The Wards Don't Lie, and Neither Do We novel · Chapter 3 of 32
Chapter 3: Terms
Her father's letter forbids her to discuss Ashgrove Lane; she hands Harry four written rules, and Vivienne reads rule two aloud and asks why it needs writing down.
Her father's letter was waiting on the breakfast table, and Draconia knew the seal before she picked it up.
She read it standing, with her tea going cold.
You were seen in the hall by the whole board.
The seat stands, for now.
You will not discuss Ashgrove Lane with anyone, least of all him.
There was no greeting and no signature.
Draconia folded it into her pocket beside the first one.
She knew what Ashgrove Lane was.
It was a narrow house on the edge of the Malfia estate, shut up for as long as she had been alive.
She had never once asked to see inside it.
She did not know why her father thought a Peverell would bring it up.
"Another letter?" Vivienne asked, sliding onto the bench opposite with two buttered rolls. "Is he cross?"
"He's always cross. That's his resting face."
"I mean cross about the gold."
"There was no gold," said Draconia. "There was weather."
Vivienne chewed and looked at her with great, kind patience.
"Of course," she said.
That evening Draconia was in the Boundary Gallery before anyone, with a sheet of paper and a pen.
By the time Harry Peverell came in she had written four lines.
She handed him the page across the table without looking up.
"Read it," she said. "Initial it. Then we need never discuss it again."
He read it standing, which he seemed to do with everything.
One. The wands stay crossed from ten until two.
Two. No touching except the wands.
Three. No casting for show.
Four. Neither of us tells the other what a colour means.
Harry read it to the end, and then read it again.
"These are very good rules," he said.
"Thank you," said Draconia.
"Number two is a lot to put in writing."
"It's a long watch. People get ideas."
"Do they?" Harry asked.
"Not me," said Draconia. "I'm referring to the general public."
He took the pen from her.
His fingers did not touch hers, which she noticed because she had been careful to hold it out far enough.
He initialled the page with a small plain H.
"Number three," he said. "What's showing off?"
"Anything you'd be pleased about afterwards."
"That seems hard to enforce."
"I'll know," she said.
He gave her the briefest look over the top of his glasses, and she felt it land somewhere under her collar.
She turned to the window and pretended to read the hill.
Four was the rule she cared about.
If neither of them said what a colour meant, then there was no gold, and there had never been any.
The Warden had named a second to witness the watch, as the old rules asked.
The second arrived on the stroke of ten with a lantern and a scarf and nothing at all of the evening's seriousness.
"Hello!" said Vivienne. "I've been told I'm the witness. Do I get to stand?"
"You sit," said Draconia. "At the far end. Quietly."
"I can do quietly."
Vivienne sat, and was quiet for almost a minute.
Then she picked up the page of rules from the table and read it aloud.
"Wands stay crossed. No casting for show. Neither of you says what a colour means." She stopped and frowned at the second line. "No touching except the wands?"
"Yes," said Draconia.
"Why would you need to write that down?"
It was a simple question, and Vivienne asked it simply, with her whole friendly face turned up.
Draconia opened her mouth and found she had nothing in it.
Behind her the line of light over the nearest stone turned slowly, steadily gold.
Harry Peverell had been sitting very still with his eyes on the table.
He said nothing, and he did not look up, and the corner of his mouth moved once and was put back.
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