Hogwarts Harem

Chasing Shadows

Salvatore wanted nothing more than to go back to his four poster bed in Slytherin House and sleep. He made to rub his eyes and forced himself not to at the last second: a move like that would reveal his tiredness, and he was taught to never show outward signs of weakness. His whole body was weighted with exhaustion from lack of sleep, his troubles keeping him awake well into the night. He had half a mind to knick a sleeping draught from the Potion room's stores, because he wasn't sure how much longer he could go on like this. 

Between his family troubles and her, he spent his nights fully awake and it was catching up to him. Victoire walked into the classroom, looking as tempting as original sin to him. She looked like a fucking angel - always had. But the pieces of blue hair she'd dyed this year added a certain mystique to her that he found hard to resist; like the faintest clue that there was a side to her he wouldn't have guessed at. And he was slowly becoming obsessed with figuring out the girl that sat beside him.

He stared at her openly without a hint of shame. Maybe if he stared at her long enough he'd be able to glean something new about her. Like the stupidly fucking adorable way her nostrils flared as she threw him a pissed off look for staring at her for half the Potion's lecture. He wanted to flash her his most arrogant smirk, but he couldn't quite muster it remembering the way she sat chatting with Kit Stone.

She couldn't seriously have anything with Kit, could she? Salvatore knew he'd acted like a dick, and that was intentional. He was bad news, and if she was as smart as her prefect badge indicated, she'd have gotten the message clearly enough when he threatened her in the corridor and would steer clear of him from now on. But he was a masochist, and as long as he was lucky enough to be forced to be partnered with her in Potions, he'd take the opportunity to torture himself a bit by playing with fire he knew he shouldn't stoke.

Her whole family were  Aurors and bloodtraitors - the two natural enemies of his own family. Not that he gave a fuck about his own family: fucks to give were a two-way street as far as he was concerned, and his own didn't seem to care about him beyond using him for their own nefarious devices. Whatever - he was getting his own little revenge on them. But him and Victoire could still never work; she should really hate him by default. 

She has balls, though. I'll give her that, he thought as her narrowed eyes met his and refused to look away, a silent challenge. He had meant to scare her away, but the fierceness in her gaze said she was anything but afraid of him. Why did he have to enjoy that so much?

Victoire glared at Salvatore, wondering what he wanted from her. She was getting whiplash from his hot and cold act and never knew whether he'd ignore her or set her alight with his sexual energy, as palpable as the flames beneath the siphon heating their cauldron. Before she could think of something to snap at him, he broke their silent challenge between them for her.

"Why was Kit Stone speaking with you?"

The question caught her by surprise so much that she forgot to stare meanly at him for a moment, her blue eyes widening. It made no sense for him to be jealous; he all but told her to fuck off multiple times. But if he was jealous of the sight of her and Kit talking, what would he do if he ever saw them kissing? 

"Why do you care?"

"I don't."

"Then why ask?"

"Morbid curiosity."

She threw him a sidelong look before answering, stirring their brewing cauldron. "We talk sometimes."

"Is that all?" He tightened his fist at the thought of that stupid Gryffindor's paws all over his girl. Fuck, no - not his girl. His Potions partner - yeah. Perfectly normal to feel possessive over one's Potions classmate.

"Are you trying to ask whether I'm on a 'getting randomly pinned down in the corridor basis' with him? Because I have a feeling you don't measure these things like a normal person."

He smirked at the memory of having her pinned against the wall. He wanted to pin her down beneath him in bed next time, making her scream his name as he dominated that willful look of hers into submission. He wanted her to fall apart for him while he was inside her. The thought almost gave him a hard on before he remembered they were in the middle of discussing one of the people he hated most in the world's interest in her.

"Stay out of my business, and I'll stay out of yours," she replied as if she didn't give a fuck. She was withholding information from him now and it would drive him even crazy like she couldn't imagine. Even if he acted like he didn't care, he cared so much it was eating into his sleep, haunting him every moment he thought of her. 

She noticed the shadows darkening his under eyes, clearly a sign of lack of sleep. She steeled herself against feeling any concern, remembering that his previous suspicious behavior made him suspect in the recent muggleborn attacks. And she wouldn't let herself continue desiring him like this until she could clear him from any suspicion without a shadow of doubt.

She needed proof - and she hoped whatever she found would prove his innocence rather than his guilt.

***

"Hey, cuz," Victoire smiled, ruffling James Potter's hair during lunch.

"Hey, Vic! Need a stink pellet? Only 5 sickles for a pack of 10!"

Victoire snorted. "No thanks. Uncle George must be proud of you, though - hustling wares at a ludicrously high price."

"Shh! The first years think that's a bargain," James hissed, making Victoire chuckle indulgently.

"I'll tell you what, though - I'll give you five sickles to borrow that cloak of your father's for the week."

James raised a brow, evidently curious as to what his cousin, the golden child prefect, would need a cloak of invisibility for. "Renting my father's cloak? I don't know...For the whole week, how about ten sickles?"

"Deal." Victoire dumped ten sickles into her pocket, and her cousin's eyes lit up in victory. 

'I'll bring it to you tonight at dinner. Pleasure doing business with you, cuz."

Victoire winked at him before getting ready for her next class. Tonight, she'd begin spying on Salvatore Rookwood to learn where he went off to as he lurked around the castle. 

And if he caught her poking her nose in his business again, she hoped he'd at least make good on his promise to punish her for it.

***

Victoire cast the silencing spell around her from under the cloak as she lingered in the dungeons near the common room. She had no clue about Salvatore's daily routines, but figured if lurked outside the common room she may get lucky enough to catch him coming or going.

It was 9 PM and curfew was just starting for students. She waited outside the common room for an entire hour without any sign of him and was just about ready to give up when the door swung open and out came Salvatore.

He looked around the halls, holding some sort of dark detector in his hand as he crept silently along the corridor. Victoire's heart was thundering in her chest as she followed him up the stairs onto the third floor. They passed the hallway where he'd intercepted her and he paused briefly, staring at the precise spot that he'd been pressed up against her two weeks earlier before he continued walking. 

When they reached the statue of the one-eyed witch, he pulled out his wand and muttered some spell that caused the statue to open. He gave a quick glance around him before stepping through the statue and closing it up behind him.

She vaguely remembered her Uncle George talking about the hidden passageways throughout the castle that led into Hogsmeade, and her stomach twisted knowing that Hogsmeade was the site of the recent attacks. Victoire wasn't prepared to follow him into town and found that she really didn't want to anymore - maybe she didn't really want to know the truth. She reminded herself that this wasn't conclusive evidence of Salvatore's involvement in the attacks...right?

It was a little harder for her to stand by her assertion that Salvatore Rookwood was innocent when she read the headline of the next morning's Daily Prophet:

Third Muggleborn Attack in Hogsmeade in Two Months: Are Death Eaters on the Rise Again?