[Chapter Ten] Wait For Me
Louis Flint was the biggest name in English Quiddich recently. Apparently, in the previous year, a scout from the Bigonville Bombers had noticed his skills in Slytherin's last match of the year. Flint was a Keeper, taking over his older brother's position immediately after his graduation from Hogwarts.
He was known to be from one of the wealthiest families in Ireland, and it is expected he will do extremely well if he takes the offer.
The Bigonville Bombers are the Quiddich team from Luxemborg, which, having no wizarding school of its own, sent out scouts to find all of the best players they could find from other countries, snatching them up young.
Louis Flint had just so happened to be this lucky.
Lena was still astonded that he had been so kind to her. All the other important purebloods in Slytherin were treating her like shit, but he didn't care what they thought, obviously, he already had his career after Hogwarts laid out for him. And not to mention the fact that nobody is going to insult or harass a person is certainly going to be a celebrity in two years.
Groaning, Lena turned over in her bed. She hadn't spoken to Astoria in two days, and she had no intention to. There was nobody else that could have told Parkinson and Daphne. Lena was sure her Felix had been crafted correctly; Does it go bad? It had been more than six months since she made it.
And no matter what Astoria said about her not being the one that told, Lena wasn't so quick to believe. She could have just let the slightest hint out, maybe while threatening her sister after an argument, maybe just to tease her, maybe to betray Lena, but that was not important. What was important was that Astoria had been removed from her seat of trust. And it wasn't easy for Lena to put somebody there after what she had been through this summer. Of course, the first person she did trust would betray her somehow.
Flipping over again, Lena found herself looking at Astoria's bed.
Lena gave up on trying to make herself feel better for shunning Astoria, and decided to go for a walk and see the grounds before the first snow hit, which, by record of the last three years, would be soon.
It was only a few minutes later when a chilly breeze hit Lena's face and whipped her cloak behind her. She started off toward the lake, and instantly changed her direction as an image of a young herself appeared. And a dark-skinned handsome man, with tinged red black eyes rolling around with her on a picnic blanket.
Everything reminded her of him out here. She didn't know why she had even decided to go for a walk in the first place as she went toward the other side of the castle, where there was much less to do and see, therefore, less memories.
"I'm so sorry, Blaise," she muttered, as she trudged through the uncut grass. "I promise I will make it up to you. I will make this right."
No matter what Draco claimed Blaise had done, it didn't call for his death. Nobody deserved to die for something so trivial. And yet the person she had loved the most took him from her. And now Lena was left with nobody, not even Draco.
Lena slammed her back against the wall of the castle as everything familiar went out of sight and she fell to her knees, renewed tears of mourning taking over. So many emotions rushed forward. Anger toward Draco, toward everyone. Sadness for Blaise. Shame and humiliation for agreeing to help Regulus.
If the Dark Lord found it, it would be more than just ostracism. It would be death.
The Slytherin common room was filled with obnoxious laughter that only filled Lena with jealousy. Everyone else was having a great time, and her emotions were in a rut.
The fire was roaring, and Draco was at the center, of course, absorbing all the attention in hushed whispered and excited hoots.
As Lena began to make her way up the stairs to the dormitories, she noticed a circular packaged, wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper, sitting on the table by the message board. Immediately drawn to it, Lena reached for the tag, but was immediately intruded upon.
"Not like anyone would leave that for you, why bother checking, Yavari?" Parkinson sneered, materializing into thin air.
"You're good at that. Lurking." Lena paused and read the tag, smiling. "You know, nobody likes a lurker."
Lena began to tear the paper from the package.
"Hey!" Parkinson began to tug her hands away. "You can't just open gifts that aren't yours!"
Suddenly, with Parkinson's yell, everyone was looking at the two of them.
"It's mine," Lena growled, gesturing for Parkinson to check the tag herself.
Before Lena could stop her, Parkinson jerked the shiny red paper from the circular ball, and it wobbled dangerously close to the edge.
Lena rushed forward to stop the damage, ready to grab the falling orb.
But as the paper came off, Lena stopped in amazement.
A single albescent lily floated on top of the water, and as it was exposed to the light of the common room, it began dropping slowly to the bottom of the fishbowl, slowly changing from white to pink to red to bright orange. And as it hit the bottom, it transfigured. Lena's jaw dropped.
It was a clownfish. She had wanted one ever since she had snuck into a muggle pet store as a young child, not far from the Leaky Cauldron.
Lena watched in awe, along with the rest of the common room, as the clownfish swam to the top of the water, his upper body exposed to the air. And then he slowly lowered back to the bottom of the bowl, his googling eyes moving in all directions. Lena hadn't noticed the second gift, but she peeled the paper off, ignorant to the many prying eyes behind her.
Fish food.
Lena's smile overtook her and her fingers grasped around the tag that was on the fishbowl. She slid it into her pocket and carried the fishbowl and the fish food up to her room. Setting the bowl and the food down on her desk, her fingers unclenched around the small slip of paper.
Written in elegant handwriting:
To Lena, From Your Secret Admirer.
And the thought dawned on her that he had been watching her as she opened it. How else could it have gotten in the Slytherin common room?
It had been nearly a week since the fishbowl fiasco. Had it really been months since she'd spoken to Astoria? She wasn't easy to ignore, sharing a dormitory.
However, the showering of gifts had continued. Flowers of all types, boxes of chocolate, expensive jewelry, and today, at the foot of Lena's bed, a large black box with a silver ribbon adorned her morning. Jumping out of bed and hardly managing to get her arms into her robe and her feet into her slippers, Lena raced to the box and stared at it for a long minute, searching for a tag, or possibly searching for an answer to who was sending these extravagant gifts. Could it be Draco?
Diligently, Lena pulled on the end of the silver ribbon, and it easily pulled out of the bow and slide off the box elegantly. Grasping the edges of the box like a little girl on Christmas morning, she pulled it off; Inside, the bodice of a silky black dress was exposed, and a smaller black box with a silver ribbon on the top. Lifting the smaller box, she admired the amazing dress. The bodice had cascading diamonds that slowly thinned out as they moved away from the center.
Lena's jaw dropped. This dress would have cost thousands of galleons.
So my admirer is wealthy...
Her mind instantly jumped to Draco. He of course was the wealthiest Slytherin, with his father recently expanding the Malfoy Trust Bank into Germany and Spain. The French agreement hadn't gone through.
Gently, Lena pulled on the tiny silver ribbon on the smaller black box, absolutely identical to the box the dress came in. Anxiously, she pulled the top of the box off, and inside, found a small notecard.
Would you go to the Hallow's Eve Ball with me?
If yes, please wear this, I will match. It will be
our sign to each other.
Your Secret Admirer
Lena wasn't sure why it upset her so much to see the index card. Maybe because she didn't recognize the person's scrawl, and it certainly couldn't be Draco anymore.
As the girl's heart sank, she pulled the index card out of the box and slumped next to the big box. But as the light hit the tiny box in her hands, her eyes darted away from the index card, and jumped to the tiny box.
A glimmering necklace with a large diamond and matching earrings drew the light, reflections jumping around her face. A wide smile came over Lena as she gently pulled the necklace from the box. After a long moment of admiration, Lena placed the necklace gently back into the box, and went to the dress. She withdrew it from the box by grasping the bodice diligently, careful not to dislodge anything. It was a shorter dress with an unimaginably sleek hem, just enough extra fabric.
The Hallow's Eve Ball was the next day, and this was the first person to ask her. She had to admit, it was rare for nobody to ask her. Usually at least one of the goons in Slytherin to ask her. This year, it seemed, nobody wanted to. Except this guy. In that instant, Lena decided that she would wear the dress, having bought nothing over the summer, she had nothing appropriate anyway, for the ball.
As Lena held the dress up, the door sprang open with a loud creak, and Lena glanced around to see Astoria, who gawked at the dress for a second before recovering her composure.
She glanced back out into the dormitory hallway, and closed the door silently, the creak, of course, was inevitable. Lena placed the dress back into the box, and grabbed the smaller box off of her bed, putting it into the pocket of her bathrobe.
Astoria approached her slowly. This wasn't the first time, she had done it several times since the incident. Always saying the same things. That she hadn't done anything wrong to betray Lena, begging and pleading for forgiveness. But Lena didn't want to forgive her, she didn't need friends, especially untrustworthy ones.
"I can prove to you that I didn't betray you," Astoria said with sudden confidence.
"And how exactly can you do that?"
There was a long pause as Lena turned to look at Astoria once more. "Because I know the bitch that did."
Lena raised her eyebrows and waiting for an explanation. "It was Millicent. It had to be. Nobody else could have seen the potion-" Her voice changed to frantic as Lena interrupted.
"That doesn't prove anyt-"
"I found out that what Millicent told us about seeing Flint over the summer wasn't true. Louis Flint has been a known man-whore since he was accepted into the Bigonville Bombers. Over the summer, Flint dated my sister for a while, but the information that Millicent was talking about, I knew it had to be something fishy, because Flint dated Daphne almost all summer. I'd be willing to wager that Millicent knows about some altercation between Flint and another guy. That's got to be the reason why they broke up a few weeks ago."
Lena nodded, but she wasn't believe anything that Astoria was saying. None of it made any sense and wasn't any facts, just allegations. She was ready to let it go anyway, she needed a friend, and wasn't about to just let Astoria join the people that hate her.
"Whatever, I don't care who did it, its over, and now more than a third of the school has seen me naked. Doesn't really help my slutty reputation from the slander of the summer, but hey, whatever." There was still venom in Lena's voice, but Astoria nodded.
"Who's the dress from?" She asked, immediately changing topics.
"No idea." Lena said, sitting back next to the black box and admiring the embroidered gems.
Astoria shrugged and approached the dress, her eyes fumed jealousy, but Lena's eyes did not move from the dress, unaware of any envy.
Slipping into the expensive black silk dress, Lena stared at herself in the full-length mirror. Astoria zipped up the side gently, and helped Lena into her shoes.
"Are you ready to meet this fantasticly affluent gentleman?" Astoria chirpped- She had mentioned several times that night that she wasn't going to the ball. She had sworn going to stay in and study. Having no date herself, Astoria had been hard on herself since her and Lena had started talking again, a mere two days before the dance.
"I guess," Lena muttered, charming her hair into perfect curls with practiced ease. She applied makeup by hand as Astoria roamed around the room nonchalantly. When she failed miserably to create the desired effect, Lena charmed her eyes, smokey gray, which made them look larger. She put on some shiny lip-gloss and admired her own perfect appearance with Narcissism.
Am I ready to meet him? She asked herself hesitantly, unsure of her own answer. She went to her jewelry box on top of her dresser by the four post canopy bed and unlocked it silently with her wand. The small shiny black box sat on top, with the ribbon retied around it- not nearly as nicely as it had been when it had arrived.
Lena pulled out the box and opened it, putting the necklace and the earrings on. She felt the lingering gaze of Astoria and she turned around, closing the jewelry box, grabbing a diamond piece for her hair.
Astoria gazed at the necklace and earrings for a moment. "They're perfect." She began.
Lena nodded and went back to the mirror, doing a quick twirl. Everything was perfect. She placed the hairpiece on the opposite side of her part. And as the pins disappeared into her hair, it was left with large diamonds floating in black casings, to help make the diamonds stand out in her light blonde hair.
Glancing at the clock, she realized she was already five minutes late, which didn't alarm Lena, she was always fashionably late. Especially in such a beautiful gown, she demanded an appearance.
She gracefully moved toward the door as Astoria ushered her out. "Don't keep him waiting so long, he might find a punctual girl to dote upon!"
Lena smiled as the door closed behind her and she made her way toward the stairs, no other girls were in the dormitory hallway, likely having arrived early for the ball or were studying for classes and not old enough to go to the ball, or in the common room or outside the Great Hall, staring at all the couples and imagining their own balls in the future.
Lena slowly descended the steps and as she went around the bend, she immediately looked down in search of her suitor. When nobody awaited, Lena tried not to panic, and frantically run back to her room in embarrassment.
Maybe he changed his mind?
Her panic subsided as she entered the common room, and a boy with dark brown hair, perfectly combed, and an astoundingly handsome face. Hazel eyes looking down at Lena from his tall stature and his lips curved into a halcyon smile.
Louis Flint.
As Lena reached him, he took her hand gently and kissed it. Lena blushed and took his offered arm. The exited the common room before they spoke.
"I'm glad you accepted my offer," he said, his voice deep.
"Me too," Lena said, her voice was unusual. Not confident, but slightly nervous with excitement.
How can he possibly have a crush on me?
His voice intervened with her thoughts. "I've had a thing for you since the first time I saw you; I never would have seen my geeky little self on a date with someone as gorgeous as you."
Lena tried to imagine him in the years before, but drew a blank. It was as if he didn't exist the past five years. "I can't see you being very geeky." She was being honest. He was amazingly handsome, and his body perfectly toned.
"Shows how much attention you paid to me," He laughed.
"Sorry," Lena muttered, sudden embarrassment overwhelming her.
"Don't worry about it. You're one of those girls that's bound to do something amazing. A guy has to be amazing to catch your attention."
The blush only deepened. "Thank you, for the gifts," she began slowly, glancing over to him as the approached the outside of the Great Hall.
"Of course," he nodded, gazing back at her. The moment froze as he gently moved his fingers to Lena's hair, gently pushing it behind her ear, and as his lips drew closer to her cheek, he whispered, "Had to get your attention somehow." And his lips pressed against her cheek in a kiss.
They entered the open doors of the Great Hall, which had been transformed into a ballroom worthy of Dracula's mansion. As they moved into the ballroom, they were announced.
"Rosalena Yavari, and her escort, Louis Flint," and suddenly, all eyes were on them. Lena didn't even look for Draco among the crowd, her eyes glued to her amazingly handsome date, even though he was a year younger than her. But somewhere, in the crowd, she knew he was watching.