Love, and be Silent

one.

Present Day:

"A muggle club, Cordelia?" Her mother's voice had reached a shrill breaking point, and Cordelia rolled her eyes, arms folded, sitting slouched in their large and elaborate dining room. "Could you be any less careless? And- and, with a muggleborn, no less!"
Cordelia shrugged slightly, lolling her head to stare up at the ceiling. She heard her mother huff in anger, but refused to look over.

"Don't you ever think, Cordelia? Don't you ever consider the image we have to uphold? You're a Malfoy, for Godric's sake!"

"So?" Cordelia muttered, which drew a frustrated sound from her mother, who was pacing frantically at the other side of the table.

"That's it!" The woman cried, tugging at her hair in distress, "No more Amber! You are never to see that girl again."

"Sure, mum." Cordelia said, knowing fully well that there'd be no enforcing of that statement.

"And- and, no more owl post! You won't get a single peep, from any of your no good muggle loving friends!"

"Sure thing." Cordelia said again, her tone bored. She looked at the table now, fingers drumming on the dark wood. Once again, there would be no enforcement of the punishment. There never was.

"No more outings! You are to stay here until the day you leave for Hogwarts!' Her mother's voice had reached an unnecessarily high pitch, and Cordelia's eyes lifted to the woman lazily. She'd stopped her pacing to brace herself on the table, shoulders rising and falling with her angry puffs.

"Alright." Cordelia drawled out, and the woman let out a small shriek, throwing her hands up in the air.

"What am I going to do with you! Don't you understand how worried we were? How dangerous it was for you to go out on your own, in the muggle world, no less! We had no way of finding you, no way of contacting you, no way of knowing if you were safe or n-"

"I was fine, mum." Cordelia muttered, rolling her eyes as her mother's voice cracked and wavered. The woman leveled her with a glare, but the look softened after a moment, growing watery and weary. Cordelia braced herself for what was to come; a tight hug, some gentle apologies, a reassurance that the woman still loved her, that she knew she didn't mean to upset her. Cordelia was used to it now- she was far from a perfect child. It was her mother's repeated inability to punish her, she supposed. And her opposing political views, maybe. Muggles weren't so bad. And muggles borns even more not so bad. Roman Walsh was a muggle born, and he was one of her best friends, and the most Slytherin man she'd ever met. It had been his idea to go out; it was usually his idea, she and Amber just sort of went along with it, as they usually had nothing better to do. It'd gotten the three of them into a lot of trouble in their past years at Hogwarts, but where Amber almost always got a stern talking to and a round of punishments of all sorts, Roman and Cordelia never seemed to receive any repercussions.
Which was why it was so easy to be persuaded to do it all over again.

Cordelia suffered through her mother's weepy hug and apology, and shoved her off after the shoulder of her shirt had been thoroughly soaked through. The woman insisted that the three of them should go shopping, the next day; her, Cordelia, and Draco, as always. Cordelia muttered some sort of assurance that she'd be home to do that, and was allowed to go into the kitchen. Draco sat at their small breakfast table, feet propped up on top of it as he ate an apple, pretending to read a book. Cordelia knew he'd been listening in; he always listened in to her chewing outs. Cordelia wondered if maybe it was because he gained some sort of satisfaction knowing he was the perfect child, archaic biases and all. She reached out and violently mussed up his hair, earning a loud cry of outrage.