Hello all, I hope you're still all with me, even after it looked like I wasn't updating this fic…the details were bogging me down. Have some ideas now – I just have to get them out onto paper. Anyway, here's the latest installment. Hope you enjoy. Please, tell me what you think.
Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. Don't sue me.
CHAPTER 5 – THE CLAIMING
She had slept with one eye half open all night long.
Coming down to breakfast the next day, she blinked sleepily – looked over to the Gryffindor table to where her sister was, laughing happily with the boys they had both met on the train.
James Potter, with his unruly dark hair and cute dark eyes. Good natured, with a slightly wicked sense of humour; they had struck up a friendship immediately. But he had seemed to be more taken with Lily, though – that was nothing new to Kate.
Sirius Black, black haired and black eyed, silver tongued with dancing, laughing eyes. A little irresponsible, true – in fact, more than a little careless of the consequences of his actions………brought up by sensible, middle class, responsible and staid parents, she and Lily had been taught to look upon such immaturity with disfavour.
It was amusing, true, but still………she couldn't see the point in it.
Pettigrew – short and dumpy, a rather odd companion for the two others, really. There was something about him – something wrong, something weak………she mistrusted him instinctively, although she could not say way.
Her eyes shifted, moving along to the boy who had introduced himself, rather aloofly, as Caine de Sauvigny. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and the bearing of a man who knew his place in the world, was utterly and completely sure of his position.
He was the Heir to Clan de Sauvigny – although she still didn't have the slightest idea what that meant. And as for his relationship to Luc, which everyone but her seemed to know………
She wondered just how different the wizarding world was from the normal (muggle………was that the word?) world – and just how much she didn't know, didn't understand. She had the oddest feeling that her lack of knowledge would be very, very dangerous, especially in Slytherin………
How could she survive the undercurrents she couldn't see? She didn't even know about the normal wizarding world, let alone the very different, much darker aristocracy that she sensed ruled in Slytherin.
The other girls in her dormitory had already made it more than clear that she was an outsider, that she was less than nothing in their eyes. She'd been prepared for it, had known it was coming, but still………it had been a very difficult night.
If she didn't gain some standing, some kind of protection soon, she would be eaten alive by the other girls, by the boys she sensed thought of her as nothing but some kind of lower life form. She needed some power – either that or a protector with enough credit and enough face to protect her without bringing himself, or herself down.
Last night she had focused on Luc Malfoy, the younger brother, the bastard………
But she sensed that he was actually too close to the heart of the undercurrents that flowed through Slytherin – to truly avoid notice, she would have preferred a neutral party, one without too many enemies or someone who was on the fringes and wouldn't be tangled up so tightly in the politics.
And Luc? Well, he was a Malfoy. And if she hadn't known what that meant when she first got on the train yesterday, she knew, thanks to hours of observation and eavesdropping, something of what it meant now.
The Malfoy, from what she had noticed, were the heart of the unofficial Slytherin aristocracy. The most powerful and the most courted, the most resented and the most hated. There was a twisted relationship between the rest of Slytherin and the Malfoy – they were the centre, and they were resented for that; they were the balance and the power and they were courted and flattered and desired by anyone and everyone who ever wanted to gain power.
Slytherin's golden children – the light shone on Lucius Malfoy and his younger brother much as the light in Gryffindor shone on Caine de Sauvigny. They both hated Caine – that much was more than obvious – but what was the truth of the relationship between them?
She made the mistake of asking Michel de Sauvigny, who had seemed rather more approachable than any of the others she had met so far.
Sitting down beside him at breakfast, she discreetly nudged him into looking towards the Gryffindor table, but having been raised in a muggle household, with no need for intrigue or power games, she came straight to the point.
"So what's going on with the Malfoy brothers and your cousin?"
She didn't pause to think that perhaps, asking Michel intrusive questions about his cousins (both of them, really), was a major faux pas………
Michel's eyes narrowed fractionally, but knowing she was muggleborn, he made an exception for her. And besides, he felt some kinship with her, both of them out of their depths – she far more than him. At least he knew something of the High Clan, even something of the world.
He slid a glance to Dominic, who nodded slightly.
"Luc Malfoy and Caine are half-brothers," he murmured softly.
She blinked.
Dominic slid a glance towards the subject of their conversation, who was talking with his brother over toast and orange juice. He dropped his voice before speaking.
"His father, Marcus Malfoy, had an affair with seventeen year old Anne de Sauvigny," he raised an eyebrow, "who, unexpectedly, became pregnant quite against her will………"
Michel nodded in agreement. "She dropped Luc on the doorstep of the Malfoy townhouse immediately after his birth, and then married Aethan de Sauvigny as soon as she could………"
Dominic smiled thinly. "Caine was born just over nine months later."
Kate's eyes, narrowed in almost feline calculation, slid towards Luc and then moved over to Caine, comparing the two half brothers, analyzing what must be incredibly tangled emotional currents………looking back towards Luc again, she encountered his gaze and almost forgot to breathe as she felt the power of those silver, all too intelligent eyes.
Beside her, Dominic tensed slowly. "Uh-oh………"
Still holding Luc's gaze, half challenging, half hypnotized like a rabbit caught in a spotlight, she spoke quietly. "What?"
"We've been caught gossiping about him………now we're in for it." He sounded more amused than upset; looking straight into Luc's eyes, she wasn't quite sure that he should be taking it so lightly.
There was real power in those eyes; off balance and isolated as Dominic was, far away from his Gryffindoric friends, Kate wondered just what would happen to him if Luc decided to act.
Silver amusement glimmered – her thoughts must have shown on her face. Cursing, she resolved to learn, straight away, just how to hide her thoughts, how to hide her reactions and her fears and her ignorance………
Languidly, almost elegantly, Luc rose from his seat and made his way over.
She could feel Dominic and Michel's light apprehension, half covered by bravado, increase as he came closer.
As he reached them, he smiled a little blandly and said, "Good morning Michel, Dominic………" all the while still holding her gaze, seeming to challenge her to look as long as she could.
Michel and Dominic mumbled something, all too conscious that Luc wasn't paying any attention to them at all.
"And Miss………" he raised an eyebrow.
She opened her mouth, but couldn't find a thing to say. "Er………Kate," she said, holding out a hand. "Kate Evans."
For the first time, he dropped his gaze and looked expressionlessly at her outstretched hand. Slowly, he raised his eyes back to hers, deliberately taking his time, until he met her eyes again, his slightly sardonic and more than amused.
"Don't ever offer to shake hands," he murmured softly.
She blinked. "Oh………?"
He put his hands out, elegant, aristocratic hands, white and languid, with a hidden, tensile strength, and folded her own hand away. "Shaking hands," he explained slowly, reasonably, "is an entirely middle class custom. Don't ever offer to shake hands with the High Clan."
She blinked again. "Oh." Then, in a very intelligent move she would curse herself for later, she said, "High Clan?"
She could all but see Dominic and Michel wince, hear the muffled tittering from some of the first year girls she had met last night – but Luc didn't react. His eyebrow may have risen a little, his eyes may have narrowed a little in amusement. But there was nothing overt.
Kate closed her eyes and prayed for the earth to open and swallow her up. What had she just done………?
He sighed soundlessly and drew her away from the main table. "My dear Kate," he said flatly. "You're a muggleborn, aren't you."
She didn't say anything, he already knew it. She felt a tide of shame rise over her, shame at her birth, at her ignorance………she knew she should be angry, but she couldn't manage the energy. She knew that she was going to be torn apart.
He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed tightly. "Listen to me," he whispered intently. "I don't know what you're doing in Slytherin, but I do know that the way you're going, you won't survive a full year………"
She pulled away angrily, scowling at him. "That's hardly my fault, is it?"
He only looked at her. "No, it's not your fault – but that's beside the point. You don't know anything about this House or its ways, and you will be eaten alive."
"Are you offering to teach me?" she flung defiantly at him, hating him for his unforgiving truths.
He stopped and looked at her for a few heartbeats, his eyes filled with a truly unreadable expression. "Perhaps I am………" he murmured in a strange tone.
She gaped. "What?"
He smiled thinly. "I am offering to teach you, Kate. Everything you should know, everything you must know………everything you need to know."
Her eyes searched his for any clue of what he was thinking. "Why?" she asked bluntly. She was too disconcerted to play games.
The strange smile came again. "Perhaps I have a newfound desire to play Pygmalion………"
She looked at him skeptically.
"And perhaps………just perhaps, there might be some benefit to it. For each of us."
At any other time, she would have left it at that and been all too happy to accept his offer. But she was too discomposed, too unsettled, and she wanted to speak plainly, to hear plain truth, for the first time in this alien House she had been placed in. "What kind of benefit?"
She thought he winced. "For you? A protector, and a teacher. Under my protection, no one will dare harm you. And I will teach you everything you need to know, as I said."
"And what do you get out of it?"
"Everything you are, and everything you can be." She drew in a shocked breath, but he went on. "Complete loyalty………and complete truthfulness. Complete access to what I suspect will become a very, very astute and analytical intellect………" He lowered his voice even further, his eyes became very intense. "I'm sure that either Michel or Dominic has told you of my heritage and my ambitions………"
They hadn't actually, but she had picked them up nonetheless. It was quite obvious, he had made no secret of his desire to become tai-pan one day. She nodded.
"If I take you under my protection, I want you to use everything you have to help me get to the tai-pan's seat."
She raised her wide green eyes to his, reading the strength and the determination, reading the truth of his words and the sincerity of his offer.
This was what she had been planning to acquire, wasn't it? What she already knew she needed to survive? Then why, as she nodded her agreement to his offer, did she feel as if she had just sold her soul to the devil?
Complete and utter loyalty.
Everything you are, and everything you can be.
In return for the protection she needed so badly, and the knowledge she needed just as much. She couldn't turn down a chance to gain them, no matter what he asked in return. There was no point in cutting off her nose………
But still, seeing the glint of satisfaction in his eyes, she felt a flutter of disquiet.
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All of Slytherin nodded knowingly when the mudblood, Kate Evans, returned to the table and a place was made for her next to Luc Malfoy.
So.
She had just been claimed.
They would work that into their plans………
Now the only remaining wild cards were the two de Sauvigny cousins. Would Luc claim them, or would he let them sink?
They had thought that he would make a decision just before, but he had showed no sign of any rejection or acceptance; Dominic and Michel were still in limbo, and were still open to any other offers that may be made to them.
But any other offers would be withheld until Luc made his claim – it was prudent to wait and see how the Malfoy jumped first before making any plans.
Unacknowledged blood kin, previously of an entirely different House and upbringing – no one really knew which way Luc would react. They were blood of his blood, yes, but his mother had rejected him, and they had, only yesterday, been fawning over Caine de Sauvigny, Luc's greatest rival………
It was a very interesting situation, one that they would watch with great interest.
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So, tell me what you think and what you liked. I'll be grateful, I swear. Next chapter, Kate learns something of Slytherin.