Chapter Twelve: My Beloved
We huddled in the corner, silently holding our breaths with terror. At least I was; I couldn't speak for Severus because I wasn't omnivorous. Then I heard the door swing open, which was followed by the sound of loud stomping footsteps—trolls. From where I was hiding, I had a limited view of the dining room and kitchen, and so I was able to watch as one troll (the one I was supposed to marry) dipped a ladle into the pot that was on the stove and then tasted it.
"Mmm!" He licked his lips. "Tasty Christian stew!"
Severus and I breathed sighs of relief that he didn't realize that it was his daughter, not Severus, in the stewpot.
"Wait a minute!" He suddenly stopped eating. "Where is my beloved future bride? Why is she not here to welcome me home?"
"It's okay!" another troll said. "I just checked her bedroom, and she's in bed sleeping."
The first troll smacked him upside the head with a tree branch he pulled out of his belt. "Don't watch her while she's sleeping, you Thor-damn creeper. That's going to be my job!"
I shuddered violently with disgust. I was also getting anxious to get out of there. My legs were starting to fall asleep because I was sitting on them, and I had no idea how long it was going to take for all the trolls to fall asleep—if our plan worked at all.
Suddenly, I heard a doorbell ring. "I'll get it!" a troll announced. He walked away, and a few minutes later, he came back with...Azalea! Severus and I stared in amazement. What was she doing here? She also was dressed in a really kinky long red dress. It was low cut in front, and it had long slits running up the sides where her legs were. All the trolls stopped eating and stared at her with lust and desire in their eyes. They burned with the heatful intensity of one thousand hot suns. I looked at Severus and saw that he was also looking at her with the same expression in his eyes as the trolls. Heck, I probably would have too if I were bi or something. Because let me stress: Azalea is a looker even on her worst day, and in that dress, well, there's not a word I can use to describe her.
Suddenly, one of the trolls—my troll—seemed to come to his senses. "Hey, wait! What are you doing here? I didn't invite you!"
Azalea gyrated her hips sensually. "I have come to accept your offer of marriage."
All of the trolls gasped. "But...but I'm already getting married to someone..." he said disappointedly.
Azalea ran her hand up and down her body. "But...wouldn't you rather have me?" she asked quietly.
"Well, yes..."
"I know," she said with authority. "We can kill the other girl and eat her for second-supper, and you can marry me instead!"
"Okay!" the troll said with excitement. The entire crowd started to troop to the bedroom where they believed I was lying...the same place where in fact the head of Gjertrud was. Severus and I looked at each other in frightened fear.
"What do we do now?" I mouthed wordlessly.
He shrugged with despair. Suddenly, we heard a rageful howling come from the direction of the bedroom. "Well," I said, "I think they discovered our little deception." We braced ourselves, preparing to fight for our lives. And suddenly, there was silence. Like, seriously—all the noise that the trolls had been making stopped. But still, I was cautious, because I knew it could be a trick. And then, I heard footsteps coming back toward me. I peered out of my hiding spot and saw...Azalea. And she was...alone! Both Severus and I rushed over to her.
"What happened?" I whispered loudly. "Where are the trolls?"
She looked really relieved to see us. "I knocked them all out with one spell!" she announced proudly, waving her wand around. "And I am so happy to see you two safe and sound. I didn't want to put the trolls out of action until I knew where you were. But when they saw that head—" she shuddered "—I knew I couldn't wait any longer, because they would have killed me, and you guys too if they had found you."
"How did you know that we were in this troll-cave?" I asked curiously.
Azalea looked slightly hesitant to answer that, and then she finally said "I heard from Regulus that a troll had got Severus. I was already familiar with these trolls here—I had had...previous dealings with them. So, I set out to free him. I also knew from Vera Qorewyn that you, Narcissa, were also missing. I put two and two together and decided that there was a good chance that you were also here. Sure enough, I was right."
"Well," I declaimed, "I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of your help. If it weren't for you, I would probably still be sitting in there, wondering if I was going to survive the night."
By now, we had walked to the door that separated the troll's lair from the outside. Opening it, we were suddenly struck with strong angled sunlight. According to my calculations and the angle of the sun, it was probably about 5 p.m. I had been in that troll's house for more than a day!
Shortly after rays of sunlight hit Azalea, she recoiled, and then fell to the ground and started convoluting. I stared at her in amazement. She was a vampire.
No, wait, she wasn't. She was merely changing form. Because, as I found out half a minute later, she wasn't really Azalea Townsend. She was...Lucius Malfoy.
"Lucius?" Both Severus and I stared at him in utter amazement and wonder. Then, something clicked in my brain. He must have drunk polyjuice potion to change into Azalea in order to rescue us! The trolls distrusted human men because they thought they were all Christians. A woman, however, would be able to seduce them, and thus deceive them.
"Oh Lucius," I looked up at him with pure adoration evident in my eyes. "I wouldn't be able to get along without you." I was also relieved that he wasn't acting moody like he had been acting that one time after Defense against the Dark Arts class.
We all started walking back to Hogwarts. Shyly, I reached over and took Lucius's hand and...he let me! He even held my hand back! I was so happy—I felt like I was at the top of the world. Severus looked really depressed when he saw us holding hands, but he didn't do anything about it. I think he was finally figuring out that he was waaaaaaaay out of my league. I was so joyful that as we walked, I started singing the song "Into the Woods" from Into the Woods. I'm not sure why I was singing that song—I think it was because the trolls reminded me of a fairy tale I had once heard. Though really, my heart was feeling so free and lighthearted that we should have been singing "Out of the Woods". Anyway, the three of us held hands and skipped all the way back to Hogwarts, singing as we went, and the entire world looked like one big happy sunny meadow. I even saw the Savage watching us from his hut, and he was shaking his head with jealousy that he wasn't skipping with us.
Once we got back to Hogwarts, I gestured to Severus that he should go in without us. He looked really sad, but he understood. Really, some people are just meant to be alone forever. I then turned to Lucius, and looked deep into his beautiful stormy azure eyes, and they were simply amazingly beautiful. We stood there like that for a few minutes, just holding hands and looking into each other's eyes on the front steps of Hogwarts. And then, optimistically, I tilted my face up toward his...he bent his face down toward mine...and... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...he kissed me! And...it was the most gloriously heavenly sensation in the whole entire universe! I almost fainted, but instead, I started kissing him back. It was soooooo romantic. His lips were so warm and soft and velvety and scrumptious and wet and simply amazing! After what felt like a lifetime in paradise, but was probably only seven or eight minutes, we broke apart, gasping for air. And then, we looked at each other and smiled shyly. He offered me his hand again, and together, we walked into Hogwarts. For whatever reason, I noticed that a few idiots were gawking at us from the windows. Losers! Hadn't they ever seen a couple in love before? Oh well, they were probably just jealous. And Lucius and I were so perfect for each other...
We decided that we would then get dinner from the Great Hall together. Because I had been in the troll's den for an entire day, I had missed all my classes for that day. This was too bad, because it was supposed to be my first day of Charms and Herbology class. But then again, if that troll hadn't had captured me, I never would have kissed Lucius, which was the best thing that had ever happened to me. So, I didn't feel too bad about missing class.
We sat together at one end of the Slytherin table while we ate. We didn't talk much, but we held hands the entire time. And there was a lot of staring into each other's eyes. His were so dreamy. However, I did make one weird observation about him—he only drank out of a little flask that he kept on his belt. And when I asked him about it, he said he felt safer that way. I thought that was kind of weird...it was almost like he wasn't telling me some little detail that might be very very important to this story.
When I wasn't staring into Lucius's eyes, I looked around me at the other people in the Great Hall. Much to my satisfaction, Bellatrix and Andromeda were both staring at me with their mouths open. I knew that they were green with envy that the hottest boy at Hogwarts—or anywhere—was mine. I also noticed that members of the Death Eaters club that were present—like Zephyr and the real Azalea—were also staring at us, like they couldn't believe their eyes. I guess Lucius had not informed them of his decision to start being with me, and only me.
After we finished eating, we walked back to the Slytherin common room together, holding hands the entire time. I was starting to think that after this, I wouldn't be able to bear ever being away from him for a single moment ever again. We then sat together in the common room and tried to do homework, but I had a really hard time concentrating on my Potions essay because...he was around. Every few minutes, our knees would accidentally brush, and we would look up at each other and blush. See! Weren't we perfect for each other?
Well, after a couple of hours of that knee-brushing torture, I started to feel a little tired. It was getting late, after all. I told darling Lucius that I was getting tired, and then he picked me up in his arms (I wanted to swoon—it felt so good) and carried me to the door of my dormitory. Then he set me down. I took two steps away from him and...it started to hurt! Being away from him, I mean. So, I quickly rushed back to him and ran into his arms. He comforted me while lightly stroking my hair, and told me to get dressed in my pajamas and come right back out—we were going to go somewhere.
Well, of course, that made me feel really excited, so I quickly ran to my dormitory, got dressed in a lacy see-through nightgown, ignored Vera when she asked what I thought I was doing, and ran back out to my dearest. Then, he took my hand and led me out of the Slytherin common room and down a hallway. I started to wish I had worn a robe or something, because students and teachers that we passed stared at us. We walked for about five minutes, and then he turned in on a small abandoned corridor.
"Pumpkin, where are we going?" I asked him flirtily.
"Just wait and see," he replied coyly.
At the end of the corridor was a painting of a knight. He—the knight—shouted at us to say the password.
"My beloved," Lucius said.
And then, the painting swung outward to reveal...a room. We crawled in, Lucius turned on a light, and I saw that it was a bedroom.
"We can sleep here together tonight and nobody will disturb us," Lucius told me.
I squealed with delight and flung my arms around him. Then I asked, "But, where are we? What is this room?"
"This, my dear, is the prefect's bedroom. It's an optional bedroom that only prefects can use. I, however, know the password."
"Oh Lucius, you're so adventurous and free-spirited!"
He then carried me over to the bed. I lay down next to him and we passionately made out for like, an hour or two. After that, exhausted, we both went to sleep. You see, we are both too righteous to go any further than that. Also, everyone knows that pure-bloods don't have sex before marriage; we're just too good for that.