A Conflict of Interest
"Why are we here, Asphodel?" Reggie drawled, throwing himself onto a settee in one of the countless little sitting rooms scattered throughout the Castle. Narcissa settled primly beside him, poking him in the knee so he'd sit up properly and put his arm around her waist like a good fiancé.
Gag. They made a pretty picture posing like that, sure, but still. They were sickeningly pleased with themselves. According to Snape, Reggie had all but moved into Narcissa's room. Not that Aster had much room to judge, since she and Evans had gotten rid of the second level of their double-decker four-poster about two days after Aster was finally well enough to seduce her newly-minted sister. She maintained, however, that Reggie and Cissy were being much more obnoxious about it than she was. If only because she'd always been overly affectionate and hanging all over people anyway.
She finished putting privacy palings in place before she answered. "We're having a family meeting."
Cissy didn't actually roll her eyes, but the expression was heavily implied by her exasperated tone. "Yes, Lily, we're aware. What is the purpose of this family meeting?"
Aster kind of wanted to know that too, but she wasn't about to give Narcissa the satisfaction of knowing that she didn't already know what was going on.
Evans sighed, dropping into the armchair Aster was perched on the arm of. "It's about Yule."
"What about Yule?" Cissy asked, all false patience. "I was under the impression Bella would inform you of the particulars. Asteria is also entirely capable of describing the ritual without Reggie's assistance, or mine."
"No, no, it's not that, I know how the ritual goes," Evans muttered, unaccountably uncomfortable. "It's...Bella asked me to assist."
"Oh, thank the gods." All eyes turned to Reg. "I don't like dead people," he said defensively. "I was hoping she'd ask you, or maybe even Aster, because she hasn't said anything to us, but— It's just a relief, that's all."
Aster scoffed. "Really, Reg? And you think you're going to get Marked in two years? You know you have to kill someone in front of everyone first, right?"
He did. He went rather pink over it. "Shut up, Aster! No one asked you!"
"If you're asking for our blessing on the matter," Narcissa said, taking the pressure off her betrothed, "you don't need to. It's Bella's prerogative to choose her assistant. Yes, the Head of the House generally elects their Heir to actually carry out the sacrifice, but it can be any member of the House. Bella's been doing it since we were children, and she hasn't been the designated Heir since Siri turned three."
That was sort of weird, actually, especially since Arcturus really didn't like Bella, even before she'd gone and usurped the House. Aster had never wanted to make the sacrifice, but she'd never really considered the fact that she'd never been asked. "Yeah, what's up with that?"
"Someone told me that the Family Magic insisted that Uncle let Bella assist rather than Cygnus, after she proved that she was capable of killing in other circumstances," her cousin answered.
Probably Andromeda, Aster thought. If it were anyone else, Cissy would've said.
"It's not that," Evans said, now even more obviously uncomfortable. Which objectively wasn't that obvious, most of their roommates probably wouldn't have noticed, but.
"Well, then, what is it?" she asked. Cissy raised an eyebrow at the tacit admission that Aster didn't know what was going on, either. Shut up, bitch, she thought loudly, despite the fact that Cissy was categorically not a legilimens. Spending all her time in the presence of Evans and Snape, she'd just sort of gotten into the habit of thinking asides at people the past few weeks. Snape found it incredibly weird, but Evans clearly didn't mind.
"I...don't know if I can do it," she admitted, sounding unaccountably ashamed of herself. "Kill someone, I mean, in cold blood." She swallowed hard. "I'm...not sure whether I want to participate at all, actually."
Aster scowled at her. "Yeah, well, tough titties, Evans. I get not wanting to hold the knife, go ahead and tell Bella I'll do it if I have to—" She wouldn't like it, but she'd do it for Evans, and the shocked expressions on Reg and Cissy when she said as much almost made it worth it all by themselves. "—but you knew you were going to have to participate when you let Bella adopt you. What happened to necromancers being comfortable around Death?"
Evans's fingers twisted anxiously around each other. "Death is fine. I don't mind Death. But it's— Kore doesn't like it when people die early. And I have this feeling..." She trailed off uncertainly (and also annoyingly).
Seriously, Evans, I can't read your mind... "What feeling?"
She turned to meet Aster's eyes, where she was still sitting on the arm of the chair. "A feeling that I'm going to want Kore to grant me a favour," she admitted, suddenly very certain and deadly serious. "Soon." She hesitated. "I don't know exactly why, or what, or who, but..."
But that was just fucking terrifying, because going to want Kore to grant me a favour, especially in conjunction with I don't know who, strongly suggested she had a feeling someone she cared about was going to die, soon. And that was a small fucking pool. Aster winced. "Okay, I can see how you'd want to avoid annoying her, then, but..."
But she had no idea what to say, how to advise her. Well, beyond, go talk to de Mort. She exchanged a rather helpless look with Narcissa, who thankfully did have a half-decent idea: "Sleep on it, Lily. Ask Kore's permission to do the ritual, or ask her to help you find an acceptable sacrifice, someone who was meant to die on Yule, anyway."
Aster nodded. "And if Kore tells you that she doesn't want you to participate, you can tell Bella that. She won't expect you to go against the will of your Patron." And the Family Magic might be willing to smack the Dark if it was overstepping (the Dark was more powerful, but that didn't mean it was allowed to elbow in on the governance of the House), but it wouldn't cross Persephone. It might be disappointed if Evans couldn't participate, but it wouldn't be angry at her or anything any more than Bella would be.
Evans let out a long, slow breath, visibly relaxing. Apparently that was what she'd needed to hear — that Bella wouldn't be upset with her if she had to turn down the honour of assisting. She nodded. "Okay. I— Okay. Thank you. That's... I can do that. Yes."
"...So, was that it?" Reggie asked.
Evans nodded again. "Yeah, that was all I wanted to talk about. Sorry for interrupting your afternoon." With such an easily-solved problem was left unsaid.
"Think nothing of it," Cissy drawled. "But while I have you here, have you scheduled your final fittings yet?" she asked accusingly. Both she and Evans had been flatly informed that they would be standing up with Cissy at the wedding, which had been rather unexpected, honestly. Cissy didn't have many friends, of course, and it was shockingly short notice, but Aster would have expected her to pick some of her Rosier cousins as attendants before her.
"Yes, yes," Evans assured her. "We're going on Friday, directly after lessons."
"Good. And your costumes for the Festa are ready as well?"
Evans froze. "Wait, you mean I have to get a second fancy dress? I can't just wear the same one to both—" She cut herself off as Cissy came over all horrified (despite having mentioned on plenty of previous occasions that the two events required different outfits). "Yes, Cissy, relax. We had the final fittings for those on Saturday. Everything's going to be fine."
Narcissa glowered at her. "You're not funny, Asphodel!"
"Reggie thinks I am."
Reggie, who had given no external sign of this, glared at her as Narcissa turned to glare at him. "Well, now I think you and Asteria are shockingly well-suited..."
Well, if that's not the best way to tell someone they're a bitch...
Aster laughed. She knew it wasn't meant to be a compliment, but she couldn't help feeling all warm and fuzzy over it anyway. (It was possible Reggie and Cissy weren't the only ones who were sickeningly pleased with themselves, lately.)