Complications

Hermione walked briskly towards the library. She was nearly there when two masculine arms grabbed her around the waist. She let out a startled shriek and a hand clamped over her mouth. She began to struggle before a deep chuckle told her who it was.

Draco Malfoy licked at the side of her neck before turning her to face him in his arms. The saliva cooled and evaporated against her skin, making her shiver. Draco's eyes caught hers, she couldn't even think of looking away. She became fascinated with the slow swirling in their depths as they grew darker.

She was snapped from her study of his darkening eyes when he pressed her to him, his chest hard against her breasts and his hips grinding against hers. He nuzzled at her hair and he side of her neck and she heard clipped declarations of love and ownership.

"Ahh!" she couldn't help but cry out as he hit a certain spot on her neck. She stiffened and then went nearly limp in his arms as he continued to lave attention on that spot.

He turned and pressed her against a wall to help steady her. Her fingers tangled in his hair as he switched sides on her neck to find another sensitive spot. And was rewarded with a string of moans when he found it.

Hermione was completely lost in sensation, her eyes closed and her head thrown back to give him any access he wanted. Her fingers periodically tightened in his hair as a particularly strong sensation raced up her nerves.

Suddenly one of his hands pushed her head down so he could capture her lips. This kiss was demanding and possessive. He tilted his head to the side to find a better and angle and deepened the kiss. His tongue snaked passed her lips and twined sensually with hers.

He moaned against her lips before releasing them. He pulled her forwards against him again and she rested her head against his shoulder.

"Hermione..." he said, nudging her head up to look at him. "I need you. I can't wait forever."

"I need you, too," she said. Then she got a flash of memory and her eyes widened, her hands clutching his shoulders. She tried to say, "Wait!" but couldn't get it out.

"Then why do you deny me?" he asked her his eyes narrowing and seeming to pierce right through her, the same way they did every time. Then, in spite of how much she clung to him, he was gone.


Hermione awoke abruptly and with a groan. She sat up in bed, peering forlornly at the clock, which read, "If you are reading this, you should be asleep!"

This was the forth time this had happened, and it seemed to be getting progressively worse. They always ended the same way, with him asking that wretched question and then disappearing. And it was always him.

Three days ago she had been assigned as Draco's Potions partner for the rest of the year. And there was no way out of it--she'd tried. Apparently the two of them couldn't be paired up with anyone else because they were so far above the average students that it couldn't be fair any other way. Even Dumbledor agreed with it! Said something about inter-house unity...

She blamed her dreams on that set-up. She was, after all, a healthy teenage girl; the fact that she was having romantic dreams wasn't all that spectacular. The reason the male in the dreams was Draco was simply because her subconscious mind latched onto him due to their frequent contact.

But it was unacceptable because it was starting to affect how she acted around the real thing! And even more unacceptable that the real Draco was not acting like his normal, prattish self; that would have snapped her out of her dream perception. Indeed, the real Draco had been surprisingly... Quiet. He seemed as if he were holding something back. It was almost like he was being carefully quiet and controlled around her. Unsettling.

She suddenly heard a knock at the door to her room. Puzzled, she got up, tossing on her school robe over her pajamas, and opened the door.

Well, think of the devil.

Draco literally growled when he realized that he was awake and it was an ungodly hour of the morning. The is was the second time his mate's agitation has woken him up, and he knew from experience that he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep until she got over whatever it was. And if last time was anything to go by, that wouldn't happen until it was too close to the time when he had to be up for him to fall asleep again.

Draco needed a certain amount of sleep to be able to function at full capacity, and two nights of too little sleep just wasn't okay. He couldn't think as well when he was tired, and especially not when he had just woken up. Especially when there was no hot chocolate available.

In his tired state, he decided to go over and figure out what was wrong, hopefully solving the problem so he could get back to sleep. That's what he was supposed to do as a mate anyway; that's why her upset woke him up in the first place.

And so he shuffled over to the Head Girl's room, clad in nothing but boxers and a robe. He knocked, blinking blearily against the light when she opened the door.

There she was, staring at him quizzically with a definite frown on her lips. Ah, she was so lovely and she smelled so good...

He took in an appreciative deep breath, already beginning to feel a bit better, even though her agitation was clearly not resolved. "What's the problem?" he asked her, his voice a bit deeper and rougher than usual as his vocal-cords were still asleep.

Hermione was somewhat astonished at Draco's presence. She knew, just from living in the same dorm with him for four days, that he was not an early riser, nor could he be mistaken as being one by a one-eyed hermit crab.

His question also somewhat shocked her. What made him think that there was a problem? Why did he care?

Yet, for some unknown reason (she would later blame lack of sleep), she answered him, "Nothing. Had a bad dream."

For the briefest instant she thought she saw a glimmer of wickedly gleeful understanding from him. But when she looked again, his face had the same tired look it had before. "Ah. Want to talk about it? That's supposed to be good for dream-like things..." He gestured vaguely with one hand.

"Not really," she replied wryly. The very idea of discussing that dream with him...

He shrugged, "Think you'll be able to fall back to sleep?"

She shook her head, "Probably not."

"Good. I probably won't be able to either." He grabbed her hand and began to pull her into the common room. "Come on, let's go talk about potions. I get bored and lonely when I get insomnia."

And for some unknown reason (she would, again, later blame lack of sleep) the touch of his hand against hers made her want to go along with him.

They were soon settled on opposite sides of the couch before the fire, facing each other. Draco started up an engaging conversation about rare potion ingredients, which seemed to be an interest that they shared. It gave way to general conversation.

After a few minutes Hermione was struck by the shear oddity of Draco and herself sharing an enjoyable conversation. But, heck, if he was going to decide to be a decent person to her for a while, then she certainly wasn't going to say no to a rare opportunity to converse with someone her age that was on her level academically. In fact, she wished that she could have such conversations more often.

"So," he said at one point, "a bad dream, huh? Was it about a monster?"

Hermione mentally snickered, "Something like that."

"I hardly ever have bad dreams," he admitted. "Especially lately. All of my dreams have been quite pleasant..."

She looked up and was caught in his swirling grey eyes. "Then why do you deny me?"

She stiffened and her eyes broke away. She got up and began backing over to the door to her room, "Well, is that so? That is very fortunate for you, I've been having something of recurring dreams about my monster, but Oh! Look at the time! I'd best start getting ready to go to breakfast, I'll see you in Potions!"

She closed the door closed the door behind her and leaned against it, bringing up a hand to massage her temples. This wasn't supposed to happen. Hermione Granger was not the type to get horny just from some stupid guy's eyes!

It was probably due to lack of sleep.

Draco's brows rose in confusion at her sudden departure, but then he smirked as he caught a whiff of her arousal.

Everything was better than he could have hoped. Apparently her mate instincts were already beginning to demand him. That meant that he could definitely begin to move faster in his courtship. Which was good, because the iron-control that he'd eventually become fairly good at showing was beginning to wear him down.

Unfortunately it would also probably mean less sleep for both of them until they were mated. It was, however, a sacrifice he was willing to make.

~*~

Eh... Better late than never?

Please don't be too severe with me! The holidays prevented me from being able to write at all for at least a week and then I had the most wretched witer's block I've ever experienced. I seriously started this chapter several times, scrapping each attempt until I decided to take it from a different angle. Then, this evening, I made some hot chocolate (which I hadn't done in a while) and it seemed to help me go through and finish the darn thing.

I have fixed a few grammatical problems from past chapters and finally figured out how to accept non-member reviews. That's right; now no one has any excuse to not review!

I seem to have at least mostly overcome my writer's block (dear Muse has decided to be a kind master today), so you shouldn't have to wait another month for the next chapter, and it'll probably be longer.

A thousand thanks to all reviewers! I will do review responses next chapter, I promise. And I am sorry by the shortness of this chapter. (Muse demanded that I post, and I will bow to the demands of my master)

Oh, and I'm thinking of doing an original story about relationships between members of a rock band that's trying to get off the ground, loosely based on my own rock band. And no, I won't tell you what band it is or whether or not we're signed or anything. It just wouldn't be cool for people to know my band by a member writing porn on the internet... And I can only imagine the strange looks from the guys...

So what do you guys think of that idea?