AN: Ok, Illy and Draco have been getting a little bit overly emotional in my opinion, so I think that I'm going to do what I can to put them back in character…Sorry about that but I'll try. –Richard S.
Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 22
"I thought we agreed on after school Miss Enquirous." Lupin sounded aggravated as Killious set down her bag.
"Why the sudden formalities?" She asked, before noticing that Snape was standing next to Lupin at the moment. "Servius!" She brightened up immediately, not wanting to bring up the subject of her mood, or what had created it more particularly. Snape nodded in her direction coldly, but his eyes pleaded for her to behave herself.
"I see I'm not alone in my fondness for Illy." Lupin smiled at Snape.
"I believe that you are alone in your fondness for Miss Enquirous." Snape looked disgusted at his fellow teacher, glaring inadvertently at the young man as he eyed Killious' now attentive and poised form. "If we've all regained our composure and our respect for student teacher relationships I believe that this would actually present a worthy example of what exactly you plan to teach Miss Enquirous during her private lessons." Lupin nodded and Snape took a seat.
"First I think that performing the boggart exercise that you bi-passed today would be a good start." Lupin didn't even give Illy time to object before he flung open the wardrobe door. It took less than a second for the tall and slightly younger than present Lucious Malfoy to step from the makeshift hold. Shivers went up and down Killious' spine. She cast a worried glance toward Snape, whose eyes looked like they were about to fling themselves from their sockets in surprise over Lupin's rash behavior. The flashes and visions of all her dreams hit her head on. Lucious' expression changed from calm and collected to furious and licentious.
Snape leapt from his spot in a chair as he shouted for Illy to come to his side.
"Ike, get up now!" His breath was wasted as she crouched onto her knees and covered her ears, scrunching her eyes at the time. "Ike move!" Snape tried again to no avail as the boggart's appearance became progressively more animalistic. The shirt covering Lucious' form disappeared, revealing a toned frame, speckled with blood. Illy's head flung back to reveal her completely black eyes. Lupin gasped at the situation, he was trapped between a hysterical teacher and a frantic student. Snape rushed to Illy's side, pulling on her arm as hard as he could but she was bolted to the floor. Visions of Lucious' cruelty shot through her brain like lighting bolts. Her voice quivered as she let out a soft,
"…stop." Snape tried again to pull her arm, but the bone broke in his hand like a twig under the pressure of his grip. The boggart moved closer, loosing clothing as it came. Its eyes were ravenous now, full of thirst for more of the fear she had to offer. It reached out a hand towards Illy, "Sir, please!" She called out softly, like the cry was from the back of her throat and drowned by tears, this time Snape watched as her leg snapped, blood pooled around the protruding bone. This memory was not something he wanted her remembering. Lupin chose the moment to step in with a helpful wand, banishing the naked boggart back to its wardrobe.
"What…in the hell…was that?" He asked, mystified by the turn of events. Snape scooped up Illy, not noticing that her wounds were no longer present.
"You stay the fuck away from my daughter! I told McGonagall that you had no idea what you were doing. You know nothing about her. You're just a dangerous filthy animal!" Snape shouted before turning to leave the room. Lupin stood entirely still, surprised by Snape's reaction to the event. He watched the door slam and ran a soft tongue over his canine teeth,
"More like me than you think…" he whispered to himself as he recalled the vision of Snape's teeth.
Illy woke up just a few minutes after she got back to her room, her bed was warm though, so she figured she'd been there for a while. It was probably almost dinner time at this point, and she wasn't looking forward to eating with Harry, dealing with Fred and George's jokes, Snape's condescending stares, Hermione's lectures, Jacky and Dolan's sticky situation, Christians disturbing jokes, Ron's thick headed comments, but most of all she wasn't in the mood to deal with Draco or either of the whores that would no doubt be making obnoxious efforts at tossing him in the middle of dinner in no time. She sighed and reached out for a pillow to hold on to. Instead she found something harder, but warmer, she didn't want to know, so she just scrunched her eyes tighter and ignored that it wasn't part of her normal bed adornments. Whatever or whoever it was, was perfectly willing to lie still and sleep. Maybe she wasn't in her bed; where else could she have been though? She threw and arm over her bed mate and reached for a bit of the sheets, she rubbed them between her fingers. They were hers alright, Egyptian cotton. The only person who had more expensive sheets than she did would be Draco Malfoy, who possessed a set of silk sheets with a thread count somewhere in the millions. As excessive as they were they sounded great at the moment, that or a bath. The let out a small noise, an "mmmm" of anticipation for sneaking into the prefects bathroom tonight and relaxing in a large bath for a few hours.
The reverberations of her soft, angelic noises ran up and down his back. He remained entirely still, he was no one to interrupt her, and she was enjoying rest, for the first time in weeks, maybe longer. Snape had run into him in the hall, he commanded the young man to stay with her until she woke, and then he put her to bed and disappeared; that was about seven minutes ago, and now she was nudging herself close to him, sleepy and comfortable. He wanted to talk but he had no right, he had important things to tell her, he always did. She made him someone he hated, he was overly talkative, he was philosophical rather than reasonable, he was generous and kind, not strong and powerful. His father would change that when he went home for winter break, just as surely as he would cut off his tresses heartlessly. His father didn't care that she loved his hair, he didn't care that just fighting with her was enough to send him over the edge, he didn't care about anything at all concerning his son, or even his wife. All he cared about was how he looked to his superiors. His father's friends were the things of nightmares, and sure enough they haunted him in his sleep.
She was compelled to move again, it was too odd to think about the idea of sleeping next to someone you don't know. She rolled over onto her other side and pulled her legs up some, curling into herself. She was both startled and satisfied when the other person moved to her, they mirrored her body perfectly, tucking their knees just inside of hers, and placed a heavy arm around her waste. She liked this. Once again anonymity was attractive, not knowing. She lay still, drifting from thought to sleep. What if this was the anonymous boy, the one from Gryffindor, who knows how he would have gotten here, it didn't matter, and he was one for miracles and beautiful mishaps. She smiled at this thought mentally, before breaking out into a grin.
He loved the feel of her being so close to him, and so entirely empty of lust, or passion, or aggression, or anything else. She was just herself. Filling up her mind with lofty ideas about nothing at all, daydreaming and smiling to herself. This was how he always wanted to sleep, right next to her. He wanted her to unabashedly come with her hair tousled, waving and curling wildly; he loved it like that, no matter how much she tried to straiten it. He wanted her face free of anything but a smile and her glowing eyes. He couldn't see them now, but he knew, they had lost their cold grays and obsidian blacks, now they were warm and glowing, pale honeys colors with specs of brown. The thought of her in this raw and gentle form was enough to make him burry his face in her hair and inhale deeply. She smelled like nothing else in the world, she was spicy like cloves, sweet like spun sugar, neutral like vanilla, dark like pine, fresh like rain, exotic like flowers that didn't even exist, and most of all, he could smell just a bit of himself on her. What did he expect? She lived by his side, no, that was his father speaking, his arrogance, in reality he lived by her side. He would have it no other way, and it didn't matter how long he had to wait, it would always be worth it.
She should check the time. Classes were over at lunch today. So, she knew that she wouldn't be late for anything other than a meal. But if she missed it Draco would be upset, hell everyone would, and without fail Harry would give her one of his eerie compliments about how good she looked even though she was bone poking slender. She shuddered at the thought, he moved closer, arching his shoulders in to keep her warm.
He couldn't figure out for the life of him why anyone would keep a dorm this cold, and then he realized that it wasn't the room, just her bed, with the curtains drawn and the temperature in the low sixties. Of course she had changed it to suit her, everything one earth changed to make her happy. He too made his bed colder, just for the sake of using more blankets; they were more comfortable than the night air. All you had to do was move all the heaters in the dorm to the other end of the room and leave a window near you open. That and pick a bed on the end so that you didn't piss anyone off. He smiled into her hair and started to nod off.
She could feel the strangers breath steadying, but she could also feel her own eyelids becoming heavy. She struggled to remember what had happened before this, nothing. She had lost a lot of her memory in her life time, the concussion, several times when she was a younger girl she had drifted into naps and forgotten hours of events, but this year was especially bad. First was the night of the chess tournament, then the day that Draco came back, she had lost all memory from twenty minutes before she was taken to the hospital wing, and finally there was today, she remembered Harry, and walking into Lupin's class, and then nothing. Oh well, she thought, it doesn't matter at all anyway. She yawned conclusively, ending the train of though, and then she slept like a rock. She was dead asleep for hours and hours, it was coming into the tail end of dinner when she finally opened her eyes again.
The room was dark now and she woke up shivering. She rolled over, her bed mate was gone, but not far, their spot in the blankets was still warm. I must get up and see what time it is, she instructed herself. Her eyes opened slowly, as though they were stuck shut, she looked at her bedside table.
"Seven…damnit." Illy pulled her body from bed; yawning and stretching as she did so. If she hurried she could make it to dinner with just enough time to choke down some food and catch up with Harry, he was still unpredictable.
As she moved down the hall way at a brisk pace she did her best to straiten her skirt and smooth her shirt out. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun just before she rushed into the hall and took her seat across from Draco.
"So, where have you been all day?" He asked her drawly, "Snogging the knickers off Potter I assume." She ignored him, and instead of responding she just forked a potato off of his plate.
"But really Ill, where were you?" Christian smiled deviously. It looked like she would have just enough time left in dinner for everything to go exactly how she didn't want it.
"I was reading and I fell asleep, nothing special at all love." Illy winked at Christian.
"Is that so? Because I've heard quite a few rumors that say you've been doing more than reading with Potter."
"He wasn't even there, and besides where did you hear that from?"
"Oh, just around…is it true, have you really chosen another man to share your bed with?"
"Of course not, Harry smalls in comparison to you." Illy played along with the banter. She had decided that it was better to distract Christian from Jacky and Dolan, who were clearly involved in a very deep conversation at the moment.
"In more than just the ways of personality I presume." He goaded her into continuing the ridiculous flattery.
"Shut the hell up Christian, you know you don't have anything impressive in there." Draco began, suddenly in the mood for a pissing contest.
"Like you've got something more impressive?"
"Well, I am the prince of Slytherin am I not?"
"What does that have to do with anything? So you rule a rarely frequented dungeon, does that mean it's torturously small or something?"
"Our house isn't represented by a snake for no reason eejit." Draco's lips curved upward with the smile of victory, Illy on the other hand was about to be sick.
"I'm drowning in testosterone; I think I'd rather gag myself on my own vomit than continue sucking in all this bullshit."
"Irritable much?" Doan asked, as he chuckled at Illy's comment.
"No, just witty." She smiled and ate another potato from Draco's plate.
"And viciously so!" Jacky joined in the conversation.
"She's just experiencing a bit of penis envy." Christian told Draco with a roll of his eyes.
"What do you two have to be envious of, I'm the black one, well endowment is in my genes boys." Jacky smirked and crossed his arms. Illy could hear Dolan inhale sharply and force down a smile.
"He does have a point." Illy smirked and moved closer to Jackquinn so that she could run a hand over his abdomen.
"Now you two are making me sick!" Draco made a gagging motion to accompany his comment.
"What's really making me sick is your ability to eat with that fucking thing hanging on your arm." Dolan pointed at Pansy, who was currently trying to reach a hand down to Draco's pants, only to have her hand slapped away by Draco.
"Just let her toss you off already!" Christian jeered, "Or if you really want to hand her over, she can do me instead."
"I'm not an item, I belong to Drakie only!" Pansy squealed in her own defense.
"Yeah well my trash belongs to me, so you can have it do the job Christian; they have equivalent trade value right?" Illy asked, irritated suddenly by Pansy's actions.
"Or you could just do it yourself lovey." Christian offered.
"You're just jealous of me and my Drakie." Pansy's shrill voice attempted once again to defend her, where Draco clearly would not.
"The only person pathetic enough you be jealous of you is Matty you filthy bitch!" Illy was suddenly fiery with the girl.
"Drakie, don't let her call me those names!"
"This isn't my problem." Draco said with a smile. He closed his eyes in feigned bliss and put his hands behind his head as the two girls fought over him.
"I'm just hoping they'll end up tearing each other's clothes off and then making out!" Christian smiled, as he leaned back in his chair to watch the show just like Draco.
"How does my beating the brain out of this little whore conclude with our making out?" Illy asked incredulously, but still in good humor.
"That's it bitch, you're going to regret that!" Pansy stood up from her spot next to Draco.
"It's just what happens Illy, you really must learn the rules of these kinky lesbian fights sweetie." Christian winked at her.
"Sit down Pansy, before she pushes that pug nose of yours even farther up into your face and kills you." Draco finally interjected as he pulled Pansy back to his side.
"Even your man doesn't have faith in you Pansy." Illy smirked evilly. Draco loved her mood, she was relaxed again, feisty, even better than that though, she was jealous. He really had no choice but to fuel the fire that was set before him,
"Now Pansy, I think that we should retire to the room early, I believe that you started a job, and it's never good to leave things undone." Illy was about to scream when she realized what Draco was doing, he was tying his best to make her jealous. She could play that game just as well as he could, and she would, but first she needed to let him know that he wasn't winning. She smiled brightly as she spoke,
"Just make sure she washes up first, you never know what you could get." Illy finished her jest with a wink and a wave as Draco was drug from the room by Pansy.
"Well, now that the fun is over, I'm going to go talk to Clause." Jackquinn excused himself and headed towards his cheating, but still technical, boyfriend.
"I guess I should go see Harry then…" Illy sighed and took a last potato from Draco's plate. The mood at the table went from that of jovial harassment to ominous shudders.
"I don't understand why you two even talk, you don't like him. I think just about everyone but Draco and his friends can figure that out…for that matter, you only even talk to him because of his friends, who are nothing but a bunch of prissy Gryffindor's, 'cept maybe Fred and George, they're okay." Christian had suddenly become observant and nosy in the last few seconds apparently. "It's obvious that he's crazy about you in some creepy scar head way, but he doesn't exactly treat you great. We have to verbally wrestle the guy to get you away from him for ten seconds, and then he just glares and snatches you around by your wrist all the time."
"That's not true, we are friends. I don't dislike him at all, he's nice to me." She was clearly trying to convince herself more than anyone else. After a bit of huffing and puffing she rose from the table and went to go see her friends, but even though she tried to tell herself she did like Harry, she ended up sitting between the Weasley brothers Fred and Ron, with George next to Fred and Blaise and Harry across from them.
"Where's Hermione at tonight?"
"She's had her face buried in a book since lunch." Ron explained to Illy nonchalantly.
"I see…" Illy didn't get a chance to speak again before dinner was dismissed and she found herself being led out of the room by Harry's warm fingers, which intertwined with her own. In its own way it was sweet, the way he always wanted to hold her hand and keep her close. Besides, this was just what would teach Draco a good lesson, she thought to herself. Such motivations had a tendency to get her in trouble, but it didn't matter at the moment, all she could picture in her mind was Pansy on Draco's lap in her favorite chair, squealing out his name as she bounced up and down. She shuddered at the thought and gripped Harry's had tighter. He smiled back at her and winked.
"Are you going strait to bed?" Harry questioned innocently.
"I think I might get a shower in now and do a little homework so that I don't have to worry about it tomorrow."
"Right, for Hogsmead. About that, do you want to hang out with us? Me and Ron and Hermione I mean." Harry's cheeks were now rosy shades of pink under his glasses, as he quivered out the question. "I mean I'm still not sure if I can go, but I think that maybe I can reason with McGonagall." That would happen the day hell froze over, or maybe when Illy stopped hating her…
"Actually I promised Fred and George that I'd go see the joke shop with them, you know Zonko's. And then they want to go do a little snooping around. I think that I might try and introduce them to some firewhisky as well." Illy bubbled out the answer excitedly, she had been looking forward to the trip for a few weeks.
"Y-you drink firewhisky?"
"I'm a big girl Harry, I don't need permission or age allowances to tell me what I can and cannot drink."
"Well of course, but I mean, I just didn't expect it."
"It's not the strongest thing I've ever drank. Muggle cultures are all unique about things like that, and I've spent a lot of my time doing anthropology work with my parents, don't forget that."
"Right, well I guess if you want to head to your dorm I'll see you than." Harry perked up and gave Illy a hug. His hands stopped just above her butt, with his fingers resting lightly a bit farther down that Illy might have preferred, but she ignored his behavior and headed back to the dorms in a hurry. She was hoping to make enough of scene to ensure that Draco kept the fuck away from her chair with that stupid whore.
