Chapter 3: Breaking Off the Engagement Face-to-Face! The Malfoy Eldest Miss Breaks Down! (Patreon)

Beneath the dim glow of the magic crystal lamp, the yellowed parchment shimmered faintly with anti-forgery enchantments. In the lower right corner sat the Malfoy family's wax seal, twin serpents coiled together in lifelike detail, and Draconia's suddenly contracted pupils reflected every line of it.

"Capet...?" Draconia sucked in a sharp breath without meaning to. The cutting retort she'd been about to fire stuck in her throat as if someone had cast a Silencing Charm on her.

A memory flashed through her mind, something her father had mentioned once in his study. Years ago, in the turbulent days before You-Know-Who fell, the Malfoys had sought to win over the old pure-blood powers of Europe. They had signed a mutual-aid memorandum, a pact of alliance, with the Capet family, who held ancient magical ore veins.

Later the Capets had died unexpectedly, their family had declined fast, and the contract had been locked away in the old files of Malfoy Manor. No one had mentioned it since.

But she'd never imagined that the boy she'd just mocked as a "poor nobody" was the last surviving heir of the Capet family! And he was holding a contract with a marriage clause in it?!

Crabbe and Goyle, who had been standing at the door ready to charge in and back up their young mistress, now stared with eyes as round as walnuts. The boxes in their hands nearly slipped to the floor.

"Why... why do you have that?!" Draconia's snow-white face went green, then pale. She bit her lower lip hard with her small teeth, and all her earlier arrogance gave way to an indescribable panic.

She had grown up on the pride of the pure-blood families, and she knew exactly how much weight a parchment bearing the ancient blood-oath marks of two family heads carried. Could it be that this fallen Capet orphan meant to wave that scrap of old paper around, cling to her like a leech, and force the rising Malfoys to honor the engagement and make her his fiancée?!

The thought of being tied to a "ruined nobody who couldn't even afford decent robes" sent a shiver through the young lady. Wariness and disgust surged up all at once.

Draconia immediately lifted her pointed chin and took half a step back like a cat with its fur on end, both hands clutched protectively to her chest. "Raven Capet!" she warned coldly. "I don't care what dusty corner you dug that thing out of. Don't you dare think you can blackmail me with some moldy old agreement!"

"The Malfoys are the Ministry of Magic's biggest benefactors, and your Capets have been a family in name only for ages! You want me, Draconia Malfoy, to be your fiancée? In your dreams! All my father has to do is lift a finger and Gringotts will seal up whatever little you have left—"

"Rrrrip—!!"

A sudden, crisp, grating tear cut off the young lady's machine-gun shrieking.

Time seemed to stop dead in that second.

Draconia's gray-blue eyes went perfectly round. She stood rooted to the fitting stool as if hit by a Full Body-Bind Curse, not even breathing.

Under her gaze, Raven's expression was calm to the point of indifference. Without a flicker of hesitation, his slender, fair fingers neatly tore the parchment, the marriage contract that represented decades of alliance between Malfoy and Capet, the one countless pure-blood families would have dreamed of, into two even halves.

"Rrrip!" Another soft sound. Two halves became four pieces.

Raven didn't even glance at the scraps in his hand. His fingertips simply loosened.

The shredded parchment drifted down in slow spirals like dead gray moths and settled beside her expensive pure-black leather boots.

"You... you..." Draconia looked down at the scraps by her feet, then jerked her head back up to stare at Raven. Her mind rang and went blank. She even suspected she'd been hit by a powerful Advanced Confundus Charm!

He'd torn it up?! He'd actually torn up the Malfoy marriage contract right in front of her?!

"Miss Malfoy, I'd guess a moment ago you were staging some cheap knight-romance in your head," Raven said. "'Penniless young master holds a contract over a noble daughter to force a marriage.'"

He looked down at her from above, his gaze deep and calm, his tone tinged with distaste and a touch of pity. "Put away that worthless wishful thinking."

"Times have changed. If the other party to a pact is a little girl who only knows how to lean on her family name, who's spoiled and willful and has no manners to speak of... then to me that pact is worth nothing more than kindling for the fireplace."

Raven smoothed his robe collar and stepped unhurriedly down off the stool. As he passed Draconia, he paused and turned his head slightly. His voice was gentle, but it stabbed like an icicle. "I came here today to call off the engagement, by the way."

"As of this moment, Miss Malfoy, you're free. And of course... so am I."

Boom! Draconia felt all the blood in her body rush straight to her head!

Humiliation! An indescribable, sea-churning, outrageous humiliation!!

All her life she'd been the brightest pearl of the entire pure-blood circle. Wherever she went, young witches and wizards crowded around to flatter her. She was the one who picked at others and turned up her nose at them, never the other way around!

But today! Here, in this tiny tailor's shop in Diagon Alley!

This bastard called Raven Capet hadn't just accused her of wishful thinking and bad manners. He'd unilaterally dumped her in front of Crabbe and Goyle?!

"You bastard... bastard!!" Draconia shook with rage, her eyes misting over, the corners flushed red, her chest heaving.

She stamped her foot hard and screamed at his back, pointing. "Raven Capet!! What right do you have to break off my engagement?! If anyone's breaking it off, it's me dumping you! Who do you think you are? How dare you look down on me?!"

Raven didn't even turn around.

He calmly took a few shining silver Sickles from his pocket and set them on the counter, then gave a slight nod to Madam Malkin, who had just poked her head out from the back room and was utterly stunned by what she'd seen. "That's the deposit, Madam Malkin. When the robes are done, please send them by owl to Capet Manor. The extra is a tip for your trouble."

"Oh... y-yes, of course, Mr. Capet..." Madam Malkin stammered as she took the Sickles, her eyes darting back and forth between the furious Miss Malfoy and the elegant, composed boy.

And at that very moment, the System's prompts were firing off in rapid succession in Raven's mind!

[Ding! Emotional storm detected in key main-plot character 'Draconia Malfoy'!]

[Main plot deviation rating: Special Grade!]

[Causality Reversal Points +800!]

[Host has completed a famous-scene reversal for the first time. Achievement critical hit triggered!]

[Congratulations, Host! You have received one exclusive ability draw...]

[Drawing... Congratulations! You have obtained the passive trait: Abyss of Magic (maximum magic capacity doubled, recovery speed greatly increased)!]

A cool, vast tide of magic surged through his meridians like a raging flood. Every bone in Raven's body seemed to hum with pleasure.

Satisfying. Not only had he pocketed a mountain of points and a god-tier passive, he'd also knocked a little of the arrogance out of that proud little peacock on the side.

A satisfied smile tugged at the corner of Raven's mouth. He slipped one hand into his pocket, pushed open the tailor shop's door, and walked out.

"Raven Capet! Stop right there! I forbid you to leave!!"

Behind him, Draconia's shrill, aggrieved voice chased after him, with the faintest trace of a sob in it.

But by the time she rushed to the doorway, holding up her skirt, the street was packed with people. That straight-backed black figure had already vanished into the crowd, leaving behind only an aloof, resolute image of a retreating back.

"Miss... are you, are you all right?" Crabbe and Goyle crept over timidly, not daring to breathe too loudly.

"Get away from me! You two useless lumps! Why didn't you stop him just now?!"

Draconia wiped roughly at the tears of grievance that had nearly spilled from the corners of her eyes. She glared with gritted teeth at the spot where Raven had disappeared, her small fists white-knuckled, her eyes burning with fury.

"Raven Capet... you just wait!"

"Once we get to Hogwarts, I'll make you kneel on the floor and beg my forgiveness! I swear it!!"

Meanwhile, on the bustling cobblestones of Diagon Alley, Raven walked with a light step, lifted his face to the sunlight, and let his gaze fall on a shabby, cramped, dimly lit little shop on the corner, its sign peeling—

"Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 B.C."