The day flew by quickly. Celebrated with champagne and small plates of traditional delicacies (often hard to keep down mixed with drink).

Balloons had been popped or started deflating and Reggie had blown his birthday candles out, claiming he was now far too old for such fuss.

We were all about to say our goodnights, whilst Uncle Orion demanded Kreature to clean up the party mess quicker, when a round of loud knocks on the front door sounded. Sporadic, lacking rhythm.

Uncle Orion strode over to the front door with a curious frown on his face, adjusting his cufflinks accordingly.

"Who could possibly be causing such commotion at this hour? Do they not understand proper etiquette?" I could almost hear him internally say.

We all quietened our voices, though I wasn't speaking much anyway, to listen to who it could be.

A screech of laughter erupted throughout the house.

"Bellatrix" we all said in unison, some with exclamation and some with confusion.

Mother went rushing to the main entrance to greet her daughter, my sister. We all followed.

"Oh darling, I thought you were in France!" She embraced Bella in a delicate hug, grimacing when her long nails slightly wrapped in her frizzy curls. Quickly pulling back and wiping herself down. God forbid the outside touch her inside clothes.

"Couldn't miss my favourite cousin's birthday." Bella rushed to Regulus, the boy now towering above her.

She looked him up and down and pulled on his long ringlets, watching them bounce back up at her release.

"I actually have a few people outside I'd love for Reg to meet. Powerful people. Looking to find an...apprentice, so to speak. To promote the importance of keeping wizards pure, a youth group, perhaps! I'm part of the club myself but we're looking to branch out to younger people." Bella spoke to all our parents, forming a tight grip around Regulus' forearm.

Uncle Orion looked overjoyed, Bellatrix saying all the right keywords to gain his trust.

"See my boy, I told you the day you turn sixteen is the day we can begin discussing your future and what a fantastic opportunity has already presented itself to you. Of course, Bellatrix, take him outside. Teach him the power of networking." He clasped his hands excitedly.

Bella dragged a hesitant Regulus outside.

No one asked questions about the 'club' Bellatrix was in or why it was so important to approach this conversation with Regulus now at almost ten at night on his birthday. All we had been told about Bella's life away from home is that she was roaming here, there and everywhere and practically avoiding her life as an engaged woman in France. Though that is the last place she was seen...some say with a travelling circus but I just think they're playing into her craziness for a weird story. Bella wouldn't be seen dead near a circus unless she was being threatened, and then even then it's a slim chance.

Despite no one asking questions, you mention the words 'pure-blood' 'powerful' or promote an idea supporting social climbing and they'll be electrifying support from my family regardless. A reputation depends on it.

Narcissa must have sensed my energy and came up to me, keeping a close eye on the front door also.

"I've met some of the people out there. Odd. Lucius knows a bunch too, they're just a gathering of wizards supporting pure-blood beliefs. I'm not sure who the leader is, Bella could be I suppose...though some are much older than her. This is nothing new, she missed almost all of her last year skipping classes to meet people in the forest. As I said...odd but nothing threatening I'd imagine." She explained to me before wandering off to the kitchen again to sit down with Lucius, who had also spent the day to celebrate Regulus (though it was obvious he was here to suck up to our parents).

Something inside me didn't feel settled with the idea of Bellatrix shoving those beliefs down Regulus' throat and introducing him to people even older than her. But then again, nothing Bella did ever made me feel settled. It could be, like Narcissa said, nonthreatening...just not my political stance.

I was probably overthinking it. Once, several decades ago, when the next man of the house turned sixteen they were introduced to the family affairs and who were in alliance with their house. Sixteen for a boy was treated as a preparation for adulthood before full responsibility was passed on or shared by the time he turned eighteen. If Bella and her group are strictly pure-blood and traditional, this may just be part of their ritual.

I silently went up to bed without saying many goodnights, overhearing Lucious chew my father's ear off about new rules that should be introduced by the ministry. Which didn't sound like a conversation I wanted to participate in.

Sixteen.

My sixteenth birthday was bleak. It rained all day, although it was sunny the day before and no one came home from school to spend it with me. I blew my candles out in the kitchen with my mother and wondered if I would receive any birthday cards. I received one from Narcissa, with Reggies initials scribbled at the bottom as an afterthought. I did receive a few birthday cards for my fifteenth...I never could open them though, like every letter delivered for me. Watching as either they were locked away or burnt by open flame, flecks of glowing paper floating away.

Eighteen is quite significant however, surely, I'll be able to experience something within the ordinary. A card or cake.