someday, somehow → d.malfoy [discontinued]

003

with the cool bathroom tiles under the pads of her bare feet, artemis stood in front of the mirror and scrubbed off the residual makeup from the previous day.

she let her mind wander; wondered about whatever she could do in this foreign manor. hopefully, she thought, narcissa would not coax her into some activity such as embroidery or... whatever dainty thing she enjoyed. well, it was probably cruel of artemis to assume the mansion's mistress was as such, yet her mind did it anyway.

when she had first woken, the curtains were assembled neatly once more to the corner of the room, and artemis had opened her eyes to meet the blindingly bright light of a new day. perhaps the malfoys were actually onto something ingenious with their pressingly dark rooms. still, she had rolled herself begrudgingly out of bed and walked to the bathroom—with a white-and-gold bathtub big enough to hold three of artemis, perched on four stubby, ornate feet on the slate-grey tiles. and the mirror, which stretched leisurely across the entire wall above the sink, was framed by a swirled gold metal that artemis couldn't help but brush her fingers over in wonder. whereas the main bedroom had a colouring of pale green and off-white, the bathroom sung of its own beauty in white and brazen gold—the latter being found in said bathtub feet, mirror frame and curling handles of the curved sink.

artemis really did not want to take off all of her makeup—the rouge on her lips and cheekbones, the dark khol that lined her eyes—only to reapply it back on. she opted to keep her face bare, the skin flushed pink from the careless, relentless scrubbing. she, however, was not able to keep the nirvana t-shirt on the whole day, as she would have previously. here, it wouldn't be acceptable—so artemis removed from her trunks a fancily patterned pair of black tights, a pair of plain heeled shoes to match, and a billowy slip dress of white silk. such fashion was easy as breathing for the girl—what with how the students at her previous school, beauxbatons, dressed regularly, and the riches that had lain always within her grasp (and with it, the culture of the rich), artemis filled into the appropriate mold effortlessly. 

artemis had trouble finding her way to the dining room—she went down these stairs, then that hallway,

then turned around at as she found herself at a dead end and walked back through the hallway to try another. she was afraid she would be late to breakfast—she didn't even know what hour of the day it was, for merlin's sake. artemis had probably missed it already—something she huffed at frustratedly in realisation. so much for having to upkeep a composed image in front of mr. and mrs. malfoy.

"the dining room is down the left staircase," piped a voice, "and then through the middle hallway." it was not low enough to belong to mr. malfoy, but not delicate enough to belong to narcissa, either—which left their son, the thin boy with hair as white as his skin. artemis turned and indeed there he was, standing with his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his dark trousers, looking directly at her. while she was in her heels, he was perhaps only one centimetre taller than artemis, yet he gave the impression that he was always looking with cold, grey eyes down his straight nose.

"thank you," she replied softly, and proceeded to tread quietly towards the stairs he had directed, and then down them, one hand on the thick railing. without looking back, artemis could tell the boy had joined her in trudging down the stairs, once she had reached the halfway point. they did not speak again, the whole way to the dining room—passing another massive arch of a window, half-obscured by the deep velvet curtains in near-black shade of green. so much green, everywhere. the door to the dining room was not as large as artemis remembered, yet it still stood tall as a giant above her head. draco, ever the trained gentleman, opened the door and then allowed her to enter first. she heard the echoing click of the door meeting its other half as she walked to the table, sat in the same chair as the previous day, next to mr. malfoy.

a cup of ginger tea poured itself from a bulbous teapot, emitting soft-looking ribbons of steam into the room's atmosphere that were disturbed momentarily by the quiet plop of a sugarcube and the pouring of rich, white milk. good morning, mr. and mrs. malfoy, artemis greeted as she lifted the teacup towards her lips. she sipped, then plucked a pillowy pastry (with blackberry jam in the centre, from the look of it) from an artfully presented platter of them.

narcissa replied, "good morning, artemis" and mr. malfoy said the same immediately after—only, he addressed her as ms. einar instead. narcissa did majority of the talking: she eliminated artemis' previous (and internal) question of what she would do that day, by informing her that she would be taken to diagon alley—in particular, gringotts bank, then a spontaneous assortment of shops for school books, quills, an owl (narcissa insisted, when artemis told her she didn't need one), school robes and a new gown. both artemis and the boy looked at narcissa in puzzlement at the last item—why would artemis need a gown of all things? the woman's guilty gaze flickered to her husband, who discerned her with very little bother.

he spoke the most artemis had ever heard from his lips: "this year, the ministries of three countries have decided to collaborate once more on a centuries-old tradition called the triwizard tournament." artemis wracked her brain for any familiarity of those words. nothing surfaced. "the students from the three largest wizarding schools of europe will meet at one—this year, it will be hogwarts—and one champion will be chosen to represent each respectively." mr. malfoy rearranged his gloved hands into an intertwining knot of thick fingers before he continued. "the champions will compete in three tasks, and the winner receives a grand sum of money." artemis let the new information sink in. the three largest wizarding schools of europe—of course, hogwarts was one (as mr. malfoy had mentioned). the other two... artemis had not yet seen the scale of hogwarts, and so wasn't able to compare beauxbatons to it, but she told herself it was safe to assume her former institute was a participant of the tournament (beauxbatons was, in terms of size and student population, huge). as for the third school—she'd only heard of four other schools outside of hogwarts and beauxbatons: ilvermorny (which was out of the question, as it resided in north america), durmstrang (in the northern parts of europe, so it was a likely candidate), koldovstoretz (which was in russia, and also a likely candidate) and mahoutokoro (ruled out of the tournament, as this school was located somewhere in japan).

"and," narcissa said, "a ball is held at christmas for the tournament—which is why girls are required to have a gown ready, and the boys a nice set of dress robes." she looked pointedly in her son's direction. "you've likely grown out of all yours, draco." right, she thought, the boy's name was draco. at least artemis' parents weren't the only ones who named their children for peculiar things. for the rest of breakfast, there was  the sweet flavours of artemis' tea to savour, and narcissa's excited rambling to listen to. the latter told artemis that they would all (except for mr. malfoy) leave for diagon alley succeeding the meal—so once she had deemed herself finished, artemis took care directing herself back up to her room (somehow, she managed to find it with only two wrong turns) to acquire herself a coat.