Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

FUN AND GAMES

REVELATION

She weaved through the crowd, watching their shocked faces with amusement as they leapt away from her, all seventeen feet, shrieking in higher octaves, horror in their eyes. She laughed at them, though they would only hear a menacing hiss. There were no parselmouths among them to know her intentions were only harmless, a mere bit of fun to dull the boredom of the dreary day.

She avoided a sharp heel that threatened to dampen her good mood, extending her hood as she struck out at the whimpering female in the stilettos before she continued forward, towards the cover of an alleyway between the shops.

'Snake!' cried a middle aged woman as she scurried through the crowd, running from her. She kept slithering forward, her serpentine body like lightning as she nipped at the low heels before ducking into the alleyway, a smile somehow coming over her scaled lips as she flicked her tongue. At the end of the alley she morphed from her king cobra form, glancing around the corner to smirk at the still shrieking crowd before there was a crack, and she disappeared.

Was she evil? No. Was she a prankster? Since the day she was born.

Illiri was never one to play by the rules. Though she never had broken them, she could certainly bend them, escaping many detentions and scalding lectures from the harshest professors. She was very good at Transfiguration, and Snape had never been able to pin her for anything, even when she had forced Draco Malfoy to relive his time as a ferret in their seventh year at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione had loved that one.

'Where have you been?' Ron asked, looking up from the newspaper, the same one he had been scrutinizing when she had left. Hermione was away visiting her parents, and he was never quite right without her. In some ways, it was like he had become lost in the place he was most familiar with.

Illiri reached into the fridge, only swinging the door closed when she had found the milk. 'Shopping,' she said, hiding a devilish smirk behind a mask of complete boredom.

His eyebrow picked up. He knew there was more to her expression. After all, they had been best friends for so incredibly long. 'Shopping?'

She smiled. 'You bet.'

'You didn't mess with the muggles? Not even a little bit?' he asked, his eyebrow still high on his forehead.

She widened her eyes, as if in surprise at his suggestion. 'Oh Ronald Weasley,' she said, her tone filled with melodramatic hurt. 'How could you accuse me of such a thing?'

He folded his paper. 'What did you do this time?'

Illiri came from a strange line of witches and wizards, and due to this, she was able to become an Animagus, adding to her already strange abilities as a Metamorphmagus and a parselmouth. She smirked as her eyes changed, turning black with a bright yellow rim, completely unblinking as she hissed.

'Why the hell is there a snake calling me a bloody four eyes here–' Harry stopped short, closing the book he had been reading. He put a hand on his hip, frowning. 'I should have known.'

She returned her features, smiling innocently at him. 'Sorry Harry. I couldn't help myself.'

He shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 'And I was getting so far.'

'Did I interrupt something serious?' she asked.

He fixed his glasses. 'It's just the case I'm working on,' he said, dropping into the chair beside Ron. 'Are you sure these are all the books you have?'

Ron nodded, returning to his paper. 'I wish I could help more Harry, but that's it.'

'I guess I'll have to go back to the Ministry and see what else I can dig up.'

'I'll probably see you around,' Illiri said. 'I wanted to go have words with Kingsley.'

Harry and Ron watched her purse her lips, trying to bite back the foul words that nipped at her tongue. 'What'd he do this time?' Ron asked tentatively.

'He told my father about those dates with that Scottish goth wizard. You know, the one with the expanders in his ears?'

They nodded, turning away to hide their smirk. She would have been scalded up one side and down the other for that night out. Her father was overprotective, though he swore he allowed her to do whatever she wanted. Every time she went on a date, he knew, and he disapproved.

'I know he was a bit eccentric, but he was fun and that tongue pierc–' She blinked, realising what she had been about to disclose. 'Ah, anyway, Kingsley saw me with him and he told father, and now I'm in some serious trouble because of it.'

She stalked out of the room, travelling to the Ministry by floo powder, not wanting to hear the laughter that followed her departure. Just because they'd found their perfect matches.

Illiri went straight to Kingsley's office, the dull thud of her thick soled boots barely heard over the sounds of people bustling around, the paper plane memos sweeping over her head. She knocked harshly, pushing the door open before there was a reply.

Kingsley hadn't even had a chance to react to her appearance when she slammed the door shut behind her, her hair turning a bright, fiery red as she stared at him with ice blue eyes, the colour they always turned when she was angry. 'Kingsley,' she said, her voice purposely sweet.

'Illiri,' he said, smiling at his "adopted" niece. Kingsley was her father's best friend, and because of that, she had known him for her entire life.

'Remember the last time I asked you to keep your nose out of my love life?' she asked, stepping forward.

'And I ha–'

'I know you told my father.' She slammed her hands onto his desk, sending papers and pens flying. 'And I'll have you know that Leon was a very nice guy, despite his appearances.'

'I'm sure he was, but you know how I get when I've had a few.'

'Then stop having a few,' she hissed, being sure to enunciate the words. 'I'm sick of the two of you putting your noses where they don't belong.'

'But I–'

'I don't want to hear another excuse,' she snapped, putting a long, sharp nail to his lips. 'Keep. Out. Of. My. Business.' She stepped away. 'Or I'll get all cobra on your ass.'

He didn't try to speak as she stalked out of the room, though he did shift in his chair, knowing that she didn't do idle threats.

Illiri's hair returned to its natural bronze, her eyes brown again. She headed down the hall, thinking she'd pop into Mr Weasley's office when she paused, doing a double take to look through a partially opened door.

Now that, was a fine ass.

He was leaning over his desk, the black fabric of his trousers stretched over perfectly carved cheeks. From there, his narrow hips bled to a strong body, up to broad shoulders, the black silk shirt tailored to reveal the taught, muscled body beneath it. God, what would it have felt like to be held by those big arms, to dig her nails into the hard mounds of his backside, to feel his body on top of hers, doing things that would have made her father die of a heart attack.

She was almost salivating at her wicked thoughts – until he turned around to look for another sheet of paper.

Oh God! Since when did he have an office here? Illiri clasped her hands over her mouth, ducking to the side of the door, hiding behind the door frame. I wasn't, she tried to convince herself that he hadn't seen her. I wasn't just checking him out. She shook her head, taking a deep breath. I wasn't just thinking those things about– She wouldn't allow herself to even think his name.

She ran to the entrance hall of the Ministry, fumbling with the floo powder. She stepped out and into her own apartment, finding the closest bottle of vodka, clutching it to her chest as though it would keep her heart from leaping from her chest. She took a swig of the beverage before she lengthened her nails, chewing on them with the determination of a mad woman.

Draco stared at the door to his office for a moment longer, trying to work out why he felt his hairs standing on end. He rubbed the back of his neck, frowning as he looked back at the paperwork before him. He was so sure that someone had been watching him, yet the doorway was empty.

He walked over to a chair in the corner of his office, grabbing a file before he returned to his desk, figuring that one of the many girls in the office had passed by. It seemed that he was the department hunk. He'd turned down two girls already that week, and it was only Tuesday. Not because they weren't pretty. No, they had been stunning, but they weren't the girls for him. He wanted a chase. He wanted to hunt for a woman, not have her fall into his lap as they always seemed to want to do.

He dropped into the plush leather seat behind his desk, rubbing his eyes before he ran his fingers through his platinum hair, so soft from being cut just the other day. It was shorter than usual, swept back carelessly, though it looked like he had spent hours taming it. He had Malfoy hair though, hair that never seemed to have a strand out of place, no matter how much he tried to make it look casual.

He leant back in his chair, allowing himself a moment to breathe, to think. Although he wasn't one for going out in the evenings during the week, too burdened with work, he had heard that the Weird Sisters were playing somewhere close by. It couldn't hurt to swing by for a few songs, and maybe even check out the girls.

Draco sighed, swinging his feet onto his desk as he closed his eyes, reminiscing about his school days. He'd never had to look for a girl then, with Pansy always so close, but they had grown distant since she'd moved to Romania.

But even then, he'd never felt any particular attraction towards her. Why yes, there had been good times and wicked fun, but he wanted more than that. When he was with a woman, he didn't want to be a trophy on her arm; he wanted to be a man. Her man. He wanted to make her smile, genuinely, and to drive her wild with his touch.

He wanted to give her everything, and then some more.

If only he could find her.