Cho's Chic
Chapter 14
Dressed in his usual elegance, shaved so closely that his face felt as smooth as a young girl's inner thigh, his hair smelling faintly of camomile and restored to its usual golden glory, and contrasting sharply with his black cloak, Lucius went to keep his appointment at Cho's Chic to collect the embroidered waistcoat. As he entered the shop, he saw Alan was behind the counter. Alan looked surprised when Lucius addressed him perfectly civilly, asking if Cho was in the shop. "She's with a customer in the fitting room, Mr Malfoy," Alan told him. "She is expecting you though." Alan dropped his voice. "She said you can wait in the flat if you like. Just go up, and she'll be with you shortly." Lucius inclined his head in acknowledgement, and strode upstairs.
It was not long before Cho came up, carrying the waistcoat over her arm. She stood before Lucius, who was sitting in an armchair, and he saw her concerned expression as she looked at him. So, she too had noticed the change in him. She refrained from commenting though, and held up the waistcoat for his approval. The embroidered cobra in jewelled shades of blue and green highlighted in yellow looked ready to strike the watcher. "Look," she said, "a surprise for you." She turned the waistcoat inside out, and showed him the back again. Gazing out at him was another snake. It was a different type, with a different pose, but worked in the same colours.
Cho looked so pleased with herself. "It's reversible," she told him, "So you have a choice of snakes. Very appropriate for an ex Slytherin."
Lucius took the waistcoat from her hands, and examined it closely. "It's all the same embroidery," Cho explained to him. "Amy developed the technique herself. You get a different picture on each side with the same stitches. Isn't it beautiful workmanship?" Lucius had to agree that it was. He was surprised at how moved he felt that Cho had prepared this surprise for him. He put it down at least partly to his lack of sleep and his current state of mind. However, whatever the reason, she deserved proper thanks, and he gave her his most winning smile, and held out his arms to her. Cho sat on his knee, and they hugged each other closely, and kissed deeply, both having missed each other equally.
Lucius found himself inviting Cho to come to Glen Moy Castle once more. As soon as he had spoken the words, he regretted them, but he could not retract the invitation once spoken. Cho agreed instantaneously. Then shyly, unsure of his reaction, she invited him to stay the night, saying she would firstly have to work in the shop for the rest of the day. She then said carefully, "Lucius, you look so tired. Go to bed now and sleep for the rest of the afternoon if you like." He was amazed at how readily he agreed to her suggestion.
Cho went into her bedroom after the shop was closed, and saw that Lucius was in a deep slumber. She slipped out again, and took up some of her sewing to keep herself busy while she waited patiently for him to wake. Every so often, she looked in on him, but he remained unconscious. She wondered why he was so exhausted, and whether his tiredness was in any way connected with the mysterious construction in the dungeon at Glen Moy Castle.
Finally, with the sky darkening outside, she looked in the room once more, and saw that he was awake. She sat down on the bed, took his hand in hers, and smiled down at him. "What do you want to do, Lucius?" she asked him. "You've been asleep for hours. You must have needed the rest. Do you feel any better now? If you're hungry, we can eat. Or do you want me to join you? We don't need to make love, we can just lie together."
Lucius gave her a lazy smile, and squeezed her hand. "My dear, I haven't yet reached the stage where I wouldn't want to make love to you if you were lying beside me. The more I think about it, the more attractive that proposition sounds. Let's eat something first though."
Following a light meal, they lay together naked in the bed, and their lovemaking was very languid and slow without the urgency that had so often accompanied their couplings. They took their time, and explored each other fully, each discovering more about the sometimes surprising reactions of the other's body: how sensuous touch of a non-erogenous zone could bring far more pleasure than expected. Nobody had ever brushed their lips over Cho's palms before, or kissed their way sensuously up her inner arm from her wrist to the hollow above her collar bone. Lucius exploited his previously acquired knowledge of the sensitive area on her back, and drew his fingernails gently over her skin. The resulting feeling was so pleasurable that Cho felt a response from deep inside her, as her muscles contracted and she felt herself growing wetter. In return, Cho kissed and rubbed her face against Lucius' stomach and belly, enjoying the feel of taut muscles and soft body hair against her skin, while Lucius revelled in her caresses and the feel of her silky black hair spilling over him. Finally Cho acknowledged the presence of Lucius' erection begging for her attention, and took him fully in her mouth, eliciting a sigh of satisfaction from her lover.
Then, when both were almost unbearably aroused, Lucius slid his full length inside a wet and welcoming Cho, and they moved together with ever faster strokes until they climaxed together in united rapture. Afterwards, they lay together peacefully for some time, still joined, entwined in sleepy post coital bliss.
The weekend at Glen Moy Castle began well. Once more, Lucius walked Cho up a mountainside, this time in the other direction. There he showed her a hidden lochan in a high corrie, where sea birds from the nearby coast clustered and quarrelled. Then, from the heights above the corrie they gazed out to sea, watching the light shift on the blue-grey water, and tried to count the islands, unable to tell where one faint outline became another. They found speaking was unnecessary much of the time as they both drank in the sparseness of the bare landscape, and it mattered not that the wind frequently whipped away their words.
Once more they spent the afternoon in bed. Lucius felt his cares slip away as he revelled in the pleasures of the flesh, and then slept soundly.
Cho awoke to find him still sleeping peacefully. She arose, put on a silk dressing gown she found hanging on the door, and went to the library, where she browsed the well stocked bookshelves, marvelling at the collection of rare texts. She was about to choose one, planning to take it back to bed with her, when she suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to visit the castle dungeons. Part of her mind told her that this was an extremely unwise action, but it was as though she were not herself. She began to move gradually towards the uneven stone stairs, stepping down slowly one at a time, drawn by an irresistible compulsion to go on. As she descended, she began to feel cold. The dressing gown was warm enough for the castle's main rooms, for the house elves kept the fires burning at all times when the Master was in residence; but here, in the nether regions of the fortress, the temperature was lower, and the air was damp and musty. Cho shivered, and tried to go back, but could not. She walked on, goose pimples on her skin, her erect nipples showing through the silk.
When she reached the dungeon level, she passed by every entrance until she arrived at the door to the room where she had interpreted between Lucius and the Chinese wizard Lee. There she paused as a sudden flash of fear stopped her, and she spun round, intending to flee. But then unwillingly she turned back again, and like an automaton, stepped through into the room.
Part of her mind registered astonishment at the pale green jade sepulchre before her. Part of her knew this was what she would find. She walked forwards until she stood in the entrance to the structure. Then she heard a slight hiss, and saw shuffling towards her a creature that appeared to be neither human nor animal, but some creation of a deranged mind. It moved with great difficulty, its efforts producing sighs and groans as it shambled forwards. It halted an arm's length away from Cho, and peered at her with screwed up eyes. Then it turned its head, and - horror surpassed horror - she saw that there was a second face on the back of the head. This face was even more distorted than the first, and as it gazed at Cho, she saw the expression in the dreadful eyes: greed, lust and malevolence stared out at her. Suddenly, somehow, Cho knew the identity of the creature. Unable to move, invisible bonds preventing her from escaping, she looked into the eyes of Lord Voldemort.
Almost without realising it, Cho spoke to the Dark Lord: "It can't be you. You died. The aurors displayed your body so we would all know you were dead."
A cruel, twisted smile spread across the ravaged face, and the high voice said triumphantly , "That deception was indeed well done, was it not? All wizardry save a select few believed I had been killed. In fact, I very nearly was, but my faithful servant Peter saved me, didn't you, Wormtail? He put out his silver hand, his reward for helping me on a previous occasion, and the shiny surface deflected most of the auror's Avada Kedavra curse on to Crabbe. It was Crabbe who died, not I. We killed the auror, and gave Crabbe Polyjuice Potion immediately to change him into my image. It was he who was left to be found by the Ministry of Magic, and his body was displayed as mine.
"But Peter did not save me from all damage. Part of the curse hit me, and so it was necessary for me to use my most faithful of servants in order that I should survive. Wormtail is pleased to allow me to use his body, for he is the most devoted of all my followers.
"Behold! The Dark Lord lives. And you are honoured to have been chosen as my consort, delivered to me at last by my servant Lucius Malfoy. Come closer, my dear. Let me look at you."
Unwillingly, but unable to stop herself, Cho stepped forwards. The Dark Lord stretched out Wormtail's silver hand towards her. It was holding a wand. Transfixed, Cho watched the hand wave the wand at her, and heard the command, "Imperio!"
Notes
1. a lochan is a small loch
2. I would like to pay tribute to two women from the People's Republic of China who did indeed develop a technique of embroidery where the same stitches produce a different picture on both sides of the material. I saw them and their beautiful innovative work some years ago at the Museum of Science, Boston, USA. Unfortunately, I do not know their identities.