Chapter 1
Dauphina Paige Lestrange, daughter of Malvolius Lestrange, niece of the very famous Bellatrix and her husband, tossed her raven hair back over her shoulder and smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle out of her lavender robes. "I can't believe he's doing this to us." She spoke softly as the carriage hit another bump in the road.
Her companion and sister, Pagan Alexis, raised a scared auburn eyebrow at the comment, and stared disbelieving into the chocolate eyes that matched her own, but for the dancing sparkle that never seemed to extinguish in Dauphina's. "Can't you? He's never made secret of the fact that the Dark Lord would plan our marriages, and mother did warn us."
Dauphina didn't answer, instead she lowered her gaze to the lap of her renaissance style gown and pulled out the charm she wore around her neck. The beautiful stone in a cage of silver was one half of an ancient heirloom of their mother's. One half sat around her neck and the second half around Pagan's. It had been the last gift they'd received from her before she'd died. Her delicate fingers twisted the caged stone and caught in the copper chain as she struggled to keep her fear and sorrow hidden. Finally assured that nothing she didn't want to discuss was showing, she turned her gaze back to her sister. "And of all the insults, Peg, to marry us off to two school boys. They're eight years our junior?! What will the neighbors think?" She put a hand to her chest, acting scandalized, a giggle bubbling just below the surface.
Pagan frowned. "I should think you wouldn't take you're impending marriage to young Master Nott so lightly, Fina-after all, that boy will be in charge of your welfare soon enough." The lights of Hogwarts, a sight the two women hadn't seen in six years came quickly into view. "And it may be time to hold your tongue, we're almost there."
She let the curtain fall back over the window and twisted her red hair into a simple bun at the nape of her neck. Dauphina pulled her hair back as well, the already curled ringlets falling down her neck from the bottom of the complicated half knot she quickly pinned up.
The carriage halted and the door swung open. Pagan looked around for a footman. She wasn't prone to accepting or expecting help in getting down from a carriage, but as she'd been forced under her father's orders into a rather long and full skirted cerulean robe, she had no choice, it was either accept the help or trip and fall in dirt. There was no footman in sight. "Peg?" Came the halting voice of her sister from in the carriage.
"It appears our bridegrooms are a bit derelict in their duties. I don't have a damn clue as to how we're getting down." Pagan hissed, craning her neck farther to try and see someone.
"Your bridegrooms are at dinner, and we don't employ footmen at Hogwarts." Came the silky reply from the shadows in directly in front of the door, the one place she hadn't looked.
"Professor Snape?!" Both girls squeaked a bit as he came into view.
"Ms. Lestrange." He greeted them coldly. He held out a hand to Pagan. She narrowed her eyes but placed her hand in his. Using him to support her weight on the little step, she hitched up the full skirt and jumped down as quickly as she could. "The headmaster asked me to come and escort you to his office. He'd like to speak with you before you are settled in guest quarters and introduced to your future husbands."
As Pagan cleared the carriage Dauphina slid toward the door. She placed her hand in Snape's and felt a little flutter in her chest and a bit of heat on her cheeks. Something strange sparked in his eyes as well. "Jolly good to see you old fellow." She greeted him cheerily. "Still trying to make the students think you're a vampire I see." Dauphina placed a slippered foot on the thin step and began to step down with the other one when her foot slipped. Acting quickly Severus placed his arms around her waist and pulled her to him as he lowered her to the floor.
"Well, that will teach me to try and hold a conversation while I climb down from a carriage." She laughed as she pulled herself out of his arms. "Thank you for catching me."
"I don't recall having much of a choice." He muttered, but Dauphina simply flashed him another grin and swept up the steps, passing Pagan and entering the castle.
Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott, one of few Slytherin boys Draco felt was close enough to his intelligence and status to enjoy true company with the Malfoy heir, stood in the anteroom off the Great Hall, spying on their brides to be. The first girl to come in had to be Dauphina, Draco decided. His father had mentioned that she was the oldest and more lady like. This woman certainly held herself like his mother. She was shorter than him, about 5'5", delicate though curvaceous. Her face was rather angular giving it almost a severe look, although as she smiled he decided that she was certainly pretty. He caught Nott's eye and gave the other boy a nod of approval.
The next person in had to be his soon to be wife, Draco figured. He took a good hard look at her. His father had told him that Pagan Lestrange had a bit of a temper. It appeared to him that she did indeed, and she was anywhere near as ladylike as her sister. For a brief moment Draco considered getting Nott to switch wives with him, after all the next Lady Malfoy had to be of a particular type. But then he remembered the look of pride on his father's face when he'd told the older man that he would break her into the perfect mold, no matter how stubborn. Pagan was pretty as well, but in an altogether different way from her sister. She was shorter, and more round, not fat, Draco decided, just a softer shape. Her hair was red, dark red, but still red enough to be Weasley hair, her eyes were dark, and she appeared to have freckles. The only real flaw that he saw was the slightly obnoxious scar marring her left eyebrow. Still, a bit of glamour and all.
Dauphina was trilling about how little the castle had changed and how much she loved being home, acting as flighty as she ever had. Pagan had to fight not to roll her eyes as she joined her. "Quit cooing at the suits of armor." She hissed.
"But I'm just soooo happy being here Peg. Oooh, look, its Pretty Philandia!" She pointed to one of the pictures at the base of the stair. Lacing her sister's arms through hers she turned the her towards the picture. "The little whelps are watching us from the anteroom."
"Well, that's all well and good Fina, and you just go one acting like a flake, but I'm not going to." Pagan disengaged her arm and turned just in time to see Snape approach them.
"The headmaster's office Ms. Lestrange." He reminded them silkily before following them towards it.