Chapter Ten: Shifted

They talked for hours, leaving only when their waiter informed them that they were closing and the pair needed to leave. Oskar held her close as they left, opening her car door for her before driving off the way that they came. The radio hummed away in the background, some station that played classic rock and pop songs. When they arrived back at the Manor, the entire house was dark and it seemed that everybody had gone to bed...well, almost everybody. Oskar shut off his car, but neither moved as the radio continued to play in the background. He sighed, glancing over at her with his cheeks red from the wine.

"This was a lot of fun," he said after a moment. Regan nodded, blinking sleepily. "We should do this again…well, we might not be able to sneak out of the house again, but we can still have a date."

"I would really like that."

In all honesty, Regan had never been on a date before, and she had never had a boyfriend either. Sure she had had crushes on boys, but none had ever asked her out. They probably found her too serious or too cold to ever consider her as a girlfriend. Regan knew that she liked Oskar as a person, but she wasn't sure if she wanted more. Either way, she trusted him. Oskar suddenly wrapped an arm around her chair, leaning closer to her.

"I know that it might be too forward to ask, but…would you mind if I kissed you?" Regan stared up into his eyes made dark by his limited inhibitions. He probably didn't realize that Regan hadn't been kissed since primary school, and after that the boy had gone running, screaming for a cooties shot.

"I haven't been kissed in a really long time." She admitted quietly as he leaned closer.

"That's okay," he whispered, running a thumb across her cheek before he gently pressed his lips against hers. Regan's eyes fluttered closed, letting her emotions and desires take over. She could still taste the wine on his lips and it made the kiss very sweet, yet bitter. He didn't try to do anything that would have made Regan push him away; he just kissed her exactly how a man should kiss a woman. He kissed her lightly twice more before he finally pulled away, his hand still resting on her smooth cheek.

"I'll walk you up to your room." He said, the words regretfully forced. He wanted more, but he was holding back so as not to make her uncomfortable. She stepped from the car, smoothing down the front as Oskar walked around the front of the car to take her hand and walk her through the front door. They held hands in comfortable silence as they walked up the stairs to the third floor doorway. Regan managed to pull out her key without having to let go of Oskar's hand. She found that she liked his big warm hand encasing hers with a gentle firmness. As she opened the door, she looked back to Oskar with a sad smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said with a small, sure nod. Oskar smiled, squeezing her hand before he let go.

"Until tomorrow." They hugged each other for a while before he let her go and watched her disappear through the doors. As soon as everything was locked up, Regan dashed back to her room and quietly closed the door. With inhuman speed, she got into her pajamas and slipped into bed after setting her alarm. She laid perfectly still for a moment, her heart pounding as she listened intently to Lucius's snores. The last thing that she wanted was for him to know where she had been. She listened for quite a while, reclining in her bed with her heavy blankets pulled tightly around her body. She didn't hear anything; was he still awake? Mentally she kept insisting that she had to stay awake, but the wine was making her eyelids droop and her body relax into the soft bed.

As she slipped into a peaceful sleep, she was plagued with the image of Oskar's smile and the memory of his laughter.

From the other side of the room, the door that separated Regan from Lucius creaked open, intent eyes seeking out the sleeping form of the young woman inside. With silent steps, Lucius slowly crossed the room and approached her bed, a scowl prominent on his face. He had waited for her to come home...honestly, it was surprising that she had really thought that he wouldn't notice her absence. He allowed his hand to gently pass over her cheek, causing her to turn her face towards his warmth. He smirked, feeling a swelling of pride bloom in his chest.

She wanted him; she just hadn't realized it yet...

…

The next morning, Regan awoke completely refreshed. She stretched her arms far above her head and let out a low groan. She almost wished that she could have breakfast with Oskar just so that she could see him again. It was infatuation, she could feel it, but it was almost overwhelming. She had been a little tipsy and that kiss had floored her...now that she looked back at her evening, she just had to roll her eyes at how foolishly she had acted. The last thing that Regan needed to do was to get attached to somebody...all she needed was a way out.

Regan showered and got ready for her day, dressed well before Mr. Harvey arrived with her breakfast. But when she opened the door to let him in, she was surprised to see him simply standing outside her door without his tray.

"Master Lucius has given you the rest of the week off," he said with a straight face. "And Mistress Astoria has invited you to join her in her room for breakfast." Regan slowly nodded, allowing him to escort her down to the second floor to the large sitting room where Astoria was waiting with a bouncing baby Scorpio in her lap.

"Good morning!" Astoria exclaimed, quickly dismissing Mr. Harvey and motioning for Regan to come and sit with her. "You look positively radiant, I'm assuming that your date with Oskar went well?" Regan nodded as Scorpio let out a gurgle while trying to fit his entire fist into his mouth.

"It was very nice," Regan said, the words slipping out and sounding so foreign. "If they hadn't kicked us out, we probably would have stayed for the whole night." Astoria smiled brightly, clearly pleased with herself.

"I'm so glad that you two got along, I hope that makes you feel more comfortable about going to Paris with him." She said, carefully placing Scorpio into his high chair and wiped off his drool dripping chin. "You're going to love his flat…although, he'll probably take you to his cottage for a few weeks to hide out if Lucius is going to start looking for you." Regan's stomach suddenly dropped and she felt a chill go down her spine. She hadn't even thought about Lucius going to look for her after she disappeared. Regan had just assumed that once she ran away, he would leave her alone and find somebody else to molest.

"Do you think he will come after me?" She asked quietly. Astoria simply shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, it depends on how the discussions go in Sweden. If things don't go well, he could very well throw a fit when he finds you married and gone." Regan chewed her lower lip, feeling the tension rise up in her stomach. Lucius had the power to find her if he wanted and it all depended on whether or not discussions went well in Sweden.

Stupid neutral Sweden…

"You can't let him come after me," Regan insisted. "He can never find me; I'll do whatever it takes to just stay hidden."

"I'll do what I can," Astoria assured her as she tapped an apple with her wand and it peeled and cut itself before hobbling over to be within reaching distance of Scorpio. "I've already talked to Oskar about this and I think that you should both go off the grid; don't use your wands and don't use magic…and don't worry, Oskar knows how to cook." Regan blushed slightly.

"I know how to cook…enough to survive, at least." Astoria lightly giggled, taking a small bite from a triangle piece of toast.

"You two will be fine, Oskar will take good care of you and you just need to keep a low profile for a couple of months." Regan sighed, suddenly not feeling as hungry as she did a few minutes ago. There was a sharp knock at the door, making the two women look up.

"Would you two care for some company?" Astoria and Regan's eyes both lit up when Draco and Oskar came walking in, Draco loosening his tie while Oskar wore slacks and a soft black sweater. He sat beside her, moving close to her and putting an arm around her shoulders. She smiled, but didn't bring her eyes up to meet his. She was sure that if she did, she would look like some silly, wide-eyed school girl.

"What are you doing here? Doesn't Lucius need you to get ready for your trip?"

"Apparently, I'm not needed." He muttered, rustling up Scorpio's hair as he eagerly reached out to his father with a loud laugh.

"What do you mean?" Astoria asked. Draco sighed with a heavy grimace on his face.

"He said that he's in a bad mood and just wants to be alone…and he kept mumbling something about the morning paper." Astoria furrowed her brow together, reaching out for her copy of the paper and beginning to scan for anything that would piss Lucius off. Apparently, when she let out a low groan, she had found it.

"Well, I guess that explains it," she muttered as she pulled out the section and showed it to Regan and Oskar.

Regan's heart dropped and she suddenly felt very cold. It was just a side article accompanied by a small moving picture of Oskar and Regan walking into the restaurant. The headline read 'Who is She?', and Regan felt the urge to just sink down under the table.

"A flash of red and your eye is caught by a crown of glorious red hair sitting atop the head of a beautiful, mysterious lady," Astoria began to read. "We last saw her on the arm of Lucius Malfoy, who is considered to be the most eligible bachelor of the magical world, at the first quidditch match of the year. And now, she seems to have caught the eye of Oskar Greengrass, who is the cousin of Astoria Malfoy, the daughter-in-law of Lucius Malfoy. Calls to the Malfoy publicist have yet to be returned and his household refuses to release any records or information regarding her identity. For now, she remains a mystery, but we here at The Quibbler can only speculate why this petite red head has caught the eye of two extremely powerful men. A spell, perhaps? Only time will tell who this young woman is and what could possibly make her so enticing."

When Astoria had finished reading, Regan felt as if she had been punched in the stomach.

"That explains why Lucius was acting like a small, emotionally disturbed child." Draco muttered, leaning far back in his seat. Regan inwardly groaned as she took the paper when Astoria offered it to her.

"He knows," she whispered sadly, mentally scolding herself for losing focus and allowing herself to do something silly and fun. She should have never left the manor last night...she should have remembered that her life depended on whether or not this went well; she could not afford to mess this up!

"All he knows is that you went to dinner with Oskar." Astoria said sternly. "And what's the worse that he could do? Fire you? He can't, or else he would lose you…and if he really wants you, like he says he does, he wouldn't do that."

"Well he's going to lose her anyway, so it doesn't matter." Draco muttered. "Don't worry, he's too focused on Sweden to do anything about you right now. Hell, the old man doesn't have time to have a relationship, so I don't know why he's insisting on having you."

"He wants more children," Astoria quickly said. "Why do you think he wanted to marry me?" Draco sighed, glancing over at Regan with pale eyes.

"He won't harass you anymore, and I'll do whatever I can to make sure that you're kept far away from him...it's the least that I could do."

Regan was taken aback by his kind yet firm words. This was not the Draco that she remembered from ten years ago, standing with the elder wand ready to kill anyone who dared to challenge him. Something had changed in him, almost like he had shifted from dark to light. She wasn't sure why, but Regan suddenly felt that it was okay to trust Draco…just a little bit, but he still deserved some trust, at least for the moment.

"Me too," Oskar spoke up, offering her a reassuring smile.

"Regan, you have absolutely nothing to worry about." Astoria said with a shrug of her thin shoulders. Regan allowed herself a smile, grasping her hands in her lap.

"I could never express how much your kindness means to me." She said, earning a small smirk from Draco as Scorpio reached out for him once again. Surprisingly, Draco happily took his son and began to bounce him in his lap.

"He has many other options of women to molest; he doesn't need to corrupt you just for the fun of it." Astoria nodded in agreement, pouring herself a cup of tea.

"Yes, at least one of us will be able to live a normal life."

...

A/N: I don't really have a good excuse for uploading this chapter late...so I do apologize if I made you wait. But yes, I hope that you enjoyed and that you send me nice reviews :)

RashaTemple: lol sorry if that was a little confusing, but I kind of enjoy my code...makes me feel smart for creating it :)

Dragoon Dave: Hahaha hooray for chaos!