CORDELIA
Cordelia Black didn’t like summer. It was even possible to say that she hated it. She spent most of her days in her chamber, away from the rest of her relatives; her only company was Charm or Sienna’s letters and sometimes Dobby, but he never stayed for long.
She would have liked to go out, maybe in Diagon Alley, but Malfoy Manor was far away from there and the only way to go was with rather her aunt Narcissa, or her uncle Lucius. So, solitude was the best choice. Even because she was having a very hard time being around them.
It had never been a peaceful relationship, the one she had with the Malfoys. Cordelia might have been a Black, but she had never felt close to her relatives’ way of thinking or habits, for the matter. She had felt so lonely and strange until she arrived at Hogwarts, where she realized for the first time that she wasn’t so strange after all. Sure, her surname didn’t make her life at school that easy at first. People looked at her, spoke of her and her family, some were even scared of her, but thanks to Sienna, Cordelia had been able to move on from that. Of course, there were still people whispering and glaring, but she had learned to ignore them. But even if her time at school was beautiful, whenever she came back at Malfoy Manor everything came back as it used to. Lucius Malfoy, especially, had always voiced how he could not understand Cordelia and her behavior, and when she had been sorted in Gryffindor it even got worse. It was like, that was the confirmation of her being different and strange. It had been difficult at first, but then she learned how to ignore even her own relatives. She learned not to share anything with them. They didn’t know about Sienna being a half-blood, they didn’t know that she had dated muggle-born guys at school or that she was friends with Fred and George Weasley. A skill that was not shared with Draco.
Since Cordelia and Draco came back from school for the summer, her nephew had been talking no stop about Harry Potter and how he had refused his friendship to become friends with Ron Weasley. And that news hadn’t been of Lucius Malfoy-s liking. His son friendship being rejected for a Weasley. That was almost an offence.
“We get it Draco, I swear” said Cordelia one time at dinner “He didn’t want to be your friend. So, what? There are plenty of people at school.”
“Of course you get it” Draco snared back “You’re always with the Weasleys” Cordelia couldn’t help but glare at him, while a cold silence fell all around them.
“What?” Lucius’ voice made Cordelia scoff, before focusing back to Draco.
“Would you ever shut up?”
“Cordelia!” Narcissa exclaimed.
“You’re acquaintance with those blood traitors?”
Useless to say that after that evening, Lucius never stopped to talk badly about the Weasleys or Harry Potter. He hadn’t even ever met that boy. So, now thanks to Draco she had to close herself inside her chamber to try to avoid the Malfoys. She didn’t want to hear them, she wanted to go to school, she wanted to fly away and feel free. She couldn’t wait for her seventeenth birthday.
Her head shot up when she heard a knocking noise on the glass of her window.
“Bowie?” Cordelia said with a smile seeing Sienna’s owl while Charm barked, waving his tail happily. The girl stood up from her bed putting down her book, and walked towards the window to let the little pet get in. She caressed his brown feathers before taking the letter.
Hello girl,
How’s your summer going?
I’m at my granny’s in Glasgow for some weeks. Steve is drawing like crazy, he says he wants to show you. Sometimes I think he has a crush on you or something.
I’m sorry we haven’t being able to see each other still; the only positive things of not being home is that Weasley doesn’t know where I am.
I’ll make sure to tell you when I’ll go buy the new books for the year, so we can go together.
Love you,
Sienna.
Cordelia smiled down at the letter. Sienna seemed to always know when she was having a hard time and always managed to write to her something that could change her mood completely.
“Miss Cordelia” Dobby’s small voice made her turn “Dobby brought you your afternoon tea” Cordelia nodded her head, letting the house elf to walk inside. Charm waved happily his tail running towards Dobby that shivered, making the cup shake too.
“Charm, don’t” she said moving quickly to take the little dog in her arms “Leave Dobby alone” Charm looked her before starting to lick her face making Cordelia let out a giggle.
“May Dobby do something else for you, miss Cordelia?” the little elf asked with shaky voice, but the girl shook her head.
“It’s quite alright, Dobby” she said sitting down in front of her cup of tea, ready to write a letter back at Sienna.
But before Dobby could leave her chamber Lucius Malfoy’s voice roared in the marble corridors, making the house elf tremble in fear.
“Dobby!” he roared, making Dobby gasp, before he ran out of the room, probably to find his master.
Cordelia frowned at all that noise, so she decided to get up and following the voices. She made sure to close Charm inside her room, knowing how her uncle hated when her little friendly dog ran up and down the house.
Malfoy Manor was huge even if the only people living inside were the four of them and Dobby, sometimes making the white corridors seem very creep and cold, since they were usually silent, but that day was different.
“What?” she heard her aunt say with a shocked tone.
“We need to get read of everything” Lucius was saying making Cordelia frown “Everything?”
“What happened?” asked Narcissa confused.
“Arthur Weasley happened”
Arthur Weasley?
“That blood traitor got employed at Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic” Lucius said angrily walking back and forth just before his wife’s eyes “He thinks he is important now and he is organizing raids on several wizarding households” that made Narcissa clench her jaw and Cordelia hid behind a pillar to listen closely. They were panicking so much. Why was that?
Then her uncle got closer to his wife muttering something, but Cordelia was too far away to listen whatever he was saying.
“Dobby!” Lucius roared almost making Cordelia jump “Come with me now!”
They were behaving very strangely and anxious, they were always so composed, what was wrong with them?
Of course, Cordelia knew about their past, both the Malfoys’ and her own family’s, but she wondered why they were so worried? Where they hiding something? But what though? What was there to hide?