Seneca would understand Holly if she told her that she wanted Germander or his brothers dead. If she had been betrothed to a fourth son, she'd want him dead, too. Thankfully, her Papa cared for her future and hadn't and would never betroth her to someone unimportant like that. He would only betroth her to a fourth son if he had made a fortune and a name for himself by the time of their marriage.

"Do you think an illness will conveniently spread across the world shortly before you are to marry?" Seneca asked. During the Laughing Plague, there had been people speculating that it had been created by muggle-loving potioneers who wanted to wipe out all the pure wizards.

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Holly pursed her lips and thought about all the things that could possibly happen to Germander Macnair and his brothers over the next four years. "Plagues come and go. So do accidents, fires, floods—all have happened in my lifetime, and just in Hogsmeade, too," she mused. There were plenty of things that could happen without Holly's involvement; she could only imagine what could happen with her involvement.

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— set by MJ <3 —

Was Holly planning on causing a natural disaster to get rid of Germander, or one of his older brothers? Seneca hoped that she wouldn't actually murder Germander, he was Seneca's favourite Macnair. It would be a much wiser option to try and change her betrothal to Auntie Mariana's eldest son. That way, they wouldn't get rid of a bunch of purebloods and they would have a chance to bring more purebloods into the world, in about fifteen years.

Seneca was conflicted. On one hand, if she was in Holly's place, she'd want Germander's brothers dead. On the other hand, they didn't need more purebloods dead. The world would soon be run by blood traitors and muggle-borns if purebloods kept dying before they had a chance to breed.

"Perhaps we should all start wearing protective talismans because we do not need any more purebloods dead!" Seneca commented.

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Holly frowned at Seneca's sudden idea. "I don't know what a talisman would do except offer an artificial sense of protection. You'd need something special to stay alive forever." And Holly was not fond of the idea of staying alive forever, with wrinkles and dangling skin and brittle bones. "I wish it weren't so political. First son, eldest daughter, fourth son, youngest daughter—it's all nonsense when yo think about what's really important."

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— set by MJ <3 —

It made sense that marriages were planned strategically, based on the two parties' ages. Holly's father had simply not been so wise when arranging her marriage, probably because he didn't care so much about her future. She'd get a dowry, Germander would find a good job thanks to his family connections and he would quickly earn enough to have his own family. It would have still been wiser to betroth Holly to a slightly older man, someone who would be nearing his thirties, at least, by the time she was old enough to marry him.

Scrimgeour men really didn't seem to make good fathers. First, it was that Mr. Scrimgeour, who had allowed his daughter to be kidnapped, couldn't find her in spite of being an auror and then, when she returned to him, he couldn't tame her so she wouldn't live the life of a dramatic novel's heroine. And then he tried to kill her and didn't do it discreetly enough not to get arrested.

And then it was Holly's father, who clearly didn't care enough about his children to plan wise marriages for them.

Seneca felt bad for Holly, she was so unlucky to have a father like hers and not a father like Lucius Lestrange!

Sen decided not to tell Holly that and instead focused on her first point. "There's actually a way to stay alive forever. Supposedly. Something about depositing a part of your life into an object, like it's a bank." She had read about it in a book at Fort Lestrange's library. It discussed the matter of immortality and how wizards had gone about acquiring it over the years.

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Holly's eyes narrowed at nothing in particular as she tried to think back to a book where she'd read something similar. There were many books about dark magic, and many about becoming immortal, but from her knowledge they were relegated to the field of alchemy. It didn't matter, she supposed; neither of them were old enough to do any sort of spell that would make them immortal, and Holly was not sure she had any desire to stay on the planet for more than her allotted time.

She shrugged.

"Well let me know when you find the method. I think we need to go before we get in trouble," she said, motioning towards a group of elder ladies who were approaching, presumably to see what the ruckus about the eggs was. "Let's go."

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— set by MJ <3 —