The Given Choices

**** Chapter Five ****

The library was quiet as Hermione entered on one Sunday morning. She had come to get some peace and quiet while she worked on her Transfiguration essay, which was due next week. After reaching her favorite table, she noticed that she was not the only student in the large room. Draco Malfoy sat on a table in the corner of the library as he stared out the window. His pale hand held a steaming liquid in a black mug as he looked out at the fall scenery.

It was the middle of October and they seemed to be on peaceful terms. Of course, they still debated each other in their shared advanced classes, and occasionally Zabini would join in. Yes, he still made comments about her 'know-it-all' attitude and she still called him 'ferret', but there was no cruelty behind the words any more. Somewhere along the line she started to respect the Slytherin Prince.

Hermione placed her bag on the table and approached Malfoy. She was right behind him, but he did not move. It was as if he knew she was there. Trying to find something to say, she was surprised when he spoke first. "I think fall is my favorite time of year."

He continued to stare out the window at the multi-colored leaves as they fell from the trees and blew in the wind. With a slight movement, she sat on the tabletop next to him and watched the leaves dance in the air outside. She stated, "I think I love all of them. I love the colors of the fall and the smell of the air. But I love summer for the bright days and warm lakes. I enjoy spring for all the new life that comes with it. In winter, I love the snow and cuddling up in front of a warm fire. They all need each other. I don't think I could choose one over the others."

Draco turned and looked at her as she spoke. A slight blush came to her cheeks as she finished and looked at him. He looked as if he wanted to say something but directed his gaze back outside. He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes to take another sip of what looked to be hot cocoa.

Hermione tucked a loose curl behind her ear that came out of the maroon ribbon, which was pulling her hair back. The silence of the room would've been comfortable had there not been something nagging at her. So she asked him, "Is there something wrong, Malfoy?"

Draco raised an eyebrow at her simple question and she chuckled to herself. "Okay, yes, so we are not friends, but I don't consider us enemies at the moment. You look like you need someone to talk to and I can just listen. As long as you don't plan on killing any one, you can trust me, Malfoy."

"Draco. If I am going to talk to you in that manner, then you better call me Draco, Hermione," he spoke as he played with the now empty cup in his hands.

A cold shiver went down her spine as he said her name. It sounded like it was made for his voice. Her name seemed to be meant for him and him alone to speak it, and she wondered what it would sound like from his lips as they snogged. With a shake, she cleared her mind. She was still going strong with Harry and she needed to remember that. "What are you thinking about, D-Draco?"

A sly smile crept on his perfect lips. "A lot of things," he began, "my father being one of them."

There was a moment of silence between the former enemies. He had mentioned the one thing that could break their new tentative relationship. Without her saying anything and not leaving, he continued, "I hate the fact he is in Azkaban rotting away. It's hard to believe the things he is accused of."

"Convicted of," she softly corrected him. Lucius Malfoy was sentenced to five years after his short trial. To her, it didn't seem enough but to the young man next to her it was obvious too much.

He pushed himself off the table and walked the short distance to the window. He turned to look at her once, then went back to looking out through the clear glass in front of him. "I am not stupid. I know he supported the Dark Lord but I did not know he had come back. I thought it was all an act during the Quidditch World Cup. To you and your saintly friends, he may just be a Death Eater; but to me, he is still my father."

Her head lowered as she thought over the things he said and wondered if she should say anything or just listen. Draco placed his hands on the stone edge of the window and leaned against the cold surface. He sighed and spoke again. "I know he is not perfect, but he is still the man who taught me how to ride a broom when I was four. My father was the one who went with me to get my wand and watched me with pride as I finally found the one meant for me. The man siting in Azkaban is the one who I have looked up to since the day I was born."

"You may look up to him, but that doesn't mean you have to become him, Draco," Hermione commented as she lifted her body off the table and stood behind him.

With a slight movement, he turned around and leaned on his back against the nearby wall. His silver eyes seemed to search her chocolate ones for a sign. The temperature rose ten degrees as she melted under the intensity of his gaze.

"No, I don't. My life is an equation of my choices. I know what is expected of me and how I was raised. Most of the Death Eaters are normal people with - let's say an extreme hobby."

Hermione was shocked by his choice of words. "Extreme hobby! You call killing, raping, and torturing people of any age and both sexes an extreme hobby? Funny, I call it evil."

"There is no good and evil, only power-"

"And those too weak to seek it. Yes, Draco. I know the routine. Maybe you should spend some time going over the things to look forward to when you take Voldemort's Dark Mark," she raised her voice as her temper began to boil.

"Don't you dare say his name," he hissed.

She stood up right in front of him and looked up into his eyes. "I can say his name, Draco. Not only Voldemort, but I can also say Tom Riddle, his true name. If he is pureblood, then Snape's the happiest man on this earth. Yes, Draco, his mother was a witch, who was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, but his father was a Muggle. A Muggle that didn't want anything to do with him and sent him to an orphanage when his mother died."

"That's impossible. You're lying."

Hermione walked away from him for a moment and walked down an aisle of books. When she came back, a large brown book was in her hands and she placed in on the table as she turned to a certain page. Draco slowly walked up to the book with his arms crossed over his chest. Her finger pointed to a section of the book where at the top was the name Salazar Slytherin but she pointed to the name Angelique M. Marvolo married to Thomas J. Riddle. Then a line was vertical to them and showed Tom M. Riddle.

Draco snorted as he moved his eyes to her. "Doesn't prove that whoever that Riddle person was is now the Dark Lord."

"Fine. Don't believe me. It's the truth and I don't have a reason to lie, but he has every reason. Okay, I don't think we are going to agree on that subject. Is there anything else on your mind?" Hermione stated as she slammed down the cover to the old book.

Draco propped himself against the side of the wooden table and rolled his eyes. "The fact I hate Charms. But besides that, nothing else you would be interested in."

She put pulled out a quill from her book bag and a scrap piece of parchment. With a quick scribbling, Hermione wrote a day and time down and handed it to him. "Meet me in the Charms classroom at that time and I'll see what I can do."

"I don't need a tutor, Granger," he stated as he crumpled the parchment and shoved it into his pocket.

With an exasperated sigh, she sat down on the bench and started to get the necessities out to start her essay. "Look, don't think of it as tutoring but two people who just happen to show up at the same time to study in a classroom."

Draco gave her a speculative look, which turned into his trademark smirk. "Maybe you could've been sorted into Slytherin for that kind of thinking. I like it." He moved closer to her and leaned down so he could whisper into her ear. "Until then, Hermione."

Her body froze as he walked away and she felt like she was going to melt into a puddle right then in the middle of the Library. A lot of naughty thoughts entered her mind about other things she was sure he could tutor her in. Giving herself a hard shake, Hermione reminded herself that she was perfectly content with her sexy boyfriend.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

With about fifteen minutes till dinner, Harry walked into the library to look for his lovely little bookworm. She had been in there the whole day working on an essay, which was due next week, for quite some time. Hermione had already missed lunch but he was going to make sure she did not miss another meal that day. His day was spent training for the first Quidditch match of season, which was a few weeks away. The game as usual was held on the day after Halloween.

As he passed most of the bookshelves, he noticed no one else had decided to study in the library. The sight in front of him made him stop in him tracks. In the left back corner after the last row of books, Hermione was on a rolling ladder as she reached for a book on the second to the top shelf. As her arms lifted up, it caused her blouse to expose a small peek at her lower back. Very slowly he approached her as he noticed he had a nice view of the back of her upper thighs though not high enough to see her knickers. "Time to eat."

Hermione almost fell off the ladder, but luckily he had great reflexes and went up to steps to keep her on the ladder. She managed to turn around on the ladder with his arms on either side of her knees. "Don't scare me like that!"

"I didn't mean to scare you, darling. You've been stuck in this tomb all day," Harry commented as he stepped down and off the ladder.

With a few steps left, her feet were on the last bar and she leaned forward to grab the collar of his shirt. A moment later he was pressed against her with her back against the wooden ladder. They were now the same height and his hands grabbed her waist, as he tasted her lip-gloss. Strawberry became his new favorite flavor.

Slowly his fingers moved up and down her sides as his kisses reached the dip in her throat. Sharp nails were raking up Harry's back over his cotton pullover. A growl escaped his throat as he caressed her breast over her gray button down top. While Hermione arched her back from the ladder, her hands grabbed his firm arse and continued to play with it as he nibbled on her ear.

One of his hands started to unbutton Hermione's blouse to the point right above where her bra started. Harry released her ear as he covered her newly exposed chest. The back of his shirt was being pulled out of his jeans and then a pair of hands had begun to move under his shirt. From her collarbone, he ran his wet tongue down and then dipped into the small gap between her breasts just under the silky white fabric.

"Oh, Harry," Hermione spoke in a husky voice close to a whisper. Her body began rub against the thigh that was currently in between her legs.

Suddenly Harry pulled back from her chest and halted her hip motions. Heavy pants were making both of their chests raise and fall quickly. He looked into her eyes as he stated, "I think we need to slow down a little, Mione."

"You're right. Whew, my body is very hot," she agreed and then her stomach growled.

He reached up and started to button up her blouse to cover a few red marks he created. Harry chuckled as he grabbed her hands and pulled out the rest of his shirt to hide the fact he was hard as a rock. "And also hungry. I am sure dinner has already started. You can come back to get your stuff afterwards. I just wish I had time for a cold shower first."