Altered for the Altar

There were no fairies that giggled in my ear, no gentle gnomes peaking around a large blooming bush, and no buzzing dragonflies perching themselves on the edge of my saucer; the Malfoy’s garden was dead of anything that reminded me of magic. The richly colored flowers that swayed gently in the breeze seemed lonely and out of sort as they stood against the bright green of the immaculately cut shrubs. The small trees didn’t tinkle with the laughter of hidden nymphs and the pond full of dark water was bare of any animal chatter. It was sad, I thought as I stared at a grey slab of rock that water was running down from, but couldn’t deny that it fit the rest of the house.

As a light breeze rippled through, I sighed and shifted my position in the hard iron chair I’d now been sitting in for over forty-five minutes. Draco had sent Leal for me around ten this morning and had requested that I meet him in the garden by eleven; it was now close to noon and Draco hadn’t been seen anywhere on the grounds of the Manor. I would question Leal when he would return to refill the bowl full of fruit that I’d been nibbling on, to which he’d meekly respond with a quick ‘no’ and then disappear back inside.

I bit down on my bottom thoughtfully, gazing up at the grey-streaked sky as another breeze ruffled my wavy hair. It swirled the end of my thin dress, causing the fabric to tickle my calves and causing me to smile. The mix of flowers that were in the garden had a combined fragrance that couldn’t be matched by any perfume and the thick, dark green grass looked enticing as it seemed to sway a little in the gentle gust of wind.

Peeking around to make sure Leal hadn’t ventured back out and that Draco hadn’t finally shown up, I slid off my shoes and sunk my feet in the green lawn. It was a little damp from yesterday’s rain, but the coolness was sort of refreshing on my warm feet. I stood then, and began a walk around the plant filled space of their backyard. I softly ran my fingertips over the petals of the roses, looked up in the branches of the rather low trees for any nests of some kind, and dipped my entire hand in the pond of black water.

I swirled it around in the darkness, perching myself on the dry place of a large rock near the bank. There were lily pads that I hadn’t seen before, but they were bare of any frogs. As I was reaching over to bring one closer to me, a fish with a brightly colored coating on its scales leaped over my arm and then disappeared underneath the surface of the water. A little shocked, I yanked my arm away but lowered my head to see if I could see the thing. The water was dark and the scales of the fish had been so bright that I half expected it to glow.

“It was a species of trout.”

Jumping a little and nearly tumbling into the pond, I glanced over my shoulder as my heart started to race. Draco was standing on the pebbled patio just a few feet away from the table and chairs. Shoving myself away from the water, I shook my wet hands off and thought about wiping them on my dress. As I glanced down at it, I felt my cheeks flame hotly at the realization that the material had slid up around my thighs as I’d been searching through the pond. Quickly shoving it back down to around the tops of my knees, I shot Draco a quick look and noticed that he was now lowering himself into one of the two chairs, but his eyes were flickering from me to the tabletop.

Forgetting about wiping my hands off, I stood and slowly made my way back to the table. When I reached it, he offered a small smile and handed me his napkin.

“Thank you,” I quietly said.

He only nodded and returned his hands to his pockets. I took notice of his clothes then, as I wasn’t use to the somewhat casual attire he was in. He wore a white shirt that was unbuttoned near the top and clearly untucked as it blew loosely with the constantly swirling wind, along with a pair of light colored khaki’s. I was surprised that he wasn’t in one of his suits again, but refused to admit that I thought he was quite attractive in his informal wear.

“I apologize for being late.”

His voice drew me out of my thoughts about his appearance and caused me to drop into my seat. I quickly placed the, now, wet napkin aside and crossed my legs before leaning back in the chair.

“It’s alright; it gave me time to look around the garden,” I replied.

He smiled and gave it a quick once over.

“It’s not like most peoples, but it grows on you after a while,” he amusingly grinned.

I smiled warmly at that, as his words spoke exactly what I’d been thinking earlier. Though appearing desolate and a little lacking before, my excursion around the space full of plant life had turned the way I now looked at it. Still not full of the usual life I was used to, it held a certain charm, now, that had me wanting to spend as much time out here today as possible.

“What kind of fish was that, again?”

“A trout; the muggles call them rainbow trout’s, but their scales only look like that because of the type of food they eat. Glow worms are their favorites and that’s the reason for their glowing scales. Some eat different colored ones and that’s where you get the multi-colored trout.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said.

He smiled bashfully as I felt my eyebrows rise in surprise, giving a quick shrug of his shoulders before reclining further back into his chair.

“It was a fact that I read in my transfiguration book when I was in school,” he replied.

The mentioning of his school caused me to remember his friend and the reason we were meeting out here today. Having nearly escaped from ending the entire scheme yesterday because of Blaise’s questioning, and only escaping because of Draco’s quick tongue, we’d agreed that we needed to figure a few things out before we really did ruin it all.

“Have you heard anything from Blaise?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I doubt he would take the trouble to send an owl if he thought something was strange about our story, though.”

“Send an owl,” I confusingly questioned.

He chuckled and nodded.

“Yea, we don’t use telephones. We write out a letter and use an owl to send it to whoever it’s meant for,” he explained. “In fact, my mother’s owl should be around here somewhere; she doesn’t like the manor much, so mother lets her fly around out here.”

He peered around himself in search of the owl as I realized it must’ve been the one I’d spotted in the tree at the far end of the plot of plants. But too surprised by his explanation of why they had it, I was unable to tell him. Tying a letter to the leg of an owl and sending it off to deliver it to your friend reminded me of the times before even Jane Austen’s novels were written. Where I was from, we used the same thing as the non-mystical people, only enchanted with a variety of charms so to protect against eavesdropping and spying.

“What do you use, then, as I take it owls aren’t your form of communication.”

“Oh, we use telephones like the non-mystical people do, only their enchanted to protect against eavesdropping.”

“Non-mystical people,” he questioned.

I chuckled at his confused expression, thinking that mine must look that the majority of the time I was around him.

“People who can’t do magic; I think you referred to them as moguls?”

“Oh-you’re talking about the muggles!”

I nodded, repeating the word as he’d pronounced it over and over again in my mind. I marveled, though, at the fact that even their term for the people who weren’t mystic-blessed was different than ours; few similarities, I realized, but there were a few points that we reached at least some sort of likeness in.

“It’s amazing how our two worlds can be so different, but so alike at the same time, isn’t it,” he asked.

Speaking the exact thing I was thinking again, I could only nod. I clasped my hands together in my lap and squinted up at the barely hidden sun that was resting in a bleak looking sky. That was twice now and I was beginning to wonder if he was thinking as I was about this whole thing more than I’d originally figured. I chanced a glance over at him, but snapped my eyes back down to the glass tabletop when I noticed his steely greys resting on my face.

Silence draped over us for a while then and I was glad, as I relaxed more into my chair, that he hadn’t immediately dived into the topic of our ‘make believe’ love story as soon as he’d appeared. Talking as we were doing helped me forget for a few moments how much I didn’t know about, not just his world, but him as well and that made it easier for my mind to function with a nervous glitch hanging me up.

I dug my toes back into the cool grass and reveled in another breeze that was sweeping through. My hair was swept up onto my face and I didn’t bother to wipe the strands away, as I found that I enjoyed the soft feel of them running over my skin there.

Minutes passed as we just sat there, with me searching through the garden again as he merely sat quietly on the other side. I was too afraid that I’d find he be watching me, so I refrained from looking over at him. I wondered, though, as we sat there, why he was allowing so much time to pass in which no discussion of a certified story came up. I’d figured this would have been a quick thing this morning when Leal had told me a time in which to be down here, but we’d been sitting out here for almost an entire hour now.

After only a few seconds more, the sound of something banging against the patio doors caused me to jump in alarm and quickly glance over to the entry way into the manor. I could just barely see the dirty clothing of a creature that resembled Leal and I could feel my heart beginning to slow a little as he pushed his way out onto the pebbled patio. On the cart that he was moving was what appeared to be lunch and so I settled myself back in my seat, swallowing down a mouthful of salvia as the delicious smell wafted over to me. I’d had a light breakfast this morning, so I was starving.

“So, uhm, have you given any thought as to what we should tell people?”

I glanced over at him at his question, shaking my head as I dropped my napkin into my lap.

“I haven’t either,” he quietly said.

Leal went about laying silver trays in front of us then and filling our tea cups. Grabbing my fork, I speared a small piece of what appeared to be eggplant that was in my salad and chewed appreciatively after placing it in my mouth. Whatever type of dressing they’d put on it contrasted tastefully with the vegetable and I was attacking another with my fork before Leal had managed to place the desert tray on the table.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be anything complex; just something that will cover the majority of questions so that we aren’t forced to answer any and come up with spur of the moment answers,” he started again.

I merely nodded, placed my fork down on my plate, and reached for my teacup. Leal was now disappearing back inside, I noticed, and he chanced a quick glance behind him before veering into the darkness of the inside.

“It’s typical for purebloods to be arranged to be with someone their parents desire, but if we use that entire aspect as our story then it’s going to blow the entire things to bits, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but we could say that my parent’s and I were invited to the party your mother hosted because they were hoping for marriage?”

My eyes widened a little at the realization that I had actually spoken what had been floating around in my head and I could feel as my cheeks begin to heat up a bit. That wasn’t typical of me and I was astonished that I’d let that escape so freely, without even bothering with a cautious thought before.

When I looked over a Draco to gauge his reaction, he was nodding and looking thoughtfully down at his untouched salad.

“Yes,” he began. “Alright, that sounds good.”

I merely nodded and speared another vegetable to place in my mouth.

As we ate the rest of our lunch, we managed to come up with something that wasn’t too complicated or with enough detail that we’d have to struggle to remember it. By that time, though, the sound of thunder was cracking overhead and the sun was slowly disappearing behind the grey clouds that had seemed to grow in size from the first time I’d seen them. I quickly finished up what was left in my bowl and then handed it off to Leal with a smile when he reappeared for them.

“There’s something else we have to talk about,” he said as Leal took his bowl, too. “We’re going to have a dinner party tonight.”

A little caught off guard, I offered a small smile and nodded a little.

“There are going to be some prominent people there that are in the Dark Lord’s inner circle.”

“Is it the party our fathers were talking about?”

“No,” he shook his head. “It’s just going to be those few people and one other person.”

“Who,” I questioned.

He wiped his mouth with the new napkin Leal had brought him, an obvious attempt at delaying telling me whoever the other guest was going to be. He cleared his throat and reclined back in his chair before directing his grey eyes over onto me.

“My father thinks it’s time to that you’re introduced to Lord Voldermort,” he quietly said.

My heart started to beat rapidly then and even though I wasn’t aware of the true magnitude of this person’s power, I was now terrified. Whether it was just because of the obvious fear that triggered in the Malfoy’s when they merely mentioned his name or because this was going to be the first time I was going to meet some of the other people of his world, I wasn’t too sure.