Chapter Twenty-Two
Taryn stretched with a grumbling moan, the sunlight peeking through the cracks of the window blinds and directly into her face. She reached toward the bedside table to pick up the small digital alarm clock there.
She sat up, unsurprised to see that the bed was empty beside her, she sheets leeched of his warmth. Draco rarely let himself sleep past nine in the morning and it was closer to ten thirty.
Pushing the covers back, she hissed as her feet moved from the bedside rug and touched the icy hardwood floor. Naked, she ran across the floor to the bathroom.
Soon she was in the shower, standing under the hot spray, and soothing away the delicious aches in her body from her rather activity filled night.
Afterward, wrapped warmly in Draco's bathrobe, she quickly brushed her teeth, before tapping her wand against her hair with a quiet spell to dry the heavy strands.
Deciding against transfiguring a new set of underwear, she threw her clothes in the washer instead. Scourgify was fine in a pinch, but nothing was as comfortable as freshly laundered clothes.
She pulled the lapels of the bathrobe closer before popping her head out of the bedroom door. Rico's bedroom door was open, so she figured that he hadn't made it back from Leah's flat yet. She was glad that she'd met them both. She liked knowing that Draco had other people in his life that loved and cared about him. She knew that most of his friends at school weren't even really that, and instead were a front. It had been nice to see him in a setting where he was completely comfortable, something she hadn't seen much outside of his rooms in Serpent Hall.
The sound of Draco hitting the heavy bag in the small home gym the brothers maintained, let her know where he was, and instead of investigating she decided to tend to the rumbling of her empty stomach.
When she opened the cabinets she was relieved to see a box of Lucky Charms – she didn't feel like cooking or going out for anything – which she knew was Draco's. Taryn found it amusing that Draco, who except for the occasional pizza ate extremely healthily, had a secret love of Muggle sugar cereal with ice cold milk. Definitely the ice cold milk part. She had watched him on numerous occasions, usually with one brow risen in amusement, as he dropped ice cubes into his bowl of cereal.
"What? Its not weird. The milk's not cold enough if you don't add ice," was all he had said in reply to her expression. She'd bet that Rico had teased him about the habit.
With her bowl of cereal in hand, Taryn moved to the living room, intending to watch telly as she ate. She turned on the telly, flipping absently through the channels before settling on a sitcom rerun. She was stretching her feet out in front of her when her toe stubbed against something under the coffee table.
"Owww." She sat her bowl down on the table, pulling her leg up to rub at her foot.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked, coming in the room and smacking a kiss on her mouth.
"You're all sweaty," she said mock complained, kissing him anyway, as she rubbed her foot.
"Sorry," he said apologetically, dropping down onto the couch beside her. "What'd you do to your foot?"
"I hit it against something under the table," Taryn said with a grimace. She leaned over to pull out a light, polished wooden box from under the table. It had a small, square a piece of paper on top. "It was this I think. Its obviously yours," she said, plucking the yellow post-it note with Draco's name scrawled across it from the box.
"I don't know what it is," he said, as she handed the box over to him. "Its has to be something from Rico though. This is his handwriting."
He pulled on the latch, and lifted the lid. Inside was a folded piece of paper. Underneath, lying in a specially made groove of the finely crafted box was combat dagger. An accompanying forearm sheath was buckled on the lid.
Draco sat the box on the table before unfolding the note to read the words there.
Hey, Bro,
I know that you are in some deep shit, and I know that it involves that Voldemort bastard.
It really pisses me off that I can't have your back with this, but I know that I probably wouldn't be much help without magic or a wand. If I could, I'd sent you back with a badass Smith & Wesson 29 so you could go you all Dirty Harry on their asses, but yeah, I don't get the Muggle technology not working shit. That leaves me with the basics, so I decided to go traditional. A buddy of mine had one of these, and I know you're crafty enough to smuggle it in. It might not be much, but it would give me a little piece of mind to know that you have it.
You won't tell me whats going on, and I can't really get too pissed off about that. We're too much alike, little bro. One thing though, don't go this long again without getting in touch with me or I'll kick your ass.
Rico
Draco smiled a bit at the note. His brother's cocky attitude had managed to transfer clearly on paper. He hadn't gotten in a serious fight with Rico in years, and to be honest he wasn't sure now who would win in a knock down drag out at this point.
He hated knowing that Rico was scared for him – the other boy had already lost one brother – but there was nothing he could do about it. He'd be damned if he brought his brother into a world that he couldn't hope to understand, and one where he would be hopelessly outgunned.
Pulling the dagger from the box, he weighed it in his hand testing the balance. He slipped his fingers into the attached knuckleduster and gripped the hand guard.
Taryn's eyes were wide as she watched him handle the knife. "They teach you how use that thing at the gym?"
Draco's silky hair – which he had allowed to grow a bit too long – fell over his forehead as he leaned forward, his eyes intent on the weapon in his hand. He laughed bitterly. "Dad taught me how to knife fight before I was out of primary school."
He could still remember the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth, and the painful feeling of his head snapping to the side from the force the slaps across the face he'd received when Lucius deemed that he was moving incorrectly. Suffice it to say that he learned, and learned well, rather quickly. In, fact, the only times that he had received even a small smile of approval from his father was when he learned and mastered another skill.
"Didn't your mum have anything to say about that?" Taryn asked quietly.
He looked at her with shadows in his eyes. "Mum is an expert at glossing over things that scare her or are unpleasant. Besides," he said with a shrug, "Dad always healed anything that was too noticeable, and what he didn't my body handled. I was always a pretty fast healer."
Taryn tried to hide the sadness on her face as she thought of the huge chasm between the way that they had both been raised.
In the past she'd always assumed that Draco was a pampered prince, when in fact he was more of a wounded one. While she had been watching Sesame Street on the telly, happily munching cookies and washing them down with milk, Draco had been learning the basics of bladed combat.
Catching her expression, Draco carefully sat the blade back into its box, before pulling her against him. "Don't be sad for me. Its done, there isn't anything that I can do about it, and while at the time I thought differently, now I'm glad for it. If it helps me protect you, then it was worth every drop of blood."
Tears smarted her eyes. "I just...can't stand the thought of anyone hurting you, especially when you were a child that couldn't do anything about it."
He kissed the top of her head. "Its fine...well I guess its not really fine, but its over."
Lucius's ruthless methods, and his terrible choices was one of the things that had driven him to Stygian. Once he had started training there, he had worked himself to the bone to be the best.
The situation with Voldemort had to be remedied. Even if he had to talk to Dumbledore to accomplish that. He hated what his service was doing to the people he cared about, and what it was doing to his head. It was pushing him back into that helpless head space that he had, with his acceptance into Stygian, vowed to never again inhabit.
0o0
They stepped out of the taxi, and through the entrance to King's Cross.
Being just after the holiday, the station was packed with Muggles returning home, or heading back there.
Draco, who had most of the clothes he needed for school in his rooms there, had stuffed their school robes into a backpack which he'd slung over his shoulder.
They walked directly toward Platform 9 ¾, hands firmly clasped.
"Are you ready for this?" He asked Taryn quietly, taking in the slightly anxious look on her face as they paused in front of the barrier.
She took a deep breath, stiffening her shoulders. "Yes, I just kind of wish that we could have taken the Knight bus, or apparated to Hogsmeade instead, but I get why we have to do it this way. All the better for making ourselves a public, engaged couple."
"Not to mention that its safer this way. I've heard that they are gonna have Aurors on the train. I guess St. Potter is good for something," he said, flinching a bit when Taryn punched him in the arm.
"Be nice. Even thought they don't know it I'm still their friend," she said. "Enough stalling I guess," she said with a sigh, "lets get on with it."
Hand in hand they walked through the portal.
Beyond the portal, while it was still noisy as ever, it was slightly less crowded. Most students, by the time they began their second year, had convinced their parents not to follow them past the portal. It was usually only the first years that tearfully clung to their parents beside the train.
Taryn was unsurprised to find eyes trained on them as soon as they were sighted, however just as many eyes were zeroed in on one Chase Morgenstern.
Her brow rose as she took in Chase passionately kissing Oliver Wood – who was geared in his navy Puddlemere United Keeper quidditch robes, complete with shoulder/chest guard and knees pads – his helmet lying forgotten on the ground as he kissed his boyfriend. The mud on his robes suggested that he had come directly from practice.
Taryn looked at Draco who was watching the couple with one brow risen in amusement. "Looks like we won't be the only topic of discussion, eh," was all he said.
Smiling, Taryn tugged him over to the oblivious couple. They stood for a second, and when the couple continued to kiss, ignoring them, she interrupted with a loud, "Ahem."
Breaking away, Chase grinned at her with kiss swollen lips. "Hey, Taryn! I don't need to ask you how your holiday went, I've seen all of the magazines. I guess congratulations are in order."
"I see I'm not the only one that had a nice holiday," she said nodding her head toward Olliver, "but thanks for the congrats all the same."
Oliver elbowed his boyfriend, and nudging him back Chase said, "Taryn, Draco, this is Ollie. Ollie, Taryn and Draco. Or the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, and the future Lord and Lady Malfoy, I should say."
Draco grimaced when Taryn turned toward him with a gasp. "Future Lord and Lady Malfoy?! You're in line to be a Lord?"
"I kind of already am. Didn't you discover that when you were researching me?" Draco asked lazily a corner of his mouth tipping up into a grin, fully knowing the answer to the question.
Taryn blushed hotly. She hadn't been worried about his family tree in the least, since she had been more concerned with getting into his trousers. "No, I didn't," she said primly, "You should have told me."
"Must I give the history lesson?" Draco said with a groan.
"Yes, you must." Taryn was interested now, the bookworm inside of her rearing its curious head. Wizarding society really didn't have titles of peerage like Muggles, so she knew that the story had to be interesting.
"Okay," Draco sighed. "The short version is that I had a ancestor, French by birth, who was awarded the title for heroic deeds during the reign of King Stephen while he was at war with Empress Matilda. Dad and Mum are the Earl and Countess of Wiltshire. I'm Viscount Swindon."
Chase was watching them with a cat in cream expression on his face. "Bet you didn't think that you were nabbing a peer did ya, Taryn. Now, show us the ring."
Taryn held out her ring hand with a long suffering sigh.
"Ooooh, I know this cost a pretty penny," Chase whistled. "But I bet it has nothing on the family jewels," he said before he laughed. "Both sets," he said waggling his brows.
"You should only be worrying about my family jewels," Ollie said, his voice mockingly gruff, before pecking a kiss on Chase's mouth. "I have to get going. Coach is going to be on my ass already for leaving practice early, and you have to get on the train anyway."
"Okay, honey-boo," Chase said, pouting. "I'll see you in a few weeks, yeah? I love you."
"I love you too, Star," Ollie said, looking at the other boy warmly before taking his leave.
"You guys are too cute," Taryn said, "I guess you ironed things out?"
"Let's just say that I had a very good New Year's eve and day," Chase said with a naughty smile.
Once on the train they found an empty compartment toward the back. Draco immediately commandeered one of the benches, stretching his legs out with his back against the wall, and pushing the backpack behind his head as a makeshift pillow.
Taryn took one look at his relaxed pose before climbing on the bench with him, settling between his legs, her back against his chest.
Chase snorted. "And you said that Ollie and I were too cute. No pre-shagging in here or I refuse to ride with you."
"We wouldn't shag on the train!" Taryn said, scandalized.
"Speak for yourself," Draco murmured.
Taryn's eyes narrowed. "Have you?"
Draco belatedly realized that he had just stepped into it. "Uh...that was before you."
Chase started laughing. "You just talked yourself out of an on train blowjob."
Taryn's mouth opened in shock but Chase interrupted her. "Oh, don't even try it. You know that if I wasn't in here that you would be molesting him. I bet you're just waiting on pins and needles for me to go for a bathroom break," he joked.
Taryn sniffed. "Whatever, Viscountesses-to-be wouldn't act in such a manner."
"Yeah, that isn't going to fly," Chase said, shaking his head, "especially since you didn't even know that you were going to be one. Really though, enough with the witty repartee. I want to know how this whole engagement thing happened. Last I knew you were in tears over him, now, you're engaged. So, spill."
Draco sat up. "You were in tears?"
"Yes, she was," Chase said, gruffly, "And if I couldn't see that she's so happy now I'd be hexing your ass into next week, but for now I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."
Taryn looked uncomfortable. She turned her head up to look into Draco's eyes. "It was the night of the Christmas party. It was when I figured everything out."
Chase's brows furrowed as he tried to decipher the serious undertones in what she had just said. "Get back to the how you got engaged part," Chase said, pushing for more of the story.
"I didn't expect to see her until I got back to school, but mum wanted me to escort her to the St. Mungo's Charity Ball. I saw Taryn there, dancing with some slimy bloke," Draco said, frowning.
Taryn rolled her eyes. "And he practically freaked. Sasha's the son of my step-mum's best friend."
"And an old boyfriend," Draco cut in.
Taryn sighed. "Anyway, Draco saw me and asked me to leave with him. Honestly, I missed him and the party was pretty boring, so it wasn't too hard to convince me to leave. I've been staying with him instead of going back home."
"You were shacking up at Malfoy Manor?" Chase said with disbelief.
"No, we stayed at a friends apartment for a couple days," Draco said. "I proposed there."
"I know that your parents can't be happy Taryn. The happiest have got to be the magazine publishers. I bet they are making a shit load of money off of this. I saw at least four magazines with your faces on the cover," Chase said.
"Its just because of the shit with my dad," Draco said angrily. "If he wasn't in Azkaban there wouldn't be as much interest."
Chase scoffed. "Keep telling yourself that. Taryn is an heiress. You're part of the aristocracy. People are going to be interested anyway."
"You aren't a slouch in the fortune department," Taryn pointed out.
"Yeah, but we all know that no one has money like your family has," Chase said, before turning to Draco. "Did your mum freak out too?"
"Actually, she was surprisingly okay with it. She even wants to help plan the wedding," Taryn answered, her lips quirking at Chase's widening eyes. "My parents, like you said, are anything but happy. They threatened to send me to the states if I didn't break it off."
Chase's eyes widened further. "Wow, really? That's heavy. What did you tell them?"
"I told them that I'd run away somewhere and they would never find me. I don't think that they realized how serious I am about marrying Draco. We don't intend to marry soon," she added quickly, "It will be a long engagement. We're both still underage, so its not legal. Draco's mum would probably give her permission, but I know that its too much to hope for that my parents will do the same."
She was actually really glad about that. She loved Draco, but she was wholly in favor of a longer engagement. She had barely wrapped her mind around the fact that she was going to be someone's wife, let alone a Viscountess. She would definitely be having words with Draco about that issue.
"When is your birthday again?" Chase asked.
Taryn opened her mouth to say September nineteenth, but paused. Her forehead wrinkled. "It's July fourteenth. Draco's is June fifth, but we aren't in a rush to get to the alter, so yeah, it will most definitely be a long engagement."
"You gonna live together at the Manor?" Chase asked levelly. Everyone knew that Malfoy Manor was Deatheater central, even if they couldn't prove it. He just stopped short of saying so because he didn't want to hurt Taryn's feelings, but he was sure that Draco understood him.
"Hell, no," Draco said. "We're gonna get an apartment this summer."
"It will probably be a small one, since we're going to have to save money. We don't really want to mooch off of Draco's parents, and I won't be able to even touch my trust fund until I'm twenty-one," Taryn said. "My dad can't cut me off from that since it was money left from my mum. I get a second one when I'm twenty-five from my dad, that is if he decides not to cut me off," she said softly, before brightening. "At least you can come crash at our apartment when you want. It would be fun. Maybe we can even go out on double dates."
Draco smiled at her enthusiasm. He was glad that she wasn't focusing on all of the things that could happen with their rather precarious situation. He was trying to do the same, but was finding it a bit harder than she was. Perhaps it was because he didn't really have an inherently cheery nature. He liked to have fun as much as the next bloke, but he had never been the type of person that bounced off of the walls with happy optimism. If he ever had been, Lucius had taken care of that years ago. He could count on his hands the times he had played with happy abandon as a child, but he didn't allow himself to dwell on it, especially now since he had so much to live for. A vision of a life with purpose and promise had taken root inside of him, and he'd fight with everything he had to make sure it happened.
0o0
Taryn moaned a little as she woke from her cozy resting place. She had dozed off in Draco's arms. She sat up slowly, not wanting to wake Draco as well.
Chase was across from them, a battered copy of The Shining, by Stephen King in his hands, his eyes intent on the words.
She stood with a stretch. Yawning she asked, "Have we been asleep long?"
"Long enough," Chase said, looking up from his book. "We're nearly there. You missed most of the rubber necking as everyone and their best friend walked past this compartment to get a look at you two. Well, of course they could have been coming to stare at the gay boy who was seen kissing his extremely hot boyfriend," he said with a grin. "I finally had to pull out my book. Once they saw that you two were asleep and I was reading, traffic died down."
"Ugh, how do you read that horror junk," Taryn said pointing at the book with a grimace.
"This one is good," Chase said defensively. "You should read more than dusty old textbooks and maybe you'd appreciate this piece of horror magnificence."
"You're probably only reading it because of the movie," she said with a laugh.
"So what? Jack Nicholson was creepy as fuck in that movie," Chase said with a shudder.
"Whatever. We missed the beverage cart and I'm dying of thirst. Do you want something?"
"A bottled water would be nice," Chase said, pulling out a couple of coins.
She pocketed them before turning back to Draco, who had surprisingly stayed asleep through the entire conversation. Leaning over, she brushed her lips against his, smiling when his eyes popped open. "I'm going to go get something to drink. Do you want anything?"
Draco stretched, pulling her down to get a slightly longer kiss. "Some apple juice?"
"Okay, I'll be right back," she murmured against his lips.
She walked down the corridor, ignoring the interested gazes of the other students peering out the windows of their compartments, and headed to the buffet car.
She dropped two bottles of water and a bottle of apple juice into the sack the witch provided her. On impulse she also bought a few chocolate frogs as well. It felt like it had been ages since she'd last had one, and as soon as she saw the box her sugar tooth had awakened with a vengeance. Draco, who wasn't that big of a fan of chocolate – which she found amazing. Who didn't like chocolate?! – wouldn't ask for any and she'd be able to be a little bit of a piggy about them. Chase on the other hand, would likely grab for one as soon as he saw the box.
She was dropping the candy into the bag, and thus was a little unprepared, when she found herself face to face with none other than Pansy Parkinson.
She sighed. She had hoped to avoid a confrontation, at least until they were actually back at Hogwarts.
She wasn't worried about Pansy trying to hex, or throw any unfriendly spells. There were far too many non-Slytherin students with their faces practically pressed against the glass of their compartments as they waited with interest to see what the girls would say to each other. A few, rather unashamedly, had even opened the doors so they wouldn't miss a word.
"What do you want Parkinson?" she asked with a sigh.
"Just a friendly chat, Davis," Pansy said, her tone rife with anything but friendliness.
"Must we do this? I'm thirsty and tired, and I just want to go back and sit with my fiance," Taryn said, watching the other girl's face turn ugly with malice at the term she'd used regarding Draco.
"What does he want with you?" Pansy's voice hissed, thick with hate. "Did he knock you up or something? You can't be stupid enough to think that he'll stay with you," she said with disdain. "Why he asked you to marry his is beyond me. You're nothing more than a handy fuck, just like the rest of the other stupid slags who opened their legs for him. As soon as he's tired of you he'll realize what a mistake ever involving himself with was."
Taryn wanted badly to pull out her wand to curse the girl, and barely pushed back the impulse. Even she was surprised at what came out of her mouth next. "I'm more than just a fuck. I'm the best bloody fuck he's ever had and I blow his mind on a regular basis," she retorted. "He knows he has a good thing and he won't be going anywhere. More importantly he loves me, he never loved you. In fact he doesn't even care enough to despise you. You're not important enough to warrant even a second thought."
Pansy moved toward her with a hiss, her hand moving back in a slapping motion.
Taryn dropped the sack , whipping her wand out quickly. The other girl paused mid-step as the wand was placed firmly under her chin.
Taryn tisked. "You would think that you'd have learned the first time that we did this, Parkinson. If it wasn't for that Auror," she nodded at the man who was walking briskly toward them from the other end of the corridor, "I'd teach you another lesson. You speak so much on your Pureblood superiority, and yet you have no class. You can't even get it through your thick skull when a man doesn't want you."
"He won't stay with you. I'll have him when this is all over, and you won't even be a memory," Pansy said through clenched teeth.
"Really?" Taryn said, stepping away from the other girl, as the Auror finally reached them. She raised her hand, allowing the diamond to catch the light. "Who has the ring on her finger?"
"Break this up ladies, unless you both want to be expelled," the burly Auror said, his tone expressing his dislike of his current position. "Now each of you go back to your respective seats."
Pansy turned away before throwing one comment over her shoulder. "This isn't over bitch."
"Bring it anytime bitch," Taryn threw back, leaning over to pick up her fallen sack, before striding back down the corridor to her own compartment.