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"What are you doing?" Sirius lounged against the doorjamb, his voice indecorously loud and curious as he watched his aunt and cousin bustle around Andromeda, making sure every last hair, every last fold of her gown was perfectly in place. Druella's head snapped up.
"We're making sure your cousin is fittingly dressed for her Bonding to Aristeus Selwyn. As she should be." Turning to Andromeda, she clucked her tongue, "It's a pity the necklace will clash with your robes so much, but I suppose there's nothing to be done. We'll just have to put up with it."
"Can't she just choose another one?" Sirius cocked an eyebrow, "I mean, if it's really that much of an issue..."
Druella whirled on him, apoplectic. "Have you learnt nothing from your tutors? Do you really care so little for the reputation of the Blacks? Oh! If you were my son, I'd..."
"Mama," Narcissa interrupted, before she could fully launch into her tirade, "Now is hardly the time for the Blacks to be fighting amongst themselves. Allow me to re-educate my dear cousin."
Crossing the room, she leaned down to speak to Sirius – although he was six months her elder, he hadn't hit his growth spurt yet, leaving her substantially taller, especially in her high heels. "It's not Meda's necklace Mama's fussing over, it's the one Aristeus will give her when he claims her at the altar. It'll be green and gold, which will clash with her black and silver dress."
"But..."
"House colours," Cissy cut across his half-formed question briskly. His face cleared, even though he pulled his lips into a grimace.
"Just once, I'd like to do something in my life that wasn't presided over by black and silver."
"You managed that when you became a lion."
Suddenly a gong rumbled in the depths of the manor, catching them all off guard. It was time for the older Black girl to make her entrance. Cissy spun on her heel to take her place beside Andromeda without another word.
As she passed Sirius on her way out of the room, however, she softened. She'd always had a soft spot for the family's wayward heir. She didn't quite want him disowned and the right advice now might just save him that. Not to mention she was sure he would thank her for it, at least in the long run. "The second dance of the night is traditionally a dance of intent," she breathed, as she brushed past him, "If you've truly got your eye on a particular scarlet bloom, make sure you claim her for that one."
Message delivered, she sailed on, not even giving him a chance to respond.
Lillyanna ‘Lily’ Evans stood beside her mother, resplendent, as ever, in pale gold satin studded with pale blue embroidery, watching as Cissy, gowned in an indigo that was so dark it might, in some lights, have been black, escorted her older sister Andromeda, to the dais in the middle of the room.
Andromeda, dressed in a gown almost the same colour as Cissy's, but several shades darker still, and trimmed with silver, to emphasise both her House and her virginity, had her hand on the arm of her father and Head of House, Lord Cygnus Black, and a triple drop black pearl and diamond necklace gleaming around her neck. As they reached the dais, an invisible curtain was twitched back to reveal Aristeus Selwyn standing before an Osiris Priest, one of the chosen few who could officiate at Bondings and weddings of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
"Who comes to the altar to be bonded?" the Osiris priest intoned sonorously, and Cygnus answered, even though, as a young lady of age, at seventeen and in her final year at Hogwarts, a year or so older than most girls were at their Bonding, one would have thought that Andromeda could answer for herself.
But that wasn't the way things were done and so it was Cygnus's voice that boomed out around the room, "Andromeda Honour, daughter of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight."
"Who gives her away?"
"Lord Cygnus Black, her father, Head of House and her sister, Narcissa Chastity, also Members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight."
"Do they do so willingly?"
"Most willingly, by the magic of Merlin and Morgana and all the Four and in the presence of all the Twenty-Eight."
"Then I accept this fair maid by the same magic."
At those words, Cissy reached up and unpinned the necklace from around Andromeda's neck. She tucked it into a discreet pocket of her gown as she and her father stepped back. Lily watched her, knowing that, in a matter of years, she would be in Andromeda's position and, in the absence of an unmarried younger sister, one of her unmarried cousins would be doing this for her.
Her musings were cut short by the priest asking, "Who comes to claim this maid?"
"Aristeus Aubrey, firstborn son and heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Selwyn and Member of the Twenty-Eight, by the permission of his father and Head of House, Lord Damon Selwyn, also Member of the Twenty-Eight."
As he spoke, Aristeus came forward and placed an intricate necklace of gold, set with a conical emerald crowned with a trio of tiny diamonds around Andromeda's neck. The gold clashed horribly with the silver trimmings on her dress, but for once, no one minded. Green and gold were the Selwyn colours, just as black and silver were the Black colours. It was only right that the necklace he was gifting Andromeda on the night of their bonding should bear those colours.
"I am satisfied. Kneel, in the presence of all the Twenty-Eight, look upon one another and say the words."
"By the magic of Merlin, of Morgana and of all the Four, he/she is mine and I am hers/his. From this day until our wedding day, consider us Bonded, and may our magic run in harmony from this day until our last. So we do swear."
As the last words died away, a thin black beam of light appeared above their heads. A gold one followed it a moment later. The two strands of light – of magic – braided themselves together and then wrapped around the wrists of the kneeling, hand-fasted pair. A few more seconds and they had faded into the young couple's skin.
The surrounding crowd clapped heartily in congratulations and they rose to their feet, Andromeda blushing and curtsying as Aristeus bowed and then bent his head to kiss her gently on the cheek. Lily grinned to herself. Risto didn't have to do that. It wasn't part of the ceremony. He clearly did care for Andromeda.
Later that evening, after the requisite banquet, the music struck up, Andromeda danced the opening dance with her father, as tradition demanded, a sedate foxtrot, rather than the scandalous tango her older sister Bellatrix had danced at her own Bonding to Rodolphus Lestrange three years earlier, and then everyone was free to dance with whomever they wished.
With one caveat, of course. Given that the second dance of the evening was the first one that the bride would be dancing with her future husband; her first dance as a married woman as far as tradition was concerned, if not law, it was generally assumed that, whichever couples took to the floor at the same time would also be Bonded couples, or at the very least, those who had extremely serious intentions towards one another.
Which is why Lily was so surprised when Sirius bowed before her, his hand outstretched, "Might I have the honour of this dance, Lady Lilyanna?"
She blinked. Did he know what he was asking? As heir to the House of Black, he should, but then Sirius had never been as interested in his lessons about Pureblood traditions as the rest of them.
"Do you know what a statement of intent this will be?" she hissed.
Straightening up, he met her killing curse green gaze coolly and nodded. "I know."
Then he took her hand and led her out on to the floor, to the head of the line, right behind Andromeda and Aristeus.