Harry Potter and the Aurors Club

Who is Rory Malfoy?

I, special correspondent for the Alternative Post, have visited a number of people who claimed to have known her. Here are their testimonies.

Draco Malfoy, student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rory's cousin.

Yeah, she's my cousin, but I obviously have all the looks in the family. No, we didn't see each other very often before fifth year, only at Christmas and her father's parties. I, of course, attend many formal parties, my father being as respected as he is- What? Are you planning on me talking about Rory the whole time? How much are you paying me for this? Nothing! Well thanks for wasting my time, tossers.

Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts.

Let's make this short, I don't fancy talking to reporters anymore.. Rory Malfoy.. O' course I remember, Harry's lassie. Right polite she was. Always said please an thank yeh. I knew she was a Malfoy. Yeh could tell by her face an hair an all that. Rock cake? I baked em meself. No? All righ' then.

I had a bad feelin' about her right from the start. One of those whatdya call em's.. forbiddances. It's a pity what happened, but that's the way life goes, is my opinion.

Colin Creevey, student at Hogwarts, Ôfriend' of Harry Potter.

Oh. Her. She just showed up one day out of the blue. Suddenly I go to say Ôhullo Harry' and she's there- with her white hair and mean smile. Just like him. What? Well, yes. Yes, I'm very close to Harry. Well- until she came. Then he starts ignoring me and hiding every time I say Ôhullo' in the halls. No.. sometimes I say Ôall right, Harry,' Wait- where are you going? Can't I get a picture?

Madam Pomfrey, registered nurse at Hogwarts.

Malfoy? I've had that little f**ker in my hospital a few times. *lights a cigarette* Complained the whole time. At one point I had his dose of pain killers in one hand and extra strong sleeping pills in the other. I swore to myself if he demanded one more pillow fluffing I'd- eh? Oh, the girl. Right.

Sirius Black, criminal at large.

How did you find this cave?! You'd better get the bloody hell out before I- Oh. Okay then, just a few minutes. Rory.. Malfoy? I know her. Julius's kid. Fifteen, I think. She was an agreeable looking kid, that's for sure. A little on the short side, but- wait, I'm starting to sound like a pedophile.. why are you standing all the way over there, anyway? Oh, right. The convicted murderer bit. Damn.

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster at Hogwarts.

She's coming to Hogwarts.

    Our story begins and ends in an English mansion belonging to the less popular side of the Malfoy family. Here, in the third window from the right on the second storey, the daughter and only child of the master of the house slid in and out of conscious sleep.

    The room in which she lay was made smaller by the dark wallpaper and velvet hangings surrounding a large dark blue canopied bed that took up most of the room. Sunlight had been slowly pouring through the window, the half- drawn curtains failing to stopper it's warm rays.

    Rory Malfoy frowned into her pillow as thick, heavy light pressed against her face. She opened her eyes, and as the room came into clearer focus so did the loud, angry voices from the bedroom down the hall.

    Rory sat up uncertainly, not knowing whether to investigate or go back to bed.

    There was a pause in the argument, and purposeful footfalls coming down the hall.

    Rory didn't move as her bedroom door swung open and Julius Malfoy stood in the frame. He was surprised to see her up this early.

    "Good morning?" he said with the smallest of shrugs.

    "I suppose," Rory sighed.

    Her father wasn't an extraordinarily tall man, but the way he stood, straight and with his chin raised and turned the smallest of angles, suggested superiority.

    "Aurora," he said, straightening his expensive-looking black business robes. "I need to ask a tiny favor-"

    Then there came an angry cry from down the hall,

    "DON'T YOU DARE BRING MY CHILD INTO THIS, JULIUS YOU COWARD!"

    Julius Malfoy ran a hand through his short brown hair, causing it to stick up in irregular places and giving him an uncanny resemblance to Lucifer. He turned his glacial eyes down the hall and replied ferociously,

    "Half of her belongs to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't TRUE!"

    There was an infuriated scream from Rory's parents' room. Julius stepped into his daughter's bedroom and shut the door.

    Rory failed to understand how her father had wangled his way out of the silvery-blond hair and paper-pale skin so expected in all Malfoys. In fact, the only really pure- Malfoy trait in him were his eyes. Light gray, three shades from colorless, just like her own.

    He glanced around her small room, overly luxurious and too dark. His wife, Nefertirie Malfoy, had done the decor for most of the bedrooms. A task he would never let her undertake again. The results had been far too decadent for his liking.

    "Good thing you're only here for two months, eh?" Julius grinned, making him look even younger for his age than he already did.

    Rory thought her summer was ten times better than etiquette school, but decided to address the current situation.

    "Are you and mum having a fight?" she asked.

    Julius looked up from his examination of her few possessions cluttering up a small, velvet laden vanity desk.

    "Fight? Noo.. Argument, maybe. You're mother being her usual impossible self, yes." He picked up a Teen Witch magazine and rifled through it absently.

    "Then why don't you just go back to your own room," Rory suggested. "I've got to get ready to go shopping."

    Julius' eyes grew softer as he gave Rory a false hurt look.

    "Are you kicking me out? Too bad. I can't go in there because the Beast has my briefcase and-"

    Rory looked down quickly, staring at the diamond pattern on her bedspread. She hated it when her father used what he liked to call Ôreverse pet- names' when speaking about his wife.

    "Here's the deal," Julius said without sympathy, putting down her compact mirror. "You help me get my briefcase back from the Beast and I'll stop calling your mother a Beast."

    "Why can't you just talk to her yourself?" Rory demanded. "You married her. There must have been at least one hour of your lives when you could share two words without killing each other."

     "Actually, I didn't have to say anything. I just walked by in a suit, raised my sleeve a bit to show my watch, and she came right over." Julius smiled, revealing white, even teeth. "Just like a Niffler."

    Rory frowned at him. She looked so rueful in her bright pink housecoat. Her pale eyes flashed sparks at the floor. Julius thought for a moment then said,

    "I'll buy you that broomstick you wanted."

    Rory looked at him apprehensively.

    "The new one?"

    "Sure."

    "Promise?"

    "Would I lie to you?" Julius grinned. "Let me rephrase that... Never mind. Forget I said anything."

    He walked out the door, propelling Rory down the hall in front of him. No sound came from her mother's room, so Rory pushed the door open.

    As expected, a small gold mirror flew past Rory, missing Julius' head by inches.

    "It's just me, mum." Rory said quickly. She stayed in the door, hiding Julius from view.

    It was much larger than her own, with dark wood closets lining the walls, interrupted by huge french windows. A king size bed rested between a bathroom and an enormous aqua blue fish tank.

    Nefertirie, Rory's mother, sat in the middle of the big bed. She lowered a figurine she had been about to throw when she saw Rory.

    "Oh. Hello, dear."

    Nefertirie Malfoy was a pretty woman with doe-like blue eyes and pale blonde hair. She had a very fragile appearance and constantly threw fits and pity parties. Rory wondered what the cause for this little show was as stood in the door frame.

    "Did you sleep well, mum?" Rory asked nervously.

    "How could I," Nefertirie sniffed. "With that slimy git lying next to me?"

    Rory gave her father a sharp kick before he could reply. She didn't think it would help the situation much.

    "Don't you mean father?" said Rory.

    "I prefer to call him pathetic bastard," Nefertirie replied coolly. "And I know you're standing there, Julius."

    Before she could stop him, Julius Malfoy strode past Rory and into the bedroom.

    Nefertirie's hand grabbed up her wand and with one word a series of pricey, breakable objects went shooting towards Julius. Without blinking Rory's father reached for his own wand and deflected the costly statuettes with an immobilizing charm. He grinned to Nefertirie's pale face. She was stunned for a second but then regained her anger and threw a little tantrum; kicking all the sheets off the bed and hitting the mattress with her fists.

    "Give me my briefcase, dearest wife," Julius said coldly.

    Nefertirie stopped and glared at her husband.

    "Give me back the key to our vault!" she yelled.

    "No," Julius raised his voice, finally divulging his emotions. "Not until you learn to control that little spending addiction you have-"

    "I do not have a spending addiction," Nefertirie seemed scandalized at the thought. "You're just stingy!"

    Rory, a little amused by the chaos, backed into a chair in the corner of the room to watch. Nefertirie's long hair was all over her face and Julius' sharper than normal canine teeth showed as he spoke.

    "Don't try that," he sneered. "I know for a fact that you spent one-hundred and eighty-nine Galleons Saturday- at one store."

    "I was buying supplies for the party you're hosting," Rory's mother retorted.

    "Oh is that so?" Julius' eyes glittered.

    "The authentic, eleventh-century throne. I suppose that's for my dinner party?"

    Mrs. Malfoy hesitated, compulsively patting and straightening her sheets before saying,

    "Yes."

    "-bastard." she added as an afterthought.

    But Mr. Malfoy caught the weakness in her voice and pounced.

    "And that roll of Persian fabric, we'll just put that beside the punch bowl then?"

    Nefertirie didn't answer and Rory knew her father was in his element.

    And this," he said, striding over to an enormous tropical fish tank that Nefertirie had installed a day ago.

    Julius Malfoy ran his fingers along the top, a cheerful smile on his face but his voice as icy as ever.

    "This pointless tank of water filled with retarded little koi! I can really see how this will come in handy."

    "I hate you," said Mrs. Malfoy.

    "Look at this one," said Julius, pointing to a red-and-white striped fish. "He can serve the hors d' oeuvres!"

    "I hate you."

    "-Or this yellow one, we can get him to greet the guests!"

    "Shut UP!" Nefertirie screamed.

    "Now look at this guy," Julius said, kneeling down to look at a long, ugly fish that was sucking the side of the tank.

    "Why the hell would anyone buy this fish? I can't trust you with a Sickle, can I?"

    I HATE YOU!" Nefertirie screamed. She started throwing anything within reach.

    "My briefcase?" Julius said calmly.

    "You need your briefcase for your meeting, don't you?" Mrs. Malfoy said, getting up from the bed.

    She was wearing the rather skimpy nightgown she had bought for herself on Rory's birthday. Rory felt a chill run down her spine when she saw the unhinged look in her mother's eyes. Mr. Malfoy must have felt the same sense of foreboding, because he stood up quickly and the mocking smirk was replaced with a nervous grin.

    Nefertirie reached behind her pillow and pulled out Julius's black, leather-bound briefcase.

    "Is this the one?" she asked in a sweet voice. Mr. Malfoy nodded, biting his bottom lip, causing him to look like a little child. Rory watched as her mother advanced slowly. Julius backed up, nearly pressed against the enormous tank.

    "Here you are, then," said her mother, pressing the briefcase into her father's chest with an innocent smile. "Now may I please have my key back?"

    Mr. Malfoy's muscles relaxed and he leaned over so his face was right beside his wife's.

    "Never," he hissed.

    Nefertirie jumped back, her face twisted with fury and not looking nearly as beautiful. In one swift motion she slammed both hands into her husband's chest and he went crashing into the aquarium. Rory's hands flew to her face as the glass shattered and gallons of water rushed across the room.

    Julius spluttered as he slowly got up from the floor, completely soaked and wincing slightly. The shards of glass crunched under his shoes and with as much dignity as he could gather, Mr. Malfoy strode out of the bedroom.

    Nefertirie, obviously satisfied, swaggered into her en suite bathroom.

    Rory wondered if she should mention something about the suffocating guppies or the glass that littered the floor, but decided against it when she heard her mother humming a cheerful tune from the washroom.

    The fifteen-year old carefully made her way to the door, but paused at the sound of her mother's voice floating through the wall.

    "Rory, dear, you didn't forget your photo shoot at noon today in Diagon Alley, did you?"

    "No, mum," said Rory, not knowing any other way to reply.

    "I'd take you myself, seeing as how you need to buy your school things,"

    "I'll be fine on my own, mum," Rory called, eager to leave the scene.

    "It's just, you're prick of a father took my vault key away so I can't-"

    The rest of Nefertirie's speech was thankfully cut off as Rory left the room and closed the door behind her.

    Not until she was back in her own room with the door locked did Rory breathe normally.

    She didn't mind their fighting that much anymore. In fact, she had become immune to it, and a twisted part of her even enjoyed some of the insults they tossed back and forth.

    Rory shook her head, as if clearing it of the morning's events, and prepared for the day.

    As Nefertirie had said, Rory did have a photo shoot at noon. It wasn't anything big, just a couple of pictures for a witch's fashion magazine.

    After her shower, Rory combed out her hair in the mirror.

    She wasn't extraordinarily attractive; her colorless hair and impossibly pale skin falling into the disadvantage column. But Mr. Philips, photographer and editor of the magazine, did hire her if he was in a pinch to make a deadline.

    Rory put down her hair brush and spied the folded parchment that was her Hogwarts supply list sitting on her desk. An excited jolt hit her stomach full force.

    Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    Even the name was better than that of her ex- school!

    When Rory had been ten, Nefertirie Malfoy had insisted her daughter attend the same school she had. Julius didn't care where Rory went, so long as she would stop pestering him to take her to his work place every morning, and Rory had been too young to represent herself, therefore she found herself attending Stovington's Institute for Privileged Young Witches for the next four miserable years.

    But this year was going to be different. There would be real classes that had nothing to do with sewing, cooking or raising children. Girls had the choice of wearing pants instead of dresses, and Rory was certain that each Wednesday wasn't a designated Choir Day.

    One aspect she did feel nervous about would be spread around everywhere at Hogwarts: Boys.

    Rory's stomach fluttered. She'd never really gotten used to this side of the species, being separated by a large stone wall and four miles of field at Stovington's. Boys made Rory nervous, and she tended to be rather klutzy around the cuter ones.

    There would definitely be boys in Diagon Alley that day, she thought. Perhaps she would meet someone who went to Hogwarts. Perhaps when she gets to school this person could show her around... Perhaps-

    Rory's eyes wandered to the clock standing on her small desk and she was snapped out of her reveries with the realization that she had a very limited time to get ready.

    Oh well, she thought, there will be lots of time to think about guys at Hogwarts!