Muggle In Hogwarts

Chapter Nine.

'Hermsy!' he said dashing after her in the corridor to the Great Hall. 'Wait up!' he called. She turned around, facing his rapidly nearing form, admiring his lean, slightly muscular body, and how his pale blond hair looked as soft as silk even when it was disheveled. She blinked several times looking at the floor. Draco caught up with her quite easily.

'Hi,' she said, looking up into his pale-gray eyes. He looked agitated, as if he had been running to catch her and not just because breakfast hour was ending. She bit back a groan and smiled at him. His eyes seemed to light up with the unbelievably gorgeous curve of a smile on his lips.

'Hi there,' he said brightly, not really knowing what he'd say next, though not really caring. It wasn't as if his brain was able to think when he was near her, least of all an excuse. She looked beautiful, as always. Her brown hair loosely around her shoulders in gentle waves, her robe (which was tighter this year) showing off the change between the nerdy-stuck-up eleven year-old girl he had seen on the Hogwarts Express and the nerdy-stuck-up sixteen year-old she was now.

'Going to get breakfast?' she asked him, startling him out of his thoughts.

'Yeah,' he said. 'Care to join me?' he asked. She pretended to think about it. She had a wicked plan. Simple and surely quite effective plan that would tell Draco exactly what she felt for him.

'Hmm,' she said, doing as if she were pondering about it. Draco grabbed her arm and, turning away from her, seemed about to guide her to the Great Hall. Taking this opportunity she whipped him around quickly making him face her, took his face and gently and shortly made their lips meet. As their lips brushed she could feel sparks and electricity coming off of his lips and onto hers and through her body. Just as quickly she pulled away and turned to leave Draco.

'Thanks, but now I'm full!' she called as she disappeared from sight. As soon as she knew Draco couldn't see her she sat down and licked her burning lips. If only Draco had felt it too! She'd see soon enough. She left for the Library to get some of her work done.

Draco stood rooted to his place. The thought just wouldn't reach his brain. She loved him! Or at least she liked kissing him. Well, either one was fine with him. And it wasn't just because he had mistletoe on top of his head. He looked up to double check. He shivered as it finally hit bottom. She kissed him?! Hermione "Boys-Are-Like-Dungbombs:-Their-Only-Purpose-Is-To-Make-A-Mess " Granger had made the first step? Wow! She sure had changed. "And she sure knows how to kiss!" he said licking his dry lips and swallowing convulsively. Slowly he walked to the Great Hall, numbly remembering he had wanted breakfast. As usual, Harry and Ron were still eating.

'You guys are going to end up as fat as ... as Dudley if you don't stop this routine,' he commented sitting down next to them. Ron looked up at him, a wide smile on his strawberry-pie full mouth.

'Ugh. Pretty,' Harry commented laughing. Draco looked at him smiling, though he wasn't really in it. He just grabbed everything he could get his hands on and started eating, without really noticing what it was.

'Uh, Harry?' came Ron's confused voice, as Draco was about to put something else in his mouth. 'Have you seen the dungbombs we had left over there? I know they were on the table just a couple minutes ago.' Draco was about to swallow without chewing but ended up spitting everything in his mouth on the plate.

'What?' he asked disbelieving, turning to Harry and Ron, finding them wearing identical maliciously mischievous grins. He shook his head. 'And that's why I'm not surprised to know you're the twins brother.' Harry and Ron laughed, as Ron took a bag half-full of dungbombs. He was grinning sheepishly as he showed it for Draco to see.

'Well, you didn't react when Ron said that for your next birthday he'll bake a giant cake, get in and surprise you with your own private striptease; so we thought drastic measures should be taken.' They shrugged. 'Next time, I'd take a more careful look into what I ate now that we're about to get the special Spice-Sauce Potion, trademark of WWW.' Ron and Harry sniggered.

'You wouldn't,' Draco said disbelieving, though he knew them well enough to know they definitely would ... and will, next time he spaced off.

'Of course we wouldn't,' said Ron falsely, as he got up from the table while all the dishes started to disappear. Harry got up too.

'We just might fall down while you're not looking and accidentally spill it all over your food,' Harry added matter-of-factly. 'By the way. Ceci said to ask you to meet her in her room right after you finished breakfast.' Draco lifted an eyebrow.

'Really? Did she say what for?' he asked curiously. His past experiences of being alone with Cecilia hadn't been exactly what you call pleasant. Harry shook his head.

'I guess you'll just have to go and find out, won't you?' he asked grinning wickedly. Draco rolled his eyes at the ceiling. The three left for the Common Room, Ron and Harry making fun of Draco.

Ingenuita's pace became more and more nervous as the minutes ticked by. She had asked that Harry guy to tell Draco she was waiting and still no sign of him. Just then he appeared. And quite hesitantly entered the room.

'What is it, Ceci?' he asked, trying to keep his cool. He looked into Cecilia's eyes, normally either green or brown, but now her irises were suspiciously purple. 'Is something the matter?' he asked, a bit more concerned about himself than for his friend.

'No, nothing's wrong at all,' she purred covering the small distance between them in a couple of long strides, holding both his arms firmly down. She started whispering coaxingly. Draco felt his self control slip away as he saw everything in a third plane. He was seeing himself hold Cecilia tenderly, and kiss her. Cecilia returned the kisses with much force and passion. And he realized that so did he. She liked his lower lip and he opened his mouth moaning against her. He looked horror stuck until snapping out of it and starting to fight to control his senses again, all the while trying to ignore that his tongue was in quite an awkward place. Just when he was about to regain the domination of his body the door opened, to reveal a rapidly paling face with a small mouth in a round "o".

'Come on, Candor. You love me, right? Come kiss me,' she heard herself say coaxingly at Draco. In a second his eyes glazed over and then became firm again, and she and he started to kiss. "Stop that, Ingenuita! Right this instant!" she shrieked into her brain, trying to make herself stop. She was still totally powerless when Ingenuita decided to take the lead. And this usually meant that Candor would appear in Draco though Candor and Ingenuita still hadn't meet. "Till now," she thought grimly as she heard in her brain Ingenuita's faint moans of pleasure. She tried to fight but couldn't resist the taste of Draco's tongue in her mouth liking her lips playing with her own tongue, examining her mouth. Just before she could give up the door opened. Had she been in domination of her body than she would have fainted.

Hermsy hummed softly with a couple of books in her arms, thinking of the sweet kiss she had shared with Draco. "Ok, OK," she corrected herself, "you gave Draco." This thought, though new, pleased her immensely. "The second kiss you gave Draco," she reminded herself. Just then she frowned wondering why Draco hadn't commented about it before. "Must have been the Cheer-Chops that had been slipped into her food. Oh well," she said waving it away.

She was very thankful she had another day of vacation before school started again or she'd have serious trouble trying to go to classes and thinking of Draco the whole time. At least it was possible that after a little while she might forget what his lips felt like "or," she thought smiling cattily.

"I'll kiss him so many times it won't seem so special then." She skipped happily up to the Common Room racing so as to tell Cecilia all about it, since it had actually been her idea after all. She opened the door. She paled and her mouth formed a little "o" trying to get a sound out.

"INGENUITA! You better stop right this minute or I'll get VERY pissed off!!"' Cecilia yelled into her head. Ingenuita looked Hermsy over and immediately followed the orders given to her. Cecilia pulled away at the same time Draco did. He had finally been able to control Candor and bolted through the door in hot-pursuit of Hermsy who had fled, tears streaming down her cheeks. Cecilia groaned. This was absolutely horrible. "He still kisses GREAT even for his old age!" she heard Ingenuita comment in the back of her mind.

'Try that again Ingenuita and I'll off myself just to get revenge!' Cecilia said hotly.

'Well sooooooorry!' came her voice, seemingly very offended. 'But if I'm not much mistaken you were enjoying it as well.' Cecilia became very angry.

'Ingenuita, must I remind you that Hermione's my very best friend and if you dare hurt her again you and I are taking separate ways. Me to heaven and you to hell. Is that quite clear?' she said fiercely, purposefully ignoring the second part of her statement. She saw Ingenuita nod, though she seemed quite cross. The bond between them was getting stronger every day. They knew what each other were feeling and everything they thought, too. They used to joke that they had their own mobile "roommate". Cecilia even had a mental image of Ingenuita and could see all the gestures she made though most of them were quite rude. For example right at that moment. Cecilia rolled her eyes and ignored her.

'Come on, Ces! I was just having some fun! You are so stiff! I do one little thing and you're all ready to blow up!' said Ingenuita pouting. Cecilia, worn out, threw herself on her bed to take a small nap. Very soon she'd have to continue following Harry around. She really didn't complain about this fact, except for the fact that Harry was acting kind of strange lately. She couldn't pinpoint out what, but she had a strong suspicion to what it was.

She sighed pushing those thoughts out of her mind. The only thing she hoped right that moment was for Draco to have calmed Hermione down. She bit her lip, and snuggled under her bed covers. Falling asleep almost immediately.

'Hermione!' Draco called after her dashing to catch up. She couldn't stop tears from leaking from her eyes, no matter how hard she fought them back. Finally her legs gave in under her weight and she just sat where she was, hiding her face in her hands. Draco reached her two seconds later, panting. He kneeled beside her and took several deep breaths. After he had calmed down a bit he reached out for her hesitantly. She angrily pulled back at his touch trying to get him away from her by hitting him with her fists. He grabbed both her wrists to stop from being injured any more.

'Hermione,' he breathed, hurt showing all over his face. She shook her head impatiently, partially to get her hair out of her face and partially to stop herself from looking into his eyes.

'How could you?' she asked, her voice cracked with emotion. She felt hurt, disappointed. She just didn't understand how she could have gotten his signals so utterly wrong. She had been so sure! It was a long fall down from where her high hopes had climbed. Tears kept sliding down her cheeks as she tried not to look into his eyes.

'I didn't. Please believe me, Hermione. It-it ...' he sighed heavily in exasperation, causing Hermsy to look up, hope shimmering in her eyes. What if...? But it was too much to hope for. What if he told her it was when it really wasn't? Draco took a deep breath and summoned all his nerve.

'Candor can come through to here by me, and Ingenuita, his wife remember, can come back through Cecilia. Please believe me that it was all a giant mix up.' He looked at her imploringly. She wanted so much to believe this but felt too uncertain.

'And the two just happened to come through at the same time in the same room?' she asked skeptically, the logic and rational part of her mind taking over for a split second before disappearing again into darkness. Draco looked at her longingly and desperately.

'Ingenuita took charge and told Harry and Ron to tell me to meet Cecilia in her room. Said she had something important to tell me.' He sighed again. 'As soon as I went in the room She jumped on me and I'm not sure what she did, but she made Candor pass through. I'I just didn't ...' He paused, struggling for the words.

'How could you?' she said, repeating her initial question, more softly this time. 'I thought you liked me and then you go and snog with my best friend and-' that was as far as she could get without tears spilling down her face. Draco looked at her painfully.

'I do like you. I more than like you. I almost think I...' he paused and looked right into her eyes. She melted at the look of so much caring and love in his eyes. '...I think I love you,' he finished softly. 'What happened back there had no meaning because it wasn't me. It's you I'm in love with.'

'Promise?' she asked haltingly. Draco looked at her, sincerity plain on his features.

'Yes. Promise,' he said, looking at her straight in the eye. Draco lowered her arms, still holding her wrists, but more tenderly and gently than before. His fingers let go of their grasp upon her and trailed their way up her arms to her neck, cupping her face and gently pulling her near him for a sweet but short kiss. She didn't respond, but didn't pull away either. After the tender brush of lips, Draco drew back looking mesmerized at her still closed eyes. He got up ready to leave, to give her time alone to think or whatever she wanted to do, when suddenly he felt her arms around his waist, and her lips on his neck, giving him small butterfly kisses. He turned around and kissed Hermsy on the lips, licking her lips, tasting her, as he wrapped his arms around her waist, and she threw hers around his neck feeling his hair, messing with it. Draco's hands explored her back pulling her closer to him with every movement. She crushed his body against hers, responding fervently and passionately to his kisses. Hermsy lowered her arms to his neck as Draco pushed her closer, both trying to pass the invisible distance between them as their mouths opened under each other and they let their tongues meet.

'Uh! Naughty naughty you'll get caughty!!' they heard a voice call to them in between their desperately passionate kisses. They both turned around, expecting to see Peeves hanging above them with a malicious glint in his eyes and a wicked smile playing upon his lips. Both were surprised to see malicious glints and wicked smiles, but on Harry's and Ron's faces. Hermsy turned beet red, but didn't let go of Draco. Draco smiled impishly back at them. Harry and Ron nudged each other grinning.

'You two are disgusting,' Ron said, chuckling. Right then Hermsy noticed that Harry had been holding Ron's arm, because he suddenly let go. She looked at them suspiciously. Draco groaned.

'What did you guys just do?!' he asked at the two boys with mock-desperation. They looked back, fairly confused.

'We were having a great time-' he started saying.

'We can see that,' Harry snorted, making Ron laugh and Hermsy blush even more.

'Now I can see the wheels turning in her head. She'll be no fun anymore.'

'Cause you made her THINK!' he said, jokingly pouting. Hermsy looked at him reproving.

'You're still not off the hook, mister,' she told him jokingly, guiding him to the Gryffindor Common room once more. Draco smiled at her grandly.

'Is that so?' he asked, raising one of his eyebrows in interest. She nodded.

'That's right,' she said, turning around to guide him more rapidly to either of their rooms. 'You've gotta pay for your crimes!' she said, gleefully. Draco pulled her into his arms and huskily murmured: 'Now this is the kind of punishment I can really get used to.' Hermsy smiled cattily at him, giving him a small kiss, before going back to guiding.

'There's much more from where that came from!' she said as they disappeared from sight. Ron and Harry grinned toothily at their retrieving backs.

'Can you believe those two?' asked Harry chuckling. Both started laughing. After a second Ron sobered up.

'Back to our business,' he said, and both started pacing as they had been doing since breakfast, before they had found the highly interesting love scene.

'I'm not giving you any more hints. It's been about an hour, I don't even know why you wanna know,' said Harry rolling his eyes.

'Come on, Harry!! Another hint! Please!' Ron pleaded putting his best puppy-dog face. 'Is it Hermione?' he asked suddenly.

'No, it isn't Hermione, for the twelfth time!' Harry replied stopping in front of an armor to sit down next to it. Ron sat next to him.

'Hmm ... but the hints you gave me are no good! They're too vague!' he complained, ticking them of with his fingers. 'Smart, fun, someone I know...' he turned to Harry suddenly. 'Is it Ginny?' he asked. Harry smiled.

'No, it isn't Ginny, but you're getting closer,' he countered. Ron looked at him from head to toe.

'You-you're not-not… hmm…gay, right?' he asked doubtfully. Harry's face slowly turned crimson. Ron laughed. 'I'll take that as a yes.' Harry looked at him biting his bottom lip.

'It doesn't bother you?' he asked. Ron shook his head.

'No! Well, last year it would have, but given the fact that Percy came home to introduce everybody his new boyfriend... well, I've learned to live respecting everybody's sexual preferences.' He shrugged. Harry felt quite relieved. At least this would make it somewhat easier to tell Ron about what he felt.

'So,' Ron continued cheerfully. 'It appears to come from my family then, right?' he asked Harry. Harry bit his lip again and nodded. Ron looked thoughtful. 'Lemme see... one of the twins? Fred? George? Both?' he asked, laughter in his voice. Harry chuckled slightly but shook his head no. Ron thought a little more until realization came to him.

'Oh no… you gotta be kidding me...' he said looking like he was going to be sick. "Well, at least now he knows," Harry thought grimly. "And I know also where he stands about it." He bowed his head, not trusting himself to speak.

'Ugh!! Please tell me that, my very best friend hasn't...' said Ron falteringly. Harry looked up at him. 'Oh, gross! I can't believe it! Ew! Ew, ew, ew!' he said wrinkling his nose. Harry couldn't believe Ron was joking that way.

'Ugh, you and Percy...disgusting,' he said. Harry looked at him sharply.

'What?' he asked.

OK, OK! I take it back! I promise not to insult your crush but he really isn't the type of guy one would fall for.' He shuddered. 'It makes me shiver.' And to emphasis what he said, he shivered slightly. Harry's mouth was hanging open, with relief and disbelief.

'It isn't Percy,' he said trying to hold back a snort of laughter. Ron looked confused.

'Then who?' he asked cutting short his imitation of how they'd have to do to kiss, to look at Harry curiously.

'You big dummy, it's you!' Harry said exasperatedly. At this Ron's eyes went wide with surprise and... something else.

'Come again?' he asked. Harry locked his eyes with his friend's.

'I'm. In. Love. With. You,' he said. Ron blinked several times without saying anything. Harry sighed. Ron kept blinking stupidly.

'Well, hmm... ah, if you ... uh, need me, you know, make up your mind ... I'll be at the dorm, OK?' Ron blinked at him stupidly. Harry gave him a fast soft peck on the lips and turned away from his friend flushing crimson too embarrassed to notice the slight creak the armor they had been sitting next gave, or the soft footsteps that followed him as he ran to the Gryffindor Common room.

She pulled her robes tighter around herself as she went almost soundlessly after Harry. "Well, well, well. That certainly was interesting." She made sure that she had the purplish Invisibility Cloak still securely covering her completely. She saw Harry stop in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady in pink and say the password: 'Buttercups.' with a slightly frustrated air. She sighed gratefully, softly so Harry wouldn't hear, though in the state he was in she doubted he would hear a Hippogriff stampede if it passed under his very nose. She had been very worried of how to get into the Common Room, since this was the first time she was entering it through the portrait. She took a piece of parchment out of her pocket and touched it with the tip of her wand.

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,' she whispered softly. Lines like spider webs weaved through the parchment, showing the introduction to the Marauders Map she had borrowed from Harry. She scanned it quickly and frowned, squinting at the paper before smiling and hitting herself lightly on the forehead.

'Stupid me!' she said. She tapped the wand again against the paper and mumbled "Bubblius". She scanned the map once again and noticed that Cecilia was still in her room. She sighed with relief. Then she tapped it once whispering "Mischief managed!" and the map went blank again. She folded and securely put it in her breast pocket. Later she took a small bottle out of another pocket and taking a deep breath drunk a gulp or two. She rapidly screwed the top on before feeling the already familiar pain coursing through her veins. Then, as soon as it had begun, it stopped. With slightly trembling fingers she put the bottle away, pulled off the Invisibility cloak putting it away in one of her many pockets. She took out a small mirror. She looked at herself critically. Cecilia's calculating green-brown eyes looked back at her, the same face, and the same hair that she rapidly tied in a neat bun. Satisfied she put the mirror away and bounced in a very Cecilia-like way to the fat lady and told the password. The Fat Lady swung to a side letting to her in. "It's a good thing that she and I are the same height," she thought gratefully, as she transfigured her high heals to normal shoes so she wouldn't look so tall. Then she bit her bottom lip, hoping that, besides height, she and her daughter would have more in common. And with that, Marilyn Valenti climbed the steps to the girls' room two at a time.