Obsidian - A Harry Potter fan fiction

Chapter 1 - Wedding preparations

A wizarding wedding was about to take place!

It was the social event of the year. A long-standing agreement between the blue-blooded Blacks and the richer than Midas Malfoys was coming to fruition. The eldest black of the age, Andromeda Black, was to marry Accursius Malfoy, the famous playboy and the heir to the Malfoy millions. The Malfoy matriarch Azalea Malfoy had her hands full. Azalea had spent the better part of the day negotiating with less honourable ministry officials, which also happened to be her favourite kind of officials. Three of Accurcius's ex-mistresses had filed for child support, two had threatened that they would not let the wedding happen. Those two, however, were mysteriously missing. Azalea Malfoy had bought out so many, that the ministry was not even bothering to look. 

The Malfoys had deep pockets.

 The press was having a field day. The wedding was all that the papers had been talking about for a month now. Sleazy reporters had taken to following both families around, so much so that twelve restraining orders had been issued. The elves of Malfoy Manor strengthened the wards protecting the ancestral home three times a day. The media, however, was not relenting. Since no one would talk to them, they camped outside the both Malfoy and Black Manors. This was the first Malfoy wedding in decades, and no reporter wanted to ruin his or her career by failing to cover it.

The wedding had been planned by both the matriarchs for the last sixteen years, and the preparations had been underway from the last two. Azalea Malfoy was sparing no expense for the wedding of her eldest son. She had ploughed through the wedding discussions overruling Vaiola Blacks 'suggestions' with barely suppressed hints that Malfoy galleons were funding the wedding (along with saving the Black's skins from the dry-cleaners). While Vaiola thought it was typical of Azalea to be so crude, she had no choice but to bow down to Azalea's suggestions.

Azalea had been ruling with an iron hand, and her high headedness was driving Vaiola up the wall. If it weren't for the fact that Azalea had basically donated a small fortune that was keeping the Blacks afloat, Vaiola had decided to keep her mouth shut about it. For even though Vaiola disliked being bullied and told off every now and then, she hated the thought of being poor infinitely more than that.

The Blacks, though holding what would be called old pureblood money, and therefore filthy rich by any reckoning, had been leaking galleons by buckets due to producing heirs with lack of business acumen two generations in a row. Such profound losses were incurred that they now needed a huge influx of hard cash to get their tottering empire back up. Blacks in the current day, were like a sitting duck- unruffled on the surface, but paddling furiously underneath. For paddle they had to, the Blacks were going down unless Midas dined with them very soon.

And miraculously - in came the Malfoys.

Originally from France, Malfoys were not welcomed with open arms in England. Coupled with their reputation to trick, bribe, cheat and take part in various underhand dealings, they were not the most respectable pureblood family around. However two generations earlier, a certain Abraxas Malfoy had turned the family's fortunes over and invented a cure for dragon pox. He then went ahead to publish it in all the notable wizarding journals of the time, leading to huge advancements in the treatment of the disease and subsequent non-tarnishing of the Malfoy name. He also married a Veela and from then onwards all Malfoys were born with platinum blond hair and grey eyes. This outer worldly beauty and glow from the Malfoy galleons generally made people forget the source of the fortune.

The Malfoys had approached the Blacks sixteen years back on Andromeda's first birthday gala. The two families stood much to gain from this amalgamation. Blacks - their much-needed galleons and Malfoys - the respect and social standing in wizarding society that their galleons had not quite been able to buy. Too young to agree or disagree, the opinion of the children was not considered.

As had been done for hundreds of years, the children had been betrothed and the betrothal contracts signed by both families in presence of witnesses. Thus Andromeda's and Accurcius's fate, like so many before them, was sealed before they could even say Quidditch.

---X---

One would think that the wedding being held the Malfoy manor would reduce the cost of the wedding considering you got such a beautiful venue for free. With Georgian windows, sprawling lawns, towering turrets and sweeping arches, the manor was truly a sight to behold. Only slightly smaller than Hogwarts (the Malfoys had it measured) it was the grandest privately owned wizarding building in England. Consequently, every detail of the manors refurbishment was gold to the press. The Persian rug that adorned the Malfoy receiving room was in itself worth the average Weasley family's twenty-five-year household income (the Malfoys had that calculated and published)

If the manor was usually spectacular, today it was the stuff dreams were made of. 

Seven wizards were busy putting final touches on the floating seven-foot high wedding cake (Pureblood wizarding families and their obsession with the number 7 I tell you). The aisle was decorated with thousands of glittering butterflies charmed to flutter about. Streamers glistening in the morning sun (made by Twilfit and Tattings Drapery Services) were draped to form a conical tent-like structure that framed the stage. They seemed to be so light that they appeared to be either water turned into gas, or air made solid. Huge crystal chandeliers were hung at the centre that looked like actual diamonds (Knowing the Malfoys they probably were). Vines of freesia started at the chandeliers and climbed down to the end of the tent's canopy. 

It was a white and blush themed wedding, therefore the tables were all adorned with white freesia centrepieces and covered with pristine white covers with gold ribbons tied on the edge. The chairs, on the other hand, were solid gold and had a white ribbon tied on each.

The wedding venue was done in a style that left the eyes confounded and heartstrings ringing. It was nothing short of spectacular. Azalea Malfoy and Vaiola Black might not personally get on, but Azalea's flamboyance and Vaiola's elegance had fused in such harmony, that the results were outstanding. This wedding would be the talk of the town for at least a couple of decades if not a century.

The food was just as spectacular. The menu was a designed by the noted wizarding celebrity chef Hugo Longbottom and boasted of delicacies from both France and England in honour of the Black and the Malfoys. There were 12 exquisite courses planned. Cheeses had been flooed in from all over the world. The vine was mainly French. The dessert section by itself was the size of the Hogwarts great hall. A thousand pigs, chicken, deer, quails, and salmon had been specially reared for this day on the Malfoy farm. The quality of produce was unmatchable. Downstairs twenty wizarding chefs handpicked by Hugo were busy preparing the feast. Hugo Longbottom was taking no chances of stupid elves screwing up his feast. This was the pinnacle of Hugo's career, after today he would be known as the chef behind the Malfoy wedding, and he was seeing to it that everything went according to plan. Besides, Azalea had already threatened to put him in the widely feared Malfoy dungeons if anything went wrong and Hugo was not entirely sure that Azalea was joking.

Out on the aisle, the flowers had just been put up. Ten thousand bewitching white fritillaries surrounded what was a raised stage on which the bonding ceremony was to take place later in the day. These flowers bloomed only once in twelve years. A fritillary had a strong magical field surrounding it that discouraged the growth of any other plant around it. Due to the fact that fritillaries grew only in the harshest of conditions and cultivating them was not possible, seeing so many at one place was astounding. It was a wizarding custom to have these flowers at weddings. They were considered to bring extreme good luck to the new couple. The scent wafting out of these flowers was nothing short of heavenly.
Fritillaries were aphrodisiacs and these ones were particularly potent. Fritillary extract was one of the key ingredients in the amortenia portion. 

Neither family wanted their children to start hating each other before they got to procreate, and they were taking no chances. This was rather barbaric, but guaranteed results. That this encroached even more on the lives of their two children was something that didn't even occur to any of the families...