Author's Notes:

This chapter gave me quite a bit of problems, honestly. It went through a four revisions and ~three months of struggling to get to this final version. Here are finally some answers to earlier chapter's foreshadowing, though. Did you predict any of it? Would love to know your thoughts as to the reveals herein after you read it.

Many thanks and much love to my crit-group: Wronskiifeint, ladysashi, and gjeangirl. They were each instrumental in different ways to getting this story back on track and this chapter finished. I am greatly indebted to you ladies for all your suggestions and a bit of editing work, too! XOXOXO

And to YOU, my lovely readers: you've stuck by this story, despite its long time between updates due to my horrid health issues, and I sincerely appreciate all of your dedication to the tale. Your reviews and PMs keep me grounded, make me smile and hum when I'm feeling awful, and remind me to keep going. You make it possible for the bad days not to win. XOXOXOXOXOXOXO to each of you, dahlings!

CHAPTER 19: DEEDS AND FORFEITS – PART III

Netherworld – Madam Aset's Brothel

Sunday, June 14, 1998 (1:48 a.m.)

.

Lavender stared at the model-gorgeous witch standing in the open doorway ahead of them and finally understood what Hermione had been saying about horcruxes. The taint of dark magic practically oozed off the woman, and clearly, she was at least a bit insane from its exposure, going by the madness reflected in her eyes.

She'll kill us all, she thought, panic taking hold and making her hands shake.

"Maddy?"

To Lavender's horror, Seamus was staring at the crazy woman before them as if he intimately knew her.

Madam Aset turned her attention away from Zabini and Ginny, zeroing in on Seamus. Her lips curled with unholy glee at the sight of him. "Hello, my Irish. It's been a while," she purred with a heated look that set Lavender's teeth on edge and made her fingers twitch to do violence. "Almost exactly two years, isn't it?"

That same sense of 'other' within Lavender, the possessive thing that had started waking up inside her subconscious tonight, began growling at the the come-hither the Madam threw Seamus.

The warning did not deter the other woman, who seemed more amused by it than anything. "Does that bother you, my dear, knowing I had your mate under me not so long ago...with his impressive cock buried deep inside my body?" Her grin, when she turned it on Lavender, was serpentine. She preened like a bird, though, running an elegant hand through her long, blonde hair. "That summer, we had so much fun, your fairy lover and I. Over and over again."

Lavender's blood began to boil, and all trace of her earlier fear disappeared in the face of her mounting rage. The thought of Seamus shagging this woman had every jealous bell in her head ringing to do murder. How many times had they had sex? Had he come in her? Had it been three times? That couldn't be possible, because then he'd be mated to the Madam, and he'd specifically told her he hadn't ejaculated inside any witch more than twice... But what if he had? What if he was actually mated to this horrid woman?

The thought had her heart pounding and her shaking for an entirely different reason now.

Focussed on the dark witch before them, Seamus seemed oblivious to Lavender's inner turmoil. Instead, he spat in Madam Aset's direction. "No, 'Maddy Fletcher' is no yer true name, is it?" he demanded of the woman. "So who are ya, really?"

The Madam shrugged.

"You want truth, dear boy, but really, what is 'true'? Am I to be called 'Female', 'Daughter', 'Victim', 'Mate', 'Mother'...'Whore'? I am all of those things." She tossed them all a mocking smirk and waved them off. "A name is meaningless as it changes over time. It acts as both our prison and our joy, and really says nothing about who and what we really are."

"So...you're not 'Maddy Fletcher' then," Lavender concluded with a roll of her eyes at this woman's flair for the melodramatic. God, she reminded Lavender so much of her mother it made her want to plug the woman's mouth with crystallized pineapple and cork her own ears. "I'm going to go out on a limb and assume 'Madam Aset' is fabricated, too?"

The woman raised her arms and indicated the building around them.

"'Aset' is merely a pseudonym I use while I exist between these walls."

"Convenient, since Aset is also the goddess of magic in the Egyptian religion," Lavender revealed to the others, recalling her Divination lessons and the study's roots in ancient spell-crafting. She might not have Hermione's brain for perfect recall, but Lavender remembered a whole lot of what she'd read for Trelawney's Advanced classes, finding the subject of the arcane arts fascinating. "Supposedly, hers was the power that had made the pharaohs, and then brought those same men low when they'd displeased her."

Blaise clicked his tongue. "Theatrical and conceited. I can see the appeal for someone like you, Madam."

Yeah, it was a bit overdone in Lavender's estimation, too.

The woman looked at him as if he was a kidney pie awaiting her devouring. "Yet, you weren't clever enough to have put it together, lover."

Across the room, Ginny gave a little growl of displeasure at the Madam's continued references to Blaise once having been in her bed. "Gotta admit, I didn't get it either, 'cause I'd guessed 'Aset' stood for 'the ASsociation of Extreme Tarts'," she said, taking a nasty jab at the witch. Her friend's eyes were sparking gold as her fury bled over and her hands were white-knuckled fists at her side, clearly itching to do violence. "Either that or it was your ad under the Daily Prophet's pink column: 'Aging Sex-witch, Easy Time'."

Sabrina Aset's gaze shifted to Ginny and her upper lip curled with anger, reshaping her lovely mouth into an ugly sneer.

"You have to admit: either seems likely, doesn't it?" Blaise asked the witch, shifting to his right in a smooth move meant to assure his body stood between Ginny and any spell the Madam might decide to fire her way. "Regardless, it's tragic you and my mother don't get along, Sabrina, since you clearly have so much in common." He paused at that, as if considering something. "Is 'Sabrina' even your real name, or is it as fake as the rest of you?"

The Madam's interest realigned on Blaise and her returning grin was both predatory and amused.

"In fact it is Sabrina," she admitted without heat. "Sabrina Peverell."

The name had Lavender pausing.

Peverell...

Peverell...

Where had she heard that before? She was sure it had come up in conversation—something Professor Binns had once said in the world's most boring classroom...

The answer came to her in a flash of memory.

"Miss– er–?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets..."

It was second year, the day Lavender and the others had learned about Salazar Slytherin's secret room within the castle that was said to have housed a mythical monster. Initially, Binns had been reluctant to discuss the matter, but like a Gryffin tearing into a meaty thigh bone, Hermione wouldn't let the matter drop. She'd hounded their professor for the answers she sought, until he'd given in.

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

He'd caved under her pressure, telling them the story of Salazar Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets.

There had been more to that lesson that day, however, more questions that came near the end of class, when people were desperate to be distracted from discussing a sub-committee of Sardinian sorcerers who once met in a secret sea cave to stave off the attacks of Muggle Saracens...

"Sir," Lavender had interrupted Binns at the ten minute mark to bell, risking his irritation for the sake of her insatiable curiosity on the subject of the Founders and their lineages. "You said Salazar Slytherin left the school after the fallout with the other Founders, but not what happened to him. What of him and his pure-blood family? I've never heard anything more about them, not even in the book on the Sacred Twenty-Eight."

Their professor had seemed surprised by her question and assessment.

"Why, he retired home to the fens and married a witch from the Quintin family line, who was famous for their Scottish whisky. Not much of note was written of him after that, and as was often the case in those days, the family line eventually went extinct. I believe that was sometime during the...thirteenth century. Yes, then. No male heirs after that."

"But surely there were female children to carry on such a famous name?" she'd persisted, the young feminist within her even then irritated with that particular custom of dismissing females as heir-worthy. Her brother, Thomas, had loved rubbing in her face the idea that he would someday be inheritor of the Brown family's name and wealth, as if her being born a girl somehow disqualified her from that same birthright.

Her teacher was clearly of the same opinion as her bratty brother on the matter. "Females are irrelevant for matters of primogeniture. They were married into other families of note, however, per the custom of the time."

"Which families?" Granger had pressed, nearly salivating at all this new knowledge that wasn't covered in Hogwarts: A History. The girl's quill had scribbled it all down furiously as Binns talked.

"Oh, other famous pure-bloods: the Sayres, the Gaunts, the Peverells-"

Peverell.

So, Sabrina Peverell was an ancestor of the Salazar Slytherin, one of the most powerful and feared dark wizards of his times. And since she was a Sex-Witch, that meant that somewhere along the line, her family had inbred with a Veela—a member of the Unseelie Court, too. Wands alive, with a heritage like that, no wonder the witch had gone to the black...and no wonder she was as insane and dangerous as a Confunded Sphinx!

Seamus was grilling the Madam again, and Lavender tuned back in to catch the last bit of his question.

"-didja get 'Maddy' from, then?"

Again with the enigmatic shrug. "It's short for 'Madame'," the woman replied. "A title I was once told by a different Zabini that I should aspire to obtain, as I certainly had the charms and ambition. Needless to say, I took that 'encouragement' to heart."

"And th' last name, 'Fletcher'?" her boyfriend pressed, looking like he wanted to lay into the woman with a series of pretty nasty hexes.

A nudge of Sabrina's delicate chin indicated a portrait on the wall beside them. It was an oil painting done in pink and cream pastels, featuring an adorably chubby cherub carrying a golden bow and arrow set. "Eros, the god of erotic love," Lavender stated the obvious, recognizing the symbolism. "A scratch from one of his arrows and victims fall helplessly in lust." She turned back to the Madam. "A 'fletcher' is someone who makes arrows."

The woman's perfectly painted lips once more kinked with derision. "It seems your brains make up for your lack of looks, pixie." Her gaze took in Lavender's measure with mocking contempt. "Still, how is it you snagged yourself such a rare creature as a gancanagh? Our Irish might be a bit easy to entice once or twice, but you're not the prettiest nymph on the vine...and certainly not enough woman to ensnare one such as him into a mating."

"A wha'?" Seamus asked, blanching an interesting shade of white. Apparently, he recognised the term the Madam had used to refer to him, although Lavender did not. "I'm no one o' them cute hoors!"

The Madam laughed again.

"Of course you are, foolish boy! It's in your blood, thanks to my husband. That mate of mine slagged his way across all of England, Scotland, and Ireland before coming back home, leaving behind a trail of bastards everywhere he went...and your great-whatever grandmother happened to have been one of his victims." Her expression was filled with fake pity for his obvious distress at her revelation. "He was a gancanagh, too, the most powerful of the male Fae of the Seelie whose sex addiction is almost as well known as their flippancy over commitment. It seems you carry that trait, my Irish."

"For the last time, he's not yours," Lavender hissed at the woman, digging her nails into Sea's skin to keep him from yanking free, as he clearly wanted to do. "He's mine, and we've got no issues with our commitment to each other."

The witch stared at her for a moment, as if weighing how best to reply. When she finally did, she devastated Lavender.

"Tell me, my Irish, how is our son?"

Lavender's breath hitched.

Son?

Seamus had a child with this psycho bitch?!

No, it was a lie. It had to be. The woman was just trying to shake her up... And even if it was true, Seamus would have at least mentioned it by now, right?

She looked to her boyfriend for reassurance that this was all some elaborate lie, but his expression was tight and he didn't outright deny it.

Oh, gods!

She let go of Seamus' wrist, pulling away from him.

He had a baby with another woman and didn't think to at least mention it tonight, before they'd gotten in so deep?

He'd lied to her.

Something inside Lavender shriveled up and began to cry.

Sabrina's cruel smirk said she knew she'd achieved the result she'd been after. "Is your dear mum taking up the boy's care while you're in school?" she continued to taunt, pouring salt on the wound to teach Lavender a lesson for having spoken up against her. "Perhaps I'll visit our child this summer at your home then, hmm? Give us all time to...get reacquainted."

A feral snarl escaped Lavender's mouth before she could tamp it down, the side of her that acknowledge Seamus was hers—despite the fact she could happily kick his arse for lying to her—lashing out at a rival's attempt to insert herself where she wasn't wanted. The thought of this woman anywhere near Sea's home, his bed...

"I'll acquaint you with my fist, you lolly cun-" she threatened.

Seamus cut her off by reaching out and gently taking her hand in his, entwining their fingers. "It's okay, me angel. She's only rilin' ya up. The truth is Aengus is no mine an' she knows it," he said very assuredly, stepping back and aligning his body to Lavender's to create a unified front, despite her earlier rejection. "There's no o' the Woodland Fae in him. Not a stitch. Not even me eyes, which is the give away. E'ery son o' a nymph has green eyes."

"You're so sure of that, are you?" the woman dared through a narrowed gaze.

He nodded without pause, without doubt. "We all knew the moment we met 'im, when ya showed up at me doorstep with 'im and tried ta pass him off as mine and yers jus' 'cause I slept wit' ya. He no looks like me, and he's no got th' taste fer th' honey, and th' wild no calls ta him. There's no Seelie Fae in th' kid. Still, we took 'im in, loved him." He stood up straighter. "So, no, he ain't me son by birthright, but me family adopted 'im no the less, so he's ours now—a Finnigan in name, if no in blood...and I'll no be havin' ya anywhere near 'im, ya vicious hag!"

The tight knot that had strangled Lavender's throat suddenly let loose and she felt as if she could breathe again. Then, it moved down into her heart, melting it. The child was not his, but still Sea and his family had taken in the boy out of compassion, rather than dumping him in an orphanage, as others might have done in his place.

"I'm sorry I doubted you," Lavender told her lover, snuggling up to his side and pressing in close to make up for her earlier suspicion of him. Damn the Madam and her need to be a malicious bitch! "You're a good man, Sea, and Aengus is lucky to have people like you and your family to truly love him."

Seamus looked down at her, contrite. "Tha's why I need ta go home this summer, ta check in on 'im. He's bein' raised as me adopted brother, not me son, but I still feel responsible. I should'a told ya sooner, angel, but-"

"We were just starting over," she reminded him with a shake of her head, letting him know the slight deceit was forgiven on her side. If she'd been in his shoes, she wasn't sure she wouldn't have done the same thing. "I know you would have said something if we'd had more time to talk."

"I'd planned ta tell ya, I swear it."

She smiled up at him. "You can later."

Assuming there would be a later, of course...

Sabrina sneered at them and looked away, knowing her plan to hurt Lavender and deceive her ex-lover had failed, again. Nice try, bitch, Lavender thought as she gave the Madam a humourless smile.

"'Sides, the boy ain't yers either, Maddy," Seamus continued as he turned his attention back to their enemy, holding up the cold iron pendant by its chain. Lavender noted Sabrina blanched at the sight of it. "He played wit' this often when I was home, and felt no pain in touchin' it. Means he ain't Unseelie, either...'Mum'."

Lavender couldn't believe what she was hearing! "So she's a baby napper, too, on top of being a sexual predator," she said around a cynical laugh. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You want to talk about sexual predators, my dear, look no further than the man you cling to even now!" the other witch hissed back. She turned to Sea. "Tell me, how many women have you used for sex, even knowing as you walked away from them that they wanted more? How many hearts have you broken, gancanagh?"

Seamus' spine straightened.

"Ya make it sound as if it wasn't consensual, but it's no been like that...and now-" He looked at Lavender again and gave her hand a small squeeze. "-it n'er will be."

"Liar," Sabrina Aset accused, "it's ever been such with your kind. You can't help yourself. Until you make this-" She tossed Lavender a scathing look. "-ugly pixie your mate, you will be drawn to others, especially virgins. You'll ruin them and move on. It's in your nature."

Blaise snorted at that. "You know, Madam, if you hate his kind so much, then I have to wonder why'd you go looking for him in Ireland?"

"What makes you think-"

"Spare us the lies, Sabrina," Zabini snapped, his wand arm as steady as the moment he'd first aimed it in her direction. "If Finnigan is what you say, you wanted a gancanagh that hailed from your own mate's lineage for some reason, and you searched for one high and low until you found him. Then, you slept with him, and nine months later tried to bring him to heel by tricking him into thinking the baby you brought him was both of yours, when really it belonged to neither of you." Blaise rolled his wand around in his hand. "This is exactly something my mother would have done, too. What were you really after?"

...Yes, that was the question, wasn't it, Lavender thought. Why would this woman, a Veela of the Unseelie Court, be looking to snag herself a specific kind of Fae from the Seelie Court when the two were natural enemies, at least according to Seamus. Moreover, why would she pretend that they'd had a child together?

There was a deeper game being played here...

"It's in your blood, thanks to my husband."

Lavender stared at the Madam, feeling the pieces of this freaky mystery twist and turn around in her head as she struggled to work out the answer. She'd never been particularly studious as Hermione, but she definitely loved a good puzzle. "Your mate was a gancanagh, you said. He was a member of the Seelie Court."

She glanced over at the painting of the cherub Eros on the wall once more. He was always depicted with feathers, wasn't he?

Just like a full-blooded Fae.

"Eros was your mate. He was Seelie Court...and you're Unseelie."

The Madam's expression suddenly closed off, shut down, becoming a cold, blank mask.

"If you'd both been of the same court, a true mating between you would have been possible...like with Sea and me, or Blaise and Gin. But two warring Fae courts, on opposite sides?" The horror she'd felt earlier tonight when Lavender had incorrectly believed she and Seamus were in this same predicament now turned to pity as she realised Psyche and Eros had actually known that reality. They'd lived it, and one of them had actually died for it. "Your love hadn't been enough to cross that magical blood line." She felt a hitch in her chest at the thought of two people, desperately wanting to be together and blessed with the ability to physically induce sex in their partners, but unable to create any sort of a life together because of that same magic. "Is that why you experimented with Sea?" she asked. "Were you trying to see if it was possible for you to be with another gancanagh? If so, it didn't work. You obviously didn't get pregnant from it."

"Maybe ya can't," Seamus chimed in, snapping his fingers as if to say, 'ah-ha!' "Seems it's not possible fer Seelie and Unseelie ta mate at all, huh? Is tha' why ya killed yer Eros, then?"

The air practically crackled with energy and then Seamus was hit with a nonverbal spell that knocked him to his knees. Lavender's hand was torn from his wrist as he went down with a heavy grunt, like he'd been kicked in the bollocks.

Blaise was quick to counter the attack with a Stupefy, meant to throw the Madam into the wall in the moment of her distraction, but it was as if she'd sensed what he'd intended and raised her arm to prevent the hit. Without turning her head, she slapped the spell away as if it was no more than a mosquito aiming for her exposed skin. It smashed into the wall behind her and left a red streak across the wallpaper, marring the pretty Victorian print under it. "Don't you dare presume to understand or judge me!" she shrieked, having taken absolutely no damage from Blaise's attack nor losing her concentration on the spell that held Seamus down on his hands and knees as she verbally dressed him down. "You've no idea the evils I've committed for love!"

"You...killed...him..." Seamus gasped, his head bent nearly to the floor, the cords in his shoulder muscles and throat straining as Sabrina Aset slowly strangled him to death with her magic. "Not...love..."

The 'thing' inside Lavender flew into a panic at the sight of its mate being harmed. Mindless now to anything but saving him, she flung herself down at his side and turned his head, so his face wouldn't be smashed into the carpet by whatever spell was pressing down upon him. "Stop it!" she screamed, still reeling from the intensity of the woman's unexpected attack and from the way Sea's face was turning purple as he gasped for the breath he could not catch. If only she had a wand! "Stop!"

From her crouch, she turned and threw herself at the woman, hoping to knock her onto her arse.

One touch to the woman's arm and she went down, too.

The pain was incredible, like she'd heard the Cruciatus Curse felt like. Down Lavender's spine, there was nothing but the roar of red hot pokers and in her mouth she tasted blood. She screamed, or thought she did, razor-sharp needles stabbing her from head to toe.

Just as suddenly, the torture ended.

Gasping for breath, Seamus fell over onto his side, wheezing and shuddering.

The entire attack had taken less than ten seconds, but Lavender felt as if she'd lost several lives in the process.

Despite the fact her limbs felt like jelly and her bones hurt like they'd been snapped in multiple places, she crawled to her man and threw her body over his. Sobbing, she held him to her, determined to die in his place, if necessary.

Standing above them, Madam Aset continued to snarl. "Men like you-" She sneered at Seamus, who was still trying to catch his breath and regain his centre. "-know nothing of real love. You're all led about by your cocks and think lust equates to love because of the hearts it ensnares. Eros...my Gabriel was once such a man, but over the years, he's changed...for me, he's changed. He's perfect now. Ready to start over." She approached them where they lay, and Lavender was too weak to stop her from using her slipper-covered foot to shove at her, knocking her onto her back. "Women like you...you only feed men's egos by simpering at their feet for sex, willing to forgive them anything for it. Pathetic, little pixie!"

Lungs still heaving with the effort of drawing air as she continued to cry in frustration, Lavender could only stare up at the woman and cast hateful thoughts her way.

As if she no longer found them of consequence, the Madam turned away from Lavender and Seamus, focussing instead on Zabini again. Clearly, the witch had a gripe with him for some unknown reason. Blaise still had his wand pointed at her as she made him her preferred target once more. He'd obviously been taken aback that his stunning charm had been so spectacularly rebounded without any sort of effort by the Madam, but he appeared rock-steady now as he stood between the woman and his mate. His defiance in the face of that sort of power was nothing short of impressive, actually, but then he was apparently part-Veela and Lavender recalled from her reading on the subject of magical matings how feral that species could become when the safety of their mates became an issue.

As she lay across Sea, who was fighting off unconsciousness by blinking continually, working towards regaining a modicum of control over her shaky emotions, Lavender concentrated on regaining full feeling and motion of her arms and legs.

What an utter bitch!

She was going to pay that vicious bint back for this!

Off to her right, the Madam was trading insults with Blaise and Ginny...a cat batting at mice before it ate them. The words were muffled at first, becoming clearer as the seconds ticked by and her full faculties returned one by one.

"-why do you think I became the Madam of a Ministry-sanctioned whorehouse?" the woman was demanding, flicking Blaise's next attack away as easily as his first attempt. The magic slammed into the opposite wall to her right, destroying a vase full of roses, whose petals flew apart and fell like rain down upon Lavender's face and body.

The scent of the flowers was fortifying as it washed over Lavender like a gentle healing spell. Her hands suddenly stopped shaking and her anxiety melted away as swiftly as a wave retreating from the shore.

One deep breath, then another and abruptly, she felt much calmer and once more in control of her emotions.

She stopped crying...and started getting angry instead.

"At a guess?" Zabini replied to the woman with a calm that seemed unreal. "So you could legally feed your inner Veela without the worry of being labeled an 'evil witch' and imprisoned or facing a Dementor's Kiss for it." His wand was still aimed at the Madam's heart, eyes filled with a desire to fire off the dark spell that hovered on the tip of his tongue. He was carefully keeping his body between the mad witch and Ginny as the woman stalked them across the room. "That's close enough, Sabrina," he warned as she came in too close. "I'll kill you if I must."

"Don't," Lavender warned him as strength returned to her body and the buzzing in her ears faded. To her relief, she was able to get to her knees under her and hold that position without falling over. "Blaise, no."

Although she agreed with his desire to finish off the witch and be done with it, if he cast that spell at the Madam now, there would be no answers as to how to free the others from the card game's horcrux. In fact, killing Sabrina Aset might just collapse the horcrux, killing everyone inside. She really had no idea how those awful things worked aside from what Hermione had discussed with them, and she wasn't willing to take the chance with the lives of her friends. She and the others would just have to be careful in how they handled the Madam until they were able to get her to talk, to admit to things she might not want to reveal.

Not to mention the fact that if Blaise AK'd the slag, he'd face life in Azkaban, and then where would Ginny be? As a mate separated from her Veela lover for life, it would drive her mad.

Mad like Sabrina Peverell...who had killed her mate to make a horcrux.

The idea gave Lavender pause.

The witch had done something not just immoral, but unnatural, too, hadn't she?

"Tamper with the deepest mysteries—the source of life, the essence of self—only if prepared for consequences of the most extreme and dangerous kind."

It seemed Hermione was right; Waffling's first fundamental law of magic had been broken, and Sabrina Peverell was clearly paying the price for that.

Merlin, that was why she was so 'round the bend!

But had simply offing Eros sent the depraved Ms. Peverell over into real darkness two centuries ago, or had it been the continual killing of others to keep the horcrux she'd made active and to prevent her aging?

Come to think of it, how many times had she murdered? Was it once every four years, since that's how often the game was played according to that list Pansy had read off, the one inside the game's box lid? More? And who was Psyche killing anyway if a fresh victim was needed every time, and where were their bodies? Hell, where were the pieces of those souls she'd ripped out of her victims? Were they also trapped inside the card deck?

"What...did you do with the others?" she asked, raising her head and fighting to regain her balance as she attempted to stand. Below her, Seamus rolled onto his side, attempting to get up as well, although he was having a harder time of it than her, it seemed. "The others you killed each time you aged and needed to 'renew' yourself. What did you do with their bodies and the souls you tore up, you lunatic hag?"

The Madam flicked her wrist as she cast a non-verbal spell, and Zabini's wand went flying into the air, crashing into the wall behind him and Ginny.

"You misunderstand, pixie: I didn't choose the victims. The game did."

Her smile was as malicious as a virus and as delighted as Old Scratch on the warpath.

"The players did it for me."

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's notes:

Please remember that I use British spellings of words in this fanfic.

gancanagh = Irish mythology. A male fairy that is known for seducing human women.

Cute hoor = Irish modern slang for someone who manipulates situations to get the outcome that favours them best.

Old Scratch = Mediaeval nickname for the Devil.

.

Lines borrowed from "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" novel:

"Miss– er–?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets."

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?

.

Musical selection for this chapter: "Black Widow" by Booty Luv. Lyrics are as follows...

.

He should be thinking about staying away...
Toying with him, and I ain't playing no games.
I'm leaving him dazed and deranged.
After he feels the poison race trough his veins...

I chew you up, spit you out, cause that's what I'm all about.
I leave you soft in the middle,
I break your heart just a little.
I got that black-black widow-widow.

Black-black widow-widow.

She'll build you up, break you down,
Whenever you are around
she ain't no saint, she's a sinner.
You best believe she's a winner.
She got that black-black widow-widow.

Black-black widow-widow.

Don't you get caught up in my love,
'cause tonight it's gonna be over.
And I know that it is wrong,
but tonight it's gonna be over.

I'm gonna be the last last love of your life.
Trapped in my world, and there's no way to escape...
Caught in my clutches and I'm having my way.
I'm leaving him with nothing to say.
My bitter kiss will be the last thing he tastes...

I chew you up, spit you out, cause that's what I'm all about.
I leave you soft in the middle,
I break your heart just a little.
I got that black-black widow-widow.

Black-black widow-widow.

She'll build you up, break you down.

Whenever you are around
she ain't no saint, she's a sinner.
You best believe she's a winner.
She got that black-black widow-widow.

Black-black widow-widow.

Don't you get caught up in my love,
'cause tonight it's gonna be over.
And I know that it is wrong,
but tonight it's gonna be over.

I'm gonna be the last last love of your life.
Come inside, I won't bite.
I'll love and leave you wrapped in silk for one night.
It's alright, put up a fight.
'Cause I'm a be the last love of your life, your life, yeah.

'Cause I'm a be the last love of your life, your life, yeah.