Disclaimer: I own nothing………..I am broke and destitute and unloved.
A/N: FINALLY!!!! I'm very sorry everyone, but I had mental block for an entire semester, and just got inspiration today on the bus on the way home from school. And so I'm doing this on a laptop in my piano teacher's living room while my sister has her lesson and talk about major, minor and perfect chords. So much fun;). I finally have direction in my life (well, in my fanfic anyway).
To malfoyelf: The bet between Hermione & Draco is still on, but they kinda forget about it, being so enamoured of each other and all. It will come back into the story in a little while, but I'm not going to tell you how as that is a state secret and if I told you I would have to kill you. J
Chapter 12
"So what's happening today?" Draco spread the general question to everyone at the breakfast table, but looked directly at Hermione, whose eyes suddenly developed a fondness for her vegemite on toast. (A/N: sorry to all non-Aussies, but I love my vegemiteJ )
At last, Mrs. Malfoy answered him. "Elspeth and I are having a stay at home day today," she smiled at her friend. "I think we're getting too old to go out every day. We thought we'd laze around this morning, and perhaps go for a walk this afternoon. So you two can do whatever you want… within reason of course," she smiled at Draco and Hermione.
Draco looked at Hermione again, this time forcing her to acknowledge him. "So, 'Mione?"
"Hmm?" Hermione looked up at him, as though she had been daydreaming and had lost the plot of the conversation. Her eyes, though, betrayed her, their alertness a tell tale sign that she knew exactly what was going on.
Draco patiently repeated the question.
"Oh, well…I…thought I'd go to the gym after lunch…get some exercise and all." Hermione developed small splodges of colour on the apples of her cheeks.
"The gym?" Draco looked at her in disbelief. "Since when do you go to the gym?"
Hermione decided to take refuge from Draco's skepticism by pretending outrage at his suggestion that she didn't exercise. "Some of us mere mortal non-Quidditch-playing people have to go to the gym to keep in shape, Malfoy. We're not born the way we are and we certainly don't stay like this without effort. And it's time I started making an effort again."
Draco held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay. I was just asking…Are you doing anything this morning though?"
Hermione sighed in relief at being able to answer honestly. "Absolutely nothing. I'm in your hands completely."
Draco smirked at her, and she blushed, realising what she'd said. Quickly cramming the last bite of her toast into her mouth, Hermione stood at picked up her plate and glass, then took them into the kitchen. As she was bending over to place them in the dishwasher she felt someone lightly stroke her bottom, and she jumped in surprise.
Her hips were pulled backwards as she stood up, so that when she was standing up straight her back was pressed up against the front of a hard male body. One hand held her abdomen tight against the other body, and the other rubbed firmly up and down her side, from the curve of her breast down to her hip and back up again. A pair of lips nuzzled at the side of her neck.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken, you happen to like being completely in my hands. Am I correct?"
Hermione broke out of her daze and started wriggling. "Draco!" she hissed. "Our mothers are in the next room, stop it!"
"Our mothers left to go and sit in the garden with their cups of tea and have a gossip. A very good idea, even if I did think of it myself." Draco's arms constricted around Hermione, holding her motionless, but still facing away from him. "And if you look out the window I think you should just be able to see them sitting in the deck chairs."
Hermione leant forward to peer out through the window, seeing at once her mother and Draco's sitting on deck chairs in the middle of the garden, laughing and enjoying the sunshine.
"Well…I suppose it wouldn't do any harm then to let you kiss me senseless for a couple of moments, would it?" She looked up at him beguilingly over her shoulder. "As long as you want to, of course."
Draco pulled her around to face him and then clamped one arm around her waist, pulling her up onto her toes so that her lips were almost level with his. He lowered his head and bit down gently on her earlobe, muttering to himself as much as to her, "Oh, I definitely want to."
After what felt like eternity Draco's lips finally made it to Hermione's, crashing down with a passion that Hermione had not yet felt with Draco. She whimpered into his mouth and at the same time stuck one hand into the back pocket of his jeans -pulling his body closer to hers- and the other into his hair, where it reveled in the sensation of the thick golden locks.
As Draco plied Hermione's mouth with sensuous kisses he wondered about her plans for the afternoon. He had truly never seen Hermione in the gym at Hogwarts, and he pretty much knew all the people who used the gym from having spent so much time in there himself. He had some small memory of something about her walking around the school grounds, possibly yoga or something, but never anything about the gym.
As he ran his hands up and down Hermione's back he felt the taut muscles there quake under his fingers, and he pulled her even closer, if that were possible. She groaned, and he moved one of his hands to capture the back of her thigh, pulling her leg up and around his waist. Leaning her backwards he positioned her against the bench, and then lifted her other leg so that the two were linked around his waist.
Hermione lifted her mouth off Draco's, barely able to contain the shivers elicited by having her most secret place pressed up against the rapidly hardening bulge in Draco's pants. "Maybe more than a few moments." She lowered her mouth back to his.
* * * * *
Hermione leaned into her cupboard and pulled out an old -but still good- pair of black heels, then stuffed them into a small tote bag along with a bottle of water and a small packet of jelly snakes. She had on a pair of black pedal pusher exercise pants and a red and white striped halter-neck top, and was preparing to leave to meet Jake.
Moving through the hallways to the front door, she sang to herself and added a skip to her step every so often. As confused as she was over her feeling towards Draco, she had to admit that he was a good kisser. A very good kisser, come to think of it, she thought devilishly. They'd spent a good quarter of an hour making out that morning, and though she'd kept his hands strictly outside her clothing and above her waist, her nipples still peaked at the thought of how he'd made them tingle.
Draco was becoming more of an enigma to her every day. He'd gone from hating her with a passion to trying to get into her head, heart & -most of all- pants, with … well … a passion. He'd done a complete about face where she was concerned, and she just wasn't sure whether or not she could trust him. After all, you couldn't really change character that quickly - could you?
She'd changed her opinion of him, hadn't she? Well. Sort of anyway. Enough to consider giving him your virginity, spoke up a voice in her head.
"But that's different." She told the voice.
How so?
"It just is. I was never a mean-hearted, disgusting perverted creep for one thing."
"And just who, may I ask, is?" a voice inquired from behind her, causing Hermione to spin around.
"Oh, no one Mum, just talking to myself. Umm, are you ready to go?"
"Yes, but listen, are you sure you don't want to tell Draco about Jake?"
"Dead sure."
"Okay, but if this blows up in your face, don't say I didn't warn you." Mrs. Granger pulled her keys out of her pocket and pushed Hermione out the front door.
* * * * *
Draco wandered around the "cabin" without much purpose. He'd seen Hermione leaving with her mum, and by all accounts she looked as if she were going to the gym. Except for that halter-top of hers. It puzzled him. No one that he'd ever seen went to the gym in a halter-top. But she did have exercise pants and runners on. Dammit to hell what's she doing?
* * * * *
Hermione, at the moment in time that Draco was wondering, was pulled tight into the arms of a young man with dark hair that fell across his eyes sometimes. Those eyes that were mentioned were a bottomless sea green. The mouth beneath them held a ready grin, and had a dimple at each corner. Jake Carstairs was indeed a handsome young man.
"Oh 'Mione it's so good to see you!" Jake squeezed Hermione extra tight as he said this, and then set her back on her feet. He smiled down at her, and Hermione smiled back.
"It's good to see you too Jake, it's been so long since last summer."
"Indeed it has. And the kids think so too, so get inside, missy, we've got to get you back in practice before they get here."
Hermione scampered inside with a grin and began to put on her heels.
Half an hour later, as boys and girls began to wander in pairs, Hermione was hot and sweaty and feeling great. Her eyes roved over the dozen 12 and 13 year olds present, and she smiled at each in turn, remembering them from the same group the summer before.
"All right everyone!" Jake called out, and the kids moved from where they'd been milling around the benches at the side of the room. "Welcome back, it's great to see that you've all decided to come back this summer. Now, I know how excited you've all been, since I've seen most of you during the year, so I won't keep you long. Just some housekeeping stuff. You all remember my partner, the lovely Hermione?"
The boys and girls cheered and clapped as Jake spun her around and she curtsied gracefully for them.
"For reasons unbeknown to me -maybe she actually likes you kids- she has agreed to help me again this year, so I want you all to be nice to her, and definitely no cracking on to her, young men!"
Hermione blushed as the boys called out disappointedly.
"What?"
"Why don't we just go now then?"
"You're not serious."
"I am perfectly serious, as you all know. Spare both yourselves and Hermione the embarrassment. But that's just an official warning that Hermione's mum made me give you boys. I know you all better, and I know you'd treat any girl with respect, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah!"
"Sure would"
"Got that right!"
"So, my young ladies and gentleman-"
"Hey Jake," a dark haired girl with braces called out. "Where's Ben?"
Jake's face became blank for a moment, and then he replied with a succinct "Ben, unfortunately, will not be joining us this year. As I was saying, my young ladies and gentleman, welcome to your second nine week course in ballroom dancing!" Cheers echoed throughout the hall.
"As you all know, we'll be working towards getting you kids dancing perfectly so that you can show off to all your friends," here Jake grinned, "but also towards the concert at the end of the ninth week. So get out there in your pairs, and we'll start you off with a ward up of all the dances you did last summer to jog those rusty memories."
Jake moved over to a panel in the wall that had been pushed aside earlier, and restarted the CD that he and Hermione had been practicing to earlier.
"Now, all these songs should be familiar as ones we danced to last summer, but even if they aren't you should all be sufficiently able to pick up the beat as one type of dance or another. Hermione and I will be walking around as you dance to see how you're all doing and if you're really stuck with what to do, just stand still and one of us will get to you."
Half an hour passed quickly as the kids warmed up, and Hermione enjoyed seeing how relatively well they had remembered the steps to even the more tricky dances. She watched them waltz, cha cha, jive, quickstep and foxtrot. The following two and a half hours passed in almost and instant as she and Jake guided them in the introductory steps of the tango.
"Now ladies," Hermione called out as everyone was having a drink at the end of the session. "I'm sure many of you haven't done this much dancing in a while, and certainly not in your dance shoes. So, what I want you to do for me is wear your dance shoes -just around the house- for at least and hour or two each day. But wearing them while you're sitting down watching a movie doesn't count, so when you get up, or when you get home from shopping or whatever, put your heels on and just wear them. I don't care whether you cook in them, clean in them or talk on the phone in them. Just wear them. And if you get together with your partner to practice then wear them then as well.
"Anyway, that said, we'll see you all next week." She shooed them all out the door.
She and Jake closed up the hall for the night, and she smiled to herself as the sun sat low in the sky and bathed them in an orange light. She'd had a great time dancing today, and it amazed her how much she'd missed it. She loved the way you could just forget everything and dance, let the music flow through her and let her body move in time with the rhythm.
"Thanks for doing this again with me 'Mione." Jake turned to her after locking the front door and picked his bag up from the ground.
"Jake, please, I told you, it's fine. I love dancing, you know that."
Yeah I know you love to dance, and you're fantastic at it too, but teaching twelve-year-olds to dance is a bit different. Anyway it's pretty hard to get a partner in the summer to help teach. So, just accept my thanks, okay?"
"Okay, if you insist. Listen, I have to go, there's my mum, but I'll see you same time Thursday, 'kay?"
"Yep, sure. And don't forget to go and see Jacqui."
"Will do." She stretched up and gave him a hug. "Bye"
"Bye"
Hermione pulled her water bottle out of her bag and walked quickly to the car, taking a mouthful of the cold water. She climbed into the car and leaned her head back on the headrest.
"So, how was it?"
"It was great!" Eyes closed, Hermione smiled. "I had the best time, seeing all those kids again, and it was fantastic to see how much they remembered. And seeing Jake again was great too. He's really doing well."
"Yes…" Elspeth sighed disapprovingly.
"Mum, please don't start. I'm exhausted, and happy and I don't want to argue."
"Okay, okay."
Hermione hopped out of the car at the front door, leaving her mum to drive the car around the back and into the garage. As she walked through the door, Draco rushed to her, picked her up and spun her around. She laughed as she twirled through the air, and when she was set on her feet she looked up into Draco's eyes.
"What on earth was that for?"
Draco pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her lips. "I missed you."
Hermione laughed. "I've only been gone a couple of hours."
"Four hours to be exact. But the whole time I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and I just wandered about the house. Feel my forehead," he pulled her hand to rest there, "I think I have a fever."
"Oh my goodness!" Hermione played along with Draco's make-believe, wondering where it was leading. "Whatever could be the matter?"
"Typical withdrawal symptoms, so I'm told." He lowered his lips to rest against hers. "I think I'm addicted to you, sweet Hermione."
A/N: yay!!!! Finally finished! I'm ever so sorry to everybody, and I feel so bad about taking so long. I promise that the next chap. won't take nearly so long. I swear it.