Dollhouse [Rabastan Lestrange]

Chapter 10

"She was brave
and strong
and broken
all at once."

Callista strolled through the halls of her quiet house. Everyone was in their respective rooms and her mother was in a meeting regarding her newest designs.

When the house was like this, it made her feel like a ghost. Wandering the halls of an old house, no one acknowledging her presence and unable to affect the living world. It was like looking through a portal at something that could be, a house filled with people and laughter, instead of plagued by silence.

The only time her family ever showed their faces was during meals. There, they ate, but did not talk. Not really. Her father would comment on the Daily Prophet and her mother would inform them about upcoming plans. Soon, everyone would be dismissed and the house would be swamped in the thinly veiled blanket of silence. 

She was careful not to slip on the wooden floors, the stockings she wore under her cream coloured dress made her more at risk of slipping. She had abandoned her heels in her bedroom. Her family was once more hosting a Christmas Eve dinner party and she had gotten ready two hours prior because she was bored.

She continued walking, planning to loop back to her room. She was coming up to her father's office. She had never been in it, they were never allowed to. Only her father ever went in there.

She came up to the door, gazing at the ornate details, knowing there were no changes and there never would be.

The familiar click of a door unlocking sounded, causing her to startle backwards. The door opened and she expected to see her father.

A woman with dark hair and a tight dress walked out. She had a look of satisfaction on her face and smirked, the lipstick she wore smudged on the side of her lips.

She stalked away, but not before she noticed the newly forming bruise on her neck.

Her stomach lurched. She turned and ran down the hall, turning corners until she found her way back to her room. She slammed the door shut and leaned against it, sinking to the floor.

A hard lump had formed in her chest. She brought her hand up to her mouth, as if she could contain all that she felt.

Her father was cheating on her mother. Did her mother know? How long had this been happening? Questions swarmed her head. They made her head tight, like it would explode if she kept thinking about it.

What was she supposed to do?

~~~

Callista had managed to get through the dinner before feigning illness and running off to her room, and trying to sleep. She could barely look either of her parents in their eyes knowing what she knew.

She had wanted to scream out, tell everyone the truth, but the logical part of her brain took over. Her mother probably already knew. She had come to this conclusion when she was looking through her mother's schedule and found no such record of a meeting the previous day. She lied about the meeting. Maybe she wanted to get out of the house? Maybe she was meeting with someone? Callista did not know and she told herself not to pry any longer.

She had to focus on her final year.

And the meeting with the Lestrange family.

She was dreading it. She had to look Rabastan Lestrange in the eye and pretend she was pleased to marry him. To marry someone she had barely seen show true warmth and kindness. To marry someone the opposite of who she wanted to marry.