So finally I have another chapter for you! I'm sorry about the late update but this lockdown is doing my head in some days, even despite my loving family around me.

I hope you're all staying safe out there and keeping up the hope for normal days ahead. I know I am.

HBSJ

Chapter 10

It was Sunday and they were all gathered around the pool.

The rest of them had arrived during the day. Pansy, Daphne and Astoria had arrived in a flurry of suitcases and chaotic instructions about special tea blends and dresses in need of dry cleaning. And for some godforsaken reason, the ladies had decided to descend on the pool house. On his place.

Even to Harry, the tension in his usually cheerful house was palpable. They were even outside for fucks sake.

Hermione was reading and ignoring Draco. Draco was trying to read and was very un-covertly watching Hermione. Theo was still eating, he was on his third lunch by now. Blaise was blatantly and unseriously flirting with Daphne. Daphne was trying to make Theo jealous by flirting with Blaise, unsuccessfully. Astoria was painting her nails and talking on the phone. And Pansy… well, she was Pansy.

She sat in the shade, crimson lips pursed at the ridiculousness going on around her. She had a magazine in her hand, probably Tattler or something like it, but she wasn't reading it.

Everyone, except Daphne and Blaise, thought her somewhat heartless. But she wasn't really. She just said things the way she saw them. Without filter.

Harry didn't know why. He should hate her really. Sometimes, she treated him like nothing more than a bug to be squashed.

And yet… He couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

She was wearing a one-piece swimsuit of dark green with white polka dots. He liked it on her. It was the epitome of Pansy. Serious, yet with a surprisingly playful side.

Harry had one seen her act playful twice and he longed for it again. He ached really.

It was stupid. Oh so very stupid, he knew that very well. Lady Pansy freaking Parkinson shouldn't look twice at him. But she did. In fact, she had.

Twice.

But it was stupid. He needed to banish these thoughts. After all, there was a reason that he didn't go out with them anymore. Because it usually led to this.

Him pining for her and her roundly ignoring him.

She turned her face in his direction as he turned on the blender and he did what he usually did. He threw her his jauntiest wickedest grin and she just pursed her lips again in disapproval.

He couldn't help but remember the times that those full lips had been put to much better use than pursed disapproval or spewing the venom that she sometimes did.

Harry grit his teeth and forced the memories from his mind.

It didn't do well to dwell on these things. So, he poured out the strawberry smoothies and added the finishing minty touches.

He topped it all off with his very best smile as he placed the smoothies on the table outside with a flourish and cannonballed into the pool, spraying as many people as he could and laughing as happily as he could muster.

He didn't have much of a care in the world, except perhaps this one.

And his smile was fake as shite. Go fucking figure.

Hermione felt awkward.

She had exchanged a simple hello with Pansy, but Daphne and Astoria had both smiled and given her a hug, strangely enough. Now she was sitting in the shade trying to ignore all of the posh aristocrats around her.

Especially Draco.

She had taken a book from Harry's measly book shelf but it was a short one and almost no matter how slowly she read, it wouldn't even last her a couple of hours. She could choose another one but that would just seem as if she was actively trying to avoid them. Which she was.

They all seemed so comfortable in their own skin. Hermione had never imagined that she would have to be there in front of that entire group of people that she had googled only weeks earlier.

In just a swimsuit. A skimpy one at that.

So she was practically naked in from of an entire group of people she didn't know and some of them she was certain thought rather lowly of her.

It wasn't ideal.

And she tried to ignore them all, especially Draco.

His very proximity electrified every inch of her skin and she was too aware of him. Of his every move and his tone of voice. It was horrifying. And exhilarating. But mostly horrifying.

He was sitting by the next table glancing at her every now and then and she was resolutely reading her book. Well, reading-ish.

She was still plagued violently by her hangover and as interesting as the conversations floating around her was, it all made her feel like a complete outsider. Harry was informing an utterly attentive Astoria what was in the fancy smoothies he'd just made. Theo was mumbling something to Draco and Blaise and they nodding conspiratorially back. Pansy and Daphne who were reading some sort of magazine, seemingly discussing every facet of every article in it.

She'd caught Pansy and Daphne eying her more than once and Pansy's lips curled in disgust every now and then. Hermione was sure her face was burning from the sheer mortification.

Harry was his usual happy self and even he seemed oblivious to her misery. Could she possibly just excuse herself at go to her house? Luna would probably be there and she could relax into the sofa in the sitting room in her pyjamas.

Maybe she could claim a headache? She really did have one. But that would probably result in another dunking in the pool by Harry. Not her preferred outcome.

She looked around, considering to just sneak away, only to meet Draco's eyes instantly. So much for that idea.

Perhaps she should just stand up and say goodbye, which would be the easiest option by far. Lord, she longed for her sofa. Or even her plush bed and drawn curtains.

She sighed quietly.

Her list of pros and cons of each decision wasn't long but she made them mentally anyway and she arrived at the same conclusion. A public departure was the sensible thing to do.

She began gathering up her things into that little beaded bag her brother had given her years ago. It wasn't fashionable but it was practical, it was the perfect size for her wallet, phone and keys and it reminded her of Will.

And then he was there.

Right there.

"Are you leaving already Granger?" She swallowed and refused to look up. What that voice did to her should be criminal.

"Yes well, I have to be ready for tomorrow after all." She modulated her tone to sound indifferent. Which, judging by the rampant beating of her heart, she very much wasn't.

He frowned slightly, an expression she suddenly found adorable on him.

She blinked. Adorable? Bad Hermione!

Then his expression changed to playful. "I happen to know your instructor, you know. I could tell him to go easy."

She stiffened. She hadn't travelled here for him to go easy on her. And he seemed utterly oblivious to the sudden change in her demeanour.

She clenched her teeth before snapping. "No thank you. I much prefer the training to be as effective as possible." She stood and her smile was strained but she couldn't help it. She was pissed. "I'll see you tomorrow morning in the stables."

And then she marched away from all of them, letting her fury lead the way.

Draco was bewildered.

What the hell had he done that would warrant such a reaction?

He watched her walking away from him again, feeling utterly mystified.

Across the pool, Daphne was glaring at him. "What did you do?"

He rolled his eyes. As if she fucking gave a damn. "Really?"

Daphne stood in her skimpy bikini and marched around the pool on bare feet and her long dark-blonde hair waving behind her. Theo's eyes glazed over but Draco just watched her with exasperation.

She stopped right in front of him and crossed her arms over her impressive chest. Theo was practically panting at this point and Blaise was watching the entire exchange with unconcealed interest.

She cocked her head and almost hissed at him. "Hermione Granger is unused to your idiotic antics Draco. Don't raise her hopes to something you can't or won't give her." He began to interrupt but she shushed him and continued. "Oh no, you don't. Treat her with respect. She is your guest and she is different from the rest of us. She didn't grow up the same way we did and she'll want love."

He ground his teeth, uncomfortable with her words. "Why do you care? You've never cared about any of the people who have been through my training before."

She rolled her eyes. "Two reasons. They were all men and you were never interested in them before. None of them have ever hung out with us."

"You know what Daph, it's none of your business." Draco almost growled at her.

"You are making it our business when you're so obvious about her." Her glare made her point hit home.

So much for taking care and being less transparent. Fuck. Now everyone of his friends had decided to meddle. Except Pansy, thank fuck for the small things.

Draco had a retort ready when Blaise cut in. "We're actually working on that."

They both swivelled towards him and Daphne asked sarcastically, "And how is that going?"

Blaise simply shrugged, indifferent to her mood. "We could always use a bit more help. No plans are perfect."

And then Pansy joined in the fun. "You'd never convince them. Especially the duke." She was walking around the pool, flaunting her gorgeous body but he was blind to her charms. He was too infuriated. And of course, she wasn't who he was interested in.

At this, Harry jumped in too and Draco felt like growling at all of them. The bastards.

"Perceptive." Harry said in a low voice to Pansy, and she nodded, acknowledging his compliment. "You're right of course, they would never accept Draco so much as even casually dating her." He shrugged. "But then again, I'm not sure if she's actually interested in dating Draco."

At this insult, everyone around him snorted with laughter. The fucking bastards. He was just about to tear them all a new one when a strange voice interrupted them all.

"Uhm, excuse me."

They all turned to the newcomer. It was a member of his staff, he recognized the uniform. "Yes, what is it?" He was probably too curt but it just couldn't be helped. What a bunch of twats he was friends with, the fact that they were trying to help was irrelevant at this current time.

The slight woman with the silvery blonde hair was gazing at each of them in turn with a sense of supreme indifference he had only ever encountered in royalty before. Who was this person? "Harry, Hermione seems to have forgotten her phone here. Could you help me find it?"

Harry just shrugged. "Sure." They began to search silently while Theo and Blaise were shaking with mirth across the table from him.

For some god-forsaken reason, the laughter seemed to spread like a cancer, and soon everyone was grinning, even Pansy. The silvery blonde ignored them completely and when she found the phone, she just looked at them with absolutely no reaction and left.

Draco stared at the strange girl, completely non-plussed. Who was she? Of course, he didn't know everyone of their staff but she seemed like someone he would have remembered.

Only it seemed as if his puzzled expression only added to the giggles of everyone around him and sure enough, within seconds it all erupted into full-blown laughter.

At his expense.

The bastards.

By the next morning, Hermione was still angry.

She wasn't upset. No, she definitely wasn't upset at all. She was just… perturbed. Yes, that was it. Perturbed and angry had the right ring to it.

And maybe a bit of wounded pride too.

Also, she was flattered. She shouldn't be. She definitely shouldn't be. But she was. But she really wanted to be here.

She was here to learn the spectacular game of polo and not to moon over Draco, no matter how gorgeous a man he was (especially with his shirt off) or how attentive and sweet he'd been when they were swimming that afternoon.

It was almost too much. He seemed too perfect. Which made her suspicious. But also, it turned her to mush inside. An unfortunate combination.

The night before, she had spent no less than two hours searching for new secret doors in the Dowager House but to no avail.

Luna was entirely unhelpful, as she only knew of the one she used every day. Well, unhelpful didn't describe what Luna done for her that Sunday. She had gone back to Harry's to find her phone, made her a deliciously fresh Mediterranean dinner, made certain she drank plenty of water and had even suggested that she began her search for the secret doors when she couldn't sit still any longer.

Her thoughts about Draco, about the secret doors, about Draco's friends and the deep-seeded dread of what would happen when Ginny finally arrived was clouding the real purpose as to why she had come to Dartmoor in the first place.

So, she decided to focus on her training and let everything else fall to the background.

She marched to the stables that morning with renewed vigour and when Draco arrived, she only answered in yes or no or the occasional nod. It was brilliant and she was so good at keeping to her resolution but it was disturbing just how much Draco's likewise indifference grated on her.

He seemed utterly imperturbable and just went through the motions of getting their ponies ready with the grooms. And just because she had decided that she should ignore him, she was unnerved by him seemingly having made the exact same decision about her.

She grit her teeth hard and tried desperately to banish such treacherous thoughts. She was a strong independent woman who did not need a man's attention or approval.

Of course she was.

She was.

Damn it.

They were hard at work outside. The sun was shining as it was a rare beautiful day of spring and they had been at it for hours. Well, she had mostly been at it and he had been shouting instructions from his place on the fence.

It was almost lunch and he was starving for both food and for her. Because of course he was watching her.

For some god-forsaken reason he was always watching her.

She sat there on her gorgeous grey stallion and Draco wanted to groan. Every time she rode that pony, his cock twitched. Not too much but it was enough. And this was a problem in the scale of things, seeing as she was supposed to ride a pony every day for today, the rest of the week and the following six weeks. To say it was a problem was probably the understatement of the year.

In the stables, it hadn't been that bad because he'd been able to focus on her mallet but now, out here, he was forced to watch her as a whole to ensure that no harm came to her or her pony.

And he was watching all of her indeed.

She was trotting out near the fence and he was utterly mesmerized by her movements. It was the way she held herself in the saddle, perfectly balanced and poised. As if she'd been born in a saddle.

She was posting the trot and he couldn't have looked away even if he tried. She looked so incredibly sexy that he was having a hard time concentrating on the lesson. Which was to control the mallet at speed on a moving pony.

It was an exquisite kind of torture watching her riding as his mind just couldn't help by go straight to the gutter. And yet he had to focus. He was the teacher after all. For fucks sake.

There were definite advantages to being outside because her luscious hair had come out from the elastic band and it was streaming behind her, flying whichever way the wind took it.

Being outside however, also meant that they had a first class seat to the arrival of "the Ruckus".

Because "the Ruckus" was the only way to describe the deafening noise of something rather large and fire engine red coming ever closer.

A battered old truck came rumbling up the driveway towards the stables. It carried rather a lot on its truck bed. Some of the suitcases were tied up somewhat precariously.

It came closer and Draco could do nothing but just watch agape as it approached.

The brakes screeched the truck to a halt just where Draco sat on the fence and Granger ambled over on her pony, obviously trying very hard to hold back a grin.

The problem was, that her solution to her grin was biting her lower lips incessantly, with made Draco's body, especially the lower half, stand to attention instantly. He tampered that down. Well, he tried to anyway.

Three people jumped out of the truck and Draco blinked a couple of times, he was seeing rather a lot of red all of sudden. Someone who Draco surmised was Ginny Weasley hopped down along with two men, identical twins.

The twins weren't shy it seemed. They ignored his shocked expression completely and walked confidently over to him. "Hi there. Are you the git who runs this joint?"

Draco blinked again. "Err, yes?" He had no idea what else to say. What did anyone say to that?

They each nodded once and proceeded to ignore him as they turned to Granger. Their sister however, was eying him furtively. "'Mione! You're looking smart up there! And who is this beauty?"

"Hi Fred, George, this one-" She patted her pony on the neck. "-is Pepper."

Showing twin grins, they patted the pony too but Draco couldn't take it. "Excuse me, but who are you again?"

One of them spoke. "Well I'm George, this is Fred and we're twins, in case you can't tell." He winked. "And this one here is our youngest sister Ginny. She's our only sister actually." They looked at each other, as if realizing that for the very first time. The other one shrugged as if it didn't matter much.

The youngest Weasley scowled at them but Fred just said, "Take that scowl off you face missy or Charlie will take you to work with the animals at the zoo to cheer you up." She blanched.

"One of our brothers." The other one provided, ignoring their sister's shocked expression soundly. "Works with the largest animals at the zoo."

Draco paled and his eyes widened. "Good Lord, how many of you are there?"

Both twins just grinned and the other one, George perhaps, replied. "Seven in all. Though we could have done without our youngest brother."

Fred nodded knowingly and said in a boring tone, "He's a nuisance every day of the week."

George continued. "Always moping around after this one." He jerked his head in the general direction of Granger.

Draco frowned but they spoke on, utterly undaunted by his foreboding expression that announcement had brought on.

"So you see, both of our youngest siblings are absolute morons in our opinion."

Their sister tore her gaze from him and glared indignantly at her brothers. "Oi, I'm standing right here, you gits!"

The twins turned to her. "Right." One of them said. He'd lost track of which one it was.

"So you are." The other one said.

It was unnerving, the way they spoke. It was as if they were one person and yet, they weren't. Very strange. Draco was watching the exchange as if it was a tennis match, his attention bounding from one to the other.

The Weasley girl looked about to explode, so he decided to cut off the sibling squabble before it escalated. "It's almost time for lunch. Would you care to join us?"

Despite himself, he found that he liked the twins.

"Yes!" This from the Weasley girl, who had been awfully quiet during most of the confusing conversation, but she had eyed him throughout. She darted forward and grabbed his arm with a nauseatingly doting expression. "Please, show the way my lord." That syrupy, sugarysweet voice had been used on him by so many women for years and he loathed it.

He untangled himself without further ado. "Excuse me while I just help Granger with her mallet." His tone was stone cold but he just couldn't help it. With that simple sentence, she had triggered his survival instincts to run for the fucking hills.

He called for one of the three grooms who had been watching the entire exchange with barely disguised humour. "Show the three Weasley's to the stable lunch. I'll help Granger. Get the stall ready for Pepper."

Hermione had been battling with herself to keep her snicker at bay. The only thing that helped was biting her lips. And it didn't help much at that either because she just couldn't seem to stop the slight snorts escaping her.

Draco's face when facing Ginny, Fred and George was the funniest thing she had seen. Ever.

It was absolutely hilarious the way that the twins had just steamrolled the confident Draco Malfoy completely. And then Ginny had sent him running away from her.

She was still grinning as he was walking over to her and she just couldn't help herself. "You don't have to help me you know."

He smirked, the confidence was restoring within him. "I'm sure there's something I can do for you."

He opened the gate to the fold and she followed on Pepper at a leisurely pace as he led the way to the stables. Usually, when she mounted her dismounted her ponies, she would use a small mounting block to step up. After all, it wasn't her fault that she was short and the ponies were huge.

This time however, Draco came up to the pony to help her. She swung her leg over and felt his large hands encircle her waist as she was dismounting.

And time seemed to grind to a halt.

Her breath caught in her throat as he ever so slowly lifted her down from Pepper. She faced away from him but she could feel everywhere their bodies were connected. Her waist, her back to his front and then his head right next to her.

His breathing was just as uneven as hers and her heart was pounding frantically in her chest.

She couldn't move an inch. They both seemed frozen in time and they just stood there, her back to his front and his hands still on her waist.

She didn't want to move.

Draco's head lowered slowly to nuzzle her ever so slightly just below her ear and she shivered in pure pleasure. This man did wondrous things to her.

A theatrically loud cough made them jump apart and she couldn't help but feel bereft of him. Of the feel of him, of his heat.

It was Harry. He was walking towards them, eyes solely on Pepper. "How are you my handsome boy, did they ignore you? He petted his neck and pulled him towards the waiting grooms. Harry winked at them both. "I think Fred, George and Ginny are waiting for you two."

And then he left, leaving the two of them to their awkward silence.

He cleared his throat. "Right. Let's go then." And just like that, it was as if it had never happened. He was walking away as if something mind-blowing didn't matter to him.

But it had and Hermione's heart was still beating like crazy.

He made her feel both wondrous and downright confusing things.

Please let me know what you think!

To make this more fun, here's two more fun facts about me: I used to live in England, just south of Manchester outside a small picturesque village. And I used to take karate lessons for a year when I was a kid. I got the yellow belt and I can't remember any of it anymore… Oh well.

And thank you for your comments, fave's and follows! You guys are amazing!

HBSJ