Chapter Thirty Five: The Loss Of Innocence.
The first day of classes found the quartet of sixth years standing outside of the potions classroom in the cold damp dungeons of the Castle. Harry was surprised to find himself actually excited about potions for the first time in his Hogwarts career.
The four of them had just come from a rather irritating first Defense class with Snivellus. None of the four had uttered a word as they practiced nonverbal casting. A feat that would have earned them all points with any reasonable professor. As it was, Harry had already been given a detention for his cheek. Admittedly, he did mouth off to Snape a bit. It was rather clever if he did say so himself. It got a few chuckles from the other students, and more than a few gasps.
The only one whom had not been snarked at was Daphne, but being a Slytherin still didn't earn her points. Harry believed it was on mere principle seeing as she married a Potter and now carried his last name.
Soon enough they found themselves in the Potions classroom. Harry noticed that Ron was also continuing with Potions. He'd given Ginny a tip to discreetly pass on to Ron about the new professor letting in NEWT students with Exceeds Expectations. It would seem the message got through the youngest Weasley boy's thick skull.
As four of the "Ministry Seven", as the press and public began calling them, sat at their station, Professor Slughorn lectured them on the various cauldrons and the substances contained within each one.
"And now," Slughorn said bringing his lecture to an end "time for us to start our work."
"Sir, you haven't told us what's in that one." said Hermione, pointing at a small black cauldron sitting on Slughorn's desk. Harry could see the odd potion within splashing around almost merrily; it was like liquid gold, and large drops were leaping about, yet neigh a drop had spilled out.
"Oho!" exclaimed the professor. Harry felt that the man hadn't forgotten at all, but was simply waiting to be asked by someone for dramatic effect. Harry couldn't help roll his eyes a bit. Still, he'd been given the task of getting Slughorn to spill the beans about what he'd discussed with Tom Riddle so many years ago. If for nothing more than to put the aging wizard's mind at ease.
The Headmaster felt reasonably sure there were only seven Horcruxes, but he needed his conformation to be absolutely sure. At least it gave him something to do other than just Captaining the Quidditch Team.
He was startled out of his thoughts by Hermione exclaiming. "Liquid luck!"
He noticed that Daphne was giving him a questioning look, to which he shook his head, not meeting her eyes before he turned his attention back to the potions master.
"Yes, yes indeed Miss Granger. Two tablespoons with breakfast. Two perfect days. A simple sip, and all your endeavors succeed until the effects wear off. " Slughorn said, his eyes drifting to a far off place. No doubt thinking back on and old fond memory or two, or three Harry thought with a smirk.
"So!" Slughorn continued with a shake of his head. "This is what I offer you all today. One tiny vial of liquid luck to the student who manages to produce an acceptable Draught of Living Death within the hour. I should point out, however, that only once did a student manage to brew a potion of sufficient quality to claim this prize. Never the less, good luck to you all. Let the brewing commence!"
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Harry dodged right as a bolt of flame shot past his left shoulder, missing him by inches. He immediately raised a shield to absorb a bludgeoner before casting his own freezing hex followed by a binding spell. He wrist had actually been jolted a bit by the spell his shield stopped. Harry then shot off twelve rapid fire stunners at his opponent following it up with an expulso to the ground in front of his foe.
His opponent had really improved under Harry's tutelage, and had conjured several marble slabs to block Harry's powerful spells. In the end he had been knocked off his feet by the exploding ground in front of him and promptly stunned by "The Chosen One" .
Harry walked over to the downed boy and rennervated him. "Alright Neville?" he asked.
Neville had a smile on his face as he sat up. "That was brilliant." he said, a bit winded from his training duel with his best friend.
"I still need to work on my conditioning a bit." Neville continued, looking at the timer that stopped, as Harry helped him to his feet. " Did I really last twenty seven minutes against you, or did you let me last that long?"
"Actually Nev," Harry said "You were flinging curses at me so fast I spent more time dodging than casting back. A few of those spells I blocked with a shield kind of jarred my arm a bit. Keep this up Neville and you just might be McGonagall's replacement one day."
Neville looked down at the ground as he scuffed the ground with his toe as he replied, "Nah. If anyone would be in line to be the Gryffindor Head of House it's you. You'd also be a shoe-in for Headmaster. That is if you decide to be a professor. You'd be pretty good at it I think."
For really the first time Harry began to think about his future outside of his marriage to Daphne. He did enjoy teaching quite a bit. Last year's D.A. became almost a passion for him. It was gratifying, knowing he was teaching it's members how to survive a battle against dark witches and wizards alike. Yes, being a professor here at Hogwarts was definitely an attractive prospect.
"Wanna go another round Nev?" Harry asked once he brought himself out of that train of thought.
"Actually, I'm a bit knackered Harry." Neville said in a weary voice. "I've done twelve round with you today and am almost out of it. That last bout was by far the longest, but you don't even look like you've broken a sweat. You definitely won't need that Liquid Luck you won in Slughorn's class mate."
"Every little bit helps in time like these Nev." said Harry.
The sound of feminine grunting and clashing swords caught the attention of the two boys. Looking over to his right, Harry spied Hermione and Daphne in the middle of sparring. At the moment, they were fencing. Daphne, having been instructed the art of sword play since she was seven, was quite skilled and had been instructing both her husband, and the loving yet determined bookworm.
Mrs. Potter had begun tutoring Harry in the more elegant forms of combat since before their fourth year. She began teaching Hermione this past summer, and the beautiful brunette had picked up the art very quickly. She was far from a master, but would be able to survive a fight that came within melee range by surprising her opponent with the severing of an arm, leg or even head. If all else fails, a straight forward thrust to the gut will end a fight pretty quickly.
Harry and Neville stood back and watched as their women thrust and parried for several more minutes. Being men, the couldn't help but admire how the slacks seemed to accentuate the pair's "assets". They gave each other a grin before turning back to watch the mock battle.
They were surprised to find that Hermione had actually begun to push Daphne back on the defensive several times before the blond haired beauty would turn a mistake made by Hermione's inexperience into an offensive. Finally, with a cleaver feint, block and a graceful complete spin to her right, Daphne caught Hermione square in the chest, where her heart would be knocking her to the ground.
Winded, Hermione conceded defeat before she was helped to her feet by the victorious Slytherin.
"That was brilliant Hermione." Daphne praised. "You almost had me a few times there."
"Thanks." said Hermione.
She was cut off from saying anything further by loud applause and wolf calls from the two immature men in the room. The two women looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
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Astoria'd had a good two months in school thus far. It was now Halloween and she was currently on her way back from the Owlery after borrowing Hedwig to send her parents letters from her and her sister. She though back happily on what's happened this year so far.
She'd gone on her first Hogsmeade weekend just three and a half weeks prior. On a date no less! She was only thirteen so she wasn't expecting anything serious. It was her 'date' that surprised the rest of the "Ministry Seven". It also brought great amusement to her brother in law. She'd gone with a boy from her year, Dennis Creevey.
He was a cute muggle-born boy in her opinion. Ginny and Daphne had taken to teasing her endlessly about it. Now she knew how her older sister felt. She was mortified when the twins, who had made the trip to Hogsmeade to visit with Harry and Daphne, each put an arm around Dennis' shoulders and walked off with him to "Have a quick chat", leaving her alone at their small corner table in the Three Broomsticks.
To her further embarrassment, she had looked over to see her sister and Brother in Law seated a few tables away with Hermione, Neville, Luna and Ginny. Daphne appeared to be hyperventilating from her laughter while Harry was supporting her, grinning madly the entire time. Ginny had an evil smile on her face which caused Astoria's stomach to drop into her shoes. A look like that on Ginny's face only spelled trouble for her. Luna, as usual, looked serene while Neville looked embarrassed. Hermione was looking upon her with an amused smirk.
Only minutes later the twins had reappeared, with out Dennis. They gave her huge smiles and jaunty waves before rejoining the others at the table. Dennis appeared moments after looking pale and slightly shaken. He refused to tell her what they'd said to him, so she gave Fred and George her most venomous glare.
She'd gotten a bit of revenge on Ginny though. As she, Harry, and Neville were on their way back to the Common Room from the kitchen after setting up a prank for that git McLaggen, the three of them had stumbled on the red headed member of their group in a secret passage hidden behind a gaudy tapestry snogging Dennis' older brother Colin!
Neville and Harry immediately fell to the ground laughing. Ginny tried to bat-bogey hex them, but Harry's shield was impenetrable. That he could keep the damn thing raised while he was rolling on the ground laughing was amazing. The next day, Harry and Neville's hair and robes were pink the entire day. Though Harry could have changed it back in a moment, he decided to stay that way until the spell wore off to the amusement and horror of Daphne and Hermione respectively. They took the laughter from the other students in stride. Harry'd even added tiny, red, animated hearts to their robes, which Professor Dumbledore complimented them on.
Ginny had pranked Astoria by slipping a potion into her lunchtime pumpkin juice that changed her voice into something reminiscent of that bloke Kingsley Shacklebolt for the rest of the day and into the next morning. Astoria thought people's reactions to the voice coming from the mouth of a girl who stood only four feet- ten inches tall was worth it.
Professor Flitwick fell off his stack of books when he called on her for an answer and she replied in her bass like voice. The down side is that it put Dennis off from snogging that evening. She was still planning revenge on Ginny for that one.
The Hogsmeade visit wasn't all fun and humiliation. Katie Bell had touched a cursed necklace and had been rushed to St. Mungos. A boy named Dean Thomas had taken her place on the Quidditch team. Unfortunately McLaggen was starting Keeper while Ron Weasley was the Reserve.
Astoria was walking through an empty second floor corridor which had the odd suit of armor, on her way to the hallway at the other end which held a shortcut to the grand stair case when she stopped and looked behind her. She had the most unpleasant feeling she was being followed. Seeing no one behind her and not hearing a sound, she continued on her way through the curving corridor and into the hallway beyond.
The uneasy feeling in her stomach began to intensify and she quickened her pace. She was just about to turn the final corner before she reached the portrait of the "hungry-blue-lady-who-has-a-crush-on-Sir-Cadogan" when she felt her body go stiff and her body begin to fall forward. Unable to break her fall, her face impacted the hard stone floor. She could feel blood begin to pour out of her now broken nose as her eyes, now blurred with tears, caught sight of an unfocused set of shoes through her peripherals before blackness suddenly took her.
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"Wake up."
She heard a voice say distantly. She didn't want to wake up. Every part of her felt as though it were made of lead. She ignored the voice and was drifting back to sleep when she felt a sharp pain on her right cheek accompanied by a thunderous crack. Stunned, she opened her eyes, and her surroundings slowly came into focus. To her horror, she found Draco Malfoy standing above her.
She couldn't move. It were as though her entire body was numb just like one's arm would get after sleeping on it all night. She found she could move slightly with extreme effort, but it was pretty hopeless. The feeling wasn't returning, and she could do little more than flail her right arm a tiny bit.
She was fighting it as hard as she could, but her hand just fell uselessly back to the surface she was lying on with her head lulling to the side, mouth slightly agape. Moving her eyes, she could just see that the lower half of her legs were hanging off what appeared to be a table.
"Now, now." Draco said in a menacing voice and he grabbed her around her jaw roughly, forcing her to look at him. "You've got to stay awake for this."
He used his other hand to begin unbuttoning her blouse as he continued speaking.
"Potter took what was rightfully mine!" he spat at her. "That blood traitor whore sister of yours had to infect herself with his seed!"
He grabbed her undershirt and ripped it roughly off her body. "So I'm just going to have to take it from you aren't I?"
Still holding her roughly by the jaw, he lowered his face and began sucking and biting the skin of her breasts. Furious and terrified tears began flowing freely from Astoria's eyes as she desperately tried to redouble her efforts to move. But nothing. She was beginning to lose hope. She was going to lose her innocence and there was nothing she could do about it.
Draco lifted his face to hers and kissed her roughly on the lips before biting down hard on her lower lip. The pain brought more tears to her eyes.
"You should be honored that I have chosen you Greengrass." he said. "I am the head of the powerful House Malfoy. You will bear my children, and honor me like a good little wife should honor her husband."
He lifted her skirt around her waist and began rubbing her between her legs. She could hear Malfoy unbuckle his belt and pull down his trousers before he positioned himself on top of her. Fortunately, he'd yet to remove her underwear as he began to grind on her as though he were already inside her, breathing heavily.
"You're going to enjoy this." he said as he lifted himself off her. He reached down and yanked her knickers off her roughly. She could hear the tearing of cloth as her untouched innocence was exposed to his eyes. She was helpless as she tried to scream, but it came out as a low groan.
"Aren't we the little whore?" she heard Malfoy say as he face appeared over her again. "Getting turned on already."
He leaned down and licked her cheek. Astoria could feel the bile rising up in her throat as she tried in vain to turn her head away. She could taste blood from her lip where the scum bucket had bitten her.
He positioned himself between her legs and was just about to touch her exposed sex with his unusually small penis when an enormous flash of fire and blast of searing air blasted him off of her and into the wall. Astoria could hear the battle cry of Mobius and the furious shriek of her older sister, just before Malfoy let out a blood curdling scream.
Astoria felt a strong pair of arms cradle her into a sitting position before a robe was wrapped around her. From her new position she could see Daphne standing over Draco Malfoy, Mobius on her shoulder and the Sword of Gryffindor held at his throat. She had never seen her sister so angry in her life, and it was a truly frightening sight. Yet Astoria began to cry in relief. Daphne had relieved Malfoy of his right arm, and by the looks of it, his testicles. It looked as though Mobius had also contributed as Malfoy was badly burned in several places.
"It's okay Tori." she head Harry murmur to her as he rocked her gently back and forth holding her in his arms tightly.
Turning her head to the right, she could see Malfoy's discarded wand on the table top she and Harry were on. With all of her strength, she reached over and managed to wrap her fingers around it.
Malfoy was holding the sliver of flesh where his manhood used to be, groaning loudly in agony.
"You vile little cock sucker!" Daphne shouted at him, pressing the blade to his neck. "I told you if you ever touched my sister again I'd kill you!"
She raised the sword over her head, ready to remove his, when suddenly everything from the neck up that belong to Malfoy exploded against the wall. Daphne staggered back a few feet before she spun around to yell at Harry for killing the little fucker. To her surprise, and evidently Harry's as well, Astoria held Draco's wand limply in her hand. It didn't stay there long as her strength gave out and she dropped it and her arm before finally succumbing to unconsciousness.
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A/N: There you have it. I agonized over writing this. It was very, very difficult for me to write and not feel dirty. I didn't want to write it but I said I would, so here it is. But Malfoy is dead. Yay! Bin Laden is dead! Yay! Can we have our freedoms back now? New drink at the bar. "The Osama" It's easy to make. It's two shots and a splash of water.
To "timber", lick by butt and suck my balls you trouser stain. No one said you had to read this story. "I'd given up on this story early on"? Then why the fuck are you still reading it?
To everyone else, I thank you all once again for you support. Please review.
Live Long And Prosper - Edward
A/N#2: Ugh! The damn site wouldn't let me upload the new chapter. i tried over and over. I finally found a round about way of doing it. Damn bugs.
A/N#3: I wanna clear up that the sword would not have killed Malfoy right off. He would have died a slow painful death like Harry nearly did. Plenty of time for that other stuff to happen.