Heron

“What’s everyone so excited about?” Caspian asked, pointing at the forest of heads, pushing one another in front of the notice board. “Did they finally catch who set off that firework in Potions?” 

“Silas, you won’t believe this, mate.” a ginger tree called. “They’re organizing a dueling club.” 

“Really?” Silas said shocked. “When and where?” 

“Tonight’s the first meet at eight.” Ron replied, looking at his two friends who were discussing something a few feet away. “They’re going too.” 

“What do you reckon, Cas? Up for a little mano a mano.” 

“Eight? Isn’t that a bit late?” Caspian looked over at Terry for a second opinion, but he was neutral to the situation. 

“Awww, c’mon, it’s not like we have Astronomy then.” 

“We do, actually.” Terry was quick to correct. 

“What? Don’t we have it tomorr-” Silas said like a puppy, hoping that was the case. 

“No, Madam Sinistra said that she has something important tomorrow, so we’ll be having it tonight.” Terry said like a ruthless owner. 

“No need to worry about that.” Ron encouragingly placed his hand on Silas’s shoulder and directed his attention towards the notice board. “It’s cancelled. For tonight at least. Plus, there’s nothing you can see with those clouds and that snow.” 

Silas only raised an eyebrow instead of asking Caspian. 

“Sure, we can go. Terry?” Caspian sighed. 

“Fine by me.” shrugged the boy. 

“Fantastic. See you guys later then.” Ron waved and rejoined his friends. 

Once it was half seven, Silas and Caspian, who had so far been focused on their assignments, only momentarily raising their heads to check the time, finally got up with a big stretch and packed their bags. Terry, who wasn’t busy with any club activities and for that wasn’t as concentrated, hesitated and didn’t stand up immediately. 

“Something wrong?”  

“No, it’s...” Terry avoided looking at the two. 

“You worried, Terry?” Caspian smiled warmly. 

“Yeah.” Terry said with clear disappointment in his voice. “I don’t want to, erm...” 

“Don’t worry,” Silas also joined Caspian in reassuring his friend, “it’s not like we’re professionals. It’s not like anyone will be. Plus, I’m sure you can always just tell them you are there just to check what the club is about. No need to participate.” 

Terry finally lifted his eyes off his feet, glad he had people to tell him the things they just had. On their way to the Grand Hall where the event was set for, the three bumped into Orion who seemed to be coming from the library and towards the common room. 

“Hey, Ori, not coming to the dueling club?” Caspian was in a good mood and said with a smile, completely forgetting Orion’s situation. 

Surprisingly, even though he didn’t say anything, Orion joined the three. They walked in silence until reaching the spot where almost every second-year had already gathered. 

“I wonder who’ll be teaching us?” Hermione said to her friends, her eyes betraying her as she looked towards Orion in surprise. Reminded of the Ravenclaw house she continued, “Someone told me Flitwick was a dueling champion when he was young, maybe it’ll be him.” 

“As long as it’s not-” Harry began, but before he could even say who he didn’t want to see, the person appeared onto the stage. 

Dressed in his repulsively loud clothes, with an unnecessary hat and a mantle that dragged on the floor, Lockhart could not have stuck out more, unless he was set on fire, which a fair amount of the students dreamed of. In contrast, Snape who was walking behind him almost looked like his shadow with his usual all black attire. At the sight of the pair of the most dreaded teachers the Ravenclaw trio immediately turned towards the door, but Silas’s collar was grabbed by Ron, Caspian’s by Silas and Terry’s by Caspian. 

“Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me?” Lockhart revealed his pearly white teeth. 

“ Unfortunately, we can .” Caspian whispered. 

“Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Dueling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works.” he winked at a few of the female students, Hermione included. “Let me introduce my assistant Professor Snape. He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don’t want any of you youngsters to worry – you’ll still have your Potions master when I’m through with him, never fear!” 

Caspian looked over at Orion who still didn’t look interested in anything that was going on. On the stage, Lockhart and Snape both bowed, one very demonstratively, both put their wands in front of their face and after a count to three a bright red blast came out of Snape’s wand, knocking Lockhart off the stage. There were mixed feelings about his survival, however he managed to get back on the stage and after being given his wand that he’d dropped, he cast a spell to comb his ruffled hair. Caspian tried to hold his laughter and turned so that the teachers couldn’t see him. He could swear he saw Orion’s face slightly change in satisfaction. He turned to see what was happening on the stage. Snape was glaring at Lockhart with a look that could kill. 

“....but enough demonstrating. I’m going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you’d like to help me...” 

A sly grin appeared on Snape’s face as he immediately looked at Draco, then Harry. On his way to the latter, he passed in front of Orion and stopped for a minute. He looked around the sea of students that had gathered and quickly counted them up. 

“It seems,” he began in his usual dead and slow voice, “that we have an uneven number of students.” 

Lockhart who was busy signing something for Lavender Brown, raised his head as well, “Well, in that case, we-” 

“I see no problem with Mr. Malfoy here, dueling against two opponents.” Snape interrupted. 

“Yes, of course.” Lockhart couldn’t care less. 

Snape then looked at Orion and signaled him to go over to where Malfoy was. “Time to split up the dream team, I think,” he approached Harry and Ron, “Weasley, you can partner Finnigan. Potter–” Harry turned to Hermione, but Snape was quick to disappoint “I don’t think so. Mr. Malfoy, come over here. Let’s see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger – you can partner Miss Bulstrode.” 

Malfoy looked at Orion with a wrinkled nose, then sped up towards his supposed partner. “You can wait.” he said in the rudest voice he could.  

In a few minutes, the room became like a scene from a historic medieval movie. Spells were cast at random, with barely any supervision, bodies were flying up and down, Hermione was in a headlock by her partner who had totally forgone her wand. Draco and Harry were having the time of their lives, hitting one another with spells they’d learned just for such an occasion. Orion was the only one not involved in a duel, so he was looking carefully at every other pair. Silas and Caspian were probably the only ones who were having a proper duel, both making sure to defend against the other’s spell and only use a weak basic charm for attacks. Terry was dueling with Goyle who, after a few unsuccessful attempts at hitting Terry, cast ‘ Diffindo’. Fortunately for Terry, the Slytherin student was too inexperienced and the spell that would otherwise have cut quite deep, left only a small wound on Terry’s arm which began to bleed slowly. 

“I SAID DISARM ONLY!” Lockhart was trying to restore peace, but no one was listening to him. 

Orion looked at Goyle who looked ready to try one more time with his spell. Goyle bared his teeth, but Orion’s stare was too much for him to handle, so he quickly retreated. For a reason Orion couldn’t explain himself, he glared at Bulstrode who was on the verge of suffocating Hermione. He didn’t understand why the large girl suddenly looked as though she had seen her worst nightmare, but she instantly let go of Hermione and ran towards her friends, hiding behind them for cover. 

“ Finite Incantatem! ” Snape’s voice did was Lockhart’s couldn’t and in that instant everybody stopped casting. 

“My, my.” Lockhart said after telling some of the students who had gotten hit hard what to do. “I think I’d better teach you how to block unfriendly spells first.” he looked over at Neville and Justin Finch-Fletchley and was about to invite them onto the stage. 

Snape once again interrupted Lockhart, saying they should have Harry and Draco demonstrate. At the mention of Harry’s name, Lockhart smiled. “Of course. A most excellent idea!” 

While Lockhart was busy making a fool of himself, trying to “show” what the Shield Charm was supposed to look like, Snape said something in Draco’s ear which made the blond boy smile. 

“Now! Wands at the ready, on the count of three. One-two-,” Draco began casting, “three!” a fat black snake with poison-green eyes emerged from Draco’s wand before Harry could say anything. 

“Don’t move, Potter,” Snape said with a smile filled with evil joy; he was visibly happy to see Harry in this situation, “‘I’ll get rid of it.” 

“Allow me!” Lockhart jumped at the opportunity to display his nonexistent skills. “ Alarte Ascendare!” he pointed at the snake which then flew a few feet into the air before landing right in front of Justin Finch-Fletchley. The snake wasn’t happy with this and started moving towards the boy, it’s tongue coming in and out with a large hiss. Up from the stage Harry saw all this and tried to say something which made Orion shiver. It was the same hissing sound he’d heard in the castle and in the forest the year before, the same sounds that accompanied Quirrell. Everyone else was also as shocked at the fact; even Snape who had to take a moment to recollect himself before making the serpent vanish. Harry smiled at the whole thing, and looked towards Justin who did not share the same feeling. 

“What do you think you’re playing at?” he shouted and hurried out of the Hall. 

Harry was stumped, and had it not been for Ron and Hermione who grabbed him and lead him out of the room, he probably would have stood there for a lot longer than he did. 

“He’s a Parsletongue.” Caspian said to Silas in disbelief. 

“Ahem, I still haven’t dueled against you.” Draco tried to hide his surprise by taunting Orion. 

Orion got up onto the stage, his wand in his left hand. Neither of the teachers said anything, they were both already thinking about the fact that this was probably the last duel that would happen in this “club”. Seeing as how neither of them counted down Draco Malfoy immediately began after the bow. 

“ Expelliarmus.”  

Orion’s wand flew out of his hand and landed in front of the Slytherin student who picked it up and started inspecting it. It was made from pitch-black wood and had a gold handle. It was a wand befitting a wealthy individual. While his own wand was also elegant, Draco was furious. Ollivander’s words from the day he received his wand kept ringing in his ears. ‘ Ten inches’, ‘Unicorn hair’ every word made him angrier ‘Reasonably springy’ the last detail was the one to push him over the edge ‘ Hawthron wood’.   

“Accio.” Orion’s voice surprised most students as they hadn’t heard it in a while. He had cast the spell just in time, since as soon as the wand came back into hand, Draco had finished his next spell. “ Protego.” finally a proper defending spell was displayed. 

Snape’s eyes were unusually wide. Not only had he just seen Harry speak to the snake, now a second-year had performed a spell without a wand, which was rare even among experienced wizards and witches.  

Orion felt an urge begin to rise inside him. All these months he had frustration building up, and now that Draco, who reminded him of all the times he’d come to his house and of their parents’ meetings, he could finally release it all in one simple spell. Even if he killed him there wouldn’t be an issue, right? It would be an unfortunate accident. “ Pourrit-” he began, “ Protego.” he instinctively changed halfway through as a spell sent by Snape was just about to hit him.  

The Potions master then walked in front of Draco to shield him. Interestingly, Lockhart also grabbed Orion, having realized this would probably escalate just like the duel prior. “I think that’s enough dueling for today.” he smiled at everyone, trying to motion to them that this was the end of this meeting. 

Snape seemed to think this was enough dueling, period. Draco who hadn't quite realized what had just occurred and was thinking he had won this particular duel, looked up in satisfaction towards his house’s teacher, expecting to be praised, but instead Snape was still cautiously observing Orion, not daring to move his eyes off him. Unsatisfied, Draco also glanced over at his partner, only now noticing the killing intent in his eyes. Yet another memory came to him, a more recent one of the day Orion had supposedly received a letter from his parents and had boldly warned Draco not to mess with him. 

“I was wrong.” Silas said. 

Caspian was perplexed by everything that had happened so far, and so didn’t answer but was definitely listening closely. 

“If Orion decided to hit Malfoy with a spell, he would be dead.” 

---  

“Dumbledore.” Snape said as he entered through the ornate door. 

“Severus.” Dumbledore showed himself from the second-floor balcony, his face telegraphing he was expecting visitors. “I assume this is about the Dueling Club?” he slowly walked down the steps on the left side. 

“I am surprised you allowed such a thing, headmaster. Back in my day such things were not allowed!” Phineas Black’s portrait was unable to hold back his opinion, but remembered Dumbledore had studied under him so did not continue. 

“There were some... unexpected events.” Snape stood still, hands behind his back. 

“I can’t imagine someone got hurt.” Dumbledore said playfully, but they both knew that Lockhart’s incompetence was not to be underestimated. 

“There were several... accidents. None serious enough to worry you, however...” Snape paused to take a look around, a lot of the drawings were listening keenly, “The boy spoke Parseltongue.” 

There were loud gasps from all over the room, but Dumbledore’s silence worried Snape much more. The headmaster stood up from his chair which he had just sat on and began slowly walking up and down the room. He was stroking his beard deep in thought; Snape didn’t dare interrupt. Only once Dumbledore gave him a look, did he speak. 

“And a student performed magic without their wand.” Snape was suspicious and decided to test Dumbledore by giving as little information as possible. 

“Mr. Hawthorne?” Dumbledore didn’t bother pretending to be unaware. “Yes, he is quite the gifted child, but...” his mind was solely focused on the fact Harry could speak to snakes. “What do you think of this, Severus?” Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. Snape remained silent. “The attacks...” Dumbledore mumbled something only he could hear. “Pay close attention to him, Severus.” 

“And what about Mr. Hawthorne?” 

The older wizard glanced towards the portrait which would talk for hours about Orion, but he was quiet, looking at Dumbledore with caution. 

“What about Mr. Hawthorne?” the headmaster finally smiled again. 

“Nothing.” Snape was displeased that he didn’t receive any details. “Good night.” he said before turning with his usual room-entering-and-exiting speed. 

“I am surprised you remained quiet, Phineas.” Dumbledore said once he was sure he was alone. 

“Hmph.” the portrait let out proudly. 

---  

As was customary, by breakfast everyone was already informed of the things that had happened the day before. Everyone was shushing, giving Harry glances. The drastic change in weather did not make the situation any more bearable for the boy, the tall ceiling was dark and cold and no light came in through the windows, as the blizzard outside prevented it. Even Lockhart was cautious of Harry, though the only sign of that was the fact he had a different student “volunteer” for his reenactments. Because of the cold weather, Madam Pomfrey canceled her last class for the term, stating it was crucial she kept the Mandrakes warm and would not allow even Merlin himself to help her in doing so. 

“ And even though I told him that, I’m here looking for him.” thought Hermione as she was pacing the corridors, trying to find Harry who she had advised fifteen minutes earlier to go and look for Justin so he could explain what had happened. 

“Granger.” a voice stopped her.  

She turned slowly, stumped at who had just called her name. 

“It’s about Potter.” Orion looked and talked just like he did before the summer break. “I want to-” 

“ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAACK!” Peeve’s voice rang from a floor above. 

Hermione instantly ran up the nearest staircase, Orion following at a walking pace. Unsurprisingly, there were already at least a hundred students who had gotten out of their classrooms to check on the alert. Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley were both in a terrible condition. The ghost was hovering still, just above the body of the Hufflepuff student, his head halfway off. Justin was in the same condition as Colin, petrified with a look of pure horror on his face. 

“Back into your rooms!” Professor McGonagall was trying to restore order and after being unsuccessful with her voice alone, she shot a loud spell into the air “NOW!” She signaled to Hermione and Orion to get away as well and Hermione being the rule follower that she was turned back from where she came. 

Orion, however, found himself much too curious to leave, so at the same corner he hid himself with a spell. He was holding dearly onto that curiosity as it distracted him from everything else. 

“ What are you doing?” Hermione whispered, seemingly talking to a wall, but felt a light tap on her head and at once she also became invisible. “ I don’t-” another tap and she turned back to normal, “ ...I do.” she said embarrassed in defeat. 

“Professor, I swear I didn’t-” Harry begged. 

“This is out of my hands, Potter. This way.” she ordered and lead the boy towards what Orion knew was Dumbledore’s office. 

Hermione’s whole body was struggling to accept the fact she was doing something highly inappropriate. She was trying to convince herself this was all Orion’s fault, but she knew she was doing this of her own accord. 

“Sherbet lemon.” McGonagall said in front of a gargoyle statue and the wall split, revealing the moving stairs that Orion had used to get to the office. 

Hermione rushed to get to the entrance before it closed, but Orion grabbed her and just in time, as the Transfiguration teacher hurried back down the stairs, her face now completely different than when she was ordering everyone to get back into class; she was worried and was deeply concentrated on something. “Oh dear, oh dear...” she kept repeating as she walked by the two transparent students. 

“Sherbet lemon.” Orion spoke the password and the stairs appeared again. The two walked along the corridor which the steps had led to and stopped in front of the oak wood door. They could hear Harry shout “You’re wrong”. Orion assumed he had talked to the hat, which he remembered sat on one of the shelves, just next to Armando Dippet’s portrait. Two minutes later, Dumbledore, whose face was dark in distress, approached slowly. He stood in front of the door for a second, adjusted his glasses and entered. Once he opened the door, Harry’s voice could be heard a lot more clearly. 

“Professor, your bird – I couldn’t do anything – it just caught fire.” the boy panicked. 

“About time, too.” Dumbledore closed the door, the dialogue now becoming hard to listen in on once again. 

To Orion and Hermione’s surprise, thirty seconds later yet another person was walking towards the door, this time a much greater one in size. Hagrid’s coat was wet, a few specks of snow lingering on his balaclava, a large rooster swinging in his right hand. He was panting heavily and was in a such a rush, he didn’t even knock on the door. 

“It wasn’ Harry, Professor Dumbledore!” he slammed it open. “‘I was talkin’ ter ‘im seconds before that kid was found, he never had time, sir...” 

“Hag-” Dumbledore’s quiet voice attempted to say something. 

“... It can’t’ve bin him, I’ll swear it in front o’ the Ministry o’ Magic if I have to ...” Hagrid was throwing the bird around, causing chaos with its feathers flying everywhere.  

“Hagrid, I –” 

“...Yeh’ve got the wrong boy, sir, I know Harry never –” 

“ Hagrid !” though almost always quiet and calm, Dumbledore was also always able to silence the whole castle, if he needed to.  

Orion felt his hand clutched tight.  

“I do not think that Harry attacked those people.” Hermione released Orion’s hand. 

“Oh.” Hagrid said, the poultry falling to his side, a few more feathers dropping. 

“Right. Er, I’ll wait outside then, Headmaster.” Hagrid closed the door rather quickly, nearly hitting himself. “Shouldn’t’ve said that.” he mumbled to himself in embarrassment. 

From what could be heard from the office, Dumbledore simply calmed Harry down, telling him he fully believed him. Hagrid also had his ear up against the wood, which made it difficult for the two second-years to listen in, but there wasn’t much to listen to anyways, as after asking Harry whether he had something to say and receiving an unconvincing “No.”, Dumbledore let the boy go. 

“Good, good, Harry. Dumbledore's got faith in yeh, he does. There ain't a wizard wiser than him, tell yeh that much.” Hagrid patted the boy on the shoulder, but Orion could see that Harry had something on his mind and didn’t fully appreciate the giant’s kind words. “Ah, Professor -” Hagrid now in a much better mood entered and discussed in great detail just how neccessary a simple enchantment on the coop was. 

“Thanks.” Hermione said simply after they both made their way down and out through the Gargoyle statue. “You - you said you wanted to discuss something about Harry?” she referred to their talk just before Peeves had set off his own alarm. 

“It’s nothing.” Orion said. Seeing as Harry had concealed something from Dumbledore just minutes ago, and knowing Hermione wouldn’t betray her friend, he knew it was meaningless to ask whether Harry had experienced anything strange or out of the ordinary. 

---  

“Once is an incident, twice is a coincidence, three times it’s a pattern.” Terry was not in a good mood. 

“An extremely unlucky pattern. There’s no way he is even remotely behind this.” Silas argued. 

“Even though you’ve heard all the stories about the people he lives with and how much he despises them? Apparently, he even went off yesterday in the library about how anyone living with them would do the same. And wouldn’t you know it, five minutes later Justin’s a statue.” 

“I’m surprised you feel this way, to be honest.” said Caspian. 

“Well, unlike you two, I’m not a pureblood, so I actually feel like I’m in danger. I'm keeping my distance from him, end of story.” 

“Oh, don’t be silly.” said Padma, “Harry’s best friend is a muggleborn and she’s perfectly fine.” 

“He needs some defense. “ My best friend isn’t a pure witch, how could I be the one responsible for all of this?” I – don't – trust him.” Terry stood up and went for the exit, but unfortunately for him, the one he was just discussing was entering it, so he sat back down. 

“I assume you’re going back for the holidays?” Silas asked the table. 

“OF COURSE.” everyone said together. 

“Same.” though Silas was trying to argue on Harry’s side, he was just as paranoid. Being petrified was not on his to-do list for the year. 

Amongst the whole student body, only a dozen students stayed for the holidays: Malfoy and his loyal servants, the Weasleys, Hermione, Harry, Orion and most prefects. Every now and then two of these people would meet either in the now barren and eerily empty long corridors or in the library where Mrs. Pince was finally able to experience true calmness.  

In comparison to last year’s decoration, the Ravenclaw common room looked barely any different than how it usually did. For the exception of a small Christmas tree and a few other sparsely placed snow globes and socks, everything was completely ordinary. On the morning of Christmas, there were surprisingly only seven presents under the tree – three were labeled for Dorian, two for Penelope and two for Orion. Orion felt indifferent to receiving an extra present since last year. However, the sender of the second one made him freeze. “ Nefarias”.  

Merry Christmas, Orion,  

I’m so sorry for everything.  

Kassandra.  

The package was small and inside it there was a silver ring with a blue stone. Orion tried to see whether any curse or enchantment had been placed on it, but a few loud creeks coming from the stairs forced him to pocket the entire gift. 

“Good morning, Orion. Bit quiet, isn’t it?” Dorian smiled. “Didn’t expect you to be the type to check on presents first thing in the morning.” he crouched near the tree as well and picked up the smallest package labeled for him. “Mom and dad.” he explained reminiscently. “This will be the last present I receive from them while at Hogwarts.” he carefully unwrapped the beautiful wrapping, revealing an envelope that had a bulge in the middle in the form of a pendant. “Goblin silver.” he pulled the necklace out and began reading the letter that was also inside. 

Orion took this opportunity to get up and leave, his hand unconsciously grabbing the gift that had a label “ From C, S, T” , it was soft, and the shape indicated it was a piece of clothing. 

Dorian looked at Orion, disappointed at the fact he was still practically unapproachable. 

---  

“I don’t understand what’s with you three and this book. I certainly hope you don’t think that the Chamber of Secrets is real, let alone that one of these beasts resides in it.” said Mrs. Pince. 

“Who else requested the book?” to the librarian’s surprise the boy asked. 

“Oh! I thought you had talked with Miss Clearwater and Miss Granger about the matter?” the librarian raised an eyebrow. “Speak of the devil, good morning, Miss Clearwater.” 

“Good morning, Mrs. Pince... Orion.” Penelope added delicately. “You were talking about me?” 

“Why, yes. Mr. Hawthorne has already gotten the book you so like reading, I’m sure you’ll sort it out between yourselves Ravenclaws.” Mrs. Pince said and climbed onto the second floor, an enchanted book cart bobbing up and down in the air behind her. 

Penelope found herself in an uncomfortable hush with Orion. The boy was the first to break the stillness and sat on the nearest chair, still eyeing Penelope. Once again, he found himself feeling an urge of curiosity. Why were the two girls working together?  

“Listen.” Penelope began in the quietest voice she could produce, “Granger and I have gone through every bestiary not in the forbidden section, there is no monster in them that could have done this.” 

Orion kept the book closed; his eyes fixated on the prefect. WHY was she working with Hermione on this? 

It seems his eyes had clearly conveyed his message as Penelope started nervously looking around the room. After unsuccessfully trying to find a distraction, she finally caved “I’m - I –,” she sighed deeply “Percy Weasley and I are trying to find out who’s behind... all this. We have patrolled every corridor but haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary so far. I may or may not have seen Granger try to research this herself, so I asked her for information, if she ever stumbled onto anything.” 

Orion was satisfied with the answer, so he stood up, leaving the book behind. From what Penelope told him, the answer seemed quite simple – another Christmas, Restricted Section heist. 

---  

“Lazarus, please be reasonable, I’m not asking you to marry me. Kass has been banging her head, trying to figure out what to do with the child.” Balthazar was swinging his goblet, which had already been swung plenty this dinner. “She can’t raise it alone. I don’t see why we can’t arrange a wedding, a proper Nefarias-style wedding.” 

Orion’s father was sitting upright, his expression akin to a statue’s. “ Balthazar, you cannot expect me to pull the boy out of Hogwarts to raise a child.” 

“No, no, of course not. Kassandra can take care of that for a few years, but I can only get her five to six years of work from home, afterwards she will have to... attend.” though completely drunk Balthazar’s eyes were sharp at the end of the sentence. 

“This is not my decision to make.” 

“IT WAS YOURS TO GET THE TWO INTO THE SAME BE-” Balthazar slammed enraged, but Lazarus’s cold stare quickly got him back into his chair. “Ahem, I apologize.” 

“Lulu!” Lazarus didn’t take his eyes off the man. 

“Yes, master?”  the house elf appeared and asked sheepishly.

“Clean.” he ordered coldly. 

“’ It is not my decision to make.’ what was that all about?” Orion’s mother asked once the guests had left. 

“Eris, I don’t blame you for not knowing, but a Nefarias wedding is not your common one.” 

“Really, how so?” she sat on his right leg. 

“You do remember how on our wedding we formed an unbreakable vow?” 

“Of course. Like any pureblood should.” 

“The Nefarias family don’t just do one for the bride and groom, they do one for every member of the family.” 

“I see.” 

“If that were all, there wouldn’t be any issues. However, every member gets marked with a curse.” 

“Scared of a little curse?” 

“Unfortunately, no one knows what exactly the spell is, so it could be something out of our abilities.” 

“I didn’t think I married a scaredy cat.” 

“No, you married a man who doesn’t take any unnecessary risks, especially not ones that will interfere with an ongoing plan.” 

“Oh, thought I’d mention. Lucius sent you this.” Eris conjured a pitch-black envelope with a green crest that had the Malfoy motto ‘ Sanctimonia Vincet Semper’ written on it. 

After Lazarus read the contents of the letter, he smiled. “Good. Very good.”