The Muggleborn Vampire: A Dramione Story

Chapter 30: Tense Moments

Blinking in the sharp, bright light, Draco awoke and recognised the sterile-white essence of the hospital wing. Though not as often as other Quittach players, like Potter, for instance, he had found himself waking in this particular room in the castle on a handful of cases, thanks to a rogue bludger or elbow to the gut or head.

But, if he remembered correctly, that was not the cause for his current visit to the hospital wing. No, if his memory served him right, he had had a panic attack in his dormroom and ended up punching a mirror. Yeah...not one of his most proudest moments.

But how did he end up in the hospital wing, rather then still laying on the bathroom floor? Someone must have found him and delivered him here, probably Theo or Blaize after returning from lunch. Ugh, how was he going to explain that situation away? He guessed he could blame it on his father; Draco would often received letters from him ensuring that his grades were pristine, for 'The Malfoy line will not be passed on to a unintelligent fool.' His friends were fairly used to seeing Draco stressed out after receiving said corrispondances. Though, the stress would usually cause him to study more rather than cause him to act out physically. Though it didn't seem to far fetched, he supposed.

He began to sit up, wanting to find Madam Pomffery to ask when he could return to his dorm, when he noticed an arm laying on his chest and a head nuzzled into his right shoulder. His movements caused the other person to lift her head and to rotate her body so that she was partially sitting up and hovering over his supine body.

"Good morning, Malfoy."

"Granger...what are you doing here? What's going on?" Draco sat up, causing Hermione to shift so that they were both sitting up and facing each other on either side of the bed.

"After you left our quarters, something in my gut told me you were in trouble, so Severus and I went to find you and found you in your dorm. We brought you here, they fixed your hand..." she trailed off and, though she looked down at the blanket in her lap, Draco noticed the worry in her eyes as she spoke. "You must have been pretty upset." She mumbled in a quiet voice.

"Well, yeah, I just learned that I'm the immortal mate to a vampire." Draco couldn't help but shoot her a glare. "You can't expect me to take that lightly."

"No, I suppose not." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I really am sorry I didn't talk to you beforehand. Everything happened so fast and I was still processing my own mortality... then my vampire took over and made the decision for me."

Draco grunted in reply. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he could sort of understand why Granger didn't jump at the first chance to tell him of their new predicament. 'I would have probably hexed her and insisted that Father send her to St. Mungo's psych ward' he mused to himself.

He clenched his teeth as the thought of his father's reaction to his new blood status crossed his mind again. 'Oh, how am I going to handle this...'

"Malfoy, are you Ok?"

"Huh?" Draco was startled by the girl's voice that brought him out of his reverie. His brown haired classmate was looking at him with eyes that he hated to admit was full of concern. His face hardened at that. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I don't think you are. I can smell your fear."

"I said I'm fine!" Draco snapped, causing Hermione to reel back at the sudden outburst. "Will you just leave me alone? I don't need your pity!"

"I'm not pitying you!" Hermione huffed back, throwing her hands up in the air. "I know you don't understand it, and Merlin knows I don't understand it either, but I care about your wellbeing. I can tell that you're upset and my nature is willing me to fix it."

"I don't need you to 'fix' anything!" Draco shouted, scooting off the bed and facing her with his arms crossed across his chest. "I just want my life to go back to the way it was and for you to leave me alone!"

"Well, I can't!" Hermione yelled back and she jumped out of bed and came to stand in front of him until they were practically chest to chest. "Whether you like it or not, we're mates. We'll be compelled to be in close contact with each other and I'll have to bite you at least once a day to keep you alive. And if you think that just because my vampire is willing me to care about you now eliminates all my past thoughts about you, your sorely mistaken. I still think you're a racist ponce who has his head shoved so far up his ass that he can't bother to think about anyone else's feelings but his own!"

"Well, you're just an insufferable know-it-all Mudblood who thinks they're better than everyone because you just so happen to have better studying skills then everyone else!"

"Really? 'Insufferable know-it-all'? Is that the best you can do? And you do know that you just reillerated the fact that you're a racist, right?"

"Shut up, Granger!" Draco spat, balling up his fists at his sides and leaning toward the girl, trying to intimidate her physically with the few inches of height he had over her. He subconsciously knew he was losing the argument and was trying to grasp any advantage he could think of.

"Why don't you make me?" She taunted, leaning foward too, showing she wouldn't back down easily.

"Fine!" Draco did the only thing he could think to stop her from running her mouth any more.

He kissed her.

Fireworks ignited in Draco's mind as he heard the muffled grunt from Granger, then felt a hand on the back of his neck that pulled him roughly fowards as she deepened the kiss.

His brain was sending distress signals, telling him that this wasn't right at all. That kissing Hermione Granger, one of his sworn enemies and the person who just flipped his world upside down by infecting him with her freaky creature blood, was one of the worst things that could be happening to him right now.

But as he felt Granger's tongue beg for enterance and one of her hands begin to rake through his hair, pulling it gently but authoritatively, he decided to ignore those warnings and to listen to that small part in his mind that told him that this was right, this is exactly where he was supposed to be.

Closing his eyes and placing his hands on her shoulders and upper back, he opened his mouth and accepted the kiss Granger gave him. He could feel a rumble of approval vibrate from her chest to his as she pulled him closer, asserting dominance over him though the kiss and through her posture and, though Draco would never admit it out loud and was quite confused about it, he surprisingly enjoyed her taking control and he willingly allowed her to set the pace of the kiss.

After what felt like hours but was surely only a few moments, Hermione pulled Draco's mouth away from hers with a tug of his hair. A tense silence followed, stormy grey studying shining rubies as they both took a moment to catch their breath.

After a few deep inhales to steady her instincts, Hermione's eyes faded back to brown and she let go of and took a few steps away from her mate. She struggled to keep control of her sences, willing her vampire to back off, for it was not the appropriate time to ravage the sexy, disheveled blond barely standing before her. His face was flushed a beautiful shade of red and his dimeanor screamed at her to continue their previous activities.

But as she remembered the argument that occurred directly before said activities, reason told her that they wearn't ready for that step yet. They could barely hold a civil conversation, let alone enter into a stable relationship.

Hermione Granger backed away from Draco Malfoy until she could feel the hospital curtain brush up against her back. Neither one could find it within themselves to break eye contact.

"Meet me in the astronomy tower at nine o'clock tonight. Dress warm; the wind's been strong and cold lately." And with that, Hermione turned around and fled the hospital wing.