A few days later
"And I will be assigning the partners for this project. It will continue until Christmas, due in the first lesson back after Christmas. You will sit with your assigned partner every lesson, there will be no exception, is that clear." Severus glared threateningly at the class. The Gryffindors were all looking at each other, each saying they hoped they'd be their friends partner. A useless and annoying habit in his opinion. The Slytherins were a more refined, they were all sitting there, supercilious smirks firmly planted on their faces, none more so than Dracaena, her brother stared at her, knowing she had done something, and dreading what it was going to be.
"Everyone stand, gather you things and move to the back of the room, when I call out your name you will move to a desk with you partner. There will be no talking." He thundered the last part when Lavender Brown started gossiping about something a Ravenclaw had told her. With Lavender effectively chastened and Gryffindor deprived of 10 points, he began to read out the partners.
"Zabini, Finnigan." They both stared at each other in shock, and a bit of pleasure that was quickly masked, Draco however wasn't looking at them, he was looking at the smug smile on his sister's face. "Crabbe, Goyle." Okay, now e knew she had been talking to Snape. "Malfoy Draco, Potter. Malfoy Dracaena, Granger, Parkinson, Thomas." He read through, the Slytherins could all see just how much he was enjoying torturing the Gryffindors, but they could see something else. The look he always got when he was doing something for them, and no one except for Dracaena and Draco knew.
"Draco, Draco!" Draco was jerked out of his thoughts on the best way to torture his sister when a pair of hands clapped just in front of his news. Leaning backwards, but managing to make it look casual with the Malfoy grace he glared at the emerald eyed boy before him. "What do you want Potter?"
"Everyone's gone, the bell went about five minutes ago. It was quite funny though; you even managed to ignore Ron shouting. I think that annoyed him more than you answering him would have." He finished thoughtfully, his lips were twisted into a smirk, and at that sight Draco groaned while standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I've been rubbing off on you." He groaned under his breath, ignoring Harry's questions, "What's the project on Harry, I wasn't listening." Shaking his head in mock exasperation Harry explained that they had to research the coronation potion, he was about to explain what the spell was when Draco interrupted him, "I know what the spell is Potter. Lets get to charms, we can sort out when we're going to work on it there." With that he walked off, it seemed to Harry as though he was acting like he had done before the train ride. If you had told him last year that he would be worried about Draco Malfoy, he and Neville Longbottom would be sitting with the Slytherins at every opportunity, and that he wouldn't be speaking to Ron, unless they were yelling at each other he would have thought you were crazy. Shaking his head at his crazy world he shouldered his bag and followed his friend to charms, resolving to talk to Drey, see why the mention of that spell caused a reaction like that.
In charms the Slytherins behaved themselves as instructed by Drey, as promised she did nothing else in his lessons except learn. Although why she bothered she didn't know, she knew all this stuff anyway. She was trying to hide a yawn when a crumpled piece of parchment fell awkwardly in her desk. Picking it up she surreptitiously scanned the benches around her, when she saw Harry staring at her with anticipation. Opening it she read hastily scrawled words. Drey, do you know anything about the coronation potion. Her eyes went wide and she read faster. It's the potion for our project and when I mentioned it Draco went back to Malfoy, do you have and idea why. Harry.
The entire class turned their attention towards her when the note exploded into flames. Ignoring everyone's stares she grabbed her things latched onto Draco and pulled him out of the room after her. In the echoing silence Bill and Harry moved to follow them but the court stopped them. Placing a restraining hand on Harry's chest Blaise spoke to both of them. "Let them go, they need to be themselves." If anyone noticed the words he used they didn't draw attention to it, instead they saw the slightly glowing strands of jewel coloured hair.
The twins stormed across the grass outside of the school heading to the forest. Hagrid was teaching some first years and when he called out to stop they just reached behind them and flicked their wrists, not even looking, just continuing to the forest. Their motions created a shimmering pool of light that trapped Hagrid, the first years, and the Sleipnir. They all shouted and screamed in panic, but the twins just walked into the forest, never turning back.
Miniscule shafts of sunlight filtered into the heart of the forest through the dense foliage above. Cool air was blowing blond and jewel coloured hair around ivory faces set in stone expressions. Dracaena and Draconis were standing before a white marble temple with the personal crest of Salazar Slytherin engraved onto the front of the building. "How could he be so stupid?!" Draco thundered, ignoring the lightning that struck the boulder beside him. His sister was leaning against a tree; eyes slightly out of focus, thinking. "He knows what that spell is. Why the fuck would he assign it to me and Potter?" Another bolt of lightning struck and shook Drey from her reverie. "Exactly, he knows what it is. Uncle Severus was always telling us how we'd inherit the Malfoy throne. Now that Lucius is in Azkaban, maybe he's trying to get us to take it." Drey spoke slowly, thoughtfully. Silence reigned after her announcement as they both considered its possibilities. "Could we do that?" Draco asked.
"I don't see why not, we have more power than he does, the power of the Ancients to be exact. The coronation shouldn't be a problem. The thing is there has only ever been a Lord and his wife, never brother and sister ruling equally." She bit her lip as she spoke, wondering if he would take this chance to separate from her. Her face lifted when his fingers appeared under her chin and lifted up her face. "When have we ever been known for following the rules?" Seeing the glint in his eyes her lips slowly spread into a smirk, followed by an identical expression on her brother's face. Having agreed on that they turned their faces to the temple beside them. They both knew what was in there, why they had been forcefully drawn here when they first found out about the coronation potion. Draco held his arm out to his sister and once she had slipped her arm through they headed to the doorway. They looked every bit the Slytherin King and Queen, Malfoy Lord and Lady, and heir to more strands of magic than anyone before them. The snake engraving began to glow, silver light glowed along the outline and the eyes shone with pearl. Together they walked forwards into the dark passage, finally accepting their full destiny.
"No one can get into the forest Harry." Bill sighed, sinking into a chair, exhausted. He was in the library with Harry, Neville and Ginny. They had all swiftly grown tired of the jubilation in Gryffindor Tower, Ginny had joined the other two, disgusted with her brother's glee at the thought of the two Slytherins in the forest, hoping for their deaths, joking abut how they would die. "What do you mean no one can get in? How can the forest be blocked off? What if they're hurt? Dieing." His eyes were shining with tears at the thought, no matter how strange it seemed, how unusual it was for a Gryffindor, Harry Potter no less, to care about a Slytherin, he was going to continue caring about Draco, and Drey. But he had a feeling that if Draco didn't come back he wouldn't be able to last without seeing him everyday. He was infecting Neville and Bill with his panic, the thought of not having Drey was enough to drive Bill to distraction, and Neville worshipped Drey, she had encouraged him, brought him out of his shell. Draco was just as dear to him, as was the rest of the court, although last year they had terrorized him in potions class.
Just as panic was hitting them full blast they were interrupted by Ginny's quiet laughter. They all glared at her, even Neville managed a terrifying look, she quieted, but still couldn't help but be amazed at their ignorance of the subject. "Do you honestly believe that anything could harm those two?" She started to laugh again when she saw they didn't have any idea what she was talking about. "You're too close to them." She realised, "You can't see what everyone else does. The twins, the court, they're surrounded by power. It rolls off the twins whenever one of them is angry, even if they're at opposite ends of a building their power is connected by a rope, not a string like Fred and George, but a strong rope. Nothing could hurt those two, not apart, and definitely not together. If anything the forest should be afraid." She sighed and looked at them, their faces clearing with the light of understanding. "No one knows what their full power is, I doubt even the court does, not fully. But there is something different about them, more than just a lot of power, how else would thy have the power for the court. And I'll bet that the coronation potion you were talking about has something to do with it Harry." They all looked at the girl a year younger than them and realised she was right, they were too close to see the power of the twins. But they knew it was there, and Harry and Bill had a feeling it was only going to grow stronger.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter. lufcboy, Beserker Nightwitch Silverone3, Beth5572. I love all of you, please can people review this chapter. ï