AN: Finally getting into some real story here, much longer than the rest, hope it's worth the time it took R&R

Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 4

(AN: We're finially getting to some real story, this chapter is a bit daunting in length though, I will warn you. I hope everyone appreciates the extra length, R&R –Richard S.)

The next day Killious woke up before most the people in room, one girl, Kalian, was awake but barely and she was currently attempting to make her bed, forgetting that it really wasn't important at all to do so, now that no parents would yell at you about it. She got out of bed and headed strait for the bathroom, feeling the grimy discust with her hygene that had accompanied virtually every morning since the accident. after a thirty minute shower of scrubbing herself pink with a stiff, natural sponge, she brushed her teeth and straightened her hair. She pulled on my grey skirt, which she had taken the liberty of adjusting over the summer so that it's hem came five or six inches from her knee, a white collared shirt and a silver vest with green trim, and the Slytherin crest on the left breast area, that only served to accentuate her already busty figure. After she had finished dressing in the bathroom she moved back towards her bed, opening her trunk to withdraw a pair of white stockings with thin green stripes. She placed one foot on top of the chest at a time, pulling up the stockings and hooking them on garters that fastened an inch above her hemline, so that any swift movements would present a flashy peak at the old fashioned, but still alluring lingerie. She quickly tied and adjusted her green and silver tie, slipped in a pair of basic silver hoop earrings, before buckling her chunky black Mary-Jane style shoes, and wrapping a small silver chain with a crystal ball attached to it around her wrist three or four times.

Killious' hair was black as night, actually blacker, the only time when it seemed like it wasn't just a sheet of ebony was when the sun hit it, then it shown with a very purple tint, but when her hair was pulled back, or she was in doors no one took notice of the abnormal color. Her eyes changed with her mood from sparkling grey greens to cold blacks framed with long thick lashes that she bordered in a good amount of eyeliner. Her lips were full and soft, with a natural rosy tint that was usually only accentuated with a thin layer of glossy sheen. Her cute nose, not tiny, but not pointy or crooked either, matched the rest of her features: all in all very soft, but strong and distinct. Anyone could tell that her parents must have looked entirely different from one another. After putting some books in her side bag, she gave myself a devilish grin in the mirror and headed downstairs, grabbing her cloak from the stand on the way.

As she walked down to the common room she noticed several people were now awake and in lovely moods as well.

"Give me the damn wand or I'll have your head!" Dolan yelled at Christian. Christian looked quite a bit like Dolan if you thought about it, a bit taller, with more of a dull grey eye color, and he wasn't as tan but otherwise; there was an eerie likeness between them.

"Sure you will!" Christian jeered as he did a bit of a jig around the room while Dolan tried to catch him. Dolan had, had enough, he gave me a small smile and hurled an open bottle of ink at Christian. The black liquid spread across Christian's shirt and fact within seconds, dripping all over the floor as he stood still in shock for a few seconds. His delayed reaction was soon forgotten though, as she began to chase Dolan around the room, running into virtually all the furniture in the room as he tried to wipe the ink from his face, doing his best to keep the thick liquid from dripping off his eyelashes into his eyes. Dolan was darting across the room, around a table and someone's stray bag, when he caught sight of her. He stopped dead in his tracks, not noticing that Christian had found a spot from which to throw things, and still keep Dolan's wand safely in his possession.

"Holly damn..." Was all he could muster, Christian must have noticed that Dolan had stopped shouting threats, and turned to see why. He, being different in personality from Dolan, and far more social, if the word could be used as a replacement for perverted couldn't help but say something.

"Well, I see someone was in the mood to get snogged on the first day of school!" Killious smiled and cocked her head a little, in a girlish way, putting on her best front of innocence.

"Actually..." She started, as she stared longingly into his eyes "I was...well I was hoping that maybe...if you wanted to" He was eating it up. Hanging on her every word, tracing each curve of her body with his eyes "You could... well you know..." She said in a shy sort of way.

"I'll be your boy toy any day you want me to!" He offered. She dropped the face and put a hand on her hip giving him a callous stare.

"Actually I just wanted to know if you felt like bringing my breakfast here, I don't feel like walking down all those stairs." All the other boys in the room, who had migrated in during the fight laughed as they took in the surprised and appalled look on Christian's face. She pulled her cloak on and chuckled to herself before turning to the table adjacent to the girl's staircase to drop her bag.

The room was now populated by about twelve or thirteen boys and was devoid of any girls, seeing as they were all now occupying themselves with hair and makeup, save on greasy looking blond in the corner, who was whimpering softly about something. Jackquinne had come down the stairs while the ink bottle was still in motion, and by the looks of it, he and Dolan were the only one's who had done much to even brush their hair and smooth over their uniforms. The rest of the boys were un-tucked, untied, and some of them weren't even dressed yet, as they meandered into the room to talk, or eat if they had food, before actually getting ready for the day.

Just as she had finished setting her bag down however, Draco came down the stairs to the boys' dorm with a frown on his face. "Are you really going to take that from her? Besides why would you stoop to such an offer, I thought you were less desperate than that Christian." Dolan looked at Draco and then realized what the problem was, he ran over to where Malfoy stood at the base of the staircase.

"Hey Illy, can I borrow your wand really quickly?" Killious turned around and tossed it to him, and just as Dolan planned, Draco's jaw dropped when the open part of her robe brought into view just what had reduced Christian to the fate so many she would face in her years at Hogwarts. Dolan grabbed the wand and shouted.

"Immobulus!" Christian stuck to his spot on the floor, and Dolan went to retrieve his wand, handing Illy her wand on the way. By this time Draco had recovered, and decided that the best way to convalesce his awkward staring moment was to retaliate with insults.

"I didn't know we were aloud to have whores on campus." He spat in her direction

"Well how the hell did you get in?" Illy smirked. The girl in the corner looked up at her, and she could now see the blonde's eyes were red and puffy.

"He bought his way in, just like he buys everything else!" She screamed before curling up into a ball and crying. Draco shot daggers at her and for several moments everyone was silent while his piercing stare bore into her back. She finally stood up and fled from the room, waterworks on full blast.

"What was that about Draco?" Illy asked as Draco slowly headed for the door, before bolting from the room abruptly. Killious chased after him, feeling like a child for running after Draco as if they were playing tag, but deciding it was worth the silly chase to get answers out of him. Christian, Dolan, and Jackquinn ran to catch up with her but, she turned and gave them quick looks to tell them to stay back a few feet. She was now practically sprinting to keep up with Draco, who seemed to be in better shape than his spoiled mannerisms suggested. When she finally got close enough to him she practically knocked him over, in an attempt to force him into an abandoned alcove in the hallway.

"Draco, what's gotten you so upset about that girl? What did you do?" He gave her a perturbed stare for quite some time before realizing that there was no escape from this girl, and he would have to tell her what had happened, it was inevitable. After a deep breath and a loud sigh, he began to speak,

"Look it was nothing, we went out for a little while during the summer, we had sex, it was even her idea, but when we came back to school she knew, we weren't going to be going out anymore. I had told her weeks before the term started. She knew she wasn't going to be anything but a bloody fling, she even said she was okay with the whole arrangement, but then we got back to school... She's gone crazy, she won't eat, or bathe very much for that matter, and she's been following me everywhere! She's worse than Pansy, I have no idea why she's acting like this…I don't know what the bloody hell her problem is!"

"How does all of that tie into you buying your way into everything?"

"I took her on vacations with me… I'm a bloody fucking Malfoy! I have money and I spend it, dinner, gifts, shows, quidditch tickets, the whole deal, I'm not a bloody fop, I just wanted to treat her like a real girlfriend…but then she got all clingy, I told her, 'as soon we go back to Hogwarts this is done' and she agreed. But now she's lost it, she's convinced that she has to exact some sort of freak revenge on me, she even tried to threaten my father, sending him some screamer that claimed I had given her money to fuck me."

"Well, just so you know, girls try not to look at things they don't like. It makes it easier to deal with, or so they think, but in the end it just makes you run in to an emotional brick wall. She was probably just pretending nothing was wrong hoping it would go away, don't worry about it, she'll have a new boyfriend in no time, she's easy!" She said as she shrugged off what had just happened; Draco looked a little stunned at her ability to sympathize with the male race. "So, what did your dad say about the letter?" She asked as she pushed him out of the room by his shoulders from behind "Was he pissed at you or what?" Draco smirked a bit as they left the room. The hall was deserted; everyone had gone to breakfast, leaving them alone to walk to the great hall.

"Actually, he said that it must have been a waste of money…" Draco mumbled out uncomfortably. Killious was now massaging his shoulders as they mounted the stairs together.

"You two fight a lot don't you?" She asked, he was trying to focus on a way to explain his relationship with his father, but when she was practically turning his tense shoulder muscles into mush it was presenting itself to be all the more difficult of a task.

"We…mmmm" He caught himself melting into her hands as she moved to his neck. "mostly just see each other in public. He doesn't think I live up to what I should be, and I fight with him too much at home, so we try to avoid each other all together for convenience purposes." She had now worked her way up his neck and had begun lightly scratching his scalp, as she ran her fingers through his hair, nails dancing on his skull he narrowly avoided running dead into a wall with her next question.

"So, why would he say she's a waste of money." Killious murmured. She had begun to slip into the mood herself, drowning in the masculine smell of his porcelain body. As her hands moved from roughly massaging his muscular shoulders, to skillfully unnerving him with just the right touch to pressure points in his neck, and finally they became all but ravenous.

"Well, he just, my parents aren't married because they're attracted to one another…" He trailed off. His smell was flooding her nostrils, it was everything she had not to become overwhelmed and shift from sensually trailing her fingers over his scalp to vigorously running her fingers through his soft blond hair, forgetting inhibition, just for the sake of his smell, his touch, and his body.

"What do you mean?" She seemed puzzled, once the words had finally sunk in. Draco was now moving at a crawl, trying to extend the moment as long as possible.

"I mean that, well he's not gay, of course, but….he likes younger women, and he doesn't exactly keep them around for a long time." Her movements were slowing becoming more aggressive, as she abandoned a neat, across the scalp pattern for more randomized but pleasurable swirls that tossed and twisted his hair into a messy sculpture of her fancy.

"So what, just like girlfriends or something?" Draco was doing his best not to let loose information about family secrets that not even he was supposed to know about, but no one had made all of his muscles relax and tense again in such a short amount of time. He was totally engulfed in a fantasy, of her playing with his hair, more roughly than she was, while she did other things to make his whole body tingle the way his hair was. He grunted once, trying to chase away the thoughts, but she took it to mean the opposite of his intention and instead of stopping, or even slowing she now began use her nails with savage enthusiasm, if he had been bald, there would have been marks. Draco hadn't even realized that he had closed his eyes until he opened them to see that they had stopped moving entirely, just around the corner from the great hall.

"Yeah, girlfriends, it created tension in the house…you should probably stop that now, I do need to fix my hair." He tried his best to seem like he was serious, or at least genuine.

Killious dropped her hands to her side, her face feeling hot, but her cheeks not showing tell tale red. She lowered her head a little and turned to join her friends in the great hall. Draco reached out for her wrist, his mind split between grabbing it, pinning her against the wall, and telling her to do that while she rode him, and between preserving his dignity. His hand fell limply to his side before it even reached hers, and he decided it was probably a good plan to straighten his hair out.

As she sat down for breakfast her mind quickly trailed away from food, and several times through the meal she caught one of the guys saying "don't you think so?" or "We should do that together!" but she replied with only her silence and a blank stare. She looked as though she was in another world, as her brain rolled over the events of the night before, and somehow, she had made up her mind that she couldn't wait for a week. Her thoughts were being fueled by a kerosene of Draco's behavior, she had no idea whether it was the mention of his father, or his own disgust with her behavior that had upset him so much, but either way, it was enough to make her insane.

So she sat, staring at the French toast on her plate, lost in the swirly design of syrup and cinnamon mixed together, debating what to do or say. On the one hand, she could just ask the hat who he was, but it would ruin the adventure, the excitement! And on the other, if she waited a week, who knew what might end up happening in a deserted corridor if Draco was around. Draco had already taken a seat just a little ways from her and tried more than once to strike up conversation, but she was lost in thought and everyone had decided to let her be, they had no reason to bother her, she didn't eat anyway. After twenty minutes of just zoning out she raised her eyes and looked directly at Jackquinn.

"Are people from other tables aloud to site with us?" The surround section of the table fell silent, and practically fell right out of their chairs with slack jaws and wide eyes.

"Well, I guess so..." Jackquinn replied. "I mean, I know there are no rules against it, so I don't see why not..." By this time both Dolan and Christian were wondering why Jackquinn seemed to have such a comprehensive knowledge of the rules, but everyone else seemed to act like it was just common knowledge that he read into things more than was healthy.

"Why would you want to invite anyone else to our table? They might be mudbloods, or just plain filthy little creatures." Draco said snidely. She gave him a fowl look and considered commenting on how his hair looked, but deciced against it and instead glanced toward Jackquinn in expectation.

"So, Jackquinn, would I get in trouble for my uniform...modifications?" She asked.

"Well, no. I mean McGonagall will probably hate you forever, but Snape will most likely award points to our house for your ass." She giggled a little at the thought of Snape awarding her points for her possibly lewd behavior and turned her attention to two very cute redheads at the Gryffindor table.

"So, we have potions first right?" Asked Christian as a piece of bacon hung very unattractively out of his mouth. She thought about staying and enjoying the riveting conversation, but decided instead on something more fun. She stood up as though in a trance, and headed straight for her target.

"Oiye, what are your brothers' names?" She asked a tall boy with slightly darker red hair, pale skin, dusted by freckles with brilliant blue eyes. He gulped down his pumpkin juice, and did a double take over my uniform, staring mindlessly into the tight vest as he tried to remember.

"Umm, oh, their names are Fred and George, though it'll take you forever to tell them apart, I'm um, Ron by the way." He stuttered out, just before dropping his eyes back to his plate with a blush.

"You can't be wearing that, it's against school policy." A rather short girl with fuzzy brown hair, and warm brown eyes began to explain.

"Actually I can, you must be Harry," Illy said looking in the direction of a boy with messy raven hair and stark green eyes with a bit of sunburn on his face. "Recognized you from"

"The scar on my head I know" He said irritably. She looked at him and blinked...

"No, from the cute redhead that always hangs out with you. He's almost all the first year girl's talk about." Ron was now beginning to go tomato red in the face, and Killious was starting to enjoy herself. "Yeah, you kind of scare them Potter even though they love you're mystique and fame, but Ron here, they all say that he's such a good boy, even a Slytherin can't turn down a cute, loyal one." She finished much to Harry's astonishment.

"But yeah, the scar helps anyone creepy enough to look for it identify you, but you've done a pretty good job of hiding it, so worry not."

She looked down the table at Fred and George, a sparkle in her eye, and a smile curling onto her lips. "Hey, Fred, George," they looked up at her call. "D'you two and your brother want to come sit with me, I figure we need a lot of help in Slytherin as far as looks go so you could defiantly contribute, and of course I'd kill for the pleasure of your company Ron." They looked a little bit unsure at first but after leaning in together to consult one another Fred and George got up from the table and merrily followed her with a smug "Right you are about that". Ron, however, was a bit more worried about the dirty look Harry was giving him. She walked over and leaned down next to his ear, "Ron, Harry isn't the one I invited, I'm sorry but I can't be causing full out war. The choice isn't his though anyway, its yours. Hermione can't decide for you either," She said as he glanced in her direction, with a look of worry on his face. "The only one who can is you, so c'mon, get up and go try something new. We have plenty of space and Fred and George are waiting." Ron hesitated for about fifteen more seconds before nodding his head and standing up.

She quickly led the boys to her table, having the twins sit across from her and Ron adjacent. "Ok, everyone, this is Ron, and that is Fred and George, not sure who is who yet, but I'm sure I'll get it eventually." She pointed as she spoke with a smile on her face. Draco looked horrified but what the fuck did she care? She was finding this whole situation amusing. "Oh, and guys this is, Dolan, Christian, Jackquinn, and I'm sure you know the famous Draco Malfoy...he's like Harry of the Slytherin world, and together they make up the Hogwarts chapter of my fan base!" A smile cracked across Fred's face when she said this, but everyone else seemed to be weighed down by the awkward air about the table. Malfoy sneered at Illy, but before he could make a snide remark she began a verbal assault. "Oh, get off it, they're even pureblood you little puss. If you weren't such a git you'd see what a fine looking group of people I've managed to assemble in my short time here." Ron smiled this time, reaching for a bit of sausage.

"Thanks for inviting us, I've never been over here...or seen a nice Slytherin" He said the last part under his breather but she still heard it. George and Fred now had their heads together, babbling about something, she was trying to read lips but kept getting distracted by the dirty looks other members of her house were giving me. Christian threw down the piece of toast he was nibbling on and turned to her, furry in his eyes.

"Enough! Are you here just to throw the balance of things off? You're two years late, you've spent like ten minutes having a conversation with the sorting hat, you've altered your uniform, You fight with Draco more than Harry and now Gryffindor's are sitting at our table! What the hell are you thinking?" He was now leaning over a majority of the table top and was only a few, uncomfortable, inches from her face, quite literally breathing down her throat. She looked around about to see if anyone was going to come to her rescue…and she was totally on her own now. She bit down on her lower lip, something she usually did before making a rash decision.

Christian looked stunned, yet pleased, and some how he had a twisted, but decidedly much better look on his face. He took a napkin and rubbed the clear lip-gloss off his cheek, blinking quite idly as he did so, the table burst into laughter around him, falling into hysterics at the look of his face. Illy held up a hand to motion them to be quite,

"Now Christian, I would really appreciate if you could treat my new friends nicely, and for god's sake, stop yelling all the time. The whole world isn't coming to an end." Christian slipped back to his seat and found himself caught up in a delirium of shock and amusement as he ferociously attacked the rest of his breakfast.

"But your world just might be!" Ron said as he pointed towards the rampaging Snape, who was approaching from the Gryffindor end of the hall at a brisk pace.

"Potter get that smirk off your face! Stop playing with wands at the table! Get all of the melon balls out of your mouth NOW! Stop throwing that!" He snapped at random students, his eyes focused in on Illy's the entire time, making students quiver at the thought of Snape being able to psychically scold. And with a smirk on his face he came to a halt two inches from Illy, she rose to greet him giving him a small handshake, which seemed to be an awkward oppression. "So your parents let you come this year?" He asked smugly. She grinned at him and nodded her head vigorously, becoming more and more like the school girl she should have been around him.

"Of course Professor, why wouldn't they?"

"I had hoped you could continue your previous job..." He said with a bit of disappointment.

"Oh, I will, but only on the weekends and over summer and winter holidays, I can't wait to see what winter delivery's will be like, it will be my first year attempting them, and I can only imagine the blizzards," she babbled on, before realizing that he was eyeing her company ruefully. "How silly of me, this is Ron, Fred, George, Dolan, Jackquinn, Christian, and your pride and joy." Draco smiled at Snape and Snape's lips curled upward at her joke.

"Alright then, carry on, I'll see you in potions" he said distractedly as he shot every boy at the table a cold glance, before turning on his heel to leave..

"Did you snogg him too?" George asked in disbelief. Illy chuckled and took a nibble of Dolan's buttered toast.

"Nah, I used to work for him sometimes. We met under the circumstances of me being his personal delivery boy. Besides, I'd barely call that peck on the cheek a snogg."

"You were a boy?" Fred chimed in with a raised eyebrow; Killious felt her cheeks become warm, but she kept her composure and shrugged off the remark. "Well if you were I need to know who your plastic surgeon is because he did a damn good job!" All the boys at the table laughed again, and carried on with their breakfast as if it was normal. Illy slid back in her chair and looked up at the clear open ceiling, it was a rainy morning, beautiful in shades of blues and grays swirling together to create an ominous but comforting effect.

"Do you ever wish one day they would actually take the ceiling out? Just to surprise everyone when rain started to fall on their plates..." Malfoy gave her an odd look and then replied.

"Yeah, I do. It'd be great to watch everyone panic and run around." The other boys agreed, acting out shrill impressions of the girls scurrying from the room. "Funny that we want a change in scenery, when any muggle would be wetting themselves over the things we do everyday…" Malfoy said in an oddly out of character, dreamy manner. It was now getting rather silent at the table, so Killious decided to pick up the mood. She dropped my head, and smiled waiting for the boys to follow suit, after they didn't she picked up a shelled walnut and flicked it at Malfoy with a butter knife. He snorted in her direction but was obviously just playing.

"There's a philosopher in you after all." She smirked. Just as she had said this breakfast was being dismissed, and hoards of students were rushing towards classes. Illy stood up and gave Ron, a hug. "Thanks for coming I know your friends will give you a hard time about it," He blushed a little. "So do you wanna walk to class with us?" Ron shook his head no, and headed back in the direction of his table. Illy turned to pick up another walnut and through it at Christian.

Fred and George seemed to have disappeared as she exited the hall, slapping and poking Jackquinn and Dolan. Christian and Malfoy still thought it was a bit childish of her but what the hell did she care, she wasn't there to impress anyone, and she finally fit in with the people around her. Even if none of them where female, but so far, Pansy, the alternating things on Draco's arm, were annoying as crap, Granger was in need of a good snogg, and the blond in the corner was a total cry baby.