"Ah. Good morning, Elizabeth, Draco," Lucius said as he folded up the newspaper he had been reading.
"Good morning, Lucius," I said.
"Good morning, Father," Draco replied.
"Please, have a seat," Lucius said pointing to the chair on hisleft after noticing I was still standing. I took a step toward the chair when Draco rushed forward and pulled it out for me. I took the chair and nodded my thanks. Once I was situated beside Lucius, Draco took the chair directly opposite me on Lucius's right.
"I trust you've slept well," Lucius said, pouring coffee from a silver pot into a small cup in front of me.
"Oh, yes. Thank you. The bed was quite comfortable," I answered.
"Good. Draco?"
"Yes, Father. Well indeed, thank you," Draco replied as his father poured coffee into his cup.
"Good. Good. Elizabeth, you have my sincere apologies that there is not another woman in this house to help me handle the situation. My wife, Narcissa, is visiting her sister in Florence. Therefore, please forgive me if I don't treat the situation as lightly as is should be," Lucius said, looking at me after taking a sip of coffee.
"Oh, no. That's fine. Please don't do anything special on my account," I replied.
"Very nice, but before we get started..."
Lucius waved his hand over the table, and I was amazed to see that food appeared there in a matter to seconds. Large silver plates materialized out of nothing, laden with everything from biscuits to eggs, all of which smelled so wonderful I didn't know where to begin. Draco and Lucius waited very patiently until my plate was half covered with food before getting any for themselves. I watched Draco closely, who seemed to be avoiding eye contact with his father and was very quiet. In fact, he seemed to be behaving the same way last night when I first met him, yet, when his father wasnt around, he was rather nice and easy-going. I hope his father doesn't find out.
"Well, after what happened last night, I believe a long conversation is in order," Lucius said, taking another sip of coffee.
"Okay. What would you like to know?" I asked.
"Well, I know your father, and he doesn't seem like the type who would be driving a Muggle car. And as far as the police are concerned, why would Muggles be taking care of everything?"
"I don't really understand it, either. My parents received an invitation to attend a ball that took place last night, and for some reason, the invitation insisted that everyone invited arrive as if they were Muggles. My father didn't like the idea, but he rented a car nonetheless. Of course, he had to jinx it so it would drive itself, since he didnt have any knowledge of those Muggle contraptions.
"As for the Muggle police, I know nothing of it. I was upstairs writing a letter to friend in France when the doorbell rang. I gave it to Amadeo, my owl, and rushed downstairs to see what was going on. There were two officers on my front step and they said my parents were in a car crash and that they didnt survive."
"How terrible. I can't even imagine what organization would insist on Muggle transport," Lucius said, "However, I assume that the Ministry didn't want the extra work of having to erase so many memories if they came in, so they decided it would be easier to let the Muggle police handle it all."
"I guess so," I said, glancing across the table at Draco, "Oh! Amadeo!"
Draco and Lucius both jumped at my outburst, but I didn't care. I jumped from my chair and ran to the window behind Draco, where I'd seen my owl, Amadeo, on the window sill. I opened the window, and Amadeo allowed me to take the letters he had in his beak. I made sure to spend a few seconds petting him before going back to my seat.
I could tell that Lucius was trying extremely hard not to say anything about my behavior, and I could have sworn I saw Draco stifling a laugh by taking a sip of coffee. I apologized quickly for my outbreak, and I looked through the two letters that Amadeo had delivered. One was addressed to: Draco Malfoy, Dining Room, Malfoy Mansion. The other was the same, but addressed to me.
"Here, this one's yours," I said as I handed Draco's letter to him.
Draco looked slightly surprised it had been delivered by my owl, but took it and said thanks just the same.
"Oh, its just my Hogwarts letter," Draco said after turning it over to open it.
I turned mine over and opened the envelope. Inside were three pieces of parchment. I unfolded the top one and read:
Dear Miss Silverlio,
It has come to my attention that you are now taking residence with the Malfoy family. I have been informed of the situation with your parents. However, your parents did not apply you to attend Magique Academie of Witchcraft for the coming term. Therefore, because of your current location, I have enrolled you into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed are your acceptance letter and a list of supplies you will need. Good luck with your new school. My deepest apologies about your parents.
Sincerely yours,
Cornelius Fudge,
Minister of Magic
I read the letter aloud to Draco and Lucius. Lucius did not look surprised at all, and Draco looked quite pleased about the letter. I unfolded the letter underneath it and read:
Dear Miss Silverlio,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
I unfolded the third and final piece of parchment and found a list of books and supplies I would need, several of which I already owned. I noticed that there were still a few things I still needed and I knew there was only one place to go, but Lucius beat me to it.
"Well, it seems a trip to Diagon Alley is in order."
"Yes, Father. I need books, of course. I also need a new set of brass scales. Goyle broke my last set," Draco said, still examining the letter.
"I need books, too. I also need new robes, a black winter coat, and a black pointed hat," I said.
"Really? Didnt your last school require a uniform?" Draco asked.
"Yes, of course, but they all had to be in our headmistresss favorite color: bright pink," I said as I shuddered at the thought of the hideous color.
"Oh. So, what was your old school like?" Draco inquired.
Well, it was a private seven-year school, like many other schools, except this one is for girls only. It's more like a boarding school than a wizarding school. It's located on an island off the coast of France. Not many people know about it apart from those who go there," I explained.
"Wow. What year are you?"
"This year, I would have been a sixth year there, but now I think I'm going to be a sixth year at your school," I told him.
"It's not often that we get new students that aren't first-years," Draco said.
"Well, there's a first for everything."
"In any case, we need to get to Diagon Alley soon, since there are quite a few things we all need," Lucius said, getting up from the table.
Draco followed suit, wiping his mouth and putting the napkin back down on the table. I took one last bite and stood up, eager to get going. Lucius led the way out of the dining room and back into the hall Draco and I had come through earlier. He walked into the foyer and pulled a cane from a small cylinder next to the door. The cane itself was long and black, with a silver serpent head as the handle. With a flick of his wrist, a wand was pulled out of the cane itself, Lucius still holding the serpent's head in his right hand.
"Draco?" Lucius said, nodding toward him.
Draco pulled his wand out from underneath his black robes and looked back at his father.
Lucius looked toward me and said, "You might want to get your wand and your robes."
I nodded.
"I'll be right back," I said as I turned toward the staircase.
I ran up the stairs quickly and heard a set of footsteps behind me. I continued on as if I couldn't hear them, walking quickly down the hall and back into the dark bedroom that was now mine. The bed had already been made up and everything was even cleaner than it had been when I left it not too long ago. I looked frantically around the room for my wand, wondering where Sabs could have put it.
"I believe Father said Sabs put it in the top drawer of the nightstand on your right," Draco said from the doorway.
I opened the drawer and found my wand inside. I pulled out the seven-and-a-half-inch maple wand with a phoenix feather inside and put it in the front pocket of my pants. I turned around to face Draco.
"Draco, would you mind if I borrowed one of your robes? All of mine are bright pink, and I really don' want to go around Diagon Alley in that revolting color."
"Sure, I have plenty of black robes you can borrow, as long as you don't mind the Slytherin shield on them," Draco answered.
"Slytherin?"
"Oh, you don't know about Hogwarts, do you? You see, there are four houses: Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Each year, new students are sorted into a certain house, which you will spend most of your time with," Draco explained.
"Ah, I guess that means youre in Slytherin house, then?"
"Yeah."
Draco turned around and went into his room, emerging shortly after with a set of robes over his arm. He tossed it to me. I stopped to look at the Slytherin shield on the left side of the front before pulling it over my shoulders and attaching the two clasps on the front.
"You look like a real Slytherin. Maybe youll be in that house, too."
"Thanks, maybe I will be," I said, blushing slightly.
"Come on, we have to go," Draco said, turning and leaving the room, heading toward the staircase.
I followed Draco down the hall and back downstairs, where Lucius was still standing. In fact, he didnt seem to have moved at all.
"Well, now that were all settled. Draco, are you ready?" Lucius asked.
"Yes, Father."
"Now, Elizabeth. Do you know how to Apparate?" Lucius asked of me.
"No. Not yet anyway."
"You'd better hold on to Draco then. And if anyone asks, we did not Apparate to Diagon Alley."
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Well, Draco hasn't taken his Apparation test yet, and I don't want anyone to think negatively about the Malfoys," Lucius explained.
"Yes, sir," I said.
"Very good. Now, Draco, are you ready?"
Draco walked toward me and put his arm around my waist.
"Hold on to me," he whispered in my ear.
I put my arms around his neck, and the next second, we were no longer in the Malfoy manor.
Instantly, I found myself a long way from the manor. The problem was that I didn't even recognize where we were. I had assumed that we were going to Diagon Alley, but this place was too dark and run-down to be it. The brick walls of the alley were crumbling and discolored, nothing like the bright red bricks of Diagon Alley. The two did have something in common though: they had many different stores to look into, even though the wooden signs here were faded and falling apart.
"What is this place, Draco?" I couldnt resist asking him.
"Knockturn Alley."
"Really? I've never been down here before," I said.
I could remember there being a sign pointing toward another alley at the very end of Diagon Alley, right past the ice cream shop. I'd always wanted to go there and see why my parents were so adamant about keeping me away from it, but they pulled me away from it every time I got the notion to go wandering.
"Yeah. Father doesn't want to risk anyone important seeing us Apparate, so we always come here and then walk to Diagon Alley. Besides, Father needs something from one of these stores."
I looked around at the shops, and could instantly tell why my parents never wanted me to come here. If you looked through the grime that caked the shop windows, you could see that Knockturn Alley was a treasure trove for Dark Wizards. Ingredients for secret potions, shrunken heads, and bewitched objects lined the shelves I could vaguely make out through the windows.
"Well, I have some business to attend to. Why don't you two kill a little time, and I'll come find you when I'm done and then we can focus on getting your school supplies," Lucius said to Draco and me.
"Yes, Father."
We watched as Lucius walked down the alleyway and turned into a shop.
"Come on, I know a great place where we can go," Draco said.
"Okay."
"Hey, you'd better hang on to me; Father would skin me alive if I let you get lost in Knockturn Alley," Draco said, holding out his hand.
I took his hand and he pulled me down the dark alley. We passed the small shop that Lucius had gone into, and I could just barely make out his figure as we passed the dirty window. We strolled down the passage hand-in-hand, and after a few minutes, Draco pulled me inside a shop on his left. I looked up at the sign that hung from rusty chains attached to the roof, which read, Baxter's Dark Novelties.
A bell rang as we entered the store, but no one came to welcome us, though Draco didn't seem to be bothered by the lack of assistance at all. He gently pulled me toward the shelves of all different types of items. There were mirrors that showed the looker's face full of acne (Perfect for your enemies!), decks of cards that changed faces so you never lose (ALWAYS Win!), and quills that are guaranteed to write the correct answers on tests (Not even anti-cheating spells can stop it!). The ads on the products made every item seem like the perfect thing for anyone. I was almost tempted to buy a necklace that could supposedly freeze time.
"I wouldn't buy that if I were you," Draco said.
"Why not?"
"Because its nothing but a cheap knock-off of a Time-Turner, which you can only get from the Ministry of Magic. That thing won't do anything except add clutter to your neck."
"Oh," I said, putting the necklace back on the shelf.
"But, if you want jewelry that really works, then I know something you'll love," Draco said, raising his eyebrows.
"Sure," I said smiling, "lead the way."
He pulled me out of the shop and we turned to the right, going inside the store next to the one that Lucius had entered not too long ago. I looked upwards, hoping to find the name of the shop, but the letters were too faded to make out. Even though a bell did not ring to announce our presence, a middle-aged witch with long, frizzy black hair appeared from the back of the shop.
"Can I help you dears?" the woman asked, showing uneven, yellow teeth.
"Oh, no thanks. Were fine," Draco said to the witch.
"If you're sure," she replied as she walked back into a room in the very rear of the shop.
The witch watched us as we looked around at the items for sale. Books lined many of the shelves, and there were all kinds of paintings and knickknacks, such as statues and porcelain trinkets. Once she was finally out of sight, Draco pulled me to a corner in the back, rather close to the room where the greasy witch was lurking. On a shelf in front of us was a tray with many pairs of silver rings.
"Wow, how charming," I said, looking at the designs.
"Yeah," Draco said with a slight smile.
"What do these do?"
"Well, they're sold in pairs, and you're supposed to wear one, and give the other to another person. When you both have them on, the stone on the ring will change colors to suit your mood."
"Oh, so it's like a Muggle mood ring?"
"Kinda. The stone changes colors to suit the mood of the other person. So if we wore these, I could tell what mood you were in just by the color of the stone," Draco explained.
"Interesting," I said, looking closely at the swirled designs on a pair of rings.
"Yes, dear, they are," a voice said from behind us.
Draco and I turned around to face the witch with frazzled hair.
"You see, the stones on these rings with change color to match the mood of the person wearing the rings mate. Green will mean the person is jealous, blue for calmness and love, yellow if the person is troubled, and red will mean the person is in danger, plus a few other colors. The rings come with a card that tells what all the colors mean," the witch explained to us.
"How much do they cost?" Draco asked.
"Three Galleons a pair."
Draco rummaged through his robes and pulled out a small velvet bag. He reached inside and pulled out eight gold coins, handing them to the witch. Draco picked up a pair of the rings and we left the store. Outside in the alley, Draco removed the piece of string that held the two rings together.
"Who are you going to give the other one to?" I asked as he slid one of the rings onto his left ring finger.
"You."
"Why? Dont you want to give it to your girlfriend?"
"I don't have one," he said.
"Really? You?"
"Yeah," he replied through a smile, "here."
He took my left hand, then slid the ring onto my ring finger.
"Thanks," I said.
I looked down at the stone on the ring and saw that it had turned blue as soon as it was on my finger. Draco and I both looked over at the ring on the other persons thumb. Both of them were blue.
"Wow, we must both be really calm," I said to Draco.
"Yeah, among other things."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you remember what she said blue meant?" he asked me.
"Yeah, calmness."
"--and love."
"And what?" I heard a voice say from a few feet away from us.
Draco and I jerked our heads up and looked forward. In front of us was a girl with a pug-like face and the Slytherin shield on the front of her robes. I saw Draco roll his eyes, and I watched the girl glare at me with a look of hatred. I glanced down at the ring on my finger and noticed that the stone had changed to yellow. I thought back to what the witch had said in the shop, and I couldn't help but wonder what had him so troubled.
"Who's this?" the girl asked Draco with a scowl on her face and a finger pointed at me.
"This is Elizabeth Silverlio. Elizabeth," he said, looking at me, "this is Pansy Parkinson."
Pansy gave me a quick, fake smile and then turned back to Draco.
"Why is she with you? And why is she wearing your Slytherin robes? I mean, she's not in Slytherin, since she obviously doesn't even go to our school," Pansy said angrily.
"Look, her parents died, and my father is her new guardian. She didn't want to wear her robes since they're hideous, and she will be going to our school this year," Draco explained rather quickly.
I watched as Pansy's jaw dropped when Draco said Lucius was my guardian, and I looked on as it dropped even further when he said I would be going to Hogwarts this year. I could tell that this girl had a huge crush on Draco, but I was starting to think that she also believed that Draco liked her.
"Got a problem, Lizzie?" Pansy retorted, seeing that I had been watching her.
"Okay, first off, my name is not Lizzie, and second-of-all, the only problem here has her pug snout sticking in a place where it doesn't belong," I snapped at Pansy.
"Excuse me?" she said, glaring at me and clenching her fists.
"You heard me. Or is there a buildup of earwax blocking your eardrums?" I replied, returning her glare.
"Why you little--" Pansy started, coming toward me, ready to strike me.
"Forgive me, Miss Parkinson, but I'm sure I didn't see you about to harm my best friend's daughter," I heard Lucius's voice from behind Pansy.
Pansy immediately stepped back away from me and smiled broadly at Lucius, who was making his way to stand behind Draco and me.
"Of course not, Mr. Malfoy. We were just talking," Pansy said, trying to cover up the fact that she was about to slap me.
"Good, because it wouldn't look very respectable if I let someone injure Miss Silverlio here after she just came to our home last evening," Lucius said.
I looked over at Draco, who seemed to be enjoying this as much as I was.
"Yes, sir. Well, if you'll excuse me," Pansy said, waving energetically at Draco and making sure to glare at me before turning away.
"We should be going as well," Lucius said, turning around and heading toward Diagon Alley.
I could tell that Pansy was walking much slower than normal so that she could hear everything we said. I figured I'd give her something to hear.
"Yes, we should be going, Lucius," I said, making sure to say Lucius's name clearly and loud enough for everyone in Knockturn Alley to hear me.
I watched Pansy cringe before turning around to follow Lucius, seeing Draco with a smile on his face that was wider than I'd ever seen it.