Chapter Two

Disclaimer: This all belongs to JKR. I'm only playing in a slightly modified universe of her making. No money is being made off this (God, help me, if it were!)

A/N: Thanks as always to my wonderful beta, McGonagall's Cat.

Chapter Two

They came to a makeshift building that lay on the outskirts of the field, half hidden in a clump of trees. This was what had obviously become the infirmary and headquarters. Ron took her inside and led her to a-room-turned-office close to the front of the building. Harry was sitting behind a desk in a comfortable armchair he must have conjured, holding his head in his hands. Owls kept flying through the window from important Ministry officials wanting conformation of Lord Voldemort's ruin.

"Harry, I've got her! She's alive!" Ron was practically jumping up and down.

Harry flew out of his chair and around the desk to pull her into a fierce embrace. When he pulled away to search her face, tears were running down his cheeks. "Oh 'Mione!" was all he could say as he continued to hold her hands, reassuring himself she was alive.

'Just what I need,' thought Hermione. 'A weeping Harry. If he keeps this up, he'll get Ron started and who knows what they'll do next.' She sighed inwardly, but kept up her face impassive on the outside.

Harry became concerned. "Hermione, your hands are icicles! Let's get you to the infirmary." He tried to steer her back out the door when they finally heard her speak. Her voice was oddly quiet, reminding Harry of the way the wind sounded, whispering through the trees at night.

"No, Harry, Ron. I'm fine."

They looked dubiously at one another, then back to Hermione.

"Are you sure? You seem...not yourself."

They were both trying to put their fingers on what was wrong with their friend. They knew she was different from the girl they were used to, but just what it was seemed to be eluding them. It worried them more than they wanted to admit. She could had been cursed during the battle, and she needed to have it reversed to be her usual bubbly self, rather than this quiet block of ice in front of them.

Hermione walked back to Harry's desk and perched herself seductively on the corner. She could see they were trying to understand the change in her, but knew they would never guess.

Laughing at them in a cold and heartless way, she slammed and locked the office door with a mere flick of her hand.

Both men jumped in surprise at this uncharacteristic action. Harry caught her eyes, and his blood ran cold to see a flash of something...inhuman.

"Hermione..." Harry started, but he never finished.

She was enjoying herself too much to be interrupted.

"Ah, ah, ah! I will tell you all you need to know in good time, but right now I need a smoke." Conjuring a cigarette between her fingers like an expert, she lit it by tapping the end with her wand. Pulling a long drag, she let it linger in her lungs before exhaling.

Taking in their shocked faces, she laughed again in that chilling way, enjoying her game. 'This is something the old me would never have done. Then again I'm not really me anymore, am I?' Her lips curled wickedly.

"Don't look so unnerved. You act as if you've never seen a girl smoke before? Do you blame me for wanting a fag after that fight?" She waved her empty hand airily. Crossing her legs, she took another drag. Exhaling, the smoke circled around her head, "You say you looked for my body after the fight?"

They nodded mutely, temporarily struck dumb by this new Hermione. Her neutral voice unsettled them.

"Well, you didn't look hard enough during the battle, Ron," she put emphasis on his name. "If you had, you would have noticed that someone had already carried me away." Hermione took a third drag and waited for her words to sink in.

The boys were thunderstruck.

"Where is the bloke! I'll kill him!"

Ron's unexpected bellow scared any owls who had remained to take wing out the window. He definitely looked murderous while Harry was crestfallen and mumbling something indistinct.

Hermione threw down the cigarette and twisted it into the old floorboards beneath the heel of her shoe. Her calmness was beginning to wear on Ron, only infuriating him more. It was just making Harry sick.

She conjured a couple of chintz chairs and scooted them directly behind the boys' knees, knocking them onto the chairs. Stepping lightly down from the desk, she walked behind the high backed chairs. Her voice barely above a whisper she said, "I met Draco Malfoy, or more correctly, he saved me from death, and I awoke in the forest with him."

Almost reading their minds in the stunned silence, she went on. "Oh, yes. Draco Malfoy. The arrogant thorn in our sides during school and loyal Death Eater." She laughed in a noticeably callous tone. "Who would have thought that a Malfoy had always lusted after a Mudblood?" Walking around to face them she noted the look of disbelief and horror on their faces.

Harry found his voice first. "Hermione," he cleared his throat, "did he put a spell on you or hurt you in any way?"

Ron shuddered as his worst fear rolled out of Harry's mouth. The redhead screamed curses in the air against the whole bloody Malfoy family.

Hermione stopped his tirade by placing her icy hand upon his cheek. She remained close enough to him that Ron could smell the tobacco on her breath, and he noticed that there was no heat radiating from her body. But the thought disappeared when her melodic voice spoke words of reassurance.

"Draco did nothing to me that I did not want him to do."

Harry instantly caught the implication of her words. Ron, however, was entranced by her voice and seemed to have not.

"You LET him have sex with you!"

Harry was angry, shocked, but more than anything, he was hurt. Where had the Hermione they had always known disappeared to in these few short hours? She was still acting in a know-it-all manner, but the differences were driving him past reasonable thought.

"Just tell us what happened, damnit! No more games!"

The insinuation behind her words had finally reached Ron's brain, and he looked as though he had been hit by a Bludger. His mouth was hung open in astonishment, his eyes unfocused, as he, too, tried to figure out where the real Hermione had gone. 'Would she really sleep with Draco Malfoy? Willingly,' he asked himself. It hurt his heart too much to dwell on, so, like Harry he just waited for a logical explanation to everything that was happening.

Hermione shrugged listlessly. "As you wish. I'm through with games myself. But I could just as easily drag this out forever. From here on, I have an eternity."

Her smugness was blatantly obvious, and Ron was beginning to look like he would explode again. Harry felt like he could, too. This taunting was too much for him.

Hermione then did something unexpected again. Going to the open window, she whispered into the night. With a sudden swirl of black robes that contrasted with porcelain skin and the spicy smell of a very recognizable cologne, Draco Malfoy stood in the center of the office.

"You called, my pet?"

Hermione was by his side almost instantly. She moved so quickly that the boys never even saw her leave the window. Draco chuckled into her hair, then rained kisses across her face and neck possessively.

Ron growled, "Don't touch her!" He flung himself at his rival, but Draco merely flicked his hand in Ron's direction to send him soaring into the wall.

Harry was next to jump up and avenge his friend, but Hermione hissed at him. He was caught off guard and fell back onto the chair with a cry.

Ron's eyes were huge as he watched the transformation in Hermione. She had gone from cold and distant to he and Harry, to cuddling Malfoy, and then transforming into a menacing creature. She didn't even look human.

Relaxing her facial features once more she glided smoothly back into Draco's arms, purring his name against his neck. He whispered something in her ear, turning her to see the fear and anger on her friends' faces. Hermione and Draco began to laugh with abandon. Their pointed teeth flashed in the moonlight streaming into the room.

Realization dawned with incredible force. Tears came to Harry's eyes and fell to his lap as he comprehended what Draco was and what he had turned Hermione into. Now he understood the coldness in her – without a soul there was no reason to be gentle and sweet. He remembered her statement about eternity and saw how it all made sense now.

Glancing over at Ron against the wall with blood oozing from a cut above his eye, Harry saw that his friend had grasped the awful truth, too. The look of total loss on Ron's face was unmistakable. Harry felt the same.

'One of the best friends I have is now lost to me. Forever,' thought Harry. 'Oh, gods, why?!' Emptiness overtook him, face-to-face with this harsh reality.

Ron stood up and yelled at Draco.

"You...you...arrogant, dirty, conniving SLYTHERIN! I can't tell you how much I hate you! One day someone will kill you, it may even be me, and you will rot in Hades for destroying such a beautiful life."

His face was purple from yelling, and tears of rage were rolling down his face.

Draco sneered at Ron, then looked at Hermione.

"Didn't you tell them, kitten?"

"I haven't had time, darling. They were impatient with me because it took me so long to tell them what I've become, so I called you hoping we could tell them together." She smiled sweetly at him, teeth flashing once again.

"Alright, let's tell them." He stated, "It's simple, really. We plan to spend eternity together shagging each other senseless." He pulled her in front of him to put his arms around her waist and pull her backside against his front. Now both of them were staring at Ron and Harry, their eyes flashing cruelly.

Draco broke the silence with his silky voice. "Hermione, my sweet, weren't you supposed to have something to eat? I think we should take care of that before you become too weak. I would have to teach these boys a lesson for keeping you from your feeding time. If we tarry much longer, I'll just give them to you as a present."

Hermione grinned devilishly, shaking her head. "I'm not interested in them. I want some young virgin for my first meal."

"Of course, darling. I should have realized what amazing taste you would have."

She raised a hand in frigid farewell as Draco whipped his long cloak about them, and they disappeared into the velvet night.

A/N: Never fear - the lemons make their appearance next chapter!