Druidess Part II
Don't Touch My Stick
Chapter 3: Darken
he feeling in the pit of his stomach was unnerving. It was repulsive and yet sickeningly appealing; it gave him shivers and made him feel feverish at the same time. Letting out a horrified "Gah!" he ran around Hermione and grabbed onto her shoulders, dunking down and hiding behind her.
"You're a wuss, Draco." She whispered to him, yet heard the fear in her own voice.
"As your lover and friend, I say this with honesty and love.... I implore you to finish off this... this... thing because you are obviously the best and brightest witch in the room."
Hermione glanced with a look at him that he didn't like. "I'm the only witch in the room you idiot." She looked forward again and took a deep, steady breath. It was... huge. She would rather be facing Voldemort while he was suffering from PMS than go any where near that... that.... THAT THING. The involuntary shivers traveled the length of her spine and she decided she was not the witch for this job. Copying Draco's move, she dunked behind Draco and let out a girlish squeal.
"Oh no no no!! Don't even- I can't- I'm sorry, 'Mione. I simply cannot do it." He admitted and then attempted to hide behind her again. She put her hands on his shoulders and tried to force him to stay in front of her. He copied her actions: placing his hands on her shoulders and pushed.
"Draco please... you're the man of the house, not me!" She cried a bit desperately.
"I know I try to come off as some macho manly guy, but really... I'm a wimp. I submit to you, you're better than me!"
"Malfoy, I can't go near that thing or else I'll faint and then it'll lay eggs in my head!! THEN THERE WILL BE MILLIONS OF THEM!!!" She shouted as she pounded on his shoulders with her fists.
"I- DON'T MAKE ME!!!"
"YOU'RE A LOSER MALFOY!!! A LOSER!!!"
"YEAH? WELL... YOU'RE A GEEK, GRANGER. GEEK!!!"
"ASSHOLE!"
"BITCH!"
"MAN WHORE!"
"Hermione-" He looked hurt and pouted his bottom lip out.
"Oh Draco, I'm so sorry!" She immediately took her hands off his shoulders and put them on his face. "I didn't mean it."
"No, but you fell for it!" He spoke quickly and shoved her towards the 'thing'. She let out a banshee-like scream and began flailing her arms around wildly as she tripped over her own feet and fell to the floor, landing on her stomach. Her body went ridged as she lifted her face from the carpeted floor and saw, mere inches from her face, the largest spider Hermione ever laid eyes on.
The spider was, excluding legs, about the size of a baseball. It was a disgustingly shiny yellowish, orange-ish color with eight six-inch legs protruding from its rounded body. It was facing Hermione; its eight black, beady eyes shining. As it took a step towards her, she could have sworn it actually smiled with its small thin mouth.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Again, letting out a scream that could rival a banshee's, Hermione jumped up impossibly fast and right into the arms of Draco. "IT'S ON ME! IT'S ON ME! OH GODS! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!! DRACO MALFOY GET IT OFF ME!!!!"
"NO! IT'S STILL BY THE DOOR. CALM DOWN WOMAN. WE'RE SAFE FOR NOW!!!" Draco yelled, his voice cracking at the end.
The situation was terrifying. Draco and Hermione were trapped inside a rather large closet in the Malfoy Manor, wandless and fearful of being eaten by the Spider of Death. A tear actually escaped Hermione's right eye as she began flailing about again.
"Draco, please just step on it, please!!!"
"Woman! I CAN'T! It's bigger than my shoe!!! Plus these are Italian leather..."
She slapped him hard across the face. "I. Don't. Care. About. Your. Stupid. SHOES!!! That spider is going to come after us and eat YOUR PRETTY FACE. YOU WILL BE FACELESS, MALFOY. FACE-LESS."
The threat against his precious face seemed too worked. "Okay... okay. Here's what we do." He took a deep breath and rubbed his hands together, a habit he often exercised when he was thinking. "Okay. What do we have with us? Okay... coats. We have coats and... and... coat hangers... and... OH I GOT IT!" He clapped loudly, scaring Hermione.
"What? What do we do!?"
"We're going to take this coat, it was my fathers," he pointed to the black coat on the end of the row. "And then we throw it over the spider. Then... we make a run for it."
"That's plausible." Hermione nodded, biting down on a nail nervously.
"What do you mean it's 'plausible'? It's brilliant!!"
"Well, of course. Very creative."
"Creative? Just admit it's brilliant or when I find a way out of here, I'll just leave you."
"Draco, it's a very good plan!!! I refuse to call it brilliant because it's just too simple for brilliant."
"... 'too simple'?" He gave her the evil eye.
She glared back. "So throwing a coat and running deserves brilliant in the world you live in?"
He squinted his eyes. "You- well- I don't see you coming up with anymore ideas." He countered lamely, crossing his arms.
"I don't need to, when we already have a very plausible plan before us." She smiled wickedly, grabbing the coat he previously pointed to and holding it up for him.
His mouth dropped in surprise, forming a perfectly round 'O'. "You're just... mean. Fine. Who's going to run first?"
"..."
"We can't both fit through that door!"
"..."
"It would delay us in our pursuit for LIFE."
"..."
"... Hermione?"
"..."
"..."
"Alright. Your plan, you first. That's only fair... But you have to carry me."
"I can't carry you! You're too..."
She glared, menacingly.
"... fragile."
"Hardly."
"I-I-I se-seriously don't want to drop you, 'Mione. I don't want to lose you to a spider."
"You're so full of it."
"Ugh. Fine. When this ends badly... you'll only have yourself to blame."
"If you drop me, you'll only have yourself to blame for being a weak pansy."
He scoffed at her insult before swooping down and picking her up, damsel-in-need style. "Coat at ready, my Queen."
She smiled and held it up, ready for action. They both looked towards the door, towards safety.
… The spider was gone. Both of their mouth's dropped open in utter shock.
"WHERE THE FUCK...?" The screeched in unison.
"DRACO JUST RUN! JUST RUN! I'LL GET TO DOOR!!! OH MY GODS! RUN!!!!" And at her command, he bolted for the door. She grabbed the handle when he reached the distance and yanked the door open as far as she could and jumped out of his arms and rolled into the hallway. Draco, following right behind her, slammed the closet door shut and began running his hands all over himself to make sure he was spider free. Hermione soon followed his lead.
They jumped around for several minutes, looking over their shoulders and feeling their backs to be absolutely sure the spider was still in the closet. After several long, deep breaths, Draco and Hermione looked at each other.
"Do you want to sleep at Pansy's house tonight?" Hermione questioned, praying that he would say yes.
"Hell. Yea. KARL!!! WE'RE GOING TO AUNT PANSY'S HOUSE RIGHT NOW!" He yelled, grabbing Hermione's hand and stalking away.
Pansy absently twirled a long strand of her blondish hair with her fingers, ignoring her board of directors, and thinking about the red head that would be waiting for her in just a few hours' time. Before she met him, she admitted, things were different. She was different. She felt the goose bumps pop up, per usual, across her chest traveling to her arms. It happened every time at the thought: marriage.
Marriage.
The last time she considered marriage, in all seriousness, was in school. "Mrs. Draco Malfoy." She chuckled to herself at the thought. What did she know back then? After all, she was a brunette during those years. She dropped her hair-twirling hand and flipped the now blond strands over her shoulder. The funny thing was that she had been with many, many men. And they had always, always mentioned marriage to her.
She told them to drop dead. Pansy Parkinson did not marry low life sex-fiends who were obviously only after her money! She stomped her foot under the table to make her secret point. Wizard-witch marriages were forever... and Ron... was he forever... too? She pushed that thought away. He had not once even mentioned marriage to her.
She, unfortunately, had more pressing issues at hand: Her board of directors. She looked around the meeting room held on the upper most floor of her home. There was a large wooden table in this room, which at the current moment seated the most important people to her profession.
To her left was her personal assistant, a spunky young witch by the name of Arabella Westbrook. She was fresh out of Hogwart's, eager to get into the fashion world, and had the gall and motivation to get to the top fast. Pansy absolutely adored her and nicknamed her Ara.
Beyond Ara, were her two financial advisors, the brothers Eric and Justin Langley. The brothers were several years apart, each with dirty blond hair and baby faces. They were incredibly humble and good natured, but they were a good team and had, at one time, helped Pansy survive her first, and thus far, only financial dip.
Across the table from Pansy was one of two Head of Departments in her clothing company. His name was Sean Bray. He was a fox. He looked more like a model than a business man. You could easily picture his well-defined muscles through the black suit he was wearing. But Pansy knew his secret, and it was safe with her.
Lastly, to her right was the second of the Head's, the Head of Corporation; his name was Roland Harwood. He was much older than the rest of the group sitting at the table, his head of mousy brown shading in grey and white and the lines on his face were very pronounced. He was, however, extremely intelligent and his dry, political humor stood well with Pansy.
She sighed as she thought of her team and decided to finally pay some attention.
"... quarterly sales are up from last year, almost a 90% increase. It's incredible, it's fascinating. I've never seen such an increase in revenue. "Eric informed. His brother continued after him.
"Madam Malkin's is going under, just about, ever since you opened up the new line of school robes. She asked for a loan from Gringotts just last week..."
"Offer her a job." Pansy answered simply, frowning at the thought of Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions going on.
"She might not take it, Ms. Parkinson. Since she is a smaller business owner and rather older..." Harwood piped in.
"Offer a settlement if she doesn't take the job. I don't want to buy her out. I bought all my school robes from her and my Yule Ball dress as well..." Pansy spoke almost whimsically while twirling her hair in her fingers again. The group grinned.
Off in the distance there was the sound of a giant bell ringing, signaling someone was waiting at the door. Pansy took this moment to stand.
"Gentlemen, if there is no more to be discussed-"
"Yes, just one more thing, Ms. Parkinson." Bray held a finger up. "Something was brought to my attention that you might want to look at." He held up what looked like a job application and handed it to her. Pansy gave it a glance over and quickly noted the name. Odd.
"Huh. Thank you, Mr. Bray. I shall take care of this." And she handed the papers over to Ara. "Next week. Ara, after me." She walked briskly out of the room and emerged into the hallway, her heels clicking loudly on the floor. Ara followed after her, both of them stepping into the golden barred elevator. "First floor." Pansy spoke quickly, wondering who could possibly be at her door.
In her thoughts, she had a terrible and fleeting moment of dread. A twisted feeling crept into her stomach, like something horrible was going to happen. When the golden barred door opened again, this time revealing the first floor of her home, she shook away her fear. What could happen?
What could happen????
"Ackerley? Who is waiting at the door?" Pansy called as she stepped off the elevator quickly.
Ackerley was her butler, and had been for several years now. He was, as always, waiting for her as she entered the front room. "Madam Parkinson, Mr. Roe awaits you in the side room." He spoke lowly and held out his arm indicating the room that leads to the left of the front door.
Pansy, until now, hadn't been paying much attention. The twisted feeling of dread was back for absolutely no good would come from a visit from Mr. Roe.
"Thank you Ackerley." Pansy said, sounded winded and slightly fearful. "Ara, take my briefcase to my office please. You may go home afterwards."
"Yes ma'am, Ms. Parkinson." Arabella gave a small curtsy and walked hastily out of the room and into a small hallway.
Pansy gave a small nod to Ackerley and shook out her jitters, well tried to anyways. Then, with one brave step, began her walk into the side room. The drapes had not been drawn, causing the room to be blanketed in near darkness.
"Erling?" Pansy whispered, looking around for the figure.
"Over here, young Pansy." The voice was dull and deep.
"Erling... I'm tempted to kick you out... a visit from you is never good." She sighed and sat down in a near by chair.
"Nor will this one be, I'm afraid." He was polite enough, for a Death Eater. "I've just been to see Blaise."
"Aww, shit." Pansy put her hands to her cheeks. This is just going to end badly. This conversation is already terrible.
"Lucius is very, very angry with his son." She suppressed a shudder.
"Is he back in the country?" Pansy asked in barely a whisper. She honestly didn't want to know the answer; ignorance was always nice to her before.
"He is, so is his wife. But she is sick, rumor has it." Erling came out of the shadows for the first time. He was cloaked, of course. But he held out something in his hand towards her, prompting her to take it. "These are just some files on him. They might provide useful. They might not. Either way, I knew you would want to know about it. His rage is clouding his judgment. He should not have come back."
Pansy took the papers timidly and tucked them under her arm, for later. "Thank you Erling. Is there anything else?"
"Not today, Ms. Parkinson." The bell rang out into the house again, much louder now that Pansy was so close to the front door. Pansy let out a groan. Erling Roe was gone. She stood up and tried to shake away the jitters again. She walked out of the room and was at the front door before Ackerley. She opened it and let out another groan.
Draco, Hermione, and Karl were standing at her door. "You've got to be kidding me." She whispered. She wasn't ready to face Draco, not so soon.
"Pans. You have to let us sleep over; my house is infested with SPIDER."
Author's Note: On my profile is a picture of the spider, yea. You heard me. THE spider.
Squeek1504 beta'd this for me. I might have updated this sooner, too, had she not kept me so tied up with her Neville/Pansy romance: Time and Again. (By the way, that's a hint that you should go read it!)
As always, I own nothing, just writing to write.