Beautiful Disaster

Title: Beautiful Disaster
Author: ashleyfanfic
Rating: NC-17 eventually (promise)
Part: 8/??
Summary: Veela!Draco discovers that his mate is the least likely person on the planet and the revelation leads him and his father in new directions.
A/N: Thanks to zephyr for betaing this for me! She does an awesome job and is very supportive. Thank you soooo much. And thanks also go to del who I owe a lot of credit for helping me shape this fic into what it is today. Actually, a good bit of this part was due to her suggestions. So, thank you so very very much.
Disclaimer: The characters held within are not mine but belong to warner brothers and jk rowling. I\'m only playing with them for a few minutes and will give them back virtually unharmed. There is also no profit being made off of this, so please don\'t sue.

*~*


Hermione had the books tucked beneath her arm as she entered the common room, finding it deserted for so late in the evening. After leaving Draco\'s room, she\'d gone to the library, hoping to get a bit more detail about what she was going to face concerning this new revelation. She was his mate. Draco Malfoy. Draco Bloody Malfoy. It hadn\'t sunk it quite yet. She didn\'t feel so guilty about taking pleasure in his kisses as much as she did, but the guilt over what she was going to do to Ron made her head hurt, as well as her heart.

She began making her way up to her room, when she heard a voice, \"You\'re back?\"

She turned on the stairs and found Ron standing below her, a smile on his face. She took several deep breaths, trying to reign in her emotions, \"Yes. I...Dumbledore needed to see me.\"

\"What about?\"

She bit her lip, hating that she was going to lie to her friend, \"A...a new project.\"

\"Oh...well...um...I was hoping we could...pick up where we left off.\"

She sighed, \"Ron...I-I can\'t.\"

\"What? But...you came to me...\"

\"I know. And, it was for the wrong reasons. I apologize for...for leading you on...\"

\"So, you don\'t want to sleep with me?\"

\"It\'s not that...\"

His anger flared up. \"Then what the bloody hell is it?\"

She looked at her feet, \"I just can\'t...\"

\"Am I pressuring you or...\"

\"No...\"

\"Then, what\'s the problem? A little while ago you...you wanted me.\"

That wasn\'t true. She didn\'t really want Ron. She just trusted him enough not to hurt her greatly. She knew he cared about her, knew he cared about her feelings as well as his own. She honestly didn\'t want to hurt him, but she knew she had to, \"I...I just...things changed.\"

\"In three hours?\" he hissed.

\"I\'ve had some time to think...\"

\"You think too much,\" he spat angrily.

\"Ron, please try to understand.\"

\"Oh, I understand. Why did you really agree to be my girlfriend, Hermione?\"

She sighed, \"Because...I wanted to be.\"

\"Really? Then what the hell is this? You\'ve changed your mind that quickly?\"

She frowned, \"I...\" she allowed a tear to roll down her face, \"I don\'t want to hurt you, Ron. And I don\'t want anyone else to hurt either.\"

He shook his head, \"That doesn\'t make any sense!\" He clinched his fist as he stood in front of her, \"You\'re so wrapped up in your books that you\'re throwing us away.\"

She hugged the books to her chest, \"Ron...\"

\"You know what? Forget it. Run along and go read, Hermione. It\'s the only thing that ever seems to get attention from you.\"

\"That\'s not fair!\"

\"Neither is telling me you want me only to back out later!\"

\"This isn\'t my fault!\"

\"And I suppose it\'s mine?!\"

\"No! It\'s Mal...it\'s a situation that can\'t be helped.\"

\"Were you going to say Malfoy?\"

She sighed, \"No.\"

\"Yes, you were. What does that over-grown ferret have to do with this?!\"

She was growing angry at Ron, for his insistence to be a prat, and then she remembered the conversation in Dumbledore\'s office about why Draco had beaten Ron up, \"You were betting Dean that you could get me into bed.\"

\"Unbelievable,\" he said folding his arms over his chest, \"you\'re taking his word over mine?\"

\"Are you denying it?\"

\"Damn right I am.\"

\"So, if I asked Dean, he\'d say there was nothing of the like said.\"

\"You\'re calling me a liar?\"

She frowned, \"There\'s just been some information come to light for me, and I believe that you\'re lying to me about that.\"

\"What happened? Malfoy confess his undying love for you? Get over yourself, Hermione. You may be smart, but Malfoy can get better looking girls...\"

\"RON!\" The red head turned and found Harry standing behind him, looking rather unhappy about what he\'d just heard, \"What the hell is going on? Why would you say that to Hermione?\"

He looked from Harry to Hermione as he shook his head, \"Well, I guess I know where your loyalties lie, Harry.\"

Ron tried to storm past Harry, but his friend stopped him, \"Apologize to her, now.\"

\"When hell freezes over, mate,\" he said angrily.

Ron stormed out of the common room, and Hermione sat on the stairs and put her head in her hands. She heard Harry heave a sigh as he stared at her concerned. \"Are you alright?\"

She nodded, \"I\'m going to my room. I\'ll talk to you later.\"

She ran up the stairs, finding her dorm room deserted. All the information of the last few hours was hitting her quickly. She tossed the books onto her bed and took a seat on the mattress. She noticed that her housemates were all missing, probably hidden away with a boy in the astronomy tower.

\"Boys,\" she huffed.

Crookshanks leapt onto her bed and nuzzled her leg with his flat face. She lifted him into her arms and ran her hand over his fur, \"What am I going to do, Crookshanks? I\'m destined for Draco Malfoy. I don\'t know whether to laugh or cry.\" She sighed as the ran a hand over her cat, \"It\'s unfair. How can they expect me to just be okay with any of this? He says he expects my hostility, but he doesn\'t really, stupid prat.\"

The cat merely looked up at her as he purred softly, her hand rubbing over his soft fur, \"Of all the people in the world, Crookshanks. All the boys in this school even, it just had to be Malfoy.\" She sighed, \"What am I going to do? I can\'t picture myself being nice to him, how am I supposed to even think of some sort of future with him. And from what the books say there is no way around it. No spell, no way to get around being meant for him. It\'s permanent. The person who came up with that idea was cruel.\"

She shook her head, a tear rolled down her cheek, \"I\'ve never wanted to belong to someone, but now I do. I\'m trapped with no way of escaping. It\'s not fair,\" she whispered. Crookshanks nudged her with his head, finding the sight of his mistress crying rather upsetting to him. She petted him again, but she was still visibly upset. She tilted her head at her cat and smiled as he purred. \"Thanks. You always have a way of making me feel better.\"

Hermione shook her head, \"I must sound like a crazy person, talking to a cat as if it understands me.\" She stared down at the orange ball of fur and sighed, \"But it was nice to talk to someone and not have them argue with me.\" She gave the cat a kiss on the head and set him back on her bed, and watched as he leapt to the floor and moved beneath her bed. She sighed as she lay back and stared at the canopy overhead. She felt like all hope for a normal, happy future was lost. She was destined for a boy she despised and there was nothing she could do about it.

*~*

It had been days since she\'d last spoken to Ron. While he wasn\'t exactly yelling or screaming, she knew that inside he was angrier with her than he ever had been before. As for his relationship with Harry, he\'d even taken the silent treatment with him, but Harry was sure he\'d get over it eventually and come back to them both with his tail tucked between his legs.

She felt badly for hurting him, but after rethinking their conversation for a few days, she had decided that he was way out of line. He\'d said hurtful things to her when she\'d only wanted to spare his feelings. She understood that he was hurt, but lashing out at her wasn\'t going to make his pain go away. And then there was the fact that he had said what he\'d said to Dean. She knew without asking Dean that it was the truth, otherwise Draco never would have laid a hand on Ron. It was his own fault that he\'d spent two days in the infirmary, not Draco\'s, although there was a bit of the blame laid on his shoulders.

Draco was the other thing that consumed her thoughts. She was confused and angered by the information she\'d received from the Slytherin and was none too pleased to find that her future had been laid out for her. She was angry that he\'d known since the beginning of school and instead of just telling the truth right away, he decided to play games with her head. His being nice to her was one thing, but being nice with an ulterior motive was underhanded and wrong. He should have been up front with her. But the more she thought about that the more she realized that she wouldn\'t have believed a word he said then. She was a bit reluctant to believe everything he\'d told her now, and would have been extremely hesitant had the Headmaster not been there to back up everything Draco had told her.

She frowned deeper. The Headmaster, someone she trusted, had known this as well and kept it from her. She understood keeping the secrets the students told him for their own safety or confidence, but something like this needed to be told. She was angry that he hadn\'t thought enough of her to admit everything to her. But now she knew. And the only reason she knew was because Draco had been in pain due to what she was doing with Ron. She really had no remorse about it except for the pain she had caused Ron, and that was diminishing quickly the longer he acted like a child.

She glanced across the Great Hall, feeling a pair of eyes on her and finding Draco staring at her, intrigued. His head was tilted as his lips were turned in a sort of smirk at her. She wanted to slap the expression right off his perfect face. She didn\'t know what he thought was so damn funny but if he was going to stare at her that way she was going to leave. She looked down at her food that she\'d only taken a few bites of. Harry sighed beside her and she looked over at him as he stared at her fork that was pushing around the food on her plate.

\"What\'s wrong?\" she asked, finding her friend\'s sigh strange.

\"You\'re not eating.\"

\"I\'m not really hungry,\" she said as she pushed a carrot around on her plate and glanced over at the Slytherin table, finding grey eyes still watching her intensely.

Harry leaned forward and whispered, \"Ignore him and eat.\"

She spared a glance at Draco to see that his fists were clinched on the table and he was no longer smirking but looked rather angry. She backed away from Harry, not wanting what happened to Ron to befall her friend. She pushed her food around her plate as she glanced up at Draco who still looked pretty angry. She shook her head, trying to rid her head of the guilt she felt for Harry being concerned about her. If Draco wanted to be a prat, he could be a prat. Harry was her friend and she wasn\'t going to start being distant to him because he had a problem with it.

She finally decided to give up on the pretense that she was eating and stood. She grabbed her bag and gave Harry a pat on the shoulder as she turned and left the Great Hall. She walked down the corridors, making the familiar trek to the library when she heard someone following behind her. She turned and found Draco making his way towards her and she rolled her eyes at his temperament. She didn\'t feel like dealing with him at the moment.

\"Whatever you want, make it fast.\"

\"Do I have to remind you what happened to Weasley?\" He asked as he folded his arms over his chest, \"Or does the same need to happen to Potter for you to understand?\"

She rolled her eyes again, \"Honestly!\" She pulled Draco by his sleeve into a deserted classroom, \"First off, you have no claim on me, despite what you may think. Harry is my friend and I can act with him whatever way I please. Besides, if you must know he was concerned with my not eating, not that I owe you an explanation. Harry and Ron have been my friends long before you and I were enemies, so you can drop the protective act right now-\"

\"You talk a lot.\"

She stopped in mid sentence and tilted her head at him, \"What?\"

\"I said you talk a lot. I mean, I always knew you liked to talk but you really do talk more than necessary. You could have just said \'Fuck you, they\'re my friends and you have no right to interfere\' but the long diatribe you went into was pointless.\"

She stood with her hands on her hips, her mouth open as she stared at the cocky blond in front of her, \"You\'re a...a. . .\"

\"A?\"

She clinched her jaw, irritated that he was enjoying picking at her. \"You can go to hell,\" she said as she left the classroom.

He was on her heels before she could even think straight, \"Now, Granger, that\'s not very nice.\"

She stopped walking and he nearly collided with her as she spun around and shoved him, \"Leave me alone.\"

\"I can\'t.\"

\"Why not?\"

\"Because...I want to be around you.\"

\"The feeling isn\'t mutual, so bugger off.\"

He sighed and shook his head, \"Now, we both know that isn\'t true.\"

\"What?\"

\"You do want to be around me. You just haven\'t admitted it to yourself yet. Don\'t worry, you\'ll get there.\"

\"I hope you fall off your broom,\" she spat at him, almost immediately regretting the words.

He raised an eyebrow, a bit taken aback by her reply. \"Do you, now?\"

She clinched her jaw and folded her arms over her chest, \"Can\'t you just leave me alone?\"

\"No, afraid not.\"

She groaned, stomped her foot, and turned abruptly, heading towards the library once again, \"And what about your house mates? What if they see you lapping at my heels like some...puppy?\"

\"I\'m not lapping at your heels.\"

\"And what would you call it?\" she asked as she pushed open the doors, only to have it swing wide as his hand pushed against it to open it for her.

He was quiet for a few moments as they made their way to a table in the back. The smirk on his face was enough to make her yearn to slap him, \"Stalking?\"

She rolled her eyes as she removed the books from her bag, as well as a quill and ink. He took the seat next to her, lifting the books to look at them, finding that there were two more inside the bag that she hadn\'t removed. He reached his hand inside quickly and removed them, finding the two books he had given to her. \"Read them yet?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"And?\"

\"And I\'m living in my own personal Hell, right now. And you\'re the devil himself.\"

He smiled, \"So, I have a starring role in this little fantasy of yours? Tell me, are you wearing red leather that barely covers you? Because it\'s certainly what you\'re wearing in mine,\" he said as he gave her a wink.

Her cheeks reddened and she stared harder at the text in front of her, trying to ignore his presence, \"Can you go away and let me do my homework?\"

\"What homework? You\'re ahead in every one of your classes.\"

\"How do you know that?\"

He smiled, \"I know a lot more about you than you think.\"

She sighed, \"Let me guess. Swotty little know-it-all, friend to Harry Potter, dated Viktor Krum, and I spend most of my time with my head buried in a book?\"

He shook his head and rolled his eyes, \"Hardly. You\'re unpredictable in certain aspects. I never know when you\'re going to slap me or just gawk at me. You love books, but not just books about magic, books about anything and everything. You enjoy reading but you enjoy the company of your friends more. You aren\'t bogged down by appearances or anything so shallow. You simply accept life as it\'s thrown at you.\" He looked up at her shocked face, a smile hovering over his lips, \"How was that?\"

She blinked a few times, \"I think . . . I think you might have scratched the surface.\"

He grinned, \"Good.\" He leaned forward a bit, \"I must admit, I didn\'t really know all that.\"

\"Then . . . how did you?\"

He shrugged, \"I just felt it.\"

\"You felt it?\"

\"Well . . . I might have been paying a little bit of attention.\"

\"Stalking?\"

He smiled, \"I\'m good at what I do.\"

She sighed, \"What do you really want?\"

He looked at her for a few minutes as he placed the books in his hand back on the table. He frowned, wondering how to put it into words, \"I want you to give me a chance.\"

She was writing something down on the parchment from their Potions book and she glanced over at him. She set her quill down as she turned to look at him, \"A chance for what?\"

\"To prove to you . . . that I\'m not the devil.\"

She raised an eyebrow, \"Which means . . . what?\"

\"Which means that we don\'t insult one another at every turn . . . \"

\"But I don\'t . . . \"

\"Yes, you do. But that\'s fine. I know you don\'t exactly like me, which I expect, but by the same token you have to at least give me a chance to prove to you that I\'m more than what you think of me.\"

She sighed and sat back in her chair as she stared at the table, \"I don\'t know.\"

\"You\'ll eventually give in anyway,\" he said adjusting his cufflink.

Hermione\'s head snapped over to look at him, and furrowed her brow, \"What does that mean?\"

\"You read the books.\"

\"I did. But...” she blinked a few times remembering a passage, \"I don\'t really get a choice in this, do I?\"

He sighed, \"Afraid not.\"

She rubbed her forehead, \"I hate this.\"

\"What? Being destined for me?\" he asked, rather offended.

\"No, having no choice in the matter. I\'m destined for you and there\'s nothing I can do about it. I just...hate it.\"

He scowled, \"Because you would be my first choice.\"

\"No need to get insulted. I didn\'t mean it that way.\"

\"And how exactly is \'I hate you to the point that I dread my future\' supposed to sound?\"

She folded her arms over her chest, \"Aren\'t you angry about this?\"

\"I\'ve gotten used to the idea.\"

She shook her head, \"I\'ve only had a few days with it, so excuse me if I\'m not accepting it with open arms. I just need time.\"

He nodded, \"That\'s fine. But I want you to seriously consider Christmas.\"

\"What about it?\"

\"My parents really would like to get to know you...\"

\"I don\'t know. The thought of being in the same house as...your father scares me.\"

He frowned, \"He\'s not that bad.\"

\"He hates my kind, Malfoy.\"

\"Yes, but...he\'s rather accepting of you.\"

\"Why is that?\"

Draco smiled, \"Because he understands my need to have you. He felt the same for my mother in the past and to this day worships the ground she walks on. He loves her, which is something most people would never think of concerning their marriage.\"

\"What does that have to do with me?\"

\"He understands that there\'s no way around it. He also understands from my side what it\'s like to feel this and to really be able to do nothing about it except wait for you to realize that you want me too.\"

She frowned, \"And he\'s fine with all this?\"

He lowered his voice to a whisper, \"Do you really think he would turn his back on the Dark Lord if he didn\'t accept it?\"

She sighed, \"I suppose not.\"

They were both quiet for a few minutes before Draco spoke again, \"I have a suggestion.\"

\"What\'s that?\"

He licked his bottom lip before he turned in his chair where he was fully facing her, \"You and I...meet, once a week somewhere private where we can get to know one another. And it\'s a completely...resentment free area.\"

She propped her head on her hand as she looked at him, \"Where?\"

\"My common room.\"

\"Uh...\"

He folded his arms over his chest, \"You have another suggestion for somewhere private to meet?\"

She racked her brain, trying to think and shook her head, \"No.\"

He nodded, \"So, once a week?\"

She sighed, \"Fine.\"

\"What day?\"

\"After the prefects meeting? We\'re both free then, right?\"

He nodded, \"I\'m available whenever you need me,\" he said with a grin.

She chose not to read too much into that statement, knowing that to do so would cause her to blush even more. \"Fine.\" She looked back at her parchment, and then glanced over at him, \"Can you let me get back to my homework now?\"

He smiled, \"Of course, Granger.\"