Disclaimer: I own the plot, Raiko, and the plot.
Did I mention I own the plot?
Please note: "" means speaking out loud; '' means in their head
And now with out further ado, I am proud to present the seventh chapter of bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Thank you.
Raiko snuggled closer to Draco as he carried her up to the best room in the castle. He did not want to take her to Madame Pomfrey, as she would probably keep Raiko in bed during the Hogsmeade trip.
Instead, Draco took Raiko to the Room of Requirement. He walked up and down the stairs thinking, I need a place that would make a perfect bedroom.
After six tries, a door finally appeared. As Draco entered the room, he could not suppress a smirk. Some how the room knew he needed it for a female. Lace curtains covered the windows. In one corner there was an elegantly crafted screen with pink petals flowing down to the bottom left hand corner. The bed was a four-poster with lace curtains rather than the thick velvet ones that adorned House dormitories. Draco pulled back the curtains and sat on the bed, which, with further testing, turned out to be a high quality feather bed, full size. He pulled back the down comforter to place Raiko in. The sheets were a pastel blue of very high thread count and seemed to be made of silk. Draco was mildly impressed.
Now came the hard part. Getting Raiko out of her clothes. The doing was simple, but the battling his conscience was not. Half of him wanted to do it by hand so he could see what she looked like underneath her robe, but the other knew the spell that would transform her damp clothes into dry pajamas.
This was the girl in a canoe question. 'Stay in and kiss' or 'Get out and swim.'
Study the female anatomy (hands on style), or retain a friend and tutor.
Draco chose the latter decision and used a nonverbal spell to change Raiko's wet dress (which nicely showed off her curves) into a pair of extremely modest cotton pajamas. Then he set her down onto the bed and pulled the covers up over her. He watched as she squirmed deeper under the covers and pulled them up over her mouth. He brushed a stray hair out of her face and was startled when she immediately caught his hand.
"Kame, I wish I knew how to help Draco."
Draco bent his ear closer to hear anything more she might say.
"He has such a great smile. If he smiled like that more often, he'd have to beat the girl's off with a stick."
Draco gave a soft chuckle and pulled the curtains closed before he headed out the door. Right before he was about to leave he heard something that made mixed emotions come together in turmoil, pulling at his heart. "I'd make sure he did, too." As he closed the door, he headed towards another rarely used room, Myrtle's bathroom.
Raiko woke up and blinked. It was much lighter than it normally was in the Ravenclaw girl's dorm. She sat up and looked around.
This was definitely not Ravenclaw.
She got out of bed and looked around the room. Besides the bed, there was also s painted screen (behind which was a boudoir filled with robes and other clothing necessities) and through a side door was a bathroom. The bathroom was as amazing as the prefect's bathroom, which Ginny had told her the password to for one go. The bath was the size of a pond, and shaped like one too. It was an irregular curved shape that started out shallow but was about one hundred and fifty centimeters deep at the center. She took a short bath using the excessive amount of shampoos, conditioners, soaps, oils, and various cleaning tools contained in a cabinet next to the pond. She doused herself with cold water with the shower head so she could better help to wake herself up. Then she wrapped herself in one of the large terry cloth towels, and went behind the screen to get dressed.
When the rest of her daily morning duties were done, Raiko left the wonderful bedroom and rushed to Ravenclaw so she could explain her absence from Ravenclaw last night. She cursed Draco just a little bit for not just taking her to Madame Pomfrey and making the explanation a whole lot easier.
Apparently, Draco had already explained the reason for her not being in Ravenclaw last night, as Flitwick told her in his high wheezy voice. Raiko immediately felt bad for being mad at Draco who had thought ahead. She headed down to breakfast (with her money in her pockets) feeling ashamed of herself. At least she knew how to say an apology without actually saying one, especially at Hogsmeade.
At breakfast, Luna ran through all of the possible scenarios that accounted for Raiko's absence last night. For some reason, none of her scenarios were the actual reason she had been out, though Raiko had explained from their first year and first storm what she did. Was this the first time she had not been able to get home to bed? It had been a very powerful storm…
She looked towards Draco who mouthed, 'Three Broomsticks, eleven-fifteen.' She nodded and mouthed, 'Got it.' She even went so far as to stick her thumb up.
That was when Luna asked, "Are you signaling a garblehark? I don't think they live in England."
Raiko just laughed and continued to eat. But when Luna asked her if she wanted to walk with her to Hogsmeade, she had to think fast. "Uh, I guess I can walk with you, but I have to meet the next person I'm helping at the Three Broomsticks at 11:15."
"Who is it? Can I meet them?"
"Luna-chan, he wants to remain anonymous, and I will continue to keep him so."
Luna smirked, or at least she tried to. It did not work very well. "An anonymous boy at the Three Broomsticks? You sure he isn't asking you on a date?"
Raiko blushed. "Of course not," she stuttered. "This is very serious. I am trying to help him and nothing more."
"Your face says differently. It says you like him a-lot."
Raiko denied it. "No way. Just meet me in the entrance hall at 10:55 okay?"
Luna nodded. "Yeah. Ginny is going with Dean though so she won't be with us."
Raiko looked across to the Gryffindor table. Ginny was sitting next to Dean. "I wish she would find a better way to forget about Potter, or get his attention, whatever she is doing."
"Maybe the green monster Jealousy will go to Harry."
Raiko sighed and murmured, "For Ginny's sanity, I sure hope so."
Luna and Raiko walked the long windy, winding road to Hogsmeade after being checked by Filch to make sure they did not have any Dark materials on them. While Raiko agreed with Ron, she was very glad that it had been he who voiced the opinion that it really didn't matter whether or not students took stuff out, but whether it came back in to Hogwarts. Halfway there, Neville joined them and listened to Luna talk animatedly about more Quibbler nonsense about plants. Neville always asked about the herbology section because, he thought, that Luna knew more about what they wrote about in the Quibbler than the authors of the articles. He even debated with her about what she said.
Raiko was able to tune out their conversation, and the fact that they blatantly ignored her, and looked down at her watch. The only reason it ran was because it was not digital; it all had to do with gears and the works inside the clock. The hands pointed to eleven and one, making it 11:05. "Guys?" she said. They looked at her, Neville for the first time. "I'm going to go on ahead. I'm running a little late." They nodded and she started to jog the rest of the way to Hogsmeade.
She burst into the Three Broomsticks slightly dampened by a light rain burst that lasted only a minute. She looked around for Draco and saw him leaning on the door frame.
"Hey," he said.
"Hi. So… Do you want to sit down or…?
He stood up and looked at her. "First I want to see your place."
She smiled. Just looking at him made her feel lest tired, and her secret base was like natural caffeine. "Okay. C'mon then." She pulled him out of the bar/restaurant/hang out by the sleeve of his robe. They walked through the main street of Hogsmeade and then down the little path that merged into the main road after the Hog's Head bar. They walked for about 2 kilometers and then went off the beaten trail. Although there were no landmarks, Raiko was as sure of the path as she was her un-choreographed dance during a storm. The only landmark was the two massive Durmast Oaks that marked the entrance, as Raiko was quick to narrate.
Draco looked through the space between the two trees and saw nothing but dark forest. He looked at Raiko who was holding out her hand. "We need to be in contact as we pass through the barrier. Otherwise I don't know where you will end up."
He took her hand and she stepped through, pulling him with her.
What he saw made him gasp. Giant ancient oaks and yew surrounded a small meadow, through which flowed a small stream (which was barely a trickle). Raiko pulled him to two large rocks sitting near the stream and sat him down on one. While everything else seemed to be overcast, this meadow was filled with sunlight. Above the tree line, Draco could see the clouds fighting to get through into the unbroken peace of Raiko's secret place. As he looked at it now, he felt grateful that she had thought to show him this amazing beauty that was unknown to anyone else. He looked at Raiko to thank her and was surprised to see her looking at him, smiling up at him from her rock.
"You don't need to thank me. Your face is enough."
He shook his head. "This place is amazing. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life. Everything feels so…" he searched for the right word. "Alive."
She looked out at their surroundings. "Yes. I've always felt this natural stimulant when I come here. It's like I'm on cloud nine when I'm here alone-"
Draco's smile fell and he looked up to the sky and lay on the rock.
"- But I never knew it would be so much better with someone else."
Draco looked back at her. His mind immediately said, 'She is so amazing. She always says exactly what I want her to.'
She looked at him and smiled. 'Hey Draco? Just to let you know I think I'm crushing on you and I feel like I'm flying when I'm with you. Last night I even dreamed of kissing you.' "Let's go get some butterbeer, I'm freezing."
"Women, always getting cold." He stood up and offered a gloved hand to get up. "And don't worry, I'll pay."
"But-" she started.
"No buts. I have not been so corrupted by society that I would think of going Dutch. Besides, I'm a Malfoy, and I can buy as much butterbeer as I please."
She growled, and he laughed. She smiled, and he flew. Raiko led him to the exit and held his hand again, pulling him through the trees. They walked the rest of the way to Hogsmeade with bland countenance while their insides were simply glowing. They went into the Three Broomsticks. Raiko was silent as Draco ordered two buterbeers and two sandwiches. Once Madame Rosmerta was gone, he asked, "Where do you live?"
Raiko answered, "Darien, Connecticut."
"You're from America?"
She nodded. "I got a lot of offers for schools there too. I think there are about three or four wizarding schools there. They make a diamond if you look at where they are placed on a map, although it is impossible to pinpoint their exact location and even harder to make a mark where it is. The most prestigious is the Mithrasian Academy, and it takes a lot to get accepted into that school. I wanted to go to Hogwarts though."
He frowned. "Why would you want to go to a foreign school that has prestige only in Europe when you could go to a prestigious school in your home country?"
She gave a short laugh but replied, "Because I felt that things were going to converge here. Most haven't realized that more storms have been brewing around Hogwarts lately. Plus, no matter how little prestige the school has in Europe, almost anything in Europe is give a boost of renown just for being in Europe. While I could have gained much influence in the American Ministry for being in Mithrasian, I need to have influence here more." Draco raised an eyebrow and she explained further. "Whatever happens with Potter and Voldemort, I want to have a part in it. And besides," she leant back in her chair and sipped from her forlorn butterbeer which had arrive a minute ago. She ignored Draco's wince at Voldemort's name. "Since my father is a famous auror, I have enough influence in the Ministry to get by."
Raiko knew it was a gamble, to give Draco this information. Since she was still unsure on where his loyalties lay, she had to tread carefully. This information could easily reach his father whether or not Lucius Malfoy was in Azkaban. Hopefully Draco knew occlumency…
"Really?" Draco sounded genuinely interested, but for Voldemort or conversation, she could not tell. "I've never heard of Hattori."
"Yeah. There was a big episode before Voldemort failed in killing Potter in America. A small terrorist group that probably got ideas from him went around America. My father was one of the aurors who stopped them."
Draco nodded and drowned the rest of his butterbeer. He stared into his empty cup swilling the small amount of foam that was still there. "What are you going to be when you leave Hogwarts?"
Raiko thought for a while. Then she said, "Well, I want to take a muggle job. I think I want to be a psychiatrist, but that means a lot of work for my parents and me. I'll have to forge grades and pass a college entrance exam so I can go to a college and study psychology. That means that I will have to brush up on American Muggle History. Other than that, I want to own a boarding house for wizard kids just leaving Hogwarts. However, this means if I am going to be a psychiatrist, I'll have to marry a wizard." There was silence for a moment. "What about you?"
Draco looked up from his glass and looked up into Raiko's inquiring face. He shrugged. "I don't know. Once You-know-who is gone I'll probably want to travel around the world. I want to be politically active and host lots of parties." He laughed. "Maybe once Scrimgeour's gone I could be Minister."
"That's great!" Draco was startled at Raiko's enthusiasm. "You would be a great Minister. You're one of the top ten students in school, you have the funding to advertise and travel to talk to people, and you always know everything that is going on in the wizarding world. You could make a big difference, seeing as you wouldn't be one of those Ministers who just waits for people to tell him things from behind a desk." She had a bright smile on her face showing Draco how much conviction actually lay behind that statement.
Draco scoffed. "I can't be minister though. For one thing, my father is a death eater, so no one will ever fully trust me. They learned from my dad that while death eaters say they've repented, they are still on the side of evil. Second of all, the people's first choice for minister after You-know-who's fall and Scrimgeour's loss is one of the Golden Trio, most likely Potty- Potter," he corrected himself at Raiko's glare. "Or Weasley. Granger is a woman so she probably won't get the vote."
'Third of all, Voldemort might not be defeated. Fourth reason is, I'm trying to kill Dumbledore.'
"Oh," she said. The conversation fell to the ground. "Well…" Raiko watched as Katie Bell walked out the door with a small package. For some reason, Raiko turned around and watched through the window as the Golden Trio followed shortly behind. 'Guess they're done for the day.' She turned to Draco who was smiling slightly. "Why are you so happy?"
"Want to go to Zonko's?" he asked.
"Sure." She got up and Draco deposited some coins on the table before they went. "So what are you smiling about?"
"I'm thinking of all the things I can do to Crabbe and Goyle depending on what gets into their food."
Raiko chuckled. "As long as you don't use it on me, I'll be fine." They started walking towards Zonko's.
Raiko was happy that Draco had come out of where ever he had gone in the Three Broomsticks. She watched his face as she shivered into her winter cloak. As they walked, someone stuck a foot out, causing Raiko to trip into a large half-frozen puddle. Unfortunately, Draco was to slow to catch her.
"Raiko? Are you okay?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I need to go to the school. I don't want to catch a cold."
Draco shrugged off his coat and put it around Raiko's shoulders. "Don't worry. You'll be fine." He looked to see who had tripped her, but whoever had done it had already disappeared into the crowd. They walked through the slightly busy streets towards Hogwarts.
While they were walking, it started to rain slush. Raiko moved closer to Draco both for warmth and to keep him warm. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and they continued with covered hands out in front of them to see better. In the distance, they saw something float into the air. The thing quickly collapsed on top of a few people. Draco and Raiko continued to walk slowly. When they got to where the thing had collapsed, Raiko gasped.
It was Katie Bell. She was on the cold ground shaking in a wild, psychotic way. Hermione, Ron, and a girl named Leanne Portman were holding down her flailing limbs. In the distance, Raiko saw Harry running towards the castle. She looked up at Draco and her eyes met a stony countenance. "What happened?" he asked.
"Katie and I… she had a package for someone and I told her not to deliver it. I tried to take it from her and… When the paper ripped she floated up into the air. We think she touched the necklace," sobbed Leanne.
Raiko looked at where Leanne pointed and knelt to get a better look. She got out her wand and said, "Acclaro." The necklace glowed faintly, but then faded back to its normal green sheen. "Declaro abstrudo!" The necklace glowed again and then, above it, a pearly white cloud formed a chimera and a soldier. The soldier engaged in battle with the chimera. The chimera had the first strike, wounding the soldier badly, and then the chimera went in for the kill and succeeded.
Raiko sighed and every one looked at her. By now, a crowd had formed and most had seen what the chimera had done. "As long as she only touched it for a sec, she will probably be okay. Otherwise, she could die."
Hagrid came running up from the castle and scooped Katie up. He started bounding back towards the castle as Harry came back. Raiko merged back into the crowd as Harry walked up to the necklace. She pulled Draco's robe and they started walking towards the castle.
They walked in silence for a while, but when they got to Hogwarts, Raiko spun to face Draco. "I'm scared," she cried. "I don't want to see people die. Who gets a kick out of destroying families by killing their loved ones? Why do people feel the need to use fear to employ respect? Why do we feel the need to kill our brethren?" She felt warm tears streak down her face. "I want to live without fear of suddenly dying. I'm scared."
Draco wrapped his arm around her shoulder and said, "Do that, and Voldemort's power goes away. Live life to the fullest and like you control when everything ends."
Raiko sniffed and started walking into the school. After being searched by Filch, she gave Draco back his jacket. "I'm going up to the Ravenclaw and then to the Hospital wing. I'll meet you in the library after dinner."
He nodded. "But if you feel sick, stay in bed. I don't want your germs."
Raiko laughed lightly. "Will do." She saluted and then ran up the stairs to her House.
She went up the stairs to the first floor and went past McGonagall's office. She heard the Professor saying "…but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people-" (page 255)
She heard Ron mutter something and Harry rebuke. She stomped into the room.
"Miss Hattori? If you don't mind I am explaining-" started McGonagall.
Raiko stood behind Potter, Weasley, and Granger's chairs and told them, "Draco did not do it."
"Yes as I was-"
Raiko glared at Harry. I was with Draco all day at Hogsmeade so he could not have done it. I saw Katie leave the Three Broomsticks myself with Draco sitting next to me."
The room was silent. Both Ron and Hermione were looking at their feet and Harry was looking confused angry and annoyed all at the same time. Raiko blurted, "That is all," before she left to change into some warm clothes and get a pepper up potion from Madame Pomfrey.
Draco walked quickly down the stairs to the dungeons. He muttered the new password and watched as the concealed stone door slid open. He entered and continued into the common room as the door swung shut behind him. He looked around for Pansy and was having mixed emotions of his discovery. He came up behind her and whispered in her ear, "Could you rally up all the girls who went to Hogsmeade today and tell them I want to talk to them?"
She nodded quickly and he patted her head. "Good girl."
(Y)
To be continued…
The next chapter in Where Lightning and Shadow Collide is going to be posted by August 15. After that I have no idea when things will be posted because I am starting high school and I will probably have a tonne of homework. I am taking Biology, Advanced Algebra 2, Advanced English, and probably Japanese (I haven't gotten my schedule yet). This means you can expect a new chapter about every month. If you want to help, please send me things you think would be funny in the story. I already have a plan, but if you want to have something included I would love to try and fit it in.
Hello all. This took much longer than I thought it would because I was working on another story. Yall will not be able to read it yet as I plan to have it finished before I actually do anything with it. I also did that with Rainy Day Lovers. There is one part where I quote McGonagall from the book. I have the page there and it is all JK Rowling's work so no suing. Personally I find it hard to believe that people are taking magnifying glasses as they read all of the chapters and trying to find plagiarism but shrugs that is just me. (By the way apparently anything I write with two asterisks around it turns bold so that is why shrugs, which is what I am doing not saying, is in bold). Also I tried to put a site in the Author's note in my last chapter but it didn't show. The site was You can use this to look up certain Japanese words I use and also the Latin spells. For those of you who know Latin and groan when you see JK's spells, (I don't know Latin and they make me groan so I can only imagine) I hope you can say, 'hey she used the wrong part of speech for this spell.'
Anyway, I want to know what you think about my scene from Chapter 12: Silver and Opals from Vol. 6 Harry potter and the Half Blood Prince. Also, what do you think about the revealing spell charm?
Thank you for reviewing, o-aki-hoshi and kid from bass lake.
To kid I say: please give me your email address so we can talk.
Chapter eight is coming. What does Draco want to say to all of the girls? Will Raiko catch a cold? What is happening at Hogwarts? How will the relationship between Raiko and Draco grow? The answers to these questions and more will be answered in WlaSC: Costume of the Storm.
As always, review.