Two
Aralyn was keeping herself busy as usual in the basement of her grandfather's house, huddled around a cauldron and a book, throwing all the nasty this-and-thats of the ingredients in and turning at just the right times when a loud noise upstairs distracted her and her pretty pale yellow potion turned a sickly yellow-green. "Dammit!" she exclaimed. The blue merle Border collie at her feet groaned and looked up at her. "I know Merlin! But he's not here is he?" The collie whimpered and put his head back in his paws.
She marched up the basement steps that led into the back hallway, through the parlor, to the entrance hall, up the two flights of the main stairwell to the third floor, found the door at the end of the hallway, where loud bangs were still coming from, pulled a key from her pocket, turned it, and pushed on the door. Still it did not budge. Aralyn yelled and knocked loudly. "DRACO! OPEN UP!"
The door flew open and Draco was on the other side of the room with his wand pointed towards her. "I want to leave!" He yelled. "You can't hold me here anymore! You heard Snape the other night, there's a war going on at Hogwarts right now, we haven't heard from him in two days. And we're stuck here! We need to go."
"What good will either of the two of us leaving do? Besides, I only leave this house maybe once or twice each year. Why would I want to leave?" She put her hands on her hips. "It's safe here, that's why Snape brought you here. And that is why you are staying here Draco!"
He began huffing and puffing, pacing back and forth from one side of the room to the other. 'Geez,' Aralyn thought to herself, 'What kind of God makes such an idiot boy so cute?' Finally he turned on his heel to look at her.
"Look," He began. "I don't do well being held within walls. And I surely don't do well knowing that there's a war going on only miles from here and I can't do anything about it."
"As noble as that is, Draco---"
"Noble? You think I'm trying to be NOBLE? That's Potter's area of expertise, thank you. I would just like to be part of the action instead of stuck in this blasted shithole!" He kicked the post of the bed.
"This SHITHOLE, sir, is my home. And that was my Aunt Odelia's bed; I would appreciate you not destroying it. Now you listen here, I don't understand much about this 'war' because I haven't really gotten any chance to be a part of it, but I do know that apparently neither side much likes you right now, and both would rather see you dead, seeing as how one is mad that you didn't murder my beloved grandfather and the other thinks you did it. The best place for you is here, where there aren't sides, just a terribly confused and uninformed girl who's only part in this whole thing so far has been an order to keep a close watch on your arse." She slammed the door, went back into the hallway and was locking it again when he threw something at it and she went flying backwards. She stood up again and grabbed the handle, pulling it towards her and could feel him on the other side trying to open it.
"You're a girl!" He said. "Give up, I'm stronger, and you're just going to hurt yourself." She could make his face out through the slight opening in the door that was opening wider in his advantage.
"Then why do you look like you're struggling?" She said, pulling harder now. "You really underestimate me, Malfoy."
The struggle at the door continued, and Aralyn pulled harder than ever to bring the door to a close… Right on her fingers.
"EEEEOOOOOWWWW!!!!" She wailed, and fell to her knees, blowing on her red fingertips that were quickly turning purple. The door beside her came open and Draco knelt down beside her, and she shoved him away.
"Stop it!" He said, "Let me have a look and see," She stopped being difficult and he took her hand and gently ran his cold fingers over the back of her knuckles. It gave her goose bumps, but she hoped he didn't notice. He did, but he didn't say anything.
"Let me go get my wand," She said. "I can take care of it."
"Don't waste your magic, you baby." Draco scoffed. "You don't need a wand for a thing like this, c'mon." He lifted her up and her little muffled sobs continued as she tried cradling her hand. "Don't baby it, it'll go stiff."
"What are you, a doctor now?" She rolled her eyes.
"Actually," he said as they headed down the stairs, "I considered going to University after this year, to become a healer. I like science, anatomy specifically." She could here the hit-on in his voice when he said that last bit. She paid no attention to it. It was plain obvious that she and this boy he had known only a few weeks were attracted to each other, but their personalities were volatile enough to create the next atomic bomb if they collided just right.
They got to the kitchen after an eternity of stairs and small sobs, which had hushed by then. And she sat on a barstool at the island while he raided the icebox with a sandwich bag and put a few cubes in it. He turned around and applied them to her hand.
"Ouch! That's cold!" she yelped.
"It stings, but it'll help the swelling, and then I can look to see if you've broken any."
"They're not that bad." She said.
"Well, you sure are crying as if they are." He went to the fridge and grabbed some milk and poured himself a glass. "You would think for someone who lives alone practically 8 months out of the year, that you would be a little less of a whiny baby and a little more self-sufficient."
"Coming from someone who lives in one of the largest mansions in the UK? Oh yes, Malfoy, because I'm sure you're so self-sufficient in your 12 bedroom, 8 bath, home with your 6 house elves." Aralyn rolled her eyes. "I bet you're an absolute spoiled brat when you're not home. If there's not mommy or daddy or a house-elf within close range, you probably lose your mind."
"You don't know a thing about me." Draco said, slamming his glass on the table, it shattered. "Fuck!" he moved his hand to see better and saw the blood and the glass sticking out of it. Aralyn grabbed a paper towel and took his hand, he tried to pull it away and she smacked him. "Ow! That hurt!"
"Then hold the bloody hell still." She grabbed his hand tightly and warned him, "This will hurt a bit."
"Wait--- What are you--- OW! Bitch! What the hell?!" But he looked at his hand and the blood coming out of him was beginning to make him nauseous. "Oh my Gods! The blood, clean it up, clean it up." He stomped.
She laughed. "And you called me the baby!" But Aralyn ignored his behavior and pressed the paper towel against the slice where the glass had been. "Just hold that there and---"
"I think I know how to stop a bleed, thank you." He took over with the paper towel and Aralyn sat back down at the bar stool, resuming her icing of her knuckles. After a few minutes she laughed out loud.
"What's so funny?" Draco asked, annoyed.
"Look at us," she said. "We're a couple of idiot klutzes."
He chuckled a little. And then her laughter stopped. "Why do you get so defensive about your parents? You can tell me you know, you're the only company I've had in a while, let alone my age, it's not as if I'm going to gossip to everyone."
"It's just none of your business, okay? Would you give it a rest?" He peered up at her getting of her stool. She let out a loud humph and marched off.
"Because that's real mature…" he called after her as he heard her going up the stairs.
"Fuck you," she yelled back.
Draco rolled his eyes. "Women,"
Late that night, in his third floor bedroom, a strange creaking sound awoke Draco. He sat up in his bed to see his bedroom door slowly creeping open. He reached for the lamp at his side and turned it on, but still couldn't make out Aralyn in the darkness by the doorway.
"Aralyn," he called, "Are you there?" He reached for his wand on his nightstand to find it wasn't there. "What the--- Aralyn," he got out of bed and fumbled on the floor for his pants. He preferred to sleep freely. "This isn't funny." When he got his pants on he grabbed a candle off the shelf and headed for the doorway.
Holding it out in front of him, he made his way through the darkness with only his little bit of candlelight. He crept further down the hallway. "Aralyn," he said in a singsong voice, "Pay back's a bitch, just remember that…" He heard a noise behind him and turned around. "Aralyn?" but nothing was there.
"Draco, what are you doing up at this hour?" He turned back around and saw down the hall a light and Aralyn standing in her doorway in just a long button down shirt. He eyed her from her face down and stopped at her shapely thighs, biting his lip slightly. He hoped she couldn't see his face; it would be enough to let her know... "Wait a minute--- Were you sneaking out?"
"Oh, real funny, I'd like to know how I could do that without my wand."
"What do you mean? Did you lose it?"
"Yes, Aralyn, in the tiny bedroom I managed to lose my wand. Obviously, why didn't I think of that? Come off it, what did you do with it?" She started to walk towards him and as she did the bedroom door behind her started to close, this was odd and distracted Draco as he stared into the darkness behind her.
"I didn't take your God damn wand," she said as she walked closer. "Have you checked---"
And that's when Draco saw the hooded shadowed figure behind her. "Aralyn! Behind---" But her eyes went wide and a hand went over his mouth and the hooded figure behind her grabbed her by the waist as she screamed. "Draco!" she reached for his hand, but the hooded figure pulled her away.
"STUPIFY!" And it all went black for the both of them.
After what felt like the longest sleep in the world, Draco woke up, surprised to find he was in a very familiar place, his Hogwarts dormitory.
But the two people in the other two beds were not his usual roommates. His mother slept soundly in one bed, and Lucius Malfoy sat awake, with his glasses on, reading a book in the other. Draco blinked his eyes several times and rubbed them, thinking this surely had to be the oddest sort of dream he had had in a very long time. "Father," he said finally. Lucius looked up over the book and smiled, closed it, and came over. He sat at the end of Draco's bed.
"My son," he said, patting Draco's arm. "How are you?"
Draco just stared at his smiling father. "Confused," he said finally.
"Yes, well I imagine you would be. We do have a lot to discuss." Lucius said. "Maybe we should wake your mother and head down for breakfast in the Great Hall."
"What are you two doing here?" Draco asked as Lucius got up. Before answering, Lucius looked around at the walls and doors. And then sat back down on the end of Draco's bed.
"The Dark Lord advised your mother and I not to join in the fighting, so that after the battle we would appear to have not been in league with the Death Eaters, and not be arrested. So that we could be there for you."
"Because I'm being arrested, aren't I?" Draco said, lowering his head.
"No, my son. The world believes Snape did it, and that the Dark Lord was using you as he's used many. They do not know the truth. Even the Death Eater's who have survived are not angry with you. The Dark Lord told us not to be."
"Then why do you have to be there for me?" Draco asked. "If we're all going to be fine, then--- And what do you mean 'survived'? How many were lost? How many are going to Azkaban? Who won?"
"We lost, Draco." Lucius said simply. "But in comparison, the others lost more than we did. We've lost only half of our Death Eaters. We've lost half of that to Azkaban, half to the fight. Three quarters of our men survived."
"So, what of the half who survived and got away?" Draco asked. "What happens to them?"
"That, Draco," Lucius smiled. "Is what we need to discuss. There's been a new regime change. The Dark Lord, he confided in me that he knew this battle would be the end of him, but not the end of us. There's a soon to be a new Dark Lord, Draco. One chosen before he passed, by Lord Voldemort himself."
"Who father? Is it you? I always said you'd---"
"No, Draco. I am much to old to start anew. But I have been appointed counselor to the next Lord, that also was one of the Dark Lord's last wishes."
"Who is it father?" Draco sat up, wide-eyed. This was a move he never thought the Dark Lord would make. "Is it Snape, for killing Dumbledore?"
"You must wait until the Inaugural Ball. We are all meeting in a few days to discuss it. We want to have it on the next full moon. Which would be two weeks from, let's see, today's the third and a Tuesday, Friday will the sixth," Lucius paused. "The Ball will be on June twentieth… And Draco, I know you two were close, but there's something you must know… Severus was---"
"Oh no, not Snape." Draco said, he looked miserably to the ground. "I told Aralyn we should go look for him…"
"It's better that you didn't." His father said. "It might've made it look more suspicious that you were with him… Besides, Draco… Snape was a traitor. The Dark Lord has known for years. But he still had use for him, so he kept him alive…"
"Snape? Never!" Draco was appalled. "He was one of the most loyal---"
"He was a double agent, Draco, but not for us." Lucius looked miserable too. "This was hard for me to accept too, Draco. Severus Snape has been one of my best friends for years, but I always wondered…"
"You did?"
"Yes, I have wondered for about a year now if I could trust Snape, but not because of this."
"Then why, father?"
Lucius looked in pain, and looked to his sleeping wife. "You tell no one of this, Draco. It would be an embarrassment to our whole family… I almost discarded your mother a year ago, almost threw her out on the streets, I came home from the Ministry early one night and---"
"No," Draco began. "Not Snape---"
"He was fucking your mother's brains out, Draco." Lucius said. "She's head over heels for him, this is killing her, his death and him having been a traitor. I know she loves him. We only decided to stay together because we have been for so long. It was an arranged marriage, we only met two weeks before we wed, I realize I would be a fool to think a woman wouldn't still give into her romantic notions on the side…"
"Father, I can't believe--- Mom, wow." Draco stood up and placed his hand on his father's shoulder. "I'm sorry, father."
There were tears in Lucius' eyes, but they did not run. They just welled up and stayed there, as if they were forbidden to come out. "What's done is done, Draco." He said. "Go on down to breakfast, I'll wake her."
"Father," Draco began. "What happened to Aralyn?"
"Is that her name? Well, she's staying here at Hogwarts for now. She's going to take her N.E.W.T.S. before she returns to her home, the house belongs to her now. I believe they're considering offering her a potions position here, if she does well on her N.E.W.T.S. Given that she was taught by Dumbledore, and Severus, she does very well in the potions department. Why do you ask?"
"I've made… friends… with her I guess you could say. It's hard not too when for weeks your only company is a beautiful woman." Draco said with a chuckle. "I do hope the Ministry found something more suitable for her to wear."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"Last night when they abducted us," he said. "All she was wearing was a mildly revealing button down shirt… Not the best attire to be kidnapped in. I know if I were her captor…"
Lucius chuckled. "That's enough Draco. If she's quite the looker you say she is, I wouldn't mind meeting her."
"Father… but mom," Draco said.
"We're seeing other people, Draco." Lucius said. "It's the only way she would stay."
"Oh. Well, just…" Draco sighed with a smile, "Find someone your own age, old man."
They both laughed. "Come now, boy, even your mother has eight years under me."
Draco smiled. "I'm going to go down to breakfast, Father, and see if I can find Vincent and Gregory. I'll see you later."
"Of course, Draco. I do look forward to meeting her." Lucius called after.
"Enough, already." And Draco hurried out the door down to the Great Hall.
