Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to JK Rowlings.
So sorry that it's taken so long for this next chapter. Life has been a little busy. Anyway, enjoy, and thank you all so much for all of the great reviews!!! Wow!!
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Chapter Five: It's All In Her Eyes
Draco was tired, exhausted even. He knew there was a dirty spot on the back on his too long, borrowed robes he was wearing from his fall, and quite simply wanted to go home, and was about to make his excuse to do so when they reached the small glassed building and he saw the crowd of people milling inside, but it was the catch of breath from Virginia and the fact that she caught his hand and squeezed it for a moment. A brief moment at that.
"Ready?"
Her eyes shone in the moonlight as she chewed her bottom lip again, a habit he noticed she had. "Yeah."
"You know, Draco, I really appreciate you doing this for me. I just feel more comfortable at these things when I know someone already, you know, pretty well."
He nodded as walked inside and he followed her lead as it was her function.
"Virginia!"
A young man waved and called out her name and Draco began to unconsciously eye him up. Dark hair, shorter, not as built, he could take him. He took a step closer to Virginia, fixed the patented Malfoy smirk on his face and placed his hand on the small of her back as he fell into step with her as they made their way to the man hiding in the corner.
"Marcus, I'm so glad you guys are here already," Virginia laughed nervously.
The man looked at Draco for a moment before answering her. "Are you sure, Annie and I have been here for an hour already, her Da wouldn'a let us be any later, if I have to meet on more boring person…"
They both laughed at this, and Draco began to relax marginally. "Oh, where are my manners. Marcus, this is Draco Malfoy. Draco, this is Marcus Iver. He and his fiancée are in my honours class with me."
Draco extended his hand and shook with a firm grip as a way to pass on the universal message as he pleasantly spoke, "Good to meet you, mate."
"Like wise." He just raised a brow and squeezed back as if to say 'you can't intimidate me'. It wasn't until their knuckles were turning white and Virginia cleared her throat did they release hands and they grinned. "So, Draco, what is it that you do?"
"I'm taking Medical Studies."
"Oh? What year are you in?"
"My final."
"You probably know Ryan's wife then." He looked around, spotted his prey, then looked back to them. "Are you two ready to mingle?"
"I thought you were hiding out?"
"If I had to, you have to." He grabbed Draco's wrist and began walking. "Come on."
To say he was shocked was an understatement; to say Virginia was shocked was an understatement. She actually had to run to catch up with them they set off so abruptly, and Draco wanted to rip his arm away, but the laughter in Virginia's eyes stopped him from making a scene, and he was beginning to wonder if it wasn't her eyes he should be cursing.
They were nearing a man about ten years his senior when Marcus called out, "Ryan, oy, Ryan, I want you to meet someone. I think he might know Nelly."
The man turned, followed by a younger woman who made Draco's blood curl in his veins. Well, he knew that was not anatomically possible, but he glared none the less. "Reynolds."
She grinned impertinently. "Malfoy. What are you doing here?"
It was now that Virginia slid up beside him and took his arm, brushing Marcus away. "Oh, he's with me. I'm Virginia Weasley. Ryan's told me so much about you."
Her gaze moved her as she took her in. "Oh yes, the Gryffindor. I heard you were a sweet girl. What are you doing with a Slytherin?"
"Nelly!"
"Oh—Ah, we're n—that is…"
"Now, now, Eleanor," Draco broke in, "don't be sore just because I out did you on two procedures today."
"You did not!"
"And let's not forget you're little squabble because you tried to steal my bed."
She just smirked. "At least I had the satisfaction of sending you flat on your back last week."
"Now there's the Ravenclaw spirit! Can't do it with brains, just body check them while their treating a patient."
"Why you little…"
"Draco!"
At Virginia's call, he looked down at her, and damn it, the look in her eyes again. This time amused, but scolding and he almost felt contrite. Almost. Not enough to consider apologizing to this shrew, but enough not to continue purposefully egging her on, after all, he was only human.
"So, Ryan," she began, effectively ending their conversation, leaving them to glare at each other every once in awhile when they thought about it, after all, it was just a game, "what topic did you pick for your thesis?"
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Honestly, I don't know. I wanted to write on Hieroglyphs in Mesoamerican structures, but that's been done. So, I'm trying to think of a different angle to write from."
Draco frowned at this. "How are Runes related to Hieroglyphs?"
Nelly rolled her eyes at him, but kept silent while Virginia looked up at him and began to explain. "In ancient times, writing was taken very seriously and usually believed to be full of magical power otherwise it would have simply just been preserved within the oral history of the people." She paused for a moment here, a smile of excitement growing on her face that he couldn't help retuning. "Runes, as you studied back at Hogwarts, were developed by the Germanic people, which they used for writing, encoding, casting, basically anything they wanted to keep secret. Overtime their system developed into a more complex system which was then exported to other countries and modified slightly, but can still be read within the same syntax if you know which key marker to look for.
"Now in modern English, the word Rune, which our program of study is actually more so about then the ancient language, comes from the Old English word roun, which means to 'whisper, or talk in secret'. So when we say we take ancient runes, we don't only study the Germanic for which the course is named, but anything pertaining to that. In laymen's terms, I guess you can say we study codes."
"Oh."
Nelly scoffed at him. "There's an intelligent reply."
"You didn't say much differently, Nelly my dear," Adam said gently to his wife.
"That's it!" Virginia snapped her finger's, bringing everyone's attentions back to her immediately.
"Ah, Gin? Are you Okay?"
She blinked, and then looked up at Draco with a smile. "What did you just call me?"
"Nothing," he mumbled.
Her grin grew but said nothing. "Adam, I know what you should write about. Exportation. My brother Bill used to work in Egypt and I remember he said how he thought that the Hieroglyphs in Mesoamerica were just a reformed version of the same syntax. He was a genius at this kind of thing. You should take a look at the idea anyway. I mean look at the pyramids. Where are the largest pyramids in the world found? Mesoamerica, and Egypt."
Here Nelly actually looked interested at this. "Really? Which one's are the largest?"
"Well, there's actually some speculation on that one. There was one called The Pyramid of the Sun, and that was thought to be the largest, but then an excavation for piping was going on in Mexico, and they actually found, they say, an even larger pyramid buried under the ground. The muggles have dug up and measured the base of it, but they can't do anything more for now because they're some kind of church or something at the top of the hill where the top of the pyramid would be, and it would be sacrilegious to some people to touch the land or some such nonsense. Bloody Muggles."
"So, the one in Egypt is the third largest then?"
She shook her head. "No, they think they found an even larger pyramid in Guatemala now, called the Red Pyramid. So, I guess it's the forth largest now, but they are still just giving it the benefit of the doubt because they think there are even larger ones in Peru, but that a who other story that the Egyptians are still bickering over. I do have to say, the craftsmanship of the Mesoamerican structures are a lot better then the European and Egyptian one though."
Adam scoffed. "They're not half as old!"
"Says you! I don't believe for a minute these little half baked theory's that only half the Earth was populated for thousands of years with landed civilizations, then poof, one day, complex structures pop up on the other side of the world."
"It's true, and it wasn't just one day! And what happened to all your talk on exportation?"
Draco and Nelly's gaze met while the other two went on bickering for the next ten minutes, and a temporary truce was drawn. "So, what happened with your hypochondriac?"
Nelly shrugged as the other two effectively got the message. "I gave him some water with a bit of honey and lemon juice in it and told him it was a new potion that would cure everything. Plus with the riot, I don't think he wanted to come inside anyway."
Draco chuckled at that as Virginia looked at him questioningly. "What riot?"
"Oh, there was a Quidditch riot last night after the Cannons/Harpies game."
Nelly began to laugh. "Tell them about the nut job you had this morning! If I knew when I first saw you, I would have put up more of a fight!"
Draco just sighed and groaned. "Don't remind me. This guy…he was a bigger Cannon's fan then your brother, I can tell you that, and that's saying something." He winked at Virginia as Nelly snorted.
"Why do I get the feeling I should be defending Ron's honour right about now?"
He just waived her off with a smile. "So he comes in painted orange head to toe, wearing nothing but the tightest of tight shorts—"
"Draco!"
"What?"
"That is not very nice what you said about Ron!"
He looked down at her for a moment and smiled. "Would he have said anything different about me?"
"Well, no."
"Well?"
"Fine."
"So, anyway, the guy starts calling out like a maniac about the Harpies and," he paused and cleared his throat, "the viciousness of women in general, until his neighbour in the next bed loses it and attacks him again." He started chuckling here. "I thought I was in a muggle hospital for a moment the way the witch was going at him and he just kept right on yelling."
Virginia looked slightly shocked by his story and a little skeptical, but Nelly was nodding in conformation at everything he said thus far. "What did you do?"
"Body bind on him and sent the witch back to her bed. She was just a little upset. Then I moved my patient across the ward to treat his injuries there."
Here Nelly broke back in. "Did there end up being internal as well?"
Draco nodded. "Surgical consul."
"Nice catch."
He smirked. "A compliment?" He turned to Virginia, "Okay, we can go now, I've gotten what I came for." Nelly just scoffed and began to walk away, dragging a chuckling Ryan with her. "What? Was it something I said?"
Virginia hit him lightly in this arm. "Now look what you did."
"Oh, like you wanted to have that conversation for the rest of the night." She rolled her eyes, making no answer, and he grinned triumphantly. "Ha."
"Arrogant." She tugged his arm, and they began to circulate the room slowly. "So, did you learn anything?"
"Not to with you over unproven historical theories? Ooof." She elbowed him sharply in the ribs as the nodded politely to, he assumed, one of her professors, as he was old enough to be his grandfather.
"Are you all right son?"
He planted a smile on his face. "Just fine, sir."
He nodded. "This must be your wife. What a fine pair you make. Yes, yes. I remember when I was your age. Yes."
"Oh, We're not…" Virginia started, but the gentleman interpreted her.
"I'm afraid we're not as spry as we used to be, but we manage. Good to see the two of you here, and so in love. Yes. Young love." He nodded kindly to them and continued on.
Draco and Virginia looked at each other with a bewildered look. "Professor of yours?"
She shook her head, barely containing her laugh. "Never met the man in my life."
"Oh good."
That set her off. "Maybe we should get some fresh air?"
Draco nodded with amusement and led her shaking form outside and allowed her to compose herself. "Would you mind terribly if we called it a night soon?"
She looked at him for a moment then cast her eyes down. "No, of course not. You must find this very boring. You can leave now if you like."
He reached out and took her hand in his, causing her to look up at him again. "Gin, I'm not board at all, I could stay here all night." Her breath caught in her throat for a moment as she just looked at him and he tried to fight down the urge to lean down and kiss her. "Well, that is, I would try to stay all night, but I would probably fall asleep on you, and you would bet all offended, and hate me, and then I would have to beg for your forgiveness, and you would take a few days to think about it, just to be coy— "
"Hey!"
"What? Isn't that what you people do? I'm just repeating what my flat mate has said woman do, of course."
"Oh, of course."
He gave her a grin. "So, to avoid all of that, I was just thinking we could call it an early night."
She eyed him for a moment. "Why?"
"I've had such a long day. I was called in early for that riot, and I just want to fall into bed. I just got off work when I got here, that's why I was late, because I was finishing up my paperwork."
She studied him for a moment. "You do look tired. Alright. Go home, get some sleep."
"Do, do you want to do something this week?"
She smiled. "Are you asking me out?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
He grinned at her. "Should I floo you? I mean, are you on the network?"
"Yes I am."
"Okay, I'll talk to you later then."
She nodded and gave his hand a squeeze before returning to the party.
~@~
Virginia reentered and scanned the scanned the crowd, immediately finding who she sought, she went forth with purpose. "Nelly!"
The woman turned and when she did not see Draco, seemed to relax a bit. "Yes Virginia?"
"Nelly, I have a quick question for you. It may seem odd, but, you know when Draco was telling us about his first patient he had and that you saw him there?"
She tensed for a moment, which Virginia found odd, "Yes, what about it?"
"What time was that?"
Again the woman immediately relaxed and smiled. "Oh, let's see, it was around the middle of my shift, probably around four in the morning. Come to think of it, I was surprised to see him, usually he starts when I get off…" She smiled at her again. "Why dear?"
She knew she shouldn't be checking up on him, but she just couldn't help it, and well, he did pass. She gave a small grin. "No reason, I just thought he looked a little tired, that's all."
Nelly frowned at her slightly. "Are the two of you serious?"
"No, no, nothing like that. We're just friends. Why?"
"It's just that, well, I know it's childish, but growing up, my parents always told me to be careful around Slytherin's."
"That's it?"
"Well that and You-Know-Who."
Here Virginia looked at her blankly. "What does he have to do with anything? Everyone knows that Draco wasn't a Deatheater, Dumbledore himself vouched for him, and I've seen his arms."
Nelly just shrugged. "Well there has to be something wrong there."
"What do you mean?"
She sighed. "I mean, he has to be using some kind of dark magic to help him through school or something. I've heard talk. One of the doctor's at the hospital especially who fought in the war thinks he's practicing dark magic, but can't prove it. His cases are too perfect. It's almost like… Never mind. I shouldn't be telling you this.
Thoughts began whirling around Virginia's head at his. Could it be true? Could the man she was developing feelings for actually be practicing dark magic. "Maybe he's just really good a medicine."
"Come on, I'm a Ravenclaw, and he does better then I do."
Virginia took a step back. "Is that what this is about? You're jealous because he's doing better then you?"
Nelly's look went hard. "Of course not! I'm not that petty. I'm just telling you, be careful." She paused for a moment. "Look, he seems like a good guy, and I honestly hope, for your sake, that he is, but, just keep your guard up. That's all I'm saying."
Virginia nodded, not really wanting to stay any longer. "Could you tell everyone goodnight for me?"
"Virginia, I didn't mean…"
"No, I was leaving anyway. Really. Draco's gone already, and I was going to make an early night of it myself. I promised my mum I would go back home this weekend."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. "It was nice meeting you, Nelly. We should get together for that tea someday."
"Anytime."
Virginia all but ran from the party, her thoughts and feeling in conflict with one another and she wanted nothing more then to run home to her mum, but she wasn't sure she was up to the lecture she would get once it was found out whom she was confused over. Why couldn't her life be simple?
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