Unending Love and Adoration
“Corvy, I need your help.”
Corvus was nearly body checked as Andromeda took a seat next to him. He had woken up rather early and his reflexes were not what they were supposed to be. The cup of tea in his hand also nearly spilled as he put it down.
“Andy, it’s a little early to be getting so physical.”
Andromeda huffed and readjusted her robes before grabbing his and yanking him towards her. Being manhandled like this wasn’t that uncommon in the Black Family. Bellatrix certainly got aggressive, and Uncle Cygnus was unable sit still whenever a quidditch game was played. It was rather surprising for it to come from Andromeda.
For all that she disdained the pureblood elitism of some members of their family, she did well to act proper in public. Last time he checked, shoving and robe grabbing were not in the pureblood etiquette book.
“I need your help Corvus.”
Her tone was serious and Corvus blinked a couple times to shake the last vestiges of sleepiness from his mind. The Triumvirate was already dealing with the shit show that was the honor duel, as well as the rather large number of skeletons in the Clearwater family’s closet. There was the whole thing with Sirius and the timeline. And by the incoming owl laden with more than the copy of the Daily Prophet, he was about to get hit with another problem.
Alright, one task at a time. Andromeda is closest so deal with her first.
“What do you need help with?”
Apparently, his tone wasn’t serious enough as he took the newspaper and letters from his owl. He received another yank on the robes as Naerys chirped at him.
“Corvus, I need your help.”
He properly looked at Andromeda for the first time today and saw the ever so slightly crazed look in her eyes. One of them was twitching and her grip on his robes tightened.
Shit.
He mentally went over every problem that could have arisen in the last couple of days. Did this have to do with the duel? Andromeda wasn’t that big into dueling, she remained competent but found no enjoyment in it. School? She seemed to be doing fine in all her classes, or maybe this was stress over the N.E.W.T.s? Did Narcissa say something? There wasn’t anything abnormal about their interactions, at least as far as he could tell.
The last thing that his mind went to was Ted Tonks. Did they break off the relationship? He hoped they didn’t, there was a timeline after all. Did he propose and she didn’t know what to say? No, that couldn’t be it, those two couldn’t stop making love eyes at each other if they were offered money.
Was this about…
His eyes flicked down towards Andromeda’s abdomen. Specifically looking for anything out of the ordinary. She couldn’t be… right? It was too early, there wasn’t a baby bump in sight. They hadn’t even graduated from Hogwarts yet. Though, thinking about it. He couldn’t exactly remember when they had the first child in the original timeline.
“You’re not… pregnant… right?”
Naerys chirped from her spot on the table and Andromeda followed his line of sight down to her stomach area. She wore the standard uniform, though maybe the shirt was a little tight around certain areas. It was too early to tell… right?
“I-I… I am not pregnant!”
Andromeda was blushing now and Corvus winced as she shook him again. Thankfully it was early enough that almost no one was in the Great Hall. Almost, Corvus definitely spied two Ravenclaw students looking their way with confused expressions.
“Sorry… I just assumed that was a significant enough reason that you needed to come to me with for help.”
“W-we are not even close to doing that yet. Why would you even think that?”
“Eh… timeline?”
Andromeda huffed and rolled her eyes as she hung her head. She leaned forward so that it rested on his chest and huffed again.
“Well, if it isn’t any upcoming children, then it can’t be that serious of a problem.” Corvus said as he took a drink of his tea. He shifted their positions so that he could wrap an arm around Andromeda, making it so that she rested against his chest instead of holding his robes in a white-knuckle grip and head butting his sternum.
“Cissy’s having sex on my bed.” The words were muffled slightly as Andromeda said them into his shoulder.
Though, not enough for Corvus to not hear them. As he registered the words and his brain caught up, he promptly spat out his tea, narrowly avoiding Naerys who was picking at some toast.
“She’s what?!”
“Sex, on my bed, with Lucius.”
This was the problem? It wasn’t the worst thing he’d heard of. Though, doing it on your sister’s bed was pushing some boundaries. The mental imagery that it spawned was regrettable, however. It brought back the mental scares he’d received from the third-year incident.
Something that he hoped to never repeat.
“Ah, that is a cause for concern.”
“Cause for concern? They’re doing it on my bed Corvus. It’s been going on for months.” Andromeda whined.
“A couple months? How didn’t you know about it until now?”
“I walked in on them doing it.”
Corvus wrapped both of his arms around Andromeda and pulled her into a hug. This was bad. Walking in on a cousin was bad enough, but your sister? Yeah, Corvus made sure to rub Andromeda’s shoulder as and give her some physical reassurance.
“You didn’t… see anything too bad… right?”
“No, but its my baby sister.”
“So, they weren’t naked?”
“No… I mean… Lucius didn’t have a shirt on, but it’s the situation I found them in. On my bed.”
Corvus sighed at that. Okay, they weren’t so much as having sex as gearing up towards it. Andromeda didn’t have her own third-year incident. Thank Merlin for that.
“I’m assuming that this was yesterday.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll make sure to talk to them.” He said as he patted Andromeda on the shoulder. “I just didn’t… on your bed?”
“On my bed.”
“I’ll talk to them. Here… use this to distract you from those disturbing thoughts.” He handed her the Daily Prophet as he went about opening his letters.
One problem hopefully solved and now into the breach. He ripped open the letters and was met by his mother’s neat handwriting. Very precise and legible. His eyes scanned over the words and his brow furrowed at the contents.
Aunt Walburga was being an obstacle just for the sake of being an obstacle. What did she have against the French, or Angelica? His cousin was a nice little girl. A tad bit shy and maybe slightly smaller than she should be for her age, but she was a respectful and courteous. On top of that, she was cute! Corvus couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t. How could anyone not like her?
Apparently, Walburga was one of those people. His mother wrote about how Arcturus had to deal with his aunt’s complaints against the betrothal. About how any French pureblooded witch wasn’t good enough for Regulus. Or how it was too early for a betrothal in the first place.
Corvus felt insulted at that. The whole concept of purebloods was ridiculous in the first place, but to add country of origin on top of that? Preposterous. As if there was any difference between British purebloods and French purebloods.
Also, apparently Portrait Licorus was in favor of the match, so that was good. He just needed to know what Portrait Elladora thought about it. She always had some outrageous opinion on the most bizarre of topics, and she would definitely have one on the betrothal.
He should write to his mother about that.
“Oh, Morgana help us.”
“What?” Corvus looked over at the Daily Prophet in Andromeda’s hands and didn’t know whether to sigh or laugh.
“Just look at this.”
“Mmm… I will say that this is somewhat expected.”
“Expected? This is basically slander.”
“At least it’s not at us.”
“No, its on the entirety of the Wizengamot and Dumbledore for allowing the duel to go through.”
“Dumbledore’s in this?” Corvus said and grabbed the newspaper. He turned the page and yep, there was old Dumbledore. Apparently, Rita Skeeter was starting her attacks on the old man as well as most of the Wizengamot over this honor duel.
Was it a little harsh? Maybe. She all but called Dumbledore a bumpkin and compared the Lords of the Wizengamot to a bunch of headless chickens. The upside was that she at least didn’t attack Fiona.
“What’s a bumpkin anyway?” Andromeda said.
“It’s someone who’s unsophisticated and most likely from some backwater town.”
Corvus looked up and watched as Thomas Bulstrode took a seat across from himself and Andromeda, stroking Naerys’ feathers with one hand. The seventh-year student was a little on the bigger side, though Corvus couldn’t tell if it was muscle or fat. Thomas was just… bulky. Yeah, that was the right term.
“Cousin, it must be a special occasion if you’ve woken up so early.”
The Blacks were related to the Bulstrodes through Violette Bulstrode’s marriage to Cygnus Black II. How related Thomas was to the rest of them was probably so inconsequential that it didn’t matter, but Thomas was a nice kid. Pureblood sure, but not a supremacist by any means.
“I’m expecting news. There’s only so much longer that I can push my parents back on the betrothal.” Thomas said.
“Do you who?” Andromeda asked.
“Haven’t got a clue. She’s more than likely going to be some pureblood, though not from a major family.”
“Hey, you never know. You two might genuinely get along, when you finally meet face to face, or learn each other’s names.” Corvus said.
“I hope so.” Thomas said with a sad smile.
“And, who’s to say that she’ll even be British.” Corvus opened the next letter while talking. “There are plenty of French and Italian pureblood witches out there. I’ve also heard good things about the Scandinavians, though the languages are rather hard to understand.”
“While its good to hope, my family isn’t the most influential.”
“Well, you could always elope with someone.” Andromeda said.
“I don’t think my parents would approve Andromeda, and I wouldn’t want to steal your thunder.”
Corvus snorted as Andromeda started to blush again and try to formulate a response.
“I-I… I don’t know what you’re talking about Thomas. I have no plans to… elope with anyone.”
Thomas quirked his eyebrows and shrugged.
“Whatever you say.”
“Definitely no one here that I would do that with.”
“I never said anything to insinuate that.”
“Well, good!”
“Althou-”
“You have to be kidding me.” Corvus sighed as he looked at the letter in his hand. A letter from his rather… pretentious cousin?
“Someone died?” Andromeda asked.
“What? Why would you jump to that? No one is dead, though I might be dead by the end of summer. Clarissa’s coming to visit.”
“Oh, oh… oh, Morgana help us.” Andromeda put her head in her hands as she leaned against the long table.
“She’s also bringing Gereon along with her. I don’t know how she managed to get the guy to marry her.”
“Desperation?” Thomas said.
“Maybe it was for the money?” Andromeda said.
“Oh, maybe she ensnared him in some compromising position and forced him into it.”
“I know that Clarissa can be a little much, but I hardly think she would resort to that.” Corvus said as he continued reading the letter. She lamented on how she hadn’t seen him for a while, even though he visited during the Yule holiday. His cousin also did have nice handwriting, and she seemed to relish in the fact that it apparently earned the praise of his own mother.
“Please Corvus, I heard a rumor that she wanted to marry you when you were still the Black Heir.” Andromeda said with a playful smirk, one that grew wider as Corvus made a face of disgust.
“As much as I love her, I would voluntarily go to Azkaban before marrying her. There’s only so much of Clarissa that one can handle in a short amount of time.”
“Oh, is this something you’ve given some thought about Corvy.” Andromeda nudged him in the side. “I remember quiet rightly that Clarissa was still making those lovey dovey eyes at you even after Sirius was born.”
“I was eight and she was nine, we were children… it meant nothing.”
“Did you reciprocate those feelings cousin?” Thomas asked. The damn man was smirking at this entire situation as well. Even his owl was chirping along. Traitors, the lot of them!
“I did not. Clarissa just had a childish infatuation for me that went away as we grew up. She’s married now anyway.” Corvus said and made sure to keep his voice level.
He certainly did not care about Clarissa that way. Not at all!
“You two did used to disappear together for hours at a time, say, what were you two doing?” Andromeda said and nudged him again.
“Hey! You’re one to talk. Don’t think I don’t notice you sneaking off to the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team locker room.”
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Andromeda brushed some of her hair over her shoulder.
“Oh? So should I tell Tonks that you have some other Raven that you rendezvous with?”
It was almost comical as Andromeda’s eyes widened and her cheeks blushed. She instinctively looked towards the Ravenclaw table, even though there were no seventh-year Ravens present.
“Okay guys, lets refocus before we start anything to drastic. We haven’t even had breakfast yet.” Thomas said and poured himself a cup of tea.
“Yes, lets do that.” Corvus said and turned back to the letter. He tried to put those thoughts out of his head but failed as he looked at the bottom of the letter. Clarissa had signed it the same way that she always did, but he was now starting to look at it in a different light.
With Unending Love and Adoration,
Clarissa Dugommier-Hohenzollern
Corvus didn’t fail to notice that there was a suspicious pink mark right next the signature. It only took a couple of seconds to figure out what it was, and he didn’t know if he should frown or laugh. Though, he was thankful that he didn’t feel anything towards it.
“Oh Clarissa.” He sighed and shook his head. “What are you doing.”