Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Written for Hogwarts Assignment 8; Ghost Hunting Task 1 - Write about Adultery.

Other Challenges Listed at the Bottom.

Word count - 1768


Unfair Is The World We Live In


They fell in love as teenagers, drunk on the freedom from their families, holding hands and trading kisses in hidden alcoves of the school corridors. It was a simple time, an easy time, a happy time. A time where they could push their coming responsibilities to the back of their minds and just be.

It was a shame it couldn't last.

She tried not to worry for the future, but she didn't often manage it. She knew that they would never be wed. She knew that the bad blood between their families meant that she would never call herself a Malfoy.

She worried for a future where she would bear the name of another.

Druella smoothed her periwinkle robes nervously, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. She didn't want to be here, didn't want to do this, and yet, she had no real choice.

She watched from beside her mother as her father greeted the newcomers. Druella remained silent as her father introduced first her mother and then her. She knew better than to speak without express permission.

It had been drilled into her how important this meeting was for their family. How much their fate rested solely on Druella's shoulders.

This wasn't the first time she'd laid eyes on Cygnus Black. She'd seen him in her first few years at Hogwarts before he left. Thankfully, she'd been insignificant to him then, but she'd heard enough rumours about him to know that this wasn't something she wanted.

Even if Abraxas hadn't already stolen her heart so completely, she wouldn't want this man.

"Miss Rosier," he murmured, kissing her hand. She only barely managed to keep her composure and not flinch away from him. "You are a vision."

She forced herself to smile demurely in thanks.

Cygnus took his seat, but she could feel his eyes on her the whole time their fathers were discussing a contract that would tie their families together. His gaze felt uncomfortable, burning into her skin, like pin pricks of the sharpest needle.

She watched her father and Cygnus' shake hands and felt her heart sink. That simple gesture had sealed her fate.

She was to be married to Cygnus Black, and there was nothing she could so about it.

He pressed gentle kisses to her bare shoulder, his hand skimming her side, his fingertips drawing out goosebumps.

"It's not fair," she lamented, leaning further against him.

"We don't live in a world that's fair," he murmured. "We live in this one."

"His touch makes my skin crawl," she muttered.

Abraxas pulled back to look at her properly. "If you asked me to run with you, you know that I'll do it in an instant. If this is all we can have, then I'll take this too. As long as you continue to be in my life, I will bear whatever misfortune I must."

A single tear fell onto her cheek. "Then I suppose that this is what we shall have."

Cygnus' anger was scary. He raged and he shouted and screamed. Druella accepted it, the way she'd accepted everything else in her life, because it was her duty.

As his wife, his anger was hers to receive.

This was the hand she'd been dealt.

The bruises littering her arms and wrists were painful, but he wouldn't allow her to heal them. Thankfully, he kept his anger to places where the marks wouldn't be easily seen, but she knew that was on purpose.

Having a wife wearing bruises like diamonds was bad, even in pureblood society.

Druella spoke quietly with her mother, and her mother had done naught but pat her hair with a sympathetic smile. "You will learn, as you age, ways to quell his anger before it leads to such marks."

Druella didn't want to have to learn such ways; she wanted to be married to a man that respected her enough to not leave marks of anger on her skin. She wanted to be married to a man with gentle hands and soft words.

Abraxas' words rang in her mind. We don't live in a world that is fair.

She twisted the diamond ring on her finger and sighed. He'd never been more right.

Abraxas lingered over her bruised ribs, his eyes pained. "What was he angry about this time?"

Druella shook her head. "He was ranting about the latest bill to be passed by the Wizengamot."

"He is an ignorant pig," Abraxas spat. "The bill was passed because it was the right thing. He was one of the few who argued against it."

Druella ran a hand through Abraxas' silky locks. "Don't worry yourself, my love. It wasn't so bad this time."

"I always worry about you. He is getting worse, I worry how much more he will do to you in his anger."

"He will not kill me. The political storm that would follow such a thing could ruin him. Cygnus is very concerned with the way he appears after all."

"Perhaps… perhaps we should stop this," Abraxas murmured after a long pause. "I… if he finds out about us, I fear the consequences you would face."

"If that is the only reason that you wish to stop, then I beg you reconsider," Druella whispered, her heart thudding in her chest. "You are all that keeps me going, some days, Abraxas. You are my only source of comfort."

Abraxas wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down so she was sitting on his knee. "I worry for you."

"I know. I love you."

"I love you too."

The back of his hand stung her cheek and she was knocked to the floor with the force of it.

Clutching her cheek, she watched in horror as he threw her keepsake box onto the table beside him.

It had been hidden away in her wardrobe, right in the back behind her fanciest of robes. She had no idea how he'd found it, but she felt a frisson of fear. Inside the box was memories of Abraxas, of presents he'd bought her, and even a few pictures of the two of them when they were young.

Cygnus gripped a stuffed lion in his hand, his knuckles whitening with the force. Druella remembered Abraxas handing her the lion with a sheepish smile and a faint blush. It had been on one of their first dates, when he'd learned she was allergic to most flowers.

Cygnus glared down at her. "Do you think me a fool?" he demanded.

Druella shook her head, looking down.

"You keep trinkets, photographs, of another man in the house I own, in the house where we live together!"

His face was red with anger and she flinched when he loomed over her. He didn't move to hit her again, instead, he threw the stuffed lion into the fireplace, followed immediately by everything else in the box.

He crouched down, holding her chin in a rough grip. "If I find out that you've been whoring yourself with him since we got married, I'll murder you both."

Cygnus shook his head in disgust at her and stormed from the room. Druella remained on the floor, her eyes on the flickering flames destroying her most treasured possessions.

Tears fell from her eyes, streaming unchecked down her face.

"We can't do this anymore," she said flatly.

Abraxas stared at her for a long moment. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing, this is nothing to do with -"

"What did he do to you?"

Tears welled in Druella's eyes, no matter how hard she tried to force them away. "He… he burnt everything. The photos, the presents… he found them and he destroyed them. He said, he said that if we… he'll kill us both. I can't, I can't be responsible for him hurting you, I can't."

Abraxas approached her slowly, reaching out to cup her cheek in his hand. "If that is the only reason that you wish to stop, then I beg you reconsider," he whispered. "You are all that keeps me going, some days, Druella."

Having her words repeated back to her after so long was too much and she fell forward into his arms. He held her tightly, his hand stroking her back.

"I'm not scared of Cygnus Black, my love. Were it not for the society we live in, I would have killed him years ago. I won't let him take you from me. Not now, not ever."

Druella held her third, and last child in her arms. The blonde wisps of hair made her lips tilt up for a mere moment, before Cygnus entered the room.

His eyes were on Narcissa, and Druella swallowed hard before she held the small bundle out. "Come and meet your daughter," she said, relinquishing her hold when Cygnus secured his arms.

"Hmm." He looked down at the tiny baby. "My daughter," he nodded. He looked up at Druella, his eyes glittering oddly. "You should sleep, my dear. Childbirth is not for the faint of heart after all."

He laid Narcissa in the small cot beside Druella's bed and leant over to kiss Druella's cheek. When he reached the door, he looked back.

"You must be happy, to finally have a child with your colouring. Sleep well, my dear."

The news of Abraxas' murder spread through the community like wildfire, picking up new and often exaggerated details with each retelling. The only thing that remained the same each time was that the mastermind of the murder had not been caught.

Druella sat in the rocking chair of the nursery with Narcissa asleep in her arms. Lightning flashed outside the window, leaving pretty patterns in the sky.

She liked to think that Abraxas was up there somewhere in heaven, looking down on her with the fond smile he'd saved only for her.

She knew that Cygnus was his killer. Knew it with a sureness that had settled into her very bones, because he knew, as well as she knew, that Narcissa's colouring wasn't from Druella.

She wasn't sure what had made Cygnus spare her his wrath. She thought perhaps it was the children, though she couldn't be sure.

She wouldn't tell anybody the truth. That wasn't the way she'd been brought up, and she knew that Abraxas would understand that. She thought that he would want her to stay safe, to keep breathing for as long as she could before she could go and join him in whatever afterlife was awaiting.

Regardless, no matter the way it had ended, Druella couldn't regret following her heart.


Also Written For;

Writing Club

Disney - C1. A young woman following her heart.

Lizzy's Loft - 4. Stuffed Lion

Amber's Attic - 2. Someone worrying about the future.

Angel's Arcade - Dr Neo Cortex - Mastermind / Lightning / Periwinkle

Lo's Lowdown - Q3 - "We don't live in a world that's fair. We live in this one."

Bex's Basement - 3. Hulk - Someone with anger management problems.

Seasonal

Autumn - Scary

Element - Heaven

Ravenclaw - Ignorant

Star Chart - Draconids Meteor Shower - Diamond Ring