Smile Like You Mean It

Chapter 9 - Fanning the Flames...



The rest of Aera's first day at Hogwarts was relatively uneventful. She found Charm classes interesting, though she had to run up to the Owlery to send a message to Ollivanders beforehand. She needed a new wand after the accident on the Quidditch Pitch. For the moment she had taped the two pieces of her old wand back together and was concentrating on not funnelling her magic through it while casting spells. By using wandless magic she could avoid having her spells backfire, or cause any unwanted effects.

She joined Harry and the others for dinner at 6 o'clock, slumping onto the bench with a sigh.

Harry grinned at her. "Long day, huh? Takes some getting used to, being back at school."

Aera smiled back wearily. "Yeah, though its enjoyable as well. I always like the challenge of new things."

Ron grimaced. "You're starting to sound like Hermione. But anyway, what about that D.A.D.A. class? That was weird."

"I'm delighted that Sirius is on the teaching staff. I hope he behaves himself though, we all know he's not exactly a sensible guy." Hermione said, half reading an open book that was laid in front of her.

Aera looked between the friends, trying to determine what exactly she meant. It was Ron who enlightened her. "We've known Sirius since third year. Though we thought what everyone else did back then. You know, that he was a traitor and had betrayed Harry's family to You-Know-Who. Since then we've found out that he was one of the biggest messers in school when he was younger, worse than Fred and George. But that's not what I was talking about. What about that mirror? You showed it to me in first year, Harry, didn't you?"

Harry nodded but didn't seem forthcoming about discussing the mirror. He pushed his food around the plate with a fork, intent on not being drawn into the conversation. Ginny, who was sitting opposite him, watched him with her bright green eyes. Aera looked away from them. Perhaps Ginny wasn't quite as ignorant to Harry's intentions as Aera had first believed.

"I saw myself as Quidditch Captain and Head Boy, same as when I looked in first year. Suppose I haven't changed that much. What bout you Mione?" Ron asked curiously.

Hermione gave a small smile. "It didn't show much. I guess I already have all I really wanted, good friends, knowledge." But Aera noticed that the girl's smile was a little secretive, as if she didn't want to reveal all she had seen. Aera understood. She wasn't prepared to reveal all she had seen either. "What did you see, Aera?"

The question caught her off-guard. The image of herself and Draco Malfoy had been flitting through her mind at that very moment and she clamped her mouth shut, a blush beginning to creep up her cheeks. She thought back to the other images she had seen.

"Well," she replied softly, her voice low. "I saw Voldemort, but he was dead."

There was a hush between the others. Harry looked up sharply, straight into her eyes. Aera met his gaze, willing him to see the truth there. For a moment his expression didn't change, then his face split into a smile and he gave a short laugh.

"Me too. It was mixed with other stuff, but that was the main thing shown."

Ron and Hermione breathed sighs of relief and continued their meal. Aera caught the dark look Ginny shot her from across the table before she turned her attention back to Harry. It made Aera feel uncomfortable. She had the impression that Ginny and herself could get on very well, but only if she convinced her that she herself had no intention of seducing her brother. The notion made her squirm inside.

Suddenly desperate to get away from them all, consumed by the guilt of her own duplicity, Aera stood up. "I'm going for a walk, I need to stretch my legs after sitting all day."

The others nodded. She was glad they didn't question her too closely. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy being around them, she just hated herself at that moment. How could she sit there with them, joke with them, when she was hiding such an immense truth about herself that they would be horrified she had hidden it at all?

Aera strode out of the room and into the Entrance Hall. She looked wistfully at the double doors to the ground but decided against it. They would soon be closed for the night and she didn't fancy being locked out in the darkness. Instead she turned and made her way up the stairs.

Hogwarts, she discovered, was a wonderful place for wandering aimlessly. There were so many corridors that she not once backtracked the way she had came. She passed pictures of knights and wizards long since dead, hanging sleepily against the wall. Now and then a suit of armour would salute her passing with a creak of metal. It was peaceful and quiet. Her mind buzzed with questions she couldn't answer, scenarios of her new friends confronting her and demanding to know her true identity. She wondered what would happen if she told them, who would accept her word and who would remain suspicious.

She was passing a darkened alcove where the light of the torches in their brackets failed to reach when a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her around the waist. She began to scream, more from the abruptness than fear, but a hand clapped over her mouth, muffling the noise.

She felt the cold stone of the wall against her back and her eyes, gradually adjusting to the lack of light, began to make out the figure in front of her. They widened at the telltale fairness of long blonde hair and the muscular shape of Draco Malfoy.

He had obviously seen the recognition in her eyes and removed his hand from her mouth. Anger at his arrogance for trapping her in this way opened her mouth in preparation to berate him but he spoke first.

"I saw you passing. I wanted to talk to you." His voice was soft and not at all apologetic.

Aera frowned. "And you felt the need to scare the life out of me by creeping up and grabbing me?"

The smirk on his face widened and she let out a hiss of angry breath. "You're quite beautiful when you're angry."

This surprising comment was enough to change her expression from one of annoyance to astonishment. She definitely hadn't expected him to say something like than. She quickly recovered however. "What do you want, Malfoy? Why did you drag me in here?"

Malfoy casually rested one hand beside her head against the wall. She began to feel trapped in and shifted uncomfortably. He didn't seem hurried to reply and she felt like kicking him. She hated the notion that he had the upper hand, that he had so easily lured her into this compromising position. She searched his eyes for some clue as to what his intentions had been, for it was obvious he wasn't about to answer any time soon. The look in his eyes made her hesitate. They were a bright, lucid blue, fixed closely on her own wide eyes. She saw his gaze dart downwards to her mouth and she unconsciously licked her lips.

That was all it took for him to dip his head and brush his lips against hers in a chaste kiss. Once they touched, however, it was impossible to keep apart. Lips moved against each other in a fierce dance of passion. Aera gasped at the sensitivity of her skin and Draco took the chance to dive into her mouth, their tongues, teeth and lips fighting for dominance. She kissed him back just as forcefully, arching her body against his in an effort to relieve the sudden tension building there. The change in position resulted in a barely audible moan from Draco and his hand wrapping around to fill the curve of her back, pulling her hard against him.

This new sensation caused Aera to gasp and Draco released her mouth, sketching the curve of her cheek and down towards her neck with his warm lips. The hand that was not gripping her to him ran up along the smooth contours of her stomach, circling the buttons of her severe uniform blouse.

His breathe was against her ear, his tongue flicking out to trace its shell. He whispered huskily to her.

"Who are you Aera? What did you see in that mirror?"

Aera's eyes flew open as she froze, hands stilling in the motion of running them through this man's fair hair. Thought, which had been abandoned in the fire of their passion returned in all its unwelcome glory. The image of herself seared across her inner eye.

"Liar... Deceiver..."

Horrible, sickening guilt wrenched through her and she pushed against the blonde boy with flattened palms, forcing him away from her. She caught one glimpse of his shocked expression before she darted past him and up the torch-lit corridor. She thought she heard him say something as she disappeared around a corner, but didn't slow to discover what it was.

By the time she slowed, she was far from the man who had pushed her up against the wall, kissed her until her skin burned to be touched...

Those thoughts were pushed from her mind as she felt her stomach roil. The guilt she had felt at his questioning was still there, pulsing through her veins as much as the memory of his touch. She paused in her flight and leant against a wall, sliding down until she could wrap her arms around her knees and hug herself tight. Tears began to flow steadily down her cheeks as the words ran over and over through her mind. 'Who are you Aera? What did you see... Liar... Deceiver.'

"Is that all I am?" she whispered to the darkness. "Do I only create lie after lie, deceive those I care for?"

The darkness held no answers. She gazed into it through her tears, feeling despair fill her until nothing more could be felt. How could she tell Harry she was his twin, after lying to him since the moment she met him? How could she allow herself to kiss that man, the one who had only treated her friends with scorn and dislike. How could she kiss a man when she knew nothing more about him than that he was likely to follow his father as a Death Eater, the very people she had sworn to destroy...

Aera stilled as sounds travelled to her from an adjoining passageway. She recognised Harry and Hermione's voices and felt herself go cold. If they found her here they would demand to know what had upset her so much and it would do nothing to lessen the suspicion they already felt. Without another thought she whispered the words of a spell to herself, causing her body to reflect the wall behind her. If they didn't know she was here, they wouldn't be able to see her. It was the safest thing she could think of to do.

The two entered the corridor a moment later, wands out in front of them, lighting their way. It was still a little while till curfew, they had obviously decided to find the privacy of a hallway to have their conversation rather than the crowded common room.

Hermione was speaking in quick, hushed tones to Harry.

"It's not that I don't like her, Harry. I think she's nice and friendly, but there's something about her. You see it when she thinks no one is looking. She has some secret she's determined to keep. What if she's a spy? You've seen her yourself, when we're talking about Malfoy. She goes all... wistful, I suppose. What if this is all just a strategy? Become our friend so that she finds out our plans? I can't believe you're considering including her in those!"

Harry sighed, his face drawn. "You know I can't explain it, Mione. I just don't feel Aera's here to harm us. If anything I get the feeling she wants to help but just isn't sure how, like she doesn't even know how to get our trust. She wasn't lying when she told us what she saw in the mirror."

Hermione gave a huff of impatience. "Merlin's beard, Harry! I know you want to see the good in people, but... I don't know. How can you trust someone who refuses to be honest with you? Aera is hiding something, I want to know what."

"You can't know everything, Mione." Harry said with a grin, obviously trying to break through the tension created by their topic. "Besides, I think Aera's close to telling us herself. Why don't we just give her time? And she said Dumbledore sent her, so he must trust her."

"And you don't think that could be another lie? She hasn't been summoned by him once since we arrived. Don't you think if they were working together he would have called her to him?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe he has his reasons."

They were moving down the corridor, away from Aera by then. She strained her ears, trying to catch the last few words, but they turned the corner and were gone.

Aera gritted her teeth, determined not to scream in frustration. What should she do? She searched her mind frantically, trying to decide as her fingers came up to touch her lips, unconsciously tracing the places Draco had touched...


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Phew! Hope you enjoyed that! It's a lot harder than people think, trying to write a sexy scene that's believable. I have a tendency to let my mind race ahead, which results in me missing out important bits!

Well, I promised some action between Aera and Draco and I promise there's a lot more to come... : )

Please review review review!!!!! I need your feedback! Even if you've reviewed before, its nice to know what people think of the story's progress.

And thank you so much to all my reviewers so far...........

Smurphy - Don't worry, all will come out soon enough! Aera will reveal her true identity sooner or later...

ucdevil - Thank you for your lovely review and I promise to let you know when I'm uploading new chapters!

Aleera - Thank you for your short comment! Don't forget to keep reviewing

maggie - thank you for reviewing, feedback is also appreciated, criticisms, ideas, etc... x