The Kindling Fire Between Us

Hermione ran to her room, slammed the door behind her, and fell on her bed, shutting her eyes tightly and inhaling the warm air that filled her bedroom.

\' Oh, how very melodramatic, Hermione.

Just shut up, okay? I\'m sure I\'m going to be ostracized by my two best friends, needless to say I don\'t need my own brain to join in on the fun.\'

Hermione opened her eyes slowly, wishing that the day had never happened. Wishing she still lived her naive little world. Wishing she and everyone else had never been stricken with that irreversible curse, otherwise known as puberty. If it weren\'t for puberty, Harry would have never felt the urge to shag that girl and stupidly act upon it. If it wasn\'t for puberty she\'d still have her two best friends. If it wasn\'t for puberty she wouldn\'t have the perpetual need for Draco to fuck her senseless.

Hermione groaned and rolled over onto sto stomach, starring blankly out her window.

She didn\'t feel bad for slapping Harry, she just wondered why she let it affect her to such an extent. Of course she was mad he had done it without telling her and when confronted, acted as if it was no big deal, but she felt like there was a deeper meaning to her madness.

\' Maybe I\'m mad that he got some and I haven\'t gotten any.\'

Hermione put her feet on the carpeted floor beneath her bed and stood up, steadying herself. She looked around her room, searching for something that might act as a completely non-work inducing form of entertainment. But all she saw was books, clothes, quills, paper, her trunk...Hermione\'s eyes stayed focused on her trunk and an idea popped into her mind. A completely mindless, entertaining idea.

She made her way to the dark, beautiful chest and opened it cautiously, as if she were opening Pandora\'s box itself. Once uncovered, she searched its contents, throwing out a few forgotten parchments. After a couple minutes of dedicated scavenging she found exactly what would take her mind off of everything that was going on.

The bottle of vodka. ( a/n: remember chapter 4?)

Once in hand, Hermione walked down to the common room, starring at the bottle with its clear, intoxicating contents. She sat on the couch facing a roaring fire, not even bothering to make sure anyone was there. She knew Draco would be out all night. She heard him leave with some girl that obviously wasn\'t on the bright side, considering her speech was made up of mainly giggles and \"Oh, Draco\'s\".

Hermione looked at the bottle once more, then twisted off the cap. She peered into the top and inspected the contents more thoroughly. Her parents had always told her to just say no. To not give in to peer pressure. Hermione couldn\'t help but laugh. No one but herself was there, coaxing her on. She lifted the bottle. She felt its cold rim press against her lips. She closed her eyes and leaned back, waiting for that first taste.

But it never came.

Right before she was about to get herself piss drunk she heard the door open and in fear that it was Professor McGonagall, she threw it into the fire. But of course, this wasn\'t too smart, considering vodka is highly flammable. The fire grew quickly, tempting to escape its boundary that was the fireplace.

\" What the hell did you do, Granger?!\"

Hermione turned her head to see Draco, fully donned in evening wear, hair sexily messed up.

\' Goddamn. Even in a moment when my life is in utter danger, I can\'t keep him off my mind.\'

But before Hermione could continue her little drool-fest, she became increasingly aware of the ever-growing fire that was threatening to consume all the common room. Running to the bathroom she grabbed a cup, filled it to the brim, ran back and tried to douse the fire. Unfortunately, it only helped in extinguishing a small part of the carpet.

\" Nice Granger, I would applaud your ingenious if it wasn\'t for the fact that you seem to have set the common room ablaze!!\"

\" Well if you\'re so damn smart, why don\'t you douse this fire yourself!\" Hermione looked at him expectantly, hands at her hips. Considering his back round, Draco rarely had to deal with untamable fires. They both starred at each other, waiting for the other to react until a sudden burst of flames brought their attentions back to the problem at hand.

They both hurried to the bathroom, filled whatever they could with water, then ran back to the fire, managing to put out a flame or two. After about half an hour of this, the fire was out and they both sat down, completely exhausted and somewhat irritated.

\" Not that I care anyway, but what induced you to try to completely burn down our common room?\" Draco asked, loosening his evening tie.

\" Not that I want to tell you anyway, but in the mood I\'m in, I think I\'ll just enlighten you with the day\'s occurrences that led up to the pitiful state I\'m in. Well, if you don\'t already know, Harry fucked someone. And he didn\'t even bother to tell me. The only reason why I found out was because of a random conversation I happened to eavesdrop upon taken place between some 7th year gits that couldn\'t even remember my name. After finding that out, I was a little upset and I happened to run into Harry. I ended up slapping him, then ran to my room. In a clear mistake in judgment I decided I wanted to get myself drunk with a bottle of vodka. But, thanks to the merciless god of incredible timing, you walked in just as I was about to drown myself in that forgiving, liver-killing liquid and, being the jumpy person I am, threw the damn thing into the fire. And well, here I am, unloading all my problems upon someone who actually started this train of misfortunes,\" Hermione gingerly kicked off her shoes and untucked her ash covered shirt.

\" Oh, and how exactly did I do that?\"

\" Malfoy, please, you know exactly what you did. But at the risk of having to play a time consuming game of \'let\'s pretend I have no idea what I did and march in a round of utterly stupid questions\', I\'ll give you a clue. Do the words tongue and quill ring a bell?\"

A sly, sexy smile spread across Draco\'s face. Apparently, he knew exactly what Hermione was talking about.

\" Oh, and I thought you liked that, Granger,\" One of Draco\'s eyebrows arched up seductively. He moved closer and leaned in, his hot breath against her ear. He softly placed his hand on her knee. Hermione knew this teasing would not help with her sexual frustration.

\" I thought it turned you on. Don\'t deny it. I know you\'ve been thinking about me all day, everything I could do to you with my tongue. All the places I could lick you. Do you want me to lick you, Granger? Do you want me to lick the place you\'ve been dying for me to touch ever since the train ride?\" Draco\'s hand wandered higher up her skirt, his middle finger drawing lazy circles on the soft flesh of her thigh.

Hermione let out a shaky breath.

\' Damn hormones!!!\' Her mind was screaming, but her body definitely did not feel the same way. She was reacting to his every touch, even though she knew she was only digging herself a deeper grave.

\" Tell me, Granger.\" Draco\'s teeth were now nipping at her earlobe. \" Tell me what you want me to do to you,\" He moved down, licking her neck then blowing cold breath upon it.

Hermione could feel all her wants and needs pressuring her to just answer. To just tell him everything she had been imagining these past weeks. To just let him take control and ride her until dawn. She opened her mouth to answer...

When a sudden, loud, incredibly annoying, high-pitched voice rang out from behind the door.

\"Draco!!\"

(Oh, how the god of incredible timing works his magic yet again.)