"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.

Yet, he was still one of her friends. Both forced into a group of suitable friends and they were stuck together with everyone else. How would their group be affected? How would he treat her? Would he treat her like a classmate or barely acknowledge her existence?

The world was crumbling around her and she did not know what to do. She was lost.

So she did what she usually did when she felt like this. She owled James.

The letter consisted of many complaints about the dinners she had to attend and how her Christmas Eve dinner had went. Christmas had fallen upon them and Callista still needed to go downstairs and open presents. She chose to leave out some of her problems to tell him at school.

She had sent James' present the night before. She had gotten him a quidditch sweater of his favourite team and many sweets. Though she suspected Remus would steal all the chocolate to go along with the chocolate she sent him.

She sent the letter off with her brother's owl and went downstairs to open the rest of her presents.

~~~

Pulling on an appropriate sweater, Callista thought about all of the gifts she had received from her friends. James got her a designer purse, Sirius a leather jacket he said matched his own, Remus gave her chocolate and Peter got her some new quills. Her study group gave her a range of quills, sweets, and inks, and Anya added a scarf she knitted herself.

From her Slytherin friends she received another sweater from Gen, black boots from Fallon, and the boys collectively bought her sweets and jewellery. She had no doubt their mothers helped pick the gifts.

She had stared at the note written in Rabstan's neat scrawl, saying Happy Christmas from all of them. He had the neatest handwriting, and it was probably why he had to write the letter.

She would be seeing him in a matter of minutes. Her and her family would apparate to the Ministry of Magic where her father would go to a meeting, right after an interview with some journalists. They would subtly announce the new engagement and then Callista would be forced to deal with the consequences at school the next week when it was published.

The walk through the Ministry was dreadful. Her father led the way to large fountain in the centre where they would meet with the interviewers and the Lestrange family.

She faintly acknowledged her chewing the inside of her cheek, her eyes darting around, when Freya laid a hand on her arm. She turned to look at her younger sister, who looked up at her with round innocent eyes. What was she doing? People were watching, she could not look so nervous.

Freya spoke in a low voice so only she would hear. "Remember your strength, Cally. No one can take that away from you."

No one could take away her strength. The strength that has gotten her through most of her life. The strength that would get her through this engagement.

The interviewers came into view and then Estelle and Montgomery Lestrange with their youngest son standing between them.

Her father walked forward shaking the hands of the interviewers and greeting the other family. "A good day, is it not?" He said, nodding to them.

Mr. Lestrange nodded in agreement. "A fine day, indeed. For it is the day we acknowledge the future joining of our two families." He ushered his wife and son forward. Her own father doing the same.

"What a lovely pair these two will make," Mrs Lestrange smiled, looking between the two of them.

"Good morning, Callista," Rabastan said, the formal tone of his voice easily recognisable among them. It was the same tone each of her friends used for important gatherings, much different from school.

She put on a smile, as if she were pleased he greeted her. "Good morning," she responded. She hoped their marriage would not be filled with formalities. And the rest of the school year. It would kill her to have to suffer through that at school.

"Come come, we must take pictures or the photographers will never leave us alone," her mother joked.

Estelle gave a gentle laugh and coaxed the families together, having Callista and Rabastan hook arms in the centre. His arm was tense under her soft grip. She looked forward into the camera, maintaining the look of an effortless smile that actually took all of her effort.

The flash of the camera came and went and the photographers allowed them to disperse, continuing to pester their parents about work and news.

Herself, her siblings, and Rabastan wondered off to the side while they waited for their parents. He looked at her. "How was your Christmas?"

"As insufferable as always," she said, dropping her facade.

"Those parties and balls are always terrible," he sighed. Leaning back he added, "I'd say I can't wait to get back to Hogwarts but we probably have to sit through another one of Slughorn's dinners."

She mock shuddered. "I'd take a hundred of these dinners over any one of his any day."

His lips quirked upward, but he did not answer and she was okay with that. This is how most of their conversations were. Small talk. And though she previously enjoyed them, the banter, the light-heartedness of it, it did scare her. She wanted a real relationship with someone, a connection, and she was scared that with him she would never get that.

————————————————————
Heyy so sorry for the late update. I went on holiday for the past week and and I was busy the week before that.

My holiday was pretty good, but there was lots of flooding from heavy rains, like the entire highway was flooded we were stuck where we were. But thankfully I'm back home now.

– walkingmasterpiece xx