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A Slow Seduction	By : MoonlightVision Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 56424 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK's world and characters. I do not make any profit from this.

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
A/N: Here you go, another one!! Enjoy and let me know what you think!!

Chapter 8
Draco felt like the day was dragging on forever. It was finally the last class of the day and he was moodily leaning against the back wall of the classroom watching Granger run around with Professor Flitwick helping the sixth years practise the wand movements for the charms they'd learned the other day in their Magical Construction and Protection class.
He was upset with himself, he almost bloody kissed Granger last night. It was way too early in his plans to afford slip ups like that. He had no idea what had come over him, other than the idea of her acting out some of the things in his book had actually really caught his interest. But he was supposed to have more control than that.
He watched her lean over a students desk, helping him adjust the grip on his wand. She had abandoned her robes at her desk so he had a great view of her legs, enhanced by the fact that her skirt rode up slightly as she leaned in.
Angrily shaking himself, he launched off the wall and berated the closest student to him, “You're doing it wrong, it's a slow twist to the left. That's your right.”
The student, a girl from Ravenclaw, blushed and muttered under her breath, something that sounded like 'git'.
“What? Sorry, I didn't quite hear you,” he sneered, “Aren't Ravenclaw's at least supposed to know their left from their right? I thought you lot were supposed to be smart.”
“Malfoy!”
He whirled to find Granger standing right behind him. When the hell had she come over?
“You're supposed to be helping, not making them feel bad,” she admonished, hands on her hips.
“Well, I wouldn't have to if they weren't all so stupid,” he hissed.
He heard her gasp, “Malfoy!!” she rushed towards him and pulled him to the back of the class, “you can't say things like that!”
Wrenching his arm out of her hand he glowered at her, “I'll say what I want, Granger, and I'll thank you to keep your nose out of it.”
“No, I will not. Not this time. Not if you are going to be mean to the younger students.”
“Always the saint aren't you?” folding his arms over his chest he regarded her coolly. Wishing she would just leave him alone, he continued, “Look, you clearly have this under control, so I'll just go.”
Granger looked startled, “What? No... Malfoy, you can't just leave. Professor McGonagall is counting on us to help.”
He grit his teeth, “Then you'd better figure out a way to get me out of this because I am seriously about to snap.”
“I am not making excuses for you, Malfoy, so just suck it up, deal with whatever it is that has you in a huff and get back to work,” she hissed under her breath, shooting Flitwick a glance as the small wizard started in their direction.
“Forget it,” he muttered, grabbing his bag he turned towards the door.
“Malfoy!” he heard her whisper imploringly.
He ignored her and kept walking. He needed to think, and he needed space to do that. He couldn't focus on anything when she was there, taunting him with her goody-two shoes ways.
Just as he reached the door he over heard Flitwick questioning her about where he was going. He just managed to hear her reply something about 'headache' and 'hospital wing' before the door closed after him. So she was going to cover for him after all? That was interesting.
Several minutes later Draco stopped short, suddenly realizing where he had been heading. He stared at the stairs in front of him. The stairs to the astronomy tower. He used to go there all the time to think. But this time he couldn't, he couldn't make himself climb those stairs.
Turning on his heels he stormed in the opposite direction, all the way down to the entrance hall and out into the cool fall air. Heading towards the lake he silently fumed. How could she make him so mad? She hadn't even done anything!
He found a tree that had a good view of the lake and sat with his back to the trunk, the castle forgotten behind him. Leaning his head back on the wood he sighed. How could one small fact put a wrench in his plans so monumentally. She was with Weasley, so what? That shouldn't stop him from tormenting her. But he knew it would.
It'd been less than a week and he could already tell he'd gotten as far as he could if that git stayed in the picture. There was no way she'd even begin to consider the fact that she may be attracted to him if she was still with Weasley. Damn her and her loyalty.
Draco rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He chuckled darkly, at least this meant she hadn't had to lie to Flitwick after all. She really could do no wrong it seemed. Which is why he needed to figure out how to remove the Weasel from her life. She would never leave him, that much was clear.
A thought suddenly struck him and he inhaled sharply. Natasha! Natasha was in London, and she owed him a favour. Draco laughed smuggly, knowing that this would be right up her alley. It was perfect!
In much higher spirits he sauntered back up to the castle, grabbed parchment and quill from his room and quickly headed to the owlery. He wanted this done before class ended, so that there was no way she would ever catch him. Because he had a sneaky suspicion that as soon as class was over Granger would be on the hunt for him.
---**---
Hermione stood in the middle of the library, at a loss as to where to look next. She couldn't find Malfoy anywhere! She'd been looking ever since class ended. She told herself she was looking for him to demand an explanation of why he acted the way he did in class earlier. And why he had stormed out.
Peering around the bookshelves as she made another round through the library she questioned herself, again, on whether or not this was a good idea. Seeking him out. Surely he'd read something into it and his preposterous theory that she was obsessed with him.
Satisfied that he wasn't there after all, she left the library and headed towards their dorm. He hadn't been there earlier, and if he was in his room he wasn't answering her knocking. He also hadn't been at dinner. But it really was the best place to wait for him, since he lived there.
Caught up in her musing, she didn't hear someone calling her name until a hand tapped her on the shoulder. Spinning around she found Ginny and Luna giving her odd looks.
“Hermione, are you okay?” Ginny asked, “Didn't you hear us calling you?”
“I... no, sorry, I'm fine.”
“You looked very intent on something, have you lost something important to you?” Luna queried, tilting her head to peer at Hermione sideways.
“No, I haven't...” Hermione started.
“Are you sure?” Luna interrupted gently, “You really look as if you'd lost something.”
Hermione sighed, “To be honest I was looking for Malfoy.”
Ginny scowled and Luna laughed softly her eyes sparkling, “You've lost Malfoy? How funny!”
It was Hermione's turn to scowl, “I've not lost him, I just can't find him.”
Ginny finally piped up, “Why exactly do you need to find him? I thought you were working on ignoring him?”
Hermione glanced down the hall as two students rounded the corner and headed towards them, “That's easier said than done, Gin. Do you guys want to come to my room for a bit, I could use some company and we can talk more privately there.”
Luna's face lit up, “Oh, that would be nice. I've been wanting to see your dorm ever since Ginny told me about it.”
“Gin?”
Ginny nodded, “Let's go then.”
As soon as they were through the portrait hole, Ginny turned on Hermione, her hands on her hips, “Now are you going to tell us why you were looking for Malfoy? Or do we need to pry it out of you?!”
Hermione held up her hands in mock surrender, “It's not what you think, Ginny. Though I'm not sure what you think the reason is...” she trailed of momentarily, wondering why her friend was getting so upset. “I wanted to ask him about something that happened this afternoon. He got really angry in our last class, the one we're supposed to be helping with.”
Moving to the couch she sat down and pulled her legs up under her as she filled them in on what had occurred this afternoon. Ginny followed her to the couch, taking a seat and Luna grabbed one of the silver pillows and placed it on the floor, sitting cross legged on it.
“Merlin, Malfoy really is a huge arse isn't he?” Ginny said upon hearing the whole story, “He hasn't changed at all!”
Hermione shrugged, pulling a pillow into her lap and hugging it, “I don't know, there are times I think he has, times he's almost nice. And there are times he's actually been really helpful, as far as head boy and girl stuff goes. But other times he's the same, just as mean as he was before. And I don't know which one is the real him, or if they are all the real him... I just don't know what to think anymore.”
“That's why I'm saying you should just ignore him,” Ginny said patting her arm, “I know you can't the whole time, what with all your extra duties and such, but every other time when it's possible.”
Reading between what her friend was saying, Hermione guessed at what she was really trying to say, “You don't think I should confront him about what happened today. Do you?”
“Honestly, no,” Ginny continued, “I think it has you so worked up worrying about how he's going to act and what he's going to say that you are going to wear yourself out. You can't control him, 'Mione, so why bother trying.”
“What do you think, Luna?” Hermione turned to her other friend, as she hugged the pillow tighter. Maybe Ginny was right, maybe she should just let this go. She wouldn't get in trouble for how Malfoy chose to act in classes, so why did she care?
Luna shrugged, “I think Ginny, may have a point. If you worry too much about the actions of others, not just Malfoy, you will be exhausted.”
Hermione sighed, she already was exhausted, “I suppose you're right. It's just going to be so hard, I hate it when he's mean to others.”
“Tell a teacher,” Ginny suggested, “It doesn't fall on your shoulders to make him behave.”
Hermione blinked, why hadn't she thought of that? She certainly could have told Professor Flitwick the truth this afternoon, but the thought had never even occurred to her. Instead she had covered for him, thinking it would make her look bad if the teachers found out he was slacking. But her friends were right. It wouldn't make her look bad. She wasn't in charge of Malfoy. How he acted was his own concern.
“I think it's because you miss Harry and Ron,” Luna stated simply, causing both Hermione and Ginny to stare at her blankly.
“Well, obviously I do, but what does that have to do with this?” Hermione asked. She had no idea where Luna was going with this.
“Well,” the other girl said, settling onto her stomach on the floor, the pillow under her chest, “when the boys where here you had to cover for them all the time. They would do or say something less than intelligent and you were the one that had to do damage control.”
Still not entirely sure where this was going, Hermione shrugged, “Sure, but what does that have to do with Malfoy and what's happening now?”
“Think about it. You spent almost all of your time with Harry and Ron. They drove you crazy sometimes, you got mad at them, you shouted, but you were always there for them when it mattered. It only seems logical that since Malfoy is the guy you are now spending most of your time with, because of your head duties and living together, that you might be trying to fit him into the spot in your life that the boys are missing from.”
Hermione's brain was racing. Was that what she was doing? She could maybe see where Luna had got the idea. Apart from Ginny and Luna, Malfoy was the person she had spent the most time with so far this year. And she couldn't deny that some of the situations he'd put her in did remind her of Harry and Ron getting into trouble and turning to her for a way out. But for Malfoy to replace the boys! Was that even possible?
Ginny chewed her lip hesitantly before speaking, “You did always feel responsible for Harry and Ron... and tried to stop them from making dumb decisions...”
Hermione groaned, “So you're saying I'm feeling responsible for Malfoy's decisions because the boys aren't here so I need to project that onto someone... and he's the nearest replacement?”
Luna smiled, “Well, Ginny and I would never make dumb decisions, so that rules us out.”
“Fine,” Hermione raised her hands in surrender, “fine, I get it. I'll try not to project my need for control onto Malfoy,” she said sarcastically.
“And?” Ginny hinted.
Hermione sighed, “And I will try my best to ignore him outside of head duties. Satisfied?”
“Perfectly!” Ginny grinned.
---**---
Draco had managed to avoid Granger for the remainder of the week and even over the weekend. He wasn't sure how, but he had. He had been absolutely sure he was going to get an ear full about how he'd acted Thursday afternoon in class, but here it was, Monday afternoon and she hadn't said more than a dozen things to him. She'd only talked to him when they needed to in class, or in preparation for this evenings prefect meeting. Other than that she'd spent most of her free time with her friends, or locked away in her room. To be fair, Draco had also spent a lot of time in his room, for several reasons.
First off, he didn't want to be chewed out about his actions. He got enough of that at home, he didn't need it here too, and he certainly didn't need it from Granger. Secondly, he decided he needed to back off his plan to seduce her slightly, at least until he had a better plan. He needed to be in control, which meant he couldn't afford to be opening up to her or wanting to kiss her on a passing whim.
He'd spent a good chunk of his weekend with Maya, something that he found equally surprising and enjoyable. The little chit really was growing on him. They'd practised charms for several hours, but they had also just sat and talked.
Maya had told him all about her family, how she was the oldest, so was supposed to set an example for her younger twin siblings. Which was hard for her, since by the time they turned 6 last month, they were already better at magic than she had been at that age. He learned that her father was constantly disappointed in her, but her mother and grandmother, believed in her wholeheartedly and refused to even think that she might not get into Hogwarts.
Draco couldn't help how his heart had hurt a bit when she'd mentioned a father that was constantly disappointed. He knew that feeling all too well.
After that conversation, he'd vowed to himself to help her as much as he could that year, and not just to try to gain Granger's attention. If it meant that maybe her father would be proud of all she had accomplished in her first year, it would be worth it.
They'd moved on to flying after that, which resulted in them both being exhausted by Sunday night. He had never met someone who was as terrible at flying as Maya. He had to bite his tongue so many times to keep from yelling at her to just lean slightly when she wanted to turn. She kept throwing her whole body into it and ended up spinning in circles! Last time they'd just flown straight, so he hadn't been aware of how difficult this was going to be.
Between helping Maya and sneaking to the owlery in the early morning hours he was not as caught up on sleep as he wanted to be. He almost stumbles through the portrait hole, he was that tired. Draco grimaced internally when he noticed Granger standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed across her chest, foot taping. Was he finally going to hear about Thursday?
“Good, you're here. Finally!” she turned, grabbing her book bag, “Let's go.”
Draco narrowed his eyes at her, “Go where, Granger?”
She actually had the audacity to roll her eyes at him, “To the prefects meeting, Malfoy. That's tonight, or had you forgotten?”
He groaned silently, he had totally forgotten, but he wasn't about to let her know that. “Of course I didn't forget, I just didn't need to spend as long preparing for it as you did. All we're doing is going over the patrol schedule.”
“We still should be there early, in case anyone has questions,” she explained, obviously trying to remain calm.
“Let them ask their questions after, I'm sure they'll have some after we explain the schedule. May as well answer all of them at one time. Less work for us that way,” he shrugged his book bag off his shoulder and put it in the arm chair.
“That's not the point, Malfoy,” Granger huffed, “if you'd wanted to do less work this year why did you even accept the head boy position?”
“I accepted,” he stated evenly, as he crossed the room to stand directly in front of her, “because I refuse to take orders from anyone beneath me, yourself included.”
He relished the way she leaned slightly away from him and a faint pink tinge stained her cheeks. He had no idea if it was from his proximity to her or because of the words he'd just said, or both. He didn't really care. He watched as she schooled her features into a mask that hid how she was really feeling. But not before he saw the flash of hurt cross her eyes.
“Whatever, are you ready, or not?” she asked, stepping around him and making her way to the door.
Draco rubbed his face, sighing, “Yeah, I'll be there in five minutes.”
“Good.”
---**---
True to his word, five minutes after she arrived at the Transfiguration classroom Malfoy showed up. He wordlessly came over to her and took half of the stack of parchments from her. She had made copies of the schedule for each prefect and was placing them on every desk.
She felt his hand brush against hers as he took them and she tried not to think about it. Tried not to think about how it'd been days since he'd done anything that involved physical contact with her at all. She didn't miss it. She was relieved, in fact, that he hadn't tried anything else. She gave a small start when she realized he hadn't done anything except avoid her since the night he'd caught her reading his book. The night she thought he had wanted to kiss her. The night she'd very clearly told him nothing was going to happen between them.
Was that all it had taken? Her basically rejecting him? And if so, why? She paused as she put her last piece of paper down, watching him finish with his stack. Had he actually been interested in her? She knew he'd been flirting with her, sure, but even that had been to get a rise out of her. Hadn't it? Malfoy would never stoop so low as to actually want her... a muggle born. Would he?
“You're staring at me again, Granger.”
Hermione shook herself and headed to the front of the room, “Just making sure you're doing your job.”
She heard him scoff, “Right... whatever you say. We both know the truth.”
She couldn't help it, she rounded on him, “For gods sake, Malfoy, I am not obsessed with you!”
He winked as the first prefects stared to file in, “Keep telling yourself that, Granger. I know you're lying.”
- 7
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- 9
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A Slow Seduction