Chapter Twenty: The Promotion
Draco Malfoy sat on a navy couch in front of a glass-top coffee table, facing an identical couch across from him. The sliding balcony door to his left was open, bringing in a breeze that ruffled the sheer curtains. The rest of the room was dim, and colored in shades of grey, from the near black of the cabinet behind him to the light grey of the walls around him. The wall he faced housed a picture, framed in plain wood painted black, that consisted of a sailboat on stormy waters. As he contemplated it, Anthony Goldstein came around the corner with two cups and sat down opposite of him.
"Afraid Chamomile is all I've got at the moment," he said, swirling his own in front of him so the tea leaves floated to the top. Draco took a sip of his, found it too sugary for his liking, and set it down in front of him.
He chuckled at the tea leaves, "Reminds me of Divination, all those tea leaves floating around."
Anthony smiled briefly and nodded, "Trewlany was an interesting one." There was a pause in which Anthony sipped his tea, and the Draco looked out the open door. Anthony spoke first, "So what brings you to my humble abode, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco Malfoy snapped his head back towards Anthony and smirked a bit, "I have some… interesting news for you. The board had a our annual reviews last week, and there are going to be some … changes at St. Mungo's."
"You're not letting me go, are you?" Anthony looked angry and got up, "I know I'm not as brilliant as other … or past residents, but I've earned my stay! If you fired me Draco Malfoy, so help me, I will…"
Draco looked amused and leaned back in his seat, "I'm not firing you, Healer Goldstein. On the contrary."
"On the contrary?" Anthony took his seat again and looked at Draco questioningly.
"Well, as of Monday, Healer Sincok is no longer a part of the St. Mungo's staff." Anthony's eyes shot up at this, but he let Draco continue, "And you are being appointed Healer-In-Charge of the Spell Damage Division of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries."
There was a deathly silence in which Anthony's knuckles turned white from grasping his cup. Then, barely above a whisper, answered, "How the hell did that happen?"
"Healer Aaderon thinks you're ready," Draco said plainly, then began to get up to leave, "we'll expect you to begin your new job on Monday."
As Draco turned, Anthony said quietly, "I'm the last resort choice, aren't I?" Draco didn't answer immediately, so Anthony added, even quieter than before, "because she's gone." That part wasn't a question.
Draco said, very carefully, "You are the best available candidate for the position." With that, he left.
Anna Lane was once again folded in to the society she had grown up in. She attended sparkling balls, fancy dinner parties and demur afternoon teas. She chatted, socialized, curtsied, and danced. She did not eat, did not run, did not yell or exclaim. She wore formal dress robes at all times, ranging from satin pink to silk periwinkle. She was waited on hand and foot by the servants of her manor household. And she detested it.
She was accompanied always by her mother, Elizabeth Lane. Elizabeth Lane was a high society woman, snooty and not above showing distain for those lower than her. She was above almost all around her, and thought highly of a clean appearance and correct manners. She did not let her daughter out of her sight at the same time as talking to every person of importance in the room.
Tonight's event was one of importance. The invitation had arrived a week ago, and it was one that Elizabeth had been anticipating for the last two months. The Krieger Family had invited Anna Lane and her parents to a private dinner function at their country manor.
Since the marriage contract had been signed between Anna's family and that of her mysterious fiancée, the Lanes had heard little from the Krieger family, owning to the head of the family being out of town and, to Anna's understanding, the engagement being quite rushed. Nevertheless, Elizabeth had spent the better part of the morning for seven weeks pacing, waiting for this invitation. When it came, she was incredibly relieved, and immediately ordered Anna's gown, in addition to informing Mr. Lane that he would be free that evening.
Anna had rolled her eyes at this amount of worrying form her mother; just because the family into which Anna would be marrying did not take the time to write mother did not meant he engagement was off. On the contrary, Anna thought with grim satisfaction, the engagement couldn't be broken off. It was signed in a marriage contract.
It was thus that Anna found herself being dressed at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon in a muslin dress of cherry blossom pink. The bateau neckline left her nearly bare-shouldered, and the A-line skirt made her look slender. Her hair was dressed up into a mass of curls, purposefully made to look half-up with ringlets spilling over. She felt ridiculous.
Her mother, however, had other ideas. The instant Elizabeth entered the room, she was fawning over Anna's appearance, checking every detail, saying how marvelous Anna looked, and glancing at the clock so often it was as if she had a twitch. Finally, the clock struck six o-clock and Elizabeth offered her arm to apparate.
The women came out of the stifling darkness on to the well manicured lawn of a stately manor, separated from them by a beautifully designed pool. Anna crazily thought of the gardens of Versailles as she looked at the shaped hedges on either side of the pool. In her moment of pondering, her mother turned around and beckoned for her to follow. Anna hoisted her skirts, and, still marveling at the golden, columned house on the other side of the pool, walked around it behind her mother and up the sprawling staircases.
As she passed the second landing, she saw fountains decorating the landing in front of the house, all glittering from lights within the streaming water. Distracted by the details of the sculptures on the far sides of the landing, she didn't notice the open doors in front of her. Nor did she notice the man and woman standing framed in them.
"Miss Lane, I daresay we have been anticipating your arrival all day!" Anna's head snapped towards the doors and she saw a plump and pleasant-looking woman in a simple but elegant blue gown walking towards her.
Anna swept in to a curtsey, and did not look up until the woman approached her. The woman gently lifted Anna's head up with her finger and smiled, "My dear, don't feel you need to curtsey to us here. You are to be family very soon."
Anna saw a grimace on her mother's face from the corner of her eye, but replied to the woman evenly, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but family or no, we have not yet been introduced, and I was brought up in such a way as to be proper and polite to new acquaintances."
The woman smiled, "You are right, my dear. My name is Amiellie Aaderon. And this," she beckoned to the man behind her, who came forward and took her arm, "Is my husband, Jonatan. We are to be your aunt and uncle."
"I am pleased to meet you both. I believe you have met my mother, Elizabeth Lane?" At this, Elizabeth came forward, looking civil, but not kind. If Mr. and Mrs. Aaderon noticed it, it did not show.
"Thank you for your gracious invitation, Lady Aaderon," Elizabeth said, the perfect mask of society politeness on her face. Anna suspected it would remain there for the evening.
"It was our pleasure," Mrs. Aaderon did not look at Elizabeth when she said this, but locked her gaze on Anna, "Now, the family is quite excited to meet you. Please come inside."
Anna found the insides of the house as elegant as the outside, and found her thoughts again reverting to the décor of Versailles as they walked through several ornately decorated rooms through an archway and ending in a large parlor, filled to the brim with people chatting, drinking, laughing, and even children chasing each other around the room.
At Anna's entrance, however, the room grew silent. One of the younger girls crashed into the back of the one she had been chasing, but the other hardly noticed, doe eyes turned towards the new arrivals.
It was Mrs. Aaderon who broke the silence, smiling at everyone in the room, "My dears, I would like to introduce you to Anna Lane. Anna, this is the family." She pushed Anna forward, and Anna smiled hesitantly.
"Who's that?" One of the small girls had pointed in the direction of Elizabeth, and was scooped up by one of the ladies and quietly scolded while the rest of the family chuckled. Mrs. Aaderon supplied the answer, "This is Mrs. Elizabeth Lane, Miss Anna's mother. They are our guests this evening, Sally."
The little girl's frank question seemed to have broken some of the tension, as Anna found herself being introduced to a group of women who would have her included in their conversation, which she did.
An hour or so later, the bell rang for dinner and the entire family made their way in to the dining rooms. Anyone younger than fourteen years of age was ushered to a smaller room with the "children's table" under the eye of a few watchful servants. The adults were led in to a large room with a singular, long table in the middle of it. The room must have been two full stories high, as there was a balcony overlooking the room from the second floor, which wrapped around the entire place. The decoration was just as magnificent as the rest of the household: the wall hangings were antique medieval stories in brilliant reds and golds, the crown molding that ran around the edge of the room was dusted gold in color.
As Anna took in her surroundings, her seat was pulled out for her and she sat elegantly, with her skirts spread out around her. Her notice immediately went to the empty seat across from her, and as the bread was passed she turned to Mrs. Aaderon.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Aaderon, but who is missing this evening?"
"Oh," she laughed, "You've spotted your dear fiancé's empty spot. I'm afraid his father called him away this morning for business, but I didn't have the heart to rearrange the table. My nephew will show up whenever he can you see, he's a dear boy, but his father will run him around."
"Are you talking about William? Has he run my grandson off on business again?" The elderly lady across from Anna had turned towards the two women.
"I was just asking Mrs. Aaderon why there is an empty spot at the table, ma'am." Anna said, wondering what relation this lady was.
"Oh I see. Well, my dear, you'd best know now, that William, my son-in-law, likes to make his son, my grandson, run all over the world for his little business ventures. I think it's a direct result of William not really being part of the family since my Cassandre passed away."
"Marjorie, I know you love to tell the family stories, but I don't know if our guest wants to hear…"
The elderly lady continued, anyways, "Really, Amielle, she may as well hear the family history, she's going to be my granddaughter soon. See, my Cassandre was the beauty that every boy wanted. William Smith fell in love with her the hardest, and won her over after quite a battle. Then they had little William, and they were the cutest family until the accident. William senior, you see, he took it hard. Never was the same. Focused on his business, and though he dropped my grandson off here for family holidays, events and summers, he stopped coming himself. Seems he's forgotten the importance of it. But no matter, my grandson still remembers. Mark my words, he will show up here once his business is done. He won't let down his grandmother."
As if to make a point, the elderly lady took a very determined stab at her salad and began to eat it. Mrs. Aaderon looked a bit exasperated, but began to introduce Anna to the rest of the family around her.
"… And down at the end there, too far to yell at, that will be Susanne and her husband Victor Aaderon, they were married last year and have a daughter, little Eliza. I completely understand if it takes you some time to learn everyone's names, our family is quite expansive."
Anna laughed, "Yes, it is a change when you're used to being an only child with cousins that talk to you only when mandatory. Anyways, they all seem lovely. But. . . I'm curious, maybe I heard wrong, but did you only mention girls born into the line?"
Mrs. Aaderon laughed, "Yes, actually. Our family has a tendency for things. Almost all the children born into the family are female. There was my father, the younger brother of two sisters by almost a decade, and with him the names died out. Your fiancé, then, is the heir to the family estates. Little Jonnhy, who you met earlier, and is only two years old, is the only other boy born to us in the last several generations. And he's four generations beyond the family name."
"That's incredible," said Anna, "I've never heard of a family with that kind of pattern before."
Mrs. Aaderon smiled ruefully, "Oh, there are a few wizarding families with odd patterns like that."
Several hours later found the children put to sleep and the adults in a new parlor for coffee and tea. Anna found she was not surprised that each of the family had their own rooms in the manor for family occasions such as this. It seemed these family members were incredibly close, and hardly let each other go a week without an update. The two sisters sitting next to her at the moment, twins her mother's age by the looks of it, were chattering endlessly about every detail of their lives. Anna smiled at them, sipped her coffee, and looked about the room.
As she glanced at the doorway, she heard a small shriek from Mrs. Aaderon to her left, and he vision was suddenly obscured as the woman wander in front of her and towards the person standing in the doorway.
"Nephew! You've come! We were so afraid that your father would keep you travelling too late to even stop by for our Sunday. Your little cousins all asked for you, every hour."
"Well, I couldn't miss entirely. I wrapped things up in Spain as fast as I could."
One of the other ladies got up to whisper in Mrs. Aaderon's ear, and she jumped as if startled, then said, "My dear boy, I've nearly forgotten! Your Miss Lane is here!" Anna found herself being pushed up by two of the aunts as Mrs. Aaderon stepped aside to give her a clear view of her fiancé.
Anna took one look at him, nearly jumped out of her skin with surprise, and then in one resolute move, moved forward and promptly dumped her cup of coffee over his head a-purpose.