Ash stood among the gathered guests and stared at the face of his father.
Draco had his fists clenched to his sides. Rose had her hands gripping his arm tightly and was pulling him back, keeping him restrained.
The fury evident in Draco's face was unlike any Ash had ever seen from the man in his five years of residing in this mansion.
The man standing before Draco was blonde-haired with green eyes.
He seemed calm, composed, like someone who had walked into this place knowing what reaction to expect and had decided from the very beginning not to react to it.
Beside him stood a brown-haired woman with yellow eyes, her expression carefully neutral. In front of them stood a blonde-haired boy around Ash's age, with the same shade of green in his eyes as the man.
"Honey," Rose said in a voice that was almost soothingly calm. "It's fine. Our guests are watching."
Draco did not reply at first.
Then, slowly, his fists unclenched.
"Leave," he said, the words coming out coolly, evenly, under complete control. "Leave this place. Now."
The man looked at the face of Draco before him and then the corners of his lips twitched into a smirk – not accidentally.
He placed the smirk deliberately, aimed it and released it. He held it for a second and then turned around and walked out of the ceremony, leaving with the woman and the boy at his side behind him.
Draco watched them leave.
And then he turned to address the room and the fury in his face was simply gone. Not subsided. Gone.
Erased with a neatness and precision that made Ash wonder whether it had really been there at all.
"Everything is perfectly fine, everyone," Draco said, addressing the room with a smile. "Enjoy yourselves."
The guests dispersed, conversation resumed and the party picked up where it had left off as if someone had pressed a magical button.
Ash stood and tried to wrap his head around what he had witnessed.
'Whatever that man did, it made father angrier than I had ever seen him,' he thought. 'And then he smiled as if it was nothing. In front of everyone.'
This night kept showing him versions of his father he had no idea existed.
He looked around the hall until he saw Ray. Flamir was standing beside him. Ash cut across the room towards them and reached the two of them rapidly, weaving through the guests.
"Ray," Ash said when he got there. "Who was that man?"
"Don't you know anything, pest?" Flamir spat.
Ash looked at him. The kid was ten years old, had blood-red hair and red eyes and an attitude that always showed through when Ash was in the same room with him. He looked at Flamir for a while and remained silent.
"Flamir," Ray's voice sounded from his side in a tone that was completely unimpressed. "Stop."
Flamir looked at his elder brother.
"Can't you stop arguing with him for one night? He's your brother."
"He just annoys me," Flamir said coolly. "He acts smart and special but he's nothing. Tonight we will see exactly what he is."
And he smiled at him.
That particular expression landed precisely where Flamir wanted it to.
Ash felt it land as well. Affinity test. What result it was going to give out in front of all the remaining guests in this hall.
He dismissed the thoughts that followed and addressed his brother again.
"Who was that man?" he asked again.
"That was mom's brother," Ray said.
Ash pondered on that information for a minute.
"Mother has a brother?"
Five years in the mansion and three years reading through every single book there and he never knew about that. Not once did Rose mention having any siblings, anyone at all.
"Aren't you listening, you deaf pest?" Flamir said. "Moron."
Ash glanced at Flamir.
He felt the irritation rising inside him at Flamir. But it always felt that way with Flamir, like a clear flow that went nowhere in particular.
Getting into a fight with a ten-year-old in front of everyone at his own birthday party was not something he was going to do.
So he looked back at Ray.
"What were they talking about?" he asked again. "What made father that mad?"
"It doesn't matter now," Ray replied. He looked at Ash for a moment and then glanced past him. "I saw you with a girl earlier. Where is she?"
Ash stopped.
The question landed and the answer came back immediately and the answer was not a pleasant one.
Elara.
He had left her standing by herself at the far end of the hall as soon as the commotion in front of them attracted his attention and he had walked away without looking back.
He had been too absorbed with that other scene for more than a minute. He did not think about her until that exact moment.
He turned around and looked back across the room. He scanned the far end where they had been standing.
He looked through all the edges of the hall where the guests were fewer in numbers. He turned in a slow half circle and searched everywhere visible from where he stood.
She was gone.
Ash sighed slowly.
Of course she was gone. He had walked away from her without giving her anything but a few minutes in his company and then had gone off somewhere else and forgotten about her.
For five years in this place he did not make a single friend and tonight for a few minutes he had actually been standing next to somebody around his own age.
And he walked away to look at a commotion.