Chapter 9

Skinner Hits the Fan

The Slytherins were abuzz with happiness after the Quidditch match, and I was ecstatic…and not just because the sex in the bathtub was amazing.

It was a month after my dorm was broken into, and Draco finally let me bring the Tome into my dorm, provided it was under Muggle and magical lock and key.

This term, Halloween was going to be an enjoyable undertaking. Not only was there going to be a feast, but there was also going to be a ball for the sixth and seventh years.

I squealed when I got the news. I liked Halloween. I loved dressing up like a villainess.

"Dracy!" I said when we got back to the dorm, me sitting in Draco's bed. "What are we going to go as for the ball?" I asked.

Draco groaned. "Someone who isn't going to try and smash their head in the wall." he muttered.

"Why not Quasimodo and Esmeralda?" I asked.

"No." Draco said instantly. "I'm not going to be leaving this dorm to have everyone see me as a hunchbacked monster! And I'm not going as Minister Frollo, that's my father."

"Shit." I hissed. "Scratch that out." I mumbled. "Draco, please, I want to go."

Draco sighed. "Fine." he sighed. "Go as Snow White."

"Everyone's expecting that." I said, pouting. "And what are you going as?"

"Sleepy Slytherin Head Boy. I'm not going."

"Draco!" I whined. "I can't go alone, that's pathetic! And you owe me! You made me look stupid at Slughorn's Christmas party sixth year!" I protested, stomping my foot in frustration.

"All to save your ass, Hannah, all to save your ass. I owe you nothing."

"Draco!" I whined angrily.

"Hannah!" Draco mocked my voice, laughing.

I grunted and turned around. "You're a prick!" I said, sitting on his bed and looking away from him.

"Oh, you love it." Draco said, turning me around.

"No I don't! You're an asshole." I muttered, hiding my face.

Draco smirked. "Look, there she goes this girl is so peculiar, I wonder if she's feeling well…" he sang.

I gave him a dark look and grabbed my Tome to read.

"With a Dark villainess look, and her nose stuck in a book, what a puzzle to her fiancé is Belle." Draco played with my hair, continuing to sing.

I ignored him and Draco laughed, poking me.

"Now it's no wonder that her name means beauty, her looks have got no parallel. But behind the fair façade, I'm afraid she's rather odd. Very different from the rest of us is Belle."

I rolled my eyes and Draco pressed on.

"Right from the moment that I met her, saw her. I said she's gorgeous and I fell. Here in this school there's only she, who's as beautiful as me. So I'm making plans to woo and marry Belle."

I sighed, playing along. "There must be more than this provincial life!" I sang, somewhat annoyed.

"Just watch I'm going to make Hannah my wife!"

I laughed and threw myself into Draco's arms as he spun me around. "Tale as old as time…" I sang with a grin.

"Song as old as rhyme…"

"Beauty and the Beast."

I smiled as Draco kissed me. He knew just how to make me laugh and loosen up, despite the fact his father had a stick shoved so far up his ass he had Voldemort controlling his actions.

I smirked and laughed evilly at the thought.

Draco grinned at me and tugged me out of his dorm. "Come on." he told me.

"Where're we going?" I asked.

"Just follow me." Draco repeated with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes. Who was I to say no to that bloody smirk? "Oh, fine." I said, going with him. "Why do I have the feeling that we're going into the Forbidden Forest?" I asked.

"That, my lovely bride-to-be, is where you're horribly, tragically mistaken." Draco grinned, leading me to the third floor. "You remember the war when Theo Nott had died setting fire to the Room of Requirement?"

I nodded. "How could I forget…you almost died to try to save me." I whispered, looking at him.

Draco grinned and kissed my temple. "You would have gotten over me soon after."

"No I wouldn't." I said, looking up at him sadly. "It would have been just when you thought I was dead and you were pleading for Voldemort to kill you."

Draco smirked. "Silly Hannah." Draco muttered. "Anyways, when I was on Head Boy rounds, I figured something out. The fire didn't destroy the Room!"

"It didn't?!" I asked.

"No! Since the Room of Requirement took many forms, only the Room of Hidden Things was destroyed. Must have been the magical properties of the Room."

I grinned at him as a door appeared where there originally was nothing but a few scorch marks along the wall.

Draco smirked and opened the door and made me gasp.

"Oh my Skinner…" I whispered.

The Room was dark, candlelit, rose petals everywhere with a bottle of champagne on ice and chocolate strawberries on the table.

"Oh, my God." I said, blushing. "What the hell's this?"

Draco smirked. "Can't a man be surprise his fiancée every now and again?"

I laughed, leaning on him. "Sure, but how? Food isn't one of the Laws of Elemental Transfiguration." I said.

Draco shook his head. "Kreacher owed me a favour." he muttered, leading me in and pouring me a glass of champagne.

"Aw, thank you." I said, taking the glass from him and taking a sip. For a Muggle liquor I loved it.

Draco grinned, kissing my temple as he got himself a glass and clinked glasses with me.

"What's the occasion?" I asked as I sipped.

Draco shrugged. "Never really got around to your birthday, did we?" Draco asked.

I laughed, shaking my head. "No, I was planning a defence for your mother." I giggled.

Draco kissed my forehead from across the table, feeding me a strawberry.

I grinned. It was hard to believe that in a few months that this would be Draco and I. Just Draco and I…Skinner knew where. Malfoy Manor, a flat, I didn't know. Nor did I care to know at the time. At the time I was trying to plan my wedding. not where I was going to live, not when we were going to have kids, if we were going to have them right away. I was just enjoying my engaged state for the time being.

I grinned at Draco's confused look.

"What are you thinking?" Draco asked.

"Oh, nothing." I drawled with a smirk, licking my lips free of chocolate. "Just thinking."

"Of?" Draco asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Of how amazing it's going to be after the wedding." I grinned.

Draco laughed, shaking his head. "You scare me, sometimes, love, you know that?"

I beamed. "Yeah." I laughed. "Did you ever imagine even in your dizziest first year daydreams that we'd end up here?" I asked.

Draco laughed with me. "Hoped, yes, but don't tell my minions or Blaise, they'd rub it in so much." he chuckled. "You probably knew that I was…in denial towards my feelings, but hey, I was eleven. Sue me."

I laughed. "If I wanted to sue you, I'd file a prenuptial." I said.

Draco paled. "You wouldn't dare!"

I laughed some more, almost falling out of my seat. "Draco, I am joking. A prenuptial is for a couple say like your parents, for an arranged marriage, or a marriage of convenience. Which I hate to say was the case for your father. He only married Narcissa to broaden the Malfoy family tree."

Draco rolled his eyes. "What's the point of marriage if you don't love your spouse?"

I looked at Draco. "Don't be so hard on arranged marriage, Draco, if it wasn't for your parents' marriage, you wouldn't be here and neither would Mel."

Draco grinned at me. "Touché, Mrs. Malfoy." Draco laughed.

I blushed. "Draco, I'm not Mrs. Malfoy, yet." I giggled. "Give it a few months."

Draco laughed and we clinked glasses again.

"To not marrying Pansy." Draco smirked.

I snorted and burst out laughing. "Oh, Lord, I love the woman, but you and her…I'm sorry, no." I chuckled.

"They said the same thing about me and you." Draco stated.

I nodded. That was true.

"But then again, they can all get fucked." Draco laughed.

I grinned, raising my glass. "To my future husband." I laughed. "After all we've been through, he finally grew some balls."

Draco laughed, clinking glasses with me. "To my future wife, still the same mouthy, headstrong, heroic, badass, broom riding, tree climbing, Dark Lord thrashing tomboy that I fell in love with."

When Draco and I had gotten back to the dorm, I went to get my wrap when I gasped.

Someone had been in my dorm…again! And this time, they trashed the place.

"The Tome…" I whispered, running to where I had hidden it, under my bed in a loose floorboard.

I sighed in relief. The Tome was safe.

"Thank Skinner for small miracles, eh, Gwen?" I asked, looking up and to where Gwen's cage was supposed to be.

The odd thing was…her cage wasn't where I had put it.

"Ok." I was confused, looking everywhere for my owl cage. "It's one thing if the owl's gone and the cage's there, but it's another if the cage's gone as well."

I cleaned up my dorm as I went, looking for any traces of my beloved owl.

I just about screamed when I saw feathers scattered on the floor by the oddly open window, beside a note made from a page torn from a book. I shivered, finding a picture of a Dementor on the back of the page.

I unfolded it and held my breath as I read it, the curtains billowing silently in the wind.

Missing something, Potter? Yes, we have your owl. If you want to see her again alive, you'll give us the Tome. Until then, enjoy the feathers and your owls blood.

-Z

P.S. Tell old lady McGonagall, we roast your owl.

I paled, finding the wording running down the page. It was written in blood…and not just any blood…Gwen's blood.

I screamed, dropping the paper and stepping back, sobbing. They had taken Gwen! GWEN!

It was instantaneous the effect of my scream, Draco and Harry were the first to barge in, wands out, followed by Hermione, Sheila, Hannah Abbott, Ernie and Jason, all with wands out.

"What's going on!?" Watson demanded before paling at the sight of my hands. "Hannah, is that blood!?"

I nodded.

"What happened!?" Harry asked, taking hold of my hands.

"Harry, it's not my blood!" I shouted, wrenching my hands back as Hannah found the note.

"Then what the fuck is all over your hands?!" Jason demanded.

I took a deep shaking breath and looked to Draco. "They have Gwen." I said.

Draco's, Harry's, Hermione's and Sheila's eyes glazed over, mouths agape.

"They got in again?" Hermione asked.

I nodded. "They didn't find the Tome, so they decided to take something of mine as incentive to give it to them." I whispered, halfway to tears.

"Then give them whatever the it is that they want!" Ernie said.

"It's not that easy, MacMillan!" Draco told him. "This is not some stupid thing, they're after something Dark that Hannah happens to have. Something that's in Hannah's blood."

"Then I guess Gwen's gonna die, because they can't have her blood!" Ernie sighed, leaving the room.

I paled. Gwen…dying? I couldn't let my owl die!

Hannah left the room and Jason right after, talking about what he was going to do about the ransacking.

Harry and Hermione went to the library, Sheila following them as I sat on my bed.

"That's it." Draco said, closing and locking the window. "We need to tell McGonagall about this. Whoever they are, they want this book, and they want it bad enough to kill you for it."

I shook my head. "No, they said that if we tell McGonagall, they'll roast Gwen." I whispered, eyes almost overflowing with tears.

Draco grabbed his wand and locked my window as Hellion hopped into my lap, Diablo on her head.

I took Diablo and sighed in relief as I tucked her in my pocket, stroking Hellion as she purred.

"I want my owl." I choked.

"I know, sweetheart, I know." Draco whispered, wrapping an arm around me and taking the note. "We'll get her back." he murmured as he read the note. "Z? Who the hell's Z?"

I shrugged. "That's what they signed the note with."

"There's only one sort of person that would write this." Draco muttered. "A Death Eater."