Trials of Affliction and Light Sleeping

 

Chapter 5

 

         “How?” 
Hermione asked wide-eyed.

         “I could ask you the same thing.  How did you know?”  Draco retorted.  No one should have been able to see the tail
unless he or she was looking for it.  How
could she possibly have suspected him of being a Veela if he’s the only male
one as of yet?

         “You were acting very strange these
past few days, so I looked up your behaviour in the library.  It was obvious” she huffed... and lied.  She had been in there for hours and had even
missed the Quidditch game, before a book on Veela’s had hit her on the head.

         Literally.

         They should really get some new
bookcases.

         “And what business is it of
yours?”  Draco drawled.  He really didn’t like people meddling into
his affairs.  Especially not some
Gryffindor Muggleborn. 

         “It is when other people are suffering
from the symptoms you don’t seem to be able to control” she retorted.

         “Like who?”

         “Like the people you were obviously
running away from” Hermione answered pointedly. 
“Finding your Veela-powers hard to control?”

         “I wouldn’t, if they weren’t
malfunctioning” Draco muttered.  He
really wasn’t up for a verbal sparring contest right now.  Snape had licked his ear, he had barely slept
last night, he had just lost a match he had been dead set on winning and his
housemates would probably want to curse him with an Unforgivable for being the
cause of it. 

         “How so?”  Hermione asked in a somewhat less angry tone
of voice.  She really couldn’t keep up
with being aggressive when her counterpart was practically pouting.

         “They attract men” Draco
admitted, something he probably wouldn’t have done if he weren’t having such a
rotten day.

         “You were expecting differently?”  Hermione asked.

        “I’m not gay so, surprise surprise,
I expected to be able to seduce women” Draco answered sarcastically.

         “Oh Malfoy” Hermione tutted.  “Veela’s are heterosexual creatures and
–except for you- female.  How can you
expect biology to just change the rules for you?”

         “It did when it decided to make me a
male Veela” Draco pointed out.

         “Well, there’s nothing to do about
that, now is there?  Have you figured out
who your mate is yet?”

         “What does it matter?”  Draco scoffed.  “I can’t mate.  I can’t sleep with women.”

        “Did someone drop you on your head as a
child, or were you born stupid?” 
Hermione asked disbelievingly. 
“Your mate is obviously going to be a guy.”

         “No, it isn’t.”

         “Stop being in denial!”

         “I’m
bloody well going to be in denial if I want to be!”  Draco yelled. 
“ What does it matter?  I cannot
sleep with girls and I will not sleep with guys!  You are not forcing me to mate!”

         “Are you crazy?  Off course I’m not going to force you to
mate” Hermione spat.  “I just want to
know who the poor sod is so he can be properly protected from you.”

         “Thanks very much!”

         “I’m not joking” Hermione said.  “If you think you have it bad now, think
about what it’s going to be once the mating-pull kicks in.  Who says you’ll be able to control yourself if
your mate is ready and willing, which he will be because of your seduction
powers.”

         “I told you: I’m not sleeping with
men!  Now leave me alone!”  Draco said as he marched off towards his
quarters to take a shower.

         “Malfoy, where are you going?”  Hermione spat as she started following him,
but got the door slammed in her face. 
“I’m not finished!  Malfoy?  Malfoy!?”

         Hermione grunted in defeat. 

She had to find a way to make him listen!

Even if she had to go around the Great Hall and ask people to pitch in a
Knut or two, hoping to save up a Galleon and
Malfoy could afford to buy himself a clue.

 

*

 

         Draco was pissed off.

         Pissed of about many things.

         For one he really disliked the fact
that Granger now knew about his rather embarrassing situation.  And apparently, she even wanted to meddle
into it.  As if Draco was going to let
that happen.

         The other thing he was pissed off about
was pheasants.

         Why were there pheasants?

         The only thing they did was eating and
shitting.

         The latter being Draco’s biggest
problem since he was currently scooping it up while in detention.  Snape had ordered him to serve detention with
McGonagall who was currently working on transfiguring pheasants with her second
years.  Apparently Draco had to be
punished for ignoring Snape’s instruction to consult the nurse and as a result
had lost the Quidditch match.  Draco
figured that serving detention with Snape wouldn’t nearly be as gruelling as
with McGonagall, but the man hadn’t even so much as made eye contact with him
since that little incident in his office. 
Hell, even the order for detention had been sent to him by owl post.

         As Draco reluctantly picked another
pheasant out of its cage, he heard a sound coming from the doorway.

         “Ah Mister Potter, glad you could join
us” Professor McGonagall said sternly from behind her desk as she picked off
her things and took off.  “Please join
Mister Malfoy in cleaning the pheasant cages. 
If you need me, I’ll be in my office.”

         Great. 
Just what Draco needed.  The close
proximity of another male.

         As if pheasant dung wasn’t crappy
enough.

         Potter didn’t seem too happy about it
either.  Yet it wasn’t his usual
‘o-crap-it’s-Malfoy’ look he was giving.

It was something else.

He was looking as if a bomb could go off at any moment and was afraid to
move.

Well tough!

“Here Potter, hold this for me” Draco spat as he shoved the pheasant he
was holding into Harry’s hands and grabbed a sponge to clean the unoccupied
cage. 

*

         After
a couple of hours of reading in the Gryffindor common room Hermione had decided
to call it a night.  She was on her way
back towards her dorm when suddenly she heard a strange noise.  She took a couple of steps back to look at
what it was.  She was Head Girl after all
and had a license to meddle into things.

         “Oh my God!” she shrieked as she
had opened the door to the Transfigurations classroom and saw where the strange
noise had been coming from.  She had lost
count on how many couples she had had to break up while kissing in the hallways
or in deserted classrooms, so she had quite prepared herself for something in
that fashion.

         But she had not prepared herself for this.

         It was Harry.

         And it was Malfoy.

         Against the wall of the
Transfigurations classroom.

         Kissing.

         And touching.

         And rubbing.

         Draco had Harry pinned against the wall
of the classroom.  Harry didn’t seem to
mind though since he was feverishly clawing at Draco’s back while Draco was
exploring the interior of his mouth. 
Even from the other side of the room Hermione could see their tongues
battling for dominance.  It was as if
they wanted to devour each other. 
Hermione’s face turned beet red when she noticed the slow thrusting
motions in which the two boys were quite clearly rubbing their erections
against each other through their pants.

         After Hermione had picked up her jaw
from the floor, she spurted towards the pair.

         “Malfoy, get off of him!” she ordered
as she snagged Draco by his collar and pulled him off Harry.

         “No!” she jelled, shoving Draco
backwards as he tried to push her away and kiss Harry again.  She went to Harry, who basically was a
panting glob of mush against the wall, grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards
the door.  Harry’s lips were swollen and
bruised, his shirt was wrinkled and partially undone and his hair was a
complete and total mess.

         In short, he looked well and thoroughly
snogged.

         “Go to bed” she said to him as she
shoved him in the direction of Gryffindor tower.  “Trust me. 
Just go!”

         As she saw Harry wobbling away she
turned back to deal with Draco.

         “Malfoy, I-umpfff”

         For the second time this week, Malfoy
had caught her off guard and had kissed her. 
He shoved his tongue past the barrier of her lips, not even bothering to
ask for permission, and feverishly started exploring her mouth.  Good lord, it was as if he was looking to
drain her of her life essence.  Hermione
felt her knees go wobbly and her heart beating rapidly in her chest.  Even though he was Malfoy, and had just been
kissing her best friend Harry, she still did not find it ‘ew’.  She snapped out of her little trance when
suddenly she felt him rubbing his hardness against her thigh.  She flinched and with a loud ‘smack’ Hermione
quickly unclasped her mouth from Malfoy’s.

         “Will you stop kissing me!” she
shrieked while panting feverishly as she quickly took a couple of steps back to
put herself at safe distance from the frisky Slytherin.

“I just can’t help it” Malfoy yelled in agony before flopping himself in
a chair and burying his face in his hands. 
He actually was visibly shacking from the pent up sexual
frustration.  “You’re the only set of
lips here so what else was I supposed to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  Ask
first?”  Hermione said sarcastically
while rubbing the back of her hand against her mouth to get rid of some
saliva.  “Was that what it was with
Harry?  A convenient set of lips.”

Hermione didn’t immediately get an answer.  Instead, she saw Malfoy sliding his fingers
through his hair and tugging at it in what seemed to be anguish.  She saw him burying his hands in his face
again and...

Was Malfoy crying!?

“Granger, please don’t let me shag Potter!” he pleaded her in a strained
tone of voice.  “I don’t want to, but I
know I won’t be able to stop myself.  If
I don’t pounce him, he will pounce me and dammit I cannot help but want him
to.  And if it happens I know I’ll be
bottom.  Please do not let me be
bottom!”

Hermione sighed in both comprehension and desperation.

Harry was Malfoy’s mate. 

...

         Bugger.

 

**********

End of
Chapter 5