Mask

Dedicated to ArwenEvenstar

Chapter Five-Countdown to a confrontation

Gringotts had been a secular experience. Since the American Wizarding society tended to use American Currency for the most part, Samantha had only had a few experiences with the Goblins back home (ones that weren’t petitioning the Charmed Ones for help anyway), and none of those had prepared her for dealing with the main branch of the Wizarding Bank.

Nothing had prepared her for who she was about to bump into either. Literally.

As Samantha was coming down the steps of Gringotts, she saw a flash of blonde and then she was lying on her back on the cold steps. She spluttered for a few moments and then began to climb to her feet. Before she could open her mouth to unleash one of her famous tirades against who ever had knocked her down, a British accent assaulted her ears.

“Watch where you’re going!” Samantha frowned and stared at the arrogant blonde boy that stood in front of her. His voice suggested to her that he thought the world revolved around him, and that she had committed a capital offence in allowing herself to touch him. Well, she was just so very sorry about that.

Not.

“Excuse me, bleached wonder? I believe that YOU knocked in to me, not the other way around.” She smirked, though she hadn’t landed any real hits, and began to head around him but he grabbed her arm before she could walk completely away from him and stopped her movement. She looked at his hand on her arm and then lifted her gaze to his face. He had five seconds to remove his hand from her arm or she would not be responsible for what happened.

5

“Take your hand off of me.” That tone of voice was known to send underclassmen running back home, but didn’t seem to affect the blonde menace in front of her. He just growled.

“Not until you apologize! I am a Malfoy; you do not just simply run into us!”

4

Samantha rolled her eyes. Apparently this little boy thought that he was all big and bad because of a name. She didn’t care if he was the Queen of England. He knocked HER down, and she wasn’t going to apologize for it. These Brits were all turned around anyway….

“And I care what your name is why? All I know is that you ran into me, and knocked me onto the steps. And if you don’t let go of my arm, you are going to be in more pain than you know.” The threat was delivered in a cold, even tone of voice, and she knew that she would hurt him with no qualms.

3

“Is that a threat? Yanks shouldn’t be making threats in places where they don’t know anyone. You never know when they might just disappear without a trace.” The boy almost sounded amused at her threat, and he apparently wasn’t as dumb as Samantha had first thought…that or she had way more of an accent than she thought she did.

2

“As if you could actually do anything. I bet you’re just some spoiled little rich boy who has his nannies do everything for him. Afraid to break a nail? And do you not speak English? Let go of my arm!” Samantha was really beginning to get agitated with the blonde. But he seemed even more affronted by her definition of him being a spoiled little rich boy…..though he didn’t deny it. Hmmm, seems she was close to the mark.

1

“No.”

That was it. She was going to hit him so hard that the demons her mom had killed would wince! She twisted her arm to the side, quickly breaking her ‘annoyances’ hold on her and lashed out with a foot. The blonde, with a look on his face that was so surprised it was almost comical, fell backwards and landed on the steps, tumbling down them. Samantha heard several of his limbs slam against the steps as he went, and she had to bite back a smile of satisfaction. That would teach him.

The crowds that had seemed less than interested in helping her during her plight turned and watched in shock as the blonde went tumbling, and several of them went running to help him up from the ground when he finally stopped his backwards roll. They were looking around as if scared of someone seeing them, and Samantha had to give new credence to the boys’ arrogant boasts that his name meant something to this community.

Something other than “Bad Faith” that is.

“What is going on here?” The voice came from behind her, and was colder than any she had ever heard….on a mortal anyway. The part of Diagon Ally closest to the bank froze, and dozens of eyes turned to look at Samantha, clearly showing that she was the cause of the commotion. Taking a deep breath, Samantha turned her body around and lifted her eyes up. They met eyes of frozen ice blue, framed by long blonde hair. If she couldn’t clearly see that this was a male, Samantha would think that she was looking at the boys mother.

But her bad luck, it was Daddy Dearest. And he didn’t seem too happy to see his son laying on the ground. Even less happy to see that he had been thrown there by a girl.

“I do hope that there is an excellent explanation for this!” Yep, Daddy Dearest wasn’t happy in the slightest. Samantha gulped and sighed, opening her mouth to begin a tirade that she knew before beginning would be pointless.

This would be an excellent time for Mrs. Weasley to decide to show her face, even though it would also come accompanied by her wrath.

At this point, Samantha would take anything other than an angry, aristocratic father. But she wasn’t going to get that lifeline.

“He bumped into me, tried to make me apologize for his fault, and when I wouldn’t and tried to leave he grabbed my arm. I gave him more than just one chance, and when he still didn’t let go, I sent him flying.” Okay, blunt and to the point. Maybe that would help keep all the anger at bay…or at least away from her. She didn’t care if the little brat got it.

By the look in the guys eyes, that wasn’t going to be the case. If her simple, and somewhat ineloquent, explanation did anything it made the man (Mr. Malfoy, if she assumed correctly) even angrier.

“I do not care why you think that you had an adequate excuse for your actions, nothing excuses throwing my Heir down these…steps! Young Lady, I will ruin you!”

Crickets sounded.

Samantha honestly couldn’t believe that someone had actually uttered a threat so trite as that, and seemingly meant it.

She had to try very hard to keep herself from laughing. All of the intimidation points that the elder Malfoy had earned with his bearing and demeanor had flown out the proverbial window with his simple threat. As if one man could really ruin her, she didn’t have much of a reputation as it was, considering the fact that she had been in the country less than two months. And she had never really cared much for her reputation anyway.

No one in the crowd seemed to feel the way that she did though, and kept looking between the father, Samantha, and the now rather awake and smirking son still laying on the cobblestone streets. Some of them were looking at her with pitying expressions, while others were looking at her as if they thought she deserved to be ‘ruined’ and so much more. Judging by the clothes that that particular aspect of the crowd wore, she guessed that they were in the same social class as the apparently affluent Malfoy family.

The smart thing in a situation such as this, which was steadily going from bad to worse, would be to stay silent, or at the very most, begin to offer whatever platitudes and apologies that one could possibly come up with.

The absolute worst thing to do in said situation, was to smart off and prove the stereotype of ‘Stupid American’ by acting like an idiot and bluffing.

Samantha of course took the later choice.

“You’ll ruin me? Since when did I step in a B movie version of the Godfather?”

She crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow sardonically. The little voice in the back of her brain that told you when to stop doing something was screaming at her but her dominant demon side slapped it over the head and cheered her on. Samantha always had been ‘Mommy’s little Demon’ after all.

“What exactly are you going to do? Call the coppers on me? Have me whacked? Oh Oh! I know! You’ll have me whacked and then feed me to the fishes? Or make me swim with the fishes…I can never remember that line….” Her voice trailed off, but the crowd didn’t seem to notice that she had flubbed the quote, they all seemed to be in shock that she had responded with something other than “Please Master Malfoy! Don’t hurt me!”. Samantha looked around and raised her hands. “What? That was funny! You know that it was!”

*chirp chirp*

Or not. Geez…Brits were so hard to amuse. She turned back to the blonde man that was staring at her like she had grown three heads and started petting a Norwegian Ridgeback.

Or maybe he was just trying to hold in his anger, as the wand that was pointed between her eyes before she could continue proved that he was mad enough to spit….or curse her into little, bitty, Halliwell shaped bits. No matter her earlier thoughts to herself while she was around the ever formidable and ever annoying Weasley Matriarch, Samantha was in no hurry to expose her Wiccan powers to the Wizarding world as a whole…not even to save her own skin in a situation like this.

Now, if she could get to the wand that was currently holding her hair up, then she would be more than ready and willing to protect herself.

“Lucius. Put the wand away. You do not need the Aurors called, especially for something as petty as this.” Okay, new voice, meant new player in the little drama that she found herself in.

But if the voice kept her from getting cursed and made to look like a fool, then she was more than appreciative of it.

Yeah, the voice was definitely getting something shiny for Christmas.

Samantha looked the new guy over. While he would definitely win in a “Scariest Man on Earth” contest, she couldn’t really get a read on him. He seemed like the type of guy who could easily say one thing but mean something completely different.

He would be someone she would have to watch, assuming that she ever ran into him again.

Blondie, now known as Lucius, turned around to face where the voice came from, removing the wand from her. Samantha breathed a little easier but still pulled her own down and held it tightly. Who knew if the guy decided that ‘yes, hurting her was worth the Aurors getting called’. She wouldn’t go down without a fight if she could help it.

“Severus. I didn’t know that you were going to be here today. I seem to recall that you had some, business to take care of.” Something seemed to pass between the two men, something that Samantha couldn’t explain, and wasn’t sure that she wanted to be able to explain. The other man, Severus, merely raised an eyebrow.

“I am handling that….business. It just seems to need more, political advantage than I currently hold. I was hoping that you would be able to assist me in that regard. I am sure, after all, that you want this task to be as successful as I do.” Lucius frowned and nodded. Samantha had the idea that she was off the hook, and did a little happy dance inside her head. Being cursed would have been very bad….dying even worse. She wanted the ‘business’ to go well too, considering the fact that it had just saved her skin.

Skin that she liked having.

“I see. Very well then. Draco!” Lucius turned towards his annoyance, or his son whichever way that you wanted to look at it, and barked at him. “Get off the ground and come along.” Daddy Dearest apparently wasn’t happy with him either, which made her feel slightly better. At least she wasn’t getting all the blame. Draco, the blonde menace, clamored to his feet and nearly ran up the stairs to get even with his father. Without a word all three men headed away from the crowd, and the crowd itself began to disperse, leaving Samantha standing on the steps alone.

But not for long. Through the now thin crowd of people, she could see a sadly familiar crowd of redheads heading towards the steps, Molly Weasley in the front. Samantha sighed at the look on the woman’s face. Oh this wasn’t going to be fun.

There was a saying about Redheads and tempers after all.

Samantha headed down the steps towards her ‘family’, resigning herself to the fight that was going to come. As the yelling started and she felt herself being pulled out of the ally and towards the floo, Samantha tuned out.

It was going to be a long three years.

AN-Well, sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out, but what with vacation, Christmas, and major major computer problems, it took me a while to get it completely written out. But here it is! And even though I’m not totally happy with it, I felt that its as good as I’m going to get it at the moment I might as well post it. Please Please Please if you love it, hate it, leave a review and let me know what exactly you love/hate about it. Thanks!