The Prime Princess

On the morning before the Halloween Masquerade Draco sat in the Great Hall and read newspapers. Multiple articles wrote about the return of the prodigal daughter. On the other end of the Slytherin table Hermione sat between Pansy and Millicent who talked her ears off about the costumes and gowns they had ordered for the masquerade.

After few days everything had gone back to exactly as it was before – Prime Princess was a bitchy snob, Pansy and Millicent adored her, Rosenbaum brothers laid themselves before her feet and Blaise was hanging around her as much as possible. Even the two dunderheads, Vincent and Gregory, were seen in the gang quite often.

Draco closed his eyes and tried to remember the kiss in the water but the original memory had started to fade from numerous fantasies he had created while waiting sleep in his bed. He truly didn’t know what had happened to Hermione who claimed to have amnesia in that part of memory. Head of his House had started acting weird around her whenever they faced each other; it was the little things he noticed. A whispered word, a hidden glance, mysterious meetings in Library’s Restricted Section… Yes, Draco had followed them in order to find out what was going on. He hated when he was left out.

A wicked cackled echoed from the other end of the table and Draco cringed. Opening one silver-gray eye, he saw Hermione sitting among larger group he remembered from the last time he had looked. She was telling something funny in a very lively way and that hurt Draco. Couple of weeks ago he was the one in that gang listening her every word and participating in arguments but now he was outsider and he had no idea exactly why.

Professors at the Staff Table cast some suspicious stares at her direction but Head of Slytherin House chided them off. Yep, something was happening right under his own nose and still he didn’t know a thing about it. Huffing, he threw his napkin onto table and stood up and grabbed his stuff to storm to Care of Magical Creatures with damn griffindors.

It was still early for the class to start but the dumb giant was already dragging big crates in front of the hut. Draco slowed down as he waltzed over the grass still soggy from yesterday’s rain. Chilly wind tousled his white-blond hair and nipped his ears as Draco stalked closer.

Hagrid spotted him coming and stretched himself to full length and growled. He had no wish to start with a spoiled brat who thought he owned the world and usually got into trouble with his beloved creatures. Still, he honored Dumbledore’s wishes to stand the young Mr. Malfoy.

“Mornin’!” bellowed Hagrid and looked somewhat friendlily at Draco who had halted with a surprise. “What ye do out here so early?”

Draco looked around as if to find Saint Potter with whom the big thug always chatted with. Seeing no one, he realized that Hagrid was talking to him.

“Just out for a stroll,” told Draco casually and stepping closer, he tried to peek into the crates. “So, what’s for today?” he asked nonchalantly as he really didn’t cared. Oh, but he did, Hagrid’s classes where a real nuisance for him as every bloody beast wanted to bite some limb off of him.

“I’ve got ‘ere some poor creatures I found from the woods injured,” told Hagrid and somewhere behind that bushy beard he was smiling broadly. Draco raised a pale eyebrow as remembering that injured beasts were the most dangerous specimens ever.

“What happened?” Draco hadn’t meant to ask that but silence between him and the half giant was something he didn’t bare.

“Oh, I’m not sure but somethin’ dangerous I guess. All the centaurs have moved into deeper woods, fays are long gone and even vampires haven’t shown themselves lately. Although Aragog has told me about the new creature,” Hagrid couldn’t stop himself from talking. Draco mulled over it for a second and crossed a line from here to Snape and Hermione’s weird behavior. Maybe there was a connection?

“What’s this new one alike?” Draco asked and found a manticore staring at him through the slits of the wooden crate.

“Aragog said the creature was a young grown-up with the most rare spirit – twin souls. I haven’t found any other creature with such exquisite gift. I’d like to find it before it rips the forest apart.” Hagrid went on like he was talking to his favorite student.

Draco cast a glance at the Forbidden Forest and made a mental note to visit the Library to check something out. He could smell that something suspicious was in the air and he just needed to find the cause.

“Has this new beast done much damage?” he asked and looked up into giant’s face. Two black eyes twinkled in excitement as Hagrid itched to tell but the Golden Trio arrived early to the class.

“Oh, it’s just learnin’ how to kill so far. It’s just a pup, you know,” told Hagrid in nervous laughter and went to greet Saint Potter and his gofers. Potter was staring Draco like he wanted to strangle him just for the reason of existing. Weasley looked still stupid like a new breed of goldfish and carrot. Granger was about to go pop from pride presenting her shining Head Girl badge. That girl would do anything to gain power by knowledge. Too bad she resented Dark Arts. She’d be quite good in the roll of Wicked Witch of the West. Draco knew this by knowing his own aunt Bellatrix Lestrange.

After the Care of Magical Creatures and some cuts and bruises from vicious beasts they had to treat in the class, Draco returned to castle, snatched a bottle of healing ointment from Madam Pomfrey and sauntered into Library. Madam Pince barked at him for smelling like something odious coming out of toads behind. Grinding his teeth, Draco made to the back and occupied a table surrounded by bookshelves and hiding it from curious peeks.

Taking out a parchment, ink and quill, he sat down and started jotting down some notes.

- Mione disappears in the end of Quidditch
- Reappears few days later with no memory of it what so ever
- Snape is sneaking around with Mione (do they have an affair??? No bloody way!)
- Some new beast started ravaging forest at the same time Mione returns
- Twin souls
- Mione has started to wear leather (very interesting indeed)
- And started listening Muggle Gothic Rock
- Farther is planning something that has something to do with the Last Will (crap!)

Draco stared at the last item in the list and cursed loudly. His farther was really doing something foolish, he thought and bite the end of his quill. What to do? Goddamn Lucius was probably thinking about marriage and wanted to fix some legal stuff before the actual wedding date. Great! Just fantastic! Just what I needed!

“No, no, no, no… I will not have her as my stepmother!” growled Draco and crumpled the sheet of paper. With a spell he made it disappear that left him figuring out a solution for his problem with his farther.

Why her? Why it had to be Hermione to bind him with a bittersweet spell? What a wicked thing to do to make him dream about her…

“Shut up! Focus!” but his treacherous feelings didn’t want submit so easily. Getting back in line was a bit hard but stabbing himself with a quill helped a lot. A vision of a man-eater came into mind.

“Dame Zabini,” grinned Draco triumphantly. He had found a prestigious witch to swoon Lucius with when it came to that. The only witch who could make a wealthy wizard marrying her within hours!

Packing his stuff, he heard whisperers that sounded familiar. Throwing his schoolbag over one shoulder, Draco crept around the corner and followed the sound. He was not surprised anymore as he found Hermione and Professor Snape walking into Restricted Section. At that moment Draco wished he knew some spell to turn invisible because he had left his very expensive Invisibility Cloak into Heads Dorm.

The door fell shut before him and locked itself as Hermione and Potion Master had slipped through. Grabbing at the barbs in frustration, Draco wanted to scream.

“This is not over,” hissed Draco and left.
***
Eve of All Hallows was held in Great Hall, decorated and coordinated by Hufflepuff. Carved pumpkin lanterns hovered under the enchanted ceiling; ghosts in ball gowns floated through the air and chatted with students and professors having fun of the Masquerade. Everyone wore masks that suited their outfits and hide their identity. Potions and spells concealed recognizable features, making it even more difficult to guess who was who.

Alexander, The Great stood in all his golden glory and mingled with the crowd. He tried to look behind every mask to find the one he was looking for. On the stage Asmodeus and The Moonsisters were singing one very catchy tune that made half the Hall jump onto the dance floor. Beautiful Lady of Lórien stepped next to him and smiled brightly.

“Care for a dance, my emperor?” asked Galadriel. Alexander grazed his sky blue eyes over gracious Elf and smirked in approval. Extending his arm, Lady of Light linked her arm with his and stepped with him onto dance floor. No doubt that Galadriel was an attractive faerie on the floor, Alexander mused and twirled Galadriel around, getting drowsy of her sweet flowery perfume, of her everlasting smile and of her white aerial gown littered with little white flowers and pearls. But she wasn’t her… Maybe few months ago this royal Elf would have been her – sweet and lovely – but not anymore. He had no idea of what she had become – good or evil. A plump harem bellydancer wiggled past them with very pleased-looking sultans following their desert rose. Romeo and Juliet looked more in love than Shakespeare ever described them to be as Alexander recognized them behind their golden red masks – Ron Weasley and Carmen Granger.

Dipping Galadriel, he got a glance of richly bejeweled Cleopatra in the arms of the Phantom of The Opera. Alexander didn’t have to guess hard to identify the spectacular Pansy Parkinson and her P.T.O. had to be Dorian Montgomery. When the song ended, Alexander bowed and gave her away to another masked wizard.

Still he hadn’t found her… Walking up to banquet table, he took a glass of punch and surveyed the hall. Something caught his eye in the dark corner were VIP tables were set up. A raven-haired witch was talking to Captain Jack Sparrow. In so many ways these two matched together – the futuristic rebel and the Caribbean pirate. He didn’t know her character’s name but was determined to find out it and also her true identity.

It would have been so easy, actually. He only needed to open the Marauders Map and all the identities would have been unmasked in a second. But he had left it to his bedroom. Gritting his teeth, Alexander took a deep breath and took a tricky rout to the back so no one could actually tell where the bloody hell he was going. Exchanging polite words with others, complimenting ladies gowns and guessing faces behind veils and masks – Alexander kept his eye on the target all time as he got closer and closer.

From the distance he was able to read names on the cards placed onto VIP tables. Next to Captain Sparrow was Violet Song Jat Shariff’s name. Interesting… Violet was laughing and he could see her fangs. Very interesting, indeed.

Jack had them pressed even further into darkness, out of everyone’s sight. The pirate was truly all over her and practically ate her alive. A sting of outrageous jealousy hit Alexander as he saw Jack licking Violet’s fingers clean of strawberries’ juices she had just ate. Violet giggled and pulled her hand free only to caress his goatee and to grab hold of a handful of beaded hair and drag him closer. Black velvety masks looked each other for a second and encouraged Jack descended his lips on hers.

“No…” gasped Alexander in vain, closed his eyes and turned his head away. Hoping it was just a delusion, convincing himself that Violet was not who he thought she was, Alexander opened his eyes again and found the seats empty. Looking all around himself, he couldn’t locate them among the crowd too. They had left the Great Hall! Bugger!

Excusing himself, Alexander strode out of the doors and started skimming corridors that were filled with colorful masqueraders. None of them were the couple he was looking for. Maybe an empty classroom or some broom closet where to hide? But he figured these two weren’t so transparent in the means of hiding from the view for some minutes. Clever and sneaky slytherins usually came up with something much better. There were hundreds of miles of passages under the castle, the lake and the town with countless halls and chambers to get lost forever. If the dungeons were the place where they went, then Alexander had lost them, but if they had… gone outside… then there was still hope.

Entrance Hall was unusually empty, the four hourglasses high on the walls indicated that Slytherin had a tide with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had beat Griffindor with earning huge sum of points for organizing the masquerade. Smirking over Griffindor for so poor outcome, he slipped out of the huge door and shuddered from the cold late night wind. It had snowed again and looking down, he saw two pairs of footsteps going over the frosted grass to a warm rosarium. The one place professor Sprout guarded like a hellhound and chased everyone away from it. The one place to where was hard to get in with all these protection spells and charms. The one damn place to where those two had went.