Rating:
R
House:
Schnoogle
Genres:
Mystery
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban
Stats:
Published: 10/26/2001
Updated: 11/30/2001
Words: 8,014
Chapters: 3
Hits: 2,364

The Founder's Lockets

Purple Scorpion33

Story Summary:
Harry dreams of receiving a locket with a familiar lion on it. But doesn't think much of it,  as he's preoccupied with his new neighbour, Arabella. Draco and Hermione are together in France, at Draco's family reunion. After escaping from the boredom the two of them embark on private studies...Exhausted after the little 'lesson', Draco gets a dream of his own - this time with a familiar snake in it.

Chapter 01

Chapter Summary:
Harry dreams of receiving a locket with a familiar lion on it. But doesn't think much of it, as he's preoccupied with his new neighbour, Arabella. Draco and Hermione are together in France, at Draco's family reunion. After escaping from the boredom the two of them embark on private studies...Exhausted after the little 'lesson', Draco gets a dream of his own - this time with a familiar snake in it.
Posted:
10/26/2001
Hits:
1,532
Author's Note:
This is dedicated to my Beta readers Jane, Alex and Kim. Oh yeah and FYI, just to clarify, the first and last ‘bits’ are dreams.

Harry was startled by a tapping at his window. The thin lace filtered and scattered the silhouette of a large owl. Harry ran to the window and forced it open, he knew better than to think it was Hedwig, she was a great deal smaller than this owl. The tawny owl flew in importantly and perched itself on top of Hedwig’s empty cage. Harry stood by the window and pondered briefly as to whom would be sending him an owl.


‘Who are you from?’ He wondered out loud, not expecting an answer.


The owl screeched loudly in response.


‘Shh!’ said Harry in alarm. The Dursleys didn’t take too kindly to screeching owls in the middle of the night.


The owl screeched again, impatiently.


‘All right, I’m coming,’ whispered Harry, as he walked cautiously across the room.


He untied the package and studied it. It was just a small square package, wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string, giving away nothing but mystery. Harry knew better than to just open it. He felt around for his wand and held it threateningly at the package. With his other hand he tugged lightly at the string tied around the enigmatic package. Nothing happened.


Breathing heavily, he shook himself and regained his composure. He gripped the string and tugged, more firmly this time. The package shook violently and the string wriggled off it like snakes slithering after mice.


Harry stepped back in horror, keeping his eyes on the package.


The folds of brown paper on the package were being slowly and delicately removed like petals opening up on a blooming flower. Harry stared on in amazement as a little white box emerged from the folds of brown paper.


It rose up and before Harry knew it, he had it in his hand. It begged him to open it, just like a snitch begging him to let it go. He held it out and cautiously removed the lid.


Out rose a shield-shaped locket connected to a thin gold chain. The locket had a decorative border of gold and rubies. Within that was a sparkling scarlet shield with a lion that Harry recognised as the Gryffindor lion.


‘Wow.’ whispered Harry, in awe of the glittering object spinning in mid air.



No matter how much he disliked staying at the Dursleys, Harry always found he made an appearance every summer at Privet Drive and this year was no exception. In fact this year was going to be the worst summer by far because Ron and Hermione, Harry’s best friends and the saviors of the past summers, were away for the holidays. Ron was visiting family in Wales and Hermione was with Draco, her boyfriend, in France. This depressed Harry who bitterly anticipated September 1st and his return to Hogwarts.


Harry sat up and looked at the time. The digital clock read 8:15. ‘What a strange dream!’ he exclaimed as he climbed out of bed and yawned. Downstairs he could hear Dudley complaining about his breakfast.


The diet Dudley had been on since Harry was in 4th grade simply wasn’t working. This was due to the fact Aunt Petunia simply couldn’t control Dudley’s behaviour and couldn’t control the way she spoilt her son. So for one week she would feed him only celery and carrot sticks and the week after she would load him full of treats and bribe him with money for being a ‘good’ boy. Dudley would then save the money and spend it on junk food during the week when all he got was ‘rabbit’ food.


Harry changed out of his pajamas and searched for some decent clothes. He slipped some jeans on and fought his way through an overly large forest green shirt.


When he got downstairs, the Dursleys were watching television and were too preoccupied with that to even notice that Harry was there, but Harry didn’t care, this was the way they always treated him – like he was invisible.


Harry sat down and picked up his designated piece of celery. He could tell it was for him, as it was a great deal smaller than the others.


‘No matter,’ he thought to himself cheerfully, ‘real breakfast awaits upstairs.’


Harry had a secret stash of food upstairs underneath a loose floorboard. Every summer since Dudley had started the diet he had stored food there in order to survive. Originally he just had a few snacks and birthday cake that was going stale, however, though his connections with Dobby and the other house elves, much to Hermione’s disgust, he had food magically transported there with a refrigeration charm to stop the food going off. He had had to get the Ministry’s permission to do so, which surprisingly wasn’t all that hard. They had said that it was all right because the Muggles wouldn’t see it any way. But Harry had a sneaking suspicion that him being ‘Harry Potter’ had something to do with it as well.


He popped the piece of celery in his mouth and reached for the orange juice. His thoughts drifted to the dream he had last night, the dream he just couldn’t quite remember. He nearly choked when the doorbell rang.


‘Ding Dong’


Uncle Vernon looked at Aunt Petunia and asked ‘Are you expecting anyone?’


Aunt Petunia shook her head.


‘Dudley?’


‘No.’


Uncle Vernon didn’t dare ask Harry if he was expecting anyone. Instead he asked Dudley to go answer the door.


‘Make Harry do it!’ whined Dudley.


Harry looked at Uncle Vernon expecting him to order him to answer the door. Instead he got up and answered it himself.


‘Good Morning,’ said a unfamiliar voice, ‘we’ve just moved next door to you. We’re the Macmillans.’


‘Good morning,’ said Uncle Vernon sharply. He spoke with the voice he used when he was intimidating someone. Courteous, yet annoyingly patronising.


‘This is my wife, Alexis, my daughter, Arabella and I’m Bill.’


‘I am Vernon Dursley and I’ll just get my wife, Petunia.


Uncle Vernon strode to the kitchen and barked at Harry to show the Macmillan family in. Harry was sure he had only invited them in to show off as he had given Harry strict instructions to take them straight into the large, well furnished, lounge room.


Aunt Petunia was preening herself like an exotic species of bird and even Dudley was making an effort to impress as Uncle Vernon shooed Harry off.


Harry strode down the corridor and peeped around the door. Standing at the threshold stood a very tall man with a woman and a girl standing behind him.


‘Hi, I’m Harry,’ he said casually, ‘please come in.’


‘We’re the Macmillans. This is my wife Alexis, I’m Bill and this is my daughter, Arabella.’ He ushered his daughter and wife forward. ‘Ladies first.’


Harry lowered his gaze and his eyes met with Arabella’s. She was incredibly pretty. She had wavy, light brown, shoulder length hair and sapphire blue eyes. His mouth went dry as he tried to tell them to follow him. Finally, it came out.


‘Er, follow me.’


He felt their eyes all on him as he led them to the lounge room.


‘Make yourselves at home.’ He said with his hand out, directing them to the leather sofa.


Alexis and Bill walked past Harry and Arabella followed behind. Harry kept his eyes to the floor she walked past. He glanced up and saw her standing in front of him.


‘You’re Harry Potter, right?’


‘Um, yyyeah.’ Harry stuttered, puzzled. He was relatively unknown in the Muggle world so he wondered how she knew who he was. He had only introduced himself as Harry when they were at the door. No, she couldn’t be. Could she? Harry’s heart flipped.


‘Are you a witch?’


‘Yes.’


Harry stood there staring, mouth wide open. He was shell-shocked. His next-door neighbour was a witch and not bad looking as well. Hell, she was great looking, a goddess even.


‘Are you alright?’ Arabella said awkwardly. She was in the presence of the ‘Boy Who Lived’. She didn’t know how to act. Was she to bow and call him ‘Your Excellency’ or something?


‘Err, yep.’



‘Draco, darlink! Give Auntie Kamilla and Auntie Celestina a kiss.’


Draco blushed scarlet and swallowed hard. Hermione grinned and looked at him.


‘Yes, Aunties,’ drawled Draco as he bent over and received large kisses and pinches on both his cheeks. Hermione made an amused noise as she stifled a laugh.


‘And who is this?’


‘This is my girlfriend, Hermione.’ said Draco, embarrassed. This stunned Hermione, who had never seen Draco so much as slightly uncomfortable before.


They were at Draco’s mother’s family reunion and Draco was being swarmed by long lost relatives that he hadn’t seen for years because Lucius had forbidden Narcissa and Draco to make contact with them. However, after Lucius’s death, Narcissa had regained contact and invited Hermione to go along with her and Draco to their family reunion.


‘You ‘ave good taste, Draco, she is pretty,’ said Auntie Kamilla, looking Hermione up and down, ‘yes, very pretty.’


‘Thank you.’ Blushed Hermione.


Indeed she was beautiful in a purple velvet halter dress, matching heels with diamante studs across the front and her hair up in chignon with a few tendrils falling down the sides of her face.


‘Vell I’d better go see vhat your mother is doing, it’s nice to see you,’ said Auntie Celestina, curtly. Auntie Kamilla nodded in agreement and they both flamboyantly left, fanning themselves dramatically when they spotted Narcissa.


‘That was er, interesting.’ Said Hermione uncertainly.


‘Yep, about as interesting as a deathday party.’


Hermione nodded, amused, as she thought back to Halloween in her second year when she had attended Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party. She jumped when the orchestra started to play.


‘May I have the pleasure of this dance?’ asked Draco offering his hand out to Hermione.


‘Certainly.’ Answered Hermione, taking his hand and the both of them walked to the dance floor.


Hermione placed her hands around Draco’s neck and Draco placed his around her waist. She laid her head on his shoulder and his senses were clouded with the arousing smell of her. He couldn’t describe it but she brought out the good in him. Draco loved it, the feeling she gave him, and he loved her too, although he could only express it behind closed doors. However, he hated it as well, because he was overwhelmed by it. He had never loved anyone as much as Hermione and because he was brought up to hide his emotions, it scared Draco. He didn’t want to lose her because he couldn’t show his feelings so he made up for it when they were alone. But it still felt wrong, he felt ashamed that he had to fight his feelings in front of other people.


‘The feelings brought by love are both exhilarating and agonising at the same time.’ Draco thought, deeply.


They swayed gently to the melancholic music, their breathing synchronised, completely comfortable in each other’s arms and Hermione was light-headed.


‘Do you want to go up stairs to your hotel room?’ Draco whispered in her ear, noticing she was somewhat tipsy even though she hadn’t had anything alcoholic to drink.


‘What? So we can snog?’


‘Well I was just going to get you to sleep ‘cause you seem tired, but now that you’ve mentioned it.’


‘You shouldn’t take advantage of a ‘tired’ girl but okay.’ Giggled Hermione.

Draco didn’t need to be told twice. He almost carried Hermione the whole way. But before long they reached her room.


Hermione opened the door and they both went in. Closing the door with his foot, he grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and kissed her softly. She kissed him back harder and held him like she was never going to let go. His lips travelled down to her neck as he kissed her silky white skin. Hermione was seeing stars as he travelled down, down, down…



‘Please don’t mention anything about Hogwarts to Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon or Dudley because they don’t exactly like us ‘weirdos’, ok?’ warned Harry, as the Dursley family walked in.


‘Good morning,’ Aunt Petunia greeted the Macmillans with a small smile, ‘we are the Dursleys. This is my son Dudley, I’m Petunia and I’m sure you’ve met my husband, Vernon.’


The Macmillans stood up and Bill introduced them. ‘This is my daughter Arabella, my wife Alexis and I am Bill, pleased to meet you.’ He held out his hand and Uncle Vernon shook it, although he had been introduced at the door.


From the look on Dudley’s face you could tell he fancied Arabella. His watery blue piggy eyes were the size of plates. You could almost see the drool escaping from the side of his mouth – it was disgusting.


Harry didn’t know if Arabella had noticed but if she did she was hiding it pretty well. She just sat on the sofa and smiled politely, watching her mother engaged in conversation with Aunt Petunia. Dudley went to go talk to her but Harry beat him to it and tapped her on the shoulder.


‘Do you want to um…?’


‘Could we?’ she answered in reply.


He beckoned her to follow him up to his room. There they could at least talk without the threat of the Dursleys finding out that she was a witch.


‘You’re Muggle born, right?’ he asked curiously, eager to know more about her.


‘No, I’m half. My father’s a wizard. Why?’


‘Just curious.’


‘What year are you in?’ she asked quietly.


‘Sixth.’


‘Me too, I’ve just moved from Courbecourt which is a school in Belgium. But I’ve still got my English accent though.


Harry was feeling awkward, he didn’t know what to say, and his life just seemed so, so very uninteresting. So he played it safe and complimented her accent.


‘And my, what a great accent it is!’


Arabella laughed. ‘Flattery will get you anywhere.’


Harry blushed then laughed. She looked at him sideways, grinned and kissed him gently on the lips.


‘Yes, it does,’ chocked Harry, obviously surprised by her gesture of affection.


She stared at him pensively and didn’t know what to say, so she just sat there.

He stared at her pensively and didn’t know what to say, so he just sat there. Both just stared at each other, studying each other’s faces in complete silence.




Panting, Draco sat up. Sweat dripped off his forehead and trickled down his face. He felt tired yet happy as he embraced Hermione firmly. She was too tired to hug him back so she just lay down on his chest when he finally let go.


Draco couldn’t believe it; he had just had sex with Hermione Granger, one of his worst enemies up until 5th grade when they, much to everyone’s surprise as well as their own, fell in love.


‘Dare I call it sex?’ he asked himself, while stroking Hermione’s silky hair. ‘No, it isn’t descriptive enough. Fucking? Now that was more like it,’ answering his own question.


Hermione had fallen asleep on Draco’s chest and was breathing softly. Draco closed his eyes and drifted into sleep, breathing slowly and deeply.



Draco found himself shrouded in darkness. He supposed he was in a cave, as all he could see for metres was clusters of stalactites and stalagmites.


His breathing was no longer slow and deep but fast and shallow. Noises behind him startled him and he spun around.


The noise, Draco recognised, was the flapping of wings. He squinted into the darkness and saw the large, dark figure advancing towards him.

He crouched down and peered up just as the creature swooped and narrowly missed his head. But he wasn’t out of the storm just yet, Draco recognised the creature was an overly large tawny owl. He stood up and proclaimed out aloud, ‘Draco Malfoy is not afraid of some ruddy owl!’ Just as the owl dropped a brown paper package tied up with string on his head, almost knocking him out.


‘Shit, that hurt!’ Draco cursed, clutching his head. ‘What the hell was that?’ he questioned the bird as it flew away into the darkness.


He picked up the suspicious package and studied it. Wasn’t this kind of package he should be weary of? Was this one of the packages Hermione was talking about? The ones with the Muggle‘ bug’ Anthrax in it. Hermione had said that in the Muggle world people were sending ‘Anthrax’, whatever that was, and it was making people sick.


He dropped it on the cold stone floor and stepped away slowly.


To his surprise the package rose up and began to remove the string tying it together by itself. The string fell to the floor and wriggled away like snakes. Draco closely watched the string slither away and didn’t notice the brown paper unfolding itself and falling to the ground.


Draco looked up and saw a little white box spinning in mid air.

BANG!!!!’ Draco jumped and cowered behind a large rock. He peered out from behind it and his mouth dropped open. He stood up and nearly fell back down; he steadied himself and gazed forward. At exactly eye level hovered an emerald and silver locket suspended by a thin silver chain. The locket itself had a decorative border of silver and emeralds. Within that was a glittering green shield with the silver Slytherin snake in the centre. Some unknown force made Draco reach out and grab the locket. He felt the coolness of it in the palm of his hand. For the first time in his life he was speechless, unable to describe the treasure he had just received. He just stood there and marvelled at the locket.