-1Disclaimer: In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in your ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC, I try to limit them as much as possible. Song lyrics which may crop up now and then will be attributed as appropriate.

WARNING: This chapter contains references to sexual acts. If you are uncomfortable with such references, it is highly recommended that you do not read this chapter. In keeping with the fanfiction ratings guidelines, there are not sexually explicit words used, however, there are themes which will not be suitable for children or teenagers under the age of 16.

Chapter 12 - Lover I don't have to love

"Your hands on me
I'm pressing hard against your jeans
Your tongue in my mouth
Trying to keep the words from coming out
You didn't care to know
Who else may have been you before
I want a lover I don't have to love
I want a girl who's too sad to give a fuck. …"

Bright eyes

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Draco stood by the window in his bedroom, the sunlight streaming through the windows stung his eyes a little, he hadn't been awake that long and so hadn't pulled a clean pair of boxer shorts on yet, his ones from the previous day lay discarded down stairs in the living room. At some point during the previous evening they had retired to his bedroom, at his insistence, declaring her room unfit for a dog to live in and he had ignored her curt comments which followed, asking then for why she had to sleep in it.

Unlike the previous time they had slept together, he had sobered up somewhat by the time he had fallen asleep, being fully aware of his actions and finding himself too tired to kick her out of bed and send her downstairs. Now he stood looking at her sleeping in his bed, contemplating how he had found himself in this situation twice now, mulling over individual moments in their history in his mind, wondering what the conscious part of him, when he was drunk, was so drawn to her for.

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Five Months ago….

The sound of loud footsteps in the hallway brought Draco out of the library, where he had taken an occasional moment of solitude to look over some of the rare Dark Arts books which had belonged to his Grandfather. He looked up at the stairs, seeing Blaise coming down them, along with Selwyn from their department. Blaise was pulling his shirt on over his head, the slightly bleary look in his eyes told Draco he had been knocked up out of bed.

Draco tossed the book that had been in his hands onto the closest chair and went out into the hallway and moved towards them. "What's going on? A raid?" He moved his hand towards his cloak, which was hung up, but Selwyn moved and blocked him from reaching it.

"Sorry Malfoy, can't take you on this one."

"What are you talking about?"

"Conflict of interest, can't say more than that, I'm here for Zabini only."

Blaise gave Draco an apologetic shrug and punched him playfully on the shoulder as he left through the front door with Selwyn. Draco stood in disbelief for a few moments, not quite being able to believe what had happened. How could Blaise be picked over him? How could Blaise leave him in on his own while he went out to take part in Merlin knew what? His face fixed into a scowl he stormed into the living room, heading straight for the newly opened bottle of firewhiskey which stood on there. He didn't see Hermione, who had been busying herself by polishing the table, but seeing that he was settling in for a night of drink, she stood up to excuse herself.

"And where do you think you're going Granger?"

She stopped, a little frightened by the tone in his voice. "Just, going to my room."

"No you're fucking not. Sit down, you're drinking with me." That would show Blaise. If Blaise could go off on a raid without him, he would sit and drink with the servant. The petty side of Draco was all too abundant when he was angry, even though he had no intention of ever telling Blaise that he was prepared to share the alcohol, actually, Blaise's favourite vintage, with the servant, it would be one up on him.

"You want me to what?"

"Sit down." He pointed to the seat opposite him and summoned over a glass using his wand. He watched her tentatively sit down, should he change his mind and he poured out a large quantity of firewhiskey into her glass. "Drink…"

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Draco filed the memory to the back of his mind, the night he had sat and drank with Granger he had almost forgotten, she had listened, actually interested, as he ranted about Blaise and brought up every argument they had had in recent times. He wondered if maybe if was the fact that she could be compassionate, even to him, that made her attractive to his drunken self, maybe it was the fact that she listened to him, rather than waited for her turn to speak. Maybe it was just the fact that she was there. Either way, there was something. He moved around and climbed back into the bed, shutting his eyes to contemplate the situation he had found himself in a little more.

Hermione opened her eyes, blinking at the sunlight streaming through the open windows of Draco's bedroom, she looked around the floor, her clothes were still downstairs, but he had a set of clean shirts piled onto the chair near his bed that had been laid out for him. Carefully she hoped out of the bed, moving across to the chair to pick the top one off the pile. "What are you doing, Granger?" She gasped and turned around, trying to cover herself with her arms, looking at Draco who had sat up, pushing his hair back from his face with his hand.

"I was just leaving."

He raised his eyebrow "That's very inconsiderate of you, what if I had the morning horn?" She furrowed her brow nervously, unsure of what to say, clearly embarrassed to be stood there naked in front of him with nothing to cover herself up with aside from her arms. "Relax Granger, I was kidding. Get back in bed, I have a proposition for you."

She raised an eyebrow but did as she was told, carefully climbing back into the bed and pulling the covers back over herself. She laid on her side, looking up at him, he was leaning on his elbow, the covers had fallen down and hung over his waist, covering him up, but just barely. "So…?"

"Let me explain the way things work for me Granger. Currently, if I want a fuck, I owl Pansy, that means I usually have to take her somewhere or make en effort to make sure I've done something nice for her and I have to woo her and convince her to come upstairs and get into bed with me." Hermione had to deeply restrain herself from giggling at him using the word 'woo.' "As your probably aware, it's expected for me to propose marriage to her soon and I won't be able to put her off for much longer. It's alright for Blaise, Tracey's fully aware he'll shag practically anything that moves, but Pansy's not as forgiving, she expects me to do things properly. The thing is, when all I want is a quick fuck, it's not really worth the effort to either try and get Pansy into bed or find someone who won't shoot their mouth off to anyone who'll listen that I fucked them."

"I'm guessing this is where I come in?"

"Exactly. I want someone who doesn't expect me to romance them, someone who'll get into my bed without question and let me do whatever I want." At this point he placed his fingers on her neck and trailed them down her skin, stopping at where the covers covered her over.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"I'm asking. What I want will have to be kept discreet and more importantly kept from Blaise. I only want you to agree to this arrangement if you are willing." He raised his eyebrow slightly. "But you need to know, normally I wouldn't even contemplate putting my cock inside a mudblood, but since my drunken self seems to be drawn to you, I may as well keep sticking it in you than someone else. Keep damage control to a minimum, so to speak."

Hermione contemplated this for a moment, they both had something to gain from the arrangement, he wanted a lover he didn't have to love, she wanted to feel something other than sadness and isolation. She smiled slightly and nodded her head at him, "Fine, but I want one thing."

"What?"

"When we're in bed, don't call me mudblood."

He raised his eyebrow slightly. "I can work with that if that's your one condition."

"So what now then?"

He leaned forward, looping his arm around her waist and pulling her towards him. "Keep in mind, there are no feelings in this."

"Shut up Malfoy, I didn't agree to conversations."

Smirking at her reply, he pushed his mouth onto hers, snaking his tongue inside her mouth. Hermione brought her hand up to the back of his head, digging her fingers into his hair and tugging on it sharply, causing him to groan into her mouth.

Draco pushed her onto her back, pressing his body against hers, she arched her back, pressing her breasts against him. He broke away from her mouth, trailing his tongue down her neck, she moaned loudly as he did so, responding by dragging her nails over his shoulders. He brought his mouth to her breasts, biting and sucking lightly on the soft mounds of flesh, wanting to hear the groans of pleasure escape from her throat. Not because he wanted to please her in bed, so much as he wanted to hear the sounds of any woman being pleased in his bed.

He nudged her legs apart with his knee, positioning himself between her thighs. He slid his hand down her stomach, raising the hairs on her skin as he dabbed his finger against her, testing to see if she was ready before gripping his member and sliding it inside her.

Outside the room, a very loud moan could be heard by Blaise who had his ear pressed to the door and an owl from Pansy in his hand that had come with the morning post. He had been released from St.Mungo's a little early and before reporting to the office to speak about what had happened when he had been taken hostage, he had returned home to get a fresh change of clothing. He had noticed the discarded clothes in the living room and the fact that there was an owl from Pansy made him curious as to who was currently sharing Draco's bed.

Shrugging his shoulders, deciding not to simply burst in yelling; SURPRISE, despite how tempting the thought was, he moved down the corridor to his own room to get changed. He could ask Draco about the girl in his room later.

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Laying next to each other and breathing heavily, Draco and Hermione remained naked in bed, a tangle of sheets surrounded their feet, long discarded in acts performed on one another. Draco looked over at her, beads of sweat had formed on the swell of her breasts, her hair was tangled and spread up the pillow. Hermione turned her head slightly, looking at him in turn, his hair was fallen around his face instead of being slicked back in its usual position, he looked different naked, leaner, but he did have slight definition on his arms and stomach.

She glanced at the clock, raising an eyebrow. "You'll be late, your needed in today aren't you?"

"Enough of the saucy talk Granger." He smirked, getting off the bed. "You better get the clothes from downstairs, get rid of the evidence before Blaise gets back from St.Mungos."

She stood up, stretching her arms up. "I better get a wash afterwards, I smell of sex."

He moved over to her and bent his head, smelling her neck. "Yeah you do a bit." He smirked and went back to dressing while she moved towards the door. "If the house elf sees you and asks why your naked, tell him you needed to wash your clothes and you've only got one set."

"Well that won't be difficult, seeing that it's almost true."

He raised his eyebrow as she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, realising that it was true, all she had were the plain black set of clothes that had been given to her on the first day she had been at the house and an old nightdress from Andromeda's room, which he had unsealed out of curiosity. Making a mental note that it would do no harm to go through the room properly and see if there was anything appropriate that could be taken out of there and given to Hermione. From what he understood, Andromeda Black's room had been boarded up the day she ran away with the muggleborn Ted Tonks and had been left that way ever since, everything inside, remained undisturbed.

Pulling the last of his clothes on, he went down the stairs, seeing that the clothes had already been picked up from the living room and the half empty fire whiskey bottle had been put away. He raised his eyebrows at her efficiency, seeing a pile of letters on the side in the hallway, he thumbed through them, seeing two for himself, one from Pansy, her long loopy handwriting, instantly recognisable, then one from his mother, to which he rolled his eyes, guessing its contents without even having to open it.

He heard a knock at the door, ignoring it since he was fully aware that both Hermione and Obed were up and about and surely one of them would answer it. Hearing the door click open, he ripped open the envelope from Pansy, pulling out the letter, and starting to read it. He could hear a voice clearly from the hallway, "Out of the way mudblood, I am here to see my son."

"He's in the dining room, sir." He heard a loud smack and the sound of something breaking on the stone floor, Draco got up out of his seat, going to see what the commotion was.

"You will speak when I ask you to! Do not forget your place!"

Draco stepped out of the dining room, seeing his father in the hallway with his cane in one hand and his wand drawn, pointed at Hermione who was laying on the floor, looking quite shocked and having crashed into a small table, the lamp which had been sat on it in pieces on the floor. "Father?!"

Lucius turned his head, acknowledging his son. "Draco, you should have your mudblood better trained."

"What are you doing here father?"

"You need to get to the ministry right now. It's Blaise."

Looking suddenly concerned Draco raised his eyebrow. "What about Blaise?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to see this for yourself….."

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Authors Notes:

Dun, dun, dun….. (ominous music)

Oh, just to address a few things brought up, there quite a bit of backstory to be addressed of events which occurred during the year that Hermione has been there. It's all in my head right now, but I will be explaining several things in flashback form. It was just a bit boring to do it all in chronological order.

And to a certain someone who ranted at me for a full ten minutes to attempt to squeeze info out of me about Blaise I must say; you'll have to wait till the next chapter… sorry… hehe