Everything But Mine

The veela wants to thank all reviewers for setting her muse free! I hope you enjoy this chappie!

The elves’ loud chattering and giggling made her head ache. After all, someone with the flu would suffer from loud noises.

‘I would like to go to my room now,’ Hermione said quietly, still feeling hot and dizzy. Why hadn’t she asked for medicine the first moment she was in the house?

‘Are you alright? Draco asked with worry in his voice. He could feel her distress and it pained him immensely. She needed him now, he knew it, but he couldn’t just take her in his arms and take her worries away. She wouldn’t understand his need to be close to her, to let his veela calm. He had been a prat to her in school… but he had been an absolutely different person then – a boy who was looking for his father’s approval and thus doing everything father deemed to be good.

‘Yes, I just need a bit of rest. I guess I caught the flu when running errands in London.’ She was not looking at him, but staring at some point ahead.

‘I’ll better show you your room then,’ he said and gave in to the veela’s urge to take her hand. ‘The elves said they re-decorated the master bedrooms, your room is next to mine.’

She just nodded and didn’t say anything else when he led her from the lounge towards the grand staircase. He was too busy to keep her from falling when she stumbled on a white marble step, but he wanted to know how exactly she felt and what he could do to help her. Her generic answers that she would be fine and wouldn’t need anything made him worry even more. Draco Malfoy had never felt so helpless in his life. The veela wanted to grab her and carry her to his rooms where he could examine her and make sure she would be better in no time and still not let her go but keep her in his arms forever. However, it didn’t work this way, as she mumbled an apology and stepped into her room,leaving him alone and sad in the hallway.

After downing several flu and fever reducing potions, Hermione felt slightly better, but there was still an odd feeling lingering inside her. Maybe she had also gotten a stomach bug, one could never know.

What irked her to no end was Draco’s attitude. She had expected that he would regain his sneer and ego the minute he’d step on his ancestral grounds, however, he had still remained the gentle and rather nervous man she had met in prison. It was like the cold and vile boy who had spat slurs at every possible moment had gone completely.

She had almost fainted when she saw how he had gently patted the head of an elf who was weeping and hugging his leg, leaving snot on his jeans.
It just seemed so surreal, everything not as she expected to be. Honestly, she had thought that Draco would be a tough piece of work, seeing that they had a feud in school and all…

Rolling around on the queen sized four-poster bed and trying to nap didn’t help to get some peace. Every time she closed her eyes, the man in her dream returned. She felt loved and cherished, but every time she tried to reach out for him and see who he was, he vanished.

She finally decided that it was time to quit reading nonsensical romance novels as those had befuddled her mind too much and finish the paperwork for leaving her job now.

Hours passed whilst she scribbled away on endless feet of parchment, she forgot what time it was so when an elf popped into her room to announce that it was time for dinner.

‘I will help you prepare for dinner, Mistress,’ the little elf said, respectfully bowing.

‘Is it already?’ Hermione asked, rubbing ink stains from her hands. ‘What’s your name?’

‘My name’s Cookie, Mistress,’ the elf explained and went to the wardrobe and pulled out three formal gowns.

‘We is having a tradition of formal dinners, Miss. We, the elves picked a few pretty dresses miss would like as you didn’t have any of your own.’

Hermione hadn’t expected dinners to be formal affairs, but it didn’t matter, she would try to adhere to the house’s tradition as she was, even if a long term one, guest.

The dresses the elf had resented her were all amazing in their own right. First her hand went to a floral print chiffon number which she thought would be the most inconspicuous one, however, it turned out that it was backless and that the sating lining was rather thin. The next dress was emerald green velvet, beautifully beaded and embroidered, in silver and gold, and with long, flowing sleeves made of Venetian lace, and a full petticoat skirt. It was beautiful, but much too bold for her style, she thought. She just wasn’t one to wear something which obviously had cost a small fortune. Therefore she chose the third option, a black satin strapless gown, with a long mermaid style skirt and no embroidery.

‘I will wear this one, then, Cookie,’ she said and held the dress against herself.

‘I is happy Miss likes the dress. I picked those and I was very nervous, that I was, if Miss will like any of those. I am supposed to become miss’ beauty assistant elf. It is a big honour!’ the elf jumped happily at first but then slowed down and bowed.

‘You did a good job. I think I will take a shower now.’ Hermione felt that she had to get cleaned up as she couldn’t just pull on the dress and go as she was. Normally she would’ve not cared about having ink smudges all over her hands and face, but then again, she always had had her meals alone.

Now she wanted not to be rude to Draco and try to adhere to the customs of his home and so make him more at ease.
The dress did fit her perfectly; maybe it was a little too form-fitting for her taste as she rather liked more baggy clothes because she had no illusions about her disproportionate figure. In her opinion, her breasts were too large, hips and bum too round and the waist comparatively small, making shopping for clothes a quest where the bottoms were too loose on the waist to fit the hips and the tops too wide around the midriff or too tight around the chest…. And no, she didn’t think she possessed that coveted hourglass figure.

If she was really honest with herself, she liked how the dress looked on her. It made her look more sophisticated, but her hair was still a mess which she didn’t know how to fix.

However, Cookie returned the very moment Hermione had tried to detangle her hair and offered to take care of it. Not long after, the hair and make up were done and Hermione wondered if the elf had put glamour on her.

‘Did you put a glamour on me, Cookie? I don’t want fake beauty.’

‘I didn’t put any pretty charms on you, Miss. You are indeed very pretty, you just hide it, you shouldn’t… I am bad elf for saying this!’ the elf exclaimed and wanted to ram her head into the dressing table.

‘No, no, don’t do that!’ Hermione pulled the elf away from colliding with the solid rosewood. ‘You did a good job,’ she soothed the distraught creature.

‘I is making Miss late for dinner!’ the elf cried. ‘And Mistress is going to be late for dinner and she hasn’t finished dressing!’

‘Alright, don’t cry, it’s nothing terrible,’ Hermione mumbled and put on the high heeled shoes which had appeared next to her chair.

‘And yous have to put on your necklace as well!’ the elf begged, pinting her little pony hand towards a velvet box.

‘Don’t worry, I am sure Draco won’t be upset if I’m a little bit late,’ Hermione said and opened the box. She had never seen such well-crafted costume jewellery before. The red glass stones in the intricate flowers would easily be mistaken for rubies. She but the necklace on and stood up to go and have a look at the mirror, only to be stunned how good she looked. Maybe those women’s magazines which went on about the importance of style were right after all?

The day had been hellish for Draco. His veela part was sick with worry about the wellbeing of the mate, but he knew that he just couldn’t smother her in affection right now. So he had asked an elf to observe her room and inform him of new developments every hour. The veela’s senses had calmed somewhat so he could read the release papers his good-for-nothing lawyer had sent to him.


Once the elf had informed him that the new Mistress would be attending dinner, Draco was a nervous mess. He tried his best to look as good as possible, she deserved to be with someone handsome and not a ragged looking prisoner.

His breath caught in his throat when he saw her descending the stairs. Even before he had come into his veela heritage he had thought that the Granger girl had a lot of raw appeal but he never acted on it as his mind was befuddled with the pureblood supremacy nonsense.

‘You look gorgeous,’ he said when she stood next to him. ‘Nothing enhances the family rubies as a true beauty wearing them, ‘he added with a genuine smile.

‘Thank you,’ she blushed, ‘I didn’t realise that those were real jewels…’

The veela in him got more erratic, wanting to touch the mate, kiss her and ask her to mate for eternity. It was very difficult to keep one’s hands off when one was more than two-thirds creature, but Draco managed it still, against the complaints of the veela.

‘Shall we go to dinner, than?’ he asked, offering his arm.

She took his arm and Draco once again had to restrain himself from pulling her close. It was a sweet torture to his senses- the heat of her body, the sweet scent of her hair made him want to bury his nose and revel in the wonderful feeling of being close to her.

Dinner was a quiet affair; the table was small, just to fit two persons but gave enough distance to keep the veela needs at bay whilst not upsetting the wish for being close in the vast space of the Malfoy dining room, which could easily seat fifty people.

‘Is everything alright, Hermione? You’re fidgeting all the time,’ he asked in a gentle tone, not wanting to upset her as possibly she was still feeling unwell and might feel cold in a such a revealing outfit even in the heated room.

‘Yes, I think… it’s just that I have to ask you something and I don’t know how because I have to do it sooner than later so…’ she rambled, trying to make sense of her words but being incapable to do so.

‘You can ask me anything you want, I owe you a lot for everything you have done for me now,’ Draco assured her, hoping that his calm and collected attitude would put her at ease.

‘It’s about Hogwarts…’ she mumbled, looking around the room nervously.

‘Do you want to talk about our school days?’ he asked, intent on letting her know that he was a completely different person now.

‘No, it’s not about our schooldays, that is in the past and we get along alright now, so it’s no good to rumble up useless memories. I was more thinking about the situation Hogwarts is in now,’ she stopped for a deep breath, ‘and the thing is that the school is financial trouble, having t minimise the wages of teachers and the help orphaned students as the Ministry limits funds so I was wondering if you might consider renewing the Malfoy grant? Next year you could be made school governor again and the donated amount is tax-deductible so there’s a lot of benefit to it…’ she explained, feeling a tad guilty for pushing the issue, but how could she be subtle about it?

‘I will write an order for Gringotts for the usual amount of the grant.’ It was no big deal for him; if she wanted him to do it he wouldn’t decline her. And it just showed how wonderful his mate is, she didn’t ask for money for herself, but for helping others…

‘You don’t have to do it straight away…and I didn’t want to appear like I’m pushing you….’ She blushed again, casting her eyes away from his concentrated gaze. What had she done?

‘You are not pushing me,’ Draco assured her, ‘I think it is good that you brought such a worthwhile cause to my attention. Feel free to tell me about anything you find interesting. Money is not a problem.’ Draco congratulated himself how sneakily he had managed to veil the veela’s urge to comply with any request made by the mate.

‘But it’s a big sum so I didn’t want to force it out of you and…’

‘Calm down, please,’ he said as he saw how she dropped an piece of chocolate cake out of nervousness. The veela couldn’t bear her distress longer, so he stood up and stood next to her. ‘There’s really nothing to worry about. I am not like I used to be…’ he leaned down and whispered in her ear, ‘this a new life for both of us.’

‘I’m just new to the lifestyle you’re used to. And I want to be not only your supervisor for the parole, but your friend as well to help you in everything I can…’ she added, a soothing warmth engulfing her body. It was not the feverish feeling, no, it was more like the warm rays of the sun in a summer day.

‘Shall we go to my study so I can sign the order for Gringotts?’ he asked huskily. It had been too much for him to stand so close to her and not being able to do what he longed to do.

‘Good idea,’ she answered breathlessly and stood up. One minute longer and she would’ve nuzzled his neck as his cologne was so enticing that she wanted to lean closer just to breath in more of that scent.

She had never felt anything remotely like this, but Draco was different than other men. He was looking so handsome in his tailored suit, like the true lord of this posh mansion.
Hermione knew that it was bad to think about him that way, she was just here to supervise his parole and not to drool over how handsome he actually is., even with the slight gauntness from the time spent in prison. He had the most amazing eyes and a smile which made something inside her melt.

Like in a daze, she followed him up to his study, where he immediately set to write the instruction to the bank. She watched as he finished the paper with a signing his signature in a flourish and the paper disappeared.

She felt a sudden urge to thank him, so she hugged him and kissed his cheek. ‘Thank you, Draco, it means a lot to me!’

Suddenly she felt shy and run out of the room. What in Merlin’s name had possessed her? Why had she wanted to not only kiss smooth cheek, put his pale lips as well? It must’ve been the flu, she calmed herself when preparing to go to bed.

She had just gone to sleep when heart wrenching whimpers caught her attention. She knew that Draco’s room was next to hers and that the rooms were connected by a door, but was it right to go to him now?

Just another thought…I was listening to some music whilst writing this…and I think these lines describe draco a bit-cookies for those who guess which song it is!
‘Lookin' back on the things I've done
I was tryin' to be someone
I played my part, kept you in the dark