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"They had the whole secret romance thing - her parents didn't find out until my mother eloped with him. They were furious, obviously, but the Zabini family is a relatively small pureblood family. They didn't have much influence, so my mother could continue to work in magical society, while my father worked in Muggle society. And they were happy - until my mother became pregnant with me."
Another deep breath.
"When my mother began showing, my grandparents - and her formally betrothed - were fuming. You can imagine, right? The whole 'you've defiled your bloodline' nonsense. They couldn't do anything to my parents or me though. Mother was - still is - a powerful witch, and she had allies in magical society too. But at the height of the war, she feared the Dark Lord, and the risk of staying with my father became too great. She promised him he'd return, and left for a while, going into hiding. There was no one she trusted enough apart from my father, so she didn't use the Fidelius Charm, but she was sure that he'd be protected by the enchantments she'd done. She gave birth to me alone too, but she promised to show me to him as soon as she could."
Zabini clenched his fist tightly.
"When she returned to visit, she found my father's mangled corpse."
Charlotte and Tracey gasped, while Blake and Greengrass looked down.
"To this day, she doesn't know how they found him - she thinks her parents and ex-bethrothed asked the Dark Lord for it, and he did in the days before the whole Potter thing. But from the magical signatures, and after some digging, she knew who did it - it was them."
Blake almost shuddered at that. Your own grandparents killing your father. If that's not dark and traumatic…
"My mother didn't react in the way you'd expect though," Zabini said, looking up defiantly. "No - she waited. She acted. At first, she seemed distraught. But as time went on, she made it seem as though she recovered quickly, and changed her mind - as if the death of my father was indeed a good thing."
Zabini laughed hollowly.
"It's weird - you would think that the purebloods, who claim they're at the top of wizarding society, would be smarter. Within a few months, my grandparents had accepted my mother again. She told them that the dirty halfblood - aka me - had been left to rot in a Muggle orphanage, and no one suspected a thing. The betrothal to the other man had been reorganised too. But, somehow, on the morning of the wedding, tragedy struck," he said, his voice deep with malice.
"Both of my grandparents had ingested a deadly Potion - and investigations showed that the groom-to-be had been the one to slip it into their diet too. He even admitted it!"
The others in the room smiled grimly, fully understanding.
"From then on, my mother tried oh so hard to find a new, worthy, pureblood husband - especially those with a history of being someone that fought hard for pureblood rights - y'know, just how it's meant to be. But somehow, before the wedding night, each of those poor new husbands died in some mysterious way or another! Can you believe it?"
"What a shame," Blake drawled. "Those poor Death- purebloods, I mean."
"Unfortunate, isn't it?" Charlotte smiled with a sadness far too deep to be real.
"Goes to show that you'll never know how death comes," Tracey said wisely.
"And I'm assuming the attempt on your mother's life was from a family member or friend of one of those husbands?"
"Yeah," Zabini said. "But like I said, my mother knows what she's doing. She'll be able to handle it. It's not the first time - it's just whenever it happens…"
He trailed off, and the group descended into uncomfortable silence once more.
"I don't have a backstory," Tracey said suddenly. "Sorry."
The others gawked at her.
"You're apologising to us for not having a traumatic childhood?"
"Weirdo."
"Shut up, Blaise!"
Another short silence.
"You all already know my stuff," Charlotte said quietly. "But there's a bit more detail if you want to hear it?"
"Yes, we do," Tracey said firmly.
Charlotte inhaled deeply.
"My mother wasn't always such an avid blood purist - or that's what I've been told," she said, glancing briefly at Greengrass.
"I - I had an older brother. He would be in fifth year now. But during the war, just before I was born, the Order of the Phoenix led an assault on our house to try and catch my father. They failed, and he escaped, but in the crossfire…"
The implication was heavy, and everyone in the room looked down.
"Apparently, I was born 7 minutes after my brother died - I think the stress of it caused my mother's water to break. No one knows whose curse killed him either - but my mother blames the Order of the Phoenix," Charlotte said, her voice strained.
"She couldn't bring herself to blame my father - says he'd never kill his own son. She blames Dumbledore too, but mainly - she blames the muggleborns. She says it never would have happened if it wasn't for them. Before my brother's death, she was just a bigot. After, she was about to become a fully fledged Death Eater. She bragged to me before, while she was drunk, that 4 nights before Harry Potter killed him, the Dark Lord was going to give her the Dark Mark."
Yet again, silence befell the room as they all absorbed what Charlotte had told them. Compared to everyone else's past, mine's nothing, Blake thought.
"My sister's ill," Greengrass said shortly. "If a cure's not made soon, she'll die."
The girl didn't elaborate further.
Suddenly, Blake became very aware that he was the last person to share. They wouldn't force me to, but I still want to. But I've never spoken to anyone about this before…
Whatever.
Everyone else probably thought the same thing, but they said it anyway. Besides, after today, there's not a doubt in my mind.
Blake thought back to how readily he'd intervened for Zabini and Tracey, even when he knew he stood no chance against the Dementors. Regardless of whether or not there was any logical justification for it, or how much he denied it, it was true - they were his friends.
Blake cleared his throat.
"My father…"
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