If Only

Jeni Draco's Girl

HOORAY! Has been forever, but I'm finally writing chapter nineteen…wow…am so excited…ok, better get going!

Draco had told Jeni that he wouldn't tell her any of his plans for the "Emily + Henri" operation, as he thought it would be better if she didn't have to act. Jeni had to agree…everything would probably be given away otherwise.

So she wasn't entirely surprised when, outside the Great Hall on Tuesday before dinner, Draco put her arms around his neck and pulled her close to him, whispering quickly in her ear to just go along with it all. Jeni glanced sideways just as he kissed her ear, long enough to see Emily, along with rather a crowd of people, just standing around staring. Luckily her eyes fluttered shut around that moment, and she was able to block all that out – after all, the feeling of Draco trailing kisses across her jaw to her lips was much more interesting.

Remembering Draco's instructions to "go along with it", Jeni tightened her arms around his neck, pulling herself up onto her toes. She felt his arms tighten around her waist, almost crushing her against him. It was extremely difficult for her to avoid giggling out loud when Draco moaned against her mouth. Well, she thought, if the plan is to be a bit over the top, then I may as well have some fun…Jeni wove one hand up through Draco's hair and pulled her mouth away from his to kiss him just under his ear and then slid her hands down his chest and around his waist, hooking her thumbs into the belt loops on the back of his pants. Draco responded by cupping her face in his hands. Their eyes met, Draco smirked, and just as Jeni's eyes had closed and they were about to kiss, what she had felt was inevitable from the beginning happened.

Sharp nails dug into Jeni's arm and she was ripped roughly away from Draco, landing painfully on the cold stone floor. She looked up to see Emily standing square in front of Draco with her hands on her hips. Jeni was sure Emily was glaring at him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Draco? Making out with that slut – you don't even like her! You love me, remember?" Emily was saying.

"I don't have any idea where you got that impression from," Draco replied calmly. "I most certainly was never in love with you."

"What about this?" Emily demanded, indicating the necklace. "You can't send me something like this and then say you don't love me!"

Draco lent forward. "There's one little flaw with that argument, I'm afraid."

Emily looked confused. "What?" she asked.

"I didn't send you that necklace."

"But…" Emily was confused. Poor girl. "If you didn't send it, then who did?"

"Oh," Draco replied. "I have absolutely no idea!" he said with a rather blatant glance at Henri, before pulling Jeni up by her hand and walking into the Great Hall with her, leaving a rather dazed Emily and a blushing Henri behind them.

"That went rather well, don't you think?" Draco asked.

"Yes," Jeni replied. "Except now my bum's really sore."

Jeni walked down the steps into the Ravenclaw commonroom after dinner to find Windcharm tapping impatiently at the window, her feathers all ruffled. Jeni hurried over to let her in.

"What are you doing here at this time?" Jeni asked. Windcharm replied by holding out a leg. "And why do you look like you've been in a fight? What did you do, tackle the bird who was going to bring this?"

Jeni took the crumpled and slightly damp letter and let the bird walk up her arm to her right shoulder.

It was from her father.

Jeni frowned. Her father never wrote to her, and she barely even talked to him most of the summer holidays. Something must be wrong.

Dear Jeni she read.

I hope everything is going well at school and that you are studying hard. However, there is something else that it is necessary to inform you about. Please do not be too alarmed.

It has come to our attention that the remaining Deatheaters are forming a plan to resurrect Voldemort. Hopefully there is no threat to anyone, and we will try to keep the whole operation confidential. But because you are my daughter, it is possible that you may be in some danger. Remember to stay away from anyone connected to the suspects at school, especially Lucius Malfoy's son. This is possibly just as important a situation as when Voldemort was still alive.

Take care and remember to burn this letter.

Love,

Dad.

Jeni let out the breath she'd been holding. There was a huge downside to having an Auror for a father.

Besides, Draco wouldn't do anything to her would he? It was true that he had fantastic control of his emotions, but that didn't mean that it was all a lie … did it?

But how could she ask him about it?

What if he really was involved?

How safe was she?

Gods, she was fraternising with the enemy. He was still a Deatheater's son. She couldn't believe she'd practically forgotten about all that.

Jeni shook her head hard. Windcharm hooted angrily as she tightened her grip on Jeni's shoulder to keep from falling off, her claws digging in painfully.

"Sorry," Jeni said, holding up her left arm so Windcharm could step onto her wrist. "Oh, Windcharm," Jeni sighed. "What am I going to do? Do you think I can trust Draco?"

Windcharm hooted softly in reply.

"I wish you could talk. Animals always seem to know who's good and who isn't. I didn't really mean what I said before about Draco being evil, but maybe it's true. If Char was here, she'd know what to do…no, she wouldn't actually," Jeni said, remembering that Char hated Draco avidly. "I guess there's nothing for it. I can't just do nothing. I'm going to have to do something… so I guess we'd better go and find Draco then."

Windcharm hooted what Jeni assumed to be a yes. Jeni folded the letter and, clutching it tightly in her hand, she stood and left the commonroom. She was barely ten steps down the corridor when the last person on Earth that Jeni wanted to see right then came around the corner.

Emily.

Windcharm had flown off back up the corridor before Jeni even noticed. Emily didn't appear to either.

"What do you want?" Jeni asked, finding herself backed up against the wall.

Emily didn't answer, didn't react in anyway that would have indicated that she'd heard. She just raised her right arm, pointing her wand straight at Jeni's chest, and said coldly, "Petrificus totalus."

Jeni's arms snapped to her sides and her legs locked together. She swayed slightly before keeling over and landing flat on her back.

Emily stood over her, looking almost amused as Jeni struggled to speak or even move. "Don't waste your energy. You can't do anything," she said in the same icy voice as before, her wand aimed at a point somewhere between Jeni's eyes. "I'm going to hex you so badly I doubt your own mother would recognise you."

This hurt more that Emily realised.

Emily sighed. "But sacrifices must be made I suppose." She laughed almost maniacally. "If you could call it a sacrifice. After all, I don't really think anyone would care if you just… disappeared."

Jeni wondered how Henri could possibly like this girl.

"Still, that's enough chitchat." Emily tightened her grip on her wand. "I guess this is goodbye. Draco will be mine now, no matter if he sent me the necklace or not."

Jeni shut her eyes, not wanting to see what was going to happen.

Although her eyes were shut, she was still able to tell that there was a flash of light, and then silence.

She tentatively opened one eye to see Draco leaning over her. She tried to speak but couldn't – Draco, realising her predicament, tapped her forehead, and she felt her jaw move slightly. More of that wandless magic, although her arms and legs were still stuck.

"Draco!" Jeni cried, relieved she could speak and was still alive. "What happened? Where's Emily?"

Draco didn't answer either of these questions, instead he levitated her into the nearest classroom, lowering her gently back onto the floor, and carefully slipping the letter from where it was clutched in her hand. Windcharm chose that moment to glide gracefully through the door, landing on Jeni's chest.

Jeni looked back up from the owl to see Draco perusing the letter. "Quite true," he murmured to himself, the first words he'd spoken since he'd appeared.

"What is?" Jeni asked, desperate for Draco to further acknowledge her existence, and prove he could be trusted.

Draco sighed. "It's true that the Deatheaters are planning to resurrect Voldemort. You see," he began to explain as he seated himself beside Jeni, "I have also recently received a letter. My father wants to initiate me, at a ball on my eighteenth birthday. Purebloods only and all that." He shook his head in frustration. "I have to take someone, you know, a date."

"Who are you going to take?" Jeni asked curiously.

Draco stared at her. "You're not serious! You, of course."

"But I can't go! I'm not pureblood!" Jeni objected. "And could you let me out of this? I can't feel my feet anymore." Draco did so, and Jeni sat up and tried to rub the feeling back into her feet.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Of course you're a pureblood. How can you not be?"

"Oh, I don't know." Jeni was getting frustrated. "Maybe because my mother was a muggle. She left me with my father as soon as she could, after she found out he was a wizard. I think she thought he was a bit loony, or something."

"So that's why you know about all these muggle things then?"

"Yeah. Dad thought it was important for me to know about I guess, he said it was a part of who I am. He did muggle studies when he was here, so he knows about all those kinds of things."

"Ah," Draco replied. He looked a bit like he knew something that he wasn't telling. "Why's your dad so important that he know about all this and is warning you that you're in danger because you're his daughter?"

"Well…" Jeni paused. "The simple answer is that he's an Auror, one of the best one's in the ministry. There's some other stuff, but it's a bit complicated…long story. I don't really know if I should tell you this…"

"Come on," Draco asked her. "Might turn out to be something I already knew, anyway."

"I suppose so," Jeni replied thoughtfully. "Alright. Well, like I already told you, dad's an Auror. Before we were born, when Voldemort was in power for the first time, my dad caught your father, along with some others, when they were out doing…well… deatheatery stuff I suppose. Neither of them were alone, and there was a bit of a fight until it was down to just our fathers. Dad managed to knock Lucius out, and they took him to court, for murder and unforgivable curses and all those other horrible things he'd been doing. But somehow, he got off. I guess there were a lot of corrupt people in the jury at the time, no one knew who they could trust. And dad's still got this personal thing going. He's determined to catch Lucius for something and put him in Azkaban, and I guess he thinks this resurrection thing will be a good time. Do you know when it's going to be?"

Draco had been silent all this time, and looked to be in deep thought. He glanced up now. "I think it might be part of the initiation," he said. "You are going to come to the ball, aren't you?"

"Draco, I can't!" Jeni replied. "That's way too dangerous! What if your father knew who I was? And there's no way dad'll ever let me go, anyway."

"You can just tell him that you're staying with Henri for a week or so. Of course, you won't be, since Henri's coming to the ball."

"Besides," Jeni said, running out of arguments, "I'm not a pureblood. Surely someone will know! If they found out they'd probably sacrifice me or something."

"No one will know. It's not like it's written on your forehead in non-erasable ink," Draco replied. "And you'll be with me, completely exempt from scrutiny and all that."

"I just can't!" Jeni cried, standing quickly. "I don't know if you can understand this, as I don't think Malfoys seem to have any morals, but I can't betray my family and who I am like that, and go to some anti-muggle-deartheater's ball, even if it IS your eighteenth birthday. I'm sorry, Draco, but I can't." She took her letter back from him and walked out of the classroom, back to her commonroom to burn the letter and cry herself to sleep.

And HOORAY! That's it…possibly my longest chapter ever. 2306 words…about. I did think 12 pages would be more than that, but anyway.

If you managed to get through all that, CONGRATS!

Thanks to MELANIE, my wonderfully beautiful beta, HANNAH for encouragement, EMMA for your review (thanks! -)

I know the bit at the beginning was possibly a bit…unwanted…let me know what you think. And remember, it was meant to be stupid and over the top and all that. I myself find it quite amusing.