The Art Of Seduction

Chapter Two - La La

You can dress me up diamonds

You can dress me up in dirt

You can throw me like a line-man

I like it better when it hurts

Oh, I have waited here for you

I have waited

You make me wanna la la

In the kitchen on the floor

I'll be a French maid

When I meet you at the door

I'm like an alley cat

Drink the milk up, I want more

You make me wanna

You make me wanna scream

You can meet me on an aero-plane

Or in the back of the bus

You can throw me like a boomerang

I'll come back and beat you up

Oh, I have waited here for you

Don't, keep me waiting

You make me wanna la la

In the kitchen on the floor

I'll be a French maid

When I meet you at the door

I'm like an alley cat

Drink the milk up, I want more

You make me wanna

I feel safe with you

I can be myself tonight

It's alright, with you

Cuz you hold, my secrets tight

You do, you do

You make me wanna la la, la la la, la la, la la la la la la la la la

You make me wanna la la, la la la la

'La La' by Ashlee Simpson

The party was in full swing by the time the De Coulet's arrived but neither of them raised an eyebrow at the orgy that seemed to be occurring in the Jacuzzi on the patio or at the very heavy petting going on at various intervals around the room.

"Now this is my kind of party."

Delphine rolled her smouldering eyes at her brother who was gazing around through the doorway looking for the blondes he had met that morning. He finally located them clad only in matching crimson G-Strings and sprawled in a tangle of limbs on a black leather couch.

"I forgot this was your first Bachelor Party."

Kai's eyes were glued to the two wriggling blondes as the pair showed their invitations to another pair of armed guards at the doorway to the main room before being ushered in.

"Indeed it is dear sister of mine, anything I should know?"

Delphine shrugged her shoulders elegantly; gratified when the male members of the room who weren't quite drunk, stoned or both yet turned away from whoever they were with to stare at her as she entered.

"Basically the party side of a Bachelor Party is entirely foreplay preparing you for the events later on."

Kai's eyes gleamed as the blondes noticed him and made their way over, hips swaying from side to side as they approached.

"And later on?"

Delphine smirked and indicated a writhing couple on the floor behind a couch and Kai grinned as the two blondes draped themselves over him.

"Anything you want, nothing that happens leaves this house or its grounds."

Kai whooped, kissed his sister's cheek and darted off onto the dance floor with the blondes in tow. Delphine rolled her eyes and relinquished her dark fur wrap to a hovering girl clad in a waitress outfit so small and tight she must have bought it from a child's dress-up shop.

Ignoring a guy walking purposefully towards her she weaved her way through the crowds, accepting the glass of champagne a blushing waiter offered her and continuing on her way across the hall. Seeing her planned conquest for the evening she quickly assessed the competition standing in a circle three-deep around him by the fireplace.

Draining her glass of champagne she kept her eyes fixed on him as she began to wind her way towards him, her hips swinging sensuously and her eyes never leaving his face even though he didn't look up at her once. She was so busy concentrating on him that she didn't even notice the tall man heading in her direction with a blonde on one arm and a brunette on the other until he had walked slap into her spilling champagne all down her front.

Glaring up at the blond haired man before her Delphine was just about to open her mouth and tell him exactly what she thought of him for ruining her dress when a bloodcurdling scream rent the air. The room turned as one to face towards the garden where the noise had issued from. Shouts of "Run!" echoed around the now silent hall before every single occupant dived for the doors without knowing what they were running from.

Delphine looked at them all pushing and shoving past her and she scowled; a perfectly good evening ruined! Glancing up in time to see a hail of shattered glass raining down on her as a window near her exploded into the room she felt the glass cut into her and she spun around wildly, momentarily blinded. She had taken one shaking step forward when she felt someone barge past her knocking her to the side, the huge mirror approaching her so fast she didn't even have time to cry out before she had been thrown face first into it.

The silence that followed the almighty crash was deafening as the crowds stopped their escape and turned to face the new disaster. Delphine wobbled slightly on her hands and knees amidst the shards of glass surrounding her before she lurched forwards and collapsed onto the floor with her arms throw out and her hair escaping the pins holding it back.

Draco Malfoy glared irritably as no one moved to check on the girl slumped before him, he sighed and detached himself from the panic-stricken girls still clinging to him. He moved forward cautiously, his shoes crunching on the fallen glass and the sound resonating around the huge silent room as he knelt carefully besides Delphine.

Carefully lifting her limp arm he checked her pulse and nodded at the crowd that she was alive, there was nervous shifting as a murmur rippled throughout the room before someone finally announced she was going to Floo St Mungo's for an emergency squad to come and pick Delphine up.

Deciding if she stayed face down until the Emergency Squad got there she'd most likely have suffocated Draco, with a surprisingly gentle touch, carefully rolled her over onto her side exposing her face to the room.

A single woman let out a shriek at the sight of Delphine de Coulet's beautiful face and neck smeared from snowy forehead to curving chin with deep crimson blood.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ginny Weasley sighed and ran her hands back through her hair ruffling it up even further as she leant back in her swivelling chair and watched the pictures scattered across her messy desk. Selecting one from the pile she lifted it up before her so the light could shine on it and she peered closely at where the body emblazoned across it had been ripped open in various places.

She dropped it back onto the table and slouched back in her chair, bringing one shapely leg up underneath her as she took a sip of the tepid coffee to one side of her. She wrinkled her freckled nose and tapped the mug with her wand until steam slowly began curling out from the top again.

"Still here?"

Ginny raised her eyes to meet those of her senior officer, his coat was thrown over his arm and his tie was loose over the half open shirt he was wearing. His eyes were tiny with exhaustion and ringed deep with heavy lines as he surveyed her. He found it extremely saddening that people as young as Ginny, who was only two years out of Auror training at the tender age of twenty-six, were already used to seeing scenes of graphic violence as the result of what human beings did to one another.

He himself had been working in the Homicide Department of the Ministry of Magic for over twenty years and still wasn't entirely hardened against the horrific things that one person could do to another.

"I'm just trying to work out an old case..."

Ginny trailed off when Jackson spun the top photo around so he could see it, he sighed and looked up at Ginny almost pityingly as she stared fixedly at the desk.

"Weasley, you were brought off this case months ago."

Ginny sighed and threw her head back to glare at him defiantly; her shoulder-length red hair fell into her eyes as she watched him searching her face. She pushed her side-fringe behind her ear sharply only to have it fall immediately back into her face.

"This isn't healthy; you were brought off this case because of your emotional attachment to the victims..."

Ginny opened her mouth furiously, her green eyes blazing as she half rose out of her seat, her hands flat against the desk.

"Those victims were my family!"

Jackson held a hand up for her to stop and drew himself up fully as she slumped down in her seat and stared at the yellow and green tiled floor mutinously.

"And that's exactly why you were taken off it; you were beating up the suspects if they wouldn't answer your questions for Merlin's sake! You're lucky you weren't fired."

Ginny crossed her arms and lowered her head even further, angry tears welling in her eyes. Exactly two years ago her entire family save for herself, Ron and the twins had been murdered, each death exactly an hour apart and a separate level of torture and systematic death. It was the first case she had been put on and less than three months later she had been taken off it as Jackson had said. It had frustrated her that there wasn't a single solid lead to follow on the case and the suspects had been narrowed down to every Death Eater in the country.

After she had been taken off the case she had thrown herself into work, rooting out killers left right and centre and showing them no mercy in arresting them, indeed many suspects she had brought in were missing teeth or sporting at least one broken bone. She had taken to heart what she had told Jackson on her first day;

"Just make sure they can speak for the trial."

"They don't need all their teeth to speak do they?"

"Not necessarily."

She smiled bitterly to herself before snapping out of her reverie to find Jackson watching her with a concerned expression on his handsome face.

"Just don't work yourself to death, OK? Try actually going home tonight for once."

Ginny smiled briefly at him and took another sip of her coffee as he left the room and she glanced around at the dozen other desks crammed into the small office room, the door to Jackson's cupboard sized office was left open to her right on the far side of the room and not a single one of the desks between her and the door was occupied at the moment.

Sighing Ginny shoved the pictures back into the file and dropped it into her bottom drawer which expanded out to become a filing cabinet. She was about to close the drawer when she caught sight of a file in the wrong place, no doubt dumped on her desk by someone who couldn't be bothered with it and she had shoved it in there by accident. Grumbling she picked it up, noting it was named de Coulet and was about to shove it into the D section when a picture on the top caught her eye.

He was absolutely amazing! His eyes, which flashed angrily at the camera, were the darkest shade of blue she had ever seen and were instantly offset by the head of longish tousled black curls that accompanied them. Digging further into the file Ginny found it was an investigation into the possible murder of the boy's parents in a fire.

The sound of a door slamming down the hall made Ginny jump and the file slipped from her fingers, tumbling to the floor and spilling its contents across her feet. Muttering to herself she dropped to her knees and began hurriedly shoving the papers and photographs back into the file, taking a last look at the boy before tucking it into the file with the others and dropping it onto her desk.

"Ouch! Stupid cramped office..."

Mumbling under her breath as she rubbed her head after knocking it on the desk on her way back up she pulled on her jacket and shoved her family's case file defiantly into her bag before taking a last sweeping glance around to check she hadn't forgotten anything. Her eyes landed on the file sitting innocently on the centre of her desk and she trailed her fingertip over the slightly peeling name tape on the right ridge of the file.

Sighing she shoved it quickly in her bag and grabbed her wand, flicking it at the candles that lit the room which immediately extinguished themselves as she left. Nodding at the few witches and wizards still hurrying along the corridors at this time of night Ginny darted down the corridors towards the lift, suddenly in a hurry to get home.

She caught up with Jackson just as he was about to Floo home in the Atrium and she called out to him making him finger his wand nervously at the sudden noise.

"Actually leaving the office before midnight, are you feeling alright?"

Ginny shot him a dirty look across the guard's shoulder as he checked over her wand before moving over to join him in the small queue waiting for a fireplace.

"I've decided to take my work home with me."

Jackson shot her a sideways glance and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, he knew exactly what she meant and he was positive the Weasley case file would be in her bag if he decided to look.

"I've also decided to have a look at the de Coulet case."

She lowered her eyes and stared fixedly at the back of a broad shouldered man's head as he bobbed up and down impatiently in front of her. Jackson eyed her curiously but she ignored his gaze, she herself didn't know why she was looking at the case but there it was in her bag just the same.

Snapping back to the present Ginny looked up in time to see Jackson nod at her before stepping into the green fire and disappearing. As Ginny took his place and tossed her Floo Powder into the flames she touched her hand to her bag briefly, feeling the slight bulkiness that told her of both files still snugly safe inside and she smiled; shouting out her destination.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Delphine awoke to bolts of fire chasing around her face and she groaned, at least she tried to groan but her face was too tightly bound by something. Slowly and groggily she blinked trying to open her eyes but something pressed against her lids preventing them from opening. Her hand steadily moved up to her face, the outer edges of her palm grazing along her nightgown as though to mentally ensure she knew she was still there.

Ever so slowly her trembling hand encountered bandages at her neck, around her chin, above and below her lips, over her nose, eyes and forehead until she found her hair flopping lank and greasy over the pillow.

"Ah, you're awake."

Panicking now she moved her head slightly to the side in the direction of the voice forgetting she couldn't see.

"Wut 'appen'd?"

Her voice was muffled and already contorted since she couldn't move her lips properly and she jumped when she felt hands on her cheeks.

"I'm just going to check your pulse then I'll take some of these bandages off."

Delphine swallowed and nodded as the hands stripped back whatever had been covering her neck and she felt a pair of gentle fingers over her pulse. There was the noise of a quill scratching on parchment as she felt the hands gliding over her, checking her over swiftly before finally beginning to unravel the bandages around her face.

"How long have I been here?"

Delphine only waited until her lips had been uncovered before she asked as she waited for the bandages around her eyes to be removed. Her face felt stiff and sore and she felt the desperate urge to wash.

"Three days, you've been asleep through most of it."

The bandages were at her forehead now but Delphine was too afraid to open her eyes; what if she couldn't see? Her hands were trembling again as the last of the bandages were discarded with a flick of the Healer's wand and a muttered word.

"Open your eyes very slowly, having them closed for so long will make them hurt when you first open them but the room is quite dim for now."

Delphine gently fluttered her eyes a little before allowing them to flicker open; she snapped them shut almost immediately before easing them open again to see a middle-aged male Healer bending over the side of her bed taking her pulse once more. Her room was plainly but comfortingly decorated in pale blue and cream and she had been changed into a hospital robe since she had been brought in.

"What happened?"

The Healer didn't look up from the chart he was scribbling on as he looked at his watch then resumed his writing. He finally looked up at her over the rim of his frameless oblong glasses with weary eyes.

"Don't you remember?" Delphine shook her head. "There was some kind of panic at the party and you ended up going face first through the mirror."

He saw Delphine's bloodshot eyes widen in panic and he hurriedly comforted her by raising his hand against her torrent of questions and continuing.

"You were a very lucky girl; most of the cuts on your face and neck were superficial and were healed immediately, some however were worse and had to be put back together by hand."

Delphine winced and lifted a now frantically shaking hand to her cheek where she could feel the roughness of some kind of stitches although she didn't know what they were.

"Will they scar?"

The Healer shook his head but his words weren't as comforting as his actions when he continued.

"Most likely not although you may have the tiniest one on your outer right cheekbone, just by your right temple and under your chin. But they'll hardly show up. Don't worry a few weeks and your pretty face will be practically back to normal."

Delphine nodded dully although she was hardly listening until a curious sound caught her attention; arguing? Her unasked question was answered when Kai erupted into the room in dark ripped jeans and a white t-shirt, his chin was blurred with stubble so dark it looked almost dark blue and his eyes were as bloodshot as Delphine's and crackling with anger and worry.

Ignoring the Healer he was across the room in a flash taking Delphine in his arms as he perched on the edge of her bed. He smoothed a hand through her matted hair and murmured endearments and words of encouragement in French into her ear.

"Can she leave now?"

Kai's voice was sharp but Delphine had never been so glad to hear it as she clung to him tightly, listening to the Healer sigh.

"I suppose, she's in no danger it's just a case of waiting for the wounds to heal themselves..."

His answer had hardly left his mouth before Kai was back on his feet, wrapping her in his jacket and bundling her out of the room. He barged right through a group of reporters hovering outside the room knocking two of them to the floor and yet he carried on walking towards the lift. He kept an arm wrapped protectively around Delphine as she buried her face in his shoulder, huddled into the jacket to hide her face as she clutched tightly at the fresh package of bandages the Healer had managed to hand her before Kai had practically dragged her from the room.

The lift ground to a halt at the bottom floor and Kai headed immediately over to the fireplace crackling away merrily in the corner, fluttering his eyelashes at a young nurse behind the counter who was so busy gaping at him she didn't notice she was giving him most of the hospital's Floo powder reserved only for the Emergency Squad.

As the pack of reporters clambered out of the lift Kai had his sister in his arms and his mouth already open to shout out their destination. They were gone in a flash and the reporters were left facing an empty fireplace covered in soot.

"Nasty bastard that de Coulet."

A furious pretty young reporter quickly erased all traces of dust from her fluorescent pink skirt and jacket set and turned her large brown eyes to the short squat camera man stood before her checking over his camera.

"Really?"

He nodded without looking up, his grimy fingernails trying to scratch some dirt out of a corner of the camera.

"Yeah there was a load of rumours going around that him and his sister offed their folks to get their hands on the money."

The girl wrinkled her nose at the smell of the man before and took a discreet step backwards, pausing when she heard his words.

"Really? Now that is interesting."

Finally succeeding in his task the camera man looked up at the sound of her musical voice and dropped the camera. With lightening reflexes any Seeker would die for the girl held the camera out to him with a pale bright pink-nailed hand. He took it wordlessly and glanced down at the floor for a moment to regain his composure, when he looked up she was gone.

-=-=-=-=-=-

"Nice party?"

Draco ignored Ariel's irritating presence draped across the sofa in his room as he stripped off his jacket and shirt and disappeared into the bathroom to switch on the shower.

"Ariel I don't give you permission to be in my room which, in case you didn't know, means I don't want you here. Get out."

Even Ariel wasn't stupid enough to answer back when he looked and sounded like that; Draco's face was as dark as any thundercloud as he watched her leave his room. Sighing he ran a hand through his hair, which flopped back into his eyes immediately, before sauntering over to the bathroom to take his shower.

As the hot jets pounded against his body he closed his eyes and placed both hands flat against the dark marble of the shower stall. Closing his eyes briefly he dropped his forehead against the marble, enjoying the cool feel against his head as the rest of his body burned beneath the hot water.

He could hear the beat of the music he had switched on before his shower and he followed the lyrics through in his head, his lips moving slowly as he murmured the words with his eyes still closed.

"Run and tell all of the angels
This could take all night
Think I need a devil to help me
Get things right."

He could feel his skin heating up even further, the pain a refreshing escape from the numbness he usually lived with.

"I'm looking for complications
Looking cos I'm tired of lying
Make my way back home
When I learn to fly."

Opening his eyes he finally responded to the screaming pain of his skin and he pressed his hand to the cold nozzle, adjusting it until the water that beat against his sensitive skin was bearable.

"Fly along with me
I can't quite make it alone
Try to make this life my own."

He was scrubbing the last of the soap out of his hair when he heard some of the last few lyrics of the song and he paused for a moment, something flickering at the back of his eyes before they returned to their normal shade of icy indifference and he resumed his task of bathing.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ginny paid the babysitter and dumped her bag on the living room sofa, swinging her jacket over the back of it and kicking off her high-heeled ankle boots. She rolled the sleeves of her shirt up and headed into the kitchen to find some food, flicking her wand at the kettle as she passed.

Making herself a cup of tea she extinguished the lights and grabbed her bag, heading up the stairs where she deposited her cup and bag in her room before moving down the hall towards her daughter's room.

Ginny had never once regretted having her daughter; Samaire, but she had regretted the marriage to her daughter's father. She had been eighteen when she had met Carl and his slightly wild antics had been the perfect remedy for the boring college guys she had dated before. By the time she was twenty she was about to give birth to their daughter and trapped in a marriage after she had realised her imagined love for Carl was just that; imagined. She had been much too young to have a baby but she did nonetheless and she had proved to be a wonderful mother.

Carl was also a brilliant father, when he was around. When Ginny was twenty-two and their daughter was just two years old Carl left, walking out of a marriage right into another one and Ginny was surprised to find herself much less upset than she would have imagined by his departure. In fact the most dominant feeling she had experienced as she watched him pack was that of relief that she was free.

Her father leaving also didn't seem to bother Samaire as much as Ginny had thought it would, initially she was upset but when she realised she would be seeing her father bearing gifts at least twice a month she soon settled down into the new life Ginny worked hard at developing.

Once Ginny had graduated and been accepted as an Auror in the Homicide Department, the change had been a big one, especially with most of her family's deaths, but they had managed and Samaire seemed quite happy with the new routine.

Watching her slumbering peacefully Ginny felt a glow of love and pride well inside her and she tiptoed into the room, pulling the Tandsworth Tigers' cover up over her daughter's shoulders and dropping a kiss onto her forehead. She was halfway back across the room when she heard Samaire call her name softly.

"Mommy?"

Ginny smiled ruefully to herself and turned to look at her daughter, already sat up in bed and rubbing her huge amber eyes. The black and orange stripes of her Tigers' pyjamas made her long mahogany hair stand out vividly in the splattered light from the street-lamp outside her window and Ginny smiled fondly down at her daughter as she sank down onto the bed.

Samaire crawled over to her and curled into her lap, wrapping her little arms around Ginny's waist and nuzzling into her shoulder happily. Ginny stroked her daughter's hair distantly as she glanced around at the entirely black and orange room that was Samaire's domain. Only seven and yet she was already obsessed with Quidditch, she was the top Chaser in her school team and played as ferociously as any boy yet with the gentle nimble grace of a woman.

Ginny had long ago given up on trying to wean her daughter away from her tomboy attitude and was now entirely used to receiving owls from the school informing her that her daughter had injured another boy playing Quidditch. And yet Samaire had a gentle and loyal side, Ginny could well remember one day only a few months ago when she had been called to the school and had found Samaire in floods of tears outside the Head's office.

Marching in she had discovered Samaire had punched a boy a year older than her, unfortunately when he fell backwards he landed on her class hamster. Ginny had returned to her daughter and questioned her gently about the incident.

"But mommy! He was hitting those two boys, they were younger than him, younger than me and he was knocking them over because they didn't have any money. I had to do something!"

Fighting the urge to laugh despite the seriousness of the situation Ginny had asked her what she had done and a brief flash of pride crossed Samaire's freckled face and eyes, so like Ginny's own, as she spoke.

"I went over and told him to stop and he said 'Make me' so I stood on his foot and he tried chasing me so I was going to run at first. Then I stopped and told him not to be such a revolting little bully."

Samaire's cheeks were pink with rage as she balled up her fists and wrinkled her cute button-nose at the memory, Ginny could see a slight swelling on her right knuckles and she took the hand. Samaire calmed at her touch and sank back down into her seat on the front step of the school besides Ginny.

"Well he laughed at me and kicked at one of the boys who were still near me. By then I was sick of him so when he turned to laugh at me again I... punched him."

Ginny had bitten back her laughter and reproached her daughter accordingly before moving onto the subject of the hamster; at which point Samaire promptly burst into tears again and threw herself on her mother sobbing helplessly. It appeared one of the boys that had been being bullied had been holding the hamster and had dropped it at the kick, right behind the falling boy.

Looking back down at the girl in her lap Ginny realised she was asleep again and gently returned her to her bed and kissed her upturned cheek once more before leaving the room and heading back to her own.

A few moments later she was clad in an oversized gold and crimson Hogwarts Academy t-shirt that drooped off her freckled shoulders slightly as she sat up in bed and slipped on her oblong glasses. Rimmed in think black ebony they complimented the curves of her face beautifully as she snuggled back against the headboard and sipped on her tea as she flicked through the de Coulet case file.