AN: I don't know what happened to my Beta, but she seems to have disappeared, so this is an unbeta'd chapter. Any mistakes either ignore, or tell me and i'll get to fixing it.
That night after classes and homework were finished, Toni sat on his bed staring at the envelopes. One was full of business proposals, which he wasn't looking forward to reading. He would more than likely read the first paragraph of most then toss them into the fire. After all, 90% of them wouldn't even be worth the attention of his father. The second held the gathered information on the person bold enough to approach his father, and apparently great enough to be allowed to court him. He knew he should be thoroughly reading up on the man, and memorizing all the important information, but the part of him that was scared, was winning, and not allowing him to open the cursed envelope. He sat there wondering if the person inside already knew him, or was just after his name.
Tony had spent years trying to heal all the abuse the Dursley's had done to Toni. When Toni joined the family, he had been painfully shy, insecure, and scared of almost everyone. After awhile, he began to trust and open up to the family and guards. As the years passed, he grew bolder, and more confident, but inside there was still the scared, insecure child. What if this person finally met him, decided he was too boring, too ugly, or too something negative, and told his father that he no longer wanted to court him. Would this person ever love him? What scared Toni the most was that he would marry this person and be abused again, and this time his father wouldn't come along to save him. That his father would tell him he wasn't strong enough, and then forget about him. Maybe that was why, his father had chosen the man, without his presence. Maybe Tony Cortalioni didn't believe in his son, and found someone worthy of the title of Head of the Italian Families, and was marrying Toni off, so this new man could take over.
Toni had worked himself into a depression, and didn't notice the tears falling from his eyes. Still staring at the envelopes, he grabbed both, and tossed them aside. He barely registered that the contents of both went sliding across his floor. Instead of cleaning up, Toni crawled into his covers and made his little comfort cocoon. He lay awake for hours, staring into nothing as thoughts of where he showed weakness in front of his father flashed through his mind. Sure, he had been kidnapped, but he got free, and yes, he had been in the middle of several attacks and assassination attempts, but he was still alive. Toni thought hard, but he couldn't think of anything, and that made his feel worse. He was unknowingly upsetting his father, which caused him to lose faith in his son.
Once Toni arrived at that conclusion, his silent tears, disappeared to choking sobs. The guards stationed outside had known that occasionally the heir would have nightmares. Knowing this the disregarded the noises from inside, and thought he would be fine in the morning. When the guard changed shifts, no one mentioned the crying, and they carried on.
The next morning, Toni refused to leave bed. He stayed hidden away in his own little world, trying to find away to wrap his head around these new thoughts. Around lunchtime, he emerged, and gathered all the fallen papers. Once every paper was picked up, he retreated to his bed to start reading. He had a goal now. He would make his father proud, and make this work. Even if the person never loved him, they might grow fond of each other, or at least work well to carry on his father's enterprise. To do this, he needed to read and learn everything about his future suitor. His father taught him how to be strong, and he would listen.
The guards were curious when the heir didn't emerge, like he normally did. Assuming he was just working on paperwork and ordered food, they left him alone. When lunch rolled around and still no sound had come from the room, the guards were a little worried. When dinner came, and no one had seen nor heard from the heir, they decided to enter the room and investigate. Walking inside, everything seemed to be in order. As the approached the bedroom area they saw the scattered paper, and mound of blankets. One guard stepped forward, and pushed back the blanket to discover the sleeping heir. He was sleeping curled up in a ball, with a single sheet up paper hidden under the sheets with him. The paper told the guards, who exactly would be coming to court the heir.
Thursday morning came and the heir was still refusing to leave his cave of comfort. To him it was a safe place, where the outside world didn't matter. He needed time to think and process everything he had read the day before. While he was trying to formulate plans, and whatnot, he also read through the proposals. As he thought, most of them ended up in the pile destined for the fire, but one or two held promise. He read them through thoroughly, before making notes at the side. When he exhausted that he summoned his business ledger, and did some research, and made plans.
He called for an elf to have lunch brought o him, and continued working. He wanted to get this done, so he could leave and start his own preparations for the courting. Once he finished he wrote a letter to his father, and called a guard to send it off. He showered, dressed, and grabbed his money before informing the guards of his plans. Toni along with some of his guard left the school, and apparated off to Florence. After all, they had shopping to do.
Friday Toni once again missed classes. He sent one of the guards to collect his homework, and did that in his rooms. He was glad that the guards never mentioned his activities to his family members, or Em would be here smothering him. He needed time and room to think about the whole situation. At the same time, he needed to do this on his own, and knowing his sisters they would try doing the whole thing for him.
The day before, he went to Florence to prepare. The whole courting process took about eight months to complete. The first week, the two 'hopefuls' would spend every day together –on a type of date- and exchange gifts. Then for the eight months following, the time spent together would vary. Now, he just needed to work out what gift he would give the suitor. The first gift was something that represented themselves, to the other. Also, since Toni was the one being courted, he was allowed to plan the first date. He spent yesterday buying one or two things, but mainly looking for ideas. Knowing he needed to go out shopping again, Toni decided to try another shopping district for more inspiration.
Draco and Blaise had not seen Toni all week. After he cancelled their class, he seemed to have disappeared. He didn't attend class, or show up for his usual grab and dash breakfast. No one knew where his rooms were, so they couldn't conveniently drop by and inquire about him.
Draco was somewhat worried about Toni being courted. He didn't particularly know why, but the thought of the creative raven-haired annoyance being trapped in an arranged marriage, irked him. Everyone assumed that Pansy Parkinson and he were arranged to be married, but that was false. When he was nine and found the contract, he found the first loophole and burned the thing. His nine-year-old self refused to marry the pigtailed spoiled brat, which constantly stole his toys and yelled. His seventeen-year-old self, still stood by his nine-year-old decision. Pansy was no longer that same little girl- no she was much worse now. He stole other girls' boyfriends, and only yelled when her hair care products went missing. Other than that, she was a delight to be around.
Draco had been hoping to find Toni, but since the boy was M.I.A, he had to postpone his apology. Blaise had taken him aside Tuesday, and punched him hard. His arm was still bruised from the brute. After the physical violence was over, Blaise lectured him about his actions. He berated him on his; words, lack of tact, and how rude he had been. When Draco tried to explain that he didn't know why he acted the way he did around the Italian heir, Blaise smacked him on the back of the head, called him an idiot, and left. Draco still could not figure out what he meant.
Now it was Sunday night, and Draco was slightly upset. He wanted to apologize before the courting thing started, that way he didn't have to deal with a possible giggly Italian heir, and a pompous suitor. He was hoping to see the other boy, quickly drag him away and apologize with no witnesses, but now he wouldn't be able to because some lovesick fool, would probably be stuck to Toni's side. This whole courting business was ridiculous if you asked him. The whole process was probably only in effect because air-headed girls, wanted knights in shining armor to ride up to the manors and save them from the fierce goblin, holding them hostage during their during parties -completely and utterly ludicrous.
Somewhere in an isolated country home, a group of people sat plotting. Tomorrow they had a new threat to take out. The Cortalioni heir would meet the suitor, and the assembled group, would find a weak spot, and strike. They would just follow the first few days, and if they couldn't find an opportune moment, then they would have to snatch the boys during a following date. Some thought they should let the week play out, so they could research the new threat, and be better prepared. Some wanted to strike as soon as the man arrived, and never let him near the heir. One man strongly suggested they just steal the Cortalioni heir, and forget everything about the suitor. He was ignored and reminded of why that wasn't such a good idea.
The talked long into the night plotting, and by the time the sun was peaking over the horizon they had come to a decision. Nodding to one another, they left and went to either gather supplies or sneak into the school. The man, who suggested just kidnapping the heir, was left in the house to stew. Everyone felt he would be too much of a risk on this mission, and left him in charge of relieving the owls of any letters or packages.
He was anxious to do something, but he knew if he wanted and listened to these people, than soon his little love would be delivered to him. He just needed to wait, wait for owls, and be patient. Besides the leader of the group, had been working on this for years, and with all that planning, what could possibly go wrong?
So last shapter had two really interesting reviews.
One: made me chuckle because I was called EVIL several times for cliffhangers.
Second: I laughed really hard, when the person said this story reminded them of noodles.
I'm working on the entire courting week now, so next update should be a big chapter.
Also I started posting the new quiddtch story!
Other than that, thanks for all the reviews
and Orange popsicles are awesome.
