Dark Wizard Collector: A Hogwarts Fanfiction

Chapter 49

The night had closed in faster than I excepted while Lucius was out with his friends. In the ornate manor house, the awkwardness between Lucius' father and me soon dissipated when he asked me, "How is it that you still look so young?"

"Pardon me, Sir?" I lightly laughed, touching my collar bones in slight shock.

"Come, come now, Maven; do you really expect me to believe your disguise? I just can't believe my eyes it is actually you. After graduation you disappeared and, well, I thought you died." Mr. Malfoy sat next to me on the small sofa and looked at me in awe.

"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand you. Who do you think I am?"

"You are Maven Riddle."

"How?" My breathless question brought his hands to hold mine.

"I would know your little mannerisms anywhere." The man smiled and a light shone behind his brown eyes.

Absolute terror gripped at me. How did this man know who I was? My mouth opened slightly to say anything, but words vanished and empty breath was all that remained.

Mr. Malfoy continued, "You never ever knew I existed, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't forget you."

"I am sorry." I struggled to find an appropriate reply. "How do you know her?"

"I was a Slytherin. You transferred into my year from Durmstrang."

My shoulders tensed. I was exceedingly uncomfortable. The handsome man knew me, but I did not know him and it was the most embarrassing thing I had ever experienced.

"Are you sure you think I am this Maven Riddle you went to school with?" All I could do was test his knowledge in an attempt to give myself more time to search my memory.

"Every day I kept you from knocking into the Slytherin House entrance, because you would forget the password. Too buried within your books to even notice me, you were. I saved you several times from walking into walls."

"That was you?" I laughed in remembrance of the first time I thanked him for opening the dungeon door for me. Suddenly, a blur of a moment refreshed me of the man in his youth. "Of course, you picked up my Potions book and commented on how we were lab partners for that year." My slender hands clenched his large hands back and I giggled like a little school girl. Something inside of me had awoken upon recalling the silly and clumsy moments outside of my world of books. "I do remember you! But you were rather rotten to my friend Myrtle."

"She was a Mudblood; you shouldn't have been mixing with the likes of her."

I shrugged, knowing that the pureblood was slightly prejudiced towards certain types of magical people and creatures. Little did he know I was also a Mudblood. "But she did show me some great quiet places where I could study in peace."

His brown eyes rolled, "How very like you, Maven."

The next few hours, Mr. Malfoy recounted all the times he tried to get my attention and it made me nostalgic, but also very sorry for never paying attention to him. Academics came first for me when I attended Hogwarts. Now, I knew that he and a few of his friends were very much infatuated with me, yet I was stuck in a book. Night began to fall when Dobby appeared with tea and biscuits and lit the hearth. I smiled gratefully at the poor creature before he left the master of the house and me to continue our reminiscing. The gentleman knew me better than I knew myself. He had sat next to me at every meal and I never even knew it was him casting spells that kept my sleeves from trailing into my plate or my books spotless from tipped goblets.

"And your brother, Tom, he was a fantastic wizard, but very odd like you, in a good way of course. Though, he was overly defensive of you. A good friend of mine was jinxed when Tom found out he was planning to ask you to go with him to Hogsmeade one weekend."

Hearing this made me smile fondly at the idea of Tom defending my honor and trying to keep boys away from me. "Yes, Tom, dear heart."

"Do you agree with all that he's doing recently?"

The question grated at me; I had to change the subject. "You said you knew about my affections toward Professor Grindelwald; what did you know?" I was curious to know what my class mate knew.

"Only that you were obsessed with him and everyone knew it." The master of the manor took a sip from his tea cup and tried to conceal slight sadness. I raised an eyebrow and drank from my china cup as well. "Maven, do not think that I judge you harshly. We have all done things in our lives that further reflection makes us regret."

"I do not regret what I did!" I snapped, and then immediately apologized. "Pardon me that was rude. I beg your forgiveness."

"Do you?" The stern man's query was a sly invitation to me. Uncertainty of meaning was irrefutable; I was challenged to answer.

I swallowed back hesitation and breathed slowly. "Yes." My hand carefully placed the china cup and saucer upon a small table nearby. My eyes never left from the brown eyes that enraptured my entirety. "I am begging you." I whispered and the man's eyes blinked slowly.