Disclaimer: In Chapter One
Chapter 15: A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good.
When the room cleared of the other Hogwart's Professors and only Poppy and Albus Dumbledore stood looking at the two in the bed together Poppy turned to the headmaster.
"Albus, I am not as easily placated as the others. Draco and Hermione seem to have settled now, but if I notice that they are in any physical danger I will awaken them myself." She hadn't ever spoken to him like that in the long years of their friendship.
"Poppy my dear, you needn't worry, the worst is over now. You will see, it will all turn out just the way we wish it. Lemon Sherbet?" She shook her head no and he turned and left the room.
Poppy stood looking down at the enchanted pair. They were oblivious to the world around them. She hoped that Albus was right. This was a very risky game they were playing. So much was at stake, not the least of which, the lives of the two in the bed.
Kneeling on a cold stone floor should be causing her feet to go to sleep or her knees to be hurting her.
Hermione should have become uncomfortable very quickly, with Draco's weight pressing into her. Even feeling Draco draped along her body should have felt wrong to her, but all around her a light radiating warmth and caring enveloped them both with a healing aura. She found herself smiling again for no good reason, her eyes closed and she breathed in Draco's scent. He smelled so good, like happiness, comfort, and hope…he smelled like Home.
The logical part of her mind, was trying to rebel and say that this wasn't happening, that she was NOT bonding with Draco Malfoy. She did NOT want to be his mate, and be subject to the will of the Veela instincts that she could, even now, hear battering against the protective walls of Draco's dreaming mind.
The logical part of her mind was trying to interject the feelings of unfairness, and remind her that her life and choices would be taken away if she did this. She would be nothing more than property to the arrogant Malfoy. But when Draco pulled back, his grey eyes purple rimmed with exhaustion and despair, he suddenly didn't represent anything that her logical mind was telling her.
"You came…you came…" Draco kept saying the words, his hands reaching toward her face to caress her cheek in disbelief. "You really came…it's really you…No, I'm dreaming again...it's never you…I'm just dreaming." He slumped forward his face nestled in her chest, and she could feel the tears soaking the black material of her dress.
"Draco…" Hermione tried to get her arms between them to push him off a bit, but he was too big for her to move. It was odd that she had been able to hold him up in the first place. This dreamscape was certainly picking and choosing which natural laws it had to follow, she thought with a grimace of the burning lungs of her run up the inclined ledge and wondered why it couldn't have elected to make that a little easier.
Perversity of the subconscious mind no doubt.
Draco's high pitched keening started again and Hermione realized that Draco assumed he was dreaming her as opposed to having pulled her sleeping consciousness into his own.
"Draco." She tried to shift him again. He didn't move.
"Draco!" Louder this time, but there was still no response from him.
"DRACO!" She pulled his head up by his silvery hair and yelled at him.
"Ouch!" He raised his eyes to hers and glared like a fractious child. Then a smile lit his lips. "It really is you, I never dream you doing things like 'that' to me." A wicked smirk covered his lips.
He dreamed about her, doing things, to him. Hermione could feel her face get hot, he DID NOT mean it how it sounded.
"Or that…I think I like it." He touched her cheeks again, indicating her blush.
Moments later Draco had leaned forward and gripped her in a fierce hug that made her feel as if her ribs were going to break, but she didn't push him away.
"I hoped that you would come, I called and called." He pulled back again. "I was so afraid Hermione…but you came." The light in his eyes captured hers as surely as his hands gripped her own.
They stayed kneeling across from each other, hands and eyes linked for long moments. The silence and the intensity of Draco's eyes started to make Hermione nervous.
"I'm keeping my job" She found herself saying into the quiet of the room. Why had she said an inane thing like that? It wasn't as if she was going to bond with him anyway, was it?
At her words Draco leaned back his head and laughed. That laughter was infectious and before she knew what she was doing she joined him.
Poppy kept a close eye on the vital statistics of Hermione and Draco. Draco had calmed a great deal with Hermione by his side, she couldn't find fault with Albus over that. She couldn't quite decide what it was that made her uneasy. Something didn't seem right though, there was a sort of familiar wrongness to it. Something she must have seen before.
She walked over to the window and stood thinking. Within moments she was standing over Hermione with a look of fear on her face. This couldn't be happening. There was only one way to find out if what she suspected was true.
She bustled out of the room and went through to her office to fire call Severus.
They were now sitting side by side, their backs against a wall, when Draco broke the silence. They were sitting on the floor, as there was no furniture in the room .
"How did you get here?" Draco turned his head and looked at Hermione, she could feel a spark between them when their eyes met. Hurriedly she looked away.
"I'm really not sure, I just woke up out there." Hermione and Draco could hear the pounding and scrabbling on the walls. A shiver ran through her. There was only one way to bring Draco back and that was to go through that.
"I think you must have called me somehow. The Veela side must have dragged me in here, I didn't know it could have a physical pull like that." She looked over at Draco who hastily averted his eyes.
"What is it Draco?"
He muttered something under his breath that she couldn't hear.
"What?"
"I called you here." He turned to look at her.
"I think we just established that." She tried to lighten the mood by teasing him slightly.
He put his hands over his face.
"No, I mean I called you here. To Hogwarts. I was the reason you came back." He didn't look at her this time.
"What do you mean Draco? I came back because I felt...homesick..." It sounded odd to her when she said it outloud like that.
"In the middle of your book tour? Does that sound like something you would have done normally Hermione?" Draco's face was an emotionless mask, silver eyes burning with fever light.
"How did you?" She couldn't seem to be able to understand what he was saying.
"I searched for you, I found you, I used my Veela charms to plant a thought into your mind and I plotted to make you mine. Don't you see I took away your free will. I saw what I wanted and I took it." He finished the last with frightening intensity.
Was he trying to make her afraid of him? Was he trying to make her think he had become a monster. Why was he saying this, now when she was starting to see how hard this must have been for him to hold himself back. Fighting against his genetic instincts had done this to him, and here he was trying to...trying to...she wasn't sure just what he was trying to do actually. Self destructive behaviour was a much more Harry thing to do, but didn't think he would appreciate her likening him to her best friend so she just kept that observation to herself.
"Draco what exactly are you saying?"
"What I am saying HERMIONE is that the Veela allure has the power to make you do whatever it wants. The power over thousands of miles of distance to call you, the power to bring you into my mind. The power to make you my servant if I wanted it."
"And so you are telling me that you have been using your powers? Making me go against my will?" Draco wouldn't meet her eyes.
"Draco, I have no idea what you are trying to do here, but if you had used your Veela charms on me with no thought to my own feelings, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. So if you want me to hate and blame you, well I don't think I can anymore. I have felt a bit of the pain and strength of that out there and I have no idea how you kept it at bay this long. What good is your telling me this going to do? Right now we have to find a way for you to be able to control the Veela side of you, long term."
He had to be able to gain back control of his Veela instincts and reclaim himself.
"You don't blame me anymore now, do you?" All the tension flooded out of his body, and he slumped further down the wall.
"I never wanted it to go like this; you know that now don't you?" Draco's voice sounded hopefull.
"I know Draco, I think I have always known it. I didn't blame you exactly, it's just that none of this fit in with my ideas for my future. I didn't want to be anyone's shadow, especially…yours." She smiled ruefully at him.
"I didn't want my life to change. In the light of all that has happened I guess that that sounds selfish." Hermione trailed off.
"It doesn't sound selfish to me, you should have seen me when I found out I was to come into my Veela inheritance. It was such a shock, I had assumed that since my mother hadn't had enough blood to call a mate, then I wouldn't be faced with it either. I threw a fit the likes of which hadn't been seen since my parent's divorce." At his mention of his reaction to his parents separation, Hermione snorted a bit indelicately.
"Sorry." Was all she could manage, before she was laughing heartily at his expense.
"It's not THAT funny." Draco glared at her.
"Yes it is." Hermione said between chuckles.
"You're right, it is." Draco grimaced he hadn't taken his parents' split well at all, and had made a complete arse of himself when told of it. He still couldn't look back on it without feeling waves of embarrassment, a feeling he hated.
It got quiet and Hermione was aware once again of the storm outside.
"Draco, what are we going to do about that?"
He cocked his head, listening.
"I'm not sure. I know that this sanctuary I built won't last. My dark arts training has been good for something. I guess I'm lucky that I was raised to be paranoid enough that my mind automatically walled off bits of myself. If not…" He didn't finish the sentence, but Hermione knew well enough what he meant if he had been consumed completely by the Veela instincts there would have been nothing of this Draco Malfoy left.
"I could try to block the Veela feelings off again. I suppose." He sighed.
"It's not enough to wall it up, you have to be able to control THAT out there. That side of you has been denied for too long."
"I know. I will just have to figure out how to fight it off somehow." The despair was back in his voice.
"What should we do?" Hermione put the question to him again, never noticing that she had included herself in the equation.
Severus Snape stood at his caldron, carefully timing the potion he was making. It was fortunate that he was a master with years of delicate potion making behind him; his hands knew exactly what to do by rote. His mind, meanwhile, was in turmoil. He had been less than pleased when Lupin had shown up in his rooms to have a heart to heart, but had borne it as gracefully as he could. At least the man hadn't started blubbering and sharing confidences with him. If that had happened it may well have driven Severus to take violent action, something he said Lupin couldn't goad him into taking.
As if that wasn't enough, there was Albus. He loved the man as a father, but a daft and aging father it seemed. The man had put two people into some 'fairytale' like enchanted sleep and now it seemed that Hermione's consciousness had become trapped within Draco's.
He finished his potion and decided to do the one thing he didn't want to ever do, call Harry Potter.
"Ok, I can't guarantee but this might work, are you willing to take the risk?" Draco clasped Hermione closer to himself.
At Draco's words Hermione nodded, but she was scared. What had seemed like a good plan only minutes ago wasn't seeming so now.
Before she could tell him that she had changed her mind and didn't want to have to wake up ever again if it meant going out through the storm of Veela emotions, Draco let his go of his tight hold on the mental walls he had built. The walls to the building started to fade before her eyes and in moments they were standing on a stone platform high above the ground. When it too started to crack and groan Hermione couldn't help but clutch Draco tighter.
"Close your eyes Hermione, I will keep us safe."
She did close her eyes and put her head in the crook of Draco's neck. She didn't want to see how high they were, or how far they were plummeting to the ground. However, they didn't seem to plummet because Draco was pulling back from her and they were now on the same grassy plain where Hermione had first entered Draco's mind. The bubble of mental protection that Draco had put around them seemed to be holding.
"Now do you remember where it was that you awoke?" Draco was looking around the landscape, but now without the building in the horizon there was no way for Hermione to orient herself. It seemed they were standing in sea of grass, nothing else visible from horizon to horizon.
Hermione turned around looking to see if there was anything that might help her distinguish one blade of grass from the next.
"This is pointless." She turned back around to face Draco. Why had they thought this would help anyway?
What had they hoped to accomplish by finding it? It seemed illogical now to think that Hermione could just leave the dreamscape by the same means she had entered it, when they didn't even know how or why she was there in the first place. It was obvious that Draco had called her somehow, but to pull her into his own sleeping mind wasn't something that either of them had known was possible, without strong spells or potions.
She was still looking around aimlessly, when Draco reached out and pulled her to him, forcing her against his chest.
"So...sorry…" He muttered and she had no other warning than this before she felt the bubble of mental protection around them crumble.
The wave of emotion poured over them both and she felt herself pulled out of Draco's arms. To have a feeling manifest itself in such a physical way like this was stunning to Hermione, and she realized finally how hard it must have been for Draco everyday to keep a part of himself walled off.
Hermione heard a strange metallic buzzing in her ears that resolved itself into voices telling her to succumb to the things she was feeling, it was so overpowering that she wasn't able to keep to her feet and fell to her knees and scrabbled along the ground trying to get away from the seduction of those words. When she was finally able to stand again, and tried to run, she found that her legs weren't hers to command anymore.
She put her hands over her ears to try to block out the things that the voices were telling her, and noticed that her body was slowly rotating. In moments she could see Draco again, he was fighting as hard as she was, his pale hair was whipping around his head in a torrent. She watched as he put a hand to his head and fell to one knee, only to rise again with pain evident in his eyes. The voices were whispering seductive promises to her and she felt her will slowly dissolve with the strength of emotion. How had Draco ever denied this? How had he controlled his Veela side to the point that he had been able to keep it walled off for so long?
Her body started to move forward toward his without her legs moving, it was like it had been in the beginning of the dream when she had been taken to the building in which Draco had been walled. It was clear that Draco was in some considerable pain and Hermione could feel her heart pounding in her chest at the look on his face.
By instinct alone Hermione stepped forward of her own volition, no more was she being taken to Draco, she was walking toward him on her own power. She moved with confidence toward him, not giving the force of the Veela instincts any notice. She had her arms around him and her lips to his before he could say anything.
He tried to pull away from her, but when she wouldn't allow him to move, he clutched at her shoulders and kissed her back. It wasn't a tender kiss, but one filled with tongues and teeth, savage and needy with wanting. When neither could breathe anymore they stood gasping in each other's arms. Draco leaned his forehead to hers.
A warmth rushed through Hermione and she lifted her lips to Draco again. He tried to hold back before opening his mouth to her and they once again fell to the hungry open mouthed kisses. There was a sudden silence around them that made them both pull back.
"It's too late Hermione, I'm sorry…I don't think I can deny it…I'll try…to fight…" Draco's eyes rolled up and he fell backward, pulling her with him.
They landed in a tangle of arms and legs on the ground, Hermione on top of Draco's still form. She tried to shake him, but he wasn't coherent.
"Draco! Draco!" She tried calling and shaking him, there was no answer.
A shriek filled the air, shockwaves of sound echoing along the dreamscape. Hermione sat back on her heels in fright, as Draco began to shake uncontrollably. His arms and legs shook, and his eyelids fluttered, the eyeball roving back and forth behind his closed eyelids like a manic R.E.M. sleep movement.
"Draco!" Hermione called again as she felt the Veela instincts roar over her, the pain was sharp enough to send her flat to the ground yet again. All she could do was whimper and clutch her head hoping that the pain would stop, that she would be strong enough to resist.
She must resist, there was no other way.
Then inch by inch she could feel her determination fade away until she lie passive and unmoving on the ground. It was in that state of utter despair and exhaustion that she felt the pain turn into something else entirely. A feeling of completeness, the likes of which she had never felt before, slowly started to fill her.
She could feel the prick of tears come to her eyes as the overwhelming sense of belonging washed over her.
It was then that she knew what she needed to do.
She got to her knees and was taken aback by the fact that everything was infused with a strange light.
Draco with his face flushed and his breathing uneven was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. She needed him more than she could even imagine. How had she not seen this ages ago? She couldn't even remember her most ardent objections, this was right. This was the way it should be, except for the part where he was lying unconscious fighting the bonding, but hat was something she could change.
Hermione crawled over to Draco and pulled his unresisting form to her. His eyelids were still fluttering and his face was covered in a fine sheen of sweat that made his luminescent skin glow all the move. Her breath caught in her throat a his body pressed to hers. This was her mate. Draco Malfoy was her mate. Hers.
She leaned down and whispered into his ear. "Draco, embrace it. Don't fight, embrace it."
At her words a shudder went through him, and he opened his eyes. They stayed looking at each other for long moments feeling the Veela part of them flow in and out and around. Swirling bright colours of acceptance and love, and want and need, surrounded them. Draco raised one hand and put it against Hermione's cheek in such a tender gesture that Hermione felt herself drift down to him, his arms folding around her.
Time seemed insignificant as they held each other, strengthening the bond that now connected them.
"You've removed the enchantment?" Harry looked sharply at Dumbledore, Snape ALMOST gave an evil chuckle at the look of censure the 'boy hero' gave Albus.
The headmaster nodded, his face a grim mask, none of his usual twinkle visible.
"Hermione, at least, should have been awake by now." Poppy's voiced.
"Idiotic idea." Severus muttered to himself before noticing that Remus was glaring a warning at him. Well it was stupid and now (as usual) Severus would be called upon to rise to the occasion and save everyone yet again, even the thinking of it was becoming redundant.
He caught Harry's eye and they both nodded.
This was the only way. He pulled out a bottle of newly brewed potion from deep in his jacket pocket and handed it across the bed to Harry, then dragged his cloak off and moved to join the younger man.
The rest of the group edged back and openly watched as Severus and Harry prepared to enter the mind of a sleeping Draco Malfoy.
Severus hadn't thought that once the Dark Lord had been killed that there would be much use for the dark arts he had been forced to teach the boy. Of course Harry was a man now he begrudgingly conceded. A sneer lifted his lip; he had hated working with Harry then and he hated it now. There had never been a question that Harry wouldn't be willing to try this, with one of his two best friends lying on the bed like that. Stupid Gryffindor. What he hadn't counted on was that he would be required to assist the brat. He had assumed that one of the other trained wizards would help and he could step aside.
That assumption had proven to be very wrong indeed. Since Harry and he had worked together before, the Headmaster had stated that they would work together now. It would be faster and easier than trying to get anyone else into the position that would facilitate the bond that had already been built between Severus and Harry. Snape could tell Albus wouldn't have accepted any negotiation on the matter, so had given in more or less gracefully.
Harry measured out a small amount of potion into two glasses, placing them carefully on the table by the bed. He stroked Hermione's frizzy hair off of her forehead and turned an unsmiling face toward Severus.
"Now that your touching display is over, are you ready to begin?" Severus sneered. The room became unnaturally quiet as everyone waited to see what the impetuous Harry would react to the baiting.
Harry said nothing only motioned Snape to the table and they picked up their cups of potion at the same time as if they had practiced it a thousand times. Which thinking back on the last couple of days, they probably had.
In the past a potion hadn't been necessary for them to utilize their dark magics together, but Harry had been married and bound to a partner and they now needed something to temporarily block the magic of that spouse. After more than a few attempts, during practice, that had had to be aborted, they had decided to take the potion.
Severus counted to ten slowly with a deep breath and drank the potion down, he could see Harry out of the corner of his eye doing the very same thing. The next instant he could feel something snap to attention in his mind and the strong whirling sensation of falling.
It had been decided that Harry would be master on this journey and Severus the back up reserve of power needed to break Draco's defences and a steady influence in case of resistance on withdrawal.
Hermione leaned in and kissed Draco's closed eyelids, and they fluttered softly, his eyelashes a slash of golden colour against his pale cheeks. Draco was sleeping, resting his head warm and heavy in her lap.
Hermione took the time to look around and marvel at the change the landscape had taken after they had both embraced the Veela bond between them. Rolling hills of flowers coloured the horizon line, butterflies flying contentedly above them sipping the nectar, before moving on to the next. She was sitting with her back against a tree and there was a brook bubbling happily nearby. She knew it was all a dream, but one in which she wouldn't mind staying forever.
Draco and she had half heartedly looked around for a way to remove Hermione from Draco's sleeping mind and back where she belonged, but it hadn't seemed as important as walking together, or talking, or holding hands, or kissing. Not important at all in the face of spending eternity with Draco. With Draco, in his mind like this, being one with him, in all ways. She realized that not having her own body might be, perhaps a bit inconvenient at times, but right now it seemed a price worth paying.
Hermione sighed and closed her eyes; contentment flowed over her in soft waves and she drifted happily along in its' warmth.
Severus could feel the draw on his power and his first inclination was to snap all his shields into place forcing the intruder out. That of course was a short lived thought and he allowed Harry further access to his source magic along the conduit that bound them. He hadn't realized how much force Harry had developed the last few years and the few days of practice hadn't utilized either of their full magical capabilities. Now though Severus didn't think that Harry would ever stop drawing on him, until he found himself suddenly on the floor of the infirmary. Harry in apparent trance stood by him his eyes staring unseeing at the wall opposite the bed.
Poppy rushed over with a restorative and Severus gulped it down with less caution than he would usually exhibit. But they had such a finite amount of time before Severus would be needed to help draw Harry back out again. It was an inelegant plan, little more than a snatch and grab into Draco's mind. Never the less it was all they really had right now.
The lips that were nuzzling at Hermione's neck were causing frissons of shock to wander down her spine.
"Mmm…" Was all she could seem to manage.
She had never realized how many places she liked being touched, and Draco's mouth seemed to find each and every one of them. A thrill filled her as he shifted her harder against the tree, an hand wandered up under Hermione's heavy skirt, caressing its' way along her thigh. His forehead butted lightly against her nose as he raised his head and they both smiled at the awkward moment. Then they were devouring each other again in passion, mouths and hands full of each other, yet never quite close enough.
Draco moved his body back a fraction of an inch, his mouth not losing contact with hers, and started to ease her down to the ground.
As her knees made contact with the soft bed of grass beneath them, Draco moved his arm up around her back and pulled sharply making Hermione lose her balance and fall onto him. His arms wound themselves tightly across her back and her chest was crushed to his. His hands roamed her back from the nape of her neck to the base of her spine. The leisurely pattern was driving her crazy with desire.
When he reached between them and started to open the buttons that now decorated the front of her dress, she moaned and moved up to give him better access.
At the sound of her passion Draco raised lust filled eyes to her face. Those eyes widened momentarily and Hermione felt a strong arms come from behind her and wrap across her stomach. It all happened so fast that she was up and away from Draco before either of them could do anything.
"Noooo!" Was all she could think to yell as Harry and Severus dragged her forcibly from Draco's sleeping mind.
Harry came to himself on the floor with a sputtering Severus Snape on top of him. That wasn't a place he had ever wanted to be, and could say with a high percentage of surety wouldn't happen again. They both quickly disentangled themselves from each other and stood up. Harry went to Hermione's side and placed a hand on her forehead, letting his mind drift to her. Everything felt as it should, she was back where she belonged now. He could see Severus doing the same thing with Draco.
"They appear to be separated for now, we may want to move them out of contact for a while. If Draco was able to draw her into himself that easily it could happen again. I saw what they had created in there, and it won't be something either of them will be willing to give up without a fight. It was only the element of surprise that saved us this time." Harry spoke to the room at large and noticed once again Severus Snape was nodding his agreement.
They spent some minutes preparing Hermione to be levitated, after it was determined that Draco wouldn't become erratic at the loss of touch of his mate. Harry followed as his best friend floated to her new bed in the outer infirmary ward.
Lucius Malfoy stood just outside the doorway waiting to go see Draco. He was leaning nonchalantly against the wall, his long hair held back from his face with one of his usual silk black bows, which somehow did nothing to detract from his masculine presence. Harry watched as the other man's eyes glided over Hermione in a condescending fashion. Lucius was incredibly arrogant, and still after all these years it made Harry's blood boil. Neither time nor the fact that Lucius had switched sides before the great battle had changed the man's mind in the least about muggle born wizards. He was still a snob.
Draco and Hermione would have their work cut out for them with him. Of course Harry was willing to do all he could to help settle things without too much of a fight.
Lucius noticed Harry's glare and smirked raising one elegant eyebrow at him, before entering the room where Draco lie sleeping.
The look on Harry's face wasn't one that boded well for the elder Malfoy.
TBC
Well folks, here is another instalment. Normally I would try to read it through a few more times to find the worst of the errors, I really do not have time, I figured you all would be ok with getting SOMETHING as opposed to waiting another month for a better beta-d copy of the chapter. If I am wrong, don't let me know...lol
We are winding it down now, just a couple more chapters and a super CHEESY epilogue that will be an optional read, not important to the story, but a pretty little bow on top.
Naturally thanks for the Reviews! :) You all are the best. I love the reference to my story being like a train wreck, made me smile actually. Sad that I take that as a compliment isn't it?
To those of you that wrote me emails, I am sorry to have not responded to each one personally, things are crazy around here. I have moved three times this year and with changing careers it is killing me off. I have busy doing art for money...which takes precedence over writing for fun, but I will get a response to you, it just might be a while.
To those of you that mentioned you would like to see more Draco's Inheritance. I will get back to it, (eventually) I just have to read it and remember where I was going with things...I have a rough outline but it has been so long, I am not sure where I am in the story.
To the Americans in the crowd Happy Thanksgiving. To my best mate in the world...Happy Birthday...not that he reads this sort of thing, mind you, but I have to put the Birthday wishes out into the universe for him anyway.
Ergh, long author's note. Ok signing off...but before that......Arbitrary where are you mate? Hope all is well.