𝐍𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐬 𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐚. - 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬.

...

(NOT EDITED!)

• 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌: 𝖘𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖑𝖞 𝖉𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝖍𝖚𝖒𝖔𝖗 •

As both women walked down the steps to the ball hall, everyone's attention turned to them. Fiona could feel the calculating eyes of everyone watching her carefully. Waiting for her to make a mistake.

She put on an emotionless mask, controlling her feelings, her nervousness well hidden.

The young females strolled side by side as they politely greeted all the important guests and took part in dull small talks.

After they finished the formalities, Fiona couldn't wait to get any kind of alcoholic drink in her hands.

"Finally!" she muttered to herself as she glimpsed the tray full of sparkling wine. Taking two champagne glasses while a servant walked by.

As she was finished with her first one and prepared to swallow down the second one like a shot, Rana swiftly took the glass.

Faking a smile as she said "Thank you dear, for thinking about me." Her tone full of sarcasm.

The Zabini girl could only pout at that and whined pitifully. "Oh come one, you know I can handle my alcohol!"

Rana just looked unimpressed, her face twisted into a "Really?!"

"Okay fine, but I need something to kee-" she interrupted herself as she saw the table full of various kinds of food. In her head she already planned which one she would take first.

Before Fiona could fantasise more about the appetiser, Rana already grabbed her arm.

That prevented her from getting any near to her precious chocolate fountain which was surrounded by delicious fruits. She almost drooled. Almost.

"Fiona, don't get distracted- remember we have a mission that we need to accomplish today night, and right now the boys are secretly leaving the hall. Let's follow them!"

So the teenage girls quietly followed behind Riddle's clique, which led them to a remote area in the Malfoy Manor. Before they went any further, they smartly casted a spell to censor the sounds of their footsteps.

The small group of boys finally stopped in front of an antique looking door and entered. Some of them sharply casted a look behind their backs, to make sure that nobody followed them.

As the door closed, Fiona glanced puzzled at the female beside her. "How will we get in there?" she whispers to her friend right beside her.

Rana made the hand sign to follow me and the Zabini girl was surprised as a hidden entrance opened in front of her eyes. It was dark in there and full of spider webs and looked not used for at least a century.

It automatically closed as they stepped in, Rana already casted a wandless lumos and climbed up the narrow stairs.

The raven-haired girl guided them to a small window, hidden between two bookcases that gave them the perfect view. It was a luxurious fit out library with two floors. Fiona could identify the boys on the first floor as they seated themselves on a table, Abraxas left as the only one standing.

The Black girl confirmed a hidden mechanism to open a secret path from the inside. As the women carefully stepped out, they could finally hear the ongoing conversation down there. They cautiously hidden themselves between the book rows so they could hear what the boys were taking.

It was Abraxas cold voice which boomed over the ghostly library.

"Riddle gave me a assignment, I should hide his first hocrux, the diary" he gaze went over the worn off looking book on the table and continued with  satisfaction in his voice.

"Which if we remember was made by the death of that muddblood!" Everyone in the room snickered as if the memory would bring enormous joy.

"I want you to know where I will put it! So if I'm not available to bring it to him, the rest of us will do it. But with the new information about Riddle, some changes are going to happen!"

Everyone looked at each other uneasily. They knew what the Malfoy heir was talking about.

Mulciber decided to change the subject because of the uncomfortable atmosphere. And attempted to make one of his awful jokes.

"What is more important length or girth?"

Everybody went insteadly silently and some even groaned in frustration knowing fully well what would come next.

Baxter continues sniggering, clapping his hands together. "Turns out it's consent!" while looking around expectantly. "Did you get it? Because-"

Ares interrupted his friend before he could throw out another of his bad jokes. "Bax, we talked about this," while looking him straight in the eyes. "You have to stop this, your jokes are, how do I say it?- Not that great!"

Rosier beside him could only lightly shake his head in disappointment. Silently wondering why he was still friends with him.

Nott the only one who found humour in this situation, crackled heartlessly "And guess what?! Either way they will leave screaming!"

Mulciber patted his shoulder in an approving way. "At least someone who appreciates humour."

The Lestrange heir lazyly turned around, facing Abraxas.

"Malfoy what did you find about Riddle?"

Abraxas' face avoid of any emotions as his mood darkened.

"What Black said was true, he came from a purblooded mother and a muddblood of father. His mother, Merope Gaunt came from the direct line of Salazar Slytherin which explains that he can speak the language of serpents!"

Ares sneered "So it's true that he's a mere Halfblood!"

Everyone turned silent for a moment, there were many emotions in the air, one of them included abhorrence.

Out of nowhere Rosier raised his voice.

"He promised us power and we were blinded by that. That's the mistake we made! It's time to correct our mistakes and do something about it!"

The tensions around the room increased heavily. Nobody dared to breathe, afraid to disturb the peacefulness. Someone would even say that one could hear the drop of a needle.

"Even though we can not disagree with how much power Tom Riddle wields- we must not turn a blind eye on his heritage!"

Everyone silently agreed. Time went by but they only talked about trivial matters. Mulicber attended to make one more of his awful jokes but got shut down quickly. He was also one of the first ones to leave, following behind Marcius Nott.

As the rest stood up from their place to leave, Abraxas opened a hidden cabinet which only opened when a certain book was moved and put the diary in.

Just when everyone left Fiona dared to breathe out loudly. Rana's eyes never left the location where Malfoy placed the Horcrux. They waited for another five minutes to make sure that nobody would come back.

Both females quickly made their way down and opened the hidden cabinet. Rana took a random book and transformed it into a duplicate of the diary. She swiftly exchanged the books and took the original with her.

In the process shrinking the horcrux with a spell and hiding it under her corset.

At the same time Fiona controlled the library entrance to look out for any person coming near.

"It's clear, let's go before people ask about our whereabouts!"

Rana could only roll her eyes as she heard the other girl.

"Oh please, you just can't wait to get to your precious food," she fixed her gaze on Fiona as she continued "Or should I say, your chocolate fountain?"

The Zabini girl only scoffed at that. "Ph-lease, I have been put on an exhausting diet by Helena Malfoy since I came here! I counted the days where I can finally let myself go without anyone interfering with my eating habits!"

As they finally arrived at the ball, they went different directions. Fiona unsurprisingly went straight to the buffet and Rana to a balcony not so far away, getting fresh air and out of dreadful small-talk.

From the other end of the hall Abraxas Malfoy was observing a girl at the buffet, trying to place practically everything on a single plate, which didn't quite work. He could only smile at the action of the hopeless girl he would marry soon.

And decided to go over and annoy her.

"Darling, maybe you shouldn't take this much, there is plenty of fo-" before he could end the sentence she called him out in irritation.

"Are you calling me fat?!"

He at least had the decency to look a bit embarrassed.

She looked around unobtrusively and as her gaze met him again she whispered .

"Now listen here, you don't make the final call for me! I decide when I have enough, claro?"

Abraxas only nodded at that and tried to change the subject as fast as possible.

"I actually came here for something else."

He held out his hand to her while putting on a silly smile on his face and asked. "Would you do me the honour and dance with me, Miss Zabini?"

Half-heartedly she glared at him, putting down her overfilled plate and gave in to his wish as the female teased.

"You better be a good dancer Malfoy, I deeply dislike to waste my time."

He pulled her near to him as he positioned his arm around her waist while entwining their hands together.

"Worry not darlin' I would never dream of wasting your time."

His wandering greyish eyes focused on Fiona as he thought.

"But I would give you all of my time.."

As the music kept playing faster Abraxas swirled her around which she kinda liked and let out a surprised laugh.

Fiona didn't notice but many eyes were following them and as the music ended both stepped back to bow to each other as the common courtesy required.

Someone out of the crowd spotted the young female. It was her stepbrother Zacheus Zabini. His face lightened up as he called her name. 

When Fiona curiously turned around, a man already wrapped her into his warm embrace.

"Long time no see," he smiled and inspected her.

"And I see that you are still the same old hag!" he implied teasingly.

The female teenager quickly realized who it was and just slapped his hands away.

"Go away Zacheus, go and annoy someone your age!"

Then she pointed at the young children who were playing around. "See, we found your crowd of people, now get lost."

"Aw come on baby sis, you know my happiness comes from annoying you!"

He pouted but quickly sobered up from his playful demeanor.

Moreover his face changed into a neutral expression once he discovered Malfoy still standing next to Fiona. The two men just shortly nodded to each other as greetings.

She forced out a fake friendly smile.

"Brother dearest, you do know, that we only have an age difference of a couple years?"

He met her gaze with the same sarcasm as he rejoiced "And you obviously know that I don't care?"

She just rolled her eyes and asked, "Where are father and mother? Are they well?"

Zacheus' facial expression turned humourless and casually stated while looking at Malfoy. "Would you be so friendly and excuse us for a minute?!"

"I can see you have a lot of catching up to do," Abraxas remarked throughly peering at the female.

"Find me when you are finished!" then proceeded to kiss her softly on the cheek and casually walked away. He knew she couldn't do anything against it, after all it was part of the deal.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁/𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱