Chapter 9
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR YEARS, the match between Slytherin and Gryffindor ends in a tie with Slytherin making the most goals but Gryffindor catching the snitch.
Lyra raised an eyebrow at the way Patrick Parkinson was blankly staring at the wall, at how Theodore Nott had excused himself to apparently try to drown himself in the showers and at how Dennis Yaxley looked to be on the verge of tears, before she turned to face Narcissa.
"And they say that women are the overly emotional ones," she deadpanned, making her cousin laugh.
She honestly wondered if they acted like this when they had tied a match, what would have been their reactions to loosing one?
She didn't want to know.
When Madame Hooch had announced the tie, Lucius Malfoy had looked at Leonard Rowle -the younger brother of Penelope Rowle and the Slytherin seeker- with such a heated expression, that Lyra was honestly surprised that he didn't spontaneously combust on the spot (although, to his credit, Leonard did look like he wanted to do so, if only to avoid Lucius's glare).
Lucius Malfoy was reacting the worst. He was... sulking.
It was that bad.
And since every male in the Court was unnaturally sad and acting mopey and the girls -especially Cassandra and Narcissa- were trying to lift their spirits up while Bellatrix greatly tried to diminish their efforts, Lyra was left with the difficult task of making Lucius act normally once more.
"Lucius, your behaviour is completely callow." She announced shortly after entering his room and taking a seat on the bed, where he had previously been spread out like a starfish, only sitting on the bed properly once more upon seeing her enter.
Lucius scowled in reply. "I am a Malfoy. I never behave callow."
"Okay. Would you prefer the term childish, then?" Lyra asked rhetorically, "Or perhaps the word, immature, suits you more?"
"I am not immature," Lucius said, glaring.
"No offences, Heir Malfoy, but right now, you are the embodiment of immature." Lyra replied, and upon seeing him open his mouth to comment, she continued to speak, "And don't even bother convincing me I'm wrong about it." She met his eyes. "Would you like to talk about it?"
"No," Lucius scowled. "I'm a Malfoy. We don't talk about 'feelings'." He said the last word like a swear.
"But you are also Lucius," Lyra reminded, "So, what would Lucius do?"
Silence blanketed them.
"What do I do now?" Lucius asked finally, and at her confused look, he elaborated. "The girl I like-"
"-The one you claim is oblivious?"
"-the very one," He confirmed, stealing a glance at her, "How do I confess to her now that Slytherin hasn't won?"
Lyra tilted her head cutely. "That's what you are sulking about?"
"Brooding. I am brooding, not sulking. There is a difference." Lucius insisted before frowning. "What else would I be brooding over?"
"Tying the Quidditch match against the Gryffindors?"
Lucius waved her off. "It was only our first match this year, we can always make up the points. The Quidditch cup will continue to make it's home in Slytherin this year as it has the past four- that much is guaranteed." He said confidently. "But how do I win her over?"
You already have. "Like I mentioned earlier, you need to tell me more about her." Lyra said instead.
"She is oblivious." Lucius said immediately, frowning deeply. "Completely and utterly oblivious. I would go as far as saying that she is a personification of that word."
Lyra laughed. "Isn't that a little harsh?"
Lucius's silvery-blue eyes met her shimmering mercury ones. "Trust me. It's fair."
Lyra rolled her eyes. "Does she have any qualities besides being oblivious?"
"She's perfect." Lucius replied without a thought, stealing yet another glance at her.
"Are there any more adjectives in your vocabulary, Heir Malfoy?"
"Yes, actually. The girl I like is flawless, faultless, unmatched, unparalleled, phenomenal, marvellous-"
"-I didn't know you felt that strongly about Miss Sewlyn." Lyra interrupted.
Lucius scowled. "Lyra- for once, could you be serious?"
"Not unless I have a polyjuice potion with me," Lyra winked, making him unknowingly smile back.
Lucius chuckled lightly before looking at her intensely. "Do you wish to know the identity of the girl I like?"
"Are you sure it isn't Miss Sewlyn?" Lyra asked instead.
"Positive," Lucius nodded.
"She's going to be absolutely crushed about that," Lyra said mournfully. "And would also probably be on a warpath against the girl you like. Should I offer her the protection of the Slytherin Court?"
"She doesn't need it." Lucius said. "The girl I like is the strongest person I know."
"Aren't you afraid that if you tell me her name, that I might spread it to everybody?" Lyra asked, tilting her head once more.
"I'm counting on it." Lucius answered, smiling. "Perhaps then, the girl I like won't be oblivious any more."
"You sound like you really like her," Lyra noted, dimpling. "What happens if she breaks your heart?"
"I'm hopeful that she won't."
"But if she does?"
"Then it would be completely fine for my heart to break, considering that it beats only for her."
Lyra fought an internal battle with herself to stop melting at his words. But on the outside, she simply raised an eyebrow at him. "Should I be worried for this girl considering all your past... endeavours?" She asked him pointedly. "What if you break her heart? Should I kill you?" She asked in a joking tone.
Lucius chuckled before a soft, small smile appeared on his face. "Believe me, when I say that the girl I like is more than capable of killing me if I even accidentally or unknowingly dare to break her heart. Possibly with a variety of weapons and very creative curses."
Lyra laughed. "I would like to meet her someday, then. I have a feeling that the two of us will get along perfectly."
"You would, and hopefully, you approve of our relationship." Lucius said, sneaking yet another glance at her adorable dimples, making him smile softly. "So," he began, remembering his original, unanswered question. "Tell me, Heiress Black. How do I confess?"
"If she's really as oblivious to your feelings as you claim she is," Lyra began, ignoring Lucius's interjection of, "She's worse," she continued, "Then make it great."
"Great?"
"Great, big, huge, enormous, large." Lyra listed off, meeting his eyes. "Make it so big, that nobody would be able to doubt that it is a confession of your love. Plus, she is less likely to reject you if you confess to her in front of a large crowd."
"You really think so?"
"Definitely," Lyra replied, nodding. "Also, girls like romantic, sweet declarations of love. So I recommend that you prepare a speech for her."
Lucius nodded, a determined glint present in his eyes. "I've got an idea. Now all I have to do is execute it."
Lyra nodded as well before standing up and lightly dusting her skirt. She began walking towards the door, before pausing right below the archway. "I do have just one question, Lucius."
"What is it?" Lucius asked, turning to face her.
Lyra pursed her lips. "The girl you like? Are you close with her?"
Lucius nodded thoughtfully. "I believe so, yes."
Lyra tilted her head a little bit once more. "Then what makes you believe that she doesn't consider you to be not her lover, but her brother?"
The last thing Lyra saw before she exited the room was Lucius Malfoy's wide, horrified eyes and gaping mouth.
Lyra smirked as she walked towards her own room. Served him right for waiting this long to confess to her.
Unfortunately for Lyra, shortly after she had left, Lucius Malfoy had had a conversation with his best friend, Theodore Nott.
"Make her jealous." Theodore suggested.
Lucius lifted an eyebrow at that. "Jealous?"
"Yes. Jealousy always works." Theodore repeated.
"While it sounds nice on paper, I have a question," Lucius said, making Theodore nod in an urge for him to continue, "Who in the universe is perfect enough to make Lyra Black jealous?" He asked pointedly.
Theodore opened his mouth to reply before finding no words exit him. He shut his mouth and pursed his lips. "You make a very good point." He conceded. "But that is the beauty of trying to make somebody jealous- all you have to do is date a girl -any girl- and if Lyra has feelings for you, then she will automatically be jealous. It is a perfect way to find out whether or not Lyra reciprocates your feelings."
"I have been with quite a few girls in the past. If Lyra hadn't been jealous then, what makes you think she is going to be now?"
"Because back then, you hadn't discovered your feelings for her yet." Theodore replied. "And you are making little to no effort to hide how you feel now. Lyra would have to be very, very stupid to not see them, and Lyra Black is anything but stupid."
"Not stupid, just completely and utterly oblivious." Lucius grumbled before clearing his throat. "Tell me more about this plan of yours."
Theodore grinned in reply before launching into a vivid explanation of Phase One of Operation Grey-Eyed Jealousy. If there was one thing having an auror-father taught him, it was to give great names to plans.
That evening, just before everybody cleared out of the Slytherin Common Room so that the Court could have privacy as they met to discuss business as usual, Lucius Malfoy stood at the midpoint of the room and cleared his throat loudly, drawing everybody's attention to him.
"May I have a moment of your time?" Lucius Malfoy started and upon seeing everybody's eyes on him, he continued. "Today was a hard day for us. We tied with the Gryffindors but it was even harder for me. You see, I was going to use this opportunity to confess my feelings to the girl I like." he revealed, inciting many gasps and shocked expressions to echo the Common Room at his blunt admission. "But, as you can already probably tell, I was not able to have that opportunity. However, like my father says, there is no time like the present."
His statement drew lots of surprised and excited looks to fall around the Common Room. Most of the girls were visibly very excited, each of them hopeful to be chosen as the apple of Lucius's eye and become one step closer to being the next Lady Malfoy.
Lyra's face showed indifference, however, as Narcissa nudged her discretely before giving her an excited look. Lyra fought the urge to fondly roll her eyes at her cousin's behaviour, but let a small smile on her face.
Her face soon showed mild confusion though, as Lucius walked in the direction opposite to where she had been seated.
Lucius stopped in front of a wide-eyed, happy Miss Sewlyn, where she was sitting beside her own cousin, Dolores Umbridge.
Lucius gave her a closed lipped smile. "Miss Sewlyn, would you do me the honour of-"
"-Yes! Yes! Yes!" Miss Sewlyn yelled excitedly, the pitch of her voice reaching new heights as she suddenly hugged Lucius. "I would love to!"
Lucius Malfoy's smile turned stiff, but he did not make any motion to push her away or hex her.
Glares were soon directed at Miss Sewlyn while confused looks were being sent to Heir Malfoy before the apparent couple were given reluctant congratulations.
"Narcissa, you've always paid the most attention whenever grandmother Irma tells us about the symbolism of flowers," Lyra began absentmindedly to her cousin, her eyes fixated on the pair as she expertly twirled her wand in her hand. "How do I passive-aggressively tell somebody to va te faire foutre in the language of flowers?"
Narcissa smiled hesitantly before slowly taking the wand away from her cousin -because Morgana knows she was dangerous enough without a weapon- before diving into a lecture of the beautifully artistic tradition of Floriography.
While the Court's meeting went ahead normally as it always did, with every member acting like they always did -excluding the still confused glances directed towards their king and Lucius Malfoy's and Theodore Nott's constant glances at Lyra to get a feel about her reaction and Lyra pretending that the past few hours did not happen.
However, the next afternoon at around lunch, Lucius Malfoy was surprised to receive an anonymous bouquet of withered, dead flowers consisting of geraniums (stupidity), foxglove (insincerity), meadowsweet (uselessness), yellow carnations (you have disappointed me) and the only flower that hadn't withered or blackened in the bouquet- a single orange lily (hatred).
He chalked it up for it to be from one of the girls in his apparent fan club who must have be devastated to hear that he was in a relationship, even though a part of him secretly wished for them to have been from Lyra- he would take any gesture from her if only to find out that she cared- but he knew that it was hopeless because the most amazingly elegant and ever proper Lyra Black would certainly never send a bunch of dead flowers to express her emotions.
Perhaps if Lyra Black had dropped her oblivious facade or suppose if Lucius Malfoy had paid more attention to whenever his mother ranted about Floriography, the two would have gotten together a lot, lot sooner.
And as Lucius scoffed before setting the mostly blackened flowers on fire in the middle of lunch, it was truly sad that he did not see Narcissa's horrified expression or the way an inferno suddenly burned in Lyra's eyes.
"Let me get this straight. You invited her," Narcissa started in disbelief during breakfast the next day as she glanced at Miss Sewlyn who was sticking to Lucius that reminded her strangely of a koala with a eucalyptus tree, "to sit with us?" She asked to confirm, mentally praying that she was wrong.
"Of course he would!" Theodore Nott injected quickly, jumping to his king's defence, "Miss Sewlyn is the King's consort." He said as Narcissa added a silent,'and the Queen's first homicide' in the safety of her mind. "It's only proper if she sits beside him during meals." Theodore continued before he snuck a glance at the queen's face and felt disappointment course through his being to only see her head slightly tilted and amusement twinkling in her eyes like it always did.
"The King has had many... consorts previously," Valarie Bulstroad began, trying to make sense of her king's rather abrupt change in mind- it was no secret that Miss Sewlyn ran his fan club nor was it a secret that Lucius Malfoy really detested her. "If I may be bold, what -no offense- makes Miss Sewlyn so special?"
Lucius looked at Lyra instead. "Would you like to know the identity of the girl I like?"
Lyra smiled beautifully. "You have already made it quite clear who she is," She said, giving Miss Swelyn another smile before clapping her hands pleasantly. "Now, let's not give Miss Sewlyn or Heir Malfoy a hard time, shall we? After all, one can't fault them for simply being in love. But I did hear a few stomach's growl in the past minute or so, and it is very rude of us to keep the others waiting to begin eating their breakfast. So please, everyone -Miss Sewlyn included- take your seats, and let us eat."
Everybody nodded as they gracefully sat themselves in their normal places, only Miss Sewlyn laughed at Lyra's words like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. "Oh, you don't have to call me Miss Sewlyn, Lyra! Since we are going to be seeing each other all the time now, please call me Darla!"
Suddenly, there was pin-drop silence across the Slytherin table. In pureblood customs, it was not proper to call somebody by their given name unless and until they had received direct permission from that person. If you had not received permission by the person to use their given name, then you would have to call them by their title (Heir, Heiress, Lord, Lady, Miss, Master, Mr) if you respected them or you could drop the title and simply call them by their surname if you didn't.
Lyra's smile continued to stay put, but her eyes turned cold enough to freeze glaciers.
"Alright, Darla. A small word of caution though, for future dates, do not prematurely assume that just because you have given somebody permission to call you by your given name, does not mean that they will do the same." Lyra said casually, as though she was talking about the weather. However, her dimples deepened upon seeing Darla's smile drop. She tilted her head slightly again. "Because sometimes, the person might not take such mistakes so kindly as I have; and people die all the time. And you'll find that sometimes, it is very easy to make such deaths look like accidents." Lyra smiled good-naturedly. "Sometimes."
Darla was pale enough to be mistaken for a ghost.
Lyra's amused glint returned to her eyes as she looked at the surrounding people cheerfully. "Let us eat."
And thus, everybody ate in silence before chatting with their friends like they normally did.
It was later during the day that Lyra sat in her room, reading and writing letters from and about her family. She laughed as she read about all the havoc Sirius, James and Regulus were getting upto and how proud grandmother Malania and amused her father was about it. The same havoc had been written in a different perspective as she read at how apparently 'done' and frustrated her grandfather Pollux and mother were respectively.
Her mother's letter, especially, was divided into two sections. The first section consisted of her ranting in her letter about how Sirius had 'corrupted' and 'spoilt' sweet Regulus while the second section described -in avid detail- her anguish over how badly Dorea Potter had raised her son to have corrupt Sirius in the first place and how she had been right to protest the Lady Potter to be her darling daughter's godmother. Reading her mother's letters never failed to amuse her.
Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa were in her room as well, each of them doing their own thing. Narcissa was humming as she went through and sometimes tried on her cousin's clothes and jewellery. Andromeda was silently sitting on her bed and reading a book while Bellatrix was throwing her wand up in the air and catching it, deep in thought over something.
"Are you going to just let this happen?" Bellatrix asked suddenly, cutting the comfortable silence that had blanketed them.
The other three girls paused at whatever they were doing and set their eyes on Bellatrix, giving her all their undivided attention.
"Pardon?" Lyra asked, setting down her quill and turning her head to look at her eldest cousin.
"It's obvious that Lucy is trying to make you jealous." Bellatrix continued. "You shouldn't give him the satisfaction of being correct. It goes against everything our family stands for!"
"I agree," Narcissa said, nodding. "If Lucius Malfoy wishes to play with fire, then you show him how it feels to burn."
"Or," Andromeda began, "you could just swallow your pride and disclose your facade to Lucius and reveal to him that you not only acknowledge, but also reciprocate his feelings." She suggested.
"Ah, yes." Lyra nodded earnestly. "I could do that, but it does not sound fun and I have heard that that pride leaves an awful after taste and I'm afraid that we are all out of fire whiskey for me to wash it down with." She told Andromeda before turning to Bellatrix. "I agree with Bella and Cissa. If Heir Malfoy wishes to play a game with me, then it is only proper if I show him how it's played." She finished with a smile, a holocaust firestorm dangerously burning in her eyes.