Written for the Quidditch Pitch: Word - Callous

Drabble Club - Awful

Take a prompt, leave a prompt - Cygnus Black

Ultimate Battle Challenge - Write about a Pureblood family

Cygnus

It was always the same thing in the Black family - do as you're told without argument or you'll get disowned... or in some cases, you were 'taught a lesson' to obey what was asked of you. That was a scary choice for a boy to even consider, though Cygnus found himself doing so. Though, the prospect of being disowned was daunting, and the idea of being 'taught to obey' terrified him.

After all, some of the dubious hexes used to get the children in the family to behave were scary enough, he didn't even want to think of what the lesson consisted of, just knowing that it was much worse!

He had been informed that his cousin had arranged his marriage already. It wouldn't have been as bad had they not told him that he was going to be married in mere months, rather than waiting until he was between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one, like all the other arranged marriages.

At twelve years old, the last thing Cygnus wanted was a wife. He wasn't even a teenager, and was only in his second year at Hogwarts.

Upon meeting Druella Rosier, a nineteen year old witch, his eyes couldn't help but move to the slight bump on her stomach. He informed his father that he highly suspected the witch to be pregnant. His father merely nodded and told him that the child was a Black and Druella was to marry into the family. He could hear a slight bitterness in his father's voice and wondered if it was because of the baby, or because of the marriage arrangement.

He found himself wondering which family member had fathered the child. His guesses fell on Arcturus Black - the head of the family, or his own father. If it had been his father, he could have possibly found a way around the contract.

After all, it had to be a member that was already married - because otherwise an unmarried member of the family would be in his place, having the marriage contract to the witch themselves.

But after watching his father interact with the witch - treating her only slightly better than the mudbloods that littered the magical world, he understood that his father disliked her immensely because of the position that it was putting Cygnus in.

He determined that Arcturus was the one that had fathered the child. His arrangement to marry Druella and Cygnus was to keep the baby in the family, and was to keep Druella for himself by making her a Black. He never knew the man could be this callous, but after the marriage contract, none of this surprised him anymore. There was nothing he could do. Arcturus was head of the house of Black, and he made all the choices. It was awful, but there was nothing that could be done.

No-one was willing to stand up to him, much less a child able to do so.

Two children later, and Cygnus had still yet to bed his wife. Two children with dark hair and grey eyes were born, leaving no doubt in their appearance that they were Blacks. But they weren't his and it disgusted him that his wife continued on with his cousin behind his back - not even trying to pretend it wasn't happening. Clearly neither of them cared for how it looked on him, happy to continue their disgusting affair.

But at seventeen, he wasn't able to control himself. Druella, as the mistress of his cousin, was still an attractive witch and he was tied to her until one of them died. This was the witch he was forced to spend his life with, so he might as well try to make it work - he realised that he should just accept the horrible hand he had been dealt, and hope that he could produce a heir at the very least.

Because no matter what, he felt nothing for the two children that his wife had already birthed. It would be different if they were his own, he believed. Maybe having a heir or even a daughter that was his child and not his cousins, would make this horrible sham of a marriage slightly easier to deal with.

So if you check it out, Cygnus was thirteen when Bellatrix was born. I know J.K said that it was her maths that was out, but I still like to go by those ages to show how messed up it all was.

Review Please :)

710 words