someday, somehow → d.malfoy [discontinued]

001

during the summer before draco's fourth year at hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, a girl sat at his dining table with his parents.

as the sound of the heavy door closing echoed around the space, their quietly polite chatter died, and their heads pivoted to look at draco. he swallowed, now overly-self-conscious about his disheveled appearance (unstyled hair, still in a wrinkled, oversized t-shirt and near-black viridian cotton pants). his parents were dressed as they usually were—his father in black dress robes, and his mother in a crisp, matching two-piece that she could have easily worn to the ministry—and this was not what brought on the hyper-awareness of himself. it was the girl, in her knitted powder-blue vest overtop an ice-white dress shirt, loose black trousers and delicate heels matching in colour with the vest. everything she wore and presented herself as (straight-backed, intelligent, calculating expression, thin hands carefully folded together on her lap) told draco she was intimidating and something to be careful of.

she couldn't have been much older than him, he thought. undoubtedly, the way she held herself might have suggested she had already surpassed seventeen years, but her face said otherwise. her cheeks were still gracefully rounded; her eyes doe-like with youth. she had hair black as ink, and cat-like eyes in a colour very close to sage-green. the former was twisted expertly into the claws of a blue clip—something draco could appreciate due to the sheer amount of times he had watched his mother do the same with her own curtain of blonde hair.

"draco," his mother crooned, "come sit with us." trying to seem as nonchalant as he could, draco combed his pale fingers through his hair. he took the seat next to his mother, as he usually did. the difference that day was, however, that instead of staring blankly at the wall in front of him during the meal as he did by habit, he met the girl's eyes. he looked down at the miserable grey-ish lump of his poached egg and plain toast. then the steam rising lazily from the dark coffee, placed to the far-right of his ornate plate. draco realised the silence too late, before he looked up to meet the expectant gazes of his parents.

"i'm sorry, i didn't catch that. would you repeat yourself?" he felt heat rising into his neck, both from the realisation of his distractedness, and the irritated curl of his father's upper lip.

"artemis asked if you enjoy your classes at hogwarts," his mother prompted, "seeing as she will likely be joining this coming year." draco tensed for a second at that. then, swallowed and looked at the tip of her straight nose. it took a lot of determination.

"yes," he said eventually. "sometimes more, sometimes less. but overall, they are... interesting." surely, that was a satisfactory answer. draco glanced at his father, to gauge his reaction and, there—an ever-so-subtle nod of the chin. approval. as conversation dwindled on, draco's gaze slid once more to his barely-touched breakfast. he half-registered the way it was mostly his mother and the girl—artemis—speaking, and that they used english and the rounded sounds of french interchangeably. his own french was... satisfactory at a conversational level, utterly embarrassing in written form. and it had probably only gotten worse as time went by, and he'd ceased to use the language. artemis spoke it as if it were molten gold sliding from her tongue—draco found himself ignoring the food on his plate more and more, and focusing intently on her words.

"...avec mon cousin," she said. draco understood that much—with my cousin. he had no clue what she'd said before. "the headmaster only agreed to take me après he saw my grades. i thought it was reasonable, but still. c'était énervant." it was irritating. on it went. they did not ask draco to join the conversation again, and he also noticed that his father did not speak either. eventually, when he had heard enough, draco left the room.

.

sometimes, when artemis wanted solitude, she would simply get up and walk away without muttering a single word.

it was what she so very much wanted to do in that moment, watching the blond boy do exactly that. his mother—lovely, as she could be—was still trying to make conversation with her, while her husband sat silent as stone in the seat next to artemis. she loved narcissa, really, but the woman was draining. artemis knew this even after only having met her three times: once when the malfoys had been on holiday to france (but that was several years ago, and artemis had pretended to remember when her aunt had dropped her off that morning), again when narcissa had visited the greek holiday house of artemis' family to have tea with artemis' deceased mother (she really, really wasn't that upset about it; the woman didn't give artemis the half of her attention, even on a good day), and again this morning—when she had been deposited here for the rest of her summer holidays. she tried to give narcissa her full, undivided attention. the woman (and her husband, but she supposed he would spend most of his time at the ministry, so it didn't count so much) had welcomed artemis into her home without question, had seen to get her fed and watered—the food was better in france—and seemed perfectly content with letting her stay in their unreasonably-large mansion. still, the idea of sleep lured her like moth to flame.

the world had answered her prayers mere moments later—an owl glided gracefully through the arched window on midnight-coloured wings and perched at the edge of the grand mahogany table, its foot extended to showcase the neat scroll tied elegantly with a leather thong. mr. malfoy made quick work of removing said scroll of parchment, and the owl swept away like a passing dream, a flash of soft feathers.

"oh," said narcissa. "is it so late already?" artemis watched her rise like a pruning peacock from her chair and look expectantly back at her. careful not to show her enthusiasm at the ending conversation, she stood as well, pushing the heavy wooden chair back towards the table. "come, i'll show you to your room. you must be so exhausted by now." yes, artemis thought. she was.