Hello, and welcome to the prologue of A Bright Black Light. I'm Queen Pix, and this is my "first" story. Hope you enjoy.

A/N. A Bright Black Light (BBL) is part of a trilogy. It's the middle fic of the series, White Lilies, Black Lights and Pretty Pearls, which chronicles the lives of three generations of women, starting with Susan Heyforde and ending with her granddaughter Megan. A Bright Black Light will be split into three sections, which will be called Mini M, Before the Storm and So We Were Led To Believe. I hope you enjoy the beginning of the first section, Mini M.

PROLOGUE: What She Simply Never Knew

12:34 p.m, 1st November, 1981.
London, England.

Susan Black ran as quickly as she could down the small London alleyway, causing her daughter, Lucy, who was clutching her mother's hand, to stumble a bit. Luckily (well, at that point of time, it was), Susan was thirty-four weeks pregnant with triplets, so her movements were more of a fast hobble than her usual running and little two-year old (almost three, as she took pleasure in reminding everyone) Lucy didn't fall over as much as she could have.

Oh dear God, let me get there in time, prayed Susan, speeding up a little more with the thought. She needed to get there soon or … well, she didn't exactly know what would happen, but she knew it would not, under any circumstances, be good. At all.

Little Lucy, however, couldn't understand what the rush was. All she knew was that, very, very early that morning, when it was still dark and she was supposed to be in bed (but she had secretly been staying up, hiding in the kitchen cupboard so her Mummy wouldn't find her and send her to her room), her Daddy had come home crying. He'd gone up the stairs and she'd followed him quietly and watched as he packed a bag and ran down the stairs. That was when he noticed her following him.

'Lucy,' Sirius whispered, looking with wide eyes at the little toddler in her pink unicorn pyjamas, clutching the grey elephant her Grandma had gotten her for her birthday. 'What in the blazers are you doing up, sweetheart?'

'I wanna see you, Daddy,' said Lucy sleepily. 'But Mummy towd me it was bwedtime.'

Sirius stood staring at her for a second, as if he didn't know who she was. It made the little girl feel a tiny bit frightened. The look in his eyes was that of a lost man, one who had lost one of the most important things that matter to him. Lucy had never seen him look like that. Then he dropped the bag, strode forwards and enveloped her in a tight hug that lifted her off her feet. He held her close, as if she were all that was anchoring him to the world that he was desperate to stay in.

'I love you, Lucy, so much,' he murmured into her long dark hair. 'I'm sorry, Mini.'

Lucy frowned in confusion at her Daddy. 'Why are you sowwy, Daddy?'

He gave her a long, hard look – like he was memorising her face, perhaps? – and told her, eyes now averted from hers, 'Daddy has to do something bad, Mini M, and he won't be able to see you for a while. But he loves you, Mini.'

Lucy yawned. 'Daddy's gonna get in twouble,' she giggled. 'Are you scared about getting in twouble, Daddy?'

'No, darling,' answered Sirius, shaking his head and kissing her on the forehead. 'Daddy's not scared, but … you know how sometimes you get sent to your room when you do something bad?'

Lucy nodded as enthusiastically as she could. 'I got sent stwaight to bwed two days ago without any dinner,' she told him.

'Right,' agreed Sirius. He started to walk into the living room (he'd almost woken Susan up when he'd gone up the stairs (which was where Lucy's bedroom was), and she would only stop him from avenging Lily and James), still clutching the little girl to his chest. When his jean-clad knees hit the edge of the scarlet two-seater, he lowered the little girl down. Her head bumped awkwardly on the fuzzy lounge. She didn't notice, but her father did, and he turned around searchingly, trying to find a pillow. He grinned half-heartedly as he snatched one from the floor about two paces away from the two-seater and stuffed it as gently as he could under Lucy's head.

'Well,' he said, kneeling at her head, 'when I do this bad thing, I have to move house, and I can't leave my room forever.'

Lucy looked at him with Galleon-sized eyes.

'But,' she said slowly, as if thinking hard, 'why would you do somefing so siwwy, Daddy?'

'Because,' Sirius explained patiently, 'a very bad man needs to be stopped, Mini M, and Daddy has to hurt him very badly to do it. But that's being very naughty.'

Lucy yawned again and closed her eyes. Watching her, Sirius started to get up from his knees, but when he straightened up, Lucy's tiny childlike fist was grasping the waistband of his jeans. He smiled sadly as she opened her eyes again.

'Why can't Unca Moony do it?' demanded the sleepy child drowsily. Sirius laughed darkly.

'Because,' he answered, bending down once more and kissing Lucy on the cheek, 'it's Daddy's fault the bad man did the things he did.'

Lucy yawned a last time and patted Sirius on his right cheek, the one closest to her. 'Then Daddy sh'n't get in twouble,' she told him. 'Tell them sowwy, Daddy. That helps.' Then she closed her bleary eyes, curling in on herself. Sirius gave her a last kiss, whispering in her ear, 'Love you, Mini M,' and finally straightened up.

His gaze swept over the room as he surveyed it a last time: the two-seater, the two plump red armchairs, a scarlet loveseat, wooden coffee table (littered with letters, inkpots, quills and pieces of parchment), fireplace (now reduced to only glowing embers) and shimmering gold walls that looked strangely dim in the lack of light. Their Gryffindor room, which matched Lucy's bedroom and theirs, and was going to match the rooms the triplets would occupy.

The triplets, he mused, he would never meet.

He walked back into the entrance hall and stooped to pick up the bag. Slinging the bag over his shoulders, he opened the door, wincing at the long and loud creak. His eyes flashed toward the stairs, making sure Susan wasn't coming down them, then he turned on his heel and ran out into the dark early morning.

He didn't look back.

He never did.

Lucy was more than confused as to why they were running on the hard bitumen. After all, her Mummy always scolded her when she ran on hard surfaces. In her mind, Lucy was very indignant that her Mummy wasn't doing the right thing. In fact, her Mummy hadn't been very nice towards anyone all morning. She'd been very mean towards Aunt Alice and Uncle Frank – she was even nasty to Uncle Moony! It boggled little Lucy's mind.

'Susan, I'm very sorry, but look at the facts!' insisted Uncle Frank. Usually, her Mummy got along well with Uncle Frank and his young wife, Aunty Alice, but today Lucy had seen her be quite nasty towards them. She'd yelled for ages when they'd turned up with Lucy's Uncle Moony. 'Sirius is gone, the Potters are dead and he was their Secret Keeper!'

'I don't believe it,' said Susan (Lucy's Mummy) defiantly. 'He would never betray James in a thousand years! He was like a brother to him!'

'Susan,' sighed Uncle Moony, running a hand through his hair like Lucy had seen her Uncle Prongs do almost all the time, 'he went to see Lily and James last night, yes? And did he return afterwards?'

Susan hesitated.

'No,' she answered uncertainly.

'He didn't come back last night,' said Uncle Moony, 'because he knew we would come after him. He's done a runner, Susan.'

'No,' Susan said, shaking her head in rebellion to their words. 'He wouldn't. He probably did come home, just after I went to bed.'

'Then why isn't he here?' asked Uncle Henry, Susan's brother, who'd arrived only ten minutes after the Longbottoms and Remus. 'Susan, explain to us why he's gone if he's innocent.'

Susan bit the inside of her mouth so hard she tasted blood. She put a fluttering hand to the top of her swollen belly and breathed in slowly but heavily, as if she were only just keeping herself from crying. She opened her mouth and started, 'Well…'

'Oh, here we go,' snapped Brent Ficklewee, an Auror in Henry's team that Susan and her numerous siblings had grown up with. He looked over-harassed, and turned to Henry in annoyance. 'Our job, Henry, was to find and arrest Black, not have a bloody conversation with your bloody deluded sister.'

Susan sent a nasty glare in his direction.

'Mummy,' called Lucy from her spot on the floor, her grey elephant in clutched tightly in her hand. Susan, her brother, Remus, Frank and Alice looked to her, while Brent cursed and rolled his eyes, stamping outside the house bitterly.

'Mummy,' repeated Lucy, 'do you know who the bad man is?'

'Bad man?' reiterated Susan, frowning at her in confusion. 'What do you mean, darling?'

Lucy got to her little feet and staggered to her Mummy, eyes wide and innocent. She raised her little arms, indicating that she wanted to be carried, and Susan obliged (rather clumsily, it must be mentioned). Once settled awkwardly on her mother's hip, she exclaimed, 'The bad man Daddy needed to hurt badly.'

Her Mummy gasped, and everyone else looked uneasy. Uncle Moony put his hands out to his little niece (even though they weren't related, everyone in the Marauder circle called each other by family terms, so he was Harry and Lucy's Uncle Moony) and she willingly went to him. Her Mummy was scaring her. She seemed very, very angry, just like whenever Lucy did something naughty or Lucy's Daddy was being too silly (which happened quite a lot, to be honest), or when her Mummy and Daddy were talking about that man, Mouldy-something.

'Now, sweetheart, what are you talking about?' asked Uncle Moony. Lucy wanted to tell Uncle Moony – she really did! – but she was scared that her Mummy would be even angrier with her. Uncle Moony noticed her hesitance and nudged her gently. 'You won't get in trouble if you know something, Mini M. We need to find your Daddy before he hurts the bad man, so he doesn't get in trouble.'

Lucy plunged on without any further hesitance. 'Daddy came home when I was 'sposed to be in bwed,' she told them, a half-glance shot at her Mummy, who she expected to look disapproving. To Lucy's surprise, her Mummy didn't look angry at all – but frightened. 'I didn't want to be bad! I just wanted to see Daddy!' Lucy exclaimed, hoping her Mummy wouldn't look as sad.

'It's ok, Lucy,' Aunty Alice encouraged. 'You were doing something naughty, but you wanted to see Daddy, so that's ok. But you can't do it again, ok?'

'Ok,' agreed Lucy, nodding. She started to suck on her thumb, a habit that had been provoked out of her in the war between Voldemort when all the adults around her had been scary and serious. Her wide grey eyes surveyed them with a childish intelligence. 'Daddy put me to bwed, and towd me that he woved me and he was sowwy, that he had to move homes and he wasn't awowed to leave his new woom ever. I towd him to say sowwy.'

Uncle Henry and Uncle Frank exchanged dark looks. Aunty Alice put a hand on her Mummy's shaking shoulder, but Susan wrenched it from Alice's grip, stalking forwards, snatching her daughter from Remus and marching out the door.

She must be worried about Daddy, reasoned the little girl.

'Come on Lucy,' said her Mummy. She sped up a little, tugging the little girl with her. 'We're almost there, Mini M. Look, there's Daddy.'

Lucy looked up and grinned. Finally, everything would be all right.

Oh, poor child. She never knew how wrong she was; never knew that after that day, she would hate her Daddy more than any other person in the world; never knew that her Mummy's heartbeats were limited; never knew that she would have to lose her childish ways at such a young age.

She simply never knew.