Death's Daughter || Tom Riddle

Preparations | 31

The sunlight's beam seeped through the window by her bed, causing her to squint her eyes to adjust to the light. After stretching herself and letting out a yawn, she rubbed her eyes and sat dumbly for a moment, waiting for her brain to start working properly. When the gears in her mind started working, she almost toppled out of bed from stupidly forgetting what day it was.

Today was Christmas Eve, and also the day when the Malfoys hosted a big event, inviting pure-bloods from all around Europe to attend. Its purpose was mostly for business opportunities but aside from that, getting to know one another. Nyx had no doubt the Knights of Walpurgis waited for the opportunity for a long time, enabling them to connect to high-ranked people, giving Riddle more power in harvesting secluded information.

She quickly went over to the bathroom, noting how the wooden floor was cold beneath her feet making her walk even quicker to the bathroom to avoid the coldness that nipped at her. She took a quick warm bath and changed from her nightgown into a more appropriate dress to spend the day.

Finally adding the last touches to her face with makeup, she made her way out of her room and down the grand staircase to where she dined last night.

When she reached the said room, she was met with eerie silence. The room felt more empty than last night, perhaps due to the fact that there was no loud chatter heard. Only a single person was sat in the room, quietly eating his breakfast while constantly glancing back up to his book to read. Nyx's eyes glanced over at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, noting it was still quite early in the morning. Figuring the others would come down to eat later, Nyx greeted Nott with an awkward smile which was not returned. Noah Nott seemed to have not taken notice of her existence or he either just ignored her altogether, his eyes still glued to his book when she sat down.

She ate her food silently, whilst stealing glances at the brown-haired boy and back to the dining rooms' doors. As time passed, more snow piled outside, the snowflakes falling ever so slowly to the ground where they conjoined with the others, causing a white sheet of cold outdoors.

Nyx finished her breakfast after a while and wiped her mouth with a napkin before standing up to leave. Before she left, she watched as Nott finished his food and pushed the clean and empty plate away, his attention now solely focused on the book at hand.

What a bookworm

She left the room and sauntered around the manor to explore. She ended up getting lost a couple of times due to its maze-like halls, nevertheless, she managed to find her way back to the familiar surroundings every time. She discovered quite a lot of unused rooms in the manor which would make quite a good place to play hide-and-seek if she were a child. But yet, the emptiness of the place had her on the edge, always constantly feeling like someone was watching her. Perhaps it was the portraits that caused these goosebumps. However, the portraits here weren't able to move like the ones at Hogwarts, making the situation for her even more creepy. Like the eyes of Mona Lisa who followed you everywhere; that was the feeling she felt around those portraits.

After roaming around the manor, she found herself back in the hallway where her bedroom was. She was about to turn back and look for a different route to explore when a thought occurred to her.

Is Riddle inside there?

If so, she would very much abandon the hallway but if not; she was going to barge into his room and look for that damn book he has been carrying around everywhere he went. Just to make sure he was in fact, not in his room, she went back down the grand staircase to the dining room where she expected everyone to be after a few hours of her exploring.

She entered, and sure enough, almost everyone was there.

Almost everyone.

Her eyes scanned the room again to make sure she was sure her eyes weren't deceiving her and sure enough, she was right. Riddle was not here. A sigh left her before she could stop it, assuming Riddle was in his room, reading that book. But soon, the disappointment that washed over her was soon replaced by joy.

There, sitting in the same seat as last night was Caelum, waving at her enthusiastically with a large grin on his face, motioning for her to join him. She did without hesitation, sliding into the seat next to him, and then giving him a wide smile. "Hey! Did you sleep well?" Caelum started while handing her a piece of toast which she politely declined. "Yeah, never been better. And you? I hope Avery wasn't giving you a hard time," she questioned whilst side-glancing at the said boy who was innocently buttering his toast, unaware of being mentioned. "Avery pretty much fell asleep quicker than you can say 'Merlin's beard'," Nyx chuckled, then remembering something she wished to ask him.

"Did you two have to share a bed?" She questioned with brows raised. The question seemed to have caught Caelum off guard for the next moment, he was choking on his food.

"Merlin's beard, no! We had separate beds," Caelum gave his best friend an unamused glare, only to receive a playful smirk in return.

"You never know..."

Time seemed to pass by quickly. Soon, the evening was dawning in. The house elves were out and about, scrubbing every single inch of everything to perfection.

The ballroom where she had stumbled upon earlier in the morning looked nothing like its usual self. Unlike her first visit, the room seemed bright and lively, music from somewhere off in the distance playing a nice tune, the remains of the dust that had found a home in the corners of the room were no longer visible, and somehow, if possible, the room seemed larger than the first time stumbled upon it. Perhaps it was enchanted to grow bigger to fit more amount of people.

While she was admiring the ballroom, she felt someone tug at her. She quickly tensed at the touch and turned around to face the person who laid a hand on her. Relief washed over when she saw it was none other than Caelum. "How do I look?" He asked once she turned around to face him and her tenseness dissolved. She took her time to have her gaze run over him before giving him an answer. His raven hair was slightly ruffled, probably intentional, his attire different from when she last saw him. He was in a tuxedo, his bow a bit lopsided, causing her to lift her hands to fix it.

Their height difference wasn't that much but he still had to look down to see her adjust his bow, watching as her fingers brushed over his suit to clean him from the invisible dust. She took a step back to admire her work before answering, "Perfect," she gave him a soft smile before she was returned with a warm smile from her best friend.

"You should get dressed, the event is starting in an hour, and I know girls take a lot of time to get ready," Caelum suggested, his eyes lingering on the dress she wore all morning.

"You're probably right. I'll see you in an hour I guess," she replied, removing herself from his gaze and back up the stairs to her room, getting ready for the ball.