Disclaimer: The usual...don't own Harry.

Author's note: Am I fast, or what? ;) Enjoy!


Overlooked entanglements

Four days later our entire house was in chaos. My mother tried to be in twenty places at the same time, making sure that even the finest details were looked after. Our guests for the New Year's party would be arriving in an hour and I had gone upstairs trying to avoid my mother. She always got like this when she was organizing a party. Things always had to be perfect and adjusted at the last moment.

I had just taken a bath and walked back into my room wrapped in towels. I put on silk underwear and stockings and started working on my make-up. After that I dried my hair and pulled it back twisting it around my fingers and pinning it high on the back of my head. I missed our house elf Dinky sorely as I wrestled with my unwilling curls, but she was already claimed by my mother.

I looked at the clock. Only ten minutes left. My mother would go insane if I was late for the party, so I quickly got out my dress for the evening. It was a luscious shade of red, almost blood red, and fitted my body tightly. It showed rather a lot of cleavage, but it wasn't indecent. Barely. My mother had not approved entirely, but in another fit of stubbornness, which I seem to suffer from a lot lately, I had insisted. I put a necklace of rubies embedded in silver around my neck. Then I slipped into my heels and went downstairs.

My father and brother were already there, both looking handsome in their classic black dress robes. They were the same height and their faces were almost identical. My father's hair was longer than my brother's and was the same colour as mine. They smiled at me and said I looked beautiful.

Deirdre came rushing downstairs in a blue dress, her shoes clutched in her hand. "Am I late, am I late?" she wheezed. Looking around she noticed my mother wasn't there yet and she sighed in relief. Rowan burst into laughter and kissed her affectionately on the cheek.

"You're always late, little imp."

Deirdre threw her brother a nasty look, but she had to swallow her reply when my mother came down the stairs.

My father offered her his hand and said, "Astarte, you look stunning." And she did. My mother's curls were shining like gold and her face glowed in excitement. Her green dress contrasted her pale skin and blonde hair and matched her moss green eyes.

She smiled at her husband. The doors went open to let the first guests in and we all took our place to greet them.

It was my mother's brother, Melchior, and his wife Ismene. They were followed by their sons Rabastan and Rodolphus, whose wife was a little behind him talking to her sister and parents.

Bellatrix and Narcissa greeted me warmly and stayed a while to chat, because no guests were following yet.

However, the doors went open again to let in an enormous stream of guests and they waved goodbye quickly.

Ugh, I can't believe how stuck-up Bellatrix is, it's almost humanly impossible!

My two uncles from my father's side were the first to enter the house. They were followed by my aunts and cousins.

The Dolohovs, Rosiers, Snapes, Greenways, Grahams, Flints, Remingtons, Malfoys, Langdons – Lana gave me a meaningful look and I tried to hide my smile – Fudges, Grants, Donovans, Notts, Graysons, Montagues, Bulstrodes, Camerons, Longbottoms, Fairfaxes, Crouches, Parkinsons, Zabinis, McDougals, Owens…

Rowan whispered in my ear, "How many people did she invite?"

I chuckled, but stopped when I looked into a familiar face. I tried to calm myself.

It's not him!

I was staring in the face of Regulus Black. His hair was considerably shorter than his brother's, his eyes were brown instead of grey and he was a bit leaner, but still, the resemblance was startling.

I smiled to hide my feelings. "Hi Regulus. Still enjoying the holidays?"

"Yes, very much. And you?"

Enjoying the holidays? Well, I suppose you could put it that way…

"Me too."

"Reggie!" my sister exclaimed. "Stop lingering and come and greet me properly."

Regulus looked apologetically at me, but turned his attention to his classmate. I greeted Sirius's parents and sighed silently in relief when they had passed.

Oh, bugger!

Marcus Crast was standing in front of me. "Hi, Niamh." He looked very guilty.

"Hello, Marcus," I said carefully.

"I -- I wanted to say -- "

"Shh, we'll talk about it later." I smiled. Looking a bit relieved he walked to my sister, who gave me a what-was-that look after he had left. I shrugged and mouthed 'later' to her. My mother would kill me if I made a scene at her party.

Finally, after more than an hour, we could go into the ballroom. I got myself a drink and went to look for Lana and Narcissa.

I found them sitting in the middle of a large group of Hogwarts' students and I joined them. Most of them were fellow Slytherins. Alanna Grant, Melody Owen, and Diana Parkinson were seventh-years and casual friends of mine; so were Ravenclaws Daphne Remington and Seline Greenway. Phaedra Grayson and my sister were two years younger. They were accompanied by Marcus, Devon Malfoy, Severus, and Gareth Donovan. George Fairfax joined the group simultaneously with me. He was a seventh-year Ravenclaw.

I sat next to Lana and looked around. My brother was talking to his friends. They had all graduated Hogwarts last year. Patrick McDougall, Barclay Nott, Antonin Dolohov, Seth Zabini, and a wizard who I thought was Seth's younger brother Orion. I believed he was in his sixth-year at Hogwarts.

Seth's attention was drawn to a dark-haired girl that had joined the group.

"That is his fiancée, Amelia Rosier," Narcissa said.

"Oh," Lana said, "doesn't she have that gorgeous brother? What's his name -- Bryce?"

"I think you're mistaking him for his brother, Evan. He's the gorgeous one. Bryce is handsome too, but -- well, in a different way," Narcissa said, referring to Bryce's blatant homosexuality.

I frowned. "Evan, isn't he much older?"

"No, silly," Narcissa said. "He is twenty-five. He lived in Italy for four years, but he returned a few weeks ago."

Now I remembered the tall and handsome man with sun-streaked brown hair that had kissed my hand gallantly.

"I came back the right time, I see. You've grown into a fine woman, Niamh," he had said.

"Thank you," I had replied, trying to remember his name.

I spent some more time discussing the wizards and witches present, and talked to some of my classmates. I engaged in a bit of verbal sparring with Severus, on whom I could always count if I got tired of mindless chatter.

The music switched from chamber music to dance music and my parents danced the first dance. Lana was asked to dance by Devon and Narcissa by Gareth. Someone put a hand on my shoulder and I looked behind me.

"May I have this dance?" Evan Rosier asked.

"Of course, Evan."

"Ah, I see you've remembered my name."

I smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I was hoping you hadn't noticed."

"I don't mind. You were thirteen, I believe, when I last saw you."

He put a hand on my waist and held my hand with his other and led the dance. He was an excellent dancer. I had not expected anything else.

It was easy to make conversation when I was being led around the dance floor so expertly. "You lived in Italy for four years, I heard."

"Yes, I went there to finish my education. After that, I was offered a job, so I decided to stay."

"So why did you come back? Italy seems a wonderful country to me."

"It is. But I got transferred. I hope you don't mind."

Is he flirting with me?

"Certainly not," I laughed. "But I will mind you not telling me some more about Italy."

"We can't have that, now can we?" he said, raising an eyebrow playfully. "I lived in Florence, which is such a beautiful city, I can't even begin to tell you."

"Do try."

He grinned. "Very well, if you insist." He told me all about Florence's beautiful buildings and history and I kept asking questions. He was a good story-teller, easily holding my attention. He told me he had also visited Venice and Rome.

"I think I'm green with envy, Evan. It doesn't match my dress very well, I'm afraid."

He looked amused at me. "You really are something else."

After the dance he brought me back to my friends, kissed my hand again, and asked if he could come back for another dance later.

"I would love to dance with you again," I said, smiling genuinely.

When I sat down next to Lana and Narcissa I said, "Stop drooling you two, it'll ruin your dresses."

"He is so goodlooking," Lana said. Then she gave me a odd look. "What about…?"

I shushed her when Narcissa looked curiously our way. "Come on."

I got up and Lana followed me. Fortunately Narcissa was distracted by Severus, who asked her to dance. Lana and I went to my room.

"What about Sirius?" she enquired.

I looked confused. "What about him? It was just a shag, Lana. And before you start, there is nothing going on with me and Evan, he was just being polite and so was I. "

"Alright. But he is definitely nice to look at," she said.

"Yes, he is," I agreed.

"Evan too, by the way," Lana said cheekily.

I stuck out my tongue. "Tell me about you and Devon."

Lana instantly gave me a fully detailed report of her several rendezvous with Devon Malfoy. After that I told her all about Sirius.

Half an hour later we returned downstairs, with our cheeks red and still giggling.

It had seemed to become a pleasant evening. I talked to lots of people and I even straightened things out a bit with Marcus, who was deeply remorseful of his behaviour. In spite of my earlier thoughts, the evening became less amusing when I noticed the conversations had switched to the Muggle and Muggle-born killings that had been going on for almost a year.

I knew about a third- and a fourth-year that had been murdered along with their family. One had been a Muggle-born; the other had had Muggle-born parents.

There was also sixth-year Ravenclaw whose parents were murdered, because they were Muggle-born. The girl had escaped because she had been staying at a friend's place. I never let anyone notice, because the general opinion in my family was that they deserved it, but it had upset me and I pitied the girl. I took care not to say anything like that out loud, though.

And things seemed to be getting worse. I had recently found out that my brother and most of his friends were deeply involved in these attacks. I even thought they might have become Death Eaters after they had graduated. I suspected Lucius of being a Death Eater as well and Bellatrix and Rodolphus had the words practically written on their foreheads; so had Rabastan. What I didn't know was how much my parents were involved and I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

I knew people thought I was the perfect Slytherin pure-blood witch that agreed with Voldemort whole-heartedly and that would make a respectable marriage, but I wasn't. I didn't want to be. Neither could I agree with Voldemort's ideas. It didn't matter how I felt though, it was how my life was going to turn out. From the moment I was born, I was brought up for a single purpose. To be an asset to my family. I was an asset to my family. I took great pains to be so.

But for some reason I needed little things for myself, such as the red dress I was wearing, my friendship with Lana, my break-up with Lucius, my incredibly stupid liaison with Sirius Black. I had not idea why I was doing it, but I couldn't seem to stop myself. Was I just trying to just hold off what was coming nearer inevitably? I had escaped the first trap by breaking off my relationship with Lucius, but I knew there was another one waiting for me. I blinked. A trap. Had I really just called it that?

Shaking off my dark thoughts I looked around for a waiter, but a glass of champagne had already appeared in front of my face.

"It's almost midnight," Evan said.

I accepted the drink and looked at Evan. Excellent way to spend the evening.

After we had counted the seconds to the new year we kissed each other on the cheeks.

"You are an exceptionally beautiful woman. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other," he said softly, still standing close.

Flattered but also surprised, I looked up at him.

People came to wish us a happy new year, so I didn't get to ask what he meant by it. We got separated and I didn't get to talk to him again. By the end of the evening his remark had already slipped my mind.