Here's a long one.
Chapter 31
A few days later, Raven received an owl from Lucius. He was going to be in Hogsmeade on their next visit. He had a gift to give her and Draco. Raven didn’t like Lucius’ gifts. They always involved doing something she didn’t want to do.
Her friends are still quite concerned about her decision. The days since her conversation with Draco have been good. The two were getting along. Strange but true. Her friends weren‘t convinced though that it was a good decision on Raven‘s part.
"Has Draco made his move yet?" Ron asked when Raven entered the common room later that day.
"No. Should he?" Raven gave Ron a wink and a smile. "Things have been pleasant. There haven’t been any reasons for me to regret the choice I made.”
"So nothing has happened?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing. He’s making every attempt to try and be friends.” Raven noticed some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans sitting next to Harry and grabbed a couple.
"Draco? Making an effort to be nice?" Ron looked as though his question took some effort to come out.
"Yes. Is it so hard to believe that there is no good in him at all? Granted his track record isn‘t good but I believe that within all of us, there is that chance the opposite is there. Within me, there‘s evil and within Draco is good." Raven snatched a few more of Harry's candy. "If I don’t make some kind of effort, it could hurt me. I may as well start trying now.”
"Are you sure you know what you're doing by giving in to him?" Hermione seemed concerned for Raven. Raven understood her friends’ reasoning for being apprehensive about her decision to go along with the Malfoys and the contract.
"Hermione, I am confident that this is the right thing. I am just going to have to make the best of it. So far so good."
"I think the idea is disgusting. George has been dealing with this well too. I don't know how you guys can do it." Ron took some of Harry's beans as well. Raven noticed that Harry slid them out of everyone's reach shortly after.
"We have to do what we have to do Ron. Right now there is no getting around it." Raven stood up and straightened her jeans. "I'm going upstairs to freshen up for dinner. I'll talk to you all later."
"Raven?" asked Harry. Raven turned to face him. "We know you made the right decision. We’re just worried about you. You know that, right?"
"I know, Harry. Don't you have other things to worry about? You still have the second task ahead of you. You worry about that and leave the worrying about me up to me. I can handle myself, especially now that I am healthy. Trust me."
Harry nodded and Raven then turned to head upstairs. She washed her face and changed her clothes for dinner. As she looked in the mirror, she thought of her plan and if it was going to work.
I don't think you know what you are doing. What if you fall in love with Draco? Raven's conscience was trying to get the best of her; as if trying to get her to doubt her plan.
"I'll just have to trust George and Snape to get me out of this. If I fall too deep, they'll catch me," she muttered to herself.
What if they don't catch you?
"Then Lucius wins."
As Raven walked to the Great Hall, a quick flash of an event made her stop in the middle of the hallway. She had a vision of Peeves swinging from a chandelier in a nearby corridor. He had his eye fixed on Pansy and her group of Slytherin girls who were talking below. In his hand was a water bomb. When he threw it and the water exploded all over the girls, the girls' hair quickly turned a bright shade of pink. Raven came back to focus and realized that Peeves was about to play a prank on Pansy, then ran towards the foreseen corridor.
When she got there, she saw the same thing that came to her in her vision. The unsuspecting girls were directly below Peeves the Poltergeist, who was flying around the chandelier. In his hand was the water bomb. Raven thought he must have put some kind of hair dying potion into the water. Although she would have loved to see Peeves do something horrible to Pansy, she could not just stand by and let it happen. If Draco were to find out that she was there and did nothing, he would likely be upset.
As Peeves reached his hand back to throw the water bomb, Raven thought fast. She noticed that there was an open window behind the girls. Peeves threw the bomb and Raven stretched out her arm and stopped the bomb right before it landed on Pansy's head. Raven noticed immediately that her non-verbal spells were working again. A shrill from Peeves alerted the girls to his presence and to what was about to happen. Raven guided the bomb over to the window and let it fall to the ground outside.
"What are you doing?" Peeves shouted to Raven from above.
"Stopping you from making a big mistake."
"What happened?" asked Pansy. "What was that?"
"That was a great trick. Why did you stop it?" Peeves swirled around all of the girls.
"I may not like Miss Parkinson here, but I am not going to allow you to do something so foul to her. A girl's hair should not be messed with and well, pink just wouldn't suit her at all."
"How did you know?" Peeves was angry now that his trick on the girls did not work.
"I'm good like that. Now you had better go. I saw the Bloody Baron nearby and he won't like to hear that you nearly played a trick on a Slytherin."
Peeves quickly disappeared and the girls stared at Raven in shock.
"Why did you stop him? I figured you would have been happy to watch," Pansy asked, walking to Raven.
"It would have been nice to watch, of course. Nevertheless, you would have ran to Draco and told him that I did nothing and that would have ruined our understanding. At the same time, I'm not cruel. Where you would have let him do that to me, I decided to be the bigger person. Be thankful for once, Pansy. It might be good for you."
Raven walked away from Pansy and turned towards the Great Hall. She wondered how quick it would be before Draco found out what happened with Peeves. She also wondered how much of the truth Pansy would tell him. It would only be a matter of time before Draco would confront her.
The day of the second task arrived and the entire school was happy to see it arrive. The only people apprehensive about the task, of course, were Harry and the other champions. Harry spent most of the night before preparing for the task. Raven did not get a chance to speak with Harry to see if he knew what was ahead of him. At one point, she tried to find Ron and Hermione but was unable to. Figuring they were in the library, Raven went to bed hoping to see Harry before he was to compete.
The next morning arrived and Raven still could not find Ron or Hermione. They were probably giving Harry some last minute tips somewhere. As she was heading out of the castle towards the lake, Draco stopped her.
"Want to watch the task with us?" Draco was followed by Crabbe and Goyle who always seemed to have vacant expressions, in Raven's opinion.
"I guess so." Raven gave one last glance around to see if she could see Ron or Hermione. With no sign of them, she continued walking with Draco.
When they arrived at the lake, most of the students were already there. Since the first task, almost everyone got rid of his or her "Potter Stinks" badges. Seeing the first task changed their minds about Harry since he gave a brilliant performance with the Horntail. Once Raven and Draco found a place to watch the task, she looked over and saw the twins taking bets. Pulling out a few Galleons, she looked over at Draco, who seemed to know what she was going to do.
"You're betting again?" he asked.
"Why not? It's all in the spirit of the games."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Are you betting on Potter again?"
"I'm not real sure." She glanced over at Fred and George and thought deeply about who she was going to place a bet on. "Fred!"
Fred heard her call and came over knowing she was going to bet. "So, who is it going to be today?"
Raven looked down and saw that she had eight Galleons and six Sickles in her hand. She looked out over the lake and thought hard about her decision. As she stared at the dark water, she saw Cedric come out of the water, followed shortly by Viktor. She looked over at the bank and saw that Fleur was already standing there, wrapped in a towel. Looking back toward the lake, she became worried for Harry. Then she saw three heads pop out of the water. It was Harry, with Ron and Fleur's sister, Gabrielle.
"Raven?" Draco's voice made her snap out of thought.
"Raven, are you going to bet anything? The task is about to start," said Fred.
She realized that everything she just saw was another vision. In her vision, she saw that Cedric was the first to come out of the water and decided he was going to be the safest bet. "All of this on Cedric. Same deal as last time. Either way, you keep the money."
"Okay, thanks! Draco, placing a bet this time?" Fred said, writing down Raven's bet in his log.
"No." It was obvious Draco did not want to have any type of conversation with Fred, but was willing to act decent for Raven's sake.
Fred walked away to attend another gambler and Raven popped a quick look at Draco, then back out to the lake. "You know it wouldn't kill you to be nice."
"What happened a minute ago? You looked as though you were in a daze."
"I was making an important financial decision. I had to really think about it."
Draco just nodded. "Why didn't you bet on Potter?"
"Just a hunch." Raven remained tight-lipped on the visions she had been having. They seemed to come on sporadically. Since her vision with Moody, her visions were becoming stronger. All of it worried her, but she was not going to let it bother her. However, she did want to learn how to control them if they ever seemed to get out of hand.
During the task, while all the competitors were in the water, Raven became nervous. Fleur was the first to come out of the water but she failed to bring up her hostage; therefore she would end up in last place. When she arrived at the bank, Fleur was surrounded by several Beauxbatons and Madame Maxime who, no doubt, questioned her about her performance. Several long and trying moments later Cedric came out of the water with his girlfriend, Cho.
"You won," said Draco.
Raven half-nodded and continued staring at the lake. Soon the rest of her vision came true. Everything that she saw happened. She could not help but stare at the lake in disbelief. Her heart was racing. She had no explanation for her visions and the uncertainty of where they are coming from made her question the spell that she had been under with the ring.
The task was completed and Cedric was indeed the winner. Harry came in second for his "moral fiber." He arrived at the destination and rescued Ron but when he saw that Fleur was nowhere insight to rescue her sister, he rescued Gabrielle as well. Raven walked back to the common room and barely spoke a word to anyone. The only person she spoke to was Harry and she congratulated him. The rest of the night she spent in her bed, mulling over exactly what happened, and trying to come up with some kind of explanation for it all. A few days after the task, Raven was in the library working on her History of Magic essay; quite possibly the most annoying class Raven has to take. She has to write a two-foot essay on the causes and repercussions of the first two Goblin Clan Wars of the 1200's. After the night of the second task, she never gave much more thought to her vision, but she never let it escape the back of her mind.
She was studying with Harry, Ron and Hermione and Raven realized that Madam Pince was putting the one book she needed back on a shelf. As she walked over to the shelf, Draco came up behind her.
"Hey, Raven."
"Hi, Draco. Sorry I haven't talked to you lately. This homework is killing me."
"I know. I just wanted to remind you that Father will be in Hogsmeade the next time we go."
"That's right. I almost forgot." Raven was lying. She couldn't forget the mystery of this gift. "Do you have any idea what he wants to give us?"
"I'm in the dark on that one. He told me that any kind of hint would spoil the surprise."
"Let's just hope it's not another ring." Raven pretended to be serious and when she saw that Draco didn't like her comment, she gave him a nudge and smiled at him. "I'm joking, Draco. You are more fun when you take a joke."
Draco gave a tense laugh and the two gave each other a nervous stare. Raven knew that the spell was pushing the two together but she also knew that they had not fallen in love with each other just yet. However, she realized that their friendship was getting stronger and found they were developing a fondness for one another.
"Pansy told me what happened with Peeves."
"I couldn't let him do that to her."
"Why? You don't like her."
"I know I don't. However, if I didn't you would have been angry and it would have ruined all the progress we have made by getting along. Besides, you would have done something to George and I couldn't let that happen."
"Still thinking of him?"
"And you're still thinking of her."
There was a bit of a pause and Raven turned to look at the books on the shelf. Draco started to chuckle.
"What?" Raven gave him a confused look. "What's so funny?"
"I just pictured Pansy with pink hair. Would have looked pretty bad."
The two laughed and made little jokes about Pansy with dyed hair. After the laughing subsided, the two looked at each other briefly. Then Draco's eyes drifted to the top of Raven's head. "You have something in your hair."
Raven ran her hand over the top of her head. "Did I get it?"
"No. Here." Draco moved in closer to her and gently took his thumb and index finger and removed a small piece of lint from her hair. Once he let the small piece of fuzz go, they both realized that they were quite close to each other.
Draco leaned in closer to Raven. She held her panic quite well.
He is going to kiss me! I want to. Ew! No I don't! What do I do? Should I?
Raven frantically turned and grabbed the book she was looking for and fumbled with it a few times. When she finally had a hold of the book, she looked edgy and rushed.
"Thank you for reminding me about that Draco. I really need to go and get this essay done. Talk to you later?" Before Draco could even respond, she turned and walked quickly to the table where, fortunately, her friends didn't know she was gone.
"Look what I got. This should help." Raven nervously opened The Goblin Wars of the 1200's. "This should speed things along."
"What was the name of that one goblin that started the first war?" asked Harry.
"I don't know. All of their names sound like gurgles to me," said Ron.
Hermione shook her head at the two boys while Raven thumbed through the book. "Honestly Ron, maybe if you paid attention in class you would know how important the clan wars are to us."
"And how did the goblins affect Quidditch? Because that is important to me," said Ron, rolling his eyes to Harry who gave a little laugh. Raven smiled at them and looked over at Hermione who looked frustrated.
"I think sometimes that if there was a Quidditch class you two would be in heaven," said Hermione, continuing to write her essay.
"I'd be happy just to play again," remarked Harry. Harry was the happiest when he was on the Quidditch pitch. Raven could tell that he missed it terribly.
After another hour working on their essays, the four packed their things and decided to head to dinner. Relieved that her essay was finished, Raven couldn't stop thinking about her near kiss with Draco. What was scarier for her was that she almost wanted to kiss him. At the same time, she didn't want their relationship to get to that point just yet. She liked just being friends with him. When he was not being nasty, he was actually tolerable.
The day of the Hogsmeade trip was stressful for Raven. Finding out what this mysterious gift was from Lucius made her nervous. Since that day at the library, she and Draco did not speak to each other. It was not that they didn't want to, but every time they got within feet of each other, they became anxious and would walk away.
While she was getting ready, she tried on ten different outfits before deciding on one that worked for her: red t-shirt, black pants, black boots and her long black coat. She thought she looked quite conservative, which she thought may be appropriate considering she wasn't going there to make a statement. Normally, if she knew she would be talking to Lucius, she would try to dress to not impress. She would wear something as loud as she could. Today was different. First of all, her mood was not there and second, she did not want to give him the opportunity to say anything about her choice of attire. The less he said to her, the better. She wanted to find out what this gift was and be done with the conversation.
Raven met up with Draco in the courtyard at Hogwarts and the two shared awkward glances. Not much was said on the way to Hogsmeade. She could tell that Draco was just as nervous to find out what this gift was.
"Where are we meeting him?" Raven asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Hogs Head Inn. Not many students go in there so he feels we wouldn't be interrupted as much." Draco was fidgeting as he spoke these words.
"Why are you so nervous?"
"I could ask you the same question and get the same response. I don't like my father's surprises. Last time he surprised me, he told me I was betrothed to you."
"So, his surprises aren't good? That worries me. And here I thought he was just going to give us a nice house warming present for when we do get married." Raven smiled at Draco, hoping to relieve his tension.
"You're not worried?"
"Of course I'm worried. Last time he surprised me, I got this ring on my finger. If this surprise is for the both of us, I can't begin to imagine what it could be."
The two approached Hogs Head Inn and stood at the entrance, hesitating to go in. After swallowing her pride, Raven grabbed Draco's hand and gave him a small smile. "Let's just get this over with."
Draco nodded and the two entered the building. Raven hated this place. It was dirty and many questionable people hung around there. As they walked around looking for Lucius, they kept receiving curious glares from the patrons. At the back of the room was Lucius. He stood and pulled out a chair for Raven which she accepted and sat gracefully. All of the nervousness she felt was masked by confidence. Draco on the other hand did not appear to be shaking off his anxiety at all.
"I took the liberty of ordering you butterbeers. I hope you don't mind," Lucius said, waving the bartender over to their table. "Don't worry, I brought my own glasses."
Since Hogs Head was such a filthy environment, it was not uncommon for people to bring their own cups. The barkeepers actually advise it.
The bartender came over with two glasses and sat them down in front of Raven and Draco.
"You're not drinking anything, Father?" asked Draco.
"I'm not thirsty, Draco. Perhaps later." Lucius gave the two an approving look. "I am not sensing any tension between the two of you. Could it be that you are finally happy together?"
Raven glanced over at Draco who looked as though he was going to be sick. "We are happy hanging out together. But we are not together if that is what you are getting at."
Raven and Draco picked up their glasses and began to drink, exchanging fleeting looks at one another.
"That's very good to hear. Before I tell you about your gift, I want to tell you my reasoning behind it." Raven and Draco finished their drinks and sat them down. "Would you like more?"
The two nodded and Lucius once again waved the bartender over. The man took their glasses and went back to the bar.
"Draco, I know you spent the Yule Ball with Pansy. And Raven, I know you spent that evening with Mr. Weasley." Draco snapped his head to look at Raven. Apparently, Lucius did not know.
"You told me he knew. That he approved this.” Raven whispered, staring curiously at Draco. Why would he let her go with George and how did he get around not telling his dad.
"We‘ll talk later," Draco whispered.
"We‘ll talk later? You didn‘t think this would come up in conversation with your father?" Raven looked over at Lucius to see that he seemed quite annoyed at their side conversation. She then turned back to Draco, “Oh we are so going to talk later."
Lucius straightened his black robes and adjusted himself in his chair. "As I was saying, I know that you two spent the evening with your former significant others that night and let's just say it won't happen again."
"We know, Lucius. Draco and I have already had this discussion with each other and our ‘former significant others.’" This conversation was flustering Raven. If he would just get to the point, I could at least attempt to be on my best behavior.
"You see, I need insurance that you two will get married."
"I don‘t think insurance companies deal with dark wedding contracts." Raven loved playing stupid, especially with Lucius. The steam coming out of his ears made it all worth it.
"Not that kind of insurance!" Lucius slammed his hand down on the table. The patrons in the bar turned their heads in reaction to the outburst. Lucius turned his head and smiled at the customers and held his hand up to apologize. He pulled his long blonde hair back away from his face, clearly trying to hide his frustration with Raven. "I need to know that all of my hard work getting you two together is going to pay off. I need to make sure that whatever happens, when Draco is of age, you will be married."
"You still have three and a half years before that day comes. Why can't you just let us get together in our own time?" Draco asked.
"Draco, at the beginning of all of this, I told you my reasoning for acting quickly. I will not repeat myself."
"Well, repeat yourself to me because I have no idea what you are blabbering about." Raven was upset with Draco for hiding this from her. That was one of her many questions. What was the big rush?
"My dear, you are of age much sooner than Draco. I can't have you running off and getting married while you are under contract to marry my son." Lucius' condescending tone in his voice rubbed Raven the wrong way. She felt a chill go down her spine.
The bartender returned with their drinks. As Raven took a sip of her drink, she had another vision. She was having an intense conversation with Draco but couldn't hear any words. In another flash, she saw herself kissing Draco outside of the castle.
She snapped out of her vision when she realized she spilled some of her drink on her pants. "When are you going to stop with all of the stupid chit chat and give us this gift you are obviously so excited about?" Raven's anger spilled over and her frustration was obvious. Lucius and Draco didn't seem to notice that she had a vision. She figured they happen too quickly for anyone to really notice. As she wiped her pants, Lucius grabbed her and Draco’s arm.
"My dear, it has already been given."
Chapter 32