Of Silver and Green

Ch. 24 Calm Before the Storm

The week passed agonizingly slowly for Brynne. Without being able to be with Draco, Brynne had nearly nothing to do. However, Draco now had his evenings free, so he scheduled Quidditch practices every night after dinner. This was the longest part of Brynne's day. Being in such close proximity to Draco without saying two words to him was as excruciating a pain as she had never imagined possible.

Brynne spent her days going to classes, feeding Draco when necessary, and occasionally talking with Blair, Blaise, Harry and Seamus when she had spare time. She and Harry kept their routine of studying in the library every night and sometimes Blair and Seamus joined them.

Friday night, Brynne met Blaise on her way to the library. "Where are you headed?" he asked.

"To the library," she replied. "I'm studying for the Potions exam with Potter and Seamus Finnegan. They need the help. You're welcome to join us. Blair may show up..." she sang, as if she were dangling a book over Granger's head.

"Sounds good," he replied. "You know I never pass up a chance to talk Potions."

~~~***~~~

The topic of conversation quickly drifted away from the exam material they were supposed to be studying to the subject of tomorrow's Quidditch match. There was quite a bit of confusion when they first started talking. Seamus wasn't aware Brynne was on the Slytherin team, and Blaise hadn't known Harry knew. Once everything was straightened out and Seamus knew not to tell anyone, there conversation continued more smoothly.

"Potter, what do you think of our chances of winning, since I know you've been watching some of our practices?" asked Blaise, smirking.

"I have to admit, your team's strategy is improving," Harry replied. "But I've also been teaching my team some new techniques." Seamus, the Gryffindor Keeper, nodded at this. "I think it's anyone's game."

Blaise looked a bit surprised at Harry's modest answer. Then he nodded. Potter wasn't as bad as the Slytherins made him out to be. He could understand why Brynne liked him.

"You know," Brynne added playfully, "that we won't be holding anything back, friend or not."

"I would be sincerely disappointed if you did," Harry replied with a smile.

Just then, Blair came in and sat at the table. "I thought we were going to study Potions."

"We got a bit distracted. We all have a Quidditch match tomorrow. You understand," said Blaise. Blair gave him a look that made it obvious that she didn't and pulled out her Potions textbook.

"Well, I'm going to study," she announced loudly. Everyone else followed her lead, shooting each other amused looks.

~~~***~~~

It was nearly one o' clock in the morning before the group parted ways, but as Brynne lay in bed at one thirty, she found herself far from tired. Her stomach was twisting itself into knots of writhing snakes at the thought of tomorrow's match. Aiming Bludgers at her teammates in practice was one thing, but she had never played a serious game against a friend before.

She didn't want to hurt Harry, but she knew in order to convince Draco there was nothing there, she couldn't hold anything back. She had been catching Draco watching her more and more as the week progressed, especially during her interactions with Harry and Seamus. She noticed the emotion returning to his stone grey eyes. She saw the jealousy, though she knew he tried to hide it.

Despite her anxiety about tomorrow's game, she was really quite excited. It had been three weeks since their last match, and that one had been versus Hufflepuff. There had been no challenge. She was looking forward to using the Dopplebeater Defense on someone other than a teammate.

While she was thinking about that, her mind drifted to another strategy Draco had discussed with her. Could she do it? She wasn't sure. All in good time. If tomorrow was the day, she would know then. Finally, at about three o' clock, Brynne drifted to sleep.

~~~***~~~

Everything was black. More than that, the black seemed to be a living, breathing entity. Brynne sensed that there was something within...something dark and malicious. She squinted into the inky blackness and watched as it began to solidify into a long, sinuous form. The longer she stared, the more solid the form became, until Brynne found that she was watching a massive, black king cobra. It was moving with a violence uncharacteristic of snakes. As she looked at the snake, she saw other smaller, paler snakes of different shapes and colours moving around it. Suddenly, the king cobra began to kill and eat the smaller snakes. It was horrible. Brynne tried to close her eyes, but she could still see the snake, devouring its kin.

All of a sudden, a streak of silver flew by her. It was a white wolf. Brynne watched as the animal leapt at the cobra and began wrestling with it. She heard the gnashing of teeth and the vicious hiss of the snake as they fought, fur flying and coils of snake thrashing. The cobra tried to loop its body around that of the wolf, and squeeze the life from it, but the snake couldn't get a good grip. As it attempted to rear back to strike with its poisonous fangs, the wolf latched on to its exposed neck and didn't let go. It was over quickly.

The wolf turned to her, dropping the dead cobra at her feet. It licked the blood from its muzzle with an expression very much like a smile on its angular face. As Brynne stared at the animal, its form began to fade slowly into the darkness beyond, until all she could see was its eyes. The wolf's eyes carried a spark of intelligence beyond that of a normal animal. The colour was particularly unusual as well. Brynne knew that most wolves had brown or yellow eyes as adults. Some even had hazel or green, but this one's were the palest of blues. There was something very familiar about those eyes...

~~~***~~~

When Brynne awoke at nine thirty Saturday morning, she had forgotten the dream completely. She got up and showered quickly. Since it was a game day, Brynne decided to wear something special, although no one would understand why, save a select few. She selected an eggplant dress, made almost entirely of crushed velvet. However, from the bottom of her ribcage to her hips, the dress resembled a ribbed corset and was emerald green. It, if anything, accentuated how slight the girl was, and how small and delicate she seemed. 'Looks can be deceiving,' she thought to herself with a smirk as she laced up the back of the dress. It had a plunging neckline, which revealed the pendant she always tried to hide. Brynne didn't care now. She had realized that only a few high-born wizards would actually understand its meaning anyways. She wrapped her cloak around her and went to the kitchen to get some food, since she had missed breakfast.

After she ate, and succeeded in escaping the over-excited house-elves, Brynne had nothing better to do than to wait until twelve thirty, when the Slytherin team was due in their locker room for a pre-match pep talk. She decided to walk the grounds around Hogwarts.

After she left the castle, Brynne walked over to the lake. She took a seat on one of the larger rocks close to shore and watched as the giant squid swam around lazily, causing whirlpools in the glassy surface of the water. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back as the wind blew gently against her face. It was a beautiful day for a Quidditch match. Brynne looked up into the sky, examining the puffy white clouds dreamily.

As she watched, she saw a black speck moving quickly towards her from the distance beyond the Quidditch pitch. As it came closer, she recognized it as a medium-sized bird. It swooped down and Brynne held out her arm so it could land. The peregrine falcon perched lightly and offered her its leg. Brynne pulled a letter from the pouch on its leg and the bird launched itself into the air and flew back in the direction from whence it came.

Brynne flipped over the envelope and saw her name written careful script in forest green ink. The small, concise handwriting seemed vaguely familiar, but Brynne couldn't recall where she had seen it before. She tore open the envelope and let her eyes scan the page quickly.

Ms. Brynne Dharielle,

I believe you are a close acquaintance of my son Draco, and I would very much like to meet you. I will be attending Saturday's Quidditch match, and I would like to meet you on the pitch afterwards. I trust you will be at the match to watch Draco play. I am sure Saturday will be a day worth remembering for the both of us. ~Lucius Malfoy

Brynne swore colourfully, the words sounding foreign on her tongue. She rarely ever cursed, but something of this magnitude certainly warranted such profanity. What had Draco told Lucius that he found it necessary to come to Hogwarts to confront her? Or maybe it was simply what Lucius had said: he just wanted to meet her. However, Brynne could almost guarantee it was not that simple. Not with Lucius Malfoy...and there had been something about that letter that didn't smell right...

Brynne got to her feet and ran to the castle, before she even knew where she was going. She would have loved to have been able to go to Draco with this kind of problem, but she had no idea how angry he was with her, and could very well be the cause for Lucius' little day trip. She was at the Gryffindor common room's entrance before she knew it.

"Pumpkin juice," she said breathlessly. The portrait scowled at her, yet swung wide so she could enter. All the people in the common room fell silent and stared at her with shocked eyes. The person she was looking for was not among them.

Brynne was beginning to feel dizzy and her breathing, which was already very laboured, was growing more haggard by the second. "I need...to talk...t-to..." she gasped before she sank unceremoniously to the floor.

~~~***~~~

Brynne was being jostled and shaken around. "Earthquake," she mumbled, struggling to open her eyes. When she finally succeeded, she was staring into brilliant green eyes, tinged with worry. "What are you doing in my bed?" she slurred, almost incoherently.

"I'm not in your bed. Actually, you're in mine," he said matter-of-factly.

"What?!" she shouted, coming to rather quickly.

"You came into the common room and passed out. Ron, who was there when it happened, came and got me, since no one else was sure what to do with you. I brought you up her so you could recover away from prying eyes. But the question remains: what are you doing here?"

Brynne held out the letter, which was still clenched in her fist. Harry read it quickly, looking at her with concern. "Are you going to meet him?"

"Did you read the letter? He hardly leaves me with a choice. And there's no overt threat in the letter."

"It's Lucius Malfoy. There is always a threat, overt or implied," Harry replied hatefully. "If you insist on going, I'm coming with you."

"But-" she started, then noticed the look of grim determination in his eyes, "you have to stay hidden if you do," she finished with a defeated tone. Brynne glanced at her watch. "It's nearly twelve," she commented. "I better go get ready for the game."

"I'll see you out. My housemates may jump you on your way out and have a fun time lynching you."

"What about you? You're the 'traitor'."

"Don't worry about me," Harry replied. "They wouldn't hurt their star Seeker just before a match with Slytherin. It's after the game that I've got to worry."

'The same goes for me,' Brynne thought. 'It's after the match that I've got to worry.'