Complications

Chapter Three

She was suddenly caught in a pair of strong arms. She closed her eyes as the arms tightened around her, pulling her against a hard, male chest. A feeling of warmth and protection flooded through her, seemingly emanating from the man cradling her in his arms.

"Hermione..." a rich, deep voice spoke next to her ear. "You're mine..."

Sharp teeth nibbled lightly on her lobe, traveling up the side of her ear, and she felt her knees go weak. She heard herself whisper in reply, "Yes. Yours. Always..."

She felt a low rumble issue from deep in his chest as he shifted one hand to lift her chin while the other braced her unsteady form against him. She opened her eyes and was met with swirling grey. His hand snaked behind her head, pushing her towards him. Suddenly his lips were on hers. They seemed to be burning into her skin, marking her as his.

She wound her arms around his neck and began kissing back with every ounce of the passion he was showing. He moaned in response and began to nibble her lower lip lightly with his sharp teeth. His hand went under her hair and his fingertips began rubbing little circles on her scalp.

It felt so good, all of it. When he started licking her lips she eagerly opened her mouth to him. His tongue darted out once and slid across the roof of her mouth, making her shiver.

Then he pulled back. He rested his forehead against hers and said, "Oh, my Hermione, you have no idea what you do to me." He placed a kiss on her cheek, "I need you."

She looked up at him and ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair, "I need you, too."

His eyes took on a piercing quality as he asked, "Then why do you deny me?"

He'd hardly finished his sentence before he began to fade away.

Hermione awoke slowly, fitfully. She felt entirely... Bereft, wanting, needy. She thought back to her dream, trying to remember it. It all clicked into place in perfect clarity.

"Draco Malfoy?" she said in sleepy horror. "What a nightmare, he's corrupting my him in my dreams..."

She sat up and stretched. Then she took in her room, rather small, but decorated well. The walls were a pleasing shade of pale gold and there were red accents scattered about so as to not overwhelm someone with the intensity of the color. The Head Girl room. She smiled.

She had felt kind of sad when she didn't get any letter requesting that she be Head Girl over the summer. She'd had to remind herself that she was not the only studious girl in her year, regardless of the way people referred to her as "the brightest witch of her generation". Then, when she went to her dorms the night before she found a note on her bed. It read:

Dear Miss Granger,
I apologize for the delay in the announcement, but it is my pleasure to inform you that you have been appointed Head Girl this year. We all knew you could do it! The reason for the delay was some difficult decision on who would be Head Boy.
Use this map to locate the Head dorms. The password is 'phoenix feathers'.
Congratulations.
-Albus Dumbledore

There was also a map and the badge. The badge... Hermione knew that everyone probably thought, "Well, Hermione's the brightest witch of her generation, of course she'll be Head Girl, no big deal there." But it wasn't like that for her. When she was growing up she was a fairly normal, if studious, girl with frizzy hair who could only dream of magic. When she let it hit her, just the fact that she was a student at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry seemed amazing. That she, the muggle-born daughter of a dentist, was the female representative of that magical school... Well, it was rather humbling. And it made her very happy.

She had gone straight to her room and, after briefly putting her things away, crawled into bed. Just before she fell asleep she realized that she hadn't found out who Head Boy was.

'Well, I may as well find out now,' she thought. She had already pulled on her uniform and robe, and so she stepped out into the common room.

She hadn't really bothered to look at the common room the night before, but it was a good one, she noticed. On either side there were nice, big desks, one for her, one for the Head Boy. In the middle was a big, comfy-looking sofa facing the fireplace.

As she stood there looking around from the doorway to her room, suddenly Dobby appeared in the common room with a steaming mug in hand and went to knock at the Head Boy's room.

"Dobby has sir's hot chocolate!"

There was an answering grunt from within the room and Dobby placed the mug on the desk and disappeared. A moment later Draco came lumbering out of the room. Hermione watched in bemusement as he made the brief walk to the desk where the hot chocolate lay. He was a mess, a right morning zombie. His hair stuck out at random angles, his eyes were only half open, his plain black robe was falling off one shoulder. It was almost such a silly sight that Hermione forgot to be upset that Draco was Head Boy. Almost.

He sniffed at the mug as he stumbled over the sofa where he sprawled directly in the middle of it. Then he took a long, deep, sip from the mug. It was a spectacular transformation, he sat up straighter, his eyes opened fully, his expression became more Draco-like, he even thought to pull his robe back into place.

He gave a long, contented sigh. Then he breathed in deeply. Then he gave another long contented sigh. Then he breathed in again, and looked up to see a bemused Hermione watching him. He gave her a brilliant smile, obviously still not fully awake. "Good morning, Hermione. Would you like some hot chocolate too? I'm sure Dobby could get some for you..."

Hermione, still standing in the doorway, suddenly got a vivid flash-back of her dream the moment Draco said her name. "Then why do you deny me?"

"No, thank you," she said stiffly, proud of herself that her voice didn't falter and fighting a blush. "It's about time for breakfast anyway. So I think I'll be off..."

She fled.

Draco smirked at her retreating back. He'd caught her blush and he had some idea of why it was there. Of course, he knew that in the end they would be together. With the combination of his own best efforts and destiny she wouldn't be able to avoid it in the end, and why would she want to? But it pleased him to no end that it looked like he would have his Hermione before too long.

Hermione started to dash towards Great Hall, but changed her mind and turned towards Gryffindor tower. As she neared the Fat Lady, she saw Ginny Weasley exit with a group of other sixth-year Gryffindors.

"So then he had to apologize to her and I heard a rumor that they've started going out--"

"Ginny!" Hermione said in relief, "Can I talk to you?"

Ginny took one look at the half-frantic Head Girl and bid her friends to continue on to breakfast. "What's wrong, Mione?" she asked once they were alone.

"Well, I'm having guy problems--"

She was cut off when Ginny suddenly embraced her, "Oh, we knew it would happen someday! I'm so happy for you." She looked like the proverbial cat who swallowed the canary.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "No, it's not like that! It's Draco Malfoy, he's Head Boy."

Ginny deflated, "Oh."

They began walking towards Great Hall and Hermione continued, "He's been, well, nice to me and it's kind of weirding me out. I think he has some kind of ulterior motive."

"Probably so," Ginny agreed.

"You're not worried about it?"

Ginny gave Hermione a look, "You're Hermione Granger, the only person in Hogwarts, male or female, who has the balls to whack Malfoy upside the head. You can handle anything he decides to dish out. In fact, I suggest you start being polite to him back so's he'll suspect something's up." Ginny flashed a mischievous smile.

"Ginny, are you sure you're a Gryffindor?" Hermione asked suspiciously.

Ginny waved away her concerns, "Oh, for goodness sake, everyone in my family's a Gryffindor. I'm nothing if not a courageous, loyal, sweet little girl," she retorted with wide, innocent eyes.

"Oh, yes, of course. How could I have forgotten?"

"I really have no idea. It's not like you to forget such things, Mione."

Draco arrived at breakfast mid-way through. He walked stately to the Slytherin table, nodding in return when several of his house-mates nodded to him. This was normalcy and ever so refreshing. Being a veela did not mean that he wasn't the Prince of Slytherin, it just meant that he'd flirt less. Hopefully the rest of Hogwarts would be none the wiser about his change until after he'd graduated.

He sat at the end of the table, and so all the sixth-year Slytherins sat near.

"Finally decided to grace us with your presence, Draco?" questioned Blaise Zabini who was seated on Draco's right.

"Sometimes I have better things to do in the morning than attend an over-long meal in its entirety," Draco said as he reached for two slices of toast. "To answer your question though, yes, I have."

There was an easy, Slytherin-flavoured silence for a few moments until Pansy Parkinson (to Draco's left and a chair down) spoke.

"Congratulations on becoming Head Boy, Draco. It's always nice when Albus "Senile" Dumbledore gets something right. How was your summer?"

Draco, buttering his toast like a painter over a canvas, responded absently, "Yeah, it was nice."

Pansy continued, "It can be so dreadful to be back at school! All the strict schedules and the professors getting on you about every little thing..."

Pansy continued on, but Draco wasn't paying her any mind. He was looking down at the person sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table. He took a bite of his expertly-buttered toast and watched as she conversed with those around her. A few moments later she glanced in his direction. He caught her eyes, noticing as she paled and blushed. He gave her a nod and turned back to his housemates.

"You know, Draco isn't paying any attention, Pans. You might have better luck if you didn't ramble so much," Blaise pointed out helpfully to a less-than-enthused Parkinson.

Before Pansy could retort Draco stepped in, "Actually, you'll find that I'm a very attentive person. Pansy was telling us of the unfortunate elements that come with attending school."

Blaise didn't look convinced in the slightest, but Pansy threw him a triumphant look.

Senseless argument averted, Draco began sneaking looks back at Hermione. She seemed to be putting in an effort to not look in the direction of the Slytherin table. "Well," he said, brushing crumbs off his fingers, "I'm done. I'd best go get my books before classes start."

Before anyone had time to protest his sudden departure he slipped away and out of Great Hall. Not to get books as he'd said (his books were shrunk and in his pocket, so convenient), but to the potions classroom. After all, it would be best if someone, preferably someone sensible and relatively powerful, knew about Draco's new status. It was fairly likely that the Potions Master was aware of the veela blood in the Malfoy family anyway.

"Professor?" Draco inquired outside the door.

"Come in, what is it Draco? Make it quick, I have a class starting in fifteen minutes."

Draco opened the door and found the black-clad professor sorting out ingredients and not paying anything else much mind. "There's something I probably ought to tell you," he drawled, the picture of nonchalance. "How familiar are you with the Malfoy line?"

Snape then finally looked up. He dropped the roots in his hand onto the table and walked closer, pinning Draco beneath his stare. After another second or two he muttered, "Damn," and stalked back to the table and grabbed up his roots. "Who is she?" he asked, grumpily sorting.

Draco, seeing no reason to beat around the bush answered simply, "Granger."

The Potions Master kept his gaze trained on his herbs, "Well, that's not so bad. She'll suit you well, I suppose. What did you want from me?"

"Any chance of teaming us together for a project or something?"

A smirk curved beneath the hooked nose, but he simply replied, "We'll see about that. Now, stop distracting me and get to your classes."

~

Yes, it's short, very little happened, and I'm sorry. I just wanted to go ahead and upload the chapter so I can get new reviews to fuel my muse. I had quite a bit of trouble with this one. It's just not as much fun for me to write things that aren't sexual tension or snogging or something. Yeah, the beginning of this chapter was easy to write. XD

Oh, and I've discovered something: the joy of hot chocolate. Did you know that that powder stuff you add to hot water isn't technically hot chocolate, but instead hot cocoa? Hot chocolate is technically chocolate melted into hot milk. With good quality chocolate, it can be a thing of beauty. And then I made homemade marshmallows, and you make hot chocolate with Ghirardeli 60% cacao bittersweet (which would be a bit too bitter on its own) and you add the marshmallows that melt all over the place and it's so good... And it causes me to ramble dreadfully.

I've been meaning to do review replies, but right now I just want to post. Every review is read several times and very much appreciated though!