Chapter 35- Crystals Shine, But They're Not As Noticeable As-
*In 235 A.D. the Mongolian Wizard's International Relations Society, or MWIRS, was set up on the border of Chi-*
"Ready, Hermione?" Draco asked. He was decked out in all black clothing, including a warm black cloak.
"For what, honey-bubble?" She did not miss his difficultly restrained eye roll, and grinned. She loved to annoy him with random pet names.
"Tomorrow's the last Hogsmeade date before Christmas, remember? We're going today to get the rest of our decorations."
She resisted the urge to slap her head. "I forgot again. Let me get my cloak and some warmer clothes, I'll be out in a minute." Closing her History of Magic book, she gave Draco a peck on the cheek as she passed him on the way to her room.
She emerged a moment later ready for their outing. "Okay, let's go."
He looked her up and down. "How do you do that with your hair?" While it had hung in thick, smooth ringlets when he had first approached, it now was twisted up into a bun at the back of her head.
"Ginny taught me a spell. Honestly, if you want amazing hair, look at hers. Did you see it, at the beginning of the year? It still looks exactly the same. She really knows how to maintain herself."
"Can we *not* talk about the little Weasley, please?"
"Draco…"
"Okay, I'm sorry. But I'm also serious."
"Fine." She took his hand as they left their common room. Neither of them wore gloves, though they would be walking in the cold in the middle of December. She savored the feel of his soft but firm skin, calloused in certain places from Quidditch.
As Head Boy and Girl, they were allowed to visit Hogsmeade during any of their free time without any chaperone, provided they left a note. Hermione found this to be slightly irresponsible on the faculty's end, but quite advantageous on hers.
Hogsmeade was beautiful when covered in snow- especially when it was not more crowded than the Gryffindor common room during a Quidditch Cup celebration. She and Draco stepped into the Three Broomsticks after making their first stop at Gladrags, where they had picked up their order of silk streamers and ribbons bearing sparkly, ice-blue snowflakes. They ordered butterbeers and sat at a table in the corner.
"I think we've managed some pretty good ideas for our Christmas decorations," Hermione commented, letting her beverage warm her to the toes.
"Yes, but it could never compare to that Halloween." Draco grinned at the memory. "I think next year's Head Boy and Girl will have trouble topping it."
"Well, maybe we should be fighting whenever we have to plan anything," Hermione suggested. "We come up with the best ideas when we're trying not to talk."
"Don't say that, Hermione. I never want to fight with you again." He picked up her hand where it rested on the table and brought it to his lips. She smiled warmly at him. "You're right, though. Those were the *best* ideas. Honestly, I don't know how we managed it. And did you see the looks on everyone's faces when they realized it was us? None of them guessed…Hey, you still have that dress, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"It's sexy."
Hermione blushed. "Come on, Draco," she admonished. "Not in public."
"You call this public? There are three other people in the room."
"Exactly."
He sighed, but he did not mention anything of the sort again. She could tell from his expression that he wanted to. And, whether or not she would say it, she wanted him to as well. She loved the way he complimented her. She felt so special when he said things like that.
"Draco, you remember the first time we met?" He nodded, perplexedly drawing down his eyebrows. "If I had told you then that we would be in love now, what would you have done?"
He snorted. "Probably laughed and made some comment about a Mudblood. I don't know. Even though I've never believed that, when I was younger I was not ready to be myself, for anyone. I was…too afraid, I suppose."
Had Draco Malfoy just admitted that he was afraid? Hermione went over it in her mind. Yes, he had. "Don't worry," she said. "I won't tell anyone."
"Tell anyone what?"
"What you just said." He pulled a trying-to-remember-what-I-just-said-face. After only a few seconds, it changed to an oh-that-now-I-know-what-you're-saying face. He laughed, as though at something he rather pitied in someone…and Hermione knew he was pitying himself, for what he had been.
"I love you, Draco. And I always will."
His gemstone eyes stared into hers. She saw the passion burning within them. "I love you too, Hermione. More than I could ever tell you."
************************************************************************
"No, don't put that one there. That spot has to be saved for the second icelain statue."
Draco sighed and moved the vibrant red streamer over a few feet. "That's good," Hermione said. She turned away to take another shruvewip from the box, mounting it on the wall at the corner of a white streamer. The castle, by the end of an hour, would be completely infested with these shimmering, stationary creatures. Hermione had been a bit worried when the order had not been there the previous night, but the shruvewips had arrived just that morning, while they were hanging streamers.
"Can you imagine doing this with *every* student running wild in the corridors? It would be a nightmare," Hermione commented as the icelain sculpture was lifted into place. Icelain was simply porcelain that was covered with a sheen of glittery magical ice. The beings represented looked as though they had once been living, but had frozen. Draco found he rather liked the effect, but not when Hermione talked about them nonstop.
This particular statue was of a baby unicorn with a wreath around its neck. The one they had looked at before was of a classically beautiful woman in a white dress and black cloak, looking over her shoulder at something. She held a bouquet of white roses in her hands.
Draco, not bothering with his wand, lifted another streamer, this one green, wandlessly onto the wall. He almost regretted not listening to Hermione, before remembering that she was not saying anything at that moment that she would not repeat twenty times within the next few days.
"Could you hold this, Draco?" She handed him a shruvewip. He watched as she stood on tiptoe to mount the one she was holding.
"Let me do that, Hermione." He gave her back his shruvewip and took over. "Stop complaining," he said, before she had a chance to speak. "I'm taller, it's easier for me. Besides, we are doing this *together*, and I would help you even if we weren't."
He finished, and turned to her. She was smiling. "Where do you want the other one?" She indicated the spot she had chosen, and he attached the shruvewip swiftly. "There. Let's take a break, just for a minute."
Their break lasted for just that- a minute. Hermione was eager to finish before the rest of the students returned from Hogsmeade. Draco let her order him about as they attached curling icicles and garlands to the banisters, and magicked the decorations onto Hagrid's giant pine trees.
They stood in the middle of the castle, where they could see much of their work. High above their heads, they could just barely make out the twinkling of statues, shruvewips, and tiny snowflakes on streamers.
"Oh, hello, Hermione," a cheerful woman's voice said. "Who is this handsome young man?"
Hermione turned slowly, a perplexed look crossing her face as her eyebrows went so high they almost disappeared into her hairline. "Mrs. Dursley?" she said cautiously. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, please. It's Penny Evans. You can call me Aunt Penny, if you'd like. I know Harry thinks of you as a sister. As it is, I am here to continue my magical education, which was cut short in my earlier years, and I am living here until I find a real job in the magical world."
Draco was not so much confused as indifferent, but he still had no idea what they were talking about. Though that name, Evans, was familiar. He had heard the surname before- Lily Evans, that's who- wait. Lily Evans? "You're Potter's aunt."
"Yes. What an observant young man you are. And your name is?"
"This is Draco Malfoy," Hermione offered, knowing that he was not likely to give this information himself. Draco glanced at her in loving annoyance. "He's the Head Boy."
"Ah, so he is. Well, it is a pleasure to meet you both. I should be off, I have quite a bit of studying to do. My, I do hope the armor is not singing again this year. That certainly grates on one's ears, does it not?" She smiled politely and skipped off down the hall.
"She seems a bit young for her age," Draco said simply.
Hermione shook her head in confusion, holding a hand to her forehead. "There is too much that needs to be explained. I'll have to talk to Harry later." Draco assumed she meant about his aunt.
To the relief of what Draco knew would be everyone in the castle, they had charmed the suits of armor *not* to try to sing Christmas carols.
Hermione got his attention by simply smiling. He loved to look at her smile. He loved to look at her, period. "I think we did well."
"I think so too," he replied. "But still not as good as Halloween."
"That had better not be all I hear for the next three weeks."
"It won't…Hermione, are you really going to the Burrow?"
She looked up at him apologetically. "Yes, but only for a few days. I'll be back by Christmas Eve. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to spend Christmas with you."
He wrapped her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. "You're a wonderful girlfriend, Hermione. Did I ever tell you that?"
She giggled. "Yes, Draco. Only about five thousand times."
"I don't want you to go away."
"I know. I would love to spend every minute of every day with you, but Ginny invited me, and I do love it at the Weasleys'…but not enough to let it keep me away from you."
"Of course not. You would have to love it a *lot*."
"Damn right."
He gasped in mock-horror. "Did the wonderful Hermione Granger just let a swear escape her lips?"
"Cut it out, Draco. It's your bad influence rubbing off, that's what it is. I can't help it, I spend *so* much time with you."
Taking her hand, he led her back to their dorm. "We've been working all day, Hermione." He sat her on the couch, and stretched his legs as he sat next to her. "We deserve a reward, don't you think?"
Smiling, Hermione leaned into him, her lips brushing his lightly, teasingly. There was one thing about her that he could never deny: she had always been a good kisser. He let her take charge as she explored his mouth, his neck, and allowed her tongue to slip in and meld with his own.
*Okay. You've had your fun. Now I'm going to have mine.* He took her in his arms and laid her back against the arm of the sofa. She put her hands to the sides of his torso, waiting for him to move in. He did, right to her neck, and went to work.
"Draco!" She exclaimed half an hour later. He looked up as she came from her corridor, pointing to her neck. "You gave me *two* hickeys! TWO!"
He grinned wickedly. "I know. I meant to."
"This is not funny. How am I supposed to *leave* our rooms until these go away?"
"Hermione, relax. You're telling me you *don't* know the blemish-remover spell?"
"I never had to use it…"
"And that stopped you from learning it? Somehow I find that hard to believe."
"Oh, shut it. Just show me the spell."
Pointing his wand, he uttered, "Clarus!" The hickeys slowly began to fade, blending into her skin. She eyed him suspiciously, went to check herself in the mirror, and reemerged smiling.
"Well, in that case, feel free to give me hickeys whenever you want."
"Are you serious?" He looked at her with wide eyes. This was too good to be true.
"Oh, yes. It feels wonderful. You've had hickeys, haven't you?"
"Well, I've *given* plenty…What? I'm sorry, I told you how I was. You really expected me not to have done *any* of this stuff?"
"*I* haven't."
"Well, you're Hermione, it's different. But to answer your question, none that counted."
"Do you want one?" She asked innocently. *She's less innocent than she appears,* he thought. *She's almost better at this stuff than I am.*
"Now, knowing me, what do you think I'll say?"
"I think you'll say, 'Give it to me now'." She smiled. Leaning over, she brought her lips next to his ear. "But it's almost time for dinner, and I want to eat in the Great Hall today. We'll continue with our- activities afterward."
She pulled away, smiling seductively over her shoulder as she exited the dorm.
Damn, that woman was hot.
End Chapter 35
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was put in mainly because I realized that I had just put in four chapters without very much Hermione/Draco action at all. I especially like the hickey section at the end. I just added the bit about Penny because someone suggested it in their review.
I'm going to burst my own protective bubble. I am glad you all like this so much, as I like it a lot. I am grateful for suggestions you make, but at the moment I am approximately eight chapters ahead of what I'm posting, so do not take it personally if your suggestion is not used. It's just that I don't usually feel like going back and adjusting the whole story for a suggestion. I only included this one because I felt that it would be odd not to have Hermione at least meet Penny, and because it could be added at any point in the story. Glegh. That was a long note.
Review for sparkling shruvewip confetti!! I know I want some. I'll just take some for myself…and a little more…there. That should do it. Damn. Oh, fine, Avera! She just told me to put some back or there wouldn't be enough for the reviewers. Damn that Muse, she is always right.
*In 235 A.D. the Mongolian Wizard's International Relations Society, or MWIRS, was set up on the border of Chi-*
"Ready, Hermione?" Draco asked. He was decked out in all black clothing, including a warm black cloak.
"For what, honey-bubble?" She did not miss his difficultly restrained eye roll, and grinned. She loved to annoy him with random pet names.
"Tomorrow's the last Hogsmeade date before Christmas, remember? We're going today to get the rest of our decorations."
She resisted the urge to slap her head. "I forgot again. Let me get my cloak and some warmer clothes, I'll be out in a minute." Closing her History of Magic book, she gave Draco a peck on the cheek as she passed him on the way to her room.
She emerged a moment later ready for their outing. "Okay, let's go."
He looked her up and down. "How do you do that with your hair?" While it had hung in thick, smooth ringlets when he had first approached, it now was twisted up into a bun at the back of her head.
"Ginny taught me a spell. Honestly, if you want amazing hair, look at hers. Did you see it, at the beginning of the year? It still looks exactly the same. She really knows how to maintain herself."
"Can we *not* talk about the little Weasley, please?"
"Draco…"
"Okay, I'm sorry. But I'm also serious."
"Fine." She took his hand as they left their common room. Neither of them wore gloves, though they would be walking in the cold in the middle of December. She savored the feel of his soft but firm skin, calloused in certain places from Quidditch.
As Head Boy and Girl, they were allowed to visit Hogsmeade during any of their free time without any chaperone, provided they left a note. Hermione found this to be slightly irresponsible on the faculty's end, but quite advantageous on hers.
Hogsmeade was beautiful when covered in snow- especially when it was not more crowded than the Gryffindor common room during a Quidditch Cup celebration. She and Draco stepped into the Three Broomsticks after making their first stop at Gladrags, where they had picked up their order of silk streamers and ribbons bearing sparkly, ice-blue snowflakes. They ordered butterbeers and sat at a table in the corner.
"I think we've managed some pretty good ideas for our Christmas decorations," Hermione commented, letting her beverage warm her to the toes.
"Yes, but it could never compare to that Halloween." Draco grinned at the memory. "I think next year's Head Boy and Girl will have trouble topping it."
"Well, maybe we should be fighting whenever we have to plan anything," Hermione suggested. "We come up with the best ideas when we're trying not to talk."
"Don't say that, Hermione. I never want to fight with you again." He picked up her hand where it rested on the table and brought it to his lips. She smiled warmly at him. "You're right, though. Those were the *best* ideas. Honestly, I don't know how we managed it. And did you see the looks on everyone's faces when they realized it was us? None of them guessed…Hey, you still have that dress, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"It's sexy."
Hermione blushed. "Come on, Draco," she admonished. "Not in public."
"You call this public? There are three other people in the room."
"Exactly."
He sighed, but he did not mention anything of the sort again. She could tell from his expression that he wanted to. And, whether or not she would say it, she wanted him to as well. She loved the way he complimented her. She felt so special when he said things like that.
"Draco, you remember the first time we met?" He nodded, perplexedly drawing down his eyebrows. "If I had told you then that we would be in love now, what would you have done?"
He snorted. "Probably laughed and made some comment about a Mudblood. I don't know. Even though I've never believed that, when I was younger I was not ready to be myself, for anyone. I was…too afraid, I suppose."
Had Draco Malfoy just admitted that he was afraid? Hermione went over it in her mind. Yes, he had. "Don't worry," she said. "I won't tell anyone."
"Tell anyone what?"
"What you just said." He pulled a trying-to-remember-what-I-just-said-face. After only a few seconds, it changed to an oh-that-now-I-know-what-you're-saying face. He laughed, as though at something he rather pitied in someone…and Hermione knew he was pitying himself, for what he had been.
"I love you, Draco. And I always will."
His gemstone eyes stared into hers. She saw the passion burning within them. "I love you too, Hermione. More than I could ever tell you."
************************************************************************
"No, don't put that one there. That spot has to be saved for the second icelain statue."
Draco sighed and moved the vibrant red streamer over a few feet. "That's good," Hermione said. She turned away to take another shruvewip from the box, mounting it on the wall at the corner of a white streamer. The castle, by the end of an hour, would be completely infested with these shimmering, stationary creatures. Hermione had been a bit worried when the order had not been there the previous night, but the shruvewips had arrived just that morning, while they were hanging streamers.
"Can you imagine doing this with *every* student running wild in the corridors? It would be a nightmare," Hermione commented as the icelain sculpture was lifted into place. Icelain was simply porcelain that was covered with a sheen of glittery magical ice. The beings represented looked as though they had once been living, but had frozen. Draco found he rather liked the effect, but not when Hermione talked about them nonstop.
This particular statue was of a baby unicorn with a wreath around its neck. The one they had looked at before was of a classically beautiful woman in a white dress and black cloak, looking over her shoulder at something. She held a bouquet of white roses in her hands.
Draco, not bothering with his wand, lifted another streamer, this one green, wandlessly onto the wall. He almost regretted not listening to Hermione, before remembering that she was not saying anything at that moment that she would not repeat twenty times within the next few days.
"Could you hold this, Draco?" She handed him a shruvewip. He watched as she stood on tiptoe to mount the one she was holding.
"Let me do that, Hermione." He gave her back his shruvewip and took over. "Stop complaining," he said, before she had a chance to speak. "I'm taller, it's easier for me. Besides, we are doing this *together*, and I would help you even if we weren't."
He finished, and turned to her. She was smiling. "Where do you want the other one?" She indicated the spot she had chosen, and he attached the shruvewip swiftly. "There. Let's take a break, just for a minute."
Their break lasted for just that- a minute. Hermione was eager to finish before the rest of the students returned from Hogsmeade. Draco let her order him about as they attached curling icicles and garlands to the banisters, and magicked the decorations onto Hagrid's giant pine trees.
They stood in the middle of the castle, where they could see much of their work. High above their heads, they could just barely make out the twinkling of statues, shruvewips, and tiny snowflakes on streamers.
"Oh, hello, Hermione," a cheerful woman's voice said. "Who is this handsome young man?"
Hermione turned slowly, a perplexed look crossing her face as her eyebrows went so high they almost disappeared into her hairline. "Mrs. Dursley?" she said cautiously. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, please. It's Penny Evans. You can call me Aunt Penny, if you'd like. I know Harry thinks of you as a sister. As it is, I am here to continue my magical education, which was cut short in my earlier years, and I am living here until I find a real job in the magical world."
Draco was not so much confused as indifferent, but he still had no idea what they were talking about. Though that name, Evans, was familiar. He had heard the surname before- Lily Evans, that's who- wait. Lily Evans? "You're Potter's aunt."
"Yes. What an observant young man you are. And your name is?"
"This is Draco Malfoy," Hermione offered, knowing that he was not likely to give this information himself. Draco glanced at her in loving annoyance. "He's the Head Boy."
"Ah, so he is. Well, it is a pleasure to meet you both. I should be off, I have quite a bit of studying to do. My, I do hope the armor is not singing again this year. That certainly grates on one's ears, does it not?" She smiled politely and skipped off down the hall.
"She seems a bit young for her age," Draco said simply.
Hermione shook her head in confusion, holding a hand to her forehead. "There is too much that needs to be explained. I'll have to talk to Harry later." Draco assumed she meant about his aunt.
To the relief of what Draco knew would be everyone in the castle, they had charmed the suits of armor *not* to try to sing Christmas carols.
Hermione got his attention by simply smiling. He loved to look at her smile. He loved to look at her, period. "I think we did well."
"I think so too," he replied. "But still not as good as Halloween."
"That had better not be all I hear for the next three weeks."
"It won't…Hermione, are you really going to the Burrow?"
She looked up at him apologetically. "Yes, but only for a few days. I'll be back by Christmas Eve. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to spend Christmas with you."
He wrapped her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. "You're a wonderful girlfriend, Hermione. Did I ever tell you that?"
She giggled. "Yes, Draco. Only about five thousand times."
"I don't want you to go away."
"I know. I would love to spend every minute of every day with you, but Ginny invited me, and I do love it at the Weasleys'…but not enough to let it keep me away from you."
"Of course not. You would have to love it a *lot*."
"Damn right."
He gasped in mock-horror. "Did the wonderful Hermione Granger just let a swear escape her lips?"
"Cut it out, Draco. It's your bad influence rubbing off, that's what it is. I can't help it, I spend *so* much time with you."
Taking her hand, he led her back to their dorm. "We've been working all day, Hermione." He sat her on the couch, and stretched his legs as he sat next to her. "We deserve a reward, don't you think?"
Smiling, Hermione leaned into him, her lips brushing his lightly, teasingly. There was one thing about her that he could never deny: she had always been a good kisser. He let her take charge as she explored his mouth, his neck, and allowed her tongue to slip in and meld with his own.
*Okay. You've had your fun. Now I'm going to have mine.* He took her in his arms and laid her back against the arm of the sofa. She put her hands to the sides of his torso, waiting for him to move in. He did, right to her neck, and went to work.
"Draco!" She exclaimed half an hour later. He looked up as she came from her corridor, pointing to her neck. "You gave me *two* hickeys! TWO!"
He grinned wickedly. "I know. I meant to."
"This is not funny. How am I supposed to *leave* our rooms until these go away?"
"Hermione, relax. You're telling me you *don't* know the blemish-remover spell?"
"I never had to use it…"
"And that stopped you from learning it? Somehow I find that hard to believe."
"Oh, shut it. Just show me the spell."
Pointing his wand, he uttered, "Clarus!" The hickeys slowly began to fade, blending into her skin. She eyed him suspiciously, went to check herself in the mirror, and reemerged smiling.
"Well, in that case, feel free to give me hickeys whenever you want."
"Are you serious?" He looked at her with wide eyes. This was too good to be true.
"Oh, yes. It feels wonderful. You've had hickeys, haven't you?"
"Well, I've *given* plenty…What? I'm sorry, I told you how I was. You really expected me not to have done *any* of this stuff?"
"*I* haven't."
"Well, you're Hermione, it's different. But to answer your question, none that counted."
"Do you want one?" She asked innocently. *She's less innocent than she appears,* he thought. *She's almost better at this stuff than I am.*
"Now, knowing me, what do you think I'll say?"
"I think you'll say, 'Give it to me now'." She smiled. Leaning over, she brought her lips next to his ear. "But it's almost time for dinner, and I want to eat in the Great Hall today. We'll continue with our- activities afterward."
She pulled away, smiling seductively over her shoulder as she exited the dorm.
Damn, that woman was hot.
End Chapter 35
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was put in mainly because I realized that I had just put in four chapters without very much Hermione/Draco action at all. I especially like the hickey section at the end. I just added the bit about Penny because someone suggested it in their review.
I'm going to burst my own protective bubble. I am glad you all like this so much, as I like it a lot. I am grateful for suggestions you make, but at the moment I am approximately eight chapters ahead of what I'm posting, so do not take it personally if your suggestion is not used. It's just that I don't usually feel like going back and adjusting the whole story for a suggestion. I only included this one because I felt that it would be odd not to have Hermione at least meet Penny, and because it could be added at any point in the story. Glegh. That was a long note.
Review for sparkling shruvewip confetti!! I know I want some. I'll just take some for myself…and a little more…there. That should do it. Damn. Oh, fine, Avera! She just told me to put some back or there wouldn't be enough for the reviewers. Damn that Muse, she is always right.