Bloody Hell!

Chapter Thirteen – Passing Through the Well

When Harriet returned to her chambers, she collapsed on her bed. She was exhausted to the core. She and Draco researched the Warring Era, but didn’t find much about it. All they found was some books on myths and legends and another on mating rituals. Harriet found that one and decided to take it with her to read. Draco took it upon himself to read through myths and then they would discuss it together. They also decided that Draco would accompany her to Sengoku Jidai as they could both learn many new things. They talked about things for hours and when Madam Pince came to warn them that the library was closing, they still hadn’t finished their talk. With every Draco’s spoken word, she learnt something new about him and his life. They talked about his hatred toward Muggle-borns and Draco had said,

‘I don’t really hate them; it’s just that I don’t understand how they can live without magic!’

Harriet had explained him about her life at the Dursleys', and he told her about his family. The only topics that were left ignored were Voldemort, Harriet’s unusual powers and Draco’s father. Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on her doors and her father’s voice,

‘Harriet, may I come in?’

Harriet jumped off her bed, opened the door, so her father could enter and then sat back on her bed. She watched her father making himself comfortable on her armchair and sniffed a little. She smelled cinnamon and vanilla and said,

‘You smell nice.’

Severus smiled slightly and answered,

‘Thank you. How was your day?’

Harriet stood up and went over to him, sat down on the floor at his feet and told him about her talk with Draco. Snape was quiet for a minute and than he said,

‘I’m glad you made truce.’

Harriet giggled and said,

‘We also found some books. Draco took myths and legends and I took mating rituals. Those are the only books in our library.’

Snape thought for a minute and said,

‘I could send an owl to Snape Manor for the house elves to send me my books about Sengoku Jidai.’

Harriet glanced up at her father and asked,

‘You have books about Warring Era too?’

Severus nodded and Harriet said,

‘Draco and I were thinking about going there this weekend.’

Suddenly their talk was interrupted by a loud knocking on Snape’s doors. The professor stood and walked out of Harriet’s chambers to open them. The visitor surprised him. It was Draco. He was slightly out of breath, but he managed to say,

‘Professor, I need to talk to Harriet. Could you tell me where she is? Weasley and Granger wouldn’t say.’

Harriet walked out of her room when Draco said that and asked,

‘What is it Draco?’

Draco looked at her and Harriet understood the silent question.

‘Professor Snape knows about me being a youkai, Ryu, don’t worry.’

Snape’s eyebrows rose as he asked,

‘Ryu?’

Draco dropped his illusions and said,

‘Yes, sir. My name is Ryu and I’m the Lord of the Southern Lands.’

Severus was impressed. He allowed Draco to enter in the chambers. When they were sat on the armchairs, Draco told them the reason he looked for Harriet.

‘I read in Youkai Statistics, that there are four Youkai Lords there. They all are the most powerful youkai forms in Sengoku Jidai.’

Harriet rolled her eyes,

‘Draco, you don’t need to be so modest. We know you are the Lord of the Southern Lands.’

Draco mock glared at her and said,

‘If you wouldn’t interrupt me, I would tell you about other three rulers.’

Harriet rolled her eyes, but remained quiet. Severus though, was watching the communication between two ex archenemies. It was very relaxed and it was hard for him not to laugh at their antics. He really was glad, that Harriet and Draco made that truce, which led them to friendship. He wouldn’t dare to think ahead. Draco continued,

‘There are two Lords and a Lady. The Lord of the Eastern Lands is an ookami youkai, named Kouga. He’s approximately in his middle twenties. Then, there is the Lord of the Western Lands, Sesshomaru. An inu youkai. He’s also in his mid twenties, if we don’t count youkai years.’

Harriet frowned a little and asked,

‘What youkai years?’

Draco smiled at her and answered,

‘Youkai and hanyous age slower than ningens and mikos. Sesshomaru for example is over seventy in youkai years, but he looks like he’s in mid twenties.’

Harriet groaned and Draco continued,

‘But… I came upon an interesting information about the Lady of the Northern Lands. She was a washi youkai, by the name of Hekele. It was said that she disappeared and no one saw her from then on.’

There was a heavy silence that was broken by Harriet,

‘You think, I’m that Lady?’

Draco shook his head and answered,

‘No, I don’t think that. I know that you are the Lady of the Northern Lands. Hekele disappeared fifty years ago. The legend says that she killed herself to let her reincarnation be the Lady she never could be. The legend also says that when her reincarnation, or her descendant, comes into power, that they’ll change on their name day when he or she would be sixteen years old.’

He swallowed a little and said,

‘I looked at the calendar and yesterday was the name-day of Harriet. So I put two and two together and got this fascinating result.’

Harriet sighed and rubbed her nose. Suddenly a section out of her book came to her mind.

‘What!?!’

Draco and Severus both looked at her in confusion, but she ignored them both, as she ran to her room to get the Youkai Mating Rituals book from her bedpost. She threw the book on the tea table and skimmed through the book until she found what she was looking for. She paled. Draco was really worried now. He was just about to ask her what was wrong when she started reading,

‘Chapter Five, Youkai Marriages. The youkai marriages between the four rulers of the Nihon country are always arranged. If there was a daughter in one of the four clans, she would marry the male that was closest to her age in one of the three other clans. If there was no daughter, the son was to be betrothed to the closest descendant of the lords or ladies of the Nihon country.’

There was a deep silence in the living room. Draco gasped,

‘Harriet…’

Severus was clueless. He asked,

‘What is going on?’

Harriet and Draco looked at each other and Harriet explained,

‘It means that me and Draco are betrothed, or simply said, we are engaged. At least that’s what I think. Maybe in the Warring Era there are other males in the other two clans. But if there isn’t a male that is sixteen as I am, then I must marry Draco when I become of age.’

Draco shook his head as to wake up of some daze. Severus was silent, as he didn’t know what to say. Finally Harriet said,

‘Well, I think that I’ll drop for tonight. It’s already ten minutes to the curfew and I need to sleep. Draco, you better go, before professor Snape decides to take points off of Slytherin because you were out of bed after curfew. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night!’

She swiftly left two confused men behind her as she closed the door to her room. She slumped on the floor and put her head on her knees. She sighed deeply and after a while fell asleep.

~8~8~8~8~

The weekend seemed to take forever to come, but when it did, Harriet almost wished that it was still Monday. She was a little cold toward Draco, but although he didn’t show it, she knew he was hurt by her behaviour. Today though, was a Saturday and they were slowly getting ready to go to Sengoku Jidai. She closed the backpack she had and put it on her shoulders. She went to breakfast and broke the news to Ron and Hermione and asked them to tell the rest of the Marauders, that she’ll be absent for the whole weekend and ordered Ron to plan everything for the Mission Swan Lake as they called the prank for Slytherins that would take place on Monday at dinner. Now she stood at the door to the Great Hall and waited for Draco to show up. She was sorry she treated him like that, it wasn’t his fault that they had to marry, was it? It was the tradition and she’ll have to get over it. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. She heard someone coming to her and from his aura she knew it was Draco. Without a word, she led him to the corridor where she found the well and saw it was just as she had left it. She dropped the illusion over herself and saw Draco doing the same thing. She looked him in the eyes and said,

‘Are you ready Draco?’

Draco nodded solemnly,

‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

She took his hand and together they jumped in the purple light that hovered in the well.

~8~8~8~8~

When Harriet opened her eyes, she saw they were still in the well, but as she smelled the air, she knew they were somewhere outside. She took in Draco’s position and blushed. She didn’t notice she was sprawled on him. She quickly stood up and brushed her haori. Draco smirked slightly and jumped up and out of the well. There he yelled at her,

‘Are you going to stay in that old well forever, or are you going to come out and look at the landscape?’

Harriet glared at him and jumped out of the well too. She was just about so say something when a smell reached her nostrils. She had just about enough time to cover hers and Draco’s noses and whirl around to see a strange cloud hovering around them. She wanted to say something, but she got the poison in her throat and started to get dizzy. She never heard Draco’s roar and she never saw him take her in his arms and run away.