Fae staggered to her feet when she saw Ron, and was immediately blown back
against the wall. She slowly, slowly made her way over to the door, taking
baby steps and staying up against the cool stone. Ron still couldn't
believe what he was seeing. Fae had just conjured up a huge, huge dark
mark, bigger than the one he had seen at the Quidditch game last summer
with Harry and Hermione.
He saw her pale white hand grasp onto the side of the doorframe opposing him, and finally pulled herself out of the room. She grabbed onto his robes and kind of swung herself over to his side, and they both started to push the door back. With some difficulty, it was finally shut again. They both put their backs against it and sunk down onto the floor.
After a few minutes of heavy breathing, Ron staggered to his feet. "You!" he said, pointing at her. "What the bloody hell were you doing creating the dark mark? Do you know how much trouble that gets you into? And you're looking to stay out of it! I can't believe you did that! I came in here to get you and.and.argghhh! And where did you learn? What were you thinking?"
She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but remained silent. She looked down at her feet, not daring to meet his eyes. Suddenly, footsteps were heard. Ron turned his head worriedly, and was greeted by Tracy. Fae suddenly remembered how see-through her shirt had become after the water-spill, and folded her arms, trying to cover her chest. Hopefully the winds had helped dry her clothes.
Tracy skipped over, her smile shining like a sun. She could have modeled if she had wanted to.
The exact opposite of me, Fae thought, scratching her ear.
Tracy stopped before them and linked her arm with Ron's. "Hey y'all, Happy Halloween.. Mah Goodness! You're all wet!" she looked at Fae with a shocked expression.
Ron couldn't help but smile at the sweetness of her voice; her accent made her sound so innocent all the time.
Fae smacked her hand to the side of her mouth. "No!" she exclaimed, dripping with as much sarcasm as water. She winced, suddenly wanting to slap herself again; Tracy was finally being nice to her, and she was being a bitch right back.
Tracy looked hurt for a minute, and apparently decided not to ask what had happened. Instead, Ron asked her what she was doing out of class. He turned her away from the girl sitting against the wall, and they started to walk away as she told him she was just going to the bathroom and heard a noise (the loud winds coming from the dark mark). Ron neglected to mention just what that noise was, although Fae was sure he'd tell her eventually.
She looked up and saw Ron up against the wall and Tracy with her arms around his neck. She said something in his ear and he turned a bright shade of red, as she brushed the hair out of his eyes. Their lips were getting closer and closer as they continued to speak and Fae watched in disgust. Tracy said something again, and pressed her cherry red mouth against his. Fae's eyes bulged, and as soon as she saw the Southern girl's tongue snake into his mouth, she stood up and stormed off.
He had come to get Fae, to see if she was all right? Bull. She headed up into the Gryffindor common room, where she stayed until dinnertime. She had spent her time on her bed, going over her Accio summoning spell. It was taking her a long time, and she hardly made any progress with everything that had happened prior to that moment on her mind. Right then she didn't care if she missed any classes or not; she didn't want anyone to ever see her again. Although, on the other hand, she felt that maybe the Halloween dinner Hogwarts had, would lift her spirits. As she headed to the Great Hall, she had barely turned the first corner, when she bumped into Draco.
"What are you doing here?" her first question fired right away; they were in the Gryffindor hall, hardly anyone but Gryffindors were ever there.
His answer shocked her. "Looking for you." He said. She slumped back into the wall, beneath a gold and burgundy tapestry: Gryffindor's colors. Draco fingered the tapestry's long golden rope, and its tassel. After a few seconds, he spoke. "I saw your fight with Goyle. I saw you go mad on him, and how you didn't want to stop fighting. I know what happened; you felt something inside of you. And you're wondering what's been wrong with you lately.. what's been driving you to do these unmerciful acts.
"You wanted to kill him, didn't you?"
His words were like a brick being thrown into a window, shocking her. That seemed almost completely random. She remembered just how angry she had been with Goyle, and how she hadn't wanted to stop fighting him, even after he was finished. How she threatened to take his life.
"I did." She choked, finally meeting his eyes.
He smiled contently and nodded his head once. "I told you. I told you that there was something dark inside of you. Right now," he put his hand on hers and stared over her shoulder in thought. "Yes." He said, "Yes, right now, I feel it more than ever."
He kept his hand on hers, and there were a few seconds of silence. She lifted her hand up to 'scratch her nose', evading his grasp. She looked into his eyes once more, and said "Well, I best be heading to dinner. I hear they have a wicked Halloween one planned out."
Draco looked at her for a minute, and then finally nodded. They walked to the Great Hall; she a few steps ahead of him, and stopped before the doors. "You sure you want to be seen with a Gryffindor mudblood?" she said, almost teasingly, and he laughed.
Draco-a Slytherin-egotistical, inconsiderate Draco Malfoy was laughing at Fae's joke. This was really, really weird. She opened the doors uneasily, and a few of the students looked up. Most of them were concentrating on the tons and tons of candy they had strewn out across their tables. Carmel apples, doughnuts, humungous lollipops and a large assortment of sweets and goodies adorned the tables.
Floating jack-o-lanterns hovered around the room and bats flew by every now and then (of course, just a spell.) The ceiling reflected a dark, cloudy night sky with the occasional roll of thunder and clap of lightning.
Fae squealed excitedly and skipped off to join the others, completely forgetting about Draco. He snorted as she sat down, then he went to go join his house table.
As soon as she sat down between Fred and George, even they moved away from her a little bit. The others just looked at Fae for a while. She had a look of confusion on her face, and then it dawned on her. She silently prayed that Ron hadn't told everyone what had happened; she really didn't need that. But of course, he had.
She brushed her hair behind her ear self-consciously, as the others kept looking back from themselves, to her. Finally, conversation struck up and Fae decided to just keep quiet. After a few moments, Mr Filch came hobbling in and hurried over to the head table to Dumbledore. He was a scary sight, really. He had a mouth full of twisted yellow teeth and long, un-kept hair. His eyes were beady and he had brownish-black stubble covering his entire chin and some of his neck. He had a disgusted sneer on his face as he spoke to the headmaster. A gray and brown cat trailed behind him, and Fae noticed that it had blood-red eyes.
She continued watching him, hoping that things couldn't get worse. The entire table of teachers turned their heads to look at her briefly, before turning back to Filch. Thrusting her arms up in the air in defeat, she banged her head on the table a few times.
"Damn this-ow-bad day-ow-on my favorite-ow-holiday! Ow!"
The others at her table exchanged glances, not daring to say anything. A few teachers walked out the door, lead by Filch. She guessed that they were heading towards the door where the dark mark was discovered. They were going to find her for sure, and this would definitely get her expelled; she hadn't bothered to tell Ron what had really happened.
Fred tried to cover his suspicions by turning the conversation over to her. "So, Fae! How are you coming along on your Herbology Dark Mark-I MEAN HOMEWORK! HOMEWORK! I SAID HOMEWORK!" he suddenly exclaimed at his accidental misuse of words.
"Oh, Merlin save us." George mumbled, massaging his temples. Fred was now slamming a textbook on his forehead mercilessly as the others exchanged glances.
"Do you really think I did it?" Fae's soft voice quieted them.
Immediately, they turned dead silent, suddenly finding their plates extremely interesting, and were unable to make eye contact with her. She looked amongst them, waiting for an answer. When she received none, she snorted and left the table.
+ + +
Until around Christmas break, Fae found herself to be alone most of the time, again. This had been happening pretty often so far this year. She barely spoke to any of the other Gryffindors, except for an awkward 'thank you' from Ginny for pretty much saving her tail from Crabbe and Goyle. But other than that, she just talked to Violete, and surprisingly Tracy. She wouldn't really call it 'talking' with Draco; it mainly consisted of him staring at her across the room and leaving notes here and there about how 'she needed him more than she knew' and about the 'dark side' she had. She usually just wadded them up and threw them over her shoulder, and made it a point to avoid him for the rest of the day.
She tried to speak with her so-called friends, but they usually just ended their conversations quickly or made up an excuse to leave.
Her nickname had soon become "bucket", because of what Pansy had done to her. A lot of Slytherins, and some exceptionally rude people from other houses, called her that and mumbled something about it as they passed her in the hall. She assumed that was as creative as they could get, but at least her name spoke the truth about her; Pansy was, in fact, a little Pansy. She was pretty much all talk.
This went on for a few more months, as it neared Christmas. She was debating on whether or not to stay at Hogwarts over the Holiday at breakfast one day, when three single owls flew in, all struggling to carry a heavy object. Surprisingly, they fluttered down and hovered over Fae, as a few heads turned. She took it in her hands and looked at the brown paper wrapping. After a few moments, a huge grin crossed her face and she ran off to the Gryffindor common room.
From that moment on, she mainly stayed up in her common room, or somewhere outside studying and teaching herself her newly acquired guitar. It was her early Christmas present from her parents; she had been asking for an acoustic and finally got one. It looked like finished natural wood, as most acoustics; only it was a dark blue in color. Although she didn't hang out with others much any more, when she taught herself some tablature a few people who had obviously never heard guitarists crowded around to listen to her. They thought she sounded really good when she was actually kind of bad at it. But it was a work in progress.
Naturally, Fae didn't go to the Yule Ball. As everyone else prettied them selves up in their nice dress robes-Ron's didn't look like an actual dress this year-she sat on her bed, writing down tablature for her guitar. Ginny and Hermione were talking about a boy named Viktor Krum. apparently two other schools would be joining them. She didn't dare ask which schools, or try to make conversation. Instead, she was rather nosey, and listened in.
Hermione was again going with this Viktor character, Ginny with Harry ("Just as mates!" as she had suddenly exclaimed in defense). Fred and George were trying to balance two dates each, and Fae almost wished that she was going so she would be able to see it. Ron and Tracy were going together, of course, and she wondered if Violete was going or not.
Soon enough, she was the only one left in the house. She sat on her bed the entire time, writing down more music and attempting to play her guitar. She was doing okay, for someone who was teaching herself in her spare time. And she had no access to prewritten music, so she only knew her own. After a few hours, and still no one returned other than one Third Year girl to get more of her make up (Fae didn't see why; she looked like she was wearing a mask as it already was). She decided to just walk around and maybe stand outside the Great Hall, just to see what was going on, of course.
Reaching the Great Hall, the first thing she took note of was the music. It wasn't bad, as in very obvious bad, but she couldn't really picture many people dancing to it. The doors were open, and as she glanced in, she saw that it was very dark. It looked somewhat like a muggle dance; there were colored lights and bubbles and a smoke machine, although there was nothing operating it other than magic.
She snorted; apparently, she wasn't missing much. There were quite a few people dancing, but most of them were off to the side. She did find it interesting to watch the twins holding a break-dancing competition, though. For a few seconds, she almost missed their company. Then she saw Ron and Tracy up against the wall, and she was surprised they weren't burning a hole through the stone. They were making out as if he were going off to war and this would be the last time she was to see him. She stifled a laugh; he looked as if he were about to choke on her tongue. She stood there for a few more moments, just looking around the room.
Social gatherings.. not her type of place.
+ + +
As the winter break drew near, she finally decided that this being her only two years in Hogwarts, she would be staying there over the vacation. Of course, basically every one of her former 'friends', except Hermione, was too. So of course, she didn't join them in unwrapping the presents Christmas day. As they hastily tore the colored paper off of an assortment of different boxes and shouted loudly, she snaked down the stairs, unnoticed until the door shut behind her. They all looked at each other, then under the tree.
"No presents?" Harry searched for anything marked with the name 'Fae', with no luck at all. He didn't realize that her present this year was her guitar, and she had already received it. Meanwhile, Ron was unwrapping yet another ugly sweater knit from his mum.
"Aw, geez." He said, as the twins sniggered.
+ + +
Fae had wandered down the hall, a few flights of stairs, and found herself to be who-knows-where. She suspected it to be somewhere above the great hall, as she stood before one of the windows. She looked outside and, seeing the snow, smiled. There had been a big snowball fight before the break; she had actually participated in it, and relieved a lot of stress by pelting snowballs at people (even the twins, when their backs were turned.)
Of course, the main competition had been between Gryffindor and Slytherin. By then, Fae had wandered off to the side, with Violete, and watched the show. Harry, Ron and Hermione were fighting with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione had taken quite a few hits while restraining Ron from pulling out his wand. Not that she would mind seeing Draco turned into a ferret again or the like, but Ron never did have much luck with his wand.
Eventually, Fae had grown tired and started to walk around. She somehow wound up watching Tracy and Ron walking together hand-in-hand, catching snowflakes on their tongues and the occasional playful snowball being thrown at each other; just her luck. She assumed that the two were 'together' now, seeing as to how they had been spending every waking moment with each other for the past four months.
She pressed her fingers up against the glass, and looked out into the snow again. She saw that they were fogged up with little condensation from the cold outside and warm inside air mixing together. She glanced around, made sure no one was looking, and breathed up against it. A bigger cloud formed over the glass, and she wrote out her full name: Faelyinne Shay O'Connor. Feeling like a little kid back in Ireland again, she smiled contently at herself.
"I didn't know that was your full name."
She whirled around, and was very shocked indeed to see Ron standing behind her. She looked around nervously, not sure whether to be nice or to repay him for everything he had done to her. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she turned her back to him, leaning up against the window again.
"I know it's extremely long and makes me sound like a rich snob." She said, staring out into what appeared to be endless white. "You don't have to tell me."
Ron snorted. "You know, Fae, you really need to relax and quit being so edgy. I was just going to say that I think it's a nice name."
She felt her face grow hot, still not turning to him. Was he complimenting her or insulting her? "You know, Ron, you shouldn't be talking. You're the one who-" she turned around and found that he had disappeared. She looked around and saw him heading off around the corridor back into the Gryffindor common room. Tracy was home for the holiday, so he had most likely just been wandering around with boredom. Huffing a sigh, she rested her chin on her fist and looked angrily out the window.
After a few moments, she heard a soft 'meow' and looked down at her feet. There was a tiny, skinny little black cat rubbing at her ankles. Raising its head up, she noticed that it was missing its left eye. "Eh? Pluto!" she said with sudden realization, kneeling down. Due to her obsession with Edgar Allan Poe, when she had found Pluto on the side of the road, barely living and badly injured, she took him in. She noticed that he was missing an eye, and took the opportunity to name him after a character in Poe's short story, "The Black Cat".
She scooped Pluto up in her arms and found a tiny red note-card tied around his neck. She opened it with her thumb and forefinger and saw, written in her foster-father's handwriting,
Your old Pluto missed you, and apparently you can have pets at Hogwarts. Have a very Happy Christmas, Dear, and keep up on your studies! We hope to hear more from you soon! Love, Da
She smiled and scratched her kitty's head as it rubbed her with its chin in return. Her father's first priority seemed to always be her education. Taking note of his hint, 'hope to hear more from you', she folded the tiny card and put it in her pocket. He was right, she hadn't been writing home as much as she had said she would be lately. Realizing she had nothing to do, she decided that writing home would be a good idea.
Turning on her heel to look down the corridor, she wondered if Ron had brought Pluto to her. She realized that doing that kind of act would require kindness, something that Ron didn't really have toward her. Besides, Pluto seemed to have some kind of tracking device on her; it always managed to find her at her home back in Ireland, inside or outside. He had followed her to school quite a few times too.
She slowly made her way back up to the common room, with Pluto close behind her feet. She was about to go into the common room, when she heard voices. It was Harry and Ron.
"My scar still hurts when she's around."
She could just picture Ron with that all-knowing look on his face. "I thought so.has it let up any?"
"Not a bit." Harry sighed. There was a while of silence as Fae swallowed. She seemed to be the main topic of discussion lately, and she hated it.
He finally spoke again. "Ron, do you think she created the Dark Mark?" Fae's breath caught in her throat.
"I have to say so. I mean.. I saw what I saw. And I swear to you, I wouldn't make up something like that, no matter how much Fae and I don't get along." He gave a disgruntled sigh. "Well, I mean, even the teachers think that she did it!"
"Did they even give her a questioning?" Harry asked him, and Ron was silent for a while. Fae didn't get to hear his answer as the door swung open, nearly knocking her off her feet. Harry and Ron came through the door, gave her a strange look, and headed off. She cursed under her breath and jumped to the wall next to the painting, hoping that somehow, they hadn't seen.
She was about to head inside, when the sound of footsteps stopped her. She turned around and saw Draco walking toward her. He walked with such confidence; it was amazing at times. The only thing that really, truly bothered her about Draco-aside from his tendency to be snide-was that he appeared to be perfect. He seemed to never have anything wrong with his life, and had always been pleased just to know that he made someone else's day a living hell, as if that were all that mattered. And he wasn't anything less than perfect on the outside either; blue-gray eyes that looked like a winter's evening sky, his own original hairstyle, and a perfectly evil-looking grin. The entire female body of the school found him attractive, whether they were going to admit it or not, because of their house. As much as Fae hated to say so, she did too. He stopped before her and just looked at her. After a few minutes;
"Why are you here?" Fae's usual question.
"Happy Christmas to you, too." He retorted, shoving his hands into his pockets as his smirk molded into a frown.
She shook her head. "No, I mean, why aren't you with your family? It's Christmas vacation."
He pressed his lips together, and she figured that it was a sensitive subject. So. The emotionless one did have a sensitive side. "Never mind." Fae said, and he asked her why she wasn't at home.
"Because I'm only going to be here for two years, I figure soak it up for all it's worth." She wasn't in that good of a mood, and decided to just put up with him for then. Flicking a smile, she brushed her hair behind her ears.
He tilted his head. "Something wrong?"
Sighing, she leaned up against the wall and looked up into the ceiling. "Oh, nothing.you know, just the usual. My entire house is accusing me of something and no one believes me," She didn't feel like getting into too much detail. She thought he might have started up on his whole 'you don't deserve what those mudbloods are doing to you' speech, but he surprisingly didn't.
"I'm sorry."
She almost choked at the sound of this, and started coughing uncontrollably. He almost started laughing as she struggled to breath. "S- sorry?" she gagged out. He slowly nodded his head, looking rather confused. She finally regained her breath and almost looked embarrassed.
"Oh." Was all she could think to say, and then her expression clouded over again.
He raised an eyebrow. "Would now be a good time to be sincere and ask if you want to talk about anything?"
She stopped herself from choking again; why was he being so concerned about her? He hadn't cared until lately. Still, she found herself to be silently drawn towards him. "It's nothing." She said, shaking her head.
For a long time there was silence, as they just looked at each other, their expressions unreadable. That same stupid lock of hair fell in her eyes again, somewhat ruining the moment, and they both chuckled a little. He reached out and brushed it back into place, barely touching her with his fingertips. Suddenly, she felt empowered. Like her very soul had grown some sort of atomic wings and just lifted off all the burdens of the past school year.
Unfortunately, footsteps sounded; Ron and Harry's footsteps. They quickly exchanged glances, and he leaned forward. Fae involuntarily took a step back, but instead of kissing her like she had expected, he only rested his forehead on hers. "I want to see you later tonight. Potter has an invisibility cloak. Use it." He said. She started to protest, but he placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose, which immediately shut her up. "Happy Christmas." He grinned, and strode off down the hallway.
A few moments later, Harry and Ron walked by, and Fae was still standing there with a dazed look on her face. The two boys just kept their eyes on her as they passed, and nobody said a word.
As much as she didn't want to admit, Fae was determined to get that invisibility cloak. She had no idea where Draco wanted her to be, or when, but she wanted to be there. She wanted to be with Draco Malfoy. And she was still calling him by his first name. She was surprised at her self: this wasn't normal at all. Draco-erm, Malfoy, had treated her friends like dirt, calling them names and even worse. But tried to act like nothing ever happened when he was around her. He just didn't make any sense to her, but she still felt compelled to him.
She stalked into the picture frame and saw the boys all sitting scattered throughout the common room. She suspected Fred and George were still upstairs, so she went silently up to her dorm. She sat on her bed, only emerging to eat her dinner-during which she didn't see Draco-and then went back to sitting on her bed. Ron and Harry were sitting at a table in the corner of the common room. She suspected Fred and George were still upstairs, so she went silently up to her dorm. A few hours after the sunset, she sat waiting to hear the twins leave the boys rooms. She suspected that's where Harry would have the cloak hidden, but she would have to move quickly if she was to find it and leave in time for them to not see her.
Finally, she decided to go check on the boys' rooms. She peered into the crack in the door, and found it completely empty. Cursing under her breath for wasting a good three hours or so, she checked her watch. It was almost ten o'clock; she needed to move quickly.
He saw her pale white hand grasp onto the side of the doorframe opposing him, and finally pulled herself out of the room. She grabbed onto his robes and kind of swung herself over to his side, and they both started to push the door back. With some difficulty, it was finally shut again. They both put their backs against it and sunk down onto the floor.
After a few minutes of heavy breathing, Ron staggered to his feet. "You!" he said, pointing at her. "What the bloody hell were you doing creating the dark mark? Do you know how much trouble that gets you into? And you're looking to stay out of it! I can't believe you did that! I came in here to get you and.and.argghhh! And where did you learn? What were you thinking?"
She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but remained silent. She looked down at her feet, not daring to meet his eyes. Suddenly, footsteps were heard. Ron turned his head worriedly, and was greeted by Tracy. Fae suddenly remembered how see-through her shirt had become after the water-spill, and folded her arms, trying to cover her chest. Hopefully the winds had helped dry her clothes.
Tracy skipped over, her smile shining like a sun. She could have modeled if she had wanted to.
The exact opposite of me, Fae thought, scratching her ear.
Tracy stopped before them and linked her arm with Ron's. "Hey y'all, Happy Halloween.. Mah Goodness! You're all wet!" she looked at Fae with a shocked expression.
Ron couldn't help but smile at the sweetness of her voice; her accent made her sound so innocent all the time.
Fae smacked her hand to the side of her mouth. "No!" she exclaimed, dripping with as much sarcasm as water. She winced, suddenly wanting to slap herself again; Tracy was finally being nice to her, and she was being a bitch right back.
Tracy looked hurt for a minute, and apparently decided not to ask what had happened. Instead, Ron asked her what she was doing out of class. He turned her away from the girl sitting against the wall, and they started to walk away as she told him she was just going to the bathroom and heard a noise (the loud winds coming from the dark mark). Ron neglected to mention just what that noise was, although Fae was sure he'd tell her eventually.
She looked up and saw Ron up against the wall and Tracy with her arms around his neck. She said something in his ear and he turned a bright shade of red, as she brushed the hair out of his eyes. Their lips were getting closer and closer as they continued to speak and Fae watched in disgust. Tracy said something again, and pressed her cherry red mouth against his. Fae's eyes bulged, and as soon as she saw the Southern girl's tongue snake into his mouth, she stood up and stormed off.
He had come to get Fae, to see if she was all right? Bull. She headed up into the Gryffindor common room, where she stayed until dinnertime. She had spent her time on her bed, going over her Accio summoning spell. It was taking her a long time, and she hardly made any progress with everything that had happened prior to that moment on her mind. Right then she didn't care if she missed any classes or not; she didn't want anyone to ever see her again. Although, on the other hand, she felt that maybe the Halloween dinner Hogwarts had, would lift her spirits. As she headed to the Great Hall, she had barely turned the first corner, when she bumped into Draco.
"What are you doing here?" her first question fired right away; they were in the Gryffindor hall, hardly anyone but Gryffindors were ever there.
His answer shocked her. "Looking for you." He said. She slumped back into the wall, beneath a gold and burgundy tapestry: Gryffindor's colors. Draco fingered the tapestry's long golden rope, and its tassel. After a few seconds, he spoke. "I saw your fight with Goyle. I saw you go mad on him, and how you didn't want to stop fighting. I know what happened; you felt something inside of you. And you're wondering what's been wrong with you lately.. what's been driving you to do these unmerciful acts.
"You wanted to kill him, didn't you?"
His words were like a brick being thrown into a window, shocking her. That seemed almost completely random. She remembered just how angry she had been with Goyle, and how she hadn't wanted to stop fighting him, even after he was finished. How she threatened to take his life.
"I did." She choked, finally meeting his eyes.
He smiled contently and nodded his head once. "I told you. I told you that there was something dark inside of you. Right now," he put his hand on hers and stared over her shoulder in thought. "Yes." He said, "Yes, right now, I feel it more than ever."
He kept his hand on hers, and there were a few seconds of silence. She lifted her hand up to 'scratch her nose', evading his grasp. She looked into his eyes once more, and said "Well, I best be heading to dinner. I hear they have a wicked Halloween one planned out."
Draco looked at her for a minute, and then finally nodded. They walked to the Great Hall; she a few steps ahead of him, and stopped before the doors. "You sure you want to be seen with a Gryffindor mudblood?" she said, almost teasingly, and he laughed.
Draco-a Slytherin-egotistical, inconsiderate Draco Malfoy was laughing at Fae's joke. This was really, really weird. She opened the doors uneasily, and a few of the students looked up. Most of them were concentrating on the tons and tons of candy they had strewn out across their tables. Carmel apples, doughnuts, humungous lollipops and a large assortment of sweets and goodies adorned the tables.
Floating jack-o-lanterns hovered around the room and bats flew by every now and then (of course, just a spell.) The ceiling reflected a dark, cloudy night sky with the occasional roll of thunder and clap of lightning.
Fae squealed excitedly and skipped off to join the others, completely forgetting about Draco. He snorted as she sat down, then he went to go join his house table.
As soon as she sat down between Fred and George, even they moved away from her a little bit. The others just looked at Fae for a while. She had a look of confusion on her face, and then it dawned on her. She silently prayed that Ron hadn't told everyone what had happened; she really didn't need that. But of course, he had.
She brushed her hair behind her ear self-consciously, as the others kept looking back from themselves, to her. Finally, conversation struck up and Fae decided to just keep quiet. After a few moments, Mr Filch came hobbling in and hurried over to the head table to Dumbledore. He was a scary sight, really. He had a mouth full of twisted yellow teeth and long, un-kept hair. His eyes were beady and he had brownish-black stubble covering his entire chin and some of his neck. He had a disgusted sneer on his face as he spoke to the headmaster. A gray and brown cat trailed behind him, and Fae noticed that it had blood-red eyes.
She continued watching him, hoping that things couldn't get worse. The entire table of teachers turned their heads to look at her briefly, before turning back to Filch. Thrusting her arms up in the air in defeat, she banged her head on the table a few times.
"Damn this-ow-bad day-ow-on my favorite-ow-holiday! Ow!"
The others at her table exchanged glances, not daring to say anything. A few teachers walked out the door, lead by Filch. She guessed that they were heading towards the door where the dark mark was discovered. They were going to find her for sure, and this would definitely get her expelled; she hadn't bothered to tell Ron what had really happened.
Fred tried to cover his suspicions by turning the conversation over to her. "So, Fae! How are you coming along on your Herbology Dark Mark-I MEAN HOMEWORK! HOMEWORK! I SAID HOMEWORK!" he suddenly exclaimed at his accidental misuse of words.
"Oh, Merlin save us." George mumbled, massaging his temples. Fred was now slamming a textbook on his forehead mercilessly as the others exchanged glances.
"Do you really think I did it?" Fae's soft voice quieted them.
Immediately, they turned dead silent, suddenly finding their plates extremely interesting, and were unable to make eye contact with her. She looked amongst them, waiting for an answer. When she received none, she snorted and left the table.
+ + +
Until around Christmas break, Fae found herself to be alone most of the time, again. This had been happening pretty often so far this year. She barely spoke to any of the other Gryffindors, except for an awkward 'thank you' from Ginny for pretty much saving her tail from Crabbe and Goyle. But other than that, she just talked to Violete, and surprisingly Tracy. She wouldn't really call it 'talking' with Draco; it mainly consisted of him staring at her across the room and leaving notes here and there about how 'she needed him more than she knew' and about the 'dark side' she had. She usually just wadded them up and threw them over her shoulder, and made it a point to avoid him for the rest of the day.
She tried to speak with her so-called friends, but they usually just ended their conversations quickly or made up an excuse to leave.
Her nickname had soon become "bucket", because of what Pansy had done to her. A lot of Slytherins, and some exceptionally rude people from other houses, called her that and mumbled something about it as they passed her in the hall. She assumed that was as creative as they could get, but at least her name spoke the truth about her; Pansy was, in fact, a little Pansy. She was pretty much all talk.
This went on for a few more months, as it neared Christmas. She was debating on whether or not to stay at Hogwarts over the Holiday at breakfast one day, when three single owls flew in, all struggling to carry a heavy object. Surprisingly, they fluttered down and hovered over Fae, as a few heads turned. She took it in her hands and looked at the brown paper wrapping. After a few moments, a huge grin crossed her face and she ran off to the Gryffindor common room.
From that moment on, she mainly stayed up in her common room, or somewhere outside studying and teaching herself her newly acquired guitar. It was her early Christmas present from her parents; she had been asking for an acoustic and finally got one. It looked like finished natural wood, as most acoustics; only it was a dark blue in color. Although she didn't hang out with others much any more, when she taught herself some tablature a few people who had obviously never heard guitarists crowded around to listen to her. They thought she sounded really good when she was actually kind of bad at it. But it was a work in progress.
Naturally, Fae didn't go to the Yule Ball. As everyone else prettied them selves up in their nice dress robes-Ron's didn't look like an actual dress this year-she sat on her bed, writing down tablature for her guitar. Ginny and Hermione were talking about a boy named Viktor Krum. apparently two other schools would be joining them. She didn't dare ask which schools, or try to make conversation. Instead, she was rather nosey, and listened in.
Hermione was again going with this Viktor character, Ginny with Harry ("Just as mates!" as she had suddenly exclaimed in defense). Fred and George were trying to balance two dates each, and Fae almost wished that she was going so she would be able to see it. Ron and Tracy were going together, of course, and she wondered if Violete was going or not.
Soon enough, she was the only one left in the house. She sat on her bed the entire time, writing down more music and attempting to play her guitar. She was doing okay, for someone who was teaching herself in her spare time. And she had no access to prewritten music, so she only knew her own. After a few hours, and still no one returned other than one Third Year girl to get more of her make up (Fae didn't see why; she looked like she was wearing a mask as it already was). She decided to just walk around and maybe stand outside the Great Hall, just to see what was going on, of course.
Reaching the Great Hall, the first thing she took note of was the music. It wasn't bad, as in very obvious bad, but she couldn't really picture many people dancing to it. The doors were open, and as she glanced in, she saw that it was very dark. It looked somewhat like a muggle dance; there were colored lights and bubbles and a smoke machine, although there was nothing operating it other than magic.
She snorted; apparently, she wasn't missing much. There were quite a few people dancing, but most of them were off to the side. She did find it interesting to watch the twins holding a break-dancing competition, though. For a few seconds, she almost missed their company. Then she saw Ron and Tracy up against the wall, and she was surprised they weren't burning a hole through the stone. They were making out as if he were going off to war and this would be the last time she was to see him. She stifled a laugh; he looked as if he were about to choke on her tongue. She stood there for a few more moments, just looking around the room.
Social gatherings.. not her type of place.
+ + +
As the winter break drew near, she finally decided that this being her only two years in Hogwarts, she would be staying there over the vacation. Of course, basically every one of her former 'friends', except Hermione, was too. So of course, she didn't join them in unwrapping the presents Christmas day. As they hastily tore the colored paper off of an assortment of different boxes and shouted loudly, she snaked down the stairs, unnoticed until the door shut behind her. They all looked at each other, then under the tree.
"No presents?" Harry searched for anything marked with the name 'Fae', with no luck at all. He didn't realize that her present this year was her guitar, and she had already received it. Meanwhile, Ron was unwrapping yet another ugly sweater knit from his mum.
"Aw, geez." He said, as the twins sniggered.
+ + +
Fae had wandered down the hall, a few flights of stairs, and found herself to be who-knows-where. She suspected it to be somewhere above the great hall, as she stood before one of the windows. She looked outside and, seeing the snow, smiled. There had been a big snowball fight before the break; she had actually participated in it, and relieved a lot of stress by pelting snowballs at people (even the twins, when their backs were turned.)
Of course, the main competition had been between Gryffindor and Slytherin. By then, Fae had wandered off to the side, with Violete, and watched the show. Harry, Ron and Hermione were fighting with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione had taken quite a few hits while restraining Ron from pulling out his wand. Not that she would mind seeing Draco turned into a ferret again or the like, but Ron never did have much luck with his wand.
Eventually, Fae had grown tired and started to walk around. She somehow wound up watching Tracy and Ron walking together hand-in-hand, catching snowflakes on their tongues and the occasional playful snowball being thrown at each other; just her luck. She assumed that the two were 'together' now, seeing as to how they had been spending every waking moment with each other for the past four months.
She pressed her fingers up against the glass, and looked out into the snow again. She saw that they were fogged up with little condensation from the cold outside and warm inside air mixing together. She glanced around, made sure no one was looking, and breathed up against it. A bigger cloud formed over the glass, and she wrote out her full name: Faelyinne Shay O'Connor. Feeling like a little kid back in Ireland again, she smiled contently at herself.
"I didn't know that was your full name."
She whirled around, and was very shocked indeed to see Ron standing behind her. She looked around nervously, not sure whether to be nice or to repay him for everything he had done to her. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she turned her back to him, leaning up against the window again.
"I know it's extremely long and makes me sound like a rich snob." She said, staring out into what appeared to be endless white. "You don't have to tell me."
Ron snorted. "You know, Fae, you really need to relax and quit being so edgy. I was just going to say that I think it's a nice name."
She felt her face grow hot, still not turning to him. Was he complimenting her or insulting her? "You know, Ron, you shouldn't be talking. You're the one who-" she turned around and found that he had disappeared. She looked around and saw him heading off around the corridor back into the Gryffindor common room. Tracy was home for the holiday, so he had most likely just been wandering around with boredom. Huffing a sigh, she rested her chin on her fist and looked angrily out the window.
After a few moments, she heard a soft 'meow' and looked down at her feet. There was a tiny, skinny little black cat rubbing at her ankles. Raising its head up, she noticed that it was missing its left eye. "Eh? Pluto!" she said with sudden realization, kneeling down. Due to her obsession with Edgar Allan Poe, when she had found Pluto on the side of the road, barely living and badly injured, she took him in. She noticed that he was missing an eye, and took the opportunity to name him after a character in Poe's short story, "The Black Cat".
She scooped Pluto up in her arms and found a tiny red note-card tied around his neck. She opened it with her thumb and forefinger and saw, written in her foster-father's handwriting,
Your old Pluto missed you, and apparently you can have pets at Hogwarts. Have a very Happy Christmas, Dear, and keep up on your studies! We hope to hear more from you soon! Love, Da
She smiled and scratched her kitty's head as it rubbed her with its chin in return. Her father's first priority seemed to always be her education. Taking note of his hint, 'hope to hear more from you', she folded the tiny card and put it in her pocket. He was right, she hadn't been writing home as much as she had said she would be lately. Realizing she had nothing to do, she decided that writing home would be a good idea.
Turning on her heel to look down the corridor, she wondered if Ron had brought Pluto to her. She realized that doing that kind of act would require kindness, something that Ron didn't really have toward her. Besides, Pluto seemed to have some kind of tracking device on her; it always managed to find her at her home back in Ireland, inside or outside. He had followed her to school quite a few times too.
She slowly made her way back up to the common room, with Pluto close behind her feet. She was about to go into the common room, when she heard voices. It was Harry and Ron.
"My scar still hurts when she's around."
She could just picture Ron with that all-knowing look on his face. "I thought so.has it let up any?"
"Not a bit." Harry sighed. There was a while of silence as Fae swallowed. She seemed to be the main topic of discussion lately, and she hated it.
He finally spoke again. "Ron, do you think she created the Dark Mark?" Fae's breath caught in her throat.
"I have to say so. I mean.. I saw what I saw. And I swear to you, I wouldn't make up something like that, no matter how much Fae and I don't get along." He gave a disgruntled sigh. "Well, I mean, even the teachers think that she did it!"
"Did they even give her a questioning?" Harry asked him, and Ron was silent for a while. Fae didn't get to hear his answer as the door swung open, nearly knocking her off her feet. Harry and Ron came through the door, gave her a strange look, and headed off. She cursed under her breath and jumped to the wall next to the painting, hoping that somehow, they hadn't seen.
She was about to head inside, when the sound of footsteps stopped her. She turned around and saw Draco walking toward her. He walked with such confidence; it was amazing at times. The only thing that really, truly bothered her about Draco-aside from his tendency to be snide-was that he appeared to be perfect. He seemed to never have anything wrong with his life, and had always been pleased just to know that he made someone else's day a living hell, as if that were all that mattered. And he wasn't anything less than perfect on the outside either; blue-gray eyes that looked like a winter's evening sky, his own original hairstyle, and a perfectly evil-looking grin. The entire female body of the school found him attractive, whether they were going to admit it or not, because of their house. As much as Fae hated to say so, she did too. He stopped before her and just looked at her. After a few minutes;
"Why are you here?" Fae's usual question.
"Happy Christmas to you, too." He retorted, shoving his hands into his pockets as his smirk molded into a frown.
She shook her head. "No, I mean, why aren't you with your family? It's Christmas vacation."
He pressed his lips together, and she figured that it was a sensitive subject. So. The emotionless one did have a sensitive side. "Never mind." Fae said, and he asked her why she wasn't at home.
"Because I'm only going to be here for two years, I figure soak it up for all it's worth." She wasn't in that good of a mood, and decided to just put up with him for then. Flicking a smile, she brushed her hair behind her ears.
He tilted his head. "Something wrong?"
Sighing, she leaned up against the wall and looked up into the ceiling. "Oh, nothing.you know, just the usual. My entire house is accusing me of something and no one believes me," She didn't feel like getting into too much detail. She thought he might have started up on his whole 'you don't deserve what those mudbloods are doing to you' speech, but he surprisingly didn't.
"I'm sorry."
She almost choked at the sound of this, and started coughing uncontrollably. He almost started laughing as she struggled to breath. "S- sorry?" she gagged out. He slowly nodded his head, looking rather confused. She finally regained her breath and almost looked embarrassed.
"Oh." Was all she could think to say, and then her expression clouded over again.
He raised an eyebrow. "Would now be a good time to be sincere and ask if you want to talk about anything?"
She stopped herself from choking again; why was he being so concerned about her? He hadn't cared until lately. Still, she found herself to be silently drawn towards him. "It's nothing." She said, shaking her head.
For a long time there was silence, as they just looked at each other, their expressions unreadable. That same stupid lock of hair fell in her eyes again, somewhat ruining the moment, and they both chuckled a little. He reached out and brushed it back into place, barely touching her with his fingertips. Suddenly, she felt empowered. Like her very soul had grown some sort of atomic wings and just lifted off all the burdens of the past school year.
Unfortunately, footsteps sounded; Ron and Harry's footsteps. They quickly exchanged glances, and he leaned forward. Fae involuntarily took a step back, but instead of kissing her like she had expected, he only rested his forehead on hers. "I want to see you later tonight. Potter has an invisibility cloak. Use it." He said. She started to protest, but he placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose, which immediately shut her up. "Happy Christmas." He grinned, and strode off down the hallway.
A few moments later, Harry and Ron walked by, and Fae was still standing there with a dazed look on her face. The two boys just kept their eyes on her as they passed, and nobody said a word.
As much as she didn't want to admit, Fae was determined to get that invisibility cloak. She had no idea where Draco wanted her to be, or when, but she wanted to be there. She wanted to be with Draco Malfoy. And she was still calling him by his first name. She was surprised at her self: this wasn't normal at all. Draco-erm, Malfoy, had treated her friends like dirt, calling them names and even worse. But tried to act like nothing ever happened when he was around her. He just didn't make any sense to her, but she still felt compelled to him.
She stalked into the picture frame and saw the boys all sitting scattered throughout the common room. She suspected Fred and George were still upstairs, so she went silently up to her dorm. She sat on her bed, only emerging to eat her dinner-during which she didn't see Draco-and then went back to sitting on her bed. Ron and Harry were sitting at a table in the corner of the common room. She suspected Fred and George were still upstairs, so she went silently up to her dorm. A few hours after the sunset, she sat waiting to hear the twins leave the boys rooms. She suspected that's where Harry would have the cloak hidden, but she would have to move quickly if she was to find it and leave in time for them to not see her.
Finally, she decided to go check on the boys' rooms. She peered into the crack in the door, and found it completely empty. Cursing under her breath for wasting a good three hours or so, she checked her watch. It was almost ten o'clock; she needed to move quickly.