Chapter Five
The windows of the Dojo were magically enchanted so that the morning sun shone brightly through the glass panes. The room was square and tall, and the windows bordered the room near the ceiling. There were canvases hanging on the back wall, decorated with Japanese Kanji writing.
"Welcome, come in," called Travis, from the centre of the room. He was wearing the official Taekwondo uniform, a black belt with three white stripes tied around his hips tightly. "Please remove your shoes at the front there and come sit in a circle on the mat."
Hermione followed the group in, her muscles aching considerably as she slipped her sneakers off. She was still recovering from the tests the day before, which, although she had completed to the best of her ability, left her almost unable to move. She couldn't even make the walk home, instead apparating directly in her bedroom so she could immediately collapse onto her bed. This morning she stopped past Merlin's Lane Apothecary and picked up a muscle restorative draught which helped considerably, but there was still a dull ache whenever she moved.
From the looks of everyone else in the group moving as carefully and as slowly as she was, Hermione clearly wasn't the only one feeling this way. She followed the others onto the mat and fell to the floor between Trevor who she had met the previous morning and another man she learnt was called Milo. She wasn't sure if that was a nickname or his actual name yet. It was really hard to tell with Aussies, they seemed to have nicknames for everybody.
She sat cross-legged and straightened her back as well as she could. She had braided her hair ahead of time that morning and was wearing a similar ensemble of clothing as the day before, this time wearing a pair of tight-fitting yoga pants that clung to every curve of her legs and backside. She quite liked how she looked in these pants, as they gave her legs a strong, almost muscular appearance. She wore a white singlet underneath a loose grey tank top. She made sure she didn't wear Gryffindor colours twice in a row.
"Namaste," Travis called from the centre of the mat. "Welcome to your first training session of Taekwondo. As Damien told you all yesterday, my name is Travis Tully and I will be your Sensei over the next two months. I am a triple-black belt and still continue to study the art and ways of Taekwondo. I do not expect you to advance to anywhere near a black belt by the end of your time with me, but you will have learnt the very basics of self-defence."
He sat down, his arms resting gently on his knees. The door opened, causing the group to jump and look around. Draco poked his head around the corner and slipped into the room. Hermione tried to ignore the butterflies that decided to jump into life in her belly the moment she saw him.
"It would take someone about two years of full time training and practice to achieve a black belt in Taekwondo." Travis continued. "I will split you up into pairs and this will be your partner for the entirety of your training."
He started motioning to people to indicate they were in pairs, starting on Hermione's left. She noticed the problem before Travis did and frowned. There was an odd number in the group, who would be left to be her partner?
"Ahh," Travis said, finally settling his pointed finger on Hermione. His eyes flickered to the back of the room. "Damo, you could always use a bit of a refresher. Can you please come and be Miss Granger's sparring partner?"
Draco sat up straight from his seat in the back corner of the room, his eyes wide and startled. "Oh..uh.." he stuttered. "Yes, of course."
"As we are only working towards your first grading, I won't run through the belt system just yet. Today we will go through some stretches and I will teach you the moves of the first form Kata." He stood swiftly to demonstrate and moved into a fighting stance, gracefully going through the different moves very slowly yet precisely. "We learn Kata to focus our skill and memorise the different techniques so if the time comes when we need to use them –"
He did a quick jumping kick to emphasise his point and the group gasped in appreciation. "Then it is in our muscle memory and it will come to aid you."
There was a small polite applause and Travis brought his hands together and bowed deeply.
"Please go with your partner, find a spot on the mat and we will begin our stretches."
Hermione stood up and allowed Draco to come to her. She noticed that he was wearing emerald green pants today and a white singlet. She couldn't help but smirk a little. Once a proud Slytherin, always a proud Slytherin, it seemed.
He returned her smirk with one of his own and gave her an appreciative look up and down. She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, to motion that they should go near the wall to stretch. Draco stayed behind her and she faced Travis for instruction. As she followed his words and parted her legs wide, bending over forward to touch her left foot with her right hand, she heard an audible intake of breath from behind her and felt her face grow warm. She looked down between her legs and saw an upside-down Draco, staring at her, his head tilted to one side.
"What?" Hermione asked, knowing very well 'what'. She knew the effect these pants had on a lot of men, but didn't expect it to also work on Draco. "See something you like, Thorne?"
She mentally high-fived herself at remembering to call him by his pseudonym and moved to touch the other foot to continue her stretch. She saw him snap himself out of his gaze. "No, no, of course not! Just curious as to how you manage to be that flexible. I can't touch my toes like that."
"Checking out how flexible I am, hey?" she asked, flashing him a cheeky grin. "I did gymnastics for a few years when I was a kid, somehow managed to keep up the flexibility since then. It comes in handy sometimes."
She slowly straightened up, making sure she kept her back straight so that her bottom was emphasised. It was probably nothing, but she did enjoy whatever little effect she was having on Draco. If only he knew that he had a similar effect on her. She pushed that thought down quickly and tried to focus on what Travis was saying.
By the end of the lesson, the group had managed to learn the entire move list of the first form of Kata, which pleased Travis to no end.
"Next lesson, we may even start sparring!" He called as the group moved out of the Dojo.
"You have an hour for lunch today," Draco informed them all. "Then you have your first afternoon session with Chief."
Hermione shoved her feet roughly into her shoes, not bothering to re-tie the laces and walked out of the door, aiming for the change rooms. She was eager to have a shower and try to take some more of the ache out of her muscles. Half of the group had the same mind as her and there was broken chatter as she found her locker. The bathroom was unisex, with separate cubicles for showers and toilets. There were twin benches lined in the centre of the room and the lockers bordered them. Grabbing her soap and towel, she headed for the nearest booth to relax.
The shower had the most perfect temperature and was utter relief to her sore body. She could hear someone a few booths down whistling cheerfully and smiled. She was never one for singing in the shower, but Ron was. He had a terrible singing voice though and you could hear him all through the house when he showered. There was an unexpected pang of hurt that crossed her heart and her smile dropped.
She couldn't help but miss the happier times with him. While they lacked communication and romance, it felt so good just to belong to someone. Knowing that there was someone waiting for you at home at the end of a hard day. Someone to cuddle up to when you were feeling down. Just to have someone to share this life with.
Hermione lathered her soap in her hands and began to scrub her body. It wasn't that she was lonely by any means. She was enjoying the time to herself, to discover who she was again.
She rinsed the soap and turned the shower off, grabbing her towel and wrapping it around herself. The whistling had stopped.
Her hair dripped loose around her shoulder, cascading wet, cold droplets down her shoulders. She took one step out of her cubicle and collided straight into a hot, hard body. They tumbled onto the floor and landed with a thump, a mess of limbs, towels and water.
"Wha?!" Hermione gasped, once she had realised what had happened. Her arm was trapped underneath a solid person and she looked over to see that it was none other than Draco, scantily clad in nothing but a towel, which was now precariously close to being lost. She choked on whatever she was about to say as she caught sight of his chest, precipitation slowly trickling down and tracing the curve of his pectoral muscles and perfectly sculpted abs.
"Are you alright?" Draco asked, not daring to move in case either of them lost their coverings. "You crazy woman, just running out of your cubicle!"
Hermione felt a deep blush creep into her cheeks as she realised the position they were in. Her legs were tangled in his, his hand resting on her side, only inches away from her breast. Her towel was only balancing on her, no longer tied securely in place. His hips pressed into her and she gasped when she unexpectedly felt the stirrings on his arousal.
"I'm okay," she said, struggling to sit up and ensure her towel stayed in place. "And I didn't run out of my cubicle. Can you get off my arm please?"
"Sorry!" Draco squeaked, slowly sitting up and moving his body and legs away from her.
"Oh, that's going to leave a bruise," Hermione muttered, reaching around to feel her backside. She looked up and saw that Draco's cheeks were flushed. "Are you alright? That was quite a tumble."
"I'll live," he said, grunting as he repositioned his towel before standing up. "I've been in worse circumstances than this."
Hermione's brows furrowed. Of course, this would be a bad circumstance to him. Touching a Mudblood after all.
He could see the look on her face and tittered. "I know what you're thinking and that's not what I meant. I was going to make a joke about how we're both half naked and wet and on the floor, so it's really not that bad for me but couldn't figure out how to say it."
Hermione blush deepened. "I didn't realise I had such a glass face."
He smirked. "Let's just say I can tell you wouldn't win at poker."
"Right," Hermione muttered.
"You guys all right?" One of the men from the group poked his head around the cubicles. "I thought I heard a crash?"
Draco waved a hand absentmindedly in the air before running it through his hair, also damp from his shower. Hermione noticed it wasn't tied up, but hung loosely to his shoulders.
"We're alright, Mark. Thanks, mate."
Hermione clung to her towel more tightly. "I'm sorry."
She looked quickly into Draco's grey eyes and then darted away towards her locker. She didn't want to look back. She wanted to get dressed and then maybe go crawl into a hole and die from embarrassment.
Once she had gathered her clothes and was comfortably covered once more, she disappeared into a toilet cubicle to hide for a bit and make sure she wouldn't bump into Draco again so soon.
Her thoughts were a muddle of confusion when she thought of him. What was it that she thought of him, exactly? She knew that she was attracted to him, but he was a very handsome man and so were so many women. Could it be that he was the first man apart from Ron to call her beautiful? Maybe she was just chasing a rebound? There was no way her heart could be ready to take on another relationship, especially with someone she can't guarantee would ever feel the same way.
She didn't know anything about him really, besides his real name and history. It gave her a sort of pleasure, if she was honest, as if they were the only two members in a secret club that no one else could know about. But she had no knowledge of the man he had become. He said he had changed, and she wanted to believe it. So far, everything she said proved he had, which made her feel so much more connected to him. But she certainly couldn't ever act on what she felt, right?
Her thoughts flashed back and she saw his naked chest again, her mind now awhirl with a fantasy of running her hands up and down his muscles, tracing the outlines with her finger. Flicking her tongue out to touch his nipple, as he buried his face into her neck, ravishing her with nibbles and kisses. She moaned outwardly and jumped, shaking her head to clear her thoughts.
Oh yes, she thought, biting hard on her lip. She could definitely act on that.