Life goes on

by rrabbit

Cassius, Gavin, Lavinia, and Evelyn carry on with their lives as Draco and Ginny's children. It's tough starting your own family outside of the one you already have... This takes place right where When the truth doesn't matter left off.

14. Chapter 14

Lavinia

I've never actually been out on a date with Byron before, so I'm pretty nervous by the whole idea. I take my wand and curl a strand of hair around it, hoping that it will curl my hair in the way that I want it to so I don't look like a stupid poodle when I'm finished. I want to look nice, and I want to look pretty. The weeks I spent with him traveling around weren't really my greatest moments looks wise.... I never even wore makeup around him then for goodness sakes. I was surprised to get a letter from Byron yesterday, asking me out on this casual date, but I'll admit that I smiled like a fool and maybe even danced a little after reading it.

"Oh, damn," I snap as I burn my ear with the heating charm I put on my wand. I unravel my hair and let the curl I just created bounce down as I inspect the damage done to my skin. "Nothing can ever just go right," I mumble to myself as I place my wand on the vanity table and I take a clip from my jewelry box to put back some of my hair.

"Are you excited for tonight?"

I look in the mirror and see Mom leaning in my doorway with her arms crossed. "I'm kind of nervous, actually," I admit and I know it seems silly because I was with Byron for a while... just him and me... but this is our real first date. "Does my hair look stupid?" I ask self consciously as I put the clip in my hair, pulling most of it away from my face.

Mom walks towards me and places a small wooden box on the table beside me. "No," she says as she places my hair over my shoulders so it runs down my back. "This is just a little crooked," she says as she takes the clip out. I watch her reflection in the mirror as she takes pieces of hair from the front, on both sides of my head, and she twists them, connecting them with the clip at the back. "Now it looks perfect," she says as she bends down and frees the long bangs that I always have framing my face. "You have such lovely hair."

"Thank you," I say with a smile as she stands back up and sighs as she watches me put on my make up, sending a little look to the mysterious box she brought in.

"Where is he taking you tonight?"

"Oh, he didn't say," I tell her as I reapply some eyeliner for a touch up. I can't stress enough how good I want to look tonight. "He said it was casual, though," I tell her as I put the lid back on the makeup and I sit back. "Do you think this is too dressed up?" I ask as I look down at the indigo colored dress that I'm wearing. I didn't feel like going too casual, and this is a just a cotton sundress... it even has a few buttons down the front that makes it less formal.

"No, I think that looks nice."

I really don't know how I'm going to act on this weird date we're going on and I'm running through practice situations and conversations in my head so I'll be prepared. Before, when we were together, we were always doing something. Getting my brother back was our main objective and our relationship was a side note... this is going to be a whole day dedicated to us and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that.

"What shoes are you going to wear?" she asks as she leans against my wardrobe.

"I think my silver sandals," I say as I stand up and go over to shoes I had left out by the bathroom door. "I like the wedge heal on these."

I slip them on my feet and look at my Mom with my eyebrows raised. "What do you think?" I ask as I hold my hands out.

She looks me over and she nods her head with a smile. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks, Mom," I mutter as I play with my hair. I've been on dates before, but I really don't think those count and I almost ask my mother about her dating experience, but I stop myself. Her and my father never dated... they just... were. "What's in the box?" I ask as I nod towards the vanity.

Mom eyes me for a few seconds, in a wistful kind of way. "You know, when I was your age I was already pregnant with your brother," I raise my eyebrows to that because it's kind of out of nowhere. "Now is the time you should be having fun and enjoying life."

"Mom, are you alright?" I ask because she's looking at me in such a strange way.

She shakes her head and walks over to the box. "I'm fine," she says softly as she picks it up and pops open the lid. "Your father would kill me if he knew I was doing this," she mutters to herself before walking over to me. I look inside the box at the twelve vials of golden yellow liquid. "You take this potion once a month. I would prefer you wait, but that's never practical, so I want you to be safe. You don't want to have a baby now... your father and I were too young when we started our family. We were children ourselves, you know."

I stare at her for a few moments before accepting the box she's handing me. I feel so awkward because I want to tell her that I won't need it, that I'll wait… but I think we'll both know that's a lie. We're silent for a while until I find my voice again. "Did Dad take down the wards so Byron can get in?" I ask because Dad had put up the wards to block everybody that wasn't family, Byron especially included.

"Oh, er," she looks unsure and I let my hands drop. "Let me go double check."

When she leaves the room I look back at the mirror and sigh at my attempts at looking pretty. It's hopeless... I'll never look perfect. I hesitate a moment as I stare at the golden vials of birth control potion, deciding it would be a good idea to start today. Does that make me a whore? I shake off that thought as I take a vial and down it's contents, trying not to gag because of how overpoweringly fruity it tastes. I snap the lid of the box shut and I hide it under my bed before I grab a cardigan. I tie it around my shoulders before heading down stairs, stuffing my wand and some money in a small clutch as I go. The whole way I try to calm my beating heart so I can play it cool when he gets here. I don't want to look like a fool. When I get down to the main hallway, Dad is at the door with his wand out, taking the wards down from the gate.

"I'm putting them up again after you leave," he says, not even turning around to see me on the stairs. "So he'll have to drop you off at the gate. There are too many reporters slithering around to leave the wards down for longer than a few minutes."

"Okay," I say softly as I fiddle with my clutch purse, trying to stop my stomach from doing flip flops. "Thank you for doing this."

He tightly nods his head and pockets his wand, finally glancing at me on the stairs. "You look nice," he says and I smile a little. That was a pleasant thing to say.

"Mom!" My neck snaps to the top of the stairs where I see my little sister stomping around. "Mom! Where is my blue sweat shirt?!"

"Hey," my Dad scolds and my sister stops walking and glances down at him. "Stop yelling. If you want to ask your Mom a question then find her and ask politely."

"Do you know where my blue sweatshirt is?" she asks, totally ignoring what he told her. "The one with the white flowers on it?"

"No, believe it or not, I don't keep track of your clothes."

She frowns at him before stomping off again and I look back at my Dad and shake my head. Evelyn, for as bubbly and sweet as she is, she sure can be rude. My heart jumps when someone knocks on the door and I do a quick check of my hair to make sure it's in place. I pat down my dress to make sure it's straight as Dad opens the door. Oh, wait, it's probably not good that it's Dad who's going to be the first person to greet him. It's too late to stop that now, though.

"Mr. Malfoy," I hear Byron's deep voice. I step down onto the marble floor and carefully walk over to the door as my Dad stares at the boy on the other side of the threshold.

"I know you think you're entitled, Mr. Flint." Oh, Jesus Christ, Dad. " But I want her back by ten."

"Of course, sir," I hear Byron say in his smooth voice and I pick up my pace to reach them before Dad says another embarrassing thing.

"And tuck in your shirt."

"Dad," I say softly when I'm close enough and I touch his arm so he'll step away from the door. "Thank you, I'll be home later."

He nods his head again before stepping back, actually allowing me to see Byron, and I almost sigh out loud again. I haven't seen him in two weeks and I had almost forgotten how good looking he was. It literally makes me weak seeing him sometimes because he's so handsome. I look him over with out even thinking about how rude that is... He's wearing a dark pair of jeans and a green button down shirt that covers his scars. He looks so good in green... I resist the urge to sigh again.

"Have a good time," I hear my Dad say tightly in the back ground. He doesn't mean it, but he's trying to be civil about the whole thing. Bless him.

Byron says good bye to my father and I follow him outside, shutting the door behind me so we can walk to the Apparation point. "So, where are we going?" I ask as we walk down the concrete steps. It's still pretty early, and the sun is still shining, so Byron takes out a pair of sunglasses from his shirt pocket and places them on his face. "Byron?"

"Well, it's kind of a surprise," he mutters softly and then he glances at me... or I think he does. I can't see his eyes behind the dark lenses. "I hope you don't hate it."

I smile at little and slide my hand into his as we walk the long road back to the gates that's lined with tall, thick trees. "I doubt I will hate it." The truth is, he could probably take me anywhere and I could love it because I was with him.

I need to stop looking him, because it's starting to border on creepy. So I turn away and chew on my lip as I think of something to say. "So, what have you been up to?"

"Not much."

"Oh."

"What about you?"

"Not much," I repeat.

"Oh," he replies and we stay silent until we reach the gates.

"Really, though," he says seriously while putting his arm around my waist. "If you think it's lame, tell me and we'll leave."

I tilt my head and study his face as he pops us away and when we land in a garage full of cars my eyebrows shoot up surprise. Is this the date? Just looking at cars?

"Okay," he says as he digs in his pockets and takes out a ring of keys, pressing a button on a black pad. One of the cars beeps and he looks at me. "That's the one we're taking," he says as he takes my hand and starts walking me over to the fire red sleek looking car parked along one of the stone walls.

"Where are we going?" I repeat. I hate riding in cars, they just don't seem safe to me.

"It's muggle," he explains as he opens the passenger side door for me and helps me into my seat. "I figured since your brother's back, people would be all over you if we went some where magical."

"That was thoughtful," I say softly as he buckles my seat belt for me. As he's leaning over my torso to snap it into place, I take the opportunity to kiss his cheek. He pauses and glances at me as his sunglasses slide down his nose so I can see those amazing eyes of his. "I've missed you."

A barely there smile tilts his lips and he places a gentle kiss on my mouth before securing my belt into place and stepping back so he can close my door. I wait patiently as he climbs into his side of the car and places the key into the... key thing.

"Is this your car?" I ask curiously as I play with the knobs on the dash board.

"No, Harry is letting me borrow it for tonight," he says as he moves the stick thing. The car starts moving backwards and he turns the wheel until we're facing the opening of the garage. "I'm going to warn you now," he says as he puts the car into D and starts speeding us forward. "I'm not very good at driving."

I give him a worried look as I clutch at the arm rest. Both of my parents were terrible at driving, and they actually thought they were good. I can't imagine how bad you have to be at it to actually admit that you're bad. So I sit back and prepare for the worst as we take off into traffic. He actually isn't as terrible as I expected and after a few minutes of him weaving in and out of car lanes, I allow myself to relax and I loosen my grip on the arm rest. I take my eyes off the road in front of us and I look at his profile, taking in every tilt and plane of his face.

"You shaved," I say, just having noticed that the stubble that he usually has on his face is gone. He brings his hand up and rubs his cheek.

"Yeah, do you not like that?" he asks, placing his hand back on the steering wheel.

"I think you look very handsome," I say honestly and I smile when he turns his head towards mine. I wish he would take those sunglasses off.

He takes my hand and brings it up to his lips, kissing my knuckles. "You look very lovely tonight," he says as he lets his hand rest on the area between our seats, still holding onto mine.

My heart flutters and I can't help but smile at him. "Quite the beautiful pair we make, then," I joke and he smiles as he stares out at the cars in front of him.

"Quite."

The rest of the ride we spend in relative silence with Byron's hand tenderly squeezing mine every once and a while. I want to know everything about what he's been doing these past couple of weeks that we've been apart, but I try to hold my questions back because I don't want to seem too desperate for him. I don't want to be that girl, so I let the silence carry on until he pulls into a half empty parking lot in front of a small purple building.

"What is this place?" I ask as he turns off the car and unlocks the doors.

"Are you familiar with golf?" he asks as he opens his door.

"No," I state as I try to remember if I know that word.

"So, you wouldn't know what miniature golf is?"

"Er, no... Is it for little people?"

He laughs... I have no idea why. "No, it's for people of all sizes."

When I step out of the car, he meets me on my side and closes the door for me. "Let me repeat, if you totally hate this, then we'll leave."

"Okay," I say with tilted eyebrows as we start walking towards the small building.

Inside are buckets full of colorful little snitch sized ball with little pock marks on them like they once had terrible acne. Metal club looking things with colorful leather handles and hammer looking heads are hanging from a wall behind the service desk. I look around at everything in the room with my eyebrows raised because I don't recognize anything.

"What can I do for you two today, eh?" the old man behind the counter smiles at me as Byron puts his glasses on top of his head, moving most of his hair with it.

"We'd both like to play," Byron says as he reaches into his pocket to take out his wallet.

"Alrighty." The old man tells Byron the price and I watch as they exchange muggle money. "What color will you two be wantin'?" he asks and Byron turns to me.

"Oh," I say when he raises his eyebrows and nods towards the buckets of colorful balls. "Oh, I guess I'll take purple, then." If I must choose....

"I'll take red," Byron adds as the man grabs the colored clubs and hands them to us, handing me a purple ball and Byron a red one.

"Have fun!"

I follow, smiling tightly at the man as I follow Byron through the back doors that leads out to concrete walk ways and strange green enclosed things where people are hitting the balls with their clubs around weird objects and water falls.

"What is this?" I ask because I've never seen anything like it before.

"We start with number one," Byron says as he walks us towards the red flag that has a number one on it. Well, that makes sense. The green patch is enclosed with wooden boards and there's a small hole at the end of the grass like patch. "The whole purpose of the game is to get it into the hole," he says as he places his ball down at the end of the green thing. "You hit your golf ball," he says nodding down to his red crater filled ball. "With the golf club," he holds up his silver stick and then he lines up his shot.

"How did you hear about this?" I ask as he taps the ball with his club. I watch it roll on the green stuff all the way down before sinking into the hole.

"Well, I've played it before when I was younger and my sister suggested it," he says as he walks down and picks up his ball out of the hole.

"Chloe?" I ask.

"No," he shakes his head. "Samantha. Now it's your turn," he tells me and I try to copy him by putting my ball down on the edge of the green and I line up my shot, gripping the leather with my hands and focusing on the hole. This looks a little boring, to be honest, but it seems easy so I tap the ball. It moves two inches before rolling right back to where it started. "You have to hit it a little harder," Byron says as he leans against his golf club.

"Oh," I whisper and I swing my arms back and hit the ball with all my might. It goes soaring off of the green and into a near by tree.

I hear Byron snort as I frown. "Now, that was too hard," he says, trying not to laugh as I furrow my brows.

I've never been good at sports. I was always terrible at Quidditchandwhen they required gym class my sixth year at Hogwarts I nearly dropped out just to avoid doing it. So to say I was bad at this new game I was trying to learn was an understatement. Either I hit it too soft, or too hard, but I never got it any where near the hole where it was suppose to go and by the fourth hole Byron started to cheat for me. He would tap my ball in the right direction when he thought I wasn't looking and he would purposely miss his shots to make me feel better. By the sixth hole, I was gathering quite a line behind me and a fat family of five sighed and tapped their feet as I spent fifteen minutes by the hole, tapping my ball back and forth, missing the hole by a hair each time until I finally snapped and grabbed the ball, throwing it in the hole myself and stomping to the next set up.

Byron, of course, thought this whole thing was highly amusing.

By the eighth hole I was so stressed out, I was a nervous wreck each time it was my turn. "You are making this much more stressful than you need to," he says as I take a deep breath and line up to take my turn.

"I'm just not very good at this," I mutter as I grip the leather handle with my sweaty hands. I stall time by wiping off my palms on my dress before looking at the hole. There has to be some mathematical way to figure this out. Measure the angles and divide by the distance... all that stuff.

"We don't have to keep playing if you don't want to," he says as I look down at the green path. It's all crooked and there's a windmill too. Oh, good lord.

"No, I just have to get the hang of it," I say, falsely pleasant. Byron did pay for this and I know he doesn't actually have much money to spend, so I think I can grin and bare this until the end. "I do think you're cheating though," I say, to stall time again before I embarrass myself some more in front of him and the fat muggle family that have already started to crowd around me, waiting for their turn. "You must be using magic," I say, totally forgetting the muggles with the stupid straw hats that are mumbling bad things about me to each other under their breath.

"Do you think actually holding it that way helps?" Byron asks and I look down at my club. I have it clutched between my two hands, intertwining my fingers around it in a death grip.

"Am I doing it wrong?" I ask as I look around at the other players to judge how I'm supposed to do it.

The fat family sighs loudly and the Mom goes off to get some lemonade while they wait. I think they're giving up on me moving faster.

"Let me show you," he says as he sets his club down. He walks over to me and I hand him my club, but instead of giving me a demonstration, he stands behind me and places his hands on my own. "I think people are starting to feel bad for you," he says against my ear. I free a hand so I can put my hair over my shoulder so I can hear him better. "Your right hand goes here." He takes my hand and places it in the correct spot. "And your left goes here."

His breath tickles my ear and I smile as he presses his chest more into my back. "Why didn't you tell me I was doing it wrong eight holes ago?"

He kisses my neck and my body starts tingling. "I thought you would catch on by now.... and it was funny."

"Oh, I see how it is," I mutter and he laughs against my skin.

"Alright, now, we gently hit it and angle our club with our right hand." he whispers against my ear. "Don't just snap your wrists. You have to use your shoulders too."

He makes our hands move back and he brings the club down to hit the ball. I watch the purple ball go, hitting the side of the wooden bumper and bouncing off the other side, going towards the windmill. Byron doesn't move, he stays behind me and he pulls me tighter against him with his hand on my hip.

"Do you want to know what I miss," he says and it makes my spine tingle. "I miss waking up beside you every day."

He adds another kiss to my neck and a bite to my ear lobe. My cheeks flush pink. Suddenly this warm day just got a whole lot hotter.

"I miss that too," I reply honestly.

When the fat husband behind us coughs loudly, I snap out of it and realize we're in a public place so I step away from him and turn around. "It's your turn, I think," I say as I look away and try to find out where my ball went because I stopped watching it as soon as he started kissing me.

"We were done playing anyways," he says as he takes my club and puts it on the ground. "Let's go."

I'm all for that, if it's his idea, and I nod my head, following him out of the place. The man at the counter asks where our clubs are and Byron points out back before dragging me out of the building in an impatient kind of way. When we reach the fire red car, he pins me against the door and starts going to town on my mouth. I almost forgot how amazing his kisses were and I practically melt into him as he pushes his body into mine. When we receive a few cat calls from some teenagers in a truck, we both pull back. Of course, I'm completely breathless and I take deeps breaths to calm my heart beat as Byron looks down at me and studies my face, completely cool and collected like snogging like that was just a walk in the park for him.

"Do you want to go eat?" he asks and I nearly laugh. Eating is the last thing on my mind at the moment.

"I'm not very hungry," I tell him as I look at his lips. Jesus, he's good kisser. I look down at my watch as he takes a step back to give me some room. "We've got a few hours until ten, though," I say with a sigh.

"Hm," he says as his hand comes up to mess with one of my curls that I made with my wand. "Unfortunately the things I'm thinking about doing to you right now need a full weekend dedicated to it."

My cheeks heat up again as I try to imagine what that might be, but I try to keep my dirty thoughts secret as I turn my head away. "Maybe we should go eat," I tell him. Things with my father are still on thin ice. I'm sure coming back from my first date with Byron looking thoroughly shagged isn't going to help matters.

"Okay, then," he says as he walks around to my side of the car and opens the door for me. What a gentlemen he is. "Do you want some place muggle or magical?" He asks as I slide into my seat.

"Muggle, I think," I tell him as he closes the door and goes to his side. Sliding into his seat and buckling his seat belt quickly. "I kind of like going places where no one knows who I am."

We can barely leave the Manor in the wizarding world with out people jumping down our throats about Cassius. It was kind of nice not to have that here. He starts the car and we take off with a loud skid of the tires. I stare outside at the trees and buildings that we zoom past as Byron places his hand on my thigh, running his thumb over my knee gently.

"So, tell me what you've been doing since you've home," he says as he stares at the road before him.

"Well, nothing, really," I tell him honestly. I don't know what to do with my hands so I just place them by my sides like an idiot. "I worked things out with my Dad. So, that's a good thing."

"Yes," he says and he glances at me as we stop at a red light. "I'm sorry about that."

I shake my head. "It wasn't your fault. Anyways, so I've talked to him and I also figured things out with Chloe."

"Did you?" he asks and his voice sounds bland and flat.

"Yeah, we met up a few days ago."

"Yeah?" he doesn't sound like he cares too much.

"Yeah, she told me, you know," I take a breath. "She told me that she liked girls."

"Yeah?" he says again and I look at the side of his face. Why is he being so withdrawn right now?

"I feel bad," I tell him honestly. "That I never knew... and that I can't...." I trail off and shrug as I look out the window. "I told her how I felt about you and she seemed fine with it when we parted."

"How do you feel about me exactly?" he asks.

He should know. I take the hand that he has on my thigh and I hold it between my own. "I think you're decent company," I tell him and that slight smile appears on his face.

"Just decent?" he asks.

My eyes drop down to his lips as he licks them. "More than decent," I say softly.

He stops at another red light and I look around to make sure there are no other cars on the road before I unbuckle my seat belt and lean over to his side so I can kiss his neck.

"Perfectly decent," I whisper against his skin.

"I'm driving," he says as I start sucking on his neck, determined to make a mark just for the hell of it. The light turns green as I work my way up to his jaw. "You're going to make us wreck," he warns and I smirk before bringing my hand down to the front of his pants. "Oh, okay," he says as his breath hitches and his hips lift off the seat.

He violently turns the wheel and starts speeding down the first road that we get to. It surprises me, so I pull back from him and look forward. "Where are we going?" I ask as we zoom past small houses and tall trees.

"I'm not very hungry either," he says quietly and he turns down a one way dirt street that leads into a forest reserve.

"Um, Byron, what are we doing?" I ask because it's officially dark outside and going into a creepy woods at night in muggle territory doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

He doesn't even look at me as he turns on the radio and I bite my lip worriedly as I re-buckle my seat belt. Is he mad at me? Suddenly everything my father and Chloe said flows back to me as I watch Byron's steady face.

"I was just playing," I tell him softly. "I won't do it while you're driving again," I say as I we go over a large bump in the dirt road. My heart beat speeds up, but not for a good reason, and I look at the door handle, wondering if I could get out and Apparate with out hurting myself.

The car stops at the edge of some cliff and I close my eyes when he clicks off the head lights. "Don't be scared, you silly girl," he says gently. I open my eyes and turn to him, he's looking at me closely with his head tilted to the side. "I'm not mad at you."

"Why are we out here?" I ask as I look around at the trees that surround us and the city sky line and stars that are a head of us. This makes me nervous and I didn't realize how dark it had gotten until now.

"I used to live in that neighborhood back there," he says as he turns down the radio so the music is a dull whisper in the background. "After my father went missing we stayed at your house for a while, did you know that?"

I shake my head and turn my body towards his, feeling a little safer once more. Stupid me, for thinking bad things about him. "You were just a baby then," he mutters as he looks out of the windshield. "After we left there, my Mom was able to afford a little house in that muggle neighborhood before the Weasley's helped us get that house we had when I was in Hogwarts. Do you remember that?"

I nod my head, remembering the small two story house he used to live in. "I remember," I whisper as he looks over my face.

"I didn't have any friends," he says seriously. "They made me stop hanging out with your brother and none of the muggle boys in the neighborhood liked me because they thought I was weird."

I try to imagine Byron as a boy and it just makes me sad, so I overcome my worry and slide closer to him so I can touch his hand. I had a lonely childhood too because my parents needed to keep us so sheltered and the fact that I was so painfully shy didn't help matters.

"I used to come out here all the time before we moved. I used to love this place," he says as he stares out at the stars again.

"It is pretty out here," I admit because I don't have anything else to say.

"I liked that there were no man made noises out here. Living in that little house, I could always hear cars and televisions and telephones... I hated all those muggle noises and out here everything was so basic." He shakes his head and his hand tightens around the steering wheel. "God, I hated living in that house. I had to share a room with Samantha, we barely got along, and Chloe was so little. She used to sleep in my Mom's room and she would cry all the time. My Mom was dating this jerk at the time.... The walls were so thin that I could hear everything and I just hated it so much."

"That does sound horrible," I tell him honestly. I have no idea what else to say so I bring a hand up and brush my knuckles against his cheek as he leans his head back against the head rest.

"I used to pretend I was an Auror," he says and I try to figure out where this is going, but I'm happy that he's sharing things with me. "Killing bad wizards and sending curses to dementors." His head tilts to mine and his face glows green from the clock on the dash board. "Were you ever able to do a protronus?"

I nod my head. "We learned how to do it my seventh year."

"What is yours?"

I sigh and look away. "It's actually kind of embarrassing," I tell him as I look out ahead of me. "Everyone else got these really cool animals, Serena's was a fox, Fiona got a horse... even Twyla Thimble got a freaking lion."

"And you?" he asks and I can feel his eyes boring into the side of my face.

"It's a sheep," I say remembering how disappointing it was to see that pop out of my wand. "Not even a full grown sheep, but a lamb." I glance at him. "That's not very cool, is it? It' just a baby." He smiles. "What about you? What's yours?"

He laughs a little and when I raise an eyebrow he answers. "A wolf, actually."

"How not fitting," I say as he leans in closer to me.

"Maybe it is," he says softly as he presses his lips against mine.

I smile as he tilts his head and his hand comes up to my face as he runs his thumb along my jaw. The arm rest gets in my way as I try to lean against him when he deepens the kiss and I pout at it when I pull back, trying to find a good angle to kiss him.

"Back seat," he whispers and I furrow my brows.

"What?"

"Let's get in the back seat."

"Oh." It sounds like a good idea.

We climb into the back, which was a challenge all in itself, and when we reach the leather seating, Byron pulls me down on his lap so I'm straddling his waist. I missed how nice he smells and how good he tastes, I even missed the texture of his hair as I run my fingers through it, so I was basically in heaven as I snogged the bloody day lights out of him in the stupid metal muggle death trap that we were in. I could feel his hands fumbling around the back of my dress, trying to find a zipper to take it off as I threw his sunglasses in the front seat. I smiled against his lips when I remembered there was no zipper back there to unzip.

"I can't get this..." Byron whispers as he puts his mouth against my shoulder so he can peak over to see what he's doing. "How the hell..."

"Here," I say gently as I push his hands back and I tug the dress over my head to reveal my bra and knickers to him. A matching red satin set... good thinking on my part. "You made that more complicated than you had to," I tell him with a smile as I dip down to kiss his handsome face. He smiles then, and lowers the straps of my bra so he can tug the fabric down.

"I missed these too," he says and I laugh as he goes down to have his way with my body. Boys... honestly...

A crunch outside makes me jump and I pull back from him, crossing my arms over my chest. "What is it?" he asks with hooded eyes as he looks over my troubled face. I put the straps of my bra back up and Byron frowns. "What are you doing?"

I look out the window to see if I can see anything and I grab my dress. "What if someone can see us?" I say nervously, finally coming to my senses as I go to put my dress back on.

Byron stops me.

"No one's going to come out here," he says seriously.

"How are you sure of that?" I ask, now totally paranoid. I slide off of his lap and I sit beside him with my dress clutched to my body.

He sighs and lets his head fall to the back of the seat. "I could put a concealment charm on the car," he offers as he glances at me and I shake my head because even that wouldn't make me feel comfortable. I have this new fear of a muggle coming up and knocking on the window while we're shagging.

"Are you mad?" I ask as I watch his face.

"No," he says gently as he turns towards me and finally looks me in the eyes. "I just haven't seen you in a while. I had almost forgotten how beautiful you were."

I snort and turn my head away, to look at the creepy trees that are outside of the car window.

"You have no idea that you are," he says, saying that so matter of fact. I glance at him as he shakes his head and brings a hand up to play with the headrest in front of him. "I always thought you were trying to be modest... but you have no idea."

"Thank you," I say quickly so he'll stop talking about it. Compliments make me uncomfortable. I know I'm not the best looking girl... I'm not skinny... I'm not tan... ugh... I hate thinking about. I tug the dress over my head and shimmy it back on while still sitting. Just in case someone is outside and peaking in, I don't want them seeing anything.

"Do you think that people have only liked you because your family was rich?" he asks and my head snaps to his. He's not looking at me. He's still playing with the head rest, outlining the stitching with his fingers and grabbing the metal bars that connect it to the seat.

"Sometimes I think that," I say honestly because I won't lie to him. "I mean, a lot of people just want to be by us because we have money."

He nods his head. "Yeah, I can understand that."

We sit in silence for a long time. Neither of us speaks and it becomes way too awkward for me to stand so I shift my body and cough to fill the silence.

"I've applied for a job at the Magical Museum in London," he says softly, breaking the silence.

"Really?" I say in surprise. I can't see him with a real job, to be honest. "Do you think you'll get it?"

He nods his head. "I go in for my final interview tomorrow morning. They have an opening in their ancient artifact department."

"That would be perfect for you," I say as I turn towards him because we're finally talking about something normal people talk about. "I thought you might start up traveling around again because of Cassius..." I trail off. I kind of hate thinking about it. I hate thinking that now my brother is back, Byron would have no need for me.

"I thought it was about time I settled down and actually got a steady job," I find myself smiling. "I mean, my bank account is in the negatives now, really."

"I can give you money if you need it," I offer with out thinking and he narrows his eyes. I forgot people don't like that.

"I appreciate the offer, but I really don't want to take your families money," he says shortly because I must have hurt his pride. I nod my head and turn away again, taking in the lights the outline the horizon in front of us.

"I've decided to go to Antioch University," I say because we seem to be sharing things with each other. "I've finally made a decision... my Mom's pretty happy with me."

"What do you think you'll go into?"

I shrug. "I don't know... I'm good at healing charms."

"Will you live in the dorms, then?"

"Yeah," I say, even though I'm not thrilled with the idea because of the terrible experience I had with my dorm mates at Hogwarts.

"I think you'll like it," he says softly.

I watch his profile in the green light of the dash board as he licks his lips and drums his fingers against his knees. I love him so much. "Do you want me to take you home?" he asks after a few moments of silence. I glance down at my own watch. It's only nine.

"No, not yet," I say as I slide over to his side and I gently kiss his cheek. "Are you sure that concealment charm would block out the whole car?" I ask because I suddenly want him all over again. Just looking at him does that.

A small smile tilts his lips and he leans closer to me, pressing his lips against mine. "I am very good at concealment charms," he says warmly as he lifts his wand and mutters a few spells that I've never heard of before. "There. Now we're set," he turns back to me and I take his face in my hands and kiss him deeply.

My dress comes back off, his pants get pulled down, and my knickers get thrown towards the front seat. I end up in an awkward angle, with one leg on top of Byron's shoulder and the other resting on the seat in front of us as he drills into me like we've never had sex before. He was going as hard and as fast as he could and my body kept on humming with each stroke in the most electrifying way. My head keeps on hitting the arm rest of the door, so I bring my hands up to block the blows from giving me a concussion. That doesn't really help because now my head just keeps on hitting my hands that are hitting the door.

"You're perfect," he says as he works on top of me. I look up at him, taking in his sweat drenched hair....my hair, that I so meticulously curled, is now plastered to my face in neck in a wet heap because it's getting so hot in this freaking car. "You are so perfect."

He's wearing a necklace, and it's hitting me in the face with each of his thrusts so I grab it and pull him down so he's lying totally on top of me. He falls down and wraps his arms around my back to pull my chest closer to his and that just makes things worse. The new angle keeps the stupid necklace from getting in my face, but my leg is now up by my ear and after a hard thrust of his hips my head bangs into the handle once more, making my knuckles crack against the hard plastic.

"Byron, this is hurting," I whisper into his ear and I add a kiss to his cheek. I wonder if many muggles have sex in the back seats of their cars, because it is uncomfortable. "Byron... Byron this is hurting me." I might pull a muscle in my leg if he doesn't move.

He pulls back and he slips out of me as he breathes heavily and hovers above me with his eyes glazed and hooded. I let my legs relax on either side of his body and I sigh as I scoot down so I can let my hands free. "Turn over," he says in a husky voice and I'm too busy pushing sweaty hair out of my eyes to actually do what he says. "I said turn around," he says as he grabs my waist and flips me around himself.

I gasp at the movement as I land on my knees. "Put your hands on the door," he says and a jolt goes through my body because I've never been in this position before, but I do what he says. I was expecting him to just carry on what we were doing before, but he doesn't. Nothing is happening, so I glance over my shoulder at him.

He smirks when he sees me and he runs his fingers up my spine until it reaches my hair. He doesn't say anything so I face forward again and close my eyes when he kisses my shoulder blade, letting himself slide inside of me again. It's weird not seeing him when we do this... I'm so use to him being on top so this new position seems so weird to me. After a few more thrusts it stops being weird and starts being my new favorite thing. I wanted to see him, though, and I wanted to kiss him, so I moved my body and I turned around, pushing him back so I could straddle his lap again. I must have been going too slow for him, because he gripped my hips and slammed my body down on his.

"You know," he says between deep breathes as I move on top of his body. I kiss him before he continues and he smirks at me. "You can scream all you want. No one is out here."

I glance out the window… it's all fogged up and I can't see a thing. "I'm not going to scream," I tell him as my body starts to tingle. I try to be as quiet as I can during sex because I don't want to embarrass myself... so I will not be screaming.

"Is that a challenge?" He asks as he slams my hips down again and I drop my head to his shoulder because that wild build up is starting to happen. "That sounds like a challenge to me, love," he says and I slap my hand against the window as he slams me down again and grinds my hips against his.

"That's a fact," I whisper against his ear as I take my hand from the door. It's wet with condensation from the glass and I run it through Byron's hair so it sticks up every which way. "No challenge."

He took me up on that bet.

I lost.

Byron won.

I'm pretty sure I scared some wood dwelling creatures before we were finished.

We were a sweaty, heavily breathing, mess by the time I slid off of him, and most of my body was stuck to the black leather seats. It made me feel good when I remembered that this was Harry Potter's car. I hope it smells like sex when he gets it back.

"What are you smiling about?" Byron asks as he buckles his pants. I smile to myself as I hook my bra back up and feel around for my knickers in the front seat so I can slide them back into place.

"Nothing," I say softly. "My Mom gave me a years worth of birth control potion," I tell him as I tug on my dress.

"That was thoughtful of her," he jokes and I smirk at him. He studies my face and he sighs before kissing me again. "You always look so good after we've fucked."

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise at his wording and I start laughing as he buttons up his shirt. "You do too," I say honestly as I run my fingers through his damp hair. It sticks up from the sweat and I think it looks so good like that. "My father might break a blood vessel, though," I say as I worry my lip between my teeth and I pull my hair back, putting it all up in the clip because I'm sure it's going to get frizzy when it dries considering how humid it is in this car right now.

"You could always stay with me," he offers, but I think he's joking so I don't say anything.

"Byron, who is Eva?" I ask as I slip on my shoes. The worst thing after having hot sweaty sex is having to put all your clothes back on.

"Who?" He's messing with his socks as he questions me and I give him a look. "Who are you talking about?"

"Eva," I repeat. "There was a letter from her at your place...."

He pauses a second and studies my face. "She's an old friend from school," he says as he faces forward and he slips on his shoes.

"And you have sex with her?" I reply, remembering the letter and trying to be casual about it even though I want to go into crazy girl mode. With all my lust and love... it makes me want to vomit.

"No."

"But the letter said...." I trail off and start playing with my watch. "It was recent," I finish lamely.

"She was an art history major." he says softly. "I thought she might have an idea about that statue. Something I hadn't thought about yet."

"But she obviously thought you two were going to hook up."

"I haven't seen her in months," he says, sounding way more defensive the longer we talk about it. "You don't need to worry about anything."

"Is she pretty?" I ask bitterly and he snaps me a glare.

"Why are you talking to me like that?" he asks as he tilts his head. "I told you I haven't seen her in months."

I can't help it... I'm way too curious now and even a little bit jealous. I'm still a Malfoy, after all. "Did you use to sleep with her often?" To be honest, I'm a little annoyed that he didn't tell me she was ugly.

"Did you sleep with Darron often?" he asks shortly.

"You're the only person I've ever been with," I counter angrily because he's sounding so snippy with me. "And his name's Darius."

That correction seemed to have annoyed him. "Why are you acting all suspicious of me? I wasn't the one that fucked another guy while I was in a relationship."

Now, that made me mad. "Yeah, you were the one I did that with. It's not like I'm getting naughty letters from Darius now because I cut things off with him."

"You didn't need to go through my things," he snaps and I glare. Why are we fighting right now? After we just did what we did. "I already explained to you what was happening with her. I might have been the only bloke you ever slept with, but you're the only girl I ever dated... ever..." he repeats like it would make an impact. Sex and dating are too totally different things, I know that. "And how many boys have you gone out with?" he asks, like turning this around on me would make things better.

"That doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it?" he says and my eyes narrow even more "You're the one that's untrustworthy. You're the one that would be more likely to fuck someone else considering your history."

"You're the only guy I've ever felt anything for," I tell him honestly, even though his words are cruel.

"So you say." I reach in the front seat and I grab my cardigan and clutch. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going home," I snap as I open the door and slam it shut.

"Hey, come back to the car."

He gets out as well as I start storming down the stupid dirt road. I don't even care that it's in a big dark scary woods in the middle of a muggle town. How can he be so mean to me after we had sex? I feel angry tears in my eyes and that makes me even angrier because crying makes me look weak and it's a weakness I've always hated in myself.

"Lavinia, get back in the car."

"Leave me alone!" I yell as I rummage through my clutch to get my wand.

His legs are longer than mine and he catches up to me way more sooner than I think is fair. "Just stop walking, will you," he snaps, still sounding unbelievably mad and the words my father and Chloe said start seeding their way into my brain again. So much so, that when he grabs my arm to get me to stop walking, I pull away from him violently and when he brings his hand up, I flinch. "Did you..." he furrows his brows and takes a few steps back, letting the offending hand drop. "Why did you just flinch?"

I just look at him and say nothing at he runs his hand over his face.

"Did you think I was going to hit you?" he asks and I can't really say. I don't know why I flinched. "I wasn't going to hit you. I would never... never hit you," he says and I remember a time when he actually did hit me…. Of course, it was an accident, but still. Never say never. "Jesus, I can't believe I just made you flinch. I'm sorry, okay? I can just say stupid things sometimes. I'm sorry."

I guess the fight was part my fault too, and I do feel bad that he looks so torn up right now. Why did I flinch? "I'm sorry I went through your things," I say quietly as I cross my arms over my chest. "I wasn't sneaking around or anything... it was just there and I read it."

"It's okay. I didn't have anything to hide from you. She doesn't mean anything... nothing has ever really meant anything to me." He takes a step closer to me and brings a hand up to touch my arm. Stepping close enough that I have to tilt my head up to see his face properly. "I hate that I made you flinch," he says softly. "Please don't look at me like that."

I want to apologize for flinching, but that didn't make any sense so I nod my head. "It's okay... maybe you should take my home now," I say softly. "It's almost ten."

"Fine," he says and he follows me with his hands in his pockets as I start walking back towards the car.

I start feeling guilty and bad as he looks down at the ground so I put my arm through his and I let my fingers slide down until I pull his hand out of his pocket. I hold it in my own and intertwine our fingers.

"You aren't going to think less of me because I put out on the first date, are you?" I joke in an attempt to lighten the mood.

He laughs and squeezes my hand. "I've lost all respect for you," he says and I nudge him.

"I'm sorry I started a fight."

"I'm sorry too," he mutters softly. I like it much better when we're being nice to each other.

When we get back to the car, he opens my door for me again and I slide in. The rest of the drive, neither of us talk. Byron just watches the road and I just watch him. When we make it back to the parking garage, I step out quickly and wait for Byron, thinking he wants to do that whole guy thing when Apparating. For some reason men think woman are bad at it even though men have a higher splinching rate than us ladies. I guess it is the gentlemanly thing to do, so I allow him to wrap his arms around my waist to get us home. We land with a thump outside of the Manor gates and when I go to pull back from him, his arms tighten around my body.

"When I said you weren't trustworthy... I didn't mean that," he says and I nod my head. Things said in anger are easier to forgive, I think. "I mean, it's hard for me to understand why you want me when you have so many other options."

"You're just lucky, I suppose," I joke again, but he doesn't seem to get it because his face still looks set and serious. I reach up and kiss him gently to try to get my point across because I can't rightly tell him all the reasons why I love him because that would just embarrass me.

When I pull back, he studies my face and sighs. "Your father is going to kill me," he says as he brings his hands up to my face and when he runs his thumbs over my cheeks I realize he's fixing my makeup. It must have smeared. So much for looking perfect. "If he asks, tell him it started raining."

I laugh and take his hand so I can kiss his palm. "Next time I want to take you out," I tell him as I let his hand drop. "Ladies choice."

"I guess this date was pretty lame," he says and I shake my head.

"No, it wasn't."

He smiles a little and leans down, leaving a gentle kiss on my lips. "Goodnight, my darling."

Darling. Sigh.

"Goodnight, By--"

"Lavinia!" Someone cuts me off and shoves a camera in my face, blinding me with the flash as they take a picture. "Can you tell us the real story? Was what happened with your brother a publicity stunt?"

I give Byron a panicked look before turning towards the gate and placing my hand on it. Hello, Malfoy wards. As I step through the gate that will block everyone else out, I vaguely hear that reporter getting blasted with a curse as the night time sky lights up with a blue light from my boyfriend's wand...

Yay Byron.

Cassius

"Nope."

"Mr. Malfoy, it would be beneficial..."

"Nope," I repeat again as I sit on the uncomfortable plastic sheeted bed. "You won't tell me what's in it, so I won't drink it."

"We need to make sure you won't have a bad reaction," the intern says as he holds the bottle of snot looking liquid in front of me.

"You want to make sure I don't have a bad reaction by giving me the potion I might have a bad reaction to?" Somehow that doesn't make sense to me.

He sighs loudly and I cross my arms. I hate coming to St. Mungo's. No one knows what the hell to do with me, but they refuse to let me off the hook. "We need to make sure there were no internal changes in your body. Please, take this."

Gah, they won't leave me alone until I do. I grab the snot looking thing from him and hold my nose as I pour it down my throat. When I recognize the taste, I glare at the intern. "Vertiserum?" I snap angrily. Their attempts at covering it up with the snot stuff would not go unnoticed by me.

"Has Vertiserum always worked on you?" he asks as he takes out a clip board to monitor me as I angrily shake my head. I can't believe these stupid healers.

"Yes," I say, but I'm not feeling that overwhelming need to say anything like I usually would with the potion. Must not work as well as I thought. He makes a hmm sound and writes something down with a silver tipped quill. "How do you know I'm not lying?" I ask as his quill scratches against the paper.

"Are you?" he asks as he glances up at me.

I smile. "No," I state and he nods his head again. "How do you know that wasn't a lie?"

Now he's getting frustrated because his brow creases and his mouth turns down in a frown. "Are you?"

I shrug and he glares.

"If I ask you something embarrassing... If you tell me... I'll know."

There's an obvious flaw in that logic.

"How do you know what I say isn't a lie?"

"What's your middle name?"

"Draconis... but why would I lie about that?" he makes a frustrated noise and I laugh.

"Tell me a lie."

"Why?"

"If you can lie, tell me a lie."

"Fine, I hate your hair," he glares but then he smirks.

"See, so the potion doesn't work on you."

"You think I like your hair?" I ask and he might hex me soon.

"Okay, we're done here." I smile as he puts the clip board down. "I'm going to go get Conrad so he can check out your body in the exercise room."

A few moments later, a blond bloke in green scrubs comes in and I follow him out of the room. The hallways are bright and as I walk them I can feel the Vertiserum actually starting to work within my body. Whatever they tried to mask it with must have delayed it's productivity. Now I can only hope I don't say anything too stupid. I hate St. Mungo's.

"So, how's your sister doing?" The blond healer asks as we walk by paintings of past staffers who worked at the hospital.

"Which one?" I ask as I keep my eyes trained on the ground so I don't spill any embarrassing secrets.

"Lavinia, she was here a while ago with a broken back."

"Lavinia broke her back?" I ask when we get into the sweat smelling room with all the exercise equipment. No one told me that detail.

"Yeah, she was riding a horse and fell off." I frown. "Is she still seeing that one guy?" he asks carefully, looking away from me as I raise my eyebrows. "That bloke with the weird eyes?"

Weird eyes... he must be talking about Byron. His eyes are such a bright and light blue that they freak some people out. "I think so," I answer honestly and I stop myself from saying more about what I know about their relationship. I hate vertiserum.

"She's very pretty, your sister."

I glare at him. Honestly, I could care less if he thought she was pretty. Why would he feel the need to tell her older brother that?

"So, how are you doing?" he asks, taking out a clip board. "Any problems or concerns?"

"I haven't been laid in a while," I state because the vertiserum doesn't let me have a filter with the things I'm thinking. "In fact, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I slept with a girl. I masturbate way more often than a good looking rich boy should," I state and I laugh because I can't believe I said it out loud.

"Okay, then, I meant any concerns concerning your health." Conrad the healer says uncomfortably and I shake my head. "Good. Do you want to hop on the tread mill for me, please? We're going to monitor your heart rate."

"Let's," I say happily as I jump on said tread mill and I start jogging when he presses the button. He points his wand at my chest so he can count the thumps of my heart, or whatever the hell he's doing, as I try to keep the word vomit at bay so it doesn't spill out of my mouth. I have this overwhelming need to tell him about the dandruff I see on his shoulder. "Do you like this job?" I ask as I run, trying to distract myself from everything I want to say.

"Yeah, I love it," Conrad says as he keeps his eyes trained on his wand like it was telling him something important.

"You like my sister?" I ask and when he doesn't say anything I shake my head. "Everyone likes my sister. I don't understand it. She's so bloody awkward around people..."

"She's really pretty," Conrad says as he glares at his wand.

"Yeah, well, so is a flower, but I don't see any guy asking a daisy out on a date. Oh well," I say with a sigh as I run because I know I'm getting too far off topic. "I'm pretty sure she's been shagging my best mate on a regular basis... that's messed up right?" I ask I look into his eyes. "There are rules, and one of the rules is that your best mate is not allowed to shag your sister."

"Yeah, that's awkward," Conrad says, I can tell he doesn't care to talk about this, but oh well. They shouldn't have given me that potion.

"There's a code," I tell him. "A friend and family code and they both broke it."

"Okay, I'm going to speed you up a little bit," he says as he presses the button on the main board so that the belt under my feet moves faster. My cheeks heat up as I start sprinting, but I still feel like talking.

"I wasn't really dead either," I tell him and he sighs loudly, probably getting annoyed with me. "I was on this strange Island. It was fucked up."

"Yeah?" He could care less.

"It was a horcrux. Have you ever heard of one of those?" He shakes his head. "Well, my friend Byron and I are going to get a hold of both of them so we can destroy them. The necklace is at the museum in London and they wouldn't let us in, so Byron is getting a job there in their ancient artifact department. I bet they're going to be pissed about it."

"Was it a Horcrux that got you into this mess?" he asks softly as my breath becomes short and I start sweating.

"Yeah," I say in between breaths. It's hard to run while talking. "Yeah, it can mess up anyone close to it when it's activated. It can practically take out a whole country if it's played right. Luckily, I was underwater when it happened....." I trail off and shake my head. "I wonder if there are any fish in purgatory now."

"Really?" he says, sounding a bit more interested. I explain to him what happened to the Island and he looks thoughtful as the machine turns off and I catch my breath. "It can take out a whole lot of people at one time?"

"I'm guessing it caused quite a stir in the ancient world," I say honestly because I have no choice but to be fucking honest. "A small Island full of people just up and vanishes."

"That is interesting," he says softly as I step off the machine and I put my hands on my knees. "Well, your heart seems to be right on, Mr. Malfoy."

"Can I go home now?"

"Er, not yet," he says and I groan. "We just have a few more tests to run before you're set."

"Oh, fuck me..." I mutter before following him to another stupid machine to do another stupid test.

By the end of my little check out at St. Mungo's, poor Conrad the healer learned my whole life story and my feelings on all flavor jelly beans. Why is there a vomit one in the first place? That is all I want to know.

I go back to Byron's flat... I can't rightly call it mine anymore because I haven't been there in a while, but I prefer it over the Manor because Byron doesn't rush to my side as soon as I come home, demanding to know how I'm feeling and what my day was like. It's nice not be coddled. I throw off my shirt when I walk into the living room and I go into the kitchen to make myself some food. In our fridge is an empty jar of mayonnaise, some plate of indistinguishable mush covered in mold, and some baking soda. Well, damn. I rummage through the cabinets and find an unopened can of pineapple slices, so I open that and take a fork to eat right out of the can. I guess there is something to be said about the Manor. House-elves really do make excellent food.

I sit down in the living room and the chair nearly buckles under me... perhaps it will be time to dip into my trust fund. Some new furniture doesn't seem like such a bad idea. As I eat my pineapples and read an old copy of a Quidditch Sport magazine, the door opens and I glance up as Byron walks into the room. He's wearing a navy blazer and khaki slacks and he has a brief case in one hand, while loosening the tie around his neck with the other. I've never seen him look so professional before and I smirk when he sees me.

"How did the interview go?" I ask as I set the magazine and can of pineapples on the table in front of me.

"I got the job," he says, but he doesn't sound too pleased about it. "I'll probably never get a job in my field again after we destroy that necklace. It's the main center piece of their new exhibit for the fall."

"That's only if they find out it was you who took it," I say encouragingly as he sits down and throws his brief case on the floor. "St. Mungo'ssucked as always. I'm going to warn you, they gave me vertiserum. So if I seem brutally honest the next couple of days, you know why."

"Dually noted," he says tiredly as he closes his eyes and lets his head rest against the back of the chair.

"So....how was your date with my baby sister?" I ask curiously. I know they went out last night because he asked me if it was okay. Even though their relationship annoys the magic out of me, I still thought that was kind of an upstanding thing to do.

He surprises me by sighing loudly and shaking his head. "I think she had a terrible time, to be honest."

"Why do you think that? Is it because you're so bloody quiet that you give off the illusion that you have no personality?" When he flicks an irritated glance at me, I apologize and remind him about the Vertiserum. "Anyways, go on," I encourage him to continue even though it's probably not the best idea considering I have no filter.

God, I'm just like Gavin now.

He shrugs and messes with his hair before taking off his jacket. "I don't know." Again he sighs and I tilt my head to the side to study his reaction. "Even though I apparently have no personality..." I apologize for the jab again so he'll move on. "I don't know. I love being with her... I love being around her and she makes me want things I've never wanted before."

"Don't make this bloody complicated," I say as he rubs his eyes with the heel of his palms. I'm not going to give him relationship advice when it involves my sister. In fact, now that I think about it... I've never had to give him relationship advice because he's never actually been in a relationship before. Oh, how weird.

"It's just that we're going to be going into two different places now," he says and when he looks at me, his face looks troubled and his brows are furrowed. "She's going to go to college and have fun… I'm not fun and I always say the wrong thing."

"You know, it's my brotherly obligation to tell you that if you make her cry, I'm going to have to kill you."

"I've already made her cry," he says quietly. "I'm not good at this and she's young. She's too young."

"Oh, Jesus," I say with an eye roll. "You both like each other, stop making it difficult."

Byron stands up and walks into the kitchen, I follow and watch him as he fills up a glass with water from the sink. "She's afraid of me, Cassius." he says gently and I have to strain my ears to hear it. "We got in a fight last night and she was walking away from me. I tried to get her to stop and I brought a hand up to touch her face because I was going to apologize... she flinched." He looks at me. "She thought I was going to hit her."

"She probably didn't think that," I say seriously. "It was just a reaction to your hand coming up like that. You used to flinch all the time when someone got near your face."

"That's because I used to get hit all the time," he snaps back and he turns away from me. "Besides, that wasn't the only time she acted like that. I wanted to show her something, so I started driving in a different direction and there were a few moments there was she was legitimately afraid of me. I could tell by the way she was talking and the way she was looking at me. I would never hurt her... I don't understand why she doesn't trust me," he whispers that last part to himself like I wasn't meant to hear it... but I did.

"Byron," I say to get his attention so he'll look at me. When he finally turns my way I look him square in the eyes. "After her graduation party you got ridiculously drunk, slammed your fist into her face, and then called her a slut."

"That was an accident," he sounds worried now. "I was drunk, I didn't mean it..."

"I love you, man, but you're not very predictable and you're hard to figure out. If she was honestly afraid of you, she wouldn't speak to you," I tell him honestly, because it's not like I can lie. "It would hurt her more if you just stopped talking to her. I know my sister, Byron, and what she did… leaving to be with you when you two were trying to help me, that was a big step for her. You can't just run away like you always do. Not with her."

"I know," he says softly as he looks down at the water in his glass. "She's scares me too, you know."

"How so?" I ask as I lean against the counter ledge.

"I find myself wanting so much from her... all the time..." he trails off and exhales slowly." It doesn't matter." His eyes flick to mine. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, I get to go talk to those douche bags in Spain." They want to know all about my experience before they unveil that statue head to the public. I'm sure they aren't going to appreciate the fact that I'm going to destroy it before they can. "Have you spoken to Potter yet?"

He nods. "He's very curious to know why I'm suddenly so interested in Horcruxs and how to destroy them. He already thinks I'm a freak, now I think he's started to suspect I want to be the next Dark Lord. He's asking me about my views on blood status and my thoughts on muggle magical segregation. Dating your sister doesn't help… he's sure that all of you Malfoy's are purist bigots." He raises an eyebrow. "Speaking of bigots, how's your brother doing?"

I shrug. "Same. He hates me. How's your sister?"

"Which one?"

"Sam?"

"She hates me."

"Chloe?"

"Pretty sure she hates me too."

"Hm, well, when did we become so unpopular?" he smirks and I smile. "Oh, wait, fuck," I say when I realize something.

"What?" Byron asks as he watches my face.

"I can't meet those guys from Spain today... I'm on Vertiserum. God damn those healers."

"Oh, yeah, that's not good." He finishes his glass of water and places on the table. "What do you want to do today, then?"

I pout as I think about it. "Maybe we can go out tonight. I haven't actually done anything fun since I've been back and I'm starting to feel like a loser. You can be the D.A." D.A.—Designated Apparater... there's no way in hell I'm letting Byron drink tonight.

"Where do you want to go?" My anti-social friend sounds weary and I don't blame him.

I shrug. "Anywhere. Do you think being totally truthful will help me get shagged?"

His eyebrows shoot up at my blunt words and he laughs a little. "Shagged or slapped... it depends on who you're talking to and how honest you are."

"I think we should do that," I say with a decisive nod of my head. "And no more talking about my sister."

"I don't know, Cass," he says. "I don't feel up to it."

"It doesn't matter what you want. You aren't the only one that's fucked up now, so get ready."

I don't wait for an answer as I grab my wand and I head out to the Apparation point still shirtless and chocked full of truth serum. A woman in high waist jeans walks by me as I walk down the stairs. She looks ridiculous. Her hair is dyed platinum blonde, but she obviously got a little lazy on the upkeep because the roots are and inch or so of solid black and she's wearing a skin tight snake print tank top that shows off every bump and fold on her body. I don't know her name, but if I had to give her one it would probably be Bertha, or something like that… and those jeans…. I try not to say anything… I really do, but I can't stop myself.

"Those pants are a bad idea," I say out loud as she passes and she turns around. I stop what I was going to say about the rest of her outfit and I think that's an accomplishment.

"Excuse me?" She asks snappishly. I can already tell she's one of those scrappy women with major attitudes who probably hits.

Probably should have kept my mouth shut. "Your jeans are making your body look like a bowling pin," I tell her and her eyes flare. I'm really doing her a favor, actually. Had it been any other day I wouldn't have said anything and she would have gone on wearing those jeans like they fit right. "Your pants should never go up that high and acid wash is never the answer."

"You're not even wearing a shirt, you bloody tosser!"

She might start hitting me soon, but I can't shut up. "But, see, this is what you need to learn." Her face is turning red and I have to pinch myself so I don't point that out. "I have the body to go shirtless." Hiking, climbing, and not eating will do that to you. "You, on the other hand…"

SMACK

I reel my head back and stare with wide eyes as the woman brings her hand down. Bertha just smacked me.

"I deserved that," I tell her truthfully and she sniffs before turning around and strutting off in her terrible acid wash high waist jeans. Did I do the world any favors today—no… but do I feel like I accomplished something? Absolutely.

"If she comes back with her roommate, you're done for." I look up and see Byron leaning over the railing at the top of the stairs by our flat. "I think you're the size of the other ones leg."

"Oh, well, I was just trying to help," I say. I catch the t-shirt that he throws down at me and I tug it on.

"Story of your life," he comments softly.

"I'm going back to the Manor to shower and change, but when I come back you better bloody be ready. I'm going to be dragging you out regardless, so you might as well be dressed."

He just stares at me before walking inside and I lift my wand to Apparate home. Just my luck, as soon as I pop outside of the gates my wonderful little brother does as well. We stare at each other before he sighs and touches the gate so the wards will let us through.

"Where have you been, Gavin?" I ask to start up a conversation, but he ignores me. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Why do you want to know?" he asks as we walk up the long drive.

"Because I wanted to get laid tonight and I figured you would know the best places for that."

He snorts and sends me a disbelieving little look. I guess people aren't used to hearing me talk like that. "Really?" he says sarcastically with his hands in his pockets. "You're the oldest Malfoy heir who just came back from the dead and you want to where the best places are to get shagged by a girl? Try the sidewalk," he finishes and I smile at his sense of humor. At least he's talking to me now.

"I think you should come with me, I could use a good wingman," he doesn't say anything as we reach the steps of the house. "I can promise Addison to keep you out of trouble."

His face changes… it contorts into something bitter and dark and I raise my eyebrows at it as he opens the door and stomps inside. He totally ignores me now and I glare at his back as he heads towards the steps.

"I don't understand why people like you," I tell him and he looks over his shoulder, with his hand on the stair railing and his foot on the second step. "You are not a pleasant person at all."

"Thank you," he sneers sarcastically.

"I don't get how I'm the single one," I state, thinking out loud. "You're a bloody prick to everyone you meet, especially girls, and Lavinia is so unbelievably awkward and quiet… How the hell am I the single one?"

"You aren't the only single one," he mutters tiredly.

I sigh. "Evelyn doesn't count."

"Why don't I count?" I look to my left at my annoying little sister as she crosses her arms.

"Where did you just come from, you're so annoying." Truth serum and family… not a good idea.

"I was just walking out of the room. I live here too, you know."

"You were probably spying. You always spy," I snap as Gavin starts walking up stairs again, but I'm not finished with him yet. "You're coming with me tonight, Gavin. So get ready."

"Fuck off."

"Hey, no cussing." Mom enters the hallway, looking at all three of us. "Why is everyone just standing out here?"

"Cassius called me annoying," Evelyn says with a pout. She's fourteen, that shouldn't work for her anymore.

"You are annoying," Gavin chimes in and I smirk at him. It doesn't get returned, of course.

"How were the healers?" Mom asks me and I don't want to answer that question, so I look away.

"It was bloody terrible like it always is. I don't want to go back there anymore. They have no idea what they're doing."

"Cass, they just want to know what happened."

Word vomit. It's going to come. I'm trying to stop it and I'm saved from saying everything I know by my father's voice.

"Evelyn!"

We all look at my little sister. Dad rarely ever yells like that. I mean, he yells a lot… but never in that tone. Not to any of us, and especially not to the baby of the family.

"What did you do?" Mom asks softly as she looks at Evie who shrugs her shoulder although she has a terribly guilty look on her face.

"Evelyn Grace, come here right now!"

"Coming Daddy," she calls softly as we all watch her make her way towards Dad's study.

"Oh, you are in trouble," I say, sounding so much like a little kid that I'm almost irritated with myself.

When she's gone I look back at Mom and Gavin starts walking back up the stairs. "So, do you want to talk about it?" she asks softly and I know she eagerly wants me to tell her everything I went through so she can try to make it better, but I'm not in the mood.

"No," I say honestly. "I'm going to take a shower because they made me run and I'm going to get dressed and then Gavin and I are going to go out."

That actually makes my Mom smile and she glances up to Gavin who's stopped walking again to glare a hole in the side of my head. "You two are actually going to be hanging out together? What a good idea. Where will you be going?"

"Somewhere to get Cassius shagged," Gavin says to embarrass me, but instead he gets a stern look from Mom.

"Not funny," she says as she walks over to me and hugs me. I get random hugs all the time now and I do enjoy them sometimes so I hug her back as Gavin mumbles nasty things under his breath. "You boys have fun, then. Be careful where you take him, Gavin," Mom gives him a pointed look like I was the baby brother getting dragged out by the irresponsible older sibling.

"I'm not—"

"Go get dressed," I smile at his scowl. "We're leaving in an hour."

I didn't really expect it, but somehow Gavin found it in him to actually come with me. He wasn't too pleased, of course, but I know my brother, and I know that he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do. So, even though he looked terribly pissed off and bitter, the fact that he was coming with me showed me that he actually did want to be around me. When we went back to my flat, and Gavin realized I intended Byron to come as well, he nearly went home again. I thought it wise to leave out that little detail until the end.

"Byron, hurry up," I say in annoyance as I pound on his bed room door. "It should not take one bloke this long to get ready."

I can hear Gavin being all pissing in the living room so I knock on the door again.

"Open or I'm coming in," I warn him and two seconds later Byron opens up his door and glares at me. "Good, you're ready."

"Where are we going?" he asks in irritation as he buckles up his pants and pulls on a shirt. He must have been taking a nap.

"I don't know yet. I brought Gavin, he might have a good idea."

Byron cranes his neck into the hallway and sees Gavin in the living room, glaring at everything with Malfoy distaste and snobbery clearly written on his features.

"Your brother hates me," he whispers as he bends down to put on some socks. "Why do you want me to go?"

"Did you take a shower?" I ask, just now realizing that his hair is soaking wet.

"Did you take a shower?" he counters back and I raise an eyebrow. I go to look into his room but he blocks me.

"What's your problem?" I ask because he's obviously hiding something. I try to look into his room again only to have him push me back. "Hey," I snap with my face hardening. "Why the hell did you just push me?"

"Because he's a lunatic," I hear Gavin add in from the living room.

"Shut up, Gavin," I say harshly before turning back to Byron. "What is your deal?"

He looks behind him and then back at me. "I didn't think we'd be going out until later," he says softly. "Who goes out at five?"

"We do, who the fuck is in your room?" I ask suspiciously. Why is he hiding things from me?

"No one, it's nothing..."

I try to look again, only to have him close his door with his back against the wood. "You are being terribly irritating," I tell him and I'm actually starting to get angry with him.

"I don't mean to be, let's just—"

"Oh, bloody hell, there is no way I'm going to survive this night if this is how you two bitches are going to act," Gavin pushes my shoulder and slams Byron aside so he can open the door. "Clean your bloody room," he snaps as he walks in and Byron and I just stare at him as he walks over to the closet and opens it up. "Ah, and I found what your psychotic friend has been doing. Right, now I'm going home. Ta Ta." He takes a step back from the closet, but then he stops himself and turns around, facing the thing he found there. "And I am disgusted with you."

He walks past Byron and then stops, retracting a few steps and punching my friend in the stomach with an upper cut of his fist.

"Gavin!" Lavinia comes running out of the bedroom as Byron doubles over and I raise my eyebrows. Poor Byron, always getting punched by Lavinia's brothers. "Oh, are you alright?"

Gavin leaves with out a word as Lavinia puts her hand on Byron's shoulder. He nods his head and takes in a deep breath as he tries to stand up straight, wincing the whole time.

"Didn't you just see her last night?" Lavinia is blushing an alarming shade of red and I feel my temper boiling because she's just wearing a shirt that's not even hers. "I was gone for like two hours. How did you sneak out?"

"There was no sneaking," she whispers as she looks at Byron apologetically like this was all her fault. "I'm sorry." She apologizes to him with a serious tilt of her lips and I raise a brow.

"To be honest, I don't even feel bad he punched you," I say and he nods his head, not quite looking me in the eye as my little sister coddles him. "How did this come about, because just this morning you were convinced that this relationship wasn't a good idea?"

Both eyes snap to mine and I realize that the Vertiserum made me say something stupid.

"You said that?" Lavinia asks gently as she looks back at Byron.

"You both were going different places, remember? And she's too young?"

That must have been a sore spot, because my sister looks hurt and she takes a step back. "I'm getting dressed," she says, walking into Byron's room again and closing the door.

When the door clicks shut, Byron glares at me. "Why did you say that?"

"Vertiserum," I say plainly and he shakes his head.

"You hurt her feelings, Cassius." He snaps like I was a terrible person.

"Correction, you hurt her feelings because those were your words."

"I also said a million other things, but you just chose to repeat the bad stuff," he says sternly.

"Stop shagging my sister."

"No."

That answer surprises me. We stare at each other for a few moments until his bed room door clicks open, revealing my fully dressed little sister.

"I'm going home," she says, not looking at anyone as she passes in between us and heads towards the front door.

"That's a good idea," I say, only to receive a dirty look from Byron before he chases after her.

Well, hell.

They both leave and I'm stuck just staring into Byron's messy room with a frown on my face. I want to go out and I almost died, why am I the one standing her all by my lonesome? That somehow doesn't make sense to me. Hmf. I stand at the flat for a few moments, almost waiting for someone to come back for me, but when no one does, I sneer and grab a hunter green cloak lying on Byron's floor. Who needs a wingman anyways?

I clasp the cloak around my neck and throw up the hood before I leave the flat. It's turned into a gross rainy day somewhere along the line, and I keep my head down, obscuring my face from the public as I weave my way through the busy streets. Headed towards a popular pub and when I get to the door, I go inside and shrug off my cloak, letting the water droplets land on the rug. I glance around the room once to see if any one notices me. They don't. A live band is playing on a small set up stage, drowning out all other noises and the smoke clinging to the air from people's pipes and cigarettes make vision hazy. I hang my borrowed cloak and walk over to the bar, sitting down on one of the stools and waiting until the bartender is free to order a drink.

It's pretty crowded in here. I guess I'm not the only one that thinks going out early is a good idea.

"What can I get for ya, kid?" The bartender finally makes his way over to me and I glance at him.

"I'll have a brandy," I say, ordering something my father always drinks. "With ice."

"On the rocks it is."

He disappears down the bar and I tap my fingers against the aged wood top as the ancient wizard by my side buries his head into his large pint of beer. When the bartender hands me my drink, I gulp it down and take another as I scan the bar for potential female conquests. Perhaps I'll find the woman I'm going to marry tonight, I've always wanted to have kids in my mid twenties. I see a girl trip over her heels and land in a puddle of beer…. Maybe marriage shouldn't be on the menu tonight. A gust of cold air hits me as the pub door opens, but I ignore it as I take my second glass of brandy and drink it down quickly like the one before it.

"Only alcoholics go to pubs alone," the voice besides me says and I turn to them as they lower their hood. "One firewhisky," he says to the bartender who nods his head and starts filling a glass.

"How did you know where I was?"

Gavin smirks. "Dad isn't the only one who knows how to use a location sphere." He takes a sip from his drink as it's handed to him. He's getting speedier service than me… it must be because people don't recognize me with my dark hair. I'm reminded it was a good idea again.

"Where's the lunatic?"

"Stop calling him names like that," I say with a sigh. "He's off chasing our sister."

Gavin shakes his head and takes another sip. "Ew," is all he says and then he makes a face.

"Why are you here?" I can't resist asking. "I was under the impression that you hated me and didn't want to be around me."

"I don't hate you," he says quietly and then he spins his body around on his stool so he can see the other people in the room. "In my experience, the ones with dyed blonde hair are the easiest," he says and when I realize what he's talking about, I laugh.

"That's hair profiling," I tell him as I turn around as well.

"Eh," he says with a shrug. "It's the truth."

The truth. I feel like there's going to be a lot of that tonight.

Evelyn

"But, Daddy—"

"The whole thing, Evelyn. If you keep on complaining I'll make you do it with a tooth brush."

I look around the large ball room with wide eyes as he hands me the mop and bucket full of soapy water.

"But… but this is house-elf work," I say, trying desperately to get out of this as puts a cleaning rag over my shoulder.

"It is not house-elf work," he snaps. "Normal kids help to clean their homes everyday. Only spoiled children see it as a punishment."

"But this is a punishment," I sneer back. He's the reason why I'm spoiled, I don't understand why he's getting all high and mighty now.

"Until you explain to me why you were digging in the dungeons, you'll be doing a room a day. You will tell me where that box is now and how you knew where to find it, or you'll be moping the Manor for the rest of your life. "

"That's not fair! I specifically told that stupid elf not to tell you about it! Shouldn't it get clothes for not obeying?"

"I am the master of this house," he says sternly, keeping his temper in check from yelling at me like he wants to. "And until you're in charge, no one has to listen to you."

"But I have Malfoy blood." I'm trying to spin the conversation away from my punishment in hopes that he just lets it go.

"You can't abuse the House-elves oath," he says. "It had to iron it's fingers before it told me about what you were doing. That's cruel to do to them."

"You're cruel," I mutter under my breath, but he heard it.

"Get cleaning, I want this place spotless in two hours," he says before he walks out of the room and locks it so I can't leave or get my wand to finish this stupid job.

I throw the mop down and slam the bucket on the ground, making the water splash over the sides as I stomp towards the center of the room and I cross my arms in a huff. This isn't fair! That stupid old elf shouldn't have told on me and now Dad thinks I'm hidden something terrible from him because "nothing good can come from things in the dungeons." Now he's ubber suspicious of me, like how I knew it would be there and how I knew there was a dungeon hidden behind that statue in the first place. I bet he's searching my room right now, that old blood traitor.

I sit down in on the marble floor and glare at the wall. I refuse to accept this and cleaning would admit defeat. My parents don't need to know everything about my life. It's not fair that we're not allowed to have secrets or things that are personal to only us. It's not like Mom and Daddy don't have a million secrets of their own. Bella was telling me about how my father almost killed Albus Dumbledorewhen he was only seventeen! That's attempted murder, and now that attempted murderer is making me clean a stupid room just because I won't tell him everything about my life. And Mom! Oh, I bet this was her idea… she always had to clean things because she used to live in a barn with the rest of those gross Weasleys. I think she enjoys cleaning, to be honest. She would, I think with a sneer as I glare.

I should actually pay attention and learn that spell Bella is always talking about. That way, my spell twin would be in here cleaning while I was out having fun. I dreadfully love having fun, but I've been too lazy to learn it properly. It's very hard and it hurts my brain, so I've basically given up on mastering that spell. I start school again soon and the ballet performance is coming up as well. Old Xavier was right, I didn't get the part, but I was made the understudy for sleeping beauty, which is irritating because I have to practice and rehearse and learn all of the dance moves with out actually getting to show case it when it matters. It just seems kind of pointless to me.

After minutes of just sitting and staring, I flick a glance to the mop and bucket. Will they keep me locked in here all night until I finish? Probably. Dad enjoys locking people in. He's such a controlling tyrant. Why does Mom even like him?

I scream in frustration as I stand up and it echo's off the large walls and ceilings. I stomp over to the mop and bucket and dip the stupid thing in the water with out much care, making more spills over the sides. The water gets on my shoes and I scowl, resisting the urge to kick the bucket. I start mopping the stupid floor as I think about how much I can't stand my parents. I make frustrated squealing noises sporadically as I clean the whole freaking ball room and I keep on staring at the clock as the minute hand slowly ticks by. Daddy probably made it go slower so I would go mad in here. Stupid jerk.

Finally, after years of me wasting away, cleaning the stupid ball room, the door opens to reveal my still very agitated looking father. He steps into the room and looks around to make sure I did what I was supposed to as I grip the mop and try not to throw it at him.

"Go to your room now," he says and I blink a few times before answering.

"It's only seven."

"I don't care what time it is. Go to your room."

"I haven't had dinner yet," I say with a stomp of my foot.

"I take this very seriously, Evelyn. I won't let this slide. Unless you tell me what I want to know, you can go to your room."

"You're mean!" I yell as I throw the mop on the ground, feeling better as it clanks and sputters on the floor. "How can I be in trouble when you used to be a Death Eater!?"

"That has nothing to do with this."

"It does too! You hurt people and you hurt Mom's friends! You can't tell me what to do when you used to kill people for a living."

"Do you think saying things that like will help your situation?" Dad asks coldly and I stare at him with angry eyes.

"I don't care," I snap and he narrows his eyes.

"Room. Now."

"Room. Now." I mock in a stupid deep voice and even I know that was a bad move.

"I've had enough of your attitude. Go to your room."

"Did you find anything while you were in there?" I snap as I start to walk past him so I can leave the room.

"Wouldn't you like to know," he says and when I reach the hallway I send a suspicious look over my shoulder before sprinting towards my room.

I immediately look for things out of place and I dive under my bed to find the box with the spell book and potions. As I'm digging under my bed, removing all of the clothes that I stuffed under there to keep the house-elves away from cleaning it, I hear my door click closed.

"Are you looking for this?"

My feet are the only things sticking out from under my bed and I freeze from my place under the bed.

"What?" I ask innocently to my mother's voice.

"Come out from under there."

I cuss under my breath and close my eyes before sliding out from under the mattress and I carefully stand up, taking my time until I plop down on my bed and face her. My eyes grow wide when I notice that not only does she have my private hidden box, but she's also holding Bellatrix Black's dress.

"Yes?" I ask, trying to mask my worry because she's holding two things that have become very dear to me.

She comes in a sits beside me with my things on her lap. I want to yell at her and tell her to leave me and my things alone, but I know that I'll probably have to clean every toilet in England if I do.

"Do you want to tell me what you've been doing with these things?" She asks carefully and I shrug my shoulders. "Evelyn, you've been acting differently and I can't help but think these things are the reason."

"They're just things I found around the house," I lie easily with another shoulder shrug. I want her to give them back and I want her to leave my room.

She opens the box and takes out the black spell book/journal that I've been reading religiously for the past few days.

"You shouldn't go through people's things," I say because I used to get in trouble for it all the time when I was small.

"These aren't your things. Why have you been collecting Bellatrix LeStrange's things and why have you been hiding them?"

I guess if they were in plain sight they wouldn't have been so suspicious. "I just found them," I say softly. "I didn't want you to be mad because I know you hate pureblood things."

"What are you talking about?" she asks. "Why do you keep on saying things like that?"

"Like what?"

"All this pureblood half blood nonsense. Where is this coming from? From this book?" She holds it up and raises a questioning eyebrow. "Is that were all these terrible ideas are coming from?"

Technically, I was saying the blood status things before I found that book because of Bella and the dress… but I'm not going to point that out now.

"I don't know," I say instead of answering truthfully.

"Why do you have this dress?" she asks, nodding towards the white dress on her lap.

"I thought it was pretty."

"So, that's it? You have no emotional attachment to these things?"

"Nope," I say, trying to sound casual so she'll give them back.

"Good, then come with me," she says and I furrow my brows as I follow her out of the room.

"What are we doing?" I ask as I trail behind her. When we enter the master bedroom, the large room she shares with my father, my eyebrows go up in confusion as she walks over to the fireplace and turns the knob so it'll blaze to life.

"Come here, Evelyn," she says as she looks at the flames as they lick and hiss at each other.

They light her in a warm glow of oranges and yellows and I watch the fire reflected in her eyes as I carefully walk over to her. She hands me the book.

"What now?" I ask as I fiddle with the leather cover.

She nods at the fire. "Throw it in."

My heart drops. "What? No!"

"If they don't mean anything, you can throw them in. You have no reason to hold onto your murdering psychotic Aunt's past possessions. She was a wicked person, Evie, and it's rubbing off on you, now throw them away."

I clutch the book to my body and shake my head while stepping back. "There's no reason to."

"Throw them in, Evelyn. No object should matter that much to you."

"Then throw in those earrings you're wearing," I say, knowing she won't and knowing her point has been lost. Daddy got those diamonds for her last Christmas.

She stares at me and I think I won, so I start to smirk, but when she begins to remove the diamonds, I let my mouth drop. "Mom—" She looks at me as she throws them into the fire. "Daddy got those for you," I say softly as I watch them disappear into the flames.

"It doesn't matter," she holds up the dress and my heart plummets when I realize it isn't safe in her hands. "Material things shouldn't matter that much. Even though your father got those for me, they're just things. I still have your father and he's a real tangible person.... I learned my lesson the hard way. You should never trust something that was once owned by a lunatic."

What does that even mean? "I just," I look down at the book and then at the dress she's holding. I really wish I was holding the dress. "I just don't want to right now."

She sighs. "Then I will."

"MOM!" I screech like a crazy person as she goes to throw the dress in the fire. "No!" I grab it before it can land in the flames and I throw the book across the room as I drag it out with panic shaking my body. The train of the dress is on fire, so I slam it down on the ground and I start stomping on it with my foot. I can feel Mom staring at me as I begin to cry and stomp on the dress, but I don't care. I sorely hope it isn't ruined now. I wonder if Bella is hurt. Oh, how terrible that would be!

"Evelyn," I vaguely hear her say, but I don't pay attention as I get down onto my knees and hold the dress to my body as I sob.

"Evelyn."

"I'm sorry," I mutter into the fabric. I realize I've become quite dependent on my new friend and if she was ruined I would never forgive myself.

"Evelyn!"

The dress gets tugged out of my arms and I look up at my mother with wide eyes. "Give her back."

Mom raises her brows and she's looking at me like she just realized I was a crazy person and she didn't know if she wanted to cry or yell at me for it. After a long pause she inhales deeply and looks down at the dress. "What spell is on this dress?"

I shrug with watery eyes. "Nothing's on it, just give it back!"

"Stop yelling at me," she snaps back. "This isn't you. Is this what's been making you like this?"

She steps back and takes out her wand as she lays the dress on my bed. I panic again as my brain itches in irritation. I don't want her to ruin that dress.

"Stop it!" I scream as she does a few spells I don't know, making the dress glow and hiss. I'm determined to make her stop, so I run to the bed and grab the dress again, but Mom grabs it as well and it turns into a weird, emotional tug-of-war. "Let go!"

"You let go, Evelyn!" she shouts sternly as I try to get it back, but she's stronger than me so I end up landing on my knees after she jerks her arms back hard.

When she yanks it out of my hands and balls it up, I know I'velost. "Giveit back," I say from my spot on the floor as she heads towards the door. "Give it back, you stupid mudblood lover."

She stops in the doorway and looks at me with a shocked face over her shoulder. I don't even feel bad, even though I know I should. I'm way too angry to care about her feelings. I just want to hurt her now.

"What did you just say?"

I narrow my eyes and clench my jaw, not saying a word.

She looks me over again and shakes her head before leaving and slamming the door. I sneer before standing up and going over to their book shelf, I run my hand along the wood, sending all of the things that were on it crashing to the ground. I pick up the expensive Tiffany's lamp by my parent's bed and I hurl it at my mother's vanity, breaking the lamp and shattering the mirror. I spend the better part of an hour destroying every nice thing in their room, just because it belongs to them. I finally fall onto the large bed after throwing every shoe out of the closet.

I'm not much a crier, I never have been. Unlike my sister, who cries every other second of the day, I rarely ever allow myself to get that sad, but here I was sobbing. My body was starting to hurt from it and my eyes burned as I buried my face into my pillow. I actually can't even pinpoint why I'm so upset. I just like Bella a lot and she's been giving me such good advice, I didn't want my Mom to just throw her in the fire like she was trash. I turn my glassy eyes to said fire and glare.

Something shiny catches my eyes, and glance at it, noticing Bella's wooden box reflecting the orange of the fire. Mom didn't take that or the book with her. I sit up straight and stare at it as relief washes over me, the smallest bit of relief, but relief none the less. I carefully walk around the destruction of the room and when I get to the box I lift it in my hands and open the lid. Inside are the vials of red potion and I eye them for a while, wondering what they do.

Bella never told me their purpose. I wonder if they make you strong, and smart, and powerful. If I was all those things, I could go downstairs and get the dress back from my parents. I decide to take my chances with it and I take one of the small potion filled vials out and I uncork the lid. I bring it to my nose and sniff, it smells like peppermints and cinnamon and I hesitate for one moment before bringing it to my lips and tilting my head back. It tastes just as wonderful as it smells, and after I consume the whole thing, I just stand there, waiting for something to happen. When nothing does, I sigh in disappointment and walk back to my parents bed where I curl into a ball and cry until I fall asleep.

I have wild dreams of terrible winged creatures and a cackling laughter that chills my bones and I don't stir until I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Sweet heart, wake up," I hear someone say, but I turn the opposite way and shrug the hand off. "Evie, wake up. I want to talk to you."

"Leave me alone," I mutter groggily because I want nothing more than to go back to sleep.

"No, get up, or I'll pour water on you."

She's not lying. With an irritated sigh I crack my eyes open and glare at my mother as she sits on the edge of the bed. I figure she's going to yell at me for messing up her room, but she doesn't. Instead she asks me to sit up and once I'm a sitting against the headboard she looks right at me.

"What did you do with my dress?" I ask with a yawn as I stretch my arms above my head.

"I want to tell you about a boy named Tom Riddle, and a journal I used to own," she says gently and I raise an eyebrow as my stomach turns. I must be really hungry.

"Was he your boyfriend?"

She shakes her head, looking serious and weary as she looks me over. "You look pale," she says, and then her brow furrows as she scoots closer to me and she brings her hand up to my forehead.

"I'm always pale," I say as she touches my head. "We're all pale."

"You're burning up," she says worriedly as she takes her hand back. "Are you sick?"

"No," I say, but as soon as I said it I knew it was a lie because the next second I felt my mouth water and my stomach contract.

"Maybe we should get a healer, you're not looking good." She says and I must look like heck if she's mentioning it.

"No, really, I'm fine—"

I didn't get to finish my sentence because at that moment I started to throw up all over my mother's lap.

It was red and it smelled like peppermint and cinnamon.

Drinking that strange potion probably wasn't the best idea.

Gavin

I start laughing as the girl scoffs and walks away. Cassius turns to me with his eyebrows raised with his cheeks flushed from all the drinks he's had.

"What did I do that time?"

I snort and take a drink from the firewhisky I've been milking most of the night. "You told her she had horse teeth."

"I said they were straight," he says as he takes the seat by me once again because that is yet another girl to walk away from him in disgust because of the retarded things that he's saying to them.

"Yeah, surprisingly straight horse teeth."

He shrugs and picks up his beer, having downgraded after his first few brandy's because he didn't want to black out halfway through the night. "You know what I wish?" he says drunkenly and I glance at him. "I wish I could find a girl who looked like Samantha Flint but didn't have the personality of a box of rocks."

"Good luck with that," I say and I clank my glass against his bottle.

"Say, where is Addison?" He asks as he looks over my face. "Isn't she about ready to pop?"

I immediately look away. "We broke up."

"What?" he says in surprise. "You broke up with your heavily pregnant girlfriend? Geez, I didn't think even you had that in you."

That flairs my temper, but I don't respond hatefully like I wanted to. "It's complicated," I mutter softly. After the talk with my father, my anger at the situation had gone down considerably. Now I'm just kind of stuck in a weird in-between.

"What did you do?"

I scoff at him. "Why does everyone assume I did something wrong?" I snap angrily, but my drunk older brother doesn't seem to care.

"Because that's the case most of the time."

Hmf. I glare, but I soften when I remember my father's words. I've built a reputation for myself and I can't fault others for viewing me a certain way... or that's what he says. If I don't want those assumptions than I need to change peoples opinions of me. "I didn't do anything wrong," I say softly.

"Answer me this," he says as he tilts back his bottle one more time. "Why the hell are you living at home?"

I glance at him, taking in the face I'd never though I'd see again and I quickly look away because it's still way too weird for me. "My flat burned down." I tell him as I remember that stupid emo kid and his friends... and it all started because of those things written on the wall. It all started because of Cass.

"Your flat burned down," he states flatly and I nod my head. "Jesus." He turns away and rubs his face. "Your flat burns down, Lavinia breaks her back... what else happened while I was gone?"

"You missed a lot," I mutter into my drink. To be honest, I'm still pretty bitter towards him.

"I'm sorry, Gavin," he says and for some reason I do believe that he's being honest. "I'm sorry and I wish none of this happened."

"Me too," I say and a silence falls over us until I decide I'm going to tell him everything that's been bothering me, everything that's been going wrong in my life, but before I even get the first word out, a group of giggling drunk girls stumble over to us.

"You are a Malfoy," The honey blonde one with a nose ring says with a laugh as she slithers up beside me. I never thought this would happen, but I'm totally not into a getting a girl tonight. Her eyes slide to Cassius and she eyes his dark hair before her eyes light up in recognition. "And you're Cassius Malfoy!"

She goes over to him next and pets his shoulder.

Cassius getting laid— check.

The group starts to circle my older brother, asking him a million of questions and touching him with drunk hands. I don't feel like hanging around for that, so I stand up and walk over to the dart board. I look back once to see Cassius telling them a stupid story with wide hand gestures. First things first. I walk back over to my brother and push through the group of girls. A girl tries to latch herself on to me, but I shrug her off with a glare. "Give me your wand and wallet." I tell my brother and he looks at me with glazed eyes.

"What?" he says with a smirk.

"Your wand and wallet," I repeat as I glance at the vulture girls around him. I wouldn't pass it by any of these ladies to steal.

"Ah, good idea. They might steal it," he says bluntly and I snort at the glares as he removes his wallet and wand from his pockets. He is being awfully tactless tonight. He hands his things to me and I smirk at him before walking back to the dart board. I begin playing the game by myself, scaring away any potential hook up as they try to hit me.

My thoughts turn to Addison. Soon she'll have the baby and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or how I factor into it. Dad said that it was all up to me, that if I still loved her, it was okay to forgive, but I don't do that... and neither does he, so that advice fell on deaf ears. I've been paying people to go in and buy shoes from her because I know that she works on commission, and I'm not sure what that means to me... the fact that I feel the need to do that means something, right?. It hurts my brain. I hate that I have emotions some times. I throw one dart particularly hard and it hits the center of the board. It doesn't please me. It's weird that nothing pleases me anymore.

After another solo game and another firewhiskey, I look around once to check up on my brother. The crowd around him has grown larger and he's standing on top of the bar, telling some stupid story about an Island and a boy with leprosy. What the fuck? I roll my eyes and turn away. I wonder how Pansy White is doing tonight after I had Kelvin Marcello use his vandalism skills to deface every bit of public property that she owns. Now, I know that it's not a whole lot in the form of payback, but it is a step in the right direction. She is a business woman, after all, and no one will want to do business with her after I'm finished with her. I hear a few loud noises coming from the bar so I turn around again to see Cassius get a face full of martini from some nasty looking girl in a mini skirt.

Time for me to step in. I walk back over to him and grip his arm to pull him away from the crowd as he wipes the alcohol out of his eyes. "What the hell did you say to her?" I ask as I grab my cloak and he fumbles around for the green one he brought. I'm done with this pub.

"I think I told her she looked like her vagina would smell bad."

I blink at him a few times and then I bust out laughing as I pull him out of the pub. "What is up with you tonight? Even drinking shouldn't make you that much of a dumbass."

"The healers gave me Vertiserum," he says as we walk out into the humid night air. I glance at him with a furrowed brow as he runs his hands through his damp hair. "It takes a couple of days to wear off."

"Why didn't you tell me that, stupid?" I say with a shake of my head as I start towards the dark apothecary where the new purist meetings are held. They carry an antidote for truth serum.

We don't talk as we walk down the street and it's started to rain again, so I throw up my hood as the street lamps light our way.

"Oh, look, it's Daniella."

I follow his gaze and watch she walks into our usual meeting place. I haven't been to the last two, so I had forgotten when they were held. Tonight must be a meeting.

"I think I need to tell her that she's beautiful."

He follows her in before I can stop him and I sneer before following him inside. The usual people who are at the meetings have gathered around, but a few key heads seems to be missing. Pansy, Theo, the bald man who owns the shop, and Jade Zabini are common staples at these meetings, but they seem to be missing now. I sigh as I step in and I try to find the bald man who owns the shop to get my foolish brother a truth potion. I'm well aware of the secret little back room that sells the dangerous potions and black market drugs, so I'm pretty sure that's where they will be.

I glance at my brother to see what he's up to and I roll my eyes as he approaches our ex-girlfriend. When he taps her shoulder, I look away and start heading towards the back, with the dark wood creaking under my feet as I dodge other purist members who are trying to find out why I've stopped going to the meetings. Annoying things, they are.

"She'll love it." I recognize the bald mans raspy voice immediately, so I slither up to the closed door where the light is spilling out from the crack beneath the door. "It's a perfect idea."

"Do you think that's a wise decision?" Theo.

"Why not?" Ugh… Pansy…"We'd have to do it one by one the other way. This takes care of all of that with a big bang. How do we get a hold of these things?"

"Is it safe?" Another voice asks and I just stand there on the other side of the door like an idiot while they talk. "Conrad?"

"I don't know," I younger voice says. "He just said it takes out everyone within a certain distance and after so long they're gone for good."

"It would be a good statement." Another, deeper, voice adds.

"I think she would love it."

I'm bored already, so I open the door and they all stare at me. "Who's she?" I ask casually as lean against the door frame with my arms crossed. The group eyes me up and down and Theo nods his head in my direction.

"No one you need to be concerned about, little boy," Pansy says with a deceptive smirk on her serpentine lips. God, I hate her.

"Speaking of little boys," I add, pushing off the wall and looking at the young guy with blonde hair in the center of the group. "Who's he? One of your new conquests?" I add to Pansy and she sneers.

"He's older than you are," she says like it matters and I shrug.

"This is Conrad…. he's a healer—"

"I don't care," I cut Theo off and he frowns. "I need the antidote to Vertiserum."

"Where have you been, boy?" The bald man asks as he lifts his glasses to get a better look at me.

"I've been busy. Can you help me out or not?"

The bald man goes over to the shelf behind them and he starts sorting through brown colored bottles. "Did someone give you the potion?" Theo asks curiously as the others eye me up and down. I don't become unnerved by it. I can hold my own with this set of snakes.

"No," I state plainly and the young blond guy tilts his head as he studies my face.

I glare at him and he turns his eyes away. I don't like it when blokes look at me that closely.

"It doesn't taste good," The bald man says when he finally finds the fucking bottle and he hands it to me. "You should try to convince your father to join us," he says as he places the vial in my hand, bringing up a topic that they all seem very into. "Or, at least, your brother. It would be good to have more than one Malfoy in our ranks."

"Especially your brother," Theo adds as he glances at the young blond healer.

"Hm, I bet," I say dismissively. They'll probably want my sisters next so they can collect the whole set. "Good bye now."

I ignore the others as they try to talk to me and I walk out of the room, closing the door behind me because I'm done with this stupid little club. When I get to the main room, a jet of red light shoots past me and my head snaps towards the counter where a large man with side burns is glaring daggers at my brother who has a bloodied lip.

Fuck me.

"Would you care to say that again?" The large man says and I retrieve my wand as Cassius opens his mouth to answer him… which he will because of the stupid potion he took.

"I said—"

"That hardly seems fair," I cut in as I walk over to them and point my wand at the large man's chest. Everyone in the room goes silent to listen. "My brother doesn't have his wand. It's not very proper to point a wand at an unarmed man."

"True that," Cassius chimes in and I sigh while staring at the large man and the dark haired girl behind him. Of course, she probably had something to do with this. "Put your wand down."

"Put your down," he grunts and his eyes snap down as I fish into my pocket with my free hand.

"I asked you first," I say casually as I hand my brother his wand.

"This bloke here shouldn't have been saying those things to my girl."

I look at Daniella over the idiot's shoulder and raise my eyebrows as she rolls her eyes. Looks like we're on the same page. "Just leave it alone, Chance," she says as she places a hand on his arm. "He was just trying to compliment me."

"He should keep his compliments to himself," the big guy scowls and I shoot a look to my brother so he'll stop himself from responding.

It was pointless, he starts speaking anyway, so I hand him the vial and flick my wand so Chance gets scooted out of the way.

"Take that and let's go home," I tell him as Chance hits the wall and slides down. Daniella opens and closes her mouth a few times and I give her a blank stare. "Lovely seeing you again." I tell her before grabbing Cass' arm and dragging him out while he tells her how much he likes her skin.

"Stop being a creeper," I tell him when we reach the sidewalk. It's raining hard now, and I throw my hood up as we scoot against the wall of the building to get out of the down pour.

"I'm just being honest," he says as he uncorks the vial and takes a large gulp. He grimaces as it goes down and then he looks at me while I take out a cigarette. "Stop doing that. It will give you lung cancer."

I light it with my wand as we stand under the canopy of the shop. "You should stop touching your hair like that," I say and the hand he had running through his hair stills. He does it more often now that his hair is darker. "You look stupid."

"You have ugly teeth," he says and I snort.

"Now I know the antidote is working because we both know I have beautiful teeth," I state honestly. Straight and white, what more could you ask for? "You're the one with the fucked up nose."

"I have a good nose," he says with a smirk. "It's very noble."

"Yeah," I say with a nod of my head as I flick my ashes on the ground. "It's very Roman." He looks at me and I let a smile tug on the corner of my lips. "It roams all over your face."

He hits my arm and I laugh…… I laugh right before I get blasted against the fucking alley. I think quickly enough to put my arms up to block the impact against the brick wall, but I hear a finger crack as I make impact and I fall to the ground with a groan. I detest it when people curse me behind my back. When I get my head on straight, I turn my head to see the Chance guy with a few of his friends coming out of the shop with their wands out, ready to duel.

I would sigh loudly if I wasn't in so much pain.

"Get your wand out, Gavin," Cassius says as he grabs my arm and helps me up. My wand… Damn. I look around for it, but between the rain and the darkness of the night, I can't find it.

"Accio it for me," I say as I bend down and try to see where it rolled to as the men on the other side of the alley start bad mouthing us into a fight.

"Just because they're rich they think they can do whatever they want…" I hear the group mutter and I look at them as Cassius tries to get my wand for me. He's taking his bloody time with it, I might add.

"If you're coming out to curse us because of what he said to your girlfriend, then I think you live a very boring life," I say and Cass sends me a scathing look, like I was saying too much. Considering the doosies he was coming out with tonight, I don't think I deserve that look from him. "By the way," I add with a smirk through the rain. "We've both been there and done that."

"Oh, fuck, Gavin," I hear Cassius whisper as the night lights up with colors from the guys wands as they try to curse us. "Not fair," Cass calls as he puts up a shield charm to protect us. Good for him, I think to myself, as I casually lean against the wall while the spells ricochet off the shield. "He doesn't have his wand."

"We don't need magic," One of the tag-a-longs to Daniella's new beefy boyfriend says. "We could put you in place with out our wands."

To make their point they each pocket their wands and I give Cassius a look. "How very muggle for a group of purist," I say and he nods his head in agreement before setting his own wand aside and rolling up his sleeves.

"Three against one doesn't seem fair," Cassius says to me in Italian.

"I agree," I answer in French and I switch it over to German just to see the men across from us look more confused. "You get to take the big one because this is all your fault."

My brother scoffs.

"Eh, stop speaking jibberish," The tall one on the right says and Cassius and I both turn to him. Stupid people. "I never liked the Malfoy's much anywyas... a bunch of pretentious pillocks, you are."

I take off my cloak.

"We could always leave," Cassius offers in French and I look at him.

"We could," I answer in English before we both charge forward to attack.

I'm pretty decent at fighting like a muggle, for some reason I find myself in many fights like this and as my fist collides with some dudes jaw, I'm reminded why I haven't actually done it in a while as my already broken finger stings in pain. It hurts. Cassius works beside me. Unfortunately, he had angered the biggest of the bunch and he's having quite a difficult time getting his punches to hit target. Oh, well, each man for himself. I'm not a gentleman fighter, either, and the man I'm fighting soon learns that as I bring my leg up and kick him in the crotch.

As hard as I can.

I even cringe when he reels away from me and slumps over.

Then I get sucker punched by the ginger haired mate from the back who was just standing on the sidelines, waiting for his turn.

"Bad idea," I say as I wipe my mouth off on my sleeve and tackle him, making us splash into a puddle as the rain pounds on us.

He twists my arm and I slump to the side as I try to wiggle my way out of his grasp, only to see Cassius try to drop kick the Chance guy. He trips, though, and just kind of lands on the large bloke's chest at an awkward angle with a silly frown on his face. I snort despite the pain in my arm and Cassius glances at me. "It seemed cooler in my head," he calls over to me and I laugh before getting punched again, so my attention gets reeled back to the ginger trying to pull my arm out of socket.

Fights are never as cool as they are in plays and muggle movies. There's no awesome back ground music, or well timed punches… it's just a lot of body jerking, ugly sounds, and lucky shots…. And I've always been lucky. So when I end up rolling towards the brick wall where Cass laid his wand, I get away from the ginger haired guy long enough to grab his wand and freeze him with a spell. I'm tired of fighting like a muggle… we are wizards after all.

The oaf named Chance is too busy punching my brother in the ribs to notice I've cheated. That won't do. I lift Cassius's wand at the guys back and mutter a spell. A jet of blue light leaves my wand and hits him square in the back. He makes a loud noise and slumps forward, stiff as a board. I go over to him and kick him to the side so he'll get off of my brother who's looking a little worse for the wear.

"Does it count if you freeze everyone with your wand?" he asks breathlessly and I hold out my hand to help him.

"Yes," I say as I pull him to his feet. "We totally won that."

He smiles at me.

I smirk.

"So, what did you say to her?" I ask as I accio my wand and hand Cass his back once mine is safely in my pocket.

"Who?" He asks as we start walking away and I step on the ginger haired bloke's back as we leave. He grunts and I ignore it.

"You know who, you pounce."

"Oh," he says quietly. "It was nothing."

I look at him from the corner of my eyes and when his face turns to mine, I look away.

"Let's go home," he says as he cracks his neck. He's limping so I grab his arm and put it around my shoulder so I can help him walk.

"Let's," I say softly as I wipe off the rain and blood on my already soaking shirt.

The Apparation point seems to be miles away as we stumble down the dark alley ways of knockturn alley. We walk in silence and when we reach the blue sign declaring a safe App zone, I can feel Cass staring at me so I glance up at him as I fish through my pockets for my wand.

"Gavin," he says seriously as he looks over my face. He has a few fresh cuts on his face and the rain is making his skin slick and wet. His hair almost looks black from the water and he looks so different from the brother that I knew.

"What?" I say as I swipe wet hair out of my eyes. I can feel my right eye smarting and pulsing, telling me it will probably be black tomorrow morning. Splendid.

He licks his lips and looks away before facing me again. Looking me square in the eyes. "Thank you."

I stare back for a few moments before giving him a lopsided smile. "You're welcome."

He nods his head before we pop away to go home.

Home. What a wonderful place.