More drama...
Daeron had been telling her all about Aegon’s ‘weird’ girlfriend as he put it. Aegon had apparently brought her over and introduced her for dinner during the summer.
“I’m not lying, I’m pretty sure she was doing unforgivable curses while I was saying a prayer.” Daeron took a deep breath before turning his eyes back to the field.
They had been sitting on a bench watching Quidditch practice for at least an hour. Jace and Cregan arrived early, Cregan getting animated at Baela’s arrival. Jace always rolled his eyes, gave Cregan a passive aggressive arm punch and kissed Baela before continuing their practice. It was a weekly ritual of theirs at this point.
“Maybe she wanted to add in on the prayer cousin.” As much as Rhaena wanted to talk to Daeron, she couldn’t focus on him or her siblings.
She changed her entire look that morning. Her long hair wasn’t in its usual ponytail, and she put a shorter skirt on for the day. This different look would help her in her plans, and she had no intentions on telling Baela.
She wouldn’t approve.
Rhaena put her grades and improving at High Valyrian on the top of her want list. She wanted to bring home reports that would impress her father. She checked the time and excused herself knowing the classroom would be empty at this time. When she arrived, Professor Hightower gave her a warm smile.
“What can I do for you?” He was always asking that, and she never gave an honest reply.
Today she would.
“Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed from grading my papers I’m needing some extra help with this class.” She tried to keep her tone even and not sound nervous.
“No worries Rhaena, you’ve got average scores nothing a little study time couldn’t improve.”
She thought he didn’t understand. He should, him also being from a prestigious family.
“No, you don’t understand-”
I need perfect grades
That’s what she wanted to say.
“Professor Hightower I was wondering if you had time to help me personally. I think I would benefit more from you than the tutors in the library.” She smiled sweetly at him, pushing her locs to her back revealing her new look to him.
She laughed to herself thinking how Baela or Jace would react to what she was doing. They would never believe her if she told them. Rhaena already had an excuse in place when she suddenly had grades matching theirs.
“Please, call me Garmund. I don’t force Aemond to call me Professor either, not that he would anyways.”
Rhaena felt a ping of irritation at the mention of Aemond’s name as she looked up at the clock. Class would start soon, and she needed to be more aggressive. She leaned onto his desk, hoping he could smell the vanilla fragrance she sprayed that morning. Her long hair covered his papers, but he didn’t lean back like she expected.
“So, I can count on you for the extra help?”
Professor Hightower, Garmund, failed at hiding the redness that crept up his face. His eyes lingered on her body before drifting back up to her eyes and he cleared his throat.
“Sure, if you stop by during my free time, I can lend a hand.”
Rhaena smiled and stood straight, satisfied with the timing as the door opened and students piled in.
As soon as she sat Aemond stomped in the room, striding straight to her table. Rhaena pushed down the queasy feeling in her stomach, remembering him and the girl last night.
“I need to speak to you.” His voiced was rushed and not as deep as usual.
Rhaena paused before answering, slowly looking towards him and was caught off guard by how his eye looked brighter than she remembered.
Maybe the loss of one eye affected his other eye.
“We have nothing to speak about Aemond. Sorry for interrupting you and your girlfriend, it won’t happen again.”
He looked at her with irritation, annoyed with her dismissal of him and it got worse with Corwyn’s arrival.
“Let’s speak after class.”
“No need, I wouldn’t want your distinguished reputation muddied by being seen with me.” she paused before speaking again.
“You don’t deserve to talk to me after what you said.” Rhaena shifted her seat and greeted Corwyn before Aemond had a chance to respond.
She wasn’t interesting in anything he had to say, assuming it would be a continuation of his tirade from weeks ago. If he wanted to berate her again, she wouldn’t listen to it. If he had a sudden change of heart that he shouldn’t be so mean to her, she wouldn’t want to hear that either.
No apology could take us back to-
She stopped herself, not wanting to go down that road. Class had started and Rhaena was happy for the distraction, noticing Aemond staring at her in her peripheral. When class was finally dismissed, she purposely moved slow in gathering her belongings. The room was emptying out when a smiling Garmund approached her. He waited until Corwyn had said his goodbye to her before speaking.
“I just wanted a chance to speak before you left. I have to admit I’m a little surprised you came to me of all people. I know I’m your professor but your fami-”
Rhaena gave a gentle smile before interrupting him. “Well, who better than the man who’s going to test my knowledge at the end of the semester.”
“I guess you're right. I’m just having second thoughts” Garmund stopped when Aemond silently arrived at his side staring at Rhaena.
“Excuse the interruption, I wanted to speak to my cousin.”
Garmund blushed, looking like he’d been caught in his grandmother’s kitchen with cake mix on his face. Aemond and Rhaena shared a brief stare between each other, neither willing to break it. Tension and unspoken words permeated the air and Garmund shifted on his feet, feeling uncomfortable.
Before he got a chance to respond, Rhaena grabbed her bag and stood with her books.
“Let me know when you're free.” she caressed Garmund’s arm as she squeezed in between her professor and Aemond. When Rhaena reached the door, she turned to see Aemond’s infuriated face mixed with bafflement. She walked back to the common room with a smile on her face.
He’s always angry. It’s not my problem.
This was the best she’s felt in a long time. She knew it shouldn’t make her happy to trouble others but in Aemond’s case, she planned to do anything she could to disturb him.
In the beginning of the semester, she didn’t go to Quidditch practice on Thursday’s. She knew that was one of her days to avoid Aemond. He had given up trying to speak with her, she always made a quick exit or started speaking to someone else. The last couple of Thursdays she showed up in even shorter skirts than before, making sure to have friendly chat with his friends before sitting with Daeron. Baela was the first player to get bored, going to sit with her sister.
“What’s up with Aemond and that pissy face? He’s acting more like an anus than usual.” Baela sipped on water watching their peer's practice.
Rhaena stopped herself from smirking before giving her answer.
“No idea, I saw him with a girl so maybe our dear cousin is heartbroken.” She hadn’t seen the girl with him recently, but she thought to bring it up anyways.
Baela almost choked on her water when Jace sat next to them.
“Jace! Aemond has a crush.”
“I doubt it, the bloke is passionless and he’ll never love anyone more than himself.” Jace laughed at his own joke.
Rhaena sat in silence while the pair continued talking, thinking about Jace’s words. She knew she would be included with ‘anyone’ if what he said was true. It was hard for her to take in that someone she used to be so close with could be closed off. She had to remind herself of Aemond’s words to her.
He doesn’t care about you, of course Jace is right.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Daeron.
“What about you Rhaena?” They had all been looking at her, waiting for her response.
Rhaena panicked, “What about me?”
“Did anyone ask you to the Yule Ball?”
“Oh, no. I didn’t even realize what time of year it was.” In all of her plotting and planning she had lost track of time. It was almost time for the Ball and almost time to go home for Christmas. She was prepared for the latter, spending her free time in Garmund’s office. She had only understood about 25% of what he was explaining to her, but her grade increased from a C to a B+ in less than 2 weeks. She knew with a few more winks and arm caresses, her grades would magically be raised to an A in time to show her father. If she was the perfect student on paper, he would see the house she remained in wasn’t a hinderance.
“What about Cregan? He doesn’t have a date yet.” Baela threw out her first suggestion.
Jace shot down her proposal immediately with his strict ‘big brother’ tone he invented when they were 11. Baela occasionally ignored it since he was only 6 months older than her.
“No. As much as I like the guy, he’s a total sleaze with girls. He’ll try to get in her pants, and I’ll be forced to kill him.”
Baela sighed at Jace’s melodramatic exclamation of murdering his friend as Daeron stood up and kissed Rhaena’s forehead.
“Sorry cousin, I would have asked you, but I'll be too busy attending to my customers.”
Rhaena laughed at Daeron’s insistence on selling anything he could get his hands on. He never spent the money, their family already being as wealthiest as wealthy could get. They were pretty sure he kept it up simply for the thrill of not getting caught by the headmaster.
While her family slinked away one by one, she stayed sitting watching the Slytherin’s finish up their practice. Aemond had injured one of his teammates and told them if they didn’t want to get hit, they should move faster. Rhaena was sure he had to be playing extra rough trying to prove himself still amazing even with one eye. She watched him win every round and when he looked at her, she knew they were thinking the same thing. He would walk towards her trying to talk, she would get up and leave. It became a twisted game.
She wanted to talk to him. She also never wanted to talk to him again. As if his harsh words weren’t bad enough, she saw him with a gir-.
Rhaena got up and grabbed her things to go back inside, her mind going to a place she didn’t want to go when she saw he was still looking at her.
He’s really filled with audacity and nerve if he thinks I’ll let him near me again so he can berate me.
She was stepping off the bleacher when the loud crack rippled through the air. She looked up to see Aemond’s head had been hit with a blugder. The large ball traveled so fast that it knocked his eyepatch out of place and revealed what the patch had been hiding. Rhaena couldn’t take her eyes off the bright blue crystal that replaced where his eye used to reside.
Aemond froze, watching the shock on her face and he completely forgot to react to getting hit. He grabbed his eyepatch and shifted it back into place before he turned to the kid who smacked the ball with his broomstick.
“I’m so sorry Aemond!” The player was so nervous his voice was shaky.
“I thought you would catch it, I’m sorry.”
Aemond stood over him, raising his voice “How could I catch it if I didn’t see!”
Rhaena was jolted. She had grown up seeing his irritations at being easily provoked but had never seen this. This was the first time she’d ever heard him yell, let alone his typical pale skin was now hot red. She didn’t know if it was from embarrassment, anger, or both.
The player started to cry when Aemond grabbed him and looked around. The other Slytherins were too terrified to say anything. Rhaena saw him take a deep breath before letting the kid go, muttering an insult to him. Aemond marched to his broomstick and walked off the field past Rhaena not looking at her and lowering his head. She was too shaken to say anything, still stuck with seeing what hid beneath his eyepatch.
Practice had been cut short after the incident with Aemond, and Rhaena slowly followed behind the Slytherins as they headed back inside. As she listened to their whispers, she didn’t know what to think. They spoke about how Aemond could no longer play with them, and they knew they should have told him this when he came back.
She thought back to the jewel in his eye and wondered why he put it there. They still haven’t mentioned his eye to him since he came back, not even asking Daeron what happened. Rhaena had a feeling though, he wouldn’t even tell his own brother. She felt so conflicted.
Should I feel bad for him after the way he treated me?
She didn’t know the answer and didn’t have the mental energy to search for one. Her mother had raised her to be compassionate, but her father had told them holding grudges was better than forgiving. She picked up her pace, walking past the Slytherin students to find her sister.