Disclaimer: I am not making money from this story. I don't own Harry Potter or any characters you recognize. Some of these characters I completely made up. Not like that will help…
A/N: Thanks to the lone reviewer for this fic so far, I assure you that I am updating as fast as possible. Also, thanks again to the lovely Claire who has, on multiple occasions, kept me from embarrassing myself. I think.
Chapter 3
"I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves."- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Andy heard Heather sneaking up behind him and ducked before the blonde could cover his eyes with her soft, tan hands. She fell into him from the momentum of her scare attempt and started laughing; her eyes were a light green today and her smile reached all the way up to the stained glass of her irises.
Castor was trying to choke down a fluffy blueberry muffin and he said in his 'stern' voice, "I should give you two detention right now. That's no way to behave…" Needless to say, the effect was dampened when he started into a coughing fit. This just made Andy and Heather laugh harder until Darcie waved her wand. The obstruction in Castor's throat dissolved and he was once again able to breathe. Castor turned to Darcie, "Sometimes you really scare me, Dee. Where did you learn to do that?"
Darcie just shrugged, sending her waist long red hair rippling over her shoulders… "You're welcome."
Just then, Andy's dad started passing out course schedules for the term along the Gryffindor table (Harry had been head of Gryffindor House ever since he was hired as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor). Harry kept pretending to give Andy the paper, but kept it just out of reach. After about 2 minutes of that, Andy snatched his schedule away from his teasing father and then glanced at where he was supposed to be this morning. He groaned, and at Heather's questioning look muttered "Double Potions. I'm so sick of Krum."
Instead of agreeing with Andy, Heather turned her smile on full force. "It's going to be a really good lesson today, I promise. I can introduce you to Emeline!" Andy looked confused for a minute, until Heather added "You don't remember her? You wrote Uncle Harry about her being sorted last night! She's in our year, too!"
oooo
Andy made his way to the dungeons amongst the mass of students that had swarmed out of the great hall. He was surrounded by people, getting a lot of attention- glares and greetings. He didn't notice any of it. All he could think about was Emeline… was that what Heather said her name was? She was beautiful. She was like no creature he had ever seen before. Her eyes were a pale grey that entranced him… "What am I thinking? I don't even know who she is. And plus, she's mean. I can tell by the way she glared at the entire hall last night.'
'You don't really know she's mean… you're just trying to protect yourself!' Andy rubbed his temple and then his forehead to shut off his conscience. He was thinking too much, that's all.
Covering his eyes was not the best idea amongst the entire student body. Within two seconds, he ran into somebody and fell to the cold stone floor. "Crap."
A voiced said sarcastically, "Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry!" Andy looked up to see an ivory face, laughing grey eyes, and slight, pink lips drawn out into a teasing smirk. On top of him. In the middle of a crowded hallway. "I didn't see you there. I'm Emeline. You can call me Em. That is, if you don't turn out to be a real prat."
Andy just looked at her for awhile, still a bit confused, until he finally cleared his throat and Emeline realized that she had been on top of him much longer than necessary. If it was necessary to begin with. She stood up gracefully and brushed away the nonexistent wrinkles in her expensive robes. Andy, still in a state of slight shock, started to walk away without saying anything.
oooo
"You're going to make me chase you, aren't you?" Emeline drawled in perfect imitation of her father. She ran after the boy she had just tackled in the hallway, caught up to him, and pulled him around to face her. "I can't find the way to my class; surely a man of little words such as your self would know the way?" She mentally beat her head against the wall. Dad would kill her if he saw her now, tackling boys in the hallway and getting constantly lost. Her dad wasn't really that bad though. He didn't really talk much about what happened when he went to school here, but she knew that there were a few people he'd tried desperately to forget. To hate. She didn't want that for herself. Her father had raised her strictly, but Draco had never been a bad father, like Lucius was. Her Dad loved her, and she could tell that he had loved her mother too. Time had worn him out.
There was something odd about this boy. He looked slightly familiar, for one. His hair in all of its disheveled glory made her want to smile, and his eyes were the darkest green she had ever seen. Emeline lost herself for a minute, just taking him in, his perfect nose, muscular shoulders, and the calloused hand he held out to her in greeting.
"I'm Andrew. You must be Emeline."
"You play Quiddich." As each of them respectively realized what the other one had said, they both became very confused. They both started at the same time again…
"How did you know I played Quiddich?"
"How did you know my name?" This was not going to work. Andy started to answer Emeline's question before she could say anything else.
"Heather is one of my best friends. She mentioned something to me about you, and I recognized you from the great hall last night. Plus, you just told me when you were on top of me. Now, what wonderful explanation do you have for me?"
"Um…" Emeline was caught a little off guard. She hadn't expected him to be so full of himself. She hadn't even wanted to say that Quiddich thing out loud. Her brain was very muddied up around him. "Your hand, it's calloused where it would touch a broom." she mentally repeated 'He thinks you're stupid!' as a mantra in her head while he tried to come to a conclusion about her, tearing her down with his arrogant, inquisitive gaze.
After an akward silence that could annoy the best of them, Andy tapped into his mother's resources. It was like flipping a switch inside him when it came to girls. But this girl was different. She was sarcastic, materialistic (hence the expensive robes), and very inconsistent. She was gorgeous. She was totally different from every other girl he talked to, but he liked her. He liked Emeline a lot, and this would only work if she liked him back. If he had told his dad he was about to do this, Harry would blush mercilessly and then turn to glance over at his mother. He found the thought amusing. 'Mom said he was never good with girls…' Then Andy considered his mother's reaction, a huge smile on her face as she would reach up to give him a swift kiss on the forehead and say, 'I know you can do this. You're my son, too!'
And that's when Andy Potter kissed her. It was barley a touch, but Emeline felt the electricity surge through her, to her fingers, toes and back to her lips and her eyes closed in dreamy response. She realized then what had happened, and then ran away with her books falling out of her arms and Andy calling behind her, "Wait! You don't know where you're going, remember?"
Andy stepped into Krum's dungeon and sat down in his usual spot between Castor and Heather. He had made it just in time. If Heather was right and this was Emeline's sixth year, and she was in Slytherin, then she was in this class. She obviously hadn't made it in time.
oooo
Castor watched the new girl and Andy collide, fall down, and stay down. He heard Andy give a slight cough, and saw both try to get up with as much dignity as they could muster. Andy started to walk away, the girl followed him. He saw them kiss. 'What the heck! They don't even know each other! They didn't even say anything, and Andy just kissed her!' She ran away.
"Now I'm lost," Castor told his friend as the sat down in the Potions classroom, "you didn't even talk."
Andy's disconnected answer came as a surprise to Castor. "Isn't Em beautiful?"
He was confused now. Andy never went ga-ga over girls he didn't even know before. Heck, Castor hadn't ever seen him totally into a girl since, well, ever. He pushed his confusion into the back corner of his mind and started to listen to what promised to be a very interesting lecture.
After years of teaching in England, Viktor Krum had only retained some of his trademark Bulgarian accent. It was enough to keep things interesting for Castor, who liked listening for the little twinges that deepened his voice as he became more and more excited about boomslang skin, burdock root and how if one mixes the two they're sure to burn a hole through the table. Castor was taking meticulous notes, absolutely enthralled with Krum's murderous gesticulation when suddenly the dungeon door creaked open. A tall, slim, man with short platinum hair swooped in and landed his cold, grey eyes on the confused professor. "I demand to see my daughter."
oooo
"Damn it, just tell me where she is."
"I'm sorry Malfoy, but your daughter is late. Ven she finally gets here, I vill let you know immediately. Now, if you vill kindly excuse me…" Krum turned back to the silent classroom, as Draco inwardly sighed. Who would have thought that his daughter would be lost in Hogwarts? He actually smiled a little at the thought. Emeline was the love of his life, and with his school rivals in places of influence all over this bloody school he couldn't help but worry about her.
He had just found out merely a half and hour ago that Harry was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and it scared him. He wasn't as worried about Hermione being headmistress, since he had always seen her as some form of miniature McGonagall anyway. He knew enough now to predict that she'd be fair, at least. But when it came to Harry, Draco didn't know what to do. Harry would always see him as the boy who had let the death eaters in at the end of their sixth year, not the man who had stood up to his father and carried out Snape's plan to let them in that eventually lead to the capture of the horcruxes and the defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Draco fought with this reality on a daily basis; never saying a word about his past to his beloved daughter for fear that she'd lose faith in him. He may have disentangled himself from Lucius' clutches, but the entire way he vowed to himself that if he had children he would love them the way his father hadn't loved him.
Draco hadn't realized it until Gabrielle died, but he wanted so badly to be accepted into other people's lives that when he was in school he had resorted to means that led him down a dark and dangerous path. He was doing it again. Pushing the people he wanted to reconcile with farther from him. And he also made a vow to himself, four months ago, that he would let his little girl learn from his mistakes- all of them. But to do that, he would have to risk her contempt, that sneer that was as familiar to him as the child's voice, and love. He would have to tell her. Everything.
oooo
Emeline was scared. She was horribly lost and there wasn't a soul in sight. Somewhere in the distance she heard a bell ring… she had inadvertently missed her first class! She didn't want her father to know that the first class she ever skived out of in his school was an accident. After a few more minutes passed, Emeline decided that she was tired of this. She missed her mother desperately, she was in a new school and she was kissing random boys in the hallways. This knowledge made her crumple to the floor. 'If mom was still alive, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have met Andy. Confusing, weird, completely hot Andy. Do I want to be here? Do I want to be back at Beauxbatons? I just want my dad. I want Andy. I want anybody who can get me out of here.' She started crying. She didn't know anyone except for a boy she had just run away from.
"DAD!" Emeline was starting to panic now. "Andy?" She sighed deeply. "Anyone?" The lights went out.
…
"OOF!"
She let out a strangled cry as somebody grabbed her from behind, pointed a wand to her throat and whispered "silencio". Emeline tried to scream but it was no use, she had officially become the 'Speak No Evil' monkey on all those knick-knacks she'd seen in little shops on the outskirts of muggle London with her father. 'Ok I can't scream- what else can I do to get away?' She turned quickly and bit, kicked, scratched… anything she could to get away from whoever the heck was keeping her here. The mysterious, disembodied voice just sighed as a hand reached out to her.
"C'mon, let's get out of here."
