He finished his breakfast and sat talking to Rabastan on his one side and Draco, who was sitting opposite him. They were waiting for Lucius, as their host, to finish his morning tea. Thankfully, he didn't have his usual morning paper today or they'd be waiting for another hour, at least, for him to finish reading it.
"Come along, boys." Narcissa stood gracefully and came to their area of the table.
Draco stood and offered his arm to his mother, Harry walked around the table and did the same, so that Narcissa had a son on either side of her.
Lucius stood and gestured for his guests to go before him as Draco and Harry escorted Narcissa up the stairs, down the corridor and into the family drawing room.
Their Christmas tree was real pine and decorated in real, solid silver ornaments that had been polished to a high sheen and had been in the Malfoy family for generations. There were several plain white candles in silver holders on every other branch. It looked beautiful to Harry as he went and touched one of the branches, leaving the scent of pine on his fingers. He'd never been allowed to touch the Dursleys ridiculously expensive plastic tree that was decorated in gaudy lights, tacky coloured glass baubles and ratty tinsel.
There were several wrapped gifts under the tree, all decorated in coloured paper with a ribbon wrapped around it, their tags poking out and Harry's excitement grew as Narcissa smoothed down her gown and sat on one of the settees facing the tree. Draco sat next to her, but Harry chose to walk over to the other settee, where he sat next to Rabastan, squeezing in tight as the Lestrange men were not small by any means.
"How are you this morning, Harry?" Xerxes asked him. "How are your ribs?" "I'm alright, thank you. My ribs were aching earlier this morning, but that pain reliever took the edge right off."
Rabastan's arm slipped around his back and his hand slipped up to rub at his bruised ribs and Harry smiled.
Once again, Rhadamanthus was sat on his own, excluded from the rest of them by his own choice. Harry really didn't understand why he'd even bothered to come, but he took an educated guess that it was because he wanted to ruin the day for Rabastan as much as he could. Well…Harry wasn't going to let him.
"Ladies first, I believe." Lucius said with a smile towards his wife.
Lucius used his wand to summon the first gift toward him and he handed it over to Narcissa with a kiss to the cheek. She made a show of checking the tag and reading it slowly before sending her husband a smile. Meticulously untying the ribbon and unfolding every corner of the paper from the large present, Narcissa uncovered a beautiful square box, which she opened with care.
"Oh, Lucius, thank you." She exclaimed happily as she stood up and pulled out the most beautiful dress that Harry had ever seen with a matching shawl that was draped around the shoulders of the folded dress, held together with a brooch made of gleaming silver and black iron, engraved with the Malfoy crest made out of emerald and onyx.
Narcissa pulled out three smaller boxes from the bigger box and opened them each in turn to reveal a matching set of a necklace, bracelet, and earrings. All of the jewellery would complement her new dress magnificently.
Harry grinned at how happy Narcissa was and he waited patiently as Lucius distributed more gifts out, watching as his gift to Draco was happily received and his own from Draco made him laugh.
Then, Rabastan summoned a small wrapped box and he handed it over with a smile, Harry delicately pulled the ribbon, even though he wanted to tear into it like an overexcited child.
Inside the box was a pendant necklace in an odd, spiky shield shape made of an unfamiliar, highly polished black gem. It was surrounded and etched with symbols in real gold and when he turned the pendant over, the back was made of gold too and it was inscribed with the Latin words mihi parta tueri. He run his fingers over it before turning it back around to face him and he swallowed as he made out that the symbols on the front were actually letters. They spelt out 'Lestrange' in an odd, mixed up order, but Harry knew what this was. It was the Lestrange family crest. He was being given the Lestrange family crest to wear as his own. "I had this made for you." Rabastan told him as he remained silent. "Black sapphire and gold. The inscription on the back is the Lestrange family motto. I will fight for what is mine. It's a promise to you, that I will not let you go now that I have you. There will be no more pushing you away or any mentions of other men. You are mine and I will fight for you."
Harry's mouth was so dry that he couldn't even swallow as he played the pendant, on a short, stout masculine chain of gold, around his fingers. It was lovely, beautiful even, and the symbolism of him receiving it as a gift was undeniable. He was not only being welcomed into the Lestrange family and being given permission to wear their crest, but Rabastan was also staking a claim on him, a warning to other purebloods who might have any designs on him that he was taken, that he was a member of the Lestrange family and he wore their crest. I will fight for what is mine. Harry stared at those words and he ran his thumb over them, he was going to hold Rabastan to those words for the rest of their lives.
"Do you not like it?" Rabastan asked him insecurely.
"Harry, you give thanks for gifts you have received." Lucius told him sharply.
Harry looked up from the pendant to Lucius with wide eyes before looking to Rabastan, who sat beside him looking nervous again. He tried to swallow to dampen his mouth, but he couldn't. Instead, he reached forward and hugged Rabastan tightly, ducking his head into his thick neck and holding him, trying to tell him without the words that he couldn't get past his tongue that he loved his gift.
Rabastan's shaky arms wrapped around his back and squeezed him tight before he pulled back and kissed his forehead.
"I love it." Harry managed to get out at last. "Thank you." Rabastan took it from him and fought with the clasp to get it open. Harry didn't offer to help and he waited patiently with a smile as Rabastan finally opened the chain and placed it around his neck before struggling to redo it. Harry waited happily as he rubbed his fingers over his new pendant.
"I know you can't wear it in public, it would be too suspicious." Rabastan told him after he'd gotten the necklace done up, his voice quiet and strained from embarrassment. "But I wanted you to have it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/