The Quarter Moon Gamble

by NeuroticMuse413

COMPLETED! Veela!Draco. A bet and an accident send Hermione into the arms of Draco Malfoy. But what happens when she can no longer stand the moments they're apart, the forbidden kisses he took without remorse, the slow dances, or the warmth of his touch?

14. Farrow

The Quarter Moon Gamble: PART FOURTEEN

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AUTHOR'S NOTES: This little section with the memory loss was yet another alteration of the original plot in my head. The first version involved the music box to more detail. It wasn't even a music box, just a simple box. And in it, there was going to be their connection, concentrated into a potion, so she could take it when he was away and she could feel the sensation of his touch.

Forgive the delay on sending out this chapter. I got preoccupied with school.

Oh! And I dedicate this chapter to the song "Idioteque" by Radiohead. I highly recommend it. It got me through three nights of insomnia.

IMPORTANT! I've decided that I might be taking on the project of starting a short prequel to "The Quarter Moon Gamble" called "The Dragon's Farrow" that takes place when Draco was 10 years old. Read on to find out the plot.

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The Potions classroom was hot this Valentine's Day from Hell. Neville had tried to do a simple heating spell and expanded it to the entire classroom. Snape didn't allow him to take it off as a punishment. He had his own little cooling potion so why would he care if the others melted? Still, he was in a remarkably lively mood. One student even heard him whistling in the halls and a whole class saw him give McGonagall a rose. All of a sudden, rumors of an illicit affair were spreading and some even brought in Dumbledore as a third angle in the triangle.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron ignored it, though. They had their own problems. Harry was having trouble finding time for Ginny. They weren't even officially going out yet, not for lack of trying. Hermione felt horrible that she had missed their first courtships. She had at least been there for all the drama with Cho last year, no matter how much she disapproved.

But she had her own issues. Ron was trying so hard not to be jealous but Draco was becoming incessant. He refused to give up, no matter how many times she turned him down. He had caught her in an empty hallway the day before and went to give her a letter when Ron came out of a classroom nearby where he was to meet her and told him to sod off. Draco refused to leave until she got the letter, and thought he had asked civilly, Ron threw him a punch across the jaw so hard that Draco still had the bruise this morning.

Hermione wondered if he had forgotten to go to the hospital wing or if he had kept it for other reasons. Now that he knew what had been, it hurt him every day they were apart. A blow to the face was nothing compared to what she was doing to him, but she refused to go back to him.

"What right have you to say goodbye to us?" he had asked her before giving her the letter. She had hidden it in her book before Ron came but had been too scared to read it so as far as he knew she had never gotten it. Draco had a way with words. Each verb was like a spell to her. Knowing him, he probably had enchanted it, so she didn't dare open. But she kept it, like she kept all of his that was once theirs.

She couldn't resist and slowly took out the letter from her book and hid it under her desk as she began to open it. Ron hadn't noticed but Draco, who had been staring since class began, saw it and shifted in his seat. She could feel his excitement and quickly closed it.

Please open it, Hermione, he begged sweetly in her head.

No, she replied. I told you not to find me this way.

Please! I cannot let you be until you read the letter.

She sighed, which Ron and Harry noticed, and looked over at the Slytherins. Most were half-dressed and sweating like bulls while Snape hummed at the head of the class, writing on the board ingredients and instructions that no one really noticed.

Draco still had his shirt on but it was completely open in the front and she felt a heat run through her. It made him smile at her coyly, feeling it himself. She loved how his tie was undone. It reminded her of the night when she had untied it for him… as well as the rest of his clothes. She felt a light tingle over her heart and it spread to her arms, a cooling sensation.

Damn you, she thought and opened the letter completely.

At the first words, she blushed. "My dearest Hermione," it said. That alone made her shiver all over and close up her blouse a button or two. It was as gentle as the breeze in what was once their bed. She closed her eyes tightly for a moment then continued to read it on her lap, making it seem like she was concentrating on the textbook before her.

My dearest Hermione,

I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you shun me so. I thought it best to get that out first. Happy Valentine's Day, by the way. I'm only sorry we can't spend it together.

Perhaps it'd be easier to say I was born without a heart. I never cared, nor feared. But I know I loved you, Hermione, no matter what went on between us. I can feel it just as I know you can. You could say I was born a cold monster, a calculating beast. But you'd be wrong. I had a heart once, but know you didn't kill it, dear. It was dead before it reached you. My soul withered into the evil around me. The hands that held you felt only warmth and for this I know I must have exploited you. Was this the cause of your ill will towards me?

I know you loved me, not because you told me -- not because I know I would have died for you -- but because you cared enough to remember me even after my own memories were taken. I fight for you now because I know of no other thing to do, even as futile as living without you has become.

Pass on your wisdom but take my secrets with you and know that your company has made my living an art. And I'll forever watch over you, even if it's just in my dreams, so you never fade into the darkness of the human soul.

You are still connected to me, Hermione. And I welcome you to me any day. I hide now, under all my hypocrisy, false promises, and endless self-imposed solitude, the true cause of my valiant jailer. I'm sorry if I hurt you, but I only hope the wound was deep enough so you will always carry the scar of my pain with you.

I'll love you always, Hermione, for there is nothing else I know to do than what my heart seems to press upon me.

Forever yours,

Draco.

She closed it slowly, rereading it several times. Ron heard what could have been another sigh only to see her hunched over her book. He put a hand on her back -- something Draco growled at in the distance -- and asked her if she was alright. She lifted up her head but refused to look at him. He placed a gentle hand under her chin and made her face him. Her face was covered in slow-flowing tears, her eyes two red markers of pain.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" he whispered and turned a bit more serious. "What'd he do?"

"Nothing. Forget it. I'm fine."

He looked over at Draco who looked worried as well, having shed his devious smile.

Hermione? he asked. What's wrong? Was it the letter?

Leave me alone, Draco, she replied. Please.

"Everyone, just leave me alone," she said out loud.

Snape turned around, noticing the time, and excused the class. Hermione got her things together so quickly that before the others could stand up, she was already running out the door.

Ron looked at Draco like it was his fault but Draco only sneered back. While the others left, the two stared at each other. Ron nodded towards the door, trying to keep his anger in check.

Once outside, Draco spoke first. "I didn't do anything. I swear. I just gave--"

"I don't care," Ron interrupted. "I thought I could be ok with it. I thought it didn't matter that she loved you because she wasn't with you. She was with me. And that meant something to me. But she's not mine to keep, Malfoy."

"What are you saying, Weasley?" he asked, arching his eyebrow dangerously high.

"You deserve the truth. She's with me out of guilt, Draco. She doesn't want you to know… that she forced you to erase your memory. Or that she didn't give you the whole potion. I think she's waiting for the effects to wear off, that she still keeps hope, but I truly believe she loves you no matter how evil, how cruel. She's not like other girls, Draco. If she fell in love with you, it wasn't because of the curse or she would have forgotten you already."

"Then help me!" he yelled.

"How?"

Draco looked tired, weary as he said, "Tell me what I did to make her love me the first time."

Ron sighed. "Alright," he said, and began the story of the Quarter Moon Gamble.

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Hermione walked down the path by the lake during lunch, where Ron had told her to meet him. He had left the Great Hall first, to the location, she figured. She was to follow a few moments later. She wondered why he had been so cloak and dagger-y about it but began to imagine what he had planned for Valentine's.

When she reached the stump of the old tree where she had dropped her books the first time she met up with Draco after the dance, she had to stop to breathe like the memory of events in that very spot had robbed the air from her lungs and turned her stomach to sludge.

But she moved on towards the boulders where Ron had told her to meet him. The sky hid behind ominous clouds. How she remembered the joy of kissing in the rain. Now it was just another force looming over and laughing at her.

She kept on but soon, the boulders became hidden under a great black blur in the distance. As she neared it, cautiously, she saw a little blonde figure beside it. Draco, she knew. She could feel his presence and his anxiousness as he neared. Beside him stood a great steed black as night with a silver mane.

"Draco, what are you doing here? And with a horse?" she hissed, hoping Ron had not seen them and looking around per chance she had to hide.

"Come," he said, walking towards her with the horse's reins in hand, extended for her to take. "Ride with me."

"I can't," she said, truly wishing she could take his hand. She longed for him. Her desire turned into a knot at her throat and she couldn't help looking back to see if Ron had come.

"He's not coming. I talked to him."

"With Ron? About what? Draco, what did you do?"

"He approached me, after you read the letter."

She smiled at the thought of the letter. "It was lovely but I-- What did he say to you?" she began but sighed, coming closer and feeling the air escape her again.

He was so serious. She hadn't seen him like that since she found him in Venice. Not even after bleeding to death did he have this face. It was two things: a serious attempt to get her back or a tragic farewell. She detested either outcome.

But she was wrong. It was neither. "He told me what happened before… why I lost my memory."

She let go a small whimper and the knot in her throat turned into possible vomit. "Oh God, Draco…"

"I don't care. Don't worry about that. All I worry is that I'll feel different after the memories come back."

She opened her eyes a little wider. "He told you that too?"

"Everything."

"But why?" she asked with a slight, sudden sob.

Draco sighed and moved in closer, moving a lose strand of hair from her face back behind her ear. She got goosebumps all down her body. "He knows you don't love him, Hermione… at least not in the way he'd like. And he's fine with it. He feels it'd be selfish to keep you to himself when he knows what's happened between us is irrefutable."

"Oh Ron… He didn't say that, did he?"

"He always knew you didn't love him."

"It's not about love. It's about need. It's about want," she insisted sternly, trying to ignore that he was standing so close.

"Where'd you get that from?"

She looked down and whispered, "You."

"I'm a genius then, not that I didn't already know," he said with the smallest smile, which on him seemed to reflect monstrously throughout his whole face, making the clouds part from the sun in her mind. "But you don't want him, Hermione. It's cruel to make him think that. You needed him, yes, but you could never be with him. We are a… superficial species. We care about attraction and heat and the physical desires... You have no idea how much I want you right now."

She let another whimper escape and he lowered down to kiss her but she pulled away. He pulled her in by the small of her back against him. She looked slightly afraid but did not part. He hadn't held her this close since their last night at the Spyder Club.

But this kiss… it was not like the others he had taken from her. He was afraid to kiss her, she could tell. No matter how forceful he tried to be, he did not have their history. For all he knew, he was kissing a stranger. And it felt lovely.

She tried to erase all her doubts but all that was left in that single extended moment was the anatomy of his kiss, as so she had come to memorize. When he began to move away from her lips to her cheek and down her neck, she trembled despite his tenderness. The goosebumps began to sting and she felt exposed, naked.

When he began for her clavicle under her cloak, she cleared her throat of the knot and pulled away. He smiled down at her, his now longer hair falling over his eyes in wild strands. She had never seen him look so bewildered with child-like curiosity. This was not her Draco, but she liked him better.

He grabbed her hand, the smile refusing to fade, and led her to the neighing horse. "Come on," he said again, now more enthusiastic. She let him take her away, mainly because she was still trapped in the moments she had taken from him, now reliving through her mind in flashes of guilt and lust.

She mounted the horse and looked back at the castle as it slowly faded into the distance, and she left behind all her troubles, her responsibilities, and the last of her sanity.

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They rode for a while in silence. She wondered why the horse hadn't gotten tired by now. They were going so fast that no matter how long she stared at the ground, she never saw the horse's feet touch the cold, wet grass, no matter how close they were.

"Draco," she whispered against his back, her hands comfortably around his waist. "Where are we going?"

"Does it matter?" he said back, placing a hand over one of hers atop his waist. She whimpered slightly and he took it as a yes. "Somewhere I go to find myself… a part of me anyway."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you and I will never be safe back there. And here we'll at least be alone."

"I don't like the way you said that, Draco."

"Well I'm not the Draco you knew, remember?"

"Then how can I know to trust you."

"You can't. But you know as long as this damn curse runs through me, I can do you no harm… And I know… a small part of you still believes I can be him again. That alone should be enough, right?"

"One would think so, but I never trusted the one I knew fully either. He always had some crazy scheme or went out to hunt lake monsters for stupid bets and getting hit by lightening… Good thing you never told me all the details or I may have died of fret," she said with slight reproach and fear.

"Heh. Really? I did all that?"

"And more," she said in a disapproving tone.

He smiled brilliantly and gave her hand upon his waist a small reassuring squeeze. "Well I'm fine now. And I'm here. And you are here. Isn't that all that matters?"

Hermione let a tear leave her to the icy winds of the ride. "In a perfect world perhaps, but you are not perfect and I can never be."

"You're perfect to me. And if you're with me, it is a perfect world."

"Then you live in fairy tales, Draco."

"Can I be Cinderella, then?" She thought he was joking.

Hermione lifted her cheek from the soft fabric of the back of his cloak in sudden shock. "Cinderella?"

"Well yea. See Sleeping Beauty, all she got to do was just lie there. Snow White had to deal with god-awful gnomes. Cinderella at least got to go to a ball and dance with her prince and look all pretty for a night before going back to reality. I'd rather be rescued from poverty, too. Why send a princess into seclusion or a glass case? It's a silly thing silly royalty does to preserve their silliness," he said and made a small scoff. She could tell he was passionate about this, as if it was alright to define one's life with fairy tales. "If I could choose… I'd live the rest of my life as a poor servant boy if it meant keeping the memory of the one night."

She felt like crying. She had taken his memories, knowing this all too well. He had always cherished his memories of her so, just as he had cherished her. She laid her cheek back onto his back and held on for dear life as the horse jumped over a river and into a brick wall. When she opened her eyes, she was on the other side of the wall and the horse was now slowly walking towards a ridiculously large castle with large round towers and over five floors with who knows how many rooms.

"Draco, where are we?"

"I know I promised to take you to my castle by Hogwarts, so we could be safe. This is it. This is Castle Farrow. It's impenetrable by anyone without Malfoy blood," he said as he lowered her off the horse

"You're kidding? You have your own castle? I had a fort made out of pillows in my living room," she said, looking up at the monstrosity of a building. "Is it French?"

"Yes, how'd you know? My father flew it here from Brissac for my 12th birthday. He got tired of me hiding out in the pantry whenever I got mad or sad and just said, 'If you have to run off someplace, do it as far away as possible.' So here it is."

Hermione furrowed her brow. That was a horrible reason to buy a son a castle. She felt ridiculous that she even thought there was a good reason. "Why is it called Farrow?"

"It was the name of someone I truly cared about. I think she was the first thing I ever even came close to loving." She raised an eyebrow. He laughed as they walked onto the moat and said, "It was a Kanenayar. It's a--"

"--mythical bird with the head and torso of a human but the wings and feet of a bird common to Myanmar mythology. Though obviously, it's not so mythical."

He suddenly became very serious, took her hand, and led her down the long hallway to one of the bedrooms on the fifth floor to a small tower. "Yes, it is. It was one of my father's creations. He took this poor Muggle girl from the town outside Malfoy Manor, with whom I made the horrible mistake of talking to once on our walks through the market. She was eight years old. I was ten. The day after I saw her, I woke up to find a trail of feathers by the side of my bed. I followed it to my father's study. He had turned her into a Kanenayar to teach me a lesson: never talk to the lower class. I took care of her as best I could, mostly out of guilt. She was mine for two months. And then one day I woke and she too had left me."

"Why a Kanenayar?" she asked, not bothering to think how his father got a hold on such Dark magic.

"They're a symbol of true love. I suppose he was trying to tell me I could only ever love one person and this was not her. He would not accept anything other than perfection in my mate, and if she wasn't, I was dead to him too."

He opened the door to the tower with the same serious face but as soon as he saw the setting sun in the distant sky through the large window, he smiled and paused at the entrance.

"Draco?" she asked, bewildered at his sudden change of face.

"Shhhh…" he hissed. "Just look." And he pulled her hand towards the French doors leading onto the balcony, completely ignoring anything in the room.

"It's lovely," she said, looking for anything really to bring his attention back to her and this enormous castle and the fact that he might as well have kidnapped her.

"Did this mean anything to us? The sunset? Whenever I look at it, I feel like it's important to me for some reason I should remember."

"No… uh… Well sure the first time we…" She chuckled nervously and tried to rephrase her words. "You loved… I can't vouch for what went on in your head but you'd stare out through the window in our room almost every night now that I think of it."

"Did we… every night?" he asked, a little scared.

She opened her eyes wide and shook her head quickly. "No! Of course not. I think it did remind you of it though. You had the same silly smile as the morning after."

"Really?" he said with a raised eyebrow and a devious smile.

"Yea… kind of like that one," she responded with narrowed, playfully reproachful eyes.

He laughed and took her hand again, leading her back to the center of the room. "This is my favorite room in the entire castle," he said. "The first night I came here, there was a full moon. I spent it reading right there on the balcony."

"By moonlight? What were you reading might I ask?"

"Absolute smut, love," he said with a bright smile. She smiled back, but quickly looked away. She was surprised how at ease she was with him. She knew it wasn't her Draco but it was hard not to feel comfortable around him. Maybe he really was and she was just denying him for her own selfish gains. "Let me show you to your room."

He grabbed her hand again and went to pull her out the room but she stayed put. He looked at her questioningly but she wouldn't budge. Their hands still held together the distance between them. "No," she whispered and looked down. "This room is fine."

"Oh alright." He looked cheery, not really getting her point. "I'll go to the guest room, then."

But she still wouldn't let him go. "Stay," she whispered, her eyes still low.

He looked a little bit uncomfortable for a moment but took a step towards her, remembering her kiss and feeling the Veela heat run through him. "Hermione, I-- I can't really-- Well I shouldn't really… stay."

"See you're right," she said, coming even closer to him. "I think you are the one I knew. Caring about me never changed you. You were always the sweet man I knew. The world, especially the Slytherins, couldn't accept that though and you fit the mold you were born into, but you were always the man I knew. You still are. Two months' worth of memory doesn't change that."

He had looked away as she walked closer, trying not to admit the truth behind her words. "Dinner!" he yelled out of nowhere and looked up at her eagerly. "How 'bout it? You hungry?"

"Sure," she said with a tired smile, and followed him back down the stairs to the second floor.

Apparently, the entire first floor was for handling guests, which meant there were about four living rooms, two "recreation" rooms, five bathrooms, four sitting areas, and two kitchens. Why someone would need two kitchens was beyond her.

The second floor was for eating and dancing. It was full of different types of dining rooms and ballrooms and two giant banquet halls. It too had a bathroom in every hall.

Third and fourth floors were for guests and random bedrooms. Fifth had a pool on the roof and had many towers. Hermione was sure there were dungeons and catacombs and some of the towers were formerly prisons but she didn't mention it. It had been made to fit his style perfectly. Most rooms were green, silver/grey, or blue, or a mix of all with black and… well it was suited for a guy, a Slytherin. Their room on the fifth floor was a beautiful blue/grey with grey marble everywhere.

But what astounded Hermione the most was the dining room he took them to on the second floor. She walked in and the table had already been set. It was ridiculously long from one side of the room to the other, about the entire size of the entire girls' dormitory back at Hogwarts now that she thought about it.

"This looks lovely," she said, admiring the large bouquets of white lilies and roses that alternated down the table. The tablecloth was white as well with trims in lace and a single chandelier floated above them, lighting the entire room with its brilliance. "It's incredible. But… where do I sit?"

He raised an eyebrow and looked around. "Well the lady of the house would usually sit at the other end but I don't exactly hate you enough to call you the lady of the house so why don't you sit beside me."

"I have a better idea," she said with a smirk. "Take me to the kitchen."

Draco furrowed his brow but gestured she come back to the door and headed down the stairs again. The stairs were lovely as well so she didn't really care. They spiraled down the center of the castle. A single flight, never ending by what it seemed.

Draco dismissed all the house elves who scurried off quickly. She looked at him crossly for even having house elves. "You can start the elf-liberation front in the house tomorrow, dear. Just tell me what you had in mind."

"Got any ice cream? I'm not really all that hungry."

"Ice cream? We have a 12-course meal waiting for us and you want ice cream?"

"Stop trying to make things complicated!" she yelled in her playful tune. She was so annoying sometimes. "Have you any idea how… wonderful… certain foods can be? Ice cream happens to be glorious when you're feeling ridiculously week-stomached."

"Why would you feel like that? You're with me, remember? I'm still that Draco according to you, right?"

"Stop being cheeky and eat some ice cream," she said with a smile as she shoved a spoon against his chest. Before he grabbed it, he caressed her hand under his on his chest and smiled adoringly as he used to do the morning afters.

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It was the middle of the night and Hermione couldn't sleep. She sensed neither could Draco. He was only in the room across the hall but she couldn't dare go over there. She had settled into the guest room well enough. This one was red and gold and she figured it had been decorated at last minute just for her. Draco never did know her favorite color was blue, not this one at least.

She stared up at the bed canopy for some time. It had bewitched to look like outer space. A comet or a moon floated randomly over her head at times but it was somewhat soothing. The nebulas kept her heart alive with beautiful colors and elegance amongst endless darkness.

She figured she was like that to Draco, a glimmer of hope in the dreary world he was born to, but felt like it was not a thought of her own. He felt it and therefore, she was entitled to it too. Veelas were just ridiculous creatures really.

Suddenly, she heard her door creak open but felt no need to be afraid. A figure walked towards her, slender and tall with hair over his eyes and she knew it was Draco. She quickly sat up but there was no light to speak of. A new moon had begun the night before.

She lied back down as he sat on the edge and slipped under the covers beside her, turning in so they were nose to nose. She could feel his proximity but the only light to the entire room was the occasional comet or tiny speck of star in the canopy.

His hand caressed her hair but she just looked for the first indication of a smile, a face, a reason he would come to her bed. He hadn't made a move to kiss her. His hand slipped down her arm as it had before on nights they'd spent back at Hogwarts.

"Tell me about Farrow," she whispered as his hand settled on her waist and drew her closer.

He went to pull his hand and leave but she grabbed it and held him down to her waist with her right hand. "She was a child, Hermione," his voice broke through the darkness.

"But she meant a lot to you. Tell me about her."

"Farrow was not her name. I never knew her real name. She had me give it to her. She was sweet, as any innocent can be. She was a very sad person who felt what had been done to her was an act of God. I told her my father was no god, no more than I was a prince. She was the one who told me about Cinderella and all those fairy tales. I had never heard of them before. They were purely Muggle creations. But she never stopped believing her Prince Charming would come to rescue her from the Manor…" he said and choked on his own grief. "And then my father broke her neck and left her to bleed on the floor because I had become 'too attached'… and she never got to find her Charming. All she had was me, a sad excuse for a human being even when I couldn't understand why everything was happening. I couldn't protect her, couldn't even make her stop crying whenever it rained. After she died, I blamed it on her and was inconsolable for quite some time, and then Hogwarts started. By then, I had learned to hate Muggles, just as my father had told me to. He'd won and I didn't even know it. I just wanted it to just… go away. And she did, for quite some time."

Draco's hand went to her cheek and found cold tears running down her face, soaking the pillow below. Her eyes were closed shut but they still kept streaming down.

"Don't cry, Hermione," he said lovingly. "It's all a memory… just another memory. It can't hurt me anymore."

"You loved her though, didn't you? As close to love as you ever came. And because of me, she had to die, because there could only be one."

"I never loved her, not the way I love you. I cared for her, yes, but I was an arrogant child. At first, I thought her a pet of guilt. And then she became a companion. She was just a piece of my past. I knew I couldn't have told you before. I've never told anyone."

"I'll find her for you, Draco. I promise," she whispered and kissed him lightly, desperately trying to resolve her own olden guilt.

"Just don't leave. I can't stand to be alone again."

"You won't have to be. I'm here, love. I promise you I won't leave."

"Nobody keeps their promises, Hermione. They're just words. Stay and prove me wrong."

-----

TO BE CONTINUED…

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REFERENCES, ALLUSSIONS, AND INSPIRATIONS:

Though I don't like to quote other works, it's always funny to reminisce what inspired some of the hilarious scenes in The Quarter Moon Gamble. This is to all the fans.

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Chapter 1:

The entire basis of the "bet" came from something that actually happened to me where I came ridiculously close to kissing someone for the sake of a silly wager. I was lucky I got out of it. Draco… he got lucky anyway.

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Chapter 2:

Piccadilly -- A restaurant in the States whose name I thought was hilarious but have never been to

Spyder Club -- an actual club in the US, one of the most exclusive celebrity joints actually. Not sure if the spelling is the same.

"Well thank you Captain Obvious" -- a shout-out to a friend of mine

The entire make-out scene at the end of chapter 2 -- recycled from a story I had started but never finished

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Chapter 4:

"Think unsexy thoughts! Think unsexy thoughts!" -- from the Simpsons

"Care for some chips, mate?" -- Geico commercial

"Drama Queen" -- a hilarious HP icon I once saw

Showing up naked to potions -- from the movie She's All That but I hadn't realized it until a reviewer mentioned it

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Chapter 5:

"It is mid-winter. So don't judge." -- personal joke involving winter shrinkage and honeymoons in Antarctica.

"…have you a phobia for germs or something?" -- shout-out to the show Monk and my own OCD

Umbrella to fly off the roof -- Mary Poppins

"Where's the devil incarnate?" -- in honor of my friend Stephy

"…reading list beginning with the Kama Sutra" -- another personal joke I had running with two English teacher about what would happen if my grandmother found my copy of the sutras (my grandma doesn't speak English so we're only considering her reaction to the pretty pictures)

Roark Potion -- in honor of Roarke from Fantasy Island because if I had a wish, it would be to find my Draco… or pass eleventh grade math. Whatever!

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Chapter 6:

Hermione's dream -- I was watching Something's Gotta Give on TV at the time and thought the beach was lovely

Task #3: Get hit by lightning -- it was raining ridiculously hard the night I wrote that so I figured why not add it

Veela OnStar -- after the car tracking service and a joke about OnStar helping a blonde get out of a car because she couldn't work the handle

"You are just pathetically horny, aren't you?" -- the future title of my autobiography

Sexual indoctrination of vampire clans -- from a kinky vampire short story I once wrote

Hermione's caffeine/chocolate addictions -- my own

Using the word "sex" to mean a person's 'private areas' -- used by Anne Rice in Sleeping Beauty

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Chapter 7:

"…vast expanses of raw skin" -- from a scene in Buffy. I wished someone would draw on me with paint and calligraphy brushes HINT for following chapters...

A boy in a rubber bubble floating on the water -- from the movie Bubble Boy and from a scene in The Avengers a loooong time ago

Dumbledore knowing Draco cursed his mother -- joke from Stephy

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Chapter 8:

Stealing ink from a sea monster -- reminds me of The Little Mermaid (the Disney version)

Hitting someone with a bag of bricks -- 101 Dalmatians, the 90's movie

"…play with the flame of a candle at his family's dinner parties" -- something I'd do with my Dad when bored at parties

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Chapter 9:

"Incendio Paredis!" -- Incendio meaning a fire or to ignite. Paredis from the word "Pared" meaning wall.

"Caring is the first thing that goes with turning evil. Family is next, then love" -- originally referring to alcoholism in Bagger Vance

The wooden box -- currently sitting on my vanity table, originally a gift for my friend Iris but I gave her a friendship bracelet instead

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Chapter 10:

Venice -- I was watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen while writing

The scene on the dock -- inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, also in Venice

The swarm flying in the distance -- inspired by Michael Crichton's Prey

The description of the Venice house -- came from a picture I Googled of a Venice house

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Chapter 11:

Being a slave just to be with the one you love -- Shakespeare's sonnet #57, my favorite

The necklace that didn't really mean anything -- Sex and the City's final episode

"Well sex is just such wonderful motivation" -- private joke

"…a few plants in the mold and see if they grow?" -- Simpsons. The Lord of the Flies episode where Lisa eats mold while everyone else eats a boar

Teach to love and be loved in return -- remix of line in Moulin Rouge

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Chapter 12:

"I'll be seeing you" -- from The Notebook soundtrack and one of my favorite singers, though it's sung better by Billie Holiday

"Moonlight Serenade" -- another favorite, and a reference to Doctor Who

"War and Peace" -- Stargate: Atlantis, the episode where John says he took a long book to read for a long trip

Scene when they're facing each other on the bed -- from a scene in Requiem for a Dream

"No more whipped cream!" -- joke with an old friend, scene in an old novel of mine, and from a horrid scene in Not Another Teen Movie

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Chapter 13:

Eating chocolates out of grief on the bed -- from Blood and Chocolate, one of my favorite books by Annette Curtis Klause

"He did it to himself…" -- originally in the plot, he had. The rewrite said otherwise but I forgot to change it.

"By Saint Peter's church and Peter too!" -- a line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, said by Juliet in refusal to marry Paris

Blood connection by blood pact or mark -- from an episode of Charmed with the Brotherhood and Cole

"Rumpelstiltskin" -- a Grimm fairy tale with another funny name

"Tell me of us" and the desire to remember lost loves after memories got erased -- inspired by Stargate SG-1 episode #705: "Revisions," season 7

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Chapter 14:

The letter -- parts were from one of my short stories called "Letter from an Immortal" but the letter itself was inspired by a music video that redid the scene in HP 3, the movie, where Draco sends Harry the paper bird. You can find a link of it on my userpage on this site.

Farrow -- the name came from a list I did of all my favorite names. It seemed like a cool reference to a bird, since it was Draco that named her.

Kanenayar -- an actual mythological bird from Burma. You might want to look it up. It'll keep being referenced, especially in the prequel.

The castle being moved from France -- concerning the love story of this place called Coral Castle in Florida, and several other references where castles were moved brick by brick.

Brissac and the description of the castle -- came from an actual existing castle in a place called Brissac in France that belonged to the Lord of Brissac… or something like that. You can see it in a tour or online.

Joining an animal and a human -- Full-Metal Alchemist and the "chimeras", also mythological creatures.

"A single flight…" of stairs -- from the song "One Flight Down" by Norah Jones, one of my favorite songs

Cinderella -- my favorite fairy tale when I was 6 and for years after

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