Arranged Marriage

Chapter 1

The growing darkness, that was now covering  the once blue sky, was enough to make Sara turn around and head back to the manor.

She had been walking for what seemed like ages. There in the fields that surrounded the manor that she called home. It was her favorite place to be, doing whatever her heart desired.

If she ever wanted to get away from the world, or away from the dark walls of the manor, that's where she would go. It was, to her, the most peaceful place in the world. It offered a sense of brightness that she couldn't get in her families manor.

The Merlin manor was just the kind of place you would expect the Merlins to live. Enormous, dark, and cold.  Those three words captured the manors essence perfectly.  Cold could also be used to describe the Merlins themselves.

They were a well known family, one of the most well known in the whole wizard world. As their name implied, they were the decedents of the great Merlin himself. Because of this the Merlins weren't just well known, they were also quite respected. Evander Merlin, Sara's father, worked for the ministry of magic, but most people were more scared of him than the actual minister. It seemed as though everyone knew that Evander would be the next minister. Evander was also, like everyone in the Merlin bloodline, a Slytherin.

Arabella, Sara's mother, was the only other Hufflepuff. Although she married into the Merlin family so perhaps she didn't count. She was Sara's favorite thing about the manor. Not that she didn't like her father or her brothers, but her mother brought a certain light that couldn't be explained. Which was also what a lot of people said about Sara.

Sara's brothers, Atlas and Beckett,were both Slytherins. They were the embodiment of wealth and power, even at their young ages. Altas was the oldest and he was the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team, although both brothers were on the team. Everyone at Hogwarts knew who they were, much like they knew Sara, and nobody messed with them. The other Slytherins pretty much worshiped the ground the Merlin brothers walked on. 

Sara was a Hufflepuff and although she was sure it bothered her father and brothers, even if they said it didn't, she loved it. The Slytherins still respected her because of her name. The Hufflepuffs obviously saw her as one of their own. The Ravenclaws admired her because of her kindness and wit, and most of her closest friends were Gryffindors. It was the best of both worlds, having each of the houses like her.

It wasn't a total surprise when she got sorted into Hufflepuff, her mother was one after all, but still it was all people talked about for a while. Sara could still remember the disappointment on her brothers faces. She had a love hate relationship with her brothers. She loved them and got along with them quite well outside of school, but while they were at Hogwarts the boys seemed to act completely different.

While the Slytherins loved them, the other houses were terrified of them. They were known to be rude and obnoxious to those who got in their way, and sometimes even to those who didn't. Sara's father was also much colder at events and outings in front of the wizarding world. Sara knew that the Merlin name came with a lot of responsibility, but she didn't know why they had to act like such different people sometimes.

But of course it wasn't like they were warm and fuzzy at home either. They were only slightly more welcoming, and that was only to their friends and those also in their social class. But the Merlins closest friends had to be the Malfoys.

Lucius and Evander both worked at the ministry together and had grown quite close over the years. They were both well respected wizards so it would only make sense for them to be friends. Narcissa and Arabella were also quite close, but weren't really friends in school. Maybe it was because Arabella was five years younger than the other three but often times when they would all tell the children stories about their time at Hogwarts, Arabella wasn't included.