"Elio, if you keep fidgeting with your shirt, it'll wrinkle more than if you just left it alone," his mother scolded as Elio unbuttoned and buttoned it for the umpteenth time. "Now hold still."

She walked over to him and waved her wand. Instantly, whatever wrinkles he had given it were gone. Elio smiled. His mother was always good at little charms like that. "Thanks, Mummy."

She smiled and pinched his cheek. "You're welcome, my little baby boy."

He pretended to gag and shoved her hand off. "You're going to make my cheeks all red before Annie gets here!"

"What time is she getting here, by the way?" his father chimed in with a handful of almonds shoved into his mouth. "I'm anxious to meet the girl that has you in knots."

"Seven," Elio answered. "And I'm not in knots."

Theodore rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh."

"Why are you so nervous, darling?" his mother asked instead. "It isn't as if this is your first meeting."

No, but it wasn't their hundredth either. Elio and Annie's relationship was still pretty new. There was loads he didn't know about her and he knew that he still hadn't successfully won her over. Yes, she said that she loved him but Elio had always thought that love was a fickle thing (until he quickly fell in love with her, that is). Until she had a ring on her finger, Elio wouldn't stop being nervous. Actually, he was sure that he would be nervous even then. He didn't deserve her, not by a long shot.

I'll have to spend the rest of my life proving why I do, he resolved.

The only problem? The rest of his life now apparently included The Dark Lord and the entire Riddle family. Tom Riddle wasn't exactly known for his kindness so Elio wasn't looking forward to meeting his future father-in-law. That was if he didn't kill Elio instantly, which he very well may do. And if he didn't, James wasn't far behind him. Elio was sure that The Dark Lady wouldn't hesitate to hex his balls off if he did anything, too.

Yay.

Well, he supposed he did always like the thrill of adventure. Just this "adventure" was being with the love of his life and the "thrill" was a high chance of death from her family.

"I just really want her to like it here," Elio finally answered his mother because it was also the truth. The Nott estate might very well become her home and his parents would become part of her family. To say he was nervous was an understatement.

Though that could just be his heart wildly beating in anticipation of being with Annie again.

Soon, it was 6:59 and Elio could hardly sit still. If he wasn't pacing around the room, his leg was bouncing with jitters. Aria had to de-wrinkle his shirt more than once and Theo was watching it all with a smirk on his face.

Finally, at 7:00 on the dot, there was a knock. Elio jumped out of his chair, followed by Aria. "I'll stay here so we're not scaring the poor girl away," Theo said with a wave of his hands. Aria rolled her eyes and followed her son to the door.

When Elio opened the front door to the estate, he couldn't help but grin. Annie looked adorable in a periwinkle blue dress with a flared skirt and butterflies on the sheer sleeves. "Hi, topolina," he whispered just as she began to smile back at her.

James stood behind Annie with his hand on her shoulder, looking as if it was physically painful for him to not be glaring at Elio. "Hello, Nott," he grumbled.

"James," Elio said back with a smile. The tension between the two was palpable, like a thunderstorm rearing its head but never striking a bolt. In Elio's defense, he was almost always civil with James. Most of James's dislike stemmed from Elio being immature and unserious, which meant that the majority of their interactions were Elio saying something dumb and James threatening him. How the two boys managed to play on the same Quidditch team without killing each other was a miracle.

"She's staying in the guest room and I'm picking her up at nine sharp. And if you're lying about there being adults, Nott, I swear to Merlin I'll—"

"This must be Annie!" his mother exclaimed at exactly the right time, walking up behind the three with the biggest smile he'd ever seen. "Aren't you just the prettiest thing?"

His mother's attention was brought to the man glowering from behind. "Oh my, is that James Riddle? You're so big now! How are your parents? I feel like it's been ages since I've seen them but I suppose Evelyn and I went to lunch just a few weeks ago."

"Uh, hi, Mrs. Nott," James said awkwardly as he shifted his weight back and forth. Elio wanted to snicker at how uncomfortable he was but he had a feeling Annie wouldn't like that. "It's been a while since I've seen you."

"Since your sister was born," she filled in with a smiling scrunch of her nose in Annie's direction.

Then, Elio was slapped rather hard in the chest. He made an oof sound before turning to glare at his mother.

"Elio! Why didn't you say your Annie was Annie Riddle?"

"She's not his Annie," James growled just as Elio was saying, "Because I just found out!"

And she definitely was his Annie.

Aria rolled her eyes. "You boys. Always fighting." She pinned Elio with a sharp look. "Your father is going to kill you when he finds out."

"Kill me? What for?"

She shook her head. "You'll see." Then, she smiled at Annie. "Come on, pet. Let's go to dinner."

"A-alright," Annie whispered, following behind his mother as if it were natural. To his surprise, Elio was thankful his mother was there. The longer his mother seemed to dote on her, the more she seemed to relax, following her out of the great hall and to the dining room.

"Now, pet," he heard his mother begin. "You must tell me where you got that dress. It is just adorable..."

He smiled before turning back to James with a smirk. "Well. Parents are here. We have plenty of guest rooms. Your sister is in excellent hands. Are you satisfied?"

"Nothing about this is satisfactory," James grumbled.

Elio just grinned. "Oh, come on, ya big loaf. We're going to be brothers."

"If my father doesn't kill you first." James smiled as if he were daydreaming. "That would be wonderful."

"Just admit it. I'm not so bad."

"Never." But just before James apparated away, Elio caught the faintest hint of a smile on his old rival's face.

Elio practically skipped as he followed the sound of his mother's babbling voice. "Now, Annie, darling, Elio tells me you were in Ravenclaw..."

"Yes, ma'am."

"So formal! I'll have to tell your mother how polite you are. You know, I was almost in Ravenclaw but my brother was in Slytherin so I asked the hat to put me there too."

"James was in Slytherin but the hat didn't give me an option."

Aria smiled. "I'm sure you were a wonderful Ravenclaw. The house was lucky to have you."

Elio smiled and ran up to the two of them, putting his arm around both of them as he squeezed between them. "And how are my two favorite women doing? You are both looking beautiful tonight."

His mother rolled her eyes. "Don't let him charm you, Annie-dear. He's just trying to sweet-talk his way into a second dessert."

Annie looked up at him and smiled in what was quite possibly the sweetest way he'd ever seen. "You can have my dessert if you want it, Elio."

He could feel his heart flutter as if a thousand butterflies were inside of it. Well, now he couldn't take it. Who could take anything from a sweet girl like this? He leaned over and kissed the side of her head. "Don't worry, darling. I'd never take anything from you."

His mother snorted. "That's a first."

Annie grinned. "Looks like my plan worked."

"Ahh, you little stinker." He kissed her head again before moving his lips down to capture hers in a kiss that had his friend downstairs slowly perking up. "I suppose I'll forgive you."

"Elio, stop kissing the poor girl so she can come in and eat!"

"Yes, Mummy." Elio leaned down and tucked a piece of Annie's hair behind her ear before whispering, "We'll have plenty of time for kissing later."

She bit her lip in a way that had his dick hardening far too much considering he was about to be with his parents. "I'll be looking forward to it."

"Elio! Dinner! Now!"

"Ughhh. Can I not just kiss my girlfriend without you meddling?"

"No," his mother responded, which earned a giggle from Annie. "Now come on."

A few minutes later, they were all seated at the dinner table with a whole feast laid out. His mother definitely went all out for their guest. Theodore Nott came in shortly after, sliding into his seat and smiling at Annie gently. "You must be Annie. I'm Theodore Nott."

"It's nice to meet you, sir."

Theo raised his eyebrows at Annie first, then Elio. "'Sir' is new. The riff-raff Elio usually brings home never call me sir."

"That's because you've seen Scorpius in nappies and he refuses to call someone 'sir' who's seen him in nappies," Elio inserted for Annie's benefit. He didn't want her to think that girls came home often because that couldn't be further from the truth. He never brought home women, not once. Annie was the first and last.

"I can call you something else if you prefer—"

Theo waved his hands dismissively. "You can me whatever you like, sweetheart. I'm just teasing."

"'Sweetheart?'" Elio questioned. "Dad, you better not be going after my girl."

His father winked. "I've already got my own girl."

"Good. Keep it that way."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Can you two at least act normal for our guest?"

"No," both father and son said at the same time before smirking at each other from across the table.

"Merlin help us all," Aria muttered under her breath before exclaiming, "Eat up, please. All of you. There's plenty."

All through the dinner, Elio's parents quizzed Annie about herself. What her hobbies were—piano and reading—, if she had any pets—a cat named Perkins—, when she graduated from Hogwarts—three years after Elio—, and what she wanted to do—she was just taking it day by day and hoping it worked out well. Not that she needed to work with her parents' fortune (and his now) anyway. If she wanted to play piano and pet cats all day, he'd gladly make it happen.

Elio still hadn't quite figured out why his mother said his father would kill him. Did she think he wouldn't like Annie? Because that seemed to be far from the case. Theo had already remarked that if he had a daughter, he'd want one just like Annie (something his mother agreed to wholeheartedly) and he'd already invited her over for practically every upcoming family occasion.

It wasn't until his father asked what Annie's family was like that Elio realized.

"So, Annie, what's your family like?"

"Well," she said, her hand reaching under the table to grip his. He'd grabbed onto it as soon as they were both done eating and he had no intentions of letting her go. "It's my Mummy, Daddy, and my big brother, James. He's four years older than me."

"Oh, who are your mother and father? Maybe we know them, Aria."

"Theo, I—"

"Tom and Evelyn Riddle," Annie said innocently.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

Theo bolted out of his chair, running for the edge of the room with his back to the wall. "Tom Riddle?" he screeched, already holding out his hands in defense as if Annie—sweet little Annie in her chair, looking bloody terrified of all of the commotion—were attacking him. "Did you say Tom fucking Riddle? As in the bloody Dark Lord?"

"Y-yes, s-sir," she whispered, leaning into Elio's outstretched arm. It was as if he could feel the tears rising to her eyes with fear. And that fucking pissed him off.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Theo yelled.

"Dad, calm down," Elio growled while rubbing soothing circles on Annie's back. "You're scaring her."

"I'm scaring her? Her father is a fucking vampire demon and I'm being scary?"

Annie shrank back at his words. "Yes, you fucking are," Elio bit back, tucking her behind him so she wouldn't see how wild and crazed his father's eyes were. "So back off or we're going to have an issue."

"I'm so sorry, Annie, darling," Aria whispered from across the table. "My husband has the tendency to act like a complete idiot sometimes."

"Are you a bloody idiot, Elio Nott? Dating the Dark fucking Princess? Do you want to avoid marriage so much that your plan is to get murdered? Are you really that daft?"

"Dad, this is my girlfriend you're talking about! She'd never hurt a fly!"

"Well, her father has hurt more than a few fucking flies to make up for her! He's the boogeyman, Elio. He's a nightmare! You can't seriously want him for a father-in-law."

Elio turned back to look at Annie, whose eyes were now definitely glistening with unshed tears. Her lower lip stuck out in a way that he would have ached to kiss in any other circumstances. Now, he was far too focused on making her smile again.

With a clenched jaw, he turned back to his father, only to bite out, "I hope you're happy now! You made her feel so shitty about her family that she's now fucking crying. You're ridiculous, Father."

He turned back to Annie before enveloping her in his arms. "I-I'm s-sorry," she hiccuped through her tears.

"Shh, topolina. Don't be sorry," he whispered in what he hoped was a soothing voice. Elio stroked her hair as she buried her face into his chest, completely soaking his shirt—not that he particularly cared. His blood was still boiling over the way his father acted. "I'm sure your parents are just as lovely as you are. He's just an idiot."

"I should g-go." When she spoke, her voice cracked as if it were made of glass, sprinkling into a dozen shards that stabbed into his heart. "Before things get worse."

He tightened his arms around her. "I'll go with you, cara mia. Why don't we go find some ice cream and you can tell me about your week?" He thought he felt a small nod against his chest. "Yeah? That sound good?"

"Mm-hm."

Elio pulled back and kissed her forehead. Annie's cheeks were all red and her mascara was running down her face but he didn't care. She got more and more beautiful with each day that he knew her. He ran his thumbs under her eyes to get most of it off before smiling down at her. "Just let me get my shoes and we can go."

"Elio, don't go—" his mother began.

"Father has made it clear that he is too bloody terrified of the Riddles for them to be welcome in our home. And if Annie goes, I go with her," he said with clenched fists before wrapping his arm around her tiny body. Merlin, she's so small.

"Elio, wait," his father began. Elio turned to find him looking, frankly, still a little terrified. But he also seemed to calm down a bit more, moving slowly to where the couple stood huddled against each other. Theodore sighed before staring at where Annie shook against Elio's side. "I'm so sorry, Annie."

"I-I'm s-sorry," she said with a small whimper that just made Elio's heart clench.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. You've been nothing but lovely all evening. It's me that's been an ass for a childish fear that I've had since I was eleven. You didn't deserve how I treated you. Can you ever forgive me?"

Annie, like the fucking angel that she was, slowly nodded but Elio just snapped, "You can earn her bloody forgiveness. You were a right git to her."

"Elio, be nice," she mumbled.

He turned and cupped her cheek. "But topolina, he wasn't nice to you."

"He didn't mean it. He was just scared. He thought that Daddy would march in any second and kill him for me dating his son." She smiled a little to herself. "He actually kind of likes Daddy. He's just terrified of him too."

"How do you know that?"

Annie just tapped her head with her finger. Elio smirked. "My little Legilimens."

"Mummy says it's okay to use it if people are apologizing to see if they really mean it." She frowned. "Daddy and James say to use it to freak people out."

Elio could feel the blood draining from his face. "Your whole family is made of Legilimens."

"Right..."

"I'm so fucked." He couldn't count how many times his mind just casually slipped to what it was like having Annie in bed and how much he looked forward to getting her there again. Even now, the idea of her wrapping her sweet little mouth on his—

Yep. He was so dead.

Annie smiled. "Don't worry. I can teach you some basic defense stuff."

He had a feeling that nothing would be enough to keep out Tom Riddle if he really wanted to get in.

Might as well start planning his funeral now.

"Right then," Theodore finally said just as Elio was getting to which song he wanted to be played. Was "Danny Boy" too on the nose? Probably. "I think I owe Annie some dessert. What did you make, Aria?"

"Chocolate cake," his mother replied. "But I can whip up something if you don't like them."

Elio smiled. His parents doting on Annie was a great sign. Beyond his father's asinine outburst, he'd say this evening was going pretty damn well.

"Cake would be lovely. Thank you, Mrs. Nott."

"Please," his mother scoffed. "Call me Aria."

And as she walked away, Elio could have sworn she said, "You might very well be family soon, anyway."

Elio smiled before nuzzling his nose into Annie's neck as his father talked to her as if nothing had happened only a few short minutes ago. Annie giggled but respectfully still listened.

"I love you, topolina. So, so much."

"Elio," she hissed under her breath. "Stop being rude. Your father is talking."

"Don't mind him, Annie," Elio heard Theo say. "He's apparently gotten his affectionate side from me. You'll be lucky if you can tear him off of you."

Elio just grinned. Because he had no intentions of ever going anywhere.

Sorry this wait was so long! Hopefully it was worth it. :)

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