Red Passion - HP - Draco/Hermione - 9/31
Title: Red Passion
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: Mature (R)
Links: Chapter 1 + Chapter 2 + Chapter 3 + Chapter 4 + Chapter 5 + Chapter 6 + Chapter 7 + Chapter 8
Summary: Post HBP. A vampire saves Draco from death and introduces him to a dark world. With Hermione Granger on the menu, can Draco save his enemy and his own soul? Eventual DM/HG.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Written for profitless entertainment.
Warning: Blood, violence, and eventually scenes of a sexual nature.
Author's Note: Story goes AU after the events of Half Blood Prince.
Wordcount for Total Story: ~65,900 words (varied by chapter)
Chapter 9
"Dragon."
Darien was staring down at him, mouth parted softly. There was blood on his lip and matching red stains on his fangs. He wasn't moving, but his body was a blur, in and out of Draco's reality. The vampire let his lips curve upward, a smile at his foolish servant.
Draco groaned. His face was hot, so hot, especially the right side. There was a coppery taste in his mouth, too, and he wondered if it was his own blood or Darien's. It didn't matter, though. This was a dream, just a dream. He was sleeping in his bed at Malfoy manor, having nightmares as his mother cried in another room, a whole wing down from him.
A dream.
"You are more trouble than you are worth, dragon," Darien whispered. The vampire held out his wrist. The skin was torn, dripping crimson onto Draco's cheek. "We will be forced to move faster now. Voldemort will be upset with what I did to his lapdog, I think."
He laughed, rain drops in a shallow stream, running through a desert.
"Malfoy!" He heard an anxious sigh and felt a hand cautiously squeezing his shoulder. "Draco? Wake up, you skinny little ferret!"
The wizard groaned, letting one eye lid lift. "Skinny?" he said, his voice hoarse and gravelly.
The girl sitting next to him stood up quickly. "Yes! Skinny-and not attractively so!" Hermione snapped, fuming.
Draco's lazy gaze scanned her form. She was dressed in a modest night gown that reached her ankles, so pale pink that it almost matched her bare shoulder's perfectly, and her hair was loosely hanging in thick waves. How bloody long was I out? Draco wondered, refusing to ask the witch.
"Were you faking that whole time?" Hermione asked, her voice losing some of its bite.
"Ferret-not a possum, idiot." Draco began to roll over onto his side and cried out at a sharp pain through his chest. He took a shallow breath into his blanket, clenching his teeth and attempting to sit up instead.
"Don't! You're not nearly ready to get out of bed!" Hermione shouted, putting a hand on his chest to ease him back down onto the mattress. The witch released him as soon as his head hit the pillow again, as if the touch of his skin had burnt her.
Her hand had been so hot against his chill skin, and he suddenly, shamefully, missed the warmth. He shrugged off the thought, blaming it on his lack of a shirt. A glance down showed him that someone had taken the time to wrap his ribs in tight bandages. His mark was on his arm as well, even lighter in color than it was the day the vampire bound him; if Hermione saw it, she made no comment.
"What is your bloody problem?" Draco said, glaring in her direction. "And what the hell happened?"
"You don't remember?"
Draco growled. "Last time I checked, I didn't have the ability to see through my eye lids. What happened after Sanguini decided to intimately introduce me to the wall?"
"Oh, of course..."
The witch turned from him slightly, somewhat sheepish. Draco raised a brow, wondering why she was suddenly so distant. With her round arms hugging her breasts against her chest, she was locked up tight. Then memories of the evening came flooding back to him, and he felt a wave of anger pass over him. He struggled to suppress it.
"Tell me that bloody vampire got his," Draco urged, instead of asking her if she remembered what happened. She's not supposed to...Darien said she wouldn't-but he's a damned vampire. Who can trust him? "Did he turn to ash? I've always read that they look like normal corpses after they're destroyed, but rumor has it..."
"Darien didn't stake him, Malfoy," Hermione hissed, looking over her shoulder at the wizard. She gave him a small, bitter smile. "He did beat him to a pulp though. It will take Sanguini a while to heal, even with the unique abilities of a vampire. Malfoy, did you know that Darien was a wizard, back when, when he was alive?"
Draco was thrown off by the sudden change of topic. "I assumed as much, but I never saw him use magic. And Hart's a muggle..."
"Never mind," she interrupted, shaking her head. "Anyhow Darien threw Sanguini out the door and came back into the dining room. He...he picked you up and took you downstairs," she said softly, her voice far away. "I didn't know exactly what he was going to do to you. Hart came and prepared me for bed. A few hours later I heard Darien walking up the stairs. He was carrying you." She broke off. "So I came up a while later. It's almost dawn now."
Draco blinked. "And?" He sat up straighter when she didn't answer. "You thought he'd turned me, didn't you? You thought he'd made me into one of his kind...What were you going to do, Granger? Put a piece of wood through my heart? Burn me in bed?"
She remained silent before turning back to face him. In two strides she was bending over him, a hand at the base of his neck, running her finger tips over the bite marks. Draco winced, realizing that she was touching a separate set, a fresh set.
"How many times has he bitten you?" she asked through clenched teeth. Her honey eyes were bouncing over him. "Was he the only one to bite you? Have you drunk any of his blood?"
Draco slapped her hand away without a second thought. "What is your bloody problem, Granger? I'm not a vampire...You saw the mark earlier."
"I know-he obviously used wand magic to heal you, but vampires, wizards turned into vampires, at least, have other powers, too."
"Get to the point, Granger. Any student knows that their blood heals. And as for their bite," Draco began.
"There's a new one!" Hermione accused, interrupting him. "And the other one is worn, ragged and open. You've got a smaller one on your other side too-why are you letting this vampire use you like this? Don't you know what can happen from extreme blood loss-and that the effects of vampire bites sometimes stay with victims for their entire lives? Even if they've never tasted blood, they exhibit..."
"Well, fuck, Granger! I'm so happy you're in the mood to share! Make the vampire quit feeding? What a novel concept!" Draco shouted, livid. He held his ribs as they ached from the strain. "Why! Now that you bring it up, I think I'll go downstairs and tell the nice blood sucking beast that I'd rather not be on the menu tonight. Thank you so much for telling me before something unhealthy happened-my fucking mudblood heroine."
"I was just trying to tell you how dangerous this is!"
"I know!"
Hermione didn't reply, instead staring at him with a heavy, lidded gaze that showed pity. "You're an arse, Malfoy. But you saved me. I know..." She paused, her lip trembling slightly. Furiously, she bit it, her expression hardening. "I know what you did, that you saved me from Sanguini. And you tried to again last night. I just wanted to help you in return."
"I didn't save you," Draco seethed. "If I had, you wouldn't still be in this damned house, now would you?" He shook his head, frustrated. "Granger, just go away. I'm tired."
Hermione gave him a curt nod, her lips pursed as if there was something she wanted to say. Instead she left his room, slamming the door behind her.
"Stupid bloody woman," Draco groaned. Woman? Wrong word-if she was a woman, then that would make me a man. And I'm not feeling the least bit manly at the moment.
A rapping knock brought his head up. Madam Hart entered, end first, holding a tray between her. She grinned brightly, the wrinkles in her face folding.
"Good Morning, Master Draco...I thought you might be ready for an early start after seeing the young miss leaving your room. I do believe you missed the delicious dinner I prepared last night."
Draco rolled his eyes. Nevertheless, he was painfully aware of his rumbling stomach begging for the sausages on the tray before him.
Hart topped off his juice glass and took a step back, hands folded in front of her stomach. She watched him dig into his plate, a little hum issuing from beyond her closed lips. Her grin widened when Draco spit the meat back into his napkin, a look of disgust on his face.
"It's rotted!" Draco spat, grimacing.
"I assure you, it's quite fresh," Hart said in her sing-song voice. "Perhaps your taste is a bit off, Master Dragon."
Dragon...Copper on his tongue-delicious...
Draco released a shallow breath. "Th-that's probably it."
"You should drink your juice though, to gather your strength," Hart continued. "By lunch, you should be ready for something solid." She picked up the plate of food. "Do stay in bed, young one. You need rest."
And she was gone in an instant, as if she'd never been there. Draco shook his head, listening as her footsteps sounded from further and further away.
"Damn know-it-all," the wizard muttered, moving the tray and sliding out of bed. "I wouldn't ask her if it wasn't a last resort," he assured himself.
Quickly, he snatched a shirt hanging off the wardrobe door and quietly stepped out of his room, clothing himself as he walked to the stair case. His bare feet made it easy to sneak down the steps without much noise. He reached her room, not bothering to knock as he swung open the door.
"Fine, Granger, tell me about the vampire victims," he snapped.
Draco blinked, only then realizing that he was speaking to an empty room. Where the hell did she go?
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