Bitter Cold

Chapter Two

Draco tightened his hold on the glass of liquor in his hand, and then brought it to his lips and drank the liquid in one fluid motion. He relished the feeling of the burning in his tongue and throat, the feeling of searing heat that ignited his mouth but for only a moment. When it was gone, he left the empty glass on one of the tables and walked away from his place to get another drink.

"Draco!"

He abruptly turned to see who dared voice his name out loud. A smi formed on his face as he recognized the owner and said, almost mockingly, "Hello, Pansy."

The woman practically bounced as she walked towards him, a smile permanently etched on her red lips. When she reached his side, she leaned towards his mouth to kiss him in greeting, but was denied the little touch of intimacy when he turned and gave her his cheek instead. Never perturbed, she patted his cheek with her hand. "My, Draco. It's been quite a while since I saw you! Where have you been hiding these past few years?"

He shrugged and mentally resisted the urge to wipe her touch away with his hand. "If I tell you where I were then I wouldn't be hiding, would I?"

Eyes blinked at him before that horrible mouth of hers broke into a wide grin. "Hmm. Still equipped with that tongue, I see," said Pansy as she lifted her own wine and took a sip. "Though I suppose that wicked tongue of yours would do no good, seeing that you'd be working with that bitch for the time being."

Draco's eyebrows lifted imperceptibly at the mention. "I assume you're talking about the Mudblood," he told her dryly.

Pansy made a slight dismissing wave. "I would have loved to keep calling her that, just for the fun of it, but Lucius wouldn't hear it from me or from anyone else for that matter. He said it wasn't... appropriate to call her that."

A derisive smile appeared on his lips. "My father defending a Muggle-born? That I thought I wouldn't live to see."

"Oh, but don't you know?" Pansy blinked up at him, in a way she hoped was flirtatious and alluring. When she got no response, she continued, "Apparently she's not a Muggle-born. Gasps and shock aside, she turned out to be one of us."

"A Death Eater," Draco supplied.

"Not only that, but a pureblooded Death Eater at that."

Silver eyes regarded the woman before him with disbelief uncannily exposed on his expression. "You're lying."

It totally unnerved him that this information was somehow able to slip by him. When would wonders cease? First he learned that Hermione was a Death Eater, and now he was being told that she was a pureblood as well?

"Would I?" Pansy deposited her empty drink on one side and then stepped closer to the man she was speaking with. "I see it came as a shock to you, too, with all our initial thoughts that she's nothing but a pathetic excuse of a witch with dirty blood on her body. Well of course she's still pathetic and all - the Dark Lord knows nothing could ever change that - but the part about the blood... well, she's anything but with dirty blood."

Without any warning, Draco grabbed hold of Pansy's arm. "Care to elaborate?" It was voiced out to sound not as a question or request, but as a command... an order.

She winced at the pressure he gave her arm, but he bestowed no notice of her pain. "It was your father that found this truth out," she gasped. Finally, as if snapping out of it, he removed his hold on her, and she relished in the feeling of blood flowing freely to her arm.

"Turns out that Granger bitch wasn't a real Granger after all. She's adopted." Pansy continued. "Her real parents were Death Eaters themselves. Have you ever heard of the 'Krux' family?"

"Krux?" Draco repeated. "I've heard about them. Aren't they all dead?"

"Well, if you exclude the one with us, then yes, they're all dead. Apparently this Krux couple, after having been found out to be followers of the Dark Lord, went to the Muggle world and left their daughter to the Grangers. I suppose they'd even used the Imperius curse on them, since who on earth would want to adopt such a hideous looking baby--"

"Get on with your story, Pansy."

Pansy dared to raise her eyes and meet his. "Impatient, aren't we?" Before he could retort, she continued. "After they left their darling baby girl to the Muggles," she said with obvious contempt dripping from every syllable, "this Krux couple was eventually caught and imprisoned. Though before they were put into trial, the Krux woman mysteriously died inside her prison cell. Hours before his own trial, her husband died as well."

"Which left Granger an orphan."

"Which left Granger an amazingly powerful orphan."

Both Draco and Pansy turned to see the object of their conversation gazing at them with dark humor coloring her eyes. "Talking about my so-called fairy tale life again, Pansy? How unbelievably predictable of you, dear."

"Hello, Hermione. So... pleasurable of you to waltz right into our conversation," Pansy retorted with immeasurable malice. She lifted a hand and possessively clung to Draco's arm. "Now if you don't mind, my dear, kindly get the hell away from us."

Tense moments slipped idly by, as no one dared to speak or move. Glares were exchanged between the two women, one's eyes filled with hate, the other with haughtiness. Moments passed again before Draco roughly removed Pansy's hand from his arm, and turned to face her. "I'd like to say the same to you, Pansy. Get out."

Eyes widened and bulged in surprise. "What?"

"Get. Out." And, as if to emphasize his words, Draco gave Pansy a not-so-gentle shove towards the direction of the other Death Eaters. It was her sheer luck that she fell into the arms of Crabbe and not flat on her face on the floor. She gave an indignant cry, glared holes through them both and immediately left the Malfoy Manor.

Hermione surveyed all of this with a decidedly amused expression on her face. "Never one to be subtle, are you, Malfoy?"

"Never, Granger. Or should I say Krux?"

"Personally I prefer Granger, but please, call me anything you wish."

Was it Draco's imagination, or did something else other than malice swirl in those eyes of hers? But of course, as a Death Eater, she, too, knew that it was dangerous for one to dwell on one emotion for too long. Soon her eyes were full of darkness again.

"Ah. So this is why Voldemort allowed you to serve him, because you are one of us," he said.

"Yes. Unfortunately, my destiny seems to coincide with yours and your Slytherin friends. After all, what do sons and daughters of Death Eaters become but Death Eaters themselves?" At this, she shrugged.

Draco stared at her in contemplation. "And yet you were sorted to Gryffindor," he mused out loud. "Not to the Slytherin where the other sons and daughters of Death Eaters reside."

Hermione's lips tugged upward, her expression somewhat resembling a saddened, defeated smile. "Muggle influence, I believe," she said. "My parents taught me well..." and then she looked away.

Silence hovered between the two of them, neither one really knowing what to say to the other. Hermione berated herself for showing even an ounce of her emotions to him, but what was done was already done. She had shown weakness, but he had either dismissed it or did not realize that she had done such a thing. Perhaps he was not as perceptive as she thought he was.

On the contrary, though, Draco had caught this weakness of hers, but chose not to comment on that as of the moment. He would, however, use this beneficial seed of knowledge when the appropriate time came. "You said something about being an amazingly powerful orphan," he said, as he broke the uncomfortable nothingness in the air.

Hermione returned his inquisitive eyes with a stare of her own. "Have you ever heard of the phrase 'a vessel of power'?"

He shook his head.

"You're looking at one now," she stated.

Draco smirked as he openly feasted on her body. "Am I?"

"As I've been told by your father, once the lineage of the wizard families are almost completely wiped off, meaning once they have fewer descendants to carry on their name, the power that runs in that family gradually becomes concentrated. If, for example, there are few members left, then the power of everyone in the family is divided unto them." Hermione's chin lifted on its own, pride and arrogance in her voice. "In my case, however, I am the only Krux left in this world, meaning that all the power in my family is now mine and mine alone."

"Selfishness? So unbecoming of you, Hermione." He clucked his tongue. "All that power in you... and here I thought your ability came from all those hours spent in the library."

"Oh, believe me, that helped. All those hours of studying helped me a lot." Hermione's eyes gleamed an unholy fire. "For instance, did you know that there is a specific spell in a specific book that allows one to trace the track made by a beloved friend? Before you came into all of this, I'd already cast that spell to know exactly where Harry Potter is as we speak."

"And where would he be?" asked Draco.

"Diagon Alley," she promptly answered, not without a triumphant smile on her face.