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xi. CHAPTER ELEVEN
DAMAGED PRIDE
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BRIAR SPENT the rest of the day in her own bed. She hadn't been able to eat much, and Madame Pomfrey told her that the only thing that would make her feel better was a good, long sleep. She'd taken a Sleeping Potion, and by the time she awoke, it was dark outside.
As Briar slid out of bed and tested her feet on the ground, she found that they felt as stable as ever. It had probably just been exhaustion, as Madame Pomfrey had claimed. A tapping noise at her window alerted her to the fact that her owl, was trying to get inside.
Briar quickly opened the window, and took the letter that the owl was carrying. It was a reply from her mother and she opened it eagerly, hoping it might have answers to some of her questions. As she scanned the contents, however, Briar was sorely disappointed. Her mother had omitted the topic of Lucius completely, not mentioning anything about him at all. The majority of the letter talked about preparations for Lorcan's wedding. She read it half-heartedly, before reaching the last paragraph of the letter.
Oh, and dear, you must be mistaken about that hairclip. Your Grandmother's goblin-made clip does not have any green flowers on it- it's merely silver with a green finishing. The one you found was one of those horrible Muggle pieces someone gifted her. I suppose she never got around to disposing of them. It's just as well that you broke it- I would have thrown it out myself if I'd known that you were wearing Muggle jewellery.
The letter ended after that, and Briar scrunched it up in her fist. Why was her mother avoiding the question of what was wrong with Lucius? How could she ask her to take care of him, yet not even mention what was wrong? Briar was certain that her family was hiding something from her, and she wanted to know what it was. She wasn't a child. If Lucius could handle it, so could she.
There was a knock on her dormitory door, and Briar frowned. None of her dorm mates would feel the need to knock.
"Come in!"
A small second-year girl walked in, looking rather nervous. She took a deep breath and looked up at Briar. "Lucius Malfoy is downstairs. He says that he wants to see you, if you're awake."
"Oh. Thank you."
The girl scurried away and the platinum blonde sighed, throwing the crumpled letter to a corner of the room. She didn't want to deal with Lucius, but she supposed it was unavoidable. The only reason he hadn't already screamed at her was because she'd looked like she would faint. Now that he saw she was feeling better, he wouldn't be soft.
Briar descended the stairs to the common room, and saw Lucius waiting at the bottom of them. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and raised his eyebrows when he saw her.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes."
"Good. We need to talk."
Briar sat down opposite Lucius. There were bags under his eyes, and he looked tired. But the look he gave her was still as chilling as ever. "I trusted you."
There was a pause and Briar raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
"Don't act innocent with me, Briar. You told me that you would come to me if he ever bothered you! What were you even thinking?"
"I was thinking that he was helping me get to lunch, because I felt dizzy. He wasn't bothering me, Lucius, so I didn't see the need to come to you." Briar replied firmly. "He was being kind, and if you want to blame him for that, go ahead."
"I'm not going to blame him," he answered, angrily. "I'm starting to wonder whether I should blame you instead. I believed you when you told me that nothing happened the last time, but I'm thinking that you weren't telling the truth."
"Are you really going to accuse me of this again?" Briar demanded, exasperated. "What is it exactly that you think is going on between me and Black?"
Lucius shook his head. "I don't have to say it. You know perfectly well that your actions are wrong, Briar. Loitering with him in deserted corridors? Laughing with him in public while he has his arm around you? Do you realize how this looks? Do you?"
Lucius' voice had risen, and a few people sitting nearby were starting to give them odd looks. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "I have no choice. I'll be writing to your parents tonight."
There was a sense of finality in his tone that even Briar knew well enough not to argue with. She wouldn't be able to talk him out of it again. She realized that she would much rather deal with her level-headed parents than Lucius anyway. Briar nodded, and stood up, pushing her chair back. Lucius gave her an irritated look. "Where do you think you're going? Sit down."
"I'd rather not. I'm going to meet a friend of mine in the library," Briar replied simply.
"No, you aren't. Not while I'm talking to you. Sit down."
"I think we're done talking. You've told me that you'll be writing to my parents. All right. I think whatever needs to be said has been said, don't you?" she asked. "If you don't mind, I'll be going now."
Lucius glared at her. "You'd better not be going to see Black, Briar. Believe me, he can't help you."
Briar scoffed. "I'm not going to see Black."
"Then who?"
"It's really none of your business."
Lucius stood up as well, his blue eyes shimmering with anger. "I'm tired of this, Briar. I have enough problems in my own life without dealing with your pathetic, bratty behavior! Perhaps the reason your parents refuse to tell you anything of importance is your obvious immaturity! So I'll ask you again. Who are you going to meet?"
"Lily Evans."
Lucius froze, his eyes widening in horror. "The mudblood?"
"She's not a mudblood," Briar replied sharply. She's a Muggleborn. And she happens to be my friend."
Having said that, Briar turned around and walked out of the Slytherin common room. She didn't bother to glance back at Lucius. As the dungeon door creaked shut behind her, for the first time in her life, Briar felt a sudden sense of exhilaration. Perhaps telling the truth was easier than she'd thought.
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Lily Evans was sitting alone in the library, head buried in a book when Briar approached her table. The red-head glanced up, surprised to see her friend. She smiled widely. "Briar! I didn't think you were coming, Sirius told me that you almost fainted in class! Are you feeling all right?"
Briar nodded, with a frown. A sudden feeling of guilt ran through her, and she couldn't shake it off. How long had she been ashamed of being friends with Lily? How many times had she lied to Lucius about spending time with her? "Yes, I'm um, I'm feeling all right. It was just exhaustion, I hadn't gotten much sleep."
Lily nodded, smiling as Briar pulled out her books as well. The two girls studied in silence for a few moments, before Lily spoke up.
"There's something I'd like to ask you. You don't have to answer... I know it's really none of my business but I thought that-"
"Lily, it's all right. You can ask me anything."
Lily nodded. "All right. Is there anything going on between you and Black? Like I said, you don't have to answer that. It's none of my business."
Briar looked up, startled. "What would give you that idea?"
"Well, it's just... do you remember that morning, when there was a hairclip that Black found, and I asked you if you knew who it belonged to?"
Briar froze. "Yes. I said I didn't know."
"I know that you lied. I'm not blaming you for it, you must have had your reasons, but... I remember the clip. You were wearing it the night of Slughorn's party," Lily explained. "I thought I should let you know that I recognized it. I'm not suggesting that anything happened with you and Sirius. It just seemed wrong to not tell you that I knew."
The platinum blonde's mouth felt slightly dry. She wasn't sure what to say. "Oh. I... what brought this up suddenly?"
Lily frowned, and reached into her bag. She rummaged around for a few seconds, before extracting a small box. It was lined with velvet and from the look of it, contained some sort of jewellery. She passed it across the table to Briar, who stared at it. "What's this?"
"Sirius asked me to give it to you. He said he wanted to do it himself, but he wasn't sure if approaching you so soon after Malfoy's threats was such a good idea. And he also said he was sorry."
Briar stared down at the box. It was small and rectangular, the right size to contain a small quill or something similar. Briar found her heartbeat racing. Was it some sort of a joke? "What's inside?"
"I don't know. I haven't looked at it. It seemed personal," Lily explained.
Briar stared down at the box for a few seconds, before touching it. She ran her finger along the lining once and then slowly opened the lid. She blinked for a few seconds.
Inside was a beautiful silver hairclip, lined with small green flowers that resembled roses though Briar couldn't be sure. They seemed to shimmer and move, almost as if they were swaying in the wind. Briar stared at it for a few moments, mesmerized by the sight. It was impossible to tear her eyes away. She'd never seen anything like it before.
"Wow," Lily muttered softly, looking at the hairclip. "That's beautiful. I can't believe Black has such wonderful taste. But... why is he gifting this to you?"
Briar heart felt like it had dropped into her stomach. "Because he broke my old clip. But this... this makes the other one look like a piece of scrap metal." She looked up at Lily. "I don't know why he's doing this."
Lily smiled. "Perhaps you should ask him."
Briar shook her head, quickly closing the box and pushing it away. "I can't take this. It looks expensive, and... it's beautiful, but it feels wrong to take it. Will you please return it to him? I don't want to sound ungrateful, but it's too much. There must be some sort of a mistake."
Lily frowned slightly. "I don't think there's any mistake, Briar. I think he's trying to apologize."
"Then he can simply say sorry. The situation doesn't call for such an expensive gift. Lily, please just take it back to him."
Lily nodded, and quietly put the closed box back into her bag. Then she turned around and picked up her quill again. "Did you understand this passage about gurdyroots? I'm not too sure what this line means, exactly..."
Briar took Lily's book and looked at the page she was pointing at, trying to put the image of the beautiful hairclip out of her mind.
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Briar was sitting alone in the common room the next evening, trying to catch up on her schoolwork, when she was approached by Andromeda Black. She looked up at her, and smiled forcefully.
"Briar! I hope I'm not disturbing you."
The platinum blonde shook her head and forced a smile. She put her quill down slowly. "Of course not. Is everything all right?"
Andromeda nodded, and took a deep breath before speaking. "I just... I wanted to thank you. For not saying anything about what happened the other night. You didn't have to keep quiet about it; we barely know each other. But you did anyway, so thank you."
Briar only nodded. She wasn't sure what to say. The encounter that night had bothered her a lot more than it should have, and she still wasn't certain why. "It's all right. I'm sorry if I reacted badly then, it's just that you caught me by surprise."
Andromeda smiled. "You weren't expecting one of the Black sisters to be having an affair with a Muggleborn, were you? I can understand. If you'd told me about 5 or 6 years ago that I would be in this position today, getting ready to elope and marry the man I loved, I might have laughed at you."
There was a pause, as Briar digested her words. She looked up at Andromeda and realized that there was a question she'd been dying to ask her for the past two days. She decided to come straight out with it. "But Andromeda, are you happy? Are you truly happy, even knowing that... I mean, the pain that your parents may go through once they find out?"
Andromeda paused for a moment, seeming to think about the question. Then she slowly looked up at Briar. "I think that's a good question. I am happy with Ted, I know that. There's no doubt about it. He makes me feel more wonderful than anyone in my family ever did. And perhaps if I thought that my family would be hurt, then it might affect my decision."
"You don't think they'll be hurt that their daughter and sister is leaving them?"
"Oh their pride will be hurt, certainly. They won't be able to show their faces in society for a while, as my dear Aunt Walburga and Uncle Orion couldn't, when Sirius ran away. They may even choose to blast me off the family tree. They'll be ashamed and furious and perhaps even devastated at the loss of the Black reputation. They may miss their daughter. But will they miss me, Andromeda Black, for who I am? Do they even know who I am? I don't think so."
Briar bit her lip hard, as she listened to her. Something told her that Andromeda was wrong, wanted to scream at her for even thinking about betraying her family and marrying a Muggleborn. But another part of her knew that it was true. What were pride and honor and family reputation if all they did was ruin your happiness? What was the use if they tore your loved ones away from you?
"I'm surprised that you were still listening to me," Andromeda said softly, watching Briar with concerned eyes. "Anyone else would have run away screaming by now."
Briar laughed humorlessly. "Believe me, I'm screaming in my head."
"I know it's difficult, Briar. It's easy to follow everyone else; doubting what you thought you knew is one of the worst feelings you can ever experience. But I think that when the time comes, you will take the right decisions."
Briar resisted the urge to scoff. "I don't know what's right anymore. Is it what's right for people like my family, or what's right for people like you and Sirius?"
"That depends on you. You have the freedom to make that choice."
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unedited lmaoo feel free to point out any mistakes,, hope you guys enjoyy!!
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