Chapter Nine

Draco woke early the next morning, being bothered by his sore, bruised ribs. He groaned and looked around. Lying next to him on the bed was a very naked Desdemona Nightingale. Her face was full of victory and her hands were clutching the pillowcase. Draco rubbed his head, regretting his nightly actions as his bruises as injuries reprimanded him. He grabbed his knickers, which had been dangling from one of the posts of his 4-poster bed, and put them on, jumping slightly when someone goosed him. He looked down and saw Mona smirking slyly up at him from where she lay, getting a good look up his skivvies.

"This certainly is a nice view," she commented, stretching her body and exposing her upper torso. Draco grinned and jumped off his bed. "Well, I guess I should get going before someone sees that I'm gone. I mean, I don't imagine screwing around with girls is rewarded at Hogwarts and it would probably be worse if it was with the daughter of a professor." She had rolled out of bed and was getting dressed.

"Yeah, well, just so you don't get caught strolling down the halls at this time in the morning and questioned, use the portrait with the serpent in the common room. It'll take you right to the Slytherin common room. It's a one way trip, though, no coming back through without a password."

"Alright," she moaned, tucking her blouse into her skirt. She stretched one more time and then headed out to the common room with Draco on her heels. "I guess I'm lucky that you don't have classes today since it's Saturday, huh?"

Hermione looked up from her spot on the crimson couch and retched slightly when she saw Draco and Mona kiss passionately in his doorway. Mona gave her a malicious smirk and then jumped through the serpent portrait hole. Hermione snapped her book shut and started toward her room.

"Oh, what's wrong, Granger?" asked Draco in a voice of mock-curiosity. "Getting a little jealous?"

Hermione sighed with an aggravated air and turned to glare at him.

"No, Malfoy," she started in a low, dangerous voice that told Draco she hadn't slept much. "What I don't get is how you can be all beaten up," her voice was lightly etched with concern, "and still manage to do you nightly routine and with more enthusiasm than I've heard from you since I've been here. I wonder, is it because it was Desdemona Nightingale? It must have been the thrill of doing a teacher's daughter or something but you and her screamed so loud that I could hear you through my Silencing Charm!"

"It's not who I was doing that stimulated me, mudblood," he snapped, drawing closer to her. Hermione backed up a few feet, into what she thought was a door, but found she was against solid stone wall. "I was the fact that I haven't done anyone in two weeks!"

"Oh, yeah," she barked sardonically, looking more irate than ever. "That must have been simply horrible! Honestly, can't you go a whole week without any sexual interaction?"

Draco had her up against the wall, his head dangerously close to hers. She could feel his warm, ragged breath on her cheek and he could smell the sweet jasmine wafting off her form. They glared at each other for a moment, Hermione trying not to notice how silvery his eyes had become and Draco trying not to be aroused by their closeness. Suddenly, Hermione jabbed her finger forward, into what she hoped was a bruised patch. She sighed, relieved, when he choked and backed away, rubbing the offended area. Hermione glared at him and walked, rather quickly into her room with an angry "Serves you right."

Draco smirked after her and then started for the lavatory. He was brushing his teeth when Hermione entered and started filling the bathtub. She glanced up at him and her face filled with color. He wasn't sure if it was because she was embarrassed or because she was angry. He couldn't be quite sure, either, if she was grumbling under her breath, because the bathtub filling itself was a bit louder than he expected. After the bathtub was filled just how Hermione liked it, with a little bit of jasmine and lavender bubbles, she sat down on the edge and watched as Draco added the finishing touches to his hair, which remained un-gelled. When he was finished, he turned around and smirked at her. He headed for the door leading to the common room, curving slightly over and knocking Hermione in the back. She went flying in to the tub, but not before she caught Draco's leg and pulled him with her.

He landed on top of her in the water. Out of instinct and shock, Hermione wrapped her arms around his shoulder, afraid that she would sink in the rather shallow tub. Draco pulled her to the surface and used his hand to push the wet hair from his eyes. Hermione released him and stood up, looking around at her soaked pajamas.

"You ass," she snapped.

"A little jumpy, are we, Granger?" he drawled, with an irritated smirk as he looked down at his drenched robes. He sloshed over to the side and pushed himself out of the water. "I mean, you were holding onto me for dear life in that tub."

"It was only because you…you surprised me! It was automatic," Hermione reasoned, more to herself than to him. She rung her hair out over the pool and then rounded on him. "I didn't exactly feel you pushing me off."

"I was rather enjoying your frightened state," he purred. "I didn't want to end it so soon."

He eyed Hermione curiously for a moment and then shrugged of his dripping robes, letting them fall to the floor with a spatter. He then began unbuttoning his shirt, still smirking at Hermione who seemed to have stopped dead.

"What are you doing?" shed hissed, as his shirt fell on top of his robes and he started on his pants.

"Do you expect me to run around in wet clothes all day?" he replied, arching a sardonic brow. Hermione mumbled under her breath. "Do you plan to?"

"No, but I also don't plan on changing in front of you," she replied, sighing and getting to her feet. She headed for her dormitory and closed the door behind her. "That man!"

She pulled off her soaking pajamas and tossed them into a corner of the lavatory after wrapping her fuzzy, pink bathrobe around he and being sure not to look up to see if Draco was naked. She returned to her room and pulled out her clothes of that day, which consisted of a warm red sweater and jeans. After she was dressed, she wrapped a towel around her shoulders so that she didn't get her sweater wet, and returned to the lavatory, to find that Draco was doing his hair again. Hermione rolled her eyes, went over to her faucet, and looked in the mirror. She picked up her hairbrush and started pulling at the wet, twisted knots in her brown locks.

"Taking another shot at taming that wild mass you call hair, mudblood?" Draco asked, smirking when she flinched at the name. "Or is this some daily ritual to make it worse?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Hermione snapped in reply. "Go walk off the top of the school or something."

"I'm sure you'd just love that, wouldn't you?"

"As would pretty nearly all of the school."

Draco finished fixing his hair and ridding himself of the smell of jasmine and lavender. Hermione's hair was straight and smooth and wet…for the time being. They both started for the door leading into the common room and met up there.

"Well?" asked Draco, holding his hand out for her to go.

"I don't think so," replied Hermione. "I'm not going to turn my back on you when you're this close."

"Oh, damn, mudblood," Draco drawled sarcastically, pretending to snap his fingers. "You saw right through me! Just go!"

Hermione gave him a wary glance, grasped the doorknob, and threw the door open, running through it before he could try anything. The odd thing was, he hadn't tried anything. She looked at him again before she started toward the portrait of the lion. She pushed it open and came through, glancing back at Draco who was headed for the tapestry hole.

"He's such a slimy git," she moaned, plopping down on the floor beside Harry and Ron, who were, as usual, looking pensively over their game of Wizard's Chess.

"Oh boy," breathed Ginny. "Why don't you just kill him already and get it over with? Honestly, no one would hold it against you. They'd just wonder why you hadn't done it sooner."

Hermione laughed and rolled over onto her side, staring at the chessboard as Ron's bishop destroyed on of Harry's pawns. Hermione rested on the floor of the Gryffindor common room, staring lazily into the fire. She jumped slightly when she felt something rubbing against her back and rolled over to look at a furry, ginger colored cat. Hermione smiled, picked up the cat, and rested him on her stomach, running her fingers through his fur.

"So this is where you've been, Crookshanks?" she asked, scratching her back behind the ears. "I was getting a little worried that I might have left you at home or forgot you on the train." Crookshanks purred against her hand and then bounced off up to the girls' dormitories.

Soon Harry and Ron ended the match, Ron winning by a long shot. Hermione stood up and stretched, several bones in her back popping uncharacteristically. She watched as Ron put up the game after the pieces had reassembled themselves. Ron helped Hermione to her feet, his ears pinking ever so slightly.

"To breakfast, then?" asked Ginny, closing the Witch Weekly she'd been reading. When Hermione looked up, she hid the magazine rather defensively.

"What have you there, Ginny?" Hermione questioned, giving the female Weasley a suspicious look.

"Nothing!" Ginny blurted out quickly. "L-let's just go to breakfast! I'm starved!"

Ginny grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her out of the common room, after depositing the Witch Weekly between the cushions of her armchair. Harry and Ron tailed along behind them, trying hard to hide their smirks and snickers, which only made Hermione more leery. Ginny finally pushed Hermione into the Great Hall and led her over to the Gryffindor table. Hermione had started shoveling eggs onto her plate and buttering her toast when giggling from Lavender and Pavarti caught her attention. Hermione glanced up and saw they were both pointing to something in Lavender's Witch Weekly magazine.

"Say, Lavender?" called Hermione. Ginny looked apprehensively between Hermione and Lavender. Lavender looked up at Hermione curiously. "Can I just have a look at your Witch Weekly right quick? I'll give it back right away." Lavender still looked dubious but slowly handed the magazine to Hermione.

The brunette flipped through the pages haphazardly, glancing at pictures and skimming articles. She stopped suddenly when an all too familiar face was grinning up at her. It was the ever blonde and pale Draco Malfoy that was smirking at her. What was more what that Hermione was linked to his arm?

The Malfoy Muggle-Born?

As it is well known, Draco Malfoy has just recently been dubbed the sole inheritor of the Malfoy Estate. He has been dubbed most eligible bachelor with one of the most alluring smiles that the editor of Witch Weekly has ever seen, making him the most recent recipient of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award, but that's not all. It has come to our attention that as Mr. Malfoy enters his last year at Hogwarts; he has also taken up the title Head Boy, an honor that has been bestowed upon all of his family for generations.

However, news has reached us of something quite shocking. It seems that Draco, 17, whose father, Lucius Malfoy, 37, has long been known as a supporter of non-muggle-born laws, has been consorting rather romantically with a muggle-born. Hermione Granger, 17, and Head Girl at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has recently been seen in various places with Mr. Malfoy. We have managed to catch images here and there of them around the school. He has been seen taking her to the Infirmary when she was very ill (see picture below), speaking with her in the Great Hall (see picture to the left), and even coming out of classes with her (see picture to the right).

Some at the school, who wish to remain anonymous, have even gone so far as to say they are engaged. If any of these rumors are true, we may be seeing much of Draco and Hermione together, which will be a big heartbreak for several in the wizarding world, including myself.

Hermione practically threw the magazine back at Lavender and became aware of the eyes that were on her and the murmurs going around.

"Bloody hell!" she gasped, burying her face in her hands.