Draco and Rhiannon walked to the Slytherin table together, hand in hand. "You didn't tell me that your mother I was going to be the new Defense teacher," Draco whispered to her.
"That's because I didn't know," Rhi whispered back. "It's a little hard for me to let you know, if I don't know about it myself."
Sitting at their table, they waited quietly until Dumbledore stood to address the entire hall. "I am sure some of you are wondering who will finally take over as your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," he said. "Well, you may wonder no more. I would like to introduce Mrs. Kerensa Brandy. She is very knowledgeable in that particular field, having defended herself many times before. She will begin teaching your classes no later than Monday. If you have any questions, please direct them to her. Thank you, and enjoy your meal."
With that, Dumbledore sat, and an intrigued buzz filled the great hall.
"Kerensa Brandy? Isn't that Rhiannon's mum?"
"What does he mean, 'defended herself many times before?'"
"She looks like a house wife, there's no way she can be a good choice to teach that class."
"If she's Rhi's mum, then she must be good, I mean, Rhi's amazing."
And on it went, all through the dinner hour and into the night. People Rhiannon didn't even know walked up to her and started asking things about her mother. They hounded and followed her all the way up to the portrait hole for the Slytherin common room. Even after Draco lost his temper on the followers, they still didn't leave her alone.
Slamming into the Slytherin common room, Rhi collapsed on the black leather couch in relief. "I can't believe them!" she exclaimed. "Why don't they just go to class and ask her how she stopped the black unicorns from trashing that town, or how she stopped that spyder from possessing me when I was nine."
Just as Draco was about to sit beside her and wrap his arms around her shoulders, Rhi jumped up and started pacing in front of the fire. "Rhi, calm down. I'm the one who gets all moody and difficult, not you."
"I'm not in the mood for games Draco. Why can't they just leave me alone!" Rhiannon grabbed the nearest thing to her, which happened to be an ancient ceramic vase, and hurled it across the room in Draco's direction, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Draco ducked just in time to prevent the vase from smashing into his face. "What the hell did I do to you?" he yelled standing up to face her. "In case you've forgotten, I'm on your side here!" Draco grabbed the edge of the low table that sat in front of the couch and flipped it over, causing the glass top to shatter.
Rhiannon's eyes went the dangerous flat black that signified she had lost her temper. Draco's eyes went an eerie pale silver, and cold as ice as they clashed, screaming into each other's faces.
Finally, she hissed vehemently at him, and Draco swore vividly, each turning and stomping up to their dormitories. Rhi slammed the door behind her, just as she heard Draco slam his own door, hard enough to cause it to splinter off it's hinges. At her entrance, Aponi took flight out the open window as Rhiannon's temper lashed out, like lightning in a deadly storm. As her temper took over, she heard Draco yell and swear, and something crash loudly against his ruined door.
Not willing to be out done, Rhi's temper escalated even further. Soon, objects were spinning wildly around the room, and a wild, furious wind had kicked up. Crashes and smashed echoed throughout the entire Slytherin dormitory, either from Draco or Rhiannon. As exhaustion started to over take her, Rhi cast one deadly look at her bedside table and caused it to explode in a violent burst, which had splinters of wood raining down on her. Finally, her energy and rage spent, she collapsed.
Pansy found Rhiannon and the disaster she had caused shortly after. From the state the room was in, it looked as if someone had attacked Rhi. Screaming, she ran down the stairs to the common room. "Draco, where's Draco?" she cried.
Flint looked up from his game of chess with Blaise. "He's in the dorm, why?"
"It's Rhiannon," Pansy gasped out. "She's unconscious in our dorm, and it's completely trashed. I think she was attacked!"
At this statement, Flint jumped up and ran for Draco. He burst into the room and saw Draco laying on his bed, a mess of shattered glass and torn fabrics around him. "Lost your temper again, did you?"
Draco ignored him, and was about to close the curtains that hung around his bed, when Flint said, "well, you had better get over it. It looks like something happened to your little peach."
Draco shot up, and fixed his eyes on Flint. "What do you mean, 'something happened to her'?" Draco questioned.
"I have no bloody idea. All I know is Pansy went into their dorm, and she was unconscious in a room that looked as if a chimera or something was set loose in there. Your little girl is out cold."
Draco jumped off the bed and flew out of the room. Running down the stairs, he took them two at a time, and then bolted through the common room, only to take the stairs to the girl's dorm, two at a time again. Draco burst through the door and saw the destruction that was once a bed room. No, he thought, looking at the splinters of wood that had imbedded themselves in the walls. A chimera wouldn't have done that, but something else did.
Seeing Rhiannon, lying unconscious and pale on the floor had his heart in his throat. Rushing over to her, Draco collapsed next to her and gathered Rhi in his arms. "Wake up Rhi," he said patting her face gently. "Wake up for me. Please, do this for me. I'm so sorry I yelled at you. Just open your eyes."
Pansy, Flint, and Blaise had followed Draco into the room. Flint hesitated for a moment, seeing the pale, nearly transparent skin of Rhi's face, then he ran down the stairs, out of the portrait hole, and right into Professor Snape.
"Professor," he said breathlessly. "We need Madame Pomfrey right away. It's very important."
"What is the problem Flint?" Snape asked. "Tell me, and I shall decide if Madame Pomfrey is to be bothered."
"It's Rhiannon Brandy sir. She was attacked in the girl's dormitory and is unconscious."
Snape looked at Flint, then said, "go get Madame Pomfrey boy, I'll go see what happened with the girl."
And with that, Snape entered the Slytherin common room and proceeded up to the girl's dormitory. Upon entering it, his eyebrows shot up as he examined the massacre that lay before him. Then he saw Draco sitting on the floor, with a pale, life-less body in his arms, willing it to open it's eyes as a group of Slytherins looked on.
Walking over to Draco, he said, "she can't be helped here. We have to take her to the hospital wing."
Draco looked up at him, his face nearly as pale as Rhiannon's. He was about to speak when Flint rushed in with Madame Pomfrey, and Mrs. and Mr. Brandy. Without stopping, Mr. Brandy bent down gracefully and scooped his daughter up as if she weighed nothing more than an infant, and carried her down to the hospital wing.
Draco and the Brandy's waited anxiously until Madame Pomfrey came to see them. "The girl's fine," she said. "Just exhausted, but other than that, there's not a scratch on her. All she needs is rest, and time to get it. She will spend the next week in here, and will probably be unconscious or asleep for most of it as well."
"Okay, so she's worn out, but what caused her to get that way?" Mrs. Brandy asked.
"Well, now that's something that I can't really say. Because there's no marks on her, we don't really know why she's so drained. We just have to wait and ask her when she wakes up, if she remembers what happened that is."
As Madame Pomfrey continued to speak to Rhiannon's parents, Draco snuck into the infirmary, and walked over to the bed that Rhi lay in. Looking down on her, she looked as pale and delicate as a porcelain doll. Drawing back the covers, he slid into the bed next to her and wrapped his arms protectively around her shoulders.
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Draco whispered to her, "I'll make them pay Rhi, whoever did this to you. I'll make them pay for it." Pulling the blankets up to her neck, Draco closed his eyes, but didn't sleep.
He stayed with her through out the night, and only left in the morning for classes, but even then, his mind was always on Rhiannon.
Finally, after three days in the hospital wing, Rhiannon wrinkled her brow slightly, and moved her head, making a small noise in the back of her throat when Draco sat, talking to her.
"Rhi, come on, wake up Immortal Beloved. I want to see your beautiful eyes. I want you to yell at me, and throw things at me. I want to hear you laugh, and see your smile. Wake up Rhi. Please."
Draco threaded his fingers through hers, and felt Rhi's grasp tighten slightly on his hand. He continued to coax and beg Rhiannon to wake up, and finally, her eyes fluttered open.
"Draco," she whispered, and smiled softly up at him.
"Oh Rhi," he said as he leaned forward, resting his head on her stomach. "I was afraid that you would never wake up. I was so afraid. When I saw you there, in that room, I didn't know what to think. I was just, so afraid."
"Draco, I'm okay," she said softly. "I'm here and awake." She ran her fingers through his hair as his head remained resting on her stomach. "How long have I been out?" she asked him.
"Three days. What happened to you Rhi? No one knows. People saw us fight, then go to our dorms, heard our tempers, and then, Pansy went up, and saw . . ." his voice trailed off. "She saw you laying there, unconscious. Tell me who did this to you princess. I'll make them pay for it. That I promise you."
"Draco, you can't make anyone pay for it."
His head shot up as he stared at her. "And why the hell not Rhi? Someone attacked you, and put you in here. I want to know who it was. They'll never touch you again, I swear it to you."
"You can't make anyone pay for it, because I'm the one who put me here Draco. I lost my temper, rather spectacularly in fact, and it drained me. It physically drained me, but it's okay, because I'm awake, and I don't intend on doing that ever again."
Draco stared at her. "You lost your temper?" he asked, bewildered. "It looked as if something attacked you."
"I'm sorry Draco. I truly am, but that's all that happened."
"Merlin, you scared me."
Just then, Madame Pomfrey saw that Rhi was awake and came rushing over. "Rhiannon, look at me. How do you feel child?" she asked.
A strange look came over Rhi's face for a moment, then she replied, "I feel hungry Madame."
"Yes well, we'll deal with that in a moment. You don't feel any pain do you? I need you to tell me if you do so I can fix it."
"No, I don't feel any pain Madame, just hungry."
"Alright then. I shall notify your parents and the headmaster, and you shall have something to eat. But tell me first, what happened up there? In true Hogwarts fashion, everyone has their favorite story about it. From a wild chimera that came in your window, to He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named coming in your room and attacking you."
Rhiannon blushed slightly. "Draco and I had had a fight Madame. I was upset already, and the fight just made it worse. I lost my temper in a terrible way. I'm sorry."
Madame Pomfrey nodded slightly. "Yes, I assure that you are. Now, if you'll excuse me briefly, I'm going to notify your parents and Dumbledore." With that, Madame Pomfrey turned and left.
"Are you sure that you're okay?" Draco asked her.
"Yes, I'm as sure as I'll ever be. I'm fine Draco," she said resting her hands on either side of his face and drawing him in for a gentle kiss.
Kerensa and Tynan entered the infirmary behind Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore. "Angelita. Are you okay?" Tynan asked.
"Si Papa. Forgive me, everyone. I just . . . . Lost my temper a little bit more than usual. I'm sorry."
Kerensa shook her head. "We should have known. It's happened before after all. Hungry Littlest?" she asked her daughter.
"Very hungry Mama."
"Something will be brought to you, and then you will be moved back to your dormitory that has been repaired," Dumbledore said.
"Thank you Great Grandfather."
"Come now," Kerensa said. "Let's let her rest."
The adults left the room together after Rhiannon's parents each kissed her, leaving Rhi and Draco alone until her dinner arrived.