Draco
Malfoy woke in a cold sweat. Cursing, he blinked his eyes and checked his night
dial: it was only two in the morning.
Draco had never had any recollection of having nightmares or even
night-sweats, but recently he'd been facing each day with a gnawing feeling in
the pit of his stomach, as if something horrible were about to happen. He usually did not remember his dreams, but
something told him that his synapses had been on overload quite recently.
Opening
the drapes that surrounded his bed, he quickly glanced around, asking himself
what was he was doing
awake at such an
ungodly hour.
His
stomach grumbled in reply.
'Fantastic.
Bloody Fantastic', Draco mumbled, quickly putting on his night robe.
His
stomach was throbbing with pain, he was so hungry; he had skipped dinner for
the first time in four years so as to avoid the probing looks that Crabbe and
Goyle were only barely capable of making, and thus shunning all the obligatory
questions about his whereabouts. It seemed that the entire house knew his
schedule, and though he used to relish all the attention and company, he now
knew better. He knew he was a prisoner and constantly felt suffocated by the
mere idea of being at Hogwarts, and wished he could go back to his room in the
Manor.
He got up
and went downstairs to the common room, hoping to find some leftover candy or
food someone might have forgotten there. Seeing nothing of worth around added to the fact that his stomach needed to
have its way tonight, he left the inner sanctum of the Slytherin common
room. He knew exactly where the
kitchens were, and more importantly, how to get into them, something he would
never publicly admit. As it was, Draco knew a great deal about Hogwarts in
general, especially after his father had drilled the layout of the place into
his head during his first year when he had discovered that his son had gotten
lost up in the towers and was rescued and harshly berated by Filch. His father
had somehow learned about it, as he always did, and, apparently embarrassed
that his son had proved himself to be just like the other first-years by losing
his way going to class, sent a howler directly to Draco's room (of course: the
cultured do not scold their children in public) going on about the stature of a
Malfoy and how Draco wasn't living up to the name. Draco snorted, turning a
corner. He certainly wasn't, especially at this point, and hoped he never would
be. His features darkened, and feeling the anger build in him, he pushed those
thoughts out of his mind, deciding to concentrate on his hunger instead.
He
approached the fruit painting which concealed the entrance to the kitchen. He hesitated, fearing lest he'd be seen, but
figured that because of the time, the kitchens would be empty. He proceeded to
tickle the pear, which giggled. As he went through the entrance, he heard
voices coming from inside. What would elves be doing up at this hour? Draco
thought to himself, moving closer to the voices.
"Please,
go back to sleep, Dobby, I can make my own sandwich! I'm sure you've got to get
up early-" the voice he heard then stopped, startled by Draco's entrance. A small elf, wearing a small pink t-shirt
that said Riot Grrrl in sparkly letters across the front as well as a
rainbow colored nightcap with a matching pom-pom, squealed. Draco could not
believe the scene before him. All sorts
of cold cuts and cheeses, as well as various loaves of bread were messily laid
out on a table. Feeling Draco's gaze on
him, the small elf quickly hid behind Alex, who had been speaking and was now
staring back at him as he stood in the doorway.
Well,
well…apparently, the outcast of Slytherin has made a life with the elves, he thought sarcastically, at same
time relieved that it wasn't someone else who would spread rumors about his
late night meanderings in the kitchen.
"What are
you doing here?" Alex demanded, apparently perturbed at his presence.
"I could
ask you the same thing", he drawled in reply.
He fixed
his gaze to the elf hiding behind Alex.
"Dobby,
I know it's you! Get me something to eat!", he snapped.
Dobby was
already heading to the back of the kitchen when Alex grabbed the tail of his
shirt.
"No,
Dobby, don't. You don't have to do what he says now! You're free to do as you
like!" she said, glaring at Draco. Dobby squealed, and covered his eyes with
his ears. He needn't have worried, however, as the other elves, all wearing the
same tea towel with the Hogwarts crest embroidered on it, seemingly came out of
the woodwork, bearing large trays of food. Draco selected an apple, and started
to munch on it.
"Aren't
you even going to say thank you?" Alex yelled, still holding Dobby, who was
carefully but determinedly tugging his shirt away from her grasp, desperately
trying not to stretch it.
"No,"
Draco replied, grabbing a sandwich on a plate nearby. "This is England, not
your stupid America where everyone's 'equal,' you know."
"Certainly
not," Alex retorted. "And thank goodness for that! After all, if that were the
case, a greater number of people would have to suffer the likes of you!
You…you're a waste of magic!" she spit out, letting Dobby go in her fury.
"How dare
you-" Draco yelled, lunging for her over the table that separated them. Plates
and food scattered everywhere, making quite a din, not to mention a horrible
mess. Draco, not surprisingly, was a very dirty fighter, but Alex was quite the
scrapper herself, so by the time Dobby and the other elves managed to separate
them (by magicking them into mid air, tied up in ropes) Draco had a nasty
bruise growing a few centimeters below his eye, and Alex a pretty pink one high
on her neck. The elves then set about the task of cleaning up the mess Alex and
Draco had made: dishes had shattered all over the floor, food seemed to have
gotten everywhere, including the ceiling, and the elves themselves would need
quite a bath once they were done. Alex and Draco, however, noticed none of
this. Though they were physically restrained from fighting with each other,
they made up for that fact in spades, vocally.
"Who do
you think you are, Ms. Princess Crusader for Human Rights? You're so bloody
high-handed-"
"High-handed?
Me? I don't think so, Mr. I've-got-a-rich-mummy-and-daddy-who'll-buy-me-anything;
if anyone here's high-handed, it's you, you bloated carp!"
"Bloated
carp? What kind of an insult is that? And if anyone's bloated, it must be you,
suffering from PMS, it's so obvious!"
"Ha, and
I'm still a better person than you'll ever be! And at least I've gone through
puberty!"
"Yeah,
well, at least I'm not ugly!"
"That's
certainly debatable! You make a better ferret than a human, that's for sure.
Or, sorry, was that a rat?"
"Right!
Coming from someone like you, that's a compliment!"
"You're
so conceited, how do you even know what a compliment is?"
"The fact
that I know you even exist is a compliment, that's for sure!"
"PLEASE, BE QUIET! DOBBY CAN'T TAKE IT!"
Dobby screeched, startling the cat that had just crept into the kitchen through
a small cat door next to the ovens. Turning in Dobby's direction, both students
did not fail to notice Mrs. Norris, who, after taking one look at the mess as
well as Alex and Draco bound and tied in mid-air, immediately shot back out the
door.
Alex and
Draco froze and looked at each other, panicking.
"Dobby,
let us go. PLEASE! Before Filch gets here!" Alex cried, wriggling desperately
at the ropes.
"Let me
out! Right now! I command you!" Draco yelled, also wriggling about quite
unsuccessfully.
"STOP!"
Dobby roared again, "You two are banned from the kitchens for the next two
weeks, and you are never to come back here together ever again," he said.
"And how
are you going to stop us?" Draco snapped, apparently forgetting the position he
was in.
"Shut it,
Malfoy. We swear, Dobby, just please let us go!" Alex cried.
In the
blink of an eye, Alex and Draco found themselves outside the kitchens in front
of the painting with the fruit. Disoriented, they looked at each other, and
then tore off in opposite directions.
Alex
raced through the dungeons, the part of the castle she knew best, which also
was the only way she could think of getting back to Slytherin without meeting
Filch. She was running down a hallway painfully close to the Slytherin entrance
when she heard Filch and his new cane banging around at the end of the hall. In
a panic, Alex stopped, and saw a small door that was partially open. Desperate
and in a dearth for any better ideas, she opened it, crept in, and shut the
door.
"Oof,
budge off, you great oaf!" she heard Draco whisper. The closet was about as big
as a refrigerator, only shorter.
"Fabulous,"
she sighed, scooting over so she sat across from him, their legs tangled
together in the middle of the space. It was pitch dark, so she couldn't see his
face, something she found she was grateful for.
"You
know, if you don't like it, you can always leave," Draco said, shifting his leg
so hers was pressed painfully into the wall.
"Ha.
Filch is right outside to keep your voice down. And get off me, jerk."
"Don't
tell me what to do," Draco whispered. They held their breath, hearing Filch's
footsteps creep closer and closer to their door. When they heard Mrs. Norris
scratching at their door, they froze.
"Mrs.
Norris, really, you should know better. That door is always locked from the
outside, and I locked it myself just over an hour ago." He tried to door, and
found it locked. "See?" Mrs. Norris, however, kept on scratching, and started
meowing as well. "Ah well, I suppose the little buggers have made it back
already. Hopefully we'll get them next time."
Alex and
Draco didn't resume breathing until they couldn't hear his cane tapping on the
doors and closets all along the hall. After what seemed like an eternity, they
moved their legs, and tried the door, which was in fact locked.
"It's
locked," Alex said.
"My, you
have such a fabulous talent for stating the perfectly obvious," Draco replied,
drolly.
"WHY
do I get the feeling that this is going to be the longest night of my
life?"
"You
said it."
* *
* *
A small
burst of blue light illuminated the small space they were in, fizzled brightly,
and then went out again.
"Could
you stop doing that? You've tried that before, and it didn't work then either,"
Alex snapped, shifting to ease the pressure on her aching legs.
"First of
all, I am sick of being in here with you, second of all, I am desperately
hungry, and third of all, I will have to piss in about five minutes," Draco
retorted.
"Oh, have
it timed down to the minute, do you?" Alex asked snidely, shifting again.
"Yes I
do, and stop moving around, you keep kicking me. How long have we been in here
anyway?"
"First of
all, I might be trying to kick you, and second of all, Lumos,"
the space lit up again with a warm light, as Alex pulled out what looked to be
a rather elaborate hourglass, "it's been exactly 23 minutes and 7 seconds since
you last asked me, so stop asking."
"Wherever
did you get that thing?" Draco asked, heedless of her animosity.
"From my
grandfather," Alex replied shortly.
"Where
did he get it?"
"He made
it."
"How?"
"It's
enchanted. The sand is from Cuba, where my father is from, from the grave of my
great-great-grandmother Inez. She was buried in a small cove, close to the
ocean, near her home, where she was born, lived, and died. She was supposed to
have been a great Santeria priestess in her time. People would come from all
around the world to see her," Alex explained.
"So the
sand's enchanted?"
"That
too. It's hard to explain, because the kind of magic that's involved isn't any
that we're going to learn here at Hogwarts."
"And what
sort of magic would that be?" Draco asked sarcastically.
"Santería."
"You mean
like voodoo, with the chicken heads and all that?"
"It's not
like that at all. Killing things for spells, anywhere in the world, is dark
magic. My grandfather and great-grandmother knew of it, and knew how to do it,
but rarely ever did it themselves," she explained. The closet was all of a
sudden very quiet again.
"So…do
you know any Santería?" Draco asked.
"Not as
much as my grandfather did. He didn't teach me very much before he died; only a
protection spell, really."
"A
protection spell? Against what?"
"Evil
spirits and ghosts," Alex replied, hoping that might shut him up. It was well
known that Draco was not a fan of the Bloody Baron. It did, in fact, get quiet,
but soon enough Draco piped up again.
"Um….Alex?"
"Yes?"
"I wanted
to apologize."
"For
what?"
"What do
you mean, for what?"
"Well, if
you think about it, you've got a lot to apologize for. Are you apologizing for
enabling the entire house to make my life hell for the past four years, or are
you apologizing for pushing me down in the train when I was trying to help you,
or are you apologizing for putting me in this situation?"
Draco was
silent.
"The
first two. I feel that I have no responsibility for where you find yourself
now."
"Why not?
If you hadn't started fighting with me, Mrs. Norris wouldn't have caught us and
we wouldn't have had to run away and gotten stuck in here!"
"You
started the fight."
"I did
not!"
"Did
too."
"Fine.
Have the last bloody word; I don't care. And you can apologize all you want,
but obviously you don't feel bad for your actions. There's no use in me
forgiving you for things you don't regret doing," Alex said quietly.
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Burn in
hell."
"You
first."
* *
* *
Argus
Filch was always up with the sun. Walking the halls of Hogwarts castle while
the students were still asleep was one of the small pleasures he got out of
life, given that their loud, boisterous energy disturbed what he felt was the
true spirit of Hogwarts. Having already checked all of the dungeons for rats,
lizards, and even for Peeves, he was now preparing to scan the hallways near
Slytherin house. He had a special order for everything, and in terms of
monitoring the upkeep of the castle, he moved from the bottom to the top,
saving the towers for last, since all the stairs aggravated his bad knee.
Only at
the last minute did he remember to unlock the broom closet across from the
Slytherin house entrance; though Quidditch practices wouldn't start for another
month, both the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams liked to start early. Trying the
door, he was able to unlock it easily, which was rather odd given that it
usually put up a fight to let itself be opened. Even then, he did not suspect
anything was amiss until he looked down at the floor of the closet. Such was his shock that he was rendered
utterly speechless and merely stared at the two bodies that lay entwined in a
heap at the bottom of the closet, slumbering peacefully as if nothing in the
world could ever disturb them.
"Is that
Draco?" a voice inquired behind him. Pansy Parkinson, looking like she'd sucked
on a very tart lemon, was gawking at the sight of the two people sleeping at
the bottom of the closet. Filch realized that he must have been staring for
quite a while, since students were now pouring out of Slytherin, heading
towards Great Hall for breakfast.
"Draco?
What are you doing?" Pansy demanded in an increasingly shrill voice.
Draco did not hear her, but Alex certainly did. She awoke immediately, and
stood up almost instantly. Draco's head smacked the floor, since Alex had
removed her arm, which had served as his pillow for most of the night, from
under his head.
"DRACO??
Would you mind explaining this?" Pansy shrieked, pulling Alex by her hair and
pointing to the scar on her neck. Draco rubbed his head, and merely stared at
Filch and the hysterical girl.
"Oh,
bugger."
"Bugger
is right, Mr. Malfoy. Get up," Filch snapped.
"Draco!
How dare you?! Cheating on me
with this…this…Mudblood? Have you no shame?" Pansy shrieked, still
pulling at Alex's hair. Alex, who did not like to be led around by her hair
especially so early in the morning, pinched Pansy, who shrieked even louder,
finally letting her hair go. By this time, a very large crowd had gathered to
watch the drama.
"How can
I cheat on you when we've never been together?" Draco snapped,
stretching his legs and fixing his robes.
"So you
are you admitting to being with this…this…this - ?" Pansy asked, her voice
breaking and dangerously close to tears. Alex was getting very close to giving
her something to cry about, but as there were witnesses, she thought the better
of it.
Draco
simply looked at her, giving her the scathing look he seemed to have reserved
for only the lowest forms of life. Even Alex hadn't ever been privy to being on
the receiving end of one of those.
Pansy
screeched, rushing back in the direction of the Slytherin common room.
"So, am I
in trouble, or what?" Draco asked, turning to Filch. Filch himself looked very
surprised, and nodded absently.
"Come
with me, you two," he mumbled, pulling them by their ears towards the faculty
corridor.
* * * *
Harry
Potter was one of the last students to enter the Great Hall. He had very little
on his mind, other than how he could possibly convince himself to skip class
and go back to sleep. But loud shouts of mirth from the Gryffindor table jarred
his thoughts and made him focus on the present. It was an odd sight indeed for
the morning of the second day of term; virtually all of the Gryffindors were
gathered together around their table and appeared to be greatly amusing
themselves.
I wonder
what Fred and George have done this time, Harry thought, cautiously approaching
the table, sitting down next to Ron.
"Well, Harry and Hermione," Fred remarked
when Harry had sat down, "it seems that you two aren't the only ones feeling
your oats."
The
entire table laughed, save for a brooding Ron. Utterly confused, Harry decided
to play Fred's game, despite the twinge of annoyance he felt. "What do you
mean?"
"Well",
the twin replied with a mischievous glint in his eye, "Draco was caught with a
girl this morning…outside his common room…in a closet...and get this,
both of them had hickeys!"
Hermione,
not one for balance problems, fell right out of her chair when she heard this.
But Harry was the only one who noticed, since everyone was too busy laughing.
George
picked up right where Fred had left off. "Yes, and apparently the entire
Slytherin House is in an uproar, now that their superstar was with a
muggle-born". More laughter ensued, and Harry couldn't help but glance at
Hermione, whose facial expression betrayed her composed posture. For a moment,
she held Harry's gaze, and quickly looked away. As the general conversation
turned to more every day affairs, Harry turned to his best friends, making a
mental note to speak to Hermione individually.
"So...you
think it's true? About Draco, I mean." asked Harry, paying particular attention
to Hermione, who seemed preoccupied with her losing battle against
schizophrenia at the moment.
Ron, who
had been watching Harry and Hermione a tad too closely as of late, snorted.
"Draco
would be getting shags before I do... life can be so cruel
sometimes..." he said bitterly to Harry.
"Honestly,
I personally do not know, and frankly, I don't see why it should concern you
both", scolded Hermione, who now appeared more unsettled than Harry thought
possible, and began to put her books away.
Harry
smiled in Hermione's direction; no matter what she might be going through, good
old Hermione would always be there to scold them for improper behavior.
She,
however, promptly lost her mind, because she suddenly stood up and declared, "I
have to run to the library and do some last minute research. I'll meet up with
you two in Potions."
Harry
could only stare bewildered at her retreating form; he had not expected
Hermione to rush off so soon, acting as if she purposely wanted to avoid them
both. Very odd behavior indeed, Harry thought.
"What did
you say to her?" Harry
asked Ron, biting into a piece of toast.
He did not answer right away, but after much
shifting in his seat, he finally turned to Harry.
"Harry,
what exactly is going on between you and Hermione?" demanded a clearly anxious
Ron.
* * *
Alex was
mortified. She knew that people now thought that she and Draco were an item,
but she'd have never thought that they'd think that she was sleeping with him.
She realized soon enough, however, that this assumption was naïve on her part,
considering the position in which they were discovered, and also the large
bruise on her neck, which everyone interpreted as a "love bite," just as Snape
had called it.
Snape. Alex
blushed just thinking about him. Filch had led them straight to Snape's office,
apparently hoping for some sort of harsh punishment to be meted out. Filch
should have known better.
"You may
leave now, Filch," Snape said, giving him one of his most oily smiles.
"You'll
punish them good, though, won't ye? They were caught out of their house, you
know. Overnight," Filch added with a conspiratorial wink that made Alex
angry.
"We
didn't do anything, so you can stop that winking right now!" she yelled. Snape
smiled at her warmly, beckoning her to sit in one of the chairs opposite his
desk.
"You may
leave now, Filch," he repeated, opening the door. Filch left,
disappointed in his efforts once again. Snape motioned to Draco to sit in the
other chair, and sat down at his desk, entwining his fingers.
"I will
not ask for any explanation of your behavior-"
"We
didn't do anything!" Alex interrupted, bolting out of her chair.
"Ms.
Saavedra, please calm yourself," Snape said quietly. Alex sat down, cautiously.
If she was going to be punished, she wanted to at least tell her side of the
story. It would only be fair. Though now that she thought about it, it would
probably only get her into more trouble. She snuck a glance at Draco. He seemed
wholly unperturbed by the entire situation, which troubled her only more.
"I will have
to give you detention," he continued, "but since both of you are not new to
that sort of thing and it will not be something terribly hard, don't worry
about it. What I do want to talk to you about has to do with being safe.
I realize that you are young, you're feeling restless…you want to try…new
things…" Snape looked decidedly uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as Alex
felt. She had wanted to speak up, tell him the truth, but found that she could
speak at all. She stared at her hands, as if they had only recently sprouted
from her wrists.
"I hope
you are taking great measures to…protect…yourselves…from any sort of
inadvertent consequences…that can arise from this sort of thing-" Draco's snort
turned Snape's face seven shades redder, a hue Alex had believed him entirely
incapable of.
"Either
way," he proceeded to say, coughing into his fist, "if you ever need to talk
about…anything…I am at your service…and…and…here!" A small pamphlet appeared in her lap, titled, Safe Sex and
You: How to protect yourself with magic, by Clamidia Herpson. Alex would
have passed out if Draco hadn't taken her arm and pulled her out of Snape's
office.
How she
showered, dressed, and arrived to the table still baffled her, but now that she
was here, finally eating, she had all of her faculties, and was properly
mortified. This feeling distracted her from the fact that she was now a pariah
amongst not only her fellow housemates, but also amongst nearly all the girls.
Judging by the whispered comments that every girl who walked by her seemed to
throw her way, they all thought she was either the most common of hussies, or
else morally bankrupt on account of sleeping with Draco Malfoy, of all people.
But all in all, Alex shrugged. She was used to this sort of treatment.
Draco, on
the other hand, was not. While most the students did not like him, he had
commanded a vague sort of respect amongst the students of Slytherin whenever he
entered a room, walked down the hall, or what have you. Now, it seemed that thanks to Pansy
Parkinson's hysterics, the entire house was engaging in a widespread boycott of
Draco Malfoy. The freedom it gave him scared him, but was thrilling all the
same. At the moment, he and Alex sat isolated in her usual place, at the end of
the table, eating quietly, without looking at each other.
****
Potions
class couldn't be more horrible. Snape was on a rampage, having reduced Neville
to shreds of sniveling humility; Hermione seemed more than a bit off her
rocker, and Ron was acting rather pissy as well. Harry noted all of this with a
decidedly unattached air, which only served to anger his best friends even
more, especially Ron. The youngest male Weasley had not believed Harry when he
truthfully answered his question, asserting that nothing was in fact going on
between Hermione and him. When Harry had asked him why he cared in the first
place, he simply muttered, "Forget it". The conversation ended there, as they
were already late for potions, which was in itself an auspicious way to begin
what was to be unabashed torture to come. Ron had not spoken a word to Harry
since. Harry decided against confronting Ron, and instead watched for any new
developments in what looked to be the newest episode of As the Snake Turns.
As a result, he now couldn't be bothered to notice much of anything else, other
than the strange way Alex and Draco were behaving. Harry had noticed before
that Alex usually took to sitting far in the back of potions, across the room
from where Ron, Hermione, and he would normally sit. Today, however, she was
sitting closer to the three and the rest of the Gryffindors. Draco himself was
parked on the outskirts of a cluster of Slytherin tables. As they were fairly
isolated from their housemates, it was apparent that the rest of the Slytherins
weren't too keen on the couple's budding romance. Worse, they continued to whisper and laugh to the chagrin of
Hermione, who'd been admonished by Snape to be quiet when she tried to complain
of the noise only recently.
Hermione herself seemed to have lost her mind. Her behavior
at the table today had piqued Harry's curiosity and he was determined to find
out what was wrong with her. As the class neared to a close, he resolved to
talk to her first thing after Potions.
***
Ahhh, our
wonderful reviewers:
Child of
shadows: Well, although we are not promising anything, we can assure you that
this fic will not be focused on a big Ron v. Harry fight. Yes, they will have
little skirmishes (as you may have noticed in this chapter), but it'll all be
well in the end.
Yuubou: Of course Ron is jealous? Would you expect any less of him? (Btw, we
love Ron; but we are expanding on the jealous behavior he exhibited in GoF).
Cakbug:
Sorry the last chapter was so short.
Hopefully we've made it up with this one!
Roxy: Calm down, girl! And write a more decent review if you want a
cameo! Hehehe…you know we love ya,
Rox.
Alanna
Dumbledore: Nous savons seulement comment les faire dans Microsoft Word. Mais tu peux consulter ton version de "Help"
dans Windows. But we're glad you're enjoying it!
Jennifer:
Yes, yes, you're right. Since we love
drama, we couldn't stay away from the romance factor. But it's not really like
Betty la Fea, though you could probably spot some influences...hehe…
The Rogue:
Thanks for the compliment! We hope
you've liked this latest addition!
