Bad Romance

Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Here We Are Now, Entertain Us

To Narcissa's credit, she never batted an eye as not only Aurors, but goblins, Acromantulas, elves who weren't servants, a Dumbledore, and a Muggle, all passed through her door on the night of Bella's party.

She greeted each and every one pleasantly, her gracious smile never wavering. Lucius, on the other hand, wore a strained, constipated smile almost constantly and kept disappearing into the library when the party was being held in the parlor. Rabastan, with Parvati as his plus one, drank up Lucius's unease with open glee, introducing a giant spider or goblin to him every time he made a brief and reluctant appearance.

Rod and Bella watched on in amusement, Rod shamelessly devouring finger sandwiches and cheese cubes. Gori stood beside Bellatrix, a bemused expression on his face.

"What are goblin parties like," Bellatrix asked, bending slightly to speak closer to his ear so as to be heard over the room full of conversing individuals.

Gori shrugged. "I don't know. I rarely attend them."

Bellatrix felt her brows come up. "Why? Don't you get invited?"

He seemed nice enough, at least not the sort to make problems at a party. "I try to avoid it if at all possible," he said with a slight dry smile.

She hesitated before asking, "So why'd you come to this one?"

The question was uncomfortable, and she wasn't accustomed to that. That is, she was unaccustomed to uncomfortable situations that she wasn't gleefully the reason for. She'd always had few friends and never attempted to be accepted by anyone not in her narrow inner circle. Too many didn't comprehend her, or anything she valued or stood for, outside of family and their pureblood friends of like minds.

And even they shied away once she and the Lestrange boys grew up and got a little wild, but it only came with the territory. When you stepped up to fight for your right to be magical, you learned to enjoy the ways of war. If you didn't, you'd hate it, and it would break you. That's why people like Cissy worked from the wings where it was comfortable, and Bella got her hands dirty because she liked red.

Making friends outside of that, though, made her feel uncertain in a way that was oddly disconcerting. Gori was a pureblood as she saw it. Goblins were as magic as they got. Still, for whatever reason, goblins and wizards hadn't united until now, and she knew little of their ways or temperament even if it did seem they could match her own. She wasn't quite sure where she stood with Gori yet.

"I suppose I thought...it was the thing to do," he answered carefully, and she smiled when she saw he was as uncomfortable as she.

"It's alright," she said, giving him a warm smile. "All this rubbish is strange for me too. I never fit in anywhere truly, except with Rod and Rabastan. Finding that I enjoy the company of others, even if only a few, is surprising."

Gori nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of his black suit jacket.

"I was good working at the bank. I knew what I was doing, and I didn't have to think about it much. Then Griphook put me in the bloody Ministry, right under the bloody Minister, with too much authority as if I actually belonged there and knew what I was doing!"

Bellatrix blinked. "You didn't want the job?"

He shook his head. "I didn't want it and wasn't at all qualified for it, as I still see it even today. And I was bloody terrified as a result! I guess that's why I related to you when you lot came to the Ministry that first day. You seemed about as uncomfortable there as I did."

Bellatrix nodded, then smiled as she remembered how surreal it was to be surrounded by Aurors and not fighting them! "We're quite accustomed to each and every Auror bloody hating us. Granted, we may have given them reasons later on, but in the beginning it was simply because we had different politics. They didn't even try very hard to find out who killed Rodolphus and Rabastan's mum.