A/N: Vanessa's POV, this chapter is dedicated to BritishBeauty x! I hope this chapter brightens up your day, and I am proud to announce that I have begun writing Part Three in earnest. EXCITEMENT.

-C

I stood in the largest guest room at Avery Manor with Narcissa Malfoy adjusting my hair. I'd chosen her as my bridesmaid in order to keep my mother from trying to finagle Susan Snow into the position. And really, she wasn't half bad. She knew what my lot in life would be better than anyone, the only woman I knew who was married to a Death Eater and didn't want to be a part of the cause.

And I honestly couldn't bring myself to care about the cause, or even what it could do for me.

I had a feeling she and I would be spending a lot of time together.

"How do you feel?" she asked me.

I considered my reflection. Brides were often nervous on their wedding day, but I just felt a sort of serenity. After all, I was getting my goals, my life taken care of. My future was secure once we were bonded for life. What was there to be nervous about? Jack and I already knew perfectly well what to expect of each other, and what sort of marriage this was. With Potter there would have been a lot of work to do still, but there was no pretense with Jack.

"Fine," I said honestly. "I feel fine." I put in my earrings. "Why, how did you feel before you married Lucius?"

She tilted her head thoughtfully as she pinned the last strand of hair in place.

"You know," she said, "I told everyone I was nervous, but I think it's just because I expected to be. I was really very calm about the whole thing, probably because Lucius has always been an open book for me. I don't think Bellatrix was nervous when she married Rodolphus, either."

People could say that pureblood traditional marriages were a negative practice all they wanted, but this lack of nerves seemed healthy to me. What was wrong with knowing what you were getting before you got it? At least my views of marriage would not be dashed by reality.

There was a knock at the door.

"Ladies?" Lucius's voice said smoothly through the door. "You have twenty minutes."

"Thank you, dear," Narcissa said happily.

He did not open the door, despite knowing that I was fully dressed. Perhaps he didn't like dealing with the female process of preparing. I had known men who didn't like watching me put on makeup. Something about spoiling the result by knowing the process.

I thought it was ridiculous, but I knew enough to know that men in general were ridiculous. It was hardly this one thing that distinguished them.

"Very well," I said, fastening my necklace carefully. "The makeup looks complete?"

"Exquisite," Narcissa said approvingly. She helped me out of the chair without wrinkling my robes and she tilted her head once more, smiling.

I had been to Narcissa and Lucius's wedding, and as much as it pained me her robes had been far more luxurious than mine. But then, she was a Black and I was simply a Brown.

"Down we go."

It did take a very long time to get to the ballroom, mostly because of my shoes. They were a far higher heel than I would normally had wanted, and although I had used a charm to keep my feet from feeling the pain, that didn't mean I couldn't still turn my ankle.

At least the processional was slow.

The ballroom was packed with purebloods. The music began as soon as I got to the top of the staircase.

Who thought it was a good idea to do a processional in six inch heels down a marble staircase?

My crazed mother-in-law, that was who.

Still, I managed to smile as the various purebloods watched me with complacent smiles on their faces. Very few of them actually cared about me or Jack at all, and even fewer had any particular feeling on the union. But they were expected to attend, just as I was expected to attend their events of import, and they were obligated to appear pleased and interested even though they likely all had things they would rather be doing.

I got to the front where Jack was in his stunningly expensive charcoal dress robes, a regal expression on his face that he must have learned from Malfoy.

The ceremony was standard. We added nothing individual to it, as most people preferred to stick to the traditional unless they were making some sort of unsavory political statement. I, obviously, had no such desires, nor did Jack.

We said our vows, were bonded for life, and the Avery family ring sparkled on my hand. Jack led me to the reception and it dawned on me as I sipped my elf-made wine that I was no longer Vanessa Brown.

I was Vanessa Avery.

I smirked at the thought, knowing that after the wedding night Jack and I would go to the continent for a whole week and we could set up ground rules, stipulations, etc. We knew the basics, but the dynamics had changed with the ring on my finger.

There were toasts and dancing and refreshments, Jack and I received gifts and congratulations, and then I felt his arm around my waist.

"They're starting to leave," he whispered into my ear. "No one will notice if we slip away."

I could feel excitement building inside me.

It wasn't that I expected Jack to be a particularly good lover. He would serve his purpose, and he was at least attractive. But the real thing was that I hadn't had sex since we'd started courting, for the sake of propriety. Anything would be good after so long without sex.

I nodded and he led me up a corridor around the corner and we Disapparated up to our new rooms, which were his rooms, but expanded.

Jack's eyes flashed as I took off my shoes. Without preamble or even a kiss, he unfastened the dress robes, watching as I shrugged them off and stood there merely in my white lace bra and knickers.

"I thought only virgins could wear white on their wedding," Jack smirked, but he peeled off his own robes to reveal nothing at all on underneath.

I tried not to be disappointed. He wasn't small, exactly, but after Sirius and the last few men I'd had, he would be a bit on the smaller end of things.

"Take those off and get on the bed," he ordered.

Not big on foreplay then, obviously.

I did as I was bid, making sure to be quick about it. This night was going to set the tone for the rest of our marriage, and I didn't want him getting poor impressions.

I tried to be sexy as I laid back against the pillows, relishing how perfectly firm they were while still having give to them. Jack's eyes were full of lust as he ran a hand up my leg starting at my ankle, all the way up my body to my breasts. He squeezed one, hard, and kissed me forcefully on the mouth.

There was, perhaps, one unfortunate thing about pureblood marriages.

Productive talk about how to improve the sexual experience is not encouraged. He could tell me what he wanted when he wanted it, but I was not invited to ask for anything. If he wanted to give me things, that was one thing. But a proper pureblooded wife was not too forward.

I had a suspicion that if I'd married James Potter or even Sirius Black I would have been allowed to take more agency. Sirius had certainly enjoyed it when I told him what I wanted, and those boys were so alike in most ways…

But Jack was very different.

He turned and lay back on the pillows and I frowned, confused for a moment, before I realized what he wanted. His eyes looked at me expectantly and I gave him my sexiest smile as I went down on him.

Sirius had never expected me to give him blow jobs. It had actually been a really nice thing about him that he was pleased when I did it, but he never asked. Especially because I hated giving them and had only used them as rewards for very, very good behavior.

Jack would not be trained. Jack would train me, and he apparently wanted blow jobs.

I had worked hard to be skilled at everything I did, and I'd been told by nearly every partner I'd had that I was very good with blow jobs, so it didn't take too long for Jack to be very close. He pushed me back, eyes glazed with need, and he pushed me onto the bed, parting my legs.

No, certainly not one for foreplay.

I wasn't particularly ready, but I made a mental note to masturbate before bed every night just in case he wanted to have sex as he thrust into me.

Thankfully, he wasn't as big as others I'd had and it didn't cause as much discomfort as it might have otherwise. I bit my lip, letting myself simply feel.

He came far too quickly for my liking, and I certainly didn't come anywhere near climax, but I managed to get him hard again for a second round and although I didn't climax that time either, I was starting to get into a rhythm of figuring out how I would be able to elicit my own pleasure while he thought about his.

He was too tired for a third round, so I simply crawled under the covers with him, surprised when he wrapped his arms around me. I hadn't taken him for the cuddling type, especially after the lack of foreplay, but I wasn't going to argue.

"So now we're married," he said, bemused.

"Indeed," I sighed, resting my head on his chest.

I was already thinking about how we would pass the time on the continent, away from all the war and depression of England. I would have liked a longer honeymoon typically, but with his requirements as a Death Eater I was lucky to be getting a full week.

His hands began to run through my hair absently.

I had begun to doze in his arms not long after when he suddenly cried in pain and woke me up with a start.

"What is it?" I asked, sitting up. "What's wrong?"

"I'm being summoned."

My heart sank.

The Dark Lord knew that it was our wedding night, knew that we were meant to leave in the morning, so if Jack was being called in there was something important going on, something unforeseen.

And the honeymoon would be postponed, at best, I was sure.

"Go, then," I said. "Don't incur his wrath."

To my surprise he kissed me before scrambling into clothes and Disapparating.

I took a deep breath to calm myself when I realized that my heart was racing. It had been truly frightening, waking up to the sound of Jack in pain.

I shook my head, feeling my body begin to relax again and I decided to take a quick shower. I wasn't sure if the stories about bathing after sex decreasing the chance of fertilization, but I wasn't taking that sort of risk. A shower certainly couldn't have that sort of result.

My body was covered in Jack's sweat and I got up, stretching, making my way to our joint bathroom.

I knew that this was only the beginning of a long pattern in my life, perhaps even to the very acts. He would be called away constantly, and likely often at night, and maybe even frequently after we had sex. Maybe even while we had sex. I shivered under the water. It wasn't as if I could just say no any more than he could. Narcissa was my example, and she could not demand or even ask things of the Dark Lord. It was her job to support Lucius how she could and not ask questions.

As it turned out, it did become routine, and very quickly. The worst bit, for me, was his being called away on Christmas.

I tried to stay up and wait for him, even though there was no way of knowing how long the raids would last, or even what type of raids they were. Sometimes Jack would tell me, sometimes he wouldn't, but I never, ever asked.

Except the following morning, waking up on Boxing Day to his kissing my neck.

It was a strange gesture from him, so I knew he must have done something particularly gruesome the night before.

I sat up, frowning at him sleepily.

"When did you get in?" I asked.

"Just a few minutes ago," he admitted. "When did you go to sleep?"

"Sometime after three in the morning," I said. "Can…can I ask what you were doing?"

He stiffened but did not chastise me, which meant that he would probably say something, at the very least. I'd half expected him to remind me not to ask questions.

"Raid," he muttered. "We went after a family."

Family implied children, although of what age I couldn't guess. Extended families often got together on Christmas.

"Oh," I said, frowning. "What did you do to them?"

He raised his eyebrows.

"We tortured and killed them," he snorted. "I doubt you want more detail than that."

He was right, I didn't. Jack turned over and settled onto the pillows. I turned onto my stomach and looked up at him.

"Were they Muggles?"

His eyes, which had been closing, fluttered open and he looked over at me, his face impassive.

"No."

A small knot formed in my stomach. Not Muggles… Muggleborns? I didn't want to say that, because of the political implications of the word, but saying Mudblood made me feel sick.

I didn't bite my lip like some other people I knew when they were thinking. It was bad for my lips. But it would have been a moment to do so, if I were the type to do such things.

"Wh-"

"Blood traitors," he said wearily, anticipating my question. "I'm going to get some sleep. Do you want more rest, or are you getting up?"

"I'll get up," I said quickly. "When would you like me to wake you?"

"Lunch, no sooner," he muttered, rolling onto his side and pulling the duvet up to his shoulders.

I scrambled out of bed and into my closet, which was not only a walk-in closet, but also had direct access to the hall. I climbed out of my negligée and pulled on a set of robes. It would be up to me to inform Jack's parents that he would not be joining us for breakfast.

That was the thing that stung a bit, the fact that the Manor was not ours until his father died. I had thought of all sorts of clever ways to poison the man, but it seemed like bad karma of a sort I didn't want.

I sat down at the vanity Jack had agreed to have installed in the closet so that he didn't have to see me unmade up anywhere but in our bed. It was rather sweet of him, actually, since he knew how I was about how I appeared, especially since the awful humiliations Sirius Black steeped on me in public at Hogwarts.

It was a sensitive topic.

I carefully combed my fingers through my hair to ensure that it did not become frizzy. Then I used foundation, mascara, and a light, nude lipstick to make up my face. I didn't use blush like some, less refined women. There was status to being pale, and I was naturally quite pale. Why spoil a perfectly good natural advantage?

I slipped into low heels that would accentuate my legs without making me miserable and then gathered my most suitable expression and went into the corridor, down to the dining room, where even breakfast was served. The Averys may not have always been so formal in the mornings, but I suspected that even if they hadn't at least some of the three-times-daily pomp and circumstance of mealtimes was a show of my mother-in-law's power.

Not that I particularly minded. Changing my clothes three times a day for the sake of dressing for each meal was amusing, and the more she put me through my paces the more I could impress her and prove that I was worthy of being her son's wife. Since I already was, there wasn't much she could do about it, anyway.

Well, except poison me, but I'd be a tough one to poison. I was the cautious, self-preserving sort of Gryffindor. I knew she expected me to be rash, but there are all sorts of bravery, chivalry, and nerve.

"Where is Jack?" she asked as I sat down gracefully.

"He asked to be allowed to sleep until lunch," I said with a smile. "He only just got back from a raid."

His parents nodded at this. How easily they believed me. I could use that as an excuse any time he wanted me to let him sleep, even if it was simply because we'd spent all night having sex.

Not that they ever did that.

But there was no such excuse for me. Even illness wasn't really good enough in my mother-in-law's eyes.

I began running through all the ways in my mind that would allow me to poison his parents.

A house-elf put pre-buttered toast on my plate and I smiled at it – the toast, not the elf – before reaching for my tea. Being Mrs. Jack Avery might have its issues and drawbacks, but anything good had something wrong with it. The perks, I decided as I mixed some sugar into my tea under the watchful eye of my mother-in-law, far outweighed the downsides.

And if I found a way to rid the house storerooms of bezoars the balance might soon tip even further in my favor.