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The Objects of Desire	By : Halric Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 24895 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Trials and Tribulations
Zabini's eyes followed Malfoy's every movement, studying him closely. The moment he thought that his concentration was truly else where he drew his wand, "stupefy."
"Protego," a broad smile filled Draco's face as he deflected the curse. The boy has got some balls after all, Draco mused, resolving to keep a closer eye on him.
The dark haired wizard was now standing, panic on his features, "Petrificus..." He voice died as the wand flew from his right hand and landed in Draco's left.
"Zabini, Zabini, Zabini what am I to do with you?" Draco walked around him shaking his head.
"I, I'll be good from now on Draco honest," said the boy his eyes pleading with the other. "You bet you arse you will," scoffed the blonde, "because I'll be watching you like a hawk, one wrong move and I'll come down on you like a ton of bricks." He walked around the boy.
Zambini was looking down at his shoes trying hard not to breakdown. Fighting back tears. "Whose business is it if I chose to court Granger?" "
"Yours Draco," came the quick reply.
"Mine," confirmed The Prince of Slytherin, "and whose concern is it if I see fit to allow Greengrass to date Potter."
"Yours Draco."
"Mine," he confirmed again, "so why are you interfering in my business poking your nose where it does not concern you?"
"I was confused, My loyalties got all twisted about," choked out the young wizard trying to placate his leader."Thank you sir for pointing out the error of my ways."
Draco shuck his head gravely, "you do realize I'm going to have to punish you for this?"
Zabini nodded forlornly.
"You're just lucky that letter never made it to The Dark Lord," he said, stopping and staring at the boy. "Do you know how he would have made me punish you for such and act of disobedience?"
Again the dark haired wizard nodded his head.
"Constringo," he said and thick ropes flew from the end of his wand binding the wizard tightly. "Wingardium Leviosa," he continued and the motioned with his wand until Zabini was floating three feet above the floor of the Owlery. "I'd make myself comfortable," scoffed Draco, "the spell should wear off in about five hours. He turned to leave the room. "Oh I wouldn't get too comfortable though, I dread to think what those owls would do if you ever nodded off."
***
"Sarcina," Said Harry and basket packed itself away neatly. He turned to look at the vision of beauty resting on his chest. "You're cold," he said reaching down to pull her tighter against him.
"I'm fine. We've still got another half an hour till curfew," she said not wanting to break the serene spell of the moment.
He reluctantly rose from the blanket pulling the witch with him. "Come on, I've got to see you back to Slytherin, then drop this off at the kitchens."
She held him closely her eyes full of insecurity. "Promise me you wont change your mind about us, that this is real."
"Daphne you are the best thing that has happened to me in years. I would like nothing more than to stay here for an eternity with you wrapped up in my arms." he said looking at her seriously, his heart breaking at the anxiety that showed in her deep blue eyes. They reminded him of the ocean, the pain looked like waves crashing on the shore on a stormy night. Someone had done a good job of making this girl believe she was not worthy of love. Although it hurt him to keep the reason their relationship started from her he could tell she would not understand. He would be just one more person who was trying to use her.
She flung her arms around his neck and greedily claimed his mouth with hers. Her kiss was full of need and he had to once again reign in his reaction. She needed to be treated with the respect she deserved, not ravaged by some hormonal teenager. They finally broke apart, both of them breathing deeply trying to regain their composure. She smiled up at him sheepishly looking at his reaction. He reached down and kissed her on top of the head, "your my little minx." He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and led her back to the Dungeons.
***
Draco lay against the wall as he watched the happy couple walk along the corridor below. He closed his eyes and damned his current predicament. This bet was supposed to make Potty's life hell, not his. What an evening it had been. He had to discipline one of his best friends while Potter enjoyed a romantic picnic containing one chase kiss and two French kisses. Twenty three points compared to his two. He thought morosely, as he looked at the parchment. No twenty six points they had just shared another kiss, there was no way he was going to share a make-out session like that with the mud blood anytime soon. It looks like I'll have to get used to handing over my families money to The-Sodding-Boy-Who-Fucking-Lived.
He pulled himself from the wall and walked down to the common room. Bloody brilliant Potter was waiting there to rub it in. "Potter," he commented as he walked past.
"Malfoy," said Harry his shoulders tightening as he saw him.
Draco looked at him intently. Why is he so stiff? If I had just had a night like that I would be rubbing his face in it. Two sodding points last night and I still went over to gloat when I saw him today. Draco shook his head as he walked into the common room, "I'll never understand Gryffindors."
***
Harry's head was spinning as the thoughts of the evenings activities ran through his brain. Should he tell her? Would she understand? Would she go running straight to Hermione removing him of his powers? He couldn't risk it. This was not only about him anymore. The whole wizarding world was counting on him to take on Voldemort. If he lost his magical ability he would be letting down everybody. If that's the case, which it seemed to be, should he get close to the young woman? He knew if he spent much more time with her he would definitely lose his heart. Could he risk it breaking if she found out about the bet and did not forgive him? Should he risk destroying the fragile person he had seen over the past few days? She was already so unsure what anybody would see in her, why someone like him would interested in a person like her. He shook his head again. How could she not see what a special person she was. How could she doubt that any man would count himself lucky if she gave him a moment of her time.
Harry found himself back at the portrait of The Fat Lady not remembering going to the kitchen. He schooled his thoughts and put a happy smile on his face.
A smirk filled Hermione's face, "so how did it go?"
He smiled back at her but it didn't reach his eyes.
"What?" she said thinking that he had done something wrong.
"I don't know. She is so insecure, she can't see the wonderful person she is." He ran his hands through his hair. "I'm scared that if I make a mess of this that there is more at stake than my heart."
"She's that fragile?" Asked the young witch, looking at him worriedly.
"Just think of a really nice person being stuck with all the scheming and conniving that goes on in Slytherin." He looked at her with pain evident on his face. "She's just waiting for the punch line, I can't convince her that she is really wonderful."
Hermione smiled at him tenderly. "Just be yourself Harry, treat her the way you treat your friends and she will realize how much you think of her." Poor Harry, thought Hermione, nothing can ever be easy for The-Boy-Who-Lived.
Harry leaned back and closed his eyes. It all sounded so simple, yeah he could make her feel special but they would always have that hammer blow hanging over their heads. If and when she found out this was all a bet she was going to be deeply hurt. And she would never trust him again.
***
Hermione sat in the empty room waiting for Draco to show. Her mind was full of Harry's predicament. Why did he always have to fall for the girls with baggage? She felt for Daphne having to spend her time stuck with the Typical Slytherin males. She smiled slightly. At least she had finally found a decent man, Harry would treat her right and she could put all her insecurities behind her.
She was drawn from her thoughts as she heard the door being opened. She crossed her legs allowing her robes to fall open and her short skirt to ride up high on her shapely thighs. She wrote a paragraph of her transfiguration essay before uncrossing her legs once again hiding the delights of her lower body behind the folds of her school robes. She tried hard to stifle a giggle and she heard a sigh from the door. She turned to look at him, and a shiver ran down her spine as she saw the look of passion in his eyes. "Are you coming in? We've got a conversation to have, remember?" she said looking at him sternly. She had to school her features as his shoulders fell when he realized that he was still in the doghouse
"So?" He said quietly.
"You lied to me," she answered looking at him with a look of disappointment on her face.
"I was desperate to make you happy," he replied not looking at her face. "I know now that you would rather have had the truth than me trying to play to your feelings."
"How do I know that is not a lie?" She countered trying to catch his attention.
"It's not," he said looking her in the eyes he was trying hard to make her believe him.
"It will take more than words this time," she said, "I told you that I was giving you one chance and you abused it." She looked into his eyes hurt shone back at him. "You threw my trust back in my face."
"What do I have to do to prove to you that I've changed?" He said as he gave her a panic-stricken look.
"Firstly you never lie to me again," she looked away from him. "One more lie and I walk."
"I swear.."
"Let me finish," she snapped, "listen to what I have to say, then tell me what you think," she added in a soft voice. "Secondly, you treat me and my friends with the respect we deserve. Not by pretending to like people that you obviously don't, but give them a chance. Hagrid might not be you intellectual equal but he has a heart the size of a mountain. He really knows how to treat people, how to show respect and love, you could learn a great deal from him. Then there is Remus he is the best DADA Professor we have ever had at this school but you put him down for something that happened to him when he was a child. He has a lot to offer, if you show him the respect he deserves he will repay that respect a thousand fold.
"You are asking me to change everything I believe in stop being the person that I am," said somberly.
"The only reason that I am here is because you already promised me that you had changed," she looked deeply into his eyes, "that that person wasn't you, it was the person your father wanted you to be."
He looked at her with his mouth hanging open, shit he thought. "I am trying to change but my father's beliefs are deeply ingrained into the person I am."
"If you are really trying to change then I am prepared to help you," she looked at him, "but this is your last chance."
He smiled at her broadly, "what do we do now?" She looked down at the books in front of her, "Transfiguration and Arithmancy."
***
Draco sat down with a heavy heart. When he walked through the door and saw a glimpse of her long shapely legs he thought that he had got away with his mistake from the previous day, but no such luck. He would have to spend the next few evenings trying to rebuild the fragile trust he had gained from Hermione. Merlin this is going to be boring sitting here listening to The-Gryffindor-Know-It-All spout off what she had been told about the subjects, as if you could really learn about magic from what you read in a book.
Soon they had finished their two essays and were sitting quietly wait for the other to speak, "I was thinking of taking an extra credit in potions I was wondering if you would like to make it a joint project?"
"What's the subject?" He asked looking her in the eyes. "A shielding potion for the Cruciatus Curse," she replied her enthusiasm written all over her face.
He sighed deeply. Trust the mud blood to come up with an impossible task. And he couldn't even tell her how bloody stupid the idea was because he was trying to be nice. "It can't be done." He answered cautiously, "Flamel spent half his life trying to create a potion that would halt the effects of the Cruciatus Curse. The closest he got was creating a potion that dammed the nervous system, yes it stopped the curse from working but it also placed the recipient in a coma."
"He wasn't that far wrong, the problem with his work was that he completely shutdown the nervous system stopping any information from reaching the brain..."
"You can't just dam up the nervous system the body would shut down without information to and from the brain," he said frustrated. Who did this mud blood think she was? The greatest pureblood potions masters in history had attempted to solve this problem and had given up. How the hell did she expect to solve it? For Merlin's sake she wasn't even a half blood.
"The nervous system is a two way conduit from the brain to the body, there are millions of little nerves placed across the whole body passing information to and from the brain." She drew a sketchy Diagram of the nervous system. "The information is sent by electrical impulse and every message has a different wave length. What we have to do is pinpoint the wave length of the curse and filter out that information." She drew a typical sign curve showing the frequency of an electrical pulse.
This couldn't be true. She was spouting muggle medical theories here. If this was true it meant that muggles knew more about the human body that the greatest medi-wizards throughout history. This couldn't be true, but if he stated that then he would have to admit what he thought of muggles and the game would be up completely.
He couldn't wait for Snape to see her hypothesis, hell it was worth his involvement just to see his house master tear a strip of the jumped up Know-It-All, "I'll do it as long as Snape agrees."
"Professor Snape," she corrected, "you agreed to treat people with the respect they are due."
"You respect Sn, Professor Snape," he scoffed.
"I must say that some of his methods are archaic but he is a professor and thus worthy of my respect," she said in the same spiel she gave Harry and Ron before she found out he was spying for The Order.
He smiled at her naivety. What would she say if she found out Snape was a Death Eater and only tolerated her so that he could gain information on The Headmaster for The Dark Lord. "We'll put together a proposal and take it to Professor Snape and see what he says. If he gives it the go ahead then we have a deal."
She smiled at him broadly. "We will have to work on the assignment outside of the school. The only way we can find out the frequency of the curse is by using muggle scientific equipment. Then we can replicate that frequency to test the potion ingredients ability to block that specific wave."
"Muggle scientific equipment," he scoffed, "what do muggles know about potions?"
"Not a lot," she agreed, "but the equipment they use for testing medicines would work equally as well on potions. It would be childish to ignore their technologies just because they are muggle." She smiled to herself, she had been saving the idea of using muggle medical equipment to develop and test potions for her doctorate but if she could use the start of this process to prove to Malfoy that muggles are not useless, stupid, and uneducated, then this project would be well worth it. If it could also aid in the fight against Voldemort by rendering one of his favourite curse's useless all the better.
A smirk played across Hermione's face as she worked on the proposal, pretending to be oblivious of the fact that he hadn't taken his eyes of her for the past ten minutes. A shiver ran down his spine as her tongue slowly played across her lips making them glisten in the light of the candles. The little minx, he thought, she's playing with me. Her left leg once again crossed her right allowing the robe to cascade over her lower curves leaving them on show to his greedy eyes.
Has she forgiven me? He thought, maybe my willingness to work on her muggle science project has fooled her into believing that I can be trusted? If I'm reading the signs right I'm about to get my first kiss he thought his heart racing ten to the dozen. He positioned himself so that he could gain easy access to her lips without making his actions too obvious. His mouth went dry as he leaned in slowly inching his way towards her lips. He couldn't believe how much this meant to him, how much he longed to taste her sweet rosy lips, to explore her soft warm mouth. He was nearly there only a few more inches. He could almost taste her flesh, and then she turned her head, he pulled back quickly to avoid kissing her hair.
Damn the little mud blood. How could she do this to him? How could a piece of worthless trash like that make him fell such a fool. He felt like a five year old waiting for Christmas morning. He tried to steel his emotions, to reign in his over flowing lust, she would be his of that he was sure, if it took some time so be it. This wasn't just about a bet anymore. Draco Malfoy never walked away from a challenge.
An hour later their proposal was complete. "There is still an hour to curfew we could take the proposal to the professor tonight and give him time to think about it before our lesson tomorrow," said Draco a big grin filling his lips, thinking of the sarcastic comments Snape would throw at her for even contemplating such a project, This would be perfect payback for making him feel a fool. .
***
Hermione stood outside the potion classroom, Draco's presence beside her was strangely comforting. She breathed in deeply as she rapped on the door.
"Enter," came the usual response. Hermione took another deep breath and opened the door. She stopped as she saw the headmaster leaning over professor Snape's shoulder.
"Ahh! Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy please come in. So good to see that the inter house relations between Slytherin and Gryffindor are finally picking up." Enthused Professor Dumbledore.
"What can I do for you?" Asked Snape with a heavy exaggerated sigh.
"We had a joint project that we planned for extra credit," she looked between the potions master and the headmaster. "But if you are busy we could come back tomorrow."
"Nonsense my dear girl," replied Dumbledore, "it's always a pleasure to see the projects that the upper classes are contemplating.
Hermione smiled, "we were thinking of developing a potion to shield from the effects of a Cruciatus Curse."
"I'm afraid that is impossible," replied the headmaster, looking at her with a hint of an apology on his face. "Some of the greatest potions masters throughout history have attempted it and all failed miserably."
A smug smile filled Malfoy's face the headmaster putting down his shining example of how well muggles could be trained to act like real wizards and witches.
"I know sir," she replied, "it was Flamel's potion we were thinking of modifying." Then she went into her presentation about the use of muggle medical equipment to pinpoint the frequency of the curse, making it easier to filter out. Dumbledore looked at her with a shocked expression on his face. Hermione's chest swelled with pride. It wasn't very often that someone left the headmaster speechless.
"You really think that by using this muggle equipment you could create an effective filter?"
Hermione nodded vigorously. "The whole process hinges on my belief that the curse will have the same frequency independent of who casts the spell. If that is the case then we should eventually be able to find an effective filter."
The headmaster turned to Snape, "Would you mind if I sat in on this project? Flamel is an old friend of mine and it would be a pleasure to finally see his work put to good use."
"You really believe this project has merit?" Asked the potions master, goggling at the headmaster with disbelief.
"That will only become apparent when we find out if every Cruciatus Curse is the same," replied the headmaster.
"Be my guest," said Snape, "but you do realize that the project will have to be sanctioned by the Minster herself?"
"I'm sure Amelia will see the benefit of the research and be only to willing to give it her full backing," replied Dumbledore, he turned to Hermione, "I've got a meeting with the minister tomorrow would you mind if I took the proposal with me?"
"I would be honored," replied Hermione awe-struck to think that Albus Dumbledore himself would take an interest in her project, this was the stuff dreams were made of.
***
The bloody old fool fumed Malfoy as he stalked back to The Slytherin common room. What the hell was he going to do now? If he backed out now he would almost certainly lose the bet, but if he carried on with the project he would be working on a way to shield The Dark Lords favorite toys.
Sod it if this ever got back he would be dead. Unless he told his Aunt that he had agreed to take part in an effort to insure the potion would not work. Brilliant! That was it, he would say that he was a saboteur in the ranks and he wouldn't have to do a thing. Muggle science indeed. A broad smile filled his face, it would be fun watching the know-it-all fall flat on her arse.
***
I have given Latin names to some of the spells not named in the books.
constringo: to bind, confine, restrain. for the binding charme.
sarcina : bundle, pack, burden, load for packing things way
The project is based on my nonmedical understanding of the nervous system, my apologies if I have anything wrong.
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The Objects of Desire