✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

38 | LATIBULE

LATIBULE
(n.) a hiding place; a place of safety and comfort

TESSA WAS HEARTILY EATING HER BREAKFAST THE NEXT MORNING. She was hungry and in a good mood — too good of a mood to even bother making a snide response to Pansy Parkinson who had publicly declared her disgust on the massive amount of food she ate.

     Theo had grinned smugly when his point was proven after Draco had snapped at Pansy to mind her own business.

Snarling bodyguard, he'd said during the World Cup.

     They were currently going over their new course schedules as Fred, George, and Lee discussed methods on bluffing their way into the Tournament a few seats down.

     "Today's not bad . . . outside all morning," Ron hummed as he trailed a finger along today's classes. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures . . . damn it, we're still with the Slytherins . . . "

     "Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, pouting at Tessa as though she had the power to delete that subject forever from History.

     "You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" Hermione said stiffly, spreading butter onto her toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."

     "I don't like anything related to numbers and mathematical problems," Tessa grumbled through a mouthful of sausage.

     Ron laughed. "Well, I heard that most athletes aren't very well-inclined in subjects involving numbers."

      "That's very stereotypical of you, Ron," Tessa tutted while shaking her head.

     Ron snorted before turning his attention to Hermione who was adding loads and loads of jam to her toast. "You're eating again, I notice."

     "I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights," Hermione replied haughtily.

     "Yeah . . . and you were hungry." Ron grinned with Tessa.

There was a familiar rustling noise above, and Tessa pushed her empty plate aside as she watched the hundreds of owls soar in with their morning mail. Her eyes fell on Tommy's golden feathers that contrasted brightly amidst the brown and gray — and to her amusement, found Draco's eagle owl flying right next to him.

The eagle owl parted from Tommy, soaring to perch on Draco's shoulder with the heap of sweets his mother sent him. Tessa waited for Tommy to make his usual circle directly above her before landing on her shoulder as well.

"'Ello, Thomas — what do you have for me today?" she crooned sweetly, taking all the letters from him. She made a move to reach over for some bacon to feed him, but the owl had hooted once and left her shoulder. She watched with a dropped jaw as he flew over to Catherine who had an arm stretched out for him. "Wow — what a betrayer," she drawled and stuck her tongue out at her mother and Tommy.

Tessa looked to see she had two letters, a small parchment of a note, and a parcel. She first opened the letters to find them to be from Uncle Kasi and Philip.

Dear Tessa,

I'm truly sorry for not being able to see you off to the station yesterday — work has gotten even more hectic these past few weeks. I wanted to be able to see you and your mum back home for Christmas, but when I heard about the Triwizard Tournament — I figured you two would want to stay. That's the reason why Cathy pretended to work there for this year when she heard from Dumbledore.

Anyways — I hope you behave well this year now that she's there. I also hope this means fewer trips to the hospital wing, and fewer letters from McGonagall about your detentions and pranks. Continue to study hard for this year, I'll always be proud of you.