You Always Know

𝔉𝔦𝔣𝔱𝔢𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔥 ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯

He was making an announcement, but her mind was in some other place. It was thinking of the moment she had just had with the Prince of Gryffindor.

"You look like you desire to doze off."

"I don't genuinely like balls," Lily muttered.

"You used to love them."

"Used. Past tense, Potter."

"Back to Potter, eh?"

"It's always going to be Potter," she looked up at him, her chin on his chest. "That is your surname, is it not?"

The moment ran too quick, she conceded. If she could go back in time and just freeze the instant, she would. Particularly after what she was just about to hear.

"We welcome a marriage this season!" Gellert announced to the watching crowd.

"A wedding?" Mary whispered to the ears of the Ravenclaw group.

"A union, between Slytherin and Gryffindor! The bride of Slytherin and the groom from Gryffindor," Gellert smiled. "Congratulations, James Potter and Narcissa Black. Or should I say, soon-to-be Potter, future Queen of Gryffindor?"

A glass goblet fell to the floor and crashed. 

That was where we left off last, correct? Well, a surprise is meant to bring off multiple reactions, dear listeners of this story. It is just nature, I suppose. 

"An arranged marriage, really, Dad?" James Potter ran a hand through his hair. 

"Told you so," Euphemia glared at her husband as if they were back in their teenage years once more. 

"Why?"

"You said you would do anything for Gryffindor, son," Fleamont Potter. "I assumed it was direct permission."

"Did you truthfully ask, though?" the Prince of Gryffindor asked, his hand seemingly stuck to his hair. 

"That is exactly what I said," Euphemia spoke, having a little stare-down with her husband. 

"I'm sorry, but this establishes peace."

"And you believe Orion?"

"If it pushes matters to be reasonable, I can go and rip it asunder."

"No," the prince said. 

"James, if you don't wish this marriage to happen, it can vanish."

"Not without the price of a war," James explained. "You go heretofore on your contract, I guarantee you Orion Black will literally burn Gryffindor to the ground."

"It isn't far if he is an arsonist," Euphemia muttered mostly to herself. 

"We have to go on with this wedding," James Potter concluded. "For the best of the kingdom. For peace."

In another part of the castle at Hogwarts, where the Blacks resided, a similar conversation was occurring...

"A betrothal?" Narcissa asked, holding back her tears. "Behind my back?" 

"It is for power," Orion stated. "And you will not be backing out of this."

"Fuck you," Sirius spoke. "Where is the consent?"

"Sit down before you regret it," Regulus whispered and pulled his brother down. 

"I never regret a thing," Sirius noted, no time to put on his infamous smirk. "He practically sold our sister away for power!"