Filia de Malignus

Chapter 8: Draco and Xenia's Understanding

"Why didn't I see it before?!" said Harry, as they walked down to the Gryffindor common room. "The telepathic thing... you know, you can see what I think sometimes and I can see what you think, too! And... the eyes! Well, I guess that can happen with anyone, but it makes sense now. And your hair, it turned from black to red. My guess is that the creator of that curse had some black hair gene in him..."

"No, in my dream he was blond," she said.

"Might be recessive... anyway! Your hair turned to your mother's, well, our mother's color. This is really odd, Xenia," said Harry. He looked down at his hands and saw them still clasped around hers. He let go of them immediately. "Maybe we should, you know, go down to the common room..." he said.

"Right." And with that, they walked down to the common room, Harry's book in his hand and Xenia's letter in hers.

"Well, we aren't positive that it is definitely her, are we?" asked Xenia.

"It's pretty convincing to me," said Harry.

"Okay, I'm going to give this diary a look through," she said. "Maybe it has some pictures of her or something... to prove it, perhaps?"

Xenia searched and searched through the diary. She found many pictures. There was some of her and her sister, Petunia, some of her and her friends at school, and countless pictures of the same three guys over and over again, and one of them was an exact likeness of Harry, except for the eyes, of course.

"There are a lot of your dad in here when he was growing up," she said. Her eyes fell across a picture of her mother, laughing hysterically and looking over to the side of her at apparently nothing. It was torn from a bigger picture. There were rips on one side of it. "Harry, this one looks like it was torn off another picture or something."

Harry was flipping through his own book. Ironically, he was looking at a ripped picture also. It was one that Sirius gave him last year. It had his father, Sirius, and Remus Lupin, all laughing their heads off at something or other. He took it out of the binding.

"Hand your photo here," he said.

He looked at the tears on each closely, and then put the two pictures together. When he did, there was a flash of brilliant blue light and then the picture was in one. Now the picture was moving. His father was in the middle and Lily was at his side. This was obviously at their wedding, since Lily was dressed in white and the rest were dressed in black suits.

"Here's proof, Xenia. The guy next to my father is my godfather, you know, the escaped convict from Azkaban? And next to him is Remus Lupin... he's a werewolf. They were all great friends. Oh yeah, and that makes us brother and sister, probably twins."

"Ah..." she said. "Half, since our fathers weren't the same."

"Wait, but how...?" he asked.

"Easy," she started. "It's really simple. My mother got, err, impregnated by this blonde-haired nut job, and then, I'm guessing that the 'friend' that came to her rescue was your father. It couldn't have been him. Didn't you know that I'm a year older than you are? July 31^st 1979. We can't be twins."

"July 31^st 1980..." he said analytically. "Alright, I'm convinced. Now we just have to figure out something," he said.

"What?"

"Which wand half created you..." he said. "I mean, you say in your dream that this blonde guy attacked your mom. Now, I know one blonde man that would do that, but it could be anyone... no, I don't want you jumping to conclusions..."

"Malfoy's father?" she asked.

"Yeah... Lucius," he spat. "It's like, Draco, 'cept a bajillion times worse... and in the Ministry of Magic."

"That bastard! If I don't get him, I'll kill his precious son..." she started.

"Ah, but if it was him, that would be killing your other half brother..." he said.

She shuddered. "I am NOT related to ANY Malfoy! I can't be through blood, anyway!" she said. "And I don't want to be your sister, either! This is weird!"

"Well, now I have a reason to break every bone in his body," said Harry.

"Why?"

"If he messes with you, I'll kill him," he said. "Being your brother has benefits, you know."

"And drawbacks," she said sadly, twisting a lock of her hair. Something hit her. "WHOA! Wait a minute, we're brother and sister. Why was I madly attracted to you, then? I mean... this is amazingly odd."

"We're only half..." he said. "So, I guess you are more like my mom and I am more like my dad, so I guess we naturally would go for each other... "

"It's sick when you put it like that..." she said. "I wouldn't have said that I was 'going' for you. That makes it sound like we did more than just kiss!"

"Stop making me think about the fact I kissed my sister..." he groaned.

"Half sister, you're forgetting," she said.

"Still! It's not exactly right!"

"It's not exactly wrong, either," she said. She saw the look on Harry's face and quickly said, "Joke!"

"Good," he said.

"Wow... you liked it, didn't you?" she said, taunting him.

"STOP IT!" he yelled. "Oh... wait 'til everyone hears about this one. Ron is going to murder me!"

"Well, just explain it to him," she said.

"You never met Ron, have you?" he said, rolling his eyes.

"He's the red head, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "But lets try and figure out who your father is, alright? Because if it is Lucius Malfoy..." said Harry.

"IT'S NOT!" she said determinedly.

"It could be," he said. An idea struck him. "I know for a fact that my--our mother was in Gryffindor. Now that could mean that the person who, well, you know, half created you could have been in Slytherin. Did the Sorting Hat say anything weird to you?"

Xenia stared at him blankly. "You mean the stupid talking hat?"

"What I mean to say is, did the talking hat let you choose what house you wanted to be in?" he said. "It isn't that stupid!"

"Well, I remember him saying something about me being very talented and something about my blood. It wasn't new, or something. 'Not new blood', yeah, that was it," she said. "He didn't know where to put me so I said, 'put me where the blonde kid isn't!' But did the damn thing listen? Nooooooo! He put me with Malfoy, and now it's giving me grief."

"Not new blood..." said Harry. "Hmm... then it would fit, wouldn't it? Every Malfoy there ever was was in Slytherin! If Draco's your half brother... it would technically mean that your blood isn't new in the sense that the Sorting Hat sensed it millions of Malfoys before..."

"I'll kill myself," she said. "That's just sick! Anyway, do you know anything else about Impregnato?"

"I don't have the slightest clue, really. Impregnato... doesn't ring a bell," he said. He looked up at her. "But I do know who does..."

* * *

Xenia slept on the Gryffindor common room couch that night. In the morning though, Harry woke her up and there was a girl beside her. She had thick, brown, wavy hair that was very, well, big. She was holding a stack of books in her hands. She looked down at Xenia with a disapproving stare, but all the same, she offered her hand.

"Hermione Granger," she said curtly.

Xenia didn't think she would meet anyone that was so different from her. That was, of course, until she met Hermione. Besides her looks, her personality was the absolute anti-Xenia. Expulsion was a crime worse than death itself and she was a total suck up. Or that's what it looked like, at first.

"I'm Xenia Xanderbilt," she said sleepily. "I'm Harry's new sister... just found out yesterday, and we sort of need some help."

"What sort of 'help'?" she said suspiciously. "Am I covering up for anyone, again? Last time I did that, I almost got into deep trouble."

"No... I hear you're really good with this sort of thing," said Xenia. She launched into the story of the curse. "...And that's it! I mean, I'm good at alchemy and school stuff, but I'm bad at puzzles and using common sense."

"You like alchemy?" asked Hermione, surprised.

"Yeah! It's my favorite subject," she said.

"Mine too! Well, after Arithmancy, of course."

The two of them were not as stiff at each other after they found that common ground.

"Well, Harry reckons it's Lucius Malfoy that cursed her, therefore creating me. I saw a blonde-haired guy in my dream, but then again, it was just a dream." Said Xenia.

"So was the one of me, Ron and the Whomping Willow!" he said. "Your dreams have been pretty accurate thus far!"

"Fine! You don't have to get all prissy with me!" she said.

"If you two would be QUIET!" she said. "Maybe we could get on with some figuring instead of arguing!" They were quiet immediately. "Right then... now Xenia, you say that in the dream the man had blonde hair. The Sorting Hat said you had 'not new blood' and it put you in Slytherin. Now that leaves me with the conclusion that whoever the originator of that curse was, was in fact in Slytherin."

"Something I could have told you without assistance," said Harry.

"Shh!" said Xenia and Hermione in unison. "You were saying?"

"Your father is from Slytherin," she said. "Well, the first place we could start is by looking in the school books. You know, like yearbooks. They'll have every picture from the start of the century, I expect. And we don't even have to go far or break any rules to get to them. They're in the library. So, we're looking for a blonde-haired Slytherin..."

"Lucius Malfoy!" said Harry.

"It could be anyone, Harry!" said Hermione.

"Exactly how blonde was he?" said Harry.

"Shut UP! You're just being stupid now!" said Hermione.

"So," said Xenia, "you say it's in the library? Well, then why are we still here?" She got up. "Let's go right now!"

* * *

Xenia led the way down towards the library. They passed Malfoy in the hall, who looked pale and sickly and not his normal sneering self. As a matter of fact, he looked positively afraid. Xenia and he made eye contact. He looked at her with those icy blue-gray eyes, except the ice was wrung out of them and replaced with an "Will you forgive me?" look. She thought it was a pathetic attempt to lure her into his "clutches" once more, so she just kept walking.

"Hey! Hey, Harry!" said a voice from behind.

"Ron?" asked Harry.

"Yeah!" he said. "And this is the mysterious Miss Harry's Girlfri--"

"Sister," finished Harry. "To make a long story short, my mom and her mom are the same. She's a year older and we're off to find her father."

Ron, being desperate for a girlfriend and finding out that she was single, was checking out Xenia intently with the slightest smile playing at his lips. "Ron, I'd like to introduce you to Xenia."

She offered her hand and he shook it. "I'm Ron, Ron Weasl-OWWWWW!" Xenia had squeezed his hand quite hard and had twisted it.

"You know, just because I'm single, doesn't mean I'm yours, alright?" she said. "I proved this point to Malfoy too, remember?"

"Uh huh," said Ron in a high voice, nodding his head. He mouthed at Harry, "How did she know?"

"I think she can read minds..." mouthed Harry back. Ron began to laugh. "Seriously." Ron shut his mouth at once.

When they reached the library, Hermione went over to a certain section and pulled out around 15 books.

"Okay, I figure that your father, if he went to school here, should be in the years 1960-1976," she said, slamming them onto the table.

"This is going to take forever!" moaned Ron.

"Oh, shut up and start looking!" said Hermione. "Now if you do find something, show it to Xenia and she'll tell you if it was the man from the dream or not."

They each grabbed a book. There were many blonde people in all of the books, but not one so far was the one in Xenia's dream. Two hours passed and so did seven volumes of yearbooks. Years 1960-67 were finished.

"How much longer do we have to do this, Harry?" said Ron quietly, so Xenia or Hermione couldn't hear them.

"As long as it takes!" said Harry. "You don't have to help if you don't want to, you know, even if it is the right thing to do..."

That statement made Ron feel bad enough, so he kept on searching through the endless pile of yearbooks.

Another two hours went by, as did seven other books. Ron and Harry were on 1974, Hermione was on 1975, and Xenia was on 1976, the last year it could possibly be, according to Hermione, that is.

"We have to be getting close! I mean, there aren't any more that they can be in, can they?" said Ron.

"No, seeing as she, Lily Evans, graduated in 1976. So did Lupin and Sirius, and your father, Harry," said Hermione.

Xenia paged through 1976. There were a lot of blonde people, but no one as blonde as in the dream. So far, she hadn't run across the name "Malfoy" yet. She didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Xenia was getting nervous as she neared the M's and covered up the names, for if she did find a certain Lucius Malfoy, she would completely deny it, and she SO wanted to find out who her father was. Finally, she found it. Blonde. Extremely blonde and pale.

"You guys! I found him!" she said. "This is exactly what the guy looked like!" She pointed to it.

"Right," said Harry. "Now, who is it?"

She uncovered the name with her hand. It read the absolute last name she wanted to see. Malfoy, Lucius.

"Well, Harry," she said, trying to stay calm. "You were right, it's Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy." She snapped just then. "Spitting image of his son, ain't he. Then again... WHEN I'M DONE WITH HIM, HIS PRECIOUS SON WILL BE VERY, VERY DIFFERENT LOOKING!"

She bolted from the library and went straight up to Slytherin Tower. She barged into the boys' dormitory, where Draco was sitting, sulking, and the last thing that he thought would happen was for Xenia to burst into his room. He turned around and once again, Xenia stood in the doorway, looking, well, there was no other word for it, scary. Her hair was askew, her eyes were narrowed to little slits and her fists were balled up tight. His eyes widened as she advanced on him.

"No WAY! You are not going to go psycho on me again!"

"I dunno which one I'm gonna kill, you or your father!" she snarled.

"What?" he yelled. "My father... does this have something to do with Harry?" he said, getting angry.

"NO!" she screamed in a torrent of rage. "I hate you! I hate your father! I hate your whole evil family and I wish they would all DIE, and especially you because you will never know what anyone goes through after they... they... meet your father and his terrible master. Your father... your father impregnated my mother, who just happens to be Harry's mother!"

"What?" said Malfoy again, thunderstruck. "Impregnated? You mean Impregnato? You... you're Harry's sister, aren't you!"

"YES!" she cried hopelessly. She breathed deeply and tried to calm down as best as she could. "Now, if he really did do this, which I KNOW he did, I'm your sister too, and you know what, if I have to be part Malfoy, I'm not having a little shit like you for a brother!" She unclenched her fists and smiled evilly, flexing her fingers. "Did you know that when I took a trip to the States I had to register my hands as lethal weapons?"

"You're mad..." said Draco. He edged away from her.

"And I intend to get them around your scrawny little throat!" she screamed, jumping on top of him and punching him in the face with full force.

He yelled with pain. Blood was streaming from his nose where she had hit him. It was broken. She would have kept punching him, except for the blood. She didn't like the blood. The blood made her queasy because of the incident she remembered that night that David got stabbed to death in the back alley. Blood was everywhere. She was now back to reality where killing Draco wasn't a priority anymore. It was the first time she wished that she refrained from hitting someone who deserved it. Or did he even deserve it? Grant it, he was a stuck up, snobbish, evil little brat, but he didn't do anything, really.

"Y-you are duts! I'm dot stayig here with you, crazy woman!" He managed to get that out, but when he went to get up, he collapsed and fell down onto the hard stone floor. Draco's head was swimming. "Urgh..." he said. "Or dot."

"Oh my god!" said Xenia. "I didn't mean to break your nose! I guess I was so angry that I... Damn, Malfoy! You look terrible! I'm sorry!"

"You broke my dose?" he said, nasally. He touched it and howled.

"You need to get off this floor!" she said.

"I would, you doe, but convedietly, I CAT MOVE!" he said angrily.

Xenia picked him up by the arms and dragged him over to his bed and put him on it. "Keep your head still and I'll go get someone, alright? Get something to help clot the blood."

Draco, who felt like he had just downed ten kegs of Butterbeer in thirty seconds, was feeling quite lightheaded and drowsy. "Doe... that would dot be a good idea ad all..."

"Why not?" she said. "Last time I saw someone bleeding this freely, they ended up dead, okay!"

"Righde," he said, finding a handkerchief and holding it to his nose. "Dat's great, but dote go! I deed somewud to talk to!" he said in a tipsy but desperate voice. He pouted one huge fake pout. "Come odd," he coaxed. "You cat possibwy tur down Dwaco's puppy wuppy face!"

She just stared at him. What did I DO to him? At this rate, Xenia thought, he would pass out, and she knew that if she kept talking to him, he wouldn't be as likely to pass out, so she stayed.

"Ah, I due you would stay! Have a sead," he said, propping himself up on a pillow, he said. "Very cobfy, don't ya think?"

"Er, okay..." she said, sitting down on his bed, worried about his mental stability. "So..."

"So, Podder's your brother!" he said spiritedly, blood running down his cheeks.

"Yeah," she said. "Our moms are the same."

"Add you theek my dad cursed your mom and created you?" he said.

"You know, you are a lot more intelligent when you are on the verge of passing out," she said, staring at him very strangely.

"Really? Thack you!" he said brightly. "So... about you and Poddy, you guys arend goig with each other eddy-more, righde? I bean, sids you two are brother and sister, now."

"No, I guess we aren't..." she said.

Draco's head rolled back on his shoulders; "Dat's good, you guys made a bad couple, anyway!"

"Keep your head still!" she shrieked. "I thought we made a good couple, actually, I really liked him..."

"Aah, but how were you attracted to him if he was your brother?" he asked.

"He's my half... I guess I was attracted to him only halfway," she said thoughtfully. "I mean, something seemed so wrong when I kissed him, yet it still seemed right... I don't know..."

"My girl, dote bring back such memories, they brig a tear to my eye..." he said in a very, very drunk voice. "But, if my dad did the curse, does that make us brother and sister?"

"I don't know how Impregnato affects relations, but I would have to say its probable, though we don't know if it was him for sure," she said.

"Yep, dat's my father! He does most of Voldemort's dirty work," he said, very happily. "Oh, you should see what is udder our drawing room! And the dudjuds!"

"The dungeons?" she asked a bit apprehensively.

"Oh yes!" he said lightheartedly. "We have the dicest dudjuds! Sure, they're dark and dank, my father locked me in them sometimes, but MIDE has a full bathroom! It eved has a bubble bath! I think my mum had that put there for me, though. Yes, she furnished my dudjuds very well. My mum is so dice! She buys me lots of stuff, but she doesn't talk eddy-more because my father put the Imperius curse on her... I theek she is begiddig to fight it though..."

Draco kept speaking of his "wonderful" home life for about fifteen minutes. Xenia listened, wishing for him to stop talking, but knowing that he might pass out if he did, egged him to keep going about his pretty dungeons and whatever was under that drawing room of his. It was when he began talking about his clothing was when she decided to change the subject.

"...Yeah, add I have a pair that are greed with silver snakes on it with the Malfoy emblem on them...They're Gucci! Oh yes! I'm wearing them right now, wadda see?"

"No," said Xenia firmly, although she began giggling giddily.

Draco started laughing too, and laughing quite hysterically for no real reason at all. "Heh heh, so why are we laughing?"

"It's just the fact that you... never mind," she said. "You're a lot nicer like this, Draco. I think I'm going to break your nose more often!"

Draco shook his head wildly, making blood go everywhere. "No way are you ever breakig my dose agaid! Go break Podder's, I hate him!"

Xenia wiped some flecks of his blood off of her forehead and asked a good question. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"Aside from beig the famous midget that he is, beig agaidst everythig I was ever taught to believe id, he goes alog every time and takes away the best parts of life from me. You know, the fame, the glory, all those girls' attentshid, add... add you, of course," he said quite seriously, not as drunk sounding as before. "I really dote understad why my father could be your father too, it's hard to explain, but I am intensely attracted to you. Ah, yes, I knew it when I saw you talkig to Podder that you were doe ordidary witch... or girl, for that matter. I have dreams every siggle time I ever said a mead thig to you. I remide myself of my ode father. I'm growig to be like him, you doe, add he probably expects me to joid him with Voldemort quite sood, but I really don't know if that is what I wat, or what he wats. But if my father is yours also, I probably wouldn't be as attracted to you as I am..."

"Draco," she started. "If we are only half also, then the possibility is great that, hypothetically speaking, of course, if I was attracted to you, a little, that could just be our non-related sides taking over, I mean, it happened with Harry all the time. When he kissed me, some things felt right and some felt wrong..."

"Thed I guess wud of dees days we are goig to have to put this hypothe-whatsit of yours to the test," said Draco with a little smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "You know what I mead?"

Xenia looked down, blushing very red. "Yes, but I don't think that would be the best idea. I know that once you get fixed up, you're not going to be the same Draco that you are right now. You're going to go back to Malfoy. You aren't going to be Draco anymore, to me, anyway. I mean, I have to say, despite the blood and everything, I am starting to like this side of you. Getting to know you has been, well, a trifle weird but all the same, kinda fun! And if we did put this to the test, well, do you think if it felt, um, right, that we could tell if your father really did curse my mother?"

Draco went on a limb and touched her cheek softly, much like Harry had done, but this time, something was different. Xenia shivered as the side of his finger touched her cheek. "Wud of dees days, Xedia..." He was beginning to look a little... woozy. The blood from his nose wasn't clotting too well and was running down the sides of his face freely, still.

Xenia stood up suddenly. "Draco, I think you should go down to the hospital wing," she said. "You've lost some blood and I think it would be best if..."

"Righdt," he said, getting himself up and struggling to keep himself there. Once he got on two feet, he said, "I'll be fide, you just go figure out some more stuff about your mum or somethig..." He took two steps and then collapsed back onto his bed. "Ow... my feet have a headache... I theek..."

Xenia picked him up, put her arm around him and put his arm around her. "Can you walk like this?"

He took a few steps, though most of his weight was on Xenia, and then said, "Yeah, I got it like diss."

They walked out of the tower together, looking like entrants in a three-legged race. When they reached the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey looked furious.

"Why didn't you bring him to me sooner?!" she shrieked. "And how did he ever get like... this!"

Xenia shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Well, you see...I sort of..."

"I saw her add I was struck dumb by the sight of her that I rad straight idto a wall add thed fell down the stairs!" said Draco, the drunk voice back in full swing.

"Really?" said Madam Pomfrey, not believing it, but accepting it for the time being. "Go get a bed," she said with a wave of her hand. As she walked away leaving Xenia and Draco alone, she muttered under her breath, "Now I have seriously heard everything..."

"I could have just served another detention, you know," she said. "You didn't have to cover up for me like that!"

"I doe how you get, whed you're really, really agry, because I get like that a lot. We have a bit in commod. When we get really ticked off, we do thigs that we regret later. Do you doe what I mead? I believe I have demodstrated that degative quality of mide mady times with you..."

"Yes, you have, very much!" she said a little bitterly, feeling her healing cuts on her shoulders from where he had grabbed. "Listen, if and when you get fixed up and you still want to talk to me, I'll be in the library, okay?"

"Okay," he said. "I'll see you later!"

"Right..." she said, walking out of the room, getting a strong feeling she had just royally been led on. Sure, she thought. Once you've got some of your old arrogance back, you will have nothing to do with me...