The Prophecy of Valeo

A few hours after they'd taken off, Draco pushed himself to look down and found that he knew the place they were flying over. It was the forest that he'd hidden in when he'd run away from the Burrow, and where he'd written Ginny the unread love letter he still felt guilty about.

And, to make matters worse, Ron complained that he had to take a wiz and the sun was slowly fading over the brilliant green horizon, leaving them shaded in a sleepy red haze that, fortunately, still stuck reluctantly to the trees.

"Make it quick," Bella said through a yawn as her grip around the broom handle loosened, lowering her and her friends to the leafy ground, followed by Ron and Draco, who carried Ginny over his shoulder.

As Ron wandered slightly blind into the bushes, Draco collapsed on the ground, Hermione next to him as Bella sat on a tree stump a few yards away. He laid Ginny a few yards away, where her body could rest in a patch of soft grass, but he could still watch her. The thought of seeing Ginny in the white, mist clouds still played itself back and forth in front of his eyelids as he slowly closed them.

He could hear Hermione's shallow breathing next to him, and realized how different she and Ginny really were. With Ginny, You could be her best friend, fall madly in love with her, think you know everything about her, and she would still be a stranger somehow, in a way. With Hermione, You immediately latched onto her spunky attitude- which she and Ginny shared- and somehow find out that she's sucked you into her life as fast as you could snap your fingers.

They both appealed to Draco, the mystery of one, and the fact that he knew everything about the other.

"Do you want me, Draco?" Hermione said in a hushed, calm voice. He turned towards her, disbelieving.

"What?" he asked.

"Do you want me, I said. You love Ginny, yes, and that's bad enough considering she's Harry's girlfriend," she said practically, forgetting that the two people they talked of were dead- at least for the time being. "But despite that, Do you think you'd kiss me back if I kissed you, right now? Out of pure curiosity, I swear."

He turned back up, looking at the scarlet sky slowly fading to violet, and shrugged into the dirt.

"I don't know," he answered. "In a month my life has turned completely upside down. One minute, I'm either stuck in my room or helping my fa... helping Lucius host Death Eater parties, and the next, I fall in love with a Weasley, go to New York, have Bella sucking on my neck, hang like a puppet over the ocean, and now I'm here with you. And sometimes I wonder if when we get to the mansion, maybe I'll just be plopped right into my old life, and everything will go back to normal. So, I don't love you. Yet. Let's just say I'm in like with you, and when Gin comes back maybe thing'll be different. Maybe dying made her come to her senses and she'll dump me. Maybe then I'll love you. I mean, who knows? Maybe I love you now and I don't know it."

She was silent for awhile before she answered.

"You didn't answer my question. If I kissed you, would you kiss me back?"

He sighed. "I don't know, Hermione."

"Do you want to find out?" And without an answer, she leaned in close to him and felt their lips meet quickly. Then she went back to laying where she'd been before, as if nothing had happened.

"You love Ron, then," Draco said. It wasn't a question. He knew by what was in the kiss.

"Yeah," she said in awe. "I really love him." She sat up quickly, brushing dust off her cloths. "I mean, all this time I thought there was something between us. Maybe there is. Maybe there's not. But it doesn't matter, Draco, because no matter what I feel for you I still love Ron." He smiled.

"I could tell," he said. "But, you know, if he doesn't ever... meet your needs... I'm always right next to you for... moral support, okay?" She laughed, and it made him feel better. In a crazy way, he'd sort of gotten half-dumped, and no matter who he had chasing after him it still hurt a little. But at least she was nice about it.

She ran off to find her fiery-haired boy in the bushes, and he turned his attention to Bella on the stump, who was slightly bent over as if reading something. And then in hit him.

As quietly as he could, he snuck up behind her and realized, as his heart stopped, that she'd found his wadded up letter. The words still gleamed like they were written in light on the crumpled parchment.

He snatched it swiftly out of her hands, stuffing it into his pocket hastily. She whipped around to face him.

"What the hell was that for?" she yelled.

"Don't look at people's private property!" he bellowed.

"It was freaking lying in the middle of the woods, for Christ's sake! Don't you think you could've found a better hiding place for it?"

"Well I didn't know that some New Yorker tramp was going to look at my personal life!" He's hit a nerve and suddenly felt as if the world had caved in around him. She stared into his silver-blue eyes in utter, terrified shock, and silently tears began to roll down her oddly-perfect face.

"I...I didn't mean to... to make you so mad... I didn't know...," Feeling horribly guilty, he rushed over and put an arm around her, doing something very unlike his old self, and comforted her.

The process was awkward because he'd never done it to anyone before, but he tried anyway.

"It's... alright... you're not a tramp, I guess." He hated the feeling that was rushing through his blood; forced attraction that he felt guilty for liking. He could feel the creature inside of him fighting to get out, and his head was throbbing from trying to think rationally.

She laughed shortly through tears.

"No, I definitely am. But I'm not a slutty one, right? I'm a non-slutty tramp."

"Exactly," Draco muttered.

"I can feel it," Bella nearly sang all of a suddenly, in total randomness. "I...can...feel...it!" she chimed. Draco thought she was going mad as she sat up from the stump and began to twirl around, her tears disappearing.

"I can feel it in the aaaaiiiiirrrrr!"

"Great," he murmured, scratching the back of his neck blandly. "My life's turning into a bloody musical."

"I got no money in my pockets, I got a hole in my jeans, I had a job and I lost it, But it won't get to me!" she grinned crazily at him, and it only took a moment for the chemicals inside him to take hold, along with the longing to just have fun, before he slowly was sucked into her dancing routine, Ron and Hermione watching disbelieving in the clearing.

He grabbed her hands and they began to swing dance; Draco whipping her body from side to side in rapid, perfect movement that would have amazed Michael Jackson. And he sang with her, astounded that he knew the words to this song from... so long ago.

"Cause I'm ridin' with my baby, and it's a brand new day, We're on the wheels of an angel, Flyin' away!" he chorused. Hermione's jaw dropped as Bella's body flew into the air, kept up by Draco's strong arms.

"And the sun is shinin', this road keeps windin', through the prettiest country, from Georgia to Tennessee, and I got the one I love beside me, my troubles behind me, I'm alive and I'm free, who wouldn't wanna be me!" she sang as she flew spread eagled in the air, down between her partner's knees and back out the other side.

"Now she's strummin' on my six-string, Across her pretty knees, She's stompin' out a rhythm, And singin' to me the sweetest song!" he followed as they repeated the chorus together, Bella flying in and out of his hands and he strung her around like a yo-yo on a piece of invisible yarn.

"The sun is shinin', And this road's still windin', Through the prettiest country, From Georgia to Tennessee, And I got the one I love beside me, My troubles behind me, I'm alive and I'm free, Who wouldn't wanna be me!" they sang together, and stopped momentarily as Draco bent her over backwards to the point where she was almost touching the ground, and they nearly whispered the last part in harmony.

"I got no money in my pockets, I got a hole in my jeans, We're on the wheels of an angel, And I'm free; She's strummin' on my six-string, It's across her pretty knees, She's stompin' out a rhythm, And she's singin' to me." (song by Keith Richards- who wouldn't wanna be me)

And, finally, they collapsed a few feet from the stump on the dirt mixed with foliage, panting like Saint Labradors. Draco could hear a bug by his ear, and suddenly had trouble remembering what had just happened as Ron and Hermione clapped wildly and hooted at them, sprinting down to their side.

"Where did that come from, Malfoy?" Ron said in awe. "How in the hell did you learn to do that?!"

Draco coughed once, and he answered.

"I remember watching my mum and dad as a little kid, dancing to that song. Before they started fighting. Before...," he sat up abruptly, an entirely new childhood coming back to him. "Before... before the blonde hair... I remember, I remember the feeling of my mother's hair... my mother's red hair...,"

He heard Hermione gasp.

"No... it's not possible..."

"What?" asked Draco.

She turned to Ron, who's face had gone paper white beside her.

"Lily," he said. Draco half stared, half glared at Ron blankly.

"Excuse me, Sherlock," he said sarcastically, "but if you don't remember, I've only been in contact with you people for a little while. Can you Explain?"

"Lily was Harry's mother," Hermione answered. "It was said that Voldemort killed her and James, his father. She... she had bright red hair, like Ginny's, and Hagrid gave Harry a photo book in his first year. He says he still carries a picture with him... of his mother."

But, apparently Bella knew what she was going to say because she had disappeared when Hermione was talking and came back with a color photograph in her hand that she'd taken from Harry's pocket by the brooms. She handed it delicately to Draco.

He gulped. Lily was smiling at him with James by her side. James's smile was genuinely loving and happy, but there was something that bothered him about Lily. Her grin seemed forced, and her eyes farther away, looking over your shoulder as if she wanted to be somewhere else desperately. Draco wondered if anyone else had noticed this.

He gulped. "That's her alright. That's my mother."

* * *

Harry slept. Ginny didn't want him to know what she'd witnessed. It was something that could tear a full gorwn man's mind to shreds, just to know your mother gave birth to your enemy. And she was evil, most likely.

What would happen if they're brothers? She asked herself, careful to block her mind from Harry. The thought nearly killed her inside. I just wouldn't be right. It wouldn't fit. They were both in love with her already, but if it turned out that they were so closely related she didn't think she could bear it.

She didn't know how or why, but it just made things worse off. She wished that her premonitions... or whatever they were... would stop altogether. It would make her life easier. Then maybe she could settle down and have a family instead of fighting the source of purest evil. Maybe she could just sit in a rocking chair and have Draco cast handyman spells to fix the house. Harry!

"I meant Harry!" she said out loud. He rolled in her lap to his side and grumbled, but didn't wake. "I meant Harry."

***

The mansion, Hermione thought, as they hesitantly began to cross the border which separated the acres of cursed land that led to the front door, scared the ever-living crap out of her.

"Awwwwe man," Ron muttered quietly as he scanned over the traps set for intruders. "We're never gonna be able to make it through here."

"If you've forgotten," Draco said in a matter-of-fact tone that hid his own fear, "You have an actual, living Malfoy on your side. At least, one that's alive for the time being. Anyhow, most of the stuff my dad set up out here requires blood relativity to pass through, so I guess we're lucky."

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Maybe you can just dance through everything and try to get all of the fatal traps so impressed that they'll just move out of the way and let you pass through."

"Geez, Hermione, was up your butt?" Bella asked. Hermione shot daggers at her with her furious eyes.

"Don't mess with me, bitch!" she snarled.

"Back off, you frizzy-haired little whore!" Bella snapped back. Ron and Draco, carrying Harry and Ginny in their arms, back away quickly.

"They must have walked through a curse," Draco murmured, watching Bella grab a handful of Hermione's hair and yank her to the ground.

"You'd better stop them," Ron said, "before they start to kill."

Draco nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, but they look so cozy together," he said, his eyes glued to the two rolling on the ground in an angry frenzy.

"Just do it!" Ron hissed.

"Fine," Draco responded, taking his wand from his pocket and slowly pointing at Bella and Hermione, who continued to fight. "Desino femina pugno."

They immediately came to their senses, rolling off one another and rising from the ground, brushing the dirt off their clothing casually.

"Well," Hermione said, fixing her hair, "Let's not have that happen again."

"Right," Ron said quickly, following the rest through the haunting lawn that seemed to glisten with beads of darkness even in the midday sun.

"Okay," Draco said, walking in front of them all to keep watch. "If memory serves, we walk for about five minutes and then we come up to this gold mist. When we walk through it, the world will turn upside down. Nothing really special, just your basic confusion charm."

"Oh, yeah," Bella said sarcastically from behind him. "Easy as pie."

"I remember this from somewhere," Hermione said. She snapped her fingers. "Harry had to face this in the maze, remember Ron? Afterwards he told us all about it."

Ron kissed her quickly and backed away again, his ears reddening despite the fact that they were in a relationship already.

"What was that?" she asked. He shrugged.

"Can't I kiss my girlfriend if I want to?" he asked sheepishly. She laughed.

"Well, I guess so, but don't you think that this is sort of a weird place to make out?" he chuckled at himself a little.

"Oh dear lord," Draco said in a monotone, rolling his eyes in disgust.

"So when do you think we'll...," Bella began, but was quickly stopped short as she and everyone else were violently spun upward into a yellow, sparkly fog, the sky turning itself into the ground that their feet stood on. Hermione stifled a scream of surprise, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide and frozen.

"Oh," Ron grumbled in shock.

"We have to take a step," Draco panted.

"Are you crazy?" Bella yelled. "We'll fall off the face of the Earth!"

"No, we won't," he responded, grabbing her hand and dragging her off. They seemed to be gripped by a giant hand and spun the right way again, watching Ron and Hermione struggle in the air.

"C'mon, Ron," Hermione said calmly, lifting up her foot and being dropped to the ground with the other two.

"No way!" he bellowed. She sighed.

"This is just like in our first year," she said exasperatedly, yanking his leg up and forcing him to topple down in front of her. He got up quickly as they started walking again, more cautious this time.

"Well I'm sorry," he said. "But I don't usually get swallowed up by giant man-eating plants, you know."

"Honestly, is their no in between for you two?" Bella asked them. "Love, hate, love hate, just decide already! You were kissing two minutes ago, for Christ's sake!" they ignored her.

Trudging on in silence, they entered a very creepy-looking wood after about ten minutes through the path to the house.

Bella began to sing without realizing it.

"Baby's black balloon makes her fly, I almost fell into that hole in your life," she chimed quietly.

"And you're not thinking 'bout tomorrow, Cause you were the same as me, But on your knees," Hermione finished for her.

"Comin' down the world turned over, And angels fall without you there. And I go on as you get colder, or are you someone's prayer?" they all put in. (goo goo dolls- black balloon)

"You're not going to start swing dancing, are you, Malfoy?" Ron asked. They all guffawed quietly and kept walking, very aware of the deadly hoots, roars and screams around them, echoing through the trees in some kind of horrific symphony.

Draco suddenly felt the weight of Ginny in his hands, despite the feather-light charm put on her.

"I need her back," he said, mostly to himself. Hermione glanced at him over her shoulder and turned back silently.

"We all do."

"No," he answered, shaking his head. "I mean, sure you all want to get her back, but I'm afraid I'll actually kill myself if I don't see her."

"Pretty deep feelings for another guy's girlfriend," Ron said bitterly, dropping his head to look at Harry's lifeless, cold body. Draco bit his lip to keep from lashing out at him.

"I can't help it, Weasley," he whined in a low, croaking voice lined with anger. "She's such... she's such an incredible person... Nothing like you at all... She's so caring, but she's also careless at the same time... I can't explain it." He expected Ron to spit some rude comment at him, and he was in awe when he didn't do so.

"I know," he murmured. "She could do anything. I mean, she was my little sister, so I naturally teased her. Now I wish I'd have been nicer sometimes."

"Would you two quit getting along, please?" Hermione cut in, breaking the depressing moment. "It's scaring the hell out of me." Ron laughed, but stopped quickly, frozen in terror.

"What?" Draco asked, watching him gape over his shoulder.

"Nu...Nu...Nu...," he stuttered, scared out of his mind.

"Spit it out!" Draco yelled, surprised that Ron was the only one of three who could make the slightest sound; Hermione and Bella's lips were parted, but nothing was coming out.

"Nu...Nun...," he tried again, but the ear-shattering growl and acid-like breath from behind him told Draco exactly what was going on. As slow as possible, he turned on his heel, facing a gigantic, twenty-foot, midnight-black bobcat. Its fatal breath came out in huge, nuclear-green clouds. A Nundu.

It bared its fang-like teeth dripping with poisonous venom at him, and as nonchalantly as humanly possible, he rolled up his sleeve and showed the creature his family tattoo. It stared at his wrist for a moment, confused. This was obviously a Malfoy, but he could not sense the evil that was supposed to dwell in the boy. Surely he could not be on their side.

And it pounced. Draco moved out of the way just in time, and they ran farther into the woods, the Nundu hot on their trail.

"Well, that didn't work," Draco said, jumping out of the way of a giant paw that tried to scratch him to death. It tore down a birch tree in its search for a human.

"We can't go on like this!" Bella said as a giant mouth came within a foot from her leg. The world below them rattled as the giant animal roared at the top of its lungs.

And suddenly, it picked up Hermione by the neck of her shirt and swung her over onto its head. She clung like a mouse to its ear.

"Oh god!" she screamed down at them. "Help me!"

"Hermione!" Ron called. But Draco was ahead of him. Knife whipped out in his hand, he stood, mounted in attack formation.

"Hey, you furry asshole!" he called. "Down here!" The Nundu lowered its body in an attempt to become level with him, and by the time it realized what was going on it was too late. The human stabbed him in the eye with its knife, and it hissed in pain.

"You want some more?" he bellowed, bringing the dagger to its ear and slashing through the thick skin that Hermione was holding onto. She fell to the ground and let go of the severed ear in disgust, watching it spurt out blood.

The huge bobcat rolled on its back in furious pain and agony, batting its paw where its ear used to be, slow to realize that there was nothing left.

"This is the part where we run away," Draco said, leading them out of reach from the Nundu and out of the treacherous woods for good, into the next part of the Malfoy front lawn.