Complications

Hermione felt herself waking up, peacefully. It was certainly too good to be true. She hadn't woken up warm and stress-free in...months.

So she sighed and just basked in the feeling of complete and thorough relaxation.

"Morning, Hermione."

"Hmm?" she wondered sleepily, opening her eyes to be confronted by... "Malfoy! G-get out of my bed!"

The Slytherin pouted, "But I like it here."

Hermione, having recovered from the initial surprise, leveled him with a glare, "Don't get me started, Draco Malfoy! What you did last night was severely out of line. And you're Head Boy! Sneaking into a female student's room at night? What were you thinking?" she ranted. "Now get out of my bed this instant!"

Draco's pout disappeared and he frowned at her, but got out of the bed. He crossed the floor and retrieved his previously discarded wand and then stopped at the door to her room, still frowning at her. And still clad in nothing but boxers.

"And put on some clothes! What's wrong with you?" Hermione tugged a robe over her already-modest pajamas.

"You know what's wrong with me," Draco levelly answered her rhetorical question. He still hadn't moved from his place near the entrance to her room and his frown was still affixed. "This 'good-girl' righteous indignation at my sleeping in your room is just you hiding from reality. We need to talk, Hermione."

Hermione visibly deflated, but her tone didn't change, "Any talking between the two of us will only happen when both of us are properly attired. Now get out of my room!"

The Head Boy did as she commanded, but he obviously wasn't very happy about it.

She closed the door behind him and turned the lock. Thank goodness. If he'd been around much longer, she might have done something really, really stupid. Like tried to kiss him.

Well, that particular hazard was dealt with.

Ugh, in retrospect, Draco really had been a jerk! Sneaking into a girl's room and spending the night in her bed, especially without her consent... It was the kind of thing that could get you killed. Or worse; expelled.

She really had said some of the silliest things when she was a kid...

In any case, next time he tried to boss her around like that, he would be slapped. He needed to learn that he didn't own her at all just because he was a veela. Their--dare she say 'relationship'?--would progress when she said it was okay, and not before.

In the meantime, she had to go report what had happened to Dumbledore, maybe he'd have some advice.

And so she glanced at the clock; "Nearly lunchtime."

Damn. Oh well, what with the lack of sleep she'd gotten lately, she knew that someday soon she would end up sleeping in dreadfully. Best go see Dumbledor then.

Draco, having gotten dressed, waited for her in the common room sprawled on the sofa. Regardless of what Hermione had said, he was confident that they both knew that getting some good sleep last night had been necessary.

He hadn't intended for Hermione to find out so soon, but now that she had, why couldn't she just take it? Trying to stop or stall the inevitable wasn't going to do either of them any favors.

Hermione exited her room, having changed into her uniform and robes. "Malfoy? Shouldn't you be trying to catch up to class? What are you waiting for?" It kind of annoyed him the way she pressed on with calling him his surname so often...

"You," he answered, arching a brow at her. "I'm going with you to see the Headmaster. Figured we ought to have representatives from both sides of the equation." His look dared her to object.

"Fine." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned to exit the common room, "Hurry up, then."

Draco sighed, resisting the urge to scramble after her, and instead follow with the proper Slytherin-Princely air. His mate certainly could be cold. Was it really so bad to hijack her room for one little night?

Of course, if he had his way he'd just wrap his arms around her as she walked, pull her against him, and snog until they were both too aroused to be annoyed anymore: problem solved. But...not yet.

Damn, it was becoming his mantra, 'Not yet, not yet, control yourself, not yet.' Well, when freaking yet? His mate was becoming entirely too accustomed to the courtship going completely by her wishes. She showed absolutely no appreciation for his efforts with her. It was technically within his rights to jump her at any time. Dammit.

But...he couldn't do that. Like it or not, he really did care for the stubborn, know-it-all mudblood too much to disregard her feelings in this, even if he didn't like how she was acting. And still her scent called to him.

He sighed again as they reached the gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office. Sometimes it was hard to be a gentleman. Time to change tactics.

Hermione, as Head Girl, had been supplied with the password to Dumbledore's office ("Exploding Snap") and she gave it and started up the spiral staircase without looking back at her veela shadow.

Now that she knew what was going on and she wasn't quite so sleep-deprived, she seemed more prone to gravitating towards him when he was around. What was once no more than a niggling desire now rose to the fore. It was like her subconscious mind had quite happily latched onto the concept that she was destined for the pale Slytherin, and her conscious mind could do nothing to sway it.

And so she would just ignore it. Kissing veela is a no-no, very very bad for Hermiones.

She knocked on the door and opened it when the Headmaster's voice bid her enter.

"Ah, Miss Granger...and Mr. Malfoy," he added as Draco followed her in. "To what do I owe the pleasure? I was concerned when both of you were absent at your classes today."

Hermione swallowed. She didn't know how to start at all, and she suddenly wished that she hadn't let Draco follow her. "Well, eh, I have reason to believe that one of the students has awakened as a veela."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled behind his half-moon spectacles, "Is that so? That's very exciting." He looked at her expectantly, obviously expecting her to elaborate.

"Er, yes. And I also have reason to believe that, eh, I am said veela's intended." She blushed, managing to keep herself from turning to see the Slytherin smirk that was so likely directed towards her.

"Congratulations! The best matches are the ones set by fate, Miss Granger."

"But--but I, er..."

"It's me," Draco interrupted her vocal stumbling, "I'm the veela."

"Well, that would make sense. And of course I offer you congratulations as well."

"Thank you, Headmaster," Draco nodded with a grin.

"But what if I don't want to be fated to spend my life with Malfoy!"

Draco winced. Ooh, that had hurt more than he expected.

Dumbledore regarded her with an unreadable look," That can't be true, Hermione. You have been fated to want to spend your life with him, and I'm sure your life will be a very happy one," he gave her a smile. "But that still doesn't explain why you were both absent at class."

"Oh, that. Well, the whole veela..thing had been causing some insomnia and we just over-slept." That was all Hermione was willing to say on the subject.

"Oh, I see. But I trust that it won't happen again?"

"Yes, Headmaster," the Heads chorused.

"Good," he broke into his grandfatherly smile again. "Some allowances will be made considering your circumstances, but I'm trusting both of you to not neglect your schoolwork or Head duties. The school administration will be informed, but I expect you to keep this 'on the down-low', as muggles say.

"Thank you for coming to me. You should both be running along to lunch now before you miss the entire meal. Good luck!"

And so they made their way in silence down corridors towards Great Hall. The halls were deserted; apparently everyone else was already at lunch.

"Do you really hate being fated to me so much?" Draco asked quietly.

Hermione stopped and looked back at him. His pale bangs shadowed his eyes. "I...I don't know. It isn't exactly making my life easy right now."

"That's only because you're fighting it," the veela purred. He took a step towards her, his head up and his eyes blazing.

And Hermione found that she wasn't about to move away either.

"Hermione..." he closed the distance between them and grabbed her around the waist with one arm. He firmly claimed her lips with his.

At the first touch, Hermione knew she was lost. Yes, she'd been needing this. She was needing more. She kissed him back fervently, surprising them both.

With a go-ahead like that, Draco was not going to hold back. He felt his fangs lengthen and he nibbled her bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth before releasing it. She moaned and twined her arms around his neck.

He knew that if he didn't stop this now, things would go too far too fast. With great difficulty, he pulled back. Apparently Hermione wasn't ready for the snog to be over any more than he was and her lips tried to follow him. He chuckled and clicked his tongue in reprimand. "Not right now, Hermione. You're going to mad at me in a minute anyway. Now come on, we have to get to lunch."

And Hermione berated herself the rest of the way to the Great Hall. Kissing veela is a no-no, very very bad for Hermiones.

~*~

Yeah, yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, dear.

Sorry for the wait and such, I have been ill, still am ill. I had fever of 101.6 two days ago, pretty nasty stuff.

Someone said that they thought they had read this fic on a different site, HPFF? I assume that stand for Harry Potter Fanfiction, and I do not have an account on that site. If the story is up there, which I hope is a mistake, then it has been stolexor'd. *gasp!*

You guys don't think I should end it at ten chapters? Well, lucky for you, I've decided another thingy to put in that will make it longer by a couple chapters, probably. But really, how long do you think it should take? Right now they have fluxing hormones shadowing their every moment plus some relationship-building through potions homework, how long should it take for them to be ready to bond? And I'm pretty sure I want it to end with the bonding and a little; 'and so they were adorably in love for the rest of their lives (with a few arguments and babies on the side)', not some plot point thingy afterwards. In my mind, the relationship between Draco and Hermione is, in essence, the plot. Thoughts?

And what do you think of this Dumbledore? I think I didn't have a fever when I wrote him. But I think I may have broken a rule because he didn't already know about the veela thing...

Another thing of note; my elderly Mac is no longer willing to connect to that ever-changing little whipper-snapper of the interwebs. So I had to load the new chapter onto a zipdrive and 'borrow' someone else's computer and now I'll have to delete cookies when I log off... Not particularly fun. And the next week or two will be very, very busy for me, so the next chapter may take longer than usual.

Oh, and my pup-wolf (actually a full-grown Siberian husky, I just call him 'wolf' or 'pup' a lot) usually lives outside, but the weather wrecked the fence and for the next day or so he's been living in the house. It's very interesting to be typing fanfiction with a blue-eyed wolf looking over your shoulder and licking your face on occasion. Has the wolf been a good or bad influence on my writing?

EDIT: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, hold the phone! I have more than 10,000 hits? *gets teary* I LOVE YOU GUYS! *group hug*