My Favourite Thief
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. The Main characters belong to JK Rowling and the plot and the rest of the characters belong to Karyn Monk. I only brought the 2 together.
London, England
He hoisted his leg over the window sill and dropped heavily into the dark chamber, barely stifling a groan.
I'm getting to old for this.
Cursing silently, he rubbed the muscle spasm griping his shoulder. He should have known better then to climb that tree. Since when had they started growing with so few branches? He had thought he would ascend it with the agility of an acrobat, easily shifting from branch to branch. Instead he had dangled from it like a frantic puppy, legs swinging and scrambling, arms quivering. At one point he had lost his grip and nearly crashed to the ground. That would have been fine entertainment for the ladies and gentlemen attending Mr. and Mrs Chadwick's dinner party on the main floor, he reflected darkly. Nothing like having a masked man plummet from the sky just outside your dinning room window as the house elves are heaping your plate with stringy mutton and greasy peas.
He stood unmoving, giving his eyes a chance to adjust to the dark. It was quickly apparent that Mrs. Chadwick liked gold. Everything within her bedroom fairly shimmered, from the heavy brocade coverlet upon her bed to the garishly carved commode that towered like a throne beside it. No doubt in her private moments she imagined herself the consort of a magnificent prince or duke, instead of the bloated, snivelling fop she had married. He supposed every woman was entitled to some fantasy in her life. His gaze shifted to the bureau at the opposite end of the chamber, which boasted a profusion of richly decorated bottles and jars. Stealing silently across the shadows, he reached for the jewellery chest rising amidst the clutter.
Locked.
He eased open the uppermost drawer of the bureau and rifled thought the layers of undergarments folded within. The key lay nestled beneath the armour of Mrs. Chadwick's formidable corsets. Why did women always presume thieve would never think to look there? He wondered. He supposed they preferred to believe that most men were either to modest or too gentlemanly to rummage through a woman's lingerie.
As it happened, he was neither.
Carefully inserting the key into the jewellery case's tiny lock, he turned it once, than raised the lid.
A glittering collection of precious stones lay gleaming upon the dark velvet within. In addition to her penchant for gold, Mrs. Chadwick also enjoyed the sensation of large diamonds, rubies, and emeralds against her skin. He supposed that was fair compensation for enduring the tedium of marriage to Mr. Chadwick for so many years. He lifted a magnificent emerald necklace to the thin moonbeam filtering through the window, watching in fascination as its color shifted from near-black to the clear green hue of the river he had played in for so many years as a lad.
The bedroom door opened suddenly, flooding him in a wash of light.
"Oh, I beg your pardon," the young woman standing in the threshold quickly apologized. "I didn't realize anyone was in here-"
Draco watched with grim resignation as under standing swept through her. Ultimately, he had no choice. Even so, guilt weighted heavy in his chest as he grabbed the girl and jerked her toward him. She stumbled forward and he caught her, then kicked the door shut. He casted a silence charm on her and twisted her around, imprisoning her slender form against him. Her fear was palpable, he could feel it in the rapid pounding of her heart against his arm, could hear it in her soft, desperate little pants of breath. Self-loathing welled within him.
For Merlin's sake, focus.
"If you scream, I will kill you," he whispered harshly into her ear. "Do you understand?"
Her body stiffened. He was actually aware of the scent of her ad he held her close. Not roses or lavender, or any of the other sickly-sweet perfumes he was accustomed to women wearing. The girl pinned against him had an unusually light, clean fragrance, like the essence of a meadow just after a summer rain.
"I'm going to release the spell. If you swear that you won't scream or try to run away, I give you my word that you won't be harmed. Do I have your promise?"
She nodded.
Draco warily removed his hand from the girl's lips. He didn't know whether he could trust her. Her evening gown suggested she was one of Mrs. Chadwick's dinner guests. Whatever her reasons for leaving the dinning room, it likely wouldn't be long before a house elf was sent to find out what was keeping her. The girl's delicate rib cage continued to rise and fall against his arm. Her breathing had slowed a little, and he was grateful for that, even though he supposed it would have been better for both of them had she passed out. Then he could have simply laid her on the bed and climbed back out the window. As it was, he was going to have to tie her up so she couldn't go screaming out of the room the moment he left, compromising his escape.
"Please." Her voice was small, hesitant. "You're holding me so tight I can't breath."
She was Scottish, he realized, the sweetly refined cadence of her voice pleasing to him.
"Forgive me." He instantly released her.
She faltered slightly, as if she had not expected him to free her quite so abruptly. He instinctively reached out to catch her, but this time his hold was gentle. She glanced at him over her shoulder, surprised.
"Thank you."
Moonlight spilled across her face, illuminating her features. She was not as young as he had thought, for there were fine lines around her enormous dark eyes and across the paleness of her forehead, suggesting her age to be at least 25 years or more. Her check-bones were high and pronounced, emphasizing the elegant fragility that seemed to surround her. Her finely shaped brows were drawn together and her mouth was set in a sober line as she studied him, her expression hovering somewhere between fear and something else, an emotion that look almost like empathy. That was ridiculous, he told himself impatiently.
No woman of gently breeding would sympathize with a common jewel thief – especially one who had just threatened to kill her.
"You dropped your necklace." She pointed to the sparkling pool of emerald and diamonds upon the carpet.
Draco regarded her incredulously.
"It might be better to leave that one, and take a few smaller pieces instead," she suggested. "Mrs. Chadwick is sure to notice that her precious emerald necklace is missing the minute she goes to put her jewellery away tonight. If you take some of her less important pieces, she is unlikely to realize right away that they are gone, which means you will have an easier time selling them. Once their theft has been reported to the ministry and the Daily Prophet, your sources might be reluctant to buy them."
He raised an amused eyebrow. "Are you always this helpful during a robbery?"
She coloured slightly, embarrassed. "I just thought you might consider the advantages of selecting quality pieces which are more modest in appearance. The larger, more opulent stones are not always the most valuable – that can be flawed within."
"I realize that."
"Forgive me – of course you do."Her gaze became curious. "You're the Dark Shadow, aren't you?"
Draco stalked over to the bureau and began to ransack Mrs. Chadwick's intimate apparel, searching for something with which he could tie up his quizzical young guest.
"When do you think you will have stolen enough?"
He paused to look at her. "Excuse me?"
"The Daily prophet has been filled with stories of your robberies for months now," she explained. "I'm wondering when you think you will have stolen enough that you will be able to resign from a life of crime and apply your talents towards a more law-abiding profession. Ultimately, sir, I'm sure you will find the rewards are much greater in leading a respectable, productive life."
Anger pulsed through him. In his experience women who spewed sanctimonious advice about the path of righteousness had invariably lived sheltered lives. They didn't know the first goddamn thing about life beyond their own smug existence.
"It is something you should consider," she continued seriously. "If you are caught you will be sent to Azkaban. I can assure you that is not a very pleasant place to be."
"I'll bear that in mind." He yanked a stocking from the drawer. "I regret having to do this, but I'm going to have to tie you to that chair over there. I'll try not to make the bindings too tight-"
"Miss Granger?" there was a cursory rap upon the bedroom door before it swung open.
"Help!" shrieked a horrified elf, appalled by the sight of Draco in his dark clothes and mask stalking toward the girl with a twisted stocking in his hands. "Murder!" It tore down the corridor, screaming loud enough to wake the dead.
"Quick – go out the window!" exclaimed the girl. "Hurry!"
Swearing furiously, Draco threw down the stocking toward the window. Shouting and screaming split the night air, causing the drivers, and the curious on the previously sedate street to surge toward the house. He was relatively certain he could scrabble down that godforsaken tree in less than a minute without breaking any significant bones.
The distinct possibility that some earnest champion from the mob might shoot him down from the branches like a giant, hapless bird stopped him.
"What are you waiting for – go!" The girl waved her arms at him as if she were shooing an errant child out the door.
Realizing he had little choice, he heaved one leg over the window sill and stretched his aching arms toward the tree.
A spell streaked through the darkness, clipping the branch where his fingers had brushed. "I got him!" roared an excited voice from below. "Stop, thief!"
"Come back!" pleaded the girl, grabbing him by his coat. "You can't go that way!"
"I realize that," Draco agreed tautly.
"You'll have to leave from Mr Chadwick's bedroom across the hall – hopefully there won't be anyone waiting for you on the other side of the house." She went to the doorway and peered into the corridor.
"Come out with your hands up!"
Draco joined the girl at the doorway to see a scrawny young man walking warily up the stairs, balancing his wand in his hands.
"I warn you," he yelled nervously, "I've killed before and I'm not afraid to do it again."
Draco thought that unlikely, unless that lad was referring to killing rodents. At that moment, however, the prospect of being jinxed by a terrified youth struck his as highly undesirable – especially given that the boy might miss and hit the pretty young stranger who was so gallantly trying to assist hi instead. With no hope of racing across the hallway to another bedroom, his only chance for escape had disintegrated. How ironic, he reflected bitterly, to be caught and arrested for his crimes at this late stage.
He exhaled in disgust and raised his hands.
"He has a wand!" Screamed the girl, suddenly at the boy. "Don't jinx him or he'll kill me!"
Draco stared at her in disbelief. "What in the name of Merlin are you doing?"
"We have no choice," she whispered fiercely. "You've got to use me to get out of here!"
"Let her go!" The boy sounded as if he was going to be sick. "I told you, I'm not afraid to jinx you!"
"For Merlin's sake, Dick, don't threaten him!" barked an Auror, venturing up the stairs behind him.
"He's liable to murder the whole bloody lot of us!" another Auror added, joining them.
"Fine, then!" squealed the boy, thoroughly agitated.
"Silence, all of you!" Breathless and sweating profusely, Mr Chadwick struggled to affect an air of dignified authority as he reached the top of the staircase. "This is Mr Chadwick speaking." He paused to dab his brow with a linen handkerchief, letting the import of his presence sink in.
"Mr Chadwick, thank goodness you're here." The girl pretended to sound relieved. 'Please tell everyone to clear the staircase and let us come down – he won't kill anyone as long as no one tries to stop him –"
"Everyone in the house has exactly two minutes to go down to the kitchen and lock the door behind them," snapped Draco. Since this girl had just added abduction to his list of crimes, he supposed he might as well play some actual part in it.
"Go into the kitchen?" Mr Chadwick sounded outraged by the idea. "Look here, sir, I don't know who you are or what you mean by breaking into my home, but I assure you that I am not moving from this spot until you release my guest safely into my custody, do you hear? Miss Granger's well-being is my responsibility, and I have no intention of abandoning her to your foul, despicable ways-"
"The first person I see upon leaving this room will be killed, Mr Chadwick," Draco vowed darkly, "and that includes you. Now move before I-"
A deafening blast suddenly tore through the house, cutting short Draco's threat.
"Run for your lives!" His bulging eyes nearly bursting from their sockets, Mr Chadwick knocked the startled Aurors aside as he fought to beat them down the stairs. 'Run before he murders all of us!"
The entire household instantly exploded into a maelstrom of fleeing bodies, the distinction of sex and class obliterated as elves and aristocrats crashed into one another in their desperate bid for safety.
"I told them to go into the kitchen," muttered Draco, exasperated. "Now I've got an even bigger crowd to contend with once I get outside."
"If you keep me in front of you, they won't jinx you," the girl suggested.
"I'm not taking you with me- that idiot boy is liable to kill you in his attempt t save you."
"I think he dropped his wand." She glanced around the door and saw the wand lying abandoned on the floor. "There you see? He must have thrown it down after the exposition."
"It's Miss Granger, is it?" Draco's tone was bland.
"It's Hermione, actually. Miss Granger always sounds so terribly formal –"
"It may surprise you to learn, Miss Granger, that I'm not in the habit of abducting helpless women and using them as a shield. I don't intend to start now." A dull throbbing had started to pound at the base of Draco's skull. He was beginning to wish he had stayed home that night,
"You're not actually abducting me – I'm offering to help you," Hermione pointed out. "Unless you are prepared to be arrested and spend the rest of your days in an Azkaban cell, you have to let me help you get out of here."
Her eyes were large and earnest. It was impossible to determine their color in the soft veil of light spilling into the room, but it struck Draco that they were unlike any he had ever seen. There was a singular strength emanating from the strange young woman standing before him, a unique resolve that was as bewildering as it was captivating.
He didn't know what to make of her. Any normal gentle-born woman would have been drowning in tears by now, begging him to release her unharmed. Instead this strange girl was will to help him escape. He went to the window and glanced at the crowd still gathered on the street below. The hammering in his head was spreading now, sending deep tentacles of pain streaking across his forehead and into his temples.
"Ok lets go." She said. Grabbing his arm and pulling it around her. As if she actually believed he was a man of great daring, who was capable of outwitting an irate mob. For some reason, he was loath to disillusion her. When was the last time a woman had looked at him with such pure, untainted trust in her eyes? He wondered bleakly. The pain in his head was getting worse now. He knew in a few minutes it would be excruciating, and then he would be unable to think at all. If there was any chance of escape, however small, this was his only moment to grasp it.
"And what do we do when we get outside?" he asked.
"Don't you know a car waiting for you?"
"No."
She frowned again, as if incomprehensible that a thief could attempt a robbery so poorly prepared. "Then we'll have to take mine," she decided moving toward the doorway.
"Are you hurt?"
She regarded him in confusion. "No – why?"
"Your leg – you seem to be having trouble walking."
"It's nothing," she assured him shortly. "I'm fine."
Shoving his wand into his coat he wrapped his arm around her.
"I don't need your help to walk," she protested, trying to push him away. "I'm quite capable of –"
"I'm only doing as you suggested and pretending that I am using you as a shield."
"Oh." She stopped fighting him, but her body was ridged beneath his arm. It was obvious he had touched raw never when he mentioned her leg.
"Once we are outside, if anyone decides to overtake me, I want you to get the hell away from me so you are out of harm's way." Draco regarded her seriously. "Is that clear?"
She shook her head. 'No one is going to attack you as long as I stay in front –"
"Is that clear?"
"If I move away from you, someone might jinx you."
"We're not leaving, Miss Granger, until you say yes."
She sighed reluctant. "Yes."
"Fine, then. Let's go."
They moved awkwardly down the staircase together. By the time they had reached the main floor, his accomplice was breathing heavily, and despite her assurance that she was fine, Draco knew her leg was painfully stiff. He had little time to reflect upon this, however, as they stepped up to the front door and into the view of the crowd awaiting them outside.
"Everyone move back," Draco commanded, holding fast to his partner, "and send Miss Granger's car over."
The terrified horde obediently took a few steps backward. The car, however, was not coming.
"Send Miss Granger's car over," repeated Draco heatedly. "Now!"
"I heard you the first time, you sodding piece of scum," barked a furious voice. "And if you so much as bend a hair on the lady's head while I'm bringing it to you, I'll be scraping your cowardly flesh from your thieving bones and chopping it fine after I grind you into meat!"
Draco watched in astonishment as an ancient little man scuttled as fast as his skinny legs would carry him toward the line of cars on the street. Displaying a remarkable agility for his advanced years, snapped the car into drive and sent the car lurching forward.
"That's Oliver," Hermione whispered to Draco as the car barrelled toward them. "He is very protective of me."
"Wonderful," drawled Draco.
The car clattered to a stop directly in front of the entrance. Oliver cast Draco a murderous look before regarding Hermione with concern. "Are you hurt?"
"No Oliver," Hermione assured him gently. "I'm fine."
"You better make sure she stays that way you spineless bastard," he warned Draco. "If you're thinking you'd like to keep your self in one piece."
The idea of the wiry little man fighting him was preposterous. But Draco recognized the old man's overwhelming fear for the girl pinned against him, and he knew better than to play with the old man's emotions.
He has learned that strength born of fear and frustration could be far more dangerous than that of mere youth and muscle.
"I give you my word that Miss Granger will not come to any harm as long as you do exactly as I say," he told him.
Oliver snorted in disgust. "Can't trust the word of a rouge who'd snatch a helpless young woman and push a wand into her ribs," he spat contemptuously. "You thieves today have no honour and that's the sad truth of the matter. Now in my day you'd never see me waving a wand about –"
"Please, Oliver," interrupted Hermione. "We have to go now."
Oliver glowered at Draco. "All right then, you wicked rascal, see if you have enough manners in you to help Miss Hermione into the car, and we'll be off."
Relaxing his hold on her slightly, Draco reached up to open the car door.
"No!" cried Hermione suddenly.
Draco turned just in time to see a nattily attired man clutching a wand at the front of the doorway from which he and Miss Granger had just emerged. One of Mr Chadwick's guests had not abandoned the house after all, he realized numbly. Instead he had hidden inside waiting for the perfect moment to race out and kill the infamous Dark Shadow in the back. The man's beefy hands were trembling visibly, his brow jewelled with perspiration as he levelled his wand at Draco.
Draco wrapped himself around Hermione, enveloping her in the hard shield of his body just as the jinx was shouted. Pain ripped into him, burning a path through flesh and bone. Holding Hermione fast, he jerked open the car door.
"Stop, thief!" roared the man. "Or I'll jinx you again!"
His shoulder on fire, Draco whipped around, shoving Hermione behind his back. He took his wand from his coat, "Throw down your wand or I'll kill your bloody-"Another yell was heard through the darkness.
Draco froze, knowing if he flinched the jinx would strike his protective young charge instead.
For a moment no one moved, anxiously waiting to see if the infamous Dark Shadow had been killed.
"Thomas!" screamed a woman suddenly. "Oh, dear Merlin- Thomas!"
Confused, Draco raised his gaze to the front door.
The fashionably attired guest lay sprawled upon the stairs, his arms and legs spread out upon the polished stone steps. At first it looked as if he merely slipped and fallen. But something was leaking across the pale surface of the step beneath him and weeping onto the next in a grotesque river of crimson.
"Dear Merlin- you killed him, you filthy bastard!" blazed Oliver, appalled.
Draco stared in bewilderment at the limp, bleeding form of the man on the stairs, his hand sill gripping his wand.
"Get in the car!" urged Hermione. "Now!"
"I'm not taking him anywhere," Oliver raged, "the bastard! He can bloody well hang-"
"He didn't do it!" Hermione was trying desperately to get Draco to move. "He couldn't have Oliver- he was trying to get me into the car! Please, you can't stay here!" Hermione pulled hard on Draco's arm trying to get him into the car.
The night was filled with screams now. Men and women were running away, disappearing down laneways and into neighbouring houses, wildly trying to escape the murdering Dark Shadow. There was nothing he could do for the poor bastard bleeding on Mr Chadwick's steps, Draco realized bleakly. Surrendering to Miss Granger's pleas, he helped her into the car. Then he hauled himself in and banged the door shut as the vehicle flew away.
Pain was everywhere now – blinding in ferocity. Its talons had sunk deep into his brain and eyes and ears, while the fire streaking through his shoulder was radiating to the tips of his fingers. His coat sleeve was torn, and his mouth was nauseatingly dry. He was alive, and so was the strange young woman who had interrupted his disastrous escapade.
Everything else was lost.
So what did you think? R/R
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