Chapter 12
It was colder than Eryn had expected it to be. That morning Narcissa had invited them to come watch her Quidditch practice, and with nothing better to do that day Eryn agreed. Now it was mid afternoon, and cold enough to be uncomfortable but not quite cold enough to make going inside for another sweater worth it.
Eryn wasn’t a particular fan of Quidditch. They understood what the appeal was, but it had never really interested them. Narcissa was the only link they had to the sport.
A few minutes passed and Lucius appeared in the stands, likely looking for Eryn. He spotted them quickly and they waved him over.
“Was looking everywhere for you”, he said, sitting down next to them. “Never guessed you’d be here, I didn’t really strike you as a Quidditch type of girl”.
Girl. Eryn felt a brief blip of pure euphoria at that word.
“I came for her”, they said, gesturing to Narcissa who was flying through the air.
“Ah. Any other reason?”
Eryn shook their head.
They sat in silence for a beat. Eryn shifted and curled closer to themself, rubbing their gloved hands on their arms.
“Are you cold?”
“What do you think?”
They were starting to regret the decision they’d made a month ago when they cut the fingertips off their gloves. It was impulsive and at the time they had liked how it looked, but now it was just impractical.
“Here, take this”, said Lucius. He took off his coat and put it around Eryn’s shoulders.
“You’ll be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I don’t get cold that easily”, Lucius said while sitting back down.
“Alright, but if you freeze to death while trying to be a gentleman that’s on you”, Eryn rolled their eyes and pulled the coat around themself. “That did help a lot, though. Thank you”.
“You’re welcome”, Lucius smiled. He looked Eryn in the eyes. It was then Eryn realized they’d never made eye contact with Lucius before, at least not consciously. His eyes were a light gray, they would probably look almost silver in better light than the cloudy day they were currently sitting in.
Eventually Lucius turned his attention back to the pitch, back to Narcissa.
“She’s quite a good flier”.
“Yeah. At least one of us is good at something”.
Lucius sighed and put his arm around Eryn, pulling them closer.
“You shouldn’t say those things about yourself”.
“I was only joking”.
“Were you, though? I know you can think of better jokes than that”.
Eryn exclaimed dryly. “Fine, you win, prick”, they rolled their eyes again. Lucius smiled softly and rested his head on top of theirs. Eryn liked how it felt to be this close to someone. It was warm and comforting. All other negative feelings felt turned off.
The practice ended about an hour later. Narcissa made her way up to the stands to meet Eryn.
“You two look cozy”, she snorted. Lucius pulled away from Eryn. They stood up and handed him back his coat.
“See you around, I guess”.
“‘Bye”.
Eryn and Narcissa walked together back to the castle. She looked slightly on edge.
“Can I ask you for a favor, Eryn?” she said as they entered the hall.
“Of course”.
“Well…” she started. “You know Bella’s married, and I’m almost sixteen…”
“Where are you going with this?”
“Oh don’t be that way”, Narcissa scoffed. “I’m worried that our parents are trying to arrange a marriage for me…and they love making announcements at the Christmas party. Could you please come home this year? I don’t think I can take that alone”.
“Oh”, said Eryn. “Of course I will”.
“Thank you”, Narcissa sighed as they turned around the corridor. “This has been weighing me down a lot”.
“I’m sorry. I wish there was something we could do about it”.
“Without running away, that is. You’re so lucky you don’t have to deal with stuff like this, Eryn. If I was a boy they wouldn’t care as much about who I marry”.
Eryn bit the inside of their cheek. They didn’t say anything.