Ch. 11 Getting Antsy

My hope had been for the Gaunt Family ring to have fallen off into the Chamber of Secrets, and I could have just gone down there and picked it up without ever meeting the basilisk. Apparently that had been too much to ask for.

Either the basilisk ate the ring, it took the ring and hid it, or Myrtle was wrong/lying to me. There was also still a chance that someone took it off his corpse, but for me to learn about that I would need to confront Dumbledore. Though the blood war never happened, the Light and Dark factions were still very much at odds, and while I didn't believe in the pureblood supremacy crap, I sure as hell was not a fan of the Light's way of forgive and forget. The Lestranges alone should have been thrown through the Veil. Not that the Longbottoms had been attacked in this world.

Not to mention the current Gaunt family positioning was very much in the Dark. My grandfather had originally wanted me to be betrothed to Pansy Parkinson, but my father convinced him to go for Greengrass first.

I shook myself from those thoughts. I needed to do research on Hogwarts. I would be calling that place home for the next seven years, and a lot of my life would be dependant on it. Yes I needed to make sure I got good grades, but I also needed a direction in life. My grandfather no longer worked, but before he had the Lordship given to him he worked for the Ministry in the International Cooperation section.

I was expected to have a good career before taking the Lordship, along with the training my grandfather would put me through to make sure I was a competent Lord.

In this case a good career was almost anything Ministry related, not counting derelict branches like Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. An Auror was less respectable than most others to pureblood society, but still possible. Though I wasn't keen on working ungodly hours to catch two-knut criminals.

Beyond that I could also open businesses, but unlike the corrupt ministry it was easier to fail in those endeavors. Honestly working for the ministry sounded like a fast track for me to hang myself so I was probably going to go the other path.

Back onto Hogwarts though I needed to know what changes there were from book to reality. Dumbledore was still headmaster, that much I knew, but outside of that I didn't know about a single other teachers. I didn't know if any courses changed, or if there was special treatment for men and women because of the gender ratio difference.

I sighed, leaning back in my chair after reading Hogwarts A History, I was bored. Lord Greengrass had taken his entire huge family on a vacation, and they wouldn't be back before Yule. Because their eldest was about to start Hogwarts they wanted to do one last thing before school made it difficult. Thankfully Tracey had been allowed to go along with her mother, I would have lost a lot of respect for Leovon had she been left at home. I also would have been able to spend time with her though, so it was a win lose for me.

Sighing I stood and got a book on Conjuration from my bookshelf. From Myrtles tale the basilisk seemed to refuse to kill her, which was a good thing. It meant that the snake didn't follow commands blindly. It seemed that it did not condone the deaths of students, except Tom of course.

I could reason with it, hopefully. But if it lost faith in the Slytherins, the Gaunts, then it could just kill me on sight.

So I would prepare. First was to learn to conjure roosters, it should be above the skill level of a pre-Hogwarts student, even if I was fifteen. Hopefully hard work and enough magical power would be able to overcome that.

Next I needed a way to at least survive a basilisks glare, phoenix tears for the venom, and if Salazar Slytherin somehow made the basilisk immune to rooster calls, or if that was just some unverified rumor, then I would need a way to fight and escape from one.

—

Tracey walked next to Daphne and Astoria, their mothers a few steps ahead as they walked through the magical remnants of Rome. They had traveled all across Europe, and even to MASUSA.

Astoria grinned, they were currently walking through the Temple of Artemis, yes at one point it was in Turkey, and it was Greek, but after the Statute had gone up it was one of the many places that was relocated rather than just put under Notice-me-Not's. It was hidden similarly to how Platform Nine and ¾ was hidden, right next to the Colosseum.

"Daph…" Tracey began.

"Yes?" Daphne said curtly.

Tracey winced and Astoria gave her a rueful smile.

It had been almost half a year since she had gone on her birthday date with Reigis. When she first decided to rent the room in the Leaky Cauldron, it was so she could snog Reigis so bad he would have felt Obliviated. Daphne had told her of their own make out sessions.

It had quickly spiraled out of control, and ended up with her caked in his seed and her own orgasmic bliss. That had been a surprise, cumming without even fingering herself.

They had met a few more times over the summer, but it had been in a more controlled environment. Tracey thought her mother was responsible. Oh they would still sneak out to snog in a bathroom or alcove in the manor, but right as things were getting heated a house-elf would appear and tell them that there were refreshments ready, or that their presence was requested, or that a bird had smashed into the window and they needed to move so the elves could clean it.

There had been no bird.

Daphne meanwhile… Well she had told Tracey and Astoria that she was planning on waiting to do anything with Reigis. It wasn't that Daphne didn't like him, for all her cold exterior her eyes lit up when she saw him. And it wasn't that she was some prude, Tracey had slept next door to the girl before she learned how to cast muffling charms.

Tracey wasn't exactly sure what it was, jealousy was there, but they were all betrothed to him, and despite Tracey being the only one who had gotten that intimate with him, he treated them all equally. Even Astoria, who Reigis was reluctant to do more than chaste kisses due to what the curse did to her body. Not that that was fair to Astoria, it wasn't as though she was aging slower, if anything she was aging faster than the rest of them, it just wasn't visible.

No, it was more than just jealousy.

"Can we talk?" Tracey continued.

"Can it wait until we are back in our rooms?"

Like you stay long enough for me to get a word in.

"No. I'm tired of tip toeing around it. What is the issue?"

A flash of hurt showed on Daphne's face before it disappeared.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"The fact that you've been acting like a kicked kneazle ever since I sucked Reigis off!"

Dahpne's mother, Lady Greengrass looked back at the three of them with a knowing smirk and a raised eyebrow. Tracey flushed. Shit did everyone in the house know? Did her father? She didn't think she could look her dad in the eye anymore.

Daphne's face flushed even as he expression remained cool.

"I…"

Tracey waited patiently as small minute changes flitted through her half-sisters face.

"I'm worried…"

"About what?"

"That he'll realize he doesn't like me. This-" she gestured to herself. "Is all just a charade that I use to get through society. I've been able to trick him so far, but one day he'll realize he married a Golem."

Tracey blinked at her, she thought she had tricked Reigis? Reigis already knew that Dahpne was a little different, he had said so to their father, and he didn't care. Astoria looked at her sister as though seeing her for the first time, and not in a good way.

"Daph," Astoria said.

"Yes?"

"Are you stupid?"

Daphne glared at her little sister.

"No, I am not. You know I am intelligent."

"What Tori is trying to say is that you are being ridiculous. You were the one that told us how he kissed you the day you met."

"He didn't know me."

"And you didn't know him, didn't stop you from licking the inside of his mouth."

"Stop. I know what youre tying to say, but Tracey, I'm not as friendly as you, and compared to you I look like a little girl. I don't see how he can be interested in me."

Astoria looked down at herself, then glared at Daphne. Daphne did not look like a little girl. She was shorter and more slender, but her curves had a elegant grace to them that made Tracey sometimes forget that they were the same age. She walked and carried herself like someone in their twenties. Also she was drop dead gorgeous, the perfect blend of aristocratic and fairy. Compared to her Tracey looked like the typical girl-next-door, but with really big tits.

"Astoria was right, you are stupid." She cut Daphne off from interrupting. "You haven't tricked him into anything. He knows you are different than some other girls, and he doesn't care. He has said so himself. And its not like Reigis is a typical boy either. He didn't sneer at the idea of marrying the three of us, or didn't fetishize it. When he learned of Astoria's curse he said would help to fix it, but with an actual plan to go about it rather than brainless bluster."

Daphne still didn't look like she believed her.

"When we get back I want you to talk to him. So far all you two have done is talk about me and Astoria, and how you want him to marry the three of us. So talk to him about you, your hobbies and goals, and actually ask him what he likes about you."

"What if he doesn't have anything?"

"He will."

Tracey was putting a lot of faith in Reigis being able to understand Daphne's less obvious tells, but she felt that he wouldn't let her down.