A/N: Hi all, cannot believe we are on Chapter 35 already! This is the longest Chapter I have written for this story so far. I promise that everything starts to unravel soon in regards to Sirius, just stick with me :) Thank you for your reviews, comments and for anyone who reads this story!
Chapter Warnings: Potential mentions of sexual assault, self-harm, sex, violence and bad language.
Chapter 35 – Draco, School Resumes, and a Sexy Encounter
Draco Malfoy sat on his bed in his familial home, and proceeded to work on some breathing exercises. The day after he returned to the manor for the Christmas holidays, he had been practically dragged from his bed and thrown on his knees in front of the Dark Lord, and had been forced to take the dark mark.
"There are some things that I want done Draco, only you can do them. They must be done within the walls of Hogwarts and I trust no one more than you. After all, your father has been a crucial member of my inner circle, and I know you will do just as well for the cause. Fail to do so and you shall suffer the consequences" the Dark Lord had informed him.
Draco had been miserable ever since, he had closed in on himself and refused to come out of his room for anything, not even food. Luckily, the house elves were astute enough to bring him what he needed.
His mark had been burning ever since, it wasn't the type of burning that occurred when the Dark Lord called his followers, no that was a pain that couldn't be ignored. This burning was a constant sensation that was more of a nuisance but it served its purpose, to remind you that you were the property of someone else, that you served someone else. It served to be a constant reminder to be loyal.
Severus had been giving him jars of salve to alleviate the burning sensation, but every time Draco looked down at his forearm, there it was; a hideous black snake and skull. The Dark Lord had promised that Draco would be initiated at midnight, the turn of a new year. Draco would be given his task, a task that his godfather had warned him would be dangerous, immoral, and something that he would likely be unable to achieve.
But, that was just another test, another game, his master liked to play. Give an impossible task and then the individual would choose either to do the task or die. It was ingenious in a way; prove your loyalty or die. Draco didn't know what to do and he realised he only had a few hours until midnight, a few hours until he would have to fully submit himself in front of his new brothers as a Death Eater.
Draco sat in the middle of his bed whilst practicing some breathing exercises; these would be the last hours he would ever have as a free man.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, Severus, Minerva, and Poppy had managed to get through to Hermione. Well, she was sat up and eating and drinking by herself. Although, she still wasn't talking or fully functioning, but they would take the small victory of her eating and drinking again.
Severus was also worried about his godson, he knew that tonight would be the night that Draco was to be officially initiated and he doubted the boy would live to see summer; he wasn't cut out for the dark arts.
Severus left Hermione in the care of Minerva once more and apparated to the Malfoy Manor in time for the Dark Lords arrival.
"My dear followers, tonight we shall welcome a new member into our ranks. Will you please welcome Master Draco Malfoy" the Dark Lord announced as the doors opened to reveal Draco walking in, flanked by his father.
"Draco, kneel before me" the Dark Lord instructed him.
Draco did as instructed.
"Draco, do you agree to fulfil a lifetime of servitude, to acquiesce to my every command, to come at my beck and call, to remain loyal to the cause, and above all, to complete everything I order you to or die?" he asked.
Severus held his breath; the initiation speech had changed a little since he took his own mark. But desperate times call for desperate measures, in the eyes of the Dark Lord.
"I do, my Lord" Draco said, pledging his allegiance.
"Then I officially welcome you to the brotherhood Draco. Now, we are to discuss your task" the Dark Lord grinned.
.
.
.
Hermione woke up late on New Year's Day and couldn't believe that she had missed New Years. She remembered a few years ago when her and her parents had managed to get a spot right by the River Thames as they watched the immense firework display that was by the London Eye to celebrate the beginning of a new year.
Hermione smiled fondly at the memory, one of the happier times that the family had shared.
She breathed out and found that she was filled with a new sense of determination. This was a new year, this was a new Hermione. She was going to make sure that what had happened had happened, there was no longer going to be a dark cloud over her anymore, she wasn't scared anymore. As sad as it was, she no longer had her parents and, with the rest of her friends under the protection of the order, there was nothing at risk, she had nothing to lose.
She decided that this New Year would begin as soon as she had said a proper goodbye to her parents. She had asked Minerva about a ceremony for her parents, and Minerva had agreed that with a few confundus and obliviation spells, she would be able to say one last goodbye to her parents.
Minerva was worried about how maturely Hermione had handled it all, Hermione seemed to show that she had a tough exterior but in reality she was as fragile as glass, it was only a matter of time before the brightest witch of her age begun to crack. It was a matter of time.
Severus arrived back sometime in the evening on the first day of the new year and was surprised to see his Hermione up and walking about, he was so shocked that he had stood frozen in the doorway for a few minutes whilst she flounced about the room as if nothing had happened.
"Would you like to have tea with me Severus?" She asked him.
All Severus could do was nod as he slowly took a seat by his fireplace.
"I apologise for my behaviour over the past few days, I'm sure you understand that the news came as quite the shock to me" she said cordially as the pair sipped their tea.
Severus cleared his throat, he had expected Hermione to be a bit out of sorts but this was off the scale; was this a normal reaction? He thought probably not, but who was he to judge how someone handled trauma. He knew that should she need him, she would let him know.
"Also, thank you for allowing me to recover in your rooms. If it's alright with you, do you think I could stay until term resumes?" She asked him.
Term started on the 7th of January. It was only another six days and he agreed that she could spend some time in his rooms recovering, she would probably need the privacy.
"Thank you Severus" she whispered and placed a light kiss on his cheek.
.
.
.
Three days later Hermione found herself stood in a small graveyard at the church in her small town. There were two freshly dug holes and she watched in complete silence as two beautiful oak wood coffins were lowered into the ground. There were no other family members or friends of her parents; her parents had sacrificed all of that when Hermione found out that she was a witch, the funeral was a quiet affair.
Her parents had practically put their lives on hold after finding out Hermione was a witch and they had moved away and had cut most contact with family and friends in order to keep Hermione protected from her more religious family members.
So there she stood, with Severus and Minerva for support as the vicar blessed the coffins as they were placed in the ground. Hermione kissed two roses and placed one on each coffin; she said her goodbyes and promised to visit soon before leaving with her two professors.
Once she arrived back at Hogwarts, she made her way to Severus' rooms and curled up into a ball in one of the chairs, she remained there in silent thought for the rest of the day.
Severus watched her, making sure she was alright. But again he was worried; she seemed too alright after everything that had happened. He sighed; time would soon tell if she was truly alright.
Night fell and it started snowing, the snow covered the school grounds and it looked as if a thick white blanket had been placed over the castle. Severus had gone to bed hours ago but Hermione was still awake, not quite sure what she was doing. She looked at the fresh snow and found herself hypnotised by it and without any further thinking, she made her way out into the snow.
Severus awoke at the sound of the door to his rooms clicking shut and knew that Hermione had left his rooms. He panicked and quickly dressed himself and ran out of his rooms hoping to catch her up.
He used the tracing spell to follow her and found that she had gone outside. She had gone down to where she normally sat beneath the tree but Severus couldn't see her.
Then he spotted a bundle, lying on the floor and knew it was Hermione, he assumed she was hurt so he rushed towards her.
However, as he approached her he stopped in confusion.
There was Hermione Granger, lying on her back, and spreading her arms and legs out and back in again, creating a snow angel on the ground, she had tears streaming down her face.
Severus watched her carefully until she finally sat up, in the middle of her creation, and stared out across the frozen lake.
Without turning to him, she knew he was there; she began to speak softly through her tears.
"Whenever it snowed, my mum would always make the three of us go out and make a snowman and snow angels" she whispered.
Severus crouched down next to her and moved to put his cloak around her cold shoulders. Before he could do this, Hermione burst into tears and the last couple of weeks of grief poured out.
She sobbed and sobbed for her lost parents, she couldn't think properly and she didn't know what to do, without her parents she was lost, and she didn't think she would ever be whole again.
She hadn't noticed Severus carrying her back to his rooms and placing her in his bed; he climbed in next to her, and cuddled her, as she cried in misery at the loss.
'Finally' Severus thought relieved, she needed this. This was natural healing at its finest, and Severus coaxed every last tear out of her.
Finally, after hours, she passed out from emotional exhaustion cuddled up to her Severus. Severus fell asleep shortly after.
.
.
.
The day before students were expected back onto the grounds to resume the new school term, Hermione was sat in the chair next to the fire with her head in a new book. It had been a couple of days since her emotional breakdown and she felt better for it. She was still grieving her loss but felt slightly melancholy about it. At least she was feeling something, it was better than feeling completely numb.
She had been sat there in Severus' chair for the whole morning and was preparing to get something to eat when there was a loud bang that came from the doorway to Severus' rooms; this told her that Severus was back.
She marked her book so she knew where to pick up from when she went to read it again and went to greet her Severus.
"Severus, I'm thinking of eating some lunch, do you want-" she stopped speaking mid-sentence when she looked at the scene that had just crossed the threshold.
Severus had stumbled through the doorway to his rooms, whilst supporting a severely hurt Draco.
"My God what happened?" She asked in horror as she moved to help support Draco's other side. Both Hermione and Severus were able to get Draco onto Severus' sofa, they lay him down and Severus cast a few charms on the sofa to accommodate Draco.
Then Severus cast a divesto spell to get rid of Draco's clothes, leaving Draco in just his underwear.
Hermione stared in shock at the thin young man who was laying before her and nearly unconscious. Draco had lost a lot of weight since she had last seen him; he was pale and had dark circles under his eyes. He clearly hadn't been sleeping either but all of that wasn't what shocked Hermione the most.
Hermione gasped as she spotted the dark mark, still red and raw, branding the skin of her friend Draco Malfoy. Her heart burst for him, she looked at the marks that were on his body, fresh scars now marred his skin and she felt tears rising to the surface for him.
'Poor Draco' she thought to herself as she watched Severus rushing around trying to heal the injured Draco.
Draco opened his eyes slowly, allowing his eyes to adjust to the brightly lit room. He made a move to sit up and grimaced as a flash of pain shot through his entire body. His left arm was throbbing, the Dark Lord hadn't been best pleased about something and had taken it out on some of his newest recruits, Draco had been one of them.
He didn't know how long he had suffered at the hand of the Dark Lord's rage but by the time it was over, all Draco could hear was a high pitched ringing in his ear, he couldn't get his body to cooperate with his brain and he was struggling with his breathing. He'd tried to stand but ended up just collapsing on the floor.
After a few moments of lying helplessly on the floor, he saw two pairs of shoes in front of his face. He summoned enough energy to look up and saw his father and his godfather looking down at him worriedly.
He could see the two men were talking to one another but couldn't make out what they were saying. The next thing Draco knew was that he was being levitated off the ground and in his godfather's arms. He had then been apparated to what he thought looked like Hogwarts. He didn't remember much after that, and he had passed out.
Now slowly sitting up, he looked around and noticed that he was in his godfather's private rooms. He was thankful for that, and he began to look around to try and assess the situation in which he was in, he stopped when his eyes came across his godfather and Hermione, who were wrapped up in each other's arms in a comforting embrace. Neither of them looked like they had slept in a while and Hermione definitely had dried tear tracks down her face.
Draco was glad to see Hermione, he had heard about what had happened to her parents and the Death Eater attack but of course he hadn't been able to contact her to see if she was alright, that would have been asking for trouble.
"Draco? My god, how are you feeling?" Hermione's panicked voice jolted him out of his thoughts.
Severus was immediately by Draco's side and running diagnostic charms over his body to make sure that he was alright. Hermione hovered close by, biting her lip nervously.
Severus sighed in relief.
"There is no lasting damage, your muscles will ache for a few days but that pain should lessen as the day goes on. As impossible as it sounds, I dare say, you got off lightly. How are you Draco?" Severus asked still looking worriedly down at his godson.
"I'm alright, achy" Draco replied.
"What happened?" Draco asked.
"Some of the new recruits were caught in a raid yesterday, needless to say the Dark Lord was unimpressed and automatically took his anger out on the rest of the new recruits, blaming you as a whole group rather than as individuals" Severus told him.
Draco nodded in understanding and relaxed back down in a comfortable position. Although he had just woken up from what seemed like a long sleep, he felt physically exhausted and felt himself start to drift back to sleep. He tried to fight it, wanting more information and to talk to Hermione but Severus put a hand on Draco's shoulder.
"You need rest, get some more sleep" Severus told Draco.
Severus then turned to Hermione.
"You need to go back to your dormitory; classes are back in session as of tomorrow and you need to have a decent night's sleep. Draco is alright, just like I promised so you can rest easy now" Severus told her.
She nodded; feeling overwhelmingly tired, she grabbed some of her things and prepared to head back to her dormitory.
She hugged and gave Severus a quick peck on the lips and then turned to Draco who was staring at them both.
Hermione smiled at him and Draco stared back at her.
"Hermione, your parents, I'm so sorry" Draco said sadly.
He watched as his friend halted a series of sobs and tears, and she walked over to him and placed a peck on his temple.
"Thank you Draco" she said sincerely, and she made her way towards the door.
"Good night boys" she said as she left the room shutting the door gently behind her.
Draco stared at his godfather once more.
"Thank you Severus" he said to him.
You're welcome son, now get some sleep" Severus told him.
Draco nodded and shut his eyes sleepily. Severus leaned down and placed s fatherly kiss on his godson's forehead.
"I'm proud of you son" was the last thing Draco heard.
.
.
.
The next day classes were back in session, the students had come back the evening before and everyone seemed well rested from their break. Hermione's friends were once again, treating her like she was made of glass.
Draco hadn't shown up for classes that day, Hermione wasn't surprised. But it meant that there were comments from Ron and Harry about how suspicious it was and they were giving theories about why Draco hadn't shown up or been seen back at school.
Harry kept stealing subtle glances at Hermione, he suspected that she knew what was going on but didn't comment. The last thing Harry wanted to do was upset her even more than she already was, he had no desire to feel the wrath of Hermione Granger today thank you very much.
The trio were sat in their Defence Against the Dark Arts class listening to the drivel that was coming out of Umbridge's mouth. Hermione sighed, thank Gods there was a DA meeting that night, at least they would be able to practice something.
After classes had finished, she wandered down to the dungeons, she knew Severus had office hours at that time and she also knew that no one would dare disturb the dreaded potions master if they didn't have to.
Hermione knocked and waited for permission to enter.
"How's Draco?" She asked once he had welcomed her into the office.
"He's alright; he just needed another day of rest. What he went through yesterday was not what a boy as young as him should ever have to experience, it's not what anybody should ever have to experience" Severus said.
Hermione could tell that he was stressed and worried for his godson and she wanted nothing more than to comfort Severus.
She stood from where she was sat in front of his desk and moved around to where he was sat behind his desk. She forcibly removed the quill that he was using to mark papers with, although it didn't take much force and she straddled his lap so that she was facing him and began massaging his shoulders.
Severus groaned in appreciation, she really was relaxing him. Hermione was glad when he relaxed, he had so much tension in his shoulder, so many knots, and she continued to massage the tension away from his shoulders.
Severus was aware of the intimate position they were in should anyone walk in but he was so relaxed that he really didn't care. It had also been a long time since he had been this close to Hermione, not with everything that had happened over the Christmas holiday. He was enjoying being touched, he knew it, his cock was beginning to react to her touch and Hermione could feel it.
Severus was leaning back in his chair, fully relaxed, eyes closed, and now extremely enjoying his massage.
Hermione very slowly started to shift her hips on his lap so that she was creating some friction for him, hopefully giving him some pleasure.
Severus groaned deeply and sexily, he hated to admit it but he had missed this, he had missed her closeness.
"Let's go to your rooms" Hermione whispered sensuously in his ear.
Severus' hormones were on overdrive and he was more than happy to agree and so he lifted her up and took her to his rooms, locking the doors to his office and his rooms on the way.
Once inside his bedroom he lay her down gently and climbed on the bed next to her. They began kissing and rubbing against each other.
Hermione paused for a second and she felt bold, she began to unbutton Severus' shirt and took it off. She then unbuttoned his trousers and slowly took them off.
Severus' erection was standing proudly, straining against his boxers. Severus was staring at her; that was as far as she wanted to go for that moment.
Severus was about to say something and she could see the beginning of what looked like reluctance on his face and so, she quickly moved to kiss him again whilst playing with his hardened length.
Severus' protest died when her lips touched his and he was lost to her again.
She then stopped and moved back, staring down at Severus whilst biting her lip. She moved to the buttons on her shirt and began to slowly undo her shirt.
Severus was watching her, he wanted to stop her but at the same time didn't want to discourage her or make it seem like he was rejecting her. He trusted her, and knew that if she was uncomfortable that she would stop, so he let her continue.
She then focused on her skirt and began to pull her skirt off. Eventually, she was left in her bra, knickers and socks.
Severus couldn't help but openly gape at her beautiful body. Hermione took his staring as a bad thing and began to feel self-conscious; she moved to cover her body with her hands.
He leaned forward gently and stopped her from covering herself up.
"Beautiful" he whispered into her ear and he slowly kissed every inch of her bare skin that was available to him.
She slowly removed her bra and Severus silently asked permission to explore her breasts.
She agreed, and he slowly started to fondle her breasts and kissed them gently.
Hermione groaned, her nipples had hardened and Severus had started to lick her areolas and suck her nipples. Hermione was squealing in sheer pleasure and was extremely wet. She could feel the moisture in her underwear and she was sure that she was dripping on Severus' leg.
She could feel herself getting closer to the edge of climax, she never realised how sensitive she was. Seconds later, the ball of tension inside her snapped and she found herself experiencing one of the most powerful orgasms she had ever had. She nearly passed out from pleasure.
When she regained control of herself, Severus was staring down at her with a satisfied smirk.
She wanted to reciprocate and went to place her hands on either side of his underwear with the intention of pulling them down but as she began to pull down his underwear, she froze. She wanted to go further but something was stopping her and she literally couldn't go any further.
She was trying to force herself to do it but two hands stopped her. She looked up into Severus' eyes and he shook his head.
"You're not ready for anything more, it's alright" he told her gently.
"I'm sorry, that was amazing and I really want to do more but I just can't" she told him, looking down and feeling foolish.
He put his hand under her chin and gently raised her head so she was looking at him.
"My darling, don't ever apologise, I understand" he told her as he kissed her head and lay down on the bed once more, pulling her to him so they were facing each other.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest. She kissed him on the lips once more and slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep. Severus was right behind her and soon he succumbed to sleep.
In the living room Draco was sat with a glass of fire whiskey, half grossed out and half wanting to laugh about the sounds that had been emitting from his godfathers bedroom.
He chuckled and couldn't wait to see their faces when they left the room and found him still sat there.
They had been so wrapped up in each other that neither had remembered that Draco had been sat happily catching up on his missed work at Severus' table in the living room.
