March 25th, 1891 — Fort Lestrange

Other than Uncle Priam and his family, the Lestranges weren't religious. Still, they gathered at their ancestral home during all of the important holidays.

For Seneca, Easter break were five days during which she could spend studying without having to worry about her classes, or prefect duties. She had some events lined up, like garden parties hosted by close friends, as well as dress fittings at Lytton's.

Dinner would be served in about an hour. Seneca had dressed accordingly and she was taking a walk around the house to unwind a bit - she had spend the previous hours studying and a headache had started throbbing in her head. She had taken a potion and hoped that the pain would go away before dinner.

She went to the garden, where she found Cash, smoking. She had tried it once or twice - Cash's cigarettes each time. A budding social smoker, Seneca uproached him.

"Fancy rolling one for me?" she asked as she sat next to him.

Cassius Lestrange

  

It was family Easter break, so Cash was celebrating by chain smoking in the back garden any time he could get away. Like now, when they had an entire hour until dinner. He was on his second cigarette when his youngest sister approached. Cash took a drag of the cigarette and held it in his mouth as he brought out the kit to roll her one.

"Not a very ladylike habit, you know," Cash said; it was obvious he was being playful, as there was a grin on his face despite his words.

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MJ made this!

Seneca exhaled through her nostrils.

"Good thing I'll go to Evelyn's school, then, to kick off such bad habits," she commented sarcastically. Her tone wasn't directed at Cash per se, but rather at the situation.

"Papa says I have room for improvement, you know. Can you believe that? I believe my room is rather crowded, I don't know what he is getting at."

  

Cash finished rolling her cigarette and offered it to her before replying. "Hubris, maybe," he said, tone a little dry. Seneca had flaws; whether those flaws would overcome her birth and her overall mostly pleasant qualities really depended on the circumstances of her season, but if he had to bet on anything that would sink her, it would be her over-confidence.

He didn't need to get into that in depth, though. He didn't think she'd take it well.

"Maybe Lucius will change his mind," Cash said, through the cigarette he was now holding in his mouth - he drew his wand so he could light hers.

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MJ made this!

Instead of using the fire offered by Cash's wand, Seneca lit the cigarette's tip non-verbally and wandlessly. She had practiced enough to be able to do small things like this - stir spoons in teacups, light cigarettes and candles, make ink stains vanish from her school papers... She shot her brother a smug look.

"I don't know what you are getting at," she replied with a snug smile. She was aware that she was overly confident as other people called it. However, she didn't believe such a thing existed, or rather, that it was a bad thing. "I suppose when most people, especially women, are insecure and useless, I come as a stark contrast. But yes, I suppose the School will teach me how to pretend I don't know how to do basic tasks on my own. Perhaps they will unteach me how to read, less I am proselytized by the suffragist pamphlets. "

  

Cash watched Sen show off and decided not to comment on it; this was one of the things finishing school would presumably beat out of her, if she did end up going. He smirked at her comment and blew a smoke ring at her. "So you do not anticipate learning anything from finishing school?" he asked, poking at the problem and quirking an eyebrow at her.

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MJ made this!

"Nothing particularly useful, or that I don't already know," Seneca replied as she tried to dodge the smoke ring that had come her way. She already knew how to operate in high society, how to speak in public, how to dance, and how to fan herself gratefully.

"It seems to me that this school will only teach me how to be more like... Mother." Alexandria. She had been highly skilled in the feminine arts - embroidery, flower arrangements, and the like. She had been beautiful and well dressed. She had also never received any praise for being skilled in those sorts of things. And now Seneca was supposed to learn how to be proficient in those things, when she had spent all her life looking down upon anything associated with the feminine.

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   Cassius Lestrange

"Oh, the feminine arts," Cash said, because he assumed they were not trying to make Seneca like Alexandria in terms of intelligence. He understood why Seneca was so convinced she would hate it, and also why Lucius thought she ought to go. She had never placed much stock in the feminine arts.

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MJ made this!

"You make fun of me, but it's not like you're making any progress on the masculine arts!" Seneca teased with a small laugh and a soft kick to Cash's leg which wasn't meant to cause pain but emphasize her point. "You're nearly twenty-five. You're supposed to have a fruitful Ministry career, with a promotion to Department assistant head looming above you!"

  

Cash laughed at Seneca's kick. "My path to the Ministry is a meandering one, I know," he said, and punctuated the sentence with a drag of his cigarette. "But rest assured I shall land there eventually." Eventually. Probably sooner rather than later.

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MJ made this!

"You're so lucky, you know," Seneca commented after taking a drag from her cigarette. "You could do so many things and you wouldn't even have to be that smart, or talented. You're just a man and a Lestrange." She on the other hand, was expected to excell in the feminine arts, even though she had the skillset to do great things on a number of careers.

"You should use your advantages and once you've made it big enough, do whatever you like. Sponsor a Quidditch team, if you're so inclined."

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   Cassius Lestrange

Cash blew another smoke ring at her. "You make it sound so simple," he said, because it wasn't, but of course Seneca would think it was, and he was not going to correct her.

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MJ made this!

“Everything can be made simple when you have the two Ps - a plan and privilege,” she said and cringed a bit at her way of saying it. It wouldn’t be the first time when her attempt at sounding sage and witty came out goofy. Her tendency to take herself too seriously gave her that.

  

Cash grimaced at her, and did not dignify the two Ps with a further response.

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   Ellory Lestrange

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MJ made this!

It felt uncomfortable not to have her comment validated by a response. She opened her lips slightly, as if to say something, then used the opening to take a drag from her cigarette. It was at its end and she threw it on the grass, then used her wand to turn it into a single stack of grass.

“This tastes terrible,” she concluded. She wanted to wash her mouth off of the taste, it she also loved the light headedness it’d give her.

  

Cash grinned at her comment, a quick and genuine flash of feeling. "Doesn't it?" he said fondly. "You get used to it eventually." Or, maybe he was not used to the ashy taste in his mouth but had gotten over it because it gave him something socially acceptable to take him just a little bit out of his body; and the ashy taste ensured that he could not forget himself entirely.

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MJ made this!