AN: Some juicy stuff in there

AN: Some juicy stuff in there! I love the boys don't I! –Richard S.

Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 21

The girl was just beginning to drowse when he arrived, angry and hurried. Sir wasted no time with abusive banter and quickly discarded the girl's panties and unzipped his own trousers. His smile was malevolent as he took full advantage of her groggy and weak state, his aim was to bruise and brutalize, and it excited him in every respect. She had learned to close her eyes, to just wish that it was over and more importantly to never disobey what he said. He seemed to be getting close to finishing already now, he must have been late for something, or perhaps his wife had demanded he not take long, whatever it was that caused him to rush, she saw it as welcomed relief. The twisted smile that seemed to haunt her crossed his lips as he thrust and pressed on to her small frame,

"It hurts you doesn't it?" He smirked as he spoke to her. She had learned long ago that he delighted in the pain, he was a sadist in his heart and nothing made him happier than to see her scream or beg.

"Yes Sir, it hurts more than I can bear." She let her tears flow now, to be convincing in part, but mostly because it honestly did hurt. He pushed harder, deeper, more painfully.

"I miss your screams, beg me." He was trying to finish off now, her lack of enthusiasm towards patronizing him was slowing him down.

"Please stop! Please it hurts! Ahh!" She let out a shrill scream and scrunched her eyes closed as he finished with a violent thrust, accompanied by grabbing her by her hair, which had actually produced the scream.

"That's good…you're beginning to like this, next time you can beg for it, you foul little wench." He stood to leave, promising something that she had never been forced to do before upon his next visit. It meant he'd be coming back soon, she wouldn't have to save her food as long, and he might even send potions for healing her. She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, rocking gently back and forth, choosing to pay more attention to her aching pelvis than to her growling stomach. From her spot near the door she could hear something in the basement besides the skitter of small rodents. There was a boy laughing…Sir's son. She had dreamed more than once that he would save her from where she was trapped, but she knew better than to think that he was alone, Sir would be sure of that.

"Really? A new broom!" The boy was scarcely containing his excitement over his father's gift. "Can we fly it now?" She could hear him starting to ascend the steps with the new gift.

"Of course, and now you know why it's important you stay away from the basement, if I find out you peak at your gifts, then I'll get rid of all of them." Sir explained to his boy as his heavy feet followed the boy's up the stairs. "Draco wait until we get outside to take off!" She could hear Sir faintly yelling from the top of the stairs before the door slammed shut.

Illy woke with a start, instinctively reaching a hand between her legs, before remembering that the dreams made her sore, but never tender. It was a pain entirely in her head. She rolled over and reached for the notepad by her bed, she had been writing her dreams down for Jacky and Dolan, though she had yet to show the book to the two, Draco and Lucious' presence in this fantasy world had been disturbing enough, but their perverse roles were far more than she was willing to deal with just yet. Illy scribbled down the dream as fully as she could remember it in shorthand, something she had picked up from her parents that kept snooping muggles from learning more than they needed to. After a glance at the clock she decided that since she had skipped her morning run, stretches and crunches would have to do.

After a light workout she headed for a shower, pulling on her short skirt with garters and a tie with her oxford, before following up with standard hair and makeup. On the plus side of sleep deprivation, Jacky, Dolan, and Illy's research in the mentally paranormal was enough of a distraction to help ignore Harry's odd and possessive behavior. Though her arms were now covered with small and large bruises from his death grip, which at one point could have understandably injured Draco quite easily, Illy found that complying with most of his demands was the easiest way to escape his rash actions. Draco on the other had not taken his behavior so lightly, and had deemed it necessary to have Crabbe and Goyle focus less on doing his bidding and more on guarding Illy whenever Harry came around.

Illy let out a soft yawn as she hugged Jacky and Dolan before heading towards her D.A.D.A. class. The two had spent every night of the week in Jacky's room, though they claimed that their intentions were purely research based, and more importantly they refused to cave in and just date one another. Illy smirked as she turned a last glance towards the common room to see Dolan place a possessive hand on Jacky's knee as Greg, the drummer from Clause's band, ran out of the room with an armful of scrolls for his astronomy class that was due to start in two or three minutes. The two would be coming in late to Lupin's class, she could tell already.

Illy walked across Lupin's now clear room to where Draco stood, smiling at her mist eyed, still yawning figure. The class didn't buzz with the same anticipation as Lupin's earlier classes, as they knew that the wardrobe at the far end of the room undoubtedly contained a boggart.

"Illy, I do believe that this thing will end up being a warm bed and plate of food for you." Draco commented as he tucked her into the space between his arm and breast, she jut nuzzled closer appreciatively.

"In that case we had better move to the back of the line, I'd hate to come across such a foe." Illy giggled, as Draco picked her up bridal style, and carried her to the back of the class. Giving Lupin a flash of her clasped silk stocking and her pin-up style garters. He grinned like a fool at the sight before doing his best to divert his vision. Draco caught the glance from the teacher and audible growled into Illy's ear as he pulled her skirt down over the garter, and gave her thigh a light squeeze. Lupin had a habit of staring a bit too long at the extroverted overly intellectual teen and had, had a second run in with Snape over the matter of her private tutoring. Illy gave Draco a brief hug around the neck before heading to speak with the professor. He had possessive moments but he had been doing very well given her situation with his worst enemy, so she usually let them go unmentioned.

"Professor Lupin, do I still have private classes with you today?" She asked in an overly aesthetic voice. She could hear Draco scoff from the other end of the room, she had a way of flirting far more than he liked with the professor, even though she claimed it was only because he was out in the halls at night far too much for her to be on his bad side.

"Actually, I've been meaning to speak with you about that." He said after swallowing hard and pulling his gaze from her cleavage.

"What about? I'm still not actually clear on why you had asked for the classes."

"You see, well this school supports defense against dark arts more than their use, and in honesty…well Illy, your amount of functional dark magic spells in contrast with your ability to defend them is quite nominally skewed."

"So what you're saying is basically that McGonagall thinks I'm going to join forces with the dark lord and kill a few of her prized pupils."

"Now Illy, she would never tell me if she was thinking that, we're just seeking balance is all." This was actually upsetting her a little, even if she wouldn't admit it.

"This is bullocks! I'm one of the best students in this school, I get better grades than ninety-five percent of her students and she just doesn't like it. I have more important things to be thinking about right now, I'm not wasting time on these lessons." When her lips closed again she pulled her hand over her mouth, surprised that she had snapped so quickly on the teacher. Lupin smiled and slowly pulled the hand from her mouth, Draco watched on in horror as the professor proceeded by pulling her chin up and moving his face closer to hers, locking his eyes in on hers. He could just imagine what the old pervert was saying, whispering flirtatious comments about her pointless after class lessons.

"Illy don't feel bad. It's fine really, you're exhausted right now, always for that matter, well since Draco got hurt, but anyway…we know about the other things that are occupying you," Lupin began, Draco still couldn't hear the old man but, he watched as Illy shuddered and began to rub her arm behind her back, he cocked his head when he noticed the black and blue polka dots that were spaced across her skin. "We know you have some special gifts. After Jackquinn and Dolan brought you to Madam Pomfry, after your vomiting spell, we realized what the signs meant. We're prepared to help you in any way, and coming to these classes is important. If you're as strong as Trelawney believes that you are, then defending yourself against you-know-who is very important." Lupin explained things as though she was a child, it was insulting, but none-the-less her stiffened posture relaxed when she realized that Snape wasn't using Lupin to condemn her friendship with Harry.

"So that's what all this is about…I can take care of my own problems. I know that I'm into some weird shit but I don't need a team of nosy faculty talking about my business behind my back. I'm going to talk to Snape about the classes, if he wants me to go, I will, otherwise, you can forget it." She turned on her heel and marched back to Draco. Lupin gawked for a moment as all of her flirtatious energy was dispersed in a matter of moments. Finally he moved to his spot next to the wardrobe,

"We'll begin now, we probably have time for ten or eleven people so who wants to go first?" Pansy's hand shot into the air as she giggled and rushed to the front of the group. Lupin opened the Wardrobe nothing emerged for several seconds before finally out came a large albino vulture, Pansy shrieked and ducked behind Christian who was himself paralyzed in the sight of the bird. It took a huge lumbering step towards him, its head was an inch or two taller than his own, Christian gulped as the boggart began to change. This time it took the form of a snake woman, bare breast and hissing at him. Lupin stepped in and banished the serpent woman to the cupboard and began his lecture on laughter.

"I should have expected scarier things than Snape from a bunch of Sytherin's I guess!" He exclaimed finally, as he wiped the small beads of sweat from his brow. "Where did those come from?"

"I was attacked by one when I was just a kid. They live somewhere in the Swiss alps, vacationing there and all." Pansy explained flippantly, trying to regain her façade of cool evil.

"I met one once…a year ago. A serpent woman I mean, she looked just like that, but she wasn't nearly as set on killing me." Dolan tried to laugh off the last part of his statement, but everyone could hear the dreamy tone of voice he took as he talked about the creature.

"Alright, well if you're all ready we can try again on the snake woman, I'd prefer if you don't mind Pansy, to not be eaten by a vulture larger than I am." Lupin gave her a small smile and started towards the wardrobe again, just as Jacky and Dolan walked in. The class only spent a second looking at their entrance before they were again absorbed in the lesson at hand. Illy however, did a double take. Dolan's hair was tousled and messy, his shirt was un-tucked in the back and Jacky had a freakishly large grin across his lips. Killious giggled to herself and Draco gave her a questioning look.

"What's with you? First you flirt with Lupin, then you freak out and snap at him, and now you find the fact that Dolan was just snogging the hell out of Jackquinn funny. Really, you're so odd." Illy was slightly shocked when she first heard Draco talk about Jacky and Dolan so nonchalantly, but then she remembered his history with Harry, so of course he picked up on Jacky and Dolan by himself.

"You're painstakingly late you two." Illy sneered as they came to stand by her side.

"Yes, well we found something very interesting in one of the…books, back in the room." Dolan explained, letting his smile swell as he spoke.

"Well unless you want to explain to the entire school I'd wipe that grin of my face and fix myself up, both of you." She scolded before tucking in Dolan's shirt for him and beginning to fix his hair.

"Hey, hands off my man." Jacky spoke under his breath.

"As I recall you still haven't actually left your other man, and you," She said turning to Dolan. "Have a very heterosexual best friend to explain all of this to, so I'd think things through if I were in your position." The mood of the group fell instantaneously. Technically speaking she was correct, Jacky had stormed out on Clause before he could actually finish off their relationship, and Christian wasn't going to be an easy road block. Draco looked at the two, now down trodden, boys.

"Don't worry about it, she's just got her knickers in a twist because Lupin's been acting like a fucknuckle…well that and because I haven't untwisted them for her yet." Draco joked as he places a lingering hand on Illy's hip. She snorted and crossed her arms.

"Well what do you expect, the puff's almost got laid and all you can do it ruin the mood." He mocked as he moved towards her ear. "Besides, I'd love to help you relax a bit." His voice was smooth and seductive as he nibbled lightly on her ear.

"Draco, behave yourself in public." Jacky chided.

"Of course, we wouldn't want to be as obvious about our scandalous affair as you and Dolan." Draco smirked as he moved away from Illy, leaving her to pout and sulk on her own.

"Actually I was just thinking about how closely Lupin is watching you right now. A half naked snake woman is about to eat Dolan, who is both terrified and getting a boner over the situation and he's not even doing anything about it. He's just staring daggers into the back of your head; he's sort of close to Harry isn't he?" Draco didn't bother to look over his shoulder, he knew it was true.

"In that case," he put a hand on Illy's lower back, "Let's give him a show." Draco tried to pull her closer to him but she wouldn't move. "Ok, that's it, what the fuck is wrong with you? When have you ever passed up a chance to play with a teacher's mind?" Draco was utterly exasperated with Illy's silent, brooding demeanor.

"He wants me to come after class to talk about my problem…" She glanced over at Dolan and Jacky who nodded solemnly. Draco looked confused.

"Does it have something to do with these?" Draco snatched up her wrist and shoved the sleeve back, revealing the bruised arm. Jacky turned his head away, Dolan gasped. "Is this something you've done? Illy I can't take another surprise like the one in the hall…"

"What do you care? You won't even talk to me unless Harry's not around."

"Don't divert from the subject Illy."

"No, I'm not doing it to myself ok. I don't hurt myself on purpose alright! When you were gone it's not that I was trying to starve myself or stay awake for days…I just couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, it wasn't a choice." Illy's eyes were starting to turn black.

"Illy, why don't you go next." Lupin called from the front of the classroom, having noticed Christian's failure when the boggart was banished by the laughter of the class when they noticed the spectacle in his pants. Illy hesitated,

"Explain things to him." She directed Dolan, who nodded and turned to Draco. She walked slowly to the front of the room; she knew what she'd see. If she had to do this it would be best to have Draco distracted from what was going on at the front of the room. She glanced back over her shoulder, he was listening to Dolan but, as always, his gaze was focused on her.

"Professor Lupin, I really d-don't want to do this" She stammered.

"Everyone needs to face their fears Illy."

"But not all of us need to do it publicly, in front of people it will hurt."

"Your fear isn't hurting anyone but you."

"You know that's bullshit. This isn't some animal, well actually he is, but it doesn't matter, my fears are private. You know for yourself that I see things most people don't so I'll come to your after class whatever's, just let it be."

"Are you sure? You can still ask Snape. I'm not going to black mail you." Lupin smiled, "I would never really make you do something you don't want to." He placed a hand on her shoulder, Draco's eyes narrowed. "Don't worry about it kid." Lupin said, offering a bit of chocolate and pulling a piece of lint from her shirt. Draco snapped.

"I'd like to go now!" He called from the back of the room. Dolan chuckled,

"She's going to be the death of you one day, I hope you know that." He smirked as Draco walked to the front of the room.

"Alright the Mr. Malfoy, come on up." Lupin ushered Illy to the side. Draco strode to the front of the room. He stood in front of the wardrobe, cracked his knuckles, and tucked a bit of his hair behind his cheek.

"Ok, I'm ready." Draco turned and winked at Illy, who just sighed and shook her head. The wardrobe door opened, Draco closed his eyes and thought hard. The boggart slowly emerged, the entire classroom stood still as a filthy little girl in an elaborate dress, with curls in her hair emerged. Illy's eyes widened and she drew her hand to her mouth, the little girl was the child from her dreams, but before she could say anything the boggart changed. This time it was a snake, pure white and emanating evil. Whispers broke out among a few students who came up with ideas about the snake. The boggart changed again after four or five seconds, contorting and settling on the form of disgusting and deformed infant of some sort, its slits for a nose moved softly in and out as its gaze focused on Draco. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes one more time, banishing the creature and calling a new one, the class was now dead silent as the bell rang. No one thought about moving however as the now towering beast before them threatened to break the roof of the room with its sheer size. The snarling reptile lurched towards students, its long slick body must have been four feet in diameter, its huge snapping jaw was hooked on the end and in the place of ears were webbed protrusions like those of a fish's fin. It was a rare dragon, they dwelled deep underwater and were known for their lack of hesitation in consuming human flesh. The sea serpent of old that could crush a ship in its jaw was in juvenile version and continuing into adult hood at an alarming rate. The beast quickly encircled the students, pushing them all into a designated perimeter with its ever expanding body. Draco breathed deeply again, the dragon stopped moving, suddenly in shock over it's own appearance, as zebra stripes and polka dots now constituted the pattern of the beasts flesh. The class erupted in laughter, immediately shrinking the boggart down to its beginning size. Draco smiled wickedly and called forth a set of miniature wings that did their best to pull the still immense beast towards the roof. The class, once again, was hysterical as the boggart continued to shrink. He turned to Illy who was herself now laughing and mouthed out to her, "for your enjoyment." Instantaneously the dragon was outfitted with a lightning shaped scar and bottle glasses. The room became so loud in a matter of seconds that the boggart was cowering in the wardrobe and Lupin was struggling to calm the students to get them to leave.

"That was excellent Draco, quite entertaining, even though it was a bit cruel, but I cannot object to such mockeries, Snape hates me for a good reason." Lupin whistled and clapped with the rest of the students, who were still in an uproar as they left the room. Draco left with Illy, smiling and taking in the ego boost that his fellow students offered.

"So, now that your best friend is the most revered man in school, shall we go ahead with that kinky and lustful affair?"

"Oh shut up!" She said in good spirits as she hit him in the shoulder.

"What, would you prefer Lupin?"

"That's disgusting, he doesn't even like me, notice how much we fought today."

"He just loves your banter. You know he only wants you for that big sexy mind of yours babe."

"Don't call me babe Draco."

"Fact remains, he thinks your brain is hot."

"So do you, and besides, he only wants to use me as a weapon in a war I have no part in."

"You haven't chosen a side?"

"Did you let Dolan finish explaining things to you before you decided to be a chauvinist or what?" She quickly dodged the subject of choosing sides as the duo headed towards the great hall.

"If I think your brain is hot then you think my chauvinism is down right erotic. And yes, I let him finish, mostly…he got through the majority of things and was going into theology and shit so I just sort of tuned him out."

"Why is that?" She asked, stopping just inside the door.

"I like to hear things like that from you. That mind of yours gets me off, like Christian and his snake woman." He smiled and turned towards his table. "You coming?"

"No, I told Harry I'd sit with him."

"I see, well just so you know, the ink from the other day, it'll last for a few weeks unless I give you the stuff to get it off, you can thank the twins."

"Draco you make my life so irritating."

"What? If you don't want me to see you in your knickers long enough to remove it, then Harry doesn't need to see them long enough to notice it."

"Bloody pain in my arse." Illy shouted as she began to walk away.

"Fire in my loins!" He shouted back, particularly loud. His ego made him feel invincible, and slaying a Dragon in second period put him into a euphoric high.

"Hey Harry…Ron, Hermione, Fred, George." Illy smiled as she greeted her friends.

"Hello love." Fred and George chimed.

"Hey Ill" Ron smiled back. He nudged Hermione, but she was engrossed in some book on animal rights and merely nodded. Harry remained silent as he ate his lunch, though he glared intently at Illy for well over five minutes. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat next to him, nibbling idly at her cucumber and tomato salad.

"Oh leave her be Harry, everyone woulda laughed at it." Ron final broke the friction at the table.

"Really, would you have laughed?" Harry snapped back.

"Yeah, I reckon I woulda." Ron said indignantly.

"We definitely would have!" The twins joined in again. Harry was silent; he just placed a hand on Illy's thigh and continued to eat. Illy's shuddered under his touch, knots forming in her stomach as he squeezed lightly every now and then.

"So, how goes the pet poltergeist?" She asked the twins, hoping to distract herself from Harry.

"It's alright, but we need some way to make its act of self cannibalism better…" George informed.

"bloodier, grosser, enough to turn a stomach." Fred explained further.

"Actually I need something from you two."

"And what might that be?" They asked, leaning in and sniggering.

"I need something to remove your semi-permanent ink from my skin."

"Oh, well where is it? I'll just take it off now." George began, exaggerating all of his actions, they both knew damn well, someone had told them.

"I'd rather just purchase a bottle of remover."

"Why, is it somewhere we can't be looking?" Fred chided.

"So what if it is? Just give me the damn potion."

"Now who would have put something somewhere on Illy that she's actually ashamed to show the school?"

"Look, it was one of Draco's stupid pranks ok? So just give me the potion."

"Oh, well in that case. He informed us that we were not to sell you remover."

"That little bugger! I should-"

"Shut it Killious. The whole damn hall heard what he said; we all know perfectly bloody well how the ink got there." Harry interrupted her.

"What exactly are you implying Harry Potter?" The twins asked, excitedly.

"We all know what he's implying…I think I've had quite enough to eat. I'll see you all for the Hogsmeade trip." Illy collected her things and headed out of the hall silently. The moment she was gone Harry regretted what he'd said. Everyone at the table was glaring at him now.

"I'm sorry alright, I'll go apologize." He stood up and went after her, at a slightly brisker pace. "Illy, come back, I'm sorry." He called after her from the top of the dungeon stairs.

"I'm going towards D.A.D.A." She informed him, startling him half to death when he heard her voice come from behind him.

"Oh…I'll walk you." He offered shyly. This was good. Usually he was violent when she upset him. His coy side was much easier to live with. "I'm really sorry Illy …he just makes me jealous. He's already your best friend and it's hard to compete with him. His family has a lot of money and their really famous and he's popular and"

"I get it Harry. Don't kill yourself talking about how great Malfoy is."

"Yeah, I guess you already know…but anyway, I guess I just get away from myself some times, I don't mean to."

"I know Harry, its fine. But just so you know, we weren't doing anything together when he put the mark on. It was actually just one of his stupid jealousy things."

"Oh, where is it? If you don't mind my asking."

"Back of my thigh, he put it there at dinner the other day when I stood up to go see you." Harry's light expression faded. He blinked hard twice.

"Did you tell him to keep his hands off of you?"

"What?"

"Did you tell him that he needs to keep his bloody hands out of your skirt Illy?"

"It wasn't like that, it was just a joke."

"Well I don't want his goddamn joke up your skirt." He was starting to get fiery about the subject.

"Harry it's really not a big deal. I have to go to this class; I don't want to go tonight, so I'll see you for breakfast tomorrow." She gave him a hug and practically ran into the class room.