Title: Bare and Bleak
Author: Nicole Mellano
Rating: G
Pairing: None
Summary: Narcissa Malfoy on her last visit to the Malfoy Mannor after Lucius was imprisoned.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
As I walk through these bare rooms, I recall a not so distant past when they were full of magnificent things. I enter my sitting room and try to dispel this hideous image before me instead replacing it with one from my memory.
Everything in the room screams refinement and style.Ornate tapestries cover the cold black stones of the old castle. Heavy windows are made pleasant by the velvety blood red curtains that hang in front of them. Thick beige carpet covers the floor. Feather soft duvet and cushions look delicate and perfect on the exquisite satin couch. Dainty silk slippers stand at the foot of the couch, ready for my feet to slip into their pleasant comfort. A few select books in hard decorated covers lie hazzardly on the glass cover of the coffee table. The legs of the table are made out of bronze. Each leg is an intricately carved animal. A lion, a cobra, a bear, and an eagle. Each represents a trait respected and coveted by those with class.
A pleasant jasmine scent brings a feeling of the far countries in the East. Something distant, unknown and for that all the more coveted. The elegant candelabras, the soft flowing song of the canary, imprisoned in her golden cage. The elfin like figures of the high society women, circulating like dragonflies.
I shake out of my stupor and remind myself that it is because of these dragonflies and above all because of their stubborn, pureblooded husbands that I am standing in front of these bare walls surrounded by silence. Silence only penetrated by the melancholy echo of my footsteps. I walk out and shut the door. I shall not think of the past. The only thing that matters now is the everlasting present, no matter how bleak it may seem.
"Would you hurry up Lady Malfoy? We don't have all day you know!"
Ah, yes. Our courageous defenders. I remember the days when such a low ranked Auror would not dare to look me in the eye, let alone show such blatant disrespect. Yet those days are gone. To remain only in my memory. Bleak days indeed. Oh how the mighty have fallen!