She had never particularly been a birthday person, for as long as she could remember, really. Growing up, before her father had left, they hadn’t done much of anything. Her mother would have wanted to throw ridiculous parties, probably, since she loved any excuse to throw a party and parade about. Cecilia recalled that did happen one year, and she was pretty sure that no one in attendance actually realized it was her birthday—or even a birthday party. That had been the very first time she realized that she actually preferred when no one knew it was her birthday, and since then she had very actively not celebrated it. It worked out for her that it was when school was still in session, because she didn’t have to deal with her family for it. However, she did have to deal with it right when she got home… her mother now could use it as an excuse to throw a party, since she had a ‘proper pureblood husband’ that only wanted her to be a trophy wife anyhow, and her stepfather used it as an excuse to bring over young (sometimes), wealthy (always), and pureblooded (also always) blokes over in a not-so-subtle attempt to tell her that, yes, he would be marrying her off as soon as possible. As far as Klaus was concerned, it was still the proper custom, despite it being 2015. Perhaps it was in the pureblood community, but that simply wasn’t something that she kept up on.

But she had gotten very used to at least having peace on her actual birthday, not having to deal with her family until a few days after. Her mother always sent her a very passive aggressive letter, as always, which was what she was currently stalling opening, but that was it. Last year, her birthday had been decent, as she’d been with Roman but luckily he hadn’t even known it was her birthday. This year Cecilia knew that, even though everything was going to shit, she would probably get to do nothing and not celebrate her birthday, as always.

Even with the risk of running into several people she didn’t want to see at the Quidditch Pitch, this had always been her spot and apparently it still was—as she hadn’t even realized she’d been walking there until she was already bloody in the stands. In retrospect, now that people thought she was a Quidditch player chaser, they probably thought she came out to the stands in order to hunt down her next target, or something ridiculous. She didn’t even know what they were saying at this point, but luckily she also didn’t give a damn. It was quiet out, since a hell of a lot of people were taking their Muggle Studies finals, but that was not an elective that her stepfather had deemed appropriate for her to take; and that meant she’d have the pitch to herself for a while, hopefully. As always, she was lying on the bench, her legs kicked up, and the letter from her mother was practically bloody staring her down. But the moment she heard someone approaching, she was glancing up and simultaneously letting the letter slide off of the bench onto the wooden floor beneath it and out of sight.

@trey

It seemed like luck had been on Trey’s side as of late. Not only had he accomplished pissing Roman off, but now he was ‘dating’ a girl that just happened to have several connections that would work greatly in his favor. It seemed like word was traveling quickly in his little community outside of the school. He had written her father shortly after the dance letting him know that if things went according to plan he would be getting to see his daughter face to face over the summer. His cousin dating a girl that had such dark connections was something he would have never seen coming, of course the bint never told him anything about it which had sealed her fate. It was a shame really as the girl could have helped his cousin earn back some respect with the others, including his parents, but he hadn’t and Trey would get all the glory.

The day before he had received a letter from her father telling him of her birthday as well as leaving him a letter to deliver which he would thoroughly enjoy delivering as it would show her just what crowd he ran with and that he was in good with her father. Of course he was also filled in about her mother’s husband and a bit of background to use in an attempt to win their trust. If he could get them to like and trust him it would make any other potential plans easy to carry out.

He personally didn’t care about the girl’s birthday, though he figured a good hard shagging would be a gift enough for her. After all she had something that all of his previous slags wanted. She got attention for being with the Slytherin guidditch captain who happened to also be quite popular despite his attitude. She was the envy of the female population, and he knew she had to enjoy that… who wouldn’t?

Trey tucked the letter from her father in his pocket as he made his way out to the quidditch pitch to look for the girl. He had searched all of the normal spots he figured she could be within the school only for her to be nowhere to be found. He briefly remembered seeing her out in the stands during practices which he found incredibly odd seeing as she seemed to despise the sport. Just as he had suspected that was where he found her. He took the stands two rows at a time before down beside her. ”Well there’s the birthday girl.” He snickered.

The moment that she had heard footsteps, she supposed she should have realized that it was someone looking for her. After all, very few people specifically knew that this was her favorite place to go, and Cecilia was unsure that anyone else in the school would be willingly approaching her right now. But with the same mindset, she didn’t think that Roman or Isabella would be looking for her, and they were two of few people that knew about her coming here. So, she should have realized it was Trey. Who bloody else at this school would be actually looking for her at this point? And since he was at the Quidditch pitch without a broom, it was pretty safe to say that he had been looking for her. Cecilia actually sighed in relief when she realized that he didn’t have a broom; it would be her luck for him to think that getting her to fly would be something that people dating would do, and something that would irritate Roman more since he had never convinced her. That would be something she’d have a hell of a hard time actually agreeing to, but then she probably eventually would have to when he threatened to call the deal off again. Trey also probably knew that she hated Quidditch, but she had no idea if he knew that she was actually afraid of flying. It was possible, she supposed.

Cecilia pulled herself up into a seated position as he approached, leaning back against the row behind her. She had no idea why he was bloody looking for her, but he was certainly impairing her plan to spend her birthday the way she preferred to—alone, obviously. Reaching behind her to pick up the letter that she’d dropped before he noticed it and took it for himself, she set it on her other side, deciding to read it later. She knew what it would say, since her mother always had very similar comments to make. As always, Cecilia would be stuck between replying and not replying; since she never wanted to reply, but her family loved to threatened pulling her from Hogwarts, she always did have to end up answering. She might be able to get away with not, though, since she would be home in a few days anyhow. On a brighter note, she had not received a letter from her father, which was something she was unsure if she should expect. There was the possibility that he didn’t even remember her birthday, which would work perfectly for her, but there was also the possibility that he would consider this the perfect opportunity to write her once again. To her, although the summer got her away from Trey, assuming that he got bored which she figured had to happen soon, and all of the drama of being at school, it brought her back home and to a high level of risk that her father would try to contact her in person. In her opinion, Trey was the lesser of two evils when compared to her family, not that she would ever admit that.

Her head snapped up at his words, before glancing at him cautiously. He shouldn’t know her birthday; bloody no one at the school knew when her birthday was. Hell, if Roman and Isabella didn’t know her birthday on her own volition, then there was no way that he could possibly know it. He couldn’t ask around to know it, simply because there wasn’t anybody who would know or care. Now she was immediately on edge, unsure of what to say. The possibility of just ignoring the comment was there, but he had already gotten a reaction out of her, which meant that probably wouldn’t work all that well either. “How did you know?” Cecilia asked warily, unsure that she even wanted to know the answer. Every possible option didn’t sound all that good for her, not that there were very many ideas moving through her mind anyhow.

Trey enjoyed the look of confusion on her face as she realized he knew it was her birthday though he also found it odd that she would be surprised that he knew. It almost felt like she would be bewildered if anyone knew what day today was. He supposed it could be him reading too far into it, besides it wouldn’t make sense for his cousin not to know when her birthday was. Either way it wasn’t something worth giving too much thought to. It wasn’t like he really cared one way or another. This was purely for his entertainment. So far it was turning out pretty great just by her expression alone. He wouldn’t tell her outright how he knew. No, he would let her think that over and try to figure it out for herself. It would make the moment she found out all the sweeter.

”Does it really matter? Can’t your boyfriend wish his pretty little bint a Happy Birthday without having his motives questioned?” He smirked before leaning in to kiss her. It did surprise him that her hang out was on the quidditch pitch seeing as he had heard that she was not a big fan of the sport. He had overheard his cousin before a game telling one of their teammates about her aversion to the game, or at least her inability to understand anything about it. The stereotype about blondes was obviously true. He also remembered something about her being afraid to fly. Yes, he had definitely heard Roman mentioning to someone that he had never been able to get her up on a broom with him.

Within a moment his grin widened as he heard a group of students walking nearby talking about whatever stupid rubbish his idiot classmates talked about. Maybe he would give her another birthday present… well more for his amusement opposed to hers. It would definitely rub salt in the wounds if it got around that he had gotten the Gryffindor on a broom. ”I don’t want your first birthday with me to be such a bore. What do you say to a nice, romantic, broom ride.” He paused waggling his eyebrows suggestively. ”Of course there will be two… I nice little reward for you at the end…” He concluded looking her over.

Any small chance that she had to actually enjoy her birthday in peace, which to her, was acting like it was any other damn day, was out the window. She knew that Trey had probably only came to look for her in order to aggravate her or for some other purpose in whatever else he wanted them to be doing. Four more days, she told herself, figuring that there was absolutely no way that this whole ridiculous situation wouldn’t be over by the train ride back to London. Then she would have her family to deal with, which was arguably far worse, but she could always hold out hope that Lars had finally moved out. It was unlikely, but she could pretend to be optimistic for a moment. That would be the best damn birthday present to actually receive. But one problem at a time, she reminded herself, as she had to get past this one first.

Cecilia really didn’t have any clue why she had bothered to ask him how he knew when her birthday was, since he seemed to enjoy not telling her just about bloody anything. Obviously he wasn’t going to tell her; that fact didn’t even surprise her anymore. She kissed him back without thinking much about it, as that was annoyingly the easier part to get used to, though now that she had remembered how to play a damn part, it was all… still aggravating as all hell, but marginally easier to fake. Really, he was just a little Klaus in the making, thinking a woman should be seen and not heard, and that was a part that Cecilia knew how to play. It made summers far more tolerable that way. “I suppose he can,” she said in response, but she wasn’t dropping it. She would just have to think it through and figure out how the hell he just seemed to know bloody everything. Her eyes followed a group of students walking further down the stands, deciding it was better to not look at Trey when she was currently trying to work through how he could possibly know that it was her birthday. Although it might seem like a very minute problem to anyone else, Cecilia knew that there was not a student in this school that knew her birthday—and somehow she doubted that he’d asked her head of house, or something like that. Even more unlikely was the concept that he had asked her mother, because he had no reason to be in contact with her; particularly since the year was almost over and thus she was quite sure he’d be breaking up with her any day now.

Just as a very viable option passed through her mind, he spoke again, and she could practically feel herself paling at his next words, but knew that he would probably love to get a reaction out of her about this. Apparently he had known that she was afraid of flying, because she could think of no other reason why he would suggest it. Cecilia glanced over at him, keeping her expression amused… hopefully, before speaking, “I can’t very well go flying in a skirt… and you don’t have a broom anyhow,” she replied, casually, hoping that those excuses would be believable enough. There was always a slight chance that this flying idea was just a coincidence that he would now drop, but she doubted it. “Maybe next time.” Cecilia added, figuring that might make it sound a bit more convincing. She actually had no idea what she would do if he tried to make her get on a broom; in fact, she was getting restless just thinking about it. For a moment, she was so deep in her own thoughts that she barely realized he had spoken again. “Well, aren’t I the lucky girl?” She replied, saccharinely. Unfortunately, she had not exactly kept her own word on only shagging him the one time, which was irritatingly enough to even contemplate.

He knew the girl wasn’t going to drop her question on how he knew when her birthday was. He was confident she wouldn’t be able to think of it on her own. From what he knew Roman never told her much about him if anything so she didn’t know that his company consisted of unreformed Death Eaters and other shady characters. Had she known that he felt she might have guessed fairly close as to who the source was that told him. Either way he would have fun with her regardless. He liked being in control and how much more control could he have at present? She had to deal with him, or deal with the consequences. He had enough information and connections to fully fuck her over and he would if she pushed him. It wasn’t like he cared about what made her happy. He had no problem to admitting he was completely selfish in every sense of the word.

He hadn’t initially thought of taking her flying, but the moment it popped into his head he knew it was one more fun little game he could play with her that she wouldn’t be able to say no to. Of course he would give her a reward later on if she behaved and did as he said. She wouldn’t be continuously shagging him if she didn’t like it, that much he was sure of. He chuckled shaking his head at her lame excuses. ”And how, exactly, would a skirt hinder your ability to sit on your broom?” He asked her with an arched eyebrow before a slow smirk came over his face. ”There is such a thing as a broom shed… full of brooms.” He said nodding towards the shed on the ground below them.

He stood up dusting his hands off on his pants before holding his hand out towards her. ”No we go now.” He said giving her a look that clearly stated this was non-negotiable. ”Besides… I’ll make it worth your while…” He added in a low voice with a raise of his eyebrows. She would surely get a proper shagging later. Really, it was the least he could do to make her day better.

She needed to figure out how on earth Trey was getting his damn information. It had been worrisome enough that he had found out about her father, which was obviously a far bigger deal than knowing her birthday; but regardless of what the information was, the fact was that he had it to begin with. He had information that he shouldn’t—no, couldn’t have, information that nobody at this school should know. Yes, the professors obviously knew whom her father was if they were to specifically look at her file, she supposed, and that would have her birthday as well. But outside of that, the number of people that knew the information was minuscule. Her mother hadn’t exactly gone around bragging that she was married to a Death Eater at the time, and her father hadn’t done much of anything other than be pissed off while he was home. Working for the work release program and being bitter had been his two main hobbies, and neither of those required him talking about his family. The craziest answer was right in front of her, but it was simply impossible. No one in this school would be hanging about Knockturn Alley enough to know her father, let along talk to him about his damn family. It was a scenario that wouldn’t occur; she could not riddle out a possible way that it could have occurred. That meant that she was missing something, obviously, but once again she had to brush the subject aside—because now she was distracted by potentially the worst idea that Trey could come up with.

It was clear to her that he was well aware that she was afraid of flying, though she had no idea how he’d know that either. She was beginning to realize that he apparently just bloody knew shit, which was irritating, but it was something she was used to with her family. Keeping secrets from them was annoyingly impossible as well. The fact of the matter was that she had to very quickly find a way out of this, but she was coming up blank. If he had honestly just thought a broom ride would be some random way to further convince everyone that they were dating, it would be easier to come up with excuses. But he knew that she was afraid of it, and that was probably the sole purpose of him wanting to. The skirt excuse had actually seemed like an all right one to her, as could girls even wear skirts on brooms? They would just bloody flip around everywhere, but she supposed Trey wouldn’t care about that even if he did believe that damn excuse. Cecilia shrugged in response, not even having a response that came to mind for that one, instead focusing on her hands, unable to stop herself from clasping and unclasping them together nervously. He still didn’t have her broom, she reminded herself, but she felt herself paling more at his next words. She was actually screwed, because she would have to bloody do it if he really wanted her to. It was the main con of this ridiculous situation, after all. Once again, she found herself at a loss of how to reply, as she had not known that there was a broom shed, and that removed the one excuse she had left.

Her hands began to shake as he got to his feet, knowing that there really was no way out of this. She couldn’t very well beg him to not make her fly, because she certainly had more self-respect than that—and she also knew that it wouldn’t do much good anyhow. He knew she was afraid of flying, yes perhaps not the extent of it, but he had to know about it somehow, and he had still come up with the idea. Nothing that she could possibly say would talk him out of it, and she at least didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her rattled. Except he already has, she told herself, realizing that she barely said a damn word since it had been brought up and now her hands were bloody visibly shaking. Fuck. Cecilia glanced up at him at his words, taking an unsteady breath. “Fine,” she replied, crisply, wondering if that had managed to come off even remotely unaffected. Probably bloody not. She placed her hand in his and got to her feet, immediately feeling unstable. After avoiding flying whenever possible, only doing so when her stepbrother made her over the summer—which was the damn problem, it was bloody Trey that was going to get her on a broom. “Nothing can make this worth it,” she muttered, unsure if she had even spoken loud enough for him to hear. Just bloody breathe, she told herself, not wanting to give him any further indication of just how much she was panicking.

He was pretty sure this couldn’t get much better than it already was. The girl had barely spoken a word since he brought up flying which also worked to keep her from asking more questions about how he obtained all the knowledge he had on her. He wasn’t ridiculous enough to believe she was a total imbecile. He knew she wasn’t… at least in some ways. Had she been bloody smart she would have just told his poor excuse of a cousin about her father and dealt with just being single and hated by him. No, she was not the brightest to choose him and have to deal with all the repercussions that came along with him. Then again even he didn’t realize just how instrumental she could be to him. She was shagging him which was bonus, but now he would get a status boost outside of the school. It was all just too perfect.

Trey watched her carefully his smirk widening as she shrugged when he asked what wearing a skirt had to do with anything. She had no good excuses or at least none that he would accept as to why she couldn’t go flying. It seemed like she knew there was no real point to resist any of this. The sooner she realized that in anything he wanted her to do the easier it would be on her. He had no problem reminding her of the hell he could put her through if she didn’t comply. His smile widened as he saw her hands shaking knowing that she really was as scared as he thought she was over flying. For Merlin’s sake it was only a damn broom. He wondered briefly if there was some underlying reason why she seemed so worried about flying. It wasn’t like he really cared, but it was curious.

”I thought you would see it my way.” He said with a smug smile before taking her hand to lead her down the stands. ”Nervous are we?” He asked with a chuckle though he hadn’t really heard her other comment. When he finally got them down from the stands he released her hand and gestured to the shed. ”Lady’s choice…” He added with raised eyebrows.

Trey seemed to take every opportunity to aggravate her or just get a reaction out of her in general. Partially, she wondered how much this even had to do with Roman anymore, because it really just seemed like he liked pissing her off; but it clearly had to do with his cousin, or there was no other reason for him to even be doing this. Cecilia was irritated that he always seemed to know more about her than she would like for him to, and she needed to figure out how that was. Roman potentially could have talked about her being afraid of flying somewhere where Trey could have heard, she considered, but then that was just bloody annoying that Roman would have been telling people that to begin with—though there was nothing to be done about that now. She would just have to hope that he didn’t have any damn information about her that he could use to amuse himself; but she did realize that perhaps blokes did talk, and if Roman talked about her at all in the dormitory or locker rooms, Trey probably did know more about her than she would like. Just bloody great, she cursed internally, holding out hope that her ex-boyfriend didn’t feel the need to talk about her often, which was certainly possible.

Cecilia could already tell how amused he was, and she really hadn’t thought it was possible to hate him any more that she already did. Making her do something that he know she hated for his own amusement was almost at the top of the list of shitty things that he had done thus far, and she wouldn’t be surprised if he would just let her fall off the damn broom. Just what she needed was another flying-related injury, as if she hadn’t had enough of those over the years. His smile seemed to widen still when he could clearly see how uneasy she was, which made her want to hide her nerves… if only she bloody knew how. Cecilia could act the part of who her family wanted to her to be while at home, to an extent, and thought she was decently portraying actually dating Trey; but apparently the one thing she couldn’t fake was not being nervous when the prospect of flying came about.

Once again, she had no response for his comment, since her thoughts were probably past the level of general pleasantness that she had to be to her ‘boyfriend,’ as she was mixed between wanting to snap at him that of bloody course she saw it his way when she had to, and being too anxious to formulate a complete sentence. Cecilia let him lead her down from the stands, glaring at the damn shed as they got closer to it. “Well, aren’t you observant? What could have possibly given me away?” Cecilia answered, sarcastically. The prospect of having to fly was causing her heart rate to increase, and she hadn’t even seen the broom yet. She was even unsure if her hands were still shaking at this point, as it was taking practically all of her focus to even get her feet to move. She shot him a look when he gestured for her to pick a broom. He was making her fly and making her pick the damn broom, which somehow made this situation more aggravating. A bright side, which she normally would never have seen it as, was that her stepbrother played Quidditch professionally, her stepfather owned the Museum of Quidditch in London, and her father had always mildly enjoyed flying, if she recalled correctly. She certainly knew enough about brooms to be able to pick an old model that probably couldn’t even go that damn fast. Sure enough, when she opened the door to the shed, she saw an old Cleansweep model, picking it up cautiously without looking at any other options. “Here,” she said, crossly, handing it to him.

The Slytherin really did enjoy tormenting the girl. It was particularly amusing that there really wasn't much she could do about it without some severe consequences. Obviously she wasn't yet aware of just how much he knew, or how he got a bulk of his information. Granted trivial things like her fear of flying he had overheard his cousin telling a bloke during practice. He wasn't sure what had prompted the conversation nor did he care as it had worked to his benefit. That moment was sure to be satisfying as she would hopefully realize that she was in deeper shit than she had originally thought. Sure this had all started as a ploy to aggravate his cousin, but he was just about over that. He had much bigger things to tend to. At least now he got to shag her on a regular basis. That was definitely a big perk to this whole situation. He had figured it would be take her more time to cave though that hadn't been the case lucky enough for him.

Trey gave the Gryffindor a sharp look as he heard the sarcastic tone of her voice. Obviously she had forgotten what havoc he could wreak if he so chose. he remained quiet for the moment waiting for her to pick out a broom. It was curious that the girl despised quidditch though seemed to only 'date' blokes that played the sport. Hell, even her step brother played it professionally. He couldn't help but to continue wondering if there was a specific reason she hated flying in general. He didn't really care the exact reason unless he could use it to his advantage. He quirked an eyebrow upon seeing her choice in brooms. It was quite old which he was puzzled by for a moment as it would have been 'safer' to use a newer model.

His face grew a bit more severe as she spoke again. "That mouth is going to get you in trouble. If you aren't serious about this agreement then we can just call it a day and you can deal with an onslaught of questions about your less than desirable background." He said with a shrug. Maybe he could get some form of recognition for dating the bint, but it wouldn't be worth the aggravation if she couldn't comply.