Striving For Something Not Temporary

A/N: Well okay guys, here\'s my next installment. It gets a bit hot and heavy in this chapter, so if you\'re not into that...I honestly don\'t know what to tell ya.

Hope you enjoy!

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“This is absolutely ridiculous!”

“Shut up, Draco! It’s supposed to be ridiculous.”

“Well honestly!” he cried angrily. “How can they possibly kill someone by wrapping them in a cotton candy light bulb? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Not to mention they are the most horrid looking things on earth!” He waved his hand in the air excitedly before drawing it back and crossing his arms in frustration. “Klowns you say? Frumpy and disgusting, I say.”

“That’s it, I’m so fed up with you!” shooting her hands up in frustration. “I’m trying to relax Draco, so if you don’t like the movie, either leave or shut the hell up!”

Several moments passed before he couldn’t suppress the urge to speak again. “So, which one’s you’re favorite?”

Hermione sighed, but outwardly relaxed a bit. “Well I’m torn between two. I love the teeny tiny one that knocks that guy’s block off, but I also love that great big fat bastard that tries to lure the little girl out of the restaurant.” She looked over at him with her arms still crossed and slouched down on the sofa. “What about you?”

“Hmmm...that’s a tough one. I like that big guy at the police station, but I have a sneaking suspicion he’s the same klown from that restaurant, only different. But I’m actually strangely fascinated with the little baby fellas in the hamper.”

“Aw.. What a big softie you are!” I never would have pegged you for the baby lovin’ type.” Chuckling sarcastically at him.

“Shut up you wench.” Taking a note from her book and crossing his arms defiantly and staring back at the screen.

To his dismay, it only got her rolling harder with laughter.

He’d really come to appreciate his evenings in with Hermione. During this last month, they’d usually finish their studies and deal with their prefect and head duties, then afterwards she’d pop in a movie. It was nice to relax with her before they parted ways for the evening.

For his part, he’d grown to love this muggle form of entertainment. At first he was quite curious about all of the happenings in any given movie, so he’d insistently ask her what was going on. Most of the time the suspense killed him and he needed to know what was happening before it happened.

He loved how flushed her face got when she was angry. Most of the time lately, he honestly didn’t care what was going on, he just kept insistently yammering on and on so he could secretly relish in the state of her appearance.

He never would have imagined she was such a strong and passionate person. Even when they were enemies, he loved getting her riled up to see her face fluster, but it wasn’t the same. He liked her much better this way. She’s still got those solid angry eyes when she fixes them upon him, but the pure loathing that was once housed there for him had disappeared.

She’d finally managed to recognize his constant sarcasm for what it was. To his surprise, she was almost as dry with her wit as he is. Their verbal sparing flows back and forth with such grace, hours could pass by in their banter of what he thought was a few mere minutes.

She was nuts though, don’t get that wrong. After all those hours of bliss, he’d make some offhand comment about something or other, and she’d shake her fist at him and bark like a rabid dog. Sometimes she’d even punch him in the sternum and storm off. That really hurts, by the way. If you were wondering at all. I have a sneaking suspicion my cartilage in that area is stretched farther than a rubber band. I may actually have to go see Pomfrey for it soon.

His musings were suddenly interrupted when he felt a weight collapse onto his lap. He looked down to see Hermione’s head resting gently against him. Instantly he was going to speak, thinking her not to be so forward with her actions before realizing she must have fallen asleep. She had succumbed to her battle with gravity in her unconscious state, and had gently settled her head across his legs as a form of a pillow.

On instinct, he started to pet her hair. He gently combed it with his fingers, and pulled it together to drape down his thigh onto the sofa. He didn’t want it to tangle, as he could only imagine how much of an inconvenience it was for her to sort out every morning.

Her hair seemed like it’s own life force. Like a living, breathing entity. Burnt sienna colored devil’s snare. The softness of it never seized to amaze him when he touched it. The tendrils radiated off her frame like an addiction he was hopelessly drawn into. Her smell was intoxicating him. His weakness for her was too powerful to overcome.

He gingerly swept back the curls covering her face and tucked them behind her ear to get a better view of her. “God, you’re so beautiful.” he whispered. She didn’t wear any makeup to accentuate her features, but good Lord she didn’t need to. This witch lying before him was flawless. He brushed his thumb across the solitary freckle on her nose, and suppressed the urge to try to lick it off her.

He curled up his hand and lightly stroked the back of his fingers across her cheek, back and forth, almost hypnotizing himself with the intimacy of the moment. He moved lower and started tracing the outline of her jaw. Memorizing every part of her.

Sometime after she had fallen asleep, the movie had long ended. Not that he minded or had even noticed when that time had come. The view in front of him now was a million times more fascinating. God help him. He was falling hard.

***

Hermione was back in the clearing. On the cliff that overlooked the water. The waves were still relentlessly pounding themselves against the side of the rocks below her. She couldn’t see this happening, she could just hear it, and feel it.

The sun was starting to set. It seemed almost magical. The waves in the clouds made a swirling rainbow of colors in the sky when mixed with all the beauty of the darkening horizon. Oranges mixed with yellows and reds. Deep painful reds, and red fading into pink. The pink blended into lavender, and deeper purple fading into black. The black faded in places to frame vivid blues that were popping through the bright magenta clouds.

It was simply breathtaking. She got lost in it, along with it’s mirrored image rippling itself forward through the water. She knew this was a dream. It was just surreal to her how something so beautiful could stay with her so long in this state. If felt like at least a half hour went by, and was thankful how fortunate she was to be able to witness the peacefulness of the sky.

She felt something caress her cheek.

“God, you’re so beautiful.” was whispered through the breeze.

Her senses were overloading.

That smell.

She was overcome by it. The same smell from so long ago. The smell of safety and protection.

She leaned back to see if she could catch it on the wind. The farther back she went, the more her senses were aroused until she was interrupted by something solid that she had unknowingly pressed into. The scent was stronger now than ever.

She felt solid arms wrapping around her, and realized her mystery lover wrapped her into a cocoon of contentment and strange familiarity. It was peaceful. She felt safe.

Sighing from her overwhelming senses, she succumbed to complete relaxation, and became pliant in his arms. This was where she wanted to live, breath, sleep, and die. She was whole. Nothing else mattered.

She looked back to the setting sun. She couldn’t get over how the colors made her heart tense up at the amazement of it all. She noticed two darker clouds forming around the yellows and oranges that she hadn’t noticed before. They were cascading down the sky in a vertical line.

She stared strangely at them for several moments until she caught a slight moment. It happened so quickly, she wasn’t sure if she had really seen it, or her eyes were playing tricks on her. It happened again. It was almost like the sky had blinked. Twice.

She tensed up and looked into the clouds. Wrapped around all those colors, they almost looked like eyes. Snake eyes.

The instant realization dawned on her, one of those evil disturbing eyes had winked.

Hermione’s head shot off the sofa as she released a strangled gasp of blind terror. Those eyes were burned into her retinas. None of her other senses seemed to be functioning at the moment as her vision had been overpowered. Tears of panic were involuntarily trailing themselves down her cheeks.

She felt herself being gently rocked back and forth. “Shhhh...calm down Hermione, it’s okay love. Don’t cry, please, it was just a dream...” She could hear a voice say as her senses were gradually coming back to her. “Shhh...please don’t cry...” the voice begged as she continued rocking back and forth.

She felt strong arms tightening their hold on her. She was wrapped inside someone’s firm hold, protecting her from herself.

That’s when it hit her.

That smell.

She could still smell him from her dream. How could that be? She was so confused. She didn’t even know where she was, she just woke up and her mind was still trying to catch up and process her thoughts.

Slowly, she looked up into the face of her protector.

Draco.

She looked into his eyes and saw nothing but unmasked concern. He looked as frightened as she felt. He started to speak but she quickly covered his mouth with her hand as she released a hiccoughing, sobbing breath.

Her trembling hand remained fixed on his mouth as she slowly leaned forward and breathed him in. She sniffed out his neck, his chest, his hair. Anything and everything she could get close to, she breathed in.

Draco would have laughed at the sight of her if the situation hadn’t startled him so much. He was terrified with worry moments before, and now the girl was sniffing him like a dog hunts for it’s prized chew toy.

Hermione raised her head to look back into Draco’s eyes. As she kept her gaze fixed on him, she moved her frazzled hand from his clamped mouth, and started to trace his jaw line with her palm. His eyes pierced into her soul, finally releasing the remaining tears down her cheeks that she had tried so hard to get control of moments earlier.

She gasped for breath and leaned in close to him. Barely touching her lips with his, their eye contact never strayed. She pulled back slightly, so their lips were mere millimeters apart. This was him. This was the person from her dream. How could that be?

She didn’t care anymore. Her mind had officially left her body. She yearned for that feeling of being whole again. With that primal instinct, she sealed the gap between the feeling of abandonment and the longing for contentment and safety.

Their lips connected with buzzing of searing energy throughout her entire body. She couldn’t get close enough to him. She wanted to crawl inside his warmth like a blanket and never leave. Licking along the seal of his lips, he slightly parted them for her. She sucked his bottom lip inside her mouth, moving her tongue around it in slow circles. As she started to gently nibble, Draco let out a low guttural moan.

It was like a chain reaction. Hermione released tiny whimpering noises while trying to manage short panting breaths.

Draco drank her in. He couldn’t get enough of her essence. His tongue played circles around her’s as he deepened their bonding. He traced the roof of her mouth, and under her tongue. He placed slow patterned circles along her teeth, and sucked her into himself as if he were dying and she was his cure. He did everything his instincts drove him to, yet nothing was enough to satiate his need for her as he made love to her mouth with his own.

Hermione planted her right hand on his chest and pushed away from him, swallowing in hungry gasps of life fueling oxygen. With their foreheads touching, their breathing became less labored as they slowly started to calm down. Their faces were so close, they shared the same air. As he breathed out, she breathed his life force into herself.

She reluctantly inched her hand up his body, while finally breaking contact with him to look into his eyes. His pupils were fixed and dilated. They were stormy and full of desire for her. Molten. She placed her still trembling fingers back on his lips, this time tracing them with nimble tenderness. “I...I’m s-sorry..” she stuttered through tear glazed eyes. “I don’t kn-know what came over me.” she murmured more to herself than him, no longer meeting his gaze.

Before he had time to react, she had sprinted half way across the common room floor. He turned his head to catch a blur of color disappear behind a slamming door. Draco shot up off the sofa and sped across the room.

“Hermione!” he shouted, pounding on her door. He tried to open the door, but she had cast a locking charm. “Hermione, please talk to me! You have nothing to apologize for. What’s wrong? What happened?” He rattled the door to no avail. His forehead landed on the door with a thud as his hand trailed a vertical line back to the knob.

What in the hell just happened? She obviously had a nightmare, I’m not that thick. Why did she react that way? His head was starting to pound. Everything that had happened in the last fifteen minutes was too much of a shock for him to absorb into his system. There was only one solution he could possibly think of in a situation like this.

A nice cold shower.

***

Hermione lay on her bed wallowing in a fresh batch of tears. She willed herself to black out from exhaustion, but she was too afraid of her reoccurring nightmare to even take her thoughts seriously. No matter how many times she tried to tell herself it was just a dream, she just couldn’t shake it. Those eyes were haunting. She could still see them in the back of her eyelids when she closed her eyes, so she was struggling to try not to even blink.

Why did the one person that makes her feel safe have to be Draco Malfoy? Of all beings she had to piss off throughout her life, it had to be the Gods themselves. She had no luck with these sorts of things. This was the last piece in her puzzle of life that fit together to solve the riddle.
She was doomed to be alone. The crazy cat lady at the end of the road that school children turned into folklore. Cackling in the breeze at her own deranged thoughts. I’m sure Crookshanks wouldn’t mind a few brothers and sisters. She could die bitter and alone at the end of that creepy winding road.

She’ll just have to make sure when she feels herself getting weak, to write the world a note. I’m sure it would take ages for people to discover she’d passed on. When the world found her bloated festering body half eaten by starving cats, she needed to let people know. Her cats were really good creatures at heart, they’re just self-preservationalists. They would need a good home.

“Oh get a grip Hermione!” she scolded herself. She was sitting on the bed with her chin resting on her knees, and her hands fisted in her hair.

Maybe Draco left a robe, or some Quidditch gear in the common room. She could steal it and see if she could lure herself to sleep with it since it would have his scent on it. Christ, I’m so fucking pathetic!

She opened the door a crack and peered into the deserted common room. After finding it empty, she opened her door wider, and padded across the floor. She searched high and low. Of all days that slob chooses to pick up after himself, it’s the one day I desperately needed him not to.

Hermione sighed in defeat and sunk herself onto the sofa. She felt so disgusted with herself that she even had those disturbing thoughts. She was an independent person, she didn’t need anything from him to make herself feel better.

In fact, she could already feel herself start to perk up. She was rejuvenated by the fresh feeling of comfort that washed over her. She leaned back into the sofa and took in a deep meditating breath. Of course she was feeling better now.

The fucking sofa reeked of him.

Well this would have to do. She would just wake herself up early before Draco got up so he wouldn’t know she was out here. She lifted herself off the sofa so she could brush her teeth before gathering her things from her room for her little outing.

Hermione brushed open the door to the bathroom before realizing Draco was in there. Not only was he there, he was very much naked. As the door creaked open, his head snapped towards it in surprise. So taken off guard, he nearly tripped over himself from the boxer shorts he had a hold of around one of his ankles.

Shock. Pure and utter bewilderment. Deer in headlights. Frozen stiff.

Literally. Stiff.

Hermione drank him in with her eyes. The man before her was beautiful. His hair was tousled, and his lips were still swollen from the kiss they shared earlier. His shoulders broad. She could see his collar bones wrapping into them and desperately wanted to reach out and touch them.

He was sleek, yet to see him without his robes, the man was well toned. Flawless really, for his stature, not too scrawny, and definitely not too much bulk. She hated overly muscular men. Draco was perfect.

She felt herself blushing as she gazed upon his manhood. He was very aroused. She’d never seen a penis in real life before, and was surprised to notice it was a different color than the rest of him. All that blood rushing to it she supposed. Even that seemed to suit him perfectly, nestled in a bed of soft pale curls that disappeared in a trail that led up his stomach.

Hermione didn’t even realize she was inching herself towards him. Her brain had gone off on yet another sabbatical, and left her instincts in charge once again. She reached her hand up and trailed her fingers along his collarbone, and wrapped them around to cup his shoulder and lightly brush her hand down his arm.

Stepping closer to him yet, she buried her face in his neck, breathing him in while sliding her hand back up his chest. He was quite a few inches taller than her, and it seemed like this was her sole purpose in life. To form perfectly together with him.

She explored everywhere her little hands would guide her as she planted soft kisses behind his ear. Her kisses led down his neck, and across his throat as he let out a groan of pleasure. The vibrations on her lips caused white flashbulbs to explode in her vision.

Planting wet kisses down his body, she stopped and twirled her tongue around his left nipple causing him to release a whimper. Taking his reaction as encouragement, she repeated her actions and rubbed his other nipple with her thumb, grazing it with her fingernail by mistake in her excitement.

Draco let out a guttural hiss, wrapping his fist in her hair and jerking her head up to plant a passionate and desperate kiss upon her lips. Each seeking dominance with their need for one another. Neither backing down from one another, and fueled only by sheer blind gratification.

Out of nowhere, Hermione pushed him off her. In his surprise, he almost fell into the bathtub, bracing onto the wall for support and landing on the ledge. She planted hungry kisses down his chest before he even knew what was happening to him. She stopped momentarily at his belly button, lacing a light circle around it with her tongue before dipping down lower and nibbling at the hair that trailed below. She hadn’t even realized when she grabbed his erection.

Draco let out an animalistic howl, and dug his fingers into her shoulder. Probably a little bit harder than he should have, but she didn’t seem to notice. Hermione ran her fist up and down his shaft, while all instincts guided her to nibbling kisses around the base of his cock.

Small hitched gasps of breath escaped Draco’s lips as she let go of him and kissed and licked her way up to the head of his erection. She honestly had no idea what she was doing, but she was beyond thinking at this point. It was like someone had taken over her body, and what she was doing just felt so right.

When Hermione grasped her fist back on his erection, and flicked the tip with her tongue, Draco all but lost it right then and there. She lowered her mouth onto his cock and an angry white hot searing light blinded his vision. He wrapped his fists into her hair and felt his whole length wrapped up in her warmth.

He couldn’t get enough of her. He couldn’t get her close enough. He wanted to consume her like she was consuming him. All of his other senses were being consumed by this feeling of desire. The blood pounded in his eardrums in a rhythm to their dance.

Hermione yearned to be closer to him, she felt like devouring him was the only way to satiate her need. She didn’t like this though. It didn’t feel right, and she felt like she just lost control. He had her head gripped down in place, and she felt the situation spiraling into fear. This was a mistake.

Blindly, she swung her arms out above her and knocked Draco’s grip from her. In the process, he was so startled, he lost his balance and fell sideways into the tub. He stared up at her in total shock and hurt.

“I...d-don’t...” she started, she replaced her trembling hands to the exact spot his had been moments before. “Not like th-that...” she managed. Her eyes were glassy, showing the build up of tears that were again threatening to fall as she backed up to the door and escaped into the darkness.

Draco laid in the bottom of that bathtub for what seemed like ages, pondering over what the hell just happened. The cold water sprayed across his body until he was numb, yet he was still too lost to move. There was one thing he realized for sure though after all of tonight’s happenings.

Cold showers didn’t solve shit.





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