Summer, 1971
"...and of course you will be placed in Slytherin. Once you get there, Andromeda and Narcissa should be able to show you around. If you insist on continuing the frivolous behavior you showed at the Avery Beltane party, I'll have you remember that both of your cousins are Slytherin prefects and will not hesitate to put you in your place. Assuming all goes to plan and Andromeda becomes Head Girl, she should be able to at least protect you from those nasty little lions. Always trying to prove their superiority over Slytherin house, pompous little…"
Sirius tuned his mother out. It was the same lecture endlessly. His Hogwarts letter was due to arrive any day now, and September first couldn't come soon enough. After a particularly daring prank involving his little brother, a child-strength bludger, and his Uncle Alphard's toad, Lady Black had railed at him for hours, swearing that he must have been swapped with a half-blood at Saint Mungo's when he was born. Sirius couldn't help but wish that her snide comment were true.
For years, he fantasized about finding his "real" family. A family that laughed at his pranks and marveled at his creativity. The kind of father that ruffled his hair after a particularly exhilarating game of Quidditch instead of giving cold stares during formal dinners. The kind of mother who would be a mother first instead of Lady Black. The kind of mother who snuck him an extra biscuit after dinner instead of constantly scolding and reprimanding, and taking away dinner for misbehavior. Kreacher's mother, Septa, used to bring him bits of bread and cheese on those evenings, kind thing that she was.
Septa had been Regulus and Sirius' nanny elf from birth and doted on both of them endlessly. While Lady Black berated her sons for their subpar manners and posture, Septa praised them for their achievements with their tutors. For as long as he could remember, Septa had been more of a mother than his mother. Even in the darker parts of his life, she was the light of hope he grasped tightly. She helped heal the most serious of Sirius' bruises and wounds, results of Walburga's notorious temper, but would leave them partially visible to keep the Lady Black from getting suspicious.
Unfortunately, frail little Septa had not been careful enough and Walburga had found the cheese rinds and bread crumbs one morning after a particularly long span of withholding meals from Sirius. Now, Septa's glassy eyes stared down blankly from the wall of previous house elf heads. Sirius had never been overly fond of that wall before, but now it was gut wrenching. Only once, on the day Lady Black had called him to admire the newest addition, had Sirius been sick. However, he was a Black, born and raised. His face was a mask of icy indifference, even at the young age of eleven, despite the severed head of his nanny elf staring down at him. He waited until his mother had released him from her presence to be quietly ill in the loo he shared with Regulus.
Two more months, and Sirius would be at Hogwarts. True, Andromeda and Narcissa would be there and could report back to his mother about his activities, but at least it wasn't Bellatrix. Andy and Cissy knew how "difficult" Lady Black could be and did their best to look out for Sirius. Bellatrix, however, was an entirely different creature. Few could boast to be as blood focused as Lady Black, but Bellatrix was neck and neck with the Black matriarch. When the witch spoke, there was always an undercurrent of mania. Uncle Cygnus, her father, boasted that you could hear his "sweet Bella's" passion in everything she said, but Sirius thought it was far darker than that. However, Sirius had found that good looks and pure blood went a long way to cover any manner of sins. Bellatrix was savagely beautiful, a fervent supporter of blood purity, and her ability with a wand was far beyond what was expected of a witch only two years out of Hogwarts. Those characteristics alone placed her above reproach. She had recently become engaged to Rodolphus LeStrange, and Uncle Cygnus had crowed to Lady Black just how proud he was of his daughter's choice.
The LeStrange family were nearly as blood focused as the Blacks and Bellatrix had even managed to nab a husband had no shared relatives in recent memory. This was something Lady Black had not managed. Walburga was not only a Black by marriage, but a Black by blood as well. She was Lady Walburga Black, nee Black. She had married her second cousin, Orion, to the delight of the family. Sirius' own brother was also his third cousin. This had been taught to him, proudly by one of the many tutors he and his brother had gone through, during a lesson on the Sacred 28 Genealogy. Regulus had been too young to truly understand: Sirius had felt rather queasy.
"...You will work with Narcissa to excel at Potions, though of course Horace will ensure you do well. You are a Black, after all. He may even invite you to that smarmy little club of his. A bit beneath a member of the Noble House of Black, but one can make the occasional good connection there. Narcissa met Lucius Malfoy in that club and now look! He has as good as offered for her, it's just a matter of Abraxas Malfoy and your Uncle Cygnus ironing out the details. The Carrow girl will be starting your year and while I would like you to find an older, more mature wife, she may be a viable option…"
Talk of a wife at eleven? Sirius wondered if this was what every young wizard went through. It seemed ludicrous to his way of thinking, however he had no experience with witches and wizards his own age outside of his family's social circles. His Aunt Lecretia had married a Prewett, which was an admirably pure family, but her husband was, surprise of all surprises, a Gryffindor. As a result, Aunt Lucretia didn't mix with the rest of the family often, and certainly not with her children. Gaudy, red headed gremlins, his mother called them. Sirius wouldn't have had much in common with the Prewett cousins anyway, seeing as Fabian, Gideon, and Molly were all out of Hogwarts already. As Sirius' thoughts drifted to the Prewett side of the family, he realized his mother was on the same thread of thought.
"...must be careful, of course, not to align yourself with the wrong kind of girl like your stupid cousin Molly. Making connections to a less than stellar family is simply inexcusable for a member of this family, especially with our caliber of breeding. Your Aunt Lucretia is still recovering from that stupid girl from eloping with that Weasley boy. I told your grandfather that he had embarrassed this family by allowing one of his children to marry a Prewett, but I had hoped the bloodlines of the Prewetts would prove worthy of Black offspring. Instead, that stupid girl is tying our family, the Black family, to a family of blood traitors. It's positively vile…"
Sirius could hardly think of anything he cared about less than an estranged cousin he'd rarely seen marrying some red headed Weasley, and honestly just wished his mother would be more inventive than "that stupid girl" when it came to describing his cousin. He had spent little time with Molly and her brothers before and now that Molly had married a blood traitor, Sirius doubted he'd ever see her again. The way Lady Black was acting, one would think that Molly and her brood of Weasleys (for with Weasleys, it was always a brood) were planning to move into the house on Grimmauld Place and throw away all of the Black family heirlooms. The thought of Weasleys entering the House of Black was so ridiculous that Sirius was barely able to hide his smirk. He could almost imagine the palpitations it would give Kreacher to have the house flooded with red headed heathens. Once his father passed and Sirius inherited this mouldering old pile, he was sorely tempted to invite his cousin Molly and her family to visit, purely to see just how loudly his mother could scream the phrase, "filthy blood traitors".
"...Filth, all of them. Breeding like rabbits. It ruins the women in that family, they all turn to lard. Lucretia only had three and her body went straight to fat. One would have thought she would learn her lesson after carrying two brats at the same time, but she had to go off and get pregnant again almost immediately. And now look what we have. Weasleys! In OUR FAMILY!"
Ah, yes, the screaming part of Lady Black's talks. At around the three hour mark, without fail, Lady Black's tirade would evolve into a topic she despised, which would cause her to become louder and angrier, thus leading to her voice carrying further through the house, which inevitably meant his father would stomp up the stairs from his study, bellowing at Sirius and telling him not to upset his mother. Glancing at the grandfather clock over Lady Black's shoulder, Sirius guessed that he had approximately three minutes until his father would arrive.
"...I never should have had you and Regulus so closely together, but your grandfathers were demanding an heir and a spare and I didn't want to spend years dreading the idea of going through that misery again after having you. But that is nothing compared to the NIGHTMARE that stupid girl will go through. Who knows where that BEAST of a Weasley will stop. Five children? SEVEN? That petite girl will look like a hobgoblin and it will be EXACTLY WHAT SHE DESERVES! FILTH BROUGHT IN TO SOIL THE BLOOD OF OUR FAMILY!"
Sirius counted down with the seconds. Three… Two… One…
"BOY!"
There he was.
Orion Black stormed into the room, dark eyes sparking, hair disheveled, glowering at his eldest son and heir.
"Yes, father."
"What have I told you about upsetting your mother?" Lord Black's voice boomed through the room while Lady Black paced in the background, still fuming over the sins of her niece and ignoring the tongue lashing her son was about to receive through no fault of his own.
"Not to do so, father."
"So why, pray tell, did I hear your mother caterwauling in my study?"
Lady Black turned a fiery gaze on her husband, obviously disgruntled with her husbands description of her shouts. However, Walburga Black was a perfectly bred wife and would never counter her husband in front of her children. The tightness of her mouth suggested that the lord of the house would be receiving an earful when they were in private.
"Mother was telling me about the recent engagement of my cousin Molly and that having too many children can turn women to fat."
"Bloody hell, 'Burga!" Orion turned to his wife and Sirius tried to hide his sigh of relief. "The boy is only a lad. No man should have to listen to witches prattle on about childbirth and feminine figures. Save those inanities for your sherry with Druella and her girls."
Without further ado, Lord Black spun on his heel and marched out of the room, muttering what sounded like "Merlin's beard" under his breath.
Lady Black's pale face was marred by two bright spots of pink on her cheeks as she glared after her husband. She turned her furious gaze to her son and barked, "Prepare for dinner. Now!"
Dinner was exactly what Sirius expected: seven endless courses where he tried not to disappoint his parents or draw the attention of Bellatrix. Regulus was, luckily, seated just beside Sirius so they were able to whisper commentary on the family back and forth which kept them both sane.
"Did you see cousin Bella's eyes?"
"She looks like she lost a boxing round with a troll."
"Surprised Aunt Dru didn't give her black eyes of her own. That's an awful lot of makeup."
"Mother keeps muttering about how vulgar it is. I can see her."
"Lucky LeStrange doesn't seem to mind."
"With how elf wine he's had, I doubt he even noticed."
The boys did their best to hide their sniggers of amusement, but Lady Black would occasionally shoot a venomous glare at them, putting their fun on pause until she was focused on their hosts once more.
"Druella, dear," Lady Black said with an uncomfortably saccharine sweet voice, "You must be so proud of your Bellatrix."
"She's done tolerably well," Aunt Druella said, giving the increasingly intoxicated Rodolphus the side-eye. She was obviously not as pleased with her daughters choice as Uncle Cygnus, who was looking rather like the cat that caught the canary. Bellatrix seemed to spare her husband not a glance, focusing all of her attention on Uncle Alphard.
"Allowing this constant infiltration of dirty blooded stock into the wizarding world is going to muddy the bloodlines of every family if we aren't careful, Uncle. These mudbloods have brought nothing to our world but filth."
"They haven't only brought us filth, Bella. Up until those mudbloods introduced their invention of plumbing, wizards and witches shat themselves and spelled the mess away. It would appear to me that they brought the opposite of filth."
Aunt Druella and Lady Black glared at Uncle Alphard's language and Bellatrix' eyes blazed with fury at her uncle's apparent defense of muggleborns. Regulus and Sirius struggled to stifle their giggles at their uncle's discussion of bodily functions at the dinner table. One icy look from their father ended their merriment immediately. Laughing at the table was not an acceptable action for the Black family heir and spare. Sirius focused intently on his roast grouse whilst Regulus poked at his potatoes.
As dinner dragged on, Regulus kept his eyes on his plate and his mouth shut. Sirius fought back most of his thoughts and kept his comments to "Yes, Aunt Druella, I am looking forward to attending Hogwarts in the Autumn" and "I wouldn't dream of causing my cousins any problems, Uncle Cygnus." All in all, it was a fairly typical Black family meal: Sirius and Regulus played the roles of obedient sons and counted the hours until they could return home.
Sirius plopped back on his dark grey pillows and sighed with relief to be home once more. He glanced around his room and stared at the calendar. Just a few weeks until he would finally be on his way to Hogwarts, assuming his letter arrived the following morning. According to his cousins, their letter always arrived two weeks before term began. Muggleborns received their letters on their eleventh birthday, or two weeks before term if their birthday was late summer. Lady Black said it was so the Muggles could have their tiny brains overcome the idea that something bigger than themselves actually exists, but Sirius thought that it was likely just a way for the poor buggers to get over their shock. He'd seen Muggles when he'd snuck out of the Leaky Cauldron once and they were absolutely fascinated by the strangest things. There had been a red squishy ball that nearly every child was playing with, it looked like a soft Quaffle, and he'd seen what appeared to be a brother and sister speaking in awe of the "nerf ball", as they called it. They two children were positively entranced by this large, spongey ball though Sirius could see nothing special about it. It didn't even move on its own. If Muggles were this excited over a squishy Quaffle, he could only imagine that their reaction to magic would be even more intense. Seeing the children's obsession over a ball made him consider his cousin's point of view just slightly: if Muggles knew about magic, what would they do to try and get it themselves?
Sirius was distracted by the opening of his door. He stiffened immediately, waiting for Lord or Lady Black to storm in and beat him over his behaviour at dinner. Instead, a small head topped with mussed black hair popped around the edge of the door and whispered, "Sirius? You awake?"
Sirius said he was and Regulus scampered into the room, hopping onto his elder brother's bed.
"I wish you weren't going to Hogwarts without me," Regulus said glumly.
"Wish you could come too, Reggie. But I'll be back for Christmas and Easter and then again next summer. The time will go quickly, I'm sure it will." Sirius ruffled his brother's hair.
Regulus sniffed.
"Can you promise me something, Sirius?"
"Of course." Regulus meant everything to Sirius. They were best friends. They were each others only friends.
"Please try to not make mum mad while you're there. You do a good job of protecting me when you're home but…"
Regulus didn't have to finish his sentence. Sirius knew that he was the most common target of his mother's attention, but neither of them knew what to expect once Sirius was out of the picture.
"I'm sure it'll be fine, Reg. I'm the problem child and you're the golden boy. Just keep being the perfect son and you'll be alright."
The two brothers hugged each other in the quiet of the night, knowing that their first separation might alter their friendship forever.
A/N: Welcome to my first Marauder era fic. I think (hope) you all can tell that I've done the research on the Black family genealogy, and I'm doing my best to stick to dates as best I can. For the characters without specific birth dates, I've done my best to keep it within the guidelines in the Harry Potter Wiki. I even looked up what game birds would be in season in mid to late August. I'm a research junkie and proud Ravenclaw, if you couldn't tell.
Please keep in mind that I am neither perfect nor JK Rowling. I may occasionally take artistic license with something. If I do, generally I will try to note it in the A/N. Also keep in mind that this is my story, so while I will do my best to keep things canon, a lot of these characters have next to nothing in terms of background information so I'm taking a lot of artistic license there.
There will be a number of OCs, there has to be with a Marauder fic, but I will do my best to explain who the important ones are.
As always, reviews are my greatest motivator, so please, please review.