FicWad

Chapter One: Confrontation

“Well, what do you think?”

Hermione Granger turned around to stare at her longtime best friend. He had recently decided he would purchase a set of contact lenses along with his normal round glasses. His bright green eyes shone brightly in his nervous face as he waited for her answer. She closed her book and smiled up at him.

“Harry, you look great!” She told him, “I almost don’t recognize you.”

“Yeah? It feels weird not having my glasses on…” Harry told her looking in the nearest mirror.

He was glad that the mirrors were floor to ceiling since most mirrors didn’t accommodate his height of 6’3”. He looked himself over and was quite pleased with his reflection; he didn’t look nearly as geeky as he had with his glasses. He’d spent the past year growing out his thick black hair like Sirius had suggested and had bought some clothes that actually fit. He didn’t want to be conceited, but he was pretty sure he’d now fall under the ‘hot’ category.

Hermione smiled watching Harry adjust the collar on his button up shirt. Harry’s appearance had been changing for a year and he had become quite good looking. He was tall and muscular from playing so much Quidditch. His hair had a wild untamed look to it that looked good on him. She suspected his sudden inspiration to look different was brought on by a certain red haired girl that was currently across the street with her brother arguing over Quidditch tactics and ‘slut-wear’.

“Mr. Potter? How do they feel?” The optometrist asked walking over to join them.

“Fine, a bit odd without my glasses” Harry told him.

“I suppose they would, you said you’ve always had glasses?”

“Always, blind as a bat without them.”

The optometrist laughed as he led Harry over to a desk and began filling out paperwork. Hermione glanced out the window and across the street while putting her book in her purse. Her two other friends were wandering around outside the clothing store waiting for Harry to finish his purchase. She smiled as she watched her boyfriend, Ron Weasley, stop to consider a sales rack of fall clothes on display outside the store.

“All done,” She heard Harry say.

“Great, let’s go show you off then.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” Harry said turning red.

Hermione laughed and led them out of the store and across the street to join their friends.

“Ron would you please just pick something out? I’d like to shop for myself!”

“Well, I’d already be done by now if you’d just help, Ginny!” Ron argued.

“I already told you that the red one clashes with your hair, get the brown one…”

“Yeah, but I like the print on the red one!” Ron said holding the red hoodie up.

“What’s going on?” Hermione asked.

“Ron! He wants to buy a new hooded sweatshirt but won’t make up his mind!” Ginny said exasperated.

“Ginny says the red clashes with my hair, but I don’t like the pattern on the brown one…” Ron said defensively.

Hermione looked them both over while Ginny fawned over Harry’s new look. She looked at the rack of clothes and picked out a hooded sweatshirt. It was solid black with the same print as the red one.

“What about this? It won’t clash with your hair and it has the pattern you like.”

“Brilliant! I didn’t even see that one!” Ron said hanging the other two up.

Ever since Ron had began working at his brother’s joke shop he had become determined to buy some new clothes for himself, though his wardrobe was still mostly hand-me-downs his new clothes made all the difference. He looked good in fitted jeans and simple t-shirts. On cold days he accessorized with a sweatshirt but not much else. He and Harry played Quidditch constantly and the exercise had given Ron a muscular build, a build Hermione found irresistible. Harry and Ron had both applied for spots on the local London Quidditch team but only Harry had been asked to join. Harry, being the good friend he was, turned the job down to stay next to his best friend.

“Oy, nice look mate. You look good without the glasses,” Ron told Harry finally noticing.

“Thanks, let’s go inside I want a new pair of jeans. Hagrid’s last batch of skrewts burnt a hole clear through my last good pair.” Harry said pointing at his right leg, there was a large hole under the knee.

“I thought you liked holes in your jeans, besides why don’t you just use magic?” Ginny laughed.

“I didn’t really like these jeans to start with…”

“Right, it has nothing to do with the fact that you saw Draco Malfoy wearing the same ones at Slytherin Spirits the other night!” Ginny cracked up.

“It doesn’t!” Harry insisted.

Hermione and Ginny laughed remembering the utter horror on Harry’s face when they’d run into Draco Malfoy at the new club in Diagon Alley wearing the exact same outfit. He’d already pitched the shirt because it had “shrunk” in the laundry and now, conveniently, skrewts had burned the jeans. Harry muttered something under his breath as he wandered into the clothing store.

Inside they split up for different departments; Ron for some new shoes, Harry for some new jeans, and the girls for some new everything. Ginny fawned over the suede and silk jackets while Hermione looked over the variously cropped shirts. Ginny was already heading for a dressing booth when Hermione finally found some things she couldn’t let go. She lifted five black shirts into her arms, grabbed four pairs of dark denim jeans, and a couple black hoodies. She headed for the booth next to Ginny’s and tried everything on admiring the tightly fit jeans and the different tops.

An hour later they were showing off their purchases at an outdoor bistro and eating their way-late afternoon lunch. The days were getting shorter and darkness came early so they had to cut their day short. Ginny listened intently about Hermione’s new books. She’d purchased all fourteen in a set on, surprisingly, fashion and interior design. Harry and Ron were discussing the latest match between the Puddlemere United team and Wimbourne Wasps.

“Hermione, show me the clothes you bought, you wouldn’t in the store.”

“Oh, well. Alright,” Hermione said grabbing a different bag.

“It’s all black,” Ron said surprised looking at the five new outfits Hermione had bought.

A couple of the tops and hoodies had little sparkly skulls on them with swirl patterns. Hermione ran her hand across the patterns adoringly.

“I know, but I kind of like black… and I don’t own much of it. Besides look how cute they are!” Hermione said showing them to Ginny.

“I like them, a little punky for me, but they’re still cute. Besides, those jeans look like they could be a second skin,” Ginny told her then she looked at her brother and winked.

Ron turned red and went back to eating his lunch; he could just picture Hermione in the tight jeans already. Hermione turned equally as red as she pictured how tight they really were, second skin was definitely a good description for them. Ginny and Harry laughed watching the couple blush a bright scarlet. Ginny looked at her watch and finished her food as she packed her stuff back away in the bags. Harry was just going to take the last bite of his sandwich when he choked on it.

“Oh my god, Harry! Are you okay?” Ginny asked reaching for his water.

Instead of answering he just pointed behind Hermione and took a large drink. They all turned to look in the direction he pointed and saw a familiar head of platinum blonde hair and expensive clothes. The guy’s black silk shirt reflected the sunlight while the dark denim jeans sucked it in.

“Draco Malfoy?” Ron said in utter bewilderment. “In muggle London?”

“I thought he hated muggles…” Ginny said just as confused.

“Well, he was wearing muggle clothes at the club, and he is today too, so maybe he’s just shopping…” Hermione said.

“Either way, it’s weird seeing him out here,” Harry said having caught his breath.

“Well, since we’re all finished with linner, what say we go to one of those picture things,” Ron suggested.

Hermione and Harry laughed while Ginny nodded.

“Ron their called movies. And what is linner?” Hermione asked.

“Oh, right. Movies. You know, linner, what you have when it’s way past lunch but not quite dinner,” Ron explained.

They all laughed this time.

“Only you Ronald, only you. Alright let’s go!” Hermione said grabbing up her bags.

“Here I got them. I’ll shrink them later when we’re out of sight.” Ron said taking all her bags.

Hermione smiled up at him sweetly behind extraordinarily dark eyeliner and mascara. She recently began doing her makeup like some muggle girls she’d seen in a few magazines. It was dark and dramatic, and she loved it. “Just be careful with my books, I don’t want the edges to get dented.”

“You guys go ahead, I’m going to get a soda to go,” Ginny told them.

“Yeah, alright. We’ll wait for you at the moonies”

“Movies” Hermione whispered in Ron’s ear.

“Urm, movies!”

Harry and Ginny laughed as they watched the two walk away. They fell silent and didn’t say anything for a couple minutes.

“It’s been two weeks Harry, we need to tell them,” Ginny said quietly sipping on a cherry-ade soda.

“I know, but I don’t want to upset them. They’ve just started to act like themselves again,” Harry said watching them turn a corner out of sight.

“Yes, but we can’t keep lying to them. I can’t. Harry…”

“What’s the matter?” Harry asked hearing the tone of her voice change.

“Harry… Seamus asked me out last night and I said yes,” Ginny told him avoiding eye contact. “I just can’t keep pretending anymore.”

Harry was silent for a long moment as he thought about it. A few months back Seamus had finally learned to turn water into rum, and surprisingly since then it had become quite famous with the local pubs in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Last he’d heard Seamus was planning on opening his own business ‘The Seamus Swill’. He’d always known Seamus had a minor crush on Ginny, but he’d never acted on it. He wasn’t exactly surprised he’d got the courage to speak up.

“I see,” he said at last. “That’s great.”

“No, Harry, it isn’t! Because right now my entire family and most of our friends think we are still dating! That would make me a cheater!” Ginny said frustrated.

“Listen, I know you don’t want to keep this from them anymore but I just need a couple days, please Ginny, the last thing I need is to upset Ron and Hermione again.”

After the battle at Hogwarts Ron had become incredibly depressed and easily angered. The death of Fred Weasley had been extraordinarily hard on Ron; even more so than Fred’s own twin brother, George. Ron had avoided any conversation about the battle, his brother, or anything that remotely came close to forcing him to think about the past. He was finally reverting back to the old Ron now that he was working at the joke shop.

Hermione had done much the same thing except that she had gone to France to find her parents and came back drastically changed. No one knew what exactly she’d found there but when she came back she refused to talk to anyone and preferred to remain in the library or her room reading. They’d spent the past year just getting her to have a simple conversion at all. A couple months ago she started joining them in their daily activities and talking again

“Okay, Harry. I’ll give you a week. But after that I’m telling them myself. I have to live my life,” Ginny told him.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

They sat there another minute before Harry grabbed all their shopping bags.

“Let’s go catch that movie.”

*

Draco had been frequenting in Muggle London a lot lately. Draco had been taught since a young age that Muggles were disgusting, unworthy creatures in their world. He recalled time and time again when such creatures had been used as slaves under his father’s control. He was disgusted by every one of them and their magicless lives. Now he often found himself observing and wondering how they managed to live their lives without the use of magic. He was currently traveling the busy streets and peering into shops in which children screamed and yelled and adults ran back and forth. Such a strange group of people he found here.

Somehow, he couldn’t help but find himself intrigued by the many Muggle girls. They communicated with things called “mobiles” which allowed them to talk to others the same way as floo powder. They all had them. There were varieties of them. They had different colors, different shapes, different sounds that told them someone wanted to talk to them. He found it rather interesting. Everywhere he went girls were on one of those things. Talking to someone or another very dramatically as if it was the most important thing in the world, even if they had friends to talk to right there with them. Stupid, the whole lot of them, he thought.

That was the other thing that got his attention. The girls here ran in groups. Groups of three, groups of six, sometimes even groups of ten. Where the boys went in twos and threes at the most. And boy did the girls talk. They never seemed to run out of something to say or some interesting topic of discussion. They ate together, shopped together; they even went to the bathroom together. Everywhere he went there were groups of giggling girls dragging each other here and there. It made him feel strange; kind of dizzy and lonesome. He wondered what it would be like to go on a stroll in Muggle London to the ritzy diners with Pansy. Or play the game he overheard from Muggle men called “pool” with his friends at a bar. Draco snorted with this thought. Right, those morons can’t even walk properly let alone attempt to play a game, Muggle or not.

He passed shops with flowers, jewelry, clothes, dozens of bakeries and half a dozen other shops with knickknacks and bits and bobs. But he didn’t bother stopping at any of them. He knew where he wanted to go. Weeks ago he had found a high class café that had the best food and drinks he’d ever tasted. Well, after that McDougals place that served those things called “ham burgers.” He still hadn’t quite come up with a logical explanation as to how they turned a ham into a brown patty that tasted nothing like ham. He was sure that magic had to have been involved somehow but as of yet he hadn’t managed to find a single spell book that discussed the topic.

He stopped outside a quiet café that you could just barely hear the gentle sound of music playing inside. The only view you had of it was the entrance. The rest of the building was hidden with privacy walls. He peered in through the door a moment. He hadn’t been here in a couple weeks and something seemed different about the place. He opened the door and went in.

*

Kallison sat down at her favorite table in her favorite café now called the New Green Café. She looked up into the clear blue sky where the ceiling used to be and was now fully glass. She ordered her favorite pomegranate Borba water and a strawberry fro-yo. The waitress smiled at her.

“You really like this place, huh!?” The waitress said to her. It was more a statement than a question.

She smiled back at the waitress whose name she had learned was Jenny a couple weeks back.

“Yes, I really do. The food is good, the company is good, and there’s never much noise. This is the perfect spot to unwind and just read a book. And these renovations have made it even better!” She told her.

Jenny laughed staring up through the glass ceiling at the birds flying over head. “This place sure is something else now, I mean; we’ve always grown our own veggies… But, even the new chairs and tables are made from recycled wood… However they managed that one!” She started to turn but stopped. “Let me know if you need refills, they’re on the house today. I love your outfit by the way, too cute!” The waitress said with a wink and a thumbs up before walking away.

Kallison smiled. She came here every day. This place had become home away from home. But lately she’d stopped coming as often except for the past two weeks. Since June she had been getting the strangest feelings that someone was watching her here. But every time she looked around the other customers seemed to all be lost in their own worlds and so she chalked it up to insanity. That was until four weeks ago…

Kallison had come to the café early that particular day. She had ordered her usual and was heading to her seat when she passed a center table. She had made eye contact with the guy sitting there and felt instant chills. Goose bumps ran up and down her spine as she took in his platinum blonde hair and deathly pale skin. His eyes were dark and haunted. She looked away and continued to her seat immediately planting her face in her book. She had peeked over her book to look over the guy at a safe distance. He had been wearing all black, not a speck of white or colors were spotted on his entire body. She saw his face in the napkin holder he had been staring back at her from in the reflection. She shot her book up to cover her face and pretended to not know anyone was there.

Sometime later she had tipped her waitress, tucked her book in her purse, and left the café. Every day she walked home the same way. She lived about a half hour away if she was speed walking. But on nice evenings like that one had been she always slowed her pace, enjoying the crisp night air. She had walked for about ten minutes and was a quarter of the way home when she had the strangest feeling of being watched… or followed. Her nervousness had her speeding up and when she glanced over her shoulder she managed a glimpse of blonde hair and black clothes. She had run home the rest of the way. Since then the guy had watched her and followed her halfway home every time he was there. Too afraid to say anything she never confronted him about it and just hurried home as fast as possible.

And then two weeks ago he stopped coming. She had thought that was that, that she’d never see him again. So here she sat drinking her water and reading her book. She was halfway done with her book when a glimpse of blonde hair and dark clothes caught her eye. She looked up at the guy she had hoped would never come back and he seemed in a daze, confused by the new café look. She watched him take a seat and order his food. Watching him chat with Jenny she thought to herself, he doesn’t seem that bad….

*

Upon entering the little café he stopped in his tracks. Draco stood in awe, gazing at the café, which had been transformed into a massive, sun drenched greenhouse. The new walls were made of glass, and the room’s perimeter was lined with mini vegetable gardens framed by low white picket fences. The gardens sprouted ripe red tomatoes, carrots, scallions, peas, cucumbers, and fresh herbs. Rows of new bamboo tables and chairs displayed photos of the happily wrinkled local London artisans who had crafted them. The Starbucks kiosk had been replaced by a charming, old-fashioned stagecoach. It stocked skin-clarifying Borba water (imported from Hong Kong) and drinkable low-fat yogurt guaranteed to speed up hair growth (head only) and increase shine in less than a week.

What the hell is this crap? Is this really edible? he wondered reading the quaint country chalkboard signs listing the day’s freshest produce (edamame and carrots) and the breakfast specials (buttermilk pancakes with chicken sausages, organic eggs Benedict, granola with locally grown fruit), lunch specials (mac ‘n’ cheese sprinkled with nitrate-free bacon, free-range-turkey burgers, pizza with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella), and desserts (protein-packed chocolate brownies, calorie-burning mint-chip ice-cream cake, tooth-whitening lollipops).

No more steel bars, plastic trays, or orange heat lamps. The café had become a fabulously fancy, eco-friendly farmer’s market gone twenty- first century. Invisible clouds of floral perfumes and spicy colognes now eclipsed the earthy smell of fresh vegetables. He looked around for the rubbish bins but instead found five silver “reverse vending machines.” He looked at the strange machines wondering how they worked, as if reading his mind a waitress walked by and told him about them.

“Reverse vending machines, or RVMs for short, replace the smelly rubbish bins and give you a sleek place to deposit your empties. Once the machine is full, it will crush your recyclables and I believe Keira Knightley’s voice will announce how many UCBs the machine collected.” Jenny told him with a smile.

Draco looked at her realizing she was speaking to him, he sneered. “Oh, thanks.” He said sarcastically. As an afterthought he asked, “What are UCBs?”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure. But it’s apparently a very good thing to have those.” Draco snorted as he took a seat at a table and gave her his order. Apparently the staff hadn’t been upgraded with the building; she was just as stupid as he remembered her.

“Quite an upgrade for Farley’s Finest Café. It’s an improvement at least. Hopefully the food’s just as good or it will have been a waste. It looks nice though.” He told her attempting to be nice, a little. She quickly went up to the counter to gather his meal, obviously, choosing to pretend she didn’t hear his snide opinion.

“We’re not called Farley’s Finest anymore, didn’t you see the sign? Now we’re the New Green Café. We’ve changed every aspect of the place. We’re as healthy and organic as you can get. We only just reopened two days ago. Enjoy your lunch.”

She placed a turkey burger and side salad on his table a little harder than necessary. She gave him a forced smile and walked away. Muggles, touchy little things, he thought with a grin.

He took a bite of his salad savoring the crisp texture and flavor while scanning the room. There weren’t very many people in the room and virtually no one from the ‘old’ café. They all seemed engaged in one task or another. One was vigorously writing and another was filling out a puzzle. Others simply sat drinking and eating and still some had newspapers or their “mobiles.” But then there was the girl in the corner. Every day that he had come here she had been sitting in the same corner, drinking the same thing, at the same time, reading a different book, by the same author. Even with this change of style and customers around him she was still here.

This girl was part of the reason he still came to muggle London. Her straight, shoulder-length white-blonde hair looked radiant against her porcelain skin. Her light blue eyes glistened like sea glass. She had a navy blue t-shirt dress on today that was flattering, not slutty. He found this appealing. Even at Hogwarts the girls seemed to go for the skirts that showed the most panties while still falling under the school dress code regulations.

He looked at the napkin holder in the center of the table and watched her reflection. He felt something strange form in his stomach. It was like a hunger pain but despite the fact he had polished off his entire burger and salad it didn’t seem to lessen. He looked away from the napkin dispenser and looked out the window at the gardens hidden from sight and the feeling he had seemed to lessen. When he looked back at the girl’s reflection the feeling in his stomach kicked up again.

*

She sat in the corner reading her book when that feeling hit her again. She looked up from her book and scanned the room, sensing someone staring. The blonde guy quickly diverted his eyes before she could spot him. She knew it was him but let it go. She shook her head, readjusted herself in her seat, and went back to reading. She saw him watching her but just tried to finish her book. After a while she noticed that he seemed to drift off… His eyes took on a deep blue, they lost their shine slowly. The look on his face was scary and foreboding. She decided she’d had enough; it was time to go home. Please, she thought, just keep daydreaming!

Kallison gently placed a couple pounds on the table and finished off her water. She tucked her book in her purse and her purse under her arm. She approached Jenny at the counter.

“Hey Jenny? Could I get a brownie to go?”

“Absolutely! You know that guys been watching you… I think he likes you.” She told her with a tilt of her head toward the room. “He’s a bit of a jerk though.”

Kallison refused to turn around she just nodded and reached for her brownie.

“I don’t know why,” Kalli said honestly.

“What do you mean? You’re quiet, you’re cute…”

Kallison scoffed at this and rolled her eyes. Jenny’s eyebrows rose.

“What?”

“I’m not cute! I’ve never been approached by a boy once!”

“Well, that can’t be true, look at you. You’re supermodel thin and curvy in all the right places. Your skin is flawless, you have light blonde hair, and you have big blue eyes! Sure, you’re a little on the short side, what? 5’3”? But what guy doesn’t want a cute little blonde with blue eyes?”

“You’d think so but they don’t. Yes, I’m blonde, have blue eyes, and was blessed with enough cleavage for two girls but they don’t notice me at all. I don’t show off everything I’ve got, I don’t wear makeup, and I’d rather read a good book than go to a club.”

Jenny’s eyebrows rose higher and then she smiled.

“Well, sweetie, someone’s noticing you now,” she pointed out.

Don’t remind me, Kallison thought to herself.

“Do you have a ride to get home? It’s getting dark out there,” Jenny said staring up at the sky.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Kallison lied; More to convince herself than Jenny. “Night.”

*

“That movie was bloody brilliant!” Ron said enthusiastically.

“I thought it was scary!” Ginny said with a shudder.

Ron hugged Hermione around the shoulders and laughed at his sister.

“You big baby, it wasn’t that bad!”

“Yeah, sure. If you like watching girls in skimpy little outfits being savagely torn apart by monsters and passed from one guy to the next like a bowl of peanuts!” Ginny said angrily.

“Okay, so maybe that wasn’t such a good movie to see, it didn’t sound so bad in the review…” Harry said as they headed for a deserted alley around the back of the theatre.

“I think next time Gin and I should get to pick the movie,” Hermione said.

“Aww, but then you’ll pick a girly one with all that lovey dovey…” Ron changed what he was saying when he saw the look Hermione was giving him. “But you know sometimes those aren’t bad, it makes for a great mood setter before having a nice dinner!”

They all laughed as they sat down on a bench to just hang out in the calm late summer breeze. They talked about everything, anything, and nothing just to avoid going home. The summer was nearly over and they didn’t want to miss a second of it, just like old times.

*

Draco thought about the girls at school. How half of them hung all over him in complete obsession, like he was the only thing that mattered in the world. He basked in those moments. In his house he was less than good enough for and at anything. His father had constantly pressured him that he was his son, and being his son he had responsibilities and that he needed to grow up and be a man. The family depended on it, Draco hated that term. ‘Family,’ they were anything but. There was his mother who had been forever faithful to her abusive and demeaning husband. His own father constantly insulted her and blamed her for every screw up. Draco loved his mother but he was disgusted that the once prideful woman had hid every bruise and never said a word. This thought brought more emotions to their ugly head. Anger, hatred, disappointment… they all felt the same. He looked into the napkin holder and saw that the girl wasn’t sitting at her table anymore. All that was left to show someone had been there was an empty water bottle and a couple pounds for tip.

Draco spun around in his seat looking around the café he spotted her at the register getting a brownie to go. A strange feeling jolted through his entire body. A mixture of emotions and thoughts shot through him like a jolt of lightning. He laid down his money to cover the cost of his bill and signaled the waitress it was there and stood up. Dozens of thoughts played through his mind like someone had hit the play button. Thoughts of his parents fighting, screaming, and the raging sex that followed; the girls at school following him, doing whatever he wanted, and seducing him; his father insisting he take the mark; his mother insisting he carry out the family name and heritage; his friends and classmates treating him like a king and then trashing him out of sight; his deranged aunt seducing him into becoming a follower. He never noticed that he was following the girl out of the café. He followed behind her at a leisurely pace paying no mind to where he was actually going.

He watched her thighs move in the dress; her leg muscles clenching and unclenching with every step. The way her body moved was intoxicating and the more he watched the stronger the feeling in his stomach grew spreading to lower areas in his body. Her swaying hips teased him, provoking him in the cruelest of ways. Lost in his own thoughts and confused with his own feelings he followed, drawn to her like the Moon to the Earth’s gravitational pull.

*

Kallison tried to walk at a steady pace, despite the fact that every muscle in her body screamed to run. Once or twice she stopped to check a window front, turning sideways so as to peer at the road behind her. The businesses had closed up an hour ago and the only people that wandered the streets were the employees locking up and heading for home. She caught a glimpse of a blonde hair walking a good distance behind her. She kept walking through the near empty streets, a couple people passed by and then she spotted the alley she took to get home. She turned the corner and then whipped around, ready to confront her stalker. She had her purse ready just in case. Like that’ll do much damage, she thought. Well, maybe my book will fly out and paper cut him in the eye.

She stood there waiting and when he rounded the corner she saw him jump. Inside she was congratulating herself on a scare well-done. Outside she was staring daggers at this creeper. She watched him take a step back and look around him in confusion.

“Why are you following me?” She demanded, her blue eyes were icy and she stood firm. The only answer she received was a blank stare. “I said, why are you following me?” She took a step closer never breaking eye contact and trying to be as mean as possible despite the fact that her insides were twisting with fear.

“I-I-I’m sorry. I was lost in thought and I just ended up here.” he stumbled to say.

“Right! Well, what about the other day? You’re always watching me and then you follow me all this way! Why?” She demanded again.

She watched him shake his head and turn slightly pink and slowly his color grew to red, then purple. His eyes seemed to turn black, and his face turned hard and angry. She took a step back her body physically shaking along with her insides now.

“I don’t know.” Draco told her shaking his head.

Suddenly he felt very embarrassed. He had been following her? More than once? Wait a minute, so what if I come this way often?Who is she to yell at me and accuse me of such bull shit? The nerve! Does she even know who she’s talking too? He thought to himself. Suddenly all his emotions bubbled to the surface in a fit of rage.

“I said I wasn’t following you! How do you know I don’t live around here? Maybe you’re too conceited to realize it’s a simple coincidence!” He yelled at her turning redder and redder all the time.

She took a step back from him. His anger was building and his all black ensemble didn’t help the situation. It gave him a meaner darker streak. He had sharp cold features and his deathly pale skin had turned violet in a millisecond. She took another step back as he stepped forward yelling and shaking his clenched fist at her.

There was no one around, the alleys were deserted and no one to intervene. She stared at him in shock and then she grew pale before storming into a rage of her own. And before he knew what was happening he had a hold of her wrists and was shaking her. She started screaming at him furiously kicking at him with her legs and then all went black……


What a fucking ass! She thought. Before she knew what was happening he had a hold of her wrists and was shaking her. She started screaming at him, furiously kicking at him with her heels. But he was stronger than she was and he took her down to the ground. Still holding down her wrists, she kicked with her knees. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears, her blood rushing in her veins. Little alarms were going off adding to the chaos in her mind. And then she looked into his face. Her blood ran cold, temporarily freezing her brain as well. The look in his eyes was deadly, the look on his face painful. He appeared to be struggling with his own thoughts.

When his hands didn’t loosen their grip, birds of panic began to flap their wings hysterically in her chest and stomach.

“Let me go,” she said. His fingers tightened like handcuffs around her narrow bone. “You’re hurting me.”

“Then relax,” he told her, his voice was deep. Rough. Cold.

“Wait, stop.”

He stopped her second scream by putting his lips over her mouth, where he kept them. When he released her wrist, she tried to pound his head and push him off, but he was so heavy and so determined, her blows fell like fists of butter against him. He didn’t flinch or cry out.

“Let me go. Stop it! Stop it!” She screamed.

Kallison finally managed to punch him hard in the nose and there was a dull crack. Blood began to pour from it as he slammed her head into the cement. She gasped, seemingly choking on air. She was in a terrible panic, fighting to breathe, and she thought she passed in and out of consciousness within seconds because moments later, she felt him hitting her over and over again. She thought she was screaming, but she couldn’t be sure because there was a thunderous roar in her ears. With every blow she kept thinking, this isn’t happening to me; it can’t be happening. But of course, it was.

He screamed in anger and she felt him stop almost immediately and collapse over her, his breathing hard and fast. The whole ground seemed to vibrate, or was that just her body shuddering from the violation? She didn’t move. She felt as though she had left herself and no longer had any control of her arms and legs. Slowly, he rose and sat up. She saw him brush back his hair and then straighten his clothes. He sat quietly and she didn’t move for fear she would shatter like some cracked piece of thin china. She watched him stand up. He thumbed what appeared to be a long stick in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at her.

“You’d better get going,” he said reaching for her, but she cried out.

*

“Do you guys hear that?” Harry asked turning his head towards the other end of the alley for the eighth time.

“Hear what?” Hermione asked following his gaze.

“I keep thinking I hear screaming…”

“We are behind a movie theatre, Harry. We’re probably near a theatre exit,” Ron pointed out.

“I suppose…” Harry said frowning.

He was sure he had heard a scream somewhere outside but then he decided Ron was probably right. He yawned suddenly and Hermione laughed.

“Guess it’s pretty late. No one’s around, what say we all head back to Grimmauld?”

“Sounds good to me, I’m tired!” Ginny said also yawning now.

“Oy, I can’t wait to get into bed. My feet are killing me! We’ve been in London since nine this morning,” Ron said getting to his feet.

“Alright then, we’ll see you at home,” Hermione said taking Ron’s hand.

“See you in a minute,” Ginny acknowledged.

Harry wasn’t paying any attention; he’d sworn he’d heard a distant scream somewhere again. Harry was startled when a loud pop echoed down the alley behind him. He turned to find only Ginny standing there and looked around for Ron and Hermione.

“Where’s…”

“They apparated to Grimmauld. Are we going Harry? Or do you plan to stand here in this dark alley all night?” Ginny asked him amusedly.

“Oh, um, sorry. I thought I heard…” Harry said looking back down the alley.

“Do you want to go look?” Ginny asked him.

“What?”

“Do you want to go look, for whatever you’re hearing?” Ginny asked him again.

Ginny could see that something was bothering him, he didn’t normally act this way, and if he really heard a scream then maybe they should check it out before leaving.

“Oh, well, if you don’t mind…”

“Of course not, let’s go,” she told him.

*

Draco felt like he was waking up from a dream. He looked down at the trembling girl before him and realized it was far from. His heart thudded in his chest at the realization that he’d just beaten this young woman, savagely. He reached into his pocket and found his wand. I should kill her, he thought.

He looked down at her face that was slowly swelling and changing colors, what he could see of her body was red and bruises were forming already. She stared back at him; she wore her feelings on her face like a glove. The confidence she showed earlier had clearly been broken and he felt a surge of pride. No, he thought changing his mind. Let her remember me.

He reached an arm out to her to help her up; he was a gentleman after all. He had not forgotten his manners. She screamed at him as tears finally escaped her eyes. He watched her attempt to scramble to her feet only to hit the cement again, hard. He grinned; she was apparently incapable of maneuvering her legs. He loved watching her struggle to make her body work, the pain wrenching through every inch of her. She lost one of her heels in the process of crawling away.

“Get away from me!” She shouted and turned away.

Her eyes felt like they were burning. She grimaced in pain, turned her body and spilled onto the road again in an effort to get away quickly. She felt the cement slice through her knees and she cried out.

“Having trouble walking?” He asked. He started towards her again.

“Get away from me!” She screamed and stumbled to her feet, kicking off the other heel, and turned to run.

She heard his laugh behind her, which made her run faster. She stumbled a couple times and cut herself more trying to get away. She ignored the stabbing pains of rocks and glass cutting into her now bare feet. Home, she kept thinking, have to get home.

When she slowed down to a walk she took a deep breath. Until that moment Kallison hadn’t realized she was sobbing madly. Her face was streaked and soaked with tears, which kept coming. She stood there, gasping. In a panic she looked around and saw nothing but trees and darkness. She had to be near Castalia, but she had no idea which part of the small forest she’d entered. She could hear the startled voices of squirrels and birds but she couldn’t understand what they were saying, she was too upset to focus.

Suddenly she felt very nauseous and vomited all over the ground. She crawled her way towards a thick growth of trees and tucked herself up against them. She looked around her again not sure where she was, what time it was, how far she’d gone, which direction she’d come from. She stood up again and a sharp pain ran through her body and the dam of tears broke loose again, she let out a strangled wail. A bright light lit up the sky as she screamed. She collapsed to her knees at the base of the tree too exhausted to move.

A squirrel crept out of the tree cautiously to come and sniff at her. She looked at it through her burning hot tears.

“Help,” she said to it. “Get help.”

The squirrel dashed up the tree and raced across the long branches leaping from one branch to another, whipping his tail for balance, then racing to the next leap. Kalli tenderly touched her ribs, shooting pains shot through her head and she passed out slumping to the forest floor.

*

Harry and Ginny wandered down a long stretch of stores. Suddenly a scream echoed through the buildings and made them jump. Harry and Ginny immediately grabbed their wands. Harry pointed towards an alley but stopped when a familiar pop rang through the air. He and Ginny ran for the alley as fast as they could. When they turned the corner they were surprised to find nothing but a purse, contents spilled over the ground, and a pair of women’s high heeled shoes.

Harry searched with his eyes down the alley as Ginny gathered up the purse and shoes. She touched a wet spot on the cement and brought her fingers up to her nose. They stood there listening for a sound but heard nothing. Somewhere overhead they heard a bat squeak and fly by hunting for a juicy moth in the light of a nearby street lamp. Harry didn’t like this, something was tugging at his mind and it made him feel uneasy.

“There’s no one around… but we heard them…” Ginny said in confusion staring at the blood on her hand.

“What is that?” Harry asked looking at her hand.

“Blood, there’s splatters of it here,” Ginny said pointing out a small area of cement.

“I think that popping noise we heard was someone apparating,” Harry told her taking the purse from her hands and opening it.

“There’s not much in there. There wasn’t an I.D. or anything just a receipt from a café, a book…. We need to get help,” Ginny told him shivering in spite of the still warm evening air.

Harry wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead, not knowing what else to do.

“I’ll take us home, hold onto me,” he told her.

Ginny wrapped her arms around him for comfort, still holding the shoes, and with a noisy pop they were gone from sight.

Author's Note: This is my first chapter of my first fanfiction. I posted this story a few months back and since then it has been rewritten drastically. I hope that the new plot and chapter will be to everyone's liking. I know my last version, eh-hem, sucked. Please review and let me know what you think. I can't fix what I don't know is wrong.