Fragments, Party Edition
From the edge of his vision, Theodore saw Evangeline and Clark apparate in. Both looked as if they were trying to keep from biting each other’s heads off. Theodore resisted the urge to save both of them the awkwardness.
“You brought Malf–,” Humming, he was Blaise here, began, then cut off with a stern look from Theodore, “Sorry, you really brought er – no I can’t remember the name sorry.” The word he was looking for was “fox”.
“Doesn’t matter, we all know who you’re talking about,” Goldie, Theodore Nott, mumbled, “and at this point maybe the whole party.” Blaise’s mouth pressed into a thin line of embarrassment. He was wearing purple today, as he often did. This time it was a suit of pure velvet with a crisp cream colored tie and pocket square. Theodore knew his own vest matched Evangeline’s dress of holly, as it usually did.
“Yes well, I can’t believe you brought him into it! I thought for sure he would have said ‘no’ then gone and tattled to his father!” Nott was nodding in agreement to Blaise’s words, clearly wanting an explanation as well. Theodore took a sip of the pumpkin juice in his hand, silently wishing he had just gone for the water.
“I gave him a specific task he couldn’t refuse. He doesn’t understand the larger picture,” he said eventually. Nott raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“What task?” he asked after a heartbeat of silence.
“Being my eyes and ears in regards to the Fawn.” Nott gave a slow and impressed nod. Blaise scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“But he hates the guy!” Blaise said, squinting. Nott chuckled.
“Think again Hummingbird,” he said, amused. Blaise’s eyes suddenly grew wide.
“Merlin, he has a crush on him doesn’t he.” The group burst into laughter, but put away business for the night. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, it really had all gotten to be too much to keep up with and listening to the constant drone of his brother’s friends in their ‘meetings’ had left him drained for the entirety of what was supposed to be his vacation.
He could allow himself one night, one. So he had some more pumpkin juice and toyed with the idea that he could go for something stronger, but inevitably decided he wasn’t that kind of rebel.
~~
Draco walked through the waves of the party with his father, back straight and head held high. He was determined not to let the smell of the finest holiday pastries he had ever laid eyes on distract him. Mr. Malfoy kept a tight hand on his shoulder, the other held his usual well polished silver cane. He couldn’t hear its click over the sounds of the evening. Draco’s hair was slicked back with the most gel he could bear to use. His mother had magicked it to be even more crisp than would have been possible. His suit was a gorgeous emerald green, a celebration of his entrance into Slytherin house. A show of his mother and father’s pride.
He did not feel their pride in him.
Their letters at Hogwarts had been the same as always. His father had written to him about house politics and who to make friends with and how. He had read Draco’s rants on the curriculum, the teachers, and Harry Potter and had responded as if unbothered. His mother’s letters were much the same. Though hers was filled with more explicit affection, they had each showered him in the love he was used to receiving.
Now Lucius Malfoy held an uncomfortable grip on Draco’s left shoulder, now he had a thin line of a mouth where a smirk would usually be. Draco’s days at home had been spent barely seeing his father and his mother was unusually tight-lipped and cold. Despite being home, it did not feel homely. The party seemed to have his father more on edge.
His mind started to stray to dangerous places, the pendant that Theodore– Dragon, had given him seemed to heat up in his pocket. If just being ignored solidified Draco’s decision to help the Scarlet Mares then he couldn’t even begin to imagine what had Theodore so set on what seemed like an outright rebellion. Draco wasn’t there yet, he believed in the old ways, he believed in his superiority, he had to. His father was right, his father loved hi–.
“Draco,” father said, in a way that made him jump and want to shy away. His father leaned down to his ear to whisper, “Keep the youngest Dox occupied while I speak to her father, will you? We don’t need anyone getting into mischief.”
Draco gulped and nodded, then when his father gave him a sour look, “Yes father.” Lucius Malfoy nodded, satisfied as they exited the crowds and approached some tables set up on the edge of the property. Mr. Dox and Evangeline were locked in a game of wizards chess, both more intent on the game than he had ever seen. His father called them away. As he got up to leave, Kole Dox seemed to stare right through Draco, eyes penetrating his very soul. But then he looked up to Draco’s father and smiled. Draco frantically tried to understand what he was doing. With one look from his father, he nervously offered to play chess with Evangeline Dox.
~~
Evangeline played five rounds of chess with her father before they were interrupted, which was three rounds more than they usually got in. Though this time that might have partially been from the fact that Evangeline kept losing, hard. It was Mr. Malfoy himself that pulled Kole away, one didn’t refuse the host of the night very easily. Beside him had been Draco, who offered to play Evangeline a few rounds as compensation.
“Oh,” Evangeline responded, surprised. Draco looked a little nervous, so she threw him a bone, “Sure, why not.” He sat down while Evangeline watched her father disappear into the crowd of the main party.
“I had wondered why I hadn’t seen you at these over the last few years,” Draco said, shaking his head, but he was looking toward his father when Evangeline moved one of her pawns forward to start the game.
“I’m not here all the time, I usually show myself towards the beginning at least.” Draco stared back at his pieces, clearly debating what to do, he decided to move a knight first, out from behind the wall of pawns.
“I’m sure,” he said, distracted as she moved another piece. Instinctively, she knew that she should take advantage of that distraction to find out what he knew and why he was to keep an eye on Potter, but she found that she didn’t exactly want to. Not that she didn’t want to know, because she did. It was almost like she didn’t want to ruin the moment, playing chess against a new opponent and not being cramped inside her house or the castle – no matter how much she loved both.
Evangeline was able to play him for another hour, at which point her father collected her so that the family could head home for the night. He had barely heckled her and seemed more intent on finding a way to win, which he might have achieved had they continued playing. For once, she had actually enjoyed a party, not that she had actually seen much of it.
~~
“Meeting, in the main house,” Clark whispered in his ear while Theodore downed his fifth glass of pumpkin juice. He hid the urge to cringe away and sock Clark in the gut by filling it again with the ladle. Thankfully, his brother had never really been around enough to know him well and seemed to have read his expression as excitement – thank Merlin Evangeline hadn’t been around.
Clark chuckled and Theodore felt his anger recede, but the frustration remained. He didn’t want to go to another meeting in which Clark and a handful of the heirs to every old pureblooded family in the United Kingdom spoke of deep and dark magic like it was a petty parlor trick. He had often wondered if this was how things had started last time, meetings in darkened classrooms, little whispers at celebrations, gatherings in studies.
No one really knowing what they were talking about.
Clark clapped him on the shoulder like they were really brothers, “Don’t get too excited, not much will be happening tonight. Both Malfoy and Dox are on the fence, but they may be coming around by tonight.” He talked about their father like he was just another pawn to move around in this petty game. Theodore bit his tongue.
“Well then, I’ll be coming along,” it took all his will to agree, to not run back to Hummingbird and Goldfish and maybe find that drink he had considered looking for…
Clark grinned, he was handsome when he did that – instead of fixing that terribly displeased expression on his face. Sometimes Theodore could understand how people had been swayed by him. When he wasn’t a prick, he was good and charismatic and smart. His brother faded away into the party, stopping to gather Nott’s father as well.
Theodore took his time placing his glass on the table beside the bowl, ensuring that every action was practiced and careful. Running his hand through his hair was only with the intention of smoothing it to appear appropriate, not a reaction to stress. Fixing his tie was similar.
Dox was a fringe house, but it had powerful allies – such as the Malfoys. Brining one in on some sort of plan usually resulted in bringing in the other. They were both heavy hitters too, with a lot of wealth and magical capability. Their backing Clark’s plan would almost certainly lead to the other houses falling in as well.
Theodore suddenly realized that what he was feeling wasn’t anger, or frustration. The shaking that started in his hands and ran all the way down to his legs was fear. He was afraid. A dry laugh escaped from his lips and he did his best not to turn it into a heave of disgust. He would go to the meeting. He would stop this. He had to.
He didn’t want to be afraid anymore.