A/N: Despite the lack of reviews, I hereby present the next instalment of the saga that is the Hogwarts Charm... I absolutely loved writing this! The little bit of action and delinquency in it, probably had something to do with it.
Ernie: It's. Time. For. Thanking. Our. Reviewers.
You're absolutely right Ernie. Take it away...!
Ernie: Thank. Yous. Go. To. charmedfanatic3000
You are a lovely, lovely person. Your compliments make my day and put a smile on my face.
Ernie: And. I'm. Pretty. Grateful. Too. It's. About. Time. I. Got. Some. Recognition. Around. Here.
Oh, stop whining Ernie! We still have reviewers to thank.
Ernie: The. Illustrious. Ori
blushes like the schoolgirl she isSpeaking of Halloween, how was yours? I went to a sleepover to some friends' house and watched scary movies, but we still had fun. Chocolate and alcohol was abundant, so how could we not?
I happen to like a good death eater family myself! The Malfoys are perfect 'cause they're not just evil, they're smart evil. And classy. Got to love classy. They can probably understand shades of grey as only deliciously evil people do. Good looks help. I know I'll probably get crucified for this, but I'm not a Tom Felton fan. I don't think he's that cute, and frankly, his fascination with fish is a bit creepy. Draco Malfoy on the other hand... He makes the perfect bad boy! Girls can't help but dream of a chance to redeem him! Is there anything more delicious that a bad boy gone good but still retaining that sharp... badness, about him that made him attractive in the first place?
The Lucius/Talia thing wasn't meant to be "ooky". Tal is slightly attracted to him, but not for his sake. She's more attracted to the darkness he symbolises. The last chapter was probably the limit of Lucius/Talia interaction in the entire story.
Research is great! If you are going to do something, then at least make the effort to do it right. Thinking of the Malfoys, I got a picture in my head of Narcissa growing roses and the whole thing started off from there. Rose growing is a rather typical English Lady type of thing. I can't really picture Narcissa herself as a delicate flower, though we are given no cannon evidence to the contrary, but I can definitely see her in a traditional English garden keeping up appearances. You may, or may not, know this, but the late Princess Diana is sometimes called the "English Rose" and she grew roses too. I thought that might be a good explanation / reason for Xander's rather unusual hobby.
Mmm, Black Forest cake...
Ernie: nycazn7
I know I'm drawing out, but there were quite a few bases I wanted to cover before diving into the school year. Some of them are more fun than others. The school year is approaching though and you won't have to wait much longer to see what House Talia ends up in. Pleeeaaase like this chapter!
Ernie: Winter. Blaze
If you liked the Draco/ Talia interaction in the last chapter, you're gonna love this!!!
Ernie: Charmedchick11
Want more? Here's more! I should hope that there's enough Draco/ Talia scenes in here to satisfy even you! Enjoy!
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I'd also like to thank, the wonderful Nightcrawler once again for coming to my rescue with his amazing, super-human, beta skills!
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Ernie: We. Were. Also. Wondering. What. Happened. To. Our. Other. Reviewers.
Ernie! Whether or not we get reviews for this story, we will courageously see it to the end!
We can't help but wonder however, if there's a serial killer out there, hunting down our poor reviewers one by one! How else can we explain the decreasing number of reviews for each new chapter?
cricket cricket
Are you guys still out there?
cricket cricket
I do try to update every week / 10 days, you know...
Ernie: Please. Review! It's. Sad. We. Know. But. It. Makes. Our. Day.
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Chapter 13: Heating things up
"The Three Broomsticks is that way," said Draco by Talia's ear.
His breath on her skin tingled. He sat behind her on the broomstick with his arms around her waist, his thighs pressing against hers. She had insisted that she fly them there, though he was the more capable and experienced flier.
"I know, but I've discovered another charming little bar over there," she pointed.
Draco lifted an eyebrow in surprise.
"The Hog's Head?!"
She turned round to face him.
"Have you been there before?"
He scoffed.
"Of course."
Just like Knockturn Alley was the dark alternative to Diagon Alley, so was the Hog's Head to the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. Of course Draco had been there before!
"I just didn't expect it to be your kind of place," he said, his eyes narrowing as they regarded his companion.
"You've only just met me. You don't know what my kind of place is like."
But then again, hadn't he already guessed from his father's reaction to her that there was more to Talia than met the eye? The girl intrigued him.
In the late afternoon, Talia landed the broomstick in front of the pub. She was a fair flyer, Draco decided, but she would never make it on any quidditch team. Draco took the broom and they walked together into the filthy looking pub.
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Suspicious eyes followed them as they made their way to the bar.
"Mistress Talia," spoke the large, sweaty, unshaven man behind the bar. His eyes snapped to Draco's blond head. "Master Malfoy," he added, slightly surprised at seeing them together. "What can I get you two?" It was clear that the barman thought nothing of the fact that the two of them were obviously underage.
Talia turned to Draco.
"I don't know much about wizarding drinks. Would you mind ordering for the both of us?"
His eyebrow lifted. It seemed to be doing that a lot since he'd met her. Was she testing him? He'd give her a run for her money, he decided with a smirk.
"Two Dragon Riders and a couple of shots of Hippogriff Blood."
Out of habit, Talia took the time to survey her surroundings. There were two old men at the bar, mumbling into their drinks, a grimy-looking couple disgustingly making out in one of the pub's dark corners and four rowdy-looking men who drunk their drinks amidst guffaws and much thumping on the wooden table. But it was the three people at a table not too far off from the bar that caught her eye. There were two men and a woman at that table and Talia couldn't help noticing that they were watching her and Draco. Talia looked straight back at the woman and their eyes met. The other woman lowered her eyes first. Talia smirked smugly in silent triumph, but there was something disturbingly familiar about those people that nudged at the back of her mind.
Draco offered her a shot glass of some bright red liquid.
"To new friendships?" he offered with a smirk.
"To new friendships," she agreed.
Simultaneously, they shot back the alcohol and Talia felt it burn its way down her throat. She didn't like it much, its flavour too sickly sweet for her taste, but it was strong, and that was exactly what she was after. On the rare occasions she still managed to indulge her wild side, all she cared about, was simply letting go.
She grinned at Draco and he smirked back. Talia had fast come to the conclusion that Draco didn't smile. The closest he'd get to it, was his trademark smirk.
"Not bad," she said approvingly, then took a taste from the green concoction she'd heard him call a Dragon Rider. That too was strong, but she couldn't evaluate its strength properly, right after the shot. She lookedback at Draco. Was he trying to get her drunk? Testing her as she was testing him? Interesting. She took another sip. The drink's minty taste suited her better than the shot, and she swirled the liquid around in her mouth.
He led her to a table in the centre of the room.
"So, tell me about yourself, Draco Malfoy," she started, flirtatiously.
Draco smirked again and started talking.
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"...Pansy turned Millicent into a pig, but not before Millicent managed to turn Pansy into a cow! The entire House was in stitches! Who would have thought that those two paid enough attention in Transfiguration, to actually learn how to do human transfiguration?!"
Talia had tears of laughter running down her face by the time Draco's story reached its end. They were both laughing a little too loudly due to the copious amount of alcohol they had consumed. Neither cared.
"So, what year was this in?"
"We're only taught human transfiguration in sixth year, Talia. It was just a few months ago, before school ended for the summer."
"Draco, surely they're not that bad!"
"You only say that because you haven't met them yet."
"Is that a smile I spy, Draco Malfoy?"
Draco's smile abruptly turned back into a smirk. He must be very drunk, he decided, to have let his guard down like that!
"Malfoys don't smile!" he protested. But he was rather having fun, he admitted to himself.
Talia giggled at his reaction.
"Now you're just being silly! Everyone smiles. I bet even the Ruler of the Underworld smiles once in a while!"
"Yeah, sure," he drawled, then laughed drunkenly about it.
After a slight hesitation, Talia followed his example. She knew better of course, having seen her father smile on more than one occasion, though it was rare.
"I'm going to the bathroom," Draco said, getting up. "I'll be right back."
Talia took her time to look around her once again.
The lights in the dim pub looked a little brighter than what she logically knew they should be, and the world seemed to have decided that being parallel to the sky, was much too boring, and was currently doing a sensual dance to the Latin beat in her head. Talia knew she was tipsy, but didn't care. Well, well, who would've guessed?! Draco Malfoy was rather fun after a few Dragon Riders! She smiled into her glass. And unlike most of her past drinking buddies, he seemed to be able to hold his alcohol as well as she did. It was a relief to know. The last thing she needed was to have to babysit a drunk, underage, wizard.
She took another long drink from her glass. Though Draco had kept on with his Dragon Riders, Talia had switched to Hell's Call after her first drink. Hell's Call was a drink she had discovered on one of her previous trips to the Hog's Head. It looked like brandy, but tasted of strong spices and smoke. She tried to count how many drinks she had actually had. She was pretty sure Draco had had eight – or was it nine? – Dragon Riders. That meant that she'd had around eight Hell's Calls herself. Not to mention the initial Dragon Riders and occasional shots they'd both had throughout the evening.
Talia shrugged and took another sip as she once again examined her surroundings. Old habits die hard, and her father's training was difficult to ignore.
As the night had descended, the pub had filled, but the small group of people that had seemed so familiar earlier, had just become even smaller, Talia noticed.
The woman was missing.
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Draco was washing his hands under the filthy taps in the stinking toilets of the Hog's Head. Despite his rather advanced degree of intoxication, he couldn't help but turn his nose up at the sight of what was most certainly urine, on the bathroom floor. He hurried his efforts at the sink.
"Hello..." he heard a woman's soft voice say from behind him.
He turned round.
Her hair was as black as midnight and her skin paler than the moon. She was almost luminescent under the dim, white light.
"You're not supposed to be here. This is the men's bathroom," he said dazedly. "Who are you?" he couldn't prevent himself from asking.
Despite the alcohol in his system, Draco was mildly disgusted to hear his voice hitch at her sight. The woman was stunningly beautiful and he, a young man of seventeen, could no more hide his reaction to her than he could bring Merlin back to life.
"Who I am doesn't matter, does it?" she said in her lilting, teasing voice.
Draco stopped thinking.
"I've spent the last few hours watching you. You're very handsome..."
She had some sort of accent and there was an infinitely magnetic quality about her glittering black eyes. Suddenly, Draco found himself unable to focus on anything but her ruby lips, and he felt himself walk towards her. She met him halfway. It was as if she floated to him.
"So handsome..." she said as she raised her fingers to his hair and fingered the golden locks.
Draco was frozen by her charm. He stood transfixed in front of this beautiful woman. Time itself seemed to stand still.
One heartbeat, two heartbeats...
She bent her head and he felt her warm breath on his neck. He closed his eyes in complete supplication. Her lips parted and a pair of lethal fangs appeared, millimetres away from his tender flesh.
"Get away from him!" snarled Talia, lunging at the woman who had been ready to sink her teeth into Draco. She pulled her off him by the hair, and threw her across the room.
Draco stood there, shaking his head to clear it from the enchantment the vampire had placed on him.
"Mine!" Talia hissed, in terms that the vampire would understand. It was meant to serve as a warning, from one Dark creature to another, in the ancient language that creatures like them understood. There was a blazing fire in the Phoenix's eyes. The vampire was infringing on her territory!
It didn't seem to work.
The woman let out an unearthly, frustrated yell as she threw herself at Talia. Talia grabbed the woman's upraised arm with one hand and used her other hand to carve long fingernail marks on the woman's cheek with her long, sharp nails. Blood that was almost black in colour filled the newly opened gashes. The woman drew away with a cry of pain. She raised her palm to cup her injured cheek then brought the bloodstained fingers to her mouth and licked off the sticky liquid. The scratches healed up before Talia's very eyes.
Draco came to, just in time to see the woman's companions arrive at the bathroom, eager to join in on what they assumed to be a feed. He pulled his wand out.
"Get away from us you blood-suckers!" he snarled at them as they barred their teeth at him. He hated vampires, and his pride still smarted from having to be rescued from one by a girl.
"Looks like we have to work for our dinner tonight, Zargon," hissed one of the dark men to the other.
"We could use the exercise, brother."
Draco let a sneer spread over his features. He wasn't just any ordinary wizard and he was only too aware of that fact. He was a Malfoy, and that meant that he'd had training in the Dark Arts since before he had even begun his attendance at Hogwarts. True, he had been warned under pain of death by his father not to use any of the Dark Arts while at school, but he and Talia were definitely not in school right now... Draco felt foolish to have been almost taken in by one of these creatures. He hated feeling foolish. Someone had to pay for that...
"Inflamago" he called, sending a whip of flames out of his wand at the nearest vampire.
The vampire barely managed to dodge it, but his sleeve caught fire.
All wizards, above the age of fourteen, knew that only three things could ever kill a vampire: sunlight, a wooden stake through the heart, and fire. Largely lacking in sunlight and wooden stakes, Draco resorted to using fire against his opponents. Not that he minded. He could have a lot of fun playing with fire...
Talia knew all about vampires too. That's why the creatures had seemed so familiar when she had seen them earlier. They had been despised in the Underworld for making no distinction on who they fed, be it demon, warlock, witch or mortal. Throwing a fireball at the snarling vampire she was fighting, would undoubtedly be terribly effective, but it would also give away the secret of her powers to Draco, and she didn't want to do that just yet.
She fended off yet another attack from the woman. Talia wasn't worried. In fact, she admitted to herself, she was having fun! The woman's fighting technique lacked any form or style, but she was determined, Talia would give her that. It seemed that the vampire's hunger made for good incentive.
Out of the corner her eye, she saw Draco fighting the other two vampires. Talia decided that that was something she wanted to see. She turned her attention back to the woman who lunged at her for the umpteenth time. The woman drew a small dagger.
Talia clucked her tongue in disapproval. The vampire must be getting pretty desperate to be willing to spill some of Talia's precious blood anywhere other than down her own throat. Even as the woman aimed the dagger at her, Talia pulled her wand out in one smooth motion.
"Incedio," she spoke calmly, pointing her wand at her opponent. The woman exploded in flames. It wasn't quite as fun as her own fireballs, Talia decided, but it would have to do.
She leaned casually on one of the bathroom walls and watched Draco have his own fun with the two male demons.
"Inflamago" drawled Draco once again, this time pointing his wand at one of the vampires' feet.
The vampire jumped high in the air to avoid the searing tendrils of flame that were aimed at him while his friend was still trying futilely to put out his burning arm.
"Inflamago"
The vampire jumped out of the way of the flames once again. He was dancing a cruel dance to the tune of Draco's wand, and the blond wizard was chuckling at his antics. Draco noticed out of the corner of his eye that the other vampire was finally successful at putting his arm out, so he momentarily turned his attention to him.
"Inflamago."
The vampire's face, which had only just managed to relax in relief at his arm no longer being on fire, contorted back into a grimace of pain as Draco's makeshift flamethrower enveloped his lower body in high flames.
"Show off!" he heard Talia snort from somewhere on his right.
He grinned and in the light of the burning vampire he looked almost feral. He shot another absentminded inflamago at the dancing vampire.
"Hurry up, would you Draco? I want another drink," she whined.
He took time to turn to her and pout. She laughed at his expression. But despite his pouting, he soon turned back to the remaining vampire and finished him off with a softly spoken incedio, like Talia had done.
He turned fully to face her then.
"Enjoyed the show?"
"Not bad," she admitted. "Will you teach me that spell you used?"
His eyes narrowed momentarily, before his face contorted to a smug smirk.
"It's a dark spell. They don't teach stuff like that at Hogwarts."
"But will you teach it to me?" she asked again, unperturbed by his revelation.
Draco laughed.
It wasn't as if she hadn't used dark magic before... Some of that magic had even proved very useful in the demon fighting she had come to face back at the manor. Leo had strictly disapproved of course, and so did the Charmed Ones, but Talia was firmly convinced that magic was never purely good, or evil, on its own. It all depended on who used it, and for what purpose. What was that saying she had heard used once? 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people.' It was the same with magic. And she had proved it to all of them. Despite her occasional use of Dark magic against her father's minions, the Halliwell Book of Shadows still allowed her to touch it. Wyatt was convinced, though he himself refrained from using Dark Magic. But Leo and the Charmed Ones still frowned upon her doing it.
"Some other time," Draco answered vaguely. He drawled slyly, "I thought you mentioned something about another drink..."
Talia smiled at him and they walked out of the bathroom together.
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Draco and Talia landed rather badly on the green grass outside Hogwarts.
They both had been very, very drunk by the time they left Hogsmeade, and Draco had insisted that he be the one to fly them back. Talia had tried to argue, but it was no use. He was obviously the most experienced flier of the two.
But despite Draco's experience and talent for flying, flying drunk wasn't the best idea either of them had ever had. Flying above Hogsmeade, they had nearly crushed too many times to count. The trip back to Hogwarts was filled with exciting moments of Talia holding onto Draco for dear life, and Draco holding onto Talia to prevent her from falling off the broom to her death.
Overall, the landing wasn't that bad. Draco had realised that they were descending too fast and had tried to pull them up at the last minute. He had almost succeeded too! Almost.
Talia lay on her back on the cool grass giggling at their predicament. In the hazy world created by too many Hell's Calls to count, she found their landing hilarious and the scratches on her arms and legs didn't bother her.
Draco found himself in a rather similar condition. Grinning in a very un-Malfoy-ish fashion, he crawled over to where she lay.
"You think that was funny?" he asked in mock indignation. The goofy grin at the end of his speech proved otherwise.
"Absolutely!" she giggled.
And Draco lunged at her.
Talia squealed and rolled around on the ground, trying to squirm out of his strong grasp. Draco rose to his knees to get a better grip on her. Talia didn't stand a chance. Not that she was really trying. In a few careful moves he had her pinned, both hands held in one of his above her head against the ground, his lower body covering her own to keep her in place. Her laughter echoed in the summer night. Neither of them cared if anyone heard.
"Well, it appears you've got me now, Mr. Malfoy," she teased. "What do you plan on doing with me?"
His grey eyes bore into her brown ones. They were both panting heavily. Talia's heart raced. He leaned down over her and his lips covered her own. She returned his kiss hungrily. Their tongues danced between them.
He tasted of mint. She tasted of cinnamon. It made for an explosive combination.
Clothes were soon discarded in the heat of the moment.