Generations: Tales of the Last Stand
Part IV
"You," Leshia finally managed, as she looked into her grandfather's cold eyes. His face had aged since the picture she once possessed had been taken, but the sharpness of his features and that long silvery hair were unmistakable: Lucius Malfoy was standing before her.
"I see you know who I am," the deep posh voice came once more and Leshia nodded quickly in response, her expression darkening and turning hostile. By now the Allseyer brothers had reached the end of the alleyway and were glaring furiously at Leshia and this man they didn't know.
"Stand aside old man," Damian Allseyer ordered, and for a moment Leshia was loath to admit that she was impressed by the level of boldness her nemesis was showing; had their places been switched, she would not walk up to a hooded man down the end of Knockturn Alley and demand he step aside from a child he clearly knew.
"Excuse me?" Lucius demanded sounding quite surprised.
"I've got unfinished business with that girl," Allseyer snapped back, fixing Leshia a furious glare.
"Well it's going to have to wait," Lucius retorted sharply.
"No," Allseyer corrected, turning to look back at the man angrily. "It's not. Do you have any idea who I am?" Clearly by the way the boy was talking, it would seem his family name carried a lot of respect down these parts, if this was how he was accustomed to speaking to the riffraff down Knockturn Alley.
"No," Lucius managed icily and he was so angry he let go of Leshia's shoulder, enabling her to skitter away a little from his formidable figure. "Do you have any idea who I am?"
"Some dried up wannabe," Allseyer retorted angrily, and at his side his brother started to snigger. Feeling entirely furious now Lucius reached down to the cuff of his sleeve and ripped it back, revealing a faded tattoo on a gaunt-looking arm. The boys stared at it in surprise, looking up at the real live Death Eater with slight fear now. The last of Voldemort's true followers had been extinguished long before they could remember, and the only Dark Mark Damian (his brother Deacon could not even attest to this) had seen was on the arm of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor: Draco Malfoy.
"Who are you?" the younger boy asked sounding reverent, but Lucius ignored his question, instead he approached the older of the two, fixing him a hard cold stare.
"What were you saying?"
"N-n-nothing sir," Damian Allseyer stammered and he darted backwards a little, grabbing at Deacon's shoulder to drag him back. "We were just leaving…" With this the two boys turned and fled back the way they had come, leaving Lucius smiling in a satisfied manner.
"Now then," he said firmly, turning around to face his granddaughter…only to find the corner she had backed into moments ago deserted. Lucius glanced up the alleyway and saw the young girl creeping out of the shadows to find out whether the coast was clear, before she darted into the crowds. She must have sneaked away while Lucius was preoccupied with the boys. Her sly escape caused the old man to laugh darkly. "Very well my girl, flee. I will find you."
XXX
Leshia ran straight back to the Leaky Cauldron, where she bought a pitcher of pumpkin juice and dropped down one of the secluded booths in the corner. Entirely unsure of what had just happened, only one frightening thought seemed certain: her grandfather was far from dead and he was after her. Why on earth he would try to take her alive was beyond her, because as far as she was aware he wanted her dead, along with the rest of her family. Had he not tried to kill her once already?
"No," she suddenly exclaimed in surprise. "He hasn't!" Scrunching up her face into an expression of complete frustration, she tried to fight the memories that were flooding back to her.
Sitting on the upstairs landing, her small legs dangling between the balusters of the handrail, seven-year-old Leshia watched the door, as she was wont to do every day at six-o clock; Draco was due home. She had spent the day at muggle school, and ever since she had come home she had been watching the clock, waiting for him to walk in the front door. He would no doubt have very little time to play with her, and would most likely watch her eat and then send her to bed soon thereafter, but this precious little time with her father meant everything to the little girl. Whereas she had been expecting a key to turn in the lock, she was quite surprised at the sound of a loud rapping knock on the heavy door.
"I'll get it!" she called instinctively, and after lifting herself to her feet with the aid of the balusters she raced down the stairs, recoiling a little as her little sock clad feet touched the cold slate tiles. A niggling feeling at the back of her mind was urging her not to open the door, but soon her hand was on the large handle and she had swung the door open. "Yes?" she asked the tall cloaked man that stood on the doorstep, thinking he looked rather familiar, though she couldn't put her finger on it. Without responding to the little girl Lucius Malfoy pushed past her into the hall and shut the door firmly beside himself. Aware that this was most peculiar Leshia started to feel a little afraid. "Tally!" she called out and started backing away from the silver-haired man.
"Do not be afraid, I have not come to hurt you," he said in a deep imposing voice.
"What do you want?" Leshia demanded in response, her young face morphing into an adorably defiant expression: ever the Malfoy. Her feistiness pleased the ageing man before her, though she couldn't know why.
"I have come to take you away," he told her simply, as though this were a simple matter she need not concern herself with.
"But I don't want to come with you, I want to stay here with my dad," the little girl complained sounding upset.
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter," Lucius countered with a dark smile. "I want you."
"Tally!" Leshia cried out once more, and she started backing away towards the stairs, wondering when her daddy was going to come home to rescue her from this madman. Hearing the girl's second cry, the busy head houself finally decided to see what the matter was.
"What is it Miss Malfoy?" the cantankerous little green elf demanded as she appeared round the kitchen archway. The moment her eyes fell on Lucius however, her face hardened into a furious expression.
"You must not be here!" she cried out, raising her hands to perform Elf-magic Lucius had no power to stop, so he dove out of her line of fire, running for the door at the far end of the hall, which would lead him into the dining room adjoining the kitchen.
"Go Miss Leshia! Hide!" Tally ordered, before she darted back into the kitchen to head Lucius off. The little seven-year-old was far too frightened to move, and she stood rooted to the spot as the crashing sounds of a struggle wafted out from the kitchen. "Miss Leshia run!" With this the sound of struggle died away and Leshia knew her valiant rescuer had not been successful.
"Where are you?" the man's raspy voice came; evidently his run in with the houself's magic had weakened him severely. And moments later his tall lumbering figure skidded into the hall, taking out his wand as he approached the girl. "There you are," he added with a satisfied smile.
"No!" Leshia cried out and she backed into the stairs in terror. "I didn't do it! No!" The stairs suddenly came up behind her and she tumbled onto her back, before throwing her hands over her head to protect herself from a blow that never came. After the sounds of struggle brought her momentarily from her frightened cowering, Leshia dared to take down her arms to find the old man had gone.
"Leave this house!" the sound of Wiggy, Tally's husband, cried out angrily, before a hissing voice countered this with,
"Avada Kedavra." A green light filled the doorway and Leshia didn't hang around to find out whether the kindly Houself had managed to head off the ghastly man. She jumped to her feet and pelted up the stairs to the landing, where she banged every door wide open to distract the man from her real hiding place: her father's bedroom. She wasn't normally allowed in his room unless he was in there, but realising he would probably forego this rule if he found out her life was in danger, Leshia charged in, sliding around on the hardwood floor in her socks. The sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs alerted Leshia to the man's eminent approach, so she quickly dropped to her knees and pulled herself under the bed.
"Where are you?" the horrible man's piercing call came, causing the girl to push herself back into the wall, and for tears to spring from her wide eyes, splashing onto the wooden floorboard with a pattering sound. "Where are you my precious? Why are you afraid of your own grandpa?" The little girl's jaw dropped in exaggerated shock; so that is why she recognised his features so…they were her father's. Her grandfather? She had been told he was dead, that a long time ago he had perished in the Battle of the Ages. She had been lied to. "Come here," a harsh whisper ordered into the dark room and Leshia watched as a pair of muddy boots closed in on her position. They seemed to be lingering, as though their owner knew the location of his prey, but just as he was about to swoop down and claim her, a muffled sound down below warned the old Death Eater that the man of the house was home; and rather surprised to find that the little girl who normally waited so eagerly to greet him was absent from her usual spot on the landing.
"Hello?" Draco's suspicious call came from below, as the young man took in the rumpled rug and the strange smell of singed hair in the air. From her hiding place under the bed Leshia closed her eyes tightly, desperately wanting to call out to her father, to alert him to her grandfather's presence. The boots promptly turned around and her grandfather left the room. Only when the sounds of his heavy footsteps on the stairs met Leshia's ears, did she dare to clamber out of her hiding place and dart towards the door.
"What have you done with my child?" her father's angry cry came from the hall, but she didn't stop to listen, as she darted into the parlour across the landing where an ageing dumbwaiter stood. She had often been told off for playing in it by the harassed houselves, but this was an emergency, so after carefully lowering herself down into the dining room down below.
"How dare you break into my home!" her father was saying now, but still Leshia crept on, edging round into the kitchen where a very stunned Tally lay petrified on the floor.
"Tally," Leshia whispered in surprise, before she carried on stealthily, reaching out to take down a jar of pebbles she had collected while on a trip to the beach. Armed with this weapon she peered round the arched doorway into the hall and found her grandfather holding out his wand aimed squarely at his son, who had just walked in from work and evidently had not been given the time to take off his long thick coat. Without thinking Leshia took aim at her grandfather and lobbed the heavy jar through the air at him. Her childish throw missed and landed short of his feet on the slate tile, cracking it instantly.
"Ponut quiesco!" Lucius cried out, wielding his wand now at the little girl standing in the doorway.
"Protego!" Draco countered desperately, and the spell bounced off Leshia and hit the wall above her. "Expelliarmus!" Draco added promptly and Lucius' wand flew to his hand, giving Leshia the time to run to his side and dive into the safety of his coat, peering out from behind his leg at her grandfather, safe in the knowledge that her father would protect her now.
"Now you listen father," Draco exclaimed furiously
"I am your father no longer you traitorous coward!" Lucius countered sounding beside himself with fury. His assault hit a nerve with his son, who twitched violently to one side.
"I am not a coward!" the younger man bellowed with such anger that his seven-year-old daughter started to tremble; never before had she heard her father express such hostility…it was terrifying. "You are to leave this place sir, and if you ever return I will kill you myself!"
"Coward," Lucius taunted with a sly smile. "You don't have the courage to finish what you started do you boy?"
"Quite the contrary," Draco spat. "You're finished. You're a marked man; you have no friends left as they have all been killed! Where will you run? You will get caught and then those you wronged will bring justice down on you."
"And yet you cannot do so yourself," Lucius jeered darkly, his lip curling up into a snarl.
"Why won't you kill me boy, show some backbone!"
"I will not kill a broken man," Draco uttered. For a moment Lucius looked so furious Leshia was afraid his head was going to explode, but then he smiled wildly, giving his face the impression of one gone quite mad. "Go, get out of my house!"
"I'll never be gone," Lucius whispered hoarsely. "I will get my revenge, I will take from you everything you have taken from me. I will take from you the things that matter the most and have them for myself." At this he looked down into the depths of his son's coat and met his granddaughter's worried gaze, causing a wicked smile to form on his snarling face. "You have brought shame to my family, but no matter, I will find a more suitable heir." In an instant Draco knew what his father was suggesting, and the thought of it caused him to raise his wand-hand so quickly it was as though it had apparated into position.
"No!" he roared out angrily, pulling his daughter to his side with his other hand so firmly that Leshia uttered a sound of pain. "You will never have her! Never!" The young man's hand was shaking with the restraint he was having to force upon himself. He would have gladly killed his father in this moment, to prevent him from ever taking his precious child, but he had not the evil to do so…he couldn't kill an unarmed broken man…he couldn't. Lucius could see his son's struggle and he cackled darkly.
"You haven't the nerve to stop me," he hissed and started towards the door, while Draco edged to the side of the hall, keeping Leshia firmly clamped to his side. "I will be back," Lucius said at the door and after gazing once more into his granddaughter's eyes he fled into the night, leaving his son shaking in his wake.
Leshia closed her eyes tightly as the full memory of that day dawned on her. So her grandfather was after her? He had failed six years ago and now he was back to finish the job. She was in terrible danger!
"Leshia?" The young girl's eyes darted up to her mother's concerned face. "What's wrong darling has the wall done something to offend you?" Her mother was smiling.
"Huh?" Leshia uttered in confusion.
"Well it's just you're glaring at it so ferociously," Hermione chuckled and she sat down beside the girl with a glass of gillywater in hand. Leshia managed the briefest of smiles before she returned once more to her silent reverie. "Leshia what's the matter?" Hermione persisted, seeing now that her daughter's staring at not merely been the product of daydreaming as she had initially believed, and that something was indeed wrong.
"Nothing," Leshia lied all too easily, and for the next fifteen minutes she skirted round the topic, remaining frustratingly silent. By the time Draco arrived with several packages in tow, and with a well-earned tumbler of whiskey in his hand, Hermione was quite frustrated with her young daughter.
"What's the matter with you two?" Draco asked light-heartedly, before he took a swig of his whiskey, enjoying briefly the sensation of it warming his insides.
"Your daughter is being secretive," Hermione told him, a little hint of annoyance creeping into her tone. Draco frowned inquisitively.
"Oh? Why, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Leshia complained exasperatedly, though she did fix her father with a suspicious look. She had been wondering for quite some time now why she hadn't remembered the run in with her grandfather until now, and the only possible conclusion she could come up with was that her father had used a memory charm on her, which she felt incredibly put out by.
"Stop it," Draco chuckled somewhat firmly. "What have I done?"
"Nothing," the girl repeated softly, her tone incredibly icy. After looking to his wife with an eyebrow raised in confusion, Draco shrugged his shoulders and decided he wouldn't bother trying to decipher his daughter's mood; she was after all a teenager now, perhaps these mood swings just sort of came with the territory. Lunch was a subdued affair on Leshia's part, though her parents enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Finally they returned home through the snow and as soon as they walked in Leshia made for the stairs.
"You'd better get changed misery guts, we're going in half an hour," Hermione told her daughter with a fond smile.
"Fine," the girl grumbled, already halfway up the stairs. Once in her room she dropped her carrier bag on her bed, before she ambled over to her grand wardrobe. When she was younger, in the wake of her mother's disappearance she and Draco had painted it together, and as such it bore the childish paintings of various animals, and many depictions of Hermione. The girl had already planned what she was going to wear, so without further ado she took out the black sparkly trousers and pulled them on…
"No way!" she exclaimed in amazement as she stared at the inch of bony ankle visible below the ends of her trousers. Still beaming with excitement, she ran through to her parents' room and burst in without knocking to find Draco in the process of getting undressed and her mother wrapping presents.
"Leshia close your eyes," Hermione ordered quickly as she tried to cover up the gift she had been wrapping. The girl had not seen it as she was far too excited about her recent revelation.
"I've grown!" she announced proudly.
"No you haven't you titch," Draco chuckled. Leshia though rushed forward, still with her hand over her eyes and instantly collided with the bed, resulting in Draco bending over in a fit of laughter.
"You can look now you silly girl," Hermione said fondly and Leshia promptly rushed round the side of the bed to show off the patch of olive skin visible beneath her trousers.
"Look," she said proudly and both her parents leaned closer, trying to see what the fuss was about.
"I'll have to have a word with Tally, we can't have her shrinking your clothes now can we?" Her father was winding her up, something that caused Leshia to cross her arms petulantly.
"Come on, let's measure you against the door," Hermione urged, eager to curb her daughter's temper now she had finally snapped out of her last mood. "You, behave," she told her husband and playfully slapped his arm. Draco and Hermione's door had long served as a measuring post for their only child. The pale wood was marked in staggers with thin pencil lines accompanied by dates, which chronicled the girl's growth. Arguably there was a large chunk missing from the years when Draco had forgot to do it, but Hermione's return had soon brought a return of the measurements. So Leshia stood now, a very proud expression on her face as Hermione balanced the pencil against her head to mark up her latest measurement.
"Can I move now?" she asked eagerly and her amused mother nodded. The girl quickly spun around and both mother and daughter saw with immense satisfaction that indeed Leshia had grown at least an inch this term. "There!" Leshia crowed proudly. "I told you I'd grown!"
"I don't believe you," Draco countered fondly, still trying to wind the girl up, but this just resulted in Leshia dragging him over by the hand to see her momentous achievement.
"You must have measured it wrong, here, let me have a go," Draco told his wife and he reached for the pencil, but she playfully slapped his hand away.
"Oh give over," she laughed genially, before turning on their daughter. "We're very proud of you darling." Leshia beamed at her before she rushed back into her room to change into something else. Fifteen minutes later, and the young girl stood admiring herself in her mirror with a beaming smile on her face. After abandoning the hope of finding some trousers that would fit, she opted for a knee length skirt and a beautiful top, which had once hung limply on her skinny shoulders, yet now felt a little fuller at the top; a sure sign that the girl was finally undergoing a little pubescent growth. Her figure may still have been tiny, but at last, it was becoming more feminine than tomboyish.
"Leshia come on!" Draco shouted from below, he had been calling on and off for five minutes now. After one last satisfied smile, the girl rushed out, descending the stairs as gracefully as though she were going to a ball. Down by the front door her parents were waiting, looking as though they had stepped straight out of an fashion shoot. Hermione looked as beautiful as ever in a deep red satin number and Draco equally as handsome in his dress robes.
"What's the matter with you?" Draco asked sounding a little disgruntled; there was something different about the girl and he couldn't figure it out. Hermione noticed straight away what had their daughter beaming so.
"Oh darling you look absolutely beautiful," she exclaimed proudly and she wrapped an arm around the girl tightly.
"Come on, we're late as it is," Draco said brusquely; he was putout that once more he was out of the loop due to his decided lack of oestrogen. With this he disappeared with a slight crackling noise. Hermione gave the girl one last proud smile, before she wrapped her arm tightly around her daughter and apparated them both to Potter Manor. Using the floo network had been out of the question in such fineries. As soon as mother and daughter appeared in the entrance hall of the decadent mansion known as Potter Manor, many of their friends descended them upon.
"Oh Hermione, how do you always manage to look stunning?" Ginny was exclaiming at the same time that Rachel threw her arms roughly around Leshia's neck.
"I'm so happy you're here!" the redhead whispered softly. Leshia hugged her friend extra tightly, before she pulled back and gave the girl a reassuring smile.
"Leesh you look different." This surprised exclamation came from Katie, who was staring at the recently apparated girl with a mixture of surprise and jealousy. It would seem that at long last Leshia was growing into the potential she had been exhibiting since she was a little girl.
"I've grown apparently," Leshia exclaimed proudly.
"What, overnight?" Rachel chuckled. "Trying to give Katie a run for her money eh?" Both Leshia and Katie laughed, happy to see that their redhead friend was seemingly back in good sorts.
"I have something really big to tell you," Leshia quickly gushed, remembering what had happened to her earlier that day.
"What even bigger than you growing a couple of inches?" Rachel chortled, a happy glow adorning her pretty face; somehow, in the presence of her greatest friends, the last horrific seven days at home seemed a thing of the past. Leshia threw her friend a fond exasperated look.
"Yes," she said with dramatic obviousness. "And besides, it was only one inch. Now come on, let's do the meet and greet and then we can get out of here." And there were a lot of people to greet. Almost the entire Weasley clan had shown up for the occasion, and every single one of them was eager to greet the littlest Malfoy, who had once been an honorary member of their family. Following this Leshia was dragged into the crook of her father's arm against her wishes and forced to meet some of his stuffy former work colleagues from the ministry. And finally Hermione insisted on introducing her to several witches she and Ginny had become great friends with back when they were pregnant with the girls and had met at a pre-natal support group – 'What to expect when you're expecting a magical baby'.
At least an hour had passed before the three best friends could escape the throng of people downstairs and retire to Katie's decadent bedroom. Leshia had always adored the raven-haired girl's room. Each wall was painted with a dusting of minuscule flowers, enchanted to sway in imaginary winds. The ceiling was similarly enchanted to reveal a night's sky, with swirling exaggerated constellations and the occasional shooting star. A great swathe of pink sparkling satin adorned the bed in an extremely regal manner and the carpeted floor was so plush to touch that every time Leshia stepped foot in the room she took of her shoes just to enjoy the feeling of the soft down caressing her toes. Unlike her own room, Katie's abode could never be found in anything less than pristine condition. Whereas Leshia's floor was littered with dirty clothes, abandoned magazines and discarded cups and mugs, this room seemed almost unnaturally clean. This is the way Katie liked things, and as such, the moment Leshia threw off her shoes to enjoy the carpet once more, her shoes were scooped up and put neatly outside the door.
"You're such a neat freak Katie," Rachel laughed as she dropped down on the decadent bed.
"Only here," Katie corrected as she watched her friends on her neatly made sheets uneasily, mentally straightening out the creases to sooth her discomfort. "Anyway, so what did you want to tell us?" The tallest girl took a seat on her bed, finally joining the other two, while Leshia's eyes went wide and the small girl inhaled slowly, as though gathering the strength to proclaim her revelation.
"I met my grandfather in town this morning," she finally blurted out, before promptly ignoring the looks of horror on her friends' faces in order to explain the whole story, including the recently elucidated dream and the sightings of those mysterious eyes that had been following her all term. When her story finally came to an end Katie and Rachel were too shocked for words, and merely stared at the blonde girl with matching flummoxed expressions.
"This is not good," Rachel finally managed slowly and distantly, eliciting a fervent nod from Leshia.
"I know. What the heck am I going to do?"
"Tell your parents!" Katie exclaimed quite suddenly, causing the other two to jump in surprise.
"Are you mental?" Rachel managed. "Her dad's the one that lied to her in the first place."
"Exactly!" Leshia added adamantly.
"But he's dangerous!" Katie tried desperately. "Don't you remember what that note said? He's the one that can bring Voldemort back. He's the last Death-Eater, you have to tell!"
"No," Leshia countered firmly. "I am not telling my dad. Katie, he'll probably just addle my memories again like he did the last time, and then I won't remember that my psychotic grandfather is after me. It's much safer knowing what's going on, I mean…he doesn't want to hurt me does he?"
"No," Katie said seemingly wounded. "But he wants to take you away, you don't even seem to care that he wants to kidnap you."
"Don't be so stupid," Leshia snapped coldly, a look of anger crossing her face. "After what happened to my mum, you think I want to get kidnapped?"
"Oh I didn't mean it like that! I just think it would be safer if the proper authorities know about this so that they can catch him."
"My dad, the proper authorities?" Leshia laughed coldly. "Yeah, that's right. Because he did such a good job before of getting rid of Lucius didn't he? That's twice on my count that he let him get away. Twice! Who knows what he'll do if I tell him, he might just ignore it and hope he goes away."
"You don't mean that Leesh," Rachel said softly. "You know he'd do anything to protect you and your mum." Leshia sighed heavily, her anger dissipating.
"Yeah I know he would," she finally said with a brow creased in concern; she hadn't meant to sound so cruel towards her father, and now she felt awfully guilty for doing so, but she was still so awfully upset with him for changing her memories and hiding the truth from her. "I just…want to know what he wants…"
"You know what he wants, he wants you," Katie said bluntly.
"But there must be more to it than that," Leshia countered passionately. "He must have answers! Things that I need to know…about the past…about Voldemort. My parents have kept so much hidden from me, I'm just wondering what else they haven't told me, haven't told us!"
"But maybe it isn't our place to know," Katie tried, but she could see that she was fighting a losing battle. It wasn't her place to tell, and both Leshia and Rachel seemed entirely adamant to the fact that they weren't going to divulge this secret to their parents. The girls were suddenly brought back to the real world by a muffled knocking sound at the door.
"Girls?" It was Ginny.
"Come in mum." Moments later Ginny's beautifully made up face peered round the door, a fond expectant expression on her face.
"You can't hide in here all night girls, we'd like you to spend some time at the party," she told the children warmly and they quickly rushed to join her on the landing, where to their complete surprise, three other children were waiting.
"You?" Leshia gasped when she saw who Ginny had brought to meet them. Looking entirely out of place and extremely uncomfortable in his surroundings stood Julius Black. He was dressed rather dashingly in dress robes and for the first time Leshia wondered why she had never realised how attractive the young man was before this evening.
"Leshia," Ginny chuckled warmly. "I take it you know one another then?"
"Sort of," Katie replied uneasily, before her eyes drifted to the two younger children at the boy's side.
"Well this is Julius' younger brother and sister, Magnus and…oh I'm sorry dear, but I seem to have forgotten your name."
"Leona," the small girl at Julius' side piped up proudly.
"We're twins," the boy added. Indeed, they did look like twins. Similar in design to their older brother, the Black twins enjoyed exceedingly dark colourings. Little Leona was an extremely pretty child and her brother Magnus resembled the older Black child in his good looks.
"How nice," Rachel managed with a disgruntled look to her friends; the evening suddenly seemed a lot glummer now that they would have an entire family of Blacks to amuse. After making sure the children didn't show signs of wanting to throttle one another, Ginny excused herself to see to the rest of her guests, leaving the children in an uncomfortable silence.
"So what are you doing here?" Leshia finally asked with a slightly look of contempt.
"Our dad," Julius spoke softly. "He works with Mr Potter."
"This place is great," Leona was gushing now the silence had been broken.
"Yeah, you've got a wicked house!" her twin added. The three best friends looked to the smaller children in surprise; why on earth were they being so…nice? Surely they were destined for Slytherin like their mysterious older brother?
"Um…thanks," Katie finally replied. "Come on, I'll show you to the playroom." Slowly the entire group followed the raven-haired girl down the stairs to the large playroom where most of the children had gathered and were in the middle of an exciting game of 'blind man's bluff'. To Leshia's utmost discomfort, Julius Black fell into step beside her on their way through the grand manor house.
"Well done by the way," the boy finally spoke, as they neared the grand double doors, which would lead them through to the playroom.
"What do you mean?"
"For out-witting that blundering buffoon Allseyer today," the boy explained, before raising one eyebrow at her and taking his leave to join his siblings in the playroom they had juts bounded into. Leshia watched him go in surprise; his little comment raised two issues, for starters, he and Damian Allseyer were in regular contact, and secondly, they had discussed her. Surely Allseyer wouldn't willingly part with the information that that he had been out-witted by a filthy blood traitor? Which meant that Julius Black had in some way enquired after her…how odd!
"Catching flies?" a familiar voice suddenly came, and Leshia promptly shut her hanging jaw and looked up to see her father had joined her, watching her with a slightly suspicious edge to his otherwise pleasant face.
"I'm hungry," the girl countered with a charming smile, earning her an adoring look from her father.
"I hadn't realised the food here was so awful."
"Watch what you're calling awful Malfoy," Ginny's jubilant voice suddenly came and she soon joined the father and daughter with a smiling expression.
"Quite the contrary Weasley, I've been enjoying the mince pies very much, it's this one who seems to have the problem," Draco returned with a charming smile.
"No I haven't," Leshia complained urgently, hoping to convey to Katie's mother with her pleading expression that she had been saying nothing of the sort.
"Leesh what are you still doing out here?" Rachel's voice came before the redhead appeared round the doorway. "We're starting a game of sardines! If you're not careful you'll be the sardine."
"Coming," the blonde girl quickly chirruped, eager to get out of the awkward situation, and besides, sardines was her favourite game. Within moments she had dived into the darkened playroom searching out a good hiding place.
"Is everyone ready?" Katie's whispering voice came from one end of the large playroom. Nobody wanted to give away their positions, so the silence answered Katie's question. "Okay then, begin!" Leshia's tactic was always to start moving early on, and so, silent as a mouse, she started to creep about in the dark. Occasionally the sound of a clumsier peer reached her ears, but in general, the only sound that permeated the darkness was the gently thud of the music from the party outside. After five minutes of silently searching out the other players, Leshia finally came across one of them, though she wasn't happy with who she had found.
"You're kneeling on my hand," the ever-so-soft whisper of Julius black came through the darkness. After quickly moving the offending knee, Leshia resigned herself to the fact that in order to win the game she was going to have to overcome some of her animosity towards the Slytherins.
"Sorry," she whispered back and she shuffled under the table Julius had been hiding under and sat down next to him. "So how is old Allseyer, last I saw of him he was running for his life like the coward he is." After a moment's silence, in which Leshia could have sworn she heard the boy beside her smiling, his response came,
"I thought the aim of this game was to remain silent?"
"That bad eh?"
"Oh Allseyer's fine. I'm sure he'll be touched by your concern." There wasn't a trace of bitterness in the boy's tone; why was he behaving so un-Slytherin like?
"Trust me, concern is the last thing on my mind," Leshia countered darkly.
"Tell me," Julius asked softly and he sounded genuinely intrigued. "Why do you allow them to beat you up all the time? It must get dreadfully tiring." In response to his teasing jibe, Leshia scrunched up her face indignantly in the dark.
"I don't let them do anything," she hissed a little loudly. "I'd like to see you fight off a…"
"Leesh is that you?" Rachel had now found them under the table and after a moment's scrambling, she soon joined them. "You're being awfully loud."
"Blame him," the blonde girl huffed.
"Who's him?"
"Hello," Julius' amused tone came right beside Rachel's ear. She hadn't realised she had been sitting practically on top of the boy, and as such jumped in surprise.
"Don't do that," the girl hissed. "God, a little warning next time would be nice you know." An awkward silence followed, in which the whisperings and scrambling of the other players alone pierced the darkness.
"Well this is cosy isn't it?" a fourth voice came in the dark.
"Tom? Is that you?" Rachel whispered. "How long have you been here?"
"Now that would be telling my dear Rachel," Tom Weasley, another of the Weasley cousins and a Gryffindor fourth-year replied.
"Who else is here?" Leshia asked curiously, and she was greeted by a chorus of 'me's from the dark.
"Shhhh, this is meant to be a silent game!" Katie's voice suddenly came and she joined the children under the table. Katie upheld the silence rule for the remainder of the game, which ended when Michael Potter, Katie's younger brother, finally announced from the other end of the room,
"Oh I give up, I can't find anybody!" As though on request the light went on and revealed that indeed, all the children except Michael had managed to gather under the table in the corner. It was a tight squeeze with over twenty children packed in, but all of them were smiling and started chanting 'sardine' at poor Michael. Leshia though, was watching Julius Black with a disgruntled expression.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a drink," the boy finally said with a charming smile and this was the last Leshia saw of him that evening. The three best friends had a wonderful time and the party was resounding success. Eventually, as midnight approached and most of the guests had returned home Leshia was collected from the playroom by her rather red-faced father and her giggling mother.
"Happy Christmas," Leshia gushed to her friends and hugged them roughly. Rachel was looking very sorry for herself, now that she had to return to her broken home. "Don't worry," Leshia told the redhead comfortingly and she embraced the girl one more time. "We'll all be together again in a few hours."
"I know," Rachel said bravely, putting on a forced smile. Leshia felt awful leaving her, but in the end she clung onto her father's arm as he apparated them home. After pinning her stocking up by the fire, Leshia rushed upstairs to change and was permitted a last glass of milk and a mince pie on the settee in the lounge with her parents, as they enjoyed a sobering mug of black coffee each. Eventually though, she was sent up to bed. Sleep however, didn't come so easily, and for hours Leshia tossed and turned, her thoughts drifting to her grandfather, and Julius Black's strange behaviour at the party.
XXX
Surely it had been just a blink? The girl had simply closed her eyes for a moment and now…was that light peeking in through the gaps in her thick curtains? Was it morning? Leshia sat straight up in bed and after tripping over her duvet, she finally managed to reach her window and rip open the curtains. Yes! The sun was rising over a beautiful snowy cityscape. Christmas had arrived at last. The clock on Leshia's wall told her it was eight-o-clock, well beyond the seven-o clock limit Draco had set her long ago when she was eight years old (after she had started waking up at five on Christmas Day). After jumping into her slippers, the girl threw open her door and careened across the darkened landing to her parents' door, through which Leshia could hear her father's gentle snoring. So they were still asleep? How wonderful!
"Happy Christmas!" the young girl sang out jubilantly and she burst through the door, jumping onto her parent's bed to greet her startled mother and father. "Happy Christmas!" the girl repeated joyously, bouncing up and down on the springy mattress.
"Happy Christmas darling," Hermione replied adoringly, tears stinging her eyes as the sight of her daughter brought back memories of her as a little girl, when she had reacted in an identical way to the coming of Christmas morning. The poor young woman had never believed she would ever again experience such a wonderful Christmas awakening, but she had been wrong.
"It's not seven yet," Draco grumbled fondly and he pushed his face under his pillow. "Go away you nuisance."
"It is so past seven dad, it's eight-o clock!" Leshia complained happily and she dropped down between her parents with a beaming expression. "Dad come on, please?" the girl whined teasingly, and she hugged her father's side firmly. "Get up! It's Christmas!"
"Draco get up," Hermione chuckled lovingly, as she threw off her covers and pulled on her soft dressing gown and slippers. "Come on Leshia, let's go and see if there's anything in our stockings." Within seconds the young girl was at her mother's side and the pair of them made their way down to the lounge where Tally had already got a fire going. Hanging above the hearth stood three stockings packed full of lovingly wrapped gifts, which had been placed there the night before by a slightly drunken Draco.
"There's so many!" Leshia squealed happily and she tore down her stocking, delving her arm into the deep stocking and pulling out a multitude of glittering packages.
"Yes, Father Christmas certainly has been generous this year," Hermione said with a warm smile.
"Oh mum don't be silly," Leshia grumbled fondly. "You don't have to pretend, I'm not six anymore." The girl's mother hid the stab of pain with a broad smile as Leshia started to rip the paper from her presents. Of course she knew that Leshia was now too old to believe in Father Christmas; she had been gone for over six years, and in that time Leshia had undoubtedly learned the truth, but it was small things such as this that reminded her how much of her daughter's childhood she had really missed.
"Aw excellent!" Leshia suddenly erupted in joy as she revealed a huge bag full of Bertie Bots Every Flavour Beans.
"They'll make your teeth fall out," a hoarse voice came from the doorway, and both mother and daughter spun around to see Draco had finally risen, and even though he sounded cantankerous, he was in fact smiling broadly. "Elf!" the young man suddenly called out.
"Draco," Hermione admonished fondly. "She has a name." It would seem though, that Tally didn't seem to mind her master addressing her as 'elf' as suddenly she appeared beside the young man.
"Yes master?"
"Is breakfast ready yet?" Draco asked tiredly.
"Yes master certainly, Tally has been keeping it warm for you," the elf gushed with an adoring smile.
"But dad you have to open your stocking first," Leshia complained with an elaborate puppy-dog expression. For a moment Draco looked to the ceiling with a slightly agonised expression, he couldn't withstand that look on his daughter's face, but he was hungry. Eventually Leshia's will-destroying tactics pulled through and with a dramatic sigh Draco ambled over to his wife and child, dropping down on the settee with and even heavier sigh. "Oh come on dad it's not that bad, look, you've got presents!" Leshia laughed and she lifted her father's heavily stuffed stocking onto the settee beside him. After absent-mindedly pulling out a pair of socks Draco forced a somewhat pleasant expression onto his face.
"Lovely," he managed sounding false. Hermione shot him an adoring look before she and Leshia continued to open their presents. Eventually all the small and amusing gifts had been unwrapped and the family made their way through to the kitchen where Tally had arranged a wonderful breakfast for them. Leshia was far too excited about the parcels under the tree to concentrate on eating and barely nibbled at the sole piece of toast on her plate.
"If you don't finish that we won't be opening the rest of the presents," Draco warned her.
"But dad…"
"Sweetheart it will be a long time before we eat lunch," Hermione quickly intervened with a sweet smile. With a heavy sigh Leshia complied, acting as though she had just been asked to wolf down an entire loaf of bread, rather than just the measly slice of toast on her plate. The young girl missed the fond look that passed between her parents: it would seem that their young daughter was beginning to act more like the teenager she had finally become. As soon as Draco put his finished cup of coffee down Leshia was on her feet dragging her parents through to the lounge.
"Perhaps we should wait until we're back from the Weasley's to open the presents," Draco suggested.
"Oh Draco stop it," Hermione laughed as she switched on the old gramophone beside the tree to bask the room in the beautiful Christmas Carols performed by the Hogsmeade Harmonics. Draco shook his head fondly as Hermione reached down and picked up a parcel in each hand. He hated receiving gifts, he never felt worthy of them. "Right then," Hermione was continuing with a beaming smile and she held out the two book-like parcels to her husband and daughter, and so, Christmas began, with many happy surprises and a few unwelcome ones. By eleven-o clock the tree was looking rather bare without it's adorning presents, but the Malfoys had not the time to feel saddened by it as they were gathering by the hearth in the kitchen with an assembly of presents for the Weasley clan, who they were about to join for Christmas Dinner.
"Right, are you sure we have everything?" Hermione checked with her family, who nodded with fond impatient looks. "Good, Leshia you go first darling." After carefully rearranging the large bag of presents Leshia carried on her shoulder, she picked up a handful of floo powder and climbed carefully into the grate.
"The burrow," she said clearly and threw down her powder. Within instants she was engulfed in green flame, and endured the unpleasant swirling sensation of travelling over the floo network. It was a bumpy ride as the network was being used quite heavily on this busy morning, but finally she appeared in an incredibly hectic Weasley kitchen.
"Oh Leshia darling!" Molly Weasley's adoring call came and within moments the girl was engulfed in a warm embrace. "Happy Christmas!"
"Happy Christmas Molly," the girl replied dutifully as Molly's scratchy hair itched her nose.
"Rachel! Katie! Leshia's here!" As Hermione appeared from the hearth, so too did Leshia's friends from the hall.
"Happy Christmas!" was being thrown this way and that, but eventually Leshia was dragged out of the busy kitchen and up the stairs to one of the bedrooms, which had lain untouched since the various Weasley children had moved out. The older girls of the family had claimed Fred and George's old room, and after greeting Sarah and Amy, Leshia dropped down on the floor and thrust two presents towards her friends.
"Happy Christmas," she told them with a big smile, and was instantly rewarded with two presents of her own. After receiving a beautiful scarf and glove combo from Katie and a book on Lukas Krosovitch from Rachel, Leshia looked up to see her friends were admiring their gifts with beaming smiles. Several thank yous were exchanged and then the girls relaxed against one of the beds to chat about the gifts they had received from their families.
"It was so funny," Leshia laughed. "My mum gave me this really big and boring looking book on ancient runes and she kept dropping hints that this'll be the book she'll be using with her third years next year. She couldn't have put it plainer that she wants me to do ancient runes, but I really don't want to, I can't imagine anything more boring."
"Oh that's not as bad as the book my mum gave me on 'the smart witch's guide to etiquette'," Rachel grumbled.
"Well I'm not surprised you two didn't enjoy your books, I'm not even sure you know how to read," Katie countered with a big smile.
"Hey! One of my favourite presents was a book," Leshia complained with a big smile. "It's a guide on how to use appearance spells, you know for hair and make up and stuff like that. It's much easier than all that muggle stuff, though I did get quite a lot of that too."
"That sounds wicked," Katie exclaimed with wide eyes of jealousy.
"Yeah, dad wasn't so impressed though, he looked like he wanted to go off and sulk, or throw a tantrum at the very least." For a moment the top of the house rocked with a series of loud explosions, which was soon followed by laughter. Katie rolled her eyes.
"Uncle Bill got all his kids reusable exploding bouncy balls, Luke managed eight exploding bounces this morning," Rachel explained.
"Yeah, grandma was furious, she jumped so much she dropped a batch of Yorkshire puddings all over the floor." For a moment Leshia's eyes wandered down to her Lukas Krosovitch book and after looking up to see that her friends were grinning at one another secretively, she opened the cover of the book to admire the front-page picture of the handsome Bulgarian chaser.
"I thought you might like it," Katie's voice came.
"Yeah it's great, thanks…" Leshia began, but then she looked up with a frown. "But you didn't get it for me, Rachel did."
"I didn't say anything," Katie countered innocently.
"Yes you did."
"No, it was me." For a moment Leshia stared at her red-haired friend with incredibly wide eyes. It was Rachel who was speaking, but it was Katie's voice.
"Rachel! When did you learn to do that?" she finally spluttered. After a mysterious grin Rachel reached up and pulled down the collar of her polo neck jumper. As she did so she revealed a thick choker, which had some strange device attached on the front.
"It's a Speech Stealer," the girl gushed happily.
"You're kidding! I've heard of them! They're excellent, they can copy voices and even animal sounds can't they?" Leshia exploded eagerly. Rachel nodded happily and told her of all the people she and Katie had been tricking all morning. It transpired that even though the gizmo was very expensive, Ron had got it for his daughter because he was trying to make up for their awful situation at home. After another series of explosions Leshia insisted she be allowed to go and see what these mysterious exploding bouncy balls looked like, but her friends didn't accompany her as they already had near-perforated eardrums from the dangerous toys. Luke allowed the girl to test his out and everyone roared with approval and laughter as the ball bounced an astonishing ten times. The response from down below however, was less congratulatory.
"If I hear one more explosion I'm going to confiscate everybody's presents and you'll have to help us in the kitchen!" Molly's flustered reprove came.
"Sorry grandma," a couple of grandchildren chorused in amusement. Suffice to say, nobody quite heeded her and ten minutes later the children were being herded downstairs to help in the kitchen (all manner of exploding and mischievous toys being confiscated as they walked in). There were people everywhere, with every Weasley in attendance. Leshia, Katie and Rachel were soon put in charge of setting the cutlery on the table and they spent the next hour or so rushing up and down the hugely long table, setting out the knives and forks. As they did so they read the table settings and were happy to see that they would be sitting next to one another. From far above the odd explosion still sounded, but all in all the atmosphere was a very excitable one – bordering on flustered, yet still enjoyable. Eventually the women of the family managed to get the massive Christmas dinner ready and the clan of Weasleys and their guests took their seats.
"This looks amazing mum," Ron remarked with wide eyes, he hadn't seen this much food in a long time. Molly beamed at her youngest son, but then her eyes narrowed in contempt at the woman sitting beside him, who had offered the young man a scowl at his exclamation. Old Grandma Weasley was mortified that her son was on the brink of marital collapse, though she could understand why his wife was driving him up the wall; she had been rather hoping that Lavender wouldn't make it to the Christmas Dinner. After a rush for the serving spoons, everyone's plates were piled high with food.
"Time for the crackers mum?" Fred piped up from his position down the end of the table.
"Yes dear," Molly chuckled and she lifted her glittering silver Cribbage's Christmas Cracker from her plate and offered it to Arthur at her right. Once more there was a rush to catch up and soon a massive ring of crossed arms and crackers had formed around the table. On the count of 'Happy Christmas' everyone pulled as hard as they could and within seconds the room was engulfed in glittering blue smoke, and the sound of over two dozen cannons going off. Balloons drifted in and out of the smoke and here and there the odd turtledove swooped in low arcs trying to find and exit from the room it had just materialised in. A swarm of pure white mice scurried across the table, and as the smoke cleared everyone got to see what their gift had been. Leshia was delighted with her Cowboy hat and her gift: a quidditch match set. The beautifully carved game came with goalposts and ten real live moving players. It could be played with two people, or on one's own.
"Ah Leesh that's the one I was after," Rachel complained half-heartedly (she was very pleased with her portable wizarding chess game and her Father Christmas hat).
"Hey listen to this," Katie piped up (having already donned her pirate hat). "What do you get from a pampered cow?"
"I don't know," the other two conceded.
"Spoiled milk."
"That's not funny," Rachel chuckled. "But then again, it did come from a cracker!" Everyone at the table continued to share their jokes, and only when the noise had died down did Leshia notice her parents, they were in the middle of an amusing looking argument as Draco refused to wear the pink bonnet that had come out of his cracker and was trying to swap it for Hermione's much more sensible muggle cap. His wife however, wasn't budging, and was laughing herself silly at her husband's grimace. In the end she did not give in and she wore her cap proudly, though no manner of jeering from the rest of the table could get Draco to put on his bonnet.
"Here you go dad, you can wear mine if you want?" Leshia offered and she took off the cowboy hat, which seemed too large anyway. Draco jumped at the chance and quickly swapped hats. He didn't offer her any thanks, but his smile and expression gave that away. As a reward for her selflessness (after all the bonnet looked incredibly silly, even on her), Draco passed his cracker gift over the table to her: a beautifully ornate wand cleaning kit. As soon as the mess had been dutifully shoved aside everyone dug into the delicious meal, and for ten minutes all that could be heard was the scraping of knives and forks on china and the odd muffled sounds of appreciation for the food.
Slowly though, conversation resumed and down Leshia's end, the usual topics of school memories had struck up amongst the parents. She listened with great interest as Harry and Ron laughed about old Gilderoy Lockhart's despicable behaviour and his eventual untimely demise.
"So he lost his memory in the chamber of secrets?" she asked curiously, though her expression was slightly steely; her well-honed mind was already reeling with the makings of a cunning (and incredibly naughty) plan.
"Well not quite, in the tunnel leading to the chamber of secrets," Harry corrected.
"So it's underground?" Leshia asked. "What's it like?"
"Very wet and not really a place that you'd want to have to visit," Harry told her, though his brow was beginning to knit into a frown; why did Leshia look so calculating.
"And are there snakes there?"
"Just one, but it's long gone now. Why are you asking?"
"Just curious." The girl's reply had been simple enough, and her expression had suddenly morphed into an preciously innocent expression, but at her sides Katie and Rachel were staring at her with some sort of understanding, and as one, alarm bells started going off in all their parents' heads.
"Don't even think it," Draco suddenly said firmly.
"Think what?" his daughter countered, her innocent expression intensifying.
"You know what. Don't!"
"Why?"
"Because it's dangerous, and it's been destroyed," Draco said firmly.
"No it hasn't, it's…"
"Alecia I said no." For a moment an awkward silence drifted over the small group, which was eventually broken by Ginny's forced laughter.
"I remember one lesson, Lockhart actually knocked himself out with his wand," she managed and the conversation resumed, though for a prolonged moment Draco still stared his daughter in the eye with a serious look of warning. He may have given her the all clear to deal with that Allseyer boy, but that did not mean she could go clambering through the depths of the school's plumbing willy-nilly possibly falling to her death in the process. It would have been nice to say that dinner continued without a hitch, but the atmosphere soon turned to breaking point when Molly caught wind of Lavender boasting of the up and coming trips she was due to take.
"And what about your family, have you forgotten about them?" the protective mother spoke up, causing half the table to fall silent and watch grandmother Weasley with wide eyes of surprise.
"Of course not," Lavender countered forcibly, her eyes narrowing in dislike for the woman she felt to be domineering and interfering.
"Well will you be taking Ron or the children with you on your travels?"
"No," Lavender replied awkwardly.
"Oh." The tone in which Molly made this simple utterance enraged young Lavender.
"For your information I work very hard for my family," she snapped, catching the attention of the rest of the table, who had not yet noticed the potential fight developing at the head of the table.
"I never said you didn't."
"Yes you did, you were implying it!"
"It just seems to me that with all this travelling you're going to be doing that you won't find much time to see them, that's all."
"That's none of your business Molly," Lavender hissed and she sounded venomous as all her suppressed emotions on the matter came bubbling to the surface.
"Lavender," Ron pleaded softly, noticing that their children were all looking near-tears.
"No Ron," Lavender complained angrily. "Your mother has something to tell me." The manner in which Lavender dismissed her son would have been enough fuel for her to keep going, but Ron looked so miserable and defeated that Molly had not the heart to continue.
"No I don't," Molly sighed and she turned back to her plate, her head hanging. This simple conversation somehow managed to taint the rest of dinner, and for the most part Leshia and Katie tried their very best to cheer Rachel up, who seemed suddenly withdrawn and very teary-eyed. On the opposite side of the table their parents tried to do the same with Ron, though with more tact as Lavender was sitting right beside him. As soon as dinner finished and the plates had been cleared away the children scarpered and Leshia, Katie and Rachel made themselves comfortable on a large beanbag, with Rachel in the middle being cocooned in protectively by her friends.
"I'm sorry everyone had to see that," Rachel whispered and she hung her head.
"Nobody cared," Katie said and Leshia nodded quickly.
"No, but everybody noticed." Suddenly Rachel's brow turned into a frown and she looked up at Leshia curiously. "So, the Chamber of Secrets? Since when has that been part of the plan?"
"It's not, it's just a thought that's all. I mean…Allseyer doesn't know that there aren't snakes down there does he?" For the remainder of the evening the children started to formulate the makings of ideas incorporating the Chamber of Secrets into mission 'Get Allseyer back'. Katie was the first one to go and as she was heading down to the hearth to return home by the floo network Leshia asked her softly to quiz her father on the location of the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. As soon as the Potters had gone, Leshia's parents showed signs of leaving too and Leshia quickly delved into her pocket and pulled out the little bag containing her new quidditch game. After a moment's hesitation (after all, it was an amazing gift), she thrust it into Rachel's hand.
"Here, you have it," she said firmly, and when Rachel looked as though she was about to object she shook her head and hugged her friend firmly. "I really want you to have it, please don't argue with me because you're not going to win." The girls parted and Leshia was saddened to see tears in her best friend's eyes.
"Thank you," Rachel mouthed as the tears spilled over. To comfort her friend Leshia pulled her into another hug.
"I'm going to ask if you can stay with us over New Years, I'm sure my parents will say yes and maybe your dad can come too. Just remember Rach, I'm always there if you need me, just hop into the hearth and I'll be waiting."
XXX
Rachel took Leshia up on her offer almost every day for the remainder of the holiday, but Leshia didn't mind in the slightest. She made sure to keep her best friend occupied and distracted from her tattered home life and as such both girls enjoyed a fun filled holiday. No more was mentioned on rowing families, or Leshia's own problems with her dangerous stalker; instead, they focused on the positive things and within no time the girls found themselves at the station, saying goodbye to their families (well, not in Leshia's case of course). Ginny was crying, and Ron looked close, he was incredibly distressed that his cherished daughter was leaving again, leaving him with no one to confide in and share his misery with at home. She had made home much more than bearable, she had made it wonderful, but the young man wished nothing more than for his daughter to return to school where she would undoubtedly have a much more enjoyable time. He wouldn't wish any matter of heartache on his precious child, no matter how much pain he received in return.
As the train pulled out of the station Rachel felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders, soon to be replaced by a huge feeling of guilt. She wished so dearly that her father would be all right, but she couldn't help but feel relieved to be returning to school where her parents' troubles seemed like a bad dream.
"Exploding snap anybody?" Leshia piped up with a big grin, as she brandished a shining new deck of wizarding cards.
"That depends," Rachel sniffed with a big smile. "Are you ready to lose?" The train journey passed with much laughter and fun, and within no time it seemed darkness had fallen and the more experienced Hogwarts goers started to recognise the surroundings, meaning they were close.
"Come on, let's put our robes on," Katie instructed the other two and they quickly changed into their school robes. Just in time it turned out, as the moment they shut their trunks the squeal of the breaks sounded and the train started to slow down. Soon they joined a steady throng of children heading out to the carriages.
"Hello ladies," Rodeo's unmistakable foreign voice sounded and moments later he had slung his arms about Katie and Rachel's shoulders leaving Leshia feeling her cheeks prickling with jealousy. The boy looked decidedly browner than the last time they had seen him.
"What happened to you, did you eat too much chocolate or something?" Katie asked fondly when she too noticed Rodeo's tanned appearance.
"No," the boy countered with a beaming smile directed solely at Katie, causing the prickle in Leshia's cheeks to intensify. "I spent the holiday on some marvellous tropical island."
"Oh shut up you show off," the raven-haired girl laughed adoringly. Leshia's jaw dropped a little at this point and she might have said something she would later regret, when suddenly someone fell into step beside her. It was Parys and he was smiling at her warmly.
"Hello."
"Hi," Leshia returned with a smile, and the boy's gratifyingly lavish attention on her, soon made her forget that all the way up to Hogwarts Rodeo and Katie regaled one another with their holiday stories. The castle seemed so delightfully warm in comparison to the cold northern evening and soon everyone was enjoying the delicious dinner the Hogwarts Elves had spent all afternoon preparing.
"Thish ish absholutely amazong," Rachel exclaimed through a mouthful of mashed potato.
"What's amazong?" Leshia chuckled.
"Thish," Rachel said firmly and she finally swallowed her delicious mouthful. "Hey Leesh, is the back of your head hurting?" After feeling her hair to find that nothing out of the ordinary could be found there the blonde girl frowned at Rachel for answers. "Well it's just Allseyer looks like he's trying to bore a hole in the back of your head with that glare. God, didn't his mother ever tell him that if you make a face like that for too long it'll stay that way?" Leshia quickly spun around and found that indeed, her archenemy was glaring at her furiously. Evidently his anger hadn't taken a hiatus over the holidays and his hatred for all things Malfoy had increased. Leshia took the opportunity to smile smugly at the unpleasant boy, before she turned round in her seat and found Rodeo watching her with a worried look.
"What?" she laughed.
"Shouldn't you stop trying to wind him up? I mean, your body can't take much more of a beating Leesh."
"How did…" Leshia trailed off and shook her head, trying to implore with the boy to shut up, should anyone more capable of action (Ryan Lofting and his friends for example) hear him and go marching across the hall to take care of the Slytherin boy. Rodeo looked saddened.
"Just be careful okay?" The boy had suddenly turned brusque and he looked away leaving Leshia feeling angry and confused. What was his problem? What's more, Katie now seemed incredibly off with Leshia, who was beginning to get a little tired of teenage hormones and emotions, they all seemed far too complicated. Would it be too much hassle to go back in time and reverse the effects of this melodrama-filled time. By the time the children had made their way up to their dormitory and were curled up in bed in their pyjamas Katie had finally returned to normal, though by this point Leshia had no desire of speaking with her.
"Goodnight," the blonde haired girl called to her friends, before she rolled over in bed and smiled: she was home.
XXX
The following morning Leshia (and possibly the rest of Gryffindor tower, if not the whole of Hogwarts) was very rudely awoken by a thunderous explosion. Before she had time to control her body, she had leapt out of bed along with the rest of the girl's in her year to find that Rachel was silently cracking up, with tears of suppressed laughter streaming down her face. In her hand was one of the exploding bouncy balls that had caused so much trouble at Christmas.
"Rachel!" Katie exclaimed in surprise. "What is wrong with you? You scared us half to death!"
"I just couldn't resist," the redhead sang out gleefully. "You were all sleeping so peacefully and I was bored." This statement only furthered to exacerbate her peers' morning grogginess and for the next ten minutes they pummelled her with pillows and even a shoe.
"Ashley!" Rachel exclaimed in amused surprise. "You can't hit me with a shoe! It was time to get up anyway." Resigned to the fact that it was soon time for breakfast anyway, the others got dressed and soon the trio of best friends were making their way down with the steady morning throng of people to the main hall.
"Was it one of you that woke us up?" Tom's voice came and soon the young Weasley had fallen into step beside his cousins, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Blame this one," Katie grumbled with a nod of her head towards a beaming Rachel.
"I thought as much," Luke piped up, quickly appearing on the other side of the girls. "It was a mistake giving you that ball, I knew it all along." Rachel beamed at her older cousin and hoped to convey that she was in fact very grateful for his gift. At Christmas Rachel and her siblings had been inundated with gifts from concerned relatives; in fact, most of her cousins had offloaded presents onto her that they themselves cherished, but felt would cheer her up no end. The breakfast hall was filled with the delighted chatter of happy Hogwarts returnees, who were delighting one another with exciting and embellished Christmas stories. At the Gryffindor table the scene was no different, and as the girls took their seats they caught the end of the story the Wood twins were telling their friends about their experiences at the Quidditch Christmas Cup – a tournament held for all the teams in Britain. As it transpired, their father, Oliver Wood's team had won and he had been awarded Man of the Match in the tournament final. It all sounded so terribly exciting.
After breakfast the girls trailed over to the charms classroom with their classmates still going on about the Wood twins' fascinating backstage stories form the tournament, leaving the trio feeling incredibly jealous. All in all they were incredibly happy when they took their seats and silence descended over the classroom. Luckily by the time conversation resumed on their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, everyone had forgotten about the exciting tales of the Wood twins. It would seem though that Damian Allseyer had not forgotten about the way he and Leshia last parted. He and his gang of unfortunate looking cronies were waiting for her outside the classroom with foul looks on their foul faces.
"Have a nice Christmas did you blood traitor?" Allseyer demanded venomously.
"Yeah it was lovely thanks," Leshia quipped, her eyes cold with hatred.
"Good, because it'll be your last, mark my words," the cantankerous boy hissed and his friends started to laugh nastily.
"Why, are they cancelling Christmas?"
"Oh no, nothing so drastic," Allseyer said light-heartedly with a cruel smile. "Just you."
"Don't you ever get bored of this useless chitchat, if you're going to do something then just do it." Everyone turned around in surprise to see that Julius Black had made his way to the head of the Slytherin group and was now watching Allseyer with an expression on his handsome face that clearly read that he had no desire to be in the same class as such an idiot.
"I can't, not here," Allseyer quickly countered, desperate for the mysterious Black boy's approval. His sniggering turnabout caused Leshia and the rest of the Gryffindors to roar with laughter, which wasn't abated until the telltale footsteps of the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor sounded from down the corridor.
"Well done," Draco told the class as he approached. "Not a shirt out of place, keep this up and you might just pass this year." With this he opened the classroom and walked in, leaving the children to scramble after him and take their seats. "I trust you've got any wild and reckless behaviour out of your systems in the holidays, because I don't want to see any of it in here." For a moment the class stayed silent while Draco walked round the back of his desk and lifted a large cloaked cage onto it. Everyone in the class leaned forward instinctively; intensely curious about what was inside. "Second years," Draco told the class with a small smirk on his face. "You are all about to become parents." It was a mark of the great respect (and terror) Draco held that the class didn't break apart whispering. Instead they still remained stock still, their eyes slightly wider, wondering what on earth was in the cage. "Can anyone tell me, what this is?" As he spoke, Draco walked over to the board and pulled down the rolled canvas that had been suspended above the board. As he did so a large detailed diagram of a small pixie like creature unfolded. Several children in the class darted back in disgust.
"Widglings?" Sam Thomas, a Gryffindor boy, exclaimed in revulsion. "But sir, they're evil!"
"Perhaps," Draco said lightly and he returned to his desk, leaning against it with an amused expression on his face.
"But sir, they chew holes in candle holders so they'll fall over and burn the house to the ground," Katie complained worriedly.
"Yeah, and they try to feed you poisonous spiders while your asleep so you'll either choke to death or get really ill," Rachel added. For the following five minutes the children continued their tirade on how awful these tiny little creatures were, while the muggle-born children in the class began to tremble in fear of these little beasts.
"So you'd all agree that these creatures are evil and not worthy of our time?" Draco asked the class eventually, earning twenty thorough nods in return. "Why do you think they're so wicked?" Several hands flew into the air. "Yes, Miss Weasley?"
"They're just born that way sir." Several hands went down, as evidently this had been the majority of the class' answer as well. Draco raised his head in a half nod, his expression thoughtful.
"Maybe, does anyone have any other theories?" Only one hand remained in the air. "Go on then."
"Maybe they do these things because they're taught to do them by their parents…or maybe, maybe they just think that's how they're meant to behave," Leshia said with an equal expression of deep thought on her face. For a moment a broad smile pulled at the corners of Draco's mouth, before he nodded and got to his feet.
"Exactly," he said loudly. "We don't know the answer to this, because no one has ever dreamed of owning a Widgling as a pet…until now." With this he lifted the cloak from the cage revealing ten little nests, built up against the railings. "The question of why people turn out the way they do has long troubled scholars. Are we simply born the way we are with no hope of changing or bettering ourselves, or are we honed by our experiences? Is there such a things as a purely evil person?"
"Voldemort sir?" Ashley suggested in a small voice. For a moment Draco paused.
"Ah but was he always evil, was he not an innocent baby at one point like the rest of us? The question I am posing you this term is this, 'what is the nature of evil and can we truly overcome it?'" For a moment Leshia looked to her hands feeling slightly humbled, she knew this topic must be close to her father's heart after the life he had endured. For her part, she already knew the answer to the last part of her father's question: most definitely. She had heard of some of the horrendous things her father had done in his time, and yet for the life of her she couldn't manage to feel shocked by it, as it didn't fit with his personality in the slightest. She couldn't picture him doing any of those things. Her father had overcome his evils.
"Consider this if you will, a social experiment that we will be doing throughout the term. We won't have any more lessons on it, it will be entirely up to you how much work you want to put into it," Draco explained. "You'll be raising a Widgling between two of you, and each pair will be matched with another pair so that the creature's can live in twos. Are you with me so far?" Everyone nodded, looking slightly more enthusiastic about the project. "I would like you to try your very best to see whether you can raise these Widglings against their natures. At the end of term you'll have to write a ten-foot report on your findings. This will constitute half of your final mark on this course. Now remember, there is no right or wrong answer, it's an experiment, but if you think that you can ignore the creatures, you will find that writing ten feet on a subject you have no idea about will be rather difficult."
"Sir will they live in our dormitories?" Nicola asked eagerly, already picturing a new pet. Draco smiled and shook his head.
"No, they'll be staying here in the classroom," he explained. "Each pair will consist of one boy and one girl." As he said this Rodeo and Katie turned to smile at one another, and Leshia, who was sitting behind the boy rolled her eyes to the sky in annoyance, before she folded her arms across her desk and rested her chin in them looking very fed up. Her father had noticed. "I've already assigned you to pairs, and the pairs in turn, into groups." On this note, he walked back to his board and spun it round, revealing pairs of names next to the letters A through J. Several children whispered a 'yes' as they were evidently placed with a friend, but Leshia couldn't quite believe her eyes when she saw she had been put with Julius Black.
"Sir?" Katie's hand was in the air again.
"Yes Miss Potter?"
"Is it possible to change pairs?" the girl asked with a wounded expression, she had not been placed with her beloved Rodeo; instead she was with Sam Thomas, who she didn't particularly like.
"No, there will be no swapping." At this he caught eyes with his daughter who was offering him the most adorable quizzical, yet entirely bemused, expression. She was silently asking him why he had put her with that boy, and he knew it. After giving her a fond smile he looked back over the class. "Nor will there we any swapping of the groups of pairs. I've assigned you all to your places for specific reasons." The only saving grace Leshia could find in the situation was that her pair was paired with Rachel's pair. What made this arrangement even more enjoyable was that Rachel had been paired with Rodeo.
"Now remember, you have to keep in regular contact with the other pair your working with. If Widglings do turn out the way they do because of socialisation, then for all your hard work, you'll never get a positive result if the other pair are doing nothing with their project. I realise that this is a lot to ask of you, but I thought it would be fun to give something new a try." For the remainder of the lesson, the children were assigned a Widgling per pair and were then instructed on arranging a cage for them in the cupboard at the back of the classroom. Leshia and Julius worked for the most part in silence, by the end of the lesson they had only really spoken more than a few words to one another when they had agreed (or rather Leshia had announced and Julius hadn't complained) that the Widgling would be called Gryff. As the bell went, the class was reeling from their enjoyable lesson.
"From now on, all work with your projects should be done in your own time, we'll resume with our lesson on complex countercurses on Wednesday." Finally the bell went and Draco nodded to the class. "Off you go then." Nineteen children scrambled to their feet and filed out, but one remained, with an extremely put out expression on her face. Draco couldn't help but look amused. "What do you want?" he chuckled.
"Answers," Leshia grumbled.
"To what my dearest?"
"You know what dad, putting me with Julius Black! Why?" Draco grinned broadly.
"I'm surprised you don't know, isn't it obvious?"
"No!" The girl was evidently extremely annoyed.
"Had it never occurred to you that having a contact close to that Allseyer boy might be an advantage to you?" For a moment Leshia furrowed her brow in thought; she hadn't thought of it like that. "And besides, there's something about that boy, he's not like any Slytherin I've ever met. He may be an ally to you. "Right then, if that's all the melodrama for today, then I'm going to go for a coffee. So if you have no further questions…"
"Actually I do," Leshia said with a small smile, and she finally got to her feet, walking over to the door. "Why didn't you put Katie with Rodeo?"
"Well why should I have?" Something about the look on her father's face told her that his innocence was entirely feigned; he knew why. Though this was not from his own conclusion drawing, it was Hermione who had helped him draw up the list and made sure that things turned in favour of their daughter.
"No reason," Leshia said lightly and after one last beaming smile, she scarpered to find her friends had waited for her up the corridor with Parys and Rodeo.
XXX
The girl remained in good spirits for a long time. Gradually the weeks were passing and with it the days were becoming longer and the weather was becoming a little more bearable – enough for the children to start venturing outside in breaks and at the weekend. Leshia almost entirely forgot her grandfather was out there and searching for a way to get to her; her attention was focused on trying to find a way to get back at Allseyer and to make Julius turn sides (it seemed as though he hadn't chosen one yet, so she was still in with a chance). As yet though, she had had little luck. They met three times a week to try to socialise Gryff, and so far the only words they had spoken had been on their progress, or rather the lack thereof. As they moved into the second week of February, the wicked Widgling had somehow managed to set fire to Leshia's hair, shred their notebook on their progress, spit a vile stinging substance into Julius' eyes and bitten them more times than they could count. Leshia was beginning to think the awful creature was just designed to be horrid, but a few days before Valentine's Day they had a breakthrough.
"Leshia," Julius' surprised voice came and the girl quickly looked up from her notepad (where she had in all honesty just been doodling) to see that the little creature was doing something strange with its face.
"What's it doing?" she asked curiously and she crouched down beside Julius beside the cage.
"I think…now I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's trying to smile," the boy remarked in wonder. Leshia turned to stare at him with an incredulous look.
"No," she said in disbelief. "It's probably just going to be sick, I'd stand back if I were you." Leshia herself pulled back and put her hand on Julius' shoulder to pull him back as well when he showed no signs of moving. The boy allowed himself to be moved, though in the end there was no reason for Leshia's concern, because Julius had been right in his assessment.
"Look!" he crowed triumphantly as Gryff's ugly boggle-eyed face split into an uneasy grin. "Well done Gryff!" The Widgling's smile intensified and he hopped about, happy for the praise from his 'father'. Leshia eyed the little Widgling with a look of extreme unease.
"I don't trust it," she said eventually as Julius leaned closer. "Careful!" the girl complained and she pulled him back again. "The last time you got that close you were blinded for the evening remember?"
"He won't do it again," Julius countered and he extricated himself from Leshia's surprisingly firm grip. "I think he just wants attention." Reaching tentatively through the bars with one (still bandaged from the last encounter with Gryff) finger, Julius gently stroked the Widgling's head. Gryff seemed to be enjoying himself, but this was about to change when after a loud yawning sound Peekie (Rodeo and Rachel's Widgling – neglected in comparison to Gryff) appeared from their nest box. The female Widgling started making a strange sound and in an instant Leshia reached out and yanked Julius' arm back; just in time too, as all of a sudden Gryff turned into a buzzing angry little demon.
"Those buggers," Leshia grumbled. "It's Rodeo and Rachel's fault that we keep getting assaulted by our Widgling, they've been ignoring Peekie and now she's turned into a bloodthirsty maniac." To her surprise Julius started laughing as he placed a cloak over their cage, blocking out the stinging spit that was flying his way and the angry sounds from the creatures. "It's not funny," Leshia tried, but a smirk was pulling at her face and within no time both youngsters were laughing fit to burst over the stupidity of their situation.
"I'll have words with them tonight, tell them to get off their lazy backsides and do some parenting," Leshia told the enigmatic boy as they parted ways by the stairs, which would lead Leshia up to Gryffindor Tower and Julius down to the dungeons. She got to reply, but the boy did offer her a grateful smile, and this certainly was progress on the 'make friends with Julius' front. Leshia positively ran up to her common room; she had started making sure she never went anywhere alone, to prevent herself from having to endure another assault from the Slytherins (and she knew that Allseyer was planning something, as his smile was getting more and more devious every time he saw her; he still hadn't forgotten about her crippling blow to his pride over Christmas), and on the odd occasion when she did find herself alone, she would run to wherever she was going as fast as she could. Thankfully, on this occasion she wasn't hindered (Snape would often be the one to catch her and would always admonish her for running in the corridors) and she burst into the busy common room to find everyone in a state of excitement.
"Crnations," Rachel's voice exploded somewhere off to the right.
"Um…bless you?" Leshia offered with a frown.
"No you wally, I said carnations," Rachel repeated slower this time. Leshia nodded in understanding, but then the true meaning of Rachel's words descended on her.
"Oh no," she groaned, before dropping down on a spare seat at the table Rodeo, Parys and Katie were playing a game of snap at. "Not again." Last year, an awful promotion of Love Heart Valentine's messages had gone round the school and Leshia had been targeted by at least fifty of the damn things. She had forgotten that Valentine's Day was approaching and that there might be a repeat of last year's performance.
"Stop being such a spoilsport, it'll be fun," Katie complained with a big smile. Leshia scowled at her.
"Well I refuse to join in," she said haughtily, before she turned on Rodeo and Rachel with a determined expression. "You two have to start paying attention to Peekie, she's leading Gryff astray!" For the next hour Leshia badgered the poor youngsters until finally they agreed to go and see their Widgling just to shut the girl up. Leshia went to bed that night feeling oddly cheerful; it had been a very productive day.
XXX
Carnation fever took over the pupils of Hogwarts, and every day there was a swarm of youngster queuing up at the Carnation stand being run by a group of seventh years. Leshia stayed well out of it and hoped that she had managed to get the message out to enough people that she was not participating in any Valentine's Day events this year, so would everyone please leave her out of it.
Come Valentine's Day morning, she was feeling incredibly optimistic that the day would bring her no unwelcome surprises, but as she opened her eyes, she was instantly startled with the most unwelcome surprise of all.
"Tally!" the girl yelped and she scrambled out of bed to get away from her father's Houself's bulbous face.
"Tally brings Miss Malfoy a gift from master and Mrs Malfoy," Tally said haughtily and she presented Leshia with a small leather box, which was bound with a pink bow.
"Thanks," Leshia said uneasily, stretching out to get the box from the houself's hand without having to actually go near her. As soon as the box was in Leshia's outstretched fingers Tally disappeared with a crackle, leaving thankfully an absence of grey foul smelling smoke, which was her usually method of departure (a way of punishing Leshia when she was rude, which was more often than not the case). As the sounds of her friends waking up met Leshia's ears, she sat down on the edge of her bed and undid the beautiful silk ribbon, revealing a tiny card decorated with little cupids. It read:
Happy Valentine Day darling
Love Mum and Dad
With a small smile, Leshia placed the little card on her nightstand, before she carefully prised open the leather box to reveal a stunning gold heart, decorated all over with different sized red stones. The hearty hung on a dainty gold chain, and all in all it was one of the most beautiful necklace's Leshia had ever seen. Feeling entirely rotten that she hadn't done anything for her parents, she carefully took the necklace out of it's box and fastened it round her neck.
"Wow Leesh, that's beautiful," a groggy sounding Katie awed from across the room. Leshia spun around and grinned at the raven-haired girl.
"My parents just gave it to me," she said with a big smile. "I must have forgotten to tell them that I'm not celebrating Valentine's Day this year." Katie smiled fondly at the smaller blonde girl, before she busied herself with getting dressed for the day. By the time Leshia and her friends had made their way down to breakfast, the girl was feeling much more optimistic about the whole thing. Valentine's Day wasn't all that bad, when it was done in moderation. The castle was tastefully decorated with beautiful bunches of red roses bursting from every nook and cranny, and high above in the lofty ceilings lots of shrunken turtle doves fluttered from corridor to corridor. Everything at breakfast had some sort of pink or red theme: strawberry bread and jam, pink butter, scarlet porridge and even pink and purple eggs adorned the grand tables. Most of the school seemed to have made an effort, and many girls sparkled with make up and glitter, and several of the boys showed off their carefully styled hair dos. The couples of the school seemed entirely infatuated with one another; Ryan Lofting and Julia Walling were no different. The loved up Gryffindor seventh years had in fact been banished to the end of the table by their single friends due to their inappropriate loved-upness.
The first carnations of the day arrived in the first lesson of the day: transfiguration, and they were delivered to their lucky (or not in some cases) recipients by a variety of seventh years. Ryan Lofting and his friend Luka Ibrahim were delivering the first of the second year carnations and from the moment the two boys walked in Leshia knew her mood was about to deflate like a punctured balloon.
"Good morning Professor McGonagall," Ryan called out cheerfully as he and Luka burst in, both young men were grinning conspiratorially at Leshia, making her feel decidedly uneasy: what did they know that she didn't?
"Good morning," McGonagall returned with a small smile. "Yes go on, hand them out and then be gone with you," she said fondly; these two were favoured pupils of hers. Luka and Ryan then went about giving out carnations to seven lucky second years, leaving their bucket only somewhat empty. They feigned to make towards the door, before Ryan put his hand on Luka's shoulder.
"Wait we've forgotten someone," he said.
"Oh yeah, so we have," Luka agreed and they spun around and headed straight towards Leshia, who's cheeks glowed furiously.
"Happy Valentine's Day shorty," Ryan said cheerfully, while ruffling the girl's hair. As he did so Luka took hold of a vast number of carnations, at least fifteen, and dumped them unceremoniously on Leshia's desk. The girl stared at them in complete horror, as though the young man had just emptied a whole bucket of Widglings on her desk.
"Thanks," she finally managed sounding unimpressed. As soon as Ryan and Luka had shut the door behind them, the sound of their raucous laughter met Leshia's ears and her cheeks prickled even more with embarrassment. Everyone in the class remained absolutely still, watching both Leshia and Professor McGonagall to see what was going to happen next.
"Yes, well," McGonagall finally spoke sounding a little flustered. "Perhaps you ought to put those in the sink until the end of the lesson Miss Malfoy." Had the children known any better, they would have noticed that the old teacher was highly amused. Leshia quickly complied and quickly cleared her desk of the bright red spiky stalked flowers. By the end of the lesson two more deliveries had been offloaded on the second years and Leshia's pile in the sink had steadily grown to at least two-dozen roses. After the bell had rung and the children rushed off to get to their next lesson, history of magic, Leshia lingered behind.
"Is it okay if I leave them there until later?" she asked uneasily, evidently mortified by the whole thing. McGonagall smiled warmly at her.
"Just don't forget to pick them up at the end of the day."
XXX
By the end of the day Leshia's collection of flowers had grown so large she felt she could open up a flower shop and earn a fortune. Every classroom she had ventured into contained little bundles of carnations she had left behind and by the end of the day she employed the help of five friends to go and collect them all. The solution as to what she was going to do with them all had come about during Care of Magical Creatures when Hagrid had noted how pretty he found the flowers in the school, and how he wouldn't mind something similar to brighten up his cottage. Leshia had pounced on him and wouldn't leave him alone until he had accepted her delivery of carnations.
Katie and Rachel were in incredibly happy moods; both had accepted a large number of carnations too, each bearing a message of how pretty/amazing/kind/wonderful they were. They cherished each one and had already arranged them in pretty bunches in the dormitory. It took the girls, with the help of Rodeo and Parys, twenty minutes to retrieve the flowers and then a further twenty to pull the messages from their prickly stalks.
"You're going to spend forever reading these," Rachel remarked as she dumped another couple of bright red messages into Leshia's satchel (already overflowing with red pieces of paper).
"Do I have to? Can't I just give them to Gryff and let him shred them, you know how much he loves to destroy things?"
"No!" The girls looked up in surprise at both boys, who had seemed incredibly against Leshia's suggestion, before they both looked down with glowing cheeks – evidently there were messages amongst the mountain that they wanted Leshia to read. Katie grew incredibly withdrawn after this. She had been on a high after she had received a message she was certain came from Rodeo, but now this threw her right off again; who did the boy want? Her or Leshia?
After delivering the mountain of flowers to Hagrid, the five Gryffindors made their way back up to Gryffindor Tower, where Leshia spent the next hour or so reading through the messages. She was thankful that most of them were in thanks for the marvellous party she had organised at Halloween, but there were plenty more spouting nonsense about her 'perfect golden hair' and her 'sparkling blue eyes'. She was getting rather bored by the whole thing when suddenly she reached a message that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up:
To my dearest, I'm coming for you
"Um…Rachel? Katie?" The two girls came running the moment they heard Leshia's frightened voice and after a moment's confusion they realised what had Leshia so panicked. "Read this." Their eyes roved over the paper within seconds.
"Oh my God," Rachel gasped.
"We have to tell!" Katie practically exploded. "Don't be an idiot Leesh! How did he get in the school! He's here, he's going to get you!"
"But he can't be in the school," Leshia complained, feeling the sensation coming back into her face. "You'd think someone might notice a great big Death Eater wandering about the place wouldn't you?"
"He could be an animagus," Rachel suggested, still evidently shaken up by the whole thing. Leshia remained incredulous. "I mean he could be pretending to be a mouse so no one will notice him."
"So you're telling me, that the seventh years sold a carnation to a mouse? Tell me, how the heck would it hold the quill, in-between it's teeth? Perhaps with its tail?"
"Leesh stop being so flippant, we're only worried about you," Katie complained.
"Well so am I, but this is no time to back down. He's close, so what? We always knew he'd eventually get here, that doesn't mean we go running to our parents."
"Okay okay," Rachel said quickly, trying to sidetrack Leshia's temper, before she really got going. "So he's not in the castle, but you know what that means?"
"No."
"He's got someone working for him who is."
XXX
Over the next few weeks Rachel and Katie didn't leave Leshia's side for love nor money. They accompanied her to every quidditch practice, every visit to see Gryff (which in fact turned out quite nicely, because finally the children started to see some improvement when Peekie started to receive some attention) and wouldn't even allow her to go to the toilet on her own. By the end of the second week of such cotton wool treatment, Leshia was beginning to get extremely tired of the whole thing. As March was nearing the weather was becoming unseasonably warm, and as such, every opportunity they could find, the children would venture out into the grounds. One particularly sunny Saturday Katie was accompanying Leshia without Rachel's help, as the feisty redhead was in detention for talking back at Professor Snape.
"So what would you like to do?" Leshia asked her friend amusedly. "Sit me down on some high ground so you can keep watch over the gardens?"
"Oh very funny," Katie grumbled. "I could be working on my Transfiguration essay right now, but oh no, you wanted to go outside!" Leshia grinned and shook her head.
"Just go to the library will you? Nothing's going to happen, I mean just look, most of the school is out here!" Katie however, would not be shaken off and in the end she and Leshia ended up taking a stroll around the lake, they had not realised they were being followed.
"It's gone quiet all of a sudden hasn't it?" Katie suddenly announced, sounding more than a little worried. Leshia frowned and realised that her anxious friend was right. Normally the lake path was crowded with couples at the very least, as it was an incredibly picturesque route to take. However, on this occasion they were very much alone, with only the swaying of the trees and the soft lapping of the lake breaking the eerie silence.
"We should go back," both girls said suddenly and they started back towards the school, but to their utmost horror it would seem that retreat was not an option.
"Well…well…well…alone at last."
"Katie run!" Leshia cried out before she'd even laid eyes on the cruel face of Damian Allseyer, who was ever so slowly approaching them from the path up ahead.
"No Leshia," Katie hissed at her side, worry and anger in her tone. "Don't be a fool Allseyer, you're not going to start anything with me here are you?"
"You know, that's a very good point," Allseyer said sounding thoughtful. "Boys? See to this one!"
"Katie move!" Leshia suddenly burst out and she started to push Katie with all her might towards the trees, while all the while two of Allseyer's many accomplices were advancing on them. "I'm not going to let you get hurt for my fight now just get out of here and get help!"
"But they'll hurt you!"
"Yeah well they'll hurt you too!" The girls were still struggling with each other so much that the two burly third years who had approached stopped and looked to their ringleader for guidance.
"What are you doing? Get them!" Allseyer yelled angrily. Katie now saw that Leshia was right and as the two boys descended on them she scrambled away, tripping over a gnarled tree root as she went.
"Hey look!" Allseyer laughed and for a moment the two burly third years who had Leshia in some unimaginably painful hold stopped trying to hold the struggling girl and looked to see where Allseyer was pointing. "The stupid idiot's knocked herself out!"
"Katie," Leshia gasped when she saw the thin line of blood trickling from her friend's forehead, the large boulder at her side had been the evident cause of her blacking out, as the girl had fallen onto it after her trip over the tree root. "You have to get help she's got nothing to do with this," Leshia complained desperately, as she was dragged painfully towards the pointy-faced ringleader.
"Well that's assuming I give a damn about Potter," Allseyer snarled with a gleeful smile on his face – finally after months of waiting he was finally going to get the little blood traitor good. "Which I don't."
"You're just a spineless coward Allseyer," Leshia hissed darkly, for which she received a swipe across the face in return.
"You don't know how long I've waited to do this Malfoy," Allseyer said lightly, before he took a running kick and planted his foot in Leshia's side, causing her to fall to her knees in pain. "You hid behind that washed up Death Eater at Christmas time, but this time…" Another kick, to the girl's ribs this time. "He's nowhere to be seen."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Leshia managed through her agony, and she spat away the blood that was trickling into her mouth. For a moment Allseyer seemed afraid, and he looked around himself like a startled rabbit. Despite her predicament Leshia started laughing, something which earned her a very painful kick to the face, causing blood to pool in her mouth. "You're such a coward!" she shrieked, blood flying from her poor damaged mouth as she did so. "Mark my words Allseyer, you're going to get what's coming to you, there's nothing standing in my way now." These were the last words Leshia managed to make before another horrendously painful assault began. It seemed as though the cruel and sadistic Slytherins were going for broke this time, as they dragged Leshia's battered body over to the lake to see how much fun they could find from dunking her repeatedly into the icy water. Every time they shoved her under, tears escaped from Leshia's eyes, as she wondered whether this would be the last time they would allow her to resurface. Would they dare do what they had been threatening to do all year?
"Help!" she screamed out under the water, as she was pushed cruelly into the gravely sharp lakebed, etching little cuts into her already wounded face. She didn't know who she was calling out to; all she knew was that she was beginning to lose the strength to fight back. One more dunk under the water and she was sure she would never resurface.
"Ahhh!" In a flurry of action Leshia was released and carried by scaly fingers to the lake shore, where she was laid carefully, barely conscious, on the pebbles. The startled Slytherins were running away from those sharp beaks that had bitten their ankles and the sharp claws that had scratched their flesh. Leshia was saved once more from oblivion and after vaguely opening her eyes to see what had happened she dearly wished she hadn't: three terrifyingly non-human faces were staring down at her with something that could conceivably have been concern.
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"I don't remember anything," a voice was saying somewhere in the distance. It might possibly have been her own, she wasn't sure. Was she conscious? Or was this some sort of ghastly nightmare? Why were the lights out? "I really don't remember anything," the voice repeated.
"Yes I do," Leshia cried out and she struggled against the darkness that was binding her.
"Leshia?" That tearful voice, that was her mother wasn't it?
"I do remember it," Leshia repeated vaguely.
"Oh Draco what's wrong with her?" Hermione's voice cried, as she stroked the damp hair from her daughter's bruised (yet repaired for the umpteenth time) face. Leshia seemed to be in some sort of trance, as her body struggled desperately against a foe her parents couldn't see. At his wife's side Draco knelt down, placing his strong hands on his daughter's shoulders and squeezing them tightly.
"You have to wake up now Leshia," he said firmly, squeezing her poor injured shoulders very tightly, trying to free her from the darkness that held her.
"Draco don't be so firm," Hermione complained tearfully, and she tried to release his hands.
"Oh so you don't want her to wake up?" Draco countered cruelly, the pressure of finding his daughter battered on the lakeshore making him callous and uncaring. Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and sat back on her chair feeling as though the world were coming to an end. Draco sighed heavily, hoping to convey that he didn't intend to be so cruel, before he looked back to his daughter, who as yet still remained unconscious. "Wake up!" he said loudly.
"I am awake," the response came, though from the frenzied struggling and the distorted expression on the girl's face, this was not entirely true. "Where are you?" Draco shut his eyes tightly, before he inhaled slowly, gathering strength for what he was about to do.
"Wake up," he practically yelled, while shaking the girl's shoulders very roughly. If the youngster wouldn't respond to coaxing (as they had been doing for the past hour) then he would bloody well shake her out of her trance.
"Ow," Leshia's suddenly more conscious response came, and the girl finally opened her bloodshot eyes to find her parents' faces hovering inches above her. "Why were the lights out?" she asked vaguely.
"That's enough Draco, let me through," Poppy said sternly, and she pushed the young man aside so she could have a look at Leshia's pupils. "Do you know who you are?" she asked sounding concerned, and yet a little flustered and angry – she was tired of looking up to find a dozen people rushing in with this girl's unconscious and battered body.
"Yes, Leshia Malfoy," the girl groaned and she reached up and touched her face, checking to see if everything was still in tact, because it sure didn't feel like it.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Yes Madam Pomfry."
"Very well then, you'll make it through, again," Madam Pomfry said sternly. "But I want you to realise just how close you were this time to never waking up again. Ten minutes later and there would have been nothing I could do."
"Poppy, please," Hermione's soft voice came and the flustered woman took her leave leaving Leshia trying to sit up in bed.
"I would suggest you don't try to move," Draco told her brusquely, and he reached out a hand to hold her shoulder down. "Your head might fall off if you do."
"Draco!" Hermione laughed, despite her fear. "Of course it won't darling." Leshia looked very much reassured, but before she could ask what had happened she was pulled into an almighty hug by her father. Seeing his daughter beaten to a pulp, barely recognisable and surrounded by three mermen had shaken the young man to put it mildly.
"I can't do this anymore Leshia," he said softly into the folds of her shirt.
"I know," the girl whispered meekly, as the tip of her nose prickled and tears welled up in her eyes; she hated causing her parents such pain. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Draco complained and he pulled back looking distressed. "Fix it!" A tear rolled down his daughter's cheek and Draco quickly reached out to wipe it away. "Don't you waste any tears on them," he told her strangely, the suppression of emotion causing his vocal cords to tighten.
"Wait," Leshia suddenly gasped. "Where's Katie?"
"I'm here." The raven-haired girl was sat on the neighbouring bed with a thin red cut on her temple. Leshia's face crumpled in relief to see her alive and well, but this relief was soon to be replaced by concern as she took in Katie's heartbroken expression.
"What happened Leshia? I can't remember!" Feeling so utterly helpless that she had escaped with a mere bump on the head and that Leshia had nearly died, Katie had no recollection of what had happened or who had done it. She knew that if she could remember she would have told as soon as she had the chance, but the memories wouldn't come, and she had watched helplessly as Leshia was put back together.
"I…" Leshia began and she hung her head. "You tried to save me," she said softly, and she looked up in time to see a tear roll down Katie's cheek.
"Hey now," Hermione said loudly and she sat down next to her best friend's daughter, wrapping an arm around the girl protectively. "No more of that. Everyone's fine, there's nothing to cry about. Now how about we open some of these sweets, I've been eyeing up those chocolate frogs for hours now." The two girls managed to laugh a little and by forcing away the terror that pulled at Hermione's heart, she and Draco managed to cheer up the two shaken up girls, and within no time, they seemed back to their old selves.
Katie was discharged that very night, though Leshia had to wait two more days for her body to catch up. Draco himself collected her from the Hospital wing, but instead of leading her back to Gryffindor Tower, Leshia was mortified to be instead led towards the courtyard, which could only mean one of two things; either her father felt she could do with a walk around the flower beds, or he was leading her towards the headmaster's study.
"Dad?" the girl asked worriedly as they stopped outside the phoenix statue.
"Heaven Drops," Draco told it and the circular staircase rose out of the floor. After offering his daughter a quick hug, Draco pushed her gently onto the staircase and watched as she slowly ascended to the headmaster's study. He would not leave the foot of the stairs until she was safely back by his side. Once the stairs had brought Leshia to the grand door of Albus Dumbledore's study, she felt her resolve crumble. How could she lie after all that had happened? The door opened without her even having to knock, and as it did so Leshia stepped in, instantly meeting eyes with the elderly Headmaster, who had risen from his seat and was waiting for her.
"I think it's time you and I had a little chat."
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End of PART IV
Review, review, review, just spent the last three hours writing when I should be sleeping so I can get up and study in the morning, so I could post this chapter. I know what you're thinking, stupid girl, not my fault you're so irresponsible, and yes, you're right, but PLEASE review if you enjoyed it, it's only fair :)
