The Prophecy of Valeo

Back in the living room, Bella had switched on the television to a station that was playing music videos. Once everyone was sitting down again, things grew sullen and she turned the volume down lower.

"We need your help," Harry said, lacing his fingers together and staring at his hands.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, chewing on the inside of her cheek. Ron picked at his nails, feeling genuinely guilty for snogging her in the middle of a crisis.

Draco took a deep breath. He knew that Ginny was her only really good friend that was a girl, and the weight of her death might crush her.

"Ginny... oh god, I... you're not going to believe it...she's gone." Hermione blinked.

"So what?" she said. The boys gaped at her, enraged. "Just go out and find her. I'm sure that she's probably just getting some groceries or practicing in the quidditch field." Everyone was silent for a moment before Harry spoke again.

"She's dead." Hermione just stared at him, her expression etched into her face- a nothingness.

"You sick-minded bastard," she snapped. "You came all this way just to play some stupid, cruel joke on me. What did I do, refuse to let you cheat off my exams or something?" Ron's eyes reddened as he tried to keep himself from crying.

"It's not a joke, Hermione," he choked. She shook her head violently at him.

"And you," she hissed. "You kissed me." No one was surprised.

"Please," Draco said. "Please, Grang...Hermione. We need your help. We need to get some dark magic books on rising the dead, or at least contacting them to get some information. We need you."

"I don't think I belong here," Bella said quietly. Everyone ignored her, for once.

Hermione took a deep, heaving breath, silent tears pouring over her face.

"Alright," she finally said.

"Well, I might be able to help some," Bella cut in. "There's a club downtown that sells books on witchcraft."

"But that's not for real wizards and witches, that's for the occult," Ron said. Bella shook her blonde head.

"Any type of the craft can be produced through real magicks."

"My parents won't take us," Hermione muttered.

"I can cue a taxi," Draco said, with a hint of pride in his voice. She gaped at him. He shrugged. "You have to know the muggle world-or anything, for that matter- to truly hate it." In an odd way, Harry thought he made sense. But it was hard to tell.

Everyone in the room felt a gaping hole where Ginny usually was. It made it hard to concentrate.

* * *

The night club was called Wikka's. Bella pushed open the door, and a burst of alternative rock hit them hard. The smell of human sweat littered the air as young ravers gyrating their bodies to the music. After all, it was a Friday night in the big apple.

She gestured for them to follow her, and the five wound through the packed building slowly until they'd made it to a bar-looking place on the far wall, but instead of alcohol, the shelves were lined with hundreds of books. The man behind the counter stared at them suspiciously.

"Gotta be twenty-one," he grunted. Bella looked at Hermione, and the two of them pushed open the swinging door to the other side of the table, the music ringing in the background.

Bella slipped a fifty dollar bill into his palm, and Hermione winked.

"Ain't it grand to be young," she said, her English accent being replaced heavily by a New York one. The man grunted again in response as Bella kissed his cheek, and backed slowly into the room behind the counter, fingering the bill.

Ron, Draco and Harry stared at them, shocked.

Hermione shrugged. "This is what you get when you spend a month in N. Y.," she said.

She longed to have the feeling of warm water wash over her body. She needed to feel the weight of stress on her shoulders, and she missed the smell of life itself.

And she tried to dream.

She was in the bathtub, the soap and bubbles tickling her skin. The door opened slowly, and everything became a blur of colors and needs, hopes. Draco smiled warmly at her. She expected to see Harry, but forgot about him momentarily. Draco Malfoy's smile was unlike anything she's ever seen in her life.

And suddenly, he was at the side of the bathtub, resting his head on the shiny white surface. Ginny felt no need to cover herself. And then he had his back to her, his arms crossed over his legs, staring at the floor hardly.

He looked up, and kissed her. She missed the feeling of lips pressed on hers.

Harry's lips.

Draco's lips.

Good and bad. Fire and Ice.

* * *

As everyone weaved through the jumble of sweaty bodies, Bella and Draco trailed slightly, much to Bella's delight. In a place like this, it was hard to resist the overwhelming temptation to dance.

She grabbed Draco's waist, puling him closer without anyone else noticing.

"You're part veela, aren't you?" she screamed. He hesitated for a moment before nodding. She beamed. "I knew it! That's why I was immediately attracted to you. Some people believe that if two people are part veela, their powers are immune. Funny, really, it's the exact opposite. The attraction is a hundred times stronger."

Oh god, please, dear lord... Baseball, Quidditch, Snape, McGonagall in a bikini... Snape in a bikini... Snape and McGonagall in a bikini... is that possible? Think, think... hair gel, my father's bathroom... Draco struggled to think about innocent things, but, of course, Bella was right.

The connection between them was animal.

Ginny...

Bella kissed him fiercely as rock music blared from the speaker up front. It seemed as if he were acting against his own will as he moved to her neck. She looked up at the ceiling dreamily and smiled.

"mmm... You see what I mean?" she asked. He nodded into her skin, cursing himself angrily. "You can't resist me, and I can't resist you."

"ARGH!" he yelled, ripping himself away from Bella. "STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!" he repeated, smacking his head with his hand. She just stared at him.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! DAMN ME TO HELL!

"We are bad people," he panted, wiping saliva off his chin with his shirt. "We... are... very bad people." She smiled weakly at him, and nodded.

"Yes, yes we are Draco Malfoy. Yes we are." She fixed her shirt, which was beginning to untie itself in the back, wiping sweat away from her brow.

* * *

Once they were back at the apartment, Ron- and Draco, perhaps (but that was probably from the fact that he just had a ragged snogging session with a human/veela/angel)- it was hard to tell- could help but be hypnotized by Hermione's sudden burst of new personality.

She licked her lips, and flashed her eyes in a way that was so unhermione. Every once and awhile, even Harry would glance as she re-adjusted the strap on her halter top, which was also very surreal on her. It was almost more than he could bear.

He just wanted to grab her and...

Quit it, Ron hissed at himself inwardly. Damn hormones.

Of course, Hermione was thinking the same thing in the back of her mind, which made it all the more ironic.

"Alright, so we've got spells of contact, lost loves through dreams, and dark magic for the basic Wicca," Bella said, chewing her bottom lip for- Hermione suspected- solely Draco, who was sitting beside her. She glanced at him quickly, then looked away, a bit flustered.

Stupid pheromones are flying all around this place, Hermione thought. Draco and Bella, Ron and me, Draco and me, Harry and Bella...Harry and me...HOW MANY BLOODY COMBINATIONS CAN WE HAVE IN HERE!?AND IT THE FACE OF FREAKING DEATH!

"DAMMIT!" she yelled out loud. Everyone turned to look at her, shocked. She blushed brightly. "sorry. I was just... I need to... can we just get down to business, please?" suddenly she wished for the naked guy in the window. He could help things out a lot.

"Er... okay," Bella said slowly. "So... anyway, I figure me and Draco can look through spells of contact, you and Ron can scan over lost loves, and Harry can read about dark magic." Draco gulped.

Oh no, not again, he thought.

Uh, Malfoy? Harry asked, suddenly realizing they could communicate without anyone hearing. He looked over at Harry.

What, Pothead?

Good luck with the cheap and easy veela/angel you've got on your hands, he pondered. And by the way, I just read this in the book I have here. Did you know that when a veela mates with a male, she bites off his...

OKAY! Draco interrupted. I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!

Harry noticed that Bella was staring at the two of them blankly.

"What?" he snapped. She shrugged.

"I don't know. You're just, like, gazing at each other. Like you 're in love or something." He turned bright red, and Draco looked furious.

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT AGAIN!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. She giggled.

"Whatever."

* * *

"I think we need to talk," Draco muttered to Hermione under his breath so no one would notice. She stared at him, hesitant for a moment, and nodded silently.

"I'm going to go down to the city library and see if they have anything," she murmured to the rest, placing the book on the table and walking to the door. Everyone except for Draco stared at her blankly. She shrugged. "What?!" you never know. Besides, I'm sure Ron'll be able to handle the book by himself."

"As a matter of fact, I met a girl at the club yesterday who said she worked there. Maybe she can help." Hermione raised her eyebrows in a subtle way of saying damn god lie. He grinned out of the corner of his mouth, and left the table to follow her to the door.

"Bella, I'm taking the car, okay?" Hermione asked, without waiting for an answer. Bella was about to say something when Hermione quickly slammed the door, followed by Draco.

For a moment, everyone just stared.

"Alright, so I might have something here on ghosts," Harry said, taking of his glasses, because he was nearsighted.

"Oh, really?" Bella said. "Let me see."

* * *

Hermione took a ring of keys from her pocket, walking over to the parking lot a few yards away, where a black corvette was parked beautifully. Draco's hatred of muggles certainly did not expand to old-model cars, of course.

He was in awe as she popped the locked and opened the driver's side seat. He gaped at her.

"Where did she get this?" he gasped, sitting on the leather interior as if it were eggshells. She laughed.

"Bella's parents aren't exactly poor, Draco." He realized that the girl that he'd hated, then become nearly best friend with, was more American than British. Her accent had almost evaporated, replaced with a New York twang. He liked it. Not to mention the way she swung her hips, or anything about her now, really.

Maybe this isn't just a way to relieve myself of pheromones, he thought, suddenly feeling guilty for what he was going to do.

She slid the key into the ignition and revved the motor (something else completely American, Draco thought to himself) and backed out of the lot onto the street.

"So I guess we're still on first name basis, then" he said. "That's good." She smiled at him, and that was when it occurred to him that, if he didn't back out, he would have kissed a dead girl, a quarter-human, and...

"I didn't know we were on kissing basis either."

"Hu?" he asked stupidly. She giggled again.

"Joke."

"Oh," he muttered, suddenly realizing he was acting like a complete lunatic. But it didn't matter now. There was no other way, and Hermione was partially his friend, anyway. "Pull over."

"What?"

"Just do it." She obeyed and parked the fabulous car over the yellow separator line.

"Draco, What are you..." He leapt over to her, pressing his lips against hers so hard it was painful. He felt the emotions for Ginny and- forced ones- for Bella, and others he couldn't put his finger on rush out of him. She froze in shock, and began to kiss him back when she realized what was happening.

She pushed him back, using all her strength to slap him hard across the face.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled. He felt the prickle of redness in his ears, and it certainly wasn't from embarrassment. "I'm not the one who's madly in love with a dead girl who has a boyfriend! And, for Christ's sake, you've got Bella on you're heels! I have a real live person who loves me!" the emotion written on his face stopped her rambling.

She couldn't tell- she'd never seen that look on him before- but it looked almost like he was hurt. It was covered, however, with the Draco-like passion she'd hated, then befriended.

"Hermione, you've said yourself that we're friends. Consider this a favor from one friend to another, uh, much more horny friend. I can't kiss Bella, because the stupid attraction crap would be too strong. You're my only hope." She sighed.

"You're a pig, Malfoy," she growled, grabbing his neck and kissing him ferociously.

The guilt'l get me when I see Ron again, she thought. Oh, I'm going to pay for this.

She stopped for a moment, moving her mouth slightly so she could talk.

"Draco," she said, her voice muffled.

"Yes?" he grumbled.

"It seems that you have fallen on my lips."

"So it does!"

They laughed together, knowing, hoping, that this was just a good friendship issue, and not a romantic one.

Lucius swung his cloak around the mahogany door before it snapped shut, smiling as he saw her staring over the cauldron in deep thought, her hair flaming. She looked up and grinned out of the corner of her mouth.

"Are they ready?" he asked. She pushed back a tendril of her thick scarlet hair thoughtfully.

"Almost," she said. "They're sinking into the dark magic now to put the spirit back in the body, but they're not having luck, and sooner or later Draco will remember..."

"The foyer filled with evil craft," he finished for her. She nodded.

"Exactly," she said, beaming into the cauldron. "He's an amazingly bright boy, just like his father." He kissed her quickly and stared in the pot, where he could see the heads of Ron, Harry, and Bella, flipping through the pages of books determinedly.

"How long until the next one dies?" he asked. She shifted her hand, making the special pensive-like liquid ripple and show another scene- this one of Draco and Hermione in the car. Lucius let out a hardy laugh.

"Not long," she said. "Once the curse is set into place and their powers are stolen, He'll drown in the ocean on the way back to Weasley's home."

"Good," he said, wrapping the velvet of his cape around his arm and swinging it around him, slamming the door back shut.

The plan was going perfectly.

* * *

Ron's stomach dropped as a horrible feeling of remembrance swept over him. He gulped.

"Oh no," he muttered, gripping the page of the book he was flipping through so hard his nails went through it.

"What?" Harry asked him. Bella stared at him curiously, and he couldn't help but blush when Hermione wasn't around.

"My parents!" he shouted. Harry's eyes widened and his face paled.

"Ron, my good friend," he said. "What is the scariest thing on the planet?"

"A large and ridiculously hairy spider that looks more than somewhat like Millicent Bulstrode?" he guessed.

"Scarier, even?" He rubbed his chin in mock, happy thought.

"My mother when she comes home to an empty house?" he asked.

"Bingo," Harry said, fixing his glasses.

"Damn," Ron muttered. "But, you have to admit, that a horrifying thought that's right up there is still Bulstrode, and I'm not talking about her face," he added, causing Bella to lapse into a fit of giggles.

Even Harry snorted, despite the situation.

"Alright," he said, regaining himself. "I'll need to go fetch Malfoy and we'll Apparate home," he said, doing his best to be reasonable.

"There's only one problem," Bella cut in. "None of us, including me, knows where the library is." Ron smiled slightly.

"I guess Hermione isn't completely gone," he murmured.

"I can contact him," Harry said simply. He closed his eyes tightly.

Hey! Malfoy! He thought. Waiting for an answer, he knew that the two others were gawking at him.

A few long moments passed before he picked up Draco's brainwave.

She's just a friend, he heard him say. This is a favor. She's just a friend. She doesn't love you.

Malfoy? Harry asked. Silence.

Potter, get the hell out of my mind! He said fiercely.

What are you doing? Harry asked.

Hermione's...uh... asking the librarian out for me, he lied. Somehow, it was getting harder to do. Being around the people he wasn't used to was beginning to rub off on him, he guessed. That must have meant he wasn't really evil, Right?

Harry didn't have time to argue, as the thought of Ginny's body on the sofa haunted him. The fact that her mother might come home to find her child dead, well... he hadn't thought of that.

We've got to leave, he said urgently. Ron's mum is coming home soon.

That's all very nice and dandy, Potter, but what happens when she sees me and Bella? Draco asked. Harry hadn't thought of that, either.

Well, Hermione won't be a problem, he hashed out. We'll have to hide you two.

Oh god, please don't put us in a closet together, Draco thought. I'll come over there. Hang on.

He felt he line that was strung between them break, and began talking urgently to Hermione.

"We've got to go," he said, revving the engine and slamming down the accelerator pedal.

Hermione gave a small "Oomf" of surprise as they sped down the empty road at a hundred miles an hour, her back sinking into the leather seat. "What...are....you...doing?" she yelled.

"Driving," he said, skidding around a turn with the loud screech of wheels against asphalt. They could hear the motor pushing itself to the limit, and Hermione had to admit, it was quite exciting.

"I never thought you'd feel guilty after second base, Draco," she said, changing the subject. His face seemed completely unaware of what she'd said, but he answered, despite his blank expression.

"As much as I hate to admit it," he said, pushing with full force into the gas pedal, "Weasley and the rest are pretty good people, despite the handicap of being completely retarded. I just didn't think that I should screw up what you have, even if I have a disastrous taste in women." He knew this wasn't the place or time to get mushy, but here they were anyway.

Hermione couldn't help but be deeply touched.

"Is that what you think you are to me?" she asked as they hurled to an ungraceful stop that was so sudden it lifted the back of the car up a few feet. "A burden? Then you're an ass. I mean, it doesn't matter what house you're in. I know that you're better than you make yourself out to be. And I know that there could definitely be something more between us. It's just, I'm with Ron. And I love him. And right now you're just my friend," she said gently.

He reached over slowly, and touched her chin, looking into her piercing cinnamon eyes. She didn't protest.

"Then why did you let me kiss you?" he asked, angry at himself for setting his denial free, even if it was only for a moment. "Why did I feel what I told myself I'd never let myself after Ginny was dead?"

"I'm just a good kisser," Hermione muttered. Her eyes flickered to the dashboard as she tried to look away from him, but failed and looked back into his silver-blue eyes.

"Then why are you letting me do this?" he nearly whispered, leaning in, his breath almost icy on her lips. She pushed the door open just before their lips met and stepped out of the car.

"No," she said, shaking her head as she walked towards the hotel. "This is one relationship that is definitely not going to happen."