June 30th, 1891 — The Wedding of Liliana Selwyn and Chester Parkinson; Reception

Liliana was now a married woman though Aristide had mentally checked out somewhere in the middle of the ceremony. He had been there in body which he supposed was all anyone would really care about aside from his twin. It was Adrienne that had surprised Aristide back to reality. The reception part of the evening was finally commencing and Aristide was quite famished. "Think there are any roses left in stock at the shops?" He asked his twin teasingly as he eyed the displays of pink roses. He snagged a handful of some, artistic ideas for them swirling in his blond head. "These will be lovely for one of my projects, though." He always had a variety of art projects in progress scattered about his room.

"What did you think of the wedding? Think Chester Parkinson knows what he is in for?" Aristide was quite glad that he was years away from having to think of marriage. It was different for Adrienne, however. He hoped she wouldn't marry some vapid, empty headed fool. He doubted that she would, she was smarter than that but still. "I hope whoever you end up marrying has an interesting name instead of something like Chester."

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@"Adrienne Selwyn" / Amelia Evans

  

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Watching her cousin's wedding was already too much of a reminder of what the end of Adrienne's path looked like. She watched the ceremony with mild disdain, knowing that it was only a matter of time before she would find herself in Liliana's position. At the altar and to be married off to someone and taken away from Ari. It took all her might to not scowl. It didn't help that her dress felt unnaturally tight. Even the ribbons in her hair felt constricting.

By the end of the ceremony, Adrienne had lured herself into a false sense of contentedness, and she was keen to walk around, which always made her feel better. She rolled her eyes at the idea of more roses. Merlin, there were so many roses, she was astonished there were any left in the country. Ari always had such brilliant ideas for flowers though, so she indulged him and snagged a few for herself as well. "Oh, it was a wedding," she said with a sigh as she raised the flower petals to her nose to sniff them. They really did smell lovely. Despite her cousin's vanity, Adrienne had to admit she chose well. "I'm sure Witch Weekly will write some sort of piece for them or whatnot." she replied.

Perhaps come the time, she would feel generous enough to get a copy and write to Liliana complimenting her on how well they spoke of her. Highly unlikely given her birth, though. Frankly, Adrienne not asking to debut along with her cousin was a wedding gift enough as far as she was concerned. Thoughts of what Liliana's reaction would have been were interrupted by another mention of marriage, and Adrienne responded by slouching and scowling at the rose. "If my betrothed's name is Chester, we're running away back to France." she replied mutinously, running the petals of the rose in between her thumb and forefinger. "Or if he is at all an oaf and doesn't let me see you on a daily basis, I'm simply going to have to find a way to make him let me." There were no guesses as to what she would do to make him, either.

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"More to comment on how she's a known bastard, knowing them," Aristide said. It was certainly something that most of the more uppity wizarding folk would be yammering about: the half blood bastard marrying into a very eligible pureblood family. It was commendable but he did wonder what sorts of new adversity Liliana would be facing now. Ari was sure she would handle them well. Their own family name was pretty strong.

Aristide chuckled when Adrienne scowled. "Going back to France would be Heaven," Aristide said though inwardly he thought that there would be people he would miss if that were to really happen. "I doubt any man would be fool enough to deny a wife that could easily cut his hair from a distance using only an arrow."

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Adrienne responded with a shrug - Liliana would be able to handle Witch Weekly no problem. Though she would be lying if she said she wouldn't be the slightest bit curious to see Liliana face up against the notorious rag magazine. She pursed her lips, grateful that Ambrosia didn't seem to have any care about their prospects. Perhaps that would last a few years past her 7th year, and she would be able to return to the Infirmary in peace, unencumbered by whatever suitor came to call.

That was considering she would even have any suitors after Hogwarts.

"Egh," Adrienne shook herself, tossing the rose over her shoulder. "Any man who controls his wife like that is a beast." she commented with finality. She was determined to not be one of those people, but the fact that it wasn't entirely in her hands made her nervous. "And would surely be filleted like one if they threatened me like that." The subject of marriage was making her quite irritated, and Adrienne caught the hanging tendril of a tree, pulling it until the leaves submitted and came off in her hand. She shook her hand to free the leaves before repeating the same action; a nervous tick. "You.." She turned to face her brother, her hand still capturing the branch of the tree and pulling it over her like a protective cloak. "...you wouldn't let that happen, would you?" There was no shakiness in her voice, but she knew Ari could tell when she was asking a promise of him.

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Aristide hummed in agreement to Adriennes words. He personally had not given much thought to the day he would have to have a wife. She would need to be vetted by Adrienne first in any case. Adrienne was not so lucky. She would surely be expected to marry long before him. The idea unsettled him.

"Of course not," Aristide said without hesitation. He might have been more lover than fighter - but he would literally kill for Adrienne if it ever came to it. "I don't know what man could ever be worthy of you but he best continue to be so long after your wedding vows have been said."

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   Adrienne Lestrange

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She smiled back at him tentatively. While she didn't question his oath, that didn't mean she was completely out of the woods. For all she knew, Uncle Trystan and Aunt Ambrosia had a specific match in mind for her and wouldn't tell her until such time that it was irreversible. Adrienne let herself shiver at the thought and returned to the conversation at hand, her smile more confident.

"Who knows how a man behaves after he is married," she replied with a shrug as if it bothered her less than it actually did. "I should like to make sure mine does, at least."

She paused, her thoughts inevitably moving back to if their aunt and uncle had any plans for her - though there were surely others in their family older than her who they might want to see married before her, she was still a cousin - an extra mouth to feed that, perhaps - despite how well she may have gotten along with both of them - they wanted to be rid of sooner rather than later. "Have you heard if they have plans for me when we leave Hogwarts?" She asked, though she had a feeling she already knew the question. Likely if he had heard something, her brother would have told her in a trice.

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"If anyone could, you can," Aristide replied with great confidence. He personally thought that any man that tried to control Adrienne would be playing a fools game.

"I haven't heard anything of the sort," Aristide said with a shrug. "Aunt Ambrosia had no hand in Liliana's future and Uncle Trystan seems to have mostly just gone alone with what Liliana wanted. And she's more kin to them than we are." Which meant he doubted they would care much what they did in their future prospects.

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Adrienne didn't know if she was disappointed or relieved. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Her brother had a point; Ambrosia was hardly the one to focus on finding someone for Liliana. She seemed she cared about as much as Aristide did about chess. And Trystan, who always seemed an amiable one, certainly went along with Liliana's findings. Would this mean she should go about in search of someone else before they did?

Better that then try to delay as much she could, then end up with them realizing it was high time to marry her off and choosing the first person they could find. As unrealistic as the scenario seemed...when it came to having to be permanently separated from Aristide, Adrienne was determined to be in control of when that happened. "You're lucky," She said, the bitterness in her voice directed toward the ground as she kicked at it absently. "You don't have to worry about any such thing until at least 5 years after we graduate."

Five years! Adrienne scowled, again at the ground, for she would never direct any of her scorn towards Ari. She should be so lucky to get half as much time.

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"I suppose," Aristide said in agreement when Adrienne said that he was lucky. He suspected that even if he did not want to marry at all, they would not think too much of it aside from some teasing, perhaps. "Perhaps you should try and find a potential husband on your own. One you can be certain we will both find enjoyable company. For when you marry, I shall be a constant presence."

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A husband who would tolerate her twin's constant presence at their household. The thought would be almost laughable if it didn't make her so miserable. No self-respecting gentleman would ever allow her to spend more time with her brother than with her husband. It just simply wasn't done. The scowl on Adrienne's face grew deeper. Finding a match whilst in the confines of the school would be difficult indeed. And she did not relish the thought at trying to throw herself at one of her classmates. As annoying as some of them could be, they were still her peers and she was quite content beating them in games of chess, thank you very much.

But, the thought of trying to campaign for a husband herself was not a challenge she wanted to attempt. "That is all I hope, but I don't think I should get my hopes up too high," she said, her frown lifting slightly as she focused back to him. "I shall ask Uncle Trystan about it over the winter break, perhaps. But for now I think we just need to focus on our final exams." That, and she wanted to get off this topic of a husband as quickly as possible now.

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Aristide supposed that was true enough. If it was up to him, he would personally just go live in some artists commune. He doubted that would be something that his family would ever approve of even if he doubted they cared very much about their marital prospects.

"Final exams aren't of much importance to me," Aristide said, likely putting his house to shame. He did well academically, he was intelligent but the actual sit-down studying often expected during exam periods tended to be a little much for him. He was unable to focus for very long, his mind wandering instead to different things and his hands doodling sketches into the margins of his parchment. "I shall be glad to be done with those."

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Adrienne stared at her twin. While this wasn't news to her, she still found the urge to fix him with a withering gaze when he said this. Instead she shook her head and gave a long-suffering sigh, indeed, wondering why in the world Ari had been the one to be put into Ravenclaw and not her. Of course by now she was situated with Slytherin and was no longer miffed at the choice the Sorting Hat made, but she never failed to be perplexed when the subject of studies came up between her and Aristide. "Well, you'll be quite done with them come this time next year," she pointed out with a grim smile. And I, perhaps betrothed, or worse, married. "We both will, which is something to...look forward to, I suppose."

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Aristide always did excellent in his studies despite the fact he was not the type to study from a book. His learning method seemed to differ from those around him, even his twin. He had long since accepted that but it still annoyed him a little when she stared at him like that and gave that sigh. Not every Ravenclaw studied in the exact, same studious way. Both he and Cane Backus were examples of that.

"It shall be interesting to actually be on the social scene. Though I hope our friendships we made during school last beyond these walls." Well, he had friends but he only had one particular friend that he hoped would continue to be so through all the days of his life.

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Adrienne nodded, She'd like to keep in touch with as many friends as she could. And with a bunch of them debuting with her, it was likely that she would keep in similar circles as them as they went through their first season. Except she would rather be able to get an internship at the Irvingly Infirmary with Nurse Fairchild, or Nurse Moony. Even so, she could guess what sort of company Ari would want to keep after they graduated. "You mean Scabior." She said bluntly.

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"Not just him. I do have other friends, you know," Aristide said teasingly even though she was one hundred percent right. Most of his other friends were in similar circles so there wouldn't be much worry there of them not being able to hang out. Most of his friends were also Adriennes as well since people tended to befriend her first and then Aristide just sort of let them consider him one too if they were tolerable company. Asa was one of the only people he had actively befriended all on his own.

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None that I've noticed! Adrienne wanted to interject, but held her tongue; she knew Ari didn't like it when she disagreed with Scabior, and she certainly didn't want to incite a fight right now. Not during Liliana's big day to Chester. A well-timed smile tugged at Adrienne's lips as she thought of her cousin's new husband's name, and so she took advantage of that and directed the smile at her twin. "Of course you do," she replied, reaching out to lace her arm through his and lean her head against his shoulder. Merlin he was getting so tall.

She sighed, directing her gaze to the horizon. As the wind started to pick up, there rose in her stomach an urge to run. Somewhere far. "What shall you do when you first enter the social scene, Ari?" She asked wistfully.

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