Sweet Revenge

Bob the Magnificent Peacock

Bob the albino peacock was feeling particularly majestic today. He unfurled his train and swished it back and forth, showing off the feathered eyes that rendered his look altogether quite royal. His soft swishy tail had recently been washed by one of the Malfoy family's house elves, and he sported the beautiful gold-plated toenails that were his signature. 

He strutted around the monopteros on the hill and paused to gaze over his beak toward the scintillating ripples on the surface of the grand lake at Malfoy Manor. 

          "Oh, how succulent!" someone commented from inside the monopteros.

Bob whirled around, terribly affronted (he lost a feather in the process), but found that he was looking between the columns at a lady dressed in a ruffled, olive-green bustle. He had not seen her before around Malfoy Manor and was immediately on alert. Only a few seconds later, he noticed that the lady across from the woman in olive green was in fact Narcissa Malfoy. She had on a look of supreme consternation, and she sipped the tea in her blue porcelain cup with something akin to distaste. Often, she looked over at the lady across from her. 

          "Lady Rowle," she ventured yet again, "have you ever seen a peacock?"

          "No, but my, your brandy snaps are good!"

Lady Rowle had not touched the Victoria sponge at the center of the tea table, and she had opted for lime-and-sherry-flavoured Spoom rather than English Breakfast tea. Narcissa thought it was far to early in the afternoon to be listening to Tilda Rowle crunching loudly on brandy snaps in the garden. 

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Back at the Manor, Lucius was entertaining Thorfinn Rowle, who had taken him up on the offer Lucius had made at the Ministry and was now severely regretting. Rowle was part of the Inner Circle of Death Eaters, but Lucius was now understanding why his Lord called so infrequently on Rowle: Rowle was better left doing whatever tinkering he did at the Ministry than actually carrying out missions. 

          "Did you know that reindeer like to eat bananas? I told Tilda that if we had a child, I'd plant a bunch of bananas on our estate so we could have a herd of reindeer--isn't that a marvelous idea? I think you should try it Lucius--It'd be good for young Draco's development! I hear reindeer hide is getting quite popular in Siberia, and Lady Zabini's new husband might be interested, no? Reindeer are such awfully calm creatures, too. I heard from Borgin that there hasn't been a single case of a reindeer eating a boy---"

Lucius put on a tense smile and blinked away his tears.

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Tom and Harry had...made up?

Only a week ago, Harry had been carefully avoiding Tom, but now, it seemed that Harry wanted to go most everywhere with Tom. They'd gone to Hogsmede together to ask around on the state of Dumbledore mental breakdown after having been pinched of his Wizengamot title and seat (he hadn't come out of his office in three days). 

They'd learned from Aberforth, the barman at the Hog's Head, that Molly Weasley had been put in charge of finding a place for the Order to set up Headquarters in. Then, Harry had recognized Mundungus Fletcher in the corner of the tavern and, for a few galleons, he had told them that Molly had decided to let the Order stay at the Burrow. That provided another reason why Dumbledore hadn't come out of his office. 

At Madam Puddifoot's they'd met Blaise and Daphne, who were on their thousandth date but were still "figuring things out," and Cho and Cedric, who were charming their pink tea to be complementary colours. 

After a quick stop at Honeyduke's they'd made their way to the Shrieking Shack, interrupting the serious conversation that Remus and Sirius were having about their respective life choices. Remus had been narrating Sirius's life story at the same time that Sirius was narrating Remus's, and apparently, this cacophony had become a weekly cathartic session for them.