Noyade | Rabastan Lestrange [2] ✔︎

21 | WORRY

The gathering had not turned out even half as bad as Phoenix had expected it to. Jack was a great companion for events like these and she actually found herself genuinely enjoying the evening. Even talking to older ladies wasn't half as bad with him by her side.

"You two make a handsome couple," Mrs. Pucey complimented them. "You know, my husband and I have quite the age gap as well, but one gets over it pretty quickly and faster than you can look you're old and grey."

Phoenix couldn't help but laugh lightly at her statement. The elderly woman had a kind face with rather sharp features, which must have been beautiful when she was younger, and held herself which such elegance that it was easy to look over her age. Phoenix smiled at her and assured, "You look still as pretty as in the pictures, Mrs. Pucey."

"Thank you, dear, but we both know that is not true," the elderly lady answered with a wink. "Enjoy your youth as long as you can. I'd better go search for Lucas and you, young man, should ask your fiancé for a dance."

She offered them both a slight nod of her head before disappearing in the crowd.

"You heard the lady. May I?" Jack offered Phoenix his hand, which she took with little hesitation. He pulled her out on the dance floor, where only a few other couples were dancing. He was a good dancer, leading her gently but firmly, which made it easy for her to follow. The only issue was their height difference, as Phoenix had to tilt her head back to look at him. Different than Alexander Rosier the year before, Jack didn't hesitate to spin her around in circles and then pulling her back towards him, which made her laugh light-heartedly.

"I finally figured out why every member of this society likes you so much," Jack remarked before loosening his grip on her once again.

"Why? Because I'm just so likable?" Phoenix answered, clapping as the song finished.

Jack nodded with a teasing grin. "That and because you don't scream at them like a banshee as you do with me when you don't get your way during practice."

"Now that is an overstatement," the younger girl countered, crossing her arms and looked up at him with a mockingly evil glare. "I'm always charming."

"Especially when screaming at people?" Jack asked, stepping a little closer to her, which made her look up at him. "That's not what I call charming."

"I guess you don't really know what charming means among us teenagers. Maybe you're just too old," Phoenix mocked with a grin, knowing exactly that Jack wouldn't take it seriously.

"Oh really?" The first few notes of the next song were played and Jack offered his hand to her once again. "Then you won't have any objection to an old man showing you how to dance properly."

Phoenix shook her head and placed her hand in his. "No objection at all actually."

It was her who suggested taking a break a few songs later after witnessing Jack's hands tremble strongly, which he of course tried to conceal with wide hand gestures. Due to their proximity, however, she could sense despite his smile that something wasn't quite right. They left the dance floor and both took a drink from one of the house elves' tray and were approached almost immediately by none other than Rodolphus Lestrange, whom Phoenix had learned was a friend of Jack's and an old classmate of his older brother. If she hadn't known already, it would have been obvious by their manner of talking to each other about what they had done in the past few months. Apparently Bellatrix and Rodolphus had hardly been at Lestrange manor for over five years, as they had been on missions for the Dark Lord to recruit new people, and he wished to see his brother before he left later that evening to Bulgaria. Phoenix had expected to hate him for how he had made his brother feel, but his genuine smile made it hard to see anything bad in him. In fact, it was hard to believe that such an outgoing person like him could be married to somebody like Bellatrix, although she had no idea how he treated people that he thought inferior because of blood impurity. Watching him as he talked to Jack made her realise that Rabastan had never once uttered a word of his brother being the cause of his feeling unworthy. Maybe the older Lestrange didn't even know what was going on with their parents and Rabastan.

Still, Phoenix quickly felt like an intruder in their conversation between friends and as soon as she caught sight of a short blonde girl at the buffet she excused herself. She softly tapped Elle's shoulder and she turned around with an innocent smile, but the small trace of pink icing on the tip of her nose made it more than evident that she had been snacking away on as many cupcakes as she could. "Oh, hey Phoenix."

The older girl couldn't help but chuckle as she handed her a napkin. "I see you quite like the cupcakes."

"I've never tasted better ones," Elle enthused and grabbed another one after wiping her nose.

"You can come over whenever you want. I'm sure Kreacher would gladly bake some for you," Phoenix offered and followed her away from the buffet towards a few tables.

"Really? That would be awesome." Elle looked up at her with excitement in her eyes. "It's the only thing making this evening endurable. How can adults be so boring?"

Elle then told her about how her parents had introduced her to various seemingly important people and then talked to them for ages, which bored her incredibly. She apologised when she realised that it was Phoenix' family's gathering that she was criticising but Phoenix simply shrugged and confided a few stories from the Christmas gatherings when she was Elle's age in her, which nearly made the blonde let her cupcake fall onto the floor due to her fits of laughter. The older girl finally suggested, "I could introduce you to my cousin. She's about your age and I'm sure you two would get along. She knows quite a few secret spots in this house."

In that very moment, however, Regulus interrupted their conversation, looking rather alarmed as he approached. He simply glanced at Elle wordlessly before addressing Phoenix, "Have you seen Rabastan?"

"Not since the beginning of the evening, no. Is everything alright?" Phoenix asked, lowering her voice as she sensed her brothers concern.

Regulus stood on his tiptoes, although he was already rather tall as it was, and scanned the crowd for his best friend. "He's been acting weird all evening and when I turned my back to talk to some friends, he just vanished. I've been looking for him for half an hour."

"Maybe he went home. I'm sure he's totally fine," Phoenix assured him although she couldn't shake the thought that he in fact surely wasn't totally fine– even if everybody believed him to be. She then looked down at Elle and smiled. "You should go find Nia. She has bright red, straight hair and is about your height. You can't miss her. I'm sure she'd love to meet you."

Elle gave them a suspicious look, but followed Phoenix' suggestion and disappeared between other pure-bloods. Phoenix' eyes returned to her brother, who was still looking for Rabastan. Her words had apparently had no impact on him.

"Can't you do some weird power thing to find him?" Regulus asked.

She sighed and shook her head. "You know that's not how it works, but –"

In that very moment, however, Rabastan appeared behind Regulus and nearly tripped, catching himself with an arm around his best friend's shoulders. The brunette boy immediately scrunched his nose up in disgust and when Rabastan leaned closer towards her with a laugh, Phoenix realised why.

Rabastan's breath reeked of alcohol.