Stop chewing your nails, it's so unlady like. You keep on this track and you'll cut glass with those razor blades.

Eloise Bellarose's voice wriggled it's unwanted way through Audette's brain as she chomped down on her right hand; a habit developed as a coping mechanism when left with no physical escape from aristocratic nightmare situations.

This would count as one of those nightmares ten-thousand fold.

She was stood before a gaudy floor to ceiling mirror in Draco's gigantic bedroom. Correction; their gigantic bedroom.

"Draco..." she murmured in a weary voice, wringing her fingers together to avoid chewing off anymore precious nails in anxious terror. Audette inspected herself top to bottom, a long frown growing at the edges of her mouth akin to one worn by a frog.

"Well aren't you just first class," Draco placed his lanky, veiny hands on her shoulders and melted down into an absolute riot of mocking snickering, bowing his white swath of hair behind her, "I can't look."

"Well I can, and I'll tell you right now; I look like a disoriented member of the Adam's Family. I refuse to entertain your mother like this, it's an outright abomination," Audette's eyes widened into the mirror in positive revulsion of the situation they were in, twisting her hips in appall. No matter what angle she inspected the outfit it only seemed to get worse.

Draco's rude laughing trilled through her ears as she tugged at the only attire he had managed to delve out of the woodworks from his younger years, when he was perhaps tinier but not by much.

It was a tight fitting black suit she'd spotted him in many times in their fourth year, tie and all, and if Audette's nose dared to shrivel any more it would surely turn inside out.

The clothing - albeit fine in material - was built for a slender male and clung to her tiny skeleton like a boxy refrigerator.

Audette allowed the ends of the long sleeves to flop down in demonstration of just how hindering it was, "Draco, I would rather die being eaten alive by dementors. Could you not have mentioned in any of your letters regarding the Yule Ball that I aught to prepare my household for an extended stay at your estate afterwards?"

He wrapped his arms around her collarbones to sneer at her in the reflection, "Blame yourself, Wonderland. If I'd known in advance you were actually going to attend, much less with a positive attitude, than I would have asked you about staying here in advance."

His hot minty breath blew her hair everywhere as he failed to contain his amusement, sniggering loudly directly in her ear, "Allow this to be a lesson against stubbornness. Then perhaps you would have something to wear that doesn't make you look like a female version of me."

He was right about one thing: all she needed was a serious hair cut and they'd might as well be brothers. She'd never felt so out of place and inappropriate, "No...I will not do this, tell your mother I am elsewhere."

"Lie to her in her own house?" he scoffed.

"Says the lying imp himself," she turned around to face him sporting a frumpy glower, stomping but a mere inch from his shoe, "I'll put on my ballgown again, or I shall not go to this stupid tea time. Why, I'd sooner fashion myself a dress out of those dusty drapes before I darn this."

He clapped both hands on either side of her face and leaned back with an authoritative smile that bore no give, and Audette stared right back into those cosmic forget-me-not glaciers that held so much power over her nervous system, "No, you will come as I instruct you to like a good little wife in practice. Each second you waste in this room she grows increasingly irate."

Audette stabbed her finger into his shoulder in mortification, straight through the floppy sleeve covering her hand, "And I grow increasingly more masculine. My father would never allow me to hold conference like this, ever."

Draco raised his eyebrows with a strong hint of warning, straightening his own darling black suit that looked exceptionally pristine on him, "Well, isn't it our luck that you no longer belong to him. You belong to me now, and I say this will do."

Attempting to buy herself time, Audette shook her head and crossed her arms, "I demand you compromise as well, to accommodate what you are asking of me. Change your bow tie to something more festive - I can't bare all of this raven infinitude."

Predictably he shut his eyes for a lingering moment before spinning swiftly on his heel. She watched him roughly yank out a drawer in his armoire to exchange the golden bowtie from the ball in less than ten seconds flat.

He slapped his hands off his thighs, "Festive enough for the princess?"

She glanced over her shoulder into the mirror again with a pout, feeling anything but a princess, "Can't it be altered, or better yet transfigured into something else?"

He scanned her like a laser, an expression of doubt curling his mouth downwards, "Perhaps..."

In a quick whip he took out his wand and began whispering transfiguration spells, hovering the tip over her curviest points. After a few seconds he paused, then slid his hands down to his knees, cackling as she spun to take it in.

Upon seeing what he'd done Audette scowled and tore off the tie, flinging it across the expansive room, "Now I look like one of those spinster Ministry attorneys. The Killing Curse would have been much more merciful."

Draco's watched the tie float to the carpet, "Aw, not the tie. Was it cutting off circulation to your crown?"

"Can't we just stay here in bed as you mentioned earlier?" she threw herself into his chest and hung her head back in a last ditch effort to woo him into staying, albeit knowing she'd already lost the battle.

He patted her spine and slid his hand to her bum for a firm squeeze, leaning down to whisper in her ear in a manly buzz, "Best believe I'll fuck you senseless until the sun goes down darling..."

"Don't make a girl promises you won't keep," Audette popped up on her tip-toes to kiss at the corner of his mouth eagerly. After but the first time he'd bedded her, she'd become a woman obsessed.

A hunger she had never experienced before had blossomed deep in her body, an insatiable hunger specifically for him.

"Quite the contrary, I couldn't possibly promise resistance. That is...only after you've honored my mother's request for today," Draco finished his sentence in a deflating tisk, staring at her with slanted, sideways eyes.

She shook her head as he opened the door to their suite, moldy air gusting inside the heated bedroom, "This is a terrible idea, we are wholly unprepared."

He stopped abruptly in the doorway, the shoulders of his suit stiffening as his fingers slid off the frame.

She suddenly felt quite tiny when he rotated to address her seriously, "What is best, is that we normalize your being here sooner than later. I will handle my parent's reactions because what I desire is you living in this house, permanently under my care. Do you comprehend?"

That was it, game over.

His strong hand clamped onto her forearm and out the door they went.

Audette couldn't help picturing her tomb stone as the drawing room door drew closer and closer; Here lays Audette Fiadh Bellarose, 1980-1998; the girl who died of embarrassment in a suit.

All the way down the daunting black corridor her eyebrows tented in wild discomfort, effectively dragging the heels of his humongous leather shoes to produce a rift of parallel scratches in the recently cleansed runner.

The moment Draco knocked once on the drawing room door Audette decided she'd rather defecate in his formal dress pants than take one step into that space.

When the passionately creaky door opened he made the monumental mistake of letting go of her hand. "Mother, you'll excuse me for misplacing our tradition today," he began in the opening, unaware that Audette had positioned her sweaty self directly behind his back and out of sight.

From within the room Narcissa's courtly voice oozed towards them, "And did you also misplace your watch? Oh no, I see it there, encircling your gangly wrist. So what pray tell, could have expended twenty additional minutes - were you...glass blowing? Memorizing the first thousand digits of Pi? Performing an open heart surgery, perhaps?"

Draco ignored the snippety jabs and continued calmly, "Mother, you remember Audette."

He must have assumed, and within good reason, that Narcissa had some viewpoint of Audette from her seat beside the fireplace which would explain their tardiness.

She in fact did not.

As if auditioning to be his shadow Audette was busy trying to blend into Draco's back, cringing so grotesquely one might assume she'd just accidentally passed wind at the pope's funeral.

She could just imagine the piercing look of confusion on Narcissa's face, "Yes of course I remember Miss Bellarose. It's not as if you aren't conspiring to marry the young lady."

Before Draco could reply, her tone went vinegary, "Draco...If you assume for even one miserable moment that I will hear you out on changing your mind..."

It was at this moment Draco must have grown equally as puzzled, glancing to his side at where Audette aught to be standing in plain view.

"What..?" he scoffed.

Then in a swishy game of hide and seek, he swiveled over each shoulder to catch her until he lost his patience, reaching backwards to tangle his hand in the front of the suit.

He powerfully tossed Audette into the room next to him, glaring down at her, "No change of heart. In fact, look who's decided to join us for the holidays."

It was as if the curtains had just pulled apart to reveal the headlining singer at an opera house, only for the crowd to be left gaping at a big hairy troll with the voice of an angel.

"Lady Malfoy, what an honor it is to be here, in your...lovely home," beet faced, Audette swayed next to Draco who now had his hand heavily implanted on her shoulder to prevent any further antics.

The second drawing room in Draco's private wing was surprisingly elegant and cozy, lined with tall windows along the southern wall which were providing a delightful view into the fluffy snow spiraling down on Christmas Day.

Large purple sofas and matching ottomans were arranged around the roaring hearth.

An unusually copious sprinkling of Fabergé urns were clustered about on the mantelpiece, creating a pottery cemetery of sorts below a mounted sword and scabbard.

To match this vibe, many family portraits of wicked pale people sporting pointy features were sneering in classic Malfoy style from the burnt golden wallpaper.

Candles, far too many in fact for safety or quality of air, were placed sizzling around the space on candelabras or in iron plates with finger loops for transport.

And then there was the female dragon in the arm chair, tea in one wispy hand, clad in a jet black dress with a tall Edwardian neck. Her icy eyes rested wide on her soon to be daughter-in-law who'd just sprung up like a lost butler from behind her son's back, "Draco..."

She took in a short breath and caught it, setting down her fine china with a graceful knock, "Are you quite sure that is the same girl I took dress shopping, and not a valet boy you've taken hostage from the Dorchester?"

Butler, valet...it didn't matter which one she more closely resembled, because Audette was about to go full ostrich and bury her head in the nearest couch cushions.

One exceptionally noble elderly character called out from his oil painting, his poufy velvet harlequin cap shaking on a bed of slick pearly hair, "I know what it is, it's a Beatrik. Take it away, lest allow it scorn our eyesight with this foul play but a second longer."

Audette snapped and did what she did best, breaking gallant character before thinking, "Nothing about my appearance could be more foul than that atrocious mushroom for a hat."

He and several other hoity toity Malfoy members on the wall rasped in reedy disbelief.

Draco snorted loudly in his throat before composing himself again, "If that doesn't give her identity away I don't know what could have better."

"Indeed," Narcissa seemed wildly unimpressed, her narrowing gaze locked onto the fact that Audette's long blond waves were sopping as if she'd just climbed out of the ocean.

Or...taken a bubble bath with her precious son...naked.

Rising in an ominously slow manner from the sofa, Narcissa's eyes began swirling like a set of poisonous cerulean potions, "Draco, I shall have a private word with you, in the hallway. Miss Bellarose, if that truly is you hiding inappropriately below my son's formal wear, a seat if you will."

Audette grimaced up at Draco, wordlessly conveying I told you so, you big idiot.

He rolled his eyes and sighed, following Narcissa out into the corridor where they began bickering curtly several rooms down.

Naturally, Audette did not take a seat, rather bolted clumsily to the door crack and peered one big green snoopy orb into the darkness. Luckily the Malfoy's had the whitest hair on the planet, otherwise they might've disappeared entirely into the shadowy abyss.

"...remains of your innocence? Of hers? Have you deflowered that emblematic girl?" Narcissa's voice was the audiological equivalent to acid, shrill even with a hint of serious worry.

Draco remained healthily unconcerned, mildly humored even, scratching at the back of his neck with a sadistic smirk on his face, "Define...deflowered."

Fast as a lightning bolt Narcissa slapped Draco viciously hard across his cheek, the brute sound echoing off of the ancient elements in the hall, "You mean to tell me that you have desecrated the Bellarose heir before wedding her? Have you lost the plot completely! Bellarose might rightfully demand the dark lord for your head on a spike. Do you aspire to join the rest of those mutilated corpses in the barns?"

Audette made a mental note to herself never to visit the barns.

Draco rubbed at his cheek and cracked his jaw, somehow still acting careless and aloof, "Well isn't that intriguing...you share a delight with Audette in administering assaulting slaps. Between the two of you, I'll possess a raging concussion in no time."

Narcissa glowered at her impetuous son with the heat of a nuclear weapon, probably a hair's width away from doing much worse than slapping him, "You have a gentleman's honor to uphold; there is only one way out of this. You must marry at once."

Draco was no longer in a playing mood, that much was made certain by the drop in his voice "Lord Bellarose knows precisely where she is and what my intentions are. The ring is on her finger and the dowry exchanged, mother. I'll excuse your lack of attentiveness due to the distraction of her presentation."

Narcissa turned her face to the side with notably forced patience, "You've proposed? In the few days you've had my blessing, it is already done?"

"Last night," he pressed his lips into a fine line, "Whether I've deflowered her is no longer relevant, the ring dictates matrimonial certainty. Regardless, her innocence was not my mistake to spoil."

"Oh really...is that so? How...agonizing...that reality must be for you," Narcissa's tone slipped into something scaly and curious, and Audette felt her tummy twist in worry that Theodore's role in besmirching Audette had just been discovered by the worst possible party.

"She's acceptable to me as she is," the vast corridor went silent for a moment as Draco's nose crinkled and he darted his attention aside.

Narcissa had clearly calmed down, coming across as pleased even, "Then in that case you now bare the right to issue penitence on the Nott boy for coveting what was rightfully yours. This could very well be the end of his pestering presence in the guild, and the ton. How very advantageous."

What she really meant was his presence on the planet, because death would be the price for claiming a newly promised high-brow lady out of wedlock so dishonorably. It was a castigation rarely ever enforced anymore - or at least, Audette had thought of it as a disappearing practice until that very instant.

"Hmm, I believe I'll sheath that weapon until the opportune moment," Draco spoke hesitantly.

Narcissa's eyes fell across her son with the light of a mother accepting uncomfortable notions regarding his maturation. Sighing wistfully, she ran a hand of black painted nails down his jacket, "You are a man now, Draco. This day was inevitable."

When he said absolutely nothing, merely stood there with cold gray eyes and an uncomfortable sneer, Narcissa took the unspoken point that Draco was extremely disinterested in discussing the intricate details of his sex life with her.

She nodded and clasped her hands again, although the biting awkwardness remained intact, "Very well. At a minimum, ensure there is no conception until after a wedding has concluded. Satan knows what that hiccupping rat Umbridge would deride from such a scandal."

Audette instinctively sensed they were about to return from their distant point in the hallway. She'd heard all she needed to, and now escape was of top priority.

Spinning in fright, she proceeded to plonk away in the dress shoes much too large for her.

It was a sad enterprise, each step flopping and frustrating, toes curling in dread to lift against the tops of the shoes. One could only imagine having to retrieve a delivered parcel from the front doorstep at least seven stories lower when no other footgear were available.

Surely the couch was not so far out of reach...

Even her fingers were stretching in embarrassed longing for the cushioned safety of that final destination...

She'd barely made it but five bumbling steps when the door opened far too soon...unless the Malfoy's walked at an unnaturally vampiric pace.

Low and behold the nightmare had just been upgraded; there stood Lucius Malfoy in all his barbarous glory.

Again, Audette was reminded in scalding shock just how much Draco's portrait matched his father's, leaving her gaping and dumbfounded.

That Christmas Day he'd swept back his pin straight white locks into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck, tying it with a wonderful black satin tie. He was darned in his usual sweeping obsidian robes, poshly filigreed here and there with silver embroidery.

One hand ladened with shiny rings remained on the spidery door handle as Lord Malfoy pressed into the living room. The other hand tightened around his infamous walking cane, which brandished sharp fangs protruding from a silver viper's head, "Well, well, well...what have we here?"

He'd sired into the drawing room septic with snarling acrimony and judgment.

It could not be worse timing.

A staring contest ensued as Lucius brushed his imploring gaze up and down the veritable interloper to his home, sterling eyes twitching. She wondered if perhaps he was so confounded by what he saw that it was causing a system-wide failure to occur in his brain.

The cane lifted head first, fangs drifting through her long drying locks which were trailing in wavy rivers down the front of Draco's suit.

She held her breath as he swept her beautiful strands off far into the air, analyzing her as if she were an alien lifeform, "What fiercely tasteless concoction is this? A bit far from the Emerald Isle, aren't you Bellarose, come out here to ransack my son's clothing like a freaky crossdresser?"

"Come now Lucius, is that any way to treat our newest family member?" Narcissa commented as she reentered. In a flash, she twisted her spine around him to produce a bright golden spell which blasted Audette straight in the tummy with mysterious magic.

It was dreadfully tickly, and she only managed to escape laughing out loud by whining like a dog as it spread across her entire figure, effectively transforming the suit into a Venetian black gown characterized by long sleeves and a tall neck similar to Narcissa's.

Little booted heels sent Audette wobbling slightly upon the height difference when they spawned into place on her feet instead of the clown shoes from before.

When the conversion concluded and settled, she lifted up the weighty train with both hands in burning relief, not even remotely troubling herself with the unsightly charcoal shade.

"Delightfully macabre, now we may divert from pondering over this draining topic of ensemble any longer," Narcissa marched back to her chair, starting up a vintage gramophone which began to play dark orchestral tunes with a rather haunting glitch in the backdrop, "Draco, you will send your owl at once to the Bellarose estate and request a full wardrobe for your priceless fiancée."

She hovered as Draco practically tip-toed around his father in the entrance, nodding to his mother's instructions with a sour frown on his pretty face.

"Lucius, we did not expect your attendance. To what do we owe this...pleasure?" she remarked in pitched confrontation, eyeing down Lucius who was still standing there with a repugnant glare glued to his features.

Seeing that his father had generated in his private wing like a ghoul in a video game, all of Draco's carbonated vitality from earlier visibly zapped away.

He wrapped one arm around Audette's waist and pulled her onto a couch next to him, where they exchanged blank glances of unease.

He then shot his eyes down to his bouncing knee, seeming almost to have become instantaneously depressed. She felt his fingers playing with the rippled fabric of her new gown, tugging with the anxiety of a squirrel searching for a nut in a pile of leaves.

In sympathy, she considered that her presence there at his side might be a sole form of comfort in that haunted house.

"Yes, well..." air hissed as Lucius sucked it in between his teeth, pausing to watch them seated together before strutting to the fireplace and facing the crackling flames.

He poked at the crumbling wood with the butt of his weaponized walking stick, "It has occurred to me as of late, that many alterations to this household have been slipping by me all too easily. This very moment is perfect proof of my point."

Audette shimmied as close as she could against Draco to press her hand down onto his leg comfortingly, whispering to him, "Stop ripping at my dress like an ape."

He stopped for all of ten seconds before his fingers returned to the anxious terrorizing of her ribs, causing Audette to begin smacking at his hand.

Lucius' presence alone was akin to breaking open a window below the water level of a cruise liner; instant suffocation, the whole room underwater, and the taste of saltiness on everyone's tongue. And soon, the ship would be at the bottom of the ocean if the breach was not patched.

He drawled in a terrorizing singsong tone, slowly turning his stabbing gaze sideways to the three victims of his unwanted company, "Yes, quite the owl I received from Montgomery Bellarose this morning congratulating the verified union of our households. Imagine the surprise it was, to discover this update from an outside source rather than directly from my own blood?"

Narcissa hummed in her throat, snapping her fingers quietly at Draco and Audette to stop fidgeting behind Lucius' back, "It occurred in the blink of an eye last night. If anything, consider yourself sensationally ahead of speed."

Audette's attention was suddenly directed down to her knees when a tiny voice and a tap on her leg appeared.

It was a little female elf in a filthy pillow case with a dotted pattern of green leaves, pointed ears drooping in evident sadness.

Over one eye laid a pirate patch constructed out of a chiseled bit of wood and a string. Due to the amount of scarring elsewhere on her body it was safe to assume she'd lost the organ entirely to some form of horrific abuse.

Trembling, she directed her one remaining, golden orb at Audette with incredible curiosity and eagerness, holding out a silver tray of scones, "Would...our new young lady...wish to be having some?"

Truthfully Audette was starving: she hadn't eaten at the ball, she'd had but a bowl of strawberries once they'd arrived, and had yet to consume a much overdue breakfast on a belly full of bubble bath wine.

But it seemed like an absolute choking hazard to risk consuming anything around the explosive bomb that was Lucius.

Still, that single little hopeful eye was too much to resist.

Castle Bellarose was a tad different from the Malfoy Manor of malice, seeing that many magical creatures carried out duties in exchange for their safe cohabitation, and where this was not provisional, squib staff had been hired.

In fact, Audette hadn't seen house elves enslaved in such an outmoded fashion.

She'd only seen them in the Hogwarts kitchens and in the Biodome, where they had built themselves little cottages amongst the trees and typically spent their days freely doing arts and crafts. "House Elf Hamlet" had become a very popular area for the younger witches and wizards to play as a result.

Montgomery had always taught tourists to speak to them as adults despite their size and adorability. Following this advice, she delicately plucked off a scone from the tray, "Why yes, thank you. And what is your name?"

Upon overhearing this mild exchange, Lucius whipped back his garish robes and rotated on the spot, spitting each following word with a guttural snarl, "Never speak to the servants like that again! They are neither worthy of names nor civilities, is that clear, girl?"

It was not clear to her at all, but Audette's soul had already jumped clean out of her body, and in matching regard so had the scone gone flying somewhere over the back of the couch.

The supposedly nameless elf took this as an opportunity to scamper there in hiding to clean it up, whimpering in the background.

So much for diluting that wine in her system.

Audette nodded nervously as the cane flew vertically towards her nose, missing by a few inches. The choleric Lord of the Malfoy estate then began to pace around, his Barbie doll hair floating lightly off his shoulders, cane slamming down into the carpeting.

He pointed between Narcissa and Draco threateningly, "The two of you have been meddling. I have not been counselled as of late. One of you, has taken it upon yourself to provide universal blessings for this union, while the other has acted upon these blessings in a tectonic panic."

Lucius halted in place to stew down at where the green serpent was glittering maddeningly on Audette's fourth finger, which was planted firmly on Draco's thigh, "Just observe how brashly they exchange affection right before my own attention."

Narcissa coolly replied, "You stated it yourself that you wholeheartedly approve of this rapid consortium with the Bellarose shield, and Lord Bellarose has provided a suitable dowry. No such meddling has occurred below your nose. You've arrived here today with the sole purpose of patriarchal hectoring."

"Hmm," Lucius made the effort to still his heated circulation around the central carpet, tilting his chin upwards to instate a sense of domination as he peered down at his wife, "And...do you propose now we deal with promenading them, at such a historic time in the dark lord's ascension? Either we...socialize their engagement, as is customary, when the dark lord is set to be entirely intolerant of pageantry detracting from his current focus here...or...we accept appearing calumniatory to the court, which will not go untaxed in and of itself."

Narcissa too raised her chin bravely, "We shall wait until the spring to debut their pairing, when the dark lord's foundational work has concluded. The sacrifice we are making here, providing our property as a base, shall go dually noted to the court. I have already advised any keen eyes that we may arrange for a private approach to this marriage altogether."

An electric glint flickered across Lucius' already scorching eyes reflecting the flames of the fireplace, "Never, not once, has the Malfoy family deposited disappointment upon either court this land has known. We are of royal blood. We do not mask nor delay our sacraments. Bellarose has pressed my son into this timeline with zero consideration for the cost it would imbue here."

Narcissa grew silent for a second, raising her eyebrows slowly.

Audette was certain then that Lady Malfoy could give a damn if at one point the Malfoy's had married into royalty or not, "Flattering, it aught to be, that the emerald lord himself has approved of Draco with passion. Can you blame any impatience? The girl is eighteen, not to mention that vile Italian boy acting a vulture."

That poor Italian boy...Theodore Nott...losing his illimitable mind altogether under exceptional duress.

Incapable of masking her emotions, Audette stared at her lap. Pity for Theodore burbled in her chest where it was wholly uncontainable, envisaging the sheer agony he was currently in.

She'd concluded during the Yule ball that he still very much loved her, and this was not an easy concept to swallow away like poison in a goblet.

The resounding chime of Narcissa's silver spoon against her china cup became all encompassing then as they all sat in quiet brood of her statements, waiting on Lucius to blast off again any second.

Draco shifted uncomfortably and proceeded to slither off the golden bow tie from his neck, stuffing it into his pocket - perhaps worried that the bright colour would serve to agitate Lucius further.

Finally, when she could bare it no longer, Audette spoke out of line, "My mother does quite enjoy hosting balls. I'm confident she would gladly cavalcade us, if this property is otherwise preoccupied."

The minute the last word left her lips, her entire nervous system washed itself down with a freezing wave of chagrin. She sank into Draco's arm for safety, who's wide eyes shot back and forth between his lethal parents.

He hadn't so much as produced an audible cough since Lucius' inclusion on the affair, yet he did make the effort to shift his arm from Audette's waist to her shoulders protectively.

"A fine solution. I will coordinate with Lady Bellarose myself, unless your Lordship does not approve of this action without further counsel," Narcissa quipped resentfully and impatiently, one sweet strand of pearly locks coiling along her neck as she adjusted in her armchair.

There was no argument to be had.

Curling his fist in shivering disposition, Lucius surrendered, casting his laser beams from his wife to Draco then Audette, landing specifically on Audette with scalding regard, "Ensure then, that Castle Bellarose does not falter. By no later than February, this engagement will be adequately publicized, or I will deal with this myself in a manner that is of my own design."

Thankfully this satiated him enough to take a seat opposite Narcissa, drawing a spindly pipe out of his robes to puff on like a wicked Gandalf by the fireplace.

Audette had been subconsciously crossing her fingers that he would depart after scolding the household, but apparently this was not going to be the case.

After minutes of aching silence had transpired, and the gramophone had gotten stuck twice only for Lucius to demand the elves burn it in the fire, Narcissa turned directly to Audette - apparently of some unrealistic hope that casual conversation might still be pursued, "Audette, Draco tells us you are training to become a full-fledged Animagus; quite a noteworthy achievement. When shall that be realized?"

Audette blinked down into her lap in dread, where she was currently fighting with her trembling fingers not to spill hot black tea everywhere, "By the end of January. I begin the final stages on the upcoming full moon."

That was right.

She had less than a week to swim in Draco's bedsheets before her mouth would be sealed shut for thirty torturous days in the hellish Bellarose Biodome, marinating a Mandrake leaf no less.

Lucius produced a noise of amusement from his armchair, which was positioned considerably farther away from the rest of the family, "And what would a prancy little girl such as yourself dare to metamorphosize into? A hare? A vole, perhaps? The sheer terror, call the Scotland Yard."

Yes call them, she thought to herself, to come and take you away from this tea time.

One might ponder that somewhere buried underneath all that iron armor and silver jewels was a man that sought the familiar comfort of family on Christmas Day...even if it were to bludgeon said members with oppressive commentary.

Perhaps - Audette imagined destructively then and there - that she would transform into something truly terrifying, with razor sharp teeth and claws. Then straight off the bat she would crawl her way up the eastern tower and tear the sinister pale man from his bed in the dead of the night.

"An Animagus is pragmatic regardless of form," Draco, who might as well have swallowed his own tongue broke his mute participation for the first time, clocking his head to the side to nastily narrow his gaze at Lucius, "I don't see anyone else in this room with such an obtainment."

Narcissa commented cordially, "Yes, one might only imagine the infinite possibilities. Do land upon something resourceful, Miss Bellarose. You both collude to remain here then, until the New Year arrives?"

Draco nodded, swiveling his gaze down to where he was currently twirling Audette's hair into ringlets at her shoulder, "I've confirmed her extended whereabouts with Lord Bellarose. She's permitted to stay here indefinitely, aside from her concentrated undertaking in January."

Lucius curtly hissed and turned his pointy face towards the roaring hearth, "Pleased with yourself, are you, Draco? I have not provided my own permission for you to permanently house your plaything on my property."

At this, a putrid sneer appeared on Draco's face, "Her title is fiancée."

Lucius' frozen eyes suddenly burrowed into Audette, "Ah yes, fiancée, and that title comes with duties. You will find devotion to this ménage and faction to be fiercely cumbersome, unlike anything you have ever experienced. If the dark lord so much as smells you gallivanting about beyond this wing, best pray your family reputation prevents-"

"-Fearmongering is not necessary, the girl is well aware of her duties and circumstances," Narcissa addressed Lucius with an acute glare, clearing her throat in foolish hopes to recover the exchange, "Baring in mind the mooring limitations Lucius is suggesting, what have you on agenda for the remainder of the day?"

Audette wondered then, what a complex boy such as Draco Malfoy normally did on Christmas Day. After seeing his creepy childhood nursery, he didn't seem particularly like the type to darn a bright parka and play in the snow.

He squeezed her shoulder, his lip pulling up in a destructive grin, "Probably shoot the undead off the rooftop parapets."

Shoot what off the parapets?

She stared at the side of his face in mild appall of the cryptic suggestion, "I beg your pardon? Did you just mention...the undead?"

"Have sense," one of Narcissa's eyes nearly closed shut as she squinted obliquely at her son, "I highly doubt a fine lady such as Audette will find a morsel of pleasure in such coarse masculine savagery."

This fact while being entirely obvious didn't seem to matter to Draco whatsoever.

After the hair raising tea time had finally distinguished, he went on to dress Audette in all manner of his ghoulish winterwear despite her obvious pouting.

As he drew closed drawstrings on a large cloak, she remained stubbornly tight lipped in queasy contemplation of what she was about to find on that rooftop.

Administering a Slytherin scarf around her dried locks, he held out a pair of dragonhide gloves, smirking at her from behind a fancy pair of sunglasses which made his nose look all the more sharp, "Quit moping. Indulge this one last thing for me, and you have my word that your pleasure for this afternoon shall be my...foremost priority."

She took the gloves and yanked them on, "You already promised me that, and I went to tea dressed like a bloody secret service agent. Now cuddling has been diverted a second time. Excuse me if your word bares no gravity."

He bent down to kiss her slowly, "I'm not much of an indoor dragon, sweetheart."

She kissed him back desperately, beginning a tug of war by pulling the collar of his jacket backwards in the direction of the bed, "Perhaps with the right motivation..."

If she could just...get him on top of her...he would surely lose control...

He allowed her to drag him a handful of stumbling steps, catering to her ravenous snogging, "Who's this...floozy little minx?"

She was drunk on him, utterly enamored, and there was simply no getting enough.

Almost to the bed...his breath was growing heavy...now just to reach for his belt...

He shocked her by planting his hands on her shoulders and shoving her into a heap on the duvet, the cloak hood flopping over her face to temporarily send her world into total and humiliating darkness.

"Yeah, yeah. Sober up, you raving sex fiend. Give me a few hours to recharge at least," he laughed at her from somewhere over by the window, calling his owl from it's unlocked enclosure, "Ulysess, come."

She ripped off the hood and stared at the elaborate bed canopy. It was worth a try.

Upon sending a rather grouchy Eurasian owl to Castle Bellarose in request of Audette's personal affects, Draco then made to drag her up a metal spiral stairwell mysteriously located in the impressive athenaeum.

From a strangers perspective, the stairway located in the far corner of the dusty room would conceivably lead to another level of the library, but soon it became apparent that the clanky alloy treads terminated elsewhere.

As they climbed the three-story tall egress the air miraculously transitioned to stark freezing cold - a dead giveaway that the bolted wooden door at the top indeed opened onto the vast terraced rooftop.

In the last ten collapsing steps, the woven cobwebs became so extraordinarily thick that Audette found herself sinking into her clothing in disgust, raising her wand to swat away the sticky threads which surely belonged to spiders the size of a dinner plate.

"I don't suppose this is a very good example of your standards for domestic sanitation," she griped behind him, actively spitting out a strand that had clotheslined her mouth.

He stuck the skeleton key into the ancient doorway which was whistling on it's rickety hinges, and without hesitation the blowing snow and wind drew the carved panel outwards, revealing a bright December day.

Half expecting a bombardment of zombies, Audette held back in the webby doorway, watching Draco crunch confidently through the freshly laid snow in his sleek black robes, shoulders square, spine straight, lovely white hair wavering as he dropped his cloak hood...

Other than her intoxicating prince of darkness there did not seem to be anything living, or unliving, in sight; merely the wickedly spired parapets and several rectangular tower exits.

He barreled across the entire roof, then disappeared into another tower doorway, where all manner of metallic clanging began to reverberate outwards from an apparent weaponry keep.

As she emerged nervously the cloudless sun burned into Audette's vision, taking in the vast Malfoy estate for the first time in daylight.

Spreading far as the eye could perceive were expanses of fields, fountains, and geometric parterre gardens that had gone formidably rotten and black. In fact, it was imaginable that a bomb had dropped directly where the manor was located, as no single gnarled tree showed sign of surviving the plague of dark magic collecting there.

The air was sweet and frigid with the overwhelming tang of frozen water and rock.

A number of decrepit stone structures stood dotted along the winding gravel roads, trodden with narrow carriage tracks and the hooves of thestrals; gazebos, monuments, an overrun wellhouse, a hilly graveyard with jilted tombstones as tall as a man...

And indeed, in the near distance a large Elizabethan barn was oriented parallel to a wraparound porch at the back, constructed with matching architectural towers to the main manor.

Trails of hot red blood were concentrating near the muddy stable entrances, trickling out in veins slowly vanishing beneath the heavy snowfall.

Gripping onto the rusted wrought iron guard, Audette peered between sinister spikes in flickering horror, unsure if her eyesight was playing tricks on her through all of the endless fat snowflakes.

She'd was certain she'd just spotted a pair of boots sticking out from within the leftmost stable, shaking in place as the body of the deceased victim was sawed into segments on Christmas Day no less.

Multiple men in demonic silver masks were marching around the area, shouting back and forth instructions.

An ear-splitting slam and the sound of dozens of crows squawking drew her back around, noticing that a window had been opened in the weaponry tower.

Like billowing smoke, black birds were spilling out into the subzero air from within.

All of them sported unnatural glowing red eyes, their chests and wings pockmarked by holes and missing feathers. They seemed to be preoccupied with chasing after a similarly illuminated cardinal orb, drawing the swarm in tight circles above the roof.

In a flash Draco stepped out of the tower and shot an arrow straight past Audette's shoulder, pinning one of the decaying crows to the brick exterior of the nearest architectural podium.

She covered her mouth, watching the light in it's hollow eye sockets gradually douse until it went totally limp on the piercing ammunition.

From behind the massive bow he looked quite lethal, his breath white and cloudy in the wintry atmosphere, "Step away from that side, Audette. That's not something you need to see."

"Who...who's body is that...those death eaters are dismembering?" she asked in a feeble tone, crossing her arms as she followed him away from the sickening scene occurring in the barns.

What intensified such rank realities was knowing she had sworn to secrecy. There would be no consoling in Guy Cosmos, or anyone for that matter aside from verified, uncaring death eaters themselves.

How often, she deliberated, had Theodore been to the Malfoy Manor since his involuntary enrollment in Excetra? Was her father frequently found on the grounds in a similar silver mask, or somewhere deep within the winding black intestines below?

Draco shrugged heartlessly, adjusting a leather arm guard over his robe sleeve, "Haven't a clue; likely some foolish cretin who stepped out of line. He'll become fodder for the python - the dark lord's snake, that is."

With his sunglasses on his head he pulled back on the drawstring, shutting one eye to target the fleeting, undead birds.

In awe of his combat skills, Audette was certain time froze as he held his breath, the string tight to his cheek, before releasing the arrow in a startling whip.

Incredibly precise, it soared straight through the heart of a second bird which spiraled down to land at their feet in a gentle, lifeless thunk.

He lightly huffed air in satisfaction.

"Don't fret, he's not here right now, the dark lord. Never stays around during the holidays," he reached back into an arrow satchel newly strapped to his back, taking a good guess at what was on Audette's mind as she blinked down at the possessed crow losing it's reanimation spark in the snow.

It was fairly evident up close that he'd collected a number of unfortunate crows and was brutally abusing their phantom carcasses for archery practice.

They'd been freakishly disembowled and mangled, and it was by a miracle they could still flap their wings at all.

She watched him take down multiple more, until the roof was freckled with feathery bodies and the barbaric display grew frightfully disturbing. There was a vicious sparkle in his gaze that day, his nose shriveling in enjoyment of each back to back successful score.

"Have you...have you killed anyone before, Draco?" she bit her lip anxiously, unsure if she could bare the answer. On a much less concerning note by all standards, she was gaining a bit of a sun burn on her cheeks, of which it was Draco's responsibility to be dissuading.

"No Audette, I have not," he almost seemed to snarl the response, rolling his beautiful silvery eyes before whipping back another arrow and sending it off in a hateful boing. Another grisly noise of tiny bones breaking and flesh being punctured split the air.

He swung his face to her, "That is what you hoped to hear, I'm not tone deaf. But if you're as intelligent as you are beautiful, then you'll know better than to cling to that statement remaining in tact."

"Then I suppose I must be ghastly on the eyes, because I'm clinging to it wholeheartedly," she quietly replied in sadness.

"Give it a go, you'll appreciate the power," Draco popped his eyebrows at her, evidently unfazed. The tip of his nose was now pink from the chilly air, making him look especially adorable in contrast to the conversation topic.

Audette shook her head, again resorting to chewing on her nails, "My father..."

"He isn't here, is he?" was his repeated answer, leaving her there by the parapet to go and fiddle around in the weaponry keep again.

Audette instinctively began to feel overwhelmed by her surroundings, bouncing between her feet while trying to block out the caws from the undead crows above.

The sky had darkened considerably as a rapid onset of clouds developed over the immediate land, and one of the morbid gargoyles mounted to the lip of the building craned it's stone neck to grin at her.

When he reappeared with a medieval crossbow, she stumbled backwards in shock, "Oh no, I really couldn't, it's much too dangerous."

"Sure you can, come here," he called out, loading a seriously violent nail into the device.

When Audette refused to budge several meters away he rasped at her malignantly, "I said come here. It would please me to teach you. You're not going to live by those ridiculous ton rules once you are my wife, you'd might as well gain some survival skills."

She lifted up her dress train and nervously approached him, standing behind the heavy tool comprised of wood and metal.

From beside her he slid her hands into different places, "Now, this one is much easier than a classic bow and arrow. The spring-loaded mechanism is responsible for the build up and expense of kinetic ener-"

His instructions were cut off then as Audette accidentally squeezed down on the long trigger.

The giant steel nail went blasting off the front of the building and smashed straight through the window of one of the snazzy Malfoy crested carriages in the drop off circle below.

A small vortex of green light appeared beside the damage, soon unraveling to display the jinn out of thin air. It's two floating eyes burned holes into the rooftop accusatorially.

"Nice shot..." Draco whistled and leaned far past the terracing, laughing in bright disbelief, "That was my father's private carriage."

"Alright, that felt bloody brilliant," Audette gasped, suddenly light headed and giddy. No one had ever encouraged her to do something so remotely perilous, and the kickback of the weapon was unparalleled.

He showed her how to load a second nail into the end of it, wrapping around her from behind. With his chin on her shoulder he guided the medieval crossbow towards the flock of swirling birds.

"Always at an angle, never straight up," he spoke smoothly in her ear, his scent and warmth only heightening Audette's awareness that this boy was to be her actual husband someday.

His gaze focused on the prey above them with sharp intuition, holding his breath again, "Get ready, and, pull."

Audette caught her breath too in utter rapture as the nail absolutely obliterated one of the reanimated crows, showering them in an explosion of feathers.

"This is horrendous fun, you're a terrible influence!" she screamed and kissed his cheek hysterically, sensing her heart beating to escape from her chest, "I really do love you, Draco. I feel so...alive...with you."

They stared into each other's eyes until he smiled handsomely and broke away, handing her another nail from his pocket, "Go on then Van Helsing, let's see you do it yourself."

"My mother would positively soil herself if she saw this," Audette fumbled excitedly with the nail and loaded it as he'd demonstrated.

Upon raising the bow that's when her heart went from racing to stopping altogether.

In the midst of her shock the crossbow went off out of her control, nearly knocking her clean off of her feet when it shot ninety-degrees into the image of a huge skull forming in the clouds above the manor.

Audette stood there as if she were one of the petrified students who'd come face to face with the Slytherin basilisk, gaping up at the blackening formation. The crossbow fell to the ground at her feet in a terrific clang that reverberated with the strumming metal parts.

Even when snowflakes landed dead center of her eyes, instead of blinking it away the liquid was simply left to pool on the convex surface of her green orbs.

Wind picked up like a tornado as the magnetic draw of the creation seemed to be sucking in the entire world like a black hole, nearly drowning out Draco's words to move out of the way.

But Audette's body had rooted itself like a statue.

The dark mark was exactly like the rumors had described it.

He yanked on her arm, yet she was far too distracted by the striking visual of the death eater symbol blotting out the sun and stars, jaw stretching unnaturally wide to provide space for a snake to slither it's way out the detached skull's cavity.

Audette was so mesmerized and stunned that she lost sight of the sharp nail in all the grayness, which had shot straight up and was now returning with bladed conical promise to instantly lobotomize her.

Draco hardly managed to trip her off of her feet into his arms as the nail slammed into the stone paving of the rooftop, shattering bricks and pinning her cloak down where her head had been prior.

Both of them struggled to breathe, panting down at the shiny bullet which had come within inches of taking her life.

"We have to go. Now," Draco grabbed her hand roughly.

He abandoned his deadly toys there in the increasing storm, and Audette's cloak tore dramatically when they proceeded to run back to the slamming doorway of the library tower.

"You'll stay in the bedroom until I return, do not produce a single sound," he breathlessly briefed her as they basically slipped down the circular iron staircase. His glove on her wrist began to burn painfully, crushing her frail bones in his grasp.

Audette was busy actively fighting not to faint, her face freezing cold with sweat, convinced she was nothing more than a floating head that had left the rest of it's body skewered to the rooftop slab.

It all happened in the blink of an eye as her mind rendered itself useless like a staticky box television that's bunny ears had gone awry. Only when she was left all alone with her electric fear did she return to reality.

Slam.

The decorative doorway to their private suite closed and locked.

She swayed there numbly in denial as Draco's stern footsteps vanished into the manor.

The room was achingly quiet, save for the metronome and mantle clock faceoff.

Audette sensed tears running down her cheeks as she inspected the cracking windows behind her, which were pressing maddeningly into the building due to the agitated storm outside. It was not even noon hour, but it might as well have been the final hour of dusk.

Terrified and twitching, she stumbled to the bed and grabbed up as much of his bulky bedding, dragged it all to the carpet before the fireplace, and built herself a fort by the heat which Peregrine was tending to with fierce passion.

Audette then stripped down to the little petticoat which had appeared below her contrived gown and cocooned herself far too close to the open flames. With all manner of blankets and pillows squashed tightly to her head she fell asleep in an effort to escape.

A deep sigh and fingertips brushing her hair aside brought her to slowly.

Lovely verdant tendrils of fire were at play there in her hazy gaze as she turned her face up to Draco who'd sat beside her in his black suit, chin on his bent knees, eyes lifelessly focused on the hearth.

"What happened?" she croaked in shuddering dread.

"Nott repaired the cabinet this morning, came begging for his contract to be acknowledged as fulfilled. The dark lord is pleased, but he's..." Draco sighed again, looking years older with exhaustion in how ever many hours had transpired.

He retracted his touch, and Audette sat up with her lower lip trembling, rocking in alarm that something retched had happened to poor Theodore mere floors below, "He's what Draco? You tell me, you tell me is Theo in the barns?"

Waves of nausea and prickly panic rippled through the thinnest layers of her skin, tempting goosebumps to form and her breath to jilt.

Refusing to face her whimpering, Draco's expression coiled uncomfortably, shaking his head, "Voldemort has agreed to expunge the rest of the Nott family. But he's keeping Theodore alone in Excetra. Should've been apparent from the beginning that he never planned to release him."