Chapter 1- Secrets Behind Closed Doors
You wouldn't be able to tell from the appearance of the outside of number 12 Grimauld Place, or from the inside very much, that tucked near the far back corner was a beautiful glittering, ballroom with shining cherry wood floors and walls of deep emerald green.
Thick rich green curtains are pulled back from the windows on the far end of the room, allowing some of the dim morning light to peak though. It is nothing compared to the illuminating glow of thousands of floating candles arranged in various complex shapes to imitate actual chandeliers. A slow waltz hums its way through the room, drifting lazily along from the rather impressively large gramophone in the corner of the ballroom.
If the fresh scratch marks along the floor from the entrance of the ballroom to its final resting place are anything to discern, the machine's original resting place is indeed not there.
"And… one, two, three. One two, three, One two three—" A young boy's voice can be heard calling out the steps of the waltz as he deftly moves his partner around the floor despite their age.
"Do you really need to do that? I can do this in my sleep by now." His equally as young female companion complains cutting off the boy.
"And, one, two three. One, two—" the boy is sharply cut off with a yelp, as his partner stomps down on his foot with a sweet saccharin grin. The boy immediately drops his hold on the girl and grabs his foot while jumping up and down, to try and ease the smarting. The girl just gazes along rather proudly.
"That's not fair Lyra! There's no need to clobber my bloody foot off! We have this one down pat!" the boy barks narrowing his eyes at Lyra. The grin just widens on the troublemaker's face, waiting for her companion to realize exactly what he's just said. The glum sullen look that pulls down the boy's face is answer enough for the girl.
"Let's just get this over with shall we?" He huffs taking back up his position with Lyra. This time the pair is waltzing along the shining floors without the human metronome.
This goes on for what could have been the remainder of the dancing, but right at the end instead of dipping Lyra, the boy makes a great effort at spinning the girl out of his arms and into the thick drapery at the end of the room, getting her to fall, and skew the previously pristine drapes.
"Sirius! There is no spin at the end!" Lyra cries pulling herself up to her feet amiss the raucous laughter of Sirius.
"One cannot initiate a war, without expecting payback!" He cackles, almost doubling over with laughter as he replays the glorious moment in his mind. Before Lyra can fire back at the boy, the doors at the far end of the hall are thrown open and the tall imposing figure of a woman stands there.
The laughter and smiles in the ballroom die out immediately.
"Sirius Orion Black, Lyra Carina Black! What in Salazar's name do the two of you think you're doing?" Shouts the furious voice of none other than Walburga Black Matriarch of the Black Family and mother to the heir of Black, though they're not sure which order it is indeed.
To get a better understanding of the woman who has struck fear into the faces young Sirius and Lyra Black, one has to understand the woman herself. Her light blond hair was pulled back so tight into a bun that it must have hurt her head. Her blue eyes that would be very pretty if not for the cold hardness in them that looked like marble.
Her skin was still beautiful even though her face was stretched down into a frown, making the phrase 'beautiful but deadly' more apt than ever before. Behind the imposing figure cowers a small boy an inch or two shorter than Sirius and Lyra in the ballroom.
His black hair is perfectly combed and slicked back to please his mother unlike the unruliness of Sirius' hair, and the wild waves of Lyra. Unlike his siblings young Regulus Black's eyes were dark almost black, unlike the gray of his siblings.
"Just practicing our dancing for tonight's farewell gala mother." Sirius says with a slight drawl to his tone. Lyra shifts uneasily next to her brother knowing that he is frightened, but not showing it.
"I see… and did this dire urgent need of yours require you to push the gramophone into the ballroom, when you could have asked me or even get Kreacher to move it?" Walburga's voice is frigid as she keeps her icy gaze on her oldest children.
"Well… we did not want to interrupt you mother. You despise when we bother you in your parlor." Lyra says, seriously beginning to wish that she never let Sirius talk her into dancing today to blow off some excitement.
"Then you shouldn't have touched it in the first place! You've destroyed the flooring, and its going to have the be fixed now!" Walburga snarls.
"Not like you can't fix it in seconds." Sirius mutters under his breath. It was not quiet enough, for in what seems like a flash their mother is towering over Sirius holding his jaw in a vice-like grip, glaring down at him.
"What was that boy?" She demands, tightening her hold. "You think you're so smart don't you Sirius? I thought that you would have learned what happens to cheeky children by now."
"Stop! It wasn't his idea, it was mine!" Lyra pipes up from beside her brother, knowing that things are quickly escalating out of control. Her mother turns her gaze to Lyra and gives her a dispassionate look.
"Don't dig yourself any deeper Lyra Black, we both know that it couldn't have been your idea for an original thought has never come out of your head." Walburga hisses at her daughter, watching with satisfaction as the girl shrinks back and seemingly deflates.
"Thassnottrue—" Sirius slurs out from his positions still held in his mother's iron grasp. Defiant anger builds up in Sirius. He hates when his mother puts his sister down. Its all she ever seems to do, trying to mold her only daughter into what will be the perfect little pureblood wife one day. It honestly sickens Sirius to see his sister treated such, which is why he encourages, and fosters her rebellious streak.
Sirius winces when the grip to his face becomes even stronger. He honestly doesn't know how a woman as thin as her could have so much strength. "You'd be quiet if you knew what was best for you." His mother says before beginning to lead her children out of the room and to her parlor.
"I expect you know what's coming." She warns, and watches as her youngest child Regulus melts away from the procession. It warms her heart that at least one of her children is obedient and sensible. He really is her pride and joy; just as Sirius could be if he would just clean up his act. Lyra on the other hand will learn quickly how to be a proper Black woman as soon as she is sorted into Slytherin and her cousins are there to teach and mold her to perfection.
It has always been a sore point to Walburga that her brother Cygnus and sister-in-law managed to have such marvelously behaved and mannered girls like Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa. Walburga shoves the twins into the room in front of her before slamming the door behind the three of them. Well, if she wasn't going to get perfection out of the start, she could certainly make an impression on them.
It wasn't until later that night that Sirius and Lyra were getting ready for the party when Regulus showed up again. Sirius is fussing with the collar of his shirt under his emerald robes, which seemed to sparkle in the light like actual gems. Lyra is gingerly sitting on her brother's bed trying not to aggravate the new bruises to her body that her matching emerald dress conceals.
Neither of the twins is in the mood for a party. The reason for the whole soiree in the first place no longer brings as much excitement as it once did. Tomorrow is September the 1st. Sirius and Lyra Black are eleven years old and earlier that summer their letters to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived.
The idea of freedom was so compelling that both children could not wait to leave, to get away from home, but then came the realization that they would most likely be placed into Slytherin, and stuck with their cousins and pureblood aquaintances for all eternity. Well Sirius always tended to be a little on the dramatic side of the scale.
There is a small knock on the door and it creaks open a few inches, just enough so that Regulus' face can be seen.
"Come in." Lyra beckons softly to her little brother. Without needing to be told twice the small boy scurries into the room and plops himself onto Sirius' bed beside Lyra. With a soft smile Lyra runs her hands through Regulus' hair. Even though the boy is the best behaved and favorite of they're mother and father he still does not get the affection that any growing child needs.
So even if Lyra couldn't be the perfect Black woman, she could definitely be the best comforter that she could be. The role always fell to Lyra with Sirius and Regulus. Mother and Father wouldn't do any better, so it was Lyra who attempted to pick up the slack.
"You really shouldn't upset Mother like that." Regulus says in a soft and slightly high-pitched voice.
"Oh really? And just how to you suppose we do that pipsqueak?" Sirius asks not turning from his mirror as he continues to wrestle with the collar.
"Just follow the rules. Actually, do what Mother and Father want you to do. Pay attention in our family history lessons. Actually act pleased when family comes around." Regulus lists ticking off each item on his fingers.
"What good would that do us? That'd just turn us into their puppets sooner rather than later." Sirius barks shooting a glare that he doesn't really mean at his brother.
"There is more to life than just being a Black Regulus, there has to be." Lyra adds softly trying not to provoke her younger brother. Both Sirius and Lyra love Regulus to death, and try there hardest to not let their parents sink their claws too deeply into the young boy.
Regulus isn't like them. He is always so eager to please, and yearns to gain approval from Mother and Father. One would think that it would be easier to get Father's approval rather than Mother's but he is always away at work all the time, that there is hardly a moment to ever see the man. Not that when he is home one would want to see him in the first place.
Family parties are literally the worst especially when the rest of high society was going to be there as well. These parties never ended well for there were always questions unanswered or comments made that stung and festered in more minds than one.
"I wish that I was off to Hogwarts as well." Regulus sighs as he looks mournfully at the trunks that are positioned in the room, clothes thrown haphazardly into them. Lyra had dragged hers into her brothers' room after having had enough of the silence in her own.
"You'll be there next year. Besides we'll write you tons. I'm sure that there will also be loads of stories for us to tell you during breaks as well." Lyra says quickly trying to stave off the tears she knows that's coming.
"Yeah I'm sure we'll find something cool to send you as well." Sirius adds giving up on yanking his shirt collar into a place that it just doesn't want to go.
Before there is a chance for anything else to be said there is a slight knock on the doorframe to the room.
"There is supposed to be a party going on here you know not a funeral service." The voice is soft but there is a distinct air of warning about it. All three kids jump and turn to stare at their cousin. While Narcissa Black may have been the closest to the kids in age at 15, she still held herself at a distinct distance from the rest of the kids.
"I think that going to a dirge would be rather fun though." Sirius says seriously with a large grin on his face. Lyra can't help but roll her eyes at her brother while Regulus merely shakes his head.
"I do agree that the music would probably be a right sight better." Lyra agrees with a sigh. Narcissa huffs and crosses her arms over her chest.
"I was being nice and volunteered to come and get you three downstairs. I'm not sure you'd be too pleased if Aunt Walburga has to come and fetch you." She says and the three kids pale slightly before getting up and ready to follow her down the stairs.
This party was not one of the usual affairs that graced the dark and splendored halls of the Black residence. As tradition dictated though the family of the children going off to school were the ones to host and reap the benefits of getting to have the rest of the community suck up to them.
Honestly Sirius and Lyra were uncertain if there was even reason for the other individuals of the pureblood community to attempt and endear themselves to their parents. The thoughts of Orion and Walburga Black about anyone other than themselves was unworthy and lacking.
If you weren't a Black then you definitely weren't up to snuff. Then again it really wasn't that hard to be a Black considering the fact that mother and father were actually in fact cousins. Something or other about keeping the bloodline pure— nothing that Lyra or Sirius thought really pertinent in their family history lessons. The only real things you needed to understand is that pure blood is the best, and that Slytherin is the ultimate and only house that one can get into.
Also, the expectation that Sirius will go on to be a success following father's footsteps in the Ministry. It helped to have friends in high places, but it was always better when you were the one in that high place yourself. Lyra had been told on more than a few occasions that she would need no drive to go anywhere after her mandatory schooling is over, by the time the end rolls around a suitable husband will have been found for her.
It was disturbing to the twins at how easily parents were pairing up their kids at such young ages. Narcissa a few steps in front of her with her pale blond hair pulled into beautiful curls had already been informed of her betrothed partner, Lucius Malfoy.
If there was anyone that Sirius and Lyra by proxy Regulus hated more than anyone else it was Lucius Malfoy. If the Blacks were one of the most Ancient and Noble Houses then the Malfoy's were right up there with them. The only son and heir to the Malfoy name, Lucius was big, cruel, and very keen to keep up the family name and image.
Of the few times that the kids were unfortunate enough not to get their older cousin Andromeda as a babysitter Narcissa would be the one saddled with the task. One could never bother Bellatrix to deal with family. Then again Lyra and Sirius whole heartedly agreed with the decision for her to never be a vial option for a sitter.
Now Narcissa wasn't all bad but ever since last summer when the announcement came out that she and Lucius were to be married when they reached an appropriate age, Lucius had been around a lot more often. Mostly he would complain about Narcissa having to take care of the three youngest cousins, but it was even worse when he volunteered to help.
Lyra didn't understand how Kreacher stood being able to live in a closet for after being locked in one for six hours after she and Sirius had spilled stink sap all over Lucius' hair, she could never stand the feeling of dark enclosed spaces around her ever again. Sirius had been locked in a trunk upstairs. Both of the twins took to never talking of the event again because it was too harrowing to think about.
The sounds of the party washed over the three kids and teenager as they reach the ground floor. Melodious sounds of a quartet drift from the ballroom. Over the din of talking every once in a while, laughter could be heard. Narcissa disappeared into the room with Regulus following quickly behind her. For some unknown reason to the two older kids they couldn't understand why their brother liked events like this.
"Last one for months." Lyra says softly clenching her hands into fists.
"We'll be fine, won't we?" Sirius asks in a rare moment of seriousness and anxiety. Lyra reaches out and grabs her brother's hand in hers.
"No matter what you'll always have me." She tells him staring into his gray eyes.
"To death then?" Sirius answers a smile smirk flitting to his face. Matching gray eyes twinkle in return as their pact is completed. Without another thought both twins walked into the room that was already turning stuffy with the number of guests and the heavy satin curtains covering the windows.
The second the two of them breach the doorway their mother is on them clasping both of them on the shoulders making both kids wince at the force of her fingers digging into bruises. "Late to your own party. I don't know why I am even surprised anymore. Now best behavior you two, there are impressions to make and you will not make this family lose any of its reputation!" Walburga hisses steering her eldest to the small group of people surrounding her husband.
Mr. Black was quite an imposing man. He was taller than most of the men in the room, wearing impeccable robes the shade of deepest green imagined with cold gray eyes and impeccably kept mustache. "Ah there they are now! I must say Orion they look like spitting images of you. They'll grow to be strong, handsome— and uh beautiful young people that will continue to maintain our legacy and cause." One of the men in front of their father booms.
Lyra glances up at her mother's face momentarily to see if there is any sign of hurt on her face from the comment. Yes, if one didn't know the Black family at all there may be some confusion as to if Walburga was even her kids mother.
"Indeed, they will Cygnus, someone in this family has to make sure that the noble name of Black continues to go on." Orion says, a corner of his mouth lifting up slightly at the red crawling up the other man's neck.
Sirius and Lyra would feel worse for their uncle if it weren't for the fact that he really wasn't all that great of an uncle in the first place. Often Sirius and Lyra would whisper to each other trying to guess if their Bellatrix got her cold and maniacal personality from him.
"Come now dear, this night is to celebrate the next in the Black generation to enter their Hogwarts years. There really is nothing to compare it to." Walburga says a saccharine smile pasted onto her face. Lyra stops to wonder for a second if that's what she looks like when she smiles.
Narcissa once told her when they were younger that all girls eventually grow up to become their mothers. That fact alone gave the girl nightmares for weeks, and only Sirius' constant reassurances were able to calm her down.
"Right you are." Orion says and takes a step back. With a clearing of his throat he raises his voice so that everyone can hear him. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the most noble houses of England, we are gathered here today to celebrate the entrance of my first children into Hogwarts! My son Sirius Orion and daughter Lyra Carina will be taking their first ride on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow. Here is to the next greatest members of the Slytherin House, may our heritage be ever preserved and strengthened." He looks down to the twins. "The fate of Black now resides on your shoulders son."
Sirius gulps almost audibly as his father puts a heavy hand on his shoulder. Lyra droops a little as her father doesn't bother even speaking with her. Such is the fate of girls in the Black family, the same thing happened to Andromeda and Narcissa as well. Bellatrix was supposedly something of a surprise since she took all members of the family by surprise with her cunning and viciousness.
The twins never realized that their mother and father could actually approve of someone completely before, but they were proved wrong. There was a healthy smattering of applause and both their parents seemed to swell with pride.
"Next year the last one will be off as well." Walburga says almost looking a little misty eyed at the thought of her baby finally being old enough to go to school.
As soon as his father's hand is off of his shoulder Sirius hurries over to Lyra grabbing her hand and pulling her far away from their parents and over to the other side of the room near the windows.
"That was horrifying." Sirius says, looking far more stressed than he had before.
"Well at least father expects things from you." Lyra mutters crossly, not upset with her brother but with the situation.
"Too much responsibility! Have you known me to be responsible of anything before? Remember that ladybug we caught two years ago and I was supposed to feed it? I forgot and it died!" Sirius hisses running a hand through his hair messing it up again after the hour their mother fought with him to tame it into something respectable. "Besides there are three children in this family not just me."
"Ah the problems of being a male in a patriarchal society." A voice says interrupting their conversation. Both twins jump before sighing realizing that it is only Andromeda. By far out of their cousins Andi is the best. She is the nicest person they've met with the name Black.
"Andi!" Lyra says happily leaning forward to give her favorite a hug. Andi wraps her arms around the younger girl and giving a soft smile to Sirius. Andromeda Black was not similar to her sisters in appearance her hair was light brown and wavy with soft blue eyes.
"The weight of the first born male Black heir is heavy but there will be people to help you. Besides we're all going to be at Hogwarts soon. That'll be exciting, won't it?" She asks trying to cheer up her little cousins. Andromeda Black was the second oldest Black child at sixteen this year and she had secrets and burdens that weighed on her just as heavily as her family did.
"Guess that'll make it better. I really don't want to be around Malfoy longer though." Lyra frowns spotting his long gleaming white blond hair next to Narcissa.
"Yeah, Lucy gives me enough gas as it is." Sirius says sticking his tongue out. Andromeda can't help but giggle at the twins.
"You'd best not hear let him hear that nickname." Andromeda warns.
"Do you think he'd like Lulu better?" Lyra asks a cheeky grin blooming on her face to match her cousins. Andromeda is frozen for a moment still unsure how those two have managed to keep smiles on their faces for this long, Merlin knows that being a part of this family takes the smiles away from you.
"Just don't let him hear you." She warns again, before drifting off to go and find something to take her mind off of the dread that has been growing in her gut. The twins are left in silence in the crowded room for a few minutes.
"Are you going to miss it?" Lyra asks suddenly looking at her brother rather intently. Sirius bites down on his lip for a moment unsure of what to say before his bruises smart against his skin.
"Not even for a second." He replies with surety.
"And, why should you? Family is never far away with Slytherin to call your new home." The gold voice of Bellatrix makes shivers go through both Sirius and Lyra. At 18 Bellatrix had graduated Hogwarts and was starting what looked to be a rather auspicious career at the ministry, while Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus were trying to plan for the wedding between her and her betrothed Rodolphus Lestrange.
Bellatrix was by far the edgiest of all the Black offspring. Her black hair was long and curly, dark eyes surrounded by dark eyeliner and mascara, and lips painted a bright red which stuck out from her preferred black attire.
"You'd best remember that cousins." She states with a stare that has both of the kids squirming. Bellatrix had always liked to torment them when they were younger during family holidays. Something was just not right about her, and one felt better when she went away. With that warning, she slinks back off into the party and Sirius and Lyra stare at each other both having break out into a cold sweat, minds reeling at the threat behind her words.
Well at least at Hogwarts Bellatrix wouldn't be near. If only tomorrow could come faster…