Chapter 14

A/N: There will be more to the plot, but you know stories, there has to be multiple sub plots, makes it more fun that way. So read on folks! Enjoy!!

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

The following morning Sarah had gone to meet Steph in the hospital wing before heading to the great hall for breakfast.

"No Draco this morning?" asked Sarah with an astonished expression. Jumping to the conclusion that he would have been with them to go to the great hall, she mentally slapped herself. 'Can't expect him to stick around the whole night' she thought to herself.

"No, he must have left after I fell asleep last night" said Steph, breaking Sarah out of her thoughts. Nodding her head, she asked a few questions about her having stayed in the hospital wing all night, and then they went on to useless topics that were rather mundane.

She waved goodbye to Steph as they split to sit at their respective tables, Sarah plunked herself next to Harry. Greeting him with a quick hello and a smile, she nabbed a piece of toast and managed to scarf it down in less than five bites.

"Hungry by any chance?" teased Harry as he picked at his own breakfast. Finishing her mouthful, Sarah stuck her tongue out at Harry.

"Always actually" she quickly replied before grabbing another buttered slice. Meanwhile at the Slytherin table, Steph had taken a seat adjacent to Draco, avoiding the questioning look he sent her way. She took a sip of pumpkin juice before deciding on what to eat for breakfast. Mimicking Sarah, she munched on a piece of toast, although she would rather take her time to eat the still warm slice.

Steph looked up at the teacher's table and saw Dumbledore staring down at her. She sent him a questioning look. Knowing what she was asking, Dumbledore shook his head slowly; they hadn't found the girl yet. She looked over at Draco and saw that he too was staring at her.

"Any news?" she asked him, startling him out of his trance.

"Huh? What? I wasn't staring," he said quickly.

"Yes you were, but that's not the point," she sighed, "I asked if there was any news?"

"Oh. No, not yet. I won't ask my father, that would only raise suspicion, and I haven't heard from the 'girl' yet."

"Girl!?!" shrieked Pansy, making the two teens flinch at the sound, "what girl?!? are you cheating on me again Draco? You know your father wouldn't approve of you hurting me!" she cried hysterically.

"Sod off Parkinson," Steph sighed exasperatedly. "You weren't invited to join in our private conversation."

"Was I talking to you? YOU WHORE!! You've done nothing but try to take my Drakie away from me since you got here. Come near him again and I'll rip your eyes out!"

Steph stood up suddenly, shocking the Slytherins, who had been listening eagerly to the fight, and making Pansy take a startled step back in fear. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!" she shouted. "All I've done was try to find friends at this school, and all anyone has done is assume I'm up to no good." She leaned her hands on the table and stared Pansy down. "I'm going to give you a little lesson, so keep your mouth shut and listen up, I'll keep it dumb enough for you to understand."

Pansy opened her mouth to protest but Steph was ready for her, "Silencio!" she cast her spell, quickly robbing Pansy of her voice. "I told you to shut your mouth. Time you learned to take me seriously. Now listen up… Draco – Does – NOT – Like – You! You – Have – NO – Say – In what – HE – Does! If he chooses, emphasis on the HE, to fuck your ugly ass it's only because you're so damn easy and pathetic that you're a quick lay. Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but… you're a pathetic loser and you need to get a life. Have a nice day." Steph picked up her books and walked out of the great hall and down to her Monday morning potions class, leaving Pansy shocked and speechless, literally, she was still under the spell.

Draco recovered from his shock, and ran off after Steph shooting Pansy one of his famous death glares.

"Steph!" he called after her, "hey Steph, wait up!" he jogged to catch up to her.

"Sod off Malfoy, go snog your whore and leave me alone," she hissed, speeding up a little.

"Well it's nice to know your British lingo is catching up and that you haven't lost your sense of humor," he quipped.

She stopped suddenly and looked at Draco, "Why are you still here? Are all of you Slytherins walking around with the sole purpose of annoying the fuck out of me?"

"I don't want to annoy you. You've got a temper and a skill with magic I wouldn't want to mess with. It kind of scares me, but it also fascinates me" he explained making sure to keep a bit of distance between them; she still seemed a little volatile.

What's your point Malfoy?" she was beginning to become annoyed, she wanted to get to potions on time and Draco was slowing her down.

"Well, I hear there's a dance coming up, and I'd be honoured if a girl like you would accompany me" he finally asked.

Draco, No!!!an eerie voice filled the halls, Don't do it, you belong with me, we were meant for each other!!

The portraits on the walls began to shake angrily and a force began to push Steph around.

"Oh this is ridiculous!" cried Steph, "Remove spirit" A huge gust of wind raged through the hall and blew open the front doors. At the edge of the woods a young girl stood in a daze, her red eyes flashing and her onyx hair flying wildly all around her. She recoiled when her spirit hit her and looked up in shock. Her eyes made contact with Steph's icy blue ones and she hissed, turning around and vanishing into the forbidden forest.

"Draco, figure out who the fuck that is and what she wants before she kills someone," she told him.

"I'll do my best. So how about that dance?" he asked, suddenly nervous.

Steph turned to face him, "I'll think about it, give you an answer in a week, okay?"

"A week?!' he asked in disappointment.

"Well, if you want an answer right this second, it's going to be no. I'm giving you a chance, take it or leave it. But I gotta think, will that girl try to kill me again if I dance with you? She almost killed me when I said your name," she explained.

"True, I gotta stop her," he muttered to himself.

"Anywho, I'm off to potions, see you in class," she said cheerfully heading down to the dungeons.

"Yeah, see you…" he thought. Instead of following her to class, he rushed outside and ran to the edge of the forest.

"I know you're in there!" he called. The young girl stepped out from behind a large tree, "Is that the real you or another astral projection of yourself?" he asked her.

"It's me Draco, I'm here," she smiled, "you've come for me, I knew you'd come for me Draco."

"Who are you and what the hell do you want?" he asked angrily.

Her smile vanished as he pointed his wand at her. "Draco, what are you doing? Didn't your father tell you?"

"My father knows nothing about you. Now what do you want?" he asked again.

Her deep red eyes glittered with tears, "but… all those years, I don't understand."

"I don't know you, no one knows you. You'd better leave my friends alone or I'll come find you again and you will regret ever crossing paths with Draco Malfoy!"

She looked down in shame but when she looked up her tears were gone and she scowled at Draco. A magical wind rose up suddenly, her hair whipped around her head. Draco aimed his wand. The girl's eyes flashed and she made a motion as if to push him away, even though she was too far away. Draco was hit in the chest with an invisible force. He flew across the grounds and slammed into the front doors. He landed in a heap on the steps and struggled to pull himself up.

He looked up to see the girl floating across the grounds. The air around her was so charged with magical energy that lightning bolts shot out in every direction. Her eyes were no longer red, but pure white, without pupils. Draco scrambled to his feet and conjured up an invisible energy field around him as a shield just as she came to a stop in front of him. She smiled as she pulled her hand back and punched through his shield as if it were nothing. The shield shattered around Draco and he took a step back only to find himself cornered.

"You can't stop me Draco… I'm pure magic," she blew on him like one would a birthday candle on a cake and he crashed through the doors and landed in the Great Hall. Gasping for air as he gripped his ribs, he slid backwards trying to get away from her. She walked into the entrance hall, her energy whipping around her like flames from a fire. Every step she took created a crater in the tiles. Draco's wand had flown out of his hand and had landed on the staircase four stairs up. When his back hit the bottom stair he turned slowly and reached his arm towards his wand, gritting his teeth in pain the movement caused. His wand moved, rose off the stair. He heard someone call "accio" but it was no use, the girl was calling his wand to her. "ACCIO!" the voice called again, but to no avail.

Suddenly a big green blur leaped into the air and snatched his wand before it could more any further. The person landed in a roll and came up holding two wands, both pointed steadily at the girl. "RICTUSEMPRA!" she cried, hitting the girl with two spells at once. The girl landed on the ground, the energy stopped floating and the debris that had been whipping around the room fell on the floor. Draco's vision blurred as he tried to maintain consciousness, his assailant turned to face his savior, eyes no longer white, but angry red. A snakelike hiss was emitted from her mouth as her teeth morphed into sharp and deadly fangs.

"RICTUSEMPRA!!!" the mysterious savior cried again, knocking the girl back out the door. "RICTUSEMPRA!!!!" she called once more, knocking the girl off the steps. When the girl sat up the savior cried "Protection complete." The mysterious girl ran towards the door but was shot back like a bullet, straight into the woods.

"Oh Draco," his rescuer sighed, "I said to find out who she was, not get yourself killed."

He looked into her face, allowing his eyes to slowly come into focus; it was Steph.

"Steph," he coughed, a trail of blood leaking down to his chin.

"Shit, she nailed you good," she stood up, "don't move you'll only make it worse," she turned around and walked up to a painting of a king on a horse. "Go get Dumbledore, tell him to hurry."

"I beg your pardon! Do you know to whom you are speaking?" the painting asked.

"I'm talking to a pile of ashes if you don't do as I asked, "she threatened. Her wand spit out orange sparks to emphasize her point.

"Right away," the king replied in fear, galloping off. The sound of the horse echoed through the walls as he moved towards Dumbledore's office.

"Aren't y…you supposed to b…be in p…potions?" Draco muttered, coughing up more blood.

Steph knelt next to him and wiped the blood off his chin with a cloth torn from her robes, "shh, don't talk," she whispered, "Snape sent me to the kitchens for some basil, his supply was expired," she stood up and dusted off her skirt. "Don't move, you'll make your injuries worse."

"It's nothing, just a scratch, I don't need your help" he growled defensively. He forced himself to stand up.

"Yeah, just a scratch on you and the whole hall is in ruins. Bullshit Malfoy, stop being so stubborn."

"She surprised me, that's all, I could have taken her, no problem. Not my fault she attacked from behind," he coughed harshly, wiping the blood on his sleeve. "How'd you know what to do anyway?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"That's the spell Sarah used to knock her away the first time. I guess with two wands it was stronger…" Draco fell over at her last words and promptly passed out.

Shaking her head at his stubborn attitude, Steph quietly cast a levitating spell and headed towards the hospital wing. Silently praying that no other mishaps occurred, she hurried along.

Covering her ears and screwing her eyes shut as a fellow student's potion went awry; Sarah wondered how much longer Steph was going to be to finish her errand for professor Snape. Having a funny feeling in her gut that something wasn't right, she set the thought aside as she opened her eyes. Choking on a laugh at the sight before her, Sarah removed her hands from her ears. The group who's potion didn't quite turn out managed to make their surroundings fluffy and green with some strange material of sorts that looked soft to the touch. It covered the desks circling that station, and anything else that had come into contact with the wrongly mixed concoction.

"So much for having a clean classroom" she heard Harry mutter. Playfully punching him in the arm, Sarah finished bottling a sample of their own potion to hand in, she assembled her books, getting ready to leave early.

Days went by with nothing out of the ordinary occurring. Draco had been fully healed and only Steph, Draco, Madame Pomphrey and Dumbledore knew about the incident. Having been told to keep it to themselves; Stephanie still hadn't even told Sarah yet.

The dance had been announced over the weekend and the students were starting to prepare for it. Sarah, of course, had been exuberant about it since it would be her first dance during her stay at Hogwarts. And though Steph denied it to anyone who brought up the subject, she actually was looking forward to it. A little fun never hurt anyone, right?

Days went by so quickly that before anyone knew it, Friday night had arrived. Sarah had dragged Steph into Hogsmead for shopping to find them both something to wear while the guys worried more about who exactly they were going to go with.

Patrick had the intention of asking Melanie, the girl in Hufflepuff he enjoyed talking to. Sebastian was wondering which girl to ask, he seemed to have a line up of three Ravenclaws who were all too eager to be his date.

Sarah couldn't help but tease him for his troubles while egging Patrick on and telling him to ask Melanie before some other guy did. Grinning madly to herself as she laid her dress on her bed covers she couldn't stop thinking about when Harry had asked if she would be his date tonight. Mind you, she had to decipher his stutters to actually figure out that's what he wanted, but he had looked so adorable while blushing furiously and stammering that she didn't have the heart to help him spit it out. Instead she let him try to explain himself for about five minutes before getting over it. By saying she would gladly go with him, she had made haste leaving the great hall after kissing him on the cheek.

Shaking her head and still grinning like a fool, Sarah realized she was still clad in only a towel and went to change. Her dress was an ebony halter that showed quite a bit of cleavage. The bottom slid off diagonally with a slight curl to the fabric the design was simple, yet elegant and classy at the same time. Slipping on her matching strapy heels, she went back into the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup before descending from the girl's dormitory to meet up with Harry. Hermione and Ron had already gone off ahead of them. Over the last few weeks, the two girls had talked more civilly to one another, but were far from being friends.

As she added color to her eyes, she couldn't help but smile. She was going to the dance with Harry, sweet, shy, brave little Harry Potter. So far she was the only one with a date; Steph was still keeping Malfoy guessing about her answer, Sebastian had narrowed down his list but had yet to pick a date and poor little Patrick was currently standing in Hufflepuff common room waiting for Melanie to come out so he could ask her.

Taking one last look in the floor length mirror she grinned, Harry was going to freak. She walked down the form stairs to see Harry nervously pacing in front of the fireplace. She cleared her throat to catch his attention; he looked up and did a double-take.

"Sarah? Is that really you?" he asked with wide eyes.

"Of course it's me silly," she smiled, "you look dashing Harry."

"Well you're nothing short of gorgeous yourself," he smiled, relaxing a little, "shall we?" he asked, holding out an arm for her.

She walked down the remaining stairs and graciously took his arm, "we shall," she declared with a grin. They both headed down to the great hall, Sarah narrowly avoiding jumping for joy at the mere thought of a school dance.

Meanwhile, Patrick had finally asked Melanie to the dance. He was surprised no one else had asked her. She walked down the stairs in a white flowy summer dress. The skirt went to midcalf and her bodice was a light baby blue and laced in the back like a peasant girl. Her make-up was light and natural and she looked sweet and innocent.

"Wow Mel, you look great." Exclaimed Patrick.

Thanks Patrick, you look good too," she blushed.

"I can't believe my luck, I thought for sure someone else would have asked you before I could," he smiled.

"Well I was kind of waiting for a certain someone to ask me," she said slowly, lowering her head to hide the slight blush creeping onto her cheeks.

"Guess we never got around to it, huh," said Patrick slowly, "oh well, better for me I guess," he offered his arm.

"Patrick you good," she laughed, "I was waiting for you," she took his arm, "you really need to work on your self-confidence."

"Or maybe I knew that all along and I was just acting suave," he grinned.

"Uh huh, sure Pat, Let's go now, I wanna dance!"

"Okay, okay, off we go," the two teens made a cute couple as they walked confidently down to the great hall.

Meanwhile, Sebastian was fixing his hair, he was confident he had made the right choice in asking Adrienne to the dance. Her exotic good looks had pushed him to choose her. She was waiting in the common room when he came down, her dark eyes were smoky and outlined and her hair was dark and waved perfectly down her back. Her dark red dress made her eyes stand out against her olive skin.

"You look fabulous Adrienne," he grinned.

"I know, can we go now?" she asked, sounding bored.

"Uh yeah, sure," he offered his arm but she walked right by it and out the door. "Hoo boy, this is going to be a long night," he said to himself and followed her out.

Back in the Slytherin common room, Draco was pacing in front of the staircase to the girl's dormitory. He was already dressed and ready for the dance, but he was still waiting for Steph's answer. The door opened and a large frilly dress poked out. His eyes widened as Pansy walked out in the ugliest dress he had ever seen.

"Oh Drackie!!!" she cried shrilly, "you waited for me, you are the sweetest guy in the world!"

"Sod off Pansy, I'm not waiting for you, run along before you blind me with your ugly face. He used his wand to slide her across the floor and out the door, He heard the dormitory door open again and this time Steph walked out.

She was wearing an emerald green summer dress with spaghetti straps that crossed in the back and a long skirt that reached mid calf. It was slim fitting and the skirt looked like it would flow when she spun. She wore strappy black sandals and ruby red, simple jewelry to accent the green of the dress. Draco gaped until Steph pushed his mouth closed.

"What do you want Malfoy?" she asked.

"I want to accompany you to the dance," he said slowly, forgetting to blink, "you look—"

"Save it for someone who cares, let's go" she grabbed his arm and dragged her all too willing partner out the door.

It was time to dance.

A/N: I know, I know, shame on us for taking so long, we probably lost a lot of readers, but we've been busy, University is tough ya know. We'll keep trying, promise, it just might take a while.

Read and review

Ja ne

Aries and Kie