Chapter Six: Blond Roundelay
Axiom. Again. 'Harry Potter hates travelling by portkeys even more than by apparating'. Period.
After being moved a long distance in but a few moments, the green eyed boy was unceremoniously spat on the ground. Fortunately, his reflexes improved a great deal during his time in the Hogwarts out of his rigorous training, so he didn't fall on his behind this time.
What he saw before him made his jaw fall on the floor once again. Narcissa laughed beautifully at his face, and it was a gentle music to his ears, which were embarrassingly red, though not only them.
The manor was a majestic, large and wide two story building. Before it a vast yard laid, which was separated on parts by tall green fence, white peacocks perching on top of it.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Lucius asked Harry, proud to see that his family place awed the boy so much.
Harry asked Mr Malfoy to tell him some of his family history – Lucius gave him a small lecture. Apparently the man could speak on the topic forever.
" Almost three hundred years ago, after our family broke in two halves, the one from which I come immigrated to England and the Malfoy Manor was built under the supervision of Brutus Malfoy, my great ancestor, whose notable deeds earned the 'Noble' title for my House. Leave your bags here, Harry - the house elves will take care of them." the Malfoy patriarch said.
"Dobby!" he called sharply.
An ugly humanoid-like creature, two feet tall, with brownish skin, long ears and tennis ball sized eyes appeared with loud 'Pop' in front of them.
"Master called Dobby! Your humble servant awaits your command!" the creature exclaimed, bowing so low its nose almost touched the earth.
"Take Harry's things to the best guest room we have."
Dobby complied, taking boy's trunks and apparating away.
The entrance hall was as huge and richly decorated as Harry imagined, maybe even more. Wide stairs of white marble went up, separating to the opposite sides in the middle. There was a wide balcony above it, whose parapet was made of mahogany.
The Malfoy family crest was placed under the balcony.
"Sanctimonia Vincet Semper – purity always conquers, so banal" Harry thought and mentally rolled his eyes. The amount of wealth that shined everywhere around the boy made him a little dizzy.
"Draco will show you the place, Harry. I will be in my study – if you have some important questions come there. I'm sure that my wife has something to do too." Lucius looked strangely at Narcissa "The dinner will be ready at seven pm - one of the house elves will inform you."
He gently put his right arm around her waist and they walked away together. Harry could have sworn that he saw how Mrs Malfoy grabbed her husband's ass when they almost turned around the corner.
Draco seemingly relaxed once his parents left the hall – all his posture became less stiff. He slowly breathed and turned to his friend.
"Finally... Let's go Harry - I'll show you the place." Draco said.
The manor was ridiculously vast and made Harry wonder why somebody would need twenty four bathrooms. When he had seen a private quidditch field Malfoy's had, he understood that twenty four bathrooms were nothing in comparison with this. It was similar to Hogwart's one, but without the huge stands that encircled it. Harry never really liked the game, though he'd heard from his uncle that James Potter was a quidditch prodigy.
The blond boy also showed him their (Malfoy's) huge indoor swimming pool filled with water from some natural hot springs somewhere on the territory of the manor.
After Harry had seen so many examples of wasting money, he was sure that nothing would ever surprise him.
Then, his room was showed to him.
'The best guest room we have' was located on second floor, being 'just two corridors' away from Draco's one.
Beyond the door everything was coloured in black, silver and green. A large four poster bed, with a bedside table on the right, was on the left from the entrance door, the back of it touching the wall. In the far left corner a large desk was placed with very comfortable looking chair by it and the wide high window above.
An oversized wardrobe was placed by the wall on the right. A door on the left from this monstrous piece of furniture led to the bathroom, which was almost as large as the guest room itself. A huge bath the size of a little pool was taking the majority of place.
The water taps on it and the sink were made of gold, while the toilet was looking more like a huge seat with a hole, apparently made there by a mistake. Harry rubbed his temples after seeing all that hypertrophied show of wealth.
"Really?" he groaned, noticing that the toilet cap was golden too.
In about an hour, a little house elf apparated in his room with a loud pop. He looked older than Dobby.
"Chvan is here to inform Harry Potter that dinner is ready and Master and Mistress await him in the Dining Room, sir." the grey-skinned elf told him, giving him a respectful bow.
"Thank you, Chvan. I'll be there right away" Harry responded with kind smile.
The little creature was shocked that the great Boy-Who-Lived was so polite with him. His already impossibly huge eyes opened even wider, in utter surprise, achieving unachievable.
"Y-y-you are t-t-too k-kind, s-sir!" Chvan stuttered and quickly disappeared with very loud 'pop'.
Harry put on his best dress robes, which were coloured emerald with platinum curves, charmed by him to snake around the fabric.
Draco was waiting for him behind the door. He examined the clothes his friend chose to wear.
"Nice robes, four-eyes." he complimented him.
The blond was dressed in black robes, whose high-quality fabric played on the light, pleasing an observer.
"Acromantula silk? You are such a fancy catch for some social climber girl (... or boy), ponce." Harry teased.
The dining room was a spacious room with high ceiling, a long rectangular table at the centre. Tall steel armour suits were standing by the walls around it, their masks cold and expressionless, like some sort of sentries.
Lucius Malfoy sat at the head of the table, his voluptuous wife by his right side. Enormous black marble fireplace, which took almost one third of the far wall, was roaring with fire about twelve feet behind the man.
"This family certainly likes to display their wealth on any possible opportunity" Harry thought, but didn't roll his eyes – they were too tired by now, with all this constant rolling back.
He sat near them on the left side of the table, one place away from Lucius, politely greeting the host and complimenting lady Malfoy for her beautiful taste in clothes to which she replied with a kind of smile that Harry was certain he could watch for hours. Draco took the place that was opposite to his.
As soon as everyone finally occupied their respective seats, various kind of food appeared on the finest silver dishes. The dishes were so rigorously polished that Harry could clearly see his reflection in any of them.
The family and its guest had quiet dinner then, enjoying delightful food that the house elves of the manor prepared.
After having the most delicious dessert, they started a small talk.
The Malfoy patriarch was very pleased to know that Harry helped his son to study the advanced types of magic, especially occlumency.
"I am glad that you help my son study the mind arts, Harry. In our world – the world of magic – Occlumency is simply essential in any serious situation. From dueling to some sort of questioning – you feel you are and you are stronger when you have such an Ace in the hole." He said, giving a reserved smile to the green-eyed boy.
"Where is your other friend whose name you've never told us, Draco?" Narcissa asked her son.
Malfoy Jr opened his mouth and closed it again, not knowing what to tell his parents. Fortunately for the blond boy, the problem solved on its own – the fireplace roared with green flames for a few seconds and the youngest male scion of Weasley family was spat on the expensive bamboo parquet of the dining room.
"Emm... Hi?" the redhead greeted everyone, being embarrassingly crimson. The Malfoy couple was taken aback – their son second friend was one of the people who they expected the least to see.
They quickly collected themselves though.
The youngest Malfoy was smiling evilly at Ron, while Potter was trying hard to not burst out of laugher.
Ron got the room on the opposite from Harry's one - it was as huge and as rich as Potter's guest room was. The tall boy was actually a little dizzy because of all this expensive stuff that was around him.
Thanks to the miracle that is called group effort, the trio completed their Summer Assignments in mere three days. They spent the rest of it hanging around in the manor grounds and playing a simplified version of quidditch – with Harry and Draco as chasers and Ron as a keeper.
Harry also started teaching them the basics of Occlumency, which was easy for the blond boy, but hard as hell for the redhead, and some of the spells that Dumbledore had taught the green-eyed boy during the first year.
Draco's parents got used to Weasley with time - Narcissa even started thinking that the ginger-haired youth was cute, and Lucius, after seeing Ron obliterating the training dummies, conjured by Harry, with 'Bombarda Maxima' and Severing Charm as if he did it every day, started to respect him for being such an exceptionally powerful wizard.
"He is in Slytherin, dear, he must be different from them." Mr Blond hair Sr told his wife once when they were alone in the master bedroom, after having an enjoyable... talk with her.
Summer reached its final day, preparing to step away to let Autumn take over – on the thirty first of August the three best friends went to the Diagon Alley - the Malfoy couple told them that they were big enough boys to go there alone for a simple shopping, but warned them to not go into the Knockturn.
The absence of adults excited the young boys a lot. This time the alley was nothing special for Harry – he was used to see magic now, and who wouldn't be after seeing it daily for an year? They were nearing Flourish and Blotts when they saw the handsome blond man in his mid-thirties, surrounded by a large crowd of people.
"Who is he?" Harry asked.
"Gilderoy Lockhart." Ron stated in a very bored voice "He is my mom's idol – she's read all his books."
"Which are absolute nonsense, by the way." Draco continued.
"Harry Potter!" the aforementioned man exclaimed, flashing his ideally even snowy-white forty-two teeth "Come! Come here!"
They approached him, and Lockhart shook each one's hand enthusiastically.
"It is so wonderful that you are here! Do you know I'm your new Defence teacher?" he said.
He gifted Harry and his two friends full set of his books each, individually signed already of course.
"Let's take a picture with you and me greeting each other for the Witch Weekly, Harry!" Lockhart exclaimed happily, grabbing the green eyed boy "Smile!"
Harry smiled his most charming smile, mimicking the elder man.
The magical camera flashed glaringly, then again... and again – the blond man took the opportunity to make a photo of him standing with The-Boy-Who-Lived in full. For the next fifteen minutes they had been posing in front of the camera - Harry, being a very confident boy he was didn't shy away. The fangirls were utterly enraptured, screaming in delight. He winked towards them and turned to the blond man, nodding his head.
"See you in the Hogwarts, my boy!" Lockhart said.
"Goodbye, sir." Harry replied.
"You are such an attention seeking brat, Harry", Ron commented.
Draco nodded his head in agreement, putting his own two sickles.
"I know, Ronniekins. But look at this in more optimistic way – we got all these books for free and saved a whole lot of money!" Potter answered.
Ron's face lit positively once the words hit his understanding.
AN(05.10.2011/10.05.2011): a little bit of editing here. Three more chapters to revise..