Soon Halloween had come. That afternoon, students began lining up at the castle doors to leave for Hogsmeade, Harry, Ron, and Hermione included. They were in their common room, begging one more time their friend come.
"Are you sure you can't convince McGonagall to let you go?" pleaded Ron.
"I'm sorry, Ron. I just can't go," Amy replied. She was starting to see what Harry was talking about. "Besides, this will give me some time to explore the castle on my own." She then waved goodbye as her friends walked out the portrait hole.
Amy decided to visit the owlry. As she entered the tower, Hedwig greeted her with a small hoot. "Hullo, Hedwig." She then turned to her own mail carrier, which in fact was NOT an owl, but a red-tailed hawk by the name of Wraith. Wraith screeched, picking up a letter with her beak.
Amy took the letter. It was from her parents. The letter read:
Dear Amethyst,
How are things at Hogwarts? Hope that you've met a few new friends. How is Harry doing? Tell him that we said hi and send our love. After all, the last time we saw him; he was just a tiny baby boy!
By the way, Happy Halloween! Your father tried to put some candy into the envelope, but Wraith kept pecking at it, so he gave up. On the subject, hope no one is devastated that you insisted on owning a hawk instead of an owl.
Have you heard the news? Another girl was found dead with the same bite marks as the first, while another girl was taken, this time from Paris. We were both a little worried when we heard that the abductor was in Liverpool. Luckily he has passed through with only one victim. Your father is working tirelessly to find out what the silver substance is, so if this note is wet, you know why.
Love,
Mom & Dad
Amy stroked Wraith before leaving. She would have to send a note back, but right now she needed to go to the library. Maybe it was just because her father was a forensics scientist, but Amethyst had a curiosity for the silver substance as well.
The library was empty but for a few first and second years, who weren't allowed to go into Hogsmeade. Amy searched for some books on vampires. Maybe they normally didn't leave trails of silver goop, but maybe this was some sort of calling card for a particular vampire or group of vampires.
She searched for an hour or two through hundreds of books on vampires. None of them even slightly mentioned vampires that purposely left trails of silver blood. Then she thought of something. Maybe she should have been focusing more on the silver.
Amy began looking for books on unicorns. Unicorns had silver blood, didn't they? But that did not really make sense. People weren't unicorns, were they? "If only Hermione were here," she thought. "She would know what to do." Reluctantly, Amy left the library, knowing she was getting nowhere.
Draco was not handling his time alone quite as well as Amethyst was. He was deathly bored without his comrades around and had no wish to talk to any of the first or second year students. Maybe there was someone in the halls he could curse or something. Desperate for any sort of entertainment, he left the common room with his wand.
He walked aimlessly through the castle, corridor after corridor. Suddenly he finally found a victim, or at least heard a victim. Someone beyond the bend of the hall was humming to him or herself. Draco got a sly smile on his face as he looked to see who it was.
He slightly gasped. It was Amethyst, unfortunately. She was sitting on a staircase, lacing up a pair of odd shoes with wheels (roller blades to us Muggles.) Amethyst, who had nothing better to do with her time, had decided that she might as well tour the school in style. Draco tried to walk quietly away, but halted when he heard:
"Hello, Malfoy." Amethyst greeted him without looking up from her skates. "I could hear you breathing about ten yards away. What are you doing alone in the castle? Causing a little mayhem?"
Malfoy scowled. "I could ask you the same thing. And what are those things?"
"First of all, I don't have a permission slip to go to Hogsmeade, so I'm stuck here in the castle. Second of all, these are called roller blades. It's a Muggle sport, so you probably would not understand it," Amy informed.
"I could learn any stupid Muggle sport," Malfoy retorted hotly. "Just give me a pair of those blade thing-ums."
"Fine," replied Amy. She pulled out a wand and muttered, "Duplickon," pointing to her own pair of roller skates. Immediately, another pair appeared, identical to hers. She handed them to the boy. "Lace up and show me what you know."
Draco sat down and put on the skates with ease, but when it came time to actually start skating, he had a bit of trouble even standing up. He grabbed the railing of the stairs and pulled himself up. He pushed off, but soon fell over. Again, he got up and tried to push off, but easily toppled over. "Bloody hell, these things are broken!" he complained.
Amy rolled her eyes and bent over. "If you tell me why you are in the castle and not at Hogsmeade, maybe I will teach you how to roller-skate," she suggested. "After all, I do owe you for that A on the teapot."
Malfoy glared at her a second, but soon gave in. "I am banned from this trip and possibly all others because of what I did to you," he muttered, embarrassed.
Amy flushed. "But… but you didn't know I had hay fever, making the combination of the potion and pollen even worse for me than others," she tried to console. "Besides, you"-
"Are you going to show me or what?" he interrupted.
Amethyst nodded, putting out a hand for him to pull himself up. Draco was hesitant to take it. "C'mon, do you trust me or not?" she asked, not as seriously as Draco took it. Yes, he trusted her; he would have loved to take hold of her hand. The question was did he trust himself to take it?
"Well, if you don't trust me, just watch me and then try yourself," Amy suggested. She began taking small steps with the heavy skates. "First, just pretend that you are walking," she told him. "Take easy steps. After a little of that, begin to glide." She put a little accent into how she said 'glide.' "After that you can"-
"Forget it," Draco cut short. "I don't need steps." He glided away from the wall. Amy was mildly impressed… until he tried to take another step and toppled right over.
Amy glided over to him and put out her hand one more time. "Just take my hand," she insisted. Draco looked at it, and then grabbed it, pulling himself up. "Now did the world end?" Amethyst asked. Draco shook his head. "Then let's try this again."
About half an hour later, Amy had finally gotten Draco to calm down and start listening to her. Soon afterwards he quickly learned how to skate. They were soon racing around school grounds.
"Show me around the castle?" asked Amy.
"What?" was Draco's perplexed reply.
"Please? Just one quick tour of the castle," implored Amy.
"Mm… oh all right," Draco finally gave in. "Come on, we only have an hour before the feast starts." With that the two raced off.
The two sped down one corridor with Draco leading. Suddenly as he turned a corner he rammed straight into Professor Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick. A bunch of blue Cornish pixies (which the Draco had not seen since the blundering Gildroy Lockhart had been their DADA professor in their second year) flew from a box dropped by small Professor Flitwick.
Amy managed to skid to a stop before she ran into anyone. However, her graceful stop did not prevent the pixies from attacking her. She began swatting wildly at them.
"Goodness, professors, I'm terribly sorry," Draco apologized in a VERY sincere voice, helping both of them up. He then skated through a storm of pixies to help Amy. With one hand he pushed the girl behind him and with the other he pulled out his wand, crying, "Immobularis!" The Cornish Pixies froze in midair.
"Once again, very sorry about the mess," apologized Draco before speeding off.
"I can't wait for your class tomorrow, Professor Flitwick!" Amy smiled, pointing at the pixies, before skating away.
Both Professor Flitwick and Professor Dumbledore simply exchanged very surprised glances before speaking.
"Am I correct in saying that was Mr. Malfoy with a Gryffindor girl?" Flitwick asked in total shock.
"I believe so," answered Dumbledore, half amused.
The two whooshed down the halls some more, though they should have already learned not to be going so fast. Suddenly out of nowhere, Professor Snape walked out of one of the classrooms. Draco managed to nearly swerve around him, but Amy was not so lucky. She, unfortunately, ran accidentally over his foot.
"Professor Snape!" she gasped.
"You!" Professor Snape cried. "Detention for… whatever it is you are doing!"
Draco quickly skated back to Amethyst's side. "Sir, she's roller-blading, and she doesn't know that it is against the rules," he informed. "And if she is to be punished than so shall I."
"Mr. Malfoy," muttered Snape in his cool, monotonous tone. "Your record with me is clean, so you will go unpunished. However, do you see fit for her to go unpunished as well? I will allow you to be the decider. Let me remind you, however, that she is one of Mr. Potter's friends and at that, a likely rule breaker as well."
"Potter's friend or not, you should let her off with only a warning, with the exception of a few house points," Draco suggested.
"Very well," agreed Snape. "Five points from Gryffindor, and be thankful that Mr. Malfoy was here to stick up for you." With that he turned and walked away.
"Come on, two run-ins in under ten minutes. We better get back to out common rooms before it becomes three," Draco suggested, speeding away. Amethyst followed, but more slowly.
Draco slowed down and turned around, waiting for Amy to catch up. She was skating very slowly, deep in thought. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
She skated up to him and stopped right in front of him. His grayish blue eyes were filled with worry, which added more confusion to Amethyst's already mixed up thoughts. "Can I ask a maybe personal question?" she requested.
"Just how personal?" he asked, but he nodded in accordance.
"Why do you always act so bitter?" she questioned him.
The question struck him as odd, but partially truthful. "What makes you think that I'm not?" he replied.
Amy pointed down the hall to the teacher walking away. "That," she answered simply. "And Cornish Pixies, and the teapot, and the turtle I saw you stroke, and the white rose, and this," she added, holding a crumpled slip of paper between two of her fingers. Draco looked slightly confused. "Don't recognize it? Maybe I should read it to you," Amy said, opening the paper.
"I see the dripping silver and I pray, "Don't take her away." She is like an angel, her voice clear and beautiful as a bell. In her eyes I see a green fire. She can see through any liar."
"Do I need to go on?" asked Amy, looking at Draco's horrified face.
"Where did you get that?" Draco seethed.
"The Cornish Pixies stole it from your pocket, and then I stole it back," she explained. "What is this all about, Malfoy? What is this?"
"Stop asking me questions," Draco muttered.
"Then answer my first one!" Amy snapped.
"Fine! You would be bitter, too, if every waking minute you wondered if you were pleasing your father or at least not bothering him to the brink until he wants to curse you with the Jelly-Legs like some house-elf. You would be bitter if no one got close enough to you to call you by your first name except those that fear you. And you most certainly would be bitter if the one thing you've been waiting for all your life is standing right in front of you, but you can't have it!" Draco retorted hotly.
Amy swallowed hard, looking straight into Draco's eyes. "No, I don't have to worry about my father punishing me, and no, I don't have to worry about my friendships. You're wrong about one thing. I can't have what is standing right in front of me," she told him.
"What?" gasped Draco, incredulously.
"Damn it, Malfoy. I think I know what it is you feel, and I think I feel it, too," Amy admitted. "But it doesn't matter. What I feel or what you feel, do you think anyone else cares? In half an hour, we'll be in the Great Hall, back to reality again. Did you not just hear what Professor Snape said to you? There are great walls between us. There's just one small example of reality." She began to skate away.
"Amethyst, wait, please," Draco insisted, grabbing her shoulder and turning her around.
"What? What can you say that will change everything and make everyone understand? What could you possibly say to make it ok to form our own ideas and emotions?" Amy asked.
"Nothing," Draco had to admit.
"Then what?" Amy demanded.
"Then this!" Draco cried, pushing her into the wall. He took her face and kissed her longingly. Every emotion that had been building up inside of him exploded at that moment.
"Oh gosh… oh my gosh…" Amy thought to herself. She wanted to resist, but something told her no. It felt too right to let go. He wasn't rough or forceful, but instead gentle, like the light she could see beyond his bitterness.
Suddenly he lifted his head, parting his lips from hers. Amy tried to catch her breath, but suddenly gasped. Hot breath pulsated against her neck. The next thing she knew, Draco was kissing her neck, gently biting her.
"Draco…" she murmured. Her heartbeat grew faster and louder. She felt as though her heart would burst. This couldn't go on, and with that thought in mind, she pushed him away.
Draco stood back, knowing that he had gone too far. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he apologized. He looked to where he had gotten out of hand. A red mark now lay on her neck.
Amy held her neck where the mark was. "You're right, you shouldn't have," she agreed angrily. She backed slowly away and turned around. "But thank you for being truthful with me, Draco."
Malfoy suddenly thought of something. "You called me Draco," he told her.
She looked over her shoulder. "That I did," she agreed, smiling weakly before skating off.
"She called me Draco," he mumbled to himself before skating back to his dorm.
Amy quickly raced back to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Her shoes were still by the stairs, but right now she could have cared less. The portrait was soon in sight and Amy skated harder towards it.
"Password?" asked the Fat Lady.
"Meningitis," Amy answered, out of breath.
"What's that on your neck?" inquired the Fat Lady.
Amy quickly slapped her hand over her neck. She had totally forgotten about the mark. "None of your bloody business," she answered tersely.
"I didn't mean to be nosy," the picture apologized, swinging to the side. "It's my job to ask questions."
Amethyst quickly stepped through the hole. No one was in the common room. "That was just a little too much passion," she sighed.
"What's this about passion?" inquired Hermione, spinning one of the chairs around.
"Passion… fruit," Amy quickly lied somehow. "I ate one too many passion fruit candies."
"Well, save your appetite for the Halloween feast," Ron called out from the top of the staircase. Both he and Harry walked down to greet her.
"What are you three doing back so early?" Amy inquired.
Harry gritted his teeth. "Crabbe stepped on Ron's foot in Hogsmeade."
"Stupid oaf almost crushed it!" Ron cried angrily.
"We had to come back to the castle to get Ron to Madam Pomfrey. Luckily she fixed it up in a jiffy," Hermione explained. "Even when Malfoy isn't around, those two are doing terrible things."
"What happened to your neck?" Ron asked.
Amy dared not remove her hand. "I got this terrible crick in my neck," she lied again.
"Oh, by the way, we got you some treats from Hogsmeade," said Harry, holding out a small bag for Amy. She took it, smiling as nonchalantly as possible. "So did you get that tour of the castle you were hoping for?" he asked.
"I got a lot more than I bargained for," Amy thought to herself. "Well, it certainly was an interesting one," she answered truthfully. "Oh, and that reminds me. Hermione I think I might slightly have a lead on something. I'll tell you about it during the feast." She walked slowly up to her room and thought, "Yeah, I'll tell you just as soon as I put on about a pound of concealer."
"If you asked me, she looked a bit snogged," said Harry. He looked accusingly at Ron.
"What? I didn't do anything! I was in the Hospital Wing. How could I have done anything, you and Hermione were there!" Ron retaliated.
"That's true," thought Harry. All three scratched their heads a minute until it looked like they got one of those huge cartoon light bulbs over their heads. "Seamus!"
Amy closed the door of the dorm. She walked over to the mirror and released her hand. "Yikes," she wheezed. She pulled out a compact and started working on it. Suddenly her bedside table caught her eye. On it was a quill and some parchment. She still had to write that letter to her parents.
"Oh, here's a good start," she muttered, "Dear Mom and Dad, today I got my first hickey."
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