𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒽 | 𝒟.𝑀.

36 | ﴾ A Fairy Tale ﴿

For over three hundred years - since the late 1600's - Swinton Park Castle had remained as a lonely superstructure in rural England, possessed by multiple wool tycoons and their families. It's architecture was luxuriously influenced by the medieval era from which it was envisioned originally, and since then had seen the addition of contemporary developments such as plumbing and electricity.

Within the massive, chilly complex, muggles were bustling about without the knowledge that they were catering to hundreds of magical beings, many of which were fraught with horrible attitudes and characterized by being cruel or selfish. The arguably Slytherin wedding was successfully unraveling, with the bride and groom caught up with one agonized, dazzling young witch who was struggling to perceive why she was being ostracized by her peers.

After kissing Madeleine with so much vigor, Hilda slung her arm around her friend's dainty shoulders, turning to face Draco and Blaise with a mischievous grin, "Alright, now you two go. Pip pip." She waved her hand flirtatiously.

A tense moment passed before they acknowledged what Hilda had just suggested. They both looked instantly appalled, separating dramatically and groaning with distaste.

Draco could already see the ecstasy spreading across their features in a similar way, and his heart relaxed with the expectation that his feisty wife would be in a better mood for the rest of the evening.

She didn't understand why she couldn't drink with them, naturally and unfortunately. He explicitly had grown to trust Hermione Granger's advice, and wasn't about to contravene her judgement not to inform his wife that she was three months pregnant.

Hilda planted kisses on Madeleine's cheek, "There, all better am I right? Exceptionally better if you're feeling anything like me. Now cut the whining - I want to fucking party."

Madeleine lifted her black eyes to Draco's with a small smile now blooming on her adorable face, and he knew the trouble had passed...for the moment.

There was no way that the wedding had not signified to her that a secret was being harboured, and if he knew Madeleine, then he could be certain that she would interrogate him later. It would be nothing short of fatiguing and irritating.

Hilda walked her friend back out to the beautiful waterside celebration holding her hand. Draco and Blaise sauntered closely behind, popping their own pills and shoving each other.

The tents were adorned substantially with string bulb lighting, and stood glowing like a circus in the dark evening. Yet farther in the distance, the lake's obsidian surface rippled with gentle interactions and puffy, sleeping swans. Beautiful music monopolized the air from the classical band.

Blaise unbuttoned the top of his dress shirt as the drugs hit him halfway across the lawn, "What's the deal with Nott? Is he really making a move on Madeleine?"

Draco shook his head, his face twisting with disgust, "Not only that, but he's trying to manipulate her into becoming some sort of dark witch. As if she weren't demonic enough on her own. He's got her wrapped up in an unbreakable vow, something to do with level nine."

"You know how he operates," Blaise warned while they watched their silly wives laughing and swaying into each other in front of them. "He's like...Rumplestiltskin - there's always one deal that leads to another one. Barely visible fine print. He creates a rabbit-hole; once he's got you, he's got you. You remember what he did to Romilda Vane?"

Romilda Vane, the lovesick Gryffindor, had been one of only a handful of Hogwarts students to ever commit "suicide" on the school's property. After weeks of clearly growing more paranoid and delusional in their eighth year, she was found dead in a bathtub on the second floor, with a note that suggested she found no purpose in life for herself. Many of the Slytherin boys had their natural suspicions that Theodore Nott had manipulated the girl and orchestrated her demise. He had been sleeping with her, multiple girls in fact, and had been caught red handed in a love triangle that would have been an undesirable reveal for him. Shortly afterwards her body had been discovered, and it had become tense in their dorm room with the obvious murderer amongst them.