Draco walked into Snape's office as he went down- well, up- to breakfast. He sat down in one of the high-backed black Victorian armchairs and watched his house professor read a passage from a thick tome.
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy," drawled Snape, though his eyes never left the manuscript.
"I was wondering if you could help me find a student. I don't know her name and I don't want to try and find her without it. She is a Ravenclaw student, I don't know what year she is, but she is distinctly Asian. For a Ravenclaw, she seems quite air-headed, so I'm sure you could tell me who she is."
Draco had asked for what he had wanted and gone into the details before Snape had a chance to say yes or no. Even if Snape did say no, the professor would indubitably keep the girl after class and talk to her, which would be the perfect way to find her name and when she had Potions. After that he could ask around Slytherin to see what year she was and whom she hung out with. Soon this girl would be wrapped around his finger tight enough to cut off circulation. This might actually be fun, especially if she avoided his clutches. The longer it took to get the prize, the more valuable it became. And Draco Malfoy was all about value.
"Not Cho Chang, I presume?" asked Snape, still reading.
"No, another girl."
Snape got up and looked in a thick leather bound book. He turned to the back of the book and started flipping page by page towards the front. Several pages in, he started running his finger up and down the page, following a column that was invisible to Draco. Snape came back to his desk and sat down. "The girl you are looking for is one Miss Raiko Hattori. She is now entering her fifth year here. I discourage any thoughts you may have to torment the girl, for were it not for Miss Granger, she would be the top witch." With that, Snape returned to his book and further ignored Draco.
"Thank you, professor. You have been a great help," Draco said with a smirk on his lips. He got up from his chair and was about to exit when he heard Snape say something.
"Should I find that she is being tormented, I must warn you that I will not turn a blind eye to this discussion. And take care that you go to the Great Hall and eat. Classes start today and you will need your strength. I will join you there shortly."
Draco nodded and met Snape's eyes to show understanding. Then he quietly exited and headed towards the Great Hall. This proved to be very entertaining. Snape, known to favor only Slytherin students and ignore the rest, was protecting a fifth-year Ravenclaw. A female no less. Not that Snape was sexist; it just seemed like he would not take a fancy towards a fifteen-year-old girl that was not a part of Slytherin, even if she was the second brightest witch at Hogwarts. He certainly didn't care for Granger.
This left Draco a lot to think about, and with class schedules being delivered this morning, he wondered what he should do first. Well, first was easy- eating breakfast. Once he got his classes and asked an impressionable fifth year Slytherin girl for her class schedule, he could see if he could coordinate his pathways with- what was her name again? - Hattori. His stomach growled to share its opinion and got a glare from Draco. He had not been able to eat dinner last night, and Crabbe and Goyle had eaten the food Hattori had brought. He sighed- life was so hard.
-
Raiko met Ginny and Luna (who was reading a Quibbler from last October) behind the hourglasses that stood in front of the Great Hall. Today she had pulled her hair back into a high ponytail and her glasses hung from a silver chain around her neck. "I saw him," Raiko told the girls. "He's the seeker for Slytherin."
"You mean Draco Malfoy? How can that be?" asked Ginny. Then she started whispering angrily. "If you are certain that it's him then I say abort the mission. Draco is the meanest git I've ever met, and Harry and the rest of the school, besides Slytherin of course, will tell you the same. If you play with that green fire you are going to get a very nasty burn."
Luna, always one to put at least her penny's worth into a conversation, said, "And male seekers that wear green are known to be illegal breeders who synthesize animal body parts to themselves. My father wrote it, so you know it's true."
Raiko and Ginny gave each other a 'Yeah, well, she's great at a lot of other things, so we'll just ignore it,' look.
"I still think I need to help him. You know what they say, 'Be kind to unkind people, they probably need it the most.' At least, Ashleigh Brilliant said that."
"Who?" asked Ginny.
"Never mind. Point is, I am going to help him."
Ginny threw her hands up in the air and went out from behind the hourglasses. She walked towards the Great Hall, but then spun around quickly. Raiko barely stopped with enough time to catch her balance and not fall on Ginny, who was waving an index finger under Raiko's nose. "Fine, Raiko. You do this your way, but let me tell you. If Draco Malfoy or either of his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, or any Slytherin student hurt you in any way, form, or fashion, I swear by Merlin that they will be sent to the Hospital wing faster than they can say Excalibur."
Raiko gave a sad little smile at her friend before she threw her arms around Ginny and Luna (who had followed Raiko after she left) and told them, "Our classes together may be few and far between, so I want one last hug until we get to do so again." They stayed in each other's warm embrace until they heard someone cough loudly behind them. The girls looked up to see air, and then look down to see a short first year glaring at them. The boy was obviously of African descent, and had the Hufflepuff crest on his robe.
"Could you move so that some of us can get breakfast?"
Luna said, "First you must give us the password!"
Ginny bent down and whispered, "Just say your name."
The boy looked at all three girls and then mumbled, "Alan Danes."
The three girls bowed to the boy and then went into the Great Hall. As Raiko heard the boy walk to his chair, she couldn't help but feel that he would be a perfect example of Hufflepuff traits. If another triwizard tournament were held, he would be a sure choice for a Hogwarts representative.
As Raiko sat down at the Ravenclaw table, she looked towards the Slytherin table. She quickly found Draco facing towards her but talking to Blaise Zabini. She stared at him for a while wondering how he could have escaped her grasp. She was sure that she had seen him many times, and that she had overheard many of his conversations, but still she could not remember anything about him other than his being a Slytherin. The kame were really not helping her with this one. Before she had always known what to do when it came to fixing other people's lives, sometimes it seemed like she overheard all the right conversations, the ones that would be most helpful to getting a person back on their feet. Draco didn't even seem like he needed any help, and the way he had brushed her off like that last night made her hair bristle. It did not seem like Ginny's words had a lack of truth- he definitely seemed like snot nosed little punk. Maybe that was how she was supposed to help him, maybe she was just supposed to soften his edges a little and help him to become a better person. It looked like she had her work cut out for her.
-
Draco tried to converse with Blaise Zabini while still keeping an eye on Hattori. This was harder than he would have thought. Blaise talked about the new Quidditch season that would be starting, and since Draco knew he would be seeker again, and since it would not start for quite a few weeks, six or seven, he could care less. Quidditch was something you worried about right before-hand to create a strategy or while you were actually playing. Stressing out or celebrating its coming was pointless. The only thing Draco looked forward to was creaming Potter and celebrating his defeat afterwards.
And Raiko was a lot more interesting to watch. He watched as she stared at him (he had no doubt that it was him she stared at) and seemed oblivious to the world. The head boy, Robert Thayer, also from Ravenclaw, handed Raiko her class schedule. At first, she didn't take it, so absorbed in Draco as she was, but when Robert put a hand on her shoulder she jumped a little bit, smiled at him, and took the paper he was handing her. Draco smiled. She was more blonde than he was (a/n: ahhh don't hit me- I'm blonde too, I just love blonde jokes).
Draco felt someone shake his shoulder and looked at Blaise who was grinning at him. "You ogling some poor girl, Draco? Or are you just hard of hearing?"
"I'm not hard of hearing, I'm just ignoring you," Draco taunted.
Blaise's face darkened and a scowl formed. He stood up, "What did you say?"
Draco smiled; Zabini was just too easy. "Are you hard of hearing now, too?"
"Remember, Malfoy, I know where you sleep," Blaise threatened.
"As do I, but I really don't want to meet you there." The Slytherin's laughed and Blaise's eyes gained a dangerous glint.
"Now, you don't mean that, Malfoy. Why, this summer you invited me to your mansion, didn't you? What other reason would you have to invite me than to show me your other bed," sneered Blaise.
Now that ticked Malfoy off, but he didn't show that to Zabini. He remembered a few things his father told him about getting your way:
Don't ever get mad.
Make your opponent mad.
Indifference works as well as a retort if the situation gets heated.
If someone annoys you, you can either a) kill them- if they are not Death Eaters, or
b) hurt them badly- if they are Death Eaters.
Draco did not really use the fourth rule as a way of life at Hogwarts, for that would mean he would be expelled, his wand would be broken, and his father would kill him. However, the first three rules worked well, and had resulted in quite a few winning scuffles with fellow students. Those students were now his followers for everything because like his father had taught him:
Although you don't need to be feared to be respected, if you are feared, people will go to more drastic measures for you.
And Draco planned on using the fifth rule in his hunt for Raiko. It paid sometimes to have a Death Eater father…
And other times, it didn't
At other times, it was
horrible,
abhorrent,
appalling,
horrendous,
terrifying,
loathsome
reprehensible,
terrible,
daunting,
intimidating
petrifying,
unnerving.
At other times, he wanted to give up the entire Malfoy fortune and renounce Lucius Malfoy as his father.
In the dark of night, Malfoy used an old and forgotten invisibility cloak (he had found it in one of the unused rooms in the Malfoy mansion) to sneak up to the higher levels to a window. On the fifth floor there was a window that looked out towards the lake. The wall there was so thick, that a window seat had been made. It was the perfect place to look out at the world and sigh at a beauty that could be destroyed should Voldemort win.
Potter was too weak to beat Voldemort on his own.
Potter's friends would not beat Voldemort.
Dumbledore would not beat Voldemort.
Voldemort would win. His Death eaters would terrorize the surviving wizards and muggles. The human race would be left to a party of males who agreed to join Voldemort. The only way to continue life would be the whores and raped who were unlucky enough to carry a Death Eater's seed.
But he was digressing. He needed to pay attention to the present. Which happened to be the, well, he wasn't sure if it was good or bad that it happened, thing to do.
Zabini was snickering and saying to the other students, "See? He can't even look at me without slipping off to dream world."
Draco looked at Zabini rather than past him and told the idiot, "You know, it is really quite impossible for me to be gay. For, you see, I'm a lesbian through and through." This remark was met with many stares and open mouths. He grabbed Pansy, who he had felt take a step back from him when she heard the word lesbian (he wasn't quite sure when she or the others around them appeared), by her waist, took her face in his other arm, and kissed her fiercely on the lips. She went slack for a moment and then put a battering ram of passion into it. When they finally broke, both were flushed and panting. "I really… do love… women."
Blaise sat down and started buttering a piece of toast. "I guess that makes two of us, Malfoy."
Pansy stole another kiss before sauntering off to her seat with as much sway in her hips as she could muster. Draco unsealed his class schedule and looked it over. "Oi, is there a fifth-year's schedule I could look at?" Those of both genders shoved a dozen schedules in his face. He finally chose one from a brunette, who he gave a wink to. The girl didn't blush, so he knew she was not shy around males. That was all the better if Malfoy was any judge. He opened the schedule and compared the two class schedules for the month of September.
Today, there was no way he could schedule an accidental meeting, unless he saw her at the library. The same rang true for the rest of the month- her schedule, or at least what he could tell from the Slytherin girl's, ran no where near his. The only way he would find her is if he ventured into the library. That wasn't where he wanted to meet. He couldn't plan it at all. There was no way he could decide the place she would sit, and as the library took space in five stories, third through eighth, it could be impossible to find her. The only one who knew their way around the library was the librarian, Filch, and Mrs. Norris. Even if he was on the right floor, there was no telling if he could find the table she was at.
Ah well. It seemed as if he would have to enlist some help after all…
Or maybe… The girl had come to him last night. Maybe if he waited she would come to him again. He would make sure to look for her first, but there was a definite possibility that she would find him. And then he could get the information he needed to make her life miserable; so miserable would Hogwarts be for her, and so horrendous her scares, she would never dare to tell anyone. Also, as long as her physical bruises were where her robe covered, there would never be any evidence. Girls who were air headed had plenty of excuses for getting hurt, anyway.
Well, his first class was Defense Against the Dark Arts. If he was going to get there on time with his stuff, he had better eat quickly. Draco rushed through the rest of the day; it seemed to go much more quickly than he could keep up with. After DADA was lunch, then Potions, then Ancient Runes, and after that he was free for dinner and study time. He had review papers in all of his classes and an extra lecture essay on monkshood for Potions all of it was due Thursday (today was Monday). Since the next two years were NEWT prepatorial classes, Snape had decided to crack down on all classes. Funnily enough, he was worst on Slytherin; he pushed them to put in the most effort and to be the best. He had not even been given enough time to scare Professor Apperson.
The week flew by even more quickly than the first day, and as Draco's head hit the pillow each night, he fell into an exhausted sleep. It did not seem like he would be able to find Hattori for a while.
-
Harry's week flew by in much the same state as Draco's. The only difference being that Harry had found time during the lunch break on Wednesday to say hello to Hagrid and have tea with him (the golden trio ate lunch beforehand to avoid having to eating Hagrid's infamous rock candy). Ron and Harry also got a much larger percent of their homework done because of pressure from Hermione and had the time to play a relaxing, and very brutal, game of Wizard's chess. Pretty soon Harry would be a better strategist than Ron. Most of his sulking summer was spent reading chess strategy books once his summer homework had been finished. Hermione was Hermione and she always had her papers done by the day after they were given.
Ginny and Luna, only having to deal with OWL's (although their lessons were about as tiring as the preNEWT classes) fell asleep with a little more vigor and less stress about unwritten papers.
Raiko was like Hermione during her OWL days. Her papers were done quickly and with at least five centimeters of extra parchment than was required. She was never stressed about her work and relatively happy. Once her work was done, she wandered the halls of Hogwarts until nine watching random people and then went to the northern wing of the fifth floor. There she would go to the portrait of a kappa and a nymph under water some where. The nymph looked at her always to ask for the password, and the kappa hid behind a rock a distance away. Then Raiko would give the password to the nymph and step inside the door to the Ravenclaw common room. The common room had its own library, but no matter how many people were there, including Luna, it always felt empty. Even the cacophonous din after Quidditch matches and large exams, (it had not started this year, but it would soon enough) did not seem to fill the silence.
The one thing Raiko looked forward to now was seeing Draco Malfoy and studying him. At her old school her friends would have called him preppy (but that definition has many ways to describe a person, and it varies from school to school a little, to fit the people the title is given to) and they would have shunned him. He was popular with the ladies, the Slytherin girls who were not fit to be called ladies, and handsome and debonair. She wondered what could be wrong with him. It seemed like being preppy was not something that was in dire need of a fix, and the boy in her dream needed help soon. Could it be that Draco was not the boy she was looking for? Was there a double of him in this school or in the muggle world? It did not seem like the kame to give her a mission that was futile or a person who was not around, but this case was different. This was the first time she had ever not known the person who she was supposed to help.
The third week of school started tomorrow. It was Sunday night. Raiko headed towards the library and went directly to the sixth floor. There was a table she had found in her third year that had a great view of the lake, yet it was in such a spot that no one else ever used it, or at least she had never seen any one else at her table. Her homework was finished for tomorrow morning and Tuesday classes, but she wanted to go over them one last time. She turned the corner around a bookshelf that would lead her to her table and almost- it was very close but she managed to suppress it- screamed. Sitting in her chair, running his hands through his blonde hair and mumbling incoherently, was Malfoy. She looked up at the ceiling and glared at whatever kame were watching. At least she knew Draco was the one.
She looked at her table wistfully. Half of her mind told her to sit with him and talk to him. The other half told her to leave and come back later. She stamped her foot; this was not fair play. This boy was really important to the world. Raiko did not believe in fate. She knew it was just an excuse for whenever people did not feel like doing something or failed at the one thing they wanted to do. 'It was fate' or 'This is how it's supposed to be' was what they said. Well she was not going to let it intimidate her. She steeled herself for something, what she did not know, and walked towards the table. She asked Malfoy, "Is this seat taken?"
He grunted. She sat down.
Raiko started to set up her workspace. It was hard making enough room for Malfoy when she was not used to having him there. She always had a certain way to organize her space, and now she had to change it. For a while it was quiet except for the clock tower chiming every fifteen minutes. After several chimes- she had definitely missed a few- Draco spoke.
"Do you know what happens when you add an infusion of wolfsbane with a veritas serum?"
Raiko was stunned for a moment that he had spoken, but then her mind started shuffling through the cabinets of her mind. Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane… There was nothing she could think of, except that it was relatively poisonous.
"Er… can I see your book?" she asked.
Malfoy turned his book, NEWT Level Potion Making and Beyond: a Guide to all your Potion Needs and Questions, so she could see it. "Sure, but I don't think you'll find anything useful."
Raiko first looked up 'Wolfsbane, infusion of' (page 884) and then did a cross-reference with 'serum, veritas' (pages 90,122, 744, 916). Although the index said they did not cross, she still went to every page and scanned it. Nothing. She sighed and picked her backpack off the floor. She looked around for any sign of Mrs. Norris, Filch, or any other teacher and then put her bag on her lap. She opened it up and took out a rectangular box. It's length and width were the same as a standard piece of printing paper and it was around four centimeters tall. She opened it up and took out a shape recognizable to all teenagers in first world countries (and maybe a few second world, too), a laptop computer. She flipped up the screen and pressed the on button at the top of the keyboard. A screen popped up with a space to put a log-on name and a password. She typed in her sign-on name, Hattori's Dream, and then her password (a/n: sorry, even I don't know that).
A new screen came up that said:
Welcome, Hattori's DreamWhat would you like us to help you with today?
(please put your question in the space provided)
Raiko typed the question while Draco looked at what she was doing in wonder and awe. His father being a muggle hater, Draco had never seen their technology. He had no doubt that, while a muggle had made this, it knew a lot about magic. This would be great black mail in the future, his brain noted. A few seconds later, Raiko growled at the rectangle thingy.
"Blasted piece of metal." Practically every book in the Wizard kingdom was contained in this laptop, yet it still could not find the answer to a single question. She did something that was a last resort option- she sent an e-mail to the one wizard she knew could help- SandWitch.
A few minutes later a copy of meticulous Potions notes flew onto the screen.
Wolfsbane, when combined with the Veritas serum can do quite a few things.
If the infusion is made on a normal day (not important to the lunar calendar) then the resulting potion is an anti-veritas serum, which makes the speaker only speak lies.
If the infusion is made by wolfsbane collected on the full moon, then the resulting potion is a veritas serum that will leave the wolfsbane in the body until the victim dies. If a normal antidote is given, the wolfsbane will not leave the body and will immediately kill the victim. The victim can either ingest the antidote to die or speak in complete truths the entire rest of his life.
The notes went on for quite a long time. Needless to say (a/n: but I'll say it anyway), Draco finished his essay and got the second best score in the class (next to Hermione). When Draco was finished writing down what he needed, the bell chimed a quarter till nine. Raiko got up and started putting her things into her bag. Last to go in was her laptop. Draco got up and crammed his papers into a portfolio and his quills in a cylindrical container. He started towards the door and counted three, two, one…
"Wait a sec, Draco-kun," called Raiko. She caught up to him and looked into his eyes. A flash of recognition and confusion swept through them before going back to the normal dullness they seemed to have. (This caused Draco wonder what she had seen and why he seemed to know her normal tendencies.)
"Who told you that you could call me by my first name? And what does 'kun' mean, Hattori?"
She flashed a coy smile at him and told him, "Funny how we know each other's names without ever introducing ourselves. Do you have a problem with me calling you by your first name, Draco-kun?"
"You are only allowed to use my first name if I can call you Raiko." He smirked at her.
"You could have done that from the start, but you are too polite, right?"
This was one strange girl. She started walking again and then looked back at him still standing there, watching her. She shook her head like he was being immature and then started through the maze of bookcases. As she left he distinctly heard, "And I don't want to find you in my chair again."
Draco stood there for a while just thinking and calculating. Point one- she is smart. Point two- she doesn't beg him to talk to her. Point three- she is pretty without being stuck up about it. Point four- she did not immediately throw up defenses around herself. He started walking towards Slytherin. Most girls, when they met him, either flirted by using their 'goodies' or started insulting Crabbe, Goyle, and he. Gryffindors especially gave him a cold shoulder. Maybe this girl would be a- dare he say it, it could become jinxed- "Friend," he whispered.
It seemed that Draco had something to look forward to after class now after all. As he slipped into his bed and stared at the ceiling he couldn't help feeling… happy. If Raiko was serious about that little table being hers, he was certain to find her there.
This year was about to get a whole lot better.
Author's note: Woohoo! Chapter four is finally done. It took a lot of work because I wanted to make it longer than the others. I don't think I am going to keep my goal for length (I was aiming for 50,000 by the end of year six), but that doesn't seem possible right now. I would have to be at around 20,000 if I was going to keep pace. Please tell me if I am using a word wrong- sometimes I think it fits when it is absolutely left field. If you know any good Quidditch chapter writers I would love to know. The season will be staring soon, Chapter 6 approximately, and I have no idea how to write it. I also would like some help with a battle scene I have at the end of the year. Read and Review and e-mail me if you want me to read your stuff. You can see the address at my profile.
Ja ne.