Trial by Fire

Hey guys, I know it's been a while but I got stuck. anyway heres chapter four and I know its a bit short but I didn't want to add anything else with out a break. Enjoy.

Knowledge is power. Well, Hermione was shit out of luck right now. She had researched every scrap of paper she could find on Veela’s and turned up nothing. The term started tomorrow, what the hell was she going to do then. Worst of all she had been longing for Draco. At least, that’s what she assumed it was. She had this odd feeling of emptiness in the pit of her stomach. Right were the butterflies live before a first kiss. Plus, Ginny had told her she whispered Draco’s name in her sleep. She still had two hours to go back over the fourteen books she had found on the subject. That was the position she fell asleep in.

The train platform was packed. As Head Girl it was her duty to make sure all of the first years got on board. Much as she hated to admit it, she needed Draco here. There were just too many first years for her to be able to do it by herself. Hermione’s body shuddered and she knew he was on the platform. Sure enough, as she looked up, Draco came strolling through the barrier. She watched as he moved to the other side of the platform and took his place. He didn’t even spare her a glance. ‘Well, this is just bullshit! I spent most of my holiday looking for answers to this.. this joke! I knew it was crap it came from Draco.’ But something bothered her. He was seemed to be uncomfortable. The whistle sounded and everyone boarded the train.

Draco lingered for a moment, maybe because he had been late to begin with. Hermione next saw him in the Heads compartment. They were holding a meeting with the prefects, passing out assignments and passwords. Halfway through the trip to Hogwarts the meeting broke and prefects went to patrol the train. The Heads stayed behind. Though Draco had participated all through out the meeting, fielding questions with Hermione, he never once spoke or looked at her. Until now.

“How did you fair with your research?”

Hermione glanced around making sure they were alone. She locked the compartment door and drew the shades. It was an unspoken agreement that this wasn’t knowledge for the whole school to know, “It went well considering I found out nothing to prove useful.”

“I told you so would be rude wouldn’t it? But, alas I did,” Draco sat across from Hermione in the large compartment.

“You’ve been acting odd all day Malfoy. Not looking at me not speaking to me. If everything I have read is true you must have a death wish because this is certainly no way to win my heart.”

“Hermione dear sweet Hermione I don’t have to win your heart its already mine. When will you accept it?”

“If you think for one second,” Hermione spoke in a raised tone, “that I will just fall at your feet. You are sadly mistaken.” Hermione looked at Draco and saw that he was indeed slightly paler then normal. In fact he looked ill.

Draco thought about the next few words carefully. Over the remainder of his holiday he had done some serious thinking about the current situation. He had sought guidance from his Head of House and the Headmaster. And though he hated to show his hand, there seemed to be no other option. “Look at me Hermione. What is wrong with this picture?”

She did look then she took a good hard look at her destiny. And then she saw it, he had been suffering. “What is wrong with you?”

“You. I’ve been close to you, but never able to touch you. I’m the Veela, I know you’ve longed for me I can feel it too. But when I long for you it’s with every fiber of my being.” Hermione stepped closer to him now. Sitting on the low table they used in meetings. “Don’t you understand? I have to be with you, in everyway possible. The fact that you reject me on a daily basis is troublesome to say the least.” He wasn’t going to tell her how it broke his heart every moment either. He had left himself open enough already.

“Draco I had know idea it was like this for you. why didn’t you write and tell me? We could have met, and made it easier on you.” Hermione placed her had on his knee, in more of a gesture of support then anything else, but she watched his face flush and his eyes flash none the less.

“Don’t touch me Hermione.” Though it pained Draco to say it, she wasn’t ready to give him what he needed and this was only going to make it worse.

Hermione snatched her had back and looked back at Draco. Thought he tried to conceal it, he was in pain. It was then part of the pieces seemed to click into place. It has to be physical. ‘Well, I can solve this problem she thought.’ And so Hermione leaned across Draco’s body and sealed her fate with a kiss.

Draco saw it an instant before it happened, he even tried to evade. Hermione leaned over his lap and brushed her lips across Draco’s. She didn’t have a chance to see it coming. Draco’s hands were cupping her face keeping her where it was. Keeping her from moving away, and pulling her completely onto his lap. Draco changed the angle of the kiss ever so slightly, but Hermione couldn’t believe the difference. She had been kissed before, this almost didn’t even qualify, it was like a whisper on her lips. She leaned forward a fraction of an inch and they both were unprepared. Hermione for what she found herself sitting on and Draco for the feeling of his soul healing ever so slightly.

‘Keep it gentle, you could swallow her whole.’ Draco warned himself. He traced her lips with his tongue, the sensation made her part her lips. Just as gently, Draco discovered some of Hermione’s secrets. His right hand departed from her face to slide gently down the side of her body to the small of her back, pressing her closer to him. They both felt the friction and groaned, deepening the kiss.

Neither of them had any clue how long they had shared that kiss, but Draco was the one to break it. “Hermione, you have no idea what you just did.”

The pain his voice brought her back to the real world. She had been somewhere else, and she liked it. She didn’t understand what the problem was. “I thought I was helping you. my mistake.” She struggled to get off of him. His hands however had her hips securely in place.

“It will never be the same.” Draco could see that she took what he had said as rejection and quickly righted the situation. “Didn’t you ever wonder why I haven’t touched you since I found out what you were to me?” She shook her head and lowered her gaze. He brought her chin up to look into his eyes. “You my dear have sealed our fate. I knew I needed to give you time. Time to get used to this and me. The clock is running now, once a Veela meets their mate and touch the countdown begins. We have three months ‘consummate’ our lives together.”

“But, we’ve touched before, countless times in fact. What you’re trying to tell me is now that we kissed, I have to have sex with you before Christmas or you’ll die. That just silliness and I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t have to. You’ll feel it soon enough. And yes we’ve touched but never in a sexual way, that makes all the difference.” Draco’s hands traveled from her hips to her bare thighs. Moving there way slowly under her skirt. “Don’t deny that you feel I’m aroused, and since that hasn’t happened since I found out you were mine it’s a welcome change of pace. If my hands keep making their way up you skirt my dear,” Hermione’s head bowed slightly at the feeling of his hands on her skin. Draco turned his head, bringing his lips to her ear, “Will they find your knickers wet and you waiting for me?” he waited a beat inching closer still. “Well, will they?”

“Yes.”

Draco’s hands stopped and he looked up at her. Her gaze shifted and their eyes met. “That is how the countdown began. As time goes on you’re going to have a thirst for me sexually that you couldn’t begin to understand. There will come a time when you will beg for me, and I for you. Remember through all of this Hermione, that everything you fell for me, I feel for you.”

They felt the train stop and the doors open. They got up and straightened themselves, as they made their way to the door to perform their duties as Heads Draco pulled Hermione back and kissed her with such a force she though she might just break in two. “You’ll think about me now and all through dinner. And then when you’re finished with all of your duties you’ll sprint to our room to find me.”

She stood there watching his back as he traveled down to instruct the second years, she was dumbfounded. ‘No way!’