Dazed and Confused

Title: Dazed and Confused

Author: Amonara

Disclaimer: All characters are just borrowed from JK Rowling, for my playing pleasure.

Note: Finally, Chapter 3! I certainly hope you enjoy! And I hope you can bear the Ron/Hermione mush. Not to worry things will be moving along shortly. Though you should know this is the longest chapter I have ever written for any of my stories. 5 ½ pages! Thank you so very much for you reviews! They keep me inspired and help me update more quickly. Personal responses are at the end of this chapter. Thanks for reading my story.

~*~*~


Draco Malfoy’s mouth curved into what could’ve been a smile of with pleasure as he watched the frizzy haired Gryffindor haughtily stomp out of the portrait hole. Even in defeat she refused to loose grace. Draco found himself nearing admiration in the presence of the girl’s will power, before he quickly brought his mind to other more important things with a practiced and steely resolve.

There was nothing more that Draco enjoyed, than having power, and more importantly power over one of his greatly hated enemies. It would be so easy to manipulate the mudblood against her friends, especially Potter. But first things first, he had to break her in to his wishes. Once he had her exactly where he wanted her, he’d strike. And there, the first crack in the cement that bound the golden trio would appear.

Draco’s grey eyes narrowed and he smiled a rare twisted malformed smile that sent to corners of his lips curving upward into the shallow depths of his eyes.

And where else would he start, but at the weakest link in their disgusting chain of friendship? His first target would be the Weasel King, who had so fortuitously landed right in the palm of his hand

Draco grabbed his cloak from the back of the sofa and throwing it casually over his right shoulder, exited the common room.


--

Hermione took a deep breath, and straightened her Head Girl’s badge before entering the Great Hall. She relaxed slightly, as no more than the usual amount of eyes followed her path to the Gryffindor table and towards her friends.

She plopped down next to Harry, who was busy buttering a slice of toast.

“Morning, Harry…Ron.” Hermione only hesitated slightly in her urgency to pretend nothing had happened the night before.

“Morning, Hermione.” Harry said rather cheerfully between mouthfuls of toast.

She met Ron’s gaze for a moment before reaching for a slice of toast herself, and carefully coating it with marmalade.

“Oh, Ron, have you seen the Marauder’s Map? I think I mislaid it the other ni..er…afternoon.” Harry said, nervously looking over at Hermione, who was so preoccupied with pretending to normal that she hadn’t noticed his slip up.

“Sorry, mate, haven’t seen it.” Ron shrugged, looking up from his Transfiguration homework. His eyes darted over to Hermione, and he blushed.

“What’s that, Harry?” Hermione said absently, pulling her daily schedule out of her pocket.

“The Marauder’s Map, I can’t find it.”

Hermione’s head snapped up and a faint blush spread across her cheeks.

“Are you sure you looked everywhere? I’m sure Ron will help you look this evening, maybe you weren’t thorough enough.” She looked pointedly at Ron, before smiling guilessly at Harry.

“Right.” Harry muttered, before Seamus interrupted their conversation with commentary of last week’s Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff quidditch match.

Hermione breathed a slight sigh of relief, before taking a bite of her toast.

“Uh, Hermione…” Ron said nervously with a quick glance to his right at Ginny who was engrossed in a conversation with Luna about the merits of decorative charms.

“Yes, Ron?” Hermione said, trying to keep her voice conversational, although all she wanted to do was bury her face in the soft over worn fabric of Ron’s cloak and cry. And then perhaps snog him senseless.

“I, uh, was wondering if you could look over my Transfiguration essay.”

“Honestly Ron, that essay was assigned last week. Aren’t you using the new planner I gave you last Christmas?”

Ron looked baffled for a moment before clearly searching for some excuse.

“Never mind.” She said tersely, grabbing his parchment.

“Thanks, Hermione. Maybe we could…uh work on it in the Library…?” The fiery haired boy queried a bit worriedly.

“Alright, Ron.” Hermione found it was easier to take her aggression out on Ron, as had proved the case in the past. Somehow, a good row with Ron relieved her stress, even if it wrecked havoc on their relationship. Ron tended to be much more excitable than she was.

She stood up from her seat neatly rolling his essay up and tucking it into a hidden pocket sown into the innards of her cloak.

She looked over at Ron who was still finishing what had to be his third piece of toast.

“Well, come on Ron. We have to get going.”

Ron looked longingly at the last bit of his toast and then at Hermione. He seemed torn for a moment before his hormones took over once more and he practically leapt out of his seat. Hermione smiled slightly to herself as they headed out of the Great Hall.

“Hermione?”

“Yes, Ron?” Hermione said almost exasperatedly, she knew she was being unfair to Ron by taking out her anger for Malfoy on him. It wasn’t his fault that they had been caught and she had been humiliated by their enemy. Feeling guilty Hermione slowed down from the quick strides she had been taking and turned to face Ron, who had lagged behind.

“Can we talk?”

Hermione glanced around the hallway and moved closer to Ron.

“Here?” She whispered urgently.

Ron struck with a sudden flash of genius, took her by the hand and pulled her into the broom closet where he had once stuffed Crabbe and Goyle, this time around it was a considerably roomier fit.

Hermione crossed her arms in the musty darkness of the broom closet, before looking towards where she could faintly see Ron silhouetted faintly against the pale trickle of light seeping underneath the door.

“What is it Ron? What did you want to speak to me about?” She asked, feeling her heart begin to thud in her chest and her breath quicken.

Hermione tried to control her hormones, but she couldn’t rid her mind off the fact that she was in a romantically dark closet all alone with Ron. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him relying on touch alone; normally she liked to keep her eyes open so she could see how blissful he looked with his light eyelashes standing out against his pale skin. The pure vulnerability she saw in his features made her love him even more. If she could even begin to call the feelings she had for Ron love, it wasn’t that she didn’t have deep feelings for the red-haired boy. With all they had been through, she couldn’t, not have had feelings for him. It was these new feelings that had begun to surge through her body that had thrown her off. Ron was much more to her than a friend, not to mention how handsome he grown, at least in her eyes. He had developed a more athletic build over the years, a result of his quidditch training and the training he and Harry practiced in private, so that when the final battle with Voldemort came they would be prepared in all areas. His chest and shoulders had broadened so that his upper body fit better with his height; he was no longer the tall lanky boy he had once been. He had grown into his body and in Hermione’s opinion very well. But besides all the bodily changes he was still the nervous boy with dirt on his nose underneath. His personality hadn’t changed a wit, although he had gained some confidence in himself. He no longer felt a second fiddle to Harry. Hermione liked to think she had a little something to do with that.

She felt herself blushing and thanked her lucky stars that the closet was dark enough that Ron couldn’t see her facial features.

“Hermione?”

“Uh…yes, Ron?” She stammered slightly, feeling him draw near.

The heat rose in her body as he came in close, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her into him. He was so close she could hear him inhale and exhale, he sounded just as hormonal as she felt.

“Look at me.”

She tilted her face upwards squinting slightly so she could see him looking down at her.

“H-Has he bothered you?” He asked, his voice becoming slightly angry.

Hermione knew exactly to whom he was referring and wished with all her heart she could have told him. In fact, all she wanted to do was tell him and have him beat Malfoy into a pulp, rescuing her from her predicament like some prince from a muggle fairytale.

She shook her head slightly, feeling her body throat tighten.

“No, not more than usual.” She said quietly, feeling guilt surge through her body at having to lie to Ron.

“At least the bloody ferret seems to have taken it all out on me. I’ve got a month of detention.” He said, bending down slightly, the warm puff of his breath caressing her skin as he leaned in kiss her softly on the lips.

‘If only you knew,’ Hermione thought to herself before allowing herself to melt into his body as she deepened their kiss.

Ron pulled gently away, bringing a finger up to caress the curve of her cheek.

“Although, it’s certainly worth it. Perhaps, I’ll get to see you in that outfit sometime soon?” He said as his hand ran between her shoulder blades and down her back to gently squeeze her ass.

“I’d say there’s a good chance of that.” Hermione said pulling him forcibly into her body once more, realizing too late that she had forgotten to wear a bra.

Her unbound breasts were smashed almost painfully into his chest, her nipples hardening as he pressed her into the wall with the force of his kiss. She opened her mouth moaning lightly, receiving his warm tongue as it darted into her mouth, exploring every inch of the molten cave. His hand that had been gently resting on her waist slowly inched upwards, drawing slow tingling circles on her skin and underneath her clothing, as his other hand positioned her body so that she was straddling his left knee, her leg wrapped around his. The friction and pressure of his knee against her already throbbing core made her moan with more intensity into their kiss.

“Mione.” Ron murmured softly against her ear as they broke apart gasping for air, gently sucking on her lobe.

“Ron…Oh…” Hermione trailed off as he pushed up her cloak, shirt and sweater, exposing one of her breasts the cool air and softly blowing onto her taut pink nipple. He slowly lowered his mouth onto her breast, so slowly it was torture.

Hermione found herself wantonly rubbing her heated and throbbing center against him as she arched her chest up into his mouth, while he gently sucked and nibbled on her nipple. His tongue circled and teased the sensitive area, while his free hand began to tend to her other breast. His fingers delicately twirled her nipple, before he began to kneed and massage her rounded flesh. She could feel her leg pressed up against his hot and hardening member. She began to inch one of her free hands towards his crotch not sure what she was intending to do. But she quickly snatched her hand away as there was loud bang out in the corridor. She heard Peeves crow in triumph and several students squealed. There was a rush of footsteps and the noise receeded.

To her regret Ron snapped his head up and pulled her further back into the closet.

“What was that?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” She replied, tugging her clothing back into place.

The fear of getting caught by a teacher gave her the sensation as if someone had poured a cold bucket of water over her body. This was no place to be doing what they were doing. She found herself getting irrationally annoyed at Ron.

“Besides, Ron, we were supposed to be talking. What if we had been caught? I’m Head Girl and you’re a prefect. We should be showing model behavior for the younger students. And now I don’t have time to look over your Transfiguration essay.” Hermione brusquely straightened her skirt and swiftly left the closet, leaving Ron with a rather uncomfortable problem for the second time in two days.

With a sigh, Ron resolved himself to taking care of the problem all alone and only imagining her there with him.

--

Draco scowled from in between Crabbe and Goyle as they loitered in front of the Great Hall. From his vantage point his sharp eyes had seen a pink faced, red lipped Granger emerge from the broom closet and distractedly head for their quarters. His eyes narrowed even more dangerously as he saw a red-haired boy no other than Ronald Weasley sneak out a few minutes later and conspicuously head for the nearest bathroom.

There was no doubt in his mind what had been going on in that closet. He smirked dangerously, a plan forming in his sneaky Slytherin mind. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice Pansy Parkinson sneak up to him with a delighted look on her face.

She clutched his arm and looked up at him with admiration in her eyes; she recognized the look on his face, as did several other Slytherin.

“Oh, Draco!” She simpered.

“What are you planning?” She asked breathlessly, hoping to be let in on his plans.

Draco roughly jerked his arm out of her grasp and looked coldly down at her.

“Nothing that concerns you, Pansy.”

“Now run along.” He said waving her off, ignoring the cute pouting seductive look she was attempting to give him.

“Crabbe, Goyle. Let’s go.”

He turned on his heel and strode powerfully through the hallway, his two henchmen lagging slightly behind.


*~*~*

I hope you enjoyed. Here are the personal responses.

Annalumos: Thanks so very much for your kind words! I’m glad you like my Draco. I can’t seem to write him as anything but wicked. I’m delighted that you like my story.

Hanna Delacour: You think it’s brilliant!? You’re my hero! Tons of thanks for all the compliments! I really hope you keeping on reading.

Youko: I’m so happy that you’re hooked on my story! Please keep on reading. And reviewing. ;)

CWolf: Another one hooked! This sends me into throes of delight! I updated, I don’t think it took too long.

Gaubimon: Here’s more! Deliciously evil, I like the sound of that! I’m trying to make my characters as believable and canon as I can. But I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to see exactly what happens to Hermione.