Striving For Something Not Temporary

Disclaimer: Uh....yeah, so I still don\'t own anything but the plot.




Several weeks passed by and the truce went on through rocky ups and downs. Hermione was on constant guard for a good majority of it as Draco gradually wore her down. He stayed true to his word. He was nice to her.

She stayed true to her word too. He creeped her out and got on her nerves. Every time he was polite, she got defensive. She bit her tongue and tried to be nice as well, until eventually it came as second nature. She no longer thought about trying to be nice to Draco, she just simply was.

It came quite easily to her actually, after he made a point to be hospitable in classes and in the corridors. They fought with each other quite frequently, but it was more like bickering and friendly banter than anything else.

Things were going quite well with their Head duties once they figured out how to work together. They even succumbed to working on their homework together in the evenings.

Hermione was impressed with his intelligence. It was a nice change to work with someone who actually got involved with the work. Harry and Ron had the annoying habit of doing a half ass job, then giving it to her to “correct” their mistakes. With Draco, she actually learned new things from someone with an equal intelligence, but a different perspective. It was a refreshing change, and both of their grades did nothing but improve.

She had her homework finished early one evening while Draco was at Quidditch practice, and she didn’t have rounds tonight so she had the evening to relax. She’d been working on getting a DVD player to work on magic since she got back, and she finally figured out the rest of the charms to produce the image in the air without the need of a televison. The image was like a projector style without the need for a screen, and it floated above the actual DVD player, so all together it was a pretty compact unit.

She was about ten minutes into the movie when she heard the door open. Draco looked over and noticed the movie playing on the coffee table while removing his knee pads. “What’s that thing?” He inquired.

She looked over at him. He was still in his uniform, minus a kneepad. She had to admit to herself that seeing him in it now, he’d really filled out since last year. He was still sleek, and in perfect form to be a seeker, but his shoulders have gotten more broad, and his overall muscles more toned. Snapping out of her musings, she simple states, “A movie.”

“A what?”

“A movie. It’s a muggle thing. They act out different characters and capture them on film. It’s a form of entertainment.” she said without breaking eye contact with the screen.

“Hmmm..” He mused while taking a seat next to her. “How did you get something like this to work here?” finally releasing his other pad and flopping it on the table.

“Magic.” She said as she looked over at him and grinned.

‘What a smart ass.’ Draco thought to himself. He actually came to appreciate her humor. He never realized that Bookworm Granger even had one. Spending so much time together this year made him realize she really had a razor sharp wit. She had a strong tongue and the sarcasm that oozed out of that girl was enough to keep him smiling for days.

It was actually fun seeing how she interacted with Potter and Weasley. He always thought she was up their ass, bending over backwards for them. Answering every beckon call and what not. In reality, she was a cold hard bitch. She didn’t take any shit from them, just like she didn’t take any shit from him. It was refreshing to realize that bit of information.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before he was absorbed in the movie and realized he didn’t know what was going on in it. “So why are those two guys connected like that?”

“They’re siamese twins.”

“Well who’s that girl?”

“She’s a prostitute.”

“What? They paid her to go to a halloween party with them.?”

“No, she took them there. She was their prostitute earlier, but not anymore. This is a love story, Draco. Honestly, just watch the movie.”

“I’m sorry, I came in late and I’m a little lost on the plot. A prostitute falls in love with a pair of siamese twins? What the hell kind of love story is this Granger?!”

“Wow.” Hermione condescended. I would have never imagined you’d be one of those annoying movie talkers. Keep yap yap yappin’ Draco. Seriously. You’re making me really hot right now.” She fanned her shirt in and out with her hand and grinned at him with her other hand palm out on her forehead.

He smiled and shook his head, throwing a pillow in her general direction.

She laughed it off and explained what he missed, so that hopefully he’d shut up and they could watch the rest of the movie without him constantly interrupting.

The movie was nearing an end, and she realized the sheer closeness of Draco. He was still in his Quidditch uniform, and the sweat in his hair was starting to dry up and make his messy hair fluff up in random places. It really was adorable. He had dirt on the side of his face, and on his hands. He had a strong musty smell to him that she assumed was caused by the extreme workout from earlier. Plus, she couldn’t be sure how often those uniforms of his were actually washed.

He didn’t smell terrible. I suppose he should have by anyone’s standards, but the smell of him was almost turning her on. Pheromones perhaps? Oh Godddd.....Malfoy’s pheromones are turning me on?! Someone should just kill me now. I’ve completely lost my mind and can’t get enough of the smell of someone’s body odor. I’m so pathetically disgusting. “You smell like shit.” She finally managed to muster, fixing him with a glare.

“Well pardon me Miss Perfection.” He turned to look at her. “Next time I come home from practice I’ll make sure to roll around in a bed of rose petals before you feel the need to distract me with pretty pictures and gleaming lights.” He motioned to the movie before fixing his gaze on her again with a wild gleam in his eyes,

“Draco, what are you doing?” She looked at him nervously and backed up to the other end of the couch. She didn’t trust that look in his eye.

Before she managed to get away, he lunged at her. Pinning her down on the couch and he started tickling her torturously. “Nooooo! Draco! Stop!” She gasped between bouts of laughter.

“Ahh ha ha ha ha! Smell my stench woman! You love it! Revel in it wench!” Pinning his armpit into her face.

“Oh, you’re killing me! Draco you sick fuck I’m asphyxiating to death!” Trying to buck him off with no avail, she continued, “Mercy Draco, please I give up!”

Draco released her face from his armpit prison and continued chuckling with her. He looked into her eyes that were dancing with felicity and his mouth instantly felt dry. He realized he was lying on top of her in a pretty intimate position. She was still trying to buck him off, but her heart wasn’t in it anymore.

God, she was so beautiful. The look in her eye was excruciating as she stopped laughing and looked into his eyes. As if under the imperious curse, Draco felt himself inching closer and closer to her. His thumb trailing a path on her bottom lip, taking in the feel of the velvet softness.

Hermione didn’t realize how much she wanted this until the moment she felt his warm lips pressed up against hers. She felt his tongue tracing her lip and she let out a shaky sigh. He took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into the depths of her mouth.

Hermione let out a moan at the lovely things his tongue was doing to her. She was lost in this feeling as she deepened the kiss and their tongues were wrapping and twisting together in their own private dance.

It was now Draco’s turn to moan. He broke his contact with her to gasp for a much needed breath of air. In an instant he was back on her, trailing butterfly kisses along her jaw and down her neck.

The loss of contact with Draco for that brief second was enough to snap Hermione back into reality. As she felt him kissing and licking her neck, she was torn. She wanted this so bad. That fact alone was scary enough for her. She needed time to think about this and when he was doing that thing with her neck, she could do anything but think.

As Draco started to venture further, Hermione latched onto his earlobe and bit down. Hard.

“AHHHH!! Fuck!” Draco squealed and shot up from the sofa with his hand clasped on his ear and a hurt look in his eye. “What the hell was that for?”

“We had a truce Draco!” she spat. “You were supposed to act nice!” pointing a finger accusingly at him.

“Uhmm....yeah. That’s what I thought I was doing!”

“You can’t just kiss me Draco, what were you thinking?”

He let out a frustrated sigh. “I wasn’t really thinking much of anything! We were having fun, and I looked at you. You’re so beautiful, and I couldn’t stop myself so I kissed you. If you didn’t want me to, you should have just told me. You didn’t need to bite my fucking ear off!” He slumped back down on the sofa and buried his palms into his face.

He thinks I’m beautiful? “Look, I’m sorry Draco. I over reacted, okay? I...” She hesitated “just give me some time okay?”

He looked up from the sofa to see her retreating form step into her bedroom door and disappeared as he let out another sigh.

Draco had a hard time figuring out what just happened. Everything happened so fast it was a blur. Her kisses felt so natural...so perfect. That one taste of her made him feel complete. No girl has ever kissed him in the way that completely unnerved him like that. He looked down at his hands and realized that he was trembling.

He was actually trembling. Over Hermione Granger of all people.

He needed to straighten his head out. If a girl could do that to him he needed to keep her. To keep her, he had to give her space.

How could one kiss turn his entire life into such a whirlwind?

***

Hermione lay on her bed thinking about what just happened a few moments ago. She got so swept away with the feel of him on her and the way that he felt so perfect for her. Pah! Too bad she’s not perfect enough for anyone. Every relationship she ever partook in turned into a total mess.

During the summer of her third year, she met a muggle boy when she was visiting a book store with a few of her friends. He was quite a few years older than her and she felt so desirable that someone as sophisticated as him could appreciate her for her intelligence. Too bad it took her all summer to figure out it wasn’t her intelligence he was after.

She felt so stupid when he belittled her and told her that she was a tease. That she wanted it. She was making him angry for making him wait as long as he did. He was only after one thing, and she wasn’t going to give it. She never saw him after she ran away from him that day. God willing, she never will again.

Then there was Victor. That fuck. He owled he a letter one day saying it was over because his friends gave him a hard time for dating someone who wasn’t a pure blood. He couldn’t even do it in person. She knows the bastard can apparate, he was just too big a coward to face her.

Then there was Ron. Ron wasn’t horrible, she just didn’t feel comfortable being intimate with him. Ron and Harry were like her brothers, and it made her skin crawl just thinking about kissing someone that could be her brother. He took it well, but at this point it just seemed like three strikes against her, to make her more angry she couldn’t hold on to anyone.

Now, she wanted to concentrate on her final year of school. Especially with the war coming, she didn’t have time for something like this.

Besides that, what if Draco took back the truce? She’s muggleborn. Would he do the same thing as Victor did under the pressure of his friends. Of his father? She didn’t want to take that chance. The hurt in her heart would be too terrible to think about. She really liked him, and things were going so well between them right now. She can’t sacrifice what they have for something that may be a whim.

The thoughts in her mind made her succumb to her exhaustion. She didn’t even pull back the covers or change into her night clothes before unconsciousness finally took her.

***

Hermione was walking with a man with no face. He was pale, and broad. The mystery man’s scent and stature were greatly familiar to her and she couldn’t place why. How can I know what a man smells like when I’m dreaming? You can’t smell things in dreams, can you? Her thinking seized to exist when he faced her, and brought her closer to him in his arms.

“Come on love, this way. It’s easiest if we take the stream...remember?” He cooed as he grabbed her hand and lightly grazed her knuckles with his soft...well...lips I suppose.

His voice was eerie. High pitched and unnatural. She was instantly reminded to the mer-people who reside in the bottom of the lake at Hogwarts, only she could understand this man. She knew it wasn’t his natural voice.

They walked together silently for a flash of a second, before arriving to an open patch of grass. There were angry waves hitting the side of the cliff beneath them, as if they were willing it to crumble into the ocean but knowing, even in unison, they never would succeed.

“This place is beautiful!” Hermione gasped in awe.

“You act as if you’ve never seen it love.” The mystery man breathed, standing behind her and wrapping his arms around her into a tender embrace, he lightly touched his lips to the spot just below her ear. “Maybe that’s the reason I never get tired of being here with you. Gods Mione, I love you so mu..”

The scene around her changed. Instantly she was surrounded by an evil presence. Her mystery lover was gone. There were huge skyscrapers laid out in front of her. This was a muggle city. It was somewhat dark, but the light emanating from the buildings made it as visible to see as the sun would itself.

A sudden flash of green lightning pierced the sky, and cracked one of the massive buildings in half, causing it to crumble to the ground in agony. Hermione’s breathe hitched and she instantly forgot how to breathe. A helicopter was flying closer to her from the distance. She realized it was a medical helicopter. A yellow flash to rival the first had penetrated the sky. A long sinuous glowing cord came out of the flash coiling around and jerking the helicopter from it’s designated path.

It were as if the glowing source of light was a giant arm holding a lasso, but the yellow energy had no form except the cord coming out of it. The helicopter was falling. Right as she thought it would hit the ground, it continued to swing with the giant cord. It gained so much speed as it swung in dangerous circles.

Out of nowhere, it hit the tall building closest to Hermione and exploded. The mere touch of this foreign object caused the building to collapse. It was as if the buildings were dominos, each fallen building taking out the one behind it until a cluster of five of these massive architectural structures had transformed into a crumbled smoking massive tomb far, far below.

Hermione realized she was cowering in a ball on the ground with her arms over her head willing the horrible things around her to stop. She didn’t know when she had taken this position, when she felt that clammy evil feeling surround her even tighter.

“We can be great you know. We are different than everyone else love. Better. Together we will be unstoppable.” A terrible voice cut through the sky behind her, reaching her ears and causing her to tremble.

She turned her head and stared into the darkened abyss, only to be met with two glowing snake-like eyes. She couldn’t see anything else from the creature lurking behind her, but she could feel him grinning maliciously.


Hermione sat up and awoke with a start. Her breathing was frantic and shallow. Her chest was heaving and her clothes were soaked with sweat. ‘What the fuck was that?’ she thought to herself. Everything about that dream felt so absurdly real. The likelihood seems so far fetched, and everything seemed to be in slow motion as it exploded. The buildings were so close to her, but on impact no shrapnel harmed her from where she had been curling on the ground. That creature had the eyes of Voldimort.

Who was that man in the beginning of her dream? He seemed so familiar to her. She felt so safe with him. She wished she could remember his face. How was he involved in this? Is he even real? So many thoughts were racing to her head. As much as Hermione never wanted to sleep again, her body betrayed her mind by not listening to one of it’s arguments. Sleep had again claimed her in a few mere seconds.