Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 32 - The Malfoys

The sight of the Malfoy Manor made me shudder. It was much colder here than the Hogwarts grounds; it was located in the far North, so even though it was late June, I needed to wear a coat as we were taking our long walk to the mighty iron gate. The door opened with a flick of Draco's wand. He led me inside.

The Manor garden was enormous - the same as every other thing - half the size of the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium. Although it was very dark and depressing, it was beautifully styled with the touch of a woman. We had to walk a long way to see the Manor. The Manor resembled Hogwarts itself. It was smaller and darker of course but you could describe it as a castle. The black walnut door which opened as soon as we were two feet away. 

We walked inside and I opened my mouth awkwardly when I saw a huge room. The room had dark walls and a dark brown wooden floor and was pretty much empty. The windows were hidden behind the heavy black curtains and the only source of light came from some lit candles on the walls. Even the candles were not white or yellow; they had a grim grey color - or was it green? It was hard to tell.

"So, this is the entrance hall..." he led me further inside and pulled out my coat before giving it to an elf to hang it. 

"This is the entrance hall? It's something more than huge."

"Wait to see the west drawing-room."

"Thank you," I said to the elf that was slowly walking away with the coat and felt slightly embarrassed that I didn't thank her sooner. The elf looked at me with a funny look of both fear and gratitude.

"Don't do that in front of my father," said Draco. "When I was six I gave her a biscuit and I was punished for two months. Worst summer of my life." I made a frown. Although I didn't see him being hostile towards the elf, I could see that he had gotten used to slightly mistreating them, even if that took the form of not talking to them.

We went up the wide stairs and entered an even bigger room. This one had three big black leather sofas placed around a coffee table. You could hardly see the walls because the biggest part of them was covered by huge libraries filled with books. There was a portrait of Lucius, Narcissa and a young Draco hanging above the fireplace.

"And we go on to the dining room," he said when we entered the next room, again, partly empty.

In the center of the room stood a long wooden table that could resemble the four house tables at Hogwarts, surrounded by beautifully decorated chairs. The room smelled of old sandalwood and smoke. A chandelier was hanging above, illuminating the room a bit. There was a huge fireplace there too, which however, couldn't make the dining room more family friendly than it was designed to be. I found it a bit strange having a lit fireplace on June but I changed my mind when I heard the gentle tap of the rain on the window. But what creeped me out was the portraits hanging around in the dark walls. I could see each portrait for each of the Malfoy heirs going from the very beginning of the family till the very end, where Lucius was.

"Looking at the portraits, huh? You know, I'll be up there one day," he said trying to make it simpler than it sounded, but I could hear the bitter tone on his voice and I could only imagine how hard it could be being a Malfoy. "This is the ball room, but we hardly even get in here." I realised that the one room was bigger than the other, and I simply gave up on trying to catch up.

We went on to the next floor.

"This is Mother and Father's bedroom. Don't ever go in there. Anne, I'm dead serious about this. Don't go there," he said. And although he didn't open the door to take a look at it, I was sure that it was even huger than the dining room. "This is the library," he said taking me to a huge room filled with libraries filled with books that could be compared to the Hogwarts one. It was a dream come true for a bookworm like me. I gasped when I saw it. "This is Father's office but don't you dare get in there, trust me. I would know," we passed the door hastily. "These are the guest rooms. There are ten of them," he said but surprised me when he moved on without taking me to one of them. Perhaps I wouldn't sleep in a guest. We went on to the third floor.