LITTLE MISS MUDBLOOD – ACT 2 : SCENE 1 : CHAPTER 54
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The previously heart-warming house of number eight, Heathgate, now seemed unfamiliarly daunting to Y/N as their car of eight approached it. Her hands clammed strangely as the car came to a halt, and she shook as she climbed out, legs wobbling with every step towards the front door.
Y/N didn't understand. This was her old home. She was supposed to be happy to return, not scared. So why did the thought of seeing her ex-family frighten her?
She rang the doorbell and stood back, twisting her fingers nervously. How would they feel seeing her again, after she picked Grandmother Gertrude to live with her instead of them? And what about Hermione? Would she be mad for suddenly ditching her, even though she didn't have a choice?
The door swung open and a body collided with Y/N's. Tear filled her eyes as frizzy curls tickled her nose, and Y/N pulled Hermione in closer than ever before. After moments of sad silence, Y/N finally pulled back, looking at Hermione's face. Her eyes were red and a couple of wrinkle spots had formed, but a bright smile had formed on her face upon seeing Y/N, one that was gladly reciprocated.
Car doors closed behind Y/N and Theodore, Blaise, Daphne, and, unfortunately, Malfoy. Hermione seemed to hold back a sneer before gesturing them inside, giving hugs to everybody except Malfoy, who rolled his eyes. They headed upstairs except for Y/N, who found her parents in the kitchen.
No words were spoken as Y/N and the couple stared at each other, many emotions racing through each of them. And suddenly –
Y/N found herself in a tight embrace, one that felt illegally familiar. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as the sudden realization that she was an orphan came to her, and her arms wrapped softly around her ex-parents, tightening with each passing second.
The ring of a doorbell ruined the sentimental moment, and Y/N couldn't tell whether she was glad or sad for that. Nevertheless, she broke away from Mr. and Mrs. Granger, gave them one last look, and headed for the door, opening it to find Matthew McCrow, the Grangers' milk provider.
"Hullo, Mr. McCrow, how can we help you?" Y/N said in her happiest voice, trying to conceal the fact that she was about to cry.
Matthew McCrow's fingers wound nervously through each other, squeezing tightly with each round. A worry wrinkle had formed on his face and he looked around spottily before settling his gaze on Y/N, a slight tilt to his eyebrows as he spoke.
"Is Blaise Zabini here?" he asked and pulled off his flat hat, toying with a stray thread. "I heard from somewhere that you were friends with him."
Y/N's fingernails rapt on the doorframe repeatedly. She spoke, "Yeah, he's here. Why do you need him?"
She looked at his face and body language and it suddenly occurred to her. "You – you're –"
Mr. McCrow nodded frantically, shifting his feet.
"Blaise!" Y/N called up the stairs, a shiver running down her spine. "Blaise, come here, please!"
His loud sigh could be heard even from the front door, and thundering footsteps followed right after, the skinny frame of Blaise Zabini coming into view. He looked like he was tired of everyone's shit, but then again, that's what he always looked like.
"What?" he grumbled, coming over and hunching over to wrap his arms around Y/N's frame.
She rolled her eyes and gestured to Matthew McCrow, who stood there, smiling awkwardly. Blaise squinted, looking at Y/N.
"Y/N, who is this man?" he asked, his arms pulling her shoulders together tightly.
"Blaise, honey, I think he's your father."
Matthew McCrow – who's real name was Matthew Zabini – and Blaise sat across from each other, staring. Neither displayed any emotion towards one another and the only other people in the room was Theodore, Blaise's best friend since childbirth, and Lisa Walker, Blaise's mother. Everyone else was shoo'd from the room, and a silencing spell was cast.
Meanwhile, they worked on moving Y/N's stuff from her room to the car. Nobody spoke a word except perhaps Narcissa Malfoy, who reminded them to keep moving and to not worry about Blaise. She was a woman who was very adamant on privacy matters like this, which she loved to remind them.
In no time at all, Y/N's room was stripped bare of her belongings, leaving only a shell of what it was before. Everything had been moved to the car manually, to keep them preoccupied so they didn't intrude on the matter with the Zabinis'.
Now, as they waited, they played an old Muggle game, Uno, to which Y/N somehow teamed up with Malfoy and Hermione teamed up with Daphne.
"No, you idiot, put this plus two with this other plus two so it'd make her draw four," Y/N said in exasperation, reaching over to pull two of his plus two cards and put them on the deck. He grumbled his confusion. Daphne smirked, looking at Y/N.
"Take eight of those fuckers, bitch," she said, but Y/N had already been ready for that.
"No, thanks," she said, and put down another draw two.
Hermione grinned and put her three draw twos down.
Malfoy paled considerably. However, seeing as he and Y/N were teamed up, he snatched her last draw two, using it on Daphne.
Daphne's scream was cut off by Blaise and Theodore coming into the room, both nonchalant as they sat on either side of Y/N, putting their heads on her shoulders.
"How'd it go?" she asked carefully, putting a card down.
"My parents hate each other but long story short my father's going to try and get custody of me again," said Blaise, sighing rather loudly. "But I'd honestly rather live with him than my mother. I hate the constant weddings and shitty husbands."
A weary silence passed through the group as everybody thought about what would happen with Blaise and his future. Finally, Malfoy spoke up.
"We're here for you, Blaise."
Y/N woke up bright and early the next morning. Anthony still slept in her room, as clingy as ever, with Goldfish at the end of the bed and a pillow nestled tightly in his arms. Her heart broke as she stared at him. In a few or more hours, he'd have to watch the burial of his parents, without even knowing how they died.
She was curious too. How did their parents die? The only explanation, really, would be through Voldemort's followers; judging by her experiences so far, Y/N knew they were very powerful people. But nobody could resist the killing curse - except, perhaps, Harry Potter.
Y/N's shoulders sagged as she looked out the window. She would give anything to be in a different position than she was in right now, but alas, she had responsibilities. Responsibilities she shouldn't even have, but she supposed she could deal with it. At least she didn't have to deal with everything alone, right?
A short knock on the door startled Y/N. Swiftly making her way for the door as to not startle Anthony, she cracked it open to come face to face with a young man in his early twenties, who was holding several long bags.
"Yes?" she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.
"Miss Grace?" he questioned, shoving the bags in her hands. "These are for the funeral today. Pick one and I'll send a few people in here to do your hair and makeup."
In no time at all, Y/N was fit into a black, long-sleeved evening gown with gold details, had her hair pinned up in a loose plait, and had minimal-dark makeup applied. The team of stylists quickly left her room to help Anthony, who had returned to his own room after being kicked out just a few hours ago.
Y/N looked at an older picture of Monica and Alexander, when they were just married, and sighed. She saw the resemblance, mostly between her and her mother, and wondered why she didn't think of it before . . . like when they first met. Maybe she looked different then? Y/N hands shook and she tucked away the photo.
Goldfish and Koi trotted over, sitting on either side of her dress. For whatever reason, now that Y/N was a part of the household and Monica was gone, Koi had been following her everywhere, sticking with Goldfish. To the kitchen, through the gardens and fields, even to the bathroom! Everywhere she went, they followed, while the other dogs lazed around, chasing the livestock and eating the fruits and vegetables in the fields. Y/N wondered how Koi was still alive, seeing how he was her mother's dog back in the seventies, but then she remembered learning that magical dogs lived for two generations. So maybe Hagrid's lessons weren't all useless.
She squatted and slipped a black collar around Goldfish's gold fur and a gold collar around Koi's black fur. She hooked them to two leads and headed through the castle for the kitchens, where she found Anthony sitting sadly on a green barstool. Grimhelda the house-elf came over and set a latte in front of Y/N, bowing and scurrying off to feed the dogs, Goldfish and Koi reluctantly following her.
Y/N and Anthony sat in silence, quietly sipping their lattes and milk teas. They were to leave in about thirty minutes, however, they had to wait for everyone else to join them before leaving for the burial place, which was a little way's off, just an island out.
Unsurprisingly, Theodore, Blaise, Daphne, and Malfoy didn't take long to arrive at Grace Manor, and were soon gathering into the magnificent sitting room, which had a paid pianist playing the grand piano in the corner. He never failed to impress Y/N, and she gave him a small smile as they sat.
"It's just us right now, but our families will be joining us for the funeral," said Blaise dully when prompted about the lack of mums.
Y/N bit her lip and nodded.
"You look stunning, by the way," he said with an offhanded wave, sitting in a lonely armchair and looking around. Samson the Doberman came over and sat by him, looking up expectantly at Blaise, who rolled his eyes and gave his head a scratch.
"Thanks, you too," Y/N mumbled, watching Goldfish pass her and join Malfoy, whose all-black suit complimented his pale skin and hair well. She looked away but it was useless; he had caught her looking at him, and was now smirking horribly at the fireplace.
Wanting to slap the smirk off his face, Y/N sat on one end of one of the loveseats, and Daphne joined her, sighing but looking as stunning as ever. She went off on a tangent about her horrid sister, Astoria, would be joining them, while Koi trotted over and laid at Y/N's heels, falling into a deep sleep to Daphne's voice. Perhaps, the only one listening to Daphne, was Theodore. He watched her with an unbreakable gaze, smiling ever so often as her arms waved around carelessly. It was amusing, seeing two of her best friends fall in love with each other without even noticing it.
Finally, their driver stepped into the sitting room silently, indicating that it was time. Y/N's jaw clenched and she stood, taking both Koi's and Goldfish's leads and following the driver out of the castle with a Prada purse slipped over her arm last minute. He opened the limousine door for her and she carefully climbed in with everyone else following suit.
Soon enough they were off to the ports, where they, unfortunately, had to take a ferry to the funeral place. Y/N didn't mind them as much, but she could see Anthony looking slightly green on their way to, and he gripped the sides of his seat as tightly as possible. Y/N, feeling bad, gave him a pack of saltines from her purse and turned away, reading the schedule thrice over.
Anthony was the first one off the ferry once it stopped. He waited on the deck while several footmen escorted Y/N off the boat, all before being replaced by four bodyguards, all stoic-faced and mean-looking. Theodore, Blaise, Daphne, and Malfoy all joined them and they departed from the port, making way for two royal-like carriages, led by winged horses.
The bodyguards split them up into two groups - two bodyguards would go with Theodore, Blaise, and Daphne, and the other two would go with Y/N, Anthony, and, unfortunately, Malfoy. Y/N scowled and hopped graciously into the first carriage, Goldfish and Koi quickly following suit. Malfoy ended up sitting next to her, taunting her with a mean smirk and taking Goldfish's lead straight out of her hand.
His tantalizing cologne, once again, surrounded Y/N in a hazy gaze and she breathed heavily, mostly out of exasperation. She twiddled the ring on her finger. What did it mean? The only thing she knew about it was that it was from him. And the 'M'? Through Y/N's utterly fabulous deduction skills, she came to the conclusion that it stood for Malfoy and not Magnificent. How dumb of her.
After few, slightly tense, minutes, the carriage came to a gradual stop at a cathedral-like place, with gold pillars and pointed roofs. In awe, Y/N stepped out after everyone else and didn't watch where she was going (per usual), leading her heel to slip on the stair and sling forward.
Y/N thought she was done for. She thought she would hit the ground face-first, bruise a few bones, and get up with bloody arms, trying to shake off her embarrassment. However, instead of meeting the concrete as she thought, Y/N's midriff bent over a hard shoulder, knocking the breath right out of her. An arm wrapped around the back of her thighs, steady her so much that she wouldn't fall again.
She looked down, ready to thank whoever caught her. Instead, her face turned to disgust once she realized who it was.
"Malfoy? Get off of me!" she quietly screeched, squeezing his . . strong . . shoulder gently.
"Technically, you're on me," he growled angrily, slipping his hands around Y/N's waist and putting her on the ground. In a sudden move, he pulled her closer to him than she's ever been, glaring down at her.
"What you're doing, right here, yeah, it's contradictory," she said pointing at him with an angry finger.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he mumbled as Astoria, Daphne's wretched sister, walked by with her parents to go join Daphne. He couldn't remove his hand fast enough because Hermione Jean Granger walked over in a pretty black dress, Mr. and Mrs. Granger following.
"Hullo, Y/N," she said suspiciously, looking between her and Malfoy. Y/N tried removing his hand but it only tightened - the nerve of this bitch!
"Hiya, Hermione," she said dully, choosing to let Malfoy have his way and gripping Koi's lead tightly.
"Let's get this over with," Anthony sighed, jaw clenched as he started for the building.
Y/N and Malfoy looked at each other in worry before looking away in disgust. Blah! They were acting like a couple!
Hermione gave them one last suspicious look before they followed, and Y/N felt like this would be a very very tense funeral.