Need [ dramione ]

Chapter 18

6 December 1998 - 3 Days After the Full Moon

Sitting in the back of the library with every notebook he has started gathering, he waits for Granger to show up. The owl he had received at breakfast had asked him to meet her here, to start talking about her condition, and to bring all of his earlier resources. A part of him is nervous - there are things he's about to learn that he certainly isn't ready to hear, and yet... he's also excited.

Finally, after months in limbo, they're going to move forward with this, move forward with this struggle, with this constant give and take, with this whole 'she hates him' 'she pushes him away' thing.

She had agreed, back after the previous Full Moon, that they needed to do research, but after a month of getting nowhere, he had kind of doubted it when she had mentioned research before he said goodbye to her at the infirmary doors two days earlier.

It's time. Time to move forward. Time to start... finding out the whole story. Time to start figuring out the two of them.

When he sees her approach, Draco has to resist the urge to stand - he wants to, wants to pull out her chair, wants to greet her properly, wants to perhaps even hug her... but those ideas are absurd. This is not a date, this is a meeting, a business meeting... sort of. And, he has no right to kiss her, to even touch her.

It's a stark contrast, being around her during the day, when his nights are filled with dreams of her in his bed, moaning his name, gasping as he fucks her, as he drives her to the edge over and over again. He still can't find completion in her, but, the second he gets into her for real... He'll likely embarrass himself. The second time, then. That time, he'll be able to give her pleasure...

"Seriously?" she asks, sitting down across from him, eyebrows raised.

He doesn't know how she does that, how she can so easily guess what's on his mind... he doubts she can actually read it, because if she could, she would know that all he ever thinks about is the fact that he wants to kiss her, and the fact that he's worried about her... Could she? Could she be reading his mind?

"Whatever girl you're thinking about, stop," Granger says with a roll of her eyes as she sets out some parchment on the table. "Muffliato."

He notices, but doesn't point out, that she had cast the spell without her wand. She's doing that more and more, casting without a wand in her hand. He rarely ever saw Greyback with a wand...

Something to write down later, when she isn't sitting directly across from him.

"So, I've begun compiling notes on my transitions every Full Moon, but then I realized that you've likely noticed things I haven't. So..."

He watches her lick her lips, her hands smoothing out the parchment in front of her, and he recognizes it for what it is - she's letting him in. She's nervous. She's scared.

He reaches out, across the table, and grabs her hand. Squeezing it, he lets it go, and watches as her hand just rests on the table. He looks up to see her looking stunned at their hands, and then up at him.

"We can start with a few nights ago, and work our way back," he says softly, even though that doesn't make sense. There's a beginning to her life as a werewolf, while there is no end. To start in the middle... still, just jumping in, it clearly terrifies her. Better to just... ease into her story.

"We should start at the beginning," she says instead.

Well then. Toss out his plan.

"Alright then," he concurs, opening up a brand new notebook. He doesn't know what to write... what would even be the beginning?