Alluring Lullaby

Authors Note: This fic is for Imagination444. For anyone who is unsure of what a Nix is, you can either keep reading, or cheat and look it up on wilkipedia. lol. also, I've gotten a few random requests for friendship on my other accounts, and I just wanted to say that I pretty much approve anyone, so feel free to add me. I'm digitallace on Myspace, Facebook,Buzznet,Livejournal & Mibba.

Chapter 2 Bäckahästen

Thoughts were circling his mind like etched glass, frosting words and ideas into it for later speculation. It was distracting him from what would normally be a beautiful autumn morning, the sparkling crimson and gold leaves playing vivid light games across the water of his cool spring.

Humans.

They were selfish and meddlesome creatures, always poking their noses where they didn’t belong. They liked coming up with names for what he was, things like Nix or Fossegrim, never realizing that his kind were older than written word, older than speech, and much, much older than humans. They liked to tell their children frightening tales about the Nix, who lured men, women and children to their watery deaths with their enchanting violin melodies.

There were still probably those who did such things, he had only a vague notion of how many of his kind were left in the world. Most of his kind had long gotten over their tendencies to drown humans. That particular game can only be amusing for so long after all.

Still, the one who followed him the night before had been intriguing, much more so up close than he had been from a distance. The Nix made sure to watch everyone who lived in the large manor at the edge of the wood, though the task wasn’t too hard since it was only ever the Malfoy family who had resided there for the last several hundred years.

They were always the same; smug, overly confident and feeling a sense of entitlement that they shouldn’t. They thought their blood was ancient, but they had no true marker for old blood.

“Pureblood,” the Nix scoffed to himself. “Their blood is no more pure than mine is made from the water I live in.”

And Magic, their magic was faulty parlor tricks in comparison to what he could do naturally, with no assistance from a wand.

The Nix swam lazily through his sparkling blue pool, watching the rising sunlight reflect off the leaves and make brilliant moving patterns on his flesh. As he neared a cluster of rocks in the center of his spring, he reached out to grab a soggy black box. Opening it he admired the emerald jewel inside, watching as it shimmered in the morning light.

The dimwitted human had just stood there, gaping at him as he plucked it right from his pocket.

Laughter like tinkling bells filled the glade as the Nix remembered his encounter with the young Malfoy boy. Draco they called him, after a constellation if he recalled correctly. The woman had been insistent that her son’s name be something romantic and the father simply wanted it to sound strong and powerful.

Draco Malfoy.

The boy had been in his wood, his glade, he had seen him, nearly touched him. The Nix shook his head. It never bodes well when someone of his kind got too close to a human.

He wouldn’t need to worry though; the boy would never be able to find his way back to this glade. He would simply stumble back to his home and pretend that it was a dream, just as his father had done before him.

The Nix chuckled again at the memory of his encounter with a young Lucius. He had been much more bold, reaching out to grab him right off instead of watching like a wide-eyed child as his son had done. Had he not disturbed the boy’s Goldenrod as a distraction to steal the bauble in his pocket, he doubted Draco would have ever reached out.

The bell-like laughter filled the glade again as the Nix danced along its surface, playing his slick ebony violin in perfect harmony with the breeze and the sunlight. Maybe if the young Draco found him again, he would teach him to play. It could be his reward for being cleverer than the average human.

His song turned suddenly mournful, and the Nix looked up with hooded eyes, his obsidian hair blew fiercely in the wind, whipping and slashing his pale flesh. The clear pool around him began to darken and he reached down, letting the water cascade through his fingers. What was once clear blue spring water was now tainted with bright red blood.

The Nix called out, crying on the wind like a loon. Someone would die, at that very place, someone would drown in his glistening pool and the Nix could only imagine one being that would be foolish enough to stumble into his glade and drown.

--

Draco woke up with the worst headache he could ever remember having. The dreams he had the night before still lingered like a strange fog at the edge of his mind. Emerald green eyes blinking lazily came unbidden into mind, and then he remembered the woods and the faerie glade… and the water sprite. He thought wistfully of the boy’s beauty, wishing he could have touched him, just once.

He shook his head to clear the ridiculous thoughts away. He would never have ventured into the forest and it was probably just a strange dream brought on by something he ate.

He climbed out of bed reluctantly and dressed for the day. He was a fair bit hungrier that he usually was in the mornings and went immediately down to the dining room where his mother and father waited with creased brows.

“Draco, where have you been?” his father asked the moment he sat down.

Draco looked around, slightly bewildered. “I didn’t sleep any later than usual, sir.”

“Dear, no one has seen you since I left you in the garden yesterday. You never even came to dinner,” his mother said.

Draco shook his head and smiled. “That’s impossible,” he replied, but realized he couldn’t recall what they had for dinner. All he could remember was the startling green eyes and the pale boy with rich black hair. “I…” he began, but had nothing he could say. He obviously hadn’t joined them for dinner, which means his dream must not have been a dream at all.

His father narrowed his eyes and watched him carefully.

“I think… I think I was in the wood, but I cannot remember. It all feels like a dream,” he whispered.

“I told you never to go into the forest,” his father boomed. “It’s dangerous.”

“There was a song… it was so beautiful,” he continued in a breathy whisper, ignoring his father who was now staring at him with wide eyes. “Then I followed a boy, and he led me to the most enchanting glade-“

“Enough,” his father growled. “There will be no talk of faerie folk or magical glades here in this house. You mustn’t go into the wood, Draco.”

Draco’s head snapped up in attention at his father’s angry words. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“You need to focus, son. This week is important; you need to make sure that your head is clear and your priorities are in order. You’ll be meeting your future wife soon, and she’ll no doubt respond poorly to talk about mysterious boys in the forest. Do you understand?” Lucius asked, and Draco nodded.

“Good. Now, go up to your room and think about what you have to do to prepare. We’ll send breakfast up soon,” he added, ignoring Narcissa’s pointed look.

Draco obeyed, and stalked up to his room, listening to his mother bicker with his father over sending him away.

“He’ll be fine, Lucius,” his mother hissed. “I know. He just needs time to sort things out. The woods have enchanted him and he needs to clear it from his mind. Life is not a fairytale,” Lucius responded. “Maybe it should be for him, he’s only a boy after all,” his mother replied, and Draco could hear her leave the table and glide away. “He’s twenty,” his father called after her. “He’s been a man for three years. It’s time he acted like one.” But there was no answer to his words. Narcissa had left the table and was no longer listening to her husband.

He sighed to himself while making his way back up to his room. His stomach rumbled as he ran through the list of things he had to do to prepare for Pansy’s arrival. He had already arranged for proper accommodations in the manor, and also made sure the room was filled with flowers upon her arrival. He ordered his dress robes the day before and would pick them up later in the week, and the ring was in his pocket.

Except it wasn’t.

His eyes went wide as he realized the heavy weight that had been with him now for almost two weeks was no longer there in his robe pocket. The ring was gone, lost somewhere.

He rushed up to his room and ransacked it, searching high and low for the lost engagement ring. Then his mind whirled and spun and clicked into place.

The woods.

He must have dropped it somewhere along the way, or maybe even on his trip back from the glade. He would never be able to find it on the dense forest floor. But it was far too expensive and important not to at least try.

Quietly he snuck back downstairs and out the back doors, winding through the garden and darting back into the woods. The last thing Draco needed was his father to see him and have to explain that he had lost the precious ring. His father had shown him an unusual spark of trust the day before when he refrained from lecturing Draco about keeping expensive jewelry in the family safe.

Draco drifted past the goldenrod he had picked the night before, and ventured further into the wood, scanning the ground for anything that could be his precious ring box. He was further into the wood then he liked, no longer able to see the manor through the trees, but he knew that his parents would know he was gone.

Whichever house elf they had sent up with his breakfast had no doubt reported the state of his room and his absence by now. At least if he got lost this time, there would probably be a search party soon.

The forest was far less dreamlike in the light of early afternoon, but the leaves still fell from the treetops and dappled light still made the forest shine in gold and red. A brilliant white light shone in the distance, and Draco inhaled sharply, thinking it might be his illusive water sprite.

But no, it was merely a bright white steed standing in an outcropping and watching Draco intently.

He carefully made his way over to the horse, thinking it could be a unicorn, and thinking he had never seen one so close before. When he got closer however, he realized it had no horn, and though its fur was white like pearls, it was also long and shaggy, catching bits of leaves from the ground, not closely shorn like a unicorn.

It bowed to Draco as he approached; its eyes flickering like silver mercury in the sunlight. Draco smiled, and returned the bow, as was customary behavior with magical creatures. The horse stooped lower though, as if indicating that Draco should climb onto it. He blinked rapidly, unsure that it was wise to ride such a wild and beautiful creature, but it seemed to be pulling him, drawing him closer.

Before he even realized his own whereabouts he was holding tightly to the horses mane as it led him perilously deeper into the wood. He hadn’t recalled climbing onto the giant beast, but regardless, he was barreling through the forest at breakneck speed. He cried out for it to stop, tried to throw himself off, even tried casting repelling charms, but nothing worked. Draco stayed rooted to the horse as if he were part of it.

A thrill of excitement flew through him as he recognized the glade from the night before. The horse was bearing him through it, directly into the spring where the beautiful water sprite resided.

The water came up over Draco’s legs, chilling him to the bone, and he called out for the horse to stop. The horse seemed to have an agenda of its own however, as it continued to pull Draco deeper and deeper into the sparkling blue spring. The water kept rising, covering his shoulders and his neck, then creeping up over his mouth and nose, and then finally the vile horse had him completely submerged in the clear stream.

He watched with wide eyes as the water took him under, singing him softly to sleep with its autumn chill. He held his breath, unable to think of a single spell that could get him out of this mess, and thrashed wildly, trying to free his body from the horse’s enchantment.

As he began to lose consciousness he swore he saw a pair of brilliant green eyes in the depth of the water, but then all was suddenly dark as the blackness edged into his vision and took Draco into its clutches.

Authors Note: Okay, so I know it was a bit of a wait for chapter 2. I hope it was worth it, and I hop you're al noticing my chapters lengthening. lol. Please review and you just might be rewarded with a special treat!