(OC) Dominique Malfoy
Draco was strolling through the corridors after having been released from the hospital wing. His stay there was the result of his arch-nemesis, Harry Potter, having cast a slicing curse at him due to the so-called Prince of Slytherin trying to use the Cruciatus Curse on the unofficial Gryffindor Golden Boy. Despite knowing that he was fault for his hospital stay because of his foolishness, Draco was never going to acknowledge it and instead blame Harry for it and continue playing the victim. Upon making it to the Great Hall, Draco quirked an eyebrow in surprise because it wasn't even mealtime, and the Great Hall double doors were usually closed in between meals on weekends and today was Saturday. Draco peeked in and saw that the house tables were stacked against the walls, so he entered to investigate. The doors closed and locked themselves and up over where the headmaster's podium stood was not only Harry Potter, but (to Draco's horror) was his twin sister, Dominique (or Nika, as she liked to be called). Draco knew there was a strong resemblance between his sister and their mother, Narcissa (who often went by Cissy), the same sky-blue eyes, blonde hair that went down to the chest, and was tall for a lady (barely shorter than Harry, by like maybe an inch or two).
"Hello, Draco!" Nika greeted her twin brother, contempt dripping from her voice.
Draco was shocked to see his sister standing there not even treating his arch-nemesis with disdain. The reason Nika wasn't at the sorting ceremony at the start of their first year was because she and their mother requested to Dumbledore to have her sorted in private, as Nika didn't want her brother to witness her getting placed in Ravenclaw House, something which her mother approved of (albeit secretly because she knew what kind of person Lucius was). She hated her brother as much as Harry did, since Nika knew about her brother's attitude to those who weren't pure-blood or were so-called 'blood-traitors' and wanted no part of it. She knew if Draco witnessed her getting placed in Ravenclaw that he would write home and tell their father, Lucius, who would've marched up to the school to reprimand her for breaking the tradition of being sorted into Slytherin. That meant that Mika was the first Malfoy in like a thousand years to be placed in a house that wasn't Slytherin. Unlike Draco's grades (which were always piss-poor), Nika's grade were outstanding and it was speculated that she inherited her mother's intelligence. That turned out to be true, but she never boasted about that. Another reason she didn't want to be in Slytherin was because of Draco's tendency to whine like a spoiled brat and she had enough of that at home. She knew Draco was a coward and was a follower at best despite trying to act like a leader (something he naturally failed at).
"Dominique, how'd you meet Potter?!" Draco growled. "You know father will be furious with you for associating yourself with a filthy half-blood!"
"Too bad, you whiny brat!" Nika retorted. "You should already know that father is in Azkaban, where he belongs. Not only that, but mum is filing for divorce since father treats her just as badly as me while grooming you to be the head of the Malfoy family. That's gonna spell doom for the Malfoy family because you have absolutely no backbone or anything like that to be a leader or a head of a family. You always whine to father to deal with your problems for you. You'd never get away with that if you tried that tactic on mummy because she doesn't have any intentions to feed your bloody ego. She tries to raise you with love and affection just like she did with me, but you always favoured father spoiling you rotten to the damn core. How can you just throw away love and affection from caring parents and go with the life of a spoiled brat instead?"
"Being a spoiled brat is fun." Draco professed.
"To you, but not to anybody who is decent," stated Nika. "Spoiled brats are not only cowards, but they're also pathetic because whining until someone gets their way is so childish. If I was placed in Slytherin House, I would've hexed your arse all the way to kingdom come one week into that term."
"Then father would've sent you a howler," Draco asserted. "Since I'm the future head of the Malfoy family."
"You're doing a subpar job at it," said Nika in a matter-of-fact voice. "Since you're nothing but a follower. Not only that, but being leader means you don't whine because no decent person would want to follow a whiner."
"Yeah yeah," Draco growled. "But how'd you meet Potter?"
"It started a few weeks into our second year," Nika explained. "Where we shared herbology classes. Sue Li and I were partnered up with Harry and Neville and somehow, we hit it off. True, Harry and Neville were a little uneasy with me at first after I told them about you and I being twin siblings, but they quickly warmed up to me. It appeared as though Neville and Sue were smitten with each other, while Harry and I had a similar reaction. The four of us have even been meeting up secretly since."
"Until then, I always believed that the Malfoy family was a bad family," Harry began his explanation. "But Nika was proof that just because she came from a family generally made up of bad people didn't mean that she had to follow in your father's footsteps. A real family doesn't disown anybody for breaking some kind of family tradition and any family that does anything like that isn't worth associating with. Real family accepts decisions based on what a certain family member wants. You're a clear example of being a blind follower instead of having an individual thought."
"Yes, father should've been proud of me for trying to make something for myself," Nika told her brother. "But no, he just calls me a failure for being sorted into Ravenclaw and not following in his footsteps. I knew that if I did, I would've been tempted to join the death eaters eventually, but I didn't want that while you did."
Not wanting to be seen as weak, Draco whipped his wand out to cast a hex at his twin sister. That ended up backfiring because Nika was faster as she cast a stypefy at Draco, which caused him to fly back by ten feet or so and hit the ground with a thud. Draco was stunned and recovered about five minutes later. That was when he looked up to see not only Harry gazing down into his gray eyes, but the Malfoy boy also witnessed his sister's sky-blue eyes glaring down at him.
"You wanna try that again, or are you willing to accept that I have the upper hand?" Nika asked her brother in a serious tone of voice.
Draco tried to hex Harry instead, but the raven-haired Gryffindor cast a couple stinging hexes at Draco. It was enough for the Malfoy boy to seethe in pain, but neither Harry nor Nika were sympathetic. Draco knew his sister was very skilled in intimidating someone with a glare, but he didn't want to admit it and even tried to conceal his frightened state with little success. Nika was really her mother's daughter in intelligence and looks, but Nika hated being eyed at like a piece of meat just like their mother. Nika did resemble their mother in looks and intelligence. Like Narcissa when she was hitting puberty, Nika was getting the looks that was drawing attention from alot of boys. Though, Nika had her ways of warning those eyeing her with lust that she would make them see stars if they tried taking advantage of her. Some of the boys in the past few years had to learn that the hard way.
"Well, which is it, Draco? Are you going to accept defeat or try to take on me again?" asked Nika, rather irritably.
"I'm going to try taking on you again, Dominique." Draco replied, overconfidence clearly in his voice.
"You might want to think over that, Draco," stated Nika in a no-nonsense voice. "And I like being called Nika."
"I'm going to try again and defeat you this time!" Draco replied, again with overconfidence in his voice.
"It's your loss, but suit yourself." Nika told her brother in a casual tone of voice.
"What shall I do, Nika?" asked Harry. "Be s second-in-command or something?"
"No need for that, Harry," assured Nika in a soft voice. "Draco's overconfidence is going to cost him."
"Okay, but I'll put up some bounce-back wards around," said Harry. "That way ferret boy won't try to escape."
Nika nodded her head in approval as Harry went over to the double doors to add the wards, which would bounce Draco back towards the middle of the Great Hall if he tried to escape (especially since deep down he now knew there was no going back). Then Harry went to stand by the sidelines just as the Malfoy twins were getting ready for their duel. Nika knew that her brother's were pisspoor as opposed to her's and Draco didn't even have the will to practice spell work. That would've been enough to make Draco fail his first year consistently because of his lack of effort, but he only 'passed' each year because Lucius bribed the governors and even Dumbledore to make sure that didn't happen. Being overconfident as usual, Draco fired the first spell, but Nika expertly turned the tables and made him fly backwards by about ten feet. Draco tried to make a run for it, but the bounce-back wards Harry placed do their job and bounced Draco back towards the middle of the Great Hall. Even though he knew that his sister put in the effort to learn the spells and wasn't a slacker in schoolwork, Draco still refused to acknowledge it and instead, he tried firing more hexes and spells which didn't put a dent in taking Nika down. She continued to expertly turn the tables on her brother and defeat him. Even on the third try, Nika defeated her brother (who refused to give up).
"You've lost three matches, Draco," Nika reminded her brother. "Even if you win the next two matches, I'm still going to be the winner."
"I'll get you eventually, Dominique!" Draco grumbled, raising a fist in the air.
"I seriously doubt that, Draco!" Nika retorted, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "You've already lost three times, so what makes you think you'll win a match against me."
Desperate to prove his sister wrong, Draco refused to give up and they kept their duel up for another two matches. But alas, Draco lost both and was defeated, both he and his sister were exhausted. Draco was about to throw a monster tantrum over losing all five matches to his 'blood-traitor' sister, since it put a real dent in his ego, and he still didn't want to acknowledge that he lost and his sister won.
"OH NO YOU DON'T YOUNG MAN!" shouted a voice familiar to Draco.
Right over where Harry was waiting, the Malfoy matriarch cancelled the disillusionment charm over herself and marched up to her son with a furious look on her face. Draco gulped in utter fear as he felt his life flashing before his eyes, having underestimated the occasions of when mothers could be scary when they were angry with their children for any misdeeds they committed. Draco had always been protected from that because he would whine to his father to 'talk some sense' into his mother. Now that Lucius was in Azkaban, Draco was finally experiencing just how scary angry mothers can be.
"Hi, mum!" Draco responded in a nervous voice.
"Don't you 'hi, mum,' me, young man!" Narcissa yelled in her son's face, her blue eyes full of anger. "I didn't raise to be a bully, coward, or lazy. Nika has secretly written letters to me over the years about your awful attitude and lack of a work ethic, instead complaining to your father about how getting punished was unfair. Your bratty behaviour is also inexcusable. I know all about your father bribing the governors and the headmaster to keep you from having to repeat a year. Your overconfidence got you in hot water, I watched the whole thing while I was under the disillusionment charm. Trying to cast the Cruciatus Curse on Harry was the final straw. I even talked to Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape to call off Harry's unjust indefinite Saturday detention and punish you rightfully. You knew Harry already has a target painted on the back of his head and how he had to be put through danger that no child or teen should go through."
"How could you help a filthy half-blood...?" Draco tried asking, only to have his mother cast the soap-suds charm as if to wash his dirty mouth.
"Harry is a brave, kind, and noble man, Draco!" Narcissa lectured her son, who was spitting the soap suds out of his mouth. "A fair number of your fellow students have even explained. Even Nika told me about what kind of person Harry is and how he's nothing like the Boy-Who-Lived as the media likes to portray him as. He even told me how he turned down your offer of friendship because he despises bullies and wanted nothing to do with them. If Nika can continue to be a kind and noble lady despite your father treating her like scum, you should've tried following her example in trying to get to know Harry for who he is. Despite trying to use or succeeding in using an unforgivable curse automatically resulting in a life sentence in Azkaban without the possibility of parole, I'm willing to give you a choice."
"What k-kind of ch-choice?" asked Draco, utterly terrified.
"You can either spend the rest of your life in Azkaban," Narcissa gave her son the choices. "Or you can come with me up to Dumbledore's office and recommend that you start over with you going back to first year so you can actually work for your grades. That means your OWLs will be called off because your father bribed your way into success. You need to learn that there's no substitute for hard work. The latter choice also comes with you spending time, particularly over the summer holidays, with your aunt Andromeda, so you can learn the value of hard work without being dependent on magic."
"I thought we couldn't talk about her in any way." said Draco incredulously.
"That was when Lucius was around," said Narcissa. "Andi and I have actually made amends when I realized and accepted that she married her husband for pure love and not for wealth or anything like that. Your cousin Tonks will also be happy to help instill some manners in you. You'll even be spending most of your time with Aunt Andi so you don't go back to your old habits."
"If I start over with first year work," Draco whined. "I'll be bigger and older than the firsties!"
"You brought this on yourself, young man," Narcissa told her son in a stern voice. "You need to understand that actions have consequences! Now what will it be: the rest of your life in Azkaban or start over as a first year student?"
"I'll go with starting over as a first year." said Draco reluctantly, knowing he was defeated and couldn't try his tactics he used on his father and expect his mother to respond the same way.
"Good choice, young man," Narcissa praised her son. Then she instructed, "Now follow me to the headmaster's office."
Harry cancelled the bounce-back charms on the doors to allow Narcissa and Draco to leave the Great Hall. Narcissa still checked on her daughter and Harry before heading for the headmaster's office with Draco in tow. Then Nika gave Harry a kiss on the cheek, making him blush a little.
"How would you like to go swimming with me, Harry?" Nika offered.
"Well, I'm not sure," Harry replied in a sheepish voice. "I don't know how to swim and I've never seen a girl in a swimsuit before."
"I can teach you how to swim," assured Nika. "I'll be there for you every step of the way, Harry."
With a smile, Harry nodded his head in approval as a means of accepting Nika's offer. Then the two began heading for the Black Lake, hand in hand. With Draco finally dealt with and suffering the consequences for his misdeeds, Harry didn't have to worry about the Malfoy boy trying to get a rise out of him at every opportunity. That also meant that Draco was no longer going to be a karma houdini and Harry getting disproportionate retribution. For once, things were looking up.
The End!