The White Peacock (A Draco Malfoy Fanfic)

Chapter 16: Sixteen

"Girls, dinner is ready" We hear Barnaby call out from downstairs.

Cherry, Annabelle and I ignore his call as we remain glued to my television, watching a marathon of the golden girls. I look over to them, my heart full of happiness seeing my two best friends, here in my home, being exposed to the muggle world I had been a part of my whole life. They spent the whole summer here at my family's mansion, getting to know my parents, bonding with Barnaby, learning about the muggle world and all its fascinating components. Their favourite being muggle television and pop culture, they would spend hours absorbing content.

"Girls, I did not spend 4 hours preparing a 3 course meal only for it to get cold, now I better see you 3 seated in the dining room by the time my cheese soufflé is out of the oven " Barnaby shouts with an annoyed tone.

"you know, our house elves would never speak to us like that" Anabelle says with a chuckle.

"yes, unfortunately my dear Barnaby is more like family than he is an employee of the house" I say dryly.

"can't we at least finish this episode, I have never seen anything more fascinating " Cherry whines.

"you do realise you both come from a world of magic, goblins and trolls, right?" I say mockingly.

"alright alright, come on Chambers we better not make Barnaby angry" Annabelle says playfully as she grabs Cherry from the floor.

We arrive downstairs to find my parents already seated in the dining hall.

"Darlings!" my mum says excitedly. My mum was over the moon to host my friends this summer, she loved spoiling them and showing off the muggle world. She was also happy to finally meet friends from my life as a witch.

"I would hurry and take those seats girls; I think I hear Barnaby coming with the cheese soufflés" my father says playfully. My father enjoyed having Cherry and Annabelle over too and did his best not to squirm or looking uncomfortable hearing their stories of their lives in the wizarding world.

Last year was our fifth year at Hogwarts and just like our fourth year it came with many challenges, from Umbridge taking over the school, the minister of magic propaganda, and the secret classes Harry conducted to help prepare us for the dark forces we knew were coming. We were the only Slytherins allowed to attend, as we were the only Slytherins they trusted. The three of us were also made prefects, however we barely used our power, as we wanted to keep a low profile for the DA classes. These classes helped me in ways I didn't know I needed and revealed to me what my Patronus was, it was something that made rather sad and reminded me of the platinum haired boy I tried to forget.

Every time I thought of him, it always made memories of our time together come crashing down. His smell, his soft hair in my fingers, his lips and of course his piercing grey eyes. It had been a year and a half since he broke my heart, yet I still think about him. Although I have gone back to mostly despising his existence there will always be a part of me that cared for that broken Slytherin prince, I wish I could have been there for him when his father was sent to Azkaban.

Last year, just as expected he completely pretended like I didn't exist, and I did the same, it was easy considering I was with Harry and his friends sneaking around to the room of requirement. But we had our moments where he made me feel uneasy, one of those being when he was part of the Inquisitorial squad and was sent to round up the students fleeing from the room of requirement. I remember I was cornered in a corridor, thinking I was for sure going to be caught and tortured by Umbridge. But he found me instead, yet he left me there, did he possible not see me I thought?

It didn't matter anyways I couldn't waste my time wondering if he still cared about me the same way I cared about him, especially not when his father was a death eater.

"you seem very distracted today dear" my mother says interrupting my thoughts.

"I'm fine mother I am just a little sad that summer is already coming to an end" I say looking over at Anabelle and Cherry.

"Yeah I'm definitely not looking forward to another year of Pansy ruling the house and making us social outcasts" Annabelle scoffs.

"it sucks but I mean it's not like we don't have other friends" I say back.

"Look I love our friends at Gryffindor, but sometimes I just miss what it was like in the common room, hanging out at the fireplace, rolling our eyes at Pansy and her friends, younger years fawning over us." Cherry reminisces.

I agreed, not just because of our social ranking but it just brought back memories of a different time, a time when the only bad thing that could happen to me was getting a bad grade or having a teacher not like me. Now with the return of you know who, things are more uncertain, and we have more to lose. It wouldn't be so bad trying to get back to the top if it meant some kind of fun in the midst of this darkness I thought.

A week later it was time for Cherry and Anabelle to head home, and it was time to head back to school, I began my packing. I was a lot more disorganised this year packing my trunk without any system, it wasn't due to me losing my obsessive need for perfection, but more due to how unmotivated I felt returning to school. The wizard world was becoming darker and I could feel it. After what had happened at the ministry before summer break, seeing the death of Harry's godfather, I felt my perspective of the world becoming graver before me. I was so used to sheltered world of privilege and wealth that I did found myself lacking the strength needed to persevere in world like this. I hated feeling weak.