Of Silver and Green

Ch. 27 Quicksilver

The rest of the curse never came. After a second, Brynne opened her eyes to see a silver streak fly by her and throw itself at Lucius. Malfoy tried to bring up his wand to block, but to no avail. The white wolf took the wand between its teeth and bit it in two with a decisive snap, and tackled the man to the ground.

In a second, the wolf was all over him, biting and clawing. Lucius' robes were shredded and tattered in mere minutes. Lucius tried to fend off the wolf, waving his arms and shouting frantically. This seemed only to enrage the animal further. The wolf caught one of Lucius' arms in its mouth. Brynne heard a crunch as the bone shattered and Lucius screamed in pain. Blood sprang up from a thousand puncture wounds and stained the grass around the combatants.

The wolf continued to maul its victim mercilessly, though Lucius was hardly fighting back. His face had several deep gashes and his hair, which was loose, was matted with his blood. His robes were sliced open, as well as the shirt beneath, revealing a wound in his shoulder so deep, muscle was visible.

Brynne watched the gory scene with interest. This was familiar. She couldn't remember where, but she knew she had seen something like this before. The wolf especially. Something was tugging on her brain, like the faintest whisper of a memory.

Lucius moaned incoherently, trying in vain to push the wolf away. The wolf took his arm between its teeth and shook it roughly, Lucius yelping in pain. The wolf, seemingly satisfied with its handiwork, turned to Brynne, picking up Malfoy's cane in its mouth. It dropped the cane at her feet, staring at her plaintively with grey eyes.

Brynne finally got a good look at her rescuer. Despite its viciousness earlier, Brynne was not afraid of the wolf. It seemed that there was an intelligence in its eyes, not possessed of normal animals.

The more she stared at it, the more Brynne realized she had seen this wolf before. But where? Scotland wasn't exactly known for having wolves. Obviously, this one didn't know that though.

It was considerably smaller than most wolves and had grey eyes, signaling to Brynne that there was something strange about it. It was really a gorgeous specimen though. Its silvery white fur was long and sleek, and probably soft too, Brynne imagined.

She scrutinized the wolf carefully and noticed there was something off. As it licked its lips, she realized what it was. The blood. This wolf had mangled Lucius Malfoy into an almost unrecognizable mess, and the only evidence of this the wolf carried was a bit of blood around its mouth. Entirely too clean for a savage beast, indicating that there was more to this wolf than there seemed.

"You are not a normal wolf," she told it matter-of-factly. "However, you have uncommon good taste, whatever you are."

The wolf seemed to smile at that comment. Her eyes grew wide as the wolf seemed to grow. Not grow, change shape, she realized. Its paws grew larger and its hip and knee joints rotated. The fur thinned, the angular face softened, and ears shifted lower. The tail receded until it disappeared, as did most of the fur. Brynne found herself staring up into a face she recognized.

"Draco?" she choked.

He grinned. "Surprised?"

"Slightly. You haven't finished the training," she reasoned. "You shouldn't be able to do that."

His smile widened. "I finished the training by myself. I've been able to transfigure completely for almost a week now."

"Impressive. Did you know you've still got some blood around your mouth?"

"Do I?" he asked. He licked his lips and ran his tongue around the outside of his mouth. "Better?" Brynne shivered unconsciously and nodded, a little shocked. He smirked in response. "You have to admit, I am very wolfish." He ran his tongue over his teeth lasciviously.

"What do you call yourself?" Brynne asked.

"Quicksilver. But that's not what you really want to know, is it?" he asked teasingly.

"Did you know your father was going to be here?"

"Not until I saw him in the stadium this afternoon. I knew something was up, but I had no idea he was going to do something like this," Draco told her, glaring down at his now-unconscious father. He nudged the body with the toe of his shoe disgustedly.

"How did you know to come down here?" she asked, somewhat accusingly.

"When you didn't come to my room and jump me after Apollo delivered the poem and the ring, I figured something must be wrong. So I asked Apollo to lead me to you. And here I find you curled up on the ground with my father standing over you like the very spectre of death." His voice cracked. "I'm so sorry," he said in a whisper, pulling her to her feet. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here to protect you." He hugged her tightly, squeezing the breath from both of them.

When he lessened his grip, Brynne wriggled away and stared down at Lucius' limp body. "What should we do with him?" she asked quietly.

Draco let out a shrill whistle. His eagle owl flew to him from out of nowhere and landed gracefully on his shoulder. Draco handed the owl Lucius' cane. "Take this to Dumbledore. He'll understand what it means. Lead him here." The gold bird took flight immediately, as if sensing the urgency of the matter.

"Shouldn't we try to stop the bleeding or something?" Brynne asked uncertainly, after staring down at the body for a few minutes.

"Do you know how to?" Draco asked, sounding quite like he didn't give a damn if she did. "I don't, and I don't know that I would try if I did. I could get blood on my hands!" he protested when she gave him a look.

"Are you kidding?" she exclaimed. "You had blood in your mouth, you stupid git!"

He gave Brynne a lopsided grin. "You're right. We should probably look less happy when Dumbledore gets here. It would be less suspicious that way," he said, strategically changing the subject.

Brynne noticed this, and let it slide. The two stood in silence until Dumbledore, Pomfrey, and Snape arrived.

"What happened here?" Dumbledore asked, glancing down at Lucius' maimed body. Madame Pomfrey went immediately to work, with Snape helping, to immobilize the dark wizard in case he should wake up and try to kill them all.

"He wanted to talk to me after the Quidditch match," Brynne piped up. "He told me that I was a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin and was therefore a distant relation to Lord Voldemort and wanted me to join with him." Pomfrey took her leave and levitated the body after her. Dumbledore and Snape began leading the pair back towards the castle.

"Please continue," Dumbledore said.

"When I refused, Lord Malfoy grew incredibly angry with me. I suppose I was a bit more insulting than the occasion called for. Anyways, he used the Cruciatus Curse on me. He assumed that this would be a good counter-offer, I guess. When I refused again, he was going to use the Killing Curse. Draco interrupted him and incapacitated him like so."

"Miss Dharielle," Snape interjected. "How, pray tell, was the young Mr. Malfoy able to do that sort of damage to Lucius?"

Brynne looked uneasily at Draco. He looked back with the same expression. "Sir, his animagus form is a wolf."

Snape raised his eyebrows, but Dumbledore's facial expression remained the same, except that his eyes seemed to be a bit more twinkly than usual. "Well then, you two, off to your dormitories." They looked at him blankly, taken by surprise. "No harm, no foul. I just hope that our Mr. Malfoy will be able to show a bit more restraint in the future. As his trainer, that is your job, Miss Dharielle. A little self-control. Now off with you," he told them kindly, winking at Brynne.

Brynne wondered why she had ever doubted the headmaster's competence and Draco did the same. The pair walked slowly down to the dungeons, hand in hand, each making their own plans on the best way to make up after a fight.