Lucius Hidden Son

Chapter 30: Gabrielle's purchases.

Before falling asleep, Harry vaguely wondered how Gabrielle advanced in her own lessons …

***

While she dreamed about a huge library filled with books that she had not read yet, Gabrielle was suddenly woken by a strange noise resulting from the room in front of her own. Without thinking, she got up abruptly, rejecting the braid on Crookshanks who had been woken too by the abominable rustles. It is then that Gabrielle discovered the clothes she wore and the room where she was. Intrigued, she looked around her.

She was in a blue sky room with amethyst tones. For a moment, she did not know where she was. Seeing the nightdress of silk she wore, she reminded herself suddenly that it was her mother who had lent it to her the previous evening. Since when her mother did give her her clothes? Suddenly, everything went back in her memory by looking at the bracelet. She was in the Malfoy Manor where lived her father, her mother, her two little brothers and her godfather. She was suddenly surrounded by a small family she had always ignored the existence.

Brought out of her thoughts by a new noise which she identified as a sneeze resulting from one of the rooms in front of hers in which slept Harry and Draco, her two small brothers, she put her slippers and went out in the corridor. In front of her, she saw Draco, also out of his room and who seemed too have been woken by the sneezes. It could thus only result from the room of Ryry. She went to the door of her small brother when her father arrived, in housecoat and he seems as woken as them both.

He stopped his daughter in his run-up and created one of his warm dressing gowns in front of her before to make her thread it so that she will not fall ill too. Then, he entered the Ryry’s room, sending the two others to have breakfast. Draco took off in his room to take a shower and to get dressed but Gabrielle did not move. She remained stuck before the room of her small brother. She was plunged into her thoughts. By seeing her father arriving in housecoat, the hair ruffled and the absolutely not woken, she had believed to die from laughing. Never would she have been able to imagine Lucius Malfoy so! For her, he was put on and dressed always impeccably, icy and unpleasant. She just had had the proof of the opposite. It was in no way what it seemed to be! She still had difficulty realizing that this man was his father. Nevertheless his gesture had touched her a lot. The simple fact of making her thread his housecoat had made Gabrielle thoughtful, she had seen the affectionate and kind man he really was.

The girl understood at this moment why Harry had said to her that he liked very much the company of his father. Behind appearances, he was a very warm man and very tighten. Obviously, she was not going to go to sing it on roofs! We would take her very certainly for a lunatic! Lucius Malfoy, a kind and warm man? We would send her to Saint-Mungo in urgency in the service of psychiatry for the dangerous madmen!! Gabrielle was surprised when she feels the arms of somebody bigger than her and when the same person planted a kiss on her forehead as Gabrielle turned around quickly to see who so held her in the arms. It is then that she discovered her mother who smiled at her. She too was in housecoat. We can see the bottom of her nightdress which overtook of the housecoat.

Like the one of her daughter, her was in silk. It was green with flowers embroidered with blue and with silver.

- " Lost in your thoughts, my kitten? You slept well? «Asked her mother of her quiet voice.

- " Very well, thank you! I woke up when Harry sneezed … We have a ill panther, it is not commonplace! " Answered her Gabrielle, in a cheerful voice.

The drawing of her bracelet representing her in the form of dolphin represented her to the perfection. She was intelligent, serious, but also a player and a cheerful person, a real dolphin as a matter of fact! She completed marvellously the Dragon which always stayed up everybody and the quiet and composed panther but which liked playing and be played up!

- " Then why are you lost in your thoughts, my angel? " Questioned her Narcissia.

- " I thought of all which had taken place yesterday. My arrival here et cetera. And then … " Explained Gabrielle.

- " And then? " Her mother asked.

- " I thought about Father … The one that I thought I knew and the one that I just saw right now … " Answered honestly the girl.

She still wanted to laugh by thinking again about Lucius going out of the bed to visit Harry.

- " Ha yes! The big difference between the Lucius in public and the Lucius in private! Difficult to believe that it is the same person, isn’t it ?! Harry also was sad at the beginning! Kept silent will become used to it, you go to see! " Comforted her her mother.

- " You believe ? "

- " I am sure of this! Lucius will make everything so that you feel at ease as well with him as Ryry! You should go to take a shower and to get dressed, you are going to catch a cold if you stay in nightdress! I am going to ask to the elves to prepare the breakfast and then we shall go to look you for some affairs! You are not going to wear muggle clothes here, no? I am going to give you one of my dresses until then! " Says her mother friendly before entering her room and returning with a blue sky dress for her and coming down in the lounge to speak to the elves.

Ten minutes later, while Gabrielle went out of her room after having a shower and getting dressed, Draco went out only of his. He had passed about forty minutes in the bathroom! Gabrielle was blown! Say that we always said that it was the girls who were dawdled in the bathroom! But not wanting to begin a war, she refrained from making him the remark! While Draco, Gabrielle, Severus and Narcissia calmly had breakfast in the dining room deprived of the Manor house, Lucius appeared too. Contrary to the last time Gabrielle saw him, he was correctly dressed. It already corresponded more at the image she had of him. Before going to sit down on his place, the Lord of the Manor made the tour of the table to say hello to everybody as Severus had already made when arriving, just after both children. He kissed Narcissia, shook hands with his best friend and put a kiss on the cheek of Draco and Gabrielle before to join finally his place chair. It seemed strange for the girl.

Others seem to be perfectly used to this small rite. After all, it pleased the girl a lot! When everybody had finished, place settings and cups disappeared from the table. While Gabrielle got up to leave the table, her mother addressed Draco and her:

- " Go to look yourselves for a cape, we leave for Diagon Alley. " She announced them.

- " Why ? " Asked Gabrielle.

- " We are going to look for your clothes, my small kitten, and for your birthday present! It was yesterday but with all this, we even had no time to celebrate! It is a scandal! But we are going to repair it!” Explained Narcissia.

- " But I want nothing! " Gabrielle tried to contradict her but unsuccessfully.

- " I am sure that we shall find something which will please you! You will see! "

- " Your mother is right, go shopping, it will do good to you! " Says Lucius who had looked at the exchange silently until there.

- " You see? Your father agrees with me! Both go look for warm capes and come to join me in the lounge!” Finished Narcissia.

- " Sorry, Mother, but I have homework to do and … " Tried Draco who absolutely didn’t intend to go shopping with his sister and his mother, the last time was largely enough for him!

" You go with them, Draco. You are not going to leave two ladies alone, right ? You will do your homework later, you have even the time for it. And then, I have things to do with Ryry. It is better than we have peace for this. " Says Lucius to enclose the discussion.

Not being able to argue against his father, Draco abandoned the battle. He went to the staircase which led to rooms with condemned person's look. Merlin and Salazar, the day looked very long! He came down again some minutes later, with his cape and waited for Gabrielle and his mother, in the lounge of the Manor. Gabrielle, who had seen the resigned look of her small brother while he fetched a cape, had decided to abbreviate as much as possible this trip. She liked shopping, but not so it had to bring the bad mood of somebody else. Rummaging in her cupboard, Gabrielle took out a filled cape and placed it on her shoulders.

Surprised, she looked in the mirror. She had not yet taken time to observe the changes arisen since the day before. Her body had changed but she had still not largely paid it attention. Deciding that she had a little of time, she decided to go to look really in the mirror. The reflection which she saw there at the moment had nothing more to see with the one that she had seen there during sixteen years. It seemed so strange to her, she had the impression to see somebody else. And nevertheless, it seemed so just. There were no other words. Everything seemed to be as it would have been since the beginning.

Her former appearance did not exist any more. The small brown girl had totally disappeared. On her place was an attractive fair girl. She was a little taller than before. She was finer than before, her appearance was more graceful and her features were finer. By getting dressed that very morning, she had also noticed that she would have to buy to herself new underwear because she had apparently more breast than before her arrival to the Manor. While she had no had a lot before, it was not apparently any more the case now! She had what was needed where it was necessary, as we said! She was far from the frail girl who did not have much to please! It was necessary to admit that she will need a little time to become used to it. Set apart these details there, the things which contrasted most with her former appearance were the colour of the skin, that of the eyes as well as that of her hair.

The skin was paler at the moment than that of her former appearance. She was milkier at the moment. Her colour got closer to that of the ivory. She was going to have to pay attention on the sunburns in summer! The eyes were the perfect mixture between the thunderstorm grey eyes of her father and the blue freezing eyes of her mother! They were of a beautiful amethyst colour. As for her hair, they had the colour of blond honey from her mother and the silvery locks resulted from those of her father. Her two small brothers had the same colour. The silvery blond hair was the trademark of Malfoys, so to speak.

Her features were from her mother. They were fine and graceful. They drew the attention as those of her mother. If Gabrielle looked more physically like her mother, mental sound was closer to that of Lucius: orderly, punctual, and eager for knowledge. Nevertheless, quite as her father, she liked very much the humour and the heat of the family cocoon. Realizing with horror that Narcissia and Draco had to wait for her for twenty good minutes in the lounge, Gabrielle extracted herself from the pondering over her reflection in the mirror to rush in staircases before entering whirlwind in the lounge, making jump everybody who began to wonder if she had not got lost in the Manor or if she had fallen in her cupboard by looking for a cape.

Apologizing for her delay, she followed the two others in the fireplace before flooing to Diagon Alley. Hardly arrived, Narcissia pulled them in Mrs Malkin’s shop to buy her the other uniforms for the school, the better quality. Gabrielle did not see the necessity but did not protest not to her mother. She bought for her the warmest who would prevent her from freezing in the corridors of the school during the free periods and the weekends, as well as the other slings and the hats(caps), the whole in the colours of Slytherin naturally. When Narcissia had finished with the supplies for the school, she pulled both children in another shop where she made Gabrielle try near hundred of evening dresses, all quite more attractive than the others. Managing to decide to choose two or three dresses, Narcissia who found that all those whom she had selected went abduct from her girl, embarked about ten dresses that she had tracked down in the shop in the big embarrassment of her daughter who did not see why she would need so many evening dresses.

From his part, Draco looked too at what her sister tried and gave his opinion when something did not please him or, on the contrary when one of her clothes pleased him particularly. He had noticed the horrified expression of Gaby when Narcissia had taken all these dresses. His sister risked to have surprises! She had again seen nothing! When Narcissia decided to make shops, she did not make it half! Inevitably after dresses, it was the shoes which arrived. Gabrielle's advantage was to have small feet; she could thus have one more wide selection than somebody having feet bigger than her. The poor girl was in a full nightmare! For every dress, she had to have another pair of shoe of the same colour. And Narcissia always took them with high heels! Gabrielle had said to her that she did not like very much it but Narcissia wanted to know nothing. Gabrielle remembered with horror the Yule ball of the fourth year. It was the unique time she had worn high heels and had sworn to never wear this again! She had difficulty in walking with and had always prayed not to fall or to walk on her evening dress! A real Calvary for her!

Then, we crossed in coats and in capes for evenings, the free periods … The massacre so continued. She had practically tried all the stock of the store when her mother was finally satisfied by her choices. Next to Draco, packages squeezed, more and more big and more and more numerous … But he hardly cared about it, he was in the habit! While they all took out of the shop, Draco flooded under the packages which he carried; Gabrielle believed that they were finally going to return home. Her hopes were fast disappointed when their Mother admitted them to a new shop. In this one, they sold witches' dresses and some muggle clothes. Narcissia made a first sorting, then made try all that she had chosen to her daughter who began to have bulbs in feet due to walking and especially enough undressing and dressing up every time to try other clothes.

Finally, they went to the exit of the shop. Believing that they were finally going to return indeed to the warmth in the Manor, Gabrielle spoke about the problem of underwear to her mother.

- " Here is the difference between an ironing board and a true girl! " Her mother rather frankly answered, under the laughter of Draco who had perfectly understood the allusion.

Hurt that her mother implicitly treated her as ironing board by thinking of her former appearance, Gabrielle says anything and followed her towards Knockturn Alley, a little frightened at the idea of going there. Anyway, there was nothing to say … It was what she thought that very morning by admiring her reflection in the mirror but without admitting it really. She was very surprised to discover the other stores of clothes in this Path which had so bad reputation. Her mother had to guess her thoughts.

- " You believed that there were only stores abounding in Dark magic, I’m right? " She asked by laughing.

Gabrielle was only able to agree. Her mother was perfectly right. It was exactly that she had thought without never have put a feet in this part of the trading avenue of the wizarding world.

- " It is true that certain stores are rather suspicious, but most are very honest! There are shops of clothes, bookshops, a very renowned jeweler and other small miracles here … " She explained.

Finally, Narcissia stopped in front of a shop of feminine clothes before admitting them inside. Believing that Draco would stay outside, Gabrielle believed to die from shame when seeing him enter the store and begin to nose about in shelves! She turned to her mother who looked at her with a big derisive smile at lips.

- " Draco always has had a gift to find very attractive things! He has a very good taste! He helps me to find certain clothes when I come here … He has already found me certain dresses as I shall not have seen if I had come alone and that I shall probably not have bought but which had the small effect … " She says, not lingering more over details for what her daughter was very grateful to her.

She had perfectly understood the allusion to her father … After all why not? Draco was a boy, no? He knew what pleased them. Even if Gabrielle was not ready for it! Gabrielle needed a chair when she saw her small brother return with her mother, loaded with underwear which she had to go to try in the cabin. By looking closer, she had to face the evidence that he had chosen very attractive fineries for her but it was because he was a boy that it bothered her …

Fortunately it was not her father who was here instead of Draco, Gabrielle would not have survived! Without thinking more about anything, the girl entered the changing room and began to try underwear. She began with those who pleased her most. Apparently, her small brother had not only a gift to find attractive things as said Narcissia but he also had the eye to choose the good size! Gabrielle did not know if she wanted to kiss him or to crush him! She decided to calm down when her mother entered the cabin to see if her daughter needed another size, what she doubted, or so certain underwear did not please her. Everything seemed perfect! Not only her daughter was really very attractive and well made but in more all the clothes that Draco and she had chosen for her were perfectly well on her!

Gabrielle thanked Merlin and Salazar, because he was the Saint of the Malfoy family apparently, because Draco does not enter the cabin too! Small brother or not, Gabrielle would not have been able to refrain from throwing him outside if he had dared only put one foot in HER cabin! She was a little bothered all the same that her mother sees her in underwear but it was nothing in comparison with what she would have felt if somebody else had put the nose in the cabin. With a bad evident faith, she had to admit that her small brother, not so small as that moreover, had really had flair by choosing her clothes.

Finally, having chosen in all that she had just tried, she dress herself because she began to be cold and went out of the cabin. The girl had taken only three sets. It seemed too little for the taste of her mother who straightened the number in ten, judging that it turned out necessary. She also took her in the passage about ten swimsuits of all the colours and all the forms: bikini, without braces … There was for all the tastes! Finally, for the Gabrielle's big reassurance, they finally leaft this cursed store!

The girl never hoped sincerely to have to undergo another situation so awkward! Instead of returning the children by the beginning of Knockturn Alley, Narcissia admitted them at the famous jeweler's about whom she had spoken earlier. In fact, it was the particular jeweler of the Malfoy family since generations. Without that Gabrielle knows it, her father had asked to the jeweller to make the same pendant to his daughter as that of the twins. A portkey returning to the Manor was more than necessities by this dark time …

Narcissia had thus to come to buy it. She put it on the neck of her daughter by making her the promise to never remove it especially whatever it arrives … The young lady made the pledge to never remove the jewel which she wore at the moment around her neck. It carried the same motive as her bracelet: the dragon, the panther and dolphin. What Gabrielle ignored, it was that amethyst green, blue and colour stones which represented the eyes of three animals were magic stones quite as on the respective pendant of each of his small brothers. These stones had the peculiarity to protect their carrier of certain spells, naturally not The Killing Curse, but the others weaker. There was also a stone, an emerald, which contained a spell of drawing. So, Lucius and Narcissia could always know where were their children and if they were safe.

Seeing a pair of earrings in the shop window, Narcissia approached it and saw that she would go perfectly to her daughter. Regrettably, her ears were not drilled, it would be necessary to do it before … Finally; it was only a bad moment to pass … She thus called Gabrielle and showed her jewels. Buckles pleased apparently her daughter but she dared to say nothing, considering that her mother had already spent enough money fon her today. She thus tried to refuse …

- " I had promised you to buy you a birthday present. Your father told me to buy you a jewel, thus it will be his present and I, I shall offer you another thing, I am sure that we are going to find a little something, right? " Argued her mother.

Seeing that she was clamped, Gabrielle was able to find nothing to answer. Draco did not miss the opportunity to add his grain of salt. He supported the statements of his mother by explaining that he too found these earrings very beautiful and that they would perfectly be well to his sister. He could really play the devil's advocate when he wanted! This time, the girl could not move back any more! She had never made drill her ears because she was afraid of having pain. Those whom she carried in the fourth year had been very practical because they were in clips, what was not regrettably the case of these.

Gabrielle knew that she was going to pass in the pan this time. The positive point was that when it would be made, she could wear all the kinds of earrings that she would want! It was well worth a small sting in every ear, no? And then, the more she looked at the pair of jewels, the more she wanted to wear them. Earrings were constituted in fact each of a ring with a rose in garnet above. It was finely chiselled and in the middle of the petals of the rose, there were three other stones which reminded her strangely those who were on her pendant and on her bracelet: an emerald, a sapphire and an amethyst. The mixture of four colours was very harmonious and stood out perfectly well. None of the colours erased the others. By seeing stones, Gabrielle had a strange thought: the emerald represented Ryry, the sapphire Draco, the amethyst represented her, but that thus represented the garnet? Or rather who? Gabrielle was very incapable to know it.

She smiles to this thought. Where from had thus come this idea? Stopping daydreaming, Gabrielle laid down arms and sat down in the armchair which indicated her the jeweller, waiting that the session of torture is finished … While the jeweller prepared the material to put her buckles, Draco explained her that normally she would feel nothing or not much. Gabrielle noticed that contrary to the Muggles where we had to keep medical earrings during a month before being able to put those whom we wanted, here we could put at once those whom we had just bought. Gabrielle thanked Merlin for being born witch to spare herself the torture to have to remove the medical to put the one she will. Five minutes and two holes later, Gabrielle was recovering from the implementation " without pain " so-called of the earrings, held on choking Draco who smiled at her of all his teeth. He seemed to say " I’ve told you ". She would have wanted to see him on her place to be tortured! He certainly would have lost his smile. He knew it, the traitor, it was only to reassure her! It was a scandal, she swore to take revenge!

She still had the ears which warmed. She was practically sure that they were red seen as she had the impression that they burned. Fortunately, it did not last well for a long time. She looked in a mirror which the jeweller stretched out to her. What she saw reassured her: earrings highlighted the colour of her eyes. They suit to her very well, as had said Draco to her. He would certainly not take this in the Paradise! Finally, they went out of the jeweller's shop and returned on Diagon Alley. Narcissia was absolutely anxious to offer her a present for her birthday. Gabrielle's first idea was an owl, after all her had no mailman and she could not borrow Hedwig at Harry infinitely!

Furthermore, it was dangerous to take it to the school that is why Lucius had offered Hades to Ryry. But, she also loved books and was tempted by some books at Flourish and Bott. Cruel choice! What must she choose? Finally, she says to herself that she could borrow an owl of the school as she had always done and decided to go to the bookshop. While she rummaged in all the shelves, Narcissia went out of the store stealthily to go to the magic pet shop. She had had the same idea as Gabrielle. Harry and Draco had each their own owl, she also needed one, those of the school could be followed! It was hardly careful to use them …

She had to leave Draco with Gabrielle and had him to give some money to pay the books which her daughter would choose. They had to wait for her both at the ice-cream maker of the trading avenue. When Gabrielle had stopped ransacking shelves with economy of all their treasures, she followed Draco outside the bookshop, surprised not seeing her mother. Draco ordered a cinnamon tea for his mother, a warm chocolate for him and Gabrielle took a cup of ice cream with vanilla, pistachio nut and coconut. She had always liked the ice cream in full winter! Twenty minutes later, while Gabrielle finished her ice cream under the cooled eye of Draco who drank his chocolate as if it was less twenty degrees outside, Narcissia arrived at their table. Draco had difficulty to understand his sister: the simple fact of seeing her eaten the ice by this cold looked to him even colder! He smiles by seeing his mother returning with a box under the arm and a cage in the hand. Narcissia tightened the cage to Gabrielle. Inside, there was a magnificent great brunette owl, in fact it colour was chocolate-brown.

It rained at once to Gabrielle who thanked her mother, very satisfied with this present. Sitting down next to both children, Narcissia put the box which she always had on Gabrielle's knees who looked at it, amazed.

- " Open it slowly! " She says to her quite slowly.

Opening delicately the lid, Gabrielle saw inside a magnificent blue kitten. It was a Persian, quite as Crookshank! It was blue night with blue eyes! She embraced the kitten and put a kiss on its truffle before embracing her mother. Beside her, Draco watched the kitten playing with the hair of his sister who realized nothing. It looked like a sacred comedian!

- " Thank you! But it is far too much! " Says Gabrielle when she had found the word.

- " I had left to buy you an owl but, when I saw this small kitten, I tore! I am sure that it will well get along with Crookshanks! The owl will be on behalf of Severus and the kitten of my part! " Explained Narcissia.

After other thanks and having finished ice cream, chocolate and tea, the three Malfoy decided to return to the Manor to see what Lucius and Harry made when they had left that very morning. It was the present good of more than noon( and the meal did not go delayed being served. The last one was nailed in the bed because he was sick and the first one had scarf everybody outside to be able to teach the good manners to his younger child without anybody to disturb him. It was for that that Lucius had sent Draco with his mother and his sister. Some minutes later, Narcissia, Draco and Gabrielle were returning to the Manor with all their packages.

To Be Continued…

Enjoyed this chapter ? A little review please ? For those who would not have understood (we never know), this chapter takes place at the same time as Ryry has his courses with Lucius. Next chapter next week ^^! I will try to update one or two chapters a week until you reach the same chapter as my French readers aka chapter 83 ^^!

Bye, Eriko