WRITTEN FOR THE HOUSES COMPETITION, YEAR 7, ROUND 8
House: Ravenclaw
Class: Potions
Standard
Prompt: [First Line] Today marked the last day that she would see her husband
Word Count: 2931(google docs)
TW: mentioned child abuse, murder
21/05/21 Note: I first posted this on 3/05/21. I took it down and reposted it because of spam reviews.
Today marked the last day that she would see her husband. She made sure of it.
/
Looking back, it all started because of the Malfoys. More or less.
Aamina accepted the formal invitation to a children's party hosted at Malfoy Manor, and her life slowly unravelled over the subsequent months.
It'd be too much to say that Aamina had been stressed since first receiving the invitation. She hadn't been. She had merely been… less calm. She realised how ridiculous her accelerated heartbeat on the morning of the event was. Kelsey and Scorpius had been meeting for playdates for months, after all. It had just never been… official.
Being invited to mingle with the pureblood elite of Magical Britain was significant, and Aamina wouldn't squander the opportunity. Goal firmly in mind, Aamina had been reduced to chasing her child across their room with their dress robes around her arms. After what felt like hours, her child stopped, threw themselves on the ground and looked up at her with big, wet eyes.
"Mama," Kelsey pleaded. "Mama, please. I don't wanna wear it."
Aamina closed her eyes and asked the gods for patience. Then, in her most even tone, she said, "Can you tell me why, Kelsey?"
"It—" Her child, her sweet, sensible child, was looking at her with the most desolate expression Aamina had ever seen. "It's not me."
Aamina looked at Kelsey, then at the dress robes in her arms. She reflected on what she could possibly say.
"What do you want to wear then, child of mine?"
Kelsey's lower lip stopped trembling and they jumped up from the floor to scurry to their closet.
Aamina sighed and let herself fall on Kelsey's bed, throwing the dress robes to the side. They were creased anyway.
Her child returned to her with a cautious smile, wearing a pale green tunic that, way too big, fell to their knees, rainbow stockings she didn't know the provenience of, a purple, sleeveless cloak a foot too long, and a grey hat.
"Alright," she said, looking at the result. Kelsey's face split open in a smile as big as the sun. Aamina went on before the child could start cheering, "Except for the hat. You are not wearing that thing to a party hosted by the Malfoys. It's July." She got up and started rummaging in the closet. "I'm sure you had a sun hat somewhere — to wear outside exclusively. Oh, for— Tippy!"
"Yes, Mistress?" said Tippy, appearing with a loud crack!
"Do you remember where I put the white sun hat?"
The elf snapped her fingers and a pretty sun hat appeared before them.
"Perfect!" Aamina exclaimed. She swapped out the old grey hat on the child's head for the sun hat and pushed them in front of the mirror. "Could that work?"
Kelsey observed themself critically, turning this way and that with a look of the utmost seriousness. Then they nodded.
Aamina sighed in relief.
"Ok, leave the cloak here for now — no arguing! — and get your shoes — the comfy ones. I'm sure Scorpius will drag you on all matters of adventures and you don't want your feet to start hurting halfway through."
Her child hemmed and hawed a tad before shrugging off the cloak and running to do as told. Aamina took advantage to aim a good severing charm at the edge of the cloak, winking at Tippy as she did.
Gods above, Aamina thought as Kelsey struggled into their shoes, the eleven-year-old girl she had been would recoil at the sheer gall of sending her child to a Malfoy's house in anything less than full robes. But Aamina wasn't on the fringe of the Slytherin pecking order anymore and she hadn't been for years. She was a Selwyn now.
Aamina helped her child into the newly shorter cloak and held her head high as she accompanied him through their Floo and into Draco and Astoria's entrance hall.
The first thing little Scorpius said to her child was, "I love the socks!"
/
That evening, when Aamina brought her tired but smiling child home, she felt accomplished.
Her child being a favoured guest at a pureblood party was the culmination of every choice she had made since being sorted into Slytherin and fully understanding the disadvantage she was in. It hadn't registered fully at first. 'What was it to trade one prejudice for another?', she had wondered. The society she was part of still considered her "lesser" because of her heritage, but Aamina knew it didn't make sense. She was just as good of a witch as any one of them and if she had to work three times as hard as everyone else to prove it, then she would. She knew she bled red like any pureblood. 'Who cared about their stupid comments?' Then she grew up and understood that the problem wasn't in the snide comments. It was more subtle than that, but also terribly blatant once she recognised it. The system wasn't made for people like her.
Hogwarts tricked them, almost, because it was a safe haven. Muggleborns, half-bloods, and purebloods were treated just the same by the professors and it made Aamina truly believe that the rhetoric spouted in her common room didn't matter. That it was just the flawed opinion of a small group of bigots.
Then the Blood War started.
It took all the cunning she had sharpened in Slytherin to survive. When the monster whom the purists had rallied around was killed, Aamina kept the lessons she had learned close to her chest as many purebloods rebuilt a reputation better-suited to a post-war Magical World.
Aamina and Cassius had married because it made sense. What they gained from such a union was good enough that they compromised on certain things. Cassius put aside the prejudices he had been raised with. Aamina ignored what a branch of his family had been involved with. It worked for them.
Years later, Aamina was satisfied with her choice, and when she lay in bed next to Cassius that night, she regaled her husband with the way Scorpius Malfoy had snubbed the other heirs to play with Kelsey, and how Astoria Malfoy had called Aamina by her first name while referring to Pansy Burke née Parkinson as Mrs Burke.
In the low light of the candles, Cassius looked at her with the air of satisfaction of a snake who had backed its prey in a corner. It must be because of their shared Hogwarts House that Aamina liked it.
"I knew I married you for a reason," he said, and Aamina accepted the peck on the lips. She smiled contentedly, knowing that she had taken steps to assure a positive Hogwarts experience for her child. It was never too early to prepare, after all.
/
It would have been perfect if Cassius hadn't heard the gossip.
Apparently, her child's long tunic and the way Kelsey pretended to be a spellcaster of undefined gender, rather than a witch or wizard, in a game of make-believe had been commented upon.
The afternoon following the party, Aamina was still in high spirits, knowing nothing of such comments. She and her child were running down the stairs in a race that Aamina let Kelsey win when Aamina saw Cassius in the hall. She toned down her exhilarated laugh and grabbed Kelsey by the shoulders to interrupt their momentum and draw them up in an effort to look a little more respectable.
"Welcome home, Cassius," she smiled. "Did you have a good day at work?"
Her husband examined them like specimens under a microscope. It wasn't the first time he looked at them that way — a little cold, a little manipulative. Usually, he was also smug, proud of the witch he had married and of the child they were raising. That afternoon, he looked at them and sneered.
"What — are you wearing?"
Aamina froze in place, blood rushing through her ears. Was he seriously asking her—? She breathed deeply.
"Excuse me?"
Cassius wasn't looking at her.
"Where are your proper robes? What is that — that hotchpotch you have on?!"
He was looking at Kelsey.
Aamina's fingers tightened on Kelsey's shoulders as she tried to calm down.
Her child knew what they wanted to wear, and the clothes they felt more comfortable with weren't proper robes. Aamina was sure it wouldn't be a problem.
Kelsey grabbed at their tunic, scrunching up the fabric, and looked up at their mother. Aamina plastered on a pleasant smile and said, "Aren't Kelsey's clothes a wonderful expression of personality and individualism?"
Cassius opened his mouth to retort, then looked between his wife and their child once more and seemed to change tracks.
"Amy. A word in my study, please."
So Aamina sent Kelsey to play alone and followed Cassius to his study.
It could have gone better.
But Aamina did what she had done for years, breathing deeply and reminding herself that her husband had been raised in a... conservative home. Cassius always needed some time to process new information, but surely he would come to terms with it and abandon his preconceptions, as he had done for other kinds of prejudices he had been exposed to.
/
Three days later, Aamina returned home from a soirée with Astoria, Daphne, and a number of Slytherin alumnae, feeling nothing but positive about life. Admittedly, it may have had something to do with the wine. As it was, she was tipsy enough to wish for her bed over anything else. Still, she checked on Kelsey before retiring. Her child looked safe and sound, sleeping in their bed. She retired with a smile and settled next to Cassius quietly, careful not to disturb him.
Her optimistic feelings seemed appropriate the following morning when Cassius kissed her awake before heading off to work. Aamina went to help Kelsey start their day with a smile. It froze on her lips when she helped them up from their bed and saw the bruises. Dark, finger-shaped bruises on her child's arms.
Aamina was a Slytherin, she had survived a war against "her kind". When she realised that her husband was a danger to her child, she didn't get spitting mad. She got dangerous.
/
It was barely a week later when Aamina waited until Cassius had left for work to help Kelsey dress and accompany them to Malfoy Manor. It was nothing extraordinary; they had had such "playdates" for months, after all.
Sitting on the Malfoys' veranda, Aamina thanked Astoria for the invitation and had a leisurely tea with the younger woman as they kept an eye on the children. After a cuppa and a scone, Aamina was ready for goodbyes. She kissed her child on the forehead, bidding them to be good for Astoria for a few hours, and waved goodbye to Scorpius.
Home alone, Aamina retrieved the golden cuffs she had been working on from her office and walked to the laundry room.
Tippy was folding clothes at a rapid pace when Aamina approached, and the elf smiled when she saw her.
"Hey, Tippy. May I join you today?"
Tippy nodded quickly.
"Comes in, comes in, Mistress. Tippy has news about Lotti!"
Aamina smiled and settled in a corner of the room with her work, listening happily as Tippy regaled her with all matters of house-elf gossip.
The little ritual had started when Aamina first married Cassius. Being alone in a big house while her new husband went to work hadn't felt great to a newly twenty-year-old Aamina, and studying for her mastery in silence only occupied her so much before she risked going insane from lack of interaction. Of course, as a Slytherin, it hadn't taken her long to comprehend the sheer potential of hearing everyone's dirty secrets.
Nowadays, Aamina settled in the laundry room with her work every time the artefact she needed to examine or enchant wasn't dangerous.
After they exhausted the gossip about Lotti (and the Macmillans, whom the elf served), Tippy had started a new wash cycle, and started talking about her sister Margy.
"And Tippy's sister is being very very pregnant, now! We is thinking little elf is coming soon!"
"I'm sure Margy and Tok must be excited. Seeing one's child for the first time is an experience unlike any other," Aamina recalled with a smile. Tippy nodded, large ears going up and down, and Aamina went on, "I'm sure she would love to have her family by her side." Tippy was quite quick on the uptake, and her bulbous eyes widened and started sparkling.
"Margy would!" she exclaimed, and Aamina smiled.
"That's settled, then. Margy would be able to send you a message when the baby is coming, wouldn't she? And you should take one— what am I saying, at least two days to make sure she's alright!" Aamina saw the way Tippy clasped her dress and went on with understanding eyes, "We should survive without your excellent care for two days, at least."
"Oh, but Mistress and Mistress's child would be alone!" Tippy cried, and Aamina had to bite down a grin. Tippy had been in the service of the Selwyns for years before Aamina married into the family, but the elf didn't even mention Cassius.
"You take absolutely excellent care of us, Tippy, but as long as you inform me the moment Margy asks you to go assist her, I'll do my best to keep the house standing without you for two days. You and Margy deserve this."
The house-elf almost trembled in joy.
"Oh, yes, then, Mistress! That be wonderful, Mistress!"
They both smiled widely and went back to their occupations.
/
Helpfully, Margy went into labour Friday morning.
Cassius had already left for the day, and Aamina and Kelsey saw Tippy off. Then Aamina brought Kelsey to the Malfoys once again, knowing that they had been frequent guests for months and no one would be able to detect a sudden change in their routine.
/
When Cassius returned home that afternoon, they were completely alone in the house. Her husband headed straight for his study and Aamina followed him, pausing by the door. She observed silently as he crossed out an entire section of the document he was examining. Aamina knew he wouldn't be the one to make the first move, so she broke the silence.
"Cassius." She waited until he put down his quill and looked up. "Let this not be the thing that breaks us. We should be able to talk about it over dinner, at least," she said. Then she added, "please." Cassius's shoulders relaxed and he acquiesced with ease.
"Very well, Amy. Wait for me in the dining room."
Aamina easily accepted the dismissal and slowly headed towards the kitchen, where their dinner was simmering.
/
When her husband deigned to join her, the dining room table was set and their meal waiting to be served. Cassius still wore his office robes and had barely spelled the ink from his fingers, but Aamina had dressed up for the occasion. Red dress robes, hair in a complicated updo, and lips painted red.
When Cassius saw her, he smiled slightly, clearly pleased at the idea that she would go through such trouble to try and appease him.
Aamina smiled back.
"Please, let's eat," Aamina said, as the spider to the fly.
It happened slowly, naturally. Aamina twirled the red wine in her chalice in a practised motion and brought it to her brightly painted lips. She sipped slowly, her dark brown eyes fixed on Cassius, who coughed once. Then a second time. He brought a hand to his heaving chest, and Aamina stared as he choked. She leaned in and observed the betrayal slowly building in his icy eyes as he understood what must have happened.
"You— You—" His chalice upended as he spasmed.
"Yes, I. Kelsey's mother. Kelsey, the child you've been verbally abusing every time you thought I'd turned my back. The child you've laid a hand on," she hissed, pausing as her husband started coughing up blood. She observed the pathetic spectacle with a sneer. "This, Cassius, is what happens when you remember where I come from and forget where I've been. You've griped and groused about my blood status every time something didn't please you about our child. But as you spat it out like a curse, you should have remembered that I survived as a Mudblood in Slytherin through Voldemort's second rise and the Blood War." Aamina saw something on her husband's face that made her laugh out loud. "Oh, are you beginning to understand, dear?" His lips were blue. "This is not a warning." Aamina sipped her wine. "For having raised your hand against my child once, you'll die before my eyes. Now."
And he did.
/
Disposing of the body was easy. Aamina sent a prayer of thanks to the gods as the white smoke caused by the cleansing ritual started dispersing. When the air was clear, Aamina returned inside wearing the robe she had prepared in anticipation of sacrificing her red dress.
No one would find a trace of Cassius.
The following day, Aamina would go to the Aurors to report his disappearance. She knew exactly what they'd say about a pureblood lord leaving his house with a wife and child for the weekend. They wouldn't even look for him until he missed work on Monday. She counted on it.
That night, as she tucked Kelsey, who had spent a wonderful day at the Malfoys', into bed, Aamina thought that was the happy ending they both deserved.