Avery

Shafiq suddenly appeared beside Avery.

"Don't you think that we are out of place? I'm a 28th Sacred member of House Gryffindor, and you are a Hufflepuff surrounded by Slytherins, while Ravenclaws are too smart to blend in?" Shafiq pointed his eyes at the brother and sister of the Bulstrodes.

Avery gazed at them and then back at her plate.

They were at Malfoy Manor, sitting at the dining table celebrating Draco's birthday; all Slytherins and Purebloods were invited. As his fiancée, she came to get close to Draco—a chance, maybe, to speak—but the distance seemed to be getting farther.

"How does it taste?" Shafiq asked, looking at her plate.

"Good."

He scoffed. "Like you even tasted it. You're just messing with that poor dessert."

"I'm not really hungry."

"Of course... Seeing your fiancée with another girl openly like that, I wouldn't be too."

"Why are you not angry, though?"

She sighed. "This is his birthday; I don't want to ruin it." She tossed her glass to Shafiq's.

Chuckling, Shafiq narrowed his eyes. "Are you really the Avery that we all know? Because you don't feel like her today in particular."

"Right now, I'm Hermione Avery, Draco's fiancée, not your leader. At the moment, she's sleeping at my home."

"Where is the Leo boy? He seems nice. You guys Hufflepuffs are filled with green-flag people, I heard."

"He is just a friend."

"Maybe you should try to date outside our circle, don't you think?"

"Circle? 28 Sacred, you mean?" Avery asked.

"Yeah, that circle," Shafiq answered.

"Nice try, Shafiq, luring me into marrying a non-Pureblood and destroying thousands of centuries of my family name. Sorry, I'm not you," she chuckled. She continue "You hate being here; I can tell that."

"Hell yeah! Every time I have to come to this circle’s invitation because of the fucking rule: every member must put their representative if there’s an invitation from members of... 28,” Shafiq said annoyingly. Shafiq is the only child of his house, so there’s no one who can come except him.

"Do me a favor, Avery. Now that your brother has given his position to you, please change this suffocating rule."

"Is this why you came to talk to me?"

"One of the reasons," he smirked.

After dessert, where Avery was just staring at it—it's her favorite; she knew Narcissa put it on the menu for her every year.

In front of her sat Pansy Parkinson; she's beautiful with breathtaking eyes, contrasting with her black hair. She was speaking to Astoria beside her, and Draco, behind her, was standing, talking with all his Slytherin friends with glasses of champagne in their hands.

Suddenly, Pansy stood up and walked towards the gifts section that the guests brought for Draco. She ordered the house-elves to move it to the center of the room, and one of the elves moved it after looking at Narcissa for approval. Pansy stood there, looking like a true Malfoy lady, while Avery looked at her in awe; she was so good at arranging things. Then her eyes gazed at one of the presents that fell from the table as the elves moved it—wrapped in golden yellow straps paper, the only yellow gift on the stack of presents. She knew it was hers, her gift for Draco.

It must be the bad mood she was having right now; just the fact that her gift fell made her instantly ashamed of how different her gift from everyone else was. She immediately grabbed her wand from inside her purse and whispered, "Accio!" and the gift flew swiftly into her hand. She grabbed it and put it on the table, covering it with her purse very quickly, acting like nothing happened, and continued playing with the dessert on the table.

Out of the corner of her eye, Narcissa was walking towards her. Avery stood up before she got closer, but Pansy cut her way to Narcissa and started talking to her. Avery's smiling face to Narcissa was now gone; standing, looking at the two women side-by-side, made her think they really looked very good together as a future daughter-in-law helping her mother-in-law at a party.

Pansy knew how to make Narcissa laugh, and smiling like Avery never could. They always spoke formally to one another whenever they had a chance to talk, but Narcissa treated her very lovingly. Avery could feel it, but now Pansy had her attention, and it was making her heart wrench. There was nothing she could do, so she sat down again and drank her champagne, this time until the glass was empty. She then looked straight ahead with a poker face, just like she had been told to since childhood: how to react in certain situations so that you don't make a scene. Whatever you feel at the moment, suppress it. That's the power an aristocratic family should have.

One of the Malfoy's elves, Topsy, suddenly stood beside her, looking like the only one who acknowledged her in this room. "Miss Avery, are you enjoying the dessert? Topsy is very happy that Miss Avery's favorite dessert is on the menu, so Topsy made it extra special for Miss Avery!" He beamed at her.

"It's very delicious, Topsy, as always. Thank you very much for making it extra special for me," Avery smiled at the elf but felt very bad that she didn't even eat it.

"Topsy will always be grateful for Miss Avery, our future Lady Malfoy." Avery didn't like the bitter feeling she got knowing that soon she would be replaced, so she stood abruptly, walking out with her purse and her yellow gift. She walked to the kitchen, knowing very well where she was going; she was looking for a bin and knew it only belonged in the kitchen. The trash bin she was looking for was at the back of the kitchen. She stared at it with the gift in her hand, looking as if she didn't want to throw it away, but she knew she had to. She felt she was not welcome here anymore. She was still staring at the gift in her hand, thinking she knew the Malfoys invited her just because of formality, because the title of Draco's fiancée was still hanging on her shoulders when all Draco's friends knew he had a new girlfriend. This yellow present, out of all the green presents, felt like her presence at this party didn't belong—she felt out of place.

Before she threw it away, she sighed; tears fell at the corners of her eyes and she let go of the gift, and it went into the trash bin. When she turned around, Topsy was standing and staring at her.

"Miss Avery, what are you doing in here?"

"I was just looking around for the last time before going home," and then Avery walked away and decided if this was going to be the last time, she wanted to take a look at every corner of this house one last time because they all reminded her of where she and Draco spent their time together since childhood. They grew up together.