The Shattered Dragon

Chapter 32: Headmaster Malfoy

The fifth turret of the castle held a spiral staircase leading to a round room. On the heavy oak door was a golden placard with gorgeous, scrolling lettering reading "Headmaster Malfoy". Hermione ran her fingers over the etched letters, tracing the M before Draco smiled and pushed the door open. Inside, the stone walls were covered in jewel toned tapestries and oil lamps dangled from the ceiling on iron chains to compensate for the light muted by the emerald and wine colored stained glass windows, leaving the room brightly light, but with a warm, golden glow. There were ten foot bookcases, sculptures on pedestals, living paintings and terrariums filled with magical plants. Miles of shelving held jars of ingredients, boxes of powders, bottles of potions, and a small work table held a bubbling cauldron beside a rack of glass tubes, twisting and dripping a pale green potion into a waiting vial. Away from the makeshift laboratory a wide black desk sat in the center of the room with shining black inkwells and ceramic pots filled with black quills. Hermione stood and stared at the charmed ceiling swirling with stars that became living constellations, sparkling with their ghostly outlines.

"It's beautiful," she said. "This place, this room...everything. I can't believe it."

"And there's more..." he said, taking her hand.

The twisting staircase lead up to a second floor where Draco's private quarters would be housed. Contrary to the office below, this room had a low, dark ceiling. Here too there were stained glass windows arcing across the curved walls and a wide, sumptuous bed with an intricately carved curved headboard that fit neatly with the contours of the room. It was like a soft, darkened cocoon.

"I don't know what the living quarters were like for the professors at Hogwarts, but I am accustomed to a certain level of luxury," he said with a dramatically raised brow, his voice taking on a perfect haughty tone that sounded almost exactly like Lucius. Still, Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

Outside the sun was setting and the room was cast in a purplish twilight, the ceiling glowing with stars just like in his office. He'd always loved astronomy, constellations, mythology, divination based on the stars, and now he'd surrounded himself with the endless darkness of space. She was suddenly struck with a desire to show him all that the muggle world had discovered about the planets, to show him pictures of man on the moon or the colorful blooming nebulas seen through the Hubble telescope. She wanted to travel the world with him, see the tropics, tour Paris, walk the Great Wall. She never wanted to be away from him again.

Draco leant against the footboard of the bed and loosened his tie. When he looked at Hermione again she was smiling mischievously, her hands folded behind her back.

"I've never seen the living quarters for a headmaster either, Mr. Malfoy," she said, opening her eyes wide, her voice a bit higher, a bit more innocent than usual. "Are you sure it's ok for students to be up here?"

He pulled the tie free from his collar and set it down on the bed, his face growing stern in an instant.

"Well, Miss Granger, normally I would say no, it isn't ok for students to be up here, but I'm afraid you've received enough verbal warnings that haven't gotten through, and now you need a formal punishment."

"Oh no, Mr. Malfoy..."

He walked past her to the dressing table set against the wall and pulled out the straight backed chair.

"Please have a seat," he said, his eyes hard and cold.

While most women would see that silvery ice and be frightened, the sight of it sent a shiver of want up her spine, a bloom of heat between her legs. She sat down and pulled her knees together primly, hands in her lap. Her heart was already racing at the thought of what lay ahead, and not only because of the obvious.