crushed - remus lupin

-six-

Celeste could feel the gnawing nerves in the bottom of her stomach, clawing their way up to her brain. She was on the Hogwarts train for the second time since she had turned fifteen, and she was more nervous than she had been in a long time. Celeste hadn't been home in what seemed like ages. She always managed to find an excuse to stay out of that dark, dreary manor, staying in turn with all of her friends and staying at Hogwarts for holidays. Her parents didn't want to see her, anyways, so they would accept any pathetic excuse she managed to scratch up. A few times she had stayed at James's with the boys, but this time there was no getting out of this. She had to go to meet Lucius's fiancee, Narcissa Black. Celeste was very nervous, despite her conversation with Sirius about his cousin That conversation had gone something like this:

"Sirius, can we talk, one 10 to another?"

Sirius had looked at her with a smirk. "I'm an 11, but continue."

Celeste had paused, giving a look of disbelief at his arrogance, before bursting out laughing.

"Besides that, what is your cousin Narcissa like?"

"Well... she seems from the outside like she's cold, distant, and rude..."

Celeste gulped at his description.

"But beneath her stupid facade, she was really the only family member that cared."

Sirius took a breath, the memories of his time with his family clearly paining him. "After I ran away, she was the only one to check on me. She offered to get me a room at the Leaky Cauldron if I didn't have a place to stay. I couldn't stay with her, because of my other cousin, Bellatrix, but she offered to help me in whatever way she could. And that meant a lot. Narcissa and Andromeda are the only members of my family that actually loved me."

After that conversation, Celeste's anxiety has eased a bit, but it didn't mean it was gone completely. What if she was only that way because Sirius was her family? If she was engaged to Lucius, then she was either the exact opposite of his description, or did a really good job pretending to be.

Her nerves reached an all-time high as the ruby red train pulled into King's Cross station. Celeste gathered her bags and exited the sliding double doors.

Spotting their house elf, Biddy, she made her way over to her.

"Missus Celeste! Biddy is most happy to see you!"

The small elf in front of her loved her more than all of her family members put together.

"Biddy, I missed you!"

Biddy had cared for her when she was only an eleven year old, shunned by her family, with nowhere to go. Biddy was the one who made sure she got fed, took her to get her supplies, brought her to and from the station, all because her parents couldn't give a rat's ass about her.

Celeste grabbed Biddy's outstretched arm and they disapparated to the Manor.

Just the sight of the cold, stiff building made her skin crawl.

Celeste composed herself, putting on her fake smile that was reserved just for her family. She had learned how to make it seem like nothing would hurt her, a skill that came in handy in moments like this.

She walked through the door and spotted her mother and father, looking picture perfect. Celeste scoffed in her brain. If only that were the truth.

"Mother. Father." Celeste nodded curtly.

"Celeste, darling." Valyn Malfoy smiled at her daughter, but Celeste knew that there was no love behind her expression.