Contingent | D.M. + H.G.

Chapter 5: Internal Spiral

A/N: Major thanks to my two incredible Betas - they took this chapter from here to HERE and I am forever grateful (and maybe slightly obsessed) - firstlovelatespring and LeilahMoon - thank you!

xoxo, carmen

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It was ridiculous. At this point, she should have the sentence completely memorized.

Hermione had read and re-read the same thing in her Arithmancy text over and over but hadn't processed a single word of it. She realized she needed to let herself spiral a bit before the boys met her down in the Great Hall for breakfast - get it out of her system and her emotions off her face. Heaving a frustrated sigh, she buried her face in her hands and gave in, finally conceding and allowing her thoughts to push open the floodgates she'd been trying so hard to keep barred shut for the last nine hours.

What. The. Fuck.

A near-constant loop of these three words was the only thing going through her head, and that was saying something. Hermione typically prided herself on being able to focus on more than one thing at a time.

She had no idea what had consumed her so entirely that she found it somehow appropriate to have sex with Draco Malfoy. She wracked her brain over and over again in order to try to decipher whatever demon had possessed her so thoroughly that it had seemed like a good decision.

At the same time, she couldn't deny that even with her limited sexual experience, it was, at the very least, mind-blowing. She had been missing out on so much and had never even realized. It was a pity, really. Now that she knew what sex could be like, she wondered if it was their long-standing mutual dislike for each other that made it so fiery. Godric knew they had plenty of that between the two of them.

Forgetting where she was for a moment, Hermione pressed her thighs together as she remembered some of her favorite parts of the illicit late-night encounter. It shouldn't have been so easy, they shouldn't have fallen into each other so well. He seemed to know just the words to say to her to make her eyes roll back in her head, things she never thought she would do - especially in Malfoy's presence.

Do you like it rough, Granger? Be honest. I really don't like liars.

You're going to be so good for me, aren't you, Granger?

You like it when I talk dirty, huh?

Come on my cock.

Hermione shuddered as she remembered how he felt against her, how his words sank right into her brain through her hazy lust that rendered her nearly incoherent and made her whimper and scratch at him and fall apart. She'd never thought words alone could be such a turn on, but of course Malfoy would have somehow guessed that would be a weakness for her. And of course everything she'd said to him in the hallway before they kissed had been a lie. Everyone who had ever bedded him ranted and raved and left a glowing five star review.

The only conclusion she could rationalize was that maybe something in her subconscious had wanted to see for itself, to test the theory. Or maybe she had noticed how his pupils were blown wide as they argued and her intuition flickered and told her that the tensions of hate and lust went hand in hand more often than anyone ever wanted to acknowledge.

Part of her had wanted to see whether there was any truth to the rumors, though that hadn't been Hermione's intent in the hallway. Honestly, she'd just wanted to get under his skin more than anything else, and it had simply escalated. The other part was wanting to feel his desire for her, to know that she of all people had made him feel good. Whatever the case, last night had done a delightful job of temporarily relieving the knot of tension that had been pooled in her lower back for the better part of her Hogwarts career. But now she was more tense than ever.