Once Raven had finally left her father's office, after a rather drawn-out conversation with the two men, she headed up a set of marble stairs towards her childhood bedroom. The bedrooms were all situated on the second floor of the manor, with the library, drawing room and her father's office on the first, and the living room, kitchen, dining room and a study on the ground floor.

As she entered the room, Raven saw that Draco was already in there, rummaging in her trunk on her bed. Back before they had both gone to different schools, Draco had always been a nosy boy, constantly wanting to be aware of everything that was happening. Clearly nothing had changed there. He pulled a small picture out of one of the pockets inside the leather suitcase and glanced up at Raven, raising his blonde eyebrows.

"Who are they?" he asked and jumped off the bed, holding the picture up to the window.

Raven strode over to her brother and tried to snatch it out of his hands but he lifted it above his head with a smirk, his extra few inches of height over her coming in handy. Raven tugged on his arm, catching a glimpse of which photo he was holding. Her body froze momentarily; in the photo were the two boys that over the past few months she had tried desperately to block from her memory.

"Draco stop!" She said, feeling her magic on the verge of panic.

A brief look of confusion flashed across Draco's face at the urgency in his sister's voice.

Raven took that moment of weakness to knee the blonde boy in the stomach; not particularly hard but hard enough to make him double over with an oomph. She plucked the picture out of her brother's grasp and hastily tucked it back into the pocket of her trunk, fighting the urge to look at the faces on it.

"Seriously Rae?! That hurt!" Draco whined.

'Rae' was the nickname Draco had given her when they were younger. According to her parents, he had struggled to say 'Raven'. He couldn't pronounce the 'v' properly and the name came out as 'Rayben' instead. So, two-year-old Draco had simplified it for himself and since then he had called her 'Rae'.

Raven plopped herself down on her bed and crossed her arms, a small pout forming on her plump lips.

"You deserved it. That's what you get for sticking your nose in my business."

Draco humphed and joined her on the bed, trying to act as if he hadn't just had the wind knocked out of him. Raven smirked smugly.

"Sooo... who were those boys?" asked Draco.

"W-what?"

Draco rolled his eyes.

"In the photo..." He motioned to the now-closed trunk next to her.

"They were... some friends from France. That's all." she dismissed.

Draco must have sensed her discomfort and changed the subject quickly.

The two Malfoy children chatted away; Draco was the type of boy who could talk for hours on end about anything. By the time Draco had stood up to stretch his long limbs, the sun was setting and it was almost dark outside.

Raven's stomach rumbled loudly; the last time she had eaten was at least eight hours ago during her last breakfast at Beauxbatons.

"Come on," Draco grabbed her by her small wrists and hauled her to her feet. "Let's go and eat."

As they neared the dining room, the smell of delicious food filled their noses and Draco began to walk quicker in anticipation. Raven laughed to herself. Ever since they were able to walk, Draco had been keen to go in the direction of food; he had a very heightened sense of smell when it came to anything edible.

Their parents were already in the dining room, sat at the long, glossy table and they were joined by Severus Snape, who was smirking and leisurely holding a glass of red wine in his right hand.

When the twins were old enough to begin to learn about magic, as a close friend of their parents', the Potion's Master had been allocated to teach them the basic about potions, and infuriatingly, he had always tended to pick up on the smallest things that Raven had done wrong. Whether it was having the wrong measurement of ingredients or not stirring the potion enough, the stoic man seemed to find joy from annoying the hell out of Raven, that she was certain about.

'Why is he still here?' Raven thought exasperatedly.

She sighed loudly and took her seat at the table across from Snape.

Dinner continued over quiet conversation and Raven ate her food whilst thinking about Hogwarts. In many letters over the past five and a bit years, Draco had talked repeatedly about the British school of magic. It was a place Raven had dreamed of attending but when she reached the age of eleven, her father decided she would go to Beauxbatons in France rather than attend Hogwarts with her brother. To this day, she still was unsure of his reasoning behind it.

"So do I know anyone who's in our year at Hogwarts?" Raven asked her twin.

Draco shoved a fork full of food into his mouth and chewed it eagerly.

"You remember Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe?"

Raven nodded.

"And Pansy Parkinson?"

She nodded again.

"Theodore Knott?"

"Theo?" Raven asked with a smile.

During their childhood, Raven, Draco and Theo had spent a lot of time together playing in the forest surrounding the Malfoy estate. The brown-haired boy had often been at Malfoy Manor because of their parents' friendship and they even had some lessons together in the study.

"Actually, Theo was asking about you the other day. He wanted to know how you were doing or something like that..." Draco waved his hand in the air dismissively.

"Why would he want to know how I'm doing?" Raven said.

Draco shrugged and turned back to his nearly empty plate.

"If my memory serves correctly, you and the Knott boy were quite enamoured with each other at one point," Snape interjected into the conversation.

Raven dropped her fork onto the china plate with a loud clang. "What?!"

The Potion's Master merely smirked once more and graciously placed a piece of meat into his mouth.

"Mother, what did you tell him?!" Raven exclaimed whilst pointing a finger accusingly at Snape. The many talks she had had with Narcissa about the younger Theo were springing to the forefront of her mind.

Narcissa gave her daughter an apologetic look from a few seats down the table.

"I can't believe this! I may as well go jump off a cliff now!"

"Raven, don't be so dramatic!" Lucius said from his spot at the head of the table.

Snape sipped at his wine again, clearly trying to hide his smirk. He was definitely enjoying this.

'Bastard ' Raven thought and glared in Snape's direction.

She mumbled under her breath, "I'm way too sober for this" and looked longingly at the three wine glasses that the adults had. She would kill for a drink right now.

"Your mother tells me that you apparated here instead of taking the train," Lucius said.

"Apparated?!" Snape's head shot in the direction of the sixteen-year-old girl.

Raven rolled her eyes. He was probably more concerned with her breaking the law than anything else.

"No need to get your wand in a knot! Professor Burkell offered to escort me here."

Snape's back stiffened ever so slightly and Narcissa's eyes flicked to Lucius instantly. They appeared to have a very brief, silent conversation.

"Professor...Burkell?" My mother asked hesitantly.

"She teaches Care of Magical Creatures at Beauxbatons," said Raven.

The three adults shared another look that Raven couldn't quite work out.

'Well, that was odd.' She thought and continued on with her meal.

Once they had finished with dinner, Lucius and Narcissa accompanied Snape to the door while Raven and Draco lingered behind them.

"So are you excited to start at Hogwarts?" Draco asked as they walked, nudging his sister with his elbow.

"Yeah. It's going to be nice to able to see you every day rather than for just a few months every year. Just promise me you won't ditch me for your friends?"

"I promise," said Draco with a genuine smile.

They watched Snape walk out of the manor with long strides. Raven saw the Potion's Master glimpse back over at the twins before seconds later disappearing into thin air.