Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.
A Surprisingly Enjoyable Christmas
Ryua was sitting motionless on her hotel bed, the only things moving were her fingers, twitching, jerking, moving with incredible speed. Draco, lounging in a chair across the room looked over and said, "You know, it's extremely creepy when you do that."
"Do what?"
"It's like you're possessed by some evil demon or something. You go completely rigid, you know, and you only blink about once every ten minutes. It's creepy," he repeated.
"I can't help it. These stupid mindless clones just… won't… DIE!" she shrieked, flicking her forefingers and thumbs over the controller in her hands. On a muggle TV screen propped on her dresser, a small orange creature riding a polar bear vaulted two holes, a pool of water inhabited by bloodthirsty Orcas, dodged a series of totem poles, and charged headlong into what looked strangely like a lab assistant in a furry coat. Unfortunately, this caused the polar bear to trip, and the bandicoot on top of it to somersault into a snowdrift.
"You know… the whole point of this level is to avoid the enemies."
"That's no fun. And the rest of the game isn't like that."
"Yes, but in the rest of the game, you aren't riding a polar bear."
"That makes no sense. Polar bears are the largest land predator. They eat anything moving they can find, including humans, they have huge teeth, very large claws, and they're nearly ten feet of some serious muscle. Bandicoots, on the other hand, are tiny little marsupials who eat seeds."
Draco laughed as Ryua punctuated every point with a jerk of her controller. "True, but that's a baby polar bear. And anyways… it's a muggle game. Don't expect too much of their intelligence."
"Maybe so…" she said, guiding the little bear through the same section for the twelfth time. She'd slipped into London proper two days ago and bought a TV, Playstation, and the entire selection of Crash Bandicoot games. She was determined to get up to the final boss by the time they got to school, and there were only three days left. Apparently, there were five sections to the second game. She was on the third one, and they were only getting harder.
It had actually been a rather good Christmas, all things considered. The twins had spent the rest of their lifted gold on decent robes the first day the spent in Diagon Alley. To alleviate that, they went to Gringotts' and funneled a fair chunk of the Malfoy vaults into their own private ones, just in case. They'd spent a lot of money and time in the various restaurants, stores, and cafés around Diagon Alley, and had kept carefully clear of Knockturn. They ate Christmas dinner in the Leaky Cauldron, which had an incredibly loud, friendly, rambunctious party going on until three in the morning. Definitely the most cheerful Christmas they'd ever spent in the country.
It wasn't all great, of course. Toppy, sensibly enough, hadn't worried about anything other than their wands and getting hold of Ryua's first aid kit. This meant that their homework was either still sitting at home, or burned in a fit of spiteful fury by Lucius. Both put it entirely out of reach, so they had to buy new books, try to remember the assignments, and write everything out again. And searching the obituaries wasn't exactly cheerful daily reading. Three days after the event, Lucius finally came up with a story. Ryua wondered if anyone else thought it was as stupid of a cover up as she did. The story being bandied about was that Narcissa had been out taking care of one of the prize stallion Hippogriffs, when it mistook a stumble for an attack. No more details were given, other than there was a quiet family funeral, the Hippogriff had been destroyed, and the children were spending the rest of Christmas with a friend of a third cousin on Narcissa's Father's side. "I can't believe we're supposed to go along with something this stupid." Draco had said, looking up from the Daily Prophet.
"I know. You'd think he could come up with something more believable than our Mother being savaged by a Hippogriff. She didn't ever go near the Hippogriffs."
"You know, I bet he did kill the Hippogriff."
"Aw… That would be the black one, the Gyrfalcon cross, remember? He was the only Hippogriff we owned with enough spirit to even think of savaging someone."
"I liked that Hippogriff…" Draco said, folding up the paper and throwing it into the trash.
"Wish he'd find another hobby than killing and torture. It really gets tired after a while." Which is why Ryua had gone and bought her new Playstation. It made for a very satisfying and perfectly legal way of venting her violent emotions.
And then there were the dreams. Even the Malfoy twins couldn't go through something like that and not have bad dreams. They got very used to waking each other up in the middle of the night, then dropping back to sleep almost immediately. Usually, nothing more than a poke in the back or a verbal reassurance was needed.
One night, however, Ryua was deeply, deeply asleep. The dream started out rather well, actually. Ryua hadn't thought much about the night Harry had walked her home, but tonight, she was back under the cloak, going down the halls of Hogwarts. She could feel his warm, strangely familiar presence at her back, and she was just enjoying wandering, trying to get down to the dungeons, because she knew what was supposed to happen once they got there… but she kept seeming to take the wrong turn. She was starting to get rather frustrated after a while, and was going to turn around and ask Harry which way her common room was, because he knew the way, of course, when they rounded the corner. The room beyond, instead of a classroom or hallway, was her living room, the one that she'd last seen as a shattered, bloody mess. It was perfectly clean, everything still where it should be.
She knew it was a bad idea to stay there, because any second now, the Dark Lord would finish his tea and turn around and see them. But for some reason, she couldn't seem to move right. It felt like the cloak was getting to heavy, weighing her down. Ryua knew, logically speaking, that invisibility cloaks don't suffocate people, and if she kept wearing it, Voldemort (funny, how names didn't seem to matter in dreams) couldn't see them. However, logic seemed to have taken a vacation. The cloak was getting heavy, and tight, and she couldn't breathe, it had to come off or she'd die… but if she took off the cloak, he'd turn around and see her there, she knew he would. But, her hands reached up of their own accord and pulled off the cloak. It was like watching a movie, one of the ones where you know the bad guy's behind the door, and the stupid, stupid good guy is going to open the door anyway, and no matter how much you tell him not to, he'll still open it. And exactly like she knew would happen, he turned around and saw her. He got up, hand putting down the teacup and reaching for his wand… and there was a hand on her shoulder, and a mouth against her ear, whispering… "Come with me, I'll take you somewhere safe." And since she knew it was Harry behind her, she turned around and took off after him.
Something isn't right… Voldemort wasn't chasing them, or even yelling at them. He was too quiet, and amused rather than angry. And suddenly, they weren't in Hogwarts anymore; they had turned off the main street of Knockturn Alley into a dark, isolated alley, the neglected space between buildings. Ryua's previously hyperactive mind seemed to slow down, she knew there was something wrong with this place, terribly wrong, and she knew there must be danger somewhere… but she couldn't see it, couldn't remember it… and she got more and more frustrated, knowing there was danger and not being able to do anything about it. She tried to open her mouth, to talk to Harry, tell him to be careful, but she couldn't speak any more than think.
And then everything froze, then picked up at doubletime. Ryua remembered what was dangerous in that dark alley, but didn't even have time to take one step backwards before Harry… no, Blaise rushed her, pinning her to the wall. No… NO! Not again! Never! NEVER! Last time, she'd been helpless, couldn't breathe… no wand! Her wand! Where… She groped around for her wand, knowing it was close, she always kept it close now… and felt her fingers close around the cool hard wood. She whipped it up, the wood heating up with magic potential as it grazed his flesh… and she felt a strange, distant burning on her arm… then a far off shout… someone calling her name…
"Ryua!" Draco snapped hoarsley, shaking her hard. "Will you wake the hell up? You're getting dangerous!"
She snapped fully awake, saw Draco kneeling on her bed, silhouetted against the window. With a shock, Ryua realized her wand was pressed against his throat. She lowered it slowly. "Draco?"
"Yes, it's me. Bloody hell, Ryua, I pity the poor man you marry. You hexed me a second ago, and even fully asleep you manage to dig the tip of that thing into my neck…"
"Sorry… sorry. Really vivid dreams, I thought you were… someone else…"
Draco sat back on the bed, rubbing at his arm. "Man… just a little hint for a much longer life; never, ever curse him like that in real life. He'll kill you."
"Hmm? Oh, him. No, I'd hit him with something more incapacitating and less painful."
He looked up at her. "Err, who were you dreaming about then? If you don't mind…"
"Oh," Ryua said, sitting up and tucking her wand back under the pillow. "Zabini…"
"Bummer. Wishing you could forget him?"
"Wishing I killed him slower…"
He winced. "Remind me to never get on your bad side. Again."
"No problem. I have enough people to hate without you added to the list."
"So, you good now?"
She smiled, although he couldn't see it in the dark. "Except for the fact that you're kneeling on my foot."
"Oops. Sleep well now. And remember we only have two more days of holidays…" he said, walking back over to his own bed.
Ryua sighed and curled back up in her covers. Good thing, I'm getting too antsy here. Oh, how in the world am I supposed to get back to sleep now? The image of her living room, splattered with bits of various material… going down that stupid, stupid alley… the feeling of the Dark Lord's cold, dry fingers and Zabini's rough, clammy ones… she shuddered, trying to think of something, anything else. Quidditch plays just dissolved in her mind, potions ingredients slipped away… her roving mind flicked over things, with an irritating tendency to drift back into darkness.
Ugh! She flipped over, hoping to switch thought tracks. Interestingly enough, it seemed to work. The dark alley creeping up on her mind turned to a blurred vision of the Hogwarts dungeons. Blurred as if she were looking through a dirty window, or maybe a piece of thin fabric… Oh… Now, if she could just stay in that hallway, with Harry…
She relaxed her body and mind, concentrating on just that memory, remembering every bit of it, from the sound of his breathing when he repressed a laugh, the brush of his legs against hers as they walked, pressing back into him when they had to dodge a prefect who came around the corner too suddenly… Ryua started to drift, her mind relaxed for the first time since they left home, and began to dream of gentle hands, soft touches…
Author's Note: I've been having requests for having Harry back into the story, but it's awful hard when he's living secretly in Grimmauld Place, and she's living just as secretly in the Leaky Cauldron…
And to Harry Potter Freak 139, that all depends on your point of view. Severus is, as in the books, a spy for Dumbledore's side although he has a definate dark, mean streak. Ashley is one of those people who is more likely to just shut up and go along with someone if it means not getting cursed (Why make life difficult?). She's not going to betray her friends easily, though.
