Mindless Ramblings from the Author: Sorry this wasn't updated in time for Christmas but can it still be classified as a late Christmas present? I'll put in gingerbread cookies as an added bonus if you review! Anyway, sorry about the lateness, I hope it won't take this long again. I must however add that I apologize for any misspellings, punctuation/grammar mistakes and/or typos. Grammar is not my best subject within English. Happy New Year; Yay 2006!
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Disclaimer: Oh yes, the painful disclaimer I seem to have forgotten in the first and second chapters. I must note right now that for those two chapters, this chapter, and all later chapters this single disclaimer will suffice. I, regrettably, do not own the wonderful series called Harry Potter. They, and the characters within them, belong to J.K. Rowling along with her imaginative world of Hogwarts. I do own the plot of this story, it came from my own imagination and you will be horribly cursed if you steal it. That is all.
Enjoy!
Impossible Love
By: A. J. Seawiel
Chapter Three
The next morning, Hermione entered Potions class late for the first time, due to Malfoy taking an abnormally long time to brush his teeth… in a locked bathroom. When she entered, regretfully, Snape had already begun to lecture and as she peered around, Hermione found the only seat vacant was next to Malfoy. She shot evil looks at Harry and Ron, who were both sitting at the far back table, and they began to gaze around the room absentmindedly.
"Miss Granger, this class began five minutes ago. Ten points from Gryffindor." Snape sneered as she sat down. "Now, the ingredients and instructions to make Veritiserum are on the board. You have until the end of class to complete the first and second parts. Begin."
Hermione looked at the boy she was sitting next to and glared openly. She had to sit next to this piece of vermin who had murdered her parents? She shot daggers through her eyes once again at Harry and Ron. Some friends they are, she thought to herself, and sighed. Might as well make the best of it, I suppose. I can't exactly kill him at this moment - I'll wait.
Were his eyes deceiving him? Or had Granger just sat down next to him… willingly? Malfoy stared at her for a few moments, not quite believing what had just happened. This day was becoming more unusual by the minute. When she turned to glare at him, Malfoy returned to his newt tongues, scowling. He began chopping them a tad more vigorously than he intended as he watched her rotate back to her friends at the far table. She hadn't sat down next to him willingly; she'd been forced.
Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her robes, taking her wand out of her school bag to light a fire under the cauldron. Malfoy smirked and bumped her arm on purpose, causing her to set fire to Pansy Parkinson's robes. He stifled a laugh, and with a smile tugging at his lips he reached for his supply of Bowtruckle legs. Hermione glanced at the burning robes and bit her lip - that wasn't precisely what she had wanted. Before she could say something, Pansy noticed her robes were aflame and started screaming and dancing around, attempting to extinguish them, to the amusement of the Gryffindors. Snape walked briskly to the source of the commotion and put the flames out with some water from his wand.
"Who did this?" he asked in his usual sinister voice. Hermione whipped around to face Malfoy, who was, once again, smirking. He was going to tell Snape she had set the fire. Hermione pleaded with her eyes but Malfoy raised his arm. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"
"I saw the whole calamity, sir." Hermione screwed up her eyes and waited. "Pansy simply lit fire from her cauldron to her own robes. It clearly was just clumsiness, sir." Hermione opened her eyes wide and faced Malfoy. What was he playing at? She watched Snape retreat back to his large desk and take out some parchment, quill and ink before speaking.
"Thanks," she mumbled, loathing every syllable she said, and completed the final stir to her potion.
Malfoy smirked again. "I only saved your skin so you'd be in my debt."
Hermione looked at him shrewdly. "What?"
"You owe me," Malfoy repeated as he corked his flask of potion.
Hermione narrowed her eyes and followed him to the front, corking her own potion, "I don't owe you anything. You did that out of the kindness of your heart."
Malfoy snorted as he returned to the table to pack up his things. "Kindness of my heart; where did you get that phrase? Sounds exactly like something a Mudblood would say."
Hermione scowled at him, fire clearly burning in her dark eyes. "Yes, it is something a Mudblood would say, and that attitude is exactly what got you turned into a ferret!" She stuffed her wand into her bag, walking towards the door as the bell rang to signal the end of class.
- & -
"So then he says I'm in his debt! What does he think I'm going to do?" Hermione explained hotly to Ron and Harry, who both looked very pale.
Ron, who was a slight tinge of green, attempted to reason with her. "Hermione, you ought to ask Dumbledore if you can come back to Gryffindor tower."
"Yeah, I wouldn't put it past Malfoy to rape you. Or worse..." Harry added, his voice trailing off. Hermione stopped in her tracks to face her friends.
"Don't worry about it, okay? I'm more than capable of handling myself. I have the highest marks in Defense – second only to you, Harry." she stated frankly, secretly thinking it might be easier to make his life a living hell if they shared board.
"Hermione, if he even thinks about touching you..." Ron started, clenching his fists.
Hermione snorted and hugged both of them tightly. "I'll see you later, all right? I've got Arithmancy." She kissed them both on the cheek and took off at a sprint.
"I'll kill him if he touches her," Ron said to Harry as they watched her retreating form.
Harry agreed, adding, "Leave some for me, all right?"
"You got it."
- & -
Hermione skipped into Arithmancy with a cheery look, but that look vanished when she saw a familiar blond head. She sat down behind him and started knocking her head against the desk. Malfoy turned around to face her.
"You're going to bruise if you keep doing that, Mudblood," he said, amused. Hermione leveled her face to his, venom in every inch of it.
"I'm kind of busy right now, leave a message after the beep; fuck you."
"Now, now, no need to swear. I was just wondering if you..." But whatever he was wondering had to wait, because the professor had walked into the class.
"Today will just be some note-taking," Professor Victor said. "Next class we will be starting a little project. I have made up the pairs and they will be posted outside the classroom door tomorrow morning. I trust you all to do very well on this because it counts for half your term mark." The class groaned as the notes appeared on the board, and she began to lecture.
As she started taking down the notes, Hermione kept looking up at Malfoy's head, wishing it would vanish, or better yet, explode.
Malfoy spun to face Hermione as Professor Victor turned to write more notes on the board. "I was wondering if you had reconsidered - you do know that Professor Snape thinks very highly of me," he whispered with a trademark Malfoy smirk.
She looked up from her note-taking and smiled at him. "I suppose you're considering revealing my blunder if I don't bend to your wishes?"
"That's about the jest of it. He will certainly take my word over an insignificant Gryffindor Mudblood's." He said acidly, his face slightly resembling Satan's own.
Hermione sighed deeply, "No, I will not reconsider, but you should make a note that Professor Dumbledore thinks very highly of me."
Malfoy turned his nose up at her as the teacher walked by. When she passed he whispered, "You think so, do you? Or are you so sure of your friendship with Potter that Dumbledore thinks of you as his favourite as well?"
"He does not think of me as his favourite and nor does he think better of Harry than you or anyone else!" Hermione snapped returning to her work. As Malfoy turned back to face the board realization suddenly dawned on her: Malfoy was jealous of Harry. She looked up at his blond hair in amazement, she had never thought of that before. Was it possible he'd always been jealous? Is that why he treated Harry and herself like the dirt he walked on?
Hermione looked back down at her work her face slightly pink - was he jealous of her too?
- & -
"Hermione, are you all right?" Ginny asked her as they walked around the lake together. "You look a bit pale."
Hermione sighed, glaring. "Yes. I'm all right." They had just rounded the final bend of the lake in silence before she burst, "I just don't understand how one person can be so excruciatingly annoying! I can't stand him!"
Ginny nodded putting together the puzzle. "You have every right to hate Malfoy, look what he's done to you all these years! I don't know what Dumbledore is playing at, but putting you two in the same room is ludicrous!"
"Yeah, I know. I wonder what he was thinking?"
"He was thinking that the smartest and most handsome should be Head Boy and Girl, but what I don't understand is why you're with me." They heard a sneer behind them, and turned around and glared at whom they saw.
Malfoy and Blaise were hiding sniggers as Hermione walked up to them. "You know what I don't understand? How a prick like you even got into this school!" Her hand flew up, leaving a slowly forming red welt on his beautiful face. "Remember third year? Well, I thought you may need a reminder." She and Ginny then left the grounds and ran back up to the school, Ginny laughing the whole way.
When they disappeared, Malfoy cursed, rubbing his cheek, and Blaise started doubling up in laughter. "She got one over on you there, mate!"
"Can it," Malfoy replied, swearing as they walked back up the steps.
Whatever he was expecting, Malfoy had been surprised that had happened. What the hell! I just got slapped by the Mudblood again! he thought; Blaise started sniggering quietly as they reached the Slytherin portrait hole. Malfoy shot him a glare, silencing his friend, as they walked through and down a corridor. When they reached the common room they found it empty, so they took the two best black leather chairs by the blazing fire.
"Want to get a bet on?" Blaise asked, cutting the silence.
Malfoy's eyes tore away from the dancing flames and onto the sapphire eyes of his friend. "Depends - what about?"
Blaise smirked widely; the little argument earlier had given him an idea. "That within a week's time you can't get the mudblood in bed with you."
Malfoy thought about that for a few moments. "All right then. I bet you I can get Granger into bed with me within a week and a half."
"Why the half?"
"Because I said so; take it or leave it!" Malfoy snapped.
"Fine."
"Right then. Plus, I'll add on that I can dump her three days after that." Malfoy said, smirking.
"That's an awful lot for a wager… all right! I'll bet on that. Loser has to sleep with Pansy." Blaise held out his hand and Malfoy took it.
I feel sorry for you mate; I wouldn't want to sleep with Pansy, he thought as he switched the topic to Quidditch.
- & -
Hermione woke up the next morning and heard the sound of running water from the tiled bathroom. Malfoy must be showering, she thought. Yawning, she stood up and stretched out, picking up Crookshanks who hissed madly at her. Apparently, he wasn't ready to get up yet.
"All right, fine; stupid cat," she mumbled as he jumped out of her arms and raced down the spiral steps to the Head common room. Hermione made her way down the stairs after him, ruffling her tangled bush of hair, and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight she found in the common room. Malfoy had come out of the shower with nothing but a towel on.
"Oh, hello Granger; wonderful morning, isn't it?" he said without a hint of embarrassment as Hermione turned around, red from head to toes, and temporarily forgetting her anger towards him in shock.
"M-morning Malfoy, what's with the cheery act?" she stuttered trying to calm down her hormones.
"Cheery act? I don't have a cheery act. I was simply asking you how you slept," he said, coming up to her as he dried his wet blond hair with another towel.
"Oh, f-fine, I slept fine, you?" she asked as she felt his breath on her neck.
Malfoy ran his index finger up her neck making her shiver. "Very well, thank you. Besides the fact that my cheek is throbbing." He turned her around and she would have slapped him again, had she not been so nervous. His cheek was a bit blue from her slap yesterday.
"Right, well, you deserved it," she said, trying to muster her courage that was failing at the moment while her hormones were screaming with delight. He had pulled her against him and she felt his hands run up and down her back.
However much she tried to pull away, she couldn't. It felt as if she were glued to him. She... she - wanted him to touch her - it just felt so right. His touch was so soft and soothing; she didn't want him to stop. Her hormones burst their boundaries and her heart started thumping uncontrollably in her chest. Hermione closed her eyes as his face came closer to hers, she could feel his breath on her lips as her head instinctively cocked slightly to the left. Just as he was about to do the unthinkable, the bell rang, signaling that they were late for class. He smirked and kissed her cheek before leaving to change.
Hermione stood there, at a loss for words. She had just let the murderer of her parents touch her in places her ex-boyfriend had never touched her. She felt very contaminated, disloyal, and confused; a shower, a hot shower was what she needed. She took off to the bathroom.
Malfoy, still smirking, tied up his last bootlace and slung his school bag over his shoulder. He was pleased with the way things were turning out, and thought he'd have her in bed by this time tomorrow. He stepped out of the hole and started towards Care of Magical Creatures. Phase one was complete: she couldn't resist his touches.
a/n: Hope you enjoyed the renewed version; stay tuned for chapter four!
OpalEssence
