─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

WHEN CELESTE

opened her eyes again, she was in her room.

Or a room she thought was hers. She knew that Narcissa had planned to change Celeste's childhood room to a one that would fit a teenager but Celeste never came back to see it. The room was gorgeous, it was darker than she has used to but it was elegant. The room had big windows all the way from the floor to the ceiling and they were framed by black velvet curtains. The sun shone against the windows, revealing that it must be morning already. Celeste jumped up from her bed and ran towards the door, she hasn't informed her tante about anything. 

"Celeste," came Narcissa's voice from the armchair in the corner of the room. The mother sighed out of relief when she saw her daughter getting up from the bed. 

The girl turned on her heel towards the voice. "Mum," she said, surprising herself when the word came out of her mouth. She leaped across the room and threw her arms around her mother. 

Narcissa didn't hesitate to return the embrace. She stroked Celeste's hair gently before burying her face to her daughter's blonde locks. "I am so sorry, my little love," she whispered to her. "We never meant you to get hurt."

"I know. I'm all right now," Celeste sighed, tightening her arms around her mother's torso. Celeste lifted her head up to face her mother. "How long was I asleep?"

"Ten hours," Narcissa said, still stroking Celeste' hair. "Why?" She asked when noticing her daughter's face turning into a frown.

"I didn't tell my uncle or Liv that I was coming here," Celeste bit her lip. "They must be so worried..."

"Cissa! Is she awake?" Lucius' voice came from the foyer before he entered the room. His question was answered immediately when he opened the door and saw his daughter and wife, curled up next to each other.

A smile from ear to ear spread across Lucius' face. "Thank Merlin," he sighed and walked over to them.

Celeste gave her mother a soft smile before getting up and hugging her father. "I'm all right," she said right away, knowing that her father will ask this.

Lucius sighed and placed a kiss on top of Celeste's head. 

"Good," he managed to say. "Good."

He felt enormous amount of guilt over what had happened to Celeste. He hasn't slept at all over the night instead he kept worrying and pacing around the room, nearly making Narcissa mad.

When Lucius let go of Celeste, the girl found her way back to her mother's arms while Lucius grabbed a chair from Celeste's vanity and placed it next to Narcissa's chair. He couldn't take his eyes off of them. He knew how much Narcissa had wanted a daughter, and how happy she was when she had her.

How happy she was when she had both of her children. Lucius didn't feel like it was fair, that his wife who loved their children to death had to go through everything. The scare when Celeste was born and wasn't breathing, the kidnap of their daughter, loosing her once again when the girl knew and now this.

"Do you want to know something?" Celeste asked, breaking the silence in the room. "You know, about my life..."

"Yes please," Lucius smiled, making Narcissa chuckle by her husband's enthusiasm.

"You said you lived in America? What was it like?" Narcissa questioned while playing with the ends of Celeste's locks. 

Celeste grinned. "I loved it. We lived in a small town near Connecticut. Nate and I, we were neighbors and my mum and dad were his parents' friends..." she said but drew a sharp breath in when mentioning her adopted parents to her biological ones. She knew it was normal, and they didn't take it as an insult but she hated to see their hurt faces. 

"Nate?" Lucius raised his brow before glancing at Narcissa.

"Her best friend," Narcissa said and turned to her daughter. "Isn't that correct?"

"Yes. Nate is my best friend, along side with Beth whom I met at Ilvermorny," Celeste smiled widely by the thought of her two friends. "They're back in America now..."

Narcissa nodded softly and tucked a loose stray hair from Celeste's face. "Did you want to go them?"

"I miss them but I was never going to leave as well, uncle and Liv are here after all. I wanted to stay in England but I was going to leave you...."

Lucius' eyes widened, he had no idea. Carefully he straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "You were going to leave?"

"Let's just say that I didn't take everything in right away," Celeste said with a small amount of guilt shining on her face. "And I really am sorry for that. Can you forgive me?" She asked, mostly from her mother because she was the one she had hurt few months back.

"Oh, of course sweetheart," Narcissa smiled and wrapped her arms around Celeste's torso, making the girl lay next to her like a little child. "Don't worry your pretty head about it. I understand that everything must had been so confusing."

Celeste nodded against her mother's shoulder, she was glad her mother understood. She was glad to have her, and her father. "So anyhow, I studied at Ilvermorny, I play the piano and sing. Back in America, Nate would compose a piece, Beth plays the violin and I play the piano. Umm, my favorite color is blue and I had a dog when I was eight."

"I'm slightly obsessed with reading and studying which is good since I'm a Ravenclaw and...."

"You are a Ravenclaw?" Lucius interrupted Celeste. 

The blonde girl was surprised by the interruption but nodded. "Yes, is that a problem?" 

Her parents stayed silent for a few seconds and Celeste couldn't hide the anxiousness growing inside her. 

"No, not at all," said Lucius and he could see how his wife relaxed. "Ravenclaw is a good house."

Celeste frowned a little ― she could tell that her father's answer was vague and perhaps not quite genuine but she appreciated it anyhow. She knew that her entire family has been placed into the House of Slytherin for decades.

"I thought so too," grinned Celeste. 

The mother, daughter and father spent next few hours like this; just talking and listening. Even with the way going on, they needed to find time for each other.

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

─────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───────

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!"

Draco's demanding voice echoed from downstairs, making everyone upstairs stop talking and listen.

"Who the bloody hell are they?" Shrieked Bellatrix.

"They're Celeste's uncle, aunt and..." Draco explained and thought about how to introduced his twin sister's boyfriend to the family. "...and friend."

Celeste's eyes widened, she jumped up from her mother's arms and immediately ran downstairs. Narcissa and Lucius frowned before following their daughter. Celeste ran the stairs down as fast as she could and when she reached the end, she saw her uncle, aunt and Leo standing across the corridor.

"Will!" Celeste exclaimed and ran straight to William's arms. 

Lucius flinched by the sight of affection his daughter had for this stranger. He was aware that the man was William Starling. They both worked at the Ministry at the same time and as far as Lucius can remember, William Starling didn't like him and Lucius himself did not like William either.

William let out a rapid breath she's been holding ever since she noticed that Celeste was missing. "Seriously kiddo," he sighed and kissed Celeste's forehead. "You have no idea how worried we've been."

"You have got to stop doing that," said Olivia when Celeste hugged her.

Bellatrix watched the scene between her niece and her aunt. The thought of her niece having another aunt wasn't pleasant, and witnessing it wasn't any better. Suddenly Bellatrix felt her sister's hand on her shoulder, urging the curly haired woman to hold her tongue, and her thoughts. 

When Celeste let go of Olivia, she immediately turned to Leo and wrapped her arms around him. Now, if there was a prize for the most awkward scene ever, this was it. 

The second Celeste hugged Leo, Lucius took several steps forward, towards the couple. Bellatrix tightened her grip on her wand, Draco groaned and Narcissa looked extremely lost. And it didn't get any better, when Celeste pulled away from Leo, only to lock her lips with his. 

"That's it," Bellatrix and Lucius muttered and for the first time in their life, they actually agreed on something. Both of them walked even closer to the couple but Celeste pulled away from Leo just in time.

"Shit," Celeste whispered to herself when she realized that her family was in the room. She quickly leaped to Bellatrix and her father and placed her hands on their chests to stop them. 

"Ummm..." she stuttered, she has never thought about how to introduce her boyfriend to her family, normally she would have to worry only about her uncle and Olivia.

Leo cleared his throat when he noticed Celeste being lost in words. He took few steps closer to Celeste. He took a deeb breath and extended his hand towards Lucius, silently praying that he won't cut it. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Malfoy, I'm Leo Marchal," Leo introduced himself, making Celeste smile.

There was a long silent pause. Lucius thought about his options; he could kill the boy, scare the boy or accept the fact that his daughter has a boyfriend. Now, killing the boy would mean that Celeste will be sad and very angry at him; he didn't want that. Scaring the boy would be fun, Bellatrix would definitely be on board with it; Celeste might not like it. So then there was the last option. 

Lucius uncomfortably shook Leo's hand, he wasn't going to loose his daughter over a stupid boy. 

Bellatrix's eyes widened when Lucius shook the boy's hand. She still thought that killing this slimy boy will be the best choice. She shot an uncomprehending look at her sister who had now walked over to them.

"It's nice to meet you," Narcissa sighed and shook Leo's hand but the smile her daughter sent to her made it all worth it. Narcissa wasn't too comfortable with the idea of her little girl having a boyfriend but she wasn't going to ruin it for the girl.

Draco groaned again, he wanted to punch Leo. 

"Oh you people are so...." Bellatrix muttered but then another thing, more like other person, made her turn around. "You're her aunt," she said and pointed at Olivia.

Olivia nodded ― she didn't care too much for the formalities of only being Will's wife and not directly Celeste's aunt. 

"Yes I am," she said. 

"I'm her aunt," Bellatrix said firmly.

"Well I can see where Cel gets her strong-headed personality," Olivia grinned.

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes before quickly glancing at Celeste, whose eyes were practically pleading her to accept this. Bellatrix didn't know too much of emotional pain, or at least she didn't understand it but now for the first time, a sharp pain cut through her heart.

"I can have more than one aunt, right?" Asked Celeste, smiling sweetly at Bellatrix

"Fine," Bellatrix mumbled and shook Olivia's hand. "But don't you think that I'll shake that boy's," she quickly added and looked at her niece.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Celeste chuckled, making Bellatrix crack a small smile.

"It's very nice to meet you," Narcissa said, turning to William. She carefully shook the man's hand. "Thank you for taking such good care of her," she said.

William smiled warmly at her niece's mother. "It's my pleasure, really. She's amazing."

Celeste smirked and moved to stand between her uncle and Olivia. She looked at her parents who seemed so much smaller now when standing near the people who raised their daughter. She knew that there was tension especially between her father and uncle ― the two men did not get along in the office and Celeste was afraid they won't get along in the future either.

"You are not too bad yourself," said Celeste, lifting her gaze up to see her uncle. "Although it took you years to perfect french braid."

"I knew how to do it from the very beginning. You were just too much of a perfectionist to see that," smirked William.

"I never taught you how to braid your hair," said Narcissa quietly, making Celeste and William turn towards her. "I liked to do it myself so I didn't teach you..."

Celeste chuckled. "I remember that. Then once you weren't here and I wanted to have my hair done. Dad braided it for me," she said before smiling at her father whose heart had skipped a beat when Celeste called her 'dad'.

unedited,

sorry for possible typos