A/N: reviews are much appreciated :)
A Long Night
Marius awoke with a start. It was a warm night, but Peia's hands were cold and clammy against his skin.
"Marius," she said, and at the sound of her voice, he sat up. Her voice rang with urgency. He stared at her face, certain that he had never seen her more anguished before.
"What is it, Peia?" he asked concernedly. His sister was close to tears.
"Marius," she said, her voice cracking, "listen carefully to me. Mother is coming, and perhaps even father, and they will be very angry with you. Don't believe what they say."
"Peia..." Marius' confusion rendered him speechless for a moment.
"Did you understand me, Marius?"
"Peia, I – no, I didn't. What's wrong? What is it?" he asked. "Did you have a bad dream?"
Peia shook her head, looking genuinely miserable. She didn't know how to tell Marius to leave. All she knew was that, in a few more heartbeats, her mother would be coming to drag Marius out of his room, out of the house, out of their lives forever. She wanted to save him the little dignity that was left in someone like him, but she simply could not bring herself to tell him. She imagined the scene that would be happening in a few minutes, and shuddered. She did not want that to happen to her brother.
Her newfound anger and determination lent her strength and cleared her head. "Get dressed," she told Marius, suddenly imposing.
"What?" Marius was taken aback.
"Do as I say!" she snapped, her voice rising.
"Are we going out at this time of night?"
"Do you trust me, brother?" Peia answered back.
"Of course!" he replied automatically.
"Then do as I say. Get dressed," she repeated urgently, and she was relieved to see that Marius complied. She could hear muffled screams from upstairs. Her parents were still arguing.
"Keshter," she called, and the house-elf appeared again, bowing. "Pack Marius' things," she commanded when she saw Marius emerge from his dressing closet.
"Will you tell me now what's happening?" he demanded, looking at Peia with so much confusion in his eyes.
Looking at him, perhaps for the last time, Peia could not help herself. She ran to her brother and embraced him as tears started in her eyes. "Oh, Marius," she said, sobbing.
"Hush, Peia," he said, trying to console his sister. He hardly knew what to say; he couldn't even understand why Peia was acting so strangely. "I'm here," he assured her, kissing her on her forehead.
Peia took a step backward. "Listen, brother," she said, urgent again. "When mother comes here – "
She could hear hurried footsteps and more bickering.
"– she might say things that are hurtful and untrue," she continued. The footsteps were getting louder, and she could make out what they were saying.
"– not tolerate it!" Her mother's voice was furious and resentful.
"– just a child, Violetta!" she heard her father argue.
There were more footsteps, growing louder by the second.
Peia tried again. "Marius –"
The door burst open. Framed by the doorway was Violetta, but she did not look like Violetta at all. To Peia, she was a stranger – her face was icy as she regarded Marius with something very much like loathing in her eyes. She seemed to grow taller with rage, and her robes seemed to billow in the still air.
She didn't stay by the doorway long. She hurtled through the room like a violent whirlwind, and to Peia's surprise, seized her wrists and pulled her away from her brother.
Marius was wide-eyed. "Mother?" he whispered.
"You were never my son," said Violetta, but her voice sounded like ice cracking. It pained her to hurt Marius so, but it galled her that she had wasted her time nourishing a child who was not only a Squib, but a child of Cygnus' sins as well.
To Marius, her words fell like the first few drops of a hailstorm.
"Mother, please!" Cassiopeia implored, tears starting again.
"Be quiet, Peia!"
Peia cried outright. Unable to stand watching her brother's fate, she ran to her next refuge: Pollux. She darted like a bullet past her eldest brother's anteroom and into his bedchamber.
"Pollux!" she cried, "Pollux! They're throwing out Marius!"
Pollux scrambled out of bed almost immediately, and for once, Peia was thankful that Pollux was a light sleeper. "What do you mean? What did you say?" he asked, already slipping into his robes.
"Come quick!" said Peia, but Pollux was already ahead of her, his long limbs allowing him to walk at a faster pace. Peia wondered how Pollux could help her. Pollux may have been tall for his age, but he was his age – he was just fourteen, and his say on the matter was hardly consequential.
Marius was no longer in his rooms. He was at the hallway, with all his belongings scattered about. Violetta had thrown all of them at him in her fit of rage. "Go away, go away!" she screamed, mercilessly tossing bags, books, and other articles at the child. "You never were my son, and your blood is an abomination to this family! How dare you despoil this House?"
It was just as nightmarish as Peia had imagined. She was only fortunate enough that her cousins were not in the house to witness the affair. Pollux stood beside her as if frozen, and though he had three more years experience of his mother than Peia had, he was equally shocked and somewhat appalled at what he was witnessing. He could not fully understand, of course, but Peia, young as she was, was mature for her age, and unusually bright. She knew the deeper, heavier reason of her mother's rage.
Of course, Peia was right. Violetta was in tears now, but she was still screaming, and she was screaming the same thing over and over again: "You are no son of mine!" Marius was not her son, though he was her husbands', and it hurt her deeply to know it. She had been faithful in every possible way to Cygnus, and though she had merely been betrothed to him, she had done her best to be more than a betrothed bride. More than the thought of her wasted efforts, however, was her slighted pride. She knew she was a beautiful woman, and an accomplished one, too, but to have her husband exchange her – even for a short time – for another woman was painful. It was excruciatingly more so to think that that other woman could have been a mere Muggle.
Peia had anticipated her mother's violent outburst, but she had not foreseen how Marius would react. Yet, there he was, pale and pained and confused all at the same time, standing amidst his things like the lost little boy that he was. He had not the heart to speak, not because he was afraid, but because seeing his mother look at him with undeniable loathing rendered him speechless. He did not understand this, and he easily assumed his youth to be the reason why he could not comprehend the intensity of his mother's feelings. All he understood was that she has disowned him for being a Squib, and an "abomination to the House of Black."
When Violetta had broken down at last, Marius thought he ought to speak. "Well," he said, his voice quivering, "I will go now. I can see," he paused, gulping, "that I'm no longer welcome." His voice cracked, but he did not cry, and Pollux thought he had never seen anyone so young act so maturely. He looked at Violetta as he spoke, and then he turned to his beloved sister, and for the first time, he thought that their faces were identical with grief and pain.
Peia looked back at him, memorizing his pale face, his grey eyes, his curly hair. She tried to commit to memory everything about him, for she will never again hear his voice, his laughter… She will never see him again.
The dark shadows in the hallway seemed to grow, enveloping her and clouding her vision. There was a roaring in her ears as all other sounds were shut out, and though Pollux had caught her before her head hit the marble floor, she found herself falling headlong into nothingness.
