✧THE START TO A BETTER YEAR✧

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Rhea could hardly believe it, her good mood was growing rapidly with each passing moment in Alphard's company. He expressed how worried he was when reading the previous letters and she apologized, though he claimed that it wasn't necessary.

Truth be told, Alphard knew that it wouldn't be as heartbreaking to her parents to disown her as what she'll have to face. Orion told him Rhea hardly was allowed outside the manor and no part of her wanted to invite guests.

The only time she had caught a glimpse of them was during these celebrations, and it pained him to see that she was so isolated. It couldn't be all of Cygnus' teachings.

No, this behavior was unacceptable.

Upon returning back to the party at hand, Orion had leveled a smirk that widened bit by bit. "Ah, curious to when you were going to return."
"Shove it. Anything interesting happen?"
"Not from my view, Sirius has taken to staking out Rabastan—The bloke was too invested with his mates to care about his sister. And the others have just returned just after the mark of the new year. Overall a swell party." Alphard nodded along, though took the offered glass of fire whiskey and shoved it down.

"Trouble in paradise?" He dwelled and Alphard simply looked into his glass, hoping there would be an answer in the abury color. But nothing he could interperate at the very least.

"I told her my age."
"And?"
"Didn't care in the least bit."
"That's grand, isn't it?" Alphard had wanted to tell her this evening of who he was. It was the new year after all, shouldn't they relish in the stake of their plan.

"I failed to tell her the rest." He shoved the rest back and Orion groaned. "Clearly, you need someone else to do the job. Sirius? Or perhaps Regulus will be much kinder about it, or how about—"
"I need to be the one to tell her. There isn't any way around it." His brother could agree on that at the very least, but as his eyes connected to Dolohov—Who was boasting about how he celebrated in tonight's raid with another band of Death Eaters.

Alphard noticed that Rodolphous was not amongst that crowd.

"That's not a good look."
"Where's Rhea's brother—Not Rabastan, where's—"
"He was with Dolohov before..." Orion had relied his brother's panic, but that only settled his heart to stop a search.

Something felt wrong, and it was indeed a possibility.

Rhea had allowed another two songs on the record player to pass before sliding through the study's doors. It hadn't taken long to fix her appearance, Alphard had managed to keep her eyes intact—Though their snogging always involved smeared lipstick on the upper part of her lip.

Granted the mirror worked wonders, as she needed to mask the small love marks he had left behind as well.

The countdown had run out and she found herself presentable enough to return to the public eye, a lie already at the tip of her tongue. What she was not prepared for, however, was the sudden act of being slammed against the wall with much more force than Atlas would ever give.

This part of the manor was unopened to the party's guest, meaning that it was left unlit. Though it was easy to see the embedded frown of her eldest brother holding her against the wall tightly.

Not minding the fact that she had banged her head against the wood.

"Rolf what on earth—"
"Who was it, Rhea." He spoke between his teeth, and she frowned.
"What are you talking about—Who is—?"
"That bastard that you were snogging with, you'll tell me now and this—" Complete and utter fear had wrapped her face.

She had been caught red-handed.

Whyever he hadn't gone after Atlas was a mystery, but in hindsight he hadn't been able to identify the bastard who was fucking his sister. Leaving the only chance to get a name out of his already shaking sibling.

"WHO?!"
"I'm not saying anything." She said, placing a theoretical foot down. Not that she could with her toes barely touching the ground as is.
"You can't make any of this easy, Rhea, can you? You can't just marry the bloke we tell you to? You have to—"
"Easy?! Marriage is not suppose to be bloody simple, Rolf, it's meant to have love in it!" She defended and he laughed in response.

"Just because Bella doesn't love you doesn't mean I have to be in a relationship like it as well. I told you before and I'll say it again...I am not marrying him!" She shouted, her voice slowly echoing the better half of this hallway.

"Yes, you are. There's no getting out of it, no nothing. Dolohov's signing the contract with father on Friday." The date has been set without her knowledge?

How is that even fair in any regard?!

"There won't be a wedding, Rodolphous."
"Stubbornness will get you nowhere, now tell me who this bastard is—I won't have my sister acting like a whore."
"So my character matters more than his, is that right?... You're crueler than I thought." She whispered out, her eyes begging for some sort of remanence of her eldest brother.

But nothing he portrayed was anything recognizable.

"Tell me who it is."
"I don't have a name for him, he's anonymous."
"Anon—Anonymous, merlin don't tell me you're that bloody naive to think."
"At least I can tell the difference between a bastard in mourning to one of guilt!" That had left him at a stand still, and while he was distracted for brief moment, Rhea had taken the opportunity to get out of his grasp.

"Don't call me naive when showed you first hand what's happened...You're not my brother Rodolphous, you never were." She instated, and the firm look on his face had turned sinister in a matter of moments.

He had taken the few steps away in the direction of party, though he had turned back to his sister who was standing her ground. Rolf couldn't understand what his sister was going through, he had lost both respect and belief to her words.

"Perhaps you deserved what you got." He said, his voice lower than normal before he stormed off back to the party.

Rhea had awaited until he was out of view before her body had sunk down to the wooden panels beneath her. She didn't give any thought to her make-up or how she looked at this moment.

She was stricken with guilt, that her relationship with her brother would end so horribly.

It was hardly up to par with that of his friendship with Dolohov, what was the point in staying here? Her parents made it seem that she was unwanted right from the start, she couldn't recall the last time her mother and father spoke to her one-on-one without an underlining issue amongst them.

A part of wished her organs would've collapsed, or that Orion hadn't found her in time.
Would that have made them all see reason?
That she had been murdered and Dolohov would be suffering in Azkaban for his crimes?
It was no matter, Andy had complied a list of the necessities to bring when one wanted to leave this world.
Any loose coins, jewelry, sentimental belongings, and a family portrait.

But even the last one, Rhea was tempted to replace it with more of the rest.

"Rhea...?! Oh Merlin, tell me. Are you alright? What has he done to you? Tell me." Orion had been close behind his brother, but stopped for the sake of Rhea's sanity.

It wasn't difficult to see the hand imprints on her much too delicate wrists, but it was the tears that ushered down that made the brothers both worried.

"Rhea." He repeated, but she looked at him with such a lost expression that he couldn't bare the thought of something else happening to her. "Rhea...Please, talk to me. I'll kill him—I swear I'll—"
"Rolf." She whispered, and Orion sucked a breath off on the fair side of them both.

"Rolf saw." It was just as he predicted, but it hardly mattered to Alphard as he took both of her hands into the palms of his. But she pried one away to rest against his cheek, in all eagerness he kissed it gently. Looking to her for any sort of want, he would get it for her without hesitation.

"I think I'm in love with you...But I can't." She was surely in a daze, and those words were not meant to be said outloud or so soon. In an effort to steady herself, she used the back wall for support and denied any further help from the man before him.

She couldn't ask him for much more.

"I can't..."
"Of course we can, Rhea, love. It's alright, we'll figure this out." She shook her head, another sob escaping her as she replayed the words of her brother.

Maybe you deserved it.

She couldn't believe it though, it wasn't normal and it wasn't right. Alphard needed to get a clear understanding of what has happened, and in response he held her cheeks and forced her to look deep into his eyes.

"I love you. And I will prove it."
"I have to go..." She whispered, shaking her head and moving away from his hold. It was then that Orion had pulled his brother away from going back towards her.

Rhea knew that the exit was the other way, but she planned to appear from outside the manor's barriers. "Don't owl me again." Were her final words, and Alphard began to struggle against Orion.

"Let me go...Rhea!"

"I can't brother, think this through. Whatever happen we'll find out, we'll speak with Sirius and we'll make a plan—A rushed one, what does it matter. We'll get to the bottom of it, but right now it isn't possible."
"Get Walburga, we need to get it done." He said, shrugging off the grip as Rhea was bound to have left the premise by now.

Orion had done the clean-up, meaning that he claimed to have taken Rhea to their manor on the account she wasn't feeling well. Rodolphous had given him the once over but concluded that he wasn't the bastard that he caught with his sister.

And funny enough, neither was Alphard.

Though that didn't stop either of them from glaring deviously at the two dunderheads standing directly across from them.

After informing Sirius, the young lad had informed his father and Uncle Alphard that he communicated with Rhea in an enchanted book. That they merely write to one another one page and it appears in the other book.

It astounded both his father and Uncle to hear that type of magic, but frankly, he had a few for each of his mates and could combine those. Leaving his holidays at home to be actually enjoyable.

Walburga had gotten wind of the issue, and wether she knew it was a young witch or not...Her advice had stood firmly: Get something against her father, that will always make them give her up and willingly too.

With that in their mindset, Sirius and his father joined Alphard back at his manor. The Ravenclaw had taken to pacing, and he had no ounce of courage left.

He couldn't owl her, no, she had said she didn't want to continue communicating.

While Orion was there it wouldn't help, everything that was said to him would get transferred. But Sirius, he was the weak link.

"Well?" Alphard was starting to get impatient, the marks in the carpet was starting to appear in his effects to calm down. "No...She usually checks it within the hour after a party."
"Why is that?" Orion dwelled and Sirius smirked.

"Tells me about Atlas." While it was amusing, it didn't aid the conversation very well. "Well, what did mother say to do?"

The question remained short-lived as Alphard had automatically repeated the words. But nothing came to mind.

"Surely you have something against Rhea's father, you were all mates in Hogwarts...Weren't you?"
"No, her father was a bit older than the both of us. Though none of that matters anyhow, he's below the barrel. Even more so with this treatment.

Moments had passed and final Sirius sigh in relief had called out to those around him that she had responded.

Rhea? I heard my father dropped you off at your manor. Is everything alright? Did Dolohov hurt you?

No, it wasn't Dolohov. It was Rolf, he caught me and Atlas in his study. I don't take kindly at being called a whore or threatened.

"He threatened her? That's her damn brother!" Alphard shouted, and Sirius hurried with the quill to write the response that everyone needed to hear.

How did he threaten you? You're the furthest thing from whore regardless.

He told me that the contract is being signed Friday.

"What does she mean by a contract?" Sirius questioned, and Alphard had gripped the book from his nephew's hands. He hadn't a care that it was rude, but seeing the beautiful script of his beloved allowed for a wave of calmness to caress him.

"The marriage contract, it's being signed Friday—She...She plans to run away Friday—fuck." Alphard had closed the book and threw it back to his nephew before losing his utter mind. Sirius had jumped at the first vase to have shattered across the wall, but Orion simply spun his wand to arrange the pieces back to new.

"Are you done with your tantrum?"
"No."
"It won't help to solve this, get it together."
"How the hell can I manage to get that contract to turn to me in three bloody days?!" That was undoubtedly true, Alphard wanted to be the one to sign it.

He didn't want Rhea's name to be slaughtered with the very people he had drinks with that very night. He would never be able to forgive himself.

"She plans to run away Thursday night." The time frame had grown significantly less.

"Rhea must have some sort of plan, I don't doubt she didn't think this through before." That caused Alphard to pause as he looked directly off towards Sirius, Orion's words had made much more sense.

She would be going to Andy's.

"He called her naive because she didn't know your name...And she told him that Dolohov was lying about being saddened about Vivian's death...Er, she mentioned before that—"
"That Antonio killed her himself, yes. I'm afraid we're stretched thin, unless of course you'd like to duel Antonio or make him disappear...Radolphous holds the reigns." Neither Black heir wanted to give that man any more power than he thinks he has, but then a saving grace had erupted into Alpahrd's heart.

A flicker of light, a beacon of hope.

"Say...Do you recall the bet we did back in Hogwarts?" Alphard recalled, and Sirius had never been more confused nor astound to see his father smile with the biggest shite-eating grin he's ever witnessed.

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Date Posted: 09/05/2021

Time: 10:23

Words: 2508