Tainted Love

The Siren

DRACO

It had been a very short, very long September. Time was funny. The days ran quick but the weeks ran slow. The weather ran cold and rainy, and the leaves fell from the trees - even the leaves in the forest outside the Love Chamber.

It was the last day of September now, a Friday.

He had been looking towards this day for a while now. Next week Pansy would be back from France. October would start and things would get colder and everything would go back to normal. That's what he had been telling himself the entire time she was gone.

But he wasn't sure whether things could be normal anymore.

His feelings for Pansy had never been simple, but lately they were more complicated. She hadn't written to him the entire time she was in Paris, despite her promises to do so. She said she would come to his the moment she got back, but he didn't think she would.

All he had of her anymore was the letter she had written him, the words always yours written in her loopy cursive. It felt less like a promise and more like a souvenir of a life he used to have. It was in his drawer, the second one down where he kept all her letters. He didn't have to look at it to be able to picture it exactly.

And there was Iris, too.

There had never been something like that before.

Iris had left the Love Chamber half an hour ago. Early. She hadn't said anything about it but Draco supposed he couldn't say anything about it either because he had left early before. They hadn't really spoken that much since Monday, when he had taken her back to his.

That had been strange. He wasn't sure he meant to do that. Her body had felt so small under his, but she moved with confidence. Her arms were strong even when her legs were shaking.

She was fragile but strong. She was a vase that would break into a million pieces if you knocked her off the table. You would never be able to clean up all the glass - every time you walked by that spot on the floor she would dig into your feet and hurt you right back.

He added three drops of Pearl Extract to the potion he was working on, then cast a Sealing Charm. The clock would chime soon and he wanted to leave as soon as it did. Outside the window, all the leaves were colored now - yellow and orange. He reminded himself that he hated her.

The clock rang. He pushed the doors open and stood in the entrance hall for a second before pushing out into the Department's Atrium.

It was her voice that he caught first. He usually recognized voices before faces. Iris was at the end of the atrium, walking towards him with Tracey, Theodore, and Sebastian in tow.

They were obviously going out. Tracey was wearing some horrendous purple sparkly thing. Iris was wearing black. She regarded him as she walked, her voice trailing off. She had only been part of their little group since the summer, but to an outsider she would look like their leader. She outshone them all, all their colors, in plain black.

Draco glanced up towards the rest of them. Tracey wasn't exactly grinning, but she was biting her lip to keep from doing so. Sebastian broke eye contact as soon as Draco made it. He looked towards Tracey, who could apparently no longer hold in her laughter.

It was Theodore's face that told him, though. He raised his eyebrows, as if Draco standing near him was some sort of challenge that he was determined to step to. He shifted his body a little bit. Moving closer to Iris.

So they knew, then. Iris's friends knew about him.

He hadn't wanted this to happen. He should be annoyed right now. Instead, he felt a strange sense of power. No matter how much the rest of them hated him, he would always have a grip on Iris. There was nothing they could do about it.