✧ALONE IN THE GARDENS✧

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Her mother woke her up bright and early to get ready for this evening, this evening!

Starting off with a total restyle, a haircut, pedicure, and an added new pair of shoes—As her mother said it was a sense of good luck. But nothing had given her that sense of an oomph she wanted.

From her brother's absents last night, she knew that there had been an important meeting or mission. Leaving Dolohov to be involved, oh the joy it would be if he was captured! Then she could simply push for a step back.

After following her mother up and down Diagon Alley, with the firm look she had been given. She nodded. In pull-forward of her hood, she continued down the rickety path down Knockturn Alley.
Rhea Lestrange was not a stranger to the unknown elements of the wizarding world.

It's what made Defense Against the Dark Arts such an easy subject, after having been up close and personal with objects that her previous professors couldn't dream of uncovering.

She knew well that her mother had a special brewer to keep her skin from aging and that is why they had managed down this dangerous path. Though that didn't mean the young Lestrange daughter didn't pass up the opportunity to not look through the line of books. Most importantly, the selection of manuals, and she couldn't place one of the books down.

It was a beautiful script, perhaps a healer or some type of medical background because the terms that followed or simple thoughtful jots had caused her to hum.

"Find anything?"
"Just a few..." She whispered and her mother smiled, after today and how easy it had been, Rhea had deserved it. And thus the books in her possession now and plucked up just another one.

In total, leaving with four.

It had been the first genuine smile that graced Rhea's lips, and she couldn't stop from clutching the purchase to her chest as she followed her mother out of the store and up back to the safety.

However, another cloaked figure had emerged from another store—Leaving Rhea to step behind her mother to make way for him to pass.
Those who wore their cloak up were more or less in the same social group. Though the young daughter hadn't cared, instead she simply said a quick excuse me and hurried to step right back beside her mother.

But the wizard in the fine cloak at taken a much longer gaze to either of the two witches, but Rhea couldn't get a look underneath the hood to see if she recognized him. As the purpose was to hide one's identity.

When returning home, her mother filled the bath and renounced her daughter as a woman now that she had been plucked clean of any unwanted hairs. Making Rhea feel rather exposed in having her mother dictate something so personal and invasive.

And after being stripped of her dignity and lectured on the mindset of a man, she was sighing in relief in finally being able to close her door. 

"Pigs. Absolute pigs." She hissed out into her room. And a rather adorable coo had sparked from her Owl, who perched himself and did a little fluff up of his feathers. "Men, I swear Toffie, it's as if they haven't a brain for anything. And I'm the one who needs to be careful, to do all the work. Ha!" A high-rise coo had caused her to laugh again.

"You're right, I only need one male in my life. And that's you, my good boy." She hummed in return, reaching into his snack jar and offering up an open palm to feed him.

Gliding her hands through his beautiful feathers and easing her worries. As of yet, she hadn't shared the news with her friends, no, she didn't want to be embarrassed already.

This was an issue that she needed to get through her head first before dragging others into this mess of confusion.

Upon the hour that her date was meant to arrive, she had been in the midst of her family as a whole. Though that meant she had a book in her hands and binding her time, when in reality she wished upon any star that would come and save her.

That they'd be called to the Dark Lord and couldn't attend.

That a meteor just came crashing down to earth and plumbed her to the ground.

"Ah...I told you they would be waiting for us!" Rolf said with a bucket load of excitement, while Rhea had taken one last look outside the window. Unfortunately, there was no meteor to save her this time, but perhaps in the future—

"My my...Rhea, your portrait perceives you." She smiled politely and gave a returning compliment, course the cocky bastard already knew he was handsome. That was the issue here, she was simply told to feed his ego.
As if he ever needed the boost.

"Antonin, come in, don't be a stranger now darling." Clarissa gushed, and the rest of the room had smiled off to Dolohov as if she was already deemed her husband.

As if they were already married for years and years.

Her breath faulted as she began to nick the metal band to her wrist, easing the tension in her chest that only expanded with each passing moment.

While he offered conversation, Rhea knew that speaking out would only result in a mindless chatter of not being one to talk in company.

It was strange, that she was meant to act silent, as if she were mute.

"Rhea, would you care to accompany me in the gardens? I hear your mother's work is lovely this time of year." Taking the positive of removing herself from this massive crowd and into the area of a cooling breeze, she nodded her head and took his offered hand to aid her from the sofa.

Course her eldest brother had attempted to come with, though that might've had to with the way the friend had suddenly taken a hold of his younger sister.

Oh, so now you act all concerned and worried?

Rhea knew this was a mistake just as soon as they were out in the hall. But Dolohov's soft laughed had coursed through her ears. "Charming bunch, but I didn't hear you speak all that much, my dear. Shy?"
"No, not shy. Everyone else was having a lovely conversation. I didn't want to interrupt." She claimed, and the man hummed along.

After being led to the back patio of this colossal estate, Rhea had hiked up her dress to manage the steps more carefully. But once her heels had taken a step onto the stone, and the small whisps of grass had tickled her heel.

She finally felt an honest breath to course through her.

"I should've asked before if you wanted to head outside."
"It's alright, at this rate my brother will pose that I'm stealing you away from him." She said with a small smile, as clearly it's already happened as of yet.

But then a thought occurred, Dolohov had already been married—He already was married, had a wife, and was expecting to be a father.
How was Rhea meant to fill that void?
Did he love his previous wife?
She had expected that the conversation would focus on him, but frankly he too was very quiet. Not at all the character she sought him out to be, until they managed to sit at the bench further into the garden maze.

"There, now your parents won't manage to see us." That comment alone caused all the breathing excesses and metal snaps against her wrist to fall flat and without fail.

Merlin, she was thick.

"If you wanted privacy, Dolohov, you could've said so in the beginning." A cruel play on words on her own part, especially when the damnable bloke had shot her a wide smirk. His arms wrapping her hips from moving anywhere on the bench, and his face just inches from her own.

It was torture to be able to still feel the heat from the tea they shared just minutes ago.

"...Is that so?" He said, his slimy grin started to take up the majority of his face. No, she retracted the statement prior. He was not at all handsome, not with this type of personality.

How could he act one way in front of her parents and brothers and then switch to...to this!

"Well...I would—would've enjoyed this walk much earlier than sitting and listening." She said, her eyes darting this way and that. Only for Antonin to lean forward in an attempt to kiss her.

Course that was severely lacking when his lips touched her cheek instead, though another laugh occurred.

"Ah...I've awoken you, haven't I darling? My Vivian was the same, would wither away from my touch until our wedding night."
"God rest her soul," Rhea whispered in response, paying respect for the dead—But alas, that earned a scoff.

"Rest in hell, she was a cheat. The child was thought to be someone else's." Rhea's eyes had gone wide, wider than any plot in a book could possibly manage to enact.

And yet, he only smirked further.

"You won't do that to me, will you?" Rhea couldn't speak in the future, not when she could hardly harbor the courage to kiss a bloke. So she shook her head, in a fit of panic that she hardly knew her own thoughts from his.

He took his time to finish his thought, perhaps gauging in the reaction that Rhea had been scared of him. That was a gentle surprise given that Rolf had painted her in a different light.

"Vivian also had a way of angering my Isabella and Allison." Rhea searched her mind for a moment, trying to pinpoint if Antonio had any siblings or where those names would fit.

But the confusion had wracked further into her expression that he chuckled, darkly this time.

"My mistresses." Her lips parted at the reveal, she hadn't thought there would competition. Not in a game she wanted no part in either, how could Vivian possibly manage to become his wife while he had whores to call on?

"There's to be no arguments with them or about them, I won't have a repeat of Vivian's mistakes." How could she possibly be demoted to a shadow already!

She looked away for a moment, trying to hold back the tears and relay that after this evening was settled—She'd reward herself with a glass of wine in the tub to enjoy the new manuals she'd picked up this afternoon.

She needed something to look forward to, but every time she blinked, she was still stuck in the same damn position. Stuck between his pinning hands.

"Is that understood?" Was it? So Rhea shook her head.
"I—I don't understand. Why would you have mistresses?" The man had found himself rather angry at the fact that she had questioned him, but it being filled with such a naive statement caused him to laugh.

Straight up to the high heavens.

"Your brother warned me you were a sweet thing, but never did I suspect you were out of place with something of the sort." There was no point in responding, not when he was almost begging her to do so.

"I haven't bothered to do so in Hogwarts, given that I had a brother watching my every move." She claimed, and his eyes said it all.

She confirmed that she was a virgin.

Was that what he was getting at?
He wanted to make sure that was pure and willing?
For starters, no, she was not willing. There wasn't a fraction of chemistry between them, their similarities started and ended with their pureblood mentalities—And even that was a stretch. Rhea hardly had a care for who had pure blood, it wasn't the first aspect of a person she looked to.

It's why she and Sirius managed to get on so well, course she always did favor the Black brothers like they were her own siblings.

"Ah, so you haven't felt the touch of another man....Here." His palm had moved to clutch her inner thigh, giving it a not so gentle squeeze that instantly caused her to gasp in fright.

"This doesn't seem—"
"Right? Oh believe me my sweet Rhea, when the time comes...I'll truly make you mine." His touch hadn't faded, nor did his vile words as he continued to sway her—woo her, as he phrased it.

But not of it passed the mark, he wasn't the novelty hero. The activist in something marvelous, nor would he support her in her quest of healing.

As for the record, he thought it was 'barbaric,' though that was a similar stance that her own brother had on the matter.

Upon returning to the manor, Rolf had taken his mate away and the two were in a much deeper conversation than anyone could've managed. But one thing was for certain, Rhea was quite good at reading lips. She people gazed for long enough in the library at Hogwarts to ease into other's conversations, it's why she took in one's lips instead of keeping direct eye contact.

During dinner, she was forced to sit next to the damnable bloke, and with this—He tried his hardest to manage another feel between her legs. But Rhea was smarter than that, after the first instance, she managed to cross her legs. Meaning that if he did want to do so...It'd be much more visible to the crowd around them.

Though she suspected that her mother knew what was happening, and with the lack of aid, it seemed better to be silent for now and discuss it later.

But later felt to dawn on for quite some time, each course of the meal had managed a new conversation. Then dessert, and with one final walk around the manor with her supposedly betroth—He was finally set to return home.

"I'd say that went marvelous, wouldn't you say love?" Her father hadn't asked the question to his daughter, who was fully prepared to curse out the bastard for even admitting to the fact that he has two mistresses and has no intention to get rid of them upon their marriage.

Or better yet, his inability to be polite.

"Oh yes, I didn't think they'd click together so easily." Rhea had let out a low scoff as her eyes trailed back towards the gardens that were forever tainted by his presence.

"Rhea?" Rabastan had called out, and it took a moment for her to register the voice—Then another to tear her gaze away from the setting sun.

But she hadn't spoken.

"Did you enjoy your walk? Rolf is rather happy with this arrangement, it means Antonin will be able to come over more often." Oh, that'll be bloody grand.

Rhea had risen from her chair in the last-ditch effort to push forward. "Goodnight Raba." She whispered, hurrying along out of the room.

It hadn't been the first time she had scurried away, but Rabastan had enough of being avoided and ignored. "Rhea, what—"
"I hope you never turn out to be that type of man, Rabastan. Never like him." And with the way her brother's face had recoiled at the thought, it amazed her how little anyone else around her had thought of what was normal.

What was morally correct.

Rolf and Antonin were the models that her brother strived to be, and it seemed either of their worlds had begun crashing down in a single swoop.

"It'd make Rolf happy if—" She hadn't given him the chance, if there was one person that she didn't need to listen to, it was her youngest sibling. Who clearly hadn't read the message or in between the lines to know that she was absolutely against this idea.

Every fiber of her being hated Antonin, and today hadn't done him any favors.

She knew that men would take mistresses, but to have two? All while having a wife?
What was the point of marriage then than to secure an heir. It was wrong and she wanted no part in it.

In her escape, she managed to hide away in her bedroom. Managing to scrub her skin raw to all the places he touched and attempted to get at. And for once, she hated being a woman for a completely different reason other than being a disappointment at birth to her parents.

It wasn't strange to her that Vivian was carted for being the one to compete for adultery, but with Dolohov's and his band of mistresses—Who could blame her?

When her skin was a tinted red, she removed herself from the steaming shower head and lathered herself in a layer of lotion. Thinking that it would soothe whatever crawling sensation that he managed to leave behind, it was torture.

And she needed a solution.

After having been cleansed from top to bottom, she dressed her in a plain sleeping gown and topped it off with a robe. Settling nicely in between her nook with a requested cup of tea, burning away the fowl conversation and curses she wished she'd could muster up in the entire day alone.

Upon the end of the second chapter, a knock on the door commenced. "Come in!" She replied, though she knew the person on the other end would simply follow suit if they didn't hear anything either.

"I wanted to have a word with you before you head off to bed dear..." And Rhea hoped that it would translate to a proper check-in on how it all went, but unfortunately her mother turned into a giddy mess desperate for details on how it went.

As if it was pleasant.

"Oh come now sweetheart, you can tell me. I won't tell your father a single word." Oddly enough, Rhea wanted her father to hear the vial things he'd say. Perhaps a lesson from a Lestrange figure would set him straight.

But Rhea remained silent.

"I don't wish for this courtship to continue." She said with no emotion hinted in her words, and the smile on Clarissa's face had drained instantly.

"D-darling, it's been only one—"
"I despise him." It was curt, but it was always the truth and still took effect on the mother to see how upfront her daughter was about this.

"It couldn't hurt to try once more, could it?" Rhea had looked at her mother in sheer silence. Wondering what on earth her mother was looking for, but the man hadn't doted on her at all.

He hadn't promised her anything more than a sense of a sexual relationship, and by goodness, Rhea hadn't a clue as to what that could possibly lead to with that brute.

"I'd rather not." She deemed, feeling the jittery spike in her heart as she wasn't catering to the conversation like she usually would. To formulate something that people wanted to hear, instead she spoke the truth.

And clearly, it shocked the life and thoughts straight out of her mother.

"Rhea...You can't simply dismiss him after one—"
"I have plenty of reason to do so. It shouldn't matter that he's Rolf's best mate, that won't make him a good husband." It had been the longest response Rhea had given to her mother this entire year, she hadn't stuttered nor trembled at the risk of back talking.

But after her growing aggravation of hearing how much her family would just simply adore this man, she was growing sickly towards it.

"I'll see what I can do...Get some rest, sweetheart." And the woman left without a kiss goodnight, granted—Rhea couldn't remember the last time she received one at all.

Yet once her mother left, Rhea's nice of relaxation had ended in a mixture of tears and mental harm.

Yes, it was certainly cold up here, alone in her tower.

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Date Posted: 04-23-2021

Time: 9:45

Words: 3351