Baby Girl II – The Wedding
A/N: This is the second installment, after the first Baby Girl one-shot I wrote. This one is a little different. It takes place fourteen years after the first story and instead of expanding on Christiana being an outsider, I chose to go the route of the classic brother/sister conflict. It only gets better from here on in. Enjoy. Please leave a short review after reading. Thanks a Million. K :D
Belle Whitmore had chocolate brown eyes and hair the color of the midnight sky. She was a girl who took in her surroundings like a hawk takes in its prey, surveying everything with the utmost care, though seemingly not to notice anything. I watched her for some time, wondering what it was that made her so special. What was it that allowed her to come into our lives so unceremoniously?
Belle was the kind of person who was subtle and graceful. She walked as if she had been a ballerina in a previous life, because surely her parents would not have allowed her to take ballet lessons in this life. Her parents, George and Elayna Whitmore were about as subtle as she was, as observant as she was, and as strict as my own parents were, which was probably why they got along so famously.
She was five years younger than my brother, had a slender build and when she and my brother stood side-by-side, which was a rare occasion, they looked perfect for each other. Aside from the fact that she looked one way and he looked the other with his hand still around her waist, they could have been the perfect couple. It was all a show though, because I could tell Scorpius didn't give a hoot about the woman on his arm. He didn't have a care in the world for the woman who was to be his wife.
It had been a harsh and cold-minded business arrangement. Belle and her parents had moved to England two years ago from central Europe. And though she was not born in England, her English was flawless and there was no hint of another accent. It was as if she had grown up in England all her life.
My brother took no notice of this however. Once I attempted to ask him about Belle, curious about the girl who would become my sister-in-law. He just shook his head and replied vaguely, "She's a girl Chris. She has a body to die for, a nature of grace and beauty always lingering, and she has manipulated her way into this family." From that I could tell my brother disliked his fiancée. His cares were elsewhere and had been for some time now.
About ten years ago, with a gradual progression, my brother had begun to be a recluse. His domain was the North Tower of Malfoy Manor. He still ate and slept with the rest of the family in the main wing, but he began to spend more and more of his time in the tower. Father and mother were displeased of course, which is probably when they started to arrange his future for him. It was clear to them that he had no interest in marrying, and as their son that was simply unacceptable. He was a Malfoy and as far as they were concerned, Malfoy's obeyed.
I, being a small and insignificant female and much younger than the rest of the adults, stood back and watched as this event tore my family apart. It was about four years ago, when I was twelve, that I noticed my brother's reclusive actions take a turn for the worse. Belle still wasn't in the picture, but there was something dangerous about the North Tower now. I could sense a strange electrical current running away from the room every once in a while. There were flashes of light that emitted themselves from the windows, curtains still drawn, and even through the cracks in the stone that made up the North Tower.
I was afraid for my brother, but when I went to the Tower it was locked. It was silent, and everything I tried to force my way into the room at the top of the stairs was evaded by some charm. My brother was far more skilled than I was. It was only by chance that I knew the Alohomora spell. My Uncle Harry had taught me that. At twelve years old though, what could I do to help my brother should I find him in trouble? The chances were slim that I would be able to do something, and so I left the North Tower and never returned.
When my parents announced the engagement between Scorpius and Belle I felt sure that my brother was going to bust something. He looked in a rage and later on that night I could hear him screaming and yelling at my parents who took the offensive stance and screamed and yelled right back. When he returned to his room later that night I lay awake to the sound of smashing china and glass and the sharp squealing of his bed frame being bent out of shape.
I was resolved to face the fact that the brother I once knew, the brother who told me stories about my parents and hugged me every time he came back from work, and who adored me with every fiber of his being, was gone forever. He would be this reclusive relative who I never saw. I saw my extended family more often than I did my brother. I was so sad when I realized this fact that I cried myself to sleep that night.
The day of the wedding arrived and I saw on my bed wearing my bridesmaids dress. Belle had asked me to be a bridesmaid, most likely out of custom rather than friendship. She hadn't spoken three words to me since she'd asked me to be a bridesmaid and even fewer had been spoken before that momentous occasion. I sat there wearing my silver dress, a dress made out of material that reflected every color as you walked by it. My fine blonde hair was curled to perfection, a red bow in my hair the only color, a color of rebellion in my eyes, though chosen as a color of love.
I walked up the Belle that morning with her other bridesmaids surrounding her; she was primping herself for this big day. When she looked at me she smiled slightly, but her eyes flashed cold, a sign that today was the day she stole my brother from me permanently.
Just then my mother stopped by me, her hand curled in my father's arm. She bent down to whisper into my ear. "Where is your brother?"
He was supposed to be standing up at the front, by the altar, where he would meet Belle. If he wasn't there I couldn't begin to know where he was. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head not knowing. Then I suddenly did know. How could I have been so slow? My mother then said, "Find him please." I nodded and set down my flowers before exiting Malfoy Hall.
I ran across Malfoy Court towards the North Tower. My shoes crinkled on the fallen leaves as I rushed overtop of them. It was nearly November. I knew now that my brother was in the North Tower because I saw once again the flashing lights and I felt the electrical current that ran through me. I couldn't begin to guess why my parents couldn't feel this. It was so strong, such a powerful magic, that anyone within a mile of this house was surely to feel it. I couldn't understand why they could not.
The lights were so bright this time I was almost certain that this was my brother's plan. I could feel the raw electric energy coming from the room. It was stronger than I had ever felt it before. My brother must have been tampering, perfecting this energy for the longest time, and using it now would either accomplish some life altering change or destroy my brother altogether. I would not let that happen. No matter what he thought, going out like this for the sake of an intrusive woman into our lives, was the wrong thing to do.
I ran through the North Entrance and then through a few more doors before I came to the spiraling staircase that led to the room on top of North Tower. I jaunted up the steps two at a time, hoping to save my brother from whatever danger he was in now. I refused to let my brother go like this. He hadn't been the best of brother's lately and I was going to make sure he changed that. If it meant facing a danger far beyond my maturity level now then so be it. I was older than I was four years ago, and much stronger, and I had more magic in me to take on a stronger force.
I saw the door. The light illuminated all around the edges and magic and I could feel whatever was on the other side of that door pulsing. The electrical current crackled and sparked. I ran up to the door and thinking it would be locked I started pounding on the door, hoping to save Scorpius from whatever fate he faced inside. My pounding was to no avail however. He couldn't hear me at all. I pulled out my wand and looked down at the latch. Instinctively I reached for it and much to my surprise the door was unlocked. I swung it open and stood aghast in the doorway.
The lights danced on every surface, small sparks of magic and color that seemed to move in an epic dance together. The very air felt charged with some kind of strange magic. The twinkling lights were so bright I had to turn my head away briefly. Then I caught a glimpse of my brother. The lights shone brightest around him, and he wasn't alone. He was with another woman.
I suddenly knew why my brother had been less than eager about this wedding. I knew why he was so resilient against my parent's attempts to push Belle at him. I knew why my brother, my own flesh and blood, was so reclusive and hid in this tower so often. The woman, who was wrapped in light underneath him glowed too, as if the light were coming from her, was the reason my brother had changed so much.
This was not something unknown to me. I knew what was going on now. I had just missed it all before, I had been blind to my brother's love shining out from the North Tower on several occasions. I had forgotten what it was to feel loved by my brother. My breathing was heavy and uneven, and as I stood there in awe I knew I had to look away sometime. I turned and shut the door, but not before catching a glimpse of the woman in my brother's embrace. In her throes of passion I noticed her fiery red hair, a hair color that was far from being unknown to me.
I slammed the door, perhaps harder than I had meant to. I knew the woman my brother loved so much, the woman who had taken my brother away from me. She was also my flesh and blood. She was my half-sister, Rose Weasley.
***
I played my part during the wedding. What else could I do? My brother showed up with only minutes to spare, the wedding march already beginning, the procession of flowers and dresses sashaying down the aisle. I tried my best to smile at Scorpius, but I couldn't. It was just as well because he couldn't seem to look me in the eye either.
Belle Whitmore became Belle Malfoy and we then proceeded to clear the hall of pews and the altar, replacing them with tables and a space in the middle for dancing. It was tradition for the first dance to be before anything else. That's how it worked in the Malfoy family. A sign of property, that the wife had become her husband's and vice versa. I couldn't bear to look. I sat down and waited while everyone stood around the perimeter of the dance floor. My father must have noticed because he came over and held out his hand. Smiling I took it. There was no reason I shouldn't do this. It would please my father. It was also a ploy because on all accounts my father could never know about Scorpius and Rose. It was now my burden to carry this secret and there was nothing I could do about it. I had to confront Scorpius though, before he left for his honeymoon, tonight.
My father led me past the perimeter and onto the dance floor. The lessons I had taken all my life were specifically to prepare me for moments like this, when I would otherwise be embarrassed beyond belief. Instead my father led me around the floor with grace and ease, my feet keeping up to every step of his.
The night seemed to blur into a thousand faces after that moment. I could recall standing in the procession line and wondering who these people were telling me I looked so grown up, so lovely, so much like my mother. Few knew my real heritage. Few knew that my mother wasn't here tonight and would never be. Hermione Granger had been my mother, the one who had brought me into this world. She and my father had had a torrid affair 16 years ago and I was living proof of their love. They had lasted right up until the day my mother had died. She had died of breast cancer, a muggle infection that no amount of magic could cure. I had always accepted that. Besides, Astoria was good to me, treated me like her own. But I had known from the first that I was not hers. Scorpius had made sure I was aware.
I excused myself halfway through the night, wishing for a quiet room, somewhere where I could calm my breathing and take away this awful feeling of regret and nostalgia that had built up in my chest.
Scorpius had told me once that even if I were to get married at twenty-one, my parents would be over sixty years old. He will be thirty-seven. My parents will likely be dead before I have reached forty. This had hit me all of a sudden, my face twisting into a billion different emotions. Should I cry at this, or find more reasons to cry? My brother was in love with my sister. That made me upset on so many levels. Rose and Scorpius were my siblings, not related by anything aside from myself, and tonight of all nights I had chosen to unearth this.
No wonder my brother was so unhappy. No wonder he disliked Belle so. And now I had to keep it a secret from my parents just as he had.
A sound at the door of the room where I had hidden alerted me to a presence. His presence. "Scorpius," I exclaimed, looking once and then turning my head away again. I still couldn't look at him.
"Hey baby girl," he said smoothly. I cringed at the nickname.
"Is that the reason?" I asked, anger and fear and sadness ripping through me simultaneously. "Is that the reason you left this out? Why you stopped loving me? Because you found my sister to love?!" His jaw dropped. "Surprise," I whispered.
"I…How…When…?" he stuttered a few syllables before sitting down in a chair and brushing his hands through his hair. "Is that what you think?" he asked.
"What I think? How can I know what to think? Huh? I'm just a little girl, right? Too young to understand the complexities of human nature, too young to understand that my brother is in love with my sister! That his love for her tore him away from me?!"
I flew at him, my hands wanting to rip his hair out. Irrational as it was I wanted to do serious harm to him. I hated lies, above anything else, and I hated being lied to. When my fists collided with his solid chest and head I closed my eyes and just started flailing. He grabbed at my wrists and did very little else to stop me. "I'm old enough!" I kept saying.
I wailed at him for a few more seconds before he caught me up in a hug and held me still. "Stop it, Christiana," he said softly. "Just stop it."
The tears were flowing freely now, my eyes blurry, and my body giving way to complete exhaustion.
"Shhh, shhh," Scorpius kept saying over and over again.
I pounding my fists once and then twice before complete and utter surrender. I gave up. I would never know the reason why my brother was as he was. I would never have a normal life.
"A normal life isn't always the best thing Baby Girl," Scorpius replied to my thoughts. He could read them as easily as if they were his own. Why hadn't he shared that knowledge with me before? Why had he just drifted away?
"I never told you about Rose because I knew it wouldn't be accepted. I knew you would be upset, as you are. You find out now, today of all days, and I am truly sorry for this. You are half my age small one, my Chris. You are so young, so naïve. I know you are not stupid, I know you are smarter than you look, but this news, any way conceivable would still have provoked the same reaction." He stroked my hair as he spoke, creating calming circles on my back as he held me. "And I never stopped loving you. I will never stop loving you." He squeezed me briefly as if to reiterate his point.
"No matter how close you hold me to you," I whispered, "it will not make the rift between us any smaller."
He sighed, "I know. But there is a hope for more. I will make it up to you, if you'll let me."
I sniffed back my tears and looked up at him. "How?"
He smiled meekly. "Rose knows my obligations to Belle. She knows that today was the last. These past ten years must be enough to sustain us for the rest of our lives. But I want to fix what I unknowingly did to you these years. I want to build a bridge between us again."
"How?" I asked again. Still his redemption plan was fuzzy to me. "You're married. You will leave. You will grow apart from me all the more."
Kissing my forehead he smiled once more. "I understand that I am married. But I fail to understand how I will grow apart from you. You will grow older. We will find more in common. We will grow together. Older and wiser." Sighing I sat up on his lap. His hand reached to hold mine. "Our ages have always prevented us from being truly close. I adored you when you were younger, indulged you, I was your pony when you called me to your child-like games, but then as you grew older it changed. I'm thirty-two years old Chris, and you are a mere sixteen."
"I know how old I am Scorpius," I replied. The age would always come between my family and me. It was unavoidable. I couldn't be too upset with them however because they provided me with life. I would never regret life. I looked at Scorpius, searching for signs that he had heard my thoughts; that he knew what I was thinking. He nodded and I released the breath I had unconsciously been holding. Did I need his permission to move on? Was that the reason?
He let out a low chuckle. "Christiana, you never need my permission to grow. To mature. But I promise you this: I will do everything in my power to build us a bridge, to bring us towards a common goal. I don't want to be enemies."
I laughed softly and nodded my head. Then, wrapping my arms around my brother's neck I said, "You'll never be my enemy Scorpius. I'll help you build that bridge."
He hugged me back tightly, so tightly I thought I might explode. But it felt good. It had been so long since my brother had hugged me that this just felt good; it felt right.
As we walked back out into the reception my brother held tight to my hand. I was curious. I tugged my hand gently, trying to get it away from Scorpius, but he held it firmly. He then shot me a crooked smile, one that said he meant business and I couldn't help but smiling back. His arm creeped around me and then he whispered into my ear, "Dance with me Baby Girl?"
I laughed and nodded without saying anything else. We took up the pose and began to glide around to the music. Mother had made us each take lessons and Scorpius was often my dance partner. He had always been so much taller than I was, and now as I stared up at my married brother, I forgot that this height, this age had formed a gap between us. I forgot that the past ten years had been rather illusive as far as our relationship goes. I forgot that we were being watched by my father, mother, relatives of every shape and colour, as well as Scorpius' new bride, Belle. Elegant in her meringue dress, I nearly giggled when I saw her face. She was sucking her cheeks in with her lips squished into a vertical fish face. I bit my lip to keep from giggling.
Scorpius, by some power that I still couldn't guess, must have heard what I was thinking and chanced a glance at his wife. He was not as subtle with the humour he found in the image. He laughed out loud and lifted me up, twirling me around. I let my arms soar through the air, trusting my brother and him alone to catch me should I fall. He didn't miss a beat and continued to swing me, letting me feel the freedom of almost flying.
The song ended and my brother set me down, took my hand, knelt and kissed the back gently. I smiled graciously and then, very unladylike, threw my arms around him. "I love you big brother," I said.
Lifting me into the air once more, my feet dangling a foot off the ground, he hugged me back and whispered, "I love you too, Baby Girl."
A/N: Well, what do you think? Stay tuned as well, because there is a third installment in the works, with more than one chapter because there's more goodies in store for the final chapter. Teehee! Review, please and Thanks a Million. K :D