The door slammed shut as Regulus watches his older cousin enter the room. He sighed, not knowing how this would go since they had just finished another gala. Instead of screaming or starting a conversation, Bellatrix just slid down the door opening a bottle of whatever alcohol our parents had.
“You read the paper yet?” She questions softly. Regulus shook his head and closed his book before walking over and sitting beside her. She huffed softly and tilted her head back, it hit the door with a soft thunk. He took the bottle out of her hand and took a sip.
“Good, Don’t,” She said finally. Regulus looked at her for a moment before handing the bottle back to her and watched as she sipped on it. Which was weird in the first place because that wasn’t how Bella drank. Yeah, she sipped on wine at parties, but when she drank alone she drank fast or took it by shots. This was new and new meant there was a problem.
“The funny part.” She said and a watery voice, “Is that I actually loved that asshole. I would’ve given up a lot for her. I mean, hell, I risked my life just by seeing her. I took her on dates and I fucked her in my house. I did all of this knowing that if my husband found out I’d die, that if anyone found out I’d be screwed. She didn’t care that I got the dark mark or that I was working for the dark lord or anything. I don’t know what happened, it was fine. Were fine. Then I get the paper today and our whole fucking family secrets are there, staring back at me.” I sigh, hearing the tears in her voice.
“Skeeter?” Reg guesses. She laughs
“No, fucking Zambini. Of course Skeeter.” She lets out a deep breath and wiped at her eyes, “At least your lover just left you. Mine basically outed me and then had the nerve to show up tonight and act like it was still on.”
“So you broke up with her.?”
“Of course, I broke up with her Reg, I wasn’t gonna stay.” I nodded
“Are you going to tell Narcissa?”
“Hell no. She has enough problems going on with Lucious and Alice.”
“Ah, so I wasn’t the only one who found out.”
“You think us three can keep secrets from eachother Reg? We have to be able to tell someone or we’d go crazy in this godforsaken house.”
“Yet, we’re keeping this a secret.”
“Don’t be a smart ass.” Bella hisses.
“Well, Fuck them. Both of them. They don’t deserve us.” Regulus says taking the bottle from Bella and draining the last of the liquor. Bella laughs again before they hear a knock at the door. They both look at eachother and scramble to get off the floor and away from the door. Regulus clears his throat.
“Come in.” He says as politely and innocently as he can. Narcissa opens the door, looks at the both of them and rolls her eyes,
‘Oh come off it, it’s just me.” She whispers before closing the door, “Now what are you two dumbasses whispering about.”
“Nothing.”
“Failed Romances,” Bella and Reg say at the same time and Narcissa raises an eyebrow before shaking her head.
“Well let me join because I got shit to add now.”
“Alice dump you?” Bella questions.
“Yeah, but whatever at this point,” Narcissa says before sitting in the chair by the desk.
“It’s whatever?” Reg asks pointedly
“Oh shut up Mr. Potter” Cissa shoots back, while Reg rolls his eyes.
“That’s not fair and we both know I sabotaged that whole relationship for my brother.” Regulus hisses.
“Oh well, we all knew that, doesn’t mean he didn’t still break up with you.” Narcissa spits out.
“Ooo~ Cissa’s got a bite today.” Bella taunts with a smirk.
“Oh shut up, your girlfriend fucking outed the whole family for money.” Cissa snapped.
“Wow. That’s harsh Cissa, especially because we don’t know what happened with your lover girl.” Regulus questions looking pointedly at Cissa. Cissa just huffs.
“She found out that I was still going on with the whole arranged marriage with Lucious and apparently that was such a surprise and she couldn’t do it anymore. So she dumped me and it’s not like I could go up to Mother and be like ‘Hey, so you know that girl Alice Fortese? Yeah, I’ve been dating and fucking her on the down low and Lucious knows and is okay with it as long as I end up married to him but I was thinking and I don’t want that anymore, so I’m gonna pull a Andy and run away with her because that’s want I want.’ Mother will fucking kill me” Bella’s eyes widen and she makes a choking sound, which causes Reg to start laughing.
“Damn, Cissa you should tell your Mother that, word for word. We haven’t had chaos in this house in a while.” He says smirking. Cissa shakes her head and hits him on the shoulder. Bella, who is apparently tired of standing and is now sitting on the floor against the wall, huffs out a laugh. Regulus shakes his head and goes to sit on his bed.
“We’re screwed aren’t we?” Cissa whispers into the now quiet room. She meets Regulus' eyes when he looks up at her sharply.
“We’ve been screwed since the moment we were born Cissa. Two girls and a trans man. We’re lucky to be alive.” Bella hisses out.
“Well, we can’t say we haven’t had fun. I mean everyone might think we are all cold-hearted cunts but hell we all have had secret relationships with the same gender, we have sneaked out of this house how many times? And we have these late-night talks at least once a week. Maybe Sirius and Andromeda are right and we are mindless drones that work for our parents but they can’t say we followed every rule.” Regulus says in response.
“Didn’t take you for optimistic Reg,” Cissa says with a laugh.
“Yeah well, I’m 18 and about to join a war I don’t believe in. I have to have some hope or I’ll kill myself.” He spits back
“Yeah, welcome to the war, we are all going to die,” Bella says with fake cheer.
“Wow Bella, way to have hope.” Cissa murmurs before a smile breaks out on her face,
“Alright, enough sadness. Did you all see the look on Mother's face when Bella showed up late? I thought for sure she was going to make a scene.”
“Oh she almost did, but I shut her up with the line ‘I was doing an important thing.’ It works every time because no one wants to question you-know-who.” Bella jokes.
“It reminded me of the time Sirius showed up late and then proceeded to make a muggle-born joke in front of everyone,” Regulus spoke quietly, while Cissa laughed,
“Oh, you remember that one Gala, it was right after both Andy and Siri left and it was just the three of us and Reg was black-out drunk because he had snuck the hard liquor into his wine glass?” She asked. Bella's eyes widened with recognition, while Reg’s brows furrowed
“No, what gala?” He asks.
“You wouldn’t remember you were so far gone, I’m surprised our family didn’t notice but you were drunk. We made a game where we were guessing where all the people there would be in 10 years and Mr. Lastrange walked up to us while we were talking about how Mr. Malfoy would be poor and die alone. I thought he heard us at first when he walked up because of the look on his face but he just came to complain about his wife. Funniest thing ever.” Bella re-told with a laugh. Regulus shook his head before flopping back onto his bed until he was looking up at his ceiling. Cissa sighed,
“I have to go to sleep, I meet with the Malfoy tomorrow. Night.” She says softly and then slips out the door.
“So, the Rita thing was apparently not so secret?” Bella says once the door closed. Reg rolls his eyes
“Yeah well, you aren’t the only one I have secret conversations with.” He says.
“Speaking of secret conversations. She’s not gonna live. She’ll survive, keep pieces of herself locked away but living with Lucious, and having a kid with him? It’ll kill her.” Bella whispers the last part like it’s poisoned.
“I know but it’s not like we have a choice, Bella, we can’t do what Andy and Sirus did. We don’t have the option to run away.”
“But Cissa does. As long as they have a male heir and a female one, they don’t care.”
“But you haven’t had children Bella, and they know you guys don’t plan to. Cissa is their only choice.”
“I don’t care, I’ll change my mind. I’ll have children.” Bella hisses out almost desperately.
“But does Rodolphus want to have kids?” Reg questions.
“No,” Bella admits.
“Exactly, we do what we have to and we play the game, and one day they will slip up and we get out of here okay.” He says, “Now go to bed, you look like shit.”
“That isn’t very Noble House of Black of me is it.” She says with a watery laugh, “Alright, Good Night Cousin.” She says and slips out of the room.
The house is quiet that night. Peaceful even. Like it knows what's about to happen and wants to bring one last comfort to the three cousins. Within a week, Regulus Black goes missing and a month later he is presumed dead. Bellatrix Lestrange officially goes off the rails and loses her mind and within a year or two she’s in jail for causing the Longbottoms to go insane. Narcissa Malfoy is pregnant and trapped in the Malfoy manor. Sirius Black goes to jail and Andromeda stays in hiding away from the wizarding war. The last of the House of Black is gone and with it a legacy no one should’ve started.