A Weasley Named Malfoy
[Suspicions]
The sun crept up from beyond the horizon and filtered through the open window, striking Serena's hair and turning it the colors of a sunset. When it's golden fingers reached her eyes, they snapped open from their slumber, turning from grey to silver in it's light. She peered around the room; candy wrappers and butterbeer bottles were strew all over from after the 4th year Gryffindor's party. The girls had come back to the dorms a little more than tipsy and Serena had to knock out each girl, whispering, "Stupify," and pulling the sheets over their worn out bodies while the rest of them screamed bloody murder as they though she had killed their friend. Not to mention the room stank of stale beer.
"Augh," Serena held her noise, and stepped gingerly out of bed to the open window, flinging it open. Fresh air wafted in and she took in a deep breath, filling her lungs with the sweet scent of morning. She heard a groaned behind her and she turned around to find Galatea sitting up in her bed clutching her head.
"Make it stop spinning," she whimpered.
"No, I don't really think I want the rest of them screaming bloody murder again," she smirked. The other girls started to rouse and Serena went off to shower and change. She shook off her robe and turned on the water. The sunlight from the high window filtered in and she could hear birds twittering their madness outside. It was a good day, the first day back. She finished her shower quickly, her thoughts light and she even said a cheery good morning to a bed ridden Wolf as she passed him on the way back to her dorm. She pulled on her clothes and brushed her hair, throwing it up in a messy bun with her wand. She picked up her school things and was heading out the door to the Great Hall for breakfast.
After Serena and Ginny had secretly received the Malfoy inheritance, they moved into the grand estate in Wandseye with Harry. The picture in her box showed them stepping into the entrance hall and gaping at how vast it was. The whole thing was made of shiny green marble that was unnaturally clean so that you could see yourself in it if it was bright enough. It had 50 rooms, and almost every room came complete with it's own bathroom and fireplace. At first it all seemed very big and scary to her, but as the years passed she threw quiet accustomed to it's largeness an found it quiet comforting.
She remembered her first night in the estate; she had lain stark still in the oppressing dark until finally she couldn't take it and yelled for Ginny. With a wave her of wand all was made well as the room was softly lit by thousands of candles littering her room. Ginny had tucked her stuffed animals: Sugar, Cream, and Chocolate around her and sang softly until she had fallen asleep.
The top floor was made up of 3 gigantic bedrooms, a study, and a library; and this is where the three of them made their home. It was pleasantly in disarray at all times, hardly ever allowing the house elves to venture in, so it gave it a kind of marble Burrow effect. She had lived the life of splendor she had always imagined as a child and was quiet disappointed to find it was rather boring. So she demanded to fill up the house with people at all times. Her cousins had been invited over numerous times and they passed their summers at the estate, swimming in the pool in the forest, riding horses through the meadows, playing hide and seek in the tall grass beyond that.
At 11, she had received her Hogwarts letter like all students did and had run through the whole estate telling everyone that she was now officially a witch. She had even gone as far as to floo herself without permission to the Burrow to show off her letter. She had been most excited with her first wand, and as soon as she got back to the estate she had danced around the kitchens, waving it enthusiastically, pretending to be fighting You-Know-Who as Harry had told her. The poor house elves had been so frightened as she waved it around, accidentally setting fire to stoves and flinging pots and pans everywhere.
They had taken to calling her the 'bad strawberry' behind her back.
Serena marched down the stairs, feeling elated to be back at Hogwarts. But she had a sudden feeling of foreboding just before she reached the last step. Her feelings were matched as she entered the common room and she let out a scream. Footsteps came running down the stairs to see what was wrong meet by gasps of horror and more screams as people surveyed the common room.
Tables were smashed, chairs up turned, couches ripped apart and their stuffing's strewn all over the floor. The walls were covered in green words and drawings of obscenities.
"The Slytherins-"
"How'd they get in!"
"What the hell!" Xandra's face peeked from the ledge up above, a second later she was at the bottom of the staircase.
Serena had wandered around the room, pushing passed the ruins. Making her way to one wall, her breath ragged. The Slytherin's had dedicated one whole wall to a fantastic dragon, artfully done. Fire spit from it's mouth and it's eyes flickered a deep blood red. But it was the words written across the beast that made Serena's blood run cold.
The Dragon was Here…
Serena sucked in a deep breath, but found she couldn't, for something was blocking her desert dry through. The room started to swirl about her and black slid over her eyes though she was very aware that her knees had buckled and she was sliding to the floor.
Wolf had just come down the staircase and had seen her start to fall.. He dashed across the room and caught her just before she fell. He picked her up and set her on the couch, sitting on the edge beside her. Her eyes were flickering and she was mumbling something, "Dragon…. He's back…"
"Serena? Serena?" he tapped her on the cheek to revive her.
It took him a few seconds, but then her eyes shot opened and when she saw who it was she shoved him off the couch, "Get off!"
Wolf landed on the floor with a thump, but he gave a satisfied smile up to her and said, "She'll live,"
She scowled at Wolf, but it was no where near the hatred she gave off when she looked back to the dragon. She rose, pulling out her wand, and shouted, "Obliterate!" The light from her wand struck the wall and it exploded; the dragon was no more. Falling bricks and dust engulfed the common room.
"Serena? Serena!" Wolf clawed through the dust filled air, trying to find her.
But when the dust settled, she was gone.
Serena was sitting high up somewhere on the top of a spire on the roof of the school. Clutched in her hand was the little green box she kept her secrets in. With trembling but practiced fingers, she opened the box, pressing her open locket against the fit shape. She carefully took out the picture of her father, holding it with such care.
"Dragon," she breathed, stroking the photo across the face. It smirked under her touch, but she ignored it, willing herself to see her father and not his youth, "Father- are you alive?"
By the time she finally got down to the Great Hall, people were already filling out. She was visibly calm now, but still very much shaken inside. She found the old Professor McGonagall and received her time table. She scanned it over, grimacing when she saw she had History of magic and potions with the Slytherins that day. She grabbed a piece of toast and walked up to the 3rd floor for her first lesson.
History of Magic was a boring affair and Professor Binn's voice lulled her into a stupor at which she stared at a spot on the wall for an house and a half. She was waken from her reverie as the bell rang and the class came back to life. Nobody said anything as they made their was to the dungeons for their next lesson.
Snape gave his usual welcome back speech saying that potions was going to become harder and tougher and if they didn't shape up they would find 'T's' on their 'OWLS.'
"Today, we will be making a sleeping drought, the instructions-" Snape flicked his wand at the board and words appeared there," are on the board. Everything you need-" the cupboards around the room slammed open, creating the Gryffindors still groggy from History of Magic to jump out of their seats, "are in the cupboards. You have the period. Begin,"
Serena set herself busy with her cauldron, following the instructions to boil eye of newt in water for 4 minutes before adding pickled toad. Tuesday and Thursday were at a table nearby arguing about something. It wasn't that complicated a potion and Serena worked diligently, producing the same slime green color Snape had indicated should have appeared. She walked to the back of the room to get a pinch of a powdered hung root when Charcoal shoved passed her, whispering, "The Dragon's coming," giggling, her eyes flickering as if she knew something Serena didn't. Serena didn't say anything, but continued to collect her supplies. Charcoal snickered and walked away, satisfied with Serena's stunned silence.
Had she meant the Dragon on the wall or her father? Or was the Dragon representing her father? Did she even know her father? Serena didn't know. Her eyes darted around the room to see if anyone else had notice and when they didn't she quickly moved back to her seat as if nothing had ever happened.
She kept throwing the Slytherin twins nervous glances as they talked in hushed voices. She stirred her potion and listened with all her might to catch what they were saying without appearing so. She caught words like 'War' and 'deatheaters' and they sniggered.
By now Serena had gone pale and could hardly keep herself from falling to the floor her legs were shaking so bad. But she managed to bottle some of her potion and brought it to Snape's desk for testing before clearing up her supplies and being dismissed, then she hightailed it out of there.
***
Wolf prowled down the corridor on his way to the Great Hall after his Divinations class. He heard hideous laughing up ahead and saw the gang of Slytherin 4th years grouped together around the twins who were avidly explaining something which was greeted by sniggers and gasps of disbelief.
"Uncle told me so himself, but we're not supposed to know-- yet"
"Did Dragon say anything else?"
"No, but it should be soon, nothing gets past Draco Malfoy!"
Something in the back of Wolf's mind clicked and he thought back to the day on the roof of the tree house at the Burrow. He had watched Serena from the branches above as she opened the box and pulled out it's contents. He remembered the diary she had written in, the name embossed in intricate silver letters was 'Malfoy.' And there was also the picture he saw. She had touched it with such a reverence. From what he glimpsed before she had snatched it from his hands was the name 'Draco.'
What was she hiding? How was she connected with the Slytherins? What about the name 'dragon' that scared her so much? And who was Draco Malfoy?
The next day, Wolf hadn't talked to Serena as she had avoided him all yesterday. He hadn't been able to talk to her last night either because a couple of younger years had caught him trying to get up to the girls dormitories and teased him relentlessly before he finally backed down and flopped into an arm chair. The other boys had thrown him sympathetic looks. It was near impossible for a boy to reach the girls dormitories as the stairs turned into a slide after a few steps. None of them knew that Wolf had been up there many times before by bracing himself against the walls to look for her diary. He was sure that if he could just get a peek inside the whole mystery of why she was the way she was would be revealed. He knew she kept it in a little green box and he had looked around the room and found it underneath her bed. But it was impossible to open without the key, the locket that hung around her neck at all times. Wolf admitted to himself that he felt a bit guilty trying to break into her most personal feelings, but his drive to know overcame him guilt and he shrugged it off.
Wolfe looked down at the Gryffindor table at her, hoping she would notice his stare and turn his way, but if she did, she ignored him, rising with her cronies to leave for her next class. Wolf followed them out and cut in front of them.
"Hello ladies-"
A chorus of greetings were gushed back at him and they surrounded him. It was very unusual for Wolf to approach them, but whenever he did, the girls jumped at the chance to bat their eyes and swat him playfully.
"Hey Serena," Wolf turned to her amongst her friends, ignoring them. Serena was hanging back, leaning against the wall looking bored as her friends fawned over him.
"Wolf," she nodded, her arms crossed across her chest.
"Can I talk to you? Alone?" he looked sharply at the other girls, directing his last question at them.
"No," Serena snapped, but the other girls were already backing away.
"We'll catch you at Transfig. Okay?" Thursday passed her and they made their way up the hall, not bothering to keep their voices down as they giggled, leaving Serena alone in the corridor with Wolf.
Silence. Wolf stared at her and Serena stared down the corridor after her retreating friends.
"How are you? I never did get to ask after the incident yesterday,"
"Fine, is that all? I have to go to class-" she said shortly, trying to make a quick get away.
"You have 10 minutes," He stepped in front of her.
She gave him a sharp look, her dark grey eyes piercing his light golden ones for just a moment before she looked away again quickly. She couldn't bear to look at him, especially now.
"Why don't you ever look at me?" he said, rage building up in him, and a hint of it showed in his voice.
"If you haven't noticed, I don't really look at anyone," she said smoothly back at him.
"Why?"
She didn't answer, choosing to inspect her long slender nails. The only thing that really made her look like a Weasley was her flaming red hair.
"Because I choose not to," She said, finally giving an answer that wasn't one at all. Wolf wandered over to her, placing himself where her gaze fell and she looked ahead of her, her hair veiled across her eyes.
"Who's Draco Malfoy"
She flinched and Wolf knew he hit a nerve. It took her a while to answer, but then said breezily, "Just a guy,"
He stared at her incredulously, "Then you must be obsessed if you have his journal,"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, actually considering this and answered, "Yes, I suppose I am…"
Wolf didn't know how to answer this and he was overcome with a sharp pang of jealousy, but instead he asked, "How old is he now? I know he doesn't go here now because didn't find his name when I looked over the roster for the school-"
"What? Are you stalking me? Trying to find out all my deep dark secrets?" anger welled up in here. Who was he to go digging through her past?
"I already have. He's a Slytherin!"
"I have to go to class," she stood up and shoved passed him.
"Serena," he caught her by the arm, but she didn't look at him, "I know for a fact he's related to Ashe and Charcoal," he struggled with words, "That can't be good. Plus he's way to old for you,"
She pulled her arm away swiftly and stalked down the corridor, "that's okay," she called back to him, "because he's dead."
A/N:
HOLD YOU HORSES PEOPLE! If theres anything you've learned from reading my stories, its that I LOVE a twist… so don't go assuming ANYTHING!
And as I said in a earlier review about Harry and Ginny (and possibly children) it will be addressed LATER in the story when they appear.
