Wake Me up When My Story Ends

“Lucius!” Alexa’s father smiled, strongly gripping and shaking Mr. Malfoy’s hand. Behind him sat two familiar suitcases full of Yaxley luggage.

Her mother, adorned in her customary brunette bun, moved to shake his hand as well and then moved on to hug Narcissa. When she got to Draco, she warmly embraced him as well, “Draco, it’s been so long. Look how much you’ve grown!”

Seeing her parents’ cold eyes twinkle like that was alien to Alexa. They had always been so disappointed with her, even before she was a Gryffindor because she never showed any particular taste for the Dark Arts. While her father was fully engaged being an infamous Death Eater and her mother was busy within her aristocratic friends, Alexa raised herself with her own beliefs. Their lax parenting allowed her to read many tales as a child, both wizard and muggle written, so she acquired a taste for valor. Her mother tore those books away too late, the respect for heroism had already been embedded in her young mind. Alexa’s newfound courageous ambitions set her in Gryffindor despite everyone’s best efforts. She had begged the Sorting Hat for Slytherin, knowing how much Gryffindor would crush her parents’ hearts, but the Sorting Hat had disregarded her plea.

“Ah, Alexa,” her father thinly smiled at Alexa, his beady eyes calculating her. She had dressed in their favorite dress robes, secured away most of the brown locks of her hair because her parents didn’t find the natural mix tasteful, and was holding painfully good posture for them. His displeased look was wounding but there was nothing she could do. As much as she hates the Slytherin house and all of the snobs in it, she constantly wished she could be in it to finally appease her parents. They were her parents after all.

“Father,” Alexa bowed her head, and then turned to her mother and did the same, “Mother.”

“Good evening Alexa,” her mother replied, critically examining Alexa’s face. Her attentive eyes reminded Alexa that she had forgotten to put on makeup for her parents. She didn’t wear it normally but during the summer she had to wear it daily because that was expected of an upper class female. She borrowed some of Ginny’s makeup for this before coming but it was in her bag upstairs, not on her face.

Silently cursing herself, she followed the small crowd as everyone shifted into the massive drawing room. A large crystal chandelier shone upon the dark purple walls, decorated by even more portraits. All of the furniture looked extremely expensive and Alexa was wary to even sit on it. She followed her parents’ suit though, seating herself at the end of a lone futon. Mrs. Malfoy and her mother sat together, Mr. Malfoy and her father as well, while Draco relaxed in a large armchair.

“Lots of memories from this room eh?” her father darkly smiled at Lucius who smugly smirked back.

“And many to come.”

Alexa tried not to let her astonishment show on her face. She couldn’t fathom how they were openly speaking about You-Know-Who’s return. Grimly, she accepted the fact that this would be a long night.

She glanced every few minutes at Draco, who was sporadically intensely glowering at her while pretending to sweep the room with his eyes. She would glare right back if she were in any other environment but under the watchful eye of her parents, she wouldn’t dare. His cold eyes were admittedly more enveloping than the nearly identical portraits on the walls so she would occasionally stare back, as if taunting him.

The next hour was painfully slow and Alexa amused herself with irritating Draco by jokingly raising her eyebrows suggestively at him. Restraining her laughter was hard, he was getting so upset after all, but her minute trembles still earned a warning look from her mother.

Attempting to recompose herself and her thoughts, Alexa’s eyes drifted over to the large Christmas tree in the corner. It was intricately decorated with many fragile ornaments that sparkled and glimmered on their own. Under the lower branches of the tree sat numerous multicolored packages, all tightly wrapped and labeled.

Alexa remembered that she still had to wrap her own presents. She’ll make sure to do it tonight. She had bought presents for everyone the previous week, her friends and family included. She had already given her friends their presents before departing for Christmas vacation so all that was left was her parents and the Malfoys.

Unquestionably, Draco didn’t bother to buy her a present. Alexa rolled her eyes at the mere thought of that, faintly shaking her head. Giving him his present will be mortifying but her mother had ordered her to shop for them all. When she was shopping in Hogsmeade, she was tempted to purchase a dung bomb and borrow some of the Weasley’s infamous puking pastilles, but she restrained herself and purchased him some lavish quills with inks ranging from obsidian to cobalt blue instead.

“Oh my, the time has gotten away from us. Dinner must be ready,” Narcissa said, rising from her seat. Everyone followed suit, some clearly more casually than others did. Everyone followed her as she walked into the dining hall, complete with an aged mahogany table that seemed to fit all of us exactly.

Lucius took the seat at the end of the table while Alexa’s father took the spot on the other end. Alexa’s mother sat by her husband’s left side while next to Narcissa as well, who was sitting by her husband’s right. That left Draco and Alexa to awkwardly sit together, him by his father and her by her own.

Narcissa murmured something and with a swish of her wand, food appeared on the table upon ornate silver platters, “Let’s eat.”

Alexa’s mother took no time to complement Narcissa’s “cooking”. Alexa was sure there was some house elf slaving over an oven to make this succulent roast but Narcissa readily accepted the praise.
Other than the women chatting amongst themselves, most of dinner went silently. The fathers quietly exchanged a few words but they were clearly looking forward to after dinner when they could privately speak.

Draco didn’t speak one word to Alexa the entire night. Even after she dropped her fork, even when she escaped to the bathroom twice to unwind, he said nothing. His silence irked Alexa. She hadn’t expected to get along with him but even some forced conversation would be nice. Hell, she’d even go for an argument right now.

“That was an excellent pie Mrs. Malfoy,” Alexa politely smiled at Narcissa who nodded back appreciatively. Alexa’s eyes darted to her parents who were seemingly watching her with indifference, hoping to please them.

“It really was marvelous,” Lyssandra agreed, standing up. The rest of the table leisurely followed suit, Draco being last.

“Well, you two can just run along now,” Narcissa waved off Alexa and Draco, her eyes twinkling. The icy aura radiating from Draco wasn’t very inviting and Alexa doubted that he would even walk upstairs with her.

Her father barked in laughter, shaking his head while smiling, “Now, now Narcissa, they’re not children anymore. I doubt Draco wants to be with Alexa anyway.”

He matched eyes with Draco but before Draco could thankfully nod, Lucius spoke up with a stern gaze directed towards the younger Malfoy, “I’m sure Draco will get along with Alexa.”

“Don’t force him Lucius, let the kid do as he wants, it’s his holiday break. Besides, who wants to spend time with a Gryffindor?” Alexa’s father wholehearted laughter was soon followed by giggles from Alexa’s mother and Narcissa. Even Lucius cracked a grin.

Alexa weakly chuckled, her gaze frozen down on the table. Unlike previous instances, blood didn’t hurtle up to her face. She was painfully accustomed to this, it happened weekly every summer anyway. They were making fun of her again.

Her blank, emotionless face drew a peculiar side-glance from Draco. He’d never seen Alexa ashamed of her house before. At Hogwart’s, she would always sport her Gryffindor pride with scarves and buttons and she would even battle with the occasional Slytherin. Actually, Blaise Zabini got a painful boil hex from her nearly a week ago. However, here she became detached when her parent’s mentioned Gryffindor. It stumped Draco who had never seen this side of her.

Alexa’s father’s chuckles were just beginning to die down and Alexa took a deep breath to recompose herself. They were disappointed with her again and it hurt.

“Er, I’m going to go to bed now. Thank you for the meal Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy,” Alexa bowed her head again, keeping it bowed until she successfully fled the room, muttering, “And merry, merry Christmas Eve,” behind her.