"Right," Blaise cleared his throat and turned away from Draco as he mumbled
"so what is the big deal?" Draco glared at his back and made a sound of
annoyance.
"I just do not like the idea of the two of them together." Even to his own ears his reply sounded weak, but it was the best he could come up with without having to reveal his desire for the company of one Miss Weasley. He watched Blaise digest his comment and felt his eyes narrow at the look of befuddlement he saw when Blaise turned to face him once again.
"There is nothing going on between you and Marty that I am not in on is there? I mean, the two of you are still mates, right?" The question was hesitant, as if Blaise was not sure what the reaction to it might be.
"Of course. You know that he is my best friend after you." Draco's glare deepened. "If we were having a tiff you would be the first to know, not the last."
"And you still hate that Weasley chit, don't you? So why should you care if she is interested in... OH! I hadn't thought of that." Draco started to get nervous as he watched the play of emotions on Blaise's face as he worked through what ever it was he had just put together. Blaise was a smart man, for all he liked to play point out the obvious, and there was a definite possibility that he could work out what really was irritating Draco. Just when he was sure that Blaise was on to him, Blaise finished his train of thought and proved Draco's fears wrong. "It's like when Anna and I started dating and you got in a huff because you did not enjoy her company, is not it?"
Draco's eyebrows raised as he smirked at his friend "Took you long enough. Who do you think will be dragged along to all our outings? How can I expect to avoid being seen in public with her if he is going gaga over her?" Then, in a desperate attempt to change the subject, "And how long is this relationship between you and Von Steffen going to last? Don't you usually chuck them over the side after a few months?"
Blaise blushed and sputtered before spitting out the truth "She's met my Mum." Then he shoved a piece of muffin into his mouth and pretended to chew it long after it was gone. Draco just stared at him, demanding an explanation with his eyes alone. "Well, you know how my family has been going on about how I need to settle down and give them grandkids." He shot Draco a haggard look. "So I took her by. She's not bad you know, smart, good family and quite fit. Anyway, my Mum loved her. Seems she and Mrs. Von Steffen were friends in their youth. I did not want to tell you like this, but she and I are engaged." He said it all in a rush, as if he needed to lay it all out at once. "I have to go, class early tomorrow." He did not wait for a response.
After he was gone Draco focused on the conclusion about Virginia that Blaise had reached. He had been too caught up in his outrage that he had not realized how perfectly this fling of hers fit into his plan to woo her. Now he had a valid reason to insert himself into her life. Even better, she would have good reason to try to patch things up between them. A girl never wants to be at ends with her fellow's friends. All this means a change in plans though. He couldn't try to seduce her while she was dating one of his closest friends.
~}~}~}@
September thirtieth, just after another dreamy date
How wonderful is my Marty? He brought me the photo tonight as a gift. He said that Blaise had put Malfoy up to that stunt and that no hard feelings were meant by it. Odd that I am now officially the girlfriend of Malfoy's right hand man. I never would have seen this one coming. Everything about his is simply divine!
I did lunch with Hermione yesterday. I told her all about Marty but she did not seem too impressed. 'Isn't it a bit soon?' she asked with her eyebrows in her hair. 'And isn't he a bit older than you?' Her voice was just oozing with concern and all things noble, but I think she gave herself away with her finally objection: 'He's a good friend of Malfoy's as well." Her uneasiness is not due to any want on Marty's part, but to an irrational distrust of anyone close to Malfoy. I told not to worry, and that I would bring him around the men of the family if things got any deeper between us. That smoothed her brow and we had an enjoyable time of it from that point on.
October fourteenth, late afternoon
I am on cloud nine! I just got an email from my dear friend Nadia. I met her in the States and have been keeping contact between us ever since I came home. I find it is much easier to correspond through the muggle internet then to try to find a place she could send me a letter by post. Once or twice a week I go into muggle London and use one of those brilliant internet cafes to see how she is doing. Today was no different than most, and I had four emails waiting in my inbox. The first two were pretty ordinary, nothing new or exciting in them. The third contained the announcement that she and Ayden were a couple. I guess that is not a new development, but she had not wanted to tell me for fear that I might still be interested in him. After hearing about my Marty, however, she could not keep her joy at being with him to herself any longer. But that pales in comparison to what she told me in the fourth email.
Nadia has invited me to stay with her family for a week over the winter holidays. They are going to be in Southern California and thought that I would enjoy seeing Hollywood as much as any of them would. I immanently sent my acceptance back. Nadia's family is so warm and welcoming. I stayed with them over all the holidays the semester I was away and they made me feel like I was one of their family. I finally understood how Harry and Hermione must have felt when they first met us lot.
Nadia asked me to send her a picture of Marty, so I have decided that I will write my research paper for Muggle Equivalents of Magical Objects on the muggle photograph. Gives me a perfect reason to take a non-magical picture of my honey. to my dismay, my Professor told me that there has been plenty of research already done on that topic, so I had better make mine extra special if I want to get top marks.
October twentieth, far to close to lunch for me to concentrate
Ugh! What a week I have had. The wonder of seeing Marty every day has been tempered by the horror of seeing Mal -er -Draco just as often. No wonder Hermione had her doubts. Draco. I have to call him by his first name now, since he went all noble and started calling me by mine. Little prat. I could just tell he was enjoying watching me squirm each time I was forced to say it.
Marty is convinced that whatever bad blood there is between myself and Draco was caused by my brother's intense dislike for him. I guess there is some truth to that. When I tried to explain our families mutual disdain for each other he told me that was nonsense, as he had seen many pictures in which my mother and father stand along side a smiling Lucius and Narcissa. I guess his mother has them in one of her photo albums from her days at Hogwarts.
As I have never heard anything good about the Malfoy's from my parents, I was in too much shock to agree with him. I must get to the root of this. I promise to report all once I have.
October twenty fifth, way past my bed time
Merlin! I just had the strangest story from my mother. I am going to try to tell it as I heard it and keep my comment till the end. Here goes:
It turns out that the man in those pictures was not Lucius after all. It seems there was another Malfoy, one I had never heard of before. His name was Avery and he was Lucius older brother. Mum told me that he was everything his brother was not, and because of it was disowned by his family.
I guess there was no feud between the Weasleys and Malfoys until the year my parents were married. So it was not considered odd that my father and Avery were the best of friends. My parents actually met because Narcissa Black, my mother's dearest friend, was betrothed to Avery Malfoy. She says that the four of them were much like Ron, Harry and Hermione in those days. Always together and always having a grand time of it.
Mum says that Narcissa was deeply in love with Avery, and he was just as in love with her. They could not wait to get married and start a family. She told me that she and Cissa, as Mum fondly calls her, use to joke about how their children would be best friends and the like. It seems that they even went so far as to plan their weddings two months apart so that they would be able to be each other's maid of honor. Sure enough, there is Avery and Cissa smiling and waving in Mum's wedding album.
The trouble started after Avery joined the Ministry of Magic against his father's wishes. I guess his doing so was too much for his family and they promptly disowned him. Mum says it would have gone over better if Avery was not as interested in muggles as my father and had joined a different branch. Within weeks Cissa's family told her she was no longer engaged to the disinherited Avery, but to his younger brother Lucius instead.
Cissa was heartbroken and vowed she would never stop loving Avery. Mum says the two of them were together for the last time at her wedding to my father. It was only days after the wedding that their families decided to part them forever. Less then two months before it was to happen, Cissa's wedding was called off.
Mother says that she and father cut their wedding trip short to come home and help their friends, but it was no use. Cissa's family had promised to marry their daughter to the Malfoy heir and Avery was no longer it. Since Lucius was two years younger then Avery, Cissa was given a brief reprieve from her duty. In that time she spent every waking minuet trying to change her fate but it was all for not. Two years later she was married to Lucius and no longer permitted to speck to my Mother.
A fierce hatred sprang up between my father and Lucius because of it and as been there ever since. What happened to Avery was even more depressing. He went from being a happy go lucky sort of man to a embittered one who spent all the time he was not at work in a bottle. He snapped out of his depression with the emergence of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Just a month before his fall from power, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named murdered Avery.
Cissa must have still been in love with him because when the news of his death reached her the shock of it sent her into labor. Draco Malfoy was born three months early.
And so ends the tale.
It is too much for words! I must sleep on this.
"I just do not like the idea of the two of them together." Even to his own ears his reply sounded weak, but it was the best he could come up with without having to reveal his desire for the company of one Miss Weasley. He watched Blaise digest his comment and felt his eyes narrow at the look of befuddlement he saw when Blaise turned to face him once again.
"There is nothing going on between you and Marty that I am not in on is there? I mean, the two of you are still mates, right?" The question was hesitant, as if Blaise was not sure what the reaction to it might be.
"Of course. You know that he is my best friend after you." Draco's glare deepened. "If we were having a tiff you would be the first to know, not the last."
"And you still hate that Weasley chit, don't you? So why should you care if she is interested in... OH! I hadn't thought of that." Draco started to get nervous as he watched the play of emotions on Blaise's face as he worked through what ever it was he had just put together. Blaise was a smart man, for all he liked to play point out the obvious, and there was a definite possibility that he could work out what really was irritating Draco. Just when he was sure that Blaise was on to him, Blaise finished his train of thought and proved Draco's fears wrong. "It's like when Anna and I started dating and you got in a huff because you did not enjoy her company, is not it?"
Draco's eyebrows raised as he smirked at his friend "Took you long enough. Who do you think will be dragged along to all our outings? How can I expect to avoid being seen in public with her if he is going gaga over her?" Then, in a desperate attempt to change the subject, "And how long is this relationship between you and Von Steffen going to last? Don't you usually chuck them over the side after a few months?"
Blaise blushed and sputtered before spitting out the truth "She's met my Mum." Then he shoved a piece of muffin into his mouth and pretended to chew it long after it was gone. Draco just stared at him, demanding an explanation with his eyes alone. "Well, you know how my family has been going on about how I need to settle down and give them grandkids." He shot Draco a haggard look. "So I took her by. She's not bad you know, smart, good family and quite fit. Anyway, my Mum loved her. Seems she and Mrs. Von Steffen were friends in their youth. I did not want to tell you like this, but she and I are engaged." He said it all in a rush, as if he needed to lay it all out at once. "I have to go, class early tomorrow." He did not wait for a response.
After he was gone Draco focused on the conclusion about Virginia that Blaise had reached. He had been too caught up in his outrage that he had not realized how perfectly this fling of hers fit into his plan to woo her. Now he had a valid reason to insert himself into her life. Even better, she would have good reason to try to patch things up between them. A girl never wants to be at ends with her fellow's friends. All this means a change in plans though. He couldn't try to seduce her while she was dating one of his closest friends.
~}~}~}@
September thirtieth, just after another dreamy date
How wonderful is my Marty? He brought me the photo tonight as a gift. He said that Blaise had put Malfoy up to that stunt and that no hard feelings were meant by it. Odd that I am now officially the girlfriend of Malfoy's right hand man. I never would have seen this one coming. Everything about his is simply divine!
I did lunch with Hermione yesterday. I told her all about Marty but she did not seem too impressed. 'Isn't it a bit soon?' she asked with her eyebrows in her hair. 'And isn't he a bit older than you?' Her voice was just oozing with concern and all things noble, but I think she gave herself away with her finally objection: 'He's a good friend of Malfoy's as well." Her uneasiness is not due to any want on Marty's part, but to an irrational distrust of anyone close to Malfoy. I told not to worry, and that I would bring him around the men of the family if things got any deeper between us. That smoothed her brow and we had an enjoyable time of it from that point on.
October fourteenth, late afternoon
I am on cloud nine! I just got an email from my dear friend Nadia. I met her in the States and have been keeping contact between us ever since I came home. I find it is much easier to correspond through the muggle internet then to try to find a place she could send me a letter by post. Once or twice a week I go into muggle London and use one of those brilliant internet cafes to see how she is doing. Today was no different than most, and I had four emails waiting in my inbox. The first two were pretty ordinary, nothing new or exciting in them. The third contained the announcement that she and Ayden were a couple. I guess that is not a new development, but she had not wanted to tell me for fear that I might still be interested in him. After hearing about my Marty, however, she could not keep her joy at being with him to herself any longer. But that pales in comparison to what she told me in the fourth email.
Nadia has invited me to stay with her family for a week over the winter holidays. They are going to be in Southern California and thought that I would enjoy seeing Hollywood as much as any of them would. I immanently sent my acceptance back. Nadia's family is so warm and welcoming. I stayed with them over all the holidays the semester I was away and they made me feel like I was one of their family. I finally understood how Harry and Hermione must have felt when they first met us lot.
Nadia asked me to send her a picture of Marty, so I have decided that I will write my research paper for Muggle Equivalents of Magical Objects on the muggle photograph. Gives me a perfect reason to take a non-magical picture of my honey. to my dismay, my Professor told me that there has been plenty of research already done on that topic, so I had better make mine extra special if I want to get top marks.
October twentieth, far to close to lunch for me to concentrate
Ugh! What a week I have had. The wonder of seeing Marty every day has been tempered by the horror of seeing Mal -er -Draco just as often. No wonder Hermione had her doubts. Draco. I have to call him by his first name now, since he went all noble and started calling me by mine. Little prat. I could just tell he was enjoying watching me squirm each time I was forced to say it.
Marty is convinced that whatever bad blood there is between myself and Draco was caused by my brother's intense dislike for him. I guess there is some truth to that. When I tried to explain our families mutual disdain for each other he told me that was nonsense, as he had seen many pictures in which my mother and father stand along side a smiling Lucius and Narcissa. I guess his mother has them in one of her photo albums from her days at Hogwarts.
As I have never heard anything good about the Malfoy's from my parents, I was in too much shock to agree with him. I must get to the root of this. I promise to report all once I have.
October twenty fifth, way past my bed time
Merlin! I just had the strangest story from my mother. I am going to try to tell it as I heard it and keep my comment till the end. Here goes:
It turns out that the man in those pictures was not Lucius after all. It seems there was another Malfoy, one I had never heard of before. His name was Avery and he was Lucius older brother. Mum told me that he was everything his brother was not, and because of it was disowned by his family.
I guess there was no feud between the Weasleys and Malfoys until the year my parents were married. So it was not considered odd that my father and Avery were the best of friends. My parents actually met because Narcissa Black, my mother's dearest friend, was betrothed to Avery Malfoy. She says that the four of them were much like Ron, Harry and Hermione in those days. Always together and always having a grand time of it.
Mum says that Narcissa was deeply in love with Avery, and he was just as in love with her. They could not wait to get married and start a family. She told me that she and Cissa, as Mum fondly calls her, use to joke about how their children would be best friends and the like. It seems that they even went so far as to plan their weddings two months apart so that they would be able to be each other's maid of honor. Sure enough, there is Avery and Cissa smiling and waving in Mum's wedding album.
The trouble started after Avery joined the Ministry of Magic against his father's wishes. I guess his doing so was too much for his family and they promptly disowned him. Mum says it would have gone over better if Avery was not as interested in muggles as my father and had joined a different branch. Within weeks Cissa's family told her she was no longer engaged to the disinherited Avery, but to his younger brother Lucius instead.
Cissa was heartbroken and vowed she would never stop loving Avery. Mum says the two of them were together for the last time at her wedding to my father. It was only days after the wedding that their families decided to part them forever. Less then two months before it was to happen, Cissa's wedding was called off.
Mother says that she and father cut their wedding trip short to come home and help their friends, but it was no use. Cissa's family had promised to marry their daughter to the Malfoy heir and Avery was no longer it. Since Lucius was two years younger then Avery, Cissa was given a brief reprieve from her duty. In that time she spent every waking minuet trying to change her fate but it was all for not. Two years later she was married to Lucius and no longer permitted to speck to my Mother.
A fierce hatred sprang up between my father and Lucius because of it and as been there ever since. What happened to Avery was even more depressing. He went from being a happy go lucky sort of man to a embittered one who spent all the time he was not at work in a bottle. He snapped out of his depression with the emergence of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Just a month before his fall from power, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named murdered Avery.
Cissa must have still been in love with him because when the news of his death reached her the shock of it sent her into labor. Draco Malfoy was born three months early.
And so ends the tale.
It is too much for words! I must sleep on this.