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"Miss Malfoy," Binns called as she left the History of Magic classroom to go to lunch, "A word about your paper on the treatment of magical creatures by the Wizard Council?"
Auriga smiled - she knew she'd done well on that one. She'd even gone as far as to take a few documents out the Ministry archives in order to add some additional information. "Yes, Professor?" She asked, approaching the front desk.
"Well, it's excellently phrased and organised - as always," he started, "And you've included all the relevant points. I was just wondering about your point on the relevance of werewolf legislation in modern day. To my knowledge, no werewolf has ever signed it." Binns seemed quite amused at the idea.
"Ah, I see. Well, there's talk in the Ministry that they're going to make it mandatory," she explained, "There'd be large benefits to companies, the civilian witch or wizard, and werewolves alike. It would allow companies to show more lenience towards a werewolf employee if they felt it necessary, but also allow witches and wizards to guard their safety better. It is extremely difficult to identify a werewolf outside of full moons, so the legislative act would allow more freedom of information in that regard," she finished, and was pleased to see that Binns was quite impressed.
"Very well argued, Miss Malfoy," he said, "I'll give you thirty points and, of course, a commendation to Professor Snape. You're going to go far, one day. Do you mind if I keep this paper in the library archives?"
"Not at all, Professor," she said with a smile, "Enjoy your Christmas."
*****
After doing one last round on the train, Auriga stepped off onto platform nine and three-quarters with Thomas. "Happy Christmas!" He called after her, before hurrying off to where his parents and younger sisters stood waiting for him. They were both in Hogwarts uniform too - one a Gryffindor and one a Ravenclaw. Auriga thought it was quite odd that all three children attended Hogwarts, as he came from a muggle family, but dismissed it. It probably happened all the time.
Auriga disapparated from where she stood and found herself facing the iron gates to her family home. At her touch they swung open and she made her way up the long drive with her trunk levitating behind her. She reached the towering, heavy-wood front doors and knocked three times. Again, they opened magically at her touch.
She stepped into the front hall, depositing her trunk behind her. "Dobby!" she called, and the house elf appeared in front of her.
"Yes, Miss?" he said, looking terrified at her appearance.
"Take my trunk up to my room," Auriga ordered as she took off her black travelling cloak and hung it up in a nearby cupboard.
Before she could take another step into the house, a blond-headed ten year old came whizzing through the door in front of her, squealing with delight. "Auriga's home!" Draco shouted back into the drawing room. He practically tackled her into a hug, and she ruffled his hair playfully.
"Hey squirt," she said, laughing at him trying to smooth his hair back down.
"Tell me about Hogwarts!" Draco demanded, grinning from ear to ear. He knew he'd be going next year, and couldn't wait to do magic like she could.
"Now, now, Draco," her mother said, coming through the same door, but less like a hurricane and more like an elegant swan, "Auriga will have plenty of time to tell you about Hogwarts over the next two weeks." Then, Narcissa turned to Auriga, taking her in, "Why don't you get washed and changed before dinner, dear?"
Auriga obliged and headed up the circular stairway to the first floor, where her suite was located at the very end of the house. She opened one of the heavy oak doors and stepped inside, inhaling the familiar homely smell she always had in her room.
Her bedroom was decoarated in sage green and dark oak, as it had been for most of her life. Opposite the doors and in the centre of the room was a handsome king size bed with white sheets that had little rose buds embroidered on them in shiny white thread. To the right was her dressing table, filled with all kinds of potions and perfumes that she'd acquired over the years. Opposite that, and next to the door was a handsome claw-footed wardrobe.
On the other side of her bed was her workspace and a tall bookshelf that was full to bursting and opposite that was the door that led to her bathroom. Both ends of the room had floor to ceiling french windows that opened out onto a small balcony. The left side of the room overlooked the gardens and terrace and the right side overlooked the front lawns.
She picked out some royal blue robes and laid them on her bed, before unpacking her trunk and emptying it of any rubbish. Then, she had a quick shower and re-did her hair, before getting dressed and going back downstairs to the drawing room, photos from her year so far in hand.
Auriga reached the drawing room, where her mother was laid out on a sofa, reading a book written in french, and her brother was playing chess against himself. "Knight to F5," she called out. The black knight obliged, smashing the white queen to pieces.
"Hey-" Draco began, but upon seeing who had spoken, his face lit into a smile and he dragged her to sit next to him in an armchair. "So, what's Hogwarts like?" he asked eagerly.
"Well, my lessons are all really interesting," Auriga started, and began to work her way through what she was doing in each of her subjects. Auriga told him about how she could make herself have bird wings now if she wanted from Transfiguration, and all about Babylonian Numerology from arithmancy. She went into depth about the different runes from Norse mythology and told him the exciting story of the sixteenth century giant wars in France. She made a bubble appear around his head from charms, spoke about the venomous tentacula from herbology and produced a vial of elixir to induce euphoria for him to try.
"I don't think so," Narcissa told him, summoning it from his hand, "You'll be going to bed in a few hours and if Auriga's potions ability is as good as Severus says it is, this won't wear off for at least a day." Auriga smiled when her mother told her that - it was always nice to have a bit of approval.
There was a knock at the door and moments later Auriga's father appeared in the doorway, "Sorry I'm late, dear," Lucius said to his wife, "I was held up by Cresswell about a report our darling Auriga did for him." He kissed Narcissa on the cheek before turning to Auriga, who had stood up to meet him, "Fantastic work, darling," he said, kissing her on the cheek too, "I couldn't be more proud. Fudge tells me you sat in on one of the meetings?" He was smiling at her and she could tell he really was proud.
"Yes, I did," she said with a grin, "Mr Cresswell's undersecretary was off sick and he asked me to step in."
"Darling that's wonderful!" her mother cried, embracing her as her father had done, "You'll tell us all about it at dinner, of course?"
"Of course," Auriga promised, before going back to chess with Draco.