Black Blood

030 - Crow Files

"Does mother know?" she quietly asked.

"What ever about, dear?" her father returned, then took a sip of his steaming Irish tea.

"Does she know of Sirius Black? Does she know he was here last night?" Cassiopeia queried, her eyes as sharp and cold as could be.

'And does she know of your visits to Azkaban?' the girl silently wondered, only stopping herself from asking this final query simply because she'd have some explaining of her own to do, and now was not the time.

"No, she doesn't, and I think it would cause her great heartache to hear such," he quietly said, giving the girl a discreet, imploring glance.

'Coward,' she silently thought, sending him a smile as sweet and devoid of life as the sugar within her own Irish brew.

"I see," Cassiopeia tactfully replied, and taking a sip of her own cream-laden tea, the girl decided she would remain quiet of the affair concerning her mother, as she knew all too well how hateful the woman could be if given even a Knut of excuse, and it would most likely spill over to Cassiopeia regardless of how she told the tale. "Father?"

"Yes, dear?" the regal man quietly queried, looking anywhere but within her direction.

"What did you discuss with him?" she inquired, her cold, sweet smile sharpening a tad bit more as her sire visibly flinched. "You don't wish me to know? Or do you simply wish not to state your motive?"

"Cassiopeia, what business he and I shared is no concern of yours," he coldly replied, yet his eyes never quite found her own.

"Hm," she hummed, wishing with all her heart she could splash her father with the steaming tea which she so delicately held. "How ever so, father? Was he, a wanted criminal, and a blood traitor, no less, not within the very walls of my home? Do I not have a right to know why my supposed ex-uncle had a late-night visit with my father?"

"This is my estate, Cassiopeia," her father coolly responded, his tone low and dangerous, and his eyes finally adjoined with her own, and within them was a line the girl knew not to cross. "What subjects are discussed within these walls, and with whom, are my business, and mine alone."

"Yes, father, it's precisely as you say," she sweetly said, and behind her perfect, pink lips, her immaculate, white teeth ground together in anger at his simplistic dismissal, one that was intended for a mere child, which Cassiopeia no longer was.

'You shall receive my respect as master of this abode and of the House of Black, but someday, you shall not carry either of these burdens, father,' the girl spitefully thought to herself. 'Someday, they shall be mine alone, and when that time comes, with Merlin as my witness, I shall hear you spill your secrets.'

"Father..." Cassiopeia quietly began, feeling a bit better from her internal, musing rant. "What is your stance on...Death Eaters?"

"They're...a vile lot, dear," he simply said, folding his arms in obvious disapproval.

"Thank you for the morning chat, father," the girl replied, and standing from her seat, she allowed a touch of warmth to enter into her sweet smile as she departed for the aviary to send a letter to a certain someone.