So Long and Goodnight
written by: albe-chan
DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction and I do NOT own Harry Potter or any of the characters mentioned, I am making no money from this, and any similarities with real life are purely coincidental. This work will contain MATURE THEMES, such as coarse language, mature subject matter (scenes containing graphic sex, non-consensual sex and sexual acts, nudity, etc.), and mildly graphic violence. Please, if you are not over the age of 18, or of majority in your country, DO NOT READ THIS! You have been warned!
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Chapter Four - March
"Lily."
The redhead froze, the brush halfway poised to stroke through her almost tamed mass of wavy and curly dark red hair. Hazel eyes found blue in the vanity mirror, and Lily swallowed thickly, because her husband did not look pleased. "Yes?" she murmured softly, forcing herself not to drop her gaze after she turned to look at him properly over her shoulder, even as she set the hair brush down.
The redheaded witch watched as her husband threw something on the floor, and when she took in the scrap of baby blue lace and silk, she understood immediately. "What the fuck?"
Lily didn't require him to say more, because the bloodstain spoke volumes without words. She wasn't pregnant. Again. Which Lily knew for a fact, even before she'd gotten her period early that morning, because she'd been using Contraceptive Charms on herself in secret, every time her husband had fucked her in the last month. She might be able to pretend and fake excitement at having Thaddeus Nott's baby, but in reality, Lily was nowhere near excited at the notion. And she would do whatever it took to make sure it didn't happen.
The first period had been explained away in that, obviously, she'd been past the baby bearing part of her cycle, and it was to be expected, but now that Lily had gotten her period again, which in and of itself was a bane upon her existence, she now had to face her husband's displeasure she hadn't instantly gotten with child.
"I don't know," she whispered, looking down, and feigning disappointment in herself. "I wanted it to happen so bad," she added, hoping she wasn't hamming it up too much.
Lily felt, rather than heard, her husband come toward her, and braced for the worst. It came. "Lies!" Thaddeus, snarled, and she flinched hard as he grasped a handful of her long, politely unruly hair he'd forbade her to cut. "You weren't even trying!" he snarled, jerking her by the hair off the little stool before her vanity and to her feet.
Lily felt her heart start to race, fear-laced adrenaline coursing through her. "No," she sobbed, and when Thaddeus turned her around she knew what was coming. The blow hit her in the corner of her jaw, her mandible clicking out and then back into place painfully, and Lily saw stars. "No, no, I swear, I never-!" she pleaded, but part of her knew it was too late.
"Shut up!" Thaddeus roared, and the next blow came to her ribs. Lily crumpled, losing her breath, and sank to her knees despite the painful grip her husband still had on her hair. Her sobs seemed to echo in the bathroom as her husband stood her up only to knock her own again, this time hitting her in the mouth, making her blood spurt up and out through her tender, split lip. "You will do what I tell you!" her husband roared, and Lily tried to be invisible, tried to ignore the pain that rained down on her, and most of all, tried to ignore the sounds she couldn't hold back, the whimpers and cries of pain as her husband beat her bloody and bruised. "And as the fucking Gods are my witness, you will birth me the next heir in the the noble Nott line, bitch, and you'll do whatever it takes to make sure I fuck that brat into your belly. Do you understand?" he snarled. Lily couldn't answer through her sobs, and Thaddeus hit her harder in displeasure.
At last, she was left trembling and huddled in a ball on the bathroom floor, sobbing and thoroughly broken. Her lip was bleeding heavily, spattering her with her own blood with every gasping breath she took, her left eye was black and swelling shut, and she was almost positive one or more of her ribs were cracked. Lily felt tender and sore all over, after being dragged to her feet on legs incapable of holding her upright, only to be knocked, or kicked, or thrown down yet again. And even as she curled in a defensive position, trying to avoid more pain, Lily wished she could do enough, or be enough, just as herself, for this man.
"You disgust me," Thaddeus spat, breathing heavily and, even though Lily didn't look at him, she knew he'd be smoothing the wrinkles from his robes and righting his mussed, dishevelled hair. "You'd better pray to fucking every God your smart assed, pathetic self can think of, Lily, that your fat ass gets knocked up by this time next month," he snarled, and she curled tighter as he leaned down menacingly over her. "Or so help me fucking Merlin, bitch, I'll make you wish your mother used a Contraceptive Charm on you." He grasped her chin in a vice-like grip. "Do you fucking understand me?"
Lily nodded, trying to hold in her sobs lest it annoy him into hitting her again, and felt her breath huff out in relief as he pulled back, throwing her face aside.
"Try harder, Lily," he said coldly, and walked out of the bathroom, slamming the door to their bedroom, making Lily's teeth rattle. She wasn't sure how long she laid there, shivering and trying to keep herself together, before crawling to the shower, grasping her wand off the vanity. She healed herself as the hot water beat down on her, and Lily tried to scrub the dirt off her soul that she invariably felt after her husband put his hands and fists on her. She assumed he'd gone to work when she finally emerged back into the bedroom and found the youngest, smallest House Elf changing the bed. If it noticed that she couldn't quite get her tender lip to heal properly, or that she still had a bruise on her thigh from a vicious kick she hadn't spotted, it didn't mention it, even as it flashed large eyes toward Lily for a beat, then away. The redhead, in her hair towel and robe, went to sit at her vanity again, wincing at the remnants of black eye she hadn't fully Vanished in the shower.
Half an hour later, the little House Elf had cleaned efficiently, and Lily had put her face on for the day, covering the bruises that refused to be removed with either her self-made bruise salve or magic, and her puffy, cried out eyes, carefully doing her makeup to perfection, before going through the tedious process of curling her hair.
She was just finishing up when there was a knock at her door and then the portal opened, and her mother in law came sweeping in, wearing her best robes, looking pleased with herself. "Lily," she said, then frowned at the redhead. "Still not dressed? Whatever do you do all day when you obviously accomplish nothing?" she sighed, and rolled her blue eyes. Lily bit her tongue. "Well, that's lucky for me," she said airily. "I'm off to brunch with the Ladies' Society." Lily barely refrained from snorting, because the 'Ladies' Society' was a bunch of old pureblood bitches. "No matter, everyone knows my son married a career woman opposed to a proper family witch, after all. I'll simply tell them you were working," she went on. The redhead felt her irritation ramp up as her mother in law swept over to her closet and pulled out clothes for Lily to wear. "Anyway, I just came to tell you, dear," Cordelia Nott said with a wicked, deadly smile, "we'll be hosting a party to celebrate my darling son's new promotion. I'd say dinner for about a hundred, and I'm thinking next Friday. Do you think it unreasonable to invite the Minister of Magic?" Cordelia laughed, even as Lily paled, face registering nothing but shock. "We'll iron out the details when I get home. Ta ta!" The waifish, thin and dark haired witch that Lily wasn't sure if she loathed more or less than her husband who had the same, cold, cruel blue eyes that never exuded warmth paused before selecting a blouse and throwing it at Lily. "Your taste is atrocious, but this might work for your...body type. Enjoy work, then."
The redheaded witch, mouth parting in shock, even as her temper boiled over, watched her mother in law stride back out of her bedroom, trying not to feel hurt, even though she did, and trying not to shout after the old bitch to go fuck herself. Instead she bottled her emotions, and the urge to cry, and got dressed, pointedly not wearing the blouse her mother in law had picked but still pleased with her outfit of choice. But instead of taking the Floo to work, like she normally would for a few hours, which was the most she was allowed while still being able to maintain the washing and cooking and other chores her husband had ordered her to do, Lily Flooed to the one place she knew was reckless and stupid to visit, because if it appeared on their monthly bill for services, her husband would undoubtedly get angry.
But she didn't want to wait anymore. The honeymoon phase had lasted a week and then she'd gone back to being his boring old wife, the need for a baby aside, and Lily knew there was more than one night in the last month her husband had come home to her after sleeping with another witch. And then Thaddeus had let his temper get away with him just as easily as ever, and Lily had gone right back to being the outlet for her husband's raging temer and fluctuating moods. He'd gone, as he'd done many times over, from lover to abuser yet again, and Lily couldn't handle waiting until Sunday dinner to see a friendly face.
So she Flooed to Scorpius Malfoy's flat, knowing the blond pureblood would either still be sleeping, as it wasn't yet ten thirty, or just getting up. And when she stepped out of the fireplace, the redhead froze, arms lifted and palms out as Scorpius, wearing naught but a towel, slid into the room, wand pointed at her. "Bloody hell, Lily!" the blond snarled, and she let out a breath she hadn't recalled holding as he lowered his wand. "You scared the shite out of me!"
Lily cringed, but forced herself to stand straight and not flinch at his obvious anger at being surprised, probably right out of the shower. "Sorry," she said quietly. "But I…" She hated that tears began to well in her eyes, and clenched them shut, trying to hold her damnable emotions in check. "I needed to get away, from…from it all, and…" Lily brushed the tears that fell aside roughly. "I'm sorry, I can go if you're busy," she mumbled, feeling stupid, and made to turn, but then she felt Scorpius come forward and grasp her hand.
She blushed, because he smelled amazing, and he was emitting the kind of damp warmth only freshly showered bodies could, and she was unbearably aware of the fact he was naked under his towel. "No, don't go. Just… I just need a second, and I'll be good. You just kind of startled me is all." It went unspoken that never, ever in their recent acquaintanceship, had she sought him out to meet.
"Sorry," she mumbled again, cheeks burning. "Really, it's no problem. Actually I should be-"
"No, stay," Scorpius said instantly. "I'll be back in a minute," he vowed, and Lily glanced up at him and nodded, blushing darker as he squeezed her hand before releasing it and turned to go get dressed. The redhead tried to push through her embarrassment, and sat primly on the blond pureblood's squashy, comfortable loveseat that clashed terrifically with the sombre leather wingbacks either side of it in a conversational nook around the mantle. Hazel eyes darted around the room curiously, taking in the seemingly eclectic furniture and downright weird knick knacks, the Muggle telly and phone, and most of all, the number of framed photographs that littered the room. And Lily couldn't help but think it hadn't been what she'd imagined for him at all and yet, at the same time, it was outrageously fitting for the wizard she'd begun to reacquaint herself with of late.
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