See Chapter One for the disclaimer
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Marcus woke during the night, enjoying the sensation of Katie tucked into his side. He carefully extracted his arm from underneath her and winced slightly as blood flow was suddenly restored. Marcus smoothed her hair back from her face and brushed the pad of his thumb across her mouth. He couldn’t believe how happy she made him. Sure, he had countless physical relationships before but he had never felt inclination to be with the ‘girl of the week’ outside the bedroom. With Katie it was different; he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Not just the sex, but the pleasure he got just in being in her company. She was as Quidditch mad as he was and they could debate for hours on the various merits of the sport, what the Ministry was up to, or his plans for the club. However, they had studiously avoided the subject of a future past the World Cup. Marcus knew he didn’t want to let her out of his life but he wasn’t sure what Katie wanted out of this. He knew that she had yet to tell her friends about them and that omission bothered him more than he would care to admit.
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Ginny tucked the reduced books into her pockets with a smile as she exited Flourish and Botts. She had ordered in an antique potions text as a thank you gift for Severus Snape. She had been flooing into Hogwarts multiple times a week working with the Potions Professor on the new expansion to the Snake Pit. She was pitching the idea to Draco and Marcus later tonight but whatever the decision she owed him her thanks. The smile dropped off her face when she came face to face with her brother.
“Ron,” she said coldly
“Ginny.”
“If you’ll excuse me…” Ginny tried to move past Ron. She was still slightly raw from their last encounter and the last thing she wanted was a repeat in the middle of Diagon Alley.
“Are you leaving? Just like that?” Ron asked surprised.
“Yes Ron, as you can see, if you release my arm, I am indeed leaving.”
“What the hell is up with you?”
“Look, you made your opinion of me fairly clear the last time we met. Forgive me if I don’t want a repeat of that conversation here. Don’t get me wrong a little notoriety won’t hurt my business, but it isn’t going to please Dad if the Prophet’s headline tomorrow is ‘Minister’s children in public row.’”
Ron suddenly looked awkward. “Ginny, I’m just trying to protect you,” he began.
“Forget it, Ron. I have,” she lied. “Now let me past.”
Ron let go of her arm and watched Ginny hurry down the street a slightly hurt expression on his face.
Ginny nearly barrelled over Katie exiting Quality Quidditch Supplies. “I’m so sorry Katie,” she apologised. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Not a problem Ginny,” Katie laughed. “I wasn’t watching where I was going either.” Katie took a closer look at the tightness around Ginny’s eyes. “Are you okay? You look a little upset.”
“I’ve been better,” Ginny admitted. “I was about to go home and bury my sorrows in a triple chocolate sundae. Want to come with me and stop me from having second helpings?”
Katie laughed, “As long as you promise to do the same for me.”
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Marcus and Draco entered Worthington Jewels at the upper end of Diagon Alley. Draco had retrieved the ancestral Malfoy ring from the family vault earlier that morning and was taking it to the Master Jewellers to be reset. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the heavy ring from the velvet carry pouch.
“Wow Draco, that ring is really...”
“Hideous?” Draco asked.
“Well I was going to say ostentatious,” Marcus laughed “but hideous works just as well.”
Draco looked distastefully at the heavy emerald and diamond ring. “It is the height of bad taste. You need a lightening charm just to lift your hand when you have it on.”
“What are you planning to do with it?”
“While my first inclination was to hock it and use the proceeds to clear some small Pacific nation’s foreign debt,” Draco mused, “but I have found myself plagued with familial guilt. It is the traditional engagement ring so Worthington is going to have a look at it and see what he can do with the monstrosity. His great great grandfather or something created the original. However, I don’t think we should hold that against him”
Augustus Worthington escorted Draco and Marcus into the private consulting room at the back of the shop.
“Mr Malfoy, Mr Flint, how can I be of assistance to you today?” the elderly jeweller began.
Draco handed over the ring.
“Ah yes. I remember this one. Designed to your ancestor’s specification if I remember rightly.”
Marcus covered his smile with his hand. “Definitely can’t hold the design against them,” he said quietly.
Draco waved his hand irritably in Marcus’s direction. “Mr Worthington, I was hoping you could reset the stones into something more classical. Perhaps using the remaining stones in a set of earrings.”
“Or a tiara. There’ll be enough left over of them,” Marcus baited.
Draco scowled at him irritably. “You are supposed to be helping.”
The old man picked up his quill and began to sketch. “Perhaps if we use this emerald as the centre and flank it with these baguette diamonds.” He touched his wand to the sketch and the ring rose up in a three dimensional image.
“Hmm that’s much more like it. Can you change the gold to platinum?”
A quick incantation later and the design was finished.
Marcus started laughing, “That is the most Slytherinish ring I have ever seen.”
“Exactly. It’ll suit her perfectly” Draco enthused. “I’ll leave the ring with you Mr Worthington and I’ll pick it up, say early next week?”
“That will be fine Mr Malfoy. Do you wish me to draw up designs for the remaining stones?”
“Disregard Marcus’s comments about a tiara, but see what else you can come up with. I’ll review them when I pick up the ring,” Draco instructed.
“Certainly, Mr Malfoy.”
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Katie giggled as Ginny cleared away the remains on their chocolate-fest. It had been a bit of a shock to realise that the littlest Weasley was all grown up now. Katie had always enjoyed talking with her during her frequent visits to the Burrow while they were both in school, but it was refreshing to talk to her as an adult and not as the twins’ prodigal younger sister. It was obvious that Ginny was devoted to Draco and very fond of Marcus. Photos of the three of them were scattered around the kitchen. The black and white figure of Draco kept nuzzling Ginny’s neck while she laughed. In the photo, Marcus alternated between mocking them and waving at Katie whenever she caught his eye.
“Now that I am feeling better,” Ginny declared, “I can get on with the business at hand.”
“And what business is that Miss Weasley?”
“Why the business of what you and Marcus have been up to.”
Katie blushed bright red at Ginny’s knowing grin.
“What, you think we wouldn’t notice his frequent absences and silly grin?” Ginny teased. “Draco and I have hardly seen him at all and when we do it is ‘Katie this’ and ‘Katie that.’”
“Stop that,” Katie giggled “you’re exaggerating.”
“Not by much. Seriously though, Marcus hasn’t been particularly forthcoming so I am relying on you to give me all the juicy details.”
Katie looked up at Ginny and her face was full of wonder. “I haven’t ever felt this way. I thought I had been in love once before but it was nothing,” she emphasised, “like what I feel now.” It was such a relief to admit her feelings to someone who knew both of them and could understand the potential for disaster in the relationship.
“Have you told Oliver about the two of you?”
Katie dropped her eyes. “No,” she admitted. “Everything feels so new and wonderful that I wanted to keep it too myself for a while longer.”
Ginny was suddenly serious, her joking tone completely gone. “Of course you do. But here’s some free advice. You will have to deal with the issue of your family at some time and things will go a lot worse if they hear it second hand.”
Katie raised her eyes back to Ginny. “Is that what happened to you?”
“Harry and Hermione saw us together and decided to protect me from Draco. They spoke to Ron and then, well let’s say everything fell apart at that point.”
Katie winced slightly in sympathy. “I remember how the two of them were in school. I can’t see how he would have been happy at the news.”
“He was furious. He was convinced that Draco must have had me under the Imperious or been blackmailing me into being with him. He couldn’t understand that this was something I wanted. He actually forbade me to see him and when that didn’t work he contacted Mum and Dad.” Ginny’s face was set as she remembered that particular scene.
“Don’t take this the wrong way Ginny, but I would have been equally suspicious. I can’t imagine how the two of you ever got together. Malfoys and Weasleys have never willing remained in the same room as each other and suddenly the two of you were in love?”
“Partly love, partly raging teenage lust,” Ginny admitted. “I think the whole family issue made it that much more exciting. But in amongst the frantic snogging we talked. I got to learn something about the man he was growing into and I liked what I saw.”
“What changed? When I left England Draco was a poster boy for the next generation of Death Eaters. The next thing I hear, he is being commended by Dumbledore for services to the Light.”
“It was a combination of things. Courtesy of my first year I had access to information about Tom Riddle that his followers liked to gloss over. It was enough to make him start thinking at least, and not just blindly parrot Lucius’s propaganda. What finally sealed it for him was learning that Snape was a double agent. He trusted his godfather more than his father to do what was right.”
“What happened then?” Katie was fascinated by Ginny’s story. Fred and George had never mentioned any of this to her.
“Professor Snape’s role was compromised and he was confined to Hogwarts for his safety. Draco was able to feed information back to Dumbledore and the Order in his place.”
“Did he…?” Katie began delicately.
“Take the mark? No. His initiation was scheduled for his eighteenth birthday. Harry finally got his act together and killed Riddle before that happened. I stupidly thought that would make things better with my family but I underestimated how much they hated the Malfoy name. We battled throughout my seventh year and finally on my eighteenth birthday I moved in here. Not quite the birthday party my family had planned.”
“Is that when the three of you got the tattoos?” Katie asked.
“Ah you’ve seen his then.” Ginny grinned at Katie’s sudden blush. “It was a mixture of a desire to demonstrate our solidarity to the life we had chosen, and a visible symbol of my independence. Needless to say mine is considerably smaller and less visible than either Draco’s or Marcus’s.”
“Do you mind if I ask what you got?”
“Not at all, Draco has a snake encircling his right bicep and I have a snake wrapped around a heart at the base of my spine. My kind of visible statement – no one has to see it unless I want them to.”
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Marcus let himself into Katie’s flat dumping his coat over the back of the couch. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bracelet he had purchased earlier while he was with Draco at Worthingtons. They had just been about to leave when a display of charm bracelets had caught his eye. The delicate chain had a selection solid gold Quaffles, Bludgers, Snitches and broomsticks charms that jingled quietly as they moved.
“Katie?” he called.
“In here,” she replied from the bedroom.
Marcus grinned and quickened his pace as he headed towards her voice.
Wrapping her arms around him as soon as he entered the bedroom, Katie inhaled the scent of his neck. “I missed you,” she breathed, as she began to unbutton his shirt.
Marcus felt his breath hitch as her hands dipped into his pants to caress the skin just above the top of his boxers. He stopped breathing completely when her hand slipped under the elastic to cup him.
“Did you miss me too?” Katie teased as she began to kiss her way down his chest.
“Mmhmm,” Marcus started to answer her but all rational thought left his head as Katie’s mouth replaced her hand.
Katie removed her mouth slowly and looked up at him grinning in triumph. She adored reducing the normally articulate and self controlled Marcus to putty. “Because if you did, miss me that is, I think you should prove how much.”
Marcus growled at her before yanking her up and over his shoulder, ignoring Katie’s hysterical giggles to dump her unceremoniously on the bed. Following her down, he nipped at her throat. “I’ll give you proof,” he promised.
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Katie stretched languorously before easing herself out of bed ignoring the slight soreness between her legs. Marcus muttered something before grabbing onto her pillow and going back to sleep. Katie gave herself a moment just to watch him sleep, blushing slightly as she remembered how conclusive his “proof” had been. He had erupted into her nice ordered life and turned everything upside down, and Katie loved it. After their first time together she had confessed that she had never thought herself as overtly sexual. Etienne had been a very selfish lover and based on that limited experience she had had no idea that she could enjoy sex as much as she was. Marcus had taken her admission as a kind of personal challenge and these last weeks he had delighted in showing her exactly what her body was capable of.
Katie grabbed Marcus’s shirt and slipped it on before going into the kitchen to make herself some tea. A pop from the living area announced that someone had just Apparated into her home. Grabbing her wand just in case, Katie moved to see who was visiting her so early in the morning.
“Oliver?” she asked, slightly panicked. “What are you doing here?”
End Chapter Five
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Marcus woke during the night, enjoying the sensation of Katie tucked into his side. He carefully extracted his arm from underneath her and winced slightly as blood flow was suddenly restored. Marcus smoothed her hair back from her face and brushed the pad of his thumb across her mouth. He couldn’t believe how happy she made him. Sure, he had countless physical relationships before but he had never felt inclination to be with the ‘girl of the week’ outside the bedroom. With Katie it was different; he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Not just the sex, but the pleasure he got just in being in her company. She was as Quidditch mad as he was and they could debate for hours on the various merits of the sport, what the Ministry was up to, or his plans for the club. However, they had studiously avoided the subject of a future past the World Cup. Marcus knew he didn’t want to let her out of his life but he wasn’t sure what Katie wanted out of this. He knew that she had yet to tell her friends about them and that omission bothered him more than he would care to admit.
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Ginny tucked the reduced books into her pockets with a smile as she exited Flourish and Botts. She had ordered in an antique potions text as a thank you gift for Severus Snape. She had been flooing into Hogwarts multiple times a week working with the Potions Professor on the new expansion to the Snake Pit. She was pitching the idea to Draco and Marcus later tonight but whatever the decision she owed him her thanks. The smile dropped off her face when she came face to face with her brother.
“Ron,” she said coldly
“Ginny.”
“If you’ll excuse me…” Ginny tried to move past Ron. She was still slightly raw from their last encounter and the last thing she wanted was a repeat in the middle of Diagon Alley.
“Are you leaving? Just like that?” Ron asked surprised.
“Yes Ron, as you can see, if you release my arm, I am indeed leaving.”
“What the hell is up with you?”
“Look, you made your opinion of me fairly clear the last time we met. Forgive me if I don’t want a repeat of that conversation here. Don’t get me wrong a little notoriety won’t hurt my business, but it isn’t going to please Dad if the Prophet’s headline tomorrow is ‘Minister’s children in public row.’”
Ron suddenly looked awkward. “Ginny, I’m just trying to protect you,” he began.
“Forget it, Ron. I have,” she lied. “Now let me past.”
Ron let go of her arm and watched Ginny hurry down the street a slightly hurt expression on his face.
Ginny nearly barrelled over Katie exiting Quality Quidditch Supplies. “I’m so sorry Katie,” she apologised. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Not a problem Ginny,” Katie laughed. “I wasn’t watching where I was going either.” Katie took a closer look at the tightness around Ginny’s eyes. “Are you okay? You look a little upset.”
“I’ve been better,” Ginny admitted. “I was about to go home and bury my sorrows in a triple chocolate sundae. Want to come with me and stop me from having second helpings?”
Katie laughed, “As long as you promise to do the same for me.”
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Marcus and Draco entered Worthington Jewels at the upper end of Diagon Alley. Draco had retrieved the ancestral Malfoy ring from the family vault earlier that morning and was taking it to the Master Jewellers to be reset. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the heavy ring from the velvet carry pouch.
“Wow Draco, that ring is really...”
“Hideous?” Draco asked.
“Well I was going to say ostentatious,” Marcus laughed “but hideous works just as well.”
Draco looked distastefully at the heavy emerald and diamond ring. “It is the height of bad taste. You need a lightening charm just to lift your hand when you have it on.”
“What are you planning to do with it?”
“While my first inclination was to hock it and use the proceeds to clear some small Pacific nation’s foreign debt,” Draco mused, “but I have found myself plagued with familial guilt. It is the traditional engagement ring so Worthington is going to have a look at it and see what he can do with the monstrosity. His great great grandfather or something created the original. However, I don’t think we should hold that against him”
Augustus Worthington escorted Draco and Marcus into the private consulting room at the back of the shop.
“Mr Malfoy, Mr Flint, how can I be of assistance to you today?” the elderly jeweller began.
Draco handed over the ring.
“Ah yes. I remember this one. Designed to your ancestor’s specification if I remember rightly.”
Marcus covered his smile with his hand. “Definitely can’t hold the design against them,” he said quietly.
Draco waved his hand irritably in Marcus’s direction. “Mr Worthington, I was hoping you could reset the stones into something more classical. Perhaps using the remaining stones in a set of earrings.”
“Or a tiara. There’ll be enough left over of them,” Marcus baited.
Draco scowled at him irritably. “You are supposed to be helping.”
The old man picked up his quill and began to sketch. “Perhaps if we use this emerald as the centre and flank it with these baguette diamonds.” He touched his wand to the sketch and the ring rose up in a three dimensional image.
“Hmm that’s much more like it. Can you change the gold to platinum?”
A quick incantation later and the design was finished.
Marcus started laughing, “That is the most Slytherinish ring I have ever seen.”
“Exactly. It’ll suit her perfectly” Draco enthused. “I’ll leave the ring with you Mr Worthington and I’ll pick it up, say early next week?”
“That will be fine Mr Malfoy. Do you wish me to draw up designs for the remaining stones?”
“Disregard Marcus’s comments about a tiara, but see what else you can come up with. I’ll review them when I pick up the ring,” Draco instructed.
“Certainly, Mr Malfoy.”
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Katie giggled as Ginny cleared away the remains on their chocolate-fest. It had been a bit of a shock to realise that the littlest Weasley was all grown up now. Katie had always enjoyed talking with her during her frequent visits to the Burrow while they were both in school, but it was refreshing to talk to her as an adult and not as the twins’ prodigal younger sister. It was obvious that Ginny was devoted to Draco and very fond of Marcus. Photos of the three of them were scattered around the kitchen. The black and white figure of Draco kept nuzzling Ginny’s neck while she laughed. In the photo, Marcus alternated between mocking them and waving at Katie whenever she caught his eye.
“Now that I am feeling better,” Ginny declared, “I can get on with the business at hand.”
“And what business is that Miss Weasley?”
“Why the business of what you and Marcus have been up to.”
Katie blushed bright red at Ginny’s knowing grin.
“What, you think we wouldn’t notice his frequent absences and silly grin?” Ginny teased. “Draco and I have hardly seen him at all and when we do it is ‘Katie this’ and ‘Katie that.’”
“Stop that,” Katie giggled “you’re exaggerating.”
“Not by much. Seriously though, Marcus hasn’t been particularly forthcoming so I am relying on you to give me all the juicy details.”
Katie looked up at Ginny and her face was full of wonder. “I haven’t ever felt this way. I thought I had been in love once before but it was nothing,” she emphasised, “like what I feel now.” It was such a relief to admit her feelings to someone who knew both of them and could understand the potential for disaster in the relationship.
“Have you told Oliver about the two of you?”
Katie dropped her eyes. “No,” she admitted. “Everything feels so new and wonderful that I wanted to keep it too myself for a while longer.”
Ginny was suddenly serious, her joking tone completely gone. “Of course you do. But here’s some free advice. You will have to deal with the issue of your family at some time and things will go a lot worse if they hear it second hand.”
Katie raised her eyes back to Ginny. “Is that what happened to you?”
“Harry and Hermione saw us together and decided to protect me from Draco. They spoke to Ron and then, well let’s say everything fell apart at that point.”
Katie winced slightly in sympathy. “I remember how the two of them were in school. I can’t see how he would have been happy at the news.”
“He was furious. He was convinced that Draco must have had me under the Imperious or been blackmailing me into being with him. He couldn’t understand that this was something I wanted. He actually forbade me to see him and when that didn’t work he contacted Mum and Dad.” Ginny’s face was set as she remembered that particular scene.
“Don’t take this the wrong way Ginny, but I would have been equally suspicious. I can’t imagine how the two of you ever got together. Malfoys and Weasleys have never willing remained in the same room as each other and suddenly the two of you were in love?”
“Partly love, partly raging teenage lust,” Ginny admitted. “I think the whole family issue made it that much more exciting. But in amongst the frantic snogging we talked. I got to learn something about the man he was growing into and I liked what I saw.”
“What changed? When I left England Draco was a poster boy for the next generation of Death Eaters. The next thing I hear, he is being commended by Dumbledore for services to the Light.”
“It was a combination of things. Courtesy of my first year I had access to information about Tom Riddle that his followers liked to gloss over. It was enough to make him start thinking at least, and not just blindly parrot Lucius’s propaganda. What finally sealed it for him was learning that Snape was a double agent. He trusted his godfather more than his father to do what was right.”
“What happened then?” Katie was fascinated by Ginny’s story. Fred and George had never mentioned any of this to her.
“Professor Snape’s role was compromised and he was confined to Hogwarts for his safety. Draco was able to feed information back to Dumbledore and the Order in his place.”
“Did he…?” Katie began delicately.
“Take the mark? No. His initiation was scheduled for his eighteenth birthday. Harry finally got his act together and killed Riddle before that happened. I stupidly thought that would make things better with my family but I underestimated how much they hated the Malfoy name. We battled throughout my seventh year and finally on my eighteenth birthday I moved in here. Not quite the birthday party my family had planned.”
“Is that when the three of you got the tattoos?” Katie asked.
“Ah you’ve seen his then.” Ginny grinned at Katie’s sudden blush. “It was a mixture of a desire to demonstrate our solidarity to the life we had chosen, and a visible symbol of my independence. Needless to say mine is considerably smaller and less visible than either Draco’s or Marcus’s.”
“Do you mind if I ask what you got?”
“Not at all, Draco has a snake encircling his right bicep and I have a snake wrapped around a heart at the base of my spine. My kind of visible statement – no one has to see it unless I want them to.”
*******************************************************************
Marcus let himself into Katie’s flat dumping his coat over the back of the couch. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bracelet he had purchased earlier while he was with Draco at Worthingtons. They had just been about to leave when a display of charm bracelets had caught his eye. The delicate chain had a selection solid gold Quaffles, Bludgers, Snitches and broomsticks charms that jingled quietly as they moved.
“Katie?” he called.
“In here,” she replied from the bedroom.
Marcus grinned and quickened his pace as he headed towards her voice.
Wrapping her arms around him as soon as he entered the bedroom, Katie inhaled the scent of his neck. “I missed you,” she breathed, as she began to unbutton his shirt.
Marcus felt his breath hitch as her hands dipped into his pants to caress the skin just above the top of his boxers. He stopped breathing completely when her hand slipped under the elastic to cup him.
“Did you miss me too?” Katie teased as she began to kiss her way down his chest.
“Mmhmm,” Marcus started to answer her but all rational thought left his head as Katie’s mouth replaced her hand.
Katie removed her mouth slowly and looked up at him grinning in triumph. She adored reducing the normally articulate and self controlled Marcus to putty. “Because if you did, miss me that is, I think you should prove how much.”
Marcus growled at her before yanking her up and over his shoulder, ignoring Katie’s hysterical giggles to dump her unceremoniously on the bed. Following her down, he nipped at her throat. “I’ll give you proof,” he promised.
*********************************************************************
Katie stretched languorously before easing herself out of bed ignoring the slight soreness between her legs. Marcus muttered something before grabbing onto her pillow and going back to sleep. Katie gave herself a moment just to watch him sleep, blushing slightly as she remembered how conclusive his “proof” had been. He had erupted into her nice ordered life and turned everything upside down, and Katie loved it. After their first time together she had confessed that she had never thought herself as overtly sexual. Etienne had been a very selfish lover and based on that limited experience she had had no idea that she could enjoy sex as much as she was. Marcus had taken her admission as a kind of personal challenge and these last weeks he had delighted in showing her exactly what her body was capable of.
Katie grabbed Marcus’s shirt and slipped it on before going into the kitchen to make herself some tea. A pop from the living area announced that someone had just Apparated into her home. Grabbing her wand just in case, Katie moved to see who was visiting her so early in the morning.
“Oliver?” she asked, slightly panicked. “What are you doing here?”
End Chapter Five
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