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After cramming Draco's ever so important Comet Two-Sixty into his cart and taking a surprise stop at the Magical Menagerie, we left Diagon Alley with three more beings than we had started with.
The first creature was Draco's, an eagle owl with sharp talons and a cutting cry. He dubbed him the name Ulysses after shooting down my suggestion of Screech.
Cradled in my arms, I held the second animal. He was a great gift from Auntie Cissa, making me giggle every time he'd frisk around, weaving mischievously on my shoulders. Kramer was a ferret with a coat of shock blonde.
He wore a bemused expression, his dark eyes widened out to their fullest extent. Up until that moment, I never thought an animal could show facial expressions. Named after the eccentric character on Seinfeld, he quickly became my favorite thing at Malfoy Manor.
The third critter to join us was Theo. He begged incessantly for his mother to allow him to sleep over at the Manor. She caved in, parting ways with us when we apparated.
Over the last drips of summer, I began to see more and more of Theo. He was at the Manor most days and if he wasn't then he would invite Draco and me to his home or on outings. The boys dragged me along their adventures. Theo made sure I was present, engaged in whatever trifle the two had planned.
I soon found out that Theo's mother wasn't his biological mom. His real mother had passed when Theo was very young. His father, much older than most fathers, remarried to Theo's stepmother a year or two after his first wife's passing.
Theodore Nott was an odd boy. He did strange things to me often. The most distinct thing he did is when he'd sleepover. Right before bed, the boy would come to the edge of my room, leaning on the rich mahogany door frame. He'd stare at me for a time, hands shoved in his pajama pockets, wildly luminous eyes never daring to blink.
"What do you want?" I'd ask in a mumble, covered by my thick comforter and mountains of blankets. Kramer would be wriggling around, kept up by bouts of insomnia.
"Nothing. Good night, Jinx." Then he'd slip away, slinking back into Draco's room. He'd do a lot of strange things like that, but I just figured that was Theo. He was a bit strange, but so was I and so was everybody.
In my spare time, I strolled the grounds and surrounding areas, wanting to know every nook and cranny of the ornate palace that I lived in. I talked to portraits, read wizarding literature from the Malfoy's massive library, and wrote letters to Apollo to fill him in on my new privileged life.
Of course, I had to smudge out the magic bits, partly because I didn't want him to think I was crazy and partly because it was illegal. Aunt Cissa made sure to firmly tell me about the International Statute of Secrecy and all of its codes.
