Gryphon's Wings and Crocodile Tears

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to any of these characters or places; they belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. It’s her world; I just play in it.


Chapter 3- Kiss of the Serpent


Hermione was grateful that the weekend had finally arrived, maybe now she could find somewhere quiet to vent some of her feelings. Harry had been so good to her this week and she was determined to find some way to repay him for his kindness. But only after she’d managed to come to terms with her feelings for Ron, whatever they may be.


So Hermione was to be found early on Saturday morning slipping quietly from the dormitory, in an attempt to find some kind of privacy. She was fortunate that it was so early; else the corridors would be teeming with students. She first decided that it would be wise to eat something. She heard Harry voice echo through her mind, “You have to eat something. Because, for the first time since you were petrified by the Basilisk I’m worried about you.” It felt good to know that he cared for her, but there was something in his tone that seemed to suggest that there was something more to his concern than fraternal love.


Far from disturbing her, this made her feel good. Besides, Harry was, in Hermione’s opinion, the best looking guy in Gryffindor and one of the best looking in the school entire. She was so absorbed in thoughts of Harry that she literally ran into Draco Malfoy. She tried to hide her flushed cheeks, she thought Draco was the only guy more attractive than Harry. Her hatred of him seemed the best way to keep any unseemly feelings for the blond wizard at bay.


“Do watch were your going…well, well, well, if it isn’t Granger. What, have your great big mudblood eyes stopped working? This is a first, Granger speechless.”


“Don’t you wish I was speechless? Perhaps if you bothered to open your own eyes you’d have fewer accidents.” Hermione got as close as she could to him, right up into his face. If he hated Muggleborns so much, this was bound to make him uncomfortable. It was a power play she could not resist, gaining the upper hand over Draco, for once.


Draco bristled as she seriously invaded his personal space; his first instinct was to back off slightly. Then he realized what she was doing and forced himself to remain standing stock-still. So she wanted to play games, did she? Well, he was no stranger to this sort of thing and there was no way that he was going to let a mudblood throw him off of his game.


“No, we wouldn’t want any more accidents,” he said trying to call her bluff by leaning close to her ear and whispering softly into it. She could feel his lips tremble against her earlobe. She wanted desperately to run, but her feet would not obey her. This gave the impression that she was much more brave than she was feeling at the moment. His body so close to hers gave Hermione a strange sense of exhilaration. He was so beautiful that it didn’t seem that he could be real; she felt her pulse quicken.


She was not alone in this, though he was loath to admit it; there was something about her that seemed to set his body at war with his sensibilities as a Pureblood wizard. It could have been that she was the only person who had refused to back down when he raised the challenge. Or, it could have been something else entirely; there was no way to tell and Draco hadn’t the time to investigate.


Icy steel blue eyes met warm chocolate brown, and for a moment time itself paused. There was only the two of them in the world. Their faces still less than an inch apart. The intensity of the moment had built to a fever pitch. Draco wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. The hand of his other arm was caressing her face more gently than she had thought him capable of touching. He tilted her head slightly to the right and kissed her.

After the initial shock had worn off she kissed him back. She felt her body respond to his touch as it had to no other, her nipples stiffened and her panties were suddenly wet with anticipation. The level of passion contained in that kiss was hot enough to melt Draco’s cold exterior for a fraction of a second after the kiss had ended. Hermione didn’t move until he looked into her eyes once more. The steely blue orbs were once again full of cold fury. ‘Good,’ she thought, ‘that will teach him to be so bloody smug all the time.’


Draco stood glaring at her. She stood smirking at him in the way he usually smirked at her when she glared at him. ‘Damn, that filthy little bitch won’t get the better of me.’ He pulled her to him again and kissed her more roughly than before, he would break her, no matter how long it took. When he’d finished she stood standing in front of him with a look of shock on her face. Pleasure, but shock as well.


The corridor began to fill with the noises of students headed down to breakfast. She bided her time until they were within sight of the throng of hungry students. Then she wound up and slapped him with such force that the sound echoed into the empty end of the corridor. “DON’T YOU EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN, DRACO MALFOY!” she screamed, and stalked off to the Great Hall, and though her back was stiff a smile danced across her face.


Draco blushed a bold crimson and he shook, apoplectic with indignation. Somehow she had managed to show him up just when he thought that he’d won. This would not stand. He finally found his feet, only to be taunted by the students who were passing him by while he stood dumbly in the hallway. He pushed his way passed the crowd and entered the Great Hall and sat down sullenly, facing away for Hermione.


A few minutes later Hermione had a full plate of food and was happier than she’d been in a long time. She had just spread wild strawberry preserves over a scone when she felt a familiar set of arms wrap around her and squeeze her tightly. “Good morning Cutie-pie,” said Harry laying a kiss on her cheek.


“Hi Harry.” Her voice was not falsely sweet this morning, Harry noted.


“What has you in such a terrific mood this morning?” She only smiled and began to eat her scone. She was sure that someone else would be more than happy to take up the tale of the events in the corridor from twenty minutes earlier. Sure enough, Neville began to tell the sorted tale, at least what he’d seen. Hermione had a reason for letting someone else tell it, that way she didn’t have to tell Harry that she and Draco had kissed. She didn’t think that he’d be too pleased with that and there was no point in ruining a potential relationship over a stupid kiss with Draco.


Draco was fuming as he jabbed at his food violently with his fork. How on earth could he get back at that disgusting little harlot? He felt so very dirty for having touched her. It was not actually her touch, but her defiance that now repulsed him as much as it had aroused him earlier. So intense was his mood that none of his fellow Slytherins tried to shake him from the impossibly grim and focused anger that was to be seen in his eyes, lest they receive a backlash of that anger.


‘Potions. That would be the perfect place to destroy her. There is no way that Snape would come to the aid of a mudblood, even if she were his very best student,’ thought Draco. There were innumerable things that could go wrong when one was making a potion, this was going to be sweet.


What should he do first? Give her rabbit ears, or great blistering boils, perhaps a face to match her attitude? No, he would switch her list to the ingredients needed to make a Dissolving Solution. Potion making was an exceedingly messy discipline, and if one drop was powerful enough to dissolve an entire palace tapestry, then she would be naked and humiliated by the end of class. There were a million nefarious possibilities to make the mudblood bitch pay for daring to embarrass him. He laughed coldly, suddenly his appetite returned full strength.