His Dark Lady | Tom Riddle Novella

Chapter 6: Teaching a Witch Magic

August 16th, 1950

Party planning was usually an utter nightmare and more so when the person in honour was someone as extravagant and expecting as Hepzibah Smith. In Emelina's case, she was lucky that she didn't have to worry about much, despite her claims to the snooty purebloods at the previous party. 

This was because one of her closest friend's mother happened to be the best magical party planner in all of London: Odessa Bones, the mother of Stefano Bones. Not to mention, Emelina's best friend, Rosalie, also happened to be engaged to Stefano so that was another personal plus in her favour. Oddly enough, despite her own booming career, Odessa Bones did not wish for her future daughter-in-law to continue working after her marriage; a bit hypocritical, in Emelina's opinion, but she wasn't about to cross someone who was managing a party for her.

Emelina and Rosalie were lounging on her bed at the Smith residence without a care in the world, flipping through muggle fashion magazines, despite the fact that Emelina was hosting a bash in two days' time.

"Your mother-in-law literally saved my ass," Emelina said with a laugh as she lay propped up on her elbows, admiring a blue on blue ensemble in her Vogue issue. "I honestly have no idea what I'd do without her."

"You'd probably be losing your mind and screaming at anything that breathed wrong around you while trying to pretend that you've got everything under control when you weren't yelling." Rosalie responded with a snort, a knowing look in her eyes as she eyed her friend.

Emelina smacked her friend's arm but was grinning, "Shut up, Rose. Whoever gets yelled at probably would've had it coming for a reason." The brunette then rolled over and set up, using one hand to make sure her plait was still intact.

"I've got to go and just pick something for my aunt's gift today," Emelina grumbled. "Wanna come with?"

Rosalie glanced at her watch, Emelina pursing her lips at the muggle gesture, "Sure, not like I've got anything better to do. Thank God for the half day at work that I managed to snag."

A knock at the door sounded just as Emelina cast aside her magazine.

"Come in," Emelina called. Hokey, her incredibly sweet house elf, quickly scurried in, clutching an envelope in her heavily aged hand.

"An owl just arrived for you Miss! Hokey is brought it over right away for her young Mistress!" The elf squeaked proudly as she handed Emelina the envelope.

Emelina beamed down at the old elf, "Thank you, Hokey!" The elf bowed deeply before hurrying out and shutting the door behind her as Emelina opened the letter and read through it quickly.

"Change of plans," Emelina informed Rosalie once she read through the note, feeling a slight flutter of butterflies that she swallowed down. "Looks like I'm going alone."

Rosalie raised her brows at her friend, "Why is that?"

Emelina simply waved the note, "Shopkeeper doesn't really like a crowd in his shop and I really don't want to mess up this purchase."

Rosalie snatched the note from her hand and read it while Emelina grabbed a small piece of her personalized parchment square from her beside table and scribbled a response down. She then rolled it up and tied it off with some ribbon before tying it to the leg of her grey owl, Drake, and stroked his head as he hooted happily. Drake was a birthday gift from Hepzibah when she had turned sixteen and Andy had taken the liberty of naming the handsome owl after his favourite new rapper from their time, although obviously no one in this time knew who Drake even was.