Two groups were standing facing each other almost in a confrontational manner. The atmosphere surrounding them was tense, and though wands had not been drawn till this moment, Antonio was sure that it would not have been long before the wands were drawn had he and Bellatrix had not made their sudden appearance.
On one side, with their back towards Antonio, were two ladies. Both of them were dressed in Hogwarts Robes. One of them was wearing the Ravenclaw colour and had dirty blonde hair.
The other lady was wearing the Gryffindor Red colour and had a peculiar dark red colour hair. Antonio had good inkling who this girl might be.
Standing against these two ladies were a group of 4 wizards. All of them were dressed in Slytherin robes. They were standing with their faces towards the ladies and now that Antonio and Bellatrix had suddenly appeared behind the ladies, they too were in the line of sight of the boys.
And the boys did not take much time to spot the duo of Antonio and Bellatrix. And not only did they spot the duo, they also recognised the duo in a moment.
"Miss Black," one of them mumbled as his very confrontational expression turned into one that of sheer shock. "Antonio Olario."
The duo of the two ladies two noticed the change in the behaviour of the boys that had been standing in front of them and they quickly turned to look behind their backs.
They had heard the boy muttering their names and their eyes too flickered with recognition and they widened in surprise.
Like their hair, the colour of the eyes of two ladies were also unique. One of them, the lady with the red hair had green coloured eye. The lady with the dirty blonde hair had silver coloured eyes.
Meanwhile, the Slytherin boys scrambled to run away and Antonio obviously could have stopped them but he had no interest in doing so.
He was more interested in the ladies in front of him and was slight curious about the reason for their confrontation with the Slytherin group.
Antonio extended his hands.
"Hello," he smiled. "I am Antonio Olario."
Bellatrix, on his side, narrowed her eyes wondering why would he introduce himself but did not comment and remained quiet.
It was the red haired girl who was the first to snap out of her daze and Antonio was sure that he spotted her eyes glowing for a moment.
She whirled out her wand out of nowhere and stood pointing it towards Antonio. He was almost shocked wondering what could have been the reason for her sudden aggressiveness. He did not seem to recall anything he might have said or done to make the lady angry. He was sure that he had never even met her.
The confusion did not remain for long as the lady herself made it clear.
"You... you... " she scowled, more in irritation than in anger. "You are the reason that every Slytherin is coming looking to pick a fight with me since last few days."
Antonio narrowed his eyes with a frown on his face, not quite understanding what the lady was trying to say.
But the lady with silver hair, took the frown on Antonio's face as displeasure and a trace of worry took over her as she was well aware of Antonio's fearsome reputation and thus, she acted quickly.
She rushed and she hastily pulled the hand of the other girl forcing her wands downwards.
"Lord Olario," she bowed. "Sorry for my friend impulsiveness. She meant no harm."
The red haired girl too recognised her impulsiveness and realised that her actions were enough to anger the man in front of her. Her face morphed into slight worry.
Antonio realised that he had caused the two ladies to almost panic. He raised his hands in polite assurance.
"Relax," he said. "I was just wondering what you meant by that. I do not seem to recall or think of how am I the reason for Slytherins picking up a fight with her."
Even Bellatrix now looked at the unfolding scene with renewed interest.
"Any maybe introductions first," he added.
Both the ladies sighed in relief on not seeing any hostility from Antonio.
The girl with the silver hair again bowed slightly, "Lord Olario, I am Pandora Quiver."
Antonio nodded. He had guessed correctly. She was Luna's mother. In future, of course.
The other girl also tried to copy her friend as she too bowed but she clearly was not that aware of the pure blood customs and was not gracious enough like Pandora.
"I am Lily," she mumbled. "Lily Evans."
"I already introduced myself," Antonio said and gestured towards Bellatrix. "She is Bellatrix Black."
Both the ladies gave a polite nod to Bellatrix but their focus did not remain on the eldest Black much longer.
"And how I am responsible for Slytherins picking up fights with you, Miss Evans?" He asked.
"That… that…" Lily stammered for an answer, not able to form a coherent reply.
"Lord Olario," Pandora took the situation in her hands. "It is because of some praise you heaped on Lily being far better than pure bloods that they are constantly challenging and harassing her."
"Although, we do not know the full matter," Pandora continued. "Most of the Slytherins talked about checking how good she is to earn such big words from you."
Realisation struck Antonio as he remembered that he said something praising Lily about her magical prowess. Clearly, he had not expected things to go this way. Another one of his expectations gone wrong.
He awkwardly scratched his head while Bellatrix burst out laughing.
"So you are that Lily," she chimed in, "that would have wiped the floor with half of the pure bloods in that gathering."
"To be honest," she added. "This is not surprising. This is how most of the pure bloods behave. Even I had been intrigued by you."
"Olario definitely rates you as a very fine witch," she said.
Lily's cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment.
"I had not meant this to happen when I had praised you," Antonio said. "It was more of a spur of the moment of thing."
Lily did not know what to say. She could not really blame him for praising her. But wait?
"How do you know that how good or bad I am?" She questioned.
"I heard it from someone," Antonio offered calmy. To be honest, he was not even sure how good Lily actually was.
In the cannon, she had definitely been shown as a competent witch but was she the genius that he had said her to be. He had made that statement that day to merely rub on the faces of the Malfoy and his gang and not really on fact.
"Maybe we can take this conversation over some drinks?" Antonio suggested.
Pandora and Lily exchanged glances among themselves before they gave a nod.
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