6th March, 1890 — Devine House, Wellingtonshire

Ophelia had finally gotten her visit from November, which she had been waiting on for longer than her friend realized. During the entire month of February, Ophelia had been too pregnant to do anything outside of the house, or to receive guests, which had left her with nothing to do except exchange letters and read Witch Weekly. Ophelia had been a social creature for years and the only thing sustaining her in isolation had been the company of her husband and the steady supply of gossip, so of course she had heard about the scandal in Nova's natal family as soon as it had been made public. Ever since, she'd been dying to pester her friend for details — but she was powerless to pester while she was still so pregnant, and after the delivery she had needed almost a week to feel properly recovered.

Now, though she still wasn't entirely at her best, she was feeling much more herself. She and Nova had been in the sitting room for about an hour and had exchanged all the necessary pleasantries. Tea and biscuits had been served. Baby Nicholas had been brought out and duly complimented, and he had then been returned to the care of a nurse. Now, finally, she could steer the conversation towards what she really wanted to talk about.

"But Nova, darling, how have you been faring the past few weeks? I heard, of course, about your brother," she said, tone all sympathy. Perhaps a little too much sympathy; she may have been laying it on a bit thick.

November Malfoy

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   Ursula Black

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Nova had been dreading the possibility that the conversation might turn to Reuben. It had been her sincere hope that Ophelia would be far too distracted by her newborn son and trying to get up to speed on what she'd missed in society since her confinement, that is up to speed on any subject that wasn't Reuben. Luck was not on her side it seemed.

It was entirely possible that she could just gloss over the subject but she doubted Ophelia was asking because she wasn't interested and ultimately if she already knew of it then it would be better to make sure she knew the truth rather than whatever the malicious gossip was circulating.

"I've been well." She paused for a moment as she braced herself. "What is it you've heard about Reuben exactly?" Nova regretted the question instantly. She'd only wanted to know how deeply she needed to delve into the matter but gossip was rarely less sensational than the reality and she didn't care to know what horrible things people were saying about her brother.

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If they had been talking about anyone else, Ophelia would have let the smile show clear on her face as she divulged the details of what she had heard so far. She did love to gossip, and though Nova wasn't the type to pontificate about anything, really, she had never objected to listening to a good bit of society news. Since this was her brother, though, Ophelia had the presence of mind to look abashed, as though she would rather not be saying anything at all.

(She did also remember enough of her own family drama to feel at least a mild pang of sympathy for her, too, but it was more muted; the trauma of having lost her brother and mother over a period of months, or the shock of hearing her sister had run away and possibly sunk Ophelia's own marriage chances in the meantime, could not really be equated with this, however juicy it was. November had her place in society firmly established; she was married, with two sons, and no scandal short of Zabini proportions could touch her now. And it wasn't as though he had died, anyway).

"That he's fled to Paris," she explained. "And that Mr. and Mrs. Finch disowned his new bride. Do you know her?"

  

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To her relief Ophelia seemed to have either skipped any lurid embellishments she might have heard or else not heard any such things at all. "Only by reputation." She sighed heavily and pursed her lips slightly. "What do you know of her?" Ophelia was definitely more informed where society was concerned but Nova wasn't filled with confidence from the way she'd asked that she'd know anything further.

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Only by reputation? That was odd, wasn't it? Ophelia would have thought that if November's brother and Miss Finch were involved enough to elope, Nova would have had cause to meet her at some point — but she didn't really know how often she spent time with her brothers, so perhaps not. But, at least, she ought to have known something by now, even if she had only learned it after their elopement and even if it was only through letters — wouldn't he have been eager to tell his family about his new bride, if they were so very much in love? Why hide her away in Paris like this?

"I'm acquainted with her sister," Ophelia said with a shrug. She had no particular opinions on the older sister one way or another; she was simply another facet of society, and close enough in age to Ophelia that she was a more natural conversation partner than some of the older married women who frequented the events of the season. "She's bookish, I think — and a little awkward, perhaps. I heard her father arranged the match to the American because she couldn't find a husband on her own — though that's obviously untrue, as we now know," she remarked. "Do you have any idea how long they've known each other?"

  

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Bookish and awkward didn't really sound like someone who schemed and brazenly seduced people's brothers. That was disappointing, it would have made her feel a little better to give more ground to her own suspicions. "I believe they've been acquainted for a while, but Reuben never spoke of her to me." There was another sore point, while her relationship with Reuben was hardly that of two close sisters they had always had a different dynamic than with their other siblings but he hadn't said anything. She saw this as another warning sign that she'd been the driving force of it all but she couldn't ignore that Aldous had said they'd been friendly for some time.

"Everyone assumes the worst of him." People weren't too kind about Miss Finch either but no one would believe a man would be cowed into a marriage by a woman and really she deserved it if that was what had happened. "I cannot believe my brother would ever elope, even if he was desperately in love. He would marry her honorably or not at all." Ophelia probably thought she was being naive but it was the truth and it felt good to say it out loud. Reuben might not always make wise choices but in the end she thought he was just like the selfless men in her novels who would rather break their own hearts than disgrace the heroine.

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   Ophelia Devine

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Ophelia listened with growing discomfort as her friend spoke. Of course everyone had assumed the worst of him; he'd run off with a woman who was engaged to someone else. That was a fact, and her friend seemed to be in denial about it. Ophelia didn't know how to respond to that. Sympathy she could handle; she had had, after all, her own family scandals (though they had fortunately not come to public light). That being said, she had never sat around trying to come up with fantasies in which her sister hadn't run away from her husband. She had wondered why, and wished it had never happened, of course, but she hadn't doubted the actual evidence that had been presented to her. How could November be squaring with this level of cognitive dissonance, to believe something that was contrary to what everyone else in society was saying?

"Oh, Nova," she said, treading softly now as she tried to determine how best to navigate this unexpected minefield. "Hasn't he told you anything? He must have had his reasons for doing what he did."

(And maybe those reasons were that Miss Finch was five months pregnant, or something along those lines. Ophelia did not have quite as much faith in Reuben Crouch's honor as November seemed to.)

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   November Malfoy

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Nova was utterly oblivious to what her friend was thinking or how her words had been construed, had she known she might have been a little offended. "No, he hasn't." This both relieved and dismayed her simultaneously. If he had written she would have felt compelled to write back but in doing so would have felt guilty about it, as if she was doing something underhanded despite her husband not having prohibited her from communicating with her now infamous brother. That didn't mean she was glad not to have heard from him, she wanted very much for a letter in his hand to turn up at her window but so far nothing had.

"I fear Miss Finch may be very cunning, I think she may have coerced my brother somehow." What could possibly induce Reuben to do something like that, she wasn't sure. That was the troubling part, what could Miss Finch possibly offer her brother that would prompt him to shackle himself to her forever at great person cost for both of them? If Nova was less prudish and more worldly she would probably assume sex had something to do with it, but she wasn't and the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

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November was definitely not in her right mind, Ophelia concluded as she continued. This was not exactly a denial of the fact of the marriage itself, but it scored just as highly, in Ophelia's estimation, in terms of how unreasonable it was. The idea that a well-bred woman of society, from a good family, with plenty of wealth to her name, and a pending engagement might be sitting around in her bedchamber not dreaming of her upcoming honeymoon but rather plotting how she might ruin herself with Reuben Crouch, was utterly ridiculous. Nova might have been blinded by her affection for her sibling, but Ophelia was not, and while she did not go so far as to dislike Reuben, neither would she have been glad to be seen in his company at a society event. He worked for a brewery, or so she had last heard, and he lived in a gentleman's club. He was entertaining, but presumptuous, and always flirting with girls he had no intention of moving forward with. There was nothing at all to recommend him, particularly not by comparison to what Miss Finch had given up to (according to Nova's narrative) ensnare him.

"But what could she have had to gain?" Ophelia questioned gently, hoping to guide her friend to see reason rather than start an argument when she seemed to be in a delicate mental state. "From marrying your brother? She was set to be married to that American later that month," she pointed out. It need hardly be said that the American was far wealthier than Reuben, who did not even (to Ophelia's knowledge, anyway) own a house.

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"That's what I can't figure out," she concluded glumly. She was missing a piece of puzzle and it was the most important piece, it was also one that she might never find. She could ask Reuben but it was a very sensitive sort of question and if she was correct then he might be unwilling to admit he'd been forced into something so serious and life changing by a mere debutante. "I know it may seem illogical but it seems equally illogical to me that Reuben would do such a thing. Even if eloping was his idea, he'd never force her to agree to it which would mean she still had to make that same illogical choice." Where women were concerned there was always the argument that emotion in the heat of the moment made them vulnerable but it wasn't every day people eloped with seemingly random individuals. "Everyone thinks it so straightforward - Miss Finch is naive and foolish and my brother is... has been known to be a flirt, but it's not that simple, I know it can't be." Often in novels where an elopement took place it was between a rakish man and a woman whose morals and behavior were questionable but that wasn't always the case. Lydia Bennet had hardly been a naive wallflower, after all! Not that she thought her brother was anything like Mr. Wickham.

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   Ophelia Devine

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Ophelia pursed her lips. "Do you think it's possible that Miss Finch may be... in a delicate condition?" she said, her tone leading. She thought November would be able to fill in the blanks to suss out what Ophelia was referring to, but she cast a conspicuous glance at the empty bassinet that little baby Nicholas had lately occupied in the corner of the room, just in case it wasn't clear. "Perhaps your brother was obliged to marry her."

Obliged through his own indiscretion, to be sure — it wasn't as though gentleman went around seducing young women without even so much as having asked to court them first, but it seemed quite possible given what Ophelia knew of Reuben Crouch's reputation. Whether November would believe it possible of him was another matter entirely, of course, but she did seem to be coming around to reason, slowly but surely. And Ophelia did have to admit that while his reputation was as a flirt, he didn't seem prone to grand fits of romantic passion from what she had heard of him. If he was the type to elope, why her, and why now? He could have taken his pick of any number of silly-headed girls, many of whose families may have been more forgiving, faced with the prospect of losing their daughter, than the Finches had been. An ill-timed pregnancy seemed the likeliest scenario, and Ophelia wondered how soon November would be able to call herself an aunt.

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Nova blushed at the very notion, both for her own delicate sensibilities and for Reuben. Surely he wouldn't do marital things like that with a woman who was engaged to someone else? She didn't like to think he would do it at all with anyone without being wed to them but even she knew that not all men were pure and chaste. She didn't like to think it of Reuben but of all her brothers he was admittedly the most likely to. Why men did this, she didn't know, she had to put it down to some sort of instinct that was exclusive to men. The act was purely for procreation, to do such things with inappropriate ladies seemed nonsensical in the extreme for any sensible person. It was even more nonsensical for Reuben to brew a potion with the likes of Miss Finch who was engaged, it wouldn't just be irresponsible, it was a treacherous betrayal!

If that was the case then it summed up the likes of Miss Finch as someone who knew nothing of loyalty and was clearly lacking in intelligence. It couldn't be. Miss Finch would obviously be more at fault than her brother since Reuben wasn't the one with a prior attachment to someone else but he surely wouldn't do that? It was barely any better than the elopement itself!

"I- I don't- No, no he wouldn't. He wouldn't compromise a lady's virtue, he's not a malicious person. If it was possible... Miss Finch probably used all of her wiles not knowing what the consequences were of brewing..." That was a narrative she could just about wrap her head around, Miss Finch shamelessly seduced her brother with such determination that he succumbed despite his best effort to resist and when Miss Finch found out that her poor behavior was going to ruin her anyway, she blackmailed Reuben and dragged him down with her. But hadn't her wedding been very soon? If she was a wicked person then wouldn't it have suited her better to lie to her fiance and pretend it was his?

Agh. It was all speculation and Nova didn't know what to believe, only that Reuben did not deserve to be as maligned as he was.

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   Ophelia Devine

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For the bookish and socially reclusive Miss Finch to have seduced the flamboyant and flirtatious Reuben Crouch was a bit of a stretch, but it was clear to Ophelia at this point that November had been traumatized by events as they had unfolded and was going to believe whatever she must in order to cope with things. "Well," she said gently, "If that is the case, it will come to light soon enough. But perhaps there's another explanation," she allowed graciously, although what possible other explanation for this turn of events there might be was quite eluding her. She'd brought this whole thing up so that November could fill her in on the details that weren't already being whispered around parlors, not so that she could console her friend — and now that it had become clear Nova had no details whatsoever, she would be quite content to move the conversation along.

"Let's have more tea," she said, reaching for the bell cord to bring in a servant.

  

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