#selwyn is kind of a stupid name I realized as I was typing this. like I've gotten used to it over 2 books but it's so silly. selwyn | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

violet-greengrass-blog · 5 years

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A Fine Match

Violet knew something was going on even before she could step off of the crowded and stuffy train. The Hogwarts Express came to a stop with a mighty screech, and Violet, who spent most of the journey staring outside the window with very little interest, caught a glimpse of a veritable committee waiting on the platform. Her mother, looking serene and poised an unbothered by the commotion around her was framed by her mother looking rather cheerful, and, even more worryingly, Violet’s father.

She masked her confusion with her usual mask of propriety as she walked up to the trio, greeting her mother with their customary kiss on the cheek before she nodded her head in polite deference to her grandmother. Violet then turned to her father, took one good look at his dour, hesitant expression, and she knew.

They found her a match.

Waiting until she was finally left alone with her mother and grandmother was torture-like, and Violet needed all of her self-restraint to not fidget with her utensils during dinner, or not to blurt out her questions. But at last her father—looking more uncomfortable than she has ever seen him—excused himself and she could turn to her grandmother.

“Don’t ask me his name,” Ivy Greengrass said before Violet could open her mouth, “we agreed with his father to have a chaperoned meeting instead of all the formalities.”

“Are we in a hurry?” Violet quirked an eyebrow. Such arrangements in the matrilineal Greengrass family were usually preceded by months of negotiations before the potential partners could even exchange brief pleasantries. “Or by ‘chaperoned meeting,’ did you mean that I’ll be arranging my own engagement?”

“Of course not,” her grandmother waved her questions off. “You’ll have plenty of opportunities to do that for your own daughters. It would be a very comfortable arrangement, so I saw no reason to progress slowly. The sooner you take over the estate, the better. I might die any day now, you know, and your mother is too attached to her fool of a husband to take over even temporarily.”

“Merlin himself couldn’t kill you,” Flora Greengrass sighed, exasperated. “And I did say that if anything happened to you while Violet was still attending Hogwarts, I would of course fulfill my duty and step in for a bit.”

“Anyway,” Ivy huffed good-naturedly, “we are going for a dinner at a very discreet, very upscale place, the two of you, me, and his father. Let me tell you the only things that should interest you, Violet: he has the sufficient social standing, a handsome face, and he is a rather independent young man from what I’ve gathered.”

“He would make a fine match,” Flora agreed. “The two of you could have a very agreeable marriage where you do what you want and he does what he wants, within reason. Oh, and I’m sure you will appreciate this; he was never even rumoured to be in a relationship with anyone, so the chances of... an unfortunate surprise or a scandal are very low.”

“All things considered, he would be much better for you than that Lestrange boy was,” Ivy snorted. “Good thing he kicked apart the little dating thing the two of you had. Deplorably stupid on his part to reject a Greengrass even casually, of course, but good for you.”

“I’m not rising to that bait right now,” Violet declared imperiously. Ivy cackled. “Very well, it sounds like I would like this match. What about him?”

“His father assured us that his son will gladly marry whoever he picks for him,” Flora said. “But of course, he might have some resistance to the idea of a Greengrass marriage—”

“Doll up a bit and have your usual charm,” Ivy interrupted. “You will want to see how easily you can manipulate him, just in case. And, of course, have a feel for any secrets his father might have wanted to hide from us. But overall we are very pleased with this match, and it’s high time we look for an engagement before the other families snatch all the good men available. I waited with your mother and look how that turned out!”

“I married a Selwyn and bolstered the Greengrass fortune?” Flora asked drily.

“You married an arse.”

“And you arranged it.”

“True,” Violet grinned. “Not sure I can trust you with engagements, grandmother. What if this one is an arse too?”

“Then you whip him into shape,” Ivy scoffed, “like I did with your grandfather. That man was a straight-up bastard and I still made him to be a good father to your mother, which is where Marcellinus, the arse he is, has been failing. Well, I guess at least he’s better than all those foreigners we used to keep marrying.”

“Congratulations, you are getting a British husband,” Flora turned to Violet with a smirk. “No need to brush up on your languages. Ten years of private classes wasted right there just because your grandmother hates foreigners.”

“Does she?” Violet smirked back at her mother. “On a completely unrelated note, do we know what Monsieur Rosier is up to these days?”

Flora Greengrass, the undisputed queen of poise and perfect manners in pureblood circles, threw her back with an absolutely undignified, rambunctious laugh. Violet’s smirk widened into a shameless grin, and her grandmother rolled her eyes with a fond, exasperated sigh.

“You do what you have to do when your husband can’t perform in the bedroom,” she shrugged, pouring some wine for all three of them. “Besides, just imagine what would’ve happened if you inherited your nose from your grandfather and not my little French one-night stand.”

“I’m so grateful for your good taste in men,” Violet clinked her glass to her grandmother’s. “Here’s to hoping it extended to my future engagement too.”

“You’ll make it work,” her mother lifted her wineglass too, the three of them touching the delicate crystals in toast. “Women always find a way.”

“And Greengrass women make their own,” Violet and Ivy responded together.

“How do you feel?” Ivy asked, examining Violet. They still had quite some time until they had to leave, and the three Greengrass women gathered in the drawing room of their own estate. “Nervous?”

“Excited,” Violet responded honestly. She trusted her grandmother’s judgement and besides, she trusted her own skills to make an agreeable situation out of her marriage. The only two people who could’ve made a horrid match were out of the question; both her ex-boyfriend and her best friend were engaged already. Really, there was nothing to worry about, and Violet was looking forward to finally becoming the head of the family instead of an heiress.

“Good,” Flora smiled at her. “You look radiant, dear, absolutely lovely. I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to throw tradition away and just proposed you the moment your eyes met.”

“That would mean he has no self-control” Violet laughed. “Not what I’m looking for in a husband, mom, as romantic as that sounds.”

“Have you ever seen a more sensible young woman?” Her grandmother sighed happily. “Oh, Violet, I’m so looking forward to you becoming the head of our family. Won’t lie to you, it’s been a lot of pain in the arse, but you will do wonderfully with your reason and poise.”

“Thank you,” Violet smiled warmly. “I had two great women to thank for that, you know.”

“You’ll make me cry,” her mother said, pressing a hand to her heart. “And I’d rather cry in private about what an incredible daughter I have, you hear me?”

“I do,” Violet chuckled, giving a quick hug to her before she hugged her grandmother too. She opened her mouth to ask how much more time they had, when someone rapped their knuckles politely on the door. The three women straightened themselves immediately.

“I thought he left already,” Ivy grumbled under her breath. “Doesn’t he have some urgent business to do, like kissing Riddle’s arse?”

“Come in, darling!” Flora said loudly, shooting a warning glare to her mother who smiled back at her innocently. Marcellinus Selwyn opened the door carefully, face a brittle mask of politeness that Violet examined with interest. Amongst themselves, they referred to these moments as ‘little realizations’; when a man married to a Greengrass had to reckon with the fact that her female relatives weren’t under his control at all. Some men bore it with grace, some with humor, some with great unease, and yet some with violence—and that latter type was the one they tended to avoid.

Marcellinus Selwyn belonged to the third one, the type that felt like the rug has been pulled from under them when they were forced to realize their lack of power over the women they thought should obey them. He cleared his throat awkwardly, being faced with the silent trio of his mother-in-law, wife, and daughter.

“I came to give my best wishes,” he finally said, voice stilted, full of uncertainty. There were, of course, traditional ways of acknowledging a Greengrass heiress’ impeding transition to being the head of her family and wishing her all the best, but Marcellinus Selwyn never bothered to ask his wife about any Greengrass traditions. Which always irked Violet and Ivy, who now felt a modicum of satisfaction seeing the usually overconfident man fumble. “So, er. If you’ll allow me to, I’d like to wish her—you luck,” Marcellinus pressed the words out from behind his gritted teeth, not receiving any nonverbal guidance from the women regarding the person he should be addressing. Was it the current head of the family? The soon-to-be head of the family? Or, since there was a marriage to be had, her mother?

“That is very kind of you, Mr. Selwyn,” Violet finally said, letting the silence last just a little longer than comfortable for her father. Ivy suppressed a smirk and Flora finally gave her husband a gracious smile, inclining her head towards their daughter.

“Ah yes,” he turned to Violet, taking a deep breath. “Vi—Miss Greengrass. Please, accept my warmest wishes for your meeting. I hope you will find a fine match in the young man and that you will make your family proud, preserving the noble blood that has been bestowed upon you, and—”

Ivy inhaled sharply, as clear a warning sign as any, and Marcellinus stammered to a halt with an angry frown. He was clearly spoiling to snap at her, to spit out something deprecating about the Greengrasses and storm away in all his offended glory. Violet waited for a moment for her grandmother to rise from her armchair and either reprimand him or smooth the incident over—but Ivy remained seated and there was almost a palpable shift in the tension of the room, clearly felt by all three of the women.

Violet could decide what to do. She could actually tell her father to go and make an obstinate fool of himself somewhere else for the first time in her life, knowing that she had the authority to do so. She could reprimand him for all these years of mistreatment and casual cruelty, for all the faux-pas he committed in treating her like she was merely a simpering, inconsequential daughter and not a Greengrass heiress.

Her eyes met her mother’s gaze, and Violet could feel her almost jubilant anger cool. Telling Marcellinus off would’ve been a show of strength, but also a show of hostility. It was now her duty and foremost responsibility to make sure the Greengrass family was safe, and safety didn’t come from making enemies just because she felt like insulting someone back. She couldn’t get drunk on the power so few women of her social standing were ever allowed to hold for even a second.

“Thank you, Mr. Selwyn,” she said amicably. Her father snapped his head to face her. “You are a most gracious friend to the Greengrass family.”

It was a long, tense moment, when Marcellinus finally took a good look at her for the first time in years. Violet could trace the course of his little realization through the minute shifts of his expression; her father was angry for being denied his usual power over others, then resentful at what felt like a plot to diminish his authority; he then understood that he couldn’t change this course of events, and finally, her father looked at her and stopped seeing a silly little Selwyn girl.

Now that was a heady rush of power—watching the man who constantly belittled her and sneered at her every decision swallow hard, realizing at last that they were equal. It felt like she was unstoppable, like she could do anything.

It tasted like victory, and Violet was ready to marry a bloody beast if that’s what let her keep that power.

#drabble #but actually long af #self-para #where the grass is always greener #and sometimes your husband is an arse #family time!#winter break #c:the winter disaster

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