Harry Potter & the Heir of Darkness

CHAPTER 4

Draco didn’t see Dylan for the remainder of the day, she didn’t turn up to Potions or Transfiguration, both of which most Gryffindor’s took. He didn’t mind though, Draco had more important things to worry about, like the transfiguration quiz McGonagall decided to surprise the class with.

Potter, it seemed, while unsure of Dylan’s whereabouts, was more concerned with Snape and losing as little points as possible. Draco laughed, Snape had always hated Potter. Potions always seemed to provide a little entertainment when Draco was feeling down.

However, Potter didn’t seem to be overly angry or sullen, he was acting the same as usual; Draco decided he hadn’t seen Dylan at all during lunch. That could be a good thing. His mind hadn’t stopped replaying the kiss over and over again. While Draco had not been able to see her in the darkened room, he could imagine everything so perfectly.

Draco added more leeches to his term project. His new cauldron bubbled with the beginnings of a clear potion known as Lateaux Serum, a very mild form of Veritaserum. Luckily enough, if it was brewed correctly, not only did they pass but they would also take a vial full with them. Unfortunately, it would take the entire term before it would be complete.

Snape seemed content to walk around the room growling at the Gryffindors. At one point he took twenty points of Neville Longbottom, simply because he was slicing his leeches too thin.

“You will need to make sure you can locate your cauldron easily, as you will be completing this task throughout the coming weeks.” Snape spoke so quietly, Draco had to lean forward slightly to hear him. That was Snape’s gift; he could keep a room of rowdy teenagers quiet without raising his voice once.

As a bell sounded somewhere in the castle, Draco packed his ingredients away and made sure his cauldron was straight. After checking and double checking his cauldron, he finally made his way out of the room. Pansy had already left with Crabbe and Goyle in tow which meant Draco was free to make his own way to his room.

Being Head Boy gave him special privileges. For example, his own bathroom, the ability to take points off other students, a little more freedom regarding bed times, and of course Draco’s personal favorite, his own personal room. Instead of putting up with the other students in his old dorm room, Draco finally had access to the Slytherin’s private room, accessible by only the Head Boy or Girl.

The Head Boy badge had not passed through Slytherin in about forty years, not since Tom Riddle’s days at Hogwarts. Draco was the first one to use the room since and did it feel great. If people thought he was spoilt last year, they would probably die if they could see him now. Draco couldn’t wait to have 'company' this year, it would be so different.

His room had a giant four-poster bed in the middle, with enough room next to it for a bedside table and a bookshelf. Heavy green curtains hid the small windows and Draco’s trunk was already half empty, the contents spread across the room since he’d had no time to put it away this morning.

Draco placed his bag and books on his bed and paced around his room. Dinner wasn’t for another twenty minutes or so. He hadn’t been given any homework so far, and his owl was on an errand. Draco’s mother always worried about him when he was away from the house. Every year, Narcissa Malfoy would send him bags of sweets and clothes, extra money and anything he had forgotten to pack before he’d left.

Then Draco would have to reply to her, thanking her for everything and reassuring her that he was fine and arrived here safely. 'Parents,' he thought ruefully. 'Can’t live with them…'

At least he could expect some quiet for the next few days; his mother would have to buy something else for him before she sent a reply.

Draco loosened his tie and undid his top button. He was no longer required to be in an immaculate uniform, at least not until tomorrow’s classes. He stood in front of his full length mirror and glared at himself. Draco could never find anything about himself that he liked. As soon as he found something interesting he would stare at it until he found a flaw.

His eyes used to be one of his favorites, however after hours of staring at himself in a mirror he found that one eye was ever so slightly more upturned than the other. Not to mention the particular shade of grey grew less appealing every time. Draco glared back at his reflection; the color of his eyes reminded him of an old door handle. He felt repulsed by the thought of something so bland and common.

Draco sighed heavily as he turned away from the mirror. Where others saw beauty and perfection, he saw oddities and flaws. There would never be an end to it. Draco knew for a fact that unfortunately it was in his blood. Lucius Malfoy was as vain as they come, hence why his dear mother, Narcissa, was at least ten years younger than her darling husband. His father’s highly confidential 'business clients' gave more evidence to the fact that Lucius enjoyed all things beautiful – not forgetting himself, of course.

Shaking his head, Draco glanced at his watch. Dinner started in ten minutes. He slowly made his way out of his room, glancing warily around for any signs of Pansy before continuing on to the great hall.

While he would still make it with several minutes to go, the great hall would be full of students and staff already. Draco convinced himself it was so Pansy wouldn’t find a seat beside him, though the real reason was much more selfish.

Making an entrance was one way of drawing attention to himself, and if all eyes were on him – even if for a split second – then Dylan Thompson’s eyes would at least glance over him once again.

Her big blue eyes were seared into his memory. The way she stared at him, first in confusion then in what he supposed was anger. Draco grinned inwardly as he imagined those eyes looking at other parts of his body.

He could just imagine her breathy voice muttering in his ear, her eyes growing wide, her shallow breathing and her soft skin against his body.

Draco shook his head suddenly. 'Snap out of it!' Draco couldn’t afford to be thinking those thoughts. The kiss was a one-off thing, and was only to throw her off guard. It was also to get Potter riled up. Draco couldn’t wait to see how Potter had taken the news.

As he neared the hall, the combined voices of the students grew louder, making it harder to follow a conversation and pick out a certain voice. Pansy was already seated at the table laughing with several other Slytherins. As Draco entered the room all eyes turned to him, Pansy stopped the conversation, stood up swiftly and waved.

“Draco, darling, I saved you a seat.” Her shrill voice echoed through the already noisy hall, and several students glanced between them.

Seeing no other seats available at the table, Draco sighed unhappily and resigned himself to another night of torture. “Thank you, my dear,” he muttered automatically.

The staff table seemed to be missing a few people, the headmaster for one, McGonagall and Boller as well. 'How strange,' Draco wondered absently where they were. The feast couldn’t start without the Headmaster or the Deputy Headmistress present, 'who was to supervise tonight.'

As soon as Draco was seated, Snape stood up slowly and glared at the students below him. “Well? What are you waiting for? Hurry up and eat, so you can all get to bed.” Draco sighed. Snape never was one for fancy speeches.

He piled food onto his plate as Pansy rambled on about her classes, Draco didn’t bother to pay the least bit of attention to her or the conversation. He preferred to scan the hall for the trio wondering if Dylan had told Potter yet.

Unfortunately there was no Dylan. Perhaps she has already told him, and he wants nothing more to do with her. Draco’s mind raced a mile a minute as he tried to imagine how Potter had taken it.

Draco watched as Snape stood up and skulked out of the hall. I wonder where he’s off to. He sighed heavily. “How boring,” he muttered tiredly.

“Well I thought it was a lot of fun!” Pansy shrieked at him. Draco stared up into her face in confusion. “Honestly, if you don’t enjoy my company, why do you hang around with me?”

Draco groaned. “I have no idea what you are going on about. I do…” He swallowed, took a deep breath and grabbed her hand. “I do enjoy your company.” Kill me now…

Pansy continued on in a whiny high-pitched voice. “Then why do you always say hurtful things? I’m not stupid, I know you don’t think I’m pretty, and if you had any say in the matter… you wouldn’t be marrying me!”

Draco was at a loss for words. They both knew the marriage was a sham, at least Pansy knew where he was coming from. The problem was Draco couldn’t deny it. What does she want me to say?

“So what you’re saying is you agree with this ridiculous idea?” Draco asked her.

“I don’t think we should talk about this now.” Pansy stood up slowly. “I’m full… Goyle… would you care to take a walk with me?”

Draco stared at Goyle, he looked like he’d rather stay and stuff his face full of food, but for some reason he nodded and followed her out. “What’s with him?” he muttered to Crabbe, who shrugged in return before turning back to his plate.

“WHAT!!!” Draco jumped as a voice cried out on the other side of the room.

His head shot up just in time to see Potter glare at Dylan once before storming off, with Granger and Weasley in tow. Draco hadn’t noticed her arrival into the room; however he was rather pleased to notice that all eyes were on Dylan as whispers flew around the room.

'Poor baby,' he thought sarcastically. Draco couldn’t help but stare at her, she looked so confused.

He watched on as Dylan left the hall slowly. Unable to stop himself, he slowly walked after her, intrigued as to where she would go. Without the famous Potter by her side Draco was free to stare at her for as long as he dared.

Dylan walked through the heavy front doors and out into the night. Draco wasn’t sure what she was doing out here, or what he was doing following her but those thoughts didn’t stop him.

'She’s going to freeze!' Draco had only just noticed that she wasn’t wearing a cloak. Her legs were exposed to the cold, and the uniform’s vest wasn’t overly warm either. Draco wasn’t concerned about himself; his black long pants were warm enough as it was.

He followed her towards the lake, careful to stay several steps behind her. Dylan lowered herself down onto the grass under a large oak tree and stared off into the water. Draco hid himself behind the oak, quietly congratulating himself for a job well done.

“Who could it have been?” Draco heard her mutter into the night air. “If it wasn’t Harry…” her voice trailed off.

Draco wished she’d keep talking. Her voice was so soft and, quite unlike Pansy’s, didn’t make him feel nauseous. The air was cool and refreshing; it was so peaceful in the middle of the grounds at night.

Many times, over the past few years, Draco had wandered the grounds deep in thought, or to hide from Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle. He felt too caged in the castle, almost claustrophobic; his friends smothered him, never allowing him any private time. Therefore, he had been forced to find his own space and the grounds were large enough to hide for several hours.

“Who on earth would have been in that room?” Dylan’s voice brought him back to the present. Draco listened intently awaiting any thoughts on who it could have been, all the while staring up at the dark sky amazed at how bright the stars were that night.

~~~~~~~

Dylan sighed heavily. Who the hell could it have been? She leant back against the oak and stared into the black glassy depths of the lake. The cool breeze caressed her face softly carrying with it the smell of pine and jasmine.

Harry’s face still lingered in her mind. If she had any doubts about whether Harry had kissed her, his cold expression certainly wiped them away. His eyes had pierced through hers and her stomach had flipped unhappily. The memory still made her queasy.

Nobody else had been in that room, no one entered before or after her, yet someone had been there. Dylan hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin against them. Dylan followed the ripples that danced across the water in front of her.

There was no way she had imagined that kiss. It was far too real. The only person who could have been in that room was Professor Trelawney; however Dylan was quite sure she didn’t go around kissing students.

“Who could it have been? If it wasn’t Harry…” She glanced towards the castle. Everyone should still be at dinner.

Travien had told her to come by his office after dinner, but Dylan had no clue what time it was. Since she had awoke so late this morning her watch was still on her bedside table.

“Who on earth would have been in that room?” This one thought had plagued her mind all day but she was still no closer to the answer.

She glared up at the stars that were twinkling so happily back at her. Dylan mentally retraced her steps and tried to find some clue about who it could have been. It wasn’t such a hard task since she had only attended two classes that morning, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Divination.

Dylan’s mind ground to a halt, the blonde boy from the corridor, Draco Malfoy, the one who had grabbed her in Defence as a partner. 'Could it have been him?'

Dylan thought hard for several minutes, he wasn’t in Divination, or at least she hadn’t seen him. Still, every time she thought about the kiss a faint memory of him would creep to the front. Perhaps it was her mind playing tricks on her, yet again perhaps not.

Dylan stood up slowly. I shall have to talk with Malfoy about this, she silently vowed. Yet she wouldn’t see him until Defence on Thursday. “It will have to wait until Thursday,” she whispered.

As she headed towards the castle she felt a slight tingling sensation at the back of her neck. However, when she turned around to see if anyone was following her, there was no one to be seen. Perhaps her mind was really playing tricks on her, but Dylan could swear someone was behind her.

The trip to Travien’s office took less time than she had imagined. To Dylan’s amazement, the staircases actually took her to where she wanted to go. She grinned broadly and as she knocked on the door she couldn’t help but sigh.

“Dylan, my dear,” Travien opened the door suddenly. “Come in, come in. I still can’t believe you’re here.”

Dylan walked through the open door and glanced around his office. It wasn’t as big as Dumbledore’s, she noted, however since Travien wasn’t the Headmaster of the school his office would therefore be considerably smaller.

Even though it looked rather cramped inside, he had certainly made an effort to make it look bigger than it actually was. His desk was pushed against one wall, with everything neatly placed on top of it. 'That’s just like him,' Dylan laughed. 'Everything in its place…'

Pictures lined the walls, several of the occupants Dylan recognized, all of them staring and waving at her happily. There was a large mirror on one wall, yet she didn’t dare stare at it. Knowing Travien, as she did, it was no doubt some weird contraption that would suck your eyeballs out or something just as bizarre.

As if reading her thoughts, Travien chuckled. “It’s a normal mirror, I swear. No tricks.” He stood in front of it and gazed at his reflection for a moment. “I bought it off one of my contacts.”

Dylan watched as he ruffled his hair slightly and fixed his jacket collar. It was always the same with Travien. Nothing could ever be out of line; it had been drilled into him after years of service in the Ministry.

She had never seen Travien without a clean-shaven face, he would only ever wear black robes and he never let his wand out of his sight. That was Travien, 'Mr. Routine.' Of course he was one of the few Ministry officials who lived through the first war, so routine obviously wasn’t a bad thing.

“Won’t you sit down?” He pointed to the comfy armchair behind his desk. Another annoying habit of Travien’s, he always thought about the comfort of others instead of himself.

Dylan took the chair he had offered, wishing he wasn’t so nice sometimes. “Well, Travien?” she asked pointedly. “What was it that you wanted to see me about?”

He grinned. “I just want to catch up. I haven’t seen you for many years.” He sat on the corner of the desk and just stared at her. “Tell me about yourself. What have you been doing the past few years?”

This caught Dylan off guard. “Well,” she began hesitantly. “Not a lot. I haven’t got anything to report really. Have you been up to anything?”

He shook his head. “I am not dominating the conversation tonight. I want to know all about you, and I want to look at you while you’re talking. You have certainly grown up,” Travien smiled slyly.

Dylan laughed. “You pervert, Travien!” she hit his shoulder playfully. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Leering at a poor, young, innocent girl like myself, what will people think?”

“Innocent?” Travien chuckled. “I’d be more concerned if you were leering at me, my dear.”

“Travien,” she muttered. “You should watch where you are treading.” Dylan grinned at him. “Fine, suit yourself. Perve at me, if you must, I’ll talk. I have been at Beauxbaton’s for the past six years; the foster parents thought it would be appropriate if I was brought up like a proper young lady.” Dylan rolled her eyes.

She stared back at Travien for a long moment. He was quite handsome, it was a pity he never married. He was still young, time hadn’t laid a hand upon him yet. His dark brown, collar-length hair was as thick as ever, with only a few thin streaks of grey. While his auburn eyes revealed nothing about what he’d been through, they spoke volumes about him. There were no wrinkles across his face; instead there was a thin, silvery scar that spanned his right cheek for no more than two centimeters.

Dylan thought it was cute. She’d always been fascinated by Travien, admired him as most girls do. However, Dylan was lucky enough to know more about him than anyone. He’d taken her under his wing and taught her everything she now knows about the dark arts, and how to defend herself against them.

“If I had known you were teaching here, I would have transferred much faster,” Dylan muttered, not sure if she had said it more for her sake than his.

Travien smiled. “This is my first year of teaching. It seems easy enough, not exactly what I am used to. Although, many people I know would liken a room full of teenagers to a group of Death Eaters. They are both well equipped in deception, they don’t usually realize their full potential, and yet they seem to be able to knock you down when you least expect it.” He laughed briefly for a moment. “Come to think of it, I’m not sure which I’d rather face.”

Dylan bowed her head. “Thinking back I remember things I didn’t quite want to see again.”

Travien placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “When that happens, it’s best not to fight it. They only stick around longer if you try to fight it. Just let it pass…”

She shook her head angrily. “I don’t have time for such things, Travien.” She shrugged off his hand impatiently. “Was there something you wanted to see me about? I don’t really feel like talking anymore tonight.”

Travien sighed heavily. “All right, there was something. I wanted to talk to you well no that is not correct. Dumbledore and I wanted to talk to you about the prospect of starting up your training again…”

“Travien,” Dylan muttered as she ran for the open door. “People might hear you! Don’t be so careless.” She shut the door quickly, hoping nobody was walking past at the time.

“Sorry,” he mumbled halfheartedly. “I forgot you don’t want people to know who you are. You want to blend in,” he said sarcastically.

“Travien,” she warned.

He continued on. “I don’t understand you though. Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge… they don’t see why you won’t tell anyone who you are. They are family after all. Perhaps Severus is a little annoyed, though I can never tell with that man.”

Dylan glared at him again. “Travien, that’s enough.”

“So what if you have family in high places? Are you afraid people are going to try to be friends with you? Are you scared they won’t like you, or judge everything you do by them?” Travien pried.

“Travien, shut up now!” Dylan’s eyes flashed with anger. “Mind your own business when it comes to my personal life and my decisions.”

Travien laughed. “What is this new side of you, I must admit I don’t like it? You have never had a personal life where I’m concerned, or have you forgotten? These kids haven’t a clue who you really are, and yet you allow them to be friends with you.”

“TRAVIEN!”

A rush of air raced through Dylan’s mind, and judging by the look on Travien’s face he was currently experiencing the same feeling. “Dylan,” Dumbledore’s voiced whispered in her ear. “Travien, I want to see you both in my office immediately.”

Dylan stared at Travien in confusion but he just shrugged. “Let’s go,” he muttered before walking towards the door.

He stood there waiting for Dylan to follow him, and as she reached the door he opened it to let her precede him. Dylan wasn’t thinking, her mind was just acting out of habit, she wasn’t processing anything. Dumbledore had not done that for a long time, Dylan had forgotten how strange it felt to have someone rifle through your mind and then communicate with you.

Dylan’s head shot up suddenly as she heard footsteps running down the hallway. The owner of the footsteps turned the corner and out of her sight before Dylan was able to get a good look at him. She didn’t need a second glance for confirmation though since nobody else had platinum blonde hair in this school.

The question was, how long had Draco Malfoy been in the corridor. Dylan hoped for her sake that he hadn’t heard any of the conversation. She knew, however, that it was impossible for him to have been in the corridor and not have heard the heated argument only moments before.

Before she knew it, Travien had led Dylan right to Dumbledore’s office on the first floor. “Chocolate frog,” Travien muttered beside her. Dylan turned to stare at him as the two stone gargoyles jumped aside and the wall opened to reveal a large stone staircase.

“Great,” she whispered. “Yet another staircase.”

As they ascended the stairs Dylan couldn’t help but wonder what Dumbledore wanted, 'was it important?' Perhaps he had heard their argument from his office and had called them to tell them to keep it down. Dylan hoped that wasn’t the case, she didn’t need the entire castle aware of her relationship with Dumbledore, the Minister or Severus. She couldn’t go through that again.

The door opened automatically as they approached and Dylan couldn’t help but slow her pace. She hadn’t seen her uncle for so long, he had practically thrown her out of his office last night, and hadn’t bothered to come visit her in France all those years. Dylan didn’t want him to rebuke her for an argument with Travien.

“Welcome, both of you. Please sit down.” Dumbledore was already seated behind his desk; the thick tomes still littered his desk. Nothing had moved since last night. Fawkes cocked his head and stared at them as they took their seats.

While Dumbledore continued to jot down notes on the scrap piece of parchment, Dylan watched Fawkes in amazement. 'Eternal life,' she thought pleasantly. W'hat a gift! You’re so lucky Fawkes.' She had always admired her uncle’s pet, and had shared her deepest secrets with him when she was a child.

“How was your day, Travien?” Dumbledore barely looked up as he conversed with Travien, preferring to flip through more pages and take more notes. “I hope the students weren’t too rough with you.”

Fawkes let out a soft sigh and flew over to perch on Dylan’s knee. 'You haven’t changed a bit.' She ran a hand over his bright coat, the same red, yellow and orange as all those years ago.

Dumbledore sighed deeply. “How was your first day, Dylan? Not too hectic, I hope.”

While Dylan talked through Travien’s class, and Divination, Dumbledore seemed to pay even less attention to her. She had seen him glance at Travien a few times during his recount of his day, giving a few nods here or there. However as she continued on she realized her uncle really wasn’t listening to her.

Dylan cut her sentence off rather abruptly, yet only Travien seemed to notice. She glanced down at Fawkes once again and ruffled his feathers a little as Dumbledore began another conversation with Travien.

A knock at the door ended the conversation between the two men, and brought Dylan’s thoughts to the present. 'Who could that be?'

“Dylan, I think you should head to bed now. It’s getting quite late.” Dumbledore stood up as she made to leave. “Have a good day tomorrow.”

She waved her hand airily in reply. The door opened slowly and several of the professors filed in. Professor McGonagall was leading the line, and as Dylan walked past them all to leave one professor stopped dead in front of her.

Dylan glanced up and almost fainted. “Uncle Sev?” A hint of a smile crept up around her lips but died almost instantly.

Her uncle, Severus Snape, was staring at her in a mixture of confusion and horror that Dylan’s gaze fell to the floor and she left the room without another sound. The heavy door snapped shut behind her and she couldn’t help but shiver. 'This day just screams ‘surprise’,' she thought sarcastically. 'I hate to think how great tomorrow will be.'

As Dylan made her way back through the castle towards the Gryffindor Common Room, she couldn’t help but ponder over everything that had happened that day. 'Why would they want me to start training again? '

Dylan’s thoughts raced back to her years at Beauxbaton’s Academy. She hadn’t trained once while she was there, not only was there no need to, but no one was there to keep her on the right track. She hated to think about the consequences if her training did restart. Travien would be so angry at her lack of practice, not to mention her diminishing abilities. They would have to start from the very beginning and revise it all for her.

As she came to another staircase, Dylan glanced around quickly, making sure she was headed in the right direction. The staircase should change any minute, and hopefully it would stop at the right floor. Dylan really couldn’t be bothered trekking through the castle for the next hour, she was just too tired to put up with that.

In the library today, while everyone else was at their classes, Dylan had sat down and thought long and hard about the kiss. Wondering how to let Harry know she was on to him, and liked him as well.

Dylan however was wrong about the kiss. Harry had seemed so angry and hurt when she had joked with him about it.

“Don’t be shy, Harry. I know I told you to go on without me, but it was still really sweet.” She had stared at him so excitedly; Dylan was so sure he would admit it and kiss her again for everyone to see.

However, he had stared at her for a minute in confusion. “What are you talking about? I did go on ahead.”

Dylan smiled at him. “Don’t be embarrassed. You know I’m talking about the kiss in Divinati-”

She had not been able to finish the sentence, Harry had yelled at her, the entire school stared at them for a moment before Harry and the others had walked off leaving her alone.

The staircase stopped moving, and she continued up the last few steps before continuing along the corridor. Only a few minutes more and then she could crash until tomorrow morning.

As she rounded the corner, she noticed a dark figure leaning casually against the wall. “Hello there,” a voice drawled. “Did you have a nice evening?”

Dylan flinched at the underlying tones in the voice. She couldn’t see exactly who it was, but the voice certainly gave away the identity. “What are you doing here?” she asked angrily.

“What does it matter? If you must know, I was wondering around the castle, it is part of my duties as Head Boy, and thought I’d take a break.” The figure moved away from the wall and started towards her. “That’s when you showed up.”

“My common room is on this floor.” Dylan wasn’t sure why she was explaining herself to him, but for some reason the words just flowed from her mouth. “I wasn’t up to anything.”

The figure chuckled as it moved closer. “Don’t bother explaining anything to me. I’m not here to take points off of you. I have to catch you doing something wrong first.”

Dylan took a few steps back, however for every two steps she took, the figure would take four. Soon enough Dylan found herself pressed up against the hard stone wall, and the figure was standing no more than a few centimeters away.

“Well, I had better be off. I don’t want to give you a reason to take points away,” she added flippantly. “Curfew is only a few moments away. Have a good evening.”

As she turned to leave, a hand shot out in front of her and stopped her from proceeding. The figure’s other hand was beside her head as well, forming a nice little cage around her. “Do you want to know a secret?” the voice asked.

Dylan couldn’t get away and therefore had no way of blocking him out. “I was wandering around tonight, and I heard an interesting bit of information.” Dylan could see Malfoy perfectly now, while there wasn’t much light in the corridor, his nose was practically touching hers.

“Oh? What was this piece of information?” Dylan tried to keep her tone light, careful not to let him know how much this was affecting her.

Malfoy chuckled once again. “It seems a certain student in this school was in the Divination tower today and was snogged. That was a rather interesting piece of information; many people were very interested in the details.”

Dylan tried as hard as she could not to show any emotion. “Wow, that happens here? There must be a terrible lapse in security. I’m sure nobody wants children with their own babies coming to Hogwarts.”

“That wasn’t the only piece of information I have. Did you want to hear the other piece of news?” Before Dylan could reply, Malfoy moved his head closer towards her, and whispered in her ear. “It seems you have several relatives at this school, and one in a very prestigious spot in the Ministry. Who would have thought?”

Dylan gasped. “How did you?” she asked in surprise. Her mind replayed Draco running along the corridor just after her argument with Travien. She knew there was no way he could have not heard it. Not to mention the Travien’s office door was open for the majority of their conversation.

“I’m sure you already know the answer to that question.” Malfoy moved his head back to where it was seconds before. “The question I am going to ask you is rather simple for you to answer. It requires little thought and will benefit several people.”

“You are going to bribe me?” Dylan glared at him. “I knew it was a matter of time before this happened again.”

Malfoy chuckled for a third time. However, Dylan noticed that it was more in a sarcastic, full-of-malice way, not in pleasure. “Not exactly,” he muttered. “I want to know if anybody else knows, and if you want them to.”

“Of course I don’t, for this exact reason. Please just forget what you heard tonight,” Dylan knew it was hopeless.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, not without some form of compensation.” Malfoy stared hard into her eyes.

“Money, is that what this is about? You want money?” Dylan sighed. “Fine, you can have it, how much do you want. Name your price, I’ll pay it. Although I’d heard the Malfoy family was quite wealthy as it is.”

“Not that type of compensation, you are quite right, we are rich.” He paused dramatically. “I want something a little more… beneficial. If you go out with me, no one need know about your little secret.”

“You’re trying to buy me?” Dylan asked in disgust. “I’m not a cheap whore.”

Draco smirked. “I’ve never had to pay for someone to go out with me. Think of it as a nice little investment. All you have to do is be my partner in class… perhaps go to Hogsmeade with me once. This isn’t a permanent arrangement. I don’t wish for a wife,” he added pointedly.

“If I go out with you, you won’t tell anyone. Is that right?” Dylan asked skeptically.

“I promise,” he muttered. “Is it a deal?”

'I must be crazy,' she thought. It’s just the close proximity… and his deodorant. “Fine, it’s a deal.”

Malfoy leant closer to her and before Dylan knew what he was doing, his lips were against hers. Malfoy pushed her head forcefully back so that it hit the wall non-too-gently. His hands grabbed her shoulders and his fingers dug into her flesh. The kiss was hard and cruel, yet there was something hidden underneath it that she wasn’t quite sure of.

Before she had a chance to react, he had let her go. Dylan blinked and stared at him in confusion. 'That kiss,' she thought.

“Just in case you’re wondering,” Draco was walking off down the corridor. “I was the one who kissed you in the tower. Sweet dreams.” He didn’t turn back to see how she would react, which may have been a good thing.

Dylan stood there, glaring at his back. 'He knows I can’t tell Harry!' Dylan was so angry with herself for letting this happen. She would have to figure out another way around this deal of theirs. Any chance of getting Harry to be friends with her again, when she was going out with his enemy, flew out the window.

“Dammit, what am I meant to do?” She sunk down onto the stone floor and stared at the ceiling. “Harry is going to hate me for this.”