antebellum [t. riddle]

xxx.

december 1944

"diane, laurelie, katherine, angela, sandy, you all look lovely tonight." sicaria made her way from her dorm to the common room, which was full of slytherins (and a few of their dates) on their way to the great hall where the ball was to be held. she approached her five friends and their five dates, only addressing the women.

"oh you're too kind, sicaria." katherine said smiling with closed lips, as though it pained her. katherine was such a genuinely pleasant woman, but she looked like she'd rather be anywhere else than here standing next to tom. "i absolutely love what you've done with your hair."

"you look gorgeous as well," the women gave several of those well practiced compliments that ladies gave each other out of habit. it was instinctual. sexist, but that's just the world they lived in. 

she made no move to address any of the boys, though the intensity of riddle's gaze made her want to blush, but it didn't matter. they spoke to her first.

"well don't you look like a well-groomed harpy," malfoy said, and sicaria put a hand to her chest and gasped in mock astonishment. his date slapped his arm and glared at him like she thought he was being serious. sicaria felt an unexpected rush of affection for the girl.

"unoriginal, malfoy. you said the same thing to me at slughorns halloween party." sicaria grinned at him as he rolled his eyes.

"no, no. if my memory serves me correctly, he called you a shrew, not a harpy." lestrange interjected smiling at her as they walked out of the common room. sicaria only then wondered if it was a coincidence, or if they had waited for her, though she was none of their dates.

upon further inspection though, none of them seemed to be positively happy, even though some of their plastered on smiles were rather convincing. some of them didn't even bother to hide it.

they all looked rather miserable, actually. 

sicaria loved it. 

diane seemed to be the only one who was genuinely excited with her date, clinging to thomas tightly. he seemed somewhat happy, if not a bit overwhelmed by her advances. in fact, thomas looked almost frightened. 

laurelie and adonis looked rather nice together, but something about laurelie's body language and lingering glances told sicaria that she was much more interested in sandy (or angela, sicaria still couldn't tell which was which) than she was into adonis. he looked like his pride was hurt, but not particularly offended, smiling as elegantly as he always did. he'd easily be able to find another witch to bother during the ball.

adrien and his date seemed to get along fine, even making polite conversation with each other, but it became abundantly clear her ulterior motives. every few seconds, she would sneak a glance at between tom and adonis. sicaria couldn't tell if adrien noticed it or not.

whichever one of the twins that abraxas was going with was paying vehement attention to adrien, staring daggers at her sister, much do abraxas' clear dismay. that twin, didn't seem to realize that her sister wasn't much interested in lestrange.

katherine and riddle seemed to outright resent each other. they didn't speak to each other, they didn't look at each other and their combined stock still posture showed how truly uncomfortable the pair of them were. the only part of them that touched were their intertwined arms, but that was more out of a sense of obligation than enjoyment

sicaria almost wanted to laugh before she remembered she'd be going with davies. 

it felt like karma had caught up to her for her thoughts immediately.