The only thing I own is Ryua. I wish I owned the other characters too.
Boredom, and a Hobby
Ryua stayed in her room for a week. The purple bruise had spread from her ear, down the cheekbone, and along half her jaw. She'd been taking her meals in her room, Toppy conveying the message that she felt too ill to sit up to dinner. The reality was she didn't want her father to see the pain he had caused, and even though everyone knew it, no one said anything.
By the time it turned a paler, yellow color, Ryua could stand to touch it long enough to put a concealer charm on, and went back out around the manor as if nothing was wrong. The bruise would fully fade in time, however she doubted the curse marks would do the same. They had healed, and no pain could be felt, but two were still visible as pale lines running from her shoulder to hip, overlaying the fainter marks on her shoulder from last year.
Father was apparently feeling much more cheerful now, having found a new placement in the ministry researching curses, and was likely to rise fast through the ranks. He'd found a new house elf from somewhere, but it was even meeker than Dobby. Toppy was training him, but it was likely to take a while, and it meant that even the house elves were tired and short-tempered. So Father was the only one in the house remotely cheerful at all.
Ryua sighed. The week she spent immured in her room gave her ample time to finish her homework, and it's not like she had loads of friends to owl or anything like that. Pansy only ever wanted to talk about silly crushes, or gossip, or things going on in her life that were so horrid. Hah, Ryua thought to herself, She has no idea what suffering actually is. If she thinks not being allowed to buy a fifteenth shade of pink nail polish is drama, I'd like to see her try my life
Ryua was out of things to do, in other words. She didn't care about Pansy's gossip, she'd finished her essays, and sent off her class requests. (She'd gone for Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy in addition to the regular classes) Now, all she could do was torture herself with images of school; the familiar common room, the majestic Great Hall, Snape's orderly Potions room, and the quidditch pitch.
Quidditch. That's what she was missing the most, other than being away from Father and his unpredictable moods, of course. Ryua missed the feeling of the sleek walnut handle, the wind in her hair, the exhilaration of the game itself. She knew better, however, than to ask to practice with Draco in the south meadow. In fact (and she hated herself for her cowardice), she didn't even dare to risk sneaking out at night. That would just be asking for trouble, and she really didn't need any more of that.
So, she took to exploring the library. It was mostly full of dark tomes that would have earned a place on the restricted shelves at Hogwarts, but that was fine by Ryua. Father might not want Ryua to play quidditch, but she was expected to either marry or become a Death Eater someday. She really had no ambition to take the first action as mother had, since it hadn't seemed to get her a particularly good life. Ryua didn't think that any of her perspective 'suitors' would be any different either. Eew. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of marrying Crabbe or Goyle, and even the best of the lot, Blaise, wasn't exactly her idea if a lifemate.
So that left the second option. Which meant she had all the free time she wanted to study up on curses, forbidden potions, hexes, jinxes, torture methods... Father had no shortage of information on this.
Oddly enough, she really enjoyed the reading. She could easily pronounce the spells, even the longer chanted ones, practicing after leaving her wand in a warding circle so she wouldn't blow up the house or something by accident. She often went out on the grounds, practicing the less cruel ones on the pesky gophers who kept digging up the lawn in spite of the ward spells against them. Ryua memorized lists of potion ingredients, meaning to ask Professor Snape about them when she got back to school, and studied jinxes and hexes voraciously. In fact, she was in the process of teaching Draco a decent shield spell so they could duel properly, continuing where Lockhart had left off. Of course, she had to do this while Father was at work, as he would likely punish her deeply for it. Funny, she was encouraged to learn dark spells, but not practice them. Father must think if she never practiced, she couldn't use them against him.
Fat chance. Ryua would get him someday, but she was no fool. She'd bide her time until she was ready, and endure his random fits of violence quietly. His time would come.
