The Day After Tomorrow

VISIONS OF LIFE BEYOND

19 - VISIONS OF LIFE BEYOND

"WHAT do you suppose they're doing in there?" Blaise said from the leather couch closest to the fireplace, half dreading half burning for the answer.

Pansy sat reclining into a matching leather ottoman that had somehow become hers after her attack, she had her silk wrap pulled close around her body and her dark hair free skimming her shoulders. "I dunno. Something naughty probably."

Blaise blanched and fought to keep his tone casual. "What, why would you think that?" Pressed into his mind was the image of Draco and Granger twined against each other, shielded against the cold only by the green silk sheets of Malfoy's bed. Blaise was suddenly nauseous and sick with envy. 

Thanks Parkinson.

This time it wasn't Pansy who answered but Daphne. They were the last ones in the room anyway, everyone else had wondered off to bed after the drama that was the Gryffindor Princess looking for the Slytherin Prince and they hadn't seen Theo for the entire day. "I doubt they're doing anything, she's too innocent for Draco. My sister told me what they did last Christmas holiday, and it was not missionary."

Pansy snorted, laughing loudly. "Astoria's a legend isn't she. I remember she told me about this thing she did with her tongue that drove the blokes wild."

Blaise didn't think Astoria was a legend at all, in fact he felt his stomach knot and turn like a vat of acid.

He knew the burning pain that was unrequited love better than most people thought and he knew he himself had built up a reputation of a charming bachelor and he had enjoyed each of those girls. But it didn't feel great to sit and listen to the conquests of Draco in detail when all he wanted to do was all the things he heard they'd done with him instead.

"Yeah well my parents have plans to get her hitched by the end of the year." Daphne said with a dramatic sigh that was meant to sound nonchalant.

She'd tried to reason with her parents that the times of arranged marriages were gone but it hadn't helped. Even she had been promised to some wizard somewhere, the papers had been signed and everything, all that needed to happen was for the two of them to meet, marry and start popping out pureblood babies.

It was like her parents were trying to get rid of them and Daphne felt sad in that hollow emptying kind of way that always reminded her that all her parents cared about was improving their pureblood legacy.

After everything it hurt more than it should have, like she should have seen it coming.

"Who is it?" Pansy said and her voice came out too loud and too bright and she knew it was because her parents were also trying to wed her off and the story hit a little too close to home.

Daphne shrugged from her spot in front of the fire and gave an overly optimistic smile that tried to hide a lot but really didn't hide a thing, it was obvious she was terrified for her sister. "They wouldn't say, they just said he was from Hogwarts. I bet he's from Hufflepuff. They probably have a whole plan to try erase the stain of that bastard and only a Hufflepuff's nice enough for the papers."

Both Blaise and Pansy knew the bastard was really Voldemort, none of them said the name anymore but it felt too cowardly to say He Who Shall Not be Named even though the ghost of the man still haunted them all.

Blaise knew Daphne's parents were the calculative sort who cared more about the marketing of their real estate business than their daughters, so it wouldn't be surprising if they roped in some poor innocent pureblood Hufflepuff as a publicity stunt.

Except what if it was him?

Blaise felt himself sag into the leather, resigned and terrified because his parents were equally as concerned about image, at least his father was and that was really mattered in their household. It was the perfect coverup if his parents were still worried about the rumours his 'preferences' would have.