Short Change Hero

Chapter 15: Why can't I breathe

Chapter Fifteen

Monster

"If I seem dangerous,
Would you be scared,
I get the feeling just because,
Everything I touch isn't dark enough,
That this problem lies with me,

I'm only a man with a candle to guide me,

I've turned into a monster,
And it keeps getting stronger,

I never said I want this,
This burden came to me,
And it's made its home inside..."

Monster by Imagine Dragons

Still Friday October 11th, 1996

Just Outside the Three Broomsticks- Half past two in the afternoon

Raw burning desire stung his lips along with the taste of sweetened apples while Draco bit down tugging almost violently at her bottom lip with his teeth, wanting nothing more than leave marks upon her silky skin- his marks. All he could think about in the moment was how much he wanted to nip at her neck harshly while trailing his mouth and tongue along her collarbone, as if he were staking his claim upon her in the most primitive way possible.

Then as if everything hit him all at once, he remembered just whom he had pressed up against the wall currently pressing into his chest. She was not just any daft witch, she was Granger, Gryffindor, and the best friend of Saint Potter himself...

A smoldering sensation rushed throughout Draco, from his fingertips to his toes as he tore his lips away from hers with a right growl, and then almost stumbling backwards from the force. Looking her up and down, Draco shook his head in incredulity shoving his thoughts away as fast as he possibly could. With a shaky breath, he then looked down at her once more before storming in the opposite direction away from her.

Huffing aloud, he barely noticed the freezing cold-water droplets running down his face whilst he attempted hushing the deep wave of increasing desire he felt at the very vivid memory of her soft lips against his. He honestly was not sure what he had been thinking at the time but the close proximity of her caused certain feelings to return full force, the ones he was usually able to push away.

Climbing the hill, in a flash of irritation, he turned to glance quickly over his shoulder in order to make sure no one was following him before he turned away from the path and into the Forbidden forest. Ducking around the dying barren trees, as the sound of leaves and broken twigs crunched beneath his shoes before he finally decided that he was a safe distance from anyone. Leaning the palm of his right hand flat against the damp coarse tree bark while he felt like he could not think let alone breathe as abrupt flashes of the feelings Granger invoked, hit him repeatedly.

'What was I thinking? Snogging some filthy - and up against a wall in the open nonetheless...' with that thought Draco reached upwards, yanking on his tie as he usually did when he was at a loss of what to do or how to feel. If he were going by what he felt, then everything would be so much simpler, because even though he would not admit it again, the feelings he felt around, her, were something he had never felt before this.

That was the thing though, he could not bring himself to go by what he felt when he had never allowed himself to feel these emotions in the past, not with his mother, father or even with Pansy when they dated briefly back in fourth year. No one grated on his nerves as Granger did when she had to show him up by having the top marks in their year or when she would stand up to him when he was having a go at Potter or Weaslebee. Making him feel this way was probably some sick enjoyment of hers or something he thought and no matter how much he tried to prove that her words never truly bothered him, he knew he always failed when it involved her.