[Draco]

Hermione had long drifted off to sleep and Draco was left to think while he was awake. He heard a crash come from the kitchen and sat up straight. Hermione rolled off him and curled up in to a ball on his side of the bed. Draco picked up his wand. He opened the door, ready to attack when someone stumbled past in to the kitchen. Draco snuck around the corner to see the back of a black suit and messy brown hair.

The person turned around and Hermione's uncle was stood there with a bottle in his hand. Draco quickly stuffed his wand in to his waistband and walked over to him.

"Dave? Are you okay?" Draco asked watching him stumble around the kitchen.

Dave turned around and squinted. "Ahh! Draco! You don't know where I keep me whishkey do ya?" He asked, slurring his words. He was drunk.

"Yes." Draco lied. He pulled out the chair and helped Dave in to it. Draco went to get a glass and poured some water. He set it down in front of Dave who was lying, head down on the table. "Um..." Draco said poking Hermione's uncle in the arm. David sat up abruptly muttering something about gravy.

He took the glass and took a long drink out of it. "Ooooh, that'sh gooood, what ish it?" He asked giving the glass to Draco, obviously wanting more.

"It's a new brand called um.." Draco looked around for something to name it. "Plug." His eyes caught sight of the muggle contraption.

"Plug? Me uncle Barry ushed to drink thish all the time" Dave smiled taking the glass back off Draco and drank half of it. Draco sat down opposite Dave looking concerned.

"How much did you have?" He asked.

"God knowsh." Dave said rubbing his eye. He opened his eyes wide and stared at Draco who felt very exposed right now, being half naked and everything. "Work out?" he asked taking more of the water.

"Yeah I play Quidditch.." Draco said before he could stop himself.

"I played that once, aweshome shport!" Dave said getting excited. Draco raised an eyebrow. Dave sat there hiccupping for a moment before he gave Draco a very hard stare. "I know what guysh like you are like! Think you can get any girl you want! Well I tellsh ya, if yous hurt Hermione, I'll...*Hic*...I'll *Hic*" Dave tried to say.

"I get it." Draco said putting the man out of his misery. "Don't worry. She means a lot to me." He said looked down the corridor to the door of their room.

"You're a good man Draco." Dave said a little more seriously. "More Plug?" he asked with a cheesy grin. Draco smiled slightly and took the glass off him, going to fill it up. "WOAH!" Dave practically yelled. Draco turned around quickly.

"What?" He said looking around. Dave stood up and wobbled over. He turned Draco back around and traced two lines down his back. "Uh..what are you doing?" Draco asked confused and creeped out. Dave grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him over to the long mirror the other side of the living room and showed Draco.

There were two silver scars going from his shoulder blades to the base of his back. They formed an upside down 'V'. Draco's brown creased as he wondered where on earth he got them from.

**

[Hermione]

I woke up that morning and everything went by as a blur. Before I knew what was happening, Draco, Dave and I were at the train station. Dave was wearing a pair of sunglasses that he looked quite ridiculous in, but they helped with his hangover...I didn't ask.

There was so much to do in the morning before we left I didn't even have a chance to think about what happened the previous day. Then again, I wasn't even sure what had happened.

"I feel terrible for hardly being there.." Dave muttered looking at his feet. We were stood on the platform as the train was being loaded.

"At least I got to see you." I replied giving him a tight hug. "Thank you for everything," I smiled.

The 9 o'clock train will be departing in a few minutes to London, please make sure all your items are on board and have your tickets ready.

The voice said over the intercom. I saw Draco look around for the person who had said it and looked overall confused. I stifled a giggle and gave Dave another hug. "Write to me when you get the chance. We're all we have now," He said taking my hands. "Well you're all I have." He smiled looking at Draco for a second. "He's a good lad, don't give him the chance to leave,"

I felt confused slightly at what he meant and kissed his cheek goodbye.

"Nice to meet you Draco," He smiled shaking Draco's hand firmly. He pulled him in to a hug and I could see Draco blush slightly and not know what to do. He lifted him arm up gingerly and patted Dave on the back. I gave him one last hug and we got on the train.

We went to our seats right in front of my uncle on the train and waved at him until he was no longer visible.

I settled in to my seat and sighed. "It's kind of nice to be going back. You miss it after a while," I laughed slightly. Draco smiled as he shrugged off his jacket. The label on the collar caught my attention and I tried to read it.

"Is your label in Latin?" I asked.

"Yeah, it was from a designer we got in Rome. He was practically in love with the Ancient country." Draco shrugged.

"Can you speak Latin?" I asked casually.

"Since the age of 5." Draco smiled. "It's like a second language to me, even though it's hardly spoken anymore, I think it's beautiful," I smiled at him when something crossed my mind, 2 words.

"What does Rutilus Parvulus mean?" I asked, the image of the book suddenly sprung from my memories, from the dream.

"Shining or Red Child." Draco said with an eyebrow slightly raised. "I saw it on that...thing at your Uncle's. I didn't realise muggles knew the story." Draco muttered with a confused look on his face.

"No, I've never heard it. When I searched it on the laptop," I ignored the confused look on Draco's face. "Nothing related came up."

"So you just thought the words up on your own?"

"No..." I hesitated. "They were in a dream on a book." I took a deep breath and explained what happened with the book and the ink showing the pictures of the girl and the boy who watched her die. I left out the part with the man and the piano...

Draco's brow was pulled in to thin lines. "I don't like it. Also I don't get what that has to do with the Red Children..." He said pausing to think.

"So, is it a fairytale or something?" I asked.

"Basically, more like a legend though." I looked at Draco, urging him to go on. He sighed and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table that separated us.

"There were two Gods, Zane and Ethan who lived in the heavens. They had everything, wealth, food, wine. Everything except women. They often watched the women from heaven, wishing they could go down and be with them.

One day, Zane saw the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on. She had long brown hair, big green eyes and red, shining lips. He tried everything to try and get down to her,with Ethan's help.

Eventually, they came across a spell and they both managed to get down to the mortal world with no problems and Zane got to meet Arianna, they fell in love.

One night, Ethan got overly-drunk and came across Arianna. He didn't know what he was doing and he raped her. She fell pregnant but a few days later, she gave birth to this... creature and Arianna died giving birth.

It had pale, slimy skin and blood red eyes but looked human. Sharp claws protruded from its hands and small fangs bore out of it's mouth. When Zane found out, he was so furious that the sky screamed with thunder and lightning as he declared war on his brother.

Zane took the creature to examine it and found out that they grew fast to be strong, intelligent creatures. He decided to make more to use them for his army against his brother and went mating with many females.

When Ethan realised what Zane was using, he decided to do the same and he too, mated with the women. Eventually, thousands were down on earth, fighting and killing each other in the name of a brother brutally for 100 years or so.

Soon after that, the creatures began to turn insane from all the bloodshed and war. They stopped killing their own and started killing the humans, they even turned on Zane and Ethan who were forced to retreat back to Heaven and watch the turmoil from above.

They decided to put everything past them in order to stop what they had created. They tried using their elements, Zane – thunder and lightning, Ethan – water and ice but nothing worked. In desperation, the Gods went to the Angels."

Draco stopped for a breath and looked me in the eye. "Now, Angels and Gods are completely different beings, they just live in the same place, never confronting each other. Gods protect humans with their elements, Angels protect humans with their guidance and soul. Angels use telepathy to connect to the humans and guide them down the right path and that is what Zane and Ethan hoped the Angels would do with the creatures. The Angels were furious at what the Gods had done and refused.

You see, Angels have 4 rules they have to live by, these rules are their life, if they are broken, the Angel is stripped of its wings and sent to earth and one of them was to never get involved with the dealings of a God.

Only one Angel had had his wings stripped off, Artemis. He was a fallen Angel living on earth and the Gods went to him as a last resort.

They found him quite easily as the creatures went nowhere near him, they could tell he wasn't a proper human and they thought his body was unnatural. Zane and Ethan pleaded with him for help.

Artemis still had his telepathy but because he was fallen, humans tended not to listen to him but he wanted to try. He thought that if he helped get rid of the creatures, the Angels would let him back in to heaven.

By the time he went out to the middle of a big gathering of them, they're souls were so rotten, they had began killing each other again. Artemis stood by the edge of the group and concentrated on a small injured one that stood away from the rest. He crept in the child's mind and tried to speak with it, pleading to change its ways. The child was on the verge of giving up and was weak so it was easy to change its mind. It took a few days but eventually, the child began to see good and it slowly began to become humane and stopped being bloodthirsty.

Artemis took the child back to Zane and Ethan to show them and they took it to the Angels. The Angels took a while contemplating what to do. These creatures were once human and it was their duty to protect humans. Eventually they agreed. As they were Angels, their telepathy was a lot stronger than Artemis' and they managed to fully change all of the creatures to humans. They decided to call these humans Red Children and protected them from any violence or insanity that might one day bring back the monster from within them.

Eventually, all the red children died with old age. Artemis was given a place back in the heavens as an Archangel but as for Zane and Ethan, the Angel's decided to strip them of their powers and banish them to the mortal world as punishment." Draco finished and leaned back against the chair.

My eyes were wide with fascination, I gulped as I took everything in. "Wow, did that actually happen?" I asked.

"No one knows it was that long ago," Draco shrugged. I leaned back against the seat and glanced out the window watching the countryside speed past. The journey went considerably fast, neither of us talking much but it was a comfortable silence.

My mind was wandering through everything that had happened over the weekend, processing every detail from choosing flowers, to Draco's Dark Mark.

Honestly, I was glad my mind was busy, by the time my mind had processed everything and started to move on to the kiss with Draco and the still empty hole in my heart from my parents, we were at Kings Cross station.

I felt Draco's fingers take my as he pulled me from a daydream and we got off the train and headed over to Platform Nine. We leaned casually against the wall and fell through to the other side.

We were greeted by the cruel, pale face of Professor Snape. I suppressed the motion to raise an eyebrow when he offered us his arm. I saw Draco hesitate as they gave each other icy looks and felt slightly confused. I was sure Snape was Draco's favourite teacher.

None the less, we took his arms and apparated back to Hogsmade. "The Headmaster sends his apologies but he was detained. However he has given you permission to have the rest of the day off and go back to normal lessons tomorrow," He said raising his eye brow at me slightly and headed off in the direction of Hogwarts.

I looked up at Draco who was staring coldly at Snape, watching him go. I pulled at his sleeve gently, "Are you okay?" I asked softly, the wind carrying my voice out to him.

Draco swallowed hard and tore his eyes away from Snape. "Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled weakly at me. "Come on, let's get back." Draco wrapped his arm around my shoulders, his sweet scent filling my lungs.