A/N: Hey! This is the next chapter and it's the longest so far. I'm trying to make the chapters long so there will be more story happening. Why? This is because I have National Service in mid March and it's for 3 bloody months and there's no way I can write during that time. If I'm lucky, this fic will be completed before I go but I have a feeling that it won't. I hope you enjoy this chapter because I enjoyed writing it, especially the library scene.
Dear Anya,
I decided to send this letter via Blaise. I hope you're happy at Hogwarts as a Gryffindor. Yes, Blaise told me. Although he's slightly disappointed that you're not a Slytherin, both of us think that the lion is the best one for you. Narcissa told me that she sent some chocolate frogs via Draco, we remember how much you enjoy them. Here at the Zabini Manor where I'm all alone with the company of house elves only, we, which is me and Narcissa, decided that we would love to send you anything that you might want let it be robes, books or chocolate frogs. If you are in any need of some spending money, just tell my son and he will get some from Draco. I know how awkward it can be with your situation with Draco and everything so I hope that if you ever had the desire to talk to someone about it, both Narcissa and I are at your disposal. Just send a letter to one of us and we'll get back to you. Well, good luck for your coming weeks.
Bianca Zabini
"It's not that I hate Potions, it's just that I hate the teacher and some of my classmates, you know the ones wearing a green and silver tie." Ron whispered to Anya behind his hand as Prof. Snape took attendance of the seventh year class that only consisted of ten students, the minority being two Ravenclaws that Anya knew now as Terry Boot and Padma Patil, Parvati Patil's twin sister. Anya couldn't helped but giggled at the redhead's comment and in the silence of the class with exception of the Head of Slytherin calling out names, the noise brought attention to her.
"And may I know what do you find so amusing Ms. Zainudin?" his voice sounded smooth and silky, yet dangerous, like a black python slithering on the ground towards its helpless prey. Nine pair of eyes was redirected on Anya, most of them sympathizing while some were full of glee. Snape's eyes however, were blank of emotions, similar to the pair of grey eyes that belonged to the Head Boy. She could feel the attention on her, it was getting thicker by the moment until,
"Sorry, sir." Her dark eyes connected for a short second with the teacher's onyx ones before Snape turned away, motioning towards a medium-sized cauldron which had steam rising in spirals from it. The heavy attention shifted away from Anya, to her relief. Ron caught her eyes from his seat beside her and mouthed an apology before returning his attention to the front of the classroom.
"What you have here is the famed and definitely illegal for you to brew Amortentia. And if you had even bothered to read the textbook, you would know that it is the most powerful love potion in the world. Can anyone give me the signs of this potion in order for you to recognize it?" He managed to miss Hermione's hand that was eagerly waving in the air as he looked at the four Slytherins, two Ravenclaws, Harry, Anya and Ron before finally, as a last resort called on the Head Girl.
"Miss Granger,"
"Well, the steam will be rising in characteristics spirals and the potion will have a mother-of-pearl sheen to it. It also supposed to smell differently to each individual, this is-"
Prof. Snape silenced her with a wave of his hand, not even awarding her points but the Gryffindors were used to it after six years of Potions, they didn't even uttered a word of protest. "And why is that Mr.Zabini?"
The dark Slytherin looked up from his seat beside Draco and cast his blue eyes on the teacher. "Hmm... because... it signifies what we are attracted to," he answered after a moment pondering the reason in his mind. Prof. Snape managed a smirk as he awarded 5 points for answering such an easy question.
" And that is what I want you to do today. I will partner you up and then you will tell your partner what the Amortentia smells like to you. You will make a conclusion on what you think your partner are attracted to in someone based on their answer and this can only be done by a discussion with your partner once you both had take turns in inhaling the fumes of Amortentia and I would like a reasonable length essay by Wednesday. Understand?"
A low murmur of understanding went through the room before Snape picked up the clipboard again and ran a pale finger down the list, calling out the pairs. "Potter and Malfoy, Weasley and Patil, Bulstrode and Boot, Granger and Zabini, Zainudin and Nott," The look on his face told the ten students that he would not change their partners even if they gave him a million galleons or a harem full of nubile virgins throwing themselves at his feet. Wait, he 'll probably give the latter a second thought. Grudgingly, they moved towards their respective partners after a bit of arguing who should move and who should stay.
Anya moved from her seat to sit beside Theodore Nott, a stringy looking boy with a lock of black hair falling over his forehead, his greenish grey eyes looking at her silently, as if analyzing her. Behind her, Harry was just sitting down on Blaise's just vacated seat beside Draco. At the table beside her, Blaise was twirling a quill in his hand as Hermione said something to him, probably something about the potion. He nodded to whatever she said before his blue eyes caught Anya's and gave her a sly wink and a smile. Anya smiled back at him and heard an irritant cough from behind her. She turned around to see Harry glancing curiously at Draco from the corner of his eyes, who was determinedly looking at the open textbook on the table. Odd. She swore that cough sounded like Draco's.
Prof. Snape called on the partners to take their turns at smelling the Amortentia and often the student in turn would have looks of contentment on their faces, a slow, lazy smile on their faces. Anya and Theodore were the last duo to be called on and they both moved to the cauldron, with a half wary, half excited looks on their faces. "You first." Theodore said softly, the first words he uttered to her. Anya nodded and leaned forward to breathe in the fumes, closing her eyes so that she could concentrate solely on her smelling sense. "Fresh silk sheets," she whispered, an image of white silk sheets forming in her mind's eye, beckoning her to run her hand on the smoothness. She took another whiff, "Peppermint and ..." she wrinkled her eyebrows, trying to place the last smell. " And ...something that smells like a type of wood, maybe mahogany," She opened her eyes to see Theodore looking at her curiously. "Interesting combination," he said before scribbling the three things in his slant handwriting on a piece of parchment.
"Your turn," Anya stepped away from the cauldron to give way to the Slytherin. She watched as the dark haired boy repeated her steps, inhaling with eyes closed. But unlike her, it only took one deep whiff for the Slytherin to identified the smell.
"Peaches, something tangerine and ink,"
"Ink?" Anya raised an eyebrow in inquiry.
"Just as weird as fresh silk sheets," Theodore shrugged his shoulders. Anya nodded. True.
"Rain, coffee and crumpets," Hermione told over lunch. The four of them were swapping information about what their partner had identified Amortentia as.
"Coffee and crumpets?" Ron said, an eyebrow raised as he swallowed a spoonful of his shepherd's pie.
"Well, Blaise do like drinking coffee. Maybe he wants someone who will appreciate his love for the beverage as well," Anya said as she picked up her goblet to take a sip of the pumpkin juice.
"But crumpets? English tea anyone?" Harry's remark made the others laughed.
"What about your partner? Nott?" The brunette witch asked Anya.
" Well, Nott said peaches, something tangerine and ... ink,"
"Ink?" Ron asked, as if his hearing had gone wrong for the past few seconds.
"Ink," Anya repeated, nodding her dark head.
"Maybe he wants someone who likes to write?" Harry said as Ron chuckled to himself.
"Or someone with ink stains on their hands," Hermione added.
"Blimey, these Slytherins are weird. What about Malfoy, Harry? Bet it was something like the smell of untainted blood or something..." Ron said suspiciously, looking at the silvery blond head at the Slytherin's table. Harry shook his head, pushing his glasses to stop them from sliding down his nose.
"Actually it was quite normal. No crumpets or ink. It was green apples, chocolate and fresh pillows. That combination is a bit ... "
"Homely, isn't it? A bit odd for the ultimate Slytherin," Ron said as he pulled a dish of treacle tart towards him.
" But what was odder was the fact that Malfoy kinda knew who he's attracted to when he listed what he smelled. As if he already knew what he would smelled."
"Green apples... Parkinson smells like roses. I had to sit beside her in Charms last week, remember?" Ron gave the other three a don't-tell-me-you've-forgotten-the-torture-I-had-to-went-through look.
"Please ... you can't possibly say that Malfoy is attracted to Parkinson, Ron," Hermione spat out the female Slytherin's name with apparent disgust.
" Who's Parkinson?" Anya asked, trying to remember the name in any of her conversations with either Draco or Blaise but nothing. Nada.
"Pansy Parkinson. She went to the Yule Ball with Malfoy back in fourth year and every single dance Dumbledore held and we," Ron indicated towards himself, Harry and Hermione before continuing, "know that the two of them are more like friends with benefits cos one night last year, Hermione and me caught the two of them shagging in an empty classroom,"
"Enough talking about Malfoy and his shenanigans with Parkinson. What about you, Anya? What did the most powerful love potion smelled like to you?" Hermione's sudden question made the attention focused on hers, all three of her companions held curiosity in their eyes.
"Well, erm ... nothing really special actually," She desperately wanted to avoid telling her friends what she smelled. But at the eager look on their faces, she decided that telling them that piece of information wouldn't be as hazardous as telling them that she belongs to Draco Malfoy, most hated wizard among the Gryffindors, her housemates.
"Fresh silk sheets, peppermint and something mahogany-like," Anya said.
"Fresh silk sheets?" Hermione repeated with amazement.
"Peppermint? Why is everyone smelling some type of food except for me?" Ron exclaimed.
"Mahogany-like?" Harry asked Anya.
" Yeah. Well, Nott said something about mahogany furniture and broomsticks ..." Anya answered vaguely, to be honest, she didn't really understood what the Slytherin had concluded about the third smell.
"Broomsticks? Maybe you're attracted to someone who rides a broomstick made from mahogany, then? Right, Ron?" Harry asked the redhead who nodded his head eagerly.
" We just have to find someone who rides whatever broomstick that's made from mahogany, have silk sheets and likes eating peppermint then," Hermione said brightly, as if they would find a wizard that fits all three requirements. With a sinking realization, Anya hoped they wouldn't. For in her mind, she already knew who the wizard could possibly be.
Draco slung his satchel over his shoulder as he stood up to leave the Slytherin table for his next class when a soft hand caught his. He looked down at the brunette, her dark brown hair was a chin length bob with baby blue eyes that looked back at him with promises of a night of pleasurable passion.
"It has been a long time since we last spend time together, Draco," Her voice came out as a seductive purr to his ears as he looked at her face, noticing her beauty and her alluring curves for the umpteenth and wondered when was the last time he had spent time in her company. Her very pleasurable company indeed. He had been busy during the summer, before Anya's arrival and after Anya had arrived at the Malfoy Manor, there was no chance whatsoever to have her over. He didn't want the Slytherin beauty to find out about Anya and with Blaise being the only one that knew their real predicament, it was enough for him. When school had restarted, the first two weeks had been very hectic for the Head Boy with all his extra duties such as preparing a patrol schedule for the prefects from scratch alongside his co-Head. Time alone with the stunning witch in his room would be just right for him now.
"Sure, Pansy. How about my room tonight at nine thirty?"
Pansy gave him a smile before pulling his head towards her and kissed Draco fully on his mouth, her tongue swooping into his mouth. He laid a hand at the nape of her neck, pulling her closer as he tasted the dessert she just had for lunch. She was the one to pulled away, nibbling on the shell of his ear as Draco suppressed the moan from escaping his throat.
"Can't wait," she said seductively as her tongue slid over his lips.
"Coming Draco?" Blaise asked from the table's other side. Draco nodded before walking towards the Great Hall, his mind thinking of the night to come. From the corner of his grey eyes, he could see the Wonder Trio and Anya also heading for the door, towards the same class as him, Defense Against the Dark Arts. With a sudden burning in his guts, he saw Harry brushing something off Anya's shoulder, making the witch turn to face the scarred wizard, a small smile on her face. Her dark eyes locked for a second with Draco's grey ones before sliding to his right. She mouthed a greeting to Blaise who replied with a small wave of his. The burning in him doubled at that gesture and the moment Anya turned back to say something to Ron, Draco's elbow 'accidentally' made contact with Blaise's side, smirking with satisfaction when the dark Slytherin lets out a sound of pain.
" What was that for?" Blaise hissed, a hand on his side.
Being a Slytherin for more than six years had gave Draco a lot of training in being sly and cunning. Thus, the talent of lying through his teeth.
"Sorry, accident,"
Being a Slytherin for more than six years had shown Blaise the ways to detect a liar. Thus, the ability to know that his best friend was lying to him.
Defense Against the Dark Arts. The pink haired witch has got to be the weirdest teacher they had ever got in their seven years. She had strolled into their first class in her bright orange colored robe and had stumbled down the small set of steps right before their eyes. As she was insisting her students that she was fine and had no sprained ankles, she somehow managed to knock down the high stack of papers on her table. No wonder most of her students wouldn't believed that she was once an Auror before taking the post as their teacher until Prof. Dumbledore himself had said his gratitude to the witch for willing to leave her career as an Auror for awhile during a meal in the Great Hall. Perhaps, the wise wizard had knew about the suspicions his students held.
Putting aside her clumsiness, her vibrant colored hair that sometimes can be quite an eyesore and her equally vivid colored robes, Draco had to admit that Prof. Nymphadora Tonks was a competent professor compared to some of her predecessors. today, she was revising the Unforgivable Curses with the seventh years, listing the three curses on the blackboard. From Draco's seat, he could clearly see that Harry Bloody Potter was sitting beside Anya.
"The Imperius Curse was famous back in You-Know-Who reign of terror as this curse enables you to control the person you cast the curse on,"
I'll make that green eyed freak jump off the Astronomy Tower.
"The Cruciatus Curse was designed to torture a person without using any form of tools and with excessive use; a person could be tortured to madness with the pain."
Hmm. I wonder how Potter will sound like screaming if I put him under the Cruciatus Curse?
" And the last Unforgivable is the Killing Curse. There are no known ways of avoiding it,"
Good. Potter can only avoid it once but this time, I'll get him.
"It is said to be a fast and painless way to die,"
Bad. I want him to die a slow and painful death. Maybe someone should emerge the Cruciatus Curse and the Killing Curse as one new curse. The guinea pig of the experiment? Potter would be perfect.
Defense Against the Dark Arts sure seems to be a better and more informative class this year.
"I don't think he really likes you being friends with Zabini," Hermione suddenly whispered to Anya from across the table over her Ancient Runes' homework. The two witches had departed to the library after dinner with the intention of completing their runes translations with the aid of the vast collection of books in the library.
"Who?" Anya paused in flipping through Runes: What They Mean Volume I, her dark hair tied back in a loose bun. Hermione answered by tilting her head to her right, indicating a wizard that was slipping into one of the many aisles of shelves, his silvery blond hair a dead giveaway of his identity.
"Malfoy?"
"Yeah. He said that it is none of his business who Zabini befriend but his face said something completely different," Hermione dipped the tip of her eagle feather quill into her inkpot before continuing ," But that's none of his business in my opinion. Zabini can be friends with whomever he wants."
Anya resumed her flipping through the pages but her mind was no longer on finding her answer, her dark eyes slightly glazed as she thought of the truth behind Hermione's statement. About Draco's 'disapproval' of her friendship with Blaise. Surely not. She had been friendly with the Italian ever since he first walked into her room through the door adjoining her and Draco's room. She had been taken with the wizard's dark blue eyes and was shocked at the slight hostility that Draco had shown towards his friend when he had came into her room moments later. It was more like protection, as if he was shielding her from something but after a while, she had noticed that Draco was okay with her being friends with Blaise. After all, it was his idea for her to go to Diagon Alley and sit in the same compartment on the train ride to Hogwarts with Blaise. To put it simply, it was because of Draco, she had a close friendship with Blaise.
Anya shook her head, placing a wall as a dead end to her musings. She began to translate the runes again before letting out a groan of frustration. A part of her homework was made out of runes that were only available in the second volume of the book.
"Hermione, do you have Runes: What They Mean Volume II ?"
"Sorry, I don't but I saw it on a shelf at the last aisle of the Ancient Runes' section,"
Great, the most secluded area. Anya got up and head for the mentioned aisle, the air slowly thickening with the musty scent of ancient tomes and thick volumes. She ran her hand on the spines, her lips mouthing the title before her eyes finally caught sight of the book, nestled on the top shelf, a tad high for her. She stood on her tiptoes yet the edge of her wool clad fingers only managed to grazed the red hardback cover of the book. She cursed in her mind before trying again by giving a small jump. She still couldn't reach the book. She lost her balance but a pair of strong arms broke her fall.
" Thanks," Anya said after Theodore Nott set her back onto her feet. The Slytherin looked at her with his intelligent greenish grey eyes before nodding once.
"Which book is it?" he asked, in his quiet voice.
"Runes: What They Mean Volume II," Anya pointed towards the red book and being considerably taller than her, Theodore pulled the book out from his place with ease. He handed it towards her as she thanked him again. He nodded again before disappearing around the corner, heading towards the Transfiguration section. Anya started to retraced her steps back to her table, the book in her right hand but before she could take more than a dozen steps, she walked into someone, the book falling to the floor with a thud. "Sorry," Anya said as she moved to bend down to pick the book up but a hand grasped her arm, pulling her up.
His displeasure was obvious as Anya looked into Draco's grey eyes. She felt the wall against her back as Draco slowly pushed her against it, his face passive, the grip on her arm still tight. She tried to wriggled her arm out of his grasp but at the look on his face, she stopped.
" Draco..."
He said nothing but let her arm go, the slight pain diminishing already. He suddenly took her hands and peeled the gloves off, letting the pair fall to the floor, beside the forgotten book. He took her right hand and cupped his cheek with it, his eyes never breaking the contact with hers. He shifted to nuzzle his face against her palm, his other hand sliding to her waist. Anya couldn't pull away, as if she was a snake mesmerized by a snake charmer.
"What was that?" He asked, his voice hard.
"What do you mean?" She tried to hold the slight fear back. Sometimes, he reminded her of Lucius Malfoy.
" I saw you and Theodore. He had his arms around you..." He spat out his fellow Slytherin's name.
"He broke my fall and helped me get a book that I couldn't reach. And it's not like he could even touch me, right?"
Draco didn't answer her as he took booth of her hands and made her fingers entwined behind his neck as he leaned closer to her. Her breath got stuck in her throat when he buried his face in the crook of her neck, breathing in her delicious scent. Green apples. He moved his lips against the soft skin of her neck, a smirk on his face when he felt the shiver ran through her body. He whispered against the soft shell of her ear,
"I didn't like that. I don't want you to be close with Theodore,"
Anya held back the small moan in her mouth as Draco's tongue slid out to licked her earlobe. She was thinking what would happen if someone saw them. What would Hermione say if she saw Anya and Draco together, in such an intimate position.
"Don't worry, nobody will see us," Draco trailed his lips to her mouth before covering them with his own, his tongue gaining entrance into her slightly open mouth, his body pressed closely against her.
"But, what I want to say is that I don't like it if you get close with other guys, Anya," He untangled her fingers and slipped back the gloves onto her hands. He picked up the book on the floor and handed it back to her. He leaned closer again, his lips against the skin where her shoulder connected with her neck, the neck of the robe pushed back slightly, nibbling and sucking the skin softly.
"Just remember Anya, you're mine. Not Potter's. Not Blaise's. Not Theodore's. Not anyone else's. Just mine."
"They can't touch me Draco. No guy can touch me except for you unless they want to experience pain just by having the slightest contact with my skin. All thanks to the dragon on my wrist."
"Exactly. That's why you're mine Anya," Draco pulled away, leaving another mark, a temporary one on her skin. He covered the skin with her robe. He brushed his lips against her before leaving her there. He didn't see Anya sliding to the floor, her hand touching the love bite on her skin. She could still taste the peppermint he favoured so much on her tongue.
Hermione's right. But it's not only Blaise. But every single guy. Blaise's right. A Malfoy is possessive.
A/N: Please review if you want. Tell me what you think.