"That's it, I'm going to morph into his skinny pale arse and streak naked in the school, and I'll make sure his dingleberry looks as small as possible!" Guy slammed the breakfast table in the morning, his eyes filled with sympathetic rage for Audette who was busy twirling porridge in sad circles.
She couldn't even bring herself to accessorize her outfit, even forgetting to bring her normal scrunchie for the day.
"Why is that always your solution? That won't help Cozzy, don't get yourself expelled over this," she raised her puffy gaze down the table to where Draco was sitting still as a statue in his emerald school uniform, not touching a single bite of the food. He was staring straight at her unblinkingly, and it was beginning to make her spine crawl.
Guy grumbled, "Well it's not a wonder, surely. Utter bollocks that I have to apply for 'private lessons' in order to morph on the property - what a foul rule. Metamorphmagisist if you think about it."
Pansy seemed to be enjoying the situation all too well, "Malfoy looks petrified, doesn't he?"
"I told him I'd probably end it at breakfast, I suppose that explains his intensity," Audette sighed miserably at the determined crystal orbs glued to her every move. She could see his sharp nose flaring, and that the white's of his eyes were even more pink than the night prior.
She wasn't totally convinced that she could go through with it, now that she was sober and depressed.
Daphne shook her head at Draco, then back to address Audette, "Well speaking of expulsion you've only missed the commotion. He's demanded she be expelled, Fedorov. The Hogwarts and Durmstrang Headmasters have just taken her for questioning."
Pansy made a face, tearing apart greasy back bacon with her bare hands, "Claiming sexual assault. Now that is a first - he's the laughing stock of the boys right now. Imagine what his father thinks."
"What?" Audette asked in disbelief.
It was not even nine-thirty in the morning and Draco had gotten directly to work fighting for her. Indeed, boyish jabs were being thrown at him from all sides, bumping into him to mock the situation, and it was a miracle he didn't stand up and barge out of the Great Hall.
After another ten minutes he apparently couldn't take it any more and did just that. As he neared where she was sitting down the line Audette hardened in place, preparing herself for him to stop and interview her on the status of their relationship. Instead he shocked her by placing a hand on her shoulder to boldly squeeze it, his face appearing on her other side to rapidly kiss her flaming cheek.
Then he was gone before she could turn around and pelt him in the gut.
"You're whipped Malfoy!" Goyle cupped a hand to his porky face and shouted degradingly at Draco's flickering robes.
Leave it to Audette to drag out the punishment for as long as possible, doing her best to avoid him while simultaneously stricken by the daunting task of deciding whether she could really forgive him...or herself.
The fact of the matter was her mind was a tornado zone; she too was guilty of the same charge, but at least it had not been in public. And Draco was receiving an impressive amount of flak and humiliation for his mistake, whereas she was hiding with hers - waiting in mild worry for Theodore Nott to report the incident.
Anastasia Fedorov actually did disappear to everyone's astonishment, and through gritting teeth Draco continued to claim sexual assault had unwound.
A week passed by in which they would slide around each other in glum avoidance, and Audette still had not clarified her position on their continuity with her nose held high in the air.
It was at this point the presents started to appear, in perfect reflection of the snooty wealthy prick he happened to be.
He evidently couldn't contain himself anymore. On thursday before her Animagus nightmare course he brazenly seated himself next to her in the dusty, dim library right as Audette had just begun to concentrate on her work for McGonagall after doodling for an hour straight like a procrastinating idiot.
The only warning given of the coming bombardment before she went into a heart attack was a single jeering sentence, likely suggesting he'd been there hovering over her shoulder for a mortifyingly long time and snooping around on her activities, "There she is, my estranged girlfriend."
How she had not caught wind of his signature cologne in her vicinity was mind blowing.
He fell into the bench and slid his arm loosely around her shoulders, his silvery eyes patiently caught everywhere on the chaos ensuing, sporting an annoyingly amused smile.
Jumping out of her skin she slammed the condemning textbooks and parchments, then one by one flipped them over to conceal their titles. Several of the thick pillar candles on the desk splashed in revolt of the sudden earthquake.
When she'd finished pathetically attempting to mask her work under the watchful snorting of Draco he turned to her with a coy grin in his remarkable tight black suit, and Audette rolled her eyes away.
He toyed gently with the back of her golden hair, cooing handsomely in her ear, "Congratulations, you win the prize for most violent panic attack. You know Audette, I was thinking-"
"-Well that would be a first, you thinking," Audette stretched her arms and clasped her hands tensely straight over the table. She turned her rosy face ahead to concentrate on a lethal stack of perhaps fifty musty textbooks which were self-sorting themselves dangerously high above oblivious student's heads.
He tutted through his teeth, his eyes flaring as he gestured to her smattered work space, "Alright let's start over then. I hadn't taken you for an exotic potions-"
Audette hissed resentfully, cutting him off a second time while still refusing to make eye contact, "Alright let's start over...to the part where we didn't talk for many years and my life was free of womanizing wizards." She began to pile up hefty texts into her pearly satchel, unable to qualm her shaking bitterness and mashing the fragile books with brute force.
Draco jutted his pointy chin away from her for a moment in a dark growl, then proceeded to retract his arm from around her neck and slam his palm down on the last text before she could put it away. A resounding boom filled the muted athenaeum, drawing the eyes of dozens of cramming pupils.
Whispering broke out instantly.
A nearby group of studying Gryffindors all rotated their skulls and raised their eyebrows.
"I was of the impression they had split up?" Hermione Granger asked Ronald Weasley a little too loudly with a frown.
"Merlin he's an utter melter," Seamus Finnigan shook his head disapprovingly, his unsightly quill singed at the top and missing several burnt off feathers.
Draco ignored the plethora of uninvited commentary and narrowed his striking gaze on Audette, "I'm sure you're finding this game terribly amusing little girl, but there is only so many times I will apologize before I render it a lost cause. Do not let it come to that point. I have something I wish to gift you, as a generous token of my remorse."
"Very well, do your best," Audette sighed heavily and placed her hands in her lap, nodding a blank face in defeat. If she had truly desired a break up it would have commenced already, and yes, the so-called game of watching Draco Malfoy trail around after her like a lost puppy with his tail between his legs was direly amusing.
She watched with a sideways glare as he sifted in his designer satchel to produce a basic black box. He turned fully towards her and slid it in front of her, his other hand appearing encouragingly on the back of her baby blue bouffant dress.
Audette plucked the top off and peered her nose inside, first withdrawing a funny glass orb that looked like a remembral filled with sunshine and clouds.
Draco cleared his throat and tapped on the glass, "It's an elemenbral. It will warn you when a lightning storm is brewing nearby." She glanced out the nearest stained glass window to verify it's function; indeed, it reflected the exact weather conditions outside.
"So why is it not going off now, because I am this close to slapping you," Audette's face contorted in confusion. The gift seemed to be highly unrelated to her personality and inconsiderate at best. Audette wasn't exactly a mad scientist scrambling to produce a Frankenstein monster.
Draco laughed gently, his blistering eyes dancing between hers, "Delightful, I'd take any touch from my girlfriend at this point. Go on if you dare - this will all make more sense after the next item."
"Girlfriend...you're lucky you can still say that," she gave him a long, lingering look before reaching once again into the box. Her fingertips brushed against another glass item; it was a vial with a skull painted over it. Contained within was a tiny, compact, oblong husk.
The chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth.
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No no no no no. Confidence = vanished.
Her face burned as she forcibly raised her eyes to him with a twisting tummy.
His jaw dropped open, mocking her shock. He raised his eyebrows with a gasp, "Oh no, was it supposed to be some grandiose secret? What do you suppose you'll transform into? I'm picturing something deceivingly cute with sharp claws and a rancid attitude. Tell me, shall you accept dirt under your nails or will you be an indoor pet?"
"How did you find out?" she found her petite voice after swallowing several times, having pictured this exact indignation occurring. Audette quickly put the valuable assets back into the box and crossed her arms, smushing her lips together in humiliation.
Draco shrugged. She felt his hand shifting under her thick hair to squeeze at her neck gently, "I asked McGonagall what you might need to assist you. Bit of a dead giveaway. You have an amber vial of dew in there as well. No need to fret, your secret is safe with me, love."
Audette could not rip her wide gaze from the wooden grains of the chipped library table, her mind buzzing in shame despite his wild graciousness. Her jaw defensively sunk further and further against her spine without worrying about the developing double chin it was producing, pondering just what fortune it must've cost him in both personal time and capital to procure such a rare list of goods.
Now she was put on the spot to forgive him, and somehow annihilate feelings of guilt and jealousy she was still currently processing. He leaned his face close to hers to interrupt her faraway gaze, his blue eyes darting momentarily to the side where a book had just magically faltered and plonked horrendously onto a poor Hufflepuff's hands, then back to hers in hooded charm, "I think it's quite impressive, and will make you a valuable asset."
"Um...thank you," Audette blinked sheepish green eyes at him.
He danced his fingers on her cheek, pinched her chin and winked at her, then was gone as quickly as he'd appeared looking far too smug.
Audette planted her elbows on either side of the box and buried her eyeballs behind her sweaty fingers, groaning loudly. He had just saved her a substantial degree of trouble and advanced her Animagus course right on time.
Draco Malfoy was unbelievably slick, and she was helplessly obsessed.
And that was only the beginning.
Over the next three stubborn weeks of Audette teetering on the fence of resistance and caving, he would tend to drop pretty things in front of her at meal times such a shiny quills and silk ribbons, always winking and ruffling her hair.
One night in late November Audette was having a rather lovely dream about falling into a large vat of endless ice cream - as if in real life that would not be dastardly sticky and probably result in drowning - when she was startled awake by someone digging their way into her comforter.
After a split second she belted out a tiny scream to which Draco clamped a veiny hand across her face from behind, "Keep your voice down."
A strand of seconds elapsed as Audette's breathing slowed in his cold hand, then he let it drop around her waist. With his body pressed against hers they laid there awkwardly enshrouded by the pitch black conditions generated by her velvet curtains, which regrettably did not come with the castings of an evening night sky.
For the first time since he'd switched over to the female level Audette was thankful that Cosmos was an obnoxious snoring beast, muffling their conversation if only in part.
"How did you get up here?" she whispered heatedly without moving her face, her eyes narrowing in the shadows.
Tickles of blond hair blew across her cheek as he snorted in her ear, "You think a silly set of collapsing stairs can keep me from getting up here? I scaled a bloody caldera."
"Could this not wait? What do you want?" she barked carelessly loud as he wrapped his leg around hers. He now had Audette entirely engulfed in a personalized Draco cocoon, comprised of wealthy comfort fabrics and toned muscles weighing her down.
Why did he have to smell so heavenly?
Obviously just having showered his spiky hair was slightly damp against the side of her face, cuddling her as if they weren't in the middle of an astronomical fallout, "I came to speak with you regarding the second trial. It is tomorrow as you know, and I need an answer from you if you're attending as mine."
She thought carefully for a moment, her face twitching and twisting. He had been so demanding with her before - leaving her little option to refuse his requests - that it was quite pleasurable to be in full control.
As much as she hated to admit it she missed him in return.
Now almost an entire month had transpired of Audette acting difficult and detached, and Draco had reacted by sticking around regardless, yet growing very quiet and angry and all the same. The same fear with regard to speaking to women had begun to etch into his face as it had Theodore's, and perhaps she was taking it too far.
"I don't know how to forgive it Draco...but I also cannot seem to let you go," she turned her face finally towards his.
She couldn't see a single feature on his pretty face, but his breath against her lips suggested he was hovering just over her, "Then come. I insist that this purgatory period ends - it has gone on long enough. I've paid my dues."
His fingers trailed along her jaw and into her hair, and she felt his tongue graze along her open bottom lip seductively. It was moments before they were kissing again for the first time since that disastrous party, and it was different now coming from him; slow and careful.
Until Audette decided she wanted one last vengeful hurrah out of him, "I will attend as yours, and this whole purgatory will have ceased, on one final condition."
"Out with it then," he rasped in a spitting tone, as if Audette hadn't already received a tremendous set of treasures over the past month.
She wriggled away from his grasp and crossed her arms over her nightgown, then slipped it off her head. Naked, she fell back again in a pile of fluffy hair and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I request only that you sleep fully unsheathed with me, for your own torture naturally."
His hand travelled investigatively around her revised state to trickle over her breasts, followed by a scoff as he landed on her bare buttocks, "Or I could leave. Don't think I can't discern your unholy intentions by now. We've discussed this."
She snuggled her head into her pillow with a mocking smile he would surely see through her tone alone, "And I could just not come tomorrow. Have fun sliding your way back to your lonely bed."
In one swift motion he reached behind his shirt and yanked it off athletically. Then he flattened onto his back next to her to shove off his pants, breaking out into a grouchy rant, "Fine. Don't expect anything to happen - you will simply torture yourself instead."
She knew it was manipulative and her Slytherin brain couldn't care less. Draco was an athletic male at the height of his sexuality, and he was going to lose. And she would finally have him, fully.
She turned over and curled up her knees deviously, and at first his bare body felt cold against her backside but quite quickly her single bed was on fire in several different ways. She could tell he was determined to actually sleep, and for about ten full minutes she was veritably disappointed when nothing happened, not even a flicker against her bum.
Audette proceeded to grind backwards into him but Draco lost his patience immediately, "Do you always sleep like you're horseback riding? Cut it out."
The deed had been done. Even when she gladly relaxed and faked a sleepy moan he started to trail one finger teasingly around her nipples and then down to her belly button, now breathing shakily out of his mouth.
She felt his weight pressing onto her as his fingers explored every creamy curve of her slender waist. A cancerous smile bloomed on her face when his throbbing member swelled up between her cheeks.
Twisting her face again she searched for his lips in the darkness. Now they were both apparently horseback riding, her bedposts starting to screech ever so lightly as they tangled, groped and kissed.
"We can't, you don't understand," Draco whimpered defensively as his cock came dangerously close several times.
Her tummy had blossomed with feminine flowers of desire and anxiety which could not be ripped out like common weeds, and she came to the startling conclusion that her chemistry with Draco was much stronger than with Theodore.
Their kisses were wet, both of them sweating under the heavy blanket, when Draco spiralled out of control and crawled over her. He viciously yanked her hair to the side, gasping and biting the bent angle of her neck as they rubbed together. He somehow managed to avoid sinking into her even when Audette wrapped her legs around him, but the feral crave between them was bound to change that.
"Oh fuck, fuck, we can't, not yet," he throatily whined, but his body was begging otherwise as he jutted his hips uncontrollably forward. She had never felt him trembling so out of control, his skin slick with musky sweat and his breath ferociously unstable.
She pulled his face to hers by the back of his ivory hair, speaking in a fairy voice filled with ecstasy, "Yes we can, Draco, take me right now. I'm yours."
Well this dynamic certainly was turning out to be opposite of everyone's assumptions of the pair; her begging for it, and him doing everything in his power to hold off, and she couldn't begin to understand why.
He was inches from inside of her, her heart racing with adrenaline and hope. She could feel the hot weight of his cock pulsating against her inner thigh, the warmth of his rocky body flat on her breasts...
"Fuck, stop you know I wish I could," he pushed back in a show of incredible resilience, guiding her arms upwards while dropping his head to shockingly suck at her hard nipples.
Audette laid there in the blackness like a long sleeved shirt hanging from a clothesline, partially dismayed and in mystery of what his plan was.
Finally he moved downwards, and just kept dropping, and dropping, his hands tickling along her ribs, then grabbing her hips firmly.
He kissed at her soaking core and she clapped a hand to her mouth to prevent herself from making any suggestive noises in the dozing room. After digging a strong finger into her thigh to spread her legs, he then slid his tongue against her clit.
Audette gasped against her palm.
She shut her eyes harshly and scratched her fingernails into his messy white hair, her back arching like a cat as he pleasured her. She could feel his pointy nose ruffling around, sense his nails clawing into her hips, and it was so wonderfully carnal the way incorporated small nipping actions into it.
"Mmm, I'm cumming, kiss me," Audette eventually released her hand long enough to whisper hoarsely to him.
"Oh ya?" Draco seemed mildly surprised by his success, climbing back onto her. He kissed her as best as she would allow but Audette couldn't help her mouth dropping wide open as the orgasm crippled her.
"Oh Merlin, I can't..." his mouth opened against hers to exhale hot, jilted breath down her throat. His cock came within a millimetre of penetrating her, and suddenly she felt a familiar sticky ooze between her legs, right between her legs.
When they had both calmed down Draco flattened against her exhausted and pressed his sharp nose into her neck, absolutely sopping with salty sweat, "Damn it Bellarose, every time with you. That was way too fucking close. You had better be on a protection charm."
To her it could be way, way closer, but she held her tongue.
Audette shook her head, dazed and drunken from the lovely experience, "Yes, of course."
"Alright shut it down freaks, you've had your nasty fun let us sleep already," Pansy hollered from the opposite side of the aisle, unbothered by all accounts that Draco had impossibly made his way into their sleeping quarters.
Audette's breath caught when she noticed that Cosmos' strangled snoring had vanished, to be replaced by a series of girly giggles in the room. She internally imploded, replaying the whole encounter wondering just how much they'd heard.
"False alarm. Etch and Sketch is clear kids, go back to bed," Cosmos laughed groggily along with them. The sound of him slamming the charmed toy onto his bedside table and the ruffling of girls turning back over ended the late night rendezvous.
"So is purgatory over or what?" Draco snorted along with the entertained girls and Cosmos.
"Okay Draco, I'll be there tomorrow to support you," Audette turned on her side while wincing at the straggling snickering to snuggle up against the boy who'd pulled the comforter down to his toned waistline, boiling and panting, one muscular arm bent up behind his head.
The resulting bliss of the concurrence landed Audette right back into her dreamland against his pecs, and unusually safe from worrying about the next deadly trial which was scheduled to start in mere morning hours.
And apparently last for three days.