Chapter 4

Arturo Carandini, 11 years old.

The sphere sped through the air, right out of Arturo's grasp, passing by Alessandro as he, too, tried and failed to grasp it in his grip. The golden object was too expedient for their eyes, but that wasn't going to stop Arturo, and especially not Alessandro, who desperately wanted to outdo his brother in this.

He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his body.

The wind blew through his long waves of hair back as he forced himself to go faster, following the sphere that was right in front of him, leaning forward as he approached the target- he was almost there.

It was right there! he could already feel the victory at hand.

He extended his hand out, in reach of the golden sphere. The grin on his face was as wide as ever- he never imagined this would happen in his lifetime- he wanted to win this time. He steadily pushed himself upwards, his gaze fixed on the snitch, as he stood dangerously on the broom. With one foot at a time, he balanced himself on the broom.

With a single swift grab...

He did it!

The aggressively active golden sphere was now in his grip, fighting against his now tight hold.

As he looked to his right hand, the right hand that held the Golden Snitch, his breathing was irregular and was now starting to settle- He was happy.

Every time he challenged his brother to catch the snitch, his brother had always won. He was faster, smarter, and didn't mind taking risks; with each passing game, he won them all—except this one, which Alessandro won.

Still standing on the broom, he threw his fist in the air, the fist that had the snitch, and turned to gloat to his brother.

Where was he?

"I did it!" he yelled, but no response.

Oh, he thought as he looked down below. His smile had faded, and a frown had taken its place.

His brother didn't seem to mind that he had gotten the snitch—in fact, he wasn't even aware that he had gotten it, because the ground below had all of his attention. His brother was sat steadily on his broom, looking down at the side of the pitch they were flying at.

He realized what he was looking at when he followed his gaze—he was staring at her. When he saw her standing there, Alessandro's face darkened. He sighed as he let go of the snitch, seeing his brother begin to fly back down to the ground swiftly.

What brought her here? He knew she was supposed to arrive today, but... she still had at least 30 minutes until the time she was supposed to arrive.

Alessandro hadn't spent much time with his brother recently, but he wanted to make the most of it before leaving for Beauxbaton.

He was still hovering in the air on his broom, watching as his brother greeted the girl—the girl being Sofia, his brother's fiancée. They'd had an engagement contract since they were five years old. She comes from a respectable pureblood family in Italy, and since her family had something his grandfather desired, having her family as allies wasn't a bad thing.

Their grandfather would not have bothered having them meet if it hadn't been for her family's suggestion that they meet at least once a month- if her parents hadn't suggested such a thing, they would most likely be meeting for the first time at their wedding or maybe just a special occasion.

He assumed it was her family's attempt to keep her in the good graces of the next Lord of the house Carandini. He despised the way she spoke; everything that came out of her mouth sounded rehearsed; he knew his brother despised it as well, but he just ignored it, while Roberto couldn't; it was obvious her family had set her up to it. making sure she didn't make any mistakes.

He flew down, dropped his broom, and walked towards them as he landed.

"Alessandro," she greeted with her usual grace, tilting her head as she saw him head towards them like she always did. She didn't look all that different this time, though she did look a little different. This time, she wore a skirt instead of a dress.

It was a plain sage green skirt that reached the bottom of her knees, with a plain white top that was partially covered by her matching sage green cardigan- it was obvious it was for Arturo; he remembered his brother mentioning sage green being his favourite colour the last time she had been there.

He returned her nod with a forced smile, "Sophia, I had expected you to arrive in another 30 minutes, but seeing as you're 30 minutes early, that must mean you'll be leaving 30 minutes early as well."

He didn't need her to stay any longer than necessary. He noticed how her face had turned sour-

That two-faced bi-

"-It's fine." Looking at his brother, Arturo spoke up. Alessandro shifted his gaze away from his brother's stern expression.

Arturo shifted his gaze back to Sophia and extended his elbow, which she accepted with a graceful smile.

"Should we go in for tea now?" He inquired, and she nodded, a shy blush forming on her pale cheeks.

Alessandro felt like throwing up right there and then. His face scrunched up as she spoke, his hands clenched into a fist.

Before taking a step, Arturo turned around to see his brother frowning. "Would you like to join us then?" he asked hopefully.

Alessandro opened his mouth to respond, but he was outpaced by another.

"I'm sure Alessandro wouldn't want to bother us, and he'd probably prefer to keep flying." Sophia said 'innocently', as she turned to face Arturo.

Arturo's brows furrowed at her wording; his brother wouldn't be a bother.

He ignored her words and turned to face his brother, saying, "You're welcome to join us, you haven't eaten yet."

Alessandro shook his head, "No, I actually ate something before I sought you to fly with me. Have 'fun' with Sophia." Alessandro responded, emphasising a particular word. Without another word he gruffly picked his broom from the ground, ready to take off. He couldn't help but shuffle his feet through the grass in annoyance as he went to pick his broom.

As reached down for his broom, he stopped. He quickly turned his head to see they had already gone through the doors and his eyes fixed on his brother's broom which was only a few steps away. With a smile now on his face, he went to retrieve it.

He would test the broom out, to see how different the types were, maybe this was the reason his brother had always won.

--

Arturo and Sophia were in his bedroom. They were seated at the table he had in the corner, next to his bookshelves.

He watched idly as she sipped another sip of the tea Elm, one of the house elves, had brought them. He had asked for lemon tea, no sugar, no milk, and she had requested the same.

He knew she'd try to imitate him, so he took away what she usually drank with her tea.

Her brow furrowed as she allowed herself another sip, and a second later she composed herself while setting the small cup on the table- she wasn't a fan of the taste.

"How is it?" he inquired, taking another sip to conceal his smirk.

She smiled brightly, "It's amazing!"

He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at one of her many lines, 'It's amazing.' It was always the same with her- talking to her felt like he was watching paint dry, but for some reason, he would rather watch paint dry than be in her mist.

"…Right." he responded.

He didn't say anything else, just stared at the bookshelf to his left, hoping for time to fly by. He would much rather continue to be out on his broom, racing his brother. He had been planning on showing his brother a trick he learned to impress the boy, no doubt Alessandro would be pestering him to teach him how to do it.

Sophia twiddled her fingers nervously as her fiancée seemed uninterested; maybe she should have said something more, she wanted to say more. She wanted to start another conversation, but her mother had told her she shouldn't speak unless spoken to.

She took the teacup in her hands again, shakily, and hesitantly brought it to her lips.

After a few minutes of silence, which only felt like seconds to Arturo, he returned his attention to the girl seated in front of him. His brow furrowed as he noticed how flushed her face was.

"Are you okay?" he inquired; he didn't really want to ask but felt inclined to do so. What if she was sick? He couldn't have her get sick in his room.

She was startled by the abrupt end to the silence, and she found herself staring up into his eyes instead of down. She nodded, letting out the breath she had only realized she was holding in.

"Yes… have you gotten your things for school yet?" she asked gaining some courage.

"No" he replied, returning his gaze to the shelves, wondering if his brother was still out flying, he should be, there was no doubt about it. His brother enjoyed flying just as much as he did. If Alessandro wasn't flying, he was eating, if not eating or flying he was napping… at least when their grandfather wasn't home.

"...Oh- um, do you know when you'll get them?" She spoke again, attempting to re-capture his attention.

He didn't move his gaze as he answered but sighed before responding.

"I'm not sure, there's still at least 2 weeks before it starts so before then surely." He actually did have at least most of his stuff, which were delivered. All he really needed was his wand.

He returned his gaze to her after a brief moment of silence. He was trying so hard to like the girl, seeing as he would have to be married to her. It didn't seem like a bad idea to befriend her, so in the future when they did wed, it wouldn't be awkward. He didn't like the idea of being forced to marry someone.

His brows furrowed when he remembered the conversation with his cousin, the boy had laughed at him and told him how he would have to kiss Sophia. He shuddered at the idea. Sometimes he wished he wasn't the heir, or maybe that he was born in a different family that wouldn't make him marry someone.

"I heard a while ago that you wouldn't be attending Beauxbaton, is that true?" he inquired.

Oh… she thought- It had been her that had mentioned that to him not too long ago, had he not been listening. She was still quite disappointed that she couldn't attend the same school as Arturo.

"No, my mother wishes for me to attend Hogwarts. My father wasn't too keen with the idea but allowed it, for it to improve my English and make connections there."

He hummed in delight, thank Magic. He was glad he didn't have to see her every day.

Her mother's desire for her to attend Hogwarts made sense, given that she had previously attended Hogwarts. Sophia's acceptance letter makes sense because her mother is from Scotland. Although who would choose Hogwarts over Beauxbaton?

If he really wanted to know her, he needed to know her dislikes and likes- that was what the book he had read on friendship said.

With a change of topic, Arturo spoke again, "What do you usually do for fun?" He was actually curious, he never really seen her do anything worth being curious about. She's never expressed any interest in Quidditch he knew that for certain, she had told him it wasn't a sport for women. With that said he then realised how he hadn't seen a girl play Quidditch before even when he would go see tournaments. That conversation had happened when they were 6 and all he could think for a whole day was how silly that rule was.

She was taken aback at the question, seeing as it was something unusual.

He watched her with a raised brow as she struggled to speak, "I- um, you see…" her voice shook nervously.

With that, he returned his gaze back at his bookshelf, waiting for her to find the words to form a sentence- this was why he didn't like talking to her if he did or said something unexpected, something she hadn't gone through before she freezes up.

She usually has everything planned out ahead of time, including topics that may come up; she certainly wasn't expecting him to ask a question about her.

Her face turned light pink, she was embarrassed. She took a small breath in and out to calm herself before trying again.

"-I like Politicians" she finally said after trying hard to remember what she 'needed' to say.

His attention was drawn to her, and he locked his gaze on her... Politicians? He hadn't expected her to be interested in politics, but he did have a slight interest in politics, was that why? Seeing as he used to love it. Although why politicians? He asked what she did for fun… he had been expecting something more… well different? Maybe even just saying playing chess or maybe going on walks.

"…You like politicians, do you mean you like politics?" he drawled.

"Yes… I like politics, what I like about politics is that- is… um- they make decisions! And um, they impact nearly every aspect of our daily lives?" She stared at him, as though she was staring at her teacher waiting to be told what she said was the correct answer.

He kept his composure, even though in his head he was cursing his grandfather for making such a bad decision; why did he have to marry in the first place? They didn't need alliances; they had plenty of those, and they didn't need money; they had plenty, if not more!

He hadn't released how he had yet to respond to her, silence filled the room once again. While he was lost in thought, Sophia was having trouble controlling her emotions, as she repeated what she had said to herself over and over, each time sounding much dumber than the last- she had ruined it- this.

She couldn't stop the flow that ran down her face- she was crying.

Finally returning back to reality Arturo noticed her tears, "Um, are you okay?" he asked awkwardly, it was weird he hadn't seen someone cry in such a long time. The last time he had seen someone cried or even cried himself was-

Once she realised, he was staring at her, she was mortified, he couldn't see her tears! She stood up abruptly and ran towards the opened doors escaping from this nightmare of hers.

...Was when the woman who had given birth to both himself and his brother, took her life.

He leaned back into his chair, still perplexed as to why she was crying, had he said something wrong? Or maybe he had done something to offend her, but whatever it was maybe she won't come back again- Hopefully.