Chapter 6
I stared at the ceiling in my room, bored. No one came to kill or punish me for my outburst. Only a cranky Dexter came into my room to heal my fractured bones once and for all, and reprimanded me for my disrespectful behavior towards lady and lord Malfoy. I closed my ears to the best of my ability and concentrated on calming my anger and despair. There was no point in even trying to talk to these ignorant, narrow-minded people, as it seemed to be a waste of time on both sides. I missed my old life so badly that it almost physically hurt to think about Ron, Harry, Ginny and my parents. I missed my own little office at ministry and the familiar job, which never included being called a ‘mudblood’.
I had already decided to sulk in my room and concentrate on planning my escape, when the door to my small room the day after my outburst slammed open so violently that my heart leapt into my throat and I suddenly bolted out of bed. Standing at the door was a widely smiling Raina and behind her a nervous-looking Sabia.
"Here you are. Dexter and I made a bet that you'd try to escape during the night. It makes sense that you didn't." Raina said and sailed in. She didn't seem to dwell on my outburst yesterday, or at least wasn't the least bit annoyed by it. Again, I was no longer interested in playing the nice muggleborn pet, so I glared at her acidly, but Raina didn't seem to notice.
"I'm bored, so I decided that we shall have a picnic outside."
"I don't want— what do you mean, it didn't make sense to run away?" I asked, frowning.
"Armand said that Matilda was not happy with yesterday's outcome and despite Armand's threats, has put her minions to work outside of the house lands. I suppose she wants to catch as many mud— ehrm, people like you as possible in case they try to come after you again."
I grimaced at Raina's choice of words.
"Are you all right, ma'am? We were so worried about you," Sabia said sincerely and her eyes filled with tears of concern.
I blinked in surprise for a moment and then gave Sabia a small smile. "I'm fine."
"Certainly not everyone was too worried." I couldn't help but add and glanced bitterly in the direction of Raina, who had lifted my clothes from yesterday from the chair and was examining them with a disgusted expression on her face.
"Oh yes they were! Everyone really likes you," Sabia said, horrified that I could even suggest otherwise. I snorted bitterly and Raina dropped the dress from her hands to the floor and looked at me in irritation.
"Look, Renea, I do like you. Why else would I have gone to so much trouble to keep you alive?" she said tensely.
I looked at her in disbelief, because she sounded sincere.
"A big trouble? You abandoned me to them to be tortured!"
Raina's expression became very annoyed and I had to wonder if it made sense to anger her any further.
"I left there, for I could do nothing else for you," Raina spoke dangerously quietly, closing her eyes as if hoping the whole conversation would disappear. "In case you haven't figured it out by now, I don't have much magic, even though I'm a pureblood."
I opened my mouth and then I closed it. So she was a squib.
"Matilda has long been looking for a reason to get rid of me, and if I had resisted your imprisonment any more than I did— which would have been useless, by the way, — she would finally have had a reason. She hates me as much as she hates you and your kind." Raina spoke calmly and opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "So I went home and called the only person who could help you. Let me add to that it wasn't easy either, because Armand was not at all willing to leave in the middle of some important torture or negotiation or plot or whatever he was in the middle of, and go rescue you, which he had hoped to get rid of anyway."
I didn't know what to say. All I could do was stare surprised at Raina, who looked like she wished the whole conversation had never happened and stared sourly at the corner of my room. Sabia eyed between us nervously and looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment.
"I—I'm sorry. I didn't realize–."
"No you didn’t," Raina interrupted, fixing a sly smile on her face. "You're alive, all body parts still attached, so let's focus together on blaming the whole thing on Armand and Matilda and us being friends again!"
I stared at her, stunned by her sudden change of mind, and couldn't keep up at all.
"Okay," I muttered, not knowing what to think about the whole thing.
"I have to say that I had the time of my life last night. I wish I had a pensieve so I could listen every day, again and again you yelling at Armand that he is an inbred asshole," Raina said dreamily. “His expression was priceless.”
I blushed and grimaced. Raina looked at me with a smile, but a thoughtful expression on her face. "I knew even before you got here that you were worth keeping alive and last night exceeded all my expectations. Armand will be happy he saved your life."
"So you had a vision of me before you met me?"
"A vision and a vision," Raina said dismissively, seeming to lose interest in the whole subject. "Sabia, why don't you go pack some lunch and Renea and I will go out ahead and pick a suitable spot."
Sabia happily agreed and left for the kitchen. Raina and I went out while she talked about how disgusted she was with Malfoy and for the first time I felt good to be with her.
****
The sun was shining through the branches of a large oak tree, at the foot of which we were lying. The wind gently tossed my loose curls on my face and I closed my eyes, enjoying the feeling. Deep inside, a voice reminded me not to enjoy myself, but to focus on escape, on finding the Veil and getting back to my own time and place. I wasn't used to enjoying myself without always doing something. I was always spending my time on something; reading a book, studying, working, and so on. I had never just laid around with so much with nothing to do as I had done in the last week after getting into Renea's body.
I missed being busy almost as much as I missed my family and friends. Listening to Raina's endless stream of talk became frustrating, especially when she was unwilling to discuss anything that interested me, but instead wanted to talk endlessly about clothes, gossip and men. I felt a compelling urge to roll my eyes at her and command her to be less superficial and focus on something sensible like self-improvement. She reminded me of my Hogwarts days, when I only spent time with boys and Ginny, who had no interest in gossip or other superficial things like that. Other girls were often so shallow and couldn't focus on anything other than good-looking boys and themselves and it was disappointing to find that had been the case for a thousand years with women.
Sabia didn't seem frustrated at all, but listened raptly as Raina told the story of the silk dress she was wearing and how Lady Jenkala had tried to buy it and how it would have been a worldwide disaster if that dress had not ended up in her hands instead of that vulture.
I was almost dozing when I heard the familiar popping sound of the apparition and I sat up abruptly to find the source of the sound. Malfoy appeared from the woods walking in our direction with an expression on his face that would suggest he was approaching a pile of flobberworms, not his wives.
"Wives," Malfoy greeted mockingly.
"Armand, darling," Raina smiled back just as mockingly. I said nothing, but concentrated on glaring at him, still angry from yesterday.
"I'm glad you two get along. I'm sure your lovely personalities will complement each other. Of course I'd be careful Raina, your company is sure to turn even this tame mudblood into a homicidal maniac," Malfoy grinned mischievously.
Raina and I both gave him a sour look and Sabia didn't seem to know how to react to the whole passive-aggressive conversation.
"What do you want?" Raina snapped.
Malfoy raised an eyebrow in amusement. "We're going tomorrow to celebrate our victory in London, and as our new mudblood member doesn't seem to want to go her own way, even if there are opportunities, she's expected to come too. Of course, to the muggles she will have to introduce herself as your servant."
I froze in fear and spoke without thinking. "I'm not coming."
"As if anyone asked your opinion. If you don't leave before tomorrow and be executed by the Duchess Matilda, you will come with us," Malfoy said cruelly with a wicked smile creeping across his face. "I'm off to interrogate the recently captured mudbloods, so hopefully one of them will tell me something that will be useful now that you've proved to be a big disappointment." He searched my face, waiting for some reaction, but I didn't know if he found what he was looking for, for he just grinned mockingly and turned on his heels and disapparated with a light pop. Raina scowled at the spot where Malfoy had disappeared as if it had committed some personal crime against her.
"Lady and ma’am must not speak to lord Malfoy in that tone, it is very disrespectful," Sabia said, horrified.
Raina ignored her and talked to me excitedly. "We need to find suitable clothes for the celebration!"
I felt the urge to scream in frustration and roll my eyes at the same time.
****
Dressing for the London victory celebration was a long project, if you asked Raina. Sabia cleaned us from head to toe carefully and did our hair while Raina thought hard about our outfits. I, on the other hand, was lost in thought. I felt a deep frustration that I hadn't made any progress on anything, not on the escape, not on finding the Veil, or even on finding the reason why my and Malfoy's doppelgangers lived in the Middle Ages. I missed the books and the answers they gave me so much. But I feared that the medieval wizard literature would not provide the answers to my problems, even if I had access to those.
When I dared to ask Raina about the Veil, she just stared at me blankly for a moment and then her expression brightened. She said she liked my idea of putting a veil on me for London. So after that Sabia put a white silk veil on my head with pins. Not what I had meant, when I asked about it, not even close.
Raina chose a modest light blue dress for me and I felt like I was dressed like the Virgin Mary of the muggle church paintings. For herself, Raina not so surprisingly chose a deep green dress with gorgeous gold embroidery. The dress was considerably bolder than mine, but I was relieved if most of the attention went to Raina. The last time we had been ‘out’ hadn’t gone so well for me, so it's not like I wanted more attention on me.
****
"May I ask why you always wear green?" I asked Raina as we stood side by side in front of the king’s castle in London to greet William's new subjects. We were pretty much in the back row with the other wives and female attendants, while Malfoy and William were right at the front of the pack with the other important nobles. The whole thing was obvious propaganda, as most of the audience seemed to be soldiers, with a few scared citizens among them.
Malfoy was looking clean from war for the first time since I had come to Renea's body. His face and clothes were clean of blood and dirt and although he was wearing clothes befitting a soldier, they were very luxurious looking. His hair was half up and I could not deny that he was handsome. Medieval Malfoy was different from the Malfoy I was used to in my own time. He was older and stronger, hardened by wars.
Raina stared bored into nothingness, occasionally creating disgusted looks in the direction of Malfoy and King William. I had quickly concluded that she seemed to dislike the king even more than her husband.
"Oh, because when we got married I vowed to Armand that I would make sure his legacy would forever be a reminder of his crimes."
"His crimes?"
Raina looked at me with her mouth tight. "Hmm, I thought you might not know. I'd thought you'd at least heard the rumors, but maybe not."
I frowned in confusion and glanced at Malfoy. I remembered all the things I had read about Armand Malfoy. History books, like everything else, seemed to be vague and dismissive of anything that might paint the Malfoy family in a bad light, so if Armand Malfoy had committed any famous crimes, knowledge of them had been lost over the centuries.
"What has he done?"
"Armand, is a purebred descendant of a rather ambitious family. Malfoy’s had a lot of power and a fine lineage once, but Armand's brothers and mother had been pretty extravagant with their wealth before Armand was even born and losing their wealth meant losing their power and the Malfoy family started to do pretty dreadful stuff to maintain their power in wizarding community and in muggle community. Their family is famous for dishonest ways such as cheating muggles, so King Uthred banished the entire Malfoy family from wizarding court as punishment and outlawed cheating muggles. Armand thus grew up in somewhat shameful circumstances, and most of the wizarding court assumed that the whole family would never be heard of again. But then, when Armand turned fifteen, he became famous as an efficient mercenary," Raina grimaced as she said the word "efficient", "and among other things, at the age of twenty, he destroyed Giuseppe Gevere's famous dark wizard—with rather dubious ways, of course. Armand is skilled in the dark arts and invented a way to kill a man with a single curse from which no one can wake," the color drained from my face, "and he is more efficient at killing people than anyone else, which is why he is an important ally to William, even though he is loathed by almost everyone."
"Armand only married me to get back into court. Now his mission is to gain more power and wealth to restore his family name to its former glory and that is why we are in this horrible country instead of Normandy. It offers more opportunities to gain power, land and wealth," Raina continued bitterly and didn’t notice my horror.
"What is the curse? How does he kill people?"
"It's a killing curse. Really dark one, might I add. Nobody really knows the details, because Armand wants his opponents not to be able to use it. The green light just flashes and the person he wants to die is dead in a second. Armand killed my cousin with that curse and I have been dressed in green ever since to remind him of his crime." Raina's expression turned murderous and she stared at Malfoy's back as if hoping to kill him with that curse.
So Malfoy had invented Avada Kedavra. Cold terror had frozen me in place. All the people who had perished to the killing curse. The hundreds if not thousands of people who had died over a thousand years to that curse. Harry’s parents. Fred. Lupin. Tonks. Dumbledore. And many more. I clenched my hand into a fist and swallowed back the tears. If I didn't hate Malfoy with all my heart yet, I did now. Only a horrible person would invent a curse so soul-destroying.
Raina grinned wickedly at me. "His real name is Draco Malfoy, but I started calling him Armand Malfoy when we were at court and the name stuck. Draco was just too good a name for him. If he's a cold-blooded murderer, then let his name reflect that entirely."
Armand Malfoy. A man of bad faith.