Here is the next chapter. Please enjoy it and read and review love Hannah xxx
Astrid jumped almost ten feet in the air as there was a banging sound on her door followed by Kreacher shrieking that she wasn't awake yet. Why was everyone always coming over and disturbing her in the mornings. Couldn't she at least sleep in one time? She glanced at her clock and saw that it was half past nine. She truly was furious. She threw on her fanciest robes and slippers and then threw open her door in rage wand raised.
"Just what in the hell is going on out here? I was sleeping! Why are you harassing Kreacher and banging on my door!" she snapped at Clarisse who had the good sense to look ashamed.
"I am so sorry Astrid but I planned a surprise for you which required you to be up early. Next time I will give you due notice. Now please get dressed as fast as you can. Don't bother with breakfast at all. We'll see what can be arranged in a while. We're going to be taking an international floo!" she said as Astrid rushed back into her room and was dressed very casually which disgusted Clarisse when she came back out.
"Damn you Astrid! There's no time to change now. I am a fool! I should have said dress formally!" she said as Astrid stopped her.
"Whatever it is it will wait for me. I assume I am needed there and in that vein I will prepare. You will wait for me and you will not look aggravated about it either!" she snapped. Her period was wreaking havoc with her emotions and they were all over the place. Quite frankly now all she wanted to do was cry. She emerged fifteen minutes later in a teal ballroom gown with a fancy tiara on her head as Clarisse once more looked disturbed because now she looked a bit too fancy.
"There is no time, come on!" she said briskly as she pulled Astrid with her into the floo calling out the destination. They both sauntered effortlessly from the floo into a room she didn't recognise. She then jumped as everyone jumped out and shouted surprise.
"What the devil is going on?!" she snapped her hormones once more taking over.
"Surprise Astrid! This is your bridal pamper day. I know we signed the contract two weeks ago but as the date of the wedding looms closer now is the time for your bridal pamper day. Welcome to New York!" she enthused as Astrid looked at her in disbelief. She pulled me out of bed early for shit like this! Now I can see why Hermione hated beauty all the fucking time! She thought scowling deeply. No she was a pureblood lady now and she loved beauty. What she truly didn't like was the lack of notice. It was all there was to it. Besides which she could never be as dull as Hermione. She had helped Hermione to become a better woman and had been stabbed in the back for it.
"What do you need me to do?" she asked as Clarisse laughed and guided her in the direction of a throne like chair.
"Well you take a seat here and relax. We are the ones who will be doing everything. First off we have a luxurious breakfast. You may eat anything you desire. What will it be?" she asked happily.
"I will take some sausages, bacon, fried mushrooms, toast and tea. Thank you!" she said as Clarisse frowned. No normal bride would request this meal. She decided to just go with it as Astrid probably had her cycle. Clarisse guessed this as she too turned into an emotional savage at her time of the month too.
She glanced around seeing some very familiar faces and gasping. Pooja Patil was there with her daughters Parvati and Padma. Amelia Bones was there with Susan. Margaret and Hannah Abbot were there too. Evelyn Brown sat there with her daughter Lavender. Paulina Robins sat there with her daughter Demelza. At the other side Celia Greengrass sat with Daphne and Astoria. Hannah Bulstrode sat with her daughter Millicent. June Turpin sat with her daughter Lisa Turpin and lastly Violet Chang sat there with her daughter Cho. Beside her sat an exceptionally proud Pandora and on her other side sat an equally proud Clarisse.
They had quite clearly gathered all of the light people from each of the Hogwarts houses to be here. With a wave of her hand Astrid was now in a less formal dress and her tiara was gone as the other girls there gasped at her. She had gained wandless magic with the Black Heir position she now held and the Potter ladyship too.
"Hello Ladies. I will be in your year at school with you this year. I am going into my fifth year as I assume you are. Before we go on however I feel I must say something now which might change your opinion of me but I must do it. I am not sure how important Hermione Granger is to any of you but this year for a time she was living with me in my London Townhouse. Suffice it to say she constantly bad mouthed Harry and Cousin Sirius which was very distressing for me. After I helped her to essentially become a better woman she gave out to me because I gave Mr Dumbledore some conditions on using my house for his Order of the Phoenix. When I told her it was my house to do with what I wanted and that she was only there because I am a nice girl she tried to curse me. She was not even remotely successful and I had to send her to Ronald Weasley's home. You may or may not hear that I have gone dark but I assure you it's not true. I will not stand for anyone badmouthing the dead. If anyone here dislikes that they may leave right now!" she said seriously as everyone there Clarisse included gasped in horror.
"Sure Harry wasn't our favourite but that's only because we didn't know him all that well and he looked arrogant as all hell. I would never speak poorly of the dead. I am sorry but there is a place in hell for those who do this. To me it doesn't matter which house you're sorted in Astrid. I promise you'll always have a friend in me. To answer your other question Hermione is truly not important!" Daphne said reaching over and squeezing her hand in a comforting manner. The others all around the table from the different houses agreed almost immediately.
"To be honest Hermione Granger has never been outright nasty other than her constant lecturing of everyone she can find to study harder. I am shocked and surprised that she would draw her wand on you. I just truly didn't think she had the stones for it. Sometimes I have often wondered why she's even in our house because she's not all that brave. I stand with Daphne here. I think I can speak for us all when I say you'll always have a friend in us no matter what house you're in!" Demelza said seriously as her mother looked at her in pride. The food arrived and everyone tucked in at once. It was truly delicious after all. The toast even came with Irish butter and Astrid was in heaven. It was just the craving her cycle had needed.
"Astrid I am so sorry that happened to you. Being a Zabini has a lot of weight in our world as we and those present here today are some of our worlds' lightest families. That you will be marrying my Blaise in two weeks' time will only further cement your good image and this Hermione Granger person would do well to not slander the house of Zabini!" Clarisse said seriously. For now everyone focused on eating their scrumptious breakfasts. Everyone had essentially assured her that they wouldn't believe she was dark no matter what Hermione tried to say about her. They assured her they wouldn't listen to her and would do all they could to make her look as stupid as they could when the time for that came of course. After the long and hearty breakfast the table was cleared away and Astrid sat there waiting to see what would happen next.
"Now then Astrid in each pureblood family which has a son from the moment he is born a magical dowry trunk is created. It is filled every year with various gifts you will give to your future daughter in law. Not everyone knows this and you wouldn't know about this as you have no brothers. The other girl who wanted to marry Blaise before knew about the dowry case as she had an older brother herself and wanted him just for his riches. I am so proud you are not like this. Hops the trunk if you will!" she called out as an old trunk was rolled in and placed on the table before Astrid. It was charmed to be weightless and had countless expansion charms on the inside. She was instructed to open it and go through everything with all present today. It was a pureblood tradition which she was mortified about. She had not known about this and felt strange. She usually loved to give gifts but to be on the receiving end of so many of them when it wasn't her birthday or Christmas was unusual to say the least. She opened the trunk gently laying the lid flat down on the table as it truly opened widely like that.
The first item she pulled from the trunk was a five inch Aynsley vase. It was white and had coloured butterflies on it. It was passed up the table as everyone looked at it and was put at the end of the table. All the items would be placed there until the trunk was empty. Next she pulled out some vintage angled tea cup and saucer sets from the Leonardo Collection of Italy which were divine. She loved them so much. She could really see herself taking her morning tea in them. The next thing she pulled out was Winterling Bavaria dining set with blue roses on it from the year 1900. She was thrilled. They would look gorgeous in her cupboards. The next item actually made her squeal in joy. It was teal coloured enamelled Murano Glass set with an accompanying jug. It was her favourite colour and would look fantastic in her glass cabinet. Everyone ooh'd and aah'd at the right moments. She really appreciated the Murano glass as it comes direct from Venice.
Next she pulled out some Moroccan Lanterns in various colours to be hung from the ceiling and was delighted with them. Clearly this section of the box was for home products. Next she pulled out some traditional Tunisian glasses which went with an accompanying tea pot. You never did know when you'd have guests for tea and so it was always appropriate to have at least three different styled sets of them. The next collection was a set of Monsoon Denby dining items. It was traditionally Indian with Indian designs all over it. Clearly the Zabini's wanted their new daughter in law to be a well cultured one. There were items in here from all around the globe.
Next she pulled some traditional Egyptian glass hand blown perfume bottles which looked so divine and would look equally divine on her dressing table. The next items were French glass perfume bottles from the nineteen hundreds for her to put her own favourite perfume inside. She loved it so much. She then pulled out some make up compacts and makeup from nineteen twenty. It was stunning and oh so old. She would treasure it always.
She then pulled out some vintage Italian jewellery boxes containing vintage long earrings and necklaces from the seventies. It was gorgeous. Everyone was very excited as they were passed down the table. Then she took out some stunning traditional clothes from most countries around the globe as well as many modern ball gowns. This way she would have something to wear for any occasion. She lastly removed some handbags for all occasions and squealed in joy. She adored handbags and had yet to understand why Hermione didn't. I mean even as Harry he had wondered why she didn't like them when every other girl did. Now at that point of course he hadn't understood why girls had liked them so much but he had still noticed how different everything was. With a couple of clicks of her fingers Hops had the trunk once more fully packed and off to one side.
"I hope you can appreciate how worldly we would like you to be as the new Zabini wife!" Clarisse said as she nodded.
"Yes I most certainly do. Thank you so much Clarisse it means more then you will ever know!" she said as Pandora cleared her throat awkwardly as everyone turned to look at her.
"To be honest I am stunned I have to do this Astrid but I have no choice. My mother late as you know assumed I'd be having a boy and prepared a dowry case of her own. I don't have a son so it will have to go to you too!" she said as Walburga flashed through her mind momentarily. The second Dowry case was given to her to look through and contained mainly jewellery, books and old antiques. There were a few tiara's in there too as well as many rare potions ingredients!
"Astrid now is the next event. Today is an event filled day for you. Pandora, thank you for sharing that with us. I am sure your mother was sad you didn't have a son but it is so thoughtful to give it your daughter. Now then Astrid you stay sitting there. I will have Hops bring out different slices of cake for us all to try. We will advise you on the best flavours to choose for your wedding but ultimately the choice is yours. The cake must contain four different levels and flavours as it will be such a high society wedding. Also in that vein there will be many important political people in attendance and you will be expected to find posts about your marriage in Witch Weekly and The Daily Prophet!" she said as the first cake was brought in.
Now this was something Astrid could get used to. She loved cake. The first cake was plain and filled with buttercream and fresh strawberries. She looked at everyone else to see what they thought and she could see some people loved it and some people didn't. "Well this is nice but it's not my cup of tea. Kreacher! Please bring me and my guests some plain coffee. We need a palate cleanser in between cake slices!" she said as some black coffee was delivered at once to the stunned guests as Clarisse smirked.
"You know Astrid I never thought of that thank you. Everyone take a sip of your coffee now and then we'll have then next slice of cake" she said as everyone followed suit. The next slice to come up was a double layer chocolate cake which Astrid moaned as she ate. It was truly divine.
"Clarisse I am not one of these people who thinks it's my way or the high way. I wish to select this chocolate cake to be on one of the layers of the cake but I do wish to have the input of Blaise. He will eat it too and it's not fair to decide without him!" she said as Clarisse smiled at her soon to be daughter in law with a loving smile.
"You are so generous to think of him. We will decide today what you want and then have him taste them later on. Any one he doesn't like or agree with can be amended later. I know you're not like that sweetheart. Don't worry!" she said as everyone agreed with her choice. It was after all chocolate cake and who didn't love that. Actually Hermione didn't which had always annoyed Harry as a side note. She just oddly remembered that in that moment and then just thought it was another bizarre thing about Hermione she wouldn't understand. They moved onto another slice after more coffee to cleanse their palettes. This was a Victoria sponge with fresh cream and strawberry jam on it which they all unanimously thought was delicious. Something about fresh cream versus buttercream was just better overall. They then chose tiramisu and finally lemon drizzle as the other fillings.
"Ok great now we need to look at menu options but don't worry we won't taste these. I don't think any of our stomachs could stand it. We will need to choose one soup, one salad, four variations of main course to choose from, one palette cleanser and one desert as well as the cake of course. They all spent some time pouring over the various menus and options and eventually one after some serious thought they had a menu ready. They would serve fresh vegetable soup, chicken Caesar salad, Carbonarra, Steak and pepper sauce, fish and chips, Moroccan chicken tagine, lemon sorbet and finally profiteroles for desert. They would give one slice of each layer of the cake to guests to take home with them. It would be a gorgeous but huge cake so this would mean they weren't all stuck with loads of cake afterwards.
"Clarisse I have heard about wedding favours before from somewhere. Actually I did some shopping in the muggle world where I overheard someone saying she had gotten some wedding favours for her wedding and I do know what they are. I was wondering what we should give for our wedding?" she asked as Clarisse looked confused.
"What is a wedding favour? I am afraid I am unfamiliar with the term!" she said blushing because there was something about weddings she didn't know.
"Well a wedding favour is something we would give each guest as a gift which had mine and Blaises name on it and the date we married. People would keep it and take it home to remember our wedding by. For example some people have a special small box with two chocolates in it for their guests to enjoy and they put their information on the box which is then kept!" she said as Clarisse looked amazed as did everyone else at the table. This was obviously something solely muggle and Astrid was kicking herself as no one seemed to know what it was. Had she slipped up and ruined everything?
"Well as you heard it in the muggle world it is obviously something they do but we don't. To be honest I would love to do it. I want to be the first family to do wedding favours in the magical world. I want everyone else here present to do them too at their weddings to show all dark and or stupid pureblood people the way to do things. It is genius darling. They get something pretty to keep and we get to be a little vein. I think we should do a candle with your names and the date you were married on them! I know we should make them amortentia candles!" she gushed as Astrid blushed deeply.
"Thank you Clarisse yes we should. It is an excellent idea from you. Yes I agree I think you should all do it too!" she enthused . So far it was a great day.