Author's Notes: Please read and review!

-Stephanie

December 5, 2006

The Imperium Potion

January was the coldest month of the year. The trees were bare and draped in a blanket of tiny glittering icecicles that threatened to snap and end the life of an unsuspecting branch at any moment. Draco's breath swirled in circles around his face and his boots crunched on the fresh layer of snow as he made her way towards his favorite haunt. It was a small clearing near the edge of the forbidden forest that he had found during his first year. Sometimes he just needed a place to be alone and to think, so he had discovered this place. It had a perfect view of the castle and the lake and he would sometimes lay here for hours just thinking about things.

Draco lay his blanket down on the pure white ground and took out his canvas and easel. The one thing that no one knew about Draco Malfoy was that he had a passion for art. He kept a notebook full of all his sketches and paintings but never showed anyone. He felt it would reveal too much about his softer side and he had poured too much of his emotions into many of the pictures.

He set up his easel carefully and tapped his wand three times saying colui. Draco normally didn't like to use paintbrushes because they were so messy so he cast a charm on his wand to make it pain any color that he wanted. Picking up has wand and picturing the landscape, he began to paint Hogwarts. He had painted this many times but sometimes he felt he needed a different angle, and also just because painting freed his mind, no matter what he was painting. He drew the lines of the turrets and shaded the shadowed edges of the window in complete bliss. There was so much beauty in just seeing something from a different angle and spilling it out onto a blank piece of paper.

Draco didn't know how long he was out there when he heard the soft crunch of shoes in the snow. He looked up, expecting to be irritated but instead smiled at Hermione's face. She looked beautiful with her cheeks rosy from the cold and her hair pulled up to reveal her charming face.

"What are you doing out here? I've been looking for you forever. You just left." She said with an accusing tone in her voice.

"I just needed some time to think." He knew he could tell Hermione about his art. She was the one person in the world he could trust with anything. "Come here I want to show you something." He pulled out his notebook and let her flip through it.

"Wow, I didn't know you could paint. You never told me before" She said, admiring the beautiful sketches and paintings.

"Well it's not like I go up to people and say "Hi, I'm Draco and I paint pictures." He said with a smile and hint of sarcasm.

"I didn't say that. It just doesn't really some like something you would do." She said.

"Yeah I know. That's why I don't tell people. Hey, come over here. Let me paint you." He said grabbing her hand and pulling her onto the blanket.

"What? No, you wouldn't want to paint me." She said shyly.

Draco grinned. "Oh, I'm going to paint you. Here, sit down like this so those trees are behind you. It doesn't matter if you talk or not, just try and not move too much."

Hermione sat down awkwardly where she told him too and watched him while he worked.

"How do you just look at something and paintings it?" she asked. "I could stare at something all day and my drawings would still be rubbish."

Draco snickered. "It's easy when you're as talented as me."

Hermione rolled her eyes but laughed. "There you go with that whole modesty thing. We really need to work on that."

"Never" Draco said jokingly "I pride myself on being an obnoxious git."

"That's not lie…" Hermione mumbled.

Draco enjoyed painting her immensely. It was so easy to be captivated by her eyes and gentle sloping lines of her face. She sparkled to him and he tried to create that in the painting. "Here" He said after a good thirty minutes and handed her the portrait.

Hermione smiled when she looked at it. Her eyes shone like diamonds on her face and her berry red lips were parted into a soft smile of bliss with her honey brown curls falling down past her shoulders.

"This is really good!" Hermione said before giving him a big hug.

"It's how I see you." He said.

Draco took her hand and they lay down together on the blanket until the cold forced them back inside.

"Let's go see what Harry and Ron are doing." Hermione said, ignoring the disgusted look on Draco's face.

"Scarface and Weasel don't want to see me and I would rather not see them. Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving." He said disdainfully.

Hermione scowled at him and a spark of anger leaped into her eye. "Don't call them that! Just let go of the past already. Now come on, we can go eat with them if you're so hungry. I'm sure that's where they are since it's around lunchtime."

Draco sighed huffily but followed her in to the Great Hall where he saw Harry and Ron eating and laughing at the Gryffindor table.

"Come on." Hermione said. "You can sit with us. I'm sure Dumbledore won't say anything since he knows our situation."

Draco walked with her and sat down at the Gryffindor table trying to ignore all the stares. As he sat down beside Hermione an immediate storm of whispers broke out. Everyone was pointing at the both of them and talking to their neighbor. Nobody was bothering to be discreet. Draco could feel the Slytherins dagger like stares boring into him. There anger was boiling over and seeping across the floor and it was just a matter of time before something snapped.

"What are you doing here?" Ron said irritably.

"I'm eating lunch." Draco snapped. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Anyways" Harry said, giving Ron a stern look. "What have you been doing Hermione? I didn't see you at breakfast."

"Oh, well I was just outside with Draco." She said with her cheeks turning a bit pink. There was NO way she would show them her portrait. "It was really pretty outside so we decided to take a walk."

"It's freezing outside." Ron said in a matter of fact voice.

"Really Weasley?" Draco said sarcastically. "And here I was thinking it was July. How silly of me."

Hermione ignored them both.

She was just about to ask Harry what he had gotten for Christmas when Ginny walked over and sat down beside Harry, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Hi guys!" She said cheerily. "What are….." She trailed off and looked at Draco quizzically. "What are you doing here?" She asked bluntly.

"That seems to be the question of the day." Draco said. "Well Ginny, I am sitting here and I am eating lunch."

She still looked highly confused. "No I mean what are you doing eating here."

Hermione didn't really know what to do. Ginny still didn't know about her and Draco but she felt she shouldn't leave the girl out in the dark. Ginny was one of her friends and she felt she should know first hand before she got the watered down version from other people once everyone else found out.

Hermione spoke up thinking she might as well just write it all down on paper and start handing it out to people who ask questions. "Well Ginny you see…" She once again told the story that was getting very old.

Ginny's mouth hung open and she looked in blank shock between Hermione and Draco. "Married?" She sputtered.

"Yes." Said Ron Darkly. "It's ridiculous."

"Shut up Ron." Said Ginny tartly.

"Oh Hermione this is crazy but I'm happy for you if you're happy!" Ginny said.

Ron started muttering under his breath but was once again ignored by everyone.

"Thanks Ginny." Hermione said honestly. It felt good to have one of her friends except her new life with open arms.

Ginny giggled and then looked at Harry with mock anger on her face. "How come you haven't asked me to marry you yet?"

Harry chocked on his apple pie and looked at her in surprise. "What?" He said looking goofy with his mouth hanging open.

"Oh Harry, you take everything too seriously." Ginny said before grabbing herself a biscuit and applying strawberry jam.

The rest of the day passed without too much incidence. She and Draco hung out with Ron, Harry and Ginny for a while. Surprisingly Draco seemed to like Ginny a lot. He said that she was the only Weasley worth talking to. Things also seemed to be improving between Harry and Draco. They didn't talk much but at least they weren't bickering constantly like Ron and Draco. She and Draco went to bed early, dreading the next day of classes.

The next day seemed to start out way too early and Hermione sighed as she trudged her way down to Snape's dungeons for her first potions lesson of the New Year. This was not a good way to start out her day. Hermione was not looking forward to seeing the Slytherins. None of them knew yet that she was married to Draco except for Blaise, who for some reason was keeping quiet. All the Slyherins were wondering where there prince had disappeared too though, since they failed to see his handsome face adorning the common room. She didn't know what Draco had told them, but they definetley knew something was amiss after seeing her and Draco eating lunch together.

She was definitely not looking forward to the day that everyone found out. Draco and she had decided that they might as well not try and hide it. Everyone was going to find out soon enough once the news leaked about Draco being disowned for marrying a pureblood. They also couldn't fail to notice that they would be spending time together. Hermione just hoped the rest of the Gryffindor's could find it in themselves to not be angry with her and to accept Draco and how he had changed for the better.

Hermione stepped into the gloomy chill of Snape's potions room with Ron and Harry striding protectively behind her. She held her head high and ignored the disdained look on Blaise's face and the mocking look on Pansy's unattractive face.

"Quiet" Snape said softly as he made his usual prowl around the room trying to catch students off guard and take a round of house points.

He paused to let the nonexistent whispers fade away and continued. "Today we are going to be working on a very advanced potion. It is called the Imperium Potion. It works in ways very similar to the Imperio curse with one major difference. Can anyone tell me what that is?"

Hermione's hand immediately shot into the air.

"Yes Mrs. Granger." Snape drawled.

"It gives you the ability to put yourself inside someone else's body instead of just commanding them from outside."

"That is correct. The Imperium Potion allows the drinker to overtake the body of someone of there choosing. The Potion can last up to three hours if brewed correctly and is very dangerous. I expect you to act like seventh years when concocting this potion. Anyone who attempts to bottle any of this for there own use will be expelled before they even put the stopper on. Is that understood?"

There was a scattered nodding of heads. Snape swiftly pulled out his wand and tapped the board where directions appeared in his neat script. "The ingredients will be in the student cabinet. I also have a few select ingredients that I had to get out of my own personal stores which you will find on this table by my desk. Be careful and pay attention."

Hermione was glad they had been set such a difficult potion which kept her mind off of her other problems. She was sitting at her usual table with Ron and Hermione and Draco was sitting with the Slytherins. She took out her cauldron and happily went to retrieve the ingredients from Snape's desk and the student cabinets.

She was in the process of adding powdered unicorn horn to her simmer potion when she saw Snape swoop over to Draco and lean down. Hermione put down her ingredients and set as still as she could in an attempt to pick up what he was saying.

"I would like to see you after class Draco." Professor Snape said silkily.

"Why? Is something wrong?" Draco asked curiously.

Professor Snape looked around then whispered so quietly that Hermione could barely hear him "It had to do with your father. I believe you need to hear it from me."

Draco looked startled and glanced over at Hermione before he said "Alright Professor."

Professor Snape nodded his head and then pretended to be praising Draco on his excellent potion which was not unusual.

Hermione spent the rest of the lesson shooting glances at Draco. More than once she had to stop herself before she completely botched her potion.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Oh, yes I'm fine. I'm just kind of tired." Hermione said trying to look normal.

"Harry's right. You don't look fine. You're acting weird and you almost ruined your potion. Why do you keep looking at Draco?" Ron said pointedly.

"Draco? I'm not looking at him. Like I said, I'm just tired and I have a headache. Now forget about it." She said with an air of finality.

Harry and Ron looked at other but didn't say anything more about it.

When class was over she walked out with Ron and Hermione but stopped at the door to wait on Draco.

"Come on or were going to be late to Charms." Ron said tugging on her arm.

"Just go without me. I'm going to wait on Draco. He needed to ask Professor Snape something about class." She said urging them to go on

"Oh alright. Well I'll see you later." Harry said and Ron waved her goodbye.

Hermione could see them whispering to each other when they walked off and knew they suspected she was worrying over something. They know me too well she thought grimly as she leaned up against the cold stone walls.

Draco was back inside the classroom and was making his way towards Professor Snape's desk.

"What is it Professor? Has my father done something?" Draco said. He was dreading the answer.

Professor Snape looked contemplative for a moment as if thinking of how to work what he was about to say.

"Your father is extremely angry. He believes you have thwarted him and shamed the Malfoy name. I do not know yet whether he plans to do anything about it but I caution you. There is something else too…he is also very angry about not receiving an heir from you. He believes Hermione is the only key to continuing your bloodline."

Draco heart sunk at the thought of Hermione. His father was capable of anything when he was angry. "I can't have her in danger. Professor I just can't. I don't know what to do. My father is capable of anything. He has to be stopped."

Professor Snape nodded his head in agreement. "It would not be wise to try and be heroic and hunt after your father. He is stronger than you and has the means to plan out things that you cannot. Do not be foolish. The only thing you can do is be careful and make sure Hermione is kept safe. "

"He is not my father." Draco spat out with a disgusted look on his face. "He's a monster."

"Just promise me that you will not do anything rash." Professor Snape said in biting tones.

Draco clenched his jaw in anger but gave Professor Snape a sharp nod before stalking out. He opened the door and slammed it shut behind him to reveal Hermione standing against the wall.

"Draco what happened?" She said, searching his face for answers.

Draco didn't want to tell her what had really happened. He didn't want to make her worry. "It was nothing. He just wanted me to be careful. Pretty much the same stuff he said last time. He just said to "act wisely". Draco then attempted a smirking look and said "Like I didn't know that."

Hermione looked at his face saw that he looked pale and his cheeks had an angry flush to them. "Are you sure that's all he said?"

Draco pasted on an assured look as he said confidently "Yeah I'm sure. I'll see you later. I have to go to History of Magic." He gave her a kiss on the cheek before heading to his class.

Guilt was bubbling inside of him like molten lava. He had dragged her into this. It was his fault that she might be in danger. He would do anything to protect her and would gladly give up his own life for her. Draco set his jaw and vowed to himself that he would never let his father…no not his father….that filthy bastard touch her.