Disclaimer: All recognisable characters, places and objects belong to J.K. Rowling, I suppose I'm just simply playing with them for a while.
A/N: Written as a Slytherin entry for the hogwarts_houses fest on livejournal.
Politics in the Pit
Never mind the Slug Club, the best place to watch politics play out in Hogwarts was in the Slytherin common room. It was always worthwhile, Dahlia thought, keeping half an ear on conversations nearby - if only because they might affect you in some way a few months down the line. Purebloods were like that, always playing the long game, and generally started young. As the only Slytherin in her family this generation (barring that annoying and slightly creepy cousin of hers) it was up to her to keep the Yaxley name away from anything that might adversely affect them. Luckily, her friends were useful in this regard being members of more influential families than hers, even if they were a bit... eccentric.
This was running through her mind as Lucius dropped down onto the settee next to her with a thud and a sigh. She would have been more concerned but this was how he usually made himself known. Dramatic should have been his middle name.
"So what's wrong this time?" She didn't look up from her homework as she asked him although she was willing to bet that there were more than enough eyes on the Malfoy heir to make up for her lack of interest. His was one of the more politically powerful families with children currently in Slytherin and there was always the chance that he'd let something useful slip. It hadn't happened yet, Lucius was too smart for that, but the plebs were ever hopeful.
"Father's after me to pick a spouse again."
"Already?" She raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "I thought he only bugged you about it last month." She remembered the ranting but it had been History of Magic and it was better entertainment than the teacher at the time.
"Yes, I know, but I think he wants me to give him a name before we break up and all head off home." Summer was only a few weeks away and she supposed with that in mind the demand made a strange sort of sense. Lucius didn't really socialise during the holidays except by owl so during the term was the best time to get this sort of thing done. Nobody wanted a proposal by post after all.
She did look up now, with a sly smile on her face, as she said, "I could marry you," Lucius looked worryingly half-hopeful at that before she added, "but I'd probably end up poisoning you before the week's end."
"True, but why wouldn't I be the one to kill you?"
"Because you don't have siblings to avenge you like I do." Some, muggleborns and half-bloods mostly, might have been slightly disturbed at the ease at which such things were discussed between the two of them but murder, revenge and blood feuds were hardly unusual things amongst purebloods.
He chuckled at this, "Yes, and while I'm not particularly afraid of Alexander and his Hufflepuff ways, your sister is absolutely terrifying when she wants to be. Not to mention that cousin of yours, thingy, or wouldn't he be bothered? I can never keep track of your ins and outs with that side of the family."
She shrugged in response as she usually couldn't be bothered to keep track either. Cereus would probably be pleased at her gruesome demise; he was morbid like that. "I suppose that big brother complexes can have their own scariness about them, I mean look at the Lestranges, but in a bout between the two of them I'd bet on the Brat every time. So long as Sarah wasn't there, of course."
Lucius nodded while grinning at the thought of a proper all-out duel between the Yaxley siblings. "I'll agree with you there; that woman's scary and I almost pity your brother for marrying her. I wouldn't have thought that 'marry well' was an ambition worthy enough to get yourself into Slytherin but," here he gave an open-palmed shrug, "the Greengrasses are a proper family and it can't be the first time somebody's been sorted here for that. It's just..." He trailed off, looking at her uncomfortably.
"Kind of creepy when she started following him when they were eleven?"
"Exactly! I'm nearly sixteen and still think it's too early for that stuff." He picked at his jumper as he spoke, obviously unhappy with the topic being discussed seriously even if he'd been the one to bring it up in the first place. It was easy enough to distract him though.
"Mmm, as you say. Anyway, what's this about 'proper families'? The Greengrasses have been here longer than yours, damn frog, and nearly as long as mine." She couldn't recall exactly how long after the Founding the Greengrasses had first appeared but she was sure it hadn't been more than a century or so.
Her comment did manage to produce a laugh, "You should probably get your accent right before saying things like that, mein frau, no matter how much you might look and act the part."
"And we're back to me being your wife again. Are you really that desperate?"
He shook his head after a pause in either mock or true consideration; she honestly couldn't tell which. "Not particularly, but you know how father is. It must be because Bella's getting married to Lestrange next month and he's heard from somewhere that Andy's making eyes at that mudblood in Ravenclaw, what's-his-name, Gideon's friend."
It took her a second to think of who he was referring to, not being particularly bothered with socialising with the lower classes in other houses. "Oh right, I know who you mean. Theodore something, I think. He's got one of those ridiculous names you find with people like that."
"Mmm, yes. So she's out for now because of that. Which is rather annoying because I think father's rather got his heart set on me nabbing a Black and there's only the youngest left and I don't know anything about her apart from she's a first year. It might just be me but I'd actually like to get to know someone before getting engaged to them."
"I think it's still 'betrothed' when we're still this young."
"Whatever, the point still stands," he replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Lucius' gaze sharpened on her then and he leaned forward as he asked, "Hey, you've met her. What's she like?"
"Small and annoying like everyone is or was that age." She couldn't honestly be expected to give a useful answer to a question like that, could she?
"Even me?" His pout probably wasn't meant to make her burst out laughing but she'd known him for too long for it to have any other effect. He knew this, of course, and it was just a response to her making light of him.
"Especially you." She knew how he'd respond to that; first he'd twitch as he tried not to laugh, then he'd fold his arms and look away or even walk away if they were out somewhere. Then, after a few seconds, he'd look back with his lips showing hurt but his eyes sparkling with amusement. It was the same reaction he'd had ever since they'd first met on the Hogwarts Express in first year when she was hiding from her overbearing brother and he'd never talked to a girl before.
"That wasn't a helpful answer, you realise, Dahling?"
She shrugged, "It wasn't meant to be. Besides, you don't have younger siblings so you'll never really know what one of them's like."
"I have minions, do they count?" He paused and she shook her head in answer to his question. A moment later he perked up slightly and shook a finger at her as he asked, "Hey, aren't you in the middle of you three? So you're a younger one too."
"Yes, and I drive Alexander up the wall whenever I possibly can, you know that. You were usually helping me do it when he was still at school." As well as the few occasions Lucius had visited the Yaxley estate during the holidays but her sister had been there too, usually with a friend of hers visiting at the same time, so interactions were a bit more complicated and peaceful then. Especially considering her parents had kept a close eye on the lot of them.
"Yes, good point. Seriously thought, what's what's-her-face like?"
Dahlia sat back and thought about it properly now, trying to recall as much as she could about the small, blonde girl who'd made a nuisance of herself on the rare occasions she wasn't too busy talking to Bella on those inevitable socialising visits all pureblood families did with their children pre-Hogwarts.
"Well, You'd probably like her because she's very pretty, obviously, being a Black. Light blonde like yourself so you can obsess over her hair just as much as you do your own."
"I like your hair too," he interrupted with a tug of one of her burnt orange locks.
"Yes, as you keep telling me," she responded, brushing away his hand with one of her own, "Anyway, you'd already know that about her if you paid any attention to the younger years but I suppose there's about as much hope of that as you willingly going to Transfiguration."
"I at least got her year right, yeah? She's a first year?" He asked as he peered around the room, trying to catch a glimpse of her as there was no doubt that she was a Slytherin with her family being what it was. It would have been a rather noteworthy scandal if the girl had ended up anywhere else.
"Good guess. She went upstairs about an hour ago so I wouldn't bother searching for her, Lucius."
"Right," He slouched back into the settee with another thud before looking back at her. "So does she have a personality at all?"
"Probably," she replied and then grinned at Lucius' annoyed look, "Alright, fine. She's a lot like her mother if you can remember meeting her at Bella's engagement party - quieter than Andy, although that's not saying much, and a bit too uptight in my opinion. She was pretty high strung when I last talked to her but she and my sister got on well enough until the Brat ended up with the Gryffindors and they stopped talking to each other. I think she may subscribe to her aunt's opinions on house politics." Every pureblood worth mentioning knew about Walberga Black's ideas about the other three houses and while not everybody agreed with her, no-one was stupid enough to say that to the matriarch's face.
Lucius rolled his eyes at her last remark and Dahlia privately agreed with him. "One thing my father thankfully never bothers with. I, for one, agree with his idea that you can't find everything you need in just Slytherin."
"Ravenclaws' brains and willingness to do your homework for you in return for money, for example?"
He nodded, seemingly missing her unsubtle prod or else just ignoring it. "Exactly. Why else would I be friends with that Welsh sod Prewett? Or you with the McKinnon girl?"
She was always amazed at his complete inability to remember simple facts about people he didn't find interesting enough. Hopefully it would improve by the time they left and he entered politics for real. "Marlene's in Hufflepuff, but I do get your point."
He waved away her comment with a smile, "I notice you didn't correct me on the first part. I thought you got on with Gideon?"
"I do," she replied with a shrug of a shoulder, "but he's still Welsh and considering the hassle he and Fabian put me through when I first arrived I'm allowed to poke him now and again about his Taffy roots."
She was actually more bothered about it than she liked to let on and she was sure that Lucius could pick out her tense tone. Many things had been said and done to her in her early years at Hogwarts because of her mother's German heritage and her parents' actions on the wrong side during the last war. It wasn't pleasant and it wasn't fair in her mind but people were rarely either of those things where Grindelwald was concerned. Thankfully, it had gradually got better as she'd gained support from other families with mainland roots like the Malfoys and the Lestranges and after Bella had stood up for her after a particularly nasty remark by a Gryffindor boy, the trouble had very nearly stopped.
"Well, it is your fault, speaking all foreign-like as you do." His comment was rewarded with a wide-eyed look from her; a reflex as she took the words in more than the tone. When she realised he was smirking at her it was all she could do to keep from smacking him.
"Hardly my fault. I never really spoke English at home until after first year and at least I've not forgotten my roots unlike some, Mr Malfoi," she emphasised the French base of his name with a theatrical flourish of her hand before adding, "then again, if my family were French I'd want people to forget it too."
That got a good reaction from him as he turned away with a huff. "Fine, if you find me that objectionable I'll leave you alone from now on."
"Thank you!" She got up and brushed her skirt off, leaving her homework on the settee next to where Lucius still sat. "I'd be late getting to the greenhouses otherwise. You'd keep me discussing wedding plans all evening, I'm sure. Oh, by the way, feel free to plagiarise that History essay of mine if you like - just finish off that closing paragraph for me if you do." Binns' class wasn't work bothering with, even if it was their OWLs year, so they took it in turns to do the homework for it. He hadn't realised yet that she'd arranged it so he'd have the horrendously long summer project on goblin-giant relations to do. Dahlia was really looking forward to seeing his face when he did figure it out.
"Bleah," he made a face at the mention of her favourite haunt as he still hadn't got over the time an immature Madrake had knocked him out in front of the class, "I'll definitely let you go then. I wouldn't want to get between you and your plants." He gave her a dismissive wave before sitting up a little. "Oh, you're still going to marry me, right? I need to owl father a reply by the weekend."
She snorted, admittedly unladylike but it was the response such a question deserved. "Maybe. If I have to. Why don't you go and bug Narcissa while I'm away?"
"Who's that then?" He looked genuinely puzzled as he asked this which made her shake her head in exasperation.
"Oh, for Salazar's sake," she muttered before replying properly, "She's the Black girl we were just talking about."
"Really? Huh. Well, if she appears again I'll go see if she's worth bothering with." Nicely put, as always, she thought with a sigh. They'd probably be perfect for each other if he learned a little more tact and she wound down a little. Honestly, plants were so much more easy to deal with than all the petty politics in the Pit. She'd rather handle a Venamous Tentacular any day than attempt talking to any of the other pureblood family scions about something important. Probably less chance of being poisoned at the end of it.
"Wonderful. Can I go now?" The greenhouses and the simple life were calling.
"Of course, Dahling. Have fun, won't you?"
"I will."