A/N – Keep the reviews coming, I love 'em all!

In the Company of Snakes

By: Cousin Mary

Part6

Maggie was just starting to fall asleep in her huge blue silk covered bed when it hit her. At first it felt almost cold, like someone had just thrown a bucket of ice water over her. She sat up with a sharp gasp and looked down at herself, expecting to see whatever had startled her awake. But no, nothing was there, she was fine. She rubbed her eyes and lit the candle at her bedside. There had been something though, and the aching awareness of whatever it was remained.

Her skin felt tight as she climbed out of bed and she nearly stumbled at the sensation of it. Not quite pain, but the kind of thing she'd learned meant someone close by was going through something… intense. The feelings were vague, but none-the-less always right. Maggie gritted her teeth as she pulled on her robe and moved into the hall. The cool wood felt good under her strangely hot feet as she moved to her brother's door and knocked gently. She waited a minute, but didn't hear him moving around, so she knocked again only this time louder.

She heard Draco mumble something that sounded suspiciously like 'go away.' She sighed and opened the door.

Draco sat up groggily, the torchlight from the hall spilled in over his bed, causing him to blink hard and shade his eyes, "Dammit Maggie, what is it? What, you need a teddy bear to get to sleep? Or just a swift kick to the head?"

"Wow, somebody's grouchy!" Maggie giggled as she went to sit next to Draco as he continued to curse her under his breath. "I just wanted to see if you were all right."

"I was fine until you decided to blind me," Draco stopped blinking enough to glare at her, "Why wouldn't I be all right?"

Maggie stared out the door a moment, just looking out into the empty hall, "I-, it's nothing really," She flinched, the weird sensation across her skin wasn't going away. It was something she'd never felt before, but she was pretty sure it wasn't a good thing. "I think something's wrong."

"With me?" Draco looked confused. He looked past Maggie and out into the hall. "What?"

Maggie shook her head as if clearing it, "I don't know, it's just," She paused, shrugging, "I get these weird feelings sometimes…"

"You're fooling," Draco eyed her shrewdly, "You're telling me you're a bleeding psychic?"

Maggie felt herself getting more and more anxious, she could tell Draco didn't believe her, but that wasn't what was causing her to break out into a cold sweat. "Something wrong, I- I think somebody might be hurt or sick or something."

Draco tried to hold back the snort of disbelief that begged to come out. Trelawney hadn't exactly made him a believer, but he supposed he might as well humor his new found sister. Looked as if –she- believed in the gunk at least. "Did you see an omen? Bird fly backwards through the window? Full moon shine red?"

"No, no," Maggie seemed too distracted to notice Draco wasn't hanging on her every word. She pulled her knees up on to the bed and hugged them to her chest. "My skin feels funny, but it isn't my skin."

Draco shook his head and rolled his eyes. Oh yeah, that made sense. He looked at his sister a minute, before doing the only thing that came to mind. He poked her in the ribs, hard. Maggie let out a surprised yelp and nearly fell off the bed, he grabbed her and hauled her back up. "Seems like your skin to me." He told her cheekily.

Maggie just glared at him.

"Probably just a nightmare," He said, yawning and laying back against his pillows. "Or you're allergic to the detergent Pony uses on the sheets and will wake up with a hideous rash. Either way, nothing to do about it now but go to sleep and worry about it in the morning."

Maggie sat there frowning, "I don't know, something just doesn't feel right."

"Everything's fine Maggie, go back to sleep." He ordered in a grumbling voice that said he was already half asleep himself.

Maggie sighed and went back to her room and blew out her candle. She laid down and caught herself scratching her arms, they iched. "Great," She mumbled, as she pulled the covers up, "Draco's probably right, I'm gonna get a rash."

When he came screaming back to consciousness, Lucius Malfoy found he was still on fire. The black and green flames of the Incendio curse could not be extinguished by normal means, they were magical and thus only magic could stop them before they devoured whatever they burned. But somehow, a strangled laugh escaped Lucius's cracking lips, he didn't think Narcissa was planning on coming back to stop anything.

He had never felt such pain, even the Crucio curse didn't hurt this much! Or maybe it did, Voldemont had never caught him completely by surprise with his curses, he'd always been able to brace himself, even if just a little. As he considered that, Lucius realized he was losing focus, going a bit mad from the pain. He tried to gather what was left of his strength as he started to crawl across the floor, his progress agonizingly slow.

He laughed again, a humorless gurgle of a noise. Narcissa, his wife, his mate and his partner. Given a thousand lifetimes he would have never guessed she would have had it in her to do this. He looked up to the velvet chord hanging just out of reach, his only hope. With the last of his strength he threw himself up on his knees and grabbed for it.

The blood red chord slid between his blackened fingers before he crumbled back to the floor. Hopefully the house elves would come quickly and for once know what to do without being told, Lucius thought as his vision swam before his eyes and he once again escaped into oblivion.

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A/N: Sorry to keep you hanging with Lucius, just wanted to get some more with Draco and Maggie in before... other developments *evil writer's grin*. Another part will be coming shortly, just need to type it ;-)