AN: Ok here's a long one, we get into a lot of rivalry and dramatic stuff in here so have fun…-Richard S.
Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 15
"You're filth, you deserve all of this" A voice was hissing at the eight year old girl, hot tears stung her cheek as she sat on the floor, looking up at the tall man, Sir, he had demanded that she call him. She whimpered in response to his insults, "We've been over this, when I tell you that you are worthless you agree" He snatched her off the ground by her hair, "Now, you are filth and you deserve every bad thing that has happened to you!" He shouted at her, her voice was hoarse from crying but she stuttered out the words,
"Yes Sir, I am worthless." He smiled, a crooked evil smile.
"Good, now you know what to do." He dropped her harshly to the ground and watched as she began to slip the strap of her dress off her shoulder, wincing as her cuts were re-opened by the dress' peeling off their upper layers. "You're too slow!" He shouted, hitting her face as hard as he could with the back of his hand, if she had been sitting she would have just fallen over, but seeing as she was standing the blow threw her several feet. She let out a yelp of pain, which only enraged the man further, "Shut up, you dirty squib!" he yelled as he drug her back to her original spot on the floor by her foot, before ripping the dress from her body. Tears clouded her eyes as he began to unbutton his pants,
Killious woke up late; only actually bothering to wake when Jackquinn shoved her out of his bed and onto the floor. The dreams seemed to real that it was hard to wake from them, she couldn't figure out why she was having them, never the same, except for the little girl and the man, his face was dark and she didn't recognize the girl at all, but they had started the night of the chess tournament and she had, had them every night since then.
"Killious, get the fuck up!" He prompted, as she roused. She looked up at him from the floor, confused at first, but then a wide grin spread across her face as she blinked sleep away. "I'm not kidding; this is no joke, up, up, up!" He tried to pull her from her spot, but gave up and threw clean clothing at her. She laughed and stood up, stripping off her pajama shorts and tank top, to exchange it for a short skirt, a tight shirt school shirt, tank top, standard tie, and a hot pink bra.
"Explain something to me, how in the hell does a black kid raised in inner city London end up with a French accent?" She asked, giggling as she buttoned up her shirt and started to pull her skirt on.
"Both parents are French, it was the household language, we took a lot of trips to France in the summers, and so I just picked it up, I mean how many summers can you spend hitch hiking before you learn the lingo right?" He said smiling; she now had on her skirt but stopped before she put on her shoes,
"Panties dear, those are vital." He sighed and started digging thought her bag, before throwing a pair of pink boy shorts with two faux lace-ups in the front, clashing delightfully with their green silk ribbon.
"How come girls get good underwear?" He asked absentmindedly as he stared at the wall opposite Illy, with his eyes closed, just to make her feel better.
"This is why you should leave when I change in your room, you always ask weird questions." She giggled, pulling on socks, and slipping on her shoes.
"You could always use the bathroom sweetie! But really, we get standard boxers, briefs, or fucking whiteys." He complained as she walked to the bathroom,
"You use a muggle straighter too?" She asked looking down at the item, which was enchanted to be used cordless and without electricity, but non-the-less a muggle item.
"Illy, look at me. I'm practically fucking bald! AND I'm black, of course it's not mine, it's yours you moron!"
"Shut up, it's too early in the morning okay!" He laughed at her, while she ran the straighter through her hair; she was done in a matter of minutes.
"Did you know that would take me close to an hour if this thing weren't enchanted?" She said as she reached for her makeup bag, one application that took the same amount of time no matter who you were, she stepped back and smiled at herself.
"Gorgious, now can we get the hell out of here before Snape kills me! This room will get taken away if he finds out about this you know?" Illy just packed her things up into her bag and headed for the door giggling.
"You never did tell me why you got this room."
"It's not important, what is, however, is the conditions of my keeping this room, the first of which being, no guests!" He lectured as she took a seat on a couch in the common room.
"Relax, we were just studying, even McGonagall can't deny that the two of us actually would study." Jackquinn's face became suddenly serious as he looked her in the eye,
"…It's because I'm black isn't it?" The two burst into laughter. Dolan and Christian came into the room with a loud crash, as Draco screamed at them from behind, none of the boys had on more that boxers, but they seemed otherwise distracted from their scantily clad state.
"That shampoo is expensive you filthy bastards!" Draco yelled as he began chasing them around the room, smiling, like he only would with real friends.
"But look, my hair feels so soft and delicate now!" Dolan jeered as Christian stroked his hair and agreed. The two were behind the couch on which Illy sat and Draco was standing directly in front of Jackquinn and her, debating whether he should continue on the pointless chase in circles around the couch or just jump directly over it. A sudden heat wave had struck the school on Monday, rendering nearly everyone unable to sleep in more than underwear, let alone wear blankets, if it hadn't been for their precarious sleeping arrangement the night before Illy and Jackquinn most likely would have skipped any clothing and blankets just to try and cool off. Magic may have been able to solve any problem, but dropping the temperature down to 70 Fahrenheit from somewhere near 110 was a task that could drain someone to exhaustion, the faculty had managed to keep classrooms at a mere 76, and the common room at 75, but the dorms and hallways stayed at a nauseating 93 degrees, which was just enough to make shampoo stealing a crime punishable by death, not to mention suddenly hysterical.
Draco looked down to Illy, and made a subtle motion for her to move over some, she scooted away from Jackquinn, leaving ample space for a foot, Draco sighed and began to walk away with a defeated look on his face, giving Dolan and Christian just enough time to relax before running back towards the couch and leaping over it, taking Christian down with him as he fell to the floor.
"Well Draco, your urges are just as insatiable as ever aren't they?" Dolan jeered, placing his hand on his hip. Christian laughed as he shoved Draco off of him,
"You know how the heat works on him, its like dogs!" Illy mocked from her spot on the couch, where she had turned around and was now sitting upright on her knees to see over the back of the sofa.
"You're all evil" Was all he would say through gritted teeth as he held a hand to his head. Christian helped him up, laughing as Dolan stroked his hair lovingly. Illy chuckled lightly before she noticed Draco's hand,
"Are you ok?" She asked, getting up and walking to where he was.
"Yeah, fine, I just hit my head a little bit hard on the hearth." He pointed to the base of the stone fire place that was just behind the couch. Illy did a double take when she saw the blood that was dripping to the floor from the stone corner.
"Draco we need to get you to the infirmary, I'll walk you." She said, slipping off her shirt and trying to pry his hand from the wound, which he was stubbornly trying to conceal.
"Do your panties match that?" Christian asked, lights tugging on the pink bra strap that protruded from her shirt. She ignored him and Draco shot him a glare, leaving him distracted long enough for Illy to pull his hand away and put her shirt to the right side of his forehead.
"Actually yes, with accents of green." Jackquinn replied absentmindedly as he flipped through a magazine. Draco's glare moved from one male to the next as he affixed his gaze to Jacky.
"Oh really, and how would you know that?" Christian inquired.
"A more important question would be, why are you reading teen witch?" Illy shot to Jackquinn before he had a chance to incriminate the both of them.
"Yeah, why the fuck are you reading that?" Christian moved towards Jackquinn, like an animal about to pounce on prey. Illy started moving Draco to the door, eager to escape the situation in a subtle manner.
"umm…" Jackquinn was drawing blanks as he stared at Christian blankly.
"Where else can you find that many adds for women's underwear without seeming like a pervert?" Dolan slipped in, taking the magazine from Jackquinn and holding up a photo of a girl in nothing but panties, with her arms across her naked breast's, a French underwear label was printed in loopy lettering across the bottom of the page.
"Wow…I never knew that." Christian reached out to take the magazine from Dolan's hand, and walked away, satisfied enough with the explanation. Dolan took a seat next to Jacky and waited,
"Oh, thanks, thanks very much, I was really worried for a minute there." He smiled as Dolan.
"No problem…it's too bad you were reading an article about, 'what to do if you think your boyfriend is cheating'" Jackquinn swallowed hard and looked down at the ground.
"One of my friend's boyfriend…I just don't know what to tell her, I thought it would help…"
"Nice try."
Killious walked briskly down towards the hospital wing, holding her now mostly crimson shirt to his head. The make shift rag was beginning to drip down her arm and dot her white tank top, with sparkling ruby polka dots.
"My shirt isn't doing much good, I'm sorry." She apologized as she wrung it out into an abandoned mop water bucket, unwilling to take a full detour to the bathroom.
"I could always just use my boxers." He suggested, smiling at her.
"I don't think that silk is all that absorbent." She retorted as she let her eyes wander down to his dark blue underwear, she could see the outlines of his figure as they walked down the empty hallway.
"Stop looking, you never know when Harry is going to show up." He stared straight forward, doing his best to respect the impossible contract he had agreed upon.
"Speaking of Harry…do you know what you did to Buckbeak and Hagrid?"
"What do you mean? Hagrid got a slap on the hand, like usual, and that stupid hippogriff is just going to have to stay in the forest, I didn't do anything."
"Actually Draco…well, I guess your dad didn't tell you yet, Hagrid could loose his job, but more importantly, they're planning on executing Buckbeak." Draco stopped moving and looked into her gray eyes,
"What do you mean? Why would they kill it?"
"You put on quite a show! You're a little drama queen, he's on trial, and things don't look good, not even Hermione has been able to find a way out of all this."
"You mean….it's going to get killed…because of one whiny kid's complaint?"
"You're 'The Draco Malfoy' Mr., that's not just any kid. You're father hates Hagrid, you know that, he'd do anything to hurt him, he sent him to Azkaban last year as you may recall."
"Those charges made sense, even Harry and Ron thought Hagrid might have been a part of what was going on…wait how did you know that?"
"I was sent to help escort him…actually, I ended up taking him myself."
"They let a thirteen year old little girl take someone to Azkaban unsupervised?"
"Not exactly, there was a dementor present, but Dumbledore had Hagrid promise to be good."
"You could fly with a dementor around? Fuck, you could fly to Azkaban, where there's hundreds of them?"
"Sure, I mean I felt a little sick, but I didn't actually go to the prison, I left him at a rendezvous point, and the dementor wasn't that close to me or anything."
"Oh…but still the point is the-"
"The point is you've condemned an animal to death, or at least your father has, and Harry thinks that it was on purpose!"
"Well it wasn't, so he can bugger off, I didn't mean to get anything killed or anyone fired."
"But you did, Draco, you've got to talk to your father, tell him to drop the charges." They were now almost to Madam Pomfry's
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean for any of this to happen. But I can't tell my dad to change his mind, he doesn't care what I think, let alone listen to me."
"Well then it's not even a fucking apology now is it?" Harry shouted at Draco from just a ways down the hall.
"Bloody hell, Potter keep your fucking nose out of my business, and for that matter, keep your scar and the rest of your filthy face away from me as well" Illy did her best to ignore the two and just hold onto Draco's head with the shirt.
"No one is as filthy as you! You don't even care that you're going to kill an innocent creature!"
"I just said that I was sorry didn't I? Damn your dumb!" Illy was now dragging Draco down the hall to keep him from starting a fist fight.
"It doesn't matter what you say, you won't even talk to your father! But you're probably right, I wouldn't listen to my son if he was as much of an arse as you are!" Harry was clearly irritated with something else besides just Draco, the dark circles under his eyes were evidence of a sleepless night.
"I'm bleeding from my head and all you can do is pick a fight?" Draco motioned towards the bloody shirt Illy was holding.
"Oh, let me guess Killious, his ego got so big it had to make some extra space in that head of his eh?" She was silent, she just pushed open the door to the infirmary.
"You're such a self centered twat! I didn't say a thing to you, in fact I was in the middle of apologizing for screwing your friend and his pet over, and you just have to start something, for Merlin's sake the sun's not even all the way up, but Harry Potter had a bad night, so he needs to make sure everyone else is miserable, because none of their lives matter! You're more of a narcissist that I am! So fine, I'm not sorry, I don't even give a shit! Your fucking giant friend can get fired and your bloody freak creature can get killed, I won't shed a tear!" Draco was shouting now, with nothing but Illy blocking him from ripping Harry to shreds.
"I'm a narcissist? I'm not the one who decided that Killious would be lucky to have me practically rape her!"
"ENOUGH! Draco, you are still sorry! Harry, I'm sorry you didn't get any sleep but bringing that up won't help at all!" The boys were silenced, both now blushing at the rebuke they had endured.
"This young lady is quite a fire cracker." Madam Pomfry came around the corner of the infirmary, smiling and drying her hands.
"The three of you woke me up, I was going to wring your necks until she got you to shut up, now who am I looking at?" She put on her glasses, smiling broadly in Illy's direction,
"Oh, Miss Enquirous, how are you this morning? Are these two yours?" She asked, stepping towards them.
"Sadly…yes they are, this one right here has injured his head pretty badly, hit the corner of a stone fire place with full force. And the other," She said pointing to Harry, "is suffering from insomnia and could use some sleeping draught, or something like it."
Pomfry shuffled around them, asking Harry questions about his sleep symptoms as she inspected Draco's wounds.
"Not good at all Draco, Illy will clean you up, let me go get Harry something, and find him a cot to get some rest on."
"Why do you get Illy?" Harry snapped, irritable beyond comprehension.
"I didn't claim her or anything. Blood hell Potter, talk to Pomfry if you have such a problem with it!" Illy sighed, she was running on two hours of sleep, and now extensive knowledge of dream interpretation, but she had been expecting a bland Wednesday of classes when she and Jackquinn decided to begin their research, if her days continued like this, there was no way she would be able to hold off sleep until Saturday.
"I'm just saying its not fair that people immediately assume she's with you."
"She was the one who drug me up here, she's got my blood all over her shirt! That might just hint she came with me!"
"Draco, please don't make it worse…I've ruined two shirts today, I don't want to have to throw away the skirt because you two decide to make a mess of killing on another." Draco nodded,
"They're not a total, loss, you can always sell them to Parkinson or Melrose." He whispered to her, making her smile before he spoke up. "Fine Potter, you can have her. She knows where the sleeping potions are right Madam?" Draco asked Pomfry who was frozen in place, confused and distraught by the on going arguments.
She awoke from her daze after Draco's question,
"Of course, she organized half of the potions closet, just make sure you give him something with less for a sleepless mind and more for drifting thoughts." She instructed Illy as she went to help Draco.
After administering Harry a potion and finding him a bed Illy started off towards Draco's bed, she was twenty minutes late for Lupin's class and she hadn't even eaten anything, meaning she was close to fainting.
"When's the last time you ate?" Draco asked, lightly stroking her face.
"I had dinner last night." She said, trying to play the situation off.
"Killious you had some green beans and a glass of tea, didn't you and Jackquinn get any food?"
"No, we got caught up in what we were doing…wait how did you know I stayed with him?"
"I found a note for you last night, I went to your dorm to give it to you but you weren't there, and you're always loud when you leave to go with Harry and Ron so I knew that wasn't it, I just guessed." He explained, handing her the note that he had pulled from the waistband of his boxers.
"That's fowl, I don't think I even want to touch it."
"It was in the condom pocket you prat, but I'll read it for you if it makes you feel any better."
"What's a condom?"
"It's a protective contraceptive that muggles use, they can't just use magic like us, now if you're done with stupid questions," He waited for a moment for her to ask something else before continuing, "seems that your friend from Gryffindor doesn't know how old you are, or what gender you are, this was stuck to the door of the boys bathroom: 'midnight, astronomy tower, Sunday, it was a MacDonald's in case you wanted to know.' I assumed that last part was in reference to the fast food fun fact from the last time you were together…Otherwise I probably fucked up some gay rendezvous in the boys' dorm." Illy laughed and gave him a hug, after checking to make sure Harry wasn't anywhere around, she couldn't take another fight.
"I have to get to class, take care of your head okay?" She asked, giving him a shy kiss on the cheek before turning to leave, he reached out for her hand,
"Killious, you'll starve…I can't figure out why you do it to yourself, but please, you have to eat something." She nodded and slipped out of the room quietly, making sure she didn't wake Harry.
