Tainted Love

Tainted Love Chapter 3


Hermione was rummaging through the kitchen, when she came across a cupboard door that was being extremely stubborn. She gave it a few hard pulls. Nothing. She put her feet on either side and pulled with everything she had. Nothing. Not to be out done by a mere cupboard door she got to her feet slightly puffed, wiping swirls of curls from her brow, She pointed her wand directly at the door and said Alohamora.

Nothing.

I don\'t believe this! I\'m stuck in the middle of nowhere with the biggest prat this side of the continent, maybe the world, I\'m starving and this bloody cupboard door won\'t open!\' She felt like screaming and crying at the same time. Finally, frustrated to no end, she kicked the cupboard door with all her might.

The cupboard, as if in protest, flew open with a mighty bang, which was quickly followed by a rushing sound as butter beer\'s, pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs and an assortment of other goodies flew from the now open cupboard door. She could hear Draco swearing from another room in the cabin. She bent down to pick up a few snacks and couldn\'t help but snicker to herself as she saw Draco round the corner out of the corner of her eye, his wand out in front of himself.

**
Taken aback from the sudden outburst of noise, Draco found himself, flat backed against the wall next to the doorframe. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck.’ Gripping his wand tightly.
‘Might as well get this over with’ he thought to himself as he began waving his wand out in front of him. He made his way to the end of the little hall near the kitchen, got to the corner and peered around it.

‘Granger?’

He saw instantly, ‘ is she smirking? Hmmm, nics. Hs. Hey, what’s she got there anyway?’ He stepped out from around the corner.

“So, thought you hadn’t caused enough trouble for one day, you felt like making some noise too.” It wasn’t really menacing the way he had said it but he was pissed off that she had made him jump.

“Well you certainly found it an energetic experience.” At which she allowed herself to brandish a big smile.

‘Is she smiling at me?’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Pull yourself together, she’s not even a real witch.’

“What have you got there anyway?” He made a hand gesture towards her arms.

“Oh right, well it’s dark, or hadn’t you noticed?”

Draco rolled his eyes again.

‘I don’t know how they put up with her, if she sounds this bossy all the time. Hey!’ He took a few steps closer.

“Give me one of those now.” He demanded staring at the butter beers she held in her arms.

“Oh I don’t know Malfoy, you didn’t really use your manners after all.”

Draco creased his brow in confusion, clearly thrown off by her last statement.

‘Where the fuck did that come from? She must be stressed. If I didn’t know any better, I would say she was just flirting with me.’

Through clenched teeth he said. “Can I pleeease have a butter beer?”

“Think quick” She stated and tossed one in his direction.

He caught it just in time and as he did, he flashed her a quick smile.

‘Not half bad when he smiles. Ewww, did I just pay Muggle hater Malfoy a compliment? Why the hell hasn’t anyone come to find us yet?’

**

Hagrid, Harry and Ron had been walking, shouting and running around the forest, for at least three hours. Since it was nearly winter, it was getting dark qly. ly.

“ ‘Arry we’re gonna ‘ave ter’ go talk to Dumbledore,” came Hagrid\'s low unsteady voice.

“What? No! I won’t just leave her out here Hagrid! You go, you go tell Dumbledore and I’ll keep looking with Ron.”

Ron shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

“He’s right Harry.”

Harry rounded on Ron immediately.

“WHAT?! YOU WANT TO JUST....JUST LEAVE HER OUT HERE? SHE COULD BE HURT! MALFOY COULD BE DOING ANYTHING TO HER!”

Ron swallowed hard and looked up from his feet.

“Harry, I know what your saying. I agree with you. I wouldn’t trust Malfoy as far as I could throw him, but… But if we go to Dumbledore, we can get more help and they’ll have her found in no time.”

Harry turned to Hagrid, who was looking extremely solemn and he nodded slowly in agreement. They made there to the castle and up to the Headmaster\'s office.

**

Hermione had lit a fire and was sitting at the end of a three-seater lounge in front of it. She had all the goodies in a big pile in the middle of the lounge and was opening a pumpkin pastie, when Draco walked over, sipping his butter beer, and sat at the other end of the lounge.

‘How does he manage to make being a bastard look so good?’

‘Why is she staring at me like that? Odd, I never noticed her eyes were such a deep warm brown, almost innocent. What am I saying? For god’s sake Drakey baby, we\'ve got to get you \'round some other people fast!’

‘He does have nice eyes, steely grey with flecks of blue. I wonder if his family have any veela in them? Would explain the blonde hair. He’s staring straight at me, and I’m just sitting here gawking. What an idiot!\'

She could feel herself beginning to blush as soon as she realized he was staring back at her.

“Here, have a pastie.”

He felt himself blush slightly, but not for long because he casually reminded himself that ‘Malfoy’s don’t blush.’

“Yeah, thanks.” He hurriedly took one from the pile and opened it, took a swig of his beer and stared straight into the fire. They sat in silence for a few more minutes; both of them mentally scolding themselves for having played put such a ridiculous scenario.

“So where did all this stuff come from?” he asked, motioning to all the food and butter beers.

“Cupboard of Request!”

“Cupboard of what?”

“Request! Well I’m not completely sure how it works. I mean, up at the castle there’s a Room Of Requirement and well, I just figured, since I was speaking out loud, before I kicked the door, when it opened it was full of all the stuff I asked for, so I just figured it was a Cupboard of Request. I’m rambling aren’t I?” Hermione sighed and took a breath. “I do that when I’m nervous.”

Draco cocked one eyebrow up. “Nervous? You have no need, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten foot Quidditch goal.”

“Fuck you Malfoy! I was talking about the fact that we are stuck here, in the middle of the forest, and no one knows where the fuck we are,” she said, red-faced, wild eyed and her ego slightly bruised.

‘Not that I care, I would go near the slimy bastard. Besides I’ve got Harry and he loves me and really thinks I’m beautiful. Oh Harry, where are you?’

“I’m going for a shower,” she announced. And with that she stormed off into the bathroom, slammed the door and performed a locking charm behind her.

Draco however, was a bit ruffled over the sudden outburst. ‘Touchy! Anyone would think she actually liked me the way she reacted to that.’ Draco snickered to himself when he saw the bathroom door glow from the locking charm.

‘I wonder.....Cupboard of Request.....Hey!’ Draco placed his butter beer and pastie down on a small table, rose from the lounge and sought out the cupboard door, with the small dent in it. It wasn’t too hard, since all the other doors were open. He cleared his throat and straightened up.

“I want, two bottles of rich red wine, a platter of.....fine cheeses, fruits and crackers.”

To his absolute delight, when he bent down and opened the cupboard door, it was all there, just as he had asked. He removed the items from the cupboard, left one bottle of wine on the bench and took the rest down to the fur in front of the fire. He snickered to himself the whole time.

‘I’ll show the filthy Mudblood. I’m gonna make her want me so bad and then, I’m gonna leave her slick in her knickers. Ahh, but then again, I could just imagine the look on Potter’s face, if I was to tell him that I’ve fucked his precious little Mudblood.’

With a smirk playing across his lips, he uncorked bottle number one and poured himself a glass of wine. ‘Oh, this is going to be soooo good.’

**
Harry came bursting through Professor Dumbledore’s office door, followed quickly by Hagrid and Ron. All flushed, hot and out of breath, Harry crossed the room in three strides and placed his hands palm’s down on the Head Master’s desk.

“P.P..Professor…”

“Harry, my dear boy what ever is the matter?” Dumbledore looked at the three faces before him with absolute puzzlement. It was an odd look for this man, as he usually looked as if he had all the answers.

“It’s Hermione. She’s missing, in the forest, with Malfoy.”

“Oh dear! Hagrid is this true? What happened?” Hagrid brought his eyes up to meet the professor\'s.

“Yes sir, Mr Dumbledore sir. It\'s all my fault of course. I sent ‘em off into the forest, to fetch their Knarl that run off.

Dumbledore was quiet for a few moments; he looked at each of their faces before he spoke, to make sure he had their attention.

“Hagrid, go fetch Minerva and Severus and meet me by the edge of the forest. Harry, Ron, go back to your common rooms. I’ll have one of the house elves bring you dinner.”
Harry was absolutely livid. He thumped the Headmaster’s desk with his fist and if that wasn’t enough, he felt the need to throw a rather comfortable looking chair across the room.

“I WILL NOT GO AND WAIT IN MY COMMON ROOM WHILE HERMIONE IS OUT THERE, IN THE FOREST, WITH THAT SLIMY GIT MALFOY! I’M COMING WITH YOU!” With that said, he folded his arms across his chest and glared at the Headmaster, a look of dare across his face.

“INSOLENCE! HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO THE HEADMASTER, IN THAT MANNER!”

Harry turned with a bit of a start, to see Severus Snape, his Pns Pns Professor, rounding on him from the Headmaster\'s doorway. Harry stiffened immediately. It was a known fact that they couldn’t stand each other but Harry was determined on this. This, after all, was about finding the girl he loved.

Albus Dumbledore rose from his chair and walked over to Professor Snape.

“It’s quite alright, Severus.” He laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry Harry,” Dumbledore started, “I had no idea you would feel so strongly.\" Harry let his arms fall to his sides; he dipped his head just a little.

“Of course I do. I...I love her and I don’t want to waste anymore time.” He said the last part with more volume. They were wng tng time, precious time, that they could be using to get her out of trouble.

\"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?\" Snape asked in an extremely pissed voice. \"And what does it have to do with Potter\'s confession of love and me missing one of my top Slytherins?\"

Dumbledore turned to Professor Snape.

“Ah yes, sorry Severus. It seems that our young Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy appear to be missing in the Forbidden Forest, due to having gone to fetch a Knarl that had escaped them and have subsequently not returned. Now would you mind fetching Minerva so we might go have a search for ourselves? I will meet you at the edge of the forest with Hagrid and Mr. Potter.”

“Albus,” Professor Snape began, “I must object! Mr. Potter is not nearly well enough trained to go out there at night1”

Harry stiffened instantly, ready to verbally explode upon his Potions Professor. Seeing this Dumbledore interjected quickly.

“Severus the decision is mine. He has seen and done more than his share.” Harry could have sworn that the Headmaster had just winked at him. “Further more we are wasting time. It is already dark.\"

Professor Snape nodded his head curtly at Dumbledore but made sure he got a sneer in towards Harry before he left the room.

“Mr. Weasley I would appreciate it if you would wait in the Gryffindor common room on the chance Hermione should return.” Ron nodded quietly and left the room. Dumbledore, Hagrid and Harry then all made there way down to the edge of the forest.

**
Hermione came from the bathroom with a cloud of steam behind her. She had transfigured her uniform into a set of golden silky pyjamas and her robes into a red flowing silk dressing gown. She had done this on purpose to irritate Draco, who would undoubtedly protest to her pride of her House. He was much more fond of his own House colours, green and black. She had learnt a charm to tame her hair and it now sat as beautiful auburn bouncy curls cascading down her back.

‘Well,’ she thought, ‘At least when Harry comes to me Ime I will look good.’

She strode through the kitchen and stopped just before the lounge, absolutely stunned.