Shades of Silver and Black

Chapter 17

-------------------> UNFORTUNATELY FOR LYRA, shortly after she had left, Lucius Malfoy had had a conversation with his best friend, Theodore Nott.

"Make her jealous." Theodore suggested.

Lucius lifted an eyebrow at that. "Jealous?" 

"Yes. Jealousy always works." Theodore repeated.

"While it sounds nice on paper, I have a question," Lucius said, making Theodore nod in an urge for him to continue, "Who in the universe is perfect enough to make Lyra Black jealous?" He asked pointedly.

Theodore opened his mouth to reply before finding no words exit him. He shut his mouth and pursed his lips. "You make a very good point." He conceded. "But that is the beauty of trying to make somebody jealous- all you have to do is date a girl -any girl- and if Lyra has feelings for you, then she will automatically be jealous. It is a perfect way to find out whether or not Lyra reciprocates your feelings." 

"I have been with quite a few girls in the past. If Lyra hadn't been jealous then, what makes you think she is going to be now?" 

"Because back then, you hadn't discovered your feelings for her yet." Theodore replied. "And you are making little to no effort to hide how you feel now. Lyra would have to be very, very stupid to not see them, and Lyra Black is anything but stupid." 

"Not stupid, just completely and utterly oblivious." Lucius grumbled before clearing his throat. "Tell me more about this plan of yours." 

Theodore grinned in reply before launching into a vivid explanation of Phase One of Operation Grey-Eyed Jealousy. If there was one thing having an auror-father taught him, it was to give great names to plans.

------> 0o0 <------

That evening, just before everybody cleared out of the Slytherin Common Room so that the Court could have privacy as they met to discuss business as usual, Lucius Malfoy stood at the midpoint of the room and cleared his throat loudly, drawing everybody's attention to him.

"May I have a moment of your time?" Lucius Malfoy started and upon seeing everybody's eyes on him, he continued. "Today was a hard day for us. We tied with the Gryffindors but it was even harder for me. You see, I was going to use this opportunity to confess my feelings to the girl I like." he revealed, inciting many gasps and shocked expressions to echo the Common Room at his blunt admission. "But, as you can already probably tell, I was not able to have that opportunity. However, like my father says, there is no time like the present." 

His statement drew lots of surprised and excited looks to fall around the Common Room. Most of the girls were visibly very excited, each of them hopeful to be chosen as the apple of Lucius's eye and become one step closer to being the next Lady Malfoy.

Lyra's face showed indifference, however, as Narcissa nudged her discretely before giving her an excited look. Lyra fought the urge to fondly roll her eyes at her cousin's behaviour, but let a small smile on her face.

Her face soon showed mild confusion though, as Lucius walked in the direction opposite to where she had been seated. 

Lucius stopped in front of a wide-eyed, happy Miss Sewlyn, where she was sitting beside her own cousin, Dolores Umbridge. 

Lucius gave her a closed lipped smile. "Miss Sewlyn, would you do me the honour of-" 

"-Yes! Yes! Yes!" Miss Sewlyn yelled excitedly, the pitch of her voice reaching new heights as she suddenly hugged Lucius. "I would love to!" 

Lucius Malfoy's smile turned stiff, but he did not make any motion to push her away or hex her. 

Glares were soon directed at Miss Sewlyn while confused looks were being sent to Heir Malfoy before the apparent couple were given reluctant congratulations.

"Narcissa, you've always paid the most attention whenever grandmother Irma tells us about the symbolism of flowers," Lyra began absentmindedly to her cousin, her eyes fixated on the pair as she expertly twirled her wand in her hand. "How do I passive-aggressively tell somebody to va te faire foutre in the language of flowers?" 

Narcissa smiled hesitantly before slowly taking the wand away from her cousin -because Morgana knows she was dangerous enough without a weapon- before diving into a lecture of the beautifully artistic tradition of Floriography.

While the Court's meeting went ahead normally as it always did, with every member acting like they always did -excluding the still confused glances directed towards their king and Lucius Malfoy's and Theodore Nott's constant glances at Lyra to get a feel about her reaction and Lyra pretending that the past few hours did not happen.

However, the next afternoon at around lunch, Lucius Malfoy was surprised to receive an anonymous bouquet of withered, dead flowers consisting of geraniums (stupidity), foxglove (insincerity), meadowsweet (uselessness), yellow carnations (you have disappointed me) and the only flower that hadn't withered or blackened in the bouquet- a single orange lily (hatred). 

He chalked it up for it to be from one of the girls in his apparent fan club who must have be devastated to hear that he was in a relationship, even though a part of him secretly wished for them to have been from Lyra- he would take any gesture from her if only to find out that she cared- but he knew that it was hopeless because the most amazingly elegant and ever proper Lyra Black would certainly never send a bunch of dead flowers to express her emotions.

Perhaps if Lyra Black had dropped her oblivious facade or suppose if Lucius Malfoy had paid more attention to whenever his mother ranted about Floriography, the two would have gotten together a lot, lot sooner.

And as Lucius scoffed before setting the mostly blackened flowers on fire in the middle of lunch, it was truly sad that he did not see Narcissa's horrified expression or the way an inferno suddenly burned in Lyra's eyes.