Complications

Hermione Granger stepped off on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, magically-compacted trunk in one hand, cat-carrying case in the other. She sighed in relief as she soaked in the robe-clad crowd. Sometimes she felt a little home-sick for the wizarding world.

The Hogwarts Express stood proudly on it's track as students and well-wishers bustled to-and-fro. Hermione looked briefly for the Weasleys and Harry, who had stayed with them at the Burrow. She quickly gave up though, realizing that they wouldn't arrive until just before the train left. That was no problem; she enjoyed being a normal student, instead of Brain of the Golden Trio, every once in a while. She decided to go ahead and board.

Draco watched from a window inside the train as she arrived. Oh, he knew who she was. Silly witch managed to get herself on the back cover of Witch Weekly, and as soon as he saw it... So, yes, she was a mudblood. But she was his mudblood that he would protect, love, and shag for the rest of his now-elongated life.

'Well, damn,' he thought to himself ruefully, 'I'm starting to consider "mudblood" an endearment.' He could only imagine what Hermione would think of that.

It also surprised him how much he'd accustomed to being a veela. His birthday had been only a month ago and it was already quite literally second nature to be able to hear and smell things others couldn't. And to consider Hermione Granger his. But he'd never gotten used to not having her there with him, and he hoped he'd never have to.

Concealing the fangs had actually been a fairly simple matter. There was a spell for it that wizard veela had used for centuries. It was a one-time spell that would shrink his canines to a human size unless he let himself relax too much or if he lost control of his veela instincts. That meant that he had fangs when he was asleep and when... He wasn't sure exactly, but it would have something to do with Hermione.

Draco watched Hermione as she wandered across Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters as if for the first time. And in a way it was; it was the first time he'd seen her without the lens of her heritage in front of his eyes. She wasn't particularly tall, but he preferred it like that. And her hair, for once it wasn't bigger than her head. It was still a bit frizzed on the edges, but the rest of her hair fell in waves and curls. It suited her much better than before.

As she drew nearer to the train the wind must have changed or something, because suddenly he caught her scent so strongly. It was just as he'd imagined it, and it affected him more than he expected. He tensed for a moment before he could control the urge to just go to her. To just go to her and put his arms around her and tell her, show her, in no uncertain terms, who she belonged to...

He couldn't do that. Not yet, at least.

He lost sight of her as she entered the train, but her scent only got stronger. He groaned silently to himself and closed his eyes. Who knew how long it would be before this girl knew what she did to him?

Hermione wove through the little groups of fellow students catching up with friends after the long summer. She still had some time to kill before they left for Hogwarts, so she decided to head to a bathroom to change.

The space was cramped, but she managed to get her blue sweater over her head without too much trouble. Getting the jeans off took some artful hopping, though. With a victorious grunt she got them off and pulled out her school uniform and robe.

As she pulled on her skirt she began inexplicably thinking of that presence that sometimes visited her in her sleep. She smiled to herself. She knew that he wasn't actually real, but she liked thinking that he was. He was a pretty remarkable figment of imagination, the way he could invoke feelings in her. No, he'd graduated from 'figment of imagination' to 'superstition'.

He was there nearly every night, making her feel warm and protected and... loved. She frowned, perhaps this was her subconscious telling her that she needed to get a boyfriend.

She straightened the collar of her shirt and left the bathroom. Next on the agenda: find a good, not-too-crowded car to spend the ride in. They didn't let students move around the train too much once they started going. In fact, there was a good chance that she wouldn't end up riding with Ron, Harry, and Ginny. The next best thing: riding where she would be able to enjoy the trip in peace.

With that resolution she started off in the direction of the front of the train. A car with a few scattered seventh year girls, mostly Ravenclaw, looked promising, but she continued on. Three cars after that she opened the door and, for one glorious instant, she was allowed to believe that it was empty.

She started scanning on the right, no one on that side. She felt a tiny spark of hope in her chest. But her scan continued and the spark was unrevivably quenched. Her eyes became locked with Draco Malfoy's.

For a long moment they just looked at each other. Hermione couldn't look away, and didn't even want to. Those eyes were so beautiful and his gaze was so warm.

The moment was shattered when Hermione remembered who it was and the familiar resentment at the sight of him settled in. She started to turn her nose up and continue on, but his voice stopped her.

"Would you like to ride here, Miss Granger?" His voice was smooth and rich and deeper than she remembered.

She faltered for a moment. Yeah, she did want to ride there; it was likely to be the quietest place in the Hogwarts Express. On the other hand, this was Draco Malfoy. While he didn't call names and start arguments the way he did when he was younger, he was still the pratt pureblood. But he had actually offered that she sit there, politely. But who knew why he'd done that. And being around him seemed to be making her somewhat uncomfortable.

At that thought, her innate stubbornness made the decision for her. No way would she be intimidated by the admittedly-handsome Slytherin. She would ride there, and she would enjoy it.

"Don't mind if a do, Mr. Malfoy," she responded with a coolness that impressed herself. She settled herself on a seat on the opposite corner from him and resolutely pretended that he wasn't there.

She reached into her bag and pulled out Most Likely the Potions Textbook You'll Be Using for your Seventh Year at Hogwarts (Check your Booklist). She flipped through the pages and tried to study, but her eyes kept flicking towards Malfoy, who was staring innocently out the window. She stubbornly pressed on even so and waited for the train to start going.

But when it did a minute or so later, she found that it was just more of the same. It was going to be a long ride.

Sitting, alone, in the same car with Hermione was terrible. Not that her presence was bad, far from it. It was the knowledge that she was right there, but she didn't like him, and not doing anything about it that caused his discomfort. He would have cursed himself for offering, but if she wasn't here then she'd be somewhere else. With other people. Yes, this was better than that.

Anyway, it was important that they not start the year off fighting and that she quickly get used to him not being a 'bad-guy' to her. And he knew that he had been the first few years of their acquaintance. He'd been such a little, annoying, idiot of a kid, he recalled with a chuckle.

The sound made Hermione look up from her book for a moment, but she soon looked back. She was curled up in what seemed to be an attempt at being comfortable while studying in the hard seats of the train. She'd be far more comfortable if she was sitting on his lap...

He viciously stamped down on that urge. It was so tempting. That was how the veela urges had started behaving; if I just go sit next to her, everything will be easier. If I just give her a small kiss, the world will be a better place. It was positively Slytherin in its manipulation.

Fortunately, Draco was also Slytherin and he knew how to recognize and (mostly) resist it. But it was draining.

And so the ride went for half an hour.

Over time being around her without getting closer to her became easier, but having no interaction at all got harder. Finally he decided to break the silence. "Did you have a good summer?" That was a safe question, right?

Hermione uncurled and put a bookmark in her textbook before she replied. "Yeah, it was great to live in my own house with my parents again. I started a ballroom dance class, that was fun--" She broke off suddenly and looked down at the floor and he got the feeling that she hadn't meant to say anything to him.

It was so frustrating! Only slightly daunted, he continued, "Yes, that is fun. I haven't had opportunity to dance in a while, but I've always enjoyed it. Perhaps we could share a dance at the Ball this year?"

Oops, wrong turn.

Hermione suddenly stood and put her hands on her hips, glaring at Draco accusatorially. "What is it, Malfoy? What are you trying to get? Some new prank of yours, lure the muggle-born into a false sense of security, then push her in the mud? Trying to find blackmail material? Because you-- Whoa!" Just then the train made an unexpected lurch and Hermione began to topple over.

Before Draco had time to think, he found himself catching her. He brought her upright and against him, his arms around the small of her back. He absent-mindedly heard her squeak, but she wasn't protesting, so he wasn't ready to let go yet.

Tentatively her head came to rest against his shoulder. A content vibration ran through his chest, but other than that he was unwilling to do anything that could ruin the moment. It just felt so incredibly right to be holding her that way. They fit together so well, it was just so good.

A few moments later, Hermione suddenly snapped straight and brought up her hands to press against his chest, trying to back away. "Malfoy, what are you doing? Don't think that you can just grab me and..."

She trailed off as Draco released her, his fingers skimming down her arms and holding her hands for a moment to make sure she was steady. He bent to press a kiss to one of her hands. "I assure you, this is no game, no prank. Please be more careful, Hermione." He nodded to her and turned to walk back to his seat.

It took every ounce of will-power he had to keep his face pointed towards the window instead of looking back at her. But his ears were trained on her and he heard heavy heartbeats as she sank down on her seat. She gave a shaky, near-silent sigh and Draco allowed himself a smirk.

That had been completely unplanned, but all-in-all, he felt that it had gone incredibly well. She had gotten the message, before they even got to Hogwarts, that this year things would be different between her and Draco. And she didn't seem upset, really. In fact, he allowed himself to suspect that she had enjoyed their embrace nearly as much as he had. Mate attraction was not one-sided, though the mates of veela felt it to a lesser degree and in different ways. Chances were that she would dream of this encounter that night, or so the books he'd read had said.

He smiled at the thought.

Hermione didn't know what to do with herself. She couldn't believe that he'd done that, she couldn't believe she'd done that. She couldn't believe anything.

The last fifteen minutes until the train arrived were more difficult than the first half-hour. She didn't even try to study again. After staring at him for a good five minutes (he hardly shifted, just stared out the window) she decided to follow his example and stared out her own window. She was tense and uncomfortably warm.

When the train finally ground to a complete halt she gave a deep sigh of relief and quickly gathered herself up to leave. As she exited the car she couldn't resist looking back at Malfoy.

He stood there, tall and refined, waiting for her to go before he went himself. When she turned back, he smiled and nodded at her.

She whirled around and hurried out. In a kind of haze she picked her way out of the train and met up with Harry, Ron, and Ginny.

"Are you all right, Hermione? You're flushed," Harry said in concern.

"Oh, I'm okay." She faked a smile and started off for the castle. She saw Draco meeting up with his Slytherin friends, but quickly turned away when he started to look in her direction.

It was going to be a weird year.

~*~

Thank you so much for all the reviews! I was really happy and surprised to get so many. They bring a lot of joy to my life. I hope this chapter comes out okay, I think the input is a bit different from before. Here's a thank you:

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Yep, I play piano too. This is a musical fanfic of Carol of the Bells that I arranged. I hope it doesn't block the link.

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