Narcissa wanted to dress as something for Halloween that wasn't a cliché, it seemed next to impossible. She had over the years been everything from a swan to a Greek goddess princess and many other things that played on her blond innocence and sweetness. This year was proving more than a challenge. She had toyed with the idea of going as Lucius but that just seemed silly as there wasn't anything all that scary about her husband. Unless you woke him up in the morning on a Sunday before he was ready to join the world of the living. She has also thought about going as Bellatrix but her sister wouldn't see the funny side. There were only a few hours till the party and her options were beginning to become seriously limited. The dress that she had had made for the occasion was that of a Victorian ghost but she didn't like that idea any more either. She huffed as she ripped various old dresses out of her wardrobe trying to find something.
She collapsed back on her bed giving up that she would be able to find anything that would do for the night. As the wife of the host she wanted to make sure that she was the best dressed woman there, but the chances of managing that now were very slim. Lucius was dressing as a male Victorian ghost, as the plan was that they always dressed to match but that in itself was a cliché that she didn't want to maintain for another year. No one ever really noticed her when she was dressed to match him; she was just his arm candy. She admired the way that Bellatrix could dress and mingle at a party without needing to have the presence of a man to support her; but then her reputation as a teenager had been such that any man who had entertained the idea of making her his wife would have to accept the reputation that she bought with her. She looked around her room waiting for something to inspire her to a costume.
She curled up on the massive feather stuffed pillows that rested at the top of her bed, thinking about the tedium that it would mean to spend another night with those same people that she spent every party and social function with, listening to the same conversations that she got to listen to every time that she was together around those people. She picked the pillow up and held it over her own face and screamed into it. It seemed like the best way to try and break her own frustrations about the evening that was going to ensue. She felt as though she could have gone into the ballroom and screamed until she was blue in face but no one would ever listen to her. She lifted the pillow of her face when she was done screaming. She held the pillow up and looked at the case having for the first time in a long time what was a very good idea. She smiled and got off the bed going to the vanity table to get a pair of scissors.
Lucius nearly choked on his butter beer when he saw Narcissa walk into the ball room, he had thought that the Victorian ghost dress was wonderful and she had come through the double doors dressed in a pillow case, her hair down no makeup and no shoes. He had no idea what she was doing and he could already see and hear that people were pointing at her and laughing. He walked over to her and pulled her by the arm to one side of the room to talk to her with a hushed and fierce tone.
'What the hell do you think that you are wearing?' Lucius had a standard that he thought the Malfoy family should project at all times and she was doing everything that she could to violate this. He wiped one of the fake cobwebs out of his face so that he could see her properly.
'I just thought that it would be amusing to come to the party as a house elf, don't you think that there is something on the amusing side about it?' She played with the bottom of the pillow case that she had turned into a long dress. Lucius didn't know if he wanted to slap her or not, but he had other more important things that needed to take up his time than Narcissa and her silly games. Having been abandoned by her husband she found herself a glass of punch and decided to make her way around the room greeting as many people as possible and making sure that they all saw that the lady of the manor was nothing more than a house elf.
There were many in the room intrigued by what she was wearing, and the occasional eyebrow was raised and even a monocle or two found itself dislodged from the eye of the gentleman it adorned as he watched her stalk past. She hated to admit it but she was enjoying the attention of being shocking. She finished her glass of punch and placed it back down on one of the many trays that were floating around the room containing drinks and party nibbles for the enjoyment of the many guests that were assembled. There was indeed something liberating about being in a pillow case.
She had walked onto the patio that was located outside the main doors of the ballroom that led out onto the garden; even though it was October their gardens were enchanted to be in full bloom all the year around. She enjoyed the garden greatly it was her favourite part of the house and she thought that there was nothing better than being able to take her breakfast out there in the summer. She leant on the stone surround of the patio covering her mouth with her hand to stop herself from laughing at the way that people had reacted to her.
She realised then that she was not alone on the stone decking. From the side of the house there was a cigar being smoked that caused a blue train of mist to come from the shadow of the house.
'Forgive me lady Malfoy; I didn't think that anyone would be outside this early on seeing as the party is in full swing.' She knew the voice without seeing the figure as the voice with the Texan drawl was unmistakable. Rosier was what the intercontinental referred to as the southern gentleman, he travelled between the Americas and England promoting relations between the ministry and the magical congress.
'Well I was tired of getting stared at in there.' She crossed her arms over the pillow case dress pulling it tight across the toned muscle of her stomach. Rosier smiled at her stubbing out the cigar on the white washed bricks of the house. It was lucky that Lucius didn't see that, he deplored smoking in the house or on the grounds; he thought that the stench of it made a home smell cheap. She smiled at him none the less.
'I'm not surprised you are being stared at, you have after all failed to put on a costume, or is this how you always dress when you are alone?' He came closer to her leaning with his arm next to her on the stone work. She knew enough about Rosier to know that he always over dressed for such occasions and was himself dressed as the muggle king Henry the eighth. She wasn't sure how much of a likeness he was but the costume did look well on him.
'Would you like a tour of the rest of the house and grounds? Narcissa had at that moment been lost for conversation so she thought that playing the good hostess for the time being was a good way to go. Rosier looked around at the patio for a moment before turning back to her to speak.
'Well I think that would be a fine way to spend the evening, lead on little house elf.'