5. Chapter

Arriving At Hogwarts

On September the first Kiara Balgakow sat nervously in her empty compartment and waited for Draco to arrive. The train was about to leave London and Draco had went off to search for his friends and to bring them with him. Pansy, Daphne, Theodore, Blaise and Draco's personal bodyguards would arrive within minutes and then the big questioning would begin. Kiara sighed. She could only hope that Draco's friends wouldn't recognize her but instead accept her immediately. She thought about all the things she had learned during her six weeks stay at Malfoy Manor and she could only be positive.

One week after her spectacular arrival at Malfoy Manor had Lucius announced the beginning of some new lessons with a special subject matter. For these lessons Lucius had sent for his older sister Lucrezia Millington, who was an exact replica of his facial features and his aristocratic attitude. Lucrezia was like her brother and every other member of their family a fullblooded light veela. She had found her mate in the owner of a decoration-company and was as happy with him and her life as one could be.

Lucrezia's subject matter was of utmost importance - this was, what Narcissa and Lucius told her every day to prevent her from giving up. As Kiara had not been raised by a high society family, Draco's parents deemed it important to make up for all these omissions now. She learnt how to walk, stand, sit, act, talk and be silent properly, as it would any other pureblooded girl do without thinking. Who had to be able to walk elegantly while carrying three heavy tomes on one's head without the help of one's hands? Well, who? Right, nobody. Her only cheering prospect was that neither the Headmaster nor her so called former friends would ever be able to recognize her with all these new achievements of her.

The lessons itself were the pure horror. Lucrezia would let her train and repeat her failings until she finally managed to do her task perfectly without even having to think about what she was doing. Kiara had to learn all about the Malfoy family history and the most important other pureblood families and their ties and bonds to her new family. She found out that Pansy Parkinson had been engaged to Theodore Nott even before she was born, though neither of them was told about this fact. Their parents wanted for their children to have their feelings grow on their own. In school this definitely looked a little bit different. Furthermore, she learnt that Draco and Daphne Greengrass were not only good friends but also related in blood - they were third cousins once removed.

When she thought further about her lessons with Lucrezia, Kiara had to shudder. Every single evening at dinner Kiara was trained in the art of conversation, eloquence and manners. Lucrezia enjoyed her teaching role with sadistic satisfaction - she had once told Kiara that while she had to learn all this years ago, her father would laugh at her failings, make her feel stupid and unloved, something which wasn't true, but had helped her achieve the best result possible - while the Malfoys and Severus looked at her with amused and pitying gazes.

Finally, after three weeks of pure torture and constant training, Kiara had achieved the best results in every single training aspect, which made her officially a real lady of high society. During her training and her lessons Kiara had befriended Lucrezia and now they were really good friends, who spent a lot of time together talking about boys and shopping. Lucrezia had even promised to come by and visit them over Christmas with her husband and her two already grown up kids.

While Kiara had been remembering her time she had spent together with her new family at Malfoy Manor, Isphet, her still small, black kitten, had escaped her transport box and now sat on her lap. She was purring contentedly, while she played with one of Kiara's long strands of dark brown, nearly black hair.

A little giggle errupted her mouth and she tried to sneak away her hair strand, just to annoy her small kitten. She was so engrossed in their game that she didn't notice the compartment door opening and seven people entering, who all starred at her with amused and widened eyes.

Draco's sincere laughter finally brought her back to reality and caused her to jump a little in the air, while she starred confused at the lot of them. When she caught sight of her fiancé laughing at her, she blushed, sat straight up and looked expectantly at them.

Draco finally regained some composure and mentioned for his friends to sit down. While he sat down next to Kiara, Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson took their place opposite of them. Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass sat next to them, sitting opposite each other. Finally Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle took their places next to the compartment door and intentionally blocked it against unwelcome and unwished students who might try to speak with them.

When all of them had seated themselves, Draco took Kiara's hand into his and held it, clearly visible for all of them. This action caused some confused and interested raised eyebrows from his friends and a light blush on Kiara cheeks. He was smiling self-assured at them and lazily let his gaze wander over them. When he had found what he had been searching for, his smile was widening and a glint appeared in his eyes.

"I would like to introduce you to someone very special."

His voice firm and self assured. He knew what he was doing and was clearly enjoying it.

"As you all know, I am a veela and as a veela I have, of course, a life mate. When I became sixteen over the summer and came into my inheritance, I not only changed physically and mentally, I also found the one person who I would come to love more than anyone else and with whom I will spend the rest of my life. This important person is sitting next to me, trying to disappear into the ground."

Draco was now smiling teasingly at her and directed his friends' gaze from him to her.

"I would like to introduce you to my mate, Kiara Balgakow."

Kiara was nervous. She had known all along that she would have to get to know Draco's friends, as she would more than just probably be sorted into Slytherin just like him. But nevertheless was she still nervous. Would they recognize her and try to stay away from her, because of her former self? Would they even be able to accept her at all, as she was someone they had never met before but at the same time being the Slytherin Prince's fiancée? She gulped and tried not to look too scared.

"If you are Draco's mate, then you must be veela just like him, mustn't you?"

Pansy was the first to speak. When Kiara just nodded her head lightly, Pansy started to smirk.

"Good. I couldn't stand the thought of some random witch being the only one to lay her hands on Draco. I really like him and he should only get the best. Thankfully the best is you."

Pansy was now smiling sincerely at her.

"By the way, my name is Pansy Parkinson. Nice to meet you."

The blond haired girl straightened herself and then extended her hand for Kiara to shake it. Whitout any haste Kiara took the offered hand, shook it slightly and smiled at the girl sitting opposite of her.

This action seemed to break the rest of Draco's friends free of the sudden stupor which had befallen them. They started to introduce themselves, the boys were congratulating Draco for the beautiful and educated girl who would soon be his wife, while the girls were talking with Kiara about what it was like to be engaged to the most handsome guy at school and to live at Malfoy Manor.

Draco briefly glanced at his fiancée and noted with relief that the fear and awkwardness had vanished from her beautiful face; he smiled knowingly at her. He had talked to her for hours, reassured her that his friends wouldn't recognize her and would start to like her, just like they did with him. This fact seemed to have finally come to Kiara, too, as she was now engaged in a lively discussion with his best friend Blaise Zabini over whether living in Russia was a good or a bad thing.

Soon they were all talking about different thing. They had started with Hogwarts, the teachers and subjects, had then changed to Quidditch and differnt other things to spend their free time. From there they changed to the holidays and talked about what they did and what they would like to do in the future. Finally they talked about the significance of being a veela, what changes occurred and what new powers they had.

Just once did they ask Kiara about her family, but when she told them that they were dead, they immediately dropped the topic and started to talk about the student body at Hogwarts. Kiara wasn't saying anything but instead got to know some interesting things about her former friends and house mates. Yes, gossiping with the Slytherins was way better than gossiping with the Gryffindor. They had yet to learn a lot. Now she understood how all these little and not so little lies that had swept over Hogwarts the last years had been created. Yes, being with the Slytherins would do her damaged ego some good.

Some hours later the train arrived at Hogwarts. The group of young Slytherin had been so engrossed in their discussion that they hadn't noticed the castle, until they had arrived and the train stood. They had yet to change, which caused them to be the last to get of the train and the last to take one of the cabins. To arrive late was normally a bad thing. Everybody would turn around and stare at you and take in every single aspect of your appearance and composure. The worst of all was the immediate beginning of the gossip. Oh, how she hated to be the last one to arrive!

Next to her Draco and the Slytherin boys were smirking.

"We're going to make a big entrance this year. That's for sure.", Pansy stated knowingly.

Draco only nodded, but kept on smirking none the less. Yes, they would definitely make a big entrance.

When the doors opened, the Great Hall went quiet. There, in the middle of the opening, stood eight figures, all wearing black. They head their heads held high, their gazes were strong and their composure one of utter self-assurance. They briefly just stood there and watched the students and teachers around them, before finally started to make their way to their house table.

As they reached the Slytherin table, they elegantly sat down and fixed their gazes on the Headmaster as if urging him to start his new term speech. A little cough from the Headmaster brought the rest of the student and teacher body back from their stupor to reality. When finally the last person had fixed his eyes on the imposing figure of the Headmaster, said person just nodded and the sorting could begin.

During the sorting nothing of utmost importance or interest happend. Siblings got sorted into the house of their older sisters or brothers and nobody important or even of slightest interest to them was going to start to attend Hogwarts this year.

The only funny happening was the brown haired, oversized boy who got sorted into Gryffindor. While he walked down the podium, he stumbled over his feet, fell and crashed with full force into the lap of Ginny Weasley. The little boy tried in vain to get some hold and reached for support on Ginny, unintentionally groping her breasts.

Ginny screeched, slapped the poor boy over the face, jumped up and ran to sit down far away from him. While Kiara and the rest of the Slytherins were laughing out loudly, yet still with the most composure they could muster, the poor boy had to face the enraged brother of Ginny Weasley.

After the Sorting the Headmaster got up from his chair, straightened and smiled at the masses of students in front of him brightly. He wore some purple robes with strange runes on them in gold and silver, which made him look like some overly huge and old clown escaped from his circus. His eyes were sparkling brightly when his gaze fell on the students sitting in the Great Hall and waiting for the feast to begin.

When his gaze finally fell onto the Gryffindor table, one had to look exactly at his face to be able to notice the difference. His eyes lost a great deal of their sparkling, his smile grew fake and his facial expression seemed to be more forced. He was clearly upset about the absence of his golden girl Harriet Potter.

Just one blink of an eye later his expression had turned into his normal, cheery self. He raised his hands and spoke with a loud, clear and happy voice.

"A new year has begun! Welcome back to all of you who attended Hogwarts last year and welcome at Hogwarts to those who start their first year at our noble school. The first years got sorted and everyone is now hungry and thirsty, waiting for the old man to proclaim the start of the welcoming feast. I promise you will only have to wait a little bit more."

Groans from the Gryffindor table could be heard in the whole hall. Ronald Weasley's head had collapsed onto the table, probably passed out because of the lack of food. Snickers started to spread around the other tables, stopped only by the little cough from the amused Headmaster.

"This year not only our first years will be welcomed to their start of school, but also a sixth year lady, who I would like to introduce to you. Ms. Kiara Balgakow, please, stand up and come to the teachers' table."

The unknown girl who had accompanied the Slytherin group gracefully stood up from her place next to Draco Malfoy and walked elegantly to the teachers' table in the front of the hall. On her way the Headmaster started to talk again.

"We all enjoy it greatly to welcome Ms. Balgakow in our noble halls. Ms. Balgakow attended a boarding school in Russia, were she was born and raised until now. Due to an interesting occurrence she will attend Hogwarts from now on until she finishes school."

He made a little pause to spike up their interest.

"As you surely know, there are some people within these halls who enjoy the privilege of having a life mate. Mr. Malfoy over there is on of these lucky people. His life mate now is this beautiful girl in front of us, who is waiting to be introduced to our school. She will live with him from now on and as I heard some people talking, will take over the name of Mrs. Malfoy very soon. Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Balgakow are at the moment officially courting, so a wedding is to be expected very soon."

Dumbledore now smiled openly at the students in front of him. The thought of two of his students marrying before they finish school seemed to enjoy him greatly.

At the Slytherin table Draco was fuming and shaking lightly. How dare this barmy old man to reveal our courting to the whole school! That should not be of any interest for them! Meanwhile Kiara had reached the teachers' table and stood now in front of Professor McGonagall.

"I would now like to introduce you to your new fellow student, Ms. Kiara Balgakow."

Clapping errupted from the students, the Slytherins were cheering openly and enjoyed the thought of having the future Mrs. Malfoy join them in Slytherin. Kiara blushed a little from all the attention she got, but regained her composure and straighted herself up, her chin held high. The hat which had shadowed her face before, tipped a little bit to the left, and exposed her facial features.

The hall suddenly went dead quiet.

Nobody was moving an inch, some weren't even breathing anymore. There, in front of them, stood no one other than Harriet Potter, the girl who had been missing throughout the whole summer. She stood there alive, healthy, beautiful and was smiling lightly at them. But what shocked them the most was the expensive looking engagement ring which adored her ring finger on the right hand. Harriet Potter was engaged to Draco bloody Malfoy!

Kiara stood on the podium and didn't know that her hat had tipped a little and her face was now clearly to be seen. Her eyes flicked around the room and searched for the source of the sudden silence.

Professor Dumbledore was the first to react. He jumped up from his chair and pointed one finger accusingly at Kiara.

"That's it, Ms. Potter. Stop this nonsense right now. Take off your hat and then go to your house table immediately! We will be speaking after dinner, be prepared."

Dumbledore had been shouting. Anger and rage was flicking through his eyes and caused to make him look like a real madman.

Kiara tried to speak with as much firmness as she could muster. To be honest, it wasn't much.

"I assure you, Professor Dumbledore, that I am not Ms. Harriet Potter. My name is Kiara Balgakow, and I am here to be introduced to this school. Would you please stop confunding me with someone else."

Her accent was still noticeable, but not as heavy as it had been in Diagon Alley.

Dumbledore stood up from his chair, crossed the distance between them with long, firm strikes and finally hovered in front of her dangerously. Before she knew what to do or to expect, Dumbledore took her hat, threw it away, took her by her hair and yanked her head forcefully, so that her forehead would expose -

nothing.

Dumbledore blinked. There on her forehead was nothing to be seen. Anger floated through his body.

"You hid that pretty well, Ms. Potter.", he snarled icily.

With that he reached with his right hand for his wand, his left hand still placed firmly in her hair, which caused her eyes to water and her to wince in pain, and then hit her exposed forehead with full force.

"Revelo", he cried, his eyes dark from badly suppressed rage.

Nothing happened.

Until the Headmaster had an opportunity to react accordingly, Kiara had regained her senses. She straighted up, hit his hand away, which was still holding her hair, took one step near to the Headmaster and then...

clapp

hit him hard against the cheeks with her flat hand.

"You bastard.", could be heard, before a light sob errupted from her mouth and with tears floating down her cheeks, she rushed out the Great Hall.

Draco, who shook madly from barely suppressed anger and rage, directed his shaking voice at the still frozen Headmaster. On Dumbledore's cheek was slowly appearing the red sign of a female's hand.

"You are going to hear from my lawyers. Never, never ever again try to raise your hand against my fiancée!"

With that he, too, rushed out the Great Hall and started to search franticly for his mate.

This action seemed to do the trick. The dead silence was broken.

Students and teachers were talking forcefully to their neighbours; the Slytherins were pointing accusing fingers at the Headmaster while they shouted insults at him. Gryffindor and the rest of the houses as well as the teachers seemed to be unable to know how to react to this embarrassing attitude of their Headmaster. But some of them, especially the first years, were extremely scared.

The Headmaster straightened up, coughed lightly and tried to silence the outraged hall.

"Let's start with our feast. Please enjoy, your meal and then return to your rooms. Good evening."

With that the Headmaster left and thought furiously about how this could have happened. The hall went quite again. Nobody seemed to be hungry anymore and soon the four houses left, joined by the teachers who were heading to their own quarters.

One of the teachers was planning on contacting some old friends who would know how to react properly to this situation. This would be a long and stressful evening, the teacher thought. While everybody prepared for bed, he threw some Floo powder into his fireplace and called for his best friend, while he tried to think of a way to reveal the happenings as careful as possible.

Tomorrow, every single one of the Hogwarts habitants thought, would certainly be an interesting day.

He found her in a dark corner near their new rooms. She was sitting on a window-sill, which was overlooking the neatly kept Quidditch pitch. Her back was resting at the wall, her knees drawn to her chest and her head was resting on her knees. In an attempt to shield herself from the world around she had slung her arms around her knees, as if she was trying to vanish into the thin air to be left forgotten. Her silky, black hair was hiding her face, but he was sure that she was crying, her shaking shoulders and upper body were being a give away.

Draco approached her carefully and tried not to scare her with his mere presence. He silently sat down next to her, wrapped one of his firm arms around her still shaking shoulders and drew her to his chest. She let him draw to her without showing resistance, leaned against his chest and sunk further to him. They were sitting like this for some minutes, until Kiara had stopped to sob.

"I don't know the password to our quarters."

Kiara's voice was flat and weak. Her head was still resting at his shoulder, her nose buried into his neck, which made it a little bit difficult to understand her at all. Nevertheless Draco nodded.

"I know."

His voice was as weak and quiet as hers.

"But don't worry, I know it."

With these words he gathered her firmly in his arms, carefully rose up and made his way to their new rooms, all the while carrying her like a small, wounded child. Nobody was crossing their way and his was thankfully for it. He didn't want to imagine the reaction of his fiancée, should she find out that people had been seeing her crying on her first day at school. That would definitely get uncomfortable for all of them. His mate wasn't a pleasant sight when angry or enraged.

He came to a brief halt in front of the portrait of a nymph, who was sitting at the beach of a beautiful, deep blue sea. Behind her, there was a majestic, white unicorn, which was slowly strolling over to the dark green forest. Draco leaned nearer to the nymph and quietly whispered something into her. The nymph responded by nodding, then smiled at them friendly and opened the door to their quarters effortlessly. Draco nodded his thanks and carefully, so Kiara wouldn't hurt herself by hitting something, he entered their private rooms.

At the first step he made into the quietness, all the candles in the room started to burn and created a mild, sensual light. Draco looked around the room, he took in every aspect of it, and when he spotted a huge, comfortable couch on the right sight of him, he went over and let himself and Kiara sink down on it. Kiara was still clinging at him, her head rested at his neck. Carefully he stroked her head, whispered comforting words and finally gained her attention.

"I never thought he would do something like that."

Her voice was muffled, as her head was still resting at his neck. He really had to listen closely to understand what she was saying.

As if she had heard his thoughts, she titled her head up and looked directly into his light blue eyes. Streams of tears which had been running down her cheeks were marking her beautiful face. Her eyes were puffy and red from all the tears she had cried. Now her gaze was firm, but nevertheless could he feel her insecurity and slight fear.

"I knew he would be angry, if he really found out that I was Harriet Potter, but I never thought he would molest and abuse me, to go as far as to humiliate me and disrespect me in front of the whole school, just because he would want to restore his power over me."

Her words were bitter, she finally had realized how Dumbledore had fooled and commanded her around all the times before.

As he didn't know what to do or to say, Draco tried to distract her from her depressing thoughts, saying:

"You know, I really loved it when you punched the git into his ugly face. It was truly turning me on."

Kiara blushed deeply and Draco had to chuckle. But mere seconds later her expression changed. She jumped up, her eyes got wide and she was looking at him with disbelieve and confusion clearly written on her face.

"It turned you on that I got abused and molested so bad by some old geezer, that the only way to stop it was defend myself by using my fists? Me getting molested turned you on?"

The last part of the sentence had been screeched. She jumped up and glared at him, her hands placed on her hips. Draco, who saw the look of utter disbelieve on her face, couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud. This fact seemed to enrage Kiara even more, as a few seconds later her fist made hard contact with his shoulder.

"Ouch, geez, Kiara, calm down."

He ducked fast enough to avoid the next punch directed at his other shoulder, caught her fists and held them firmly with his hand. She was glaring furiously at him and tried in vain to escape his grip.

As he saw the look in her eyes, he gulped. Kiara had misunderstood his words and wouldn't stop punishing him until he would say sorry or explain his reasoning. He decided for the latter - his pride just was too big to let an unnecessary excuse escape his lips - and started to speak, a little smile plastered over his face.

"Kiara, love, I didn't mean it this way. I hate to see you being molested or abused, God, just seeing you being touched by someone else makes me furious! When you punched this git of a Headmaster you were strong and aggressive. That was what turned me on. I love it that you're strong, that you don't give up easily and that you try to obtain what you wish to have. These are some of the aspects I really love about you."

Kiara had stopped in her struggle. She was now leaning heavily against his chest, her eyes starring directly at his. He saw a little bit of confusion left, slowly replaced by understanding, admiration and something which could be called the beginning of love. A sincere smile appeared on her lips and caused her to beam at him. Before he could say or do something, Kiara came nearer to him and slowly wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She pressed herself firmly against his chest, let him feel every curve of her perfect shaped body and caused his breath to hitch.

Slowly she drew his face to hers and their lips were lightly brushing over each other's.

"You do like dominant girls, don't you?", she whispered seductively, her hot breath was touching his skin and caused him to shiver.

Draco could only nod.

His gaze was fix to hers. He was floating in a sea of green, lively green, which enveloped his senses. He saw her smirking lightly as she drew his face even closer, until their lips finally met. Kiara pressed herself further against him, she parted her lips and demanded entrance, to which he obliged willingly.

Her tongue met his and started to explore the inside of his mouth, left a hot path of pleasure wherever it met any part of his body and urged him to join her in her doing.

His eyes were closed, his fingers trembling with barely suppressed lust and pleasure which overloaded his body without resistance. His hands slowly started to roam over her body and carefully they inspected every inch they touched.

A low moan escaped his mouth when Kiara had trusted her hips upwards to grind hers against his. His hands were sinking down her body, lightly touched every curve they met and finally came to a stop at the end of her shirt. Just when he was about to raise her shirt upwards, Kiara broke free of the kiss, walked back with a few steps and let him stay where he was, while he was still breathing heavily and deeply aroused. A devilish smirk appeared on her face and it forcefully reminded him that she, too, was a true Slytherin.

"If you like dominant girls so much, then you can start with sleeping on the couch next to my bed."

With that she turned around, left for their bedroom and left behind a very baffled and surprised Draco, who was starring at her retreating form with his jaw hanging wide open.

His fiancée, his mate, was teasing him and punishing him with having to sleep on the couch, while she would enjoy the comfortable, king-sized bed alone. But she wouldn't stay there for very long, as he knew that the next morning he would awake with her laying next to him. Since this fateful night it had been like this every morning. And this time it wouldn't be different.

With a light smirk on his face he, too, left for their bedroom and he immensely enjoyed the thought of waking up next to her.