𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒽 | 𝒟.𝑀.

23 | ﴾ Love Rose ﴿

I returned to the Manor very late that night and in a scathing mood. The day had been dreadful between avoiding Theodore and my work load, and I wanted nothing more than to go straight to sleep as soon as I apparated into my bedroom.

The space was dark save for a battery-powered lamp that I had gone out of my way to place at my desk, having lost all patience for the lack of electricity in the building. The constant use of candles was not only messy but also dangerous, and the heat that came off of the archaic photometric system in tandem with the fireplace was not very ideal in the dead of the summer.

My sense of propriety got the better of me and I forced myself to bathe, brush my teeth and hair, and write out what was now my fifth attempt at sending a letter to my family. I had been trying desperately to reconnect with them in the wake of the war, but they were clearly extremely upset with me for the transgressions that had led to my father's demise. I was still living with the man who had taken his life, and this no doubt was not working in my favor.

I heard Draco knock on my door as he usually did, and I beckoned him inside with droopy eyes turned at my desk. He had merely opened the door a quarter of it's rotation when Effie impatiently shoved inside through his legs and dove onto my bed in anticipation that he was going in that direction. She was ridiculously attached to him. Narcissa had even begun complaining that during the day while he was gone she would catch the cat howling profusely in his absence, following her around and yelling in foreign cat dialect.

I looked back to my parchment as Draco closed the door behind himself. "Are you writing to them again?" he asked knowingly.

I nodded with exhaustion. He was well aware that my relationship with my family was on the out's and that it was incredibly disturbing for me. He approached my desk and the sound of heavy glass against the painted wood grains caused my eyes to lift.

Before me on the corner now sat a large silver planter pot containing an incredibly rare species of magical rose. The dark red petals were thickly arranged in centrifugal form and the thorns on the side were at least an inch in threatening length. My eyes darted up to his in shock.

He stood there towering over me in a quite expensive grey suit that was covered in dirt from working at Hogwarts. His pointy nose had a smear of dirt across the side.

"Were you gardening? You got dis for me?" I asked in an endeared voice. I had been feeling sad and tired but now my energy was rising with the unusually kind gesture.

He shrugged with a gentle smile that looked amazing on his beautiful face. It was a scarce expression that he allowed to occur, "The greenhouses. Finnigan and I were assigned them today. This looked valuable, so I took it for you." I glanced down at his hands which were covered in scratches from what was likely a zoo of extremely agitated, wild magical plants. One could only ponder the state of Seamus who was clumsy and ridiculous.

"Rosa amare," I supplied knowledgeably, leaning in closely to inspect the health of the plant. It was worth more than he likely realized. In the glory days of the Hogwarts greenhouses it had probably been a roped off exhibit piece or a carefully monitored specimen for the purpose of education.

Effie baulked several times obnoxiously from the edge of the bed as though she too deserved praise for delivering the gift. "Effie," Draco sent her a warning eye to be quiet. He turned back to me with his hand running over my hair, "Do you like it, princess?"

I grinned up at him, "I do. Do you know what et is?"

He shook his head and began removing his jacket, "Not a clue." I snickered under my breath. It was arguably for the best that he did not know what it was, or he would end up scrutinizing it constantly.