Betrayal of the Black

fifteen

"I WILL PLACE DOWN an 'A' to make 'A'," announced Celestia.

"I will add to your 'A' and make it 'At'," said Theo, sliding his letter piece onto the board.

"I will add onto your 'At' to make 'Cat'," continued Draco.

"I will add onto 'Cat' to make 'Aluminosilicate'," said Celestia.

Draco's fist collided with the small coffee table the trio were sat around, the force so large that the letter tiles flew off the board.

"God fucking dammit, Celestia," cursed Draco.

"Well, that was a reaction," grinned Celestia, visibly smug.

"You said you'd stop using big words in scrabble. What the bloody hell even is aluminosilicate?"

"The correct term you are looking for instead of 'big words' is sesquipedalian. Aluminosilicate is a silicate—" Celestia began to explain.

"One game of Scrabble! That was all I asked! One game!" complained Theo.

"Shut the fuck up, Theo," said both Draco and Celestia in unison. The two cousins turned to glare at each other, and when they spoke again, it was once again simultaneously. "Hey—"

Theo's head collided with the coffee table as he slammed his head into it.

"Oh God, please tell me you weren't playing Scrabble again," called a familiar voice from the doorway.

"Pansy, my love, my sweet honey, my little blueberry pie, my charming angel," crooned Celestia, "my dearest companion, you agree that my dear cousin is an overdramatic, melodramatic, piece of—"

"Ah, of course we are interrupting a Scrabble game. What else was I expecting?" Blaise interrupted.

Draco, Theodore, and Celestia were all sat on the floor around the coffee table. Despite the perfect, and expensive, couches that lined the sitting room, they had chosen to sit on the pure white persian rug.

Blaise and Pansy were both stood in the doorway, trunks pulled up behind them, with knowing looks on their face. Though, if they had been playing, they knew they would be reacting just like Draco.

One rule: do not play Scrabble with Celestia.

It seems simple enough, until Celestia tricks you into playing. She'll promise she won't do words longer than seven, or that she just wants to spend time together because 'when do we ever get to play muggle board games?'. A simple pleading look was enough to get anyone in the group to crack the rule, and the cycle would begin again.

"How'd she trick you two into it this time?" asked Pansy, joining them on the floor.

"She said she was feeling troubled," grumbled Draco

In her defence, Celestia had not lied. After overhearing the Death Eater meeting, she had felt sick to her stomach. Emotions were raging war in her head; fear, excitement, worry, anger.

She was yet to tell anyone else of what she had heard, that Voldemort was planning to initiate younger recruits, and that Draco and Celestia were sitting at the top of that list.

This morning, Theo had wrapped his arm around her shoulder and asked her quietly if she was alright. She had nearly broke right there. She was good at masking her emotions, but time and time again Theo would see through her. Those are one of many times that Celestia wants nothing more than to punch him in the face.

She should tell them. She should warn them. Since when had she ever kept secrets from them? In third year, her entire group knew about the anxiety of her father's escape from Azkaban. Later that year, moments after Harry had told her that Sirius was supposedly innocent, she had immediately gone to her friends. It had always been like this with them; so why was she holding back now?