Thanks to Nat for betaing this and to Andrew for saving the whole story. I think. Maybe. We'll see.
That's actually what took so long. This is the highly revised version of Star Light. But I like this one better. I hope you do too. Well. I hope you like this one. Not necessarily better since only Nat really knows the first one at all. Whatever.
Please read and review. That would be very much appreciated.
This is not mine, its JKR's. Except for the parts you don't recognize.
This is it.
A very pregnant Narcissa Malfoy stood on the edge of the train platform next to a man and woman, a few years older than herself. The man held a baby carrier with a month old baby lying like a useless lump in the carrier's seat. The woman looked up and down the platform expectantly. Narcissa sensed that the baby was a witch, and a very powerful one at that, but the parents were both muggle. A shorter girl with a wild mane of brown hair nearly tossed 11-year-old Keiran Malfoy into the side of the express in her rush to the couple next to Narcissa. From the strength of the magic pouring off the girl and the sheer size of her hair, Narcissa knew she looked at Hermione Granger, her oldest son's number one competition in school, and one of her 11-year-old daughter Astrid's closest friends.
"Damn mudblood!" Keiran muttered, announcing his presence on the platform next to his mother.
"Keiran Nigel Malfoy!" Narcissa hissed, glaring down at her younger son. Before she could say anything else, she was cut off by a loud shriek erupting from a silver-haired black blur ripping towards them at a high rate of speed across the platform.
"EMMA!" The noise was finally audibly a word. Ten-year-old Emma Malfoy stepped from behind her mother and held her arms towards her sister.
"Astrid!" she said at a normal level of volume for anyone else. This was exceptionally loud for Emma. Astrid dived into Emma's out stretched arms. For a moment, Narcissa wasn't sure which of her daughters was happier to see the other. Then the pair collapsed onto the floor, rolling around in a mass of black robes and silvery hair.
"Girls, really," Narcissa said. The pair paused and looked up at their mother.
"Yes mum?" Astrid questioned. Her ponytail had fallen nearly completely out. Wisps of silky hair cascaded around her face. Emma's tiny oval glasses had been knocked askew.
"Could the pair of you please act like you've got a brain between you?" Draco snapped, stepping up behind his sisters who were still lying in the floor. He tapped Emma lightly with the toe of his shoe.
"Okay!" Narcissa insisted. "Keiran, you need to keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself. Astrid and Emma, you need to stand up and act like the young ladies I tried to raise you to be. Draco, you need to try to be nicer to your sisters." She looked at each of her children as she spoke, and even went so far as to tap Keiran on his head when mentioning his name. He instantly stepped out from under her hand and deepened the scowl he was already shooting at her.
"So do you all have everything, are you ready to go home?"
"Why are you here anyway?" Keiran asked. "Why don't we just get to take the carriage like we normally do?"
"The carriage is waiting," Narcissa replied, looking down at the boy.
"Well can Emma and the Traitor get off of the floor so we can go home?" the boy asked.
"Keiran!" Narcissa scolded. "I do not want to hear you refer to your sister as that in my presence again. Ever." Keiran glared up at his mother.
"Do you all have your trunks?" Narcissa questioned. The three children returning from school all nodded. Astrid had picked herself up off the floor and helped Emma to her feet. She brushed the younger girl's robes off as she nodded at their mother.
"Alright then, to the carriage," she said. She turned sharply on her heel and started towards the second barrier onto the platform. The ministry had installed the second barrier after pureblooded families had complained about dealing with muggles in Kings' Cross. "How was the remainder of the school year?"
"Alright," Astrid said. "Not very eventful except for the hide and seek game that ended up with one of my friends setting fire to the Three Broomsticks."
"How did that happen?" Emma whispered.
"I'll tell you the entire story later," Astrid assured her sister.
"How about you boys?" Narcissa questioned.
"Hogwarts won the inter-school Quidditch cup," Draco announced. "We beat Durmstrang in the tie-breaking game largely thanks to a goal I scored."
"Good job, Draco," Narcissa said, nodding at her son.
"He's not mentioning the fact that Angelina scored like 20 before him or that Harry actually caught the snitch," Astrid muttered to Emma. Draco spun sharply on his heel, robes billowing around him in a display that would have made Snape proud, and glared down at his little sisters.
"I heard that Astrid," he snapped. She shrugged and smirked at her brother; slightly relieved that she could finally smirk and not be told she looked like a Malfoy.
"You were supposed to, Draco," she replied. She quickly pushed thin strands of hair behind both of her ears as she returned her brother's glare. Narcissa and all four children walked through the barrier at the same time, not worried about being noticed, and not all that bothered with walking through a barrier at all. So much so that Draco and Astrid didn't stop their fierce staring contest.
"Here is the carriage," Narcissa announced. The Malfoy family carriage had been pulled as close to the barrier as the concierge would allow. Four large Abraxan stamped in front of the carriage, fully ready to take flight and pull the Malfoy carriage back to the Manor. Narcissa opened the carriage door. Stairs spilled down and stopped at her feet. She walked up them and took her seat facing the horses. The stairs immediately refolded themselves and disappeared into the floor of the carriage. Keiran scrambled unceremoniously up onto the carriage floor and stood up. He regained his composure so quickly that it didn't seem like he had needed to scramble at all. He carefully took a seat across from his mother. Emma backed a few steps away from the carriage door. She waved the still staring Astrid and Draco out of her way and ran towards the door. When she got to the door, she placed her hands on the floor and flung her legs to the left. Pushing with her arms, she brought her legs up to land on the carriage floor and she stood up in a much neater fashion than her brother had. She smiled smugly at him as she sunk into the seat next to her mother.
"Astrid! Draco! Come on!" Narcissa insisted from inside the carriage. Draco finally looked completely away from his little sister and glanced inside the carriage at his mum.
"I win!" Astrid crowed. Draco glared back down at her.
"Help your sister into the carriage and let's go," Narcissa insisted. Draco nodded and cupped his hands together. He held his hands down to about knee level and braced himself. Astrid set her heel into his hands and vaulted into the carriage. Draco, using a bar on the side of the carriage and his formidable height, hoisted himself into the carriage almost before Astrid could get out of the way. Narcissa and Emma took up their entire bench, as Narcissa had sprawled across nearly two seats. Astrid sat down next to Keiran, leaving room for Draco between herself and her twin. He took the seat and the door to the carriage closed. The Abraxan began walking towards the exit of the large converted warehouse the ministry had claimed as a carriage parking area. When they reached the door, rather than walking outside, a hole in the roof of the building opened and the Abraxan took flight towards Malfoy Manor.
"So why, may I ask again, did you come pick us up?" Keiran once more asked his mother. The carriage soared high above London.
"Because, Keiran, your father has some special assignments for the four of you this summer," Narcissa replied, looking across the carriage into her youngest son's icy blue eyes. He and Emma inherited their eyes from her. Barrett, the now deceased daughter younger than Emma, had found brown eyes somewhere in the gene pool. Draco and Astrid got their fathers grey eyes, taken to a level of silver Lucius couldn't dream of. Narcissa wondered what color eyes the youngest child would have as she rested her hands on her protruding stomach.
"What kind of assignments, mother?" Emma questioned.
"Well," Narcissa began. She paused and looked directly at her oldest son before beginning again. "Draco. Antonin Dolohov and his son and daughter are staying at the manor all summer."
"Do I have to baby-sit?" Draco questioned. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his mother.
"I hardly think you'll find you have to baby-sit Kaytryn Dolohov," Narcissa replied.
"Kaytryn?" Draco questioned, sounding slightly irritated. "I get stuck with Kaytryn Dolohov all summer?"
"Draco, I believe the Kaytryn Dolohov you've been instructed to keep company all summer is a far cry from the Kaytryn Dolohov you played with when you were four and she was seven," Narcissa replied. She smiled at her son but he ignored her.
"We'll see about that," Draco finally snorted. The Kaytryn he remembered had been something of a brat. She idolized her father and wanted to follow in his footsteps. In as much, she told him everything that happened, leading Draco and his friends to remain in almost constant trouble. He, of course, hadn't seen her since her father was thrown into Azkaban.
"Isn't Dolohov supposed to be in Azkaban anyway?" Draco questioned, finally realizing exactly what seemed so weird with the situation with Kaytryn.
"Your father needed his expertise for something this summer, so a release was negotiated. I don't know any of the details, and I'm not sure the release was exactly what you'd called entirely legal, so don't ask because I can't answer your questions," Narcissa replied. Draco nodded and looked over at Astrid.
"Keiran," Narcissa continued doling out instructions. "When you're not in meetings with your father, you are to make sure Corbin Dolohov is entertained." Keiran opened his mouth to say something but Narcissa cut him off. "Your father gave that order.
"And lastly, I thought you'd like to be aware of a banquet your father is holding tonight," Narcissa said.
"Banquet?" Astrid squeaked. She attempted to sit up a bit straighter in her seat. Narcissa crossed her left ankle over her right and nodded at the girl.
"There are many people staying in the Manor for the summer. Your father thought a banquet once everyone arrived would be a grand gesture," Narcissa explained.
"Dress robes?" Emma questioned quietly.
"Yes, dress robes are required," Narcissa replied. "And Draco, you will escort Kaytryn to the banquet, while Astrid, you will allow Corbin to act as your escort. Emma, you will remain in the company of the younger children. Keiran, I suggest you see your father as soon as we arrive at the manor for your instructions. The rest of you will have an hour before you're expected to arrive in the banquet hall."
"When will I meet Kaytryn?" Draco demanded.
"She's probably at the manor getting ready now. I will find her as soon as we arrive and send her to your room," Narcissa offered. Draco nodded.
"That's all the news I have," Narcissa said. She shifted her weight slightly in her seat and tucked a strand of hair behind her. "Now tell me about your years at school."
Draco stepped out of the shower and towards the steamy mirror. He rubbed the glass with a fluffy white towel and observed himself in the freshly clean surface. He picked up his wand from the green marble countertop and directed a spell at himself. His hair fell immediately in thin, loose strands about his face. The water that had been trailing in thin rivulets from his broad shoulders all of the way down to his heels dissipated. The towel fell to the floor, slightly damp and completely useless. Draco reached for the doorknob and pulled open the heavy door. A blast of cool air hit him head on. The fine blonde hair covering his legs and arms stood on end and he almost thought about grabbing the towel to drape around his hips. In celebration of the freedom of his own room rather than the crowded dorm, he decided against it, and quickly hurried across the floor to the large black armoire situated in the corner across from the main entrance. He pulled the doors to the armoire open and stepped in front o fit to survey the contents. He rested on his heels, feet spread slightly apart. His hands lay on his hips, fingers stretched down onto impossibly white flesh, a subtle reminder of his blatant lack of clothing.
"Wow Draco, wear that to dinner and you'll be the life of the party," A husky, unfamiliar female voice issued from the doorway directly behind the boy.
"How long have you been standing there?" Draco asked calmly. He didn't dare turn around, but he didn't reach for anything to cover himself either.
"Long enough," the girl replied. "Or maybe not. We'll have to test that theory later." Draco reached for a pair of plain black silk boxers. He carefully placed first his left, then his right foot into the shorts. He made a show of pulling the garment up. The black material slithered up his impossibly long, pale legs. He snapped the elastic lightly on the crests of his hips as the shorts settled into place.
"Damn! I was enjoying the view!" The girl joked.
"My bum was cold," Draco explained. He finally turned to face the girl.
"Kaytryn Dolohov, I presume," Draco questioned. He quickly stepped around his bed and closed the remaining space between himself and the figure in the doorway.
"The one and only," Kaytryn replied, holding out her right hand to Draco. He took it in both of his and bowed his head. Looking across the back of his hand directly into her smoky gray eyes, he brushed a lingering kiss on her knuckles.
"Do you find it at all difficult, trying to be charming after I just saw you completely naked?" Kaytryn questioned. Draco moved his face away from her hand and drew himself up to his full height. The top of her head fell even with his chin.
"Not really," he replied. "If I was ugly, I might."
"My my, aren't we cocky tonight?" Kaytryn questioned.
"There is a world of difference between being cocky and being honest," Draco shrugged. He dropped Kaytryn's hand and took a few steps backwards.
"Go put clothes on so we're not late for dinner," Kaytryn said.
"Just a minute ago you suggested not wearing anything," Draco reminded the girl. She tucked a strand of mid back length fire engine red hair back into her fancy up-do.
"Yes, well, I gave the possibility a second thought and realized the risk of blindness due to lunar glare wasn't one neither I nor anyone else in the manor needed to be subjected to." Draco stepped into his closet to select an outfit. Kaytryn produced a pair of shoulder-high red gloves from somewhere on her sleeveless red dress robe and began pulling them on.
"Lunar glare?" Draco questioned from inside his closet.
"You know!" Kaytryn insisted as she worked the tight red material over her right forearm. "the blinding quality your arse gets when light reflects off of it."
"Not funny, Kaytryn!" Draco called as he rifled through his rack of dress robes, trying to choose one perfect for the occasion.
"Then you really must not realize how pasty white your arse is!" Kaytryn laughed. She snapped the top of her right glove into place on her upper arm and began pulling her left glove on. Draco finally chose a dress robe Narcissa had bough him in France the previous summer. He pulled on black pants, a black button down shirt, and the perfectly tailored black robe. He fixed the clasp at the base of his neck and reached for a pair of impossibly shiny black dragon leather shoes. He slid them on and tied them before stepping out of his closet.
"Ready now?" Kaytryn asked. She had finished pulling on her gloves and stood before Draco, smallish hands on her thin hips.
"Need to do my hair," Draco insisted.
"It looks fine like that, Kaytryn called as Draco hurried to his bathroom.
"Father insists it looks too girlish without styling potion, and I don't much want to deal with him since it is his banquet," Draco replied.
"What the fuck does he know about girlish?" Kaytryn screeched. "He wears a ponytail!"
"I don't question him," Draco replied. He dumped a liberal amount of potion in his hand and rubbed his hands together before running them through his hair to plaster it back from his face. He muttered the spell to make the potion harden and remove the excess from his hands before opening a drawer to the right of the sink. After carefully rolling his right sleeve up to his elbow, he picked up a piece of carefully tooled black leather. It was about 10 inches long and four inches wide, with three black leather straps dangling from either side. He placed the piece of leather against the inside of his right forearm. The straps instantly did themselves up around his arm. He moved his wrist around to make sure he had sufficient range of motion before sliding his wand into the custom made sheath. When the wand was carefully stored, he ran his fingers over the real silver DCM in the end of the handle.
"Are you ready yet?" Kaytryn questioned from just outside the bathroom door. Draco picked up a bottle of his favorite cologne and sprayed just a bit on himself. He stepped towards the door and pulled it open. When he stopped into view, Kaytryn gasped audibly.
"Shall we?" Draco asked. He held out his arm to Kaytryn. She placed her hand on his right arm, just below the crook of his elbow.
"We shall," she replied.
"No, Aunt Loretta, I didn't come in first in my class this year," Draco admitted. He looked down at the unidentifiable French dish the house elves had served. He, Kaytryn, Astrid and Corbin had been seated at the very end of the long table in the manor's main banquet hall. Keiran sat in a place of honor next to his father and a cloaked and hooded visitor. Draco suspected the visitor was none other than Voldemort, but he had no real intentions of finding out for sure. His father's great aunt Loretta Lestrange had been given the seat across from Draco and Kaytryn, and next to Astrid and Corbin. Draco had often wondered how his mother could have a sister named Bellatrix Lestrange and his father could have an aunt named Loretta Lestrange and the pair not be related. He finally understood that both of his aunts had married men in the Lestrange family, so his father and mother weren't related and everything worked out very neatly.
Aunt Loretta, Lucius's mother's sister, wasn't exactly in possession of all of her mental facilities. As such, Lucius had given her a seat as far away from his friends and associates as possible. Draco suspected this was part of a sadistic punishment for himself and Astrid.
"What place did you come in?" Loretta demanded.
"Second, Aunt Loretta," Draco replied. He felt a hand on his right knee. The hand spread across his knee and the thumb began rubbing slow circles on the inside of his leg. He glanced to his right and saw Kaytryn smiling maliciously across the table, not taking her eyes off Aunt Loretta. Draco wasn't sure how to take Kaytryn. He hadn't seen her since she was seven years old, and she had changed an immeasurable amount in those 11 years. She had gone from a chubby girl to a thin young woman. Her dark brown hair now sported fire-engine red and blonde stripes. Draco couldn't even call them streaks, for they weren't, they were stripes. She had smoky grey eyes and a severe face accentuated by a sharp jaw line and high cheekbones. Her lips were thin and red and she had a thin, slightly pointed but smallish nose. Draco had to admit that she was attractive, but he still hadn't been able to grasp her eccentric personality. It seemed as though she would say just about anything and didn't really care who heard her. He couldn't, however, tell if her loyalties still lay with her father as they had when she was younger, or if she, like he, had begun to question.
"Who beat you? How many O.W.L.'s did he have?" Loretta questioned. Kaytryn's hand inched slightly higher on Draco's leg and her thumb continued its smooth movements. And then there was the sudden matter of her hand on his leg. Draco really wasn't sure how to interpret that signal.
"She had fifteen," Draco replied.
"She!" Loretta screeched. "SHE!" Kaytryn's hand inched ever higher.
"Yes, she," Draco said, taking another bite of his dinner and trying to ignore Kaytryn's ministrations.
"Of course she's got to be pureblooded," Loretta mused in her nearly visible mental search for who could have beaten her great nephew in class rank.
"What exactly are you doing?" Draco hissed to Kaytryn while Loretta raked her aged brain.
"Making things a bit more interesting," came Kaytryn's whispered reply. She squeezed Draco's leg lightly.
"You let that vacuous whore Parkinson get more O.W.L.'s than you!" Loretta finally exclaimed. Astrid released a noise that was a cross between a cough, a snort, and a laugh, but came out sounding mostly like the final noise of a dying hyena.
"Nice impression of Pansy's laugh there tiny Malfoy," Kaytryn laughed as she slid her hand nearly halfway up Draco's thigh. Draco willed his face to keep its calm mask while Astrid's hyena noises resolved into a round of coughs. Draco carefully slid his hand off of the table and placed it over Kaytryn's on his leg to stop the girl's progress.
"Spoil my fun," Kaytryn hissed.
"Abigail!" Loretta scolded, as Corbin furiously patted the girl's back to try to ease her furious coughing.
"The name's Astrid," Astrid finally gasped as her coughs subsided. At a level only Kaytryn, Corbin and Draco could hear, she added, "you senile old bat." Corbin gasped and managed to inhale a rather large piece of spinach in the process. He tried to inhale sharply again, but only managed a weak wheeze, as the offending spinach was lodged in his airway. Draco quickly pulled his wand from its holster. He transferred it to his right hand and slung his arm Around Kaytryn's shoulders. The position wasn't ideal for any serious spell casting, but having the wand on the other side of Kaytryn's head was more than perfect for the particular situation. On the other side of the table, Astrid drew her hand back.
"Accio food," Draco muttered, training his wand directly on Corbin's throat. At the same time, Astrid's hand flew forward and crashed into the boys' back with a loud thud. The spinach rocketed from Corbin's open mouth, straight across the table. It plastered itself to Kaytryn's right cheek with a wet slurping noise. Kaytryn didn't squeal the way any of the girls Draco knew from school would. Instead, she turned to face him calmly, with slimy green spinach still running down her cheek. Without a word, she reached up and scooped the blob off of her check with her left hand and quickly put her left hand under the table. It seemed as though she dropped the spinach, so Draco re-holstered his wand and turned back to Astrid, who was laughing hysterically, and Corbin, who was gulping water at a high rate of speed.
"I have never seen such horridly behaved children!" Loretta cried.
"Sorry Auntie Loretta," Astrid smirked into her plate so her facial features wouldn't contradict her words. Loretta snorted softly,
"Much better," she said. Draco felt a hand at the top of his thigh, nearly where hands didn't need to be when he was sitting directly across from Aunt Loretta. The hand pressed down rather roughly and soon enough, his leg felt slightly wet, even through his robe, pants, and boxers. He looked over at Kaytryn. Her face had returned to its malicious smile.
"Kaytryn Dolohov! That was totally uncalled for," Draco hissed.
"What?" Kaytryn asked innocently. She moved her hand, leaving the chewed spinach stuck to Draco's pants. Draco reached under the table and tentatively touched the stringy green mass.
"This is positively disgusting, Kaytryn!" Draco insisted.
"You asked for it," Kaytryn replied.
"Draco, Abigail, I'm off to find your mother," Loretta announced. She stood up and tottered off towards the other end of the table. The food disappeared from the plates.
"Where is she going?" Narcissa asked aloud from a spot she had just taken behind Draco and Kaytryn.
"She's looking for you, mum," Astrid replied.
"Senile old bat!" Narcissa muttered under her breath. The four young people laughed rather more loudly than they would have had Astrid not made the same comment moments earlier.
"Astrid's sentiments exactly, Mrs. Malfoy," Kaytryn finally said after her laughter subsided.
"Please Kaytryn, call me Narcissa. Mrs. Malfoy is Loretta's sister," Narcissa insisted.
"And on the subject of senile old bats," Draco began. Narcissa cuffed him on the back of his head before he could tie his grandmother into the subject of his statement.
"Well mum," Draco began again.
"No Draco, nothing about your grandmum right now," Narcissa insisted. "I was actually just coming to tell you that the men are retiring to your father's study and the women are retiring to my sitting room. As this is purely a social event, you children are free to go," Narcissa said.
"What about dessert?" Astrid questioned. Narcissa shrugged.
"I'll have the elves send it to you, if you don't want to come back down for it," she finally said.
"Sounds fantastic!" Astrid insisted. Two sharp claps sounded from the other end of the hall. Lucius stood at the end of the table, staring down at his guests and waiting for them to move.
"So what do you say we go find normal clothing and something to do until dessert?" Astrid asked, glancing over at Corbin. The boy nodded vigorously and the pair pushed their chairs back from the table.
"See you guys around," Astrid said as she stood, straitening her light purple dress robes as she did.
"Bye Astrid, Bye Corbin," Kaytryn replied. Draco simply nodded curtly at the pair. Astrid and Corbin slowly followed the remaining grownups out of the room. Draco and Kaytryn watched in silence until the door shut behind the small pair.
"Miss Dolohov," Draco began. He had a tone of superiority in his voice that he usually reserved for inferior life forms: Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors and the like.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" Kaytryn replied. She turned to face him fully, and placed her hand on his arm as he spoke. She also batted her long eyelashes, giving herself a look not entirely unlike the one Pansy Parkinson usually wore.
"I seem to have a large piece of half chewed Spinach stuck nearly on my crotch," Draco stated simply, still glaring at Kaytryn.
"You do?" Kaytryn asked, widening her eyes and drawing her mouth into a tight "o" shape.
"Yes," Draco replied evenly.
"Why?" Kaytryn asked innocently. Draco pushed his chair back from the table and Kaytryn's grasp.
"I don't know," he replied, standing. The green spinach showed brightly against the black expanse of robe.
"Whatcha gonna do about it?" Kaytryn asked.
"This!" Draco cried. Lightning quick seeker turned keeper reflexes kicked into play as he sprang towards the girl. He plucked her from her chair and tossed her headfirst over his shoulder. She shrieked loudly and pounded small, spinach covered, red gloved fists on his back as he walked for the door. The piece of offending food fell forgotten and unnoticed from Draco's pants.
"Draco!" Kaytryn shrieked. She kicked her feet rather ineffectually. Draco nudged the door with her furiously moving feet and it easily swung open.
"Yes, Kaytryn?" Draco asked calmly, even though he was struggling to keep his grip on the girl.
"Put me down!" Kaytryn insisted.
"No! I don't think so!" Draco replied. "I'm going to teach you what happens to people who put spinach on my dress robes." Kaytryn's body fell still across his shoulder, the dead weight almost worse than her wiggling.
"Sounds kinky," she mused.
"You'd probably like kinky," came Draco's retort. A low growl issued from the girl's throat.
"If that was an attempt to get me to change my mind about what I'm going to do to you, it won't work," Draco warned. "It sounded too much like some of the sounds that come from Crabbe's and Goyle's beds at night." Kaytryn gave a fierce jerk and almost bounced out of Draco's grasp.
"Nice try, Kaytryn, but that'll only cause you to get a body bind," Draco warned. Kaytryn fell still again.
"What are you thinking?" Draco questioned. "Or do I want to know?" Kaytryn shrugged as best she could, hanging over Draco's shoulder.
"Not sure you want to know," Kaytryn replied simply. She let her hand trail down to the top of Draco's trousers. She could feel the thick band of cloth through his dress robes. Draco ignored her touch.
"What, may I ask, do you think you're doing?" the boy finally asked after the girls touch persisted for the better part of three corridors. Kaytryn immediately moved her hand away.
"Nothing!" she insisted in a way that sounded way more innocent than it actually was.
Draco finally arrived at the door to his room. He muttered the password and the door swung open. He stepped inside and crossed the room with 10 very purposeful strides. He stopped at the window and began to fiddle with the complex latch. Opening it was made much harder by the Kaytryn still slung over his shoulder.
"Can you let me down now?" Kaytryn questioned. The window swung open with a very audible squeak. Draco peered out the third story window to make sure the landing area was as perfect as he hoped. It was.
"Certainly," he replied smoothly. He leaned even further forward. Kaytryn began to tip unceremoniously off of his shoulder. He pushed her way from him rather forcefully so she wouldn't smack into the side of the manor on her way to the ground. At the exact last second, Kaytryn realized there was nothing below her for three stories besides air. She wrenched her body back towards the window and twisted her hands into the front of Draco's robe as though her life depended on it. Afraid of tearing his robe, Draco sprang forward. He caught Kaytryn in him air before launching them both into a complicated pattern of flips and twists.
"DRACO!" Kaytryn screeched. He paid no attention to the girl that still had a death grip on the front of his robe. At the last second, he twisted so that she would land first with him on top of her. She hit the water with a very painful sounding splash and immediately rocketed several meters below the surface. Upon hitting the water, Kaytryn's grip on Draco's robes immediately loosened. He kicked away from her and swam to the surface. A moment later, Kaytryn surfaced a few meters away from him. Her hair trailed down around her face, plastered to her cheeks in wet strands. She treaded water carefully as she coughed forcefully to dislodge the water from her lungs.
"Okay?" Draco questioned perfunctorily after a moment or two of Kaytryn's fierce coughing. She nodded weakly before launching into another series of coughs. Draco pulled his drenched wand out of his holster and fired a spell at the girl.
"Buoyancy charm," he explained. "So you don't have to tread water."
"Thanks," Kaytryn muttered weakly after another moment.
"No problem," Draco replied. "Mashing spinach on my dress robes isn't an offence punishable by death, after all." He treaded water easily about two meters from Kaytryn. Kaytryn rested lazily, head bobbing slightly above the water courtesy of Draco's charm.
"Just punishable by being pitched out of a third story window, right?" Kaytryn questioned. Draco nodded.
"But now I've got to come up with something suitable to get you back for pulling me in with you," the boy laughed evilly.
"When did you lot starting jumping out of your window, anyway?" Kaytryn asked.
"Astrid did it the summer she, Keiran and Emma were all five," Draco explained. "She scared mum so bad that mum nearly vanished the pool. In the end, Lucius just did charms to keep us from being in too much pain or killing ourselves."
"So you're telling me a five year Astrid was the first person to try what just scared me nearly shitless!" Kaytryn screeched. Draco nodded solemnly.
"I guess we should have known then that she'd make an excellent Gryffindor," Draco mused. He had finally cast his own charm and he bobbed slowly in the water near Kaytryn.
"Wait wait wait!" Kaytryn cried. "A WHAT?"
"A Gryffindor," Draco replied.
"That's what I thought you said," Kaytryn laughed. "It's just the idea of a Malfoy not in Slytherin is…" she paused, searching for the right word.
"Surprising?" Draco questioned. "Shocking? Absolutely Absurd?" Kaytryn shook her head. Her wet hair stayed plastered flat against her skull.
"I'll agree with surprising and shocking, but then I have to go with absolutely fantastic," Kaytryn admitted. Draco raised his right eyebrow at the girl, a skill he had perfected alongside his smirk, but had fewer chances to us in human interaction.
"What? She didn't allow her father's wishes to lord over her decision. And at age 11 with a father like Lucius Malfoy! I have to say that's pretty impressive," Kaytryn explained.
"How do you know about Hogwarts houses anyway?" Draco questioned, completely changing the subject. Kaytryn gave a simple shrug.
"Mum wanted to send me to Hogwarts, so I read the big history book in preparation for that. Then my grandfather insisted both Corbin and I be sent to Durmstrang. And besides, my uncle works at Hogwarts," Kaytryn said.
"Uncle?" Draco questioned. He reached up and wiped a drip of water off of the end of his nose and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to push his drenched hair away from his face. Kaytryn nodded slyly.
"I'm sure you're familiar with Snape?" she questioned. "Or Uncle Sev, as we call him. His older sister Agatha and mine and Corbin's mum are one and the same." Draco's jaw dropped and a bit of water splashed gently into his open mouth. He promptly closed his mouth and slowly blinked twice at Kaytryn.
"Yes Draco, Severus Snape is my uncle," Kaytryn laughed. Draco shook his head as though he was protesting the reality of the statement.
"Well, you probably think he has no family and due to a couple of disinheritances and things, he legally doesn't, but I still claim him as my uncle," Draco shook his head again.
"Hey!" Kaytryn objected. "My Uncle Sev is no different than your Aunt Loretta. HE just needs to be shagged a little worse than she does."
"Kaytryn please!" Draco spluttered. "Not a mental image I wanted. "Kaytryn smiled sweetly at the boy."
"Maybe Aunt Loretta and Uncle Sev should get together. They might be good for each other!" Kaytryn laughed Draco shuddered visibly.
"Oh dear God, think of the children!" he muttered and pushed a strand of slowly drying hair back from his face.
"No. The hope there is that Aunt Loretta is too old for them to reproduce. Of course, being magic," Kaytryn stopped speaking and shrugged lightly. Draco drew his hands to his chest, palms facing Kaytryn, and quickly extended his arms through the water at his companion. A wave of water rocked up and splashed down over Kaytryn head.
"I was talking about us!" he insisted, but Kaytryn didn't respond. She, instead, bobbed in the water face down and hair spread out about her.
"Not funny, Kaytryn!" Draco said. The girl still didn't respond again. Draco moved a bit closer to her.
"Kaytryn?" he questioned when the girl still hadn't moved. She remained still, so Draco closed the distance between them. He placed his right arm behind her back and used his left to dump her body into his grasp. Her head fell loosely against his elbow.
"Kaytryn!" he said once more as he looked down into her closed eyes. He began kicking towards the stairs on the edge of the pool. When he was nearly halfway there, he looked down at Kaytryn again. Before he looked away from her, a thick jet of water shot out of Kaytryn's mouth and struck Draco squarely between his eyes.
"KAYTRYN!" Draco shouted. His voice bordered on the level of shrieking. She giggled and threw her arms around his neck. He dragged her over to the side of the pool and lifted her up to sit on the edge. Standing in the shallow water below her, he stood between her legs, resting an elbow on each of her knees. Her sopping dress robes clung to his abdomen.
"Now Kaytryn, was that necessary?" he asked, sounding as though he was speaking to a young child rather than someone three years his elder. Kaytryn smiled broadly, showing perfect teeth, and nodded.
"And it was funny!" she laughed.
"Kaytryn," Draco attempted a different approach. "If we're going to have to spend all summer together, you're going to have to be nice. This is, after all, my house.
"If you think that's how it's going to work, Bud." Kaytryn reached down a pinched Draco's cheek." You've got another think coming."