Lust, War and... Love?

Draco and Hermione tiptoed back. Padma and Theo did not seem to notice anything.

“They are supposed to be patrolling!” whispered Hermione.

“Shush…” Draco leaned to her ear. “They’re done with their patrol, Granger. They’re free to do whatever they want!”

The rule-abiding Gryffindor was not relenting. “Then they ought to be in their dorms. How are we going to get past them?”

“You’re a real stickler for rules. Watch.” Draco pulled Hermione after him into a classroom. He lit up his wand, looked around and picked up a shred of a parchment from the floor. In a second he transfigured it into a small stone, poked his head out the door, threw the pebble down the corridor and ducked back. The stone rattled on the floor, and they heard a muffled exclamation. Then the retreating steps resounded in the hallway.

“You’ve spooked them,” chuckled Hermione. Draco grinned.

When they came near the Fat Lady, Draco pulled Hermione closer and kissed her lips lightly like he did after their first night together. She did not resist and it made him feel good.

“Cardamom.” The Fat Lady opened her eyes, yawned and swung forward. Hermione climbed into the portrait hole. Her bulging bag burst open. She looked down and spotted one of her books on the floor right under the closed hole. The same second she heard Draco‘s departing steps. Hermione stuck her head out to check if she had dropped anything outside and saw Draco’s back retreating in the direction exactly opposite to the stairs down to the dungeons. What was he up to?

Hermione abandoned her bag and clambered out of the portrait hole. Her shoes in hand, she stole after him, trying to blend in with the wall. Malfoy turned into the corridor leading to the Astronomy Tower.

Hermione peeked around the corner: Draco was nowhere in sight. The hulk of the Astronomy Tower loomed in the tall windows. Suddenly, Hermione saw something.

A hooded figure on a broom, bathed in the moonlight, slid off a window two floors above the corridor Hermione was in. The person flew over a gable and disappeared. She held her breath for a second, then hurried to the Tower.

She entered the steep stairs in the Tower warily, straining her hearing for any noise, no matter how small. Discerning no sign of a living soul, Hermione tiptoed up the worn-out stone steps. Nobody was present on the second landing, nor did she find anyone on the third landing. She backtracked down the spiral stairs and lit up her wand. A bag sat under the window on the landing. It was unmistakably Malfoy’s. Hermione darted to the window and scanned the view for anyone on a broom nearby. No one was in sight.

Hermione eyed the bag for a moment. Could anything in it provide a cue for Draco’s broomstick ride at night? She tested the window - it was not locked, nor was it sealed by charms. While all the windows were magically locked on the lower floors, they apparently neglected the towers, reasoning that no one would be likely to climb that high.

Hermione dipped her hand into the bag. It seemed to have no bottom. She sensed something that felt like a cauldron and pulled it halfway out. Merlin, how did Malfoy manage to stuff a whole cauldron in his bag? Hermione didn’t extract it all the way fearing that she wouldn’t be able to squeeze the bulky cauldron back. In it she found several bundles of parchments and frantically shuffled through them in the wandlight. Charms and Transfiguration essays, Ancient Runes notes, meaningless doodles, Arithmancy homework… Nothing seemed to offer a clue on the mystery. Then she stumbled upon two pages of parchments that ignited her curiosity. Those were lists of spells that she didn’t recall studying in any of their classes. She read Draco’s sprawling notes next to some incantations - Deep Seal… Shocking Spell - must be careful … If the previous spell doesn’t work, try this…

There were arrows pointing from one spell to another. Could it indicate the sequence of the incantations? What was the purpose of the enchantments? Hermione took a couple of blank parchments from another bundle, copied the notes magically and pocketed the replicas. She pushed the cauldron with the parchments deep into the bag, rummaged in it more, fished out several textbooks, a scarf, a torn wrapper with cookie remnants, a crumpled magazine with a scantily clad witch on the cover, broken quills and an empty butterbeer bottle, scowled at the inordinate amount of waste in Malfoy’s bookbag and shoved everything back into it.

Hermione thought wistfully of Theo and Padma as she hurried back to the portrait hole. Others could have it such a normal way. Talks in the moonlight, romance, courtship… And what did she and Malfoy have? A contract citing sexual positions? Then Hermione recalled their lambada on the bed and her heart fluttered. Now that was confusing…

******

Draco breathed the invigorating night air in. He loved flying on a broomstick high above the ground and enjoyed the commanding view of the moonlit landscape. It gave him a sense of control when his broom obeyed his directives. He reached into his pocket and fingered a cloth pouch. The contents tinkled, and Draco smiled to himself. Things were working out so far. They avoided running into a patrol on the way to the Gryffindor Tower, but an extra precaution would never hurt. If they got arraigned, he could always explain to Snape that he was simply escorting Granger to her House, and the teacher would certainly hush up the whole matter.

Then his mind wandered back to their coition in the Room of Requirement. She was so splendid and he had her completely. Granger was all his, gave all of her to him and he wanted to have her many more times for days to come. Draco remembered her eyes during their parting kiss. He savoured her deference to him and his control over her, the feisty Hermione Granger. Her amber eyes had the same expression as last school year, when he suddenly pushed her up against the wall in the dungeons. He still didn’t understand what came over him in that desolate corridor, but the feel of her body intoxicated him. He was late for his class because he absolutely had to get himself off in a toilet stall after the encounter.

Weeks later in Umbridge’s office Draco ended up next to Granger by the window and saw the same expression in her eyes. His own reaction frightened him and Draco hastily called on Bullstrode to seize Hermione. In a vague hope for something he felt so eager to follow Granger to the Forest… Pansy lost her virginity to Draco the next day. He learned about his father’s arrest on the same day. Draco clenched his jaws at the memory.

He saw the dark mass of the Shrieking Shack below him and steered his broom into a downward spiral. While descending, he concentrated on eliminating every unnecessary thought from his brain. By the time Draco was at the front steps of the Shack, he had blanked his mind out sufficiently. A dark figure broke off from the wall and advanced towards Draco.

“You’re on time tonight, Draco,” he heard the curt tone of his aunt. “Are you going to finish the repairs soon?“

“It’s still a lot of work. I’m going to write Borgin again.”

“You’d better not tarry!” She flung her arm around him, and he felt the familiar sensation of Apparition. Draco wondered what his Auntie had in store for him.

They arrived in what looked like a large and dimly lit warehouse. It seemed empty except for a big pile of old crates and a hooded wizard sitting on a chair. The wizard rose as Bellatrix and Draco materialized in the room.

“This is my nephew, Draco Malfoy. He‘s the other Death Eater in Hogwarts.” Aunt Bella told the stranger, then turned to Draco. “Sebastian Katz, just fresh from Durmstrang.”

Katz took his hood off, and so did Draco. The pudgy man’s small eyes sat deep under his low forehead topped with a boar’s bristle of hair. They shook hands, and Draco wondered why, for Merlin’s sake, he had to meet him.

“Sebastian will be your outside contact Death Eater instead of me,” Bellatrix said haughtily and directed her black eyes at Katz. “I’ve got some very urgent matters to attend to. You’ll have to devise a way to communicate with my nephew - Dumbledore has been freaking about security at Hogwarts lately.” She cackled.

“I’ve already figured it out,” Draco said quickly and produced his cloth pouch. He pulled the strings open and took a couple of shining Galleons from it. “Here - I enchanted them to transmit messages.” His father would be so proud of his clever act, he thought.

Sebastian and Bellatrix examined the coins. She threw a curious look at her nephew.

“I see you’ve mastered the Protean Charm. You are smarter than I thought.” Bellatrix held her Galleon up for Katz. “Did you study this sort of things at Durmstrang?”

Katz mumbled indistinctly. Draco had an urge to scowl at his aunt but kept himself in check.

“Have you practiced the Imperius curse, Draco?”

“Yes, of course.” Draco Imperiused his owl several times a couple of weeks ago just fine. It was something he was quite confident of.

“Excellent, my little boy. Show it to me now,” was his aunt’s command. She muttered an incantation and directed her wand to the pile of crates.

A person scrambled to her feet near the crates. He did not notice her in the poorly lit room at first. It was a rather young woman in ratty clothes, her face contorted with pain and her hair matted.

“Some Muggle girl,” Bellatrix sniggered. “Something for you to show off your spellwork.”

Draco couldn’t take his stare off the captive. It obviously hurt her to walk, and she limped slowly towards them at Bellatrix’s command. Her dark eyes reminded him of Granger‘s and it unnerved him. Hastily, he made an effort to banish Granger’s image from his mind.

“All right, you go first, Draco,” he heard his Auntie’s directive.

Draco raised his wand. Imperio. He had trouble concentrating. The Muggle’s horrified stare was fixed on his face, and he hated it. He couldn’t bring himself against this ragged woman. His spell was not working. “Imperio!” he yelled at the captive, but his mind screamed for an escape out of this nightmare.

“You ought to pay more attention to your spell practice, Draco!” Bellatrix said shrilly. “Hope you are capable of something, Katz!”

Sebastian stepped forth and pointed his wand at the Muggle. Imperio! The prisoner’s face went blank. Katz spat out abrupt commands, and she performed strange contorted movements per his orders.

“They certainly taught you better at Durmstrang, Sebastian,” Bellatrix pronounced her smug verdict. “Draco has had a great idea of Imperiusing a student at Hogwarts to deliver poison to the Headmaster, but is he fit for the job?”

“I’ll be delighted to do it, Bellatrix,” Katz declared sycophantically. He lifted the curse off the Muggle. The latter fell to the floor and began writhing in pain, her screams resonating in the building.

Silencio! Annoyed Bellatrix spewed out her incantation. Draco felt thoroughly sickened but did his best to conceal it. The Muggle fell silent but still convulsed from her pain. His aunt pointed her wand at the captive and a jet of green light hit the Muggle. The woman’s body jerked and straightened, her now calmed face looking upward.

“She was no good anyway,” Aunt Bella scoffed. One more flick of her wand, and a cracked wood plank appeared in the place of the corpse.

“Who would you suggest to Imperiuse? The best candidate would be Harry Potter, right?” Bellatrix sneered at her nephew.

“Potter might be too difficult to use,” Draco spoke cautiously. “He’s guarded closely, I’m certain.”

“Of course, Dumbledore loves him dearly. Besides, a girl would be a bit easier to Imperiuse.” His aunt paused ominously. “How about Hermione Granger? It shouldn’t be so hard for you to get near her, Draco.”

Draco felt like his whole body was drenched in ice water. He fought hard to keep his mind emotionless. “Yes, it’s a great idea, Auntie Bella. I’ll try Granger then.”

“Perfect, my little boy. When is your first Hogsmeade weekend?”

“October twelfth, Auntie Bella.”

“Plenty of time for you both to work it out. Draco could show you the Granger girl in Hogsmeade then, Sebastian.”

“I look forward to serving the Dark Lord,” Katz proclaimed and glanced at his new partner. “Pleasure to meet you, Draco.”

“My pleasure too, Sebastian.” Draco didn’t have much liking for the eager minion, but he knew better to keep his feelings to himself. Business was business and it was what counted.

Draco parted with his aunt after she Apparated him back to the Shrieking Shack. She disappeared soundlessly, and he jumped on his broom. He kicked off the ground madly, and it shot straight up into air. His hood fell off his head and Draco pulled it back on. He took a detour to the Lake. Draco needed something to calm his nerves, and gliding in the air usually soothed him.

Draco gazed at the moonlight reflected in the dark waters. His sickness did not want to release its hold on him, and he struggled not to think about the torture and murder he had just witnessed. He felt the bile rising to his throat and sent his broom into a steep dive. Once on the sandy shore of the lake, he bent over and threw up. He straggled away and sat down, his eyes closed. When the tremors in his body ceased, Draco got back on his broom and soon he was at the window of the Astronomy Tower. Inside, he thrust his broom into his book bag. The Undetectable Extension Charm truly did wonders, he thought distractedly and headed down the stairs.