When We Were Beasts

Before: Part Twelve

"Take off your clothes, G-Granger."

Hermione was barely awake, but his words shook off the last cobwebs of sleep that still clung to her mind.
"W-what did you s-say?"

"We'll f-freeze to death unless we share b-body heat. We c-can use your robes as a m-mat and mine as a blanket."

"I'm n-not taking my clothes off f-for you."

"You'd r-rather die?"

Hermione said nothing.

This had already crossed her mind, when she had gone back to her corner after Malfoy's confession and she listened to his side of the story. How he'd gone to Snape after receiving the Dark Mark. How Snape had told him there was a way to play both sides, just he'd been doing for years. A plan had been put in place that the same night Malfoy was to kill Dumbledore, Snape would whisk away Narcissa to an Order safe house in France while the Death Eaters took over Hogwarts.
But it hadn't worked out as planned.

Malfoy assumed he had been outed, not by Snape but by someone else, and that was why he was left here to rot away with Order members and monsters alike.

It didn't completely change what Hermione thought of him. Malfoy still would have killed Dumbledore. He would have killed her, if it meant saving his mother. But he wasn't doing it for glory, for blood supremacy. Draco Malfoy became a beast, became a manacled servant to Voldemort, so that his mother didn't have to.

He had asked her to drop it, after he had said his piece, and she respected his wishes- for now. This was a conversation with marrow left in it, and Hermione wanted to pick the bones clean before she tossed it out to the dogs. She'd get more out of him, just at the right time.

"G-granger? You'd r-really rather freeze t-to death?"

She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes to the point that it ached. Everything felt so cold, like frost had settled onto her bones and her organs were now shards of ice. To move, to even form a thought, felt too heavy. The cold consumed everything.

"N-no. I w-wouldn't." How glad - how fucking glad- that she wouldn't have to see his face. Hermione wondered if he was smirking.

He wouldn't see her.
Just feel her. All of her.

Hermione heard him unbutton his top, and her stomach squeezed.

Quickly, before she could reconsider her choices, she pulled her clothes off, leaving only her knickers on. She almost yelped as the brutal air devoured her exposed skin with razor sharp teeth. Hermione bit her lip as her knees met the frozen ground, and she crawled forward until her hands met Malfoy's.

"Here, hand me y-your clothes." His breath fanned her face. He was closer than she had pictured. Her stomach squeezed again, this time tighter.

If she had any real food in her stomach, she likely would have been sick from her nerves.

Hermione could hear Malfoy arrange both sets of clothes, all the while Hermione bit her lip even harder to fight the urge to cry. She couldn't feel her legs, and the sensation was creeping up her thighs.

Hermione felt rather than heard Malfoy settle down. His hands tapped the ground until they found hers.

"Hurry u-up, Granger, or I'll turn to ice."

"I- I think I'm a-already ice." Hermione muttered, but she let him guide her down.

Hermione had begun to move so she could settle with her back to his chest, but before she could even make contact with him he pulled on her hand.

"Face me," Malfoy said. "So we c-can warm up faster with our breaths."

"Okay."

Hermione didn't know how to feel when Malfoy's arms wrapped completely around her, and her bare chest was firmly pressed against his. Their legs intertwined, and they kept their foreheads pressed together as he used one hand to quickly pull her robe over the both of them. Her skirt, socks, and shirt were to be her pillow.