Finding Draco - A Dramione Novel

Chapter 7 - Draco

Granger had moved from a fleeting fantasy to a real-life problem. What was she doing in his space? His school?

Draco was still on a high from their most recent altercation. Laying on his bed, he could almost feel her breath on his face. It dislodged him from his current well-mannered behavior.

Her delicious scent still lingered, notes of jasmine and honey. It was practically dripping from him—every nerve in his body on edge.

A hard knock rang through his room.

"Fuck off," Draco spat. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

"Open up, Malfoy!"

It was Amira's voice from outside his door.

What did she want?

Draco rolled off his bed and ran his hands through his pale hair. Another loud bang came from the door. Draco wrenched the door open and glared.

"What?"

"So, you know Granger? What's up with her needing remedial flying lessons?" Amira asked, looking honestly confused.

Draco had come to realize that Durmstrang students were more well-rounded than his peers at Hogwarts. Each one of them was an athlete, some better than others, but the thought that a witch wasn't at home on a broom was beyond Amira's comprehension.

"Do I look like I care?" Draco sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Not everyone at Hogwarts flies. You didn't have to compete there like you do here. She's muggle-born, never had flying practice before, I guess. Plus, I'd wager the stick up her ass probably prevents her from mounting it properly."

Draco's tolerance for this conversation was quickly diminishing.

"Well, since you're so familiar with her, it's on you to handle remediation. Every night after dinner. One hour. Make sure it's not on the communal pitch. I don't want other houses knowing how bad she is. Let's keep it quiet. The house pitch over the mountains, maybe."

Amira raised her wand as Draco opened his mouth to protest. "Don't make me own you in a duel, again."

Draco rubbed the back of his head. A knot had formed from where it made contact with a desk from the force of her curse during an impromptu duel yesterday.

Amira reached up and patted his cheek. "Lessons start tonight."

She turned on her heel, her onyx hair whipping his face. It would have been hot, except she was so damn frightening. Draco stood at the doorframe and watched her walk away.

How did Amira expect him to teach Granger how to fly? He never taught anyone anything before. Especially stubborn Granger, who thought she knew everything and, who by the way, hated him.

Grabbing his wand, he headed out towards the lake. The air outside was chilling considerably in the late September afternoon, and Draco felt refreshed by the breeze. Stripping off his robe, shirt, and shoes, he transfigured his pants into swim shorts.

With one graceful movement, he dived into the warm waters of the lake and started swimming hard. There was a meditative quality to the steady strokes and rhythmic breaths that came while in the lake. Draco emptied his mind and plowed through the water: stroke, breath, stroke, breath, stroke, breath.

He nearly swam into the person ahead of him and veered left at the last possible moment.

The face of Aurora Zabini was visible as he pulled his arm up.

"It's Draco, right?" Aurora called out, stopping mid-stroke.

"Yeah, Draco Malfoy." Draco slowed and came about to face her in he water. Beads of water and sweat were on her forehead. She must have been out here for awhile 

"I'm Aurora. It's nice to meet you."

Trying to avoid the obvious question he had about her surname, he decided to pose another. "What house are you in?"

"Oh, I'm a Beast."

Aurora pulled out her wand and transformed into a small, brown seal with piercing green eyes. She swam a circle around him, then dived down into the water and popped back up as a human.

Draco had no desire to turn into some smelly animal. He couldn't imagine wasting a month of his time chewing on leaves and going through all that trouble to become something as useless as a seal. Other than swimming, what good could that possibly be?

"An animagus? That is quite a talent. I understand the spell work is in-depth."

"All Beasts learn to become Animagus," Aurora said sadly. "It's not that special."

"Well, nice to meet you, seal girl."

Aurora gave him a little wave and swam off in the opposite direction.

Returning to his meditative strokes, Draco tried to work through the Zabini question in his mind. Zabini wasn't that common of a name. Perhaps they weren't related at all?

Impossible.

They looked nearly identical. Draco wondered if Blaise knew about her. If he did, he would have mentioned a sister or cousin. Draco and Blaise were pretty good friends and knew each other since they were young.

Slytherins didn't wear their emotions out in public like other houses, nor did they talk about something that wouldn't be to their advantage. So, it could be possible that the family was ashamed of her? That didn't make much sense, though. It's not like she was a squib. She was beautiful and talented.

Draco reached the Potions dock where he had disrobed and pulled himself out of the water. A quick flick of his wand set him dry and dressed.

Checking his wristwatch, a unique piece inlaid with emeralds and diamonds that his parents had commissioned for his seventeenth birthday, he realized it was dinner time.

Stopping back at his room, Draco extracted a small phial from his potions box—a calming draught. He knew that the next couple hours would probably be more than he could bear and sipped half down. Maybe he could deal with Granger if he wasn't so keyed up.

"Malfoy! Over here." Halvard was waving him down towards the seventh-year table where he was sitting across from Granger.

Hermione's head quickly snapped back down towards her soup, her hair covering her face. Draco slid down next to Halvard, who patted his shoulder.

"Hermione has been telling me all about Hogwarts! Doesn't seem as bad as you made it out to be! Sounds kinda fancy. I remember the guys who went for the Triwizard Tournament saying it was a bit much. Did you know Hermione went with Krum to the Yule Ball? Krum is the MAN!" Halvard was beside himself, looking at Hermione like a celebrity after chewing on this juicy piece of gossip.

Hermione seemed pleased that Halvard was eating out of her hand.

"We just came back from the library. Hey, so," he dropped his voice to a whisper and leaned over towards Draco, "Do you know who's giving her flying lessons? I think she's nervous."

Draco's brain snatched up this fact and ran with it.  "I do," he whispered, then pointed at his chest. Halvard raised an eyebrow.

"Granger, you've lucked out. Seeing as I will be in charge of making sure you don't embarrass us." Draco shoved a few bites of chicken soup in his mouth while he let his words sink in.

Hermione was mute.

"Don't worry though, we have to keep this all quiet, for appearances, so I won't be shouting it about the halls. Meet me outside my room in thirty minutes, unless you want to meet me inside."

Draco winked, then got up and left.

Well, this could be fun.

Granger would be at his mercy for an hour every day. Maybe making her squirm wouldn't be so bad.