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This book was automatically created by FLAG on September 23rd, 2012, basedon content retrieved from http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6923370/.

The content in this book is copyrighted by frostykitten or their authorisedagent(s). All rights are reserved except where explicitly stated otherwise.

This story was first published on April 20th, 2011, and was last updated onSeptember 13th, 2011.

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Table of Contents

Summary1. Chapter 12. Chapter 23. Chapter 34. Chapter 45. Chapter 56. Chapter 67. Chapter 78. Chapter 89. Chapter 910. Chapter 1011. Chapter 1112. Chapter 1213. Chapter 1314. Chapter 1415. Chapter 1516. Chapter 1617. Chapter 1718. Chapter 1819. Chapter 1920. Chapter 2021. Chapter 2122. Chapter 2223. Chapter 23

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Summary

"You're going to help me kiss all the girls in Hogwarts until I find the one that'sgoing to save my life?" He asked. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, knowing shewas going to regret this. "Yes." Draco's a Veela, Hermione helps him find his mate.DM/HG

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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A/N: I know it's been done before, this Veela thing, but I just couldn'tresist... So here's my version! This idea has been sitting in my 'ideas' folderfor a while, so I decided to make it into an actual story. The exam I havetomorrow and am avoiding studying for was also a motivating factor...

This chapter is unbeataed, if anyone wants to volunteer to beta, I'd reallyappreciate it.

~Frosty

Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Draco rubbed a hand against his aching chest.The gnawing ache had been going on for a while now, and it was starting to worryhim slightly. He glanced around the Potions classroom to see if anyone had noticedhis discomfort, not wanting to make his weakness obvious.

Blaise was directing a worried look at him from across the room where he wassitting beside his partner, Potter. Snape had decided that they were almost enjoyinghis class on some days so he had assigned them as partners with the person theywere least likely to get along with just to add that little bit extra unpleasantness totheir day. The old bat didn't want people to think he was going soft.

Shaking his head minutely at his friend to signify that he was fine, Draco finishedhis scan of the room. If Blaise had noticed, then he wasn't hiding his pain as well ashe'd hoped. His grey eyes landed on the busy head sitting beside him at their desk.Granger had noticed his discomfort and was staring at him with a concerned look inher molten chocolate eyes.

His lips turned down in a frown at his Gryffindor partner. Her eyes were thecolour of dirt; flat brown and boring. Not molten chocolate.

"Are you all right Malfoy?" She asked in a whisper, ignoring the dark frownmarring his face that clearly warned not to comment on what she'd seen. Grangerwas irritating like that, always sticking her self-righteous nose in other people'sbusiness.

Draco tried to strengthen his glare and intimidate her into turning back to the

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potion they'd been assigned to work on, but the pain in his chest suddenly worsenedto an almost unbearable agony. Without his permission, his body curled around hisstomach in an unsuccessful effort to soothe the stabbing pains. He barely evenregistered the impact with the floor as he fell out of his chair and landed in a heapon the unforgiving dungeon stones.

The last thing he remembered before the pain intensified to the point where hecould no longer maintain consciousness was her cinnamon irises looking down athim anxiously. He blinked at her helplessly as the blackness that had beenencroaching on him overwhelmed his vision and he passed out.

With a quiet groan, Draco shifted slightly under the uncomfortable, scratchysheets. What in the world were the elves thinking putting those things on his bed?They may as well have used sandpaper against his delicate skin. He blearily openedhis eyes, glancing around the blindingly white room where he had been sleeping.The events of Potions class came rushing back when he realized that he was in theHospital Wing.

"Oh Draco!" Someone said, throwing their arms around him. The position was alittle awkward, as she was sitting in a chair beside his bed and he was lying down.

He made a face as he spit out the hair that had gone into his mouth. "Mother?What happened?"

The hair that was trying to suffocate him was removed as Narcissa's armsloosened from around his neck. She pulled back to see him better, looking overevery visible centimetre of him for bruises from the fall.

"I knew your father should have warned you before you left for school," shesighed, smoothing his hair away from his face.

Draco's eyes darted to his father as the man finished conversing with theMediwitch and walked purposefully over to Draco's bed. He hadn't noticed theimposing presence of his father in the room until his mother had mentioned theman. Lucius Malfoy wasn't someone it was wise to overlook.

"Son, I have something to tell you," Lucius said after a moment of observing hisoffspring. His proclamation was followed by more silence.

Looking between Draco's expectant face and Lucius' frown, Narcissa sighed.

- 6 -

Lucius may have come across as someone to fear to outside observers, but the manhated to deal with their son's fits of temper and was hesitant to start one. Shesupposed it was their own fault; they had spoiled the boy when he was young.

"What your father is trying to say," she spoke up, shooting Lucius an exasperatedlook. "Is that he's a Veela, making you one as well; the blood's dominant."

Draco's usually pale visage drained of what little blood that was usually there."Tell me this is some kind of cruel joke." He pleaded. He didn't know much aboutVeelas, but he did know that being one meant that his 'pure' blood he'd been soproud of was a lie. There was something else nagging at the back of his mind aswell, something important he was forgetting about Veelas, but he couldn't seem toput his finger on it.

"It's true." Lucius said. "There's something else as well..."

Narcissa rolled her eyes at the continued hesitance of her husband. The manreally did spoil the boy. It was part of his Veela nature, but that didn't mean it wasright.

"Draco, as a Veela, you have a mate. This girl is going to come to mean everythingto you because she's your soul mate... There's just one little problem; you're going tohave to find your mate within the year. Failure to do this will lead to your death."She told him, brutally revealing the truth.

Her husband gave her a reproachful look that she ignored. He knew what it waslike to have something like that dropped on your head, and it wasn't a pleasantexperience. Narcissa wasn't even looking at her husband, all her attention wasdirected at their son, who was gaping like a fish.

"You'll be drawn to her, but there's only one way for you to know for sure who sheis." Lucius chimed in when it didn't seem that Draco was going to pull himselftogether enough to comment. At least the boy wasn't yelling, so far he was taking itbetter than expected.

Draco waited, both dreading and needing to know what his father was going totell him. "What is it?"

"A kiss," Lucius said with a sigh, anticipating his son's negative reaction to thenew information.

The younger Malfoy's eyes widened in horror before a red tinge of anger started- 7 -

in his cheeks. "You want me to just go around kissing every girl I meet? Just whoremyself around?" He yelled, outraged.

"Language!" His mother chided in the background, but they didn't pay her anymind.

Lucius raised a pale eyebrow. "I was under the impression you did that already."

"Not just anyone, Father. I have standards."

Lucius was starting to get fed up with the boy's whinging. Sometimes he wishedhe'd had a girl, she'd be more likely to be happy that she had a perfect match outthere somewhere. "Draco," he gritted out. "This girl is your perfect match in everyway; your soul mate. When you find her, those standards will fly out the door."

The boy nodded, but he didn't look like he'd been listening. In fact, he lookednauseated. "What if she's in Gryffindor?"

He was so overdramatic. Lucius had to wonder if he was ever this irritating whenhe was young.

Narcissa had been watching the exchange between father and son and wasstarting to tire of it. She put a hand on Lucius' arm to stop the outburst she knewwas about to happen. The man didn't have much patience when it came to their son,probably because the boy was just like him.

"Draco, you listen to me," his mother ordered. "There's a girl out there who willmake you happy for the rest of your life if you can just find her. If you don't, you will die. This isn't something you can just get out of by having your Father use his pull tochange the rules. It's time you grew up."

She leant down and kissed his forehead before leaving the room. His father pattedthe boy's shoulder in a show of support and followed his wife out of the room,looking amused at the entire situation. There was no doubt in his mind that Dracowould manage to find the girl, Malfoys were nothing if not fully invested in their ownself-preservation. His journey to find the girl was sure to be interesting though,Draco had enough of his mother in him to make him outspoken enough to gethimself in plenty of trouble before he'd managed to settle down with this girl.

Draco stared after his parents in disbelief, unable to properly process thedramatic change his blood had just thrown at him. There was probably some irony inthere somewhere; the blood he'd been so proud of for its purity was now going to

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kill him. He was too distraught to properly appreciate it. How could his parents justimpart information like that one him and the leave?

Suddenly, the curtain that had been surrounding the bed beside him whippedback, making him nearly jump out of his skin. It revealed a head of unmistakeablebushy hair and eyes alight with interest and sympathy. Great, more fun was yet tobe had.

Merlin, what had he done to deserve so much aggravation in one day? Wait... hecould probably answer that himself. His eyes snapped down to his left arm beforethe settled on the nuisance and narrowed into a glare.

"Merlin, Granger. What the hell are you doing?" He demanded angrily, unhappythat she'd managed to startle him and with his life in general at the moment. Whydid it have to be her who had heard that entire thing with his parents? Now hewouldn't be able to torment her without fear of her revealing his secret.

Granger had always been an easy target to torment when he was feeling down.Something about poking fun at her faults had always made him feel better aboutwhatever it was that was bothering him.

"I heard what they said," she told him. Her legs swung over the side of the bed shesat on and she hopped down, walking to his bedside and taking the visitor's chair.

Draco frowned at how un-intimidated she appeared. He was obviously doingsomething wrong if she felt so comfortable with him that she just confidently tookthe visitor's chair like that.

"Of course you did," he muttered. "If you tell anyone I'll make sure to make yourlife miserable. Well, more miserable than it already is." It was obviously alreadypretty horrible, she spent most of her spare time with the Weasel and Saint Potter.

Hermione only rolled her eyes at his threats. "Don't even bother Malfoy, you caninsult me all you want, but you're not getting rid of me until I've said what I have tosay." She waited to see if he was going to object, but he merely scowled at her. Justto piss him off, she smiled radiantly at him. "Good. Now, as Head Girl, I feel it is myduty to stop something like the preventable death of the Head Boy from happening.So I'm offering my services." She told him primly.

Draco took a moment to just stare at her in disbelief. "Granger, there's no way inhell you're my mate. Besides, I don't think you can just... offer."

- 9 -

Immediately, her face took on an appalled expression. That hadn't been whatshe'd meant at all, but he didn't have to be so mean about rejecting her theoreticaloffer. Although she hid it well, deep down, Hermione was a little hurt that he'd justwrite her off without even pausing to think about it for a moment.

"That's not what I meant at all. Stop being daft. I was offering to help you findyour mate."

"You're going to help me kiss all the girls in Hogwarts until I find the one that'sgoing to save my life?" He asked. The kindness that had motivated her offer wassomething unfamiliar to him. Also, he would have thought something in that planwould upset the delicate morals of the uptight Gryffindor.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste, knowing she was going to regret this. "Yes."

Instead of the mocking she'd been expecting, he gave her a strange, unreadablelook. "Why would you help me?" He asked.

"Because it's the right thing to do." She said. He may be an evil prat, but Malfoydidn't deserve to die. Their seventh year was supposed to be all about rebuildingafter the war, and what better way to start than for Hermione Granger to dosomething kind towards Draco Malfoy? Not that she planned on letting the wholething get out, that would be mortifying. It wasn't her secret to share, so she had noplans on telling a soul.

"This doesn't mean I'm going to be nice to you." He spat the word nice like it wasa particularly foul disease. "And no one is to know that I'm part Veela."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No one would believe me even if I told. Don't worry, Iwon't spread it around that you precious 'pure' blood isn't as pure as you thought."

Just to irritate him, she patted his cheek condescendingly as she stood from herchair. His reactions were sluggish from his recent collapse, so he wasn't able to pullaway in time.

As she was leaving, Hermione glanced back at him in confusion. When her handhad touched his cheek, she could have sworn that he'd actually leaned into thecontact even while he glared furiously. She shook her head. That was insane; shemust have been imagining it.

His skin had been warmer than she would have thought, and it wasn't as smoothas it looked. The hair there was blond so she'd never noticed before that Malfoy had

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stubble. He'd obviously skipped the shaving spell that morning, probably distractedby the pains his parents had been talking about in hushed voice before he woke. Rondidn't need to use the spell, a sore spot for him that Fred and George exploitedmercilessly and a topic Harry and Hermione had learned to carefully avoid. It wasodd to think of Malfoy as a man, he'd always been a little bully of a boy in her mind.

When he'd been unconscious and unable to talk, he's been almost... attractive. That was a thought that made her worry she'd caught something while in thehospital wing. Malfoy was not attractive. He was an evil, vindictive little prat whospent entirely too much time insulting her and her friends.

Shaking off the strange notions flooding her head, Hermione made her way to theGreat Hall for dinner. She smiled when she noticed that Harry and Ron had savedher a seat.

"Have you been in the hospital wing with Malfoy this whole time?" Ron askedwhen he noticed her. His eyes were filled with accusation.

Her nose wrinkled in distaste at the food that fell out of the redhead's mouth as hetalked. Someone really needed to teach the boy some table manners. Even at theirmost obnoxious, Fred and George knew how to chew with their mouths closed, andGinny's manners were impeccable. Hermione couldn't help but wonder what hadgone wrong with Ron - because something had obviously gone horribly wrong.

"He was unconscious Ronald. It's not like I was sitting there enjoying Malfoy'scompany." Hermione snapped, irritated. With Ron, she got all of the fun of a jealouslover with none of the affection all rolled into one gangly, hot-headed package. Hemay have been one of her best friends, but she tired of him sometimes.

"Did you find out what happened to make him just fall down like that?" Harryasked.

Hermione hated lying to her friends, especially after everything that they'd gonethrough together, but this wasn't her secret to tell and she'd already told Malfoythat she wasn't going to spread his real heritage around. Her only option was to lie."I just stayed long enough to make sure he wasn't going to die. Can you imagine mehaving to get used to another Head Boy? It was bad enough before."

Her comment successfully distracted Harry. "I still can't believe McGonagall putyou two in a dormitory together. It's cruel and unusual punishment!"

She rolled her eyes at his predictable reaction, but sat there and nodded at all the- 11 -

right moments and he repeated the rant she'd already heard too many times.

As soon as she could do it without looking like she was starving herself, Hermioneretreated from the table. She'd managed to lie, but the lie was weighing heavily onher shoulders. She just wanted a nice, warm bath and a few hours of homework tohelp her relax.

That plan died the moment she heard hurrying footsteps behind her. A glance overher shoulder revealed that Ginny was trotting to catch up.

"Hermione, wait!" The redhead called.

With a sigh, Hermione stopped so that her friend could catch her. "What's wrongGinny?"

"You were lying." Ginny said. "Back there when Harry asked you if you knew whathappened to Malfoy, you lied. I want to know why." She said in her no nonsensevoice.

Though that tone would have worked on any of her brothers, Hermione was nopushover. "I can't tell you Ginny." She said regretfully as she arrived at the portraitthat guarded the Head Dorms.

The redhead followed her in, unwilling to accept that as an answer. "C'monHermione. I won't tell anyone whatever it is that you're hiding."

Hermione sighed, but she wasn't looking at Ginny. She was looking at the figurelounging shirtless on the sofa and giving her an irritated look. Her day just got alittle more horrible.

"Granger, I know you're obsessed with overachieving, but I was only going to doGryffindors as a last resort." He drawled in that infuriating way of his.

Ginny was confused. She looked between her friend and the git that friend livedwith. Then she focused on that git's chest. Merlin. "Does he always walk around likethat?" She whispered, awed. If he did, she was going to have to visit Hermione atthe Head Dorms more often.

Hermione glared towards the Slytherin; sadly, he did. It was part of his campaignto make her uncomfortable and spend as little time as possible in the Head Dorms.So far, the campaign was working quite well.

- 12 -

"It doesn't matter Ginny." Hermione sighed, suddenly more weary than she couldremember being in a long time. After the war, things were supposed to have calmeddown. She'd obviously forgotten to take into account the fact that nothing in theMagical World ever really 'calmed down'.

As if sensing that it was the worst thing he could possibly do, Malfoy rosegracefully from the sofa and approached the pair of Gryffindors. Now that he waslooking at her, the She-Weasel wasn't that bad on the eyes. If she didn't have somany unfortunate siblings and atrocious taste in men, then she would almost be upto his standards.

He paused when he was in front of them. The redhead's eyes were focused on hischest, as if mesmerized, but Granger was staring at his left arm. Shite. He'dforgotten the glamour charm on the Dark Mark. Wordlessly and wandlessly, he castthe charm he used every day to hide the shameful scar.

Distraction. He needed her to stop looking at him like that. He was unsure why,but that disappointed and mournful expression of Granger's needed to stop.

Before he could over-think it and talk himself into changing his mind, he grabbedthe She-Weasel's chin and kissed her. She hadn't been expecting him to do anythingof the sort, so she was unresisting.

Draco could feel her lips, warm against his. It felt wrong. She was relativelyattractive, and in the past, his hormones would have been satisfied with her.

Before either of the Gryffindors could hex him, Draco pulled away and left themthere. He'd heard impressive things about the Weasley woman's Bat Bogey Hex anddidn't want to stick around and get firsthand knowledge on whether the rumourswere true.

His lips were tingling, but not in a good way. When he was sure neither of theGryffindors could see him, he swiped an arm across them in an attempt to stop theunpleasant feeling.

Since the whole Veela thing, something had changed. He was supposed to be theperson never wanting for female company because they threw themselves at him.How was that supposed to work if there was only one female out there that didn'trepulse him? It seemed that his Veela blood was going to force a serious lifestylechange on him.

Hermione and Ginny watched him stroll up the stairs and shut his bedroom door- 13 -

behind him, completely shocked. Slowly, a red flush started to make its way upGinny's neck. By the time it had reached her face, Hermione'd had time to processwhat had just happened.

Merlin, she was going to murder Malfoy. Although she'd probably have to wait inline after Ginny. And Harry! She was in way over her head; there was no way she'dbe able to sit by while he did that to all kinds of unsuspecting girls and broke uprelationships all over the school.

"What was that?" Ginny asked, looking like she was fighting to keep hercomposure through the rage darkening her face.

"That was Malfoy at peak irritating capacity," the brunette muttered. He wasreally on form that day.

Ginny started wiping her hands across her mouth frantically, trying to rub off thecontamination from his slimy, Slytherin lips. "How am I supposed to tell Harry thatI've caught some kind of sexually transmitted disease from Malfoy? And you lookhorrified, but not as surprised as you should. What's going on?"

Trust Ginny to notice minute changes in Hermione's expression while beingmurderously angry.

Nervously, Hermione shuffled from foot to foot. Malfoy was an enormously foulperson, but it wasn't in her nature to spout the secrets of others. "Can we just forgetthis ever happened? By the end of the year, you'll have your answer." She said.Either Malfoy would die and the truth would come out, or he'd find whoever hismate was and the truth would still probably come out.

The redhead sighed and wiped her mouth one more time. "It's probably best thatwe just forget. Harry would kill Malfoy for this, and I don't think even the man whokilled Voldemort would get away with cold-blooded murder."

Gratefully, Hermione nodded. She saw Ginny out the portrait hole and made sureher friend was gone. Once the painting closed behind the other Gryffindor, she leantagainst the wall in exhaustion. Screw the bath and homework, she was goingstraight to bed; she'd need all the rest she could get if every day was going to be likethis.

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Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A/N: A huge thank you to all of you wonderful people who reviewed! I wasso happy to read them all, they made me smile.

This story is still beta-less, so if anyone has some spare time to help out...I'd really appreciate it!

I move in four days, so I'm going to be busy for the next little while, andthe update might take a little longer than my usual updates. I'll try to get itto you guys as soon as possible.

~Frosty

When she woke up the next morning, Hermione was felling much better. Thingsalways seemed much less hopeless when one was just waking up. Reality and all thestress that came with it would set in later, so she revelled in the optimistic feeling ifearly morning by staying in her bed a few extra moments. It wasn't helping; realitywas setting in despite her refusal to leave the bed.

With a sigh, she stood up and dragged herself from bed. She staggered from herroom and into - the loo to shower and hopefully wake up a little more. It may havebeen Saturday, but that didn't mean she was just going to sit around and slack offwhen there was homework to do!

When she came out into the common room, there was an unusual sight waiting forher. Sitting on the same sofa he'd occupied the night before was Malfoy -thankfullywith a shirt this time- surrounded by books. Despite his good grades, rarely was theSlytherin prince seen with actual books, they'd completely ruin his apathetic image.

His silver eyes flickered her way as she entered the room. "Hey Granger, I'mvenomous." He said, holding up the book he was reading. The tone he used gave theimpression that he was barely interested, but in his eyes was a disturbed glint.

Hermione frowned and came further into the room. She perched on the edge ofthe sofa and peered at the book he was reading curiously. It was all about Veelasand their mates. Upon a more thorough perusal, she found that all the books he'dsurrounded himself with were on similar subjects. Well, at least he was willing to do

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his own research instead of making her do it like Harry and Ron would have in thesame situation.

"That's lovely for you Malfoy," she said sarcastically, picking up one of the booksto find out about Veelas for herself. If she was going to live with one, she thought itbest that she bring herself up to date on the topic - plus her curiosity was eating herup on the inside. Hermione had once heard a saying that said 'curiosity killed thecat'; she could only hope that it didn't apply to lions as well because she had noplans of leaving the topic of Veelas unexplored.

Her hands froze in the process of opening her book when something occurred toher. "Malfoy, you didn't poison Ginny last night, did you?" She asked worriedly. Ifthe redhead was poisoned, there would be no hiding what had happened to her fromHarry and Ron, and it would only make them more inclined to kill the Slytherin fortouching Ginny.

He gave her a look that said he clearly thought she was insane. "Do you reallythink McGonagall would let me stay at Hogwarts if I was going to go around kissingand killing every girl in the school? My fangs have the venom." His lips pulled backto reveal his teeth.

From where she was sitting he teeth looked perfectly normal. And white. Andstraight. Why had she never noticed that Malfoy had perfect teeth before?

"You don't have fangs," she said intelligently, possibly blinded by his teeth.Immediately after the words left her mouth, she knew she sounded like a completemoron.

"Apparently they appear when I have to bite my mate and sometimes- just readthe damn books and stop asking questions," he snapped.

Hermione watched him read for a moment, carefully weighing his motivations.That last statement had sounded an awful lot like an invitation to study up on thetopic with him. It was as close to polite and welcoming as Malfoy had ever been andit was disturbing her greatly.

She opened the book she'd picked up, settling against the cushions. The literatureon Veelas was actually fascinating, so it was easy to become completely immersed inthe material. Before she knew it, the sun had slunk across the sky and it was nearlydinnertime. Surprised that she'd managed to spend so much time in Malfoy'spresence without a snarky insult, she glanced over at the blond.

- 16 -

He'd fallen asleep! Hermione sighed and shook her head; here she'd thought theywere making progress with the civility thing when in reality the prat had fallenasleep. Now that she had a chance to get a good look at him without fear of himstaring back, she saw the dark smudges under his eyes and the hollowness of hischeeks.

If what the books had said was true, he was feeling stabs of pain on and off as hisVeela blood asserted itself, and he probably wasn't getting very much sleep. Just thisonce, she'd let him sleep and not wake him up to remind him that they needed toprepare for the prefect's meeting on Monday.

When her eyes alighted on the book he'd been reading, she cringed; the poor bookhad crinkled up in his hands as he'd shuffled in his sleep. He was dangerously closeto ripping the fragile pages of the very old tome. Hermione couldn't just leave thebook like that; it went against everything she stood for.

Carefully, she leaned over and started gently tugging on the book, trying to free itfrom his grasp without doing further damage to the delicate pages. Malfoy shiftedslightly in his sleep, stretching his legs out into the space her body had just vacated.His grip on the book loosened while he moved.

Hermione snatched it and grinned triumphantly, smoothing out the un-rippedpages with relief. For a minute there, she'd frozen in horror, worried that Malfoywas going to wake up with her standing over him. That would have been difficult toexplain; he never would have believed that she was just trying to save the book andhad no plans of taking advantage of his unguarded state.

After quickly making sure the blond was still sleeping, she turned around to setthe book on the coffee table before he managed to do it any more damage to it.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when an arm snaked around her waist andyanked her down on top of Malfoy's surprisingly firm torso. His other arm camearound her waist to join the first one in holding her tight against his body.

No matter how much she wiggled and tried to escape, Hermione was helplessagainst the sleeping Slytherin. Veelas were known to be stronger than the averagehuman, and Hermione wasn't particularly strong for a human, so it was hopeless.Her hands were pinned, one trapped underneath her and the other held tight to herside, leaving her unable to reach her wand.

Her struggles abruptly stopped when she felt his nose drag along her neck,tickling her as he inhaled. The motion sent shivers up her spine.

- 17 -

"MALFOY!" Hermione screeched, restarting her wiggling with new vigour. Whatexactly was going on escaped her, but the foreboding feeling that she wouldn't likeit should she find out lingered in her mind. She felt him tense beside her before heshoved her off the sofa and onto the floor.

"What the hell, Granger?" He demanded, darting a quick look around the room ashe gained his bearings. The last thing he remembered was dreaming about his mate.He'd been chasing her through darkened corridors that reminded him vaguely ofHogwarts, and just as he'd been about to reach her and see her face, Granger'sshrill voice had ruined everything.

His eyes narrowed dangerously as they landed on the Gryffindor who wasn'tpaying any attention to him, she was wincing and rubbing her back. So maybe he'dshoved her a little harder than necessary, but it was her own fault. And he definitelywasn't feeling guilty about it.

She paled when she looked up to meet his eyes. A little gasp escaped her lips,drawing his attention to her mouth. Had her lips always looked so rosy and inviting?

Draco was confused. Sure, he was used to people cringing from his glare, butGranger was taking her reaction a little far. "What's your problem Granger?" Hedemanded, sounding less than kind. "You look like you've seen a Boggart."

Actually, he'd seen her much calmer when taking on a Boggart, she looked likeshe'd just seen Voldemort resurrected.

"Your eyes," she whispered, pointing. Her hand searched through her pocketsuntil she'd found her wand, which she used to conjure a small hand-mirror. Herhand was trembling slightly as she handed over the mirror.

From years of experience, Draco knew that Granger wasn't easily rattled, so herbehaviour was starting to disturb him. Deep in the pit of his stomach, he started todevelop the feeling that he really wasn't going to like whatever he saw in hisreflection. He snatched the mirror from her hand and brought it to his face,wondering what all the fuss was about.

Just as he'd seen Granger do, Draco paled; his eyes were pitch-black. The bookshad said it would happen when he was near his mate, but apparently dreamingabout her was enough to make them change. Unless it was Granger? He quicklydismissed the notion as ridiculous.

As he watched, his eyes faded to their usual silver. The transformation back to- 18 -

normalcy was immediately followed by a noticeable lessening of the worry he'd beenfeeling. This Veela blood of his was obviously going to be more troublesome thaneven he had anticipated.

Granger was still on the floor watching him when he handed her back the mirror."I was dreaming about her," he mumbled by way of explanation.

Awkwardly, Hermione nodded her head in understanding. It seemed that he didn'tremember the whole smelling her thing, and she wasn't about to bring it up; he'dprobably tell her it was just a hallucination brought on by her intense desire for himor some other codswallop. Before Malfoy, Hermione would never have thought therewas such a thing as too much self confidence, but the Slytherin had proved herwrong time and time again. Very wrong.

"I'm going to dinner," she mumbled, fleeing the Head Dorms. The whole Veelathing was bringing an entirely new level of discomfort to what had previously been aperfectly dysfunctional hate-hate relationship.

"Do you know what's wrong with Ginny?" Harry whispered when she sat downbeside him. The redhead was sitting on the other side of the table beside her brotherinstead of plastered to her boyfriend's side in her normal seat. "She's been twitchysince she went after you yesterday."

Hermione glanced over at Ginny, who appeared to be avoiding her eyes. Theredhead was obviously still shaken from the previous night. She was lucky shehadn't seen Malfoy's eyes after he'd woken up from his nap, that was fodder fornightmares on a much higher level than those that a mere kiss from the Slytherinmay have triggered.

"No idea, Harry." Hermione said. It was lie after lie with her friends recently. Thelies were starting to pile up and it was all Malfoy's fault. If she wasn't careful, she'dmanage to weave a web of deceit around herself and risk the collapse of herfriendships along with that web should it come to light.

The blond in question chose that moment to stroll into the Great Hall. Hermioneknew he'd been just as rattled by his eye change as she'd been, perhaps more, yetthere he was appearing as arrogant and superior as he normally looked. She wouldhave believe his facade was flawless had she not noticed Zabini shoot him a worriedlook.

- 19 -

Was there some way to read his emotions that she was missing? Zabini appearedto be able to read his friend's expressions through the stony mask.

The moment Malfoy sat down, he and Zabini started a vehement conversation inwhispers. She averted her gaze when they started to turn and look towards her. Ifhe caught her looking, Malfoy was almost guaranteed to comment on how 'shecouldn't keep her eyes off of him' or something else annoying.

Why were they looking towards her in the first place? The only reason they wouldboth turn towards her like that was if she had been mentioned in their conversation.Slytherins were talking about her. Nothing good could follow that.

"Do you think it's something I did?" Harry asked, still watching Ginny. Hiscomment served to being Hermione back to her present company. She couldn'tneglect her friends just because she was worried that she was the subject ofdiscussion at the Slytherin table.

Hermione was tempted to just blurt out the truth and ease her friend's worries,but she couldn't. "It's not you Harry." She grabbed a roll and stood up from her seat."I have to get back to my dorm and finish my homework."

Before Harry could object, Hermione jumped up from the table and once againfled the Great Hall. She really had to stop making a habit of that, but it was just so difficult to sit there and know what had happened to cause a rift between the coupleyet not be able to say anything. It was so much easier to fight dark wizards than itwas to lie to her friends.

When she was safely back in her common room, Hermione sat down in herfavourite squishy chair and sighed. She grabbed a few of Malfoy's books and startedflipping through them, determined to educate herself on everything Veela. Thecracking of the fire and the crinkling of pages had soon lulled her into a state ofcomplete focus, allowing all the background noises and worries to fade from hermind. It wasn't long before she was completely immersed in the world of facts andlogic that the books provided her.

She was halfway through a chapter on a Veela's ability to manipulate a room usingpheromones when Malfoy returned. The Slytherin wasn't alone; following behindhim was Blaise Zabini.

"Is there any reason why you just ordered every Slytherin female over fifteen toline up and then kissed them all?" Zabini asked, shutting the portrait behind him.His question wasn't angry, merely curious about what train of thought could have

- 20 -

possibly motivated Malfoy to do something so strange.

"I had to check something," Malfoy muttered. The blond sounded a littledepressed; Hermione could only assume it was because he now knew that his matewasn't going to be a Slytherin. The chances of her being a Pureblood were alsodecreased now that his house was ruled out.

She peeked at them over the top of her book. Malfoy was wiping furiously at hismouth, obviously disturbed by his recent activities. Last week, it would have beenstrange for Malfoy to be so disturbed by such contact with women, but in herreadings she had found that Veelas only wanted their mates; any form of sexualcontact with others would just disgust them.

"What in Merlin's name could possibly need checking on the lips of all those girls?Is it some new way of testing for fever, or perhaps you were judging the quality oflip gloss and wanted a very broad basis for comparison?"

Hermione hid her snicker behind her book. The mental image of Malfoy as a nursegoing around kissing people to check their temperature was an amusing one.

When the quiet conversation on the other side of the room ceased, she slowlylowered her book to peek at them again. They were staring - again.

"Granger, we need the common room. Get out." Malfoy ordered.

Hermione merely raised an eyebrow at him before going back to her book. If hethought he could order her around just because most other girls would gladly jumpto do his bidding, then he was insane.

Quietly, Zabini chuckled. "Draco, mate, how is it that you live with her and stillhaven't figured out that orders aren't how you get what you want?"

The Veela grumbled his annoyance and glared at his friend.

Blaise ignored the irate Malfoy and turned his attention to the Gryffindor."Granger, would you mind giving us the common room? Please? It seems Draco andI have something to talk about."

Well when he put it that way... Smiling at the dark Slytherin, Hermione markedher page in the book and stood up. "Of course I wouldn't mind. Have a nice chatZabini."

- 21 -

He smiled at her as she walked by them. "Please, call me Blaise."

"Well then, have a nice chat, Blaise."

"I've ruled out Slytherin." The blond called after her just before her door shut.He'd tried the easy house, now she was going to have to help him with the threehouses he couldn't expect to jump to do his bidding. Everything would have been somuch easier if his mate had just been in Slytherin - which was probably why shewasn't; nothing in Draco's life seemed to be easy.

When she had disappeared into her room, Draco rounded on his friend. "Sincewhen are you and Granger so chummy?" He growled.

The Veela was unsure why he was so upset about it, but something about the wayGranger had smiled at Blaise when he'd been polite had prodded a pit of rage deepin his core. Maybe he could earn himself one of those smiles if he were more polite?No. That was nonsense. Granger was a Mudblood and a know-it-all, not someoneworthy of polite questions, only orders.

"Draco, you need to calm down. She's like that with anyone who's polite to her ona regular basis. Maybe you should try treating her like a person every now and theninstead of something particularly unpleasant that you pulled off the bottom of yourshoe."

Blaise was right, but Draco was still unsettled. It bothered him that Granger hadso willingly listened to the other Slytherin when his own order was ignored.

"You were going to tell me why that whole display in the Slytherin common roomwas necessary," Blaise prodded when it became obvious that Draco was lost in hisown mind.

With a sigh, Draco sat his friend down and explained everything he knew so far.He was reluctant to share the whole dream incident and waking up with Granger,but he needed to talk about it with someone and Blaise wasn't going to tell.

"Wow." The Italian said when Draco had finished explaining everything. "Whowould have thought the Malfoys had Veela blood in them?"

Blaise looked over his friend contemplatively. "Have you considered the possibilityof Granger being your mate?" He asked.

No, he hadn't; not until that moment. A little jolt of surprise and something else- 22 -

ran through him at the thought. It was an insane notion that didn't warrant anymore consideration. "Don't be ridiculous Blaise. She's Granger." Not to mention aMudblood and the best friend of Potter.

"I don't think it's ridiculous at all. There's this whole sofa and another chair tochoose from, and yet you went right for the chair that Granger just vacated. It wasprobably still warm when you sat down. Why'd you choose that particular chair?"

Surprised, Draco looked around the room and saw that Blaise was right. "It's justa coincidence," he insisted.

Blaise didn't look like he believed him. Draco didn't quite believe himself. But itwas impossible that Granger was his mate; they were so different, and they didnothing but fight.

"If you say so mate..." The Italian said, not willing to get into a fight aboutsomething that was only a suspicion. If he turned out to be right, Blaise was nevergoing to let Draco forget this conversation.

When Blaise left, Draco went back to reading the books, determined to find somehints on hunting down his mate. His life depended on finding this girl and he wasn'tgoing to slack on the reading if there was even a small chance that it would help.

His eyes were drawn to Granger's closed door. No. Blaise was barmy if he thoughtGranger was good enough to be matched with a Malfoy.

The creaking of floorboards and a shuffling sound made him pause in his readingand listen.

Ever since his blood had started to assert itself, Draco's hearing and sight hadstarted to strengthen. He could hear Granger in her room, shuffling around in hersleep. As he listened, she let out a blissful sigh and shifted some more beforesettling down again.

Had she always sounded so feminine while sleeping? Pansy made an annoyingsnorting noise that made her sound like the pug she resembled, it was repulsive.

For a moment, he allowed his mind to wander to the peaceful expression thatprobably rested on Granger's face as she laid her head delicately against her softpillow. He frowned; too many girly adjectives, it was obviously time for him to go to

- 23 -

bed. His own bed.

He'd just sleep off the strange notions that Blaise had planted in his head.

- 24 -

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A/N: I'm aware 'sexcapades' isn't an actual word (though itison UrbanDictionary, so that's something), just go with it.

A big thanks for Claire96 and TimeToWriteIsHistory for betaing for me!This chapter is much better because of their efforts! Also thanks to everyonewho rewieved! You guys are great.

I spent most of yesterday having and Avatar marathon (the Nick cartoon,not the movie) and as I was doing that, I wrote. So chapters six and seven ofthis story are written! Exciting, no?

~Frosty

Hermione was on her way to class when someone grabbed her and yanked herbehind a statue. The books she'd been carrying scattered on the floor with a loudclatter, pages bending and spines creaking in protest. There was only one personshe knew that was rude enough to manhandle her in such a way.

"Malfoy, what are you doing?" she hissed. If only the venom in her voice could dohim physical harm, he would have been liquefied into a harmless pile of goo longago and the majority of the problems plaguing her at the moment would disappear.

The git was completely unruffled by the rage evident in her eyes. He casuallyleant against the wall, careful to put as much distance between the two of them asthe confines of the small space they occupied would allow. Close proximity withGranger made him uneasy; her Mudblood germs might be contagious.

"I've decided that Ravenclaw is next; there's no way in hell my mate's a Hufflepuff." He spoke in that way of his where he fully expected her to jump to work and make his plans happen.

"Malfoy, I said I'll help you. I didn't say I'd literally drop everything and help you."Her eyes moved pointedly to the poor books scattered on the floor. Someone neededto pick them up before a careless person stepped on them.

She shoved past him, not caring that he lost his balance and bumped his shoulderrather hard on the wall. The disgruntled noise he made was drowned out by her

- 25 -

irritated muttering as she gathered the books from the page-crinkling pile they'dsettled in. Mistreating the papery sources of knowledge was not the way to ask herfor her assistance. At least, that's what she assumed his intentions behind draggingher into a small space and announcing he was going to start kissing Ravenclaws hadbeen.

His quicksilver eyes were boring holes in her back. She could feel them restingbetween her shoulder blades like two white-hot brands. The boy really had a talentfor making other people uncomfortable under his gaze - she could only assume itwas hereditary.

Gathering the fallen books to her chest, Hermione turned to glare at him. "Fine, ifit'll make you go away, I'll ask. What is it you want?"

The smirk that he developed made her regret not running away the moment shewas out of the alcove. He continued as if she'd never tried to leave and they'd beenholding a perfectly civil conversation.

"There are only a few girls in Ravenclaw with the proper pedigree. I'm going tostart with that Lovegood bint. The one who's always on about things only she cansee. If it's not her -and I pray it's not, then I can move on to the Ravenclaw Patil. I'vealready kissed her, among other things ... I think, and it wasn't so bad. Though, I was completely sloshed. Actually, It may have been the Gryffindor one, but I can'tsee even copious amounts of alcohol making me touch a Gryffindor. Now that I thinkabout it, they both may have been there... I just thought she was very hands-y, buttwo sets of hands would make so much more sense." He tilted his head to the sideand looked off into the distance as he tried to remember. Over-sharing was notsomething Slytherins were known for. She could only assume he was trying to makeher uncomfortable with tales of his sexcapades.

Hermione just stared. "I know they look almost the same, but how can you mistaketwo people for one?"

He shrugged a nonchalant shoulder. "They looked the same. Now, about my planfor Lovegood."

Draco waited to see if she'd start yelling at him, but she only continued looking athim like he was a particularly fascinating puzzle that she didn't really want to solve.When it became apparent that she was waiting for him to speak, he continued. "Ineed you to lure her into-"

"No." She said immediately and with finality.- 26 -

Draco Malfoy was... well, Draco Malfoy. As such, he wasn't used to people denyinghim anything. His first reaction was to try and threaten her into doing what hewanted, but Blaise had seemed to get much better results by being polite. Just thisonce, when he was sure no one was looking, Draco was willing to try it.

"What exactly is it about the little of my plan you've heard that you finddispleasing?" He gritted out. Okay, so it could have been a little nicer, but he didn'thave the people skills Blaise seemed to possess. Those seemed to involve some sortof respect or understanding for the people the skills were to involve.

"I'm not going to lure my friends to you like... like lambs to their slaughter!" Sheshrilled, making Draco wince. His hearing and sight were sharpening thanks to hisVeela blood, allowing Granger to bring him a whole new level of pain with herscreechy, prissy voice. This affliction of his really was a curse on so many levels.

"What I plan on doing to her is hardly slaughter Granger. I've been told that-"

Hermione held up a hand, wincing in horror and disgust. "Save it Malfoy. I don'twant to hear the praises you've been showered with by simpering fan-girls." Shereally didn't want the sordid details of his previous relationships. That was best leftto whispered conversations between his past conquests.

His eyes somehow managed to convey that she should burn in hell while stillpulling off an amused expression. She'd never noticed before, but those silver orbsspoke volumes if she looked hard enough. "Granger, you said you were going to helpme and have yet to do anything remotely helpful. I was under the impression thatyou were going to keep your word."

She sighed. Dealing with the ferret was exhausting. "I said I'd help you and I will -as soon as you come up with a plan that doesn't go against my morals."

"Your morals are as airtight as your chastity belt; nothing gets through them. Ifyou have to approve the plan before I act it out, nothing will ever get done."

"Then maybe I should come up with the plan," she snapped.

Briefly, an image of the kissing booth she'd once seen on an annoying teen moviepopped into her head. That would actually solve the problem nicely, but she didn'tthink Malfoy would lower himself to something like that. Plus, the teachers wouldnever agree to something that skittered dangerously close to the borders ofprostitution in their reserved minds. If he got desperate enough, she could suggestit. And take pictures.

- 27 -

"I'm listening," he said, obviously not thinking she would be able to come up withanything.

"Well... Your next victim is Luna. I think you should just ask her for a kiss."

He looked skeptical and a little worried that she'd gone off the deep end. Dracohad known for years that it was only a matter of time before Granger went insanefrom prolonged exposure to the mind-numbing idiocy of those she called friends.

It was understandable that he doubted her, but Hermione was pretty sure thatLuna would agree if he would just ask her with something even resembling manners.The dreamy Ravenclaw didn't seem to exist on the same plane of reality as normalpeople and things that most would consider strange were an everyday occurrence toher.

"Just try it, Malfoy," she insisted.

Reluctantly, he started making his way towards the Ravenclaw dorms, hoping torun into the Lovegood girl and get the kiss over with so he could cross her off of thelist. Hermione followed behind him to make sure things didn't get out of hand - asshe'd found they often did when Malfoy was involved. Look at how out of control onelittle Care of Magical Creatures class had gotten when the ferret had made anuisance of himself. Sure, Hagrid probably shouldn't have brought a Hippogriff to agathering of thirteen year olds, but nothing would have gone amiss had Malfoy kepthis big mouth shut.

The Slytherin glanced over his shoulder at her and rolled his eyes. "Granger, whatdo you hope to accomplish by following me?"

"Think of me as damage control; you have a habit of getting in over your head andI don't want anything bad to happen involving my friends."

He gave her a strange look, but didn't dispute her statement.

Mentally, she prepared herself for an explosion when she noticed that Luna waswalking towards them, accompanied by Ginny. Hermione knew whatever Malfoy hadplanned wasn't going to end well, she could tell. Ginny already suspected somethingwas wrong because the git had kissed her without Hermione's interference, and nowhe was going to kiss Luna while Ginny was there to see Hermione stand back and letit happen once again.

Both younger girls stopped walking when they noticed Hermione and Malfoy- 28 -

approaching them - the Ravenclaw with a dreamy smile and the Gryffindor with anapprehensive and irritated expression. The tension was thick as they met in themiddle of the corridor.

"What are you doing with him?" Ginny asked Hermione while glaring at Malfoy.She wasn't about to let her guard down around the Slytherin; apparently he was sodesperate for female attention that he was prone to attaching his face to anyunwilling females that allowed him to get too close. It was a wonder he hadn'tturned on Hermione before, though it was possible that he was still too hung up onblood purity to "contaminate" himself.

"Something I'm probably going to one day look back on and regret," the brunettesighed, speaking too quietly for Ginny to hear.

Luna saved Hermione from having to come up with a serious answer to theredhead's question. "Hermione, are you aware that you and Draco are bothsurrounded by Gargle Sprites? They're rumoured to be drawn to Veelas." Thedreamy blonde said in her spacey way.

Disbelievingly, Draco examined her eerie blue eyes; there was no way someonehad told her his secret, but he refused to believe that her imaginary creatures hadassisted her in accurately divining his species. It must have just been some kind ofcoincidence; even the craziest of people has to guess correctly sometimes, it wasstatistically improbable for them to always be wrong. He just wished she could havebeen wrong this time. Something needed to be said to refute her.

"I always knew you were insane Lovegood, but I thought you'd have more sensethan to accuse me of being anything less than the purest of Purebloods." Dracosnapped. He was a little wary of people finding out about his secret and had reactedon instinct, snapping at her with all the venom his sometimes abrasive personalitycould provide.

Granger gave him a reproachful look, but remained silent. She'd decided it wasbest to just let the events play out as they would and be there to make sure nothinggot out of hand and no one died in the fallout. Ginny, and even Luna, knew how totake care of themselves; they'd be fine. Luna just smiled at the other blond, notreacting to his scathing tone. Ginny, however, wasn't so silent.

"Don't talk to her like that, you bigheaded git!" She yelled, careful not to get tooclose to him in case he had another inexplicable attack of the kissing bug. Once hadbeen bad enough, but if Harry ever heard that she'd kissed Malfoy not once but twice, his head would probably explode. Literally.

- 29 -

"Luna, would you do us all a huge favour and just kiss the git quick so we can getout of here and stop Ginny's angry fit before it starts?" Hermione asked.

While Ginny was still staring at her friend and stuttering in complete disbelief atwhat she'd just heard come out of Hermione's mouth, the Ravenclaw tilted her headto the side and contemplated the request. She didn't really see any reason to refuse;it wasn't like the Slytherin was unattractive, and she'd heard good things about hiskissing skills. Just because he was a bad person didn't mean she couldn't still enjoyhis talents.

Malfoy and Ginny were distracted by their confusion over Hermione'suncharacteristically blunt statement, so Luna decided that she may as well fulfil herfriend's request while everyone was preoccupied and therefore did not have enoughmental presence to resist her actions. Hermione wasn't known for asking strangethings of her friends without good reason, so there must be a motive - besidesupsetting Ginny - behind the request.

No one noticed Luna quietly step closer to Malfoy. She had her hands on hisshoulders before her nearness had even caught his attention.

Hermione watched as the spacey Ravenclaw pressed her lips against Malfoy's.The expression of surprise on his face was comical; had Ginny not looked like shewas about to pop, the entire situation would have been laughable. Trust Luna to justjump right in the deep end and kiss him instead of agreeing to let him kiss her andwaiting for him to do it.

Malfoy was the one to pull away first, looking thoroughly disturbed. Hermionecould tell the only reason he wasn't wiping his hand over his mouth was becausepeople were watching and he was desperately clinging to his Slytherin facade witheverything he had.

It was obvious that Luna had been ruled out as his mate.

The Ravenclaw's blue eyes moved from Hermione's forced frown that was barelyconcealing her amusement to Ginny's rage to Malfoy's obvious disgust. "I hopeyou've learned whatever you needed to Draco, because I'm not going to kiss youagain. I've obviously upset Ginny, and you're not as good as rumours have led me tobelieve."

Despite the disgust he felt from kissing the obviously barmy blonde, Draco wastempted to kiss her again just to prove himself. He wasn't used to that reaction fromthe girls he kissed... Actually, he almost preferred that reaction to the usual fawning

- 30 -

he received.

No longer able to contain her mirth, Hermione burst out laughing. Malfoy lookedlike someone had just told him his parents had secretly been Muggles all along andeverything he knew about himself was a lie. It was hilarious. Unfortunately, despiteLuna's sacrifice in kissing the git to prevent Ginny's explosion, the volatile redheadexploded anyway.

"Why are you laughing when that git just molested poor Luna's mouth!" Sheshrieked. Her face had changed red to match her hair. Ever since the war whenHarry had left her out of everything in order to protect her, being left out of the loophad been a soft spot for Ginny and it appeared that she was going to take out heranger on Hermione.

Offended, Draco frowned at the She-Weasel. "If anyone's mouth was molested, itwas mine!"

Granger gave him a look that clearly said "shut up and stop making things worse."He really needed to go and wipe the crazy germs off of his mouth, so just this once,he let the opportunity to torment two Gryffindors at the same time pass him by.

While Granger had all of her attention focused on her friend, Draco shot theredhead a superior sneer behind the Head Girl's bushy hair. When she caught sightof him, her freckled cheeks turned an even darker shade of scarlet - a feat he hadn'tthought possible. Satisfied that he'd done enough damage for one day, he turned onhis heel and made his way back to the Head Dorms to wash his mouth.

"Hermione, tell me what the bloody hell is going on! You weren't surprised whenMalfoy kissed me, and now you're helping him get girls? Is he really so desperate?And what does he have on you to make you help him like that?" Ginny yelled, wavingher arms for emphasis. She really looked kind of ridiculous, but Hermione felt that itwasn't the best time to point that out.

"Ginny, that's not what it was..." Hermione started to explain helplessly. Therewasn't much she could say in defence of her actions without revealing Malfoy'ssecret. She had a feeling Ginny would gleefully reveal to the whole school that the'pure' Malfoy wasn't near as pure as he'd claimed. Though the prat probablydeserved such treatment, Hermione's conscience just wouldn't permit somethinglike that to happen.

"Then what is it? Is there some kind of conspiracy going on around here, or hasthe universe just tilted on its axis and you and Malfoy are suddenly friends?"

- 31 -

All of Hermione's amusement had faded in the face of her friend's anger, leavingher tired and apprehensive. "Ginny, I already told you, I can't really explain rightnow. I'm sure the truth will come out eventually, you're just going to have to trustme."

Slightly less red, but still obviously angry, Ginny narrowed her eyes at her friend."Something's going on in this school and I want to know what it is. I like to knowwhen my friends and I are in danger of kissing attacks from the slimiest Slytherinever to roam the halls of Hogwarts!"

"I can't tell you," Hermione said sadly. She wasn't going to give in just becauseGinny yelled at her, but that didn't mean she wasn't saddened by her friend's yelling.Why couldn't the redhead just accept that she wasn't able to share and leave it atthat?

Ginny's anger seemed to change into something colder. "Then I don't see howwe're going to be able to stay on speaking terms while you keep secrets for one ofour worst enemies. Come find me when the Hermione I became friends with comesback," she said frostily.

Hermione watched her leave sadly. She wasn't sure how that conversation haddeteriorated so quickly, but she was pretty content with allowing the blame to fallsquarely upon Malfoy's shoulders. Yes, the entire thing was all that stupid prat'sfault.

Looking around the corridors to ensure that she was alone, Hermione let hersadness show on her face. It pained her to quarrel with her friends. She could onlyhope that Ginny wouldn't use this new development to turn the entire Gryffindorhouse against her.

Draco frowned and spat out the mouthwash potion he'd been swishing around inhis mouth to ensure maximum disinfecting. His chest was aching and he wasn't surewhy. The previous pain had been from his blood asserting itself; now that it wasfirmly established, there was no reason he should be hurting because of the Veelablood until much closer to his birthday. If he hadn't found his mate by then it wasgoing to start to kill him; the books had warned that it would be even more painfulthan it was when his blood asserted itself.

On top of the strange ache, he felt... sad. Was there no end to the annoying thingshis stupid Veela heritage was going to make him feel? He brought a hand up to the

- 32 -

affected area in an attempt to soothe the pain, but was distracted by the portrait tothe Head's Dorm banging open and a distraught Granger entering.

It was obvious that she didn't notice him peeking around the door of the loo ather, otherwise she never would have just burst into tears the way she did. Fromyears of taunting her, Draco knew that Granger rarely let herself cry when someonewas watching for fear of appearing to be a helpless, blubbering female. He watchedas she snuggled into a chair in front of the fire and let the tears fall down her faceuninhibited. They sparkled in the firelight and looked oddly attractive, addingglittering adornments to her already appealing skin.

He once again rubbed a hand over the strange feeling in his chest as he watchedher. Something was strange. Normally, Granger crying would have cheered him upconsiderably, but this time he was only left with an unsettled feeling and anunpleasant taste in his mouth. Something was very, very strange indeed.

- 33 -

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A/N: Hello readers! Happy Mother's Day! ... Well, it is here in Canadaanyway. I was too lazy to look it up to see if it was the same anywhere else,but do you really need an excuse to appreciate your mom or grandma orboth? I don't think so.

A huge thanks to Claire96 and TimeToWriteIsHistory for their wonderfulbeta work. This chapter is much better and makes quite a bit more sensethanks to them. I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it! Also, thanks toeveryone who reviewed, I really appreciate the extra time you guys take totell me what you think!

~Frosty

Hermione felt a little better when she woke up, still cuddled in the chair in front ofthe fire in the Head's common room. On the trip back to her room, the possibilitythat Ginny could speak to Harry and Ron, who could join the redhead in her quest toignore her, had crashed upon her. She'd be without her friends and still have to helpMalfoy with his stupid Veela thing! That was not a future she wanted to experience.

Her eyebrows drew together in confusion when she saw that she was covered witha blanket. Had she somehow pulled it over herself during the night withoutremembering it? That was highly unlikely, as she hadn't intended to fall asleepthere. She'd just sort of drifted off as she cried. The alternative was that Malfoy hadcovered her sometime in the night. Even the notion of such kindness from the evilSlytherin was ridiculous. She must have grabbed the blanket for herself.

Her eyes skittered across the walls until they landed on the clock in the kitchen.She was going to miss breakfast if she didn't hurry up... On the other hand, shewasn't really looking forward to a stony silence from Ginny and the possibility of asimilar stony silence from her two best friends. That apple that was sitting on thekitchen table was starting to look more and more attractive.

No. She was a Gryffindor and she wasn't going to just run from her friendsbecause there was a chance that they were upset with her. She was going to facethem like the lioness she was instead of the mouse she'd been impersonating thatmorning.

- 34 -

Determinedly, she rushed into the shower to quickly wash before she went downto breakfast. Her face was puffy from crying and her cheeks were slashed withtear-tracts. She desperately needed to scrub off the evidence of her night spent inhysterics.

The heat from the water soothed the crick that had developed while she slept at astrange angle in the chair all night and washed away the evidence of tears. Cryinghad eased some of the sadness she'd been feeling and she felt ready to face the day.By the time she got out of the shower she felt like a person again instead of a puffylump of a person who only wanted to lounge around and stare moodily at things.

Freshly cleaned and dressed, Hermione rushed out of her room. She was in such ahurry that she almost overlooked the sharp eyes watching her. "Granger, we need totalk."

She stopped her frantic shuffling around her desk as she tried to find herTransfiguration homework and turned to face the Slytherin. He was casually leaningagainst the doorframe of his bedroom, looking like he had all the answers. Wasn't heeven a little bit worried about being late for breakfast? Of course not, he wasMalfoy; he didn't rush for other people, other people rushed for him. He wasprobably confident that his mate would just be dropped in his lap so didn't find itnecessary to be worried about that either. It must be nice for him to have suchconfidence when there should be no hope. Maybe he knew something she didn't.

"What do you want?" she sighed. "There's a good chance my day's going to becompletely miserable, so I guess it makes sense that you're here to start it off withthat extra dose of emotional turmoil before the day begins."

"Calm down," Malfoy muttered irritably. "I'm not here to make your day any worse- right now anyway, I make no promises for later. As I was going to say before you sorudely interrupted me: Blaise has this... theory that he won't shut up about until Isomehow manage to disprove it." His face darkened in irritation at the meremention of Blaise and his crazy ideas. He barely even understood why he wasentertaining the thought of testing the insanity, but something told him that if hecould just prove Blaise wrong, then he could rest easy knowing Granger wasn't hismate.

Hermione was getting impatient. Breakfast was officially over, and if she didn'tget to class soon, then she was going to be late. As Head students it was their dutyto set a good example for the rest of the school, and though Malfoy didn't seem totake that duty seriously, Hermione took it twice as seriously to make up for herpartner's slack.

- 35 -

"What do you need me here for to test this theory?" She demanded.

Hermione didn't like the contemplative look in his eyes, but she wasn't able tomove away before his large hand gripped the back of her neck and pulled her headback by a handful of hair, leaving her unable to escape his grip. "This," he mumbledas his lips pressed against hers surprisingly gently, softly moving against herunsuspecting mouth.

Fireworks burst in her stomach at the contact and she felt like she was tinglingeverywhere. The severity of her reaction startled her; it had never felt like thatwhen Ron kissed her. Unconsciously, she leaned into the contact, craving more.

With a gasp, she realized what she was doing and pulled away, eyes wide assaucers. She'd just let Malfoy kiss her and had enjoyed it - something she sworeright then to never tell anyone. Her friends would never forgive her. Hell, she wasn'tsure she was going to be able to forgive herself. He was the enemy, not someone sheshould be canoodling with!

"Anything?" He asked before she could flee - he knew she would.

Hermione looked away. "Nope. Nothing special," she mumbled. Bravely, despiteher mortification and embarrassment, she turned back to face him.

His grey eyes bore into hers for a moment, gauging her honesty. Abruptly, heaverted his gaze as she had done. "Yah, nothing for me either." The Slytherin was soshaken that he couldn't even think up a proper insult, something that rarelyhappened to him.

Heart pounding like mad and hands shaking, Hermione snatched her bag off thefloor and ran from the room, not caring that she probably didn't have herTransfiguration homework with her. That one little kiss with Malfoy had beensomething else, but she had to remember he was Malfoy and the only reason he'dkissed her was to make sure she wasn't the one who would save his life.

Now that he was sure she wasn't the one, he wouldn't ever have a need to repeatthe action. She realized this with something akin to regret and immediately crushedthe feeling out of existence. After a few days of avoiding the prat - for her own metalhealth, of course - she was sure everything would go back to normal between thetwo of them.

It just wasn't fair that he could hate her so much and yet still have the ability tomake her feel so... elated with just one little action.

- 36 -

Her stomach dropped when she realized that what Malfoy had just done wouldonly make dealing with her friends that much more difficult. The Slytherin hadclaimed that he had only been proving his friend wrong, but Hermione suspectedhe'd been trying to mess with her mind. If that had been his goal, it had certainlyworked; she wasn't sure if she could face anyone for quite a while knowing thatshould Malfoy try and kiss her again, she wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't let him.

After Granger fled through the portrait hole, Draco sank to the floor and buriedhis head in his hands. Something was wrong with him - terribly wrong.

His gums were tingling in such a way that told him he probably had fangs at themoment and he was willing to bet everything he owned that his eyes were pureobsidian. He was going to kill Blaise for pushing him until he kissed the woman justto shut him up. If he'd wanted a nagging wife, he would have gotten married. Nowhe had to face the very real possibility that it was more than likely Granger was hismate.

The moment his lips had come into contact with hers, he'd felt right and completed and all that other romantic slop he'd once dismissed as the result of aconspiracy between women to mould men into something more gentle and flowery.

His whole situation was both worrying and annoying. Not only did he have tocome to terms with the more than likely fact that he was going to have to spend therest of his life with Granger, but it was very probable that he was going to be forcedto bring her to terms with that fact as well. This had to be his punishment fortormenting her for so long.

When his gums started to feel normal again, Draco reluctantly gathered himselffrom the floor and moved into the washroom. He closed his eyes and leant his handsagainst the counter, not willing to face his reflection while he looked like a monster.Head hanging, Draco wondered what he would do if his eyes wouldn't change backto their normal colour; would he even have a chance convincing Granger to stop hisdeath if he was obviously not entirely human? She would be too frightened of hisappearance to even give him a chance.

He took in a big gasp of air to steady his nerves, not realizing that he'd beenholding his breath until he felt the wave of relief wash through him. As fortified ashe was going to get, Draco opened his eyes and looked in the mirror.

Grey. The eyes staring back at him were the usual cold grey ones and his teeth

- 37 -

were back to normal size. Save for the tiny pinpricks the sharp fangs had cut in hisbottom lip, there was no evidence of his earlier episode. Thank Merlin.

The immediate crisis had been averted, but he was haunted by the knowledge thatsomething similar was going to happen every time he was sufficiently emotionallyunstable or got too close to Granger. As a Pureblooded child, it had been necessaryfor Draco to learn to conceal his emotions, but controlling them was another storyentirely. He wasn't near as good at actually controlling his inner turmoil as he wasat hiding it.

He sighed and splashed some water on his face before walking into the smallkitchen attached onto the Head's Common room. Reaching way back into one of thelower cupboards, he rooted around for what he knew was concealed there. As hisfingers wrapped around the cool glass of the bottle, thoughts of Granger and herintense disapproval of alcohol ran through his head. He knew that this wasn't asolution to his problem, but if it could loosen the knot of anxiety that seemed to havebecome his personal companion since the first time he'd felt that little pain in hischest, then he was willing to risk the ire of his fellow Head.

He took a seat on the sofa in front of the fire, lounging there in his usual arrogantway. The Firewhiskey burned all the way down his throat and into his stomach, butit filled him with comforting warmth. The only sounds in the room were the sloshingof liquid, the clinking of glass, and the crackling of the fire. It was peaceful in astrange way. After a few glasses, a lovely, numbing fog settled around his brain.

That was how Granger found him when she came back from her classes. "Malfoy,are you drinking?" She demanded in that shrill and prudish way of hers. Merlin, washe going to be stuck with that voice nagging him for the rest of his life?

The idea wasn't as unappealing as it should have been.

"Why yes I am, thanks for noticing." He glanced towards the near empty bottle ofalcohol sitting on the coffee table in front of him and the completely empty glasssitting beside it. When had all the alcohol gone away? He was sure it had been halffull last time he'd looked. His fellow Head was certainly fond of stating the obvious.

"You know that's against the rules!" Her eyes widened in horror as something elseoccurred to her. "Did you skip your classes to drink?"

Draco wasn't interested in listening to her nagging, so he gave her something elseto think about. "You know Granger, ever since I first met you, whenever I wasfeeling really miserable, I'd seek you out. I used to think it was because putting the

- 38 -

Muggleborn in her place could brighten the day of any self-respecting Pureblood,but now I'm starting to think it was just being near you that made me feel better."

Hermione was dreadfully uncomfortable facing his intensity. She shifted from footto foot under his stare, worried that his haunting eyes could see right through her."I don't know what you're talking about."

Draco wasn't having any of that. The Gryffindor Princess was entirely too fond oflying to him for someone who was supposed to be morally upstanding and all thatnonsense.

"See, I think you know exactly what I'm talking about." He said. Perhaps it was thealcohol talking, but confronting her about the whole kiss incident seemed like agood idea.

The blush that was rapidly staining her cheeks served as an obvious affirmation ofwhat Draco had already discerned: she'd felt something too.

"Fine," she grumbled. "I think I have a general idea of where you're going withthis, and I'm telling you now: you're wrong and you're drunk."

"Why do you think I'm drunk?" Draco demanded. It certainly wasn't in celebrationof something. He'd had a few glasses, but he was only tipsy at best.

"Your complete disregard for rules you're supposed to enforce and a sense ofentitlement that makes you think you can get away with anything. What does gettingdrunk in the middle of the day matter to someone who's above the rules?"

He nodded, "That's part of it, but there's a more pressing matter that's led me todrink. You're a smart girl; look past your denial and I think you could figure it out."

Hermione stared at him for a moment, making sure she'd correctly interpreted hismeaning. "You think I'm your mate," she sighed, coming around the back of the sofato join him in sitting on it. Obligingly, Malfoy moved his feet so she had room to joinhim.

"What're we going to do?" Her voice was squeakier and younger-sounding thanshe would have liked, but Malfoy didn't mention it.

"What I'm going to do is obvious; I'm going to wait for your decision. You've got amore difficult task. You have to decide if you hate me enough to let me die or if yourannoying compassion is going to persuade you to spend the rest of your life with me

- 39 -

forever pestering you."

Hermione frowned at him. "You're not doing the best of jobs in persuading me tohelp you."

"No, I'm not. I suspect I'll regret it later, but right now I'm being brutally honestwith you. You should enjoy it while it lasts; Slytherins aren't so transparent veryfrequently." His eyebrows drew together. Something in the back of his mind wasbothering him, he just couldn't figure out what it was... The pain in his chest! It wasback again, along with that sad feeling he knew wasn't his. What was it that couldmake Granger feel that upset?

After a moment of thought, Draco discovered the one thing that could upsetGranger so much - those idiotic friends of hers.

"What'd they do?" he asked, more irritated than he should have been that she wasupset considering he'd devoted so much time to make her that way in the past.

She turned her big, questioning eyes onto him, making him want to just... rip outthe throat of the person who had brought into existence the sadness he saw there.Ugh. This Veela thing was strange on so many levels. Compassion was certainly anew thing for the blond.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Draco was really starting to tire of her denial. "You've read the books, you knowthat even before I bite you I can feel your emotions. The only people with the powerto make you feel that miserable are those idiot friends of yours, so what'd they do?"

Her lower lip trembled as she listened to something dangerously close to concerncoming from the last person she ever would have expected it from. In an effort tocomfort herself, she brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. Shewasn't sure she liked this new, observant Malfoy.

"Ginny's upset with me because I won't tell her your secret and she knowssomething's up, so she's refusing to talk to me 'until I'm ready to tell her what'sgoing on'. She even threatened to tell Harry and Ron that something was offbetween you and I, but she hasn't yet. I'm worried about what will happen if shedoes."

Hermione had been immensely relieved when she rushed into class and found thatHarry and Ron were shooting her worried looks instead of ignoring her like she'd

- 40 -

been dreading they would do. It had been a small comfort that she still had thesupport of Harry and Ron when she knew in the back of her mind that it was only amatter of time before something came out to make them go the same way as Ginnyand freeze her out.

Draco sighed. "This is why I prefer minions to friends; people think that justbecause you're fond of them they have your permission to meddle in your life."

"That's so... cold." Hermione had never thought to appreciate that she had somany friends who worried about her, but talking to Malfoy made her glad of thatfact. He had such a depressing outlook on friendship.

"That's Slytherin, love," he drawled, mangling the term of endearment intosomething mocking.

Unconsciously, Draco had been shifting towards her throughout their entireconversation. Hermione hadn't noticed until their legs brushed against each other asshe shifted slightly. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, taking advantage ofher closeness and giving in to the Veela.

In a normal situation, Hermione would never have allowed him to get anywherenear her -particularly after what happened last time- but he was being almost kindto her and she could really use the strange comfort his presence provided, so sheallowed the contact. With a sigh, she leant against his strong body and let hiswarmth soothe away the tension she'd been feeling all day.

The books had said that a Veela would go out of his way, even against hispersonality, if his mate needed him to, but Hermione hadn't really believed it untilthat moment. Drunk or not, Malfoy was not acting like a Malfoy.

She really should come to a decision quickly if he was telling the truth and sheheld his life in her hands. What if he was playing some kind of cruel joke on her,making her decide his fate and then laughing at her because she thought she couldever be tied to him in any way? It seemed like something he might try.

"Malfoy?" She asked, pulling away slightly but not breaking the contact betweenthem.

"Mmm?" He hummed, absently curling the fingers of the hand flung over hershoulders around a strand of her hair. It was so soft, and when he pulled it outstraight, the curl bounced right back into its loose ringlet. Her hair was fascinating.

- 41 -

"Prove it."

That got his attention. His silver eyes moved to hers with a question held in theirdepths.

Hermione elaborated, "Prove to me that I'm your mate and this whole thing isn'tsome cruel joke you've invented to humiliate me."

- 42 -

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A/N: My sister's kitten has this thing where she likes to sleep on people'schests as close to your neck as she can. She really likes to lodge herselfunder chins... Once she's there, she usually starts purring. I don't know why,but this makes me really drowsy, so I figured if a tiny kitten's purrs doesthat, then a much bigger creature purring would have a similar effect.

I'm surprised more of you didn't guess how he was going to prove it.Congratulations to for heavens sake for guessing correctly!

Also, thanks to Clairs 96 for reading this over and thanks toTimeToWriteIsHistory for fixing all my mistakes! And, of course, thanks toeveryone who reviewed! I was very excited to read them all.

~Frosty

Hermione elaborated, "Prove to me that I'm your mate and this whole thing isn'tsome cruel joke you've invented to humiliate me."

Angered that she would ever think he'd lie about something so deathly serious,Draco leant forward and kissed her forcefully.

Two days ago, Hermione would have expected her first reaction upon any sort ofcontact with Malfoy's lips to be revulsion and horror. He was so dedicated to hishouse that she wouldn't have been surprised if his lips had been scaly and histongue was forked. The first time he'd kissed her, he'd proved those notions wrong,and the second time was no different than the first.

She enjoyed kissing the prat. He might have been an unpleasant person, but hiskisses were anything but unpleasant.

When he reached for her to pull her closer, she came back to reality and joltedherself away from him. Her breathing was deep and rapid, a desperate attempt tocalm her racing heart.

"You don't just kiss people!" Hermione snapped. Her voice was breathy with abarely audible tremble in it - completely ineffective for both intimidation and

- 43 -

scolding. She knew it would take a lot to teach an old snake new tricks, and in hercurrent condition, she just wasn't up to the task of teaching one of the mostthick-headed snakes of all.

"I was under the impression that's exactly what I've been doing. Only you havethis effect on me, though." There was a strange quality to his voice - something other. It was like his normal tone, but there was an echo behind it in a lower andhigher register at once. "You're going to have to look at me for my point to beadequately proven," he said.

Reluctantly, Hermione brought her eyes to rest on his face. When she saw whatwas there, she squeaked in surprise and fear as she shuffled back as far as theconfines of the sofa would allow. Just like his voice, there were changes to his face.His eyes were once again that bottomless obsidian she'd seen before, but that wasn'tthe only difference. He had fangs. They weren't overly long or pronounced, but theywere noticeable, perfectly white and sharp, resting on slight indentations in hissurprisingly full bottom lip. Individually each slight change would not have mademuch of a difference, but together, they were startling.

Just when she'd started to get her heart-rate under control, the git had to go anddo something to get it back up again - only this time, it was in fear. Though it hadbeen confusing and upsetting, the kiss was preferable to fear when it came tospeeding up her heart.

Darkly, Draco chuckled at her fear. It hurt him a little to see her looking at himlike he was some kind of monster, but comforted himself with the knowledge thathe'd recently had similar thoughts. "Believe me now?"

Had his voice not lost the eerie quality, Hermione would probably have continuedto be scared. But he was back to his normal, abrasive self again; his eyes and teethwere just slightly different. While that other Malfoy had been intimidating, thisMalfoy she'd had ample practice in handling.

His black eyes widened when he saw she was still a little doubtful. "With all theworrying about my life I've been doing, do you really think I have the time to find aglamour charm this realistic?"

Honestly, she seemed to think he had all kinds of spare time to waste researchingand then practising complicated charms just to screw with her head a little. Shegave him entirely too much credit.

Before she had time to react, his hand had darted out and grabbed her wrist. She- 44 -

was frozen in some sort of horrified trance as he brought that wrist up to his mouthand gently bit her - not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough for her tofeel the sharp points of his extended canines pressing on her flesh.

"Malfoy!" Hermione yelled in shock, snatching her hand back and cradling itagainst her chest as if he'd injured it. "The books say I have to agree before you biteme or else you'll just end up with a poisoned mate."

"I've read all the books you have, do you really think I'd forget somethingimportant like that? I had no intention of biting you."

His eyes were less black and his teeth less... pointy when Hermione looked upfrom her careful examination of her wrist to glare at him. "There will be no bitingtaking place here." She snapped. He'd given her quite a shock when she'd thoughthe was biting her and it made her realize the severity of their situation. Deciding tospend the rest of your life with someone was a big adjustment, but deciding to spendthe rest of your life bound to someone who made it blatantly obvious that they hatedyou on numerous occasions was just insanity. Hermione was many things, but insanewas not one of them. Unfortunately, self-sacrificing was.

Refusing to allow him another opportunity to demonstrate his superior strengthand reflexes, Hermione stood and left him there on the sofa while she headed to herroom to think. She only got halfway there when she was stopped by a strange sound.It was a lot like a cat's purring, but deeper.

Confused and wary of whatever new and strange thing he was going to throw ather next, she slowly turned back to the Veela. All of the colour had drained from hisface and he slouched against the couch, looking defeated.

"Malfoy... are you purring?" She asked. Didn't purring mean he was happy? Whathad happened to cause such a drastic change in him in the few seconds since she'dlooked away?

"I'm stressed. Purring isn't only for when I'm happy," he growled, sounding morehostile towards her than she'd heard in a long time. More hostile than she'd heardhim since before the Veela thing. It was like they were enemies again.

She didn't want to push his already frayed temper, but that sound emitting fromsomewhere in his chest was fascinating. "Why?"

"Because you just rejected me and I'm dealing with the fact that I only havemonths left to live!"

- 45 -

Draco hated that even though he was going to die because of her, a part of himstill wanted to spend as much time with her as possible before his eventual demise.He'd known from the moment it became obvious that Granger was his mate thatthere was a possibility she would reject him, but he'd thought she'd at least give hima chance before condemning him.

Hermione hated being confused. She had no idea what Malfoy was talking about; when had she rejected him? Quickly, she ran over their conversation in her head.Her eyes widened when she realized what had happened.

"When I said that there won't be any biting taking place here, it wasn't arejection," she clarified. In retrospect, she could have phrased her reprimand a littlebetter. Whoever it was that said hindsight is always 20/20 knew what they weretalking about. "I wouldn't make a decision like that so rashly. Give me time to think."

It was with relief that she noticed the purring had lessened in volume and he'dregained some colour in his face.

His silver eyes were looking at her with an unfathomable expression. "Do youknow when my birthday is Granger?"

For a moment, she was confused as to why in the world he'd be asking her that,but then she realized; she had until his birthday to make her decision. "No," shesaid.

"It's June fifth. You have the rest of the school year to come to a decision." Therewas such finality in his voice that it gave Hermione chills. This was a serioussituation and she needed to give the entire Malfoy thing serious thought - not thatshe'd let him die. Deep in her heart, she knew that she just didn't have it in her to lethim die when it was in her power to save the bastard. No one deserved the slow,painful death of a Veela pining for a mate who rejected them, not even Malfoy.

Hermione calmly flipped the page in her book and did her best to ignore the irateblond pacing behind the sofa on which she was curled up. She understood that thecommon room was for the both of them to use, but it wasn't like he was doinganything productive. He was just pacing. He could just as easily pace in hisbedroom, where it wouldn't bother her.

"Malfoy! What's your problem?" She demanded when he turned around to takeprobably the sixth millionth pass.

- 46 -

"I've got this... anxiety, but I don't know why," he said. Draco was the type ofperson who felt stress and pressure, but rarely gnawing anxiety. When he'd beentrying to kill Dumbledore, he'd collapsed under the stress occasionally, but neverthe milder feeling he was currently experiencing. Realization dawned on his facewhen Hermione only raised her eyebrows. "It's you. You're the one who's anxious.What's your problem?"

Hermione turned back to her book, regretting opening her big mouth. Had shejust kept it shut, she would have been free to continue reading in peace. What wasso great about the common room anyway? She could have just as easily read in herroom, where Malfoy wouldn't be anywhere near her.

Not about to be deterred by her lack of comment, Draco kept talking. "Do youalways feel things so... vividly? I haven't felt this ill at ease since - well, let's just saythat there were lives on the line."

She calmly flipped another page and continued to ignore him. Her anxiety wasbad enough without Malfoy trying to talk to her about it and distracting her from thebook - her only coping mechanism at the moment.

"How are you not pacing or something?" Malfoy demanded. He was unable to sitstill, and there she was calmly reading a book like there was nothing bothering her!Since he had yet to bite her, the books had said that he would only be experiencinga fraction of the real emotions. That was one thing he wasn't looking forward toshould she actually let him bite her.

When the seat cushion beside her sagged under his weight Hermione rolled hereyes to the ceiling and sighed; she knew he wasn't going to let this go. "What can Ido to make you go away?"

He pulled her book away from her, feeling a little better when he was withintouching distance of her calming presence. "How are you so calm?"

"Reading's my coping mechanism when I'm feeling anxious. Now give me back thebook."

Draco's lips tugged downwards in a frown as he looked at the book in his hands. "Idon't think that's very healthy."

"Says the king of either bottling it up or taking it out on innocent bystanders."

Okay, so he didn't have the best coping mechanisms either. Well, there was a- 47 -

simple remedy to that. Quickly, so she didn't have time to yell at him, Draco reachedacross the small distance between them, snatched her up and pulled her snugly intohis lap, making sure to keep an arm around her waist to ensure she couldn't escape.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, wiggling in a desperate attempt to escapehis hold.

"I make a much better coping mechanism than some boring old book. Now stopwiggling." He tightened his grip around her waist and pulled her against his chest.His Veela was completely content in that moment and he could feel her anxietyfading as she gradually relaxed against him.

Hermione knew when a fight was futile. Malfoy was completely set on holding herand she didn't hate his nearness as much as she should have. She could feel herselfrelaxing against him but was powerless to stop herself.

It took her a moment, but she eventually managed to control her reactions to theblond prat enough to lean away from him slightly. "If I'm going to stay in your lap, atleast give me my book back."

Content that she was going to stay where she was, Draco didn't mind returning toher the thing that drew so much of her attention away from him.

As she read, he leant forward and rested his chin on her shoulder, taking in herscent and basking in her presence. The damn Veela blood in him was making himinto some kind of hopeless romantic. It made him want to do mushy things that hadnever been appealing to him before, like cuddle and write poetry. Dear Merlin, hewas considering poetry. He drew the line at rose petals. If he ever even thoughtabout introducing rose petals into the mix, then he was going to seek some kind ofhelp. Perhaps a brain transplant.

Hermione knew that Veelas could manipulate people using their pheromones, andshe also knew that was probably what Malfoy was doing, but at the moment,couldn't seem to bring herself to care. He was doing wonders for the anxiety she'dbeen feeling. His light caresses and warm presence just melted away her negativefeelings.

As if sensing what she'd been thinking, Malfoy spoke. "So what is it that had youall worked up?"

He was purring again. She could only assume it was from happiness or somethingsimilar this time. Apparently that was all it took to completely relax her; she was

- 48 -

putty in his hands. Her body moulded against his and her eyelids started to droop.

"I'm going to talk to Ginny today. I'm not sure what I'm going to say yet, but I haveto do something before irreparable damage to our friendship is done." Shemurmured.

Her drooping eyelids snapped open when she became fully aware of what washappening. She elbowed him in the stomach hard enough to make him release hisgrip in surprise and jumped out of his lap, not stopping her retreat until she waswell out of his reach. "Stop that." She firmly ordered.

"Stop what?" He asked, falsely innocent. Along with the death sentence that cameif his mate rejected him, Draco had some weapons to being her closer to him, and hewasn't about to throw his life away without first persuading her in any way he could.

"Stop using pheromones and whatever else you were doing to make me all..." Shetrailed off, not sure what word she was looking for.

"Relaxed? Pleasant?" Malfoy offered.

Hermione made a noise of frustration and left to find her redheaded friend sincehe was obviously in a mood to make her hex him. Maybe she should just tell Ginnythe truth; after all, when she discovered that she was his mate, Malfoy's secretbecame Hermione's as well.

The trip from the Head's Common room to the Gryffindor tower was actually avery short one, so she was going to have to make up her mind quickly.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked. Hermione hadn't had enough time to come to adecision, so she was going to have to think on her feet.

She spouted off the password of the month and climbed through the portrait hole,wondering how she was going to approach her friend. It would be easiest if shecould just catch Ginny on her own and quietly explain everything. Hopefully, thetruth would be enough to appease the temperamental redhead.

Ginny was rushing out of Gryffindor's common room just as the brunette wasgoing in, causing them to nearly collide as their paths crossed.

"We need to talk," Hermione said firmly, not allowing her fried to pass her bywithout saying something. She just couldn't understand how Ginny expected theirconflicts to get resolved when any situation bringing them together by chance ended

- 49 -

in stony silence on her part. It just wasn't reasonable.

"I can't right now; I have to-"

Hermione grabbed her arm as the other girl tried to continue walking away. "Youcan't just keep trying to make me miserable because I did something you don't like.Let me explain."

Glancing between the open portrait hole and her friend, Ginny nodded stoically."Fine. I have to go meet Luna so she can return my Herbology notes, but I'll stop bythe Head Dorms after that."

That said, she continued on her way, sidestepping Hermione. As her friend passedher, Hermione slipped a piece of paper in the other girl's hand with the password forthe Head Dorms on it to allow her access. That way, she wouldn't have to knock andrisk Malfoy answering and inflaming the situation even more.

The brunette sighed, knowing that convincing Ginny to speak with her was theeasy part; the difficult bit was going to be making her understand.

She rushed through the halls to get back with enough time to make sure Malfoywas going to be out of the way while Ginny was there - nothing could make thesituation go south faster than Malfoy set on being annoying.

Her eyes darted around the Head's common room; he wasn't where she had lefthim. Where could the prat have gone?

Quietly, she peeked into his room to see if he was sleeping, but he wasn't there.He must have gone to the Slytherin dorms or something...

Well, now that she didn't have to waste time getting rid of Malfoy, she had amoment to herself to prepare what she was going to say to Ginny. She mulled overwhether she was going to reveal everything she knew, or if she could give an editedversion of the truth, just enough to placate the hot-headed Weasley female. Bothoptions had their pros and cons.

Absently, she wandered into her own room to get the book she'd been reading thenight before so she'd have something productive to do while she waited for herfriend. There was only so much agonizing over what to say she could do. In the end,she knew that the truth was best.

When her attention landed on her bed, she froze in place, unable to believe what- 50 -

she was seeing.

"What are you doing?" She yelled, frantic.

Draco blinked open his eyes and stared at her for a moment, waiting for her formto come into focus. "I was under the impression that I was sleeping."

"You're in my bedroom! In my bed!"

The blond sighed. If that was all, then he was going back to sleep. She'd beenyelling like something was on fire or the giant squid had gone on a rampage and washeading right for them. He rolled over and pulled one of her pillows over his head,attempting to block out the sound of her screeching.

Hermione was on the verge of hyperventilating. Ginny was due to show up anysecond to talk over the whole Malfoy debacle and now the git was in her bed. Shewas willing to bet a lot of money that he wasn't fully clothed under her covers. Timefor a new tactic.

"Malfoy, do you not need me if you're going survive past your next birthday?"

He grumbled something that she assumed was a grudging assent.

"Then get out of my bed before Ginny gets here and sees you because she'd goingto kill me the as soon as she does."

The pillow came off his face and he glared at her. "I hate you sometimes," hegrumbled, pulling the covers off of his chest to reveal that he was only wearingboxers. Sometimes, Hermione hated it when she was right. Sleeping in her bed wasone thing, but removing his clothes first was pushing the envelope towardsunreasonable.

"That's what makes it so interesting that you're chemically drawn to me. I'massuming that's why you're in my bed?" She asked.

He nodded, completely unabashed that he was barely clothed. "It smells like you,the Veela leaves me alone and lets me sleep when I'm there."

Running a stressed hand through her hair, Hermione closed her eyes and took adeep breath. She'd talk to him about boundaries later. At the moment, she neededhim out of her room before Ginny showed up.

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Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A/N: When I write Ginny, I kind of model her after my sister... She's quickto anger but quick to forgive. I know a few of you aren't all that fond of her,but I don't think she would be all understanding after thinking her friend letsomething she didn't like ambush and then kiss her.

Thanks to Claire96 and TimeToWriteIsHistory for their wonderful betaingskills and thanks to everyone who reviewed!

~Frosty

"Malfoy, you shouldn't be worrying about your Veela; you should be worryingabout me! Get out of my bed before I hex you!" Hermione gritted out between teethso tightly clenched her parents were probably wincing somewhere from the enameldamage. As dentists, they had a keen sense for when their offspring was doingsomething that could cause harm to her pearly-whites, a trait that had annoyedHermione to no end as a child, as they could always somehow tell when she'd stolena cookie or forgot to floss.

The blond boy occupying her bed sighed. "Granger," he said, mocking herthreatening tone, "it's not my fault I'm part magical creature and your bed is one ofthe few places I can have a restful sleep. I thought you were all for the equal rightsof magical creatures."

"Not when they're as infuriating as you are," she muttered under her breath.House Elves had never once invaded her personal space to sleep in her bad andinsult her at the same time. Part of the reason she'd been fighting so hard for themwas because they didn't fight for themselves. She knew for a fact that Malfoy wasperfectly comfortable standing up for himself, even when he was in the wrong.

She was just contemplating a nice hex she'd read about in the Restricted Sectionthat would leave Malfoy a cuttlefish (until she cast the counter-curse, of course)when she heard the click of the portrait hole opening. Hermione intensely regrettedgiving Ginny the password, allowing the girl free access to find her in a number ofcompromising positions with the pushy Veela before proper explanation had beengiven.

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"I'm here to listen to what you have to say Hermione. This better not be some kindof trick so Malfoy can kiss me again," called the irritated voice of Ginny. The girlwas not sounding like she was all that open to explanations at the moment.

Anxiously, Hermione tapped her fingers against her thigh as she thought. Therewasn't really anything she could do except leave Malfoy where he was and hope thatGinny wouldn't find him. She'd just keep her conversation with Ginny as short aspossible and then come back to hex the prat into oblivion. Yes, she was starting tolike the plan more and more.

"Okay Malfoy, Ginny's here so I can explain what's been going on with me lately.She's very upset that I wasn't surprised or even all that angry when you kissed her.Finding you in my bed isn't going to help anything, so just... go back to sleep."

Having had no desire to leave her bed in the first place, Draco made a sleepysound of agreement and snuggled down amongst her pillows and blankets oncemore. They were still warm from his body heat and practically calling to him. For themoment, he was content to sleep, but if the She-Weasel was still there when he wasfinished with his nap he had every intention of making sure she suffered for causingall that misery he'd been experiencing through Hermione.

Feeling like she was marching off to face her own execution, Hermione left Malfoyin her bed and went downstairs to the Head's common room. She'd managed toescape the evil, scaly clutches of the Dark Lord, only to risk a stroke from all thestress Malfoy's situation was putting her under.

Ginny was waiting in front of the fireplace with her arms crossed, ready for aconfrontation. It seemed she was willing to listen but had already decided Hermionewas in the wrong.

"Well?" she asked, one eyebrow raised and tapping a foot like she had somethingbetter to do and was impatient to get to it.

"I've never been able to refuse someone when they needed help," Hermionestarted, "and Malfoy needed - needs - my help."

"So you just drop everything and help Malfoy go around assaulting your friends?What could he possibly have said to trick you into feeling sorry enough for him to goalong with whatever his current evil scheme entails?"

Internally, Hermione sighed. This was going to be more difficult than she hadoriginally thought. It was one of their less advertised traits, but bull-headed

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stubbornness was just as common as bravery in Gryffindor house.

Draco was trying to sleep. "Trying" being the operative word. The Gryffindor girlsa floor below him weren't being loud, but that annoying ache in his chest was back.He knew this meant that despite the relatively quiet volume level of theconversation, the She-Weasel was being hurtful. The Veela part of him wasn't goingto just let him sleep if his mate was upset.

He knew he wasn't going to be able to nap in peace until they'd settled their littledisagreement, so he was going to have to help it along.

With a few muttered expletives, he dragged himself out of Granger's bed andquietly padded out of the room in his bare feet. Briefly, he considered putting hisslippers on, but quickly dismissed that notion - that would be admitting he was goingto be out of the bed long enough for his feet to get cold. He did however, relent andput his pants and shirt back on - it just wouldn't do to have Weaslette so busymolesting him with her eyes that she didn't hear any of his words.

"I didn't drop everything to just help him along with an evil plan, I knew what wasgoing on," Granger's voice floated up the stairs.

Just hearing her soothed some of the irritation that was boiling hot within him.Draco knew this meant he was probably in trouble; for someone with hiscommitment issues, becoming a Veela wasn't exactly a comfortable transition. He'dwanted to stay free of the shackles of a relationship for as long as possible, yet alarge part of him wanted nothing more than to claim Granger and spend the rest ofhis days doting on her.

"Oh, so you knew Malfoy was going to kiss me and you just let him?" the gratingvoice of the youngest Weasley followed Hermione's. Between the two, the contrastin their voices was startling; both of them were shrill, but Hermione's was music tohis ears and the other woman's made him want to cringe.

Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, Draco could see the both of them. Theywere standing in front of the fire, Granger looking miserable and the other onelooking like she was ready to strangle someone at any moment. If she decided onGranger, Draco was going to revoke his rule of never hitting women.

"You don't have anything to say?" the redhead asked incredulously. "So you really did know! We're done here." Angrily, she turned towards the door, making the

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stabbing ache Draco was feeling intensify. This simply wouldn't do; at the rate theywere going, he wasn't going to get his nap at all.

"Stop right there Weaslette," Draco called. Surprisingly, it actually worked andshe froze in place. Maybe he was getting better with the pheromone thing than he'dthought. He made a mental note to try and get Granger to join him for that nap laterif she wasn't in a mood to hex him.

"What?" she practically growled, whipping around to face him. Despite her angerat Hermione, Ginny was still her friend. With Draco, there were no such tiesstopping her from taking the entirety of her anger out on him.

"What Granger's trying to keep from you is that she was helping me out of pitybecause I was dying," Draco said, his tone clipped and to the point.

Granger made a sound of protest at the pity comment, but he waved her off andcontinued. "I'm a Veela and I was searching for my mate. Kissing people was theonly way to be sure whether she was the one or not. Needless to say, you were not."

There was a moment of almost complete silence. The only sound in the room wasthe quiet crackling of the fire as it burned hungrily through its fuel, completelyignorant of the staring contest going on mere centimetres from its hearth.

Unfortunately, the annoyingly astute redhead picked up on the one word in hisentire speech he'd been hoping she'd overlook. "'Was' searching?"

He inwardly winced. It figured that she would make his confession as painful aspossible. She was a Weasley. Outwardly, he projected his usual calm demeanour."Yes, 'was.' I've found her and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop making her miserable,because it's interfering with my sleep schedule."

Somewhere deep inside him, beside Granger's hurt, he could feel her angerstarting to grow. That was probably a "no" to the nap later then. Immediatelyseemed like a good time to retreat back into her bedroom and finish his sleep - alone.

Before the Gryffindors could get over their shock at his baldly honest statements,he turned and retreated up the stairs, back into Granger's room. Just as he wasshutting the door, he heard the She-Weasel ask "Did he just go into your room?"

Hermione scrunched up her face in irritation at the brazen actions of her blondcompanion. She had to comfort herself with the fact that he had put his clothes back

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on before emerging from her bedroom. That would have caused all kinds of hell shejust didn't want to have to contend with.

"He claims he sleeps better in my bed because it smells like me and the Veela partof him lets him rest when it's calmed by my scent. I was in the process of kickinghim out when you showed up, so I let him stay there to avoid you seeing him leavingand making me explain everything to you." Hermione mumbled.

"So he was telling the truth? He's really a Veela, you're sure?"

The brunette nodded. "Fangs, black eyes and everything."

Softening slightly towards her friend, Ginny took a seat on the sofa. "Hermione, Iknow you're all for finding the good in everyone, but this is Malfoy we're talkingabout. Agreeing to be his mate means you're going to have to spend the rest of yourlife with him."

Hermione joined her and slumped slightly, "I know."

"I realize you don't want to hear this, but he's Malfoy. Would it really be such ahuge loss if he died?"

"Ginny!" She exclaimed, shocked that her friend would even consider letting thegit die just because he was... well, a git. It wouldn't make her much better than amurderer to let him die just because she wasn't willing to make a few sacrifices, andshe didn't want that guilt on her soul.

The redhead sighed and leaned against Hermione, giving her a one-armed hug."You're too kind for your own good."

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

Head tilted to the side, the youngest Weasley regarded the girl who had been oneof her closest friends for years. She knew that she'd allowed her issues with beingleft out to interfere with her judgement and that she should have trusted thatHermione knew what she was doing despite the evidence she'd witnessed to thecontrary.

"Provided you don't let Malfoy kiss me again, I suppose all is well."

Hermione laughed, feeling light with relief that they were back to normal. Nowshe only had to tell Harry and Ron about the whole Veela thing and pray they never

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found out about Ginny's involvement. On the bright side: at least Malfoy hadn't triedto kiss either of them. She shuddered at the mere thought of the fallout if he evertried something like that.

Regretfully, Ginny glanced at the clock sitting on the fireplace mantle. "I'd love tostay and talk some more, and I bet you could use some girl talk time after everythingthat' s happened while I've been too busy being a bitch to help you, but I promisedLuna that we'd catch some Nargles so Hagrid can use them in his lessons comeChristmas time."

Hermione snorted. "Good luck with that."

The redhead left the room laughing at Hermione's doubt. For someone so smart,the girl wasn't very open to new ideas that sounded a little out there - not that Ginnyactually believed they'd manage to find - much less catch - a Nargle, but still, itnever hurt to keep an open mind about things.

When Ginny was gone, Hermione, feeling happy, looked up the stairs toward herbedroom. What was she going to do about Malfoy? And Harry and Ron? Merlin, shewas lucky Ginny had taken the news so well. It was unlikely that her two friendswould be so level-headed about the whole thing.

She sat there, staring blankly out the window at the fluffy clouds visible in the sky.The clock kept ticking while she ran through possible outcomes in her mind. Shewasn't one to just jump in and randomly choose something without logic and muchthought like Ron was prone to do. Hermione preferred to completely weigh all theoptions before coming to a decision.

Maybe it would be best if she just invited them over to the Head Dorms and letthem find Malfoy in her bed?

No, that wouldn't work; they'd be just as likely to murder the blond as they wereto listen to the explanation of why he was in her room.

Without having come to a decision, she sighed and got up from the sofa. She'dwasted all kinds of time just staring out the window and thinking, and it obviouslywasn't helping her.

"You're in a better mood," Malfoy observed when she entered her bedroom. Hehad one silver eye cracked open to watch her as she moved further into the room,leaving the door open behind her. The feelings of anger and sadness had beenreplaced with a bubbly, light sensation, keeping him just as awake and fidgety as the

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previous feelings had.

"Everything's fine between me and Ginny now. But you probably already knowthat; I somehow find it hard to believe that you're not using those newly sharp earsof yours to eavesdrop."

Unabashed, he smirked; she knew him well. "Are you worried she's going to run toPotter and tell him everything she's learned?"

In all honesty, Draco was a little concerned that Potter and Weasley would findout what had happened and come hunting for him. It wasn't that he believed theywould actually be able to do him harm, but when one has people lurking around thatare out for blood, it was always nice to have some forewarning.

Hermione perched on the chair that sat in the corner of her room and faced theblond on the bed. "I'm not worried about Ginny saying anything to Harry and Ron;she knows this whole thing is my story to tell."

She was just so... trusting. To Draco, it was strange for someone to have so muchfaith in their friends - particularly when said friends had recently turned on her.Draco didn't like it; he just knew that trust was going to get her in trouble one day.

"I want to be there when you tell Potter and Weasley," he announced. It wasunlikely, but there was always the possibility that the Weasel or even Potter wouldlash out at their friend when they found out the truth.

"No," she said flatly and without any hesitation.

"Granger-"

"Don't Granger me! When I tell my friends that I plan on spending the rest of mylife with someone they hate, I don't want you there to make the entire situationworse!"

Noticing that he was looking at her with an odd, happy expression that didn't fitthe situation at all, she tilted her head to the side, thrown off by his strangereaction. "What?"

Draco was no longer feeling tired, he was feeling invigorated. She'd just agreed!Well, not officially, but she'd made her intentions to become his mate and keep himalive clear. There was hope for him yet. Her confused expression and snippyquestion made it obvious she had no idea what she'd just done.

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"You just said you intend to become my mate and keep me alive."

She sighed and deflated, her anger fading under her resignation. "Of course I'mnot going to let you die. No one save for Voldemort and possibly a few peoplecurrently in Azkaban awaiting the Kiss deserve that death."

Draco was too elated to be peeved that she had known she was going to keep himalive and had left him to stew in worry while he thought she was wavering back andforth with her decision.

He jumped from the bed, raced across the room and scooped her up in a hug thatprobably would have squished her had his Veela side not reminded him that he wasstronger than he used to be and he shouldn't squish his mate.

After the quick hug he kept his hold on her and spun the both of them around inan exuberant twirl.

Not so long ago, Hermione would have panicked if Malfoy had suddenly scoopedher up and spun her around. But that was before she'd known that he was physicallyincapable of harming her or had witnessed how infectious his smile could be when itwas genuine and fuelled by happiness instead of the bitter, smug smirk he usuallywore. She wasn't sure whether it was his Veela side kicking in or if there was agenuinely warm person hidden inside him.

Come to think of it, she was happier than she should be considering the situation.Maybe it was more than his smile that was infectious. Focusing her attention inwardand ignoring her surroundings, Hermione delved inside herself. She found that shewas feeling the apprehension she thought would be expected in her current position,but that was covered by much stronger elation and warm happiness.

With a start she realized that only the apprehension was her own feeling.

Draco sensed the change in her and set her gently on the ground. "What'swrong?"

"You're happy."

"And this bothers you?"

Hermione shook her head; he didn't understand what she meant. "No. You'rehappy and I can feel it."

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Malfoy seemed unsurprised by this statement.

"It's disconcerting at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly." He tried to soundreassuring, but it didn't work as well as he'd hoped. The panic inside her was rapidlyswelling, and it was starting to set him on edge.

"This isn't supposed to happen until I agree to be your mate! I never agreed, I justaccidentally blurted out my intentions to keep you alive."

He sighed and reached out to grab her shoulders gently. "Granger, it's the samething. You either become my mate and I live or you don't and I die. Now which is it?"

Hermione took a deep breath to steady herself. She'd been expecting more timebefore she came to a definite decision. Once she agreed, it would be much harder tochange her mind. Refusing after she'd already agreed could kill Malfoy, even beforehis birthday.

The moment she uttered those words, the courtship ritual would be set intomotion and things would start changing more drastically than before. The books hadall been insistent that the mate should only agree to stay with their Veela if theywere sure they would go through the entire process.

"I'll be your mate," she said quietly, but with enough conviction to satisfy him.

Draco could tell she needed some time to process everything, so instead ofsmothering her in affection like his annoyingly romantic Veela side wanted him todo, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and moved towards the door.

"I have to go to Quidditch practice. You should go spend some time with theWeaslette and talk this out or something," he called over his shoulder. Girls liked tohave long, boring talks about their feelings and things, right? He didn't stay towitness her reaction to his statement.

Hermione stared after him with her hand pressed against the still-tingling cheekhe had just pecked. He was right; she needed to talk to Ginny.

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Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A/N: You guys are amazing! I'm shocked at how many reviews I've beengetting, so thank you! You know who else is amazing? My two beta readersClaire96 and TimeToWriteIsHistory! Seriously, the story is much betterthanks to their efforts.

I took a few days to think where I wanted this story to go, and then I spentanother few days writing like the wind (is that an actual expression? Itshould be), so I'm now into chapter 13 of this story.

Also, for those of you who read Lifelike Shadows and have been waiting forthe oneshot companion, that's been posted! It's called Shadow No Longer.

~Frosty

The moment Hermione stepped out of the portrait hole, she knew somethingstrange was going on. Floating throughout the halls were bunches of mistletoe withexcitedly chattering students underneath them. Everywhere there were clumps ofpeople staring with wonder at the normal-looking plant. With all the strange thingsthat magic was capable of, making a relatively commonplace plant float wasn't evenworth batting an eye - much less the attention it was receiving. She could onlysurmise that something else was afoot.

"What's happened?" She asked a group of first-years standing nearby.

"Luna Lovegood actually caught a Nargle!" one of them squeaked out in her hyperlittle voice. "Now the castle's been invaded by mistletoe because everyone wants tofind one for themselves," she continued. The girl sounded somewhere between awedand disbelieving.

Hermione shared those feelings, though she leant heavily toward the disbelievingend of that scale. In all of her reading, never had she found proof that Narglesexisted - she'd barely even found mention of the things outside of the Quibbler. She really had to find Ginny and get to the bottom of whatever had happened whilethey'd been searching for Nargles because she refused to take it from a secondarysource that they'd actually discovered something that didn't exist.

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As she made her way to the Gryffindor common room, she marvelled at all themistletoe that had appeared in the castle in the short period of time since she'd lastseen Ginny. It never ceased to amaze Hermione how fast things could change in themagical world. One minute the entire school thought Luna was loony, and the nextshe was the hero of the school for allegedly proving that one of her hallucinationswere actually real.

She found her redheaded friend close to the Gryffindor tower, staring withdisbelief at the nearest floating plant.

"Ginny, it's all around the school that you and Luna actually caught a Nargle. Isthat true?"

The other girl glanced both ways down the corridor suspiciously before grabbingher friend's arm and yanking her into a nook behind a tapestry.

"She may seem dreamy, but Luna's relentless. She said we couldn't leave until weactually caught a Nargle."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "And?"

"And... I kind of glued a pair of googly eyes onto a mistletoe leaf and called it aNargle." Ginny looked both horrified with her actions and amused that it hadactually worked. She was a little apprehensive about how the uptight Hermionewould take this news.

"Ginny! That's horrible you shouldn't have-" her lecture was interrupted by ahiccup of laughter which was soon followed by many more until both girls wereclutching their sides in mirth.

"I think all that time with Malfoy has loosened up your obsession with rules," theredhead observed.

Hermione wanted to object that being friends with Harry and Ron throughout theyears had forced her to relax her tight grip on obeying the rules, but she waslaughing too hard. She merely hiccupped another laugh and shook her head.

Draco circled the pitch, looking over his team. He was pleased with the progressthey'd been making - well, everyone except...

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"Blaise! What the hell are you looking at? You're supposed to be watching thegoal!"

The dark Slytherin barely even glanced at the irritated team captain. He was oneof the few people in the entire school who could get away with treating the blondwith anything other than respect.

"Didn't you hear? Lovegood found a Nargle," Blaise said, still not paying anyattention to the goalposts he was supposed to be guarding. The chasers darted inbehind him and scored two goals while he was addressing his blond friend, makingsaid friend growl in frustration.

"Zabini," Draco growled, "I don't care. Now get back to guarding the bloody goal!"

He would have had to be blind to miss the mistletoe and gossip that had overrunthe school while he'd been heading outside to the Quidditch pitch. Their practicewent on with more effectiveness once Blaise's brain was back on the game andDraco could relax a little easier knowing that they had a chance of winning the cupif his players could just keep playing the way they had been in practices of late.

Suddenly, Draco spotted the Snitch glinting in the sunlight on the other side of thepitch. He lowered his body until he was almost parallel with his broomstick andraced across the field as fast as his top of the line racing broom and Veela reflexeswould allow. His reaching fingers were just about to close around the fluttering goldball when he felt a rush of amusement and happiness from Hermione.

He was unable to keep a goofy smile off of his face as he felt how happy she wasat that moment. It warmed him to the core in a strange way which his ownhappiness couldn't compare. With effort, he managed to bring his focus back on thegame; it wouldn't do to scold Blaise for something and then turn around to do thatvery thing himself.

Before the Snitch could get away, he snatched it and smothered the grin on hisface - he couldn't have the team thinking he was going soft.

"Draco!" A frantic voice behind him yelled.

He heard a strange whooshing whistle that didn't bode well for his future health.

The blond turned around just in time to take a Bludger right to his chest. Heswore he could hear each individual rib as it snapped on impact. The startled breathhe tried to take in caused him excruciating pain and the edges of his vision started

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to go fuzzy and black as unconsciousness threatened to wrap him in its dark blanket.

Just before he succumbed to his wounds and passed out, Draco's last thought wasthat someone on his team was going to pay for their incompetence.

The big smile faded off of Hermione's face as she felt a pain in her chest. It rapidlyintensified until it had grown from a small twinge to almost unbearable, making herfall to the ground. Her arms tightly wrapped around her torso in an instinctual - andunsuccessful - effort to ease the pain.

Ginny knelt down beside her, concerned. "Hermione, what's wrong?" She jumpedback when her friend looked up at her from the floor.

"I think something happened to Malfoy - why're you looking at me like that?"

As quickly as it had appeared, the pain went away again, leaving her confused.Ginny was looking at her like she was some kind of monster. Much like she'd lookedat Malfoy when she'd first seen his eyes change.

Hermione felt a stab of panic that had nothing to do with the mysterious painshe'd just experienced. Merlin, were her eyes changing as well?

Quickly, she conjured a mirror and stared at herself. Just like Malfoy's had been,her eyes were pure obsidian.

"Ginny, I have to get to the Quidditch pitch," she said in the calmest voice shecould manage. Her readings had informed her that what she was experiencing mostcommonly happened when the Veela was in pain of danger.

Confused, the redhead nodded and followed her friend as she ran towards theEntrance Hall.

They never made it all the way outside; as soon as they got to the bottom of thestairs, Blaise entered the castle levitating a broken-looking Malfoy.

Hermione made a distressed sound and rushed forward. "What happened?" sheasked Blaise, doing her best to stay calm. No matter how many times people shecared about were injured, it never got easier to see them in pain.

Blaise gestured that they should continue moving. They rushed towards the

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Hospital Wing as he spoke.

"The Beaters were being morons. Draco was just about to catch the Snitch and theblighter accidentally hit a Bludger towards him. It all happened so fast..."

Hermione followed along with the dark Slytherin as he hurried through the halls.Her shorter legs had to really work to keep up with the longer strides of the boy, butshe puffed along beside him, determined to keep up.

Somewhere along the line it seemed that Ginny had disappeared. She hadprobably gone to find a teacher.

Together, they burst into the hospital wing, startling the Mediwitch on the otherside of the doors.

"What is it you children have gotten into now?" the old woman sighed inexasperation. She spent all her time patching up those children, and there was stillalways someone in need of more help. Keeping all them whole was like runninguphill in the sand; it was exhausting.

"Quidditch," Blaise said, trying to steady his breathing after his long run.

No more explanation was needed; Madam Pomfrey immediately launched into along-winded rant about her hatred for the "mindlessly brutal sport" as she bustledpurposefully towards them.

Gently, Blaise lowered Draco to one of the waiting hospital beds as the Mediwitchwatched with disapproval.

Not wanting to look at the mess of purpling splotches that made up Malfoy'schest, Hermione stepped close to his bed and angled herself so she could only seehis face. Her hands shook slightly as she reached for his and held on tightly.

Something about seeing his face free of its usual arrogant expression hurt her.Malfoy just wasn't himself if he wasn't feeling superior to someone. She had no ideahow he managed it, but he somehow made that characteristic part of his charm - notthat she'd ever admit this to him.

He should have looked peaceful in his unconsciousness, but there was a little linebetween his eyebrows and a slight wrinkling in the skin around his eyes that spokeof the pain his body was suffering.

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There was a sickening crack from behind her as the Healer repaired the bonesthat had shattered when the Bludger hit. Hermione couldn't see what was going on,but she had a clear view of Blaise's face on the other side of Malfoy. He was lookingpositively green.

"Hermione, I can't stand hospitals. Can you stay here with him?" the boy gasped,appearing unsure as to whether he was going to throw up or pass out.

She nodded; it was obvious that something was going to give if Blaise stayed inthe hospital wing a moment longer and none of them needed that added stress.

Immediately, the Slytherin fled the Hospital Wing.

Another bone-grating crunch echoed throughout the room.

"Is he going to be all right?" Hermione asked, not looking over her shoulder atwhat was happening, instead focusing all of her attention on Malfoy's face. Hewasn't looking as wan and pale as he had just minutes before.

From her reading, Hermione knew that Veelas could heal much quicker thannormal people, but Malfoy had been hurt so badly, she was still worried.

"He's going to be a little tender for a few days, but Mr. Malfoy is Veela, so he'll befine in a few hours."

Sagging with relief, Hermione let herself fall into the visitor's chair waiting besidethe blond's bed. Reassured that he was going to be fine, she chanced a glance at hischest to take inventory of the damage. She was surprised to see that it was alreadywrapped tightly in gauzy strips of bandage. Madam Pomfrey worked fast.

Her worried eyes darted to meet the Mediwitch's when Malfoy shifted slightly inhis sleep and let out a pained groan.

A comforting smile was half-way formed on Madam Pomfrey's face when it froze,along with all of her other movement. "Miss Granger, you're not Mr. Malfoy's mateby any chance, are you?"

Hermione tilted her head to the side, not sure how that was relevant. "Yes. Why?"

"Because now that's he's starting to wake up, your eyes are pure black."

Her eyes must have changed back to their normal colour once Malfoy had lost- 66 -

consciousness. This meant that no one had witnessed her running through the hallswith obsidian orbs for eyes. It was a little disappointing that they were back to blackagain.

The doors to the Hospital Wing burst open once more as what appeared to be theentire Hufflepuff second year class rushed in. Each one was eager to lose the tail orears they'd sprouted from a Potion's accident gone horribly wrong.

Madam Pomfrey frowned. She hated that the teachers seemed to put the poorchildren into dangerous situations every day. Why couldn't they ever make a potionfor sunshine and rainbows with no dangerous ingredients?

"Miss Granger, I don't usually do this, but your secret will be out if those childrennotice your eyes. I'm going to close the curtain around Mr. Malfoy's bed to allow yousome privacy. I expect you to conduct yourself appropriately as Head Girl."

The brunette nodded, eager to be away from prying eyes in her state. She wasn'tsure what it was that the Mediwitch expected her to get into with an unconsciousMalfoy, but she wasn't going to question it.

"She thinks you're going to jump me," said a croaky voice from the bed beside her."I wouldn't be opposed to that, just be careful of my ribs for a while; I seem to havebroken most of them recently."

Once Hermione got over her shock that Malfoy was not only awake, but speaking,she directed a stern look at him.

"You're an ass," she announced, wanting dearly to whack him, but worried that itwould jostle his injuries.

"And you're inconsiderate for worrying so much that it dragged me back toconsciousness."

Had she really disturbed his rest like that? Hermione frowned worriedly at thethought that she was detrimental to his recovery merely by existing. Maybe if sheleft the distance would dull his ability to experience what she was feeling.

Sensing the change in emotions, Draco tiredly reached out a hand to rest it onhers as she clutched nervously at his sheets. "Granger, I didn't mean that."

He rubbed his thumb over the dip between her two largest knuckles, soothingaway her worries with pheromones and a soft touch. "You know, I'm pretty sure I

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read in one of the books that I'll heal faster if you're lying with me - preferablywithout clothes, but I'll settle for you getting in bed with me."

Hermione pulled her hand away from him, feeling a little desolate without histouch. "Cite me your sources and I'll be more than willing to research this theory ofyours. If it proves to be true then I'll be willing to consider getting into bed withyou."

Draco sighed hugely, wincing as his ribs gave a twinge of pain at the movement. Itwould have been nice is she'd actually agreed. The Veela wanted her as close asphysically possible.

It was just the Veela that wanted her near... wasn't it? At the moment, he didn'treally care which part of him wanted it, he just wanted her closer.

He finally regained his bearings enough to focus on her and was surprised bywhat he saw. "Granger, your eyes." His hand reached up and he gently traced hisindex finger down the side of her nose and over the delicate skin under her eye.

Trying to hide how much that one feather-light caress affected her, Hermioneleant away from him even though she wanted nothing more than to lean closer."Your eyes are black as well. The books say it'll fade with your injuries."

"I know what the books say, I've been reading them just as avidly as you have."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow, making him roll his obsidian eyes to the ceiling.

"Fine, maybe not quite as avidly as you, but not all of us salivate over knowledgelike you seem to."

Her irritation with him was growing. He could feel it, yet he just couldn't bringhimself to stop with the comments designed to piss her off. It never failed toentertain him when she got all worked up. She would bristle with her indignantanger and her eyes would flash.

"How is it that you always manage to ruin sweet gestures with acerbic words?"she demanded.

Draco knew she wasn't really upset with him. He gave her his most heart-stoppinggrin, something that would have made lesser girls melt into a puddle of worshipfulgoo. "It's part of my charm, love."

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If he was well enough to attempt to mess with her mind, then she was confidentthat he was going to be fine. It helped that she could feel that his pain had fadedsignificantly.

As if sensing the direction of her thought - and she wasn't entirely sure he couldn'tdo that - Malfoy spoke. "I'm... sorry for putting you through that pain."

The hesitation before saying 'sorry' made Hermione think that it wasn't somethinghe said often. Touched at his concern, she reached out and took his hand again.

"I'm fine, I've had worse."

He started running his thumb along her hand as he'd been doing before. "Youshouldn't have to." The words were a growl, but Hermione wasn't sure who was thetarget of his anger. She had a suspicion that he was upset with himself for gettinghurt when she could feel it.

"Don't be an idiot; life is painful. It happens to everyone at some point or anotherand you'll only kill yourself trying to shelter me from all of it." Hermione scolded.She squeezed his hand to punctuate her statement.

Movement out of the corner of her eyes drew her attention away from Malfoy. Thecurtain sheltering them from the rest of the Hospital Wing was rippling as ifsomeone had been holding it to the side and then released it. Had someone seenthem?

She glanced at Malfoy; he was supposed to be the one with the superior senses."Did someone just...?"

"Yeah, someone just looked in and saw us," he said grimly.

- 69 -

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A/N: Hallo readers! Have you ever had one of those days where you wakeup hours too early and angry because of it? For some reason that was methis morning... Luckily for you guys, it came with the urge to post anotherchapter. So here it is... at 7am. Ugh.

As always, thanks to all the wonderful people who take the time to review.Also thanks to Claire96 and TimeToWriteIsHistory for their beta work.

This is the third time I've written this chapter... I keep scrapping itbecause I don't like where it ends up. I hope you guys like it.

~Frosty

Immediately, Hermione started worrying. Who could have seen them?

Whoever it was probably hadn't witnessed much, but seeing the two Headstudents holding hands while both of them had coal-black eyes would probably raisesome questions. Questions neither of them were ready to answer publicly.

"Stop your pointless worrying Granger, the truth will either come out or it won't.There's no sense making the both of us sick with worry," Malfoy scolded.

He carefully stretched himself out to see how his injuries were healing. Thetwinges of pain were gone, and there was nothing impeding his movements, so hefigured he was just about back to normal. For all the trouble it caused, he was gladhe was a Veela; without the accelerated healing abilities, he may not have survivedthe accident. Death by Quidditch practice - that would have been an embarrassingway for the Malfoy line to end.

Slowly, he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of his bed while Granger madesounds of protest and hovered anxiously. She had her arms half reaching towardshim as if she was going to somehow stop his fall should his legs refuse to hold hisweight. It was a pointless gesture; his weight would bring her down with him,potentially crushing her and probably injuring himself as well. Silly girl.

He dipped his head a little to get a look at Granger's eyes as she studied him for

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any sign that he shouldn't be up from the bed.

"Granger, your eyes are back to normal. I'm assuming mine are too?"

She glanced up at him and nodded, looking like she dearly wanted to scold him forbeing up and about but knew it would be an exercise in futility.

"Good. Here's what we'll do: you leave now, and I'll take a few minutes to regainmy balance and then follow. That way, those screechy nuisances crowding theHospital Wing won't see us leave together and spread rumours. We'll meet back atthe Head Dorms."

"Should you be up and out of bed so soon? You looked near death only a littlewhile ago," she said. It was true he was looking better, but that didn't mean hecouldn't relapse if he pushed himself too far.

He was touched by her concern, but didn't really want to argue with her at themoment. He pressed his palm in the centre of her back and gently propelled heroutside of the curtain still surrounding his bed.

People turned to stare in confusion as she stumbled out of the curtain, armsspread for balance. She waved them off with a self-depreciating smile at her'clumsiness'.

Hermione wanted nothing more than to burst back through those curtains and yellat Malfoy for manhandling her like that, but many of the people crowding theHospital Wing were still looking in her direction. Her eyes searched the group ofchildren for the grey head of hair that stood taller than the rest.

"Madam Pomfrey, I'm going back now," she called when she caught sight of theMediwitch.

The woman only nodded absently to show that she'd heard as she tended to thechildren in need of medical attention.

She slipped out the infirmary doors, wanting to put as much time as possiblebetween her and Malfoy's exits in order to avoid suspicion. Her pace was hurried asshe headed for her destination.

Halfway back to the Head Dorms, Hermione found Blaise leaning over in thecorridor with his hands braced on his knees and still looking pale. His head shot upand he rushed over to her when he saw the quickly approaching Gryffindor.

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"How is he?"

Hermione smiled at the concern in his voice; despite their seemingly cold house,the two Slytherins were quite close. "He's fine, Veela healing and all that stuff - whyare you looking at me like that?"

The Slytherin was smirking at her with a knowing expression, seemingly over hisworry once he knew his friend was going to be fine. "I was right about you being hismate, wasn't I?"

She shot a frantic glance around the corridor to see if anyone was near enough tooverhear, but there was no one anywhere. "Don't talk about things like that whenpeople can hear!" she hissed quietly, grabbing his arm and towing him behind her asshe made her way towards the common room. He allowed her to move him,unresisting.

Malfoy would be along any moment and Blaise could reassure himself then thatthere was nothing wrong with the Veela from the privacy of the Head's commonroom.

Hermione and Blaise had just settled down in front of the fire when Malfoyentered, limping slightly. It seemed he wasn't as completely healed as he'dpretended back at the hospital wing. His eyes immediately darted over to his friendsuspiciously, wondering what the Italian was doing sitting alone with his mate infront of a fire, a potentially romantic setting.

The suspicion faded when Granger hopped up from her seat and rushed over tohim without a backwards look at Blaise. Draco scowled; the damn Veela was makinghim suspicious of his friends now?

"Malfoy, you're limping. I knew you should have stayed in the Hospital Wing alittle longer, you're still injured!" She grabbed his arm and escorted him over to achair. When she moved to retake her seat on the sofa, Draco reached out and pulledher onto his lap, not caring that it made his ribs twinge a little on the impact.

"I see you're feeling better," Blaise said dryly as Hermione started scolding andtrying to escape. "You're obviously well enough to be terrorizing Granger."

The blond wrapped his arms around her, purring so quietly that Hermione almostcouldn't hear him despite her proximity. Her involuntary proximity. Had he not beenrecently injured, she would have fought harder, but she didn't want to hurt him,even if he was being pushy with his affection.

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The Italian merely raised an eyebrow at his friend. "You're really milking theinjury thing for all it's worth, aren't you?"

There was a knock on the portrait, signalling the appearance of what was sure tobe yet another interruption.

Hermione shot the possessive Veela a look that clearly told him he needed to lether go until they knew who it was at the door, but he just smirked and tightened hishold on her, not willing to let her leave just yet.

"Malfoy, let me go," she hissed, too quietly to be heard by the visitor in thecorridor.

When he remained adamantly holding onto her, she started to wiggle, trying toescape. Despite her desperation to be free before whomever it was on the other sideof the door spoke the password and entered to find her in a compromising position,Hermione was still careful to mind his recently healed injuries. Sometimes shecursed her kindness; it would have been so easy to escape had she been willing toelbow him in the recently broken ribs.

"Mr. Malfoy?" called McGonagall's voice. "Miss Granger?"

He was just opening his mouth to answer her when the Headmistress spoke thepassword and entered.

Hermione redoubled her efforts to escape while her professor stood staring at thepair with something akin to complete shock. She would have expected to find theMalfoy heir in a compromising position, but never Hermione Granger. The girl wastoo polite to let her teachers find her doing something inappropriate, even in herown common room - or so McGonagall thought. It was obvious that the girl wassubtly trying to escape the hold he had on her. McGonagall was a little worried forthe intelligent brunette.

"Mr. Malfoy, Miss Granger, Mr. Zabini," she greeted when she'd recovered fromher surprise. Visibly gathering her thoughts, the woman turned to Draco. "MadamPomfrey said you snuck out of the hospital wing before she had a chance todischarge you, but it seems to me that you're perfectly fine," the Headmistressexplained. She never would have thought that the Head Students would get on sowell and it was difficult for her not to stare and ask all kinds of questions she had nobusiness asking.

Hermione was completely mortified. She wasn't the type of girl to engage in- 73 -

frequent public displays of affection and definitely never in front of teachers, theHeadmistress in particular. Had Malfoy not grabbed her and held her there in hislap, she was relatively confident that no teacher would have ever caught her in sucha compromising position.

"I'm healed. Between the magic and the Veela blood, I'm feeling almost back tonormal," the Veela insisted. He could feel how distraught Granger was getting underthe sharp eyes of the Headmistress, so he reluctantly released her before shestopped caring that his ribs were tender and attacked them in an effort to escape.

McGonagall looked between her two pupils, unsure how she was going to phraseher thoughts. "Mr. Malfoy... Am I correct in assuming that you have found your matein Miss Granger?"

"We haven't known for very long," Hermione said. She wasn't sure if she wasdefensive or just wanted her head of house to accept the choice she'd made inagreeing to keep Malfoy alive. Either way, she felt it necessary to clarify.

"Well, congratulations on your discovery and I wish you luck on the difficultjourney ahead of you. Mr. Malfoy, you're to report to the Hospital Wing tomorrowmorning for a quick check-up, and Miss Granger, I have the altered patrol schedulesyou asked for." The elderly woman strode forward, presented the brunette with therequired parchment, and left again.

As soon as the portrait was firmly shut, Hermione rounded on the blond with herwand drawn. "The next time I tell you to let me go, you will let me go," she said,barely managing to keep her emotions under control. When she'd glared at him longenough to see that he understood her seriousness, she followed her head of house'sexample and left through the portrait hole to go post the schedules she'd justreceived.

Blaise looked to his friend with amusement. "You've got your work cut out for youthere, mate."

Draco hid a dreamy smile from the other Slytherin. He had his work cut out forhim all right, and he wouldn't want it any other way.

What Hermione should have been doing was going to the Prefect's meeting roomand posting the new patrol schedule, but she felt like she deserved a break -something that rarely crossed her mind. The emotional rollercoaster her life had

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become since Malfoy's blood had asserted itself was exhausting. Besides, there wasalways someone who had a problem with their patrol partner or time slot, and shejust didn't have the patience to deal with whiny prefects. If he hadn't recently beenso severely injured, Hermione may have tried to talk Malfoy into dealing with theircomplaints for once in his career as Head Boy. For some reason, no one ever seemedto complain when it was Malfoy posting the schedule. She had a feeling it hadsomething to do with the scowl he usually wore whenever she had managed to trickhim into actually doing the duty.

Maybe she would just go rest in the Gryffindor common room for a while. If shewent there, she would have the added bonus of finding out where it was that Ginnyhad disappeared to; one minute the redhead had been running behind her to findout what had happened to Malfoy on the Quidditch pitch, and the next she was gone.

Mind made up, Hermione changed direction and headed towards the Gryffindortower. She had to dodge a few of the groups still loitering around the halls andstaring at mistletoe like it was the first time they'd seen the plant, but other thanthat, she didn't meet a soul on her short journey.

The Gryffindor common room was in chaos, Harry and Ron at the centre of it.Hermione worked her way through the crowd to her friends, mumbling apologies tothe people she jostled.

"What's going on here?" she demanded in her best Head Girl voice with her handson her hips. Ron seemed to be the source of all the madness, so she directed herquestion at him.

He grinned, mindless of her irritation. "Haven't you heard? The Slytherin Beatershit a Bludger at Malfoy so hard he barely survived!"

Hermione's face hardened and she crossed her arms. "And how exactly is themisfortune of a fellow student reason for such rejoicing?" she asked in a dangeroustone.

Ron paled, having learned not to mince words when she used that voice. "He's Malfoy," the redhead said as if that was all the explanation needed.

She shot a glance at Harry to see if he shared Ron's sentiments. While he didn'tlook upset, Harry wasn't actively joining the jubilation that Ron exuded. His reactionmade Hermione feel hopeful that Harry at least might be able to understand whyshe couldn't just let Malfoy die. After all, he had saved him from the room ofrequirement.

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Her disapproving gaze turned to the rest of Gryffindor house. "Shame on all of youfor being so happy that someone else is in pain. Are you Gryffindors or Slytherins?"

That got their attention, she'd hit them where it hurt: right in their Gryffindorpride. Every one of the gathered students looked a little startled and then upset.Some of them even looked appropriately ashamed of themselves.

Whatever their feelings, only a few of the Gryffindors could bear to remain in thecommon room under Hermione's disapproving stare. In a matter of minutes,Hermione was standing alone with Harry and Ron. The latter was making sure tokeep a safe distance between himself and the angry brunette.

"You scare me sometimes," Ron mumbled.

Hermione shrugged, feeling a little better after having let out some steam. Shetook a seat in one of the cushy armchairs and raised her eyebrows at her friends inan invitation for them to join her. The brunette had no intention of standing up againuntil she'd had some time to relax, and if they were going to have a conversation,she felt it would be better if they weren't looming over her.

Harry joined her willingly enough, but Ron was still a little miffed that she'druined the fun he'd been having at Malfoy's expense. He had a petulant pout on hisface when he took a seat on the far side of Harry so he did have to sit beside her.

Always trying to be the mediator, Harry looked between his two friends. "Let's notlet Malfoy of all people cause a fight."

Hermione winced internally, but wasn't ready to explain the whole thing to them,particularly when she was so run down. Instead she just nodded and snuggled downin her chair, ready to sit there for a while.

"Have either of you seen Ginny?" she asked. She figured that she may as well tryand find Ginny if she wasn't going to do anything productive.

"I haven't seen her since she went off Nargle hunting with Luna. Did you hearthey caught one?" Harry said.

She snorted in amusement. "It wasn't a real Nargle, Ginny stuck googly eyes on amistletoe leaf and called it a Nargle."

Harry and Ron glanced at one another and burst out laughing. Tiredly, Hermionejoined in. She didn't have to worry about telling Ginny the truth, or Malfoy dying, or

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escaping Malfoy as he held her in front of Professor McGonagall. Her day had beenexhausting and it was finally catching up to her.

Without her permission, her eyelids started drooping and she yawned so hugelythat her jaw creaked in objection.

Her friends didn't notice that she was falling asleep; they were debating whatLuna's reaction would have been when Ginny presented her with the "Nargle".

"Hermione?" Harry asked when he saw that her eyes were closed. She didn'tanswer him, only snuggled deeper into her chair. He glanced over at Ron, who onlyshrugged, they continued their conversation in hushed voices.

The two boys didn't pay much attention when she started whimpering and shiftingin her sleep. They'd spent an awful lot of time with Hermione in a tent and knewthat she sometimes spoke in her sleep when she was under pressure so they didn'tthink anything of the sounds she was making.

When her sounds of distress increased in volume, their attention was drawn toher. Little whimpering were normal, but not yells. "Should we wake her up?" Ronasked hesitantly. They could tell that she needed the rest; Hermione wasn't the typeto just fall asleep in public unless she was completely run down.

Harry was just reaching a hand out to shake her shoulder when she woke up witha gasp and looked around the room with wide eyes.

Through her strange and new connection with Malfoy, she could feel that he knewshe'd been terrified and was angry, but he probably had no idea that she hadn'tbeen in danger at any time during that terror. She couldn't even remember what thedream had been about, but she knew it was going to cause all kinds of trouble ifMalfoy got to her while she was still with her friends. The Veela was going to haveworked himself up into a right state and then by the time he found her, he wasn'tgoing to be able to deal with Harry and Ron's misplaced protection.

"I have to go," she said, jumping up from the chair and heading towards theportrait hole. They made some objections behind her, but she had already yankedopen the door.

When her eyes met the angry black ones of Malfoy, she knew the situation wasjust going to go downhill from there. She felt a jolt of panic; if his eyes were black,did that mean he was upset enough for hers to be as well?

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"Granger," Malfoy said in a strange mix of surprise and relief. Before she couldanswer him, she was pressed against his chest as he held her tightly. His reliefwashed over them both, working as a calming balm.

She slipped out of his grasp, aware that her friends were behind her, probablyonly silent because of their shock. "I'm fine Malfoy, it was just a nightmare."

The Veela didn't pay her attempt at reassurance much heed, he pulled herthrough the open portrait hole and made sure she was behind him. His grip wasgentle and he tugged her arm, but the movement must have looked rough, becauseit served to snap Harry and Ron out of their state of shock.

"Get away from her, Malfoy!" Ron shouted. He advanced towards the blond,closely followed by Harry.

Hermione saw the exact second they noticed there was something off about theVeela; their eyes widened and they drew their wands.

"Malfoy, step away from Hermione," Harry ordered in a much calmer voice thanRon had used. He took a step forward, hoping to distract Malfoy from his friend.

That seemed to be the single worst thing he could have possibly done. Malfoybared his teeth and started growling, not moving a single millimetre away from her.

Hermione desperately tried to think of a way to diffuse the situation beforesomeone got hurt.

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Chapter 9

Chapter 9

A/N: It seems that quite a few of you are excited about this chapter, so Ihope I didn't screw up the confrontation scene. *grins* I tried not to.

You know, I was checking the stats page for this story and was shockedthat last chapter got over 50 reviews. I was completely stunned. You guysare awesome!

Thanks to Claire96 for betaing! Also thanks to Vianney (sorry it took meso long to make the changes) for pointing out my mistakes!

On that note... this chapter is only half(?) betaed. Claire96 looks for plotholes and things that don't quite make sense, but I need a second beta to fixmy sentence structure and punctuation errors. That sort of thing. Anyvolunteers? PM me or review telling me if you'd like to.

~Frosty

Surprisingly enough, Hermione was actually more worried about Malfoy with hisvery recently healed injuries than she was about her friends. The Veela in himwouldn't allow the Slytherin to favour his injuries when faced with the perceiveddanger her friends posed to her person. Harry and Ron were armed andoutnumbered the Veela. They also had the added advantage of relying on theirhuman minds instead of the anger fuelled instinct that were controlling Malfoy.

"Hermione, run!" Harry yelled, charging forward and launching a stunning spell atMalfoy that the Veela barely managed to dodge even with his supernatural reflexes.

Resolutely, Hermione didn't move a step away from Malfoy. Giving her friends aclear shot of him without having to worry about hitting her by accident wasn't goingto help anything.

"I'm not going anywhere; he's not going to hurt me. And if you two would stopbeing so threatening, then he'd calm down and we could discuss this like civilizedpeople instead of animals."

Ron didn't look convinced and kept a tight grip on his wand, but Harry seemed

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willing to give her a chance to explain before he threw anymore potentially harmfulspells. He slowly lowered his wand, keeping a wary eye on Malfoy. The Veela wasstill growling quietly, but he had relaxed slightly along with Harry.

"Thank you," she said, relieved. Now all she had to do was ensure that Malfoydidn't try to rip anyone's head off for looking at her wrong. It was strange the thingsshe'd been forced to concern herself with since she'd discovered Malfoy's secret. Atleast she was rarely bored...

Well, her friends were on board with the talking thing, but Malfoy still refused toallow her out from behind him and had yet to stop growling. Slowly, she edged up tostand just behind the arm he'd flung out in front of her and placed a palm flat in thecentre of his back. His black eyes didn't turn away from her friends, but she couldfeel the shift in him that signified he was paying attention to her.

"Come back to the Head Dorms and we can talk to Harry and Ron, okay Malfoy?"she said in a soothing voice, doing her best to project a calm feeling towards him.Her palm rubbed his back gently while she spoke. Hopefully, the soothing movementand the contact would help him calm down and think logically.

The Veela didn't answer, but he did stop growling and turn to look at her. It mayhave been because she'd seen her own eyes coloured depthless black, but Hermionewasn't bothered by his stare. She gave him a reassuring smile and took his hand tolead him back to the Head Dorms.

Malfoy was in the Gryffindor common room, a place he'd never be able to feelcomfortable. Hermione knew that she needed to get him somewhere that he couldrelax - his own territory, so to speak.

"Why are you touching him?" Ron demanded angrily, completely ruining whatevercalm Hermione had managed to instil within the Veela.

Malfoy starting growling again and Hermione's patience for her friend suddenlydisappeared completely. "For once in your life just be quiet and wait for anexplanation before you start yelling!" she snapped.

Ron looked bewildered for a moment before he started turning red. Harry saw theexplosion that was about to happen and headed it off by elbowing the redhead andspeaking to him in a rapid whisper as they followed Hermione and Malfoy towardsthe Head Dorms. She was unable to decipher the words, but the gist of the quietconversation behind her seemed to consist of Harry telling Ron to "stop being suchan arse and give her a chance to explain".

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Whatever it was that Harry said, it kept Ron from doing anything stupid that he'dregret when his temper cooled off.

It was with great relief that Hermione finally arrived in front of the portraitguarding the Head's common room and spoke the password. She stepped up to theportrait hole and then reached behind her, grabbed Malfoy and pushed him insidefirst. She wanted him inside before he could even think about defending his territoryagainst the "intruders".

Blaise was still there, sitting backwards on the sofa with his chin resting on thebackrest. "What's going on? You Gryffindors all look like something uncomfortablecrawled up your arses, and Draco, you ran off like you were going to rip someone'shead off." The Slytherin didn't seem bothered in the least that everyone who hadjust entered was looking at him with hostility. He probably needed an immunity tosuch hostility to remain friends with Malfoy and all of his moods.

"Blaise, you're not helping things," Hermione sighed. "Any chance you can makeyourself scarce while we have a serious conversation here?"

The Slytherin looked contemplative, but she had a feeling her request wasn'tenough to make him leave when there was sure to be an interesting confrontationgoing on right where he was.

"Please," she added, putting some of her desperation into her voice.

Reluctantly, Blaise got up and left them to the shouting match that was sure toensue. "I'll expect details later, mate," he called over his shoulder to Draco.

"Alright Hermione, explain to us what exactly has been going on around here,"Harry said as soon as the portrait hole was closed behind the Slytherin.

Malfoy seemed to have regained some measure of control over the Veela that hadtaken over. "Don't speak to her like that. She's been nothing but fiercely loyal to yousince you were all annoying little first years, yet you automatically assume she'sdone something wrong because she hasn't told you one little thing," he said, hisvoice close to a snarl.

"What do you care Malfoy? You've done nothing but make her miserable since thefirst time you met her!" Ron exclaimed.

"Stop!" Hermione commanded. "Honestly, I feel like I've suddenly been chargedwith taking care of a trio of three year olds! Now we're all going to sit and have a

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civilized conversation." She pointed a stern finger towards the sitting area.

"I'm not sitting anywhere with him," Ron said with a nasty glare directed atMalfoy.

"You've just volunteered to get the tea from the kitchens then." Her voice wasclipped and brooked no argument. Hermione knew she could intimidate Ron whenshe was in a temper and grinned a secret smile as he turned and obeyed her order.

Malfoy caught her expression and smirked at her. She could feel that he was bothsurprised and proud. Ugh, it should not make her feel good when he was proud ofher harsh treatment of her friends! It seemed Malfoy wasn't the only oneexperiencing the effects of their unusual circumstances.

Harry went to sit in one of the cushy chairs and Hermione sat on the edge of thesofa, Malfoy not far behind her. He settled beside her at a distance that wouldalmost be reasonable between friends. She was just thankful that he didn't try topull her into his lap or make some other move to show possession of her in front ofHarry. It was a small victory, but with the way her day had been going, it wouldn'thave surprised her if the Veela had tried to bite her right in front of her friend.

"What's going on Hermione?" Harry asked, glaring at the blond. "Is Malfoy hurtingyou?"

The Slytherin growled at the mere suggestion, but Hermione waved him off. Theywould never get anywhere if she had to calm him down every time Harry asked areasonable question.

"No, he's not hurting me, but he is a Veela. And I'm his mate."

Harry tilted his head to the side, his messy hair flopping around and only gettingmessier. "You're friends with Malfoy? And what is he?"

"Come on Potter, keep up! A Veela is a magical creature that bonds for life withone person, their mate. Granger's mine," Malfoy said.

Blinking his green eyes, Harry looked to Hermione, hoping she'd burst outlaughing and declare the whole thing some kind of elaborate joke. When sheremained silent, those emerald orbs darkened with worry. "Hermione, he's justpulling my leg, right?"

She shook her head. "No, he's telling the truth."- 82 -

"That's not funny."

A sad smile pulled up the corners of her lips. "I know; it's deadly serious."

Malfoy sensed her melancholy and bumped her with his shoulder in an attempt tocheer her up. She shot him a small smile, understanding his motivation behind thegesture and appreciating it.

The action caught Harry's attention and he stared at the pair like they'd suddenlyannounced they were from another planet. "There's nothing you can do to get out ofthis thing?"

Hermione was about to answer, but Malfoy interrupted her. "There are a numberof things she could do, but they all result in my death."

"You couldn't just let him die?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer, butunable to let it go without at least voicing the thought. Hermione had been throughenough, she didn't deserve this on top of everything else she'd had to face in hershort life.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped. Her decision had already been made and shewasn't going to allow Harry to question it when he didn't have any clue what wasgoing on. He should know better than to question her once her mind was made up.

Despite her agreement to be his mate, Draco had felt a little twinge of worry whenPotter had so callously suggested that Granger just let him die. He didn't think itwas very fair that she could trust him with her life and be confident that he wouldn'tbetray her, but he couldn't even be positive she was going to follow through with heragreement to become his mate in every sense of the word until he bit her andsolidified their connection with his venom.

At the mere thought of sinking his teeth into her soft skin and making her his own,Draco's teeth started to sharpen and elongate into those of the Veela.

Hermione felt his annoyance at the change and gave him a questioning look. Shewatched as he turned his head so Harry wouldn't be able to see and pulled his lipsback to show her his teeth. The colour drained from her face.

"Go deal with that, seeing those will only make Harry worry about me more," shehissed in a whisper. Fangs were not going to help her argument that Malfoy wasnever going to hurt her - particularly if she had to explain the things were for use onher.

- 83 -

Draco was reluctant to leave her alone with Potter, but he could feel her concernfor her friend and her reluctance to cause him more worry.

"You're lucky I'm so nice," he grumbled quietly.

Hermione snorted. "More like genetically inclined to make me happy."

"Same thing."

Harry watched Malfoy retreat up the stairs and disappear through a door. "Is hereally?"

At her questioning look, he elaborated. "Genetically inclined to make you happy."

"Yes, he-"

Harry interrupted her explanation with laughter. "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy can makeyou happy? The idea is laughable."

A stab of irritation that wasn't her own made itself known in Hermione's chest.With his Veela hearing, Malfoy must be able to hear every word exchanged. Itseemed he wasn't happy with Harry's laughter.

She was saved from having to intervene before Malfoy got angry enough to comedown and do something about the cause of his irritation by a knock at the portraithole. If it was who she thought waiting out in the corridor, then her intervention hadprobably only been delayed rather than thwarted.

When she pulled the portrait open, Ron was on the other side balancing a tea trayon his knee to knock on the portrait again. He very nearly dropped the tray insurprise when he saw that there was no longer anything for him to hit and Hermionewas looking at him expectantly.

"You actually brought tea?" she asked in disbelief as she stepped out of the way toallow him entry into the Head Dorms.

The redhead shrugged as best he could with the tray in his hands. "I'm not as badas you obviously think; I was just a little... shocked that you were touching Malfoyinstead of hexing him."

Harry seemed just as surprised when they rejoined him. "Ron, you're not off in arage?"

- 84 -

Hermione happily picked up one of the teacups and sipped at the deliciously warmbeverage steaming within the delicate cup. She hummed her happiness with hereyes closed; she'd really needed a tea.

"So what'd I miss?" Ron asked, looking between his friends.

"I'm a Veela, Granger's my mate, and you lost your chance with her becauseyou're an idiot who can't manage to pull his head out of his arse long enough torealize she's not going to wait around for you forever while you fool around withBrown," Malfoy said as he came back into the room.

Ron spit his sip of tea all over Harry and started choking, which caused the blondto laugh in malicious glee. No doubt he'd intended to cause such a reaction.

Hermione shot him a warning look, but he just grinned at her, making sure shegot a good look at his teeth so she could be reassured that they were back tonormal. At least she wouldn't have to worry about that while she was trying toprevent her friends from murdering him. How comforting.

"Ron and I are just friends," the brunette insisted as Malfoy sat down beside heronce again. He was slightly closer to her than he'd been when it was just Harrythere, but Hermione didn't comment.

"No matter what's he's told you, he still wants to get in your pants. Trust me; itmakes my Veela edgy for him to even be in the room with you."

Hermione raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Are you sure that's not just you blamingyour petty hatred of my friends on the influence of the magical creature that's inyour blood?"

Finally realizing he had a wand and didn't need to be dabbing at himself withnapkins, Harry cleaned up the mess Ron had made of him and finally registeredwhat it was that Hermione and Malfoy had been saying. For once, he wasn't sure heagreed with Hermione; though Harry would never admit it, he thought Malfoy maybe right just this once.

"I do not have feelings for Hermione! I mean, look at her!" the redhead burst out,finally regaining control of his ability to speak. The tips of his ears were pink,exposing his words as the lie that they were.

Harry frantically tried to shush his friend before he went even farther, but Ronjust shook off the restraining hand on his shoulder and continued. The redhead

- 85 -

could probably feel that his ears were giving away his lie and felt the need toelaborate.

"Her hair is a disaster, her eyes are boring brown, and she has no chest to speakof. And her personality! She's a bossy know-it-all that's some kind of mix between anagging mum, and a psychotic librarian who can't seem to loosen up enough to havesome fun, much less let the people around you have any." He was breathing heavilyby the time he'd reached the end of his rant.

Hermione had sat there in stunned silence while she let the horrible things he wassaying sink in. It hurt all the more because Ron was someone she cared and suchvenom wasn't something she would have expected of him, regardless of his habit ofspeaking first thinking later.

Utterly humiliated and horrified that one of her best friends thought those thingsabout her, she fled the room in tears. Not since the Lavender incident in sixth yearhad she been so downcast because of Ron.

Draco had been keeping his eyes closed after the Weasel said such hurtful thingsto his mate because he knew if he opened them and stopped the deep, calmingbreaths he'd been taking, then he was going to rip that annoyingly red hair right offof his head and shove it down his throat. He knew just how miserable Granger wasat the moment, and no one got away with making his mate feel like that. The Veelaneeded some convincing from the rational side of his brain that, despite his horriblewords, Granger wouldn't be any less achingly sad if he killed the person who madeher so.

"What is wrong with you?" he heard Potter demand of his so-called friend.

Finally satisfied that he could probably restrain himself from murdering theWeasel, Draco opened his eyes. The foul redhead had his hands pressed against hisface and was practically exuding misery. The blond frowned is disapproval; he wasexuding misery, but not remorse.

A few swift steps forward brought him to loom over the pathetic lump. He feltenough rage that it was practically guaranteed that his eyes were pools ofintimidating obsidian. Good. They would help drive his point home through thatthick skull.

The cowardly Weasel huddled down the chair to put as much distance betweenthem as possible when Draco leaned over to put them close to eye-level. Neverwould he have thought to willingly put himself so close to the repulsive Gryffindor,

- 86 -

but Granger's well-being had somehow become a huge motivator in his actions oflate.

"If you ever upset her again, I will tear you apart," he hissed in his mostdangerous voice. For an added touch, he let some of the Veela through so that thewords were overlain with a sense of otherness that made the confrontationcompletely terrifying for the Weasel.

"Have him gone when we get back," Draco called over his shoulder to Potter. Hehad to find Granger and try to lessen some of the damage those hurtful words hadcaused. The blond didn't even notice that his desire to find her and comfort her wasjust as much his own as the Veela part of him.

- 87 -

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks to Clair96 for betaing and Bulba-Chan for her rainbow ofcorrections. The story's much better thanks to those two! Also thanks toeveryone who reviewed and all the people who were willing to give up someof their time to help make this story better! I was touched.

Summer's here! I've gone and gotten asunburn.I suppose that's what I getfor spending the day floating in the pool reading. But I hadnew booksandit's just the best place in the world to read. I wrote this chapter while it wasstill cool outside, I don't think it would have come out the same if it was assummery as it is now.

~Frosty

Draco exited the Gryffindor common room and tried to think of where Grangercould have hidden. He had a vague sense that she was no longer within the walls ofHogwarts. That warranted investigation - if only to test the accuracy of his strangenew intuition. It would come in handy should she decide to run off in the future.

People darted out of his path as he stormed through the halls; he was picturingmany creatively cruel ways to murder Weasley without ending up in Azkaban. She-and by extension, Draco- felt practically sick with grief and a soul-numbing sadnessthat seemed to soak into the bones and linger there. Never had the blondexperienced such a crushing feeling, and he fully intended to crush the one who wasforcing him to experience it.

When Draco heaved open the large doors in the Entrance Hall, he was nearlyblinded by the stark contrast from the gloomy corridors to the bright grounds. Thesun was nearly set; everything was awash with warm golden light. Every leaf on themany trees sparkled with the rain that was falling in fat droplets from the raincloudover Hogwarts. As a Slytherin, he preferred darkness and gloom - all the bestlurking happened near dusk and during the night, golden sunlight was such a Gryffindor thing.

Granger would probably have appreciated the weather if she wasn't in such a foultemper. If only he could find the girl so he could remind her of how much sheappreciated that kind of shite.

- 88 -

He found her by the lake. She was letting the rain hide her tears as she threwstones into the water. His Veela wanted him to declare his undying devotion to herand then make her smile, but that would hardly remedy the situation. It was only theVeela part of him that was devoted to her, so the declaration itself would most likelycause her undue distress as she agonized over his free will. To be honest, sometimeshe agonized over his free will as well. Sure, she was starting to grow on him, butwhen you can't be sure your feelings aren't the result of the chemical influence ofyour magical creature blood, you're reluctant to accept what they say.

"You do realize that your white shirt is practically transparent right now, don'tyou?" was the first thing out of his mouth. He saw her actually start at his voice.Good, his sneaking skills were still intact - though she was so overwhelmed withemotion at the moment, a bumbling elephant could have caught her by surprise.

A flash of lightning illuminated the sky just as she turned around to see the Veelastanding there watching and waiting for her reaction. She was about to complywhen he slipped off his cloak and slung it around her shoulders, wrapping her in thewarm fabric.

Hermione looked up at him with confused eyes. She was grateful for the warmthof the soft fabric against her cold flesh, but she wasn't sure she liked what thelingering scent of his skin was doing to her. Had she not been so distraught by whatRon had said, she probably would have blushed.

"Thank you," she said as he sat down beside her, mindless of the mud soaking intohis pants or the rain quickly making his shirt as transparent as hers had been.Despite her sadness, it was an effort to tear her eyes away from the ratherimpressive chest and arms his clinging shirt was revealing. His hair was slightlydarker with the moisture sticking it to his skull and the colour served to bring outthe grey of his eyes, making them seem all the more intense.

Why was it that she probably looked like a drowned rat in the rain, but he justlooked more attractive? It was just another one of the many things in the universethat weren't fair.

They sat in silence for a while; the only sounds were Hermione's quiet sniffles andthe plopping of the raindrops as they hit the lake.

"It's not true, you know," Draco said.

Her watery brown eyes turned to look at him, a question in their depths.

- 89 -

"The things that Flobberworm you call a friend said," he elaborated. Slowly, so hedidn't scare her away and so that she had plenty of time to object, Draco brought anarm up and placed it around her shoulders.

Hermione felt a flash of worry that someone would see them and the secret wouldbe out, but it was raining and cold,; no one else would be crazy enough to be outsidein the bad weather. She leaned against him, in need of the warmth and the comforthe was offering. "You're saying you've never once thought of me as a 'psychoticlibrarian'?" she asked, her voice bitter.

"Maybe the kind with a secret bondage room hidden behind her bookshelves."

"You're disgusting," she said without any heat.

He nodded, smirking a little at her accusation. "I also know he was wrong aboutyour alleged 'flat chest' thanks to this rain and your strict adherence to the dresscode's required white shirt."

She tried to pull away, but Draco could feel that she didn't really have her heartbehind the move and resisted. "He was wrong about your eyes; when you're happy,they sparkle with tiny little gold flecks and swirls of hazel. And your hair isn't adisaster, it's like a waterfall of sunlight and chocolate and it smells divine."

A small smile crept onto her lips. Never in her life would she have thought thatRon would make her cry, and Malfoy would come after her to make her feel better.The world was backwards, and she wasn't sure she was entirely opposed to thechange.

Malfoy frowned and tilted his head to the side, resting it against the top of hers. "Isound like a namby-pamby."

A watery chuckle escaped her at the distress he was feeling over that fact. "Don'tfeel so upset about it, I think you're sweet."

"No, my bloody Veela is 'sweet'." He sneered at the word like it was somethingfoul. "If I didn't fight it, I'd probably end up writing poetry about your study habitsor the way you yell at me."

She felt him shiver and immediately felt guilty for taking his warm cloak andkeeping him out in the cold. "I think we should go back inside," she said.

Draco nodded, trying to hide the chattering of his teeth. He stood up and then- 90 -

offered her his hand. Her expression was surprised before she blinked it away andaccepted his assistance with a small smile.

Hermione felt waterlogged as she started walking back to the castle. Malfoy'scloak had stopped keeping her warm and only served to hold more of the cold wateragainst her skin. She peeled off the garment and handed it back to him as theywalked, their shoes making identical squelching sounds with every step. She'dsomehow acquired enough mud to sufficiently protect her modesty despite hertransparent clothing.

They maintained a careful distance between them on their trek through the hallsso as not to draw too much attention to themselves. Sadly, the effort was wasted; itwasn't every day the Head Boy and Girl walked through the halls looking like they'djust participated in a mud wrestling match. It didn't help that they were walking together without so much as a snarky comment shared between the two. Filch wouldbe after their hides if he ever found out who it was that dripped mud through theschool.

When they arrived at the portrait guarding their dorms, Draco stepped in front ofher. "Let me go in first," he requested. If the Weasel was still there, he wasn't aboutto let the cockroach have any contact with Granger; she'd been hurt enough thatday.

Exhausted and shivering, Hermione just didn't have the energy to argue withMalfoy's odd request. She stepped back and allowed him to enter.

The blond poked his head out a moment later, obviously satisfied with whatever itwas that he'd found inside - or hadn't found, she realized. "You can come in now."

Hermione rolled her eyes and stepped inside the common room. She sniffled asthe portrait shut behind her, drawing Malfoy's attention. Her poor nose was runningfrom the chill she'd caught while outside in the rain. He waved his wand and cast adrying and warming charm on the both of them. She nodded her thanks, feeling alittle better, but the chill had settled in her bones where a simple warming charmcouldn't reach it.

"Where are you going?" he asked when she started up the stairs to her room.

"To wash this mud off. Then I'm going to go to the prefect's baths and soak in ituntil I feel like a human again." Hermione stopped as she realized a lot of the acheshe was feeling was actually Malfoy's injuries paining him.

- 91 -

"If you wear swim trunks, you can join me in the bath."

He was surprised by the offer, but he wasn't going to question her unexpectedinvitation. A nice, hot soak was just what he needed, and the company of Grangerwould be only help matters. Wordlessly, Draco went to his room to get his trunksand a towel.

Slightly obscuring her view of the blond already in the tub, tendrils of steam madetheir way towards the ceiling from the hot surface of the bathwater. His arms spreadout along the edge and his eyes closed. Silently padding closer, she wondered if hewas asleep. He certainly looked more peaceful than she'd seen him in a while.Actually, he looked more peaceful than she could ever remember seeing him outsideof their dorms. Rarely did he let his guard down enough to rest as he was at thatmoment.

Realizing she was staring, she looked away, mentally berating herself for notrealizing that he'd take less time in the shower than she would. He had much lesshair to rinse and she'd been sitting in the mud longer, giving it time to soak throughher clothes more. At least she'd had the sense to change into her bathing suit beforeshe got to the bath area; it would have been embarrassing to make him turn theother way so she could change, or to see his knowing smirk as she had to return tothe shower stall to switch outfits.

Trying not to make any noise just in case Malfoy was asleep, Hermione moved tothe edge and dipped a toe in the water. It was the perfect temperature, just warmenough to be slightly uncomfortable at first and then to completely relax her onceshe was submerged.

As she slipped into the water, tiny ripples radiated out and lapped againstMalfoy's bare chest. He eyes opened a sliver to watch her swim out to the middle ofthe pool and float there on her back. Her swimsuit was one of those single pieceones that were completely modest, but somehow, he found it more appealing than abikini that left nothing to the imagination could ever be - not that he wouldn't love tosee her in one of those as well. He continued to watch her through slitted eyes as hefelt her relaxation as well as his own.

Hermione lay on her back and just let herself float, her hair swaying in the water.She was completely relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever. There was justone thing stopping her from complete relaxation. "I can feel your eyes on meMalfoy," she said.

- 92 -

"It's only my eyes because I know you're going to hit me for anything more," heanswered without a pause.

She chose not to comment, unwilling to get into an argument and ruin her senseof peace. How it was that she could be so relaxed in the presence of Malfoy was amystery to her, but she wasn't going to question it. For just that moment, she kneweverything was going to be all right. Ron could say all the horrible things he wanted,and she would bounce back from it after letting out her grief. She wouldn't let herpettiness keep her down.

The brunette floated on the surface of the water, suspended in a place betweensleeping and consciousness. She barely registered the hands that gently rested onher waist and pulled her to the side of the tub. Her body was pulled under the waterwhile her head tipped sideways to rest on a warm and slightly slippery shoulder.

He let her rest like that for a while, their fingers and toes going wrinkly, buteventually he spoke, breaking her trance. "Granger, I have no problem with yousleeping on me, but I'm tired as well and if we both sleep here, we'll probablydrown."

Sleepily, Hermione mumbled something that might have been agreement andpulled herself out of the water. Malfoy wasn't far behind her.

Harry and Ginny were pacing in front of the portrait guarding the Head Dormswhen Hermione and Draco got there. They were both a little dazed from the verywarm bath.

"Where were you two?" Ginny asked.

"Where were you? One minute you were behind me running to the Quidditch pitchand the next you were gone!" Hermione said.

"Luna caught me and gave me quite a talking to about 'falsifying a Nargle'.Apparently it's an offense worthy of being trampled by a Crumple-HornedSnorkback, but she couldn't find one of those so she settled for a long, ramblinglecture."

The brunette chuckled, swaying a little on her feet. The bath had been perhaps atouch too hot, raising her blood pressure enough to make her a little dizzy.

- 93 -

Harry noticed the movement, his eyebrows drawing together in concern as hestepped forward to steady her. To his surprise, Malfoy beat him to it, slipping anarm around her waist as if touching her was the most natural thing in the world. Itseemed the blond wasn't dwelling on the blood purity thing anymore if he was sowilling to touch Hermione. He hadn't been sure the whole Veela thing wasn't somekind of trick, even after the explanation Hermione had given him, but when Malfoyhad stopped her fall, there had been genuine affection on his face.

"I just wanted to make sure you were all right before I went to bed," Harry said tohis friend. The glimpse of her face he'd gotten before she fled from Ron's cruelwords had made his heart ache in sympathy for her.

Ginny had shot her trademark Bat-Bogey hex at her brother when she found outwhat he'd said to Hermione, but it didn't seem enough compensation for the damagehe'd done.

Hermione smiled at her friend. She moved away from Malfoy's steadying arm togive him a hug, but she stopped halfway to him and glanced back at the blond. Itwouldn't do for him to attack Harry just because she wanted to hug him.

The Veela rolled his eyes, but he sighed and nodded. Just because he wasn't goingto stop it didn't mean he had to like it. While she hugged her friend and Dracograppled with his Veela side that wanted to rip the girl out of the other man'sembrace, he distracted himself by opening the portrait.

"Let's take this mushy scene inside before I have to take points from you for beingout after curfew," he said irritably. The three Gryffindors filed into the commonroom after him with no complaints, which was in itself a notable occurrence.

Draco's chest was starting to hurt again, and he knew he needed rest. Logically,he knew Potter and the She-Weasel weren't going to hurt his mate, even if his Veelawasn't entirely convinced. He trudged up the stairs to his bedroom, but was unableto resist entering hers when he passed it first. It was just so enticing, much like shewas when she wasn't scolding him - sometimes even then.

He couldn't very well go to bed without first saying goodnight to her. On thenightstand was one of the books on Veelas that Granger had obviously taken withher for some 'light' reading before bed. Draco picked up the book and startedreading while he waited for her.

- 94 -

"You never told us where it was you two came back from," Ginny observed.

The redhead watched Hermione wince at something she'd seen over Harry'sshoulder and looked just in time to see Malfoy disappear into her room once again.She'd ask about that when Harry wasn't hanging around...

"We were cold from the rain, so we went to the prefect's baths to warm up,"Hermione said. "We both had our bathing suits on," she added when she caughtsight of Harry's horrified and angry expression.

"Hermione, you're sure he's not trying to..." Harry trailed off, unsure what exactlyhe was going to accuse the blond of.

"He hasn't done anything wrong Harry, and I actually trust him." Her facedarkened, "Much more than Ron."

"Give him time, he'll come around." Her dark-haired friend patted her backcomfortingly. Satisfied that she was going to be fine, he started to make his waytowards the exit. When Ginny didn't follow, he glanced back at her in confusion.

"You go, I'll catch up," she said.

Harry shrugged, opening the painting and leaving.

"Now tell me what happened," Ginny ordered.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione was too tired to deal with Ginny'sconfusing mood swings.

"Don't try and kid me Hermione. You and Malfoy in a steamy room half naked?There's no way he didn't try and take advantage of that situation."

The brunette blushed. "Nothing happened, I fell asleep."

"Then how do you know he didn't try anything?"

Hermione could feel that Malfoy was offended by her friend's accusations. Shehadn't thought for a moment that he wasn't going to listen in on her conversation, soit didn't surprise her.

"He only touched me to stop me from drowning."

- 95 -

Ginny was still skeptical. "And how'd he do that?"

"He pulled me into his lap," she mumbled.

"You were pressed against Malfoy's wet, naked chest and you didn't even wake upenough to make sure he kept his hands to himself?"

"Ginny, it was fine. Now please let me sleep," Hermione begged. She knew theredhead's attitude stemmed from genuine concern, but she just didn't have theenergy to deal with an inquisition.

Reluctantly, Ginny nodded and followed after Harry. Her sharp eyes promised shewasn't going to let the conversation drop entirely.

Hermione sighed in relief and went up to her room to see what it was that wasmaking Malfoy apprehensive and worried.

"Granger, have you read this book?" Malfoy asked in a strangely tight voice themoment she walked through her door.

"Yes." It was on her nightstand, what did he expect she'd been doing with it?

"It says Veela can sprout wings like some kind of- of-" he stopped, unable to thinkof a comparison.

"Magical creature?" Hermione supplied.

The look he sent her made it clear he didn't find her amusing.

"Did you not read to the end of the paragraph?" she asked in exasperation, gettinginto the bed beside him to point. "It says that very few Veela ever actually 'sprout'wings, and even then it's almost always pure Veelas."

From Malfoy's emotions twisting inside her, she could tell that he was relieved byher words. She understood his worry; wings were something much more strangeand different than black eyes or fangs. They would be a huge change in comparisonto the other, relatively small ones. But the chances of him growing wings were soslim it was practically impossible.

She settled under her covers, content that they were done with the subject.

- 96 -

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

A/N: Hello readers! I'm eating nachos and salsa.Mildsalsa. I go into thegrocery store telling myself that I want MEDIUM and every time I somehowmanage to get mild. It's like I briefly lose the ability to distinguish betweenthe two words every time I step into the grocery store. *sigh*

To the person who asked if June fifth is Draco's actual birthday, I can'tanswer you when you review anonymously, but yes it is (according to theinternet).

I was going to make you wait for this a bit longer, but then I noticed it'sbeen 6 days since my last update... It seems like less to me. Anyway! Here'sthe next chapter. Thanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing! Alsothanks to all the wonderful people who review!

~Frosty

"Psst! Over here," a voice whispered.

It was the only sound that echoed in the silent space.

Hermione blinked her eyes opened sleepily and looked around the room. Shenearly screamed when she saw a dark figure lurking in the corner of the room, butthe person was making frantic shushing motions that encouraged her to hold off thereaction.

"I'm not going to hurt you!"

Despite the reassurances, Hermione still felt better with her fingers wrappedaround her wand. "Who are you and what do you want?" she asked, her wandpointed towards the corner.

The shadow stepped forward, revealing a head of golden hair and stylish robes."Narcissa Malfoy, and I'm here to take you out for breakfast," the woman answered.

Hermione hesitated. "Does Malfoy know you're here?"

- 97 -

She didn't think the Veela's mother was going to hurt her, but she also didn't thinkMalfoy would appreciate it if he learned that his mother was lurking around hismate's room at all hours, just waiting to take her away.

The older woman ignored the question.

"I received the most interesting letter from Theodore Nott last night informing meof a scene he'd witnessed in the Hospital Wing between my son and a certainMuggleborn. It seems my son didn't see fit to tell his mother that he'd found hismate, and we could stop worrying that he was going to die an untimely death."

The brunette felt horrible. She could only imagine the worry the Malfoys had beengoing through while she hadn't even spared them a thought. Granted, they hadn'tbeen the kindest to her in the past, but no parent deserved that kind of stress whena simple word from her or their son would have alleviated it. She was going to takethat as a 'no, Malfoy has no idea I'm here'. At least the mystery of who it was who'dpeeked in on them in the Hospital Wing was solved.

"Now, I'd like to speak with you somewhere Draco can't interfere. Let's go getbreakfast," the woman insisted again.

Hermione glanced at her clock. "It's five in the morning."

Normally, she wouldn't have considered it, but this woman was obviously a masterof the guilt trip. Hermione almost felt obligated to go with Mrs. Malfoy and talk asan apology for not making sure the woman knew that her only son had located hismate. She also felt horrible for not assuring Mrs. Malfoy that she wasn't going to lethim die.

"Not in Australia; I thought we'd have a lunch and call it breakfast."

It wasn't like she was going to be able to get back to sleep after the scare she'djust had, and Mrs. Malfoy wasn't going to hurt her if she wanted her son to survive,so Hermione nodded. "Just give me a minute to get dressed," she said.

Narcissa was waiting in front of the fireplace when she came out of her room.

"Um, Mrs. Malfoy, shouldn't we tell Malfoy where we're going?" she asked. If hewasn't willing to leave her alone with her friends for fear she'd be hurt, Hermionecouldn't see it going over well if he woke up in the morning and couldn't find heranywhere.

- 98 -

The older woman waved a dismissive hand. "He deserves to worry a little afterwhat he put me and his father through - and it's Cissa, dear."

Hermione didn't necessarily agree with her methods, but she supposed Narcissaknew her son better than she did. Maybe she'd get back before Malfoy woke up, andhe wouldn't even need to know that she'd ever been gone.

They stepped into the swirling green flames and stepped out again in an entirelydifferent setting. Hermione looked around the expensive-looking restaurant withwide, sleepy eyes. Malfoy's family and their secret were really cutting into her sleeptime.

She tried to blink herself into a more awake state as they were escorted to a tableand given menus to peruse. "First off," Narcissa said the moment their waitress wasout of earshot. "I want you to tell me if you're planning on keeping my son alive pasthis next birthday."

Hermione frowned; was that what this thing was about? It was some sort ofbribery and then intimidation tactic? "I've already agreed to be his mate," she saidfirmly.

Immediately, the woman's face softened, and she reached across the table to takeHermione's hand. "Thank you," she said vehemently. "I know you two haven't hadthe best history and that just makes this difficult transition all the more challenging.I can't offer you much in return, but I'm here for you if you have any questions."

Narcissa released her hand when their waitress came back with their drinks.

"Can I ask what it's like... to be completely bonded?" Hermione had been readingall about what would happen, but never what it would feel like. She wanted to knowwhat it was that she was getting herself into - not because she would back out, butbecause she wanted to be prepared.

"It's strange at first, but you adjust relatively quickly - or at least I did. There willalways be a little part of him inside your head and vice versa, though his presence inyour mind will probably be more pronounced. Once you get used to the oddsensation, it's reassuring to know he's always there."

Hermione wasn't sure she wanted that, it sounded like a complete invasion of herprivacy. It wasn't that she thought Malfoy would abuse the things he learned in hermind; it was more that she liked her quiet time. As someone who spent so much ofher time alone and quiet with books, she'd developed an appreciation to the

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complete silence and alone time, broken only by the whispering of pages as sheturned them. A voice in her mind would make it all the more difficult, wouldn't it?

She tilted her head to the side slightly as she felt a growing anxiety that she knewwasn't hers.

"Malfoy's up, and he's getting anxious about something. I'm assuming it's myempty bed," she said.

Narcissa waved her hand in that dismissive gesture again. "We don't have toworry about him until he smells me in your room and starts to get angry. An anxiousVeela is bothersome, but an enraged one is trouble."

Storing that advice away for later analysis, Hermione nodded. It would probablycome in handy at some point.

She could feel that Malfoy was increasingly anxious, but he hadn't yet reachedanger. Their food had arrived, and Hermione was half finished before she felt a twistof anger so intense that she dropped her fork.

"We have to get back now," she said with wide eyes directed towards Narcissa.There was no time for explanations, she had to go.

The woman took one look at her expression and shooed her away. "You go calmhim down; I'll take care of the bill."

"One more thing!" Narcissa called after her when she was almost to the fireplace."If you call him by his first name, I'm betting he'll be overjoyed, keep that in mindfor when he's upset."

Hermione nodded her thanks, rushed to the fireplace, threw the powder in thefire, and called out her destination without stopping her run. She knew Malfoywould get into trouble if she left him too long on his own; he'd probably end uphaving some sort of confrontation with her friends after going to the Gryffindortower to make sure she wasn't there.

She tripped over a burning log on her way out of the flames and ended upsprawled on the carpet in an ungraceful heap. Rubbing her poor, bumped head,Hermione slowly opened her eyes. They widened when they landed on a pair of palefeet. Following the feet up, she met the obsidian depths of Malfoy's stare. He didn'tlook pleased. In fact, he looked livid.

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"Where were you?" he demanded in an angry voice that contrasted with hisactions as he pulled her to her feet and started gently brushing the soot from herclothes.

"Your mum wanted to take me out for lunch." She could feel the anger radiatingoff of him, and it was difficult not to flinch away from his touch - no matter howgentle. The knowledge that he wouldn't hurt her was the only think that stoppedher.

"At five in the morning?"

Hermione shrugged. "We went to Australia."

"You could have told me! I woke up to get a glass of water and found that yourdoor was open and your bed was empty. I couldn't find you anywhere, what was Isupposed to think? That you'd gone for a nice stroll? I was worried sick!" His eyeswere flashing with anger by the end of his rant, and Hermione would have beenafraid of him if she hadn't known him. He was impressive when he was enraged.

"Kind of like your parents were wondering if you'd survive until your nextbirthday?"

"That's not the same thing," he snarled.

Hermione crossed her arms. "How is it any different?"

"I thought you were dead, or kidnapped, or worse. Mother could have-" he brokeoff with a grimace of pain.

Hermione thought he was being over dramatic, but quickly realized somethingwas wrong when his back arched sharply, and he fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

There was only a slight delay before a bloom of heat started in her back andintensified until it was unbearable. She knew she was getting a watered-downversion of what he was feeling and could only imagine the pain he was experiencing.

She focused on breathing as the pain and the heat that accompanied it started tofade. Soon, it was completely gone and she was able to drag herself to her feet. Shewas still a little shaky, but it was just residual from the pain.

When she saw Malfoy she gasped; on his back were a massive pair of wings thesame glossy platinum as his hair. The feathery appendages were folded tightly

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against his back.

He seemed to realize they were there at the same time she noticed them. Slowly,he lifter them and spread them to their full wingspan, stretching. Hermione guessedhis wingspan was close to five metres.

"Bloody hell," Malfoy grumbled. He pulled himself to his feet and swayed while headjusted to the additional weight on his back. "So... what? I'm just stuck with somehuge, feathery appendages for the rest of my life?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, they're like the rest of your Veela transformation;they'll disappear if you just calm down."

"It's kind of difficult to stay calm when you suddenly grow wings."

She knew it wasn't her he was upset with, so she didn't take his abrasive tone toheart. Tentatively, Hermione reached out and ran her fingers over the soft feathers.His entire wing twitched at the contact.

"Did I hurt you?" she asked worriedly, drawing her hand back.

"No, that feels nice - strange, but somehow nice," he murmured. "Keep going?"

Curious about the new development, Hermione was more than willing to explorethe soft wings. She stood directly behind Malfoy as he held the wings straight back.It was like having a warm, feathery wall on either side of her body.

Starting at their base where they connected with his strong shoulders and back,Hermione ran her fingers over his wings, marvelling at them. Ever since she firstcame to Hogwarts, she'd been forced to take the strangeness of the magical world instride; so now she was more than used to just accepting strange things as normal.Malfoy's Veela heritage had forced her to face more oddities than she'd encounteredin her entire school career within a few days. She was starting to feel like nothingcould throw her anymore.

Malfoy started purring when she reached the end of his left wing and moved tothe right. Once she'd finished with them, he awkwardly shook the feathers back intoplace and folded them up against his back.

She watched with interest as they sunk into him and disappeared, leaving anexpanse of unblemished skin visible through a hole in his shirt.

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"I really hope that's the last of the surprises my blood has to throw at me," theblond grumbled, turning to face his mate.

Hermione felt a rush of affection for him; he was almost as lost in the whole thingas she was and his life was on the line in addition to that. Without over thinking it,she stepped forward and wrapped him in a tight hug. She would have done the samething had Harry been in such a bitter, melancholy mood, but it felt like it meantsomething different with Malfoy.

"We'll get through this," she said against him chest as he recovered from hissurprise and wrapped his arms around her in return.

"What do you say we go have a nap, catch up on some of that sleep we've bothbeen missing out on?" Draco asked, hoping to take advantage of her mood.

Hermione contemplated it. "I'm assuming you're suggesting this because you wantto sleep in my bed again?"

"No, it doesn't have to be your bed; mine's fine as long as you're in it."

She knew it was difficult for him to sleep deeply without her presence, and he hadjust gone through a traumatic experience. "You touch me inappropriately once and Iremove whatever part of you that did it," she threatened.

Draco nodded willingly, taking her hand and pulling her up to his room before shecould think of a reason to go back on her agreement.

She ran a hand over the sheets, marvelling at how soft they were. Her parents hadnever been tight for money in her lifetime, but they'd never been willing to spendthe heaps of money on sheets like Malfoy's would have cost. It was obscene.

Tentatively, she sat down on the bed and lay back while Malfoy did the same onthe other side with more confidence. He covered the both of them with the blankets.

"Don't hurt me for this," he said right before he wrapped an arm around her waistto pull her close.

"Malfoy!" Hermione squeaked in surprise.

He buried his face in her hair. "Just relax, Granger. I'm not touching youinappropriately."

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Uncomfortable with the contact, Hermione remained tense. She was trying todecide if he was in fact touching her inappropriately. She may have to lop off one ofhis arms.

Malfoy sighed, making her hair tickle her neck. He was going to have to takeextreme measures. His eyes turned distant and he moved his attention inward.

A moment later, Hermione started to relax. "I don't like you using thosepheromones on me," she said.

"Nothing I can do about that, there's no way I'd be able to sleep while you're rigidas a board and we both need the rest."

When he started purring, the last of Hermione's resistance faded, and she let himlull her to sleep with the soothing rumble. Draco wasn't far behind her, drifting ofjust moments later, still purring.

It was close to noon before Hermione woke. The sight that met her sleep-blurredgaze was a pair of equally bleary grey eyes.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Malfoy's eyes darkened with irritation. "Time to write my mother a letter askingwhat the hell she thought she was doing sneaking into my mate's room at anunreasonable hour and whisking her away to Australia."

She shifted uncomfortably under his stare. It was annoying, but Hermione justcouldn't make a certain nagging question disappear: why hadn't he told his parentsabout her? She could only assume it was because he was ashamed to be associatedwith a Muggleborn. Hadn't he made his feelings on her parentage abundantly clearon numerous occasions in the past? Maybe not so much recently, but she found itunlikely that he could just forget his upbringing so quickly.

He tilted his blond head to the side and looked at her with confusion. "Why do youhurt all of a sudden?"

Hermione turned her head so he couldn't stare at her like he could see into hersoul anymore. She pulled out of his embrace and moved towards the door, trying toignore his bewilderment and slight hurt. "I just need some time alone," she saidbefore leaving his room.

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It was inevitable that he would eventually hunt her down, but Hermione neededsome time alone to get her thoughts in order.

Most of the castle's residents were at lunch so she didn't run into anyone on herway through the corridors. She was heading to the best place in the castle to stareout over the grounds and think.

Despite her fear of heights, Hermione actually liked to sit in the astronomy towerand let her mind go where it wanted. It was as close to flying as she would everwillingly go and she relished the exhilarating wind as it whipped her hair intotangled strands. Later, she'd curse herself for letting it whip around freely, but atthe moment she just didn't care.

She sidled up to one of the railings and heaved herself up to perch on the thickstone top, careful to keep a strong grip even though it was wide enough for her toeasily sit without fear of falling. Just because she wasn't letting her fear of heightsget the better of her didn't mean it didn't still make her nervous to be so high off thenice, solid ground.

It wasn't long before she heard footsteps coming up the tower stairs. She sighed,but didn't make any effort to actively avoid the Veela. What was the point? He couldalways find her again just as easily.

"Do I get to ask what it is that's upset you, or will that only make things worse?"he asked, coming up to lean against the railing beside her. Her answer was on thetip of her tongue when he snaked an arm around her waist and yanked her off of therailing.

Hermione whipped her blazing eyes to his. How dare he just move her like someinanimate object!

"You're going to fall to your - and by extension, my - death. Why the suddensuicidal tendencies?" His voice was without emotions.

"I'm not suicidal; I just wanted some time alone to think about everything. This isall so fast and when you're around, my brain doesn't work as logically as it should."

"It's fast for me as well," he pointed out. "And I don't run off and hide like a child."

"Sometimes I just want to be alone. That doesn't make me a child; it makes me human! Don't you ever just want some privacy?" Hermione yelled. She wasn't reallyupset with him, but couldn't seem to stop herself from lashing out at the innocent

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bystander.

"I used to, but ever since the Veela blood took over, I mostly just want you whenI'm upset. I suppose that makes me inhuman," he said coldly.

Hermione winced, not intending her words to be taken that way. "Malfoy, that'snot..." she trailed off when she turned and saw that he was no longer in the tower.Well, that went well. With an aggravated huff of breath, she pulled herself onto thestone railing once again and stared moodily out over the grounds.

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Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A/N: Hello readers!

I took my computer in to be fixed over the weekend... Three differentpeople worked on it for a total of 6 hours and it'sstillnot entirely fixed. Ireally have a talent for destroying electronics. Luckily, this only interferedwith my typing schedule and not the posting one because I have anotherchapter for you!

Anyway! Thanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing and to everyonewho took the time to review. Don't think I read your review and then forget,they can sometimes keep me smiling for days after I get them.

~Frosty

Hermione was brooding; she knew that, but she just couldn't seem to makeherself stop. She just couldn't seem to reconcile the Malfoy who had been herconstant nemesis for most of her childhood with the Malfoy who soothed away thehurt Ron had caused while they sat in the mud. The same conclusion kept appearingin her mind; Malfoy wasn't really the almost kind person she'd come to know of late,that was his Veela side forcing him to do things.

Did she really want to spend the rest of her life with someone who wouldn't giveher the time of day if he didn't have a genetic glitch that made him want -need- her?

She sighed gustily and continued staring out at the grounds. It wasn't really amatter of what she wanted; it was a matter of what was right. No matter how sheinterpreted the situation, letting Malfoy die because she had some doubts about hismotivations wasn't the right thing to do. Sometimes she hated being so caring.

While Hermione brooded, Draco retreated to the Slytherin common room to findBlaise. He needed to vent, and his friend was usually good at listening - Blaise wasalso one of the few Slytherins brave enough to tell him to stop being an idiot. Thedark Slytherin was sitting in one of the cushy chairs in front of the fire and watchingthe merry flames dance in the grate.

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Draco stared glared? at the younger students sitting near his friend until theysqueaked in fear and scuttled away. He flopped into a recently vacated seat.Leaning back against the sofa, the Veela put the crook of his elbow over his eyes."Granger's going to kill me, Blaise."

He missed the widening of his friend's eyes. "She's not going to be your mate?"

It took the blond a moment to make sense of the genuine concern in Blaise's voice."What? No. She's just has so many ... feelings."

Blaise snorted. "Not all of us can be bastions of unemotional snark and sarcasmlike you pretend to be. What is it in particular that she's done this time to have youin a huff?"

"She's sitting on the railing in the Astronomy tower trying contemplating herdemise."

The Italian arched an eyebrow at his dramatic friend. "What's she actually doing?"

"Every little thing is a battle with her; any other girl in this school would be dyingto have my attention so focused on her, yet Granger has all these worries andconcerns. She doesn't like me to hold her even though the damn Veela isn't everfully calm unless I am. And this morning, I woke up to find her gone. Do you knowwhere she went? Australia, with my mother."

"Good."

Draco whipped his arm off of his face to stare at his so called 'friend' in disbelief. "Good?"

"Yes. If she just threw herself at you, you'd be bored immediately. It's a good thingthat she keeps you on your toes. She'll keep you guessing for the rest of your livestogether."

The statement was met with silence and a moody glare. Inside, Draco was secretlypleased by the mention of spending the rest of his life with her - provided 'the rest ofhis life' didn't end on his next birthday.

Blaise just laughed. The Veela griped and moaned about it, but Draco andHermione were a good match. Once they'd cleared up the issues that kept getting inbetween them, he was confident they could be happy.

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As the Italian watched, Draco was off the sofa and halfway across the commonroom in a flurry of motion almost too fast for the eye to follow.

"Draco? What's happened?"

"Granger's gone and fallen off the Astronomy tower," the Veela growled. His eyeswere black, his teeth were sharp and wings had made an appearance, ripping a holeright through his shirt once again.

Blaise could only chase after him as the blond raced through the corridorstowards the Entrance Hall.

Hermione rolled her eyes when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She hadbeen hoping that Malfoy would leave her alone for a while to sort out her thoughts;apparently she's been too optimistic. He was probably coming back to tell her to getoff the railing, which was just hypocritical of him; he'd put himself in much moredangerous situations in the past playing Quidditch.

"Malfoy, I've only been here for-"

"I'm not Malfoy," a familiar voice said.

Surprised, she whipped around to face him just as a particularly powerful gust ofwind buffeted the tower. Combined, they were just enough to throw off her balance.She scrabbled at the stone, trying to get a grip without success. She just had enoughtime to think that Malfoy had been right before she was tumbling off of the railingand towards the ground far below.

A terrified scream ripped from her throat as she looked back up at the tower andsaw Ron's pale, horrified face staring down at her.

As he ran, Draco kept reliving the explosion of pain as he'd felt her hit the ground,and then the terrifying nothingness that immediately followed it. Granger just had tobe all right, she had to be.

He ran out the front doors, shoving people out of his way. Those idiots stupidenough to get in the way of a rushing Veela deserved to be thrown into walls orshoved to the stone ground.

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When his eyes landed on her broken form and confirmed the sinking suspicionhe'd had, Draco wailed. It wasn't anything close to a human sound, instead anunearthly outpouring of his grief. All who heard it would never forget the hauntingcall.

Rushing to the fallen body, he searched for signs of life. Very faintly, he could feela pulse threading weakly in her neck. He sagged with relief. Feeling eyes on him,Draco glanced up, meeting the worried gaze of Weasley.

His mate's safety took priority, but as soon as she was well again, Weasley wasgoing to pay for doing this to her. He knew the redhead had been upset withGranger, but there was no reason to push her from the tower.

Lucky for Draco, Blaise had had the sense to go and fetch Madam Pomfrey themoment he'd seen that Hermione needed medical attention. When he returned withthe Mediwitch, they found the Veela crouched over his mate and stroking her hairwhile making a strange, high keening sound.

The Mediwitch moved to rush forward and help the fallen girl, but Blaise stoppedher with a hand on her shoulder. "Draco's not in control of himself right now, don'tmake any sudden moves or he could attack."

Resolute, Madam Pomfrey nodded and slowly approached the Veela. "Mr. Malfoy,I need to look over Miss. Granger," she said in a low, soothing voice.

He whipped his head around to face her and started growling, hunkering low overHermione in an effort to shield her from the perceived threat.

"Draco, you have to let her take a look if you want her to get any better," Blaisesaid, hoping his friend would be more inclined to listen to someone he knew better.He almost took a step back when he saw the rage and sorrow in his friend's blackeyes, but he stopped himself just in time; that would have been a big mistake. Dracowas a wild animal at the moment, and he couldn't show weakness.

Gradually, Draco stood up straight and made room for the Mediwitch, but hedidn't leave Hermione's side. "Is she going to live?" the Veela asked, soundingyounger than Blaise had ever heard him, even when they'd been children.

"It's too soon to tell," Madam Pomfrey regretfully said. She raised her wand andlevitated the Head Girl to the Hospital Wing, the Veela and his friend in tow.

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Draco had calmed considerably since Granger's accident. The Veela wasn't incontrol anymore, but he still wasn't back to normal. He felt... empty was the onlyword he could think of to describe his feelings. Despite what the books said andwhat he'd been told, a little part of him had been confident that the loss of Grangerwould actually kill him. That little piece of him had died when she'd fallen off of thetower; there was no longer any doubt in his mind that should she ever die or leavehim, he wouldn't be long for this world.

"Mate, when did you get wings?" Blaise asked in an attempt to take his friend'smind off of the hushed conversations going on in the next room. The blond had beenforced away from Hermione's side because his hovering was interfering with theirability to treat her. He wasn't happy about the arrangement, but was willing to tryanything if it meant that they were going to bring Granger back to him.

"Early this morning," he clipped out in a monotone, not really listening to hisanswer.

"Can you fly?" Blaise persisted.

"Theoretically."

The books said it was possible, but he'd only had the wings for a day, and hehadn't exactly had spare time to experiment with the things. If Granger didn'tsurvive, he never would.

Agitated, Draco started pacing the room. He unconsciously ruffled his wings andresettled them every few steps. The things had been awkward to move the first time,but he was rapidly getting used to them - though he'd prefer to be rid of the things.

A quiet cough made Draco stop his movements. "Is she all right?" he asked theMediwitch. She was flanked by McGonagall and a specialist from St. Mungo's, andthey all looked exceedingly grim.

"Mr. Malfoy, we need you to come with us," said Professor McGonagall.

Obediently, Draco followed, a feeling of dread in his chest. "What is it?" he askedthe two Mediwitches in Madam Pomfrey's office.

"At the moment, it's not looking likely that Miss. Granger will ever wake up.However," she continued when Draco started to sag, "we think there might be a wayyou can save her."

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"How?" Draco asked immediately, willing to do anything.

McGonagall pressed her lips into a thin line and looked away before the Healerstarted her explanation, telling Draco he wasn't going to like the solution they'ddevised.

"Are you aware that Veela venom is incredibly toxic?" she asked.

Draco nodded dismissively, impatient to get to the point. "Yes, to everyone exceptthe mate, for whom the venom holds healing-"

He looked between the three women in the room. "I can't bite her unless sheagrees, that could screw up the bond."

"You can't bite her at all if she doesn't survive the night, she broke her spine andruptured a few internal organs not to mention the damage to her brain. We've doneeverything we can and have healed most of her injuries, but even magical medicinecan only go so far. As things stand now, the chances of her living until tomorrow are very slim. We wouldn't be asking this of you otherwise."

"We do have to inform you what can happen should this go wrong," McGonagallchimed in.

"I know what'll happen if the bond gets corrupted; we spend the rest of our livesunable to be happy with one another but trapped together."

The three women nodded grimly. It seemed that none of them could bringthemselves to make eye contact with him.

"You're sure this is her only chance?" Draco asked.

They nodded again.

He took a deep breath. "All right, take me to her."

Madam Pomfrey led the way to one of the few private rooms in the Hospital Wing.They were usually reserved for dangerous or highly contagious cases, but Hermionehad been given one because the distraught Veela she'd come in with had made hercase dangerous.

Draco paled at the sight of her; she looked so broken. There weren't any visibleinjuries that he could see, but she looked small and pale lying motionless in that

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hospital bed. She wasn't Granger without that glow about her; stubbornness,kindness and determination were usually written across her face, or at least visiblein her eyes, but not this time.

"It's not supposed to be like this," he whispered sadly, smoothing her hair out ofher face. As much as his Veela wanted to make Granger his, she was supposed to beawake and willing when it happened. It sounded cheesy, but it was a sharedexperience.

With nothing but misery, he gently nosed along her neck, looking for the rightplace. "I hope you'll forgive me for this," he mumbled against her skin.

Taking a deep breath he opened his mouth and sunk his teeth into the base of herneck. If she hadn't agreed to the marking, there was a risk of poisoning her, but thatwould only happen if he'd bitten her with the intent to possess. There was nothing inhis mind but making her well again, so he hoped she was safe.

The books had described the marking as an enjoyable experience, but Draco onlyfelt dirty and sad. What he was doing wasn't right, but it could very well save hismate's life.

His heart leapt when her still form started to wiggle, trying to escape the fangsembedded in her skin. The small movements increased until she was thrashing andwhimpering.

He pulled away, distressed by her obvious pain. It wasn't supposed to hurt her; hewas unsure whether she was in pain because their bond had soured or because shewas healing as the venom worked its way through her body. He was supposed toprotect her from pain, and yet, he was the one causing it.

Her movements abruptly stopped, and she let out a deep breath. It appeared thatshe had relaxed and fallen into a deep sleep.

Draco knew she may not want anything to do with him when she woke up, so heshould probably cherish the time he had left with her. Though she could beannoying, his Veela smoothed away the things that had bothered him about her andit kept nudging him towards affectionate feelings. He didn't love her, but he wasn'theartless, and they were bonded, he needed to be close so it could solidify.

As gently as possible, he shifted her over in the bed to make room. He tried not tojostle her as he climbed into the small hospital bed and wrapped his arms aroundher. His nose immediately went to her hair that still smelled faintly the fruity

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shampoo she had used the night before to wash her hair. Underneath that was thesmell that was just Granger, a light flowery smell mixed with sunlight.

The position was a little uncomfortable and one of his wings was bunched upawkwardly against the scratchy sheets, but he ignored his discomfort and pressedhimself closer to her warm form, wrapping himself around her as best he could.

The door cracked open and McGonagall poked her worried face into the room. "Ifyou're finished, we need to check her over," she said regretfully.

"Do the tests, but I'm not moving," the Veela insisted, tightening his hold on thelimp form of his mate. Wanting to pretend they were alone, he closed his eyes as theMediwitches came in and cast a series of spells over Granger.

"She's going to be all right," said the visiting Healer with awe.

"That's debateable; if the bond sours, neither of us are going to be 'all right',"Draco growled without opening his eyes. It wasn't their fault, but he had alwaysbeen the type to shoot the messenger, and then everyone else in the vicinity.

He could hear the women shifting uncomfortably. They probably blamedthemselves for suggesting that he bite her in the first place.

Burying his face further in her hair and breathing deeply, Draco tried to calmhimself down. "Just leave us."

Even though he was a student and they weren't required to listen to him, thewomen filed out of the room and left him to his mate.

He lay like that for hours, unmoving and uninterrupted. Just waiting for some signthat they were going to be fine was wearing on Draco's nerves. He couldn't sleepand he couldn't or seem to relax, but he also couldn't bring himself to leave Granger.

"Draco?" he opened his eyes reluctantly to see his mother standing in the doorwith the tears running down her face.

"What?" he grumbled.

"Oh, Draco," she said, rushing into the room and hugging him.

Lucius stepped into the room behind his wife. "Let's have this conversationsomewhere else, we'll let Miss Granger get her rest."

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"I'm not leaving her," Draco said petulantly.

"Son, we need to speak with you," his father insisted.

Very reluctantly, Draco released Granger and followed his parents from the room.

"What is it?" he asked once they were out of the room and closed off in the onebeside it.

"We've just heard what it was you had to do to save your mate. I think you need toprepare for what could happen should your bond become corrupted," Lucius said.

Narcissa straightened her posture and wiped her tears as she reached for herhusband's hand. "You won't die, but there will be times you wished you were dead.The bond is something that is supposed to be formed out of love, but yours wascreated out of desperation. I imagine it felt wrong to do?"

Draco nodded, remembering the feeling with a cringe.

"It may not happen right away; these things can take up to a year to fully form, sothey have that long to go south. If it does, you will still be drawn to one another, butyou'll gradually grow to hate each other," she continued.

Impatient, Draco shifted and shuffled his wings. "I know all of this," he snapped,his black eyes flashing.

Narcissa stepped forward and hugged him, not worried in the least about theirritated growl that escaped him. "We're just here to make sure you know whatyou're getting into."

With black eyes matching his son's Lucius glared towards the door. "They shouldhave contacted us and had us come and speak to you before they let you do anything."

"It wouldn't have changed my decision, she needed to live and I was the onlysolution," Draco said. He couldn't help but notice that his father was infinitely betterat controlling his Veela than he was. Draco could only hope that he would one daymanage to reign in his extreme reactions with the skill of his father.

"We know, darling, but someone should have been there to outline all of therepercussions and risks for you," his mother said.

- 115 -

Draco's head suddenly whipped around to face towards where he knew Granger tobe laying on the other side of the wall. "She's awake," he said with a mixture ofdread and relief.

- 116 -

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

A/N: Hello readers! Many of you weren't all that pleased with me forleaving the last chapter where I did, but look at me! Updating way before aweek's up. *sadeyes* Am I forgiven? If what both my betas said about thischapter is true, you're probably going to be mad at me all over again by theend of this chapter, so withhold any forgiveness you may have until you'veread the chapter.

As always, thanks to the wonderful Claire96 and Bulba-chan (alsowonderful) for betaing! And to everyone who reviewed! You guys are sogreat!

Just to clarify a few things:

I probably should have been clearer with my description of the events inthe tower. Ron didn't push her, he startled her and she lost her balance.When I imagined that scene, he wasn't even close enough to touch her, buton the other side of the room.

Also, I probably should have mentioned that my computer problems won'tdelete this story. I have backups on skydrive and a memory stick, so I won'tbe losing this story, don't worry.

~Frosty

I'm sorry, please be okay. I'm sorry, please be okay.

Hermione awoke to feelings of both hope and heart-sick misery along with astrange mantra that seemed to be in her head. She drew in a panicked breath, readyto call out for someone, when warm hands came to rest on either side of her face,calming her. A spark ran through her at the contact, telling her who that was therewith her.

"Granger, it's all right," he murmured.

Her eyes snapped open to take in the worried Veela standing beside her bed.

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"You have wings again," was the first thing out of her mouth. Her voice wasscratchy and it came out as more of a whisper, but Malfoy heard her just fine.

His hands slid down her face to hold her shoulders worriedly. "I've addled yourbrain."

Hermione Granger was not one to state the obvious like that. The slightly cloudedlook in her eyes didn't help his worry that she'd suffered some sort of brain damageduring the bonding or from her fall.

"No, the impact with the ground did that." He winced at the reminder, butHermione ignored the reaction and continued. "You're just hovering over me andmaking it hard for me to think." Her eyes went distant as her mind travelledelsewhere. "Were you inside my head talking not so long ago?"

She couldn't understand the dread she started to feel at her statement; all sheknew was that it wasn't coming from her own mind. Her eyebrows drew together inconfusion and she looked at him questioningly. Without even thinking about heractions, she reached towards him and took his hand, whether to comfort or in searchof it, she wasn't sure. "What's wrong?"

"You were dying," he explained. "They told me the only way to save you was tobite you."

Hermione was horrified, but not for the reason he was probably thinking. It musthave been horrible for them to make him face that kind of choice. She was upsetthat she'd missed the chance for a proper bonding ceremony, the kind where shewas willing, but she'd known from the moment that he'd told her that she was hismate that eventually he was going to bite her. Sure, she would have liked a littlemore time to prepare herself before it happened, but she wasn't upset that theywere bound.

He was obviously not going to wait and find out why she was horrified, because hewas halfway out the door before she'd even gathered her thoughts on the matter.Merlin, she was going to need to figure out how to censor her thoughts andemotions if he was going to just run away every time she didn't react favourably tosomething he did.

Had he been expecting her to leap for joy? Because that was just irrational. Theywere doing their best to flounder their way through some semblance of arelationship, and recent events had forced them to remove their water wings andplunge into the deep end unprepared. He seemed to expect her to just take that in

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stride, even as he was a mess over the whole incident.

Too weak to chase after him, Hermione was left to lay in her bad and glare at theceiling as she tried to figure out how to reach out to him with her mind like sheknew she had the ability to do. It was like trying to figure out how to move a muscleshe'd never used before; she could feel that it was there, but the trick to moving iteluded her.

"Is everything all right in here? Draco ran off in a huff," Narcissa asked, pokingher head around the door. Hermione was surprised that Malfoy's parents hadmanaged to appear so quickly. But once she'd given it a moment of thought, sherealized it made perfect sense if they were worried that the girl who decidedwhether their son lived or died by his next birthday survived an accident.

"He can feel my emotions, but he's gone and misinterpreted what it was that hewas feeling from me. He told me that he had to bite me in order for me to surviveand he didn't like what it was that he felt from me," Hermione explained. Shefigured that his mother was one of the few people who both knew about Veelas andabout Malfoy, so she was a good person to talk to about the problem.

Lucius followed his wife into the room when she entered. He stopped just insidethe door and allowed his eyes to follow Narcissa as she perched on the edge ofHermione's bed.

"Have you tried using your bond to call him back?" he asked.

Speaking with Narcissa was one thing - the woman had saved Harry's life - butbeing comfortable with Lucius Malfoy in the room was another thing entirely.Hermione feared that it would take some adjustment before she could occupy thesame room as the man without feeling like she should know where her wand was atall times in case he decided to attack.

Reminding herself that he couldn't harm her unless he wanted to face the wrath ofhis own son, Hermione looked to Lucius. "I've been trying, but it's not working."

The anxious look the two Malfoy's in the room shot at each other told Hermionethat something was wrong with the way she'd described her connection. "What? It'snot supposed to be like that?" she asked, worried.

Narcissa shook her head. "No, you should be able to feel him all the time as apresence in the back of your mind. There shouldn't be any effort involved incontacting him."

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"Don't worry the girl, Cissa; she's been through enough recently. He could just beblocking her out," Lucius chided.

"Why would he want to block out his mate?" Narcissa demanded, glaring at herhusband.

"Well, I'm sure Miss Granger has the answer. What was it exactly that he'smisunderstood?"

"He thinks I was upset because he bit me without asking, but I was upset becausethey made him bite me without asking. The books say it's anything but pleasant andhe had to-" she cut off when she was suddenly smothered in a hug.

"You're such a sweet girl," the blonde woman said as she nearly smothered said'sweet girl' with her embrace. "I was so worried Draco was going to end up with thatnasty Parkinson wench."

The insult to Parkinson startled a chuckle out of Hermione; who knew such properpeople could insult one of their own? She stopped when she noticed the both theolder Malfoys were looking grim.

"Everything would have been easier if she'd been Parkinson," Lucius said.

His wife turned to glare at him. "You don't have to say it like we don't wantHermione!" she snapped.

Hermione was a little hurt, but honestly, she had expected much worse from theblood supremacists. She kept quiet and let them bicker; it comforted her that even aproperly bonded Veela and mate could bicker. From what the books had beensaying, Hermione had worried that everything would be sunshine and rainbows fromthe moment Malfoy sunk his fangs into her. That could be nice on occasion, butthere would be no fire in the relationship, which would eventually bore her.

"Why don't we just explain to the girl why I said it instead of letting her think Idon't approve of her?" Lucius said, sounding exasperate with his wife.

Surprised, Hermione tuned back into their conversation. "Pardon?" she asked.

"These horrible things that have happened to you and Draco, we think we knowwhy they've been happening." Narcissa shot a glare at her husband, who onlyshuffled uncomfortably.

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"When I was young," he started. "I was infatuated with a Muggle girl from avillage near the Manor. When my father found out about it, he was livid. He was solivid he cast a curse on me. Should I ever feel anything but contempt for Muggles,unlucky things would start happening. The bad luck would intensify with myfeelings."

"How does this affect me?" Hermione asked with a sinking feeling. 'Bad luck' could be used to describe the accidents that had been happening to her and Malfoyover the past few days... if one was prone to understatement.

"I believe that it has somehow transferred to my son and multiplied in the process.The bout of bad luck I was originally cursed with has increased into near-deathincidents."

"So if I don't stay with him, he'll pine and die and if I do, something horrible willhappen and we'll both die?" Hermione asked, needing clarification that her grasp ofthe new information was correct.

Narcissa nodded. "Essentially." She turned to her husband, "I told you she was asharp one, Lucius."

"Indeed."

"What can I do about this?" Hermione asked.

"We're working on finding a way to break the curse, but since my father is dead,we are working without the knowledge of what curse was originally cast," Luciussaid.

Hermione's eyes lit up as something occurred to her. "I know a curse breaker!He's one of the best."

They looked at her questioningly, waiting for her to elaborate.

She knew they probably weren't going to like her answer, but if he could fix themess, then they couldn't exactly afford to be picky.

"Bill Weasley."

Immediately, Lucius' lip curled in distaste and Narcissa looked vaguely ill. Itseemed that abandoning their prejudices in order to accept their son's mate was onething, but where the Weasleys were concerned, it was quite another.

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Draco was miserable. Granger was going to reject him, their bond was going to gosour and he was going to live the rest of his life connected to someone who hatedhim. He could feel her trying to reach him through their bond, but she wasn't in painor distressed, just annoyed, so he was able to block out her insistent prodding. Shewas probably looking for him to tell him she didn't want to see him again, and hedidn't think he could bear that.

Blaise had been waiting in the hospital wing to make sure that Granger lived, buthe followed Draco out when the Veela stormed past with a ferocious scowl.

"Where are we going?" he asked his moody friend.

"Head Dorms."

On a normal day, Draco was never particularly verbose unless he was insultingsomeone, but when he truly descended into a mood, it was like pulling teeth to findout what was going through his mind.

"Okay, why are we going to the Head Dorms?"

"Alcohol."

Blaise paused; he probably should have seen that one coming. His friend didn'thave the best ways of dealing with his problems. Blaise knew that it was going to behis job to loosen his friend's tongue with alcohol and then get him to actually talkabout what it was that was bothering him so. He sighed; he was such a good friend,and so underappreciated.

They passed a group of second years who caught sight of Malfoy and turned torun in the other direction. "Looks like your secret's out, unless you're going to tryand pass off wings as a fashion statement."

Draco only snarled.

Undeterred, Blaise continued. "And apparently, we don't care."

The blond continued trudging through the halls, unconcerned that his currentappearance held the potential to undo all the work put into hiding the secret of theMalfoy line.

Blaise sighed; he was an amazing friend. A quick wave of his wand had Dracounder a Disillusionment spell. Hopefully, no one would believe those second years

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when they said the Head boy was literally a monster.

When he got to the portrait hole, Draco tried to close it before his friend couldenter, but Blaise lunged forward and just managed to catch the edge of the frame.The two Slytherins ignored the protests of the painting and engaged in a littlestaring contest made difficult by the Disillusionment spell still covering the blond.

Eventually, Draco moved away from the door and into the common room, allowingBlaise to enter. Safely concealed from prying eyes, Blaise cancelled the spell hidinghis friend.

"It's a wasted effort; I'm sure someone saw me when I raced outside to findGranger," Draco muttered.

Blaise ignored Draco and his usual pessimism. He moved to the place he knew hisfriend hid the alcohol and pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey and some glasses.

Draco accepted the glass offered to him, drank the liquid in one gulp and held outthe glass for more. "Another."

"Don't you think you should take it easy, mate?"

"No. The first was for me, the second's for my Veela. He won't shut up - bastard."

"Alcohol isn't going to make the Veela voice in your head stop influencing you,"Blaise tried to reason.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "You know from experience that drinking can't stop thevoices?"

Reluctantly, Blaise ceded to the blond's request and handed over another glass,and then another when the second one didn't prove to be sufficient. By the time thethird glass was finished, Draco was sitting on the sofa holding his head. "It's notworking. If anything, he's only getting more insistent. Granger keeps trying to talkto me and the Veela doesn't like it that I'm blocking her out."

"Have you considered finding out what it is that Granger's trying so hard to tellyou?" At Draco's dark look, Blaise winced. "Of course you haven't, what was Ithinking?"

He handed the Veela another glass and took a small sip of his own. "Explain to mewhat exactly it is that's bothering you so much?"

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"My imminent death, that's what's bothering me," Draco snarled.

Blaise sat down as well, completely un-intimidated; Draco had been snarling athim since they were three years old, the sudden appearance of fangs and wingswasn't going to make him suddenly fear his friend. "I don't think that's it," he saidflatly.

"Blaise, Mother insisted I learned a few languages growing up, but none of themwere moron. You're going to have to translate."

The Italian rolled his eyes; of course Draco had to make an insult out of 'I don'tunderstand'. "I've seen you when faced with your imminent death, and you're notlike this. I think this is more about Granger rejecting you. Just when you werestarting to open up to her, she goes and rejects you - which you're only assuming, bythe way, because you're too afraid of actually talking to her and finding out forsure."

The Veela's obsidian eyes turned to his friend and regarded the other boy silently.Slowly, Draco reached out and took the glass out of Blaise's hand. "I think you'vehad too much to drink," he said, tipping his head back and finishing his own glass.

Shortly after they'd dropped their news on her, Narcissa and Lucius had takentheir leave. Hermione guessed they were going to sit down and come to terms withthe idea that a Weasley could be helpful.

Still bedridden, bored, and unable to get through to the stubborn mule of a Veelato whom she was eternally bound, Hermione was staring moodily at the wall whenMadam Pomfrey stuck her head around the door. "Your friends are here to see you,and they're rather insistent that I let them in this instant. Are you feeling up to morecompany?" she asked.

Hermione nodded, knowing her friends were probably beside themselves withworry after the fall she'd taken. She regretted the motion when her head started topound. Falling off of towers hurt and it seemed that even Veela venom couldn't healher completely. Why did Malfoy have to come from such a twisted family? She neverwould have fallen if that curse hadn't been trying to kill the both of them.

"How're you feeling?" Ginny asked, keeping her voice subdued in deference ofHermione's recent injuries. Harry followed her into the room, concern lighting uphis green eyes.

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"I'm going to be fine. You can stop looking at me like you're worried I'm going todisappear," Hermione told them, trying for a carefree laugh but falling short.

Ginny ran over to the bed and carefully hugged Hermione. "For a while there, wethought we were going to lose you," she said, sniffling.

Harry took his turn hugging her as soon as Ginny released her hold. "Theywouldn't tell us what they needed Malfoy to do, but he didn't look happy when hestormed out of here."

Someone coughed, drawing their attention to the door where Ron was shuffling,unsure if he was welcome in the room.

"Ron, I lost my balance and fell, it had nothing to do with you," Hermione said.She knew he was probably blaming himself for the whole thing. Come to think of it, Malfoy was probably blaming him for the whole thing as well. "Though you mightwant to avoid Malfoy until I can talk to him," she amended.

The redhead eased his way into the room, but stayed back towards the wallinstead of approaching her bed to hug her. "I'm sorry I said those mean things,Hermione. I let my temper get the better of me."

Hermione pursed her lips, not quite ready to forgive him. Her recent near-deathexperience had made her feel more inclined to feeling understanding towards herfriend, but his words had cut her deeply and she wasn't going to just let him offbecause he'd stuttered out an apology.

"You're not to blame for my fall, but you're also not off the hook for saying suchhurtful things," she said, motioning him over to give her a hug.

Hesitantly, Ron sidled up to the bed and gave her an awkward one-armedsqueeze. "Merlin, that's one hell of a hickey!" he said as he pulled away, noticing themark on her neck.

"I don't think that's a love bite, I think it's a Veela bite," Ginny said with wide eyes.They all looked to Hermione for an explanation.

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Chapter 14

Chapter 14

A/N: Hello readers! It's 5:30 am here and I'm somehow awake... Which isstrange because I didn't get to sleep until almost three.

If you're going to tell me something is 'stupid' tell me why, or at leastleave a signed review so I can ask. I welcomeconstructivecriticism, butsomeone obviously needs to look up the definition of that word. The rest ofyou reviewers are just amazing of course, and I completely adore readingwhat you have to say. *tries to hug reviewers but only ends up awkwardlyhugging computer*

As always, thanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for their lovely beta work.They spend their spare time making this story better, and if it had workedbefore with the reviewers, I'd have given them hugs as well.

*nosewrinkle* Apparently sleep-deprivation makes me a hugging fiend,which is strange for me. I'm going to just post this and try to get some moresleep, I think.

~Frosty

"It is a Veela bite," the brunette mumbled. She hadn't really had time to processthe change in her relationship with Malfoy herself, much less managed to think ofwhat she was going to tell her friends.

"I'm missing something," Harry said, looking at the mark on his friend's neck andwincing. Compared to what it must have felt like for her to fall off the tower, thepain was probably nothing, but that bite looked like it had hurt - hell, it looked like itstill hurt.

"I've been reading up on Veelas; they have fangs to bite their mate and bind themto themselves forever. If Malfoy bit Hermione, it means their bonding is official, shecan't back out," Ginny said. "They're stuck with each other until they die."

Harry and Ron looked to their bedridden friend, horrified.

"It's true. Veela venom actually has the ability to heal their mate, but to everyone

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else it's highly toxic. The only reason I'm alive is because Malfoy bit me," Hermionetold them. If they were grateful to Malfoy for her survival, then they were morelikely to forgive him for the next insulting thing he said about them - and Hermionewasn't optimistic enough to think there wasn't going to be a next time.

"There's something else that his parents told me while they were visiting," sheheld up a hand to stop the outrage both Harry and Ron were practically bursting toexpress. "They think that it's unusual that both Malfoy and I got into seriousaccidents so close together. Lucius had a curse cast on him that he believes Malfoymay have inherited."

Hermione gave them a minute to digest the news while she played with the edgeof her sheets, trying to think of a way to ask her next question. She decided that thedirect approach was best. "I need to make an appointment for Malfoy and me withBill. Do you think he'd take a look at us and see what he can do?"

Ron looked disturbed that she wanted to bring Malfoy anywhere near his family,but Ginny looked to be considering the idea. "I'll send him a letter today and ask,"she told her friend, patting the other girl on the arm. "I don't think my poor heartcan take another night of wondering if you're going to survive."

"Thank you, Ginny," the brunette said with a genuine smile.

Tentatively, Hermione started to pull herself into a sitting position. Despite beingalmost completely free of injuries, her body still ached like she'd fallen out of atower. Her friends all hovered anxiously and voiced half-formed protests, but noneof them actually tried to stop her, knowing it was a pointless endeavour to stopHermione Granger once her stubborn mind was set on something.

"Help me out of the bed?" she asked once it became obvious that she wasn't goingto be able to complete the task under her own power.

They weren't happy about it, but both Harry and Ginny each took one of her armsover their shoulders and levered her gently out of the bed. They helped her acrossthe room while Ron held the door open.

"What's going on here?" Madam Pomfrey demanded the moment they'd steppedinto the main part of the Hospital Wing. "Why are you out of bed Miss Granger?"

"I have to talk to Malfoy and he's ignoring me," Hermione explained truthfully. "Ican rest just as well in my own bed as this one - probably better. Rest is all I need,isn't it?"

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The Mediwitch pursed her lips, but she couldn't argue. Turning her back on thestudents for a moment, she pulled out a vial of a numbing potion. "Take this for theresidual pain, the dosage is on the bottle," she said, making her disapproval obvious.

Gratefully, Hermione accepted the vial and limped out of the room with theassistance of her friends. She realized that she must have been talking with theMalfoys and staring at the wall longer than she thought, because it was darkoutside. Apparently, Time flies when you're having awkward conversations with theparents of your significant other.

They travelled through the halls and arrived at the Head Dorms without incident.Hermione spoke the password to let them through the portrait hole. Once again,Ron held it open while the other two helped Hermione inside.

"What's that sound?" Ginny asked, looking around the room for the source of thestrange noise.

Hermione tilted her head and listened, then frowned. "Purring, and I'm doubtingit's because he's happy." She looked around the room, but Malfoy's silvery head wasnot visible. Where was he?

Ginny and Harry shared a confused look with each other and then Ron, but theyall nodded as if they understood when Hermione glanced their way.

"Malfoy?" she called, looking around for him. Her three friends joined her insearching the room, but they couldn't find the source of the purring.

Hermione let them look, leaning heavily on the kitchen table to support herself.When she nearly tripped over a shoe, she glanced down. Ah, it was still attached to aleg. What was he doing under the table?

"Malfoy?" she said again, painfully kneeling down so she could see his face.

The Slytherin was flat on his back, staring vacantly at the wooden underside of thetable.

"You have too many feelingsh," he slurred. "It's resh-ridiculous. I'm bonded to you,but it doesn't' mean I understand what's going through that bushy head of yours."He reached slightly to her left and made a petting motion.

"Malfoy, are you drunk?"

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He nodded sagely. "I tried to get to my room to sleep, but I fell down. Then Ideshided that here worksss too."

"I found him!" Hermione called to her friends. They gathered at the edge of thetable and leant down to see the pair under it.

"Is he drunk?" Ginny asked.

"Help me get him to his room," the brunette said as she stiffly crawled out fromunder the table.

Harry and Ron looked disgusted, but they reluctantly grabbed one of his armseach and dragged him out to where they could get a grip under his arms and helphim to his feet.

"Unhand me you pheasants!" Malfoy ordered, trying to struggle but onlysucceeding in making Harry step on his foot.

"I think he means peasants," Ginny mumbled as she followed the boys up thestairs supporting Hermione. They split up at the landing, the boys going intoMalfoy's room and the girls into Hermione's.

"Are you sure you're going to be fine here alone? Malfoy's not exactly in anycondition to take care of you if you need something."

Hermione waved off her concern. "I hardly think I'm going to need any help sleeping. I'll be fine."

It took some convincing, but eventually, Ginny left her there. Harry and Ron stucktheir heads around her door to wish her good night before they left, muttering aboutthe decadence of Malfoy's bedroom and how someone so evil didn't deserve to bespoilt like that.

Happy to be back in her own bed, Hermione fell asleep almost instantly.

It couldn't have been more than a few short hours later that she woke up again;something was off. Hermione blinked her bleary eyes open to see a figure standingin the doorway. "Malfoy?" she asked.

He staggered into her room and crawled into her bed. "Don' feel good," hemumbled, snuggling against her back and pressing his nose in her hair. "AndGranger doesn't want me; she was disgusted that I bit her."

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Hermione was pleased to feel that most of the aches she'd been experiencing hadreceded. She was less pleased to have a drunken Veela in her bed.

"First off: if you throw up in here, I'm going to strangle you. Second: I neverrejected you; it wasn't disgust I was feeling, it was horror that you'd been forced tobite me. I knew it would have been an unpleasant experience for you."

She thought about telling him about the curse as well, but he was so out of it thatshe'd just have to do it again in the morning. He just didn't have the processingpower at the moment to deal with any more bad news.

Her only answer was the happy humming sound he made before he startedpurring.

"You better not throw up," she mumbled, relaxing against him. She knew it wouldbe pointless to attempt to get him out of her bed, so she decided to yell at him for itin the morning.

A groaning sound coming from right beside her woke her up. She rolled over andpropped her head up on her elbow to watch Malfoy pressing a palm to his forehead.

"That's what you get for drinking so much," Hermione said primly.

"You're all right?" he asked as he buried his head underneath one of the manypillows she liked to have scattered across her bed.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "You're rolling around on the bed groaning becauseof a hangover and you want to know if I'm all right?"

He shrugged. "It's my Veela, he's a selfless bastard." His voice was muffled by thepillow, but she heard him all the same.

Hermione wasn't so sure it was just the Veela part of him anymore, but she wasn'tgoing to have that argument when she'd just woken up.

"Speaking of my Veela," Malfoy said, shifting the pillow slightly so he could peekout at her from under the edge. "I'm not worried about you rejecting me anymore,but I can't seem to remember why."

She understood the question he was implying with his statement. "You're an idiot.

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I was never going to reject you; you just jumped to conclusions."

The pillow lurched slightly as he nodded, not feeling up to having a longconversation about how it was that he had misinterpreted her emotions.

Hermione frowned at him; if she was only feeling a fraction of what he was, thenshe couldn't imagine how horrible he felt. Alcohol was evil and he was an idiot forabusing it so thoroughly.

"I'm guessing you're not going to be attending your morning classes?" she asked.

The amused snort confirmed her suspicions.

Since she still felt exhausted even after a full night's sleep, Hermione figured noone would mind if she missed some classes as well. It wasn't like she'd fall behindunless they somehow managed to cover three weeks worth of work in one day. Herfriends would be shocked if they knew how un-Hermione her thoughts were at themoment, but sometimes she just needed to take a break.

She got out of bed and padded to the kitchenette attached to the common room. Ifshe was going to have a conversation with him, then she needed to get some coffeeinto Malfoy. And probably a Pepper Up potion - preferably in the coffee.

With a cup of tea for herself and Malfoy's altered coffee, she went back into herroom.

The blond was sound asleep in her bed, his face still under the pillow. It was awonder he didn't suffocate sleeping like that.

Hermione set her the beverages down on the nightstand and pulled the pillow offof his face.

"Malfoy, you need to wake up, we have to talk," she said firmly.

"It can't wait until the hippogriffs currently stampeding on my head have givenup?"

Grabbing the coffee and putting it in his hand, Hermione settled on the bed besidehim. "No, it's important. Your parents came to visit me in the Hospital Wing afteryou had stormed off. They told me something disturbing."

He held up a hand to stop her from explaining further. Bringing the steaming cup- 131 -

to his lips, he sucked back half the glass in one big gulp. His face contorted into agrimace of pain as the hot liquid scalded his mouth and tongue. "Okay, continue," hesaid, blinking away the tears that had formed from the pain.

"Apparently, your family is cursed; your parents think our accidents wereencouraged by this curse and they're only going to escalate if we get closer."Hermione retold the story as she'd heard it, including the origins of the curse.

She waited for a reaction, but was disappointed when Malfoy didn't say anything."You look like you've swallowed a lemon," she observed when the silence becametoo much.

"My father's a bigger hypocrite than I thought. First we're not technically 'pure'and now I find he had no problem fraternising with Muggles when he was young."

Hermione felt like someone had punched her in the stomach as she came to arealization: if she ever wanted to have children, Malfoy would be their father. Shedidn't put any stock in blood purity, but like it or not, the wizading world would. Thefirst half-blood Malfoys ever would be her children. Unbidden, her arms came upand wrapped around her waist, as if she could protect those hypothetical futurechildren with the gesture.

A clink signified Malfoy setting down his coffee cut. He gently pulled her armsdown to her side and pressed a kiss to her stomach before resting his head thereand looking up at her face. "Don't ever worry about what people will think. They'llbe Malfoys, and capable of dealing with anything. And should something come alongthat they can't handle, Veelas are listed as magical creatures and as such, can't betried for murder."

"I'm almost certain that you only count as a magical creature in the eyes of thelaw while you're under the influence of your instincts. It doesn't exclude you fromcold-blooded murder." Regardless of her disapproval of his tactics, Hermione wasstrangely comforted.

"Admit it, you're falling for my charm," Malfoy said smugly, having felt hercomfort.

Absently, Hermione flicked him in the forehead. Her mind was already working onanother issue that had been bothering her. "How is it that you're always in my head,but I rarely get a spare thought from you?" she asked, giving in to the temptationand touching his soft hair. Why was it that boys were always the ones who got theamazing hair and she just got a pouf-ball?

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"I'll tell you if you don't stop," he mumbled. His eyes had drifted shut and ablissful expression had made its way onto his face.

Surprised, Hermione looked down. While she'd been internally ranting about hair,her hand had started stroking his soft locks like she would have done toCrookshanks had he been resting on her stomach like Malfoy was.

"I don't appreciate being compared to your cat."

Hermione just kept stroking and raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for the answershe'd been promised.

"Occulmency. Between Snape and Aunt Bellatrix, I was taught to be a veryaccomplished Occulmens."

"So if you hadn't been so accomplished in Occulmency, then I'd be in your headjust as much as you're in mine?"

"Yes."

Harry had tried to teach her Occulmency second hand from Snape, but his graspof it wasn't the best and she'd become too frustrated with his lack of knowledge tocontinue the lessons. There was only so much she was able to do with the help ofbooks, so she'd done her best and prayed it was enough should she ever getcaptured.

She looked down at Malfoy, who was suddenly less relaxed and happy than he'dbeen a moment ago. It only took her a moment to realize what it was that had hisknickers in a twist. "There was nothing you could have done," she soothed, knowinghe was thinking back to the incident with his aunt. "It barely even bothers meanymore."

"Granger, I'm inside your mind, it's not like you can lie to me."

His head was lifted by her stomach as she took a deep breath. "Can you take yourwalls down so I can see inside your mind as well?"

Malfoy hesitated and Hermione could feel his trepidation at letting her seesomething so personal. If he couldn't trust her, than he obviously couldn't trustanyone.

Narrowing his silver eyes, he looked up at her. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's- 133 -

that I'm not sure you're going to like what you find in there.

Hermione squared her shoulders. "Try me."

He stared deep into her eyes for a moment, trying to judge if she really wanted todo something so personal as rifle around in his head. Finding that she was resolutein her decision, he let out a long breath, bringing down the barriers that had becomesecond nature for him to hold steady.

She was unprepared for the river of information that was suddenly battering herbrain. Memories, feelings, thoughts and ideas not her own were fighting with thethings already occupying her mind. Her eyes closed in an effort to manage it.

Through sheer force of will, she managed to fight back and organize what he wasgiving her into a semblance of order. The first thing that hit her was the affectiontowards herself that was predominant in his recent memories. He couldn't claim itwas just his Veela anymore, she's seen and felt that he was starting to care.

Her eyes snapped open and met the worried ones of Malfoy. He'd sat up and hadhis hands on her shoulders, as if he was about to shake her.

"That wasn't a pleasant experience," Hermione said, trying to calm her breathingthat she hadn't even realized was elevated. There were still fragments of thoughtsand feelings in her mind, as if some of them had broken off and caught there,tangled with her emotions and notions within her head.

"For either of us," he muttered, looking away.

"Does that mean our bond is sour?" Hermione asked fearfully.

Malfoy was briefly worried, but then he calmed and shook his head. "No, I thinkletting anyone see most of your life in a condensed form would be uncomfortable,even for a Veela and his mate."

"So we're okay?" She knew she sounded like one of those girls always asking herpartner if their relationship was healthy, but he was the one better prepared tomake an educated guess.

His fingers ran over the place he's bitten her, sending shivers down her spine.What had been a sore wound when Ron first noticed it had completely healed whileshe slept. The mark had changed to two small puncture marks that were the shinywhite of old scars.

- 134 -

"We still have time for the bond to become corrupted, but for the moment, we'reokay." He pulled her closer, as if the motion could shelter her from any forces thatmight try to tear them apart in the future. "We'll be okay," he said. Hermione wasn'tsure whether he was trying to reassure her or himself.

- 135 -

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

A/N: The second time I read through this, it was confusing me because Iforgot Draco can hear a lot of Hermione's internal dialogue... So I thoughtI'd remind you guys in case you've forgotten.

As always, thanks to Claire96 and Bluba-chan for betaing! Also thanks toeveryone who reviewed! I actually had to double check when my statschecker thingy said I'd exceeded 500 reviews, I was shocked.

*tear* The last Harry Potter movie is over. I was practically bouncing inmy seat when it started, but then I spent quite a bit of it hiding my face.Now it's over and I'm sad... There'll always be fanfiction though! So here'sanother chapter.

~Frosty

Hermione wasn't someone who missed class unless something was seriouslywrong, so it wasn't a surprise when Harry and Ginny showed up at the Head'scommon room during lunch to make sure she was all right.

When Hermione opened the portrait hole still in her pyjamas Ginny crossed herarms and gave her friend a knowing look. "Long night?" The redhead's tone wasladen with hidden implications.

Malfoy's snicker from the sofa told her that he could feel her mortification at theassumption. Fighting down a blush, Hermione let them in. "Get your minds out ofthe gutter," she grumbled, including herself in that statement.

"Did you get a chance to send that letter to Bill?" Hermione asked as a way tochange the subject. She followed her friends as they took seats in front of the fire.Surprisingly, they didn't seem to mind that Malfoy was already in the room. Savingher life seemed to have made him slightly more tolerable to them. She wasn't sure ifthis newfound tolerance would last once he opened his irritating mouth.

"Who's this Bill?" Malfoy demanded before Ginny could answer. A frustrated lookfrom his mate didn't dull his need to know who the mystery man was. He didn't likeGranger asking about other men and not even telling him. What if this 'Bill' turned

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out to be competition for Granger's affections? His eyes narrowed at the thought.

"He's Ginny's brother and a curse breaker. We're going to ask him to see if he cando anything about our curse," Hermione said. Her exasperation was clear in hervoice. She could feel that he was unreasonably jealous just because she'd mentionedan unknown male's name. They were going to have to work on that.

The Slytherin didn't look pleased that they were asking a Weasley for help, but hecaught Hermione's warning look and didn't say something rude about them in frontof Ginny. The brunette smiled a secret smile; at least she knew he could learn to becivil.

Harry, who had been silent until that moment, spoke up. "You're feeling better,Hermione?"

"Do you really think I'd let her get the door if she wasn't feeling better?" Malfoysnapped. He was irritated at the implication that he couldn't take care of herproperly. It was doubly upsetting because of the severe injury she'd recentlysuffered while he'd been unable to prevent it.

Hermione glanced over at the blond sharply. She knew whatever was botheringthe Veela wasn't Harry's words, but she wasn't going to confront him with herfriends there watching. It was best to forget about it until later.

Her eyes moved to the clock on the mantle of the fireplace. Their lunch breakwould be over soon and she needed to be ready if she was going to attend herclasses for the rest of the day.

"I think I'm going to go to classes this afternoon. Could you two wait here for aminute while I get my uniform on?"

They looked a little uncomfortable being left alone with the blond, but her friendsdidn't complain as she walked up the stairs and disappeared into her room.

"Keep an eye on her today, she's still a little weak," Malfoy warned the moment hismate was out of earshot. He knew she had her mind set on going to classes andthere was nothing he could do to stop her, but he couldn't just let her go without someone watching over her.

The two Gryffindors looked at him with surprise, but they nodded.

"Of course," Harry said.- 137 -

Abruptly, Malfoy snapped shut the book he'd been reading and darted over to thekitchenette to rifle through cupboards. He came back with a bottle in his hand.

"The pain potion that Madam Pomfrey gave her," the blond explained. He held itout to Harry, who hesitantly accepted it. "Make her take it if she starts hurting, evenif she tries to say no." A thump upstairs made Malfoy glance over his shoulder tomake sure she wasn't coming. "And if she starts looking pale and tired, send herback here, even if it's in the middle of a lesson and she refuses."

By the time Hermione came down the stairs, fully dressed and with her book bagslung over her shoulder, Malfoy was back reading his book as if he'd never movedand the Gryffindor couple were trying to smother their surprised expressions. Whoknew Malfoy could be so nurturing and protective? They could only assume it wasthe Veela part of him making him act like that; he certainly hadn't shown this side ofhim in all the years he'd been tormenting Hermione.

"Ready?" the brunette asked.

Her friends shook off their surprise and followed the Head Girl out of the portraithole. Hermione darted Malfoy a suspicious look over her shoulder just as she wasabout to disappear from view, but he only raised an eyebrow at her. She shook herhead and went off to her classes.

Hermione glanced around, twining her fingers in the strap of her book bag indiscomfort. Everyone was whispering and shooting her covert looks out of thecorners of their eyes. Some people even seemed a little wary of her. What in theworld was going on?

I suspect that's my fault. I ran through the school looking like a Veela. It seemsour secret is out, Malfoy's voice sounded in her head. She jumped a little at thesound of it, not entirely used to the strange new form of communication.

"Sorry, I forgot to warn you," Ginny whispered. "A few people saw Malfoy runoutside to you the other day with fangs and wings and scary eyes. You know hownews travels around here."

Hermione frowned and tried to direct her thoughts back to Malfoy. She wascareful; she didn't want him to get a bunch of thoughts he didn't need to heartangled in with the one meant for him. Is this why you're not going to classes today?

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Somehow, he managed a mental snort. No. I'm a Malfoy, we don't hide fromanyone.

"Are you going to be all right?" Harry asked, glaring at the nearest group ofwhispering students until they stopped.

"Of course. There have been worse things circling about me; at least this one'strue." She could feel Malfoy's approval at her words. The Veela needed somethingbetter to do than hang around in her head and eavesdrop all day. He should havegone to his classes.

"That's the spirit," Harry said with a smile, slinging an arm around both Hermioneand Ginny's shoulders.

Immediately, Malfoy started growling in her head. She had no idea how hemanaged to make his thoughts into a growl. Had he not been acting territorial overher like a dog with a chew toy, she may have been impressed.

Hermione rolled her eyes and gently extracted herself from her friend's hold."Malfoy feels threatened when other males get too close," she said by way ofapology.

Harry looked like he wanted to argue, but, not wanting to get into an argument inthe middle of a crowded corridor, he kept his mouth shut; everyone seemed to bewatching Hermione like vultures, just waiting for something interesting orscandalous to happen so they could report it to anyone who would stand still longenough.

Really? I'm not going to be able to escape your unreasonably jealous streak evenwhen you're on the other side of the castle? she asked the blond in exasperation.

Her only answer was silence, but she could sense that he was smug. Bastard. Shewas definitely not taking his feeling into consideration next time she came intocontact with another male.

Harry held his piece until the end of the day. He caught up to Hermione as shemade her way back to the Head dorms.

"What was that before when you said I can't touch you because it'll upset Malfoy?Since when do you let him tell you what to do?" he demanded. Just to test if shewould shy from his touch, he reached out and grabbed her elbow to turn her to facehim as they walked.

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"He'll calm down once our bond is stronger, but right now he's a little edgy," shedefended.

"How do you even know it's upsetting him?"

Hermione looked away. Malfoy had withdrawn from her mind when lessons hadbegun, leaving her to her schoolwork - probably because nothing worth listening inon was going to happen while she was in class. He was taking a nap if she wasinterpreting the drowsy feeling she was getting from him correctly. It was strangehow fast she was adjusting to so little privacy within her own mind. The quickacceptance was almost like magic.

"Hermione?"

"He's in my head - not all the time, but he was when we were walking to class."She realized Harry was no longer walking beside her and looked back. He hadfrozen mid-step, gaping like a fish.

"Malfoy... can read your mind?" he managed to stutter out around the shockweighing down his tongue.

Hermione nodded and continued walking, knowing Harry would follow. "It wouldgo both ways if he wasn't such an accomplished Occulmens. I only get feelings andthe occasional thought from him."

She was so busy watching Harry for a reaction to be paying much attention towhere she was going. Her toe caught on a suit of armour and she fell to the groundwith a thud. Immediately, she was overwhelmed with pain. The fall had managed toruin all that relaxing and healing she'd done that morning and instead brought backthe pain.

She lay on the floor, waiting for her breathing to calm and the bone-deep ache toreduce enough for her to form a coherent sentence.

Something cool pressed against her lips and tilted a foul-tasting liquid into hermouth. Almost instinctively, she swallowed it, sighing in relief when the painrelieving potion took effect. The floor was nice and cool compared to the burningpain she'd just experienced, so she lay her head back down and pressed it to thestones. She just needed to relax for a few moments.

Alright Granger? Malfoy asked in her head. His thoughts were sluggish with sleep,confirming her guess that he'd been taking a nap. She sent him back a reassuring

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feeling and rolled herself into a sitting position.

"How did you know to bring my pain potion?" she asked Harry. She suspected shealready knew the answer, but wanted confirmation.

"Malfoy made me take it while you were getting dressed."

Of course he had; he took any opportunity to be meddlesome. She wasexceedingly glad he'd put in the extra effort though. Otherwise, she would havebeen left writhing in pain on the floor until someone had come to help - it probablywould have been Malfoy.

Harry extended a hand to help her up, which she accepted gratefully. Without theadded assistance, she may not have been able to get up from the floor. Her littleepisode had left her feeling drained and a little shaky.

"Are you going to be alright to walk?" Harry asked, watching her as she stumbledand limped a few steps. Her pain may have been virtually eliminated by the potion,but she was still stiff all over and got achy if she extended herself too far. Carefully,she took a few steps on her own and frowned.

"I hate feeling like an invalid," she muttered, allowing Harry to pull one of herarms over his shoulder and support some of her weight. He had to bend down a littleto make up for their height difference.

"Malfoy's not saying anything snarky?" he asked.

She didn't answer. Instead, her head whipped around to a corridor off to the left,where there was a figure approaching - a very blond figure. He wasn't running oranything, but walking quickly. His pace didn't slow when he caught up to them, hescooped his mate up glaring at the other boy the entire time.

"Someone might see," Hermione whispered to Malfoy. She could tell he wasn'tmad or threatened at Harry for touching her, but something was bothering him. Hiseyes were still their usual mercury, so she knew the Veela wasn't in control.

His hold tightened minutely. "What's bothering me is you risking your healthbecause you don't want to miss a few measly hours of class," he snapped. He didn'teven glance at her to scold her, his eyes were firmly looking ahead and watchingwhere he was going. It hurt a little that he was so pointedly avoiding eye contact.

Any answer she may have constructed was interrupted when his blond head- 141 -

whipped around to face Harry as they moved away from him. "Take your hand offyour wand Potter; I'm not going to hurt her." Harry still looked hesitant and didn'tremove his hand, so the Veela continued, "It makes no sense that I would be soupset over her tendency to endanger her health that I would hurt her."

Hermione couldn't see around Malfoy's broad shoulders to be able to tell whatHarry had done, but apparently Malfoy was satisfied with it because he relaxedmarginally.

"Are you all right, Hermione?" Harry asked cautiously.

"I'm fine Harry, he won't hurt me," she said, frustrated that Malfoy would let heractually see her friend to answer.

She heard Harry's footsteps as he retreated down the hall in the oppositedirection.

"You can put me down now. I'm perfectly capable of -"

"Liar," Malfoy interrupted.

She grumbled in irritation, but sensed he may be right so she allowed him tocontinue. They were almost at the Head's dorm anyway. How he managed to get herinside the portrait hole without even jostling her was a mystery to her, but she wasglad he managed it.

"Go to sleep," he ordered as he set her on her bed.

Briefly, she considered arguing just for argument's sake, but he gave her a lookthat told her he knew what she was thinking and wouldn't stand for it. She was sotired anyway... Her eyes drifted shut and she was asleep before he had even left theroom.

The first thing she noticed was that her feet were cold. Immediately after that, sheheard quiet breathingand the thumping sound of an increasingly familiar heartbeat.Cracking an eye open, she saw that someone was carrying her.

"Malfoy, where are we going?" she asked, looking up to the face of the Veela.

"Outside."

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She shifted a little, making herself more comfortable in his arms. "Why?"

His silver eyes darted down to look at her sharply. "What do you mean why? Youcrawled into my bed crying and wouldn't stop until I'd agreed to take you outside."

Surprised, Hermione brought a hand up to her face and found that her cheekswere wet. Something strange was going on.

His steps abruptly stopped. "You really don't remember doing that?"

Hermione went over the last thing she could remember, which was snugglingdown under her covers and going to sleep. She could feel Malfoy going over thememory with her.

A flash of a gruesome scene appeared in her mind. It was a fragment of thenightmare she'd had while she slept, appearing in that foggy way dreams had duringwaking hours.

Malfoy must have seen it along with her because he suddenly went completelystill.

"What is it?" Hermione whispered, not sure she wanted the answer. Somethingabout what he'd seen in her head was making him very agitated; his body waspractically rigid against her.

"How long have you been having these bad dreams?" His voice was tightlycontrolled, which was a waste of effort because she could feel that he was agitated.

She thought back, trying to remember when the first one had happened. It hadbeen while she was living in the Head dorms, so not that long ago...

"I think they started not long after I moved into the Head dorms. Why are you soworried about them?"

He didn't answer, instead turning and hurrying through the corridors towardstheir dorm.

"I can walk you know," Hermione grumbled. If he was going to treat her like achild and ignore her questions, then the least he could do was let her walk on herown.

"I'm not treating you like a child, I'll answer any questions you ask when I actually- 143 -

have answers instead of only suspicions."

Now he was answering her thoughts instead of her words. She frowned and triedto wiggle out of his arms. If he was in her thoughts, then he knew that she hatedfeeling like he was the one with all the answers and she was only a pawn along forthe ride. It wasn't nice of him to make her feel useless when just walking beside himinstead of being carried could solve some of the problem.

"It makes me feel better to know you're safe against me. Allow me that?" heasked. There was a hint of pleading in the question that caught her attention.

Her struggling stopped, but her glare didn't. "I don't like being left in the dark."

For the second time in two days, he was carrying her back to the Head dorms. Itwas starting to become a routine thing for them and needed to stop.

"I don't see why it has to; I enjoy holding you."

Hermione scowled fiercely, but he just smirked fondly down at her.

They entered the Head dorms and he laid her down on the sofa. Immediately, shepulled herself in a sitting position and looked at him expectantly until he joined her.He had answers and she was going to get them out of him.

"Tell me what it is you think is causing my dreams."

He sighed. "I think it's this curse that's trying to kill us. If my suspicions arecorrect, it's getting creative with the ways it tries."

A shudder of horror went through her at his words. That curse brought a wholenew meaning to the term cruel and unusual punishment. Her parents had alwaysgrounded her on those rare occasions when she misbehaved, not left her to a painfuldeath should she disobey their order.

"My family has always been a controlling lot. They're big on the obedience,"Malfoy said.

She inched closer until their shoulders were touching. Grabbing his arm, shepulled it around her shoulders and snuggled against his side, trying to dispel thecold feeling of dread in her chest. Malfoy's presence didn't make everything feelbetter like it should have; their situation had become too complicated for acomforting presence to make everything seem okay.

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"I'm sure Bill will have the answer and we'll be able to break this curse," she saidwith false confidence.

Malfoy's doubt was wrapped around him like a blanket, but he noddednonetheless and tightened his hold on her.

- 145 -

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

A/N: Hello readers, it's been a while! Sorry about the wait... It's just thatI'm quite busy right now as are both the beta readers for this story, so theupdates might take a tad longer than before. Also, I've been havingcomputer trouble again! Gah. I swear it hates me. If it could move, it wouldprobably strangle me in my sleep.

Anyway! Thanks to all the lovely people who took the time to review andthanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing! I've been informed air kissesare better than hugs (and make me look slightly less crazy when directedtowards my computer) so, *airkisses*

~Frosty

"Do your friends never leave you the bloody hell alone?" Malfoy grumbled the nextmorning when a banging on the portrait pulled them from slumber. They had fallenasleep curled up on the sofa in the common room after their little excursion in themiddle of the night.

He glared towards the portrait; maybe the moron on the other side would feel howunwelcome they were and make the wise choice to leave. Immediately.

"How do you know it's my friends and not yours?" she asked, her voice still roughfrom sleep.

"Mine know I won't open the door before noon, and if I do, they'll wish I hadn't."

With a tired grumble, she extracted herself from his hold and was ready to go tothe door when he stopped her with an arm around her waist.

"You sit on the sofa and rest until you're completely healed," he ordered sternly.Hermione relaxed back against the still-warm cushions and listened to his footstepsas he crossed the room and opened the portrait.

"What do you want, Weaselette?" he snarled.

At his voice, Hermione poked her head up over the back of the sofa and started to

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stand up to go see her friend. Malfoy stopped her with a growl and a warning look.

"You stay there," he ordered Hermione. His sharp eyes whipped back to thewaiting Weasley. "You come in."

"What brings you here this morning?" Hermione asked her friend as the redhead,with a bemused expression on her face, skirted around Malfoy.

"Bill got back to me this morning. He said that if it's already made a try on each ofyour lives by causing serious accidents, you have some time before it'll try again.There's something he needs to check about your curse first, and then he'll comehere and take a look at the both of you," Ginny said.

Hermione sighed with relief, glad that someone was going to look into the curse.She could tell that Malfoy felt the same. Some of the weight of responsibility hadbeen lifted off of their shoulders with the promise of someone more capable ofdelving into the matter.

"Did he give you an approximate time for when he'd be here?" The worry in hereyes may have abated slightly, but Hermione was still anxious to be free of thecurse.

"A few days," Ginny answered with an apologetic look.

"Granger's life is in danger and your brother can't manage to drag himself awayfrom-" Malfoy started on an angry rant.

"Malfoy!" Hermione shouted. Bill was going out of his way to help them and allMalfoy could do was complain that it was going to take him a few days to be able toget to them.

Draco glanced over his shoulder at her, looking irritated, but he stopped thetirade against Bill he'd been about to begin. The warning that had been implicitwhen she shouted her name was even more obvious as her thoughts broke throughhis anger.

Ginny raised surprised eyebrows at Hermione. Never had she seen Malfoy just...concede like that. The Veela bond was just getting more and more impressive as shewitnessed new aspects of it. It was also a little strange to see Malfoy watching herfriend so... intently.

"I'm just going to leave," Ginny said, looking between the two of them.- 147 -

Hermione waved her goodbye from the sofa, fully aware that Malfoy probablywasn't going to let her up unless there was some sort of serious threat to herperson.

Malfoy ignored the redhead, shutting the portrait almost on her face.

"That wasn't very nice, she went out of her way to tell us that she'd heard fromher brother and you thank her by shutting the door in her face," Hermione scoldedas he crossed the room and lifted her feet to sit under them.

"You seem to agree with the saying 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don'tsay anything at all'. I was just doing what you wanted."

Hermione glared. "I don't think the saying means that you should do rude thingsto people to make up for the horrible things you don't say."

"You're going to have to choose your battles Granger."

If she was going to be forced to sit around all day while there were classes goingon, Hermione insisted that Malfoy attend those classes and bring her all of the workshe was going to miss. It had taken some encouragement - he'd been quite takenwith the idea of spending the entire day relaxing with her - but she'd managed to gethim out of the portrait hole.

Your friends keep shooting me looks like they think I've locked you in a towersomewhere, Malfoy complained in her head.

She rolled her eyes. That's essentially what you've done.

Yes, but it's for your own good.

I'm sure that's what the evil witch told Rapunzel as well.

Malfoy made what equated to a mental sigh and turned his attention back to whatthe teacher was saying. She could feel the shift in his attention and allowed hers todrift as well.

Her back was feeling stiff from too much time spent sitting on the sofa. If shewasn't going to be doing much moving that day, then she might as well be stretchedout on her bed where it was more comfortable.

- 148 -

On the third stair from the top, her foot slipped and she fell to her knees, hittingher shins and letting out a groan of pain. Immediately, Malfoy was back in her headwith wordless questions, asking if she was all right.

I just slipped and bumped my legs, pay attention to class, she ordered him. Shewasn't normally so clumsy, so she could only assume she was going to have to bemore careful if the curse was going to turn everyday events into accidents waiting tohappen.

As she was getting into her bed, she somehow managed to bump her hip on hernightstand. She quickly reassured Malfoy once again that she was fine and tried tosleep.

The Veela didn't rush away from class to make sure she was all right, but he didleave as soon as he was allowed and came straight to the Head Dorms. Not findingher on the sofa, he delved further into their living space, searching for her.

Hermione was half asleep when her door creaked open. She blinked herself awakeas Malfoy ran a gentle hand over the bruises that had formed on her shins.

Abruptly, he stood and started pacing back and forth, alternating between angerand distress. He started muttering to himself as Hermione watched, bewildered.

"We're sitting ducks! We can only wait until something else horrible happens.What if one of us dies?"

Hermione stayed quiet, only following him with her eyes while she listened to hisranting. When he stopped speaking and continued pacing, she stood from the bedand stepped into his path. She wrapped her arms around his middle, burying herface in his chest. His agitation had his heartbeat up, and he was tensed to pounce onthe next person who dared to displease him. Malfoy wasn't handling the stress wellat all.

"It'll be all right," she said soothingly as her hands made light patterns on hisback.

The Veela relaxed marginally against her, but some tension still remained.

"Nothing's all right."

Hermione pulled away from him abruptly. If she wasn't going to be able to calmhim, then she was going to have to distract him, take his mind off of what was

- 149 -

bothering the both of them.

"What's your favourite dessert?"

He was confused, but she was his mate and he wouldn't deny her something hecould so easily give. "Strawberries on shortcake with whipped cream."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise; she hadn't thought he would choose somethinginvolving fresh fruit. Malfoy had always seemed the type to like somethingcomplicated or expensive as his favourite dessert.

"Wait here, I'll go to the kitchen and get some," she said, moving towards thedoor.

"Is this an attempt to get my mind off of this damned curse?"

Hermione smiled. "Will it work?"

He thought about it. "It might. You're not going to the kitchens to get the foodthough." He snapped his fingers and a House Elf appeared.

"Bring us two servings of shortcake with strawberries and whipped cream." AtHermione's stern look, he grudgingly added a "please" to the end of his request.

They moved downstairs to wait for their treats. Almost as soon as they reachedthe sofa, the House Elf was back with the requested desserts.

Hermione smiled her thanks to the creature and sat cross-legged on the floor soshe could use the coffee table to hold her plate. She placed Malfoy's down besideher and looked over to him. The expression on his face told her that eating whileseated on the floor wasn't something he frequently attempted.

"Don't be so uptight. Just sit with me on the floor," she told him, knowing it wouldspur him into joining her to prove he wasn't 'uptight'.

Turning back to her dessert to allow him time without her looking on to work outwhether he wanted to sit, Hermione found that it looked even more delicious than ithad in her imagination. The House Elves had really outdone themselves. Theshortcake was piled high with plump, red strawberries and the cream was purewhite. Scooping bit up with her finger, she found that the whipped cream was freshand sweet.

- 150 -

Much like a cat, Draco waited until her attention was elsewhere before he joinedher on the floor, awkwardly crossing his legs under him and resting his back againstthe sofa.

"I don't appreciate the cat comparison Granger. This isn't the first time either," hegrumbled. "I feel like a-" there was a pause as he tried to figure out the perfect wordfor what sitting on the floor did to him.

"Commoner?" Hermione offered with an amused twist of her lips.

He let her feel his irritation, but didn't comment, instead turning his attention tothe dessert. It took effort, but Hermione didn't think about the similarity betweenhis actions and Crookshanks when he was angry with her.

Smiling as she took a bite of the delicious dessert, Hermione bumped him with hershoulder as encouragement to lighten up a little.

She thought of an amusing idea and picked up a strawberry with her fingers andpopped it into her mouth. "If you really want to feel common, try eating with yourfingers."

The cake was crumbly and a little sticky, but she managed to rip off a piecewithout making a mess of her hands. He watched her with a mix of horror and raptattention as she dipped the chunk of cake in the whipped cream, placed anotherstrawberry on top, and then put the entire mess of it in her mouth.

"Your turn," Hermione said, still grinning at him.

Hesitantly, Malfoy stretched out a long finger, gathered a scoop of whipped creamand brought it to his mouth. After that first little sampling, he seemed to get over hisaversion to touching his food with his fingers and starting eating with lesshesitation.

He was saying something - she could tell that much - but for the life of her, shejust couldn't focus on his words. Instead, what had her attention was the spot ofwhipped cream on his face near the corner of his mouth. Her eyes were transfixedon that spot of pure white against the paleness of his skin.

Before she knew what she was doing, she had leant in, grabbed the back of hishead and pulled him close so she could lick off the sugary treat. He stayed perfectlystill and allowed the contact, slightly startled but not entirely unsurprised. As soonas her tongue was no longer in contact with his skin, she pulled away, mortified.

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"I'm sorry," she squeaked, covering her mouth with both of her hands andblushing like a tomato. Just barely stopping herself from scuttling away and hidingfrom him, she hesitantly met his stare.

His cool grey eyes were contemplating her, not looking in the least offended. "Iwas wondering how long it would take for you to be compelled as well," he saidsmugly.

Hermione tried to get her brain working enough to remember what he was talkingabout. He wasn't upset? From the way he was speaking, she gathered that he'dalmost expected something similar to happen.

"Now that we're bonded, I'm more compelled to be with you and you're going tobecome increasingly compelled to be with me," he explained, answering the roilingquestions in her thoughts.

"You've been having urges like that since we bonded? How can you resist them?"

Hermione had always thought that she had decent willpower, but she had beenhelpless to resist licking him once the idea had popped into her head. The strange,irresistible desire to put her tongue anywhere near Malfoy's person wasn'tsomething she would have ever thought would be an issue to resist. Yet she'd beenhelpless against just that impulse. It seemed that everything had been turned upsidedown of late and nothing was as it had been. Sometimes, she didn't think beingbound to Malfoy was worse than going back to her life before him.

"You know I'll accept any contact you'll allow me because my Veela longs for you.I, on the other hand, know you won't welcome a kiss. You don't even like to let mesleep in your bed without extenuating circumstances." He looked away, hiding thesadness churning in his eyes, but the movement wasn't fast enough.

Hermione watched the tense set of his shoulders, knowing he was hiding that hewas upset. She'd been hurting him for a while and hadn't even known it. He'dhidden it well if she hadn't even been able to feel it from him through their bond.

It wasn't right for him to look so sad. He was supposed to be arrogant, orsmirking, or smug! Not all downtrodden because she'd been oblivious.

She drew in a breath, smelling their delicious dessert and Malfoy's equallyappealing scent. There was one way to cheer him up and deal with the strange drawshe was experiencing at the same time...

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"So... if I were to kiss you, I wouldn't have to worry about you pulling away indisgust?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked at her like she'd just said something ludicrous. "Of course not, you'remy ma-"

Her lips pressed against his before he could finish the sentence.

It wasn't like the last time they'd kissed, there hadn't been anything but chemistrybehind the kisses before. This time, she'd developed an affection for him thatsomehow made her breathless after that first contact.

There were still the fireworks she was beginning to expect, but they wereaccompanied by a slow-moving warmth that made her want to melt against him andnever leave.

As his hands wrapped around her and pulled her against him in an embrace shedidn't even want to resist, her mind started wondering if it was the Veela or Malfoywho was kissing her. One of them wanted her because it had to and the other hatedher because of her blood - or he had until very recently. Maybe she should rereadsome of the books and see what they said on the topic.

Malfoy pulled away from her with a sigh, but didn't let her move back to herformer seat, keeping her so close she was in his lap. "Are you really thinking about books while I kiss you?" He wasn't angry, but there was a hint of annoyance in theback of his obsidian orbs.

She had the grace to blush. "I'm having trouble with your sudden change of heartabout me. You have to understand how strange it is for me that you're not repulsedby my blood after you've made it so clear in the past how much you hated me for it.

"It's... hard to have one part of you care about another person's safety more thanyour own and still have another part of you that hates that person for some arbitraryreason. Eventually, the stronger side's going to win out, and for me, the Veela wasthe stronger side. Much stronger."

He must have sensed the slight doubt she still harboured, because he continued."I bit you to solidify our bond, remember? Do you think I managed that withoutgetting some of your blood in my mouth? I wouldn't have done that if I thought itwas dirty."

Her nod made her forehead brush against his shoulder. She hadn't realized that- 153 -

she'd been leaning towards him as he spoke. Closing the rest of the distance andresting her cheek on him, she spoke to his neck.

"Does it really bother you that I try to keep you out of my bed?" Her breathbrushed across his skin, seeming to distract him from forming an answer for amoment.

He visibly pulled himself together. "I hear every little shuffle and sigh you make asyou sleep and it makes the Veela want to go to you. When I stop us, he gets restlessand I don't sleep properly."

Did she really want to offer what she was about to offer? Hermione took a momentto confirm that she was sure; it would be cruel to give him something he wanted andthen take it away because she spoke rashly.

"I'd be willing to let you share my bed if you can keep your hands to yourself." Sheblushed and pressed her face closer to his neck in an attempt to hide the colourspreading across her cheeks. "I'm not ready for..."

He stopped her by twisting and placing a gentle kiss on her hair. "I know," hemurmured. Then he said two words he'd only uttered a handful of times in his entirelife and only meant them half of those times: "thank you."

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Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A/N: Hello readers! Sorry this is a little later than normal, but I had anexam and then an essay due for my summer course and both the betareaders for this story are busy as well. But it's here now, so all is forgiven...right?

A huge thanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing and to everyonewho reviewed!

I can never remember if I killed Snape off or not. I had to actually checkthe first chapter of this story... It seems I didn't.

In case you're wondering why this chapter is so long, there's an outtake ofsorts that's stuck on the end of the actual chapter (I didn't want to tease youguys and post it separately, then you'd be all disappointed when you saw itwasn't a real chapter). It's not significant to the plot, so feel free to skip it.

~Frosty

Draco woke up and stared at the ceiling. There was something different about theday and he'd only been awake for a moment. He felt well-rested and his Veela waspractically overflowing with satisfaction. He also found that he was quietly purring.It was strange for him to wake up so contented.

Glancing down, he smiled fondly - it wasn't something Malfoys usually did, butthere was no one there to witness his tender moment. His light mood was duealmost entirely to the petite brunette clutching his arm.

In typical Gryffindor fashion, she'd been good to her word and allowed him intoher bed for the night. At first, she had been awkward and uncomfortable, but sheeventually fell asleep. If she knew he'd helped her along with some pheromones, shehadn't commented, and Draco wasn't planning on volunteering the information.

True to his promise to keep his hands to himself, he hadn't reached out andbrought her closer no matter how much he'd wanted to. However, when she hadclutched his arm and hugged it between her breasts he hadn't pulled himself free.He also hadn't resisted the contact when she threw a leg over one of his and

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brought herself even closer to him. By morning, she had managed to mould herselfto his side, leaving no space between them.

He liked sleeping Granger, she wasn't afraid to allow herself to snuggle againsthim. There were none of the doubts that would have prevented awake Granger fromenjoying the contact.

He'd been trying to avoid thinking of it, but if he survived past his next birthday,almost every morning for the rest of his life would be spent this way. It wasn't ashorrible of a thought as he would have expected. In fact, the idea was almostappealing.

He debated waking her up, but they still had time before classes, and he knew assoon as she was conscious, she'd kick him out of her room so she could get ready.He liked being in her room. It wasn't just that it smelled of Granger and made himfeel at home, it was the spirit of the room itself. There was something feminine andkind in the very spirit of the place that called to him. Maybe he was projecting hisimpressions of Granger onto the space that was hers, or maybe a person can havean effect on the space they live in. If traumatic experiences could create a ghost orforever ruin a place, he didn't see why the reverse couldn't also be true.

His eyes were drawn to her when she started making small noises of distress andwiggling against him. That was slightly distracting.

Not wanting to wake her up, but unable to allow her distress to continue, hesmoothed a hand down her hair making shushing sounds. He wasn't the comfortingtype, but he didn't want her to be upset, even in her sleep.

His gentle touch didn't work, her distress elevated until she was thrashing aroundin the restraining circle of his arms. Draco was starting to get worried that she wasgoing to hurt herself thrashing around.

With a huge gasp, she freed herself from his grasp and jumped from the bed andacross the room before she was even completely awake. She hung her head and hidher face in her hands as her shoulders shook.

Slowly, so as not to startle her, Draco rose from the bed and walked over to her.With a gentle finger under her chin, he lifted her head so he could see her eyes.When he caught sight of her face, he froze in horror.

Hermione felt his overwhelming worry and was confused. She'd only really knownhim for a little while, but he wasn't the type to get so distraught over nothing. Tears

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warranted a little concern, but not what he was feeling. Not even a Veela shouldhave so much worry over a little bad dream.

She sniffled, trying to get a hold of herself so she could ask him what was wrong.At the moment she was too distraught to form coherent sentences.

Before she could pull herself together, he was wiping off her tears with a shakinghand. Searching through her mind, she couldn't think of anything that had evermade Malfoy distraught enough to actually shake - and he had lived with Voldemortfor a while. She started panicking.

"Your tears," he whispered, showing her the black liquid staining his pale fingers.

With wordless horror that matched his, she brought her own hand to her face andthen examined it. Black. Her fingers were covered that same black liquid. They feltlike normal tears, but they were completely opaque and solid black.

"What's happening to me?" Her voice was trembling just as much as his fingershad.

So fast that her eyes could barely follow the movement, he wrapped his armsaround her shaking frame and pulled her to the bed into his lap. "I don't know, butwe're going to find out and stop it," he said. The effect of his words was somewhatruined by the slight wobble in his voice. Her strange tears had rattled him to thecore. Veelas were fiercely protective of their mates, but how could he protect herfrom her own tears?

"Do you think this is an effect of the curse?" Hermione asked, a little calmer. Hewas just as disturbed as she was, but for some reason, being in his arms made herfeel better. Even if the position didn't actually make anything better, it made her feellike everything would be better eventually.

"I think we should contact that Weasley and tell him to hurry his arse up," was hisanswer. "Better yet, we're going to hunt down a different Curse Breaker; someonewho can help us now."

The brunette took a deep breath and scrubbed at her eyes, afraid more black tearswould fall. She shifted out of Malfoy's lap and stood up. "I've missed enough schoolbecause of this curse, I'm not letting it keep me from classes today. If we're leavingthe school, it will be after the last class has finished or you can go alone," she saidprimly. The door was shutting behind her before he could voice an objection.

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Merlin she bounced back fast. Draco was starting to understand what it was thedifferentiated a Gryffindor from a Slytherin: a complete disregard for personalsafety mixed with a heaping dose of insanity.

Draco walked into the Potion's classroom feeling gloomy. The knowing looksBlaise kept sending him implied the other Slytherin thought he was sulking - hewasn't! He just thought it wasn't a good idea for Granger to be in a room with abunch of idiots and an array of combustible ingredients when they had a curse doingeverything in its power to destroy them. They might as well just bring the Dark Lordback, hand over their wands and tell him to take his best shot.

Maybe Snape would give them something nice and harmless to make and for onceFinnegan would manage to get through an entire class without making somethingexplode. Draco scowled; and maybe Hagrid would magically sprout a duck bill anddeclare himself a new species of platypus.

"Today you're making the Draught of Liquid Fire," Snape announced, makingDraco cringe. That didn't sound like something harmless.

Not noticing Draco's inner turmoil, Snape continued. "If any of you actually readthe chapters for today's class, you would know what this potion does. Hand downMiss Granger, I didn't ask a question," he added without even glancing at her raisedhand. "This potion is highly explosive. You put it in magically sealed glass vials,shake it, and throw it into the air. The effect is similar to that of Muggle fireworksfor those of you who have seen them."

The Potions professor didn't look particularly happy to be making the Mugglereference, but the school had been making a conscious effort to include moreMuggle culture in the classes that didn't deal directly with the subject in an effort toincrease tolerance. Snape obviously wasn't a supporter of the school's efforts. Thiswasn't really a surprise to anyone, Snape wasn't really a strong supporter ofanything.

The class lapsed into silence as the page numbers they needed appeared on theboard. "What are you waiting for?" Snape snapped.

Draco watched as Granger wove through the students all rushing to sit with theirpartners. She plopped down beside him without comment and immediately startedorganising her ingredients.

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"I don't think it's a good idea for us to be here," he whispered.

Hermione glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. The Veela was looking atthe relatively harmless ingredients she was lining up in front of her as if they weresomething volatile just waiting to explode. She could feel his worry, but how muchtrouble could she really get into during one little potion's class?

With obvious reluctance, Malfoy lit a fire under his cauldron and filled it withwater. Too lazy to open his own book, he glanced over at the one Hermione alreadyhad opened to the correct page.

She could feel Malfoy's intent stare focused on her fingers as she carefullychopped some of the ingredients. She liked to keep the knife she used for potionssharp to save time in the preparation stage, but it was working against her at themoment because was more dangerous to her sharp than it would be dull.

"Granger, I think you should let me chop the ingredients," Malfoy said in a painedvoice. His eyes didn't leave her fingers so near the sharp blade for a moment. It waslike he thought he'd be able to stop an accident by watching.

She glared at him. "I'm perfectly capable of dicing this without slicing my fing-"her sentence broke off in a hiss of pain. The chopping had continued as she'd glaredat him and the knife had slipped and nicked one of her fingers.

Immediately, Malfoy snatched the knife from her and set it on his side of the desk.He seemed to think that it was going to injure her again of its own accord if shewasn't distanced from it. "We need to go to the hospital wing," he said, reaching outand gently taking the hand she's cut.

Hermione watched a single drop of blood fall from the small slice in her finger andraised an eyebrow at the Veela. "I've had paper cuts deeper than this," shedismissed, pulling her hand from him and putting the sliced finger in her mouth.

The blond still looked like he wanted to throw her over his shoulder and drag herto get medical attention before she lost another whole drop of her precious blood.For someone who had lived through some pretty gruesome Quidditch injuries and a war, he was awfully worked up over one little cut.

You keep forgetting I'm in your head, don't you? Malfoy's voice asked in her mind.Outwardly, he was avoiding eye contact and chopping ingredients.

She blushed, feeling a little guilty about forgetting he could hear her thoughts and- 159 -

then thinking something less than charitable about him when he was only concernedabout her safety. Just because he was over reacting didn't mean there wasn't somereal danger hidden behind his exaggerated worries.

Pulling the injured finger out of her mouth, she showed it to him. "Look, it's noteven bleeding anymore."

His eyes slid over to take a quick look, but he didn't acknowledge her further.

"You're going to pout because I thought you were overreacting?" she asked indisbelief. "I can censor my words, but my thoughts are more difficult."

The silent treatment continued. Hermione huffed in annoyance and started addingthe piles of ingredients Malfoy had been chopping into the cauldron. They worked insilence until the entire potion was complete.

She poked Malfoy in the ribs as he cleaned off his working area with a wave of hiswand. The Veela understood her meaning.

"It's not our potion I was worried about; we're in a room full of idiots who stillhave plenty of time to make something explode."

Just as he finished speaking, there was a warning shout from the other side of theclassroom. He barely had time to throw himself on top of Hermione before there wasa splash of potion that washed over him. Luckily, it was a complete potion that hadalready been subjected to a cooling charm so it wasn't a boiling potentiallydangerous potion.

"Malfoy?" Hermione asked in a worried whisper.

"I'm fine," he mumbled.

There were a few gasps from around the room as he raised his head up to look ather. It seemed that he's been worked up enough about the possibility of the potionhitting her that his eyes were black. Hermione could see feathers over his shoulders,so she knew his wings were back as well.

When she looked back to his face, she snorted with laughter.

"What?" he asked, slowly getting off of her and offering her a hand to help her up.

"Your eyebrows are escaping," she said. Reaching up, she captured his eyebrows,- 160 -

which had somehow been transformed into twin caterpillars that were wandering offtowards his ears. They tickled in her hand with their wriggling as she tried to keep ahold on them.

"Professor, I think we need to go to the hospital wing," Hermione called. Shereceived a curt nod in reply; Snape was set on scolding the pair who had ruinedtheir potion. Apparently, the Potions professor thought Malfoy should have explodedinto a burst of sparkling flame the moment the potion came into contact with hisskin. Hermione was thankful some of her classmates were complete failures atPotions, but Snape seemed rather put out that they were "such spectacularexamples of incompetence".

Draco stalked from the room, muttering his agreement to Snape's tirade againstthe idiots. Disturbed by the wiggling of eyebrow caterpillars in her hand, Hermionehurried after him.

By the time they'd arrived at the Hospital Wing, Draco had calmed enough for hisless human characteristics to have faded back to normal. It was busy, so Hermionewas shooed out of the room to make space for the students with actual magicalinjuries. She handed Malfoy his eyebrows and headed off to wait for him in theHead's common room.

While waiting for the Mediwitch to fix his eyebrows back where they belonged,Draco noticed something strange. His Veela wasn't in the back of his head tellinghim he should go find Granger and see how she was doing. The Veela was always inthe back of his mind wondering where Granger was and if she was comfortable. Itwas like a part of him had gone missing.

Worried, Draco retreated into his mind and mentally poked the dormant Veela.Could this be a symptom of their bond souring? He'd thought everything had beengoing fine with Granger, evidently he'd been mistaken. He scowled and tried tothink of what it was that could have changed since she left him at the Hospital Wing.Could there have been a side-effect to the potion he'd been bathed in besides theloss of his eyebrows?

The rest of his visit to the Hospital Wing passed by in a blur as he tried to wakethe Veela part of him. It was strange for him to be without the presence in his mind.Not so long ago he would have been thankful to be free from the prissy magicalcreature that forced him to do nice things, but that was before he'd come to acceptand even embrace it.

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As soon as he was dismissed, he rushed to the Head Dorms to see what he couldfind in the Veela books. He was hoping for some kind of simple explanation that wasn't the corruption of their bond.

Granger seemed to have been waiting on the other side of the portrait hole. Whenhe burst into the room, he nearly bowled right over her. He wrapped one armaround her and flung the other one out to press against the wall, steadying themboth.

"Merlin Granger, are you trying to kill me?" he asked without any real venom.

She ignored the comment; she could feel that something wasn't right with him.Her small hands pressed on either side of his face as her eyes searched his. "What'sthe matter?"

Draco had been about to answer when he realized something monumental: hisVeela was dormant, yet he had still caught her without thought, was still holding heragainst himself. Without his Veela, he was Malfoy and she was Granger and theyshouldn't be comfortable so close to one another. Yet... he couldn't bring himself topull away from her touch.

"Why do you feel so troubled?" Hermione persisted.

"I think my Veela's gone dormant or something. I can feel it in my head, but heisn't trying to influence my actions anymore."

"You actually haven't noticed, have you?" Hermione asked with dawningunderstanding.

"Haven't noticed what?"

"You've changed since the whole Veela thing started. You're more... kind. It's likeyour Veela is working subconsciously to influence you instead of trying to bully youinto acting the way it wants."

He frowned. "I don't think that's the case; I think he was trying to show mesomething."

The damned Veela was trying to show him that he couldn't blame it for every kindfeeling he had towards Granger. He may have to start accepting that he liked herwithout the interference of his magical blood.

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There was a relatively simple way to find out, but he wasn't certain he wanted toknow for sure. Liking Granger without his Veela there meant that he was over thewhole blood prejudice thing. Their years of animosity would be gone and hewouldn't be able to claim it was his Veela side alone was being hopelessly romanticanymore.

Draco looked down at the girl in his arms. She was staring up at him with aquestioning and mildly worried expression. He took a deep breath; if his Veela cameback and he hadn't tried this, then he would forever wonder if it was just themagical influence.

"Why are you so apprehensive?" Granger asked him, unable to read the expressionon his face, but picking up on his emotions.

He pulled her closer, bent his head, and kissed her.

A/N: That's the end of this chapter. This next bitwaspart of the nextchapter (most of it, actually), but I took it out because it was too out ofcharacter. I'm giving it to you now because some of you were curious whatwould happen if Hermione got her period. So, if you decide to read the stuffafter this note, know that it NEVER HAPPENED and is only here for youramusement. Also, it's not betaed or really edited because it's not part of thestory.

Outtake

Hermione pressed a hand to her stomach and glanced at the calendar. She wasn'tgoing to be feeling well for the next few days. It occurred to her that it was entirelypossible Malfoy was going to experience the symptoms right along with her. Lovely,she was going to get to explain to the Veela that he was experiencing pains becauseshe had her period. Mortified at the thought, Hermione shut herself in her bedroom.She'd have a nice, quiet day curled around a hot water bottle reading and avoidingthe Veela for as long as possible. The longer she could prolong the awkwardexplanation, the better.

She felt him send her a questioning feeling and panicked. Later, she would haveno idea how she managed it, but she reflexively twisted something in her mind thatallowed her to block him out. The peace and quiet in her own head was at first arelief, but then rapidly started to become a gaping hole where there was an obviouspiece missing. It made her feel empty to not have a small piece of his consciousnessthere with her, making sure she was happy and occasionally providing snarkycomments about her friends.

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Just as she was turning the last page of chapter one in her book, there was aknock on her door. "Granger, why do you hurt? And why have you locked me out ofyour mind?" he called through her door. His voice wasn't panicked or angry yet, buthe didn't sound happy.

"I'm fine Malfoy," she answered, ignoring his questions.

There was silence on the other side of the door, but Hermione knew he hadn't leftbecause she could still see his shadow in the crack where the wood ended just abovethe carpet.

She stopped her reading and stilled as she listened to him, wondering what hewas going to do next. A thump and then the sound of fabric rustling came from thecorridor. The shadow under her door suddenly got bigger as Malfoy leant backagainst the wood and slid to the floor.

"What can I do to make us stop feeling like this?" he asked.

Hermione winced; he sounded as miserable as she felt and it was entirely herfault. She tried to think of something that would make her feel better. As soon asshe'd arrived back at her room, she'd popped a few painkillers to dull the pain, butthey weren't working as well as she'd hoped. What she really needed was anotherfemale to sympathise - and possibly bring some chocolate ice cream.

"Can you get Ginny?" She would have to ask the redhead to get her the ice cream;if she asked Malfoy to bring it to her, he'd just get the House Elves to do it, and shedidn't want to make them do more work than they had to.

Malfoy sighed from the other side of the door, but he made a sound of assent andpulled himself to his feet.

Outside the Gryffindor portrait was no place for any self-respecting Slytherin tolinger.

Draco glared at what he could only describe as a painted horror. Visually, shewasn't entirely offensive -if he was being generous- but her attitude tipped thescales to the side of repulsive.

When he'd fist knocked on her portrait she'd made such a fuss that he consideredjust blasting her off of her hinges and entering, but he'd had a feeling that Granger

- 164 -

wouldn't exactly be pleased with that course of action. Instead, he'd chosen toignore her protests and continue knocking until someone opened the painting.

Luckily, it had been an easily intimidated first year who was more than willing toagree to fetch the She-Weasel if it meant that he could escape the terrifying gaze ofthe Head Boy.

"What do you want Malfoy?" the redhead demanded the second she saw theSlytherin leaning against the wall opposite the Fat Lady.

"Granger's locked herself in her room and won't come out. She said you wouldmake her feel better, though I don't see what she expects you to do about thestomach pains. Do you know what's wrong with her?"

The She-Weasel raised her pale eyebrows at him and gave him a knowing smilethat set him on edge. The bint knew what was wrong with his mate and the glint inher eyes said she wasn't going to tell him what it was until she'd spoken to Granger.

Pressing a hand against his abdomen in an effort to ease the pain, Draco led theway to the Head Dorms.

Immediately upon entering the Head's quarters, the female Weasley disappearedinto Granger's room and shut the door behind her, almost hitting Draco in the noseas he tried to follow. He glared fiercely at the offending piece of wood. Since no onewas there to see, he indulged himself in a pout. His mate had some mysteriousproblem that was hurting him and making the both of them miserable and shewouldn't even tell him what was wrong.

He was just working his way up to a pout of epic proportions when the doorclicked open. Quickly, he schooled his face into an irritated frown. He didn't wantthe She-Weasel to report back to the Gryffindors that he pouted.

Draco watched warily as the redhead came out of Granger's bedroom lookingentirely too amused for whatever dire situation was keeping his mate away fromhim. In fact, the She-Weasel looked like she was trying to hold back laughter.

"Congratulations Malfoy, you've become a woman now," she gasped out beforemelting into giggles at the expression on his face.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" he demanded.

She restrained her mirth. "Hermione - and, by extension, you - are experiencing- 165 -

the discomfort that can accompany menstruation."

He titled his head to the side, still not seeming to comprehend what she wassaying.

"She has her period and you're feeling the cramps as well!" Ginny practicallyyelled, fed up with the blond idiot.

Hermione groaned from the other side of the locked door. "Thanks for sharingthat with the entire castle Ginny," she called.

The redhead shrugged, completely unabashed. She moved to leave, but decided toimpart some last minute advice upon the Veela first. "Just try not to antagonize her;she'll be a little touchy for a while." An evil grin spread across her face. "It's not likeyou have some sort of history of getting on her nerves or anything. You should befine."

Draco paled and glanced at the door warily.

Opening the portrait hole, the blond ran a wary eye over his guest.

"I'd come back in a week if I were you," Draco warned.

"You can't stop us from visiting Hermione!" Harry said loud enough for Hermioneto hear.

Draco shook his head. "I'm not trying to stop you, I'm just telling you that it mightbe best if you didn't see her right now."

"Why not?"

The blond hesitated, unsure if she could hear the conversation he was having."She's a little... on edge right now."

Hermione's shrill yell could be clearly heard in the corridor. "I will not lethormones dictate my mood!"

"Of course not," Draco soothed.

Harry stared at the blond with large eyes. He knew how Hermione could get

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sometimes. "Ginny gives her a glass of hot chocolate and a hug when she gets likethis. Sometimes she bursts into tears, but she always feels better after."

Draco nodded his thanks, relieved that he could do something for his distressedmate. Never in his life had he been so thankful that he had a penis.

- 167 -

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

A/N: Yes, yes. I know I'm a bad person. But look! Another chapter!

As always, thanks to the wonderful Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing!And to all you lovely reviewers! I'm still in shock every time I see how manyreviews this story has received... So thanks!

~Frosty

He pulled her closer, bent his head, and kissed her.

Hermione would have preferred an explanation that involved words, but shequickly got over her unsatisfied curiosity as Malfoy pulled her closer. She relaxedagainst his familiar warmth and responded to the insistent movement of his lips. Herhands were just threading into his hair to bring his face even nearer when he pulledback.

"Do I get an actual explanation now?" she asked, almost irritated that he'd pulledaway just when things were getting interesting. If he wasn't going to give her anactual answer and he wasn't going to kiss her again, she was going to hex him.

Malfoy must have heard that thought, because he twisted his lips twisted into awry smirk before explaining. "My Veela's dormant, yet I kissed you. I kissed you andI enjoyed it - a lot. In fact, I'd like to do it again."

Hermione blinked. She was starting to understand what it was that had him onedge. It almost made her feel bad that the same thing that was bothering himactually soothed some of the apprehension she'd been feeling about them as acouple. He enjoyed kissing her without his Veela blood forcing him to do so. Hisattraction to her was genuine, and it seemed that some of his affection for her wasas well if the way he was holding her was any indication. He had automaticallycaught her and steadied the both of them when they had collided moments before.Only months ago, he probably would have watched her fall and mocked her for herclumsiness. The impression she'd gained from seeing into his mind was onlystrengthened by his actions.

"Would it upset you if I said I'm happy this is happening?" Hermione asked

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hesitantly when it became apparent that he wasn't going to elaborate.

He pursed his lips, contemplating what he felt about her question. After quicklyscanning through her thoughts on the matter, he understood what she meant. Therewas no maliciousness behind the thought, and she was upset that his turmoil servedto comfort some of her worries. He couldn't seem to find it in herself to be upsetwith her.

Hermione felt the change in his mood and knew she was forgiven. "Can we finishthat kiss now?" she asked.

As much as he wanted to spend the day kissing her and just basking in herpresence, he'd come across her memories from that morning while he'd been in herhead. There was no way he was going to let her just live in fear like that if there wasanything he could do to help. They needed to get to a curse breaker beforesomething irreversible happened.

He held her tight and placed a gentle peck against her mouth. "I'll kiss you all youwant when we have this curse off of us. Right now, we need to find someone to getrid of the curse that's trying to kill us before it actually succeeds."

To someone who didn't know him, the look in his cold grey eyes would bethreatening, or at least disconcerting. Hermione, however, was familiar with himand his expressions; she could see the worry hidden in his stare. He was trying tocover it with his trademark hostility, but it was there.

"You're not going to let me go so I can attend the rest of my classes, are you?"Hermione asked with a resigned sigh. The arms wrapped around her stopped beingsomething of comfort and changed into a restraining force as they tightened slightly.

He regarded her with a closed look that told her she was completely right.

His arms loosened to rest at the small of her back so he could talk to her easier."St. Mungo's has a curse breaker on staff. I hear the bloke's work is mediocre atbest, but it might not be a complete waste of time. At least we'll be doing somethinginstead of going to class as if we didn't both come dangerously close to death in thelast few days."

She tugged herself out of his grasp. There was no way she would be able to sit intheir classes and pretend to be focusing on her work while she felt Malfoy worrywhat she'd slip and impale herself with a quill or have some other, equally ridiculousaccident. "McGonagall can give us permission to Floo-"

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"That'll take too long. C'mon Granger, live a little," the blond admonished. Hisarms want back around her as he pulled her to the fire. He chose not toacknowledge the fact that she thought he worried she was going to injure herselfwith a quill. Although now that he thought about it, those points were awfully sharp.

They were stumbling out into the waiting room of St. Mungo's before she even hadtime to voice her objections. Draco was sure she had numerous inconsequentialobjections about breaking school rules or not having an appointment at the hospital.If she was going to be a Malfoy, then she was going to have to get over such sillyworries.

He paused.

She was his mate, she was his. One day, she was going to be his wife. Not so longago, marriage terrified him, but that was when he was going to have to marry somevapid Pureblood. He was looking forward to marrying Granger one day. They justhad to survive the curse first.

"The fireplace in the Head's common room shouldn't be hooked up to the Floonetwork," she protested feebly, disregarding the fact that they had just used it to getto the hospital.

"My parents aren't the most trusting pair, particularly after that little stunt theschool pulled while you were in the Hospital Wing. You didn't think they'd leave uswithout a way to escape should we ever need it, did you?"

He didn't wait for a response. Instead, he turned his attention to a passingMediwizard. "I need a curse breaker," he said.

The Mediwizard ran his eyes over the pair of them coolly. They were both stillwearing their school uniforms, which didn't exactly inspire respect or fear. "I don'tcare. And I won't care for another-" he looked at his watch "- fifteen minutes. I'm onbreak, check in at the desk and someone will be with you shortly," the mandismissed without even turning to fully look at them.

Hermione sensed Malfoy's anger with the man and was a little worried. He wasalready on edge from his helplessness against the curse, and his temper was moreeasily frayed than usual. Really, he was a ticking time-bomb.

"Malfoy," she said in warning, but it came too late. The blond had already grabbeda handful of the Healer's green robes and lifted him so they were nose-to-nose.

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"Malfoy!" Hermione said again, more frantically. She could see hospital securityheading their way and knew Malfoy would cause a scene should they try and forcehim to release the Mediwizard. Veelas didn't appreciate it when people tried torestrain them, particularly when their Veela side was in control.

"Draco," she pleaded, hoping his mother had been right about using his firstname.

The Veela dropped the Healer and looked at her in surprise. "You called meDraco."

It seemed Narcissa had been completely right about her son. Hermione wonderedwhat other tidbits of advice the blonde woman could have. Narcissa had certainlyhad time to get some insights into the mind of a Malfoy male - hell, she'd raised one.She made a mental note to ask later.

Hermione pasted on a fake smile for the benefit of the approaching securityguard. "Yes, I did. I needed to get your attention. Now help the nice Healer to hisfeet before security comes and kicks us out."

He didn't look happy about it, but Malfoy did as she asked.

"What did you need the curse breaker for?" the Mediwizard asked, darting warylooks at Malfoy while he addressed Hermione. He'd obviously decided she was thereasonable one who could give him the answers he was looking for.

"A curse is trying to kill us both," Hermione said simply, not wanting to get intodetails in such a public place. The Malfoys had enough darkness to their namealready; they didn't need something else to blacken it.

The man nodded. "I'm Healer Reese, the on-staff curse breaker. If you would stepinto the examining room, I'll be back in a few minutes and take a look at you." Heindicated a door.

Hermione and Draco shared a glance. She shrugged and entered the room HealerReese had shown them. It was a standard examining room; a few chairs and a sinkwith the required exam table covered in crinkly paper.

There were jars of tongue depressors and cotton balls on display and the airsmelled of industrial antiseptics. It was different from her parent's offices, but thesmell was the same. The hospital atmosphere that disturbed so many peoplereminded her of her childhood playing in her parent's offices of their dental

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practice. That same atmosphere that disturbed many people was actually almostcomforting for her.

"You called me Draco," the blond said again while Hermione climbed up onto thetable, the paper making all kinds of noise.

"I said I needed to get your attention. It got your attention."

Her answer seemed to be the end of their conversation. Malfoy came over andleant against the table beside her as she swung her feet, bumping her heels againstthe cold metal of the base. They sat in a comfortable silence while they waited.

"Hermione," Malfoy said slowly. It was as if he was trying a new dessert for thefirst time and wanted to thoroughly savour all the flavours.

She did her best to suppress a shiver of pleasure, but didn't think she quitemanaged. Malfoy sent her a knowing look that confirmed her suspicions. The stupidprat knew exactly what he was doing! Hermione huffed in irritation, but wasn'tgoing to start that sort of competition, particularly in such a public place.

"What sort of competition would that be?" he asked in a falsely innocent voice.The smirk he was wearing completely ruined the effect.

Hermione really needed to invest in some Occulmency.

"That would just take the fun out it, wouldn't it?"

"For you," she mumbled, shooting him a half-hearted glare.

Their attention turned to the door as the Healer entered the room in a whoosh ofair that smelled of cigarette smoke.

"You made us wait here while you nipped out for a fag?" Malfoy asked in disbelief.

Before he could start abusing the poor Mediwizard again, Hermione laid a calminghand on the Veela's arm. "He's willing to help us. He can have all the cigarettebreaks he wants," she admonished. Her attention turned to the Healer. "Why areyou willing to help us after Draco attacked you in the hall?"

The man shrugged. "Honestly, you two are interesting. Your case is even more so.Do you have any idea how many idiotic parents leave their wands where theirchildren can reach them? Many. The mind of a toddler isn't a complicated place.

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They want toys, shiny things, and their damned apple juice, and the curses theymanage to cast reflect those wants. You have no idea how many of those idiotparents end up on my exam table because they spout apple juice every time theyopen their mouths."

Hermione wasn't sure what she could say to that, so she kept her mouth shut. Sheshot a look at Malfoy that told him he should do the same.

"Tell me everything you know about your curse," the Mediwizard said. He satdown in a chair and pulled out a file, quill poised to write.

Hermione explained about Lucius and his Muggle friend when they were childrenand how the curse seemed to have intensified when it passed on to Draco. The moreshe explained, the more excited the Healer appeared, which Hermione was startingto understand didn't bode well for her.

The man tapped the feathery end of his quill against his lips while he thought."Have you considered... not being together?"

"Not an option," Malfoy insisted coldly and without hesitation. Hermione noddedher agreement.

"I assumed that would be the case."

Healer Reese looked between the pair, unsure if the blond one was going to beable to restrain himself from attacking him for a second time.

"I'm going to need to examine you both," he said with a wary glance at the blondagain.

Neither of them objected, so he brought out his wand and cast several diagnosticspells.

Hermione waited in silence as she tried to stand perfectly still. She wasn't sure ifthe spells would malfunction if she shifted, but she didn't want to take the chancethat she'd have to go through the spells again. Malfoy's Veela may have beendormant, but it still didn't like someone pointing their wand at him and his mate.She could feel his agitation and didn't want a repeat of what had happened in thehall.

The Healer made some notes and muttered to himself, scratching something outand then scribbling furiously.

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"I need you to stand at the other side of the room," he said to Hermione. She shota glance at Malfoy to make sure he was going to let her move without a fuss. Sominutely that the Healer probably didn't even notice, the Veela nodded.

Taking a few steps to get to the other side of the relatively small room, she turnedaround to face the Veela. She was about to ask 'what now?' when the Mediwizardreached out and touched her forehead with his wand. It wasn't a threateninggesture, but Malfoy took it as such.

With a flurry of motion and feathers, Malfoy was across the room and had her inhis arms. In an effort to completely shield her from view, he wrapped his wingsaround her as well. He made sure to leave them open enough that he could see theHealer still in case the man planned on making any other moves.

"I thought there was something off about your relationship," the Healer saidsmugly. "What are you, a Veela?"

He didn't sound intimidated in the least by Malfoy, which was a mistake.Hermione tried to turn around in Malfoy's arms to see the Healer, but she was metwith a wall of feathers, not being tall enough to see. In other circumstances, thesilky warmth surrounding her would have been enjoyable, but she had other thingson her mind.

"Was that really the best way to test your theory?" Hermione demanded. Her voicewas muffled slightly by the feathers surrounding her. She tried pushing againstMalfoy's arms, but they didn't budge.

The Healer ignored her irritated question and thoughtfully tapped his wandagainst his chin.

"Is there anything else, anything at all that you've left out or forgotten to tell me?"the Mediwizard asked.

"I cried black tears," Hermione said, hoping it would be medically relevant.

Malfoy's arms tightened around her, attempting to protect her from something hedidn't understand. How do you shield someone from their own tears? Evenpreventing any sadness she may feel still doesn't exclude tears of happiness orlaughter.

Her heart dropped when all colour faded from the Healer's face. "I have to gocheck something," the man said in a weak voice.

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Suddenly grateful that Malfoy refused to release her, Hermione leant back againsthis chest. "What are the chances he was suddenly so scared looking because he justremembered that he left something in the oven?" she asked.

Draco scoffed. "That man obviously lives at the hospital; I highly doubt he's madehimself anything but those Muggle instant noodles since medical school."

"That's what I thought," she sighed. Healers dealt with all kinds of disturbingmedical maladies on a regular basis, and yet she'd managed to say something thatscared one of them. It wasn't a comforting thought. "The man's a thoughtless jerk,but he's not going to hurt me; you can let me go now."

Slowly, he removed his arms. Hermione grabbed his hand and tugged him behindher as she walked back over to her crinkly-papered seat once again.

Malfoy had just relaxed enough to lean beside her when the Healer came backinto the room with a thick medical text in his hands. He didn't look up from thepages as he addressed them. "You either have a disease that spreads like a plagueand causes slow, painful deaths -that's what I was worried you might have - or yourbond with your Veela is in danger." He tilted his head to the side and nodded tohimself. "I'm thinking it's the latter since the former only happened once in thethirteen hundreds on an island in the middle of the ocean and hasn't made areappearance since."

"You couldn't have said the less dire possibility first?" Malfoy gritted out frombetween clenched teeth.

The Healer shrugged. "I suppose."

"Look," Malfoy snapped. "Are you going to be able to help us or not?"

Hermione watched as the Mediwizard frowned. It seemed he didn't think he couldhelp, but that his pride was preventing him from admitting this.

"This case seems to be beyond my expertise," the man said reluctantly. "I canrecommend a specialist, but the wait will be a few months."

"This was a waste of time," Draco snarled. He stomped across the room andlooked back at Hermione expectantly.

Sighing, she jumped off of the crinkly paper and followed him. "Thanks for yourtime," she said to the Healer with a weak smile as she passed him.

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"Do we have a plan or are we just storming off angrily?" Hermione asked as shetrotted through the corridor behind Malfoy. They appeared to be making their wayback toward the fireplaces.

"We're going to go back to Hogwarts and try to avoid anything dangerous until thedamned curse-breaking Weasel can fix us. The black tears were the most worryingthing, and it turns out, you'd probably have them without the curse anyway."

"He said it means our bond is in danger," Hermione mumbled, reaching a hand upto touch the corner of her eye.

Malfoy ran his fingers through his hair. "We'll deal with that later," he sighed.

She nodded and followed him through the fire and back to Hogwarts.

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Chapter 19

Chapter 19

A/N: Hello readers! Guess what! Allergy season has begun! Which meansallergy medication, which means drowsy Frosty. I'm not sure how that'lleffect my posting rate, but I imagine it would increase the time I spendstaring at the computer (and walls, but you're not really interested in that).

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You guys seem to be worried that I'mgoing to write a sad ending, but I'm not capable of that, so stay calm. *grins*Also thanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing.

~Frosty

After they returned from St. Mungo's, Hermione resigned herself to a boring daylocked up in the Head's common room with Malfoy. Considering how eventful thepast few days had been, she was almost looking forward to a few uneventful hours.She could use them to catch up on the schoolwork she'd missed; being less than twomonths ahead in her readings and assignments was practically unthinkable toHermione. Unfortunately, Malfoy didn't seem to agree with her desire to stay safe.

"Are you insane? Do you remember what happened the last time you were on abroom?" she demanded, trying to tug said broom from his hands. Unsurprisingly,she wasn't able to wrench the wood out of his much stronger grip.

He gave her a frustrated and irritated look, something she hadn't seen sincebefore the whole Veela kerfuffle arose. The feelings that were emanating from himmatched his expression.

"Granger, the Slytherin team has practice right now, and they can't exactly practice without their seeker and captain," the blond said patiently. He raised thebroom above his head so she couldn't reach it anymore and turned towards the door.

"Draco!" Hermione said, desperate to get him to stop. Boys and their sports! Itseemed that it only took a few days for him to get over the life-threatening injuryhe'd experienced and jump right back into the game. She knew he didn't have adeath wish, but he was certainly acting like he did.

"Granger, people are counting on me," he sighed, answering both her plea and her

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thoughts.

"I'm counting on you," she mumbled.

His face softened and he set the broom on the floor, freeing his hands to take hershoulders. "I'm just going to go out there for a few hours of practice. Nothing badwill happen, you'll see."

Hermione was completely unmoved. "You're taking stupid risks!"

"I can't just keep waiting around for something to kill us! I need to get away for awhile."

Hermione stepped out from under his hands, understanding what it was that hewas really saying. "You mean you need to get away from me."

"Granger-" he started to object.

"Just go if you're so determined to end up back in the hospital wing," she snapped,interrupting his protests. Turning her back on the blond, Hermione headed towardsthe sofa. If he wasn't going to take her feelings into consideration and just run off tohis death, then she was hardly going to mope around and worry.

She frowned; it didn't matter that she was determined to let him run off to hisfate, she was going to worry about the stupid, reckless git because she cared. Itwould have been so much easier if she'd still hated him, there would have beensome concern over his well-being, but not the anxiousness she was feeling at themoment.

Once again, Malfoy had been privy to her thoughts and commented. "Why don'tyou invite your friends over and spend the day with them? It'll keep you fromworrying yourself sick. Just... try to keep the touching to a minimum - particularlywith the Weasel."

She refused to answer, listening as he picked up his broom and left. The doorclicked quietly shut behind him. He may have been being a careless ass with a deathwish, but that didn't mean Malfoy's suggestion that she visit her friends wasn't agood one.

Hermione tilted her head to the side and contemplated the idea while she glaredout the window at the tiny figures that were gathering on the pitch. When she sawthe blond one approach the others, she huffed in irritation. In the back of her mind,

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she'd been holding out hope that maybe he'd see sense before he actually got to thepitch. No such luck.

With one last glare out the window towards the Quidditch pitch where her Veelawas about to do something stupid and unnecessarily dangerous, she slipped out thedoor.

The Gryffindor common room was rowdy; she could hear them before the Fat Ladywas even in sight. Hermione knew she wasn't acting like herself when she actuallycontemplated just walking away and pretending she didn't hear whatever it was theywere doing in there. That was not a Hermione thing to think. She was just so tired.Few things frayed one's nerves faster than the constant knowledge that there wasthis invisible, seemingly unstoppable force out there actively trying to exterminateyou.

Shaking her head at her uncharacteristic behaviour, she recited the password to afrazzled looking Fat Lady and entered the Gryffindor common room.

Utter bedlam.

No one even glanced towards the portrait as it opened and admitted the HeadGirl. She pushed her way through the crowd until she found Ginny.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked. She was forced to duck as some of theWeasley's fireworks went off somewhere on the other side of the room and arcedover the crowd towards the place where her head had been a moment before.Gryffindors were known to be a rowdy bunch when they were celebrating something- and even sometimes when they weren't - but this was just insanity.

"Dennis Creevy somehow managed to accidentally upturn his potion on himself and Snape. Dennis was holding powdered unicorn horn, which negated the effects ofthe potion, but Snape is now in the hospital wing with his nose quadruple its normalimpressive size," the redhead said with a snort. "We're celebrating this 'victory forGryffindor' according to Ron."

Hermione rolled her eyes; it figured that the rowdy display had originated withRon. He was more like the twins than he cared to admit.

"Want to come to the Head's common room with me and distract me from the factthat Malfoy's out risking his life because he's too pig-headed to stay away from theQuidditch pitch until the bloody curse has been lifted from us? He's adamant that Istay out of danger, but refuses to listen to me when I ask that he stay somewhere

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safe."

Ginny listened to her friend's distressed rant quietly with a small, knowing smileon her face. She wordlessly slung an arm around the older girl's shoulders once thebrunette had finished. "Let's get you out of here. You look like you need some tea."

Hermione nodded her curly head and leant against her friend. "Do you think Ishould break this up before we leave?" She waved a hand vaguely towards thepeople gathered in the Gryffindor tower.

They both glanced around at the chaos that had descended upon the commonroom. Seamus had somehow managed to blow something up, taking out both hiseyebrows and an unfortunate cushy chair that had been within the blast radius. Thefire in the grate seemed to have been charmed to flash read and gold, and someonehad stuck a few first years to the ceiling as some sort of deranged party decorations.

"No, I think they'll be fine without a mature influence just this once."

Hermione shot a worried look at the first years on the ceiling and the smoulderingchair, but she shrugged and allowed Ginny to pull her from the room. Just this once,she was going to do the selfish, irresponsible thing and not worry about what theothers were getting up to.

Ginny had managed to drag her halfway out of the portrait hole before herconscience got the best of her. She whipped around and let the first years downfrom the ceiling, extinguished the burning chair and cast silencing charms on theroom so that their noise wouldn't bother the rest of the castle. Task complete, shewas able to allow her friend to pull her the rest of the way out of the Gryffindortower. Knowing that there was complete chaos going on in the Gryffindor towerwould have prevented her from calming down properly, so really, she was still beingselfish... sort of.

"Hermione, wait!" Harry called as he stumbled out of the portrait hole after her,Ron close on his heels.

Both girls stopped and turned around, wondering what it was that Harry wanted.

"Why do you look like you lost your puppy?" Harry asked.

"Because that's what happened, in a sense. Her idiot Veela has stopped followingher like a lost puppy and is outside playing Quidditch as we speak," Ginny said,earning herself a glare from Hermione.

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The brunette objected to labelling Malfoy a lost puppy. Although he did have somevaguely puppy-like qualities when you thought about it...

"Want us to hex him?" Ron asked, sounding entirely too hopeful for someone whowas only trying to be helpful.

"I'm upset because he's unnecessarily endangering himself. Hexing him kind ofdefeats that purpose," Hermione snapped. She turned her back on them and startedmarching towards the Head's common room. Quiet footsteps and hushed whisperstold her they were following, but she didn't turn around to look. She did, however,leave the portrait to the Head's dorms open behind her so they could follow herinside. They may not care much about Malfoy, but they cared about her, and theycould distract her from her worry so she didn't wear holes in the carpet with herpacing - a habit that seemed to be contagious.

Somewhere along the line, Ginny had split off from the group to head down to thekitchens and grab them some tea and finger sandwiches, leaving Hermione alonewith Harry and Ron.

"Hermione, are you really that worried about the ferret?" Harry asked, closelyexamining his friend's face. She looked anxious and was constantly wringing herhands together. It was obvious she was trying to fight the urge to pace. Her footwould lift and move to take a step before she realised what she was doing andjerked herself back into her previous position.

She sighed and sat down on the sofa. "When I found out I was his mate and that Iwas going to have to spend the rest of my life with him for him to survive, I wasterrified. But... it's amazing how fast your entire world can change. I went frombeing terrified spending the foreseeable future with him to being unable to picturemy future without him in it. And now the idiot is risking his life because of a bloody game."

She was horrified to hear her voice crack. The stupid ferret had managed toweasel himself into her heart and now she cared. She cared that he was being amoron and she worried that he might die. He was making her go through that forjust a game. There was no way he would have let her do something like that; sheshould have tried harder to stop him.

Harry sat down beside her and patted her back awkwardly, not sure how muchcontact it would take to piss off Malfoy. He stiffened slightly when she leanedagainst him like she used to, but let it go; Malfoy was the one who put her in such astate that she needed comfort, he would just have to deal with the consequences.

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"I think he's put some kind of spell on you. Why else would you choose him over-"Ron broke off when Ginny came into the room, realized her brother was about to puthis large foot in his mouth once again and cast a quick Confundus on him. "Not untilI shave the entire hippopotamus. You know how testy he gets when he feelsbristles," he finished, looking a little confused, but determined nonetheless.

Ginny brought them all tea and they nibbled on the sandwiches while Roncontinued to mutter around mouthfuls of food about how angry the hippo was goingto be.

A few minutes after Hermione finished her first cup of tea, she was fast asleep.

"Did you slip something into her tea?" Harry asked his girlfriend.

Ginny shrugged, looking a little guilty. "Just a calming draught, but I think I gotthe dosage wrong and it put her to sleep."

At Harry's expression the redhead got a little defensive. "You saw how on edgeshe was! She hasn't been sleeping properly and she deserves some rest."

"I think we should put her to bed," Ron said, finally lucid again.

The other two glanced at each other, but they nodded in agreement. Despite thelikelihood that Ron had ulterior motives, Hermione would be much morecomfortable in her own bed.

Ron ignored their obvious glances and smoothed her hair back fondly beforepicking up the sleeping figure of Hermione. She shifted restlessly in his arms, butstayed asleep.

He was halfway up the stairs when his arms started to shake and he began todevelop a cramp in his back. Malfoy may have been able to carry her around like sheweighed nothing, but Hermione was heavy. She wasn't overweight or anything, but100 plus pounds of dead weight wasn't easy to lug up a flight of stairs - particularlywhen she kept shifting around.

"Harry!" Ron gasped in a strangled voice. "Come take her from me before I dropher."

Alarmed, Harry rushed up the stairs and tried to take Hermione from the redhead.Somehow, in the process of handing her over, they lost their grip on her head and itfell backwards until her top half was close to upside down.

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"You're going to wake her up!" Harry hissed at Ron.

They both glanced down at her when she made an irritated noise in her sleep andthen blinked her eyes open.

"Draco," she murmured happily, reaching her arms out towards the bottom of thestairs. She was obviously still mostly asleep, or she would have been yelling at all ofthem. Her friends for drugging her only to wake her up again and her Veela forneedlessly endangering himself by making her worry herself to the point where herfriends thought they needed to drug her.

Harry and Ron paled before slowly turning their heads to look in the directionHermione was still reaching.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs with his arms crossed and a stormyexpression on his face was Malfoy. "Explain to me why I shouldn't tear you twomorons into tiny pieces," he growled, looking between the two Gryffindor boys as heascended the steps.

When he arrived at Hermione, he turned her right-side-up and brought her intoher his arms with an ease that had Ron looking annoyed. She immediately snuggledagainst him and went back to sleep.

"I'm waiting," Draco hissed, making sure to keep his voice down so as not to wakeHermione again.

His effort was in vain, the sleeping brunette jolted awake.

When she realized who it was that she was snuggled against, she leaned away asif he burned her. Hermione wiggled until he let her down. Swatting his hands awayas he reached for her, she put space between them. "Don't talk to me, you're anidiot," she snapped when he opened his mouth to say something. The angry brunettestormed up the rest of the stairs and slammed the door behind her.

"She's right, you're an idiot," Ginny added from the bottom of the stairs.

Draco sighed. So it had been a selfish decision, but he'd just needed some normalcy back in his life, just for a little while. He hadn't been thinking of what hisselfish decision had been doing to Granger. He'd known she'd worry a little, butnever had he thought his mate would need to be drugged by her friends so that shewouldn't worry herself sick.

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His sharp grey eyes looked at the three Gryffindors staring at him. "What are youstill doing here? She obviously doesn't want company right now," he snapped.

Ron was reaching for his wand and Harry was about to voice his objections, butGinny stopped them. "Give those two time to work it out," she said sternly.

The male two thirds of the Golden Trio were reluctant, but they knew Ginny wasusually right about these things, and so they listened to the redhead. With a few lastglares at Malfoy, they left the Head's common room completely.

Draco trudged up the rest of the stairs and stood outside Granger's room. "Anychance you're not going to make me sleep alone tonight?"

His only answer was a loud thump as she whipped what sounded like a pillow atthe door. Normally, he'd be inclined to push the limits of her anger and open thedoor to make her face him, but he could feel that she was furious with him at themoment along with a complicated jumble of other emotions. She was in no mood todeal with him directly and it would probably take her several hours before she waswilling to speak to him again.

Draco tried brushing his mind against her own, but she had closed hers prettyfirmly. What little he could gain from her thoughts was just a bunch of profanitydirected at him and his person. For someone who rarely swore, Granger had quitethe vocabulary. Draco was impressed, and also positive that it wasn't the best timeto attempt a conversation with her.

He was just about to retreat into his own room when the fire in the common roomflared and a tall redhead entered. Draco frowned at the earring dangling from theman's ear and the ponytail he was sporting. This was obviously some sort of strangecriminal that needed to be disposed of immediately. He had started to stalk downthe stairs with his hand on his wand when the man noticed him.

"You must be Draco," the man said.

Pausing, Draco took in the appearance of the obviously fashion challenged manone more time through narrowed eyes. Red hair, slightly gangly, and practically oozing Gryffindor spirit; this man must be a Weasley. Most likely Bill Weasley.

It was a good thing he hadn't hexed him then, that probably would have made theWeasley less inclined to help with the curse.

He stopped his descent and raised an eyebrow. "Who's asking?"- 184 -

It was better to make sure his assessment was correct than to drop his guard andget hexed. That would leave his irritated mate completely unprotected andunsuspecting that there was even a danger lurking in her own common room.

The man answered before Draco's imaginings of possible dangers to his matecould get too out of hand. "Bill Weasley. Is Hermione here somewhere? I'd like toget a look at that curse you two have."

- 185 -

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

A/N: Hello readers! Look, another chapter! Remember, it has a happyending, so don't get too upset with me, kay?

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You guys are amazing! Also thanks toClaire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing!

~Frosty

Draco glanced back up the stairs towards the Head Girl's rooms. It figured thatthe Weasley would know to show up at the worst possible moment. That entirefamily had something against the Malfoys, even when they claimed to be trying tohelp. His father maintained that they were jealous of the Malfoy family wealth, andDraco had yet to see evidence on the contrary.

"Give me a minute," he said to the waiting weasel.

He trudged back up the stairs and hesitated with his hand on her doorknob beforetwisting it and entering the room. Immediately, he had to duck as she chucked all ofher pillows at his head. So that was why she insisted on keeping so many of thethings on her bed.

"Get out!" she shouted. "I don't want to deal with you right now."

Draco caught one of the larger pillows and used it to deflect the next few thatsailed at his head.

"I know you don't, and I was willing to give you some time to yourself to cooldown, but that was before Bill Weasley came out of the fireplace in the commonroom."

Hermione stopped throwing her pillows and looked at him suspiciously. Thetiming was a little too convenient for her to be completely sure Bill's appearancewasn't a fictitious event that Malfoy was using to get her out of her bedroom andtalking to him again.

"He's really down there?" she asked.

- 186 -

He nodded.

Hermione pulled herself together. Her mother had not raised her to be rude andsulk in her room while a guest waited to be greeted. With a sigh, she stood from thebed and brushed past Malfoy, completely ignoring him. Bill had chosen a horriblemoment to finally make an appearance.

The redhead watched as the two Head students came down the stairs. Hermionewas pointedly avoiding eye contact with the blond. Bill had been under theimpression that they were getting along to an extent. What he was seeing lookedlike outright animosity.

He watched as Hermione caught sight of him and forced a smile. "Thanks forcoming, Bill."

"No problem. I'm sorry it took so long, but I went to see Mr. Malfoy's parents first.I had to get a better idea of the original curse before I could look at the mutatedversion."

Two pairs of eye widened in surprise; neither of them had expected him toactually go and visit the elder Malfoys. There was no love lost between the twofamilies, and it probably hadn't been a pleasant visit.

"What did they say?" Malfoy asked. He knew his parents would have beencooperative if it meant the curse would be broken, but that didn't mean they wouldbe civil about it. That visit would have been something he would have wanted to see.

"They explained their theories about the curse and the story of its origin," Billsaid, pulling out his wand. "I just need to cast some spells to see what's going on."

Hermione felt Malfoy shift closer to her, but she continued to ignore him. She wasstill mad at the git. Bill wasn't going to hurt either of them, so any concern the Veelawas feeling at the moment was misplaced. He could just deal with it and keep hisdistance while Bill tried to fix them.

She stood perfectly still as the cool touch of spell-work washed over her. Malfoymoved even closer; she could feel the brush of his shoulder with every breath thatexpanded his chest. He could obviously feel the wash of magic as well and wasdisconcerted by it.

"Stop!" Malfoy suddenly snapped. "Something's wrong."

- 187 -

Bill looked confused, but he heeded the order and lowered his wand, looking atthe blond questioningly.

Malfoy ignored the older man and grabbed his mate by her shoulders. He ignoredher resistance and protests, burying his nose in the mass of hair resting against herneck.

The deep breath he took made goose bumps break out on Hermione's skin. Shefought off a larger reaction with difficulty. It wouldn't do to have the Veela all smugwhile she was trying to be mad at him.

As quickly as he'd grabbed her, he let her go again and rounded on Bill.

"What have you done?" Malfoy's voice was a low, dangerous hiss.

"What's wrong?" Bill asked, looking completely bewildered. He glanced atHermione and saw that she was looking just as confused.

"She doesn't smell right." The Veela's tone made it clear that he thought this wasa completely repulsive concept to him. "She doesn't smell like Granger, like mine."

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, but Bill interruptedbefore she could say something scathing to the prat.

"Sorry about that; it's a side-effect of one of the spells I just cast."

Making sure to keep his distance, the blond leaned over and sniffed the top of hismate's head. "She smells like celery." It was an accusation.

"Stop being a drama queen," Hermione admonished. She brought her arm up toher nose and sniffed. It really did smell like celery.

"I don't like celery," Malfoy said petulantly.

"It'll fade in a few hours, mate," Bill tried to placate.

"A few hours?"

"I'm not particularly fond of celery either, but if it means I'll still be alive in a fewdays, then I'll deal with it," Hermione snapped. She grabbed Malfoy by the hand andpulled him back beside her. A protest was half-formed on his lips, but she elbowedhim in the side and turned back to Bill.

- 188 -

"Ignore him. Please continue."

Copper eyebrows rose in amusement, but Bill didn't comment. He raised his wandand continued the spells he'd been performing before Malfoy had interrupted. Whenhe was finished, Bill asked them both to take a seat.

"I'm going to go home and do some research, I'll be back tomorrow with somespells to try. While I'm gone, you two need to be extra careful, this is a really twistedcurse on the pair of you."

Draco scoffed bitterly. "If there's anything my family excels at, it's dark curses."

"Er... right," said Bill, looking uncomfortable. "I'm going to go get started on thatresearch."

Hermione stood from the sofa to say her thanks and show him to the fireplacewhile the blond glared to make sure the oldest Weasley son kept his hands tohimself.

As soon as the redheaded man disappeared into a swirl of emerald flame,Hermione rounded on Malfoy. "Was it really necessary to make such a big dealbecause I smell wrong?"

Perhaps if she hadn't already been displeased with him, then she wouldn't havebeen quite so confrontational with her question. As it was, Malfoy deserved someanimosity.

He indicated she should take a seat beside him while he took a minute to order histhoughts. Hermione huffed; she was still irritated with him, but she also wanted toknow what he had to say. With a glare to let him know that she still wasn't pleasedwith him, she seated herself as far away from him as the sofa would allow.

"My sense of smell is a lot stronger than yours. It plays a part just as important asmy eyes when it comes to recognising you. You could bathe in a vat of perfume andstill smell like you underneath, but this spell makes you smell like only celery.There's no more you hidden underneath. The only equivalent I can think of would beif I were to take Polyjuice; on the surface I'd be someone completely different thanbefore. You're saying that wouldn't throw you off a little?"

Hermione saw his point, but it hadn't been necessary to make such a fuss about it."Fine, I'll just make sure to stay away from you until I smell right again. We wouldn'twant you to be disturbed."

- 189 -

She pushed herself up off the sofa and was ready to storm off to her room onceagain, but Malfoy was quicker. Grabbing her by the wrist, he yanked on her arm,making her fall against him on the sofa.

"Let me go," Hermione ordered as she tried to free herself. Her attempts wereunsuccessful.

"You're not going anywhere until you talk to me." His grip tightened until shedidn't even have room to wiggle.

"I don't have anything to say to you."

"Well, maybe I have something to say to you," he growled.

Hermione was so close that the low tones of his voice rumbled throughout her aswell as him. She wasn't going to let him see that he was affecting her though - evenif he could probably tell since he was in her mind and all that.

"Do I get to choose whether or not I listen?"

"No."

Sighing, she ceased her struggling. Hermione was smart enough to know hewasn't going to release her until he'd said his piece.

"I knew there was a reason people are always on about your intelligence," he saidsmugly.

"There's obviously something wrong with yours if you think gloating like that isgoing to help your case any."

His eyes narrowed slightly at the insult, but he didn't comment. "What I was goingto say," he gritted out, "was that I don't think we should be near each other untilwe're rid of this curse." His hold on her tightened when she started to protest,making her fall silent. He wanted to finish speaking before he let her voice heropinion.

"I think being close is only making it increase its attempts on our lives. Hell, if wecan't be free of the thing, I suggest you go find someone else and live safely."

"Where's your inner Slytherin? You're getting dangerously close to selfless withthat statement," Hermione admonished, glad he couldn't see her face and the tears

- 190 -

she was desperately fighting off.

Draco wasn't fooled for a second. "If I die, our bond will be gone and you'll be ableto live a normal life without curses or forced bonds."

"Why?" she asked, not needing to elaborate.

"I've had something of an epiphany recently. Before I bit you, I wouldn't havesurvived your death, but now that I've bitten you, I'm starting to feel like I may not want to. I figure if I'm going to die either way, I may as well do what I can to makesure one of us keeps living happily."

He was being sappy, and he knew it, but he needed to make her understand.There was no reason the both of them had to die. Granger was warm and kind, shelit up a room with her smile. The world didn't have enough good left, and removingher would be taking away a large piece of the little that remained. Draco had doneenough harm in his life, and this just may redeem him - every little bit would help.

Hermione twisted in his grip and slapped him before he could stop her. "Don't talklike that. We both survived a war, against rather intimidating odds, we're not goingto let some curse your crotchety grandfather cast years ago do what Voldemort andan army of Death Eaters couldn't."

Having been completely unprepared for the violent move, Draco released her andheld a hand to his cheek, staring at the small brunette in shock. She sure could packquite a punch when she wanted to - something he probably should have learnedback in third year.

"You hit me," he said.

Hermione shrugged. "It's not the first time, and if you keep saying stupid thingslike that, it won't be the last."

She took advantage of his continued shock by kissing him. "We're in thistogether," she said when she pulled away.

They lapsed into silence, Draco still holding Hermione. She wasn't going toattempt to escape anymore, but he liked to hold her. He had an idea and he knewshe wasn't going to like it one bit. It made him hold her that much tighter.

"Draco?" she asked.

- 191 -

He looked up at her expectantly, pleased that she was using his name again.

"I don't like celery either."

That surprised a laugh out of him.

"Does our recent discovery of our mutual hatred of celery mean I don't have tosleep alone tonight?"

Hermione rested her forehead on his shoulder. "No." She felt him sag a little and awave of disappointment through their connection. "You don't have to sleep alonebecause I like you and you're surprisingly sweet when you're not being a moron."

"To bed then," Draco decided. He slid a hand down her leg and snaked his armunder the back of her knees before standing up and bringing her with him.

With a squeak of surprise, Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck tobalance herself. She knew he wasn't going to drop her, but the movement wasinstinctual.

When he got her up the stairs and into her room, he dropped her onto the bed,where she bounced. Hermione flailed a little, trying to regain her bearings. "Whatwas that for?" she demanded.

"Because you spend almost all of your time being all... put together, even if you'reall chaos inside. It's fun to throw you off sometimes and see that instant of panic onyour face."

It was impossible to be mad at him when he looked at her like that, it made hermelt. Trying to fight off a smile and maintain her glare, she shifted over, makingroom in the bed.

Like he always had before, Draco was careful to leave space between the two ofthem when he slid under the covers. His mate seemed to have other ideas though.As soon as they were both settled, she scooted over and wrapped herself around himlike she did almost every night in her sleep. The fact that she was fully consciousmade the contact that much more enjoyable.

Slowly, so as not to scare her off, he brought his arms around her, smiling. He wasgoing to savour the time he had left with her.

- 192 -

Hermione was cold. This was something strange, because Malfoy was warm andmade her warm when he shared her bed - sometimes almost too warm. So it wasstrange that she was cold.

She stretched out across the bed and found that it wasn't just her who was cold;the entire bed was cool, including the place where Malfoy had been resting. He'dleft her alone in her bed. Searching her mind, she found that the bed was the onlyplace he'd left her alone. His presence in the back of her mind wasn't what it shouldbe. There were no emotions or anything coming through like she'd become used to.He was still there, but he was blocking her out again.

Worried, Hermione got out of bed and padded over to his room, hoping he'd justwandered over to his own room to get pyjamas or something. Empty. His door wasopen and the room beyond was empty, as was the rest of the Head dorms.

Remembering their conversation from the previous night, something horribleoccurred to her. She raced back up the stairs to her room, snatched her wand off ofher bedside table, and practically launched herself out of the portrait hole. She wasgoing to strangle him if he'd done what she thought he had.

Her trip through the school and down to the dungeon was practically a blur.Before she knew it, Hermione was standing in front of the entrance to the Slytherincommon room and desperately searching through her mind for the password. AsHead Girl, she was told the passwords to all the houses, but they were constantlychanging and she'd had a lot on her mind recently.

Just as she was contemplating knocking and hoping someone would answer, thewall opened and revealed the grim face of Blaise Zabini.

"I am such a good friend," the Slytherin muttered.

Hermione looked at him questioningly. "What are you talking about?"

"Tell me why you're here and I'll tell you why I'm such a good friend to Draco - acompletely underappreciated friend at that." He stepped back, allowing her to enterthe common room.

Hermione tried to keep a disapproving expression off of her face when he reachedover to a side table and grabbed a glass of Firewhiskey. If she was there to askBlaise for help finding his friend, then it would be counterproductive to make herdispleasure over his alcohol consumption obvious. She perched uncomfortably onone of the leather sofas and raised her eyebrows in surprise when he produced

- 193 -

another full glass.

"You were expecting me?" she asked. Her disapproval of drinking on schoolgrounds was well known, plus her position as Head Girl obligated her to report suchinfractions. If he was offering her a drink knowing her reputation, then she wouldprobably need that drink. Reluctantly, she accepted the glass.

"I was. Now tell me why you're here so we can get on with this painfulconversation and you can get on with fixing his idiocy."

Hermione was a little confused by the Slytherin and his cryptic statements, butBlaise had known Malfoy much longer than she had. There was a point buriedsomewhere in his words, she just had to wait until he reached it.

"Well," she started slowly. "I woke up alone-" her sentence broke off as sherealized what the Slytherin would assume after hearing those words. To hersurprise, Blaise just waved her on, looking completely unruffled. "I woke up aloneand something Draco said earlier tonight came back to me. I'm worried he's goneand run away, that he's going to try and keep me safe from the curse by makinghimself miserable."

Blaise took a drink, draining most of his glass in one go before answering."Draco's always been fiercely loyal to those he loves," the Slytherin watched asHermione visibly tried to suppress a blush at the word love. He hid a smirk behindhis glass as he took another sip before continuing. "This Veela thing seems to haveonly intensified that quality. He's not only going to make himself miserable, theidiot's decided that he's made you miserable and you don't deserve that."

Paling, Hermione took an almost equally large drink of her own alcohol. "He'sdecided that he needs to die to keep me happy?" she squeaked out when the burningin her throat had receded.

- 194 -

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

A/N: Hello readers! Thanks so much for all the reviews! It really motivatesme to get editing (most of the time, I hate editing)! Also thanks to Claire96and Bulba-chan for their wonderful betaing skills!

Only two chapters after this! I put somewhere that there's only going to be22, but it's actually 23. So one more than a lot of you were thinking... Good,right?

I'm reminding you now: don't worry. Happy ending, remember? Okay. Onwith the chapter! I'm sure you're impatient.

~Frosty

Paling, Hermione took an almost equally large drink of her own alcohol. "He'sdecided that he needs to die to keep me happy?" she squeaked out when the burningin her throat had receded.

Blaise nodded. "I tried to stop him, but he went all Veela on me and nearly rippedmy throat out." The Slytherin winced as he ran his hand over a thin scratch near thehollow of his throat.

Hermione was shocked that Malfoy had come so close to injuring his friend. Hemust have been almost completely under the control of his Veela to no longerrecognise Blaise. Frowning to herself, she pushed her surprise aside and focused onmore pressing matters.

"Why are you not more concerned? Could you have gone after him? You can'tjust-"

"Granger!" he interrupted her outpouring of questions. "Draco is a Malfoy, and thewhole lot of them are Slytherin to the core. He won't do anything drastic until heknows that being away from you will actually make the curse stop. My job wassupposed to be watching you and reporting if the curse seems to be fading."

He refilled both of their glasses. "This is why I'm such a good friend. Dealing withhysterical Gryffindors is not one of my favourite things to do."

- 195 -

Hermione ignored the comment; that was something Malfoy was going to have todeal with when she found him and dragged him back to the school by his ear. Blaisewas right though, he was a good friend. She'd make sure to have a word with herVeela about leaving his friends to deal with his problems while she was angry athim.

"Do you know where he is?" she asked.

His glass made a clinking sound as he sat it on the table; it was the only sound inthe room. She waited with bated breath for his answer. Sure, she would probably beable to find the blond given enough time, but she wanted to find him and yell at himwhile her anger was still fresh. It would be so much more effective that way.

Blaise stared at his empty glass for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. Inactuality, he was preparing himself for an explosion. Gryffindors were known fortheir passion, which sometimes made them a little volatile.

"I know where he is, but I'm not going to tell you until tomorrow."

Her eyes were probably comically widened, but Hermione wasn't paying attentionto her expression at the moment. She was contemplating launching herself at theSlytherin and demanding answers while she hit him repeatedly - preferably withsomething pointy. But, knowing Blaise and his infuriating ways, hitting him wouldprobably only make him clam up and refuse to give her any answers. She was goingto have to use her words, no matter how much she wanted to use her fists - or herwand.

"Why?" was all she asked.

"Honestly? Because the idiot needs to spend some time alone to straighten out histhoughts. He doesn't seem to realize something that's completely obvious toeveryone else: that you care about him aside from your bond. The idiot thinks you'lljust... recover if he dies, but everyone else can see that it'll tear you up inside."

Hermione exhaled heavily and let herself fall against the back of the sofa. "So Ijust have to wait here and hope he doesn't kill himself with only your wordreassuring me that he's fine?"

Grinning, Blaise lifted the bottle of alcohol that had been sitting with him. "Wantto get completely smashed while we wait?" It was the only thing he could think of tohelp her at the moment. Drinking was what Draco did when he was upset, could hismate really be that different?

- 196 -

Despite her protests that she didn't want to drink, Blaise watched as theGryffindor drank enough alcohol to put her back to sleep. When she was fullyunconscious on the sofa, the Slytherin tiredly rubbed a hand over his face. He didn'thave anything personal against Hermione, but hysterical females were not his thing.Draco supplied more than enough emotional turmoil for three people; Blaise didn'tneed to deal with his best friend's girlfriend as well.

Summoning a blanket from his room, he placed it over the sleeping Gryffindor andthen collapsed back into the chair he'd previously occupied. Rivalries betweenhouses weren't what they'd been before the war, but it still wouldn't be wise to leaveHermione Granger asleep and vulnerable in the heart of Slytherin territory. Ifsomething happened to Hermione, Blaise didn't doubt for a minute that Draco wouldmurder whoever harmed her and then go through with his idiotic plan of suicideanyway out of heartbreak.

She wasn't the only one worried about the idiot blond, Blaise was concerned abouthis friend as well, but he didn't have the luxury of unconsciousness. Instead, he hadto watch over Hermione while she got to sleep.

Blaise sighed and leant his head against the back of his chair, prepared for a longnight. He really was an amazing friend.

Hermione woke up with a horrible taste in her mouth and a quartet of Slytherinfirst years gathered around her. They didn't look menacing, merely curious, but theystill weren't a nice sight to wake up to. One of them was prodding her with his wand.

"Oi! Clear off!" Blaise shouted as he came back into the room. "I leave for oneminute to brush my teeth and you gather around Hermione like a bunch ofvultures!"

Looking terrified, the first years scurried off.

When she turned to Blaise, she saw that he was watching the fleeing studentscontemplatively. At her questioning look, he grinned. "They ran for the door quitequickly. Not as good as Draco could have done, but pretty impressive nonetheless."

"You can hardly compare yourself to him, he learned from the best," Hermionemuttered, remembering Lucius' cold stare. That man could probably freeze avolcano with his eyes alone if he wanted to. When she remembered why it was thatshe was sleeping in the Slytherin common room, her half-smile fell right off her face.

- 197 -

"Are you going to tell me where Draco is now?"

"Promise me something first."

If it would make him tell her where Draco was, Hermione was willing to promisequite a lot. Blaise had been right; it would tear her up inside if the Veela actuallywent through with it and killed himself so she could be happy. He was a moron forthinking that in the first place! What kind of person did that? Better yet, what kindof person was happy that someone else had killed themselves for their benefit?

She took a deep breath to calm the resurgence of her anger. "That depends onwhat you want me to promise," Hermione said, knowing from experience that it wasbest to clarify when speaking to Slytherins.

"Promise me you won't let him off easy because you're glad he's not hurt orbecause he was doing something 'sweet' in his misguided, stupid way. You need tothoroughly chew him out for being an idiot."

Oh. That was something she could do. In fact, she was more than willing to scoldhim so completely that his ears were on fire when she was done. "I don't think that'sgoing to be a problem," she said with a grin.

Blaise nodded. "Good. He's in the Shrieking Shack."

She was out the door practically before he'd finished the word 'shack'. "Give him agood kick in the shins from me. I sure as hell wouldn't get away with it!" Blaisecalled after her.

Hermione ran through the castle and out the front doors. Luckily, there were fewstudents on the grounds so early in the morning. Otherwise, she may have had topostpone her trip so she didn't inadvertently show a bunch of younger students away to break school rules. It really wouldn't reflect well on her as Head Girl.

After grabbing a stick and hitting the knot, Hermione rushed past the frozenbranches and climbed down into the tunnel. She briefly wondered how it was thatDraco had managed to get off of school property without knowing about thepassage, but was then distracted. She'd been thinking of him as Draco. He wasn't'Malfoy' to her anymore, not really. He was someone she cared about, and thatmeant it was time to drop the formality - though she'd probably still use his lastname to yell at him. Yelling at 'Malfoy' was something of a habit for her.

The Shrieking Shack was almost the same as she remembered it. There was- 198 -

possibly more dust than she recalled, but that was to be expected as it had been afew years since she'd last seen the place. It didn't take her long to find Draco. Hewas staring out the window in the room Sirius had lead them when they'd stillthought he was a murder. The Veela must have been thinking about somethingreally important, because he didn't seem to hear her sneaking up on him.

Hermione crossed her arms and prepared herself for a confrontation. "You're anidiot," she said, making him jump and whip around.

"How'd you find me?"

Hermione shrugged. "Blaise."

"That bloody interfering sod."

She folded her arms over her chest. "He was only trying to help me fix some of themess your half-witted idea caused. You know, Blaise said something that I think youwould benefit from hearing. He said that you think I'll recover if you die, buteveryone else can see that it'll tear me up inside."

While Draco stood there speechless, Hermione crossed the room and stoodtoe-to-toe to him. "Do you know Blaise had to get me to drink a bunch of alcohol tocalm down enough to actually go to sleep? I spent the night on a sofa in theSlytherin common room and woke up with a bunch of first years poking at me. Thatwas what happened when I found out you were missing. What do you think wouldhappen if you were dead?"

He had the grace to look properly chastened. Hermione took advantage of hisinattention to kick him in the shin. Hard.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

Completely unrepentant, Hermione glared. "That was from Blaise. He had to dealwith a distraught Gryffindor, which was probably a stressful experience for him. Andapparently you tried to rip his throat out?"

If she hadn't been watching him closely, she probably would have missed theslight pinkness that stained his cheeks. "I didn't mean to, but I was in quite a statewhen I tried to leave, and Blaise grabbed my arm to try and stop me. The Veela tookover and threatened him, but I never actually touched him."

The blond watched her warily. "You're not going to hit me again, are you?" He- 199 -

could read her mind, but she was getting good at carefully not thinking about heractions until she was already in motion. The contemplative look she was directing athim was worrying. She was about to do something - probably kick him again. Italready felt like she'd chipped the bone in his leg a little.

"Lean down a bit," Hermione ordered.

He was tensed for another attack, but Draco did as she'd asked. He'd dug himselfso deep that it was probably better to just let her get her anger out and then talkreason to her. Instead of the slap he was expecting, she kissed his cheek. "You're anidiot," she said again, with more affection than last time. "But your heart was in theright place, even if your brain was noticeably absent."

Draco straightened and frowned down at her from the extra height. "I can pointout a number of times in the past where you Gryffindors have done dangerous, lifethreatening things for 'the greater good' or whatever it is that you people fight for."

"Most of those life threatening things were following Harry, and that boy hassome serious problems with sitting still until there's a concrete plan and backupbehind him," Hermione mumbled.

Grabbing her hand, Draco pulled her over to the bed. He sat down and broughther to stand between his legs, so they were closer to the same level. His face wasdead serious as he stared deep into her eyes. "Are you telling me that your sideknew all along how suicidal Potter was?"

Hermione laughed. "Harry's a wonderful person and he cares about his friendsover everything else. Even he knows that this gets him in trouble sometimes."

At his shell-shocked expression, she laughed some more. "Did you think you'fighters for the light' were the only ones who had noticed that about him? I bet youthought we were all idiots to following him without knowing his obviousshortcomings."

"How could you follow someone so blatantly flawed?" he asked.

A sharp bark of laughter from Hermione was his answer. "You followed a nose-lesspsychopath with daddy issues so bad he turned to genocide for comfort."

"A very threatening and unhinged nose-less psychopath. Most of the Death Eaterswere just as happy as your side when you won. Living with the Dark Lord was nopicnic." He shuddered, obviously reliving some disturbing memories.

- 200 -

"We're off topic," she sighed. "My point is, you're an idiot."

"An idiot whose heart was in the right place," he reminded.

Hermione stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him. "I would have beendevastated if you had gone and killed yourself. Never do something like that again."

Not able to make a promise that he knew he may one day have to break, Dracojust pulled her closer and kissed her, reopening their connection at the same time.She obviously wasn't going to let him go through with his plan, so there was nopoint in making them both miserable by continuing to block her out of his mind.

Hermione wasn't fooled. But for a while there, she hadn't been sure she'd ever getto kiss him again, so she allowed him to distract her. She made a mental note to notlet him get away with this sort of thing on a regular basis.

He must have heard that last bit, because he tugged her onto his lap and slid ahand up into her hair to pull her closer. He was really quite good at the distractionthing. Internally, she winced when she felt a wave of smugness from him. Great,he'd heard that too and now he was going to be insufferable - well, moreinsufferable than normal.

Instead of being upset with him for his forwardness, she allowed herself to meltagainst him. He was holding her as if he'd thought he wasn't going to get to hold heragain - which he had. When he slipped his fingers under the edge of her shirt andtraced circles across her skin, she hummed her approval, forgetting that she wastrying to keep his ego at a reasonable level.

Another wave of smugness brushed against her mind.

This time, there was something else mixed in with the smugness, something warmand protective. She didn't have time to delve further into the appealing emotionbecause at that moment, the entire house gave a huge shudder.

They pulled apart. "What was that?" Hermione whispered, trying to catch herbreath.

"It felt like the whole shack shook on its foundations," Draco said.

The Shrieking Shack wasn't the sturdiest structure in the world; if the whole thingwas shaking, it was entirely possible the entire place could come down. He madesure to keep his arms around her, just in case parts of the ceiling were to collapse or

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something like that. His reflexes were faster than hers and could probably move herout of the way before she was hit.

A horrible thought occurred to Hermione, causing panic to wash over her, and byextension, her mate. What if the curse was going to try and kill them by taking theentire shack down around them?

"We need to get out of here," the Veela said in answer to her thought. He stood upand started dragging her towards the door.

When she glanced back towards the window she froze, eyes wide and horrified.The implications of what she was seeing didn't take long to filter through her sharpmind. So intent was Draco on getting her out of the room that he didn't notice she'dstopped walking and he was dragging her across the dusty floor.

"Draco," Hermione whispered, trying to tug her hand free from his steel grip. Hewas so focused on getting her out of there that he didn't even hear her protest.

"Draco!" she tried again, slightly louder. He still didn't relent in his efforts to gether out of the room.

"DRACO!" Hermione shouted, grabbing onto the doorframe as he pulled herthrough it. That time it worked, freezing him in his tracks.

"What wrong? What is it?" he asked, looking her over for injuries. He didn't seehow she could have been hurt in the few seconds he'd been trying to pull her out ofthe room, but she was certainly panicked.

Hermione pointed a shaking finger towards the window. "Look outside."

When he did, the meagre colour he had in his face rapidly faded until he waswhite as a sheet. He grabbed her hand and pulled her again, but this time she lethim. They ran down the hall and into the room next door. Out the window there, itwas the same.

"We have to get out of here," Draco said for the second time, sounding moredesperate.

Hermione agreed wholeheartedly and followed him as he dragged her down thestairs to the front door. Every window they passed on the way showed the sameterrifying thing.

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When he ripped open the flimsy pieces of wood that made up the door, they didn'trun outside. They couldn't run outside. The scenery outside the door showed thesame thing as every window in the entire sack did.

"We're trapped," Hermione said, completely horrified.

They were going to die.

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Chapter 22

Chapter 22

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! I had lots of fun readingyour guesses! I was actually kind of proud of myself that I came up withsomething that none of you guessed.

Also thanks to Claire96 and Bulba-chan for betaing!

Something quite upsetting happened the other day... I got a PM fromsomeone who had been over on wattpad and noticed that my story, LifelikeShadows had been posted. By someone other than me! It had the same titleand everything, they didn't even try to hide that it was the same one. So,many thanks to that person for bringing it to my attention, and if you guysnotice something like that, tell the original author. It's really upsetting tofind out someone's stolen your story, but it's better to know.

Thankfully, either wattpad or the author has taken Lifelike Shadows downfrom the site.

Anyway! The reason you're all here! On with the story.

~Frosty

Draco reached out a hand to touch the fluttering blackness that had trapped theminside the shack, but Hermione slapped his hand away just before it could makecontact.

"Don't touch it!" she said, pulling the both of them away from the door andslamming it, as if that could make what was on the other side disappear. Worry anddespair were exuding from her in a constant, stomach turning pulse.

"You've seen something like this before?" he asked. The emotions he was feelingfrom her were too extreme; she had to have some sort of idea about what it was theywere facing to be so distraught.

"Only once," she said quietly, "in the Department of Mysteries. If I'm right, that'sthe Veil between this world and death. It's a one way trip if you want to go throughit; there's not coming back."

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Saying it out loud somehow made it that much worse. Hermione pressed herselfclose to the Veela's side for comfort. It didn't really work, but she was slightlywarmer.

"So we're literally surrounded by death," Draco muttered grimly. He was trying towork out in his head any way that would allow him to get the both of them out ofthere alive, or failing that, a way to get his mate out in one livingpiece. Nothing wascoming to mind.

"I've never heard of a curse able to transport living people to the other side of theVeil. This is a rather impressive curse your grandfather cast." She walked over tothe stairs and plopped down onto the lowest one, burying her head in her hands.

Draco joined her, scooting over until their thighs were touching. "There has to besome way to get out of here. We can't just... die like this."

"I'm not sure we're not already dead. You can't get to the other side of the Veilwithout dying. There's no coming back from that. I can't see how a curse could beable to defy laws of nature - and death's a pretty important one."

Grabbing her chin, he pulled her face up and turned her head. "Don't talk likethat. What happened to Gryffindors continuing to hope even when the odds werestacked overwhelmingly in favour of the other side?"

"What happened to Slytherins being realists? We're on the other side of the Veil.Technically speaking, we're dead." She stared deep into his eyes, challenging him torefute her.

Draco didn't answer her with words. He took one of the hands she was twisting inher lap and pressed it against his chest, right over his heart. "Would I have aheartbeat if I was dead?"

He was right. Hermione took comfort from the steady beating under her hand andtried to get the chaotic swirling of her thoughts to settle into something resemblingorder. They were alive, they were just... on the other side of the Veil separating theliving from the dead. There had to be some way to get out of this situation.

"We could start with how we got into this situation in the first place," Dracosuggested, having followed her thoughts.

"You're right," she murmured. "If it could have done this all along, why did it waituntil now to strike? Was it a safety precaution to keep innocent people safe, were

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the protections of Hogwarts keeping it at bay, or was it something else? There's anynumber of things that could have triggered the sudden onset of the curse."

She glanced over at Draco to see that he was pale - well, paler than usual. "What?What have you thought of?"

"It's not what I thought of just now, it's what I thought while I was kissing youearlier. It was the most fleeting of thoughts, barely even worth mentioning, but Ithink it may be what triggered the curse."

Hermione waited, but it didn't seem like he was going to elaborate. "Are you goingto tell me that that thought was?"

"I'm not sure how well-received it will be," he hedged.

Her eyes rolled to the ceiling in exasperation, it figured that now would be thetime Draco suddenly lost his confidence. "As long as you weren't thinking howdisgusting it was to be kissing the dirty Mudblood, I don't think there's much youcould say that would bother me beyond what a little grovelling couldn't fix."

"Hermione..." he started, about to address the Mudblood comment by telling herhow stupid she was being.

Against her will, tears started pooling in her eyes. "Oh Merlin, that really is whatyou were thinking? I thought you didn't care about that blood purity stuff anymore.Do you really-"

"I love you!" he blurted, unable to deal with her pain any longer.

Hermione stopped her rant and stared at him like he'd grown a second head.

"That's what I thought while I was kissing you. I thought 'I love her and would beperfectly content to have her never leave my arms'," he continued when he saw thathe had her attention.

Blocking him completely out of her mind so he wouldn't be able to know what shewas thinking, Hermione stared deep into his eyes. He seemed to know what she wastrying to figure out and willingly opened his mind to her, allowing her to see that hewas telling the truth. She could also see that he was sure she didn't feel the sameway and worried that telling her this was going to scare her away.

Without warning, Hermione kicked him as hard as she could from the awkward- 206 -

angle she was sitting at.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" he demanded, reaching down to cup histhrobbing injury in an attempt to sooth some of the pain. It was ineffective; his matewas violent.

"Do you still love me?"

The expression he directed her way clearly said he was questioning her sanity."Yes! I'm a little upset that you seem so fond of abusing me, but that will hardlymake me stop loving you. I've known for years that you have moments when you'reabusive and spiteful. It hardly stopped me from falling in love with you in the firstplace."

She let out a deep breath and leant against him, closing her eyes in frustration. "Iwouldn't have worked on me either," she sighed. Just in case, she pinched hercollarbone as hard as she could. "Yeah, doesn't work."

Oh, wait. It had to be Draco who hurt her. "Pinch me or something," she orderedhalf-heartedly. She really didn't think he'd be able to hurt her just to settle hercuriosity, but it was worth a try.

An odd feeling from Draco made her open her eyes again. "What?" she asked.

He was focused on the red welt that had appeared where she'd pinched herself. "Ifthere's a need for you to hurt yourself, then doesn't that mean you have feelings forme as well?"

"Is this really the time to be discussing feelings?" she asked evasively.

Draco wasn't going to let her get away that easily. He pulled her closer until shewas straddling his lap and started to run his fingers over the spot on her neck wherethe blood was close to the surface.

The soft caresses were going a long way to sooth the lingering pain from thepinch. Goose-bumps followed in the wake of his touch as Hermione fought offshivers.

"There's a good chance we're going to die very soon - if we're not dead already. Ithink now is the perfect time to discuss feelings," he said, leaning forward to replacehis fingers with his lips, pressing gentle kisses to the red skin.

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"What are you doing?" she asked, sounding breathless. It was getting difficult tothink of a coherent response. She knew she should pull away and discuss ways tosurvive the ordeal they'd found themselves facing, but her body just wouldn't obeyher. Her traitorous mortal coil threaded fingers through his hair and arched closerto him.

"Stopping you from coming up with excuses. Now do you have feelings for me ornot?" He punctuated the end of his sentence with a nip to the tender patch of skin.

A pleasant shiver went down her spine as she sucked in a breath. "I love yout-AH!"

As soon as he got his answer, Draco had slid a hand down her back and pinchedher bum. He tightened his arms when she tried to escape his lap.

"Do you still love me?" he asked, his face serious, but laughter in his eyes.

She glared, but the struggling stopped. Her eyes promised vengeance at a laterdate - if they survived. Technically, his pinch had actually made them even, but whowas counting?

"Not so funny now when the tables have turned, is it?"

"Shouldn't you be more concerned with the fact that we're probably going to die?"she asked, trying to get him back on task. The situation was rapidly getting out ofhand, and if they were only working with limited time, they were wasting it.

She wanted to just let him take away all her worries, but any distractions he couldprovide would only be temporary. They would still be in mortal peril, only they'd beworse off because of the lost time.

"For the record, any time spent together with 'distractions' would not be 'losttime'." He placed a one last peck against the reddened spot on her neck.

As he pulled away to face her, all the laughter and teasing drained from him. Shealmost felt bad for ruining one of his rare, light moments.

"But I haven't forgotten," he continued. He sighed and shifted slightly so she wasmore comfortable, but didn't let her go. "What can you tell me about this Veil?"

"Well, when I saw it in the Ministry, it was cold everywhere around it. I'm worriedit's going to start leeching warmth from the house."

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Draco nodded. "Okay, so if we're not already dead and stuck in some kind oflimbo, then we have to worry about dying of hypothermia. Anything else we shouldworry about killing us?"

"Starvation, dehydration... We don't even know how much air is in here." Her eyestravelled to the windows with an almost accusatory look as she wondered if oxygencould seep in through the cracks. Was there even oxygen on the other side of death?She had always liked to think she wasn't going to need to worry about that sort ofthing once she'd died.

"So, staying is death, but so is leaving?"

Laying her head against his shoulder, Hermione sighed. "From the looks of it,we're dead either way; we just get to choose whether we die quickly or slowly."

They sat there for hours trying to find a possible way out of the house. Everywindow, door, and secret passageway was checked and every spell they could thinkof was used. Nothing was effective.

They worked until, completely exhausted, they fell asleep tangled together in theonly bed in the shack.

Draco had been running over an idea in his head for a while, but he hadn't voicedthe idea. He knew his mate would violently oppose it. He had also been holding outhope that they would be able to think of some sort of alternative. Sadly, nothing hadcome up.

After what must have only been an hour or so of exhausted sleep, Draco wascompletely awake and thinking of this idea once more. He looked over at thesleeping figure of his mate clinging to him the way she always seemed to in hersleep. Strange as it was, he really did love her, and he couldn't bear the thought thatthere was a way to save her; he hadn't tried it because he knew it would make herupset and angry with him. Hurt feelings on her part were better than her death.

If only he could go back to that time in his life when he had tried to anger andupset her, then he could act out his plan in peace. It was hard for him to always takeanother person's feelings into consideration before his every action. Although,surprisingly, the impulse came startlingly easy.

Carefully extracting himself from the tangle of Hermione's limbs, he got out of bed

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and quietly padded around to the other side of the bed.

She looked so peaceful when she was asleep. Younger too. There weren't all thoseworries plaguing her while she was in dreamland.

Gently, he smoothed some of her hair off of her face and kissed her forehead,lingering there moments too long because he couldn't bring himself to leave her. Itwasn't the most satisfying kiss considering it was going to be his last, but it wasbetter than nothing.

He snuck out of the room, down the stairs and over to the door. With a deepbreath, he turned the doorknob and pulled, revealing the waving sheet of darknessonce more. Would touching that really kill him? It seemed that the undulatingblackness was calling to him, telling him the peace rest on the other side. Dracosuspected it was a bad thing that the Veil was calling to him.

Waves of cold were swirling around him, trying to reach inside the house. If it waswarm inside, then it meant that Hermione was probably going to survive after hetouched the Veil and broke the curse.

If one of them were to die, the curse would be broken. He was counting on thecurse releasing her once he was dead.

Slowly, he reached out his hand towards the Veil. His fingers were just about tobrush the rippling blackness when he heard a floorboard creak behind him. Beforehe knew what had happened, he'd been whipped across the room and collided withthe opposite wall, landing on the floor in an ungraceful heap.

"You idiot! You were just going to kill yourself in the middle of the night? It's likeyou're trying to find situations that make it necessary for you to kill yourself! Didyou not think how I would feel in the morning when I woke up alone and couldn'tfind you anywhere?" Hermione was at her shrillest, trying to get her words outaround hiccupping sobs. She'd gone from zero to hysterical in the time it took him tocross the room, but that wasn't what had his attention.

Her tears were black again.

Draco pulled himself to his feet and brushed off the dust he'd picked up on thefloor, acting as if he'd merely stumbled and fallen, not been magically launched intoa wall. He looked at his hysterical mate coolly. "I didn't think much beyond thatyou'd wake up tomorrow and be alive."

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"Did it occur to you that by leaving me here alone, the curse would let you out theother side and kill me instead?" Her hands swiped angrily at her tears. It seemedshe had yet to notice that the smears down her pale cheeks were so black theyseemed to absorb what little light that was in the room.

He winced; that hadn't occurred to him.

Hermione stomped over and offered him her hand. He looked from her thin, blackstained fingers to her glaring eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"If we're doing this, we're doing this together," she said, looking pointedly at herstill outstretched hand. When she noticed the black liquid, she took her hand backand swiped at her cheeks some more, trying to get all of it off of her face. "I'mcrying black tears again." It wasn't a question, it was a resigned statement.

Draco stepped closer and dabbed away a missed droplet at the edge of her eyewith his sleeve. "You were."

She sniffled and scrubbed her face a bit more. "I'm thinking it's a subtle hint tostop trying to kill yourself for my own good. It would really endanger our bond if youwere dead and I was furious with you."

For the second time, she offered her hand. "Maybe everything will turn out allright. In fact, we've both been through worse and come out all right. I'm sure we'llsurvive this."

Hermione knew he didn't believe her - hell, she didn't think anyone would believethat pathetic lie. She was a terrible liar and he was a Slytherin; even if he hadn't hadthe advantage of knowing most of her thoughts, he would have been able to catchthe lie.

Instead of calling her on the obvious mistruth, he looked away and nodded,tension showing in his jaw and around his shoulders. Draco wasn't happy that shewas insisting on going with him, but he'd never be able to forgive himself if she wasright and the curse killed her once he was on the other side. It made sense for thecurse to work that way; his grandfather would rather have had the Muggle girl diethan his only heir.

He took her hand, lacing their fingers together tightly. "We'll go through at theexact same time."

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At least that way, if they were going to die, it would be together. Being the oneleft behind would have been extremely difficult, no matter which of them it was thatsurvived.

Hermione nodded, her heart racing as they crossed the room towards the door.She held his hand tightly as he opened the door. "Draco?" she said when thecoldness of the Veil rushed to invade the warm house.

He looked down at her questioningly.

"I meant it when I said I love you," she said, blushing slightly. It was strange to beopen about such strong emotions, but he needed to know if she was going to die.

Draco smiled warmly at her. "I know, I did too. Still do."

She nodded, too panicked to have a tender moment with him, but trying for anequally warm smile. "On the count of three?"

"Nope, take a deep breath, then we go."

They both stood still for a moment, breathing what they hoped weren't their lastbreaths. With one last shared glance full of equal parts love and fear, they steppedforward and into the Veil.

A/N: I know. Cliff-hanger! They're aproblemfor me...

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Chapter 23

Chapter 23

A/N: Hello readers! Here's the LAST CHAPTER! Sorry for making you waitso long for this chapter (I know that was a horrible cliffhanger I left youwith), I had it all ready to get to you quicker, but I noticed a few things thatneeded to change. I've been picking at this chapter for days, and I think it'sfinally ready. I hope you like it!

I'm saying it now: there won't be a sequel or epilogue or anything, I've gotthe whole Veela thing out of my system I think.

Thanks so much to everyone who's review this story! It wouldn't have beenhalf as good without your input. Also many thanks to Claire96 andBulba-chan for betaing!

If you're looking for something to read after this story, I have a new onecalledTensions and Tea Leaves, it's a Rose/Scorpius fic. I also have a fewDramione stories started that should be posted in the near future, so keepyour eyes out!

I'll let you guys read before I abuse exclamation points any more.

~Frosty

Sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating specks of dust and makingthem look like pinpricks of brightness in the air. All was silent save for a faintrustling of a mouse from the kitchen one room over.

Lying completely still in the middle of the dusty floor were two bodies, theirfingers tightly intertwined. So motionless were those bodies that a thin layer of dustwas starting to accumulate over the both of them. A passerby would have takenthem for a pair of mannequins left discarded in the old shack.

Suddenly, the blond one sat up with a huge gasp. Greedily gulping in air as if hehadn't taken a breath in a while, he tried to regain control of his breathing. It tookhim a second to get enough air to his oxygen-starved brain to notice hissurroundings, but once his did, he turned to his unmoving companion.

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His eyes darkened to black as they widened in horror.

"Hermione?" he said, panicked. One hand whipped to her neck to check her pulse.Maybe the curse had let him live going through the Veil and killed her. Could somecruel twist of the curse allow him to survive after they had been prepared to dietogether? That would be a very Malfoy thing to do, raising hopes high only to crushthem back down with ruthless glee.

She didn't have a heartbeat, and she wasn't breathing. His fingers pressed deeperinto the soft skin of her neck, desperately searching for some indication that hismate was alive.

A keening sound began in the back of his throat completely against his will. She couldn't be dead!

Just as Draco was about to succumb to the despair that his mate was dead andgone for good, she took a huge, gasping breath as he had done only momentsbefore.

Her frantic eyes sought out the black ones of her Veela.

"Thank Merlin," he breathed, pulling her over and hugging her tightly. If tearshadn't been someone a Malfoy would never shed, he would have cried. As it was, atear or two may have slipped out of his tightly shut eyelids.

"Draco, you're cutting off my air," she gasped when the hug lasted a tad too longand was a little too tight. Her breathing hadn't calmed down and the tight squeezingwasn't helping her to regain a more normal rhythm.

His grip loosened, but he didn't put her down, unwilling to be so far away fromher. Even the littlest loss of contact was unacceptable when, only a moment before,he'd been sure he would be alone for the rest of his life. Never again did he want toface a situation like that. Hermione was too important to ever be in danger again -not that she would appreciate his attempts at protecting her.

Hermione concentrated on taking deep breaths for a moment, waiting until herbreathing had slowed down a little before she took a look at her surroundings. Theywere still in the Shrieking Shack, but there was sunlight outside instead of theimpenetrable blackness. They were alive.

And on the living side of the Veil.

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Something fluffy over Draco's shoulder caught her attention. "You have wingsagain," she noted, reaching a hand to pet the nearest feathery appendage. Theywere so sleek and platinum coloured that she was always surprised to feel that hiswings were warm. The metallic appearance of his feathers hinted at a cold, metaltexture, but that was completely wrong.

Hermione liked his wings.

"Why is it that you keep waking up and pointing out my wings?" Draco asked inexasperation.

His eyes were probably deep black and he could feel his fangs, but the first thingshe chose to comment on was his wings? Always the wings with her. Maybe she hadsome sort of avian fetish. Was there even such a thing?

She just smiled at him, running her fingers over the silky feathers. Softly, shedrew her fingertips over the place where the downy feathers merged with his back.Her lips twisted into a small smirk when Draco's arms involuntarily tightenedaround her waist and he shivered slightly. Though he complained, it was abundantlyobvious that he thoroughly enjoyed the attention she paid to his wings.

"They're kind of hard to miss," she said, slightly embarrassed. They were warmand fluffy and she liked to pet them, but she wasn't going to tell him that. He'dprobably laugh at her for thinking girly thoughts.

"You've forgotten I'm in your mind again, haven't you?" he asked, soundingamused.

"Give me a bit of a break, we almost died not so long ago, I'm not up to a hundredpercent yet." Her honey eyes abruptly darkened. Their banter would only do somuch, they were going to have to actually discuss the issues that they'd just livedthrough eventually."Draco, what happened to us?" she asked.

The Veela shrugged; he didn't have any more answers than she did. Perhapsthey'd never know what it was that had happened to land them on the wrong side ofthe Veil. What he did know was that if Hermione was correct and they'd returnedfrom the other side of death, they were the only two people in written history tohave ever visited the other side of the Veil and lived to tell about it.

"I think we were dead while we were over there. Waking up just now didn't feellike coming back to consciousness from a snooze, I had to work much too hard tobreathe right." She frowned just thinking about her panic while she tried to breathe

- 215 -

properly.

Thinking of how he hadn't been able to find a pulse at first on Hermione's neck,Draco was forced to agree. "For a brief time, I believe that we really were on theother side of the Veil. Technically dead."

"Then why did we get out alive?" It was more a rhetorical question than somethingshe expected him to answer.

Surprisingly, he had one.

"I think... that we were supposed to stay there until we died. The coldness andgeneral threatening nature of the Veil was supposed to keep us scared and trappeduntil death."

Hermione wasn't convinced. "Desperate people resort to desperate measures. Ithink anyone would try to pass through the Veil after a while."

"Maybe the fact that you're my mate and we're bonded threw off the curse. Ourconnection is very different than anything Father could have had with somenameless Muggle girl," he offered.

Horrified at how close they'd brushed against death, Hermione could only sighand press her face into his shoulder. They would probably never have definiteanswers. "I hope this means we're going to be done with this bloody curse."

Draco smoothed his hands down her hair, letting them continue down her backbefore stopping at the small of her back and repeating the motion. "It succeeded inkilling us. I think that broke the thing, there's no reason for it to stick around oncewe're no longer alive."

Over his shoulder, she watched her hands as they brushed his feathers. It wastime for them to stop with the fighting against the curse and start working on theirhappily ever after - Hermione wasn't so unrealistic that she thought their happyending wasn't going to take some work.

Following her thoughts, Draco smirked affectionately at her, stretching the wingsout behind him so she could admire them. They really were rather impressive, andthe perfect thing to distract her from the melancholy turn her thoughts had taken.

When her fingers reached for them once more, he moved the feathers just out ofher reach.

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"What do you say we give them a go?"For someone who had recently almost died,he was in remarkably good spirits. Perhaps it was because he'd thought he wasgoing to lose his life that he was able to seem co carefree.

Appreciate what you've got and all that nonsense.

"Give what a go? What are you talking about?" There was no way he meant whatshe thought he meant. No. He couldn't.

He knew how horrible she was when it came to flying a broom, what made himthink that she'd be more comfortable with that?

Nothing. Nothing would make him think she'd be all right with his idea, but hewas going to try and make her go anyway. He had a devious Slytherin mind for justthat type of thing.

"The wings Granger. Keep up."

She looked from his wings to his eyes and back again. When she realized he really was thinking that horrible, unreasonable thought, she tried to get out of his arms."No. No no no nononononono. Draco, no."

Those wings of his were a new addition, and he'd yet to fly on them. Hermionewas a big believer in empiricism, but she'd rather not be along for the ride when hetested those feathery accidents waiting to happen.

Ignoring her protests, he stood up, bringing her with him.

"No! I'm terrified of heights! You can't just make me fly; I'm not the flying type. Idon't even like broomsticks! Or Ferris Wheels!" Her screeches echoed around theShrieking Shack, probably only reinforcing the rumours surrounding the place. Theacoustics in the wooden structure were actually quite impressive, especially whenone considered all the dust layering everything and muffling sound.

There would be stories of a new, higher pitched phantom circling Hogsmeadebefore the end of the week.

Draco didn't know what a Ferris Wheel was, but he assumed it was some sort ofround, Muggle flying device; perhaps something similar to a broomstick, but fornon-magical people. His contemplations briefly distracted him while he opened thedoor and pulled the flailing Gryffindor through the doorway. He'd have to ask herwhat a Ferris Wheel was when she was more open to sharing information.

- 217 -

Hermione tried to latch onto the door frame as she passed, but the Veela used hisgreater strength to easily pull her away.

He tried a few experimental flaps, just to get his bearings, but his instincts quicklytook over. After a little jump to get him going, they were airborne, and his mate wasscreaming. Quite impressively actually. The girl had an amazing set of lungs.

His grip on her was firm, and he was careful not to buffet her on the down stroke.If a swan's wing was strong enough to break bone, he didn't want to imagine thedamage his much more powerful wings could do to his delicate mate.

"Hermione, stop screaming. You have your wand, you can stop yourself before youhit the ground. Just breathe, try enjoying the flight. Hell, you might even consideropening your eyes before we get to Hogwarts. There's quite a view from all the wayup here."

Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and she was trying to pretend they weren'thigh above the ground. As long as she didn't look, she could imagine they were onlya metre or so off of the ground and was only mildly panicked. If it weren't for therhythmic whooshing of air as he flapped his wings, she would have been able toconvince herself they were on the ground.

"How is it you managed to fly a broom out of the Room of Requirement whileblasting walls open and being pursued by Fiendfyre, but you can't manage to evenopen your eyes right now? I've got you, you're perfectly safe." He sent her a rush ofcomforting feelings and protectiveness that reassured her more than words evercould have.

Her screaming stopped, but she wasn't much less panicked.

"If I survived walking through the Veil only to die because you dropped me, I'llcome back and poltergeist you," she threatened, cracking one eye open reluctantly.The ground was a long way away.

Sheer force of will kept her from letting out a squeak of terror or just breakingdown and screaming her head off. She nearly missed his laugh and comment of "Iwouldn't want it any other way, love," because she was so focused on the ground. Itreally was awfully far away.

"It's far enough away that you have time to get your wand out and cast a spell tostop your fall before you hit," he said, once again answering her thoughts.

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The Veela may have had a point, but there was always a chance she could pass outfrom fear on the way down.

The constant beating of his wings reminded her of the time in third year when sheand Harry had ridden Buckbeak. Flying with Draco was more like riding a hippogriffthan a broom if she had to liken it to past flying experiences.

"Really? Now you're going to compare me to a hippogriff? What is it with you andcomparing me to animals?" he grumbled, more amused than upset.

"Because half the time, you act like the animals I've seen. Be happy they're fierceanimals at least, Ron once told me my hair reminded him of a Pygmy Puff."

Draco laughed. "And you immediately reminded him of a dragon as you yelled athim for saying something stupid?"

"That goes without saying," she said primly. That had been a particularly bad dayfor her, and Ron had been practically in tears by the time she was done with him.Sometimes running away and finding somewhere quiet to cry about something Ronsaid just wasn't what she wanted to do. Sometimes she just had to chew him out forhis careless and stupid words.

Maybe, if the planets aligned just right, he'd actually learn his lesson one day.

They fell into silence as Hogwarts came into view. It was good to be somewheresafe again.

There were only a few students out on the grounds, but it was the quartetgathered just outside of the Whomping Willow's circle of reach that drew the blond'sattention.

"What's happened that would make Blaise willingly hang out with a bunch ofGryffindors - that bunch in particular? I would have thought he'd have better tastethan that," Draco said with feigned contempt.

Hermione didn't have an answer for him.

They landed several metres behind Ron, Harry, Ginny, and Blaise with a smallthump. Draco lost his balance on impact and they ended up falling over andtumbling down a small incline. They came to a stop at the feet of their friends;Hermione sprawled on top of Draco and both of them laughing. It felt good to be socarefree and happy without the weight of the world on their shoulders, which only

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served to increase their mirth.

"You're going to need to work on your landings," Hermione said.

Someone cleared their throat irritably.

The pair in the grass looked up at the pale faces of their friends, wondering whythey looked so serious.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, starting to get a little worried. They'd only beengone for the night, how could they be so worried after so little time?

"You've been gone for almost a week," Ginny said, looking at them almostaccusingly. "Blaise came and got us when you didn't come back by nightfall that firstday and we went looking for you, but the Shrieking Shack was just... gone. Therewas no sign of it anywhere."

Hermione and Draco shared a look before climbing to their feet. Brushing a deadleaf off of Draco's shoulder, Hermione kept her head still while he pulled a twig fromtheir hair.

"We were kind of... on the other side of the Veil," Hermione started, then shelaunched into the entire explanation - excluding anything remotely personal andDraco's repeated attempts to off himself.

"So the curse is broken?" Harry asked once they were done explaining how they'dwoken up alive in the Shrieking Shack.

"As far as we can tell," Draco said. He was shooting wary glares at Blaise, whowas giving him a strange look in return. "What?" he finally snapped at his friend.

"You nearly died not so long ago, yet I've never seen you happier," Blaise accused.

Shrugging, Draco gave a half smile that unnerved every Gryffindor present saveHermione. Slytherins just weren't supposed to look so happy. They were a brooding,plotting bunch, not prone to merriment and other plebeian pastimes. Draco's smilefilled with joy and love was downright disturbing. It was like seeing a unicornwandering the forbidden forest wearing a tutu and roller-skates; disturbing on manylevels and so very wrong.

"Is anyone else a little worried he's just figured out how to get away with ourmurders?" Ron whispered to Harry and Ginny. His voice carried to all present,

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making Blaise and Draco smirk.

"We figured that out in third year, we just couldn't justify the waste of resourceson someone who could only manage to be a mild nuisance on the best of days,"Draco said to the outspoken redhead.

"Hermione, on the other hand, was a big nuisance, always beating you in classesand even actually punching you in the face once. Yet you never seemed to getaround to getting rid of her," Ginny observed, grinning evilly.

"We all know I'm a bit biased when it comes to Hermione," Draco said. Did theyhonestly expect him to be embarrassed? These Gryffindors obviously still had a thingor two to learn about the loyalty of Slytherins. Hermione was his and he wanted theworld to know.

Eventually, the three Gryffindors went back to the castle to report to theirteachers that the Head students were alive and well, leaving Hermione alone withthe two Slytherins.

"Spit it out," Draco said the moment the retreating trio were out of earshot. Herounded on his friend with a stern look on his face.

Blaise shifted uncomfortably, trying for innocent.

"I've had a long day Blaise, just say it," Draco snapped. He was glad Blaise'sinterference had ended up with him keeping his life and his mate, but he didn't havemuch patience for secrets, particularly the poorly-kept ones.

"Your parents have been notified and are on their way. I'm pretty sure yourmother's going to claw someone's eyes out for letting you off school property andyour father is ready to strangle you for sneakingoff school property and getting caught. I don't think either of them are very happy with you and your dumb ideas...Have fun," Blaise flashed a fake smile and then fled before Draco could hit him.

The blond scowled after his so-called friend.

"May as well get this over with," he sighed, following the rest of them into thecastle, Hermione beside him.

Draco reached over and took Hermione's hand as they walked. "Want to getengaged?" he asked casually without breaking his stride or making eye contact. "Itmight distract my parents from killing me long enough for me to get away if they

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notice a ring on your finger. I'm only asking because you seem so set on keeping mealive," he smirked at her.

Bushy head titled to the side, Hermione tried to figure out if he was kidding. "Youhave a ring?" she asked. Her question hadn't been a serious one; she'd thought shewas being clever in asking to see the ring as if she wanted a look at it before shemade a decision. She smiled slightly at her little joke; like the ring actuallymattered.

He shocked her when he nodded and rifled around in his pocket before producinga beautiful, antique-looking ring. Hermione was almost afraid to touch it because itlooked so delicate. It must have been Goblin made to get that kind of detail andbeauty without it being so fragile that it couldn't be worn.

"Mother must have slipped it into my pocket that day I bit you, I didn't find it untilthe House Elves tried to wash my clothes and showed it to me."

Hermione looked from him to the ring before staring into his eyes. He could havephrased it better, but he was serious about his question. "Okay." She shrugged andheld her hand out to him.

His sharp eyes stared at her hard for a moment, gauging whether she was seriousor not. There was no doubt in her eyes. Before she could change her mind, he tookher delicate hand in his larger one and slipped the ring on the appropriate finger.The band resized itself to fit snugly. It couldn't have fit better if it had been made forher.

The Veela looked shocked that she'd agreed so quickly. He was still blinking at thering on her finger, giving off waves of confusion that were outweighing the spark ofhappiness.

"What?" Hermione asked. "It's not like I had plans to sleep around and make sureyou're right for me. You're it. Why not get engaged?"

She turned her hand back and forth, gazing at the sunlight as it played across thediamonds. Though not one to concern herself with material things, she could stillappreciate the beauty of her new adornment.

Draco watched her for a moment, pleased that she'd agreed. He'd been half-jokingwith the proposal, but she'd seriously said yes, so he wasn't going to look a gifthorse in the mouth and all that. Elation rapidly overtook any other emotion he wasexperiencing.

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"So how are we going to deal with my parents?" he asked.

Tilting her head to the side, Hermione narrowed her eyes in thought. "I wasthinking we could just rush in and surprise them. You could grab your school trunk;throw me at them, shouting something along the lines of 'she agreed to marry me,being fawning'; and then you run. I'll wrap myself around your father's knees tokeep him from following and your mother will have to help untangle me. It shouldbuy you enough time to get off school grounds and Apparate somewhere safe."

At his blank look, she laughed and threaded her left arm through his, angling herhand so that her ring was practically on display to anyone who cared to look. "Howabout we walk in like this and let them come to their own conclusions?"

Draco leaned down to kiss the top of her head, murmuring his agreement.Parentage be damned; she was the most magical person he'd ever met. He onlywished it hadn't taken his Veela side so long to make him see it, and alife-threatening curse to bring them together.

Their bond still had time to go sour, but he was confident they could take anythinglife decided to throw at them - unless she wanted him to go to a Weasleyget-together, then they'd have a problem.

The End

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