CHAPTER THREE: DETENTION WITH DRACO

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Harry Potter books. I am merely a fan with my own wishes and dreams for some characters to get together, and look past their differences to discover something... wonderful (?) Okay, this is a load of bullshit (please excuse the language smiles sheepishly), the point is: I do not own the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling does, and no money is being made from this story.

A/N: Hello! I see that I only have a few readers, but I am happy all the same. This is my first rated R fanfic, so please excuse if my writing style's a bit off and sloppy nervous…

Dedications:

Chosen Girl: YOU ROCK! Thanks for being my inspiration for continuing this story. And I love your stories, too! I always check out the work of my reviewers--hey, I might find a new story to keep me going ( hungry for HP fan fiction! ). Anyway, I loved your "The Sorting Hat's Big Mistake." But aren't you gonna continue "Welcome to the Hellmouth"? Anyway, do what you want, but remember... you will always be my #1 reader for "Intolerable Triangle" (no matter how cheezy it sounds)! And thanks for the praise, can't forget that...

Claire: Hey! Glad you read my fanfic! Hope you really like it... this chapter's gonna be more... "sexual" sparkle--but sadly, I won't be going to much into detail, I'm not an expert at writing rated-R fanfics ... enjoy anyway... you should write your own stories, or fanfics. You said you'd make an account, how's that going?

"Honestly, you two." Hermione was saying as the three of them finished their dinner. "You're both crazy! I forbid you to go with me to detention."

"Just tell us one reason--a good one--why we can't go with you to detention." Harry challenged.

"Because you're not assigned to have detention tonight?" Hermione countered.

"Good point." Ron said, thinking. "Uh..." His mind was blank.

There was nothing the two Gryffindor boys could do. Hermione was going alone, whether they liked it or not. And if they tried to follow her...

It wouldn't be such a bad idea! Harry and Ron seemed to think of this at the same time, and their faces lit up.

Hermione stared at them and said, "And if you two think you're following me, I'm gonna put an Disfollowing Charm on myself. It hexes anyone who's following me once their one hundred meters away, and I'm sure you can't follow me one hundred meters behind."

Their faces dropped, and they stared at their plates sheepishly, and continued to eat.

Once Hermione finished her dinner, it was already ten to seven so she quickly went to the Gryffindor common room to deposit her belongings, and change. By five to seven, she was heading out the Gryffindor portrait hole, her body bundled in a warm, black cloak. It was slightly cold out, and Hermione didn't want to catch a cold right at the beginning of the school year.

Hermione spotted an impatient blond head waiting for her as she exited the Entrance Hall and walked down the stone steps.

As Hermione drew closer, she was surprised, and slightly pleased to see that it was Draco. He was one of the guys on her hot list.

"Come on, Granger, we haven't go all night." Draco said, handing her a pair of shears much like the ones he was holding in his other hand.

Hermione took them and stared at the hedges. They were unruly and unkempt--definitely hard to manicure. "How d'you think we're gonna finish this lot?" Draco asked.

"Don't you do garden work at home?" Hermione asked. But then she realized it was a stupid question, Draco would never even think of doing garden work, unless it was required.

"Well, I do do some gardening at home," Draco thought out loud. "But this isn't the same. Ours is less wild because the hedges are groomed now and then. But Filch doesn't clean this up during the summer so it grows a lot."

Hermione was surprised that Draco actually did chores at home. When he caught the look on Hermione's face, he frowned, "You don't think I do stuff at home during the summer?"

"Well... I do think you do stuff, but not that kind..."

"Well, I do." Draco said. "I'm not as stuck up as, say, Goyle. Although they aren't as wealthy as us, he doesn't do anything at home during the summer. He just lays around all day, watching T.V., eating, playing Quidditch..."

"Okay," Hermione said. "Less talking, more cutting." She opened and closed the shears to demonstrate.

Draco looked again at the hedges and sighed, "It's gonna be a long night. It'll take about four hours to straighten these out. But we'd better get to work."

Hermione nodded and moved forward. Draco did, too. They started snipping.

They continued to work, evening out the unruly mass of leaves and branches. They worked for hours, and only stopped to get stray leaves and twigs out of the way. Sometimes, if one was having a particularly hard time cutting a piece of wood, the other would help.

Hermione wondered what was going through Draco's mind at they worked on the hedges. She remembered him sending her an owl during the summer, apologizing for everything nasty he'd done to her. He had confessed that he was only jealous of "Potter and Weasley," who had such a good and faithful friend as Hermione. And at the end of the letter, he had confessed that he really had loved her for years, but expressed it only by being hateful and mean.

In truth, Hermione also loved Draco. But she also loved Ron and Harry. She knew she had to choose, but she didn't know how. None of the three boys knew that she loved them all equally. But even if she told them, she knew they wouldn't understand. And the truth would probably break up the great friendship Harry and Ron had at the moment.

As Hermione was finishing her last batch of hedges, Draco went up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hermione?"

Hermione turned around and saw that Draco was staring at the ground, rather nervously. "Yeah, Draco?"

"Did you, uh... r-really mean that... you know, what you said in the letter?" Draco nervously rubbed the back of his neck, staring shyly up at Hermione through his yellow hair. God, she loved that look: he looked so young and innocent. "You know, about us 'not being able to-to, uh... get together'?"

Hermione hesitated for a minute and took Draco's hand; the last crooked branch was forgotten. She dropped the shears on the ground, next to Draco's and led him behind the bushes.

"Sit down." She said gently, pointing to the slightly damp grass. Draco sat, and she sat across from him.

Hermione's heart was beating double, and so was Draco's. Hermione kneeled forward and took Draco's chin and pulled his head up from its bowing position. The look behind Draco's eyes was slightly unreadable, but she could tell that he really wanted them to work out.

Slowly, Hermione leaned forward and lightly touched her lips to his. They were soft, sweet. Nothing like Harry's or Ron's kisses. Harry's lacked the gentleness, but had enough sweetness. But Ron's was too hard, too rough for Hermione's taste.

Hermione felt Draco react to this by putting his hands on the small of her back and pulling her toward him. As the kiss continued, it deepened and the pressure on their lips was stronger, but still gentle.

As Hermione explored Draco's mouth with her tongue, Draco did the same to her. She wrapped her arms around Draco's slim, yet manly waist, and moved her hands up to his hair. A soft groan of pleasure escaped from within her chest and the kiss became more intimate.

Draco pulled Hermione on top of him. They were lying on the damp ground now, but they didn't care. All they knew, and hoped, was that one loved the other.

Draco and Hermione rolled to their sides and started to unbutton each other's shirts. Then the flow moved downward. Hermione unzipped Draco's pants, and Draco pulled down Hermione's school skirt.

The two separated themselves from each other for a moment. Are we really gonna do this? Was in both of their minds. They stared at each other, breathing heavily. Draco waited for Hermione to make the first move.

She did. She pulled him closer for another kiss.

He entered her, gently, but passionately and surely. They both wanted this.

This was sex that neither Hermione, nor Draco had ever experienced.

This was full of love, but also lust and wanting.

Other than the occasional groans and "oh's," Hermione and Draco had made love silently.

Hermione thought of various Kama Sutra positions as she moved up and down on Draco, in and out. But this wasn't the place for complicated positions. Besides, it was more intimate if they didn't give themselves a hard time.

After an hour or so, Hermione lifted herself off Draco. She was glad she had had a spare condom in her pocket from when she and Harry had had sex in the Gryffindor common room a few nights ago. Draco got up and started to pull on his clothes.

Both of their hearts were racing from the exercise they had just done. When they were both fully clothed, Hermione kissed Draco one last time.

"We'd better get back to the castle," Draco said when they finally parted their lips. "It's getting a bit chilly."

"Yeah..." Hermione agreed.

Draco turned around to pick up the shears from the ground, "You know, we did a pretty good job." He said, surveying the hedges. "Don't you--?" Draco stopped mid-sentence when he heard muffled screaming from behind him, followed by a thud and a rustle of leaves.

Draco spun around. Hermione was gone, and part of the bushes was slightly ruffled. "Hermione?" He called. "Hermione!"

Draco ran through the ruined bushes and into the Forbidden Forest. He searched for her all around, occasionally calling her name.

"Hermione!" Draco called, after what felt like hours of searching. "Hermione!" Draco kept running, until he reached a clearing. It wasn't bright so he had to squint to see.

"Hermione?" He called. "Are you here? Are you okay?"

He heard movement behind him; he turned around quickly, but didn't manage to spot anything. He turned to the clearing again.

"Herm--" Draco's call was cut off by a fist meeting with his face. He staggered backward, nearly toppling over. Draco felt a large weight on top of him.

"Shut up!" It was a man's voice.

"What--?" Draco was cut off yet again by a powerful blow to the side of his face. It dazed him for a while. Before he could fully recover, another fist was planted into his stomach.

"Urgh!" Draco groaned. He tasted the blood as it escaped from his mouth, bittersweet. Another fist punched his solar plexus, and his stomach multiple times. Finally, a rough hand closed around his throat, squeezing his windpipe.

Black dots swam in front of his vision. Draco struggled against the large man, but he was too strong. All Draco could do was make choking noises. He clawed at the hand that was slowly sucking out his consciousness, slowly weakening him.

His vision was blurry and framed by black. Finally the black covered everything. The stranger had won.

When Draco opened his eyes, he found that he was still in the clearing. But the stranger was gone, which meant Hermione was, too.

Tears spilled over Draco's cheeks. He had failed to protect her. He didn't know when he'd see her again, if he ever would.

"Who was that?" Draco asked the air around him. He roughly wiped the tears from his eyes, which welcomed new ones, hot and wet.

Draco rubbed his eyes, stopping further leakage of tears and stood up.

He retraced his steps out of the Forbidden Forest. Fortunately, he met nothing else on his way out. There was only one place he could go to. And only two certain people he could tell about Hermione's abduction. And he didn't like the idea of going to them for help at all. But Draco had to do it--for Hermione.

Draco ran up the stone steps and into the Entrance Hall. Good thing he knew where the Gryffindors resided, he was running out of time.

A/N: Well, what did you think? I told you I wasn't gonna get too into the sexual parts. I'm decent girl... NOT! Well, decent from sex, and everything else it comes with! Anyway, please read and review--how's my first rated R fanfic?