Temptation
Pour Deux
by
Annie
Adrienne
Chapter
14
"Trouble
in Paradise? So Soon?"
It
all happened in a matter of seconds.
Hermione
forced the door open, expecting to find Pansy dead, or worse. Finally,
it seemed, her suspicions about
doing
something as dismally stupid as going undercover among bunch of Slytherins
had been confirmed. She held her
wand
in front of her, reflexes tense, quite ready to curse whoever or whatever
she saw. What she did see, though,
stunned
her beyond her most horrific imaginings. Pansy was locked in a quite passionate
embrace with the man that
had
spilled wine upon her earlier, and they both looked up as the man pulled
away from kissing her neck. Hermione’s
eyes
went wide.
“Hermia!”
Pansy shrieked, re-adjusting her dress. “What are you doing here?” she
asked, her blue eyes piercing
daggers
into the other girl. Hermione shook her head in disbelief.
“I-
I heard you scream.” she stuttered, slipping her wand back into her robes.
Pansy blushed a deep shade of red.
“Well,
as you can see, I’m quite fine-”
“Who
are you?” Hermione directed towards the man Pansy had been with, surprised
at her own rudeness. He
seemed
to be unaffected by it.
“Carden
Alston.” He said with a smile, taking her hand and kissing it lightly.
He must have been, upon reflection, far
older
than she had at first thought he was- his hands were wrinkled, calloused
with work. His face at first glance
seemed
kind- innocent, almost, with wide blue eyes. But upon closer inspection
they held a crueler tint to them, one
Hermione
did not want to explore. She shuddered, strangely repulsed by his touch.
“And
what about Alec, Pansy?” she asked, turning towards the girl she thought
she’d begun a friendship with- it
seemed
Pansy was far different from what she had originally thought. She should
have known never to trust the
Slytherin
girl.
“Oh,
Alec is just a child, with a puppy love crush on me-”
“He’s
older than you-”
“And
is entirely irrelevant, Hermia.” Pansy finished harshly. “Now if you’ve
nothing else to say to me, could you give
us
some time alone? I’ll be up to dinner in a few minutes.”
Hermione
nodded, too stunned to reply, and backed out the door to the study. What-
what was going on? Why
would
Pansy cheat on Alec… with a much older man, no less? It was simply ridiculous.
She sighed, slumping down
against
one of the walls in the corridor. She was stupid to have thought that the
Slytherins were like other kids their
age-
stupid to believe Draco when he said his friends were not much different
from her own. She could be in Scotland
right
now, with Ginny and Harry and Ron… she crossly wiped a hot tear away from
her cheek, shaking her head
when
it came away black. Pansy had insisted on using the kind of makeup that
smeared- she said it made mysterious
looking
rings under one’s eyes. Oh, how could she have been so wrong?
“What’s
the matter, child?” came a rasping voice from above her. She turned and
looked up, to find she had
collapsed
under Carphen’s painting. She shook her head.
“I’m
afraid- I’m afraid I can’t tell you.” She said softly, sinking to her knees.
Carphen smiled, baring her teeth again.
“Whyever
not? Do you think I’d have anyone to tell? I know, dear child, you’re not
a Malfoy- and truly, neither
was
I.”
“No?”
Hermione asked, her eyes beginning to clear. The slightly older woman shook
her head, rearranging herself
on
her chair.
“I,
of course, was born into the family… but when I was bitten at fourteen,
they disowned me quicker than anyone
could
have expected. It had happened before, you know- being bitten and not killed-
and many families simply sent
their
children to the containment ward at St. Mungo’s. Lord, it was an awful
place- they fed them blood from banks,
and
it drove them so mad they were forced to bite each other- but most families
didn’t have the heart to kill their
loved
ones.” She sighed, her eyes growing dim. “Neither did mine, sadly, and
I forever wish they had.”
“You
wanted to die?” Hermione asked.
“Let
me finish, dear. I can sense you’re rather quick- quicker than most girls
that have passed through here, at any
rate-
though I’m not sure how much you know about vampires. Very little, I suppose-
all the ‘factual information’
on
us these days is most myth. Stakes, garlic, crosses… all untrue. The only
way to kill a vampire is to decapitate it,
which
is what my family did… or my cousin, rather.
My
cousin’s name was Parkinson, and our families were very close. I do believe
the girl that passed held a bit of
him
in her…” at Hermione’s nod, she sighed. “So the bastard did live, I see.
It was my cousin who bit me- he was
a
vampire first. He was older than me, but only slightly, and I wanted so
badly to be one of his contemporaries- they
had
formed a group, him and his friends- Nott, Zambini, Crabbe… I remember
them all. I thought them so brave at
the
time, cunning, ruthless, and powerful- everything the Malfoy name stood
for. He was the pride and joy of our two
families,
the heir, and favorite son.
He
was bitten at twenty-three… by a woman, no less, which was forever his
shame. He hid it from our family,
though.
They were quite used to him being out nights, and bringing home girls they
never saw again in the morning,
and
his lifestyle seemed no different. He would only bite women- weakling that
he was. His friends knew of his
condition,
and helped him to lure them on. Not that he needed him. They stuck by him
partly through fear, and
partly
through willingness to be near power. My cousin was strong, evil and brilliant-
everything they could have
wanted
in a leader.
He
had always held an unnatural fascination with me, one my parents and his
parents found quite disturbing. They
tried
to keep us apart as much as possible… though even they could not control
him, in the end.” Her eyes grew
distant
at that, a look that reminded Hermione faintly of Moaning Myrtle. “He came
for me in the night- All Hollow’s
Eve,
in fact… poetic, no? He said he was going to take me to a ritual that they
were performing- a dark magic ritual,
to
impress his father. I agreed readily. Nothing meant more to me than the
approval of my own father, Lord Adrian
Malfoy.
I
trusted him. I trusted him even in the darkness of the forest, even alone,
even where no one could hear my screams.
And
he bit me- took my life, and my innocence. If, dear child, you’ve ever
heard the myth that we lose our souls
when
we become vampires- it is quite untrue. It is quite easier for a Malfoy
to kill to feed themselves- we are quite
ruthless
as it is, or so the story goes. Perhaps, dear child, the killing alone
would not have driven me mad- were it not
for
my father.
When
I returned, I was bleeding profusely, bite marks on my neck. My parents
had surmised where I had gone, and
they
knew that I had been bitten- they never, though, had the stomach to suspect
my cousin. They thought he had
taken
me somewhere dangerous where I had been bitten by my own foolishness, never
that he could have bitten me
himself.
He was their golden nephew, after all. The future of our two families.
I dared not disagree. I dared not protest.
My
father wouldn’t even look at me.
They
fashioned a room, up in the highest tower of the house. It had formerly
been an observatory, but they turned it
into
a prison- fashioned new walls of lodestone, took my wand, and made it quite
impossible for me to escape. Every
week
they would bring me a peasant- a muggle, from the town near the manor.
That was my only source of
nourishment,
and I soon grew far too weak to even dream of escaping, or revenge.
My
father brought a painter in, to make a new portrait of me. He would have
liked to pretend I didn’t exist, but far
too
many knew of me, and it meant my likeness needed to join the hall of my
family, even in my state. I waited until
the
painter was done with my portrait before feeding off him- I suppose my
father had never thought of that. Thus
I
escaped, weak though I was, using his wand- fool couldn’t paint without
it.
I
had cast the spell for any of my likenesses to be able to protect themselves
years ago. I knew I would live on,
somehow.”
She laughed. “You cannot imagine the look on my father’s face when I appeared
at the top of the
staircase-
though it was nothing to match the once-handsome face of my cousins. Another
day I could have fought
him-
when I was not so weak. But he did kill me, Hermia, and my soul flew to
this painting. For I cast another spell
that
day. I cursed myself, in that whoever wished to could revive me, back into
my former body. I see that it is
hopeless
now- but I am glad of my consciousness. Glad of this half-life. For it
is better than hell, where any vampire
would
go.” Her voice was almost cheery at that point.
The
two radically different women sat in silence for a moment, Carphen contemplative,
and Hermione stunned.
The
latter could not help but feel tears well up in her eyes- God, the unfairness
of it all. To be a women, and to live
amongsuch
evil- to be a simple girl, and be known as part of that evil. To feel evil
inside of you, to feel it feed on
other
lives, no matter how much you despised them… she buried her head in her
knees, unable to think further.
She
heard Carphen sigh.
“Do
not cry, my dear. Brown eyes look awful tinged with red.”
Hermione
sat up straight.
“Brown
eyes?”
The
vampire laughed, stretching out on the chair with an indulgent yawn.
“Of
course. I do still have powerful magic, you know? It is quite simple to
see into your soul, Miss Hermione
Granger,
though there are certain parts of your story I yet long to know. Will you
share it with me?”
“Er-
Miss Malfoy- I’m afraid I can’t-”
“Don’t
be silly, dear girl. I shan’t tell a soul. Who would ask, anyway? If you
do duly wish for the secret to be
kept-
perhaps you can make me Secret-Keeper?” Hermione’s eyes widened. Could
she trust this woman? She was
a
Malfoy, and a vampire no less- she could have made up every word she’s
spoken in the past few minutes. But she
couldn’t
believe that, no matter how skeptical she tried to be. Carphen had to be
telling the truth. She was perfect,
but
not too good to be true. Perfect indeed.
“Get
comfortable.” Hermione said, with a deep sigh. She slid down against the
wall, shivering at the feeling of the
rough
plaster against her bare back. “This will probably take a long time.”
Hope
everyone enjoyed that! Endless thanks to all my reviewers (I love you guys!),
and my shiny, sparkling, lovely
brand
new beta, Jaz! It was rather short (sorry ‘bout that), but I spent most
of the time it took to write this chapter
throwing
up, so pity me. ^_^ Phoebe, I hope you’re reading this somehow!
Just
a few notes on the direction the story is heading… reading over it a few
nights ago, I feel I’ve been quite lax in
character
development, on both Hermione and Draco’s part. I’ve been concentrating
on getting the plot moving, and
now
that it’s heading at full tilt, I may slow down a bit and focus more on
our two heroes. Also, a reminder, so you
don’t
get hyped up for some sort of resolution at the end of the story, we’ve
still got Draco’s half of the bargain left to
fulfill!
I’ll probably turn that into an entirely separate story, and then, if you
and I aren’t horribly bored of the situation
after
that, I may write a third story resolving it all. Anyway, feedback on those
ideas would be much appreciated- I
write
for you and me! And I get confused easily- help always much appreciated.
Lastly,
as always, please review!
Back
to Chapter 13
Chapter
15
Back
to Index
Back
to Fanfiction by Title
Back
to Fanfiction by Author