Sup! Um, I hate this chapter. It's short, boring and more of a bridge to the next, more exciting chapter. However, I feel it had to be done. Some interesting stuff does happen, but the next is much more amazing. Thanks to all who reviewed and I know I didn't send out a sneak-peak, but the internet at my new house is non-existent and I'm posting this at the library. Hopefully BT will get their stuff together in time for the next chapter! I've also gone back and re-edited the first two chapters; it's just some minor stuff that makes it a tiny bit better. I aim to re-edit all of them. Anyways, please review, I hope you enjoy this delightful chapter and on with the story!
PS: I own nothing apart from the plot and things get a tiny bit steamy in this chapter. Not that I hear you guys complaining! I swear you're only here for the Dramione action…
Hermione plonked down on the sofa next to Draco having just waved goodbye to Ginny. Blaise was still outside professing his undying love for Ginny and Hermione listened to him, sighing deeply.
"I'm going to really miss her." She said.
"I know," Draco replied, "but I can't say that I will!"
Hermione snorted and elbowed him lightly in the stomach. He pretended to double over in pain and looked at her with mock-wide eyes, "You nearly killed me!"
She giggled and flicked away a piece of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes, her fingertips lingering slightly over his forehead. His beautiful grey eyes darkened and he instantly had her pinned underneath him on the sofa.
As his lips crashed down onto hers, all worries that they might be caught by Blaise were pushed to the side. Draco was an extremely good kisser and his talented lips had a magical effect of wiping away all of her concerns.
Not that she had much experience kissing him; this was only their fourth kiss. The first was at the party, the second in the library and the third a stolen moment behind a pillar whilst Blaise wasn't looking. One thing they had both made quite clear was that they both didn't feel quite ready to share their new relationship just yet.
Obviously this didn't include Ginny, and Hermione wanted to make sure that she was far away from the hormonal red-head when that came to light. Hermione had told Draco that it was his decision whether or not they told Blaise and Draco had made it clear that he wanted to tell him rather than him catching them.
In light of this thought, Hermione just managed to shove Draco off of her when Blaise came in, mournfully dragging his feet behind him.
"You look like a lost puppy, mate." Draco sniggered, surreptitiously running a hand through his hair to remove evidence of tousling.
Blaise, however, looked so sorrowful that Hermione reckoned he wouldn't have noticed Lucius in pigtails; whilst flower-arranging in a French-maid's outfit and red stilettos.
"I miss her so much!" Blaise wailed dramatically, flinging himself down on the sofa opposite.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Why don't you just text her?"
Scowling Blaise chucked his phone at her, "The bloody thing doesn't work!"
"Fine, I'll text her." Hermione muttered. I think she's far away enough now that I can tell her about myself and Draco now…
Taking a deep breath, Hermione sent the text 'He kissed me again earlier' to Ginny. Barely a moment later, she got a reply.
'What the hell? Why didn't you tell me instantly?'
Hermione winced slightly; she didn't want to be there to witness Ginny's anger first-hand.
'Because I knew you would react like this.'
'Damn right, tell me exactly what happened!'
Hermione sighed and decided to keep it short and sweet, 'He cornered me in the library, said he wanted to stop denying his feelings and kissed me.'
'Bloody hell.' was her reply. Hermione giggled and shook her head.
"What're you giggling about?" asked Blaise, still moping.
"Just a text conversation with Ginny."
"Tell her I miss her, would you?"
Hermione nodded and sent the text, 'I know right. By the way, Blaise misses you already. He's moping on a sofa.'
'Tell him I love him and if he wants it to stay that way, he'll text me. I know he's allergic to his phone, but I take priority.'
Hermione snorted, 'He can't turn it on.'
"Her fiery attitude, sweet nature, beautiful red hair…" Blaise moaned, sniffing pathetically. Draco looked at him, clearly unimpressed.
"Come on, mate! Anyone could rock the carrot-top look. However I didn't get a chance to ask her where she got her hair-dye from."
Hermione grinned evilly before sending another text to Ginny, 'Draco wants to know where you get your hair-dye, he says he might try the 'carrot-top' look.'
'Tell him it's from the same place he got his vampire-skin foundation.' came the reply.
"She got her hair-dye from the same place you got you vampire-skin foundation, Draco." Hermione giggled.
"Tell her to fuck off." He replied, and she did.
'That means I won.' Ginny texted back.
Chuckling, Hermione relayed the message to Draco. He scowled and was in the middle of cussing when another text from Ginny popped up, 'Got to go, tell Blaise I love him and tell Draco that the carrot-top look would suit him'
Hermione smiled and turned to Blaise, "She says she loves you, oh and that Draco would look good as a ginger."
"I love her too."
"Fuck off!"
Sending a glare at Draco, Hermione sent her final text. 'Blaise says he loves you and Draco says fuck off. Again.'
Smiling at her phone, Hermione tried not to dwell on the fact that she would not see her best friend again for some while. However, Blaise seemed to be dwelling on it far too much as he was sighing and had started to pace about the room, muttering under his breath.
Draco scowled at him and turned to Hermione, "I'm not going to sit here and watch him weep over the ginger, do you want to go to the gym with me?"
Hermione nodded, "Let me just get changed and I'll meet you there."
After an hour on the treadmill Hermione's legs were aching in a deliciously familiar way and she stumbled over to the water dispenser, unused to the ground being still. As she drank she heard Draco turn his own machine off and walk over to where she was standing. With his tousled hair and tight T-shirt clinging to his muscles from sweat, he certainly was a sight for sore eyes.
Hermione realised too late that he had noticed her blatantly checking him out and now he was sporting a huge, arrogant grin. Rolling her eyes, she tried to dispel her embarrassment by shoving on his arm lightly and turning around to go over to the rowing machine.
She never made it that far though, Draco had her spun around and pinned against the wall before she could even register what was happening. His lips were against hers once more, his actions rough and wild.
Against her better judgement Hermione moaned and arched into him. This seemed to spur him on as his hands that were previously on her shoulder had gone down to her hips and his thumbs were tracing circles there. His lips left hers and trailed to her jawbone, tracing it with his tongue and sucking lightly on her earlobe.
His hand crept up to just below her breasts and his knee pushed in between her legs, forcing them apart. Hermione was suddenly very aware of something hard poking into her belly.
Gasping slightly, she pushed him off of her and her hand flew to her chest, trying to get her heaving ribcage under control. Draco stumbled backwards slightly and looked at her with hurt in his eyes.
"Draco, I'm sorry but I'm not going to do that with you on our first day together. Especially not against the wall of a gym whilst we are both stinky and sweaty!"
Understanding replaced the hurt in his eyes and he nodded, "Of course, Hermione. I wasn't planning on taking it that far but I have to admit you do drive me slightly crazy!"
Blushing heavily, Hermione offered him a small smile, "I think we should stick to just kissing, already I think we're taking things a bit too fast. Let's just slow down and enjoy this."
Draco nodded again and he grinned at her, "Believe me, I plan to. By the way, it's Sunday so we're having a formal dinner with my parents."
Hermione agreed and went over to the rowing machine, contemplating what had just happened. Obviously, she wasn't planning on doing that with Draco anytime soon but that didn't mean she couldn't kiss him.
She suddenly realised how different the situation was. A few weeks ago, she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't even let herself be friends with Draco and now they were in a relationship? Hermione knew that there was no getting out of it now; she was in way to deep.
Draco laughed and joked with her on the way back to her room, obviously trying to destroy the wall of blatant awkwardness between them. Hermione smiled secretly at his efforts; even if they weren't all that effective. He seemed like the kind of guy who could get laid whenever he felt like it due to his good looks, but Hermione wanted to know more about him first. She didn't want him for his good looks; those were merely a bonus.
He clearly didn't mind all that much that she wouldn't instantly leap into bed with him as he was trying so hard to cover up his mistake. Hermione found that cutely enduring. She gave him a quick peck on the lips before going and changing into a nice purple dress.
Dinner was a delicious buffet of Mediterranean sea-food with white wine and crepes for dessert. After dinner Lucius insisted that they all retire to the library for after-dinner drinks and conversation.
Having been handed a brandy each they all split into smaller groups and quietly talked. Draco was trying to lighten Blaise's mood by talking about football whilst Narcissa read quietly in a chair by the fire. Hermione found herself talking to Lucius.
Even though he was a prominent member of the Slytherins and a high-end drug-lord, Hermione couldn't deny that Lucius made for fine conversation. For the past half hour they had been discussing immigration issues in Britain and a friendly debate had sprung up on whether or not immigration should become illegal.
"I wonder, Miss Rivers, do you play chess?" Lucius asked, gesturing to the fancy chess set sitting on the coffee table, "I happen to be quite a keen player myself and if your chess skills are as good as your debating skills than I fear I might have a rather formidable opponent.
Hermione smiled politely, "I have played a few times, Mr Malfoy, but I do not claim to be an expert."
"Still, would you grant me a game?"
She nodded and moved over to the chess set, placing herself on the side of the white pieces whilst Lucius chose Black. He handed her a piece of paper and a pencil, both expensive looking, and explained, "I believe that one should always record all moves made in the game, it makes for a fascinating study."
Taking the pencil and paper he offered her she looked at him curiously, "Do you pay chess often then? I have only head of professionals noting down all the moves made in the game for later revision."
He grinned, "I am somewhat of an avid player but I am not a professional. I enjoy a game every evening; it helps me to exercise the more strategic, logical part of my brain before I go to sleep. Chess is a battle on a wooden board, Miss Rivers; it is so much more than simply a game."
Hermione nodded and proceeded to play against him. In the end, he won rather easily and Hermione took to bed with her a long list of all the moves that had been made by both of them.
The morning found Hermione staring at the laptop screen, hunched over leaning on her arms, Hermione chewed her lip in confusion. Ron had taught her how to get the password from the previous day and she had done so:
G7G3A4B6
She also had the password for the day before that:
C8A8D3H7
Couple that with the first password they had discovered, D4F5G7B7, and Hermione had discovered enough to be even more confused about the coding behind each new password.
Each time it was seemingly random, perhaps created by a computer. But that just raised the question how did Lucius get the new password safely? No, it was done manually every morning by Lucius himself.
However, Hermione had noticed that there was a distinct pattern. Firstly: it always went letter, number four times. Secondly: the numbers only went up to eight and the letters only went up to H. If the code was completely random, Lucius would use all the letters in the alphabet and multiple different numbers. There was clearly a method behind it and Hermione could feel the answer lurking behind a layer of fog in her mind.
Groaning, Hermione stood and wondered about her room, willing her brain to make the connection. Absentmindedly, she started putting away her outfit from the previous night which she had draped over a chair. As she lifted the dress, a piece of paper floated to the floor.
Picking it up, Hermione saw that it was the list of chess moves from her game with Lucius the previous evening. She crumpled it up and threw it in the bin, she honestly didn't know why Lucius recorded all the moves; it was a waste of time in her opinion.
Suddenly she stopped and turned towards the bin slowly. Taking the paper out and reading it over carefully, Hermione allowed a large grin to spread across her face; she had found the answer.
Lucius had said that he played every evening; that meant that he could change the password every morning based on the game of the previous evening. He would then choose two moves, like G7 to G3 and A4 to B6 to create a new password. That meant that the password for that day was on the sheet of paper somewhere, but Hermione knew she couldn't go through every possible combination.
She would have to play Lucius again that evening, recording the moves made whilst she did it. Then the next day she would discover the current password and see if there was a pattern she could use to finally hack into Lucius' laptop.
Grinning madly, she leapt up and threw some clothes on, rushing down to breakfast. As expected, Lucius was there.
Schooling her features into a mask of normality she sat down at the table and nibbled at some toast.
"Good morning Miss Rivers, I trust you slept well?" Lucius asked.
She smiled at him, "I did thank you sir. Playing a game like chess really does help to relax your brain ready for sleep."
Lucius smirked arrogantly, "I did tell you, I wonder if you would like to play again tonight?"
Hermione smiled serenely, "It would be a pleasure."
Yes, I know it's short, but it's necessary for the next chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and please drop a review for a sneak-peak! If my internet decides to work…;)