes. Their glisten reflected in the light of the sconce.

"Please," he managed to croak. It was, however, filled with desperation.

Hermione was so stricken that a wetness of her own gathered within her vision. The grip of guilt held her throat in a taut lock that made each gulp more and more difficult.

Vengeance had not tasted as good as before.

Her eyes broke contact with his with the hopes he might not see through her wavering strength. "And are you sorry for attacking Harry?"

"No."

"Say you're sorry," she cried. "Just apologize and stop this."

"That's the problem with you, Granger. You never bothered to ask me. He attacked me. I was minding my own business, on my way to collect you and he approached me."

"For Merlin's sake, Draco. Tell me you're sorry."

"I'm not."

She let out a strangled scream. "Then I'm leaving."

Before she took the first step away from him, away from him forever, his lips let loose a small sigh. "I'm sorry. Not for Potter though. I'm sorry," he struggled to say it twice, "for hurting you."

Hermione Granger approached the fallen Draco Malfoy, at his knees and vulnerable from a venomous attack to his core. She was in the power to destroy him. The words were locked away in a hidden place. The latch tingled slightly.

Should she do it? Should she be free of his tyranny once and for all?

The outcome was better than she planned. The breaking of his shield was a moment in time where the future lingered on the outcome, an entire future put on pause, to be determined by what happened next.

But something in Draco reminded her of all the emotions she felt in his chaotic control. The way she loved to be beneath him, under his grasp, the wandering of his eyes and the close attention he paid to her every motion. The way he cared for her was unlike any she'd known.

The guise of his threat made it easy to fall beneath his spell like a lovesick teenager, yet in the back of her mind, she'd formulated many ways to slip out from his game. The time she spent revealed the intimate ways at how he worked. She knew what his weakness was. Still, her tongue fixed behind her teeth unable to speak it.

She dropped to the ground. Their knees kissed together.

Draco was the first to read it. His body lunged at hers. Soft lips pushed against hers as hands gripped her shoulder, her cheek, her hair. His touch filled her with fire as it roamed.

The wetness happened all at once. Her body reacted to the touches in anticipation. The swelling within her knickers desired it so much that it pained her to wait.

Her hand slipped between the buttons of his shirt to find the hard warm flesh below. Her fire grew. The cold sweats turned warm. All at once his kisses went against a soft spot at her neck, finger fingers forcing her buttons to concede beneath his visible lust. The tingles shot straight to her nipples with the slightest touch of her bra. They swelled to the point of pain, just like her pussy, as erotic images of their previous trysts played a movie within her mind.

Godric, she had to have it.

"Oh, Draco," she whimpered.

The breath against her ear turned panicked. It went so quick. Her heart struggled to keep pace with the labored breath.

He ripped the final button open. The two halves of her blouse flew open. Frigid air rushed to greet the burning flesh of desire, caressing the beads of sweat and turned them to refreshing rivers cut over her skin where lust burned brightest. One managed to survive the dense of her waistband to the thin cotton knickers until it finally dropped right to her clit.

A tremble erupted throughout her body.

Draco groaned with satisfaction. The urgency within his touch now evident. He pushed her onto her back, his body on top of her.

The empty room was filled with the noises of their desires as they moaned and groaned and breathed without care of what escaped through. It echoed back at them, a sound board to the nature of their rendezvous. Sounds of Draco's excitement, his audible urge to shag her, made her drip out of her knickers.

"I missed you," she shuddered in between their kisses. His hot breath against hers, the scent that now excited her beyond measure. How much she loved to feel his closeness.

He continued kissing down her neck and across her chest. The wet of his tongue left a trailed around each of her breasts down to their nipples where she was given the chance to feel his mouth suctioned against them.

Whimpering moans slipped through. "Merlin, Draco. You make me so wet."

She felt his smile against her flesh. He flicked his tongue roughly against her breast.

"Hush now, pet," his lips murmured against her skin. "I've not even begun to be done with you."

Her body shivered. He released her nipples from his hold. It provided relief, but disappointing relief from the tension throughout her. The tension dipped back low again. His kisses trailed downward. The soft of her belly met his lips with a slight tickle.

Then came a sensation. It climbed up her leg, across the bare expanse like a ghost's touch, rising from her ankle to her knee to then to her thigh. A sudden breeze aired out her knickers.

Draco had flipped up her skirt. The basic white knickers laid there with a large damp spot in the center of their face. His eyes found pleasure in it. A look of pure satisfaction brought the shimmer back to his grey moons. They flashed back up at her with a devious nature.

Hermione's skin flushed hot. What was he going to do to her?

The fabric was yanked down to her ankles with one swift rip. She yelped.

The cool air greeted all her swollen excited parts with their stinging numbness. Sticky warmth turned to oozing chill the longer he admired the view of her dripping pussy, savoring each drip down to the dusty floor.

Hermione thought he might be making her suffer as revenge for her taking control in the moments prior. He was a prideful wizard. The passing minutes were utter agony to wait in anticipation of what he might do.

But what he did…it was unthinkable.

Draco's face dropped below and buried itself within her gaping folds without warning. Wet and slippery was his tongue as it tasted the gaping wetness, licking each side of her until it was only wet with his salvia.

Her hands shot to his head. Fingers buried throughout the strands of his blonde hair, the only saddle she had for the ride she felt coming through.

She moaned out with each flicker. The heat of his breath as it warmed up the frigid parts was surrender, and it melted her body to the floor, and the rapid beating of his tongue against the erected clit was the only type of beating she enjoyed.

"I think I'm going to pass out!"

Her lungs heaved with each breath. Cramps in her legs bent them against his body. Each thigh cupped his face, until he shoved them apart.

"No, you don't." He growled. His teeth grazed the inside of her exposed thigh. It's shiver of pain felt stronger, and less like pain. "Not until your cum is all I taste for days."

The pulling of his lips against her clit did little compared to the deep puncture of his words.

The one time she liked the way his voice penetrated her.

Pain leeched through her extremities. Her fingers were so rigid they hurt. Shoes fought against the urge to curl her toes back.

More and more as the pressure built, her legs fought against his dominating hold. The length of his open hands dug into her thigh to keep her spread eagle against his face.

"Don't you move, pet. I'm in control of you now." Two fingers of his opposite hand toyed with her entrance. It was a forgotten place as his mouth assaulted the sensitive tip of her pussy, but the pressure of his fingers as they circled her entrance surged her body alive with new sensations. A slow slip into her depths maxed the tension throughout her. Tingles spider-webbed across her skin, boiled at the center of her thighs.

Her lips let out a startled gasp. It was a blissful melody as it repeated back to their ears.

"Godric, you're a master," she moaned.

He was. A pussy master. And she was his little pet, willing to lap up any kind of mess he wanted, so long as he kept mastering her pussy, she would do anything for him.

His tongue lessened while his fingers quickened. They shoved up inside her gushing insides with little resistance. Each time his palm smacked against her stretched pussy, her neck lulled back.

"And you're my little pet, aren't you?" His mouth purred. There was a shiny outline throughout his face where she had been.

She nodded quickly. "Bloody hell, I'll be your little whore. Just don't stop."

"Mmm, pet. You like when I talk to you. I can feel you shiver."

All she could do was nod. Her head felt faint. She was surrendered to his will.

"You won't leave me, will you? Not when I can do this to you. Isn't that right, poppet? You fit right at the end of my fingers." He watched his fingers slide in and out. His eyes lost in the squeezing warmth of her body, like she didn't want him to leave, but stay, buried inside of her. His lips curled to a satisfied smirk. "Your master knows how to please you. More than anyone else, I know what you want. That's why you can never leave me. You'll never be satisfied. They'll never crave the taste of you like I do. There is only one master to a pet. And I am yours."

She started to quiver. Her body tense and taut in the ascension of climax, nearly there.

Her lips developed a life of their own. "Yes, yes. Please me, master. I'll -." She couldn't continue. All breath was forced out of her lungs by the hearty explosion throughout. The orgasm ripped through her muscles. It erased everything from mind. How to talk, to breathe, to move.

Draco's fingers withdrew. He watched Hermione with delight as he plunged them both into his mouth, sucking the juices of her orgasm off his hand like whipped cream, in hopes that she might react.

Hermione was too lost to react to anything. She was overcome with sensation. Every centimeter of her body was filled with something, emotion and tension and relief, all at once.

It fell silent in the room. The strength of it dropped through the pounding of her pulse to measure the mark of quiet around.

"No more," Draco broke through the silence. "No more talk of leaving, pet. You're here to stay."

All the plotting was just as she expected. He was scared to have her leave. Even then, what he did. It was to please her, not just himself. It was his manipulation to keep her. She saw it now. For once she was able to enjoy the manipulation for her own gains. He held no control over what happened and he didn't even know it.

Her lips curled to a satisfied smile. An orgasm cured all her ails. Her body was alive and glowing. The confidence of that lioness emerged through her thick hide. She flicked her hair back over her shoulder. A flourish of her fingers dropped the glamour charm around her neck.

"My necklace," he murmured as the jewelry faded into view. The gleam of the metal caught on a nearby candle. It took him a full minute of staring at the charm before his body changed. He shifted away. Eyes flashed up toward the ceiling. His tongue ran along his teeth. "You set me up."

Hermione climbed up from the floor. She grabbed hold of her knickers and tucked them into her robes before she placed the flowing black fabric back on her shoulders. "Perhaps."

"You never were going to leave."

"You should have known better," she chastised.

"I did," he said through gritted teeth. His nose wrinkled with a foul scowl on his lips. "I was too distracted to think straight, but now as I think about it, I realize how unlike you it was. I should have seen it sooner."

He was unhappy at his oversight. Displeasure laced through his body.

"Quite the plotting," Draco said bitterly after a moment.

She stood away; arms crossed. "I learned from the best."

He snickered quietly. "Quite."

An explosive reaction was what she prepared for. Hermione had all her points at the forefront of her mind ready to be used in argument. Draco never waited to spoil any moment with his spiteful tongue.

The delay of his verbal assault conflated her read of the wizard.

Her feet dared to step in his way. "You aren't angry?"

He shook his head. He clicked his tongue. "No. No, I am furious."

"Furious?" She questioned.

He did not look furious to her.

"If there is ever a whisper of you leaving again – even the slightest start of a whisper – I'll take you somewhere you will not escape."

Hermione blinked back her shock. It was only a day. A day should not have set off his fury yet.

She staggered back away from him. The threat rang through her ears.

"You'd kidnap me?"

"I'd do a lot more than that if you ever tried to leave me." His fury emerged atop his tongue. It changed his tone to something full of adoration and desperation to demonic and dark. Draco was not a wizard that frightened her. Except that. That tone from deep within him.

It sank down to her core.

The source of his obsession came from a place of darkness, the pitch black of the soul that few dared dwell. It was a source of untapped brutality and scorn. Total evil. A place that granted the gift to see in the dark to those who dared enter its realm all too often, in the form of slitted red eyes.

A/N:

Stockholm is back thanks for all the patience. Now, I don't usually plug myself here, but I'd like to let all my readers know that I am not only a fanfiction author, but an actual one. I have a novel on Amazon called, Beast of Shadow that I'd really love for everyone to check out and read and possibly leave a review or two. There is *implied* smut but nothing graphic, a fantasy novel about true love and destiny with lots of mysteries on mysterious lands and what it means to love someone who is perceived a villain. If anyone is interested, please check out this link:

Beast-Shadow-Raven-Huffman/dp/1725757613/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1621001918&sr=1-3

ThANKS!