The Exploding Malfoys: Chapter 8, Looks Can Kill
Anyone who saw Draco Malfoy in his room that afternoon would have said he
was looking very disgruntled and so he was. But not for the reasons you'd
suspect. He was not disgruntled because his father was in prison, or he had once
again not come in head of his class or because Harry Potter still had a better
broom than he (although on any given day, he did find these facts very
disgruntling.) Rather, he was disgruntled about the fact that no matter how much
he tried, he simply could not look sulky and disgruntled enough.
For someone whose entire family prides itself on the way their eyes travel
down the lengths of their noses and then curl up the lips at their edges to form
a look that was altogether formidable, this was a serious problem. He'd started
off slowly that morning after his mother had completely failed to notice how
bored and sulky he was. He'd been lounging around the house looking very
tiresome, haughty and irritable but had she made any suggestions on how he might
entertain himself? Not a single one! That was when it occurred to him that maybe
he's lost his touch and his facial expressions were no longer as potent as they
had once been. So he'd marched up to his room on determined feet and sat himself
down firmly in front of his mirror.
All right. First things first: the eyes. Draco's were a steely blue, which
made looking sulky and standoffish a sight easier. He narrowed them a bit and
watched the effect on the rest of his face. Was he sulkier? No, it just made him
look like he couldn't see to read the blackboard in potions due to the think
smoke pouring out of Longbottom's cauldron. He frowned.
Wait! A ha! Now this was progress. Narrowed eyes combined with turned down
lips certainly had a sinister effect. But something was missing...some general
sweep of the eyes that made the onlookers aware of the fact that Draco was
insipid. What was it? His brain thought about this for a moment while Draco
maintained his position in front of the mirror.
"Perhaps," the mirror suggested, "it would help if you were to relax a
little. No one can successfully look sulky on demand."
Draco's neck bristled. "Relax? I'm supposed to relax when my vanity is on
the line? If a clerk were to mistake me for some ignorant customer unable to
tell the difference between vermillion and scarlet, will you suggest that I relax?"
The mirror replied lazily, "Well, you are a Malfoy."
"Yes and I have a reputation to live up to! I've been sulking around this
house all bloody day and has anyone noticed? No! And I was doing my very best
sulky look!"
If the mirror had had eyes, he might have rolled them, Instead his next
response tooko n a more dangerous tone not usually heard by mirrors. "Were sulky
and haughty not the usual terms applied to you, perhaps people would find it
easier to distinguish your sulky moods from all the others."
"That could be the problem," Draco admitted. "My old expression has dulled
and is no longer as effective as it once was. I must find a new one. And,
mirror, you are to help me with this."
The mirror groaned silently. A new, more effective expression of distaste
from a member of the Malfoy clan? It'd been hanging on the wall of the Malfoy
Manor for three centuries and in that time had seen more unpleasant looks than
most mirrors could stand.
Today, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to make it to four.
Draco pushed his hair away from his eyes and stuck his nose up into the
air. "It's something to do with the nose, isn't it? Father told me something
about that once. Now let's see." He wrinkled his nose, looked down it all the
way, unfurled the corners of his lips and waited for the mirror's critique.
The mirror choked down an unmistakable laugh and Draco leveled a ferocious
glare at it that caused all further thoughts of laughter and future happiness to
vanish from the mirror's glass. In effect, the mirror had been stopped cold. The
eyes! The nose! The lips! The angle of the head in tandem with his terrible
hair! All of it combined created a facial expression of such terrible
proportions the mirror was not sure it had ever reflected one like it before.
And it cracked. At first, it was just a small crack, running down the
middle and causing Draco to jump back a bit in surprise. But magical mirrors
such as the ones in the Malfoy Manor do not just crack, as Draco soon found out.
They explode.
A hail of glassshards exploded from the mirror's frame and struck Draco in
the face, some impaling him in the eye, cutting right through his eyelids. But
the largest piece went directly into his neck. Draco had clearly not jumped back
far enough and has his body and mind caught up with the unexpected change of
events the deadly glare on his face turned into a look of shock. Surprise filled
him. How? Why? What?? He gradually felt the feeling go out of his body along
with nearly all of his blood, soaking into the beautiful old rug on his bedroom
floor.
The mirror, had it not been destroyed already, would have bee glad to know
that the glare of hitherto unknown proportions of hatred, haughtiness and
boredom was lost forever.
Anyone who saw Draco Malfoy in his room that afternoon would have said he
was looking very disgruntled and so he was. But not for the reasons you'd
suspect. He was not disgruntled because his father was in prison, or he had once
again not come in head of his class or because Harry Potter still had a better
broom than he (although on any given day, he did find these facts very
disgruntling.) Rather, he was disgruntled about the fact that no matter how much
he tried, he simply could not look sulky and disgruntled enough.
For someone whose entire family prides itself on the way their eyes travel
down the lengths of their noses and then curl up the lips at their edges to form
a look that was altogether formidable, this was a serious problem. He'd started
off slowly that morning after his mother had completely failed to notice how
bored and sulky he was. He'd been lounging around the house looking very
tiresome, haughty and irritable but had she made any suggestions on how he might
entertain himself? Not a single one! That was when it occurred to him that maybe
he's lost his touch and his facial expressions were no longer as potent as they
had once been. So he'd marched up to his room on determined feet and sat himself
down firmly in front of his mirror.
All right. First things first: the eyes. Draco's were a steely blue, which
made looking sulky and standoffish a sight easier. He narrowed them a bit and
watched the effect on the rest of his face. Was he sulkier? No, it just made him
look like he couldn't see to read the blackboard in potions due to the think
smoke pouring out of Longbottom's cauldron. He frowned.
Wait! A ha! Now this was progress. Narrowed eyes combined with turned down
lips certainly had a sinister effect. But something was missing...some general
sweep of the eyes that made the onlookers aware of the fact that Draco was
insipid. What was it? His brain thought about this for a moment while Draco
maintained his position in front of the mirror.
"Perhaps," the mirror suggested, "it would help if you were to relax a
little. No one can successfully look sulky on demand."
Draco's neck bristled. "Relax? I'm supposed to relax when my vanity is on
the line? If a clerk were to mistake me for some ignorant customer unable to
tell the difference between vermillion and scarlet, will you suggest that I relax?"
The mirror replied lazily, "Well, you are a Malfoy."
"Yes and I have a reputation to live up to! I've been sulking around this
house all bloody day and has anyone noticed? No! And I was doing my very best
sulky look!"
If the mirror had had eyes, he might have rolled them, Instead his next
response tooko n a more dangerous tone not usually heard by mirrors. "Were sulky
and haughty not the usual terms applied to you, perhaps people would find it
easier to distinguish your sulky moods from all the others."
"That could be the problem," Draco admitted. "My old expression has dulled
and is no longer as effective as it once was. I must find a new one. And,
mirror, you are to help me with this."
The mirror groaned silently. A new, more effective expression of distaste
from a member of the Malfoy clan? It'd been hanging on the wall of the Malfoy
Manor for three centuries and in that time had seen more unpleasant looks than
most mirrors could stand.
Today, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to make it to four.
Draco pushed his hair away from his eyes and stuck his nose up into the
air. "It's something to do with the nose, isn't it? Father told me something
about that once. Now let's see." He wrinkled his nose, looked down it all the
way, unfurled the corners of his lips and waited for the mirror's critique.
The mirror choked down an unmistakable laugh and Draco leveled a ferocious
glare at it that caused all further thoughts of laughter and future happiness to
vanish from the mirror's glass. In effect, the mirror had been stopped cold. The
eyes! The nose! The lips! The angle of the head in tandem with his terrible
hair! All of it combined created a facial expression of such terrible
proportions the mirror was not sure it had ever reflected one like it before.
And it cracked. At first, it was just a small crack, running down the
middle and causing Draco to jump back a bit in surprise. But magical mirrors
such as the ones in the Malfoy Manor do not just crack, as Draco soon found out.
They explode.
A hail of glassshards exploded from the mirror's frame and struck Draco in
the face, some impaling him in the eye, cutting right through his eyelids. But
the largest piece went directly into his neck. Draco had clearly not jumped back
far enough and has his body and mind caught up with the unexpected change of
events the deadly glare on his face turned into a look of shock. Surprise filled
him. How? Why? What?? He gradually felt the feeling go out of his body along
with nearly all of his blood, soaking into the beautiful old rug on his bedroom
floor.
The mirror, had it not been destroyed already, would have bee glad to know
that the glare of hitherto unknown proportions of hatred, haughtiness and
boredom was lost forever.