Hello again and as usual, thanx for reviewing!
Hope you'll like this one as well, with its little twists and turns...
And please keep informing me about what you think. ALL opinions help!
Love Redfern

20TH DECEMBER: THE SERPENT'S KISS

If waking up yesterday had been dreadful, it was death this morning.
At least the ten first seconds, when his mouth felt dry like a desert and his head was spinnig enough to make it plain that the fever had increased over the night.
Then he noticed that someone held a hand on his forehead.
Draco opened his eyes slowly and tried to focus on the visitor.
His father was sitting at the bedside, possessing the same cool air as always, but he was touching Draco, even though it must be obvious about the illness.
Now, that was weird.
Lucius was acting strange again, just like two days ago, but he had seemed to be his normal self only yesterday.
Draco sighed. There was no way of figuring it out. But he couldn't say that he minded it much, since the cold hand eased the fire in his head quite a bit.
"You will receive a potion shortly." Lucius said, his tone distant as if he was asking a stranger about the time. "Then your health will return within hours."
Draco glanced at the clock by the bed. A quarter to six.
What in the world was his father doing up so early and why was he spending the time sitting in Draco's bedroom?
It was two hours left until breakfast!
And again, he bitterly counted the hours of sleep he had gotten to three in total. The conversation last night that had wrecked his chances for a good sleep was coming back to him and at once his father's presence felt all the more important, but also horribly unsettling.
This was not normal.
It was almost against nature, having the head of the family taking a personal interest in his health.
A sudden thought struck him, that Lucius might have been replaced, that somebody tried to impersonate him through a Polyjuice potion!
But when he met his father's eyes again, he threw the idea aside immediately.
"Has something happened, father?" He dared to whisper, in a small attempt to get some answers to the unconventional behaviour.
He received a cynical glare.
"Don't ask such stupid questions, Draco. You will be presentable to the new guests this afternoon and if you jump out the window and break a leg, I swear I'll help you to break the rest of your bones."
He felt that little sting of disappointment again, the one that only his father could cause. Of course Lucius held no care for him. It was only the old matter of keeping the family's reputation spotless.
"Don't worry, father. I won't." Draco answered, making his voice as cold as Lucius'.
As a house elf entered the room with the medical potion, Draco swept it without hesitation under Lucius' surveillance. Then he fell back to the cushions and swore to himself that he would not let his father see even one glimpse of weakness from him ever again.
If this was how it would be, that he was destined to handle everything alone, then he would give everyone a real demonstration that he could do it, with or without any help!

By the time the Crabbes, Goyles and Bulstrodes arrived, Draco was back in shape more than anyone would expect. His clothes and behaviour was absolutely impeccable and it took no time for him at all to charm the guests as thoroughly as his father could.
Even though his thoughts around the dreaded future prophecy that his father had revealed held him in a miserable state, he was set on showing the opposite.
But he kept analyzing every situation arising during the day.
Such as his parents behaviour towards one another. They did talk to each other and sometimes they even smiled, seeming very close. But soon it struck Draco that they were never acting like this in private. He couldn't even remember the last time they actually looked at each other when not in public.
And there was this matter with his friends.
He had never really reflected about why his social circle looked like it did. And depressively enough, he couldn't say that he truly enjoyed hanging with any of them.
Crabbe and Goyle just followed him around because they were of good families that looked up to the Malfoys. Pansy probably liked him genuinely, but knowing her, it was more a matter of a sincere liking of his money and prestige.
And every name he brought up to analyze was placed in the same category as Pansy.
Ten points to Lucius, then, he thought, throwing dark, defiant looks to his father whenever he had the chance.
It was met with a ominous frown every time.

As the day's activities came to an end and the adult guests were enjoying themselves with drinks, small talk and music in one of the common rooms, Draco led the younger visitors up to his room, as expected of him.
The state of anxiety growing inside, as the bits of the puzzle called his life were falling to place, was held back with great effort.
But he made sure nothing would leak up to the surface.
They all settled in a circle on the floor, stretching out on the thick carpet after bringing out the forbidden bottles of wine and liqueur from their rooms.
Draco knew he was not allowed to drink, but as Pansy offered him a glass, he received it with only a moment's hesitation.
Well, if he was alone, then he might as well make that choice himself!
"I've got an excellent idea!" Pansy said, as everyone sat in a cheerful state with a glass of alcohol in their hands.
"What, you're going to disappear into the toilet with Millie again and walk out with her underwear on your head?"
Pansy reacted by throwing a pillow in Edwin's face.
"Shut up, you pig!" She shouted, accompanied with laughter from the others.
"We were just talking, slimeball!" Millicent added.
Edwin had referred to an incident in the Slytherin toilets last year, when Crabbes sister had visited the lavatory in the middle of the night and heard strange noises inside one of the booths. Then Pansy and Millicent had come out, looking quite ruffled.
Naturally, every Slytherin was aware of the story the next day and nobody knew for sure what had really taken place inside the toilet, even though Draco strongly suspected that they were not innocent at all.
Both of them denied all rumours, but Millicent's blush every time the subject was brought up gave them away.
And as all other times, Pansy was quick to change direction in the conversation.
"No, I was thinking more in the lines of…a truth or dare!"
"Ah, Pansy, for crying out loud!" Crabbe's sister, Celina, moaned.
Crabbe and Goyle were blushing and Rowan looked very uncertain, but Edwin and Millicent encouraged the idea. Then everybody looked at him.
"Sure." Draco said, feeling about as engaged as if it was his own funeral. He definitely needed more wine.

After half an hour the game had everybody deeply engaged in a drunken state of experimentation. Every time Draco had the question, he simply chose 'truth' and lied so much at every inquiry that his tongue might as well have turned black from it.
Pansy had already been forced to kiss Crabbe and Rowan had dug out a quill from Millicent's pants with a crimson colour in her face.
Draco's glass had been filled and emptied many times and he was definitely not sober anymore. A sort of comfortable state had entered, where he felt his restricted behaviour and carefully locked up emotions breaking loose and threatening to spill over the edge.
Since everybody else was drunk, nobody sensed any difference in him and that boosted the feeling of alienation a good deal.
He was deep into suppressing the strong instincts of panic when the focus landed on him again.
"Truth or dare?" Edwin asked.
"Dare." Draco answered immediately.
He just couldn't stand being so far removed from everyone. A little physical contact, any kind at all, was better than sitting all alone on his island, made a distant idol by the people who were supposed to be his confident circle.
Edwin smirked and Draco could see how he looked for vengeance material to get even for yesterday, when Draco had threatened him with his wand.
Bring it on, Draco thought. There's nothing you can possibly do to make me feel worse.
"All right, then. You get to kiss Goyle!"
Goyle went white in the face, but Draco looked as cool as ever, imitating his father perfectly.
"That's all? No problem."
Draco went down to kiss Goyle, who couldn't bring himself to look Draco in the eyes. But he didn't dare to protest and Draco put his tongue into Goyle's mouth, cutting himself off from the object of the intimacy as he tasted Goyle's clumsy and unwilling tongue experimentally.
Then he simply broke the kiss and moved back to his corner again with a bored expression, worthy of his father, on his face.
Goyle looked like he needed to throw up from the shock and Draco stayed put in his place for about three minutes before he rose to his feet and walked to the door.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Pansy cried.
"Are you chickening out?" Edwin asked with triumph in his voice.
"I'm going to use the bathroom, so if you'll excuse me." Draco snapped at them.
Then he walked out, feeling content with the fact that they all were too drunk to realise that Draco had access to his own toilet through his rooms.

Draco resolutely walked down the stairs and entered the common room where the parents socialized.
Some of them looked up as he came in, but nobody took any special note of his presence.
Nobody, except for Lucius.
And just as he had expected, his father followed his every move as he crossed the room with defiant steps, ignoring all the guests, to reach the library where the Family Chronicles were placed. He could have walked straight to his goal from the hall, but it was very essential that Lucius saw him right now.
He thought he heard his father excuse himself to Mr Nott before the doors to the library were slammed shut, just a little too hard.
Then he snatched the right book without hesitation and moved to the desk where he looked up the interesting chapter, just in time for Lucius' entrance.
And what an entrance it was.
His father walked so directly to his target with such determined steps, that had Draco been sober, he would have quit the cause on the spot. But not even his sire's dreaded temper could sway him from making a point.
"What do you think you're doing, Draco?"
Without even acknowledging Lucius' threatening voice, Draco started to read aloud from the book.
"Ophelia Malfoy, slashed her wrists open at thirteen to avoid an arranged marriage…"
"Close the book!"
Lucius had almost reached the desk now.
"…and Cyrus Malfoy, running away with a muggle girl during his last year at Hogwarts."
Draco started to move around the table as Lucius reached for him, the younger Malfoy only stumbling slightly from the wine.
"You've been drinking!" Lucius snarled.
"Dragonia Malfoy, jumped from the West Tower with her lover, rather than giving birth to the heir of the family…OW!!!"
Lucius held him in an iron grip and had just slapped him hard on the cheek.
He ripped the book from Draco's hands despite the wild protests and started to force him down with his back on the desk.
"I'm a real disappointment, aren't I?" Draco spat, struggling in vain to free his hands. "Running out on the ice just to get some sleep, deviating from my constantly perfect behaviour!"
"Shut up!"
"If I'd known I could have…OW!"
Lucius had hit him in the face again and recaptured his wrist.
"…could have made a much greater mess, like running off or even worse…OUPH!!!"
Lucius had finally slammed him down hard on the desk, keeping his hands nailed to the polished surface.
"Not another word."
Lucius' whisper was very close to his ear and in cheer desperation, Draco turned his head in the voice's direction, determined to catch a glimpse of his father's eyes to see how this had affected him.
Instead, he was met up with a hot tongue that invaded his mouth, causing shivers to run through him in a way that not even the fever had managed.
Oh, this was perfect…the ice wall of alienation melted away and he was not lonely anymore. The person who meant most of all in the world gave him what he needed so badly!
Draco answered the hard kiss eagerly, no longer in a state of caring about the twisted form this affirmation he needed carried.
Then his tongue was bitten very harshly and Draco moaned aloud into his father's mouth, stirring from the pain but unwilling to draw away from the warm intimacy.
But the kiss was broken anyway and soon he felt sharp teeth biting his earlobe and when the tongue jabbed into his ear, Lucius released one of his wrists to hold Draco's head steady, as he couldn't stop himself from writhing from the sensation.
He was trembling, his knees were parting on their own accord to leave better access for his father to press closer, and the teeth was at his throat suddenly, clenching around the mark mercilessly deep and he didn't mind at all, hearing the pleased growls from his sire.
Those sounds were the reward that suddenly seemed to weigh up for all the pain he had suffered from his father's hands and he swore to himself that he would stand anything, just to have Lucius this content with him again.
The hands that held his arms pinned shifted, so that both wrists only rested in one grip now, still pressed down over his head.
Then Lucius' free hand caressed his neck, snapping the clasp on Draco's robe open and continued down his body, causing Draco to breathe in short raptured gasps.
Their mouths reunited again and the hand snuck under his clothes, making the skin underneath it prickle as the rough caresses slowly turned into clawings. It was so contradictive. Draco couldn't decide what was most unbearable. The pleasure or the pain, or the ecstasy as they both mingled together.
Through his dim state of drunkenness, he realised that he had started to grow hard from his father's touch and the embarrassment made him sober up a little, just enough for trying to hide this fact from the older man leaning over him.
But Lucius' hand had reached the danger zone and cupped Draco's crutch so suddenly, that Draco broke the kissing in panic to object.
"No! Wait!"
But Lucius merely smirked at him, resembling a very rare, beautiful predator about to lay down its prey.
"Wait for what, Draco, hm?" he whispered maliciously, kissing Draco's lips as soon as he opened his mouth again to protest. "You obviously want this, don't you?"
But Draco's head was getting clearer by the second, as true fear rushed to his head. He hadn't expected this!
He wasn't sure about what he had expected, but the unknown territories that he had been led into had reached a dark, dangerous place and the mere idea of what they were actually doing was dodgy enough.
"Look…uh, I can't do this! I- I'm not ready!" Draco gasped, suddenly wanting to back off several large steps.
But the plea was only met up by a sadistic smile.
"Oh yes you are, Draco. And it's not for you to decide."
And the hand started to stroke the sensitive area teasingly, while Lucius coaxed an agonized Draco into another kiss again.
But this was too frightening to relax into. If his father did not stop that…thing he was doing, if he didn't…but it felt so good.
Draco found himself pressing his crutch up against his father's hand all of a sudden and typically enough, the hand drew back, starting to pull Draco's belt of instead.
"No, NO!"
Draco struggled to get his hands free, in a desperate attempt to get a say in the matter, but as soon as the belt was unbuckled, Lucius drew it out from Draco's pants and held it in a firm grip right under his nose.
"I'll teach you to throw family tragedies in my face." His father whispered. "Turn around."
Draco was stunned. Then he felt the blood rushing to turn his face dark red.
This couldn't be normal either, suggesting a beating in a situation like this.
"Lucius?"
A few short knocks on the door and the sound of the doorknob wrenching, had Draco nearly dying of a heartattack.
Lucius pulled him to his feet so fast, that he had hardly regained his balance when the door opened and Narcissa stepped in.
Draco was grateful that he had his back to her. He threw a nervous glance at his father, who stood facing her, less than two feet from Draco, cleverly keeping the hand holding the belt behind his back.
Draco couldn't help admiring Lucius' cool posture, how the burning fire in his eyes transformed into cold stone by less than a second.
"Yes?" Lucius asked, his voice only slightly on the verge of annoyance, as if he was interrupted in one of those serious discussions with Draco.
"They miss you outside." Narcissa said, without a hint of warmth in her reply. "Mr and Mrs Nott were about to be shown your collection of Grindelwald's possessions, as I recall."
"And they will be."
"What is Draco doing in here? Shouldn't he be upstairs with the guests?" She asked Lucius over Draco's head, as if he wasn't able to hear her.
Draco dared to turn his head a little to look at his mother, although not in the eyes.
"I was fetching a book for the others." He murmured, before Lucius had a chance to answer. "It was a truth or dare."
Lucius nodded shortly, before giving him a stern slap on the shoulder.
"Run along now, Draco. We'll finish this discussion later."
And then Draco had a push towards the main entrance to the library, so that he would not have to pass his mother on the way out. And Draco fled, not daring to cast even one more glance at his father.
He ran up the stairs and waited until the bodily signs of his activities had faded somewhat. Then he walked into the others and put on a face that he hoped nobody would dare to challenge.
"Where were you, Draco?" Pansy wondered with an open relief to have him back.
"On the toilet, I told you." He sighed. "The game is over and you'll have to go back to your rooms. They want us to hit the pillows now. And I really need to sleep!"
But as his comrades started to leave the room, he was sure that he would never get any sleep again in his life.