If it hadn’t been for the fact that they had grown up together, if it had been anyone else, Adolphus Avery would have been apprehensive about letting his daughter go for the evening. He had lingered over her, his hands on his shoulders, as he took her in, inhaled the sweet scent of her hair and skin. To give her away, to let her go, was akin to letting Talia go; akin to letting her down again. In the atrium of their home, he considered seizing his daughter to him and forbidding her to go but in the end he stepped back, extricating himself from her lest he truly did disappoint in disallowing her to go. He knew what Talia would have said.
She would have told him to stop being a fool, to let the girl go as he would have done her brother. But Cerelia was different. Cerelia he couldn’t stand to lose and he knew he wouldn’t have been able to even if Talia had been alive. She stood to inherit everything he owned. He had planned to give his sons very little, enough to live off, but not much at all really. The rest would go to his prized daughter, the true reflection of the woman he loved dearly. Cerelia he could not afford to lose, in death or otherwise, and so he struggled to deal with the idea that she would be out of the house, out of his protection.
In the end, he knew he could not avoid sending her off but lingered for a few minutes by the fireplace after she had disappeared. The house seemed darker and less appealing once she had disappeared and the shrill calls of Adriana and her daughter. He wondered, not for the first time, why he had married the wretch at all and why he still kept her around. But he went, knowing that in his new wife he could find some solace, at least physically. Perhaps if he charmed himself deaf, he could stomach her and her daughter. But Merlin, he missed Cerelia already.
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Cerelia tumbled through the floo rather ungracefully and was nigh assaulted by a combination of House Elf and Katarina. The two girls embraced and proceeded for the following number of hours to harass and enjoy the company of those in the house. It felt slightly odd for Cerelia to be there for pleasure as opposed to business. It felt as though it had been too long since she had been there solely for seeing Kat. It was refreshing and the girls enjoyed every minute of their time together outside of Hogwarts, outside of the events their families demanded they attend. They were there for each other. Well, for each other and pizza.
Soon enough, Cerelia found herself in her nightclothes and was sat on Kat’s bed, waiting for the other girl to finish up. Wine had been poured, though it was unclear whether they were truly allowed it, and Cerelia was already eyeing the haul the pair had gotten from Valentine’s Day - Kat because she was beautiful, Cerelia because nerdy boys like girls with brains. The blonde laughed a little, remembering the over-eager scrubs that had given her the chocolates. She had thanked them graciously but wasn’t entirely keen on the prospect of anyone. The chocolate was expensive though, for a girl with expensive taste, and so she wasn’t going to complain.
“Come on, Kat!” Cerelia called with good humour. “Stop waxing or whatever it is you’re doing. The pizza’s getting cold and you need to help me pick out a DVD to watch!”