A belated Christmas gift for you, guys!

I promised to finish this and I will keep my word, just bear with me, please.

Have a great time, I hope you will like the new POV :-)

Dedicated to all of you who are still here with me :-*

Chapter 17

Draco knew something was different between them as soon as he laid his eyes on the pair of them. They were not nervous about each other, not vary as they used to be in the last weeks. Not simply indifferent or friendly either.

They were relaxed, gave each other fond glances and Granger had actually tried to do something about her hair - which was nearly unheard of - but still hadn't quite managed to cover its ruffled state.

They had definitely had sex recently. A good one.

A pang of jealous pain resonated through his chest at that realization and he fought hard so that it wouldn't show on his face - or not differently than as his ordinary sneer.

Merlin, what had Severus done to earn her? Earn, not deserve. No one was good enough to deserve a girl like Granger.

What did he have that Draco didn't?

He had tried for years to impress the girl, to catch her attention, to make her see his worth and what her life would be like if she showed him any recognition at all.

At first it was just a competition - he wanted to see if he could get her to fawn over him as all the other girls did and then dunk Potter's face in it. But, as the time went by, through his careful observation aimed to see where her soft spots were, he slowly discovered that things steadily got reversed; he didn't want to get her because he hated Potter anymore - he hated Potter because he wanted her, because he was jealous of him.

Him, Draco Malfoy, jealous of anyone!

But she cared just about Potter, Longbottom and the Weasley brat, all of them poor and with no manners or grace at all. Furthermore, she didn't even love THEM, never dated any of these boys as far as he knew.

She never wanted money nor power, never did anything she considered immoral. All that Granger ever wanted was friendship and knowledge - not to become more powerful, to control others, but just so that she could prove herself, to perform in a world that was totally different from the one she had grown up in. She stayed pure throughout her years of struggle with the dark.

Unlike him.

When the Dark side prevailed, the pain of not having her around to show him what people might be like nearly drove him insane. The mark in his arm slowly ate at his flesh, poisoning him nearly as much as the awareness that she was stuck in the castle's dungeons and brutally tortured and raped till she had lost the last bit of her brilliant mind and personality. The ghost of a woman that reappeared a year later in the Trophy Room was not the Granger he had known at all - just an empty shell.

He had seen Severus hurting her without her seeming to even notice and that was the last straw for him; he needed to get an excuse to visit his godfather's quarters, to see where he was hiding her and free her, probably put her into some kind of Muggle asylum, before he let the cursed mark eat him alive so that he wouldn't have to watch what the world was turning into.

Father claimed that he had seen her while Draco had been diverging Severus' attention, confirmed she was alive, unharmed but not present, kept in the man's bedroom and unrestrained; she was obviously used but still considered harmless. They had made plans as for how to get her to Malfoy Manor without Severus noticing it was them who took her. His godfather's wrath was a thing to be avoided at all cost.

However, Snape seemed to understand their intentions and, from the moment he had thrown them out of his lab, he was after father (fortunately not Draco so far as father managed to take all the blame and suspicion) to make sure no one would even speak about the girl, so that no one would take her away from him. He didn't seem to realize it was Draco who really wanted to have the woman.

But then he had found the slip of paper covered with her notes in one of the books that Severus had sent to him and his obsession got stronger than ever before.

Snape had somehow, miraculously, made her come back to herself.

He had to speak to her.

She had lost none of her brutal and direct honesty and she looked much better but still, even in her situation, she didn't want him.

Being Snape's prisoner and slave was obviously better than being Draco's wife.

Draco knew he needed Severus to survive but at that moment he wanted nothing more than to kill the man. He couldn't.

Draco hated being denied anything but it turned out he would have to deal with that more often that he would think possible. He was forced to watch her, silently observe her and Severus getting closer and closer to each other in those short periods of time he had to wait for Severus to brew and give him his balm, playing the dumb arrogant rich brat they thought he was so he would look innocuous. And it tortured him, bit by bit, chewing at his determination to stay passive while his father did all the work to try to actually get the girl.

For a time, he thought that maybe she would reconsider on her own as she looked rather unhappy with Snape for a reason, but now it looked that everything was lost in that aspect, her face glowing and eyes sparkling to emphasize the ruffled after-sex hair style. Had they arranged this meeting just to rub it in his face?!

Holy Merlin's shit.

"Hi, Granger. Hi, Severus," he greeted them politely - he was still a Malfoy, lovelorn or not - and sat down.

"Hi, Malfoy. We need you to kill your father, sell all your property when you'll inherit it and then give us all the money," Granger answered, making him effectively stop breathing.

What the FUCK?!

It was one thing to be on their side but completely another to be expected to turn AGAINST his father, a Malfoy, a parent and one of his mere two true allies.

She couldn't be serious about this.

Sitting in the opposite armchair, she looked glowing, relaxed and very much not joking even as he raised his eyebrows at her, the most noticeable sign of surprise he allowed himself to show.

"If you need money, just ask for it. It's not necessary to be so dramatic about it; I have a full access to our house's treasury and vault. Just say how much you want and I can have it transferred to your account as fast as the goblins could carry it," Draco announced, dignified as ever as he was inspecting his fingernails with interest so he didn't have to watch Granger and get unsettled during this conversation which he expected would turn quite important.

"Well, the problem is, we need it all, in Muggle currency. Dollars, preferably. And we need your father gone so he would not interfere. His actions against us are escalating in quite a nasty way. It might easily thwart all our efforts if it gets any worse. He wouldn't expect an attempt from you," Granger shrugged, looking as disinterested as he was trying to project.

Draco closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands, sighing.

Why the fuck did he ally himself with people so simpleminded that they couldn't think of at least a half-decent and slightly cunning plan?

It HAD to be Granger's plan. Severus was a Slytherin at least; just thinking with his dick instead so he allowed her to proceed with this insanity. He would have to stop it.

"What do you need so much money for?" he asked, his face still hidden. This time he hoped he really looked how he felt - desperate over their total lack of reason.

"For the defeat of the Dark Lord, obviously. You promised to help with that. This is the part we need your help with," Hermione reminded, talking in simple sentences so he would understand.

He was not a five years old, for fuck's sake, and it was HER who didn't understand.

He felt his temper rise.

This girl really could get under his skin.

Maybe he should really settle with Astoria. Astoria, the gold-digger who wasn't even trying to conceal she was one. She wasn't the smartest pencil in the pen case but she would give him a nice body to fuck. And possibly an heir, after some time.

He would like to have a son. Scorpius, he would name him. Dangerous, like Draco and dragons were, but more able to hide his mercurial Malfoy temper.

Maybe it would be worth it to make a deal like that with Astoria...

"I was truly hoping you didn't want to spend all the money to develop a new brand of magical make-up that could actually make you at least a bit pretty," he looked up and sneered at her, deliberately nasty to her as usual when he wanted to hide his own agitation.

Astoria would bite his head off for a comment like this.

Granger just gave him a wry smile and shook her head.

She honestly thought herself ugly, the silly girl.

Oh, fuck, he still loved her.

"No, we don't plan to defeat him with my stunning look," she answered, still smiling crookedly.

"So what the plan is?" he asked, giving her a tired look.

He really needed her honesty now if he were to do anything about this.

He saw her and Severus exchange a look, the man shaking his head imperceptibly.

Either he was wrong in assuming that Snape was the leading member of their duo or he is not going to get an honest answer.

"A series of worldwide radioactive blasts meant to completely eradicate magic, turning everyone, the Dark Lord including, into Squibs. We need the money to obtain the nuclear material and carrying devices," Hermione announced as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Snape frowned.

So he'd GOT an honest answer.

Oh, crap.

She couldn't mean this.

But then he looked at her and knew she did.

The world was screwed when Granger said things like that, no matter what he did.

So he was going to lose magic. He didn't want to lose his money as well.

Astoria wouldn't want him without his money.

"What about a good old Imperio? You are not Squibs yet. The USA, Russia, India, even The North Korea have a few nuclear missiles ready to be launched. All it would take is just one visit to Kim Jong-un. With the rhetorics he is having, no one would even suspect anyone has tampered with his mind. Or not recently, at least..." he snorted in derision and noticed Granger and Snape eyeing him with disbelief, the 'What-the-fuck-Malfoy-knows-something-about-Muggle-politics' look all over their face.

Maybe he had played dumb a bit too well.

He sneered at them, only a bit regretful about blowing his cover.

"What? Don't tell me you suggested me killing my father before considering all your options..." he taunted, not feeling too merciful.

Snape shook of his shock first.

"Of course we did, yet there is this little snag in your proposition; had any of those countries been found missing a few missiles - there is quite a strictly controlled register for that - after what we are about to do, it would start a war. The rest of the Muggle world is very likely to wipe the country in question off the map in vengeance for the global pollution. It would be perceived as an attack even if it is denied by the responsible person. We cannot risk millions of people being killed because we stole the weapons from a government," Snape lectured him, his expression as neutral and icy as ever.

"Millions of Muggles. They are all going to die anyway, starting next month," Draco reminded him bitterly and waved his hand.

"That's why we have to hurry. Everything has to be made the Muggle way as the material wouldn't allow any magic around, starting with the mining of the ore, then producing the charges and finally launching. The more money we have, the quicker it would go," Granger interjected, her tone a bit unnerved for the first time.

Draco took a few minutes to think.

"Are you sure it's going to work? Will it kill him?"

Granger looked him in the eye and nodded.

"Alright. The money is yours."

"And your father?"

"I will take care of him. Consider him removed."

I would love to hear from you again, guys, so please indulge me if you have a minute :-)