A Child Of Darkness : A Draco Malfoy fanfic

13 - Christmas

"You asked her to join us?"

"Ron!" Hermione shushed him, throwing him a nasty glare that the boy brushed off. He mirrored her expression as he leaned back and watched the dark haired girl have her dinner. She showed no emotion and only looked up when spoken to.

Ron began to serve himself some dinner and Harry could only stare at the girl. But Eleonora paid no heed, continuing her conversation with Hermione and chewing on the delicious cake.

Christmas morning swiftly passed. Gifts were exchanged in the Gryffindor common room while Eleonora spent her time at the Owlery awaiting a letter from Cedric. It had arrived with sweet words of Christmas wishes, including words from Bea.
Eleonora then went down to the lake where she watched the students skate and listened to the rustling of the trees till it all went dark. It was then that she returned to her room and that was Christmas summed up for Eleonora.
A regular, not so special day.

She slid underneath her covers, the cold sheets soothing her as she watched the snow fall past the window. She could see an owl flying through the light snow, headed straight to her room. Hermes, with a letter in his beak and a tiny package hanging barely onto the thread flew into the room, landing right next to her.

Eleonora reached into the drawer by the bed, pulling out left over bread crumbs that she fed to the owl. She first opened the letter, immediately smiling at the familiar writing. Remus expressed his dearest Christmas wishes, also apologising for his absence. But Eleonora understood all too well why he had been disappearing and did not hold it against him.
She turned to the small package next, her eyes narrowing at the lavish wrapping.
Elen carefully unpacked it, making sure the sound of the wrapper did not wake the girls up. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the slice of cake within it, making her mouth water.

She delicately placed the beautiful cake on the side of her bed, scooting to the edge to avoid knocking it over. Fawley pulled out a written card but the words only confused her. Reading 'Merry Christmas', the writing did not match Lupin's at all.

"Eleonora?"
The girl looked up the voice. Hermione pushed herself up on her arms as she looked towards the candle light and the girl.
"Why are you still up?"

Nora smiled, motioning to the card in her hand. "Christmas wishes". She handed the rectangular board to the girl as Hermione sat up in her bed. Nora then moved to grab two forks before settling down on her bed with her legs crossed.

"Just merry Christmas?", Hermione questioned, flipping the card over. "It has no sender".

Eleonora shook her head, already grabbing a piece off the cake. Hermione moved to stop her but was too late as the girl had already eaten it.

"That could have been poisoned!", she whisper shouted, slapping the fork out of Fawley's hand.
The two room mates froze waiting for something to happen. The food seemed to move too slowly down her throat. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed that the pair relaxed, finding the food harmless. Unless ofcourse Eleonora was to be found dead the next morning - Hermione had added.

"M?"

"Hmm?" Eleonora looked up at the girl as she played with a crumble in the package.

"It mentions an M in the corner".

Fawley grabbed the card out of Granger's hand and inspected it. No doubt there indeed was a cursive M at the bottom right hand corner. Written so small, it was as if the sender didn't want her to find it at all.

"The candy boy". Eleonora smiled. She took another bite of the cake as Hermione waited impatiently.

"I know who it's from. And don't worry, it's safe". Fawley held the fork out towards Hermione. The girl paused to think but ate it regardless, a smile growing at its taste.

The pair dug into the scrumptious cake, giggles and excited comments kept in a low whisper as the night grew darker and the fire licked at the last bit of candle wax.