Tainted Love

Disclaimer: Don\'t Own it! Never have, never will.


Hello fellow fanfickers. Long time reader first time writer bare with me and please be nice. R&R xoxox


* Tainted Love *

It was the morning after the Welcome Back Feast and Hermione was waiting in the Gryffindor common room for Harry to join her for breakfast. As she looked out of the common room window, she sighed to herself lightly and wondered how much longer until winter would be here. The mornings were starting to feel crisp and the nights were getting cooler. She smiled at the thought of how beautiful Hogwarts looked under a blanket of snow.

Harry whispered her name gently in her ear, which in turn swiftly pulled Hermione out of her daydream. Startled and breathless she said “Oh Harry, sorry I was…” but he cut her off.
“It’s ok, I’m glad to be too too, not that I didn’t enjoy my summer,” he said with a mischievous wink, and it was true. They had spent their summer at the Burrow with Ron and had become intensely close. He took her hand in his and they walked through the portrait hole and headed down to the Great Hall.
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The room was already bustling with friends catching up after the summer holidays. They looked towards the Gryffindor table and we\'t s\'t surprised to see Ron already seated, a mound of food on his plate. They looked at each other smiling, rolled their eyes and headed over to the table.

Once seated, Hermione pulled a piece of parchment from her pocket. Harry leaned in close to her ear, his voice low and warm “What do we have today my sweet?” Hermione felt her face grow warm, she could feel herself blush immediately. She loved it when Harry was close to her, she couldn’t imagine being with out him. Not after spending all that time together at the Burrow. All those warm nights, strolling through the garden hand in hand. Harry had also tried teaching her how to master flying. There were no great breakthroughs, but there was plenty of cheering and laughing from Ron.

\"Double Potions now and Double Care of Magical Creatures after lunch,\" she announced to Ron and Harry as she straightened herself. Ron and Harookeooked at each other in disgust.
“Great! Slytherins all day,” Ron said as he shovelled more food into his mouth.
“Yeah, that’s all I need. A perfectly good summer ruined by Malfoy.”
Hermione interjected noticing the boys were beginning to sulk. “Well at least we get to see Hagrid.”
“Ah ‘orgotten bout ‘at,” Ron burst out with food hanging from his mouth.
Harry let out a slight chuckle. “Well, I guess we\'d better eat something then,” he said as he started serving Hermione and himself breakfast.


Arm in arm Harry and Hermione made there way down to the dungeons for Potions. Before rounding the corner to class Harry stopped and pulled Hermione to him swiftly,
One hand behind her waist, the other between her shoulders. He looked into her eyes and felt all the passion and love he had ever known well up inside him. He leaned in gently and when his mouth met hers, he felt a rush of contentment. The sudden pull from Harry into his embrace startled her at first, but once she looked into his eyes, she smiled softly. How could she be startled by him? She had grown to love him so much over the summer, in ways she never expected. When he lowered his mouth to hers she knew in that instant that she would be his forever. She was gone. That kiss so full of emotion yet so tender and loving, she would never be apart from him.

“Well, Well, Well. Scar head and the Mudblood. Who’d have guessed,” came Draco’s sarcastic drawl from behind them.
“Shut up Malfoy,” Harry yelled, as he swung around, his hand ready to grab his wand.

Hermione gasped with shock as Harry tore away from her yelling at Malfoy. By now both boys had their wands at the ready, inches away from each other. Hermione put her hand gently on Harry’s wand arm, “Harry, Harry it’s not worth it,” she said in a soft whisper.
At that very moment, Professor Snape came swooping down the corridor toward the dungeons. “What’s this Potter? Fighting in school! 10 POINTS from Gryffindor. Now I suggest you get into class before I deduct more points for being late.” Harry stuffed his wand back into his pocket with a glare at Draco. Harry then turned with Hermione and they both walked into the classroom together.

Potions were pretty uneventful, save for the glares and smirks thrown across the room. After lunch, they headed down towards the Forbidden Forest to Hagrid\'s hut for Care of Magical Creatures. Once every one had arrived, Hagrid announced that today they would be working in pairs observing Knarls.
\"Knarls, small hedgehog looking creatures, take easy offence like Hippogriffs, and should be handled in a polite manner,\" Hagrid explained quickly. At this, everyone began gathering into pairs. But Hagrid cleared his throat uncomfortably and announced “Professor Dumbledore has suted ted to ‘er encourage interhouse relations and that you should be paired with someone not of your house.”
Immediately there was an uproar of protest from both sides. Harry looked to Hermione with a disappointed gaze and she, in turn, was looking at Hagrid, open-mouthed. Hagrid cleared his throat before reading names from the class list, sorting everyone into pairs.

“Ok we’ll ‘ave, Zabini with Brown, Weasley with Bulstrode, Longbottom and Goyle, Potter with Crabbe and last but not least, Granger with Malfoy”

Draco’s outburst could be heard immediately. “Granger! I don’t think so! I refuse to work with Muggles!\" Hagrid walked over to Hermione, who was darting filthy looks and scowls at Draco, and placed his hand on her shoulder, almost knocking her down to the ground.
“Right then that’s settled, seein’ as Hermione’s a witch an\' all,” Hagrid said, a small smile playing at his lips. Now it was Draco’s turn to scowl and dart filthy looks around to all the Gryffindors, who were smirking and smiling shamelessly in his direction.


Everybody carefully selected their Knarls, not wanting to get poked by one of its pointy spikes and ventured off into their pairs to study and draw their creatures. Hermione and Draco had grudgingly settled on a spot near the edge of the forest. Hermione, not wanting to have too much in the way of conversation with her partner, sat down with her legs folded on the grass, pulled out her parchment and a quill and started to sketch and take notes. Draco however was leaning against a tree sulking over the fact that he had been paired with a Mudblood.

“This is the most pathetic creature I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that great oaf has us studying such remedial creatures in our 6th year. I mean look at it! It’s ugly and hideous and I bet it’s not even useful,” Draco said as he pushed himself off the tree casually and shifted a few steps. As soon as Draco\'s words had left his mouth, the Knarls spikes were standing on end and it ran, making a b-line for Draco. He jumped out of the way very swiftly and it shot straight past him and into the Forbidden Forest.

“MALFOY!!” Hermione yelled, “Look what you’ve done! You\'re such an idiot! Didn’t you hear Hagrid say that they were sensitive? Now we’ll go and have to ask for another one.” The pair walked over to Hagrid and asked for another Knarl to work with.

To their surprise, Hagrid said, “Sorry you two, only ‘ad enough for each pair. You’ll have to go and get it. Besides we can’t have a Knarl runnin’ loose in the forest. They wreak havoc in the garden; you just think what it’ll do in the forest. Now I think you best go get ‘im.” The pair set off into the forest, ruffling small bushes and moving leaves around with their feet.

“Malfoy I...I don’t think we should go in any further.”

“What’s the matter Granger? I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave!” he said sarcastically with one of his infamous evil smirks across his face. Hermione broadened her shoulders, lifted her chin high.

“Fine then Malfoy, far be it from me to be a coward,” she said. They walked further into the forest, suddenly aware of how quite it was. Almost simultaneously they both realized they could here rustling. They both turned and noticed that they could no longer see the Hogwarts grounds. A medium sized Centaur moved slowly out of the nearby bushes. While he was staring at them with interest, a rather large Centaur appeared behind the smaller one. Hermione gasped, as she immediately knew exactly who it was. It was Bane, the centaur she and Harry had run into at the end of last year with Umbridge. Recognition dawned on Bane’s face instantly.

“YOU DARE TO SET FOOT IN THIS FOREST, AFTER INSULTING US INTO YOUR BIDING AND THEN SET A GIANT AGAINST US?”

“I….”

Draco shot a quick surprised look between Hermione and the centaur’s.

“SILENCE HUMAN! YOU ARE IN MY TERRITORY NOW AND YOU SHALL BE DEALT WITH ACCORDING TO OUR LAW!”

“RUN!!” she yelled to Draco, who didn’t need to be told twice. They both legged it as fast and as hard as they could, dodging trees and jumping bushes. They could hear what sounded like it must be a whole herd of centaur’s behind them now.

“MERLIN GRANGER, WHAT DID YOU AND THAT POTTER DO?” he yelled at her in both anger and awe.

“JUST SHUT UP AND RUN MALFOY! YOU DON’T WANT TO GET CAUGHT! DIDN’T YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID TO UMBRIDGE LAST YEAR?” she yelled back. Hermione could see a reflective light just ahead of her. All she could think to do was to run towards it.

“THIS WAY DRACO!” she screamed behind her. As they were approaching the shinny light ahead, she realized it was a window.
\'A window? She thought, a house? No…no wait, it’s a cabin.\' She got to the door and burst through it with Draco at her heels. He slammed the door shut as she thrust her wand into the air towards the ceiling and screamed a protection charm at the top of her lungs. There was an instant green glow thrown from her wand into the air towards the ceiling. The cabin glowed an emerald green for a brief moment and then they could hear a few loud thuds and some more yelling outside.

“SOMEONE WILL COME FOR THEM, SURROUND THE CABIN IMMEDIATELY!”

Draco was red-faced and panting. Through quick sharp breaths he managed to get out, “Wh… what did you do?”
Hermione, wiping the hair from her face and holding her side in slight pain, said, “It’s ok we\'re.... we’re safe for now.”