Fire Melts Ice

Previously.......

As she was walking down a dark ramp that descended to the Slytherin hallway, she heard a muffled sound. Hermione froze and listened harder. Something that sounded vaguely like a moan reached her ears and she crept forward timidly. Hermione had a fairly accurate guess as to what she was hearing, but she sincerely hoped that she was mistaken. The disturbing sounds seemed to be coming from a slightly ajar door, which Hermione slowly and hesitantly approached.

She reached for the knob and saw a picture of a dragon carved into the wood on the door. At the exact same moment, she heard a female voice gasp, "Draco!" and moan.

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Chapter 5--Hell Hath No Fire like a Woman's Fury

Hermione threw her hand against the door and slammed it back into the wall with a resounding CRACK! "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she exploded, not wanting to look at either one of them but knowing she had to.

Draco, who had been half standing and half lying on Apricot's form on the desk, swore and spun around.

"Malfoy!!! Put on your damn clothes!" ordered Hermione hysterically, fixating on a spot on the wall.

Apricot squealed and jumped up. Draco reached for his clothes, not to conceal himself, but for the wand tucked in his pocket.

"You promised it was locked and sound-proof!" Apricot protested. "We weren't finished!"

"Forty points from Slytherin!" screeched Hermione. "Accio wand!" Draco's wand barely brushed his fingertips as it flew to Hermione's fist. "Put your damn robes on!"

Draco lightly plucked Apricot's robes from the floor. "Here, darling," he said, turning and handing them to her, not the least bit flustered or concerned. Hermione made a point of not noticing his butt.

"You as well, Malfoy!"

Draco, who was not at all afraid of Hermione seeing him naked (he was, eh hem, rather...well-endowed and knew it), turned back and took a step toward her. "Come on, Hermione, you don't care to join us?"

"Are you bloody mad?! Do I look like a whore to you? For God's sake, do whatever the hell you want back in that sleazy little hole you Slytherins call home, but don't you dare ever do such a thing out in the school! Have some morals, Malfoy! And keep it in your robes!!!" Hermione had been unable to avoid looking at him any longer had glanced directly at his groin. The sweat was dripping from his well-defined lower abs and trickled, glistening in the dim light, down onto his swollen "manhood". Hermione could feel the throbbing start in her own legs and gritted her teeth, refusing to give in

Draco smirked and lifted his robes gently from the floor. "Are you quite sure? This is a one-time offer, you know."

"Of course I'm quite sure! Get your robes on, stop acting like such a petty little whore, and get back to your dormitory!" Hermione pointed emphatically to the door with her wand hand, and her anger was so prominent a blast flew from the end and left a scorch mark where it impacted the wood.

Draco yawned and dropped the robes carelessly back onto the floor. "I'd love to see you make me."

"Draco!" squealed Apricot, sounding very much like Pansy. "She'll report you! For Merlin's sake, let's just get back to the dormitory!"

"Quite right. She may even hex you. Better run along now," responded Draco nonchalantly.

"What?" squeaked Apricot with concern, clutching her robes to her chest and feigning sheer terror while carefully drawing her wand from its pocket.

Hermione, still trying to keep herself from jumping on Draco and desperately searching for the right thing to do, did not notice Apricot's subtle motion. Draco, however, did.

Oh, shit! Stupid, stupid, oblivious girl...why are they always so trusting?! What the hell am I supposed to do? Apricot's going to hurt her. I can't stop Apricot without her telling the whole damn school I saved Granger from her. And that's not true. I wouldn't do it to save Granger...I'd...No other explanation occurred to Draco. Damn it!

Hermione, who still couldn't take her eyes off Draco, became aware that he was staring avidly at Apricot's hand. In a split second, realization dawned on Hermione, and she stepped to the side just as Apricot whipped her wand from its concealment and cried, "Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmous!" exploded Hermione furiously. Stupid little whore! What the heck does she think she's doing with Draco?! Little fruit-named thing probably seduced him for his money! I hate her. I hate all the girls like her who think they rule the world just because they can sell themselves to men. Hermione caught the second wand deftly in her hand and added it to her pocket with Draco's. She then stared satisfiedly at Apricot's cringing and pained position on the floor.

"Get. Up. And. Leave. Now," ordered Hermione tersely, glaring scornfully at the humbled girl.

Apricot pushed herself back up to a standing position and looked straight into Hermione's eyes. "You just think you are so wonderful, don't you? You'll learn soon enough. Wands aren't hard to replace. Come on, Draco. Let's leave this pathetic virgin."

"Scram, Peach, or whatever your name is," growled Hermione. "Don't think that if you hang around long enough I'll feel sorry for you and make up a cure for your thousand-and-one STD's."

"Oh, I'm so hurt," whimpered Apricot sarcastically. "Just remember: I have a lot of friends, so you'd better watch your back."

"Holocausia!" snapped Hermione, pointing her wand at Apricot's bare feet. A ball of flame erupted from the end of her wand and exploded on the pale flesh.

Apricot shrieked in pain and fled the room with another fireball only inches behind her.

Hermione turned back to Draco and almost melted at the sight of his sweat-streaked, rumpled hair and his muscles. He was lean with broad shoulders and tall, so tall. As her eyes traveled unstoppably down his body, she noticed his so-well-defined abs and the strength in his legs and thought to herself that he could easily be a muggle track star. But, of course, she didn't care so much about that as the fact that his arms weren't wrapped tight around her and her hands weren't running through his damp hair. "Leave. Now," ordered Hermione with will-power she didn't even know she had. Every last bit of her wanted to tackle Draco and kiss each inch of his perfect body.

Draco shrugged and picked up his cloak. Without a word, he walked dignifiedly to the door and rested his hand on it. Then, rather than exiting, he slammed it shut. A series of five clicks was barely audible, and Draco smiled at Hermione. "Whoops. And I seem to have forgotten the password to make it unlock. What a pity."

"Draco...Draco, what are you doing?" asked Hermione hesitantly as he approached her steadily. A very small part of her was frightened, but surprisingly, the great majority of her subconscious was inclined to trust Draco. That and it was very interested in exploring those muscles.

"Hermione..." For the first time, Draco actually thought about the name, the way it sounded, the way she looked. "This isn't really fair, do you think?"

"No. Open that door this instant or I swear I'll do the same thing to you as I did to that little whore."

"I dare you. You really think you'd have the guts to throw a spell at me?" Almost there. She's so close. And so easy to manipulate. Almost not fair, really... "Would you like me to go call Potty and Weasel to do it for--" Draco stopped mid-sentence and Hermione cast the fire-ball at him, too. Like a flash, he whipped his robes around in front of him as a shield. They ignited instantly and withered to ashes in seconds. Draco looked down at the soot with a smirk. "What a shame. Now I have no clothes. Like I was saying: this is very unfair. I'm walking around here naked and you have all your clothes on. The way I see it, we're both locked in a room against our will (Here Hermione sputtered in disbelief, but Draco continued) and you have entertainment but I don't. Now, Hermione, how fair is that?" He had been steadily advancing on her and whispered the last question to her neck the way that he was so good at doing.

His breath landed on her skin and sent compulsive shivers down her body. There was no way she could resist his wonderfully sexy (and conveniently naked) body any longer. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," she whispered back, and then jumped on him. She wrapped her arms around his back and reached up into his beautiful hair. The warmth from his body quickly seeped through her robes and rocked her body with desire. Her nails dug into his skin and made him writhe for a split second, but then he regained control of himself.

"You want to play that way?" he asked her. "As you wish." He slid his tongue delicately down her neck and then bit her collarbone.

Hermione flinched and pushed Draco and herself out into the middle of the room. "Are you too weak or just too rude to remove this for me?" she hissed at him, referring to her robes.

"Mmmm, my mistake," he murmured seductively, rocking his hips back and forth and moving her with him. "Let me see about that right away." Without moving his body an inch away from hers or stopping his swaying motion, Draco managed to slip Hermione out of her robes. "Blasted tie," he mumbled to himself as he fumbled with hers.

Hermione laughed gently. "Would you like some help with that?"

"Mmm." Draco ran his warm hands under her sweater-vest while she loosened the tie around her neck

"This is quite useful," she whispered as she pulled it down over Draco's head and gave it a sharp tug.

His head jerked and he lifted her off the ground in retaliation. "Don't do that ever again," he breathed with a hint of a threat.

Hermione, in return, wrapped one of her legs around his and yanked on the tie again. "And what are you going to do to me? I'm dying to know."

"Well seeing how you've so kindly discarded my wand..."

Hermione's heart froze for a split second, bur Draco's chuckle released it. "No, I wouldn't do that. However, you do owe me. I think as payment I want this beautiful little shirt." Roughly, he wrenched it up over her head and threw it aside.

"I happened to like that shirt," retorted Hermione. Now that she was only wearing her bra and a pair of panties, she couldn't have wanted Draco more. But at the same time the gravity of the situation was beginning to weigh on her. I'm a virgin. Is this really the way I want to give that up? To Draco Malfoy? The one man I could never have a future with? I wish I was one of those girls who don't care. Life would be so much easier... "Damn it!"

"What?" asked Draco, surprised.

"I can't. You don't understand," she whimpered into his shoulder, holding herself to his body with all her strength, clinging to his strong warmth. She tried to save the feeling in her mind forever to go back to later when she needed that feeling of complete calmness and belonging "I can't act irresponsibly. I can't do something I know is stupid. I can't not care. And I hate it. I hate myself for it more than you could possibly imagine. If you think there is a place in the world I'd rather be right now than here, you're wrong. But I can't do it. Please, Draco, just let me go. Please?" Judging by her voice, she was on the verge of tears.

"A shard of heaven burning with the sin of hell," he murmured, releasing her.

"What?" she asked softly, gazing up at him.

He jerked his head toward the door, which had swung open. His face was completely impassive.

Hermione considered it the hardest thing she had ever done in her life when she let go of the body that fit so perfectly with hers, the body that made her feel complete. The body that belonged to Draco Malfoy. She turned her face away so as not to see him and swept her robes from the floor. She thought she heard him laugh quietly at her modesty, but she couldn't be sure. It was so...un-Draco.

Draco watched as Hermione pulled her robes back on and secured them around her protectively. He wasn't quite sure why he had let her out of the room. I could have convinced her to anyway. I could have seduced her. It wouldn't have been difficult. She was so close...Hermione slipped out the door and disappeared down the hall without meeting his eyes again. Draco shivered compulsively and felt somehow empty inside. There is something seriously wrong with me. What the hell am I thinking? Without much purpose, he summoned himself a new set of robes and put them on. Hermione's tie was still around his neck, he noted. But he didn't bother to take it off. Instead, he fingered it gently and his mind wandered off again. Carefully he tucked it under his robes and slinked out of the room. The door clicked behind him.