"Ready?" Kaytryn questioned. She appeared in the doorway to Draco's room. Draco turned form his spot halfway between his bed and the armoire.
"Guess not," the girl muttered. She leaned against the right side of the doorway, allowing her right hand to snake up above her head. Draco looked around him at the clothes covering everything. He had more clothes than Kaytryn had ever seen, even after living in a dorm room with two other girls for seven years.
"What are we going to be doing?" Draco asked.
"So you can plan your outfit accordingly?" Kaytryn questioned. Draco nodded furiously and turned back to his closet.
"We'll figure out specifically what we're doing when we get there," Kaytryn replied.
"Great lot of help that is!" Draco shrieked. Kaytryn shook her head at the boy.
"Hang on a minute, I'll be right back," Kaytryn insisted. She disapparated with a soft pop.
"Bloody nut case, that one," Draco muttered at the empty space Kaytryn had previously occupied. He tossed the pair of pants he had just picked up onto the bed. Then he turned and started towards his closet, hoping to find something suitable in there. A pop sounded in the doorway.
"Put these on!" Kaytryn insisted from the spot she had just appeared in.
"What?" Draco asked, turning to face the girl.
"I said put these on!" Kaytryn insisted. She held a stack of carefully folded clothes out to the boy.
"Where'd these come from?" Draco asked. He stepped around the end of his bed to take the offered clothes from Kaytryn.
"Seth," Kaytryn said. "He said we could shrink them to fit you." Draco took the clothes from Kaytryn and laid them at the foot of his bed. Then he looked back at her. She adjusted the black top she still wore. The burgundy skirts she had on earlier had been replaced with tight, equally burgundy leather pants. The black high-heeled dragon hide boots on her feet increased her height by nine centimeters. Draco quickly grabbed the pants from the pile and put his back to Kaytryn. He slid the pants on and fastened them around his narrow hips. The too-big garment fell lower than the band of Draco's boxers.
"Sexy," Kaytryn muttered to herself. Draco arched one eyebrow at the girl. She pulled out her wand and fired a spell off at the pants Seth had lent her. The pants instantly shrunk to a level on a few steps looser than skintight.
"You know, boxer lines are highly unattractive," Kaytryn muttered as she observed the new, much tighter fit of the leather pants. She muttered another spell and suddenly Draco felt extremely free under the heavy leather.
"Kaytryn, those were pure silk! What did you do with them?" the boy asked.
"Vanished them," Kaytryn shrugged. "I'll buy you a new pair for Solstice." Draco shook his head at Kaytryn and reached for the pair of shirts lying on his bed. He pulled on the first, a heather-grey tank top. Before the fabric completely touched his skin on its own, Kaytryn shrunk it to pull across his finely muscled chest like a second skin.
"Must everything be so damned tight?" Draco questioned as he pulled on the second shirt. The long-sleeved button down shirt was the same deep green as the hangings around his bed.
"Mmmm," Kaytryn considered the request for a moment before shaking her head. Draco felt more than saw the grey shirt disappear from his body. The green shirt then tightened a bit and the top button flew away. Draco turned a slow circle, hands outstretched from his body as if asking for his companion's approval.
"You'll do," Kaytryn said, but moments later he felt his carefully gelled hair falling around his face in loose strands. Draco ran his hands through instead of over his hair. The pieces fell loosely around his face as he spun to glare at Kaytryn. Silver eyes showed between pieces of lighter silver hair.
"Unless you want me to throw you on your bed and have my way with you right now, you'll stop looking at me like that, find some shoes, and get ready to go meet our dates!" Kaytryn insisted. Draco silently weighed his options for a moment.
"The assignment is for Lucius," he reminded himself. "But the other assignment was to keep Kaytryn happy." He shook his head ad tried not to cringe at the thought of his freely-moving hair. He decided as he pulled his favorite black boots from under the end of his bed, however, that if not-gelled hair had that much of an effect on Kaytryn, he could learn to live without his imported, French styling products.
"Let's go, kiddo!" Kaytryn insisted as Draco tied his boots. "I'd hate to make our daddies mad." Draco nodded and set his holster on his right hip for a left cross draw. Kaytryn turned and walked out of the door. The height of the heels on her boots gave her posterior a rather mesmerizing motion that had Draco so entranced he didn't even notice the fact that her shirt was almost completely backless or the intricacies of the knot her striped hair had been charmed into.
"You can stop staring at my arse now," Kaytryn insisted as she turned to go down the last staircase to the predetermined meeting place.
"Kaytryn, I'm appalled!" Draco began.
"That I caught you?" Kaytryn interrupted. "Because you're most certainly guilty with no possible way to deny it," Draco shook his head at the girl's back.
"Are they here yet?" Kaytryn questioned. She stepped lightly onto the entrance hall floor.
"An elf just alerted me to their arrival. They should report to the hall shortly," Lucius' aristocratic voice sounded from the other side of the hall. "What are the pair of you planning for tonight's entertainment?"
"Knockturn Alley, father," Draco replied.
"Hasn't your mother warned you about Knockturn Alley after dark?" Lucius questioned. Draco nodded curtly
"Kaytryn's never warned her though, so we should be okay," the boy offered.
"I personally don't see the problem with it," Lucius said. "Much better than cavorting about with muggles."
"Or Gryffindors," Draco joked. Lucius offered a stern smile, the closest he usually let himself get to laughing at anyone other than Voldemort.
"Draco!" an all too familiar voice shrieked from the other side of the hall. Draco turned so that he could see both Lucius and Kaytryn at once.
"Why didn't you tell me? Parkinson!" he hissed loudly.
"Blame Astrid," Kaytryn joked.
"Draco!" Pansy squealed again. Draco felt a pair of arms around his waist.
"Pansy," he offered a solemn greeting. Kaytryn reached for Draco's hand and gave it a swift tug that served to pull him free of Pansy's grasp, towards her, and turn him around all in the same set of motions. He smoothly dropped his left arm around Kaytryn's shoulders and formally extended his right to his housemate.
"Nice to see you again. You remember Kaytryn Dolohov from when we were children, right?" Pansy accepted his handshake. Kaytryn, enjoying Draco's close proximity and the hilarity of the "rape me now," looks Pansy was shooting Draco that Draco either hadn't or was pretending not to notice, stepped into the boy's embrace and slid her right arm around his waist, looping her thumb through the right side belt loop of Draco's leather pants.
"Yes," came Pansy's curt reply. She turned an icy glare on Kaytryn and snapped her hand back to her side to show she wasn't planning on touching the older girl.
"Gonna introduce me?" an unfamiliar voice asked from behind her. Two hands appeared at her waist.
"Ryan, you know Draco already, and the girl is Kaytryn Dolohov," Pansy said. When it became apparent she wasn't going to introduce Ryan to Kaytryn, Draco spoke.
"Kaytryn, that's Ryan Kern, he was Hogwarts' Head Boy last year." Kaytryn smiled brightly at the boy.
"Nice to meet you," she said. She held out her left hand and he took it quite awkwardly from his position behind Pansy.
"Will you four be leaving soon?" Lucius questioned. The older man was quite amused by the amount of tension that had invaded the room at Pansy's arrival. Kaytryn wore a slightly amused look that most likely meant she was going to have more than her fair share of fun at the younger girl's expense concerning his oldest son. A light snorting laugh from the pedestal of the vase in the corner told him one of the younger children
agreed with him.
"Where are we going?" Pansy questioned.
"Knockturn Alley," Kaytryn replied evenly, her words accompanied by a smooth smirk. Lucius couldn't have been much prouder of his son's choice in girls this time. In fact, showing attraction to Kaytryn was the most redeeming thing Draco had done lately.
"I need to change," Pansy insisted. Ryan rolled his eyes from behind the girl.
"You may use the chamber just through those doors," Lucius advised the girl. Pansy simply nodded and grabbed a small bag she had dropped when she saw Draco and headed for the offered room.
"You all can leave when she's ready," Lucius said. His statement came as more of a command and less permission. Without giving the group a curfew, Lucius swept up the master staircase and towards his private study. Draco ran his hand through his hair. He was still unaccustomed to the action, but his hair fell perfectly into place.
"Do you need to change too?" Kaytryn asked Ryan. The boy looked down at his robe and peeled it off. Underneath he wore khakis and a Ravenclaw blue polo shirt.
"Not exactly the most Knockturn Alley worthy outfit, but it'll work. I'm not in a very leather-wearing mood tonight," Ryan said. He muttered a quick charm and his pants turned black.
"Better," Kaytryn muttered.
"I don't know that I've ever been in the mood to wear more leather than is found in Quidditch boots," Draco mused. Ryan shot a pointed look at Draco's pants.
"Thank Kaytryn," Draco muttered.
"Or not. My girlfriend is going to spend all night staring at your arse now," Ryan laughed.
"If you think it might help," Kaytryn offered, "you may stare at my arse. Draco finds it fun. You might too."
"No," Draco objected. Despite the fact that Pansy was no longer present, the pair hadn't let go of each other. "Less with the fun, more with the mesmerizing," Kaytryn smacked Draco playfully on his hand.
"It's nice to know that I have a mesmerizing arse," she laughed. "I've heard hot and cute. Even tight and fantastic, but never mesmerizing." The vase in the corner released an obnoxious sounding snort. Before Draco or Kaytryn could go root their eavesdropping sibling from the pedestal (Draco's in this case, as it was Astrid), an even more obnoxious noise sounded from the other side of the hall.
"I'm ready!" Pansy called. The trio turned to face her. She wore a black mini skirt that would have fit Astrid perfectly. As Pansy was nearly half a head taller than Astrid, and close to twice as wide through the hips, the skirt didn't have nearly its desired effect. She wore a florescent pink tube top that fit her upper body like Kaytryn thought Draco's pants should fit his lower body. Her hair had been charmed to a mass of ringlets all over her head, and she wore knee-high black high-heeled boots paired with pink fishnet stockings.
"So are we leaving you on the corner between Knockturn and Diagon or the one where Knockturn starts towards muggle London?" Kaytryn asked with perfectly believable mock seriousness. Kaytryn's words paired with the look on Pansy's face caused both Draco and the vase to burst into loud snickering laughter.
"Shall we?" Ryan questioned to diffuse the developing situation between his girlfriend and Draco's companion.
"We shall," Kaytryn agreed with a smirk at Pansy.
"Apparating to the Leaky Cauldron?" Draco questioned. Kaytryn and Ryan both nodded, while Pansy looked more than a little apprehensive about the situation.
"Pansy doesn't know how to apparate," Ryan announced.
"Ryan!" Pansy hissed. He dropped a hasty kiss on her forehead.
"Sorry babe. I don't want to see you splinched," the boy insisted. Kaytryn leaned closer to Draco.
"My vote for oddest couple ever goes to them," she whispered. Both Draco and the vase stifled their laughter.
"Can either of you apparate two people?" Ryan questioned, looking from Kaytryn to Draco back to Kaytryn.
"I can," Kaytryn said, looking up at Draco.
"You're lucky my limit isn't two," Draco muttered.
"This way you're still legal-looking," Kaytryn explained. "And you don't have to let her touch you." The vase released a full-on chuckle. Both Pansy and Ryan turned to look at it.
"Who cares about legal?" Draco questioned.
"This is stupid little stuff that isn't worth getting expelled over," Kaytryn argued. Draco shrugged as well as he could with his arm still around the older girl's shoulders, admitting his defeat.
"So are we ready to go then?" Ryan questioned. Pansy, Kaytryn and Draco all nodded. Pansy stepped over to Kaytryn, who didn't let go of Draco. She extended her hand to the younger girl who took it quite reluctantly. Draco made sure the back of his hand was touching Pansy's shoulder before apparating the three of them to the Leaky Cauldron. Ryan followed a moment later.
"Knockturn then?" Draco questioned after Ryan popped into view.
"Knockturn," Ryan agreed.
"What's in Knockturn Alley at night anyway," Pansy questioned as the quartet exited the back of the Leaky Cauldron. "I've only ever been during the day."
"A couple of clubs, a bar or two that you kids would need fake ID's to get into, and a couple of restaurants," Kaytryn said.
"And then all of the highly sketchy stuff that goes on in the streets," Ryan added.
"That's the stuff mothers warn about."
"So what are we going to do?" Pansy asked.
"You boys up for dancing?" Kaytryn questioned. Draco gave a noncommittal shrug while Ryan paled at the idea.
"Sounds fantastic!" Pansy squealed.
"So it looks like we're checking out the club that just opened," Kaytryn said. Pansy gave Ryan's hand a playful squeeze.
"Your dancing can't be that bad," she tried to reassure him.
"You haven't seen me," Ryan objected.
"That's okay," Pansy insisted. "That just means I'll have to dance with Draco!" Both Draco and Kaytryn released sputtering coughs at the suggestion.
"What if I don't want you to dance with Draco?" Ryan questioned. This effectively silenced Kaytryn's reply of "over my dead body" and Draco's emphatic "or NOT!"
"I favor the life of my toes too much to dance with her," Draco whispered to Kaytryn, who stifled her laughter.
"No promises on not stepping on your toes," Kaytryn said. "But I'm lighter than her so at least they won't break if I do." Draco rolled his eyes and looked up at the starry sky over hanging over their heads.
"We could always get her absolutely trashed just to see if she'd do something exceptionally stupid," Kaytryn suggested.
"You plan on doing that how?" Draco questioned.
"I'm 18. I'll buy the alcoholic version of anything virgin she orders and switch the drinks," Kaytryn reasoned. Draco chanced a small smile at the girl, an action that felt foreign to his face.
"What if she won't leave me alone?" Draco questioned.
"Ryan taking her home would be too much to ask for, wouldn't it," Kaytryn joked. Draco's smile quickly morphed into a more appropriate smirk.
What are you guys whispering about up there?" Pansy questioned shrilly from a couple of steps behind the pair. The quartet turned right from Diagon Alley onto Knockturn.
"We were wondering why our fathers were so insistent upon this outing," Kaytryn lied through her teeth.
"We're the next generation of Death Eaters!" Pansy said, rather loudly.
"Pansy!" Draco and Ryan both admonished.
"It's only reasonable we spend time together," Pansy's volume on the second statement was only slightly quieter than the first. Draco quickened his pace to try to put some amount of distance between himself, Kaytryn, and Ryan and Pansy. He began to take careful note of his surroundings. In the night's inky blackness, the shadow of the Alley seemed thicker than ever. Eyes leered out at the four teens from the shadows. The feeling of being watched made Draco's skin crawl.
"Creepy, isn't it," Kaytryn asked, lacing her fingers through Draco's.
"Slightly," Draco shrugged. At the sight of Kaytryn and Pansy, a low whistle issued from the shadows.
"Creep!" Pansy screeched. Draco could feel Kaytryn cringe beside him.
"She's going to get us all dead," the older girl insisted.
"Parkinson's never been the sharpest knife in the drawer," Draco said.
"Really?" Kaytryn asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "But I'm not the one who took her to the Yule ball in my fourth year."
"Have they left yet?" Antonin Dolohov asked as Lucius and Petrograd Parkinson entered Lucius' private study.
"They will leave as soon as Pansy finishes readying herself for the evening," Petrograd replied. Antonin rose from the stiff chair in which he sat facing the windows and turned to look at Lucius and Petrograd. He and Petrograd exchanged a stiff handshake.
"So, gentlemen, shall we get down to business, then?" Lucius asked. He moved behind his desk and picked up a sheaf of papers. Rifling through them masterfully, he sank into his leather executive desk chair.
"We shall," Dolohov agreed as Petrograd took a seat across from Lucius.
"Any work from our Lord?" Petrograd questioned. Lucius gave a curt nod and replaced the papers on his desk.
"Preparations for the ceremony are falling into place," Lucius said. "The site for the ritual has been chosen and most of the ingredients have been gathered."
"Has a date been chosen?" Petrograd questioned.
"Nosey little bastard, aren't you?" Antonin asked. Antonin Dolohov liked very few people and was truly fond of even fewer still. Petrograd Parkinson didn't fall into either of those groups.
"A date hasn't been set," Lucius replied, ignoring Antonin's remark.
"So if almost everything is ready except for the date, why are we even here? And why did we have to get the children out of the manor?" Petrograd questioned.
"Matter of preference," Lucius said lightly. "I'm not so sure allowing anyone to see the three of us walking through here with a body would be in our best interest."
"Remind me again why we're even here," Draco requested of Kaytryn as he looked around the dimly lit room where the pair sat on a zebra print overstuffed sofa.
"Because Pansy read in Teen Witch that navel piercing is the thing to do for fall and this is the only place to have it done in London without having to venture into the muggle sector," Kaytryn replied patiently. Draco nodded and reached for a photo album lying on the low coffee table in front of them.
"Why would anyone want their navel pierced?" the boy questioned as he spread the album open across his lap. Kaytryn slid down in her seat next to him.
"I don't know," Kaytryn replied. She rolled up the point of her triangular shirt to reveal her perfectly round navel. "I don't think I could." She poked her navel with two fingers.
"I wouldn't pierce mine," she announced. "It's too perfect."
"Nice to know you have a perfect navel," Draco muttered as he continued leafing through the album's pages.
"It is!" Kaytryn insisted, poking her stomach again lightly. "The star shape in the middle is perfect, it's perfectly round, and it's certainly an innie, which is ever so much better than an outie."
"I might have to disagree with you on that one," Draco said off-handedly, turning another page of the album.
"Do you have an outie or an innie?" Kaytryn questioned.
"Outie," Draco replied. "The mediwitch botched the severing and healing spells when I was born."
"Lemme see," Kaytryn requested. Draco picked up the album off his lap so Kaytryn could access the bottom of his shirt. He slouched down in his seat and Kaytryn leaned over, sliding under the album. She lifted the edge of his shirt carefully between two fingers and peered at his smooth, pale stomach. Sure enough, His navel was the epitome of an outie. Not a bit of it recessed into his stomach.
"Aww," Kaytryn laughed before extending her left index finger to poke Draco's navel.
"EEEWWWWW!" Draco cried, mere seconds after Kaytryn's finger touched his skin. "If that really is what I'm certain it is, why would ANYONE want it pierced?"
At Draco's initial shout, Kaytryn pulled her hand away from his stomach and dropped his shirt as though she had been burned. She then carefully navigated her way out from under the book. As soon as she was sitting next to him, Draco let the album crash back onto his legs. Kaytryn leaned over to look at the pictures that had so surprised Draco.
"That's actually more reasonable than the navel piercing," Kaytryn said after a moment. "That pierces nerve endings, which increases sensations on stimulation. Generally makes things feel better." She put more emphasis on the word 'things' than really necessary. Draco quickly removed the snarling look from his face.
"Yeah, thought you'd see it differently," Kaytryn laughed. Draco smirked and turned to the next page of the album.
"So why would anyone want to do something like pierce their tongue?" He questioned, looking down at the page of various witches and wizards with their newly pieced tongues lolling out of their mouths. Kaytryn released an evil laugh before leaning over and whispering something in Draco's ear. The boy's eyes widened at her statement.
"And besides, I find tongue rings dead sexy," Kaytryn said aloud. Draco closed the album and placed it back on the table.
"So where do I sign up to have it done?" he asked.
"Muggle or pureblood?" Petrograd questioned. "Or do we get to choose?"
"Eleven-year-old pureblooded witch, because the twins are 11. The blood is for the potion Keiran will have to drink," Lucius explained.
"Isn't your other daughter eleven?" Petrograd questioned. Lucius nodded.
"The Dark Lord doesn't think it wise to use the blood of a sibling," Lucius replied, as though he'd suggested sacrificing Emma. In fact, he had.
"Short list?" Antonin questioned.
"Short list," Lucius replied. "Karey Finnegan, Hailey Johnson, Elmyra Crabbe, and Megan Winterbourne," Lucius said. "Take your pick."
"Doeth it look alright?" Draco questioned. His words were strained and slurred due to the fact that his tongue hung out of his mouth. It sported a silver ball on top of a silver post directly in its center.
"It looks good. You wear it well," Kaytryn insisted jokingly. For the time since the quartet left the piercing parlor five minutes earlier, Draco had been trying vainly to look at his new piercing. The only result was a lolling tongue, crossed eyed look that made the boy look entirely too ridiculous.
"Did it hurt much, Draco?" Pansy called from her spot near Ryan. Her tube top was pushed up as high as it would go and still be proper to show off her new green jeweled navel ring. "Mine hurt ever so much, but now Ryan has healed it,"
"Not bad," Draco said, finally giving up on the idea that he could see his tongue without aid of a mirror.
"Did Kaytryn heal yours?" the girl questioned. Draco nodded.
"Why be in pain when you can heal it?" Kaytryn asked reasonably.
"She's right," Draco agreed.
"Here's the club," Ryan said. The four teenagers stopped and turned towards the brightly lit building.
"Shall we?" Kaytryn asked.
"We shall," Draco agreed.
"So what's the plan?" Petrograd asked. He, Lucius, and Antonin stood against a tall hedge separating two houses in one of the nicer London suburbs. Lesser Death Eaters would have crouched, but these three were unafraid of being seen. They stood just against the hedge and looked towards the large brick house.
"We're going to ring the bloody bell and request the life of their youngest daughter," Antonin hissed. He resisted the urge to cuff Petrograd on the back of his head.
"It doesn't look as though anyone is home," Lucius said to interrupt his two compatriots argument.
"So we go to plan B," Antonin replied.
"No one's told me of plan A," Petrograd complained.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Pet" Antonin commanded.
"A freezing spell," Lucius said. "It will kill the girl with the least damage to her body, and preserve her all at once."
"Right then," Antonin said, nodding once. A light flashed on in an upper window in the house.
"That's the girl's bedroom," Lucius said. "Let's go."
"You're not a bad dancer," Kaytryn insisted. The pair stood in the center of the dance floor at Knockturn Alley's newest club. The heavy music pulsed around them, and they seemed oblivious to the surrounding crowd. Kaytryn, with her back to Draco, allowed her right arm to slide over her shoulder, up Draco's jaw, and become entangled in his blonde hair. He leaned in; tightening the grip he had on her hips and lower abdomen, and nipped at the soft spot of skin just below her right ear. A low rumbling purr issued from the back of her throat.
"I'm not sure this is the type of dancing my instructors ever envisioned me doing," Draco laughed before nipping at Kaytryn's neck again.
"Keep that up and I might have to kiss you," Kaytryn warned. Draco made a soft noise against her skin.
"Yeah, that settles it," Kaytryn declared. She pulled Draco's hands from her waist and spun to face him, catching his head in both her hands. She tried to draw his face towards hers, but he straightened with a start. She put on her best pouting face.
"What is it?" she asked, hoping she hadn't moved too fast with the boy.
"Vampire," Draco hissed, trying to look around the room inconspicuously. Kaytryn bit her lower lip.
"Maybe we shouldn't have uncovered this new gift of yours," she muttered.
"He's not that old. I'd leave him be except for the part where Pansy just left by the back door with him," Draco said, shaking off Kaytryn's hands.
"The stupid fucker," Kaytryn muttered as Draco began weaving through the crowd, pulling her behind him. "And I'm not talking about the vampire."
"Kayti, let's save Pansy. Then you may yell at her all you want," Draco said. Kaytryn's smile brightened.
"Do you have a plan?" Kaytryn questioned.
"Surprise it and hope it will run and leave Pansy?" Draco said. "Past that, I got nothing."
"So we hope I know this vamp and can threaten him with Seth," Kaytryn declared as Draco crashed through the door into the alley between the club and Borgin and Burkes. Draco subconsciously stepped over to shield Kaytryn's body with his own.
Kaytryn resolved that not only would she threaten the errant vamp with Seth, she would make sure Seth acted on her threats. Stupid vampires didn't interrupt the almost first kiss between her and the boy she wanted and get away with it. She inched herself closer to Draco and pulled her wand out of her pants.
"There," Draco hissed, nodding down the left of the alley. Sure enough, just in front of the back wall of the dead end alley stood Pansy and the vampire, both facing Draco and Kaytryn. Pansy's back pressed against the vampire's chest. The vampire's head was buried in Pansy's neck on the left side.
"Fuck," Kaytryn hissed. Before Draco could do anything, he felt Kaytryn's wand come to rest on his shoulder.
"Stay still," she commanded. Draco froze and allowed Kaytryn to use his shoulder as a wand rest.
"Incendio!" Kaytryn hissed. The spell blasted from the tip of her wand and struck the vampire directly in the top of his head. The minute the vampire's head burst into flame, Pansy's screams started. The left side of her hair flamed