The Noble House of Black
Spoiled
daydream11
for ladylucius of LiveJournal
Written July 4, 2009
"Mother has spoiled you, all the way up to your wedding day."
Ignore her antagonizing words, I told myself, and willed myself not to hunch – or shiver, or do anything at all – as she slid onto the bench beside me. I met her eyes in the mirror and smiled briefly. Bellatrix grinned.
"Your own gown, Cissy, to be worn for a man of your own choosing, to be lovingly –" she said the word as if she mocked it (she did), rolling it around her mouth like the childish toy she thought it to be, because she knew, as most other ladies of Quality knew, that love and its variations hardly existed in their (her) reality.
"Lovingly, yes?" I leaned forward, away from her, and applied rouge to my cheeks. Only a touch. I must look alive, not feverish. In the mirror I saw Bella lift her brows at me. Insolence, even from her favorite sister (well, her only sister), never did sit well with her. Yet, I figured, how much damage could she truly deliver me only an hour before I become Mrs. Lucius Malfoy? Not much, if any, and I knew it. She knew it. That knowledge had her clutching ever so slightly at her own gown. I decided to keep a smirk off of my face. No need to push her any further, because I already had the upper hand. Glorious.
"Lovingly taken off for a night of tender passion worthy of any tasteless Muggle novel."
"You have read tasteless Muggle novels?"
"You have not? Pity, you happen to be missing out on some great entertainment."
Entertainment, to be sure. I glanced down at the long sleeves covering my sister's arms, concealing more than a certain Mark, and wondered – no, knew – that Bella yearned for the tender passion in her tasteless Muggle novels. Such a shame. I slipped a small jar of makeup into her gown's pocket. No need to speak of it.
"Mother could hardly have allowed her last daughter to leave her home without a proper farewell," I said, my voice light and airy. Bella didn't reply. The rest of that statement needn't be spoken; it was understood just as well silently. We were both done with this conversation, with the masked taunts and the hidden jealousy and the careful sidestepping. One more word about my future husband and my wedding day and we would venture into nasty territory. Neither of us wanted that. Bella didn't want that. As always, she had received the short end of the stick – even worse than Andromeda, but I dared not say that – and I the best. Why pour more salt into wounds? It did us no good.
She got up then, kissed my cheek softly, and left me alone once more. I finished with my makeup and mother came to tie me into my gown and dress my hair. A beautiful new necklace, a precious antique bracelet, a smile, and a giddy laugh, and all from Mother (of all people!).
Spoiled, indeed.