Okay, so my final exams were …. Well, I can't think of a word that would be bad enough right now.
TriGemini: Oh, there is a lot that Dyson has to say to Angelina! (I even confused myself sometimes.)
Tiarwen: I'm glad you still like it! And I hope you had fun with your family.
Mistress of the Red Kiwi: Thank you very much! (I think I even blushed while reading the review :D)
Redcandle17: Do you really expect me to bring something bad in now?
Numberfour: Well, I can perfectly understand you, for as long as I've been reading fanfiction I have always had the problem with most writers being American (might have to do with the fact that the first fandom I was reading was Newsies and it is not that well-known in Europe) and if there wasn't an update in the morning there wouldn't be one until late at night when I was asleep… I hope you'll enjoy the conversation between Dyson and Angelina.
Mistyqueen: Thank you! I'm curious too as how it's going to continue… oh, wait, I should know, I'm the author…
Fujutsu: Wow, thank you very much! I hope I'll be able to keep it as interesting!
Bratski: Ah, no, I'm not from Argentina. My home is probably farther away from Argentina than yours. Glad you like the story!
Angelface04: I'm glad you like the story so far, and I really hope you won't lose interest in it! I always have to smile these days when I read the word uber. I mean, I'm so used to English words in the German language nowadays (starting with cool…) but to see a German word suddenly appearing in the English language I find kind of funny… I wonder how it came into the English language…
Battlestar Polaris: I stumbled upon the pairing in a story on (although I stopped reading it when Adrian and Angelina broke up again…) but before this, I never gave Adrian a second thought. His family's reaction will be indeed very interesting (or at least, I hope I'll be able to write it as interesting as I plan it). And yes, she will meet other former Hogwarts students.
Rupert's honey: Well, I hope I will keep it from getting boring.
Chapter 4
So much to talk about…
Julia was already sitting on the bed, the blanket over her legs, still showing the top of her new red nightgown.
Angelina had just pulled the white silken negligee that had been in one of the boxes over her head before she sat down on the bed herself. She pulled the blanket over her legs and lay down next to her sister.
Julia scooted closer to her sister and sighed contently once she was cuddled up next to her sister. Angelina took her wand and turned off the light in the room.
"Julia."
"Mhm?"
"You… you know that married couples share a bed, right?" Angelina asked silently into the darkness.
"Yes." Julia answered slowly.
"And, you know… you know that you will have to sleep alone from tomorrow night on?" Angelina hated this. She felt as though she was abandoning her sister.
"I know." Julia replied silently. She turned around in Angelina's arms and tried to look at her sister.
"But during the day, you will still be with me, right? You will still play with me and continue to teach me to read and write, won't you?"
"Of course." Angelina promised and kissed Julia's hair.
"Good night Angelina." Julia yawned and was already asleep as soon as Angelina had wished her a good night as well.
Angelina frowned in her sleep and held Julia closer to her when the nightmares came back to haunt her. Had she hoped that they would just stop now that she was far away from the 'Milagro Rojo' she had been wrong. So wrong…
"You can't marry her! She doesn't fit in our family!"
"What do you mean?"
"She is… She doesn't fit in! You must see that!"
"No I don't!"
"She is black!"
Angelina whimpered in her sleep and tried to push the nightmare away, but to no avail.
"Angelina, you have to go to Argentina with Julia, it is getting way to dangerous here!"
"But… what about you?"
"Don't worry about us Angel. Just take care of your sister."
"I… we will see you again, right?"
"Take care of her, Angel. And remember, we will always love you!"
A single tear slid down her cheek as her mind let her see her parents again. As she saw their faces, heard their voices, could almost feel her mother's hands on her cheek as she stroke her before she gave her Julia to take her to Argentina.
"Hey mudblood!" she felt the dragon skin boot kicking her in the side.
"Stand up!"
"Do as you're told mudblood!"
Angelina hugged Julia closer to her. Her whole body shivered as her mind let her see things that might have happened to both her and Julia had they stayed at the Milagro Rojo. Cold sweat started to cover her body.
It wasn't until the sun was rising that she woke up from the nightmare.
"Well Miss Johnson, would you like to accompany me into the hotel garden?"
Julia giggled slight when Dyson bowed and offered her his arm. Somehow the 28-year-old had managed to gain Julia's trust – at least as much as she was right now able to give – in less than a day. Angelina waved after her sister when she walked out of the suite.
Nervously she ran her hands over the pink fabric of her dress as she waited for Adrian to speak. After all, Adrian wanting to speak with her was the reason for Dyson to take Julia into the garden. And yet, when Adrian started to talk, she almost jumped.
"I talked to the hotel manager. We will marry this evening." He told her as though he had been merely talking about the weather. Angelina turned around to face him and saw him leaning with his hip against the backrest of one of the couches, looking back at her.
Angelina wasn't sure if he expected her to respond to this so she simply nodded and waited whether or not he was going to say something more to her. Surely he hadn't sent her sister away just to tell her when they would get married, would he?
Adrian stepped away from the couch and went towards the door that was opposite to the one that lead to the bedroom Angelina and Julia had slept in that night. At the door he turned around and asked her to follow him.
Angelina wasn't really surprised when she saw the furniture of the bedroom. It was exactly the same as the one in which she had slept the last night.
"I wrote to my lawyer yesterday evening and had him sent this over immediately." Adrian walked towards the nightstand and took a small black box from it. When he came back to her Angelina could see a small coloured picture on top of the box. Adrian opened the box and showed Angelina a thin ring made of white gold with a diamond. The ring was more than beautiful, especially as the sunlight caught in the stone and the diamond seemed to reflect it in all colours of the rainbow.
"It is beautiful." Angelina said in a whisper as she looked at the ring. It was beautiful and a part of her, a very small part of her, wished it was given her under different circumstances. But she shook this feeling away immediately. She had given up on love long ago; there was no reason to start thinking about such nonsense now.
When Adrian closed the box again, Angelina could see that the picture she had seen on it was a crest. She cocked her head slightly to one side and looked at it. The crest was divided into four parts, the top held a simple dark green quarter on the left and a silver quarter with a snake under a wane moon. The lower part of the crest held a silver quarter with a dark red flower on the left and again a simple dark green quarter on the right.
"What is this?" She asked and her fingers touched the picture slightly
"It's our family crest." Adrian explained. He put the box back onto the nightstand before they walked back into the living room.
"Can I ask you something?" Angelina asked and turned to face him.
"You just did." Adrian replied and Angelina sighed. She tried desperately to stay calm and not scream at him right now. Adrian was glad to see the way her eyes darkened. She had almost scared him with the way she had acted so far. Too cool, too reserved, too un-Gryffindor-like.
"Why did you want it to be one condition that neither of us is allowed to have affairs?"
Adrian raised his eyebrows and Angelina already thought she wouldn't get a response from him when he finally answered.
"I don't like anyone touching what is mine." He said and it was Angelina's turn to raise her eyebrows.
"I'm possessive. Might have to do with me being an only child. So I won't watch how my wife is having affairs with other men. And I guess it is only fair if I don't have affairs then, too."
To say she was surprised would have been an understatement. But Angelina didn't say anything more about it. After a quick glance to the clock Adrian excused himself, saying that he had a business appointment and that he would be back by seven. The wedding would then be held at eight o'clock. Angelina wasn't sure whether she wished for the time to pass by faster or to stop entirely.
It was about thirty minutes later when Dyson and Julia came back into the suite. Julia ran towards the couch Angelina was sitting on and jumped onto it.
"Look!" She said when she held a brown teddy bear with a pink bow around his neck towards her sister.
"Dyson bought him for me." Julia smiled and hugged the teddy. Angelina looked asking at Dyson who only shrugged smiling while he walked closer. Julia turned to look at him and then back at Angelina.
"Do we have a paper and a pencil here? I promised Dyson to paint him something." Julia said and Angelina felt close to tears when she looked into her sister's eyes. In Julia's eyes she could see the hope for a better future. If Julia was already willing to trust Dyson then the past four years had maybe not affected her as badly as she had feared. Then maybe Julia would soon be able to leave all this behind.
"I don't know." She answered Julia's question and made to arise from the couch when Dyson told her he would get something for Julia to paint on. When Dyson left the room Angelina looked at her sister again.
"Dyson told me that Teddy will protect me at night from all the bad dreams and from any bad memories that might come." Julia told her proudly.
"I'm sure he will." Angelina said when she looked at the stuffed animal. Julia suddenly frowned and looked worried at her older sister.
"Will this other man protect you from your bad dreams now?"
Angelina looked shocked at the young girl. She had always thought Julia didn't know about her nightmares.
"Julia…"
"So, this should be enough for you to paint me something nice, right?" Dyson interrupted them and Angelina didn't finish her sentence. She hadn't known what she should have said anyway. Julia took the paper and the crayons from Dyson and walked into her bedroom, saying she didn't want Dyson to see the painting before she was done.
Once she had closed the door behind her Dyson went to the small bar and filled himself a glass of firewhiskey before he sat down next to Angelina on the couch.
"You… you didn't have to buy her the teddy bear." Angelina told him softly when Dyson put his arms on the backrest of the couch, placing his right leg on his left knee.
"I thought it might help her getting used to sleep alone." Dyson said and shrugged. The whispered 'Thank you' from Angelina he almost overheard.
"You don't look like a soon-to-be bride." Dyson said and sipped on his whiskey.
"What do you expect me to look like?" Angelina asked and eyed him curiously.
"Happy?" Dyson shrugged. Angelina raised her eyebrows at him.
"You do know what this marriage is about, don't you?"
"I do. That doesn't mean you can't look happy. One would think, after living in that establishment for… how long was it, three, four years? … that you would be happy to be away from it."
"I am happy to be out of there that is for sure, however, I'm not a person who is going to jump around with joy." 'Not anymore at least.'
"It wouldn't seem so, would it? No, you really are a lot like my cousin." Dyson said and gained another raised eyebrow from Angelina. But he decided to change the subject.
"Has Adrian told you about our family yet?"
Angelina shook her head.
"Of course not." Dyson laughed slightly. "Although there is a lot to talk about. It is a rather large family – unusual, one would think, for purebloods like ourselves, but then again, our grandparents were a rather unusual couple."
"You see, when my grandparents met, they actually fell in love. So, when they married, my grandfather had even let the family crest changed. I don't know whether or not you have seen it yet, it is…"
"I have seen it." Angelina interrupted him and Dyson nodded slowly.
"The snake under the wane moon has been the sign of the Puceys for hundreds of years, no one really knows anymore why. The red rose is the sign of the DiAngelo – our grandmother's family." Dyson explained.
"But, as I said before, they were very much in love and thus, my grandfather didn't only bed his wife until she gave him the desired heir, but together they raised no less than seven children."
Angelina's eyes widened slightly as she heard this. This was indeed rather unusual for the old, rich pureblooded families.
"All but one of their children got married and now I have 14 cousins. Three of them have already children of their own."
"Did all of them marry out of love?"
"No, there are enough of them who married for other reasons. Although my grandmother always insists on her talk before the wedding. Telling everyone that they should remember that there is no way she will allow any member of our family to end a marriage. But obviously that didn't stop anyone from marrying whom they wanted to marry. Although, some of my cousins claim that grandmother has cursed them, so they won't be able to get children, or at least, that they won't get a boy."
Angelina looked disbelieving at Dyson who raised his hands.
"I didn't say I believe it."
"What did you mean when you said Adrian is like me?" Angelina suddenly asked. It took Dyson a moment to remember what exactly she meant but when he did he answered immediately.
"I meant that both of you hide your feelings. But Adrian is still better at it."
"I'm not hiding my feelings!" Angelina told him but Dyson only raised his eyebrows at her.
"When was the last time you laughed? Or cried? Or screamed at someone? When was the last time you didn't put this mask on your face?"
Angelina swallowed. Could he be right? Was she really hiding her feelings? And what if? It wasn't as thought it was a crime! She straightened her shoulders and raised her chin when she looked at him again.
"Even if I do as you say, there's nothing wrong with it!"
"I didn't say it is. You assume too much. Typical Gryffindor behaviour I'd say."
Angelina narrowed her eyes at Dyson when she saw the grin that was slowly forming on his lips.
"I knew you weren't as good at it as Adrian." He told her grinning. Angelina shook her head and sighed.
"Angelina, I beg you to be careful once we're back in England."
"Why?" Angelina asked slightly troubled by Dyson's sudden seriousness.
"Because there are people who would like to hurt my cousin, even in our family. And you are the perfect way to get there." Dyson stopped and looked at her and saw her asking look.
"Why would someone of your own family want to hurt Adrian?"
"Because, even though my grandmother doesn't say so openly, everyone knows that Adrian is her favourite grandson. For one his father was her youngest child and then, he is also said to be the one who is most like our grandfather both, in his looks and his character."
"Was?"
Dyson looked confused at her.
"His father. You didn't say he is the youngest child, but he was the youngest child."
"Adrian's father died some years ago." Dyson explained and waited a moment before he continued.
"Adrian is rather calm and cold on the outside, but he can get very angry and aggressive in a matter of seconds. But I guess you have already noticed that during some Quidditch game. People who know him, know how to get to him. And you will be the easiest way to accomplish that task."
"How so?"
"To say Adrian is possessive would be an understatement. And that is no secret in England. He is also someone who lets someone fall if this someone betrays him in any way. I remember, it must have been in the year the chamber was opened, he was going out with some Ravenclaw girl. After about a month he found out she had made out with some guy from Ravenclaw. He beat him up pretty bad, the guy had to stay in the hospital wing for a night. Then he broke up with the girl."
It was getting cold in the room. Or maybe, that was just Angelina's feeling.
"I'm not planning on betraying him." Angelina said silently.
"You don't have to convince me. Convince Adrian. Don't let him doubt you. You are a very pretty woman, and you know it. It won't take much to let other men try to seduce you. Make it obvious that no one of them is of any interest to you. Best would be… stay away from any man when Adrian isn't with you. And not just from strangers."
Angelina shook her head slowly. He couldn't really mean what he said, could he?
"I told you that Adrian is the favourite grandson, and I told you that some of my cousins as well as my dear siblings think our grandmother cursed them to not get a boy. When you come back with Adrian, legally married and it only being a matter of time until you give birth to a child, they will suspect that my grandmother will be more than delighted if it is going to be a boy. I would like to tell you exactly from whom you should stay away, but I fear, if I tell you now, that you can talk to Keziah and Sean, or Cole and Nigella, or to Maitland and Felicienne, it wouldn't really help you, for you would have forgotten the names before we are in England."
Angelina knew that he was probably right. Her head was already starting to ache with everything he had told her so far.
"One would think that for a family as rich as yours doesn't need the heritage your grandmother has to offer."
"One would think so, yes, but the heritage isn't a small one. For one, there is a lot of money, old, very valuable books, rare potion ingredients and so on. And then of course, the houses: villas in Venice, Florence, and at the sea in Tuscany. A chateau in Switzerland. A house in Sweden were my grandparents passed Christmas very often… the list is almost endless."
"What about you? Are you married?" Angelina asked him. Dyson shook his head and drank his whiskey.
"No. And much to the dismay of my dear grandmother, I won't marry."
"You don't want the heritage?"
Dyson shrugged.
"I will inherit enough from my parents. I'm not one for marriage, you know. To think of binding myself to one woman for the rest of my life…" Dyson shook his head.
"How could I? There are so many beautiful women walking this planet, how could I decide on one alone?"
Angelina couldn't do anything but shake her head when she saw the look on Dyson's face. But then she thought about how he had told her about Adrian's aggressions.
"Does your cousin hold his word?" she asked in a whisper, not daring to look in his face.
"Yes he does. Why do you ask?"
Angelina shrugged.
"Just a question."
"I scared you with what I told you about Adrian?" It was more a statement than a question. Angelina turned her head to look into Dyson's blue eyes again.
"He won't hurt you."
Angelina nodded slowly. What could she do other than trust Dyson's word?
"Here!" Julia's happy voice interrupted the silence that had befallen them. She came running towards the couch. She gave Dyson a piece of paper where not a single white spot was left.
"I painted the hotel garden." Julia told him proudly as she walked around the couch and sat on Angelina's lap.
"Do you like it?" she asked and looked hopefully at him.
"Of course I do! This is the best painting I have ever seen!" Dyson told her smiling before he arose.
"I'll see you tonight." And with this he left the two alone.
If anyone wants to see the crest and/or the family tree go here:
http/ de.share. geocities. com/ nikidestiny/ Stammbaum. bmp
(you know the thrill, delete the spaces…)
And still no wedding…. But the next one will be the wedding and the wedding night. Promise!
Maybe I'll be able to update before the weekend, but I can't promise, I have to prepare my oral presentations in English and French for next weeks Thursday, and this week's Thursday, we're going to capture the house of a friend for a pirate party! (in other words, we're watching PotC and eat Pizza :D) Oh, and while I'm talking about Pirates… has anyone of you ever wondered about Captain Flint – Marcus Flint? Is there a connection between them?