Well, this was a bloody disaster. After sitting down Victor had exchanged a few words with Mr. Dempsey across the table, and in that time Beatrice had done nothing except pointedly ignore Mrs. Dempsey (which was no more than he might have expected, really; the best case scenario would be for Mrs. Dempsey to talk exclusively to her husband and for Beatrice and Oscar to essentially be in their own bubble as a 'children's table') and Jasper had started playing with his food (which Victor had not expected). What had gotten into his brother tonight? Was he intoxicated? Victor didn't think it likely he was drunk, but it wouldn't have been totally out of character for him to drink a potion intended to stop a runny nose or calm a queasy stomach and for it to have unintended consequences.

In any case, if he kept on carving things in his plate Victor was going to have words for him when the parties split after dinner. Or he would have, if that wouldn't have required leaving Mr. Dempsey at the mercy of Oscar. Merlin help them all, couldn't Victor have at least one sibling he didn't need to worry about tonight?

Luckily his mother was of the same mind. Victor couldn't glare at his brother without risking Miss Dempsey thinking it had been directed at her, but his mother cut in with the look Victor would have liked to have level at him and Jasper shut up.

There was a very slight silence, then Victor cut in with a strained tone, "I hadn't realized the two of you were already acquainted." (He had not missed Christabel's slip of the tongue either).

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   Seneca Lestrange