I'm always super happy when I get a notification about a new comment and kudos, so here's a big thank you to all of you who took your time to do that! 3
I'd like to thank Kyonomiko and Riptide for their tireless work as alpha and beta readers for this story. Your help is invaluable 3!
A special thank you goes to LightOfEvolution who was so kind to translate my made-up spell into Latin. You did a fantastic job, dear! 3
I've had a drawing from Panda-Cappuciono commissioned for this chapter, but unfortunately, FFN won't let me show or link it directly. Please go to the respective chapter on AO3 to have a look ( archive ( ) ofour ( ) own.()o rg. ( ) works / 12470444 /chapters /31281147) (remove brackets and spaces for the link to work, sorry that it looks so messed up).
Disclaimer: All rights belong to JK Rowling and her publishers. I just borrow the characters and the world for a bit; the plot (as little as there is) is mine, though. This is a non-profit work, and no copyright infringement is intended.
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Draco panted into the steam of the shower. He carefully relaxed the muscles in his appendages curled around his nipples and watched the overhead stream of water wash away the white-ish remains of his come on the walls and his hand. He pumped his fist a few more times, relishing the sensitivity in his post-bliss, and then switched the tap off.
All his attempts to conjure the vague picture of his last liaison had been rendered useless by Granger's face. He still remembered the feel of her hair on his extra limbs, how she'd stroked him with varying strength and speed. He'd come so hard at the mental image of him stuffing her mouth full of his cock, leaving her speechless for once, it wasn't even funny.
His libido had been on overdrive the past few days, but until he found a way to control the bloody things on his back, he didn't dare go to the next bar and pick up a willing witch. Or a willing Muggle, for that matter. Not that it had been easy for him picking anybody up since the war, to be quite honest.
No, the Malfoy name was still not pristine, and since Astoria and he'd broken up two years ago, he'd got the strong impression that it was either about the Dark Mark or the gold in the vault. And if a shag meant paying for it, he'd rather visit a discreet establishment in Knockturn Alley, spend some galleons for the service of his choice, and not deal with the potential aftermath. But with his latest acquisition? He really didn't want to go out and simply imperio somebody to have sex with him.
His constant horniness still had an advantage, though. He could train with his appendages to his full heart's content. And he was proud to say that he got better and better with them; they even didn't hurt or leave all that damned blood anymore.
A quick spell dried his hair and body, and he watched in satisfaction how his appendages withdrew while he got dressed. He should be good for tea with Granger now. Looking at his watch, he saw that it was already five to two and she was anything if not punctual.
He closed the door to his rooms after him and walked swiftly the steps down to the foyer where Wompy apparated with her.
"Hello Granger," he greeted her.
She undid her robes and revealed a red halter top combined with blue jeans and a golden belt. He grinned. If she needed support by wearing her House colours, she could have it.
"Hey Malfoy. Did you find anything?"
"Oh, thank you so much for asking. I'm doing fine. How are you? Work treating you all right?" He let the sarcasm bleed into his voice.
She turned red and pushed a few curly strands behind her ear. "Sorry about that. I'm fine, thanks. You?"
"Same. Come on, I know you want to dive right back into it."
He could see how she smothered an eager grin. They followed the hallway down to the library where the tea was already on the desk with the documents he'd already sorted by age, and a small side table surrounded by more furniture with the scones arranged on an old china étagère.
Granger looked between the tea and the scones, and nodded. "No crumbs on old parchment."
"Of course not, just imagine the portraits' outrage about grease stains on their writing. The water repellent spell was a must, though. I shan't be parched in my own house. How do you take your tea?"
"No sugar, but a lot of milk."
He screw up his face. "No sugar at all?" He prepared her tea and passed the thin-walled cup.
"No sugar at all." She confirmed and smiled into her cup. "But a lot of milk. Did you get anywhere with your search?"
He eyed the two lumps of sugar dropping into the amber liquid in his cup, then added another one. He'd probably do with a little boost of energy. "Yeah, kind of. I started with grandfather's stuff, went through some of his notes and also the patents he'd filed back then. Some of his work is still used in subsidiaries of our company. Like a spell to distinguish between natural and artificial diamonds."
"You trade diamonds." She didn't even sound surprised.
"Among other activities, yes."
She hummed and took a sip of her milky tea. "And what did you find?"
"Let me clear the documents so you can actually touch them."
"Right. Is my palm ok?"
"Yes, I won't need much. My mother knew a handy spell to circumvent disenchanting each and every item." He made a small incision with his wand and let three drops fall onto the hawthorn shaft of his wand. Granger's eyes widened as she watched his precise movements. "Protege sanguinem Malfoi et huic sanguine adiunge."
He'd hoped for a bit of spectacle, to be honest, maybe a flash of light or ominous thunder, but it was rather anticlimactic. The parchment rustled a little, and his wand warmed up, but all that remained was the dried blood. He eyed it sceptically. "Do you think I can scourgify my own wand?"
Granger shrugged her shoulders. "I've never tried that. I clean it the Muggle way, if necessary. I rather not drop it in the dirt."
He shot her a sullen look and mumbled a cleansing spell. It seemed to work, or at least well enough, because he couldn't detect any more of that rusty red.
Pushing a yellowed note towards her, he pointed out what he meant. "He worked on a potion for several years, according to these research summaries. He didn't state what he wanted to use it for, but the list of ingredients sounds like it was a muscle relaxant and anaesthetic. At least partly because other ingredients hint more at a calming draught or an enhancer for mental activity. It makes sense, somehow, because it hurts to grow those things, it happens when I'm upset, and it takes a lot of concentration to direct fourteen appendages."
"Fifteen."
"What?" he asked
"What?"
"Why did you say fifteen?"
She stayed silent but averted her eyes. He watched a flush emerging on her cheeks, and then he felt his ears heat up when the penny dropped. "Did you really just make a bad sexual joke?"
"So what? I'm an adult. And just because you blokes do it all the time doesn't mean I can't." Sounding a tad petulant, she crossed her arms across her chest which lifted her breasts and let them strain against the upper edge of her top. He felt his collar closing in on his throat.
"I was just surprised. That's all, Granger," he said with strangled mischief in his voice. "Good to know that I don't have to hold back."
"Right," she retorted, and it definitely sound more like a Yeah, right. She wouldn't even know what had hit her when he was finished, he promised himself.
"I might find more in the company safe where we have all patent- and publish-worthy stuff. I'll have a look on Monday."
"Good idea. Did you grandfather write a notebook?"
"He did." He levitated a stash of leather-bound journals to her. "Have fun with them."
She opened one and then let her head almost fall onto it. "Oh no!" She groaned.
"Oh yehees," he sing-songed.
"But that's all written in Runes. Celtic ones!"
"I know!" He grinned. "That's why you get them."
"Malfoy!"
He batted his eyelashes at her and observed with glee how the pink returned to her face. "Scones, dear?" He sobered up a bit before she could shoot lightning from her eyes, or even worse, from her wand. "We'll split that. I'm no monster, after all." Her raised eyebrow in answer did annoy him the tiniest bit.
"I should duplicate my part, then, and take some of the work back home."
Draco shook his head. "It's not working."
"What do you mean, 'it's not working?'"
"I had the same idea. You can't duplicate any of those documents."
Of course, she wouldn't believe him. She drew her wand and spoke the spell only to see it fizzle out when it reached the journals. A repetition gave the same result, and he quirked his eyebrow. "Go ahead, try it another ten times before you believe me."
She glared at him and pocketed her wand. "All right, I believe you."
"Can I have that in writing? With date and signature?"
"Don't goad me, Malfoy."
"It's fun, Granger," he said with a fat grin, and looked her square in her eyes. "You get all riled up, with flushed face, and sparks in your big brown eyes, and even your hair gets frizzy. It's... amusing." Turning me on, he wanted to say.
"I'm here to work, not for your amusement."
"One doesn't have to exclude the other, Granger."
"Thanks, but no thanks."
He jerked his right hand to his heart, trying his best for a most theatrical impression. "You wound me, fair lady!"
"Whatever, Malfoy. You're such a drama queen." She clenched her jaws. "Sit your egocentric bum down and let's get to work. I have a dinner date tonight."
That made him focus. He glared at her, not quite sure if it was because she'd called him a drama queen or because she'd cut her stay short and rather go on a date, and grabbed the second one of Abraxas' journals.
A couple of minutes later, Granger cleared her throat and looked up. "When was your grandpa born?"
"Nineteen-oh-eight, I think. Why?"
"Just trying to figure out if he got his tentacles on his twenty-fifth birthday, as well."
"They aren't tentacles! Did you find something?" He couldn't stifle his excitement, no matter how annoying he found her repeated use of the T-word.
"No, not yet. His rune-drawing was a bit sloppy. I'm still getting used to it."
"No Malfoy has ever been accused of a sloppy handwriting, Granger."
"There's a first time for everything, isn't there, Malfoy?" She tried to quell her smile with a nibble on her lower lip, but that only made his pulse rise. He already felt his blood rushing south, and the skin over his protrusions strain at the thought of those teeth nibbling on his body instead. Getting a bit desperate about his treacherous body, he tried his best to concentrate on the symbols in the book in front of him.
They worked in silence for at least an hour, the quiet only interspersed by a creaking chair when one of them straightened their backs, or the occasional huff from Granger when she tried to make sense out of the runes. He caught himself observing her a few times. She would push her thick hair behind her ear or tap her pen against her lips while she stared above his head and at the many shelves in the room. He'd once almost had a heart attack when she sucked on the back of her pen with her tongue peeking out a bit. Ridiculous how an action so innocent gave him a class-A erection. He felt fifteen again with all the lust swimming through his veins, sure that his appendages would break out at any second.
"I need a break and something sweet," he announced.
Granger looked up and rolled her head from one side to the other. "Scones?"
He nodded and jerked his chin to the small table surrounded by a couch and two armchairs to indicate a change of place. She got up and smoothed her clothes with a slow stroke of both hands from the sides of her breasts to her thighs. He wasn't perfectly sure but he couldn't really remember that any other woman trying to flatten wrinkles in their clothes had ever looked so bloody tempting. Remembering his manners after he stalked stiffly—haha, what a brilliant pun—to the side table, he poured her another cup of tea, added a lot of milk, and held the étagère with the scones for her to choose one. Her smile made his stomach flip, and he distracted himself by pointing at the jams. "Strawberry and apricot, and clotted cream. Or if you'd like anything else, just let me know."
She gave him an undecipherable look and her face turned a hint of pink. It made him a bit uncomfortable not knowing the reason, and wondered if she'd noticed his throbbing cock and if covering it with a plate was too obvious. Hoping to sidetrack her mind from wherever it was he asked, "Have you been to the Ministry library yet?"
She swallowed her bite down and brushed the few crumbs on her lips off with her fingers. Screw napkins, this looked much better. "Yes. I borrowed a couple of books but I haven't seen anything that really fits. Most deal with witch-burnings during the late medievals and were fabricated cases anyway. We all know there's no such thing as Satan."
He hummed in confirmation. "I think I need a first lead what I'm dealing with to narrow the search down."
"We," she retorted.
"What?"
"We. You and I. I'm helping you, remember?"
The corners of his mouth twisted up. "Yeah. We." She smiled back and there was this funny feeling in his stomach again.
"I like the tea. What kind of blend is it?"
"Mother's favourite flavour of the month. I can owl her if you want to."
"Where is she?"
"France. She'll be there for a couple of weeks. We have the whole manor to ourselves. And the greenhouses. And the garden." He flashed her a cheeky grin.
"And pray tell, what do you think we'd do with that much freedom?" She leaned forward on her armchair, looped a curl around her index, and licked her lips. He couldn't decide between looking at her lips and her tempting cleavage, so he did both.
"Anything you want, Granger," he said breathlessly, feeling his appendages break free from their confinement. Thank Merlin that his cock couldn't do that otherwise it would practically jump into her face. The fact that her nipples hardened under his stare didn't help one bit.
"Something's wrong here," she panted.
"The only thing wrong here is the amount of clothing on us." He growled, and stood up, not even bothering with trying to hide the bulge in his trousers.
"No. Yes. Malfoy—" She looked up at him, pupils dilated, as he loomed over her.
He bent over her and cupped her face in his hands. Her skin was damp with perspiration, and a bit cooler than his own. He took in her freckled nose, the pronounced cupid's bow of her lips, and the dark lashes framing her eyes. Her breath fanned over his lips, just a hair's breadth apart from his, and her eyes closed halfway when he slid his nose against the side of hers. He lost all restraint when the tip of her tongue traced his lips. Opening his mouth, he met her tongue in a hungry kiss, burying one hand in her hair and clutching the other one between her shoulders to press her against him.
Granger moaned into his mouth, and he had to focus on his appendages to not knock everything over. He deepened their kiss and tentatively wrapped one of his extra limbs around her waist, pulling her onto her feet and closer to his level without breaking their connection. The three that followed his hand into her hair probably would never get untangled again, but he didn't care. He'd happily be connected to her forever if it meant that she'd keep pressing her pretty self against him.
She was soft, all supple flesh and untameable hair and irresistible scent. He shuddered when her hands on his shoulders gripped him with insistence and pulled him even more into her. Their kiss was overwhelming; it was all he'd hoped for and more than he'd expected from a first kiss. At the same time, it was perfect. His mouth moved over her jaw to her neck, sucking at her pulse point and tasting the trace of salt on her skin. He mentally congratulated himself when he felt her knees give in a little, and placed another love-bite on the soft spot below her ear.
She pushed him back to gain access to his neck, and licked a small stripe from his clavicle to his Adam's apple, her arms wrapping around his shoulders once again. Their weight was something he'd love to get used to. He whined when she bit the side of his throat gently, the pleasure of feeling her on his skin rushing directly to his cock. He moved his hand from her back to his trousers, palming his dick through the cloth. Two of his extra limbs slithered up her sides and brushed over her breasts. She keened and rocked her hips against his groin.
"You're so hot, Malfoy," she said, her words interrupted by the kisses she placed on his collarbone.
"You're not so bad yourself. And call me Draco, Hermione." He chuckled when she bit him a little harder. He encased her tits with spirals of his appendages and squeezed. They felt nice and full and just the right size to be worshipped.
"Draco, that's not what—Ohmigod, do that again," she stammered when he massaged her breasts, flicking the end of one limb against one of her hard nubs. "—what I meant. You're positively burning."
"That's all your fault, witch." He moved the hand from between his legs onto her arse, curled his two bottom appendages around her thighs and hoisted her up until he felt the heat of her core on his own. It was astonishing how easily his body did what he wanted when he just pictured it clearly. "You make me hot like that." He gasped for air when she started to grind against his cock. She tightened her arms around him and kissed him hard.
The gust of ice cold air hit him unexpectedly, and he jerked back from her in shock and let her fall back onto her feet. "Fuck, Granger! What the bloody fuck? That was cold!"
She grabbed onto his shoulders to keep herself steady and trailed her fingers down his chest before she snatched her hand back. The other hand held her wand which she pointed at his neck now. He swallowed nervously and tried to get rid of the remnants of that lusty fuzz in his mind. As far as he had been able to tell, it had been consensual but if he was wrong, he needed to apologise, and soon.
Draco's appendages flapped helplessly around him as he searched for the right words.
"You've a thirty-nine point nine fever." Hermione said incredulously after a glance at the number that emerged in front of his face. She glared at him. "Why didn't you just owl and tell me you're ill?"
"I don't feel ill—"
"And how was my Ice Wind spell so powerful? It shouldn't be that much colder than an enhanced cooling charm, even with the added alteration. I must've channelled much too much magic. Crap. That happened last time when I broke up with Ron." She murmured to herself, completely ignoring him. She turned to the desk where all their notes were haphazardly strewn across the surface.
He lunged and grabbed her wrist, bringing her back in front of him. "Granger." When she fixed her stare on his collar, he put two fingers under her chin and tilted her head back so she would look into his eyes. "Hermione, are you ok? I kind of lost control and—"
Strands of hair stuck to her sweaty forehead and neck, her brown irises still heated with arousal, and she took fast and shallow breaths. She looked utterly fuckable, and his dick began to overrule his brain again. "I think you should cast another Ice Wind," he groaned out and took a step back, losing all physical connection to her. Seconds later, instant coolness flushed over him, helping to temper himself down.
"It's still far too cold. It's not supposed to be that icy!"
"Just perfect, Granger. I needed that. Might need a few more."
"But I'm not supposed to lose control over my magic like that! I might hurt somebody next time!" she shouted. "I'm telling you, something's off here."
A sarcastic bark dripped off Draco's lips and he spread his arms and appendages wide so that they surrounded him like sun rays on a child's drawing. "You think?"
The spell Protege sanguinem Malfoi et huic sanguine adiunge translates as Protect the blood Malfoi and add this blood [to the protection].
Please let me know what you think! Praise and constructive criticism is very welcome :). If you find a mistake, please don't hesitate to contact me on tumblr: o0sarena0o and I'll try to fix it as soon as I can.