A/N: Well hello there. It appears I have written more for this story - I do indeed plan to finish it, and still have a ways to go. I apologize for my long, long, long disappearance and am extremely grateful to my Beta for still being willing to work with me after what, 2 years? Anyway, next chapter coming very soon x Please don't forget to review!

Lacey had been hoping to stay in bed all day, not feeling up to talking to anyone. She stared at the dark wooden ceiling, tracing the engraved patterns with her eyes.

I wish I could just disappear, she thought.

A sudden knock sounded at the door.

"Yes?" she sighed.

"Mistress Narcissa has requested your presence in the drawing room," an elf said through the door.

Lacey groaned and pushed herself up out of bed. All she had wanted was to be left alone. She felt incredibly tired and really didn't feel like having to make herself look presentable for Narcissa. Nevertheless, she pulled a few random items of clothing from the dresser and put them on before making her way down the stairs.

Taking a peek in the mirror, she noticed her hair was disheveled – she hadn't brushed in a while.

"That won't do," she murmured to herself and picked up a brush.

When she was finally content with her appearance – not wanting to arouse suspicion – she made her way down the spiral staircase to the drawing room. She found Draco already there, sitting across from his mother.

"Sugar?" Narcissa asked once she sat down.

Draco grabbed the sugar bowl and started heaping it into his tea.

"No thank you," said Lacey, a draft from the window sending a chill down her spine.

"So – how have you enjoyed Hogwarts so far?"

Lacey started thinking of an acceptable answer when Draco spoke.

"It's been dull as usual. Potter and the Weasel twins broke my nose and got kicked off –"

"I was asking Lacey, dear. But you broke your nose?"

Draco's eyes narrowed but he said nothing.

"It's quite alright. Professor Umbridge kicked them off the team for starting a fight with Draco," said Lacey, shooting Draco a pointed look.

After that, he'd have no right to be upset with her.

"Oh, Draco!" exclaimed Narcissa, rushing over to him. "Are you alright?" she asked, looking closely at his nose to see if it was any different.

"It didn't even hurt, and Lacey fixed it up rather well," said Draco, waving his mother off.

"Well, aren't we lucky to have you around, dear," said Narcissa, giving Lacey a warm smile. "Why didn't Dumbledore inform me that you were hurt? He's not a very competent headmaster now, is he? I can't believe the board of governors hasn't gotten rid of him yet… I'll have to write them a letter."

Lacey shifted uncomfortably as Draco smirked.

"Now then, I want to hear all about your time at Hogwarts, darling! How are your classes going?" said Narcissa, turning again to Lacey.

"They're great," answered Lacey, trying her best to smile.

"Wonderful – have you made any friends? Some of the dearest friends I have were the girls in my year at Hogwarts – Adelaide Parkinson's daughter is in your year. Are you good friends with Pansy?"

"Well, err, not really. I'm rather good friends with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil –"

"Very nice families, we've met them once or twice at Ministry gatherings, I'm sure."

" – and Hermione Granger, Ginny and Ron Weasley, and err, Harry Potter."

Narcissa sat in stunned silence for a moment. Recovering rather quickly from her shock, she said, "That's very nice. I've had the pleasure of meeting Arthur and Molly Weasley, but it's a shame you haven't gotten to know Pansy or Daphne! They're such lovely girls."

Lacey clasped her hands and shot Draco a desperate look. Draco started to snicker and had to pretend to cough to cover it up. Narcissa thankfully ignored her son, but continued her questioning.

"What else has been going on? Anything you're really enjoying?"

"Well I tried out for Gryffindor's Quidditch team, but I didn't quite make it," sighed Lacey dejectedly.

"Oh – well I suppose that's a good thing, Quidditch isn't really befitting a young lady. It's more for the boys, dangerous and very rough sometimes – just like you saw when those Weasley boys started that fight with Draco," said Narcissa, patting Lacey's arm reassuringly.

Lacey was starting to feel tired and anxious, and when she looked down, she saw her hands were shaking.

"I suppose so," said Lacey blankly, her attention slipping away from the conversation. "I'm not feeling too well, would it be alright if I went to rest for a bit?" she asked, not wanting to continue.

"Yes, of course! Draco, help Lacey up to her room and have Ellie bring her some water," said Narcissa, still smiling as though she couldn't tell something was wrong.

"Thank you," murmured Lacey as she made her way up the stairs, with Draco in tow.

As soon as they entered the privacy of the room, Draco crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

"I don't know what you're talking about," answered Lacey, turning her back to him to pull some things out of her dresser.

"You can't act like this, mother's bound to know something's up."

Lacey began to pull clothes out of her dresser, throwing some on the floor and some on the chairs angrily.

"Oh really? She didn't notice yesterday or even just now – I don't think she will," said Lacey, quickly tiring of their argument.

"It might look like that, but don't underestimate her. She'll figure it out if she hasn't already."

"Wonderful, then we can all chat about how great it is that I'm not attached to anything muggle anymore!" exclaimed Lacey, whirling around to glare at Draco.

Her momentary anger quickly dissolved into tears, and she dropped the sweater she'd been holding.

"I don't – I mean – I didn't –" Draco stumbled through his words, trying to find something to say that might comfort her.

Lacey sank down to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest.

"It's okay," she managed to say between sobs, "It's n–not y–your f–fault."

"Do you want me to go?" Draco asked, wringing his hands in discomfort. He didn't like seeing her like this.

Lacey shook her head. Draco sighed and sat down next to her on the floor. She leaned onto him, continuing to cry quietly, until he noticed she had fallen asleep. He carried her onto the bed, and gently laid her head onto the pillows. He couldn't help but notice how peaceful she looked so soon after falling asleep; he hoped she wouldn't be bothered by nightmares, but knew his hopes were in vain.

The days passed by in a blur, one much the same as the next. Draco had taken to sneaking into Lacey's room to sleep there, making it easier for him to calm her when she had nightmares. He'd felt strange about it at first, but Lacey insisted, not wanting Narcissa to notice. Lacey's shrieking lessened as the days went on, and she felt herself becoming more detached from her nightmares, and from herself.

One morning, Draco woke Lacey up much earlier than usual.

"Wake u-up, it's Christmas Eve," he said, feigning excitement and elbowing Lacey in the ribs.

"Ow," she groaned as she sat up in bed.

"Let's go get some breakfast, my father should be home soon."

"I'm not hungry," yawned Lacey, swinging her legs off the bed.

Draco knew that Lacey hadn't had a proper meal in days, and although he'd never admit it, he was starting to worry. He wondered when he had come to genuinely care about her.

"Well come down and eat something anyway," he snapped, attempting to encourage her appetite.

Half an hour later they had finished breakfast, although Lacey hadn't eaten more than a few bites, despite Draco's attempts at encouragement.

"Well, what do you high society people do on Christmas Eve?" she asked, trying to put herself in the holiday mood.

"We have dinner."

"Oh. Is that all?" asked Lacey sadly. She finally felt distanced from the traumatic start to her holiday, and was in need of a distraction.

"Yes."

"Well, I thought maybe we could do something else today…" she trailed off.

"Like what?" Draco scoffed.

"We could bake cookies," she suggested, attempting to sound cheerful, but her voice was empty of emotion.

"What, us?" Draco asked, shocked, "That's for the house elves."

"I used to do it every year with my mum," Lacey said solemnly and stared down at the floor. "We'd also put up a Christmas tree, and wrap presents."

"But the house elves do all that," he whined.

"Please Draco, just bake some cookies with me," she pleaded.

He guessed it was a silly muggle tradition, to bake one's own food – but she didn't have to say much more, the look on her face giving away her despair.

"Fine," he snapped, "I'll help you bake cookies like some commoner. But only because I feel bad."

Lacey gave him a weak smile. They went to the kitchen, which was enormous but filled with smaller versions of ovens and stovetops, and most of all was full of house elves. Lacey dismissed all the house elves after they showed her where to find ingredients, and they looked at her in wonder.

"Is miss sure she wants to bake cookies?" asked one on his way out.

"Yes, she's sure," snapped Draco.

The house elf shrunk back and beckoned for the rest of his peers to leave the room. Lacey began to mix according to her favorite recipe for sugar cookies. Draco refused to help, and sat down at the counter, staring at Lacey while she worked. Once the dough was ready, Lacey pinched a little bit to taste.

"Ugh," said Draco, his face scrunched up in disgust.

"It's really good. Try some," Lacey said, pinching another smidgen of dough.

"No."

"Oh don't be a spoilsport. Try it," she scolded.

"No," Draco replied stubbornly.

Lacey pinched a little more, and went over to Draco.

"Come on. Now. I'll force it on you," she warned, trying not to laugh at him.

Draco grabbed the drop of dough from her hand, and put it in his mouth. Lacey watched him chew in earnest.

"Well?"

Draco grumbled in response.

Lacey went back to roll out the dough, and this time Draco followed her. Lacey smiled, pleased with herself. She rolled it out flat, and began cutting out stars. Draco tried to take some more dough to eat, but Lacey saw his hand before he could take some and slapped it away.

"Ow," he said, rubbing the front of his hand.

"No more. If you keep eating it, we won't have any left for the cookies!"

Draco rolled his eyes, and flicked some flour into Lacey's hair.

"Hey!" she cried, trying to shake it off.

"Blonde looks good on you," he sniggered.

Lacey groaned, and picked up a handful of flour, which she blew into his face.

Draco picked up another handful to throw at Lacey, but he stopped when he saw her face. She was looking down at her hands, crying silently. Draco put the flour back down and looked at his feet, not sure what had gone wrong. Lacey dusted herself off and began to cut cookies out of the dough once again.

"What happened?" asked Draco.

"My mum and I used to do that, when we would bake together," Lacey said emptily.

"Oh," Draco replied, still unsure of what to say.

Lacey finished cutting out the cookies, put them in the oven. She sat down next to Draco to wait for them to finish.

"So how come it's so beneath you to cook?" asked Lacey, feeling slightly awkward trying to feel normal after crying again.

"We have house elves… why would we do anything they can do properly?"

"Because it's fun," sighed Lacey, "Don't you think that was fun?"

Draco rolled his eyes, making Lacey giggle.

"I knew it!" she sighed.

When the cookies were ready, Lacey pulled them out of the oven and showed them to Draco.

"They look… Nice," he said slowly.

"It's not about how they look, it's about how they taste," Lacey huffed.

Draco picked one up, and took a miniscule bite. Finding the taste satisfactory, he immediately stuffed the whole cookie into his mouth and grabbed another.

"I suppose I'll go back upstairs now," said Lacey, sighing.

She had hoped the baking would serve as a distraction, and all it had done was remind her of where she had come from and how different her new home would be.

"I don't think that's a good idea," replied Draco. "Why don't we go outside instead? Weather's nice enough."

Snatching a few cookies to take with, Draco and Lacey left the kitchen and went for a walk outside on the grounds.

If Lacey had thought the mansion was large, the grounds surrounding it were enormous. Lacey felt like she was in a giant park, the kind she had seen in films of European palaces. A light dusting of snow covered the ground, and made the trees sparkle in the sunlight.

"It's beautiful," murmured Lacey.

Draco looked at her and noticed how her face relaxed as she took in the scenery. He was glad to finally have found something to take her mind off her dark memories.

They walked for a while, until they came to a lake, which had frozen over.

"Ever go ice skating?" asked Lacey, "The lake looks perfect for it."

Draco shook his head. "No, I've never been ice skating before."

"I'll have to take you to London and show you sometime."

"But there are so many muggles in London –"

Lacey groaned. "And? Honestly, grow up a bit! They're not that different from you and me!"

Draco glared at her but didn't reply.

They walked past stables full of winged horses, which would have fascinated Lacey on any ordinary occasion. It wasn't, however an ordinary occasion. She had, for a few minutes when they were walking, forgotten everything. But it didn't take long for it to come back into her mind. She still felt numb, and nothing really excited her. Her meager distractions throughout the morning hadn't done a thing to relieve her feelings of utter emptiness.

By the time they went back inside, it was time for dinner. Lacey rushed upstairs to change into something more festive, choosing a fun-patterned sweater to wear.

When she got downstairs, she felt herself very underdressed. Draco was wearing dress robes and Narcissa looked stunning in black velvet.

"Narcissa, should I have worn something else?" asked Lacey, embarrassed, looking from Narcissa's dress to her sweater and jeans.

"Nonsense, you look lovely!" answered Narcissa, waving her off.

Lacey pulled uncomfortably at her sweater.

"Well, do sit down. Dinner will be out soon," Narcissa said, gesturing towards the chairs at the elongated dining room table.

"What about father?" asked Draco.

"Draco dear, he can't be here tonight," she replied before taking her place at the head of the table.

Draco's brow furrowed, but he pulled a chair out for Lacey without saying anything. Draco sat down next to her and acted as if everything was fine, but Lacey could feel the tension Mr. Malfoy's absence was causing.

Within minutes, house elves came out of the kitchen carrying gleaming silver trays. There was piping hot pumpkin soup, followed by a half dozen choices for salads – then came turkey, ham and potatoes, minced pies, Christmas pudding, and cake. There were enormous amounts of food, considering there were only three of them for dinner. Lacey picked at her favorite dishes, not able to stomach more than a few bites.

"Are you enjoying dinner dear?" asked Narcissa.

"Very much, thank you," said Lacey, raising her wine glass in reply.

After dinner, the three of them retired to the parlor where a large, lavishly decorated Christmas tree stood. It was covered in little glistening ornaments, some of which moved, twirling and glowing in the low light. The room looked oddly festive compared to the rest of the house, with garlands strung along the walls and tiny floating lights decorating the darker corners of the room. There were no presents under the tree, and Lacey was surprised, since she had placed her gift for Draco underneath the tree earlier that day.

"Where are all the gifts?" she asked.

"They appear near your bed after midnight, didn't you know?" drawled Draco.

Narcissa looked at him disapprovingly.

"No, I didn't," said Lacey, looking at the floor.

Ellie appeared in the doorway holding a tray of cookies.

"Miss Vrell baked these cookies today mistress. May Ellie serve them?" she asked.

"You… Baked?" gasped Narcissa, looking at Lacey, "Er, yes, you may serve them."

Ellie placed them on the table, and Draco immediately grabbed three.

"Don't grab Draco," said Narcissa.

"Yes, Mother," he replied before making a point of delicately nibbling on the first cookie.

Soft Christmas music seemed to be coming from the walls. She watched Narcissa pick up a cookie and inspect it. She took a gentle bite out of it.

"These arerather good. You must give Ellie the recipe," she said after swallowing.

"I could just make them for you again, if you like," suggested Lacey.

"There's really no need for that, dear, we leave the cooking to the house elves," said Narcissa softly, but the message was clear – only the house elves cooked.

"Alright then," nodded Lacey.

They sat and drank tea with their sweets for a while longer, before Narcissa rushed them off to bed, saying it was nearly midnight.

"Happy Christmas darlings," she said as she kissed Draco on the forehead and pulled Lacey into a tight embrace.

"Happy Christmas mother," replied Draco.

"Happy Christmas," said Lacey, finding it hard to sound cheery.

She and Draco walked up the stairs to Lacey's room, and Lacey sat on the floor, while Draco perched himself on the edge of her bed.

"Why don't we stay up until midnight?" suggested Lacey, not looking forward to falling asleep and having nightmares, "I want to see the presents appear."

"Sure," replied Draco, Lacey's suggestion reminding him of his earliest childhood memories, when Christmas had been a much happier occasion.

After changing into their pajamas, they sat on the bed, leaning on the headboard.

"How do the presents appear?" she asked, trying to make conversation to pass the time.

"Magic," drawled Draco sarcastically.

"Will yours go to your room?" she asked.

"No, they'll come here if I'm here I suppose," he replied.

"I hope you like yours," said Lacey shyly.

"I'm sure I will," answered Draco, with but a hint of sincerity in his voice.

The air near Lacey's bed shimmered, and two separate piles of presents appeared on the floor. One was significantly larger than the other, and Draco scrambled down to it. Sure enough, it was his.

Lacey slipped off the bed and began looking through her pile, trying to decide which to open first. Not having much interest in any of them, she picked one at random. It was from Hermione.

Lacey tore off the paper, and found a book – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She put it on her nightstand.

She picked up another one, this time from Ron. It was a Nimbus 2001 figurine.

"Got it!" Lacey heard Draco cry.

She looked over, and saw that he hadn't opened any of his presents yet. They were scattered all over the floor, and he was triumphantly holding a small package Lacey recognized as her gift to him. Lacey bit her lip in anticipation. Draco ripped the paper off, and the tiny snitch fluttered its wings.

"Oh," said Draco, sounding pleasantly surprised. "It's a –"

"Snitch," Lacey finished for him, before grabbing the chain so it wouldn't fly away.

Draco took it from her hand, and placed the chain around his neck. The Snitch immediately dropped limp onto his chest.

"I don't know what to say," Draco said, dumbfounded.

"You could just say thank you," teased Lacey.

"Thank you," said Draco, leaning over and enveloping her in a crushing hug.

"You're welcome," wheezed Lacey, "Now if you'd let me breathe – "

Draco let go of her and smiled. He didn't smile often, and she had seen him smile like this before, but this was the first she felt her stomach flip.

"Alright, now your turn to find mine," he said, "Or I guess ours. It says it's from me but mother helped me find something."

She looked through her pile, and found a box addressed to her from Draco and Narcissa. She opened it, and gasped when she saw a beautiful silver necklace with a black-jeweled pendant.

"It's beautiful," whispered Lacey.

"I found it when mother was looking through Aunt Bellatrix's things. Mother said it belonged to your mother, who left it to Aunt Bellatrix when she died," said Draco.

"Bellatrix?" asked Lacey.

"Yes, she's mother's sister. Your godmother," replied Draco, becoming uneasy.

"Where is she now?" asked Lacey.

"We're not supposed to talk about it," said Draco quickly.

"Why not?" asked Lacey, rather hurt by his response.

"My father asked me not to… If he finds out…" Draco shuddered.

"I wont tell. I promise," she said, making a puppy-dog face.

Draco looked down at her, and gave in.

"She's in Azkaban, the Wizard prison," he said, his voice low.

Lacey swallowed. The conversation had taken a harsh turn for the worse. Lacey didn't want to know why her godmother was in Wizarding prison, so she went back to opening her presents, Draco doing the same.

After their presents had been opened, Lacey and Draco went to bed. Once again, Lacey's sleep was riddled with nightmares, and she woke Draco twice with her thrashing.

It had been days and Lacey still wouldn't eat, and didn't sleep much; her nightmares had become so terrible she was afraid to close her eyes when she was tired, because every time she did, she found herself in a house full of flames.

Draco knew he was unequipped to help Lacey deal with the grief of her parents' death, and felt helpless because he couldn't tell anyone. He'd never dealt with anything like it before – but he could tell Lacey was getting worse instead of better, and resolved himself to try to find a way.

One night, after Draco woke Lacey up from another nightmare, instead of trying to coax her back to sleep he suggested they stay up a while together.

"You know, you've never told me about them."

"Who?" asked Lacey, her breath still shallow and shaken.

"The mug – " he stopped himself. "Your family."

Lacey took a deep breath, pondering if she should talk about them, not knowing if it would make her feel worse or better.

"You don't have to talk about them if you don't want to, but I just thought I would ask because, well, I've only heard little bits here are there and I want to know more. It sounds like you were all very," Draco paused, "close."

"We were," sighed Lacey. "Especially my dad and I. And my little sister Kelsey too, although it was harder with her because she was just nine years old." Lacey felt her eyes beginning to water and blinked her tears away.

Draco patted her back reassuringly, and she kept on.

"My dad and I used to go biking together," Lacey sighed. "We both loved the outdoors – and sometimes, we'd go camping and take Kelsey with us – but she wasn't nearly as fond of it as we were. We always went right out in the forest near our town –"

Lacey proceeded to tell Draco all about her father and her sister – about how they went to the theater to see films, and visited her grandparents up in Scotland in the summer; she even told him about the games she and Kelsey had played when they were younger.

"Once, we saw this film, Teen Witch I think it was called, and for months afterwards we pretended to have magic, and cast spells on each other. It all seems so ironic now."

"What's a film?" asked Draco, taking advantage of the pause in Lacey's story.

She smiled and rolled her eyes, thinking how strange it was that he didn't know what a film was.

"Well, its like theater, but you watch it on a big screen, or the telly, and it looks a bit like your photographs, but usually much bigger and lasts around an hour and a half," explained Lacey.

"That's quite ingenious – do you think you could show me sometime?" exclaimed Draco, fascinated by the idea of a telly on which you could watch films.

"I thought you didn't like muggle things," teased Lacey.

"Well – I – I think it's interesting. Not quite as good Wizard Theater, I'm sure. But interesting," replied Draco quickly, shaking his head. "Tell me more."

Lacey once again launched into a long story about her family, this time about their travels. They had all loved travelling, and she'd been able to visit dozens of places around Europe, like France and Spain and Norway.

"We'd always see the most fascinating places, and once, we stayed in this hotel made entirely of ice –"

She stopped abruptly. "That was all before my magic kicked in though. When things started flying and exploding and disappearing, well, they all became afraid. Even my dad was a little scared, though he tried not to show it. It was the worst with my mum, though."

"What do you mean?" asked Draco, having until then kept quiet. "You haven't really mentioned your mum."

"We had a … difficult relationship," said Lacey quietly.

Draco looked to her for more, but she said nothing.

"Sounds like my relationship with father," sighed Draco. "I feel like I can't ever make him happy. He's always disappointed, always tells me I should be better. I never know what to do."

Lacey looked up at Draco, confounded. He had never mentioned anything about his family before – he'd kept most things to himself, and never shared anything personal.

"Oh Draco, I had no idea –" said Lacey, reaching out to touch his arm.

"No one really does."

"It's not fair to you, not at all," she said.

"What about your mum?" he asked again. He'd become sure talking about things would help Lacey feel better.

Lacey sighed again, heavily. "Well I was adopted, obviously, and though it didn't seem to matter to my dad, my mum would get upset that I wasn't anything like her – didn't look like her, wasn't interested in the same things. I don't doubt she loved me, but there was always some sort of disconnect. And I couldn't figure it out until now of course – but it doesn't really matter, does it?"

Without thinking, Draco blurted out "Don't say that, of course it matters!"

For the second time that night Draco surprised her. She doubted how Draco felt about what happened to her, because even after it all he was antagonistic towards muggles.

"It matters because it mattered to you. Just because they're gone doesn't mean they were never there…" Draco had surprised himself too. He wondered where this burst of compassion had come from, considering he had never been a compassionate person before.

Lacey nodded and laid her head on his shoulder.

"You're right, they will always be with me – and I'll never forget them."