So, I apologize for not updating in a bit. It seems that I have not written as much as I intended to write over my winter break. I don't know, I never got inspired enough. I'm starting my classes for spring in less than twelve hours, which means I will again be gone longer than anyone likes. I just want to take this opportunity to thank anyone who has been reading this or any of my other stories. It often encourages me to want to seriously sit down and just write when I see that people are commenting, telling me what they like and what they hope will happen in the next chapters. Keep commenting. Though I'll be off again while I get wrapped up in school work, I'll be reading what you have to say. Thanks.
I was sitting in a bath of lavender, the bubbles so thick it felt like some sort of strange snow. I watched a full size bubble leak up into the air, shining before my eyes, squeaking, and then it floated up above my head and popped. It was simple magical things like this that reminded me of my childhood. I believed the last time I'd had such a bath was when I was a little girl; my mum had made me baths many a time…my mum. A wave of sadness rushed over me and my eyes began to pour. My mother thought I was dead, my ashes scattered about the streets of London, never present for her to hold again. And then I was filled with rage. It shook my soul and I felt as if I would burst, and with what felt like incapacitating effort, the water heaved forth and made a giant splash over the edges of the stone tub, hitting the floor harshly. It sounded like a colossal waterfall, and my eyes widened. I hadn't expected this to happen again. I knew I just had to find a way to harness this magic that lay somewhere deep within me, wandless magic. There was a soft knock at the door and I watched as the water weaved across the floor, as if it were alive, sneaking out under the crack of the door.
"M-miss Angelina?" came the voice of the house elf from outside.
"Is everything alright?"
"Fine—it's fine. I'll be done soon," I said hastily. I heard a crack and the elf was gone. I couldn't believe what I was about to have to do, and my stomach churned as I pulled the plug, waited for the water to drain before rinsing the suds off my body. I dried off and put the robe on that was hanging there for me. I stepped out of the bathroom and found my new "friends" already waiting to help me get ready. The way they smiled was almost wicked, but they honestly believed that Draco and I had planned to get married, and that I was one of them. The truth had been kept a secret between the Malfoys. All they needed their cronies to know was that their son was engaged, and in a great position of power, however Draco had no idea what I was planning…
I tried to leave my body as Lucius Malfoy led me inside a sacred circle, towards the altar which I dreaded to approach. Draco's back was to me, but I could perfectly make out his pale neck and blonde head. He had his hands held behind his back, patiently waiting, daring not to turn around and see me coming. Lucius felt cold, like death; he was clutching my hand, our arms raised between us where everyone could see them. Time felt to be moving slowly as I stole a few glances at the sea of red around me. This wasn't one of those ordinary Muggle ceremonies I'd seen on TV. I glanced at my bare feet on the ground and for a second thought I was bleeding, but quickly realized it was just the long dress, a sanguine red that I thought complimented my complexion, but I'd rather have been sitting back in the bathtub than where I was. It began to snow outside the circle, though the magic inside kept us warm. If I weren't being forced to marry Draco, I would have thought it to be beautiful, but all the faces smiling at me, the smiles weren't so happy, but more so cunning in ways that made me nervous, though I dared not let that show. Draco, standing there in long red robes, turned slightly and slowly, until I was standing right beside him, Lucius handing my hand to him, and he smiled, and I felt sick. I sucked it up and took a deep breath, closing my eyes. In the moment where Lucius gave my hand to Draco, I noticed a strange difference between the two; Draco's skin was detectably a few degrees warmer than Lucius's—I swore it, though it was so slightly detectable that maybe I was wrong. It was almost relieving not to have something nearly as cold touching me, but Draco still felt like ice. I didn't smile, I didn't frown, I didn't cry. I tried not to think, not to listen, not to see, but I glanced around me to find this sea of red enclosing me, trapping me, all the faces I never knew, all the evil emanating, conspiring. Draco reached for my other hand, crossing it over the one he was already holding. How I wanted to scream! Narcissa came into view, and Draco squeezed my hands painfully tightly. I tried not to wince, but I gave him a look. Narcissa placed something on the, large, glowing white stone on which Draco and I stood, raised about two feet above everybody else. And then I realized why Draco was squeezing my hands so tightly. He wasn't about to let me reach down and grab my wand. Even if I had, there was an army of Death Eaters around me, and I knew I'd have been dead in half a second if I even tried anything. Narcissa placed Draco's wand atop mine, so that they formed an X between our feet. The stone began to glow even brighter and it nearly hurt my eyes. I looked away from it. Narcissa and Lucius joined the crowd around us and a High Priestess came forth. She glowed like the stone beneath my feet. My eyes actually watered for all the light. I could barely see Draco at this point. The Priestess began to speak the Handfasting, and we said the words asked of us. I barely recognized my own voice when I spoke; I was striving to stay detached as the red cord wrapped its way around my hands and Draco's. I felt my feet leave the stone, and looked to find myself floating a few feet above it, Draco still holding my hands. The light was so bright, and I knew it was done. I closed my eyes until my feet touched the stone again, and there was applause as the Priestess touched our hands with both of hers, and I felt something materialize on my finger. As the light faded out to a subtler glow, I looked to find both the engagement ring I remembered throwing in Draco's face, and a white stony band wrapped around my finger. It remained glowing like the stone and I couldn't take my eyes off it. It seemed to contain some sort of light, like it was alive. The Priestess unwound the red cord and bowed gracefully, stepping back, and I watched her, waiting for this to be over so I could be left alone, but to my surprise, Draco pulled me to him and I felt his lips rather harshly. I squeezed my eyes tight and was digging my nails into his shoulders, but nobody seemed to notice and it appeared not to bother him. His lips beckoned mine to part and reluctantly I admitted defeat. Draco's breath was like ice. For a moment I thought the cold air had breached the circle, but I realized that it was Draco's breath! It couldn't even have been breath; it felt like cold air, the kind of cold air that burns your lungs when you step out into a bitter winter day. But when he let his tongue slither into my mouth, it was heated in comparison. At that point I was pulling back, and though it was subtle enough for no one else to notice, Draco got the hint and freed my face. I looked up into his face and realized I was in the arms of Death…
"Did you think we were going to continue living with my parents?" Draco asked me, flabbergasted when he walked into the room in which I had been forced to live for the past week to find me sitting on the bed, holding Grayson.
"What?"
"Lilac!" Draco called angrily. The house elf popped into view.
"Have you finished packing all of her stuff away like I told you?" Draco asked angrily, pulling open the closet door so hard it knocked the elf, who fell back on the floor. I hadn't even known about any of this, but from where I was sitting, I could see that the closet was totally empty. The elf stood up, cowering back a bit.
"Y-yes, master. The trunks are waiting i-in the unicorn carriage," she said. Draco slammed the closet door shut, and turned on me next. His eyes widened like he was horrified. Disgusted, he swept over to me. I backed up a bit, wondering if he meant to strike me, but he simply pulled Grayson off my lap and unceremoniously dropped him. Grayson screeched, but landed perfectly on his feet. He started hissing at Draco.
"Are you bloody daft?!" Draco asked me and then began brushing my lap with his hands with such speed that they became a blur in my vision.
"Do you even recall how much that dress cost?!" Draco asked me furiously. I duly noted that he hadn't liked me holding the cat while I was still wearing such expensive clothes.
"Don't touch me," I spat, pushing Draco back so suddenly that he staggered, being taken by surprise. The next thing I knew I was looking at the canopy of the bed and Draco's freezing hands were about my throat, yet he wasn't squeezing.
"Don't you dare do that," he whispered with rage that was nearly tangible. Despite how hard his face was, something told me he didn't have the nerve to squeeze.
"You will do as I say when I say it. Are we clear?"
"Clear?" I responded, "Clear about what? I'll do what I bloody please, Malfoy. I only did this to save myself—and mark my words—I will find a way out, and I will tell everyone what's going on, the Ministry will be the first to know, and you will go down," I said bravely, all the while sitting up slowly. Draco didn't even try to stop me. I took his hands from around my neck. He waited a few seconds and then smiled.
"Do you love your parents?" he asked me.
"What?" I asked, taken by surprise.
"Of course I love my parents. What are you talking…?" and as I trailed off and Draco's smile widened, I began to understand.
"Or the Weasley, the one that survived? I swear I saw him the first week we spent on campus over in the States. Didn't know one of them even made it out alive," Draco said, grinning. I was getting ready to slap him, but he swiftly got up and stared down at me where I sat on the bed.
"You can't do this," I said, barely above a whisper.
"Oh, I'm not going to do anything," he said triumphantly, with some scary sarcasm.
"If you hurt anyone I love, I will kill you."
Draco laughed, "I'd like to see you try," he said, pulling something out of his robes. He held my wand and extended it to me. My heart skipped a beat. I grabbed it. Draco didn't even try to point his at me; he didn't even take it out. I went for a stunning spell first, but all that happened was a strange white glow of my wand, and that was it. Draco yawned, and I knew he was only trying to upset me further.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" I shouted. Again, my wand glowed white and stayed silent.
"What have you done?! What have you done to my wand?!" I screamed, standing up.
"I didn't do anything," Draco said, wagging his eyebrows. From the tone of his voice, I knew he wasn't lying. I tried to cast as many harm-inflicting spells as I could think of, but the same thing happened each time, and Draco remained intact. He finally rolled his eyes.
"Even if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't be able to. We can't use magic on each other—it's too late," Draco explained.
"What?"
Draco took a step towards me and I took a step back, falling back on the bed. He narrowed his eyes at me where he looked down, but it was more of a look of curiosity than malice.
"It goes way back in the Malfoy line," he began, "I don't completely understand it myself, either. As Malfoys, we take great pride in family, and families don't hurt each other, especially not with magic. So you see, Angelina, you can't possibly kill me with that wand, or any wand you ever get a hold of. It was like that for my parents as soon as their hands were fasted, and my grandparents, and my great grandparents, and before that, and I think you get the bloody point," he said finally, with some exasperation.
"…You tricked me," I said through gritted teeth. Draco shrugged nonchalantly.
"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?!"
"You agreed to this, remember? So I suggest you clean up your filthy attitude and start showing me some respect if you ever want to see your friends or family again," Draco said. He was pure evil. I could read it in his eyes and his stagnant sympathy. I was trembling with rage again. Draco glared down at his side, where I noticed Grayson was still hissing at him. Draco pointed his wand at Grayson with the utmost irritation on his face.
"No!" I screamed, picking the cat up and out of Draco's range.
"You're not taking that fucking cat!" Draco screamed with abhorrence. I noticed the house elf still standing there, her big eyes even wider with fear.
"Put—that—cat—down—now," Draco said through gritted teeth. Hastily, I stepped toward Lilac. I handed Grayson to her.
"I want you to take care of him for me. Keep him safe," I said. With that, the house elf disapparated before Draco could do anything. He glared at me.
"I own the elf now, too, don't I?" I responded to his furious gaze. Draco grabbed my arm.
"Unhand me!"
He stopped, to my surprise, closing his eyes for a minute, pacing back and forth. He was much calmer when he looked to me again.
"If there's anything else you want to take from here, get it and come downstairs right away. We're leaving." Draco walked out of the room and I listened to his steps retreating. I looked around the large room where I'd been kept. How could there be anything here I wanted, when I never wanted to be here in the first place? I took one last look at the room and closed the door on my way out, hurrying after Draco. He glanced back at me from the corner of his eye when he noticed me catching up. I felt as though I was following him through a dungeon, the place was so dark. Draco stopped outside where a rather ornate and large carriage was waiting for us. It was so beautiful that I gasped. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Lucius and Narcissa were waiting to see us off. I felt something on my waist and looked to see a white hand, and then I looked up to find Draco at my left. He seemed to really want it to look like we were serious about each other. Though it was sunset, everything was lit up with torches that came out of the ground, creating a pathway to the carriage. Draco helped me inside the carriage after both Lucius and Narcissa gave me a hug and a kiss, told me how beautiful I looked, that I was going to make a wonderful Death Eater. With those last words, my heart nearly stopped. I hadn't understood that to be part of this plan, but then with stupidity, I began to realize exactly what all of this had to mean. Before I could object or try to make a sound, Draco helped me into the carriage and closed the door. I could just see him through the shut window, speaking to his father. There was a look on Lucius's face. I couldn't quite tell what it was, perhaps suspicion. He glanced over at me and I moved away from the carriage window. Ahead of me I could see through another window, a set of unicorns waiting in the vespertine light to take flight. The carriage door opened and Draco stepped in, closing it after himself.
"How are there unicorns guiding this carriage?" I asked, "It's illegal to kill them, let alone harness—"
"Who do you think you married—a Parkinson? We're Malfoys," he said as if I'd thoroughly insulted him. I didn't say another word. Draco knocked on the window and the horses began to trot, the carriage slowly and gracefully following them into the sky. Had this been a different situation, I would have thought it rather comforting and beautiful, but I felt far from comfort as I watched the ground disappear, to be replaced by clouds, leading me somewhere I couldn't name. When I looked to my left, Draco was looking at me in a way I hadn't seen him look at me or anything else before. Suddenly I felt naked, and all I wanted was for him to look away. I slipped cautiously further to my side of the carriage and Draco's cold gaze descended my figure before peeling away and closing. He lay back against the unreal soft seat and leant his head back, taking a very deep inhale. I never heard him let it go. His hands lay tiredly in his lap, one atop the other, and the white stone band around his finger glowed. I tore my eyes away from it and looked at mine, which also glowed. It seemed at moments to shine brighter than others. I wondered what this could have possibly meant. I'd never seen anything like it. I glanced at Draco again, and only hoped he wasn't thinking of undressing me. I'd have died before I let him do that. Angrily, I tried to pry the ring off my finger, but it seemed to be stuck there. It wasn't tight or uncomfortable, but I wanted it off. I quickly realized it wasn't going to budge, so I stopped trying. I even thought about opening the door of the carriage and throwing myself out. At least I'd have been dead and not married to Draco Malfoy!