The Reincarnated Twin

Chapter Seventeen - Lestrange Dinner

The Blacks and Lestranges all sat around a large dining table. At the head of one side of the table is the head of the Lestrange house, Lord Ranald Lestrange. On his left is the eldest son, Rodolphus followed by his wife and fellow Black, Bellatrix Lestrange. On Lord Lestrange's right sits his wife Oletha Lestrange nee Rowle and then Rabastan Lestrange, the younger son. Sat next to Rabastan was Shaula, Regulus, Orion at the head, followed by Walburga and then Sirius opposite Shaula and next to Bellatrix.

All three Black siblings held up an emotionless mask, all three despising having to spend their first day back together at a meal with another family, but kept silent. They knew better than to speak out of turn, especially when their father was talking with Lord Lestrange as they all ate. Every couple minutes though Bellatrix would look over at Shaula with a cocky smirk, as if she knew something that Shaula didn't. Which is entirely accurate, Bellatrix was eight years older than her and newly married, but it still irritated the younger girl knowing that she was being mocked by her cousin for not knowing what Bellatrix knew. 

Shaula decided to ignore her and focused on her own meal. They were currently on their main course, fillet beef with mixed vegetables. She silently ate, her back straight, head high and eyes downward and locked on the food in front of her. She was focused so intently on trying not to gain any attention, that she almost missed when she was spoken about by her father.

"It is too early to see whether Shaula will make a suitable candidate, and despite the slight hiccup of her house not being Slytherin, she has seemed to make up for it in her grades." Orion mentions to Ranald, who nods and replies.

"Yes, I have heard. Bellatrix has also informed me that she learnt through her younger sister Narcissa that Miss Black however is spending her free time with the blood traitors Potter and Fawley. The same goes for your eldest son, who also surrounds himself with filthy mudbloods and half-bloods."

Walburga scowls at her two children in shame that a fellow elite pureblood was looking down on them, Sirius glaring back at her whilst Shaula shrinks back in fear and refusing to make eye contact with anyone. She never mentioned how Pandora was a Fawley, and therefore a blood-traitor. 

"Yes, I had planned to deal with this problem in person once the twins were back home for the holidays." Walburga snarled out from under her breath. Shaula's eyes widened and she knew she had to say something to defend herself, even if it got her in trouble. It was better to deal with the problem now, then to let it stew and be solved back at Grimmauld by Walburga. She cleared her throat, gaining the attention of the table. Regulus and Sirius gave her a wide-eyed look, shocked by her interrupting the conversation. 

"Yes Shaula?" Her father asked her patronisingly, not believing that his daughter had anything of value to say.

"There is a reason behind mine and Sirius relations with the two blood-traitors," she began. Sirius looked at her bemused, wanting to speak up himself but stopped at her glare. "The purebloods have attempted to keep tradition through political confrontations, but we have not attempted to do so through actually gaining their trust and then altering their perceptions of the Wizarding World."

The adults all began to look more interested at the young girl, wondering where she was leading with this. She tried not to shift under the uncomfortable stares.

"By gaining their trust, we are enabling our to integrate into their side. This way, we'll be able to plant ideas into the heads of the bloodtraitors of how the old traditions are better and that the halfbloods and mudbloods are naught but meer..." Shaula paused for a moment, surprised by how everyone was hanging onto her words with interest, excluding Sirius who's face was blank from emotion. Shaula continued, "stains that need to be removed." 

Orion's eyes narrowed at Shaula, "And why was this never mentioned to me?" Shaula, somehow managing to steel the nerves that were beginning to wrack through her body, took a quick sip of her drink, wetting her slowly drying mouth.

"Myself and Sirius needed it to look convincing, and by having you and mother being disappointed by our house placements, it would convince everyone that we were beginning to be ostracized by the pureblood community. It needed to be convincing, and I was unsure of how you and mother would take to this plan." Shaula finished, making sure to keep direct eye contact with her father as she explained. She had made all of this up on the spot, but made sure she appeared confident in her words. That everything that came out of her mouth was true. 

"Well Sirius? Is this true? Did you and Shaula come up with this idea?" Walburga turned and snarled at her eldest son, who sat silently in his seat. 

The twins sat facing each other, eyes linking together. Shaula begging Sirius mentally to agree, to say yes. The boy sat silently in his seat for a few moments, the tension in the room growing at every second, staring at Shaula blankly before replying. 

"Yes, it's true. We needed a new way to bring the bloodtraitors back to the old ways."

Shaula let out a silent sigh of relief, but she knew this night wouldn't be over for a long while. She could see it in her brothers eyes. 

"Whilst I don't like the idea of having purebloods acting like boodtraitors, I do agree that new plans are in order. We are losing purebloods by the day, many turning into bloodtraitors." Lord Lestrange says, cutting into the growing tension between the Black's. He continues, "Good  thinking Miss Shaula, I commend you on your planning and believe  this deserves a toast."

Reluctantly, many raised their glasses. Walburga and Orion not pleased at being deceived by their children. Shaula and Sirius not happy with the lie they told. Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers unhappy with toasting to the idea of mere children bringing back to old ways. 

"To bringing back  the old traditions to the bloodtraitors." exclaims Lord Lestrange.

"To bringing back the old traditions to the bloodtraitors." Everyone echoed and drank from their cups. 

A/N: I'm so sorry this has taken me ages to update. I've had exams for my A-Levels, which are now all done. I've also had loads of birthdays to go to, jobs to apply for, mental health issues to deal with and working on some personal projects as well. Thank you all for being patient and I'm hoping to get back into writing weekly again from now on.