The Spellfull Sixties

Chapter Seven: Flying

There was an art to writing letters. The ink had to be set on the paper just the right way so that the quill wouldn't splatter, or ink seep through and sully the parchment. Alphard was trained at that art. He loved it. He loved to write as he loved to read. If he had been anyone else in the world other than a Black he would have written a thousand books. Their words would have flown off of the page. They would have been marvellous. They would have been...

"Is knocking not a talent of yours", he settled the quill to its side on his desk, sending a candle that hovered by his side across the room to the door. Druella's suspicious face was half lit up in the doorway eyeing him over her nose. 

"What are you doing?". 

"You are the one in my room. I should be asking you that". He settled back, resting his arm on his thigh. His shirt was dishevelled and his long hair settled around his collar. 

"This is a room in my house that you have been borrowed, let us not forget". She stepped in, wearing little more than a night dress and overcoat. "When are you leaving?". 

"I beg your pardon". Druella refused to repeat her question. "When my brother casts me out". 

"When". 

"I just said". Her eyes narrowed, still smudged at the corner with makeup. "Anything else you wish to ask?". There was a moment of hesitance before she actually stepped in, taking in the sound of music coming from a grammar phone in the corner. It was a muggle song. She could tell. 

"Why is it that you are still here? You cannot surely expect me to believe that you have lost hold of your finances for this long. All of that wealth gone... Why are you truly hiding here?". Her eyes settled on the parchment. He moved it further from view. 

"Why do you terrorise me?". She came to sit on the end of the bed, sinking into the soft quilts. 

"-Because I want answers". She folded one leg over the other. "I have let you into my home. I have let you near my daughters. I have let you befriend my Andromeda, and now I expect you to tell me why you are still around". 

"Not all men will bow to you, Druella, and answer what you wish". He looked her up and down. "I do hope you weren't going to try to tempt some truth out of me. I am sorry to say that it would not have worked". 

She seemed so repulsed that she almost toppled over. "I know your disposition, Alphard. Don't think I am unaware". 

He laughed breathily, swallowing the last 'ha' with a glare. "-And I know what happened between you and Abraxas Malfoy". She pretended to not react, but he could see the panic in the twitch of her eyes. She shifted her weight from one hip to the other, placing both her feet back flat on the floor. "You two have been close". 

"...Do you blame me", she then hissed, "When I have a husband such as your brother". 

"Yet you are still married to him". He smirked, lifting his wand from his pocket. He turned it to the balcony, opening the doors to let in a night draft. "It seems we are both benefitting from poor drunk Cygnus". 

"...I do love him, you know", she stated through a wrinkling frown, " I do. But he has changed". 

"We all have changed- just all of you have become monsters. Walburga has become a great beast- my brother a drunken pirate captain with some foul tongue, my brother in law a miserable co-operative fool and you...a spoiled princess, just like how Narcissa will turn out if you continue to treat her like she is better than the others". 

Druella pressed her tongue on the inside of her cheek, before hissing, "find somewhere for you to go soon". 

"Or what?-".