Another Chance?

By Cedar1

A/N I am really sorry 4 the slow updating, have been tryin to get things sorted 4 uni and has been complete chaos! Am startin bk nxt wk and bein the slave drivers that they r I don't think I will be able to update v. quickly. (oh and will try and get chap 8 of 'immortal' out!) But please send me reviews, they really motivate me, and u never know I cud post sooner (ah the bribing tactic is back!) Well hope this chapter was worth the wait....

Disclaimer: Well am gonna try wishin upon a star tonite, so u never know crossing fingers, but sayin that it hasn't worked the last million times I tried it, cos am still only a poor lowly student.

Chapter 3: Nothing?
Hermione stretched her sluggish muscles, arms raised above her head, toes pointing, peeking out of the covers. She let out a sigh of contentment, her mind still submerged in the cloudiness of sleep. Curling her body from underneath her, she nestled her head deeper into the fluffy pillow, ready to fall once again into blissful slumber. She could vaguely feel gentle fingers brushing through her hair, lulling her to sleep. Hold on, fingers in her hair, her mind suddenly cleared. She darted up, ideas of rest all forgotten. She whirled her head round, seeing who the fingers would lead to. She already knew who it would be, but shock still tainted her scream.

"Malfoy."

Hermione's eyes flitted around her, taking in her surroundings, " Where the fuck am I?" The spacious bed was the focal point of the expansive room, boasting mahogany furnishings, heavy velvet drapes and a large gilded mirror. The entire décor shrieked of Slytherin mansion, she angrily confronted her jailer, "I'm at yours aren't I? I'm in a friggin death eaters home! Aren't I?"

However, Malfoy was blatantly ignoring her livid ramblings; his fingers still idly immersed in her unruly brown curls, and his gaze otherwise engaged. Infuriated by his attitude Hermione followed his line of sight, only to become more pissed off. The bastard! His eyes were trained on her breasts that were encased in a satin negligence, which at the moment was doing a pathetic job of covering her assets. And just when did she begin wearing flimsy nightclothes? No doubt Malfoy took it upon himself to dress her in her unconscious state, how considerate of him - a heavy slathering of sarcasm icing her thoughts. Feeling self-conscious her arms immediately went to cover her chest, and Malfoy let out a heavy sigh as a curtain was drawn over the peep show. His head collapsed on the pillow, next to Hermione and he let out another groan of discontentment. That only served to heighten the anger bubbling under Hermione's skin, who turned round and started punching the relaxed figure at her side.

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By all accounts Draco was in heaven, lying in bed with Hermione at his side, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. The fact that she was brought here against her will was a point he was willing to overlook. At first Draco had been furious at the alliance's proposals for him to fetch one of the head aurors; and Hermione no less, for Malfoys didn't do dogsbody work. But after a series of heated conversations and not forgetting a large dose of ego-stroking Draco committed himself to the plan. Hermione had been the obvious target, a woman - easier to break- staying by herself unlike Potter and Weasely who continued to act like 15 year old boys and were living in each others pockets. It had taken him a while to counter the various charms she had installed in her tiny house, he wouldn't have expected anything less from such a gifted witch. It had been strange; for the first time in years Draco had found his heart pounding with nervousness in the final minutes before apparating into her living room. He hadn't seen her face to face for what had been around ten years, with the last time being graduation, and basing her reaction on what had passed that night he didn't think she would be overjoyed to see him; and his prediction had been proven right.

His lips curved into a smirk as an image of a furious Hermione twisted itself free from the mass of memories in his head, until it was the focus of all his thoughts in his mind. Her hair had been messily tied up in the restricting bun, but as ever, wild curls had fought their captivity and strands of brown were loose and shaking violently, coordinating with the angry trembles that were overtaking her body. Mentally he shifted his gaze to her face; 10 years had altered nothing at all, her large eyes were still bursting with every feeling that coursed through her, a small nose, flushed cheeks and full pouty lips. A sigh brought him back to reality, and Draco looked down at the girl, no woman, lying next to him. Her appearance was so different from what he had pictured only moments ago, here she was at peace. Long eyelashes resting upon creamy skin, curls tossed disorderly on the pillow. Instinctively his fingers submerged into the tangles, stroking them, familiarizing himself once more to their touch. It was meant to be strictly business, 10 years, 10 years he thought would be enough time to forget past feelings, past love. But the moment he saw her, and kissed her he realized how naïve he had been. He knew now, first love, dare he say it true love never left you no matter the distance or the hours past; it stayed dormant, waiting patiently for its time of re-emergence. And when their lips touched it had come alive, taking over him, leaving every other meaningless kiss he had had previously in its wake. Unlike Hermione, Draco had partaken in several affairs, a mistress always waiting in the sidelines ready to be called upon if Draco desired it; but all that had vanquished into nothingness with that single meeting of lips.

She suddenly bolted upwards, her face first expressing confusion before realization and subsequent anger hit her, stiffening her body. Draco could vaguely hear her shouting about something, but he was somewhat distracted, his eyes following the smooth outline of her breasts. It was surprising, he noticed it when he dressed her last night; although her face had barely changed her body had matured during those lost years. As a girl she was slim, flat and angled, not that he complained at the time but now her body was the epitome of sloping womanly curves. Perfect!, unconsciously he wetted his lips. But the moment was soon lost, when an arm was lifted blocking his view. Draco couldn't help but groan, she always had to spoil things, they couldn't just indulge themselves in the pleasure of each other there, no there had to be something to discuss or problems to iron out. Nothing was ever simple. His head fell on the adjacent pillow, another groan passed through the tension-filled atmosphere. However Draco had appeared to have crossed a line that had already been drawn in their brief reunion and was subjected to furious fists pounding into his firm flesh.

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Harry calmly looked around Hermione's flat, his actions appearing like an moment of curiosity; fingers rifling through drawers, eyes roving from one place to another searching for obvious discrepancies. However the outward appearance was nothing like what was building up inside, worry, uneasiness, fear; but a keen observer would notice how his fingers shook as he went through her things and the way in which his normally sparkling green eyes were dulled by the cloud of dread that had descended upon them. He had always been the strong one, the calm one in their duo but any minute now his self-control was going to crumble and release a tidal wave of emotion. He dared not imagine what had happened to Hermione, it had been two days and nothing. They hadn't heard from anybody; no confessions of kidnapping, no call from Hermione saying that she had decided to go on holiday, nothing. Only an empty manila folder discarded on the floor, with no signs of their contents in the house. Harry turned round to face Ron.

Unlike Harry, Ron was not an active believer in the act of self- control and had: already gone through all the more colourful words in his vocabulary, some twice; sacked several sub-ordinates, who Harry then had to re-instate; pounded his fists on the bricks, till there was blood staining the walls of Hermione's living room. He was now sitting on her armchair; one shaky hand raking through his fiery red hair the other holding a cigarette, which was now no more than an inch long. Nervously he brought the cigarette to his lips, took one long puff before dropping it on the floor and grounding it into the carpet.

"What are we going to do? We don't even know where she is!" his voice barely whisper, had taken Harry by surprise, who had been staring at the crushed cigarette butt.

"I don't know!" came the painfully truthful reply. They both sat in uncomfortable silence, for the house had already been emptied of the aurors who had filled the rooms yesterday, as they had been ordered on assignments of research.

"It has to be death eaters. There isn't anybody else," stated Ron, breaking the stillness.

"Well who else could it fucking be!" yelled Harry, who had finally given in to his emotions.

Ron burst from his chair, his cheeks burning red, fingers pointing accusingly at Harry, " Well if it's so fucking obvious why is our chief auror sitting on his backside doing nothing. Why the fuck aren't we knocking on the doors off our friendly neighbourhood death eaters, and pounding their faces in until they tell us where Hermione is!"

If only it was that easy, thought Harry, his hands cradling his head. " You know we can't Ron, we need evidence, we can't just start arresting people. And if you haven't noticed we have nothing.." His hands waving in front of him, " Nothing here, nothing from our sources, no strange behaviour recorded by any of the usual suspects. We've got nothing Ron. Absolutely nothing! Not even Hermione!" There was no holding back now, tears were streaming down his eyes. Life just wasn't fair.

Ron's posture immediately slackened as he watched his best friend break down, his body getting smaller and smaller in the chair. Ron approached him, and hesitantly put a supporting arm around him, afraid that he would be beaten away, but no. "We'll find her Harry and we'll kill the bastards who took her," declared Ron.

Darkness soon surrounded the two tired figures, as they prepared themselves for yet another day of horror.

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"You Bastard! You complete and utter son of a bitch!." Hermione bawled, she was now straddling him; scratching, punching hitting the man lying beneath her. The thud of knuckles on flesh providing a rhythm to the stream of words that came from her mouth. Every single degrading insult her mind could think of had already been spoken, so she was forced to repeat the rather short list again and again.

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Draco, at first found his predicament humorous, for no woman except of course Hermione, had ever had the courage to a raise a hand against him, much less make contact. But Hermione had continued for what must have been five minutes, punching him angrily. Her words did nothing to affect his composure, he had heard worse from his father and occasionally his mother, it was like water off a duck's back. So instead he decided to wait it out, wait for her to give in, wait for her to realize that she was in a no win situation, that she had lost. He was a patient man when the time called for it.

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Her arms were getting tired now, and the insults had stopped a while ago. She felt drained and reluctantly she brought her arms to rest at her side. She looked down into his eyes and said in a quiet whisper, for she was too exhausted to scream anymore, " I hate you. You mean nothing to me. You're nothing." She could see his eyes becoming increasingly colder with each remark, amusement hardening to steel. " Can you hear what I'm saying. You're nothing, even compared to the non-entity that was your father." Her voice had become progressively more assertive, feeding from the obvious anger that was rising within him. She could feel the body pressing against her stiffen, and waves of confidence were surging through her veins. She pressed her lips against his right ear, so close that she could almost taste the scent he gave off on the tip of her tongue when she spoke, " You're nothing. How does it feel to be a nobody?"

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The blood that ran through him was beginning to boil with greater ferocity with each biting remark concerning his insignificance. Draco had had enough put-downs in the past regarding his inadequacy; they had been drilled into him, spurring him on to make something of himself. And he had, he had death eaters crawling on their hands and knees begging to do his pleasing, women craving for his touch; there was nobody in the wizarding world who didn't either respect or fear him. Draco Malfoy was somebody, and it enraged him to think that some mudblood had the audacity to deny that. Fury fuelled his following actions, and in one swift motion he had grabbed her motionless arms and had flipped her over, reversing their positions. His fingers maintained their agonizing hold on her wrist, nails piercing into sensitive skin as his pushed his body against her, crushing her.

His nose was now centimeters from hers, and he could feel and hear her breathing becoming gradually more rapid and laboured. She was struggling to get air in her system, as his weight squashed her lungs and airways. He looked deep into her brown eyes and noted with satisfaction that they were screaming with unbridled fear.

"I'm not nothing, and the sooner you understand that the better." He waited for a glimmer of acknowledgement but none came.

"I could kill you right now, you know," came the warning, seriousness edging the threat; in response she began squirming beneath him trying to remove herself form his control. The feel of her body moving beneath him was slowly converting his anger to burning lust, and he found himself staring intently at her parted lips; they were calling to him, yearning for his touch. 'So why deny them?' questioned his inner voice, and with that he once more claimed what he thought was rightfully his.
A/N feelin rather brain dead now, but hope u thought this chapter was alrite, as always am not too sure on it; so please, please, please etc review! All r welcome, I can take it hmmmm..! Was really surprised (in a brill way) how many people reviewed by last chapter, so I wanna say thanx to...

Serpent du feu: glad u liked my idea with the spell thing! Hope u liked this chap!

Thalion1: am really happy u like this story as well, both have evil Draco YAY! Shud b updating immortal soon soz about the wait.

Not sure yet: thanx! Just a ? is that u're pen name, or are u thinking of sumthin else? Just wonderin, kinda like it as it is thou!

JaceMia: Hope u liked this chap as much as the other! Please review and tell me what u thought - another pathetic plea!

Mesmer: am really sorry 4 the wait. Oh and Hermione has got lots of things in store 4 her, hopefully there will be a couple of twists..

Megan: Cheers! Hope u enjoyed this one.

Krisaay: Thanx a lot!

Amy: so what do u say? Shud I be fed to the lions or not 4 this chap?

Ok that's everyone PS please review again would like to reach the 25 mark, still haven't dun it yet! author pulls sad face)

((( Ta very much, and bye 4 now (((