“Stop *staring* at me!” Ginny finally yelled
into the Common Room a few days later. “Why don’t you all just sod off and mind
your own damn business? Yes, friends with Slytherins. Get *over* it and grow
up! Known but not proven Lucius Malfoy slipped me Tom’s diary in the first
place. We’re not even really friends, we just have a mutual respect.” She packed
up her study materials and stormed off to the Library in a huff. “Dammit, no
wonder I’m becoming paranoid.” A hand on her shoulder and she jumped into the
air with a startled scream. Snickers, and she turned around and slapped
Mordred’s hand. He just raised an eyebrow at her, pale blue eyes dancing with
amused malice.
“Jumpy today.”
“Everyone keeps staring, and whispering! Like
all of a sudden I’m going to throw an Exorcist and have my head spin around
one-eighty and spew green ectoplasm. Azrael, stop growling. We *like* the
Slytherins. They don’t treat us like freaks.” Azrael settled down and started
to wash himself crossly, bloodlust denied for the moment. Ginny spared him a
fond glance, before looking at Mordred again.
“Join the club.” Mordred gestured down at himself. “Me and Vort draw stares wherever we go. I dress grunge punk muggle goth. Ripped and dusty, hair shaggy and wild, my eyebrow’s pierced, I have five silver studs in one ear and three in the other, scuffed black Docs on my feet. He dresses like an eighteenth century wizard of the noble classes, refined and elegant, hair drawn back neatly and tied with a black silk ribbon. We are the contrast personified.”
“And you two pull it off so well. Why does
Draco call you wolf?” Ginny asked him something that had been puzzling her.
Mordred pulled a black leather thong out of
the neck of his robes. Dangling from it were several curved dagger-like teeth.
“I hunt them. One tooth for every one I’ve killed. Not by magic either. It’s
just me, the wolf, a spear and the forest.” He traced the edge of one tooth
with the ball of his thumb. “And the fact that he thinks I look like one.”
“Makes sense. There is a definite wolf look
about you.” Mordred shook himself out of his reverie at her voice, and looked
at her, fingers still idly caressing the fangs.
“You look like a kitten on the outside, kinda
like the one that follows you around like your bleeding shadow.” Azrael hissed
at Mordred’s flippant tone. “But like him, you are not one to be crossed
lightly. I can’t wait to see you blow up in the Gryffindors faces.”
“May not be that long before I do, the way
they keep acting.”
“Make sure you do it in a public place, swear
a blue streak and let Azrael loose on Harry again. That would be bloody
wonderful.”
“Will do.” Ginny waved at him and set off for
the Library again, Azrael complaining behind her. She heard Mordred laugh again
and his footsteps head away from her.