The summer season was the best time to find robins around Northern Britain. The petite animals tended to migrate to the highlands at this time of the year. People would often hear them singing. The purpose of sing was to search for potential mates. Like this lucky one, who already found a mate and now they were nesting in a beautiful tall tree that sat next to a big mansion. The nest was hidden among the entwined branches, so no predator could easily spot them. It was the perfect place to raise their young ones once they hatched.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
The spell came with such force that the birds resting on the tree didn't know what hit them before being disintegrated into thin air. Knife-like splinters came from the explosion, every piece of wood shot in different directions, piercing nearby surfaces, breaking windows' glass, and flying to Merlin knew where. The intact part still standing was the lowest part of the tree, which was practically the beginning of the roots. No one could ever believe that a tree used to exist just a few seconds ago.
A few seconds after the destruction, utter silence followed. No birds singing. No rustling of leaves. As if life in the vicinity had suddenly vanished.
Just perfect.
The Protego that was guarding her against any splinter shot her way, faded away. In one single motion of her wrist, the glass started to repair itself as well as the frame of the window. Right after, the curtains were closed once more. Darkness, again, invaded the room.
"Bloody birds, I'm trying to sleep here." Muttered to herself. She violently disentangled the knot from the robe as she walked towards the bed, very eager to get into her cocoon of silky duvets again.
"Maybe next time I just should cast Muffliato…Ha! No." A soft smile took shape on her lips while enjoying the first strokes of drowsiness.
"Bloody hell, what was that?!" The boy asked, disturbed by the sudden strenuous sound. He looked at the other two members on the table; his half-eaten breakfast was long forgotten.
"Draco, watch your language!" His mother dedicated him a pointed glare before returning to calmly sip her morning tea.
The boy was about to question his mother's indifference when his father chimed in, "It came from the west wing." His eyes didn't rise from the Daily Prophet. Lucius continued being absorbed in his thoughts. He considered buying new market stocks. Doing some investments in The Bark Brothers Co. could be highly profitable, after all, no matter which side of the war someone was, everyone needed wands. And to make wands, crafters needed wood. He made a mental note to send a representative later in the week to see the entrepreneur brothers.
"You say it like it explains anything," Draco said, looking at his father.
His gaze drifted to his son. He folded the paper in his hands, then placed it next to him, giving the boy his full attention. "It doesn't?" He straightened on his seat.
Draco gave him an empty look.
Lucius loved his son very much there was no doubt about that, but there were moments like this that sometimes wondered how could he had sired an obtuse son. To add insult to the injury, that moment Narcissa gave him a glare that said among the lines "It comes from your side of the family." Right, because the Blacks never before married their cousins which bore not-crazy off-springs. However, if he wanted to sleep peacefully tonight and the rest of the nights, he'd better kept that thought to himself.
"Draco, who are the people residing in the west wing?" His tone bordered in patronizing.
"Dolohov, Yaxley, the Carrows, Thicknesse...But none of them are here at the moment" Then his eyes grew wide, coming down to the realization "Oh…"
"Oh, indeed," Lucius said. Draco stayed deep in thought for a few moments, before returning to his breakfast.
Narcissa turned to look at his husband "Do you still don't know what is she-" Another strenuous sound erupted from the vestibule, although not as sonorous as the first one, still strong enough to be heard by the members of the Malfoy family. Muffled swears became quickly discernable as the angry steps approached their way.
The blonde woman released a small annoyed sigh, bidding farewell to her family breakfast she was so much looking for today's morning.
Both doors of the dining hall opened in a disruptive manner. "That bloody wench exploded a tree nearby; I wasn't even close and I still got hit." Fenrir Greyback said to whoever was willing to listen, then sat at the end of the long table, licking the bleeding wound on his arm. Elves quickly started to serve him breakfast which mainly consisted of large quantities of raw meat.
The three Malfoys, who were quietly observing him, couldn't help but sneer at the distasteful sight.
"Filqui!" The intonation of her voice was soft and moderate. However, for the trained ear, as his husband had, it was laced with annoyance and exasperation.
"Yes, mistress Malfoy" A female elf appeared next to her master, ready to listen to her orders.
Narcissa, always being the generous host, said: "Bring a Healing potion for Greyback. After that, do go outside and repair whatever damage the earlier explosion did to the property, bring the other elves if you have to" The female elf dutifully nodded her head, and set off.
The woman swiftly stood up, gently smoothed down her dress.
"Where are you going?" Draco asked looking at her mother who seemed acted slightly peeved.
She turned around to look at her son "I'm going to have a conversation with our guest"
"Do you think that's wise?" Lucius asked still in his seat. Understanding which exact guest her wife was talking about, he preferred to just leave alone and avoid her as much as possible.
The blonde woman deliberately ignored his question. She spared one last gaze at her family, then against her will, her eyes drifted again towards Greyback. No matter how many lessons of etiquette Narcissa received in her youth for how to conceal her real emotions. Nothing could hold back the grimace that appeared in her face when she looked the disgusting werewolf chewing his meat.
She proceeded to head towards the entrance of the hall with a quick pace.
Narcissa arrived at her destination. The farthest room of the east wing. It has been so long since she had come to this side of the Mansion. Not to mention that these recent weeks, she had no business coming here. She was avoiding any unnecessary contact with the residents of this wing or the other wing for that matter.
For half a second, she hesitated whether to knock first or just barge her way in. Like today's episode, this guest tended to have sporadically outbursts of anger or more specifically impulsive destructive behavior. Although it wasn't an everyday incident, it happened. That was enough for her.
Who knew —if someone were to invade her privacy, like Narcissa was about to do— how would she react? It would be wise to be wary...
Before she could continue that train of thought, her servant interrupted her.
"Mistress Malfoy," Said next to her, "Filqui tried to repair most of the damage, but Filqui can't repair the master's peacocks. They are dead." An apologetic look manifested on her elf features.
"All of them?" Her eyebrows furrowed; the peacocks weren't even close from the tree. Just how powerful must have been that spell?
Extending one hand open, showing her five tiny fingers, the servant replied: "5 peacocks, mistress."
Narcissa dismissed her elf with one wave of her hand; she decided to barge in the room with wand in hand.
The room was in complete darkness, few rays of sunlight filtered through the sidelines of the curtains. With one easy movement of her wand, the curtains completely slid sideways, allowing sunlight in the room. Narcissa's eyes roamed all across the room. Her upper lip raised in disgust. To say the room was messy would be an understatement, it was simply in complete chaos. The smell of cheap alcohol aggressively invaded her nostrils, probably permeating her clothes as she stepped further in. Broken vials and clothes were littered everywhere. Most of the furniture's surfaces had a paraphernalia of potions and ingredients, and wait… Was that mud on her walls and carpets? Forget about that! Were those books from her library?
How and when did she get those?
"Wake up" A thinned line formed on Narcissa's lips, "I said wake up" getting angry by the second.
The body between the duvets finally stirred, lazily stretching her arms. "Ugh, what the fuck do you want?!" Asked the annoyed drowsy voice.
"What?!" She screeched. The nerve! Narcissa aimed her want at the bulk under the duvets. She wasn't about to allow this lack of judgment from this filth passed without consequences.
A grunt came from under covers "My apologies, what I meant was, oh most gracious lady of this mansion, how can I, your humble servant, ask you to leave this room?"
Narcissa heard enough.
A jinx was shot. The sobs of pain and the fetal form told that her spell had struck.
"Ugh, that hurt. Ok, you win" Said the girl, hardly able to raise half-body from the bed. Both hands raised in the air in a surrender gesture. The girl was naked from the waist upwards, Narcissa could see the mark that left her spell on the girl's upper chest. If left untreated, it was bound to leave an ugly bruise later. "You hit quite hard Mrs. Malfoy. I hardly can breathe" The words didn't match the body language and the tone of her voice, which vibrated with levity, even playfulness. As if all this was just a game.
On the other hand, Narcissa remained impassive at the girl's antics. Internally, she was disconcerted by how quickly she recovered. Adding the fact that she didn't seem to want to retaliate as predicted, nor she was angry. The blonde felt at odds of not knowing what to expect from this Impure.
The woman soon concluded that the girl didn't have the means to defend herself. That's why nothing had escalated.
"Miss Granger, is there any particular reason why the room is in such a state? And why pray and tell do you have my books?" She pointed out at the towers of books in the farthest corner.
Seeing no use in aiming her to a disarmed child, the blonde decided to store her wand on the side of her coat.
Hermione took in the state in the room, as if she was seeing it for the first time. Then a slow smile started to appear on her features. "Because I'm a teenager? And yes, those are some books I borrowed and that I'm planning to return. Cross of my heart" Her head tilted to the side, slightly, drawing two imaginary lines just above her left breast.
The woman openly sneered at her childishness. "No teenager I have ever seen can be this filthy." After a pause, tired on the lack of modesty from her, Narcissa added, "And would you please cover yourself?"
As a response to that, Hermione shrugged, looking non-committal. She seemed not to care much about her nakedness. Lazily, she removed the covers, walk towards the wardrobe, and began to browse into her garments.
"One more thing, Miss Granger. What happened to the tree?" Blue eyes looked past the window from where the tree was supposed to be visible.
The rustling sounds stopped. Hermione peeked out her head from the closet door. "Birds." She said as if that explained everything.
Narcissa blinked once, then twice. Her mouth opened for a brief time, then she closed it again, rapidly concluding it was better for both parties to not follow that line of conversation anymore. "Be as it may, I'll ask you to not go randomly exploding trees around the mansion. Someone may get seriously injured."
"Did someone get hurt?" She asked, there was something akin to defiance in her voice.
"Greyback got an injury in his arm"
A delighted laugh came from the girl. "I hope it gets infected," She said with a joyful tone.
Narcissa didn't know how to respond to that. This girl in front of her wasn't the girl she met in King Cross Station years ago.
Understanding the topic was closed, Narcissa let her eyes roam once more around the room. The first thing her eyes set on was the bed. She didn't notice it until now, the cover seemed ripped on top as if it has been the practice target of a slashing curse. Right then, she saw something standing out from under the pillow. Walking closer to take a better look, she saw a wand. All this time Hermione had her wand practically in her hand. She wasn't defenseless as the Slytherin woman had assumed.
She didn't what to think.
The blonde went on to continue silently surveying the room, at the same time, mindful to not step on something disgusting. On the small table, there was a large supply of dandelion root, dragon claw, valerian roots, fire seed, devil's snare, moonseed, powered silver... And in the center, there was a small bottle of fairy dust.
A beautification ingredient, why would the girl need that?
She mentally did all the potions that could be possible to create with those ingredients, but the only one that came to her mind didn't add up with the rest of them.
Narcissa turned around in time to see Hermione taking her wand from under the pillow. She was dressed in a dark grey open cloak, displaying the garments under it, leathery black pants, and a wine-red laced blouse. She played the very part of an elite witch.
Narcissa sneered at her words. This girl was a mudblood, playing pretend to be something else, she reminded herself.
With a quick flick of the girl's wand, the room returned to its pristine form.
"Would that be agreeable?" The brunette asked with a gentle smile. Narcissa felt speechless for a moment. She just saw that the girl used a modified version of Scourge charm, cast as a non-verbal spell.
That itself spoke volumes of her advanced magical abilities. And while it said something, it didn't say enough.
Once again, Narcissa had the question on tip of her tongue ready to shoot. The one question that had been always been in the front of her mind since the girl arrived at the mansion a couple of weeks ago under the orders of the Dark Lord. It is not that she hasn't asked before, but nobody knew anything. None of the Death Eaters knew something of this new development, not even Bellatrix. Draco told her what little he knew about her. The girl was highly intelligent and diligent in her studies. That was all. Which, again, said nothing.
Standing before the vanity, the Granger girl began to brush her wavy hair; left behind was the bushy strands she used to have in her earlier years.
"Miss Granger, would you mind me asking, what exactly are you doing here?" Her words were phrased as casual as possible. "I know the Dark Lord brought you here but…"
The girl stopped abruptly. The brush was set on the vanity again. When she turned around to face the blonde woman, the relaxed and playful semblance the girl had a second ago instantly dropped; a menacing aura emerged in its place.
Brown eyes glare at her, with a smile that didn't reach her the corner of her eyes, she said: "That's something you can ask yourself to the Dark Lord, Mrs. Malfoy" Her voice was openly hostile.
Narcissa wasn't about to let herself be intimidated by a runt; her features betrayed nothing. Truth be told, if this girl weren't under the Dark Lord's protection, she would have her punished time ago. She had the urge to slap her now more than ever. Nevertheless, she untouchable, for the moment.
She was tempted to insist once more, but again her intuition told her that eventually, everything would be uncovered; it was just about being patient.
The brunette opened her bedroom door "Now, I'm afraid if I delay any further there won't be any breakfast for me, and I'm starving. Have a wonderful day Mrs. Malfoy" And with that Narcissa saw the departing figure, leaving her alone in the room.
