Chapter 8

Oh Brother…

Matilda never told Ava about her increasing closeness to Lucius. She wasn't ashamed, but she didn't want anything to get around the school from someone overhearing them. She might be nearly 18, but she was well aware of how it would look for her to be intimate with a man in is 50's, as well as a former Death Eater. She would be leaving in less than a month and it then wouldn't matter.

Her Charms exam was difficult and long. Split into two parts, a written and a practical, she was exhausted by the time the day ended. However, it did now mean that she'd no longer have any Charms lessons, which would leave her with free time to study. Her next exams were Thursday. Transfiguration. It would be the same setup, with a written and a practical exam.

During a free Charms period, she was busy in the library when Ava gasped from across the table.

"Where did you get that?" she demanded to know, pointing at her ring.

Matilda inwardly cursed. She'd been using a glamour to hide the ring, not wanting to remove it. She hadn't felt any magic attached to it that would have alerted Lucius to her removing it, but he was far too worried about losing it to do so. Today, she'd forgotten the glamour.

"Uh. From Lucius," she whispered in response, pulling her sleeve over her hand.

"Was it blue? I would have thought he'd have given you something green."

"It was his mother's," Matilda explained.

"He gave you his dead wife's ring?"

Matilda shook her head, glancing at Madam Pince. "No. Her ring went to Draco. For his wife."

"Oh. I suppose it really is official now. Mum and dad weren't happy about the law, but as I'm 18 now, they can't do anything about it. Mum wants to take me dress shopping."

"Have you heard from Goyle yet?" Matilda asked.

"No, still nothing. I thought about writing to him, but I don't even know what to say. How do you talk to someone you've never met?"

"I don't know. Lucius came to me first. I was hesitant to be alone with him, but now… I'm glad he did. He's been perfectly pleasant." She wasn't ready to explain just how pleasant he'd been.

"You'll just have to hope it lasts beyond the wedding," Ava responded, then gathered her books and left the library.

Matilda felt bad for her. She knew Ava had changed her mind over her initial gratitude over never having seen her intended match. Her blossoming relationship with Lucius was showing that it didn't have to be all bad, even as people more powerful and knowledgeable than her were working on ways of either stopping the law before the first marriages could take place, or overturning it further down the line when it inevitably proved to be unworkable. This was not akin to arranged marriages, which usually took place between pureblood families whose children likely already knew each other and had years to foster some form of friendship.

This Marriage Law was rushed and unfairly skewed to affect young muggleborn women. Most younger pureblood students were already matched with their prospective partners as arranged by their families, a tradition that Matilda had thought would have died after the war. There weren't too many in Ravenclaw these days, so Matilda couldn't really ask how they'd managed to avoid having their arrangements quashed in favour of marrying muggleborns. She suspected it involved a great deal of money, which only served to make her wonder how Lucius hadn't managed to get out of it by doing the same. Perhaps his former status as a Death Eater went against him. Worse still, she couldn't really understand how it would improve the birth rate. If people were simply allowed to partner with whoever they wanted, children would result naturally over time. If the law was expanded to include half-bloods, she was sure there would be a full uprising. The world couldn't handle another magical war.

She managed to get through her Transfiguration exam without so much as a miss-flicked wand, but she'd found it remarkably draining. She was grateful for the rest of the day off from lessons, and now Transfiguration classes would also be free periods. Friday was the Herbology exam, which she was the least worried about. It rather went hand in hand with Potions, and that exam wouldn't be until her final week at Hogwarts towards the end of June.

As she would be returning to her brother on the Friday evening, Lucius had invited Severus to the Manor for dinner, as usual. He'd been a little disappointed that he couldn't spend the entire weekend with her, but he understood that she would want to spend some of her birthday weekend with the little family she had. Her birthday had been on the Monday just gone, and as promised, he'd only sent her a Happy Birthday message and nothing else to distract her. She'd been a little disappointed at first, but logically knew he'd been keeping his word.

Severus arrived at the Manor at the usual time, customary bottle of wine in hand that he instructed the elf who greeted him to decant immediately, again, as usual.

"Glad you could make it, Severus. I thought perhaps you'd have usurped me for Rosmerta by now," Lucius quipped, sipping a firewhisky.

Severus rolled his eyes and sat down. "I don't see her every weekend, Lucius. Something to do with recovery time."

"Merlin, what on earth do you do to her?"

"Nothing perverted, if that's what you mean. Women can scarcely tolerate my endowments more than a few times a month."

"I would have thought Rosmerta would be perfectly adept at taking your endowments?"

"Apparently not. Honestly, I think it's only a matter of time before she calls time on our casual arrangement," Severus stated. He couldn't say he wouldn't be disappointed when it happened, but it was unfortunately inevitable. He wasn't blessed with stunning looks like Lucius, but Mother Nature had gifted him with an exceptionally large cock.

"I'm sure someone else will come along. You hide that fabulous beast behind your robes far too much."

"Lucius, now you're being perverted. I work in a school. It wouldn't be proper to be walking around with my prick swinging about in my trousers. There's enough rumours about me as it is."

Lucius inclined his head. Very few people knew, but he and Severus had developed a casual relationship not long after Narcissa had died. He'd actually enjoyed having his arse filled with Severus' delightfully large cock. Of course, they hadn't jumped into bed too often in the last year or so, and now that he was engaged to Matilda, he wasn't about to offer his friend his arse for the night.

"Perhaps you need to get out and date some wizards. A woman can unfortunately only accommodate so much. Though, I must say, Matilda has delightfully strong and stretchy muscles," Lucius drawled, sipping his whisky.

Severus almost choked on his. "Please tell me you didn't bed her before she turned 18?"

"Of course not. I already told you we would be waiting until we were married, despite how eager I might be. I simply let my fingers do the exploring." He hummed and closed his eyes. "She's breath-taking when she comes, and so utterly delicious. I was so tempted to slip under the table and slide my tongue into her juicy cunt."

"Lucius, please don't be crass. This is your bride-to-be."

"I'm not being crass." He put his glass down and cleared his throat. "I'm honestly enjoying her company, and not just because I'm desperately attracted to her. I gave her mother's ring."

Severus looked at him for a long moment. That was quite the revelation. He'd deemed no one to be worthy of his mother's ring outside of Narcissa and she hadn't wanted it.

"That's… quite the development. I suppose it's rather fitting, given it was a sapphire ring."

"My thoughts exactly. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if she was meant to have it," Lucius mused.

Severus could see it. It had been little over a month and he was sure Lucius was becoming rather smitten with the innocent little Ravenclaw. With exams looming and so much focus on study, he hadn't had much chance to really speak to her about the marriage to Lucius, not that he really had any idea what to say to her.

"I'll be seeing her tomorrow and I've booked us into a rather nice hotel for the night. I needed Draco's help with the booking, it's a muggle hotel," Lucius stated.

"You? In a muggle hotel?"

"Don't be so surprised. She grew up in the muggle world. I can't simply avoid it altogether."

"And you told Draco about your intended?"

Lucius knocked his drink back. That had been a hard discussion. "Yes. Of course he wasn't happy about the law. He's thankfully immune as he's already married and has a child now, but he was rather disturbed at the prospect of me marrying a young woman almost 10 years younger than he is. But, even he knows there isn't anything either of us can do about it. I don't have the Ministry sway I once did to even get myself out of it, let alone encourage it to be overturned."

Severus didn't say anything. He suspected that even if Lucius could get himself out of it, he wouldn't necessarily do so. Not now.

"She left the castle this evening. Was that your doing?"

"I had intended to spend the entire weekend with her, but she had plans to spend it with her brother. I'm sure you know that she lives with him. We compromised and I'll be picking her up from his apartment at noon tomorrow. I'm not sure if she's already told her brother about the law, though I suspect she wanted to wait until she was 18 before breaking the news."

"I can't imagine that will be a pleasant conversation," Severus remarked.

Indeed it wasn't.

Matilda was currently looking at her brother, her hands twisted together as she waited for him to talk. She'd rambled through a long explanation of the law and what it meant for her and that her fiancé would be picking her up tomorrow at noon and that she wanted them to meet and could he possibly be nice and understanding and not too big-brotherly?

Aidan took a deep breath before responding. "That's all really fucked up."

Matilda sighed. She had a small amount of guilt for not telling him sooner, but she didn't need the stress of him doing his best to get muggle authorities involved for a man in his 50's marrying his underage sister.

"You need to understand that this wasn't his doing. This was done to us by The Ministry. There's no abstentions, other than people already being married."

"And they're okay with children being married to middle-aged men and women?" he exclaimed.

"Witches and wizards are considered adults at the age of 17, not 18 like in our world." She always referred to the muggle world this way with Aidan. Technically, both worlds were her world. She would always be a muggle and a witch.

"That doesn't make it any better."

"It's… complicated. Wizards tend to live longer than non-magical people. Well into their hundreds. You remember I told you about the war that happened a decade ago? It caused a lot of problems with the population rate. Fewer magical children are being born. Centuries of families keeping themselves pure narrowed the gene pool. The Ministry thinks that by having purebloods marry muggleborns like me will add fresh blood to future generations."

"How can you be rationalising having kids with someone you're being forced to marry?" he yelled, standing up and moving to the window to glower.

"Aidan, it really could be worse. He's been perfectly pleasant. He's actually wanted to get to know me. So few of my classmates have had their matches even write to them. He's very supportive of my ambition to become a Healer."

He grumbled some more. She was 18 now, so he couldn't really do anything about it. But, marrying some old wizard wasn't exactly what he'd ever pictured for his little sister.

"Those purebloods really think they're better than us? And they pass laws like this?"

Matilda shook her head. "The Ministry isn't just run by purebloods."

"A law like this would never pass in our world. People would be outraged!"

"People are outraged in the magical world! But, it won't stop the law from happening. I don't exactly like having part of my life planned out like this, but I don't have a choice. If I refused to comply, there would be consequences. They might even take my wand away. Magically bind me. I don't know. Not doing it would be worse than doing it."

"And when is this all meant to happen? This magical wedding?" he asked sarcastically.

"1st of August."

"Wait… this year!?"

Matilda nodded and bit her lip. "He's coming here tomorrow to pick me up. We meet on Saturdays so we can get to know each other better, rather than waiting until we're getting married."

"He's coming here? What does he even do?"

"Uh… He's… independently wealthy, though he used to work with the Ministry and the school I go to. I think he mostly does charity work these days."

"And this lothario's name is?"

"Lucius. Lucius Malfoy. His family is one of the more renowned pureblood families. I'm not looking forward to our business being all over the papers, but I know they'll have a field day," she said, huffing.

"Surely someone of his status already has a wife?"

"He did. She died a few years back. He has a grown-up son who is also married now. I don't think he intended to have another family."

"How old is his son?" Aidan asked as he came back to the sofa.

"Uh, in his late 20's I think."

"Jesus…" he sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"I know, I know. I can't do anything about the age difference any more than he can. Honestly, at this point, I'm just grateful that we actually get along well. The man Ava is supposed to marry hasn't even bothered to introduce himself to her yet."

"If he ever bloody hurts you…" Aidan warned.

"He won't. It wouldn't be within his interests to do anything like that. Because of the decline, pureblood names aren't held in the same high regard. It would just go against him if he was to be abusive. Besides, I think he might be looking forward to having company. Since his wife died and his son got married, he's been living alone in his Manor."

"He owns a Manor?"

Matilda nodded, trying not to smirk.

"Well, I suppose that'll solve the problem of the money from mum and dad stopping. I got the last payment on your birthday. Speaking of birthdays, I didn't want to send this to the school and risk it getting lost," he said, reaching under the sofa and pulling out a wrapped parcel.

Matilda grinned and took it from him and unwrapped it enthusiastically. It was an old copy of Gray's Anatomy. She stared at it for a long moment, then looked back at him.

"It's a 23rd edition, 1936 or something. I know it's not magical, but I thought a body is still a body regardless of the magic. Thought it might be useful?"

"It's wonderful! I don't even want to think about what you must have spent!" she said, clutching it to her chest.

"A lot less than a 1st edition! I saw one go at auction for nearly £3000! I love you, but that's way out of my price range! Maybe your new rich husband can buy you one?" he said, teasing her.

She chuckled and threw a cushion at him. Lucius probably could source a 1st edition, but she wouldn't ask him. From a practical standpoint, she wouldn't need one. Later editions had much needed revisions and whilst she knew she'd be given magical textbooks when she stated her apprenticeship at St. Mungo's, she was sure it would come in handy for any illness that was physical and non-magical in nature.

Aidan had also bought a cake, insisting that she needed 18 individual candles to blow out instead of just two candles numbered one and eight. The smoke set off the fire alarm as she blew them out which made her giggle, waving her wand to shut it up.

"I told you numbered candles were better!"

"Oh, shut up and eat your cake!" he admonished, cutting a slice and handing it to her.

They ate cake and talked into the night. Matilda told him all she could about Lucius, except for his Death Eater past. She didn't want him to start off with negative thoughts about Lucius so soon. She was at the stage now that she wanted this arrangement to work as well as it possibly could under the difficult circumstances. She knew that there were active parties trying to get the law overturned, or at least re-written. She'd been reading in the Daily Prophet that Hermione Granger herself, who was currently the Head of the Muggle Relations Department within the Ministry was petitioning the Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt, weekly to at least set some addendums and provisions within the law to ensure muggleborn safety. Matilda considered this wise. She might be lucky with Lucius as he'd been treating her incredibly considerately so far, but she was fully aware that many of her peers wouldn't be so lucky. Mostly, she was worried for Ava. She had already turned 18 when the law had passed, so her parents would have had no recourse whatsoever to ensure their daughter's safety.

Perhaps Lucius would be able to help in some way. Most pureblood families had connections to each other. Perhaps he would have some insight into the Goyles.

Excitement for her weekend with Lucius had Matilda waking before 8am. She was up and making breakfast and coffee for Aidan and herself, banging on his door before 9am to let him know that it was ready. She didn't often cook for her brother as he would usually be sleeping until noon due to his late nights running the club.

"Jesus, sis! Gimme a minute!" he grumbled from the other side of the door.

"Come on! It's not like you were out all night!" she teased.

She went back to the kitchen and plated up the bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, and toast she'd made, plus the cafetière of coffee she'd prepared, slipping into one of the kitchen chairs and wasting no time digging into her food. She wrinkled her nose at Aidan when he came into the kitchen in his boxers and a rumpled t-shirt.

"You could have put on some pyjamas!" she groused, throwing a tea towel at him.

He tossed it back at her. "I'm not going to take bed clothing advise from a woman wearing Hello Kitty pyjamas."

She chuckled. They were old and not ones she wore at school. She also wouldn't be taking them with her when Lucius picked her up.

Aidan sat down heavily and poured himself a large coffee, spooning two sugars into it and drinking it black.

"Anyone would think you got rat-arsed last night," Matilda commented.

"I didn't get to sleep until 2am. Curse of the club runner!"

"I told you not to have that coffee before bed!" Matilda admonished, pointing her fork at him.

Aidan rolled his eyes and buttered his toast. "So, when is your rich lover getting here?"

Matilda nearly choked on her sausage. "Aidan! Please don't talk like that! And I told you last night; noon."

Aidan was grinning. He wasn't in the habit of thinking about his sister being intimate, but he wasn't stupid, even if nothing had happened yet. He knew it soon would. No man would put up with a sexless marriage.

"Make sure you stock up on rubbers," he stated.

Matilda blushed. Honestly, she wasn't sure what the Marriage Law would allow. She knew she needed to be pregnant by the 2nd year together, but surely protection could be used before that time? She'd have to talk to Lucius about that. She doubted he'd be open to using muggle contraceptives. She wasn't particularly fond of the idea of going on the pill or having an implant. Perhaps she could take the potion? There were so many details to go over when it came to their developing relationship.

"There's magical means for that. I'm just not sure what the law will allow. The purpose of it is to encourage children," she explained.

"Isn't that going to cut into your career?"

"Well, Lucius was supportive of me becoming a Healer, so if I have to defer for a year or two, it's what I have to do. I should be able to get the first year done, maybe even the second."

"Still sucks that you would have to do that at all. They should really allow you to get your career settled first," he commented.

"Ideally, yes. It's not exactly what I had planned, but it could definitely be worse."

She finished her breakfast and went to shower and pack her things ready for when Lucius would arrive. It had certainly surprised her that he was willing to stay at a muggle hotel and even let her take him around muggle London. He'd never said how much experience he had with the muggle world, but she suspected that it wasn't much. She knew that those who hadn't ended up in Azkaban after the war had been required to take extensive rehabilitation courses, which included muggle studies and relations.

By 11:30, she was waiting patiently by the fire which had been connected to the floo system when she was 13 so she could floo to Diagon Alley as needed. She'd told Lucius to floo rather than apparate in, not wanting to startle her brother with a wizard suddenly popping into existence.

Aidan had not long showed and was busy running a towel through his hair when a knock on the flat door sounded. Matilda looked up at him, confused. It couldn't be Lucius, it wasn't noon yet.

Aidan answered the door.

"The fuck do you want!?" Matilda heard him yell before he'd even opened the door fully.

Their parents strode in past him and right over to Matilda.

"Oh, look! All grown up now!" her mother gushed. She was grinning as though nothing had happened over the last seven years.

"Why are you here?" Matilda asked quietly. This was not expected at all. Now that she was 18, she never expected to hear from them again.

"You're 18 now! We thought we'd check to see if you'd finally let go of all that childish magic nonsense and repented," her mother explained, opening up her arms as though she expected Matilda to hug her.

Matilda took a step back.

Aidan came to stand beside Matilda. "You really think you can come here after not seeing her since she was 13 and think all will be forgiven?"

They both ignored him.

"Come now, Matilda, it's time to become a good Catholic woman!" her father bellowed.

"Turning 18 didn't stop me from being a witch. I'll always be a witch. Why can't you accept that?" she asked them, the weight of their scrutiny starting to upset her.

"God is punishing us! Giving us a sinner and a Devil worshipper!" her mother cried, clutching her handkerchief to her eye.

"We were born this way! Or are you saying God makes mistakes?!" Aidan yelled.

"DON'T SPEAK TO YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT!" their father boomed.

Aidan pulled Matilda behind him and squared his shoulders. He was taller and broader than his father.

"Get. The fuck. OUT!" he spat through gritted teeth.

Their father grumbled unintelligibly and gripped their mother's arm, pulling her back towards the door.

"You're both dead to us!" he stated, then slammed the door behind them.

Matilda broke down, sobbing into her hands. Aidan moved back to her and wrapped his arms around her, smoothing them soothingly over her back.

"Don't waste your tears on them. You don't need them. You've put yourself through school without any help from them and you're going to go on to be a great Healer."

Matilda looked up at him, her face wet with tears. "How could they do this to us?"

"This isn't about us. They're just too far gone in their beliefs. They always were. But they never had to be. We've been better without them. They can't stop us from doing whatever we want with our lives." He swiped his thumbs over her cheeks. "Now, no more crying over them. You don't want to be all puffy when your fancy man gets here."

Matilda let out a weak chuckle and wiped her hands over her face, sniffing.

Just then, the flames of the fire turned green and Lucius stepped through. He blinked at the sight of Matilda's red eyes and her brother with his hands on her shoulders.

"Did I interrupt something?" he said, brushing soot from his lapel.

"No, it's alright. Just family drama. Uh, Aidan, this is Lucius. Lucius, Aidan," Matilda replied, moving to introduce them.

Lucius stepped forward and held out his hand. "Ah, Matilda has spoken of you. Good to finally meet you."

Aidan shook the offered hand, gripping firmly. "Uh, I'd say likewise, but she only told me about you last night."

"Ah. Well, it's been rather… hectic. As I'm sure she told you, this was rather dropped on all of us without any input from the public," Lucius explained.

Matilda bit her lip as she watched the interaction.

"I can't understand how your government even managed to pass such a law. If our government did that, there would be full-scale riots," Aidan stated.

"It has no been popular, I can tell you that. There are Ministry officials already working on ways to adjust or overturn the law, but no success yet."

"Well, at this point, I only care about my sister's welfare. I would hope you care about the same," Aidan stated, looking intently at Lucius.

"I can assure you, nothing is more important to me. We may not have chosen each other, but I am beyond happy for the choice that was made for me," he said, turning his warm eyes to Matilda.

"I hope so." He leaned down and pressed a kiss to his sister's forehead. "I'll leave you to it."

Aidan went to his bedroom to give them some privacy.

"Sorry about that," Matilda said, feeling sheepish.

"Nonsense. He's looking out for you. I can certainly appreciate that." He ran his thumb lightly over her cheek. "Why were you crying?"

"Oh, uh… my parents turned up."

"Whatever for?"

"They thought they could convince me to just… stop being a witch. Be a 'good Catholic woman'," she answered, shrugging her shoulders, looking down at her converse.

Lucius stepped right up to her and tilted her chin so she was looking up at him. "Nothing would ever change how much of a talented witch you are."

She blinked up at him, her cheeks flushing. He leaned his head down and pressed his lips softly to hers, hearing a soft moan erupt in her throat as he felt her mouth move to deepen the kiss. He was tempted to return the passion, but was conscious of time so pulled back.

Matilda's eyes were glassy and her cheeks were flushed for an entirely different reason.

He leaned to whisper into her ear. "We have plenty of time before tomorrow evening. We have a hotel to check into."

She blushed and grinned up at him. "I'm packed." She moved to the hall to call her brother. "Aidan? We're leaving now."

"Text me when you get there!" he called out from his room.

"Will do. Love you!" she called back.

"Love you."

Lucius tilted her head at her. "Text him? Is that something you do on one of those contraptions?"

"Oh, a mobile phone? Yes. They don't work very well in magical places, so I don't carry it around much at school. It works best in higher places, especially since they put in a cell tower in Hogsmeade."

"Perhaps I should procure one whilst we're out?"

Matilda blinked at him. "You… you want to buy a phone? Will it even work at your home?"

"I'm sure I can arrange for muggle technology to be added to the Manor. I already have electricity in my study. Severus recommended it," Lucius explained.

"Wow. Well, that's good at least. You'll need electricity to charge the phone regularly."

Lucius wasn't sure how that would work, but hoped Matilda would show him. He stepped aside to let her gather her things and told her to take his arm. He would be apparating them to a Ministry approved point nearest to where he'd booked their hotel and then their weekend could begin in earnest.