LIFE OF SHADOWS
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Chapter 9-
Encounters
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"I lived a life of shadows, never felt the sun on my face"
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Blue grey eyes flew open in the darkness, flicking around the dormitory. Rubbing her eyes, Katrina dragged herself out of bed; head feeling heavy because of lack of sleep. Shivering, she reached out blindly for her robes, leaning forward in order to feel the material of her school robes. Still half asleep the youth reached for her hairbrush on the side table to the left of her bed, eyes as wide as possible in an attempt to see as clearly as possible in her pitch black surroundings.
Still at unease with her unfamiliar environs she reached too far out and knocked over her brush, which fell to the ground with an exceptionally loud clatter. Cursing silently Katrina held her breath as the girl lying opposite her rolled over, muttered something and thankfully slept on. Heart now thumping frantically in her chest she pulled on her robes, tugged on her shoes and slipped out the door silently. Fifteen minutes later she had woken up a very disgruntled Fat Lady, dodged the upside down sleeping form of Peeves, hidden behind a suit of amour for what seemed like years whilst a teacher who shall remain unknown picked his nose and eventually gotten to where she had first intended.
She stood outside the Great Hall, looking around for any sign of a teacher. Here she paused uncertainly. Should she go to meet this stranger? Glancing at her watch Katrina registered the fact that she had about five minutes to get to the statue if she did not wish to be late. Pulling out a scrumpled piece of parchment upon which was a rough sketch of the web of corridors leading to the weeping mermaid which she had drawn with the guidance of Nearly Headless Nick. "Lumos." She muttered, the tip of her wand flaring to a pale light to illuminate the map. After a few minutes of careful viewing accompanied by furtive glances she rolled the parchment up, putting it back in her pocket.
Turning right Katrina immediately found herself at the top of a set of steps, leading down into what seemed to be a dungeon similar to the one that she had her potions lesson in. Pulling her robe tighter around her Katrina descended the stairs, emerging into the dungeon that seemed to be an old, abandoned classroom. A soft, filtered light shone through the small, high placed window, which was grimy and covered with what looked like an inch of dust. Bare tables and stools were cluttered around the room, most of them missing legs or seats which was unusual - but it was the far wall which caught Katrina's attention.
A beautiful sculpture was embossed into the wall, the grief stricken expression of a mermaid boring into Katrina like the grip of a Kappa. Pearly tears dropped from her eyes, her mouth open in what seemed to be a silent plea. Almost against her will she moved forward, one hand outstretched, still clutching her wand. For the second time that night she froze, sensing rather than hearing a movement behind her. Spinning around, Katrina held out her wand rather like one holds a sword, blue grey eyes shining in anticipation.
"Reflexes as good as they always were." A smooth voice announced from the shadows, not even a foot away from where Katrina stood. At that moment the clouds shifted, plunging Katrina into a deeper darkness and throwing the pale sliver of light onto the person who had spoken. Katrina smiled wolfishly, knowing very well that at that moment the light was to her advantage. Tilting her head Katrina frowned, surveying the guy in front of her. Eyes flicked over his physique quickly, eventually coming to rest on his face, although neither were very accurate indication of how much of a threat the person was.
"And you are?" She asked, shifting slightly to get a better view of his wand hand. She didn't want to be caught unprepared if this individual decided that she was an ideal target for a hex.
The boy turned slightly, giving her a clear view of his face for the first time. He was a teenager – a boy around the same age as Katrina herself. He might have been handsome in other circumstances. White blond hair was combed immaculately, each strand as fine as a very young child's. The pigments of his face were very pale – even paler then her own. His features were sharply defined –face well made; his tall body was lithe. The reckless grin he wore and the way he held himself betrayed the fact that he was an incredibly confident, breaching on arrogant person, knew that he was incredibly good looking and knew how to use them both to his advantage.
The clouds moved slightly, bathing both Katrina and the top half of the boy in a silky glow. For the first time since Katrina had arrived at Hogwarts they both saw each other. A sharp intake of breath issued from Katrina. Slate grey eyes turned on her as the moonlight came to rest on her, the carefree smile on the guys face turning into what could only be described as complete and utter shock.
"Kitten?" He said, the startled expression not leaving. Katrina jerked herself away from the eerily familiar silver of his eyes, and consoled herself that she had never met him by gripping her wand very, very hard.
"What?" She snapped, frowning at this strange person who asked to meet her in a random classroom in the middle of the night, made obscene comments about how fast she could point her wand at his throat then somehow manage to mistake her for a feline. "Who are you?" Katrina repeated, a touch of irritation grating her tone.
"You don't recognize me?"
"I've never seen you before in my life." She said, beginning to doubt his sanity.
"It's me – Draco. Draco Malfoy." Draco said, holding out his arms as if somehow he thought it would refresh her memory. "Dragon." He prompted searching her face for any sign of recognition. When she just stared at him - thoroughly spooked Draco sighed, arms dropping at his sides.
"Why did you ask to be put in Gryffindor?" He asked abruptly, silver eyes narrowed. Katrina remained silent, continuing to look steadily at this individual who claimed to know her. Even though she hadn't the faintest idea of who he was, she felt compelled to answer his question. Pocketing her wand, she turned her back on him tilting her head back to stare out of the impossibly small window that offered the only source of natural light in the room.
"One thought." She almost whispered, gazing out the window almost dreamily. "That's all it takes. One thought." She turned around to see Draco staring at her but not in the 'you're nuts' way she had expected. Instead the look that greeted her was the exasperated and slightly puzzled expression a brother gives his sister when she's rambling on about something she doesn't understand.
"Yeah, whatever- look, I dunno what you thought when that hat went on your head but just promise me that you'll stay a true serpent at heart." Katrina nodded almost automatically, hardly aware of what she was agreeing to. "So you don't remember me at all?" Draco prompted again, looking at her closely.
"For heavens sakes I've never seen you before in my life!" Katrina said, incensed. "You must have me mistaken for someone else."
Draco gave her a long look, grey eyes piercing through her with such intent that Katrina suddenly felt as if her body and mind had been cast away and he was examining her bare soul. It was not a pleasant feeling. She had the sudden urge to run and hide in a broom closet.
"Oh no." He said softly, a lopsided smile on his face. "I'm not mistaken. I'm never wrong." Draco said, a trace of his old arrogance creeping into his voice. He paused; hesitating for a second before reaching out and for reason unknown to Katrina patted her on her left shoulder. "Welcome back." He muttered, turning on his heel and walking swiftly out of the room, only to return a second later. "Since you're in the same common room as Potter do you reckon you could poison him for me?" When all that greeted him was a blank, uncomprehending gaze, he shrugged grinning apologetically. "Thought I'd ask." When he'd walked out for the second time, Katrina let out the breath she hadn't realized that she'd been holding.
"Well, that was queer." She said out loud, glancing at her watch and cursing as she registered the time. Suddenly overcome by exhaustion Katrina hurried out of the room. As soon as she stepped out, the moon disappeared and the classroom plunged into darkness once again. Because of lack of sleep, both the people who had just left had failed to notice the emerald green eyes that almost seemed to glow with a light of their own in the black. Whatever Harry had expected Malfoy to do, what he had just witnessed had not been on the list.
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Blue grey eyes peered out from behind a curtain of dishevelled mahogany hair, a faintly puzzled look on her face, which clearly indicated lack of sleep. Defying all of her vows to stay awake Katrina found herself sinking into a stupor, her head dropping down onto her arms, eyes closing as her body claimed the sleep it deserved. She managed to escape everyone's notice for about 8 minutes, which was itself a record as she was in the middle of Charms and usually everyone was so occupied with what they were doing, everything else went unseen.
"Miss Milano. Miss Milano? Miss MILANO!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, peering at Katrina with a worried look on his face. "If you're not feeling well I'm sure that Madame Pomfrey can give you some medicine to make you feel perky in no time."
At these words Katrina's eyes flew open, suddenly wide awake. There was no way she was going to Madame Pomfrey and taking some stupid medicine - she'd had enough to last a lifetime. Struck suddenly with an unpleasant thought Katrina looked around the classroom. 'What if they look at me like they used to? What if they think-' Her train of thought was interrupted by what her eyes told her. What she saw surprised her but caused another sinking feeling in her stomach. Almost everyone in the class was looking at her with the same fake concern on their faces.
She could tell it was false from their eyes. She'd heard somewhere that eyes were the windows to ones soul. From the eyes that she'd tried to look through, Katrina as found the saying true for every window, apart from one. The image of cold grey optics flashed before her for a second and she shivered, as if the cold hatred concealed in Draco Malfoy's eyes could penetrate her from where she sat. It seemed that he had learnt how to draw the curtains over the windows of his soul.
Blinking, she realised that the Professor was still talking about her.
"… volunteer to take Miss Milano to the hospital wing…" She heard to her dismay the Professor saying to the entire class.
"I'm fine Professor, seriously. I just couldn't get to sleep last night, new surroundings and all." Flitwick paused, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Well, if it's just lack of sleep-" (Katrina nodded vigorously) "… but I'm still inclined to have Madame Pomfrey take a look at you."
"If I feel peaky I'll go straight to her." Katrina promised, with her fingers crossed under the table. Not looking entirely convinced, Flitwick nodded slowly the look on his face saying that he was going against his better judgement.
"I would advise you to take an early night today Miss Milano."
Nodding ardently, Katrina immediately returned to her slug, which she was supposed to be charm into smelling like crushed jasmine petals. At the moment it was emitting a sickly sweet smell that reminded her of the incents Professor Trelawney continually burnt in her and Firenze's joint classroom.
"Need help?"
Looking up Katrina saw Harry standing next to her.
"Smell my slug." She said dryly, watching as Harry slid into the empty stool beside her.
"Yeah, Harry Junior needs a bath too." He said, grinning and glancing over at Neville's slug which was emitting puffs of foul smelling smoke – each one smelling worse than the one before. When Katrina remained silent, Harry raised his eyebrows.
"This is supposed to be the part where you say – Harry! Of course you don't look like a slug; you should call it Malfoy Junior!"
At the mention of the name Malfoy Katrina twitched and her demeanour changed swiftly from friendly to cool. Noticing this, Harry dragged his stool closer to hers, lowering his voice.
"Listen Katrina, I know that I've told you before and that you don't believe me but Malfoy is bad news. His father is in Azkaban and he was… is… a death eater. And now that Voldemort is back-" [Katrina winced] "- we all have to stick together."
Katrina stayed silent for several minutes, staring at her oozing slug without actually seeing it.
"Katrina?" Harry prompted when she stayed silent in response to his speech.
"I was just thinking." She began but was cut off by Professor Flitwick.
"Mr. Potter, what are you doing out of your seat?"
"We'll talk later." Harry said quickly, getting up and walking way, shooting a smile over his shoulder which made her feel much better than she had before, although she suspected that she would be stuck with serious thoughts all day.
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"Dragon!"
Draco spun around, an expectant look on his face as he searched for a light haired brunette. The expression on his face changed as soon as he caught sight of a dark haired girl a smirk to rival his own on her face.
"Oh. It's you." Draco said tonelessly, eyes narrowed.
"Nice to see you too… Dragon." Keller said, a mocking grin painted upon her face as Draco's shoulders stiffened, eyes glinting angrily.
"Don't call me that." He said, his voice quietened deliberately. Looking the girl who stoof in front of him in the eye for the first time, Draco smirked inwardly as he saw the shock in Keller's eyes as she got a full blast of glacial cold.
"Don't ever call me that again." He said shortly, turning on his heel and walking briskly down the corridor without giving her a second glance. Nevertheless Keller still managed to have the last word.
"She won't come back to you. She only remembers snippets. Who knows what she'll remember."
Keller's laugh resounded in his head, chilling his heart in a way he hadn't thought possible.
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A/N – Sorry I haven't been able to update, my home computer had a virus. I'm at my cousins house at the moment and I've hijacked the computer. I'll keep writing but I don't know whether I'll have enough time to update. Regards, DoF