Reposted: 12/04/07.

All chapters are subject to being reposted at some point. The only changes will be minor, grammar, stupid writing, bad sentences, bad spelling and inconsistencies(look her eyes keep changing color!). IF there are any bigger changes, added scenes etc I will mention them in bold.

Also, the original A/Ns will be deleted, but I promise you that is no loss.

It was a cool night but not cold enough to cause a chill. The twenty sets of french doors lining the long sides of the oval ballroom were thrown open to use the night breeze to disperse the heat of many bodies. Alexandria Bellmonte slipped behind a potted tree and rolled her shoulders once to loosen tightened neck muscles. Receiving mild relief, she stepped lightly from her concealment. One of her classmates' parents spotted her and moved to make their formal congratulations. Such a thing was required at a girl's coming out ball amongst the upper crust of pure blood society.

"So glad you could make it, Lady Parkinson, Lord Parkinson." Alex curtsied, tilting her head in a way she knew would let one perfect black curl fall across her revealed throat and settle in the hollow at it's base.

"Every time I go to one of these I wish I had a son or that I was a decade or two younger and unmarried," Lord Parkinson commented in a way he seemed to assume was gallant. Both Alex and Lady Parkinson laughed politely.

"You flatter me, Your Lordship."

"You do look quite lovely this evening, Alexandria. I am pleased to have been here on such an important night for you. We hear nothing but good about you from Pansy."

"Thank you, Lady Parkinson. Pansy is especially close to me of all my housemates." 'Because she sleeps in my dorm, the horrid little gossip' Alex smiled and curtsied again as they moved away.

At fourteen Alex had already developed the acid wit covered by pure grace that was her mother's legacy to her. She'd inherited her deadly drive from her father. She was a perfect blend of them both in spirit the way she was physically. Jade eyes and thick curly hair from her father, black hair and sharp, aristocratic bones from her mother.

Gathering the edge of her robes in her right hand in a way designed not to wrinkle the fabric, Alex wove expertly through the crowd. She paused outside the discreet Servants Entrance and got a nod from the head house elf that all was well. As this was her coming out ball, Alex was in charge of planning and playing hostess to the whole thing. Everything, floor to ceiling, was her responsibility and her creation.

The gown she wore tonight she'd commissioned for just this occasion. It was body hugging from hips to halfway to her elbows. From there it flowed out, alternately hugging her form and flaring out as she moved. The whole thing, from scoop neck to pearl weighted hem was made of thin white fabric shot through with silver threads.

The ballroom itself was made of gold and white marble. Emerald cloth draped from the ceiling, white gauze 'curtained' the open french doors and the tapestry of the Bellmonte Coat of Arms hung about the massive doorway leading into the entry hall.

All in all it was perfect, and if Alex was anything other than the coldly cynical person she was, she would surely be waiting anxiously for her 'prince charming' to arrive. Just as that thought finished crossing her mind a most ironically amusing thing happened. Draco Malfoy appeared in the entry hall doorway. He paused there and casually scanned the room.

Alex didn't frown…outwardly. Where were his parents? She would have known if Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were in her ballroom but there was no way Draco would have shown up if his parents weren't with him forcing attendance. She and he were passing acquaintances, but not real friends. They were both alphas in their social groups, and neither shared well. If at all possible Alex avoided the other pureblood. The only time she'd ever done anything involving Draco Malfoy in any great amount had been a week long Slytherin hunting spree last year, after final exams, when all the other houses had relaxed. They'd been assigned a pair of sixth year Gryffindors to jinx. They'd pulled it off surprisingly easily considering they were both in third year at the time. Considering they hadn't spoken ten sentences to each other the whole time.

Narcissa appeared and then Lucius joined her flanking Draco. Her parents appeared next and the mystery was solved. The Malfoys must have been the last important guests to arrive and had stayed to talk with her parents in the hall while sending Draco on ahead. She moved towards them, hoping to catch all three at once and get her duties over with. To her disappointment Draco was gone by the time she arrived. She smiled up at Lucius.

"Good evening, my Lord. How pleasant of you to come." She turned to Narcissa. "Lady Aunt, how are you?" Truthfully Narcissa wasn't her aunt, but her mother had been an old school friend of hers in Hogwarts so somehow Alex had ended calling her Lady Aunt.

"Quite well, Alexa. You've managed to pull this off wonderfully." If Alex calling her Lady Aunt was strange, Narcissa calling her Alexa was just as...off. But of course such quirks were accepted in among the Great Families. Even if anyone wanted to object, would they really risk complete destruction over something as small as this?

"Thank you, both for the compliment and for coming."

"The honor is ours," Lucius informed her with his always perfect civil aloofness.

"Go on, Alexandria." Her mother, Deana, ordered without it seeming to be one. "Surely our adult chatterings will be boring for you."

"Of course, mother. I shall be near at hand if you need to summon me."

She caught a dark glance from her mother as she left. Well. Perhaps that had been a little over the top. Whatever else she was, Alex was not known for her humble obedience. She very nearly broke into a smile.

Winding once more through the crowded ballroom, Alex stopped to exchange polite nothings with a few people before finally making it to the set of french doors that led to a balcony terrace. The white curtains did much to block out the noise and light of the inside party. Alex leaned her arms on top of the railing and looked down on the shadow covered gardens. She started to sigh but it came out as a yawn.

"These things bore you as much as they bore me?"

Alex tensed, fear flaring to life at the thought of being snuck up on while on her home ground. She veiled her expression and turned toward the voice. Draco Malfoy stood half concealed by the open door at the far end of the balcony. Everything about him seemed to scream refined boredom.

Feeling somewhat less than charitable due to her fright Alex rested an elbow on the rail and flashed a cold smile. "The only kind of excitement that could occur at one of these isn't something I think I want to experience…Draco was it?"

That last was pure vanity on her part. After all, who didn't know who Draco Malfoy was on sight?

"Are you trying to say," Draco shrugged off the wall he was leaning on and moved towards her, out of the shadows. The moonlight made his hair positively glow when he shifted into it. "that you don't know who I am?" His smirk hovered between amused and angry.

An interesting combination considering the circumstance, she noted cautiously.

"I merely mean that our formal introduction was such a long time ago and that I've spoken to you twice since then, if you count this as one. Such an acquaintance is not conducive to a private conversation on the garden terrace, without an escort, or the sharing of a confidence, Mr. Malfoy."

"Oh?" Draco continued his forward motion. "I doubt your family would raise any objections to us and I'm sure mine wouldn't care. Who else would dare object?" By the time he was done he was a little too close and whispering his words right in her face.

Alex jerked up her chin and refused to allow him to force her to take a step back. "Draco Malfoy," she kept her voice as low as his had been. "I look at you and I don't see anything I might want. There is no us and there never will be. Now if you don't mind," Alex glanced too-nicely at him, then twisted past him so that he ended up stumbling against the rail. She paused, one hand on the edge of the door and smiled. "I have guests to see to. Good evening, Draco."

Draco Malfoy paced the length of his suite, plotting revenge.

"That arrogant bitch," he snarled, stung by the memory of her words. No one spoke to a Malfoy that way! He was never rejected by his own kind. "They all know what happens to those who oppose the Malfoys! When I tell my father about-" Draco stopped short.

There was no way he would ever let his father find out about tonight's…scene. For starters Lucius would probably laugh him out of his office. Alex was a Bellmonte and Draco had started it. Then, even if he did do something about the situation, it would just as likely be Draco who would receive the brunt of his father's anger as Alex. And lastly…Draco grinned. Lastly he wanted to be the one to bring this girl to heel.

That anyone would talk to him in such a manner frustrated him. That she was a Bellmonte and as such allowed to talk to anyone however she damn well pleased just made it worse.

"Oh, she'll learn the error of her ways." Draco promised himself. "She will respect me. I'll make her."

But teaching a Bellmonte anything was, and had always been, a dangerous proposition for all involved. If word ever reached her family that Draco Malfoy was harassing her, he'd be hearing from his father…at the very least. That just meant he'd have to watch his step and cover his tracks better than with the Gryffindors. Draco started to laugh.

And here he'd been thinking this coming term would be boring.