Betrayal of the Black

thirty-nine

"OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT OR CRASH A WEDDING?" CELESTIA mused. "That's never a question I thought I'd ask myself."

Voldemort had given her and Theo some leniency when it came to the two missions taking place nearly simultaneously this weekend. She supposed it was because she had killed Dumbledore, and Theo had killed Alastor Moody.

On Saturday, they were prepared to finally siege the Ministry and place it under the control of Voldemort and his followers. As soon as they do that, they'll be able to launch on an attack on the Burrow during the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. Well, that was the plan anyway.

Most Death Eaters would be going to the Ministry of Magic, seeing as who runs the government is a large staple in the direction of which the war goes. They now have enough higher-up Ministry workers under the Imperius Curse that will assassinate the Minister of Magic, but having said that, they would need reinforcements there in case anyone attempted to fight back.

Yet the wedding of Bill and Fleur was nearly equally as important: it was where Harry Potter would be. To siege the Ministry and have Harry's death only hours later? The war would be over before it could ever truly begin.

"Which one are you going to?" she asked Theo.

He was sat in her bed like it was his own. He had a book open in his hands, a pen behind his ear, and annotating equipment strewn out across her duvet. He wore a pair of grey sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt; how he was wearing those in Summer, she had no idea.

Glancing up from his book, he shrugged. "Wherever you go."

"That's not helpful at all," she retorted.

Though, he seemed to no longer be listening to her, back to reading his book. She sighed irritably, and flopped down onto her chaise by her bookshelves and began considering again what she might chose.

She began muttering under her breath, trying to go over what the advantages and disadvantages of each were.

"I'm sorry, did you just suggest that a pro of going to the wedding would be that Victor Krum might be attending?" Theo demanded, apparently having listened to her murmurs.

She propped herself up on an elbow to look at him. "Yeah, he and Delacour were friends by the end of the tournament, it's a safe bet he'll be there."

"Why do you want him to be there?"

"Why not? He's fit; tall, thin, dark hair, professional Quidditch player. Need I say more? If Granger hadn't fancied him fourth year, I would've nicked him for myself," she said. When he continued to stare at her incredulously, she continued, "What? He was better than Asen."

Asen Todorov had been the boy she'd taken to the Yule ball with her that year; he'd been chatting her up for weeks, and she had finally taken him up on his proposition when the ball came around.

Theo scowled at the Durmstrang boys name. "I still don't understand why you went to the Yule ball with him."

"Are you daft? I didn't have date, I had to pick someone and I liked Asen enough," she said.

In all honesty, she had thought Theo and her were going to go together. It was what they usually did at the New Years galas, and any other event they needed a plus-one. But a week before the ball, Theo had gotten a girlfriend named Isla, so she had needed to find another date.

Isla had been a nice girl, also a Slytherin and in their year, but Celestia had resented her for so long after the Yule ball; Asen had nearly ruined that night when they'd gotten into a fight. He had complained about how close she and Theo were, and that she had to pick between them.