Dedicated to Alexandra, thank you for being there to read my stories and help me choose prompts.

Summer Camp, Week 4

Board games: Don't get angry. Write about a family game night

Buzzwords: Cards Against Humanity

Words: 1097

Betaed by Viola and Crissie. Thank you so much!

"They say I'm a traitor. Maybe I am. All I know is I did what I had to do," Peter said in a funny voice, making Blaise and Blaire laugh. They were having their usual family game night, and his father had just lost a dare. Now he had to read the first line of the Cursed Forest story in the funniest way possible. The Cursed Forest was not a funny story.

Seeing everyone from his father's side gathered around the table, it made Blaise's heart soar with many warm feelings. His mother marrying Peter had been the best thing to happen to him. He'd gotten the father he'd always wanted and yearned for, and also he'd gotten something he'd never known he needed. A sister.

Blaire wasn't his step-sister, no, Blaire was more like the twin sister he'd been separated at birth from. They didn't look very alike, but she felt like his other half. In a non-romantic way, of course.

Peter and Blaire Totin had become two of his most favourite people in the world. So what if they were not Purebloods? They had such good hearts and kind souls, they'd won over his mother.

Blaise could tell she was in love as she'd never been before. She'd changed her name for the first time since his father had died. Zabini-Totin. He'd agreed to change his name as well and to his surprise both Peter and Blaire had taken their name as well. Totin-Zabini.

In the beginning, he hadn't known what to think when her mother had announced her latest husband. Husband number eight or nine. He'd lost count. They all just left. Not that his mother seemed to care about it. Yes, she was a good mother, and from what he'd seen she looked like a good wife. But then, why had everyone left? Once when he was five, he'd wondered if it was because of him, and he'd asked her. She'd denied vehemently, but often, he still wondered.

However, Peter had stayed. Peter cared and Peter didn't give up, no matter how mean and aggravating Blaise had tried to be. And most of all, he had made Blaise feel that he could call him father. It had just slipped one day—more as a joke than anything, he'd had lost hope long ago—and Peter had just smiled and came over to give him a hug. It was then when Blaise had realised blood truly didn't matter. Family were the people you chose and who chose you back without any judgment.

Peter was also the first husband to actually speak Italian. Blaire was fluent as well, and it made her even more the perfect twin. They had invited Blaise to join their family game nights even when Peter and his Mum were just dating. He'd always refused, but slowly, he'd joined in.

He'd felt overwhelmed the first time around. They were a crazy family, very chaotic. They had so many references he didn't know, especially when playing their own customised version of Cards Against Humanity. That game was atrocious and yet funny.

Now, however, Blaise was part of the family. He knew all the references, and he'd made it on some of the black cards himself. It was really fun. Tonight they'd played two rounds and each of the winners had to play rock paper scissors to see who would do a dare. Blaise had won one round and his father the other. The dare wasn't bad, for a Slytherin. Blaise didn't want to make his father do any embarrassing situation, unlike Blaire.

"Thank you, Blaise," his father had whispered after he'd put the book back in the library.

It had made Blaise feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Well, should we play again?" asked Blaire, taking Blaise out of his trip down the memory lane. "This time I may win."

"No!" shouted Blaire's older brother Stellan. "I will. Let's go again! And let's play the magical version!"

Blaise wanted to facepalm. He'd once done a version of the game using wizarding terms and when Stellan and his twin sister Frida had found out, they'd asked him to do it more. Since Peter was magical and so had been his first wife and his cousin, everyone knew about magic. However, Blaise had been the first to come up with the idea of magical black cards so to say.

"No," said Winston, his and Blaire's cousin. "Let's play something else. What about Codewords. I know we have the game back in the attic."

Blaise smiled. He wouldn't have to sit through a round of hearing his schoolmate's names, nor the ones from his teacher. He could do Codewords. He was a good Codemaster, but he was also great at playing the games and guessing.

However, tonight his mother wasn't playing. She'd gone to a Potions convention and the teams were uneven. He decided to sit it out.

But he should have known that his father would sense something was wrong about him, for while he was watching Winston's team trying to guess his choice of 'fruit', his father had excused himself and had come over.

"Blaise, are you alright?" his father's voice helped him calm him as always.

"The Dark Lord is back as you know. And he revealed himself at the Ministry two weeks ago. I worry about how things will change from now. I know that he's gathering troops. Thankfully I think he already has a Potions Master, but we're officially Blood Traitors. So far no one in Slytherin knows though, I've asked Professor Snape to keep my records to Zabini."

His father put an arm around him and pulled him closer. "I know Blaise. You forget I work at the Ministry. Everything is up in the air now, but we have to have faith that things will be alright."

"You think so?"

"I know so, son. We can always worry, but sometimes, we all just need to believe. We'll talk more tomorrow. It's game night now. Go and take my place as Codemaster."

Blaise looked over the players. They were still discussing if the word was star or date.

"Which one is it?"

"Date," his father whispered and cracked laughing. "They have been debating from the start of the game. They just keep passing. I think we will catch up soon."

Blaise grinned. "With me as a Codemaster, for sure!"

And deciding to forget the looming problems and get lost back in the game and the memories it held, Blaise joined the others in their game of Codenames as the blue team's Codemaster.