.:o:.O.:o:. Growing Up in Malfoy Manor .:o:.O.:o:.

.:o:. Chapter Two – Lessons and a Salad .:o:.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and anything related to it belong to J.K. Rowling and/or Warner Bros.

.:-:o:-:.

When the children reached the age of four, it was decided that their lessons should begin. Every morning, the children received an hour each of tutoring in maths, reading, and writing before lunch, adding up to three hours of lessons for each of them. After lunch, they would be allowed to burn some youthful energy off in the courtyard before settling down for a nap. After the nap would come one hour of English and one hour of French every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or one hour of music and one hour of dancing every Tuesday and Thursday. When all of the children turned five, Saturdays and Sundays were reserved for a more biased version of Muggle Studies, which included Muggle History.

The Malfoys, Greengrasses, Notts, Parkinsons, and Zabinis felt that one must know one's enemy well if one wanted to defeat them. Learning about muggles and their history would teach their children about the foolish mistakes muggles made and emphasize their inferiority, as well as preventing criticism for looking down upon the ways of muggles and Mudbloods without adequate knowledge of them. These lessons also had the added benefit of increasing the children's instilled dislike of muggles and Mudbloods. Having gone through similar lessons themselves, the adults knew how irritating it was to have to learn the various things that muggles got up to. The children were immensely relieved that they would be learning wizarding history in Hogwarts, which they wouldn't attend for several more years.

"Why do muggles have to go and do all this stuff so we have to learn about it?" asked a frustrated five-year-old Draco one sunny Saturday morning.

"I dunno. I wish we didn't have to do all this work before we got to go outside," said Theo, staring morosely at his piece of parchment, on which he was to dictate four sentences to his Dictation Quill about the morning's lesson on Elizabeth the First. Of course, as they were still young, the lessons did not go into much depth, only concentrating on main points.

"Muggles are boring," agreed Daphne, who had actually finished her Elizabeth the First paragraph already.

"Can you help me with my maths paper, Daphne?" asked Pansy, who was frowning at her parchment-full of equations.

"OK," replied Daphne, bending over to see the parchment.

A few hours later, after making sure that all of their work was indeed done, the children were allowed to go outside to play. Having already been instructed in swimming, their clothes were transfigured by the house-elves before they carefully stepped into the pool created by the elder Malfoys for that purpose. After a few minutes of peaceful swimming and no unnecessary splashing, during which a few parents were watching shrewdly, the house-elves cast Silencing Charms around the pool to ensure that the parents, who had left, would not hear the sounds that would undoubtedly issue forth and come to investigate. Charms were also used to ensure that the water would stay inside the pool, and the real fun began.

Had the charms not been in place, one would have heard screams of laughter as a splash fight took place between the five children. The house-elves kept a careful watch to make sure that no one got hurt, but the children were gentle enough in their boisterous behavior that no one was actually hurt. The pool was wide and shallow, and quite a time was had when they decided to play a bit of tag. As their time for playing drew to an end, the children were quickly dried off and sent to their respective rooms set up in the Manor to change for dinner.

.:-:o:-:.

There were, of course, days when the tutors could not come, and the children would be free of lessons. Oftentimes they would simply play in the courtyard, but when they were extreme lucky and the parents were also out, leaving them alone with the house-elves, the children got up to all sorts of mischief. They had become more proficient at sliding down the banisters, and often came down to the kitchens to watch the house-elves work. Dobby and the others were pleased that the children knew not to disturb the house-elves as they prepared meals.

One such day, Dobby noticed Draco and Daphne avidly watching as Sprinkles, one of the best cooks of the Manor house-elves, prepared an elaborate dish for the dinner party later that evening. They seemed to be more interested than was usual, almost as though they were trying to memorize the procedure.

"Master Draco? Mistress Daphne?" asked Dobby.

"Oh, hi, Dobby," they replied absently, still looking fixedly at Sprinkles. Dobby got a little idea in his head, and he decided to take a chance.

"Would young Master and Mistress like to be helping to prepare the food?" Dobby offered. Their eyes were wide as they turned their attention away from Sprinkles to look at Dobby.

"Really?" asked Draco.

"Do you think Mother or Father would be angry?" asked Daphne, excitement barely noticeable beneath her worry.

"No one will be angry if no one is knowing," replied Dobby in secretive voice, making Draco and Daphne giggle a bit, the tension draining away as they nodded eagerly.

"All right, this is what you will need to be doing," began Dobby. He led them away toward a less complicated salad. He made sure their hands were properly washed before handing them a bowl and various types of lettuce. He instructed them to carefully pluck out the leaves and place them in the bowl, using any combination of lettuces that they wanted to, and told Paddy to supervise them. After several minutes of peaceful plucking, Paddy deemed it safe to leave for a few minutes.

"This doesn't look very yummy," commented Draco as he continued plucking lettuce leaves and placing them into the bowl.

"There should be more stuff in here," agreed Daphne, stopping her plucking to look around.

"Let's put lemons in it!" exclaimed Draco in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, Dobby's lemon tarts are always good," said Daphne, reaching for a few lemons that were already sliced in half. The two of them proceeded to squeeze lemon juice all over the salad, as well as adding little grapes, cherries, blueberries, and strawberries.

"It's a fruit salad," said Draco happily when they were done.

"We can cook!" said Daphne proudly, and the two of them laughed. They continued with their plucking, covering up the berries by the time Paddy had returned.

"Young Master and Mistress are doing a good job," commented Paddy, making Draco and Daphne beam with pride.

"The party is beginning now, Master is starting early, Master is saying to send in the salads now!" Dobby shouted frantically as he ran into the kitchens.

"Young Masters and Mistresses must be leaving now, or else you will be in trouble," said Paddy, shooing them away.

"Paddy, you must be sending up the salad, and hurry!" said Dobby, moving toward the other courses. Paddy grabbed the big bowl of "fruit salad" that Draco and Daphne had made and rushed out into the formal dining hall where all of the adults were assembled; the children would have a separate meal in upstairs. Paddy used his house-elf magic to quickly mix up the salad before he entered, and his eyes widened in horror as he saw the extra ingredients it contained. He realized it was too late to do anything and could only hope no one got into too much trouble when he heard Lucius call again.

"About time," said Lucius coldly as Paddy entered the hall with the salad.

"Paddy is very sorry, sir, very, very sorry," said Paddy respectfully, surprising himself by managing to keep the fear out of his voice. He quickly served the salad to all of the people seated at the enormous table, keeping his head down and heading back to the kitchens as quickly as he could without running. He did not want to be there when the salad was tasted…

"This is…a very interesting recipe," commented Marigold Parkinson, the first person to take a bite.

"It must be an…experiment of the house-elves," said Narcissa lightly after she, too, tasted the salad.

"Quite interesting, indeed…" muttered Lucius. After about another ten minutes, the salads were mostly finished and Lucius waved his wand, sounding a large bell. House-elves came to clear the table and serve the next course. Luckily for everyone, there were no further incidents.

When both dinners were finished, the children retreated to the playroom, where Paddy and Dobby scolded Draco and Daphne, who were highly apologetic.

"Does that mean we can't come down to the kitchens anymore?" asked Daphne, eyes wide.

"No…you may be coming back, as long as you is following instructions," relented Dobby at the adorable look on her face.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Draco happily, exchanging a grin with Daphne.

"You guys can get away with anything," said Theo later that night, laughing.

"That's because the salad was interesting," said Daphne.

"It's a good thing it was, or else we'd be in so much trouble," added Draco.

"I'm glad adults eat funny things," responded Daphne, causing the other four to start laughing.

"It's fun being a kid," said Blaise a while later, just before they had to go to bed. Everyone was staying over at the Manor that night.

"I wish we didn't have to grow up, even if we do learn spells and stuff," agreed Pansy.

"At least we'll always be friends, right?" asked Draco. There were nods and murmurs of agreement.

"No matter what," said Daphne, prompting a group hug, much to the delight of Dobby, Twinkle, Paddy, Jingle, and Dolly.

"Time for bed, young mistresses," said Dolly and Twinkle.

"And it is time for bed for you too, young masters," added Dobby. The five children bid each other good night and went to their respective rooms to get ready for bed.


A/N: This is going to be a relatively short story, with the next chapter most likely being the last "official" chapter, followed by an epilogue. Well, hope you've enjoyed the three chapters already done, and continue enjoying the next two! Thanks for reading, and I wouldn't object to a few reviews coming in, too…