Taming

When Scorpius woke up the next morning after the marathon study session, he found Albus already gone. He stretched and his hand brushed something on the pillow. It was a scrap of parchment that read:

Dear Scorpius,
I watched you sleep for a while, and you looked so perfect that I couldn’t wake you. I know you don’t have class until later today. I hope you’re not mad that I didn’t say goodbye. I’ll see you for lunch, and I’ll make it up to you later, I promise. I love you forever. More than anything else in the world.
Your loving fiancé,
Albus

Scorpius smiled. Albus never failed to fill him with love, even when he wasn’t around. Checking the clock, he saw that he could still have a bit of a lie-in before Arithmancy. Tucking the sweet note into his trunk for safekeeping, he climbed back in bed, rolled over and went back to sleep.

*********************

“God, Fiona! You’re amazing!” Mirabella gushed. Color flooded the younger girl’s face, but she smiled shyly. Mirabella pulled a package of Muggle cigarettes out of her nightstand and lit one, watching the smoke curl up towards the canopy.
She held out her hand, offering Fiona a drag, but the girl shook her head. They were both still nude, and Mirabella’s eyes flicked dispassionately over the skinny blonde girl before her. She knew that Fiona was too busy looking at Mirabella’s lush curves to notice.

Once Stephanie had inadvertently planted the idea in her head, it had been ridiculously easy to find and take advantage of the younger girl. Mirabella hadn’t watched Scorpius all those years without learning something.

She simply employed a few of Scorpius’s best tricks, and it only took a week before the girl was panting after her. Mirabella then graciously allowed the girl the pleasure of coming into her bed. Mirabella was decidedly not a lesbian, but she’d done her fair share of experimenting.

Fiona, who had never had another lover, was pathetically eager, and even more pathetically grateful. She was in complete awe of Mirabella’s age, sexual assurance, and of course her gorgeous face and body. The plan was simply too easy to believe.

“Well, I guess I should get dressed,” Fiona started.

“No, stay. I love being with you like this,” Mirabella said sweetly, tamping out her cigarette. Fiona smiled brightly with that always-present gratitude, and Mirabella’s skin crawled. “Entertain me, Darling.”

“How?”

“Hmmm…” Mirabella pretended to consider this. “Well, you know, I used to be an especial friend of Scorpius Malfoy’s. He’s been depressingly absent from the Slytherin dorms since he started seeing Albus Potter, and I’ve never even heard the full story of my old friend’s engagement. You’re friendly with that crowd; you must have heard the story. Regale me.”

“I’m not really friends with them,” Fiona said shyly.

“Pish! A sweet girl like you? They must just love you. I know I do.”

Fiona blushed again, but she smiled. “It is a pretty cute story. See, it starts in the library. Scorpius had to beg Albus’s forgiveness after humiliating him that day at breakfast…”

Mirabella lit another cigarette and smiled.

********************

Mirabella lounged against the wall, waiting for a sign of Albus Potter. She was wearing Ravenclaw robes (which she’d intimidated out of a shy fifth-year) instead of her normal Slytherin ones. She figured that Albus was less likely to be suspicious if she weren’t a Slytherin. She’d cast several careful glamours to disguise her appearance. She’d made sure that she was pretty enough that it was believable that Scorpius would’ve wanted her, but unremarkable enough that Albus would believe he hadn’t noticed her before. She’d thought of everything.

Suddenly she saw him come around the corner, alone. She sighed with relief, even though she was nearly certain that she had remembered Scorpius’s schedule well enough to know a time that she could catch Albus alone. She started to walk and very carefully, so he’d never know that it was deliberate, she bumped into Albus and dropped her schoolbag, which spilled everywhere.
“Oh, Merlin! I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“That’s all right,” he said in a friendly tone, stooping to help her pick up her books.

She looked up at him, and promptly burst into tears, something that she had been able to do convincingly and on cue since she was young. It was a handy skill to develop.

“What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t see that it was you. I’m sorry. I’d better leave you alone,” she said, brokenly, tears still pouring down her face.

“Hey, what do you mean?” he asked gently, steering her to a nearby bench and sitting next to her. “Do we know each other?”

“No. I’m… I shouldn’t be talking about it to you. It’s in the past, and it’s over and done now,” she wept.

“You can tell me. Did I do something wrong?” He seemed genuinely concerned, and Mirabella’s heart soared.

“No! It’s not your fault at all. It’s mine. I was stupid and young. And Scorpius is just so… Well, you know how he is. Irresistible.”

“Scorpius?” Albus asked, clearly puzzled.

“I know he’s with you now, but I really thought that he and I would last. I’m afraid I believed everything he said to me. I was such a fool.”

“What do you mean?” Albus’s voice was stiff this time.

“I dated Scorpius last year. He’s probably told you about me. The infamous ex.”

“I didn’t know he dated anyone seriously.”

“Well, it was only serious on my part, I’m afraid. He slept with everyone else he could while we were together, and I didn’t even realize. I should have, considering that’s how we got together. He’s just so gorgeous and I was in awe of him. I let him practically drag me off, and he told me the most lovely things. He said, ‘I never even saw you before today, and you’re doing this to me.’ I fell for it, and I slept with him, even though I didn’t know him at all.

He took me to a special room in the castle that was filled with candles and this gorgeous bed with pink silk sheets. It was overwhelming. When someone like Scorpius Malfoy says to an innocent girl, ‘I’m going to fuck you, you know that right?’ it makes her go weak in the knees every time. I acted like a total slut, but he was so sweet. He kept calling me ‘Baby,’ and he told me… Oh, god.”

“What did he tell you?” Albus’s voice was getting a dangerous edge now, and it gave Mirabella a little thrill that was nearly sexual.

“He said, ‘You belong to me now.’ Looking back on it, I can’t believe I actually fell for such a line. Especially since when I woke up in the morning, he was gone.”

“Was he?” Albus’s voice was definitely dangerous now.

“Yes, but I let him talk his way out of it later like a little idiot. He found me in the hall and he actually begged. He told me that he’d spend every day for the rest of our lives making it up to me if I just gave him another chance. I ate it up. After all, he’s bloody gorgeous. It’s hard to resist a beautiful man saying such lovely things.

I can’t believe that I’m talking to you about this! You must think I’m horribly insensitive, but after I broke off our engagement, I still had hope that we’d work things out. But when I heard he was engaged to you now, it broke my heart all over again. When I saw you today, it just overwhelmed me.”

“You were engaged?” Albus sounded like he was on the verge of strangling her, and Mirabella entertained a very brief sexual fantasy wherein Albus Potter choked her. This current version of Albus was quite tantalizing.

“It was beautiful. He gave me a ring that had belonged to Astoria’s mother. And he…” She let the tears come in fresh bursts. “He told me that it had taken him five years to see me, but only five seconds to fall in love with me. I believed him without restraint. We didn’t tell his family, because he said they wouldn’t approve since we were so young. I think he wanted to keep it a secret so that it didn’t interfere with his other activities.

That, of course, meant sleeping with everyone else, male or female, who crossed his path. I was too blinded by his sweet words and my shiny ring to even see it. Oh, Albus!” she cried, clutching his arm, “You have no idea how lucky you are! He’s really all yours like he never was for me. He’s told everyone about your engagement, he’s stopped sleeping around, and he hasn’t fed you a bunch of trite lines, either, I’d wager.

I always fancied myself to be smart. I know now that there’s book smart, and then there’s life smart. And I failed at the latter. The only thing I did right was have the sense to throw his ring back into his face when I caught him in bed with another girl. But so help me, I still miss him every day. Sometimes I almost think I could’ve lived with his lies, since I don’t know what I’ll do now. You’re so lucky, Albus. So lucky.”

She burst into fresh sobs. “I’m so sorry. I have no business even coming near you. I won’t do it again.” Before he could say anything further, she jumped up, clutching her bag, and ran down the hall towards Ravenclaw Tower. She ran for a while, and then ducked into a broom cupboard in case he had decided to come after her.

She sat down on an overturned bucket and she had to bite her knuckles to keep the laughter from escaping. She’d seen everything so clearly. The stricken look on his face. The burning hatred flashing in his eyes. The way his hands had been clenching and unclenching, almost as if he were unaware he was doing it.

Revenge tasted so sweet. Or maybe it was the blood seeping from the tiny teeth marks on her knuckles. Either way, Mirabella had never been quite so proud of herself before. Scorpius Malfoy was about to have his life ruined the same way he’d ruined hers, she was quite sure of it.

Her only regret was that she wouldn’t be there to see it happen. But when Scorpius moved back into Slytherin, it would be easy to console him. If she could put on an act this good, then she’d undoubtedly be able to convince Scorpius that she had nothing but his best interests at heart.

Removing the Ravenclaw robes, Mirabella stuffed them behind some mops and took the clip out that had been holding her long hair in a tidy bun. She waved her wand in front of her face and removed the spells to change her appearance. Clad in jeans and a blouse, she left the broom cupboard. Maybe she’d find Fiona. She could look at the blonde head working between her legs, and maybe if she squinted she could imagine someone else there.