A/N: And here is Chapter 7!

For those of you who have me on Story Alerts: I am going to be having a longer time period between updates (please don't groan…) but that is because I am trying to accommodate you all by writing slightly longer, more in depth chapters. I hope that this style works better for everyone involved.

Also- if you want to know the current status of the upcoming chapters for the Arkkien, please check out my profile page. In the Bio section, I've started updating a portion at the bottom regularly that states the status of the updates (i.e. just begun, in the middle, almost completed, on hiatus (heaven forbid, right? ; ) ) So that all of you are on the same page with me.

Please let me know whether this method is an improvement for you, or not.

Anyways, I hope you all like the 7th installment…..

Enjoy!

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Draco Malfoy was having hard time reigning in his emotions. The skies were a dark, worrying shade of steel gray, and the clouds rumbled in the far off distance. It had been that way for several hours now, but he couldn't help it.

He had no idea how to go about this.

Flying high amidst the darkening clouds (with a disillusionment charm placed on himself for the Muggle population), he gazed down at the apartment complex in frustration. How was one supposed to confront a person who has flown across the globe to escape from you? He had contemplated this question for the past three hours, and since then, he had failed to move from his circling spot high amidst the clouds.

At least his Arkkien side had calmed down a bit. Since it knew, instinctively, that Draco would soon confront his mate, it was willing to bask in the nearby sense of her happiness. It was only mildly irritated that the cause of the happiness was not he. But, the rougher side of him could ignore that.

Draco felt a dull ache in his wings, beginning at the joint by his shoulder blades, and felt it slowly extend to the edges of his wingspan. He was going to have to land soon. And when he did, he was going to have to confront Hermione. But what was the best way to go about doing that? He couldn't exactly barge in on her and fling her over his shoulder…

His Arkkien side growled in appreciation. Well, maybe when she was more willing…

But no. He was going to have to play this the right way. He had seen Hermione interact with other people. She was reasonable. She wasn't overly shy or timid. If he brought about the problem in a non-threatening manner, she'd accept. Right?

At his inner turmoil, the sky started to rumble with more fervor. Shit. He looked at the clouds. Sometimes, it was cool to have control over the storms and sky. Other times—he looked at the impending storm on the horizon, one that was mirrored in his steel eyes—it sucked. He hadn't exactly had a manual depicting how to regulate his emotions. The storm power was not a common Arkkien power manifestation, and therefore he had been left on his own to figure out exactly how to manipulate his emotions.

His thoughts drifted to Hermione. Maybe….

Yes. He knew how he was going to phrase his problem. Smiling, Draco shifted his blue wings and began to prep for his spiraling descent.

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Hermione was watching the television when the door thumped. She looked at the door in curiosity. Who could it be? Zoe had told her not to ever expect anyone, because she didn't have many friends in Grand Rapids.

The door knocked again. Outside, the impending storm began to make small rumbles, a teaser for the thunder that was no doubt going to appear in the near future. Hermione sighed and got up from the comfy couch.

The person knocked a third time.

"I'm coming!" Hermione said, slightly irritated.

The knocking abruptly ceased. She reached for the door handle, opening the door to Draco Malfoy. She gasped. She made a move to shut the door out of reflex, but he hastily stuck his foot in the door, effectively jamming it.

"Please." He said, his voice soft. Hermione, who had been nervously glancing at his intruding toe, looked up at the soft tone. He eyes, a vulnerable steel gray, were soft around the edges. Draco Malfoy looked defeated. His eyes had bags under them, and his hair was mussed around his forehead. He looked tired. "I just want to talk."

Hermione sighed. "Alright." She made a motion for him to come inside, but he shook his head.

"Outside?" He asked, his eyes watching the emotions running in hers. Draco's Arkkien half was avidly sizing her up, monitoring her emotions, and physically checking up on how she was. She looked good. Happy, even.

"Are you crazy? It's going to storm…" Hermione said, looking worriedly at the clouds from the window in the adjacent living room.

"It's me. I'm sorry—I can't seem to help it right now. That's why I was hoping we could do this outside. I think I have a better chance at controlling it if we're closer."

"Oh. Alright, then." Shit. She'd forgotten about the storms problem. Not only was he a magical being, he was also a man who had the ability to strike down lightning whenever and wherever he chose. Right.

They left the apartment building in silence, the tension thick in the air. Draco led the way to a wooded section by the edge of the parking lot, where there was a park bench placed back within the tree cover, nicely cocooned away from the windows of the apartment building. The sky had turned a frightening shade of gray.

Hermione reached the black wire bench and sat down, looking at Draco hesitantly. She knew, deep down, that over half of the current problem was her fault. She knew she had acted rash.

He began to pace in the grassy space in front of her. Watching him nervously, Hermione decided to break the silence.

"Draco?" She asked, her voice timid. His head whipped around to meet her gaze, his eyes hungry. She jolted, taken aback by the deep need in those eyes. In that instant, she understood something that she had only guessed at previously. Draco Malfoy's Arkkien side was a separate, deeper entity of his being. Staring into his flickering silver eyes, Hermione felt the pain that his insides were no doubt giving him. "I'm sorry." She said quietly.

"Please don't apologize." He said, his voice rough. He couldn't take the tone in her voice. It sounding like she thought it was her fault. His Arkkien instincts pulsed through his body, urging him to fix the emotional distress that was peeling off her in waves. "It's not your fault. I reacted badly. I thought you'd take it differently."

Hermione looked at his pained expression, and she knew that he was suffering deeper than what she was seeing. The sky continued to grow darker. Pretending not to notice the deepening color of the sky, she got up from her position on the bench.

"How was I supposed to take it?" She said, her voice hiding an edge of something that he could not identify.

"I thought you'd be happier about it."

Hermione's face darkened. "Why would I be magically happy about finding myself metaphysically attached to a man whom I had been ridiculed by for my entire childhood existence? Why, of course I would feel the need to prostate myself on the ground at your feet, I'd be so happy! Was that the reaction you were going for?" Her eyes, normally a chocolate brown, deepened in her growing indignation.

Draco's Arkkien side flared to life, its deeper instincts warring with the need to sooth her burgeoning temper, and rebuke her accusations on their mating bond. The sky darkened further, and the rumbles of thunder grew closer.

"Well, I would have thought that the brightest witch of her age would realize when a man has changed!" He retorted. His human side, petty in its nature, tried to save his reputation.

"Changed? As far as I knew, you were almost the same man. Granted, you had wings. Because of those, you were a little more refined. You knew you had to be to get me to help you. But then—

He broke her off before she could continue her tirade. "A little more refined? Who do you think I am? I'm not some school boy anymore, trying to impress the headmistress. I was an adult, asking you for help." His Arkkien side was roiling inside of his skin, and the wings that were trapped in his back were starting to burn. How dare she twist the situation.

"Asking me for help? That's all you did? The minute I accidentally brushed up against you, you claimed I was your mate, bound to you for all eternity. Your psychic tendrils pierced what was supposed to be my impenetrable immunity, and you almost convinced me to ravish you in my public office. Excuse me for not falling at your feet in gratitude!"

Draco opened his mouth to rebuke her claims, but her words caught up to him. She was speaking the truth. Trying a different tactic, he replied, "You still shouldn't have run away."

Hermione, who had begun to softly pace, whipped around to meet his stormy gaze again. Ignoring the flashes of lightning that were beginning to appear around the edges of the trees, she hissed at him, "I was scared. You were this…" She gestured wildly at the dark sky with scattered lightning, "…this wild, elemental being that claimed power over the fucking storms! What was I supposed to think. Your touch gave me actual electric shocks—of which I felt nothing—and I couldn't seem to think straight. I had no other option."

Draco turned his face away from her. She watched him cautiously, unsure of what he was planning to do. "You could have turned to me." He said quietly.

Hermione stopped in her tracks and sighed. "Draco."

He turned and looked at her, his expression still wary. When she made no move to towards him, he cautiously walked closer to her. The wind, which had been steadily increasing, died down slightly. Hermione hair tangled slightly in the wind, as if the wind was caressing its tendrils. "I'm sorry."

He gave her a weary look, and turned away from her, beginning to unbutton his crisp white shirt. His slipped it off of his back, revealing the gorgeous tattoo that adorned his pale muscles. The wind picked up its intensity, and it began to rain. The thunder and lightning, which until now had been in the distance, came in with a fury, lighting the sky with vicious sparks. Draco let his wings fall out, unfurling them with dexterity, given the voracious wind.

"Draco!" Hermione yelled to be heard over the storm, "What are you doing?" She moved closer to him, but he backed away from her, leaving her alone.

"I can't stand this, Hermione. I won't have you refusing me based on facts that don't even describe who I am." His eyes were a startling shade of deep blue, and without knowing why, Hermione began to cry.

"Draco, please!" She cried.

He looked at her, his Arkkien side screaming at him to stop this, stop making her hurt. But he had to. He had to make her admit that she at least felt something, anything, for him. He knew she did. The feelings that he had felt from her during those moments in her office were still there. He had to push them out.

"Please what, Hermione? Please stay, so you can continue to ignore that this situation isn't going away? Because it's not. I can't just make this bond go away. I can't make you love me, hell, I can't even make you like me."

"Please don't leave." She said weakly. She had no reply to his tirade. She had no reasons with which to prove him wrong. He was right.

Draco's Arkkien side won, and he hurriedly moved to where she stood, a wilted figure in the storm. The wind died down, and the lightning began to dim. He folded his arms around her, and she shook with sobs. His blue wings folded around them both, cocooning them from the storm of his own creation.

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A/N: And so that was (hopefully) a longer chapter for you to enjoy. I loved writing it. The next chapter, however, has one of my favorite scenes in it, so please stay tuned : )

Please review, because it let's me know you're there!

TLA