8th January, 1890 — Calliope’s wedding, bitches~
Odira Keene/Aldous Crouch & Loretta Browne/Roberto Devine

It was a Wednesday. She was too rarely superstitious to care much about what day it was - she could have married on a Thursday or a Saturday and she was sure she would have made the most of it - but what struck her this time was how banal it felt. It could be any other Wednesday. It could be anyone else’s wedding, and she thought she would feel precisely as removed.

Not that she had expected anything different of today. She had never bought into the chase for love as some girls had; and if she had felt something more at her wedding to Mr. Riley, that was nothing to do with the husband in question, and more to do with having been a little younger and a little more foolish then. And that had been the first time: a flutter of nervousness was understandable.

There was no sense in having jitters this time. So there was nothing, really, neither anticipation nor turmoil, just... how she usually felt on a Wednesday. Well, Calliope supposed, scrutinising her reflection in the mirror as she had been for the past quarter of an hour, perhaps she was being a fraction more exacting than she usually was with her hair, hyper-vigilantly teasing a curl into line. Most of the work was already done - she had sent her lady’s maid away already, and entrusted her mother with the fussing over of a minor detail downstairs. She was already dressed - a gown made in Paris of an off-white ivory, rather more subtle than her first dress had been (for she was a widow now), though it still had some elegant pearl beading on the bodice - but she had kicked off her shoes because they were cramping her toes.

Oh - and her sisters were in the room with her, cramping her style.

Odira and Loretta, that was. Calliope hadn’t kicked either of them yet, but the urge was growing steadily. Her mother had invited them in (she was certain of that, because she most definitely hadn’t) but she couldn’t imagine that either of them much wanted to be here to share in the joy of the day, because she presumed neither of them cared much about being here at all.

She wouldn’t have been offended by their lack of interest, usually, only at this precise moment she was struck by a horrible pang of missing Chastity. If she could exchange the two sisters for the one -

But she would make do with what she had. Odira and Loretta counted as an audience, after all, even if they were a lacklustre, unengaged one.

She tore her gaze from the mirror and inclined her head towards them, making sure not to disarrange her hair. “Well?” She prompted, without shame. If they had any duty to her today, it was surely to offer her compliments.

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   Odira Keene

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Odira had never been particularly close to her eldest living sister, not before her memories had been obliviated and certainly not after. Nonetheless, the witch had never been less than cordial towards her sister, and so had not even thought to make her excuses when their mother had suggested she assist Calliope in her wedding ready-making.

Had she thought Calliope to feel towards Mr. Zabini as Odira felt towards her own husband, the young librarian might have been able to muster a more genuine enthusiasm about the day. Her sister, however, was altogether a Caroline Bingley: matters of society over matters of the heart. Odira could hardly blame the woman for this, but it was so contrary to her own feelings on marriage that it was difficult for her to fully understand such motivations.

"You look marvelous, Calliope," Odira responded genuinely to the prompting, the smile she offered her sister not quite so warm as that she might have offered Loretta.

That Odira was twice married and Calliope about to be whilst Loretta was still resolutely a Browne had struck Odira that morning. While Prudence maintained quite loudly that she did not wish to get married, Loretta had never made such claims. Did it bother her to be at yet another sister-wedding, Odira wondered? Ought she have been making more of an effort to help Loretta find the happiness Odira so coveted? Or was she doing right by letting her sister find her own path, as she too would have wished?

"Does she not, Loretta?"

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   Calliope Zabini

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If I could marry Bee I would but I can't so I ship our characters instead.

The fact that this was Calliope's second wedding weighed a little heavily on Loretta. She had yet to even catch a beaus eye (as far as she knew) and yet both her sisters had secured second marriages. Her sister looked lovely, of course, and Loretta was sure that Weekly Wenches would be bestowing many compliments onto the brides attired.

"Oh yes. Quite gorgeous, really," Loretta said with a tentative smile. Would she, herself, ever be the one being primped and pressed into a wedding gown? Or was she doomed to be the spinster aunt, forever crocheting doilies as Calliope married her seventh husband or something?

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   Aldous Crouch, Calliope Zabini

“Thank you,” Calliope said matter-of-factly, sure that they were both being honest, though she was less than impressed with their combined level of enthusiasm. The least they could do was pretend they were happy for her with a little more gusto. “Careful, or all that liveliness between you will have the guests mistaking this for a funeral,” she said, making sure they both witnessed the roll of her eyes in the mirror.

As ever, of course, she was doomed to do all the work herself: be the sociable one, the fashionable one, the most successful, solidify the Browne position in society - an endless, tiresome, thankless task for which not one of her sisters had ever recompensed her.

“It is going to be a wonderful day,” Calliope continued, with the meticulous certainty that she would have it her way or else, and carried on talking, because being able to hold a half-adequate conversation was another skill both of these sisters of hers had never gained. She adjusted an earring contemplatively. “Perhaps not so spectacular in setting as my last, but that was a summer wedding; but of course Odira won’t remember my last wedding -” Calliope’s eyes flickered to Odira as though the gaps in her memory were a personal failing. “Loretta, you must tell her how grand it was.”

She turned better towards them both to encourage Loretta to follow these instructions, though her eyes slid to Odira instead. “Not that Loretta is any real authority on weddings,” she added dispassionately, as though Loretta were not in the room, “since she still hasn’t had one of her own.”

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   Loretta Browne, Odira Keene

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Odira had resolutely kept her own news to herself as she did not wish to overshadow Calliope's day, though her sister's attitude, coupled with the dig at Loretta's prospects, made her wish she lacked some of that courtesy.

"It would be unseemly for your second wedding to be as lavish as your first," Odira pointed out. True, she could not remember her own first wedding let alone Calliope's, but her second had been small and unassuming, just as she and Baxter had wished. "And one need not be the focus of a wedding to have a reputable opinion on the institution," she added, shooting a commiserating smile in Loretta's direction.

  

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If I could marry Bee I would but I can't so I ship our characters instead.

Loretta tried her best to smile a little brighter as Calliope rolled her eyes at their lack of being lively. "Oh, it was quite lovely," Loretta agreed. "Calliope's dress was especially breath-taking."

Her skin flushed when Calliope mentioned the fact that she still had not had a wedding of her own. "If I should wed, I think I would like my wedding to be much like Odira's was." Which was seeming unlikely as each day passed. She did not think she would want a societally important husband for she would be required to throw events and that would be something entirely out of her depth.

  

She would have quite liked to knock their heads together. Why were they both so frustratingly similar? Were everyone’s siblings so bloody wearisome? She would have kept an eye trained on the guests today to see if she could shove Loretta off for good on someone who wasn’t too picky, but - apparently Loretta had other footsteps in which to follow.

“Well, we shall have to hope Odira can find another bookish, boring sort of bachelor for you, because I don’t know what to do with you,” Calliope snapped, reaching over to try and retrieve her shoe to put it back on at some point before she had to walk down the aisle. She’d thrown them off just out of reach, though, and didn’t dare bend any further in this gown, so she cleared her throat as an aside and gestured at them.

“Oh, pass me my shoes, would you?” This was to Loretta, of course, regardless of having just snapped at her. Odira did her best to be polite but Loretta was almost always likely to be the more submissive. (A shame she had been born too high in station to make a reputable housemaid, really. She would have done well in that life - one day she would have even made a perfect frumpy old housekeeper for someone!)

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   Odira Keene

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Merlin help them. Odira wondered at the fact that Calliope had managed to secure poor Mr. Zabini. Did the gentleman truly know what he was getting himself into?

"We are not all blessed with ample social graces," Odira replied diplomatically, making no move to help Calliope. The comment was as much about her elder sister as it was to her—though of course, Odira knew, this would likely go entirely above the woman's head. "When you marry, Loretta, I hope you are able to find as much happiness in your union as I have in my own."

  

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If I could marry Bee I would but I can't so I ship our characters instead.

"Why should you have to do anything with me?" Loretta asked even as she dutifully passed over the requested shoes. It wasn't like their mother was dead, after all. Loretta smiled in response to Odira's words. A private hope she had was that she could marry for love though she supposed amiable companianship was the most she could hope for. "I am glad that you are happy, Odira." Odira had been through so much and it gladdened Loretta that some good came out of it in the form of Mister Keene.

  

Odira smiled in answer, wishing not for the first time that she could tell at least Loretta her news. Alas, it was to be Calliope's day, and even if the bride was apt to be rude, Odira herself would not be.

  

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If I could marry Bee I would but I can't so I ship our characters instead.

If she registered any whiff of sarcasm in Odira’s remark, it was probably for the best that Calliope entirely ignored it - she didn’t think all the arriving guests hearing her yelling at her sisters would be the most encouraging start to her wedding day.

Loretta’s stupidity was testing her, though. Why should she have to? Because Loretta was too hopeless to achieve anything herself, damn it; and Calliope too conscious of society to let them mark down any failure of a sister on her tally. Besides, the remaining unmarried Browne girls, for all their faults, were purebloods. If the Zabini girls managed to make a better match than Loretta, Calliope might throw something.

She might throw her shoes at this pair. Now that they were in her hands, the temptation was there - and they were both doing exceedingly well at irritating her - but, she reminded herself meditatively, if she threw them even Loretta might not pick them up for her again.

And better not leave any bruising. “Not as happy as I am,” Calliope retorted, shoving her feet into her shoes. She had had quite enough of her sisters for one day. Particularly this one.

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Loretta smiled at her sister amiably. "Of course. You are the bride today, after all," Loretta said as she finished helping Calliope fix herself up. Loretta might not have been adept at many things but fashion and knowing what looked good stylistically on others was something she was surprisingly good at.

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/figured we could wrap here? <3