Chapter 7
Hermione got a note at about 2pm that told her that Draco required her presence immediately. It was a terse note and if it had been a note from someone she cared about, she would have been concerned, but she screwed the note up and tossed it into the fire. She would go, but she would finish her sandwich first. Surely he wasn't bleeding to death.
She floo'd over as soon as she had finished her sandwich, a bit curious to see what the emergency was. When she got there, the house was completely quiet.
"Malfoy." She yelled, when there wasn't anyone in sight.
"In the study." She got as a response.
"No, no, no." She got as she stepped into the study. "What are you wearing?"
"My clothes." She said, annoyed that he made a fuss when he was still in a dressing robe. Silk, of course, loosely tied so it showed a great deal of his chest.
"When have I ever given you the impression that wearing a sack was appropriate." He said. "Have you no dress sense at all?"
"You made it sound like an emergency. I came right away." She said.
"And this is what you wear?"
"I don't walk around MQ in a gown."
"Well, you will always dress appropriately when you come here."
"So which is more appropriate at 2 in the afternoon. This or a gown?" She asked, annoyed at the ridiculous conversation.
"This is never appropriate." He repeated waving his hand at her clothes.
"What's the emergency?" Hermione asked wanting to change the subject.
"I'm fucking horny." He said, still looking at her brown wool dress.
"That doesn't constitute an emergency."
"I never said it was an emergency and yes it does." He said. "I was most upset when you weren't there this morning. I am a ball of twisted nerves and now I need you to spread those lovely legs of yours."
With a wave of his wand, her dress disintegrated.
"Hey." Hermione yelled and tried to cover herself with her hands.
"I think we already discussed that monstrosity. Now obviously we have to discuss the rags you call underwear."
"It's all I have." She said as they disintegrated as well. She tried much harder to cover herself up.
"Now sit on the desk."
Hermione didn't respond. A part of her brain was panicking again. She knew full well that she'd had sex with him before and she was expected to do it again, anytime it pleased him, but it was extremely hard to swallow the idea when it came down to it.
Draco raised an eyebrow at her lack of response. It took Hermione a few more seconds to come to terms with the fact that her choices were still really limited and the best overall outcome would include the route involving putting her tush on the damned desk.
She narrowed her eyes and slowly started to more towards the desk, getting on it while still trying to cover her modesty. It made no sense to still try, but she still did. She sat on the desk, naked, covering her breasts, feeling like a prize twit.
"Spread your legs." He ordered from where he was watching her.
Hermione's teeth were going to break if she clenched them any harder. She moved her legs apart about two centimetres.
"Now that is just not going to do." He said with his most evil of smirks. He started walking towards her. "Do you have any idea what it does to me when you act all virginal?"
He lifted her legs apart and placed himself between them. Hermione could feel what it did to him. He was obviously nude under the dressing robe. The silk of it was sliding against her legs and the pressure of his hands on her hips was demanding that she lay down on the desk.
He played with her legs for a bit, running his finger tip up and down the skin of her inner thighs. His attention was completely on her body now.
"Move your arm." He said when Hermione had kept her arm over her breasts as she lay down. His face seemed to relax as his eyes roamed her body.
Hermione felt disconnected from her body as she watched him. His hands roamed up to her breast and lightly kneaded them. She could feel how hard he was as he pressed against her.
She hadn't really realised how much taller he was than her, but up close, he looked much larger than her. His wrists were thicker, his hands were bigger and the long pale fingers were warmer than the pale skin suggested. The sunlight showed off the muscles of his chest and stomach. Male. She was less surprised this time with his sexuality. She had seen it once before.
He hissed out his breath as he entered her. It took a bit of pressure for him to get all the way in. He was making a humming sound like he had just tasted something that was mindblowingly yummy. He slowly pulled out and she body resisted the movement just like it had on the way in. His eyes had a serene and distant look to them as he started to move in and out of her.
"Sometimes Granger, like is beautiful." He said and started to move a little faster.
Hermione didn't know what to make of the statement. It didn't exactly fit with her sentiments at that particular moment. She wasn't exactly suffering, for which she was grateful, but this was more of an intellectual exercise for her. Like the previous time, she seemed to end up studying him, detached from the actions themselves.
He clearly enjoyed sex, she supposed that every male enjoyed sex, but everyone she had been with had been intensely concerned about how she enjoyed it. Malfoy didn't care and everything he was doing was for his own pleasure and he didn't seem to have any hang ups about it.
By now he had grabbed her by the hips and was pounding into her. His face seemed to swing between a smile and a pained expression and the lost focus completely as he come, crying out as he pounded into her through it.
He was leaning heavily against the desk when he'd finished. Life slowly returned to his face and he had a bit of a bewildered look for a couple of seconds.
She smacked her on the bottom as he pulled out and adjusted his robe.
"Lovely." He said. It was probably the biggest compliment he had ever paid her. It wasn't one she accepted, but she recognised it was one.
"I want you to stay the night when you are here." He said as Hermione sat up. "Instead of leaving me all frustrated and craving."
"I can't." She said. "I have people that depend on me."
"Surely the biddies don't need you in the middle of the night." He said.
"What if something happens? What if there is a fire?" She said. Staying the night with Draco was not something she wanted to do. What they were doing was bad enough. Her expression pretty much told him it was not an option she wanted to consider.
Draco didn't say anything. He ran his tongue over his teeth and seemed to concede.
"I have no clothes." Hermione said. "You destroyed my clothes."
Draco smirked again. "Just the way I like it."
"I am going to freeze my bits off sitting around naked." She snapped. "Surely you have some women's clothes left over. I am pretty certain I am not the only female who has ever been here. I am sure some of them shed some articles of clothing along the way."
"True, but I don't keep souvenirs."
"I can't floo home naked."
"I guess you will just have to stay put then." He teased, but Hermione's murderous expression told of her lack of amusement. "You will just have to wear some of my clothes."
"I will ask one of the girls to take you shopping." He said as he led upstairs. "You seem to need everything and don't think I didn't notice your shoes. What were they made for, plowing fields?"
He was true to his word. Connie was at her door the next day.
"I love shopping." She said with a bright smile. "My favourite activity. Particularly on someone else's account."
"I wouldn't know." Hermione responded. Truthfully the whole shopping thing had never appealed, with the exception of books. But somehow, Hermione didn't believe that the bookstore was on the itinerary today.
Connie led her down Diagon Alley, she had forced Hermione into one of the gowns and they were walking down the street dressed up like Christmas trees.
"Now, gowns first, intimates after, then shoes and accessories." Connie said. "A whole wardrobe he said."
The next two hours were a whirl. Connie made the decisions, Hermione was just the there for trying things on. Hermione didn't exactly see what made one different from another, but apparently some colours just made her pop, whatever that meant.
"Has he given you any more jewellery?" Connie asked.
"Do I need to buy jewellery too?" Hermione said exhausted.
"No silly." Connie laughed. "You really don't know how this works, do you?"
Hermione guessed not as she wasn't sure what Connie was referring to.
"They provide for you." Connie said and pulled Hermione down on one of the benches. "They pay for all your needs. The jewellery is the retirement plan."
"Obviously they don't want to give too much, because then you will run away, but there is also a status thing with giving their mistresses nice jewellery. Which of course should be discreetly encouraged at timely opportunities. It shows off their position and wealth. In that respect, Draco Malfoy is a really good catch. He does like to show off his wealth. There is nothing worse than a stingy pureblood."
Hermione's mind quickly flashed to Ron, but she dismissed it.
"Is that what we are, mistresses?" Hermione asked, hating the label. She had avoided the label issue as much as she could. Being told one made her want to dry retch.
"If this was a court, we would be courtesans." Connie said with her long neck stretch high. "There are basically two ways to play the game." Connie said seriously. "You can either go the wealth route and accumulate enough wealth to retire, or you can find a patron."
"A patron?" Hermione asked. "Like a patron for artists?"
"At a stretch." Connie said with a laugh. "A patron is a man who wants a constant companion. They are usually a bit older, perhaps a widow. Maybe a less ambitious man. Basically they are looking for a substitute to a wife."
"Why wouldn't they just get a wife?" Hermione asked.
"They could, but their choices of potential wives are much more limited. They might not have the prospects to attract young and appealing wife, it is after all the families that accept proposals. Someone may be very attractive to one of us irrespective of what their prospects are. And someone with less than stellar prospects are unlikely to get someone who remotely likely to be fertile, so the choice for them would be a sour old pureblood cow or one of us. And lets face it, the pureblood girls are typically not well blessed in the looks department even at the best of times."
"It all sounds a bit Machiavellian." Hermione said.
"Amongst the Slytherin set is not the place to find a patron, especially not amongst the younger men." Connie continued. "Some prefer the patron route and find happiness there. I prefer wealth, you don't need to depend on the whims of a man when you have cold hard cash. Men can't be depended on for constancy no matter how much they profess their undying devotion. So if you only take one thing from this conversation it is the only rule that counts. Don't fall in love."
"No chance there." Hermione said with a snort.
"Good." Connie said. "Draco Malfoy goes through girls like socks. He doesn't keep a girl for long, so take what you can get before its time to move on. Consider where you want to go next. If you are smart, you decide and make it happen."
I would rather go back to working in the bakery, Hermione thought to herself glumly. This was all a bit more predatory than she was comfortable with.