"Dia duit, Lady Malfoy, and sláinte to you this fine first day ah the year," Tierney's horribly sweet nonsense stung Audette's brain awake in a fright.
Lady Malfoy...good GOD.
One reddened eyeball sprung open to at least fifteen décor pillows of ethereal tones blinding her view, reminding Audette that she had drunkenly and angrily found her way home to Castle Bellarose via the fireplace network at Zermatt Peak Lodge, no chaperone required afterall.
Who needs men anyways; all they ever do is lie and cheat, and leave raggedy socks all over the place.
She rolled over onto her back in her silky nightgown in hateful recollection, and within seconds of being awake she decided that her primary agenda would be to put up a fight of epic proportion that day.
Scratch.
Sssccratch.
Scraaatch.
All of her chenille curtains of a darling powder blue were suddenly ripped across on all three sides, introducing piercing light to her unprepared iris'.
For a split second she shot her invasive governesses with a stink eye that normally signified one mood - trouble - before they pounced all at once, apparently having planned for this reaction from her.
"Pin her arm down, Tierney!"
"I'm trying, miss, but it seems she's grown more than ten limbs overnight!"
"Oh for pity's sake girl, use your strength! Cian, find her wand and hide it please," Aine cried in jutting breaths, her chocolate curls flying off her shoulders from the maddening row that was occurring in the tallest spired tower at Castle Bellarose.
"Get your paws off of me, you peasants!" Audette screamed quite rudely, writhing in the muddled pile of pastel bedding that had turned from a calm ocean to a roiling set of fabric waves.
Pillows blew off of the four-poster like plushy bombs, one of them pelting poor Cian in the back of the head as he frantically searched through all of her drawers for a wand he would sadly never find, because it was not Audette's first rodeo with a set of determined governesses.
The framed moving photograph of her and Draco giggling in third year divination wobbled maddingly on the bedside...wobbling with the same uncertainty that their current romance possessed.
Outside within the unruly nebula which now surrounded the once ivory gleaming palace, an endless rain dance was occurring.
The pitter pattering frenzy pinging off the conical turrets and toothy parapets was so ferocious in nature, it was as if a race had been set for how quickly each droplet might hit the ground.
The resulting dark mist which clung to the infused grounds was akin to a gloomy carpet that had been tossed over the property to hide it away from the world, and any whispering of the warm kiss of sunshine had all but professionally fled.
The effluvium rolled endlessly, as if a gigantic fog machine had been jammed into a nearby mountainside and set to maximum miasma.
Strange, observant birds squawked from the lower defensive towers, where men and beasts with lashing tails now paced back and forth through the narrow egresses day and night as if guarding Alcatraz itself.
The battlements had not been occupied in such a warded manner for centuries. No, not since the medieval times, when Bellarose ancestors had been forced to retreat inland from their prior sea fortress by formidable stone giants, who did not approve of any close proximity to their archipelago nest.
Yes the Earth was crying over the palace and it's forgotten honor, leaving the purple and golden Bellarose flag wilting on it's mast off the Lord's keep like a soggy napkin procured of the finest elemental materials.
Yet while the atmosphere had been growing increasingly haunting, the relentless thunder and lightning only seemed to heighten curiosity from thrill seeking tourists who gobbled up the mysterious ennui.
They milled in droves - hundreds a day at least - across the creaky drawbridge and portcullis which spanned over a tributary ebbing from the adjacent Swan Lake, leading to the formal visitor's entry hall.
Despite the climactic chaos overhead, the bolted double doors there remained open from sun up to sun down, inviting in the magical community with open arms.
Large flashing banners hung on either side along the mossy stone curtain walls, advertising the exhibits in magical moving depictions that constantly flipped.
Many of the ramming holiday tourists were craning their necks to the wavering flags and battling with their company over which habitats to seek out, as it was already quite an accomplishment to thoroughly make it through one habitat in but a single day.
For obvious reasons, around Christmas and New Year's time the Polar Habitat was always an absolute blundering zoo. In keeping with the seasonal theme, the banners had been recently scheduled to advertise mainly the cold habitat features in full blast:
Special: Polar Habitat Day Passes; 7 Galleons Throughout Winter Season!
Spot Ottilie The Odd At High Noon From Hinkypunk Falls! Remember: It's Not Just The Cold That Bites In Here!
Ice Skate With Arctic Fairies
Toboggan With Tummy Ticklers on Thumb Thumb Ridge
Special: On New Year's Day, Join A Tour Hosted By The Emerald Lord Himself! See Schedule And Rates Inside
Watch The Yeti Setti Ice Show Under The Stars - Hot Toddy's Two For One On Siber Mountain!
That rainy morning the vast majority of tentative patrons hummed warmly at the notion of a hot toddy, however acquiring one usually meant hiking up a gigantic mountain well past dinner time. Anyone dragging along younglings was bound to not make it, both due to the late hour of the show and the ridiculous elevation that the Yeti's preferred to dwell at.
A ridiculous bulge of milling guests had formed at the base of the gatehouse ahead, where guards were casting revealing spells over those coming and going to ensure tight knit security.
One stumpy man was being apprehended for trying to idiotically nick a rare Billywig in his pocket on the way out, only to be given away by his uncontrollable tittering and inability to stop floating off the ground by a few inches.
The questionable wizard was shaken down until he no longer possessed company property, then was led away to somewhere within the gatehouse, likely for criminal processing.
A rather irritating boy who was excitedly slashing around a toy wand on the drawbridge paused his belligerent thwacking at random strangers calves, his eyes flaring in excitement at the sound of a creature growling dangerously somewhere in the near distance.
He pointed the gimmick stick up at his mother from within the rambunctious crowd of witches and wizards, crying, "Mummy! Mummy! I can hear the Banshees already!"
"I should say not, Colin," his mother's forehead crinkled in dubiety, scaling her gaze up the side of the towering acropolis, past the watchtower filled with Ministry Aurors, all the way to where a lone tower with bright blue shingles wobbled on a spindly neck of spiraling bricks. It was nearly shrouded by the stormy conditions above, "How strange, it's almost as if it's emanating from the heavens."
The infant boy's father broke his concentration to glance down at the collectible map of the premises he'd obtained from a preliminary kiosk earlier on the path, puzzled as to what beast lived in the unlabeled tower that popped out like a sore thumb in the far right corner, "Banshees? Impossible, we'd all be toes to the sky by now. Although whatever they are cooping up in that perilous keep is not in the dandiest of moods, is it?"
Colin narrowed his curious gaze through the rain, peering up at the wonky tower from which the dreadful noise of sorrow and despair continued to permeate in undiluted objection.
A few feet away, his mother had apparently just purchased their day passes.
"And what habitat is it we'd like to see today?" the pimply teenage attendant at the luxurious gatehouse counter asked, darned in a suave purple suit with golden accents.
He waved his wand around in the air over a white stone pedestal which seemed to be downloading his spells and absorbing all financial transactions. With loaded expectation he lolled his face to them, "Polar is at sixty-seven percent capacity already, so you know. Be jammed to the brink all day. Long lines, folks."
Wand at the ready, he was prepped to stamp them with a symbol of whatever habitat they selected to visit, probably assuming it would the millionth polar bear of the morning.
"Could we go to the Amazonian habitat?" Colin queried out of context, putting his parents on the spot.
"Wouldn't you rather the Polar festivities, Colin? Wouldn't you like to see the Arctic Fairies and the Tummy Ticklers?" his mother rightfully questioned, dropping down to his level with her eyebrow raised.
Colin's cheeks had gone as rosy as a hot stove top, sheepishly playing with his jumper zipper, "Erm well...no I'd-I'd like to m-maybe meet the Emerald princess? My teacher says her favorite zone is the Amazon."
His mother laughed then, turning back to her child to rip the zipper all the way up, "Oh not this again, love. What gives you the impression that the Emerald princess will even be here today? Hmm? I'm sure she's got quite a busy schedule elsewhere, but look up there; the Lord himself is going to be out in the Polar exhibit."
The attendant smirked and shook his head, tittering below his breath, "Oh she's here alright, the Emerald princess, and in a terrible spirit from the sounds of it. Good luck chap."
"Oh mummy! Oh mummy pleaseeee, I'll never ask for anything ever again!" begged the hyperactive boy, his eyes now brighter than ever.
Throwing her hands up the woman nodded to the attendant, who began casting the symbol of a glowing green tree frog onto all of their wrists.
"Wouldn't mind seeing that rare Carver Sloth they advertise, eh Jane, imagine that?" Colin's father piped up cordially, scratching at the magical stamp on his skin with a raised brow, "Eh and perhaps we'll spot the dazzling little princess too. Although Colin, you'll have to battle with that infamous Malfoy boy she's due to wed this summer. Better snatch her away before it's too late."
"I'll knock the bastard out cold and cover him all up with ugly warts! No wizard stands a chance against the likes of me, Colin the Champion Slayer!" the ten year old cried playfully, pointing the toy wand in people's disinterested faces, the tip of which was sparking in false colours and producing noises to emulate shooting spells.
Given how 'the Emerald Princess' currently felt towards him, covering her scumbag fiancé up in warts would probably be an improvement.
Audette had been weeping for hours like a beached whale following the revealing New Years Eve party in Switzerland; as if a comet larger than the Earth was scheduled for imminent impact.
And after achieving but a blink of rest, her governesses had ruined all chances of forgetting about it by waking her up violently.
It was always like that at Castle Bellarose; whereas the mere concept of sleeping in was as rare as a ray of sunshine reaching the mossy bricks.
Trailing behind them had been the timid butler boy, Cian, in his mulberry toned Bellarose coattail uniform and issued golden gloves, averting his eyes to the floor like a good aristocrat in training when Audette had been torn from her bedsheets in her revealing, feathery pink nightgown.
Now sat on her tufted dressing stool, she was fighting unwittingly against scrupulous measures she'd already been briefed were coming.
Even after the ordeal of dragging her from the comforter had concluded, Tierney and Aine found themselves still battling to contain a set of belligerent tentacles. Audette's arms flailed dramatically to avoid restraint, further knocking over vials of sugary perfumes and make up compartments galore.
Aine finally managed to successfully stun Audette in place before one glowing red hand nastily collided with her cheek, panting over her shoulder, "Well pip pip! Fetch the oven mitts we chatted about Cian - lord knows how her grace gets all hot and bothered!"
The angsty angel begged through welling tears, still wriggling her confined wrists in their grasps, "I've changed my mind, I shant do this! I am your Lady, and I instruct you to-"
"Oh no, Miss Bellarose," she was cut off as the Trunchbull turned around in the middle of the octagonal room in her classically insipid grey dress, holding out a firm hand to blockade Cian from reaching the curvilinear stairwell he'd been pelting towards. The result was to effectively wind the adolescent when her rigid palm collided with his sternum.
A spidery, awful smile cracked up either side of her wrinkly face, voice oozing with evil satisfaction, "Today, it is my great pleasure to inform you that your father has authorized us to overrule any commands that may deter from the scheduled achievement at hand. This month will proceed as anticipated - in silence."
"And would you extinguish that blithering cacophony?" she frowned down at Cian who had found himself helplessly coughing and spluttering next to her, the very opposite of said silence, before smacking him over the head sharply with random garments in her clutch, "What has become of this establishment? There will be no need for you to go scampering off for peon's oven mitts."
She straightened her chin assertively, holding forth a pair of unbelievable white lace mittens, "Aine, these have been crafted specifically for the little firecracker. Flame retardant - there will be no burning down the place on account of a Mandrake leaf. Bewitched to be unremovable by Lord Bellarose himself. Get that insolent girl under control, now, and employ the rope if it is called for."
"No, please, I beg of you not the rope, I'll darn the mittens, please, anything but," with one sweaty wrist caught by each Tierney and Aine, Audette panted through tears as she was forced to subdue to a magical rope being tied around her arms in her lap, intended to effectively douse her abilities like water to a candle.
Long shiny hair hung down over her face as she theatrically wept, all the while the enchanted twine was wound tighter and tighter, and in correlated regard she felt the connection to her systemic magic thinning and thinning with each excruciating rip.
She was rendered a muggle then by all standards, so that they might complete their assigned agenda without any additional flak.
The display of phenomenal sorrow was probably coming across to her onlookers as exaggerative self pity, but really it was due to critical overwhelm from the past few hectic months.
They hadn't been in that smoking parlor, they couldn't possibly comprehend the underlying reasons contributing to why she was blubbering like a baboon who'd accidentally dropped the world's last banana.
The evidence was quite damning, suggesting that Draco had been wandering his silvery gaze afterall, just as Theodore Nott had forewarned. It would be a miracle if the handsome con artist's next elaborate fabrication was not to claim suffering from medically lazy eyeballs no one had been previously aware of.
Framing his actions as unfair and violating was a monstrous understatement, as he had left Audette feeling furious, humiliated, and heartbroken.
Worst of all she felt foolish for ever trusting the devil with her fragile heart, seeing as she had no way of knowing what other elements of dishonesty were missing from this "polarizing, secret life" of his. He'd demanded quite fiercely that Audette practice complete transparency in the relationship, yet like a total hypocrite had not provided it in return, and now...now all trust had been obliterated, possibly for good.
The minute he'd made the moronic choice of attempting Italian as yet another deceptive diversion she had boiled over and fled the interrogation, leaving him there soaking in a puddle of stinging booz.
She loved him so horrifically, in the sense of both a best friend and a lover, and that was the sort of love one could not simply flick off like a light switch.
It had been that final, aching look Draco had sent her upon raising his remorseful eyes that was playing awful tricks on her mind that morning, strapped up on her petite dressing stool in preparation for the worst month of her life.
Tierney caved instantly, tucking Audette's frazzled locks behind both ears and mopping at her rainy cheeks with her issued governess gown, "Ah there now miss Bellarose, your grace, it's really not to be that excruciating."
She looked like an old maid to Audette in her ruffled purple bonnet; sad, and pitiful as she comforted a girl who clearly did not reciprocate her friendship in equal tenacity.
Beginning to brush Audette's hair with a silver whale bristle brush, Tierney murmured onwards in a rather aggravating tone, "Crown up, love. In the finest of hands you are. So many who attempt this have nothing at all but the skin on their backs. The good Lord Bellarose tells us he's transporting the water cheel from the Boreal Habitat himself this mornin'. Isn't that a thoughtful sentiment?"
Audette instantly caught her breath, as if the bewitched mittens Aine was slipping onto her hands were doused in hydrochloric acid.
The morning had started off as a bad dream. But seeing as Montgomery himself was gliding towards her at that very moment...it had just become a living nightmare.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Oh yes, and then there was the matter of the disgusting water cheel in simultaneous delivery.
In the magical world, cheels were parasitic creatures with contradicting biological systems to that of a common leech, hence the mirrored term, cheel. Instead of stealing from one's system, they deposited; doing so by gruesomely converting surrounding oxygen into resources and disposing of the unwanted biproducts in the system of it's symbiotic host.
Waste in the case of the water cheel was quite obvious; pure hydrogen dioxide, therefore acting as an external source of hydration in dire situations...or situations where one's mouth was meant to be sealed shut for an unruly extension.
It was a medically outdated practice, but everything about Montgomery Bellarose was antiquated and medieval.
Having not thought this far ahead, the purpose of the water cheel struck Audette then, now certain she might hurl or faint from the idea of it's putrid ringed fangs clinging to her flesh undisrupted for four weeks.
Aine turned around from fishing about in a hideous leather bag she'd planted onto the creamy counter, producing a vial filled with yucky mandrake leaves.
She grimaced at Ms. Poison in hesitation, likely imagining having to insert one into Audette's fiercely barred teeth, "Well...that banner down there has never spoken a sharper truth, and I'm not referring to Ottilie being the chomper. She's got that vicious glare going, like a rabid Skrewt..."
The Trunchbull comprehended the worry at hand, flicking her arm out towards the floor, and like a kaleidoscope that had sprouted from within her sleeve the hitting stick grew into blistering hardness.
It snapped off of Audette's beautiful Parisian tiling with a threatening clap, causing Cian to jump in his ridiculously antediluvian pantaloons.
Ms. Roisin pointed it at Audette sternly, "Open your mouth, and any biting, you'll find yourself sleeping out in the biodome all night long. You won't even be able to call for help should something start eating you alive in your dreams."
Audette blinked her eyelashes rapidly, which were laden with little balls of crystalline tears, glancing between the three women towering over her. Perhaps she and Draco's worlds were more in synch than she had given credit to; canes for battering, rigorous aristocratic rules, rigid molds formed around them for who and what they might become...
Montgomery Bellarose, the famous magizoologist and wildlife icon, apparently would accept no less of a reputation for his only child than to join the one percent of worldwide registered animagus'.
Eventually when the silence became far too unbearable she glumly nodded to signify her submission, averting her eyes out the window nearby.
Down below on the bridge, and winding all around the darling frozen Swan Lake, stood a riotous, ravenous hoard of imbeciles all having the best New Years Day of their lives, bubbly and chummy in line.
They would drink delicious hot toddys, skate with peevish ghouls, and go on thestral-drawn carriage rides around the Polar Habitat under the swarming fireflies...whilst Audette would be starving amongst the ferns like a real sourpuss, sucking on a leaf and heartbroken...once again.
To her absolute horror, the line up wound clean out of sight of her pointed stone aperture, a never before seen show of patron accumulation to date. Perhaps Montgomery would consider adjusting the limitations to how many people could safely pack into one habitat at a time.
The biodome would be in utter pandemonium for the celebratory affair, and Audette would be expelled from the castle back into her glass cage without any escape from the noisy invaders until it died down throughout the week.
As usual, during any destructive holiday, all manner of exciting events were planned for the exhibits - meaning sticky children would be skidding about and shrieking, bold guests would seek her out for uninvited photographs, and snippety tour guides would be blaring off scripted monologues in dull tones on a broken record.
Then there was the very real possibility that a good handful of the student population at Hogwarts would be larking about, just waiting to run into Audette all muzzled up like a bad house pet.
She chewed on her pretty nails for the last time she'd be able to release stress in that fashion for a while, watching the ecstatic adventurers mucking about in the drear outside.
How could they not smell the cancer in the air, literally all around them?
Now that she was impartial to Excetra she found herself unfairly biased, shaking her head judgmentally down at all of those innocent fans who aught to realize they were lining up for a day of festivities under the roof of a venomous dark lord.
Tierney's motherly voice cooed into her tightening, anxious mind, holding a white disc out practically up her nose, "Milady, would you fancy a sugar cookie before there's to be no more eating solids for the whole moon?"
The Trunchbull sighed impatiently and smacked the metallic rod in her palm stupidly loud while Audette crunched on the sugar cookie as slowly as possible, holding it in her bound hands, sniffling and savoring the taste.
"That's enough cradling," Ms. Roisin's tightly wound hairs seemed to be snapping out of her unyielding bun in angry stress curls, "She's not a puppy dog - she's the same bricky wench with poor comportment and ill manners that's been plaguing this shield for years. Get cracking on!"
Glaring at her highest ranking governess, Audette cleared her throat and opened her mouth, feeling much like a child dreading the dentist as their icky breaths flooded her face.
"Three, the Emerald Lord has indicated three, for insurance just in case," Aine stacked three unsavory leaves onto Audette's quivering tongue.
The procedure unpacked like a blur.
First, Aine's wand waved to tribulate a matrix of celestial wires around Audette's tongue, tightly binding the Mandrake specimens so that they could not possibly be swallowed.
How any prior animagus successors had managed to fall asleep without swallowing their untethered Mandrake leaves struck as questionable to Audette then, as she meekly adjusted to the unnatural dental infrastructure.
Aine then profusely apologized before casting another powerful spell, whispering an incantation under her breath that was scripted on a piece of telltale lavender parchment in her fingers, inscribed in Montgomery's unique penmanship.
A vibrant pale strand snaked out of her wand before Audette's face, slowly materializing a golden muzzle underneath her nose and chin which forced her teeth to grind together, clamping down onto her skull with magical force. It simulated at all limits into a stunning mask comprised of elegant renaissance design, stretching ear to ear, before finalizing in a resounding poof.
After that, no matter how she tried, Audette discovered that her voice was effectively sealed soundly against any effort her jaw muscles dared to exact.
It was official; there would be no eating or drinking for many weeks.
Hopefully she would not acquire a wintry cold, or Merlin forbid she posses no alternative for breathing other than a stuffed up nose.
There would also be no whispering to her adorable Consciaur who was frightfully distraught in his nearby rhinestone enclosure, stubby paws wrapped around the cage wires in dire straights to hug his forlorn mummy.
Leave it to Eloise to darn him in his itchiest sweater just because she was so impartial to the colour pink.
Tierney reached forward and unbound Audette's wrists from the enchanted twine now that the crutch of the operation was over, grabbing ahold of both of her limp hands without invitation.
She looked imploringly into her devastated eyes, "Tis only a month. Why, I've had much worse stretches, I'll tell yah that. My family brunted the toad touch for ninety-four miserable days once. Bless my hooligan of a brother for bringing it in. Thought it might never dry out, we did."
The toad touch was a ghastly imbibement, in which the affected broke out with enlarged tongues that refused to fit back into their natural jawline until the virus subsided, and of course this was coupled with detestable boils top to bottom.
Once the toad touch began, it was damn near impossible to decimate without absolute isolation of the contaminated subjects.
Naturally, the toad touch only occurred when someone licked a certain specimen of toad that promised toxic disaster.
However considering that the division of safe and biohazardous Bufonidae had virtually become common knowledge amongst wizards and witches after hundreds of years of experimentation, there was simply no excuse for contracting it. It was as common in knowledge as the understanding that one not lick a frozen metal pole either, no matter how insensibly tempting.
Ergo, any insinuation with having the toad touch had become well associated with undesirable or uneducated behavior. Hags tended to intentionally contrive it just for good old shits and giggles. It wasn't exactly something one went about blathering to their neighbors or coworkers - about as taboo to report as having a festering bout of toe fungus once already in the local pool.
Understandably, everyone in the room leaned away from Tierney who seemingly lacked the ability to read social cues. Even Cian, who was actively picking his nose without a morsel of humility, raised one eyebrow in judgment.
Audette barely had a moment to raise her clammy fingers to the exterior of the sheathing mask, before all eyes were drawn to the singular doorway to the tower, and any positive energy sucked out like a vacuum with the latest invader.
"Superb. I see we are on schedule," Montgomery Bellarose swept into the vast octagonal room, long blond locks whorling to one side in designated flow, darned in a baby blue suit that contradicted his very negative aura.
His bowtie was confectionary white, and so in matching regard was his crisp pocket square - a suitable penguin-ish colour palette given that the Bellarose Biodome was featuring the Polar Exhibit in stark contrast that day.
He would be up to his green eyeballs for hours on end handling guests on special tours, introducing them to the many hundreds of incredible creatures all cohabitating his unheard of biodome, before shuffling them off towards the centralized House Elf Hamlet for meals and handcrafted souvenirs.
Each serving person in attendance bowed deeply, Trunchbull, Cian and all, except of course for Audette...who's eyes were caught on the ghastly water cheel attached to a sodden log in her father's white gloves.
The water cheel was enormously repellent; hovering off the moist wood with a firm clamp. Characterized by an elongated snout of several feet - much like the string of a balloon - the cheel was floating above it's anchorage like a big ugly alien.
If Hellen Keller had died and been reanimated, it was surely that misfortunate thing.
Blind and deaf, it was a pink, fleshy, brainy beast, a perfect ball of buoyant slimy skin pockmarked with respiratory holes, supplying any onlooker the unsettling visual of an animated, dried out lotus flower. Guy's trypophobia would fire off to unparalleled lengths at the mere sight of it.
It was wheezing drastically in it's syphoning madness, and water was pouring out of the hollow log section where it had fastened itself temporarily for the trip. An unsurprising, small puddle had begun to form at the tips of Montgomery's pointed Corinthian leather loafers.
His serpentine eyes shot to Audette's hand on her vanity, where her engagement ring sparkled radiantly no matter the addled photometrics, "Well child, you have become a woman since our last consortium. I do applaud your rapid progress this year, in fact...I might even suggest that it has amused a rare facet of esteem within my character."
Audette watched her father drift regally between the bent servants as if they were wholly irrelevant, stopping before her with his jade gaze sneering down over his nose, sliding one glove below her chin to raise her face, "My impeccable, rapscallion Audette, there is chronic insinuation amongst the court that we bare cognate qualities. It is truly not a myth of gossip, that your eyes do mirror mine, and perhaps something might be told of an aggressive disposition...what pittance you were not born a man, lest I might stand to nurse some common ground with my only offspring."
Dumbfounded by the bizarre sling shot of both compliments and sexist insult, Audette's eyes remained wide on her father's highly manicured expression. It wasn't as if she was capable of responding verbally.
He tisked a curt breath out of his nose, handlebar moustache twitching, before whistling to her cowering governess, bent like statues in the background, "Come about, ladies. Dress our young grace behind her decorative partition. She shall require the cheel be removed twice a day during pageantry, otherwise it remains. I shall perform the initial act myself in the name of didactics."
And so it went; Audette was dressed like a human cake - layer after weighty layer.
First a chemise, then garish frilly drawers, then came a crinoline cage that caused her nose to shrivel dramatically in resentment, then a corset of which strings were yanked to the point of nearly snapping her ribs, breasts puffing up just about to her chin. Then came a lovely pink camisole, then a petticoat, and when it seemed insensible to add anymore, the final Edwardian overdress was tugged over her head.
Stockings were administered from toe to knee, and then finally slippers tied with a flawless bow.
Audette had been enjoying quite a bit of freedom from her proper formal wear, and returning to it after a week of luxuriously swimming about in Draco's large sweaters and designer sweatpants was a serious shock to her system. He'd allowed her to dress in his clothing however she saw fit, even insinuating that it set off his possessive nature in a pleasurable manner, and it had felt like a flighty dream.
Her body temperature was suddenly a thousand degrees, and her breathing had been reduced to a fraction of it's natural volume. Sure to amuse the annoying guests who viewed her as fixture in the castle instead of a human being, she was a picture of a cartoon princess with a pinprick waist, prepared to faint but not out of classic swoon over some smelly prince, but due to archetypical suffocation.
Perhaps a modern parallel might be envisaged by a toddler wishing to play in the snow, only for their mother to dress in them in so many puffy layers that all ambulatory function ceased to exist - deposited on the front stoop with arms held at a straight ninety degree angle as snow drifted down upon their nose.
Today's selection was a richly embroidered golden gown with white pinched fringing along the bust and train. In her fire retardant pearl gloves, Audette plucked up both sides of the billion ton outfit and marched back out into the room, where her father was looming with predacious glory.
He wasted no time ripping back the elaborate sleeve on her right arm as the governesses observed the technique eagerly.
Montgomery set down his smoking wooden pipe next to the swamp log on the dressing table, where the cheel was swaying about in the misty breeze billowing in from a cracked aperture.
He hovered a glove over the bulbous bodice of the cheel in a bent arc, "What we must first respect is the incredible actinic operation of the water cheel, which utilizes cellular respiration to chemically convert glucose and oxygen to carbon dioxide and water. As energy is released in the conversion, carbon dioxide is ejected through these lower fenestrations, and hydrogen dioxide is thus dispelled as a liquid through the oral cavity, directly into it's selected host of mammalian origin."
Tierney's fingers shot to her nose in woozy regard before she managed to straighten up. All three of them, including Audette who again, was piss poor at anything in the remote field of chemistry, looked as if they were listening to the indecipherable ranting of a higher being.
This was always the format of Montgomery's speech pattern - hyper intelligent beyond deduction of the common man or woman - and it was miraculous at all that people tended to pine after his tours, as he made no effort to simplify his scholarly diction.
Cian timidly raised his hand in the background, where he'd been hiding partially behind Aine, "Lord Bellarose? What is the benefit for the cheel?"
Montgomery explained sharply, "The cheel like any parasite, is dependent upon a symbiotic relationship. In this case, the benefit exists wherein the host migrates the cheel with it, so that the cheel is not left to consume all of the oxygen in an increasingly stale environment, and in this particular subspecies, in return it provides the favor of effortless hydration."
Montgomery slowly closed a glove over the cheel's many pulsing respiratory orifices', and within seconds the cheel detached from the log in a survival effort, diverting to inhaling through it's round mouth at the end of it's waspy neck, "The cheel will unyoke itself when suffocated in such a fashion, at which point you will transfer it to another hitch, until my daughter's accouterment has been attended to."
Carefully, he guided the cheel by it's reedy form, and within seconds of being presented Audette's sweet bare forearm skin it lunged and embedded it's shallow teeth.
Unfazed by the yelp his daughter produced deep in her throat, Montgomery raised his eyebrows to the attentive governesses, "The serum in the cheel's bite produces conterminous hypoesthesia, so that the host experiences a near total subtract of discomfiture. The salivatory nature of it's laceration is antiseptic, ensuring that infection remains at bay. Any questions?"
The offer to submit inquiries came with a warning hint that he possessed very minor patience for anything of the sort. When they all shook their heads and faced the floor, he retrieved his pipe and was gone, noting on the way out, "Twenty nine and a half days, Audette."
Ridden with a muzzle, a floating latched cheel, three unwanted governesses, an adolescent butler, and a very saucy consciaur in an itchy outfit, Audette stormed down the thousand tread stairwell leading from her private quarters to the castle in her extravagant golden gown.
All of the fine threads of her frock caught upon the chiseled clad brick, creating a satiny symphony as she pressed onwards.
Reaching the bottom tread, she was shocked out of her stockings when someone stepped towards her from out of no where.
It was a boy, no older than herself, dressed in tones of red and white.
Below a trailing crimson cloak, his slender figure was crisply emphasized by a tight ivory suit. On the hilt of his belt a gilded, gleaming sword hung nearly to his ankle. Long, wavy blond hair was tied up into a tight bun upon the crest of his skull. He sported a pretty face and eyes of a profound chartreuse intensity.
He bowed once, swiftly, then stood straight and confident, speaking with a foreign accent, "I humbly look forward to safeguarding the beautiful Lady Bellarose in the coming month, where her tongue is not capable of commanding defensive spells within the, uh, zoo."
What?
She and the strange boy locked eyes, and Audette found herself searching for why exactly he felt so undeniably familiar.
The Trunchbull cleared her throat gruffly, that same insidious grin on her face crinkling into place that had appeared in Audette's tower, "Your grace, the honorable Adelheid Magnussen, assigned here to watch over you in absolute devotion during your...period of prostration. Your father's orders."
Absolutely not.
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
The last thing she needed was some Disney style prince galloping around behind her dumb Disney style dress. It would be the mocking of a century when she returned to school.
Audette turned on her heel vagrantly, rudely stomping off down the vividly garish castle corridors lined with pillars, following a well trodden and memorized path from her tower stoop towards the biodome entrance - the biodome being the only place she was permitted to be during daylight hours, where her father's spies would be able to keep a keen eye on her activities.
A rather frightful scuttling of metal weaponry in her wake suggested the Swiss boy was hot on her heels, calling to her sternly, "Lady Bellarose, you wouldn't dare attempt rid yourself of me. I am a knight in the Swiss Guard, and I assure you, evasive measures will prove no purpose."
She spun about to flash him her middle finger before continuing on, a few paces short of full blown running away from her appointed escort.
She could hear his voice calling her name over and over as she swung underneath a set of blockading, arcuate red ropes swaying on golden poles, then dug herself deep amongst the sweltering crowd of tourists ambulating through the castle towards the biodome.
The grand entrance to the biodome opened up to a vista landing point with incredible flagstone paving in all sorts of bright colours. From here, a radiating set of pathways took off at sharp angles into the dense vegetation, each baring their own archway indicating final destinations to a differing habitat.
In order to pass through an archway, the symbol on one's wrist was required to reflect the theme of that exhibit. The exception was House Elf Hamlet, a circular core that sat permissible from each zone as an integral amenity space.
No one, save for a Bellarose, an employee, or someone who had been gifted with a universal day pass bore the right to ping pong between the habitats, lest they prepare themselves for a ghastly electrocution and prompt expulsion backwards. Despite the warning signs, it happened more often than one might expect.
A good thirty minutes passed, in which Audette was certain the Swiss spanner was evaded for good.
After immediately finding herself bombarded in the Amazonian gardens by a family with a little boy eager to meet her, Audette kindly pointed them in the direction of Slinkulous the Carver Sloth, then elected to matriculate in the nearly abandoned Marine Habitat for the remainder of the day - the farthest possible location from the bustling Polar Habitat - assuming that she might find some peace and quiet there to digest the events of the night prior.
Sat cantilever on a rocky outcropping, she held her head back and swirled the pointy tips of her socked toes into the salty waters washing up on the artificial beach. The rushing crash of the waves placated her mood, until the white noise had all but driven her into a splendid meditation.
Draco Lucius Malfoy...the not so playboy extraordinaire afterall, the boy with arctic eyes who had lost his precious virginity to none other than the prudent Audette Fiadh Bellarose in his gothic bedroom at Malfoy Manor...
Hmm...no wonder there had been so many 'accidents' on his part...
In all fairness it was true that he had told her time and time again that there had been no others, yet Audette hadn't been willing to listen due to the extraneous rumors he'd messily spread for years hinting otherwise. And while this was a delicious fact that definitely lifted her spirits - knowing that he belonged entirely to her in so many unexpected forms - it still did not outweigh the other frightful transgressions.
Her mind was a storm of unanswered questions.
Had he described her body to the scandalous Slytherin boys out of the simple need to appear seasoned and opinionated? What had happened in that drunken bubble bath with a pile of nude vixens? Did he fancy Astoria Greengrass, was that why he had allowed her to give him a lap dance? Was Audette too boring and innocent to ultimately keep him satisfied?
Why-
"You know, there is an entire school of plimpys moments away from tearing your glittery toenails off," Adelheid's commentary slashed into her sense of peace.
Audette opened her eyes to see that he was standing on the rugged beach nearby, wand at the ready, red robes swiveling around his ankles in the faint breeze.
Indeed, multiple golden fish with wiggly frog legs were beginning to carnivorously circle around her dipping toes.
Inspecting him yet again, Audette felt totally taken aback by the unusual plummeting sensation that she somehow knew this boy with a lightly freckled nose, impenetrable confidence, and a stringent tendency to nag.
As far as she was aware, he was a Magnussen not to be trusted. Did that mean that he was related to Casper Magnussen, the Simulation Architect designing the Quadrivial Tournament?
She decided it bore no consequence, and that no matter what her intuition insinuated, she could not possibly know him. She decided that this fourth governess masquerading as a man was yet another source of aggravation she had to deal with.
The plimpys gathering around the base of the rock scattered away in electric fright as Audette stood and corrected her flexible hoopskirt, proceeding to hop across the granite boulders embedded in the beach sand.
The second her stockings hit the thick muck of the tidal edge she faltered greatly, wavering back and forth until he caught her left arm supportively. The poor floating cheel tethered to her body swung around in a violent jutting game.
Adelheid looked deeply into her eyes, "You realize it was your mother who suggested I protect you this month, does that not strike you as a reason to welcome my services? Are you always this stubborn, princess? "
For a second Audette froze, swelling once more with an uncomfortable awareness that they were somehow connected. The reticent glint in his eyes suggested he felt it too, before Audette shook him off with a feral wave of her arm.
Yes, was the silent and rejecting answer.
He followed her as she placed opulent slippers back onto her rather sandy feet, trying hard as she might to block out his voice in her ear, "I've never been one to quit, Lady Bellarose. We are equally as stubborn then, and you would only ensure this arrangement is all the more burdensome by evading my oversight."
Game on, then.