dragons_can_learn | Making contact

Making contact

Draco stared at the fourth draft of his letter, the previous three having been incinerated (one by fiendfyre), and realised that although he wasn't happy with it it wasn't going to get better whatever he did so he might as well send it. The worst she'd do would be send a howler, or a more creative curse back.

Hermione,

I know I'm the last person you expect to hear from, but in my entire time in Hogwarts there is only one witch I consider my intellectual superior even if she did have the misfortune to choose friends she couldn't even bounce ideas off. In my attempts to reverse engineer various enchanted artifacts and create my own I'm afraid I have run into something I need a second opinion on, but that could lead to a wizarding version of the internet, and even potentially being able to connect the two via a heavily modified protean charm (a spell I am aware you've used).

If you are interested any owl you send will be welcome at Malfoy Manor and I will entirely understand if you want to meet in a neutral place or even on your own territory, and you are welcome to bring a bodyguard although I would request anyone except Ron or George Weasley.

Regards,

Draco Malfoy

It was now or never, so he rolled the note up, attached it to the leg of his owl, and sent it to find Hermione Granger wherever she was.

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Hermione shivered slightly, allowing the chill to be completely experienced. She just let the sensation course over her body and savored it.

"Not often. I have only been with one other wizard who I trusted enough to let go. And we didn't have a lot of time together."

Draco shrugged. "I've technically a lot more experience than that. But much of it's been under polyjuice to avoid people recognising me. That I had a Dark Mark brings two types of people out of the woodwork and I'm not a fan of either."

He was of course referring to people who wanted the former Death Eater to torture them under relatively safe conditions, and people who wanted payback on the former Death Eater because he was a former Death Eater. Neither was anything he wanted to do with.

Hermione readjusts her hands, so she could run her fingers up his arm -- the one that had the Dark Mark on it. She knows how it feels to be 'branded' for life. The mudblood scar that his aunt Bella carved into her skin would remain a reminder of how some people viewed her. Most of the time, she used a glamor to hide the word away.

"I want you, as you, Draco."

Draco's eyes softened at that and it clearly hit home even if his words turned it with self-deprecation with a touch of underlying self-condemnation. "And if I knew who I was... It used to be so much easier even if it was worse."

She continued to stroke her fingers lightly on his skin.

"I feel a little lost myself, quite honestly. And am still trying to figure out who I am."

Hermione looked up at him. Their mental link displayed an image of her and him, just laying in bed, holding each other, and just sharing their day. Sharing concerns. Sharing joys. Sharing their lives.

"Maybe we can help each other." And she leaned in again, to place another kiss on his lips. This one a little more tender.

Draco smiled as he kissed her back, slipping into the mental image and keeping the kiss tender, and just tweaking it with more affectionate physical contact. It was easy to miss but he and Pansy had always been more physically affectionate than the golden trio were (and it had frankly been a healthier relationship than any of them had ever had).

I hope so. Although your friends might go bonkers.

Hermione enjoyed the more affectionate physical contact. And smiled against his lips. She liked staying this close to him. Being comfortable to be open with him.

My friends don't tell me who I can date.

And Draco did too, holding her and kissing her gently again.

*Good. And I owe Astoria twenty galleons. *On a silly bet they had where Astoria had said that at some point he'd find some way to date Hermione, to which Draco at the time had just protested that bit too strongly. *Greg's terrified of you by the way. And a lot less angry with everyone now he knows dyslexia is a thing. *

Hermione snuggled closer to Draco. She returned the kiss, then rested her head against his shoulder. Her fingers caressed up and down his body, just enjoying the closeness.

"You made a bet about me?" She chuckled. Amused that Draco had also lost that bet.

"Astoria insisted I fancied you and would date you." Draco shrugged as he snuggled with her. "I told her she was high and the only thing I wanted to do was give you the spanking you so richly deserved. She just laughed at that." And there was in the mental link a picture of Hermione lying over Draco's lap, skirt above her waist, and his hand caressing her already reddened ass.

"And if we're not going to eat, there are more comfortable places than here."

He could sense her arousal at the mental image of him spanking her. It immediately fueled one of her darker fantasies, that would whisper its sweet seduction in the mental link. Where Hermione was draped across Draco's lap, bound at her ankles and wrists. Nipple clamps digging into her skin. A dark male presence in the corner of the room, watching them.

Hermione caught her breath. She wanted it all, the dating, the sincerity, the relationship, and the opportunity to express herself sexually with Draco.

"Where we could explore each other for the first time?" She whispered.

And Draco bore down on her mentally, solidifying the image in her mind so that she could almost feel bindings on her wrists and ankles on her body - and the nipple clamps would feel almost as real as she could imagine them being with nothing actually physically there, every single one of the teeth given form and weight in her imagination by his.

"Whimper for me and I'll apparate us out of here." With his free hand he was slipping his two devices back in his pocket.

The sensation of the bindings on her wrists, the metal of the nipple clamps, brought her pretty close to whimpering naturally.

Hermione leaned up, so her lips brushed past Draco's ear. "Please Draco..."

With a soft moan Draco broke the mental link and apported them; she but wouldn't recognise where they ended up. It looked like some sort of alchemist's lab with a relatively new computer and muggle monitor and what looked like a motor inside a strong runic circle, lab benches, and both standard and less than standard glassware all over the place, and several scrolls. "Welcome to my workroom." Draco smiled. "But unless we're playing specific games this isn't the right room."

After letting her senses calm slightly from the side-apparation, Hermione looks around the workroom. Like a child in a candystore, her eyes go wide with interest. And she moves forward to examine the different objects in the lab.

"This is bloody incredible Draco!" She smiles at him.

"As I said. Snape was a much better teacher one on one." And his pockets, while not unlimited, were impressive. The potion ingredients, other than in the potion bubbling away in the corner, were all put away but finding them wouldn't be difficult.

The runic circle containing the computer were all keeping magic out, and inside that the tower and monitor were in a thin mesh that acted as a Faraday Cage with only what looked like a propeller or a fan sticking out from the motor and outside the circle. The tube gave a pretty clear indication of what that was for; there was too much magic in the house for electrical wiring - but he could use magic to turn the fan to run the motor to power the computer.

"Why do I think I could lose you in here for days?" His tone was amused. "And that's before I show you the book collection?"

"Why am I not surprised that you have your own book collection." Hermione laughs. She imagines that it would outshine her little book store, given the fact that Draco had access to one of the most remarkable libraries she had ever seen.

"It's not a lending library." His tone was amused. "And there are entire bookcases borrowed from Malfoy Manor. Plus a lot of Snape's own research and even some part-complete potions textbooks using his recipies and the sort of things neither he nor the textbook wrote down."

He headed towards the corner of the room with two solid oak doors. "Bedroom. Or do you want to see the study first?"

Hermione sighed softly. Of course she didn't think his book collection was a lending library. But she was interested to hear that there were books borrowed from Malfoy Manor and Snape's own research.

"The study. Please." Because she just had to see it, before her mind would rest.

Draco laughed. "Of course." And he opened the door to somewhere that looked less chaotic. Just an entire wall full of books, a study desk with clearly two separate projects he'd been working on and what looked like a computer chair, and a very comfortable couch.

"That reminds me I have a house elf; I hope you won't have problems there, Hermione? And would you like to meet her?"

Hermione started to walk forward, her eyes searching over the wall full of books.

"No. I won't." Hermione answers. Her crusade to free house elves didn't turn out to be what many of them desired. In fact, many of them preferred to be working.

"Yes. That would be lovely."

"Mara? We've got a guest. Come and say hello to Hermione."

A few seconds later house-elf appeared in front of her, wearing what looked like a shimmering blue dress; a second glance would show it to be entirely made up of flat dark blue glass pieces held together by wire.

"You're dressed up, Mara." Draco smiled.

"Master Draco doesn't have guests over often." Mara smiled wickedly. "And it's funny to watch their eyes bulge when they can't tell the difference between jewelry and clothes." Of course given that the 'jewelry'' in question was proportionately longer than most cocktail dresses it was understandable. "Hello Miss Hermione."

"Hello Mara." Hermione smiles softly. She wonders how Mara had known instinctively who she was.

"Did you make that yourself? It is lovely."

Mara knew because Draco had named her, and she smiled proudly. "Yes, Mara did, thank you."

Draco nodded. "Mara made all the glasswork in there other than the simple tubes and flasks."

"Mara likes making things, Miss Hermione. And Mara likes making things that last and do things even more than she likes making things that get eaten."

"Simply fantastic." Hermione smiles. She remembers the glasswork. And how finely made it had been.

"You have a remarkable talent."

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