CHAPTER 8 – The Black Ball
By: Sweet 16 Movie Buff!
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The Knight Bus lurched to a stop before a large, long building made of aged brick, tall glass windows, and a wide stone stairway leading up to the French double doors. Golden candlelight poured from the windows onto the sidewalk and a faint hum of violins could be heard. Jillian stared out the grimy windows and swallowed hard a lump of fear climbing up her throat.
"Thanks Ernie!" she shouted over her shoulder to the bus driver who nodded in reply in the rearview mirror. She stepped out into the street and with a loud BANG! the Knight Bus disappeared from sight.
There was no turning back now. Gathering herself and smoothing the folds of her plum over-robes, she climbed the stair to see a doorman in tux and jacket standing at rapt attention but looking obviously bored. He hadn't seemed to notice the Knight Bus had come or left, and when Jillian politely said 'Excuse me' it seemed to come as a great shock to him.
"Is this WelmstoneManor?" she asked him.
The doorman nodded, "Yes, miss."
"Have the Black's arrived yet?"
"Yes, miss. Mr. Black said to be expecting you."
Jillian handed him her invitation and the doorman opened the door for her grandly with a deep bow.
"Thanks."
As Jillian entered Welmstone Manor, she became very much aware of her appearance, smoothing the silk of her gown, fiddling with the double row of purple gems at her throat. Welmstone Manor seemed a very grand affair and so was the corridor just inside the door. The corridor was one of cathedral ceilings with large chandeliers at regular intervals and rich red carpet leading up and down the length of the building. The hall was barren accept for a boy sitting on the ground beside a pair of double glass doors.
She grinned and waved, "Sirius!"
The boy looked up and she could see the relieved smile washing over his face.
He was dressed handsomely in his charcoal gray dress robes, his black mane of hair sweeping across his eyes. Jillian found herself having difficulty forming words with her tongue, which seemed to have grown several sizes too large for her mouth.
She managed a small smile, "I'd thought I had the wrong address."
"Yeah," Sirius mumbled still staring at her, "Yeah."
She frowned, "What? You look like you just got whacked with a Confundus Charm."
"You're beautiful."
She smiled, even pearly teeth flashing, and looked down at the silky white gown that hugged her modest curves. "The dress isn't too much?"
Her chestnut hair, cropped short to her jaw in choppy strands, fell across her face, hiding for an instant the dark eye-liner and eye shadow someone, Toby most likely, had applied. She'd gained some much-needed weight that made her look fuller and not at all like the easily snapped twig she had been.
"No," he said, "No, it's perfect."
She tapped his chin and his mouth snapped shut. She grinned as he massaged his jaw, "Now stop gawping like a fish, it's ruining the effect."
"That hurt," he protested.
"Sirius? Sirius where are you?" a cultured feminine voice purred as a woman in misty lavender robes came out into the hall from the door Sirius had been sitting by a moment ago.
The awe in his gray eyes vanished in an instant and a hard angry look replaced it. "Over here, Mum."
"Oh," an icy countenance came over her when her eyes fell on Jillian, "So this is the Muggle-born you mentioned."
"Jillian," he corrected frostily, "Her name's Jillian."
"Yes, well," said Lady Black in an offhanded manor, surveying Jillian with cool calculating eyes. "I suppose she'll have to do."
"Let's go," Sirius said, guiding her forcefully towards the pair of glass doors and away from Lady Black. He was grumbling under his breath some very improper terms of endearment for his mother.
"She seemed nice," Jillian tried to sugarcoat the impression she had of Lady Black, "For a very made-up nag – okay, I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself!"
At that Sirius laughed, and shook his head, "I love it when your blunt."
"Well, I'm glad someone does," she muttered.
He grinned wolfishly at her, but it slowly faded when they were facing the double glass doors. "Merlin's beard, how I hate this."
"Don't worry," she said with a comforting nudge, "It can't be all that bad, can it?"
"Yes. I brought James last year and the whole lot of them with their talk of purebloods and halfbloods brought him within an inch of his sanity. He nearly blew off Lucius Malfoy's head, he did. Andromeda I think even got a picture. She says she keeps it close to her heart."
At that Jillian roared with laughter. Lucius Malfoy was one of Jillian's least favorite people in the whole of the wizarding world. In her opinion someone that malicious and conniving had no right to live.
"He's going to be here?" she asked quietly as the doors swung open for them. She rested her fingers on his arm and Sirius gently led her forward.
"Yes," he twirled her out on the dance floor and pulled her back still genially holding her fingertips. "Andromeda and I have a rule that we dance one dance and then call it quits."
Jillian nodded mutely. As long as he led, she didn't have a problem with it. They waltzed to the music of an unseen symphony; Sirius shooting her pained looks and making wisecracks about those he silently murmured the names of. Evan Rosier was what James called the Devil reincarnated for he looked very much like a fallen angel but with a heart colder and darker than hell. Rudolphus was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer when it came to allergy season. Lady Malfoy looked like a pained donkey, probably from giving birth to her jackass of a son. Bellatrix only seemed to wake up long enough to blink. Jillian had her lip firmly tucked between her teeth, suppressing her laughter with great difficulty.
At last the waltz ended and Sirius bowed to Jillian as she performed a makeshift curtsy. She was most certainly glad that THAT was over with! Sirius rested his hand on the small of her back and guided her away from the floor through the sea of witches and wizards to a corner of the hall.
"Well done," he whispered in her ear.
"Thanks," she whispered back, "You lead wonderfully."
"Mum made me and Regulus learn," he explained. "Ah, and here's Andromeda. Hey, Andy!"
A young woman glanced up from her seat in the bay window. Her wild chocolate curls were thrown up in a bun with ringlets falling to the base of her neck. She wore champagne chiffon dress robes that hugged her frame, leaving nothing to the imagination. Her eyes were large and blue, her lids brushed with sparkling powder and rimmed with black. She seemed a very somber person except when she smiled; Jillian could see a mischievous streak light up in her eyes.
"What's this, Sirius?" she asked as she smiled in greeting, her lilt purring. "No James this time? I was hoping his aim had improved so he could actually take that little cocker's head off this time."
Sirius smiled, "Mum forbid me to ever let him with a twenty mile radius of Lucius, remember?"
"Damn. I was hoping Aunt Mortiana had forgotten."
Still smiling, he drew Jillian forward, "Andy, I'd like you to meet Jillian McKee. Jillian, this is Andy, my cousin."
"Hullo," Andromeda extended a hand to Jillian, her lilt purring.
"It's nice to finally meet you. Sirius seems to like you more than his other cousins."
At that Andromeda laughed, "I should hope so! I know how ruddy boring that pureblood codswallop must get."
Jillian grinned. She liked Andromeda all ready. "Do you really have a picture of James almost blowing off Malfoy's head?"
"She hates him just about as much as you do," Sirius said with a grin.
Andromeda made room for the two of them on the window seat. Jillian had not realized how much time had gone by until she heard a voice purr with cold disdain.
"Oh, look, Andromeda has found a new Muggle-born friend."
Jillian looked up to see the heavy-lidded Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy. A pit fell away in her stomach as she realized they were sneering at her. Slowly, she rose to her feet, Sirius rising beside her.
Andromeda only glanced at the two tiredly, "Don't you children have anything better to do?"
"What's it to you, Bellatrix?" Sirius snapped.
"Oh, so pretty cousin Sirius, has found himself a girlfriend. How cute," Bellatrix cooed, her face turning into a leer, "She's hardly anything to look at. I thought you had better tastes, Sirius."
"Oh, no, Bella, she was worse before. A stick with breasts, I believe would best describe her," Lucius said, swaggering over to Jillian and looping his finger under the choker necklace. Jillian slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch me!" she spat.
"Don't touch me!" Lucius mocked. As she brought her hand about to slap him, his fingers twisted around her wrist in an unyielding grasp. He yanked her against him and said coldly, "I don't take orders from Mudbloods."
"Take it back!" Sirius roared, drawing his wand from the folds of his robes and pointing it directly between Lucius's eyes. "Or I'll hex you so bad your own mother wouldn't recognize you."
Jillian's knee came up sharply and Lucius doubled. She rubbed at her wrist, feeling the need to wash it. "Don't waste your time, Sirius, he's hardly worth the trouble."
"You're one to talk!" Bellatrix sniffed coolly, "You're nothing but a Muggle-born."
"And you're nothing but a pathetic monger with no brains to speak of," Sirius snapped back, causing Andromeda to guffaw, "So who's worse?"
"Filthy Mudblood!" Lucius lunged for Jillian, but not before stopping within inches of Sirius's wand.
Andromeda was reaching for hers when Lady Black came gliding over with an ash-blonde witch in tow. Jillian quickly got out of their way as they made a beeline for Sirius and Lucius.
"Sirius!" Lady Black was absolutely appalled and yet her eyes were murderous. "Put that wand away immediately!"
"Lucius!" said the ash-blonde witch. "Lucius, come here!"
Jillian bit the inside of her cheek to firmly keep her insult in her mouth as Lucius rigidly backed into his mother's hold. Sirius looked absolutely mutinous as he stuffed his wand back into his pocket.
"That boy, Mortiana," Lady Malfoy said threateningly, "That boy of yours is a menace! This is the second year he's tried to kill my Lucius!"
"Kill?" Sirius echoed, snorting, "Hex him is more like it."
"Sirius," said Lady Black dangerously. "Nineve, I am sure that Sirius has a perfectly good explanation - "
"He called Jillian a Mudblood!" Sirius exploded.
"And I am sure that he realizes the error of his ways and will apologize for frightening you," she spoke over him as if he had said nothing. "Sirius, is there something that you want to say to Lucius and Lady Malfoy?"
"No." he said flatly.
"Sirius," Lady Black purred dangerously, her eyes flashing. "Apologize to Lady Malfoy and Lucius."
As he opened his mouth to rebut, he caught Jillian's eye. She was shaking her head; her eyes begging him to just let it go, he was never going to win.
He turned sullen, "I'm sorry."
"There!" Lady Black cried in triumph. "There, Nineve, is your apology. He promises he will not come within a yard of your son again tonight, isn't that right Sirius?"
His eyes were icy as he gazed at Lucius who was looking rather smug; "It's a guarantee."