To so callously brush aside the fears of children showcased to Brent how Eryx had not evolved at all since the days where they themselves were children. They had been raised just as Eryx was saying, to value that strong and crush the weak. That was what it meant to be the heir to a traditional, repressive Sacred Twenty-Eight family. “It is not a matter of allowing boggarts to exist. I specifically have even changed the curriculum regarding the lessons involving them in my capacity in the Ministry. It is a valuable lesson, yes, but it is not one that should be done so lightly. Fears, no matter how small you may see them, cause children anxiety and that should not be brushed off. You are not wrong that our society has operated with a skewed perceptive, but I have chosen to rise above the generations before us. It is evident that you have not done the same.” Brent did not spare too many thoughts on Eryx Dolohov. He was a run-of-the-mill pureblood that he did not envy in the slightest. He’d gained his freedom. Eryx was just another foot soldier, marching in line to the rhythm and not taking a step out of pace. “I see. You must feel proud, knowing that the woman you are set to marry has no autonomy of her own and that you do not seem to regard as anything more than something for you to step on up the ladder.” It was detestable, the way that Eryx shamelessly about his wife-to-be as if she were no more than a rag doll. It reminded Brent of his parents and their similar dynamic. Crossing his arms, Brent jutted his chin upward, unrepentant. He would not be shamed by the fact that the family he had was one of his own choosing and one that chose him in turn. Especially not when they were the greatest aspect of his life. “We have never been and never will be friends, Dolohov. You must be satisfied. Your father would be delighted to see what has become of you, bringing such honor to his name. That is all that you have, is it not? Your name gave you fortune, a marriage that is, in your own words, a business arrangement and nothing more. Nothing you have has been earned. Say what you want about me. I do not care. I am the head of my own department, I have a child that is happy and healthy and a relationship that I do not have to dangle in front of others as an asset.” His relationship with Barbara was genuine and none of Eryx’s business. “I have not shamed my family, see. Because my family is them, Barbara and our son. Not my parents or a woman that I had no interest in marrying. And I do not regret choosing them. Because they were my choice. But you would not have any idea about that, would you? You are your father’s son, and nothing more, following the life that has been dictated for you, all too smug about marrying a woman that has been passed off like property and all too satisfied to stare down from a pedestal that you were born on rather than built with your own accomplishments.”
A smirk passed his face, it was amusing that Brent thought he knew all there was to know about him and lorded it over him like a trophy. As if Brent had done something Eryx had not, or been incapable of no. Brent had the privilege to be with the woman he loved despite her status, he had the opportunity to leave his parents behind and disgrace their name without any consequences beyond never having to see two terrible people again. At the very least he did not seem to take his gifts for granted but his severe distaste for Eryx was misplaced, it was almost funny but truly it was far from laughable. Eryx had been his father’s son when he was in school, but he’d been terrified to be anything else, the man had a way of using his hands to express his anger instead of his words though both came any time Eryx blinked incorrectly. Brent couldn’t know, no one could, but there had been years Eryx wished someone had rescued him. Instead he saved himself and his sisters from that terror, another fact no one knew or ever would if Eryx could keep it quiet. Now here he was marrying this stranger to save her, from her own father, from a life of forced servitude that Er would never ever put her through. There was a chance he could come to love her and even if that did not happen she would be free to make a life for herself, the only downside was that he would be part of it. Self loathing often threatened to overttake him but in this place he felt pride at the person he had fought to become. Yes, he was a death eater, he’d been promised to them before he hit puberty but the day he graduated Hogwarts he found the Order and he ahs spent the last ten years passing information and rescuing assets. One day he’ll free himself from the Death Eaters, one day soon he hopes if he ever wants his forced family to be real. But here and now he had to play a part, to be the cruel, sadistic, uncaring Death Eater Brent wanted him to be. “You assume quite a lot Nott, I thought you to be an intelligent man once but I see I was mistaken., You can take your petty cruelty somewhere else if you don’t mind, I have better things to do than listen to the lamentations and pathetic life details of a traitor. But if you have forgotten I am also quite an accomplished Obliviator, a position I earned. It’d be such a shame if you happened to forget that son of yours, or that pretty little wife---oh no, not wife. Still, I’d be careful who I insult if I were you, though I am quite pleased I am not, how boring and complacent you’ve become.”
