The Muggleborn Vampire: A Dramione Story

Chapter 34: Feelings

9:20pm.

He's late.

Hermione huffed in irritation as she made another lap around the astronomy tower. She was trying to be patient, she really was, but he only had forty more minutes until his body would go into shock due to the lack of her venom in his system. Where was he?

She had a feeling that, whatever was making him late, it had something to do with the reason why he had been avoiding her the entire day. He dodged her looks throughout their shared charms class, and though he had been doing this since the incident in the courtyard weeks ago, he hadn't even bothered to sneer at her like before. No crinkled nose, no heavy or crooked eyebrows...nothing. He just kept his head down and focused on the essay in front of him. And as soon as class ended, he was one of the first of their classmates to leave.

Hermione wondered if he was ashamed or embarrassed by their...intamacy the night before. She became aware of her surroundings again shortly after returning to her quarters with a sleeping Draco in her arms and her face instantly reddened when the memories began to return to her. Though they were a bit foggy due to her Vampire being in control, she remembered the gist of it and she was quite surprised by how foward she had been. Hell, she could have taken him right there on the stone floor if Draco had let her, and something told her that there was a good possibility he would have.

Despite her age, for she knew many other seventeen year olds that had, she hadn't given too much thought about boys and love and all that. Yes, she did attend the Yule ball with Victor Krum in Forth Year, but it wasn't because she had feelings for him or anything. She didn't want to sound shallow, but she enjoyed getting attention from someone who thought and told her she was pretty. She had always seen herself as a frumpy, homely girl with much too curly hair and buck teeth, and for someone to tell her she was the complete opposite of that was nice. But she soon realised that all Victor saw in her was her looks; he had no appreciation for her mind. He had very little interest in academia and only ever wanted to talk about Quiddich. Come to think of it, that was one reason why her crush on Ron fizzled early into their friendship too; neither boy gave her the stimulating conversations her mind craved in a relationship.

With the disappointment settling in early with the only two boyfriend candidates she had had so far, she had never thought about the more complex aspects a relationship like that could lead to, and even so, she felt like she would be way too timid to initiate anything. But from what she remembered of the aftermath of Draco Malfoy's third bite from her... maybe she wasn't as shy as she thought she was.

Again, she never thought about having relations with a boy before, especially with Malfoy, so she was quite startled that she even had the disire to go there, let alone initiate it.

Maybe it was all her vampire's fault? Was it some kind if animalistic need to breed and reproduce? Or was She revealing desires that Hermione didn't even know she was having for the blond boy?

The sound of hesitant steps on the stairs and the waft of a certain smell caught her attention. She whipped around to see Draco Malfoy in the doorway of the tower; as elegant as ever with a slightly puffed out chest and his chin slightly raised, though the telltale sign of his fear scent hinted that his bravado wasn't as genuine as he was making it out to be.

"There you are! Where have you been!?!" She demanded after sighing in relief.

"I fail to see how that's any of your business." He replied, folding his arms over his chest. That's when she noticed his face, though normally light in color, looked very pale, almost grey and his voice sounded dry.

"Are you serious? You're my mate and you could die within the hour!" She crossed the room to stand in front of him and grabbed his shoulders. She felt him flinch under her hands but he didn't pull away, and she could have sworn she heard his breath hitch.

"Getting you your dose of venom is very important, Malfoy." She told him in a softer tone, sliding her hands up to rest over his collarbones. "You're already looking sickly."

Draco flicked his gaze up from where he had dropped it to the floor to meet hers. Confusion swam across the grey pools of his eyes and his eyebrows wrinkled. "Why do you care so much?" He asked, his voice tight and whispered. "You don't even know me."

"You might not think so, but I know more than you think." She answered, her hands sliding up to caress his neck. "You're smart, proud, mysterious, beautiful... But you're also afraid to disappoint others, of making them think you're weak or unworthy of the titles society has placed upon you. You're always so focused on keeping in place this wall of indifference and acting like you don't have feelings, but the thing is, is that I can tell that you're scared. I can smell it. I can sense when you're in trouble or when you're sad. I can see in your eyes when you're confused or angry, focused or amused.  And some of that might be due to my new vampiric instincts, but you've always intrigued me, Draco Malfoy, even before my inheritance. But you've always let the thoughts and beliefs of others come before yours, and that has blocked you from getting to know the real me, and me from knowing the real you. I think, that if you allow yourself to see me as me, and not as a Mudblood or vampire or know it all, that you may come to see that I intrigue you too."

Hermione could feel and see Draco swallow and a tint of a blush cover his cheeks. She could almost see the gears turning in his mind as he processed her words in silence. He closed his eyes for a moment, seemingly to collect his thoughts, before opening them and looking at her with a sharp gaze. "Bite me." He said, his voice unwavering, "so that I can kiss you without losing consciousness."

"Oh, Draco." She cooed in relief, tears in her eyes, before pulling down his turtleneck and answering his request. And as soon as she delivered the proper dose of venom, she pulled herself up and claimed his lips with hers, hoping that the taste of his own blood on her tongue wouldn't scare him away.

It didn't.