A/N: Review! REVIEW! I live off it…you wouldn't want me to die because you're not reviewing right? Because then I couldn't write any more of my wonderful stories! o_O
Now for a little self-promotion J: If you happen to be a LOTR fan and like those AU Legomances, do me a favor and read my story Child of the Wood and it's sequel, The Lady of the Mirror because Child of the Wood is the only story I've ever finished and Lady of the Mirror is the only sequel I've ever written and I'd really appreciate it if you read them (after you read this of course)
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Azera slid open the door to the nearest compartment and swept her gaze over the three chocolate-covered boys inside. They were swapping Chocolate Frog cards and paused mid-swap to turn their heads to look at the newcomer. Azera arranged her face in a friendly smile and sat down in the only vacant seat left. "Hey, I'm Azera," she said warmly, sticking her hand out. "I'm new here and if you could help me…"
It seemed that even with her robes clasped and no skin showing, she had a strange effect on boys. The closest, cutest of the three shook her hand. "I'm Seamus," he said kindly, "and since these too are too peaked to introduce themselves, this is Dean Thomas and this here is Neville Longbottom. Nice to meet you."
"You too," Azera said. Cute AND funny.
"What year are you in?"
"Your year, I think," she said, looking at the two mysteriously silent ones and judging them to be about her age. Her gaze rested coldly on Neville for a moment. Bellatrix had dealt with his parents, and the Longbottom surname was well known among the courtesans of the Dark Lord. Azera pulled her mind back to the present. "Sixth year?"
"Yeah!" said Seamus enthusiastically. "Cool, we haven't had anyone new in ages come here."
"Well, I was wondering if you could help me with something," said Azera, leaning closer to Seamus, who was sitting in the diagonal opposite of her own seat. Seamus leaned forward too. Azera smiled. "I heard that Harry Potter was in our year, and I'd like to speak with him for a moment. Do you know which compartment he's sitting in?"
Seamus looked a little disappointed for a moment, but then his eyes cleared and he answered her question. "I dunno where he is, he usually sits near the back, though."
"Thanks," Azera said, rising from her seat. "Catch you later," she added with a wink as she slid the glass door closed and pondered her next move as she compared what she wanted to do with what she should do.
She wanted to go back to Draco's compartment and flirt with him some more- her female charms had grown rusty from disuse at the fortress of the Dark Lord and they could do with some polishing. But Draco would be there tomorrow, and it was her job to make sure that Harry Potter wouldn't be. Resigned to her task, Azera performed a listening charm on the wand itself and pressed the wand to the door of the nearest compartment. "Parvati!" an annoying voice wailed. She removed the tip of the wand from the door so she wouldn't have to listen to any more of that adolescent nonsense and continued down the luckily empty hallway. Azera stopped to listen a few feet down the hall. "You know, Cho, I really think you should go out with him, he's cute, he's funny…" the voice trailed off as Azera stopped to listen at the last door in the line. Still nothing. She continued up the opposite side of the door until finally-
"I hope you'll be putting a tad more effort into your work this year, Harry, and you too, Ron, N.E.W.T.s are coming up and if you want to be Aurors you really are going to have to put in a little work." Azera let out a silent yet triumphant "Yes!" and drew an invisible hole in the compartment door so that she could watch. Harry sat there like a fish that had bitten the bait at least five or six times already and was more than willing to bite it again. He was with two people that were so obviously Weasleys that it was sickening, and a girl with bushy hair and prominent teeth that had been doing the talking.
Now that she knew that Harry was actually here, on the train, and she knew who his friends were, Azera had seen enough to satisfy the Death Eater inside enough to let herself go back and flirt with Draco some more. She happily walked back down the aisle and slid into Draco's compartment. He looked more than happy to see her.
"I told you I'd see you later," she said in a quiet, husky voice as she slid close to Draco on the seat. The goons were looking trollish as ever, and Azera would bet anything that they were taking mental notes under a misspelled mental heading: How to Catch Chicks. Azera shot them a sultry glare in response to her silent jab and then turned back to Draco. "You know, if you didn't gel your hair back so much," she whispered, toying with a strand that had fallen astray, "I could play with it more." Draco smirked and began playing with her fingers again.
"It's too bad you hadn't come to Hogwarts sooner," he said. "You look like someone I'd like to get to know."
The train pulled into the station at Hogwarts as Azera made her reply, "There'll be plenty of time for that." She pulled her suitcase out from above the seat where she had left it. Draco took it gently from her hand. So Malfoy's a gentleman, she thought, a deliciously evil gentleman. She wondered how Draco would react when she was placed into Gryffindor, just like she planned. She would work it to her advantage- sneaking out to some deserted tower at midnight was so much better than seeing each other in the common room all day, every day. She would make him want to see her more.
The foursome walked together to one of the supposedly horseless carriages. Of course, Azera could see the thestrals clearer than she could see her own hand. She toyed with her thestral heartstring wand as she watched the horses nudge at the ground. "Can you see them?" Draco said softly in her ear as he walked behind her, his lips grazing her earlobe.
"Yeah," she said, "I can see them. Beautiful creatures." Draco laughed softly and his breath tickled her neck as he pulled away. Azera could sense how much he wanted her. He was bad at hiding it.
The trolls lumbered into the carriage first. The thestral pawed the ground at their immense bulk as Draco followed Azera inside. She placed the toe of her shoe lightly over his as the carriages began to roll up the hill towards the castle. Draco's face twisted in his trademark sexy smirk. He was delightfully fun to play with.
The castle loomed over Azera's head as she followed Draco up to the front doors. "Ceallach, Azera," barked a rough female voice.
"McGonagall," Draco drawled. Deputy headmistress, Azera's mind told her as her mind connected the two phrases.
"I gotta go," Azera said apologetically, brushing his lips with a kiss as light as the wind stirred by the beating of butterfly wings. She could almost feel his heart dance in his chest as she eased her bag out of his hands and turned her back on him as she walked to the professor.
"Miss Ceallach," said McGonagall in a business-like tone as she gazed over her spectacles to look at the newcomer's face. "Come with me, we have to Sort you before the first years get here." The professor walked away from the throng, and off one of the doors that led away from the Great Hall. Azera followed her to a rather neat but shabby looking office. A hat that had more patches than fabric was sitting on the desk. "Here we go," she said. Azera cleared her mind as she had been taught in her beginners Occlumency classes and filled her mind with Gryffindor-ish thoughts. The hat slipped over her ears and her eyes and rode halfway down the bridge of her nose before resting uncomfortably around her head.
So, the hat said, what do we have here…I can see bravery…a bit of recklessness here and there…
Gryffindor, thought Azera. Not Slytherin, not Slytherin… her voice even almost convinced her as she repeated the mantra in her head.
Not Slytherin, I see…maybe Ravenclaw…definitely not Hufflepuff…Gryffindor perhaps…so it's between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor…there's bravery there, more than anything else…you're brave but your intelligent too…and there's some wit…not much in here, strange… well, the hat said, almost in a sigh, I guess it better be GRYFFINDOR!
Relieved and tired from her mental battle with the hat, Azera tore it off her head and handed it gratefully to McGonagall. "Well," the professor said, "another welcome addition to my House. Ever played Quidditch?" she went on as she led Azera back to the Great Hall. "You ought to give the team a try, we could use a fresh player…" the professor walked up the Head Table as Azera caught Draco's eye from across his table. He beckoned her over with a wave of his hand amid many jealous stares from girls at the Slytherin table and some from the Ravenclaw table too. Azera went to him and sat sideways on his lap, just to make the girls angrier.
"I got put in Gryffindor," she said, weighing her voice with disappointment. "I'm sorry, Draco," she cooed, cupping his face comfortably in his hand. "We both know that I don't belong there," Azera continued. He fiddled with the clasp of her robe as she stood back up. "Meet me later," she said, "after dinner." Draco nodded and smiled and then turned back to the jealous Slytherin girls as Azera made her way over to the Gryffindor table.
Luck of luck, there was a seat open next to the Potter boy! Azera walked over, trying not to seem like she was in a hurry. Instead, she arranged her face in the timid new-girl expression that she had worn before and smoothly took the seat next to Harry.
"Hi," the Weasley said. "I'm Ron. Good to meet you. What's your name?"
"I'm Azera. Ceallach," she added as an afterthought after referring to herself as only Azera for so long. She found the surname a burden- she didn't have one for a reason.
"I'm Hermione," said the same bushy-haired studious girl that had been sitting with Harry on the train. Azera inclined her head briefly to Hermione and then turned to Harry, her eyes making the characteristic dart up to his forehead.
"Harry Potter," she said in an awe-stricken whisper, fighting not to burst out laughing. Maybe acting wasn't her strongest forte, but this was just ridiculous.
"Yeah, that's me," he said, obviously uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "You must get that all the time."
"Yeah," he said again. THIS is the boy that defeated the Dark Lord? Azera's mind screamed, the man of one 'yeah'?! At least he seemed a tad grateful towards her that she had acknowledged his awkwardness. You deserve that scar, boy, Azera thought, momentarily forgetting that he was the same age that she was. She habitually thought of her peers as younger, more dimwitted, and more immature than her, mostly because they were except for the younger part. They were nothing like her. They were soft. They still thought that the carriages were horseless.
Idiots.
The headmaster stood to give his welcoming speech, which Azera found increasingly boring. Then the food appeared, as if in some magnificent stunt. Azera sneered mentally at the trick. Even she could do better.
Luckily, Harry got drunk on food like Azera did on alcohol, and he acted friendlier towards him with each passing moment. She snuck some flirting into their Quidditch discussion, touching his hand or his shoulder, but it wasn't the kind of flirting that she could do with Draco. First years could pull this kind off. She would need to take Harry to the next level with this thing that she was trying to do. Azera needed to get under his skin. She would make him like her, if she had to pull out his fingernails and hers to get this mission done, Harry Potter would be dead by the end of the year.
Harry might have been able to outwit her, but he wouldn't be able to escape Azera. He didn't even know that she was going to kill him.
Fool.