Into the Mouth of Hell

Into the Mouth of Hell: Chapter 6

Boxing Day at Malfoy Manor

Lucius opened the door of Malfoy Manor just as Severus was preparing himself to knock. Although he was anxious to spend some time away from his mother, who had been very pleased when the thick invitation from Malfoy Manor had arrived by owl post the day Severus got home for holiday, he was extremely nervous about meeting the other guests at Malfoy Manor, not to mention the residents.

"Ah, there you are, Severus," Lucius beamed uncharacteristically. He was wearing burgundy velvet robes, and his normally sleek blonde hair was hanging into his eyes. He rested his forearm against the thick mahogany door, leaned into it so that it creaked loudly, and took a very long sip from a glass of amber liquid he held in his hand. "We've been expecting you."

"I am delighted to have received the invitation," Severus replied tersely, repeating what his mother had rehearsed with him that afternoon. She had demanded that he stay for tea, which had apparently made him the last person to arrive.

"You surely did not travel with Muggles?" Lucius asked, looking down at Severus' snow-covered boots. He had a laugh in his voice, and Severus wished that whatever was in that glass, Lucius would bring some back to Hogwarts with him.

"Oh, no," Severus said quickly. "I flooed to--"

"Who's at the door, Lucius?" A gentle, feminine voice called from within.

Severus peered into the dark entryway.

"It's young Severus Snape, mother," Lucius called back cheerily.

"Well, don't just stand there!" the voice laughed. "Bring him in!"

Lucius helped Severus carry his trunk in through the door, and then motioned to Severus to hand him his cloak. Severus did so, trying to shake some of the snow off.

"Don't bother," Lucius laughed again. "We have a very competent staff of house-elves that will see to that. They're off preparing something for dinner, I suppose." Lucius motioned for Severus to follow him.

He had never been in a house as exquisite as Malfoy Manor. The stone walls were hung with heavy ornate tapestries of serpents and, oddly enough, fairies. Evergreen boughs twined with holly decked the foyer, wrapping Severus in the smells of Christmas. A Persian carpet covered the polished marble floor. A giant gold mirror hung at the end of the entryway, and Severus surveyed himself in it before following Lucius into the drawing room. He had worn the new robes that he had received for Christmas, and had a fancy set of dress robes packed in his trunk. He had not known how to pack for the stay with the Malfoys, but his mother assured him that formal was always a safe bet at Malfoy Manor.

Lucius coughed lightly. Severus turned from the mirror and stepped into the lively drawing room.

A laughing blonde woman sat at the piano with a laughing man whom Severus recognized as Orpheus Black, Bella's father. More men were conversing in leather chairs around the fire. Andromeda sat slightly apart from them, reading a book. Narcissa stood, tall and slender in black velvet robes, looking at a tapestry on the far side of the room, sipping from a glass. Younger men who didn't look much older than Lucius were standing around the bar, each holding a glass of liquor in their hands. Severus recognized most of the Quidditch team, looking quite sauced, as well as Eugene, Roddy, and Bella, who came to meet him by the door. The room was filled with something Severus vaguely recognized as holiday cheer, though it was very spare in his own home. He smiled widely, forgetting his insecurities. This looked like it was going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

Lucius cleared his throat, loudly this time. Several of the people turned toward them. "May I present to you," Lucius called in a very pompous, though still cheerful, voice, "the young Mr. Severus Snape, son of Mr. and Mrs. Desolas Snape."

Much to his awkwardness, several people clapped, and Bella threw her arms around him. She smelled warm, slightly like a potion they had brewed in class before break, but with a twist of something spicy and exotic, something like mallowsweet.

"Oh, I'm so glad you could come!" she said, releasing him finally. "If you weren't here by dinner we were going to send a kneazle rescue party!" Bella laughed and began to drag him away with her.

"Oh no, Bella," Lucius chuckled, grabbing Severus' other arm. "I need to introduce young Mr. Snape to some of the other guests, then you may drag him away to wherever you please and snog him senseless, for all I care."

Severus felt his face redden deeply. Bella laughed loudly and released his hand. "I don't know about that, Lucius!" She lowered her voice so that they were the only ones who could hear her. "I had my eye set on something a bit taller, if you catch my drift." She winked and skipped off.

Severus looked confusedly up at Lucius. "Never underestimate the powers of a young, determined witch, Severus," Lucius said, taking another drink from his glass. "That's lesson one."

Severus cocked an eyebrow. He could see a faint trace of pink in Lucius' cheeks that probably had nothing to do with his drink. "Oh, and what's lesson two?"

"Never underestimate the powers of a Malfoy."

"Funny," said Severus, amused by this newly revealed, relaxed side of Lucius. "I would have thought that would have been the first lesson."

"Under normal circumstances, yes," Lucius replied, steering Severus to the bar. "But after a few of these," he said, pouring from a bottle whose label (Malfoy Elect Single-Malt Scotch) was stamped in gold, "you begin to re-prioritize." He handed Severus a glass like the one he held in his hand.

One of the men at the bar laughed raucously. "Teaching the kid the ins and outs, I see, Malfoy!" He was a big fellow, with a mess of curly, honey-blonde hair. "Are you going to introduce me to your pledge, here?"

"Of course, Mulciber!" Lucius cried, tipping more scotch into his glass. "Mr. Niles Mulciber please meet Mr. Severus Snape."

Severus shook hands with Mulciber as Lucius further introduced them.

"Mulciber just graduated four years ago," he said to Severus, and then turned to Mulciber. "Severus here is a first-year Slytherin, and a very capable one at that."

Severus forced himself not to blush at the compliment, and instead took a sip of his drink. It stung his entire mouth, lit his throat on fire, but settled warmly in his stomach. He coughed slightly.

Mulciber laughed deeply again and slapped Severus roughly on the back. "Malfoy keeping you on your toes, then, Sevvie?"

Severus flinched at the sound of the dreadful nickname he was afraid he had just been given, but no one noticed.

"Wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't. See here," said Lucius in a serious tone, setting down his glass and clearing his throat. "Snape, who is the Head Boy at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

Severus grinned. He had been expecting another Dueling Club quiz. "I think it's some bloke named Lucius Malfoy."

"And is this a handsome bloke, would you say?" Lucius winked.

"Oh, I wouldn't say," Severus tried to pull a straight face, "but I suppose the girls might."

Everyone around laughed loudly. Lucius placed a hand on his shoulder. "Excellent! Fifty points to Slytherin!" he called.

After meeting the fraternity of Malfoy friends at the bar, and refilling everyone's glasses, Lucius steered Severus to the piano, where he shook hands with Mrs. Cassiopeia Malfoy ("Oh, he's just darling, Lucius!") and Mr. Orpheus Black ("Pleasure to meet you again, son."). Then he met the men by the fire: Mr. Vortigern Malfoy, who Severus recognized from Platform 9 ¾, and also some Ministry officials named Mr. Augustus Rookwood and Mr. Walden Macnair. Roddy's dad, Mr. Rigel Lestrange, shook Severus' hand very enthusiastically. "I've heard wonderful things about you from Rodolphus!" he beamed.

Andromeda looked up at him and smiled faintly. "Happy Christmas, Severus?"

Severus sat down across from her, after finally being released by Lucius, who went back to the bar to fill his glass. "Yes, very well, thank you. And yours?"

"It was wonderful," Andromeda sighed, glancing at her younger sister at the bar. "Bellatrix has been going on about you all holiday," she grinned, leveling her eyes with Severus. "It's been driving Narcissa and I mad."

The gears turned slowly in Severus' head. Bella had been talking about him? "Oh, really?" He tried to sound nonchalant. "What did she say?"

"Oh, just about how smart you are, how much you devote yourself to Slytherin." She returned her attention to her book. "How much she likes you."

After the little scene in the doorway, Severus found that hard to believe. "What do you mean? I thought she had a thing for Lucius?"

"Maybe," Andromeda said, still reading.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Severus asked a bit too heatedly. Although he wouldn't deny that Bella was perhaps the most enticing witch at Hogwarts, Severus and she had never displayed affections for one another. And he surely did not want to cross Lucius.

"Nothing, forget it," Andromeda said, snapping closed her book, Sonnets of a Sorcerer. She looked in the direction of her father, and then reached for Severus' glass of scotch. He let her have it. She took a slow sip, then pulled a face as if she had just been forced to kiss something slimy. "Oh, Malfoy brand scotch." She licked her lips and shuddered slightly. "And to think we're related."

Confused, Severus followed her gaze to the bar, upon which sat Bella, her hand resting comfortably on Lucius' arm as he filled her glass with more scotch.

"They look cozy, don't they?" Severus started at the sarcastic, cold drawl that came from behind him. Turning, he saw Narcissa, her gray eyes stormy with flames not coming from the fire.

* * * * *

By the time everyone had changed for dinner and was seated in the massive dining hall, Eugene and Roddy had each consumed so much alcohol that they couldn't talk without hiccupping, which would induce an unruly giggling fit. Mrs. Malfoy had finally had enough, though, when they tried to drag Bella and Severus into it, and she pointed her wand at the two Quidditch players.

"Oh, hold still!" she said, quite annoyed with both of them, who were squirming against the restraints of Crabbe and Goyle. Finally they calmed down enough for Lucius' mother to perform the Sobrietus charm, which she quickly followed with Silencio. "Honestly," she said to Narcissa, who sat beside her at the table, "you'd think we were made of liquor."

Narcissa smiled politely. "Well, you are, at least in part, Mrs. Malfoy."

Mrs. Malfoy laughed. "Quite right you are!" And she enchanted several bottles of wine to fill the glasses around the table.

Severus sat comfortably between Andromeda and Bellatrix near the end of the table across from Narcissa and Lucius. The Quidditch team and the rest of Lucius' friends sat in the middle, and Mr. Malfoy's associates sat at the far end with Mr. Malfoy. It was a rather comfortable dinner; Mrs. Malfoy kept up a lively conversation with Andromeda, Narcissa, and Lucius about the merits of pureblood marriage, which Severus was content to ignore. Instead, he talked in hushed tones with Bella, who was explaining how she was related to everyone in the room.

"Well, you see, Mrs. Malfoy is my father's second cousin, through the Black line, of course, and Mr. Lestrange is her cousin. Most people with Black blood are named after stars or constellations. It really makes a lot of sense," she said, taking another bite of suckling pig. "And Mulciber, Macnair, and Rookwood I think are related to the Malfoys through marriage, and maybe Avery, too. Though, I'm not quite sure how you got dragged into all this."

"So, you're related to Lucius and Roddy?" Severus asked, feeling even queasier about the way Bella had flirted with Lucius earlier.

Bella nodded. "Sort of, not really. It's so distant, it doesn't even count."

Severus took a drink from his wine glass. He had let Andromeda finish his scotch, as he didn't really have a taste for it. He thought, perhaps, he was far too sober to understand how someone could justify marrying a cousin. Luckily, underage drinking was always in fashion at Malfoy Manor.

"For instance," Bella clarified, lowering her voice, "I'm sure our mothers have it all figured out that one of us is going to marry Lucius, see. He's a devilish good piece."

Shocked, Severus turned his head so sharply that it collided painfully with Bella's.

"Watch it lovebirds," Mrs. Malfoy laughed. "We'd hate for you to be unconscious and miss stargazing."

"Stargazing?" Severus asked, rubbing the lump on his forehead.

"Why, yes, stargazing! It's a Black family tradition!" Mrs. Malfoy threw up her hands. "On Boxing Day, after we've given away a good chunk of gold and feasted extravagantly, we sit out on the grounds with balls of fire and explore the stars to our fancy!" Mrs. Malfoy laughed again. She was quite flushed from the wine, and Severus noticed (without meaning to) that her bust strained against her midnight blue dress robes.

"Yes, but the Malfoy family tradition is to give away a good chunk of gold, feast extravagantly, and then sit around and drink ourselves daft, indeed!" Lucius said with a wink. Severus had been counting his glasses of wine, and he was on his fourth.

Narcissa rolled her eyes and audibly sighed in annoyance.

"And sometimes we tell nasty jokes. But generally we just get pissed," Lucius elaborated.

"Oh, Lucius," said Mrs. Malfoy in a reprimanding tone, "we also do quite a bit of snogging."

Severus blushed furiously, as Mr. Malfoy, from the opposite end of the long table, shouted, "Snogging? I like the sound of that!"

And everyone around the table raised their drinks in a toast, even Eugene and Roddy, who were still suffering the effects of Mrs. Malfoy's charm.

* * * * *

Severus shifted his weight nervously as he waited with Lucius for Bella and her sisters on the cold porch. After dinner, most of the party had disappeared to their bedchambers to retrieve their cloaks, except for Mr. Malfoy and his associates, who resumed their drinking in the drawing room. The Black sisters, however, were the last ones down.

Lucius stole a sip from a silver flask in his pocket, which Severus was sure was full of more liquor, then handed it to Severus.

Severus made to hand it back, but Lucius wouldn't hear of it. "You'll want to keep that. When my mother says 'balls of fire,' she's not talking about magic."

Severus took a small sip, and was pleased to find that the liquor inside the flask tasted like cider. "Hey--this is pretty good." He took another sip.

"Thanks." Lucius swayed a bit. "I spelled it--no, that's not right--I bewitched the taste for you. Recipe calls for a touch of Pepper-Up, too."

"Thank you," Severus said, taking another drink. He was tired from traveling, meeting people, and trying to keep up with Bella all evening.

"It's the least I can do." Lucius swayed again, then took out his wand.

Severus thought Lucius drunk and armed with a wand was a bit dodgy. He pointed it at himself, though, much to Severus' relief, and muttered, "Medisobrietus!" A small shock of purple light shot out of the wand at Lucius' stomach.

"Ahh, that's better," he said, nodding to himself. "Say, Sevvie, I need a favor."

Severus, who was quite thankful for the quick-acting effects of Lucius' concoction despite the use of the dreaded nickname, might have done anything for Lucius just then. "Sure. What do you need?"

"Malfoys never need, Severus, but I want you to do something for me."

Severus nodded, a bit embarrassed by his offense.

"I need you to lure Bella from me."

The drink that Severus had just taken came out his nose, and he nearly fell on his arse. "What?"

"The little witch won't leave me alone!" Lucius explained. "I've had my cap tipped at Narcissa all year, but Bella--well, she's a bit in the way, you see."

Severus picked up something in Lucius' voice that he had never thought to hear there: desperation. "Sure. I'll keep her away from you, if you'd like."

"Afraid of a little action, huh, Sevvie?"

Severus flinched at the nickname. He took a long draught from the flask. "Yes," he answered very honestly.

Lucius laughed. "Well, I've got something that will cheer you up then." He cleared his throat, and then began to recite:

Once on a time, I fair Dorinda kissed,

Whose nose was too distinguished to be missed,

'My dear,' says I, 'I fain would kiss you closer,

But though your lips say 'aye,' your nose says, 'no sir.''

The witch was equally to fun inclined,

And placed her lovely lily hand behind.

'Here, wizard,' says she, 'may you securely kiss

Where there is no nose to interrupt your bliss!'

"Lucius Malfoy!" Narcissa's shrill voice, in mock outrage, interrupted their laughter. "How dare you fill little Severus' head with that--that language!"

She slowly dropped her hands from her hips, grinning widely. Lucius and Severus began laughing again, and the three Black sisters, each in matching thick black velvet cloaks and laughing just as loud as the two boys, accompanied them outside.

The Malfoy gardens stretched for what seemed like miles in every direction. Severus and Bella followed the paths around for quite some time, trying to find an unoccupied bench, which Lucius had told him had heaters for cold bums.

Andromeda met Mulciber halfway across the lawn, and Lucius and Narcissa had excused themselves at the Orion fountain just inside the gardens. That left Severus alone with Bella, who walked with her arms crossed, looking straight ahead.

Severus cleared his throat slightly, willing away his nerves. "It's a clear night," he said lamely. He took the flask out of his cloak pocket and handed it to Bella, who turned to him.

"I just don't get it, Severus," she said haughtily. "I do everything for him at school, and then he goes traipsing off with Narcissa the Wonderful, who doesn't even like him, let alone--" She stopped, sighed angrily, and took a long pull of the scotch-cider-Pepper-Up stuff Lucius had made. "Hey, this is good!"

"Yeah, I know." This wasn't going exactly as he planned. "Maybe there's a bench down that row," he said, pointing down a shadowed hedge to their left.

"It's just," Bella whined, then began again, "It's just that I try so hard, Severus. I try so hard to be good enough."

Severus looked her in the face. Thankfully, she wasn't crying. He put his arm uneasily around her shoulder, giving her a friendly squeeze. Surprisingly, Bella relaxed against him. "I think you're good enough," he said, trying to cheer her.

Bell smiled faintly, and took another drink. "Thanks."

They sat down on a bench by the low hedge, and Severus looked up at the stars. The winter constellations seemed brighter and more tranquil to Severus in comparison to the other seasons; he assumed that it was because the nights were longer and the earth was farther from the sun. He started tracing the figures with his eyes: Orion, Cetus, Aries.

Bella took hold of his hand, snapping Severus out of his reverie. She was looking up at the cold sky just as Severus had been, but was undoubtedly wearing a very warm smile. "You know, Severus," she said pensively, "you can't look at the sky without looking right through it."

* * * * *

They sat like that for hours, it seemed: holding hands, looking up at the stars, and occasionally passing Lucius' flask back and forth. Bella showed Severus which stars the members of her family were named after, and Severus reciprocated by pointing out planets and sharing the histories of the wizards who named them.

When it was quite late and their flask was empty, they slowly made their way back to the Manor, passing Eugene and Roddy, who had their heads in the rose bushes, apparently spying on some couple. Once inside, Severus helped Bella out of her cloak and made to lay it beside his own, when Bella stopped him.

"I'm not really ready for bed, are you?"

Severus thought about it, and surprisingly, he wasn't tired. "I suppose we have the Pepper-Up to thank for that."

Bella giggled excitedly, throwing her cloak over her head. "I have an idea. Follow me!"

"Do I have to throw my cloak over my head, too?" Severus laughed. He did it anyway, and followed Bella into a small parlor off the drawing room.

There were only a few candles lit in the room, and it was very dark. Severus crept behind Bella, who was crouching close to the ground, making her way over to a set of French doors. She pushed them open slightly so that they could hear the low conversation of the men in the drawing room.

"When I was a little girl," Bella whispered, sitting down on the floor and pulling her cloak tightly around her, "I would sneak out of bed and come down here to eavesdrop on my father, Rigel, and Vortigern."

A chair shifted in the drawing room, followed by heavy footsteps, then the tinkling of liquid being poured into a glass. Bella put her finger to her lips, and then pressed her face to the crack in the door.

"It's just Rigel," she said softly. "Looks like it's just him, my dad, and Vortigern. No one else ever stays." She turned back away from the gap in the door.

Severus scooted closer to her so that he could hear them better.

"Their talking about the Ministry," Bella explained, her ear pressed to the door.

"Well, of course, I made my charitable contribution just like every year, but I still don't like what's going on there," Orpheus, Bella's father, was saying.

"Millicent Bagnold and I have never seen eye to eye," Vortigern said, his words a bit slurred, "but we've always been able to work out a deal."

"What they ought to do is just send her to the Centaur's Office," Rigel laughed. "You know, Crouch wants to give Aurors the permission to use Unforgivable Curses."

The other men grumbled. "If he gets a hold on that department--"

"Just no respect left," Vortigern moaned. "You'd think proper blood meant nothing to these people, those common goblins they have running things."

Orpheus laughed. "That reminds me. Cassiopeia said she heard from Mrs. Mockridge that her husband was intending on lobbying to give the goblins rights to use magic in case the situation became severe."

"Glad to see you sporting with my wife," Vortigern said sarcastically. "Mind, you are cousins."

"If you were paying any attention at all, Vortigern--"

"Now, now, gentlemen." Rigel's smooth voice cut between the arguing men. "Orpheus isn't engaging in illicit activities with your wife, Vortigern." He laughed sourly, "Although, from what I've heard, half the Ministry is."

"Better for business," Vortigern laughed. Their glasses clinked in a toast.

Disgusted, Severus pulled away from the door. Bella's blue eyes were wide as she continued to listen. Severus made to get up and move to a sofa he spotted on the other side of the room, but Bella pulled him back down by his cloak.

"They're talking about Lucius and Narcissa!" Bella whispered. "They're engaged!"

"I wonder when that happened," Severus mused, pulling his disheveled cloak around him. In the cold, dark room, he could feel the effects of the potion wearing off. He was suddenly very much looking forward to sleep.

"They're just arranging it now."

"Arranging it?"

"The fathers have agreed that the pairing wouldn't mar the bloodline," Bella explained in a whisper. "And they've decided on the dowry."

"Dowry?" There was a lot more to pureblood marriage than Severus was aware.

"Money," Bella hissed. She listened intently for a few more minutes, and then pulled away from the door suddenly. "They're done. Vortigern passed out. Give them a while to get him in bed, and then we can sneak out." Bella closed the door softly, and Severus began to stand, but then sat down just as quickly, as two very tall, very blonde, very slender people stumbled into the parlor: Narcissa and Lucius. And they were very much disinclined to notice them. Severus watched them slowly cross the carpet, hands going everywhere, and fall down onto the sofa.

"Ouch, Lucius!" Narcissa whispered. "Your wand just stabbed me!"

A low laugh escaped from Lucius. "I don't think that was my wand, Sissy."

Severus turned to Bella, mouthing "Sissy?" Bella put her hand over her mouth to suppress her giggles. They crawled along the wall, trying very hard not to be heard above the sounds of slurping and the occasional thud and moan that came from the sofa, although Severus was quite sure that an entire crate of Filibuster Fireworks could have gone off in the drawing room and the two blonde lovers wouldn't have noticed.

Bella and Severus made a break for it once in the hall, and managed to run all the way up the steps to their bedchamber doors before breaking out into a rolling laughter.

"Sissy?" Severus laughed. "He calls her Sissy?"

"Since we were knee high to doxies!" Bella clutched at her side.

After they had recovered from their laughing spell, they were enveloped by a very awkward silence, which was finally broken by Bella.

"Why don't you come in for a while? I'll get an elf to bring us cocoa."

Severus nodded. All he really wanted was sleep, but cocoa did sound pretty good.

As they sat on the end of Bella's bed and sipped their cocoa, Severus returned to the conversation they had had in the gardens. He wondered if Bella was still upset by Lucius. "Hey, Bella," Severus started, hesitant. It really was none of his business, but he plowed on anyway. "What's up with you and Lucius, anyway? He wanted me to--he wanted me to keep you company tonight." Severus began examining his mug.

"Did he?" Bella asked, leaning closer to Severus. "Why do you suppose he did that?"

Severus took a deep drink of his cocoa and choked. After he recovered, he looked up at Bella, who was peering at him imploringly. "He wanted time alone with Narcissa."

"Did he say I was in the way?"

"Maybe something like that."

"And?"

"And what?" Severus asked. "He just wanted--"

"Someone to get me out of his hair?" Bella asked, one eyebrow raised.

"That very well could have been it," Severus admitted.

"And what about you?"

Severus really didn't like where this conversation was heading. "What about me?"

"Oh, come off it, Severus," Bella said, exasperated. She took away his mug and set it on the floor with her own. She raised her hands like claws. "Tell me."

Severus looked at her suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to tickle you, Severus." She narrowed her eyes, and then pounced on him like a cat, her frantic fingers digging into his thin ribs.

Severus laughed despite himself. He had never really been tickled before. Bella's thick black hair fell into his face as they wrestled. It smelled like mallowsweet.

After maybe a minute of hard laughing, he felt his lungs tightening. His breath was becoming harder to pull in. "Stop it, Bella!" he gasped. He began to panic and tried to push her off of him. "STOP IT!"

Bella persisted, digging at his ribs harder. Severus was no longer laughing, however. He was struggling to pull away from her, to get free. But she kept a firm hold on him. Finally, he jerked away so violently that he fell off the bed and onto the floor.

Bella quit giggling. "What's wrong?"

Severus was massaging his sides where Bella's claws had made their hold. "Nothing." He willed his breath to slow, keeping his eyes fixed on Bella.

"What's wrong, Sevvie?" she taunted, sitting up on her knees, panting.

"This," he said slowly, trying to make sense of it. On one level, he had been struggling for air. On another level, he had been afraid because he liked it. He liked being close to Bella. But it didn't feel right -- anyway, not in the Lucius and Narcissa sense. "You're like my sister," he said finally. It was the closest thing to the truth that he could discern.

Bella blinked. "You don't have a sister."

"I know," Severus said, sitting back down on the edge of the bed. "But it's just weird, I mean," he paused, trying to clear the fog in his brain, "I've never had a girl as a friend before." Severus thought that maybe that was the reason he felt so strange.

"I have to marry Roddy," Bella blurted suddenly.

Severus snapped his head to look at her. "What?"

"Dad and Rigel said. In the drawing room." She suddenly looked like she wanted to cry.

"I don't understand." He shook his head slightly. "That makes no sense."

"Blood and money, Severus," Bella said bitterly, curling her knees up to her chest. "I'm sorry about the whole tickling bit. Andromeda says I sometimes take things too far. I'm just upset." She took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. "They'll tell us when we're of age."

"There's nothing to be done, I suppose?" Severus asked.

"I suppose not," Bella said.

"Do you like him?"

Bella shrugged. "Could be worse." The corners of her mouth twitched. "Could be Avery."

Severus didn't laugh. "What are you going to do?"

Bella sighed. "There's nothing to do except get on with it." She paused, and then leaned her shoulder against Severus. "I just feel a bit -- I don't know -- betrayed, I think."

Severus hesitated, then put his arm around her. "How do you mean?"

"It's just -- I mean -- Don't get me wrong, I respect my family. But it's like we don't get to make any choices. It's like history has already written itself for us, or something. Like with the whole astral naming thing. I don't know. I'm not making any sense."

Severus rubbed his hand up and down Bella's arm. "No, it makes sense. There are expectations." Severus had never really thought about it before, but Bella was right. "We have certain obligations to do what's right. For our families." Severus thought back to his mother and her tealeaves. "It's not always easy."

Bella sniffed a bit, looking up at him, her dark eyes brimming with tears. "You're a good friend, Severus. I'm glad to have met you." She kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Likewise, Bella," he said softly.