Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter Warning: none

It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger

Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker

Blaise Zabini stared at his reflection and straightened his robes. Today was wedding number four. His father was number two. He barely remembered husband number three. Blaise only remembered that he died soon after the wedding and did not leave Elara very much.

He smiled at his reflection. His front tooth was missing. Even with a missing tooth, Blaise looked pretty good and would be the best looking at the wedding. Granted he was the only person who thought that.

"Close your mouth, figlio," Elara said from the vanity she was doing her makeup at right next to the mirror he was standing in front of. "No one wants to see your gap."

"It isn't my fault the silly tooth came out the night before our big day," Elara glared at her son. Blaise quickly corrected himself. "Your day. This day is all about you for you. I just get the rings down to the altar and be invisible for the rest of the night."

Elara snorted. "You be invisible? Impossible, figlio. You are my son. We do not stay invisible. We attract the spotlight because we have the looks and the blood. The one thing I did right in marrying Giovanni Zabini is having you with the oldest and purest Italian wizard line. Your status is the two of us must learn to share the spotlight for the time being."

"It can be done," Blaise responded.

Elara rolled her eyes. "You are too optimistic, Blaise. Even with my own own flesh and blood I do not share well," Elara put down the eyeshadow palette. "Go make sure everybody is ready. I'm tired of being alone."

Blaise really wanted to tell his mother she was not alone, that he was there for her. He was quiet as he walked out the door. His mother was too self-obsessed to believe him, or even hear him leave.

Blaise sat on his bedroom window bench staring down at the reception in the garden below. His mother was dancing and drinking with her new husband. Blaise gave it a year before they'd be planning a funeral.

He had been sent to bed after he had dinner and one dance. It was adult time now.

Blaise didn't mind that he had been sent away. The parties and society affairs got boring and old after awhile. He wasn't old enough to enjoy the events yet.

There were no children at the wedding either. It didn't bother Blaise because wasn't the biggest fan of the other children he had met; they were odd and too dramatic.

He heard the familiar pop of a house-elf appearing in his room. "Little master should be in bed."

"I don't want to go to bed, Talbert," Blaise huffed. "You're just a silly, old house-elf. I don't have to listen to you."

"Little master should go to bed before mistress and new mister come to check on little master," the house-elf said. "Talbert does not want to see little master in trouble."

"No!" Blaise screamed. "I'm the wizard here. I don't listen to you; you listen to me."

"Blaise!" Blaise's head snapped up at the sound of his mother's voice. She was standing in the doorway with steam blowing out her ears and her face tinted in fury. She must've had shots of firewhiskey before coming to see him.

"Talbert tried to get little master to go to bed, mistress. Talbert is failure," The wailing house-elf started to bang his head against the bedpost.

"Leave us," Elara commanded. Talbert immediately stopped and disappeared. Blaise gulped as he stared his mother down. "You dare disobey orders?"

"Talbert is just a house-elf," Blaise repeated.

"On my orders! By not listening to him, you are not listening to me," Elara sneered. She inhaled to try and calm herself down. "Do not step out of line again, Blaise. Otherwise you may be staying with your father."

Blaise looked at his mother confused. "But father is dead," His mother said nothing as she stared him down before leaving his bedroom in cold silence. "Oh."

Blaise walked over to his bed and tucked himself in. "I'm better than her," Blaise mumbled as he snuggled into his pillow. "I'll prove to her I'm the better one."

Theodore Nott almost had his hand on the doorknob before pulling back. It had been three weeks—three weeks since his father locked himself in his study; three weeks since Theo turned invisible to the greying world; three weeks since his mother died.

Theo trudged back down the hall towards the library. He grabbed a book off one of the shelves and settled down on the window seat that overlooked the garden.

His mother planted that garden. She believed Nott Manor needed some brightening up once she moved in and married the older Leopold Nott, who met his beloved wife, Calla, when he was in Greece on a trip for "an old friend of his". Theo knew he meant the Dark Lord but went along with what his parents said. Calla was the youngest daughter of a Greek healer and potion master. She bewitched him with her looks and kindness. Calla's father wouldn't give his youngest daughter's hand in marriage to the foreign wizard, but the two had already fallen in love. They ran away and never looked back.

He glanced back at the book in his hand. It was an album full of photos. Theo flipped through the pages and wiped the tears from his cheeks.

"I miss you, mamá," Theo whispered. "Patéras is not around, and I am just invisible."

"You are not invisible, Theodore," His head snapped up and saw his father leaning against a bookcase. Theo hadn't even heard the door creak open. Leopold walked over and sat next to his son. He glanced from the garden to the album and then back to the garden.

"Calla would not be happy with how we've acted the past three weeks. I am sorry you feel invisible, my son," His father gently wrapped his arm around Theo's shoulders. "You remind me of your mother in more ways than not."

Theo shook his head. "I'm nothing like mamá, patéras. Mamá was better."

"You are not wrong there," Leopold chuckled. "She was better than everyone, including us."

"Patéras, tell me about mamá when she was younger," Theo pleaded. "I want to know why you say I am like her."

Leopold nodded. "Calla had five older sisters and six older brothers. She was beloved by being the youngest but often ignored for the same reason. She knew everyone's weaknesses and strengths because she saw everything when nobody saw her."

"But you saw her; you saw mamá."

"I did. Women never intrigued me because most of them were after the title and money. Being the only heir to our family, I would've eventually have to get an heir and I had planned on doing magical adoption when the time came."

"But you met mamá."

He nodded. "But I met mamá. Calla knew how to play her cards. She could play the weak girl one second, a healer the next, and the scariest person ever right after that. She was underestimated by many. Seeing everything and being invisible became her weakness though."

"Why?"

"Because others took notice and she became valuable. It is what made running away so easy for

her."

"Master," Finley, one of the Nott house-elves, said when she appeared. "Lunch is ready. Shall it be brought to master's study?"

Theo felt the fear swell up inside him. He had just got his father back and was not ready to give him up again.

Leopold shook his head. "Theo and I shall eat in the kitchen, Finley. We will be down in a moment." Theo felt his heart do flips; not only had his father not taken his lunch in his study, but he called Theo Theo and said they would eat in the kitchen, the usual spot where Theo and his mother would eat lunch. "Let's eat lunch before we head to the Arrows vs Wasps game with the others."

"You remembered!" Theo grinned.

"Of course I did. We've been looking forward to this for months." Leopold stood up and began to cough. He leaned against the wall.

"Are you okay, patéras?" Theo asked concerned.

His father waved his concern away. "I'm not a young man, Theo, not like your friends' fathers. Coughing fits happen."

"Maybe we shouldn't go to the match," Theo said.

"Nonsense, my son. You have been looking forward to this match for months. Come now, let's eat," Leopold replied as he ushered his son to the kitchen.

The father-son duo never made it to the match. Theo had Finley take them to St. Mungo's when his father's coughing started to worsen.

"It's a good thing you had him brought in, kid," the healer told Theo. "He has Black Cat Flu, and a rather nasty strain looking at the prognosis. You got him in just in time. You'll have to stay here for about three months, Mr. Nott. This is mainly because of the strain and your age. Who can we owl for your son to stay with?"

"Archibald Avery," Leopold answered.

"No!" shouted Theo, "You can't have me stay with him, patéras. Avery is mean."

"There's no one else for you to stay with."

"What about my friends?" Theo argued.

"You're staying with Archie, Theodore. That is final," Leopold snapped. Theo stepped back and nodded solemnly. "Finley will go back some of your things and bring them here. She will always be at your beck and call."

Theo didn't reply. He sat in the chair next to the bed in silence.

Archibald Avery showed up an hour later to collect Theo. He put on the smile and good graces that fooled the older Nott but not the younger one. With tight grip on his arm, Avery pulled Theo towards the floo and pushed him through.

Five other men were in the room when Theo came through with Avery following. Avery grabbed the collar of Theo's shirt. "Listen well kid, I'm only doing this because your old man and mine are practically brothers. You'll obey whatever I and the other guys say. Do you understand?"

Theo nodded quickly.

Avery released him. "The bum on the couch is Augustus Rookwood."

"I ain't no bum! I'm the only one with a job here," Rookwood barked.

"The one reading is Corban Yaxley. The one next to Rookwood is Scabior. He gets no first name."

Scabior grinned eerily at Theo. "He's going to end up in Azkaban very soon," Avery murmured. "Thorfinn Rowle and Antonio Travers are the two playing chess."

"Third floor holds the library, a bathroom, and an attic storage place. You'll stay there. A house-elf will bring you food three times a day," Avery explained. "We stay on this floor and the second one. Once a week you are allowed to visit your father. I'll take you on Wednesdays. Just try to stay out of our way. Got it?"

Theo nodded once more. "Welcome to hell, kid," Scabior snickered.

Avery ushered him up to the third floor, Theo's new home for the next three months, and left him alone. Theo sighed and plopped down on the mite covered bed. Be invisible, he thought. Learn their strengths and weaknesses. You'll survive.

With the use of google translate:

figlio(italian)-son

pateras(greek)-father