In The End

Chapter 10 - Christmas Break

"Happy Christmas, Liza!" 

Eliza jolted awake at the alarmingly jolly tone as she felt her dad seating himself beside her on her bed.

"Daaaaad," she moaned, burying her face into her pillow to avoid the bright light seeping in through her open curtains.

At this, Fabian Macnair let out a hearty laugh before tickling Eliza. Tickles had always been a weakness of hers. As he continued his merciless barrage of tickles, she quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the living room, giggling uncontrollably all the way there. 

These moments with her father were few and far between these days, but she'd be lying to herself if she said she hadn't missed his smiling face and hearty laughter.

As she took a seat on their old, grey sofa, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and muttered, "what time is it?" 

"I believe it is 7 o'clock," she heard uncle Walden chirp from the kitchen, the sound of something sizzling permeating his words.

"Seven? Dad, why would you wake me up at such an ungodly hour?" she groaned, flopping down into the couch and covering her face with one of the throw pillows.

"I didn't want breakfast to get cold. Your uncle has worked very hard on it, you know. Besides, it's Christmas! We should spend some time together as a family," he beamed, walking through to the kitchen to join his brother.

Soon enough, Eliza found herself seated with her family at the dining room table with an array of fried eggs, sausages, toast and bacon in front of them. She let her mind wander back to Hogwarts and her father and uncle Walden made small talk over their breakfast. She contemplated how much time she had spent with Draco over the weeks leading up to Christmas break, whether it was studying together in the library, working on the vanishing cabinet, or stealing moments in the evenings to cuddle together in their special room, more recently.

They had made more progress on the cabinet. During their experimentation with apples, they had managed to get the apple to return nine out of ten tries, however, there was always a sizeable chunk missing from it when it returned.

She recalled one afternoon when Draco had been helping her with her Transfiguration homework. He had gotten bored and in an effort to annoy her, he decided to write cheeky notes on her homework, the first one being something along the lines of 'Eliza is a bloody know-it-all.'

Of course, this drove her mad, she had to rewrite two feet of parchment because of him! As a means of revenge, she decided to write the word 'Wanker' right onto his hand.

This little interaction set off a habit and soon enough, the began writing notes and drawing little doodles on each other's hands all the time. This even served as their own secret code sometimes. If Eliza wanted to give Draco an update on the cabinet, she'd draw a little apple on herself and make sure he could see it during lunch. He always knew what it meant and did much the same. 

When he had trouble sleeping, he'd sometimes draw a star on his hand, signalling to Eliza that he wanted to meet her at the Astronomy Tower that night for a little stargazing. 

Nobody had known how close they had truly become, especially not Draco's parents. Still, she couldn't stop herself from stealing a glance at him before leaving the train station with her uncle and much to her delight, she realised that he had been looking at her too.

He didn't smile at her, naturally. In fact, he had quickly turned away after making eye contact with her. He wasn't ready for anyone, especially not his parents, to know how much he thought about her.

Eliza found this strange, since, as far as his parents knew, she was a respectable young Slytherin who was a Deatheater, just like them. She wouldn't have been surprised if his parents started encouraging him to spend more time with her, since she fit their standards so perfectly, to their knowledge.

Her daydreams came to an abrupt halt as she noticed her father waving a hand in her face to get her attention.

"Earth to Liza!" he said, amused.

"Sorry?" she asked, readjusting to her surroundings.

"I asked if you'd like to open presents," he grinned.

All she could do was nod. 

At this, they all made their way to the lounge area and seated themselves around the tree. With Eliza being the youngest, she was the first to receive her gifts. Uncle Walden had given her a pile of new books from Flourish & Blotts, most of them were Advanced Transfiguration textbooks he had noticed her admiring during their last shop together.

Her father, on the other hand, handed her a beautifully wrapped box. As Eliza held it, she noticed it felt heavy in her hands. Carefully, she peeled off the wrapping paper to discover an ornate wooden box, decorated with silver filigree. 

She opened the box and smiled. Inside, there was a little fairy figurine which danced animatedly to a familiar tune. It was her song, Fur Elise. This was no ordinary music box, it was enchanted and Eliza couldn't suppress her smile as the fairy flew off its pedestal and fluttered around her, still dancing gracefully to the soft tune.

"Thank you dad," she grinned, before gently setting it down on the coffee table and throwing her arms around him. 

"Anything for you, darling. Although, you should thank your uncle too. He is the one that went to purchase it for me. You know I'm a little intimidated by all the magic stuff," he grinned sheepishly. 

Eliza released him and turned to face her uncle, "thank you, uncle."

Walden nodded with a small smile. 

After her turn was done, she decided to take charge and handed a gift to uncle Walden first. He accepted it graciously and upon opening it, found a brand new black robe. A practical gift for her practical uncle. 

Next, she handed a gift to her father, who accepted it with a smile. He gently unwrapped it to find a scrapbook. 

"Ah, this is beautiful!" he exclaimed. 

"Well don't just sit there, open it!" Eliza pushed him, her voice betraying her excitement. 

As he opened the book, he realised that it was filled with moving photographs of the three of them. He had never seen wizard photos before and Eliza's heart warmed at the sight of him excitedly paging through the book, marvelling at the sight of his daughter waving back at him. 

"Thank you, darling," he said brightly, his eyes watering a little, "now I can look at this whenever I miss you."

"Anything for you, dad," Eliza smiled, holding his hand and giving it an affectionate squeeze.

After this, it was time for the brothers to exchange their gifts. Fabian had given Walden a new blade sharpener. As far as he knew, his brother was a wizard butcher, although Eliza knew better. 

Walden gave Fabian a new pair of hiking boots. Upon speaking to Eliza, he had recently discovered that Fabian loved hiking. It had made him realise just how much he still didn't know about his brother, after all these years.

Eliza had never felt more content than she had that day. It was perfect. Although her family was small, they were together and they were happy. That was all she had ever wanted. Everything was perfect.

That was until uncle Walden pulled her aside later that night.

"The Dark Lord has requested a meeting with us all at Malfoy Manor in a few days. I'll tell your father that I am taking you to Diagon Alley," he told her in a hushed tone.

A familiar feeling of heaviness fell on Eliza once again. That night was difficult and long. After hours of attempting to sleep, she eventually gave up and did what she always did and dragged a knife over her skin once again.

She had missed the comfort of the sting and pain it brought. She had missed the comfort of having control over something for once in her life. In a way, the pain reminded her that she still felt anything at all.