Adamo Fidelitas

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its characters are the property of JK Rowling and Scholastic Publishing. My only compensation for writing this is the joy that it brings me.

Adamo Fidelitas 06

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Hermione\'s numb mind still reeled as she reached the portrait of the unicorn maiden that concealed the entrance to her room. Looking up to give the password, she saw that the unicorn was nowhere in sight, and it was obvious why. A robust knight from one of the other paintings had come over to chat up the maiden. Her tittering laughter rang out like little bells and she flipped her wavy, honey-gold hair as he flirted unpardonably with her. Under the current circumstances, Hermione couldn\'t blame the unicorn in the slightest for having run off. The sight was enough to make Hermione sick. \"Foxfire fairies,\" Hermione snapped tersely, interrupting the punch line of the knight\'s joke, and with an annoyed toss of her head and a harsh look the maiden\'s portrait swung back.

Hermione nearly threw her bag to the floor by her bed before jumping onto the red comforter of the cherry four-poster and grabbing a pillow to pummel while visualizing Malfoy\'s face. Her mind and emotions were in bedlam suddenly, and he was the one to blame for it all! Malfoy and that damned potion!

Sure, she\'d made the decision to give in to it for now, but she hadn\'t been at all prepared for the reality of what she\'d just experienced. It was terrible enough that she had wanted Malfoy, but it had been beyond sadistic for him to be so nice to her during the whole experience. Why couldn\'t he have behaved beastly towards her? She was prepared for malicious comments and some degree of pain. She was not prepared for Malfoy to make everything feel so good and simple. Nothing had been what she\'d expected.

For good measure Hermione cursed her mother\'s collection of paperback romances while she was at it. The fact that Malfoy had managed to introduce her to sex without anything hurting wasn\'t something Hermione could call a disappointment, but on another level Hermione felt deeply betrayed. She\'d always been able to find the answer to or description of anything in glorious packages of bound parchment, but Hermione took it very seriously that she\'d gone into this afternoon with two wrong ideas out of her reading. Perhaps, it was because she\'d never worked up the nerve to ask for a more practical book about the subject. No, even that wouldn\'t have helped.

She\'d thought that she\'d physically feel something powerful when he climaxed, like a searing torrent that would make the heavens tremble or some such romanticized notion. That would have been much easier to deal with than the truth of it.

She\'d still been mostly gone with her own pleasure when he\'d suddenly stiffened, looking every bit the part of a tortured angel, and driven madly inside of her. He\'d seemed so fiercely beautiful suddenly, so pained and desperate, so unlike the hard-edged bastard she knew. She\'d wanted to memorize everything about him in that moment, to hold him close and kiss him.

She hadn\'t been aware that he\'d flooded her until after he\'d collapsed against her shoulder, so soft-skinned and warm and vulnerable. The entire world had faded into tender caresses, pounding hearts, and their shared breaths as their rapid panting gradually slowed. He ceased to be the odious ferret boy in those moments, and Hermione had realized after they\'d finally pulled apart that what she\'d felt had been powerfully emotional during his release rather than physical.

She knew with complete certainty that within a few days they would be seeking each other out for more. If he didn\'t come looking for her, she would seek him out. It was that simple. Between that knowledge and the confusion over her mixed-up moments of tenderness for the vile Slytherin, Hermione staggered under the guilt of what she had just done to Ron. Their volatile on-again-off-again relationship was about to become completely off-again. Nausea rose at the thought that she was now truly a scarlet woman, as Ron would say. She\'d just cheated on her best friend with his worst enemy. She had no idea how she could face him and hide all of this while she tore his heart out.

While Hermione struggled under the torrent of guilty thoughts and her plans towards Ron, Draco collapsed onto the softness of his green velvet comforter. He rolled across the mattress like a cat luxuriating in the pure majesty of its own glory and the pleasure of its own movement. For the first time in days he felt normal, and he was gloriously calm and tired.

He quickly undressed and climbed between the crisp, clean sheets enjoying the cool sensation against his hot skin. He was delirious with the joy of being able to not think about sex or anything along those lines, and he swore not to waste a moment of his clarity on that subject. Soon Draco settled into a blissfully guiltless sleep, where he could dream about normal things like his family obligations or the rise of the Dark Lord-anything other than the subject that had been plaguing him for the past couple of weeks.

He was still snoring softly and looking like an innocent lamb hours later, when Harry walked into the Gryffindor common room just in time to hear Ron screaming across the room at Hermione. \"You can\'t be serious!\" his voice rang out in the oddly deserted room, causing Ginny to flinch and edge closer behind the security of Harry\'s shoulder. \"Don\'t do this Hermione! Please!\" Ron begged.

\"Ron, try to understand! It\'s not what I want. I have to. I\'ve worked too hard to throw it all away now. It\'s not forever. It\'s just for this year,\" Hermione insisted. Large tears splashed from the corners of her cocoa eyes onto her flushed cheeks. She looked wretched, and her arms trembled slightly as though she were fighting the urge to reach out.

As Ron opened his mouth to reply, Hermione bit her lower lip and rushed for the portrait hole. \"Hermione, I am not just giving up. This isn\'t over,\" his words trailed after her. In response Hermione stifled a sob and broke into a full run.

Shaking off his confusion over which friend needed comfort more, Harry laid his hand on Ron\'s shoulder, as the taller boy slid into one of the high-backed chairs in front of the fireplace. \"What did I do wrong, Harry?\" Ron asked in a broken voice. He looked up at Harry with eyes already puffy and red from crying. While Harry tried unsuccessfully to console him, Ginny stared after Hermione with narrowed eyes.

Most of Gryffindor house was still behaving rather coolly towards Hermione on Sunday morning when a large brown school owl swooped down and extended its leg with great importance and pomp. \"What\'s that?\" Ginny asked curtly with a small nod to the tiny square of parchment in Hermione\'s grasp.

Hermione glanced briefly at the leaf of paper before quickly tucking it into her robes. The paper itself contained only a time and place written in very elegant cursive. Hermione knew instinctively whose hand had penned the note.

\"One of the prefects wishes to discuss a problem with me,\" Hermione covered, as she took another bite of biscuit. Hermione resisted the urge to look back at the Slytherin table. She sensed that Malfoy wasn\'t looking anyhow. He didn\'t have to look to know that she would meet him in Professor Flitwick\'s classroom at ten.

\"Maybe we should have a full prefects meeting,\" Ginny suggested, pushing back her plate. \"We can ger ner next month\'s patrol schedules, and a conclusion still hasn\'t been reached about how to protect the students better during Hogsmeade trips.\"

\"This particular meeting is over a personal matter, but I think you\'re absolutely right. We are due for a full meeting. I\'ll arrange it with Malfoy,\" Hermione said brightly. She hoped this meant that Ginny, who was her closest female friend, had decided not to hold the breakup with Ron against her for the rest of their lives.

Hermione winced, remembering the way Ron had looked at her when she\'d entered for breakfast and taken a seat between Ginny and Collin. He\'d all but fled, dragging Harry along behind him.

Ginny misconstrued the wince as the general repulsiveness of having to speak to Draco Malfoy. \"I still don\'t know how that evil little rodent made Head Boy,\" Ginny complained gamely. \"His father probably bought it for him,\" she added, resorting to everyone\'s favorite explanation for how Malfoy achieved anything. Hermione knew enough about his grades to know better, but she was too happy to have Ginny talking to her to blow it by defending a jerk.

Ginny wrinkled her nose in distaste as the object of their discussion walked by with Pansy Parkinson draped upon his arm like some ridiculously overgrown ornament. \"But I want to know what you think!\" Pansy whined up at him, jutting out her lower lip in a manner that made her look like she\'d been punched.

\"Pansy, you\'re named after a bloody flower. Of course, your name is pretty,\" he sighed, rolling his eyes in exasperation, as they made their way to the door. Hermione and Ginny looked at each other conspiratorially in shock and mirth at the stupidity of the conversation that he seemed to be trying to get out of. As soon as the couple was far enough away both girls broke into fits of giggles. Deep inside, Hermione felt a twinge of jealousy that Draco was able to be with his girlfriend while she couldn\'t enjoy Ron\'s touch or company at all.

\"Listen, Hermione,\" Ginny finally said, sobering from their shared laughter. \"I\'m really upset about you hurting Ron,\" she continued, holding up her hand to stop Hermione from interrupting, \"But I understand how hard you\'ve worked to become Head Girl and that you\'ve got too much to keep up with between your grades and activities. I want to be Head Girl, myself, next year. Just promise me that you won\'t commit to my brother again unless you really mean it,\" Ginny demanded flatly, and Hermione nodded in agreement. \"Good,\" Ginny chirped, \"because Merlin help you if you ever hurt him again!\" she scolded. \"We Weasleys are a tight brood,\" she winked, tearing off another chunk of cranberry muffin. \"So is it true that you\'ve got detention with Snape?\"

Hermione prayed that just how hollow she suddenly felt didn\'t show through, as she continued to talk with Ginny. Hours later, Ginny\'s words were still echoing around in her skull, as Hermione entered the quiet Charms classroom to see Malfoy waiting at one of the desks with his legs outstretched comfortably as he scratched something on a sheet of parchment as though lost in a trance. \"I see you haven\'t let things come between you and old pug-face,\" Hermione said to announce her presence, as she began to unfasten her robes.

The blonde man jumped at the sound of her voice and looked up at her with wide eyes for a bare moment, before a familiar grin spread into place, covering his face. He tucked the page into a textbook and set his quill on the wooden surface before him. \"My, my, jealousy rears it ugly head, Granger?\" he drawled, leaning forward in anticipation of her angry response.

\"Don\'t be daft, Malfoy,\" Hermione sniggered. \"I\'m not even remotely jealous over YOU. I just wonder how it is that you can let her hang all over you, in spite of the potion. What\'s your secret Malfoy?\" Hermione asked, her jaw tightening with her determination to find out how he was managing this.

His grin flickered for a moment, and then with a new gleam in his eyes, he rose and sauntered over towards her. \"Trouble in paradise, is it? I saw Wanker running out of the hall with Wonder boy in tow this morning,\" he crooned as he ran his fingers through the curtain of her hair. \"What did you do to him to cause that?\" Draco inquired softly with growing interest. He leaned closer to whisper into her ear. \"Call out the wrong name at a critical moment, maybe?\" he asked softly with arched brows, and his presence started a simmering warmth low in Hermione\'s body.

\"I\'d sooner scream the killing curse during a moment of passion,\" Hermione assured him icily, and he drew back with a sullen look of disappointment. Hermione turned her back to him and crossed her arms over her chest. It was a lie, and Hermione seriously hoped that she didn\'t slip up and reveal that to him. Remembering the last time he\'d sent her spinning into a mind-numbing orgasm, she knew how easy it would be to say anything he\'d have asked her to.

\"I\'ll remember not to let you hold a wand, while I\'m fucking you then,\" Malfoy replied curtly. He pressed the flat of his right palm against her belly to draw her back against him, while he lifted her hair with his other hand and began to kiss the nape of her neck with thorough slowness. Ron and Pansy were forgotten as the desire flamed to life around them.

\"You know, Granger,\" Malfoy whispered against her hair as he stroked her lower lip with his thumb, \"I\'ve been having wicked ideas about what I\'d love for you to do to me with that mouth of yours.\" He released her as Hermione whirled to face him.

\"Let\'s get something straight right now, you horrible Slytherin,\" Hermione sputtered. \"I may have agreed to have sex with you, but I\'m not about to… to…\" She paused searching for a phrase to express the vileness of what he was suggesting. \"To tongue the Slytherin serpent!\" she finished lamely.

Malfoy nearly choked at her choice of words, struggling to keep his composure as she stormed on in her incensed tirade. He found her embarrassed speech and her false bravado both humorous and slightly endearing. Oh she was a noble little nun right to the core, but she was giving it her best effort!

\"Of course, under the circumstances I don\'t expect you to… to…\" her string of inventiveness failed her utterly, and a high blush crept into her cheeks, \"well, to do the reciprocal. If I don\'t, you don\'t have to either. It\'s fair and just that way.\"

\"Now listen here, my prudish little Gryffindor!\" Malfoy interrupted, grasping her arms, pulling against his chest, and doing his best to tower over her. \"I\'m not about to let your hang-up, stop me from doing something I enjoy. You don\'t want to; it\'s your choice. But I\'ll make my own decisions. Fair is not a concept that matters much to horrible Slytherins, anyways,\" he clarified bluntly.

Hermione bit her lip and stared intently at her feet. The idea of Malfoy doing such a thing to her, particularly enjoying it, was mortifying. Especially, considering her only experience with a man attempting to do that for her had not turned out well at all. \"Malfoy, I\'d rather you didn\'t,\" she began, hesitating. She looked up to see the inscrutable, blond wizard waiting for an explanation, as he nearly stared straight through her. \"The only time Viktor tried it… I-I started giggling uncontrollably,\" she admitted shyly.

Draco jerked his head back and drew his brows together in surprise. \"He obviously wasn\'t doing it right then,\" he mused aloud. He kept biting his lip, trying to suppress a smile. It was a losing battle.

\"It\'s not that. It\'s just that it was so personal, and I was already embarrassed, and suddenly it just seemed so silly… then I remembered something that I\'d seen on the Muggle telly,\" Hermione closed her eyes, trying to shut out the memory. \"There was a program on the BBC about truffles and how they use pigs to…\"

Malfoy broke out into a full fit of laughter that drowned out the rest of her sentence, causing Hermione to look up at him in confusion. He\'d let go of her and was clutching his stomach, doubled up as he laughed helplessly. Draco hadn\'t the foggiest notion about what the words \"telly\" or \"BBC\" meant, but as a rich-boy and pureblood he did know a thing or two about truffles and immediately understood what she\'d been on about. \"So did you tell Krum that you were mentally comparing him to a pig snuffling out truffles?\" Draco teased between peals of laughter, nearly collapsing to the floor under the next wave of what sounded like giggles. This was at the same time something he never had expected to hear from her and exactly what he would expect of her!

Hermione tried to look stern and angry, but for the first time ever she was seeing Draco Malfoy genuinely laugh with no malicious sounding edge anywhere in it. The laughter was contagious, and she kept trying to fight the grin that tugged at the corners of her mouth. \"Of course not! He would have been crushed. Viktor is very sensitive, Malfoy!\" Hermione managed before the laughter overcame her too, and the pair sank to the floor together in fits of hilarity.

\"By Merlin\'s beard!\" Malfoy swore softly, cradling her against him as the mirth slowly subsided. \"The sexual misadventures of Hermione Granger,\" he proclaimed loudly. \"I never knew you had it in you, Granger. If it were a book I\'d buy ten copies,\" he continued as she half-heartedly hit his chest with the sides of her fists.

\"Only to find out how many chapters were about you, you egotistical arse!\" Hermione countered flopping against his warm body. From the corner of her eyes she could see him grinning as he buried his lips against her temple.

\"Damned straight!\" he acknowledged, pushing her back against the stone floor gently and leaning over her. \"Now, I think it\'s high time someone showed you the right way to go about it,\" he purred, and a flush crept over Hermione\'s entire body at the tone of his voice. She definitely didn\'t feel any urge to giggle this time as Malfoy began to undress her and cover her entire body with his kisses. In no time at all he had her writhing under him and gasping as he plundered her first with his mouth and then his own body.

\"Malfoy?\" Hermione called softly, much later when the reluctant lovers lay sprawled together and sated. He grunted in acknowledgement and rolled his right leg over hers. \"I haven\'t given up trying to find out how you can still be with Pansy,\" Hermione told him firmly.

Draco cocked an eyebrow at her. \"Oh, good. We\'re even then,\" he yawned in response, nodding his head, \"Because I still haven\'t given up the idea of you--as you so beautifully expressed it--tonguing the Slytherin serpent.\" He laughed as she shoved his shoulder crankily and got up to dress.

The gleeful smirk continued to play across his lips on the way back to the dungeons, until as he passed the classrooms and the statue of Mortimer the Dark, Pansy ambushed him from behind the stone likeness of the big-nosed king. \"Surprise,\" she sang out, merrily, as she wrapped her thin arms around Draco\'s neck and kissed the tip of his nose. Draco drew back slightly, before he could force himself to relax.

\"Pansy, that wasn\'t funny,\" he admonished sternly. He gave her a slight swat on the bottom. \"What if I\'d pulled my wand before I realized it was you?\" Draco asked making light of his very real urge to hex her. He knew it wasn\'t Pansy\'s fault, but he\'d been enjoying the good mood that indulging the potion seemed to leave him with. He deeply resented her intrusion upon the moment.

Noticing her hurt, childlike expression, Draco softly kissed each of her eyelids. \"I don\'t want to hurt you, Pans,\" he breathed and wrapped his arm around her narrow shoulders as he began walking her towards her dorm. \"You shouldn\'t just jump out at people.\"

Pansy looked up at him with a pout. \"Draco, why don\'t you stay in my dorm tonight?\" Pansy asked petulantly. \"Or I could stay in your private room,\" she continued, snuggling against the side of his chest. \"I just want a little time alone with you,\" Pansy whispered tracing her finger in a circle around his nipple.

Draco hoped she didn\'t notice the hitch in his breath or how stiff his arm suddenly felt. If the performance could fool Granger, maybe it was good enough. Of course, Granger wasn\'t the girl in his arms, and Pansy was the one he had to fool. The one thing he did know was that he did not want to spend tonight dealing with Pansy\'s amorous advances. \"It sounds lovely, Pans,\" he replied automatically, \"but I have some work that I have to finish and some more Head Boy duties to attend to. At least, Mother and Father are proud, but it\'s really more work than I expected.\"

\"You\'re always busy lately,\" Pansy whined, pushing away from him and walking quickly ahead towards the dorms.

\"I know,\" Draco called out speeding up to catch her, \"but I am still trying. How about I get you a little present to make up for it?\" he suggested grabbing her arm and spinning her to face him. She looked torn, like a small child who wanted to demonstrate its displeasure with a tantrum but couldn\'t resist the lure of a proffered treat. \"Hmm?\" Draco pressed, rubbing her arms with his hands. \"Maybe when I\'ve got a little more time we can play around with some more lust potions and sex spells. You know it would be fun,\" he prompted.

Pansy gave him a furtive grin. \"You\'re off the hook this time, Draco Malfoy,\" Pansy told him with all the haughtiness she could muster, \"but don\'t expect the same trick to save you forever. If I didn\'t really believe that you were trying, I\'d dump you in a heartbeat.\" She straightened her spine, and stalked off with the bearing of a queen, leaving Draco standing there with a relieved grin. He certainly hoped her patience would hold.

As it turned out, Draco should have been wishing that patience elsewhere.

\"Ron if you would just be patient, I could get this rotten hex off you!\" Harry exclaimed, as Ron pawed at his eyes, which we\'re swollen shut with the latest curse and counter-curse combination that they were practicing for Professor Lupin\'s class. Ron had not managed to pronounce his counter-curse correctly, and was now bumbling blindly and knocking things about, as Harry tried desperately to get him still long enough to take the spell off.

\"It bloody hurts, Harry!\" Ron yelped, as tried to rub at his eyes again, and his elbow caught the stack of books on Draco\'s desk knocking them to the floor.

Draco looked up from having just fixed Crabbe\'s eyes and snarled, \"Watch it, Weasley! You\'ve got to be the most awkward goof in the whole of Gryffindor house!\" Heads around the room turned towards them. Professor Lupin was busy trying to get to the bottom of whether or not Goyle had intentionally used a Jelly-Legs curse on Seamus Finnegan, or else the fight would have probably been stopped there.

Hermione bit her lip, watching Ron glower down at Draco once Harry had finally removed the curse. \"Don\'t tempt me you stinking Slytherin ponce!\" Ron spat back, balling his huge hands into fists.

Draco shot him an incredulous glare. \"The best you could come up with is \'ponce\'?\" he asked with a sneer. \"I think you\'re the only person dim enough to believe that one for a second. I guess you\'re as poor in wit as you are in life…\" Draco drawled, using his full degree of nastiness. \"Or is that your way of asking me to be your special friend?\"

He\'d hated Ron in particular since first year, and it sometimes seemed to even surpass his loathing of Harry. The pair had erupted into a full-out punching and kicking fights on several occasions. Now Draco had been forced to watch Ron\'s clumsy attempts to woo back Hermione all week, and it was making him sick. Since reaching a new resolve on Monday, Ron had been continually showering Hermione with flowers and compliments and trying to find ways of becoming her hero. The only gratifying part was the look on the sod\'s face when Granger inevitably ran away. Any chance for Draco to vent his anger and disgust on the object of his disdain was more than welcome. He intended to savor it.

\"You inbred, death eating, prat!\" Ron blazed, and Malfoy colored at the insult. \"No decent person would touch you with a ten foot staff, unless they meant to beat you to death with it!\" They were both clenching their fists now, and even Lupin had taken notice of the scene.

\"You\'ve been grossly misinformed,\" Malfoy drawled back with a hint of knowing. \"Here\'s something you can clear up for everyone, though,\" Malfoy goaded, looking meaningfully at Hermione who had been congratulating Neville on his successful blocking spell before this all started. \"According to the rumor mill no girl, decent or otherwise, will touch you, but at least you\'ll always have a palm as vulgarly red as your hair. Turns out even the Mudblood is too good for you,\" Draco jeered.

He immediately knew he\'d gone too far as Ron, whose face was contorted in animal rage, lunged at him over the desk and lashed out with a brutal right hook. Draco staggered under the blow, and--under the pretense of bemoaning his injuries--he knocked the wind out of Ron with a sucker punch.

Ron sent the entire desk to the floor with them as he threw his entire weight at the mouthy Slytherin and grabbed for Draco\'s throat. Draco could feel his skull crack repeatedly against the hard floor, as Ron throttled him mercilessly, and he frantically sent his knee up into the Gryffindor\'s groin. Draco felt extremely dizzy and nauseous, as he rolled himself to the top and punched Ron in the nose. It seemed like Ron was at the end of a very long tunnel, although Draco\'s hands were clenching the other boy\'s shirt collar.

He wasn\'t sure if he lost consciousness, but the next thing Draco was aware of was rolling across the floor with Ron punching him and cursing loudly and then trying to break the redhead\'s neck against the leg of the next standing desk.

Professor Lupin had finally made his way through the hooting crowd of students gathered around the brawl, and he yanked both boys apart and to their feet. Ron clutched at his broken nose, while Draco touched the bleeding split at the back of his skull. Terrific black eyes blossomed on both of their flushed faces, and neither could see terribly well under the swelling.

The enraged teacher enlisted the aide of Goyle to help the unsteady Malfoy to the Hospital Wing, while Lupin helped Ron, yelling all the way. Once there, Madam Pomfrey confirmed Ron\'s broken nose, Draco\'s severe concussion, bruised ribs for both, split knuckles, and several sprains, which included Ron\'s groin.

By the time Pomfrey finally let him out of the infirmary, Draco Malfoy was firmly convinced that everyone at Hogwarts was mad at him for something. That wasn\'t so new, but for all of them to be angry with him at the same time was a new feat indeed. Weasley was mad about the fight, insults, and subsequent detentions. Potter was mad on Weasel\'s behalf. Lupin was mad at both students for the fight, and apparently Draco had at some point in his delirium accused the professor of trying to bite him while everyone fought to get him into the hospital bed. Pansy was mad at him for finding time to fight with Gryffindors, lose house points, get more detention, but still not finding enough time for her. Snape was mad at him for losing house points and damaging Slytherin\'s respect with his actions. Granger was furious with him, but Draco wasn\'t exactly sure why.

She\'d stormed into the infirmary like an ill wind during dinner about an hour after Weasel\'s release. Draco had looked up, wondering if she was there to give him his homework, when she\'d blasted him with, \"Did you mean what you said before?!\"

Draco had bitten the inside of his cheek and cringed at the pounding her shrill tone set off in his head. \"I said a lot of stuff before, Granger. I\'m afraid you\'re going to have to be more specific,\" he\'d replied, closing his eyes and leaning back against the white pillows.

\"I mean what you said about me!\" she\'d prompted him.

Draco had tried to remember exacwhatwhat he\'d yelled during the heat of battle, and although the exact words had escaped him, he\'d been pretty certain about the gist of the statements. \"Of course, you deserve much better than that ruddy git,\" Draco finally had replied in relief. He couldn\'t see what she was making the big fuss about. It was rather a compliment.

At which point, she\'d heaved a book at him and called him an insufferable pig. It was quite vexing really.

The worst was still to come, when his family\'s eagle owl, Ulysses, arrived bearing a new letter from Lucius Malfoy. Apparently, his father had also not enjoyed the little stunt, because his displeasure took the form of Ulysses using the thousand pounds per square inch of pressure of his talons to slice through Draco\'s hand and crush several bones. Draco worked up the courage to read the letter as his bones reset, and happily there were no hexes inside. It simply said:

Draco,

I\'ve had a very disappointing owl from the school, and I will expect a full explanation from you when et yet you in Hogsmeade during your first Hogsmeade visit of the year. I have an important gift for you and instructions to go with it. Exciting things are afoot.

Father

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Author\'s Note: That was about as much fun as you can get without smut! LOL I did promise that problems outside of the Adamo Fidelitas potion would be cropping up, and you can expect more fun in the next chapter--including a visit with Lucius! Yay!

I wanted to give you a little info about the eagle owl mentioned at the end. I was at a Renaissance Faire last weekend and the weekend before, and a falconer was there with an eagle owl among the other birds in his show. Ulysses was his owl\'s name, and I really thought it sounded appropriate here. I couldn\'t resist sharing a little information about the Eurasian Eagle Owl here. The amount of pressure that I listed in its talons is correct, and the falconer did relate to us a brief account of having had bones in his hand crushed by the bird accidentally. When these birds are excited or upset, their talons tense up and can easily go through the leather gloves that handlers use. The bird cost around $4,000 USD. Ulysses has a 5ft wingspan and weighs approximately 4 pounds, and the eagle owl is easily the largest species of owl. Females are around a third larger than the males. We didn\'t get to see Ulysses\'s mother, because she is on loan to Disney as part of a breeding program. She is however the largest captive eagle owl in at least this county if not the world. It is illegal to take the birds from the wild; all of the birds must be born in captivity, and the falconer\'s must be licensed.