Interacting with @Aurelia Notresvace as Hadrian Zuheir
Permission to godmod granted | Backdated to August 22, 2022

Just a week ago, a little bird filled Phaedra in on a most concerning detail: Aurelia was toying with her cousin all while engaged to another. And so rather than enjoying the summer’s festivities like most adolescents, Phaedra was hunting down that wretched little adulterer in the name of her family reputation. Unbeknownst to Phaedra, her search was among the wrong species entirely. In a world where owls made common and beloved companions, plus coupled with their own avian tendency to traverse the skies, it was no surprise that even someone as keen as a Stavrou would miss the animagus amid the crowds of summer camp.

It was a faulty assertion, but with her inability to find Aurelia at her most recognisable, Phaedra could only suspect that she was hiding in that damned tent, protected from outsiders by enchantments. Coward. If it was like that then, she’d truly been robbed of options to play nice, to let the situation run its course with little interference and only a miniscule amount of thinly-veiled threats. There could be no idling when her family was involved.

Hadrian Zuheir was his name, Aurelia’s betrothed. An American from what she’d heard. Despite how much Phaedra utterly despised his promised and therefore him by extension, Aurelia’s lengthy absence did lead to a reassessment. Her investigation did not have to end in failure. Hadrian himself would do finely as an alternate, and so with each passing day, Phaedra would instead dedicate her time towards getting the young man alone. To pounce, like all aspiring journalists.

It was easier said than done, but she was determined. Hadrian was almost always accompanied by a group of wizards, friends of his whose faces Phaedra mentally noted should they ever become useful. From what began as locking eyes in passing, soon became Phaedra intentionally positioning herself in his sight at every opportunity, like a series of glares from a separate table before him when his friends stood for seconds. The way she held her plastic knife, unyielding as if imagining it thrust into him, was that of a heart-broken stalker. Except this was not love nor a bastardisation of it, but raw, unbridled disgust.

One evening, it all fell into place. Hadrian detached from his company and Phaedra mirrored in turn to follow. Glancing over a shoulder, she circled the Purple Stone tents as inconspicuously as the day she’d realised she could not brute force her way inside. The back section included a row of shower stalls, one door slamming shut to confirm Hadrian’s presence inside. For the first time in her pursuit, Phaedra averted her eyes. How improper on her part! But she did not come all this way for nothing. Turning on a heel, she ventured about thirty feet or so away to grant him as much privacy as possible and lowered herself to sit. She would find abnormal interest in the blades of grass at her feet and wait.

Phaedra’s hands were clasped in her lap, posture unmoving by the time Hadrian finished. She eyed the shower’s general direction at the churning of a rusty faucet and watched his imminent exit with a towel around his neck. Without a word, she pushed herself up to both feet to stand in the centre of his path, an attempt to block him from continuing past and garner his attention.

The sheer magnitude of her frown was astounding. “Mister Zuheir,” she began, perking a brow after his assumption that she was merely waiting for a turn. Ignoring her lack of toiletries on hand, that certainly may have seemed to be the case, but she knew far better locations for cleansing herself than in a public, grimy shack. “I’ll pass. A moment of your time, please.” Phaedra would not waste time explaining how she’d known his identity. Nor was she asking for a conversation. She was demanding it.

“My name is Phaedra Stavrou. I am a long time acquaintance of Aurelia Notresvace, who I know to be your fiancée. I had hoped to settle this with her alone, woman to woman,” she continued with a heavy huff, “But she has quite the talent at evading me. Forgive me, but there is no easy way to say this. Your betrothed has found another man.” A side piece, as they say. This was a bombshell to be unleashed upon a young man, if not also for every family caught in the crossfire. It was precisely why a confrontation was a must. She understood if he needed to take a seat.

He couldn't quite remember when he first started seeing her around in camp, lurking in the shadows and sidelines but surely would not forget her face now that she made her presence increasingly obvious as the days went by. What was her purpose? Was she just a shy, awkward girl with a crush on him that she hadn't mustered the courage to talk to approach yet? Whatever it was, Hadrian merely ignored her as he enjoyed his days of summer activities with his friends, but she soon became almost impossible to avoid.

While not much fazed the American boy, this did. The stalker girl was at it again. As he stepped out of the stall, a towel draped over his shoulder and his hair still dripping, she was there, right outside the bathroom of all places. While he would assume that the reason for that deep scowl on her face for due to a need to use the bathroom in which he had stalled for so long in, he knew that wasn't it. He should finally approach and ask her what her business was, especially now that his friends weren't here to interrupt. Younger girls were more of his type, and unfortunately, this girl only looked about his own age. If he told her he wasn't interested, maybe she'd finally abandon her pursuit.

But it would seem she finally mustered that courage, strutting up to him. Mr Zuheir. Distinctively British and emphasised assertively with such formality. Pureblood? Right off the bat, to him, this girl was another 'Aurelia' aside from the absence of that wretched terrifying presence around. And he really didn't want to deal with another Aurelia now, so he would say, "The loo's vacant. Now excuse me, Miss." But as he steered away, she would step in the way, blocking his path. Fine. He'd dealt with girls like her, like Aurelia, to know he wouldn't get out of this unless the other pleased. With a huff, he would stand straighter, arms crossed. "Alright, whaddya want?"

Then she started, first by introducing herself. Phaedra Stavrou. A Stavrou, of course, the Zuheir heir would know of that family and their ships. But as she continued with such seriousness, Hadrian couldn't help but scoff at the last, an unfacilitated reaction that he really shouldn't have in any appropriateness given his supposed relation to Aurelia that Phaedra had somehow discovered. Instead, in an attempt to cover up, he'd raise his fist to his lips, lightly coughing.

"Uh, I mean Aurelia has friends, lots of them probably. What makes you so certain that this man... is as what you say to her?" Hadrian had seen Aurelia around hanging out with her own finds throughout summer. Friends or flings, Hadrian never bothered to ask. They had their own clandestine agreement, independent from their elders and that of contract. But with this confrontation, Hadrian didn't quite know how to deal with it. They didn't exactly establish what to do if someone - aristocratic purebloods of all people - found out.

Settle this with her alone, woman to woman. Hadrian had seen Aurelia with another in the triathlon, the same one he saw with her during the ball back in April. Surely this was the tall lad Phaedra regarded. Surely enough, based on those insinuations, she knew him well enough to seek to interfere with whatever he and Aurelia shared. Perhaps it was an ex of hers, or a crush? And he'd be lying to say he wasn't just a little curious about who Aurelia's business was with. "Is he in Hogwarts too?"

Interacting with @Aurelia Notresvace as Hadrian Zuheir

xxxPerhaps Phaedra did not need to trail him after all; his ceding all but swift under her pressure. Good. Despite her distrust of Hadrian due to his mere association with Aurelia, at least he seemed unlike the type to waste her time. Her hands clasped considerately as he began to supply his own half-truths in response, the reality so far from Phaedra’s imagining that, for now, the light cough to cover himself would draw forth no more than a tilt of her head.

xxx“Friends,” she repeated deadpan, unconvinced. The young man’s faith in his betrothed would have been sweet if not such a pitiful display of denial. “Friends do not exchange love letters.” Upon other incriminating evidence, she’d nearly blurted afterwards, holding back to avoid further pressing her luck. Not only had Phaedra witnessed her cousin and Notresvace together at the ball, but she’d also found herself an unwilling helper in his pursuit; begrudgingly revising a letter or two on his behalf if only to cease his pestering for “girl advice”. The things she did for family, and look where it got her—playing cleanup woman for one of the mouthiest people she’d ever known. “Besides, there is not a second spent with him in which he does not blather about Aurelia. Their relationship is as certain as death itself. Must I continue?”

xxxIs he in Hogwarts too? Phaedra blinked, taken aback. “…No, not Hogwarts.” The fact that Hadrian first asked for Lysander’s institution of all things was not lost on her. What of his identity? His last known location to track him down and rough him up something terrible? That was how it usually played out, right? Hadrian’s nonchalance on the matter was a peculiar show of patience at best, suspicious at worst, but perhaps shock was to blame. Phaedra was not experienced enough in the realm of romance, nor close to him on a personal level to reason otherwise. For now, she would provide him what he asked. “Durmstrang. His father had a change of plans.”

xxxIf she didn’t get the impression to do so before, admitting that she knew his father certainly called for greater context now. “We’re cousins,” Phaedra paused for dramatics, eyeing Hadrian in part threateningly, and yet intrigued for any realisation of his concerning just how much trouble his betrothed might find herself. If it wasn’t for her own family being involved, Phaedra might have found the blackmailing potential tantalising. “Which is why you must understand me, Zuheir. I know him well, and I assure you that he is innocent, his idiocy aside. He doesn’t deserve to be strung along unknowingly,” she said, peering through lashes. “And neither do you. I believe I speak for us all when I say that we do not need another family scandal.”

The fact that he didn't find an ounce of offence in knowing of this relationship between his betrothed that Phaedra now filled him in on was quite a surprise for Hadrian himself. Simply, Hadrian nodded. There was once, years ago, when Hadrian would have cared a little more about who his betrothed spent her time with. There was also a time Aurelia put up with his antics, but it seemed to have reached a limit before she took off about a year in. They managed to find peace in their situation by finally talking and establishing a compromise that they were both content with. But hearing from Stavrou, it was evident that a plan they agreed on when they were fourteen had its flaws and probably required some revision now that they were older.

Unlike his initial assumptions, Phaedra shared no such relations to the subject of interest. Cousins. Seriously, Aurelia, you just had to pick a Stavrou? Then again, for him to envision someone any less of such a calibre with Aurelia, he would have to be blind to the beauty and regality that resounded from her being. "Shit." He muttered in a dismayed shake of his head. His lips pursed into a thin pale line as his arms crossed. Aurelia had been distant ever since the Spring Ball, he'd thought in direct regard to behaviour and her dealing out another one of her silent treatments, but the bigger picture was now displayed for him to see.

The insouciance rubbed right off at the realisation that dawned upon him. He gibed. "Yeah, not ideal. And I thought I'd be the first to fuck it over." Whatever that meant, it was up to Phaedra to decipher. She'd come to him to brush up on the mess one of her family was involved in, likely with the assumption that he'd have more influence over the actions of his promised, she couldn't be more wrong. "Rather than hawking over me for weeks, you could have told your cousin. That certainly would have been easier, don't you think, Miss Stavrou?" A smirk now played on his face as he called the young woman out. This would now be a mess that involved him, much that he was compelled to help to clean up ever so reluctantly. "I could talk to her, that might work, assuming that's what you came to me for?"