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Chapter 9

His black orbs scan the room, resting a bit on Hermione before landing on Draco. "I'm awfully sorry to barge in on this little occasion, but this is important Draco."

Draco smiles at Snape. His anger appears to have suddenly gone but Hermione has a strange feeling she will get to see it after Snape leaves the room. "No problem at all."

"You look better, but not cured yet," Snape notes dryly. It sounds to Hermione as though there might be a tick of concern in his voice, but it is so well hidden so she can't be sure.

"I am," Draco says, a happy smile on his face, looking at Hermione next to him. "But all will be well soon."

Hermione is surprised to see she has unconsciously taken the few steps that were between her and Draco and is now standing beside him. Did he do that? she wonders.

Hermione takes her eyes away from Snape when she feels Draco again brushing in her hair. Couldn't he just stop touching her for a second? she wonders, irritated. But she notices his smile and her heart stops beating. Somehow she forgets everything she had said earlier. He has the most wonderful smile, she thinks. She has never seen that smile in her life and in school most people had wondered if he could smile at all. Today it doesn't seem like he can stop.

His hand slides down her hair until it reaches her hand, entwining them together. This, however, brings Hermione out of the strange hypnoses he had over her. He needs to touch her constantly and it kind of freaks her out. She remembers a part of the passage she'd read this afternoon.

A Veela will feel the need to touch his mate constantly if they weren't together from the beginning.

She will just have to endure his constant grabbing until the Order is here to free her.

"Good to see you are." Snape's voice brings Hermione back to the present. "I am also here considering Sophia."

This gets Hermione's full attention again. She stands up a bit straighter and stops trying to think about what happened a few moments ago and how he did that.

"Yes, I thought you would. Don't worry, Uncle, I know everything I need to know about the ritual later this evening," answers Draco, visibly relaxed around Snape.

This puts Hermione's attention back to Draco. Ritual? Later this evening? What is he talking about? She is here now, isn't she? He will be alright if she is just here. But then she remembers another thing out of the book which she hadn't paid close attention to. Something about the bonding. The nausea she had felt earlier and had dulled was back in full force. She hopes that the bonding or the ritual Malfoy is talking about isn't what she thinks it is.

"You should be, Draco. I taught you that years ago. No, what I am here for is about another problem. The Order is asking, more actually demanding, for my presence. From the message I got, it seems like Hermione Granger has been abducted by Death Eaters. I already went to base but there's no word of her being captured there. So I wondered," Snape drawled in his usual voice.

"Your guesses are never too far away from the truth, are they, Uncle?" Draco says jovially.

Snape's pit black eyes focus on Hermione again. "Strange things. Aren't they Miss Granger, or should I say Miss Naberrie?"

"Strange things indeed. I thought you were loyal to the light side, but apparently Harry is putting too much trust in you. If you had any conscience you would go to the Order right know and tell them I'm here." She can feel Draco's eyes on her, but she refuses to meet his gaze. She knows she will feel guilty if he uses the force of his grey eyes on her. She doesn't really trust what true power he has over her until she fully understands.

"My dear Miss Naberrie. That is, of course, not an option." A smile appears on Snape's face, making him look, if it is possible, more sinister. "Draco is my godson. How can I possibly ever do anything that would hurt him? And I don't even understand how you can think of something that would hurt him this much." The smile is gone at the end of his sentences and now he looks at her with a questioning look. It unnerves her how much it reminds her of her Hogwarts years.

"Sophia still has a bit of difficulty with accepting her faith, Uncle," Draco explains to his uncle. He doesn't like the manner of Snape's voice when he talks to Sophia. "And she still has a lot to learn about Veela's. She can't possibly know." He points his gray stare at his uncle. Snape nods. "I see. Forgive me then, Miss Naberrie."

Something snaps again in Hermione. "Stop calling me a name I can't even remember. I'm still the same person I was a few weeks ago. And though I don't look the same, I'm still Hermione Jean Granger. I will always be." A determined look shines in her bright blue eyes.

"Maybe you were and if so then Hermione Granger will always be a part of you. But you were born Sophia Naberrie and I think you should wear that name with pride. I understand that you still have to get used to it, but the more we use it the more you will. It is your name and we will not call you any other," Draco says, calm and understanding. He's answered some of her unspoken questions, but because of his calmness she is hushed into silence.

She is still looking at him when he turns his attention back to Snape, speaking which so much authority that it surprises her.

"Tell the Order you don't know a thing for now. Tomorrow you tell them she is in the palace of the Dark Lord and the day after that you tell them she has been given to a Death Eater. When they will finally figure out she is here, there will be nothing they can do, because by that time Sophia will have realized that her place is here beside me and on this side of the war."

Snape looks at his godson and smiles. The smile still looks sinister to Hermione and she can't look at it without getting chills so she drops her gaze.

"An excellent idea, Draco. I will leave you now. I assume you have still lots to discuss." Snape bows his head and leaves the room, his robes again billowing behind him.

When the door closes again, Draco turns to Hermione. The angry glint is again visible in his eyes, but it isn't because of what she had said a few seconds ago. It is for what she had said before Snape barged in.

"How did you make me come over to you?" she asks, ignoring his eyes and the uncomfortable feeling because of it.

"When we are bonded I will be able to do a lot more than a simple summoning call," he says taking a stronger hold of her hand.

"Pansy, Blaise. I think Sophia and I will retire for the night. If you wish to stay here you're room is, of course, available."

Blaise looks at Pansy, still in his arm, who nods and then turns back to Draco. "Thanks, mate, I guess we will be staying tonight. If you need anything just give me a call."

Draco nods and leaves the room, thus towing Hermione behind him again. Like she has been towed around the whole day.

Walking through the white hall with the blue carpet, Hermione is beginning to get a bit scared of Draco. The way he is walking, or more marching, the way he isn't even looking behind him to see how he is towing her behind him. It looks like he is about to explode.

"You're mad," is her quiet remark when he opens the door to the bedroom.

He looks at her as if she is kidding. His grey eyes are again that lighter shade that she was unfamiliar with.

Standing inside the bedroom he closes the door with a loud bang, making Hermione give a little jump of fright. Not looking at her he walks, or more marches, into the bathroom, closing that door also with a loud bang.

Hermione stays standing near the door but didn't try to open it. She knows if he finds out that she leaves the room –and knowing he will find her- he will be even more furious. And she knows why he is now furious. She has openly offended and rejected him. Saying she loves Ron more, though not with words, and saying Ron - and even she - is a better wizard than him. She doesn't feel sorry one bit because she should be the one who is furious. Isn't she the one who has been abducted and isn't she the one who just found out she isn't who she thought she is?

Does he really believe she will just accept everything? Her eyes wander around to the bed and her nausea hits her back with full force. What does he expect from her now? The door to the bathroom opens and Draco steps out again, making Hermione focus her eyes back on him.

He just stares at her, standing near the door, as he stands in the doorway to the bathroom. "Of course I'm mad."

Crossing her arms, she straightens her back and looks him in the eye. "You have no right to be mad. I said nothing but the truth."

His eyes flash silver again and anger is visibly written all over his face. Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his noise, he calms himself. When he opens his eyes again, the silver is gone and he takes long strides till he stands before her.

Pushing her against the wall, he leans in. Hermione's breathing staggers and heat creeps up her body. It is unbelievable how he is able to do that to her. In moments like this she really thinks she belongs to Draco and it is only then that she forgets who she is. Or, rather, who she always had thought she was.

His grey eyes look pained and are only a few lengths removed from hers.

"Can you even begin to imagine how much it pains me to hear you say things like that?"

Hermione's eyes fall to his lips, which suddenly seem so smooth and kissable. Shocked by her own thoughts, her eyes shoot back to his. He notices this of course and the heavy sadness is evident in his eyes. He starts to lean in even further, not expecting an answer of her anymore.

Hermione searches frantically for a way out, but it is useless, seeing as Draco is leaning with his hands on the wall next to her head and caging her. On the other hand, a part of her really wants that kiss she knows is coming. It seems like he is purposely leaning in very slowly, as though he is giving her a chance to make up her mind. Hermione closes her eyes when he is almost touching her lips. As light as feathers, his lips touch hers. And Hermione loses every train of thought as she sees the sparks fly behind her closed eyelids.

Draco, noticing no protest from his Sophia, takes the kiss further. Kissing her and lightly nipping on her bottom lip, she opens her mouth further and his tongue enters. Stroking her tongue with his, one of Draco's hands leaves the wall to stroke through her hair, ending up at the back of her head. Holding his hand there, he makes sure she stays close to him.

Hermione's arms seem to have a life of their own, coming up and encircling Draco around the neck, keeping him close to her. Every thought leaves her mind and she now only sees sparks fly.

Draco couldn't be more pleased. This is how life should be, this is what should have been. He is finally home.

The Veela in himself finally calms down. Draco had to fight with it the whole day to keep it under his control. He is afraid of what it might do to Sophia if he lets it slip, even if only for a moment. Like it had done in the sitting room, when she had said that horrible thing. Draco had been glad his godfather entered the room just then. It is only because of that distraction that he had gotten a grip on the Veela in himself.

Hermione breaks herself free from the kiss, breathing in deeply, her eyes still closed and her arms still around his neck. Draco's lips trail down a path from her cheek to her neck, his free hand meanwhile encircling her lower back, pushing her closer to him. He can smell and feel her and that alone is heaven for him until he is able to mark her and bond with her.

She smells like vanilla with a touch of blueberries. The scent that has haunted him in his dreams for years now. He will do everything to keep her happy, because his happiness depends on hers.

While Draco places light kisses on her neck, Hermione seems to come back down to earth. This isn't right, she thinks, panicked. However, she involuntarily gives a slight moan when he kisses a sensitive spot behind her earlobe. It feels so right.

"How do you do that?" she sighs, making Draco lean back a bit to smirk at her.

"It's a gift." Involuntarily she laughs a bit and Draco is already busy kissing her neck again.

"That's not what I meant," she says while pushing him back before encircling her arms around his neck again.

Happy that she isn't pushing him completely away, he lets his hand slide down from her hair to her back, making sure she still stays close. "What do you mean then?"

Her scent is lingering in the air and he can feel how his inner Veela is again pushing to get the upper hand. According to him, this isn't what they are supposed to do. Draco, of course, knows the clock is ticking, but easing Sophia and answering her questions is also a part of his priorities.

"How can you make me feel like that? I hated you and then suddenly it seems like I forget everything except you," she admits, her blue eyes shining with confusion.

"That's our connection as mates, love. The books and theory always dictate that it is the male Veela who will feel lost or will feel the connection. But that is not true. You need me as much as I need you. The only difference is that you can survive without me and I can't without you." His grey orbs beam with love and tenderness.

"And what do you feel when you are with me?" she leans in against him, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes, trying to feel the connection.

A smile graces Draco's features and he stays silent for a few seconds. "It's like the sun shining inside of me when I just feel you near me. When I look at you I can't even begin to describe what I feel. Only knowing you are near me is enough to make me happy, even though the world around us is falling apart. You are like my sunlight, shining everywhere you go." He leans down into her hair and inhales. "Your scent is the only thing on earth that is able to relax me."

Surprised by that admission, she pushes back and looks at him, confusion written all over her face. "My scent?"

Draco laughs at her comic reaction. "Veela's senses are heightened. We can smell, hear and see better. And your scent is the loveliest of them all." Brushing with one hand through her hair and the other on her back to keep her close, he leans in again and whispers before her lips. "Vanilla with a touch of blueberry."

Then he kisses her again. She kisses him back, but reluctantly. Feeling that, he growls and pushes her back, so she hits the wall again, letting his pheromones take control for the second time that evening. She won't stand a chance against it. It is utterly Slytherin of him, but it is his only chance to get what he wants tonight.

AN: Again a great thanks to Sarah Liz B, for being beta of this story. She made a wonderful job again. =)

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