The Life and Lies of Cassiopeia Rosier- Regulus Black

.the commandeering of the manor.

.if you can't wake up from the nightmare, maybe you aren't asleep.

The week proceeding my return from Hogwarts could only be described as a living hell. Christmas break had been difficult enough for me to push through without losing any of my sanity. The thought of spending nine weeks locked away with no one for company except my parents, and my sulking brother filled me with dread.

More than that, I felt as if part of me had been ripped apart. I finally had something good in my life, Regulus truly was all that mattered to me. Without him near, I felt like a lesser person, as if all the light had been extinguished around me.

I could swim in the anxiety that I felt about being back around my parents. Every time they looked at me, it was with a cold indifference that I couldn't comprehend. I had done everything they had ever asked of me. I was used to their cool demeanor, but after so much warmth from Regulus, the sudden toss out into the cold had shocked me.

My mind drew me back to the train ride from Hogwarts. It was a countdown on the clock to what felt like impending doom. That made each moment spent next to Regulus even sweeter. Oddly enough, I wasn't the one in disarray that day. Regulus had been the one shaking and sweating. We both had an impending doom to face, and for him, the thought of returning to his family home without Sirius was almost too much to bear. It seemed as if I was the one holding him together until we reached Platform 9-3/4 where he put on a stony face and buried any emotion deep into his soul.

My thoughts were disturbed by the faint chiming of a bell from deep within the manor. My parents, always the ones to avoid unnecessary communication with their children had installed a bell to chime when meals were prepared. It had been that way ever since we were children, and some things would never change. From the third chime of the bell, we had exactly three minutes to drop whatever had been occupying us and make our way to our assigned seats within the dining room. If we weren't seated and ready by the end of the third minute- precisely when my parents entered the dining room- then the punishment was always severe.

"Being on time is a sign of respect." my father would state. I only had to experience that lesson once for it to be engrained in my mind. The only problem was that I didn't respect my father. I feared him. And the thing about fear is that it can be overcome.

To my great surprise, I arrived in the dining room, only to find that my parents had already made their entrance. They were seated at the table, ready for dinner before Evan had even entered the room. It was a sight that made me hesitate in the doorway as I approached. In my heart, I knew that something was amiss. My parents were bred by tradition. They never strayed from their ways. Yet here they were breaking a long line of hundreds of dinners had in this hall.

My mother caught sight of me in the doorway. "Come in and sit Cassiopeia. Don't go about lurking in corners. It is unbecoming of a woman of your status." She crooned flicking her wand to push the chair out where I was to sit.

Cautiously, I approached and took my seat. I eyed them both closely. They seemed almost giddy, and I knew that anything that my parents would be giddy about would be something I didn't want to hear about or be part of. Finally, Evan arrived, taking much of the attention and tension away from me.

It took nearly a quarter of an hour after dinner was served for anyone to say anything. Finally, when the silence was broken it was by my father.

"We have received a great honor, my children." He proclaimed, his strong voice carrying across the spacious chamber, and reverberating off the walls, and the high arches of the ceiling.

He looked at us expectantly, but neither Evan nor I gave him any inclination that we wanted to hear what such an honor had been. Quite frankly, anything that my father would consider an "honor" I knew that I would consider a horror.