Chapter 2 - Breakfast
ADVANCE \d4 Wearing a simple, calf length, cotton dress, which extenuated her slight figure, Pallas, entered the Breakfast Room. Her dark eyes scanned the room; everything was as normal. Her father sat regally at the head of the vast, heavy table, a pot of coffee in front of him from which he was refilling his oversized cup. He continued to read that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet, intently turning each page apparently unaware of her entrance. Her mother, Narcissa, sat at the other end of the table, nibbling on a small slice of dry toast. Draco was sitting close to his father, hungrily eating a large cooked breakfast of bacon, sausages, fried potatoes, eggs and tomatoes. Looking over at him, Pallas thought he resembled an inquisitive bird. The way he was craning his neck trying to read the back of his father's paper, scanning the columns in an effort to find something that he could bring to his father's attention. Draco always did this in the hope that he could impress his Mr. Malfoy with his knowledge of the wizard world in order to obtain praise from his otherwise stoic father. Pallas selected a warm plate decorated with delicate hand-painted and gilded arrangements of hellebore and monkshood and started to select her choice of breakfast from the more than ample display of silver platters that stretched the length of the mahogany sideboard. She moved quietly to her place at the table trying not to disturb either of her parents. Her mother, a tall, thin, elegant woman with blond hair and exquisite dress sense, looked over to her. 'Pallas dear, you're not seriously thinking of wearing that today,' she said, looking at the floral dress with a look of both exasperation and annoyance.
'But Mama!' Pallas interposed, 'I like this dress. It's one of my favourites.' Her mother said nothing, but shook her head in a disappointed way; it was always one of her regrets that she was unable to impress on her daughter her own elegant taste.
All of a sudden their attention was drawn to Lucius as he noisily laid down his newspaper, nearly engulfing Draco who was intent on reading an article regarding the latest racing broom, The Nimbus Air. Lucius folded the paper neatly, scowling at Draco who sank into his seat out of his father's disapproving gaze. Pallas then felt all eyes turn on her. She tried hard to continue eating her breakfast but her stomach was starting to constrict, fearful of what was about to occur. She kept her eyes firmly focused on the plate in front of her, carefully selecting small bite-sized pieces in an effort to find something that she could swallow through her tightening throat. Her fork rested in mid-air as she heard her father's chair scrape backwards on the parquet flooring and the telltale rhythm of his cane on the polished surface as he approached her chair. Pallas turned to look up at her father, resting her knife and fork on her plate, all appetite now extinguished. She looked into his eyes, trying to read what might be contained within their steely gaze. Then she saw it; an uncharacteristic glint twinkled in the ice blue cornea, which was echoed into the corners of his hard mouth, which twitched into a slight smile. He broke the silence. 'We're very pleased, Pallas. Today we received the letter we have been waiting for.' Pallas looked at him quizzically. Lucius reached inside his jacket and pulled out a handful of yellow parchments, which had emerald green handwriting spidering across their surface. Pallas recognized the embossed seal as that of Hogwarts School.
ADVANCE \d4Lucius handed the letter over to Pallas who eagerly read the contents:
ADVANCE \d4
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
ADVANCE \d4
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
ADVANCE \d4
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
ADVANCE \d4
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)
ADVANCE \d4Dear Miss Malfoy,
ADVANCE \d4We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
ADVANCE \d4Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
ADVANCE \d4Yours sincerely
ADVANCE \d4Minerva McGonagall
ADVANCE \d4Deputy Headmistress
ADVANCE \d4Pallas busily looked at the other sheets that laid out the list of school supplies she would require: unaware of her mother's steady gaze upon her. Narcissa had always been a very controlled person, very little was known about her. Her mind and feelings were presented like her couture–always impeccably. If Mrs. Malfoy had ever had any doubts about Pallas entering Hogwarts, she had never discussed them with her husband. Looking at her now, gazing down at Pallas' sleek hair and simple dress, it was hard to comprehend her feelings. For those that had known her really well, they would have detected the regret in her face. A few may even have caught the glint of a tear that briefly surfaced at the corner of her eye as she watched Pallas eagerly reading her letter of acceptance.
Shortly after gathering up their belongings, the family vacated the breakfast room, leaving it empty for the house-elves to deal with the remnants of the meal, and the day continued in its customary fashion. Lucius spent the majority of his time in his study, briefly attending a Hogwarts Trustees' meeting mid morning to arrange the granting of a new bursary and to discuss the appointment of a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Draco retired to the cellars to continue his own plans and Pallas was left to herself to decide what she needed to pack in the new school trunk her mother had insisted on buying her.
Back in her own room, Narcissa sat at her dressing table, staring vacantly into the mirror in front of her. A bewitched tortoiseshell brush was rhythmically sweeping down the length of her hair. She slid the small drawer from beneath the mirror out and plunged her hand inside the void. A click was heard echoing through the wood of the furniture, and the front of the mirror sprang forward on its hinges, revealing a narrow, velvet-lined cabinet hidden behind its reflective face. Narcissa carefully removed two objects from it and laid them tenderly on the tabletop in front of her. One was a bundle of old, yellowing letters bound together with a length of faded purple ribbon, and the other was a silver locket engraved with a rose. Narcissa took the locket gently in her hand and unfastened it to expose a lock of black hair. Narcissa closed the locket again and, taking up the bundle of letters, glided out of the room, the brush falling lifeless to the floor owing to her sudden distracted exit. Narcissa wrapped her outdoor cloak around her and headed off to the summerhouse in the garden where she knew she would not be disturbed.
Pallas, looking out of her bedroom window, saw her mother glide purposely through the knot garden, which was laid out below her bedroom window, and across the lawn towards the arbour and the summerhouse. In her room, Pallas had spent her time since breakfast laying out her books and possessions neatly on the bed. The fear of her father had now been replaced with the excitement of making plans for her future life at Hogwarts. Moonstar buzzed around merrily, helping to arrange everything by swooping into cupboards and drawers looking for anything that Pallas might have overlooked. Pallas had started compiling a list and was ticking off each item in turn. "Luggage labels," she said out loud. Pallas had never been away before and didn't own such items. Remembering she had seen her mother go out in her travelling cloak, she set off down the corridor to her room to see if she had any spare labels on her travelling luggage set. Pallas was always welcome in her mother's dressing room. Narcissa liked to encourage Pallas to look at her own collection of robes and dresses in order to teach her daughter about the right things to wear and how to use colour and fabric to her advantage. Pallas pushed open the oak panelled door and stepped forward into the room. At first she didn't notice the mirror on the dressing table as she opened her mother's wardrobe looking for her travelling bags. The reflection of light bouncing off the wall above her head caught her eye and attracted her attention to the mirror that she realised was not in its usual position. She moved across the room towards it. Picking up her mother's hairbrush from where it lay on the thick woollen rug, she placed it carefully in its place on the dressing table. It was then that she noticed for the first time the velvet-lined cupboard. Reaching out, she went to pull the mirror further forward.
ADVANCE \d4"Ow!" the hairbrush jumped out of its place, rapping her hard on the knuckles of her outstretched hand. The mirror swung shut with a click in one easy movement, and any further secrets that it contained were hidden from Pallas forever.