Corruption

CHAPTER FOUR

Water

She headed up to the astronomy tower, where they had agreed to meet. It was cold at night, and she folded her white silk lined cloak around her. Her breath rose in a mist as she climbed the stairs. She couldn´t wait to see him. Her worst enemy, but she liked him, too. She liked his daring, in deceiving her. She liked how he looked, but would never admit that to anyone, she hoped.

She stepped out onto the icy stones at the top of the tower. Unfolding her arms, she walked to the wall and looked over. It was hard, as she was only just tall enough. The silver painted countryside looked like some kind of dream, and she smiled, it could be hers, if she wanted to take it, she had only proven that. Then she squealed and leapt into the air as cold hands slid along the skin on her stomach. She spun angrily to face her hooded crush. His teeth flashed in the moonlight as he grinned.

`Don´t do that!´ she gasped, clutching her stomach and leaning against the wall for support.

`Sorry,´ he grinned.

`Come on, it´s private here. Now you can tell me who you are,´ she whispered, coming up close to him and looking into his eyes through her lashes.

`You don´t want to know who I am,´ he told her, brushing her hair with his fingers.

`I do,´ she said.

`You don´t,´ he assured her.

`Look, Malfoy. I know it´s you, okay?´ she said hotly.

It didn´t have the effect she had hoped for. He just nodded. `You´re not stupid.´

`So glad to hear it,´ she muttered, folding her arms and turning away.

`So where are your guards?´ he asked.

`What do you mean?´

`Well, you´re going to have me arrested and killed, aren´t you?´

`If I´d had wanted you dead, I would have killed you by now.´

`Yeah? And if I had any ill wish towards you, you´d already be a chinchilla in a box,´ he retorted.

`Touchet,´ she smiled faintly.

`What are we going to do?´ he asked, looking bothered.

`I don´t know about you, but I plan to complete the unfinished business I came here to attend to.´ She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed her lips against his again, and felt his cold nose on her cheek. Steamy breath clouded around them, then Draco pulled away.

`Why don´t you hate me?´ he frowned.

`That´s a deep question, with a very long answer. I don´t want to answer it right now. I want to kiss you.´ She pulled him back.

She felt his shoulders shrug under her arms, and went back over her memories of him. She saw him as a little boy, throwing her hat in the lake. She saw him when he was about seven, always detached and sophisticated. When he was eleven, and she had kissed him for the first time, with the sincere face, and those curtains of hair, always gelled back. And now, sixteen, tall, strong, curtains of hair around her face instead.

`I don´t know about this,´ he squirmed.

`Don´t you like me?´

`No, you´re my enemy. It just... doesn´t feel right.´

`Do you feel guilty?´

`Kind of. I just don´t feel right about kissing you, then going off and kissing someone else without splitting up with you.´

`We´ll have never been together, though. We can´t split up.´

`I don´t want to betray you.´

`I´m your enemy, I deserve it.´

`I´m not one to pass up a pretty girl like you for the sake of morals, if you don´t mind.´

`I don´t.´

And they got right back to it.

`Just as long as you´re sure this isn´t `cos we like each other. We´re only sex-crazed teenagers, okay? This means nothing?´ Draco checked.

`Nothing at all. You repulse me, but you´re pretty sexy.´

`You too.´

~*~

Harry closed his eyes against the sight before him. A wave of cold sickness rushed through him, and he swooned dizzily.

Lavender Brown was lying on the floor, twisted and crushed. Her eyes were wide, and blood poured out of her mouth.

Or it had. Her heart had long since stopped beating. Hermione, swallowing back the tears, knelt down and felt the girl´s lifeless wrist. She shook her head, and wiped at her eyes with a sleeve.

`Long gone,´ she muttered.

Harry stepped down and pulled a dagger from his classmate´s chest. It was solid sliver, in the shape of a coiled dragon, its tongue making the blade.

`Why silver?´ he spat. `Why never gold?´

Hermione cast a mobilicorpus spell, and took Lavender back to the Tower. It had to be done, before they would get a chance to give her a proper burial. In any case, Parvati deserved to know.

`This is evil,´ Harry said, coughing to cover a sob.

`Draco is with Ryder now. He´s going to kill her,´ Hermione said fervently.

~*~

They stood together for awhile, holding onto each other. Draco watched his thoughts race through his head with an air of detachment.

`Kill her.´

`Kiss her.´

`Kill her.´

`Kiss her.´

Except that he couldn´t be sure which little voice was the devil and which the angel. Then, without thinking about it, he pulled her arms and swung her over the side of the tower.

He watched her fall for an endless second before realising what he had done. He snapped out a hand and caught her wrist. She hung from his hand like an icicle. Far below her, the lake was like black glass, but right beneath her the stone steps led up to the castle. If she fell she would never make it.

`I´m sorry!´ he called. `I didn´t mean to!´

She swung her other arm up desperately to catch at his right wrist, but doing so made her slip further down until he was clutching her knuckles. She was sliding out of his grasp, and he held on as tight as he could, trying all the while to pull her back up. But with a crunch like biscuits under a hammer, her knuckles snapped, and her fingers snaked out of his.

`LARA!´ he yelled, leaning over as far as he could.

She was screaming, plunging down the side of the tower, her hair flying in silver clouds around her head.

There was no time to get his wand, he´d just have to hope...

`Wingardium Leviosa!´ he bellowed, thrusting his hand out. She stopped as though a rope around her back had been extended fully. She cried out in pain.

`Lara!´ He tried to move his hand out, hoping that it would move her too, but it was like pushing against a wall of steel. He gave one final shove, and it released. He tumbled forwards, as Lara shot out over the lake. She grabbed the hem of his cloak, and he was dragged with her. Cold air shot over his face, peeling his eyelids back and stealing his breath.

They hung in the air for a moment, Lara clutching his neck. Then, with a slow roar of wind, they began to fall. They were both yelling now, and Lara´s hair was boiling about his face, obscuring vision. He took one glimpse of the dark, starry sky before hitting the water.

Water as cold as fire suddenly surrounded him. He felt Lara let go of his neck, and could see nothing but navy water all around. Bubbles escaped from his mouth and he struggled wildly against the unseen enemy that burnt his skin, and numbed his fingers. Through a streak of moonlight through the water he saw Lara´s hair for a moment. She was thrashing, and sinking. He had to help. He pulled his fingers through the water and dragged himself to her. She reached out to him, her mouth open in an unheard scream. He wrapped his arms around her chest, and struggled upwards. Thankfully, she hung limp in his arms, and he could feel her legs kicking against the water.

They broke the surface with giant twin gasps. He let go of her, and began to tread water. She sank for a moment, and then bobbed back up. Her hair was plastered pure white against her skull, and it made her look strangely small. Even though she was tiny, it never seemed that way. Her wet skin reflected the purple sky with its stars and moon like a mirror. She was coughing. He was so caught up looking at her that he forgot how cold he was. She turned an indignant face to him. She tried to say something, but broke down in a squeaky cough.

He could feel his cold hair scraped back from his face by icy wetness. There was one hair hanging in front of his right eye. With a thrill of horror and realisation, he watched a droplet slide down it, and freeze before it could fall to the lake.

`We have to get out,´ he croaked, pulling at her arm.

`Why?´ she whispered hoarsely.

`Cos we´ll freeze to death if we don´t get out in about a minute.´

She gave him a look of abject horror, and began to pull herself to the shore by the castle. Out in the middle of the lake, Draco could see it would be hard to get there in time. Already he could feel his blood slowing in his veins, and the cold was so deep he couldn´t feel anything in his body at all. He swam to the shore with fast, strong strokes. He overtook Lara, who was struggling with all her robes and cloak.

`You can´t swim with those!´ he called.

`I have to! I can´t stop to take them off!´

`I´ll help you,´ Draco said, swimming back, and pulling the clasp of her cloak right off. The sodden black fabric slid off her slim shoulders and drifted down into the deep. He pulled her robes off her shoulders, sinking down a foot or so himself.

`In any other situation, I´d be enjoying you removing my clothes,´ she laughed softly.

`This isn´t any other situation,´ he said gruffly, grabbing her hand and pulling her back to swimming.

Draco dragged himself out of the water with a huge cough, bringing up a lot of water. Lara crawled out of the lake, water spewing of her mouth. Her hair straggled, and her shirt had gone see-through and stuck to her skin. Draco politely averted his eyes and removed his cloak, holding it out to her. She took it with a muttered `thanks´ and wrapped it around herself. Draco stood up on his trembling legs and staggered over to her. She caught at his hand, and he pulled her to her feet.

`News of this goes no further,´ she told him, making a horizontal cutting gesture with the side of her hand.

`Agreed,´ he grinned. `I´ll go my way, you go yours, and we will never speak of this again.´

`And I will avoid water, full stop, until the end of my days.´

`Me too.´

~*~

Hermione found herself gnawing anxiously at a knuckle again, watching the portrait hole. Draco had gone out to kill Ryder. He would be back soon. They had agreed on three a.m. at the latest and he would be back in about ten minutes, or suffer her wrath. She heard footsteps, and leapt up. The painting slammed open, and a very wet person climbed through. He had his robes slung over one shoulder, held with a negligent finger. His hair was stiffly curtained, with ice melting on it. His shirt was torn and see-through, and he was grinning like a maniac.

`You! What on earth did you do?´ she demanded, running at him.

`I fell in the lake,´ he grinned, as though it was a really cool thing to do.

`You´re making the floor wet,´ she pouted, pointing at a puddle forming on the floor at his feet. He lifted one leg up and looked down.

`Why, I do believe you´re right!´ he exclaimed, faking astonishment.

`Did you do it?´ Hermione asked in an undertone.

`Kill her? No. I couldn´t. I was too busy falling in the lake. Now, if you´ll excuse me, it´s fucking freezing where I am.´ He strode away and up the stairs out of sight, leaving a wide trail of wetness behind him.

~~~~