AN: I apologize for the lack of updates over these last few summer weeks, but I've been out of town, I'll do my best to get things up more often now. However, my computer is down for the count, and all I have access to is an older laptop with nothing beyond a word program, so forgive sluggishness while I mooch and internet connection off my friends. Hope any readers that are in classes enjoyed their breaks, -Richard S.
Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 34
Illy walked shyly towards the great hall, she could already see Ron's flaming head of red hair poking up higher than most of the third years.
"Ron." She greeted him with a hug.
"Decided to join us for dinner?" He asked with a goofy smile.
"Yeah, where're Herm and Harry?"
"On their way; Hermione's really killing herself with all of this stuff about Buckbeak, but she told Harry she was on to something about that whacko murderer Black, the two of them are up in the library. I couldn't take it anymore, I've been in the library more than I have outside so, I came down here to wait."
"I'm glad someone was here. I was worried that I'd just be sitting around for the next ten minutes on my own."
"How're your mum and dad?" Ron aksed, suddenly remembering why Illy had been gone most of the day.
"Oh…they're erm…they're good. Sacramento isn't all that interesting, but they're mostly there to get away from work for a little while."
"Too bad they didn't take you for the whole winter break. If my parents were off on holiday I'd be right angry if they cocked it up so that I couldn't come too."
"They're only staying there for a few days…at some spa thing. Taking mud baths and nonsense like that." She lied, using previous vacations to less magical areas as a reference.
"Nice coat. D'they get it for you?" Ron asked, looking enviously over the clearly expensive garment.
"Yeah…my mum and I went shopping together." Illy replied with a weak smile. Ron looked as though he was considering testing the waters as to how much gold Illy's parents made, but in stead he announced Harry and Hermione's entrance.
"Hermione," Illy said before giving her friend a hug. "What did you two find out while I was gone?"
"Not too much…actually nothing. It was a wild goose chase. Really all that we found was a bit of mention to the Black's as a whole. Just a bunch of rubbish about their hating mixed and muggle borns, and bullocks like that." She explained with a flip of her hand. Illy nodded politely and then turned to Harry. She threw her arms around his neck.
"I missed you today." She whispered endearingly into his ear.
"I was worried you'd miss dinner." He said when she released him and let him take her hand, so that he could lead them into the dinning room. Fred and George were no where in sight, normally this would mean that Illy would dismiss herself from the group and instead go sit with her own table, but somehow she got the feeling that it might upset some of the people around her given her current dating status.
"How was the trip?" Hermione asked casually.
"Her parents're just off doing muggle stuff…bought her a new coat though." Ron answered for Illy.
"I was asking her." Hermione retorted with a hand gesture towards Illy.
"Well, I'd just asked her, so it was kind of pointless to make a scene out of it…sides it's not like I lied to you about what they did or something, I just summarized it." Ron said indignantly.
"There are some things that those of us without a Y chromosome share with each other that would be far beyond your realm of comprehension Ronald." Hermione spat back. Both Ron and Harry exchanged glances with one another, looking befuddled. "Now, if I may ask Killious about her holiday?" She asked Ron for mock permission.
"Just as long as you keep it in code like that, it's bloody funny." He said as he shoveled mash and meatloaf onto his plate. Illy sighed at him and served herself salad, a dinner role, and a small serving of meatloaf, taking care to glance over towards where Draco normally sat. She was hoping to see him smiling at her for her distinguishably larger plate, but he was, to her disappointment, still on holiday like everyone else.
"Now Killious, how was your holiday?" Hermione asked for the second time, though now she seemed quite a bit more on edge.
"The weather was good. Sacramento wasn't that cold, no snow right now actually. My parents were staying in a resort, one of the ones with the daily spa treatments and exercise programs and stuff like that. I still don't see why they like those things so much, but after my mum was up in the Swiss Alps a few winters back and went to try out a massage in a little resort she's been hooked." Illy said brightly.
"But you did other stuff with them than just sit around up to your necks in mud and get rubbed down right?" Hermione said with a sudden feeling that maybe Illy's parents really did avoid her.
"Yeah, my mum and I went for a bit of shopping, but we popped back over to this side of the ocean for that, and then my dad and I got a cappuccino...but that was about it." She added, trying to convince the ever perceptive Hermione that her parents' behavior was most normal to their usual treatment of their daughter.
"Well, I'm glad you made it back for dinner." Said Harry, as he squeezed her hand lightly. The rest of the meal was lightly littered with question that burst forth from Ron as though he had jinxed into saying whatever was on his mind, such as: 'Why would you bathe in mud?' 'Do you actually do that naked?' 'You really just let people you don't know rub you down while you have nothing but a towel on?' followed by a tragically loud whisper towards Harry that resounded across the table as, 'What all do you think they'll rub down?' which landed him a slap on the back of the head from Hermione. After her simply enchanting meal time conversation Illy headed straight back to the dorm to catch up on the homework she claimed that she had been skipping out on, which made Hermione go into a frenzy over the boys finishing their work; both boys looked like they had just seen the grim as they were drug from the hall off towards essays they had not even put thought into.
Illy gathered her quill and parchment and started working on the potions essay she was half way through. Working without Jackquinn and Clause was, if nothing else, very unnerving. She kept feeling like any answer she couldn't find, could be discovered simply by looking up at her two friends and asking them, though, come to think of it, she really didn't consider Clause much of a friend these days. Illy therefore sat and toyed with the idea of convincing Hermione and Jackquinn to work with each other, though after Jacky called Ron a ginger, among other things, she doubted that it would work. This went on for some ten or fifteen minutes before she noticed a purple sheet of paper with blue ink stuck to the notice board.
Like everything else in the Slytherin common room, the notice board was very organized, and more importantly, very non dependant on manual labor. If anyone wanted to put up a notice they simple had to request the board to write it, at which time a bit of always perfectly legible silver writing would work its way across the board to a clear space on the black board. Old notices cleared away when their expiration date passed, and new ones were bordered with a bit of green to draw attention to them, so when Illy spotted a piece of paper actually stuck to the notice board in such a bright color, it was a bit startling. As she took the piece of paper down for reading, Illy realized that it must have been several days old, because the board was trying steadily to erase its words, though it found itself unable. Illy resumed her seat to read the notice:
Dear you,
Meet me next Friday in the Hogwarts tunnel to Honeydukes, if
you can't find it, or don't know where it is just ask Harry Potter.
He can tell you where it is. I'd rather prefer if we could avoid
Jumping out of any windows though.
-me
The note on jumping out of windows had her rather assured that it was her mysterious friend but what seemed to perplex Illy was how old the note was. It must have been there for over five days, which was usually how long the board let personal notices stick around, so next Friday must mean…in four days. She folded the note and slipped it into her bag before continuing to finish the essay and heading to bed.
The cold damp air felt like nothing when she was tucked inside of his jacket. She snuggled deeper into the warm down interior, taking a deep breath. His smell was brilliant. It made her want to fall asleep here and never wake up again…but at the same time it made her never want to shut her eyes, for fear of missing his visits. It had been a week, he should be back soon. Her lips curved awkwardly at the thought…a smile. It had been a while since she'd had one of those; weeks…maybe months. He had been coming around once or twice a week for a while, and if he was sticking to routine he'd be showing up any day. She sat close to the door, aware of every sound that was being made above. Sir had already gone to bed, he'd come and gone, and now she was only hoping for young Sir to come.
The door at the top of the stairs creaked; she rushed to tuck the coat back into the niche she'd dug with her bare hands. She scampered back to her spot on the floor, prepared in case of the worst, for another of Sir's many friends to come through the door sneering and wringing his hands anxiously. But instead of a sniveling lusty looking man, at the door stood just who she had hoped for, smiling and holding a tray of steaming containers.
"Hey Lovely, I brought some soup, you like soup right?" He asked, suddenly looking unsure of the meal he had prepared.
"I…I missed you." Was the only reply she could manage to come up with before bounding up to where he stood. He had hardly put down the tray of food before she was clamoring to get into his arms. He smiled and, stumbling, found his way to the ground where they sat for several minutes, with her arms around his neck.
"You should eat, Skinny." He said, trying to pull her arms from his neck. She would have none of it, she only inched them a bit tighter around him and let her head rest on his shoulder. He cleared his throat nervously.
"You said quite a bit today…" He offered. She was still silent. She didn't like to talk much around him, it still felt odd to speak to anyone but Sir, and nothing she ever said to him was pleasant. Draco finally pulled her off of him. "I brought you something really special." He said. "See," He pulled a book from his jacket. Its cover was brown with gold lettering, the pages were old and yellowed, he flipped it open to a pre-marked spot. "It's a story book. I know you've been here for a while. I've tried to sneak down before I did, but…well look at it. It's got pictures and stuff, as well as words. I didn't know if you could read. But if you can't I'll teach you." She ran a finger across the page lightly, touching the painted face of a pretty blond girl. "They're fairy tales…My family got this book from the fairy's themselves a long time ago. This one's my favorite story." He pointed to the title. "See that's…well I don't want you to think I imagine you a fool, can you read or not?" He firmly asked. She only shook her head as a no. "Ok well we'll do it like this, I'm going to give you each letter and its sound as we go through the word, then we'll say the whole word. When we finish the story that way, I'll read the whole thing to you." He smiled and started with the faded pink title. "T-says t, H-says h, E- says e, I know it seems like that would sound funny together, but the T and the H sort of combine together with the E to say 'the' it's not that confusing usually though, 'the' is just a word you sort of have to memorize." She stared attentively, but he couldn't help but feel like she was lost. "Right then…next word, S-says s, T-says t, but when S and T go together we get the 'st' sound," He continued, one letter at a time through the title, 'The Stolen Princess' by the last 'S' the girl was saying things along with him.
"S," She began, "says" Draco continued, "s" they both let out a snake like sound. Draco nodded in approval and pulled the soup towards the two of them. "I'll stay here with you for the first sentence if you'll eat." She nodded in agreement, her relative silence resumed. Draco felt his words, heavy in the air as they ate.
"My mum and Dad have been fighting…it's about you. My mum wants him to get rid of you…I want you to know…if she gets her way, I'll come get you. He'd kill you. But I'd get you first, I have a good friend who could help. I'm sure of it. I don't think she'll win though, but it doesn't matter, one day I'll come get you anyway, I'll help, just like I promised." He sounded desperate, as though her lack of words in return was making his words somehow less true. "My Mum's not a bad person really. She knows…or some of it. About as much as me, well not quite that much, but you know she really thinks it's wrong. It's just that…sometimes…you're not the only one he hits, but it hasn't been so bad. He's been doing some special magic training with me, he still hits me then sometimes, when I get it wrong, but you've sort of made it so…he stops hitting her. It's wrong Dolly, I know it is…but somewhere inside of me, I'm really glad he did, even though what he's doing to you is the worst thing in the world, I swear to you, I know it's horrible, but I'm glad he's not hurting her anymore…" His voice trailed off.
"Draco…I understand." She said briefly, just before returning to her soup. He smiled a little to her, then he leaned over to give her a hug. She was quite quiet for the rest of the time he went through the first sentence of the story, letter by letter, sound by sound. She nodded off to sleep on his shoulder after he finished…
"Harry…" Illy began nervously, playing with her fingers behind her back all the while. Harry looked up from the book Hermione had given him.
"Yeah Illy?" He asked in an irritated voice.
"I was thinking about meals…and when term starts again and all my friends get back, well I think that I should eat breakfast with them, and then I can alternate lunches. That way I sit with both of you some." She suggested.
"Why would you want to sit with a bunch of obnoxious Slytherins?"
"They're not obnoxious, they're just…they're just witty, and smart, and they don't really feel obligated to not say things just because other people might take offence." She explained.
"Yeah, and why would you want to be around people like that?"
"Harry, she's got friends besides us." Hermione offered.
"Besides, she's dating you. Who cares who she acts like a jerk with?" Ron said ruefully.
"I told you Jackquinn was sorry Ron. He just got carried away. It's not like us Slytherins are the only ones who say mean things." Illy retorted, shooting a glance back at Harry.
"Yeah, but…he called me a ginger snap, and said me and Harry were fags." Ron pouted.
"Well, in all honesty Ron, and I hate to break this to you, but you do have red hair and freckles, so…technically you qualify, though not for the gay thing." Illy replied jovially.
"You're just a stupid girl." He shot back.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Hermione began.
"Just stop it you two!" Harry yelled, just a little bit too loud. "The meals thing is fine Illy." He said before pulled Ron out of the library with him.
"Did Jackquinn really call Ron a ginger snap?" Hermione asked after several minutes of silence. Illy looked up from her Herbology homework.
"Yeah, he did. Harry and Draco had a pretty bad fight last year, as I'm sure you know. Draco didn't exactly win, well, actually he got the shit kicked out of him, so Harry told Jackquinn to say something about it, you know how those two are. I figured you were around for all of this, but I guess it was just Ron…"
"So…in a way…Jacky was just sort of defending Draco?"
"Yeah, in a way, but it just sort of exploded and he said stuff about Ron, and then Harry said stuff about his mums being lesbians and just…I guess I know why people don't mingle amongst houses usually. This is just ridiculous, if it's not Harry getting mad about Draco, its Draco getting mad about Harry."
"I have a feeling this is less of a house to house thing, if you were in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff I doubt you'd have these issues…it's more of a Draco Harry conflict." Hermione said with understanding.
"Ron and Draco even bloody get along when Harry's not around! So do the twins, and Jacky doesn't mind Ron I promise, he was just there and…this is just so stupid."
"It is. I don't think I'll ever understand those two though…it's like they think their personal vendettas are fights between good and evil and both side is convinced they're good."
"And my dating Harry hasn't helped to aid that one bit." Illy said with a sigh.
"You Hermione Granger?" Matty's voice asked from behind the two girls.
"Yes."
"Someone asked me to have you put this on your house notice board." Matty said as she handed Hermione a small white sheaf of parchment.
"Thank you Matty." Hermione said, as Matty left. Illy winked at her and turned to Hermione,
"What's it say?"
"It doesn't have names on it or anything… 'Dear you, I'm dating someone now, and I don't think that jumping out of windows with strangers or running into dementors in the middle of the night would be good for the new relationship…I hope you find someone else too,' and it's signed 'me' guess it's an inter house relationship that they didn't want anyone to know about."
"That's too bad…I bet they would have made a good couple." Illy threw in for good measure…but now that she thought about it…they probably would have.
Christmas-eve dinner was a quiet affair, more anxious than anything, so Illy found it easy to slip away from everyone, off towards Snape's office, the minute that dinner was over.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning Harry, what's the password again?" She asked him.
"It should be ungle-fungus, but that's only if she doesn't change it by morning." Harry sighed.
"Ok, I'll be there, but if I'm not there when you get up, go check outside just in case." She gave him a quick kiss and headed towards the dungeons.
"Servius." Illy called from the other side of his office door. The door swung open and slapped against the stone wall behind it loudly. Illy swallowed and walked inside the office slowly.
"Killious Enquirous." Snape's voice was just barely concealing its anger under its normally cool tones. Illy pulled her eyes up from her shoes to look at Snape. He was fuming.
"What did I do now? Is this about the trip with Draco?"
"It is nothing to do with your leaving with Draco."
"Then what did I do?"
"I've heard about you're newest little boyfriend."
"What is that supposed to mean? Harry is the only guy I've dated at this school Servius and you know that. So don't act like I've been running around snogging every guy I meet."
"So then, you are dating Harry Potter."
"Well…yes, yes I am." Illy stammered.
"I think we both now how I feel about him."
"Yeah, he's an obnoxious, untalented, prat."
"Not in those words but yes. Do you really think that you should be with someone like-"
"Just stop it. Every time I come to see you we fight about something stupid like this, and I'm sorry but I just don't want to fight about my boyfriend on Christmas Eve."
"Fine then, what did you want."
"I wanted to bring you your Christmas present. I can't come down to see you straightaway in the morning because I'm going to see Harry, but I wanted to watch you open it, so I brought it to you now." She smiled as she pulled the silvery blue package with snowflake print and white wrapping strings from her cloak. Snape took it gingerly.
"You got me a present?"
"Yeah…Draco sort of let me do a little Christmas shopping while I was out with him. I got all of my friends something…and well, that includes you." She smiled brightly at him, "So open it." She urged. Snape methodically untied the bows and opened the package from where it had been taped, leaving the wrapping paper perfectly intact.
"This is an expensive book… From Borgin and Burke's…Why were you in Nocturne Ally?"
"Don't tell me you're surprised, I had to buy gifts for five Slytherin's and yourself."
"This book is on the construction of oblivion portals and other unforgivables…Who let you buy this?"
"Like they care how old you are in that store. Besides, I've know them for years, great tippers in the delivery business for obvious reasons."
"This book is not something I want the ministry finding in my office if I'm smart. I hope that none of your other gifts are of this nature."
"Of course not, that's heavy reading Servius, it took me four days to get through it from cover to cover, and two notebooks to make notes on it."
"You read and studied this?" His voice sounded not only offended but scolding.
"It's not like it was new, who cares if I gave it a read through?"
"Do you mean to tell me that you can go get your notebooks, sit down and construct an oblivion portal?"
"Well no, I'd need some practice and about a gallon of blood, but maybe? Do you want to give me extra credit for it or something?"
"Does it look like I teach a dark arts class?"
"I didn't mean it like that, but…It's not like we don't both know that my parents were supporters of Voldemort and they didn't exactly let the dark arts die out in their home."
"You need to be careful. That boyfriend of yours is throwing around a lot of speculation over the return on the Dark Lord, I don't want you rushing off to join him if Potter is right. That might put your relationship under a bit of strain." Illy chuckled.
"I see, well as long as your only concern if for the stability of my relationship. Have a merry Christmas." Illy said before turning to leave the office.
"Ike, I have to ask…If the Dark Lord is really on the rise…which side would you choose?"
"I'm not choosing sides on this war. I have too much at stake, on both sides. If something really came out of all of this…I don't know what I'd do, but I can't make that choice in your office. My parents…and, and Draco, his family, Christian, possibly Dolan, Matty, all of them, they'd follow Voldemort. But Then I've got Harry, and Ron, the twins, Ginny, Hermione, Jackquinn, and pretty much the rest of this school. Your loyalties would make a difference…even if they shouldn't. And Draco…I know he doesn't agree with his Dad on most things but, he'd be in over his head to try and get out…I've got my own ideas on things, but in the end, it doesn't matter what you think, if war broke out…I would be deciding who I'm willing to kill. Whose death am I going to predict and do nothing about?"
"You think you'd see deaths?"
"If I practiced this stuff."
"Lupin and Trelawney want me to get you to practice with the three of us."
"I think we both know something is coming…if I got good at all of this…my choice would be even less my own if…"
"If you became a weapon, the Dark Lord would employ you, with or without your consent."
"Exactly."
"But then you know that Potter and his friends would do anything to protect someone with gifts like yours."
"What a perfect spy I could be."
"Don't say that." Snape's voice didn't reflect anyone of the jocular tone that Illy's did, it was stiff, serious, almost cryptic.
"I should go." She walked over to Snape and gave him a weak hug.
"One more thing Ike."
"Yeah?" Illy said in an exasperated voice.
"I got you a present as well." He said, as he offered her a periwinkle ring box. "It was your mothers…" He mumbled as she opened it. The ring inside was a thing white gold band sculpted to look like a Dragon eating its tail with a cerulean stone as the eye. "It fit her middle finger, but you're a little bigger than her, so it'll probably fit your pinky. She got it a long time ago from her mother, and she got it from hers…sort of a family heirloom."
"Thank you…it's beautiful." She slipped the ring onto her pinky and hugged Snape again. "I'll see you at breakfast." She smiled before heading to see Madam Pomfry.
Getting the potion from her was easy. Apparently Dumbledore had told her to keep a ready supply of potions for a dreamless sleep on hand, incase Illy needed any, and somehow Christmas seemed like it should count as a good reason to sleep without disturbing dreams.
Christmas morning was quiet without roommates, and virtually silent at five in the morning. Killious carefully pulled on her sweat pants, a tanktop, and Draco's hoodie with her sneakers before taking the small red package marked "Matty" from underneath her bed and putting it on top of the girl's mound of gifts; cheap earrings ought to keep things civil for another semester.
The morning air was light, crisp, and freezing cold. Sharp winds whipped around Illy's face, pushing her long ponytailed hair where they pleased. Illy averted her eyes from the direct gusts of wind and shouldered on through the beaten path beneath her. It had been almost a week since the last real snow, so the path around the lake was relatively worn. Not as well as the one to the quidditch field, or the one leading down to the lake from the castle, but still, she wasn't aiming at forging a new trail, just jogging the old one. In weather this windy, that's all you could really do, jog. Running was out of the question for more than the few feet where the wind's gusts were blocked by an odd angle of trees, but for the rest of the time the circle around the lake acted as a sort of winds tunnel and no matter what direction you were headed, you were headed into the wind.
After two laps Illy sighed, she was exhausted already, and she went inside for a shower. Following a quick rinse and redressing in something slightly more festive the only obstacle between herself and Gryffindor was maneuvering several rather large boxes to and from herself to the dorm, without letting anything break. She piled the packages up on her bed, maybe she could manage some ridiculous formation of stacking and get it down the hall and up several flights of stairs without falling through trick stairs or running into Peeves. Slowly, she slipped her hands beneath the pile but before she could even attempt to pick it up two of the small presents came tumbling from the top.
"Of bloody hell, fuck this." She snapped suddenly. "Wingardium leviosa" And the packages were up in the air right away, each floating about a half of an inch from the others, which created a rather festive looking rubix cube of gifts that bounced lightly behind her, all the way up to the Gryffindor tower. The fat lady looked slightly alarmed by the sight when Illy came to a halt in front of her.
"G'morning, and happy Christmas." She said to the painting with a smile.
"Well…did you get me something?"
"No, but if you like I could attempt to paint you a nice Christmas wine."
"Oh goodness no, I've seen what some of you paint like, it'd end up tasting like bullocks."
"Right then, in that case ungle fungus."
"Password's changed"
"I really don't want to have to bang on you until someone comes, it'd be awfully rude." But before Illy had the chance to begin banging Harry had opened the portrait. His face went a bit pink.
"I was excited. I couldn't sleep so well…so I figured I'd surprise you." He said, all the while looking down at his bare feet. Illy gave him a small peck on the cheek.
"That was very sweet of you." She whispered in his ear. Harry's pink face turned to a flushing red as he led the way back into the dorm.
"Ron and I haven't opened our presents yet, so we've got 'em up here." He said as they climbed the stairs.
"Morning Ron." Illy said with a smile.
"Wow…I reckon I would have just tried to carry them all and hurt myself."
"Yeah, well actually I did try to carry them, it just resulted in a lot of cursing."
"So, what's mine?" He asked as Illy guided the presents to the ground. She picked up one with the same wrapping paper as Snape's though it was marginally bigger.
"And this one is yours." She told Harry with a seductive smile as she gave him a green one with thin black cursive writing on it that looked almost just like pinstripes.
"Hey this is way better than the sweater mum is going to give me." Ron said with a big smile as he unfolded the warm looking grey sweater and scarf set, neglecting to catch the small pile of chocolate frogs that fell from them.
"Harry told me that she sends you one every year and I thought you could use something in a more natural color."
"How's your present looking Harry?" Illy asked as she turned back to face him. He reached out a hand to her.
"Oh, you look fine." He said as he pulled her to his lap. He was in a good mood today, that meant she could easily spend her Christmas with her friends and not hiding in Snape's office. Harry started to dot her jaw line and neck with little kisses.
"Harry, Ron's right there." She whispered as she pulled away. But Ron had started in on the next package he had and wasn't paying much attention anyway. None the less, Harry opted to open his gift rather than embarrass Illy further.
"A whole wizard's chess set!" Harry held up the box for Ron to see. Ron gagged a little on his chocolate frog.
The boys and Illy continued through their gifts, a set of new quills from Hermione, a bag of every flavor beans from Ron, a silver charm bracelet from Harry, featuring a crystal ball that 'matches your necklace', an anonymous gift tagged to Illy in writing identical to Snape's that was by far the largest book she'd ever been given entitled 'Spells, Charms, Potions, Hexes, and Curses explained, by Servius Prince' a charm from the twins, who must have gone shopping with Harry for the bracelet, that looked just like a miniature of the belly-dancing ice sculpture, and must have been bought at the benefit, a book on controlling the gifts of the seer, from Lupin and Trelawny, a bag of gold from her parents, a new set of shoes of Jackquinn, a picture of himself naked with the exception on a Santa hat that was not on his head from Christian, signed 'You can have this hat when I get back', a letter from Dolan promising that he had talked to Jacky, and finally a very large box in purple wrapping paper was left, 'from Draco, with lots of friendly like love.'
"Well, you've gotten more gifts than any of us, though I think the Firebolt out did both of your anonymous gifts and the naked picture of Christian." Ron said as he took another bite of chocolate frog.
"Yeah, I agree, but I think I might just get one of my own, my parents sent me quite a bit." She said through a smile.
"I didn't realize how much money they made." Harry said with a little bit of jealousy.
"The ministry pays them a lot to keep things under control amongst the muggles. They have to know a bunch of languages and customs, they're pretty much spies on all of the foreign ministers and then there's the work they do keeping magical creature epidemics under control. Anthropology is just a bullshit cover they use to go and interfere in muggle politics and nonsense to bend things to the ministries liking…or whomever wants to pay them to do so."
"Wow, not exactly the loyal types are they?" Harry asked.
"No."
"What is politics?" Ron piped up.
"It's sort of like the ministry is for us, except each country runs things differently and they threaten to kill one another a lot more…let's go meet Hermione." Illy got up and cast another leviosa on the last few presents, mostly because she didn't want to carry the oversized package from Draco that was almost as tall, and most certainly as wide if not wider than herself.
"Happy Christmas Hermione!" Illy greeted as she gave her friend a hug and passed her two boxes.
"Thanks Illy." The four of them took a seat by the fire.
"I've got one more present to all of us after Herm opens that one up." Illy announced as Hermione methodically unwrapped the gifts, almost just as precisely as Snape had done the night before. Hermione let out a small squeal and clapped twice before holding up the first gift, the navy blue book's title shone in gold bright enough for anyone in the room to read, but Hermione announced the title proudly none the less.
"Out witting a magical court, by Gilgamesh Greir." She said in an uncharacteristically high and breath voice.
"and the second one." Ron said in a bored voice.
"Oh don't be so rude." Illy shot back as she gave him a shove, "It's Christmas." Hermione unwrapped the second one a little fast to uncover a small felt jewelry box with earrings that were a bit more ornate than anything Hermione would ever wear.
"Thank you and all Illy, but I'm not sure where I'd ever wear these." She said as she held them up for the boys to see.
"Well, I'm fairly certain I have an idea what's in that beast of a package and if I'm right I'll demand that at whatever location it deems itself useful, you need to be present as well."
"I've been meaning to ask who sent you that ridiculous thing." Ron said as he looked back over his shoulder at the box.
"The same person who sent her this one." Harry said in an irritated voice as he held up a matching medium sized box, "and this one." He finished by pointing to the smaller one attached to the top.
"Right, so, my gift to all of us or those ones first?" Illy asked as thought she was presenting the decision between having a bit of tea and lighting herself on fire. The tactic worked and Harry let out a little chuckle.
"I think we'll take yours first" he said. Illy smiled and lifted the top off of the box she had in her lap. Before she could even set the top down on the table beside her large mugs of hot cocoa, complete with whipped cream were zooming towards each of the friends, to be accompanied by chocolate scones and biscuits.
"Now this is a brilliant present." Ron said through a mouthful of biscuit as the tea set filled with hot cocoa settled itself on a nearby table, shaking with anticipation to fill another person's cup.
"Guess it's just those three now." Illy sighed and took the two boxes from Harry. "Which one first?"
"The big one." Hermione said firmly. Illy nodded and stood up from her chair to unwrap the preposterously large present. The paper came off easily to reveal a white box with a dress shop insignia on its top. Illy swallowed hard and removed the box lid, and there, nestled in bits of black tissue paper, lay the dress that was responsible for Harry's almost choking her. She bit her lip and turned back to look at Harry, he nodded his head,
"Go ahead, I'm over it." She smiled a thank you and gently lifted the dress from the box to hold it up to her. It was too wide in the waste, too large in the bust, and too long, but beyond the irritants of size it was even more beautiful than the day in the store.
"It's gorgeous Illy." Hermione whispered. Illy nodded and returned it to the box.
"Let's see what else the rich bastard got." Ron said with a nonchalant wave of his hand, Illy took the medium sized box from him and began to unwrap it like the last.
"Shoes…and jewelry, from his mum and dad." Illy shivered as she read the note enclosed, "There's a note, 'We're looking forward to your visit this summer, Draco has told us so much about you and we hope to enjoy your company as much as he has. We contacted your parents and they are looking to clear up the matters of your lineage, I am sure we will find that you have blood just as pure as our own. Enjoy your winter holiday, hopefully the next one will be spent in somewhere a bit cozier, like with your parents or ourselves' it's signed Lucious and Narcissa, but she wrote it." Illy peered into the box at the black shoes, they were simple and looked comfortable, it's not like you'd see them under the dress. The jewelry was in a separate box within this one though, and the elaborate necklace looked like it must have been a family heirloom, probably hand made, and the sparkling clear stones were no doubt diamonds to match the white gold inset and the earrings. "At least there's no tiara." Illy said shaking her head and putting the lid back on the box. "Only one more of these things." She took the last gift, which to her relief was no larger than an index card and about one inch thick. This time she tore the wrapping off. "Herm, what is this? It just looks like a bit of black rock." She said as she passed the item to Hermione, who lifted the shiny piece of stone to the light.
"It's a communications black board. Some times the ministry uses them, he probably got it from his dad."
"What's it for?" Ron asked.
"Only the person to whose wand it is assigned can use it, you have to either have the wand or know what it's made of and how long it is. You write with your wand, like a pen, and it puts the message onto the twin board. Which in this case Draco has. It's just a way of writing out a letter without waiting for an owl." She explained.
"Does he know what your wand's made of?" Ron inquired.
"Of course he does, this is Draco he's obsessed, he probably knows what bloody day the painters are in." Harry shouted in exasperation.
"That's not true. He's my best friend Harry, and we've talked about my wand before. Ron knows what my wand is made of and so does Hermione; it's not a big deal, so please calm down." Illy replied calmly before taking the stone back from Hermione and tapping it gently with her wand. "He's already left a message, 'Sorry about Lucious and my mum, they insisted on my sending the dress, and then mum wanted to get something to match, I told you how she is. Tell Harry I'm sorry, as I'm sure you didn't think ahead to open all that bullocks in private. I didn't mean to ruin your Christmas morning.' There, he apologized to you Harry, now let's just eat our breakfast and go see Hagrid or something."
"No let's go play a bit of quidditch, Harry and Herm can be on a team and me and you can be on a team, it'll be even because of the firebolt!" Ron said excitedly.
"What firebolt? Who'd he get that from?" Hermione asked quickly. Illy bit her lip.
"Me an' Harry need to go use the restroom." Illy said before pulling Harry up from his chair. Harry shot Ron a mean look and headed back towards the door with Illy's hand in his own.
"I really don't need to pee, I'd much rather be saving my broom." Harry said with a bit of irritation.
"Neither do I you twat. We're running off for some risky Christmas morning snogging." Illy smiled at Harry and continued to pull him down the hall towards a spot that would be safe from prying eyes. She settled on the back stacks of the library, which was utterly deserted by even the librarian, who seemed to have wondered off for some breakfast as the rarely spotted sign on her desk read 'out for tea.' Illy found a comfortable spot in an isle pertaining to fungi and pushed Harry softly towards a bookcase. She threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking a book off the shelf in the process. She was astounded by her own nervousness. The art of dealing with men normally came naturally to her. It didn't take hard work or even much thought for her to lead one to bed and have him banging down her door a week later. But now, with the-boy-who-lived so close, her fingers shook almost uncontrollably; she clasped them together and moved her lips to Harry's. Illy pushed him against the bookshelf with a bit more force, and rather than being greeted by the return of eagerness she had become so used to expecting from Draco, she found Harry's lips withdrawn from hers.
"What are you doing?"
"I-I was just…"
"Just what? Don't push me." Harry snapped as he pulled her arms from behind his neck.
"I'm sorry, other p-people…in the past…"
"Who? What kind of person would want a girl forcing him up against walls?" Killious could see the anger electrifying in his green eyes.
"No one Harry, no one at all."
"You were going to say his name weren't you?"
"I don't know who you mean Harry?"
"You know damn well who I mean 'killy'" He spat. Illy winced as he said the pet name.
"Harry, I don't-I've never…" Harry stopped her words with a finger to her lips.
"Don't lie to me…I'm not going to hit you. Just don't lie to me please." Harry looked defeated and suddenly the anger in his eyes dissolved into a quiet resolution. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry for hurting you. I don't mean it. I promise that I don't want to hurt you, it's not something I plan…it's just that…I can hardly help myself and I don't know why. I want to touch every bit of your skin, and when you betray me…I'm sorry Killious." His words rang out with misery. Killious nodded.
"Fine then…Draco…And now Harry…you can resume your quest to touch every bit of me." She smiled softly at Harry.
"Thank you." He smiled at her. "I'll push this time if you don't mind." Harry pushed Illy lightly towards the shelf, and Illy found her fingers steadied by confessing that she was thinking about Draco, and she found herself falling back into her ability to mindlessly please men.
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