Chapter twenty-six - Parentage
That Saturday the students were allowed to go to Hogsmeade. It was a clear day with watery sunshine. It was ice cold, but at least it had finally stopped raining. Thickly wrapped in cloaks, Gina, Jonne, Jill, Lorene and Helen made their way to the village together. They hadn't reached the first shops before Jonne demanded they went to the Three Broomsticks to warm up first.
'I'm f-freezing,' he complained loudly. 'England sucks. Sorry girls,' he added, glancing at Lorene and Helen. 'But it's true. It's probably twenty degrees in B-barcelona right now.'
'And minus four in Helsinki,' Gina said smiling.
'Don't remind me,' Jonne mumbled. He held the door to the pub open for them and Gina walked inside, a delicious smell of spiced wine and an oak fire greeting them at the door. She felt her body relax immediately. It was very busy in the pub. They clearly weren't the only one who went directly for a hot drink. She noticed Severus a few tables down sitting with professor Flitwick and professor McGonagall. She stared at him for a few seconds. He had already seen her, and she saw the corner of his mouth move an inch before he looked away.
'Uh, Gina-' Jonne said in a warning voice.
Gina turned around and felt the faint smile on her face slide off. In front of her, in the middle of the Three Broomsticks, stood her parents.
Her mother, Victoria Aldaya, was a tall, very beautiful witch with haughty features and thick, shiny hair combed back in a elegant knot in her neck. She usually wore long, gold rimmed red or orange robes, but was wearing a simple ocean green mantle today. Gina wondered fleetingly if her mother had tried to look low key when looking for her daughter. Maybe she could have chosen something that wasn't a three thousand-Galleon coat, Gina thought sardonically.
Gina looked at her father. Just as tall as Victoria and equally stern looking as Victoria was haughty, Marcus Aldaya was a man not to be messed with. Gina knew the Spanish people -both Muggle and magical- had a strong preference for Marcus to become king, but epilepsy had prevented this. Most people believed this had been his decision, but insiders knew the Maratta simply forbode him -or his wife- to take the throne. Being diagnosed later in life, at age twenty-nine, this had been a huge blow for him. Him and his wife only being blessed with one child, a daughter, who inconveniently had no desire to one day rule the country, had been another one.
Gina looked around and saw two members of the royal palace security team standing near the door, David and Niguel. She couldn't believe she had walked past them. She had grew up with them -and twenty other security guards- around. Just the thought that she might see Severus in the pub had made her less focused than a Puffskein. She felt stupid.
'What are you going here?' Gina asked in Spanish, turning back to her parents. She glanced at Severus, who was looking at her intently now. She cursed her stupidity when she saw her father glance in his direction.
'What are you doing here?' Gina repeated quickly. 'You could have send a letter. I respond to them.'
'You respond with empty words, Ginita.' Her father said a little testily. 'You use up ink but say nothing. Now let's sit down. We want to have a decent conversation with you.'
'I'm here with my friends,' Gina said. 'So I don't have all day. You get half an hour. We can discuss anything else in letters. I'll be with you in half an hour,' she said quietly to Jonne and the girls. Jonne squeezed her shoulder and they left, looking for an empty table in the back of the pub.
Her parents looked furious.
'We have come all the way from Spain girl,' her father growled. 'You see your friends all day. You will stay as long as we say so.'
'I did not ask you to come. Thirty minutes,' Gina said firmly, sitting down at a table in a quiet corner. Her father looked furious, but Victoria gave him a warning look as they sat down too.
'How is school?' her mother asked a little stiffly.
'Fine.'
Gina didn't break the silence. She felt very cornered and was trying very hard to act like an adult, but wished she could empty the Butterbeer madame Rosmerta had just sat in front of her in a plant pot and go back to her friends. She knew she couldn't make a scene in the middle of the Three Broomsticks though. Her parents would kill her.
'Solo ve al grano, por favor,' Gina blurted out. Just get to the point please.
'We wanted to discuss your press exposure,' her mother said after glancing at her husband.
'What?' Gina looked at them. 'Let the press team figure that out, will you?'
'You respond to their letters with the same nonsense as to ours Ginita.'
'I can't help what the British papers write about me,' Gina said incredulously.
'They suggest you are... um...'
Gina looked bewildered at her father stuttering. She had never seen him look so embarrassed. 'They suggest you are... sleeping around.'
'What?' Gina stared at them. 'What are you talking about?'
'We have told you to read-the-papers,' her father said through gritted teeth. This was an old discussion. Gina wasn't going to go there today. 'Jonne tells me anything I need to know,' she said coldly.
'And has Jònne told you they are portrayed as a...'
'As a whàt?' Gina didn't really care but she enjoyed her fathers embarrassment. He looked very angrily at her.
'Dissolute,' he spat. 'You don't have a date and dance with multiple boys at the opening ball of the Torneo. You receive love letters...'
'They say you flirt with boys,' her mother added.
'I do not,' Gina said angrily. 'And only òne love letter, from that coñ-'
'You let that idiot boy kiss you,' her mother hissed.
Her mother didn't like Jonne. Her friendship with him might have played a role in Gina having an image her parents were less than happy with. A big role... Honestly, it had made Gina love Jonne even more. He had prevented her from becoming the boring, chaste princess the royal house wanted her to be. Gina could get very worked up about the idea that girls had to act like virgins or run the risk of being seen as loose or easy. She had been called worse in the press and she didn't care. She was a grown woman and she liked sex. Big deal. Alejandro had had much more 'girlfriends' than she had sexual partners and he never had been called a whore in the papers. Not even when he had knocked up Lucía. Talk about unfair...
'I won't kiss or sleep with anyone in public,' Gina said coldly. She wondered what her parents would say if they would find out she was sleeping with one of her teachers. As much as Gina liked to rebel, she really hoped they would never find out. 'Anything else?'
'This isn't a joke,' her mother said haughtily.
'I'm not laughing. Gina drained her Butterbeer. 'Well, if that's all. I asked for space. From you. From thìs,' she waved her hands agitatedly. She started speaking in a very quiet voice. 'I'm having a really good time at Hogwarts. I almost feel like a normal eighteen-year-old for a change. So bugger off.' She stood up, grinning widely at the shocked and stunned faces of her parents. The English swearing did sound a little odd in a Spanish sentence. 'If you have any other concerns, don't hesitate to discuss them with my press secretary,' she added. She kissed her parents on the cheek and walked over to her friends.
Severus had watched Gina being accosted by a witch and wizard who where obviously her parents. He had spotted them immediately when he had entered the Three Broomsticks half an hour earlier, sitting at a table drinking coffee and speaking in a whisper to each other. The two had looked more composed and -in case of her mother- haughty and wealthy than everyone else in the pub put together, and they were unmistakable not British, with their tanned skin and dark hair. He had also seen the body guard type wizards sitting at a table next to the door. It wasn't hard to put two and two together.
Severus had struggled not to look at Gina and her parents too often as they sat down at a table in the corner. He was sitting with Minerva and Flitwick and didn't want them catching him staring at a student, but it was a rather -although quiet- heated argument and he had even seen Flitwick glance at them once or twice.
Severus could see Gina was upset. He was very impressed with how she had responded to seeing her parents. It had obviously been a surprize visit, yet she had kept her composure, sat down with them and seemed to listen more than talk, until about twenty minutes in. Gina had waved agitatedly with her hands while talking, stood up and kissed her furious looking parents on the cheek, before returning to her friends, leaving the pub with them a few minutes later.
After her next potions class Severus had asked if she was alright.
'Yes, fine.' Gina had said. 'They are just worried about my maldición reputation as usual.'
By the looks of it they hadn't asked her how she was, or how she was coping at a new school in a foreign country. Severus had wondered what kind of parents would only talk about the press appearance of their child when they hadn't seen their kid in almost six months. His own childhood had been horrible, but he thought Gina's had been far from normal either.
Gina had surprised him by asking about hìs parents, and to his utter amazement had looked a little disappointed when he had told her he had a witch mother and a muggle father. She had tried to hide it but he could tell. He wondered why she cared he was half-blood while she was friends with Muggle-borns and blood traitors like Weasley, Fawcett and Hannah Adams. Was it different because they were involved romantically?
Gina had been in the paper again that morning, a ridiculous piece about her dating history. If what Gina had told him was true, there was about 5% truth to the article. But what else would Rita Skeeter write than bulge...
He had seen Gina eat breakfast without touching a newspaper. He wondered if she couldn't cope with reading lies about herself or if she just disliked the constant reminder her privacy being invaded so often. He wanted to ask her so much, get to know everything about her. He wanted her to open up to him. Be there for her. He wanted to tell her how he really felt about her. But he felt an irrepressible reluctance to do so.
Even though they had sort of agreed upon being in a relationship together and not seeing other people, neither if them had mentioned any deeper feelings for the other. In the past two months, Gina had told him she had fancied him since she came to Hogwarts. That she had wanted him... And that she only wanted to be with him. And although he had loved hearing her say these things, he also felt frustrated. He was in love with Gina. He cared for her. He had never felt anything even close to this for anyone before.
But Gina wasn't like other girls in more than one way. He had already known she used to sleep with the Northern boy. It was all over them that they were very comfortable with each other. And yet she didn't seemed to be in love with him, or want a relationship with him. As far as Severus could tell anyway. Gina had also mentioned sleeping with a guy over the summer without any signs of heart break. Only mention of her cheating ex had brought about some deeper emotion.
Severus had not been popular at school and hadn't had any girlfriends himself during his time at Hogwarts, but had seen it happen lots of times as a student, and later as a teacher: girls being seduced by a boy, eventually caving to sleep with him, and wanting more immediately after, while the boy backed away from commitment faster than a spiders from a Basilisk.
But Gina didn't seemed to work this way. She had immediately initiated sex, basically five minutes after Severus had kissed her. As much as he wanted her, Severus wouldn't have ripped her clothes off in Greenhouse Seven, not in the least because if was a mental thing to do. He would have taken his time, show her he wasn't jùst interested in getting her into his bed. He would have done it properly. But she had skipped that phase in which you got to know each other better completely. She just had sex with him, and left. Like a guy, he had realised a few weeks in. And on the one hand it was fantastic, extremely erotic and very pleasant to fuck with her without any drama or expectations outside the bedroom, or any need for small talk before he jumped on her, but he was starting to get insecure.
They were sleeping together for a while now, and she still hadn't asked him if they were in a relationship, or if she was his girlfriend, of if he had any feelings for her at all. She had just agreed with not flirting with other people when he had slammed her into his classrooms wall and demanded to hear if she was hìs... Which to his dismay had not brought about the slightest change. They still only had sex and talked about superficial matters and facts. She still had not told him she liked being with him, or how she felt about him. She had never even said she missed him or something like that, and it was driving him a little mad. And now he had that blasted love letter of her ex added to his worries, referring to when he had 'seen her again'...
Severus considered telling Gina how he felt for the umpteenth time, but rejected the idea. He couldn't possible. What if he pushed her away by getting too intense or going way too fast? He didn't have the faintest clue what he was doing. Merlin, why couldn't she just tell him she was in love with him?
