A/N: Thank you all so much for being patient as I update the story! Things have gotten very busy for me at work and as a result I didn't have as much time to write and edit! As a treat, and thank you, I am updating with two chapters today and hopefully, it will have been worth the wait!
CHAPTER 19
Draco numbly registered the knock at his door knowing there was only one person it could be.
"It's open," he called out. The door to his lodge opened to reveal Raven with a smile on her face, looking much lighter than she had the evening before. She had dark wash jeans and a plain, sage green t-shirt on which lit up her eyes.
"Come with me," she said and turned to leave without any other instruction. Well aware that ignoring her was impossible after so long away from her, Draco lifted himself from the couch, and away from the book he'd been reviewing. He was trying to get on the same wavelength as Rae with the details of the mating and from what he had read, he knew exactly why she had been afraid that first night. Some wolves could react violently to finding their mate, and the ensuing acts could be... challenging… for the partner.
Draco tucked into his boots which had become commonplace here, and followed Raven to the barn to find Tala and Sota saddled up and ready for a ride. "Not Enota then?" Draco asked as he climbed into the saddle.
"I thought today you could do with some speed and Tala has plenty of that," Raven explained as she brought Sota into a trot leaving the barn. "Try to catch me,'' she said, smiling over her shoulder as she leaned forward in her saddle and gave control over to Sota. Sota immediately opened up and was flying away from Draco and Tala. Draco hesitated but clicked for Tala to speed up and follow. She started to gain on Sota but couldn't catch her as long as Draco held her back, finally after a few minutes, Draco thought What else could go wrong? and gave over to Tala who immediately opened up and caught Sota easily.
Raven laughed joyously and loudly as Draco gained on her, the hills passing by in a blur and wind whipping through his hair. He realized he was also smiling for the first time since before the kiss. They rode like that, letting the horses take them where they wanted and as fast as they could for an hour. When they finally slowed down, they were both breathing heavily.
"Wow, I guess I needed that," Draco chuckled reservedly while dismounting. He grabbed two bottles of water from the saddle bag and fell beside Raven who had taken up residence lying in the grass. Draco uncapped his water and started to drink.
"I always feel better after a good ride," Raven said lightly, knowing the double entendre she had spoken as Draco choked on his water. Draco looked at her stunned then groaned and laid heavily back down in the grass.
Raven giggled, "I figured we could use some lightness," she continued giggling, "We might as well be able to have some fun throughout this shit show."
"Rae," Draco rolled his head to the side to look at her, "You can't do that to a man with no outlet."
"Who says you have no outlet?" Raven said. Draco's eyes grew wide. "You have a big comfy lodge all to yourself, and I am endless inspiration I imagine…"
"Merlin, Raven," Draco muttered, turning his face back to the sky and throwing his arm over his eyes to fend off the images now flashing through his mind.
Raven chuckled. "Listen, I know that this whole thing is not happening on the timeline either of us would have liked if this had happened organically, but I don't want to lose the fun of a new thing. I don't want it to be all business when the time comes. So, let's build the anticipation and have fun with it while you help me work up to the 'big shabang'"
Draco rolled his eyes and rolled back to look at Rae, "You couldn't have come up with a better title than SHE BANG?"
"Ok that's not how I said it, and," Rae hesitated then shrugged, "I don't know, that's just what came out." They laid like that for a few minutes more, then they got up and returned to their horses. "We should get going, Sienna's going to be here soon."
Draco growled lowly at the mention of her name. "Enough of that," Raven said to him. "I know you have your issues trusting her, but I've known her my entire life. If you trust me, you'll give her a chance."
"Sometimes, you can know someone for a very long time without ever really knowing who they are." Draco said. Raven brought Sota up to Tala's side to speak with him again, but softer this time.
"Draco I know that has been your experience," Rae sighed, "but I also have instincts, not just you. Mine told me to trust you when I was asked to bring you here even though I had absolutely no reason to do so." Draco looked away at that. "My instincts now are telling me to trust Sienna. That she really wasn't hiding things from us intentionally. And let's be realistic, we were hiding ourselves from her too. She would have just as much reason not to trust us."
After that Raven took to riding just ahead of Draco and left him to think about what she said. Everything inside of him screamed that Sienna was now an enemy, that something unknown to both humans and wizards was not something they needed to be involved with, but he had to admit that Raven made some valid points. He was not one to ever trust so blindly, he was a Slytherin, there was no real trust in Slytherin except in very rare scenarios.
The only trust Draco had ever put in someone was in the case of his parents and look where that had left him. He also reluctantly trusted Raven at this point. He realized though that he wasn't going to survive the next several years, hell months even, of his life without trusting someone. He decided to listen to Raven and go into this meeting with Sienna with an open mind. He wasn't going to sing kumbaya with her anytime soon, but he could listen to what she had to say.
It was about an hour later when they rode up to the barn and saw Sienna in the distance standing outside of Raven's lodge. Rae sighed sadly, usually Sienna would just walk right in, but considering Draco's reaction to the news, and hers too to be honest, she understood why Sienna was not willing to infringe on their personal spaces.
As they dismounted, a young ranch hand offered to cool down the horses and they gratefully took him up on his offer. They moved slowly to Raven's lodge and greeted Sienna when they were within earshot, or rather Raven did. Draco was willing to listen but he was reserving the right to dislike her as soon as he decided she wasn't worth the trouble. He was surprised how much that thought saddened him.
Raven noticed Sienna had folders with papers sticking out every which way, from under her arm as she smiled and entered the lodge. Sienna stacked her papers up on the coffee table while Raven went into the kitchen to get a few things together that they could pick at for lunch. Draco stood uncomfortably between the two rooms.
Eventually they were sat in the living room ready for the afternoon without any of the usual banter that would have passed between them.
"So, I'll start by saying that people in my family have had this 'gift' as far back as records go for us. At least as far as we've found. It's a little different for each person that has it. I told you last night that I can feel relationships between people, my mom can sense positive or negative intentions, and my grandma could read the smallest of lies out of the best poker player in the midwest.
"The 'gift' is always something intuitive and singular. I can't teach my mom about relationships, and I can only infer intention from what I know of how someone's relationship feels. I can aslo only guess when someone is lying to me." Sienna took a moment and started pulling out ancestral records.
"We've managed to track our family line back through Salem at the time of the witch trials. Presumably my family is the source of the humans' distrust of those with extra abilities, but that's all conjecture. Honestly, only the timing of our family coming through, and the start of the trials is a bit coincidental. We've also tracked our ancestors to a ship which came to the colonies from Scotland, but we haven't been able to travel to Scotland yet to learn anymore."
Raven and Draco were both eagerly reading through the documents that Sienna had provided. There were documents from MACUSA as well, proving that the family was not human and therefore exempt from the statute, but under Species they only listed 'UNKNOWN.'
"So," Raven started, "Do you have any indication of what you actually are?"
"Not yet," Sienna responded, "But I was hoping that Scotland may have the answers. I'm trying to convince mom to spend next June there but so far she isn't going for it."
"Well I mean, we go to school in Scotland," Raven started, no longer hesitant and fully invested in the new mystery of her friend's heritage, "Hogwarts has the biggest library known to man. I can certainly do some research when we return and let you know of anything I find that's interesting regarding your gift. I don't know how much I could actually learn about your ancestry, though."
Draco chose that moment to speak up, "The Manor also has an extensive library with many things not deemed necessary or logical to Hogwarts. We could look there as well."
Raven smiled at his openness to help and trust. After Sienna's concise explanation it really seemed silly that they'd been so negative the night before, and Raven returned to her earlier thought that it was just the compounding of surprises that had scared them all, between the mate bond, Nalby and Sienna… Raven stopped mid thought.
"Nalby!" She near-hollered.
Draco jumped in his seat next to her and let loose a small growl, now on alert.
"I'm sorry," Raven put her hands on his forearms to calm him, "I just got an idea, I didn't mean to frighten either of you." Sienna looked on in shock by both the intimacy of the moment because she hadn't known they'd stepped into those roles with each other until now, and was doubly shocked by the animal-like growl currently rumbling from Draco's chest.
"We'll explain that later," Raven prefaced, nodding her head toward Draco who now had a pissed off pout on his face. Rae turned toward Draco and said, "Nalby was here yesterday when Sienna came in and you chastised him for being seen by a muggle. He responded that he hadn't, right before he popped out." Understanding began to spread across Draco's face, if Nalby had known Sienna wasn't human. Maybe he could tell them what she was.
"Nalby." Draco spoke in a summoning tone.
Nalby popped into the room shaking and looking for all the world as though he may cry. "I's sorry master! Nalby won't do it again!" He started to hollar before turning around the room and laying eyes on Sienna. The poor elf yelped and began to bellow, "I's did it again, oh no I's did it! Bad Nalby!" He started spinning around the room presumably looking for some way to punish himself.
"Nalby," no response, "Nalby," Draco said again gently. Nothing. "Nalby." Draco said this time with authority, standing at the same time as he said it. Nalby stopped his self flagellation long enough to listen to his master. "Nalby you've done nothing wrong please calm down. Raven has some questions I would like you to answer to the best of your ability." Draco breathed deeply and sat back down in his seat next to Raven placing his hand on her knee. The stress of this day was starting to build up. He leaned, ever so subtly, toward her in order to get to her scent. "Ask him your questions," Draco breathed. He then straightened up again, he was wont to be caught unaware and was still wary of Sienna regardless of the fact that he no longer found her an immediate threat.
"Nalby, when Sienna came in last night you knew that she was not human, is that right?" Raven asked gently. Sienna watched in fascination both at the creature in daylight, and at what answers he may provide. Draco watched Sienna.
Nalby looked to Draco, who nodded, then back to Rae and nodded his head while twisting his ear in his hands.
"How did you know that?" Rae pushed.
"She's has different feelings to muggles." He answered looking back and forth between Draco and Rae rapidly.
"Do you know what she is, Nalby?"
He had been doing so well and then the tears started to build again. He whimpered and shook his head no, heartbroken that he was unable to provide the answers they were looking for.
"That's ok Nalby, don't be upset," Rae softened, "Can you tell us what makes her feel different? Or anything specific about how she feels to you?"
Nalby took his time answering this time, "She's feels… old."
Sienna snorted, "I'm 17."
Nalby then turned to her, prepared to defend himself, "No, no, nos! Not age old. But existence is old." He nodded his head triumphantly and turned back to Rae and Draco, ears once again perked. All 3 of them were more confused now, then they had been a few moments ago.
"Thank you Nalby," Rae said, "We'll call you if we have more questions alright?"
Nalby nodded his head happily, "Ok Mistress, I's wait til then!" He popped out with a happy crack.
"Ok, then…" Sienna left off. "Alright well, that's all we know about me for the time being. Your turn!" She bounced a bit, trying and failing to rein in the excitement.
Raven and Draco looked at each other and Draco stood and walked outside.
"Give me one sec Sienna, I'll be right back," Rae stood to follow him. You could see clearly that he hadn't gone anywhere, he was just standing outside the open door. Sienna once again felt disappointed at Draco's negative response but was willing to give the benefit of the doubt. She supposed she'd just have to see where things lead after this.
A/N: Please R&R!