A Twisted Christmas
By Shadow Rise

Fair Warning

Draco had retired to his bed chambers long ago at eight o'clock. His rest was not to be a long one on this eve, though.

The blonde man shot up in his bed as the grandfather clock in his chambers tolled midnight. Suddenly, an eery chill swept the room, making him feel as though he were naked in a snow storm.

"Draco Malfoy... " called a somewhat deadened voice, "Draco... "

Malfoy's eyes were wide with fear and wonder as he realised who was calling to him.

"B-Blaise? Blaise Zabini?"

The ghostly figure of a woman (or a girl rather, for she was only sixteen) stood at the foot of his bed. Her hair was tatty and black, falling flatly to her shoulders; her face was pale and, yet, darkened with emotion and knowledge; she was tall and wispy, just as he remembered her from his youth. But the thing that disturbed him the most about her appearance was her eyes, those big, beautiful orbs of purple-gray mist that were usually so happy and alive, were now dead and down-turned.

"Yes." she whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks, "Yes, Draco, tis I."

"Why? Why have you come to me?"

"I have come from lands far beyond, come to warn you."

"Warn me? But what of?"

"Warn you of this life you lead. This uncaring, disgusting facade of a life!"

"You are fettered!" he gasped, "Why?"

She looked down upon her tattered, ripped cloths covering her chest and hips. Then to the chains, thick and heavy, that laced up and down her limbs.

"I wear the things I fixed in life. I made the chains link by link, yard by yard; they symbolize my evils in life. Greed, want, hate, bitterness..." she let out a painful sob, "The 'clothing' is a represenative of my kindness, compassion, love... my inner beauty. As you can see there's not much to show."

"Blaise, my Blaise, I'm so weary. I have so much, yet so little. My life is so empty, Blaise. Speak comfort to me..."

"I have none to give, my darling boy." she whispered, sweeping a hand along his pale cheek, "It is Their will that I do not, for I would tell you much more than I have. But I cannot stay."

As she turned to leave, Draco called out, reaching for her.

"No! Stay spirit; tell me more. You were always a good woman of profit, Blaise."

She turned back to him, her eyes wild with fury and anger. "Profit?! Men and their money were my profit!" She screeched with a shake of her chains and angry tears, "All I wished in my life was power and money and I had never looked to a man that had a kind heart and empty pockets for more than some one to cut down and heighten my status among those Slytherins! All I ever truly did in that life was search. And now, in the after life, there is nothing to gain, nor to search for."

"Oh Blaise!" he exclaimed, hurting to see his dearest friend in her time of angst.

"You will be visited by three spirits on this eve. Expect the first when the bell tolls one, the second at two, and the third at three. Please, Draco!" she screamed, beginning to fade, "Please, change this hollowness towards mankind that you have! Or, be warned, that you may end up forever as I have, my friend."

And there was nothing. The air was still and silent, except for Draco's heavy breathing.

He soon fell into sleep once more, worries still there.

S.R.: PLEASE R/R!!