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Post by DRACO MALFOY on Mar 24, 2012 19:30:33 GMT -5
Draco did not say much but he was listening intently. When she began to whistle, Draco smiled softly. His grin widened and then he chuckled. When the birds began to sing back, Draco was amazed. He actually turned around in the saddle to look up at the birds and then down at his girl friend. She never ceased to amaze him. Draco smiled again and then said "Even the birds like you."
Having lived here all of his life, Draco knew the good places to visit and to bring guests. He did not speak but Draco was heading for the small lake in the center of the woods. It was were the peacocks gathered. They really were attractive birds. Draco simply hoped that she would like them.
It was not long before they had reached the water. Draco moved his horse up along side the water and the was silent as he waited for Astoria`s reaction. It was nice here it was actually one of the places where Draco went to get away from It all when he ended a little time to himself. It was beautiful here. The water was a clear light blue and the waters surface was littered with lilies and green plants. It was tranquil.
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on Apr 9, 2012 0:02:53 GMT -5
Astoria stopped to hold her horse still beside his and watched the white plumage of the birds standing out against the pure aqua of the lake. It was such a little haven of a place that it felt almost too personal. She liked that Draco had felt that he could share it with her. The seclusion made her feel at ease. She felt that she could relax here and be herself.
The peacocks were magnificent. Obviously, they knew it too. Each bird walked about the grass as though it were their own personal runway, sometimes declining only to dip their graceful heads for a drink. When the two of them rode into the area, however, there was a stir. The birds blinked in confusion once or twice. Then the females all recognized Draco, and the reaction was enough to make Astoria laugh. Each female peacock immediately snapped up their tail feathers and threw back their heads as though putting on a show for him. The male peacocks lowered their heads, some giving futile squawks of protest. They wouldn't be getting any attention from their girls now, that much was clear.
Astoria gave Draco a suggestive little smile. "And these birds like you!"
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on Apr 19, 2012 19:17:14 GMT -5
Draco watched the female birds preen themselves. They strutted along now and their heads turned towards him every now and then. Draco chuckled and then turned his own head to look at Astoria as she spoke. "And these birds like you!" She told him. Draco gave a wide grin. "Are you jealous?" He teased. The sun was almost down now and it was getting dark. There were no lights out here.
It would be hard to see their way back if it got much darker. Their wands would give some light but not really enough in the woods for the horses to make their way. "Lets head back." Draco said now. He turned his horse and smiled once more at Astoria before leading the way. It did not take long before they were back at the barn. Draco removed the tack from the horses and then returned them back to their stalls after a rub down.
Half an hour later found them back in the manor. The house was silent but there was a pleasant smell of rich food. Draco led the way to the dinning room where there was dinner laid out on the table. There was a leg of lamb, potatoes, and corn on the cob. The elves had done well. A House elf held out a chair for Astoria and Draco took the chair across the table from her. The candle filled chandelier hanging from the ceiling was bright.
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on Apr 21, 2012 23:03:32 GMT -5
The fading light had not escaped Astoria's attention, but the pleasantness of the dusky air had made her body forget about what time really felt like for a while. She fell in step behind Draco as he led the way back to the Manor. She let herself breathe in the coming night before they stepped back through the door to the house. The aroma that greeted her inside was enough to make her senses do a slight spin-around. The contrast between the fresh nature smell and the warm smell of the food was phenomenal, although both were equally delicious.
Astoria took her seat with a polite word of thanks to the house elf, knowing that Draco's reaction to it would probably be about the same as her sister's. She didn't really mind. Looking around at the beautiful candlelight that the chandelier made and the steaming meal laid out before them, Astoria found herself feeling strangely at home. She shook her head slowly, a coy smile creeping its way up along the soft corners of her mouth.
Her gaze shifted up to find Draco's form across the table. "You never fail to impress, do you?"
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on Apr 22, 2012 15:44:13 GMT -5
"You never fail to impress, do you?" Astoria asked and though Draco knew exactly what she was referring to, however he acted otherwise. Draco shrugged. "This wasn't me." He told her now. "This was the house elves." In all honesty..it was the house elves. Draco had simply told them what to make and they had done the rest. Everything did look quite good however.
The lamb had been cut into thick lamb chops. Draco took one with a pair of sterling silver thongs and then placed the meat on Astoria's plate. He was not sure just how much of everything she would want to eat so Draco would let Astoria help herself after this. He took a cut for himself and then sat back letting her serve herself first. Draco took a bottle of red wine from a house elf at his side and then poured for her and then himself.
Thunder suddenly shook the house slightly and Draco looked out the large Bay window to his right. The sky was dark and the full moon was covered in storm clouds. Draco could see the trees outside swaying back and forth. "There's a big storm coming." Draco said softly. Draco took his time eating and let Astoria do the same. When the meal was over, he sat back for a moment.
The rain was falling now. Draco stood. "I need a shower." He told Astoria. "I won't be long. Feel free to look around." Draco gave a soft smile and then he left the table and headed up stairs. He went to the shower off his own bedroom. He had just stepped under the hot water and was lathering up when the lights suddenly went out. Draco paused but then continued. He wasn't afraid of the dark. With the should of the water, and a rumble of thunder, Draco heard neither the disembodied footsteps or the breaking glass.
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on Apr 22, 2012 16:41:38 GMT -5
Astoria left her chair and walked out along the richly carpeted hallways. She found her eyes being drawn almost constantly upward, stopping at the great white ceiling or eerily glowing light fixtures. The Malfoy Manor was even more magnificent in the dark, and nighttime was her element. But outside the windows, the moon that she loved had been obscured by thickening clouds. She felt herself beginning to tense. Irrational as it was, she had never liked thunder. At least, not the giant claps that sounded more like explosions than something that the weather could create.
Turning a corner, Astoria discovered a hall adorned with painted portraits. Draco's family, she assumed. Pale face after pale face looked down on her from the left and right, almost all on the right side having wan eyes and hair. It struck her that the left side had to be Lady Narcissa's side since there were several there with prominent dark features. Draco's portrait was the most recent, right beside the tall figures of his mother and father. The three of them looked like they had been painted with snow or moonlight. The last portrait on the Black Family side was one that Astoria and the world knew. Bellatrix Lestrange glared down from the confines of her frame, her seductively dark eyes seeming to scrutinize Astoria. She looked so noble for a mad woman. The traces of past beauty gave her portrait an allure. It was a pity that the cruel smile which worked its way onto the painted face held too many horrors for Astoria to want to examine.
Thunder ripped its way through the house and in a second all the lights cut off. Astoria stood still as a statue. In the dim flashes of lightning, the eyes of Bellatrix's portrait could be seen. There was almost something too alive about them. Another noise, closer even than the thunder that had enveloped everything, sounded. It was like footsteps echoing on stone without a body, then a splintering crack like breaking glass. Astoria walked quickly back down the hallway. The painting of Bellatrix Lestrange had started to laugh.
"Lumos!" A soft light glowed at the tip of Astoria's wand. The sound had seemed to come from a doorway off of the main hallway. Her heart pulsed steadily beneath her ribcage. There was no need to be frightened. It was storming, after all. Astoria trod to the end of the hallway and turned the handle on the door.
She entered into an empty drawing room with a long table and equally empty chairs. Lightning flickered off of the smooth surfaces. Something about the room gave Astoria a chill that felt like it was slithering up her back. It had to have been her imagination, but one could almost picture the wood of the table writhing like a snake.
"Severus...please...please..."
A woman's voice, one that Astoria had never heard before, rose up in a tearful, pleading tone all around her. There was a noise like something heavy falling on the table, but there was nothing there. Astoria felt her stomach flip. Then a second out-of-body voice hissed in her ears like a cold metal knife being thrust into hot blood and made her drop to her knees.
"Dinner, Nagini."
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on Apr 22, 2012 18:59:06 GMT -5
Draco finished his shower and then turned off the water. By this time, all was silent in the house. The storm was raging outside now. Draco left the shower slowly trying not to slip. His hand moved blinding for the towel and then dried himself. He took up his wand, cast Lumos, and then moved to his bed room to get dressed.
Draco ran one pale hand over his flat stomach looking down at himself. He smiled softly. Astoria...here alone with him for the week end. No one needed to guess what Draco had in mind for her tonight. He began to dress and moments later, Draco stepped up in front of the full length mirror.
He was weaning a pain of black jeans and a grey zip up hoodie. The hoddie was open leaving his chest and stomach open. His wand was on the side table at his hip. The room was dark but not too much that he could not just barely make himself out in the glass. And the person standing behind him.
Draco jumped violently now. His grey eyes went back to the woman behind him again. He knew her. The Muggle Studies professor. Her face was sagging and pale. She was dead....He knew that....How was she standing here?? Draco's heart clenched in his chest and his eyes widened as the woman's hand moved to come down on his shoulder. Draco let out a horse croaking scream and then all but threw himself from the room.
She was here for him. He was sure of it. She knew that he had been at the meeting the night she had died. The night she had been eaten. Draco had felt guilty about that night ever since. He was terrified. Draco hurried away from his room down the hallway. "Why?" He heard whispered at him with the voice he knew too well.
Draco reached the top of the staircase and turned his head to look behind him. Then he fell... He took each and every wooden step in a rough roll. The fall was silent however except for a few bangs. Draco hit the floor with a grunt and a yelp before he started to backpedal towards the front door. He had forgotten about anything other than the spirit.
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on Apr 26, 2012 20:25:29 GMT -5
Astoria scrambled up from the floor, her instinct taking over. She knew only to run. She went out the door of the drawing room, nearly banging into a hall table in her haste to get out of the room with the evil voice. She had just jerked around the corner when she heard the muffled scream from up above and the series of thuds. Her heart twisted in her chest painfully. Draco.
She had to get to him. This was mad, she had to be mad, but he was in trouble and she had to get to him. Astoria tore down the hallway, slipping on the lavish rugs on the floor. Her wand stayed gripped firmly in her hand, slick with sweat, she couldn't lose it. Get up!
There was a yelp that could only be his, and it made her move faster. What the hell was going on? She had no time to think about whether she had been hallucinating. What she'd heard had been murder. Her first nature was to survive. The thunder was crying out all around her and the lightning flashes barely illuminated the white maze of the house. She felt like a rat. Think, girl! Pull yourself together now, dammit! Astoria's mind switched to hyper-awareness without her realizing it. She found the way back to the main staircase in three seconds.
Before she could open her mouth to call for him, Astoria flew out toward the source of the commotion and slammed right into Draco. "Ah!" Her breath left her in a whoosh and she was thrown right on her back.
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on Apr 26, 2012 21:58:12 GMT -5
Draco screamed when he was hit from the side. He was freaked out and trembling. His body was covered in a light layer of sweat. It took a few moments for him to realize that it was Astoria that had hit him. With his fear it was as if he did not even recognize her at first. Then his mind cleared at least a little and he saw her.
Draco bent quickly and pulled her to her feet almost roughly. "Out." He whispered. "We have to get out!" With one hand around her wrist, Draco turned back to the front door just as the spirit spoke again. "Why, Draco?" The voice asked. "You said nothing..." Draco shivered. "What was I Supposed to do?!" He yelled. Draco was yanking on the door now. It would not open. He tried the locks but they were open. Draco cursed under his breath.
He was starting to hyperventilate. "The back door." He told Astoria and then rushed to turn around and pull her along with him. Draco moved back into the house. He cut through the dark living room suddenly thinking of the side door now. It was a french door and made of glass. He should easily be able to break it.
They entered the room and Draco headed for the door. He knew exactly for it. Draco could not see anything. The room was pitch dark. He was almost there when something crunched under his shoe. Draco froze. He reach for his want to bring some light but it was gone. He must have dropped it somewhere. "What the hell..." He took one more step with another crunch and then bent slightly and felt the floor.
His hand moved over rough hard pieces and then he felt pain in his fingers. "Glass?" He whispered and then hissed at the pain as he stood and wiped his fingers on his pants. That was when things changed again. Suddenly, Draco was pull roughly to the side away from Astoria and there was a solid form behind him. The form was bigger than his and two solid arms went around him. One around his waist holding his arms down and nails digging into his hip. The other around his throat tightly. Draco gasped.
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on May 10, 2012 21:26:11 GMT -5
Astoria could only follow as Draco dragged her along, clutching her wand in her hand beneath her sleeve. Fear had completely taken over him. He'd yelled at something that she had neither seen, nor heard. Her heart was writhing in her chest and it was nearly impossible to breathe at the speed that they were running. Flight had become the main instinct, but Astoria's senses had become sharp as a hunter's with terror. She listened, her eyes dilated in the darkness, and her skin felt too sensitive. Alive. She had to keep both herself and him alive.
Every exit was sealed of its own accord. Draco's emotions and mind had become strikingly apparent when he was afraid. Control would only come when enough distance did. Astoria could practically taste the almost rabid fear that was radiating from his body, from the hand that grasped her own like a vice. Dark corridor after dark corridor spread like blurred tunnels through her vision.
Suddenly he halted. The hand that held hers dropped. Astoria watched Draco drop to examine what looked like pools of fractured water on the floor. Only when she looked up did she see the broken frame of the once magnificent French doors that had been smashed into bits. Astoria drew her wand. The hair all over her stood on end and her pulse thundered in her head. Everything about the area screamed of danger. This wasn't right! Didn't he see?! She opened her mouth and reached out her hand to pull him back just as he was ripped away from her.
A small cry broke from Astoria's lips before it died in a deathly chill. A large, muscular figure held Draco in front of her; his body was covered in shaggy hair and long nails protruded out from his fingertips like a dog's claws. The eyes shone bright in the dim flashes of lightning. Astoria was completely still, her wand pointed directly at the figure's head. Straight between the eyes.
Her brain hyper-focused on the claws at Draco's hip and the ones circling around the pale, fragile skin of his throat. The look in his grey eyes was beyond any mortal horror. Astoria had hoped never to meet Fenrir Greyback in person. It looked as though she was out of luck.
Keeping her wand aimed and her brain whirring with strategies to escape, Astoria trained her brown eyes on those of the predator's and said in voice that was both louder than her normal one and unnaturally serene, "Let him go."
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on May 11, 2012 21:32:50 GMT -5
Draco stood there frozen in place. It did not take long for him to realize who stood behind him. He watched bin the darkness as Astoria raised her wand. Draco's eyes were now getting used to dim light. "Let him go." Astoria ordered and even Draco knew that that was not going to work. Behind him, he heard the cold guttural chuckle of Fenrir.
The hand on his hip tightened and Draco whimpered. "Let him go?" Fenrir mimicked. "Cast just one spell and I will tear him limb from limb." He grinned now and then leaned his head forward and licked the back of Draco's throat. Draco jumped and struggled only to have the claws press harder. He was very much aware that he was very close to being killed and or turned.
"Lucius should have known better than to talk about his vacation plans. Leaving such a young and tender slice of veal home alone. I only came for Draco but I just may save you for later princess." He did not even pull his own wand there was no need. This girl was no threat. The hand on Draco's hip moved inward and now Draco speak. "Please don't." He whispered. "Draco..." Fenrir replied. "I like to play with my food."
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on May 12, 2012 13:21:43 GMT -5
Princess? She hated him. Hated the tone, hated the way he was toying with them both. Astoria lowered her wand so that way no sparks would shoot out from her mood. She continued to stare into the yellow eyes, probing for the back of his mind. If this was about control, then two could play that game.
Still, she had to swallow back the revulsion as she watched Greyback's tongue move along the back of Draco's neck and the progression of the clawed hand. Of course. He was a sadistic child predator. What had she expected? He wouldn't just release them. Astoria would have to be smarter. She kept trying to work her way into his head while coming up with words to say. If she had to pretend, she would do it. If she had to play, she would do it. There were always more options to go with than the set solution. She was determined not to lose what mattered the most.
"Don't do this, please," Astoria said. Her voice had turned to a submissive, conciliatory tone. Let him believe it. She was small and thin; she looked the part. "Why did you come for Draco, of all people? What do you really want?"
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on May 13, 2012 13:10:19 GMT -5
"Don't do this, please," Astoria said and Draco's frightened eyes were fixed on her. "Why did you come for Draco, of all people? What do you really want?" Draco wanted to know that himself but was sure that he already knew the answer. Fenrir wanted him. Draco was well aware that the werewolf liked to eat children whether in or out of his wolf form.
He also knew that Fenrir liked both males and females for his entertainment. Draco recalled a number of times when Fenrir had been in this mansion for a meeting and the way the werewolf could make Draco feel uneasy with just his eyes.
"What do I want?" Fenrir repeated. "I'm hungry, Princess. And Draco smells so good..." Fenrir snuffled in Draco's white blond hair breathing in the scent of him. "I have been smelling this boy for years." Draco was really panicking now. "Money." He whispered. "We have lots of money... I can pay you..."
The hand was still moving towards his groin at a slow pace and Draco had no idea if he would still be sane if that hand reached it's destination. "Just let me go and I can give you anything you want." Fenrir laughed cold and deadly. "Anything I want?" He asked. Draco swallowed hard. "Astoria." He said to the girl before him. "Get out of here. Run...."
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Post by Astoria Greengrass on May 17, 2012 20:36:25 GMT -5
Don'tpanicDon'tpanicDon'tpanic. Astoria swallowed, her mouth dry in spite of her mental command. She did her best to keep her dark eyes fixed on Fenrir, trying not to show her revulsion. She had to keep him talking. Her mind scrambled for more to say. A calm retort was ready just as Draco spoke to her. Astoria's head turned to look at the young man she'd come to the Manor for, the one she'd come to know so well lately, the one she...
"Get out of here. Run..."
The one that was at the mercy of a murderer and wanted her to save herself. That frightened Astoria more than anything else. He was terrified, and had never been known to opt for the safety of others over himself. The fact that he was doing so for her further secured her answer. Astoria's hands curled into fists, the one around her wand straining not to lose control. He was hers. She wasn't about to let a werewolf take that away from her.
Astoria looked at Draco, right in his silver, silver eyes. "I'm not going to leave you."
Directing her attention back to Fenrir, Astoria tried a different approach. It might have been a mad one, but they were running out of options. An attempt at a wry smile spread over her lips. "The thing is, I quite like the way that he smells too, Greyback. But I would very much appreciate it if you would let him alone and don't touch him. You know how appealing he is. You'll have to forgive me that I don't want to share him. I'm sure that there are other things that you'd like much better."
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Post by DRACO MALFOY on May 18, 2012 22:45:13 GMT -5
"I'm not going to leave you." Astoria told him and Draco cursed her silently. Why was she so stubborn? Why was she so much like him? He was risking himself for her. Something he would never have done for anyone else. Even his own family in all honesty. And yet she refused to go. What the hell was she thinking. Draco made a move to step forward and towards her but Fenrir tightened his grip almost painfully cause Draco to freeze once more.
At least his sanity was back. He needed to get both of them out of here right now. "The thing is, I quite like the way that he smells too, Greyback. But I would very much appreciate it if you would let him alone and don't touch him. You know how appealing he is. You'll have to forgive me that I don't want to share him. I'm sure that there are other things that you'd like much better." Draco blinked in surprise at her words. She sounded so strong.
Fenrir let out a low growl and then hand now on Draco's upper thigh shot across and cupped the teenager suddenly. Draco yelped loudly and then yanked forward only to find himself suddenly thrown the the floor.
Fenrir was quick. He reached up and took Astoria down by the hair. His clawed hand tangled in her hair and with quick movements, He had Draco on his back and Astoria on her stomach under him. He rested and both their hips now. Sitting on them with his knees on the outside of both. "I think I can do much better," He said now with a forearm across Draco's neck and his wand at the back of Astoria's neck. "I can have you both."
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