Chapter 2
Early morning sunlight spilled through the open window, splaying brightly across her face. The mourning doves crooned in the distance, their repetitive song pulling her from her drowse. The malty scent of a breakfast tea ghosted about the room, carried by the rolling steam of a warm teapot resting on the table. For just a moment, Lavina thought she was in her childhood home. Once she opened her eyes, her reality hit. The sun was too bright, the birds were too loud, the tea smelled too sweet, and worst of all, the room was cold. She hated the cold.
It only took a few moments for the fog of sleep to dissipate, allowing the events of the past few days to creep back into her psyche.
She'd just survived her first experience with leglimency. Her mind surged with a horde of memories and emotions she thought she locked away. For some reason, she felt dirty, violated and angry at Draco for daring to infringe on her most intimate, secretive thoughts and memories. With hardly a warning, no less. Her stomach churned with the storm of emotions her body was feeling all at once. Then, as if a fire had been held to her skin, she jumped out of bed, picked up the blazing teapot, and threw it at the window. Just as the clay shattered against the glass, so did her resolve. A resentful shriek ripped through her lungs from the pit of her stomach. She drove her fist through a painting hanging by the door before turning to rip the curtains off the windows.
Lavina didn't know how long this went on. Only once, when there was nothing left to break but the bones in her body, did she stop. Her breathing calmed and her heart slowed as she sunk to the floor, feeling like the debris that surrounded her. After the anger faded, tears came. Sobs wracked through her chest as she writhed on the floor, gripping the torn velvet of the curtains. Food appeared every couple of hours. Lavina threw it at the door and out the window, too sick to even think about letting anything pass her lips. She had tired herself out to the point of napping on the floor. When she awoke, the room was spotless, and she was back in bed, an extra blanket folded neatly across the foot of the bed. She ripped a portrait off the wall and kicked the canvas in, splintering the frame. She tossed it on the floor and stormed into the ensuite bathroom, slamming the door shut to let her scream bounce off the tiled walls. When she came back out, the portrait was back on the wall as if she'd never touched it. A house elf did not come to her room that day.
No one came the day after, either. Or the next. Finally, on the third day when she had stopped disposing of the food, Draco appeared. Without knocking he pushed open the doors to her bedroom in the early evening.
"Tired of trashing my house, yet, Rickwood?" his icy glare did not match the casualness of his tone.
"You charmed the entire room." she stated, her voice devoid of energy.
Draco scoffed in response. "Ever the observant one, Lavina." he drawled sarcastically. "Was that your first time experiencing leglimency? No one really takes it well their first time. And it was obvious that you didn't." his brow twitched.
Lavina turned her face away, not wanting to respond.
"Well? have you finally lost your voice after all that screaming?" he chuckled dismissively. He waited a beat for her to react, and when she didn't, he rolled his eyes. "Seriously, I feed you, clothe you, and give you a nice bedroom to rot away in and you go and tear it all up." Draco tutted and shook his head. "I'm going to need you to cheer up a bit, Lavina. You've got to heal your mind so I don't scramble it the next time I go in there." his tone was different but not unfamiliar. He stepped closer to her huddled form, tilting his head slightly as he approached the bed cautiously. "There's got to be something that will bring your spirits up and stop you from breaking things that aren't yours." his lips curved into a patronizing smirk. "Do you still like books? I remembered you used to like books. Shall I bring you a nice big book to read?"
This caught Lavina's attention, causing her to turn her focused gaze back to him. His smirk deepened when their eyes met.
"If you promise not to destroy it, and if you're a good girl, I'll bring you a new book every week. Would you like that Lavina? Any book you want." He was closer now, using his knuckle to tilt her head up to inspect her face.
It took only a second for Lavina to nod in agreement.
"There's a good girl," he tapped her chin with his knuckle before turning towards the door. "No book for you this week since you wrecked my stuff. But next week, if you're good, I'll bring you one of those little romance novels you used to tote around back in school." he didn't wait for a response before shutting the doors behind him.
She scoffed. What did he know about romance novels? And how did he know she enjoyed romance novels during her time at Hogwarts. She didn't recall a specific memory he conjured during their leglimency session. Lavina couldn't quite wrap her mind around how he came to that conclusion, but it made her brain hurt to think. She decided to ignore it for now and instead focus on the fact that she would get a book. She didn't break anything that day.
Left alone in her room, she began to reminisce on the simpler times, when the only thing she had to worry about was impressing her teachers and perform well on school work. For every good mark, her mother would send her the latest muggle novel, against her Death Eater father's strict anti-muggle decree. A small smile pulled on the corner of her lips as she recalled a memory from her time at Hogwarts.
~~~~~
Lavina and Astoria perched on a love-seat in the Slytherin common room, huddled over a copy of Wuthering Heights. They swooned and giggled as they read the pages together similarly to how they'd done many times before.
"What's got you two so worked up?"
The girls lifted their eyes off the pages to find three boys staring down at them, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Astoria pulled away from Lavina, blushing and fiddling with her hair. Lavina instantly felt like they'd just been caught doing something they shouldn't be doing.
"Lavina snuck in a muggle book!" Astoria laughed. "It's a Romance novel," she elbowed her friend with a grin that spread from ear to ear.
"Its classic literature," Lavina attempted to defend her book, eyes flitting back and forth from Astoria and Draco. Draco reached for the book, pulling it from Lavina's grasp and flipping through the pages; a disgusted curl tugged at his lip. Lavina didn't know why she felt shameful, she wasn't doing anything wrong. He inspected the book for a few moments, and an eyebrow raised when he read something mildly interesting.
"Why would anyone willingly read this garbage," he tossed the book in Astoria's lap, who then discarded it quickly in Lavina's lap. His goons scoffed behind him.
"They're Vinny's favorite kind of books. She loves romance novels. Probably because she doesn't get much of it," Astoria teased, trying to impress Draco.
"Tori!" Lavina frowned, obviously a little offended at her comment.
"Oh, don't get upset, Vinny; I was only joking. Besides, there will be boys who like inexperienced girls like you." Astoria pouted at Lavina. "I'm serious; the older we get, you'll become a hot commodity if you keep turning down boys," she added the last part in a sing-songy voice.
Lavina's face reddened, clutching her book to her chest. Draco's head tilted slightly as his eyes roved lazily over Lavina's features.
"I'm not turning anyone down," Lavina muttered.
"Well if you get your head out of those muggle books, you're bound to catch someone's eye." Draco stated, straightening up. Astoria's eyebrow twitched, noticing the look Draco gave to her friend.
"She won't, you know. She'll never give them up. I've asked her to take up other hobbies for fitting for pureblood's like ourselves, but shes simply a lost cause," Astoria informed.
"Would you quit it, Tori? You're beginning to sound like my father," Lavina stood up from the couch. "There's nothing wrong with broadening one's horizons by way of literature." she straightened her sweater and walked off, the fabric of her skirt swishing behind her.
"Vinny! Come back," Astoria called after her, "I'm only joking. I'm only saying it cause I care!"
~~~~~
Oh.
Maybe that's why he knew she liked romance novels. But still, why would he bother to remember this? She scoffed, putting her face in her hands. She was tired. Her body ached from the fit she threw a few days prior; her malnutrition had begun to eat away at her health. Lavina laid back onto the bed, mulling over books she'd read in the past and which one she'd request first. Would he let her request books or would he just bring a random book? Where would he get a muggle book, and did he even remember the books she would read back at Hogwarts were muggle books? Questions swam in her mind and she groaned, rolling over onto her stomach. Thinking hurt. Still, the thought of being able to get lost in a book again provided a small sense of comfort.
Lavina closed her eyes, remembering the smell of a new book, how the uncoated paper felt against her fingertips. That night she drifted off to sleep with a smile on her lips.