Chapter 25: Temptation

The opportunity for a push for more with Daphne and her little band of rescuers was temping, but I reluctantly moved away to another empty compartment, because I had much more important things to focus on, just because that asshole Nott decided to act with the foresight of a Gryffindor. Unfortunately, idiotic actions forced me to act, hence the reason I quickly scribbled a letter to my target, Severus Snape. In my letter, which I left unsigned, I explained that I had information critical to Potter's continued survival and eventual victory against Tom Riddle, then, followed it by a number of additional commands, including him sending Voldemort an explanation that would ensure his absence and lack of communications wouldn't be questioned for a month or two, allowing him to mention Elder Wand if necessary. Just to make sure he had no choice but to believe my explanation, I mentioned that I was Dumbledore's trusted agent, and gave him a summary of his own story including the fact that Dumbledore's death had been a ploy to destroy Elder Wand, more than enough to show that I was privy of his biggest secrets, secrets that were almost impossible acquire from someone other than Dumbledore.

Almost, but to Snape's misfortune, not completely.

I donned the cloak once more before mounting my broom and flying out of the window, apparating to Hogsmeade once I was sufficiently away from the train. Then, I charmed the letter to turn it into a bird that was tasked to find Snape while I used the secret passage at the Shrieking Shack to an easy passage to Forbidden Forest, and arrived at the location I mentioned in the letter, still concealed under the cloak.

Only when Snape walked into the opening, his wand out, ready for an attack, I let the cloak slid away, revealing myself to Snape. "Draco," he muttered in shock, not expecting my presence, but his surprise didn't prevent him from sending a legimency probe to my mind, mercilessly delving into my memories. Despite all the improvements I managed to gain in Occlumency, resisting Snape's assault for more than a few seconds was still impossible. Luckily, I didn't need to resist, not when I could direct his probe into the memories before my occupation, leaving Snape in a sea of useless emotion. Ensured of my identity, Snape's wand holding hand lowered.

That mistake cost him a stunner in the chest. The shock dominated his face as he tried to resist, but he had no hope of resisting the full power of the Elder Wand, and collapsed before he could say anything. I immediately fed him a bottle of the draught of living death, and a couple of supplementary potions to purge any antidotes he might have already ingested. I didn't want to kill him -mostly because Voldie would notice his death through the dark mark, therefore further complicating the issue- but I still would have preferred his death to his freedom.

Only after getting rid of everything he had in case he woke up, depriving him of the tools to get himself free, and storing him in a magically-expanded box I let out a relaxed sigh, my heartbeat calming slightly. Despite the ease it had gone through, I was very aware that it was the most dangerous activity I had conducted since my reincarnation. Snape was a very alert target due to his dangerous role as the double-spy, and only his trust in the previous owner of my body and my deep knowledge of his secrets allowing me to get a drop on him. Still, that was required. Snape was too alert, and knew Draco too well for me to avoid his suspicions after the event on the train. His replacement, unless Voldie decided to take the post himself, would be much easier to deal with.

Hogwarts was mine to take.

My task done, I took the secret tunnel once more and arrived at the station, and after the train arrived, I slipped into the train, waiting for the crowd the thin before stepping out. The sudden silence that filled my surrounding, broken only by furious whispers and hesitant looks. Clearly, my achievements in the train had spread, renewing my reputation immediately. I was lucky in a way, because the fight gave me an alibi about Snape's disappearance. No matter how unlikely it would have been me to get caught, impossible was still better than highly improbable.

I walked, enjoying the distant attention I received as I walked toward the carriage, expecting to have a few minutes to relax before the feast, when I caught the sight of Ginny Weasley, cornered by three Slytherin girls, all four with wands in their hands. They were not hidden, but none of the students were brave enough to involve themselves for one of the most prominent enemies of the Dark Lord.

Another opportunity to steal something precious from the Weasley family, I realized. I had stolen William's wife, and Ron's girlfriend. The next target, the virginity of their precious daughter. I walked toward them, earning their attention without a threatening move. Ginny's wand turned toward me, while the other girls kept theirs on Ginny, but with a significant tremble in their hands. I could see two prefect badge on their chest, marking them as members of Nott's unlucky faction. Their reaction told me that they had heard me singlehandedly destroying their faction. "Girls, would you mind giving me some privacy with Miss Weasley, I have some private matters to discuss." They looked reluctant, but their fear was stronger. They scampered.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ginny asked, though she had the presence of mind to keep the volume down and her expression neutral.

"Nothing," I said with a dismissive shrug. "It was more about internal Slytherin matters rather than anything else. Providing you with little assistance was a little benefit. Take it as a freebie bonus."

"Yeah, right," Ginny answered, her derision to be expected considering her history with Draco.

"Believe what you will, Miss Weasley," I said as I started to walk away, then stopped and turned back. "Of course, you can always find me if you have a problem, and I can help you for a small price."

Despite the anger burning in her eyes, she managed to maintain a pleasant tone. I had no doubt that the same offer would have earned curses any other time, but now, without Potter and Dumbledore, replaced by Carrows, the Gryffindors were more defenseless than ever, and for better and worse, as Potter's girlfriend -regardless of the absurd claim of being separated- had to take the role of a leader. And as a leader, she didn't have the luxury of rejecting help without giving a thought, no matter her personal distaste. "And what would be the cost of your assistance?"

"Nothing much," I said, my smirk widening. "I just want to have a date with you."

"A date!" she whispered furiously, barely maintaining her composure enough not to shout. "How dare you, I am-" she continued before I cut her off.

"You are currently single," I said with a wide smile, reminding her that she was currently acting like she had broken up with Potter to get away from the attention, Ginny froze. "Unless you're taking back your previous claim that your relationship with Potter was nothing more than a fleeting fancy. Because I can imagine quite a few people interested in that answer." Ginny gulped, but still angry. "Don't worry, it's not a threat, but a statement. It's not my interest, and as long as you don't need my help, my interest in the subject is completely theoretical," I said, and before she could say anything else, I walked away.

Then, another familiar voice was heard when he stepped into an empty carriage. "That was an interesting situation," said a familiar voice. "First me, and now her. You're really stepping on the role of the white knight on Potter's absence."

"I try," I said as I turned to my gaze to the sole occupant on the carriage I presumed to be empty. "It's nice to see you again, Heir Greengrass. Would you mind if I took a seat?"

"Of course, and please call me Daphne," she said, casually giving me an allowance of closeness that she denied anyone else, including Draco of the past despite his constant badgering. Still, even as she said that, I could see confusion in her eyes. It was obvious that she had thrown the comparison with Potter just to measure my response, expecting me to either brag pridefully or react in anger, and my dismissal took her in surprise.

"Only if you call me Draco," I answered. "After all, we're going to be neighbors," I said.

"Yes," she murmured, clearly remembering the last words I had said to Nott, but she chose not to push it, focusing on small talk instead. I obliged, filling the rest of the journey with mindless chatter.

I was going to live next door to her, after all. Hurrying would be pointless…

I chose to skip the feast in favor of moving into my new place, Head Boy room, which was actually away from the Slytherin tower, accessible for all students that knew the password, probably to make it accessible for all prefects. The setup was interesting. Both Head Boy and Head Girl had two rooms for themselves -one bedroom and one living room. The entrance for those private rooms was protected by a password. Both sections opened to a wider entrance, furnished sufficiently to comfortably host two dozen people, probably so that Head students could hold meetings efficiently.

Of course, after the ordeal Nott had gone through, I doubted he and his ilk would dare to use the room.

I changed the password to my private section. Luckily, Nott hadn't been here yet, and I had been setting the password for the first time. Extremely convenient since Snape was conveniently absent and his room locked, meaning nobody had the ability to change the password. Of course, I didn't limit myself to it, and cast a wide range of protective wards, first few layers mostly warning and pranks, but a few deadly surprises hidden under the other layers. I wasn't willing to take the risk.

I was putting the last of the protective wards when my neighbor finally stepped in the shared portion of our room, both Tracy and Susan in tow, their wands were drawn. I nodded her before shifting my attention back to the door, watching them relax from the corner of my eye. Probably they were afraid of meeting with another ambush; rather justifiable considering their earlier ordeal. I shifted my attention back to the ward I had been setting, drawing an impressive number of floating runes with my wand, each throbbing with power.

When I finished setting up the ward and turned my attention back, I was alone with Daphne, but there was a shocked expression on her face, one she struggled to hide despite her best effort. Understandable, because the ward I had set was far above anything Hogwarts students should be able to set -with the exception of Hermione, of course. She might have been easy to manipulate on certain aspects, but when it came to the intricate side of magic, she was peerless.

"Daphne," I said with a gentle smirk even as I walked toward the nearest comfortable chair and sat down.

It took a few seconds for her to find her voice, her eyes still on the floating runes, fading as they fed their power to the ward I had just established. Then, she noticed my amused smirk, and shook her head to gather her wits. "I see you're taking your security seriously," she murmured in an equally casual tone, but she failed to hide the shock that was hidden behind her shining blue eyes.

"We're living in rather interesting times," I answered even as I leaned back, watching Daphne sway as she moved toward the seat opposite of me.

"Interesting, that's a peculiar choice of word, and a rather positive one," she said, confused.

"Not at all. Did you know that Chinese muggles curse you by wishing interesting times on you," I said, and just like that, Daphne's eyes widened once more, her attempts to keep her calm completely wayside. After all, not every day one would see junior Death Eater Malfoy actually referring to the muggle world.

"I see," Daphne murmured and stopped for a second, trying to come up with a way to address my reveal, but from her expression, it was clear that she was failing, and limited herself to a more casual discussion, and a several minutes later, excused herself by claiming exhaustion, but not before inviting me a private dinner in her section the next day. The moment she left, I wrapped myself under the invisibility cloak, and left my room, leaving Hogwarts through the nearest secret passage.

My destination, Shell Cottage. I was starting to miss my dirty blonde angel…

I made sure to keep the noise to a minimum as I appeared, a veritable wall of wards in front of me. Still, after all my experience with them, it was trivial to sneak through, excited to meet with my blonde angel. I finally saw the swaying figure of blonde beauty, dressed in a sheer nightie, and about to greet her with a cup on her bottom, but I managed to freeze myself at the last second. The reason, at the last second, I managed to realize that, the hips I was targeting were a bit thicker than I was used to. So, either Fleur managed to gain a couple of pounds since I had seen her, a weight that only went to her hips…

… or she was someone else.

The mystery didn't take long to solve, as I heard Fleur's voice moments later, reaching me from further away, from the kitchen. "Mom, would you prefer a Malbec, or a Chianti." With her identity revealed, the only thing that was left was to enjoy the way her hips swayed as she moved further on the corridor, her thin negligee doing nothing to hide the dance of her hips.

"A Chianti, if you have a decent vintage," Fleur's mother answered, but the sharp admonishment in her tone was easy to hear, and even easier than recognize. It was derision, and considering the material of her nightie -highly processed magical silk, more or less on the same price range of a small house- and Fleur's current conditions of living, I was willing to bet that it was about the money.

Someone was clearly unhappy about her daughter's lifestyle choices.

I smirked as I walked toward the kitchen, not at all dissatisfied with having yet another angle of emotional blackmail on Fleur. When I stepped into the kitchen, my eyes were filled with the delicious view of Fleur's rear as she bent down, her short nightie riding up enough to reveal her skimpy lacy panties. But she was uncaring as she furiously pulled wine bottles out, examining the labels for a brief moment before putting them back hard enough to shatter them if it wasn't for the protective charms.

I slid out of the invisibility cloak before walking toward her, not bothering to be particularly stealthy, but she still missed my presence, too focused on her frustrating task of impressing her mother. So, I made sure to cast a silencing charm before sneaking even closer. "Hello, angel," I murmured even as my fingers caressed her bottom, earning a panicked cry in response, and she reached for a wand that wasn't there. Her rather revealing clothing didn't allow her to carry one.

Though that fell to the wayside when she turned and saw the identity of her guest, the lips that were busy shouting twisted to form a question, something I had aborted with great enthusiasm. If the way she smashed her body against mine was any indicator, she wasn't exactly unhappy about it either. As our kiss stretched, her hands started caressing my body hungrily, something I was glad to reciprocate.

Then, it clicked to her that we weren't alone in the house, and pushed me back panickedly. "My mom, she heard my scream," she whispered gravely as she tried to dash to the door, but I hugged her to keep her in place.

"Don't worry about it, I used a silencing charm," I said even as I used my grip to move behind her, my erection, which was raging hard since I had seen her delicious mother, hidden between her tight cheeks.

"Good thinking," she murmured as she leaned back, her head resting on my shoulder.

"Tough visit," I asked.

"Yeah," she murmured. "Mother doesn't approve my presence in England, or the particularities of my life choices," she explained, clearly referring to her marriage. But rather than anger, her tone carried exhaustion, which was understandable. I had no doubt that her marriage resulted in a lot of fights. It wasn't just about Weasley's dire economic circumstances, or even the fact that they were in the middle of the war. It was the fact that they were pathetically rude whenever they had the chance, never missing an opportunity to subtly snob Fleur -or droll while looking at her like the weak-minded fools they were. All considered, it wasn't a shock that her Fleur's choices weren't approved.

Of course, after cheating her husband repeatedly, such as the time she surrendered her virginity to me in the night that was supposed to celebrate her commitment, or the time she wantonly took my cock with the clear enjoyment while her poor husband watched in shock, forming a rather vicious way of delivering divorce papers.

"While it might be hard to solve that particular one fully instantly, I have a solution to your current one," I said, summoning a Malfoy house-elf, who then brought a bottle that lacked a label. "I'm sure your mother will enjoy this one."

"Thanks, you're amazing," she said, her earlier gloom disappearing easily, and I received my reward in the form of another heated kiss, one I chose to enjoy passively. Unfortunately, it didn't take as much as I would have preferred. "Wait for me in the bedroom and rest a bit, I'll be there in half an hour, and believe me, you'll not have time to rest then," she said, passion burning in her eyes unreservedly. I truly chose right.

Still, rather than following her directions, I pulled the cloak and followed her. The temptation of being a silent observer of a mother-daughter veela pair's discussion while both were dressed in sexy nighties was too strong to resist.