Elementals.
Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling owns all of Hogwarts, etc. My actual savings amount to 1euro 35 cents, so anyone trying to sue me has to be out of their mind.
Rating: PG13 for language, revenge and threesomes.
Summary: Kidnapping in the dungeons, Ginny does some more of that thinking thing, Draco comes to some very strange conclusions, and three people simultaneously decide they need vengeance. Has anyone heard the Bangles song, "when the Hero takes a fall"?
Chapter Eight: Hell hath no fury.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." The Bible.
Ginny did intend to go up to lunch, just like the others. Unfortunately, she suffered a sudden forced change of plan in the form of an arm that shot out of the shadows near the end of the secret passage, and pulled her back into a dark alcove. The arm was clamped like a steel band around her waist, holding her hard against a chest which, even whilst in extremis, Ginny noticed was extremely well muscled. The person's other hand was held tight over her mouth and nose, cutting her breath.
Ginny went rigid for a minute, fighting, and then the lack of oxygen kicked in and she slumped unconcious against whoever.
She came too a few minutes later, to find a face she hardly recognised hovering over her, while someone muttered feverishly, "Come on, angel. Come on, you little bitch, wake up. Why does she always fucking faint? Oh god, just wake up."
Flame was taking her time. She wasn't gonna show she was conscious till she knew where she was. Not bloody likely. It wasn't surprising, she reflected, that she hadn't recognised the face. After all, who else could boast of having seen Draco Malfoy looking distraught? So maybe Storm had been right about where his interests lay. But she'd have to move carefully.
Draco stared down at the unconscious girl on the floor. He knelt down beside her and started loosening the neck of her robes. Maybe that'd bring her round.
She moaned slightly, and as he watched, tears leaked from under her eyelids. A lump caught in his throat- why was she crying? Her hand fluttered up, reaching out, and impulsively he caught it to his lips, and then lifted her bodily as she started sobbing, cradling her in his lap.
Flame grinned inside. So far so good, she'd guessed right- who'd have thought the Malfoy heir's weak point was pity?
He was holding her while she cried, and then, somehow, she wasn't crying anymore. She was clinging to him, and her lips were trailing over his shoulder and her tongue exploring his collar bone, sending shivers through him. And his face was burried in her hair, and he was kissing her, and her body felt familiar against him. Familiar and beautiful and unknown. This was unlike any other kiss. Nothing he'd ever experienced had prepared him for this. But it couldn't be familiar, because this was Ginny Weasley. This was...this was Ginny Weasley?!
Draco let go of the girl he was holding, and got slowly to his feet. His hands, he found, were shaking in the aftermath of an unbelievable passion. He watched, motionless, as she pulled herself up by one of the desks, and lent against it.
"So, Draco. You accused me of ambushing you earlier today, but if I'm not mistaken then this is full scale kidnapping. Not to mention rape."
"Rape? Kidnapping? What in hell do you think you're babbling about, girl? Pull yourself together."
"You skulking son of a bitch. So it's not abduction when you shoot out of the shadows, suffocate me and drag me off to a dark, empty classroom like some villain out of a bad movie? And I suppose it isn't rape, either, when having reduced me to a semi-conscious state, you take advantage of me?" Ginny was insulted. No one, no one called her girl. It reminded her too much of being four years old, surrounded by tough older brothers. On top of that, he had just totally killed the melodrama. She liked melodrama.
"Suffocated you? Suffocated you? I really thought you were one girl in this school who didn't do the pathetic thing, but obviously I was wrong. All I did was stop you screaming out so's Professor Snape could come and take fifty points from Gryffindor for existing. He's in a foul temper, and that's the fault of your house, too. Besides which, you can't talk."
Ginny wasn't going to fall for that one. As if Draco Malfoy ever did anyone a good turn!
"You knew I'm not pathetic, Malfoy (incidentally, if you don't watch out I promise I will kick your ass.), so you know I don't scream. So come on, whats the ulterior motive? And what d'you mean, I can't talk? You're the Slytherin scum here."
"Oh, so I'm Slytherin scum, am I? I did want to talk to you about our conversation earlier this morning, but I see I'd better find Kathérine instead. Incidentally, you don't seem to object so much to that particular example of Slytherin scum. Perhaps there's a reason for that. You wouldn't, for example, be closer to her than your other friends? Must be the explanation for her not sleeping in dorm last night. Being such close friends, you must just have felt you couldn't bear to part. I always thought there was something rather queer about a Slytherin taking up with Gryffindor muck like you."
"Are you implying-" Ginny was gasping with surprise and anger. "Are you implying that I'm sleeping with my best friend? You foul minded bastard! Just because she's one girl who seems impervious to your smarmy charms, you have to think this up. You concieted git, just because a girl doesn't want you, that doesn't make her a lesbian."
"'If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to start rumours about the two of us.'
'Oh yes, Flame! I'm madly in love with you! Get dressed, grab something to eat, and meet me out here.'" Malfoy mimicked, with a sour twist to his mouth. "And then where do I find you later? Just emerging from Duprées lair. Funny coincidence, that."
"Its obviously useless to try to talk sense to you, Malfoy. I did think maybe you had more brains than the rest of your family. Of course, I also thought that any friend of Kathérines couldn't be all bad. But I see I must have been mistaken. When you recover your sanity, come back and apologise." With that Ginny flounced, yes, to her everlasting digrace she did positively flounce out of the room, and, just to be original, took off running.
Storm found her, a few minutes later, hiding in the astronomy tower, crying her heart out against the sadly unresponsive stone floor.
"Hey, sweetheart, what happened? I came to see why you weren't in lunch, and this is what I find. Sit up and tell Aunty Katrine."
"Malfoy happened" Ginny growled against Storms arm, as the other girl pulled her into her lap. Storm noticed with alarm that she was shaking all over.
"Honestly love", she said, trying to sound jokey and casual, "you should know by now to take no notice. What's he done this time?"
"He k...he ki...he kissed me" Ginny stammered in a fresh flood of tears.
"He what?"
"Yeah, after he practically strangled me and carried me off to some empty room to accuse me of sleeping with you. Actually, I think it was more me kissing him. But that only makes it worse." Someones spine was returning, Storm noted with approval- someone extremely angry. As she listened, the whole story came pouring out.
"Well, sweet, sit up and dry your eyes. I never thought I'd see a Changing Element girl looking so pathetic. My personal diagnosis is that Malfoy has a serious case of jealousy. That, however, doesn't excuse such rudeness."
"Of course not" Flame snapped, thinking that after all, most boys were jealous of Storm, and Malfoys having joined their ranks certainly didn't mitigate his crimes. On the contrary, though she was not quite sure why this should be so, it made everything a lot worse. "We have a reputation to keep up. We can't let him get away with this, Storm."
Storm giggled, thinking that never had she seen a pair of more star-crossed lovers than those two. For that they were, she was pretty sure. "Get busy thinking up original ways to torment him then, sweet."
* * *
Meanwhile, Harry Potter was coming to pretty much the same conclusions. He needed revenge. He had been staggering downstairs to Quidditch practise this morning, still trying to work out quite what he had been doing with himself.
He had been considerably surprised to see Malfoy enter, coming in from outside, and even more surprised to note that his pulse leapt at sight of the hated Slytherin.What was he doing up at this hour of the morning? If Harry's (disconcerting) memories were correct, he hadn't exactly gone early to bed last night, either. Maybe he had been sabotaging the Quidditch pitches?
But no- just behind Malfoy had come two girls. No other girls than innocent little Ginny Weasley and a hard-bitten Slytherin bitch. Together. And it certainly looked as if they had been with Malfoy, too. This needed investigating. After all, Ron was his friend. Harry sank back into the shadows, and became aware that Malfoy was doing the same, and that the two girls had not noticed either of them.
Harry heard their conversation, and saw Malfoy emerge, white-faced, from his hiding place. He wandered down, late, to meet an irrate Angelina with wide, blank eyes. An awful possibility had just occured to the not so innocent minded hero. Surely not? At Hogwarts, students were mostly too innocent even to have heard of threesomes. They were a muggle perversion. But then again, you never knew. That Sly girl had a bad reputation. Poor little Ginny! But as he sat on his bed, Harry found that he was indignant, not so much on Ginnys behalf as on Malfoys. Of course it was a terrible thing that such an innocent girl should be corrupted. But mostly, it seemed to present an unbearable contrast with the pure being he had seen and loved last night. How dare Malfoy look so heart-breakingly beautiful, and then turn out so corrupt? How dare he act like a gentleman in helping Harry home, thus encouraging him to think that Malfoy couldn't be all bad, and then do this and shatter Harry's hopes? Whats more, how dare Malfoy make Harry feel anything but hate for him in the first place? That was the most unforgivable thing. Malfoy had made Harry feel. Malfoy should go down.
* * *
The unconcious object of all this plotting was, meanwhile, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. The silver hair, so like his fathers, spilled over and tickled the knuckles of those long aristocratic hands. This seemed to bring him to some decision. He jumped up.
"OK, so, the facts are these. Tom Riddle isn't worth two hoots. In fact, I'd make a better leader than him, and I'm dammed if I'll follow him. Father is going to kill me for this. I've also fallen in love with that vixen, Ginny. No use denying things that are- I'll just have to deal with the situation in the most gentelmanly manner possible. I would say to hell with it all, since I'm already turning coats, but she seems to be more keen on girls than boys. So there's no point in doing anything, except just avoiding further conflict. Or further kissing," he added sternly to himself. "I'll just have to avoid her altogether." What he wasn't mentioning out loud, of course, were the things she had called him. That had hurt. She didn't think him capable of one decent action, even of saving her from Snape's irrational wrath. She thought he was sordid. And concieted. And smarmy. And a kidnapper. And, God help him, a rapist. And insane. "Well, that last is about right, at any rate," he murmured wryly to himself. "Right. The next thing to do is contact Duprée about what she means to do."
A/N: I leave the scene of the battle, then, triumphant. With the pseudo-hero having finally taken a much needed fall, and our true hero nursing his hurt heart in the approved manner. God, that felt good. An I won't feel bad at all, when the hero takes, when the hero takes a fall!
Disclaimer: J.K.Rowling owns all of Hogwarts, etc. My actual savings amount to 1euro 35 cents, so anyone trying to sue me has to be out of their mind.
Rating: PG13 for language, revenge and threesomes.
Summary: Kidnapping in the dungeons, Ginny does some more of that thinking thing, Draco comes to some very strange conclusions, and three people simultaneously decide they need vengeance. Has anyone heard the Bangles song, "when the Hero takes a fall"?
Chapter Eight: Hell hath no fury.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." The Bible.
Ginny did intend to go up to lunch, just like the others. Unfortunately, she suffered a sudden forced change of plan in the form of an arm that shot out of the shadows near the end of the secret passage, and pulled her back into a dark alcove. The arm was clamped like a steel band around her waist, holding her hard against a chest which, even whilst in extremis, Ginny noticed was extremely well muscled. The person's other hand was held tight over her mouth and nose, cutting her breath.
Ginny went rigid for a minute, fighting, and then the lack of oxygen kicked in and she slumped unconcious against whoever.
She came too a few minutes later, to find a face she hardly recognised hovering over her, while someone muttered feverishly, "Come on, angel. Come on, you little bitch, wake up. Why does she always fucking faint? Oh god, just wake up."
Flame was taking her time. She wasn't gonna show she was conscious till she knew where she was. Not bloody likely. It wasn't surprising, she reflected, that she hadn't recognised the face. After all, who else could boast of having seen Draco Malfoy looking distraught? So maybe Storm had been right about where his interests lay. But she'd have to move carefully.
Draco stared down at the unconscious girl on the floor. He knelt down beside her and started loosening the neck of her robes. Maybe that'd bring her round.
She moaned slightly, and as he watched, tears leaked from under her eyelids. A lump caught in his throat- why was she crying? Her hand fluttered up, reaching out, and impulsively he caught it to his lips, and then lifted her bodily as she started sobbing, cradling her in his lap.
Flame grinned inside. So far so good, she'd guessed right- who'd have thought the Malfoy heir's weak point was pity?
He was holding her while she cried, and then, somehow, she wasn't crying anymore. She was clinging to him, and her lips were trailing over his shoulder and her tongue exploring his collar bone, sending shivers through him. And his face was burried in her hair, and he was kissing her, and her body felt familiar against him. Familiar and beautiful and unknown. This was unlike any other kiss. Nothing he'd ever experienced had prepared him for this. But it couldn't be familiar, because this was Ginny Weasley. This was...this was Ginny Weasley?!
Draco let go of the girl he was holding, and got slowly to his feet. His hands, he found, were shaking in the aftermath of an unbelievable passion. He watched, motionless, as she pulled herself up by one of the desks, and lent against it.
"So, Draco. You accused me of ambushing you earlier today, but if I'm not mistaken then this is full scale kidnapping. Not to mention rape."
"Rape? Kidnapping? What in hell do you think you're babbling about, girl? Pull yourself together."
"You skulking son of a bitch. So it's not abduction when you shoot out of the shadows, suffocate me and drag me off to a dark, empty classroom like some villain out of a bad movie? And I suppose it isn't rape, either, when having reduced me to a semi-conscious state, you take advantage of me?" Ginny was insulted. No one, no one called her girl. It reminded her too much of being four years old, surrounded by tough older brothers. On top of that, he had just totally killed the melodrama. She liked melodrama.
"Suffocated you? Suffocated you? I really thought you were one girl in this school who didn't do the pathetic thing, but obviously I was wrong. All I did was stop you screaming out so's Professor Snape could come and take fifty points from Gryffindor for existing. He's in a foul temper, and that's the fault of your house, too. Besides which, you can't talk."
Ginny wasn't going to fall for that one. As if Draco Malfoy ever did anyone a good turn!
"You knew I'm not pathetic, Malfoy (incidentally, if you don't watch out I promise I will kick your ass.), so you know I don't scream. So come on, whats the ulterior motive? And what d'you mean, I can't talk? You're the Slytherin scum here."
"Oh, so I'm Slytherin scum, am I? I did want to talk to you about our conversation earlier this morning, but I see I'd better find Kathérine instead. Incidentally, you don't seem to object so much to that particular example of Slytherin scum. Perhaps there's a reason for that. You wouldn't, for example, be closer to her than your other friends? Must be the explanation for her not sleeping in dorm last night. Being such close friends, you must just have felt you couldn't bear to part. I always thought there was something rather queer about a Slytherin taking up with Gryffindor muck like you."
"Are you implying-" Ginny was gasping with surprise and anger. "Are you implying that I'm sleeping with my best friend? You foul minded bastard! Just because she's one girl who seems impervious to your smarmy charms, you have to think this up. You concieted git, just because a girl doesn't want you, that doesn't make her a lesbian."
"'If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to start rumours about the two of us.'
'Oh yes, Flame! I'm madly in love with you! Get dressed, grab something to eat, and meet me out here.'" Malfoy mimicked, with a sour twist to his mouth. "And then where do I find you later? Just emerging from Duprées lair. Funny coincidence, that."
"Its obviously useless to try to talk sense to you, Malfoy. I did think maybe you had more brains than the rest of your family. Of course, I also thought that any friend of Kathérines couldn't be all bad. But I see I must have been mistaken. When you recover your sanity, come back and apologise." With that Ginny flounced, yes, to her everlasting digrace she did positively flounce out of the room, and, just to be original, took off running.
Storm found her, a few minutes later, hiding in the astronomy tower, crying her heart out against the sadly unresponsive stone floor.
"Hey, sweetheart, what happened? I came to see why you weren't in lunch, and this is what I find. Sit up and tell Aunty Katrine."
"Malfoy happened" Ginny growled against Storms arm, as the other girl pulled her into her lap. Storm noticed with alarm that she was shaking all over.
"Honestly love", she said, trying to sound jokey and casual, "you should know by now to take no notice. What's he done this time?"
"He k...he ki...he kissed me" Ginny stammered in a fresh flood of tears.
"He what?"
"Yeah, after he practically strangled me and carried me off to some empty room to accuse me of sleeping with you. Actually, I think it was more me kissing him. But that only makes it worse." Someones spine was returning, Storm noted with approval- someone extremely angry. As she listened, the whole story came pouring out.
"Well, sweet, sit up and dry your eyes. I never thought I'd see a Changing Element girl looking so pathetic. My personal diagnosis is that Malfoy has a serious case of jealousy. That, however, doesn't excuse such rudeness."
"Of course not" Flame snapped, thinking that after all, most boys were jealous of Storm, and Malfoys having joined their ranks certainly didn't mitigate his crimes. On the contrary, though she was not quite sure why this should be so, it made everything a lot worse. "We have a reputation to keep up. We can't let him get away with this, Storm."
Storm giggled, thinking that never had she seen a pair of more star-crossed lovers than those two. For that they were, she was pretty sure. "Get busy thinking up original ways to torment him then, sweet."
* * *
Meanwhile, Harry Potter was coming to pretty much the same conclusions. He needed revenge. He had been staggering downstairs to Quidditch practise this morning, still trying to work out quite what he had been doing with himself.
He had been considerably surprised to see Malfoy enter, coming in from outside, and even more surprised to note that his pulse leapt at sight of the hated Slytherin.What was he doing up at this hour of the morning? If Harry's (disconcerting) memories were correct, he hadn't exactly gone early to bed last night, either. Maybe he had been sabotaging the Quidditch pitches?
But no- just behind Malfoy had come two girls. No other girls than innocent little Ginny Weasley and a hard-bitten Slytherin bitch. Together. And it certainly looked as if they had been with Malfoy, too. This needed investigating. After all, Ron was his friend. Harry sank back into the shadows, and became aware that Malfoy was doing the same, and that the two girls had not noticed either of them.
Harry heard their conversation, and saw Malfoy emerge, white-faced, from his hiding place. He wandered down, late, to meet an irrate Angelina with wide, blank eyes. An awful possibility had just occured to the not so innocent minded hero. Surely not? At Hogwarts, students were mostly too innocent even to have heard of threesomes. They were a muggle perversion. But then again, you never knew. That Sly girl had a bad reputation. Poor little Ginny! But as he sat on his bed, Harry found that he was indignant, not so much on Ginnys behalf as on Malfoys. Of course it was a terrible thing that such an innocent girl should be corrupted. But mostly, it seemed to present an unbearable contrast with the pure being he had seen and loved last night. How dare Malfoy look so heart-breakingly beautiful, and then turn out so corrupt? How dare he act like a gentleman in helping Harry home, thus encouraging him to think that Malfoy couldn't be all bad, and then do this and shatter Harry's hopes? Whats more, how dare Malfoy make Harry feel anything but hate for him in the first place? That was the most unforgivable thing. Malfoy had made Harry feel. Malfoy should go down.
* * *
The unconcious object of all this plotting was, meanwhile, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. The silver hair, so like his fathers, spilled over and tickled the knuckles of those long aristocratic hands. This seemed to bring him to some decision. He jumped up.
"OK, so, the facts are these. Tom Riddle isn't worth two hoots. In fact, I'd make a better leader than him, and I'm dammed if I'll follow him. Father is going to kill me for this. I've also fallen in love with that vixen, Ginny. No use denying things that are- I'll just have to deal with the situation in the most gentelmanly manner possible. I would say to hell with it all, since I'm already turning coats, but she seems to be more keen on girls than boys. So there's no point in doing anything, except just avoiding further conflict. Or further kissing," he added sternly to himself. "I'll just have to avoid her altogether." What he wasn't mentioning out loud, of course, were the things she had called him. That had hurt. She didn't think him capable of one decent action, even of saving her from Snape's irrational wrath. She thought he was sordid. And concieted. And smarmy. And a kidnapper. And, God help him, a rapist. And insane. "Well, that last is about right, at any rate," he murmured wryly to himself. "Right. The next thing to do is contact Duprée about what she means to do."
A/N: I leave the scene of the battle, then, triumphant. With the pseudo-hero having finally taken a much needed fall, and our true hero nursing his hurt heart in the approved manner. God, that felt good. An I won't feel bad at all, when the hero takes, when the hero takes a fall!