What a splendidly gloomy New Years it was, that final day in 1998.

Fitting, seeing as it had been a gloomy year afterall.

Above the hatefully spired rooftops of a pitch black mansion, surrounded by a misty ring of contorted trees which stemmed out of the ground like the arms of the dead seeking escape from hell, a very large golden moon hung suspended in the sky like an eyeball upon an optic nerve.

It would be full in mere hours, round as a gleaming crystal ball, signifying another thinning of the cosmological veil between the Beyond, the Before, and the Now.

Click click click...

Under the baleful glower of the transient celestial eye - which failed not in it's efforts to filter in through every crack and crevice, every pane of glass, and around the fringes of thickly drawn curtains - Audette Bellarose strode down the crepuscular hallway of the eastern Malfoy Manor wing with unrecognizable confidence.

In comparison to when she had arrived a week prior, she was an entirely new witch.

No longer was she left alert and trembling in the night by the belligerent creaks and groans in the ancient foundations.

In fact, these eerie quarks were but a droplet in the estate's live orchestra which never took rest in the festering acropolis; there was also the whistling of biting wind through the wriggling window frames, cries of prisoners being tortured in the murky dungeons, and guttural shrieks from illegal dragons chained up in the fields.

Then of course, who could forget the paranormal; inexplicable whispers which whorled through the seven storey chimney stacks, the endless rattling of doorknobs without invitation, and the wailing and moaning from lost spirits of the dead, trapped there and only growing in population each day.

Click click click...

Now Audette too was part of the macabre orchestra, providing contradictory intonations such as the ticking of her glittery high heels and bubbly laughter.

A fling of her wavy blond locks plumed scintillating sparkles into the dank air as she blew a kiss and winked at a painting of an extremely shrewd great, great grandmother of Draco's, who had come to spit vile insults at her each time she passed by.

It was one predictable horrendous name call after another; little Bridget bitch, sorcerer's jezebel...Audette's favorite so far had been putrid paddy prostitute...

Insect. Parasite. Seductress.

Apparently two hundred years prior, Philomena Malfoy - who by far had the most protruding and crooked nose Audette had ever seen - had lost a wandering husband to a quite beautiful Irish girl. Who upon living out her remaining days as a poisonous spinster found it impossible to see Audette as anything other than a rat from the same pack of ill-meaning enchantresses.

Well...so be her own self imposed turmoil - she'd better accustom herself, because Audette wasn't going anywhere.

As she planted her hand on the spidery handle of the very same drawing room she'd found daunting days before, she glanced over her shoulder at where the chains on the double doors dared chime in place.

There it was again, that insidious raven orb in the dismal crack, always watching, always waiting.

Before the boggart could launch it's latest attack, Audette raised two fingers and whispered an incantation under her breath, watching with satisfaction as the egress slammed shut powerfully.

Draco Malfoy had been generous enough to teach her all sorts of deadly delights in that week; wandless incantations, fencing and archery, banished elixir brews...

Hmm yes, they had stayed rather busy, one might say, in many devilish ways...

The caterwaul of the exhausted elderly door drew the handsome hector's gaze away from the star spotted window he'd been peering out of, smoke clouding around his combed platinum locks which were creeping nearly down to his suit collar after months without sheering.

Audette had continuously whined about how she adored his priceless white hair at it's unreasonable length, begging he not touch it just yet with the biggest green eyes she could possibly inflict upon him.

And even though he was beginning to find it troublesome on the Quidditch pitch, Draco had wearily obliged her desires.

That evening in the drawing room was overcast to state in the least, as lighting the gargantuan fireplace would be counterproductive to their travel plans for the monumental holiday.

Instead, Draco's insipidly toned eyes landed upon Audette with the dull refracting radiance of a few fat pillar candles intruding amongst the urns on the mantlepiece.

The wallpaper, which in the sunlight shined in golden brilliance, appeared in the shadows as a burnt pumpkin orange, each of the farthest reaches in the expansive room fading out of notion in the shadows.

He froze, inspecting her latest deviance from courtly umbrella dresses.

The dress currently clutching at Audette's slender skeleton was undeniably marvelous.

Creamy white fabric of the highest pedigree flowed in form fitting sheets, clinging to her body all the way down in a slender drop off at her ankles. Swanlike, the gown completed with tight sleeves to her wrists, and a saucy peak of her impressive cleavage to top it off.

Draco whistled low and clicked his tongue as he crossed the room with veiny hands buried in his suit pockets, running his piercing attention up and down, "They'll tear you, limb from limb."

"Who will?" Audette sauntered seductively in her heels to the hearth, where they met in preparation for floo travel to the private ski lodge owned by Cassius Warrington's wealthy family.

It was the location in which the annual Slytherin New Year's party was slated to unravel, perched high atop Zermatt mountain in the formidable Swiss Alps.

Draco popped one eyebrow as his fingers shot to her waistline greedily, "The girls, all of them will be enraged with envy; they'll have no choice but to slaughter you."

"You speak with a bejeweled tongue, Mr. Malfoy, a miracle you can even lift it to produce such fibs," she wrapped her arms around his neck and grinned up at him coyly, pressing her tummy tightly against his, "Think me blind to the cruel manner in which you treat all others? Why should I expect to be the sudden exception?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" he tilted his chin down at her with cavalier regard, hands tickling their way up her spine and into her hair, "You are special to me. Favoritism is not criteria for ingenuity - in fact, I would argue it's...a form of invaluable loyalty."

Audette became brutally aware of herself and shut her eyes bashfully.

This could not be real.

The love of this alluring and wildly hostile boy still did not feel real.

He offered his arm for her to grab, "Hold on tight, Wonderland; it's a real rabbit hole to Switzerland."

Directing them both into the monstrous grate, he dipped his pale fingers into a granite bowl on the outskirts of the urn collection to withdraw a fistful of enchanted emerald sand.

He waited patiently with a slight frown on his features as Audette ensured the ends of her dress were all gathered into one immaculate clump free of the distinguished ashes, before calling out sternly and tossing the verdant granules to their toes, "Zermatt Peak Lodge."

In a dazzling shroud of shimmering jade, the ghostly Malfoy Manor disappeared in a blink.

Swoosh.

As quickly as a shooting star, they reappeared in a concrete reality of wood and stone.

The scent of smoke and cedar curled prolifically in the crisp air as the pair blitzed out of a natural rock fireplace, Audette tugging Draco off balance as she stumbled clumsily.

Beyond the appointed portal laid a vacant lounge to welcome their privileged attendance. Empty, because the entire expansive chateau had been reserved for the exclusive party, including all four hundred arboraceous rooms and contextual amenities.

The lounge was not an outdoor area by any design, but with the amount of exterior glass inlaid between skeletal wooden beams it might as well have been; encompassed on all sides by towering narrow spruce trees dusted with a filigree of snow.

Behind the conical treeline the sky was a perfect blueberry blah, with but a dash of semi-circle sapphire chasing the failing sun.

Stars, unencumbered by pollution of any variety, winked down upon them.

They had surely arrived at the tippy top of the planet, where view into the cosmos was at it's shallowest distance.

Draco left Audette to gawk, carelessly making his way towards a monstrous imperial staircase that jogged up in the direction of noisy party music and rowdy shouting.

Spectacularly, the treads divided on either side to encompass a several meter wide, petrified sequoia tree with smooth, white bark; who's naked branches came short of the ceiling panels by a fraction.

She hung back, taking ginger steps, until her gaze lowered and her heart began to throb as she scrutinized the furnishings of the luxury lounge.

It was an aggrandized graveyard; adorned with taxidermized skulls belonging to species of bears, boars and wolves - but even more gruesome were the signature white fur rugs produced from a very particular, victimized polar creature.

"How could they do this to the yetis?" she began fidgeting furiously with her petticoat, noticing that the authentic fur cladding extended to couch pillows, throw blankets and wall décor as well, "They are classified as humanoid. This is a blatant crime against intelligent sentience."

Draco stopped on the bottom tread of the stairs and shot her a sharp look of crass disregard, "Apparently they make for a good feng shui setting as well. It is not a crime in this country. This is the Warrington's we're talking about. Try not to look."

"I just..." she covered her nose in horror.

How could she not?

She couldn't help picturing the nightly bonfires hosted by the yeti occupying the Bellarose Biodome, who found great pleasure in showcasing their depictive dances and ice sculpting skills to captivated tourists.

They were all male, every last one of them; hermaphroditic by nature and tremendously funny to share stories with...if one had the energy to climb that high up into a blizzard for a chilly chitchat regarding who stole who's handcrafted pink ear muffs.

Draco pressed his lips together, "What are you hoping for - that your falling tears will somehow regenerate these beasts from their scalped fur alone?"

He was right. There was nothing she could do but pass by in remorse for the lives lost.

She took a deep breath and plucked up her dress train, hoping that the next space would not be decorated with matching appall.

"Draco, I..." she met up with him at the base of the staircase, losing her voice as the seriousness of the following month came crashing down upon her all at once.

Their solo holiday had transpired in a spellbinding blink, and now it was time to face the real world once more.

Actually - it was time for Draco to face the real world once more, while Audette was slated to face a month in speechless solidarity.

"What?" he quipped down at her, holding his arms out impatiently.

Time paused.

Audette found herself mesmerized yet again by his vibrant blue eyes burning down at her.

By some genetic artistry of gobsmacking assimilation, his iris' dared comprise themselves in all shades of radiating cerulean - procuring a colour wheel that ranged between waning diamond and remorseless permafrost.

Perhaps that colour wheel was best personified by a rugged beach.

It was a silent and stinging place, subzero at all times of the year, somewhere in the nether regions of the Arctic pole...where needled evergreens rooted sternly at the edge of the waterline, propagating a spicy pine scent when colliding in the blowing, northerly winds...

On the clear pebble shoreline, one might dance in the palest and purest waters riding up on the washed grey rocks. Farther out the water grew colder and darker, where unidentified monsters swam and light challenged the lower shadows for medial influence.

That...that was Draco Malfoy's eyes as a place.

Not far away, the joyful repartee of their peers reverberated encouragingly in the background, and she could already see Draco itching to escape at the seams; fingers tapping, pointy nose pulling back, face twitching at the corners...

"Spit it out already," he rasped.

Feeling overwhelmed, especially seeing how frankly judgmental his expression was, Audette rolled her lips inwards. She eventually shrugged in helpless forlorn, "Everything is about to change once again. I'll be clocked up at Castle Bellarose for an entire month, and you'll be..."

He exhaled dramatically and squinted at her, his voice now deepening to gain her attention, "Our relationship isn't compromised simply because this week has concluded and we are faced with physical distance. If anything, it is more concrete than ever before."

She simpered in mild reprieve, "Well...based on history...it is just now occurring to me that I stand to be made a fool of, while we are physically distanced..."

"Jesus Christ, here we go," Draco growled, turning away for a second to sharply suck in air through his nose. He bounced on the spot to cool his anger, and when his gaze jilted back down to her face from an angle, she couldn't bare to hold his military eye contact.

Oh no.

Oh no...there it went.

Bye bye, confidence...

Like puzzle pieces in the wind, she could feel her confidence decimating on the spot.

What if engagement wasn't sufficient to keep him all for herself?

A lot might conspire in one month - especially when it came to the undefeated Quadrivial champion strutting about without any supervision.

Even when Audette had been holding his hand in the previous semester, girls had dared to approach with fairy voices and ill intentions sparkling in their catty gazes.

Draco caught his breath for a second, concluding precisely what was the concern without needing any further outline, "Did I not just ask you to marry me seven days ago, Audette? The entire society is fussing. Our engagement has been nationally publicized in the papers. Is that not monumental enough for you to feel confident in my fidelity over a single month of separation?"

He held his aphonic stare boldly, and it went back and forth like that for a beastly smidge of time until Audette's eyes welled up like shiny pools, her voice breaking vulnerably, "Cannot you conceive why I fall prey to worry? A month is just so dreadfully long..."

"Don't...weep, you know I can't stand that," he ran a hand through his lengthy locks, shaking his face at her, "If you're so concerned I will stray, I've learned my lesson. I am quite satisfied with my fiancée, who I've spent years pursuing...years I won't be tossing away for some incomparable whore."

Audette barely managed to suppress further waterworks with a choking groan, pawing at runaway tears, "...Okay."

"Do I at least have your word you will visit often?" she inquired through soggy fear, blinking at him hopefully.

Rolling his neck with a loud crack, Draco stepped down off the single stair he'd been balancing his frame half over, placing both hands firmly on her cheeks.

That arctic beach of blues bore directly into her emerald green gardens, "If your father permits it, I will visit you, satisfied?"

She gripped onto his shiny jacket sleeves, looking beseechingly into his eyes as teary droplets clung to her protruding eyelashes, "Promise to call upon me as much as possible. And...that you'll kiss my hand each time, and bring bundles of ripe flower bells, and remind me of all the ways you are deathly besotted with me?"

"Oh you know me, your chivalrous neighborhood Prince Charming," he grunted sarcastically.

Aware that she sounded much like a silly girl from the mid century, she crisscrossed her eyes on his slender tie, obnoxiously tightening it where revision was not necessary.

Draco's forehead crinkled as he inspected her invasive fiddling, "Easy, easy."

Audette barely caught her breath between sentences, "Else I'll go mad, mad with unfathomable jealousy...and circumspection...all manner of wandering thoughts really..."

The July Cancer crab in her was on a feral rampage; pincers clipping at all strings rooted in rationale, seeking reassuring security in both love and habitat out of a man who was remarkedly enigmatic, fleeting and difficult by default.

"You're already mad as a hatter, just look at yourself," he stepped back to loosen the now choking tie, eyebrows knitting, "Who mentioned anything about abandonment? Audette this is fucking hysteria."

When she merely stared at him longingly he stowed his eyes to the floor where her silky dress was pooling like a spilled fountain of cream, "What's gotten into you? You're acting like...a freak."

Audette pet at her long luscious locks, internally begging herself not to start up another round of senseless blubbering, "It's...a feeling I can't quite explain, that something horrid is about to unfurl."

He studied her face, eventually sighing and holding up his right hand, which began to hum with a very signature bright pink glow - special magic Audette had taught him to procure in the last few dreamy days, "Come here, I've had enough of this."

She tripped towards him gratefully, reaching out an equally illuminated left paw to plant against his, "Promise, promise me the whole lot, won't you Draco?"

Hot energy flowed between their bodies as they clasped hands, pulsing with the beat of their unified magic, and Audette's panic attack began to gradually fade.

He rolled his gaze, landing back on her flirtatiously, "Oh yeah. I promise. I promise to deliver you the fucking universe in a bottle as well. Would you like that?"

Audette pressed up on her toes coquettishly, nuzzling her lips against his, "Mmmhmm."

"Mmmhmm?" he began to peck back, their conjoined hands burning in wonderful watermelon ambrosia.

Draco tugged Audette into him by her waist, and all was warm and surreal again, until a revolting sound of retch echoed around the expansive glass hall.

"Merlin, I might be ill before I've even had the chance to get pissed," the familiar suave jab of Pansy Parkinson bounced as she approached them, having just popped out of the entry fire herself in an extremely revealing black dress.

She wagged her fingernail at them, converging one sultry step at a time, brown doe eyes glistening with mockery, "Well Malfoy, it looks like all of your sickening dreams have come true afterall. I do hope you haven't forgotten who helped you achieve this treasured engagement with our four-leafed heiress over here."

"Forgotten? You mean like that medical condition Audette calls am-no-shuh?" Draco smirked and disentangled himself, accepting Pansy's eager and audacious barrel into his arms for a hug.

While they were known to be close friends and often greeted on occasions, Audette struggled to squelch unreasonable jealousy with a fade of her loopy smile, judging precisely where his hands landed on her back and the amount of inches retained between their bodies.

Only months earlier they'd been hugging in the Slytherin common room and it had meant nothing to her whatsoever.

"That is how it is pronounced, amnosia," she crossed her arms defensively, glaring at Pansy who was now straightening her slatternly dress in a highly distracting way.

"Amnesia, Satan's beard," the tarty brunette smiled in innocent wickedness, dropping her false lashes up and down Audette's unusually frisky presentation, "Honestly, I've never understood the hype surrounding Irish accents, although it seems to tickle Draco's chin, doesn't it? Let's see it then, this gussied up ring the ton can't get enough of."

She flattened an upturned palm to Audette who obliged with feisty hesitation, "Well go on, why don't you gaze at it until you're positively blind."

"Hmm," Pansy jeered curiously, rotating the jeweled serpent ring, her splendid dark bob swinging down as she tilted her skull, "I reckon you'll be able to peddle it for a hefty sum when the daydream comes crashing down."

She patted Draco on the arm as she stepped around him, "Try not to ruin it before the wedding, Malfoy."

"I couldn't get rid of this neurotic parasite even if I wanted to," he bit his lip and pushed Audette roughly backwards with a boyish snicker.

They climbed the stairs together - drawn directorially by the bass of speakers and riotous clamoring.

Having wedged her way in between them, Pansy couldn't seem to get enough of the teasing, frowning sarcastically up at Draco who was fervently attempting to brush his long bangs away from his face, "Has your skull shrunk, or is your hair down to your jacket?"

"Bellarose prefers it this way," he responded nonchalantly.

Then it was Audette's turn, Pansy reaching across to pinch at her backside like a snapper turtle, "And I'll bet you prefer her in all these risqué dresses she's been popping up in."

A few hallways later they arrived at a set of opened parlor doors leading into a rather palatial club room, filled with pillars, burbling water features and live fur trees decorated for the season.

The photometrics were intentionally set to dim abstraction, reliant upon chandeliers built of tree branches and pine garlands.

Stepping down at differing levels were pool tables and a large central bar, sunken private seating nodes, and a smoking lounge with a grand fireplace partly obscured by an elaborate partition wall.

There must have been close to one hundred young witches and wizards milling around the luxury amenities, ranging from those within Hogwarts Slytherin House and including various approved connections from other schools.

Spells sparkled in gentle puffs as people playfully bewitched gizmos to gleam with 99.

The northern wall was constructed by a plated fenestration of glass, providing flawless view of the most daunting mountain Audette could possibly envision sliding down on a pair of slippery planks strapped to one's feet.

"Oh Draco, wait," their handhold snapped off on the way to the bar, where he was striding uncomfortably fast towards his clustering friends.

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She placed both palms in wonderment against the nearest pane, which proceeded to fog as her warm breath contended with the frigid atmosphere on the other side.

In the darkness of the night, through a curtain of enormous icicles dripping off the slanted rooftop, a jagged conglomeration of snow and ice stabbed towards the stratosphere like a singular violent pyramid of imperfect toothy bedrock.

Mount Zermatt, carpeted with dusty ice and inhospitable angles, jutted just beyond the base of the humming chalet and conjoined lake basin.

Below the stars on the mountainscape, magicals were skiing in runny veins, leaving pristine arteries of illuminated glowstick streams at their heels.

When someone dared a jump, an explosion of radiance blossomed in their wake.

"First time seeing incandescent sports?" Draco drooped his gaze to Audette at his side, tugging on her elbow fervently.

It was truly captivating, as if someone had spilled a glowing paint can filled with every colour in the rainbow, trickling in rivers down the otherwise shadowy peak.

The evening started off at the busy bar, hosting upon it's counter a beastly cauldron the size of a cow which was frothing with a phosphorescent, silver concoction.

Beside it, a most topsy-turvy tower of silver goblets wobbled in place like a dangerous jenga tower of metal.

The shelves behind had been stripped down of all other options, leaving guests universally wandering about with cups of the misty brew.

Standing before it with a frown of distaste, Draco leaned over the bubbling top, his already bright eyes shining like flashlights in it's cataract glow as he shouted over the obscenely deafening speakers, "Warrington, where is your sense of hospitality? I'm not drinking a year's worth of your boiling spunk."

He clearly had not noticed that the substance was being guarded and doled out by a herd of disgusting severed hands with black nails and warty skin.

In a prompt response, the one closest to Draco's snoopy, pointy nose clambered up the cast iron exterior and gave it a good flick to back him off.

The howling from his peers was legendary as Draco scowled repugnantly, watching it balance on a protruding stem of sliced forearm bones to send him a rotted middle finger.

"Oh come onnnn Snow White, it's not poisoned," Warrington clapped Draco roughly between the shoulders, causing another rift of silky locks to drop before his eyes, "Too much time with that Celtic fairy softened you up?"

Said Celtic fairy was nearly knocked off her feet herself, when someone's heavy arm draped around her shoulders, violating the oxygen around her face with an alcoholic burp.

It was one sweaty Marcus Flint - a boy she found to be unbelievably unattractive - yelling at the top of his lungs to Draco, "Have a gulp Malfoy, sure to put some hair on that bare chest of yours! Hell, might even put some hair on your pissy little ballerina's chest!"

He shook Audette unnecessarily off balance until she managed to paw him away by poking her nails at his eyes, narrowly missing blinding him, "Relieve me at once! You reek of a tavern and armpits!"

"Pissy alright. Haven't tamed her yet, have you Malfoy?" Goyle jeered as she straightened her hair and dress, while Marcus dug a knuckle into his injured eyelid in the background.

"Everyone knows the batty bitches are more fun, am I right?" Warrington nodded at Draco, who popped his eyebrows in suggested concurrence.

All of their faces standing tall above her suddenly had Audette feeling like a helpless ant amongst giants, glancing about the nebulous club for Pansy who had disappeared, or any sign of Guy's antics. He had apparently somehow forced his way onto the invite list against all odds.

Goblets of the cryptic potation were shoved into both of their hands as they were swallowed up by a shroud of cruel Slytherin boys.

"Still dabbling in necromancy on that rooftop, Malfoy?" Crabbe inquired, the front of his slobby dress shirt steaming with the illuminated spirit. He'd clearly been spilling it for quite a while with usual disregard for his presentation.

Draco dared to take a sip of the drink, lowering it with an immediately sour response before clearing his throat, "Perfected it."

"Bit weak, don't you think?" Graham Montague glared insidiously over the rim of his cup, "A Guild Master reanimating dead vermin for target practice? Too cowardly to shoot at anything living?"

Draco's eyes flashed darkly, an evil grin carving his handsome face, "Perhaps I aught to kill you off and bring you back Montague; then we'll get your maggoty opinion from the Beyond on the power and value of Necromancy no matter the employment."

Now that it was outlined aloud, Audette registered for the first time that she was betrothed to an illegal Necromancer. In fact, she could not think of one other person in her life with such an exploratory ability.

Curiously, Blaise Zabini had yet to greet Draco at all, lurking there just outside of the ring of boys with a peculiar air of discomfort that was beginning to plant a second seed of concern in Audette's tummy. Once more, he seemed to be selecting the unpopular route of sobriety.

Or perhaps that sensation was attributed to the strange swirling liquid in her chalice, which tasted like the gooey sludge of coconut water, and once in the stomach was remarkably hot and bothering.

Her head had already begun to go funny and cloudy, hoping that an entire room of people were not about to be tripping on some godforsaken hallucinogen.

There was boring talk of the Quidditch team and broomstick models slated for debut in 1999, of class schedules, and naturally the third Quadrivial trial.

What were Draco's expectations - was he going to win the entire tournament, undefeated in every round?

They yammered on about other more revolting topics, topics which ballooned Audette's desires to escape the masculine colloquy where she did not belong at all.

One morsel of underlying pertinent information did beep on her radar, realizing that the same pressure she and Draco were under to fast track their engagement was effectively widening it's circumference to others of equally influential standing.

Millicent Bulstrode's mother had apparently called upon Vincent Crabbe to propose, or elsewise explore other options. They had until the end of the spring school term to engage, or Satan spare them.

Chadwick Fawley and Astoria Greengrass had been forcefully paired by their impatient parents, Chadwick rolling his eyes in disdain that it had arisen to the social surface, "She's a trifling little whore; suppose she's good for status and porking, bout it."

Audette had been phasing out of the toxic male conversation for some time, watching a boy fighting off a strange bewitched skeleton in a glittery suit and top hat with all the right intentions but no idea of how to read signals. It was actively on an overzealous mission to offload upon him far too many smoking chalices from a sterling serving tray.

Two, three, four...five chalices later, the poor boy failed to contain the mountain of unwanted mugs piling against his chest. Upon dropping the load by understandable accident, he then had to deal with the skeleton guilting him, melodramatically fake crying by producing rubbing motions near it's hollow eye sockets and gesturing with crisis at the mess.

She remained aloof, until an unavoidable comment brought her back around, "Finally get a good plow in with that tight, persnickety pussy, Malfoy? Must've been a journey to the end of the rainbow, getting that ring on her finger and having her hand over daddy's mountain of precious gold."

She turned in surprise, lips parting slowly.

"Obviously I've fucked my fiancée, Montague," Draco rasped, his attention shooting to Audette directly across from him.

The plague of wicked boys all snickered, meeting gazes with another mischievously, before someone in the pack yelled out, "Tell us then Draco - the answer we've all been waiting months for - does she cry afterwards?"

"No," he barked back tersely, signaling through tone alone that he desired no further investigation into the matter.

As the cackling grew to a voracious clammer, Audette's eyes clouded over in memory, recalling that very first night in the common room...marching up the stairs in outrage, then what she had overheard below in her wake...

Only one way to find out.

He gaped at her remorsefully, the pronounced Adam's apple in his slender throat bobbing as if it were a buoy on the open ocean.

His gaze kept getting distracted repeatedly by the whispering comments being passed quietly around between the destructive boys, "It's not-"

"-Do you think you, uh, lost the plot a tad, Malfoy?" Adrian Pucey queried boldly, "We only bet you to fuck the cobwebs out of the prudent witch, not marry her."

Blood drained from Audette's face as he continued on mercilessly, boring his hazel eyes down into her, "Suppose it is possible to formulate a whore out of a prude."

Draco heeded Audette's extremely insulted expression before his face contorted violently and he chose to act.

At the speed of light he proceeded to slap the silver chalice clean out of Pucey's hand - ironically sending it lurching straight into the exposed skull of the zealous serving skeleton nearby, who collapsed into a pile of wriggling bones and shiny fabric before beginning to rebuild itself resentfully slow.

Draco yanked the boy forward by his tie to within an inch of his scalding blue glare, "You will apologize. Or...I'll rip your fucking useless head off utilizing this tie alone. You decide."

"OOoooohoohoo, better apologize," Cassius jeered mockingly on the sidelines, garnishing a round of ruckus as he glanced left and right at the nasty young Death Eaters surveilling the escalation, "Didn't catch the tournament, Pucey? Malfoy's lost the plot and his bloody mind - he's in love."

Gradually, and with a rather dull and insincere look, the spoiled brat addressed his attacker pathetically in apparent decision, "I...apologize."

"You will apologize with sincerity, directly to my fiancée," Draco snarled, darting his eyes to Audette then right back with such murderous intensity that the circle grew temporarily silent in curious anticipation.

Only meters away, witches and wizards continued to laugh and dance about heartily, blissfully retrieving drinks from the cauldron's fingery scampering butlers.

The bewitched skeleton finished rebuilding himself, screwing his head on straight with a swish-swash crack. It seemed to have identified it's assailant, marching towards the group of boys.

Pucey fought back against Draco smugly, "Alright there, Romeo. I'm not one to apologize to some flouncy tramp, but, why don't we give it a go?"

He tilted his attention down to Audette's livid green flames then with a filthy smirk, "Apologies, for pointing out your cobwebs, Bellarose. Must feel much better down there now, eh? If you ever need a uh, full chimney sweep, I'm always available."

A line of pulsing veins scribbled sharply down the center of Draco's forehead as he twisted the boy's tie repeatedly, his eyes as void as the darkest depths of hell, "I aught to relieve you of your ugly fucking skull right here and now."

In that moment, the acid glistening in his gaze was surely capable of melting through fluorocarbon Teflon.

Several boys distanced themselves in wonder as Pucey finally and wisely accepted defeat, facing Audette as best he could in his constricted position to spit weakly, "I...apologize..."

Draco relinquished the tie with a harsh shove and nodded to Audette once, panting heavily.

Pucey tripped away coughing only to back into the angry skeleton who wrapped itself around him and dragged him to the floor for a heated brawl.

Now they were sniggering at the fracas instead of Audette, which was quite relieving, although the comments had left her feeling slandered.

As they all began to relax again, Greggory jabbed Draco in the arm playfully, "Bout time we plan your, uh, bachelor affair then, eh mate? Show you a proper dodgy time before it's all bloomers and bed before nine."

"Even if it could be realized she'd never let me, it'd have to be done in brilliant secrecy," an expression of weary confusion spread across Draco's face as the convicting words tumbled honestly from his lips.

And that was the final straw.

Audette lost her patience and nearly chucked her chalice in fury, "In your bloody dreams! I'll ball up all of my cobwebs and choke you with them before I permit you to throw some debauch bachelor party."

Observing her reaction, Marcus nodded his head at Cassius, whispering something in his ear.

Pucey rejoined the circle with frazzled hair just as Cassius bobbed his head, snapping his fingers at the crowd, "Oi, boys, let's put out the embers in our broomsticks. There's guild business to discuss in the smoking lounge."

"Yeahhh, and no persnickety hussies aloud," Marcus jabbed his finger into Audette's shoulder to back her successfully out of the concentrated ring.

"Draco, Draco Lucius Malfoy..." she warned darkly, her fist balling up dangerously hard.

"I'll see you later, Audette, don't do anything rash," was all the comfort she was afforded, with a mocking kiss on her forehead that was akin to slapping a band aid on a broken limb.

Then he turned to follow the pack of monsters behind the forbidden partition wall.

Unexpectedly abandoned, she stood there as people bumped into her to get at the fully unimpeded cauldron, breathing shallow, head spinning on her spinal cord...

Bachelor party...

This was an obvious aspect of engagement that had soared clean over her lovestruck brain.

Speaking of doing something rash, she would have to kill him she decided, and that would be an entirely inconvenient chore, because Audette was piss poor with a shovel. She also was not fond of spoiling pretty gowns with muddy spray and sweat below a full moon.

Refilling her mug at the graciousness of a hospitable severed hand, Audette decided she would get raging sloshed until he returned; and the longer he waited, so in correlation would her reasonability decrease, and the worse of a situation he would have to deal with.

It could not have come at better timing when a recognizable, goosey scoff rung over the stifling horde, "Now there's no telling what those foul boys have stuck in there - troll's snot and streeler slime if I had to take a guess!"

Audette's heart leapt, scanning about for the one boy aside from Draco that she desperately desired to locate.

Guy dribbled on, "I mean, just have yourself a gander - could've come straight from a toddler with a bucket and a stick in the rear yard. No, no, Parkinson you couldn't get me to gobble that, not even if it was the fountain of bloody youth!"

"Guy!" Audette desperately stretched her arm out in the direction of a floral tuxedo comprised of hundreds of pearly mermaid scales, shimmering with a shifting illusion of pink and lavender flowers as Cosmos moved about underneath the party lighting. His hair was as white as the snow clinging to the glacial terrain surrounding them.

Freakishly purple eyes roamed about until he noticed her face buried between aggressive people. Finally his clammy hand locked with hers, and Audette was freed from the madness to throw herself into his arms.

He was accompanied by the other three female roommates of the eighth floor Slytherin tower, his latest boyfriend Phillipe Noir in all elven tones of coordinated lavender, and one brooding bloke from the ninth floor Slytherin tower who apparently had taken a recent liking to Daphne.

Each of them had in their grip a cup of the nightmarish cauldron fluid save for Guy, who made a gesture with his hands and guided them all far out of the heart of choas towards the private, sunken seating nodes.

It was an instant bombardment.

As soon as Audette had settled her slender dress around her ankles and raised her head, they attacked like bears to a hanging satchel of fresh meat. All eyes were on her unblinkingly.

"So," Guy slid his chin into his palm with a pop of his tinted eyebrows.

"So," Pansy leaned also forward eagerly, eyes gleaming tellingly.

"So," Daphne joined the parade, sat in the elder boy's lap with a coy grin.

Even Millicent briefly tore her attention away from some gelatinous desert she had located out of the blue, which was actively trying to escape her plate by shimmying to safety in a gradual glump glump motion.

Where it planned to go after splattering on the floor was entirely up to one's imagination.

Guy cried encouragingly, "You look unrecognizable! We need all the grimy details, speak up, speak up!"

Blushing, Audette sucked on the potion in her fingers, "You'll have to be more specific, Cosmopolitan."

She knew what they were on about; Guy's etch-n-sketch would have gone off explosively the evening of the ball.

"And what the fork is this?" Cosmos threw out all patience, clamping onto her forearm, eyes magnetized to her engagement ring.

"Yes, I'm engaged," she beamed sheepishly.

He caught his breath, fingers to his cheek, "Ohhhhhh toads and trumpets, isn't it just offensively spectacular! Let me guess, he got down on one knee the night of the ball? With the entire Walt Disney orchestra chiming away no less?"

Daphne kicked at the table so that the lip angrily dug into Guy's bony knee, pointing the tip of her open high heel at a smattering of newspapers located there, "Have you been living on an asteroid, Cosmos?"

Living on an asteroid was not that uncommon, it turned out.

Guy had been dwelling in a household with two muggle parents, and Audette had been staying at the Malfoy Manor, cut off from the world.

Predictably they scrambled like siblings to paw at the papers, eventually surrendering to sharing the pages. Noir balanced his pretty chin on Guy's gruffly sequined shoulder to read the title aloud in his lovely Parisian accent, "De Diamond And De Rough."

Interspersed between columns of spidery writing were handfuls of moving photographs of Draco and Audette throughout the fleeting first semester.

It commenced with a depiction of them hugging as he arrived back safe from the first arctic tournament - covered in acidic paint bombs, ice and blood.

Below, read;

This unexpected story begins with Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry's favorite black sheep, reeling in the first Quadrivial Tournament victory.

No stranger to flashing cameras, Draco Lucius Malfoy of Slytherin House, reigning captain of both the Quidditch team and the dueling club, has stunned onlookers in more ways than one this year - not only by a landslide defeat in the opening trial, but also in an unsuspected courtly declaration.

Shown photographed above, he embraces one terrified yet supportive new girlfriend, Audette Bellarose - the single heiress to the famous Bellarose Castle in neighboring Ireland.

The castle is well known for it's seemingly limitless glass biodome: home to all manner of magical creatures ranging from commonplace to endangered - serving as a protective wildlife sanctuary, tourist attraction, and educational center.

Miss Bellarose was recently returned to court in the early spring following a lengthy and unfruitful dalliance with one Theodore Nott.

As expected, her availability was short lived, in sharp contrast of Mr. Malfoy's extended bachelor period. Yet to be recorded within any prior formal arrangement, he has finally laid claim to a pairing of exceptional design.

The moving image then shifted to showcase the illuminated tournament medal around Draco's neck - framed on one side by Dumbledore with squinty eyes and arms behind his back, and the Simulation Architect on the other.

Audette paused in curiosity, ignoring the remainder of the paragraph.

Draco's warnings about public presentation drew metaphorical blood for the first time as she realized he was not joking, that behaving together as a pair under the watchful eyes of the press would come back to haunt them.

"Read it aloud, you hoggy hippo," Guy jutted his jaw out at her, as Audette began to suck the newspaper in at all sides against his desperate claw.

"Gladly," she took it for herself, allowing Guy and Noir a small viewpoint of the moving pictures from afar.

Further down the page, she and Draco were shown traipsing side by side along a stony riverbed in the second trial, petti glove in quidditch glove; her in a burnt Victorian dress, and he in silver and green Quidditch gear.

Audette took another deep swig from her chalice and then faced the group, reading aloud embarrassingly, hearing it all for the first time herself,

Rumors of the attractive pairing only heightened as they joined forces in the second Quadrivial trial, seen here holding hands amorously.

For context, the Bellarose bloodline has spread a mossy carpet across generations of Irish titlebearing peers; commanding castles, oceanic military strongholds, and seaside woodlands. They are recognized as noble guardians of the Emerald Isle and stewards of the magical beast kingdom.

On another note, the Malfoy legacy goes without needing further embellishment; spectacularly rooted in royal affairs, and best known for serving political agency spanning over centuries.

Broadcast across the entire Hogwarts Great Hall, hearts swelled and speculation dwindled when Mr. Malfoy professed his shocking and undying affections for Miss Bellarose.

When promptly interviewed in the Hall, beloved Headmaster Albus Dumbledore - surrounded at all sides by scattered sleeping bags and lanterns - provided one statement with an air of detachment, "I often find, that it is the sole power of love that steers us into the light when darkness has coated itself in fickle dustings of tempting sugar."

Turning the newspages, Audette came face to face with a gigantic photograph ensnaring them posing together below the active balloon arch at the Yule Tide Ball.

In a dress of spectacular gold and a crown truly befitting a princess, she was uniquely captured in true colour to emphasize the beauty of her accouterments. Draco's analogous golden bowtie was also vibrant below his chin as he pulled her tight against him by her waist.

Shown here at the famous Yule Tide Ball, the pair are but hours away from engagement.

Unfortunately, Audette was ruining the shot by losing all control to giggling madness at the balloon ghosts pressing outwards all around them. Draco's face was of matching amusement, smiling down at her nonsense crookedly even though Audette could recall the photographer losing his temper repeatedly.

When questioned about the quirky photoshoot afterwards, the first place Champion simply shrugged, "Her sense of humour is an infectious gift."

"I think I'll be sick with vulnerability," Audette rapidly rolled her eyes in dread that the paper had been out for days beyond her knowledge, and that at least five people were expectantly observing her read it aloud, "Does anyone really care for this?"

"Yes we do," now impatient and mistrusting of the appointed reader, Guy fought her until the paper tore and she possessed the torn half with the latest details.

"You poisonous witch, you won't get away that easily, go on then," he seethed.

Begrudgingly, Audette continued to read aloud, although her eyesight had gone blurry and her words were regrettably slurred after another chug of her chalice.

The monumental engagement was confirmed on the eve of the twenty-sixth of December, by word of Lucius Malfoy. The humble dowry; one-hundred and fifty-million galleons.

As the small gathering in the sunken node gasped, Audette instantly regretted speaking out loud that last snidget. Leave it to Lucius Malfoy to brag his buns off to the press, just as her father had foreseen.

"One hundred and fifty..." Guy's eyes widened at Audette, reaching his lanky fingers ahead to painfully pinch at her nipple below the thin veil of her braless satin gown, "You'd best take me out wining and dining, and I expect a hefty sum of gorgeous tights and pretty patterned panties for all the trauma you've caused me this semester. Invisible people in buckets, and such horrendous bollocks!"

Meanwhile, Millicent Bulstrode had apparently just noticed her desert making an effortful sticky escape.

Now embedded with cluttering floor debris and probably hoping for ambiguity, the gelatin specialty was spinelessly flattening itself into a polymeric pancake below the thin base gap of the ottoman at her heels, producing an abominable slurping discord as it sought haven in the darkness of the furniture bottom.

Millicent's freckly nose scrunched in bewilderment of both the elusive jelly and Guy's wording, "Invisible people in buckets?"

Audette crumpled up the paper in her hands and just like that, it was gone amongst the nearby dancing crowd, "Alright, alright, I'll buy you whatever your heart desires you nifty pest, but I'm done with entertaining this embarrassing charade."

Guy stared at her as if she'd just hucked the heart of the ocean off the back of an exploratory schooner without at least providing the story first, "Well missy, you might be free of that paper, but I still haven't heard a dirty drop about the sex. How many times? How good was he?"

Noticing that her mind suddenly felt as blank as a freshly gessoed canvas, Audette found that her mouth moved all on it's own, twisting her hair girlishly, "Perhaps...eighteen times...I lost count by the sixth day. It's...well it's otherworldly and insatiable."

"Oh, finally," Guy slumped back into the booth seat with a heavenly twinkle in his grape-toned eyes, fingers on his chest where he'd intentionally not worn any undershirt resulting in a dramatic v-cut, "Our baby has entered the world of satisfaction and seduction, and my job is all done. I could just bewail had I not swallowed an unholy amount of mushrooms an hour ago."

Audette smacked him hard in his shoulder, "You galactic sapskull, Cozzy. I'll tell you now, I won't be babysitting you when you've landed on tenterhooks later."

"So he's that impressive?" Pansy's imploring chocolate orbs presented ferally across the seating node.

Their private conference was lit by dripping green pillar candles clustered at the center of the rotund glass table, flickering curious shadows in circles around the expressions of all present.

The serving skeleton appeared at the bottom of the recessed stairs, unloading at least ten chalices without any invitation, tipping it's top hat before going on his way.

Again, Audette's inexplicably blank mind struck again, belting out a string of extremely forthright words, "Yes he's that impressive. From some angles it's rather intense, but no matter how he ravages me I always succumb to unfathomable ecstasy."

Noir clapped a hand across his mouth, eyes sparkling in delighted shock down at Guy, "Oh mon dieu, can we say de same? Ravages?"

It was entirely possible she'd drunk too much too quickly, deciding with her remaining judgement to put down her chalice.

"Why ask me of details you are already privy to?" she squinted at Pansy suspiciously.

Pansy answered in the blink of an eye, "Oh don't be absurd I've never slept with him, he's practically a brother to me."

The curt statement was the precise opposite of what had been circulating for years through the grapevine, information Audette had decided to turn a civil blind eye to lest she end up strangling Pansy and half the female student population for that matter.

"Is that so? All of these years, fibbing away for what?" Audette's gaze grew to total slits, heeding that exact same weary speculation in Pansy's features that Draco had shown earlier, as if she'd just sat down on a tack and did not want to lift her bum to confirm the horror.

"I was asked to," Pansy's face flushed hot, attempting to shift the attention from herself, "Daphne's never slept with him either, none of us have."

Daphne choked mid-chug on her drink, coughing loudly as her eyes widened towards Pansy, "Parkinson...you swore."

When Pansy simply threw up her hands, Audette's heart breathed a sigh of alleviation hearing that all of it was truly gossip, but the question remaining was, why?

"Gee whiz, you're nothing but a bunch of slutty charlatans," Guy squawked in amusement from where he was slumping into a fungi-induced daze in the arms of his pretty Parisian boyfriend.

With that, the topic swiftly mutated to prey upon others in the circle, seemingly to divert Audette from asking more questions about it.

Brutal candor, however, seemed to be a universal imbibement that evening, and shifting the topic hardly did much to add relief for anyone.

For two hours the erratic conversation went on until so many embarrassing secrets had been shared by everyone that conference was frequently rendered jilted by hysterical laughing or awkward drop offs.

They all seemed quite content with chalking the abnormally virtuous theme up to drunkenness, albeit with knitting eyebrows and incredulous glances.

Time passed, and as it did Audette found ways to avoid interactivity, brooding over what Draco was doing in the private parlor next door.

Were they truly talking about "guild business"? Or were they talking in vile regard about girls again?

Was he planning said bachelor party with his horrible friends?

Were other girls permitted in that parlor? Girls who were considered less troublesome and more fun?

All of the chandeliers were shut off by eleven at night, replaced by a whirling disco ball and moody spotlights recessed into the main floor where a gigantic dance had begun to boom. It was by some architectural phenomenon that the supporting concrete slab had yet to cave in from the multitudinous jumping bodies pounding down upon it in structural argument.

In a moment that felt much like a popcorn explosion at a horror flick, Guy tapped on Audette's back when she was deep in a mental haze of mope, watching other couples dancing.

When she jumped in fright, he closed one blurry eye to leer at her, "Now who's on tenterhooks?"

Waving around an arm riddled with glowstick rings, his voice had clearly grown leaden with his classic creepy, mid-century English rhetoric when magnificently stoned on some drug, "You know what I find to be befuddlingly entertaining? Worms. I mean, no more complicated than tubes of meat, aren't they?"

Audette began to grumble in advance, already in a bad mood from missing Draco, "Yes well whatever blundering, squeamish rant you're about to embark on, I want none of it."

Guy's runaway trains of thought tended to keep going for quite a distance off the tracks, bulldozing down forests and villages, ending up down the darkest trenches of the ocean, stopping only once a mountain of sobriety stood in the way.

He spread his hands apart and stared up at the oscillating disco ball patterns on the ceiling, gliding in the genial mannerisms of a drunken pirate, "If you were to envision the Earth as transparent, would it not be matted just below the surface with a carpet of wiggly meat? The dirt...it's all packed up with...with meat. The whole ball, isn't that incredible? So much tubular meat, and for what purpose?"

Audette held his glistening eye contact for a while, "That is...quite possibly the most disgusting visual I have ever been painted. Please put down the easel."

Guy sent her a crooked face and tapped his pointer finger to his temple in false tinkering, "Ah yes, logic, my nemesis. You don't want to discuss the Earth's meat, you want to discuss Draco Malfoy's me-"

"Oh shush! Don't humiliate me even more!" Audette began to tickle him in a frenzy - until she was giggling, and Guy began to release screeching donkey sounds in protest.

"Draco Malfoy's meat! Audette can't...can't get enough of Draco-"

They were abruptly halted in their silly tracks when fizzling explosions and bright flashes of light flooded in through the fenestration wall from the hot tub deck.

Multiple male wizards were lined up along the balcony facing the moon and mountain, setting off fireworks from the tips of their wands which were bursting in great blinding displays over the frozen lake.

"One minute, till the end of the bloody world!" one of them called dramatically, shooting a gigantic ticking timer into the sky in glittery green numbers.

60, 59, 58...

A mad panic broke out as people searched for kissing partners and decorations, or whatever else they had planned.

"Draco..." Audette stood like a noodle, afraid to go much farther than the seating node else risk getting trampled alive. She was dizzy and sweaty from the strange potion she'd been gobbling all night, having completely lost track of the hour.

45, 44...

The corrupting stress of the decreasing numbers spread chaos throughout the room like septicemia from a wound.

"Detty don't go out there, it's nothing but a sea of legs. Why are there so many legssss? This whole planet, it's nothing but repeating patterns of tubular meat," Guy had slouched down with his head against the cushions in the wake of Audette's departure.

Now with his plane of sight at the level of many people's knees he was finally falling on said mushroom tenterhooks.

29, 28, 27...

"I have to find Draco, why don't you try removing your own sticky tubes of meat holding me back," she swatted his tangling fingers away from her dress. No way was this moment being stolen from her.

As Guy stared at his fingers in growing horror she marched into the madness, stubbornly elbowing annoying people in delirious hope of spotting the only person in the chalet with ghostly white hair.

"Draco! Draco!" she tried to call his name but the effort was useless. So many sweaty people, so many voices and sparklers...tons of tubes of grabby meat, spraying potion and swaths of bad breath...

Oh no...

Time ran out faster than she'd anticipated, finding herself pausing in defeat before the glass.

Reflecting on the opposite side, suspended mid-air, the countdown ran out.

4, 3, 2...

As her heart began to sink into that cold black lake, it was plucked out just before vanishing into the depths.

"There you are, Wonderland. I've been looking for you since last year," his dark voice brushed against her ear right as several dozen people began shouting in celebration and blowing magical instruments.

She felt his fingers drive into her hair at one side to yank her around into a deep and longing kiss, pulling her into his familiar piney musk and fluffy lips.

Audette leaned into his grasp eagerly, high heels lightly dancing off the floor as he lifted her up, eyelids brightening with each blasting firework display in the distance.

He'd come back for her, and while the seconds had been flying by just moments ago, now she wished they would pause altogether.

Given what was coming next, it was a true pity that time did not actually freeze.

1999 was about to start off with a destructive bang, and it had nothing to do with the fireworks shaking swords of glacial stalactites from their thick branches off the rooftop.