Disclaimer: Most of the characters in this story are the property of Queen Rowling and are only used for fan related purposes. Any original characters featured are the intellectual property of their creators. Part one lyrics borrowed from Brand New's song "The No Seatbelt Song."
Warning: This story contains mucho amounts of flashbacks as a storytelling device. You've been warned.
Sins of the Father; Part One
So take me and break me,
And make me strong like you,
I'll be forever grateful to, this and you.
It's only you, beautiful.
Or I don't want anyone.
If I can choose,
It's only you.
CHAPTER FOUR
Luxy enjoyed herself immensely the whole afternoon, feeling a bit sorry for ditching Adalia to spend time with Draco, but she banished the thought instantly. They didn't do much, really. Just walked around and talked, catching up, mostly, enjoying as much as they could before turning back to head into Hogwarts. Draco insisted that Luxy get herself checked out by Madame Pomfrey, to see if she had something that would help heal her cut.
Draco sneered slightly when Filch gripped Luxy's arm roughly, prodding at her with his Secrecy Sensor, though Luxy was perfectly content to stand quietly and let him do his job. She gave Draco an exasperated look, and he calmed slightly when Filch turned to him. Once they'd been cleared, they headed into Hogwarts and then up the stairs towards the infirmary.
They entered the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey looked slightly scandalized at the sight of Luxy.
"Good Merlin, Miss Listin! What have you gotten up to this time?" Madame Pomfrey exclaimed, pulling Luxy forward and shoving her down on a nearby bed. She took Luxy's jaw in her sturdy hands, tilting her face up and tutting to herself. "Gracious, what a nasty wound. Well, lucky for you, I have just the thing that will shrink it right up."
Madame Pomfrey bustled away and Draco came to sit down beside her. Luxy sighed. "Is it really that bad, Draco? Really, I mean."
"It is, Lux. I wasn't kidding when I said she got you good," he told her.
"Trace it."
His finger started at her temple and then drew a nearly straight line down her cheek, stopping just above the corner of her lips on the left side. Luxy grimaced slightly; he was right. It probably was rather nasty, and probably fairly deep.
She blew air from her lips and then looked up when Madame Pomfrey returned with a bottle filled with an emerald potion. She dabbed some on a thick cloth and then swiped it along the gash in Luxy's cheek. Draco watched as gash in Luxy's cheek bubbled white and then began to shrink.
"Does it hurt?" he asked her.
Luxy slanted him a look from the corner of her eyes. "A little."
Madame Pomfrey gave her a skeptical look. It should have hurt very badly the moment the potion was applied until the cut began shrinking. The potion was re-growing her skin, so her body wouldn't have to heal itself on it's own. It should have hurt.
Luxy didn't even flinch.
"Well, dear, you should be right as rain now," Madame Pomfrey said and then left the two of them.
Luxy stood up at their obvious dismissal and then sighed. "I hope Dal isn't too angry with me for ditching her," she muttered to herself and then looked up when Echo came bounding in.
He stopped when he noticed Draco, who had just stood up, and sat down at Luxy's feet, growling as he stared at Draco.
"Don't make me hex you, cat." Draco glared at the beast and Echo hissed at him in response.
Luxy rolled her eyes. "Boys."
She headed out of the hospital wing, touching her cheek absently. Sure, it had hurt pretty badly, but pain had no place in her brain at the moment. Luxy looked up again when three all too familiar people came strolling down the corridor.
It was Adalia Cross, Pansy Parkinson, and Flynn Finesse. Adalia looked relieved to see Luxy standing there, Pansy looked annoyed, and Flynn looked amused. Adalia gripped Luxy hard in a hug, stepped back and then glared at her.
"What's wrong with you!" she exclaimed. "You left me alone with my mother!"
Luxy smiled easily. "Hey, Flynn."
"Hey, Lux," he responded. "See, Dal? I told you Luxy had a good reason for ditching you. She probably got throttled by a Death Eater or something. But where's Malfoy?"
Luxy blinked. "Why would he be here?"
Adalia sighed. "Finesse is under the impression that anywhere you go, Malfoy is lurking around somewhere. He's finally wrong. But that's why Pansy's here, since Flynn decided that if we found you, we'd find Malfoy, too."
"Nice deducing, Finesse. Sure you're not a Ravenclaw?"
They all turned when Draco emerged from the hospital wing, hands stuffed in his trouser pockets. He winked cheekily at Luxy and then let Pansy fall all over him with worry.
Flynn tossed one arm around Luxy's neck and one around Adalia's and steered the two girls back down the corridor. Luxy turned slightly and waved brightly towards Draco.
"Bye, Draco!" she called, laughing when he waved back in the same way she had, teasing her.
"So where did you go?" Adalia asked as Flynn let them go when they reached the marble staircase.
"I got accosted by my mother and Bellatrix Lestrange. They told me to stay away from Malfoy, but they didn't tell me why," Luxy said, glancing away. She wasn't sure if Draco cared enough about his mission to brag about to everyone, and she wasn't going to be the one to break the secrecy by telling her friends.
"Maybe because he's a Death Eater and they know you aren't, and they don't want you to discourage him from his destiny," Adalia suggested.
Luxy shook her head. "He's not a Death Eater. His father is," she said, mostly to convince herself of this fact. In truth, she wasn't really sure if he was or not. She was afraid to find out, and be disappointed.
And what if he was? Would she stop being his friend if he was? He knew she greatly disliked the Death Eaters and what they stood for. Perhaps he was withholding information from her, because he didn't want her to stop talking to him. The thought bothered her greatly.
The three friends roamed around the castle until it was time for the Halloween feast, in which Echo decided to turn up, yet again, and sit on his haunches near Luxy's foot, batting at the toe of her boot until she gave him some scraps from her own plate, though she didn't like to give him scraps. He was worthy of a meal, Echo was.
Halfway through her eating, however, Luxy growled and dropped her fork. "Oh, bloody hell, I have an essay due for DADA that I completely forgot about."
"About what?" Flynn asked curiously.
Luxy made a face. "Banshees."
"You know all about wailing women, don't you, Lux? It'll be easy," Flynn told her cheekily, though Luxy didn't miss the fact that Draco made the smallest of faces at the fact that Flynn had called her 'Lux'.
"I hate being a fifth year. I hate preparing for the bloody O.W.L.'s and I hate all the homework getting piled on us!" Luxy complained and then sighed. "At least Charms is the first O.W.L. I will definitely be aces at it."
"Well don't worry about it tonight, Lux. We have poker to play," Flynn said happily, grinning over top of his pumpkin juice cup.
"Poker?" Pansy wrinkled her nose, which was a drastic improvement to her face. "Isn't that a Muggle game?"
Luxy shook her head. "Not when you play with enchanted cards it's not. The cards smoke randomly, sometimes when you bluff and other times when you have a kick-arse hand. They're temperamental as hell."
"I can't believe you guys still carry on that tradition. It's been – what? – four years now?" Draco asked them, but he looked a bit amused. "Don't you think it's time to give it a rest?"
"What's the matter, Malfoy? Afraid you'll lose to me like you did last year?" Luxy jeered him, grinning devilishly. She loved playing against Draco. He was competitive, obviously, if he felt the need to continually best Saint Potter, and she never backed down from a fight, or in this case, a chance to rub his pointed little nose in her victory.
Draco smiled pleasantly. "Not at all, Listin. Just wanted to give you a chance to back down before I obliterated you in the game."
Pansy scoffed. "I cannot believe you're encouraging her, Draco. It's a Muggle game! That's disgusting!"
"Yeah, maybe you should actually listen to your girlfriend for once in your life, Malfoy. I mean, you'll probably lose anyways," Luxy taunted and then stood up. "Come on, guys. I want to at least start playing in case Professor Snape decides to actually yell at us again."
Snape had actually reprimanded all of them when he'd caught them the first time four years ago, playing in the common room on Halloween night. Being Slytherins, of course, gave them complete liberty to consciously ignore the rules and continued to play the next year, regardless of what their Head of House had said. Snape hadn't really mentioned it again, but they all had a feeling he knew what they were doing.
Luxy hooked an arm through Flynn's, chatting happily with him, ignoring the delightful sound of Pansy squawking after Draco, who apparently decided to take her challenge like she knew he would. He couldn't help himself, honestly. He hated being challenged, and he knew if he backed down, she'd win and he didn't want her to win.
The disobedient Slytherins pushed a few chairs towards a table and then all took their places. Luxy grinned around the table. It was Flynn, Draco, Adalia, Nott, Millicent, and herself.
"Now then, wands away, children. Can't have cheating now," Flynn admonished and Luxy tucked her wand into her boot, smirking as her friend produced a deck of cards from inside the breast pocket of his shirt.
He dealt the cards with practiced ease and Luxy peered at the two cards in front of her, keeping her face carefully composed. In poker played by wizards, especially those skilled in Legilimency, it was easy to know when a player was bluffing, had a good hand, etc. And Luxy knew that Draco would probably try it at some point, perhaps not to her, but to someone else.
Too bad she was a sufficient Occlumens so that a wizard such as Malfoy could not invade her brain, and she would know if he tried.
The first few hands were largely uneventful, low bets as they all got into their stride. Pots were collected pretty evenly among the players, the cards smoking purple as they pleased, though Luxy's kept switching to blue sometimes, which she found funny.
Luxy was a hideously good bluff, Draco admitted to himself, annoyed inside but outside he was emotionless. She kept her lightheartedness about her, smiling pleasantly and raising bets without even blinking. He knew better than to try and get inside her mind, because she'd kill him, he was pretty sure. Instead, Draco found himself spending a good part of the hands trying to make her laugh.
Pansy, of course, looked on with disdain, but sat behind Draco, watching his cards from over his shoulder. Draco paid her no mind, of course. He was half-focused on the pretty fifth year that sat directly across from him, smiling at Flynn when he teased her about something Draco hadn't caught. Her smile was bewitching, which was horrifying, because Draco Malfoy didn't like to admit that.
It annoyed him that he found her pretty, smart, funny, and a great friend. He'd never really noticed before, too busy preening under Pansy's constant flailing about him, but this year it seemed that she was boring him. Draco was used to being looked after, taken care of, spoiled, and Pansy was just the kind of person his parents would want for him, because she'd spoil him as well if they ever got married.
But Luxy was not that sort of girl.
She demanded things from him, made him think, annoyed the bloody hell out of him, really. And, Draco realized, she was the best thing he had at the moment. With his mission bearing down on him, and the knowledge that his Aunt Bella and Luxy's own mother had come to tell Luxy to back off him, it was hard to feel anything but stress at the moment.
But, oddly enough, just seeing Luxy grinning across the table from him was enough to make the weight on his shoulders lighten just a little. Though, he decided mentally, one day he would be the one that made Luxy Listin smile.
End Note: Well, at least ONE person's keyboard got fixed. Haha, mucho thanks to my lone reviewer. On a cooler note, on JKR's website, she has the WOMBAT test and I took it ( being the nerd I am ) and I got an E. I am continually convinced that I was supposed to go to Hogwarts eight years ago. :)
Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I'm sort of picking fun at JKR with some of my characters' names beginning with the same letters. :) She's very repetitive in that respect. I've always liked that. Hence Luxy's name.
- skylight; 11.06.10