Title: The House of Horrors

Author: Babydracky

Translation Author: Lil Nezumi

Disclaimer: Harry Potter-verse and characters belong to J.K. Rowling & WB.

Author's Note: See "INTRODUCTION" for summary and author's notes.


Part I, Chapter II: Hogsmeade Visit - Draco Malfoy's boredom.

Draco Malfoy, like always, did not participate in any of the fairground's numerous attractions, too concerned with saving his magnificent wizards' robes, tailor made, and with saving superbly styled hair (gelled back like always). It was therefore out of the question that any minor smidge of imperfection appear on his person! Perfection like his should never suffer the slightest bit of dirt or the tiniest portion of undesirable contact! All of these disgusting people knocking about constantly throwing repugnant substances to their faces or their clothing for fun... Fun!... HAH!... Life can seem so difficult when we're surrounded by imbeciles... Speaking of imbeciles...

"Draco," resounded the cackling voice of one Pansy Parkinson.

"What?" Draco barked back, all the while disengaging his arm from the insupportable clutches of this ogress!

"Come on! Draco! Please!" She pleaded in a particularly beseeching, but also highly annoying voice.

"Please, what?" He groaned. Gods he hated her when she got it into her head to latch onto him and began boring him with her various nauseous entreaties...

"You're listening to me, aren't you?" She accused him.

"Absolutely, Pansy," he replied.

"But, that's the impression that you're giving," she added even more accusingly.

"Pansy, you misunderstood... In fact, I was absolutely not listening to you!" He replied, coldly.

Pansy rewarded him with a black look and a sharp elbow to his side.

"Ouch! What's gotten into you?" He said stiffly, as if it were possible for him to be anymore rigid then he already was...

"Draco!" Her voice just went up an octave, a very bad sign. "You promised me that we would spend the afternoon together and..."

"And we are together, Pansy," he said abruptly.

"And couldn't we be together without these two... strips of velcro?" Pansy insisted, fixing Crabbe and Goyle with a malevolent look! These two returned her gaze, a clear bovine look achored within their pupils, totally uninterested to even be bothered to try to assimilate what she was trying to imply.

"Ah... Well...," Draco began.

"Drackie-poo... I want to be alone with you, please!" She pleaded in a tiny pouting voice.

Draco couldn't prevent the disgust from appearing on his features, he really abhorred those pet names that she insisted on constantly saddling him with... Slowly he started to raise one delicate eyebrow...

"Pleeeeaaaasssse!" Right now Pansy attempted to look like a poor little kitten, abandoned under the pouring rain, with begging eyes and trembling lips, the overall effect promising that any minute now there would be a waterfall of crocodile tears.

Draco, certainly, did not have any lovey-dovey sentiments towards Pansy and he certainly was not someone who pitied others, still Pansy was a childhood friend... Also, she certainly would not hesitate to write to his dear mother to complain about Draco's behaviour and he did not have the courage to argue on any point with his dear mother, especially since he had wrecked her favourite "Dreaming Begonia", while he was training for Quidditch...

"Just for one ride," Pansy insisted, with a couple of water drops appearing in her eyes.

Crap... Oh crap... screamed Draco's now active mind, which had just joined them in the last quarter.

"All right, Pansy, all right!" He said more or less gently.

She skipped a little and began to drag him along towards the ride that she had been eyeing for a while out of the corner of her eye: "The Tunnel of Love!"

Draco, seeing the direction towards in which she desired to go and wished for him to go too, he was immediately irked! He ground to a halt abruptly, making her stop in her tracks and back up a couple of steps.

"What is it Draco?" She asked in one of the most innocent tones, which did not suit her in the least or fool him one bit.

"OUT OF THE QUESTION," announced Draco, articulating each word, in a tone that cut through like a well-sharpened blade. "Absolutely, OUT OF THE QUESTION!" He said, feeling the need to repeat himself.

"But why?" She asked, again using the tiny voice of abandoned puppy on the side of the road in the middle of a hot July.

"I will not set foot in that... thing! You can't force me to go in there, not while I'm still alive." Draco's tone brooked no further discussion.

Pansy opened her mouth, but she didn't even have the time to produce a single sound.

"I said no, I mean no!" hissed Draco.

"But Drackie-poo! You said..." Pansy tried again using that tone.

"I said that we'd be alone for one ride! I never gave my consent to this one," he replied coldly.

Pansy reflected, quietly, on this for a couple of moments...

"That is true..." , she began and then she added in a saddened voice, "in fact, you really don't want to be with me at all, do you..." here her voice became calculating, while mimicking distress. "Yet, during the Christmas Holidays, when I came to Malfoy Manor, you said to your mother that..."

Draco didn't even bother hear then end of that sentence! His mother, having been brought into this discussion was risky business, especially if she decides to once more meddle into his love life! Why did Pansy's mother and his have to have been childhood friends and why oh why did Pansy have to take after her father (such an odd mix between a bulldog and a Pekinese, for her main features) and not take after her "lovely" mother.

"Pansy, dear," he began his voice honeying as he continued, "You know that I loath to the deepest depths anything to do with "these" (voice filling with disgust) kinds of fantastical illusions... More so, "these" (disgust becoming more prominent in his voice) two professors are for the most part... absolutely not... trustworthy! They'll tell us anything! It has been years that they've been announcing the most marvelous news, regarding Potter and his soon to be departed status, and... nothing!"

From his depths, he knew of the incompetence of those two crazy old biddies, and Draco was cringing at the thought that they would announce love and prosperity, a joint life filled a ton of children and that til death do they part! Like I need that!

Pansy, clearly disappointed, began to pout.

"Pansy, my "sweet" (Gods that word was difficult to say!), any other ride, but not his one... You wouldn't want to piss me off, would you?" Well, more pissed off then I already am, he thought.

Draco had followed his words with gestures. He had gently seized Pansy's chin, obliging her to look into his eyes. How embarrassing, see humiliating, to have to look up to look a girl in the eyes and not just any girl, but one considered to be his "girlfriend", a term which sat with him less and less! He knew that she could never refuse him when he looked at her that way! He saw her turn away slightly and then blush furiously.

Bingo, Draco! It's in the bag! He thought mentally congratulating himself.

"All right, Draco...", she complied. Still red like a tomato, she grabbed his hand in order to drag him to the next ride.

Anyway, there's nothing worse that could happen... Draco told himself, not quite reassured.

TBC...