bruises - james potter

𝗳𝗼rty

Cassie nodded, pulling on her Slytherin scarf. She felt as if she couldn't breath, "I'll take the blame, Reggie." She spoke, her voice now softer, she looked up at Regulus, and placed a hand on his arm. "I'll just say I threatened to hex you if you told anyone." Regulus shook his head, wiping some of the rain from his head, stopping it from going into his eyes.

...

"No." She said, putting her trunk on the floor and crossing her arms, a frown on her face as she looked up at her parents.

"What did you say to your father?" Walburga asked, her voice holding the same amount of venom that it did at the station minutes before.

Cassie's frown couldn't help but deepen. She'd always known that her parents didn't love her, but she never thought that they despised her.

The way that her mother had just talked to her was the way she spoke to muggle-borns, and anyone could tell that Walburga Black hated nothing more than muggle-borns.

So when her own mother spoke to her in the tone she spoke in to people she hated, she knew that her parents didn't love her at all.

She may have well been a rag-doll. Sitting on a shelf until they needed someone to punish, and she was always first in line.

"I said no." She repeated, her voice a little quiter this time as she watched her parents faces turn into twisted sneers.

"Regulus didn't do anything wrong, I-I'm the one." She lied, looking again the ground. "I told him I'd hex him if he told you anything."

Walburga shook her head, not looking at Regulus as she snapped:

"Go to your room Regulus."

Regulus opened his mouth to argue, but Cassie sent him a glare, making him shut his mouth before he could say anything else.

The boy quickly rushed up the stairs, his head hung low as he tried not to look anywhere but the stairs. If he looked up, everyone would have seen the guilty look on his face.

The second that Regulus footsteps could no longer be heard above them, Orion grabbed his daughter by the hair and dragged her into the living room.

The dark-haired girl let out a small gasp as she tried to release her fathers grasp on her hair.

Without a word, Orion threw Cassie down onto the dusty, grey carpet of the room. The girl let out a small whimper of pain as she landed funnily on her arm, she quickly tried to move her fingers, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw that they moved.

Ensuring her that her father hadn't just broken her arm.

Cassie lay on the floor for what seemed like hours, but in reality it was only a few moments.

Her parents silence was the most terrifying thing that she had ever gone through.

She never could tell that was going on in their minds if they were silent - what they were thinking, what they were planning.

It was the tranquility before the chaos.

Only, it wasn't tranquil. The silence was deafening.