The dressing room was a very big room indeed, railing went around the room and hundreds of coat hangers were hanging off of the rails, a small section in the corner had clothes on the hangers, Ebony noticed that they were in face, some of her own. She was taken aback, she never thought that Lucius Malfoy would have gone to the trouble of going through her packed up boxes in her flat to find her some clean clothes to wear.
Ebony inspected the clothes on the rail and picked out a long, flowing skirt and a white cotton shirt to match, there were no windows in this room, she couldn't escape from there, even if she ran from the room, she would still have to find her way out, and with Lucius in the room next door, she wouldn't stand much of a chance.
Lucius was waiting in the hallway as she exited the dressing room, she stuck out his arm, stiffly, Ebony was confused, but gingerly took hold of it.
"There is not much on this floor to tell you about, bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms mostly, the entrance to the attic is at the northernmost end, the attic is a kind of 'safe room' although it has yet to be used"
They continued down the stairs and into the atrium, as they walked Lucius would point out more rooms 'the drawing room' 'the library' 'study' they stopped in the kitchen
"The stairs in this room lead to my wine cellar and house elf quarters" he said
"You have a house elf?" Ebony blurted out
"Yes, it took a long time to find another one after Dobby, she is relatively young" he replied
"Master" a small voice said "your food is ready"
Lucius lead Ebony into the dining room, a tall grandfather clock stood at the far end and Ebony saw that it had just passed midday. The table had two plates set out with what seemed to be some sort of seafood.
Ebony had never liked eating in front of people, however, Lucius was not paying attention, instead he was reading the Daily Prophet, Ebony ate quickly, she hadn't realised how hungry she was and found herself immersed in watching Lucius read his news paper.
'He really is quite attractive' she thought, Ebony was very confused, logic dictated that she should not be thinking any good of him, after all, he had kidnapped her
'He seemed alright at the ball' she thought 'not the sort that would do something like this' her brow furrowed
'Maybe, he's not so bad' a voice in the back of her head whispered innocently
'He kidnapped me'
'If he hadn't you'd probably be locked up in a cell in Azkaban by now. . .'
'Probably, not definitely'
'You liked him at the ball, you said so yourself'
'Shut up!'
'Give him a chance'
'Why should I? He's Lucius Malfoy, cold, merciless, and uncaring'
'If he was so uncaring why did he save you? Then go to the trouble of bringing your clothes?'
'Go away'
Lucius had looked up from his paper
"Why are you staring at me?" he asked suspiciously
"I wasn't staring at you, why would I stare at you? I was thinking!"
Lucius had got up from his seat
"It'd be unwise for you to leave the grounds, if you need me I will be in the study"
Ebony glared at him as he left the room.
Ebony was sitting under a tree in the grounds of Malfoy manor, she knew he was right when he said it'd be unwise for her to leave, she had decided to wait, to see when anymore information popped up, when she was sure it'd be easy for her to leave, then she would leave. There was a crack and suddenly the house elf was standing beside Ebony
"Master has sent Mink to check on you miss" it said
"Oh"
"Before Miss arrived, he told Mink, 'you make sure she is happy, you give her only the best' Master thinks very highly of you Miss"
"It doesn't seem that way" Ebony sighed
"Is there anything I can get Miss?" Mink asked
"No, I'm okay thanks"
With that the house elf left, Ebony laid back on the grass, it was still very warm and enjoyed the heat, A peacock walked up to her, tilted it's head and looked at her quizzically, Ebony laughed.
"You're silly" she said to it and the peacock blinked at her still with the same strange look on it's face, after a few more seconds observing her, the peacock walked away.
An owl flew overhead towards the manor, Ebony sighed, thinking of her friends whom she'd probably never get to write to again for a very long time, her best friend, Alyss Crewe, was working in Lebanon as a curse breaker for Gringotts, Ebony used to receive a nice fat letter from her once a month, she enjoyed reading about Alyss' adventures. Then there was Sasha, who had married early to a wealthy older man as it was her fathers wish for her to do so, Sasha's weren't usually long, but, always amusing, full of anecdotes about married life. Ebony wanted nothing more than to read one of those letters again.
Ebony's chest had started to sting, she looked down and saw that she had started to burn, she didn't want to go inside, that's where he was, but the stinging of her skin dictated that she had to, she walked silently through the manor, not wanting Lucius to hear her
'You're being silly' the innocent voice in the back of her head told her
'I told you to go away'
Ebony eventually took refuge in the library, it was a very impressive room, bigger than her whole flat, rows upon rows of shelves were lined up in 3 quarters of the room, the shelves reached the ceiling, towering over the rest of the room. The front part of the room had some chairs, a sofa, a table and a fireplace, all of which were very expensive looking. Ebony wandered through the shelves picking out random book titles 'Torture through the ages' 'How to go unnoticed' and 'Love: life's greatest mystery' to name but a few, there didn't seem to be any order to the books, or at least Ebony couldn't see any patterns, nor could she see a book that she wanted to read.
The stinging in her skin had started to get worse, it was very painful and uncomfortable, but Ebony thought, she probably deserved it, she didn't make any effort to put sun screen on before going out
'If only I had a cooling potion' she thought
'You could ask Lucius' the innocent sounding voice had come back
'I am not asking Lucius for anything'
'But, you're in pain, and you know you can whip up a cooling potion, no problem'
'No'
'The pain will just get worse'
'I know!'
'You heard what Mink said, he wants you to be happy, if you'd just ask him…'
"SHUT UP" Ebony said aloud
"I was under the impression that I hadn't said a word" Lucius drawled from behind Ebony.
Ebony whipped around to find herself only inches from Lucius, she took a step back
" I wasn't talking to you" she snapped " I was talking to, OH! Never mind!"
Ebony was frustrated, she'd never realised how pushy her imagination could be.
"You're burnt" Lucius stated
"I know that, I can feel it"
"Do you want anything for it?"
"No"
"Are you sure, it must be very painful, you've been out there all day"
"I don't want anything" Ebony said through gritted teeth
"Well ok, I just came to tell you, it's half past 6, dinner is ready"
"I'm not hungry" she lied
Ebony walked angrily to the bedroom and laid on the bed, it was still light outside and she wasn't tired enough to force sleep, she just lay there, in silence, not thinking about much at all for a while, the next time she looked out of the window, Lucius Malfoy was walking around outside, she glared at him from the window, he didn't seem to notice.
'You were really quite rude to him' the innocent voice said
Ebony ignored it
'He's really trying with you, and you know it'
'Hmpf'
'You're stuck here, with him for an indefinite amount of time, you should be trying too'
'What if I don't want to try'
The innocent voice sighed 'Then there is no hope for you'
At around 10pm Ebony drifted into a troubled sleep, she definitely preferred the bed when she thought she was dead, she thought, maybe it would have been better if someone had killed her, her last thoughts before drifting off however were not as deep, in fact they were about the pain she was experiencing in her skin.
