Chapter 74: A Small Charm, a Big Epiphany
At breakfast, Avery was still rattling on about the holiday.
He waved his fork around describing the Malfoy Manor ballroom's dimensions, the enchanted ceiling murals that shifted patterns, and the exquisitely named confections that house-elves carried in on silver trays.
Alex sat beside him, head lowered, listening, occasionally chiming in to ask for details. Hermes just ate, head down — knife and fork clicking quietly against porcelain.
Regulus chewed his toast slowly, mind uncharacteristically adrift.
The holiday days felt shrouded behind a thin veil — vivid yet remote.
The Malfoy banquet. The pure-blood gathering. Those loaded exchanges with Lucius on the terrace.
Touring the family holdings, place by place. That brief, sharp skirmish in the dim alleys of Knockturn Alley.
All compressed into a single break — dense and rich.
He'd done those things in an adult capacity, pondered adult questions, navigated adult relationships.