Chapter Three

As the sun rose the next day over the grandiosity that was the Malfoy Manor a light knock could be heard at the front door. Lillianna, who would usually have been ready by this time to open the double door, with its silver encrusted snake handles, lay silently sleeping upstairs in Draco's bed. Her nightgown shimmering in the sunlight, contrasting pleasantly with the emerald sheets beneath her.

On the main floor, a small woman rushed to the door. Straightening her apron as she murmured under her breath. She took a deep breath, and pulled the knob of the door swiftly to welcome the unannounced guest inside. In front of her stood Albus Dumbledore, a small crinkled letter in hand, and a smile beneath his crooked nose. They exchanged polite casualties as she ushered him inside the entry room of the Manor. Dumbledore sat upon a magnificent white love seat and crossed his booted legs as he waited patiently for Lucius Malfoy to join him.

Draco Malfoy woke up as Dumbledore sat on the white couch two floors below him. The sunlight from the window he had accidently left open the night before forced his grey eyes open. He blinked against the light and groaned, as he reached his arms out to stretch he brushed against soft hair on the other side of the bed. Draco pulled his arm back immediately, and shot his head to the side to see who was in his bed. Beside him lay Lillianna, her hair splayed out across his pillows, a mess and tangle of white mixing with the sunlight that had woken him. Her night gown had ridden up her thighs slightly. Draco blushed and looked away before his eyes carried on inspecting her sleeping form. She must have fallen asleep without him even realizing it. He rubbed his eyes one last time and gently pushed himself out of bed, careful not to stir the sleeping figure, knowing how little she got the chance to sleep in now-a-days. Sliding on the slippers he left by his vanity, he unlatched the door and slipped into the hallway, gently closing the door behind him as not to wake Lillianna before she was ready. As he made his way down stairs he gave hello's to the house elves near the bathrooms, having spent so much time watching Lillianna befriend them it had become almost a habit to exchange words with them, even in her absence. Draco walked down two flights of stairs, with the intent to sneak his way into the servants quarters, an apology must be made to Roseanne for Lillianna's absence this morning, and perhaps he could wiggle an extra muffin out of her to take back upstairs. But, as he lazily strolled across the main floor he caught a glimpse of light from the entry room.

Who's here..father's supposed to be at work today and mother never wakes before noon.

So, curiosity led his feet towards the entry room door and away from Rosanne's homemade poppy seed muffins. Draco could hear his father's voice wafting through the air and someone else's voice responding to him. On further inspection, he realized he indeed did know that voice, it was his headmaster's voice. Draco, the ever spoiled rich boy, promptly opened the entry room door and glided inside without hesitation.

"Father!" He chirped cheerily as he made his way to join him on the couch across from Dumbledore. "What are you doing here? If i remember correctly you should be at work."

Lucius ignored him, waving off his words like a pesky fly and looked back to Dumbledore, still waiting for him to answer the question he'd thrown at him before Draco interrupted the conversation. Instead, he was met with another pesky interruption on Draco's part. This time aimed away from him.

"Headmaster, a pleasant surprise to see you in my entry room. What, may I ask Sir, are you doing here?" Of course, Draco had his suspicion as to why his headmaster was sitting on his mother's favorite love seat across from his father on a work day, one month before term was scheduled to start.

"I'm very pleased you've asked young Draco, as I was just requesting your father bring you into this conversation. Seems as if somebody may have been eavesdropping." Draco smirked and leaned back, hands hooked behind his head. Dumbledore paused and smiled, a small glint in his eye. "I heard from the kind woman that opened your door this morning for me, that you're quite close to our newest addition to Hogwarts, Draco."

His smirk vanished and Draco shifted his weight slightly away from his father as he searched for an excuse that would make this easiest on Lills. In the end, he chose to keep his eyes fixed on Dumbledore and bend the truth to the best of his ability.

"Lillianna you mean? The servant girl, yes, i guess you could say we're close. Or well," He plastered the smirk back on his face, precisely as his father had taught him, "As close as you can be to a servant that is."

Dumbledore's smile though, did not falter as he watched Draco struggle to appease his father's wishes. He merely placed a hand on his knee and silently urged Draco to continue, sending a small glance at Lucius as he did so.

"If what your father says is true, you're who we have to thank for our newest student. Put up quite a fight to enroll her it seems." Draco tensed at Dumbledore's words

"Yes, son. You did put up quite a fight for just a servant girl." Lucius glanced at his son, and Draco's hands burned with the desire to run through his hair. Instead he smoothed his night clothes and ignored his father's distaste for his friendship with Lills; he hoped nobody would call for her, as the explanation as to where she was would land on his shoulders.

"Nevertheless," Dumbledore began, "as i was saying earlier Lucius, there are some problems with enrolling her this late into her curriculum. I'm afraid she'll be horribly behind in her studies. And a few complications with the girl have come to my attention."

Lucius, whom had already expected these problems to occur, looked to Draco with bitterness. He had always known the two had become close. Draco, despite his training, was a horrible liar. He knew the two of them had breakfast together in the servants quarters, and he had consistently discovered the two asleep in the library, a book between them and the fire embers. He'd ordered Rosanne to stop allowing his son into servant areas and to keep Lillianna away from the second floor. But, Lillianna was never one to listen to orders fully, not when it came to Draco, and his son was as see through as an invisibility cloak.

Narcissa had urged him to step back, "After all," she would say, "we did promise Leanne we'd look after her properly darling, let the two be friends. It's good for the both of them."

So, he had stepped back, for his wife's peace of mind. And slowly, he'd begun to grow soft towards this girl. Soft enough even, to give in to Draco's pleas.

But, perhaps, he thought now as Albus Dumbledore sat across from him, he'd made a mistake.

Lucius sighed and placed his fingers on the bridge of his nose before replying to the headmaster, "Complications. Yes, of course. Of course Albus, I understand." He turned to Draco and took his hands away from his face. "Draco, go fetch Lillianna. Where ever that girl has gone off to, i'm sure she'll be easy to find for you."

Draco stood slowly, hesitant to leave the room, but did so in the end. He walked briskly towards the kitchen, still intent on getting Lills something to eat before he woke her. He pushed the swinging doors of the kitchen open, expecting to find Rosanne sipping tea by the oven but instead he found Lillianna. Her hair was a mess, as always, no amount of sleep or gifts of hair brushes would ever fix that. It had been hastily pushed back into it's normal place at the nape of her neck. She must have woken not long after Draco left the room, she'd had time to change out of her nightgown and into her everyday clothing, although her apron was tied on backwards. Draco chuckled, the sound of it making her look up from the work she was doing with the dough before her.

"Draco!" She whispered, "You let me fall asleep you arse. We'd both be dead if anyone other than Rosanne had made your bed this morning." She was trying to sound angry, but the smile on her face gave her away. The news from last night had not yet left her system. That news had been made even better by waking up in a bed ten times the size of her.

Draco laughed again, the goofy grin threatening to pop back up on his face, "Lills, put the dough down and follow me." He jerked his head to the side and turned halfway around to motion for her to come along.

"I can't leave, Rosanne put me in charge of this and she'll be angry if I go off so soon." She looked away from Draco and pressed her hands back into the dough as she spoke to him, "Come back later." She could hear Draco's footsteps move towards her, she looked up in time for him to place his hand around her wrist and tug lightly.

"Father's orders outweigh Rosanne's, now come along before we're both put on wardrobe duty with the house elves."

Lillianna hesitated only slightly before allowing Draco to pull her away from her duties. She attempted to smooth down her hair as she walked towards the entry room door, but to no avail. Her hair just refused to be tamed at all times. Draco opened the door for her, and she walked past him into the room, hands clasped in front of her and head slightly turned down towards the ground. The way she was to approach Lucius at all times.

"Ah! This must be Lillianna. Dear girl, please sit." A voice Lillianna didn't recognize brought her head flying up and in the direction of the new voice. She may not have known this man personally, but she did know of him from Draco and his collection of Chocolate Frog Cards. Across the room sat Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.