I open my eyes, and feel the icy cold breeze touch my cheeks, except something wasn't right, as I slowly gain consciousness, I begin to feel soft silk sheets on a cushy thick mattress beneath me as I sink into it. My fingers tangled under a warm soft duvet also made of silk. Was I dreaming again?
I shoot up and sit up in the bed immediately in shock of my surroundings, this definitely was not here when I had gone to sleep on the icy cold floorboards I had known too well.
I look down at the end of the bed, and see an envelope placed on the corner. I quickly grab it and pull out the note inside. A small smile of disbelief forms on my face as I read,
Happy Christmas
- Narcissa
We had spent every single morning together having tea in the last 3 months, it was almost like a morning ritual for us, mostly as a coping mechanism for how anxious we were for Draco, but she always had her cold demeanour and always made sure I knew my place; however, this was the first time she had showed me kindness.
I jump out of bed and begin my day as usual, except there was much more chores to prepare for their Christmas before I knew it, the day flies by and its already time for the Malfoy Christmas dinner,
I made sure all the final touches were all set and ready, and seeing as it was Christmas I thought I deserved to take the rest of the evening off and spend my Christmas dinner with the house elves, I make my way up to my room to get out of my uniform, and put on the only set of clothing I own, the jumper and jeans I had been wearing the night I was captured.
I slip on the clothing but can't help but feel a wave of sadness. Normally my mother would always take me out and buy me a brand-new dress every year for Christmas dinner, and we would have so much fun dressing up, doing each other's make up, wearing the family's jewels for fun. I would give anything to be with her right now.
I walk out of the room and make my way towards the staircase, when I hear a voice call out from the all the way at the end of the hallway. It came from Narcissa and Lucious's room.
"Girl! is that you I hear out there?" Narcissa calls out.
I let out an exasperated sigh, as I make my way to her room,
"Did you need something?" I say slowly peering through her bedroom door.
"Help me zip this up wont you?" Narcissa asks me as I walk inside.
She was dressed a beautiful navy-blue long sleeve gown; it was simple but made of very expensive material. Her hair was also pinned up, and she was wearing a bright red lipstick. I had never seen her wear that colour before, it was beautiful on her, but a lot of things were beautiful on her, she was a striking woman.
"I love that colour of red" I say as I zip up her dress.
"Ah this one, Lucious got this for me in this little store in Paris" she says handing me the lipstick to look at.
"Paris is one of my favourite places in the whole world" I say rolling out the lipstick and admiring its quality.
"You are welcome to try it" she says clearing a throat
"Thanks, but I think this is far too extravagant for this outfit" I say with a chuckle.
Her face drops looking at my outfit, almost like she had only realised these were the clothes I was wearing the night I was captured and brought here. She composes herself and continues fiddling with her earrings in front of the mirror.
"The colour reminds me of my favourite Christmas dresses when I was your age, want to see?" she says wandering into her walk-in closet. I wander inside following her in.
She swiftly pulls out a large dusty white gift box, tucked away under her clothes rack. I kneel down in front of the box in anticipation to see what was inside.
"My aunt had gotten it for me, and I remember never wanting to take it off, sadly I no longer can fit in it, but I could never get rid of something so exquisite" she says lifting the lid of the box, revealing the most beautiful silk ruby red dress.
She pulls it out and lays it in front of me, it had a sweetheart neckline and bows on the straps. I run my fingers along it, feeling the soft silky material. It was truly exquisite.
"It's stunning" I say in amazement, she watches my reaction in amusement.
"Want to try it on? Looks like your size" she says eyeing my figure. I wanted to refuse, however the longer I kept staring at the dress I couldn't help but wonder how it would feel on me.
"I would love to" I reply with a slight smile, I undress in the closet and put on the red dress, it slipped on effortlessly and fit me like a glove.
"Wow" Narcissa says quietly, before composing herself.
I wander in front of the mirror, and stare at myself in the dress while Narcissa steps out. I couldn't remember the last time I felt so beautiful, I couldn't help but turn and swish the pleats of the dress while I admired the way it fell on my body. For a second, I felt like I had my normal life back, just for a second.
I turn back and see Narcissa watching me with almost a proud smile on her face. I had never seen that look before, or at least never towards me.
"The final touch" she says walking over to me holding the red lipstick I had admired before.
Her hand gently grabs my chin as she carefully puts the lipstick on for me,
"Perfect" she says moving the curls off my face almost like a maternal instinct as she admired the lipstick on me,
I look back at her as I felt the first gesture of warmth from her, "Thank you for my bed, that was very kind" I say to her graciously.
She is taken back by those words and quickly turns away, "It was an old bed I found in the attic, you might as well use it" she says coldly.
I look back at the mirror, smiling at myself and twirling around for the final time, enjoying the fun of it all before I had to put on my old torn jumper. She watches me in amusement.
"I'm in love with this dress" I say to her as I walk over to where my jumper laid on the ground, I begin to pull down the strap of the dress.
"Wait" she interrupts,
"What?" I reply
"A dress that beautiful deserves to be worn one last time" she says looking at it
"You mean, I can wear it tonight?" I say in disbelief
"I don't see why not, not like anyone will see you" she says dryly
Draco's POV
I enter the dining hall, waiting for this stupid Christmas dinner to be over, I hated when we all sat around playing perfect family, as if we were normal.
"Merry Merry Christmas dear father" I say sarcastically
"Draco" he replies dryly before taking a large gulp of his wine.
We sit together in silence, as I pour a glass of wine for myself, my father shoots me a look of disapproval but did not say a word, didn't phase me, I was so used to that look I had forgotten what his normal expression looked like.
I gulp down the wine in seconds as I uncomfortably try and get through the silence between us. I begin to pour another.
"Where is your mother? Do see what's taking her so long" Father orders. I gulp down the second glass of wine before standing up, I could already feel the wine hitting me slightly.
I walk out into the foyer, and stand at the bottom of the stairs
"Mother! Father and I are waiting" I call out.
"Sorry... sorry dear, we had just gotten a bit distracted" she calls out running hastily making her way down the stairs. We?
As mother makes her way down, suddenly my heart feels like it almost skipped a beat as I see her follow quickly behind mother, time suddenly seemed like it had stopped as I examine her in that red dress, her tangled messy hair let down and falling against her round cheeks. Her big parted red lips. I had never seen her like this before. I had never seen anyone like this before. She was beautiful. She was always beautiful.
She suddenly makes eye contact with me, I nearly stop breathing unable to contain my composure.
"Ah sorry, I thought I let her borrow one my dresses for tonight" Mother announces as she drags me back to the dining hall, as we made our way back I couldn't help but turn back and look her. Her eyes meeting mine again as she disappeared towards the kitchen.
We get seated at the dining table, as my mother rings the bell to alarm the house elves we are ready for dinner, and just like Hogwarts, the food suddenly appears before our eyes on the table.
It was a feast we didn't deserve, I looked at all food that filled the entire table, everything you could imagine was here for us, this never phased me before but suddenly all I could think of was those muggleborns fighting to survive and hide from the snatchers and death eaters, there wouldn't be a Christmas for them.
"Draco? What's wrong?" Mother says immediately in concern
"What are we doing?" I say to them desperately
"What are you talking about?" Father asks sternly
"Look at us, how do we sit here and celebrate fucking Christmas when people are dying out there, being taken away from their homes and families.." I growl, I could really feel the wine hit me know.
"Draco don't" Father says quietly
"How can we live with ourselves in the end after all the pain and death we have caused being loyal to the dark lord... how do you father?" I say in disgust
"Draco stop this" Mother says looking around the room anxiously as though someone would hear.
"How do I live with myself? Hah.. how do I live with myself?? Everything I have done from the day you were born has been to make sure you grew up into a world where you would thrive! I did everything to make sure you would be strong and hard and resilient so that this world wouldn't chew you up and spit you out. I hurt and killed so many innocent people so that when the dark lord rose to power our family would be safe because we had earned his trust" Father rants as he stands from his chair.
"You think I follow him and do the cruel things I do because I want to? I only do it for you and your mother, and I would do it all again because it meant that I did my duty to keep this family safe" he continues
"But...but Potter" I mutter
"You think for a second that I would even consider betting your lives on that rubbish prophecy about that weak little boy" Father says now sounding defeated.
"You may think I'm a monster, but I don't care, because you are my everything, and if anything happened to you, I would be nothing" he shouts.
My mother remains silent as I look down feeling almost guilty for not realising what my father had sacrificed for me. His cruel punishments, it wasn't out of hate it was out of fear from losing the ones he loved.
"Father, don't you realise that showing you care doesn't make you weak" I say to him thinking about the words from Margot,
"Draco, I am weak, look at me, the only strength I have is this family, the only thing we all have at the end of this day ...is this family, and we need to ensure we do everything in our power to protect it" he says finally as he takes his seat again.
He was right, all I had at the end of the day was them.
"I'm afraid things are only going to get worse it seems, it appears that Potter has gotten closer to finding the horcruxes, which means that the dark lord is more desperate and more angry" Father explains
"What does this mean?" Mother asks
"It means that this home is going to start being filled with much more death eaters, and prisoners until he gets what he wants" Father says gravely, making me feel sick, however all I could think of was her... I had to keep her safe, if I couldn't save the rest of them.
"I think I have lost my appetite" I say getting up from my chair.
Murphy's POV
"I hope you like it" I say in anticipation, I watch the elves open their gifts from me, as we sit together on the kitchen floor after a big Christmas dinner. They were thrilled, they had never received anything from a wizard before,
They open their boxes to reveal 3 matching beaded bracelets, I had spent all yesterday making them with some spare craft supplies I had found in the library.
I hold up my risk revealing the same bracelet, "I know it may seem silly, but I want us all to have something, so we always remember the friendship we share" I say looking at them with adoration.
All three elves including Bolt begin to shed a tear at my cheesy gesture, causing me to kneel to the ground to embrace them, I then realised this is my family.
"We have never been treated as an equal, let alone a friend" Speckle says wiping away his tears.
"If only I were the lady of Malfoy manor, this would have meant you would be free" I say looking down.
All three of them go silent and give each other a knowing look, as though they had come to an agreement.
"What is it?" I chuckle
All three of them raise their hands, clicking their fingers to summon an object simultaneously,
"We have a gift for you too" Bolt says gesturing to a sock that suddenly appears before us
"A single sock?" I say picking it up and I let out a chuckle,
"This is very important, this is something that was trusted to us, if we ever needed help, however we all agree that you should have it instead, we think you might need it more than we do" Kit explains
"I don't understand?" I say in confusion
"If you rub this and repeat the name 3 times, it will summon help from someone on the outside, of course it won't get you out of here but it might save your life in a scenario we might not be able to in the manor" Bolt explains.
"You are giving this to me? I don't know what to say... Thank you" I say to them gently
"You are one of us" Speckle chimes in
"What is the name I should repeat three times?"
All together three of them say together.
"Dobby".