Serpentine Romeo
By Black Rapture
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters, places, and objects belong to Warner Brothers and her majesty J.K. Rowling, Queen of All Literature. (King, of course, being J.R.R. Tolkien! Oh yeah, Legolas is a hottie!)
Chapter Nine - Wings of Angels
Hermione sighed contentedly as she stretched in Draco's arms, reaching over to shut off her alarm. She shifted and looked up at Draco to find that he was still fast asleep, despite the persistent ringing.
"Draco, wake up." Hermione whispered, kissing him on the nose. His nose twitched, but Draco remained fast asleep. She rolled her eyes. Smiling, Hermione pressed her lips gently to his, taking his lower-lip into her mouth. He began to respond, pulling her on top of him as Hermione shrieked.
"Morning, love." Draco greeted, his voice still thick with sleep. She smiled and kissed him again. As the embrace grew more passionate, Hermione detached herself and got up.
"We don't have time, Draco." Hermione said, "Now get your cute bum out of bed and into the shower."
"Are you coming?"
"No."
"Fine." Draco groaned, extricating himself from the sheets and ambling into the bathroom. Hermione followed, heading to sink to brush her teeth. Draco emerged five minutes later, looking slightly more awake. As he picked up his hair gel, Hermione slipped past him and into the shower.
[-]
Twenty minutes later, the two had finally emerged from their room. There was a slight delay caused by Draco sneaking into the shower with Hermione, who gave up trying to deter him.
"We only have ten minutes for breakfast now." Hermione complained.
"You're so cute when you pout." Draco smirked. She glared at him.
"And you enjoy my irritation way to much."
"When your lower-lip sticks out like that." He grinned, pulling her aside outside the doors to the Great Hall. Draco grasped her waist and pulled her to him. She melted into him, opening her mouth to his waiting tongue. Hermione heard a sharp intake of breath behind her and jerked around.
Parvati Patil looked quite shocked. Hermione's jaw dropped.
"Fuck." Draco muttered, his head falling back onto the wall behind him. Parvati cleared her throat and passed them quickly, not looking up.
"Great." Hermione laughed, but there was no humor (the extra 'u' is a British thing. Ignore it if you want) in her voice.
"Hermione, I'm sorry." Draco said, "I never should have-"
"Draco, it's not your fault. Everyone was going to find out anyway." Hermione sighed, "And Parvati has one of the biggest mouths in school, so it'll be all over by lunchtime." Draco reached for her hand and kissed her softly.
"It'll be fine, pet." He whispered. She nodded.
"I'll see you later." Hermione smiled, squeezing his hand reassuringly and heading into the Great Hall. Draco waited a bit, then entered behind her and headed to the Slytherin table.
[-]
As Hermione sat down, she scanned the table for Parvati. When she found her, she and Lavender Brown were looking at her with barely contained mirth at having such a juicy piece of gossip. Hermione turned to concentrate on eating, but not before seeing Lavender turn and whisper to Seamus.
"What's the matter?" Ron asked. Hermione looked up at him; surprised that he was even speaking to her.
"Parvati saw me with Draco." Hermione swallowed, "Everybody's going to know."
"Why do you care? Are you ashamed of him or something?" Ron responded.
"No, of course not." Hermione shook her head, "But I'm afraid of what everyone's going to think."
"Everything will be fine." Harry assured her. Ron nodded in agreement. Hermione smiled.
"Uh, Hermione." Ginny started, sitting down next to her, "Parvati just told me she saw you and Malfoy kissing."
"I know." Hermione shrugged, "Not much I can do about it now."
"I can beat her up." Ginny suggested. Hermione laughed
"Thanks for offering."
"Hey, what are friend's for?"
[-]
"Well, Draco, I just heard an interesting bit of news." Pansy drawled, sitting down across from him.
"What's that, Parkinson?"
"Padma Patil said her sister saw you kissing Granger not five minutes ago." She snorted, "She obviously hit her head on something. I told her you wouldn't be caught dead doing anything with that mudblood."
"Yeah, what's that about?" Blaise inquired, "I heard the same thing."
"What I do is none of your fucking business." Draco snapped, stabbing a sausage with his fork. Blaise's eyebrow rose.
"Whatever you say." Pansy said quickly, returning to shoving food into her mouth. Lunch couldn't have ended soon enough for Draco. When it finally did, he grabbed his bag headed to the dungeons for Potions. Slytherins and Gryffindors alike were giving him questioning looks to which he glared at them, daring them to comment. Thankfully none did. Even Snape was looking at him oddly.
"Mr. Malfoy, a word?" Snape called at the end of the class. Draco held back.
"Yes, professor?" He sighed.
"That was very careless of you."
"What was?"
"How long do you think it will take for your father to find out about this?"
"Oh, bollocks, I didn't even think about it."
"Obviously." Snape rolled his eyes, "Not to mention it will soon get back to the Dark Lord."
"Bloody hell, what am I going to do? I can't let anything happen to her!" Draco said hurriedly.
"I will see Dumbledore and see if he has any suggestions. In the mean time, be on your guard." He advised, signalling that he could go.
At lunchtime, a black raven flew into the hall and dropped a black envelope on Draco's plate. Draco cursed mentally, knowing that it was from his father. He opened the letter and unfolded a piece of black parchment written upon with silver ink.
Draco,
Be at the edge of the Forbidden Forest at midnight.
Lucius
(sorry, I just always think letters or thoughts look better in italics…makes them stand out. Again, ignore that if you want. Most of these so far are just changes from my perception, if that makes sense…change them all back if you didn't want things to be portrayed that way)
Having lost his appetite, Draco grabbed his bag and was heading up the stairs when the sound of his name made him turn around. Hermione was hurrying towards him.
"Who was that from?" Hermione asked, though Draco knew she had probably already guessed.
"Lucius."
"What did it say?"
"To meet him in the forest tonight."
"Are you going to go?"
"It's not like I have much of a choice, is it?"
"What d'you mean?"
"Voldemort's going to find out, Hermione. I don't what's going to happen to me - or you."
"I didn't even think about that."
"Yeah, me either. Not until Snape said something." Draco admitted. Students then began to filter out of the Great Hall. Draco smiled at her and headed back up the stairs. Harry and Ron appeared beside her and together they headed to Transfiguration.
[-]
Hermione finally fell asleep in Draco's arms, despite how worried she was about Lucius. A quarter before midnight, Draco slipped out of bed and dressed quickly.
He kissed Hermione on the forehead and exited the common room, hurrying down stairways and along halls. Draco quietly pushed open the doors of the castle and silently made his way across the grounds.
As he approached the place where he usually met Lucius when they had these late night meetings, Draco could see a dark figure lurking there already. As he got closer, the crunch of leaves beneath his feet caused Lucius to turn around.
"Draco." Lucius spat.
"Lucius." Draco said just as vehemently.
"Do not speak to me in such a tone, you ungrateful brat." Lucius snarled, grabbing Draco by the collar and throwing him to the ground, "A mudblood! You are a disgrace to the Malfoy name." Draco had no response. He couldn't fight back. Appearing as though he was still loyal to his father and Voldemort was essential. So he didn't rise from the ground, just stared up at Lucius.
"Nothing to say? What courage you have, Draco. Get up." Draco stood. "Crucio." Lucius hissed. Draco braced himself - he was more used to this than he cared to admit. He'd been on the receiving end of Lucius' wand since he was eleven years old. But that didn't really make it hurt any less. His nerve endings twitched and burned as every inch of his body was set on fire. As Lucius ended the curse, he pulled Draco up from his fallen form and hit him across the face. The Malfoy ring on his finger cut into Draco's cheek and blood ran down his jaw.
Lucius punched him again and Draco felt his lip split. He tasted metallic blood on his tongue. But still he stood, determined not to retaliate. His father's manicured nails broke the skin on his shoulder as Draco was thrown against a nearby tree. Lucius' swung his serpent cane into Draco's side and the sound of cracking ribs reverberated through the air.
"You better have a reason for your behaviour when our master asks." Lucius warned, looking at Draco's bruised and bleeding form as though he was dirt on his boot. And then he was gone, disappearing into the darkness of the forest. Draco coughed and stayed slumped against the tree, wondering how he was going to get back to the castle.
[-]
Hermione waited ten minutes after Draco had left to grab the invisibility cloak she had borrowed from Harry and follow him.
When she got out onto the grounds, Hermione frantically glanced around. She saw a slight movement to her right and hurried toward the towering form of Lucius Malfoy. She arrived just in time to see Lucius' cane break several of Draco's ribs. Hermione winced but knew she couldn't reveal her presence. She silenced her sobs into her hand and waited until he had headed back into the forest before throwing the cloak off and rushing to Draco's side.
"Draco!" Hermione sobbed, "Are you alright?"
"What do you think?" Draco drawled sarcastically.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." Hermione sniffled, fumbling for her wand to cast a levitation charm on Draco, lifting him into the air.
"Severus." Draco mumbled.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Don't take me to the Hospital Wing. Take me to Snape." Draco told her. Hermione got Draco safely into the castle and headed down the dungeon steps. She knew that Snape's quarters were through his office thanks to the Marauder's Map. Unlocking his office door, she knocked on the door on the opposite wall.
After a few minutes she knocked again, louder this time. There was some shuffling, and then the door opened.
"Miss Granger, what on earth are you-" Snape stopped when he saw Draco's now limp form floating behind her.
"It was Lucius." Hermione whispered. Snape nodded and stepped aside to let them in. Hermione levitated Draco down onto the bed in a spare room that Snape had led her to. She watched as Snape took off the majority of Draco's clothes and healed his broken ribs, his shoulder, and the cuts on his face. Draco had slipped in and out of consciousness, and had managed to take a potion for pain.
"Miss Granger, you're free to stay in here with Mr. Malfoy is you wish. If he wakes up again, try to get him to take a sleeping potion." Snape said. Hermione nodded and Snape exited the room, shutting the door behind him. Hermione didn't bother to change her clothes before crawling into bed next to Draco.
Draco woke up a few hours later, and Hermione gave him the potion Snape had indicated. He gave her a weak smile and fell into a deep sleep. Silent tears streamed down Hermione's face as sleep overtook her.