Chapter 37- The Gala
Adelaide swung back and forth, light blonde hair floating in the wind, as she glided upon the old tree swing in her garden hideaway. She had been spending a lot of time there recently, finding the isolation much preferable to being around her cold and cruel mother. It had only been two weeks, but it felt like ages since she had seen her friends. She glanced up at the dying sun, and pulled out her wand to recite the incantation as it began to set, just like every day for the past two weeks.
A moment after saying the incantation, movement caught her eye. The tree wiggled. Someone was coming. She stuffed the wand into her pocket and pulled out the book she had been reading over fifth year charms.
"Adelaide. Come inside, we have to get you dressed for the Gala tonight." Her mother called. The Gala... how could she forget!
She arose quickly, running with the large book gripped in her arms toward her mother with a small smile. Now usually, Galas were probably her least favorite thing in the world. Oodles of pretentious and prejudiced purebloods gathered together to mingle and pat each other on the back, gushing about how lovely they were. But, this gala was going to be better than all of the others. Sirius and Regulus would be there. She could just steal them away and have an actual conversation with someone she didn't despise!
She hastily followed her mother to her Slytherin green and silver bedroom where, Mimsy, their sweet house elf, was waiting for them.
"I bought you this to wear, though I doubt you can fill it out just yet," Cathryn said eyeing Adelaide's slim figure, "but I am sure Mimsy can take it in if needed." she said, moving over to the vanity where there were a variety of make up products that Adelaide had never seen before. "Once you are clean and dressed I will be doing your make up. We need to have you looking your best. It's disappointment enough that we have to introduce you as a Gryffindor, we can't give the others any other reason to look down upon you and our family." she said with contempt.
Adelaide bathed and then dressed in the long emerald gown, patterned with lace and silver ivy embellishments. She longed for it to be purple.
As it turned out, Mimsy didn't need to take in the dress as much as Cathryn had expected, this seemed to please her slightly. "Sit." She demanded to the girl, pulling out the make up.
"You have your father's silly eyelashes." Cathryn scoffed. "Practically invisible! But, easily fixed."
Cathryn went on, subtly insulting Adelaide's face as she continued to mask her delicate features with pounds and pounds of make-up.
"Mum..." Adelaide began. Catching the older woman off guard as she usually referred to Cathryn as 'Mother'.
"Yes?"
"Mum... could we change the dress to lavender?" She asked timidly, avoiding making eye contact with the woman who's gaze was like a bird of prey.
"Why on earth would you want it to be lavender?" She asked intensely.
"It's um... my favorite color." Adelaide answered meekly, looking up to Cathryn Fawley with a look of such pleading desperation, you would think she had asked her to save her life.
Cathryn looked hard back at her daughter, mind flashing to when she saw her writhing in her hospital bed, shrieking, eyes full of tears... eyes full of the same pleading desperation. Mrs. Fawley did not answer, but instead pulled out her chestnut wand and wordlessly pointed it toward the dress.
Adelaide smiled widely, wider than Cathryn had seen since she was a small child, looking in delight at the now lavender dress. She looked up to the woman, still grinning, and said, "Thank you."
Once Cathryn was satisfied with Adelaide's appearance, the small girl sneakily tucked her elm wand into the left pocket of the now lavender gown, and followed the older woman down the marble stairs to the bright entry hall to greet their guests.
Filip immediately eyed the girl's new color, flashing a curious expression to his wife as she made her way to stand beside him. "You changed the dress..." He whispered.
"I'm not as heartless as you think I am Filip." she told him sternly.
Meanwhile, Adelaide stood by the front doors, able to greet their guests with a genuine smile for the first time. Between the dress and getting to see Sirius, she couldn't think of a single way that this night could go wrong.
After a while of welcoming in their guests and directing them to the ballroom, Adelaide's chipper mood was beginning to decline. Sirius wasn't there. None of his family were there. They always came to these gala's. Soon, it was time for her to join the rest of her family in the ballroom and stand beside her mother as a little purple prop whilst she chatted mindlessly with their stupid guests. Adelaide was only half-listening as her mother praised her for having the highest marks of her year in charms to a handsome man with dark hair, mind too preoccupied with her disappointment. She completely missed the greedy look the man gave her.
'Where is Sirius? He was supposed to be here... ' She thought miserably, masking her feelings outwardly with a look of contentedness. 'Now he'll never get to see the purple dress or the fairy lights I charmed in the garden...' she thought. It was at this moment that she noticed something odd. It was the unmistakeable feeling of someone listening in on her thoughts. She glanced around, making eye contact with the handsome man her mother was speaking to, and instantly shut him out of her mind.
She expected the man to be a little put out about her discovering his intrusion, and subsequently kicking him out of her mind, but instead his face twisted into a smile.
"Yes, I see what you mean. She really is remarkable, isn't she Cathryn?" The man said in a somewhat high voice. He turned toward the small girl and reached out to shake her hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Adelaide, my name is Mr. Riddle."
Adelaide stifled a gasp. He was the man who gave Sirius the creeps, and now she could see why. She willed herself to shake his cold hand and forced out a polite smile.
The man smiled back with a rapacious look in his red eyes.
"Cathryn, may I ask where the Black family is?" He drawled.
Cathryn seemed to be expecting this question. "Oh, they are off having dinner with the Lestrange's, an engagement party for young Bellatrix." She replied with a smile.
"Ah! Bella! Yes, yes I remember her mentioning something about that now." He said, flashing a look to Adelaide. She had a feeling he only asked the question for her sake.
"ADDY!" bellowed a familiar voice. "ADS!" it screamed again, gaining more than a few disdainful looks from the surrounding party guests.
"James! Stop running!" an older woman scolded.
Adelaide almost cried with happiness as she saw her messy haired friend with his crooked glasses, running toward her full speed in black dress robes. He nearly toppled her over as he embraced her tightly. "Addy! I missed you so much!" he said, still tightly holding on to the girl he thought of as his little sister.
"I missed you too Prongsy." She laughed.
He let her go, grinning, and quickly moved to introduce her to his parents. Adelaide looked up to the hazel eyed older woman. She had lots of little wrinkles around her eyes, deep laugh lines around her mouth, and little streaks of grey in her reddish-brown hair that was pulled up into an elegant French twist. "Euphemia!" exclaimed Cathryn Fawley. "I wasn't aware that you were still coming." she said with a forced smile.
"Yes, well James convinced us that this was the place to be tonight." Euphemia Potter laughed congenially, looking over to her husband. The older man was tall and thin with James's same messy black hair and glasses. The resemblance was truly striking. Adelaide thought it was like looking at a middle-aged version of James with brown eyes.
"Ah and Fleamont! You look well!" Cathryn said to the man with yet another tight smile.
"I am, we just got back from a quick visit to France to celebrate James's good marks this year." He said with a warm smile, looking down proudly at his son.
Everyone had seemed to miss the greedy look and small smile Mr. Riddle gave the boy, all except Adelaide that is. She didn't trust him, and she refused to let him stand anywhere near her best friend. "Come on James! I can show you the garden!" She said happily, grabbing the boy's arm and pulling him through the crowd to the French doors on the back side of the house.
"MERLIN'S PANTS!" he exclaimed, looking around in awe of the garden he had heard about so often. The hype didn't do it justice. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Adelaide gave him a quick tour then led him to sit beside her in the stone gazebo.
"James, how are you here?!" She asked finally.
"I'm a pureblood remember?" he said cheekily. "We get invited to these stuffy things all the time, but mum and dad never actually go. But when I heard it was at your house I begged them until they said yes." he said proudly. Adelaide smiled at the silly spoiled boy and listened as he told her all the lovely things he saw and did in France the weeks before.
"What about you Ads, what have you been up to? Have any of those tossers been over yet?" he asked
"Well honestly, I've really just been here... in the garden. Evan is the first I think, I heard my parents talking about it the other day, but he won't be over for another couple of weeks."
"Hmm well at least we know he won't be a total creep..." James muttered.
"OH! Speaking of creeps... did you see that man? The one standing by my mother when you came in?"
"The one with those weird eyes?"
"Yep that one. Did he seem a bit... odd to you?" she asked in a softer voice.
"Yeah... kinda gave me the creeps, what is he a cousin or something?"
"No, well not that I know of... He's that Mr. Riddle guy Sirius said his mother fancied..."
"Woah! That guy?! Walburga really has terrible taste in men..." James trailed off.
"He tried to read my thoughts James." Adelaide said seriously. "I pushed him out. But I have no idea how much he heard or what he may know now. He probably tried to read your mind too."
"THAT BASTARD!" James exclaimed, completely outraged. "How did you 'push him out' of your head?!"
"Occlumency." She said simply. "It's something a tutor of mine taught me when I was growing up, Sirius and Regulus can do it too, though Reggie is way better at it than Sirius. Padfoot's a little too hot headed to get it to work." She laughed, then sighed sadly, looking down at her lavender gown. "He was supposed to be here tonight. They both were." she said sadly.
"Sorry you got ol' Prongsy instead." James joked, bumping shoulders with the girl and giving her a wink.
Adelaide smirked up at him. "It's actually better that you're here instead, in a way... You can help me with my plan..." she said, peaking his interest. "I'm going to prank those Slytherin suitors." She said with a diabolical grin that James returned. He was definitely the best person to help with this plan.
Meanwhile, in the ballroom, Mr. Riddle pulled Filip Fawley aside. "I want her too." he said calmly. "I want your daughter in addition to the two Black boys."
Filip's breath hitched. "May I ask why you have changed your mind?"
Mr. Riddle's lips curled into a terrifying smile. "Are you aware that your daughter can do wandless magic?"