Chapter twenty-one - Prison

On Saturday Severus visited Mag and Lou-Ann again. He had barely passed the threshold when Lou-Ann shoved a newspaper in his face. He looked incredulously at the Daily Prophet edition from Thursday with Gina's huge photo on the front page.

'Èleven years of wàr and you refuse to pick up a wizarding news paper and nòw you start reading the damn thing?' he shot disbelievingly at Mag, who had come walking into the hall behind Lou-Ann.

'We didn't búy it,' Mag said quickly. 'We were at Carol's-'

'When you described her, you mentioned at least eight things before you mentioned she was prètty,' Lou-Ann interrupted her. 'Eight bloody things! I thought she had to be bloody ugly. She is gorgeous you prat! Look at her!'

'Lou,' Mag said warningly.

'And now we are on the subject. You also forget to mention she - is - a - bloody - princess!' Lou-Ann actually hit him with the news paper.

'Give that here,' Mag said hastily. She snatched the newspaper from Lou-Ann. 'Don't do that. Go- go make tea will you?' She shoved Lou-Ann in the direction of the kitchen. 'I'm sorry,' she whispered, giving Severus a very tight hug. He had turned a little pale. He noticed Mag was stalk white.

'Don't worry about it,' he said. He felt slightly overwhelmed. He patted Mag on the back. 'You can let go now,' he said,' smiling a little. 'It's fine,' he added quickly when he saw her eyes were red. 'Come on. Lou-Ann is probably eating her way through all the sweets she can reach in wait of hearing all about my princess girlfriend...'

'He called her his girlfriend!' a loud voice from the kitchen yelled. Mag smiled faintly. Severus squeezed her arm reassuringly and led the way into the living room.

Mag looked a little nervous when she handed Severus a tea mug. She had installed Lou-Ann with tea and Scottish Shortbread on the sofa.

He raised his eyebrows questioningly. 'What is it Mag?'

She sat down and didn't speak right away. 'I love you Sev,' she said suddenly.

'Yes, I know that,' he said slowly.

'And you know it means very, very much to me that you come here.'

He knew that too. He also knew where she was going with this.

'I do not mind you asking questions about Gina,' he said. He thought he heard Lou-Ann mumble 'thank Goodness' very quietly. He grinned.

'Are you sure? I don't want to pressure you.' Mag said looking doubtful. 'It's not how we have been doing this. I don't want to risk... what we have. This means so much to me.'

Severus noticed her eyes were red again. He understand what she was saying.

'This is different,' he said slowly.

'Because it's about Gina?'

'Yes.' He smiled. 'I guess it it.'

Mag smiled a cautious smile. 'Than I propose an exception that you can revoke at any time. No questions asked. Promise me you will if it doesn't feel right at any point. That you keep visiting.'

They looked at each other for a moment. He nodded.

Mag beamed. 'Well... Lou-Ann has prepared three pages with questions...'

'Prepared them? I highly doubt that.' Severus said with a slight sneer. 'She usually just blurts out things, don't you? Lou-Ann?'

Lou-Ann didn't bite. She was smirking.

'Just get it over with Lou-Ann,' Severus said a little annoyed.

'You are fu-'

'Lou!' Mag said warningly.

'Fine... You have a girlfriend who is a princess. The oldest princess. She is royal.'

'I didn't know you were a Royal Family fanatic. How touching. I'll get you a mug with their portraits for Christmas.'

'I already have four,' she shot back. 'British, Dutch, French and Spanish Royal House.'

'Please tell me you are joking.'

'I know the Spanish royalties are the only ones who are secretly bloody witches and wizards. She still looked a little stunned at this revelation.

'Are you sure?'

Lou-Ann didn't let him distract her. 'Why didn't you say anything?'

'Because it is the least interesting thing about her,' Severus said a little impatiently. He only cared about how Gina was around him. How she melted under his touch. How she had exclaimed in a thick voice she was all his. All his. That she had chosen to be with him, of all people. He smiled in his teacup.

'So, a princess,' Lou-Ann said. 'Does she have royal habits? Like having a servant taste all her food? Or iron her laces? Changes six times a day, into lunch clothes and afternoon tea clothes and stuff like that?'

Severus stared at her. 'That's a real thing?' he asked incredulously.

'Which one?'

'Àll of them.'

'Yes.'

His smile faded. Lou-Ann's silly questions had reminded him of the article he had read of last week. It had been bothering him that Gina was a member of the richest family of Spain. Her family was seriously loaded. She was used to living in a huge palace. They probably had servants, apart from an army of house elves. He felt uneasy. He did not have any luxury to offer her.

'If you marry her you might be king of Spain.'

To his surprize this statement made him feel even worse, deeply uncomfortable even. It suddenly hit him that when the Dark Lord would he return, he might find Gina very interesting. Her pure-blood family ruled over an entire country. He would undoubtedly want Severus to make good use of his influence on her. He pushed those unpleasant, disconcerting thoughts away.

'That's really not in my ten year life plan,' he said sarcastic.

Lou-Ann smirked at him. 'Sweety, you have no clue how lost you are. It is you and Gina now. You'll find out that's very, vèry different than being on your own. That is, if she's not just a pretty, trophy house wife. Which by the sound of is she is way to strong a personality for.'

'They are just dating Lou,' Mag said quietly.

'Hà,' Lou-Ann said smugly. 'She is an almost crown princess who basically fled her county to be away from her family, only managing that by participating in what sounds like an extremely dangerous tournament in which she will risk her life, but risks being disqualified from said tournament to be with one of her teachers who will go to prison, or be murdered, if anyone would find out about their relationship. Only she doesn't know that yet. Thàt is not just dating.'

Mag burst into tears.

'Well dòne Lou-Ann,' Severus said sarcastically.

It took a while for Magdalena to calm down, after which Severus thought it would be better not to discuss his relationship with Gina anymore. He allowed Lou-Ann to persuade him to play Monopoly, which he soon regretted. It turned out to be a game that lasted four hours and he lost spectacularly. It didn't help matters that he was send to prison nine times.

On Sunday after breakfast, Gina left for the Quidditch stadium with the rest of the school. Slytherin was playing Hufflepuff today, the second match of the season. Gina was secretly rooting for the Slytherins -despite Lucian Bole being the captain- but was sure not to show her favouritism for professor Snape's house. The Slytherins, Gina had noticed, had little contact with the other three houses, who were much more amicable to each other, and to the Beauxbatons and Promodores students. Even more so, many Slytherin students tended to clique together forming tight gangs with clear leaders, which Gina supposed further exemplified Slytherin's ambitious qualities. The Promodores students mostly sat at the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw table, but Gina liked spending time with Lorene and Helen from Hufflepuff too. With only Gina and Jonne being good friends, the Promodores students didn't cling together like the Beauxbatons students did.

Gina didn't like encountering Lucian's gang in the corridors when she was walking back from the library on her own, which had happened twice. She knew Jill turned around and took a different route when she saw them in the hallways. But Gina was ready for them. As they so much as sneezed in her direction she would jinx them into smithereens. How Gina would like to hex Bole one of these days...

Standing in line for the raised stands with Jonne, Gabriela and Jill, Gina looked around. It was a clear, windy day. She was looking forward to the game. She had heard students complain about Slytherins mean and heavy-handed way of playing and was looking forward to seeing if that was true. She didn't mind a bit of nasty play. No good being a courteous loser, at least in Quidditch. Gina had played as a reserve player for a few years, used in case of illness or (more often) injury of the other players of her team, los Unicornios, an all girl team. At Promodores, a team was only allowed to have one reserve player on the bench and she could play any position, though she really liked playing beater.

The game was over in less than twenty minutes. Slytherin crushed Hufflepuff, scoring nine times, the seeker snatching the Snitch from right under the Hufflepuffs keepers nose, the Hufflepuff seeker not even being on the right half of the field.

Gina walked back to the castle, disappointed that the match had lasted so short, ignoring Jonne who tried to convince her to come to a party with her that evening, saying she needed to have some rèal fun. Jonne was bored out of his mind by Quidditch, being a remarkable uncompetitive person. He had said very often he only came to matches at Promodores to see the players with broom sticks between their legs, at which Gina had often replied that she wondered if Jonne was even a real guy, being so uncompetitive and humble. He must a fake Spaniard at least, which always made him laugh. Unlike Alejandro, Jonne had never tried to impress her, or shown any form of jealousy and possessiveness towards her, and seemed to sincerely enjoy it when Gina had a good time flirting, kissing or sleeping with someone else, which still amazed her a bit. For instance, Jonne had visited her in London over the summer and had gotten along with Sirius really well.

During lunch Gina sat deep in thought, slowly eating pasta salad. She had seen Severus watching her during the Quidditch match, piercing her with his intense gaze. They had agreed to meet on Wednesday and Gina wished she could go by his office spontaneously. She had been very horny for days, and having to wait four more days to see him was very irksome. Maybe she could try to go over to his chambers this evening, but she knew weekend days were more risky. There were more people in the corridors, on their way to the library, meet friends or go to meetings of the many clubs and groups. She sighed and took another bite of pasta.

Already feeling grumpy, Gina let out a soft cry of frustration when there came a lone tiger owl flying into the hall, landing in her salad. She wondered if Alejandro told his owl to land in her food, if he saw an opportunity... She sighed and offered the owl her plate and goblet, to which he turned gratefully.

Estimada Ginita,

Por favor, por favor necesito su ayuda. Sé que no sientes mucho amor por mí en este momento por lo que te hice, pero como tu viejo amigo, te lo ruego. Necesito saber cómo te las arreglaste para solucionar la situación de La Modelo en marzo. Todo se fue al infierno después de que te fuiste durante el verano. Me equivoqué y necesito que me ayudes. Por favor Ginita. Solo usted sabe esto y necesito saberlo para tener algún cambio para arreglar esto. No te pido que me perdones por lo que te hice pero, por favor, no me dejes en este lío. Por favor devuelva mi lechuza con los detalles. O dime una fecha y hora para encontrarte si no quieres anotarlo. Puedes reunirte con Sandro si no quieres conocerme, pero por favor, no preguntaría si no estuviera desesperada.

Mucho amor, Ale

Dear Ginita,

Please, please I need your help. I know you do not feel much love for me at the moment because of what I did to you, but as your old friend, I am begging you. I need to know how you managed to take care of the La Modelo situation in march. It all went to hell after you left over the summer. I messed up and I need you to help me. Please Ginita. Only you know this and I need to know to have any change of fixing this. I am not asking you to forgive me for what I did to you but, please, don't leave me in this mess. Please return my owl with the specifics. Or tell me a date and time to meet you if you don't want to write it down. You can meet with Sandro if you don't want to meet me, but please, I would not ask if not desperate.

Much love, Ale

The La Modelo situation... Gina felt nauseous. Alejandro had promised her never to mention that name in writing. He had promised her. She felt sick when she thought of the possible consequences of this letter falling into the hands of a journalist. La Modelo in march. Tied to her name in writing. She'd be done. She would be more than finished. She didn't believe any Aldaya had ever gone though something like that. And how much she dislikes being a member of the royal house, she didn't want to go through any such thing. How dare he risk her reputation. How dare he. She had never wanted to do it in the first place. She stood up. She knew she was very white. She needed to be alone. Think of what to do. Burn this letter. She sped off.