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— hiiiii —
"Draco! The guests will be here any second now! Please tell me you're ready," I hear my mother's voice from down the hall right as I slip my suit jacket on, the last part of my all-black outfit.
"I'm ready," I say lazily as she steps into the doorway of my ajar bedroom, glancing around before her eyes rest on me.
She sighs in relief. "Good, good. I need to go check on the food, make sure the elves haven't made food for two thousand instead of two hundred again. Oh, and I should make sure that the timer is correct, or else—"
"Mum," I smile slight, stepping away from my mirror and towards her. "Don't stress."
She flashes me, ironically enough, a stressed out smile before deflating slightly. "Ah, well, maybe I shouldn't. I did already check all these things an hour ago, but..." Her eyes drift off, tired, and dark, but then they snap back to me as she straightens up with a bright smile, holding her hands out to me. "You look just handsome, Draco. I can't believe how much you've grown," she sighs, clasping my hand in both of hers.
My smile grows slightly as I step forward, take a hand of hers off of mine and bring it up to place a small kiss over her rings, seeing her smile warm a bit. "You look beautiful, Mum. I swear, you get younger every time it's January first again."
"Oh, shut it," she huffs, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "Leave the flattery for the girls tonight. A kiss at midnight, right? Do you kids still do that?"
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, but it's not—whatever. Let's go downstairs, Mum. There's no point in you looking this beautiful if the guests won't be able to see."
The two of us leave my room and walk down the stairs right as my parents' bedroom door swings open to reveal Father dressed in his finest suit. He eyes us and catches up to us right at the top of the stairs as the three of us begin walking down. I can hear the music playing from the entertainment room. Typically, we host in the ballroom, but this New Years we've invited only about a hundred guests.
"Did you hear back from the Greengrasses?" Mother asks from behind me as we step down to the bottom floor and walk towards the entertainment room. "Did they ever say that they're coming?"
"They did," Father responds. "Though they said their youngest is ill, so they're staying home while sending their eldest with the Parkinsons."
Mother clicks her tongue. "We'll send something back with Daphne for Astoria, then. Do we still have those chocolates from—"
CRACK!
The three of us freeze, inches away from the doors to the entertainment room. And then we turn on our heels to find an old house-elf with sagging skin staring at us with beady eyes.
