𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 • (𝐝.𝐦.)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐭𝐰𝐨

♔

As Blaise made his way over to me in his dark navy suit, I smiled.

"Hey," I said, and he, quite unexpectedly, bowed to me.

I furrowed my brow at his weird behavior, but seeing as he was mostly looking at my dad, I figured it was a sign of respect here or something.

"I thought I told you to put your hair up," My dad said, his tone suddenly quite harsh.

"I thought this looked better, and-"

"There's no excuse. You will listen to your father," He said, cutting me off and waving his wand quickly near my head. Before I could object, my hair was pinned up and done over.

I sighed but decided it was best to leave it. It was only a hairstyle, after all.

"Lucius has been asking for you," Blaise said, looking directly at my dad.

"That's Mr. Malfoy to you, boy," My dad harshly corrected him, getting my attention. Not only was I surprised to hear that a Malfoy was at this ball, but my dad had never sounded so evil in his life.

"Right, sorry sir," Blaise said quickly, backpedaling and looking uncharacteristically nervous.

"I'll go speak to him now. Magdelena, stay with Blaise. You two go enjoy yourselves, the night is young," My dad said coldly, walking away from us hastily.

I was left stunned after that strange interaction. I had never in my life seen my dad act that way, especially towards me.

I turned to Blaise and looked into his eyes sympathetically. "I'm sorry, that was so unlike him," I said, but Blaise shook his head.

"It's fine, really. My father is a lot like yours, but where work is involved, he gets a little... tense," He admitted. I tried to understand, but they simply worked at the Ministry of Magic, where was this superiority complex coming from?

I wished I knew, but before I could think about it more, I remembered something.

"You mentioned Lucius Malfoy... is that-"

"Draco's father? Yes, yeah, that's him," Blaise confirmed, much to my dread.

"Oh, right," I said, now a little self-conscious of the fact that we were standing out in the open. Was Draco here?

"Does that mean Draco is here too?" I asked, biting my tongue after the hurried question slipped out.

"He's here. I saw him talking to his father earlier, but I don't know where he is now," He said.

This did nothing to ease my nerves. If anything, it made me tenser and more my guard. I guess tonight wouldn't be as relaxing as I thought it would be.

♔

As the night wore on, Blaise and I found ourselves frequently visiting the snack table. I hadn't seen any sign of Draco yet, but come to think of it, I hadn't seen my dad either.

Since we came in, my dad had disappeared with Mr. Zabini and Mr. Malfoy. Blaise explained to me that they had something "important" to discuss and that the ball was more of a distraction.

At the end of the night, everybody besides the most important guests would leave and the rest would sit down for dinner and discussions.

Discussions about what, I had no idea.

The music they were playing was less than entertaining, honestly. It was all orchestral and slow, definitely not my thing.

As Blaise and I plotted on how to swipe some Fire Whiskey from the house-elves, I wondered how much trouble I would get in if I simply stole the entire bottle from the kitchen.

"You're as bored as I am, right?" Blaise asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"What do you think?" I asked rhetorically.

"Relax," He chuckled, shoving my side. Looking around cautiously, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me with him away from the party. "Woah, where are you taking me? We're just friends, Blaise," I said jokingly, and I heard him laugh too.

"Shut up, will you?"

"Fine, but only because you asked me nicely," I said with a grin.

We ended up in the large kitchen in the already large mansion we were in. "This place is huge," I said, gawking at the still somehow elegant looking room.

"I know," Blaise said as we walked through the place, now having dropped my wrist. "Sometimes it feels too big. It doesn't feel like a home, really," He said.

"I understand that. My house in Massachusetts wasn't home either. Felt like a museum, honestly," I said, and Blaise motioned his arms around his kitchen.

"Right? This should be on display somewhere, not where I get my toast in the morning," He said, and I shook my head as I laughed lightly.

He went into the pantry, looking for normal food we could eat instead of the fancy hors d'oeuvres being sent around. Upon finding crackers and cheddar cheese, we decided that was the best we were going to get.

We sat down at a table to the left of us and began to feast on our strange but satisfying snack choice.

"So," I started, wanting some answers I simply wasn't getting, ", what are we really doing here?"

"Ministry business," Blaise said with a wink and a laugh that made me feel like I should know more than I did.

"What kind of business?" I asked, and Blaise's smile faded slightly. "What kind of- you mean you really don't know?"

"Know what?"

"That meeting, the members- they're Death Eaters," He said, and my face paled. "You mean, the Death Eaters you told me about at the beginning of the year? The ones you warned me about? How are you so... so casual about this?" I demanded, standing up.

"My father's one now, and I don't really intend on going against his wishes. His or the Dark Lord's, for that matter," Blaise said.

"But what about-"

"Wait a minute, your father never told you... I thought you knew! I thought we had both just come to terms with it, not-"

"What does my dad have to do with this?" I asked, fear rising in my chest as I pieced together what I didn't want to hear.

"Maggie-"

"No! Tell me," I shouted, demanding an answer from him as he stood up too.

Silence. He said nothing for a minute, his face contemplative and stoic, but eventually, he cleared his throat.

"I think you know," He said.

"Just say it," I shot back.

"Fabian Warrington is a Death Eater."

♔

oooooooooh. her dad's a death eater? wow, i wonder why he never told her that or even told her what a death eater was. i wonder why maggie knows literally nothing about her dad. hmm.