February 6th, 1891 — An Evening of Amusement, Devine House

This was the first such event that Ophelia had thrown, but she was rather pleased with how things were going so far. She was sensitive to the fact that this was decidedly not the season for grand balls or affairs, and while a dance during the Christmas holiday could be forgiven, it was far from fashionable to just throw parties all year long. She wanted her events to always be in competition for something else, so that she could feel proud that people had chosen to attend and passed up on other invitations. Throwing parties when the rest of society was taking a break smacked of desperation. Truth be told, she was a little desperate, but not for any of the typical reasons. She'd gone through her season as a debutante, she'd married, she'd honeymooned, and now she'd produced an heir; she was bored. She was desperate for something interesting to happen, not for anyone to think particularly well of her (though of course, she wanted that too; just not quite so fervently).

That was the point of tonight's event. She had no need of gentleman tonight, nor of debutantes. She wanted the people who actually ran society life, and she wanted them more than a little drunk so that they might be inclined to let something slip that would make her time between now and the season a little more interesting. She loved Mr. Devine, of course, but he could not be her whole life. And she loved her son, Nicholas, but — he hadn't really gotten to the age where he was particularly interesting, for any longer than an hour a day or so. She needed something to sink her teeth into.

They were about an hour in, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. A good amount of the alcohol had been poured, though Ophelia had limited herself to only one glass so far, so that she could stay sharp enough to catch anything of note. She had just finished a round of cards with a few women who were charming but not particularly interesting company, and was headed to refill her glass when she encountered a guest coming from one of the diviner's tables at the edge of the room.

"Well, Mrs. Lestrange, has your future been revealed to you?" she asked, lightly teasing.

OOC: Open to a married UC or MC woman; see event details for more.

  

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Ellory had never expected married life to be so fun. She didn't have to answer anyone. So far, Claude was very lenient with her. He didn't seem to mind her purchasing items from the east or decorating their house in crazy colours.

Being married also meant that she got to attend events like this. She didn't have to pretend to enjoy the company of boring old men. She didn't have to answer to her mother, or Evey, on what to wear. She had come that evening in a Taurus themed dress. (Her zodiac sign.) She suspected that Mrs. Devine wasn't a fan of her fashion sense, but surely she'd appreciate her dress that evening! Ellory had had it ordered from Lyttons on a whim and Mrs. Devine's event had given her the perfect opportunity to wear it!

She had been in a great cheery mood, until her session with the diviner.

"Disappointment awaits you in spring..." she had said. They were expecting her baby roughly around that time! Ellory's heart had clenched. Was something bad going to happen to her baby?

(She was going to have a daughter if the reader is curious.)

With a heavy heart she had returned to the main event. Ellory wanted to leave, but Mrs. Devine stopped her. She didn't try hiding her disappointment from her face, or her tone. "It has been spoiled to me, Mrs. Devine! I am not to expect a joyful spring!"

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   Reuben Crouch

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SET BY MJ

Ophelia rather thought no one should expect a joyful spring; there were never any good parties to attend just a few short months before the season started, and hardly any good gossip being generated. Last year she had managed to get through it between the birth of her son and the salacious bit of news about Nova's brother and his sudden elopement, but this year she had no particular prospects. She wasn't pregnant, had no desire to become pregnant again anytime soon, and neither of Nova's remaining brothers seemed the type to elope.

Ellory Lestrange was younger and more naive, though, so perhaps she hadn't yet realized what a drag spring always was. Or perhaps she was anxious about the pregnancy; if something happened to the baby it would be disappointing indeed, particularly because a healthy boy so early in the marriage would have been a special feather in her cap. As an aside, were red-haired women more fertile than the rest? The Weasleys were a large family, too, and the Prewetts. Was this cause and effect, or was there some other issue at the root? Perhaps red-haired women felt they needed to make up for their lack of traditional beauty and were more... enthusiastic about doing the deed than most women.

"Oh, I'm sure nothing that happens this spring can disappoint you too terribly, once your little one arrives," Ophelia said soothingly. Unless her baby was going to die; that would certainly put a damper on things.

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   Cecily Gallivan

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"That is precisely why I am worried, Mrs. Devine!"Ellory replied. "What if there is something wrong with my child?" What if her baby was born dead, or crippled, whether physically or magically? Ellory would love such a child, but she knew that her married family wouldn't. The green light flashing from Warrick's room flashed in her mind. Lucius Lestrange was very much like her mother, he'd put down a 'flawed' grandchild.

"My astrologist said such nice things about my baby! That their placements would make for a strong and sensible person! Surely one of them must be wrong if their predictions are so conflicting and I received the best references for Mrs. [Astrologer Lady]!"

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Ophelia could appreciate Mrs. Lestrange's concern, but was hardly going to agree that her own diviner might have been mistaken. "There's no way to know until it comes to pass, is there?" she said sympathetically. "Perhaps your astrology chart was correct on the subject of your child and the disappointment is on another matter. Perhaps some disappointment in the family?" she suggested, fishing slightly. She had nothing against any of the Lestranges that she'd met, particularly, but they were known to be quite staunchly purist. As a halfblood who had married into a pureblood family and had to deal with people who looked down on her for her blood status frequently, she didn't harbor a wealth of goodwill towards purists. She wouldn't be seen to publicly cross the Lestranges — that would be social suicide, as well connected as they were — but she could make quite good use of some well-placed gossip, if there was any to be had.

  

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Mrs. Devine's words put Ellory's mind at rest a bit. She smiled a bit. "I suppose you are right, Mrs. Devine. It is hard not to be disappointed with certain people in your immediate family!" Mrs. Devine was very active in society, so she likely knew who Ellory was referring to. Her feud with Antigone Lestrange was quite well known. Ever since she had married Claude, she and Antigone hadn't gotten in any public fight, but it was still known that their bad blood had history from their school years!

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"Quite so," Ophelia agreed, knowing exactly who she meant. She would not claim to have chosen a side in that particular battle, and she would still be happy to accept any of Mrs. Antigone Lestrange's invitations, but it was easy to put herself passively on Ellory Lestrange's side while conversing with her. "But what could she do this spring to disappoint you? It would have to be something new; I'm sure the diviner wouldn't have mentioned it if it was just a teatime disagreement."

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   Ellory Lestrange

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"She is so spiteful, it is as though her entire existence revolves around disappointing me!" Ellory whined. Now that she had an ear willing to listen, she was going to rant away. With a quiet voice, because she was at least smart enough not to make a fuss, she continued: "She is not happy in her marriage and she takes out her misery on me! She tried poisoning my first wedding night, you know! Told me all sorts of horrible lies to make me fear my husband's company! It's not our fault her husband can't please her!"

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Ophelia rather doubted that Antigone Lestrange really devoted all of her time and energies to disappointing Ellory Lestrange, but she was hardly going to say as much when the newer Mrs. Lestrange was being so free with the gossip about her cousin.

"Oh, how dreadful," Ophelia said sympathetically. "I'm so pleased it didn't deter you!" Evidently not, at any rate, based on the size of the woman's belly; she'd gotten pregnant faster than a sow in spring. Then, with keen interest, she continued, "What sorts of things did she say?"

If she could get an indication of what went on in Mrs. Antigone Lestrange's bedroom based off of what she had said to her cousin in confidence, that might be a salacious bit of gossip indeed...

  

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"All sorts of horrible things!" Ellory replied. "She told me that to share a bed with your husband is a painful experience. That it is like torture and that men hurt us on purpose, even though they can make the ordeal painless! She told me not to give myself to my husband, or else I would suffer terribly!"

This couldn't have been farther from the truth. It had hurt a bit in the beginning, more a sting than anything, but afterwards it had been very enjoyable. So much so, that it was Ellory that initiated most of their contacts afterward. It was a great pity that she was pregnant now and Claude wouldn't please her! Thankfully, she'd discovered how to take care of her needs on her own.

"I believe she was telling me all these things because she was jealous I was marrying Mr. Claudius Lestrange. Or perhaps she wanted to sabotage me and Mr. Lestrange, because she and her Mr. Lestrange have difficulties in that department! It would be a great disappointment for her if I was to produce a male heir before her!"

  

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"Indeed!" Ophelia replied, expression suitably shocked. Now, this was a salacious tidbit — or, rather, several of them bundled together. The implication that Mr. Tiberius Lestrange had inappropriate habits in the bedroom likely wouldn't do her any good; for one thing, he had that sort of air of unpleasantness that would render the revelation unsurprising, and for another thing she couldn't conceive of any way to bring such a thing up in polite conversation. Mrs. Antigone Lestrange being jealous of Mrs. Ellory Lestrange's husband was a bit better, but still not entirely unexpected (Claudius Lestrange was older, more established, and not the son of a mass murderer, so was clearly the better catch than his cousin), and therefore probably not immediately usable unless it connected to some other point.

The pregnancy troubles, however, were always the sort of thing one could be interested in. "Did you get the sense that the difficulties lay with her or with him?" Ophelia asked, lowering her voice so as not to be overheard.

  

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Ellory pondered on the question, seeing that there was no clear sign as to who was the one with the fertility issues, if there were any to begin with.

Her dislike for Antigone wanted her to go with her, but would Tiberius really keep a 'useless' wife around? He didn't seem the sort to fall in love with his wife and keep her around even if she couldn't do the one job expected from her. Then again, in many ways, Tiberius and Antigone were perfect for each other. Maybe they were in love.

It was possible that Tiberius was the infertile one. Or he was so busy taking his kinks out on Antigone, that he couldn't finish the job in the right place, so to speak. After her marriage, Ellory had supplied herself with some erotic literature and she was shocked to discover the creativity of humans when it came to the sexual department. She wished she could introduce some of the things she'd read about to her own sexual routine, but she supposed that bedding your cousin was kinky enough.

She could just lie, Ellory thought. She didn't like either Tiberius or Antigone, what did she care if people started talking about their made-up bedroom problems after she'd gone and told Ophelia Devine?

"I suppose it is very likely that it is him and what is why she wanted to make me think that my husband would hurt me. Perhaps certain functions of his body do not operate properly and that is why he turns violent. Perhaps his... flower has difficulty blooming." That had happened with her and Claude sometimes because having sex with your cousin wasn't exactly sexy.

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   Ophelia Devine, Roberto Devine

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The flower euphemism was one that Ophelia heard applied to women more often than men, so while she understood what Mrs. Lestrange was getting at she could not help but snicker slightly. She raised her hand to her mouth to muffle it, so as not to appear too indelicate.

"Dysfunction indeed," Ophelia said once she had managed to wipe the traces of a smile off her face. "But of course, if she wants a child she must know there are certain ways to get one..."

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   Ellory Lestrange

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Ellory smiled as well, assuming that Miss Devine was equally willing to make fun of Antigone and Tiberius. She was already viewing her as an Ally in the social battle against Antigone.

Ellory made a sound at Ophelia's suggestion of Antigone getting herself pregnant via alternative routes. "Tiberius would murder her!" Ellory commented. Literally and not figuratively as one said this sort of thing. Tiberius was much more likely to pull a Henry the Eighth stint and marry woman after woman and accuse them of being infertile after the marriage didn't produce an heir.

"Besides, no other man would want to have her, unless he was for hire and desperate to pay his rent!"

  

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At this, Ophelia laughed aloud. She had heard of unfortunate women who sold their bodies, but it had never occurred to her that any man might. Who would hire them? Women didn't have such fervent desires as she had been told men did, which was supposedly the reason they visited such fallen women in the first place. Outside of this very particular set of circumstances, Ophelia couldn't imagine a male in that 'profession' would have much business.

"Well, be that as it may," she said, shaking her head. "I'm sure she could manage it. There are other things men might want besides money and good company," she pointed out. An enterprising servant might do it simply to have the blackmail material — though even in relatively safe company Ophelia could never go so far as to suggest that aloud.

  

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"I suppose," Ellory agreed. There were masochists in this world — only such a person would willingly want to lay with Antigone. Ellory was sure that her nemesis was terrible in bed — cold and stiff and lacking any passion or moves.

  

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