Shadow Claw: The Life Story - The Fifth Chapter

Ch. 18 - Nervous Dispositions

Jenny's POV

Hermione and Ron were angry at each other again, Shadow had been disturbingly quiet for the last few days, Draco still hadn't talked to me and was disappearing constantly, Harry had stopped talking to me completely in fear I was sending information to Death Eaters, the whole of Slytherin had rejected me, my teachers thought I was slacking and-... and I didn't care. At least, I thought I didn't care.

Anyway, I was tailing Draco just so I could find out what his strange behaviour had been leading towards, just so I could prove to Harry that I wasn't a Death Eater. Plus, the satisfaction of knowing something that he didn't was almost overwhelming. I snapped at some first-years that were hurrying around the corridor to try and get to the Quidditch match, and they rushed away with frightened squeaks. Ugh! First-years were the worst!

A smirk overtook my features as I turned three corners, realising that Draco was disappearing into the Room of Requirements every time he could. I slipped into the door that quickly shrunk behind me, but Draco noticed me with a half-surprised, half-pained expression.

However, he kept on walking. My heart cracked, and I thought it might shatter.

"Draco Malfoy!" My voice came out much higher than I had meant it to.

He stopped walking, but did not turn.

"Since the start of this year, I have been dumped by the boy I really like, my own brother has stopped trusting me because he thinks I'm feeding information to the Dark Lord, my house has been calling me a traitor, my best friend has children now, Nova thinks I'm a Death Eater, my teachers think I'm slacking, I've had more detentions in one week than I have in my whole time at Hogwarts, and you don't even have the common decency to talk to me!" I was breathing rapidly, a deep pressure lifted off my chest.

"I loved you." Though it came out like a whisper, it cracked with emotion. "I s-still do." I took a calming inhalation: "And do me a favour, lose that little slut Pansy."

His shoulders relaxed, and I knew he heard me.

Draco turned slightly, and stepped right up to my front. I could taste his minty breath, his citrus scent, but before I could even say anything else, his lips were upon mine with the swiftness of a circling hawk; he had been waiting for this, I felt it, and I didn't doubt he felt my desperation, my need, my greed for him.

The kiss was rough and scalding, but there was nothing between our touches that would hurt either of us, because we were at the point of breaking. We did leave bruises upon each other's lips and he left marks upon my neck that I knew I would gave to cover later. I felt a rush of denial, and then acceptance, and then a deep regret about everything that had happened - but it filled me with defiance, and it felt good. Oh, it felt like Nirvana.

We pulled from each other's embrace, untangling hands from hair and legs from hips.

He took my hand, silently pulling me towards a certain area of the Room of Requirements. "What have you been doing, Draco?" I questioned, pressing my cheek to his homey chest and glancing at the large, triangular contraption he was gesturing to. His hands slipped around my waist as he held me tightly against him, a ghostly kiss pressed to my forehead. "I'm on a special mission, Jenny. I cannot tell you anymore than that, but I can promise you that nobody will get hurt, alright?" He tipped my chin up with a soft caress and I nodded, smiling very faintly. "Promise?" I whispered breathily, wanting to be sure.

He nodded, placing a kiss to the edge of my lips, "I promise."

He let out a cry suddenly and struggled blindly to get his robe sleeve up. I hushed him with soothing words and a gentle spell to give him comfort. I rolled up the robe and bit my lip at the pulsating Dark Mark on his forearm. "Oh, Draco." I kissed it, and then his pain stopped. We gazed at it with slight confusion for a moment before I felt an itch in my skin of my left forearm.

"What the-?" There, on my arm, was a forming Dark Mark.

However, it was white, almost silvery.

The pain returned somewhat and my breath hitched. "A shared pain." I uttered, and he frowned, asking as to what I meant. "I feel half of your pain, Draco. It's no longer your burden to bear alone. Nobody must know, though. Not even Shadow or James, even Snape." We agreed on that, there and then.

No soul was to know - our relationship and our Marks were to be concealed at all costs.

One Day Later

Shadow's POV

I had been invited to Slughorn's party, and whilst I had avoided Shade for days now, I could no longer keep it up. I had grudgingly accepted that it was he must who go to the party with me.

Shade knew something was wrong.

Something was wrong.

Slughorn's office had been magically expanded, and so it appeared much larger than it usually was. The ceiling and walls were draped with colours ranging from emerald, scarlet and gold, giving the impression of a tent at Christmas. I supposed it was near to that time, anyway. The room was crammed with people, bathed in crimson light from an ornate lamp dangling from the centre, in which fairies were fluttering and glowing like fireflies. From a corner, faint singing and mandolin tunes emitted rather calmly; a mist of pipe smoke hung over several, talkative, elderly warlocks. House elves littered the place, all sort of hidden by the silver platters they carried above their heads, maneuvering their way through the sea of knees.

Shade stood beside me, a frown on his face as I looked everywhere but him. "I-I see Hermione, be r-right b-b-back." I spluttered out randomly, rushing after the speeding figure of my library-friend. We half-crouched in an empty corner of the party, looking awkwardly at one another - we both had boy troubles, I guessed. We were both in casual dresses, though mine was significantly blacker than her periwinkle one.

Shade was making his way towards me now and I gulped, leaving Harry to join Hermione instead. I forced my way into a throng of people - Slughorn, a vampire with a very hungry look in his eyes, and a man I did not know. "Ah, Shadow Claw, this is Eldred Worple and his friend Sanguini. Life Among Vampires, I believe you've read it?" He beamed at me rather brightly - I think he'd drunk too much. I nodded along, and admitted I had read the book, and it had been rather good. "Of course, yes, it was rather marvelous. I've read it a couple of times now." A little bit of exaggeration couldn't hurt.

I kept up the conversation as Slughorn headed over to Harry, Luna and Professor Trelawny; she was complaining about Firenze, the centaur she was sharing her classes with. I ended the talk with Worple as Shade tugged me rather harshly to a quieter space. "What is your problem, Shadow?" He hissed. I began stumbling over my words and I couldn't find any all of a sudden. I willed myself not to cry.

"I-I-I- Salem- he- it wasn't my- kiss- and I didn't-... he kissed me Shade. And- and... I liked it." My lips were trembling and I was blubbering about how sorry I was.

He looked betrayed - he looked beyond that; he looked absolutely shattered. "Did you- were there- tongues?" He gritted out. I hung my head and nodded once. "Touching?" I nodded again. "Bites?" I didn't respond at all. "Shadow." He half-snarled. I nodded with a hiccup; I clapped a hand over my mouth, still not looking at him.

He forced my gaze into his eyes, which made tears pool around my eyelashes. "When you get yourself straightened out, when you get your secret love life out of the way, then I might want you back." He was furious. He was livid. He had every right to be. I had gone behind his back, and though I had not initiated the kiss, I had still enjoyed it and that enough was to force us apart from one another.

There was a ruckus shortly after Shade left.

Filch entered the room with two Slytherin's by the ears. One of them was Draco, the other- well... I stepped forward, "Jenny?"