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chapter fifteen,
a summer wedding
For Beatrice, the summer passed as it began; with much tedium and misogyny. Before she had attended Hogwarts — where boys and girls would eat together, chat together, study together and even fly together — Beatrice had never realized how much gender influenced her home life. For the first time, she wondered why it was that Massimo was allowed to choose the meals he ate, how he spent his days, and when he was allowed out of the house, when even Theodora had to ask permission from Eduardo first. Beatrice began to resent the times she spent inside, playing piano for her parents and learning how to sew, when she knew that Alice, Lily, Marlene and Mary were probably outside playing, and meeting up with whoever they were to chose. Even Regulus described days spent outside in the woods with Sirius, by his future cousin-in-law's home.
It was most unfortunate, but not at all surprising, that Massimo's comments on Beatrice's figure became rather common. One day in early August, Beatrice snuck up into her mother's closet to steal one of her corsets, but Theodora noticed and quickly snatched it away, claiming that Beatrice was much too young to be worrying about those types of things anyways.
And so despite her hesitance about seeing the oldest Black girl again, she was thrilled to attend her wedding by the time it came around, if just to see Regulus and Sirius.
☾
Beatrice glared harshly at her mirror, as she attempted to properly Dutch Braid her hair for the third time in a row. While her mother's potion had worked like a charm, allowing her hair to fall elegantly past her shoulders again, the new length was harder to work with, and for obvious reasons, she was out of practice. After she finally tied and pinned her hair in an acceptable manner, Beatrice began to get dressed. As she was to be twelve in just four days, Theodora had bought her a couple new lady's dresses to replace the children's ones she was used to wearing. While these new dresses still omitted the corset, they included a lacier bodice, longer skirt, and puffier sleeves. Beatrice had to admit she liked how the dresses made her look, although she felt rather constricted. She supposed the new dress also reflected how she must no longer play games at parties, instead opting to converse with the guests as she did at the Salvatore Ball.
The Salvatores and Massimo travelled to the wedding by apparition, which meant Beatrice felt rather queasy when they first arrived. Even so, she couldn't help but admire the Lestrange gardens where the wedding was taking place. Like the Salvatores, the Lestranges were also relatively new to England, with the majority of their family still residing in mainland Europe. Their French heritage was reflected in the design of their home, built to resemble the ancestral Lestrange Manor in Normandy, with large windows and small turrets, giving guests a brief impression of a small castle. The main piece to catch the eye was not the manor though, but the large flower-covered pavilion in the center of the garden, where the actual ceremony was to take place. Surrounding it were rows upon rows of chairs, where guests were to take their seats as they arrived. Beatrice and her mother took their place towards the back besides Rodolphus's half-blooded cousin, about twelve rows behind where Sirius and Regulus were sitting right up at the front and a bit behind her father and Massimo.
