Chapter 9:
Her arms hurt. Her legs hurt. Her body kept fighting.
She had no thoughts. Her sole focus was on the man poised in front of her. He was tired. She could see his eyes shifting and she waited. He wet to side cut her and she landed him with a high kick on the back.
He was pinned with her foot on his neck. A hand rose in the air and she breathed a sigh. I passed. The 'phoenix' has conquered. Again. She grinned at her appellation. First the lion, then the phoenix. I suppose the ability to be reborn is rather handy in a fight. She grinned at the thought since that was just what she had used to win.
She bent and helped her partner up. He was scowling and she giggled slightly. The courtyard was slowly emptying, letting the two fighters calm down. Later that night there would be a celebration of her win and attainment of master.
I hope Master Lao'ting doesn't hold this against me. She had been forced to fight her teacher as her final challenge. 1 year! Take that Malfoy! She groaned at the mild head throb that came with his name and rubbed her temples.
Two years since she had last seen him in the flesh. One since she was sure she'd seen him in the scales. She grinned at the memory …
Flashback
She had been flying around Mt. Fuji, attempting to ready herself for another session of tai chi, when she had encountered another dragon.
Its nature had seemed familiar and she had flown considerably closer than she ought to have, to inspect it. It was a magnificent Chinese Fireball, its scales were silver and black, with a hint of red shimmering around its wings. Its movements however were until the other natural dragons that she often played with, and she soon surmised that it was an animagus.
Considering the familiarity of the dragon's nature and the detail of animagus, she guessed that it was none other than Draco Malfoy.
She had done what any other female dragon would and flirted with him a little, flashing her own firey scales at him.
Her Chinese Fireball hide was a base of black, but her scales shimmered in colors of gold, silver, red, blue and green; apparently her hair was a signature. Her hide almost looked like a dark moving fire when she flew and she loved it.
The two dragons had played and chased throughout the night. They had dodged from mountain to mountain. She had hid while he looked and then vice versa.
It had been so refreshing for her to simply play and let go of all the stress she had been feeling.
It was amazing how being held accountable for her family's, her friends', and ultimately hundreds of others' safety could weigh down on a person.
The two dragons had curled up together at one point and enjoyed the sight of the moon. Each breathing smoke rings to see who could trace it the best. They had begun to get rambunctious and the game of chase commenced once again.
Consistently wary of each other, neither had really attempted to catch the other, but were simply satisfied with the chase. At the end they had touched noses in the common dragon language of thanks and Hermione could tell that Draco in his dragon form had wanted her.
End Flashback
Poor Malfoy, probably thinks he's lusting after a dragon now. She grinned at the thought. Not that she could blame him though. She had even wondered what it would be like to be near him in dragon form.
This bond is screwing me up. The books said that it would though. Sure we had sex and branded ourselves, but that doesn't mean I have to pant after him consistently. Argh!
She glanced at the runic circle on her shoulder. She had found that the runes meant loyalty, love, passion, selfless, soul, mind and heart. She snorted at how many of them did not suit her situation.
But as the book said, the bond wouldn't mean that we drop everything and run to each other. There has to be the emotion of love and the commitment of life for us to truly bond. We have the foundations for it, but we aren't ready in heart or in mind. Hell I've seen him three times since he disappeared sixth year. And not to mention that we still reside on different sides of the war. So the sex is explosive, but that doesn't mean I can live with his Pureblood bigotry the rest of my life.
Damn my mother and her big ideas of sending me to Asia like her precious nephew! Damn all this free time I have to waste away thinking about it all. Damn Malfoy for being sex-starved and sexy.
She knew ultimately that what had happened back before they had left for Asia was more a result of them being lonely and wanting company after months of sexual inactivity than any bond that might have pulled them together.
Damn being here for 5 years to train. Damn Harry for putting me in this pickle! Damn my parents for being stupid Death Eaters. Damn it all! She had worked herself into a frenzy.
Two arms encircled her waist and drew her out of her reverie. Oh dear.
Nakamuro-san had stayed behind to 'aid' her in cleaning up. No matter how many times she had reiterated that she was merely present to train or had taken him down for being inappropriate, he had not given up. He had claimed her as his from the day she had stepped into the sanctuary.
And as much as she would like to pay Malfoy back for being a man-whore, she had learned with McCormack in sixth year that revenge and clinginess were to be avoided in a relationship.
She stepped out of the young man's arms and shook her head, "Domo, but I leave tomorrow and you do not deserve such disrespect Nakamuro-san." She grinned at his chagrined face.
"But the Phoenix should spend the last night in fun."
"The Phoenix does not want her wings clipped." Her irritation from the earlier reverie had clearly not gone far.
She nodded slightly at him and walked back towards her small room. Tonight she would pack her belongings and prepare for her final feast. She would move on, as she said, the next day.
She had found an elite aikido dojo that was willing to take her on due to her excellence in karate. She planned to spend about nine months there. Her next stop would likely be samurai training and after that going to ground with the ninjas.
The last was what she was truly training for and had been lucky to even be invited. The ninjas were extremely elite and secret.
She still wasn't sure how they had heard of her, but she wasn't going to complain. They had told her to take karate and aikido in preparation. In her desire to excel she had read everything and anything she could get her hands on about martial arts, the ancient masters and journals. She figured that if it all started in the mind, then she should prepare her own. Its no my fault I'm brilliant. She smirked to herself and fought to keep from busting out laughing at her own goofiness. You know you're lonely when you have to joke with yourself.
Through the multitudes of books that she read, she managed to master tae kwon do and some other balancing tricks that would help out her earlier yoga and tai chi training.
After leaving the geisha, she had gone to China and studied yoga and tai chi for four months. She had then come to study karate with Master Lao'ting.
The training was rough and her teachers were especially hard on her due to both timeframe and her gender. She didn't let it faze her though.
She finished placing her things in the small duffel and left to go join the celebrations.
That night after many bottles of sake, everyone but Hermione was asleep. She had almost finished placing her bags on her bed when her master entered the small, bare room.
"You leave?"
"Hai. It is my time. Domo domo."
He nodded and left a small, paper wrapped parcel on her palate. When she opened it, she found a full silk karate uniform – one that only the very elite ever wore. She held it close and understood her master's way of showing his pride. He had been hard and cruel, but it was only to make her better in the end, like Snape really.
Oh Snape. That poor man did not deserve what happened to him. I would never have told Harry if I'd known he would kill him. I hope at least in death he can find the peace he didn't have in life. She sighed.
After Malfoy had revealed the deception of Dumbledore's death, Hermione had glamoured herself into her old form and rushed to the Burrow to alert the Order that Severus was compromised and under an Unbreakable Vow. Severus, unable up until that point to say anything but what was bidden by the Dark Lord nodded at Hermione and his eyes gleamed in thanks.
His Unbreakable Vow had been particularly cunning, he had to tell the Order exactly what he was told by Voldemort, he could not tell anything else, and he could not attempt to kill himself or else he would lose a body part each time, which negated the death clause of the vow itself.
When Hermione checked him, he was without eight of his toes and had no pain potion to take care of it. She shuddered in the horrible memory of his defeated eyes. He was willing to live through that pain for us and then what did we do …
Harry had killed Severus on the spot upon hearing Hermione's declaration. Apparently, he had been useless after that.
Hermione had turned on her heel and left, commenting as she walked out the door, "you know, I envy him now. Out of all of us, he will suffer least from your actions." She had turned and shaken her head sadly, "Grow up Harry. Look around you, forces play a role that we can only guess at. I wish you luck and hope something changes before I come back." With a crack she had left the Burrow and apparated to her lodgings in Tokyo.
A few days later she had searched out the geisha house and gotten her mother's recommendation. I really didn't give myself much time to adapt to anything, did I? No wonder I'm so fucking screwed in the head.
She hated the fact that she had basically run away from the war and the choice of sides, but she was still conflicted. Her ideals were with the side of light, but that side also held people who could be just as prejudiced as the other.
She had been betrayed and consistently hurt by those of the light; yet, the dark held methods that she couldn't stomach while at the same time her parents, who accepted her and took care of her, fought for it.
So she took the middle path, accepted that she was firmly in the grey side of things and decided to go learn something useful. She knew she would be no help without knowing which side was her own anyways.
She sighed and refolded the outfit in her hands, coming out of her deep thoughts. She packed away her new suit next to the ornamental kimono she had been given upon her departure of the geisha house.
Closing up the bag, she shrank it and attached it to a collar around her neck, which also held her hidden wand. She lay on her palate and attempted to get a few hours of rest before heading out. It would be a long flight.
Just before closing her eyes, she got a nasty throb in the back of her head and groaned. Man-whore! Why can't he just keep it in his pants!!
In a raging part of Hong Kong, the clubs were going as the night ticked on. In a secluded room at the back of a bar, a prostitute was earning her wages. She had been lucky. The man above her was gorgeous and wasn't too brutal as they touched each other and undressed.
His long blond hair was braided and looked silken, his muscles rippled like those of a warrior, but his eyes were the strangest. They looked like ice to her. But as they lay down and he moved to thrust into her, they flashed and she felt him shudder. He groaned and rolled back over, his erection, which hadn't been very erect even before, was completely gone. She raised an eyebrow at him and waited for his words.
"You should work on the cleanliness of yourself before you attempt to entertain." He snarled, attempting to cover up the real reason. He rose up and redressed within seconds, leaving the girl stunned on the bed.
He turned and flipped a few coins at her. "For your troubles."
He strolled out of the room and made his way to the front of the bar. Damn her! Confound that woman to the depths of the ocean. Bloody Granger – Lestrange … whatever!
He snarled as he walked through the alley, making his way back to his dojo. This wasn't the first time it happened. He would finally get time off and be able to go work off some frustration and then her face would take the place of the one really in front of him and he would receive a shock just as he attempted to thrust. One time he had ignored the pain and gone on anyways, but the climax that he reached was worse than a kick to the balls.
Damn her and her bonds. It's probably some half-cracked spell that she came up with. Yeah, yeah I know its not, she'd never screw something like that up, especially with me. If I had known that this would be a result of sleeping with myenemy then it would never have happened, despite her Pureblood status.
He had marveled time and time again how strange his situation was. In school Hermione Granger had been an enigma and a pain in his ass. She was a constant reminder that his views were shaky at best. She was brilliant and clever, had close friends and could even scrub up nicely when she tried.
So when he found her in his room at his aunt's house, after a few years of not seeing her and brooding on her, he was a bit taken aback and wrong-footed from the very start. She kept him there with her various name changes and he couldn't tell heads from tails about her except that she was Pureblooded and he could accept his attraction to her.
Something he'd been fighting since the Yule ball. And when they had kissed that first time, he had been shocked to his core by the rightness of the act.
And the sex? Well the sex had been bloody amazing. I can still feel the warmth of her mouth as she slowly licked my cock like a bloody lolly, rubbing my balls lightly between her fingers. The amazing feeling of her wet, velvety mouth encasing my hard length and the feel of her throat constricting around its weeping head. How she would bob up and down my length sucking tightly … Great Merlin I've got to stop … Dumbledore in a clown outfit, Snape in a tutu, Potter in a speedo … gah!
So amazing that he had high tailed it, praying that the bite mark would go away. It didn't.
He recognized the runes and understood what it meant, even though he had denied it to her face and himself.
He had read enough about the whole soul-mates deal that he didn't think he could handle attempting the full bond with her. She was still a self-righteous bitch despite her parentage and he wasn't too sure about the faithfulness part of it all.
Dammit I'm a Malfoy. We take who we want, when we want. I will not let some idiotic headache bother me.
Draco had also been having the headaches, but no where near Hermione's own proportions, simply because she hadn't been with anyone else.
As the light broke over the city's horizon he morphed and spread his wings to take off.
In a small, bare room Hermione had just finished checking her surroundings and had morphed into her phoenix form. She flew to the top of the sanctuary she had called home for a year and sang a sad farewell.
The occupants below who heard it swore to their last day that it was the most ethereal song they had ever listened to. At the end of her song, she spread her wings, the feathers which followed the color of her hair catching the light and shining it around like a fireball, and took off into the sun.
Once she had reached the forest that would lead her to the aikido dojo, she transformed into a lion and began to stretch her limbs. Her lioness form was the most disconcerting form for her. Her pelt was a midnight black and made her look almost like a puma, while the streaks of color made her look like a fucked up tiger. She mentally shook her head. Never normal.
Suddenly, she heard a scream above her and felt that she was being watched. Glancing up at the sky, she caught sight of a silver and black dragon, ready to dive and eat her. She quickly darted behind a rock overhang and changed into her phoenix form. Damn Malfoy. Can't even have a decent move without him screwing it up.
She took off in the opposite direction of where she was heading and began a series of darts and dives to throw the much larger avian animal off her tail. As he was quickly closing in on her, she flew directly towards a rock face.
Draco, thinking that the little bird was heading for a nest or decent hiding place, did not slow down. He assumed that a magical bird would have a magical nest and that the rock face was probably an image.
Hermione came as close to a beam as one could in bird form at the dragon's confidence in his assumptions and sped on quickly. Then, at the last moment, pulled a Fawkes and disappeared with a bit of smoke and a lost feather.
She reappeared just behind the dragon and watched it careen into the rock face, as she squawked happily. While Draco dazedly fell towards the ground, Hermione placed a bunch of prickly trees to catch him and cracked away once more to the sound of the Malfoy the dragon screeching in pain.
Hah! And just wait till you hear who broke your record, you'll hate this little phoenix even more …