**DISCLAIMER** I'm just a poor, stressed University Student. I relieve my stress by making Harry and his little friends do odd little things - but I don't own them.
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Chapter 10
The next day did not start off well for Hermione. First thing in the morning, as she was staring into the small mirror that her parents had given her, she caught sight of a mark on her neck. Turning the mirror slightly to get a better look, she groaned when she clearly saw the blotchy purple mark on the smooth skin of her neck.
A hickey! He had given her a goddamn hickey!
She thought quickly, trying to remember a spell that would cover it from curious eyes, all the while cursing her Slytherin enemy. She just knew that he had done that on purpose.
She hoped to relax a bit at breakfast, but then found herself having to deal with Ron and Harry, much to her frustration. It started right at breakfast, as they took their places at the table around her.
"Where were you last night?" Ron hissed as he sat down across from her. "We stayed up as long as we could, but then one of the prefects made us go to bed."
"Yeah," Harry said in agreement, around a mouthful of his bun, which he had already started devouring. "We tried to tell him that we were waiting for you but the stupid git didn't listen to us."
"I was pretty late getting back, but you guys didn't need to wait up for me," Hermione said quickly, hoping desperately that they would just drop the subject.
She couldn't deal with this right now. She really couldn't. It was only the third day back at school, how could things possibly be so complicated already?
"Are you kidding?" Ron exclaimed. "Hermione, you were with Malfoy - and not only that, we know that McGonagall's in charge of your detention, and everyone knows what she's like."
Hermione looked up in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked her friend.
"You know," Harry said.
"Obviously I don't," Hermione snapped. Honestly, she thought to herself, sometimes the two of them could be so dense.
"She always leaves you alone when you have detention with her," Ron explained.
"Only because nobody would dare do anything when its her in charge," Seamus grumbled, having overheard the conversation. "She did that to me and Dean once, left us in the Trophy Room all alone - any other professor, we'd sneak out, but with her you don't know what you might end up as."
Hermione laughed. She knew that one of the biggest fears of many of the students was that the strict Transfiguration teacher would change them into something someday, but she could hardly imagine Professor McGonagall doing that.
"There he is now," Ron grumbled.
Hermione looked up just in time to see Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, come strolling into the Hall.
Their eyes immediately met and held, blue-grey eyes boring into brown, before he smiled lazily at her. She felt her stomach do a slow flip and she had to take a deep breath to get control of herself once again.
Stop it, she scolded herself. She picked at her eggs morosely with her fork. If she couldn't even handle being in the Hall with him, how on earth was she going to handle being in detention with him tonight?
"I don't know how you stood all that time with him," Ron snapped in disgust. "Honestly, you'd think that McGonagall would have more pity than to stick you with a scumbag like him."
"Well, I broke the rules," Hermione said, desperate to turn the conversation away from Malfoy. "So now I have to face the consequences."
Ron didn't look at all happy with her reply, but luckily Seamus spoke up, and Hermione sighed with relief as her friend turned away.
The last thing she needed to deal with right now were her two over protective best friends and their inquisitive questions. In fact, she wasn't at all certain that she could handle them - if they'd kept at it she'd snap in some way or another.
She sighed deeply and slumped back in her chair, ignoring the inquisitive look that Harry sent her before he was distracted by Neville knocking over his glass of orange juice.
At least she had one thought to console herself with. Things couldn't possibly get any worse.
Could they?
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She was definitely on edge, Draco thought to himself with amusement as he ate his breakfast, ignoring Crabbe and Goyle, who were prattling on about some stupid thing that they had done to a first year the day before.
He'd seen the way her head had snapped up when Weasley had noticed him entering the Hall and had said something to her about it. Those big brown eyes of hers had gone wide, especially when he had caught her eye and held it, only to smile at her.
Oh yes. Granger was definitely very aware of all that had gone on the night before. She probably didn't like it either. He could only just imagine the thoughts that were running through that little head of hers.
She was probably going crazy, thinking about what might happen if people were to find out - people like her precious Potter and Weasley, or the Professors.
And if he knew anything about Hermione Granger from the last five years of school together, it was that she didn't take it well when something ruined up her perfect plans for herself.
He had a nasty habit of doing that to her, didn't he? The thought made him grin with amusement.
He knew that her favourite tactic when dealing with things that got in her way was to simply ignore them, but she was in for a surprise if she thought that was going to work in this situation.
He was going to make very sure that Granger couldn't ignore what was between them. He doubted that she'd actually be able to, considering the effect that they had had on each other the night before, but he wasn't going to take any chances. There was no way in hell he was going to let her just block it all out.
As these thoughts went through his head, the Hall was filled with the sound of many wings beating the air. Draco looked up and waited patiently as he caught sight of a medium sized snowy owl winging its way towards.
He sighed to himself. His mother did the same thing every year - sent him a package fulled with little magical oddends that she thought he might appreciate. He had told her not to many times, because he knew that his father would not be pleased with the idea.
Malfoys didn't need to be babied, he'd say. No need for such nonsense.
Never mind that this was the same man who insisted that his wife keep a stockpile of candy around the mansion, to satisfy his sweet tooth. No, Lucius Malfoy could do whatever he wanted. But god forbid that his mother might try to extend this to their only son.
Of course, Draco didn't really need any of the things that his mother sent him. But that was no reason to deny her the pleasure of sending them to him. God knows that she had it bad enough at home, locked in their big mansion with his jealous father. His mother was just another possession to his father, Draco thought bitterly. Just like he himself was just a way of extending the precious Malfoy bloodline.
He gently stroked the owl on the head. He recognized her as one of his mother's favourites, and so he slipped a piece of toast into her small yellow beak before watching it fly away.
He turned his attention to the package in front of him and was debating on whether or not to open it now or later, when another owl landed on the back of his chair.
He looked at it in disgust, for it was a rather shabby brown colour, and showed signs of age. Nobody in his family could have possibly sent this owl to him. He was about to open his mouth to order the owl away when he noticed the scroll that it had attached to its ankle.
He reached out and ran his finger along the parchment, upon which was written, in a sloppy scrawl, the words "Mr Draco Malfoy - best to open this away from prying eyes."
He unattached the scroll quickly from the owl, then shooed it away with a wave of his hand.
"What'cha got there, Malfoy?" Crabbe asked through a mouthful of food.
"None of your business, and shut that great hole of yours when you're eating," Draco said with a snap.
Crabbe just shrugged, used to Draco's many insults, and turned back to his food while Draco turned his own attention back to the scroll.
He got up and strolled over to lean against the wall behind the Slytherin Table, making sure that none of the portraits were nearby. He undid the stained ribbon that was holding the scroll shut, then had to fumble for a moment as a smaller roll nearly fell out onto the floor.
And when Draco saw what was on the smaller roll, he was very glad that he had caught it in his hands.
It was a wizard photo, obviously taken later on in the evening the night before. There before his eyes were the figures of Granger and himself. He was in the process of kissing his way down Granger's stomach, and in the photograph she was rolling her head from side to side. Draco paused a moment to enjoy the look of pleasure that was clearly obvious on her face, then turned his attention to the scroll.
As he scanned his eyes over what was written on the parchment, scrawled in the same sloppy writing as on the front, a slow anger began to burn in the pit of his stomach. Looking up and catching sight of Granger sitting across the hall, he crumpled up the scroll and strode towards her, seething with anger.
Granger was sitting across from Potter and beside Weasley, who looked ready to kill when he caught sight of him approaching, but Draco didn't care. He came to a stop behind Potter, and sensing something was wrong, Hermione looked up.
"I need to talk to you, Granger," he said curtly.
"You can talk to her later, Malfoy," Weasley snapped at him.
"Oh shut up and let your little girlfriend speak for herself," Draco snapped back. In the back of his head a little voice chuckled about how ironic it was that Draco should be calling Granger Weasley's girlfriend, but Draco was to angry to appreciate the situation.
He expected Granger to object more, but to his surprise she just stood up.
"Hermione, you can't talk to that stupid git," Harry hissed at her.
"Yes I can, Harry," she snapped back, and Draco watched with slight amusement at the interchange between the two friends. "I'll see you two in Potions, and for once don't worry about me. I am more than capable of handling Malfoy."
With that she turned and stalked towards the door. Draco followed, a smirk curving his lips.
"What the fuck do you want, Malfoy," Granger said, whirling to face him once they were out in the hallway.
Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise. Yes, she was definitely on edge.
"More like what the fuck are you playing at, Granger, " he replied, brandishing the scroll at her. "Did you really think that your little plan would work? It'll take more than one little photo to blackmail me."
He waited for her to heatedly deny any knowledge of what he was talking about, but to his surprise her beautiful face went white.
"You got one too?" she asked after a minute, in a quiet voice.
"Of course I got one, you stupid little bitch," he said angrily. "Who's idea was it? Potter's? No wait, it had to be Weasley. Only that stupid carrot head would think of something as dumb as this."
"I presume you're talking about something like this?" Granger said, as she threw something at him.
He caught it reflexively, and found himself looking at another photo of the two of them the night before. This time Granger was straddling him, and she was in the process of pulling down his boxers. In the photo she kept smiling and tossing her hair, while his photographic self was smirking arrogantly at her as he lifted his hips to assist her.
"And one of these, right?" Granger continued, shoving a scroll in his face.
He took it from her and read the words that had been printed on his own scroll in the same sloppy handwriting.
"Photos, particularily ones of this sort, can say a million things. Unless you wish these to fall into certain curious and vengeful hands, I suggest that you be prepared to talk when you have detention tonight. Destroy this if you wish, there are plenty more where that came from."
"You write oh so well," Draco said with a sneer as he looked at her. "I think that even Crabbe or Goyle could come up with something better than this garbage."
"Oh come on, Malfoy," Granger said, tossing back her hair and glaring up at him angrily. "Do you really think that I would do something like this? I'm not that stupid. What I did in that Library last night was purely consentual, even if I regret doing it today."
Draco just glared at her, unconvinced.
"Give me credit for having some intelligence," she continued impatiently. "Its blatantly obvious that you have just as much to blackmail ME with as I would ever have on you. So why would I do something stupid like this?"
Draco stared at her for a few moments. He might not like Granger, but he had to admit that her words were making sense. In some ways she had far more to lose than he did - while he just had the recriminations that would come from his father to deal with, she faced being ridiculed by the whole school.
"You know I'm right," Granger continued. She crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him coolly and when she spoke again there was ice in her voice.
"We've got ourselves quite a little predicament here, Malfoy. Because whether or not we like it, somebody was in the Library last night, and they saw our little rendevous."
He didn't speak, his mind racing with his thoughts, and then she spoke once more.
"Now I don't know about you, but I want to know what the hell we are going to do about it."
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Chapter 10
The next day did not start off well for Hermione. First thing in the morning, as she was staring into the small mirror that her parents had given her, she caught sight of a mark on her neck. Turning the mirror slightly to get a better look, she groaned when she clearly saw the blotchy purple mark on the smooth skin of her neck.
A hickey! He had given her a goddamn hickey!
She thought quickly, trying to remember a spell that would cover it from curious eyes, all the while cursing her Slytherin enemy. She just knew that he had done that on purpose.
She hoped to relax a bit at breakfast, but then found herself having to deal with Ron and Harry, much to her frustration. It started right at breakfast, as they took their places at the table around her.
"Where were you last night?" Ron hissed as he sat down across from her. "We stayed up as long as we could, but then one of the prefects made us go to bed."
"Yeah," Harry said in agreement, around a mouthful of his bun, which he had already started devouring. "We tried to tell him that we were waiting for you but the stupid git didn't listen to us."
"I was pretty late getting back, but you guys didn't need to wait up for me," Hermione said quickly, hoping desperately that they would just drop the subject.
She couldn't deal with this right now. She really couldn't. It was only the third day back at school, how could things possibly be so complicated already?
"Are you kidding?" Ron exclaimed. "Hermione, you were with Malfoy - and not only that, we know that McGonagall's in charge of your detention, and everyone knows what she's like."
Hermione looked up in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked her friend.
"You know," Harry said.
"Obviously I don't," Hermione snapped. Honestly, she thought to herself, sometimes the two of them could be so dense.
"She always leaves you alone when you have detention with her," Ron explained.
"Only because nobody would dare do anything when its her in charge," Seamus grumbled, having overheard the conversation. "She did that to me and Dean once, left us in the Trophy Room all alone - any other professor, we'd sneak out, but with her you don't know what you might end up as."
Hermione laughed. She knew that one of the biggest fears of many of the students was that the strict Transfiguration teacher would change them into something someday, but she could hardly imagine Professor McGonagall doing that.
"There he is now," Ron grumbled.
Hermione looked up just in time to see Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, come strolling into the Hall.
Their eyes immediately met and held, blue-grey eyes boring into brown, before he smiled lazily at her. She felt her stomach do a slow flip and she had to take a deep breath to get control of herself once again.
Stop it, she scolded herself. She picked at her eggs morosely with her fork. If she couldn't even handle being in the Hall with him, how on earth was she going to handle being in detention with him tonight?
"I don't know how you stood all that time with him," Ron snapped in disgust. "Honestly, you'd think that McGonagall would have more pity than to stick you with a scumbag like him."
"Well, I broke the rules," Hermione said, desperate to turn the conversation away from Malfoy. "So now I have to face the consequences."
Ron didn't look at all happy with her reply, but luckily Seamus spoke up, and Hermione sighed with relief as her friend turned away.
The last thing she needed to deal with right now were her two over protective best friends and their inquisitive questions. In fact, she wasn't at all certain that she could handle them - if they'd kept at it she'd snap in some way or another.
She sighed deeply and slumped back in her chair, ignoring the inquisitive look that Harry sent her before he was distracted by Neville knocking over his glass of orange juice.
At least she had one thought to console herself with. Things couldn't possibly get any worse.
Could they?
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She was definitely on edge, Draco thought to himself with amusement as he ate his breakfast, ignoring Crabbe and Goyle, who were prattling on about some stupid thing that they had done to a first year the day before.
He'd seen the way her head had snapped up when Weasley had noticed him entering the Hall and had said something to her about it. Those big brown eyes of hers had gone wide, especially when he had caught her eye and held it, only to smile at her.
Oh yes. Granger was definitely very aware of all that had gone on the night before. She probably didn't like it either. He could only just imagine the thoughts that were running through that little head of hers.
She was probably going crazy, thinking about what might happen if people were to find out - people like her precious Potter and Weasley, or the Professors.
And if he knew anything about Hermione Granger from the last five years of school together, it was that she didn't take it well when something ruined up her perfect plans for herself.
He had a nasty habit of doing that to her, didn't he? The thought made him grin with amusement.
He knew that her favourite tactic when dealing with things that got in her way was to simply ignore them, but she was in for a surprise if she thought that was going to work in this situation.
He was going to make very sure that Granger couldn't ignore what was between them. He doubted that she'd actually be able to, considering the effect that they had had on each other the night before, but he wasn't going to take any chances. There was no way in hell he was going to let her just block it all out.
As these thoughts went through his head, the Hall was filled with the sound of many wings beating the air. Draco looked up and waited patiently as he caught sight of a medium sized snowy owl winging its way towards.
He sighed to himself. His mother did the same thing every year - sent him a package fulled with little magical oddends that she thought he might appreciate. He had told her not to many times, because he knew that his father would not be pleased with the idea.
Malfoys didn't need to be babied, he'd say. No need for such nonsense.
Never mind that this was the same man who insisted that his wife keep a stockpile of candy around the mansion, to satisfy his sweet tooth. No, Lucius Malfoy could do whatever he wanted. But god forbid that his mother might try to extend this to their only son.
Of course, Draco didn't really need any of the things that his mother sent him. But that was no reason to deny her the pleasure of sending them to him. God knows that she had it bad enough at home, locked in their big mansion with his jealous father. His mother was just another possession to his father, Draco thought bitterly. Just like he himself was just a way of extending the precious Malfoy bloodline.
He gently stroked the owl on the head. He recognized her as one of his mother's favourites, and so he slipped a piece of toast into her small yellow beak before watching it fly away.
He turned his attention to the package in front of him and was debating on whether or not to open it now or later, when another owl landed on the back of his chair.
He looked at it in disgust, for it was a rather shabby brown colour, and showed signs of age. Nobody in his family could have possibly sent this owl to him. He was about to open his mouth to order the owl away when he noticed the scroll that it had attached to its ankle.
He reached out and ran his finger along the parchment, upon which was written, in a sloppy scrawl, the words "Mr Draco Malfoy - best to open this away from prying eyes."
He unattached the scroll quickly from the owl, then shooed it away with a wave of his hand.
"What'cha got there, Malfoy?" Crabbe asked through a mouthful of food.
"None of your business, and shut that great hole of yours when you're eating," Draco said with a snap.
Crabbe just shrugged, used to Draco's many insults, and turned back to his food while Draco turned his own attention back to the scroll.
He got up and strolled over to lean against the wall behind the Slytherin Table, making sure that none of the portraits were nearby. He undid the stained ribbon that was holding the scroll shut, then had to fumble for a moment as a smaller roll nearly fell out onto the floor.
And when Draco saw what was on the smaller roll, he was very glad that he had caught it in his hands.
It was a wizard photo, obviously taken later on in the evening the night before. There before his eyes were the figures of Granger and himself. He was in the process of kissing his way down Granger's stomach, and in the photograph she was rolling her head from side to side. Draco paused a moment to enjoy the look of pleasure that was clearly obvious on her face, then turned his attention to the scroll.
As he scanned his eyes over what was written on the parchment, scrawled in the same sloppy writing as on the front, a slow anger began to burn in the pit of his stomach. Looking up and catching sight of Granger sitting across the hall, he crumpled up the scroll and strode towards her, seething with anger.
Granger was sitting across from Potter and beside Weasley, who looked ready to kill when he caught sight of him approaching, but Draco didn't care. He came to a stop behind Potter, and sensing something was wrong, Hermione looked up.
"I need to talk to you, Granger," he said curtly.
"You can talk to her later, Malfoy," Weasley snapped at him.
"Oh shut up and let your little girlfriend speak for herself," Draco snapped back. In the back of his head a little voice chuckled about how ironic it was that Draco should be calling Granger Weasley's girlfriend, but Draco was to angry to appreciate the situation.
He expected Granger to object more, but to his surprise she just stood up.
"Hermione, you can't talk to that stupid git," Harry hissed at her.
"Yes I can, Harry," she snapped back, and Draco watched with slight amusement at the interchange between the two friends. "I'll see you two in Potions, and for once don't worry about me. I am more than capable of handling Malfoy."
With that she turned and stalked towards the door. Draco followed, a smirk curving his lips.
"What the fuck do you want, Malfoy," Granger said, whirling to face him once they were out in the hallway.
Draco raised his eyebrows in surprise. Yes, she was definitely on edge.
"More like what the fuck are you playing at, Granger, " he replied, brandishing the scroll at her. "Did you really think that your little plan would work? It'll take more than one little photo to blackmail me."
He waited for her to heatedly deny any knowledge of what he was talking about, but to his surprise her beautiful face went white.
"You got one too?" she asked after a minute, in a quiet voice.
"Of course I got one, you stupid little bitch," he said angrily. "Who's idea was it? Potter's? No wait, it had to be Weasley. Only that stupid carrot head would think of something as dumb as this."
"I presume you're talking about something like this?" Granger said, as she threw something at him.
He caught it reflexively, and found himself looking at another photo of the two of them the night before. This time Granger was straddling him, and she was in the process of pulling down his boxers. In the photo she kept smiling and tossing her hair, while his photographic self was smirking arrogantly at her as he lifted his hips to assist her.
"And one of these, right?" Granger continued, shoving a scroll in his face.
He took it from her and read the words that had been printed on his own scroll in the same sloppy handwriting.
"Photos, particularily ones of this sort, can say a million things. Unless you wish these to fall into certain curious and vengeful hands, I suggest that you be prepared to talk when you have detention tonight. Destroy this if you wish, there are plenty more where that came from."
"You write oh so well," Draco said with a sneer as he looked at her. "I think that even Crabbe or Goyle could come up with something better than this garbage."
"Oh come on, Malfoy," Granger said, tossing back her hair and glaring up at him angrily. "Do you really think that I would do something like this? I'm not that stupid. What I did in that Library last night was purely consentual, even if I regret doing it today."
Draco just glared at her, unconvinced.
"Give me credit for having some intelligence," she continued impatiently. "Its blatantly obvious that you have just as much to blackmail ME with as I would ever have on you. So why would I do something stupid like this?"
Draco stared at her for a few moments. He might not like Granger, but he had to admit that her words were making sense. In some ways she had far more to lose than he did - while he just had the recriminations that would come from his father to deal with, she faced being ridiculed by the whole school.
"You know I'm right," Granger continued. She crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him coolly and when she spoke again there was ice in her voice.
"We've got ourselves quite a little predicament here, Malfoy. Because whether or not we like it, somebody was in the Library last night, and they saw our little rendevous."
He didn't speak, his mind racing with his thoughts, and then she spoke once more.
"Now I don't know about you, but I want to know what the hell we are going to do about it."