Ultimate Experience Part I : Passion

Review Responses:

HarryGinny4eva - you are most welcome!!! It's an absolute pleasure to know that you are enjoying it so much...I hope you had a great holiday as well and Happy New Year! Hope you will like what's coming...*grin*

lemonade8 - lol, I am happy you are liking my stories! Thank you for taking your time to review, I really appreciate it! Makes my heart flutter, actually...hehe. Enjoy the rest!

Well, on with the story...;)

P.S: my best regards to my wonderful beta Dark Cabaret, who tweaked this chapter into perfection!!! {HUGS}


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Chapter 5





Afternoon sunlight managed to narrowly squeeze itself through the heavy blinds of a window and illuminate the room beyond. At a first glance, the only distinguished feature of the minuscule office were the countless books, parchments and folders scattered upon every available surface. In fact, the whole atmosphere clearly suggested that the room's purpose was closer to one of a storage facility than an actual workplace. All that, however, did not seem to deter the young woman who occupied the room's only available chair and desk. She had fought tooth and nail for far too long in order to obtain herself any private space available, after all. As she saw it, being cramped inside a chamber full of reading material was a price she was more than willing to pay in order to escape something that she was not yet ready to face.

With her left hand holding the curly hair out of her face, Hermione's other one was in the process of scribbling furiously across some parchment. Biting down on her lip in concentration, she noted absentmindedly that it was during times like these that she was starting to reevaluate the wisdom of her career choice.

Battling against the Dark Arts was all great and remarkable, but the paperwork was a bitch.

She was in the midst of sorting out through her twentieth folder of the day when there was a knock on the door.

'Come in!' she called out rather irritably.

Ever since her relocation to what was for all intense and purposes an unofficial Records Room, the young witch found herself being constantly interrupted by a flow of her fellow coworkers. The oblivious witches and wizards kept sweeping into her new office as if they owned the place for one reason or another, and in consequence distracting Hermione to the point where she was almost foaming at the mouth. On the third day, she had reached her breaking point.

By the afternoon of the same day, the news that Hermione Granger's skill at Bat-Bogey Hex surpassed the one of Ginny Potter had spread quickly across the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Since then, all needy visitors to her workspace made sure to knock respectfully before entering.

Therefore, fully expecting yet another pestering Ministry employee, Hermione didn't even bother to lift her head.

Focusing upon the raid report in front of her, the witch was barely aware of the sound of the closing door or the purposeful footsteps that followed. Only when the air adopted a certain density to it, did she become fully conscious of the silence around her.

Feeling uneasy, the young woman looked up. The sight that greeted her almost put her into cardiac arrest.

'Mr. M-Malfoy!'

'Correct.'

'W-what...I mean...how? How did you...impossible!'

This time around, both of Lucius Malfoy's eyebrows were raised as he regarded her incredulously. Momentarily closing her eyes, Hermione attempted to get her emotions under control.

'The Auror offices are highly restricted for non-personnel! How did you even get in here?' she exclaimed at last, almost wincing at the shrill tone in her voice. Merlin, the man had barely said anything and she already felt positively unbalanced by his presence.

The wizard in question tsked at the witch in clear disapproval.

'Occasionally, you seem to forget who I am. If truth be told, I could take daily promenades around the Minister's office without anyone questioning my intentions, Hermione...I can call you Hermione, can't I?' he purred.

With her heart in her throat, the young woman couldn't have come up with a retort to safe her life.

The only thing she could do was to stare, drinking in the sight of the male in front of her.

And what a view it was.

Today, Malfoy deemed it necessary to adorn a pair of black breeches that boldly highlighted the muscles of his thighs. From her vintage point, she clearly saw how those pants disappeared into the vicinity of knee-high leather boots. With his long ebony cloak wide open, the pure white dress-shirt underneath was the sole colour within all of the presented darkness. The ever-present silver snaked cane in his right hand artistically accentuated the picture of every girl’s hormonal fantasy.

If Lucius Malfoy's satisfied smirk was anything to go by, he was more then aware of her admiring appraisal.

Naturally, stated Hermione's inner voice slyly, the man probably couldn't flounce into a kindergarten without being drooled at.

Nevertheless, the wizard did not appear to be in a hurry to communicate his obvious smugness. Instead, his enigmatic eyes traced the contours of her own face, briefly lingering on her parted lips. There was no trace of a smirk upon his features when he finally lifted his gaze back to hers.

'For the past two weeks you have gone out of your way to avoid me, witch. You must be absolutely exhausted by now.'

Hermione could have sworn that her heart virtually stopped for a second before it resumed its rapid beating.

'I don't know what you are talking about, Mr. Malfoy. I am not the one who slipped into someone else's office during their busy working hours,' she finally countered.

'Ah, yes. Your office,' he drawled, coating the room in question with a disdainful look. 'Peculiar that you should bring it up, as I was about to do the very same. I am well aware of the fact that you had to practically stoop to blackmail in order to haggle this...canister for your own. As it is, even Harry Potter himself has to work in a cubicle like the rest of the Aurors here. What could you have been possibly trying to avoid in an open space? Or should I say, whom?'

Hermione's mouth kept opening and closing as she desperately searched for her metaphorical safety boat.

'Although, I did become genuinely impressed with your resolve when the news of your latest attempted stunt had reached my ears. It seems that there is still a sense of equality within the walls of this organization. I would have truly begun to doubt the strength of Minister Shacklebolt's backbone if he bowed to your whim. A petition for a personal Floo connection between your home and your own office? Your sense of self-denial appears to be far graver then I first thought.'

The lazily spoken words finally roused the young woman's exasperation and she suddenly found herself on her feet.

'I'm not in self-denial!' she vehemently protested. 'How do you know all of this anyway?'

'Mmm...as I have already mentioned, you appear to greatly underestimate the depths of my connections, witch.'

'Then those associations are obviously illegal,' she hissed.

'Alas, they are not.'

For the countless time in the past two weeks, Hermione marveled at the loss of her self-possession. Once upon a time, there lived a levelheaded witch with a capability to handle every unforeseeable situation that was thrown at her. That woman seemed to no longer exist. Nevertheless, perhaps she did still thrive but had finally come face-to-face with her own ill-fated Achilles heel: the ways of the flesh and heart.

For someone who praised knowledge and strength of character so much, it was truly degrading to become acquainted with her own insecurity. Especially one as primal as hers.

Mentally blocking any further philosophical musings out of her mind until better times, the former Gryffindor straightened her back.

'While I assure you that the topic of your machinations within the Ministry is rather fascinating, I find myself unable to spare any further moment of my time. If you had an official inquiry, I am sure the head of my department would be more then happy to assist you on it,' she said.

The probable source of her future downfall appeared to have turned a deaf ear to her obvious dismissal. His eyes simply bored into hers with such intensity that she felt his charisma all the way to the depths of her traitorous body. And all the while, he watched. Observed every flicker of emotion, every shallow rise and fall of her chest.

'Cease your running, Hermione. Resistance is futile.'

Desperately clutching the edges of her desk behind her back, she abruptly realized that she was too close: both to the man of her thoughts and the flimsy barrier between sanity and total distraction of her restraint.

'You are just torturing yourself, witch. Look at yourself...you have cornered yourself into a pit of your own alleged rational mind.'

'I have no idea what you mean,' she half-whispered, heat starting to creep up her smooth neck and cheeks.

'So intelligent yet so innocent in some ways...you truly are a diamond of a rarest quality,' he murmured softly. 'Answer me this then: what kind of fantasies have slipped into your dreams these past few... weeks...months?'

'N-none.'

'Really?'

In a blink of an eye, he stood right in front of her. With barely any pressure, Malfoy grabbed her forearms and holstered her up. Wide-eyed and shocked, Hermione could do nothing but stare right into the silver eyes of the wizard inches away from her. So familiar yet so unknown...

'In that case, let me show share with you one particular fantasy of mine,' he growled.

And before she could draw another breath, his head descended toward her and his cruel, beautiful mouth claimed hers as his own.



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No killing...pleeeeeeease!!! But do review!! Makes me less evil that way *grins and runs away screaming*


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