Ok, romantic chapter Yaay! well sort of, ...anyways, Im sorry for the mistakes, but I had very little time to edit it :) thank you all for the nice review and keep them coming :D Have fun reading it and take it easy!
Menteur: Chapter 9: Being Malfoy a.k.a. The Unexpected Date Part 1
October 7, 1943
It was well after 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when Abraxas Malfoy finally sat down in his customary spot on the stone bench in one of the many courtyards of the castle. The others were already there; ladies in light summer dresses, seated on the opposite bench of his, lively chatted between themselves, only occasionally involving the three guys sitting next to him, who, on the other hand, looked like they had no intention of starting any sort of spoken pleasantries. All of the students, whose family's name meant something, gathered at an agreeable place on the grounds and enjoyed late afternoon hours, conversing and sipping a tea. This happened every Thursday.
Cygnus Black tiredly stretched his legs further from the bench in attempt to reach the last fading rays of warm sunshine, while Septimus pulled a square-shaped golden cigarette case and offered one to Thaddeus, who gladly accepted. Dorea, Thaddeus' fiancé, opened her mouth to pester her soon-to-be husband about particularly unhealthy habits, but Belvina tugged on her sleeve and discreetly pointed to the other side of the small area.
"Look, that's her" Abraxas didn't bother even looking at the poor unsuspecting victim of gossip, the girls were about to mock. They always did that.
"Pfft! A pure-blood from France? Hardly! I mean look at her! She's dressed like…like…like a man."
Serena? Malfoy swung his platinum-haired head around to see the French. She was reading a large book in an alcove not far from them and she was, indeed, wearing trousers. Her back was arched to fit comfortably with the rounding shape of the alcove's wall, while her feet were kicked up diagonally, resting high on the opposite wall to give her enough leverage to balance the heavy book in her lap.
Dorea frowned doubtfully: "Maybe it's the latest fab…I've heard she is very rich…"
Abraxas' eyes left the foreigner and settled on the two ladies in front of him in hope to find more information about the new girl.
True to be told, she intrigued him since the first day she arrived. It was the same day he met with Riddle and other Knights on the edge of school grounds, ended up getting cursed and left in the woods. Last thing he remembered was a blurry figure of pink and brown, bending down to him and telling him to be still. Then there was the feeling of soft fingers tracing the large wound on his exposed chest and nothing after that. When he awakened the next day, a healer's maid has told him that somebody had dropped him off late last night on one of the beds, where she had found him later, unconscious, but mostly healed.
Abraxas wasn't stupid and was quickly able to deduce who was the one that saved him. It was also the reason why he hasn't told Riddle about the incident with the suspicious ring yet. She could be a distant family member, he thought even though there was very little chance for Malfoys to have relatives in France, especially ones with the exact same coat of arms. Plus, this witch looked and behaved nothing like Malfoys, or pure-bloods, for that matter. Most of the time, she simply kept to herself; talking only when spoken to, and sometimes not even that. The rest she spent in the library or walking by the Dark Lake. Often he thought about joining her during the afternoon, but never really found the courage necessary to go talk to her, since she so boldly declined Riddle's offer to side with the Knights.
"Oh, you mean she could be…a mudblood?" Letitica, the youngest of Rosier siblings, who also happened to be betrothed to Abraxas, whispered hesitantly. Septimus' brows shot up in distrust, while Cygnus shook his head with the low chuckle.
"No way, she's too hot to be a mudblood!" declared Taddeus with laughter, which earned him a very disapproving look from Dorea. The three boys promptly tagged onto the argument whether the new girl is of decent origin or not, while Abraxas' attention nonchalantly wandered back the alcove.
Taddeus got one thing right- Serena was pretty, quite beautiful actually. Her long raven strands curled in the most unnatural manner away from her face, making the whole thing look more like a mane of a wild lion than normal hair and her large chocolate eyes reflected all the wit and pride hidden behind them. Perhaps she was still little too thin for a standard, even though she did seem to literally stuffed herself at every meal like somebody was about to take the food away from her forever. Normally, due to her highly conservative style of clothing, one would not notice, but, when Serena first arrived, her body resembled a skeleton with sunken cheek, dark circles underneath her eyes, and dangerously pale skin. Abraxas noticed though. He also noticed the constant guardedness the girl displayed, like she never really felt safe.
But why? His stream of thoughts was interrupted by Septimus' loud yawn: "Ahhh-I think we should call it a night. I still have a lot of homework to slag off on." Then he stood up and offered his hand to Belvina as a proposal to escort the ladies to their respective dorms, since Dorea was in Ravenclaw, while all the others were in Slytherin - with exception of Septimus Weasley, but he was no lady and he definitively didn't need any help getting his behind to that, as Cygnus once called it, tower of Reckless Horror and Zero Forethought.
Letitice patiently waited for Abraxas to help her up and lead her as customs called for with soon-to-be-married pairs. He gently took her gloved hand in his and pulled her up. She was fairly short with a petite frame, so it caused him no problems what so ever, but as soon as she was standing on her own feet, Abraxas let go of her hand and turned to Cygnus, who was just about to put up his cigarette and walk off.
"Hey, Black! Would you mind taking Letitice back to the common room? I.." he paused, thinking about a good excuse to stay behind: "I still have some business to attend to."
Cygnus gave him a puzzled look at first, but then his eyes wandered over to the lonely French student in the alcove and the understanding dawned on him. The corners of his mouth turned into a mocking smirk.
"Suuure, mate." Replied the black haired Slytherin with a theatrical wink and grabbed Letitica's hand. Abraxas simply rolled his eyes instead of dignifying his friend's comment with an actual response, and bowed to his fiancée.
When the two Slytherins finally left the small grassed area, Abraxas spun around to face the alcove. Serena was still sitting there, hunched over her book, oblivious to anything around. Suddenly, as if she could feel his gaze on her, her head snapped up in search of the suspected disturbance. Her eyes found his almost immediately. There was no turning now. The young wizard slowly walked towards her and she watched his every step, calculating and sorting through her options.
"Bonjour, Mademoiselle Durand" greeted her Abraxas with a slight bow.
"Mizter Malfoy, w'at can I do for you?" Her dark eyebrows furrowed in confusion, as if she would never expect him to talk to her.
"I was wondering if you would perhaps join me for a walk" He asked smoothly and when he saw her indecisive face, quickly added: "The grounds look quite lovely during the sunset."
She stared at him for a good while, before finally deciding in his favor: "Uh, alright"
When all her books and quills were neatly put away in her school bag, Abraxas bent down to pick it up. It was customary for a young man to carry lady's bag when on a date or similar occasion, so the lady can walk around freely without any encumbrance or possibly hold the man's hand…even though somehow Abraxas doubted this witch would have the slightest trouble carrying her own stuff, it was still the polite thing to do.
"What are you doing?" she growled and hastily grabbed one of the shoulder straps.
Abraxas looked quizzically at the lady's brown leather backpack in his hands. "I am carrying your bag for you" he stated the obvious, not really sure what was the witch asking. She eyed his suspiciously, before letting go of the shoulder strap she was still holding.
"Um, thank you then…I guess" Serena said, while putting on some pathetic excuse for a smile.
With that straightened out, they left the courtyard, and headed towards the open gate leading to wide sun-lit grounds. The walk was silent, filled with awkward glances here and there, because none of them knew how to start a conversation after the ring debacle. It was evident to Abraxas, that she knew he recognized the ring immediately, yet neither was willing to bring it up.
He carefully peeked at the witch next to him from the corner of his eye. In the warm glow of the setting sun, her brown orbs glimmered with shades of gold and amber, making a perfect contrast to the thick dark eyelashes which framed them. He spotted a short, narrow and almost invisible scar right above her right cheekbone, running from the corner of her eye almost all the way to the hairline, where it slowly vanished. It was perfectly straight and its edges look perversely definite and clear, so it must have been cutting curse, thought Abraxas. Duel, perhaps? But would they allow such a dangerous spells to be used during classes at her old school? That would explain her extraordinary abilities to handle herself like she did in the duel with Riddle. Her reflexes were exceptionally quick; most of the time she simply dodged the spells instead of wasting her energy on magical shields, which was largely unnecessary in school duels under the supervision of professors, but could be highly practical in a, let's say, war… Everyone, who at least occasionally read the Prophet, knew that the situation in France was not the best since Grindelwald came into power, but did even teenagers have to fight?
"Why did you come to Hogwarts?" asked Abraxas abruptly, no longer able to contain his curiosity.
"Is this a walk or an inquisition?" Serena feigned offence, but her snobbish expression was soon exchanged for a simple mocking smile.
Abraxas chuckled at his own bluntness and smiled down at the witch with the same mocking tone: "Very well, would you rather talk about the weather then?"
And the awkwardness broke.
"No, I guess not." Serena shook her head and turned to face him for the first time since they left the castle. Her eyes softened. "But if you must know, my parents simply thought that France wasn't safe anymore, so they sent me here." She went back to staring ahead at the nearing lake.
"I'm sorry. It must be hard for you to be so far from them. Are you going to visit them during the Christmas?" he truly felt bad for the girl. She seemed to have hard time fitting in, and after she so "viciously" beat "poor Tom" in duel, there was very slim chance for her to find any girlfriends in the school and even slimmer in Slytherin. After all, most of people only knew Riddle for being perfectly sweet and charming student, who would never kill a fly. Only Knights knew how "vicious" he was.
"Non. It would be too dangerouz…" Serena kicked a small pebble nervously, but then pulled her act together and smiled again: "Maybe we should talk about zomething more fun. Tell me about yourself, Monsieur Malfoy."
"Well, my full name is Abraxas Nicholas Malfoy. I'm 18 years old, pure-blood, captain of Slytherin Quidditch team and 1944 valedictorian…" he paused briefly, considering whether he should also tell her about his involvement with the Knights, but eventually decided against, since he recently heard about her very blunt refusal of Tom's offer: "…and that's probably all."
"Zo, bezt in graduating clazz, hmm?" teased Serena, obviously not fully convinced of the veracity of the other's claim.
"Yes, is that a surprise?" His eyebrows shot up. It was entertaining how skeptical and doubtful she was of anything he said or did.
"Actually, yes it iz. I assumed since Mizter Lukegrass is 'ead Boy, that 'e would be class' valedictorian…" she explained.
Malfoy smiled brightly at her assumption. He was actually offered the position before Norris, but had to decline due to his frequent absence regarding his work for Malfoy Estates. A year ago, his father, Nicholas Malfoy III., decided that it was time for his only heir to take on some of the family business and learn to deal with investments. Ever since then Abraxas spent every other weekend traveling from estate to estate, settling property arguments, whiting out leases, reporting to his father, and if he were to take on the Head Boy's chores, he wouldn't even have time to sleep. So he decided to pass. Not that he needed the extra boost on his CV, anyway. Malfoys had more money than they could ever spend and a secured position in the Ministry without ever having to do anything. But that was something Abraxas didn't feel like talking about, therefore he merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
So they just walked in complete silence, until they stood on the edge of the lake, where they stopped to thoroughly enjoy the last of warm sunrays and peaceful surrounding. The dark surface of the lake mirrored the tarnishing velvety skies and all its open tranquility. Suddenly it was disrupted by couple of wide ripples far of shore. Serena's head perked up, as she tried her best to focus to see what caused the disturbance in water.
"You know, there is a giant squid living down there. People say, if you swim in the lake after dark, it will pull you under and eat you. " smirked Abraxas at the half-truth he just delivered. The giant creature was, indeed, known to reside at the bottom of the lake and many students did fear the lake for that reason, but technically no squid attack was ever reported.
The witch's eyes widened in horror, but when she spoke, her voice was strangely calm, almost uninterested: "Yeah? Have you seen it?"
"No" admitted Malfoy. This lake monster was one of those myths most of the students weren't willing to invalidate.
"Let's go find it then, non?" the most sinister grin spread across her pink lips. She grabbed his hand, and despite all his protests, dragged him closer to the edge of the reservoir.
"What? You mean now?" he panicked. It was slowly getting dark, and he didn't even want to think about how inappropriate it would be if somebody caught them together in the lake…
"Yes. You can swim, can you not?"
"Well, yes, b-but…" before he had a chance to finish Serena pulled her school uniform shirt over her head and let it drop to the ground. Underneath she wore a small sleeveless top, which barely covered her abs and belly button, and a leather forearm wand holder. Then she kicked off her shoes and turned back to the stunned wizard: "Are you coming or not?"
Malfoy swallowed the giant knot in his throat, caused by the undressing witch, and slowly reached to undo his tie. By the time he managed to get out of all the garments safe for his pants and underpants, which modesty didn't let him take off, Serena was already waiting for him on the pier, -to Abraxas' pleasure and horror- almost naked. Only two pieces of clothing left on her slim body were the baby blue colored tank top and a skimpy low-cut panties, which could make even prostitutes blush (They were really not that skimpy, but it is 1940s and Hogwarts, so any tanga or thongs would look highly inappropriate, ne?).
"Are you ready?" asked the witch, completely ignoring his tomato-red face and wide-open mouth. It didn't help much when she intertwined her delicate fingers with his and stood in front of him with huge toothy smile, eyes sparkling with mirth.
"Stay still" she whispered, as she pulled out her wand and pointed it to the base of his collarbone. Small light ball escaped the tip of her wand and attached itself to his skin, growing until it was twice the size of his head. The blinding light slowly vanished, finally exposing the spell's true effect. It was a huge glass like bubble fitting tightly around Malfoy's neck to prevent any water from getting in. It was brilliant, he admitted with smile. He should have thought of this way of diving long time ago.
Serena nodded and repeated her previous actions once more, this time to secure her own head. When she was satisfied with the result, it was time to dip in. She gave Abraxas playful wink and with all her might, pushed him off of the pier into the cold dark water below.
TOBECONTINUED
Well. let me know what you think and who do you root for? I was thinking giving Minerva some bigger role... hmm, review, please! :D