She watched warily as he stood up, noting that her excuse clearly hadn’t worked. Of course their marriage was public record—Cecilia wasn’t a bloody idiot. She just hadn’t exactly anticipated that he’d even have a reason to look at something like that. Why bloody would he? There wasn’t any damn point as far as she was aware. “What—do you look at bloody marriage records for fun or some shit?” She snapped, rolling her eyes. So much for acting composed, she thought, mildly, as she hadn’t been able to stop herself from speaking at all, let alone prevent the tone she’d used. Her eyes narrowed as he brought up Roman, though she tried to convince herself that he wouldn’t tell him; but that wasn’t exactly reassuring. Trey would tell him and enjoy every second of it. Cecilia had plans to tell Roman about this herself, but she’d just been putting it off. Hearing it from Trey would make it twenty times worse. She was already quite sure he’d break up with her when she told him, but she didn’t even want to contemplate what would happen if his shitty cousin knew about it and he didn’t. Cecilia scowled at him as he looked her over again, noting him turning to leave.

Although she wanted to ignore his quip using her father’s last name, it only proved that he really did have the information that he said he did. Now what was she to bloody do? He’d probably head straight to the Slytherin common room and tell him, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Don’t let him bloody leave, she told herself, before her scowl immediately grew at the thought. That was what he wanted, obviously, was for her to stop him; but she knew he wasn’t bluffing. Just let him leave, and try to find Roman first. There was always a chance he wasn’t in his dormitory, and maybe she could find him before Trey did. And what are the bloody odds of that? “Wait,” she said, finally, hardly even realizing that her mind had been made up until she was speaking. He had to want something, right? He wouldn’t bring it up otherwise—he would just tell Roman without warning her and watch the situation self-destruct. “You can’t tell him,” Cecilia added. At least not until she told him first. It would be a hell of a lot better if Roman heard it from her… or, it would still be awful but marginally less than him getting the information from Trey. But now she had to figure out a way to stop Trey from telling him, and this conversation wasn’t going to be a good one either.

Trey raised an eyebrow at the girl as she snapped at him before a chuckle escaped him. She was in no real position to get an attitude with him. He had information that he could destroy her relationship with, not that it really mattered either way. He wasn’t fond of his cousin but he knew him fairly well, and what the boy hated more than anything else were Death Eaters and secrets. ”Does it really matter how I found out?” He asked casually, enjoying just how riled up she was getting over it. It didn’t matter to him one way or another what she wanted. It wasn’t like she could give him anything he couldn’t get himself, and she didn’t seem to really desire to keep it from her boyfriend or she would have put more effort into it.

He smirked as he heard her tell him to wait and turned around to face her expectantly. Maybe he could have a little fun with this. He had expected her to ask him not to, maybe even give him an excuse as to why he shouldn’t tell his cousin, but she did neither. Instead she just kept running her mouth. He found it amusing that the girl she pretended to be around Roman was nothing like the girl in the room with him. ”I can’t can I? Well we’ll see about that.” He said with another brief shrug as if this was a common occurrence continuing towards the door.

Obviously Trey didn’t spend his time looking at marriage records for Merlin’s sake, but that only furthered her confusion on how he could possibly know anything about who her father was. Was it possible that he knew him? Trey would have to spend a hell of a lot of time at his gambling place, but even then why would her father talk to some random bloke that stopped in there? He didn’t seem like he’d waste his time with that, and he hadn’t made any mention of meeting anyone in his letters that she’d yet to reply to. Unless that was something that he was doing and not making mention of. Why would he bloody well do that though? Her ignoring him should have been enough for him to drop any situation without any further contact. Certainly not talking to a random bloke about her. But eliminating that option led her with very few ideas on how he could have come across this information. But his response made it clear that he wouldn’t be revealing how he knew, which meant that she’d have to figure that out on her own. “I guess not,” she replied, grudgingly, though she considered it easily the most important factor since Cecilia wanted to know why and how exactly she finding herself in this situation.

He looked far too amused with himself when he turned around, and she realized she actually might have to tread relatively carefully. If he walked out of the room, then there was a high probability that she was actually screwed. She took a breath, frustrated already by this ridiculous conversation. “Please don’t tell him,” she said instead, before he could head even closer to the exit. He was going to get far too much amusement out of this, she already knew. That is, if she could even prevent him from leaving. Partially she wanted to believe that he wouldn’t have brought it up if there wasn’t a way to prevent him from telling Roman, but she also knew that he’d happily tank his cousin’s relationship just for the sheer pleasure of it. And she thought she’d be able to keep it from him a little while longer, but apparently bloody not. But if she had to choose between Trey telling Roman and telling him herself, her preference was really bloody apparent.

Trey was sure regardless of who told his cousin it would be disastrous. At this point it really didn’t matter though that didn’t mean he couldn’t have more fun with it. It seemed like she had finally come to terms with what was going on. It was about bloody time as her mouth would certainly do her no good as far as he was concerned. It was almost too easy to get her to become more docile. His smirk grew as he realized that he could possibly have her in the palm if he was able to keep her in her place. He was never one to hold shagging over someone’s head but his thoughts kept drifting back to the thought of having her and he couldn’t help but think he could possibly get his wish if he played his cards right.

”Please? I don’t know if I’m convinced you really want to keep this from him. This would absolutely break his heart.” He started turning around to face her with a devilish grin. ”A little birdie told me you guys were having problems as is. I heard he’s losing interest in you. Shame really.” He said taking a step back into the room before running a hand slowly through his hair and letting his eyebrows rise gently. Trey had noticed that his cousin seemed to almost be bored with the girl, which he found quite ridiculous. He was sure that if he had an opportunity with her there was a good chance she wouldn’t be able to walk for weeks on end when he was done with her. ”You know, jealousy is a very powerful emotion…” He slowly began to approach the couch with a swagger in his step as his eyes moved over her darkly. ”What better way to bring passion back into your lives when you are with one of the blokes he hates the most?” He asked wondering if she would take the bait. It would most likely work. Roman would be so devastated over it and angry that his cousin had taken his girl that he would do anything to get her back. And in the meanwhile maybe he could get her to let him have a go with her. His mind slowly went through all the things he would want to do with her as he waited for her to process all of the information.

Cecilia couldn’t for the life of her figure out what Trey was hoping to gain from having this information, though she honestly hoped there was something. The alternative was that the only thing he wanted was the enjoyment he’d gain in seeing Roman’s face when he delivered the news and watching their relationship explode in their damn faces. But really, she couldn’t think of what he would even want from her. Money? Wasn’t that how situations like this normally worked? She couldn’t consider herself an expert, but if he actually wanted something, then this was annoyingly quite like blackmail. Now she was really regretting not walking out of the room the moment that Trey had walked in. Would he have even let her leave? He probably would have just said some snide remark as she headed out and she’d be finding herself in the same situation anyhow. How long had he even known about this, and why was he just bringing it up now? Hell, she had half a dozen similar questions that she absolutely knew he wouldn’t be answering. The only answer that she did have was that she was screwed no matter how she looked at it. “What do you want, Trey?” She asked, tiredly, knowing that nothing she could do would ‘prove’ to him that she wanted to keep it from him. Unless she was on the ground bloody begging, which he would get far too much enjoyment out of. No, she had to stay at least slightly calm. “We’re not having bloody problems,” she snapped, before bringing a hand to her forehead. Right, calmness had lasted all of about one minute. Cecilia luckily stopped herself from making any further comment; if Roman was losing interest in her, it was news to her, and that was something she certainly wasn’t saying out loud.

She watched carefully as he moved closer to the couch, slightly relieved that she had prevented him from leaving for the moment. There simply had to be a way to resolve this situation, if he would just stop being dramatic and tell her. Finally, he at least began to vaguely let on to what he was talking about, and Cecilia found herself at an actual loss of words. She opened her mouth to reply, but found herself promptly closing it, still not quite sure what to say. “You can’t be implying what it sounds like,” she stated, finally, raising an eyebrow at him. “Be with you, so you can continue in your lifelong mission to aggravate Roman? That’s what you’re seriously bloody saying right now?” It sounded even more ridiculous out loud, and it seemed almost as bad as just telling him about her father outright. Except the news wouldn’t be coming from her, it would be coming from the cousin he hated, and Roman would hate her for the actions of her father. Doing this at least would be giving him something to hate that she could blame herself on. She would rather him hate her for this, than the alternative, though she was irritated that she was finding herself in this position and that Trey would go to such lengths just to figure out ways to get at Roman. “Out of all the bints in this school deluded enough to actually want to be your flavor of the week, and you’d waste your time dating me just to piss off your cousin?” Yes, that still sounded bloody ridiculous. Didn’t he have anything better to do than try to antagonize his cousin? But if this was truly what he wanted, then she was far more screwed than she originally realized. Couldn’t he have just wanted money? Wasn’t that normally what people were normally after when they had sensitive information? “You realize that I love Roman and I hate you, so why would I agree to this?” Cecilia added, but she knew that she would. Her options were very slim otherwise, and if this was the route that avoided having to see Roman look at her like she was as good as a Death Eater because she had one as a father, then she knew it was the option she’d have to take.

The girl really needed to learn how to keep her emotions in check as well as her mouth. It was certainly not doing her any favors, and the urge to just walk off to find Roman grew stronger the longer he was around her. He looked at her with an arched eyebrow and a shrug when she asked what he wanted. Truth be told he still hadn’t ironed out all the ideas in his head of what would change his mind when it came to spilling her dirty little secret. He chuckled loudly as she said they weren’t having problems. He knew that was a damn lie. No, he did not like his cousin but they grew up as best friends. He could tell when the wanker was feeling off about something. The girl was aggravating and obviously didn’t have two brain cells to rub together, but he could at least had appreciated the shagging. It wasn’t like the little slag made it a secret. As a matter of fact it almost seemed like she took pride in letting everyone know she was letting him have at her. But he figured the moment he took her he’d probably do the same, at least when Roman was around.

”I guess you are marginally intelligent. It is exactly what it sounds like. You can’t look at me and say that you never once thought about shagging me. Of course that offer isn’t off the table either. I could do far more than he could ever do for you.” He said smoothly his gaze becoming a bit darker with each word. Her mouth… that bloody mouth was going to be what did her in. It wasn’t like he cared what route she took. Either way Roman would be getting the shitty end of the stick. He was just giving the slag an opportunity to choose exactly have it happened. He had no time for her games. If she was going to ask stupid questions then he would go do whatever he needed to do. ”Suit yourself.” He said turning again to leave. He wasn’t going to argue or push his offer. He had laid things out plain and simple. From the sounds of it she would rather him spill the beans, and that was exactly what he planned on doing.

Of course it was about sex—Cecilia didn’t know how that realization hadn’t come to her immediately. Finding a bint to shag and finding ways to mess with Roman seemed to be just about all that Trey did in his apparently very dull life. The fact that he had potentially found a way to combine the two probably meant that he was feeling pretty damn pleased with himself, though it put Cecilia in such a shit situation that she actually didn’t know what to do about it. Her lips quirked into an amused smirk as he mentioned that she’d surely thought about shagging him before. Seriously, how did he fit all of his ego into this room, or any room? How did he fit it in the entire bloody castle, really? The bloke must actually think that every bint he came across wanted to shag him and there was little point in setting him straight in the fact that the idea had not once ever crossed her mind. He wouldn’t likely believe her anyway. “I highly doubt that,” she stated, finding the concept of any bloke being able to do more for her than Roman could incredibly improbable. Did Trey really just want to one-up his cousin just about in any way he could? She supposed that wasn’t that surprising.

If he left the room, he’d go straight to Roman before she even had the chance to tell him what was going on herself. But if she agreed, maybe she could stall and find another way out of this. Perhaps the odds of that were rather slim, but it was at least a small possibility. Even if she couldn’t figure out anything else to do, her previous thought came back to her. Stuck in the middle of two options, both of which would end with Roman hating her, Cecilia would almost prefer for it to be for some superficial and petty reason like her being a tramp and moving onto his cousin. The school would probably think she was some Quidditch player chaser, going from the once popular Slytherin beater to the Slytherin captain, so her classmates more than likely would have something to say about that as well—not that she gave a damn about their opinions. Even hating Roman, Isabella might find herself at least a bit angry, as she wasn’t the biggest fan of Trey either. But that was all … minor, really, compared to the alternative. And if she had to choose, and couldn’t find a way out of it, Cecilia thought she’d almost rather him hate her for this than for her not-so-stellar family lineage. Having a Death Eater as a father… she did not want to see the look on his face if he found that out. This might be easier to stomach, and she was sure that Trey would get bored of this manner of irritating Roman quickly and then she wouldn’t have to deal with him either. “Wait,” she said again, “I’ll do it.” Besides, dating him didn’t mean shagging him—hell, it probably was just something he wanted to brag about which certainly didn’t mean she’d have to see him all that much. Probably. Maybe. Or, well, she supposed he’d be telling her just what that meant. Even if she couldn’t find a way out of this, it was still unfortunately the better of the two options.

Trey shrugged his shoulders as she said she doubted what he could do. Though she hadn’t denied that she had thought about shagging him at one point or another. Either way it didn’t seem important at the moment. It wasn’t like he would force her into something like that. He was a nasty bloke, but even he had his limits. He couldn’t really care less how she felt Roman was in bed compared to him. Granted he sometimes wondered if she was just over compensating by the way she hung all over him whenever possible. While he wanted things to be convincing the moment she got clingy and needy he would kick her to the curb, well as long as he had succeeded in destroying what little bit of happiness his cousin had left first. Then again if she was giving it up and she was any good at it he might make a slight exception.

He really didn’t have time for this. At that point it would just be easier to tell his cousin then sit there and attempt to convince the imbecile that his way was the better way out. Sure his way meant it would be more likely he could get her underneath him, but would it be really worth the trouble? This time he had been serious about leaving not willing to give her another chance. He didn’t stop his stride when she told him to wait, though paused after she agreed to his offer. He slowly turned back to look at her with a smirk. ”I thought you’d see things my way.” He said smugly.

Cecilia didn’t know a lot about Trey. Previous to dating Roman, he wasn’t even on her radar, simply because no one had been. She occasionally would recognize a face if enough people blathered on about them; it was how she knew who most of the Gryffindor Quidditch players were despite her hating the sport. But she hadn’t known of anyone in many of the other houses. When she’d started dating Roman, she had learned about Trey… but even then, Roman didn’t like to talk about his cousin, and all she really knew was that they didn’t get along. Seeing any manner of interaction between the two was proof of that, and she hadn’t need to know more in order to know that he wasn’t someone worth much of a second thought. Until now, because now she apparently had to date the bloke. The fact that he would come up with this ridiculous idea simply to irritate Roman was simply aggravating. She was relatively sure that he had already thought about shagging her on multiple occasions in this conversation, even though even he couldn’t be the type that would blackmail her to get a shag out of it. He probably just thought that it would lead to that with his irresistibility. Not bloody likely. If it was one thing she was certain of, it was her ability to resist whatever game he thought he had.

At first, she thought that he was actually going to walk out this time, and she tossed her book back into her bag in case she had to follow him. Which would be a bit desperate, but if the situation called for it she supposed she’d have to do it. But at her finally giving into his ridiculous plan, Cecilia noticing him pausing. As he turned around, she told herself that she had plenty of bloody time to try to find a way out of this. At least, probably. She simultaneously reminded herself that even if she couldn’t get out of it, this kept the truth of who her father was away from arguably the person she cared about most and the last person that she’d ever want to know that her biological father was a Death Eater. Taking a deep breath, she decided it was better to remain composed in light of this irritating situation. “So what exactly does this entail, then?” She asked, finally, assuming that he’d have a lot more to say now that she’d agreed.

This was a bit cruel in a sense, but it wasn’t like Trey cared much about it. He didn’t really take into account the fact that he was probably punishing this girl just as much, if not more, than his cousin. But that was the price she was just going to have to pay for being with his traitor cousin. Obviously his parents knew better and had already joined the cause. He was the one being stupid about it all. Had he not seen just how many people were there? Hell, he had been one of them… right alongside of the Gryffindor’s father. He admired the man really. It was foolish to not like the bloke. He was going places and Trey would be going with him. If anything maybe this little scheme would work to everyone’s benefit, her father included. Now, that would be far more cruel than just destroying Roman’s life. Granted he sincerely felt that it would do well for the man to finally meet his daughter.

His smirk only grew as she asked what this whole thing would entail. He walked slowly back towards her before sitting on the coffee table in front of her with his legs parted and elbows lying on either side, his hands clasped together. He sat for a moment letting his eyes take her in again. She really was even more attractive up close. Everything about her felt inviting making him want to just lean in for a kiss though thinking better of it seeing as he didn’t really fancy the idea of having to restrain the girl for swinging on him. No, actually he would probably enjoy that a bit too much if he really thought about it. ”You’ll make appearances with me out in the corridors, allow me to escort you about like a proper gentleman.” He snickered slightly at the last bit before continuing. ”And of course you’ll have to at least kiss me to make it believable, which I can promise you won’t mind.” He said leaning in closer as if telling her a secret.