Five months passed in which parents pulled students frantically from the school. No more attacks came; they had accomplished all that they needed to. The remaining students, every one of them, joined the DA. Draco, Damien and Alex all trained their respective housemates. Hermione instilled herself as the Lioness Effréné of Gryffindor, Harry and Ron serving as Lions Passif.
There was tension in the beginning, mostly between the three houses and Gryffindor. The main perpetrators were the Serpent Seigneur, Deuxième Serpent, Lioness Effréné, Lions Passif, Compte De Blaireau, and Envolé. Ginny, Pansy, and Millicent attempted to control the more violent aspects of these 'altercations' as Draco called them, calmly holding out his arm for her to wrap in an ace bandage.
Ginny had sighed, tightened the bandage enough that Draco winced, and eyed the trio across the room. She finally stood up and crossed the room to halt Alex and Pansy's duel. Alex passed a hand over her forehead and glanced over at her.
"What is it Gin? Trouble in Paradise?" She hissed, rolling a shoulder stiffly. Eirian was nosing about the place again; his almost hock length tail whipping unsuspecting people. He nosed a vial off its shelf with a crash and Alex whipped around to reprimand him.
Pansy laughed and glanced over to where Damien was drilling his group of ten first years in the basics. She longed to cross the room and stand beside him, the line of her body pressed into his. She shook off the feeling and turned back to where Ginny was ranting about male pride.
"They've caused more "accidents" on each other in the past hour than the rest of the DA together! It is inexcusable!" She waved her hand around, the emerald of her engagement ring flashing at the room. Pansy smiled at the sight of it, and her chest tightened with joy for her friend.
"Ginny, we've all been through a lot in the past few months. You haven't even forgiven them yet and you expect Draco to? I mean, they treated you like trash for three months and now you just want to go back to being "it's-nothing-let's-forget-it-girl"? It's not going to happen. It will take time and a lot of blood before this is settled." Pansy rolled her eyes and beckoned to Millicent. The taller girl came jogging over, her black hair still in its severe cut away from her face.
"Yes Pansy?" Millie stopped next to her, sweat trickling down her face. She summoned a towel from the stack and patted her face while Pansy explained the situation. "I'll dismiss the meeting then and we'll hold on to our monarchs. Shall we girls?"
And they shot up orange sparks from their wands dismissing the meeting. They called the older members back, keeping the 'court' together. When Alex saw the glint in Ginny's eyes, she grinned and moved to stand beside and slightly behind the smaller girl. She bent her head an inch to whisper some devious plan in the redhead's ear then straightened and watched coldly as the Gryffindor Pryde lined up across from them.
"Lioness Effréné, we seem to be having a disagreement on some things. As in how the rest of the houses should be handled. Now as you've taken up the Gryffindor equivalent of a throne I expect you to know and respect the rules governing inner house interactions. You are newcomers here, not the other way around. If it were not for our devotion to Dumbledore and his memory we would not be here." Ginny snapped, her eyes blazing in a contemptuous fury.
"I see, Le Coeur Du Serpent, just how much of a problem we have here." Alex's voice was cold, mind numbingly so as her hazel eyes swept over the assembled rulers. "I seem to be under the impression that you three believe that the Serpent Seigneur is not worthy of Ginevra? That he is, in fact, holding her against her will and has poisoned her mind against you?"
"Damn right he has! She doesn't even talk to us anymore! It's his entire fault!" Ron's temper flared and he moved forward to attack Draco.
Blaise smoothly stepped between them, his eyes harsh as he dared the boy to step closer. Hermione's voice sliced through the tension.
"Ron, shut up. Really, this is ridiculous! Draco has done nothing wrong! We're the ones who've treated Ginny like an outsider for seven years, and it's a wonder she didn't desert us before this! And she could have done worse than Draco. Honestly it's not like he's Voldemort or anything….oh God Ginny I'm sorry…"
Ginny's face had drained of all color as her hands fisted closed tightly. Alex took the girl by the shoulders and shook her harshly. "Ginevra! Stop it. Right now. I will not cater to your fear, and neither will you!"
An intense look of rage crossed Draco's face at her actions and he crossed the space between them to grab Alex by the shoulders and jerk her away from Ginny. She hit the floor with a thump, and lay dazed for a minute.
Draco took Ginny into his arms, her form shaking as she hid her face in his robe. His eyes were boring holes into Alex's, his mouth in a tight line as he glared at her. She in turn eased herself from the floor, her jaw tightening as she rotated the shoulder she had before, a hiss going in through her teeth as she felt something tear. "Draco. She cannot go in fear her whole life. She has to conquer it."
"He nearly killed her Alexandria. But you weren't here for that were you? No you were safe over in BueaxBaton's pampered corridors where the horrors of the real world were kept away from the mindless fools who went to school there." Draco snarled, a hand stroking Ginny's hair.
Alex flinched, her face turning into a cold mask as they watched. The light left her eyes and she seemed to suddenly be made of stone. "It is true that in BueaxBaton I was safe. But I am far from naïve, Monsieur. J'ai vu l'horreur qui aurait tué une fille plus faible. J'ai fait l'impensable, et je le ferais encore vous porc. N'osez pas me patronnent, monsieur, car je ne suis pas de l'esprit à écouter lui."
Alex's words dissolved into French in her agitation, the accent that always hovered on the edges of her speech emerging full and rich from its cage. After her tirade finished she bowed her head stiffly and made her way out of the room, back stiff and one arm hanging oddly. Her deuxième aile and troisième aile, silent until now, shot the Slytherin Prince a withering glare and followed.
Blaise was torn, half of him angry at what she did to Ginny, half of him wanting to follow her and hold her till that stiffness melted and she was again the charming girl he knew. A look from Draco kept him in place, his first loyalty to his Prince. The mark on his chest burned, glowing a dark blue under the thin cotton of his tee shirt. The ache echoed the pain his heart felt spurring him to move towards the door. Only years of iron clad self control kept him in place.
Draco glared around him, meeting Damien's eyes. He expected the twin to be angry, what he did not expect was the cold fury burning in the taller boy's eyes. The hazel seemed to glow as he nodded curtly and brushed past Harry's still form on his way to the door.
He turned at the door and hissed, "Dieux quel des imbéciles ces mortel soit, niant le véritable arrangement vrai de sagesse…"
The rest of them turned to each other with mutual fury, all of them angry with Alex's treatment of Ginny. Ginny herself was mulling over Alex's words.
'I can't truly live my life with this fear…can I?'