Bittersweet

Chapter 7

Sunshine seeped onto Hermione Grangers face. Plush sunlight gliding her cheeks with sun dropped kisses. Heat tickling the texture of her face and giving her a feeling of warmth and protection finally woke her up from a restful sleep. She stretched her arms wide, her eyes still closed, her arms hit something hard. Frightened she opened her eyes wide and looked behind her. There was a blond figure gazing down at her with bold grey eyes. Terrified she shot out of the position she was in and looked back at him.

“We…we didn’t stay here all night?”

“Scared someone might notice?”

“Of course I’m scared you git, no one can know that we…were together.” Hermione said, looking at Draco like a sour piece of candy.

“Oh come on Granger, live a little.”

“Live a little? Your reputation isn’t at hand-to think if they found out. I…I.” She couldn’t get all the words out. She was shaken and ashamed.

“And what would they think, if they saw you like this.” He said getting, up next to her. He placed his hands on her left breast, while casually caressing the tip.

Bewildered and realizing that she was still naked, shot away from him-grabbed her shirt that had been thrown to the wayside from a night of passion filled sex. Confused, she tried to put her shirt back on, but Draco’s hands caught her by the waist.

He tossed the shirt away that was being held by her hands and placed his hot naked body next to hers. He glided his fingers along the center of her stomach, giving her Goosebumps-the kind needed instead of unwanted. She sighed from the feeling, while he played with her throat taking in every taste of her neck and body scents. He licked her throat and moved his mouth up towards her lips, licking them tediously. Making sure that every being was taken cared to. She signed again, which only made him want her more.

He moved in for the kiss, but she backed away slightly. “I need to go. They will be expecting me.”

“Yes, maybe…but isn’t this better?” He said as he moved his fingers in between her legs. She moaned, against his touch. She tried to back away, but was unsuccessful. Just as the night before, he was moving her over to the wall. Already undressed himself, he slid her opening to reveal what he prized.

Without warning he moved inside of her, giving her a scream like no other. It was a scream of pleasure and wanton. Their erogenous zones quailed for each other. It was an unimaginable feeling that was until that special moment came and then it plundered, like a thunderstorm given wind. When the feeling had subsided, she fell to the floor defeated and beaten.

Minutes passed on, and remembering that she had to be somewhere came back to memory. Scuttling for her clothes again, she dressed. When the two of them were dressed fully, he looked at her with a smug facial expression.

“You better not say anything to anybody about this.” She demanded her hands on her hips.

“You really think I want people knowing about this.” Draco said mockingly.

“Good. Then we agree?”

“I wouldn’t worry about me Granger; I’d be worrying about yourself”

“Why’s that.”

“Well…having sex with me is a privilege…and good for your stature. But, for me…”

“Oh shut the fuck up Malfoy.” She said yelling, slapping him on the shoulder.

Laughing to himself, he watched her leave the premise in a huff, her walk showing that she had an attitude and deemed to show it.


~~

The eggs on her plate where gone before they were even there and Hermione Granger was still hungry. The bacon on the next plate over looked good; so she reached over Harry’s arm and grabbed the plate of food that sat in front of him. He gave her an odd look, but she ignored it and continued to eat as if nothing was a rye. Ron tried not to notice how much food Hermione was eating, but he just couldn’t stop from staring.

Her plate was packed with food. Not including the bacon, where pancakes, fruit, toast which was compacted with marmalade and butter, and three sausage links-besides her plate where two glasses of pumpkin juice and a glass of milk. Hermione never ate breakfast and for her to eat enough for the three of them was some what odd.

“Um…Hermione are you okay.”

“Cha….ie woont you tink so.” Her mouth was so full that she couldn’t even talk right, which made Harry’s eye brows crinkle.

“Do you think you have enough food?” Harry questioned her, while he glanced up at her plate and back at her cheeks which were bulging. It reminded him of Dudley on Christmas morning.

She shook her head yes and continued to eat nonchalantly. Ron and Harry both shook their heads at each other and tried to ignore the food that was coming out of her chews. Hermione was always a question mark and this morning was proving that to be a fact.

By the time breakfast was over, Hermione was keeling over the side of her chair and was making moving motions of a pre-throw up session. The boys could see it coming from a mile away. Her swaying gave the impression that she was about to explode all over the floor, along with this, her eyes were popping out of their sockets.

They had never seen Hermione look this green before. So, making sure that her reputation wasn’t ruined like Mark Dungbert’s was when he puked all over Alison Miles from Hufflepuff-poor girl never saw it coming; they moved her quickly out of the Great Hall and into the next corridor. Good thing too, because within ten seconds, her whole breakfast was now food for the ants.

~~

The sweat poured down her neck as the water trickled down toward her mouth, she tasted a salty flavour. The obtrusive taste didn’t pass through her though. Spitting into a metal pan, which she held close to her, she looked up at the nurse that was glancing at her. The woman was a small, but petite witch that held herself high, but Hermione could sense nervousness. The woman was obviously new and apparently had just been released from nursing school. Knowing exactly what she was doing was the question of the day. Trying not to forget her own problems, Hermione spit into the pan that she continued to hold tight to her chest.

Still in her school robes, she moved uncomfortably underneath the covers. The morning’s activities had been interesting to say the least. She had been with Draco again and because of these activities had been hungrier than she had in a very long time. She knew it was due to these things and had nothing to do with anything else. She knew this, because of what her fried-Pavarti Patil- had told her the year before.

“Sex with Seamus was good and all, but I seem to want to eat more than I plan to afterward. Sometimes I even look forward to the food more than the sex…is that bad?”

Hermione of course, had no answer to her question or had any idea why Pavarti wanted food after the sex, but now knew why. It felt filling and the comfort food made her seem more complete than anything. It was strange to explain, even to herself.

Setting the pan aside, she looked back up at the beginner nurse; her beady eyes following Hermione with every glance. Feeling somewhat nervous because of this, Hermione smiled casually.

“Um..yeah”

The figure in front of her stirred.

“Oh…sorry. I have a disorder where I stare off into space for periods of a time. It’s a condition that was I developed when I was just a little girl. The doctors found out that it was rather rare, and since then I stare off into space for minutes at a time. School was hard for me growing up. I don’t think I ever heard one full lesson…it’s quite a funny story. I was eight when this boy threw…

“Uh…okay.” Hermione said, quickly, not really wanting to hear the woman’s life story.

Hermione tried to ignore the odd woman as she slipped her feet to the side of the bed.

“Miss Granger, I don’t believe you are allowed to leave the Hospital Wing.”

“I’m better, just a stomach ache.” She really didn’t need a nurse to tell her different. She knew a stomach ache when she felt one.

“It may be, but Madam Pompfrey may have another opinion on your condition.”

Annoyed and hating the Hospital Wing more than she had in the past. Hermione ignored the woman and stood on both of her two feet.

“See…standing, better.” Hermione demonstrated.

The woman sighed, “very well…just make sure that you sign out.”

At least the woman was easier to pass than Pompfrey. Hermione smiled at the new corner and walked past her, signed her name and walked out of the Hospital Wing, hoping not to return for a long time.

Noticing that it was time for potions, she headed down to the dungeons. Not really wanting to go, she sucked in her guy and bared the energy to put up with Malfoy. She didn’t think seeing him just after being in the Hospital Wing was probably a good thing, but she had no choice in the matter.

When she opened the dungeon doors, Snape was instructing the students on the making of forgetful potions and upset that she had already missed half of the lesson, she quickly tried to find an empty seat.

“Well…I’m happy as most of the class should be that Granger has finally graced us with her presence.”

“Sorry sir, I was in the Hospital Wing.”

“I see, well sit down and shut up; I’m already annoyed with your voice.”

Hermione frowned as some Slytherins snickered. Trying to ignore them, Hermione sat next to Charles Coran, a fellow Gryffindor. The boy wasn’t the most popular one in the house, so thus the empty seat. The boy was a mess, more than Neville and was the “nerd” of the group.

His beady eyes were hidden by massive lenses, which were also covered with long maple hair, each hair tangled with the other. His fat body bunged through the chair that he was sitting in and because of the desks being so small, Hermione’s right leg touched the fat that peeked from the bottom of his Gryffindor uniform.

It was disgusting.

Trying to keep her legs as close together as possible and trying to focus on the lesson; she couldn’t help but notice how utterly smelly he was. The smell reminded her of the owlery just before being cleaned. Scrunching up her nose, she focused on her quill and her parchment, praying that would help her nostrils ignore the smell that was evaporating from the person next to her.

~~

The sound of the forest always calmed him-especially at night. It gave him peace and serenity when nothing else would. The peaceful sounds of the trees blowing against one another, leaves gliding against each other as the cold breeze swept past them. He came to the forest to get away, not from his problems per-say, just to escape for a bit.

Trees did that for him.

The tall grandeur gave space and at the same time enclosure. Escaping among the wooden skyscrapers made his soul leap out and forfeit any feelings he might have had. They spoke to him.

The wilderness gave the world meaning. It was a façade of underlined feelings. It trapped those who were lost and tortured those who sought out comfort. Knowing those feelings were unsafe gave him reassurance. He loved the forest because of that.

People came to the forests-the wilderness, to get away. Muggles took days out of the year to sleep among its breath-something the man didn’t understand. He didn’t understand why men and women-how ever dumb they were-to leave their homes, just to go live like the poor and needy. He didn’t understand the vermin. But after all, that’s what they were-eating with the rats and mice.

Stretching his back, he slowly settled himself on the ground and stared up into the stars. The view was magnificent. The voltage filled the skies and peered down at the living below. Trees escaping him to the unknowing, he traced the stars with his finger, traced the sign that filled the skies.

The Dark Mark.

The sign was a new coming. Every time he saw it, he felt warmth flow through his body; he felt the power and control over take him. Things were going to be better now. He knew it. Smiling to himself, he became aware that a new coming was well on its way.

The man glanced down at the deceased family. A muggle family, now drained of blood, gone from the world that he had taken, he smiled broadly again-pleased with the work he had accomplished. Taking each corpse and throwing them along with their possessions into the fire. A man named Barton Potter, walked slowly away, leaving the campers behind, along with the wooden skyscrapers.

~~

She didn’t understand why he was keeping his distance. If it wasn’t for the fact that he kept looking at her every ten seconds, she would have thought that he might be done with her. But his immoral glances suggested otherwise. Whether he wanted to be with her or not, the suggestion of annoyance was starting to sink in. She hated that he treated her like rotten potatoes one minute, but filet minion the next. It confused her body and her feelings. She knew that feeling this way was unexceptional, but she couldn’t feel anything but that.

The feelings had begun to grow stronger since their last encounter. Sure, it wasn’t the romantic innuendo that she wanted, but it at least was an innuendo. Being alone wasn’t what she wanted, and if she was going to be with a Malfoy, then it was better than nothing.

She tried not to think about the complications of her actions, and whether or not her friends would find out what she had been doing for the past two months. She didn’t want to deal with those issues and how they would react and the possibilities of losing her two best friends. She would just have to keep this part of her life separate as much as she could. She didn’t want the pot to over flood with drama. Her life was overloading more than it should have been, and dealing with the fact that she was “sleeping with a Malfoy” with her friends, was more than she could deal with at this moment in time.

Concentrating on why he Malfoy was acting the way he was, was the only thing she could really concentrate on at the moment. His smug look when he looked at Pansy boiled her, and even though it shouldn’t have, it still did. The way that he looked at her, while he ate dinner, disgusted Hermione. She had to keep her cool though. She didn’t want to reveal herself, and the way she had acted the night before, was embarrassing.

Dinner was disgusting, she hated broccoli and she hated baked potatoes with chives. She didn’t know why, but from the looks of it, it looked like it was moving. She knew that food that was grown out of the ground was never “alive” to say the least, but she still pictured it moving across the table and running away from her mouth.

She wasn’t in a very good mood. She knew she wasn’t, and tried to stay as far away from her friends as possible. Since she kept her pace, at “specific times of the month”, her two best friends would just expect it was “that time of the month”

She was angry. Knowing why she was angry was another question though. It was just one of those days, when things just didn’t go right. In transfiguration, her quill refused to turn into a pant leg, and instead turned into a kicking trouser, which eventually had kicked her in the chin, leaving her flayed on the ground to defend for her life.

Potions class wasn’t any better. Who ever said that drinking a camouflage potion will make you unseen, was lying their ass off. Instead, the damn potion blew her up to a thousand sizes too big, leaving her very well seen in deed.

And if that wasn’t enough to boil a person over, Charms was always there. During their assignment that Professor Flitwick, gave Hermione instruction to show the class how to levitate desks into small objects. Of course, along with her day, it had blown up into a million pieces as she was attempting to put the desk into a small circular ring. Class twinkled with objects of desk, she had left the class.

So here she was, stuck on the worst day of her life, begging for the day to end. Eating along, she looked up across the room to see Malfoy flirting with Pansy Parkinson. If it wasn’t for the fact that she had, just had the worst possible day, it was the fact that she had not been with him in a very long time and it was starting to “get to her”. He, laying on her, wasn’t helping matters. So angrier than she had been seconds before. She let out the levitation charm on Pansy Parkinson.

She didn’t really mean to do it. She wasn’t using a wand, and basically her hate for the girl had tormented her feelings so, that she just couldn’t help herself. Making Pansy float in the air, her derrière in mid air, she placed her on a tall lever a few yards up.

The whole school started to point and laugh, which made her mood better, but her anger still increasing. She still hated the witch and whether or not, she was remorse for what she had done was another story.

She thought about leaving the girl there, until the teachers could get her down…but thought against it. She really wasn’t that bad of a person. But then after all, no one knew it was her. They’d get her down, they were smart people. Because, really, she wasn’t that high up.

Although, when she started to leave the Great Hall, there was a tap on her shoulder. Dumbledore extremely displeased with her misdemeanor he pointed to the girl and then down at the floor.

Annoyed that she had been caught, Hermione took her wand out and slowly placed her on the ground safely, but making her trip on her first step to safety. Frowning, she had turned swiftly away from everyone who had noticed it was her and left the Great Hall.

Never in her witch life had she done anything like that before. Especially on purpose, but her excuse was that she was having a bad day, and that she just couldn’t “control herself”.

Half truths were fun.