Okay, I couldn't resist. I had to update.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series.
"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"
- Dr. Seuss
First Person POV - Kira
After miles of floating in a black abyss, I found myself in the parlor of a flat, and though there was no evidence to prove it was mine, I knew it was. The flat was small and quaint, with simple but comfortable looking furniture, many windows, and polished wooden floors. Golden light from the windows soaked up the air and seemed to breathe life into the warm inviting room.
My eyes instinctively moved to a door on my right, which stuck out more than anything else in the room. The door shone with a wet coat of pure black paint; the paint ran down the door and gathered at the bottom, dripping its taint onto the golden brown floor.
I walked toward the door and turned the silver doorknob which was delicately engraved with the head of a snake, and walked outside into a courtyard no bigger than the tiny parlor. There was a garden in the courtyard, tall and wild and colorful; it was just the kind of garden I would keep, but the door had unnerved me, and the setting suddenly felt too perfect.
As I moved down the brick path that curved around the garden, I saw the small figure of a boy squatting next to what looked like a stringy green leaf sprawled across the path.
The boy, whose back was turned to me so couldn't see his face, was breathing a garbled series of raspy unintelligible words that sounded like hisses.
I must have made a noise to dissuade the boy's attention, because the noises stopped abruptly.
I knew who the boy was even before he twisted his tiny body around to look at me.
His short chestnut hair, healthy complexion, and handsome round face were unmistakably Riddle traits. The only thing in the boy's face that resembled me was his raven black eyes.
As I moved closer to him I realized that the leaf lying across the brick wasn't a piece of foliage, it was a green garden snake no bigger than my finger.
"Look mama, I made a friend." The boy grinned and turned back to look at the scaly snake.
This discovery and realization shook fear into me and I tried to turn away, but my eyes were drawn to my flesh and blood.
"Is this your first...friend?" I asked rigidly.
"No, there're others; we play in the garden."
His quiet voice made my skin crawl. So he was a Parselmouth.
"Can I keep it, mama?"
"No," I replied, not bothering to mask the chill in my tone.
His back stiffened. "Why not?"
I couldn't take my eyes off the back of the boy's head.
"I said why not?" he repeated. His voice dropped a level and became more controlled than one would expect from a young child.
When I didn't reply again he turned toward me slowly, and I saw that his eyes were red, redder than hot lava, just like his father's eyes.
I was now seriously trying to back up and get away from those eyes but found that I couldn't move.
"What's wrong?" He stood up and smiled revealing a mouth full of shiny pointed teeth.
"Get away from me!" I tried to say; my mouth moved, but no words came out. I couldn't even call for help.
I looked upon my own son and saw a monster, with killing intent gleaming across his simpering face. He seemed to take pleasure in watching me, because as my face grew more disturbed his wicked smile widened.
So much like his father.
My feet were glued to the spot and in my effort to move I fell backward and landed on my backside with a hard thud, knocking the breath out of my chest painfully.
The boy got down on his hands and knees next to me and the last thing I saw before waking up were the razor sharp teeth on the smiling face of my son as he closed in on me.
I woke abruptly from the dream, desperately clawing the blanket around me as I gasped for air.
I didn't need to look around to know it was nighttime, I must have slept through the entire day. As I lie there in mangled sheets and sweat, trying to regain my breath, my body trembled so much my teeth were chattering.
Then I felt someone's calming hands, caressing and massaging my face in the dark, and I knew it was Draco. The entire week I'd been here, no one else had come to comfort me when I had bad dreams. He was the only one I could think of who would do that. Sure enough, I looked to my left and saw his silhouetted form from where he sat on the side of my bed.
Just enough moonlight shone from the windows that I could see his boyish face and his blond hair that was blessed by bed-head. Like this morning, his hair wasn't slicked back; it hung, shaggy and long around his eyes.
No protest came from my lips; after that dream I didn't have the voice to say anything even though I could have spoken. And his touch was so soothing...
The air seemed to calm with me when the reality of the dream finally faded. Everything around me fell silent, and the inside of my mind fell with it. I was so calm I couldn't even hate Draco at that moment.
His fingers combed through my wavy matted bangs, (my hair was always wavy when it was damp) and he pulled my hair back out of my face so that the skin on my perspiring face could breathe.
"I heard you from my room," he explained. "And don't worry, you were talking or screaming in your sleep; just thrashing around."
I said nothing, merely closed my eyes as his fingers continued to trace my skin. I wondered how he could have heard me from two doors down, unless he'd already been awake.
"Feel better?"
I nodded wordlessly.
It was moments like these that allowed me to forget anything Draco had ever done to me, because he wasn't trying to soothe me for his own personal gain but for mine. So for a moment my mind transformed and I was able to feel grateful toward him for being with me.
There was a long moment of silence in which the only sound I heard was Draco's calm breathing and his skin stroking mine. And then I heard him shift slightly and he was so close to me I could feel his soft breath on my cheek.
"Kira, and I am...sorry."
My eyes opened slightly and I reached up to take his face in my hand; he slid his hand over mine and in the moonlight I could see the agonized yearning in his face. I wanted to take that longing away. I wished he could look at me the way he might have if Narcissa hadn't planted those twisted seeds in his head, when he still thought of me as his sister.
Of course, back then he'd treated me with disinterest and even bitterness. I was the gifted child and he wasn't, and he knew it; he knew he'd been spoiled by our parents so that he might become more talented than me, and he knew that being spoiled hadn't done a thing for his talent.
As I thought about how Draco used to treat me I became unsure whether I really preferred the old Draco to the new one.
"I'm going home tomorrow morning," he said quietly. "And I won't see you for a week."
"Imagine how I felt when they told me I wouldn't ever see Fred again," I whispered.
He blinked at me and sat up slightly, pulling away from me, and his hand slid from my face. "Imagine how I felt when mum told me you wouldn't live if I didn't marry you."
"The difference is that you got used to both of those ideas and I didn't. I haven't."
"It's the only way, Kira."
"Is it?"
"What would you do? Huh? Would you go to your lover?"
I stared up at him. "Do you really think he'd hate me that much if he knew my secret?"
"I don't think he'd hate you," he replied. "But I think he'd give up on you and leave."
"You're only saying that because that's what you want."
"I've gone to school with him longer than you, therefore heard things about the twins that would make your hair curl; so in a way, I know them better than you. He's irresponsible, unprincipled, and a black sheep like the rest of his blood-traitor family."
Little did I know, Draco wasn't telling me that Fred had beaten him up trying to find out where I was.
"You're a bigot sometimes too," I retorted.
"But I'm not a tease. Even if he didn't leave you immediately," Draco mused, "do you think he'd stay for long and help you raise a child?"
My mouth parted open slightly in surprise. I'd never intended on actually asking Fred to run away and raise it with me, but the idea that he'd say no even if I asked wasn't something I'd thought of.
My eyes tore from Draco's and I momentarily caught sight of something shiny sticking out of his pocket, something metal that gleamed in the moonlight.
At first, I tried not to let the shock reach my face as my heart began to beat five times faster than usual, and then I was fighting not to let my smirk show.
It was fate, that I could be so blessed by Lucius and Draco's stupidity.
My stomach dropped, because I knew Draco wouldn't let me just take the shiny metal object out of his pocket without his knowledge. There was only one way to get it from him.
And what was the worst that could go wrong? He wouldn't tell Lucius, he could only throw a fit and storm out.
I moved my hand to Draco's lap and threaded my fingers with his once again, then sat up so we were staring at each other on the same level.
His eyes widened, surprised by my touch. "Kira?"
"I'll do it."
"Do what?"
"I'll marry you."
He became still as a statue; he didn't move or breathe, even his grey eyes, that glinted silver as they reflected the moon, didn't move from mine. After a moment his face hardened.
"That's cruel, even for you," he said coldly.
"I mean it."
"No. No, you don't."
"I do. I want to marry you."
"Do you know, Kira, what it does to me to hear you lie through your teeth about this?"
"Draco, I'm serious!" I insisted, trying to sound genuine.
"You just want to see Fred again."
"No, that's not just it."
He looked at me carefully. "Why?"
"It's...my way of accepting your apology," I explained.
"That's not good enough. Why?"
"Because..."
I bit my lip, knowing he was right, knowing how cruel I was about to become. But if I ever wanted to see Fred again, even if it was only to be followed by a rejection, I had to say it, I had to hurt him.
"...I love you."
"Wha—?"
I placed a finger on his mouth to silence him and then briskly replaced the finger with my lips.
Draco's breath hitched sharply; he was taken aback, but he didn't look too flustered to not enjoy it. His eyes shut and he gradually returned the kiss, moving his mouth against mine tenderly.
A warning bell sounded in my head saying: Stop! This is a bad plan! I ignored it by placing my arm around his neck to pull him backward toward the mattress. As I gradually lowered him on top of me, my legs wrapped around his waist.
He didn't protest.
He enveloped me in his arms and pressed himself completely against me, deepening the kiss. So yearning, so trusting…
"You're serious?" he whispered against my lips.
"Yes."
I closed my eyes as my hands became tangled in his hair and instead of blond locks I imagined ginger hairs running in between my fingers. As I pulled him closer to me and his lips traveled up and down my neck, I imagined someone else's lips.
His mouth moved to my temple, slowly traveling down the side of my cheek to my jaw, then I felt his tongue flicking on the sensitive spot behind my ear and I lost myself. For a moment I forgot what I was doing; I was blushing and I felt winded…my heart beat as fast as a hummingbird's wings. I felt like I'd gone for a jog around the block, running nonstop until my heart gave out.
Draco pulled back when I started breathing heavily and smirked. "Enjoying yourself?"
Then the same voice that had told me to stop hissed at me: Fool, don't waste time now!
The voice sobered me slightly.
With my leg draped around his hip, I flipped Draco so that he was underneath me on his back. My fingers closed around the key in the process of flipping him, and I held it tightly in my fisted hand; my one chance for escape.
"I am now," I replied wickedly-and honestly.
Draco smirked again, and the fact that he had no clue what I'd just done gave me a triumphant high; he really had just let me take the key from his pocket. I leaned down and gave him an intoxicating kiss, knowing the effect I had on him. He moaned my name through my lips and when I pulled away he had his eyes closed and was breathing excitedly.
I braced myself, like a cat would before leaping, and I jumped, bouncing up from the bed, to land on my feet awkwardly. Before Draco had enough time to realize what had happened I'd sprinted toward the door, unlocked it with the key, and thrown myself on the other side. I heard Draco curse and rise from the bed suddenly, but I'd re-locked the door before he could reach it.
Lucius and Narcissa wouldn't hear what had happened; their bedroom was too far away, in another wing of the mansion.
The doorknob wiggled but didn't budge.
"Kira?" Draco pounded his fists against the door. "No!"
A broad exuberant smile stretched across my face.
"How could you do this to me?" he demanded, his voice muffled slightly by the door.
"Quite easily, apparently," I replied.
"Let me out!"
"No."
"Please, you have to let me out!"
I laughed, feeling a sort of glee I'd lost when I'd been brought here. "Why? Why would I do that? You didn't let me out when you could have; you've had plenty of chances since you arrived."
"They would have killed me!" he replied angrily. "They will kill me!"
"No, I don't think that's it," I said. "You just wanted to keep me in the cage; a prize to call your own."
"That's not how it is!"
"That is exactly how it is!" I said bitterly. "Having a wife isn't as fun to you when she's not being held prisoner in your house."
"Kira please let me out! They'll kill me!"
"No they won't."
"Please! Please Kira!" The thumping of his fists against the door continued.
I looked down the hallway suddenly, and realized that I was wasting too much time. The house-elves would hear the racket Draco was making and come to him, then they'd go to Lucius when they realized what had happened.
"Oh? You're saying 'please'?" I jibed in mock surprise. "You know Draco, if you'd learned when to mind your Ps and Qs earlier, I would actually consider letting you out."
"Everything I did was for you!"
I cast the door a dirty look. "If that were true then Fred's twin would still be alive."
"But...but he is!" Draco stammered desperately. "It was a trick; you were supposed to think Fred had died!"
"Do you really think I'm going to fall for that?" I asked in a disgusted voice. "I'm sick of your lies and I'm not going to listen anymore! If you want to do something for me, then stop banging on that door."
"If you leave, then He'll kill you with the first chance he gets! He won't even wait for you to have that monster!"
"Then I'll stay on the run."
"Is it really better to live outside the cage in fear, than to live safely in it?"
"If I choose to live in the cage then I'll be more like an animal than a person, that's no way to live!"
His hands stopped beating against the door, and though I couldn't see it, I heard him slide down the door and fall next to it.
"George is still alive," he insisted.
"We're done here. For good."
"No!"
My voice dropped. "Goodbye, Draco."
Without waiting to hear what he had to say in reply, I turned and ran down the hallway, down the flight of stairs, then bounced across the entry hall; while I moved my bare feet made light slapping noises against the marble.
I pulled a random coat from the tall ebony coat rack next to the door, and then stopped short, noticing a small candle next to the door. My eyes were drawn to the glow; I watched it and thought of all the times when I could have escaped if I'd only had a bit of fire.
The feeling that I was about to be free was giving me a reckless desire to do something. I felt power at my fingertips and a burning desire to leave my signature on Malfoy manor so that they'd never forget me.
I grabbed the candle and walked toward a window; without really thinking I set the candle under a curtain and let it attach itself to a corner of the fabric. I watched as the flames grew and absorbed the drapes until they reached the ceiling, and then the ceiling was on fire.
I knew everyone would escape; house-elves would come to Draco's rescue then see the fire and evacuate everyone, but the great Malfoy Manor would be reduced to ashes and they'd know who burned it to the ground.
I turned without looking back and fled from the manor into the cool night, running away as I should have done when I had the chance months ago.