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Nov. 21, 10:00 pm, Gryffindor Common Room

Kagumi sat in her favorite chair, concentrating on a favorite past time: flame-gazing. Harry came downstairs and once again, she wouldn’t look at him. He sighed and sat on the floor in front of her. “You’ll have to talk to me sooner or later, you know that.”

She just looked away. He ran his fingers through his hair with exasperation. “You’re determined to give me the silent treatment, aren’t you?” He asked. She swiveled to face him, anger etched on every facet of her beautiful face.

“No, Harry. I’m being silent because I’m trying to her my sister’s voice in the back of my head. She’s been the voice in my head, pushing me to go further, to do better; she’s the voice pushing to me to be…my best. And now her voice isn’t there anymore. I can’t hear it and I’m trying desperately to. For eleven years, she’s been right there. Had her own little nook in my cranium…but I don’t know if I ever had one in hers. Or if the fight we had was enough to shred eleven years of love and trust. So no, Harry. My silence has squat to do with you. You may be the Golden Boy of Hogwarts, but my world does NOT revolve around YOU.”

Harry looked stunned for a moment and then realized that the entire time Gumi had refused to look at him or talk to him, he truly had thought that it had something to do with him. Feeling like a selfish prat, he watched her storm upstairs, tears streaming down her face. He was shocked, however, when he heard a thump and several whimpers.

She came back down levitating the bag containing Malfoy and a small backpack…and carrying his Firebolt. All he could do was follow mutely through the halls to the front entrance. As she began tying the bag to the handle of the broom, he snapped back to reality.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

She looked at him as though he were an idiot. “Are you kidding me? My sister isn’t dead. And as such, that means she has a helluva lot of explaining to do. What do you think I’m doing? I’m going to go find her,” she retorted. Malfoy began to squirm and she kicked the bag. He instantly went still as she screamed, “Shut up, Rodent!” at him.

The same instant that she screamed that at Malfoy, Tigra came running down the stairs with her carrying sack in her mouth. Kagumi looked down and carefully put the cat into the carrying sack she and Jade had sewn together three years…eight years ago, technically. She put the eager cat into the carrier and readied her broom. Harry grabbed onto the bristles as she hovered upwards.

“Let go, you’ll drag me down!”

“That’s the idea!”

Nov. 21, 10:27 pm, Kitchens

Kagumi, Harry, Jade, Malfoy (still bagged for convenience) and Tigra all walked or were carried into the kitchens. After eating, they all traipsed back up to the common room, where Kagumi took the bag from Jade and set it down in the middle of the common room. She looked around at all the people.

“Alright, everyone needs to clear out of this room except for Hermione and Ron.” Grumbling, people grabbed their bags and whatnot and slowly the room emptied until on the crackling fire could be heard. Kagumi drew her wand and all of them followed suit. She pointed it at the bag and after counting to three, the top slowly untied itself to reveal a shirtless, bruised and battered Malfoy.

“Holy Jeezy Creezy Gumi, what the heck did you do to him?!” Jade shouted. Harry walked forward with a determined stride. He put the tip of his wand to Malfoy’s neck and made him stand up. There were cat-like scratches all over his body. “Don’t try anything,” Harry said with deadly calm.

Kagumi walked up and yanked Harry’s arm away. “For Gods sakes, Harry! You’re treating him like a criminal!”

“He is! Besides, you’re the one that bagged him up like a sack of groceries!”

She smirked enigmatically. “How I managed that is my business.” Turning to Draco, she sat down on the couch and he fell with her, his head in her lap. “Now you may question him,” she said pointedly.

Nov. 21, 11:57 pm, Room of Requirement.

A giggling Kagumi had led Malfoy down the hall to the blank wall. After pacing in front of it three times, Kagumi opened her eyes to see the door. Upon opening it, she found a king sized four-poster bed with thick, black velvet curtain pulled back and secured with silver ropes. She also found some warm robes, two goblets, a large bottle of spiced wine and some minor healing things. The walls were covered with silver and black sconces, holding bluish flames. She hauled the half-conscious Malfoy into the room and locked the door behind her. She pushed him onto the large, feather bed, and began mixing up a single poultice for the scrapes and bruises he had sustained by her hands.

She heard a low, moan-like voice echoing from the dim room. “Why are you doing this?” Malfoy asked. She turned slowly, her hands still covered in and dripping with the wet herb goo. “Doing what?” she replied.

“You know…”

“Apparently I don’t,” she smirked at him through the gloom. “Would I be asking if I knew?” She replied in a playful tone. She turned back around and immersed her hands once more in the poultice. He sighed and didn’t move; simply lying there and watching her care for him was heaven. He shook his head as softly as he could without making himself dizzy. Why the hell am I thinking thoughts like this? I’m in Slytherin; she’s in Gryffindor. I’m considered evil; she’s not. What on earth…could I be…actually falling in love with her? I mean; I knew that I loved her. But I had also loved Pansy in the same way. But...is it even possible for a Malfoy to fall in love? From everything I ever heard as a child, Father and Mother only married to uphold Malfoy Law. She then came to love him after she had me. But…can a Malfoy actually fall in love….before marriage?

She came over with several small cloths smelling strongly of comfrey root, lily and dandelions. She sat down on the bed and pressed each cloth, herb side down, onto his skin. He gave a sigh relieved relaxation. With a slight smile, she moved her clean hand to smooth his blond hair back from his face. He caught her hand and kissed it. She giggled, blushing, and went to wash her hands.

Nov. 22, 12:23 am, Room of Requirement

After she had removed the compresses and washed the herbs from his skin, Kagumi laid down next him, with her head on his chest. She hated how time flew and she was running her thin fingers across his arm. He was clasping her to his chest, remembering the row they had at Malfoy Manor.

“You’re nothing but slime, Malfoy!” Kagumi screeched, throwing a vase at him which smashed on the floor at his feet.

“Yes, and you’re acting exactly like those foul blood-traitors you call friends!’ his voice echoed off of the foyer walls.

“So says the snake,” she whispered, walking over and punching him in the face. He went sailing into the rows of shelves and hooks where his father kept his canes. With a groan, he crumpled and then tried to return to his feet.

“Oh, c’mon, Malfoy. Where the manly man who’s always trying to pick a fight with Potter?” Kagumi taunted him. With an enraged yell, he threw himself at her, knocking her to the ground.

“He’s right here,” he said, laying on top of her, then kissed her forcefully.

With a disgusted groan, she pushed him off. “You took five years out of my life and now you think I’m going to let you kiss me?! Screw you!” Kagumi screamed, taking out her wand and throwing him against the door with the same spell she used against Crabbe and Goyle. He looked at her strangely, with a softness in his eye that she couldn’t quite place.

“I only did it because I love you,” he whispered. She lowered her wand in shock and stared at him. He slowly slid to the marble floor as her spell released. She helped him to his feet and he pressed her against the wall, kissing her more lightly. She slid her hands up his shirt and whimpered against his lips. When he kissed her neck, her hands went flying out against the marble tiles. As he kissed the hollow of her throat, she gasped grabbing and bashing him over the head with a metal cane knob.

“I may love you, but that doesn’t mean that my sister does,” she whispered in apology as she stuffed him unceremoniously into a bag she had brought with her.

He smiled down at her, remembering her words through the black haze after she had hit him. “You’re silly,” he whispered, clutching her to his chest harder. She stirred sleepily. “How so?”

“Cause you hit me over the head and then proceeded to tell me that you loved me,” he whispered, turning over and kissing her with the same passion he had felt in his foyer. She sighed as his lips went to her neck. As he torturously unbuttoned her blouse she tilted her head to whisper in his ear

“Draco Malfoy, you.... are.... a... ”, Gumi was unable to finish her sentence as his lips had clamped onto hers at that point.


Nov. 22, 12:30 am, Gryffindor Common Room

Harry and Jade were curled up together on one of the sofas, listening to each other's heartbeats and watching the fire die down slowly. They had layed there for a bit before Harry gently pushed Jade up so that he could take something, out of his pocket.

"What's that?", she asked, turning to him and seeing a vial or teal liquid in his hand.

"It's the reversal potion", he said with a cautious tone in his voice. "I thought, maybe, you would want to take it as soon as possible."

Jade looked stunned, but still she took the vial from his hands.

Nov. 22, 2:50 am, Room of Requirement

Draco held Kagumi as she slept, her naked torso pressed against his sweaty chest. He felt that it going to be a long time before sleep would claim his eyes and used the time he had to think.

I’ve…never felt something like this. I mean, I’ve had plenty of the women from Slytherin, being careful to get none of them pregnant. But I have never lost myself as completely as I did in Kagumi’s arms. Always before, I would dress quickly and take an hour-long shower as if to wash the memory off of me. But her…I don’t even want to move. I feel…content. I wonder…if this is what some of the other students meant when they said “In my lover’s arms, there is a different world.”

There is indeed a different world here. Nothing seems to bother me. I feel as though nothing can touch me, like her touch has purified me. This space seems sacred only because she’s here and I know…that I can’t live without her smile.

He looked down and sure enough, she was smiling in her sleep; her long eyelashes fluttered and then settled, laying like a lush, dark fan across her cheeks. He sighed with happiness and kissed her forehead. She snuggled into the hollow of his shoulder and whispered his name, tucking her hand up under her chin like a little girl pondering a question.

Nov. 22, 5:52 am. Room of Requirement

Malfoy’s eyes had just began to wake up when he noticed that Kagumi wasn’t there anymore. She had somehow slipped out of his arms and was now dancing to a magical music player. He saw a pair of scissors laying on the small bedside table, and he knew that she had layered her hair to where it barely graced the silver tassel hanging off of her outfit. He tiptoed out of bed and put on his pants quietly. Draco watched her move her hips enticingly and shocked her by grabbing her around the waist. She screamed and turned around with her wand drawn from apparently nowhere. He looked down at her and smiled as she slipped the headphones off and put her wand in a thin pocket on the side of her dress.

“You changed clothes,” he said with a good morning kiss.

“Yeah. I wanted some dancing clothes and then I found them over in the closet; there might be some for you too!” And thus, with that statement, she dragged him over to the walk-in closet on the wall opposite the door. And without further ado, and indeed, before he could even protest, she ripped off the pants he was wearing. She pulled a black poet’s shirt over his head, leaving him to sort out the buttons and sleeves, and handed him a pair of black leather pants. He looked at them hopelessly as he shoved his arm through the last sleeve. “No way in hell,” he said to her.

She pouted. And then grinned evilly. “Oh, alright. If you won’t put them on willingly, you’ll put them on UN-willingly. She raised her wand again and hit him with the Torso Bind, which bound his arms to his chest. Tipping him over, she sat on his ankles and patiently waited for them to go numb. When they stopped moving, she levitated him, sliding the pants on, up over his strong calves, and, flipping around, over his defined thighs. She paused for a moment at the top of his thighs with a sinister smile and lingered there for a moment before sliding the pants even further and finally fastening them.

“Well, you’ve got me in them. Big deal, Gumi. I’ll just rip them off when you unbind me,” he snickered at her supposed lack of foresight. She just tapped the pants with her wand and put a Permanent Sticking Charm on them. Unbinding him, she avoided his glare as she set up her MP3 player to play loudly.

She turned around as a salsa song came on. “You do know how to dance, don’t you?” her black and silver dress swirled around her ankles as she began stepping out a pattern for him to follow. She had a red rose in her hair and silver heels on. The next song came on and before she could even stop him, he took the music player and silenced it, putting it in his pocket. She looked at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

"Trust me, Gumi. What I’m planning to do will make up for it,” his stormy gray eyes glinted in the dawn’s light as he took her hand and led her down the hall.

Nov. 22, 6:05 am, Great Hall

Draco put the player on the High Table, which stood about two feet off the ground, owing to the fact that it sat on the stage erected for RENT. He then magically pushed the tables up against the walls, one on top of another. He manipulated the ceiling to have rain from an actual thunderstorm falling, and then put a spell on the floor to where it would soak up the water. She cast an Impervius Charm on their clothing, making them repel the water. He smiled at Kagumi when her hair began to get wet and she ran to his arms, leaping on him, wrapping her legs around his chest and kissing him deeply. He swung her around; they were both laughing.

He turned the music up and they began dancing in the rain. Since the spell casting had taken a good eight minutes, and they had kissed for around two or three, they were incredibly surprised when the doors to the Great Hall banged open and Harry and Jade were standing there.

Nov. 22, 7:15 am, Room of Requirement

Kagumi sat in the Room of Requirement. She had yelled herself hoarse at Malfoy and still hadn’t said all that she wanted to. He sat at the desk that always seemed to be in there and tried to avoid her look of disgust. “….So what? Are you going to leave?”

“Damn straight. You’d better believe that I am. You…said that you loved me. We-!” She shook her head with repulsion at the thoughts of what she had let him do to her. She stood up and slapped him again, for the seventh time that day. He stood up and yelled at her.

“Don’t hit me anymore!”

“Then stop LYING TO ME!” She raised her hand and he slapped her so hard that he knocked her to floor and sent her skidding. She stood up, gingerly touching her lip where he had busted it. Glaring at him, she drew her wand. “Don’t…mess with me, Malfoy,” her voice held a dangerous quality he had only heard that day in the Owlery. “I will…make you regret it. You never told me that I would die if I didn’t take the damned reversal. And then you hit me. If a man hits me, he only does it once.”

She turned around, ripped the rose out of her hair and stepped on it. Stalking back to Gryffindor, she met Peeves on the way. She smiled brightly as she knew that he loved torturing students. She conjured a gun out of thin air with a wave of her wand and tossed it to Peeves.

“Here Peeves. Have fun. It’s a Self-Replenishing Paint ball Gun. My own recipe for the sticky paint. I don’t care who else you get with it, since every ball is either red or gold. But you must do something for me. Draco Malfoy is in the Room of Requirement. Please go soak him in paint for me. Anyone else except for Gryffindors I don’t care if you torment them with it. But do not get a Gryffindor with it. Otherwise, I take the gun away,” she told Peeves in a malicious voice. He sprang to a salute and sped off, walking as easily through the wall to the Room as if he was popping through a chalkboard. She heard Malfoy’s screams and walked away with a smile painfully curving her busted lips.

By the time she entered the Common Room and found her sister, the blood had run down her chin and was staining the dress she was still wearing. Her sister and Harry saw it and cautiously asked what happened. It was at this point where Kagumi broke into a mad dash for Jade’s arms, crying hysterically.

Nov. 22, 8:20 am, Gryffindor Common Room

Kagumi stood there, not caring about the applause coming from her friends or the shuffling of feet above them in the various dorms. She also didn't care about the dried paint that coated his clothes and face. All that she cared about were the tears coursing down Draco’s cheeks and mingling with her own. She cared about Draco’s arms holding her so tightly and about his silky hair brushing her forehead. It seemed like she and Draco were the only ones in the room and as his lips brushed hers, she felt the safest she ever had. His lips were warm and soft, and when he drew back she could see only love for her in his gray eyes. His hand cupped her cheek, caressing her face with his thumb.

However, at that moment is when all the rest of the Gryffindors came down. Draco’s eyes widened in fear as they all surrounded them and began to move as a mob towards the portrait hole. Kagumi screamed for them to stop, but it was Harry and Ron who, by jumping upon the nearest table, managed to get them to stop moving.

“Just wait a tic!” Harry yelled.

“He’s with Gumi!” Ron shouted, trying to help. They just raised him higher and began a mutinous chant of “Down with Ferret-Boy” and “Oust the Ferret,” completely ignoring Harry and Ron. Jade shook her head and used “sonorous” to amplify her voice.

“Alright! Put the Ferret down and LISTEN!” Every head turned and Malfoy was dropped painfully onto the floor. Kagumi rushed over and helped him up onto his feet, her head against his chest and her arms around him in a protective fashion. She glared at the Gryffindors with death rays in her sparkling sapphire and silver eyes. He clung to her in fright, actually fearing harm.

Jade called for peace. “Malfoy…has apologized to my sister. And as such, though not a Gryffindor, he is to be SAFE from all harm while in this tower unless someone contacts both my sister and me first. Besides…he meant it when he said that he loved her,” her eyes twinkled in the firelight. The murmuring Gryffindors gave the couple a wide berth as they supposed amongst themselves.

Then, as quickly as they had been murderous, they caused magical confetti to fall from the eaves of the room and several hundred cheers could be heard. Draco looked stunned as he whispered to Kagumi, “Are all you Gryffindors this bipolar?” She elbowed him jokingly as he swept her around and kissed her again. She drew back in pain from the sore lip she still had. Harry, who had wandered near the couple, saw her lip. He dragged her from Malfoy’s arm over into the corner, leaving Draco to follow somewhat more slowly.

“Kagumi, what happened?”

“He…Draco…Never mind, Harry, just let me be happy. Please?” Her eyes begged him not to realize what must’ve happened. With a kind of strangled growl, he turned to Malfoy as he neared and punched him square in the face, knocking him onto the floor. No one really seemed to notice in the confusion that Malfoy had been punched and was now lying on the ground, holding his nose.

Kagumi slapped Harry’s shoulder even as he bent close to Malfoy’s ear. “I would advise you, Draco, not to hit Kagumi…ever,” he growled. Draco’s eyes closed in regret and he nodded slowly. When he opened them again, Harry’s hand was outstretched in front of his face and indeed, when helped to his feet, Harry healed his nose.

Nov. 22, 9:45 am, Gryffindor Common Room

The rest of the Gryffindors had finally gotten tired of saying “About Time!” to Kagumi and her lover and trickled off to find someone else to bother. Harry and Draco exchanged glances, but nothing hostile. Draco lay in front of the fire, holding Kagumi on his chest as the last of the Confetti Charm came fluttering down to land in her hair. Jade and Harry were talking over in a corner and Ron and Hermione were down in Hogsmeade, buying sweets. Harry had sent Dobby for Butterbeer for just his friends in the room with them now.

Draco and Kagumi were beginning to drift off to sleep when the portrait hole burst open and Minerva McGonagall swept in with a very angry look on her face. Kagumi hurriedly stashed Draco in one of the hidden cupboards built into the hearth to store wood for the House-elves and stood, straightening her dress.

“Who…gave…Peeves…the paintball gun?” the Professor asked, her nostrils flaring slightly with each whispered word. Kagumi gulped quietly and noticed that her Head of House had paint on the hem of her tartan robes and looked like she had walked through a sea of red and gold. Kagumi desperately arranged her features into an “I’m-not-the-guilty-one” look and faced McGonagall.

“Whoever would do that, Professor?” she asked in what she hoped was an innocent voice.

Jade looked at Kagumi and snickered, hopping off of the staircase she’d been sitting on.

“Cut it, Falcon. Was it you?”

Kagumi slowly nodded.

Dec. 21, 11:45am, Great Hall

“What?” Draco asked bewilderedly. “I don’t…”

Kagumi shook her head again. “It’s a sister thing. All the women in our family play The Mint Game. It’s simply something that we were raised with,” she snapped her fingers and Jade and Harry broke apart. “Of course, we were all taught how to stop it within a certain distance too…”

Jade threw the Llama Hat, which was still clutched in Harry’s hand, at her sister, who effectively threw her boyfriend into the path of the oncoming fuzziness. “That’s not fair, Gumi! Give it back!”

“What’d you do?” Ron asked, while Hermione giggled behind her hands. Kagumi smiled broadly as they all watched Draco struggle with the fuzzy Llama hat, which had apparently been enchanted to latch onto anyone it was thrown at, until he fell from their sight. “Oh, I just made their mint dissolve extra fast. It’s a trick our mum taught me,” she laughed softly as Jade searched her coat pockets for another mint.

“They’re not there, sis…” Kagumi drawled softly. Jade turned around and around to see if she had dropped them on the ground during her snogging. Everyone began laughing as the mints appeared and began dancing above Jade’s head; no one really noticed Draco writhing on the ground, being strangled slowly by the hat that Jade had mis-aimed and thrown onto his neck. Jade whipped her head from side to side as she glared at her madly laughing friends. She looked over her shoulder. “What?! Do I have a fricking sign that says ‘Curse Me’ or ‘Property of Snape’ or something on my back?!”

Doubling over, Kagumi finally noticed the now purple tinge of her lover’s face. “Draco!” She raised her wand and prodded the hat, finally causing it to withdraw hoof-shaped tendrils and resume being a hat. She helped him up and kissed his forehead as he gasped for breath, massaging his red throat. He went to sit down at the Gryffindor Table, and for the a while, everyone in the hall just looked at him. Then chatter eventually resumed, and no one really cared. Jade had finally found the mints and proceeded to bewitch them so that they constantly knocked Kagumi in the back of the head.

It had been like that for about a week now; it was as if they were waiting to see if he would stop doing it. But it hadn’t always. Many Slytherins jeered at him, even though the twins were pureblood, simply because he was sitting with “enemies”. The Gryffindors hadn’t reacted well either, as he had had bruises for a week straight. Many thought that he was still the same Draco Malfoy that they loved to hate. But anyone who looked at him now could see that it wasn’t so.

He would now greet Harry with civility and even friendship. Draco had stopped singing “Weasley is our King” and now respected Ron. Had gone so far as to send a formal Speaker (which was the same as a Howler, except it was used for good things) to Hermione to formally apologize for being such a git. He peppered Kagumi with tenderness and affection, sometimes to the annoyance of the group. And Jade….though she wasn’t thrilled about it, she was nice to him.

But the first week of him attempting to sit with his girlfriend had once erupted in a riot so big that Dumbledore himself had had to call order. Slytherins had rejected him, Gryffindors beaten the sense, Ravenclaws all shook their heads and Hufflepuffs felt sorry for him. For a long time afterwards, all four houses had rejected him; he found solace only in Kagumi's arms.

Jade interrupted the reverie by increasing the pressure with which the mints hit Kagumi. Kagumi sighed and whipped around, standing up. She drew her wand and assumed the universal dueling position. “If you wanna do this, Jadalycya, then let’s. But make sure that you do it properly,” she sneered. Jade slowly stood up, a piece of almond bread still in her mouth. Raising her wand, she accepted the challenge and the Great Hall went silent; one could hear a pin drop.

Jade broke the silence well after a minute, as she saw that Kagumi was not going to release the first spell.

“Inflatus!” she cried, hitting her sister with a Blasting Charm. Kagumi went sailing backwards fifteen feet and smiled, revealing newly grown fangs.

“You really shouldn’t toy with things you can’t handle! Expuli Expulsum!” Jade’s wand exploded in her hand. She stared down at her hand in disbelief and anger. Looking up, she growled.

“Kagumi! That’s was daddy’s old wand!” Kagumi slipped her whole wand into her belt’s carrying case. “Then you shouldn’t have challenged me,” she replied simply. The whole Great Hall was looking on in complete, stunned silence. The Headmaster rose to his feet, looking rather angry. “You two…My office after lunch,” his voice was low, but in this case, it didn’t truly matter. Everyone heard him.

Dec. 21, 12:45pm, Head's Office

The twins sat in front of the desk where Dumbledore sat, looking very conflicted. “Girls. Why would you duel in the Great Hall? Why would you deliberately attack each other? These are horribly dark times; there have been reports of Inferi armies rising from swamplands; giants demolishing towns; the Elemental Guardians are waking as we speak…Lord Voldemort has indeed risen. Why would you do this to each other with so much darkness around us?”

Kagumi smiled. “Is there something funny?” She nodded.

“Professor…her wand didn’t actually explode. If it had, you’d have seen scratches on her hands. I simply…pulled a prank on her. See?” In desperation, Kagumi pulled the whole wand from her bag. “It was just a simple Defluo Charm.”

“Simple?” the Headmaster repeatedly faintly. “Simple? Do you realize, Ms. Falcon, that even some of our seventh years couldn’t even pull that off? Wait...But the incantation you used…”

“Here’s the genius: I said one incantation…but canceled it out and ultimately overpowered it with the Defluo Charm I used.”

Jade spoke up. “Okay…what the heck is a Defluby thingy?” Her sister looked at her like she was an idiot. She of all people should remember this...I don't know how many times we've used it on our parents...

“It’s a charm I ran across in one of the Charm books from the Restricted Section of the Library," she lied. "You see, it’s a charm without an incantation of it’s own. That way, it can be inserted into another spoken spell for mixed results. If you want both, then it’s the perfect combo maker. If you only want one, then it’s easy to overpower the spoken spell. The Defluo Charm makes an item disappear and replaces the item, in this case your wand, with an illusion, i.e.: your wand exploding,” she explained straightforwardly.

“Since there has been no true harm, I cannot really punish you any more than I could have the Weasley twins or the pranksters who came before them.. I must retire for a moment…to reflect,” Dumbledore sighed.

When they had left for the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and stroked Fawkes. “They don’t realize…just how powerful they are. I wonder what their background is?”