Burning Desires

Draco Malfoy

"Granger… let's have a little conversation in my office, shall we?"

Truthfully, I needed an excuse to be mean to her. I looked at those pictures… and I didn't want to think about the ideas running through my head.

When she sat down, I noticed her nervousness. When Granger is nervous, she either babbles, or she gets deathly quiet. Sitting in the chair across from me, I felt the pressure of the silence in the room.

"What were you teaching Stella to do?" I asked harshly.

She bit her lip, and I felt miserable to see her afraid of me. "I was teaching her how to sew."

"The muggle way, I presume."

"Yes," she mumbled weakly. "Malfoy, she enjoys this! She really seems happy!"

"My daughter," I said, "will not be educated in muggle things. You're a muggle, so you can do whatever you please, but don't drag my daughters into it."

"But, Malfoy… Stella has a talent." She argued.

"I don't care if she's the next Giselle—she's not allowed near that sewing thing!" I retorted.

She looked crestfallen. "Stella's going to go back to hating me again."

"She doesn't hate you, Granger." I said slowly. "Trust me… if she did, you'd be gone by now."

"You really fire nannies that Stella dislikes?" She asked with wide eyes.

"My daughters mean more to me than anyone." I said simply. "What they say goes."

"What if Stella 'says' that she wants to keep sewing?" Granger asked boldly.

"Okay, so not everything they say goes. They're witches… they need to prepare for Hogwarts. I can't have them become muggles." I explained.

She scowled at me. "Fine. No more sewing."

"I knew you'd see it my way." I reveled. "Now," I said, reaching for the stack of photos, "about those pictures…"

She blushed. "What about them?"

"You did see them, right?" I asked her slowly.

She nodded. I pushed the candid shot of us forward onto her side of the desk. She looked embarrassed.

"Please destroy that." She whined. "It's gotten me into quite a bit of trouble."

"Oh, really?" I asked with interest.

She winced. "I opened the envelope after your mum gave it to me and Harry was with me… and…." She stopped mid-sentence.

"And…?" I prompted.

"And Harry said that…" She managed to spit out with difficulty. "…It was a nice photo."

"Nice try." I said sarcastically. "What did Potter say?"

She shifted in her chair uncomfortably. "Trust me. It's highly disturbing and you wouldn't agree anyway."

"Stop beating around the damn bush, Granger!" I muttered with annoyance. "You can't start to say something and then just stop!"

"I can if I think about it and then decide it's a bad idea to mention it!" She defended.

"Look, if you don't want to tell me, fine. But I can see in your expression that it'll drive you nuts, whatever it is. You also look like you'll feel guilty if you don't share…" I knew it would make her talk.

"Harry said that he thought I was in love with you." She sputtered quickly.

I wasn't prepared for that. "Well," I began coolly. "What did you say to him?"

"I didn't realize it at first, but I found myself standing on my chair and the entire restaurant heard me argue and yell that I 'DON'T love Malfoy!'" She said slowly. I smirked.

"Interesting." I understood why she didn't want to tell me. I wouldn't have told anyone if that happened to me! "But I don't think we should destroy this picture." I said, glancing at it. "It's a really nice picture of the two of us, actually."

She nodded in agreement. "Maybe it's too nice." She whispered.

----

The wedding date hung over me like a dense, suffocating fog. June 3rd. It was exactly a month away. I was feeling apprehensive… but I knew that marrying Elizabeth would help the girls. They needed a traditional family. They needed to be able to tell their friends that they had a "step mother."

Another marriage factor was the stupid bank. They didn't want to give me money… they wanted people with "stable" families to give extra gold to. Elizabeth was also a brilliant business mind (most of the time), and she would do wonders for the company.

I opened my desk drawer and took out a letter. It was a painful document to read. It was from Fleur, after I caught her and broke off our marriage. She told me that I would never get over her… that I would live in a depressed state for the rest of my "pathetic" life. I guess for a time I believed her. I wanted to marry Elizabeth—who was her best friend in school—and be able to say, "Guess what Fleur, you were wrong!"

I put the letter back and immediately saw a portrait of Granger in my desk. Ah, yes, Granger. She was pretty much the number one reason I was getting married to Elizabeth. I know, I know; it makes no sense. I wanted to put her in the back of my mind… I wanted to completely forget whatever it was I felt for her. What did I feel for her, anyway? She was beautiful, I couldn't doubt that. But whenever I saw her or talked to her, my stomach felt different. It didn't make any sense at all. I wanted to ignore it, much like I ignored the picture of her.

The picture was of her leaning against a wall, looking away from the camera. She didn't notice that I took it from the pile of pictures… and I wasn't quite sure why I'd felt like I needed to keep it. I kept it in the back of my drawer and I didn't look at it very often. I just liked knowing it was there.

Suddenly, I knew I needed to leave all my "feelings" for Granger behind. I took the picture and tore it in half. I ignored the lurch in my stomach as the picture ripped in two. I kept ripping it in pieces and then I threw them into the fireplace.

I watched the flames engulf the torn picture. There. She's out of your mind and heart. My head said with satisfaction. Looking at the burning picture, though, I couldn't help but doubt that.

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! I'm sorry that chapter was a little on the short side… but it was needed, I'm sure you saw that.

NEXT CHAPTER SPOILER: The next chapter is my personal favorite. Hermione does something unthinkable… well, she almost does. I can't really give too much away… but trust me, this is a good chapter!

REVIEWS:

Dracochick: Yeah, I kind of do hate the Weasleys, lol. I don't know why, but I usually write Ron as being corrupt and evil. In the books, Ron annoys the hell out of me… but his brothers/sister/parents are okay. I love the twins… but they're such amazing characters that I pretty much never write about them.