Chapter 9
When Blaise woke up the glare of the sun told him it was probably late afternoon. He stretched before realising that Ada wasn't next to him. As he frantically looked around he saw her sitting on the floor in the corner farthest from the bed. She was in the old jumper she had worn the night before and was engrossed in a book. Her face still looked pale but she didn't look feverish anymore. He wondered at what point the fever had broken and why she wasn't sleeping the sickness off. She seemed to sense his eyes on her and looked up warily from her book.
"How are you feeling?" Blaise asked her.
Ada just shrugged in response and pulled her knees up closer to her chest. He noticed that she couldn't seem to make eye contact and looked back down at her book. Blaise stretched before sitting up on the edge of her bed. He studied her before leaving the room to find Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, they'd want to know that Ada was awake. As he passed closer to Ada he saw her tense up just slightly and he frowned to himself. He hated that she had been taught how to act like this. Blaise walked down the hall trying to find the Malfoy parents without much success. He finally summoned a house elf and she told Blaise that Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy had left to pick up a few items in Diagon Alley. Just as the house elf popped out, Draco walked around the corner and saw Blaise standing in the hall. The slowly started to walk
"How's Ada doing?" Draco asked.
"She was awake when I woke up but she had curled up in the furthest corner from me. When I walked past to go find someone else she flinched. It was as if she was expecting me to hit her or something."
The boys paused by Draco's door but kept talking as Draco briefly went in to grab a jumper.
"What are we going to do with her?" Draco asked tiredly.
"Well, we'll have to make the best of things for now."
"I just didn't expect things to be this difficult. Or that she'd be this messed up. It's going to take so much longer than I anticipated."
"Maybe, maybe not. Just try not to worry about it so much." Blaise slung an arm over Draco's shoulder and they went to Ada's room.
Draco knocked on the door softly but when there was no answer he quietly opened the door. Ada had gone back into bed and was sound asleep under a thin blanket that Draco didn't recognize. He figured it was hers from the worn look of it. Both boys decided to just leave her be for now, she needed the rest.
Once her door clicked shut Ada slowly opened her eyes. She'd heard the conversation Draco and Blaise had had down the hall and was overwhelmed by guilt. She knew that she was hard to deal with and take care of. She should have realised sooner how much of a burden she was to the Malfoy's. She refused to cry about it though so she just gathered her things up and put them in her trunk before shrinking the trunk and slipping it into her pocket. She grabbed her coat and cracked her door open to see if she could hear the boys still.
When she decided that things were all quiet she quietly crept down the hall and to the stairs. She could hear them laughing in the drawing room about something so she silently descended into the entry hall and out of Malfoy Manor. She was smart enough to guess that disapparating from the grounds wasn't going to work so she set off briskly towards the gate at the end of the drive. She climbed up and over the wall before apparating to her small hometown. She knew she couldn't actually go home but there was a small inn she could stay at for the holidays. She had saved up enough over the past few years of working summers that it wouldn't be a problem. It was a short walk from where she was to the Inn so she set off, grateful that there was less wind than there had been at the Manor. Her coat did all right unless it was windy.
Once she was at the inn it was relatively simple to get a room for the next couple weeks. She pretty much just collapsed on the bed, though, when she got up to her room. As she pulled the covers up she realised that the fever must be back. Her hands didn't bother her much though, it was just a very dull pain that was easy to push to the back of her mind. As she fell asleep she remembered that she hadn't remembered to tell the innkeeper not to let anyone know she was here but she didn't have the energy to get out of bed.
Since Ada was sleeping the boys left to find Draco’s parents and spend some quiet down time with them. Bringing Ada home had surely been more of an adventure than either boy had necessarily thought it would be but looking back they both felt they shouldn’t be surprised. Narcissa was curled up in one of the big, soft chairs reading, while Lucius looked over documents from the latest school board meeting.
“Hey boys! What are you up to?” Narcissa asked and waved them over to the couch across from her.
“Looking to spend time with you guys actually.” Draco admitted slightly sheepishly. “These past few days have been a bit more adventurous than normal.”
Lucius snorted good naturedly and stacked his papers neatly on the coffee table.
“Perhaps so. Are you feeling slightly left out?”
“Not really left out,” Blaise said. “More just missing some of the normal cheer that comes with the holiday. Normally we start getting the manor ready and doing all our usual traditions right when we get back but we haven’t really had time you know? And not that it's bad, it’s actually been fun having another kid here besides Draco and I! But we also just wanted to spend time with you.”
“You boys are so sweet!”
“Do you want to make a list of what to introduce Ada to about our Christmas?” Lucius asked and summoned a quill and blank parchment.
Draco burst out laughing much to the bewilderment of his parents. Blaise felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, though he had no idea why his friend was laughing either.
“Want to share the joke?” Lucius asked.
“I’m sorry it just, you look like that cranky old librarian at Diagon Alley with your glasses perched on the edge of your nose and the way you’re holding the parchment. All you need is that frumpy maroon hat with the peacock feather and you’d be twins!” Draco cackled gleefully.
Lucious turned up his nose and sniffed at the idea as his wife and two boys started laughing together now. He couldn’t help, however, but conjure the hat in question and look severely down at his son in his best imitation before dissolving into laughter himself as the other three laughed even harder.
Once they had gathered themselves they set to work writing out everything they still needed to do for the holidays as well as what they wanted to show to Ada. Draco realised that some of their traditions had fallen by the wayside at some point and he was excited to revive them for her.
“You know, now that I think about it, she might not really know anything about Christmas.” Draco observed.
“That's true,” Narcissa said. “Her parents don’t seem to be willing to give her even a dirty bootlace, much less a proper christmas. Did she spend any of hers at Hogwarts?”
Draco shrugged but Blaise nodded.
“She was there from my second year until I started coming here. I assume she kept staying after too.”
“Poor child.” Lucius said softly. He was already mentally planning everything he would do to give her everything she could ever want.
A house elf popped in the room and stood in the middle of the family nervously twisting his hands.
“Mistress and Masters, the girl has left the grounds,” he said anxiously.
“What‽” Draco and Lucious said at the same time. “How?”
“I should have set alarms on the house.” Lucius mumbled into his hands. “I should have known she was a flight risk.”
“Did she leave just the house or the grounds grounds?” Draco asked frantically.
He was already summoning his coat and shoes as the elf shook his head despairingly.
“She left the Malfoy Manor Grounds completely Master Draco. She is nowhere to be found here or even near here.”
“She must have apparated away after she left. She could be anywhere!” Blaise exclaimed and followed Draco’s lead.
“Boys, just wait. We have to think about this logically. We can’t just rush out all hysterical like this.” Narcissa reprimanded.
All three men stopped and looked at her as she motioned them to sit back down.
“Good. Now, let's think about where she logically could have gone and then we’ll systematically start searching for her, okay?”
The men nodded and she sat back down as well.
After an hour they decided that the only places she really would have been able to go were back to Hogwarts, Hogsmead, Diagon Alley, or possibly-though not probably- back home.
“We can ask the Weasley twins for help.” Blaise mentioned suddenly. “They used to hang out with her a lot and seemed protective of her. They might know her better too.”
“Good idea love. I’ll owl them right now.” Narcissa said and set off to pen the message.
The boys went to grab their things again but at a much less frantic pace. They knew they would find her and bring her back home.