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Ch 5 Relapse
Hermione arrived at the hospital wing at 6:55. She hadn't had a detention in years and was really just hoping to get it over with as quickly as possible. She was thankful; however, that the detention was with Pomfrey and not Snape or Filch.
Upon entering, Hermione found Madame Pomfrey just finishing up with a patient. A first year was crying over his blood stained shirt as Pomfrey consoled him and quickly cleaned the garment with a flick of her wand. Once seeing that he was back to normal, the small boy stopped crying and smiled.
"Off you go now, you're good as new!" Madame Pomfrey announced as she patted the young boy on the head and he trotted out of the room.
"What happened to him?" Hermione asked shocked by the amount of blood that had been covering the boy's shirt.
"Oh, just your run-of-the-mill nose bleed," Madame Pomfrey said with a smile. "Now what brings you by again, Miss Granger? Is everything okay from this morning?" she asked with concern.
Hermione blushed. Her visit this morning seemed so long ago. "Yes everything is fine. Actually, I am here for my detention," she said, handing the notice to the older witch.
"Oh, that's right!" exclaimed the mediwitch. "I had almost forgotten that you and Mr. Malfoy were coming tonight."
"Malfoy's going to be here?" Hermione asked quickly, her face turning ashen.
"Of course I am," a voice came from behind Hermione. "I wouldn't skive off detention."
Hermione whipped around to come face to face with Malfoy. He was sneering and only met her eyes for a moment before walking right past her to deliver his detention notice to Pomfrey.
"Very good, Mr. Malfoy," Madame Pomfrey began, "Now that we are all here I suppose you two should get started. I have a few chores for you that are to be done without magic. I need you to change all of the bed sheets, empty the chamber pots, and catalog my potion stores. Now, if you don't mind, please hand over your wands and you can have them back when you are all done."
Hermione and Draco both got out their wands and submitted them to the older witch.
"Thank you," Pomfrey said and turned to head to the back of the room. "I will be in my office if you need anything."
Hermione was struck with panic. She wasn't ready to be alone with Malfoy yet. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she quickly turned to head over to the potion cabinet. Just because he's here, doesn't mean I have to talk to him, she thought as she began to mark down which potions were present.
It seemed that Malfoy had the same idea about not talking as he headed over to a bed and began pulling off the sheets.
They worked in complete silence for about half an hour until Draco had finished remaking the beds.
"Just so you know, I am not touching a chamber pot," he announced as he laid down on one of the freshly made beds.
"Fine, but I'm only doing half, so you can just sit there all night if you don't feel like doing the rest," Hermione stated calmly. She had just finished up her cataloging by marking which expired potions needed to be replaced, so she headed right over to the first chamber pot and "Evanesco-ed" the contents with a quick swish of her hand.
"Hey, you're not supposed to use magic!" Draco said affronted. He was secretly impressed that Hermione could do wandless magic, but didn't want to show it.
"Well, who's going to know?" Hermione asked as she cleaned the next pot in the same manner.
"Pomfrey will, when I tell her!" Draco said outraged that Hermione was getting off easy while he would be stuck cleaning the disgusting things by hand. "Do mine too, or I'm going in there to tell her right now," he threatened.
"Go ahead and tell her," Hermione said as she cleaned a third pot. "She wouldn't believe you anyway. Hardly anyone can do wandless magic. It's a rare gift."
"I know it's a rare gift," Malfoy said as he huffed and walked over to one of the seven remaining pots. It was full and dirty and smelled horrible. There is no way I'm touching that, he thought as he stared down at it. How am I going to get Granger to do this for me? he wondered. So far, threatening her wasn't working so he decided to change tactics.
He moved back to the bed he was just on and sat back down.
"Come over here," he said after a few moments.
Hermione instantly went rigid at the sound of his voice. She could feel his eyes burning into her back, but she didn't turn around to face him. "No," she said as she finished her last pot and began walking towards Pomfrey's door.
"Hermione…" Draco said and paused when he saw her stop in her tracks. He had never called her by her first name before and it felt weird rolling off of his tongue.
"Just come here for a second, I think we should talk," he said as she turned around to consider him.
He was patting the spot next to him on the bed and his face showed no sign of malice.
Her face became red once again and she couldn't understand how Malfoy could sit there so unaffected.
"I think we can talk just fine from here," Hermione said as she struggled to look him in the eyes. "What do you have to say?"
"Well, I just thought that we should make sure we are telling the same story about what happened this morning," he stated. "I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea."
"Malfoy, if you haven't noticed, everyone already has the wrong idea!" Hermione said exasperatedly. "Of course I've been lying through my teeth saying that nothing happened after we left breakfast and that we aren't dating, but no one believes me." she sighed.
"They probably can't believe that given the chance, you wouldn't shag me," he said matter-of-factly.
"Oh, please spare me your ego!" Hermione laughed. "Let's just agree right now to tell everyone that someone doused us with a potion that made us kiss, but that it was horrible and disgusting and that we still hate each other as much as ever!" she said, her voice raising to a shout by the time she finished.
"Well that might work for you," Draco started, "but maybe I want people to know that I got Hogwarts' resident prude to spread her legs," he sneered.
Hermione instantly made a face and a sound of disapproval at his crass language and turned around again towards Pomfrey's office. I should have known not to try to talk to him like a normal person, she berated herself.
Just as she was reaching for the doorknob, she felt a hand clamp over her mouth and around her waist. She was pulled back a few feet and turned around abruptly.
"Look, Granger," Draco growled as he roughly pinned both of her arms to her sides, "I have already dealt with my share of human waste this morning when I was poisoned into being with you, so I don't really feel like messing with it again. Now you will clean up the rest of these toilets or I'll tell everyone in the school how far we actually went this morning and how you couldn't get enough of me and begged me not to stop."
With that he pushed her towards the rest of the pots, and crossed his arms with a smug look of triumph on his face.
Hermione's heart was beating so hard in her chest that she could hear nothing else. For a minute there, she had been really scared that Draco was going to hurt her. She silently walked over to the remaining chamber pots and quickly cleaned them.
She turned towards Draco, who was sporting a smirk, and watched as he knocked on the office door.
"Come in," came the cheery reply of Madame Pomfrey.
Draco opened the door and put on an innocent face.
"We're all finished," he said as Pomfrey smiled and got up to check their work.
"My, you two sure are quick!" she noticed as she handed them back their wands.
Draco mumbled a "Thanks" and immediately turned and left. Hermione hung back a few minutes to give Draco time to get a head start. She didn't want to run into him on her walk back to Gryffindor.
By this time, her heart rate was returning to normal, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had just avoided a close call.
"Miss Granger, are you okay?" Madame Pomfrey asked her for a third time that day. "You look really pale….When's the last time you ate?"
"I'm fine," Hermione said and forced herself to smile. "I think I am just tired," she finished as she turned and headed out of the room.
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Later that night, in her bed, Hermione could not sleep. Her mind kept repeating the entire day over and over again. She couldn't help the tears that began to fall at the thought that she was no longer a virgin.
She had, of course, been curious about sex, but she had wanted to wait until she was in love to actually do it. She always thought that her first time would be with someone special; someone who would appreciate the gift she was sharing.
Now, she would have to tell her future lovers that she had been with Draco Malfoy; a guy who had a reputation for being a man-whore. She knew she was just another notch on his bedpost and probably meant about as much to him as an old sock.
And after the way he had treated her tonight in detention, she didn't feel like she could ever face him again. He had really scared her and her arms had developed bruises where he had squeezed them to her sides. Draco Malfoy was definitely dangerous and she decided here and now to avoid him at all costs.
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The next morning, Hermione slept in through breakfast and didn't make an appearance until lunch. It was the first meal she had attended since "the incident" and Hermione promised herself that she would not hide in her room any longer.
She had awoken an hour before lunch and spent the time showering and getting ready for the day. She used a glamour charm to get rid of the puffiness around her eyes that was the tell-tale sign of tears and headed out of her dorm towards the Great Hall.
As soon as she stepped into the common room, she found Harry, Ron, and Ginny all waiting for her.
"Good morning, Hermione," They all said one after another.
"Hey guys," she responded with a grin. My friends rock! she thought as she walked up to join the group. She knew they had all stayed behind in the chance that she would show.
"Glad to see you up and about," said Harry, "We were beginning to think you would sleep all day."
"Yeah Hermione, you must be starving since you missed breakfast," said Ron, always thinking with his stomach. "You feel like facing the crowds today?" he asked knowing that everyone would still be talking about her and Malfoy.
"Yes, I suppose so," she responded, "I mean I can't hide forever, right?"
"That's the spirit," Ginny beamed as she linked arms with Hermione and steered her towards the door.
Hermione and the group walked in silence for most of the way to the Great Hall. Just before they got there Hermione stopped and pulled Ginny aside.
"You guys go on in, I need to talk to Ginny for a minute," she said to Ron and Harry, who simply nodded and followed her request.
"So what is everyone saying about me?" she asked after the boys had gone.
Ginny had the courtesy to look angry at the idea of the ludicrous gossip and replied, "Well, pretty much everyone thinks that you and Malfoy had been hiding a secret love affair and finally decided to publicize it, and Harry, Ron, and I haven't really done much to kill the rumors, because we weren't sure what you wanted us to say. We have told everyone that you two aren't dating though," she said with a nervous smile.
"That's good," Hermione said. "Just tell them the truth, but be sure to leave out the part about me and Malfoy shagging in a shed!" Hermione whispered trying to lighten the mood.
"Okay," Ginny laughed, "shed-shagging is out!"
With that, the two girls entered the Great Hall and headed over to join their friends at the Gryffindor table.
Hermione pointedly ignored the whispers and looks she was getting from the whole room and sat down next to Ron.
The first half of lunch passed smoothly. Hermione was just starting to feel comfortable that no one was going to bring up Malfoy when Parvati Patil leaned over and whispered, "Where were you last night, Hermione? With Draco?"
"No, I wasn't with that creep," Hermione replied in an urgent whisper. "I was in detention."
"Come on Hermione, everyone saw you kissing yesterday. You can't say that there is nothing going on with you guys," Parvati said with a mischievous grin.
"There is nothing going on with us. We were under the influence of a potion yesterday, and that scene we made is what put me in detention. I would never kiss Malfoy on purpose. You should know that!" Hermione ranted a little louder than she had planned.
"Who slipped you the potion?" someone asked from across the table. This made Hermione realize that a lot of people were listening to her impromptu speech.
"I don't know," Hermione said and looked around for something that would take the attention off of her.
"Speaking of which; Harry, did you find out anything when you asked around yesterday?" Ron asked.
"Nope, no one saw anything strange," he replied.
Just then the daily swarm of owls came in bearing the mail. Hermione was glad for the distraction.
As people began tearing into their mail Hermione's eyes wandered over to the Slytherin table. Malfoy was reading a letter and drinking out of a mug. His hair was casually falling into his eyes and he kept sweeping it back with his hand. I hope he isn't telling everyone that we slept together, she thought. She had assumed that he wouldn't want people to know, but after what he said last night, she wasn't sure.
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The remainder of the day passed without incident and before she knew it, Hermione found herself outside of the potions classroom on Monday morning. She wished that Harry and Ron were in this class with her, but since neither achieved an "O" on their OWL, Snape refused to let them in.
Hermione walked to her seat and began preparing for class. Seven other students filled in along with her. There were four Ravenclaws and three Slytherins (one, of course, being Draco). No other Griffyndors or Hufflepuffs had qualified. What a shock, thought Hermione sarcastically. She wasn't surprised since it was no secret that Snape hated the latter two houses.
"Good morning," Snape said with a suspicious grin as he entered the class. The whole class turned around with confused looks. None of them had ever heard Snape say "Good morning" before.
"Open your books to page 117," Snape said as the class complied. "Just as we discussed on Friday, we will begin brewing Veritaserum today. This potion will take you the next two class periods to complete. Make sure to follow the directions carefully because you will be testing your potion on yourself." With that Snape walked up to the front of the room, sat down behind his desk and began reading a book.
This was pretty normal for NEWT level courses. They were more like independent study than classes.
At the end of the period Hermione moved her cauldron to the storage rack, where all students were allowed to keep their unfinished work. On her way back to her seat, a Ravenclaw bumped right into her and knocked her off balance. She stumbled into a nearby table and was about to knock over a simmering cauldron, but threw herself to the left at the last moment. Unfortunately for her, Hermione landed right on top of Draco.
He immediately pushed her off and shouted, "Ugh Granger, get off me!" while he stood and performed a 'Scourgify' on his robes. The spell was strictly for dramatics, seeing as though Hermione had not spilled anything on him.
"Five points from Gryffindor for clumsiness," Snape announced from across the classroom. "And another ten for not being able to keep your hands off Mr. Malfoy," he sneered as he looked at Hermione with contempt. "Please refrain from giving us a repeat of Saturday's breakfast display." he finished proudly as he rose from his desk.
Hermione's cheeks burned with embarrassment. She felt like punching Snape for being such an asshole and bringing that up in front of everyone. She knew that anything she did would only cause more problems, so she just turned back to her table and began packing her stuff.
"Alright, time's up," Snape said suddenly. "You are dismissed."
As the class collectively rushed for the door Snape called to Draco to stay back.
"Was there something you needed, sir?" Draco asked as he neared his professor.
"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about the possible side effects of lust potions," Snape said in his smooth drawl.
"So, it was a lust potion after all?" Draco asked.
"Of course it was," Snape said. "Did you think that you had the overpowering urge to kiss that girl for no reason?"
"No, I'm not a complete idiot," Draco responded defensively. "I just know that there are a lot of ways to make people act like that, especially with dark magic."
"That is true, I suppose. But you were definitely affected by a very powerful lust potion. These days, lust potions are too easy to come by. They have been causing a lot of trouble at the ministry. I just wanted to warn you that sometimes people can experience 'flashbacks' in which they spontaneously suffer the same effects of the potion long after it has worn off," Snape warned.
"Are you saying that there is a chance that I might want Granger again?" Draco asked; the dread clearly evident in his voice.
"It is possible," Snape replied. "The best defense you have is to make sure that you do not get…aroused when you are in her presence."
"How, in Merlin's name, am I going to do that?" Draco whined. "I am an eighteen year old guy. I get aroused 100 times a day!"
"Well, you will just have to practice a little self control!" Snape barked. "And if you feel yourself losing it, just get out of the room. If you are in class, simply leave. I will write you an excuse if that happens."
"Okay, well, thank you Professor." Draco said with a defeated look.
"You're welcome and good luck." said Snape.
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The rest of the week was filled with homework assignments, quidditch practices and classes. Nothing major happened and Draco and Hermione were able to settle back into their normal routines.
Since both of them were actively denying their involvement with each other, the rumors had died down and it seemed that everyone believed their story.
It was during their last class of the day on Friday afternoon that things took a turn for the worse for our two favorite 7th years.
Draco and Hermione were in their Herbology class working on growing trees that could be used to make wands when Draco started to feel hot again.
Hermione was standing across the greenhouse pouring a potion onto a Mahogany sapling. The potion was supposed to kick start the growth of magical properties in the young tree. She was pruning the base as she went and was bending very far down in the process.
Draco could not help but stare. Her whole ass was showing and she didn't seem to be the least bit aware. His mind immediately went back to that day in the stables. He remembered how she had felt in his arms and how her body had looked naked and covered in sweat. Oh no, Draco thought. This is exactly what Snape was talking about. Try to think about something else, he willed himself.
His breathing became rapid and his heart began to race. He knew that he needed to get control of himself before he tackled her right in the middle of class.
He turned around in his seat and looked around the room for something to take his mind off of Granger. His eyes landed on Professor Sprout who was posed over a tree in the same stance as Hermione. Ack! Draco startled as he got a good look at the teacher's polka-dotted knickers.
Well that did the trick, Draco thought as he noticed his breathing return to normal. Now all I have to do is keep my mind off of Granger for the rest of the lesson. He glanced at his watch. There were only two minutes of class remaining, so he began to pack up his stuff to leave.
On the way back up to the castle Draco walked slowly so he wouldn't run into Hermione. Ever since their fateful encounter last Saturday, she had been practically running away after each class. Draco assumed that it was an attempt to avoid him, and he was glad for it.
As he followed the other students up towards the castle, his eyes automatically found the swaying hips of Hermione Granger, who was marching determinedly a few meters ahead of him. As soon as he noticed he was staring at her, his arousal returned tenfold. His brain was clouded with lust and he couldn't think of anything except catching up to Granger and making her his again.
He broke into a run and grabbed her arm just as she was reaching the front steps.
"Hey! What are you…" she started but stopped abruptly as she saw the heated look in Draco's eyes. She ripped her arm out of his grasp and tried to run away, but Draco was too quick for her. He wrapped both of his arms around her stomach and pulled her back to him.
"Malfoy, stop! Let me go, right now!" Hermione shouted as she struggled to get free.
This caused the few remaining students to turn around and stare at the couple who were once again causing a scene.
Draco turned Hermione around, keeping his hold on her and kissed her hard. She pushed against his chest with all her might but he wouldn't let go.
He released her lips as he moved his mouth to the side of her neck and began whispering in her ear.
"Why are you fighting this?" he asked as he captured her earlobe between his teeth. "It's not like we haven't already been together," he persuaded as he grabbed her arms and put them around his neck.
For a moment Hermione was considering his request. His kisses were so tempting and his voice was so sexy. Her body started responding to his touch and she could feel herself slipping.
"Yeah, that's it," he urged as he felt her relax. "Just let yourself go," he breathed.
And she would have given in, had it not been for the sound of two giggling Gryffindors behind her.
"See, I knew she was lying," came the voice of Lavender Brown, "they are dating."
"You were right!" Parvati responded laughing.
"Well let's not just stand here staring, let's give them some privacy," Lavender decided as she pulled Parvati into the castle.
Hermione was instantly brought back to reality. What am I doing? she thought as Draco pulled her even closer.
With both of her arms still behind his neck she quickly cast a wandless "Petrificus Totalus" and watched as Draco was frozen on the spot.
For a moment Hermione felt frozen too, but then she turned around and ran into the castle leaving behind a very angry (and horny) Draco Malfoy.
A/N Thanks for the reviews. They are very encouraging!