Sardanapalian: excessively luxurious.
June 16, 2003
"Six months of exhausting my feminine charms and at last I'm on the verge of penetrating the recluse's oh-so-mysterious and private abode."
The girl twirled on elegant legs, satiny blue robes spinning out, and flashed him a pretty, flirtatious smile. Her blond hair fell in shimmering ringlets around her china doll's face, eyes sparkling. But the stiff young man beside her did not seem to share in the light that surrounded his companion. He could not have been more than a couple years older than her, three or four at most, but he held a subdued solemnity that contrasted with his youth, and hers too.
"I've been on house arrest for four years, my dear," he said edgily. "It's not as if my sentries would have much approved of me holding balls in the garden."
The girl sighed and looped her arm through his. "Oh Draco, do try to be less of a killjoy. This is a date, darling. You're bringing me home to meet your mother and enjoy a pleasant meal in privacy for once. Let's try not to spoil it before it's begun, alright?"
She pulled him to a stop in the middle of the pavement, causing people to have to swerve around them to avoid a collision, and stood on her toes to brush her lips against his cheek. For the briefest of moments, the hard line of his mouth softened, as if he might smile.
"If you insist," he murmured. Then he clasped her hand and led her into the closest vacant alley, turning on the spot, vanishing and taking her with him.
It was not the stateliness of the manor that surprised Astoria. True enough she had not lived in an ancient palace like so many of her classmates had, but she had been to plenty of formal gatherings in them. And she had seen pictures of the infamous Malfoy Manor in the Daily Prophet many times as news of the Malfoys' part in the war and their sentencing had crept in and out of the public eye. But what filled the vast, endless rooms did cause those delicate eyebrows of hers to rise.
"You made it sound like the courts drug your family over the coals for every penny you're worth," she accused, stopping before a full-size suit of golden armor studded with diamonds and emeralds as big as her palm.
"Well…." Draco said uncomfortably. "That might have been an exaggeration on my part. They did use our vault to fund nearly every reconstruction project the Ministry oversaw, but it would take three times that much to empty it. Our pockets aren't nearly as deep as they used to be, though."
"Mm-hm," said Astoria as they rounded a corner and he pushed open the door to the drawing room. An ornate fireplace with finely-carved, silver serpents winding up its sides dominated one wall while ancient and no doubt rare, leather-bound books covered another. Several thick, patterned rugs blanketed the stone floor, and high-backed, winged armchairs flanked a polished mahogany desk. Jeweled ornaments sparkled from the windowsills, strange furs hung on pegs, and a large bronze panther hung over the fireplace, rubies glittering in its eyes. "I can certainly tell your bank account took a hit. Tell me, what exactly does one do with a three-foot-tall, jade brazier?"
"Well it isn't as though we need to start selling the estate to get by," Draco said, an automatic defensive sneer curling into his voice.
It didn't seem to faze Astoria, though. "What I don't get," she said, bending over to examine a pair of stained-glass spectacles. "Is why you would want to live with so much useless clutter. Honestly, how many things in here have you actually used? I would feel as if I were suffocating if I had to sit in this room every day."
Draco looked around the over-stuffed room. "It's part of having money," he shrugged. "You buy things because you can."
"Well I don't like it much. I mean, if you sold everything in here you don't need, you would probably have half your losses back," Astoria said pragmatically.
"I suppose we would," Draco conceded. In all honesty, he had never thought much about the trappings of luxury his parents had collected most of their lives.
"So why don't you?"
"Mother." He was surprised how readily he answered. "We might have deep pockets worth boasting about again, but we would be living as if we were common. She's lost a great deal. I wouldn't take away her feeling of owning the world, on top of not actually owning it."
"That's a kind gesture," Astoria observed, looking at him with a tenderness that brought a pink tinge to his cheeks. "But when we start raising a family here," she went on briskly, "it will all go down to your mother's villa in the south of France."
She gave him a dazzling smile and brushed past him out into the corridor.
Draco blinked. Then he wheeled around and set off after her. "Wait a moment, when we do what…?"
A/N: I stayed up extra late to post this for you. I was in the mood to dabble with Draco and Astoria and this word could fit no other in my head. :) Oh yes, and Katrina Roxanne? I haven't forgotten you, I promise! Just a bit blocked on the word for some reason. I shouldn't be, it's fairly easy, but I'll get it up soon, I promise! :)
Anyway, please review! It's my goal to break 1,000 before I leave for college in a month. That would be fairly amazing and you could be part of the awesomeness with just a few sentences!