A small boy with curly black hair bolted through ferns and palms, darned in a purple petticoat. Glittering on the back of the heavy material, as well as crested upon his front pocket, was the famous Bellarose family shield in brilliant gold.

The pathways in the Amazonian habitat were mercilessly comprised of a thick brown dirt which in patches gave way to disgusting soupy muck. If one was not careful, one could easily ruin their day with a violent spray and a soggy shoe to add.

No more than ten years old the young mage stopped to catch his breath, caramel skin beading with sweat under the relentless boil of the habitat sun. His rich black eyes scanned the area in trepidation of Mr. Bubbles who was known to frequently trample about nearby and leave large piles of steaming yellow dung, before taking off again for dear life.

His mission; locate the most hazardous and ill-tempered creature occupying the Bellarose Biodome, Audette Bellarose.

The pureblood butler boy had been taken on as staff by Montgomery Bellarose with request from his parents, in the hopes that he might gain some influence and worldliness under the accomplished wizard before attending Erenholl the following year. Ergo he'd been flitting around the monstrous castle on random errands, hardly escaping near death experiences in the biodome all the while.

He crashed through a thick sedge of flowering shrubs which had been hosting a multitude of giddy moke lizards, all of which immediately shrunk down to the size of eraser points during the ruffling disturbance.

And there on the other side, like a dream of sorrow, was Audette.

The boy rasped in place, filled with both dread and awe - and a not-so-secret schoolboy crush, naturally. 

The angelic girl had dotted her hair with blue dragonfly pins comprised of gleaming turquoise metal, their long ovate wings occasionally flittering in place with magical animation, embedded amongst her flawless golden waves.

Above her the resident Niffler, Pilf, was risking it all hanging by his stubby arms from a rubber tree, although what his sneaky plan was to remove her shiny jewelry without being noticed was up for debate.

It was a fool's endeavor, as the deceivingly beautiful girl was shockingly vicious when provoked.

She was breathing in the scents of each Amazonian orchid in the butterfly haven, cupping the flowers with her sparkly pink nails to draw their petals to her nose.

Just like a fairytale come to life, her very presence was drawing magical creatures from the vicinity; many clinging to coffee and ipê tree branches, others poking their eyes out in the underbrush, all to watch her drift in small steps from plant to plant in her pale, opulent sapphire gown of Edwardian design.

Audette heaved in a heavy sigh, closed her eyes for a second, and swiveled her head to the creeping boy who's approach through the habitat had been so loud it was a miracle he thought his location was any sort of secret, "Come on out, Cian, the entire biodome can hear you wheezing like a wampus over there. What is it now?"

She opened her eyelids with an absolute lack of enthusiasm as the poor little wizard crept forward, his gaze wide and dripping with far too much innocence to be there in that castle of horrors, "Milady, you have a visitor."

"Predictable. Once again, turn them away. I thought that yesterday I made myself perfectly clear to you that I wish to be left in solitude for this week," Audette rolled her eyes in irritation.

She was exceptionally suspicious that the person who had been requesting her company over the past week was Draco Malfoy, and from her perspective, were she to accept then it would mean relinquishing all remaining power over her choice to retreat and reconsider her position.

The gumption alone showing up at her front door four days in a row was unfathomable.

"They are...very...insistent," Cian puffed breathlessly, wiping his forehead as his dark cheeks grew rosy in the heat.

Audette on the contrary was not affected negatively by the heat, seeing as she not only naturally thrived in blistering environments but also had spent nearly two decades in that biodome adjusting to the climate.

She rested her tired emerald eyes on the adorable young man, "Cian, promise me something? Forget this place, forget the godforsaken ton, forget it all while you can. In fact, leave the bloody continent."

Sure it would be received as nonsense, but Audette was broken inside, and she was angry, and jaded.

The bow on her back bounced as she waltzed away, seeking her next flower victim.

Cian's scratchy little dress shoes on the dirt path indicated he was not going to quit that easily, eager and hopeful to impress Doctor Montgomery Bellarose with his service, unfortunately unaware that impressing Montgomery Bellarose was a feat on par with impressing Darth Vader; impossible.

And likely to end in a good choking no matter what.

The boy plunked behind her in unnatural clomps, as it was impractical to gracefully match Audette's stride which was stop and go as she analyzed botanical specimens.

"They say milady...your grace...Miss Bellarose I beg you," he touched his fingers gently to her bent elbow, and Audette turned her face with a throaty, contained growl.

Cian gulped up at her, and for a moment Audette wondered if she was coming across with the same mystic and insidious energy as her father, "They say milady, that they will not cease until you at least speak with them personally, and that they shall return unapologetically again tomorrow, and the day aft, and aft once more. What would you have me respond with?"

"Give me a name, so I may decide the pH level of my acidity, and don't count on anything lower than a unit rating of twelve," Audette barked nastily.

"Malfoy, miss," Cian's eyes were so beggary and nervous that Audette forced herself to grit her teeth and grind her jaw instead of exploding.

Straight to a sizzling unit rating of fourteen.

Pilf chose possibly the worst moment of all to drop from his overwatching position onto the dewy ground by Audette's long dragging dress train, proceeding to boldly clamber his ducky hands up her back to yank at one of the priceless ornaments in her striking hair.

She spun at lightning speed with a drawn wand and stunned the poor covetous platypus just as his yellow beak clamped down on the largest metal dragonfly clasp.

He fell onto his round back onto the pathway, guilty and cute as all hell, little gurglies releasing in his throat.

"Woah, can you teach me that?" Cian forgot his formalities entirely, peering in shock at the statuesque revision to the creature who had been so nimble mere seconds earlier.

Audette bent and pet Pilf's tiny head, tickling his ducky nose even.

She looked into his black marbles for eyes, delicately wiggling out the hair piece from his rigid mandibles, "Now Pilf, we've been playing this game for ages. I have every right to enforce magic in here now, and although you possess my undying affection, please focus on attacking the tourists instead. I spend a great deal of personal time on my presentation and find it quite inconvenient when you raid me like a walking treasure chest."

She stood and repositioned her stolen hair piece, ignoring how the young boy was ogling at her, "Tell Malfoy that I shall be partial to a visitation at my own discretion."

Cian nodded and spun on his shiny shoe heel, rubbing his nose as he assessed how on Earth to get back to the main arched entryway leading from the castle into the zoo that was the biome.

Audette found her forgotten heart and placed a hand on his shoulder, pointing her nail straight in the direction he ought to stampede, "That way - the arch is always to the south of the drawing room tower, almost right below it. And this, please send it via owl."

She pressed a scented pink letter into his hand, the boy nodding in a daze as Audette's sugary perfume plumed around his head, her propped bosoms dangerously close to his eyes, "Right...right away y-your grace."

Audette stood back and crossed her arms, narrowing her watch on the boy who just about ran head first into a disguised tree trunk which was illusively covered in vines.

The letter she had given Cian ironically was the very first owl she would ever send to Draco Malfoy, who was no doubt skulking around in the waiting foyer of the megalithic Bellarose Castle at that very minute.

Audette had the gift for gab when emotional, and unlike his letters it was practically a novel outlining the exact terms she required going forward;

Draco Lucius Malfoy,

To the stranger who first taught me not only the magic of a wand, but also the magic of friendship.

To the beast who claims to have a hidden shedding rose somewhere in the depths of his dungeons; prove it.

Our future espousal may now be beyond either of our control.

Nevertheless, should you wish to enter this marriage with my heart still belonging to you in earnest, and avoid the bleak alternative which would be nothing short of a soulless binding contract, provide me with the following integral assurance.

You will not tamper with Theodore Nott's projects, nor anything else he sets his mind to going ahead, especially should it pertain to his and his family's wellbeing.

You will assist him to the best of your abilities in the third and fourth Quadrivial trials, and you will assist this boy who was once your best friend with care and compassion through the evolving political hellscape we all must navigate henceforth.

See to it that you do satisfy these terms, or I shall never forgive you. That is a promise of the ugliest integrity.

I do love you in crushing force Draco Malfoy - do not spoil such lengthily contrived ardor.

If five years of yearning can be bottled, please direct that very compote to caring for the wishes I ask of you so that those five years are not rendered in vain.

Sincerely,

Audette

The day passed, and at seven the next morning Tierney was knocking on Audette's tower door in a rapid symphony of rapports.

"Your grace, oh milady, a letter has arrived from your handsome Lord Malfoy," she called timidly, now nearly as afraid of Audette as the rest of the staff.

Tierney was much too charming and pleasant to be a governess, hosting the sensitivity of a marshmallow to a flame, and Audette rarely exacted genuine reactions upon the fragile female because of the resulting ache in her eyes.

But that was not a good day.

Wrapped up in flowing pastel blue blankets Audette groaned like a cow about to be slaughtered.

Fuck Lord Malfoy, was the first sleepy consideration that grumbled across her frazzled prefrontal cortex, dragging her toes across the floor to answer the maddening pounding.

Her long white nightgown breezed outwards behind her heels as she rubbed at her dry eyes, "Is it imperative that you pester me at this exact point in time, when I am stale and enervated?"

"Milady, please," Tierney jabbed cryptically beyond in the egress, her mitted knuckles an endless frenzy on the wood, trapped in the winding stone stairwell with nothing but her own brutal anxiety.

Audette yawned carelessly just before the bolted doorway, pushing onto the tips of her ballerina-trained toes, stretching her fingers to the octagonal ceiling of her private tower quarters, "Has someone perished? The theatrics of this timing - surely there was minute concern enough to avoid stirring me from my peaceful slumber."

Upon the door being opened by a less than timely Audette, Tierney bustled in all prim and prime, jostling with energy despite the hour being positively ungodly.

The sun outside had hardly risen behind the storm that now permanently swirled around Castle Bellarose, "One should never keep a lord waiting Miss Bellarose, especially not one with such vacillating guarantee. He's yet to place a ring upon you, has he not? Best not to take chances with his patience."

In one pastel purple glove she held out the owl, which read on the cover of ivory parchment worth ten pence a sheet alone, Audette Bellarose.

Audette,

How calculable coming from the future Duchess of Wiltshire - more expenses. You are a fountain of demands and I struggle to prevent the water running dry.

Every wish of yours shall be granted upon your appearance at this coming Yule Ball, when I feel certain of our synchronicity.

So long as I possess you in entirety, Theodore Nott may retain my interminable protection and confederacy - should he accept it. This is an extremely bold request Audette, and I do hope you realize that he may not take kindly to a freakish adjustment in my demeanor.

Regardless, in appreciation of our love, I will honor my word.

Forward me your schedule for the ball at once, before I am forced to make a decision that will enrage you to your core.

D.M.

"What does it say?" Tierney asked in a small voice, watching as Audette's eyes popped back and forth, rereading his elegant cursive.

"It says, oh great heavens, Tierney! It says..." Audette fake gasped.

"What! Oh, don't leave a girl to beg!" Tierney fell straight for the sarcasm, clapping her hands.

"It says, he's seeking to fly away with my youngest governess into the setting sun, and that the wedding is off! He's in love with you Tierney!" Audette's theatrical tone of voice finally gave it away, watching as Tierney deflated on the spot.

"Who do you think you are, asking me of my private affairs?" Audette walked right around her governess and threw herself back into bed. She pulled a pillow over her face, ignoring the fact that Tierney proceeded to blitz around the room and yank open each curtain to reveal the pointed apertures which flooded the room with dismal, gray light.

She would now be subjected to her daily grooming session, in which she was encouraged to select her own décor and gown, as if she were the luckiest and most liberated girl on the planet for such numpty elections.

More days passed in dull agony, counting down towards the Yule Ball that Audette was utterly paralyzed over. It would most certainly enrage her to her core if he ended up attending with another needy female, and yet at the same time she couldn't bring herself to write him back with an answer.

Think-Think only made matters worse by increasing her confusion.

We should run away with Theodore Nott once the wedding is complete.

We should embrace our new order and power within the Death Eater society, and not let our heart rule our mind.

We should not go to the Yule Ball as punishment to the Malfoy Lord.

We should show up at the last possible second as punishment to the Malfoy Lord.

That one actually seemed like the appropriate move.

She wept in her bed late at night as a lavender fire crackled in the hearth of her golden fireplace, wept for Theodore, wept for Draco, wept even for Guy Cosmos who would forever misunderstand what they had all become, missing each boy in unique ways.

Her heart ached at the simple thought of seeing Draco again, and this consistent nag resulted in a plague of nightmares in which they would make sweet, tender love, only to be greeted with a shiny metallic mask of horrors hanging over her.

You're too close to that snake living in your house, Theodore had said to Draco.

She was to be the next in line Duchess of Wiltshire - would that require that she live under the same roof as Lord Voldemort?

For days, Audette drifted in the wintry gardens around the castle unaccompanied, touching dead leaves and frozen berries which felt relatable to her current mood, having not seen nor heard from the Trunchbull since the sea wall escapade.

Other times the regret of everything burdened her to the point where she refused to leave her quarters whatsoever, simply finding mindless solace in sitting right before the largest aperture, her eyes as glazed and lifeless as the grey lake below where the swans were appearing thin and weak, as if the very land were sucking dry all life.

Each day like clockwork and as noisily as possible the servant mage, Cian, searched in a panic for Audette all over the property to deliver a repeating message; a visitor has come for you.

A visitor by the name of Malfoy.

The answer was as consistent as the message; no.

No, she would not be bullied into facing him again on his terms, it would happen on her own or not at all.

December twenty-third arrived in a rather surprising haste. A haste that crept up on her as sneakily as the mysterious caller that eventful, frigid day.

Cian had yet to bother Audette who was back in the Amazonian arboretum, sat cross-legged in the brown soggy dirt as one should not ever do if one counts oneself a lady. Luckily, Audette counted herself as a wild boar if it meant not succumbing to the frivolous guilts of etiquette.

With fierce engrossment for the creature she was watching, she held her body stiff and petrified in place lest she interrupt it's train of thought with any sound or shift, her hair cast in a swirling bun upon her head with little squiggles of waves escaping in vertical rivers of gold.

Before her, a very special fuzzy thing was utilizing a razor sharp claw to etch an inscription of ancient magical wisdom into the spindly trunk of a cashapona tree - and it was moving about as fast as the rate of growing grass.

The Carver Sloth, imbued with an ability to sense and interpret the invisible fields of magic surrounding everything, spent nearly all of their waking hours carving valuable knowledge into trees and rocks.

Unfortunately though, it worked with a sluggish stamina.

Even more unfortunate, all of the recorded inscriptions faded into nothingness once more at the exact same rate, requiring anyone seeking to covet the ancient wisdom to exact exceptional patience and attentiveness over a vast period of time.

Better yet, if the Carver Sloth's attention was diverted by an environmental factor, it characteristically forgot what it was working on in the first place and all hope was lost.

Appearing much the same as their non-magical counterparts, they sported goofy smiles that could make one laugh quite easily, however where they differed noticeably was in the fur.

Instead of brown their coats were a riveting myriad of rainbow colors, vibrating in reflection of the magical energy in the air around them.

How Montgomery had convinced the spiritual guardians of the Amazon to relinquish a sacred Carver Sloth to his biodome was beyond imagination. Their ability to translate universal truths was not only dangerous in the hands of the wrong witch or wizard, but it was also believed that only ten were left in the hidden sanctuary.

Knowing her father, Audette was quite certain that no 'convincing' had been a part of the creature's subtraction.

She'd been there for hours and hours, carefully copying the runes of a forgotten language that the sloth was slicing into the soft green rind, when suddenly to her surprise it's fur started to ripple with black and red waves.

The Carver Sloth hovered in place, then lackadaisically craned it's comical features towards Audette.

In a moment of sheer mortification, Audette grew worried that her own magical energy was maleficent enough for the sloth to mirror such a demonic colour palette, before the actual cause introduced itself behind her.

"Shall I take that as an insult or a compliment?" the creamy voice of Narcissa Black Malfoy startled Audette's serenity so terribly that she screamed on the spot, flinging her quill high up in the air.

Flushed she brought herself to her feet, put back on her cast slippers, and quickly dusted off her dress, wishing in that moment that she had some sort of instrument that could retract the ridiculous noises that had just left her mouth.

"Mrs. Malfoy, what a curiosity to see you...here," Audette exhaled through her rapid heart rate, squinting through the tricolored vegetation at the courtly woman in a pitch black dress.

Despite the slimy, muggy conditions in that sector of the biodome her white hair was straight as a needle, her pale skin delicately dewy.

Audette had left the main pathway to sit in a carpet of yellow and orange crotons, now having to awkwardly pick her way back through the thick foliage and tumultuous groundcover to where Narcissa stood poise and judgmental.

It was the longest thirty seconds of her life.

Popping out onto the pathway like the wild boar she identified as, Audette blew a messy strand of hair out of her eyes and blinked at her boyfriend's immaculate mother, who shared the same hot blue gaze and apathetic charm.

Mrs. Malfoy did nothing but direct those melting lasers straight into Audette's brain, then down her soiled teal dress, and gradually back up.

Her silver gloves remained clasped reservedly together, leaving Audette fumbling to break the prickly silence without any opportunity to shake hands as a show of belated formality, "Don't mind Slinkulous. He's...well I suppose you might say rather slow."

"One might expect such a physical trait from a sloth, although, something tells me, Slinkulous, compensates in other matters of the mind," Narcissa slid her hostile eyes to the tree, where Slinkulous was making a very poor case for himself by yawning lazily and producing a buffoonery sound, hanging by one arm to inspect the two humans talking about him.

To top it all off his colorful fur was rank, producing the stench of a hundred wet dogs for a good fifteen meter radius.

In the company of Narcissa, the stupid smile on his clownish face just about sent Audette reeling over the edge, bringing her fingers to her lips and forcing herself to look away before she burst out giggling.

"Is something repulsive on your fingertips that you wish to sniff in secret?" Narcissa asked curtly, eyeing down Audette's attempts to squash the snickering.

The comment only made it harder to stop.

"No, no," Audette released a tense breath oozing with a tone of laughter, finally managing to straighten herself. Thank god she had not been in the polar habitat, because Narcissa's reactions to Ottilie would have been far too much to handle.

Mrs. Malfoy narrowed one eye at Audette as if to confirm that the tittering had ceased before proceeding, "Miss Bellarose. It should be of no curiosity to you that I am here, in this...zoological menagerie...seeing as I have called upon you for over a week. It is either your servant boy is stricken with a most unfortunate case of very, very, early onset amnesia, or you have blatantly turned me away. No one has ever turned me away, not once, let alone nine times."

Where was Mr. Bubbles when one needed to be melted down into a puddle of indistinguishable goo?

Audette's entire body flashed icy cold in the forty-degree weather, realizing the gravity of the situation at hand. Her father and mother must have been aloof to the communication error, else they would have ensured that Mrs. Malfoy was promptly met on the first day of her outreach.

"You presumed it was my son seeking visitation," Narcissa coolly put Audette on further blast, who was rapidly taking on the color tone of seaweed, "I understand that you are currently dissatisfied with Draco's private associations, but my son is in gut wrenching turmoil. Not to be indelicate of your historic ignorance, but no matter what unsightly reality has been brought to light recently, rest assured it has been here all along under your ungrateful nose and it shall continue to prevail."

Audette shook her head, her eyebrows mushing together as she winced at Narcissa's very livid glare, "Mrs. Malfoy I assure you, I love your son. This time here at my home, it was-"

"-It was hopefully enlightening in all the ways you required, because it will come to a close tomorrow night, when you attend the Yule Ball at his side," Narcissa clocked her jaw sideways, her eyes flaring with scalding admonishment, and Audette found herself temporarily stupefied by just how phenotypically mirroring of Draco the action was, "You have impressions to upkeep on behalf of the Malfoy name. Allow me to ask this; what sort of witch do you think is worthy of inheriting my place in Wiltshire?"

"One that is unconditionally loyal to her family," Audette spoke tensely. The moment had come to finish moping and seething, and accept that it was time to go back and start her new skull-studded life.

Mrs. Malfoy's polished voice rung in her ears, "Spoken wisely, Miss Bellarose, spoken wisely. Well, I suppose we have confirmed that you are not just another pretty face - I was beginning to worry that you and the Carver Sloth share a parallel thickness."

And he's not fond of you either, just look at his fucking fur, Audette thought childishly in her head as Mrs. Malfoy stepped back.

"Now, you'll need to call upon your governesses to sharply address this," she gestured one shiny silver glove over Audette's soiled day dress, "Whatever this...inexcusable presentation is. We cannot show face at Cava looking like penniless street peddlers."