A/n I think that I've forgotten to say this before, but nothing belongs to me if you recognise it from the HP books, this applies to the chapters before and after this disclaimer.

Thanks very much to all those that have reviewed.

Icy Glares

"You're not ready yet."

"Ready?" I asked, as I looked up from my book to see Draco standing in front of me.

"It's half past six already- company arrives at seven."

"I better get ready then." I said as I stood up and walked to the door. I hadn't realised the time until now and I only had half an hour to ready before everyone arrived for dinner. The dinner that Mr. Malfoy had asked Mrs. Malfoy to arrange so that I could supposedly meet the rest of the family and family friends, but Draco had warned me that that his father was most likely going to use this opportunity to announce the engagement.

Oddly enough, I didn't feel very nervous about meeting all these people and having Mr. Malfoy announce to everyone that Draco and me were to be engaged. I had convinced myself, last night, that there was a way out of this arranged marriage and that I only had to find it. I felt a lot more confident, happier, and more like my old self because I knew that I would not allow myself to be forced into it.

Back before the Malfoys had ever turned up on my doorstep I had always promised myself that I would never allow a man to treat me like his property- that I would never become one of those meek women who allowed a man to rule their lives and that I would never let myself become my mother.

I loved my mother so much, after all she was my mother, but when I was growing up lots of men passed through my life and these were not the type of men you would want as your father figure. They were never violent or abusive to either my mother or me, but they were good for nothing losers that scrounged off of my mother. They were always taking from her and never giving anything back. What was worse was that she allowed herself to be used that way because she thought that they loved her. This happened time and time again. One of her former boyfriends even stole the furniture from the house once, when I was at school and my mother at work, and yet she stilled continued to date the next dead beat after dead beat. My mother seemed to have a knack for dating the wrong type of men and it seemed that even my father was the wrong type of man.

Right now I was breaking the promise I had made to myself. I was allowing a man to rule my life, but no more. It was obvious to me that I couldn't just walk up to a man like Mr. Malfoy and tell him that I was leaving and that I had no intention of EVER marrying his son. No, he didn't seem like the man that would allow that.

I had a whole year to find some way out, before the actual wedding took place and most of that year would be spent at my new school, Hogwarts. Surely a whole year would be long enough to devise a plausible plan.

When I reached my room I opened the door to find a much stressed looking house elf waiting for me there.

"Missy is having to hurry. We is not having long. Lolly is having to do missy's hair and make up and is having to get missy dressed."

I took pity on the poor elf and quickly put on the clothes that had been left on the bed for me to wear.

Lolly pulled me over to the vanity, not allowing me anytime to look at myself in the mirror, and I made me sit still while she tried to tame my curly hair into something that she deemed presentable.

"Missy is finished now. Would missy like to see?" Lolly asked me and before I could even answer she pulled me across to the large mirror.

When I looked into the mirror I was surprised by the person who looked back out at me. I didn't look like me! My hair did indeed look presentable. It was half up and half down, allowing the soft curls to cascade over my shoulders. My hair did make me look different pulled back like that, but it was the clothes that surprised me the most. I was wearing a green cashmere jumper that looked very expensive with a light grey skirt that stopped just before it hit my knees and on my feet were what looked to be the most expensive shoes I had ever touched, let alone wore. The outfit and hair combine made me look a lot older and almost made me look and feel like I could fit into this world of upper class pure bloods.

"Missy is looking very beautiful. Missy's top is matching missy's eyes."

"Yes dear, you look just like a future Malfoy should." The mirror said.

Great, now even the mirrors knew about the engagement.

I fixed the mirror with a glare before turning around to thank Lolly. "Yeah Lolly, I suppose I do look quite alright, but it's all down to you. Thank you Lolly."

"Oh, missy is not having to thank Lolly, this is Lolly's job." But despite what Lolly said she couldn't seem to hide the wide grin that spread across her face, from the praise she received.

I Hoped that I was not too late as I hurried out of my room and headed towards the sitting room.

I stopped as I reached the door, and attempted to calm myself before I went in. I took a deep breathe. So much for not feeling nervous, my apathy towards meeting everyone had vanished to be replaced by a horrible knot in the pit of my stomach.

I was startled as I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Draco standing there, his presence did nothing to calm my nerves.

"I see I'm not the only one who's late." I said, pointing out the obvious and trying to delay as much as possible going into the sitting room.

He answered this with a nonchalant shrug, "You're right and father doesn't like to be kept waiting-"

I Knew that he was going to pull me into the room, so I cut him off and took control of the situation. "You're right lets go in." I said as I opened the door, walking ahead of him.

After being introduced to Mr. Malfoy's family and friends of the family, and after the excitement died down about Adrian Halliwell's daughter returning to 'civilised' society and the expected questions about how Mr. Malfoy had found me, we sat down to dinner.

Surprisingly, dinner seemed to pass quite quickly. To my relief Draco had sat beside me, so I was sitting beside some one I knew. Draco kept me entertained with sarcastic little comments and anecdotes about people sitting around us.

Halfway through Draco describing how the potions professor, who's name was Professor Snape, loved to hand out particularly nasty punishments to people who weren't in his house, Mr. Malfoy called for everyone's attention.

"Although the engagement contract has not been finalised, it gives me great pleasure to announce the engagement of my son, Draco Malfoy, to Lirael Halliwell."

Lots of congratulations followed this announcement, how I ever managed to keep a smile on my face I will never know. The only time my façade dropped was to glare at Draco when slung his arm over my shoulder. The glare didn't seem to face him at all, neither did all the questions about when we planned to be married, which was after Hogwarts. Had we arranged the venue? No. If anything this seemed to encourage him.

Finally it was nearly over. We said goodbye to the guests, Lucifer, Mr. Malfoy's brother seemed particularly saddened to leave as he gave me a prolonged hug, in which his hands seemed to gravitate towards my ass. Although, one icy glare from Mr. Malfoy and I was released.

I felt too exhausted to keep up my façade, so I quickly excused myself and went to bed falling asleep almost instantly, not even the anticipation over going to Hogwarts the next day was able to keep me awake.