Chapter 18: The Black Flame

Malfoy looked up to see Leah leave the Great Hall. He quickly stuffed the last piece of hash-brown into his mouth and got up to follow her. He didn't have the first clue to why he was doing this; he just felt like it, he guessed. He followed her right up to the common room.

"Oi, Leah!" he called out to her as she reached up to the door handle. She turned around and rolled her eyes when she saw him. He heard her mumble something, or was it grumble? Either way, he chose to ignore it, "You haven't told anyone, have you?" He's tone was very testy and he could see the corners of her mouth twitch.

"No," she said, looking innocent. Damn, he thought, she's so good at being innocent.

"What about what followed the duel?"

"Why would I want to tell anyone? Nothing happened" she added. Ok, that was a downright lie, rotten to the core, thought Leah.

"Just checking…" he said mysteriously.

She looked at him searchingly, "Hmm, I don't believe you."

"I know you don't," replied Malfoy, but as he said so, Leah felt a cold flush sweep over her and her vision became blurred. The world around her whirled and her knees gave up on her. But while she thought she was going to fall over, an arm catcher her and started to drag her. She tried walking too, and gradually she felt a little bit of strength come back to her legs. Malfoy was half carrying her up to the Hospital Wing where they were greeted by Madam Pomfrey.

"Oh my," she sighed as she looked into Leah's pale face. "You did a good job in getting her to me, Mr. Malfoy. Now, I think we'll put her on a bed the furthest corner. I'll go get some warming potions, so would you mind keeping her company while I do that?" Malfoy wasn't sure if it was a question of a statement, but he nodded and did as she had told him.

Leah looked up from where she sat limply on the bed and quietly said, "Thanks."

He smiled a little, but didn't say a reply. Instead he said, "You scared me, you know, when you go falling on top of people like that."

Leah found enough energy to give a short laugh but stopped when she saw his face shorten the distance from hers. She gripped her bed and also lent forward a little, using her feet to keep her from falling forward and off the bed. When they were only inches apart from one another, Malfoy pulled away as Madam Pomfrey bustled in, totally oblivious to the scene she had walked upon.

Leah, overcome by the embarrassment, went into another faint. She fell of the bed and her head landed against Malfoy's chest. He quickly grabbed her and propped her up on her bed again as Madam Pomfrey tutted him, "You're meant to make sure she doesn't fall off the bed you know! What's the good of keeping someone company, if they're on the floor? I thought that would be common sense…"

Malfoy rolled his eyes and clenched his teeth. It wasn't his fault if a girl just walked up to him and fainted on him… although my coolness may intimidate them, he added to himself. A sneer appeared on his face as he thought.

"Will you stop day dreaming and help me put her in bed?" Madam Pomfrey asked irritably. He snapped out of his thoughts and obeyed her.

Once she was tucked in, Madam Pomfrey poured her a goblet of steaming potion and set it on her night stand. Then she instructed to him, "Make sure she takes all of it once she's awake," and bustled off to tend to someone else.

He looked down at the pale figure of Leah and reddened. He didn't know what possessed him to even contemplate kissing her. Trying to kiss her, he corrected in his mind, I didn't kiss her; just tried to. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to, but at that point in time, it just felt like the appropriate thing to do… it was only a spur of a moment thing.

He abruptly got up, went to an occupied bed and took a bit of parchment and a quill and started writing on the night stand. He scribbled, "Drink all of your potion." He paused and thought of something else to write about. Five words seemed much too short. After pondering on some choices, he wrote, "Don't you dare say a word of what happened." And signed it with his initials; DM. he reread the note; concentrating mostly on the second sentence. It should be 'what would have happened' but it seemed to be too long and complicated, so he left it. He went back to standing beside Leah, placed the note upright against the goblet and left silently.

……………………………………………..

A day later, Leah was let out, or more like shooed out of the Hospital Wing and she made her way back down to the Slytherin common room. She found him siting down in a leather couch. "Want to play chess?" he suggested.

"Alright, and I bet I can beat you," she challenged him with a sneaky smile. "But why are you asking me? Why can't you play it with Crabbe and Goyle?"

"They're an easy match; you get bored of them after a while. And I don't fancy playing with…"

"Ooh! A game of chess! Can I play, Draco?" Pansy chimed as she walked through the door. Draco rolled his eyes and said, "No, I'm playing with Leah."

"Oh," she said and stalked off sulking, only after shooting an extremely dirty look at Leah. Leah smirked once Pansy had gone.

He returned it with his own brand of smirk, "Oh and I wouldn't be so sure about winning, if I were you." His eyes narrowed mockingly.

"But you're not me." She paused with a determined air, "Fine, we'll settle this game in a flash. You're going down."

Indeed, the game was a close and fiery match. Both of them were skilled and had had years of practice and training. But the reason why Malfoy was losing was because he couldn't help but pay more attention to her ring more than the game. Once she had captured his king, she shouted "Huh!" and grinned broadly.

"Damn it!" he shouted at her and banged his fist on the table.

"Hey careful!" yelled his castle which was dangerously swinging from side to side until it toppled over. He picked the chess piece up and put it back to where it had been before.

He asked out of curiosity that he couldn't keep in any longer. "Where did you get that ring from?"

"Oh, this thing?" she asked and looked down to examine it. "It's been in the family for ages. Mum gave it to me."

"Can I have a look?"

"Sure," she said and took it off to hand it to him.

The ring was just as he thought it was. A ruby in the centre and two serpents encircling it could only mean one thing; he had the matching ring. "That's funny…"

"What's funny?" she asked, also feeling curious.

"Well, it's funny because I've seen a ring exactly like this one; a matching ring. And you also know what's funny about it? I own that other ring," he said and took out his ring from an inside pocket of his robe.

He compared the two rings together; they were identical. "My father gave me this ring. And it was given to him by his father, and his father before him."

"Well, my ring's also been in the family for ages… more than four generations, I think."

"Five," he corrected her. "I can remember by father telling me about it, but I can't remember much. He told me something about old families and some partnership or something like that. I'm sure it would have come from great-great-great grandfather Jupitus Malfoy. The Malfoy's have been around for ages, really. Other little pureblood families married as part of the Malfoys, but I've essentially come from a line of pure Malfoys."

"Hmm. I know what you mean. Dad's part of a smaller wizard family, but I think my mum might have been part of a larger one. I don't really know much about this. I suppose I could ask mum about it."

"Are you going to send an owl?" he asked her as she got up.

"No, I'm going to use the Floo network. Haven't you tried using it?" she inquired after seeing his puzzled face. "Hang on, let me just get the Floo powder," she said and ran down to her dormitory where she shuffled about until she found a small pot. She carried it down carefully to the quiet common room and walked over to the fire place. She took the lid off and placed it beside the fire place and kneeled in front of the fiercely burning fire. She took a pinch of the silvery powder and threw it into the fire. It immediately roared into a green flame and she stuck her head into the fire. It was like a warm air vent, blowing the warm air about her face. She said, "Number 2 Fawcett Street, Cambridge!" and quickly saw a few fireplaces zoom by. She closed her eyes soon after about a dozen fireplaces, starting to feel a bit sick. But the whirling feeling soon stopped and she was able to open her eyes to see her living room. With luck, her mother might be inside and she took a chance to call out. "Mum!"

"Yes?" She was in luck. The next moment, her mother came busting to the living room. "Oh, hi honey."

"Hi, I've got to be quick. I'm not using much Floo powder. Would you be able to contact me now?"

"Of course, darling. I'll see you in a few seconds."

Leah pulled her face out of the flames just as the green flames died away and was replaced by the usual crackling one. She turned to face Malfoy who had come to kneel beside her, "she'll be coming soon." She looked up into his face and saw a familiar smirk, "What?" she asked him testily. He didn't say anything but tried hard not to burst out laughing and pointed at his nose. She looked at him very puzzled, and with great effort he choked out, "Ash." It clicked and she started rubbing at her nose to find her hand smudged with the ash from her face.

But just like her mother said to her, it was only a few seconds before she was facing her mother again. She was still trying to rub the ash off her face when her mother asked, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Um…" she started to say but was interrupted.

"Hello, Mrs Harrison. It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Draco Malfoy," he said with a broad smile and a sweet 'butter couldn't melt' voice. Leah cringed. This was not was he was like in real life.

"Why hello, Draco. Hmm, a Malfoy. My family used to be very close friends with yours; but I suppose that's history. I don't want to bore you young people with old, dust covered stories from two centuries ago…"

"Well, mum, that's what I – I mean we – wanted to ask you about."

"What on earth for?"

"Well, Malfoy has an identical ring to the one you gave me that Nan had before you did," Leah explained.

"Ah," her mother said and sunk into thought. "That's a very old story. But where to start… are you sure you want to know? Oh but I suppose you have to know someday."

Leah and Malfoy both looked at each other, a bit puzzled, a bit unsure of what they were going to hear. Her mother continued on, "well, it started exactly five generations ago, here in England. There were three main families that ruled the country; I suppose you could call them the dukes. Those three families were the Malfoys (she looked at Draco), the de Flamnoirs (she looked at her own daughter) and the Blacks. Now, only two of them exist. The Blacks died out last year, when the last pure Black, Sirius died. He wasn't very supportive of his family though – he betrayed them. But, you get an odd one every now and again." Nearby, Leah could hear Malfoy smirk. She clenched her fist, so not to let her temper rise. "Anyway, it started with both of your great-great-great grandfathers, Jupitus Malfoy and Tavarius de Flamnoir. These two were great friends and very powerful. But the most powerful family out of the three were the Blacks and they both became worried that the Blacks would take over England. So they decided on an agreement; or more like a partnership.

"This happened upon when Jupitus, a great seer of his time, saw a prophesy, that a great change would occur in their favour. He wrote down that prophesy. I think it went something like, 'one of three, three of one…"

"In ten children will become, two of two and one of one." Draco finished. Leah looked at him with awe and was surprised to see that he himself was surprised to have said the verse. "Wow. I don't know where that came from. Oh, wait, I think I can remember father telling me it; it had a lot more verses in it though."

"Yes, I wouldn't be surprise if your father had told you those verses. I can't remember the rest of them, for the life of me though. Anyway, the prophesy told the story that the two families will live on, through partnership, I guess. Both have to join forces and eventually rule the country. But that's a myth, now. Ruling the country's no longer able, and besides there wasn't anything about ruling in the prophesy. And partnership still hasn't happened."

"Well, it won't be happening too soon," Leah said.

"Leah," her mother said in a threatening tone. Leah shot a menacing look at Draco, who returned the look. "Anyway, if you want to read though the prophesy, I think it might be in one of the books in your library. It was quite famous one time."

"What, it's published?" Leah asked.

"Why, yes of course. Jupitus and Tavarius made a huge racket about it and became a legend. They were going to sign a partnership, but Jupitus died two days before the signing and Tavarius died in vain. Well, that's the end of the story, really."

"So, it was left unfinished," Draco said quietly.

"Yes. It's a shame really," her mother said. "Well, I've got to go and weed the garden – my belladonnas are starting to look awful."

"Ok, bye," Leah said and her mothers face disappeared as the green flames died down again. "So…" Leah said, but her voice died away before she could finish the sentence.

"That was an interesting history lesson," Draco said, his voice still quiet.

"Yeah, beats Binn's history lessons."

"Leah, anything beats his lessons," he said.

A/N: R&R!