When Love Strikes (A Marauders Era Fanfic)

Chapter Two

Chapter two

When Grainne was inside the manor, she made no advances to follow her aunt into the drawing room and remained by the front door.

Will was carrying her suitcases and she wanted to help him first by taking them from him and putting them by the stairs. But a few seconds later her aunt appeared in the hallway again.

“I thought I said now...”

Grainne cringed slightly upon hearing the underlying threat in her tone of voice and swallowed. She put her luggage down and turned around to follow her aunt.

Once inside the drawing room, Grainne lingered by the door, not really wanting to hear yet another lecture. She had a good idea of what her aunt would say. It would probably be something among the lines of how disappointed she was and how much shame her niece brought on the family name, and other things like that.

“Well, are you planning to stand there all evening? Sit down.” Her aunt commanded.

With a stubborn expression and her head held high, Grainne sat down. She looked straight into the face of her aunt and took in her appearance.

Yep, her aunt hadn't changed a bit during the months Grainne had been away. Her aunt's face was just as pale as ever and the colour of her lipstick was still the same screaming red.

Her eyes moved over her aunt's clothes and she suppressed a sigh. Aunt Morgause was still wearing dark colours. She always wore black, dark grey, dark green and navy dresses or tailor-made suits. Her aunt considered those to be ' the proper attire for a lady of a high standing'.

Sure, they were proper, but in a stick-in-the-mud kind of way. They always made her aunt look stern and boring.

Actually, that style suited her. After all, Grainne considered 'sternness' to be her aunt's middle name. She focussed her eyes on her aunt's hair, it was still a dull red colour and she still wore it long and curly.

Then the many emerald jewels aunt Morgause was wearing tinkled, as she placed her hands on her hips to confront her niece.

“Well, young lady... you have some serious explaining to do!”

With a calm voice and an innocent look in her eyes her niece said, “Do I? I have no idea what you're referring to.”

“Don't even think about testing my patience right now, girl! Stop playing dumb and explain why I got this.” Her aunt lifted a piece of parchment from the coffee table and waved it in front of Grainne's face.

She looked at it and saw that it bore the seal of Beauxbatons. Her previous, proud posture faltered and a small flicker of fear appeared in her eyes.

“Not so proud now, are we? I bet that you now do know what I am talking about.”

Her niece straightened herself again and made every emotion disappear from her face, “Doesn't the letter itself explain everything on its own?”

“Of course it does! But I want to hear it from you!”

Grainne sighed, “Well, I still don't know what you want me to say. I mean, what else can I add to everything in the letter that...” But as her eyes found her aunt's again she shut up.

It was clear that her aunt was shaking with anger, it even seemed as if her nostrils were getting bigger and bigger with every breath she took. She actually reminded her niece of a raging bull, getting ready to attack.

So, Grainne decided to give a short summary of everything that had happened at Beauxbatons.

“Well, professor De La Beaufort hit me with a stick and called me a 'salope'. Then I was summoned to the headmistress' s office, where I found out that the professor told Madame Maxime that I called her a slut, instead of the other way around, which led to nobody believing me and me getting expelled.”