Hyacinth shrunk down her clothing and placed them in her trunk next to the rest of her belongings. She no longer felt weighed down. She and her mother had returned to the bank to see Ludlig, where she had learnt she was heir to four houses, Potter, Black, Riddle and Prince. She had only accepted the title of the first three, believing that her mother should keep his title as heir Prince.
She still wasn't quite sure why she was packing, nor where she was packing for. Her mother had come bursting through the floo while she was curled up peacefully on the sofa reading and told her that she wasn't as safe as he had initially thought and that she needed to pack so he could take her elsewhere.
She wasn't particularly sad or happy to leave her mother's home. She hadn't been there long enough to form an opinion on the place. So she silently packed her few belongings and made her way back downstairs, where her mother was waiting for her.
"We can't use the floo. It can be traced. Take my arm; I'll side-along with you" her mother's words were rushed, panicked even. She had never seen him like this in the four years of being his student. She really must not have been as safe as he had once believed.
Hyacinth grabbed her mother's hand and moved close to him, not wanting to get splinched. She had heard the horrors of splinching from the Weasley twins. Her heart pinched a little at the thought of them. To her, the twins had always seemed to care about her genuinely. While she could now look back and recognise moments when each Weasley secretly betrayed her, she couldn't find a disingenuous moment with the twins. She wondered if she could harbour a friendship with the two again.
She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt her feet hit solid ground, and if it hadn't of been for her mother's steadying grip, she would've fallen. Her stomach twisted from the sensation of apparation, and she found herself having to take a few deep breaths to fight off the urge to bring up that morning's breakfast.
Her mother placed a comforting hand on her back, and she finally managed to stand up straight and survey their surroundings.
It didn't take her long to recognise that they were on the grounds of Malfoy manor. She had seen the grand building in the prophet a year ago when Draco's mother had suddenly died. No one knew the cause of her death; if the Malfoy men knew, they would give nothing away.
Her mother urged her forward with a firm hand on her lower back, and she followed without complaint. As they walked up the staircase, the grand double doors swung open, revealing a house elf.
"Master bes expecting yous. Himmy is to take yous to yous rooms and bring yous down for dinner at dinnertime. Master sent Himmy to fetch yous while master does important work. " Professor Mister and Little Missy, follow Himmy," the small female elf spoke with an adorable lisp. Hyacinth suspected she wasn't very old—maybe about 90, which was akin to being a young teenager in elf years.
Hyacinth nudged her mother, "Professor Mister", and she giggled ", I like it."
Severus chuckled. "She refuses to call me anything else," he said. "I got used to it."
The two followed the tiny elf, who led them to Severus' quarters, where Severus entered to decompress from the day's events and nap before dinner. Himmy gently took Hyacinth's hand and led her further down the hall. Himmy opened the door on the wall opposite her mother's room and led Hyacinth into the room. Hyacinth couldn't help the gasp that escaped her mouth.
Long, narrow windows were on two walls except for one where two doors stood, one leading to an ensuite and the other to a walk-in closet big enough to fit two football pitches in. The floor was dark black wood, most likely ebony. Between two windows stood a four-poster bed big enough to fit three people, four at a push, in the centre of the room.
All of the windows, of which there were four, had mauve-coloured curtains blowing gently from the breeze of a few open windows. The walls were a deep blue with black patterning barely visible unless you looked closely.
The fourth wall consisted of a large fireplace with a roaring fire and two bookshelves on either side. This part of the room had been turned into a small seating area with a large fluffy rug, a large corner sofa, two armchairs, and a coffee table in the middle, just between the fireplace and the sofa.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" a woman's voice asked. Hyacinth's eyes shot up to the portrait above the fireplace, where none other than Narcissa Malfoy sat. The oil painting of the beautiful woman smiled down upon her, and it took everything within her not to gape.
Snapping out of her little daze, Hyacinth nodded frantically.
Narcissa's smile widened "come closer to me, my dear; let me look at you."
Hyacinth rounded the sofa, so she stood just before it looking directly up into the woman's painted eyes. Narcissa gasped, and she could've sworn she saw her eyes fill up with tears.
"My, how beautiful you are, my flower. You're so much like your mother. Tom would be so proud," she lamented. Hyacinth reeled.
"You knew my father?" she asked, curiosity filling her voice.
"Oh yes," she replied, nodding, "Tom and I were good friends. He was a mess the day you were born. It took a joint effort between Lucius, my sister Bella and myself to calm him. We ended up spiking his fire whiskey with dreamless sleep" She chuckled sadly, her painted eyes dimming slightly and the paint losing some of its vibrance. Only a little, but enough to notice.
"What was he like? My father? Mother refuses to speak about him. Says it's too painful," Hyacinth asked.
Narcissa nodded morosely. "I can imagine it would be painful for him, my flower. Not only did Severus lose you that day, but Tom also went missing shortly after. He may not have remembered that until recently, but I imagine that would make it all the more painful."
Hyacinth nodded. She now understood why talking about his husband was so painful for her mother.
"Your father was a fierce and passionate man. He was passionate about politics and the future of the wizarding world, but most of all, he was fiercely protective of those he loved. Severus especially. Tom was older than your mother by a few years; he knew how Severus was abused at home and bullied at school. He was privy to all of your mother's vulnerabilities and protected your mother as if he would shatter at the slightest touch. You were born in the manor; I delivered you. I will never forget the way your father scooped you up the first chance he got. He cried the first time he saw you. Before that, I had never seen him cry. He picked you up in your little bundle of blankets as if you too would break, and he looked into your eyes with so much love I felt it just by watching"
Hyacinth nodded and swiped a few stray tears from her cheeks, "thank you"; she whispered, her voice tiny and full of longing, pain and happiness all at once. She longed to have her father with her, the pain of not having him there and the satisfaction of knowing something about him finally.
"You're welcome, my dear. Now. Please show me your dresses, beautiful. We must prepare you for dinner," Narcissa chirped, managing to lighten the mood with as little effort as a duck to water.
Hyacinth giggled and made her way to her trunk that Himmy had brought in while she spoke to Narcissa and began to pull out and unshrink her clothes.