Chapter Twenty Five
"I don't like it. I don't like it one bit," Eric muttered, shoving another potato into his mouth to fill up his ever hungry stomach.
"What is it you dislike so much?" Clara asked instantly concerned. They had a wonderful relationship, sweet and romantic. Returning to school didn't diminish it in the slightest, even if her presence at the Ravenclaw table was only politely tolerated. The reason of Clara's worry was Eric's agitated state the last couple of weeks. Could it be that the pressure had finally gotten to him? That he was planning to break up with her? Clara's heart started to beat three times faster only thinking about the possibility.
"Veronica dating this… this slytherin," Eric spat, not even trying to hide his disgust.
"It's her life, we can't decide it for her," Clara defended her classmate, inwardly relieved that the break up wasn't the case.
"She is dating him for the wrong reasons."
"She is dating him to gain experience," Rose cut in, overhearing the conversation while heading out of the Great Hall.
"This is exactly what I mean! I date Clara not for some experience, I do it because I care about her, because being with her makes me happy, not to mention she is incredibly cute!"
Clara turned red to the roots of her hair, but gathered herself enough to bestow her Prince Charming with a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Eric."
"No reason to thank me, Clara. It is the truth. And it must be the truth for any couple."
"Veronica had developed a very strong personality, she is able to decide for herself," Rose attempted to prove her point once again.
"The only reason for her to be strong is the ribbons. She knows that when she is in trouble, Archie will take her out of it. That's all. Speaking of Archie, have you noticed him acting weird lately?"
"Not in particularly," Rose answered, actually thankful for the change of the subject, because a few more arguments could've made her agree with Eric and Rose didn't like to lose her dignity that way. "I haven't seen him much."
"That's the point. He has practically disappeared on me, his own brother. He hasn't come for a week to our morning practices, missed two last Hogsmeade weekends…"
"But what could be the reason?" Clara asked, understanding that now there was a real reason to get worried.
"I don't know. The couple of times I saw him recently, he looked pale and tired, sick basically. But I checked – he had gone neither to the Hospital Wing nor to Uncle Vlad. And he always goes to Uncle Vlad if there is a problem."
"Why?"
"I don't exactly understand what goes between Archie and his uncles," Eric began the explanation, "but Uncle Vlad treats Archie very much like his own son."
"And the feeling is mutual," Rose finished for him.
"I guess," Eric agreed with a shrug. "But it doesn't help with the problem."
"Do you still have that coin you told me about, Eric?" Clara suggested. "The one you used to contact each other in the orphanage?"
"When you're searching for a girlfriend, go for a smart one!" Eric exclaimed, jumping up from the bench and soundly kissing Clara on the lips, making her redden once again. "Damn, I have two pairs, but then I will definitely find him. Good day, girls!"
……………….
Wishing good day to Rose and Clara, Eric certainly didn't have one himself. He attempted to contact Archie during his lessons and with every failure his mood darkened more and more. At around six in the evening Eric managed to locate him in one of the classrooms near the Divination tower. With no ceremonies he pushed the door open and stilled on the doorstep.
"Oh my God," Eric breathed out so shocked by the view in front of him that he reverted to using muggle expressions.
Archie was sitting on the floor, his only support a cracked wardrobe, his eyes closed. Eric would've mistaken him for the dead if Archie hadn't been twitching from time to time. And blood… blood was everywhere not dropping, but running from Archie's nose and ears and even eyes!
"What happened, Arch? Why are you like this?"
"Don't step any closer," whistled from Archie's throat, accompanied by a mouthful of blood that escaped onto Archie's white shirt the moment he opened his lips. To Eric's horror, Archie, who usually was very demanding to his appearance, didn't even move an inch.
"But what in the Hell is going on?" Eric yelled, losing his temper. "Is this why you look so sick? I am your brother! I have the right to know. I can help!"
"You can't," Archie groaned in response.
"But you are losing so much blood! You can die!"
"I won't die brother, just let me be…"
"Oh, no you don't! I understand your right for privacy, but this is too much! If you don't tell me right now, I am going to bring a professor and it won't be Uncle Vlad."
"Remember, I told you about Veronica being a payment to the Malfoys?"
"And how does this connect here?"
"Since I… doesn't really matter… Malfoy magic in my blood thinks she belongs to me."
Archie's speech was interrupted by another twitch which gave Eric a couple of seconds to pull the puzzle together. The result was equal to zero.
"Belongs to you like what? Like a possession?"
"Body and soul, Eric."
This time Eric processed the information in a flash. "Shit! This is all about her being with that guy! I knew there was something rotten the moment I saw them together!"
"Eric, please, stop shouting, I beg you, my head is going to explode from it all."
Eric returned his attention to Archie's health condition. "We must stop the blood."
"It is impossible. It protests against my inaction and her actions against the deal. For the last two months, I've been losing galleons of blood, feeling my skin burn whenever he touched or kissed her. Day after day – pure torture."
"Why, Arch? Why do you go at such lengths for her? Do you agree with your magic? Do you want you to belong to you?"
"No."
"Look me in the eye and say it!" Eric shouted, practically in hysterics. Eric loved his brother, he was eternally grateful that he took him from the streets. That's why Eric didn't want to lose him because of some skirt.
Slowly Archie raised his eyelids, the eyes were red from blood, but the sky blue was still visible.
"Do you want that girl?"
"No," came the same answer and the eyelids dropped again.
"Then why?"
"Because she must learn to say 'no', to make a choice and to deal with the consequences of it. I doubt Veronica will rely entirely on her heart during decision making, but she must find it in herself. On her own."
"Dating is not about getting experience," Eric repeated the second time that day.
"Yes, but is not only about feelings either."
"Just tell me, why did you let Veronica go out with him?"
"I can't forbid her – You bastard!" Archie cursed suddenly, rising up to his feet with all the speed he could master.
"What's going on?" Eric asked, goose bumps rising on his skin by the view of Archie who looked like a blood thirsty maniac.
"He hit her, that scum hit her! He is so gonna -"
But all Archie's plans of revenge were ruined by him passing out and falling into the puddle of his own blood.
……………………
Even if her figure had been developing according to the laws of nature, she could be still considered too petite for a fourteen-year-old. The girl would've been invisible in the shadows of the Hospital Wing if not for the paleness of her skin.
"Idiot," the late visitor said under her breath. "You should've said something. This is total foolishness. How stupid can one be to-"
"I am second in my class and twelfth in the whole school, that gives me the right to claim that I actually have some brains in my head, Vixen."
"Why do you call me like that?"
"Why do you call me an idiot? And if my memory serves me right, you started first," Archie uttered slowly with his eyes closed. He spoke clearly every word but it was obvious that the moving of his lips took all of his strength.
"Because you are one. You always act recklessly, never concerned about your well being. You are too selfless."
"Could you sit down onto the bed? I don't hear you well enough."
Veronica obliged. "I am not repeating myself."
"There is no need. I heard it the first time. But you know the reason of my actions already – I am gryffindor. I know my limits though."
"I don't know exactly what happened, but you look half-dead to me."
"How do you know I was here?"
"Clara told me that Eric was looking for you because he thought you were sick. I decided to check it out, because I agree with him."
"I took the bracelet off," Archie pointed out, shifting on the bed to a take a more comfortable position.
"Those two months I was not on the Moon, you know. Every week our paths cross five times during the changes of the classrooms. In two months you weren't there twelve times. I also know that you missed at least one practice and your first match commentary was extremely poor. But even regardless of all that I am not blind, Archie."
"I thought your eyes were only on your boyfriend."
Veronica grunted. "I broke up with him."
"Really?.. Why?"
"Don't you know?"
"Because he hit you?"
"Because if he doesn't understand that lady says 'no', he is no gentleman."
"Damn straight," Archie agreed, his lips started to lift up to form a smile, but he instantly pulled them back, cursing under his breath. The cause of that action was the terrible state of his lips, even he overall looked more or less alright. They were not only swollen and dry, but covered with fractures deep enough to have dried blood in between.
"You shouldn't talk," Veronica more ordered than advised.
"You asked what had happened."
"And you haven't told me."
"Did Uncle Harry-"
"Stop," Veronica cut him off.
"But you-"
"Just shut it." Archie snapped his mouth shut, the movement made him to wince from pain. "I told you. And you are asking me why I am calling you an idiot. See for yourself – facts don't lie." Veronica brushed away a trickle of sparkling blood that came from a reopened fracture, then pressed two fingers to his lips and concentrated on healing them. "Okay, now tell me everything," she demanded, seeing that Archie's lips were in more or less normal condition.
"Thank you, I really needed that," Archie said, this time smiling for real. "So did Uncle Harry tell you anything about the reasons you were afraid of me?"
"Nothing in particular. You mother, on the other hand, told me that your grandfather put a curse on me when I was a baby, but it backfired and Malfoy and mine magic became connected. I was supposed to be controlled by him, but the curse became weak and I was made to have only an unexplained fear towards your family."
Quite a plausible explanation. The world had lost a good novelist in the name of Lady Malfoy. "That sums it up pretty well. To put everything simply, you can't date until I turn sixteen. You can, of course, if you don't care if something similar happens to me in the future."
"Pity."
"You had plans? It is less than a year."
"That's right, but I've been working on my father for quite some time to take me to the Ministry New Year ball this year, meaning in only three months."
"Well, there won't be a lot of physical contact involved; I think I can live through this one."
"There is another option though," Veronica pointed out. "Are your eyes hurt too? Why don't you look at me? I am not wearing yellow."
Archie chuckled, hearing the remark about the yellow color. "There is nothing wrong with you, it's just my eyes have been changing to grey too much lately."
"Hm, I thought it was the other way around."
"That's the point, Vixen. Somehow I can't lie, no, not lie, pretend around you."
"I gather, you are not going to tell me, why you want to pretend to be someone else."
"Exactly. So what option were you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb, you know exactly what I am talking about – if I can't go with anybody else but you then I will go with you."
"We should reopen the case of you dumping your boyfriend, you do know how offend a guy," Archie said with a hurt expression.
"Don't mock me!" Veronica suddenly lashed out, seeing through his façade. "You can agree or not, I don't care in the slightest! I will go and have fun and you can bleed as much as you want," she finished with a pout.
"Veronica."
"Hm?"
"Look at me, please."
Veronica turned her head to face him and gasped. Even in the dark Archie's eyes were shining like two silver stars. They've never been like that. They were all shades of grey – steel, mercury, iron, sky grey, but never that enchantingly shiny…
"I don't want to force upon you the complications of appearing on my arm in a crowded place," Archie said, his tone very serious.
"You mean the implications of the public appearance together?"
"Yes."
"They can imply whatever they want," Veronica threw with a careless wave of her hand. "Rumors remain rumors if they are not confirmed."
"You will be under a lot of pressure, coming back to school after the holidays."
"I am not afraid of some pressure, are you?"
"Not in the slightest," Archie answered accepting her challenge.
"So we have a deal."
"It will be my honor to take you to the New Year ball. We have several problems though. My mother is not invited this year. But that can be arranged," Archie added, seeing Veronica's face fall. "I also need your father's permission. But even if we fail at both, I will still help you to get in shape."
"To get in shape?"
"The dancing part. Appearances are everything on your first outing. If you trip or fall or embarrass yourself in any way, it will be remembered and gossiped about for years to come. You must be perfect, you must show them that if not now, then later you will be a force to be reckoned with. You must make your father proud."
"Did you manage that on your first public appearance?"
"I was only ten so basically was kept beside mother's skirt, but my dress robes staid clean till the end and there wasn't many girls my age to dance with, so yes, I didn't put shame onto Malfoy name."
"Can't you be serious even for a moment? This is a very important event in my life," Veronica reproached Archie's constant cockiness. Even seriously hurt, lying on a hospital bed, he was laughing his head off. Of course, he had his moments when he was extremely perceptive, but most of the time it was actually difficult to grasp the difference of Archie Malfoy being serious or not.
"I will have enough years in the future to be serious about life," Archie replied with a tired sigh. "Even if I am not able to go with you, I'll make you the queen of that ball. Starting tomorrow."
"You doubt I can do it on my own?" Veronica asked, definitely not serious.
"A few pieces of advice from the master won't hurt."
"Master?" Veronica asked with light sarcasm.
"I do have a lot of experience with such things. Come tomorrow at eight o'clock to my piano room. I will deal with other problems. Pity they don't hold the ball outside."
"Why?"
"You look stunning in the moonlight."
"The same about you."
………………
"Ron, you won't believe what happened to me!" Harry cried, bursting throw the doors of the Burrow during Ron and Hermione's breakfast.
"It must be something grand if you came all the way from Italy to tell us," Ron remarked, buttering a toast.
"Ginny agreed to go to the New Year ball with me!"
"That's an interesting development, Harry." 'Happy as if it is his very first date.'
"What about Claire?" Hermione asked. The women solidarity was definitely at work here.
Harry's enthusiasm instantly evaporated. "What about her? We are only colleagues."
"Is you say so," Hermione drawled, returning to breakfast.
"What is it with you two? Aren't you happy for me?"
"You know my opinion of the situation, mate."
"After talking to Ginny I understood that you didn't have future together," Hermione supported her husband.
Whatever Harry wanted to say in return was postponed by an owl that flew into the window and dropped a parchment scroll into Harry's hands. He unrolled it and his face expression changed with every word he read. It was difficult to understand for Ron and Hermione if it changed for good or for worse.
"What do you make of it?" Harry asked, throwing the letter on the table for his friends to read it too.
Dear Sir,
I humbly request you to honor me with permission to escort you daughter, Veronica Aurora Potter, to the Ministry New Year Ball this winter. My intentions are nothing but honorable and there is no reason for you to worry about your daughter's safety. I also beg you not to worry about the possible resonance in the media about our appearance together and put your daughter's happiness above the mercantile trifles of this world.
Archibald Arthur Malfoy
"Sounds more like a marriage proposal to me," Ron commented on the letter that was written on the orphanage's official blank and sealed with Malfoy coat-of-arms.
"That's the point, dammit!" Harry shouted, slamming the table and rumpling the high quality parchment.
"You can always refuse," Hermione pointed out.
"Yes, but how will I look into Ginny's eyes after that?"
"He is her son, you can't have one without the other, Harry."
"It is like I've been set up again! Since the moment I agreed to be the part of that family I feel being manipulated in all ways imaginable."
"Isn't it the feature you hated Draco Malfoy so much for? Being manipulative?"
"But Ginny-" Harry started to protest. Ginny was kind and compassionate and loving…
"Ginny is a Malfoy now," Hermione stated the bitter truth.
"I wonder what Veronica is thinking about all this. And since when Aurora is her middle name?" Ron drawled, surprisingly pointing out the core aspect of the situation.
Being a good father that he was, Harry demanded from his dear daughter what the Hell was going on. Receiving the written answer that it was actually her idea and if he didn't grant permission for Archie to take her, then she will come dateless and that will put him, as her father, to shame in the eyes of the English wizarding elite. Did he really want that? Another question kept popping in Harry's head – why didn't he adopt a boy?