Why did he choose Hermione?

Why would he want someone short, wingless and with her priorities so messed up that she considered being expelled worse than death?

Tally could have blown the girl up when she was sleeping, but she liked to think that she was better than that.

And to think, that just a little while ago she had been happily kissing and nuzzling Iggy with love, telling him that they would always be together, even in death.

And then this huge freaking boulder got thrown in her way.

She made note to keep her thoughts changing, she didn't want him hearing her thoughts.

She doubted that she'd ever give him that privilege ever again.

"Ghost, what are you doing?" called a familiar voice with an upper-crust drawl from behind her.

Tally whipped around, quickly arranging wiping away the rest of the tears. Draco met her gray eyed gaze steadily with his own gray eyes and a quick agreement passed between them wordlessly.

"Come with me, then," he muttered, extending his hand. "And for Merlin's sake, take my cloak, you're going to catch your death."

Tally took his cloak, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment. She pulled up the hood on the cloak and walked away with him, ducking her head when she saw Fang and Max run out onto the grounds yelling her name.

She didn't want to deal with the flock for now.

"You'll be coming to my family's Yuletide Ball, I suppose?" he asked quietly, a sneer nowhere near his voice.

Tally gave a quick, jabbing nod.

"Good, my father wants to meet you. He convinced Umbridge to deactivate your wristband until we return from the holiday," he said more to himself than anything.

She, for whatever reason, gave a grim smile.

Lucius Malfoy wanted to see her wings. So he would.

She gave no further thought as to who else would probably be at the Ball.

So much for "even in death."

Tally sat on her ebony stool, in front of her talking mirror, in Malfoy Manor, rather awkwardly. She simply stared at the reflection, as she had done many times in the past, and wondered who the girl staring back at her was.

In the days before winter holidays officially began, she had gotten into a fight with Iggy.

It wasn't one of those little fights that they shrugged off and was immediately forgiven with a good snog in a cupboard.

No.

It was an explosive fight.

When she had left the Slytherin Common Room, she found Iggy looking angry—his face flushed red, brows pulled together ferociously and a vein throbbing in his temple—outside of the Great Hall.

She didn't even breathe, so she had no idea how he managed to hear her silent footsteps, she never knew how he could differentiate her boots from everyone else's boots.

She took one hesitant step back, rubbing her eyes again to make sure there weren't any tears running down her face any more, and tried to ready a response in her head—some sort of witty and sharp accusation.

But he made all of her thoughts evaporate into the very air she breathed.

His lips curled up into a snarl, his biceps bunched up—only then…only then did Tally realize what he was going to do—and he grabbed her shoulders, slamming her into the nearest wall.

Tally hadn't realized how her muscles slackened, her breath escaped her, the peculiar way her eyes fogged over and Iggy's enraged voice reached her from a very faraway place.

In that moment, Tally felt her heart shatter into a million, sharp, pointy pieces.

She didn't know what happened after that. Her head slammed into the wall again and she felt something sticky roll down her neck, through her thick strands of black hair.

Tally slid down the wall unseeingly staring at the wall in front of her.

Draco had told her that Fang had been there when Iggy slammed Tally against the wall.

That when Fang saw her literally lose hope, saw Iggy smack her around, he ran at his flock mate and slammed his fist into the boy's jaw.

Draco picked her up after that, and rushed her to the Hospital Wing.

It was there, that through some bizarre miracle, Draco managed to get his father in the Hospital Wing and force several people's hands into allowing Tally to stay with them over winter holidays.

Tally combed her fingers through her hair, staring absently at the mirror in her room.

In the days following the incident with Iggy, she had found herself feeling hollowed out. As if someone had cut her straight down the middle and scooped out all of her insides with a shovel for their amusement.

She tried to guard her thoughts from Iggy as well…but she found that no matter what she thought, she got no reaction.

She knew, that even across long distances, she would have gotten some sort of angry letter—she had been cursing him out.

But instead of an angry letter, a ferocious call or some sort of sign that he was alive at all, all she got was silence.

And that in itself scared Tally more than anything.

Because at least anger was recognition.

Anger meant that Iggy was receiving all of her messages and responding to them.

Silence meant either of two things: he was ignoring her or…he couldn't hear her anymore.

Which meant Tally was alone in her crowded room again.

Sure, Draco was there, and had been with her since the incident, but he didn't know.

He didn't know how it felt to have giant wings hanging out of her back, a stigma that ostracized her from every human on the earth, magical or not.

He didn't know what it felt like to be a mute, to be unheard by everyone except through some sort of proxy—he was privileged, he hadn't experienced vary many obstacles in his life.

And lastly, on some deep level, she knew Draco liked her even with her freakish wings and abnormal looks…

In that way, Draco scared her.

Tally pushed herself up from her table and walked over to the bed where a house elf had set out some robes for her.

She put them on without much of a thought to practicality anymore, forgetting to wonder how the lace and frills might affect her ability to roundhouse kick or do a flip, and just pulled them on.

She pulled up two locks of hair from either side of her face, twisted them into a curl, and clipped them in the back, the enchantments on the snake clip automatically primping and curling her long inky strands into something more purposeful looking.

She did everything Cissy had taught her to do.

If she thought to hard about it, Tally would get a headache.

She was on a first name basis with Narcissa Malfoy née Black.

Because of her, she was actually being given the opportunity to be a girl.

She wasn't an experiment.

She wasn't a disabled mutant.

She was simply a witch… a witch with wings.

Grimmauld Place was stone silent when we got there as soon as Winter Holidays had arrived.

One, because Arthur Weasley was in St. Mungo's.

Two, because Iggy was the biggest idiot in the history of idiots.

I could honestly say, that when I saw Tally being swept away by Malfoy, blood dripping down the corridor from her busted head, I felt an all consuming fury.

And when I got to the boys, who were in the middle of a fist fight in front of the Great Hall, I forced them apart, panting and all.

I had grabbed Fang by the back of his shirt, made him stumble away, then stepped in between, grabbed Iggy's fist with one hand and forced him up against the wall with my forearm.

He didn't take it too well, and soon, it escalated into a full on brawl.

He swung his arm around and pushed me away, throwing himself back at Fang, resuming with the blurring fists.

And when I realized that Iggy, our blind pyromaniac, was just as blinded by rage as we were, I went to a nearby torch, doused the flame and calmly walked up to Iggy.

When I saw an opening, I smashed the butt of the candleholder against him, effectively knocking him out and feeling horribly relieved when his body sagged to the floor like some pale sack of potatoes.

And as soon as we managed to get our flockmate away from prying eyes and screaming teachers, we locked him in the Nest.

The kids were all screaming of course, yelling about having heard a rumor that Iggy had murdered Tally and that her ghost haunted the Great Hall now, that they saw Iggy beating a defenseless Tally, about Hermione blubbering about something or the other.

So Fang and I had to systematically assure them that no, everything they heard was false.

Then, our magical mind reader saw straight through our lie and said, point blank: "That's not the truth," her blue eyes accusing and big and doe-like.

I had to mutter that no, it wasn't the truth, that the truth was something much uglier.

"Iggy hurt Tally. So we're trying to fix them."

That was when Fang and I set out to the Hospital Wing, and when we came back, it was empty handed.

Apparently Draco freaking Malfoy thought it was dandy to kidnap one of my flock members.

That night, all I did was curl up on Fang's chest and stare hopelessly at my hands, feeling every tortured breath that came out of him, the way his fists opened and closed.

That night, he managed to cool down, fix me with one of his piercing stares and said, "We'll get through this, Max."

But when we arrived at Grimmauld Place, it didn't really get better. The kids kind of avoided Iggy—even Gazzy, who could usually cheer Iggy up out of most of his funks with some wacky bomb plan involving nothing but toothpaste, floss and peroxide.

When Dumbledore approached me, I fixed him with a glare so cold that I hoped he realized I was ready to beat him with his spine if he so much as even offered up some obscure advice on flock matters.

Tally sifted through the contents of the shopping bag, Iggy's hand on her shoulder to see what she was seeing.

Which still made him react like a kid in a candy store.

"Yeah, that should be everything. Hey, want to go get some coffee?" He asked casually, taking the bag out of her hands.

Tally tilted her head one way before tapping his nail once.

It's not like the coffee would suddenly turn into Erasers, right?

They had a pretty good time at the coffee shop, and a good "chat" on the way back. Tally exploding a boulder, giggling when he cupped his hands around his ears, saying that it was music to him, a goofy smile on his lips.

They were laughing (which in Tally's case was just a bunch of breathless, odd sounding- well, sound), practically falling all over each other when Iggy suggested they sit down.

Tally agreed, tapping Iggy's nail twice.

"I can just imagine the damage your power could do, Tally!" Iggy said.

She put her hand on his cheek, sending him pictures of her sneaking into the headhunter's chocolate stash and stuffing her face, whirling around when he entered and putting her hand in the air, effectively freezing him while she disappeared around the corner.

"Geez, it'll be much easier to steal Max's dessert with you around," Iggy said. "I mean, it's like having a female Fang, but on our side! We can get away with anything!" He said, punching the air.

She sent him a picture of cleaning utensils then one of her glaring.

"Oh, yeah, and all the mayhem at the very low cost of keeping my room clean, so pricey, I have half a mind to call you cheap, Tal," Iggy said sarcastically, rolling his sightless eyes.

Tally sighed, leaning against his shoulder. "I guess using your ability too much takes a lot out of you, eh?" Iggy asked, getting no other answer other than her nodding her head into his shoulder.

Iggy leaned back against a tree, making sure it was carefully between his wings. (Since he really didn't want to fetch a splinter out of his feathers, or have to go whining to Max about having a boo-boo like Gazzy usually did…)

Tally stared up at him, ruffling the feathers of her own wings before pulling them close to her body, tucking her head under Iggy's chin.

I wonder why it's just so comfortable to be with him, She thought to herself. Any other person, I would have put my boot in their butt and sent them on their merry way… but it all just feels natural with him.

Tally relaxed into Iggy, not aware that Iggy was wondering the same thing save it was more of "chucked a bomb at their head" instead of "boot in their butt" for him.

He laid his hand across her waist, before taking a deep breath and lifting up Tally's chin, placing a soft kiss on her lips, his mouth awkwardly melding against hers.

She was caught off guard, to say the least. She was freaking out, but promptly kicked that panicky-ness out off her head and settled into her more collected self, moving her lips against his, admiring the odd wet, warmth of his mouth.

Just as he was about to angle his head to kiss better, they both bristled.

Quick as lightning, they leapt up, falling into fighting stances.

Tally's eyes flickered over all of the Erasers, a total of four.

She brushed her hand on Iggy's shirt, showing him what they had to deal with.

"Blow them up? Or freeze?" He whispered out of the corner of his mouth before he dodged to the side as he heard an Eraser charging his way.

Tally was preoccupied, delivering a fierce roundhouse kick to another. As soon as she had an opening, she clapped once before (making sure to grab the bag of groceries, cause God knew she didn't want to come back for them) fisting her hands then opening them in a rapid movement, blowing up one Eraser, raining icky Eraser-y chunks everywhere.

Talon barely had a chance to make a Yuck face before reality hit her again.

"AUGH!" Iggy exclaimed before ramming his elbow into another Eraser. Tally ran over to him, grabbed his hand a sprinted over to the nearest clearing, blowing up the other stupid wolf hybrid that tried to take a snap at them. Her teeth gritted together when she felt another chomp at her calf; and in the same freaking place as the other Eraser had bitten her. She gave a hard kick in its direction so it would release her before catching up to Iggy.

"U and A?" Iggy asked, turning his head around, listening for anything.

Tally, tapped him once, hard. Before both gave a hard flap of their wings and took to the air. "I knew I should've forced Nudge to fork over my bombs!" Iggy cursed.

Tally just shook her head before—

SLAM!

Her head jerked back with the force of the blow, blood dribbling down her lips.

Oh, now it's on, dang it.

Another Eraser took a bite at her arm, leaving gaping holes in it.

Or maybe not, she thought dizzily before forcing her eyes open and struggling. Great, Imma have to go get those again, she noted sourly as the bag of groceries fell to the ground with a resounding splat sound.

Then, an epiphany hit her.

She kicked up her leg, aiming right behind her and nailing the male Eraser right where the sun didn't shine. Otherwise known as his crotch.

He went tumbling down to the forest floor, curling up into fetal position.

She took a gasping breath of air before noticing that she was free falling, Iggy having looped around and beaten the snot out of the one that had taken a fair chunk out of her arm.

For good measure, she just blew them both up before fleeing with Iggy, making sure her wings brushed against his with every down stroke.

"Man, can't mutants go grocery shopping any more?" Iggy asked. "Nooo, we have to get mauled by other mutants, who choose to attack the blind pigeon and mute swan."

Tally smirked through her pain. Isn't he just a bundle of ironic fun.

Tally woke from the dream, her eyes half lidded.

And then she cried—because it wasn't a dream. It was a memory, a distant memory of her first kiss with Iggy.

And now, she wasn't sure she would every get anymore kisses with him.

She wasn't even sure her Iggy was there—her dorky, pervy, pyromaniac was practically gone.

And she was in mourning.

In the days after Tally fell into an odd monotony. She followed Draco around the Manor, accompanied him to Diagon Alley from time to time, and sometimes he sat down and tried to talk with her.

Amongst the plush carpet, rich furnishings and watchful portraits, Draco Malfoy tried his damnedest to speak to her.

On some days, she felt an odd sort of appreciation for his awareness of her.

On other days, she was cast into a sea of realization that he would never be able to speak to her properly.

So, as a way to maintain conversation, Draco had found a spell that would allow her to write out what she thought in the air.

Internally, she had frowned, thinking that she could just send him mental pictures, but logically, it made sense. So she worked at communicating with him.

It took Tally a couple of intense hours, but she finally managed it.

And when she did, Draco flashed her a grin, not a smirk, but a grin.

She was so startled by the way his pearly white teeth looked that she dropped her wand and accidently hit her wing against a desk.

Draco merely chuckled and helped her back up.

"Mother thinks she can get you your voice back," Draco began one day, looking up from the book he had been reading to her on poisons.

It was something so out of left field that Tally had to stop and look up into his gray eyes.

Without even speaking he interpreted her answer, "Well, she figures if a healer can banish bones and regenerate them from scratch, then they can banish damaged vocal chords and reconfigure new ones."

At that point, Tally got up from her seat and fixed Draco with a blank stare, and he regarded her openly.

Then she launched herself at him, hugging him as tightly as she dared without breaking him, subconsciously scattering pecks over his face.

It was then that the whole in her heart began to mend, in the three days before the Malfoy Yuletide Ball.