Having heard some movement in the hallway, the girl was already by the door. She opened it and saw Draco slamming his when their eyes met briefly.
"We are expecting a few guests for dinner," the lady informed her briefly. "It's possible one of your fellow Slytherins to be among them. I hope you remember what we spoke about your identity."
She nodded. "I remember, Mrs. Malfoy. Thank you." Katherina expected her to leave, but she took a confident step past her and the girl found herself backing away to let her into the room. Thank heavens she had had time to hide her little research in the drawer of her writing desk and lock it with the Colloportus spell. Sure, she had no illusions it would keep a Malfoy witch out, but at least she would hear if she wanted to look through her things.
"I would like to see what you plan on wearing. We're expecting close family friends and I believe the word will begin to spread about you enjoying our protection."
That made sense, she thought. Secretly, Katherina felt relieved. "I haven't decided yet." She closed the door and went to look through the closet.
Narcissa sat on the sofa, looking past her frame at the clothes she had lined up on hangers. "Perhaps something like this? Do you want to try it?" She levitated a tailored black velvet dress with long sleeves and a white rounded collar. It had a simple but refined look with a wide band of black embroidery near the hem of the skirt.
"I think... I will try two. Would this be too much?" Katherina held another dress over herself, trying to line the hanger with her shoulders. The one she chose was narrower, with transparent lace sleeves, while the bodice and skirt were made of a beige fabric close to her skin tone, heavily layered with black lace. It had blood-red strips of velvet around the wrists and collar.
"I think you should save that one for when my sister will come over. I expect her to show up as soon as she finds out about your existence."
Katherina placed it back and went into the bathroom to change into what Mrs. Malfoy had picked for her. She had bought that dress for her first day at Hogwarts before she found out she was going to need a uniform. She undressed, slipped into the velvet dress, and zipped the back with magic. She was rather flexible, but couldn't reach while wearing that dress. It restricted her movements a little bit. She pulled the top part of her hair in a ponytail in the back, then loosened a few clearly defined strands and pulled a few back in the front to frame her face.
Narcissa watched her walk out and put on a pair of short heels. The dress had been obviously tailored to hug her torso tightly and accentuate her waist and hips. It was about one palm's width below her knees.
"Perfect. Do you not wear makeup usually?"
The girl looked at herself in the full-sized mirror. "No, I haven't mastered that yet."
Her choice of words was amusing. "Very well, there's no rush. Our guests should be here at any moment."
Katherina ran her hands down the front of her dress as if to smooth some wrinkles, but the fabric was already smooth. Her nerves were tense as she followed Narcissa downstairs into the main dining room, right next to the one where she had been welcomed on her first day in the Manor. She heard lazy, reluctant steps behind her and she knew that Draco was joining them. He didn't seem too happy about it, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. That room had a beautiful glass wall that opened towards the garden in the back.
It was the first time Draco saw her wearing something like... that. It wasn't the uniform and it wasn't their usual clothes. He watched her curls jumping on her back as she walked proudly next to his mother. Her legs looked really nice today, was it because of the heels? And he got the feeling her bottom had gotten rounder since the last time he stared at it. Before he noticed, his mother had intentionally fallen behind to be by his side. She had that smile she usually had when she was about to manipulate him into saying everything he didn't want to say.
Draco saw his father already waiting in the dining room for their arrival. Now, the only ones missing were the Goyles. Much to everyone's relief, they arrived a few moments later and were soon joining the Malfoys around the table. Katherina had been sat between Draco and Gregory, as a means to group them together probably. The men sat next to their sons and their wives closed the circle.
"Who is this young lady, if I may? You've never mentioned her before, or at least, I don't think you did," Mrs. Goyle asked after a few minutes.
Katherina was trying hard not to stare. No wonder their kid was fat - both of his parents were as well, and so old too... and heavens! They were filling their plates again and again! How could anyone eat so much?
"She's a muggle-born!" Gregory spoke with food in his mouth and accidentally spat some back into his plate.
Draco and Katherina looked at each other, both about to puke, then watched in horror as Gregory picked up what he had spat with his fork and ate it again. She uncomfortably shifted away from Gregory.
"Actually, it turns out she is a pure-blood," Mrs. Malfoy explained. She didn't particularly enjoy the company of the Goyles, but the man of the house was an ally of the Dark Lord. "Electra Avery had a child with another wizard, outside of her marriage with Stephan. They lied to everyone, saying it was stillborn, while they gave away the child. Between us, present? I personally believe that Stephan Avery wanted the child dead and Electra gave it to some muggles to save her life."
Mrs. Goyle gasped and actually put her fork down. Who knew she could?
"Oh, heavens! This is scandalous! Stephan could be sent to Azkaban for this, to attempt to murder his wife's child! Illegitimate or not, it was still a magical baby, and a pureblood, from what you are saying! Have you found out who the father might be?"
Sick of the discussion and well aware that the Goyles were going to fill the entire wizarding world on everything they learned, Lucius decided to end it.
"I couldn't find anything in the archives, but the maternal lineage is easy to trace."
Gregory looked her up and down. "So... you're like us, huh?"
Nowhere near, Katherina thought as she felt him staring at her. "Amazing what you find once you survive a murder attempt," she tried to make a joke.
"Have you heard, by the way?" Narcissa jumped on the occasion to stroke Draco's ego. "Our son is a hero."
Mr. Goyle, who had been awkwardly silent until then, shot his son a questioning look. "Have you forgotten to tell us something, Gregory?"
"Uuh..." the boy took a moment to think, or at least, that's what everyone assumed. "I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Draco asked him. "You were there! Remember, on the last day before the summer break, by the Black Lake? Richard Avery attacked Katherina and I kicked his-!" The blond stopped as he felt his mother's eyes on him. "Um, I mean, I beat him with his own spell!"
"Does the Ministry know about this? I suppose it happened at Hogwarts." Mr. Goyle addressed Mr. Malfoy.
"Of course. I took care of the situation right away. I'm surprised you haven't heard by now."
The pig-man Mr. Goyle made a sound that had Draco holding back a chuckle and Katherina looking away so they wouldn't accidentally meet each other's eyes and burst into laughter. Draco thought about Harry Potter to hold back, while Katherina thought of Professor Snape.
"I heard two students were expelled from Hogwarts for endangering the safety of the others, some... irresponsible use of magic, or something along this line. Is Dumbledore still in charge?"
"Perhaps we should discuss this in my office?" Lucius offered.
That's when Katherina got an idea. This was the setting for which she has been waiting all summer. "Sir, would it be alright if we went outside until pudding?"
Lucius raised his eyebrows. He looked at his son. When she noticed, Katherina touched his shoe with hers under the table and Draco realized she had something to do and needed his help.
"Yes, father, can we go? The weather seems nice."
"Very well," he granted them their permission. This allowed the grown-ups some time to discuss without the children present.
Katherina and Draco stood up right away. "Are you coming, Greg?" Draco said when his colleague remained put.
"We're not walking far, are we?" He reluctantly got up from the round table, abandoning his plate nearly completely clean, emptied the third time.
"No. Draco said a few days ago he wanted to show me something in the garden, right?" she asked as she rushed ahead of the boys.
"Yeah, a flower that opens in the evening!" Thankfully, they did have one such nocturnal flower in their garden, and conveniently enough, it was quite far from the house.
"Blooms," Katherina corrected him.
Once they had made their way far enough into the garden, Draco and Katherina finally made eye contact. He pointed back towards the house and they both began laughing uncontrollably until their eyes were filled with tears. Draco was holding his stomach, bending over, while Katherina had lowered herself towards the ground so that her skirt covered her feet, holding one arm around her abdomen.
"...What? What are you laughing about?" Goyle asked, honestly confused.
The two caught their breath, looked at Gregory, and then back at each other, which caused them a second fit of laughter.
Out of breath, Draco wiped the tears from his eyes. "He actually grunted!" he whispered right before laughing again, but this time he was too strained for a third full-blown fit.
"Hey, Draco, what's so funny?" Gregory insisted. "I wanna laugh too! What grunted?"
Katherina waved her hand as she stood up and arranged the skirt of her dress. "One of the... house-elves, right?"
Draco laughed again. "...Yeah, a house-elf. Can you imagine him with the ears?"
"Oh, lord!" Katherina began laughing again and Draco wasn't even trying to hold back.
"...I haven't heard anything," Gregory said with a dumb expression.
"Can we talk about something else?" Katherina chuckled. "You were supposed to show me that flower, right?"
Draco was still trying to control himself. Damn, Goyle's father just grunted like a goddamn pig! In front of everyone!
"Yeah, let's go to the gazebo. My mother loves it." He led them at the Gazebo. It was covered in a magical nocturnal vine.
Katherina recognized it right away and covered her nose. She picked one of the flowers and tapped Goyle's shoulder, then shove it in his face. Gregory had no option but to breathe and so, he was asleep before he could ask what's up. She held her palm towards Malfoy and high-fived.
"What is it that you really want?" Malfoy asked her once Gregory was snoring on the ground.
She got closer to him and whispered, "There's a book in the other room about the Dark Arts. Let's get it and we'll study it together at Hogwarts!"
His eyes widened. "We're not supposed to touch those! My father said the Dark Arts books are dangerous. When I asked, he told me aunt Bellatrix will tutor me when I'm old enough."
"Can't be that dangerous. The one I've spotted is called Jinxes, Hexes, and an introduction to the Dark Arts. Sounds easy enough, right?"
Draco seemed to contemplate the idea. "Jinxes and hexes, huh? Yeah, but then... how are we gonna take it without my father noticing? He knows every particle of dust on that bookshelf!"
"We won't. We'll take a copy. I've learned the Doubling Charm; it's very simple. We leave the original here and take the copy with us. It will self-destruct after about a week."
That's when his gray eyes began to light up with enthusiasm. "Brilliant! We won't even have to get rid of it! We'll have one week to go through the book, you say? There won't be one student in Hogwarts to challenge us!"
"I knew you'd agree!" Katherina grinned. "Now, we need some way to sneak into that room, unseen by the adults or the house-elves, so I can create the copy, and then we'll get out. I haven't figured out this part of the plan yet."
"I think I have an idea..." Malfoy said with a smirk. Damn, that smirk was going to kill her one day!
Author's notes:
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