Innocent Eyes

Innocent Eyes.

Chapter 1.

Remember.

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The morning brought nothing to Kathryn's mood. She had never been a morning person, and even when she'd had to stay out late at night to patrol and then wake up early the next morning to work on her tactics, it did nothing to change her view.

Opening one bleary eye she spied the sunlight creeping in through a crack in the curtains, hitting Blaise directly in the eye. She waited for the light to wake up the other girl but after awhile she realized that Blaise must be a VERY heavy sleeper. Glancing around the room at the other occupants, she sighed and decided just to get up and get dressed. Her magically enhanced alarm clock told her she still had half an hour before her alarm would go off, but she figured maybe she could explore the castle a bit by then. She pulled on her school skirt and shirt, slipping on her robes with their Slytherin crests and putting on her shoes and socks before heading down to the common room. There was no one there but the fire in the hearth was roaring heartily away. The Slytherin common room didn't feel like somewhere where there WOULD be a fire ... the common room did seem a bit evil, she could definitely understand what the other houses had against them.

Exiting the common room, she walked up and up until she thought she recognized a hallway that lead towards the Great Hall. She was right. Walking towards the now familiar huge oak doors she looked at her surroundings again, more in depth this time. It was really very exquisitely designed. She'd heard in passing about the founders of Hogwarts, particularly about Salazar Slytherin. She could definitely see someone like him designing something so powerfully unique and elaborate.

The castle was a fairly open building and so the cold English air drafted through the hallways and corridors. Kathryn tightened her robes around herself, dearly wishing that she'd worn something warmer underneath or had at least brought a-

"Scarf?" a voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned around, cursing her inability to sense someone standing in a 20-foot radius of her. These thoughts left her mind immediately when she saw who that deep voice belonged to.

Wow.

That was all she could think. The tall athletic-looking male stood in front of her, dressed in the most expensive robes she thought she'd ever seen, with soft white-blonde hair that left a few strands trailing over his eyes. Gosh, even his shoes looked like they were worth more then her entire house. He had one muscular arm stretched out towards her holding something green and silver ... oh of course, it was a scarf. She gave him a small smile and took it gratefully.

"Thank you," she said softly. He grinned, his dangerous silver eyes sparkling at her, causing her breath to catch in her throat for a moment.

"Draco Malfoy," he said, holding out that gorgeous arm again to shake. When she took it, she felt like she had been hit with a vision. It wasn't clear, the images just kept running behind her eyes, quickly, one after the other. She looked into his gray eyes in surprise. But when she finally composed herself she realized that his hand was as cold as ice!

"Kathryn Mah-"

"I know who you are," he interrupted. She was surprised again. Surely she would have remembered if she'd ever met THIS one before! She looked at him questioningly.

"When you're one of our kind, you make it your business to know," he answered her unasked question in a husky voice. Kathryn was still confused, she wasn't sure if he was talking about being a pureblood or ...

"Well, I've heard about you too," she said, finally regaining her cool exterior. He raised an eyebrow, smirking.

"Is that so? All good I hope," there was that killer smile again ... in the literal sense. She shivered.

"Well, unless our fellow Slytherins are known to speak unkindly of us ..." she trailed off smirking right back at him. Their hands were still connected and he brought hers up to his lips and kissed it. She shivered again at the iciness of his lips. Icy, but very, very soft. Their eyes connected for a moment before she looked away, a flush creeping up her already heated cheeks.

Looking down, she noticed that he had a lot of luggage with him. He must have only just arrived. She took her hand back gently, still savouring in the connection and looked at him.

"Why didn't you arrive with everybody else?" she asked him. At that moment, three house elves popped out of nowhere beside them and picked up his luggage, heading in the direction of the Slytherin dormitories. He turned to follow them and Kathryn thought he wasn't going to answer her question, but turned his head briefly to address her.

"Because I'm a Malfoy."

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Draco couldn't get that girl out of his head. He'd known that she would be coming, known for a while now, but he had never guessed that she would be as beautiful as she was. The whole time they'd been talking all he'd wanted to do was run a hand through that long silken waterfall that was her hair. He'd restrained himself of course, that wasn't a very Malfoy thing to do. Especially with ... her. Voldemort had trackers on every little piece of information that he needed to know, and she was no exception, he knew what she was, and that's why he had to keep his distance. But how could he? She was stunning; in fact, she looked a lot like a Muggle actress he'd seen in a movie recently called 'Entrapment', Catherine Zeta-Jones, yes, that was it. From what he could tell from her snug robes, she had the same wonderfully voluptuous figure that the actress was known for and Draco liked what he saw very much. Get a grip Malfoy, he thought, he had never let a woman get to him like this before, he shouldn't let it start now. He didn't know it, but when they touched, he had also had the same burst of images that she had experienced. He didn't know what it meant and he wasn't sure if he wanted to find out. He could tell she was different, hell, he KNEW she was different ... so what was he going to do?

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Kathryn made her way to the library, hoping that her watcher would be around. They had become very close since the incident; he was like a second father to her now. When she reached the library doors, she pushed them open and looked around. She smiled when she saw James sitting alone in a corner with dozens of books surrounding him. The good thing about being in a magical school was that all the volumes he'd brought didn't have to be kept hidden away. A lot of them were in the normal part of the library, with special charms on them of course, so that not just anybody could take them, and the more vivid ones were kept in the 'restricted section'.

Kathryn cleared her throat when she got close enough.

"Oh! Kathryn, you're up terribly early, didn't sleep well?" he asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose. She took a seat next to him, pulling one of his heavy books towards her and glancing at it. It had a picture of an extremely huge ugly demonic creature on it. Scowling in disgust, she pushed it away.

"Not really, but that's not why I'm here," she said. He pushed his own book away and waited for her to continue.

"I met someone in the hallway this morning ... Draco Malfoy," she said. If she had really been paying attention to James at that moment, she would have seen his eyes darken. But she didn't.

"And when our hands connected, I felt all these visions running through my mind ... I just don't know what it is James, it's really getting to me," she said, frowning. James pursed his lips. He seemed to be thinking about something darkly, but when he spoke it came out hesitant.

"Were they ah, were they prophetical of any sort?" he asked. Kathryn looked at him strangely. Was he hiding something from her?

"I don't know, that's why I came to you, I was hoping you could do some research for me, you know I'm not big on hitting those kinda books," she said.

"Oh uh, just, of course Kathryn. Yes, now you'd better be getting to breakfast hadn't you?" he said, glancing at his watch. James was actually a Muggle, but had been appointed assistant librarian to Madam Pince, who was one of the only staff members that knew about Kathryn's true identity.

She gave him that strange look again.

"O-oh ... kay ..." she said, getting up. She said goodbye, and with a final confused glance, headed down to breakfast.

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When seven thirty finally came around, Kathryn made her way from the Astronomy tower (after amusedly discovering at least four different couples that had accidentally fallen asleep after their late night escapades) back down to the Great Hall. She'd had a lot of time to think about her encounter with a certain blonde haired Slytherin and she realized that she'd felt something odd when she was near him. Not just the emotionally complex feelings she had begun to feel, no, this feeling was Slayer sense.

The visions that she had gotten irked her. She knew she'd have to think about this in depth when she had time, but she couldn't right now. Kathryn looked up when she heard her name being called. It was the headmaster.

"Hello Professor Dumbledore," she said politely. She felt warm in his presence, especially in his sparkling blue eyes that had a rare worldly depth to them, as if he had seen a great lot in his long life. She didn't doubt that he had; one evil wizard would have been enough.

"Miss Mahon, I have your timetable here. Since you are just starting out, we thought fit to just put you in the normal classes for now, though we have received good reviews from your previous school, it might be a little different here ... in fact, we thought that it might do you to get a tutor for Potions. Professor Snape is one of the best in the world and I assume that the lessons he teaches are vastly different from anything you've ever done before," he said kindly.

Pfft. She thought. Who was this Professor Snape? She doubted she would be needing a tutor; she'd aced Potions at her school back home. Not home Kathryn. Not anymore, she reminded herself. She thanked him, taking her timetable and studying it as he walked into the hall with the oncoming students.

"There you are, I was wondering where you'd run off too when I woke up," a voice said. Kathryn turned from her timetable to see Blaise standing there, looking gorgeous as always (although she'd only known her for a full 12 hours now!).

"Good morning," Kathryn said as they walked in and headed for the Slytherin table.

"So where were you?" Blaise asked. Kathryn shrugged.

"I got up early, thought I'd explore a bit," she said. Blaise nodded.

"It's good to have you here, it gets tiring having to put up with Tweedledum and Tweedledee over there," she said, gesturing towards the hall where Pansy and Millicent had just entered. Kathryn was surprised. She hadn't thought Blaise was the type of girl that gave out many nice comments, nor the type of person to know anything about Muggles.

"I can understand," she replied, eyeing the approaching pair. The hall was pretty much packed by now, but just as the last few yawning students entered, the doors swung open and none other then her blonde Slytherin sauntered in as if he owned the place. Kathryn rolled her eyes at his overconfidence. He sat down opposite them and nodded at Blaise.

"Hello Draco, how was your trip?" she asked him.

"The usual. You know how father is," he replied, looking at Kathryn.

"Oh, this is Kathryn-"

"We've already met," Kathryn interrupted. Blaise looked surprised. Kathryn thought this looked like an odd expression on her face. She didn't look like the type of person that was caught off guard a lot.

"Yes, this morning when I arrived, it was very early," he said, still looking at Kathryn, raising an eyebrow at her. She looked away, turning her attention to the teacher's table. If Draco was put off by her blunt brush-off he didn't show it.

"Blaise, your parents are coming over this weekend for dinner and father asked me to invite you as well. Please don't feel obliged," he said. This caught Kathryn's attention. She didn't say anything though.

"I suppose I could fit it into my schedule ... you know, school and all," Blaise said airily, smirking. Draco laughed.

"You should come too Kathryn, I know my father would like to meet you," he said, turning to her again.

"Oh? Is that so? And just who is your father?" she asked.

"Lucius ... Lucius Malfoy," he said. Kathryn had to struggle to keep her fork clutched tightly in her hand as that name reverberated through her mind. It wasn't the last name, no not at all, if she'd known his last name, she would have immediately made the connection with Draco. No, it was that first name, she couldn't even be sure if it was the same person, but that name dragged up so many bad memories. She cast her eyes down, struggling hard to remain indifferent.

"And, your father ... what does he look like? Not like you I hope," she said, trying to lighten up the conversation. Draco smirked at her again.

"He does actually, taller though, and with long blonde hair." This time Kathryn nearly dropped her fork. She hadn't been sure before ... but now she was.

The Australian Wizarding community had heard about England's strife over the Dark Lord that resided there, but it had never really affected them. Voldemort had never once tried to attack Buffy and her friends in Sunnydale (James had clued her in on the fact that there were actually two Slayers at the moment. Buffy had died but been revived, so there was Kendra, Kendra was killed and so came Faith. Faith, on a mission for Angel, had taken a Sleeping Death draught but had died from it - they'd found out the potion had been poisoned by the members at Wolfram & Hart. What they didn't know was that somehow, Voldemort had gotten one of his minions to gather a list of all the potential Slayers from around the world and kept a track on them.

It was midnight when it happened. Kathryn was preparing to sneak out of her window to patrol with James when she heard the bang of the front door and her mothers terrified scream. With the help of her preternatural speed, she ran downstairs. A blue glow was surrounding the door, and from what was happening, it seemed to allow all creatures to enter through, even vampires, without invite. There were at least 10 of them, 6 vampires, and 4 figures cloaked in black robes. Three of them had their hoods thrown over their heads, but the one she remembered, the face that would stay in her mind forever was his. He was tall, broad-shouldered with long, white-blonde hair and startlingly evil gray-blue eyes. Before even she could react he had his wand pointed out at her and cast a body-binding spell on her. She screamed her lungs out and with all the Slayer strength she had, broke free of it. He was ready for her though, two of the hooded figures walked up beside him, and together they recast the charm. This time it would not break loose.

"Lucius, what should we do with this pretty little thing?" one of them asked. Lucius. That was his name. He smiled - the most vile, evil thing she'd ever seen.

"Nothing for now ... she's just an observer," he said, and he levitated her over to a chair and sat her down, conjuring up thick ropes to bind her in case the spell was not strong enough. She watched helplessly with tears in her eyes as the vampires held her three beloved family members in tight clutches waiting for orders. She was screaming so loudly at them that Lucius cast a silencing spell on her.

"One by one," he said nastily, giving her that evil smile again. The tears were flowing freely down her cheeks as she struggled the best she could but just could not break the bind.

Lucius pointed at her brother first. She screamed 'no' but nothing came out. Inside her head she just kept screaming his name, Damon, Damon, Damon. But it was useless. She watched in horror as the vampires broke his fingers one by one, his strangled yells echoing through her own ears. She could see her parents crying in horror and straining to break free of the vampire's supernatural hold, but it was useless as well.

The three that were assaulting him then found different spots around his body and sunk their sharpened canines into his flesh.

"Kathryn! Kathryn," he was crying now, but was loosing strength as the vampire's sucked the blood out of his body. She mimed his name with no effect.

"Kathryn, I love you ... I love you all ..." he trailed off as death overtook him. Kathryn could feel the emptiness engulf her as her twin took his last breath. They were part of a package, you didn't get one without the other, and now, she felt as if she'd lost half of herself. Part of her was dead. She hung her head, crying so hard she couldn't breathe. She could vaguely hear her parent's crying screams of anguish. Suddenly, she felt as if her head was being forcibly pulled up to watch. She realized that Lucius was magically bending her body to his will. She shook her head, too horrified to even mouth the words no, but she couldn't move her head.

Next was her father. They didn't bother with the build up; the six distorted creatures just drank him to the last drop. He screamed at the pain of their sharp fangs digging roughly into his skin. She saw him look into her mother's eyes and mouth 'always' before he died too. The two Mahon women were beside themselves with anguish. They'd lost the two men that meant the most to them in their entire lives. She watched on, dreading what they would to do her mother. It was by far the worst. They roughly undressed her and took her against her will so many times on the floor. Kathryn thought she was going to throw up, she had never felt so disgusted and horrified in her entire life. And on top of that, she'd just lost half her family, and it looked like she would lose all of them very soon. Lucius took the silencing charm off her when they were finished with Paula.

"Mum! Oh mum," she screamed, crying. Paula looked at her daughter. Her eyes empty. There was blood everywhere. Kathryn screamed and cried as they killed her as well. The vampire's feeding off their third human that night. All gone. They were all gone and they were never coming back. Just as Paula Mahon took her last breath, the door crashed open again, and the four hooded figuresApparated immediately. Through blurry vision, Kathryn saw James leading in a group of Aurors. From their accents, she could tell that some of them were local, but some were from England. They started dusting the vampires, but as soon as James had untied her, she used her strength to rip apart the body-binding spell and attacked the last one, punching it and kicking it bloody with all the anger that they'd pent up inside her. She was killing it without a weapon, just pummeling it into the ground. Finally two Aurors pulled her off and dusted it. She dropped to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. She cried so hard she lost breath again. She vaguely remembered James carrying her out of the room to the van they had to take her to the hospital.

"Oh Kathryn, I'm so sorry I didn't get here in time ... I'm so sorry," his voice sounded almost as anguished as she felt. Almost.

"Gone ... all gone," she whispered, and passed out.

Kathryn looked right into Draco's eyes.

"I'll be there."

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