Chapter 8

Dear Hermione,

Your father and I have decided to spend the Christmas Holidays in our house in France. Your Uncle Nathaniel and Aunt Constance are holding a fundraiser on 20 December in Paris. It's for providing medical supplies and assistance to children and women in Afghanistan. Your father and I are attending this event, and so we have decided to spend the rest of the holidays in France. We will be leaving for Paris on the 18th and coming back right after New Year's Day.

I do hope you can join us this year. We haven't spent the holidays together in two years, dear, and we would appreciate your presence at the fundraiser. I am sorry for the short notice about our holiday plans. We have been busy with work the past few weeks, and I almost forgot about the charity event until your Aunt Constance rang this afternoon. Do let me know your decision.

love,
Mum


Hermione sighed after she finished reading the letter from home. Her relationship with her parents had grown steadily stilted and distant eversince she received her first Hogwarts letter. They had tried their best to be accepting and supportive of their only daughter's new life, but it had grown increasingly difficult to be part of that new life. Hermione felt her parents' frustration, and appreciated their efforts, particularly since she knew how difficult it was for them to accept that there was a world beyond the only one they knew. What made it worse was the kind of wizarding life Hermione had. She had kept most of the details of the dangers she faced and experienced as a witch and as Harry Potter's bestfriend from her parents, but they were aware that Hermione was not entirely safe in the wizarding world. They had tried to convince her to give up Hogwarts after she was petrified during her second year, but Hermione stood firm on her desire to be a witch and a student at Hogwarts. She felt her parents' increasing resentment towards her wizarding life and friends as she spent more and more time away from her Muggle life, but she deliberately ignored it, believing that what she did and was in the wizarding world was more important than anything else. Besides, Hermione thought, there was no way that her parents would be able to understand what it's really like here in the Wizarding World, so why bother them?

Christmas was less than two weeks away and Hermione had to make her decision about where to spend her holidays soon. A part of her wanted to join her parents in France. She remembered how her mum and dad refused to talk to her after she told them in her 5th year that she wasn't going skiing with them but instead was going spend Christmas with her friends because she wanted to know for sure that Harry was doing fine. They had made up over the summer after that Christmas, but her parents had never again made plans for the holidays with her. She wanted to make it up to them this year by spending some time with them, but she knew that she really wouldn't be with them 100 as she would be worrying about what would happen in Hogwarts, to Harry and to her other friends while she was away.

Another thing that affected her indecision was the situation with Malfoy. After the scene in the Common Room, Hermione had kept her distance from him, making sure that she was always surrounded by her friends and never alone with him. She avoided their Common Room more now than she did earlier in the year. She needed to re-group and re-think the Pet Project. She had admitted to herself that she was affected by that kiss, and that she wasn't sure that she could handle anymore encounters like that. She also knew that the success of her Pet Project required more of those kisses. She needed to make Malfoy crazy about her. Crazy enough about her to forget who he was, who she was, and think of nothing else but having her. Once he was at that stage, she could then move on to Phase 3 of the project and eventually to crushing him. Her leaving for the holidays could make or break the project. What would her absence from Hogwarts do to Malfoy? Would it make him want her more or would it make him forget her? She knew that at this point, he wasn't completely in the bag yet, and felt that if she went away for the holidays, he would regain his bearings and undo everything she had worked on for the past few months.

Perhaps I can promise my parents to spend the holidays with them next year, she told herself. But what if there was no next year?

Hermione decided to put off her decision for the rest of the day. She had classes to attend and things on her To Do list, and she didn't want to lose focus by obsessing over her holiday plans and her Pet Project. I'll work out the pros and cons later then I'll write to Mum.

"Are you ever going to talk to me again?"

Hermione looked up from the book she was reading to see Draco standing in front of her. She was sitting on the floor of the library, hidden amidst the farthest bookshelves. Damn. How'd he find me? I chose this spot because no one ever comes here.

"What do you mean, Malfoy? I have been talking to you," she responded as nonchalantly as she could.

He dropped gracefully to the floor to sit beside her before saying, "I mean outside of Prefects' Meetings, classes, DA sessions and other Kill-Voldemort-and-his-Death-Eaters meetings."

"Was there anything you wanted to talk about?" she asked.

"Yes, lots," he smiled at her.

"Like?" she braced herself for his response. She knew what he wanted to talk about.

"Like why you ran away from me a week ago and then avoided me since" he replied.

"What happened was... unexpected... and I'm not quite sure how to deal with it," she responded.

"Yes, it was unexpected for me, too. I completely understand why you don't know how to deal with it. I mean, we were enemies for so long, and what happened probably did not make sense to you," he said.

"And it makes sense to you?" she looked at him in askance.

"Yes, it does. I won't beat around the bush. I want you. I want to be with you," he stated confidently. He figured that if he was going to get somewhere with Granger, he would have to state his desires, to let her know exactly what he wanted. Sometimes, women like it when a man is blunt. Maybe this would work. I'm not above using any means necessary to get what I want.

"Why?" Hermione asked bluntly. I'd love to see him try to explain his intentions.

"Because you're the most beautiful creature in the world as far as I'm concerned," he answered just as bluntly, realising that it wasn't a complete lie.

Haha. Merlin, what a line! Hermione cleared her throat to cover up the laughter threatening to errupt from her throat, and that voice in her head that wished his words were true. "I thought you were the most beautiful creature in the world as far as you were concerned, Malfoy?"

"Well I changed my mind," he stated, getting a bit angry. "What do you want from me, Hermione? What do you want me to say to get you to talk to me? What more can I say to convince you that I really want you?"

"Oh, I believe you, I believe you want me. I'm just not sure why. What brought on this change of heart, Malfoy? Why are you suddenly telling me that I'm beautiful?" she responded.

Draco looked at her for a few seconds before saying, "Does it really matter, Hermione?" He raised his hand to tuck a wayward curl of hair behind her ear, his hand remaining on her ear to stroke her earlobe. "Does it really matter why? Shouldn't the only thing that matters is that I do want you? And that you want me just as much."

Hermione told herself that the goosebumps blossoming on her skin were due her effort not to gag at his words. Don't take it personally, Hermione. Those are just lines. He wants to avoid telling you the truth so he's spouting lines straight off some cheesy romance novel.

He moved his face closer to hers, leaning down towards her mouth. Hermione stood up all of sudden, needing to get away from him. "I can't do this," she whispered. Not yet. I'm not prepared for this.

She turned to walk away but Draco had stood up just as swiftly and grabbed her arm to pull her to him. She slammed into his chest but had no time to react because his other hand moved to her nape to bring her lips to his. Before she could completely comprehend what was going on, his tongue was roughly plunging into her mouth and she was already sucking on it.

The hand that grabbed her arm moved to waist to press her front to his, making her feel his growing arousal. She stood on her toes and lifted her arms to wrap them around his neck, groaning at the feel of him. With her fully in his arms, he turned to bring them closer to the bookshelves, trapping her body between his and the shelves, freeing his hands to roam all over her body. He trailed his lips to her neck to nibble on it as his hands worked on the buttons of her school blouse. Once the buttons were undone, he lifted his hands to cup her breasts and trailed his lips towards them.

Hermione groaned and lifted one of her legs to wrap it around his, bringing their pelvises deliciously together. He brought his hands to her hips to rub her against him, illiciting moans from the two of them. He covered her mouth with his again, nibbling on her lips before placing his tongue back where it belonged -- inside her mouth.

"You want me, Hermione. Don't deny it. You want me and that's all that matters," he whispered against her ear when he came up for breath. "Say it."

Instead of saying anything, Hermione reached up to bring his mouth back to hers. Once he was busy kissing her, Hermione trailed her hand down to the waistband of his trousers, unbuttoning it and reaching in to stroke him.

"Yes, that's it," he groaned. "Show me how much you want me, Hermione. Give me what I want."

What in Merlin's name are you doing, Hermione Granger?!? A frantic voice screamed inside Hermione's head, causing her to stop her movements and push him away from her.

He looked like he wanted to cry when Hermione finally dared to look at him.

"Stay away from me, Malfoy," she said before running away from him.

When she reached her private quarters, she took out a piece of parchment and a quill to write to her mother back and tell her she'd be happy to join them in France for the holidays.