Dollhouse [Rabastan Lestrange]

Chapter 12

"I am tired.
These people make me feel
I have a hole in the middle
of me."

A beam of light shone through the window, illuminating the darkened room. The murky water beyond the walls of the Slytherin dorms grew more transparent as the rising sun shone upon it.

Genevieve was the first to wake, lighting the lateens in the room so that the three of them could get ready without tripping over each other's things.

Callista awoke to the sound of her friends getting ready and decided that she could not lay in bed all day. She needed to get up and face all of the problems that lay ahead.

She drew the curtains surrounding her bed open and looked around the messy dorm. Genevieve's clothes were scatter across her bed, half of them on the floor, as she searched for her favourite lipgloss.

"I swear I packed it in after Christmas!"

Fallon scoffed, "What did you use when we got here?"

"My spare."

"So use it?"

"I need that one! The other doesn't go with my eyes as well as that one." She slumped onto her bed, another pile of clothes falling to the floor. "Oh, they don't even sell it in Hogsmeade."

"You could ask your mum to send it with your owl?" Both their heads turned to Callista, who had went to bed two hours earlier than normal and slept in an hour later.

"Cal! You're awake!" Gen let out a half-contained squeal, causing Fallon to scrunch up her face.

"Yes, and so is everyone in the Slytherin dorms." She grumbled.

Callista laughed, along with Genevieve who agreed to owl her mother and ask for a new lipgloss.

She got up from her spot amongst her clothes and went to sit next to Callista on her bed. She grabbed hold of her hand and Callista gripped i tighter.

"How are you coping with the engagement and all the gossip?" She asked, her tone much softer than her distress earlier.

She sighed, giving a half-smile, before she could not even keep that on her face. "I'm used to gossip but it's different this time," she began. It was different. This time there was truth to it, although not the full truth. They believed in a relationship, not an engagement, and she had still not determined which she favoured more.

"I'm scared. What is Rabastan ends up hating me?" She voiced the concern that's been going through her head since the day her parents told her about it.

Fallon frowned. "Cal, he won't hate you. He gets along with you quite well as it is."

"Yes, but it's...it's. Agh!" She groaned, flinging herself back onto her bed. "It's different. We get along, but we're not friends. We like each other's company, but it's never more than that. I'm not close with the boys like you are, Fallon."

Fallon joined the two others on the bed. "You get along. That's at least a start."

"What if that's where it ends?" She sat up again, so fast she almost knocked Fallon off the bed. "I don't want to have to endure a marriage where we simply tolerate each other."

Genevieve ran her hand up and down her back. "It will go nowhere unless you try to get to know each other more. You'll be married one day, the least you can do is try to make it work."

She leaned her head on Genevieve's shoulder. "What if it doesn't work out?"

"Then we'll kill him and make it look like an accident."

"Fallon!" Genevieve gasped. "He's our friend!"

"Yes, but Callista is our sister."

Callista grinned at the two of them. She could not have wished for better friends..

~~~

The halls were filled with students leaving their last class of the day, along with whispers that followed Callista wherever she went. Some of the rumours made her laugh. They were ridiculous.

One suggested that they were only dating because he blackmailed her and another was that she was only dating him to make James Potter jealous. The absurdity of people's minds amazed her.

They multiplied when the rest of the school saw her and Rabastan walking side by side without the presence of the rest of their friend group.

The two had decided to go on a walk together and talk about the engagement and how it would work.

Soon they reached the school grounds and Callista allowed herself to breathe in the fresh air, glad to be out of the suffocating halls.

She had not said a word to Rabastan since the interview at the ministry. Once they were alone, he spoke. "I want to make this work."

For some reason, she did not expect that. Maybe it was her fears or the fact that she did not picture him as that type of person.

She nodded. "I do too."

Rabastan looked at the ground, moving his shoe along the grass.

"I think it's best if we pretend we're in a happy relationship, at least until we're comfortable with it." He looked at her, before returning his gaze to the floor. "My parents would kill me if I didn't make it look like the perfect love match." He let out a half-hearted chuckle, shaking his head.

Callista nodded. "My mother would do the same. But I agree, we should pretend." Pretend that it's okay. That it will all work out in the end. The unspoken words hung in the air, both of them knowing that it was not okay and would not be for a while.

"I do want it to work though." He looked tense. "This will be the rest of our lives, we could at least try to be happy."

She smirked. "Are you saying you don't already adore my company?"

He chuckled. "Of course not, dear," he said, tilting his head and holding his hands to his heart. "You're a delight."

She laughed, grateful that the tension between them had eased a little bit and the dreadful conversation was over.

"My, my, how ever will you make it up to me?"

They laughed and made the walk back inside, slightly more at ease than they were before.

________________________________________

Y'all the way I've only planned up until chapter 26. I do not know how this story is even going to end like why do I also jump into stories with no solid plan

I am a mess

Enjoy tho! <3

– walkingmasterpiece xx