It was early morning. A bird watcher is going out to watch some birds, and hopefully find a rare one. There's a bird-watching cabin which he always goes to, so he's setting off for there. It's a jungle in the wood, with all the trees and shrubs. It doesn't take him long to find though cabin though, seen as he always goes there.
He opens the cabin door, shivering as he does so because the early morning air is so cold and he is met with an icy draft. He prises one of the shutters open, trying to be unnoticeable, so the birds don't all fly away. He doesn't notice the illuminated platinum-blonde hair that is getting lit up by the early sunlight.
Slowly, he takes his binoculars up to his nose, feeling as he does so that today is going to be a lucky day.
"Duck, duck, duck…" he murmurs to himself, trying in vain to see through a clump of reeds that he was sure had moved. "Goose, duck…"
At last he gives up, there seems to be nothing there. But then there is something among those reed, he sees movement. Brown, with spots, it emerges out of the reeds, unaware that it is being secretly watched. The birdwatcher breaths inward, flabbergasted at his fortune.
"Oh, oh, oh, my!" he mumbles, adjusting his binoculars to focus more in. "Oh my goodness, it a, a, a spotted crake!"
He is so engrossed in this rare bird that he almost didn't notice the tug at his sleeve, willing him to look down. A little boy looks up at him, his eyes sincere and curious.
"Excuse me sir," he says solemnly, "but cakes don't have spots."
"So this," said Lucius curtly, "Was were you last saw the boy." Bella, Rudolphus, Lucius and Narcissa were crowded at the end of the Lestranges overgrown garden, all looking at the hole in the fence that Draco had disappeared from that night.
"Uh, yes," said Bella uncomfortably, realising the smallness of the hole in the daytime light. "He slipped out." She squirmed under Lucius' like a maggot on a fish-hook. His gaze swept back to the hole.
"It is very," he stopped to cough, "Ahem, small." He remarked, like he was remarking on a house that he might want to buy, except it had an unacceptable flaw. "He's not that skinny." He stated, and then fixed Bella with a look. "Is he?"
"Your boy is seriously underweight." Chipped in Rudolphus, who, until then had not said a word on the matter. "He needs feeding up." He looked at disapproving look at Lucius, knowing how many days on end that Lucius would starve him to try to teach the boy etiquette. He remembered a time when he and Bella had gone to Malfoy Manor. Draco had smashed a glass ornament by accident and hadn't eaten a proper meal for two whole days.
Lucius met his look with stony silence. Narcissa remarked "We're straying off the subject."
"Of course." Hastened Lucius. "So he crawled out there."
"Yes." Said Bella and Rudolphus, remember too clearly the chain of events, the scream being the worst. "Aunt BElllaaaaaaaaaaa…"
"And he fell down the other side." Prompted Lucius. It was really too bad that the Lestranges lived on a hill, he thought, pompously, hardly any of this would have happened if they hadn't.
"Yes." Said Bella again. Silly blighter, she added mentally, meaning both Draco and Lucius Malfoy. They really were too bad.
"And you didn't see anything else of him?" Lucius continued, aware of all the possible injuries one could sustain by tumbling down a very steep hill, he was wincing thinking all the broken bones when-
"Yes!" said Rudolphus, "we've been through this already."
The wind swept by them, reminded them that it was cold out of doors. That was another disadvantage of living on a hill, they all thought. The wind was stronger and colder up high.
"Let's go inside." Suggested Narcissa.
They trooped back inside. Already they were anticipating a hot tea, or in the case of some, a hot cup of coffee. The atmosphere was understandably grim as they entered the house and Bella bade them all help themselves to biscuits as they got the fire in the living room lit. They all squirmed uncomfortably as they sipped and gulped down their hot beverages in silence.
"I guess we better find him." Sighed Narcissa, looking longingly at her empty mug, but seeing Draco's face in the back of her mind, lying in a ditch somewhere, hurt, possibly injured!
"Yes, yes." Said Lucius, but not impatiently as they all rose to their feet. "We'd better all go ask around, just in case."
So the two couples left their empty mugs and went to look for their lost boy.
