CHAPTER 3~ Iris
The following morning, Draco awoke to a soft touch against his cheek. He opened his eyes slightly and saw Hermione lying next to him with her arm draped lazily over his torso and her face mere centimeters from his.
"Hey," he mumbled sleepily. "What time is it?"
"Almost time for class. You should get down to the Great Hall pretty soon for breakfast," she responded.
He nodded and shifted a little. "What are you doing in here anyway? I thought you were worried that Justin and Lisa would catch you in here."
She smiled a little. "I came here to wake your tired ass up. Anyway, I already spoke to Lisa and Justin. They already went down to breakfast."
"Oh- I- uh musta slept in a bit then. Thanks for waking me." He stood and performed a few basic spells to fix himself up.
In about all of three minutes they departed the common room and made their way toward the Great Hall. Draco had his arm wrapped around Hermione's waist as they strolled through the numerous corridors. The only sound that could be heard was the soft tap of their shoes against the stone floors.
Before they entered the Great Hall, Hermione turned to Draco and said, "You should probably sit with me at the Gryffindor table, you know, to try and make Harry and Ron believe that you really are all right."
He looked and felt very uncomfortable as he thought about his answer. "But what will everyone else say? It's not that I don't want to start as soon as we can, but it would be kinda sudden, wouldn't it?"
"Look Draco, I know them real well, and I know that it takes a long time for them to forgive people, so I want them to see that you really are a great guy and that I wasn't lying to them."
"Okay, fine. Since I am such a great guy I'll sit with you."
She pushed him playfully, but thanked him all the same. They walked into the Great Hall, and received astonished glances from a number of the students as well as the Professors.
Draco followed Hermione to the Gryffindor table and waited a bit impatiently as they discussed if he could sit there or not. He began to feel stupid just waiting, but they finally agreed that he could sit with them. Hermione pulled him hastily down into the seat beside her.
"'Morning," he greeted Harry and Ron as he scooped some bacon and eggs onto his plate. "Excited to be back at Hogwarts?"
They shot him menacing glares, but mumbled a "yes" all to his question.
He looked at Hermione for help. "You guys could at least be a little nicer to him. He is my boyfriend after all, and the two of you should trust my decisions by now."
"We do trust you, 'Mione," Ron said. "It's just that, I'm a little concerned about out history with him. He hasn't exactly been the kindest guy in the world to any of us since we started here."
"Yeah well people can change," Draco retorted. "I'll be the first to admit that I've been an ass to the three of you in the past, but I deeply regret all of that now, and I would like to ask for your forgiveness."
Harry looked a little skeptical at first, but held his hand out to Draco. "It's okay, mate. If 'Mione's happy then I'm happy for her. You're welcome to join us anytime you'd like."
"Thank you, Potter."
Ron would have felt really dumb if he hadn't followed Harry's lead, especially since Hermione was glaring at him, so he too held his hand out to Draco. "Yeah, I trust Hermione's decisions, so I guess I'll just have to trust her about this too," he finally said before going back to his food.
Throughout the remainder of breakfast, they talked of things of little importance.
~
All four of them had double Potions first. Harry and Ron sat on the Gryffindor side of the room, as they were accustomed to do while Hermione sat next to Draco on the Slytherin side. As the rest of the class began to file in, they too all took their normal seats, with the exception of Blaise, who took the vacated seat next to Harry. The two girls received odd glances from the rest of the class, but neither seemed to notice.
Professor Severus Snape soon came barreling into the room. He immediately took his position at the front of the room and began the lesson. "As sixth year students, you are all expected to have mastered the basic skills of potion making. This year, the potions you will make will be more advanced and will take more than one day to brew.
"You will also be assigned partners, who you will work with for the remainder of the year. Do not even think for a moment that you will be able to choose your partner. I will throw each of your names into a hat and draw them two at a time."
He pulled a hat off his desk and threw the strips of paper into it. He pulled out the first two names and read, "Brown, Patil." He scowled at the pairing, but pulled out the next two names. "Goyle, Longbottom." Next was "Granger, Malfoy."
Hermione and Draco turned to each other with wide smiles spread across their faces.
"Potter, Weasley," then, "Zabini, Parkinson." He continued this process until everybody in the room had a partner.
Many of the students were content with their partners, but some were very upset.
Neville Longbottom looked as if he were about to cry when Snape read out then Gregory Goyle would be the person he had to partner up with for the rest of the year. He was hoping to be paired with someone smart, like Hermione, since he still hadn't even come close to mastering basic potion making. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it, and he was pretty sure it was because of his fear of Professor Snape.
"I expect you and your partner will be able to work well together." Here Snape shot a meaningful glance at Goyle and Neville. "Today you will be starting the Polyjuice Potion. It takes one month to make and must be under careful observation at all times.
"After every class, you will put your cauldron in a cabinet that only I will be able to open, and only you or your partner will be able to remove the cauldron. This is a safety precaution so that none of the potions can be altered.
"The directions for this potion are written on the board." He flicked his wand and all of the instructions appeared. "Make sure you read them through very carefully before you get started. You wouldn't want a zero on this now, would you?
"You know where the ingredients are, and I expect that you will have no trouble whatsoever finding them. I will be making random checks during the periods to make sure everything is going.well. Now get to work!"
Hermione hardly glanced up at the board as she made her way over to the cabinet to retrieve the needed ingredients. She still remembered exactly how to make it from when she, Ron, and Harry had attempted it in their second year. That wasn't something she wanted to dwell on as she returned to her seat with her arms full.
She and Draco worked very well together, and only talked when they needed help with cutting or mixing. They worked quickly until they had completed what was needed for the first day.
"Well that was very lucky," Draco commented as he leaned back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head.
"What was?" Hermione responded.
"The fact that we got paired together. I would've had a heart attack if I was paired with somebody else, especially that Longbottom kid."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?"
"Because you just happen to be the smartest witch in our year, and I know that you wouldn't let me screw up. If I did then you would get a bad grade and probably die or something like that."
"Funny, Draco," she replied sarcastically. "I love your humor. However, I would not die if I received one poor grade. And anyway, you're the smartest wizard in our year, and you wouldn't want your potion all screwed up either, especially since ol' Snape's your favorite teacher." She smiled smugly and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Hey, the only place I want that tongue is either in your mouth or in mine."
"And you have the power to control that?" she snorted as she folded her arms across her chest and glanced innocently at him.
"I just might."
Hermione rolled her eyes, but decided that it was best not to argue over something so stupid, like the inner workings of Draco's mind, for instance.
A new idea suddenly popped into her head, however. She noticed Draco's chair leaning back on its hind legs. In one swift motion, she swished her foot out and kicked it back even farther. With a loud clang, Draco and the chair fell to the floor.
Most of the class jumped and looked toward the back of the classroom to see what had caused the disruption. Hermione just shrugged and they turned back to their own work.
Draco looked up at her disbelievingly as he picked up his chair and sat the right way. There was an innocent smile upon her lips, and she stuck her tongue out at him again.
"You better watch yourself, Granger. I'm not gunna tolerate behavior like that," he said in a mock angry voice. "And what did I tell you about that tongue of yours?"
"Oh, I don't really remember." She pretended to be deep in thought, but she soon looked back over at him. "I believe it might have been something about it being here in my mouth, or."She leaned toward him and ran her tongue over his lower lip. " here in yours," she finished.
"Mm, you've got the jist of what I said."
Hermione smirked and started kissing his neck softly.
"Uh, Hermione, we can't exactly do anything right now seeing as we are in the middle of class. There are people all around us."
"They're not looking," she mumbled against his soft skin. "I don't care what they think. I'll just kill them all."
He pulled back slightly so he could see into her deep brown eyes. The eyes he could get lost in forever. "How's this sound, once we get out cauldron stored away, and we're dismissed, we can skip the rest of the day and do whatever the hell you want?"
Hermione studied his face carefully. Advantages of skipping- Draco, sex, Draco, privacy, Draco, sex, and Draco. That list seemed pretty good to Hermione. Disadvantages- make-up work, people, Draco not being around all the time, Harry, and Ron. To Hermione that didn't sound all that great. The choice was obvious. "Sounds good to me!"
Draco smirked once again. "I figured you'd say that. It was clearly written all over your face that you wanted to."
Hermione just shrugged as she ran her hand along his thigh, rubbing in gentle circles.
As class drew to a close, Draco placed the cauldron in the cabinet with all of the others. Once the bell rang, he and Hermione headed quickly toward the prefect dorms.
Hermione kissed him roughly as they stepped through the portrait hole. He was pushed up against the wall. Their hands were all over each other as they battled for control of the kiss.
Draco, who was struggling to gain control, finally picked Hermione up and began carrying her to his dorm.
A faint smile spread across her face as she left a trail of kissed along his neck and jawbone. Her hands were tangled in his hair as they began to ascend the stairs.
Draco placed Hermione gently onto his bed and crawled on top of her, kissing her passionately.
Hermione broke the kiss briefly to grab her wand from her pocket. She put a silencing charm on the room, and then made music come out of the walls from all around them.
/And I'd give up forever to touch you 'Cause I know that you feel me somehow/
Draco smirked at her cleverness as he be began to undo her robes. He slid them down her shoulders and threw them across the room.
/You're the closest to Heaven that I'll ever be And I don't want to go home right now/
He undid the buttons on her shirt and threw it with her robe while unclasping her bra with his other hand as she worked on his robes.
Soon they were both topless with their bare chests pressing together.
/And all I can taste is this moment And all I can breathe is your life/
They kissed passionately as each finished undressing the other.
/And sooner or later it's over I just don't want to miss you tonight/
Draco positioned himself over her and looked for permission to enter within her eyes. She nodded slowly, and he eased into her wet opening. She gasped at the unfamiliar friction between their bodies and squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
/And I don't want the world to see me 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am/
He kissed her eyelids, and she opened them to look up at him. He kissed her lips one last time before beginning to thrust in and out of her.
The feeling was new and exhilarating for her although a bit painful at first. Once she had adjusted, she began to move her hips in a rhythmic pattern with his.
/And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming Or the moment of truth in your lies/
As the pace quickened, the pleasure heightened in their bodies. Their bodies moved together as one.
They were each moaning the others names. With each passing moment, the moans became screams.
As the tension built, Hermione tilted her head backwards and dug her nails into Draco's back. He let out a yelp of surprise when she broke his skin and felt a trail of blood trickle down his back.
/When everything feels like the movies Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive/
They could feel themselves reaching their peak. Again, they quickened the pace. Their bodies were covered in perspiration. Both had their eyes closed, and were in a state of pure bliss.
/And I don't want the world to see me 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am/
With a final thrust and a loud moan, Draco filled her with his seed. He collapsed onto her chest. They were both breathing deeply.
/I just want you to know who I am/
Hermione ran her fingers through his damp hair and looked down at his pale face that was rested upon her breast.
/I just want you to know who I am/
Draco's eyes fluttered opened. He could feel her eyes on him. "Hermione," he whispered, "I- I love you."
"I love you too, Draco."
/I just want you to know who I am/ ("Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls)
The following morning, Draco awoke to a soft touch against his cheek. He opened his eyes slightly and saw Hermione lying next to him with her arm draped lazily over his torso and her face mere centimeters from his.
"Hey," he mumbled sleepily. "What time is it?"
"Almost time for class. You should get down to the Great Hall pretty soon for breakfast," she responded.
He nodded and shifted a little. "What are you doing in here anyway? I thought you were worried that Justin and Lisa would catch you in here."
She smiled a little. "I came here to wake your tired ass up. Anyway, I already spoke to Lisa and Justin. They already went down to breakfast."
"Oh- I- uh musta slept in a bit then. Thanks for waking me." He stood and performed a few basic spells to fix himself up.
In about all of three minutes they departed the common room and made their way toward the Great Hall. Draco had his arm wrapped around Hermione's waist as they strolled through the numerous corridors. The only sound that could be heard was the soft tap of their shoes against the stone floors.
Before they entered the Great Hall, Hermione turned to Draco and said, "You should probably sit with me at the Gryffindor table, you know, to try and make Harry and Ron believe that you really are all right."
He looked and felt very uncomfortable as he thought about his answer. "But what will everyone else say? It's not that I don't want to start as soon as we can, but it would be kinda sudden, wouldn't it?"
"Look Draco, I know them real well, and I know that it takes a long time for them to forgive people, so I want them to see that you really are a great guy and that I wasn't lying to them."
"Okay, fine. Since I am such a great guy I'll sit with you."
She pushed him playfully, but thanked him all the same. They walked into the Great Hall, and received astonished glances from a number of the students as well as the Professors.
Draco followed Hermione to the Gryffindor table and waited a bit impatiently as they discussed if he could sit there or not. He began to feel stupid just waiting, but they finally agreed that he could sit with them. Hermione pulled him hastily down into the seat beside her.
"'Morning," he greeted Harry and Ron as he scooped some bacon and eggs onto his plate. "Excited to be back at Hogwarts?"
They shot him menacing glares, but mumbled a "yes" all to his question.
He looked at Hermione for help. "You guys could at least be a little nicer to him. He is my boyfriend after all, and the two of you should trust my decisions by now."
"We do trust you, 'Mione," Ron said. "It's just that, I'm a little concerned about out history with him. He hasn't exactly been the kindest guy in the world to any of us since we started here."
"Yeah well people can change," Draco retorted. "I'll be the first to admit that I've been an ass to the three of you in the past, but I deeply regret all of that now, and I would like to ask for your forgiveness."
Harry looked a little skeptical at first, but held his hand out to Draco. "It's okay, mate. If 'Mione's happy then I'm happy for her. You're welcome to join us anytime you'd like."
"Thank you, Potter."
Ron would have felt really dumb if he hadn't followed Harry's lead, especially since Hermione was glaring at him, so he too held his hand out to Draco. "Yeah, I trust Hermione's decisions, so I guess I'll just have to trust her about this too," he finally said before going back to his food.
Throughout the remainder of breakfast, they talked of things of little importance.
~
All four of them had double Potions first. Harry and Ron sat on the Gryffindor side of the room, as they were accustomed to do while Hermione sat next to Draco on the Slytherin side. As the rest of the class began to file in, they too all took their normal seats, with the exception of Blaise, who took the vacated seat next to Harry. The two girls received odd glances from the rest of the class, but neither seemed to notice.
Professor Severus Snape soon came barreling into the room. He immediately took his position at the front of the room and began the lesson. "As sixth year students, you are all expected to have mastered the basic skills of potion making. This year, the potions you will make will be more advanced and will take more than one day to brew.
"You will also be assigned partners, who you will work with for the remainder of the year. Do not even think for a moment that you will be able to choose your partner. I will throw each of your names into a hat and draw them two at a time."
He pulled a hat off his desk and threw the strips of paper into it. He pulled out the first two names and read, "Brown, Patil." He scowled at the pairing, but pulled out the next two names. "Goyle, Longbottom." Next was "Granger, Malfoy."
Hermione and Draco turned to each other with wide smiles spread across their faces.
"Potter, Weasley," then, "Zabini, Parkinson." He continued this process until everybody in the room had a partner.
Many of the students were content with their partners, but some were very upset.
Neville Longbottom looked as if he were about to cry when Snape read out then Gregory Goyle would be the person he had to partner up with for the rest of the year. He was hoping to be paired with someone smart, like Hermione, since he still hadn't even come close to mastering basic potion making. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it, and he was pretty sure it was because of his fear of Professor Snape.
"I expect you and your partner will be able to work well together." Here Snape shot a meaningful glance at Goyle and Neville. "Today you will be starting the Polyjuice Potion. It takes one month to make and must be under careful observation at all times.
"After every class, you will put your cauldron in a cabinet that only I will be able to open, and only you or your partner will be able to remove the cauldron. This is a safety precaution so that none of the potions can be altered.
"The directions for this potion are written on the board." He flicked his wand and all of the instructions appeared. "Make sure you read them through very carefully before you get started. You wouldn't want a zero on this now, would you?
"You know where the ingredients are, and I expect that you will have no trouble whatsoever finding them. I will be making random checks during the periods to make sure everything is going.well. Now get to work!"
Hermione hardly glanced up at the board as she made her way over to the cabinet to retrieve the needed ingredients. She still remembered exactly how to make it from when she, Ron, and Harry had attempted it in their second year. That wasn't something she wanted to dwell on as she returned to her seat with her arms full.
She and Draco worked very well together, and only talked when they needed help with cutting or mixing. They worked quickly until they had completed what was needed for the first day.
"Well that was very lucky," Draco commented as he leaned back in his chair with his arms folded behind his head.
"What was?" Hermione responded.
"The fact that we got paired together. I would've had a heart attack if I was paired with somebody else, especially that Longbottom kid."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?"
"Because you just happen to be the smartest witch in our year, and I know that you wouldn't let me screw up. If I did then you would get a bad grade and probably die or something like that."
"Funny, Draco," she replied sarcastically. "I love your humor. However, I would not die if I received one poor grade. And anyway, you're the smartest wizard in our year, and you wouldn't want your potion all screwed up either, especially since ol' Snape's your favorite teacher." She smiled smugly and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Hey, the only place I want that tongue is either in your mouth or in mine."
"And you have the power to control that?" she snorted as she folded her arms across her chest and glanced innocently at him.
"I just might."
Hermione rolled her eyes, but decided that it was best not to argue over something so stupid, like the inner workings of Draco's mind, for instance.
A new idea suddenly popped into her head, however. She noticed Draco's chair leaning back on its hind legs. In one swift motion, she swished her foot out and kicked it back even farther. With a loud clang, Draco and the chair fell to the floor.
Most of the class jumped and looked toward the back of the classroom to see what had caused the disruption. Hermione just shrugged and they turned back to their own work.
Draco looked up at her disbelievingly as he picked up his chair and sat the right way. There was an innocent smile upon her lips, and she stuck her tongue out at him again.
"You better watch yourself, Granger. I'm not gunna tolerate behavior like that," he said in a mock angry voice. "And what did I tell you about that tongue of yours?"
"Oh, I don't really remember." She pretended to be deep in thought, but she soon looked back over at him. "I believe it might have been something about it being here in my mouth, or."She leaned toward him and ran her tongue over his lower lip. " here in yours," she finished.
"Mm, you've got the jist of what I said."
Hermione smirked and started kissing his neck softly.
"Uh, Hermione, we can't exactly do anything right now seeing as we are in the middle of class. There are people all around us."
"They're not looking," she mumbled against his soft skin. "I don't care what they think. I'll just kill them all."
He pulled back slightly so he could see into her deep brown eyes. The eyes he could get lost in forever. "How's this sound, once we get out cauldron stored away, and we're dismissed, we can skip the rest of the day and do whatever the hell you want?"
Hermione studied his face carefully. Advantages of skipping- Draco, sex, Draco, privacy, Draco, sex, and Draco. That list seemed pretty good to Hermione. Disadvantages- make-up work, people, Draco not being around all the time, Harry, and Ron. To Hermione that didn't sound all that great. The choice was obvious. "Sounds good to me!"
Draco smirked once again. "I figured you'd say that. It was clearly written all over your face that you wanted to."
Hermione just shrugged as she ran her hand along his thigh, rubbing in gentle circles.
As class drew to a close, Draco placed the cauldron in the cabinet with all of the others. Once the bell rang, he and Hermione headed quickly toward the prefect dorms.
Hermione kissed him roughly as they stepped through the portrait hole. He was pushed up against the wall. Their hands were all over each other as they battled for control of the kiss.
Draco, who was struggling to gain control, finally picked Hermione up and began carrying her to his dorm.
A faint smile spread across her face as she left a trail of kissed along his neck and jawbone. Her hands were tangled in his hair as they began to ascend the stairs.
Draco placed Hermione gently onto his bed and crawled on top of her, kissing her passionately.
Hermione broke the kiss briefly to grab her wand from her pocket. She put a silencing charm on the room, and then made music come out of the walls from all around them.
/And I'd give up forever to touch you 'Cause I know that you feel me somehow/
Draco smirked at her cleverness as he be began to undo her robes. He slid them down her shoulders and threw them across the room.
/You're the closest to Heaven that I'll ever be And I don't want to go home right now/
He undid the buttons on her shirt and threw it with her robe while unclasping her bra with his other hand as she worked on his robes.
Soon they were both topless with their bare chests pressing together.
/And all I can taste is this moment And all I can breathe is your life/
They kissed passionately as each finished undressing the other.
/And sooner or later it's over I just don't want to miss you tonight/
Draco positioned himself over her and looked for permission to enter within her eyes. She nodded slowly, and he eased into her wet opening. She gasped at the unfamiliar friction between their bodies and squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
/And I don't want the world to see me 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am/
He kissed her eyelids, and she opened them to look up at him. He kissed her lips one last time before beginning to thrust in and out of her.
The feeling was new and exhilarating for her although a bit painful at first. Once she had adjusted, she began to move her hips in a rhythmic pattern with his.
/And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming Or the moment of truth in your lies/
As the pace quickened, the pleasure heightened in their bodies. Their bodies moved together as one.
They were each moaning the others names. With each passing moment, the moans became screams.
As the tension built, Hermione tilted her head backwards and dug her nails into Draco's back. He let out a yelp of surprise when she broke his skin and felt a trail of blood trickle down his back.
/When everything feels like the movies Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive/
They could feel themselves reaching their peak. Again, they quickened the pace. Their bodies were covered in perspiration. Both had their eyes closed, and were in a state of pure bliss.
/And I don't want the world to see me 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am/
With a final thrust and a loud moan, Draco filled her with his seed. He collapsed onto her chest. They were both breathing deeply.
/I just want you to know who I am/
Hermione ran her fingers through his damp hair and looked down at his pale face that was rested upon her breast.
/I just want you to know who I am/
Draco's eyes fluttered opened. He could feel her eyes on him. "Hermione," he whispered, "I- I love you."
"I love you too, Draco."
/I just want you to know who I am/ ("Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls)