A/N: drop me a line via the little purplely blue button at the bottom, please. The next chapter is already written (AND it features Draco!), and I will not post it if I don't get reviews! (Pleeeease review…tell your friends to review…I neeeeed it…) *laughs freakily*
Disclaimer: durg, I repeat, DURG!
Azera refused to let herself feel guilty as she met Draco's eyes the next morning during breakfast. He smirked at her from across the room as Pansy grabbed his arm and tried to get his attention.
She turned away and looked at Harry. He had been avoiding her ever since they had kissed. Azera had seen him talking to an Asian girl before breakfast- that must have been the famous Cho. Cho wasn't the most wonderful looking person in the world, her looks were neither exotic nor alluring, but she had a plain kind of prettiness that boys seemed to like. Whatever, Azera thought. I wonder if they've ever kissed?
Harry scooted his chair an inch away from Azera's as he reached forward to spoon some porridge onto his plate. Azera let her foot brush his, just to see him suffer. He suffered wonderfully too- his face turned all red and he made this funny gurgling noise in his throat. She tried not to let herself laugh at the boy as she took the porridge spoon from him- she wanted him on her side, for a while anyway.
Azera cornered Harry in the hallway after breakfast, taking his hand firmly but gently and leading him into an empty classroom. "Harry, we need to talk," she said, sitting down on one of the desks. Harry remained standing by the door, looking extremely uncomfortable. She patted the desk next to her in an attempt to get him to relax, and to her relief he complied and slid his books onto the attached chair.
"I get the feeling that you don't want to talk to me much since last night, Harry," Azera began, "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything…and you were kissing me back," she continued, raising her eyebrows and grinning at him in a way that made him blush fantastically.
"I just…" Harry began, his voice sounding tired and weighted down. "I have a girlfriend already, and she's great, and I don't want to hurt her or leave her or anything drastic or something but I'm feeling kind of confused and I like you too," he rambled.
"Shh, calm down," Azera said, sliding her right hand into his left hand, which was lying on his lap. Harry surprised her by caressing her fingers gently with his own. She let herself enjoy the touch for a moment before continuing. "I know how you feel," she lied, "I had a boyfriend right before I came here, to Hogwarts…I think about him a lot." Azera allowed herself to sound extremely pathetic. "He was the only person I ever loved…" she whispered, choking with laughter and instead sounding like she was about to cry. Wonderful. Now, he'll be a bit jealous and on his guard…
"You loved him?" Harry echoed her words back at her.
Perfect.
"With all my heart," Azera said, forcing her eyes to well with tears. She met Harry's eyes with her blurred ones. He took her other hand. "I'm sorry," Azera said, pulling her hands free and wiping her cheeks with her palms. "I just cry when I think of him sometimes."
"Cho does too, but her boyfriend's dead," Harry said bluntly.
"Cedric Diggory," Azera nodded. "I heard about him. Everyone did." The silence grew thicker in the room for a moment as Azera leaned forward and plastered a serious look on her face. "I believed what you said about the D- You-Know-Who coming back," she said, almost slipping and calling Voldemort the Dark Lord, which was the name that only Death Eaters referred to him by. "It was foolish for the Ministry to ignore the signs. Look how they got paid back," she said, laughing softly.
Harry shrugged.
"That must have been an awful experience for you," she said sympathetically. Harry nodded.
"Yeah, it was awful," he said. "Still is awful. I dream about it sometimes. It was the most horrible experience of my life, as yet," he continued darkly.
"Don't worry, Harry," Azera said, sliding off the desk and standing in front of Harry. "You fought He Who Must Not Be Named off more than once, you can do it again." She smiled reassuringly.
"Thanks, Azera," Harry said, standing up. Then he seemed to remember why they had come to the deserted classroom in the first place, and his expression darkened. Azera took the hint and read his thoughts off his face.
"Don't worry, Harry," she repeated in a whisper. She leaned up and kissed him softly on the mouth, her lips slightly parted. "I know you'll make the right choice." She bit her lip as she gathered her books in her arms and walked out of the classroom, leaving Harry to ponder over everything that she had said and done.
"She kissed me," Azera overheard Harry told Ron as he ran the fingertips of his right hand over his lips, as if to feel her still there. "I just…she confuses me."
Azera stood around the corner from where Harry was discussing his situation with the Weasley boy. She found it amusing to hear him say these things. It was exactly what she had intended, really- it came pretty close to where her goal was set.
"I think you should go for it," Ron said
encouragingly as they walked down the hall. "If Cho is still hung up on Cedric,
what else are you supposed to do?"
"I can't just leave Cho out in the cold like that, though, not with Cedric being dead and all."
"Why not? Azera actually likes you. She hits on you. She kissed you twice. Why not go for it?"
I like this Ron kid, Azera thought. At least someone's beating some sense into Harry for me.
"I want to go for it," Harry admitted, "But I don't want to hurt Cho. She's meant too much to me for too long to just dump like that. Although, I can't talk to her or joke around really, since she always starts crying," he said reflectively. "I don't know what to do!"
"Can I have Azera if you don't want her?" Ron asked as they rounded the far corner of the hall.
"No…" Harry's voice faded into the distance as Azera came out of hiding and ran to her class. Victory! McGonagall gave her the look of death as she shut the door behind her, a second earlier than class officially started.
"Thank you for joining us, Miss Ceallach," McGonagall said in her usual stuffy manner.
"Your welcome," Azera answered.
"Five points from Gryffindor," McGonagall said automatically. "Today we will be learning a complex spell, so take out your parchment and your quill and write down everything I say exactly as I say it. It will be an imperative part of the N.E.W.T. tests next year, and you will need two years of practice to get this one right, I guarantee it. Start writing…"
Class dragged by slower than it usually did. Azera amused herself by purposefully catching Harry's eye from time to time and giving him little seductive smiles whenever he met her gaze. She could see how tortured she was making him feel, and it was funny as heck.
She caught him asleep during lunch period, trying to finish an essay that was due later that afternoon for Professor Snape. His cheek was pressed in the ink, blurring the words and leaving little black marks all over his face. Laughing, Azera lifted his head gently off the essay and drew it out from underneath him. With a wave of her wand she produced a wet washcloth in her hand and began stroking the offended cheek with it. He woke up as the water touched his face. "Urgh!" he said, jumping in his chair as he felt the cold water trickled down his neck.
"You were ruining your essay," Azera said matter-of-factly as she wrung the cloth out into a basin that had just appeared by her elbow. "There's still ink all over your face. Hold still."
"Thanks," Harry said gratefully as Azera dropped the cloth into the basin and spirited the whole thing away. She allowed herself to run her fingers over his dry cheek as she replied. His face showed a mixture of discomfort and welcoming, shyness and the need to be seduced. Azera pulled up a chair and sat down facing Harry, their knees brushing under their robes.
"Talk to me," Azera ordered. Harry then proceeded to spill his guts out to her, cupping her hands in his the entire time, periodically running his fingers through his hair and looking into her eyes as if to say, 'stop what you're doing to me! It's working!'
Azera sensed that Harry had just released an incredible amount of pent-up emotion at her. He began talking about Cedric and Voldemort and Cho and Snape and his parents, and tears started forming at the corners of his eyes whenever he thought of how he had seen Cedric's death.
"The thestrals," he moaned, throwing his arms around Azera's shoulders and sobbing into her robes. "I don't want to see them anymore, Azera, I don't want to see them anymore…"
For once, Azera did not feel like a stone-cold assassin. She felt more like a person than she ever had. It was quite a departure than feeling like the same fine-tuned weapon of darkness that she was used to looking at herself as. She stroked his back with her fingertips, trying to soothe the man that had just released sixteen years worth of held in emotion at her, someone he had just met a few weeks ago. "It's okay, Harry," she whispered, pressing her lips into his hair. "It's okay…" Harry took a shuddering breath and leaned away from her. Azera hugged him, trying to press the warmth of her body into his cold skin. She drew her lips across his cheek to his lips and kissed him gently, her fingers still tangled in his hair. "It's okay," she said, almost crying now herself. "It's okay…"