Chapter 14
THE CHANDELIER THAT HAD BEEN HAND-CRAFTED with crystals and engraved with one-hundred small diamonds, hung proud and long from the ceiling. Its reflective glass would occasionally be glared upon by the light of the moon that passed through from the tall, wide windows. The ballroom inside the Planetarium was almost completely made of glass- from two of it's walls to its ceilings. This way, any guests would feel as if they were dancing or chatting right under the stars. Siren's serenaded them with beautiful songs, from where they sang at a small pool at a corner; while pretty river nymphs glided around the room, serving people expensive champagne and delicate looking finger food.
Anybody who was anybody had been invited for the Ball hosted by the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black in honour of Molly Prewett and Bellatrix Black, both of whom had graduated Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
It was a black and white themed ball, as all events held by the Black family were, and there was a non-verbal, unwritten rule that anybody who was directly related to the Black family would dress in the colour black, while everybody else, in white.
For a person who wasn't directly related to even accidentally or unknowingly dressed up in black for this event, would be snubbed and practically shunned.
Lyra, dressed elegantly in an off-shoulder, fitting black evening gown with a long slit that had been paired with her -almost trademark- favourite diamond heels and necklace; was a vision that came straight from heaven itself, as she walked around the room with Lucius -dressed completely in white, bar a black outer coat- greeting everybody like one would expect the granddaughter of the hosts to do.
Socialising was one of the things that she had to do because socialising meant making connections and allies, and connections and allies meant power. And what kind of a Slytherin knowingly gave up an opportunity for more power?
Socialising was an art.
There was a way to behave with people and how to behave with them depending on who they were.
One would have to treat the Most Ancient and Noble Houses better than they would treat the Ancient and Noble Houses. And the latter must be treated better than any only Ancient or only Noble Houses if they had been blessed with an invite.
One also had to know what sort of topics they had to speak or not speak on, along with being aware of how long or how short they had to continue the conversation. Again, everything depended on the person and their rank.
She could talk to the Most Ancient and Noble Houses of Greengrass, Crouch, Shafiq, Macmillan and Fawley on things like trade, economy and knowledge; but not on subjects such as politics or dark lords, simply because they were neutrals. Talking about the latter two topics would make the conversation very awkward and make the guests very uncomfortable and if there was one thing a host was never supposed to do, it was making the guests feel uneasy.
She was given free rein to talk about whatever with Most Ancient and Noble Houses like Malfoy, Yaxley, Flint, Parkinson, Lestrange, Rosier, Bulstrode, Nott, Rowle, Avery and such; because her family was in the same political tier as theirs was in the Wizengamot.
With the light-oriented Most Ancient and Noble Houses like Prewett, Shaklebolt, Longbottom and Abbott, she had to be extremely cautious and tread carefully on very safe topics such as school, hopes, dreams and such.
With Ancient and Noble Houses such as Brown, Carrow, Blishwick, Travers, Higgs, Macnair, Montague, Mulciber, Warrington, Gamp, Ogden, Bones, Marchbanks, Weasley, Tripe Orpington, Pyrites, Perks, Runcorn, and more, it didn't matter if they were a part of the dark tier, neutral tier or light tier. All that mattered was that they didn't have the 'Most' prefix in their title, which meant that they were worthy of only basic pleasantries such as "I love your dress", "Congratulations on your business deal/wedding/baby" or "I hope you are doing well and your family continues to be in good health".
Lyra wasn't to communicate in any manner with the only Ancient or only Noble Houses (who were either old but hadn't done any major achievement yet, or were a young House but had contributed in a great manner in a field of academia, sports or politics) like Davis, MacDougal, Prince, Moody, Max, Sayre, Swelyn, Tremblay, Urquart, Cornfoot, Fudge, Gibbons, Wilkins, Lowe, Bletchley, in any publicised, social event unless flash them a polite smile or nod.
It was the way their world worked.
Lyra's eyes lazily glanced around the room.
Patrick Parkinson was dancing with Penelope Rowle, and there was a rumour going around in the social circles that both their families were in talks with each other about marriage.
Cassandra Greengrass and Theodore Nott looked to be lost in a world of their own. It was not a carefully kept secret that the two adored each other. Lyra was sure that Theodore would miss seeing Cassandra every day at the Court considering that she was newly graduated. Perhaps this would finally give him the courage to push his parents to talk with her's?
Valarie Bulstrode was sipping champagne delicately beside Henry Flint, both of whose smiles could not be wiped from their faces.
One of the women of the hour, her dear cousin Bella was loudly laughing without care at something her fiancé Rudolphous had said. Lyra smiled at the two. Whenever Rudolphous seemed to look at Bella, his eyes could have been replaced with two hearts, for he seemed to think that she was the greatest thing to ever grace this mortal plane. Lyra was happy for them, and could only hope that Bellatrix began to reciprocate her fiancé's very obvious feelings towards her.
The other woman of the hour, Molly Prewett who was dressed nicely in black and shared the position of being the granddaughter of Lord Arcturus and Lady Malania with Lyra, looked to be completely content with her fiancé, Arthur Weasley (who looked quite out of place), as they slow-danced in a corner.
Fabian and Gideon were also on the dance floor but were in the middle of performing an extremely dramatic dance with James and Sirius respectively, the latter duo of who looked perfectly happy causing chaos in a way that didn't cause chaos, if the scandalous gasps and looks thrown their way by a selected few were anything to go by.
But, none dared voice any thoughts out loud, especially not when the slightly overprotective and twelve-time duelling champion, Lady Malania Black nee Macmillan was clapping to their display happily with a proud smile.
Hell hath no wrath like a grandmother scorned when others talked trash about three of her grandchildren and one of her grandchild in all but blood.
Meanwhile, sweet Narcissa was smirking as she chatted with future Slytherin Court member Leonard Rowle, who seemed to be grinning from ear to ear. Lyra looked between them calculatingly. Perhaps now, it was time for the matchmaker to be matched?
Lucius looked at Lyra's expression warily. "Please don't."
She tilted her head innocently. "Don't what?"
"No matchmaking, Lyra. It never works out." He warned.
"It will when I do it," Lyra replied, turning back to face the pair. "They make an adorably cute couple don't they?"
"Yes, hopefully, they reach that enlightenment by themselves." He emphasised.
"I can already see it now," Lyra continued, speaking over Lucius' words, "A baby with his dark hair and her blue eyes. Perhaps they will name the child after me with gratitude for bringing them together. Lyra II for a girl and Lyrus for a boy."
"Lyra!" Lucius admonished with wide eyes.
"Oh, all right fine!" She rolled her eyes. "Lyra II for a girl and Lucius II for a boy. Happy now?"
"Extremely," Lucius said dryly before closing his eyes with pain. "Nothing I say can change your mind, can it?"
"Took you long enough to figure it out," She grinned as she turned back to face her boyfriend. "You're either with me, against me, or in my way, love. Choose wisely. The consequences of each action differ widely."
A smirk played on his lips. "What do I get if I'm with you?"
"A kiss." She replied.
"Then, okay. I'm with you." Lucius replied. "Now, it's your turn to complete your half of the deal." He said smugly, leaning in.
Lyra didn't, however, and simply blew him a kiss in reply. "Done." She said before smiling widely. "Oh Merlin, I love this song! Let's dance!"
Lucius allowed his girlfriend to lead him in the direction of the dance floor, but not before muttering a, "I cannot believe I fell for it", under his breath.
The song that the sirens were currently serenading them with was called, 'Starlight dreams'. Leave it to the Black's to make every single thing about stars, and indirectly, themselves.
As soon as they were under the centre of the biggest chandelier that hung from the clear glass ceiling, Lucius twirled her.
A few of the purposely left loose locks of dark hair from her bun danced with them, swaying from side to side.
They soon fell into step, letting the rhythm control their movements as their hips lightly swayed with the beat. The scenery and people around them slowly began to disappear and all Lucius could see was her.
Lyra.
And he wondered what great heroic act he had committed in his past life to be lucky enough to be with a goddess such as her in this one.
She smiled at him, showing the dimples that he adored with every cell in his being.
She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck while he carefully drew her hips closer to his, and they swayed lightly. Her diamond heels clinked the white marble floor softly with every step they took together. Their eyes were locked on to the others- blue meeting grey- as they let the music be the guide.
She was still smiling widely, dimples and all, and he was sure that so was he (minus the dimples, of course).
Their dance and movements were masterpieces on the sound that had already been claimed by the canvas of the music.
They weren't doing the Waltz, Salsa, Tango or any specific sort of ballroom dance. It was just him, her and the beat; and Lucius couldn't imagine anything more perfect than dancing with the woman he loved under the stars that she was named after.
Orion Black loved history.
It was his passion, fascination and as Walburga would occasionally joke, his first love.
In fact, he loved it so much that he held a Mastery in the subject (one of the only sixteen to do so in the past fifty years) and had not only been a part of the world's best History Guild, but had also served in it as the Guild Master for three years before voluntarily giving it up for two specific reasons.
The first being, his father had passed down half of the duties that the Head and Lord of the House was required to fulfil, never mind the fact that Orion was still only Heir Apparent. In fact, by the time Regulus had been born, Orion was taking care of all the responsibilities except the ones related to the WIzengamot, the Hogwarts Board of Governors and a few of the business aspects. This was his father's way of trying to ease him into the responsibilities of Lordship that he would have to take over so that Orion wouldn't feel suddenly burdened at that time.
The second reason he gave up the position of Guild Master was because of the three blessings he had received from Lady Magic called children.
He never regretted giving up his position, but every time Lyra got confused over the name, place or date of a minor yet important event, or Sirius seemed to forcefully stop himself from groaning whenever he opened his History of Magic textbook, Orion felt his heartbreak.
Just a little bit.
Luckily, Regulus was incredibly interested in history and that more than made up the indifference from Lyra and the sulking from Sirius over the subject.
Still, Orion was never one to give up and continued to cling on to the hope that his oldest son and daughter would grow to share a bit of his fascination in the subject.
Orion Black loved history so much so, that it had been Lucius' immense love and admiration for the beautifully intricate subject that had finally won over Orion enough for him to give his approval over Lucius Malfoy and his darling daughter's relationship.
Throughout their childhood and even now, Lyra, Sirius and Regulus had fallen asleep listening to historical stories and to take it another step forward, no matter how busy he was, Orion always made sure that he took Walburga and the children to a place in the world with extreme historical importance with the hopes of imparting his love of history on them.
Unfortunately for him, despite his best efforts, Regulus was still the only one who genuinely found the subject interesting. Lyra studied history like it was a chore while Sirius barely tolerated it.
The children did, however, look forward to these trips eagerly every single year. But, Sirius was in it for the views and souvenirs while Lyra was in it for the culture and magic part of it, and once again, Regulus was the only one of them who went to the trip with the excitement of learning it's historical importance.
This year, it was a small, three-day trip (because the Black family had plans for practically the entire summer) to the Philippines, an archipelagic country in the South East of Asia.
They had a blast there, experiencing a new type of culture and language as well as tasting the different variety of food native to the country and trying on the clothing ingenious to the beautiful place.
However, between all of this, Lyra, Sirius and Walburga hadn't paid much attention to Orion as he tried to explain all the minute details and historical importance.
And when they visited the house of Nathanial Ramos, inventor of the counter-curse for the fatal blood boiling curse (the house was surrounded heavily by anti-muggle wards and protective enchantments, of course), that Orion finally blew a fuse upon realising that Regulus was the only one who was truly listening to him speak.
"History is important!" He started with furrowed eyebrows. "It teaches us not to repeat the mistakes of the past, but learn from it instead. It teaches us to be better and to solve problems. It teaches us so much because legends are just lessons that are born from the truth! Think about if even one moment of history hadn't happened, then so much would change and only Merlin knows how the world would have turned out then! Look at where you are now. Don't you realise that somebody invented a cure for the blood boiling curse here, just where you are standing and saved so many lives? Don't you realise what would have happened if he hadn't? Suppose I was hit with the blood boiling curse before Nathanial Ramos invented it, then what would you have done?" He asked rhetorically but was surprised when his children began to answer it.
"Avenge you, of course!" Regulus replied in a 'duh' tone.
Sirius nodded. "Yes. We Blacks are extremely talented in the art of hitting people we dislike with knives."
"And making them mysteriously disappear," Lyra added, smiling.
Despite the frustration he had been feeling earlier, a single tear escaped Orion's eyes. "I have never been more proud." He stated, causing his three wonderfully amazing children to tackle him into a warm, tight hug, manners long forgotten.
Three seconds later, four pairs of identical stormy grey eyes looked to Walburga pointedly and expectantly.
"Oh, all right!" Walburga relented, joining in on the hug.
This moment would, in the future, fuel Orion's full-fledged Patronus which ironically, and much to the amusement of Charlus Potter, would turn out to be a lion.
Unfortunately, it rained the next day, so they were stuck inside the luxury vacation home that had been bought (Orion always made sure the Black's owned at least one home in a location of great historical importance).
So, the family of five stayed inside and played a few games like cobblestones, cards, informal mock-duels and indoor quidditch.
Sometime in between such a game, Lyra glanced at the wet weather outside with a small smile.
"Is it weird that I love the rain?" She mused out loud. "It has so many metaphorical and symbolic meanings, and for some reason, I love the way it feels. I love the rain." She repeated, smiling.
"Well, it is excellent for cleaning up evidence of a murder," Orion noted thoughtfully.
"You wouldn't need rain to clean up after you if you use an icicle as a murder weapon or hit the person with a spell such as Glacies Trabem." Lyra retorted. "Or burnt them alive." She added as an afterthought.
"And that's why you are my favourite daughter!" Orion proclaimed proudly.
Sirius snorted with a roll of his eyes. "She's your only daughter." He said pointedly. "I, on the other hand, am more interested in finding out who is your favourite son."
"Me too." Regulus chipped in, looking at his father expectantly.
Orion's expression didn't flatter as he replied smoothly, "I will be more than happy to answer your question," he began, "but only after your dear sister reminds me who her favourite brother is."
Now, three pairs of identical grey eyes locked onto Lyra's, who was already mentally planning ways to hurt her father. Perhaps snogging Lucius in front of him would do the trick?
Lyra flashed them a slow smile. "I love both of you equally. Asking me to choose one over the other would be an unimaginable sin, and I'm afraid I can't answer that question simply because I don't have an answer to it, loves."
Sirius blinked. "Yeah, yeah, sure." He waved her off. "But who do you love more?"
"Did you hear nothing of what I just said?" Lyra asked, bewildered.
"We did," Regulus replied, "but we also noticed that you are constantly deflecting our question and not giving us a proper answer."
The sound that left her mouth at her youngest brother's comment was a perfect mixture between a nervous laugh and a disbelieving scoff.
Her brothers and her awful father continued to look at her expectantly.
"...Do you know how babies are born?" She asked, making all three faces bewildered.
"No..." Sirius said slowly, "but what does that have to do with this?"
"Oh so much!" Lyra cried. "But I will not and I refuse to answer your question until you are thoroughly educated with this very critical and vital matter."
"Okay then, tell us." Regulus prompted with curious eyes. "How are babies born?"
"Dad knows!" Lyra blurted out, pointing a finger at her wide-eyed father. "He'll tell you both. Mom told me, so dad will tell you all. Speaking of our mother, I think I just heard her calling me. Coming mother!" She yelled, jumping off her seat and all-but running out of the room, carrying the sound of heels clicking off the marble floors with her.
The two boys looked unbothered by their older sister's weird and abrupt departure and instead faced their father with expectant, wonder-waiting eyes.
"So?" Regulus prompted. "How are babies born, father?"
"...I'll tell you when you're older," Orion said.
"But I'm twelve! I crossed double digits! Why won't you tell us?" Sirius demanded.
"I'll tell you when you are a teenager, meaning thirteen years old," Orion said, correcting his previous statement. "Thinking again, your grandfather Arcturus told me about this very exhaustive topic, so I think it's much better if you ask your grandfather about this. He'll explain it all much better than I, surely."
"But father-"
"-Coming Walburga!" Orion abruptly stood up. "Sorry boys, your mother is calling me. Best not to keep her waiting." He gave them an apologetic smile before walking away as fast as his regal upbringing would let him.
Regulus turned to Sirius. "Did you hear anything?"
"Only the departure of cowards," Sirius replied, glaring at the door through which his father and sister had speed-walked out of. "Fine, then! If Lyra and father won't tell us anything, then Grandma Mal and Grandpa Archie surely will. They won't keep anything from us." He said confidently. "We'll ask them."
Regulus nodded. "Okay."