Daddy issues

CHAPTER FOUR: "Care to do the honours?"

*Annabella's POV*

Safe to say I was stuffed. Dinner was delicious, absolutely gorgeous, divine. I really must talk to the house elves in the kitchen to see if they will give me a few recipes for home use. I had always been friendly with the house elves, I don't think they deserved some of the abuse they got, not one bit... especially those who worked at the Manor. I was quite glad Dobby got free earlier on in the year, back in June. Much to Lucius's dismay, I quite liked the elf and I tended to hang around them when I was at the Manor as they treated me well so they only deserved the same respect. I sometimes would help them prepare food or I would tidy and clean my room for them, so that it is less work even though I don't suppose one room out of twenty five made much difference. I often would enjoy taking care of the garden too and when I could I would sneak some extra food in to them after meals. Of course I would be found out, but it was always worth it. I had received several beatings for it, but I never cared too much. I mean you tend to get used to it after a while, there's only so much someone can do, since I was a 'problem child' I got used to those encounters quite quickly -especially over the summer.

After the feast, Draco, Blaise, Pansy, Theo and I all walked back to the Slytherin common room. They showed me the way and Pansy promised to take me on a tour of the school and grounds tomorrow when we had a free period. I didn't even know my timetable but I had been told that all the essentials would be in my room already, which I found quite unnerving that magically all of my belongings were in a room I hadn't even entered yet? Anyway, we continued down the corridors to the dungeons (without Crabbe and Goyle as they were still in the Great Hall trying to cram the last crumbs of dessert into their stomachs). It was noticeably darker down here than the rest of the school, I wondered if we were below ground level, I mean it would explain the lack of windows in the halls.

We arrived at a small, narrow spiral staircase that went down even further and led to a large hallway. We made a left turn and then another left and then a right until we were staring at a blank stone wall.

"Why are we looking at a wall?" I questioned

Draco rolled his eyes, Pansy giggled and then Blaise spoke in his deep, smooth voice,

"Sanguinis Pura"

"Pardon?"

"It's the password for the common room for this term, learn it. Make sure you don't forget it," he replied as I noticed the stones on the wall shift and a handle pop out of nowhere. It was a serpent, the intricate details delicately crafted into the stone. My gawking was cut off by a pale hand with long slender fingers gripping into the handle and giving it a tug, causing the door to swing open. Pansy nodded her head at me, insinuating that I should go through... she held the door open for me, giving me a smile as I passed her.

I would never have expected the room I stared at to have been behind such a small door... It was huge. Surrounding me were four stone pillars -one at each corner of the grand staircase I started to walk down. The walls were covered in a black wallpaper with slight textured patterns in what looked to be crushed velvet; hung upon them were large paintings of great wizards who I assumed had been in Slytherin house, and several ornaments were displayed in glass cases high up on shelves. There was an enormous pure silver chandelier with diamonds that dangled from it, as well as two smaller but identical ones on either side of it. The sound of a crackling fire drew my attention to it, it was large and gave of a soothing warmth but it was green. Hundreds of different shades of the colour illuminated the room and bounced off of glasses, diamonds, and magical artifacts creating tiny little prisms of light. I decided to sit beside the fire in a large green armchair that was big enough to fit at least three of me. The cushioned seat sunk beneath me and engulfed me into a world of comfort. And then there was the two large windows that must have been approximately 14 feet tall and 7 feet wide but they didn't let light from outside in, instead it was a view of underwater, I'm guessing the Black Lake... they were accompanied with equally large and expensive-looking emerald green drapes. God that room looked so homely, and I was so tired... I could have fallen asleep right there, if it weren't for the uncomfortable amount of glares I was receiving from other Slytherin students nearby.