Riddles
Author: Calliopiea ([email protected])
Rating: R
Pairing: Draco/ Sphinx
Category: Drama
Summary: Draco fixates on a long-forgotten creature, tucked away in a corner at Hogwarts
Disclaimer: I own nothing -- They all belong to JK (and I'm sure that she adores them as much as I do)
She sits on the left side of the stairway, leading up to the Great Hall.
Hordes of students pass by her every year -- on their way to supper, satchel clutched in their sweaty little hands, chit-chatting with their friends. Yet she is rarely noticed. She has been tucked away into a dank corner -- left to mildew and decay. She is mistaken all too often for marble statue, sitting silently on a bronzed pedestal. She sits there -- biding her time, waiting for the day when someone will take notice.
*****
Draco Malfoy, the god-child of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, was the first to notice her, sitting on her lofty perch. Always the observant one, Draco had been bred on classic mythology and knew the legend of the Sphinx well. She was the monster that had fallen on so many men in the past. But young Oedipus, the tragic hero, had solved her riddle and she had cast herself down from her rock and had perished. But yet, here she was -- waiting on the left side of the stairway, leading up to the Great Hall.
Her eyes were chiseled but Draco Malfoy knew that she could see.
He spent a great deal of his time by the Sphinx. He would sit on the bottom stair and scratch out his assignments -- pen on parchment. When no one was around, he would try talking to her. He would ask her about ancient Thebes and inquire if she had ever really gone to Giza. She would remain stoic, not responding. But, every so often, the white-speckled lips would curl upwards in a smile. That way, Draco knew that she was listening.
"You're pretty enough," Draco mentioned during another one-sided conversation. He was in his fifth year, just beginning to realize what he was looking for in a woman. The smile changed from indulgent to coy and Draco knew that she was listening. Once, he reached his hand up and felt the luxuriant curve of the marble breast and, underneath the sturdy rock, he could feel the life-heat beating against his palm.
In his sixth year, the Sphinx finally uttered her first words to the boy. He was sitting on the pedestal, reading an essay on the uses of Sodalite in magical healing. He often touched the Sphinx absent-mindedly, petting her slate-smooth back. Today, however, his hands roamed to different areas. He found himself searching out her too-womanly breasts again and rubbed the pad of his thumb against a plump nipple.
"Child, do you wish a riddle?"
Those were the first words spoken to the young boy and Draco had watched, entranced, as her rigid lips had formed the words. Her eyelashes stiffly batted downwards and the faintest tint of color rose to her features -- a coral flush to her lips. And Draco was enchanted.
"You'll be the death of me then. I know the stories."
"Then we shall start with a simple one," she replied. "I don't want to be rid of you yet. At night they come without being fetched, and by day they are lost without being stolen."
Draco thought it over for a moment. He had been raised with riddles, all sorts of riddles. And, seeing as these had been a portion of his upbringing, Draco had no trouble figuring out the answer.
"The stars."
"Ah," she smiled, leaning in closer and capturing his fleshy earlobe between her lips. The bite was numbingly cold and Draco was tempted for a moment to pull away from her ministrations. However, in the end, he allowed her to press her lips against him.
*****
The second riddle was more challenging. Draco had reached the end of his sixth year and was about to leave for the summer -- back to Malfoy Manor, back to his doting parents. Suitcase hitched up under his arm, Draco had paused for a moment to say farewell to his beloved Sphinx. The rest of the students were still gathering their belongings. They wouldn't be wandering the hallways for another hour.
"I came to say good-bye," Draco announced somberly, kneeling on the pedestal.
"You're leaving me?" the Sphinx questioned, panic settling in the back of her throat. "So soon?"
"Only for the summer," Draco replied. "I'll be back in September."
"Do you wish another riddle?"
His hand reached down, once again, to toy with a necklace that hung around her neck. The charm disappeared in her abundant cleavage but Draco dipped his fingers between her breasts and clasped the golden icon in his palm. She giggled -- something that seemed more befitting to a hormone-driven girl than to this mythic beast. However, Draco grinned widely and exposed the side of his neck, letting her suck on the salt-tinged meat.
"Another please," he choked as a velvety bruise rose to the surface of his skin.
"I drive men mad for love of me. Easily beaten, never free."
Draco knew this one -- His father had repeated it to him often enough. But he simply couldn't concentrate on the answer. Not with this wicked creature suckling at his jawbone, tormenting his chin with the tip of his tongue. He stood there vacantly for a moment, trying to get his barrings.
"Gold."
"Come back to me soon, Draco."
*****
A vital seventeen-year-old boy, Draco was practically mad with desire by the time he returned to Hogwarts. The Sphinx of the staircase had become the sole figure in his masturbatory fantasies. He would allow his fingers to wander up the expanse of his thighs, pinching tightly when he reached the thin line of his pubic bone. He would continue teasing himself in this manner for hours, picturing the nefarious creature caressing him. He would come eventually -- come without even touching himself.
Lucius indulged his son's somewhat-morbid fascination. A painting of "Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Gustav Moreau hung in a prominent place opposite Draco's canopy bed. A dog-eared copy of Buch der Lieder sat on Draco's bedside table, always turned to the same poem:
"The marble image came alive, began to moan and plead. She drank my burning kisses up with ravenous thirst and greed. She drank the breath from out my breast. She fed lust without pause; She pressed me tight, and tore and rent my body with her claws."
When Draco returned to Hogwarts, the first thing he did was to visit with his Sphinx. She hadn't changed -- then again, mythical beasts rarely do change. They simply bide their time, waiting for suitable prey. And, oh! Draco was suitable. The blonde demigod sat at her clawed feet, kissing her fur-covered ankles and relishing in the thrill of first contact after an extending period of time.
"You've returned," she stated -- simply, not wanting to reveal her emotions.
"Yes, I've returned to you."
He kissed up her torso -- to where fur merged with flesh. He kissed the hard peaks of her breasts and up the side of her long, Egyptian neck. And, finally, when he had consumed every portion of her, he kissed her lips. Mouth moving against mouth, tongue rubbing against tongue. He wrapped his hands around starched curls and pulled her closer, wanting to eat her from the outside in.
"Another riddle?"
"Yes."
"If you break me, I do not stop working. If you touch me, I may be snared. If you lose me, nothing will ever matter again."
My lips tussle against hers once again. The click-clack of shoes against the floors of the corridors made Draco spit out his answer quickly, as he was afraid of being caught.
"Heart."
*****
Graduation.
Draco Malfoy's last moments at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were spent with the Sphinx in the corner to the left of the stairway, leading up to the Great Hall. He clutched her face in his hand, stroking the alabaster cheekbones and the peppered nose. Her tears fell -- gutter water from stone eyes, the fountain in the foyer.
"I have to leave."
"I am well-aware of that," she replied, making no qualms over the matter.
"You have been a faithful companion."
"As have you."
"One final riddle," he demanded. "Give me one final riddle."
"I need to give you my hardest," she responded. "As always, I don't want you to fail and perish but, at the same time, I don't want you to leave -- to leave only to forget me. So I shall give you my hardest riddle and fate will determine where you will go from here."
"You believe in fate?" Draco laughed, thinking it awfully foolish for such a monster to acknowledge a greater power.
"Of course," the Sphinx nodded. "So did Oedipus, you know."
"So you knew Oedipus?" Draco asked, wanting to gleam as much information as possible.
"I met him once," the Sphinx says slyly. "On the mountaintop in Thebes. You are familiar with the story?"
"Of course."
"He was a fine leader," the Sphinx comments appraisingly. "Oedipus always knew how to command the world . . . Don't let yourself be drawn into the same trap," she warned and Draco knew that his Sphinx was commenting on the Oracle's prophecy -- that Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother.
"But wasn't that fate?" Draco asked curiously, kissing the Sphinx's jawline. She smiled and looked down onto her teenage companion.
"Yes," she smiled indulgently. "That was fate. I simply hope that you don't meet the same tragic end. Now for that riddle . . . My hardest riddle . . ."
Draco braced himself, realizing for the first time that his life could be claimed by this creature. She began: "I never was, am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet I am the confidence of all to live and breathe on this terrestrial ball."
Draco sat by her feet, contemplating the riddle carefully. The answer was so close . . . He had heard questions like this before. He should be well- aware of the answer. But . . .
"Puzzled, my young companion? I need an answer," the Sphinx comments, nuzzling her face against the woolen fabric clothing his back.
Draco looked up into her peppery eyes. He kissed her lips -- soft, finely- crafted lips -- and answered her final riddle:
"Tomorrow."
The Sphinx smiled once and never spoke to Draco Malfoy again.
*****
Draco Malfoy thought of his Sphinx the first time he woke up next to his father -- Lucius Malfoy, in all his resplendent glory, bathing in a wave of sunlight that crashed down upon the canopy bed. His perfect father -- an ideal replica of the god-child himself, created to be kissed and fondled and held. But Malfoys have never been particularly good at sharing their possessions and Draco was no exception to this rule . . .
Draco Malfoy thought of his Sphinx when he decided to conveniently "put his mother out of the picture." She no longer fit into the scheme of things anymore, after all. And Lucius, despite some necessary mourning, hadn't truly minded.
You see, the Sphinx had taught Draco something that day: Oedipus' fate had been unavoidable. The gods had decreed that he would murder his father and marry his mother. However, the tragic end was the part that Oedipus had determined for himself. For who said that marrying ones father and murdering ones mother couldn't bring apart a delightfully ideal ending?
Although fate may be unavoidable, we make our own endings.
Author: Calliopiea ([email protected])
Rating: R
Pairing: Draco/ Sphinx
Category: Drama
Summary: Draco fixates on a long-forgotten creature, tucked away in a corner at Hogwarts
Disclaimer: I own nothing -- They all belong to JK (and I'm sure that she adores them as much as I do)
She sits on the left side of the stairway, leading up to the Great Hall.
Hordes of students pass by her every year -- on their way to supper, satchel clutched in their sweaty little hands, chit-chatting with their friends. Yet she is rarely noticed. She has been tucked away into a dank corner -- left to mildew and decay. She is mistaken all too often for marble statue, sitting silently on a bronzed pedestal. She sits there -- biding her time, waiting for the day when someone will take notice.
*****
Draco Malfoy, the god-child of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, was the first to notice her, sitting on her lofty perch. Always the observant one, Draco had been bred on classic mythology and knew the legend of the Sphinx well. She was the monster that had fallen on so many men in the past. But young Oedipus, the tragic hero, had solved her riddle and she had cast herself down from her rock and had perished. But yet, here she was -- waiting on the left side of the stairway, leading up to the Great Hall.
Her eyes were chiseled but Draco Malfoy knew that she could see.
He spent a great deal of his time by the Sphinx. He would sit on the bottom stair and scratch out his assignments -- pen on parchment. When no one was around, he would try talking to her. He would ask her about ancient Thebes and inquire if she had ever really gone to Giza. She would remain stoic, not responding. But, every so often, the white-speckled lips would curl upwards in a smile. That way, Draco knew that she was listening.
"You're pretty enough," Draco mentioned during another one-sided conversation. He was in his fifth year, just beginning to realize what he was looking for in a woman. The smile changed from indulgent to coy and Draco knew that she was listening. Once, he reached his hand up and felt the luxuriant curve of the marble breast and, underneath the sturdy rock, he could feel the life-heat beating against his palm.
In his sixth year, the Sphinx finally uttered her first words to the boy. He was sitting on the pedestal, reading an essay on the uses of Sodalite in magical healing. He often touched the Sphinx absent-mindedly, petting her slate-smooth back. Today, however, his hands roamed to different areas. He found himself searching out her too-womanly breasts again and rubbed the pad of his thumb against a plump nipple.
"Child, do you wish a riddle?"
Those were the first words spoken to the young boy and Draco had watched, entranced, as her rigid lips had formed the words. Her eyelashes stiffly batted downwards and the faintest tint of color rose to her features -- a coral flush to her lips. And Draco was enchanted.
"You'll be the death of me then. I know the stories."
"Then we shall start with a simple one," she replied. "I don't want to be rid of you yet. At night they come without being fetched, and by day they are lost without being stolen."
Draco thought it over for a moment. He had been raised with riddles, all sorts of riddles. And, seeing as these had been a portion of his upbringing, Draco had no trouble figuring out the answer.
"The stars."
"Ah," she smiled, leaning in closer and capturing his fleshy earlobe between her lips. The bite was numbingly cold and Draco was tempted for a moment to pull away from her ministrations. However, in the end, he allowed her to press her lips against him.
*****
The second riddle was more challenging. Draco had reached the end of his sixth year and was about to leave for the summer -- back to Malfoy Manor, back to his doting parents. Suitcase hitched up under his arm, Draco had paused for a moment to say farewell to his beloved Sphinx. The rest of the students were still gathering their belongings. They wouldn't be wandering the hallways for another hour.
"I came to say good-bye," Draco announced somberly, kneeling on the pedestal.
"You're leaving me?" the Sphinx questioned, panic settling in the back of her throat. "So soon?"
"Only for the summer," Draco replied. "I'll be back in September."
"Do you wish another riddle?"
His hand reached down, once again, to toy with a necklace that hung around her neck. The charm disappeared in her abundant cleavage but Draco dipped his fingers between her breasts and clasped the golden icon in his palm. She giggled -- something that seemed more befitting to a hormone-driven girl than to this mythic beast. However, Draco grinned widely and exposed the side of his neck, letting her suck on the salt-tinged meat.
"Another please," he choked as a velvety bruise rose to the surface of his skin.
"I drive men mad for love of me. Easily beaten, never free."
Draco knew this one -- His father had repeated it to him often enough. But he simply couldn't concentrate on the answer. Not with this wicked creature suckling at his jawbone, tormenting his chin with the tip of his tongue. He stood there vacantly for a moment, trying to get his barrings.
"Gold."
"Come back to me soon, Draco."
*****
A vital seventeen-year-old boy, Draco was practically mad with desire by the time he returned to Hogwarts. The Sphinx of the staircase had become the sole figure in his masturbatory fantasies. He would allow his fingers to wander up the expanse of his thighs, pinching tightly when he reached the thin line of his pubic bone. He would continue teasing himself in this manner for hours, picturing the nefarious creature caressing him. He would come eventually -- come without even touching himself.
Lucius indulged his son's somewhat-morbid fascination. A painting of "Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Gustav Moreau hung in a prominent place opposite Draco's canopy bed. A dog-eared copy of Buch der Lieder sat on Draco's bedside table, always turned to the same poem:
"The marble image came alive, began to moan and plead. She drank my burning kisses up with ravenous thirst and greed. She drank the breath from out my breast. She fed lust without pause; She pressed me tight, and tore and rent my body with her claws."
When Draco returned to Hogwarts, the first thing he did was to visit with his Sphinx. She hadn't changed -- then again, mythical beasts rarely do change. They simply bide their time, waiting for suitable prey. And, oh! Draco was suitable. The blonde demigod sat at her clawed feet, kissing her fur-covered ankles and relishing in the thrill of first contact after an extending period of time.
"You've returned," she stated -- simply, not wanting to reveal her emotions.
"Yes, I've returned to you."
He kissed up her torso -- to where fur merged with flesh. He kissed the hard peaks of her breasts and up the side of her long, Egyptian neck. And, finally, when he had consumed every portion of her, he kissed her lips. Mouth moving against mouth, tongue rubbing against tongue. He wrapped his hands around starched curls and pulled her closer, wanting to eat her from the outside in.
"Another riddle?"
"Yes."
"If you break me, I do not stop working. If you touch me, I may be snared. If you lose me, nothing will ever matter again."
My lips tussle against hers once again. The click-clack of shoes against the floors of the corridors made Draco spit out his answer quickly, as he was afraid of being caught.
"Heart."
*****
Graduation.
Draco Malfoy's last moments at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were spent with the Sphinx in the corner to the left of the stairway, leading up to the Great Hall. He clutched her face in his hand, stroking the alabaster cheekbones and the peppered nose. Her tears fell -- gutter water from stone eyes, the fountain in the foyer.
"I have to leave."
"I am well-aware of that," she replied, making no qualms over the matter.
"You have been a faithful companion."
"As have you."
"One final riddle," he demanded. "Give me one final riddle."
"I need to give you my hardest," she responded. "As always, I don't want you to fail and perish but, at the same time, I don't want you to leave -- to leave only to forget me. So I shall give you my hardest riddle and fate will determine where you will go from here."
"You believe in fate?" Draco laughed, thinking it awfully foolish for such a monster to acknowledge a greater power.
"Of course," the Sphinx nodded. "So did Oedipus, you know."
"So you knew Oedipus?" Draco asked, wanting to gleam as much information as possible.
"I met him once," the Sphinx says slyly. "On the mountaintop in Thebes. You are familiar with the story?"
"Of course."
"He was a fine leader," the Sphinx comments appraisingly. "Oedipus always knew how to command the world . . . Don't let yourself be drawn into the same trap," she warned and Draco knew that his Sphinx was commenting on the Oracle's prophecy -- that Oedipus would murder his father and marry his mother.
"But wasn't that fate?" Draco asked curiously, kissing the Sphinx's jawline. She smiled and looked down onto her teenage companion.
"Yes," she smiled indulgently. "That was fate. I simply hope that you don't meet the same tragic end. Now for that riddle . . . My hardest riddle . . ."
Draco braced himself, realizing for the first time that his life could be claimed by this creature. She began: "I never was, am always to be. No one ever saw me, nor ever will. And yet I am the confidence of all to live and breathe on this terrestrial ball."
Draco sat by her feet, contemplating the riddle carefully. The answer was so close . . . He had heard questions like this before. He should be well- aware of the answer. But . . .
"Puzzled, my young companion? I need an answer," the Sphinx comments, nuzzling her face against the woolen fabric clothing his back.
Draco looked up into her peppery eyes. He kissed her lips -- soft, finely- crafted lips -- and answered her final riddle:
"Tomorrow."
The Sphinx smiled once and never spoke to Draco Malfoy again.
*****
Draco Malfoy thought of his Sphinx the first time he woke up next to his father -- Lucius Malfoy, in all his resplendent glory, bathing in a wave of sunlight that crashed down upon the canopy bed. His perfect father -- an ideal replica of the god-child himself, created to be kissed and fondled and held. But Malfoys have never been particularly good at sharing their possessions and Draco was no exception to this rule . . .
Draco Malfoy thought of his Sphinx when he decided to conveniently "put his mother out of the picture." She no longer fit into the scheme of things anymore, after all. And Lucius, despite some necessary mourning, hadn't truly minded.
You see, the Sphinx had taught Draco something that day: Oedipus' fate had been unavoidable. The gods had decreed that he would murder his father and marry his mother. However, the tragic end was the part that Oedipus had determined for himself. For who said that marrying ones father and murdering ones mother couldn't bring apart a delightfully ideal ending?
Although fate may be unavoidable, we make our own endings.