7. The Future Mrs. Zabini
"Lucia, a word?" my father's voice sounded far away. I had thought to be alone, but I should have foreseen it to be a very rare thing to be alone in a house as big as mine, especially around war time.
"Yes, of course". I stood up properly so that my state of fear, confusion, and whatsoever else I was feeling appeared less obvious. Doing my best to recompose myself, I followed father into the sitting-room, joining mother there. I seated myself on one of luxurious red sofa's and looked at my parents expectantly. Perhaps this was about my absence during the weekly family lunch on Saturday after noon? I'd been with Harry this after noon, of course, but they did not know that. According to my parents, well mostly my mother, there were very few reasons that could justify missing one of those lunches. We all knew the significance these lunches had to her, yet Draco and father almost always managed to skip one every other week, due to their so-called 'missions'. I could understand mother wanted to keep at least some sort of family gathering. Who were we to abstain her from that? Personally I had never missed a lunch, until today…
"I apologise for not being home for lunch today, mother" I quickly said then. "I had a momentous task for the Dark Lord".
"No matter, dear" mother replied. It was not the lunch, then, but what was it?
"You're practically a woman now, Lucia" said my father. I could tell he wasn't completely comfortable with this conversation, obviously, and neither was I. When my father started referring to his favourite little girl as a woman, it couldn't be good. "And you know that, especially in this time of war, it is very important for the Pureblood families to unite…"
I nodded calmly, starting to get a hint of where this was going. And I did not like it one bit.
"So your mother and I have decided it is time for you to get married, now you are of age".
I had felt it coming, but the message didn't go down too well. Besides the fury any girl would most likely feel in my position, I was also jealous. Why me, and not Draco? He was older than me, for Merlin's sake!
"What about Draco??" I therefore inquired, hardly pretending to be polite anymore at this point.
"Darling, you know very well that your brother has been involved with Pansy Parkinson for quite a while now. We expect their engagement to be announced very soon" Narcissa Malfoy replied coldly. "Draco doesn't seem to need the push in the right direction".
Mother always seemed to choose Draco's side over mine, and it annoyed me. I was her child too! However, father had the tendency to choose my side so I suppose I should not complain."And who is it going to be, then?" I asked angrily.
"Blaise Zabini" was the instant reply of my father.
"And you have notified Blaise of this as well?" I asked, boiling with anger on the inside.
"Of course, darling. He will take you out for dinner tonight, I forgot to tell you" mother simply said. Father looked as casual and confidant as always, yet if you looked as deep in his eyes as I did now you would be able to tell that he too wished circumstances were different.
"How wonderful" I replied, sarcasm dripping from my voice. "May I be excused now? I suppose I should prepare if my 'fiancé to be' is coming to pick me up soon".
Father nodded curtly and I passed a curious house elf in the doorway, before I ran up the stairs to my room in the west wing of the Manor. Once in my room, I dropped myself on to my bed and threw my shoes at the door angrily. How could they do this to me now? Things already were so confusing, and now I had a fiancé I knew nothing about on top of it all. Of course I could have seen it coming, it was exactly as father had said; Pureblood families needed to unite. Yet I still couldn't get over the fact that it had to be me who got the prearranged marriage instead of Draco, who deserved it a great deal more. He was an annoying brat, but I had always done exactly what my parents had told me. I'm sure that was exactly what they expected me to do now. As I finally dragged myself to the mirror to make myself something more pleasant to look at, my sight was still blinded by the tears prickling behind my eyes. I wouldn't give them that pleasure though, I was not going to cry over this. Slowly I changed into a new red dress, recently shopped somewhere in Diagon Alley and put my hair up in a more sophisticated way. I preferred it worn down, but I was not going to give Blaise the best of me. Some lipstick applied, a spray of perfume, and ready I was. The fact that I had not put hours of work on my appearance as I sometimes did brought a slight grin to my face.
"Miss Lucia" I suddenly heard the squeaky voice of one of our new elves behind me –I always forgot their names, except Dobby's, he was good- and turned around.
"Mi-mister Zabini is downstairs to see you" said the pathetic little creature. I gave the thing a nod in acknowledgement and made my way down the stairs.
"Well well Blaise, we meet again" I greeted him, remembering our brief encounter during my coming of age ball.
"Yes, Lucia, at last" he said with a grin, leaning in to kiss my cheek. Somewhat grudgingly, I allowed this.
"So, where are you planning to take me?" I inquired, taking my cloak from the same house elf who had announced Blaise's presence to me earlier and wrapping it around my shoulders.
"Just some nice little restaurant" he replied, and then added with a light chuckle: "I hope it's up to your standards".
"I'm sure you've arranged something nice, Blaise" I replied rather coldly, not unlike my mother could be sometimes.
I let him take hold of my arm, and we disapparated to a decent, yet indeed too ordinary for my liking, restaurant.
"It looks good" I said, entering as he held the door open for me. At least he seemed to possess some of the Pureblood manners. The restaurant looked small, and not too expensive. The waitress-witches wore sulky expressions that made sure the guests didn't think twice about giving a good tip. You never knew, after all.
We seated ourselves at a small table in the back, candlelight being the only illumination. It created quite an atmosphere, though it did make it particularly difficult to read the menu.
"I take it you spoke to your father then" Blaise said after we had ordered a drink and a pre -course.
I nodded timidly, dreading that he brought this up. "Yes, Blaise, I have spoken to him."
A triumphant grin spread over his face. "Wonderful. So how about we make this official, then?" He took a small, black box from his pocket and opened it. Inside it was, admittedly, a very beautiful ring, with a large diamond in the middle.
"Lucrecia Bellatrix Malfoy", he started, ignoring the fact that I suddenly wasn't so hungry for that soup anymore. "Will you marry me?"
I performed a wonderfully fake smile that was supposed to make me look truly happy. I supposed I should be a little more flexible; after all, my parents were right. I had the age to marry, it could do something good for the Pureblood race, but did I really care about that anymore? It would be fooling myself to say that I did, for had I not decided early today that all I did care about was Harry? Harry, whom had given me more than I had ever received. Harry, whom I had betrayed so badly to the Dark Lord. Would he ever forgive me if he knew this? I supposed that at the moment I couldn't do a lot more than accept the situation. Solve it later. Until there was a better solution I would have to play along.
"Yes, Blaise, I would love to become your wife".
With a slight satisfied grin he shoved the ring around my finger. "Do you like the ring?" he asked. "It was my grandmother's engagement ring".
"It's beautiful" I agreed, resisting the urge to add: "and you got it for free".
"We'll be very happy, I'm sure" Blaise said. "We'll make a beautiful, rich and powerful couple".
Throughout the rest of dinner, Blaise mainly talked of himself. It took me a not entirely fake, severe head ache to get him to bring me home early.
"It's such a shame you're not feeling well" he complained at the gate of the Manor. "We could have had some more…fun" he said suggestively. "You know, the kind we didn't have on your birthday. Of course everything's different now that we're engaged".
"Yes, everything's different now" I had to agree. "Thanks for dinner, and I'll see you around". Quickly I closed the gate behind me and walked up to the house. Finally, some peace and quiet. This did not last long, however. I let out a quiet groan as the first thing I saw when I entered the house was my brother and his air headed girlfriend Pansy Parkinson snogging each other by the stairs.
"Oi, can't a person come home without the peepshow?" I remarked, not about to hide my bad mood for them.
Draco disentangled himself from Pansy's embrace and the pair of them glared at me. "Only because you're so bitter, dear sister, doesn't mean you need to take it out on us" he snapped back.
"Just ignore her, Dracie, let's go up to your room" whined Pansy, clinging to Draco's arm.
I resisted the urge to confront Pansy with my brother's little dates with other girls, more than occasionally. Now was not the time for that, though the price of the look upon her face when she would discover that was definitely going to be priceless.
"I'm not bitter, as a matter of fact, I'm delighted with my new engagement ring, Dracie" I bit back at him, even more annoyed with the fact that they already seemed to know of my prearranged marriage to Blaise.
"So I heard" Draco chuckled, pushing Pansy away lightly when she tried to throw herself in his arms again.
"Well, good night" I said arrogantly, ascending the stairs. I honestly did not see what attracted Draco to Pansy; she was so clingy it even made me want to vomit, and I only had to put up with her seldom.
Once in my room, I changed into a comfortable, light blue nightgown and laid down on my bed to think over everything that had happened today. It was a whole lot; sleeping with Harry, realising that I loved Harry, getting engaged to Blaise… How could I possibly explain that to Harry? I couldn't hide it, either; knowing my parents it would be announced in The Prophet as soon as possible. Best would be to tell him myself, some time in the nearby future. My hands trembling lightly, I took a piece of parchment and a quill from a drawer in my desk, and started to write.
Dear Harry,
There is something I would like to discuss with you. Can you meet me behind the Shrieking Shack tomorrow morning around 9 AM?
Love,
Your Lucie
I folded up the letter and tied it to the leg of my owl, Sapphire, named after one of my most favourite gem stones.
"Take this to Harry, beauty" I said to her, opening the window and then watching her fly off into the darkness. I laid back down on my bed and blew out the candle on the nightstand. What a mess my life was now, whereas this morning I had still been so happy. What had happened? The tears started coming before I even noticed I had to cry. I could feel my make-up running, but what did it matter? Who cared about what they looked like, in such a situation? I had already been so far away from happiness with Harry, being able to really be with him. This bloody engagement only brought me one step further from that. Angrily, I threw the ring in the furthest corner of my room, burying my head in my hands after that. I didn't know yet for sure what I wanted exactly, or how I was going to get it, but I did know for sure that I did not want to marry Blaise Zabini. Also in that moment, I decided that in the end, I was therefore not going to marry him.
Author's Note: I'm really enjoying to write this, and thanks for reading (and some of you for reviewing) so far! I hope you continue. Here's a personal reply for my awesome reviewers:
JessicaHatchett: Hehe, sorry, not too much details or I would have to rate it 'M' instead. I don't have a lot of experience with that sort of scenes yet, but I'm working on it ;). Thanks for reading and reviewing, do continue please!
Drkjester: You too, a lot of thanks for reviewing and reading! It means a lot, I love all reviews. I hope you continue.
And last, my new friend Karen: I'm so glad you like it! I hope you like this chappy too, though it has quite a bit of a twist. I'll talk to you on msn ;)