CHAPTER 10: Concerns and confessions
Back inside the castle, Draco was on his way to class, his thoughts however were occupied elsewhere. He was of course thinking about his mother.... and Ivy. One woman he could not have hated more...the other was taking over his dreams, it disgusted him and fascinated him at the same time. He sneered to himself, he would be so glad to get rid of his mother, after all he had no respect for her; Lady Cariad however was completely different. He would gladly give her Harry's heart on a plate if it would make her happy... he was just pondering how to impress her when two things happened.
First, a group of Ravenclaw students barreled past him, screaming utter nonsense, he heard Ivy's name however and turned to look. Just as he did so however, Fred and George Weasley a few feet down the hall set up their second prank on Malfoy...a prank that would cause him to suffer humiliation for the better part of the day and as anxious as he was to learn what was going on, he was already nearly late for class.... thanks to the lovely dream he had been having.
The twins opened the little box they were holding and released the imp. �Which one is it?� The imp asked. They pointed out Draco and the imp scurried off towards him. �Damn Transfiguration. This would be great to watch� The twins hurried off along the corridor already late as usual.
�Ahem.� The imp stood in front of Draco as he stood inline waiting to enter his History of Magic class. �Roses are red. Violets are blue. Draco loves Ivy, but Ivy loves Osanna too� It sang in an annoyingly high pitched voice that seemed to permeate every corner. Draco blushed red and looked around quickly to see if anyone had heard, kicking at the little pest at the same time. The imp dodged his shoe and sang again, �Roses are red. Violets are blue. Draco loves Ivy, but Ivy loves Osanna too.�
This time all the slytherin heads turned towards him. The imp sang again. Now the Slytherins were snickering. AND AGAIN. The laughter was loud but not enough to drown the imp out. The door opened and they filed into class. The imp continued to sing throughout the class, much to the amusement of the Slytherin students. Professor Binns in true form ignored the singing and continued his usual brand of boredom. Draco was scarlet and moving quickly towards purple by the time he had walked to his next class; Defence against the Dark Arts; What the hell would Ivy think when she heard this, he had to get rid of it and soon. He was already the laughing stock of Slytherin, but he could deal with them later, Ivy was more important. He racked his brain for a spell to kill the imp. Damn Fred and George Weasley, he was going to have to come up with something terrible to do to them. Yes!! He had it.
Just as he saw Ivy coming down the corridor he remembered the correct spell. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the imp, �Mortus Imp�, his wand sparked as Ivy was almost upon him giving him an odd look at the sight of his outstretched wand. There was a little squeak as the imp imploded on itself. A smirk crossed his lips, that had been close. There was a flash and he suddenly found himself cold. Laughing started again. He was stood in the middle of the hall in nothing but a pair of yellow boxer shorts with an interesting Quidditch-Golden Snitch motif in pink. He blushed hard. �Hey Malfoy� called Ron Weasley, �You�re underwear clashes with your hair�. He pulled his hair down from its usual slicked back style and let out a little sob of horror. It was striped pink and electric blue. He felt the tears well up behind his eyes.
�Okay everyone into class NOW� Ivy commanded and grabbed hold of Draco�s shoulder dragging him down the hall towards her office. �Granger start the class reading� she called back over her shoulder.
Pushing him into the room, she shut the door. �Those damn Weasleys will pay for this. They must have booby-trapped the imp." She pulled out her wand, �reparum�. Draco�s hair shimmered back to blonde but his boxers remained.
The door knocked and was opened immediately. There in all his bumbling ineptitude stood Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster. Behind him was Osanna with George hiding behind her robes. Dumbledore looked at Draco, �Very interesting but not quite school uniform heh?� He pointed his wand and said �Accio Uniform�. The robes appeared and Draco hurriedly pulled them on.
�Back to class now hmmm. Miss Cariad, I�ve arranged for Professor Flitwick to watch you�re class, I need to talk with you and Miss October in my office�.
Draco ran towards class and the four made their way up to Dumbledore�s office.
They found Snape waiting for them. He glanced at each of them allowing his gaze to settle a split second longer on Osanna. They sat down as indicated by Dumbledore. George trotted over to where Fawkes' stand stood and looked up fascinated. Fawkes returned his stare, so George stared harder. Pheonix were never quite comfortable around dragons despite their regenerative abilities, because to dragons, a phoenix was their equivalent of a nice hot curry. The staring contest continued amid Diumbledore's odd menagerie he called an office. The sorting hat fell lop-sided from one shelf, various bottles and devices lay scattered about in some haphazard form of order. Still the staring contest continued.
� I was most disturbed to see the obvious tampering of your broom Miss Cariad. You were lucky to come back unscathed, especially as the Dark Mark appeared above you. Obviously they were expecting a slightly more fatal result.�
�Well Albus, I must say I was quite worried myself. I mean the DeathEaters after us? Why I don�t know.� Ivy replied.
�They very rarely make such threats without a reason Ivy. I suspect they feel threatened by something you did or what you intend to do� Snape drawled.
�So what can we do about it? I don�t see how they could see us as a threat, we�re not the most powerful witches around.�
�Well Osanna, you both show a lot of promise. Maybe they decided to get rid of you before you became dangerous to them� Snape replied, his eyes flickered towards the Headmaster. �We shall have to take measures to protect them. After all it would be a tragedy to loose two such talented practitioners of the Arts.�
Dumbledore stood up and began to wonder around picking things up and putting them down.
�We could start by having you move back into the castle. You would be safer inside the walls I think.�
�NO!!� Osanna shot up from her seat, �I mean that I think we�re quite safe in the cottage.� No cottage meant no place for her menagerie, a little something Dumbledore didn�t know of.
Ivy was not terribly thrilled at the prospect either...she had several things that would be better off if left unseen. She nodded, rubbing her very bruised arm.
"I am afraid I must agree with Osanna, we are safer there, or perhaps I should say the school is safer?"
Snape raised a brow.
"You see" Ivy continued, un-deterred "If we are targets I would prefer to be isolated, that way no students would be harmed simply because of us!"
Dumbledore nodded and looked to Osanna.
"Do you agree? You are after all, free to make your own decisions!"
Osanna nodded quickly.
"Very well then you shall remain where you are, however I ask you to please report anything suspicious to me and Severus, please keep a eye out for things and keep a eye on these two to make sure they are not in harms way."
Ivy bristled, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself as was Osanna, however the slight smirk on Osanna's face made her hold her tongue, if not be a bit jealous.
"That's perfectly fine with me..." Ivy stated simply, once again rubbing at her terribly bruised arm; between being shredded by Narcissa's owl and the Quidditch accident, her arm wasn�t doing so well.
Dumbledore nodded and smiled.
"Well then, is there anything else?" Dumbledore asked, idly brushing dust from a positively archaic velvet curtain.
Ivy shook her head, as did Osanna.
"Very well then" Albus replied now playing with a glass orb. "Be careful Ladies...and let me know of any problems. I suggest you both get some rest; your classes are taken care of for today and if you require further time, let me know."
Ivy and Osanna both nodded and skittered onto the staircase and were brought back to the ground floor, Snape had stayed behind.