A proposal of marriage

[Lita Hollows R6]

The letter, when it came, was written in black ink on plain parchment, with only the imprint of her father's seal to mark it as slightly more important than other letters. Not that he ever sent her letters of any sort unless it was important business. Or a present for her birthday, which always arrived late. It was strange to think that, once, she had been a beloved daughter. She was only seventeen years old, yet it seemed like a lifetime ago. Well, she had been a beloved daughter in the way that the Hollows family loved all things. Her value was determined by how brightly she could shine and how malleable she was. Her father always had thought of himself as greater than he was, as if they didn't come from a thoroughly insignificant bloodline as far as politics and wealth and influence was concerned. They weren't an old family, and they certainly weren't rich. Certainly, they had a few generations of Pureblood lineage for people like her father and grandfather to pat themselves on the back for, and they had enough spare galleons to dress like they belonged at the social functions her father preferred to attend, but that sort of pretence took its toll on the family vaults.

Adrian's letter had been simple and unadorned too, she remembered. He had been seventeen, a few months older than she was now. Lita had seen her brother since he had been disowned and disinherited, of course. He was her older brother still, despite what their family tree now said, and she had loved him fiercely as a child. She still loved him, but there was a distance there now that had not been present during her childhood. His smiles had been rare even when he was young but the frown lines on his face had been prominent when she had last seen him, and he had looked weary in a way that aged him. The fate of being cast out and forced to make his own way had not been kind to her brother, although she had heard that he was now married to the sister of one of his school friends. She had been in Italy at the time, and Adrian had made the mistake of sending the invitation to their father's house. Her subsequent return to England the following week had not been pleasant, to say the least.

Well, this would change things. Lita slipped a treat to the owl with a flick of her wrist before picking up both the letter and a circular velvet box from her bedside table; it wasn't the owl's fault that her father had decided to issue her an ultimatum, after all. Rister was in the Ravenclaw common room, which earned a raised eyebrow, but that was entirely too convenient to pass up so she dropped the letter on his lap as she took the empty place on his left side. The velvet box she kept in her hands, turning it over and over again as much to feel the velvet ruffled the wrong way against her skin as to give her hands something to do as she waited for her best friend to finish reading.

"So apparently my father thinks the threat of being formally and officially disowned is enough to dissuade me from marrying Gaenor one day," Lita summarised, keeping her tone light. He meant it, she had no doubt, but it wasn't exactly a grave threat; she wasn't the heir, not that there was much to inherit anyway, since her father had passed the title on to one of her cousins after disowning her brother. It wouldn't much matter to Gaenor either, she thought. Her family name wasn't worth much, her dowry was only slightly more impressive, and the connections she had were formed from her own name and her own business. And probably her close association with Rister's family, because a good name went far in the business world. Lita's pride was alright with that; she hadn't made friends with Rister because of what his name could do for her, after all, and she couldn't control other people's decisions. Besides, her customers might come in part for the powerful friends she had but they stayed because she was damn good at what she did. "I'd love to write back with 'as it pleases you'," she added dryly, "but he'd take that as assent. So, because I'm still sixteen and you're the Heir of the only family I call my own, I'd like to request that you go offer my hand to your godfather, if you wouldn't mind. Assuming of course that he doesn't object to marrying a girl with no family name, no dowry, and no father of the bride to pay for the wedding."

[Kris Graas]

There were some benefits to having a little sister with boundless curiousity and a far higher than average IQ. Exceptionally so when it came to boring homework assignments, because despite Lita's claims Rister was not a bad student. Well, maybe he was a bad student in the sense that he didn't always care to attend his classes especially the more theorethical ones. But he always took care to get his reading done outside the class and presented the required homework. He couldn't care less over a detention or two and wasn't in the race for the title of the brightest, but his professors were willing to allow him the amount of slack they did only because he was a pretty smart guy and because at the end of the day he always, always, got his assigned homework finished and turned in on time. And really, Leandra was on the same level as he was so it didn't really even garner that many odd looks for him to sit down to do his homework with the little sister. Besides Ravenclaws and Slytherins were used to by now to see the Graas siblings swing in and out without regard to their own particular house colour, unless pointing out a difference or similarity was to their own advantage.

Their homework finished by the time Lita arrived at the common room and with Leandra having just darted upstairs to fetch the catalogue from which she wanted Rister to order something dangerous - as always - Rister was quite content to stretch out his legs before him and direct an absently flirtatious smile to a fourth year girl. Which was how Lita found him. Humming noncommittaly as Lita dropped a letter in his lap Kane eyed her for a moment before picking the letter up cautiously and twisting it once between his fingers. But the invitation to read the missive had been clear even without words so Rister didnt shame either of them by asking for reconfirmation and simply unfurled the parchment and read the letter as Lita had requested.

Folding the letter as he finished, Rister gave a quirking half-smile to Lita in response to her summary and passed the letter back. He would have liked to offer a few choice words about Lita's parents but knew better to insult someone else's family. Even if the supposed family wasn't much good as a family in the first place. So instead Rister swallowed his thoughts and grinned at Lita. "Gaenor. I've never understood what you see in that old man. You should run away with me instead," he announced instead, reaching for one of Lita' hand and lifting it to his lips for a long moment before tugging Lita closer to his side with the same move and companionably throwing his other arm around her. "You know you can use my family name as yours if you wish. But I'll get in touch with dad," he murmured to Lita, affectionally pressing his lips to her temple before absently pricking his finger and touching the blood to his signet ring while muttering the incancation that tied his heir's ring towards it's father and master on Kris' finger.


*****


It truly was proof of how much Lita mattered as well as of how scary Kris could be if he desired that the Graas patriarch and matriarch arrived only a little after three hours later, both of them at ease while stepping into the Ravenclaw common room. Cleo stepped into the common room with graceful ease, after all she had been a Ravenclaw once as well, and after greeting Lita, Leandra and Rister fondly absently shooed Lita upstairs to the dormitories.

Lita would found Kris - who looked rather at ease as well, for Cleo hadn't had any qualms about letting her husband into the Ravenclaw common room back when they were students - from where he sat on Lita's bed, his back leaning against the headrest. Giving a wolfish smirk at Lita as she stepped in, Kris shifted slightly on the bed to make room for Lita next to himself. "So I take it your father disawoved you or at least promised to do so? Could have come at a worse time all things considered. You are nearly an adult," Kane mused absently, "However I am entirely at your disposal in this matter. You might as well be part of the family." Kane gestured lazily to an emerald green box standing on Lita's bedside table. A jewellery box in which Lita would find a silver ring with silver hooks fashioned as fangs holding onto an emerald. A ring not unlike a signet ring Damon had gifted to Ashlyn and unlike the similar rings awaiting to be gifted to the partners of the other Graas siblings. There was the engraving of the Graas family crest on the ring and an engraving of Lita's name. "Nor are you entirely without a dowry," Kane added coversastionally after a few moments, turning his head to observe Lita from his black covered eyes. "Th second summer you were in Italy we had the discussion about boats and I allowed you to test the endeavour you imagined? It didn't turn out bad. The money from then is stored in Gringotts and while I have taken the liberty of managing the account myself alongside some of the family funds, the accounts with everything accrued as interest over the years will be signed to you upon reaching adulthood. Don't get me wrong, it's not a filthy sum nor will it be enough to make you an heiress really. But it'll be a nice bit of a nestegg."

"And Gaenor knows well enough what you are worth. He is the one who will come seeking, he doesn't need to be offered your hand. Although we have made him promise not to make good on his plans to wed you until you graduate. And weve held him to that. Until now at least," Cleo who had appeared at the door as well narrowed her eyes towards Lita, "And don't even dream of robbing me from the privileges of acting as an awkward and patronising mother at your wedding. I have reserved full rights to act as a lunatic and make you and Gaenor as uncomfortable as humanly possible. Perhaps we'll even have another talk about sex while getting you dolled up."

[Lita Hollows R6]

"If not for Gaenor, I'd run away with you in a heartbeat," Lita assured Rister playfully, squeezing his hand in thanks and lifting up on her toes to press a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth. Maybe in a different world, where there was no Gaenor and perhaps no Meredith Garwin, she and Rister would have ended up together. They were best friends, they worked well together. She wouldn't be a bad wife for him, not really. But, as Gaenor had said when she had once asked him why he didn't marry Dana, there wouldn't be the spark and the passion that really made a marriage work. And Rister really did make a better brother and best friend, especially since she had spent more than a few nights in his bed and never once had either of them found it even a slightly sexually charged situation.

"We should tell the rest of the family," she murmured quietly, almost surprised to glance down and see the velvet box holding the silver bracelet that marked her as a Hollows daughter in her left hand. She had stopped wearing it immediately after learning Morgana's secret, and she had never been so tactless as to wear it in Italy even when she was a first year. It wouldn't be a great loss. There were some weights that it was healthier to cast aside and no longer shoulder as a burden. "There's going to be a wedding to plan so I'll need everyone's help. You can be a bridesmaid, if you want. And I need to send this to my father," Lita added, tossing the box in the air and letting it land on the couch.


*****


Lita wasn't idle in the short length of time it took for Rister's parents to arrive. There was her bracelet to return, and a letter that she spent an hour trying to compose before eventually just burning the parchment in frustration and sending the bracelet by itself. Her father wasn't that much of an idiot; he would know what it signified. She didn't bother with the fantasy that maybe he would regret his actions. She hadn't been his daughter for a long time anyway, maybe since he had taken her brother away from her. Certainly not since she had adopted Rister's family as her own and been adopted in turn.

Layla had come in at some point, and was now curled up against Lita's side, half in her lap. The comfort wasn't necessary; Lita hadn't lost a family in the same way that Layla had. The blonde's parents had loved her, even if their fathers did seem to be equally weak and useless. Still, there was some form of magic in being part of a Pureblood family and the sudden loss of that felt a little bit like faint pins and needles prickling in her fingertips, making her feel antsy and jittery. She would adjust quickly; her family magic was neither old nor powerful.

"It felt like ice, for me, like I'd never be warm again," Layla whispered, and Lita tightened her arm around the younger girl with immediate understanding. She hadn't realised that of course Layla would have lost some of the ties binding her to the family magic when her mother died and her father abandoned her. At least now she knew why the kid spent so much time huddled as close to the fireplace as she could get.

She had stood to greet Cleo when she arrived, but hesitated at the idea of leaving Layla sitting alone on the couch now that she understood. But Rister was there, and Cleo and Leandra. Still, she turned around when she reached the stairs, meeting first Rister's eyes then Cleo's. "Thank you," Lita told them simply, lacking a way to better express the sheer volume of gratitude bubbling inside her at the visible reminder that she wasn't, would never be, alone.

Kris was on her bed when she entered the dorm, and Lita curled up next to him easily. She had been scared of him once, true - but how could she not have been when the only father she had known had been her own? That time had long since passed, however. He wasn't her father in the same way that his children were her brothers and sisters but he was family nonetheless. She didn't need another father; her own had proven himself useless enough. Kris was many things, but he had never been useless. "He's been threatening to do so ever since he disowned Adrian, really. I managed to last this long by lying and offering compromises, but I couldn't lie and tell him that I wasn't going to marry Gaenor. There are some lies that even I won't say."

The ring was beautiful but Kris would already know that, just as he would already know what it meant to her. The prickling sensation in her fingers was instantly soothed when she traced her name with a fingernail. Ashlyn would be able to tell her whether that was honestly something magical or just a trick of her mind, Lita thought wryly. Though if it was an effect of the magic, she couldn't understand how Ashlyn had managed to comfortably survive her own disinheritance without keeping Damon's ring close to her skin. The Swallows were a decently old family, and the Ellison blood within her was older and more powerful still. Ashlyn was known for being stubborn though; she wouldn't have let herself be forced into wearing something that she didn't believe Damon had given her freely. It was reassuring to know that she had some funds beyond her business and meagre savings to offer her future husband though. Her pride couldn't even bristle at the offering, and Lita wasn't foolish enough to reject. If she had been left with no other choice, she would have gone to Gaenor with little besides herself and her business but that wouldn't have been an ideal situation. "I was never meant to be an heiress," Lita said mildly, "but I wasn't supposed to be a pauper either. Thank you."

Lita unfolded herself from her position on the bed in a series of long, slow movements but her steps over to Cleo were quick and her hug was fierce. "You're the only mother I've ever known," she murmured into Cleo's red hair, her voice low more to mask the tears she was currently tightening her jaw against than to keep Kris from hearing. They both already knew that her mother had never been mentally stable, to say the least. It was hardly a well-kept secret. Even when she had been in better health, Adrian had always been her favoured child. The talk about the wedding did bring up a good point though. Cleo would be there in place of her mother, as she would always have been, but as his best friend, Kris would most likely be standing with Gaenor. Rister would give her away if she asked, and maybe there was no one more suitable to do so. He had brought her into his family, after all.