Once again, thanks to everyone for their support and SURPRISE! two chapters in less than a week!
And most things still belong to JKR
Draco watched as Ellie collapsed on the young woman's couch and continued to cry, although by now, she was smiling softly from behind her tears. The young woman continued to murmur in French, mostly short phrases that even Draco could recognize like "I'm sorry".
He studied the two women carefully. Both had similar faces and exactly the same color hair, but Vivienne looked more made up with heavily lined eyelids and dark red lipstick. Their style of clothing also couldn't be more opposite. Where Ellie was wearing jeans and canvas sneakers, Vivienne was wearing a pencil skirt and sensible pumps. And although Vivienne was surely the prettier of the two, Draco firmly decided that she looked too made up. He much preferred Ellie's style.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this heartwarming powwow, but I don't really understand what's going on," Draco said curtly to the young woman.
"Oh, but of course," She smiled, "I should explain to you what happened." Draco couldn't help but notice that her accent was much thicker than Ellie's and the slow methodical way she spoke made it clear that Ellie was clearly better at speaking English.
"I'm sure that Ellie has told you about my engagement?" She asked .
"Well, a little," Draco nodded.
"Well, then I will have to tell you the whole thing. Both of you should listen," she gently patted Ellie's back, "When I was eighteen years old, my grandmother betrothed me to a young Bulgarian pureblood. He was charming and handsome, I could not have asked for more in a husband that I did not get to choose. So, although I was under this dreadful curse that you are also under, I was happy enough.
"The wedding was set to be one year from the day that we found out we were betrothed, so it would have been in May of the following year. But in September, I met a French servant who was working in the Bulgarian's house and we fell in love. It was a terrible, impossible thing, because this servant was muggle born and because I couldn't separate from the Bulgarian. He could see my love for the servant and became extraordinarily jealous. He would get angry if the servant even looked at me and would often hit me if he caught me talking to or even looking at the servant. He fired the servant, but he left with a promise that before May, he would find a way to break the curse and help me run away.
"I waited for months and months, but the servant never came back. I was devastated, and on the night before my wedding I became resolute on one fact: I would rather die than marry the Bulgarian. So that night after the Bulgarian was surely asleep, I used a knife and was about to stab myself when one last thought trickled into my head. I thought of the servant again, and I thought to myself that if I were going to die I might as well be thinking of someone I loved. So I raised the knife and whispered 'I love you, Henri' – Henri was his name, of course. And I felt the strangest sensation in my chest. It was like a weight had not just been lifted off of me, but it had left a gapping whole in its place. And I knew that the spell had surely been broken.
"So I quickly packed up my things and ran off before anyone could find me gone. I knew that if my Mamie found me, she would surely kill me. But I found Henri, and we're married now. Oh, Ellie, I wish I could have told you, but you were too young." Vivienne finished hugging her sister happily. Draco frowned. The French were always going on about love, but it seemed like an overly hokey ending to the tale.
"I don't really understand," he said, "You said you loved someone else and the curse just broke?" Vivienne nodded.
"But not just anyone else, I'm sure that it must be your soul mate," she said. Draco frowned again and looked at Ellie softly. He had never had strong feelings towards anyone, so he certainly didn't have a soul mate that could get them out of this mess. He didn't even really like most women in his life, he only found them tolerable.
The front door opened, breaking Draco from his reverie and a tall, lanky man with light brown hair entered.
"Oh, everyone," Vivienne said happily, "This is my Henri. Henri, this is my baby sister Ellie, and this is her fiancé Draco." Henri entered and lightly shook Draco's hand, although judging by the blank look on his face, Draco was sure that Henri understood English about as well as Draco understood French.
"Well," Vivienne said, "How about some tea? Ellie, you will help me with it?" It didn't escape Draco's notice that the way Vivienne addressed her sister it sounded more like she wanted to get Ellie alone than like she really thought everyone wanted tea. But Ellie gave Draco a meaningful look and followed her sister into the kitchen.
Vivienne began to busy herself with the kettle and tea tray while Ellie stood by and watched her.
"I'll admit to you, Ellie," she whispered in French, "Half of that story was a lie." Ellie raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not surprised," she whispered back, "I don't believe for a second that 'true love' is strong enough to break this curse."
"I'm just worried about you, Ellie," Vivienne whispered, "Using the counter-curse means giving up everything. No family. No ties to anything you have now. And you don't have anyone like Henri waiting for you."
"I don't care," Ellie tried not to raise her voice, "You don't know that man out there. I can't stand him." Vivienne raised one pencil thin eyebrow.
"That's not what it looks like to me," she whispered delicately. Ellie only scoffed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked defensively. Vivienne shrugged.
"You didn't see the way he was looking at you. He looks at you very…," Vivienne trailed off and giggled.
"Very what?" Ellie asked as Vivienne turned away.
"Oh, you know," Vivienne's face turned a slight shade of pink, "Sort of… lustfully." Ellie's eyebrows shot up her forehead.
"Well, even if that were true," she said, practicing a Malfoy-esque style of calmness, "I still have no desire to marry him." Vivienne pouted slightly.
"Come on, Ellie," she whispered helplessly, "You have a chance to be happy! I know what family that boy comes from and we both know he's filthy rich. You would have a luxurious lifestyle with someone who at least thinks you're tolerable." Ellie turned away from her sister trying not to let her anger show.
"Vivienne, I don't want tolerable. I want a husband who will love me. And trust me, Draco Malfoy isn't the loving type. He has his moments of kindness, but in the end, he only thinks about himself." The teakettle began to whistle.
"Well then we better act fast, we don't have much time," Vivienne said and she quickly began rummaging through one of the kitchen drawers. She finally pulled out a quill and parchment and began writing very quickly. Then she stuffed the parchment into an envelope.
"Let me see your hand," she said without turning around. Thinking that Vivienne was going to give her the envelope, Ellie stuck out her hand. Instead, she roughly grabbed it and very quickly stabbed Ellie's index finger with a knife. Ellie saw that Vivienne's finger was already bleeding.
"Viv, what are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm making sure that only you or I can open this envelope. Now listen to me," she said as she squeezed a drop of Ellie's blood and a drop of her own blood onto the envelope before maneuvering her wand around the edge of the envelope to create a magical seal, "This envelope will give you specific directions on how to break the curse. You won't be able to open it until the night before your wedding, but that gives you plenty of time to think over what you want to do about this. Do you understand?" Ellie nodded.
"Good," Vivienne said. She shoved the envelope into Ellie's hand and then quickly picked up the tea platter, "Now, remember, if you do decide to break the curse, you can always come here now that you know where Henri and I live." Ellie nodded again and shoved the envelope in her back pocket before following Vivienne back out into the sitting room.
Draco and Henri were sitting across from each other, neither saying a word. 'Of course not,' Ellie thought looking over the pale boy, 'he wouldn't waist his breath on a muggle born.' Draco looked up at her as she entered and Ellie felt herself blush at the thought that Vivienne thought he looked at her lustfully. She certainly hoped that Vivienne was wrong.
After a prolonged stay, the pair finally left and made their way back towards the métro station. Once they were safely on board, Draco lowered his head towards Ellie and whispered softly into her ear.
"What did your sister want when you went to make tea?" Ellie tried not to look surprised.
"She just wanted to talk about our family," Ellie lied smoothly, "She had caught wind about dad and wanted to know how things really were at home." Draco frowned.
"Do you really think that love is the answer to this mess," he asked not looking at her. Ellie breathed out slowly and tried to compose her thoughts.
"No," she answered honestly, "but I suppose that's all we have right now. And you shouldn't frown like that, Draco, you'll have wrinkles all over your forehead by the time you're twenty five." Draco smiled softly, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Do you love Victor?" he asked watching her face markedly. Ellie laughed.
"What?" She asked in surprise, "You think that I'm in love with Victor?" Draco frowned again. It wasn't the reaction he had anticipated.
"So you don't have an… attraction to him," Draco tried to rephrase the question.
"No, not even slightly," Ellie said, "And this is our stop. Come on, I want to show you something." Draco followed her up the steps and out of the underground. The sun had already set, but the street lamps were lit, and they seemed to be in a popular part of town where restaurants were still open and bustling. They walked down a wide road for a bit until they rounded a corner, and there standing directly in front of them was the Eiffel Tour.
"Well," she asked gazing at the metal structure, "What do you think?" Draco looked at it for a moment. It was lit with soft yellow lights and didn't look nearly as awful as Ellie made it sound.
"It's not that bad, Ellie," he said with a grin. Ellie gave a wicked sort of smile.
"Oh, just you wait," she said as she took his hand and led him down some steps closer to the monument, "give it a few minutes and we'll see if your opinion changes." Draco rolled his eyes as she led him across a street and through a great plaza until they were under the structure. He doubted that looking at it from this angle would change his opinion.
"It looks the same from here," he said dully. Ellie frowned but continued to look upward at the structure. Suddenly, Draco understood Ellie's distaste for the thing as it began to twinkle and flash like a tacky Christmas tree.
"Wow," he said as he watched the lights flicker obnoxiously.
"See, I told you it's gaudy," she said with a grin. Draco smiled and took her hand back into his.
"Come on," he said gently, "let's go home."
Ok, I hope you enjoyed. I've been on a role lately so next chapter will be up in the next week or so.
Please review, it makes me happy :)