May 3rd, 1977
With the school year winding down, there was a lot less for Athania to do. Several students crammed for their upcoming finals while she sat back and relaxed, having paced herself for the whole year so she could avoid just that.
She sat on the common room's couch, attempting a complicated braid on Andromeda's hair as Ophelia and Gilderoy sat across from her, cramming themselves.
"You need pig's blood for a draught of death!" Gilderoy irritably snaps at his girlfriend.
"You need pig's blood for a draught of sleep. You need dragon's blood for a draught of death, you git!" Ophelia snaps back.
"You two need a study break," Andromeda chimes in.
"She may be right about that one," Gilderoy shuts the textbook.
"I hate advanced potions," Ophelia whines, laying back on the couch.
"Oh I took that as a sixth year- Ow," Andromeda gripes, Athania pulling at her hair.
"Sorry, the ring keeps getting caught," she apologizes, pulling off her engagement ring and handing it to Andromeda to hold while she braids.
"Oh yeah, I haven't seen it yet!" Ophelia excitedly says before Andromed holds it up for her friend to see.
"Merlin, Athania. How do you hold your hand up with that rock on your finger?" she asks, admiring the diamond ring Lucius had bought for her.
"I thought it was an arranged marriage?" Lockhart asks.
"It was, but Lucius said he didn't want to have to rely on our parent's plans," Athania explains.
"He did an official proposal the other week when they went home. It was quite romantic," Andromeda explains to their friend's boyfriend.
"Oh. Well, congratulations?" he says it as if it were a question, confused by their dynamic.
"I know we're not very traditional," Athania chuckles at Lockhart's tone as she ties off Andromeda's braid.
"You think?" Andy chuckles as she hands Athania her ring back.
No sooner than she got her ring back on, Lucius bursts through the common room door, rushing for the stairs.
"Luci?" Athania called with no response. "Lucius?!" she quickly gets up, running after him, leaving her friends on the couches.
It wasn't until she reached his dorm that she caught up to him.
"What's the matter?" she worriedly asks as he digs through his drawers for his wand.
"I have to go. Where's Octavius?" he asks, almost to himself as he flees his room, Athania on his heels.
"I believe in his room. What's happening?!" she yells at him, trying to get him to stop as she chases him.
"Lucius!" she grabs him, stopping him.
"I need to go home for something. Please, dont follow me," he begs, the two standing in an empty dorm corridor.
"What is happening?" she asks.
"I can't explain. All I need you to do is just stay here, please," he frantically asks again.
"Are you leaving me?" she asks, her voice now significantly smaller.
"What? No- No, Athania just stay here, please," he says again before leaving her again, on a mission to find Oc.
They were surely going to the manor.
Without another thought, she heads back for the common room to retrieve her wand and follow the two, despite Lucius' wishes.
"What was wrong with him?" Andromeda asks as her cousin reappears in the doorway of the common room.
"We're about to find out," Athania says as she grabs her wand, apparating.
********
Her nerves were frazzled with anxiety, messing up her apparation in the moment of stress. When she opened her eyes she was not in the manor but on the outskirts of it by the gates.
She pushes through the large iron gates with two M's sitting at the top, walking through the velvety black evening and into the front doors of the manor; the house was eerily quiet.
Suddenly very frightened, she doesn't call out for Lucius but scours the dark home for any sign of life.
Carefully clearing each room as she was taught in auror training, she begins to hear faint voices in the direction of the dining room.
Still meticulously clearing each room on the way there, she finally reached the doorway to the dining room, her heart practically beating out of her chest.
She takes a deep breath when she reached the doorway, unaware of what she would find on the other side of it.
Stepping through the door, she finds the long dining room table filled with the Malfoy's, her cousin, her friends, several wanted death eaters that she had read in the papers, and the man from the cafe at the head of the table.
She bites her tongue when she realized what this was and what the man she loved had been apart of all this time.
"Ms. Black? What a treat," the man coos when he sees the brunette, using his wand to summon a chair.
Lucius looks up at her in the closest he has ever felt to hate for the woman.
Why? Why couldn't she have just listened and stayed at Hogwarts? Their lives would never be the same now.
Swallowing any reaction she may have had, she stoically walks for the chair, calculating each step before taking a seat between her lover and Severus.
"It appears we get stronger every day," he lowly chuckles at the situation before going back to their meeting.
Lucius refused to look at Athania, astonished at how she simply sat like this was a normal, everyday thing.
She takes his hand under the table in a silent treaty, Lucius feeling the cold ring on her finger.
********
Later that night when the manor had cleared and Lucius had talked to his parents, he hurried for the veranda, finding Athania clutching her arms as she watches the rain.
"What have you done?" Lucius says, disgustingly calm.
"What have I done?" Athania asks.
"I used my best judgment and ran to my husband's side. Because I will tell you one thing Lucius Abraxas, is that you are not gonna push me around in our marriage," she uses his full name, turning away from the rain.
"For fucks sake Athania, quit with the dramatics. I was not pushing you around. I was keeping you safe," he barks.
"Or at least tried to. I should have known you wouldn't have stayed," he continued.
"And what is it that you thought I'd do when I inevitably found out? Leave you? Find a new suitor-"
"It's not what you would do! It's about what I think he would do!" Lucius yells, cutting her off.
"He was here the other night, you know?" he admits.
"The night you found out you'd be the auror office head," he continues to explain.
"Called me out of my sleep and told me that if I fucked up, he would ruin you as my punishment," he recalls the night, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"He said nothing about having you as a follower but now that you've shown yourself, he's got you," he tears his eyes from hers.
"Then we won't fuck up," she gently says, placing her hand on his cheek, bringing his gaze back to hers.
"What?" he asks.
"What you said to me that night on the astronomy tower. From that point forward we do life together," she recalls.
"Well if this is our life, then we're doing it together, Lucius," she tells him as she takes his face in her hands, Lucius sighing in return.
"Loving me is hard, Athania,"
"Who said I liked easy?"
YOU ARE READING
Midnight Rain
Fanfiction"Loving me is hard, Athania" "Who said I liked easy?" Stuck in an arranged engagement, Lucius Malfoy and Athania Black are given their last school year to either hash it out and wed willingly or put up a fight for the rings. Down the line in a Stock...
