Summary -
(Follows HBP both movie and book and is a bit AU) Delaney Grey has never had led much of a normal life. She was the daughter of two of the top Death Eaters and upon their deaths took over for them. At the age of sixteen she's been asked to help Draco Malfoy (of whom she really can't stand) and makes an Unbreakable Vow to do so. What happens when she finds she might not be as strong as she thought? What happens when everything doesn't go according to plan? It's all about life and death then, isn't it?
Disclaimer -
I own nothing but Delaney Grey and a bit of the original plot. Anything you recognize obviously isn't mine.
The title of the story is taken from Three Days Grace's cover of Wicked Game.
Enjoy. =D I also have two banners for the story located on my profile page.
we've got all the right moves
chapter one ,
"Do you promise to help Draco achieve what the Dark Lord has required of him?"
Grey eyes looked up at those of dark brown before meeting those of ice blue. "I will." A thick strand of gold wrapped around the joined hands.
"Do you, Delaney Annabeth Grey, swear to assist him at all costs?" Severus Snape asked the young woman who gave a nod in response.
"I will."
"And, if he does not succeed, will you swear to carry out the deed yourself if I am not around?"
Delaney's eyes bore into those of Draco Malfoy, a sneer on his lips as a grin crossed hers. "I will." When the third strand wrapped around their hands Snape moved his wand from the teenagers hands and the bands disappeared. "Is that all?" she gave a nod before turning from the pair and left the room. "You do realize I won't need your help, Grey, don't you?"
The brunette scoffed before crossing her arms over her chest. "Oh, sure, yeah. Lord Voldemort has much more confidence in you as he asked me to help if you should fail. Which you most likely will."
The blond haired, blue eyed boy glared before following in Snape's footsteps. "See you at school, Grey."
Delaney gave a slight shiver as she headed in the direction of the gleaming red train that would carry her to yet another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Only this would her very first full year at Hogwarts as she had only attended half of her fifth year. She had attended Beauxbatons previously as it had been the school her mother had attended. Most were surprised she wasn't a Veela, nor was she French but Delaney hardly cared about that. Heading to Hogwarts had been completely new territory but like everything else she had faced in her life she went about it with a passive façade.
There were many things about Delaney that were unknown to the people around her and only two of them knew who she really was. She was the daughter of two of Lord Voldemort's most dedicated followers – Carmine and Lucia Grey. At least, they had been the most dedicate up until their deaths by two Aurors, whom she had never learned the names of. Even after the Dark Lord's fall they had been there, following him and awaiting his return. She, of course, was following in their footsteps and in her eyes there was no other way of living. This was what her parents had always planned for her and she would serve under the Dark Lord proudly as her parents would have wanted.
Her stormy grey eyes searched the platform and grinned slightly as they caught a flash of red hair. Hopefully this would be the man she was searching for as it would be embarrassing if she were wrong. Delaney Grey was dating Fred Weasley and had been since the end of her fifth year. It helped in keeping up appearances and weaving herself into the lives of the Golden Trio, as she had come to know them. Luckily being as close to Fred as she was seemed to help sincerely, as did her friendship with Hermione who trusted her implicitly. This was only because both girls had ended up spending hours together in the library as Hermione helped Delaney catch up on her course work. Very helpful the Muggle-born girl was.
"Oi, Weasley!" she called out as she made her way toward the spot of red.
The person of whom the red hair belonged turned on the spot and Delaney realized at once that this wasn't who she was searching for. Ron Weasley gave a broad smile as Delaney stopped in front of him. "Nice of you to say hello. Hermione and I have prefect duty but Harry should be about here somewhere." He said as he stepped onto the train, Delaney on his heels.
"I was actually looking for Fred. Have you seen him?"
Ron turned to face her and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Think he and George went off to find Lee."
That sounded about right. She smiled gratefully, "Alright. I guess I'll go throw my stuff in Harry's compartment and then seek him out. See you later."
Ron gave another smile before leaving Delaney to herself. Now, to find Harry. It sounded much simpler than it really was. She stood on her tiptoes and looked around for a head of unruly black hair. Finding nothing, she gave a huff before turning in the other direction. She looked up, surprised, as she ran into Luna Lovegood.
"Oh, sorry!"
"No, my fault. How was your summer Luna?" Delaney asked as she continued to look for some sign of Harry.
Luna smiled before offering up a new issue of the Quibbler; quite a fantastic magazine. "It was pretty good. Dad and I spent loads of time looking for Wrackspurts." Delaney gave a puzzled look as Luna took back the copy of the magazine she'd given the brunette and flipped through it before stopping on a page, handing it back over to the girl. "There's an article on them just there," she said as she pointed to it with her fingers.
Delaney skimmed it over before chuckling, "Thanks then. This'll be handy I'm sure." Closing the magazine she regarded the blond in front of her for a moment. Despite herself and what she had heard, Delaney rather liked the odd girl. "You haven't happened to see Harry running about here have you?"
Luna gave a nod and turned around and started off in the direction Delaney had just come from. The brunette followed behind her, glad that someone knew where the dark haired wizard was. They stopped in front of a compartment with the boy in question sitting inside of it flipping through his own copy of the Quibbler.
"There you are."
"Thanks so much, Luna. And thanks for the Quibbler. I'll see you around, yeah?" She returned Luna's smile before disappearing inside of the compartment. "You're a tough one to find Harry Potter."
"I guess some could say that." He stood to his feet and gave the girl in front of him a proper hug before releasing her. "I thought you'd be off with Fred."
"I probably would be if I could find him." Though seeing Harry should have been one of the first of her priorities as he was one of her closest friends next to Hermione and Ron. "As it happens I can't and I'm here with you, so you're stuck with me Harry."
Harry chuckled before lowering his feet from the bench across the way so his friend could pass. "How was your summer?" he questioned.
Delaney moved through the space provided and settled in front of Harry. Shrugging slightly she looked out of the window at the sunny countryside. "Plain, I suppose. I went to a few balls with my gran then spent the rest of my time catching up on a half a year's worth of homework." It wasn't all a lie. While she didn't live with her gran (as the woman had passed on some years ago) she did live with Severus Snape as he was her godfather. There had been no balls of course but there had been many meeting in which she had had to attened. The bit about homework was the complete truth though. Completing all of the homework assigned to her was the one way she would be able to remain at Hogwarts. So, yeah, she had definitely taken care of that straight away. Clearing her throat she met Harry's gaze once more. "Fred told me about what happened at the Ministry. Said Ron blabbed about it all."
Harry nodded once. He knew what was coming, the sympathy/pity chat. 'Poor Harry Potter. Everyone he loves keeps dropping off like flies. No family left, all by himself.' For some reason he had thought the girl opposite him would be different, would give him the small sense of normalcy she had provided him with upon her arrival. "Yeah?" he finally managed to say.
"Just can't stay out of trouble can you Potter?"
He actually let out a laugh of pure relief. Delaney Grey never ceased to amaze him. Even when she had first come to Hogwarts there had been something very distinct about her. Her personality at first and the manner in which she carried herself seemed so much like Draco Malfoy's – highly regal and somewhat above it all (though in Delaney's case it was more maturity than arrogance). No one, least of all Harry, had believed she would end up in Gryffindor like she had. Getting to know her was ridiculously simple as well (almost too easy he sometimes thought) and she seemed to fit into his, Ron's, and Hermione's world so effortlessly. It was all so odd.
"How was your summer?" she asked, snapping Harry back into reality. Soon, she figured, she really would have to go search for Fred but for now talking with Harry suited her just fine. "Have any more outrageous adventures?" Little did the boy before her know that she knew of everything that had occurred in the Department of Mysteries; aside from the prophecy of course.
The black haired boy shook his head. "The only exciting thing that happened was I only had to spend a few weeks with the Dursley's before Dumbledore came to drop me off at the Weasley's." This, indeed, had been the highlight of his summer. Leaving the Dursley's was always an occasion to be celebrated in his opinion. He looked out of the window for a moment before looking back at Delaney, figuring he ought to entrust in her what had happened in the Department of Mysteries. At least the one thing that seemed to haunt his every thought. "Sirius died there you know."
His words threw the brunette off for a moment and she could scarcely believe he had given her that information. Though she had already known this to be true it was very different hearing it come directly from Harry's mouth. She found herself at a loss for words which happened very rarely. His eyes were sad as their gazes met and she felt pity and heart break hit her like a ton of bricks before she finally had to look away. These feelings were rather new to her and a bit overwhelming. "I'm sorry, Harry."
They didn't say anything for quite a while before Delaney finally stood to her feet. "I should probably go find Fred." The only thing Harry did at this point was nod and give her a slight smile. Her hand gently touched his shoulder and she leaned down to press a kiss to his cheek. "Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone, alright?" she challenged with a grin before disappearing.
Compartment after compartment Delaney searched for any sign of her boyfriend but continued to come up empty. This was getting ridiculous. She gave a huff as she entered yet another car of the train. Where the bloody hell was he? It was then that arms, seeming to appear out of nowhere, wrapped around her waist and drew her into one of the compartments. Startled, she struggled to get out of the person's grasp and get at her wand.
"Hey, calm down there Grey," she heard a voice whisper into her ear.
Turning in the seventeen year olds grasp, she hit his arm. "What the bloody hell are you thinking Fred?" she asked with a glare. Upon his look of complete innocence she found her tough exterior and angry front melting away like ice under the hot summer sun. "Prick."
"But you love me anyway!" he exclaimed. He sat back on the bench, back pressed against the wood and looked over at his girlfriend, arms still crossed over her chest. Fred knew better than this though. She wasn't angry with him at all. "Heard you were looking for me."
Delaney rolled her eyes as she settled beside him, "Made yourself bloody scarce didn't you?"
Fred wrapped his arms around her waist to bring the brunette closer to her. "Of course. That's the whole point of this fun little game." His nose ran the length of her neck and he knew it wouldn't be much longer until she completely fell apart in his hands. It was too easy to get to her. "But you found me so you don't have to be cross. Though, if we're being honest here I found you." He pressed his lips to the side of her neck as she moved closer to him, allowing him to continue his ministrations. "I think I deserve a prize."
She let her arms fall over his shoulder, fingers toying with the longer strands of his ginger hair. "And what kind of prize would you like?" she questioned, forgetting she was supposed to be upset with him.
Fred met her gaze and grinned wickedly before motioning for her to lie down on the bench as he hovered over her. "I think you might have some idea."
As much fun as this was she didn't want to run the risk of some lost little first year interrupting her and Fred's fun time or worse a prefect so she wrapped her arms firmly around his neck and kissed his lips before pushing him away. "Now, now, can't have any of that. Who knows who might walk in."
"That's half the fun love," Fred said as he released his girlfriend from his grasp. "You know the idea is a bit thrilling."
Delaney couldn't agree more but still there were plenty more corridors in Hogwarts to go about doing this than there were here. "I promise when we get to Hogwarts I'll allow you to snog me in your choice of spot. In the open or down a dark, empty corridor where we won't be," she leaned forward and let her lips gently touch his ear. "Interrupted," she finished.
Fred was beaming at this point and thanked Merlin he had found a girl who had similar interests. Besides being funny, beautiful, charming, and brilliant she understood him perfectly, often getting what he himself hadn't yet worked out. "I'll hold you to that I hope you know."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Have you seen Harry?" Hermione questioned as she and Ron met Delaney at one of the carriages. Watching as the brunette shook her head no she gave a frustrated sigh.
Delaney looked around, hoping to spot a bit of familiar black hair. Upon seeing nothing she turned back to Ron and Hermione with a frown. "Maybe he's already at the castle? He might have gotten a carriage with some of the others," she suggested. There would be no telling until they reached the castle.
"You'd think he would tell us before he took off." Ron threw out as the three of them climbed into one of the carriages.
Delaney gave a shrug of the shoulders before peering out of the window at the Threstral pulling the carriage along. Such strange yet oddly elegant creatures they were. She had learned, the previous year, from Harry that they were only able to be seen by those that had witnessed death. This had also been the time when Delaney had revealed to Harry that she had seen her parents murdered but had no idea who had committed the crime (which was, in fact, a lie).
The ride to the castle was made in near silence. Every once in a while Hermione would say something about changes in her and Ron's prefect duties and Ron would mutter about how starved he was. When they finally reached the castle and had settled on the steps of Hogwarts to keep an eye out for Harry they were certain it was a lost cause as they were one of the last carriages to arrive.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Delaney muttered as both Hermione and Ron made her turn and head into the castle.
They sat at the farthest end of the Gryffindor table, far from the staff table so they would be able to spot Harry should he appear later on in the meal. Delaney was pleasantly surprised as Fred and George appeared, Fred sitting at her side and lacing his fingers with hers.
Dumbledore had little to say before the meal began but promised his usual speech would take place after everyone had been 'well fed'. All Delaney really wanted was pudding as the house elves at Hogwarts made absolutely fantastic pudding. She wondered if they would give her the recipe.
It was as the meal came to a close and pudding and various other desserts appeared in front of them that Harry Potter appeared looking a little worse for wear. He slid in between Ron and Hermione and a few other heads turned to face him. There were spots of blood on his white Oxford and flakes of dried blood remained just under his nose and just above his lip.
"Harry, what happened?" Delaney asked, the first to speak.
He waved them off, promising to divulge them all later. Harry wasn't too keen on revealing this foray into spying on Malfoy just yet, or at least not in front of the majority of his classmates. This could wait until they were safely settled in the common room.
Despite his calm demeanor about whatever had happened to him Delaney couldn't help but notice the intense glaring session that seemed to last for only a few seconds, between Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. Oh joy.
( all the right moves by onerepublic )
