"You've disappointed me," Antonin said in French, not even bothering to look at his daughter.
Of course, he had waited until Hugo was gone to scold her, and in French nonetheless, he really believed that no one would understand a word of what he was saying. Gods, she really hated when he started lecturing her in his mother tongue, it made him sound more irritated than usual.
Anneliese suppressed the need to roll her eyes. Snow would cover all the city's streets before her father went easy on her for something as inconsequential as getting ice-cream in the misted world with her brother.
She swallowed the icy fire aching to lash out in her defence and simply allowed her eyes to fill up with fake tears.
"I'm sorry" she looked down, afraid her anger would show instead of the faux regret she had perfected over the years.
"You no only dragged your brother into this, and don't even try to tell me this was his idea." He continued talking as if she hadn't said anything, "But you also risked the family's name by showing yourself in those rags the misted call clothes. Honestly Anneliese, what were you thinking?"
Pandora looked awfully smug as she stared down at Anneliese.
§You were asked a question, human.§
Yoali got ready to attack as he uncoiled from her body and got ready to leap towards Pandora.
Honestly, Anneliese was eager to let it happen, but that would have only gotten her into more trouble, so she pushed Yoali back to her.
§A rat snake, telling my human what to do,§ he murmured darkly.
"You should really teach you familiar some manners, he should know better than to try to attack Pandora, she is in a higher position than him after all." Antonin said, "She was right, after all, you haven't answered my question."
Because you have been talking the whole time, how am I supposed to answer? Was what she wanted to say, but she had committed enough acts of rebellion for a week, at least by her father's standards.
"I wanted to see what they were like, just once." She looked up to him, almost begging him to believe her.
Something in her wanted to laugh when he sighed, gods, it was like he didn't even notice all the other times she had gone missing.
It's because he doesn't care enough to notice.
She pushed the thought away, there was no time to be concentrating on that.
"Don't let it happen again," He said, finally slipping back into Spanish.
"I won't."
Or at least I'll make sure you don't find out next time...
They walked in silence, both lost in their thoughts. Even their snakes had calmed down and were now laying silently on their shoulders.
As they got close to the parlour, a woman dressed in white stood at the end of the hall and waved at them as they approached. Her golden skin shone under the orange light of the sunset, along with the golden jewellery she always wore.
Her name was Carla, she was her father's wife and brother's mother. But to Anneliese, she was just Carla.
She didn't hold any grudges against the woman, it was her who had been at Anneliese's side the first time she found out her mother was missing.
Anneliese smiled as she remembered that it was also Carla who got her the first duelling spells book of her collection.
"Coralilla, how was your day?" Carla asked with a knowing look.
Anneliese just smiled innocently as a response.
Carla sighed before laughing and extending her arms towards Anneliese. The young girl accepted the hug, tuning out every other sensation except for the warmth coming from her step-mother.
It was nice knowing someone was in your corner.
Antonin sighed happily at the two women standing in the hall. He hated to break the moment, but they had a meeting to attend to, so he motioned for the doors to open, breaking the fragile moment of vulnerability.
The three of them stood up straight and schooled their faces back into the standard aristocratic charming look the always wore.
Inside the parlour, were her brother Erick and no other than Santino Ragozzo, the headmaster of the Magical Academy of Chapultepec.
Erick stood up as soon as they entered the room, the golden embroidery in his burgundy duel robes shone with the movement.
Anneliese wanted to pull her brother aside and ask him what was going on, but she couldn't, not without compromising her relaxed demeanour in front of their guest.
"Santino, it's a pleasure to have you once again in this home," Antonin said.
Both men bowed to each other.
Santino was a tall man with dark skin and long braided black hair, he was wearing a three-piece violet suit and matching glittery eyeliner around his sapphire blue eyes.
Anneliese would have liked to say that this was the most extravagant look she had ever seen the man wear, but after last year, when he was introduced as the new headmaster of the Calmecac of Chapultepec, she had grown accustomed to the headmaster's fashion style and passion for monochromatic looks.
After both men had some polite small talk, it was Erick's turn to present the ladies of the family.
"Professor, may I introduce you to my mother: Carla Balam Hinojosa and you remember my little sister: Anneliese."
Santino bowed politely to Carla and then, turned to Anneliese with an expectant smile.
She did her best to not smile awkwardly at him and by some miracle, didn't fail in her mission.
"How is my star student doing?" Santino said as he approached her "I see that you received the dress I sent this morning. Do you like it, how does it fit, is it comfortable?" He circled around her examining her look.
Anneliese wanted nothing more at that moment than to hide in her room and not deal with any human interaction, but she still managed to smile politely and pose so Santino could appreciate her whole look better.
"I love it. The embroidery is so delicate that I was barely able to see it, and I'm sure I can perform all my usual acrobatics for duelling." She took one of his hands if only to get him to stop moving and questioning, but he didn't need to know that, "Thank you, Professor."
He looked like he was about to split his face in half for how wide he was smiling.
"Oh, there is no need to thank me, child, it's the least I could do for my most proficient students," he said, holding on tighter to Anneliese's hand.
Suddenly, Santino being so close was the only thing she could focus on, he kept on rambling about the grades and accomplishments of her and Erick, never letting go of her and just holding on tighter and tighter as he got more excited, now talking about all the extra attention the school was getting thanks to them.
She felt the air around her go still before her heart started going faster and faster as she realized she hadn't given any answers besides just continuing on smiling, what was she supposed to say? Gods, her father and Hugo would join in this time in scolding her about her ruining the family's reputation, what was she going to do now?
"My husband said that you were bringing other guests later in the evening?" Carla said quickly, placing a soothing spell on Anne as she softly pushed her towards Erick.
The storm going on inside her mind settled down as Anneliese quietly sat in the loveseat with her brother and accidentally passed Carla's spell onto him as she grabbed his hand, rubbing circles across his knuckles.
"Oh, yes, I have some great news that I'm sure you will enjoy," Santino said, still bubbly, the man really had an ungodly amount of energy.
"Shall we sit down then?" Antonin said, motioning for the empty seats around the mahogany coffee table.
They all took their seats, Antonin and Carla sat closest to the big window with a view of the garden, and Santino right in front of them in the armchair, leaving the Belmont siblings in the middle.
Coffee was served, and everyone got ready to hear what Santino had to say. Although, Antonin appeared to be only waiting to hear something he already knew.
"This year, the three European schools will be participating in the Tri-Wizard tournament, which will be held in Hogwarts, and as everyone knows, Maxime has always been a great friend of the magical school in Chapultepec, thanks to Mr Antonin's great abilities as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, on top of the few years he spent studying in France."
The man in question smiled politely and urged Santino to get to the point.
"Well, I proposed to Antonin to see if our school could participate as the representative of Mexico and make it a tournament of four schools instead of three, and the other headmasters agreed to it, if, and only if, I was able to provide proof that we were qualified enough to participate against them. You know how it is with Europeans." He winked at Anne and Erick.
They, in fact, did not "Know how it was with Europeans" since foreigners weren't usually allowed into Mexico, and after the last two magical wars, it was especially harder for Europeans to be welcomed into the country. But they laughed and nodded along either way, as they always did.
"So I gave them a duelling show with some of the team, but they were not as impressed as I would have preferred. That's where you two come in."
The siblings turned to look at each other, then back at Santino.
"When they see Erick and Anneliese duel against each other, they'll have no other option than to accept the challenge I am presenting." He declared proudly.
"I think it's a great idea!" Carla said happily, then turned to her children expecting to see any sort of excitement in them. She didn't find much, maybe she had gone to strong on the calming spell.
"What is the Tri-Wizard tournament exactly?" Anneliese asked, doing all that was in her power to bring the world back into focus "Is it like the duelling competitions we have with some of the foreign schools?"
Santino left out an incredulous laugh and Antonin smirked at him before he said something allusive to his children's ignorance, which would no doubt push Anne over the edge. When Santino kept all commentary to himself, Antonin then turned to his children.
"It's kind of like that, just that this is a competition with different tasks which are meant to test a wizard's magical ability, intelligence, and courage. And just like the finals in duelling, each school presents their representative or champion" Antonin explained.
"And if we show these other headmasters we are good, then we can go to Hogwarts and win, right?" Erick asked.
"Well we would go but if we win or not depends on…"
"Does this mean we get to go outside of Mexico?" Anneliese jumped in, all sleepiness had been now cleared away and was replaced with a bolt of energy.
"Yes, we do." Santino gave her a cheeky smirk and added: "You might even get to go to the Quidditch world cup, my treat, and Ludo Bangman's, we have a bet going on."
Anneliese and Erick turned to each other and nodded at the same time before turning back to Santino and then to their parents.
"We want to do it."
Antonin and Carla turned to each other, and just like their children also nodded to each other, just that they did more calmly.
"They are doing it."
"Excellent." Santino clapped his hands together, then stood up, "Then I must go and get the others, I'll meet you all in half an hour at school!"
"Let us show you to the door," Antonin said, motioning for his children to stay right where they were, he couldn't afford them going missing twice in a day. It had already been a nightmare to get off his back the teachers and then the reporters asking for them.
They walked out the door and when they were gone, both Erick and Anneliese turned once again to each other and shared a smile which could only mean one thing: trouble.