A/N: *shuffles in, knowing it's been well over a year*
*hands over the chapter*
*scampers off, peering at you from the shadows to see if you're still reading*
xx-Kitten.
Little Do You Know
By Kittenshift17
Chapter 14: Tensions
Draco smirked to himself throughout the remainder of the lesson, only too aware that he'd caught her attention now. She didn't like the idea that he knew anything about her. She didn't like that she'd have to marry him, either, but there was little for it. If he could lure her into being intrigued by him and more interested in getting to know him, he might better sway her toward the notion that no matter their history, they could be great together.
Of course, it would take a lot of convincing, but Draco was nothing it not dedicated when it came to getting what he wanted. And he couldn't deny that he wanted Hermione Granger. It wasn't just that he'd begun to notice her for her feminine wiles, either. He wanted that brilliant mind of hers and he wanted to see what kind of passions he could coax out of her, both in and out of the bedroom. Merlin, he'd give his fortune to have her turn to him that very minute, lean over, and whisper in his ear that she wanted him to take her to bed.
She wouldn't, he knew. Merlin, knowing his luck she probably wouldn't even consider letting him shag her until they were legally married. And they would be legally married. Sooner, rather than later, if he had anything to say about it. He wasn't in the mood to tolerate having her trying to wiggle out of this mess, even if he did think it was going to be fun watching her slowly change her opinion as she fell for him.
She didn't talk to him for the rest of the lesson, while Worthington went on at length about the importance of cooperation and began assigning them tasks to complete each day to better ensure they got along. Practice made perfect, the silly witch said, and they had to practice at being friends until one day they simply would be. She seemed very set on the idea of ensuring the relationship was built on a foundation of friendship, rather than on the forced marriage thanks to the Ministry's interference.
"Well," Blaise muttered when the lesson finally ended and they were released to attend lunch. "That was a load of rubbish."
"You didn't find the ideas useful?" Granger asked, surprising Draco with her reasonable tone in response to Blaise's dismissive one.
"Useful, sure, if you're a moron who doesn't know how to make a friend," Blaise shrugged his shoulders. "But for us? Nah, not so much. Setting us tasks to spend time together when we're already invading your space and working with and around you is a waste of time, but at least it'll be an easy grade. And Ginevra, if you so much as think about trying to hex Tracy again, I'm going to throw you over my shoulder, carry you down to my bunk in the dungeons and ravish you until you forget Potter's bloody name, witch!"
Draco slanted a look to the left to see that Blaise had been keeping a close eye on his betrothed and noticed the way the end of her wand was emitting little red sparks while she glared at Potter and Tracy where they were walking together after the lesson, Tracy animatedly regaling Potter with some story about how her parents had gotten together. Potter was laughing along with the story, nodding and engaged, and he didn't bat an eye when Tracy handed off her book bag to the black-haired wizard to carry before she performed a funny little dance step that Draco was certain he'd seen her father perform in front of her mother a time or two at the many Balls and parties held at the Manor.
"You wouldn't dare, Zabini! I could wipe the floor with you and you know it!" Weasley hissed and Draco reckoned the witch was in for a rude awakening if she was doubting that Blaise would follow through on his threats, no matter those she made in return.
"Go ahead and hex Tracy then, love. See where it gets you," Blaise invited, a wicked smile curling his lips. Draco could tell he would adore carrying the feisty witch off to ravish her in the dungeons.
Ginny glared up at Blaise for a long moment, her eyes narrowed hatefully, and Draco could tell that Blaise was a little frightened by her intensity when she focused it so singularly upon him, but he didn't show it. Instead he affixed a cruel little smirk to his mouth and let his eyes wander Ginny's athletic form, just daring her to test him and let him have his wicked way with her by default. Draco knew that if it came down to it, the git really would carry her off like a barbarian and have his way with her. He'd bet Weasley wouldn't think about Potter again afterward, either, except maybe to berate herself for wasting so much time with the specky git when she couldn't been riding Blaise's monster cock, instead.
Granger bumped his arm by accident as they walked toward the Great Hall for lunch, digging into her bag looking for something and Draco looked over, wondering if she was trying to grab his attention or if she genuinely was just looking for something in her book bag.
"What are you chasing?" he asked her curiously, stepping a little closer and taking perverse pleasure in putting his arm around her shoulders under the pretence of steering her around a statue when she almost walked right into one in the corridor because she wasn't watching where she was going.
She stiffened at his touch, her head jerking up so that she could level a glare at him for his daring. Draco marvelled at the striations of amber and gold that seemed to fleck her brown eyes when she was angry. She really was shaping out to be quite beautiful, he thought.
"My homework planner," she said when he didn't say anything else, just raised his eyebrows at her and waited for her answer without removing his arm from around her shoulders, no matter the way she shrugged them and the way she glared so fiercely.
"What for?" he frowned. "Lessons haven't even started yet."
"She gave us assignments in there," Granger frowned, jerking her thumb toward the classroom in their wake.
Draco smirked.
"Trust me, Granger," he said. "You're not going to need to write down the assignment to spend time with me. I'm not going anywhere. It'll be the easiest grade you've ever earned."
"Not if I have to put up with you, it won't," she argued, looking annoyed with him for the way he was holding her though she didn't bother trying to shove him off her.
Draco suspected she knew that fighting would be futile and would just encourage him to be even more annoying.
"You two need to get a room," Blaise piped up at that moment before he could offer her a snarky reply, and Draco shot him a side-eye that suggested he'd pull Blaise's innards out through his nose if he didn't piss off, but the other boy ignored the expression. "What? Don't pretend to me that you didn't have her parading around on your shoulders during that quidditch match, mate. And I saw the way she was looking at you down in our dormitory. You two need to just shag all the hate out and get on with fancying the pants off each other."
"And there goes my appetite," Granger sneered, shrugging Draco's arm off her shoulders and actually turning away from the direction they'd been walking.
He knew she was heading off the library from the way she turned down a different corridor and Draco tossed up the merits of seeing to his own appetite – which was still very much intact – or going after her. On the one hand, if he didn't eat he was likely to get cranky lately. He was bratty at the best of times, he knew, and he didn't need to compound upon it by skipping lunch. On the other, if he went after Granger and managed to get her alone for a few minutes, he might be able to talk her into forgiving him for the Legilimency thing, and maybe even figure out what in the hell her problem was with this Marriage Law mess.
After all, being so unreasonably stroppy about it was uncalled for. Was it terribly inconvenient and rude? Of course, it was. Had he been thinking he might, eventually, seduce her into be his girlfriend and marrying him one day, regardless of the law? Well…. Maybe.
Blaise smirked when he spotted Draco carrying on a mental battle about lunch over another fight with Granger.
"You might as well go after her," he said, grinning. "Shove her up against one of those bookshelves in the back of the library and make her realise you're not all that bad."
Draco rolled his eyes, sighing in annoyance before setting off in Granger's wake. And if he was thinking about taking Blaise's suggestion to heart as he walked, rather than rationalising what he might say and how he might get Granger to stop being such a bitch about this whole mess, well, that was his business.