AN:

English is not my native language, so it's highly probable that I make mistakes in grammar, that's why some Beta readers are helping me with this chapter: Hodgeheg; Sapphire Leo; Twilight684; .Kitten

The fic is not mine, it is a translation of "Entre las sombras" by madelinegiovani.

I hope you like it.

Hermione Granger is asleep on my chest, barely covered by my jacket. I just made love to her and I know for sure that this has been her first time. I don't understand what has encouraged her to do this in such a direct and free way. None of the reasons that have run through my head are strong enough to be true, and I'm not so arrogant as to think that it was because of my beauty; Hermione wouldn't be swayed by something silly like that.

I'm dying to know why she has done this, but I don't know how to ask her. It also makes me think about what we will do from now on; I'm not stupid and I know that our nonexistent relationship will change-I can't steal her virginity and ignore her the next day. Although this is actually something I have done before, I now find it much more difficult. I have tasted her blood, and to me that is even more important than anything else. I consider her mine...my property. This is going to be harder and stranger than I could have imagined a few months ago when I was preparing to endure a year of classes among humans.

"A penny for your thoughts..." she whispered as she kissed my neck.

"I was trying to figure out why you did this." I decided it was better to tell the truth. "Okay, I can be very convincing but I remember that I didn't even try to convince you of anything. I even think there was even a moment when I did my best to dissuade you from it."

"Draco, don't think about it. I'm afraid it is something very simple and you may feel disappointed by the response." She got up to put my shirt on. "The truth is that long ago I used to think you were very attractive. I guess it's the stupidity that makes women like bad boys and rebels. During that time you dedicated yourself to hating, insulting and humiliating me. When Voldemort was defeated you almost lost part of your charm, but you came back as a vampire-what could be more dangerous than a supernatural predator?

So you saved me from a werewolf, you stopped looking at me as if I was an insect, and you start to flatter me as if I was Miss Universe, then you comfort me as soon as I show an ounce of emotion. Turns out that there are a number of additional factors. None of my classmates have shown the slightest interest in me over the years. I have a feeling that I haven't served for anything other than studying; I have read hundreds of books full of theory and exhaustive explanations of thousands of things that I will never experience...

You can say whatever you want about my beauty, Draco, but Krum is the only one who asked me out, and he only dared to give me two chaste kisses as if I was made of porcelain and I could break or as if I were too strongly emotional and could end up with my head full of theories. You didn't give me a chaste kiss-you really kissed me with strength and passion...as if you really would want to memorize my taste.

I guess you realized that my heart was thrown at that moment. My brain received hundreds of nerve impulses that didn't come from theories but from a totally real experience. You made me feel alive; you reminded me that my blood runs through my veins not only to go back and forth through my body or to keep me alive, but because I am alive... When you said aloud how much you wanted to taste my blood and enjoy my body, I thought it was a magnificent opportunity to set aside the theories. You're like a dream come true for any woman… You're beautiful, experienced, dangerous and the best of all, at the time, you really wanted me. How could I resist all that?"

"Oh..." I looked at her, astonished after the impressive study I had presented. "Did you just come up with that all at once or did you look for excuses while you were asleep?" I smiled. "I appreciate the part where you turn me into a dream for teenagers, but I don't think your life has been as dark as you paint it. You are very beautiful and I'm sure no one has asked you out on a date because of your two stupid friends that accompany you everywhere, and who throw murderous glances to whoever may get near you.

Not that many of your colleagues have enough courage to ask you out. You said it yourself-you dated a famous Quidditch player and you have helped to defeat the most powerful dark wizard in history... How many of your classmates would dare to ask out a woman like you?"

That made me laugh, because the only one that wouldn't have cared about all that, even would have found it challenging, would be me-though I was not going to say anything.

"You are very smart, the best of the class, and all teachers put you as an example... Hermione, you are some kind of model to follow mixed with some guts and courage that are characteristics of a Gryffindor. I can't believe someone like you is in the situation that you tell me. I have a life devoted to study and to save the world, no one has deigned to ask me for a date and I haven't any other choice rather than to sleep with a vampire that is, at the same time, the man I hate the most."

"Draco, do me a favor," she said going up my chest "Will you tell me who this woman is you have described? Because I don't know her, I only know one thing..." she touched my lips with her tongue, "and that is, right now, I don't hate you. Moreover, you seem the least hateful person in the world." She kissed me passionately.

"That woman is you..." I put my arms around her, "Strong, determined, intelligent, and overwhelmingly sensual." I returned the kiss with the same desire.

"I don't think I like to be considered just a brain," she breathed on my lips as my caresses became more urgent.

"I can swear that you aren't only that." I sighed letting myself fall against the couch that served as my support. "I wish I could say I'm not only a beautiful body..." I murmured as I felt her kisses sliding down my chin.

"Wait a minute..." She stopped and took a deep breath. "What is this "just a beautiful body" bit? Do you think I'm with you only and exclusively because you are handsome?" She looked surprised.

"You said it before..."

"No, do not twist my words. You are beautiful, and that is a high incentive to be attracted to you, but you're also smart. You are the only one to come close to me in classes and I think that you showed that you were worthy to obtain responsibilities since the professors named you a prefect. I know you were on the list of options for the Annual Prize.

I guess your only defect is not entirely yours in that you get involved in everything that is related to Voldemort because of your family heritage, and anyway you managed to get off very lightly... I don't think you're just a body..." She pulled away from me.

I sighed wearily. "Hermione, the female half of Slytherin has been in my bed just to get benefits with Voldemort. If they were my lovers then they deserved to be called "sympathetic" to his cause." I snorted remembering those times that seemed so distant now-totally empty nights of all feeling. I was only doing what I was expected to do. "Maybe I should say that more than a henchman of Voldemort I was kind of gigolo," I laughed in disgust.

"I guess I never lost the hope that at some point he'd decide to let out his frustration with some of the many girls who swarmed around him... Snape was the only one who realized how much I despised all that, those relationships that just came to last an entire week. How that always ended provoking me, an urgent need to drown myself in whiskey before accepting the offer of the next girl in line..."

I looked at her with a curious sense of melancholy. "I think I somewhat envy you… You haven't known anything other than the support of your friends; you've been surrounded by them... You haven't been used as something disposable."

"Draco, that's precisely what I complain about. Although they appreciate me, they use me. They don't realize it, but for them I'm just a magic encyclopedia that walks and talks. I envied you because you were smart and you enjoyed everything that was forbidden for me. You were popular, the girls surrounded you, and in addition you practiced a sport. They still surround you."

"Yeah...my life seemed very interesting from the outside." I meditated for a few seconds. "You're telling me that I envied your peace and you envied my popularity?" I asked with a grin.

"It seems so... You wanted to be invisible and I wanted someone to notice that I exist." She started laughing.

"What a pair of arseholes we are!" I cried, laughing with her. "Don't worry, from now on you know that at least I don't see you only as a brain." I involuntarily squinted to see her body shaking with laughter. I took her by the waist and I pulled her towards me. "It will be a pleasure..." I said, my voice hoarse against her mouth.

"And it will be my pleasure to appreciate your intellect..." She kissed me again.

It was dawn when I left her in the hallway near the entrance to the Gryffindor room. She had waited while I went to my refuge to take my clothes, and luckily I didn't meet anyone since it would have been a little awkward to explain why I was running naked through the castle. I just grabbed a pair of trousers because I thought I would put the shirt on, but when I returned I found that she was wearing it and, as I'm much taller than her, the shirt was like a short dress.

What I thought at first was that it was totally seductive to see her with her loose hair falling over her sides while she tried to fasten the buttons in front of her. I couldn't resist the urge to take her again, but I satiated myself with taking her face in my hands and kissing her... she was mine and I felt the need to leave my trace on her in every possible way... I had drank her blood, I had possessed her body, and I didn't want anyone to doubt that I had kissed her lips...

It seemed as if she accepted that when she voluntarily wore my clothes, though I don't know if she noticed that the shirt was embroidered with my initials...

On the way I kept toying with the idea of what would happen when we let the world know what happened between us. I guess that something told me that she would want to keep everything a secret if she really wanted to continue with this, and I don't know why, but that thought bothered me. I guess that after the conversation we had had something of my darkest time hit me as if a dagger had pierced me.

While she was smiling and stuck to my body I figured it was time to speak about it. "Hermione, I think it would be appropriate that we make a few things clear..."

"Yes?" She looked at me with eyes full of sleep... I had kept her awake the whole night...

"When the day breaks you will not see me. I'll stay in my bedroom because there are no classes and for the first time, I do not have to force myself to go out... but I will go out at sunset..."

"Okay. I think that I may also get up later today," she chuckled. "Not as late as you, but later than usual for me."

"I mean that you'll have the whole day to think about what you want to do," I almost groaned.

"Sorry? I'm afraid that my brain cells are falling asleep before me. I don't understand what that means."

"It means that if you don't want your friends to know where you spent the night, all you have to do is leave the shirt in the room during the day. If you do that I will understand that you don't want to repeat what happened."

Her eyes snapped open, astonished and almost frightened. "You don't want...?" she muttered.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't care what the others think. When the course finishes I probably won't see them again for the rest of my life…but you certainly will see them, especially Potter and Weasley. I remember that they are your best friends, right? Have you thought about how they would take that suddenly the innocent, modest and brainy Hermione Granger is dedicated to having a good time with Draco Malfoy at night in the deserted rooms of Hogwarts?"

"I don't care what they think. You can be sure that I will not leave this shirt anywhere," she embraced it, "and if you ignore me, I assure you that I will seek you in your refuge to kick your perfect arse." She started walking down the hall but I quickly intercepted her.

"You don't know how glad I will be if I don't see that shirt in the room... If you're determined to not care about anything... wear it." I kissed her. "I'll follow the scent of the shirt... We'll find out where it takes me in the evening."

At sunset I came out of the stupor in which I had been during the day. Actually it wasn't dark yet, but I've the advantage of being an early riser even as an immortal vampire. I took a shower and got dressed without rushing. I think that a part of me thought that I would find the shirt in the room, so I didn't want to rush. When I left the room I stayed still for a few seconds, searching for the scent of the shirt until I realized that it wasn't inside the castle. I moved among the corridors into the hall and I didn't realize that I would meet someone who would like to entertain me.

"Draco!" Pansy yelled behind me. "Where have you been the whole day?"

"You still haven't invited us to your new bedroom," Blaise joked at her side.

"My bedroom isn't a very pleasant place and there isn't a lot room for parties," I mumbled.

"Come on, it can't be so horrible if you sleep there," Pansy joked.

"Where is your bedroom?" Blaise asked, looking around. "Seriously, I'm curious to know what special arrangements you need after the accident."

"Don't bother me, Blaise. You aren't going to go to my room. Accept it." I groaned. The perfume Pansy was wearing was blunting my nose. I was looking for the faint aroma of the shirt and her perfume would end up causing me a headache. "Now I have to go, sorry."

"But..." I left Pansy with the word left in her mouth.

I didn't lie, I had to leave that saturated atmosphere. Although my body doesn't need to breathe, I need air to speak. Anyway I wanted to concentrate on finding my shirt and to know that it wasn't inside the castle helped a mischievous grin appear on my face.

As I made my way outside the castle the trail became clearer. It took me to the lake and I headed towards it. Soon I saw Hermione sitting against a tree with a book between her legs, though what surprised me was to see that she wasn't alone-her two inseparable friends and the youngest of the Weasleys were with her. As I approached them with a determined step I concentrated in order to hear to what they talked about.

"You gonna say something about that shirt you're wearing?" Weasley asked.

So she was wearing it. Curious…

"I keep wanting to know where the hell she was last night..." said little Ginerva in a nagging voice.

"Leave her alone. She won't tell you anything," Potter said wearily. "Also, you don't have to care about what she does, it's her life and not ours."

"I don't care!" Weasley protested. "She can't spend the night outside the tower and come up with that shirt without us worrying. It's normal that we want to know where she was and who owns that shirt."

Well...that's funny. Hermione apparently never noticed that detail-there is someone that has seen her as more than a brain, though I don't think she will be able to see him as anything other than a friend. Anyway, now she's all mine.

"I think the best thing she can do is behave and say who it is."

"I'm sure that if we insist she will end up telling the truth just to get us to leave her alone," Ginerva thought aloud.

"Sure. You've spent the whole day asking her the same question without a break and she hasn't answered you..."

It was clear that Potter was as intrigued as everyone else, but he had decided that he wouldn't pressure her. Surely he was waiting for the opportune moment to ask her without pressure.

"I'm sure that if you insist for a few more hours she'll end up falling apart. Look how she is shaking," he joked.

Hermione wasn't paying attention to what they were saying, she was concentrating on reading her book slowly, but I realized that she also ran discreet glances to the sunset on the lake; she was trying to calculate the time remaining for me to come out of my refuge.

My smile grew even wider. Apparently she was going to make it clear that she didn't care about what her friends said about our night in the most obvious way possible. When they noticed my presence, they tensed. I saw a trace of understanding on Ginerva's face, yes, she had seen the initials of the shirt and she had identified them as my name.

Potter stared at me blankly, but Weasley immediately stiffened-he was about to jump as if he had a spring in his arse. When she realized that the environment around her had changed, she left the book on the floor. She looked at me and her smile grew on her face. She rose quickly and looked at her friends, who looked shocked and horrified, and she left them speechless when, against all that was usual for her, she ran to meet me.

She was wearing my shirt over a tight top. I could smell her excitement and joy, the smell of the sun in her hair, and I heard her gasp a "thank you" to me, for coming. Watching her run to me was wonderful. That left it even clearer that she would belong to me from the moment she arrived to me...

I took her by the waist and I lifted her up so that her lips were at the same height as mine and immediately our lips met in a passionate kiss, not caring that both Potter and Weasley were watching us, stunned, a few meters away.

"Why have you taken so long?" she asked with a flaming smile on her face.

"I was entertained on the way." I held the laughter that was struggling to get out of my throat.

"What the hell...?" Weasley asked, amazed by what he saw. "Hermione?"

"Leave it to me," I whispered to her while I stood between her and the redhead. "Any problem, Weasley?"

"What have you done to her, snake?!" he growled angrily as he closed his fists.

"None of your business, sorry," I replied with a grin. "Now she's with me..." I added in case there was still a trace of doubt. "Let's go to the dining room, Hermione." I took her hand. "You have to have dinner." I winked at Hermione.

"Wait, I forgot the books."

"It's okay, go, I'll grab them for you." I smiled as innocently as I could.

She looked at me doubtfully. She feared what I could do but she knew I would hold back because nothing would complicate my life more than if I killed or harmed any students, and at the moment they were the safest of the entire castle. Something in her realized that detail and she left quietly.

When I turned around I found Weasley looking angrily at me. I was amused to see that the blood flowed into his face, flushing it... I found it curious that the desire to drink all that blood didn't even appear in me. I ignored his stupidity and walked with calculated tranquility to the tree where he was with Potter and Ginerva. He looked at me with a mixture of fears surfacing in his mind and she looked at me curiously. Yes, she knew exactly what had happened between Hermione and me. She had seen her that morning and as soon as she saw me appear she knew with absolute certainty that the shirt she wore belonged to me.

As I approached them with the slowness that my humanity costume required, I could see that slowly their faces were reflecting the realization that I had changed; I wasn't the usual Draco. Potter's hand went instinctively to his wand and his muscles were tense. In a completely unconscious way he had reacted to me in the right way because I am a predator. She, however, realizes the strange brightness of my skin with the sunset, a skin much whiter than before and at the same time much less fragile. She sees my eyes that don't lose any one of their gestures, my movements are more elegant and totally quiet even in the litter... Yes, her body also ends up concluding that I'm a threat.

When I look at the reactions of Hermione's friends, I start thinking about the strange way she reacts. She isn't afraid of me, she feels safe with me, and runs towards me instead of running away. Probably because of the curiosity that always boils in her mind, the desire of knowledge leading her to try to find out more about vampires, but something tells me it has nothing to do with that. Unfortunately I'm unable to find what really makes her want to be with me and I know that everything that concerns her interests me much more. I want to find out why she has defied everything that has to do with her safety only to be with me.

When I reach the tree where Hermione's things are, I bend down very slowly and carefully pick up everything I know that belongs to her and put it in the bag that carries her scent. I hear the hearts of Potter and Ginerva beating hard, I smell the adrenaline running through their veins, preparing them to jump at the slightest sign of attack. I smile for a few seconds at the idea of scaring them with a sudden movement, but another beat, more distant and quiet, attracts me more. I close the bag and I put it on my shoulder. Poor Hermione probably had to carry everything by herself, and it doesn't seem heavy to me, but I know that it's too heavy for her; I'll have to do something about it.

I return to her with the same slowness as before. Weasley is still between the two of us-he has barely moved an inch. I divert my path a few inches in order to go around him, but he moves again to stand in the middle.

Apparently he wants to try something. Clearly, this poor man is completely blinded by the madness because nobody in their right mind would dare to attack me, regardless of the fact they don't know what I've become. Everyone perceives the uncomfortable feeling that accompanies me because of the shadows...except Hermione.

I saw how Weasley's fist was raised to punch me. I dodged it without any difficulty. I didn't want him to break his hand against my jaw; I'm sure Hermione wouldn't like it. Unfortunately that did nothing but infuriate him and cause him to try to give me another blow. I found myself moving in the midst of his vain attempts to beat me until his own impetus caused him to fall to the ground behind me, and Potter and Ginerva were coming to see if I had hurt their friend.

"You could at least let him hit you once..." Hermione murmured. "That may make him feel better..."

"No," I whispered in her ear. "That would cause him an indescribable pain in his hand..." I knew Weasley was rising on his own and that he was still angry enough to try to attack me again. "He'll want to attack me from the back... Do you want me to move?"

"And if you let him hit you?" she asked with a plea in her eyes.

I just shrugged in response. I knew that he was not going to hurt me and he would not be able to move me even a centimeter.

As soon as he was completely standing he started running towards me. I felt the vibration of his footsteps on the grass and the slight impact of his fist on my back... I heard the cracking of his bones and the scream of pain that followed. He had probably broken his collarbone, and according to the clicks I would guess that it was in three unequal parts.

The look that Hermione gave me was of pure surprise, but with a bit of reproach. I think that it wasn't exactly what she had in mind. I sighed. It's impossible to understand exactly what the mind of a woman wants.

"We'd better go, Hermione," I said aloud.

"But we have to do something for Ron." She went to her friend to try to help.

"Go away!" He rejected her with one hand. I could not resist and I immediately took her by the shoulders and carefully pulled her away from him.

"I didn't do anything to you intentionally. You hurt yourself by hitting my back ... She doesn't deserve your scorn," I said, holding my anger back.

"I don't care!" he roared with a mixture of anger and pain. "I don't want to see you in front of me, dirty traitor!"

My fists closed and I had to restrain myself not to hit him.

"Ron!" the other two exclaimed when they came near him and heard the words he directed to their friend.

"You have allied with the enemy!" he accused her furiously.

"Come on, Draco." Her hand stroked my right fist and I immediately relaxed my hand. "You're right, we'd better go." With a gesture she pulled me away. It wasn't that she had the strength to move me, that was totally out of question, but I knew that she wanted to get out of there fast and I wanted to let her believe that she was the one that was dragging me.

I smelled the salt of her tears and I stopped. We had already moved far enough away so that the screams of Weasleys were just a noise. "A broken collarbone isn't enough punishment for making you cry," I said as I forced her to look at me carefully. "I wish I could make him pay for each of those tears..."

"No, Draco. It was my fault... I told you not to move," she wiped her tears with the back of her hand, "but I didn't think that he was going to break anything..."

"This is what happens when someone charges with full force against a marble wall," I said with a grin.

"A marble wall?" she asked, confused.

"You're very fragile at my side." I stroked her cheeks to wipe away the fresh tears that had fallen. "Last night I had to be extremely careful not to break anything. I'm very proud of myself because I managed that… You don't have a single bruise." I smiled.

"You focused on not hurting me?" she asked, puzzled. "Really?"

"Yes. If I hadn't been careful, you may have had some bruises or even broken bones this morning."

"But...if you had to concentrate so much..." she looked at me with a slight trace of fear "you couldn't enjoy..."

"Hermione...you really don't mind having to wear a cast as long as I enjoy a few fleeting minutes?" I regarded her with a raised eyebrow. I thought that she was considering that option before trying to answer me. "I don't want you to answer that. I enjoyed our meeting and it doesn't require you to become a visitor of the hospital wing so that I can enjoy more. I can control that without having to be constantly thinking about it.

During the summer I had enough time to control my excessive power... I can undo the petals of a rose one by one with one hand while I'm turning a rock into sand with the other. Don't worry about me..." I touched her lips with my thumb, delighting in their softness and warmth. "I like being the one who cares about you." I went down to kiss her gently.

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