Chapter Fourteen

I arrived at the cabin and was immediately bombarded with questions, mostly from Umbridge. She was livid.

"You ran off in to the forest on your own! I will have to report this to the school governors, and to the Headmaster! What might have happened in my absence could have been terrible!"

I sank slowly into a chair. She continued yelling at me. "This type of behaviour is exactly why I came here in the first place! You are a delinquent and you must be punished for this act of blatant disregard for the rules!"

Draco gazed dully at her. He raised his hand in a tired manner. Umbridge glared at him, "Yes, Malfoy?"

"She didn't go off because she wanted to. She was forced to go."

"Oh? And by whom?"

His gaze shifted to me momentarily. "There are vampires in the forest. They wanted her blood. Luckily, she got away. Didn't she tell you?"

I frowned at the tabletop. Umbridge glared at me. "Is this true?"

"Mostly."

"Very well then. I will document this in my report. Now, it is time to return to the castle. Miss Stevens, come with me."

I stood and followed her out the door. Draco pushed his chair back from the table and trailed after me. Umbridge led us back to the castle, where she shooed Draco away. He turned to me, taking my hand in a friendly gesture. "Goodnight," he said to me. I nodded, and he left to the Slytherin dungeons. I trailed after Umbridge as she walked with me up to the Gryffindor common room. She waited for me to go inside before leaving.

Once inside, I threw Draco's cloak onto the chair and fell onto the couch, staring into the fire. I could remember countless times sitting here with Harry, talking about everything and nothing all at one time. He was always such a gentleman. There was nobody like him in the world. He was like a little piece of heaven on earth. But the fact that I was a--what was it?--a succubus meant that it could have been nothing but lust that drew him to me. Well, lust was surely a factor. I had looked into his eyes and seen something more. Something other than lust. Or so I had thought.

This new revelation was contradicting everything, every emotion that I had felt towards Draco, every emotion Harry might or might not have felt towards me. It made everything so complicated. I wondered if it was possible that they both loved me for reasons other than my demon-attractiveness, or whatever it might be called. It was unlikely. I didn't have what people would call an addictive personality.

All of this gave me a headache. I was confused; I was sick of being confused. It seemed to be one of the only emotions I had left in me. But confusion was better than being dead. At least, that's what I believed. I had never died before, so I really wouldn't know how it was.

There was only one solution to the confusion. Draco. He was always the solution, or so it seemed. The boy with all the answers. What he had done to gain the answers I wasn't sure I wanted to know. But he had them, and I wanted them. So, I made a decision. I was going to ask him everything I wanted to; everything that I'd never had the chance to ask; everything that I'd never thought to bring up. Maybe not all in one night, but a few questions were easily dealt with.

I pulled Draco's cloak over my shoulders and pushed open the portrait. The fat lady gave a twitch in her sleep, and growled something. I whispered, "Wake up. You're going to have to be awake when I get back. Got it?"

"...no right to tell me...my job, not yours...yes, of course, I'll be awake."

I thanked her and jogged quickly down to the entrance hall. Mrs. Norris, the old cat belonging to the senile Mr. Filch, hissed from the corner. I pressed a finger to my lips and said, "I know curses that work on little kitties too. So shut up and forget I ever came by here you stupid beast." She backed off. I grinned to myself and continued down to the dungeons.

"Tempestus Goddard," I whispered to the bare strip of wall that marked the entrance to the Slytherin dorms. It slid open soundlessly. I stepped inside, lighting the tip of my wand to see my way. As clumsy as I was--and I was very clumsy--I was lucky in that I knocked nothing over on my way to Draco's room. I stopped outside his door, raising my hand to knock.

And then I heard a voice.

"Draco...you can't be serious?"

"I am."

"You're working to gain back Stevens' trust? Merlin's beard, do you not see how stupid a plan that is? You'd fall for her again. And she would have you wrapped around her finger. If you do this, you will be endangering everything. Every plan that we have put into motion would run the risk of failing miserably."

"Every plan has that risk. Life's a gamble, and I'm a gambler. Get over it."

The girl lowered her voice so that I could only hear a few words. "...her?...ingenious is not what I would choose. Don't you...I doubt that. I've seen how you handle...anger management classes."

Draco laughed whole-heartedly. "So now you're worried because I hurt her and she might not trust me entirely after it? She took my cloak, didn't she? She could have thrown it back in my face, but she didn't. She wore it, with more than a little pride, I can assure you. Nicole likes the attention. Or haven't you noticed?"

"She..." the girl faded off. "And you too."

"I don't think you have any right to be meddling in that. If I want to snog her senseless, then what's going to stop me? It won't affect me in the least. It might even get her closer to me. If it's a problem with you, take it up with the Dark Lord. See how he handles it, as he helped come up with this plan."

"I might just do that," she said loudly.

"Fine. Now, get out. I do sleep occasionally, and unless you're looking to be with me tonight, I plan to be sleeping within the next ten minutes."

"Are you offering?"

"Now, now, why would I offer anything to you?"

"You rotten, slimy git."

"Maybe," he replied. "But really..."

"If I said yes you'd toss my out."

"Not likely."

"Whatever you say, Mister Head Boy. Goodnight."

I ducked back into the common room and crouched behind a table. The girl--Blaise?!--came into the common room and headed to the girls' dormitories. I headed back to Draco's door and knocked. My knuckles protested the force with which I knocked, but I ignored it. The door opened, and Draco appeared, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Blaise, what is it now?"

"I don't know," I replied. "What do you think it is?"

His eyes widened, as he realised that it was not Blaise. "Nicole--"

"Shut up, and let me in."

Draco stepped aside and let me inside, closing and locking the door behind me. I tossed his cloak onto the bed and sat in one of the chairs by the warm fire. "You...have you been out there for long?"

"Long enough to hear part of that lovely conversation, if that's what you mean, which I am sure it is. Care to tell me what that was all about? Or do I have to beat it out of you?"

"Oh, I don't mind telling you. It's probably time you know anyway. Rayne owled me and told me that he'd let something slip about the Order. I meant to tell you eventually, but I never got around to it before this. Blaise works for the Dark Lord, as do most of the seventh year Slytherins. I suppose that with my father's standing in the Death Eater community that I am the head of all seventh year Death Eaters, or something like that. Blaise came tonight to talk about the plans. The Dark Lord has proposed, countless times, that I use you in his favour. I've been going along with it fairly well for a while. That's pretty much what Blaise was here for. She is, no matter how much her attitude argues, attracted to me. Better Blaise than Pansy, though I have Pansy on my hands as well. It's Malfoy Charm, I guess."

"Malfoy Charm © 1768 Malfoy Inc."

He grinned, nodding. "Some such nonsense," he said. "So, there you are. That's what all of it was about. Did you manage to get out of the way without her spotting you?"

"Obviously, or I wouldn't be here."

"So why are you here? I doubt you came just to bask in the warmth that is me. Or my fire."

"I hope you mean the literal fire," I said, gesturing at the fireplace.

"Yes, that's what I meant."

"I came to ask you some questions. I know you know the answers, and I want you to answer me honestly. Although it is difficult for you to do the whole honesty thing, I want you to try. This may take a while, so you migh as well sit down."

Draco took the seat across from me, and gazed at me attentively. "All right, fire away."

"Well, firstly, why was I never told about Griffin?"

"Who?"

"Griffin. Griffin Malfoy."

"Oh. He's my father's second-cousin. He was cast from the family because he fell in love with a vampire girl and let her change him. Griffin's father, Pride--who was aptly named--impaled Griffin's lover on a stake. Because, as we all know by now, you can't kill a vampire with a sword."

"Right."

"Why do you ask about him? I didn't think you'd looked at my lineage...obviously I was mistaken."

"No. I didn't put any effort into meeting any more of your family that I already have. But I met Griffin. He was at the vampire camp. And he spoke to me."

"Quite good with words, I suspect."

"Yes. But he reminded me of you. He looked like you, spoke with the same persistent eloquence; he even moved with the same kind of pride that you do. It was eerie. He told me that he 'thought that any girl Draco fell for would be a full succubus.'"

"He was implying that I am very hard to please. In the past, Malfoys have been attracted to exotic women, succubi among them. Usually the succubi must be witches, or we don't willingly except them into our family."

"But you're an incubus."

"I am, yes. My mother is a succubus, albeit a weak one. My father has traces of it in him. I have loads of incubus blood in me, but Malfoy blood is stronger," he said.

"Griffin also said that he 'wasn't far off' and that 'half isn't bad.'"

"Odd."

"And then he told me what he was jabbering about. I'm part succubus. A very small part. He said that I naturally attract men and that I couldn't help it if I tried. It was the reason, he said, that I attracted you. Which would mean that it was also the reason that Harry was attracted to me. Isn't it great? No love for me, just demon bred attractiveness."

Draco gave me a look. "You're serious?"

"Is this my serious face?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. You're part succubus...how strange. It explains a lot. But that doesn't mean that I don't love you. That's ridiculous."

"No, I find it quite plausible."