summer dreams ripped at the seams but oh, those summer nights

[malificence]

Over the summer, even if that summer had been in the south of France, it had been easy to pretend the move wasn't happening. It had been easy to think he'd be flying back to England, to Malfoy Manor, and then boarding the Hogwarts Express one last time. He would have been more supportive of his father needing this change of scene, he thinks not for the first time, if he'd waited one more damn year.

Still, he boarded the carriage in Paris, flew in it back south to the Pyrenees while father returned to their new chateau that was hidden away in the Alps where France, Switzerland, and Italy converged. He arrived in his new uniform, he was quietly sorted into a house that was not Slytherin, and he was led to his first class, which was filled with unfamiliar faces...

And one familiar one, he realizes as their eyes meet, though, at the seaside, she'd been wearing a lot less than the buttoned-up Beauxbatons uniform, her hair had been wild curls around both of them and, well. Well, given the slight tinge of pink on her cheeks, Bellatrix is remembering all that too.

The only open seat is next to her, and he doesn't know that it's because she can be cold and acerbic and quick with a curse, but it probably wouldn't surprise him much, considering some of the things they got up to.

He pulls out his quill for notes, and pulls out his wand for practice, and Lucius doesn't speak until they're given time to practice on their own. Then he looks at her. "I promise I am not stalking you."

Comments

[scinlac]

The professor had mentioned a new student, and secretly, she had wondered if she could practice the occasional illegal spell on her – or him. These thoughts crept into her day to day life more and more, after summer, after her vacation to the coast, where she had met a young, handsome wizard with similar inclinations. Not that it had meant anything. It had been... fun, and pleasure, and yes, it had been expedient, but they had decided to leave it for this one summer.

Which is fine.

Even if he still has her thoughts drifting. Perhaps especially if he still has her thoughts drifting.

And then the door opens, and instead of some meek girl or mudblooded boy, there is... Lucius. The same perfect blond hair, the same fine features, only fully clothed in the Beauxbatons uniform. There is Lucius, and her face is burning at the sight of him. She is relieved when he doesn't speak to her immediately, relieved and furious and frustrated and glad.

Soon, there they are, meant to cast some charm, and now he does speak to her, which is both incredibly offensive and such a relief. What if he had continued to ignore her? Her eyebrows dart up. "You're not? I must be seeing things."

[malificence]

The charm is one less complex than the curses they had both had fun with over the summer, the ones that had turned Bella's eyes electric blue with desire and had directly led to things the girls at Hogwarts were, at best, leery about. Things Lucius finds his mind drifting to as he sits with Bella so close. The skirt of her uniform has a slit that he's pretty sure is non-standard.

Now, though, he mirrors her expression with a single raised brow. "If you were seeing things, that might suggest you were fantasizing," he says drily, "and I'm sure you're not." He executes the charm flawlessly lest they draw the attention of the professor. "My father moved from England in the spring and I decided I wanted a change of scene." An obvious lie, but Lucius is an obvious teenager. "Apparently one cannot attend Hogwarts when one is based in a chateau on the Swiss-French border."

[scinlac]

It isn't that she notices his gaze, of course. She wouldn't. The way she shifts, exposing a garter strap through the slit in her skirt, is entirely coincidental. Her voice is dry and arrogant when she answers, but her eyes have a different type of darkness to them. The kind that tells a wholly different story. "You would know of my fantasies."

No, she doesn't buy what Lucius says. He's spoken of Quidditch this summer, of being up for Head Boy after two solid years as a Prefect – she doesn't think he had suddenly changed his mind on those things, in favour of a start at an entirely new school so close to the finish line. It... says something that she doesn't call him out. Maybe all it says is that she would be frustrated, if she was in his position. "Well, Beauxbatons should consider itself lucky."

[malificence]

Bella had been a bit outwardly scornful about both those academic pursuits - but Lucius is smart enough to can tell that Bella had, to a degree, the opposite reaction from him to the weight of expectations their sorts of families excelled at. He'd become picture perfect, both in classes and in extracurriculars, and Bella abstained from at least part of that.

His lips part, and then he half-smiles. "Should it?" he says. "Perhaps. Do French boys even know how Quidditch works?" Do French boys, he suddenly wonders, appeal more to Bellatrix Black outside a summer fling?

[scinlac]

Her grades were flawless – her behaviour was far from. Is far from. There is enough detention to go around, and while Bella regularly avoids those consequences, there are only so many messes one person can make without being caught for at least one of them.

"They play." It suddenly strikes her that, while she had told Lucius, somewhere between the sheets, exhausted and spent and thrilled, that she would like to watch him play, she has missed most of the games in Beauxbatons. If she shows up to one of his, people will... notice. "Try-outs are next week."

People might notice. But then, they'll notice Lucius in general. Some of the girls in this class already have, stealing glances between attempts at the charm Bella and him have already mastered. "You could see for yourself, if you don't want to join me on the stands."

It's a very, very twisted way of saying that she would be there, at the stands, if he tries out.

[malificence]

"Perhaps I will." He'd had half a mind to sulkily just get through this year without bothering to fully participate in it, but the thing is - he actually likes Quidditch, far more than he'd like benignly staying out of enough trouble to earn prefect status. The next suggestion is a bit of a long shot; Bella hasn't exactly showed much interest in sport beyond the muscles it gave Lucius and a post-sex wish to see him play. But there's also the fact that two people alone on a Quidditch pitch can get themselves into some unsupervised fun, and if Beauxbatons has one thing going for it, it's the girl next to him who liked it best when he fucked her hard enough to be punishment.

"Maybe you'd help me practice," he says. "I'd hate to embarrass myself." He tilts his head at her. "I'm sure there's a broom you can borrow, if you don't have your own." But he expects she does, just not for the Quidditch team.

[scinlac]

In spite of everything, everything largely being her utter refusal to enjoy any of the things a normal teenage girl might enjoy, her broom still manages to be her pride and joy, regularly taken out for rides after hours, and the idea of having Lucius along for those trips...

How much more fun would it be?

"I have my own." Her smile is slight, almost not there – but he has spent a considerable part of the summer around her more honest side. He'll know. "And we can't reflect badly on Britain now, can we?" Maybe they'll have to break into the broom shed, anyway, to get to the quidditch balls.

Or just to have a wind-safe place. "Did someone show you around yet?"

[malificence]

Surprisingly for two teenagers relatively devoted to their broomsticks, they hadn't flown much over the summer. There had been other distractions, both magical and otherwise. Since Bella's looking in his eyes, she can almost certainly guess which ones he's remembering just now. Of course, since he's looking in hers, he can tell her thoughts might be going along similar lines.

"No, no tour," he says. "I only arrived this morning. Madame had the elves take my trunk upstairs after she sorted me." He got the feeling that houses at Beauxbatons were more of a formality than it was at Hogwarts, so he didn't bother asking Bella hers. "I'll have to depend on you," he says, "to make sure we both do Britain proud." Surely Beauxbatons has at least as many nooks and crannies as Hogwarts, he thinks.

[scinlac]

"I will show you the better parts of the castle." Everything about her husky tone suggests that she isn't necessarily planning to show him many sights aside from what lies immediately beneath her uniform, but alas, it has to be the thought that counts.

Houses at Beauxbatons were really just a matter of splitting students into more manageable groups – it was done by matter of count, rather than with any particular traits in mind.

For better, in case of them being split by fate, or worse, considering the poor, poor mudbloods locked in with them potentially. "Which tower? I'm in East."

[malificence]

They are, frankly, the sights Lucius is most interested in. He's fairly sure he can learn to navigate this castle just as well, and he's more relieved that Bella isn't fully annoyed by his appearance. Summer flings sometimes exist in different universe, after all; his cousin Rodolphus has them every year the Lestranges retreat to even more distant Canada, and then he comes back to his flower-named Greengrass girlfriend in the fall.

His smile is slow, pleased, and full of promised mischief. "East as well," he says. "My trunk should be in my room, unpacked by now." He had only had to threaten the elf a little bit to get that agreement. He pauses. "I have not met my roommates." Which is to say, he doesn't know yet whether they'll be acceptable, or if he'll be torturing them for the next several months while he uses their muddy nature as an excuse to sneak into Bellatrix Black's very Pure bed.

Well, pure according to one definition of the word. "Juno will be getting the lay of the land and making sure all know who the new queen is, I expect."