Gavin

"I can't believe Malfoy here is going to be a daddy soon," I smirk at Kip as I line up my shot and jerk my pool stick forward. The solid red six ball I was aiming for falls into the pocket and I smile.

"It was bound to happen some time," Another guy comments as I walk around the billiards table, analyzing my next shot as I put blue chalk on the end of my stick. "I'm surprised it took this long."

"Very funny," I comment as I take another shot, this time I miss and I sigh as I step back from the table, picking up my drink in the process. We're at one of the pubs in Knocktern Alley, wasting the night away with cheap alcohol and pool. Just my kind of night, really. The interior of the building is dark with crumbling brick walls that have tin posters of all different kinds of drinks and a few famous dark wizards sneering and scowling at everyone in the room. It really is a gross little hole in the wall but I find things more interesting here than at the cleanest pub in Diagon Alley.

I salute Ingrad the terrible with my drink before I lean back against one of the bar stools with my pool stick in my hand. Terrance takes his turn and I watch his large body move around the smoke filled room like a giant. Over to the right I spot and attractive brunette and she smiles at me slyly with flushed cheeks. "I see he hasn't lost his appetite despite being tied down," Kip says to everyone jokingly and they all laugh and look towards the group of girls I was staring at.

I shrug and take a swig from my beer bottle. "I'm allowed to look."

"Addison's not," Terrance mumbles down at his chest and I roll my eyes.

"She wouldn't want to anyways," I say as I stand up straight. Out of the corner of my eye I see the brunette approaching, wearing a blue tube top and leather mini skirt, and I can't help but feel smug. "She's already with the best looking man in England. She has no reason."

"Arrogant bastard," Nick, a friend from work says with a laugh and I have to agree with him.

I lean against the bar as the brunette slithers up beside me and she orders a drink from the bartender while sending side way glances to me. I ignore her. One thing I've found out about girls is that if you ignore them they go out of their way to get your attention. They start courting you instead of the other way around, making things much easier and letting the guy set the pace. She coughs and flips her hair over her shoulder as she pays for her girlie cosmo drink but I still act like she's not there. She takes a step closer to me and I almost smirk when she nudges my arm as she grabs a napkin that's right behind me.

"Oh, sorry," She says and then she waits for me to look at her. I barely glance at her before walking back to the pool table to take my turn.

She watches me the whole time as I joke with my mates and play the game. I can practically feel her dark eyes burning into my body as I do this and I can't help the arrogant smirk that stays plastered to my face. I don't care who you are, when someone looks at you like that it makes you feel good no matter what your situation is. I guess I am grateful that my parents are both so good looking. Even now my Dad has the same fit body that he had when he was in his twenties and the only sign of his true age is the white at his temples and the slight wrinkles around his eyes... which he probably got from glaring at people the entirety of his life.

Mom fairs even better than him and her hair is still as bright as it was when she was younger. The thing about wizards and witches is that we age better and live longer than non-magical folk. It must suck to be a muggle. Anyways, I'm glad they passed their good genes on to me because looks definitely get you places no matter what ugly people try to say. Character Smaracter. I finish my beer and order another, intending to get drunk because tomorrow is my day of rest and then it's off to work for my Dad who acts like the King of Malfoy Enterprises, put there by God like it was his divine right.

He's annoying.

I shake my head to forget about him and when a small hand touches my shoulder I smile before turning around and facing my admirer. "You're Gavin Malfoy, right?" she asks in a low voice as she flicks more hair over her shoulder, showing off her cleavage and the sweat beading on her skin.

"Last time I checked."

She smiles wide and touches my arm as she speaks to me as Kip sinks the eight ball in the corner pocket. "I saw you in the paper last week," I nod my head. "You were coming out of the Wizard Times offices."

"I was," I'm not being very supportive in this conversation but that's not stopping her from stepping closer to me. It's true, I was there last week. Besides the piece he wants to write about my Dad I've been in talks with him about the Daily Prophet. We want to partner up and buy it.

"My friends and I are going to do some shots," She points to the other scantly clad women by the bar who giggle and smile when I turn their way. "Do you want to do some with us?"

I look back to my guy friends who are discussing which broom is the best at flying and I turn back to the slutty looking girls who are doing shots at the bar. I find women much more interesting than men if I was being honest. I don't speak while I'm debating it and she threads her fingers through mine to pull me towards them but I pull my hand back.

"We're buying," she says to tempt me over and I smirk. I'm from one of the richest families and yet she offers to buy.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt," I say and then I turn to my drunken friends. I guess I could do a good deed as well. "But my friends have to come too." She pouts and I wink at her. "Don't worry, if you work your cards right they'll pick up the tab."

She takes that as a flirtatious move and I call my mates over to me as we walk towards the bar. They all seem excited by the half naked girls and I get sly looks from them in gratitude as they each pick one to stand by. The girls are taking tequila shots and I nod my head in agreement when they ask if that's okay. Somehow I get sandwiched in between the brunette who I have yet to learn the name of and some skinny blonde girl who's the size of my leg. I ignore the way she's feeling up my back as I lick my hand and pour a bit of salt on it as the bartender cuts up lemons to hand to each of us.

"We'll all go together," says the brunette who I think might be the leader of their little clique. If not, she is most definitely the bravest by approaching me. I pick up my shot of golden tequila and wait for the others. "Ready... go."

I lick the salt on the back of my hand and throw back the shot with a flick of my head. The alcohol burns my throat as I bring the lime up and chomp it in between my teeth so I can suck out all the juice to deaden the sting of the liquid I just consumed. We do three more of those and by the end of it I am completely trashed.

"Let's go to McCoy's tonight," one of the drunken girls says with a slur as she trips over Terrance's shoe. He helps her up and she kisses him.

"They do have the best music!" the brunette tells me as her hand curls around my waist.

What could it hurt?

I end up paying the tab because it just makes sense that I would, money is really not a big deal to me, and we stumble out of the bar. I put my arm around the brunette for balance and I start laughing at nothing as we walk down Knockturn Alley, headed towards another pub that's off a side street off of Diagon.

"Do you like to dance, Mr. Malfoy?" the girl at my side asks with her breath hot on my neck.

"Only in bed," it was lame but my drunk mind didn't care. I also didn't care when she giggled and kissed my cheek.

When we make it to the brick building I stop walking when I see a large stocky body trying to help up a clearly drunken man with black hair. I start laughing again. "Someone got pissed drunk tonight," I comment as the figure falls down again and pushes the larger man away.

I feel small fingers come up and run through my hair and I look down at the parasite by my side. "You have awesome hair," she says as she looks into my eyes which are blurry from drink. She's trying to have a 'moment' with me but it's not going to work. "Do you use gell?"

I snort and turn back to the drunk idiots before us. "It just grows in all perfect like that," I tell her and she giggles again, it hurts my ears so I disentangle myself from her to go help the two men in front of us. I get very charitable when I'm drunk.

"Do you want some help?" I ask the back of the large man. He turns around and I notice who it is with surprise. "Porter?"

"Gavin," he nods his head and turns back to the drunkard on the ground, I do too and smirk when I see Byron Flint.

"Holy fuck," I say in amusement. "Flint, you crazy mother fucker," I say with a smile as I take in all the blood on his face. "You took quite a beating, eh?" He probably deserved it, the fucking weirdo.

The group I came with tonight tell me they're going inside and I wave them on with out me as I reach down to help Flint up but he snaps his eyes open and glares at me, which really is quite ridiculous with all the blood that's coating his face. He stands up and leans against the wall, shaking his head at me.

"You fucking Malfoy's are everywhere," he snaps hatefully and I turn to that Sid Porter guy with my eye brow raised because I definitely did not expect that from him.

"Don't listen to him," Sid says seriously as he takes out his wand. "Come on, Byron. I've got to get you home."

He nods his head, seeming to admit defeat and he pushes himself off the wall. As he's walking by me I start laughing at this funny situation. "Is Porter your babysitter now? Giving my brother a break?"

It was just a joke, and Flint's usually a passive lunatic but when I said that he turned around with fire burning in his drunk eyes. He eyes me up and down as Sid groans and mutters something about tonight being a fucking bad idea.

"Where's your girlfriend tonight, Malfoy?" He asks me and I roll my eyes. "She's definitely not the chick I saw you feeling up on your way here," I'm surprised he was conscious enough to witness me walking up here, good for him. I cross my arms and shift my weight to one of my feet, getting bored. "You're cheating, that's all your family knows how to do."

"Right," I say with a shake of my head, not affected at all. "Have a good nap, little Byron."

This weird dark smiles comes on his face and again I raise an eyebrow at his dramatics. "Guess what I did last night," he says in a deep voice, Sid grabs his arm but Byron pulls back again like a small child throwing a tantrum. Sid says something about Apparation points and how they shouldn't be so far away as he looks between us with unease. His size is really pointless right now.

"What did you do, Flint?" I ask to humor him but what he says makes my blood boil and my feelings towards Cassius' strange friend turn murderous.

"I fucked your little sister."

My arms drop to my sides and I narrow my eyes at him. He laughs.

"I fucked her in your families house while all of you slept," I casually take out my wand as he keeps talking. The tick in my jaw might betray my feelings but I'm staying calm, just like my Dad when he's beyond pissed. "You wouldn't believe how tight she was..."

I blast a curse at his chest and he goes flying backwards, hitting the ground with a smack. Sid's eyes widen when he looks at me.

"You didn't kill him, did you?"

He would have deserved it I think as I pocket my wand. "I think you'll find he's easier to get home now," I say before walking past them towards one of the Apparation points myself. I forget about about the people I left at the pub as I make my way home, too angry to drink, and too tired to break things.

Addison is already asleep when I get there and I strip out of my clothes as I climb into bed beside her. With a sigh I kiss her shoulder and pull her to me, thinking of multiple ways to kill Byron Flint for saying those things but knowing they can't possibly be true. Lavinia should have better taste than that and he was bloody drunk. I fall into a deep drunken sleep and when I wake up a headache slams into my skull at full force, spinning my insides and making it feel like my brain is bleeding on my spinal chord. My attempts at going back to sleep are disturbed by Addison who is stomping around the room, making so much fucking noise that it sounds like a troop of elephants are in here.

"Goddamnit, Addison. What the fuck are you doing?" I ask as the glare at the clock. It's eight o'clock in the morning. This is my sleep in day.

"You know I have a doctors appointment today," she states seriously as she peels out of her night dress to put on some regular clothes. I watch her body as she gets dressed, noting that despite what I said, her stomach is starting to grow.

"It's Sunday," I tell her as with a groan as I turn around and bury my head in the pillow so I can go back to sleep.

"That doesn't matter."

I glare at her but she doesn't notice because she's too busy stomping around like a mad woman. She throws on shoes and ties them quickly, glancing at the clock worriedly like she was late and once she's all put together she stands over the bed with her hands on her hips. "What?" I ask sharply as she stares at me.

"Aren't you coming?"

I never come to them, she should know that. "It's too fucking early, Addison," I tell her as I turn onto my stomach and prop my head up with the pillow. I close my eyes and try to shut down my brain.

"You said you would come this time," She sounds sad so I pretend not to hear her. "It's not my fault you went out drinking again last night."

"What do you want me to do?" I snap, with my eyes still closed to block out the sun. "I'm still young. I'm not going to waste my youth just because of what we got ourselves into."

I jump when a magazine collides with my bare back. She threw something at me. She actually threw something at me. I sit up then and glare at her but she's not backing down as she narrows her eyes and plants her hands on her hips.

"I'm young too, you know," she says, sounding upset. Walking the line of anger and sadness quite well. "And I like to go out too, just like you do. You could have asked me to go with you last night."

I snort and stand up, ready to head to the bathroom to avoid her. "It was just with the guys and you can't even drink," I tell her harshly, flicking a glance down to her stomach.

Tears spring to her eyes and I cuss to myself. "It's not fair that I have to do this all by myself when it's mostly your fault!"

"It takes two to make a baby, darling," I sneer at her and walk towards the restroom. She follows me out into the hallway, not letting up.

"I told you, I told you that I wasn't on the potion that month but you just kept on doing that thing you do. You just kept on trying to seduce me and now we're here and we're going to have a baby so grow up, will you?"

I snort at her little rant and shut the door in her face as I walk over to the sink. Seduce her, honestly. "I hate you Gavin Malfoy!" She yells and she kicks the door for good measure as I brush my teeth.

After I take my shower and get dressed to an empty apartment guilt over takes me and the genuine love I feel for Addison makes me feel terrible about our fight. That's the stupid annoying thing about feelings and caring for someone. They make you wimpy. With a sigh I stand up and get my wand, Apparating to the doctors office with the annoying sun shining into my eyes so I pull out a pair of sunglasses and keep them on my face as I approach the building. I walk into the waiting room and look over towards Addison who doesn't even look up from the book she's reading as I take a seat beside her on one of the wooden chairs.

Her eyes flick to my face in surprise when I pull the glasses on top of my head, pulling most of my hair away from my eyes. "I thought you were going to go back to sleep," She says, her anger with me melting by me showing up to this thing.

I turn towards her and kiss her lips, resting my forehead against hers. "I'm a real jerk sometimes, I know that," I tell her seriously. She smiles a little and brings her hand up to cover mine that's resting on her cheek. She's crying again and I resist the urge to roll my eyes because she cries all the fucking time now, must be the baby. "I want to be here," I tell her. I'm not really sure if it's a lie or not. This whole baby thing has been pushed into the back of my brain so I don't have to deal with it directly. I think of it was a coping mechanism.

When I pull back and rest my head against the wall, staring at all the other pregnant woman in the room she smiles softly and puts her hand on my thigh. "I want you here too. Thank you, Gavin," she tells me sweetly and I smirk at her before the nurse calls her name.

Lavinia

I was standing by the fireplace with my cheek throbbing as I twirled Byron's journal in between my hands. Of course I was crying like always so everything looked watery and unfocused but I could clearly see the page I turned to in his book and it sounded like a tree falling to the ground as I tore it out. Who is he to call me a slut anyways? Just because he was drunk? That's no excuse. The worst thing about it was that a part of me deep down thought that he was telling the truth, that despite what Cassius said he did mean what he was saying and he did think those things about me because I was the one who went to him, I was the one who threw myself at him like a harlot. More painful tears fell as I thought about it and I thought the page I was clutching in my fingers would soon be embedded into my bones because of how tight I was holding it.

I looked down at the torn out page and then at the journal. As far as I knew this was the only thing that Byron really cared about besides Cassius and his family. Some people talk to their friends about their problems, some people wore their emotions on their sleeves but Byron wrote them down in this book. It would hurt him to destroy this but as soon as that thought crossed my mind I knew I could never do it. I had looked down at the page I had torn out and even felt guilty that I did that much. I wanted to go sit down on my bed but I tripped and ended up slumping to the floor. I realized I was being pathetic and that I should handle this new painful situation like the adult that I am now, so I opened his journal and placed the page back where it originally was, where the tear line still was visible and stood out from the other pages.

A name caught my eye before I had a chance to close it and curiosity got the better of me. I knew I wanted him to tell me these things, I didn't want to have to read it, but after knowing what he truly thought of me I knew that would never happen. I hate when reality gets in the way of dreams. I brought the page closer to my tear filled eyes and had to squint to read it by the fire light.

Selene.

That name was written in his beautiful handwriting and my heart started thumping. I don't know why. Since I had a taste of it I couldn't stop reading or wondering who this Selene woman was. He wrote of her many times and it was quite clear that he loved her. It made my throat dry and I felt as though I was standing on the edge of a cliff and if I kept reading it would make me jump. But I did anyways. He never really wrote about how he met her, I just figured she must have been some exotic beauty from his travels and she was obviously a perfect woman. He wrote about missing her and how beautiful he thought she was but she was too modest to realize it. When he wrote about a dream he had about her, a very sexual dream I blushed and I couldn't help but feel bitter. She was nice and sweet... and everything someone should be.

I decided right then and there that I hated this Selene woman more than I had ever hated anyone in my entire life.

I went through his journal that night with a vengeance and every time Selene was mentioned I was tempted to take my own quill and scratch her name out like that would make her not exist at all. It would make Byron forget about her and how sparkling her eyes were or how she made him feel. When I got to the entry about his trip to Africa I held the book close to me like it was a treasured artifact that was giving me knowledge about something magical but in reality it was really a torture devise that was breaking my heart with more force with every word I took in. He was talking about how he and Cassius were there to check out some temple that was deep in the jungle. In the small village he saw a girl with red hair and for a stupid second he thought it was this Selene woman and was disappointed when it wasn't, even though he knew she wouldn't be there.

I threw the book across the room when I read that. She had red hair. A horrifying thought entered my mind at that moment. When he was sleeping with me, when he kissed me, did he pretend I was this Selene Goddess he kept writing about? When he touched me and looked at me was me imaging I was someone else?

I hated this Selene but I hated Byron more. I couldn't have imagined the way he looked at me or the way his hands felt, could I? In my love hazed mind I guess I could have made it all up, all of those perfect things probably never really happened. He never actually told me anything that would hint towards him caring for me... perhaps I was delusional in thinking he wanted me when it is so obvious he wants this Selene woman. I thought about how he left in the morning with out saying one world to me and the jealousy and hurt I thought I saw in his eyes when Darius came was all just fabricated from my mind... my pitiful, pathetic, little girl mind. Now I know he just thought I was an easy lay.

I had clenched my eyes shut to block out the pain but it didn't work, of course it didn't work. I hated being dramatic and I especially found the girls at Hogwarts who acted this way over a boy irritating, but now I can totally sympathize with them. After sitting on my floor, staring at everything and nothing at all I thought of my graduation party and with new anger I stomped over to my bed side table where the elves had placed that rock he gave me and my mood manipulator. I held the red jagged rock in my hand and analyzed every groove and texture of it, hoping it would open up and give me answers but of course it didn't. I took one year of runes in school but the symbol etched into the side was unfamiliar to me. He said it was a positive energy rune but even I knew he was lying about it.

With a huff I thought it probably meant something stupid like goat cheese and he picked it up on the way here from side walk because he felt obligated to get me something for my graduation. Who gives a rock as a present anyways? I bet he would give Selene beautiful things that would make her love him more. With that thought lingering in my head I went to the window and opened it up, pausing only a moment to let the crisp night air cool my face and the wind to dry my tears before I wound my arm back and threw the stupid stone out into the back yard. I didn't even care where it landed and I even toyed with the idea of throwing his stupid journal into the pool but I was too exhausted to do much else.

Crying always takes a lot of energy out of me and my face was still jabbing with so much pain that I felt for sure my zygomatic bone was crushed. My mood manipulator was laying still on my bed just tempting me to use to so after glaring at the journal on the floor I crawled into bed and tapped the small glass ball a few times until it glowed pink in my hands, washing a feeling of warmth and calmness through my body. I feel asleep like that and by the time I woke up the ball had dimmed down to where I didn't feel it's affects at all. That's why I'm laying on my bed in the clothes and shoes I wore last night with my eyes slammed shut trying to not wake up and face the day.

My mouth feels dry like I swallowed a chunk of cotton during the night and the intense pain in my face makes any chance of going back to sleep practically impossible. My face started to throb so badly that I thought someone had cut part of it off while I slept so I sat up with a groan and brought a hand up to my cheek to feel the knot forming there. My eyes cracked open against the sun and I jumped a little in surprise when I saw my father sitting in one of the white chairs by my open window. He didn't look up as I stared at him, trying to decide if he was real or not because the hit to my face could have messed up my brain.

He had his legs crossed and he was leaning back in the chair like he had been there a while and was comfortable. On his lap was a book and he had one hand holding the page down so it wouldn't turn and the other was resting against his temple with his elbow on the arm rest. When he turned the page and started reading again I swallowed the lump that was in my throat and sat up a little straighter.

"Dad?"

His eyes flicked up to mine as he closed the book and took off his glasses. I watched as he put them in his right hand and twirled the end around as he let both of his arms rest at his sides. He was looking right at me so I looked at his lap, at the book he was reading. I took a sharp intake of breath when I realized it was Byron's.

"What happened to your face?" he asks flatly with his eyes serious as they study me.

I bring a hand up to my face while mentally cursing myself for leaving it there. I don't answer as his eyes travel over my clothes that I slept in and then they find mine again.

"I fell."

It was a bad lie and we both knew it.

There was a long silence that felt like an eternity. "You fell?" he questions finally.

I nod my head and turn away from him. "What are you doing in my room?" I can easily turn this around on him as a privacy issue but he will be having none of that right now, I can tell from his tone.

He uncrosses his legs and sits forward on the chair with his elbows on his knees. In response to his body language I scoot back against my head board and cross my arms.

"It's past one." he tells me and I'm actually surprised that I slept that late. "The Lavinia I know wakes up at the crack of dawn. I thought you might have been sick so I came up to check on you," He sits back and puts his glasses back on before looking me square in the eyes. "I'm going to ask you again, and I want an honest answer. What happened to your face?"

"I told you I fell," I whisper like a weakling. I know how my Dad is and I know how my Dad will respond if I tell him the truth. Even though what Byron said to me was cruel and I still was so upset with him... he really didn't mean to hit me like that.

"Did you fall into a fist?" My eyes shoot to his in surprise and he sits up straight with his eyes narrowed. "Who hit you?"

I shake my head as those annoying tears find their way back into my eyes. "No one hit me, Dad," Iintentionally I want to add but I know that won't matter to him.

"Where were you last night?" he asks coldly.

I gulp. "I was eating dinner with Chloe at Polo's."

"And after that?"

"I came home," I lie as I stare at my wall, finding the flower pattern immensely fascinating.

"Lavinia," he says gently in a warmer tone so I'll look at him. "You don't have to lie to me."

Again I shake my head. "I'm not lying," I say even though the shakiness in my voice says other wise.

With that he sighs and stands up, with Byron's journal still in his hands. "Then you're grounded until you tell me what really happened."

What? My jaw dropped as he walked past my bed so I sat up on my knees. How was that fair? "You can't ground me," I told him in a disbelieving voice. "I'm of age now."

He makes it to my door and then glances at me over his shoulder with one hand on the door knob. "You say that like it would matter to me," he replies.

Anger jets through me and I stand up because of the injustice of this. I ignore the irritating pain in my face as I glare at him. "You can't ground me anymore," I say bravely and I glance down at the brown journal in his hands. "And that doesn't belong to you."

He looks down at the book and then back to me.

"I'm well aware of that, sweetheart, and it doesn't belong to you either." He opens the door and I look around the room for something to throw at him... even though I know I won't. "I''ll send an elf up to heal you," he says before leaving.

I stare at the door with my mouth slightly open before I decide he can't treat me like this anymore. I am not a child. I just graduated from school and I'm eighteen for Christ sakes... plus, I didn't even do anything wrong! I refuse to be punished like this so I stomp over to my vanity to grab my wand. I take one moment to glance at my reflection and what I see makes me drop my wand, causing it to clatter to the ground. The right side of my face is slightly swollen and there is a reddish purple bruise forming on my cheek. I touch it and wince. It looks just as bad as it feels. He did hit me so hard.

I shake my head with a sniff and pick up my wand. Intending to prove to my father that he can't treat me like a little girl anymore I quickly leave my room and bound down the front staircase with my wand gripped so tightly in my hand that I think I might break it. With a sneering thought about all the stupid men in my life I make it to the front door and turn the knob. It doesn't open so I turn it again.... and again... and again.... I check the locks and do a quick unlocking charm but nothing works.

He wouldn't dare.

I run to the windows and attempt to open them but they're sealed shut and I even try the back door that leads to the gardens with no avail. My anger is reaching knew heights as I stomp towards the front doorway again and lift my wand, intending to blast the freaking thing open.

"That will do no good," I lower my wand and turn to glare at my father who is standing casually on the stairs with his hands in his pockets. "You're not leaving until I say so."

"You can't keep me prisoner here!" I yell with a stomp of my foot and he rolls his eyes.

"Don't be dramatic."

I huff and cross my arms as Mom and Evelyn enter the hallway through the back way. Evelyn is wearing her usual dance outfit and her hair is pulled back into a tight bun as she messes with the bag slung over her shoulders. I know she's going to ballet practice and she stops walking all together when she sees me. Mom's too busy going through her purse for her wand and I send one more hateful glare to my father before walking towards her.

"Mom, please tell Dad that he can't ground me like this. I'm a grown witch now so make him unseal the doors."

She looks up to me and then her face turns to alarm as she takes me in.

"What happened to you?" She asks as she walks closer to me in a panic and sweeps some hair out of my face to take in my injury. She touches it and I wince.

"You look like you get hit in the face with a blundger," Evelyn says as she studies me like a was a circus freak.

Mom's eyes go up to Dad who starts making his way down the stairs. "I told her she was grounded until she told me what happened to her face," he tells her when he reaches the bottom. He looks directly at me and I look away. "Maybe you can get the truth out of her since she won't tell me."

"You can't put me on house arrest for not telling you something," I snap and he raises his eyebrows at me. It probably wasn't the best way to talk to the person who controls your freedom.

Mom gets my attention as she finds her wand and brings it up to my face. "What did happen, Lavinia?" she asks softly as she heals my wound, replacing the pain with a warm tingle.

"I--"

Dad cuts me off and I glare again. "You did not fall and get a bruise like that so don't even try to say it." Mom snaps him a look but he ignores it. "You won't be leaving this house until we know the truth, young lady."

Mom tells him she'll talk to me and he leaves with another pointed look towards me that I scowl at. My attention goes back to my mother and I try to ignore Evelyn as she takes a seat on one of the stairs to watch and listen like the annoying little thing that she is.

"It was an accident," I admit as Mom looks into my eyes and I feel more comfortable talking to her because he's not as cold as my Dad. "He didn't mean it."

"He?" she asks, and then suddenly her face changes. Realization dawns in her eyes and she narrows them the slightest bit. "Byron Flint hit you?"

"No, well..." I start nervously because of the harsh way she's looking right now. "It was an accident. He didn't mean to," I say quickly but she's looking away from me, shaking her head as she puts the pieces together in her mind.

Her conclusion after viewing Byron's busted lip and my clothes in his room with the bloody sheet was unpleasant but she believed me when I told her it wasn't anything bad. I can tell she won't believe me again because the circumstances seem so suspicious.

"Go to your room," she says, using the same flat tone that Dad has.

She actually believes that Byron would hurt me and that I would cover for him!

"But, Mom..."

"Your room, now, Lavinia."

I search her eyes for some understanding but I find none and with a slump of my shoulders I turn towards the stairs and stomp up them, ignoring the way Evie is staring at me as I go back to my room and fall on my bed with my eyes closed. This has to be the worst two days of my entire life I think before I bury my face in my pillows to block out my scream.

Evelyn

Poor Lavinia.

I suspect she will be stuck in the house for a while judging by the looks my parents had on their faces. I wish I knew the story behind the bruise, though. I can't believe Byron would do that to her... I wonder...

"Miss Malfoy," I stop stretching and look towards the owner of that stern voice. Madam Violet is glaring at me with her hands on her thin hips as she stands by the record player.

"Yes, Madam?" I ask innocently as I put my leg up on the barre and reach for my toes to stretch my muscles.

"There is no gum chewing in my studio," she states coldly in her harsh old woman voice.

I had forgotten I still had it in my mouth. I smile at her and she scowls as I prance to the trash bin to throw it away. I resume my spot back by Kendra and smile at the irritated look on Madam Violet's face. At one time I suppose she was beautiful but now her face has been pulled back tightly against her bones because of an obviously bad cosmetic spell that makes her face look frozen in a constant state of surprise. Her thick eyebrows, that she pencils in with black liner, really don't help the expression and her dyed black hair makes her look utterly ridiculous in the sunlight because it looks almost purple. She was once a great dancer when she was younger, so I guess her looks don't matter so much next to her talent.

"Forgive me, Madam," I tell her with a sweet smile as her coal eyes snap back to me. I always talk back and she hates it. "But Xavier gave it to me and he said that you wouldn't mind today," I lie with a little pout on my face as Xavier sits up straight from the position he was in to make an annoyed noise. "He said you okayed it."

Madam has no time for things like this so she snaps a look to the french moron at the front of the class who's too busy glaring at me to notice.

"You know my rules," she says with her chin tilted up. "Shame on your Mr. LesFramboises."

He sputters for a few moments as I smile and take off my warm up pants, making sure that my ballet slippers stay secured on my feet.

"Madam Violette," he says with his stupid French accent. "Eveleen ez lying like ez usual," he says, pronouncing my name in an annoyingly french way.

He sputters on, saying something else but Madam cuts him off. "Don't talk so fast when you are upset, Xavier. No one can understand you."

"Yes, Xavier," I say from my spot by the free standing barre. He glares at me again with his eyes narrowed. The hazel eyes that Kendra finds so charming but I liken them to the color of rotten pickles. "No one can understand you."

He mutters a french insult under his breath and I smirk again as Madam makes us all take our places. He always calls me bad names in french thinking I won't be able to understand him but I do. He calls me a rich spoiled brat all the time, so he should know that as a rich spoiled brat I would have a wonderful primary education which would include mastering multiple languages. One of them being French.

"Pay attention, please,"Madam claps her hands as we settle into our spots. Her skin is so papery thin that I'd bet you could get a paper cut from touching one of her veins that stick out from her skin. I snort at the thought and Kendra looks over her shoulder at me. Madam has to be like eighty years old now...

The music starts up and she stands to the side telling us what to do as we start our regular warm up routine and I welcome it. I enjoy the repetitiveness of it. I love the plies, tendu's, and the degage's, ronde de jambe and grand battemant. All those small movements that add up to one fluid motion as my body moves and my legs and arms gracefully go through the motions. I watch the mirror as we move and the Madam walks around the class, correcting and criticizing posture and positions. The irritating curl that always pops out onto my forehead appears once again and I blow it out as I move to do a grand plie and I get yelled at for hunching my shoulders.

"Back straight, Miss Malfoy," she says, tapping the barre by my fingers. "You have gotten lazy."

A blush slowly creeps onto my cheeks as I start to get warm and I blame that totally on my Mother. I don't think my Father has ever blushed no matter what the situation is. When our warm up is completed I look over to Xavier, which I do often because he is one of the only boys in our class so it was bound to happen. Of course his body is terribly fit and in shape considering he's been dancing since he was three and he goes to Beauxbatons which offers ballet as an elective class. Hogwarts doesn't, so me and a handful of others have to take classes in the room of requirement with some old ghost they found who knows how to dance... but it's not very good to be honest and every summer Madam Violet scolds me for my bad habits.

I sigh and look around the room as Madam moves the barre's towards the wall. This room his huge, with tall white walls that reach the heavens and a polished blond wood floor that you can see yourself in. Along one of the walls is a large mirror that all dance studios need and the windows rest right along the ceiling, letting the sun come in in a checkered pattern along the shinny floor. Xavier bumps into me as we take our places for our floor work and I shake my head as he walks off and runs a hand through his light brown hair. It reminds me of mud on a rainy day. I know I sound mean and very harsh on him, but he once told me that he thought my hair looked like the color of sick cat pee... so he started all of this, really.

We start our second half of practice, concentrating on balance and strength building turns, eventually working on our pointe work as Xavier stands to the side glaring at me. He hates me because my family has money and his is so poor. There are plenty of studios in France but Madam's is supposed to be the best in the wizarding world. The payments were so steep that he couldn't afford to attend so Madam Violet offered him a deal because he was such a good dancer. He accepted, of course. No one turns down Violet Tani... Only he has to work for her to pay for his classes, filing papers and doing other things around the studio. Unfortunate things like polishing the floors and cleaning the bathrooms during the summer. That's why he can't stand me, because my parents can pay for tuition and then some... and I hate him... that's not true, I don't hate him. I don't hate anyone, I just find him terribly unpleasant and unlikable and I don't enjoy being around him because... well... because he's better at dancing than I am.

When practice is over my temples are damp from sweat and I say goodbye to my ballet friends with a smile as I meet Mom in the front hallway, sucking away on my water bottle because I'm so thirsty.

"How was practice?" Mom asks as she takes my bag from my shoulders to hold.

"It was fabulous," I tell her with a smile as we walk towards the Apparation point together. I watch her as she takes out her wand and smiles at me nervously when she notices me staring at her. "Mom?"

"Yes?" she asks as she takes my hand to Apparate with me because I don't have my license yet.

"How much do you love Dad?" I ask, remembering that memory in the pensive.

She looks at me in a strange way as she tilts her head to the side. "I love him a great deal. Why?"

I shrug my shoulder and take another drink of water. "Just asking."

We Apparate home and I go to my room to shower and change. I look at my feet in the shower and sigh sadly at them. Dancers were not meant to have pretty feet and I fear mine will always look this abused and battered. I get dressed and bound down the stairs to talk to Daddy because I was suppose to go over to Jeremiah's tonight to play exploding snaps. I slide in front of his study door and I am about ready to knock but I hear him talking to Mom so of course I decide to listen. It's really the only way to get information from anyone around here. I even drop down to my knees to look through the key hole with my hands on the wood of the door. I'm nosy, I can't help it. I was just born that way.

"We really can't lock her up here, Draco," That's Mom and she sighs as she sits on top of his desk. "She is a full grown witch now."

"No, she isn't," Dad says like Mom was stupid. "A full grown witch wouldn't be so stupid as to protect the boy who hit her in the face."

"Really?" Mom says flatly as Dad falls into his desk chair, with his glass of brandy in his hand. He drinks an awful lot, I hope he doesn't get liver disease.

They look at each other and he rolls his eyes. "That's not the same, Ginny. Don't look at me like that."

"Think what you will," she says, hopping off his desk so her back is facing me... or the door that I'm peeking through. "What ever the case may be it's still her decision to make. Not ours."

"But what if she forgives that moron and wants to start hanging around him? Would you just let that happen and do nothing?"

Mom walks over to him and runs a hand through his hair. "I forgave you," she mumbles as she bends down to kiss his cheek, "and what you did wasn't an accident."

He stands up and glares at her. "You always spin things around on me," he snaps and she raises her eyebrows.

"You're one to talk."

"Whatever," he says and I can't believe he would say that word considering he hates it when any of us use it against him. "She's still grounded. End of discussion."

He starts walking towards the door and I stand up straight and smooth down my clothes. "She didn't do anything wrong," Mom says softly.

Dad opens the door but he doesn't see me because he turns his body slightly back towards Mom. "She lied to me."

"Draco, you can't control everything."

"Watch me..." he says and then he turns. When he sees me standing there smiling up at him he sighs. "What is it?"

"I'm supposed to go to Jeremiah's now," I tell him. I have to use his floo line because those are the rules when I leave the house so he knows where I'm going.

He looks down to me and then over his shoulder at Mom. "You're not going tonight," he tells me and I narrow my eyes.

"But you already said I could go!" I say with a stomp of my foot. I can throw a fit like no one else and being the youngest Malfoy really has sharpened my whining skills.

"I changed my mind. You can owl that boy and tell him you aren't coming."

"Draco..." Mom warns from behind but he ignores her.

"I'm going." I say defiantly and he glares at me.

"I said no. You shouldn't be going to boys houses anyways. You're too young."

"It's Jeremiah! He's not a boy, he's... he's Jeremiah!" I say with another stomp because I'm not getting my way. "Why do I have to be punished because you're mad at Lavinia?"

"Go to your room."

"No."

"Go."

"No!"

He tightens his jaw and jerks his head in a shake because he's angry with me but I don't care. "Evelyn," I look over Dad's shoulder at Mom as she walks closer to us. I know she'll side with me. "Go to your room," I stomp my foot again, totally angry at her for that comment. When she reaches us she stands by my sour looking Dad and tries to smile reassuringly. "I'll try to talk some sense into your father, alright?"

"Fine, but I'm still going," I say before walking back towards my room, hoping that Mom can work her magic and calm Daddy down.

They start arguing again but I ignore it as I make my way towards my room, on the way there I hear Lavinia throwing things around so I open her door with out knocking to see her storming around her room, pulling out clothes and throwing them on her bed.

"What are you doing?" I ask as I step in and close the door behind me.

She looks to me and scoffs. "Don't you ever knock?"

"No," I say honestly, "I hope you know that Daddy is being terribly unreasonable because of what you did. He's making me stay home when he already said I could go out."I don't get out much so I really do enjoy it when I get to.

Her eyes soften as she looks to me and she drops the shoes she was holding. "I'm sorry, Evie. He can be unfair."

"Yes, he can be," I tell her as I walk into her room and fall down on her bed, landing on my stomach and propping my head up on my arms as I survey the mess she created. She's usually such a neat freak. "What is all this?"

She sighs and walks over to me, slumping to the floor and resting her back against the bed so our faces are close to each others. I study her profile as she looks at the wall. "I'm going to run away."

I snort out loud and she glares at me. "What a silly idea," I tell her and her glare gets darker. "You're of age now. I think if you leave with all your things that officially would be called 'moving out'."

A reluctant smile tilts her lips and she looks at the wall again as she picks at her dress. "I didn't even do anything wrong," she mumbles and I tilt my head to watch her better as I let my feet dangle off the other edge of the bed.

"If it makes you feel better, Mom is down stairs right now fighting for our freedom."

She nods her head and looks at her lap, putting some red hair behind her ear. "I guess I know how Mom felt when they were first married being locked up like this."

I know those stories. Dad locked her up just like he did with Lavinia today but she was stuck here for a lot longer than the few hours that my sister has had to endure. "He was never this way with Cassius and Gavin..." I start as I take a curl and twirl it in between my fingers. "Why do you suppose he's so strict with us?"

Lavinia rests her head in her hands and I watch her closely as she bites her lower lip. Jeremiah is right, she is very pretty. I hope that when I get older people will be able to tell we're sisters.

"It's because we're girls," she says as she twists her neck to look up at me on the bed. "I bet he doesn't want anyone to do to us what he did to Mom."

"I bet not," I muse as I look off into space.

Someone knocks on the door and we both turn towards the noise as Mom sticks her head in. "Evie, if you still want to go you better go now," she says tiredly and I smile as I jump off the bed. "but you have to be back in one hour or your father will have a heart attack."

"Of course, Mom." I say brightly as I nearly skip out of the room.

I look over my shoulder once to see Mom looking sadly in at Lavinia as she shakes her head.

Cassius

Byron spent most of the morning puking his guts out in our bathroom and I was glad that he wasn't around for me to look at because I just might have killed him. I was so extremely angry with him last night that I couldn't even bring myself to look at him when he came stumbling in this morning all covered in blood. The bastard had chipped my front tooth and broke my nose so I had to call for a healer to fix both things before I went to bed... I can't even begin to think about what he did to Lavinia because I'd be tempted to curse the living day lights out of him for it. At least I can fight back. Lavinia is just a small girl.

Freaking drunk bastard.

Things were going so smoothly too. We were having a good time drinking at McCoy's pub as Sid told us stories about his Quidditch travels. I knew Byron was upset the whole night but he wasn't really showing it at the beginning of the night so I eventually ignored it. It wasn't until Sid asked about my family I saw the flash in his eyes and I noticed that he was on his forth firewhisky.

"Do you want to hear a story, Sid?" Byron had slurred, leaning across the high table we were sitting at. Sid thinks it's amusing when Byron gets drunk but he's never really seen the crazy drunk beast he can turn in to.

"Sure," he had said with a laugh, "I'd love to."

Byron sent one look to me and I knew that whatever was going to come out of his mouth next would be something terrible.

"Last night I stayed the night at Malfoy Manor," Sid sent a sideways glance to me and I shook my head. "And I was minding my own business, just sitting in my room and guess what happened next."

"I think you're done," I told him, taking the drink away from him but he pulled it back.

"Let me tell my story," he hissed at me like a drunken idiot before turning back to Sid who was starting to look uncomfortable. "Cassius's little sister came in dressed in this unbelievably short little number and she wanted me to..."

"That's enough," I said more sternly and Byron snapped his drunk eyes to mine.

"What? Don't want Sid to know about your whorish sister,"

"Whoa," Sid said with his hands up, surprised by what was said but I wasn't. In fact I had my wand gripped in my hands since he started telling his story. "Calm down, Byron."

"I will not calm down," he stated as he stood up and spilled his glass all over the table. The move made Sid and I stand up as well as firewhisky soaked our pants. "She was practically begging for it and then the next day she was snogging the hell out of some other guy right in front of me. Loose morals you Malfoy's have."

That's how we ended up outside dueling in the street. I couldn't help myself and now my body aches because of it.

I was uneasy with the idea of them being together before... but now I know I'm totally against it after the drunken night Byron had and the way he treated her.

I shake my head to rid it of the memory and get ready for the day in khaki slacks and a green polo shirt. I know it's a Dad outfit, but I have a meeting today so I have to look semi-presentable. I Apprate to the University around noon, running my tongue over my front tooth because it was broken last night and I half expect it to be that way again but luckily the healer was good with teeth. I make my way to Dr. Bailey's office with my hands stuffed in my pockets, trying not to think about last night.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, come in."

I smile at the professor as I take off my shoes and walk into his office. He's all about positive energy and new wave living so instead of a regular chair to sit in I have to take a seat on one of the large green pillows on the floor. Dr. Bailey is the main professor of Archeology at the university I went to and he has to be as old as some of the wizards we dig up. He goes to make me some tea and I watch his back as he hums softly to himself. He's a short man, in fact, he's so short that it's uncomfortable to stand beside him because it's like you're talking to a small child who can't hear you very well. He has no hair but a few sparse gray ones horseshoed around his head and he wears large glasses that magnify his eyes like he was a giant bug. He turns to me and smiles, showing a face so deeply lined with wrinkles that he looks like a road map.

"Where is Mr. Flint today?" He ask as he takes a seat on the pillow across from me. The room is tinted red because all of the lights are draped in red cloth... that has to be a fire hazard. "Mr. Malfoy?"

"Oh," I say as he hands me the small glass of tea and I take it with a lopsided smile. "He wasn't feeling very well."

"That's a shame, poor boy," he says and I roll my eyes into my cup. Byron deserves to puke out his whole stomach after the way he acted last night. "He's not the most stable person, is he?"

That much is obvious. I don't answer, choosing instead to ask him why I'm here. "Why did you ask to meet me?"

We don't work through him anymore. We mostly work out on our own and the things we find go to the London Museum of Magic Findings. I put the tea on the coaster he sat out for me, right in front of my pillow. I'm uncomfortable, so I try to shift my body but it doesn't work so I just sit there with my back perfectly straight feeling like an idiot because I'm sitting on a pillow.

"We think we've found something off the island of Crete," he says, pulling out a folder from under his pillow and flipping through it after licking his fingers. I cringe and look away. "It will be a very interesting find if there's anything there and the University is funding a team to go and check it out," he says handing a paper to me that has a map of the Island and when I realize what it is my eyes snap to his and he smiles. "I thought you would like it."

"What did you find?" I ask as I look at the other papers he's handing me, detailing the legends and Myths that surround that area of water.

"A few artifacts were discovered by some muggle fishermen a few weeks ago," he says as he drinks his own tea. "They thought they were from Aliens but obviously they were magic."

"Can I see them?" I ask eagerly, the archeological nerd in me floating to the surface.

"They're being processed right now but if you agree to tag along with my team then I'll make sure you have a first hand look at everything we find."

I smile, there is no way I could turn this down. In the ancient world, especially in Greece and Egypt, wizards and muggles lived side by side as equals with out hiding anything from each other. If you could do magic then you were set up as a mystic or a healer, a priest of the gods or an oracle. Even the older legends from muggle mythology about Gods and Goddess have some basis in our magical ancestry. There wasn't the secrecy that there is now until a new religion took over and magic was seen as bad and evil. I find that when you don't understand something you either hold it up so it's above you or you hold it down wanting to kill it, making it terriable.

Supposedly most of the magical people migrated to an island off of the Greek Isles and created the first all magical society in the world. It was where the first wand was made to harness their powers and where all the spells that we learn today were created and perfected. Basically it's the birthd place place of modern thought in the magical community, but it disappeared and no one is really sure what happened to it. There has been speculation for centuries as to what was the cause but nothing concrete. If this is really it I think I could die happy.

"Well, what do you say?"

"I'm in," I say with out hesitation. I've also never done a dig under water before so that will be interesting.

"I hope Mr. Flint is in as well. I could use another Anthropologist just in case."

I don't even want to acknowledge my best friend right now so I dismissively nod my head as I stare down at the papers in my hands like I was a child on Christmas morning.

"On Tuesday we'll be meeting up in the history lab and flooing to the offices in Crete. Make sure you're there."

I nod my head and stand up, giving him a hand shake when he does as well. "Thank you, Professor."

I leave there, feeling much better than I did in the morning and when I come home Byron is sitting on one of the chairs, looking all sickly and pale with his journal on his lap. I look him up and down as I come in but he doesn't move, he just stares out at the the air in front of him and I notice that he's all healed now so that's a good thing.... or not... I go to the small kitchen we have and take out a butterbeer for the mini celebration I'm intending to have but just knowing Byron's in the other room irritates me.

"It wouldn't be enough to apologize, would it?" Byron asks and I turn to the door way to see him standing there with a tense body and unease in his eyes. He has his journal clutched in his fingers so tightly that his knuckles are turning white.

"It's a start," I tell him as I turn around and take another drink from the bottle. "But the person you really should be apologizing to is my sister."

I can practically feel him wince in shame but I don't care.

"I'll never--"

He doesn't finish that because an owl swoops in and I glare at it as it falls over on the table before hooting and turning upright as it ruffles it's feathers. It must be one of those simple barn owls because it hoots a few more times, stumbling around the counter before Byron saves it from doing whatever the hell it was doing. As he unties the letter from it's legs I remind myself that wizards should always close their windows because owls are freaking annoying. I go to walk out of the room as Byron reads the letter but that damn bird runs into me as it tries to fly out of the room so I pick it up off the ground and go towards the window to throw it out.

I watch it fly off and shake my head before turning around to go back to my room to shut Byron out of my life but the look on his face as he reads the letter makes me stay.

"Who's that from?" I ask, because the owl was obviously brain damaged.

"My Mom..." he says as he knits his eyebrows together as his eyes scan the page.

Who cares.

I go towards my room again but he says my name. "What do you want?" I ask meanly as he stares at me.

"I don't know if you would care to know this," he says seriously, looking down at the letter and then into my eyes. "But Arthur Weasley died this morning."

"What?"

He looks down at at the ground and I look at the wall.