⊰ Dragon Serpentine ⊱

༄ 3

Ryuu's POV

I opened my apartment door to have the aroma of freshly made pasta fill my nostrils. Dad. "How long have you been back?" I called down the hall, hanging my coat on the peg beside the door.

My father emerged from the kitchen with a bowl in each hand. "Only a couple of hours." Even though he was at home, he still looked like he was at work. His reading glasses were hanging over the pocket of his shirt and his ever present camera swung from his neck. His light blonde hair was windblown, but still didn't hide the ringlets I had inherited.

"How'd the cliff jumping go?" I inquired.

"Amazing. I got some great shots of them. Because they're professionals, they can do flips before they hit the water, and the colour contrasts of the rock and the sky were just perfect..." I smirked as my father rambled on. He could talk for hours about photography. Walking over to the dinner table, I noticed a pile of letters on the lounge and frowned. That's strange. There's never post on Sundays.

"What're these?"

My father's sky blue eyes rested upon the mail. "Oh, they're late ones. I only remembered where I'd left my key this morning. Sorry if you were expecting something." He placed a bowl on the table before me. "Hey, here's something I learned today. Do you know how to tell the time by just using the sun? Well..." My father prattled away and I actually listened to his exaggerated facts and quirky descriptions. My father had never graduated school, but was smart in a way that he was full of useless information. My mother sometimes referred to him as the whirlwind of vacuous crap, but I found some of his musings rather interesting. If it weren't for him I'd never have learned that the hard tip at the end of a shoelace was called an aglet. Or that a baby echidna was called a puggle. 

I rifled through the letters. Bills, Investments, Junk mail...To Ms. Ryuu Advena Veil. The letter was addressed in green ink, and the Hogwarts crest appeared in the top right hand corner. Hastily, I flipped it over and clumsily tore it open. I only just managed to catch the weighty silver object that fell out. It was polished and shaped like a shield with a large emerald green 'P' engraved into the centre.

A Prefect's Badge.

Draco's Pov

I snatched my broomstick from the feeble grips of the four house elves. "None of you are to touch this." I demanded, as they bowed their heads and backed away to help the others with packing my trunk. What loathsome servants. I retrieved the black leather case from my wardrobe and flicked the golden locks upward. Carefully, I placed my Nimbus Two Thousand and One in its designated spot, smoothing out the tail end before shutting the case once more.

"Master..." said a weak voice from the doorway. It was smaller than the other servants, and its wide staring eyes had a yellow tinge to them. I recognised the elf, yet its name had slipped from my memory. Like that's important, anyway.

"What?" as soon as I spoke directly to it, the elf's gaze dropped downwards and I could see that it was afraid of me. The creature shuffled its abnormally large feet and tugged at its bat-like ear.

"Master Draco... your f-father Lord Lucius wishes to s-s-see you..."

I lowered my broomstick case to the ground, and straightened out my sleeves. "Take me to him."

"Y-yes, Master!"

I allowed the elf to stumble along ahead of me as it guided me through the familiar halls of my home. The servant was clambering along at a disjointedly fast pace, and I assumed it was probably running. Either from fear, or simple hastiness, I couldn't be sure. Probably fear. The corridor was lined with portraits of my ancestors, who chatted amicably to each other as I passed. I never talked to the paintings. They always wanted to ramble on about times long ago that only they cared about.