"You really need to put up better barriers on your Floo." Astoria told me, picking her perfectly manicured hands. I glanced at her and begin to feel a headache coming on. Astoria is one of those people in your life that you know of and cross paths with every once in a while, but anything more is painful. She's a stunning girl with dark hair, a prominent nose, and stunning blue eyes. She also has a tiny figure, and carries herself like a queen. Daphne had told me that she was on her way to becoming editor of witch weekly, a magazine that I though extremely little of. Still, as long as my conversations with her were short, they did no lasting harm. However, Astoria was making it clear that this conversation might cause a significant decline in my health.
"My Floo? Never mind. Why are you here, Astoria?" I questioned. She turned to look at me as if the answer to my question is crystal clear, which it probably was, to Astoria.
"Isn't it obvious?" She barked and I rolled my eyes. Astoria's sister, Daphne, had been my study partner for most of my school years. We had gotten along rather well, to the point where I'd been invited to her home on occasion. It was there that I met Astoria. Up until this point, she has merely been someone who I was aware existed. Lately, however, she seemed to be playing a far more active role in my life. "This is about Draco."
"There's nothing to talk about. Unless Draco's Father kicks the bucket in Azkaban, you and Draco can ride off into the sunset and have dozens of mini-Draco's" I rant, throwing my hands in the air. Astoria stands up from her spot on the couch and places her hands on her hips.
"First," Astoria protests and motions to her body. "I will never have children, do you know what it would do to my figure. Children might be fine for you, since you already have the right figure for it, but not for me. Second, you seem to think that I came here with the intention of marrying Draco. Let me tell you now. I would give birth before I would marry him. That's why I'm here. I fully intend to marry Theo Nott. You have to find out some way to stop the wedding."
"Right, because I'm just holding back on some loophole that will get you out of marrying Draco in an instant." I hissed sarcastically. "Astoria, you and Draco's nuptials are none of my business whatsoever, and even if they were, do you honestly think I could do anything about them?"
"Daphne claims that besides Granger, you were the smartest in your year." Astoria admitted and pulled a stack of papers out of her purse." Just look them over please, see if you can find anything that we've missed."
"Who else has looked them over?" I questioned.
"My lawyers, Daphne and her lawyers, my mother, and I. Draco's lawyers will look at it next week. I'm sure Draco and his mother will too will too." Astoria confessed, and then looked pleadingly at me. "Will you try at least? Please?"
"I honestly don't know what you expect me to find that all the others have missed, Astoria." I commented, but take the papers from her hands anyway. Her eyes lit up.
"So you'll do it? You'll look them through?" Astoria asksed hopefully. I nodded and a second later she had her arms wrapped around me. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"I just want you to understand that it's highly unlikely I'll find anything. Lucius Malfoy is a careful man. I don't think he would even let the slightest mistake end up in his son's marriage arrangement." I reiterated. "I don't think your father would either. He's a very serious man as well."
"Right." Astoria agreed, sobering up. "Still, I think that it's worth it to hope."
"Maybe." I told her, but I don't believe it. Astoria gave me an appraising look.
"I'd better go," she said, heading to the fireplace. The right before she reached it, she swiveled around. "But, I want you to know that even if you don't think this will benefit you in any way, trust me, it will."
"How?"
"I know that you won't believe me, but Draco loves you. He also loves Edward." Astoria hesitated. "He won't admit it, but you're the one he wants to be walking down the aisle with, not me." I shrugged.
"I'm not too sure about that. We had a big fight a few days ago."
"Trust me. If you find him a way out of this, he won't even notice other women," Astoria stepped into the fireplace. "Ciao"
I didn't get a chance to look over the documents until Sunday. I spent Sunday poring over the documents carefully. I'm not a lawyer, but I can tell that whoever wrote them did a fantastic job. They seem to be airtight. Every single detail is gone over meticulously and tediously. Five pages, dedicated to how to run the correct ceremony. The whole agreement was over seventy pages. By the time I get through it, I'm almost certain that Draco will be married to Astoria, no if ands or buts about it. Still, when it comes time to head over to the Weasleys, I push it into Teddy's bag, intent on reading it over again, if only to learn how to write my own legal documents.
By the time I reach the burrow, Teddy and I are the last ones to arrive. By a herd of redheads, and one blonde-haired woman, greeted us. Fleur slipped Teddy out of my arms and began to coo at him.
"Ella, how-" Fred started.
"-Could you?" George finishes. They grin." We had no idea you had a twin."
"We're not identical, like you guys you know. My twin's a boy." I inform them. The rolled their eyes and led me to the living room.
"Still, you retain special privileges as a twin, Privileges, that until now-"
"-We haven't privileged you with."
"So, when will we meet the poor sod-" Fred jokes
"-Who's saddled with you as his twin." George continues.
"I have no idea," I told the boys honestly. "Depending on how Fletcher's wedding goes, maybe never. I haven't spoken to him in four years you know."
"Not possible!" Fred and George gasped simultaneously.
"Not all twins are like the two of you. Fergus and I had spat ages ago, and we still haven't recovered from it." I told them absent mindedly as I scanned the room for Ginny. I spot her in the corner, chatting with Luna. "I'm going to go talk to Ginny and Luna now."
"Bye." The twins said reluctantly and I made my way over to the corner of the room. Luna spotted me first and waved me over.
"Luna, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages! How are you?" I asked, leaning over to give her a hug before I sit down next to Ginny.
"Excellent, the quibbler is going well." Luna told us, and then leaed in. "Fred and Angelina had a tiff the other day, they were in the flat, but George and I could hear them from the storage room. Something about her not being honest with him."
"Luna, Luna, Luna." Ginny teased. "Ella's over Fred, good thing too, if you ask me. They would have never worked out well together. Ella's too calm and collected for him. She's onto hotter things now. Namely Draco Malfoy."
"Don't listen to Ginny, Luna." I reasoned. "She has no idea what she's talking about."
"Please, you and I both know that the only thing standing between the two of you is that stupid arranged marriage and Draco's stubbornness." Ginny insisted.
"Has Draco looked at the contract yet?" Luna inquired. I reached into my bag and pull out the agreement.
"Funny thing about that. Daphne's had everybody she thinks can help look over it. She gave it to me two days ago, saying that Draco's side would be looking it over next week, but she wanted me to look at it." I divulged. "I can't find a single misspelled word, much less a loophole that would void the whole contract. I mean this thing is so complicated."
"Let me look at it." Luna proposed. "Maybe I can find something. Almost every marriage contract has a loophole, you know. In case something goes wrong, or one of the participants is horribly deformed in some way. They tend to make it so glaring that unless you look at it the right way, you won't find it."
"Why?" Ginny asked, confused.
"It's the easy way out if something unexpected happens. Daddy told me about it. In the olden days, Muggle merchants could lose everything in an instant. The loophole was made so that if one merchant had an agreement with another man and the merchant lost his fortune, the other man could escape the contract." Luna informs us. "Let me look at it. Lucius Malfoy is a careful man. He would never sign a marriage contract without a failsafe way to escape it."
"Thanks Luna." I said, handing over the contract, which she shrunk and put into her pocket.
"No problem." Luna reassured. Then she sniffed the air. "I think dinner's almost ready. Should we go help Molly set the table?"
"Fine." Ginny rolled her eyes and stood up. "I've been sitting for too long anyways."
At dinner, Fleur announced her pregnancy and the twins passed Ginny two galleons under the table. Other than that, the night was relatively normal, but I couldn't help but hope that Luna was right and the loophole was right under our nose.